Joking Teachers’ Purposes of Using Indonesian in Teaching English I

14 the students confused. Some of the students would get the meaning of the joke right away but some would not. To anticipate that case, English teacher usually created a joke in Indonesian. Using Indonesian joke, students would get the clear meaning of the joke delivered by the teacher. From the interviews, only Teacher 2 said that he used Indonesian to give joke. He said, “I used Indonesian to give a joke because based on my experience, when I gave an English joke, they tended to be silent, and silent here means that they didn’t get the meaning of the joke I gave ”. On the other hand, in the observation both of the teachers used Indonesian to make a joke. Teacher one used joke for ice breaking and teacher two to attract students‟ attention. Excerpt 3 and 4 below showed how both teachers delivered their jokes. Excerpt 3 taken from the observation with Teacher 1 T1 : “Okay, for example, give me two names” Ss: “Tejo, Miss.” T1 : “Okay, Tejo and?” Ss:” Nita.” T1 : “Okay, Tejo said to Nita I miss you, what else? Apa, I hate you?” Ss: Laugh T1 : “Lhoh..kalian putus kok hate-hate an?” Ss: Laugh From the excerpt above, the teacher said “lhoh..kalian putus kok hate-hate an?” as a joke and as the result was the students laughed. The teacher used the combination of Indonesian and English. T he word “hate” was an English word, then she mixed it with Indonesian structure into “hate-hate an” which meant that the subject told hated each other. The teacher used this joke to break the ice in the class because some students seemed bored and the other was stressed because there were a lot of materials to be learned. The teacher also used joke to attract students‟ attention. Excerpt 4 taken from the observation with Teacher 2 T2 : “Okay, pay attention to your book. Take a look on page 58.” “Ayo itu Farhan sama Miranda pacarannya ditunda dulu” S: Laugh 15 The excerpt above showed that the teacher used joke to attract students‟ attention. By saying that kind of joke, the students‟ names who were called by the teacher and also the other students would left their activity, like writing or talking to each other, because the teacher had already warned them by the joke. According to Moskowitz 1971, the use of the first language in giving jokes might be more effective since sometimes a joke will lose its essence when it is carelessly conveyed in another language. By comparing with this statement, I could conclude that when teacher used that kind of jokes, they were effective to attract students‟ attention and break the ice in the classroom.

4. Asking question

In asking questions, sometimes the teachers used Indonesian to help the students understood the questions easily. The use of Indonesian in this case was very helpful for both the teachers and the students. For the teachers, using Indonesian in asking questions could reduce the time consumption because if the teacher asked the questions in English, the students did not understand or gave proper responses. When this condition happened, the teacher had to repeat it for some times, which could waste the time. For the students, it helped them to get a better understanding about the questions. When they heard questions in English and they did not know the meaning, they tended to be silent and made a guess about the answers in their mind only, without expressed them orally. However, when the teacher used Indonesian, they would understand what the meaning of the question easily. From the interviews, only Teacher 1 said that she used Indonesian in asking questions. She said, “Then I used Indonesian to ask questions. Sometimes, I often repeated the same question because the students did not understand. To avoiding that thing, I asked question using Indonesian when the question was difficult.” On the other hand, when I observed their teaching practices, both of them used Indonesian in asking question. Excerpt 5 and 6 showed the evidences 16 Excerpt 5 taken from the observation with Teacher 1 T1 : “Do you still remember when should we use “that”?” S: Silent T1 : ““That” itu digunakan pada saat apa?” S:”Pada kalimat tidak langsung.” T1: “Good Remember that” On the excerpt 5 above the teacher used Indonesian in asking a question after she asked the same question in English. On the excerpt above, the students just kept silent when the teacher asked them in English. It could be that they did not understand the meaning of the teacher‟s question. Then after the teacher asked in Indonesian, students answered directly. Excerpt 6 taken from the observation with Teacher 2 T2 : “Lilo asks Bagus “are you sleepy?” “Lilo asked Bagus?” S: Silent T2 : “Setelah Lilo asked Bagus, trus selanjutnya apa?” S: “That” T2 : “Okay, good. After that?” S: Mumbling Excerpt 6 above also showed that the teacher used Indonesian when asking question. At first the teacher asked the students to continue the sentence “Lilo asks Bagus…?” but the students were silent. Then the teacher explained to the students first by saying “Setelah Lilo asked B agus” and after that justified by asking question “Terus selanjutnya apa?” Actually this sentence had same meaning with the previous when the teacher asked the students to continue the sentence. When saying it in Indonesian the students got the meaning directly so they could answer it properly. In this study, using Indonesian in teaching English was very helpful both for the teacher and the students. Based on the interview and the observation, asking questions in Indonesian provided clearer meanings instead of rhetorical ones. The teacher should not include rhetorical questions Moskowitz, 1971. It helped students to understand and got the meaning clearly.