a. Characteristics of Teacher’s Introductory Language
1 Language Used
The languages used by the teacher when he or she taught a foreign language to Senior High School students are target language and mother
tongue. The teacher speaks both languages to deliver the lesson to the students. The role of the target language is important in providing learners with the
only substantial live target language input which the students will learn. It is expected that the teacher talks English in the classroom as the main language
for communication. The teacher should talk a lot in language classroom to the students because the students need to practice English. The more English
the students hear, the more the students will learn. Nevertheless, the teacher also uses mother tongue to teach the foreign
language to the Senior High school students. The use of mother tongue also helps the teaching learning activities. According to Slattery and Willis 2001: 12, the
teacher uses the mother tongue to support when teaching a new activity or if no one understands. The teacher also lets the students use their mother tongue
for communication because many Senior High School students often need to talk it in order to learn the target language.
In English classroom, the teacher often switches the use of both languages which is known as a code switching. Zilm 1989 states that code
switching is affected by the following factors: •
The nature of the activity in the classroom. It means that teacher should realize how the class activity is going on.
• The teachers perception of how the students learn. It means that the
teacher has to recognize how the students learn the lesson, i.e. they have full concentration on the lesson taught or not.
• The teachers perception of the role and functions of the target and native
language. It means that the teacher should use the target and native language wisely while he or she taught in the language classroom.
The switching of the languages is expected to make the students acquire the target language easily.
2 Speech Modifications
A number of studies have shown that native speakers teachers and non- teachers alike modify their speech to non-native speakers in a number of different
ways. These modifications are believed to make the language is easier to comprehend and help the learners acquire the target language. Many investigators
have studied a wide range of speech phenomena, including modifications to phonology, lexis, syntax and discourse. Chaudron as cited by Rod Ellis 1994 in The
Study of Second Language Acquisition summarizes the research on the teacher speech in language classroom which shows that the following modifications occur:
•
The teacher, like native speakers in general, slows down their rate of speech when talking to the learners. The teacher usually speaks slowly in English to the
students in order to make the students get the main point of the teacher’s talk.
•
The teacher often makes use of longer pauses when talking to the learners. The teacher gives more time for the students to understand the lesson which
explained in the target language and think of the answer to the teacher’s PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
questions. This is often called as a wait time.
•
A lower type-token ratio of vocabulary used. The teacher often uses the most familiar vocabulary in teaching English to Senior High School students so that
the students can understand easily.
•
More declaratives and statements than questions are used in comparison to natural discourse. The teacher usually produces declarative sentences and
statements in teaching English because the main function of the teacher teaching is to explain the material learned. Therefore, the teacher often
produces those kinds of sentences rather than the questions.
Some of the teacher’s talk characteristics, such as shorter and simpler sentences, slower and clearer speech are found while teaching second or foreign language
learners. They are often called as speech modification.
b. Purposes of Teacher’s Introductory Language
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