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THE ROLES OF L1 USED BY TEACHER IN TEACHING ENGLISH FOR
YOUNG LEARNERS IN ELEMANTARY SCHOOL
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
Of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan

Windi Ismitasari
(112012032)

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION PROGRAM
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS
UNIVERSITAS KRISTEN SATYA WACANA
SALATIGA
2016

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COPYRIGHT STATEMENT

This thesis contains no such material as has been submitted for examination in any
course or accepted for the fulfillment of any degree or diploma in any university. To
the best of my knowledge and my belief, this contains no material previously
published or written by any other person except where due reference is made in the
text.

Copyright@ 2016. Windi Ismitasari and Rindang Widiningrum, M.Hum.

All rights reserved. No part of this thesis may be reproduced by any means without
the permission of at least one of the copyright owners or the English Language
Education Program, Faculty of Language and Literature, Satya Wacana Christian
University, Salatiga.

Windi Ismitasari

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title ............................................................................................................................

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Approval Letter .......................................................................................................... iv
Copyright Statement .................................................................................................

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Declaration ................................................................................................................ vi
Table of Content ....................................................................................................... vii
Abstract ......................................................................................................................

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Introduction ................................................................................................................

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Literature Review ......................................................................................................

 Definition of Young Learner ...............................................................................

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 L1 Use in EFL Classroom....................................................................................

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 The Roles of L1 In L2 Classroom........................................................................

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o Classroom Management ..................................................................................

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o Giving Instruction............................................................................................

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o Explaining Grammar .......................................................................................

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o Conveying meaning .........................................................................................

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o Checking Comprehension ...............................................................................

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The Study ...................................................................................................................

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Context of The Study .........................................................................................

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Participant ...........................................................................................................

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Instrument of Data Collection ............................................................................

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Data collection procedures .................................................................................

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Analysis of Data Collection ............................................................................... 10

Findings and Discussion ............................................................................................ 10
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The Roles of L1 Used by Teacher ...................................................................... 10
o Classroom Management................................................................................. 11
o Giving Instruction .......................................................................................... 12
o Explaining Grammar ...................................................................................... 13

o Conveying meaning ....................................................................................... 14
o Checking Comprehension .............................................................................. 15
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o Other Finding ................................................................................................. 16
The Frequency of L1 Used by Teacher .............................................................. 17

Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 19
Acknowledgement .................................................................................................... 21
Attachment (Observation Checklist) ........................................................................ 22
References ................................................................................................................ 23

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THE ROLES OF L1 USED BY TEACHER IN TEACHING ENGLISH FOR
YOUNG LEARNERS IN ELEMANTARY SCHOOL

Windi Ismitasari

Abstract
Nowadays, the use of L1 in the L2 classrooms has become an endless debate
in the field of EFL. Some studies argue that teachers should maximize the use of L2
to develop learners’ skills. On the other hand, some studies asserted that L1 used by
teacher in teaching English gave positive effect in learning process. The aim of this
study was to analyze the roles of L1 used by teacher and the different roles of L1 use
in different level of young learners. The participant of this study was one teacher who
is teaching English in Kristen Setabelan 1 Elementary School, Surakarta. The data
analysis showed that there was not different role of L1 used in 1st and 6th. Based on
the finding, teacher used L1 in managing classroom, giving instruction, conveying
meaning, checking comprehension, and giving feedback. Although, the roles of L1 in
two levels are the same but the frequency of L1 used by teacher was more in 1st rather
than in 6th grade.
Key Words: The Roles of L1 and Young Learners.

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INRODUCTION
In discussions related to the English as Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms, one

controversial issue has been whether or not to use L1 in the EFL classrooms.
Language use in classroom when learning a new language is one of the important
factors to achieve the goal of the learning. On the one hand, Swain (1985, as cited in
Moeller & Roberts, 2013) argues that “… producing the target language is an
important aspect of the learning process and learners must be provided opportunities
to produce written and spoken output related to the input” (p. 22). In the other words,
teachers should maximize the use of the target language to build real environment in
the foreign language classrooms by stating that the ability to produce target language
is an important aspect of the learning process. In fact, there are some situations that
teachers usually used L1 when teaching students in the second language classroom.
Macaro (2000, as cited in Moller & Roberts, 2013) maintains that “Teachers most
frequently used L1 when teaching grammar explicitly, providing complex procedural
instructions, controlling students’ behavior, building personal relationships with
learners and checking for comprehension quickly when time pressures dictate” (p.
23). In the same line, Sampson (2012) asserted that avoiding L1 used by teacher
would make the development of L2 decrease. As Ma (2009) believes that the use of
L1 by teachers also could be one of scaffolding tools for the learners to increase their
L2. So, by using L1 in the EFL classroom can help both teachers and students to
achieve the goal of the learning process.
Additionally, according to some studies L1 used in EFL classroom cannot be

avoided because it has some roles to help the teachers transfer the knowledge to the
learners. As Lasagabaster (2013) said that we need to know the reason why the
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teacher uses the L1, how and when L1 used in the classroom. It means that L1 can be
used in EFL classroom depend on the situation that teacher face in the classroom
especially for the young learners, in this context is 1 and 6 grade of elementary
school. In Indonesia, young learners are included in beginner level that still need their
L1 to comprehend a new language or their target language in the classroom. Based on
previous study, Chaniago (2011) found that some roles of L1 use in L2 classroom
such as “asking question”, “giving explanations”, and “giving instructions” more than
L2 (p.10). The result of her study is teacher uses both L1 and L2, but L1 more
frequently use in the classroom for many different purposes. As Willis (2007) study,
they stated that teacher cannot avoid the use of L1 in L2 classroom for beginner level
since L1 have some advantages to the learning process. Because of that, this study
carry out to discuss about L1 used by teacher in EFL classroom for young learners. In
other words, the aim of this study is to analyze the role of L1 used by the teacher and
to analyze about wether the level/grade of the student can influence the role of the L1
used by teacher through these research questions: “What are the roles of L1 used by
teacher in the EFL classroom?” and “Does L1 used by teacher have different role in

different level of learners?”.

It is expected that this study can give additional

knowledge and clear perception for English teachers about the language use in EFL
classroom whether the teacher is better to use L1 or target language or both L1 and L2
in teaching English as a foreign language especially to young learners in Elementary
school.

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LITERATURE RIVIEW
Definition of Young Learners
According to Harmer (2007), young learners are more enthusiast in learning and
will be more curious with new things around them rather than adolescent or adult
learners. Teaching language to young learners needed a process step by step depend
on the age of the learners. As Asykari (2012) stated that it could be difficult to grab
the young learners’ attention and make them concentrate, because they could get
bored and lose interest easily. That is why teaching young learner is harder than teaching
the adult ones.

Generally, young learners are consisting of children between five to ten or eleven
years old. There are two groups of young learners, those are five to seven and eight to
ten or eleven since children five and ten years old have different capabilities in
learning (Scott & Ytreberg, 1990). Their study stated that we cannot conclude that all
students age 5-7 can do the same and all students age 8-11 can the same. Because
there is a big difference between students age 5-7 can do and students age 8-7 can do.
So, it could be in one classroom has different characteristic of students that teacher
need different strategies to handle each student in different level of class.
L1 use in EFL Classroom
L1 used by teacher in EFL classroom also has some advantages to improve the
students’ target language. Using L1 in the L2 classroom could help students when
they confront difficult situation so that it does not make them feel depressed. Grasso
(2012) attempted to explain the advantages of the use of L1 by arguing that “Use of
L1 can offer them greater efficiency when clarifying vocabulary, grammar or

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instructions as they can check their understanding quickly” with the result that “it can
help them catch up with the other students if they fall behind and it can help relieve
pressure when they feel nervous or frustrated” (p. 4). On the other hand, there is a
disadvantage of using L1 more than L2 was based on the Kavari (2014) studied. The
use of L1 in the class make the students feel dependent on their L1 that can obstruct
the developing L2, in which it is argued that “Overusing L1 causes using L2 less”
(Kavari, 2014, p. 209). On the other word, teachers need to maximize the use of L2 in
the classroom because it is important to develop the students’ target language.
However, this study still maintains that Edstrom (2006) attempted to show the
function of L1 in the L2 classroom, argued that the L2 is only a topic that the students
need to learn, but the way how the teachers delivered the L2 is using L1. Therefore,
the communication between teachers and students are important to achieve the goal of
learning L2 in the classroom, “… there are moments when my sense of moral
obligation to a student, in this case concern about communicating respect and creating
a positive environment, overrides my belief in maximizing L2 use” (p. 287). From the
previous research, this study believes that L1 still helpful for the teacher in teaching
English moreover if the context is young learners that included as beginner level in
Indonesian.
The roles of L1 in L2 Classroom
According to the study of Hoff (2013) there are some roles of L1 used in L2
classroom such as in classroom management, expressing solidarity, explaining
grammar to the students, convey meaning. Additionally, there are some studies that
support the use of L1 as Jones (2010) study of L1 communication in L2 classroom.
She found that L1 use in classroom is to give instruction, manage classroom, motivate
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students, check students’ comprehension and give feedback. In the same line,
Cianflone (2009) asserted that “L1 use in terms of explanation of grammar,
vocabulary items, difficult concepts and for general comprehension". Furthermore,
this study will explain more about some roles of L1 used by teacher such as:
1. Classroom Management
One of the important thing to the teacher in EFL classroom for young learners is
classroom management. As we know that teaching young learners will be different
from teaching adult learners especially for the classroom management strategy.
Classroom management is related to the teacher’s way in making effective and
productive learning process between teacher and the students in the classroom to
achieve the goal of the learning. On the other word, the teachers need to find the best
strategy to control whole activities in the classroom to have progress in the learning
process. In addition, Tal (2010, as cited in Rahimi & Asdollahi, 2012) argued that
Classroom management is perceived as a cyclical process that includes advanced
planning, implementation, assessment during implementation, and final evaluation
that takes into account factors related to children and their environment, intended to
bring about progress in the activities carried out for the learning and emotional wellbeing of the children in the class. (p. 43).

Brophy (1996, as cited in Macias & Sanchez, 2015) stated that “Classroom
management has been defined as the actions taken to create and maintain a learning
environment conducive to successful instruction” (p. 5). The point of classroom
management is not only to make the students discipline in the class, but also the
relationship and communication between teacher and students in the classroom.
However, the language use is very important to make a deal with it. In short,
Students’ L1 used by the teacher also has a role in maintaining classroom
management.
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2. Giving Instruction
Another role of L1 use in the EFL classroom is giving instruction. According to
Liruso and de Debat (2003) language used by teacher would be changed depend on
the purpose and students’ level (p. 140). Moreover, for young learners in this context
is 1st and 6th grade of elementary school that included in beginner level, L1 has
important role in giving instruction. Teachers should know how to maintain and get
the students attention to their instruction in the classroom. It is supported by the study
of Atkinson (1987), he suggests that the use of L1 in giving instruction especially for
beginner level is more exact and beneficial. Because of giving instruction to young
learners is different to adult learners who already know when they need to pay
attention to the teacher.
3. Explaining Grammar
In the English language teaching development, there are still being argued from
some researchers about the use of student’s L1 in EFL classroom especially in new
words to the young learners. Some studies argued that the use of L1 can help the
students to understand what teacher is talking about in the classroom. Al-Nofaie
(2010) notices that “Many teachers use L1 to explain grammar and new vocabulary.”
It is also supported by Littlewood (2011) study, he stated that for the efficiency in
teaching, the teachers used L1 in explaining of new words, structure, or utterances
because it will have better advancement for the learners to achieve the goal of
learning.
4. Conveying meaning
Many teachers refer to not avoiding L1 in the classroom because of time
efficiency. According to Cook (2001), one reason to consider avoiding L1 is
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efficiency (p. 413). “Teacher use of L1 to convey and check meaning of word or
sentences” (Cook, 2001). Some concede that “overusing L1 causes using L2 less”
(Kavari, 2014), but L1 maybe can help teacher to convey and check meaning in the
classroom efficiently. Cook (2001) states, one of the advantages in using L1 in the
classroom is to efficiency and also prerequisite in understanding target language for
beginner level. Using L1 to convey meaning in the classroom can make the students
more consider the accuracy of the target language and also help them to understand
easily (Buttzkamm & Caldwell, 2009). In short, L1 is one of beneficial strategy to
help the teacher to convey meaning in the classroom.
5. Checking Comprehension
L1 is also useful in checking students’ comprehension because it is important part
in teaching learning process. Checking students’ comprehension is one of the
strategies to know the students’ understanding after the lesson, whether they have
comprehended the material or not. By using L1 to check students’ comprehension that
can help the teacher taking different ways for each student. Atkinson (1987)
suggested that using L1 in checking comprehension can be done by asking questions
to the students and it is often quicker and more accurate. So, it can help the teacher to
save time but teacher can measure the result of the learning process at the day.
THE STUDY
Context of the study
To get more point of view of the L1 use to young learners, the context of this
study is Elementary school. This research conducted in SD Kristen Setabelan 1 in
Surakarta, Central Java Indonesia. The reason why the research conducted in this
school because the teacher in this school is still using L1 in teaching English. So, it is
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important to investigate how the teacher teaches English for young learners as a
beginner level student in that school. It is one of the reason why this study want to
know the roles of L1 use in the L2 classroom and to identify the L1 used by teacher in
different level of learners.
Participant
In this research, the researcher chose one male teacher who teaches English in the
school. The reason why the researcher used only one participant, because he was the
only one English teacher who teaches from 1st – 6th grade. He has been teaching in
the school around six years. He is also a teacher in the other elementary school and
opened private lesson at home around 3 years. He graduated from English
Department.
The Instruments of Data Collection
The methodology that is used in this study to answer the research questions is
classroom observation. This study used the classroom observation for data collection
because this study wants to know the activities of each classroom. The observation
class focused in knowing the roles and the frequency of L1 used by the teacher in
different level of classrooms and whether there is any differences roles of L1 used by
teacher because the classes are 1st and 6th grade of elementary school. So, the
researcher used field note to collect the data of L1 used and to explore the roles of L1
used by teacher to young learners in different level.
The Data collection procedures
In this observation activities, this study used field notes to take a note all the
activities in the classroom. The data were taken 3rd times in each classes (1st and 6th

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grade). This study used qualitative and quantitative data for the observation class.
Besides that, to make the classroom run natural as usual, the researcher was not as the
participant in the classes, thus the researcher was only being the data collector. The
researcher focused on the L1 used by the teacher. So, all the roles and the frequency
of L1 which were produced by the teacher were written in the field note.
The Analysis of Data Collection
After collected the data from each classroom observations, it were analyzed to
know the roles of L1 used by teacher in the classroom. After the analyzing the data,
the first this study classified the data based on the literature review about the roles of
L1 used by teacher. Second, this study counted the frequency of L1 used in each level
(1st and 6th grade) to know the difference frequency of L1 used by teacher and relate it
with literature review. After that I drawed conclusions from the data analysis.

FINDING AND DISCUSSION
This section discusses the findings from the observation section about what are the
roles of L1 use in the L2 classroom and whether L1 is used by teacher has different
roles in different level of learners. The observation results showed that there are 6
(six) roles used frequently by teacher using L1 in teaching English as foreign
language for young learners.
A. The Roles of L1 Used by Teacher
From the observation, the researcher found some roles of L1 used by teacher in
the classroom. The result showed that almost in week 1st, 2nd, and 3rd the teacher used
L1 to teach young learners both in 1st and 6th grade. Except in 1st grade week 1, the
teacher didn’t use L1 in explaining new words and grammar because according to the
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observation the material was not too difficult and there was no grammar in the
material. From the six observations, it could be seen clearly that L1 still appeared in
English classroom. Each role of L1 use will be presented and discussed below.
1. Classroom Management
The data showed that teacher uses L1 in classroom management. L1 used by
teacher for young learners is still needed and it helped teacher to manage the
classroom activities. For example, the teacher used L1 to manage the students when
the students were too noisy and didn’t pay attention to the teacher.
Observation 1(Sep - 12 th 2016)

Sample 1: Grade 1
Teacher

: “saya hitung sampai 3 tidak ada yang berdiri lagi ya semua harus duduk.
satu, dua, ...”
(I will count until three. all of you must sit in your chair, okay. One, two, …)

In the sample 1 the teacher used L1 in 1st grade classroom. Almost in managing
the classroom behavior, teacher used L1 because the class is very noisy and the
students were very enthusiast to answer the question from the teacher. So, the teacher
use L1 to ask them sit nicely and rise their hand before answer the question. Based on
the observation, the teacher also tried to use L2 to manage the class but only some
students who pay attention to the teacher.
Sample 2: Grade 6
Teacher

Observation 5 (Sep - 21 th 2016)

: “selesai tidak selesai akan saya hapus papannya”. (finish or not I will erase
the white board)

For the 6th grade’s classroom, teacher also used L1 to manage the students but the
teacher didn’t talk too much and used short sentences. The teacher used L1 to manage
their noise, warned them to pay attention or asked them to write the material and
finish their task. As Al-Hadhrami (2008) study, he found that teacher L1 can be used
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to give instruction and classroom management. In short, L1 is one beneficial for help
the teacher to manage the classroom behavior so that the situation still conducive and
effective to achieve the goal of the learning. In the other words, the teacher tends to
use L1 instead of L2 in classroom management because the students will pay attention
to the teacher when he used L1 to the class.
2. Giving Instruction
The observation result also find that one of L1 rules that teacher often use is
giving instruction to the students. It was proven by the teacher using L1 for giving
instructions to the students to do some tasks frequently in the classroom, for instance:
Observation 1 (Sep -12 th 2016)

Sample 3: Grade 1
Teacher

: “repeat after me! Green . Ucapkan green !”. (say green!). “bersama sama
ucapkan blue! (say blue together!), “buka buku kalian halaman lima puluh!”
(open your book, page 50!)

In the sample 3 above, the teacher use L1 for giving instruction to 1st grade.
the teacher use L1 to ask the students follow the teacher’s words or repeat after the
teacher and ask the students open their book. Beside that, the use of L1 also helps the
teacher to ask the students to do the exercise appropriately. Although the teacher tried
to use English to give the instruction, but only some students can pay attention and
follow the teacher’s instruction.
Sample 4: Grade 6
Teacher

Observation 6 (Oct - 05 th 2016)

: “Students A silahkan lihat teks nomer 1 dan terjemahkan ke Bahasa
Indonesia! yang lain dengarkan jawaban temannya! Nanti akan saya tunjuk
bergantian untuk menjawab.
(student A, please translate the text number 1 to Indonesian and others,
please pay attention to your friend! I will ask you one by one to translate the
text.)

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This result same with 1st grade, in 6th grade the teacher also used L1 to give
instruction to the students. Based on the observation, the teacher used L1 to ask the
students to open their book, write the material, do the exercise and pay attention to
their friends. In this case, the teacher prefers to use simple and short statement, such
as “buka buku kalian halaman 50”/ open your book page 50”. So, it can be indicated
that the L1 used by teacher could help the teacher in giving instruction to the students.
As what has been stated in literature review, Atkinson (1987) suggested that it was
better if the teachers use L1 in giving instruction to the young learners because it is
more exact and beneficial.
Explaining Grammar
The one of important thing in learning English is grammar. Based on the
observation, there was so many questions from the students to the teacher about
grammar that they don’t understand. For example:”bedanya do sama does apa Mr?”.
From those questions, the teacher should explain the grammar clearly and simple that
easy to understand.
Sample 5: Grade 1
Teacher

Observation 3 (Oct – O3 rd 2016)

: “this dipakai untuk menunjuk sesuatu atau benda yang dekat dengan
kita.kalau that sebaliknya. That dipakai untuk menunjuk sesuatu atau benda
yang jauh dari kita. For example: that is my book berarti bukunya jauh dari
kita, “itu buku saya”. Kalau yang dekat contohnya this is your pencil case
berarti your pencil case dekat. Pancil case itu tempat pensil.” Ini tempat
pensil kamu.”
(we use “this” to point something that near us and that is to point
something that far from us. For example, this is my book. It means that the
book near us. Then, that is your pencil case. It means that the pencil case is
far from us. Pencil case means tempat pensil)

Sample 6: Grade 6
Teacher

Observation 5 (Sep - 21 th 2016)

: “kemarin kita sudah belajar tentang bagaimananya menanyakan harga.
Sekarang kita akan belajar bagaimana menjawab harganya. Ada tiga cara
juga sesuai dengan pertanyannya kemarin. Yang pertama, it is two thousand

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rupiahs untuk yang singular/ they are five thousand rupiahs untuk yang
plural.

Kedua, it cost two thousand rupiahs untuk yang singular/ they cost five
thousand rupiahs untuk yang plural. Yang terakhir, the price of a book is
one thousand rupiahs untuk yang singular/ the price of 5 book are five
thousand rupiahs. One thousand itu seribu kalau one hundred itu seratus.
Jadi kalau thousand itu ribuan, hundred itu untuk ratusan ya.
(last week we have learned about how to asking a price and now we will
learn how to answer the price. There are three types of asking the price.
First,” it is two thousand rupiahs” for singular/ “they are five thousand
rupiahs” for plural. Second, “it cost two thousand rupiahs” for singular/
“they cost five thousand rupiahs” for plural. The last, “the price of a book
is one thousand rupiahs” for singular/ “the price of 5 book are five
thousand rupiahs” for plural.

From the sample 5 and 6 above, the teacher used L1 in giving grammar
explanation to the students using translation from L2. Besides from the sample above,
the teacher also explained grammar about how to asking place and time such as:
“kalau mau menanyakan tempat pakai where, kalau mau menanyakan kapan pakai
when, kalau mau menanyakan apa pakai what. Contohnya, where are you buy this

book? When does she go?”. This study also supported by McCann (2005) suggests
that teacher might use L1 to explain grammar using translation method. On the other
words, it might be helpful for the teacher to use L1 in giving grammar explanation
because L1 is effective to make the students understand.
3. Conveying Meaning
From the observation data, the result showed that the teacher use L1 not only to
convey the meaning of a word but also convey the meaning of a phrase and a
sentence. Such as the sample below:
Sample 7: Grade 1
Teacher

Sample 8: Grade 6

Observation 1 (Sep - 12 th 2016)

: “a red apple” sebuah apel merah, itu berarti sebuah apel yang berwarna
merah. “The white rabbit sit on the table” kelinci putih itu duduk di atas
meja.”
Observation 4 (Sep - 14 th 2016)

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Teacher

: “a bowl of artinya semangkuk. A bowl of meatball; semangkuk bakso”
(the meaning of a bowl of is semanguk)

In conclusion, the data showed that L1 help the teacher to convey the meaning of
words, phrases, or sentences clearly. Franklin (1990) stated that “Teacher use L1 for
conveying words and sentence meaning recognize that the two languages are closely
linked in the mind.” When the students still in young learner as a beginner level, the
teacher should give a conveying meaning of a word, phrase, or a sentence that may be
different with the real sense such as phrases: which one; yang mana, the red one; yang
merah, a bowl of; semangkuk. One of the advantages of using L1 in the L2 classroom
bases on the Bouangeune studied “The study shows the effectiveness of using L1 in
teaching vocabulary ang through translation exercises and dictation” (Bouangeune,
2009, p. 190).
4. Checking Comprehension
The fifth important finding of using L1 was checking students’ comprehension.
The observation data showed that teacher use L1 to check the students’
comprehension about the material that they have learned. However, teacher should
make sure whether all the students understand the material or not. In line with Moon
(2005) saying that besides can be a tool and a medium that can help students to
communicate their ideas, L1 also useful for the teacher to check students’
comprehension.
Sample 9: Grade 1
Teacher

Observation 2 (Sep - 19 th 2016)

: “anak-anak hari ini sudah belajar tentang apa ya? Animals? Contohnya apa
saja ya? Kalau hippo itu apa anak-anak? Tulisannya Rabbit bagaimana ya?
(what we have learned today? Animals? Give examples? What is hippo?
what is the spelling of Rabbit)

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Observation 5 (Sep - 21 th 2016)

Sample 10: Grade 6
Teacher

: “bagaimana cara menanyakan harga? coba sekarang student A bagaimana
cara menanyakan harga cara yang nomer 1, student B cara yang nomer 2,
student C cara yang nomer 3. Ada pertanyaan?”
(how to asking price? Now please student A give an example with type 1,
student B type 2, student C type 3! Any question?)

The sample 9 and 10 above showed that the teacher use L1 in checking
students’ comprehension with asking question to the students. Based on the
observation the teacher used L1 to ask the students’ understanding about the topic
such as siapa yang belum paham, bagaimana cara menanyakan harga, Hari ini kita
sudah belajar apa ya. Beside that, the teacher also use L1 to asks the students’

background knowledge. For example, Laut warnanya apa ya, Kalau langit warnanya
apa. The teacher also used L1 to asks the students’ comprehension about spelling and

utterance for example tulisannya Rabbit bagaimana ya, siapa yang belum bisa
menulis that atau this. As Sharma (2006) study that in checking students’

comprehension teacher might be used L1 in the classroom. All in all, L1 was useful
and effective to help the teacher to ask the students’ comprehension.
5. Other Finding

Besides 5 roles that I have mentioned before, the observation result showed that
the teacher also used L1 in giving feedback to the students frequently. Teacher use
L1in giving feedback such as:
Sample 11: grade 1
Teacher:

Sample 12: grade 6
Teacher:

Observation 3 (Oct’ - 3rd 2016)
“Tulisannya bukan begitu tapi…”, “Iya betul sekali, benar sekali, bagus,
pintar, etc.”
(the spelling is not like that but…), (that’s right, good,great,etc)

Observation 5 (Sept’ – 21st 2016)
“Pengucapannya salah yang benar adalah…”,
(the pronouncing is wrong. The right pronouncing is…)

16

“Kamu bisa. harus lebih aktif lagi”
(You can do it but should be more active in the class)

Giving feedback is one of many activities in the classroom where students receive
feedback from their teacher who either corrects them or asks them to clarify what they
say orally or written. This is also one of the struggling situation for young learner
teacher in giving feedback. The teacher should give feedback carefully to young
learner because the learner is very active so it will be difficult to give feedback to
young learners. Additionally, the teacher used L1 in giving feedback to inform about
the correct or incorrect things, to show appreciatiaton and the students achievement,
and to answer the questions from the students.
According to the study conducted by Macaro (1997, as cited in Manara, 2007),
L1 can be used by teacher in giving feedback to the students. In this case, teachers are
allowed to use L1 to giving feedback in EFL classroom because L1 is one of the
teachers’ tool to make useful communication with the learners in the classroom.
Therefore, between teachers and students have their chance to communicate well and
help the students to improve their target language through giving feedback using the
learners’ L1.
B. The Frequency of L1 used by Teacher
The figure 2 is to answer the 2nd research question of this study about does L1
used by teacher have different roles in different level of learners. The result can be
described that L1 still used in both 1st and 6th grade.
FIGURE 1
Figure 1: The Frequency of L1 Used by Teacher in 1st and 6th Grade Elementary
School

No

The Roles of L1
Used by Teacher

1st Grade

6th Grade
Total

Total

17

to Young
Learners

1
2
3
4
5
6

Week
1

Week
2

Week
3

5

5

5

10

9

-

Classroom
Management
Giving
Instruction
Explaining
Grammar
Conveying
Meaning
Checking
Comprehension
Giving
Feedback
Total

Week
1

Week
2

Week
3

15

2

2

3

7

10

29

5

8

6

19

2

2

4

5

4

3

12

5

5

5

15

3

4

3

10

5

6

6

17

4

2

4

10

5

4

5

14

2

5

3

10

95

Total

68

From the figure 1, we can see that the frequency of some roles of L1 used by
teacher in 1st grade was more than in 6th grade. The result showed that the total
frequency in 1st grade are 95 and in the 6th grade are 68. Based on the observations,
teacher used L1 in 1st grade in classroom, such as management classroom, giving
instruction, conveying meaning, checking comprehension, and giving feedback.
According to the statement that discussed in literature review, Scott & Ytreberg
(1990) state that young learners divided into two groups of young learners. The first
one is students age 5-7 as beginner level and second group is age 8-11, they are also
as a beginner level but it could be they have been learning TL for some times. It could
be the reason of teacher used L1 was more in the 1st grade.
The next finding was exception for Explaining Grammar, the data showed that
teacher used L1 more in 6th grade: 12. Based on the observation, teacher used L1 in
explaning grammar in 6th grade because the material that was given in the 6th grade
was more complicated rather than in 1st grade. Teacher used L1 in explaining

18

grammar such as explain the formula of tenses, whereas teacher explain simple
grammar in 1st grade such as the use of “this and that”.
Although, the result showed that the frequency of teacher use L1 was more in
the 1st grade rather than in 6th grade. According to Crawford (2004) study, He
believed that TL will be grow and develop with the learners’ age. So, based on the
result, L1 has important roles to help the teacher in learning process for young
learners both in 1st and 6th grade of elementary school.
CONCLUSION
The aim of this study was to analyze the roles of L1 used by teacher and the
different roles of L1 use in different level of learners in Elementary School.
Through observations, this study found that the teacher used L1 in classroom
management to warn the students to sit and answer the question nicely, stop talking,
and pay attention to the teacher. Beside that, one of the advantages using L1 is make
the explanation more simple and easy to understand. Teacher also used L1 to ask
students to check their understanding about the material and background knowledge.
Other finding, the teacher used L1 in giving feedback to the students such as to
communicate the correct or incorrect things and to show the students achievement and
appreciate them.
For the result of the 2nd research question, this study found that teacher use L1
both in the 1st and 6th grade. There are no diferent roles that used by teacher, but the
frequency of L1 used by teacher was more in 1st rather than in 6th grade. In short, L1
is one of beneficial strategy for the teacher in teaching young learners to achieve the
goal of learning.

19

Based on the finding, this study shows that L1 used by teachers can give some
influences in students’ learning process to improve the TL. There is pedagogical
implications that we can draw from this study. Since L1 as the media to communicate
between teacher and learners is very important to make the goal of the learning can be
delivered well, teachers should use L1 as the language use in the EFL classroom. So,
both teacher and students can communicate easier in accomplishment of TL. Finally,
the use of L1 by teacher in teaching English for young learners in the EFL classroom
gave positive impact in developing of TL.
However, This study is far from perfect. There are some limitations in this
research. First, the number of the classes observed. A bigger number of the data
collected will be more beneficial for the reliability of the further studies. Second, the
instrument used is only classroom observation that focused on the classroom
activities. Hopefully this study can give contribution for further studies, researchers
can conduct studies on the same topic about the role of L1 in teaching English as
foreign language for young learners. Observation and interview are recommended to
get more data. Observations can be used to analyze about the roles that used by
teacher in the classroom, and through interview, researchers can know the reasons
why the teacher used L1 in teaching English in the EFL classroom.

20

ACKNOWLEDGEMNENT
I would like to express my greatest gratitude to Jesus Christ for all his
unconditional love, guidance, opportunity, health, mercy and blessings in every step
of my life to complete this undergraduate thesis. It is only by His grace that I could
finish my study
In arranging this thesis, a lot of people also have provided motivation, advice,
and support for me. In this valuable chance, I intended to express my gratitude and
appreciation to all of them. Without the encouragement of these people, I would not
have been able to finish my thesis.
First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my thesis
supervisor, Rindang Widiningrum, M.Hum. Thank you for the knowledge and
guidance you shared during my thesis writing. I would also like to thank my
examiner, Anita Kurniawati, M.Hum. for the comments and constructive criticism for
my thesis.
Very special thanks goes to my family, especially for my beloved mother
(Endang Isnaini) and father (Suharwanto) the one and only sponsor for my study and
thanks for the endless supports and prayers during my study and also special thanks to
my beloved brothers, Derta Alfiussanto and Sendi Novatriananto for giving supports
to finish the journey of my study.
I also adress my special thanks to my best friends, especially Agnes Puang,
Erella Elen and Priska Ayu. You are always a good listener for every problem I faced,
especially when I had to revise this thesis and re-start over and over again. I also
would like to say thanks to my sisters of boardinghouse (Vita, Felis, Mey, Laura, and
Hesty) thank you for being such a good neighbor who always ready to help me, and I
am very grateful to have close friend, Nikolas Reinhart who always support me, and
thank you for the sharing and gaming time that we have everyday. Finally, I would
like to thank everybody who was important to the successful realization of this
undergraduate thesis.

21

Attachment
Field Note/Observation Checklist
Observation Checklist
Class:
Class time:
Class length:
Roles of L1 used by teacher

Name of teacher:
Total number of students:
Date:
Frequency

Notes: Example and Explanation

22

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