Barriers to Successful EFL Learning

BARRIERS TO SUCCESSFUL EFL LEARNING IN EASTERN INDONESIAN JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOLS By NUR LAELY BASIR (Lily Thamzil Thahir) Bachelor of Education in English Language Teaching The Institute of Teacher-Training and Education Makassar – Indonesia 1994 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education (TESOL International) MONASH UNIVERSITY July, 2003  TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Content i List of Tables iv Declaration v Dedication vi Acknowledgment vii Abstract viii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1 Background to The Study 1 Research Problem 3 Research Aims and Significances 4 CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW 5 2.1 Understanding Second Language Learning and Barriers To Successful Language Learning 5 2.2 Variables of English as A Foreign Language Learning in Indonesian Junior High School Contexts 8 2.3 Social Situations Affecting English as A Foreign Language Learning in Indonesia 14 CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 18 3.1 Research Paradigm 18 3.2 Sample Participants 19 3.3 Methods for Data Collection 22 3.4 Group Discussions Procedures and Ethics 23 3.5 Methods for Data Analysis 25 CHAPTER IV RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 26 4.1 Students-Group Discussion 26 4.1.1 Class Size 26 4.1.2 Learning Time 27 4.1.3 Additional Private English Courses 27 4.1.4 Learning Materials 28 4.1.5 Learning Activities 29 4.1.6 Learning Resources 30 4.1.7 Assessment 30 4.1.8 Reward and Punishment 32 4.1.9 Learning Environment and Cultural Integration with Native Speakers 32 4.2 Teacher-Group Discussion 33 4.2.1 Class Size 33 4.2.2 Learning Materials 33 4.2.3 Teaching Methods and Time Allocation 34 4.2.4 Learning Resources 35 4.2.5 School Learning Facilities 35 4.2.6 Assessment 36 4.2.7 Curriculum 36 4.2.8 Students’ Motivation and Attitude to English Language Learning 37 4.2.9 Prior Knowledge 38 4.2.10 Parents’ Roles 38 4.3 Parent-Group Discussion 39 4.3.1 Learning Time 39 4.3.2 Learning Materials 39 4.3.3 Linguistic Barriers 40 4.3.4 Learning activities and Learning Habit Formation 41 4.3.5 Learning Resources and Facilities 41 4.3.6 Assessment 42 4.3.7 Learning Environment and Cultural Integration with Native Speakers 42 4.3.8 Personal Characteristics of Indonesian Students 43 4.3.9 Parents’ Role, Educational Background and Socio-economic Status 43 4.3.10 Teachers’ Teaching Competence and Attitudes to Students 45 4.4 Discussion 47 4.4.1 Class Size 47 4.4.2 Time Allocation and Consequences 48 4.4.3 Learning Materials and Linguistic Barriers 50 4.4.4 Learning Activities 51 4.4.5 Learning Resources and Facilities 53 4.4.6 Assessment Methods and Reinforcement 53 4.4.7 Overloaded Curriculum Content 57 4.4.8 Learning Environment and Cultural Integration 58 4.4.9 Teachers’ Teaching Competence and Attitude to Students 60 4.4.10 Students’ Motivation and Attitude to English Language Learning 62 CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 64 5.1 Conclusions 64 5.2 Recommendations 67 BIBLIOGRAPHY 71 APPENDICES 75 Appendix 1 “Ethical Principles for The Conduct of Research Activities” 75 Appendix 2 Student-Group Discussion Transcription and Translation 76 Appendix 3 Teacher-Group Discussion Transcription and Translation 80 Appendix 4 Parent-Group Discussion Transcription and Translation 83  LIST OF TABLES Table 1 Number of Classes and Students of the Focus School 19 Table 2 Teacher Participant Identification 20 Table 3 Student Participant Identification 21 Table 4 Parent Participant Identification 22  DECLARATION This project contains no materials which has been submitted for examination in any other courses or accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any educational institution and, to the best of my knowledge and belief, contains no material previously published or written by another person except when due reference is made in the text of the project. This project was approved by the Standing Committee on Ethics in Research Involving Humans (SCERH) at meeting 29 January 2003 Project Number: 2002/656 Nur Laely Basir  Dedicated to My ‘Late’ Ayah  ACKNOWLEDGEMENT In the name of God, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful Alhamdulillah, thank you Lord. This research project would never be completed without Your Blessing and Your Mercy. Thank you for the invaluable physical and spiritual health You have lent me during the process of this research. For the completion of this research project, I wish to dedicate my special thanks to my supervisor, Jill Brown, for her support, assistance, and ideas from the preliminary writing to the completion of this thesis. To my husband, Thamzil Thahir, thank you for your love, ideas, time and other invaluable support you have given me. Without your patience and encouragement, this project would never have come true. My parents and brother- in-law also deserve my gratitude for their every prayer and assistance. Special thanks and prayers also go to my late father (may God bless you), who reconciled himself to his suffering in allowing me to pursue my study and passed away when I was struggling with my assignments here in Clayton. I am indebted to and owe love to my mother and all my sisters and brothers in Indonesia for their understanding and patience in allowing me to finish my study without having me at home to assist in taking care of our late father. I am grateful to AusAID for their financial support during my study in Australia. I would like to thank the Scholarship Unit manager and AusAID Liaison Officer, Jim Zubic, and his staff, Rosa Stefanovic and Robyn Wynckel who have offered support in numerous ways during my study at Monash University. I am indebted to the principal, the English teachers, the students, the parents and all the staff of SLTP Negeri Phinisi Makassar, Sulawesi Selatan, Indonesia (a pseudonym has been used to protect the privacy of participants), who gave their time so willingly to participate in my research project. Finally, yet importantly, I would like to thank Rosemary Viete who suggested possible titles for this thesis and Jude Ocean for her time and patience in checking my research proposal. I am also indebted to all my lecturers, academic and administrative staff of the Faculty of Education for their assistance during the processing of my research project.  ABSTRACT Although English is a compulsory part of the Indonesian Junior High School curriculum, many students find it difficult. Exploring barriers to successful EFL learning in Eastern Indonesian Junior High Schools is the focus of this research, which aims to explore students’, teachers’ and parents’ perceptions of these barriers. The findings of the research offer useful information to English language teachers working in Indonesia and elsewhere who are experiencing similar problems, and the Indonesian government, especially the Department of National Education, to review policies for English language teaching and learning in Indonesian Junior High Schools. This study is qualitative and descriptive in nature. The participants of the study are students, teachers and parents of SLTP Negeri Phinisi Makassar, Sulawesi Selatan, Indonesia. The study uses focused small-group discussion as the method of data collection. Ten students, four teachers and three parents participated in these discussions which were recorded, transcribed and then distributed to the participants for correction and additions before being translated into English. The analysis is done after collecting all the data using coherent descriptions. The study suggests that many Indonesian Junior High School students find it difficult to learn English due to a range of factors, including: large class size, limited time, inappropriate learning materials, monotonous learning activities, awkward assessment methods, lack of learning resources and facilities, linguistic barriers, overloaded curriculum content, discouraging learning environment and lack of cultural integration, teachers’ lack of English proficiency and teaching competence, teachers’ behavior and attitude to learners, and students’ lack of motivation and disruptive behaviors. This study calls on all those involved in the Indonesian learning and teaching system to work together to overcome these problems. The study suggests that the government review their policy on English language teaching at Junior High School level, especially with regard to large class size and curriculum. The study also recommends that teachers have a high standard of English proficiency and teaching competence to be able to teach English in Junior High Schools. It further recommends that parents and society support children in learning English and provide all possible assistance children need in improving their English proficiency. Further research is recommended to find new ways forward in English language teaching in an Indonesian context.  CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION This chapter describes the research background that leads me to doing this study. Included in this chapter are the aims, the potential significances, and the limitations of the research. Background to The Study The decrease in economic growth in Indonesia has affected the whole development sector resulting in poor quality of human resources in Indonesia. Government planning to improve the quality of education has become a central issue in the improvement of the quality of Indonesian human resources. Serious efforts toward improvement have been achieved by encouraging the advancement of sciences, information technology and communication in the education process. Such efforts are crucial to enhancing the quality of teachers and learners, which will result in improving teaching and learning processes in the Indonesian school classrooms. The government of the ‘new order era’, from 1966 – 1997 under the Suharto presidency, applied a centralized system and divided Indonesian development programs into two regions, namely Western and Eastern regions of Indonesia. Deplorably, the government gave development priority in the Western region and left the Eastern region behind. This situation has been worsening throughout the whole development sector in the Eastern part of Indonesia. Consequently, many provinces in this region have been suffering from the unbalanced growth of development, including the education sectors. To minimize the problems described above, the new government of the reform era is now attempting to give development a higher priority in the Eastern regions. The government has now realized that one way to accelerate development in the Eastern part of Indonesia is by improving the quality of human resources (Indonesian National Assessment Team, 2000). One of their attempts to do this is by sending many of its people to have a better education abroad. However, because of having been fallen behind in the past in terms of education, many of these scholars have failed to perform at the international standard proficiency of English language necessary as a primary condition to join the system of education in English speaking countries. Thus, the numbers of unsuccessful English learners in the Eastern part of Indonesia have contributed significantly to the barriers to the success of Indonesian development plans in education sectors. Therefore, for Indonesia’s future prospects as an educated and developed nation, it is essential that the government should now pay more attention to improving students’ ability to master English, this international language, as early as possible. Since 1954, English language has been a compulsory part of the school curriculum in Indonesia. English is taught from the first year of Junior High Schools (equivalent to Year-7 to 9 in Australia) to University level. A new decree (SK No. 060/U/1993) on teaching English at primary schools as an elective subject has been issued by the government. The implementation of the decree refers to the 1994 English curriculum for Junior High Schools. Despite the importance placed on English, many teachers and students struggle with the task of teaching and learning English. The length of time spent in learning English is not a guarantee to successful learning. There are many barriers to attaining successful levels of English language ability. These range from linguistic patterns, cultural differences of the language and political policies on foreign languages, to individual differences of learners and teaching methodologies. These issues have been researched by many scholars (Wenden and Rubin, 1987; Oxford, 1990; Davis, Nur and Ruru, 1994; Said et al, 1998; Setiyadi, Holliday and Lewis, 2000; and Rivai, 2001) both in Indonesia and in other countries. One system for measuring the English study outcomes is by using grades resulting from The National Final Examination. Although the examination is not the only way to measure students’ achievement, this examination has become the most widely recognized to evaluate students and teachers’ achievements in three subjects: English, Bahasa Indonesia and Mathematics. This is the background which has led me to carry out research in this particular area; that is, the barriers to successful English as a foreign language in Eastern Indonesian Junior High Schools. Research Problem Exploring barriers to successful EFL learning in Eastern Indonesian Junior High Schools is the focus of this research. To identify such barriers, I need to ask the following research questions: Why do students think they find it difficult to learn English? Why do teachers think many students struggle to learn English? Why do parents think many children have trouble in learning English? Research Aims and Significances This research aims to explore perceptions of the barriers to successful English as a foreign language learning in Eastern Indonesian Junior High Schools. Identifying these barriers as they are perceived by the three major stakeholders – teachers, students and parents – is a first step towards establishing language teaching programs that will meet the needs of all those involved. The findings of the research offer important and useful information to: a) English language teachers working in Indonesia and English language teachers in other countries who are experiencing similar problems. b) The Indonesian government, in this case, the Department of National Education, to review policies for English language teaching and learning systems in Indonesian Junior High Schools. CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW In this chapter, I briefly review some previous relevant research findings and some pertinent ideas regarding second language learning and barriers to successful language learning. Following this, I describe variables of English as a foreign language learning influencing learners’ success in learning. It is also important, in addition, to discuss the implications and the implementations of foreign language learning policy in Indonesian secondary schools to formulate a comprehensible framework for this research. 2.1 Understanding Second Language Learning and Barriers To Successful Language Learning There are at least two ways to develop competence in a second language. Krashen (1982:10) claims the two ways we achieve understanding are through acquisition and through learning. Second language acquisition is similar to the way children acquire their first language. The process is both subconscious and natural. The users are unaware that they are acquiring the language. However, they are aware that they are using the language for communication. They are not aware of the language rules and have little explicit knowledge about the language they are using. In other words, acquisition as described by Krashen, is “picking-up” a language in natural ways. In language acquisition, Piaget (1971) believes that the comprehension and language production process follows a set of natural biological development periods from cooing or babbling to fluency stage. For behaviorism proponents, Skinner (1957), with his verbal behavior theory maintains that language acquisition occurs in children by imitating a set of language sound patterns from their environment using stimuli, responses, reinforcements, and rewards. Although this theory had significant impact on language teaching methodology (the Audio-Lingual method was based on it), the theory was totally rejected by Chomsky (cited in Harmer, 1991) the proponent of cognitivism/mentalism. His rejection was based on his models of competence and performance. Chomsky argues that language is not a form of behavior but a complicated rule-based system and a large part of language acquisition is the learning of the system. Hymes, in Gumperz and Hymes (1964), disagrees with Chomsky’s view regarding language learning and acquisition. Hymes who is known as the proponent of communicative competences argues that a language is not learnt or acquired in isolated contexts but rather through real communication in dynamic societies, which are bound with their cultural values. Unlike acquisition, learning a second language involves a conscious mind. Krashen (1982) describes second language learning as an unnatural process. The learners are aware that they are learning the language, the rules of the language, the knowledge about the language, and are able to talk about the language they are learning. In other words, learning a second language is learning to know about the language in more academic and self-conscious ways. The changes of paradigm in language learning from time to time have produced frequent changes in English teaching and learning in formal institutional settings in Indonesia. These rapid changes have resulted in problems to both teachers and learners who are poorly prepared for such changes. Indonesia is a non-English speaking country. Indonesian people have at least two different languages background: Bahasa Indonesia and their own local language. As a result, the majority of Indonesians who are able to use English develop their English language competence through learning. The limited exposure to English does not allow them to develop their English language competence through acquisition. Since learning English involves both consciousness and effort, Indonesian people, especially Junior High School students, will face many barriers to successful English as a foreign language learning. Although they have potentiality to learn the language, the conditions that would enable them to use the language effectively are questionable. Barriers to successful English as a foreign language learning in the Indonesian context can be seen from many perspectives. They range from large-scale cultural and societal barriers to the most specific individual English as a foreign language learning problems. Dardjowidjojo (2002) explains current theories in ESL teaching draw attention to the position of the learners as active participants and set the teachers as facilitators in the teaching-learning interactions. According to him, this learner-centered remedy to Indonesia’s chronic educational problems would be effective in Western societies where human upbringing is based on a philosophical outlook that gives the young people freedom to explore their surroundings and to question the non-obvious. In an Eastern society like Indonesia where the yardsticks for good behavior are the principles of total submission, the unquestioning mind, the concept of elders-know-all, and the belief that teachers can do no wrong, the accomplishment of such teaching activities is not without problems. He believes that many of the problems encountered by English as a foreign language learners in Indonesia recline very much in culturally bound weltanschauung that does not hearten students’ independence while at the same time discouraging teachers from renounce their dominant roles. Another researcher, Lie (2002), suggests that the language learning problems in Indonesia are rooted in the English curriculum design and implementation, the diversity of the classrooms, the need to balance the diversity and universality, and the psychosocial context of the learners. In her study, she argues that it is imperative to redesign the English curriculum and construct a culture sensitive curriculum to facilitate the enhancement of critical cultural consciousness among teachers as well as learners and to promote social integration as well as the preservation of local cultures. Other barriers are explored through this research. 2.2 Variables of English as Foreign Language Learning in Indonesian Junior High School Contexts In the learning and teaching English as a foreign language process, we find many variables affecting the success of the program: students, teachers, learning materials, curriculum, learning resources and facilities, and the learning environment. Students as English as a foreign language learners are diverse in terms of intelligence, socio-economic status, culture and ethnicity, and gender. According to Eggen and Kauchak (1997), intelligence determines the way a student might learn another language: promptly and straightforwardly or gradually and with difficulty. Socio-economic status (SES) is related to parents’ income, occupation, and their level of education. Cultural or ethnic background and values can also be obstacles to achievement and motivation. Attitude and motivation in learning English as a foreign language are crucial and the best predictor of learners’ success in language learning (Gardner and Smythe, 1975). Attitude is defined by Allport (cited in Gardner, 1985: 8) as “a mental and neutral state of readiness, organized through experiences, exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon the individual’s response to all objects and situations with which it is related”. Motivation is defined as “internal drive that encourages somebody to pursue a course of action” (Harmer, 1991: 3). In language learning, Corria (1999) believes motivation is one of the most important factors. That English teachers have always attempted to seek new ways to teach English is a result of their recognition of the importance of motivation. In this regard, Rivai (2001) found that there is a positive influence of students’ motivation, creativity, and perception towards teachers’ ability in teaching English to the effectiveness of students’ English language practices. Since language learning motivation is a socio-psychological category and, thus, influenced by the socio-cultural context in which a language is being learned (Gardner 1985), it is essential that the instruments used to assess motivation of particular language learners take into consideration the characteristics of the learning context; that is the validity of the measure is a key consideration. Gardner and Lambert (1972) found attitude and motivation play very important roles in learning the language of another cultural community. The implication of the important role played by attitude and motivation, among other affective factors for language learning, is that both of them could become barriers to successful learning if learners possess negative attitudes towards the target language and lack of motivation to learn it. Therefore, to address Indonesian students’ barriers to successful English as a foreign language learning, their cultural, social, and socio-psychological background should be first identified. Learning strategies are another source of learner differences. Heriyanto (2000) in his study explained that learning strategies influence successful English language learners in Indonesia. Setiyadi, Holiday and Lewis (2000) explored the language learning strategies used by successful learners and the extent to which these strategies contributed to the success in learning English in Indonesia. They claim that, in terms of learning strategies, successful learners show a greater use of meta-cognitive strategies. In the study, the researchers argue that metacognitive strategies involve mental processes related to planning and directing what to do in acquiring another language, monitoring, evaluating and correcting what has been done. An example from their findings is that successful learners try to correct their mistakes that they produce orally (speaking); they listen to what they say to practice their listening (listening); they check and recheck their understanding after reading a passage (reading), they rewrite their composition by correcting the mistakes that they notice (writing). Unlike the successful learners, the unsuccessful make greater use of surface level cognitive strategies. Surface level cognitive strategies were related with cognitive domain developed by Bloom et al (1956) which were rote learning, recalling knowledge, comprehending, analyzing, synthesizing and applying. The activities that were regarded as surface level strategies in their study are unsuccessful learners practice speaking with their friends or their teachers (speaking), they try to understand every single word to understand the passage (listening), they read the passage aloud (reading) and they try to translate word for word (writing). Teachers, as facilitators, informers and guides, play an important role in learning and teaching English as a foreign language in classrooms. Teachers of English as a foreign language who have appropriate qualifications, who are creative, and dedicated to his or her profession will be good motivators to the success of students in learning English as a foreign language. Teachers of English as a foreign language must have the knowledge necessary to transfer the language and knowledge about the language to their students. Teachers must be able to apply various English language-teaching methods according to the situations in their own class contexts. In addition, teachers of English as a foreign language should be familiar with the characteristics of their students, both individually and as a class. Learning materials also affect English as a foreign language learning results. The English as a foreign language learning process will be more effective if learning materials are matched with teaching objectives, students’ level, and students’ practical needs for the language in their target society. Harmer (1991) makes a distinction between what native speakers know about their language, which enables them to use the language effectively, and what students should learn about the language. He claims that students of English as a foreign language should learn about pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, discourse, skills, the syllabus, and language varieties. As a curriculum planner, a teacher must be able to select the most suitable and appropriate English as a foreign language materials to meet his or her students’ needs. Curriculum as a guideline to English as a foreign language learning program in Junior High Schools must be developed in response to an analysis of students’ need. Learning objectives, materials, teaching approaches, and evaluation should be clearly described. The 1994 English Language Teaching Curriculum/Guidelines of ELT Program for Junior High School (Kurikulum Pengajaran Bahasa Inggris 1994/GBPP SLTP) has been widely used in Indonesian Junior High Schools as the national curriculum since 1994. This curriculum was revised in 1999 and now it is called the Guidelines Supplement for 1994 curriculum. The revision is made due to four weaknesses found in this curriculum, namely: (1) the openness of the learning materials structures and organization; (2) the disagreement between the themes and the examples of the communicative expressions; (3) the overlapping of some functional skills, and (4) the lack of clarity of some learning objectives. In this revised curriculum, the designers have based the teaching approach on a “Communicative Approach” to language learning. Learning resources and facilities are supporting media to successful English as a foreign language learning. Personal and school libraries should have enough books and other equipment to support the learning and teaching process. In a non-English speaking country like Indonesia, students and teachers should be facilitated by various English literatures and audio-visual aids as they are not able to access an English language speaking and culture community. Learning environment is another predictor to successful English as a foreign language learning. Classroom situation, school atmosphere, family and society, are all part of successful English as a foreign language learning. A well-managed classroom and school will affect the success of English as a foreign language learning. Learning EFL in a small size class (with up a maximum of 20 students) will give more opportunities for individual learning than a large size class (with more than 40 students). A large class is also likely to lead to crowdedness limiting opportunities for active learning. Brown (1994) suggests that the ideal number of students in a language-teaching classroom should be not more than 12 students. Students who live in a well educated family and who understand the importance of competence in English language are likely to have more chances to be successful in English as a foreign language learning than those who live in an uneducated family as family attitude can be an important motivator to English as a foreign language learning. Students who live in an English speaking community will have more chances to practice the language than those who live in a non-English speaking community. In this regard, Brumfit (1984: 152) claims that exposure to the target language and opportunities to use the target language in real situations are important conditions for successful language acquisition. Furthermore, he states that without these conditions, it is very difficult to manage effective language teaching. 2.3 Social Situations Affecting English as A Foreign Language Learning in Indonesia In a multicultural, multiethnic and multilingual country like Indonesia, the educational system must be able to accommodate and support all interests. In terms of language, Indonesia has three different languages with different usages: Bahasa Indonesia as a national language and lingua franca; local languages as an inter-ethnic tool of communication; and foreign languages as a medium of communication amongst nations. In era of rapid globalization, people need a global language that enables them to communicate with others from different nationalities. The technological, economic and political power of the West (where the majority use English as their main language) has been described by Pennycook (1995) as a new model of English imperialism. Despite Pennycook’s awareness of impact on other nations’ languages and cultures, which will result in inequality, he is also aware of Hindmarsh’s view (cited in Pennycook, 1995) that English has been taken up by the world as a language of international communication. In this regard, MacNamara (1967) argues that, in many developing countries, there is a strong need to learn the more economically powerful language. These countries have realized that one way to improve economic conditions is by having their people master the English language. Recognizing the economic value of English language, the Ministry of Education and Culture in Indonesia (now, the Ministry of National Education) implemented a policy on December 12, 1967, that “Bahasa Inggris adalah bahasa Asing pertama di Indonesia.” (“English is the first/main foreign language in Indonesia”). The introduction of that policy has reinforced the position of English as the main foreign language in Indonesia. So far, the government has not found any difficulties in implementing the policy on foreign languages. However, to encourage people to learn English is another issue faced by the government. Because learning English is not as easy as learning Bahasa Indonesia as a second language, the government issued a regulation that English language is to be compulsory in the school curriculum from Junior High School to University level. The result of this regulation is that all the school age children have to learn English for at least three years at Junior High Schools (as a part of their basic education) and people who have completed their secondary education must have learnt English for at least six years. In other words, learning English is necessary for all students. This regulation has so far been implemented through the 1994 English curriculum for Junior High Schools. The teaching of English at Junior High Schools is aimed at improving students’ ability in English communication, which covers the four basic skills (reading, listening, speaking and writing). Language elements (grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and spelling) are used to support the students’ ability to communicate orally and in written form in different contexts. This curriculum is based on a functional view of language where language is defined as “a vehicle for expression of functional meaning” (Richard and Rodgers, 1995: 16). Although many attempts have been made by the government to improve the quality of English language programs in institutional settings, the English learning outcomes are still below the minimum standard of achievement set by the government (Indonesian National Assessment Team, 2000). Trying to keep abreast of recent developments in ESL pedagogy, Musthafha (2002) claims the Indonesian Government - in this case the Ministry of National Education – has, for the past two decades, been trying to reform English instruction in the junior and senior high schools across the country. As part of my own informal observation as an English teacher at a Junior High School, I have found that students struggle with three or more different languages tasks at school: Bahasa Indonesia, a local language, English, and Arabic (for Islamic based schools). With their different language systems and cultures, the students’ ability to achieve success in all these subjects is debatable. Ideally, because it is assumed that the class alone cannot provide the same social stimulus and pressure as a realistic context, the learner should be directed to or placed in communication situations with well-disposed natives. One of the causes for failure to acquire a target language is often the lack of contact with the target language speakers available to the learners due to restricted social interaction (d’Anglejan, 1978). However, it is hard to find any place in Indonesia where its community uses English as a tool of communication with the exception of some international tourist destinations such as Bali, and Tana Toraja in South Sulawesi. The decreasing number of tourists to Indonesia after the Bali Bombing will also place the students in a more difficult situation as fewer contexts can be found to practice their English. This gap can be overcome by providing schools with English native speakers but this seems unrealistic with the limited budget provided by the government. It could also be suggested that students have a study tour to certain tourist destinations but many of them are without the economic means to afford such luxuries. Thus, the social situations above are another aspect of barriers to successful English as a foreign language learning in the Indonesia context. CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY In this chapter, I discuss the approaches to the research problem with reference to the theoretical tradition in the relevant research paradigm, the approach taken to selecting participants, collecting and analyzing data. Some ethical issues regarding this research are also examined in this chapter. 3.1 Research Paradigm Since the purpose of this research is to describe, explain, and explore issues associated with successful English as a foreign language learning in Eastern Indonesian Junior High Schools, this research is located within a qualitative research paradigm and will be descriptive and explanatory in nature (Kumar, 1996). According to Maykut and Morehouse (1994), the aim of qualitative research is to find patterns, which emerge after close observation, careful documentation and thoughtful analysis. The researcher is part of the investigation as a participant observer, an in-depth interviewer, or a leader of a focus group but is also removed from the situation to think about the meanings of the experience. Thus, qualitative research has a focus but that focus is initially broad and open-minded, allowing important meanings to be discovered. Such studies are designed to discover what can be learnt about the phenomena of interest. Thus, the outcome of qualitative studies is not the generalization of results, but a deeper understanding of experience from the perspective of the participants selected for study. 3.2 Sample Participants According to Slavin (1984), it is usually interesting to include a large sample of people’s opinions in educational research but it might be both impractical and unnecessary to cover all the population members. Moreover, it will also be impractical and unnecessary to interview all of them. As a result, researchers should select a sample that will be representative of the entire groups. For the purpose of my study, the population is all Junior High Schools in South Sulawesi, a province in Eastern Indonesia. Taking into account Slavin’s remark (1994) on sampling issues, I chose one Junior High Schools in the capital city of South Sulawesi province, Makassar, namely SLTP Negeri Phinisi Makassar (pseudonym). The number of classes and students registered in the school year 2002-2003 can be seen in the following table. Table 1 Number of Classes and Students of The Focus School Grade Number of Classes Number of Students One 9 358 Two 7 300 Three 6 241 Total 22 899 (Source: SLTP Negeri Phinisi Makassar, 2003) The subjects of this research are students, teachers, and parents who are registered in SLTP Negeri Phinisi Makassar in the 2002/2003 school-year. Since there are only four English teachers in the focus school, I did not have to select the sample of this study. All the English language teachers in the school agreed to participate and become the sample of my study. Ten out of 280 student participants on the third grade voluntarily listed their names to join the study and three parents agreed to join the parent-group discussion. From table 2 we can see that of the four teachers, three were female and one male. All of them were born in Indonesia and are from Bahasa Indonesia-speaking backgrounds. Three of them have had more than 5 years experience in teaching English as a foreign language and one of them has had less than five years teaching experience. They had all completed their undergraduate qualifications in the same teacher training institution and are registered to teach English for Junior High School and Senior High School students. Table 2 Teacher Participant Identification Pseudonyms Sex Educational Background Study Program Teaching Experience Ariyanti Female Bachelor of English Language Teaching English Teaching Qualification 8 years Anisya Female Bachelor of English Language Teaching English Teaching Qualification 8 years Rahmila Female Bachelor of English Language Teaching English Teaching Qualification 4 years Sangkala Male Bachelor of English Language Teaching English Teaching Qualification 10 years Table 3 presents information on the student participants. Of the ten students, five were female and five male. As their ages range from 14 to 15 years, they are all considered to be young learners. They were from different classes of the third grade and were born in Indonesia with Bahasa Indonesia-speaking background. Based on their teachers’ data, all the student participants have, to some level, difficulties in learning English as a foreign language at school. Six of them took an English course held by their teacher after school hours. Table 3 Student Participant Identification Pseudonyms Sex Age Grade Jasmine Female 14 3 Orchid Female 15 3 Rose Female 15 3 Lily Female 14 3 Gladiola Female 15 3 Sirajuddin Male 15 3 Amin Male 14 3 Firman Male 15 3 Rusdi Male 15 3 Mallawa Male 15 3 For the parent group, all were male and born in Indonesia with Bahasa Indonesia-speaking background. Two of them had graduated from university and the other graduated from Senior High School. Their socio-economic status was varied from low (low income) to low-upper (high income) class. They all believed that their children had trouble in learning English at school. Table 4 Parent Participant Identification Pseudonyms Sex Age Educational Background Occupation SES Sugu Male 46 Bachelor of Engineering Contractor Low-upper Taraka Male 48 Bachelor of Economic Developer Low-upper Jaya Male 47 Senior Hihg School Supervisor Low 3.3 Methods for Data Collection The approach to gathering data for this research is small-group discussion using focus questions and the collection of relevant documents. Fontana and Frey (2000: 652) argue that group discussions are both relatively cheap to conduct and likely to produce rich data that is cumulative and elaborative. Moreover, they also can be stimulating for respondents, aiding recall and the format is flexible. Thus, using focus questions in small group discussions enabled me to focus on important ideas from participants without losing any related information that might appear during discussion. The data was collected from three different discussion groups (students, teachers and parents). The first discussion with the student group was conducted on Wednesday, March 19, 2003 in the discussion room of the school library. The discussion lasted for 34 minutes and 17 seconds. The second discussion with the teacher group was conducted on the same day and the same venue for 33 minutes and 31 seconds. After a considerable amount of negotiation, the discussion with the parent group was finally conducted on Thursday, April 24, 2003 in a different venue for 49 minute and 55 seconds. All the discussions were recorded using Sony Digital IC Recorder – ICD-BP150. The data recorded were transcribed and translated into English. The transcription and the translation were distributed to the participants for correction and documentation. None of the participants made any correction or disagreed with the transcription and translation. However, the group discussions that I conducted were not without problems. In the first discussion with the students, they seemed reluctant to speak freely. After explaining the purpose of the study, based on the explanatory statement I gave them, they talked at last. In this case, I agree with Fontana and Frey (2000: 652) that the emerging group culture may interfere with individual expression. Furthermore, Fontana and Frey (2000:652) claim that the group may be dominated by one person and “groupthink” is a possible outcome. This problem happened in both teacher and parent-group discussion in the first five minutes. However, as part of my job as the researcher and the group discussion leader, I used a number of strategies to moderate this domination and to enable full group participation. 3.4 Group Discussions Procedures and Ethics I spent considerable time discussing related problems with people in small-groups and in preparing my focus questions or topics for the research discussions. Although I had given participants the consent form and the explanatory statement before hand, as required in “Ethical Principles for the Conduct of Research Activities” issued by Committee on Scientific and Professional Ethics and Conduct of the American Psychological Association, Ethical Standard of Psychologists (1977), there were some activities before I started the discussion. First, I told the persons involved in group discussions what I would do with the information they gave me. This meant that participants understood that:  The discussions were kept private meaning that the participants did not face any questions which invade their privacy. Informed Consent alludes to the idea that the persons involved in group discussions had agreed to participate without any pressure to do so. Moreover, the participants knew what the discussions were about. The idea of informed consent is described as follows by the Committee in point 5 (see appendix 1): Ethical practice requires the investigator to respect the individual’s freedom to decline to participate in or to withdraw from research. The obligation to protect this freedom requires special vigilance when the investigator is in a position of power over the participant, as, for example when the participant is a student, client, employee, or otherwise is in a dual relationship with the investigator. The meaning of this point is obvious. The participants were assured before the discussions that every attempt would be made to ensure that they stayed anonymous. Moreover, all information given to me was kept confidential and only used to help me identify key issues in the research area. Pseudonyms were used for all participants and schools involved. As mentioned above that the aim of the group discussions was to explore barriers to successful EFL learning in Eastern Indonesian Junior High Schools as they are perceived by the three major stakeholders – teachers, students and parents. The group discussions helped me to identify issues, which participants regarded as important. Thus, in my data analysis, I have emphasized the implications of personal opinions in group discussions combined with experts’ point of views about the barriers to successful English as a foreign language learning in Eastern Indonesian Junior High Schools. 3.5 Methods for Data Analysis Since qualitative data are in the form of words rather than numbers and given the fact that words are devious, indefinite symbols, the possibility of researcher bias looms quite large. We must also be concerned with replicability of qualitative data analysis (Miles and Huberman, 1984). To avoid drawing poorly constructed conclusions and to be able to verify qualitative data sturdiness, a well-formulated and transparent method of data analysis is required. Considering the above difficulties, it is important to apply the most appropriate method in analyzing the data collected. Miles and Huberman (1984) offer several suggestions for analyzing qualitative data. These range from analyzing during data collection to cross-site analysis. Amongst the methods described, I used analysis after data collection. The data collected from group discussions were recorded and transcribed using the original language and statements of the participants. The transcriptions were translated into English using the most equivalent and coherent translation. The data were presented in the list of sentences as group opinions and were analyzed into coherent descriptions. CHAPTER IV RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION In this chapter, I describe the data coming from the group discussions about barriers to successful English as a foreign language learning as perceived by students, teachers and parents. Findings are divided into subheadings according to the groups’ responses. Direct quotations from the data are in English translation version. The discussions following the findings are descriptive with some merges to groups’ responses made under the same subheadings where appropriate and not in the same order as the organization of the findings. The implications of the findings are also discussed. 4.1 Student-Group Discussion 4.1.1 Class Size There was some level of group agreement among the students in response to the focus question, “Why do students think they find it difficult to learn English?” The majority of students believed that the large class size was the main problem source in terms of being able to focus attention on the lesson. Noise caused by the size of their class led to lack of clarity in the teachers’ explanation. One male student shared his perception to his friends and it was accepted as group perception. In his words: “…seriousness, many friends like playing when we are learning English. Many friends at the back of the classroom make a noise when the teacher is explaining the lesson. It’s too crowded, Mam! We cannot concentrate to the lesson. We are 40 in the classroom…” The students would like to have more than one teacher to teach English at one time in order to control the whole class and to make the teacher’s job more effective as there are more than 40 students in one classroom. The experience they had in a small class size in a private English course enabled them to focus their attention to the teacher explanation. 4.1.2 Learning Time The time available for the students to study English either at school or at home was very limited, as they had to focus on other subjects too. The materials they should learn in one session in the classroom were often overloaded and there was too much homework they had to finish from all the subjects. In the words of one female student in the group, “There should be additional time to learn English at school if this subject is considered very important.” They wished they could have more time to learn English at school since this subject was considered the most important one. 4.1.3 Additional Private English Courses As the students had to learn English in limited time during school hours, many of them decided to join additional private English courses. The most popular course among the students is the private English course held by teachers. However, many of the students joined the English course held by their teacher only to get a good mark at school and not for the improvement of their English ability. They believed that it was a good strategy to gain a passing grade in the English subject. These are the words captured in the discussion. Jasmine is a female student who has had experience joining the private English course held by one of her teachers: Jasmine : “… only those who join the course will get high score.” Researcher : So, you said that only those who join the course will get high score. Participants : Yeeesssss…. Researcher : Is that true or just your perception? Participants : That’s true! Researcher : Those who joined the course got good score probably because they understood the lesson from the course they joined. Jasmine : No, that’s not true. Those who joined the course will get extra score. They usually get 8 or 9 although in the exams they are often confused and ask for the answer from us. Our teacher in the course once said that if you join the course, you would get extra score in your exam. Researcher : Any of you have joined the course too? Jasmine : Yes, Madam. But … quit. 4.1.4 Learning Materials English was a new language for students. As they felt a lack of ownership, they found it more difficult to learn. Other languages they were learning at school were not a disturbance to English although they had very different rules. However, as the English spelling and pronunciation was very different from Indonesian, the students found it difficult to adapt to this language. Sometimes, the words they wrote were incorrect as they wrote them according to the sound. The same was true to the sentence arrangement. As the result, the sentence rearrangement (scrambled words) was considered the most difficult section in the English tests. “Why is it too difficult to rearrange scrambled word and sentences? I don’t like that rubric to be in our English examination test. I always fail for it”,- a male student complained in his response. It is confusing because they usually referred to their Bahasa Indonesia schemata when they arranged the English sentences. Beside this, they did not like to learn some English words that had similarity in pronunciation and form. To guess meaning from contexts and memorize vocabulary was another problem they faced. They often had memorized a list of vocabulary today but forgot them the next day. Another problem was the English grammar. They felt there were too many rules to memorize and to apply in developing sentences. A female student gave an example of the use of ‘present perfect tense’ formula, - “It is very complicated. We have to memorize ‘subject plus have or has depends on the subjects plus participle verbs plus object if appropriate plus adverb’, I can’t even remember the name of this tense”. The terms used in grammar were also a problem as the terms were confusing and too technical for them. They were often stuck when they were asked to analyze sentences and to apply grammatical terms to the type of sentences they had in paragraphs. 4.1.5 Learning Activities The most common activity they did in their classroom was answering the questions in the practice book and translating. When they finished answering the questions and translating paragraphs, the teacher discussed the answers and checked them together with the students. The scores were given directly by the teacher or by a friend who had checked the answers. One female student spoke up, “Absolutely not interesting, answering the questions in our practice book is our ‘daily meals’. It’s boring! We check our friends’ answers. If they correct my wrong answers and give me higher marks, I’ll do the same.” The teacher sometimes said that they were going to use discussion method but in fact, even ‘discussion’ was in question-answer mode. Sometimes, the teachers were not punctual so the teaching time was shorter. In one case, the teacher arrived in their classroom just to give them tasks and then left again. 4.1.6 Learning Resources The students agreed that the learning resources they had were limited – only practice books and non-standardized dictionaries. “From the first grade, we only have practice books to do our English tasks and a small pocket non-standardized English Indonesian dictionary. No handbooks”, - this is from a male student participant. Sometimes, the words they were looking up in the dictionaries they had were not available. There were some copies of the textbook left in the library but they were not enough to share even to one class. Besides, the textbooks were worn out. As a result, students did not have a resource to refer to when they found any difficulties in doing the tasks in their practice books. 4.1.7 Assessment The students had the same worries about low scores in any kind of English exams. They were afraid to have a low score in the National Final Examination held by the central government because they could not pursue their studies to the higher level (Senior High School) if their English score was under the minimum standard. For this, one male student said, - “I am afraid I will upset my parents if I get a low mark for English in the National Final Examination. I will not be able to continue my study.” For the students’ daily assessment tasks, the scores were given directly in the classroom after doing tasks in their practice books. However, to be able to increase their scores in the examination, the students who could pay decided to join the private English course held by their teacher. They believed that, if they joined the English course held by their English teacher, they would get a good mark at school even if they could not answer the questions in the English school examination. Some students who joined the course said that, although they did not come to the course, they still had to pay and still got good marks on their exams although they knew nothing in the exams. In some cases, parents had to borrow money to pay the course to be able to increase their children’ mark. “My mom once gave me her money to pay for the private course held by my teacher and said that the money was borrowed from her friend. Mom said, Go..go..! Join the course.” - this from a male student who had experience with scores being marked-up. Some of those who could not afford to pay for the English course decided to cheat and asked for the answers from their friends during the exams. These students felt that their teacher did not treat them fairly in terms of scoring. Another thing students thought they could do to increase their mark was using their break time to memorize parts of the language that they assumed would be in the test. As English was also on the list of the National Final Examination (English, Indonesian and Math), the school held enrichment classes after school hours to improve the students’ scores. This activity was compulsory for the students. Despite this, the students still had to pay to be able to join this after school activity. During an informal chat with the school principal, he explained that paying for this activity is an agreement made by the school committee, in this case, parents and teachers. The students also believed that the central government was not fair in developing the national English test for Junior High School students. The test was designed in Jakarta (the capital city of Indonesia) using the standard they had in Jakarta. The students felt that the government neglected the Eastern Indonesian JHS students’ low level of ability in English. 4.1.8 Reward and Punishment The students found it stressful to learn English since their teacher had the habit of punishing them whenever they made a mistake in answering the question given by the teacher. The students were punished by paying an amount of money and the amount depended on the mistakes they made. In many cases, the students preferred to keep silent unless they were directed to answer the questions. However, when they could answer the question correctly, the teacher did not give them the same reward. “Teachers only say ‘Good, Well-done’ and that sort of praise when we answer correctly. Why don’t they give us the money?” said one of the male participants. A female student argued in her response to her male friend, “Don’t expect too much! I don’t expect our teachers give us money when we are correct. I just want them to increase our mark. That’s all!” 4.1.9 Learning Environment and Cultural Integration with Native Speakers The learning environment did not provide them with a good English learning atmosphere. There seems to be a student culture which rejects learning English. They all gave similar responses – “Many friends like to mock us whenever we try to practice our English. They said we are showing off.” - said a female student. Furthermore, there was no rule to speak English at school or even in the classroom during the English lesson time. Although the students used to hear English language from TV or western movies, they did not have any access to practise their English with English speaking people. One of the female students responded with slight laughter– “Whom should we talk in English to? We all share the same language, ha..ha..ha…”. 4.2 Teacher-Group Discussion 4.2.1 Class Size There was some level of group agreement among the teachers in response to the focus question, “Why do teachers think many students struggle to learn English?” In terms of class size, the teachers complained that it was too crowded to teach English in the class of 40 students. They were not able to be flexible and use a range of methods in large classes. As a result, they usually explain the lesson to the whole class and ask students to do the tasks in students’ practice book. One female teacher responded, - “We are not able to apply the approach stated in the curriculum because it is not suitable with our class size. We apply grammar translation method instead.” 4.2.2 Learning Materials In terms of learning materials, the teachers had the same idea in discussing the barriers facing their students. Most of the students had difficulties in English speaking and listening. Some students were good in English writing but they did not understand what they wrote. Many students found it difficult to pronounce, spell and read the English letters and words since they had an Indonesian-speaking background. They lack knowledge of vocabulary because they were too lazy to memorize it. Only a small number of students had difficulties in reading comprehension. “It seems that students do not have big problems in English reading comprehension,” responded the male teacher. 4.2.3 Teaching Methods and Time Allocation The English teaching methods used by the teacher were not varied. Traditional methods, such as Audio-lingual and Grammar Translation, were still used by the teachers. In many cases, the teachers just explained the lesson and then asked students to do the tasks in the practice book. Thus, the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach was not used although it was mandated in the 1994 English Curriculum for Junior High School. Due to the time limitation in the classroom (90 minutes for a session), the teachers felt it was necessary to give large amounts of homework. All the teachers responded similarly, “We prefer to give students more homework as they seem to have more spare time at home”. Reading materials dominated the classroom activities especially for the third grade due to the National Final Examination, which put emphasis on reading. The other skills, speaking, listening and writing, were only done if the time was available. In teaching English, the teachers used Indonesian with some English vocabulary to make students familiar with the language. Many students did not understand if the teachers used English to teach. “Often we ask students whether they understand what we were saying, they would say ‘yes’. When we ask them back about the lesson, they don’t have any idea.” – the female teacher who teaches the second grade responded. To be able to cope with the lesson, one of the teachers decided to give extra time for students to learn English by organizing a private English course after school hours. However, many students are not motivated to join the course. 4.2.4 Learning Resources The only book the teachers and the students used in classrooms was the practice book (LKS). The teachers were able to supply handbooks or other English learning books for students but neither school nor parents could afford them. “We actually can provide them English books from publishers but although we ask students to pay on an installment basis, many of them still cannot afford to buy.” – this comment is from the female teacher who has the least experience in teaching. There were only two standard bilingual dictionaries (English-Indonesian and Indonesian-English) at school and the teachers must wait their turn to use them in their classrooms. Many students had bilingual dictionaries but these were not the standard dictionaries. 4.2.5 School Learning Facilities The teachers said that English learning facilities, such as an English laboratory, Audio-Visual Aids, additional English books were not available in their school. The school did not provide students with facilities to make them familiar with English. Hundreds of English handbooks supplied by the central government for education in 1995 were worn out and lost and they did not have enough to distribute books to students even for a single class. The oldest teacher gave comment, “Yup. Many English book in the library but they are worn out and not enough to distribute to students, even in a class”. 4.2.6 Assessment In assessing students’ achievement, the teachers based their assessment on the school examination result. The teachers believed that the students’ examination results were more valid and objective than their daily assessment. This was because many students did not do their homework on their own and when the teachers asked about the tasks they had to finish at home, most of them did not understand what they had done. In this regard, the male teacher gave response: “I believe that it is better to rely on students examination results for their final assessment because it is more objective than using their daily English tasks or assignments. Many students ask their relatives who understand English to do their homework or assignments so that I think it is not valid to use in our assessment.” As there was a class for fast learners at each grade, the teachers constructed the tests based on the class type. However, the teachers did not feel comfortable with placing students based on their perception of their learning ability – whether they were fast or slow learners. 4.2.7 Curriculum The learning materials for the third grade set in the curriculum by the central government for education were overloaded. The amount of materials was not balanced to the time allotted. Often, the teachers were unable to finish the curriculum target by the end of the school term or they were able to finish it on time but students’ actual learning was neglected. The male teacher responded, - “We have to finish all the English materials otherwise the supervisors from the national education will blame us for not be able to cope with the target”. Teachers also recognized that students had to struggle to study other subjects in the same year. In terms of language teaching approach, the teachers admitted that they did not apply a communicative approach because their teaching situations were not suited to the approach. 4.2.8 Students’ Motivation and Attitude to English Language Learning According to the teachers, most of the students they taught were unmotivated and not interested in studying English. This was based on a small research project done by the teachers using a questionnaire. From that small research, they found that the majority of the students studied English only because they have to study it. The students were not interested in studying English because they felt it was difficult and there were too many aspects to memorize. Besides, students hate to participate in the English class or the activities in the class since the teachers used to punish them whenever they made mistakes. The teachers also admitted that many students were caught cheating in English examinations and in daily English tasks given by the teachers. Very few students joined English courses and not many students bought bilingual dictionaries or other English books. From the teachers’ experiences, only a small number of students could memorize vocabulary and language structures. “Our conclusions in that small research project are students were unmotivated and not interested in learning English”, - the oldest female teacher explained on behalf of her colleagues. Beside this, the teachers also believed that, many students had disruptive behaviors in learning English, such as cheating, laziness, noisy, mocking each other when practicing their English, and playing truant. For this reason, the teacher admitted that they usually punished students by paying some amount of money or physical force. 4.2.9 Prior Knowledge The teachers who taught the first grade believed that new students find it difficult to learn English in the first year because it is a new language. Students were expected to have completed an English course for beginners before entering JHS. The teachers of the second and the third grade usually blamed their colleagues who taught at the previous years if they found students had many difficulties in their classes. “It seemed that the students did not remember anything from the previous years. I don’t understand why”, explained a third year female teacher who has eight years experience in teaching English in the school. 4.2.10 Parents’ Roles The teachers view parents as having little control over their children’s study at home. The teachers often found that other people did students’ homework. In this case, students were able to answer the task questions without understanding. The male teacher again gave his response with laughter, “Yeah, students finish their assignment as expected but when I ask them why they choose the answers that way, they don’t know the reason”. The other problem, as the majority of parents were from of low socio-economic status, was that it was difficult for students to have more additional learning resources such as handbooks, dictionaries or for them to join an English course. The female teacher who held a private English course said, “I am tired of asking students for joining my course but some of them said that they don’t have enough money for paying the course. It is so difficult to motivate them”. 4.3 Parent-Group Discussion 4.3.1 Learning Time There was some level of group agreement among the students in response to the focus question, “Why do parents think many children have trouble in learning English?” In terms of learning time at home, the parents believed that it was very limited since children had many disturbances, such as television, movies, computer games, and Play-station. The parents expected that their children to learn English intensively at school. Domestic chores were not a burden according to the parents as long as they were proportional to the children. More chores were given to their children on holidays, as traveling during the holiday period is not the mainstream culture of Indonesian people. Taraka responded that, “I usually give my children some chores to do during holiday as they don’t have to deal with school assignment.” 4.3.2 Learning Materials In terms of materials, the amount of English language taught was not the same as in Bahasa Indonesia. The children lack vocabulary and they found it difficult to memorize English grammar and its terms. The terms used in English grammar were confusing to children. The culture of the language was also important to make it easier for children to understand the content and the use of the language. Taraka again responded in his words: “We, Indonesian people usually greet each other by asking ‘Where are you going or where have you been?’ while English people usually great by asking ‘How are you?” This, if not explained to children, they will ask English people by using the same greeting they have had in their own language. This will result in cultural misunderstanding.” So far, children have little understanding of English culture. Therefore, they seemed to experienceculture shock when they found any unfamiliar culture manifestations embedded to English language. The other example they had is when offering something to eat, Indonesian people commonly said ‘yes’ which meant ‘no’, or said ‘no’ even though they meant ‘yes’. On the contrary, Western people would say ‘yes’ for accepting and ‘no’ for rejecting. 4.3.3 Linguistic Barriers Since the Bahasa Indonesia phonetics system is different from English, the children had difficulties in pronouncing, reading, and writing English words. “I am not good in English but I laughed when my son read the word ‘stage’ in his computer game with /’sta:ge/ instead of /steij/,” – Taraka responded. In learning English, they usually compared the structure, of the language to Bahasa Indonesia structure and, as a result, they were often disoriented in arranging sentences. Taraka gave an example using his daughter’s disorientation in arranging sentences – “…’The boy lazy does not go to teacher English his’… this sentence is Bahasa Indonesia arrangement. It should be, ‘The lazy boy does not go to his English teacher’…” 4.3.4 Learning Activities and Learning Habit Formation Children sometimes complained of having too much homework for English and for other subjects. The children’s method of learning English at home was only ‘filling the practice book’, learning and memorizing the grammar terms with their formulas. On many occasions, their teachers gave homework without appropriate explanation. “It is ridiculous when children ask for help in their English homework. We don’t know the answer and children said that their teacher did not explain it clearly.” – this was from Sugu who has to deal with his children homework. The parents also claimed that the children were not trained to memorize English vocabulary and to use English in conversations since early childhood when their memory was still good. Taraka gave comment, “When the children were still five years old or even younger, they did not have many other pressures so this was the perfect time to teach them English.” 4.3.5 Learning Resources and Facilities The learning material resources are limited and the children have only one practice book on each level and a very simple dictionary. The school library was not effective as a learning resources center at school since it did not have enough books or materials to support the English learning program. At the beginning of the school terms, the parents bought materials from school, including English texts, as they were provided and parents were told they were necessary. However, the teachers did not use these materials after all. “We, parents, were asked for buying many books from school at the beginning of the school terms but children said that they had never been used in their class. This is wasting!” – this is from Sugu and accepted by the other participants. 4.3.6 Assessment In terms of assessment, the parents considered it lacks validity. Teachers showed favoritism and gave high marks only to those who joined the after-hours private course. Tasks were often checked by classmates without confirming the validity of the marking to their teachers. “My children once cried and did not want to eat because he got 4 for his English task. He said that the task was checked by his friend without confirming it to his teacher.” – this comment is given by Taraka. 4.3.7 Learning Environment and Cultural Integration with Native Speakers According to the parents, their children were not motivated to learn English since they did not live in an English speaking community. The children were surrounded by a local community who spoke Indonesian and different kinds of local language (Makassarese, Buginese, Mandarese and Torajan) as the mode of communication. “We cannot close our eyes that everyday we speak Bahasa Indonesia and our own local language. How can our children practise their English in this situation?” – Taraka explained the logical consequences of children living in a non-English speaking community. If they lived in an English speaking country, they would easily learn the language. Furthermore, whenever they tried to practice English, their friends and other people mocked them. The opportunity to practice English was also limited, as the government had set a new policy to ban English names for public services. As a result, they rarely practiced their English language as a tool of communication. The parents believed that their children were interested and enthusiastic to learn English but this was not supported by the society at the implementation level. The parents believed that even non-formal English courses in the town could not guarantee their children success at school, as these courses were oriented towards business. The English course held by the teachers at school did the same and the school did little to create an English-speaking atmosphere. 4.3.8 Personal Characteristics of Indonesian Students Indonesian students were naturally shy, quiet in classrooms, reluctant to make mistakes and obedient without criticism to their teachers. These characteristics contradict with the need for interaction in learning languages and mean it is difficult for them to improve their English skills. 4.3.9 Parents’ Role, Educational Background, and Socioeconomic Status (SES) In regard to assisting children learn English at home, the parents admitted that they did not have enough time to do that since they were busy earning a living. They also admitted that their own English language skills were not good, so that they were not able to assist their children with English at home. The parents had limited knowledge about English. They did not speak English, so when their children asked something about English in their homework, they did not know how to answer. In his response, Sugu said, “I don’t speak English and my mark in English when I was at school was so poor. How can I assist my children in learning English?” The teachers did not provide the children with the materials or handbook to consult whenever the children had trouble. Besides, as the English language is dynamic, sometimes parents’ explanations were not up-to-date and were different from teachers’ explanation. An example of this is the use of ‘shall’ and ‘will’ for different subjects. “Is that true ibu Lily (the researcher) that we can use ‘will’ for all subjects? As far as I know, ‘shall’ is for ‘I’ and ‘We’ while ‘will’ is for the others,” – asked Sugu for confirmation. The parents gave rewards for any improvement their children made after finishing the school terms. Punishment was only given to those with very low marks in their improvement report. The parents did not mention the forms of their rewards and punishment but they expected the punishment given by the teachers to be educative. Although two of the parent participants were of low-upper socio-economic status (having a good income), they still found it hard to assist their children with learning aids as the majority of them had more than two school-age children. The changing materials and changing books every year were another economic burden for them to support their children’s learning. They felt that the English learning materials were not related to teaching objectives but rather were designed to support the publishing company. They compared their situation in the past when they were still at Junior High School level when their English book from previous years could be used by their sisters and brothers for the next term. In the past, they said that they did not have to buy English books but their marks were still good. To be able to improve their children’s ability to learn and use English, they said that they were happy to register their children at any English course if their children had an interest in learning English. They hoped that the teachers would focus on improving the childrens’ English ability, rather than just increasing marks when children participate in extra courses. This would mean that those who had high interest and motivation to learn English would to join additional courses. Those who had low marks or low performance in English at school should be given special treatment and, for those from low socio-economic status, this should be free from any payment. In terms of payment, they did not mind paying for the English course held by the teachers for their children as long as the teachers managed their course properly and it was not just for marking purposes. In the words of one parent: “I could not afford to pay for the private English course, ibu Lily (the researcher). But, my children who are studying there are the proof to have higher mark in English when they started to join the private course held by their teacher. Before, the highest mark they could get were only 5 or 6. Now, they get 8 or 9 in their achievement report. However, I have to borrow some money from my office to be able to afford it. What can I do? My salary is only enough for daily needs at home.” 4.3.10 Teachers’ Teaching Competence and Attitudes to Students In terms of teacher ability to teach English, the parents involved in the discussion believed that many English teachers were not properly qualified to teach English. This belief was due to the teachers’ performance in teaching English as observed by the parents. Many teachers appeared not to have mastered the way to teach English and they did not speak English fluently. Sugu, the most dominant member of the group opened his response with critisism of the teachers: “We don’t have to see the statistic to prove it, just look at your friends who teach English at the moment. How many of them can speak English fluently like you? I guarantee your answer will be the same as mine. Almost none of them can. Am I wrong?” Unlike the parents’ English teachers in the 1960s who had to study in the teacher training institution for at least five to six years, most of the current English teachers had not mastered their teaching materials as they were the product of ‘instant learning’ (only having one-year diplomas of teacher training). The parents assumed that many of the current English teachers decided on teaching as a profession as the pathway to a profession such as civil servants. “They just use this profession as the safest alternative job”, responded Jaya who talked the least during the discussion. There was, and is, a high demand for English teachers. In terms of teachers’ roles and attitudes, the parents believed that English teachers should be good facilitators and good motivators for students to decrease their anxiety level. Many students found it stressful to learn English, as this language was new and not their language. “We take a pity on our children to see their anxiety when they were talking about English learning at school. They seemed so stressful!” – responded Sugu. The stress was also triggered by the punishments set by their teachers whenever they made mistakes (by money paying or physical force) and by their anxiety with regard to low marks in their examination. “What kind of punishment is that? Asking students to pay money for their mistakes… that’s nonsense!” The parents emphasized the importance of the teacher-student relationship. They believed there should be sufficient closeness for students to feel confident about risk-taking in language learning and sufficient distance to avoid disruptive behavior and to maintain discipline. 4.4 Discussion 4.4.1 Class Size Large classes were obviously a problem in implementing a variety of approaches to English language teaching to non-native speakers students and teachers. Even the most current method in ELT, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), is likely to be unsuitable with a large class size. Richard (2001) states that using CLT method should be done in a class with not more than 15 students. Brown (1994) limits the number of students for CLT method to 12 students. Abbott (1992: 23) includes small sized-classes in the list of conditions, which suit CLT best. Both the students and the teachers in this study were aware of, and had had trouble in, learning and teaching English in crowded classes with up to 40 students. The majority of the students in this study were unable to concentrate on teachers’ explanations due to the crowdedness and noise in large classes. The successful learning experience of some students who joined English courses, where the number of students in classes was limited to 12 – 15, was an example that supports Brown’s (1994) and Richard’s (2001) statement about the ideal class size for ELT. The teachers on the other hand were not able to apply modern methods in ELT as this contradicted with the number of students they had to teach in large classes. As a result, the teachers applied traditional methods in teaching English to continue the ELT process in Indonesian Junior High Schools. The implication of this situation is that the government, as the decision maker, seems inattentive to the difficulties faced by students and teachers in learning and teaching English in large classes (up to 40 and more students) as this size is standard in Indonesian Junior High Schools. If this situation remains unchanged, the government should not have high expectations as to the success of English as a foreign language teaching in Junior High Schools in Indonesia. 4.4.2 Time Allocation and Consequences Learning English as a foreign language for young learners within restricted time and in large class sizes reveals various obstacles. English learning time for students in Indonesian Junior High Schools is limited to 180 minutes per week or 90 minutes per session. Additional learning time after class hours depends on school policy and private English course institutions. Learning time at home depends on students’ interest and their own internal family policy. Within this restricted time and noisy environment because of classroom population, teachers and students are expected to be able to become proficient in the target language. For teachers, they are likely to face difficulties in applying various methods to enable students’ optimal exposure to the target language, particularly difficult with methods that require practices that are more individual. It is not easy to control and to record students’ improvement individually as teachers have to deal with 40 to 50 students in 90 minutes per session. The best the teachers in SLTP Phinisi Makassar could do in this situation was to use traditional language teaching methods, such as Audio-Lingual and Grammar Translation. Such methods are designed to teach students vocabulary and grammatical rules through reading materials. Homework and schoolwork is usually overloaded as teachers seek a simple way to reach the curriculum targets. For students, they are unable to acquire many elements or skills from the target language. The opportunity to use the target language individually in learning situations in large classes and with limited time is almost impossible. Students have to share talk time with other 40 or more students in their classroom. As a result, their target in learning English at school is to pass an examination rather than to use the language for communication purposes. The teachers’ idea to run additional private English courses is another impact on the time limitation at school hours. In the beginning, the teacher might have a pure commitment to improve students’ English learning ability through an additional English course after school hours. For the teacher to be able to run the course, students who join the course must pay an amount of money. Due to economic pressure, often, the aim to improve students’ performances in learning English is shifted to money interest. Such additional private English courses are now becoming a business trend in the Indonesian education system. As this situation happened to SLTP Negeri Phinisi Makassar, it seems that the principal, as the school manager, lacks control of his English teachers’ plans. This situation in turn would add to the list of barriers to successful English language learning in Indonesian Junior High Schools. The limited English learning time and the reliance on outside courses in this study implies that English as a foreign language in Indonesian Junior High Schools is not considered an important subject to be taught. Learning Materials and Linguistic Barriers English learning materials in Indonesian Junior High Schools are based on the revised 1994 curriculum. In the curriculum, the learning materials refer to a list of themes and sub-themes, which are aimed at providing language contexts or discourses and not intended as learning materials (Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan, 1999). The elements of the language, which cover sentence patterns, vocabulary, pronunciation and spelling, must be used as a tool to expose the functional skills (the use of the language) and not to be taught as a single learning material. Except for language varieties, the materials in this curriculum have met Harmer’s (1991) claim for that which should be learnt by students of English as a foreign language: pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, discourse, skills, the syllabus and language varieties. In this study, the students’ acknowledgment of difficulties in learning many complicated English materials such as memorizing grammatical rules, sentence patterns, vocabulary and pronunciation, indicates three important points. First, it seems that the teachers have been confused about what materials they are supposed to cover from the curriculum. This misunderstanding then leads the teachers on the wrong track in selecting learning materials and methods. Second, it seems that the students have been showing a greater use of the lowest rank of cognitive strategy in Bloom’s (1956) taxonomy: rote learning and recalling knowledge, in learning the materials. Such strategies are categorized as surface level strategies in learning English (Setyadi, Holiday and Lewis, 2000). This becomes the students’ learning habit and may be triggered by learner culturally-specific characteristics, that is learners who are shy, quiet in classrooms, reluctant to make mistakes and obedient without criticism to their teachers. In short, students with these characteristics are not interactive. However, every student has a unique technique to acquire language input. Third, there seems to be language interference and a great use of students’ own language background schemata in processing information from English materials they are learning. Bahasa Indonesia’s phonetics, morphologic and syntax system are largerly different from English. As the students are coming from a Bahasa Indonesia speaking country, they use their Bahasa Indonesia schemata to interact with English language and this influences the ways they interpret it (Eggen and Kauchak, 1997:247). The situation described above implies that the structure of learning materials in the revised 1994 curriculum is, to some extent, still too complicated for teachers to understand. In selecting learning materials with appropriate teaching methods, the teachers seem to have difficulties since the students in general show a greater use of inert knowledge from their own schemata, which is knowledge in memory that exists in isolated pieces and cannot be used to interpret new situations (Eggen and Kauchack, 1997: 247). This seems to underscore the teachers’ opinion about the importance of students’ prior knowledge of English before joining Junior High Schools. Learning Activities In the 5th column of the revised 1994 curriculum (Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan, 1999), alternative learning activities are described in practical ways. The list of learning activities can be used as a practical guide by teachers in developing students’ language skills. This curriculum has explained that in doing learning activities, students should understand the meaning of the language they are using. The variety of learning activities is designed to match the learning situation and students’ learning ability level. Teachers are allowed to explain language elements in more specific ways but only to overcome the obstacles they face in teaching the language. However, the explanation must be followed by examples in meaningful contexts within the selected themes. The curriculum guidelines have shown the ideal learning activities that teachers should apply. If we look back at the previous barriers, such as class size and time limitation, the teachers in this study encounter difficulties in the application of such activities. From the students’ and the teachers’ responses, it seems that the teachers simply use three kinds of activity in teaching students. The three kinds of activity are question-answer, filling gap and homework, not to mention the lack of clarity of teachers’ explanation as seen by both students and parents. Such repetitive activities result in boring and uninteresting language learning. The implication of the situation in relation to successful English language learning is that the teachers seem to lack interest in using the curriculum guidelines and in developing various activities to help their students in learning the target language. Learning Resources and Facilities Since the target language is not taught as a second language in the Indonesian school system, there should be adequate resources for teachers and student to refer to, and facilities to aid them in teaching and learning activities. Current English textbooks, standard dictionaries, authentic materials, photocopiers and other duplicator appliances must be available in school libraries. Language laboratories equipped with audio visual aids, such as films, videos, audio recording and other advanced computer software equipment, should be available to provide authentic English learning models. The limited English learning resources used by students and teachers in the focus school are the other barrier to successful English as a foreign language learning they face. The government financial problems due to the economic recovery in Indonesia and the parents’ socio-economic status in general, are likely to be central in this issue. The findings imply that both the government and parents have not yet prioritized their budgeting for education. Assessment Methods and Reinforcement Assessment is an integral part of instruction and one of the most basic and difficult tasks teachers face in their work. If teachers respond by simplifying their work, barriers to successful learning are undeniable. There are three important points to be discussed regarding the assessment barriers students faced in this study. First is the students’ and parents’ belief about the teachers’ unfairness in scoring assignments for the students. Second is the students’ anxiety with regard to low scores in the National Final Examination. Third is the teachers’ dependency on traditional tests rather than on performance measurements. The first case may happen if teachers do not pay a very careful attention to students’ real learning performances. Students who are in some ways physically attractive are often judged more favorably by teachers than are their less attractive peers. Such judgments may result in students’ learning and motivation decreasing. Usually, this is due to poorly prepared assessment where teachers do not have clear assessment patterns in their classroom evaluation. This situation implies that the teachers do not apply a systematic approach to gathering information on every single student’s progress. This type of record-keeping is important to prevent any possible bias in assessing students’ progress, especially in scoring their assignments, which is physically seen by students. The second case, which is related to students’ anxiety with regard to low scores in the school or the National Final Examination, is an effect of assessment power. In this case, high grades attained from the National Final Examination become an entrance ticket for students to choose the most favorable public Senior High School where the demand for studying in public schools is high. If they fail, the chance has to shift to private schools. Beside this, students still have to pass the entrance test where English is included as a subject to be tested. In the revised 1994 curriculum, it is clearly stated that the English language teaching for Junior High Schools is aimed at developing students’ English communicative competences which covers reading, listening, speaking and writing skills in a balanced way. It is recommended in this curriculum to use integrative (more than one skill/component) and communicative assessment and not to focus on mastering language elements. In this study, nevertheless, the aim of English language teaching seems to have shifted to passing the English test in the National Final Examination. All the stakeholders in this study show a great level of anxiety with regard to this test. The teachers emphasized the teaching of reading skills as 60% of the test is on reading skills and 40% is on language elements. Other skills are not taken into account since they are not tested in the National Final Examination. The students considered the National Final Examination as their ‘guillotine’ and the parents make every possible effort to have their children passed in the examination. The efforts of all the stakeholders cannot guarantee the results the students may have. Besides, although the National Final Examination uses a standardized test, the test developers seem to ignore the different levels of ability between the students in Western and Eastern Indonesian Junior High Schools. The question to be addressed now is, whether the English test in such an examination is still appropriate for Junior High School students as it has a major impact on students’ learning behavior and on teachers’ teaching focus. The third case is about the teachers’ dependency on traditional tests rather than on performance measurements. This reveals the teachers’ own lack of understanding of the evaluation model they use to assess their students’ learning achievement. It is very clear that the teachers do not keep periodical records of their students’ individual learning progress for every learning focus. Perhaps, the teachers try to avoid the complicated classroom assessment that they must do in order to keep these records. Whereas in fact, students’ periodical records of their learning progress are crucial in deciding the level of learning progress they may have achieved. If teachers base their assessment merely on examination results that they consider more valid, teachers’ assessment will lack validity and will produce biases. There are many intervening variables may occur during examination. Teachers’ belief that students’ homework lacks validity, as many of them are helped by others in doing it, is not totally wrong. However, teachers should also analyze the possible causes underlying this problem. If homework is given without any meaningful feedback and follow-up in form of class assignments for instance, such problems will never end. The monotonous teaching activities that the teachers have been using so far (general discussion, question-answer, filling gaps and homework) are a reflection of an ill-prepared teaching process, which affects their assessment system. When teachers give meaningful quizzes as part of learning activities, which are relevant to students’ homework, students are likely to be motivated to prepare and to be more conscientious with their homework. For this reason, it would be worthy if students are given educative reinforcement for their learning efforts like rewards or punishment. Such reinforcement will result in an increase in learning motivation. Giving students punishment with money payment, results in a negative image of teachers. Thus, the implication is clear that students are not motivated to increase their English learning since the teachers’ assessment model is not holistic and shows favoritism whereas assessment goals are to increase students’ learning and motivation. Besides, the students’ learning motivation decrease seems triggered by the aimless punishment the teachers applied. Overloaded Curriculum Content The revised 1994 ELT curriculum is designed by the government for Junior High Schools students who are expected to have basic communicative English competences at elementary level with vocabulary targets of 1000 words in 3 years. As the curriculum and the syllabus are designed by higher authority, the teachers’ claim that the curriculum content is overloaded, especially for the third grade which has a relatively shorter learning time than the other grades. Beside this, the authority presents the syllabus in terms of the main textbook to be used that must be covered by certain dates. Eight themes as learning context and 26 functional skills must be finished in 136 learning hours (45 minutes per learning hour) in a year. The effective class learning time for third grade is only nine months or 36 weeks at average. Each week contains four learning hours. It means that one theme has to be completed within a month or 16 learning hours with three kinds of functional skill on average including the assessment for each theme. With this number of themes and functional skills coverage, it is impossible to cover all with the time allotted. Furthermore, according to the curriculum guidelines, teachers are flexible to determine the scope and sequence of the themes and functional skills they would cover as long as the themes and functional skills are matched. The flexibility is needed considering the class diversity, population and time allocation. Thus, the teachers’ complaint of having the curriculum content overloaded (read: textbook content) implies a similar situation to that which Harmer (1987: 257) describes in which teachers who are under pressure to complete the curriculum target and teaching a number of classes are likely to select materials and discard others in order to cope with time available. All these reflect the need for involving English language teachers in the curriculum and syllabus design process. Learning Environment and Cultural Integration with Native Speakers Both the students and parents believed that success in learning English is strongly influenced by their environment. Environment is seen as a possible motivator to learn English. If the environment where students spend most of their time is conducive to English learning, they are likely to have more encouragement to learn English. According to Brumfit (1984:152), to be able to succeed in acquiring another language, language learners must have opportunities to be exposed to the target language and to use the target language in speaking, reading, writing or listening in real situations for communication purposes. What happened in the context of this study is that – first, the students are having a major barrier in their own environment to encourage their English learning; and second, they live far from the culture of the language they learn. In the first situation, as the students’ environment culture seems to reject English learning, including the government who bans English names in public facilities for maintaining Bahasa Indonesia rather than providing facilities with possible bilingual names (English and Bahasa Indonesia), students are likely to have less opportunity to develop their English language competence. Second, the students, again, have to struggle to learn English because they learn it without cultural integration with English native speakers. Students learn English in classes where cultural integration with native speakers will not be found. In this regard, Gumpers and Hymes (1964) claim that a language is not learnt or acquired in isolated contexts, such as in classes, but rather through real communication in dynamic societies, which are bound with their cultural values. This situation implies that the members of society the students live with have not realized the important role played by the environment in learning another language. Besides, the government seems to be in a quandary where, on the one hand, they have to maintain the Indonesian national language while, on the other hand, they have a need to improve the quality of Indonesian human resources through English language learning. Another learning environment that influenced students’ success in learning English is parents’ role, parents’ educational background and socio-economic status. To be able to support children’s success in learning English, parents are expected to assist whenever children face difficulties in learning at home. In the face of such phenomenon, parents should be equipped with appropriate background knowledge about English and should have adequate budget to facilitate children’s learning. In fact, based on the parents’ acknowledgment, many parents lack appropriate English background knowledge as they have experienced similar barriers when they were at school. Moreover, the majority of them have to struggle in supplying the primary needs (food, clothing and shelter) for their family and put education as a secondary need. This phenomenon implies that the Indonesian government effort to improve the quality of human resources (through mastering English language) is placed after people’s welfare. Teachers’ Teaching Competence and Attitude to Students The parents’ judgment that the teachers in this study are not well qualified to teach English is based on four characteristics. Many teachers are found to lack fluency in speaking English, to have inadequate teacher training qualifications, not to be well prepared (not to master their teaching materials), and to choose English teacher as a prospective profession since it is in high demand, rather than because they have a vocation for teaching. A non-native English speaker, who is born and grows up in a non-English speaking country, is eligible to teach English if he or she has a high standard of English language proficiency and a good qualification in English language teaching. Teachers’ English proficiency is required to help students in modeling how the language is used as language is mainly learned through imitation (Nunan, 1991). A teaching qualification is needed as formal requirement to ensure teachers’ capacity to teach English in appropriate levels. For Indonesian Junior High Schools, the teachers must have at least a three-year diploma of English teaching qualification and it is recommended that they advance their specialization to Bachelors or even Masters degree. The government as the English teachers recruiter in this study seemed not to be very strict in the selection process since many English teachers are found lack language proficiency, especially in speaking. Beside this, as English teacher is a profession in high demand in most non-English speaking countries, the government should take advantage of this situation to be more selective in deciding who is eligible to teach English. Despite the importance of teachers’ speaking proficiency, many teachers argue that it is almost impossible to be a competent user of English as their English is acquired mainly through learning and they have little opportunity to acquire proficiency. In regards to teaching preparation, the teachers in this study seemed not to be aware that students would easily recognize teachers who are not sure what to do in the classroom and who are not knowledgeable about the subject. This, according to Harmer (1991: 250), would increase the level of students’ disruptive behavior. Another important factor that the parents claim to be a barrier for their children’s success in learning English is related to the teachers’ attitude. According to Harmer (1991), one of three possible reasons for discipline problems among students is teachers’ behavior and attitude. For this, Harmer (1991: 250) points out eight kinds of behavior that teachers might do unconsciously: they go to class unprepared, are inconsistent about code of conduct, issue threats with terrible punishment, establishing control by raising voice, give boring class, are unfair or show favoritism, have a negative attitude to learning or neglecting, and break the code. In this study, the teachers seemed not to be aware that all these teacher behaviors would lead to students’ disruptive behavior and decreased motivation. 4.4.10 Students’ Motivation and Attitude to English Language Learning Motivation and attitude to learning English as a foreign language is crucial and the best predictor of learners’ success in language learning (Gardner and Lambert, 1972; Gardner and Smythe, 1975; Harmer, 1991; Corria, 1999; and Rivai, 2001). The argument about students’ motivation and attitude to learning English between the teachers and the students with their parents in this study seems to match each other. The teachers believed that the students lack motivation and show negative attitudes (disruptive behaviors) in learning English. The students maintained that they had a strong desire to be able to use English communicatively but many barriers had blocked them. Thus, there is a gap between students’ ideal learning and actual learning. The parents seemed to agree with their children’s opinion. The above phenomena can be understood in the frame of motivation and attitude roles played in English learning. As motivation is defined as internal drive that encourages somebody to pursue a course of action (Harmer, 1991: 3), and it is not innate, the opportunity for students to be successful in learning English is still open. In the previous discussions about barriers, there seemed in adequate evidence to clearly support any one of the stakeholders in this study concerning students’ lack of motivation. The students’ disruptive behaviors or negative attitudes in learning English are likely triggered by all the situations that are not conducive to students learning English. This implies that the government and all the major stakeholders in this study are not responsive and have not maximized their efforts to eliminate all the non-conducive situations to arouse students’ motivation and to correct their disruptive behaviors in learning English. CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS This chapter deals with conclusions from the study. Based on these conclusions, the study offers recommendations to all those involved in English language teaching in Indonesian Junior High Schools. Recommendations for further research are also included in this chapter. 5.1 Conclusions This study has revealed barriers to successful English as a foreign language learning in Eastern Indonesian Junior High Schools as perceived by students, teachers and parents. All the stakeholders in this study believe that students find it difficult to learn English because they have to learn in unfavorable learning and teaching circumstances. These can be listed as follows: Large class size Limited time Complicated learning materials Monotonous learning activities Awkward assessment methods Lack of learning resources and facilities Linguistic barriers due to the interference of first language Overloaded curriculum Discouraging learning environment and cultural integration Teachers’ lack of English proficiency and teaching competence Teachers’ inappropriate behavior and attitude to students Students’ lack of motivation and disruptive behaviors The barriers to successful English as a foreign language learning found in this study, appear both interrelated and stemming from one major problem – that is, large class size. The policy of the regional authority of education and teaching, that offers flexibility to schools to settle on the number of students in a class, is a likely starting place for the class size-related barriers discovered in this study. In a large sized-class, with 40 to 50 students in a class, an English teacher is unable to maximize the effectiveness of his or her instruction. He or she finds obstacles in selecting the most appropriate method to suit learning materials. Individual learning activities and monitoring are difficult to carry out. Integrative assessment methods are too complicated for teachers to organize. Being unable to select and apply the most appropriate teaching method, learning activities and assessment method results in a negative impact on teachers’ attitude to English language teaching and their behavior and activities in class. As a result, students are likely to become discouraged and withdraw from attempts to learn English, and show disruptive behaviors. The large class size is also likely to lead to shorter on-task learning time. As teachers are also under government pressure to finish the curriculum target on time, they neglect students’ achievement as set in the curriculum. Teachers view the curriculum content as overloaded and complicated. Teachers lack time to sit together and plan how the curriculum should be best implemented. Neither do they have time to design materials, which best suit their students. This planning and preparation time is crucial to the improvement of English language teaching where resources and facilities are not adequate to support the learning and teaching process. Moreover, teachers’ decisions to organize private English courses to provide additional time for students to learn English seems to have changed direction and now be merely a way of increasing students’ marks rather than improving student performances. The other external barriers the students face in their environment are discouraging society members, learning without cultural integration with native speakers, parents’ educational background and socio-economic status and role, and teachers’ lack of English language proficiency and teaching competence. The society in which the students live displays feelings of rejection towards English language. Moreover, students have to learn English in isolated contexts where cultural integration with native speakers is difficult. Parents’ capacity to assist their children in learning English is strongly influenced by their own educational background, their commitment to the importance of English and their priority in budgeting family income. In addition, students easily recognize when English teachers are not well prepared and this influences their approach to learning. Thus, students who live in an environment, which is not conducive to English language learning, are likely to have difficulties in acquiring proficiency in the language. Students’ learning styles, personal characteristics and linguistic barriers from first language interference are also problematic. Students who make greater use of the lower ranks of cognitive strategy – that is, rote learning and recalling knowledge, will be less successful in learning English than those who use higher level strategies. The personal characteristics of many Indonesian students who are shy, quiet in classrooms, reluctant to make mistakes and obedient without criticism to their teachers are not matched with the characteristics needed for success in learning English. There also seems to be language interference and a great use of students’ own language background schemata in processing information from the English materials they are learning. Although other barriers may not be identified, this study has, at least, provided an important step towards critiquing English language teaching programs in Eastern Indonesian Junior High Schools. The study has shown the importance of consideration of the major problems in the English language teaching system in the Indonesian Junior High School context. These problems if left unchanged, will continue to hamper all efforts of all those involved in the system. 5.2 Recommendations A number of barriers to successful learning of English as a foreign language in Eastern Indonesian Junior High Schools have been identified in this study. If the government, as the highest authority, is genuine in its commitment to improve the quality of Indonesian human resources through mastery of English language, there must be changes in the language teaching system. The government and the school boards should prioritize their financial budgeting on the English language teaching. More money is needed to build new classrooms, to provide facilities and resources, to maintain such facilities and to provide funds for teachers’ resources. The government should issue a strict regulation to all schools to limit the number of students to a maximum of 20 in a class. If this is impossible, given the large number of school-age children in Indonesia, the English language-teaching curriculum should be revised in accordance with large class sizes. The government should be more selective in recruiting English teachers. The conditions of acceptance should be based on their English proficiency and teaching competence rather than on their certificates. This can be done through a set of standardized tests by an appropriately qualified institution. Candidates for a career in English language teaching must equip themselves with adequate knowledge of English language and appropriate teaching skills before starting their careers in English language teaching. Commitment to improve students’ English language proficiency should be their top priority. The regional authority, supervisors of English language teaching and school principals should be more attentive and improve their supervision of teachers in schools. This is crucial to ensure that teachers’ activities are on the right track. Parents and society members should support children’s every effort to become proficient English users, both at home and at school. Parents should make time to talk together with teachers about children’s English learning progress. This study provided preliminary data on barriers to successful English as a foreign language learning in one Eastern Indonesian Junior High School. This study also served as an ‘icebreaker’ for questions addressed to English language teaching problems in Indonesian Junior High Schools in general. Future research on the following areas is desirable: A large-scale survey of barriers to successful learning of English as a foreign language in different areas in Indonesia and other underdeveloped countries that set English as a compulsory part of the school curriculum. A comparative study on students’ English learning achievement in large classes and small classes in countries where English is taught as a foreign language. Such a study could compare private English courses with general schools. Collaborative research between the government, English teachers and the wider society to find the best ways to resolve the problems which currently hamper the success of English language teaching in Indonesian Junior High Schools. Curriculum development and course design which is appropriate to large classes setting and English as a foreign language teaching. The influence of Indonesian children’s first and second language in learning English as a foreign language. Teachers who are studying abroad research the importance of cultural contact with native speakers and explore ways to expose students to intercultural communication. There is much still to be done in research of English as a foreign language teaching, especially in countries such as Indonesia, where English language proficiency is seen as key to economic development but where there are both cultural and linguistics barriers to, and limited opportunities for, contact with native speakers. It is hoped that this study offers some small contribution to understanding in this area. BIBLIOGRAPHY Abbott. (1992). “The Proper Study of ELT”, in Arthur V.E. and Edward.I.B. (eds.). Essay in English as a Foreign Language or Second Language. The Netherlands: Walter de Gruyter & Co. Bloom, B., Englehart, M., Furst, E., Hill, W., and Krathwohl, O. (1956). Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: The Classification of Educational Goals: Hanbook 1. The Cognitive Domain. White Plains, New York: Longman Brown, H.D. (1994). Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy. USA: Prentice Hall International Brown, H.D. (1980). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. Englewood Cliffs, NewJersey: Prentice Hall Brumfit, C.J. (1984). Communicative Methodology in Language Teaching. Great Britain: Cambridge University Press Committee on Scientific and Professional Ethics and Conduct of the American Psychological Association, Ethical Standard of Psychologists. (1977). “Ethical Principles for The Conduct of Research Activities”. In APA Monitor 8 (22) Corria, I.L. (1999). “Motivating EFL Learners”, Forum. A Journal for The Teacher of English 37 (2) April – June (pp. 17 – 19) Washington D.C.: United States Department of State for The Teacher of English d’Anglejan, A. (1978) “Language Learning In and Out of Classroom”, in Richards, J.C. (ed). Understanding Second and Foreign Language Learning. Rowley: Newbury House Dardjowidjojo, S. (2002). “Cultural Constraints in the Implementation of Learner Autonomy: The Case in Indonesia” in Online Seameo Journal. (13) 1. Singapore: Southeast Asian Ministers of Education http://www.seameo.org/journal/vol3num1/abstract.htm Retrieved: 4/11/2002 Davis, E.C., Nur, H., and Ruru, S.A.A. (1994). “Helping Teachers and Students Understand Learning Style” in Forum. A Journal for The Teacher of English 32 (3) July – September (pp. 12 – 32) Washington D.C.: United States Department of State for The Teacher of English Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan. (1999). Penyempurnaan/Penyesuaian Kurikulum 1994 (suplemen GBPP). Jakarta: Depdikbud Eggen, P. and Kauchak, D. (1998). Educational Psychology, Windows on Classroom. (3rd edt.). USA: Prentice Hall Inc. Fontana, A. And Frey, James H. (2000). “The Interview From Structured Questions to Negotiated Text” in Norman K. Denzin & Yvonna S. Lincoln (eds). Handbook of Qualitative Research. 2nd edt. (pp. 645 – 672) London: Sage Publications, Inc. Gardner, Robert,C. (1985). Social Psychology and Second Language Learning - The Role of Attitudes and Motivation. London: Edward Arnold. Gardner, R.C. and Lambert, W.E. (1972). Attitudes and Motivation in Second-Language Learning. Rowley: Newbury House Gardner, R.C. and Smythe, P.C. (1975). “Motivation and Second Language Acquisition”, in The Canadian Modern Language Review 31, 218 – 230. Gumperz, J.J. and Hymes, D. (1964). “The Ethnography of Communication”. Special Issue of American Antrophologist 66 (6.2) Harmer, J. (1991). The Practice of English Language Teaching. London: Longman Heriyanto. (2000). “Faktor-Faktor Dalam Pembelajaran Bahasa Inggris: Studi Kasus Pada Pembelajar Bahasa Inggris Yang Berhasil”. Laporan Penelitian. Makassar: Lembaga Penelitian UNM Indonesian National Assessment Team. (1999). “Education for All: The Year 2000 Assessment Ministry Of Education And Culture 1999 of Indonesia”. Country Reports. New York: Unesco, The United Nation Organisation. http://www2.unesco.org/wef/countryreports/indonesia/contents.html Retrieved: 29/10/2002 Krashen, S.D. (1982) Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition. Great Britain: Pergamon Press Kumar, R. (1996). Research Methodology, A Step By Step Guide for Beginner. Melbourne: Addison Wesley Longman Australia Pty Limited Lie, A. (2002) “English Curriculum in Multicultural Societies”, in Online Seameo Journal. (13) 1. Singapore: Southeast Asian Ministers of Education http://www.seameo.org/journal/vol3num1/abstract.htm Retrieved: 4/11/2002 MacNamara, J. (1967). “Bilingualism in the Modern World”. Journal of Social Issues, 23, 1-7 Maykut, P. and Morehouse, R. (1994). Beginning Qualitative Research. London: The Palmer Press Miles, Mathew B. and Huberman, A.M. (1984). Qualitative Data Analysis. California: Sage Publications, Inc. Musthafha, B. (2002). “Communicative Language Teaching in Indonesia: Issues of Theoretical Assumptions and Challenges in Classroom Practice”, in Online Seameo Journal. (13) 1. Singapore: Southeast Asian Ministers of Education http://www.seameo.org/journal/vol3num1/abstract.htm Retrieved: 4/11/2002 Naiman, N. et al. (1996). The Good Language Learner. Toronto: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education Nunan, D. (1991). Language Teaching Methodology: A Textbook for Teachers. USA: Prentice Hall Int. Ltd. Oxford, R. (1990). Language Learning Strategies: What Every Teacher Should Know. New York: Newbury House Publishers. Pennycook, A. (1995). “English in The World/The World of English”, in Tollefson, J. (ed) Power and Equality in Language Education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 34 - 58 Piaget, (1971) The Language and Thought of The Child. 3rd ed. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Richard, J.C. (2002). “Program Factors in Effective Foreign and Second Language Teaching” in Online Seameo Journal. (13) 1. Singapore: Southeast Asian Ministers of Education http://www.seameo.org/journal/vol3num1/abstract.htm Retrieved: 4/11/2002 Richard, J.C. (2001). Curriculum Development in Language Teaching. USA: Cambridge University Press Richard, J.C. and Rodgers, T.S. (1995). Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching, A Description and Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Rivai, H. V. (2001). “Efektivitas Praktik Bahasa Inggris Survei di Stie Se Jakarta Selatan”. Laporan Penelitian. Jakarta: Depdiknas Said, M., Samad, M.Y., Kamba, M., Abbas, A.H., and Sainu, M.N. (1998.) “Strategi Belajar Pebelajar Bahasa Inggris SMU Yang Sukses di Sulawesi Selatan”. Laporan Penelitian. Makassar: Universitas Negeri Makassar Setiyadi, B., Holliday, L., and Lewis, R. (2000). A Survey of Language Learning Strategies in A Tertiary EFL in Indonesia. Skinner, B.F. (1957). Verbal Behavior. Appleton: Century Crofts Slavin, R.E. (1984). Research Methods in Education, A Practical Guide. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc. Wenden, A. and Joan, R. (1987). Learner Strategies in Language Learning. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. APPENDICES Appendix 1 “Ethical Principles For The Conduct of Research Activities” Appendix 2 Student-Group Discussion Transcription and Translation Fokus Pertanyaan: “ Menurut kalian, mengapa banyak siswa yang merasa sulit belajar bahasa Inggris?” Focus Question: “Why do you think many students find it difficult to learn English?” Transkripsi inti jawaban kelompok Key points of the group response Kami merasa bahwa bahasa Inggris inggris itu sulit karena: We find it difficult to learn English because: Banyak teman sekelas yang gemar bermain dan kurang serius memperhatikan penjelasan guru ketika sedang belajar di kelas (Many classmates like to play and lack seriousness to pay attention to teacher’s explanation when we are learning in class) Dibandingkan dengan di sekolah, penjelasan guru di tempat kursus lebih mudah dipahami (Compare to the way teachers explain the lesson at school, we find it easier to understand in private English courses) Suasana kelas sangat gaduh untuk belajar karena satu kelas diisi 40 siswa (It is too noisy to learn in class of 40 students) Hanya ada satu guru yang mengajar setiap pertemuan padahal sebaiknya dua orang untuk memudahkan kontrol (There is only one teacher teaches in every session whereas two are better to be able to control all of us) Waktu belajar di sekolah dan di rumah terasa sangat sempit sebab banyak mata pelajaran lain yang juga harus dipelajari. Sebaiknya jam bahasa Inggris ditambah jika pelajaran ini memang dianggap penting. (The learning time at school and at home is too short because there are many other lessons to be learnt too. There should be additional time for English if this subject is important) Materi pelajaran dalam sekali pertemuan seringkali berlebihan ditambah lagi dengan pekerjaan rumah yang juga berlebihan (The learning materials for seatwork and homework are often excessive) Kursus bahasa Inggris yang diadakan guru hanya untuk menambah nilai bahasa Inggris yang kurang di sekolah dan hanya mereka yang mengkuti kursus ini yang cenderung diberikan penambahan nilai (The private English course held by teachers after school hours is aimed merely at increasing marks at school for those who joined) Bahasa Inggris merupakan bahasa baru dan aturan kebahasaannya sangat berbeda dengan bahasa Indonesia, terutama cara melafalkan dan penyusunan kalimatnya (English is absolutely a new language for us and it has very different rules from Bahasa Indonesia, particularly pronunciation and sentence arrangement) Belum ditemukan cara yang paling tepat untuk menebak arti kata melalui konteks sebab banyak kosakata yang mirip satu sama lain (We have not found yet the most practical way to guess meaning from contexts as many words have similar form and meaning) Terlalu banyak kosakata, rumus-rumus gramatikal dengan nama yang aneh yang harus dihafal terutama untuk memberi nama pada kalimat yang dianalisis sehingga waktu istirahat terkadang digunakan untuk memperlancar hafalan (Too many words, grammatical rules and formulas with confusing names to be memorized, particularly when we are asked to give names to each sentence we analyze. In that case, we usually use our break time to memorize such things.) Kegiatan pembelajaran di kelas sangat monoton: tanya-jawab, penjelasan, mengisi LKS, menerjemahkan, menghafal, PR, lalu diperiksa oleh teman sendiri tanpa konfirmasi kepada guru (Learning activities in class are too monotonous: question-answer, explanation, translating, memorizing, homework, and then checked by classmates without confirming it to teachers) Guru kadang-kadang datang terlambat sehingga waktu belajar semakin pendek dan jika hal itu terjadi, maka siswa hanya diberi tugas dan gurunya kembali meninggalkan kelas (Sometimes, teachers come late to class and give some tasks and then leave again. Thus, the learning time we have is shorter) Sumber belajar kita hanya LKS (Lembar Kerja Siswa). Sumber-sumber belajar lainnya seperti buku pegangan dan kamus standar tidak ada untuk saat ini sebab yang dibagikan pemerintah beberapa tahun yang lalu sudah banyak yang hilang atau tidak layak pakai (Our learning resource is only students’ worksheet. Other resources, such as textbooks and standardized dictionaries are not available. The textbooks that the government supplied a few years ago have lost and worn out) Ketidaklulusan di Ujian Akhir Nasional sangat mencemaskan sebab satu-satunya peluang untuk lanjut ke SMU hanya dengan melulusi UAN tersebut (Failure to pass the National Final Examination is anxious because the only way to be able to continue our study is by passing this examination) Guru tidak adil dalam pemberian nilai, hanya mereka yang mengikuti les yang diadakan guru yang diberikan nilai tinggi sementara uang lesnya juga mahal (Teachers are not fair in grading because only those who join their private English course will get good grades. Besides, such course is expensive for us) Guru dalam memberikan tugas harian sering tanpa memberikan contoh lalu dibahas dan diperiksa bersama di kelas (In giving daily English tasks, teachers are often do not provide examples and then discussed and checked together in class) Pengayaan untuk persiapan UAN hanya diberikan untuk kelas 3 dan itupun masih harus membayar (Additional learning enrichment to face the National Final Examination is only given for the 3rd grade with payment) Soal UAN dibuat di Jakarta tanpa memperhitungkan kemampuan siswa-siswa yang ada di kawasan timur Indonesia (The National Final Examination questions are designed in Jakarta by the central government without considering the proficiency level of the students in Eastern Indonesia Junior High Schools) Guru sering memberi hukuman yang memberatkan dengan meminta pembayaran dengan sejumlah uang jika siswa menjawab salah. Hal ini sangat menekan dan karena itu, lebih baik tidak menjawab daripada harus kehilangan uang saku (Teachers often punish us by paying some amount of money if we make a mistake in answering their questions. This is stressful and we decide to keep silence than to lost our pocket money) Jawaban benar untuk pertanyaan guru tidak diberikan timpalan yang seimbang ketika menjawab salah (The correct answers are never rewarded fairly by teachers) Lingkungan tidak mendukung, banyak teman yang sering mengejek ketika kami mencoba mempraktekkan kemampuan bahasa Inggris kami di hadapan mereka (The environment is not helpful. Many friends mock when we try to practice English) Tidak aturan di kelas maupun di sekolah untuk menggunakan bahasa Inggris minimal ketika sedang belajar bahasa Inggris (There is no rules or consensus either in class or at school to use English, even when we are learning English in class) Meskipun bahasa Inggris sering didengar melalui media, akan tetapi tidak ada komunitas yang berbahasa Inggris sehingga kami kesulitan untuk membiasakan diri menggunakan bahasa Inggris (Although we used to hear English through media, we are not able to practice our English because we do not live in an English-speaking area) Appendix 3 Teacher-Group Discussion Transcription and Translation Fokus Pertanyaan: “ Menurut Bapak dan Ibu-ibu, mengapa banyak siswa yang bersusah payah belajar bahasa Inggris?” Focus Question: “Why do teachers think many students struggle to learn English?” Transkripsi inti jawaban kelompok Key points of the group response Banyak siswa yang bersusah payah belajar bahasa Inggris karena: Many students struggle to learn English because: Mereka harus belajar di kelas besar yang dipenuhi 40 – 50 siswa (They have to learn English in a large class with 40 to 50 students) Metode yang digunakan guru dengan terpaksa harus disesuaikan dengan kondisi kelas yang besar. Siswa hanya diberikan penjelasan umum dan selanjutnya mengerjakan tugas. (The teaching methods we used have to be matched with large class size. We give students general explanation and ask them to do the tasks in their practice books) Adanya kebiasaan mengajar yang menkankan pada bacaan sedangkan untuk keterampilan berbicara dan mendengar kurang mendapat perhatian. Ketika guru menerangkan dengan menggunakan bahasa Inggris, siswa bingung dan tidak mengerti (There is an emphasis to teach more reading materials than the other skills. That is why when we use English in our explanation; students seem to be confused and inattentive) Latar belakang bahasa siswa yang kebanyakan berbahasa Indonesia dan bahasa daerah menyulitkan penyesuaian dengan bahasa Inggris (Students speaking background is mainly Bahasa Indonesia and their own local language which is problematic to students’ schemata) Waktu belajar di kelas hanya cukup untuk membahas materi bacaan dengan menggunakan metode penerjemahan gramatikal dan yang tidak terbahas di kelas dijadikan pekerjaan rumah (The learning time allotted in class is only enough to discuss reading materials by using grammar translation method. Others are left to be done at home as homework) Siswa sulit dimotivasi untuk mengikuti kursus bahasa Inggris yang diadakan oleh guru untuk menambah waktu belajar mereka karena harus membayar (Many students seem to be unmotivated to join our private English course as additional learning because they have to pay) Orang tua dan sekolah belum sanggup menyediakan buku-buku teks dan kamus penunjang pembelajaran bahasa Inggris dan buku teks yang disuplai pemerintah pusat sudah banyak yang hilang dan tidak layak pakai (Parents and school have not been able to supply students with textbooks and dictionaries to help them learning. Many of the English textbooks supplied by the government a few years ago have been lost and worn out in the library) Sekolah belum memiliki dana untuk mengadakan fasilitas penunjang belajar bahasa Inggris seperti laboratorium bahasa dan alat pandang dengar (School does not have enough budgets to supply other English learning facilities, such as language laboratory and audio visual aids, which are very important in a non-English speaking environment) Siswa pada umumnya dibantu oleh orang lain untuk mengerjakan PR mereka sehingga guru tidak dapat menggunakan tugas harian mereka sebagai salah satu komponen yang harus dinilai. Untuk menilai pencapaian belajar mereka, guru lebih cenderung menggunakan hasil ujian. Selain itu, ada perbedaan model soal sebagai alat penilaian terhadap siswa di kelas unggulan dan nonunggulan. Mereka juga umumnya belajar hanya untuk lulus ujian akhir nasional. (In doing homework, students usually get help by other people so it is not valid to use as a component of the assessment. To assess students’ achievement, teachers have a tendency to use students’ examination results. Besides, teachers use different questions for examination in fast-learners and in slow-learners classes. The majority of students learn English just to pass the examinations.) Muatan kurikulum sangat padat dan guru-guru dituntut untuk menyelesaikannya dalam waktu yang telah ditentukan. Untuk menghindari rendahnya penilaian kredibilitas pencapaian target kurikulum, guru-guru cenderung mengejar target kurikulum ketimbang menekankan pada target pencapaian siswa. Di samping itu, siswa juga dituntut untuk menguasa pelajaran penting lainnya. Karena hal ini, banyak siswa yang stress belajar bahasa Inggris. (The curriculum content is overloaded and teachers are pushed to finish the curriculum target on time. To avoid a low credit mark on curriculum target achievement given by supervisors, teachers competes to finish the target as quickly as possible. Besides, students are also required to have good achievement in other subjects. For this reason, many students are found to be stressful in learning English.) Banyak siswa yang memang tidak termotivasi dan tidak tertarik untuk belajar bahasa Inggris. Bagi siswa yang seperti itu biasanya berperilaku menyimpang: menyontek, malas, ribut, mengejek teman dan bolos. Untuk mengubah kelakuan mereka, dengan terpaksa guru-guru menggunakan hukuman fisik dan nonfisik. (Many students are not motivated and not interested to learn English. For such students, they usually show disruptive behaviors: cheating, lazy, noisy, mocking their friends and playing truant. For this reason, teachers have to use physical or other kinds of punishment.) Banyak siswa yang belum mengenal bahasa Inggris sama sekali sebelum mereka masuk ke SLTP sehingga bagi mereka bahasa Inggris itu elajaran baru. Yang lebih memprihatinkan, mereka yang sudah naik ke kelas selanjutnya, terkadang tidak mampu mengingat pelaran yang mereka terima di kelas sebelumnya. (Many students find English learning as a new experience at Junior High Schools and they do not have prior knowledge of English. Besides, they often forget what they have learnt in the previous grades.) Kebanyakan orang tua siswa berasal dari kalangan ekonomi lemah dan tidak memiliki latar belakang pendidikan yang cukup tinggi untuk memotivasi anak mereka belajar bahasa Inggris. Mereka umumnya kurang kontrol terhadap kegiatan belajar bahasa Inggris anaknya di rumah sehingga sering ditemukan ada siswa yang PR-nya diselesaikan orang lain. (The majority of students’ parents have low socio-economic and educational background to encourage and to support their children to learn English. They also lack control to their children’s learning activities at home so that students’ homework is often done by other people.) Appendix 4 Parent-Group Discussion Transcription and Translation Fokus Pertanyaan: “ Menurut Bapak-bapak, mengapa banyak anak yang mengalami masalah dalam belajar bahasa Inggris?” Focus Question: “Why do parents think many children have trouble in learning English?” Transkripsi inti jawaban kelompok Key points of the group response Banyak anak yang mengalami masalah dalam belajar bahasa Inggris karena: Many children have trouble to learn English because: Waktu belajar mereka di rumah sangat terbatas karena banyak gangguan, terutama TV, game, playstation, dan bermain. (Watching TV, playing game and playstation, and playing with friend take children’s learning time to learn more at home) Muatan pelajaran bahasa Inggris terlalu banyak dan tidak mengikuti pola bahasa Indonesia. Anak-anak kesulitan menghafal kosakata dan rumus-rumus serta istilah yang digunakan dalam tatabahasa. Di samping itu, mereka juga tidak banyak diperkenalkan dengan budaya asing yang mendasari penggunaan bahasa Inggris sehingga mereka lebih sulit memahami konteks penggunaan bahasa yang tepat. (The content of English materials to be learnt is too many and it does not follow bahasa Indonesia’s language patterns. Children have trouble to memorize vocabularies, and sentence pattern formulas and names used in grammar. Besides, children are not introduced to Western culture, which underpins the use of English so that they find it difficult to use English in contexts.) Anak-anak umumnya memiliki latar belakang bahasa Indonesia dan bahasa daerah yang kuat sehingga terjadi interferensi bahasa dalam otak mereka, utamanya dalam hal pengucapan dan penyusunan kalimat. (The patterns of bahasa Indonesia and local language children have in their schemata interfere in the way they adopt English, particularly in pronunciation and sentence arrangement.) Anak-anak terlalu banyak diberi pekerjaan rumah dari sekolah yang sangat menyita waktu dan melelahkan otak mereka sehingga kesempatan untuk bersosialisasi sangat kurang. (Too much homework from school takes children time a lot and makes their brains exhausted. Children lack time to socialize.) Umunya kegiatan belajar mereka di rumah hanya mengerjakan tugas latihan di LKS tanpa ada penjelasan yang memadai dari gurunya, dan menghafal rumus-rumus tatabahasa. (Children’s learning activities at home are usually doing homework and memorizing grammar formulas.) Materi pelajaran yang mengharuskan mereka menghafal rumus-rumus tatabahasa tidak disesuaikan dengan tingkatan belajar anak-anak. (The learning materials, which push them to memorize grammar formulas, are sometimes not suitable with their learning ability level.) Anaka-anak kurang berlatih menghafalkan kosakata dan latihan percakapan sejak kecil ketika memori mereka masih bagus sehingga banyak di antara mereka yang sangat lemah dalam kedua hal itu. (Children are not familiarized to memorize vocabularies and are not trained to speak since early chilhood when their memory was still good for that purpose. That is why many children are lack of the two elements.) Mereka tidak memiliki buku-buku teks bahasa Inggris dan kamus di rumah. Di sekolah, perpustakaan tidak dapat dijadikan sumber belajar sebab buku-buku pelajaran penunjang tidak memadai. Di awal tahun ajaran, orang tua diminta membeli buku-buku paket untuk semua mata pelajaran dengan harga yang relatif mahal tetapi ternyata tidak digunakan oleh guru dalam pengajarannya. (Children do not have adequate English textbooks and dictionaries at home. At school, the library cannot be used as a learning resource as there are not adequate English textbooks to assist them learning. In the beginning of school terms, parents are asked to buy necessary textbooks, which are relatively expensive, but teachers do not use them in their teaching.) Dalam menilai pencapaian belajar anak, guru kelihatannya tidak adil karena hanya yang ikut kursus saja pada mereka yang diberi nilai tinggi. Di samping itu, tugas-tugas latihan lebih banyak siperiksa oleh teman sendiri tanpa konfirmasi kepada guru. (In assessing children’s achievement, teachers are not fair as they give high mark to those join private Englsih course held by teachers. Besides, children daily English tasks are checked by their classmates without confirming it to teachers.) Banyak orang tua tidak dapat mengontrol belajar anaknya di rumah karena disibukkan dengan pencarian nafkah untuk keluarga. (Many parents are not able to control children’s learning activities at home since they are busy to earn for a living.) Di lingkungan tempat tinggal anak-anak, tidak ada komunitas yang menggunakan bahasa Inggris sebagai bahasa pengantar sehari-hari sehingga mereka tidak dapat mempraktekkan kemampuan bahasa Inggrisnya. Malahan, jika anak-anak mencoba mempraktekkan bahasa Inggris yang mereka ketahui, masyarakat lebih senang mengejek daripada mendukung. Di samping itu, adanya larangan pemerintah untuk menggunakan nama-nama yang berbau keinggris-inggrisan membuat mereka semakin kehilangan model pembelajaran yang otentik. (In our neighborhood, there is no English speaking community as their daily language, so that children find it difficult to practice their English. Besides, the community members mock them when they try to practice their English. The government also bans the use of English names for public services, which eliminates models for children to learn English.) Di sekolah mereka, tidak ada aturan yang menganjurkan anak-anak untuk selalu menggunaka bahasa Inggris sehari-hari. (At school, there is no rule to use English, even in class when they are studying English.) Walaupun diikutkan kursus di tempat lainnya, lembaga pendidikan tersebut tidak dapat menjamin sepenuhnya kemampuan berbahasa Inggris anak-anak karena banyak lembaga yang bertujuan komersil semata. (Although children are registered in private English courses held by other institution, they cannot guarantee the success of our children in using English because many courses are for commercialpurpose only.) Kebanyakan anak-anak Indonesia pemalu, diam di dalam kelas, malu berbuat salah, dan sangat patuh kepada guru sehingga karakteristik ini menyulitkan mereka untuk mengembangkan potensi bahasa Inggris mereka yang menuntut lebih aktif. (The characteristics of Indonesian children are shy, quiet in class, reluctant to make mistakes, and obedience without critisism to their teachers which are not suitable to improve their English competence as the improvement needs active roles.) Latar belakang pendidikan orangtua umumnya tidak memadai untuk membantu anak-anak belajar bahasa Inggris. Di samping itu, karena bahasa bersifat dinamis, sudah banyak aturan kebahasaan yang dipelajari di masa orang uta bersekolah, sekarang sudah banyak yang tidak berlaku lagi. (Parents educational background is generally inadequate to assist their children in learning English at home. Besides, since language is dynamic, some language rules studied by parents in the past are not used nowadays.) Banyak guru yang memberikan hukuman yang tidak mendidik kepada anak di sekolah jika mereka berbuat kesalahan, misalnya dengan membayar sejumlah uang untuk kesalahan yang diperbuat anak. (Many teachers give uneducative punishment when children make mistakes, such as asking children to pay with some money.) Orang tua cenderung memberikan hadiah kepada anak yang berprestasi saja di akhir semester. (Parents have a habit to give rewards to bright children only when finishing school term.) Orang tua pada umunya tidak sanggup menyediakan dana untuk membeli buku-buku pelajaran yang setiap tahunnya berubah. Ada kecurigaan, guru-guru bekerjasama dengan penerbit untuk selalu mengganti buku kerja anak setiap semester. (Many parents have not enough money to buy English and other textbooks, which are changed every year. It is suspected that teachers and publishers are doing a collution to sell practice books every semester.) Semua anak dimotivasi untuk ikut kursus padahal kemampuan orang tua dalam hal pembiayaan tidak sama. Seharusnya anak yang dari golongan tidak mampu, diberikan pembebasan biaya untuk mengikuti kursus. Mungkin uang pembayaran kursus masih bisa diupayakan jika saja guru benar-benar melaksanakan tugasnya dengan baik tanpa iming-iming pemberian tambahan nilai. (All children are encouraged to join private English course held by teachers without considering parents’ income. Children from low-income family should not pay for the course. If only teachers do their jop properly in such course, parents are still motivated to look for money to pay for the course.) Banyak guru yang tidak memiliki kemampuan berbahasa Inggris dan kemampuan mengajar yang memadai untuk mengajar di SLTP. Akan tetapi, mereka memberanikan diri untuk menjadi guru bahasa Inggris karena pekerjaan ini memang cukup menjanjikan dan selalu dibutuhkan pemerintah. (Many English teachers lack English proficiency and teaching competence to teach English at Junior High Schools but they insist to become English teachers as this job is prospective and on demand.) Banyak guru yang tidak memahami pentingnya menjadi fasilitator dan motivator bagi anak-anak dalam belajar. Bahasa Inggris termasuk pelajaran sulit dan dibutuhkan kesabaran dan keterampilan guru untuk mendidik mendampingi mereka sehingga mereka tidak terlalu cemas untuk tidak berhasil. (English is a difficult subject and invites anxiety. Therefore, English teachers should have enough patiences and skills to support children in learning English. However, many teachers are not realized the importance of their roles as motivator and facilitator children’s learning.) Untuk mengatasi perilaku anak-anak yang kurang terpuji pada saat belajar bahasa Inggris, guru sebaiknya memberikan tindakan untuk melatih kedisiplinan mereka. (To cope with children’s disruptive behaviors when they are learning English in class, teachers should give them educative punishment to maintain discipline.) 92