T1 112010016 Full text
THE USE OF L1 IN-A BILINGUAL EDUCATION PROGRAM FOR
PRESCHOOL
ABSTRACT
English language has become more important nowadays. People are competing to master that
language, teach their children about English, and send them to the bilingual school. In fact,
bilingual education allows the teachers teach using L1. By knowing that, this study conducted
to investigate on when the teacher of preschool students switches into L1 in their teaching
and learning process. This study is based on the classroom observation conducted in Satya
Wacana Children Center Salatigaand it shows when the teacher use L1 in teaching preschool
students. The discussion suggested that the purposes of using L1 still take important part in
teaching learning process. As the result, the researcher found that the use of L1 in Satya
Wacana Children Center preschool happened when: explaining material, giving admonition,
giving instruction, and ensuring student understanding.
Key words: First language (L1), Bilingual education, Preschool
INTRODUCTION
In this 20th century, English has very important role to the future life. English is used
to get a job, to operate the technology (e.g computer), and to communicate as it is an
international language. Because of that, people are busy mastering English language
nowadays. People who at least know to write and speak English will be easier to get a job
than those who don’t. Therefore, from an early age, many parents choose bilingual school for
their children to school so that they can master English quickly. Many schools then open their
bilingual education program.Birdsong (1999) defines that children are better second language
learners than adults and in hope that they will be proficient in English quickly.
Petrovic (2010), defines bilingual education as the use of both students’ native
language and English language. It may occur in math, science, history, etc. By applying
bilingual education, teachers can code switch or code mix to teach the students.Furthermore
the use of both students’ native language and English language is called as code switching
and/or code mixing.
1
The use of L1, in this case Bahasa Indonesia, surely can help the learning process in
bilingual class. Hammerly (1994) stated that a program that place an emphasis on the L2 and
ignore the L1 are not successful in preventing or removing language errors.It means that both
teacher and students use L1 in order to learn L2. According to Nation (1997), he stated that
when the classes where learners all share the same first language or national language,
teachers need to use a range of options to encourage learners to use the L2 as much as
possible. It means to provide the sense of comfort for the students to learn L2. While
Auerbach (1993) concludedher thought in the following way:"Starting with the L1 provides a
sense of security and validates the learners’ lived experiences, allowing them to express
themselves. The learner is then willing to experiment and take risks with English."
It is true that using L1 may help the bitterly achievement in learning L2. However,
there is a determined portion (30:70) to when to use L1, so that the teacher cannot use L1 all
the time. Something that has to keep in minds, that as a teacher, they are assigned to know
when they should use L1 or remain L2. Beside that determined portion, expectation from the
parents that want their children to be familiarized with English also can be the consideration
too. Teacheris welcome to use native language to avoid confusion in the learning process.
Based on the explanation above, the researcherwill conduct a researchin one of
preschool in Salatiga and the researcher is curious in examining the class with 5-6 years old
students in it. In attempt to further understanding, this research only focuses on thetime
“when” the teacheruse native language in teaching. The researcher will investigate the
“when” based on what he sees in the classroom interaction through observation. Moreover,
this study will answer the main question as follow: When does the teacher uses L1 in
teaching bilingual to preschool students? I am interested in this study because I want to
analyze the amount of L1 she used in teaching in preschool. Hopefully, this study will give
2
contribution to the other study of the purpose of using L1 in the same or different contextin
the future study.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Code switching and code mixing as a part of Bilingual Education
Code switching is different from code mixing. Code switching is the use of two
languages as an alternative between sentences, while code mixing is the use of two languages
within one sentence. (Winford, 2003). Code switching or mixing is a part of teachers’ talk
that means to use two languages, in this case, English to Indonesia. This language feature can
be used by the teachers to give the instruction (Kim & Elder, 2008; Macaro, 2001; RolinIanziti & Brownlie, 2002), to ensure the students’ understanding (Gulzar, 2010), to explain
difficult terms (Duff & Polio, 1990; Kim &Elder, 2008), to shift from one topic to another
(Gulzar, 2010),for making a joke (Copland & Neokleous, 2011), for giving hints (Copland &
Neokleous, 2011), and also the classroom management (Canagarajah, 1995) that include:
opening the class, negotiating, requesting help, managing discipline, teacher encouragement,
teacher compliments, teacher admonitions, mitigation, pleading. As the addition, translation
is included as apart of code switching, which means that to switch from one language to
another language, it may be the same as to translate one language to another language. Based
on research of this language feature, code switching is not a sign of lack of proficiency of
language, but more in strategy of teachers’ talk (Li, 2000).
Teachers switch into L1 when they give instruction
Some teachers usually use L1 to give the instruction to the students. The students then
will get the main point about what they should do in the class. By giving instructions in L1, it
has been considered to be effective in helping the learners achieving the goal of classroom
activities (Atkinson, 1987; Cook, 2001; Lucas and Katz, 1994; Macaro, 1997 in Manara
2007).
3
Teachers switch into L1 to ensure the students understanding
The teacher will use native language to check students’ comprehension and to clarify
the materials given in the class. Usually, checking comprehension can be done by asking
question related to the material to the student (Atkinson, 1987). Meanwhile, clarify means to
check whether the students understandthe material or not.
Teachers switch into L1 to explain the material
When the teacher explains the material, truly they will find some or even many
difficulties in presenting the material. The problem can be either the teacher cannot choose
the best word to define the specific term or the students cannot understand about the
explanation from their teacher. Therefore, the native language can be used since teacher and
students who used L1 in L2 teaching will make less error than who use L2. (Duff & Polio,
1990;Swain & Lapkin, 2000).
Teachers switch into L1 as a transition
It is often found that in the middle of teaching, the teacher gives an announcement to
their students. For example, the teacherannounces that tomorrow will use batik, etc. The
teacher will use native language to avoid misunderstanding or to get the students’ attention.
(Flyman-Mattson & Burenhult, 1999). It also can be defined as a transition from one topic to
another topic in class. (Gulzar, 2010).
Teachers switch into L1 for making jokes(Copland and Neokleous, 2011)
Jokes are the one of strategy that is used by the teacher to create the mood in the
classroom. Sometimes jokes appear in the beginning of the class or in the middle of learning
process. Jokes are really linked with the culture of a country and it will be better to use L1 to
get the students’ attention directly.
4
Teachers switch into L1 for giving hints(Copland and Neokleous, 2011)
If there is a word in English that is not understandable by the students, the teacher
may scaffold their students using L1. Scaffold means to give some hints to stimulate the
student about the intended things. By the using of L1 in scaffold, it can save the time
teaching.
Teachers switch into L1 as classroom management (Canagarajah, 1995)
According to Canagarajah (1995), the teacher may use L1 to maintain classroom
management. Classroom management includes: opening class, negotiating, requesting help,
teacher encouragement, teacher compliments, teacher admonitions, mitigation, and pleading.
Negotiation means the teacher may negotiate with the students if they complain. Teacher
admonition means the teacher warn the students for whatever reason in the class. While
mitigation, is when the teacher gives extended time to the students to finish their work or give
flexible rules in the class. Pleading is when the teacher defends one or group of her students
from the others.
METHODOLOGY
Context of the Study
The setting of the study took place at Satya Wacana Children Center preschool. It is
located in Salatiga, Central Java, Indonesia. The subject for this study was one teacher who
taught in Bloomers class in age of 5-6 years old students. The class hadseven out of ten
subjects which used bilingual approach and each subjects lasted for around 30 minutes. The
reason why the researcher chose this class was because the teacher sometime switched into
L1 in teaching in the class. The researcheronly focused on one class to avoid the difference
level of students.
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Participant
The participant in this studywas a teacher, Ms Sri (a pseudonym), who taught 5-6
years old students in Bloomers class. Ms Sri and her students would have a class with English
and Indonesian as their communication. As the delivery of the materials happened, they
would have interaction to each other. Through the interaction, the researcher would gather the
data.The reason the researcher chose her was because she was the only teacher taught on that
class and that class was the one that used more English language than the others.
Instrument of Data Collection
In collecting the data, the researcher used one instrument, which was observation. The
researcher would observe the class, accompanying by video recorder, and not disturb the
learning process in class.After the researcher finished with the observation, he immediately
transcribed it and categorized it in themes.
Observation Protocol
Date: …………….
Time: …………………..
Teacher: ……………..
Class length: …………..
Class: …………….
Total students: ………..
TIME
XX.ZZ A
SITUATION
IN CLASS
THE USE OF
OCCURENCES
INDONESIAN (WHEN)
T: ….
FREQ
Z
1
Y
2
X
1
S: ….
XX.ZZ B
S: ….
T: ….
XX.ZZ C
T: ….
S: ….
6
T: ….
Table 1: A time-sampling protocol
The observation would be done first and then the researcher would examine “when”
the teacher switch or mix with those language. The researcher would record the learning
process from the beginning until the end of the lesson.
Procedure of Data Collection
To ease the researcher, the observation was conducted using a video recorder. There
would be eight observations for the data collection.
OBSERVATION
DATE
TIME
LENGTH OF TIME
1
18/2/2014
08.30-09.08
38.12 MIN
2
18/2/2014
09.50-10.30
40.56 MIN
3
25/2/2014
08.30-09.17
47.14 MIN
4
25/2/2014
09.57-10.26
29.37 MIN
5
26/2/2014
10.07-10.33
26.36 MIN
6
4/3/2014
08.30-09.19
49.15 MIN
7
4/3/2014
09.55-10.34
40.05 MIN
8
6/3/2014
09.55-10.35
40.36 MIN
Table 2: Observation data
After the researcher transcribed and gathered all the data, he analyzed it.
Data Analysis
After getting the recordings of the teaching process in the class, the researcher
analyzedthe “when”.When it was done, then, the researcher grouped them into one theme
with the help of situation in the class.Then, he would count the percentage of each theme.
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Furthermore, the total percentage of theme based on the data the researcher got, would
answer the researcher’s question.
FINDINGS
In this discussion, I will present the data analysis that I get from the classroom
observations about the use of L1 in a bilingual education program for preschool.
30
Giving instruction
Ensure students understanding
25
Explain material
Opening class
20
Making joke
Giving opinion/hint
Transition
15
Negotiating
Teacher encouragement
10
Teacher compliment
Teacher admonition
5
Mitigation
Pleading
0
Requesting help
All Observations
Based on the graphic above, the teacher switches into L1 when explaining the material got
the highest occurrences (26.88%), followed by teacher admonition (20.94%), giving
instruction (20.55%), ensure students understanding (15.42%) and the others only have not
more than 6%.Each of those themes will be explained and discussed further below.
L1 is used mostly when the teacher explain the material
Based on my eight observations, the finding showed that the teacher switched into L1
is mostly used when explaining the material. Here are some examples of using L1 when
explaining the material:
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1. T: Makanannya tanaman apa sih?
S1: airrr
S2: menyiramin terus
T: oo menyiramin terus, oke Sesta, what else? Kalau ada tanaman menyiramin terus,
disiram Sesta, bukan menyirami. (3th observation, 25th of February)
2. T: And then Kayra has to go to post office to put a package of bag…
S: tidak hanya surat
T: iya, tidak hanya surat saja, paketnya itu kemudian diberikan ke pak pos…
S: pak polisi
T: bukan pak polisi. Kemudian akan ditulis, mau kemana mbak? Ke tempatnya
Hanadel. Alamatnya? Itu yang ada di peumsat kartini. (6th observation, 4th of March)
Those examples above showed that the teacher used L1 when she explained the
material. The data above showed that L1 helped the teacher to explain the material. The
teacher would easily explain and deliver the material to her students. The example 1, the
teacher explained about how to treat a plant. The example 2, the teacher explained about post
office.
The use of L1 helped students understand easily, got the main point intended of the
lesson quickly, and responded the teacher’s question accurately. It also helped the teacher in
managing students to avoid confusion in learning process as it could be seen in example 1
and 2. The teacher switched into L1 to make sure that the students would follow her
explanation so that there were no mistakes in learning process. According to Duff & Polio
(1990) and Swain & Lapkin (2000), they found that both teacher and students used L1 in L2
teaching make less error than who use L2. Both examples above are the corrections from the
teacher to the students’ error so that the next time the students will not repeat the same
mistakes.In the example 1, teacher used L1 to respond Sesta’s question and also gave
correction using L1.In example 2, teacher used L1 to correct Sesta’s answer.This
phenomenon happened in the class that I observed.In explaining those materials, based on
what I saw, itsaved the time teaching.
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L1 is used when the teacher give admonition to her students
The use of L1 here is also used when the teacher warned her students in the class.
There are two kind of admonition that Idistinguish, admonition at the beginning of the class
and at the rest of the class. I found that the teacher tended to warn her students 25 times in
total (4.94%) at the beginning of class, whereas in the middle until the rest of the class,
teacher admonition happened 81 times in total (16%). Here are some the examples of using
L1 when the teacher gives admonition:
1. Siuation (teacher open the class)
Ss: (noisy)
S1: miss, Rafael dipanggil nggak mau jawab.
T: anak-anak sudah, tidak banyak omong. Selesai. Sudah selesai berbicaranya,
sudah selesai mainnya, stop talking. (4th observation, 25th February)
2. Situation (teacher warned two students who were talking when they were doing
exercise)
T: yang kerja apanya sih ini?
Ss: mulut, tangan.
T: kalau tangannya kerja, mulutnya diam. (1st observation, 18th February)
From those examples, it showed that teacher use L1 when she gave warning to her
students. The teacher warns the students and they can directly get that warn. This also may
avoid confusion between the teacher and her students. The example 1, happened at the
beginning of the class. The example 2, happened in the middle of the class. In example 1, the
teacher wanted to open the class after the break time. She found that her class was noisy and
she warned the students. In example 2, the teacher gave exercise to her students, but they
were busy with their own business. The teacher warned them and after that, the students kept
silent and did their exercise.
Canagarajah (1995) include teacher admonition as one part of classroom
management. He believed that teachers may apply mother tongue when teachers deal with
classroom management. From my observation, teacher admonition using L1 happened and
occupies the second highest place after explain material.
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L1 is used when the teacher give instruction
From the findings that I got, I found that the teacher use L1 also for giving instruction.
She gave the instruction at the beginning of the class 19 times (3.75%) while 85 times
(16.8%) at the rest of the class activity. Here are some examples in using L1 when giving
instruction:
1. T: (After moving some students) Sudah? Yuk sekarang dengarkan miss. Telinganya
dibuka lebar-lebar, miss mau lihat.
Ss: (imitate)(1st observation, 18th February)
2. T: Can you drag the line the stethoscope to the doctor. Tarik garis dari gambar
stetoskop ke gambar dokter. Done?
Ss: done.(6th observation, 4th of March)
Those examples above displayed that the teacher used L1 when giving instruction.
The teacher asked the students to keep silent and pay attention to the teacher as stated in
example 1.In example 2, the teacher asked the students to do something and she used L1 to
let them to do it directly.
The use of L1 in giving instruction allowed the students to understand and followed
the activity in class very well. In English language classrooms, the language instructions also
took important roles in the teaching learning process. Indonesian language could be useful
language to give the instructions to the students. Some scholars stated that giving instructions
in L1 has been considered to be effective in helping the learners achieving the goal of
classroom activities. (Atkinson, 1987; Cook, 2001; Lucas and Katz, 1994; Macaro, 1997 in
Manara 2007).
L1 is used when the teacher ensure the students understanding
According to my eight classroom observations, I found that the teacher used L1 in
their L2 teaching when they wanted to ensure the students understanding. In checking
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students understanding, the teacher used L1 in most of her teaching. In this case, teachers
might use L1 when they checked the students understanding to make it easier and save the
time teaching. Based on my observation, students tended to be passive and some of them
were confused if the teacher used L2. Here are some examples of using L1 in ensuring
students understanding:
1.T: sudah bisa?
Ss: sudah
T: yang dibuat apanya dulu yang pertama kali? Anak-anak buat?
Ss: lingkaran
T: iya (8th observation, 6th of March)
2. T: what about this one?(while holding a paper with picture on it)
S1: tas
T: kalau jaket itu yang zip. Apa namanya? Untuk buka apa namanya?
Ss: resleting (1st observation, 18th of February)
From those examples above, it showed that the teacher used L1 when she ensured the
students understanding. The conversation between the teacher and the students in example 1
showed that the teacher tried to check the student understanding of drawing a clock, while in
example 2, the teacher tried to check the student understanding about the word zip.
Checking students’ comprehension is very important in teaching learning process.
Checking comprehension is used to check students’ understanding about the lesson. Sharma
(2006) stated that L1 might be used for checking learners’ comprehension. According to
Atkinson (1987), he also suggested that using L1 in checking comprehension can be done by
asking questions to the students and it is often quicker and more accurate.
12
Conclusion
This study was proposed to determine:when the teacher uses L1 in teaching bilingual
to preschool students. In teaching bilingual to preschool students, the teacher used both code
switching and code mixing. The study has found that generally teacher used L1 when she was
explaining material, giving admonition, giving instruction, and ensuring student
understanding.
In explaining the material, the teacher used L1 to make the students understand easily
and in order to save time teaching. Moreover, some conversation between the teacher and the
students showed that there were some corrections from the teacher to the students’ errors with
hope that the students would pay attention on it later on. In giving admonition or warn, the
teacher used L1 to directly hit the target students and avoid confusion between them. For
giving instruction, the teacher used L1 to ask the students to do something. By L1, the
students could understand and avoid confusion in the class. In ensuring students
understanding, teacher used L1 to ask the students understanding based on the material given.
All these results implied that L1 takes important part in bilingual education in order to
get successful teaching and learning process in the Satya Wacana Children Center preschool
because not all the students familiar with English since they are only 5-6 years old. The
findings describe that L1 was really used to teach in bilingual education. From the study, the
researcher hopes that the study on the use of L1 in bilingual education will give general
overview about the teacher used L1 to teach in preschool.
From this research, teacher knew when they should use L1 in learning process.
However, there is limitation on this study. The limitation is on the findings. The findings
cannot be generalized. This study may have different finding with the elementary school,
junior high school, senior high school, or even with preschool but in different place. From
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this research, the researcher suggests for the further research to do a research and study more
in the use of L1 in bilingual classroom in the same grade, or in the lower and even higher
grade of school.
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Acknowledgement
First of all, I would like to say thank to my Almighty God, Jesus Christ, who has guide
and give me His strength in doing this thesis. So, this thesis would not have been possible
without the support of many people. Iwould like to express my gratitude to my supervisor,
Anita Kurniawati, M.Humwho was helpful and offered invaluable assistance, support and
guidance. My gratitude also due toRindang Widiningrum, M.Hum,without her knowledge
and assistance this study would not have been completed. I also thanksto my participant, the
teacher of Satya Wacana Children Center for her contribution for this study.
Ialso would like to express my love and gratitude to my beloved parents and families
for their support, understanding and love.Besides, I also would like to express special thanks
to my special one, Vania Hendra Gunawan and her families who also give support, guidance
and love. The last but not least, I also thank to all the Mawar Sharoon members; Edwin.
Lukas, Natan, Yunus, Ivan, and I also say thank to Krisma for his contribution in helping and
give support in doing this thesis, also for the others friends who I cannot mention one by
one,thank foryour support guys. God bless us.
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41(4), 241-247.
Auerbach, E. (1993). Reexaming English only in the ESL classroom. TESOL Quarterly
27(1), 9–32.
Birdsong, D. (1999). Second language acquisition and the critical period hypothesis. New
Jersey:LEA Publisher.
Canagarajah, A. Suresh. (1995). Functions of Codeswitching in ESL Classrooms: Socialising
Bilingualism in Jaffna. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. Vol.
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Cook, V. (2001). Using the first language in the classroom. The Canadian Modern Language
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Cook, V. (2005). Basing teaching on the L2 user. In E. Llurda (Ed.), Non-native language
teachers (pp. 47–61). Boston, MA: Springer.
Copland, F., & Neokleous, G. (2011). L1 to teach L2: Complexities and contradictions. ELT
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Duff, P. A., & Polio, C. G. (1990). How much foreign language is there in the foreign
language classroom? The Modern Language Journal, 74(2), 154-166.
Flyman-Mattsson, A. & Burenhult, N.(1999). Code switching in Second Language Teaching
of French. (pp. 59-72). Sweden, Dept. of linguistic.
Franklin, C. E. M. (1990). Teaching in the target language. Language Learning Journal,
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Gulzar, M. A. (2010). Bulletin of educational and research. Code Switching: Awareness
about Its Utility in Bilingual Classroom, 32(2), 23-44.
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language. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 32(4),
255-275.
Kim, S. H. O., & Elder, C. (2008). Target language use in foreign language classrooms:
Practices and perceptions of two native speaker teachers in New Zealand. Language,
Culture and Curriculum, 21(2), 167-185. doi,p.10.1080/07908310802287574.
Li, W. (2000) Dimensions of bilingualism. In W. Li (ed.) The Bilingualism Reader(pp. 3–25).
London: Routledge.
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English-only programs for language minority students. TESOL Quarterly, 28(3), 537561.
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Opinions and Practices in an Indonesian Context. The Journal of Asia TEFL.4(1),145178.
Nation, I.S.P. 1997. L1 and L2 use in the classroom: a systematic approach. TESL Reporter
30, 2,p. 19-27.
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Petrovic, J, E. (Ed.). (2010). International Perspective on Bilingual Education: Policy,
Practive, and Controversy. United State of America: Information Age Publishing.Inc.
Rolin-Ianziti, J., & Brownlie, S. (2002). Teacher use of learners' native language in the
foreign language classroom. The Canadian Modern Language Review, 58(3), 402426.
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Winford, Donald. 2003. An introduction to contact linguistics. Malden:Blackwell Publishing.
18
PRESCHOOL
ABSTRACT
English language has become more important nowadays. People are competing to master that
language, teach their children about English, and send them to the bilingual school. In fact,
bilingual education allows the teachers teach using L1. By knowing that, this study conducted
to investigate on when the teacher of preschool students switches into L1 in their teaching
and learning process. This study is based on the classroom observation conducted in Satya
Wacana Children Center Salatigaand it shows when the teacher use L1 in teaching preschool
students. The discussion suggested that the purposes of using L1 still take important part in
teaching learning process. As the result, the researcher found that the use of L1 in Satya
Wacana Children Center preschool happened when: explaining material, giving admonition,
giving instruction, and ensuring student understanding.
Key words: First language (L1), Bilingual education, Preschool
INTRODUCTION
In this 20th century, English has very important role to the future life. English is used
to get a job, to operate the technology (e.g computer), and to communicate as it is an
international language. Because of that, people are busy mastering English language
nowadays. People who at least know to write and speak English will be easier to get a job
than those who don’t. Therefore, from an early age, many parents choose bilingual school for
their children to school so that they can master English quickly. Many schools then open their
bilingual education program.Birdsong (1999) defines that children are better second language
learners than adults and in hope that they will be proficient in English quickly.
Petrovic (2010), defines bilingual education as the use of both students’ native
language and English language. It may occur in math, science, history, etc. By applying
bilingual education, teachers can code switch or code mix to teach the students.Furthermore
the use of both students’ native language and English language is called as code switching
and/or code mixing.
1
The use of L1, in this case Bahasa Indonesia, surely can help the learning process in
bilingual class. Hammerly (1994) stated that a program that place an emphasis on the L2 and
ignore the L1 are not successful in preventing or removing language errors.It means that both
teacher and students use L1 in order to learn L2. According to Nation (1997), he stated that
when the classes where learners all share the same first language or national language,
teachers need to use a range of options to encourage learners to use the L2 as much as
possible. It means to provide the sense of comfort for the students to learn L2. While
Auerbach (1993) concludedher thought in the following way:"Starting with the L1 provides a
sense of security and validates the learners’ lived experiences, allowing them to express
themselves. The learner is then willing to experiment and take risks with English."
It is true that using L1 may help the bitterly achievement in learning L2. However,
there is a determined portion (30:70) to when to use L1, so that the teacher cannot use L1 all
the time. Something that has to keep in minds, that as a teacher, they are assigned to know
when they should use L1 or remain L2. Beside that determined portion, expectation from the
parents that want their children to be familiarized with English also can be the consideration
too. Teacheris welcome to use native language to avoid confusion in the learning process.
Based on the explanation above, the researcherwill conduct a researchin one of
preschool in Salatiga and the researcher is curious in examining the class with 5-6 years old
students in it. In attempt to further understanding, this research only focuses on thetime
“when” the teacheruse native language in teaching. The researcher will investigate the
“when” based on what he sees in the classroom interaction through observation. Moreover,
this study will answer the main question as follow: When does the teacher uses L1 in
teaching bilingual to preschool students? I am interested in this study because I want to
analyze the amount of L1 she used in teaching in preschool. Hopefully, this study will give
2
contribution to the other study of the purpose of using L1 in the same or different contextin
the future study.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Code switching and code mixing as a part of Bilingual Education
Code switching is different from code mixing. Code switching is the use of two
languages as an alternative between sentences, while code mixing is the use of two languages
within one sentence. (Winford, 2003). Code switching or mixing is a part of teachers’ talk
that means to use two languages, in this case, English to Indonesia. This language feature can
be used by the teachers to give the instruction (Kim & Elder, 2008; Macaro, 2001; RolinIanziti & Brownlie, 2002), to ensure the students’ understanding (Gulzar, 2010), to explain
difficult terms (Duff & Polio, 1990; Kim &Elder, 2008), to shift from one topic to another
(Gulzar, 2010),for making a joke (Copland & Neokleous, 2011), for giving hints (Copland &
Neokleous, 2011), and also the classroom management (Canagarajah, 1995) that include:
opening the class, negotiating, requesting help, managing discipline, teacher encouragement,
teacher compliments, teacher admonitions, mitigation, pleading. As the addition, translation
is included as apart of code switching, which means that to switch from one language to
another language, it may be the same as to translate one language to another language. Based
on research of this language feature, code switching is not a sign of lack of proficiency of
language, but more in strategy of teachers’ talk (Li, 2000).
Teachers switch into L1 when they give instruction
Some teachers usually use L1 to give the instruction to the students. The students then
will get the main point about what they should do in the class. By giving instructions in L1, it
has been considered to be effective in helping the learners achieving the goal of classroom
activities (Atkinson, 1987; Cook, 2001; Lucas and Katz, 1994; Macaro, 1997 in Manara
2007).
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Teachers switch into L1 to ensure the students understanding
The teacher will use native language to check students’ comprehension and to clarify
the materials given in the class. Usually, checking comprehension can be done by asking
question related to the material to the student (Atkinson, 1987). Meanwhile, clarify means to
check whether the students understandthe material or not.
Teachers switch into L1 to explain the material
When the teacher explains the material, truly they will find some or even many
difficulties in presenting the material. The problem can be either the teacher cannot choose
the best word to define the specific term or the students cannot understand about the
explanation from their teacher. Therefore, the native language can be used since teacher and
students who used L1 in L2 teaching will make less error than who use L2. (Duff & Polio,
1990;Swain & Lapkin, 2000).
Teachers switch into L1 as a transition
It is often found that in the middle of teaching, the teacher gives an announcement to
their students. For example, the teacherannounces that tomorrow will use batik, etc. The
teacher will use native language to avoid misunderstanding or to get the students’ attention.
(Flyman-Mattson & Burenhult, 1999). It also can be defined as a transition from one topic to
another topic in class. (Gulzar, 2010).
Teachers switch into L1 for making jokes(Copland and Neokleous, 2011)
Jokes are the one of strategy that is used by the teacher to create the mood in the
classroom. Sometimes jokes appear in the beginning of the class or in the middle of learning
process. Jokes are really linked with the culture of a country and it will be better to use L1 to
get the students’ attention directly.
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Teachers switch into L1 for giving hints(Copland and Neokleous, 2011)
If there is a word in English that is not understandable by the students, the teacher
may scaffold their students using L1. Scaffold means to give some hints to stimulate the
student about the intended things. By the using of L1 in scaffold, it can save the time
teaching.
Teachers switch into L1 as classroom management (Canagarajah, 1995)
According to Canagarajah (1995), the teacher may use L1 to maintain classroom
management. Classroom management includes: opening class, negotiating, requesting help,
teacher encouragement, teacher compliments, teacher admonitions, mitigation, and pleading.
Negotiation means the teacher may negotiate with the students if they complain. Teacher
admonition means the teacher warn the students for whatever reason in the class. While
mitigation, is when the teacher gives extended time to the students to finish their work or give
flexible rules in the class. Pleading is when the teacher defends one or group of her students
from the others.
METHODOLOGY
Context of the Study
The setting of the study took place at Satya Wacana Children Center preschool. It is
located in Salatiga, Central Java, Indonesia. The subject for this study was one teacher who
taught in Bloomers class in age of 5-6 years old students. The class hadseven out of ten
subjects which used bilingual approach and each subjects lasted for around 30 minutes. The
reason why the researcher chose this class was because the teacher sometime switched into
L1 in teaching in the class. The researcheronly focused on one class to avoid the difference
level of students.
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Participant
The participant in this studywas a teacher, Ms Sri (a pseudonym), who taught 5-6
years old students in Bloomers class. Ms Sri and her students would have a class with English
and Indonesian as their communication. As the delivery of the materials happened, they
would have interaction to each other. Through the interaction, the researcher would gather the
data.The reason the researcher chose her was because she was the only teacher taught on that
class and that class was the one that used more English language than the others.
Instrument of Data Collection
In collecting the data, the researcher used one instrument, which was observation. The
researcher would observe the class, accompanying by video recorder, and not disturb the
learning process in class.After the researcher finished with the observation, he immediately
transcribed it and categorized it in themes.
Observation Protocol
Date: …………….
Time: …………………..
Teacher: ……………..
Class length: …………..
Class: …………….
Total students: ………..
TIME
XX.ZZ A
SITUATION
IN CLASS
THE USE OF
OCCURENCES
INDONESIAN (WHEN)
T: ….
FREQ
Z
1
Y
2
X
1
S: ….
XX.ZZ B
S: ….
T: ….
XX.ZZ C
T: ….
S: ….
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T: ….
Table 1: A time-sampling protocol
The observation would be done first and then the researcher would examine “when”
the teacher switch or mix with those language. The researcher would record the learning
process from the beginning until the end of the lesson.
Procedure of Data Collection
To ease the researcher, the observation was conducted using a video recorder. There
would be eight observations for the data collection.
OBSERVATION
DATE
TIME
LENGTH OF TIME
1
18/2/2014
08.30-09.08
38.12 MIN
2
18/2/2014
09.50-10.30
40.56 MIN
3
25/2/2014
08.30-09.17
47.14 MIN
4
25/2/2014
09.57-10.26
29.37 MIN
5
26/2/2014
10.07-10.33
26.36 MIN
6
4/3/2014
08.30-09.19
49.15 MIN
7
4/3/2014
09.55-10.34
40.05 MIN
8
6/3/2014
09.55-10.35
40.36 MIN
Table 2: Observation data
After the researcher transcribed and gathered all the data, he analyzed it.
Data Analysis
After getting the recordings of the teaching process in the class, the researcher
analyzedthe “when”.When it was done, then, the researcher grouped them into one theme
with the help of situation in the class.Then, he would count the percentage of each theme.
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Furthermore, the total percentage of theme based on the data the researcher got, would
answer the researcher’s question.
FINDINGS
In this discussion, I will present the data analysis that I get from the classroom
observations about the use of L1 in a bilingual education program for preschool.
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Giving instruction
Ensure students understanding
25
Explain material
Opening class
20
Making joke
Giving opinion/hint
Transition
15
Negotiating
Teacher encouragement
10
Teacher compliment
Teacher admonition
5
Mitigation
Pleading
0
Requesting help
All Observations
Based on the graphic above, the teacher switches into L1 when explaining the material got
the highest occurrences (26.88%), followed by teacher admonition (20.94%), giving
instruction (20.55%), ensure students understanding (15.42%) and the others only have not
more than 6%.Each of those themes will be explained and discussed further below.
L1 is used mostly when the teacher explain the material
Based on my eight observations, the finding showed that the teacher switched into L1
is mostly used when explaining the material. Here are some examples of using L1 when
explaining the material:
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1. T: Makanannya tanaman apa sih?
S1: airrr
S2: menyiramin terus
T: oo menyiramin terus, oke Sesta, what else? Kalau ada tanaman menyiramin terus,
disiram Sesta, bukan menyirami. (3th observation, 25th of February)
2. T: And then Kayra has to go to post office to put a package of bag…
S: tidak hanya surat
T: iya, tidak hanya surat saja, paketnya itu kemudian diberikan ke pak pos…
S: pak polisi
T: bukan pak polisi. Kemudian akan ditulis, mau kemana mbak? Ke tempatnya
Hanadel. Alamatnya? Itu yang ada di peumsat kartini. (6th observation, 4th of March)
Those examples above showed that the teacher used L1 when she explained the
material. The data above showed that L1 helped the teacher to explain the material. The
teacher would easily explain and deliver the material to her students. The example 1, the
teacher explained about how to treat a plant. The example 2, the teacher explained about post
office.
The use of L1 helped students understand easily, got the main point intended of the
lesson quickly, and responded the teacher’s question accurately. It also helped the teacher in
managing students to avoid confusion in learning process as it could be seen in example 1
and 2. The teacher switched into L1 to make sure that the students would follow her
explanation so that there were no mistakes in learning process. According to Duff & Polio
(1990) and Swain & Lapkin (2000), they found that both teacher and students used L1 in L2
teaching make less error than who use L2. Both examples above are the corrections from the
teacher to the students’ error so that the next time the students will not repeat the same
mistakes.In the example 1, teacher used L1 to respond Sesta’s question and also gave
correction using L1.In example 2, teacher used L1 to correct Sesta’s answer.This
phenomenon happened in the class that I observed.In explaining those materials, based on
what I saw, itsaved the time teaching.
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L1 is used when the teacher give admonition to her students
The use of L1 here is also used when the teacher warned her students in the class.
There are two kind of admonition that Idistinguish, admonition at the beginning of the class
and at the rest of the class. I found that the teacher tended to warn her students 25 times in
total (4.94%) at the beginning of class, whereas in the middle until the rest of the class,
teacher admonition happened 81 times in total (16%). Here are some the examples of using
L1 when the teacher gives admonition:
1. Siuation (teacher open the class)
Ss: (noisy)
S1: miss, Rafael dipanggil nggak mau jawab.
T: anak-anak sudah, tidak banyak omong. Selesai. Sudah selesai berbicaranya,
sudah selesai mainnya, stop talking. (4th observation, 25th February)
2. Situation (teacher warned two students who were talking when they were doing
exercise)
T: yang kerja apanya sih ini?
Ss: mulut, tangan.
T: kalau tangannya kerja, mulutnya diam. (1st observation, 18th February)
From those examples, it showed that teacher use L1 when she gave warning to her
students. The teacher warns the students and they can directly get that warn. This also may
avoid confusion between the teacher and her students. The example 1, happened at the
beginning of the class. The example 2, happened in the middle of the class. In example 1, the
teacher wanted to open the class after the break time. She found that her class was noisy and
she warned the students. In example 2, the teacher gave exercise to her students, but they
were busy with their own business. The teacher warned them and after that, the students kept
silent and did their exercise.
Canagarajah (1995) include teacher admonition as one part of classroom
management. He believed that teachers may apply mother tongue when teachers deal with
classroom management. From my observation, teacher admonition using L1 happened and
occupies the second highest place after explain material.
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L1 is used when the teacher give instruction
From the findings that I got, I found that the teacher use L1 also for giving instruction.
She gave the instruction at the beginning of the class 19 times (3.75%) while 85 times
(16.8%) at the rest of the class activity. Here are some examples in using L1 when giving
instruction:
1. T: (After moving some students) Sudah? Yuk sekarang dengarkan miss. Telinganya
dibuka lebar-lebar, miss mau lihat.
Ss: (imitate)(1st observation, 18th February)
2. T: Can you drag the line the stethoscope to the doctor. Tarik garis dari gambar
stetoskop ke gambar dokter. Done?
Ss: done.(6th observation, 4th of March)
Those examples above displayed that the teacher used L1 when giving instruction.
The teacher asked the students to keep silent and pay attention to the teacher as stated in
example 1.In example 2, the teacher asked the students to do something and she used L1 to
let them to do it directly.
The use of L1 in giving instruction allowed the students to understand and followed
the activity in class very well. In English language classrooms, the language instructions also
took important roles in the teaching learning process. Indonesian language could be useful
language to give the instructions to the students. Some scholars stated that giving instructions
in L1 has been considered to be effective in helping the learners achieving the goal of
classroom activities. (Atkinson, 1987; Cook, 2001; Lucas and Katz, 1994; Macaro, 1997 in
Manara 2007).
L1 is used when the teacher ensure the students understanding
According to my eight classroom observations, I found that the teacher used L1 in
their L2 teaching when they wanted to ensure the students understanding. In checking
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students understanding, the teacher used L1 in most of her teaching. In this case, teachers
might use L1 when they checked the students understanding to make it easier and save the
time teaching. Based on my observation, students tended to be passive and some of them
were confused if the teacher used L2. Here are some examples of using L1 in ensuring
students understanding:
1.T: sudah bisa?
Ss: sudah
T: yang dibuat apanya dulu yang pertama kali? Anak-anak buat?
Ss: lingkaran
T: iya (8th observation, 6th of March)
2. T: what about this one?(while holding a paper with picture on it)
S1: tas
T: kalau jaket itu yang zip. Apa namanya? Untuk buka apa namanya?
Ss: resleting (1st observation, 18th of February)
From those examples above, it showed that the teacher used L1 when she ensured the
students understanding. The conversation between the teacher and the students in example 1
showed that the teacher tried to check the student understanding of drawing a clock, while in
example 2, the teacher tried to check the student understanding about the word zip.
Checking students’ comprehension is very important in teaching learning process.
Checking comprehension is used to check students’ understanding about the lesson. Sharma
(2006) stated that L1 might be used for checking learners’ comprehension. According to
Atkinson (1987), he also suggested that using L1 in checking comprehension can be done by
asking questions to the students and it is often quicker and more accurate.
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Conclusion
This study was proposed to determine:when the teacher uses L1 in teaching bilingual
to preschool students. In teaching bilingual to preschool students, the teacher used both code
switching and code mixing. The study has found that generally teacher used L1 when she was
explaining material, giving admonition, giving instruction, and ensuring student
understanding.
In explaining the material, the teacher used L1 to make the students understand easily
and in order to save time teaching. Moreover, some conversation between the teacher and the
students showed that there were some corrections from the teacher to the students’ errors with
hope that the students would pay attention on it later on. In giving admonition or warn, the
teacher used L1 to directly hit the target students and avoid confusion between them. For
giving instruction, the teacher used L1 to ask the students to do something. By L1, the
students could understand and avoid confusion in the class. In ensuring students
understanding, teacher used L1 to ask the students understanding based on the material given.
All these results implied that L1 takes important part in bilingual education in order to
get successful teaching and learning process in the Satya Wacana Children Center preschool
because not all the students familiar with English since they are only 5-6 years old. The
findings describe that L1 was really used to teach in bilingual education. From the study, the
researcher hopes that the study on the use of L1 in bilingual education will give general
overview about the teacher used L1 to teach in preschool.
From this research, teacher knew when they should use L1 in learning process.
However, there is limitation on this study. The limitation is on the findings. The findings
cannot be generalized. This study may have different finding with the elementary school,
junior high school, senior high school, or even with preschool but in different place. From
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this research, the researcher suggests for the further research to do a research and study more
in the use of L1 in bilingual classroom in the same grade, or in the lower and even higher
grade of school.
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Acknowledgement
First of all, I would like to say thank to my Almighty God, Jesus Christ, who has guide
and give me His strength in doing this thesis. So, this thesis would not have been possible
without the support of many people. Iwould like to express my gratitude to my supervisor,
Anita Kurniawati, M.Humwho was helpful and offered invaluable assistance, support and
guidance. My gratitude also due toRindang Widiningrum, M.Hum,without her knowledge
and assistance this study would not have been completed. I also thanksto my participant, the
teacher of Satya Wacana Children Center for her contribution for this study.
Ialso would like to express my love and gratitude to my beloved parents and families
for their support, understanding and love.Besides, I also would like to express special thanks
to my special one, Vania Hendra Gunawan and her families who also give support, guidance
and love. The last but not least, I also thank to all the Mawar Sharoon members; Edwin.
Lukas, Natan, Yunus, Ivan, and I also say thank to Krisma for his contribution in helping and
give support in doing this thesis, also for the others friends who I cannot mention one by
one,thank foryour support guys. God bless us.
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