31
able to think in a more advanced way, and even abstractly, in contexts where she has had a lot of experience Cameron, 2001. This means that if teacher provides
children with a rich learning environment in his English class, he may be pleasantly suprised at how much their students can learn. So, teachers are not only
as the facilitator for them but also to be able to stimulate and challenge their students.
According to Santrock 2008, students of Asia including Indonesia have a collective culture and they tend to work in group. They used to obey the rules of
traditional games, they like to compare themselves with other, and a bit shy to perform in front of the class Mustaqim, 2001. They also realistics and curious to
know something new. They paid attention to their favorite subject and love to work in group or with their peer.
For teachers, to understand their students‟ characteristics help them to provide supportive academic achievement.
4. MutiaraPersadaElementarySchool Yogyakarta
In this section, the profile, the curriculum, and the English Day Program will be defined in detailed.
a. The Profile
Mutiara Persada Elementary School Yogyakarta is the school which applied four language systems. English and Mandarin have been promoted as the
international languages, Indonesian as the national language, and Javanese as the local language. This international-based education system has just applied since
February 2009. Thus, the curriculum is the combination of national-plus and international curriculum. The school‟s vision and mission have a strong
emphasizes on the language development aspects. The languages include English
32
–Mandarin and Indonesian – Javanese. As stated in the school‟s profile, the vision of this school is
„Excellent in achievement, mastery in English and Mandarin, having good morals and cultures, and have a global conception of faith and piety
and information-technology. One of the points in school‟s mission also supported
the vission that is “To develop technology-based learning and to improve
students‟ achievement in English and Mandarin”. Most teachers in this school seemed to encourage an informal relationship
with their students, that the relationship between students and teachers was much less formal. They tried to create specific conditions in the classroom in order to
avoid monotonous atmosphere and able to accommodate the students‟ different
characteristics. They also promote student-student interaction.
b. The Curriculum
The curricullum of Mutiara Persada is based on the National-Plus Curriculum under the wisdom of local and national socio-cultural framework. It is
enriched by the international perspective of life. It means that the school applied the combination of national and international curriculum. Where, the school keeps
maintaining the local or national curriculum from the Indonesian government but also applied international currillum to enrich the students with international
perspectives. The teaching and learning process applied through professional educational
approaches, enriched by personal care and touch taken from school‟s profile. The school also applies the culture of struggle, freedom, enjoyment, fun,
respect, and optimum learning. Mutiara Persada is one of the education centers which excelling in learner-centered. The learning program in this school conducts
33
sort of learning subjects are Religious education, Mathematics bilingual, Indonesian language, Natural science Bilingual, Social science, Civics, Physical
education, Cultures and arts, Information and Communication Technology, Java language, Batik, Mandarin Chinese, and English.
The subjects of study above are believed could boost the students‟ knowledge and skills to face the global era.
c. The English Day Program
English Day program is the program run by the school where all the students should use English in their oral or written communication during the
school time. It runs every Saturday as indoor outdoor learning and training program. This extra program purposes to be as a trigger to encourage students to
improve their English speaking ability. They could express their idea or opinion, ask questions, and give comments, exchange opinions or even telling jokes using
the target language during the activities. The activities are various; for indoor activities, teacher usually uses games,
role play, or doing handcrafts. The students were active and noisier in the sense that they volunteered to give contributions in the activities. They looked happy
and enjoy what they did. The teacher was also quite happy to accept whatever contributions they made. The students were much more confident and outspoken.
Thus, the outdoor activities, students are brought to the real life situation where they can learn and practice their oral skill based on the situational context.
According to Terrel, explanation and practice with linguistic forms should be done outside of class for the most part. He states that, „this outside work must be
carefully planned...Terrel 1977, cited in Ommagio, 1986:76 ‟. Outdoor
