Institutional Repository | Satya Wacana Christian University: Students’ Perception on the Use of L1 in a Vocational High School

Students Perception on the Use of L1 in a Vocational High School
Belinda Gita Puspita
ABSTRACT
The use of L1 in an English classroom has always been debated until now. On one hand, L1
gives benefits that make English easier to be learnt. On the other hand, the use of L1 gives
disadvantages that cause error in learning English. However, it is still questionable whether the
beginners need L1 to support them to learn English. Although many researches did not support
the use of L1 in L2 classroom, the reasons and purposes why the students use Javanese or
Indonesian in an English classroom are very important to be known. So, this study was done to
find out the students’ perceptions on the use of L1 in the English learning process. The
participants were 70 students in the first grade of Vocational High School 1 Salatiga. The openended questionnaire was distributed to the students to get the data. The study shows that most of
the students had positive responses toward the use of first language in English learning process
in classroom.
Keywords: first language, purposes why use L1, students’ perception