General Background of the Study

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

1.1 General Background of the Study

Language is needed in our life. It is acquired by all people in the world. It has many functions. One of them is as a means of communication. Many experts give their opinions about language. According to Hornby 1995:662 language is the system of sounds and words used by humans to express their thoughts and feelings. Wardraugh 1992:1 states that language is also what the members of particular society speak. Brown 2000:5 says that it operates in speech community and culture. From all above, we can conclude that we need language for communication. All people in this world communicate each other with languages. There are many languages in this world. One of the international languages is English. Brumfit 1988:2 states that English is an international language in that it is the widest spread medium of international communication, both because of a number and geographical spread of its native speakers and because of a large number of non native speakers who use it. English as an International language is important to be taught in school. It is taught at schools from fourth grades of elementary school through the twelfth grades of senior high school, sometimes, it is also 2 taught in some semesters at universities. As we know, the goals of teaching English at junior high school are different from those of senior high school in their depth and broadness of the materials, so are the goals of teaching English at universities. They, however, share the same general objective, such as: their graduate are supposed to be able to use the language well, spoken and written Soejono, 1990:63. Learning a foreign language, especially learning English is difficult. Lado 1961:13 argues that learning a foreign language is a matter of habit and transfer. A foreign language learner transfers the habit of his native language to foreign language and this happens without his awareness. Learning a second language is a long and complex undertaking and your whole person is affected as you struggle to reach beyond the confines of your first language and into a new language, a new culture, a new way of thinking, feeling, and acting. Total commitment, involvement, physical, intellectual, and emotional responses are necessary to successfully send and receive messages in a second language Brown, 2000:1. The students have different problems in learning and have different ways in learning to achieve their goals. Learning strategies are needed to solve their problems. Ellis 2003:77 states that learners employ learning strategies when they are faced with some problems, such as: how to remember new words. 3 Learning strategies are different from learning styles. Learning styles according to Brown 2000:122 are general characteristics that differentiate one individual from another; strategies are those specific attacks that we make on a given problem. They are the moment by moment techniques that we employ to solve the problems posed by second language input and output. Learning strategies are divided into three categories. They are cognitive strategies, metacognitive strategies, and socioaffective strategies. OMalley gives statements that were quoted by Brown 2000:125. Metacognitive is a term used in information processing theory to indicate an executive function, strategies that involve planning for learning, thinking about the learning process as it is taking place, monitoring of ones production or comprehension and evaluating learning after an activity is completed. Cognitive strategies are more limited to specific learning tasks and involve more direct manipulation of the material itself. Socioaffective strategies have to do with social mediating activity and interacting with others. The above quotation implies that metacognitive strategies are about planning and evaluating learning and cognitive strategies are about the ability of brain to learn something. Then, socioaffective strategies are about students’ interaction with others. To know whether the students have achieved their goals of learning, then teacher needs achievement test. This achievement test is held at the end of the study. According to Heaton 1974: xi the achievement tests are generally used to refer to more formal tests which have been designed to show 4 mastery of a particular syllabus, such as: final test, school leaving examinations, and public tests. These tests are generally based on a syllabus and measure what has been taught and has been learned. They are rarely constructed by the classroom teacher for a particular class and they are designed primarily to measure individual performance rather than to act as a means of motivating the students or reinforcing learning. The score of this achievement test can show whether the students have succeeded in learning.

1.2 Reason for Choosing the Topic