Teachers’ Beliefs about Grammar

Pare Kediri East Java. The detailed findings of each concern can be analyzed through the following enlightenment.

1. Teachers’ Beliefs in teaching grammar at “Basic English Course” in Pare

Kediri East Java Based on the data obtained from the research, this section includes two dimensions. The first is about the teachers‘ beliefs about grammar and the second is the teachers‘ beliefs about teaching grammar at “Basic English Course” in Pare Kediri East Java. The findings presented in this section are based on the analysis of data taken from interviews with the teachers in BEC.

a. Teachers’ Beliefs about Grammar

1 Teachers’ Definition of Grammar The findings on teachers‘ beliefs about grammar are based on the data gathered via interview in which the researcher basically asked the teacher in BEC to define and elaborate what grammar is according to them. The first thing that the result shows is that there was a considerable variation on how teachers view grammar and how teachers compare it with some terms. The variation ranged from very short and simplistic description to extensive and broad explanation. There are three different statements about the definition and assumption about grammar. First, grammar is the pattern of how to create the words to be the sentence, expression and conversation. In answering the researcer‘s questions about what the definition of grammar is, he said: “Grammar adalah bagaimana commit to user kita bisa mempola tulisan menjadi sebuah kalimat, ungkapan, percakapan. Grammar itu penting dipelajari karena grammar, karena kalau orang tidak tahu itu kita jadi kesulitan. Misalnya „warung pojok‟ susunan kalimat berbeda” T1 R6. The second teacher argued that grammar is the rule in conversation. It is as a foundation which is very important in the application of speaking activity. She said: Saya paling dasar saja bahwa grammar itu aturan. Ketika kita ngomong itu ada aturannya. Kalau pernah baca buku itu grammar adalah pondasi sehingga ketika kita mau bangun rumah mau pakai tembok macam apapun, mungkin dari kayu, bambu, dsb. Pondasi kuat dulu, Saya sangat setuju kalau grammar kuat. Kebetulan saya guru Speaking pak. Sehingga Anda harus speaking dengan grammar yang baik.T2 R4i The next is the teacher looked grammar as a system which organizes the way how the words put together. Different from the structure, it is a system which organizes the words into good disposition. In a complete Indonesian language, he said: Grammar adalah track, jadi kalau orang belajar Bahasa Inggris tanpa grammar itu hafalan, tapi kalau orang yang ta hu grammar nanti bisa otodidak. Misal dia lupa mau bicara apa, dia bisa menyusun lagi secara spontan yang penting tahu posisi subjek, dsb. Tapi orang yang tahu Bahasa Inggris tanpa grammar cenderung hafalan. Orang atau anak di Bali lancar berBahasa Inggris. Coba pidato ekonomi pasti bisa karena berulang-ulang dan itu hanya hafalan. T3 R2. The fourth teacher stated the grammar as the choice of words to construct sentences based on the rule and the rule deals with the way of correlating words. In his simple explanation, he said: Grammar ya..pilihan, memilih kata untuk misalnya, tadi malam saya makan. Last night I ate rice. Kemudian kata ate itu adalah bentuk dari commit to user pengaplikasian grammar. Pemahaman grammar kita adalah tata bahasa untuk mengatur kata itu dihubungkan satu sama lain. Sederhananya pemikiran kita gitu. T4 R4. The two last teachers uttered the different idea about the definition of grammar. The former teacher said that grammar is the rule of language to compose sentence based on the character, time, necessity, and etc. The latter teacher argued that grammar is a model of language. That model is a construction which will construct sentence or phrase and the construction makes the language easy to be understood. Based on the interview that is done by the writer in the same day, but in the different place and time, T5 stated: “ Lebih luas lagi grammar adalah aturan bahasa untuk membuat sebuah kalimat menurut karak ternya, sifatnya, waktunya, dsb” T5 R2 . Meanwhile, T6 expressed his answer for the same question, he answered: “ Ya sepengetahuan saya grammar adalah suatu model dalam bahasa, dimana kata model tersebut adalah suatu susunan yang akan membentuk kalimat bahkan bukan kalimat dan bisa dimengerti secara jelas .” T6 R2 Even though there was no uniform way in defining grammar among the teachers in BEC who were interviewed, the main inference is that grammar is believed as structural patterns or rules which construct a language and their arrangements. The teachers used terms such as ‗pattern‘, ‗rule‘, ‗track‘ and ‗model‘ of organizing words into good and understandable sentences. Although there were variations in their thought and elaboration about the definition of grammar, it can be concluded that the teachers in BEC has the equivalent perceptions when they were asked to define grammar. perpustakaan.uns.ac.id commit to user 2 The Importance of Grammar in Speaking The next result which was obtained from this research is about teachers‘ belief on the importance of grammar in speaking at BEC. Learning by heart that the founder of BEC Mr. Kallend Osen has as the main vision of BEC is to educate the good Muslims to be able to speak English fluently. That vision had leaded all teachers in BEC to place grammar class as the highest level of importance in teaching speaking. It has been stated by one of the teachers in BEC who answered the question of the researcher about how important grammar in speaking is, T1 answered: “Tanpa grammar, orang hanya menghafal. Jadi grammar itu penting diantara listening, speaking, reading dan writing. Grammar itu sebagai ruh nya.” T1 R8i Without grammar, people only memorize. So, grammar is the most important part among listening, speaking, reading and writing. Grammar as the soul of English Another teacher stated that grammar is the fundamental part in speaking. She stated: Kalau pernah baca buku itu grammar adalah pondasi sehingga ketika kita mau bangun rumah, mau pake tembok macam apapun, mungkin dari kayu, bamboo, dsb. P ondasi kuat dulu. Saya sangat setuju, kalau grammar harus kuat. Kebetulan saya guru speaking pak. Sehinggga Anda harus speaking dengan grammar yang baik. T2 R4i. The importance of grammar is also mentioned by the third interviewee. He said that the people who learn English without grammar, they only saved in their memory. But the people who learn English with grammar, the concept will be saved deep in their heart, so they can speak English automatically. If they perpustakaan.uns.ac.id commit to user forgot the sentences, they can rearrange the words again spontaneously since they know where the parts of speech should be placed. In his mother tongue, he said: “J adi kalau orang belajar Bahasa Inggris tanpa grammar, itu hafalan. Tapi kalau orang yang tahu grammar nanti bisa otodidak. Misal dia lupa mau bicara apa, dia bisa menyusun lagi secara spontan, yang penting tahu posisi subjek, dsb.” T3 R2 Another view related to the importance of grammar in learning English has been stated by T4. He gave the model of a sailor who studied in BEC Pare Kediri. The sailor has been travelled around the world since he was young. At a glance, it seemed that his English was very good. He could speak very fluently in rich vocabularies. Unfortunately, when the teacher analyzed the words structures of his speaking utterances, the teacher was very surprised to find many mistakes of grammar. Realized to the fact, it was no wrong decision made by the lieutenant to ask the sailor studied English at BEC Pare Kediri. This experience was shared to all new students at BEC as their motivation to speak English with correct grammar. In the interview T4 answered: ― Menurut saya sangat penting sekali karena terbukti pernah ada siswa itu gini, dia itu aslinya sudah pinter Bahasa Inggris. Dia pelaut. … si pemuda ini ya bisa berBahasa Inggris, Cuma remuk grammarnya. … , j adi kan tidak cantik bahasanya.” T4 R6. He also added the importance of grammar, said: ― Penting sekali, walaupun sejumlah orang mengatakan grammar tidak penting, tapi tetap penting menurut saya dan faktanya seperti itu. … Jadi grammar penting .” T4 R7 commit to user The only one female teacher argued the same beliefs about the worth of grammar in speaking activity. As quoted from the interview, she said that speaking English is easy, but speaking English grammatically correct is difficult. Due to that fact, it is very important to emphasize the students to speak English using good grammar followed the correct grammatical rules. The key point of successful teaching English is when the students are able to speak English fluently with the correct grammar. Additionally, the students of BEC Pare Kediri were also required to be good in their writing. The words arrangement of speaking is different from the words arrangement of writing. So, the students have to know not only about the correct grammatical structures, but also the diction and the sense of writing itself. The complete argument about how important of English grammar was presented in the following extracts. T5 R5, R6 Nah kita itu tekankan pada anak-anak begini bahwa mereka itu belajar ngomong bahasa Ing ris dengan aturan bahasa yang bagus…tidak hanya sekedar bisa ngomong Bahasa Inggris. Makanya kita disamping mengajari mereka berbicara Bahasa Inggris juga cara buat kalimat yang benar yang mengikuti aturan bahasa. T5 R5 Furthermore she explained: Makanya untuk program TC, kalaupun kita harus ngajar grammar, bahasa yang kita pakai adalah Bahasa Inggris. Jadi mereka itu belajar aturan bahasa dan juga belajar menggunakan bahasa itu… T5 R6 The last interviewee stated the importance of grammar was to help understanding the meaning of English sentences. In passive voice, for instance, the grammar was needed very much in translating the text. If the English learners‘ did not master the passive grammatical rules well, they could not comprehend the commit to user whole meaning of the sentences. As he commented in the interview, he said: ― Wah, ini sangat penting sekali … tanpa grammar atau grammar yang paling dasar kita tidak tahu cara bagaimana mengartikan .” T6 R7 Based on those findings, grammar has become the main focus in teaching the students at BEC. All of the teachers at BEC Pare Kediri believed that correct grammatical structure was a must to be applied both in spoken and written form. The incorrect grammatical structure will be dangerous because it can create miscommunication.

b. Teachers’ Beliefs about Teaching Grammar