COTEFL

Being East and Being West...(Khristianto & Widya Nirmalawati)

2009-05-15T00:26:00.000-07:00

COTEFL-International Conference on Teaching English as Foreign Language

BEING WEST AND BEING EAST: THE EFFECTS ON JAVANESE SOCIAL COMMUNICATION IN ENGLISH

Khristianto & Widya Nirmawalati

Muhammadiyah University of Purwokerto

Mobile: 085227737495, E-mail: rezalx@yahoo.com

Abstract

The reality has proved that the different culture brings a typical social behavior, including the different strategy in a daily communication. An aspect of reality may be considered important to be verbalized in a certain culture, but it is just meaningless and ignorable for another. It seems that the cultural system as the context of language use inevitably affects much the forms and the functional aspects. The egalitarian atmosphere and the non-existence of extended family or in another way the individualism and/or the not very significant meaning of family in the individual life in the western are the values which are contrast to the eastern.

This, then, raises the differences way the community have in seeing others, the elders and/or the members of the family. The eastern call the persons by the kinship terms. The terms are brought wider to include other person beyond the family as the symbol to respect them. The parents will hush, as their son calls name for a friend deserves to older brother by the age.

For the Eastern, being old means being to be respected, for the younger generation. This, then, results in the respecting address, even for the unknown person, as he or she looks older than him/herself, an individual should be addressed with the respecting address, drawn from the kinship terms to accord the age and the appropriate rank in the familial link. While the western will address others by the names, mostly, if the persons are close, they will directly call their first names. In other situation, they will use “Mr., Mrs., Ms, DR,” followed by their family name.

This paper will explore some effects induced by the cultural gap and suggests some points to consider by the teachers dealing with the communication ethics in speaking class.

Introduction

The reality has proved that the different culture brings a typical social behavior, including the different strategy in a daily communication. An aspect of reality may be considered important to be verbalized in a certain culture, but it is just meaningless and ignorable for another. A culture may see gratitude as something normally manifested in verbal expression, that it has many expressions to represent the sense of “gratitude” like “thanks” in English or “terima kasih” in Bahasa Indonesia. Another culture may manifest the same feeling in another way than the verbal media. This is also the case other kinds of feeling of which a certain culture has its own way to realize in its own cultural context and situational context.

In Indian culture for example, as in most eastern cultures, the familial linkage, the occupation, and the age are the significant factors determining the way they communicate. This fact, then, reveals in a form of honorific addresses to refer someone with one of those properties: familial link, being older, or having an honorable profession. A person in India will address someone they respect by transforming into plural. An Indonesian takes another to do that; he or she will apply kinship terms, like “bapak”, “ibu” , “mbak”, “mas”, “kang,” and etc, according to the age of the respected persons. If he/she is in an age older than a speaker, and deserves to be older brother or sister, the terms “mbak/mas” (meaning “sister” or “brother”) will be chosen.

A research has been done by Supardo (2006) to discover the addresses applied by an aristocratic Javanese family. The interlocutors as the data are father, mother, children, and servant. It is found out that each interlocutor has his/her specific addresses as talking to another member of the family; the address applied by each individual is determined by his/her relation to the addressee. The lord of the house, for example, is addressed with “mas” by his wife, “rama” by his children, and “ndoro” by the servant.

Another investigation is done by Pujiyatno (2008) who tried to cover the kinship terms among the common people in a Javanese community. It is found out that the community uses the familial addressee not just limited to their extended family. They don’t only function to show the blood relationship, but also to respect the others. Then, the terms are used to address anyone who is respected. For example, the term om “uncle” which originally means to refer someone who is sibling to father/mother can be used to say om satpam or om (the toy peddlers). It is impossible for Javanese to call by name to someone older.

Greetings: An Interpersonal Function

Functional in Halliday’s view is simply the language in use. He declared that the existence of language is always in the context of practices made by its corresponding speakers. It is those practices that evolutively develop a language system (1985: xv). In other words, Saussure believed that paroles (the empirical practices of language use in any kinds) which are produced by human community in each social interaction is the only empirical entities and experiences of the langue, the rules of language that is actually preserved in human mind (Ahisma-Putra: 2005).

Language is not other than a means to serve human’s needs—functional, pragmatically practices. Greetings and addressing are a part of the interpersonal aspects of language function. It means the terms or forms of expression in those social domain emerge as the manifestation of relation among the individuals as the social creature. Alip (2006:79), quoting Widdowson (1997) and Aitchison (2003), stated that among interpersonal function is the use of language for social relation, taking place in phatic communion within which language is used to promote good relationship between the speech participants.

Discussion

Western and Eastern Culture

It seems that the cultural system as the context of language use is inadequately affects much the forms and the functional aspects. The egalitarian atmosphere and the non-existence of extended family or in another way the individualism and/or the not very significant meaning of family in the individual life in the western are the values which are contrast to the eastern.

This, then, raises the differences way the community have in seeing others, the elders and/or the members of the family. The eastern call the persons by the kinship terms. The terms are brought wider to include other person beyond the family as the symbol to respect them. The parents will hush, as their son calls the name for a friend deserve to older brother by the age.

For the eastern, being old means to be respected, for the younger generation. This, then, results in the respecting address, even for the unknown person, as he or she looks older then ego, an individual should be addressed with the respecting address, drawn from the kinship terms to accord the age and the appropriate rank in the familial link.

The western will address others by names, ignoring the age of the addressee. If the persons are close, they will directly call their first names. In other situation, they will use “Mr., Mrs., Ms, DR,” followed by their family name. The addresses in the Indonesia include the kinship terms like Bapak, Ibu, Saudara, Tuan, Nyonya, Mas, Abang, Om, Tante, that may be followed by the name. This terms are not only for the person having a familial relation, but also others who the speaker intends to respect, even for a person that is just encountered in public space in a bus or in the bench of football stadium. Kinship terms are a bridge to address someone as the speaker has not known his/her name, replacing just “hi” or “hello” in English context.

Adressing Terms

Indonesian

English

Bapak, Ibu, Saudara, Tuan, Nyonya, Mas, Abang, Om, Tante, names, adik, paman, pak-De

Mr, Sir, Mr., Mrs, DR, Madam, girls, guy, budy, you, names.

Eastern Ethics: Polite Esteem

The application of the kinship terms in eastern culture, Indonesia and other local languages is a sort of internalized value and it is the standard way in addressing someone older. An individual will call by name as the addressee is at the same social level, or at the same age. In a situation in which the addressee is a foreigner, Javanese or Indonesian will find an appropriate terms like, om, mas, pak, and etc. Again the terms are taken from the familial setting. If one violates this rule, others will view the behavior to be unethical.

English has no equivalents for the term. The languages just has terms with no meaning of familial link: ”Mr, Mrs, Miss” which in bahasa Indonesia may be the same as ”Tuan,” ”Nyonya” and ”Nona” used in a very specific situation, and hard to find in a daily communication. This is evidence that there is a significant cultural gap between the east and the west, especially on the addressing.

Compromising Eastern Culture in Western Code

The addressing terms which are realized in the daily social interaction of the eastern culture are inevitably lost as the interlocutors speak English. This is due to inexistence of the parallel terms in English marking a respect to the second person we talk to. The problem is how to make the politeness in our communication is verbally delivered? Or is there a way to make an English communication take place by keeping the Javanese ethics in place?

Teachers may put this point into their consideration. The real example of how the kinship terms are applied in social communication is in the movie imported from Hong Kong or India. It may reflect the real situation as they have English as second language. They apply the terms ”brother,” ”sister”, ”uncle” or ”aunt” as the replacement of the kinship terms which do not only function to show the real relationship of the family, but more about the way to show respect or politeness. In a gangster movie, the member of the gang may call their senior, with “Brother Hung” or “first brother”, “second brother”, “uncle Chow”, and etc.

The translated terms into English are actually not so sufficient to represent whole terms used in an extended family of eastern culture. Is it acceptable to our eastern thought if we just left the politeness code? This is very important if we have an ideal to put English as our communication media, to bridge the social communication in the context of Javanese culture. Or is it possible to attach the terms in our English utterance to naturalize the situation, and to escape from the ethical doubt to call the name for the person we actually want to respect.

Mbak, do you have the book?

Mas, could you tell me where it is?

Mas Yus, I really need your help.

In our context, we will say like this:

Apa Ibu mau ini?

This addressee is directed to the second person who is actually there with the speaker. The normality of grammar says that the second person is kamu/you. However, the ethics says another. It is impolite to address to someone we should respect by “kamu”. We should change the kamu into the kinship terms, according to the appropriateness to his/her age. In this case, a mother will be upset, and suggest the child not to call her “kamu”.

*Mah, roti ini separonya buat kamu ya…*

Or in another situation, a girl will address her senior like below.

Mbak Wid, mau nitip?

which will not be normally transferred into English into?

“Mbak Wid, do you want me to buy some?

The expression of politeness in Javanese culture is really hard to realize as we communicate in English. This case is similar with the addressing somebody in higher position. It is hard to write “mu” (your) in an SMS to mean “panjenengan” or “bapak/ibu” in Javanese or Indonesia.

“Sir, I lost my book, Could I borrow yours.”

The egalitarian tone is obviously seen in this text. While in Javanese, we actually want to pack this expression in a very polite tone. Seeing the case above, English will only show its respect tone via a vocative tool, like the examples below.

Mom, do you want it?

When a person will address to someone he/she respect, he must accompany the second person: you” by the vocative tool of politeness. This will also include when it comes to possessive “you”. For the case of the specific term like mbak, it seems that we can keep it to include in our communication in eastern context. This part may be a style of Indonesian English.

To replace “you” in Javanese social communication with English code, it is possible to make our utterance is mix of English lexical code and Javanese social ethics, by putting the kinship terms in the utterance. This way will keep our politeness verbal expression and enable us to communicate in English way. Perhaps, this will create some odd in our expression, but this is a kind of middle way to bridge the egalitarian nature of English, and our typical ethics as Javanese interlocutors. Thus, we may consider these expressions.

1) Could Ibu come to the office? (“Could you come to the office”)

2) Are they Bu Nur’s sisters? (Are they your sisters)

3) Prof, we are waiting for Bapak’s presentation material. (Prof, we are waiting for your presentation material)

4) Mbak, do Embak have the book? (Mbak, do you have the book)

5) Mas, could Mas Arif tell me where it is? (Mas, could you tell me where it is)

6) Mas Yus, I really need Mas Yus’s help. (Mas Yus, I really need your help)

There is always a sacrifice in any form of compromised way. Just like Purwo (2009) said that there is a sacrifice of our cultural value as we communicate in English. And one of them is the politeness value which is just lost as we talk in English. In fact, we still want to verbalize the politeness but English is not so sufficient in terms of politeness verbalization.

Final Remarks

The paper is only an initial step to consider some cultural gap which influences our communication. The middle way above is only a hypothesis that we may take, and there are more possibilities to propose in the future with more consideration. At least, this brief view have touched our subtle part of English communication which so far has been left in our ignorance, seeing the fact that there are more considerable matters that should addressed in the context of English learning in our country. However, an attention should be paid for the matter, as well, at least by the individuals who share the concern.

References

Ahimsa-Putra, Heddy Shri. 2005. Strukturalisme Levi-Strauss. Yogyakarta: Keppel Press.

Alip, Fr. B. 2006. Language and Peace. Journal Phenomena: Journal of Language and Literature Vol.10. No.2-October 2006. Yogyakrta: Dept. of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University.

Halliday, M.A.K. 1985. Introduction to Functional Grammar. London: Edward Arnold.

Purwo, Bambang Kaswanti. 2009. The Development of Language Study. Informal Lecture for 1^st COTEFL May 1-2, 2009.

Pujiyatno, Ambar. 2009. Istilah-Istilah Kekerabatan Masyarakat Kabupaten Kebumen: Sebuah Kajian Etnolinguistik. Jurnal Leksika: Jurnal Bahasa, Sastra dan Pengajarannya Vol.3.No.1. Pebruari 2009. Purwokerto: Fakultas Sastra, UMP.

Supardo, Susilo. 2006. Addressing Terms in Javanese Aristocrat Family. Jurnal Leksika: Jurnal Bahasa, Sastra dan Pengajarannya Vol.1.No.2. Agustus 2006. Purwokerto: Fakultas Sastra, UMP.

Exploring Traditional Games...(Titik & Adi)

2009-05-15T00:23:00.000-07:00

COTEFL-International Conference on Teaching English as Foreign Language

EXPLORING TRADITIONAL GAMES AS AN ALTERNATIVE WAY OF LEARNING

Titik Wahyuningsih & Bustanuddin As-Suaidy

Faculty of Letter, UMP

Abstract

Traditional games are parts of the cultural heritage that we must preserve. In the ancestral games, there are countless values of good conduct as the foundation to undertake the living course in the future. In this reasoning, the culture treasure will be more beneficials, if they are modified to create a learning design in the English teaching.

The design was created by intergating the materials in the convential English games into each traditional game as the base. Sometimes, a sort of modification was taken through to accommodate the English material. The design by applying kathik, one of the traditional games, may be applied to cover several topics in English learning. This is only a very initial step to investigate other common culture that we have to fulfill our need and to the sake of the cultural preservation.

Introduction

Damayanti (2008:33 ) says “language learning is effectively proven (appropriate) for elder learners”. By taken from many sources, she states that elder learners are better than younger learners. Even their pronouncing capability, which is convinced as a better language (way) to be applied for younger learners. It means ‘young’ is not the main factor to result capability of pronouncing words as well as native speakers. Although, she also states that difficulty which will be faced by elder learners to pronounce well is interference of the first language which is acquired before. Then, Damayanti (2008:34) explicitly states that the best language capability of second language acquisition is not only age-factor, but also psychosocial context and learning condition. One of psychosocial contexts is the use of a language in a society. According to Stern and Ellis, she also states that social context influences behavior and learners’ motivation, and It will gives the effects for learning condition then. Thus, English learning for early age learners is useful and profitable enough, with considering the corelation betweenn psychosocial contexts and learning condition. Based on the background above, language teaching will be better if it is applied for early age learners. Of course, English teaching for kindergarten and elementary school is in accordance with use of this language period. It means, hopefully English is easier to be applied by students. Unfortunately, English teaching for children is commonly given in a same way with English teaching for adult. In fact, these two age-levels are exactly different.

The games as ‘the wrap’ of this material are traditional games which is part of Central Java cultural wealth. It is widely known that the games are almost extinct, because these games are left by Javanese children. Maybe, they know only ‘imported’ games and they do not know the games which became the favourite games for their parent at all. Whereas, there are many social functions behind these traditional games which were designed by Javanese ancestors. One of them is the message of togetherness. So this research will ‘wrap‘ the material on an entertaining games form, and it has also the meaning of cultural wealth reservation and keep the social harmony using traditional Javanese, especially existed traditional games in the region of Pemalang Regency.

Games : Humanistic and Effective Learning

One of aspect helps the achievement of learning purpose is humanistic learning-process, Maskowitz (1978:14) explained as follow:

Humanistic education recognizes that it is legitimate to study oneself. The content relates to the feelings, experience, memories, hopes, aspirations, beliefs, values, needs and fantasies of the students. It strives to integrate the subject matter and personal growth dimensions into the curriculum.

On each learning process, feeling will always occur and it should be considered as an important part on existed process because learning is influenced by how learners feel themselves. So humanistic learning treats learners’feeling and information should be informed as unseparateble part on a learning process.

To create humanistic learning, Maslow, on Maskowitz (1978:13) states that a teacher does not only acccept students but also should be able to help student learning and understanding humanistic question such as what are they looked like. In addition, Maslow emphasized that learning process should be nice and make student enjoying the process it self.

Supporting Maskowitz statement, Dewanto (2004:5) states that humanistic learning can be effectively conducted if students are accustomed to be independent and autonomous learners. Humanistic effective learning should also be able to increase the ability of improving and developing good personal relationship, notice and support and also another learner’s acceptance as it is.

Humanistic and effective learning process can be also conducted well if expirience, feeling, intelectual and emotional capability owned by learners can be accomodated well. On the other hand, the same treatment for different learning way helps creating humanistic and effective learning process. Then, when learners are satisfied enough and find the joys on learning process so it can be said that the process is well done.

According to Adisasminto (2008:84) art as a game-form is almost equal with humanistic learning form. He explained that art-activities and other acivity forms which could be called ‘playing’ are a creative process includes imagination on its big portion. On such kind condition, human can put them selves on unlimited imaginative world, give opportunity to ensharpen their creativity and find something new which is usual thing based on other common people.

Then he explains that learning process, which is heavy ‘brain’ activity, will be effectively done on relax condition both mentaly and physicaly. So learning process should include nice activities as a creative thinking way. The activities such as games, especially on art-form will result applied spiritual condition which is honest, autonomous, creative, balance, and spiritual attitudes.

Traditional Games Recovery

Central Java, or Javanese culture in common, has cultural wealth such as traditional games which could be played by children or even adult. They are Petak Umpet, Bola Bekel, Engklek, Dakon, and etc are nice games. Besides having entertaining functions, they have also social meaning. According to Monk, and his friends (1987:117) who took Rusian Ljublinskaja’s statement, states games as the reflection of real condition, as the beginning form to gain knowledge, and the existance of games is determined by cultural factor as the context.

Taken from Buytendijk’statement, they arrange the detail of games characteristics, which are shortly include: existance of instruments, ‘take and give’corelation, game-rules and place, and it limits scope of the game. From the characteristics above, Huizinga definition (on Monks, and his friends:1987) can explain the definition of game, “It is voluntary activities which is played in limited place and time, based on rules, voluntarily admitted with personal purposes, tight and happy sense, and playing the games is different with daily life.”

With playing the games, children will be entertained and also will keep social relationship with others, so the social corelation will be kept until they are adult. Adisasminto (2008:83) states that game as one of cultural product can make physical and minded activities more lively. The existance of games is equal with the existance of art as the product of human activities. On the process of a played games, there are beauty and joys of togetherness, like the art product which could ‘absurb’ the focus of art creators.

However, in accordance with the progress of technology, traditional games are often played. Children like modern games such as play station, video games, or even on-line games that can be easily connected using internet rather than traditional games.

So the effort of traditional games recovery has a large meaning. This effort is aimed to make how traditional games are played and are loved by Indonesian children. In addition, it has cultural reservation on the proceess of English learning. There are some reasons why traditional games can support increassing process of children English capability. It was explained before that humanistic and effective learning can increase inter-personal relationship and can create nice learning process because of the existance of accepting aspect and also inter-personal care which are included. Traditional games can optimize children’s potential which is opened widely because there are not compulsions and the existance of expressing freedom.

In the other hand, togetherness within the traditional games supports the steps of children social growth. Tim Pengembangan MKDK IKIP Semarang (1991:166) states there are four levels of children social growth:

1. Children are required not to be unprofitable, and they can appreciate others.

2. Children are educated to be able to obey the rules and they can adapt with social norms.

3. Children are required to be more ‘adult’ in social interaction based on “take and give” principle.

4. Children are required to be able to understand/to socialize others.

Table 1.

Types and form of Traditional Games

No		Name of Traditional games	Number of player	Instrument	Place	Time
	1	Bacean	> 3	Piece of roof tile/ wooden stick	Outdoor	Noon
	2	Kathik	> 2	Wooden sticks (long and short)	Outdoor	Noon
	3	Banthan	2 and its multiple	Stone, and arena (place) of game	Outdoor	Noon
	4	Jamuran	> 5	Wihout instrument	Outdoor	Noon/night
	5	Sarunggeng	> 6	Wihout instrument	Outdoor/wide area	Night
	6	Gerobak serbu	> 4 (even)	Wihout instrument	Outdoor	Noon/Night
	7	Kethikar_kethikur	> 3	Pieces of Cassava leaves stem	Outdoor/indoor	Noon
	8	Tungkup Madu	> 4 (even)	Without instrument	Outdoor	Noon/Night
	9	Semut-semutan	> 3	Clothes to close eyes	Outdoor	Noon/Night
	10	Bantha (Panggalan)	> 2	Spinning top and rope	Outdoor	Noon
	11	Oglong	> 2	Stone, and arena (place) of game	Outdoor	Noon

Design of alternative learning: Kathik

Kathik game is a game uses motoric coordination of upper legs, or hand, using stick as hitting instument to hit a small stick as an object. One of player should hit small sticks as many as possible in order to fly as away as possible from the starting point. Longer distance and numbers of punch are indicators of gainned scores. Then by using long and short sticks, player will account the gainned score. This accounting aspect which will be the subject of English learning. In other words, players will pronounce the number in English.

Player could begin to account from one to ten, or more. It is minmally can be used as starting reference. The number can be added until twenty and more. In addition, player should memorize the number in English. If other player would ask the final score, he should answer in English. So did those who asked the question, they should ask in English, such as “How many is yuor score now?” If someone makes any mistakes in pronouncing number or final score, so he/she will be disqualified and the next player will get his/her turn.

Besides number, the game material can also be colour, body part, family, etc. The topic is based on the played material. It can be done by giving chances for all other player (or numbers of question can be limited based on agreement) to ask a question about talked topic, before someone hit small stick. It means if he/she cannot answer the correct answer, so he/she is not allowed to hit. Whatever the topic, it can be applied on this game. Therefore, there are some alternative topics (provided by researcher) which can be applied for English learning. Hopefully, learners will not only understand cognitively, but also will be able to pronounce the words in good pronounciation. It means, the truth is not only about understanding of meaning, but also capabilty of pronouncing correctly.

Tabel 4.

Berbagai Jenis Topik

Permainan Bahasa Inggris

(disarikan dari Hadfield, 2003)

No	Topik	Muatan Materi
1.	Family	a. Main vocabularies : aunt, brother, cousin, daughter father, grandfather, granddaughter, grandmother, grandson, husband, mother, nephew, niece, sister, son, uncle, wife. b. Additional vocabulary : number c. Structure : be, have, possessive ’s
2.	Color	a. Main vocabularies: black, blue, brown, green, grey, mauve, orange, pink, purple, red, white, yellow. b. Additional vocabulary : bathroom, bedroom, clothes, dining room, favourite, hall, kitchen, living room, paint, tin (of paint) c. Structure: be, have got, like, want to.
3.	Animal Toth (1995:20-21)	a. Main vocabularies : head, tail, legs, neck, body, eyes, ears. Animal names : giraffe, fish, bear, monkey, cow,crocodile, frog, lion, tiger, bird, dog, cat, sheep, elephant, parrot, eagle, ostrich, leopard, panda, penguin, hippopotamus. c. Additional vocabulary : Warna: black, white, brown, yellow, grey, red, blue, green. d. Structure : Adjective + noun : big/small, short/long. Lives in grassland, water, cold places, in the mountains, in a tree, in the jungle, eat fish, bananas, meat, leaves, grass.
4.	Body	a. Main vocabularies : arm, chest, elbow, finger, foot, hand, head, leg, neck, shoulder, stomach, toe. b. Additional vocabulary: big, long, round, small, square: lift, rub, touch, waggle. c. Structure : have got, imperative sentence.
5.	Face	a. Vocabularies: beard, cheeks, chin, ears, eyebrows, eyelashes, eyes, forehead, hair, lips, moustache, mouth, nose, teeth. b. Adjective : black, blonde, blue, brown, green, red; big, long, pointed, round, short, small, square, straight, thin. c. structure : have got, be.
6.	House	a. Vocabularies: room : attic, bathroom, bedroom, cellar, dining room, garage, garden, hall, kitchen, landing, living room, stairs, toilet. floor : basement, first floor, ground floor, second floor b. Structure : be, next to, on. This is…
7.	Food and drink	a. Vocabularies : drinks : coffee, milk, orange juice, tea, wine. food : beef, biscuits, bread, butter, cake, cheese, chicken, cooking oil, eggs, fish, flour, ice cream, lamb, rice, sphagetti, sugar. b. structure : be, have got, would like.
8.	Fruits and vegetables	a. Vocbulary : fruits : apples, bananas, cherries, grapes, lemons, mangoes, melons, oranges, peaches, pears, pinapples, plums, strawberries. vegetables : avocados, beans, cabbages, cauliflower. Cucumbers. Lettuces, mushrooms, onions, peas, peppers, potatoes, tomatoes. b. Structure : be, have got, like/don’t like, some/any.
9.	Season, month ,and day.	a. vocabularies : seasons: rainy, dry, winter, summer, autumn, spring, month : January, August, December, etc. day : Sunday, Tuesday, Wed, Thurs, Fry, and Saturday. b. Additional vocabularies best, birthday, day, least, month, season: angka. c. structure : be, be born, can,like: present simpe, time preposition (in, on), dan because clauses.
10.	Weather	a. Vocabularies : bright, cloudy, cold, dull, foggy, hot, icy.misty, rainy, showery, snowy, stormy, sunny, warm, windy. b. Additional vocabularies : suncream, sunglasses, umbrella, raincoat, foglamp, kite, oilskin, skates, T-shirt, jumper, swimsuit, woolly hat. c. Structure : be, like + V-ing, need, What…like?
11.	Daily activities	a. Vocabularies : brush, catch, come, cook, do the shopping, drink, drive, eat, fetch (from school), finish, get out of, get to, listen to, make, play, put on, read, ride, ring, shut, sleep, start, take (to school), talk, throw, turn off, wake up, wash, watch, write. b. Additional vocabularies : bathroom, bed, bike, breakfast, bus, car, coffee, dinner, door, downstair, hair, kitchen, letters, lunch, radio, tea, teeth, time, TV, work. (jenis-jenis makana lain bisa ditambahkan di sini). c. structure : be, at…o’clock: present simple.
12.	Body movement	a. Main vocabularies body: bend, climb, crawl, fall, jump, kick, kneel, lie, run, sit, stand, swim, swing, turn, walk. tangan: carry, catch, drop, give, hold, lift, pick up, pull, push, take, throw, touch, wave. b. Additional vocabularies : baby, ball, beach, case, platform, rocks, shell, ticket, train, trolley. c. c. structure : be, have got: simple present, present continous.

Clossing

By considering implication of cultural value application as ‘local genius’ for youth. It is not an extragregated hope that traditional games can be conserved with applying the games for children. The use of these games as a way of English learning is one of efforts to reach the hopes. Hopefully, children will not only play the game under teachers’oversight, but also they play the games on their daily activities without teachers’oversight. Therefore, children will know traditional games with its hesitate use on personal development as the fundament of social develepment.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Adisasmito, Nuning Damayanti. 2008. Education of Art as a Process of Innovative and Creative Cultural Heritage in the Indonesian Society. Jurnal Educare, Vol.1. No.1, August 2008. Bandung: ASPENSI, IKA UPI Bandung dan FKIP-UMP.

Dewanto, Wasi.2004. Implications of LBPP LIA Core Curriculum on Teachers, Materials Assessments. Makalah disampaikan pada Diklat Akademis, LBPP LIA, Jakarta, 2004.

Damayanti, Ika Lestari. 2008. Is the Younger the Better? Teaching English to Young Learners in the Indonesian Context. Jurnal Educare, Vol.1. No.1, August 2008. Bandung: ASPENSI, IKA UPI Bandung dan FKIP-UMP.

Djatmika, Wuji Hanggraeni. 2005. Introducing English To Bilingual Children: A Case Study At Tk. Negeri Pembina Surakarta. (Makalah di Konferensi TEFLIN 53 di Yogyakarta).

Granger, Collin & Plumb, John. 1993. Play Games with English 2: Teacher’s Resource Book. Oxford: Heinemann International.

Hadfield, Jill. 2003. Elementary Vocabulary Games: A Collection of Vocabulary Games and Activities for Elementary Students of English. Harlow: Longman.

Liao, Xiao Qing. 2001. Information Gap in Communicative Classrooms. Majalah Forum: Edisi Oktober 2001.

Maskowitz, Gertrude.1978. Caring and Sharing in the Foreign Language Class: A Sourcebook on Humanistic Techniques. Massachussets: Newbury House Publisher, Inc. Rowley.

Monks, F.J., Knoers, A.M.P., & Haditono, Siti Rahayu. 1987. Psikologi Perkembangan: Pengantar dalam berbagai bagiannya. Yogyakarta: Gadjah Mada University Press.

Savignon, Sandra J. 2002. Communicative Curriculum Design for the 21^st Century. Majalah Forum: Edisi Januari 2002.

Sutopo, H.B. 1998. Metode Penelitian Kualitatif. Surakarta: UNS Press.

Tim Pengembangan MKDK IKIP Semarang. 1991. Dasar-Dasar Pendidikan: Semarang: IKIP Semarang Press.

Toth, Maria. 1995. Heinemann Children’s Games. Oxford: Heinemann Publishers.

Localized English...(Condro & Sulasih)

2009-05-15T00:21:00.000-07:00

COTEFL-International Conference on Teaching English as Foreign Language

LOCALIZED ENGLISH, WHAT ARE ITS IMPLICATIONS ON ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING?

Condro Nur Alim & Sulasih Nurhayati

Muhammadiyah University of Purwokerto

Abstract

The phenomenon of Englishes (Localization of English) in some countries has become an interesting topic in language studies. The term such as Singlish (Singaporean English) or Manglish (Malaysian English) refers to the ‘unique characteristics’ of English used in those areas. As a result, it may produce the unique variety of English. The term ‘localized’ itself can be simply defined as local characters incorporated in English. Localization, on the other hand may be an attempt to abridge the learners’ difficulties in learning English in native-like way as well as to capture the specific psyche in that local.

Localized English allows the speaker to pronounce English words in a different way from the dictionary. It is also possible for them to be different in accent. As long as they understood each other, they do not need to bother themselves with the ‘correct’ pronunciation and accent. As the consequence the students will not be burdened to speak as closely as native speakers’ accent and pronunciation. It is believed that localized English will give a great encouragement to the students since the difficulties in studying English in native-like way has been minimized by localization.

Localized English also gives a place for local cultures and values tobe incorporated into English language teaching. Therefore, local culture awareness will be another requirements in teaching English in such context.

Since it has been generally accepted as ‘variety of English’ localized English surely has implications on English language teaching. This paper is aimed at exposuring some possible implications of localized English on English language teaching.

Key words: localized, implications, language, teaching

Introduction

English is the language which is used widely among the people around the world. As the consequence, it is unavoidable that certain local characteristics will influence the nature of English in that area. The so-called standard variety of English will be influenced by local language. As the result, a new variety of English –well known as Englishes- will emerge in that region.

In this context, the term of localized English, simply can be understood as the new variety of English in a certain area which is influence by local variety. As this phenomenon has already taken place in many countries such as Malaysia and Singapore, taking account on this matters, will be an interesting discussion. Although Indonesian have not experienced such phenomenon yet, in daily life this ‘localization’ happens.

Therefore, this paper will discuss about the phenomenon of English localization in term of what are ‘localized’ as well as describing its possible implications in case that localization is generally accepted as the local variation of English.

Englishes Reality

Englishes is a term for recently emerging and increasingly autonomous varieties of English, especially in a non-western setting. This term is used to contrast with the varieties of English spoken in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. However, the term is sometimes also used more broadly to refer to all varieties of English except for those spoken on the British Isles.

In the real world, the number of non-native countries speaking English both as an international communications tool and as local varieties increases significantly. Braj B. Kachru estimated that there is 400 million non-native speakers of English, who are spread all over the world. As English has been used as an auxiliary language in non-native English speaking countries, it has undergone a transplantation in non-American and non-British situations. Consequently, new varieties, styles, registers, and rhetorical models of thinking inevitably emerge, and their authentic and appropriate use in daily conversation cannot be determined and judged by reference to English native speakers, who have become outsiders from the Third World ""Englishes"". (Setiono: 2005).

The phenomenon of Englishes can be found almost in allcountries, for example, such familiar terms as Singlish (Singaporean English), Manglish (Malaysian English), Urrdlish (Urdu English), Japlish (Japanese English), Spanglish (Spanish English), and Hinglish (Hindi English).

Englishes in Literary Works

The local variation of English, actually do not only happen in the daily use of that language, but it has also been used as the language of literary works. The use of local variety of English in many literary works has shown us that Englishes has become our language reality.

Preeta Samarasand, the author of Evening is the Whole Day wrote:

“The English in which I write, is not standard English, but Malaysian English or Manglish, as we call it in Malaysia, and that what actually I meant when I listed interest in ‘Global English’ – I meant English that is not the Queen’s English but that has been transformed/localized to become the native language of people outside England. I’ve argued elsewhere that Manglish is the true ‘native language’ of Malaysia…I think the use of Manglish allows me to capture the Malaysian psyche in a way that no other language would, not even Bahasa Malaysia. (Budianta: 2008)

The following is the example of Manglish in Preeta’s work, that reflects the general characteristics of a local variation of English.

“Chhi!” Amma says, the syllable exploding directly into her mug of tea. “Can’t even be bothered to find a tissue!” If she had listened to your Appa and started packed nicely one moth ago she wouldn’t be in such a mess now, all kacan-mucan running here running there and sniffing and gasping all over the place, isn’t it? (Budianta: 2008)

Another phenomenon of local variation of English in literary work can be found from Moni Mohsin. He is the author of End of Innocence. He wrote as follows:

“My experience is similar to Preeta’s in that though I can read and write both urdu and English, I write only in the latter. And like Preeta,the dialoque that I write is not the Queen’s English, but a mix of English and Urdu, that we call Urdlish. The sensibility of Urdlish is also particular and distinct to Pakistanis, because the language mirrors the culture’ (Budianta: 2008)

Look at the following example of how Urdlish is used in Moni Mohsin ‘The End of Innocence”

“Wimbldeon’s very bore. The women look like khussras. Look at those Venus sisters. (But doesn’t Janoo always say that Venus in the loo in Paris has no arms and yet she has aafat figure? But if she has no arms how does she do backhand?). Maybe these Venus sisters are different. I tau like that blondie Russian wali, Sherpova. Such a nice figure, such long long golden hairs. Wonder where she gets her highlight? Must be from Tony and Gay.

Hai best news tau batana hee bhool gayee. We’re going to london. Janoo’s taken a flat in Baywater. Big concert’s going to be there right next door in Hide Park Concert is for Live Aids ke liye. Kulchoo’s obsessed with it. He’s told me Madonna’s coming. U2 Shu2, Sting vagera, sub Harrods sale is also on and my committee’s out. Gucci chuuchi here I come! (Budianta: 2008)

From above example of Englishes in literary works, both Manglish and Urdlish are characterized by the use of unique vocabularies which are not common in so-called standard English.

Lexical Semantic Localization

The first question to be raised deal with localized English will be: What are actually being ‘localized’? This question will be the basis of the following discussion about the aspects of English which are localized. In this discussion, variety of English in non-native English country will be taken as the example.

In general the aspects of being localized can be categorized in two, they are in vocabulary and phonology.

In the discussion on Pakistani English (PE) Baumgardner (1993) stated that Pakistani language has its own linguistic and cultural identity. The following are some characteristics of Pakistani English, which can also be generalized as the characteristics of other English varieties:

a. Word borrowings: a large number of loan words from Urdu and Regional

languages borrowed freely from indigenous domains of food, clothing,

administration, government, politics, art, education, music and most of all registers of religion.

Words which enter English have become a part of its grammatical system.

b. Word-formations: Another area in which PE has forged its own identity is thatof

word formation, prefixes and suffixes e.g. dc-seat, dc-notify, charge-sheeter and

woolies.

c. Conversion: shift of word for one part of speech to another is another area e.g.

air-craft to air-line (noun to verb conversion)

d. Obsolete vocabulary: use of vocabulary no longer current in BSE e.g

botheration, conveyance, moot etc.

English Phonology Localization

In Indonesian context, Alip (2007) identified English phonology localization among Indonesian people. He said that this deviation is not random but systematic, because local people share similar features of language competence and performance,which influence their English competence and performance. Further, he identified the ‘deviant’ form of phonological phenomenon in both segmental and non-segmental aspects of the language.

Segmental Alterations

Final Fortis/Lenis Distinction

Example of localization: the words mop and mob, peck and peg, are pronounced the same

Missing aspiration

Example of localization: the words pot, top and cot are pronounced without any aspiration.

Palato alveolar fricatives

Example of localization: the words fish, zoo, and vision are pronounced as [fis], [su:], and [visiən]

Tense/lax distinction

Example of localization: the words know and so are pronounced as [no] and [so] rather than [nəu] and [səu].

Suprasegmental Alterations

Consonant Clusters

Example of localization: the words star and asked are pronounced as [səta:] and [askəd].

Stress and Rythm

Example of localization: there is no stress and rythm

Implications on English language Teaching

From above discussion it can be assumed that once localization of English is accepted as the local variation of English in a region, there must be implications on English language teaching.

Since the localization can happen both in lexical semantic and phonology, the possible implications on its teaching may cover those two main aspects. Meanwhile, since there is no localization of what so-called standard English grammar, there will be no implication on English grammar teaching.

Dealing with lexical semantic and phonology localization, Setiono (2005) stated that in Indonesian context, both Indonesian teachers and Indonesian students do not really pay serious attention to the accents associated with both American and British English varieties. They instead learn to communicate in English using their local accent, which is typically labeled as ""non-English"" by English native speakers. After all, as one learns and acquires a new language to communicate, the intelligibility of an utterance becomes the prime consideration.

A non-native variety of English therefore accept local content to be incorporated in language production and language use. In this sense, local culture awareness will be an unavoidable aspect to be considered both by language teachers and learners. The assertion of this local culture can be a way to create a more ‘precise’ expression in such particular context.

Final Remarks

As local variety of English has been accepted as a global phenomenon, its emergence is unavoidable as long as the language users in a certain region require it. This is due to the assumption that the language belongs to those who speak it.

Localization, in a more practical term can be an abridgement to reduce the barrier may face by those who are non native English speakers due to their ‘natural’ obstructions. As the consequence, the acceptance of a new variety of English will give implications on language teaching. In a more practical sense, localized English can be an alternative to boost the use of English by incorporating local culture. In order to be accepted as the norm, pedagogical norm change and description and codification of the feature of the language should be the priority.

References

Alip, F.B. “Localization of English Phonology in Indonesian Context”. Phenomena Journal of Language and Literature. Vol 10 No.3, February 2007, pp.159-167.

Baumgardner, R. J. 1993. The English Language in Pakistan. Karachi: Oxford University Press.

Budianta, Melani. World Literature in English: Problematizing East and West. 2nd Rafil Conference paper, 2008

Kachru, B.B. The Other Tongue: English Across Cultures. Oxford: Pergamon Institute of English, 1982.

Setiono. “Teaching english in Indonesia: Whose rules should be followed?” The Jakarta Post. April 9, 2005.

Localized English...(Condro & Sulasih)

2009-05-15T00:17:00.000-07:00

COTEFL-International Conference on Teaching English as Foreign Language

LOCALIZED ENGLISH, WHAT ARE ITS IMPLICATIONS ON ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING?

Condro Nur Alim & Sulasih Nurhayati

Muhammadiyah University of Purwokerto

Abstract

Key words: localized, implications, language, teaching

Introduction

Englishes Reality

Englishes in Literary Works

Preeta Samarasand, the author of Evening is the Whole Day wrote:

The following is the example of Manglish in Preeta’s work, that reflects the general characteristics of a local variation of English.

Another phenomenon of local variation of English in literary work can be found from Moni Mohsin. He is the author of End of Innocence. He wrote as follows:

Look at the following example of how Urdlish is used in Moni Mohsin ‘The End of Innocence”

From above example of Englishes in literary works, both Manglish and Urdlish are characterized by the use of unique vocabularies which are not common in so-called standard English.

Lexical Semantic Localization

In general the aspects of being localized can be categorized in two, they are in vocabulary and phonology.

a. Word borrowings: a large number of loan words from Urdu and Regional

languages borrowed freely from indigenous domains of food, clothing,

administration, government, politics, art, education, music and most of all registers of religion.

Words which enter English have become a part of its grammatical system.

b. Word-formations: Another area in which PE has forged its own identity is thatof

word formation, prefixes and suffixes e.g. dc-seat, dc-notify, charge-sheeter and

woolies.

c. Conversion: shift of word for one part of speech to another is another area e.g.

air-craft to air-line (noun to verb conversion)

d. Obsolete vocabulary: use of vocabulary no longer current in BSE e.g

botheration, conveyance, moot etc.

English Phonology Localization

Segmental Alterations

Final Fortis/Lenis Distinction

Example of localization: the words mop and mob, peck and peg, are pronounced the same

Missing aspiration

Example of localization: the words pot, top and cot are pronounced without any aspiration.

Palato alveolar fricatives

Example of localization: the words fish, zoo, and vision are pronounced as [fis], [su:], and [visiən]

Tense/lax distinction

Example of localization: the words know and so are pronounced as [no] and [so] rather than [nəu] and [səu].

Suprasegmental Alterations

Consonant Clusters

Example of localization: the words star and asked are pronounced as [səta:] and [askəd].

Stress and Rythm

Example of localization: there is no stress and rythm

Implications on English language Teaching

From above discussion it can be assumed that once localization of English is accepted as the local variation of English in a region, there must be implications on English language teaching.

Since the localization can happen both in lexical semantic and phonology, the possible implications on its teaching may cover those two main aspects. Meanwhile, since there is no localization of what so-called standard English grammar, there will be no implication on English grammar teaching.

Final Remarks

References

Alip, F.B. “Localization of English Phonology in Indonesian Context”. Phenomena Journal of Language and Literature. Vol 10 No.3, February 2007, pp.159-167.

Baumgardner, R. J. 1993. The English Language in Pakistan. Karachi: Oxford University Press.

Budianta, Melani. World Literature in English: Problematizing East and West. 2nd Rafil Conference paper, 2008

Kachru, B.B. The Other Tongue: English Across Cultures. Oxford: Pergamon Institute of English, 1982.

Setiono. “Teaching english in Indonesia: Whose rules should be followed?” The Jakarta Post. April 9, 2005.

Negative Transfer...(Hanafi & Ni Putu Amalia)

2009-05-15T00:14:00.000-07:00

COTEFL-International Conference on Teaching English as Foreign Language

NEGATIVE TRANSFER OF SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT IN EFL COLLEGE STUDENTS’ WRITINGS : A CASE STUDY AT ENGLISH DEPARTMENT FACULTY OF LETTERS ANDALAS UNIVERSITY

Hanafi & Ni Putu Amalia C

English Department – Andalas University

ABSTRACT

This study attempts to distinguish negative transfer and unsuccessful automaticity in the process of acquiring English rule of subject and verb agreement, as applied in EFL college students’ writings. Informants are English department students of Andalas University. Ten students from every class (2008 – 2005) will be randomly selected as participants. They will be asked to fill in a questionnaire consisting of essay writing section, a drilling section on English subject and verb agreement, and a background check survey section. In the analysis, the essay writing part will provide data of the EFL students’ writing performance which reflects their real time acquisition of this rule of English grammar. The drilling section will give a comparative data for their acquisition. Herewith, negative transfer and unsuccessful automaticity can be distinguished. At last, the survey questionnaire items will provide learning and teaching process background data that can confirm the prior analysis on students’ acquisition of subject and verb agreement in English. As the result, it is expected that students will perform different levels of acquisition on the basis of their different learning levels. The teaching process students have undertaken can also be evaluated in order to find the most effective teaching methods or learning strategies. Therefore, one of the washback effects will lead to the process of teaching EFL grammar and writing in the department.

Keywords: Negative Transfer, Subject-Verb Agreement, Automaticity, writing skill

INTRODUCTION

The central issue of this paper constitutes the notion of ‘transfer’ in EFL college students’ writings. The differentiation between negative transfer and unsuccessful automaticity reflected in participants’ acquisition of English subject and verb agreement through writing products becomes the foci of the study. This paper starts with the acquisition of English rules of Subject and Verb Agreement in EFL writing. Then, a brief review on studies of transfer follows and precedes the review of automaticity in the Second Language Acquisition (SLA) discipline. This is subsequently continued by research questions, methods, analysis, discussion, implication, and conclusion of the study.

ACQUIRING THE ENGLISH RULES OF SUBJECT AND VERB AGREEMENT IN EFL WRITING

In general, acquiring English in a foreign language (FL) context is relatively more difficult than in the second language (L2) context. In an FL context, on one hand, e.g. Indonesians learning English in Indonesia, learners have to deal with the more restricted area of practice. They commonly have no real time situations to use the language they are learning other than their classroom. Consequently, they may practice and therefore achieve less. On the other hand, acquiring English in an L2 environment, such as Indonesians learning English in Australia, may be more easily and faster facilitated. Learners have every opportunity to make use of their newly-learnt language in real communicative events outside their classroom. In case they do not do so, their social needs will still force them to communicate in this language in such environment. This accordingly influences the achievement a learner can get in mastering such language productive skills as speaking and writing.

Due to the paper’s length limit, this paper explores only the acquisition of English grammatical rules of Subject-Verb Agreement (SVA here-to-forth) in EFL writing. Unlike acquiring speaking skill, EFL learners usually find more difficulties in achieving accuracy in writing skill. There are two factors that learners need to consider when practicing writing. They are vocabulary and grammar. Vocabulary is particularly needed in order to deliver the idea a writer gets in their head onto the paper. Despite their great ideas, a writer without sufficient bank of lexicon will have difficulty to start writing. They need to go back and forth to dictionaries to find the right word for their ideas. The longer time they consume to do this, the more frustrating the writing activity will be.

After dealing with vocabulary problems, a beginning writer will have to cope with the more delicate obstacle in EFL writing, i.e. grammar. Herewith, the grammar issue in focus is restricted only to the acquisition of English SVA in writing. This aspect of grammar is important especially for Indonesians because of the presence of a fundamental difference between English and Indonesian language, i.e. a two-directionally influential relationship. When talking about subject and verb relationship, English language embeds not only the countability or non-countability factor but also time markers in it. Moreover, the term ‘finite’ (Halliday, 1994) or traditionally called ‘auxiliary’ functions to indicate the nature of actions, situation, and time (Frank, 1972; Nelson, 2001). When observing it in such productive skill as writing, our preliminary observation indicates that Indonesian EFL learners tend to produce this kind of unnecessary error in their writing. Surprisingly, when being tested through multiple choice or gap filling practices, EFL learners on college level can actually perform well indicating that they have knowledge about it. The question is why do they still commit it when writing?

INDONESIAN NEGATIVE TRANSFER OF SVA IN EFL WRITING

To answer the question, we need to take a look at the theoretical analysis for such error to occur. In the context of SLA, ‘transfer’, or also called as Cross-Linguistic Influence (CLI) (Smith, 1983), is defined as “…the influence of that the learners’ L1 exerts over the acquisition of an L2…” (Ellis, 1997: p.51). This influence ranges from the level of sounds to meanings. In this case, the transfer happens between the Indonesian grammatical rules of Subject and Verb/Predicate and English rule of Subject and Verb Agreement. It is the concept of ‘agreement’ that makes the case. A subject in English will have to be defined firstly based on its countability. Then, once it is defined as to whether countable or non countable, the relationship between the subject and its finite or auxiliary has to be taken into account. Moreover, this complex matter continues to the relationship between the auxiliary and the main verb in a verbal sentence. Every auxiliary or linking verb has its own demand over the verb. For example, ‘do’ always demand verb 1; ‘be’ demands verb 1 + ing / verb 3 / to + verb 1; modal auxiliaries always ask for verb 1; etc. This concept of two-directional relationship does not exist in Indonesian Subject and Predicate/Verb construction. Therefore, if an Indonesian learner does not fully comprehend the English SVA concept, they will tend to produce such error on the basis on negative transfer, i.e. the influence of the absence of the similar pattern in the learner’s mother tongues on the learnt language. However, when Indonesian learners who evidently have comprehended the English SVA concept still fail to consistently use them correctly in the writing, there may only be one possible cause for it, i.e. unsuccessful automaticity.

AUTOMATICITY IN EFL WRITING

The term automaticity refers to the concept that language production has become spontaneous that the producer does not have to give so much attention anymore in the production process and the results are accurate (Segalowitz, 2005). Research efforts on automaticity are commonly associated with speaking fluency (De Ridder, Vangehuchten, & Gomez. 2007; Hulstijn, 1990). There is few or even no study on the automaticity on writing. Therefore, this study goes outside the mainstream because it is believed that automaticity and transfer can also be investigated in free writing. Another importance of this study is related to the fact that most classroom examinations especially on content subjects assign students to respond to the question by writing a free brief essay. Even language tests such as TOEFL and IELTS have a writing component that assesses a test-taker’s writing skill. These conditions provide students with less time to review and edit. Consequently, lack of accuracy will also affect the writing quality.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Do senior students comprehend SVA rule more correctly than the junior students do?
Do senior students apply SVA rule in their writings more correctly than the junior students do?
Is there any difference between the students’ grammar test score and their use of SVA in writing?

METHODS

Data collection

Data are collected primarily through a survey questionnaire. Students from English Department are invited to fill in the questionnaire which contains writing and survey questionnaire section. This questionnaire provides raw data for the analysis. After being processed using simple statistic calculation, the data can produce analytical outcome to show trends of use of SVA in students’ writing.

Informants

There are 38 students participating in this study from various classes (2008–2005). Among them, there are 31 female and 7 male students. After being stratified, they are invited on a random sampling procedure. From every class, every student with the first registered number of 5, then 10, 15, and so on is attended and invited to participate. This multiplication of five continues until it reaches ten students from the class. Unfortunately, most of the ones replying to the invitation are female students. Therefore, the intervening variable of gender difference may be unavoidable.

Instruments

This study’s data result from a survey questionnaire consisting of four sections. Firstly, students are asked about their personal information such as registered number, gender, first language, etc. Secondly, they are asked to write up a free simple essay. Next, a Grammar Drilling Section on SVA is provided for them where they choose the correct answer from two options in each item. At last, a background check survey section ends the questionnaire for finding the pattern of their learning methods and strategies.

Data Analysis

To analyze the data, students’ essays are marked on the basis of the number of clause written. It is important to see it in clauses because of the assumption that some of them will write in complex sentences. The measurement through the use of clause will also enable us to evaluate their writing quantity in producing propositions which accordingly provide SVA data for later analysis. Afterwards, their SVA errors in the clauses will be counted and calculated in percentage. This result of SVA errors in essay is compared to the grammar drilling section in order to confirm the claim that students have sufficient comprehension level in this form. Then, participants’ learning strategies and expectations on their improved performance of writing can be traced from this last section. The frequency of responses is calculated into percentage.

RESULTS

As shown in the following chart, the grammar test section shows that around 47% students achieve 61-80% score and 32% participants can earn 81-100% score. This indicates that majority of the participants can correctly answer more than 60 percent of the items in drilling practices reflecting sufficient understanding on the grammar rule. However, the essay section reveals the unexpected fact that half of the participants still produce around 20% errors on SVA, and ten out of 38 students makes 30% SVA errors. Only a few (3 informants) produce significantly most errors (51 – 100%).

Results on the class comparison also show an anomaly. In the grammar drill, more freshmen (4 out of 9) perform better (81-100%) compared to sophomore (67%) who perform less (61-80%). Half of junior students answer less correct (41-60%) than their senior (70%) who can provide more correct answers (61-80%). In terms of SVA errors on essays, a surprising finding occurs. Fewer freshmen perform well by making less SVA errors (20%) while the same number of sophomore students makes more errors (50%). However, this may happen because they write few clauses (average 20). Surprisingly, more junior (60%) and senior (70%) students make the same number of error (20%). The fact that they write more clauses may explain this phenomenon.

The survey background section also reveals unusual facts. Majority of students (92%) have learnt English for more than 7 years. Despite their eagerness to having English writing skill (87%), only few (5 out of 38) love writing activity very much and most of them (53%) simply ‘like’ doing it. Their motivation to have the skill is various from the desire to be good at writing academically (26%) to the desire of becoming journalists (37%) or writing diary or reviews in web blogs (34%). Most of the participants (88%) start learning writing at school and at home (11%). Moreover, their writing activity ranges from assignments (45%), diaries (13%), and both (24%). In terms of frequency, the participants admit to write 3-4 times (44%) and more than 5 times (44%) a week. They mostly (82%) do editing and proofreading by themselves (34%) and by help from others (29%). Among the writing difficulties offered, grammar is their biggest (61%) problem. When coming to self-evaluation, most of them assess themselves on the level of 7 (50%) and 8 (21%). Only few participants claims to have the 6 (5 out of 38) and 5 (4 out of 38) levels.

DISCUSSION

The results have presented the fact that there has been a considerable lack of attention to the automaticity of applying SVA rule in writing. Majority of informants in this study comprehend the concept of SVA rule proven by their high score (over 61% of correct answers) in the grammar drill sections (79%). However, their essay proves that there is a problem of habitual negative transfer that most of them might have got in earlier learning period. Despite their knowledge, these participants cannot automatically apply the SVA rule when writing. This brings us into a speculation that they did not pay attention too intensively toward this ‘little’ mistake in the earlier time. Gradually, this neglectfulness may finally form a habit that dies hard and eventually reduces the writing quality. To some extent, this can be seen from the more SVA errors that senior students make in their writing. We speculate that such habit is formed from the neglectfulness of the teacher too in guiding their students to do editing process which focuses on the grammar check before finalizing and submitting their writing tasks for assessment.

The importance of this editing process is supported by the finding on students’ learning strategies. Most of them (82%) claim that they check their writing before submission. Among them, large proportions do the editing and proofreading process by themselves (34%) and by help of others (29%). This shows that there is awareness that these two ‘restructuring’ activities (McLaughlin, 1990) are necessary for writing quality improvement. Unfortunately, the questionnaire does not have items investigating the role of teachers facilitating this necessity. Nevertheless, this outcome rings an alarm that there is a need for incorporating this aspect in the process of learning and teaching writing in order to support the automated use of such simple routine grammatical rules as SVA.

IMPLICATIONS ON LANGUAGE TEACHING

There are at least three implications of this study to the language teaching and assessment. First of all, teachers need to start incorporating the information technology into the teaching of writing. Students’ motivation to write as a journalist, to produce literary works, and to communicate through blogs and reviews clearly indicate this necessity. Therefore, teachers can facilitate this desire positively by allowing them to create their own blogs and encouraging them to write on newspapers or a network web blogs. Second of all, Teachers need to share the teaching focus on the collaborative editing methods instead of simply teaching writing. Students can also learn from their friends about the way to deliver ideas in a paragraph as well as reminding each other on grammatical errors such SVA. At last, multiple choice assessment in writing process or any other grammar drill test in evaluating improvement in students’ writing skills may need putting aside as complementary or secondary evaluation. End results from a long guided editing activity over their writing productions should become the main concern so that students can see writing as a three-phased process whose ultimate quality relies on the final procedure, i.e. editing and proofreading. Therefore, they will understand that they can achieve best in the maximum level if conducting serious editing and proofreading processes before submitting their essays for marking.

CONCLUSION

To conclude, it is clearly seen that negative transfer commonly happens in the earlier time of learning. As proven by the result of essay writing on the freshmen, negative transfer may evidently be the case in their early period or learning writing. When this issue is continuously neglected, they will form a habit which results in unsuccessful automaticity as shown in the sophomore, junior, and senior students’ writings. Nevertheless, this does not necessarily mean that the junior students do not have enough comprehension over the SVA rule. Their score on SVA grammar test is relatively higher than their seniors. However, errors that they produce in their essays are variously more than their seniors do. Therefore, it can be concluded that the senior students seem to comprehend SVA rules and apply them more correctly than the junior students do. The same case occurs between junior and sophomore students where junior students perform better than the sophomores do. Freshmen, however, seems to be out of ordinary because they evidently comprehend SVA rule more correctly and apply it consistently more accurate than the sophomores do. The reason for this unexpected outcome may be due to the shorter essay the juniors produce. This seems to help them minimize SVA errors. At last, a negative correlation may result from the two different kinds of test. The higher score a student gets in their grammar drill, the fewer SVA errors they make in the essay. However, this study is not designed to address its significance. Therefore, deeper and more comprehensive future investigations need to be conducted by considering these aspects.

REFERENCES

De Ridder, I., L. Vangehuchten, & M. S. Gomez. (2007). Enhancing automaticity through task-based language learning. Applied Linguistics, 28/2: 309-315.

Ellis, R. (1997). Second language acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Frank, Marcela. (1972). Modern English : Part I. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Halliday, M.A.K. (1994). An Introduction to Functional Grammar, 2^nd ed. New York: Edward Arnold.

Hulstijn, J.H. (1990). A comparison between the information-processing and the analysis/control approaches to language learning. Applied Linguistics, 11/1: 30-45

McLaughlin, B. (1990). Restructuring. Applied Linguistics, 11/2: 113-128.

Nelson, G. (2001). English: An essential grammar. London and New York: Routledge.

Segalowitz, N. Automaticity and second languages. In Doughty, C.J. & M. H. Long. (2005). The handbook of second language acquisition. Malden/Oxford/Carlton: Blackwell Publisher, pp.382-408.

Smith, M.S. (1983). Cross-linguistic aspects of second language acquisition. Applied Linguistics, 4/3: 192-198.

Children's Literature...(Laily Martin)

2009-05-14T00:45:00.000-07:00

CHILDREN’S LITERATURE IN EFL CLASSROOM: THE STYLISTIC CONSIDERATIONS

Laily Martin

English Department, Faculty of Letters,

Andalas University, Padang

Abstract

Children’s literature, meaning literary works written for children viewers (up to twelve years old) is commonly used as a teaching source for teaching English in EFL context. The works used are commonly in the form of short stories, written or sung out further in class. Beside its interesting feature, the works are rich in providing language materials, which can be analyzed stylistically, in relation to children’s language forms and language level. From the three sample stories; The Teeny Weeny Tadpole, The Tickly Octopus, and The Very Lazy Ladybird, the language show its characteristics of (1) simplicity, but creatively-built, (2) casualty, the daily-used in interaction, and (3) rhythmical in productions. These features can be represented in the prominent linguistic forms: (a) registers specific to children and (b) onomatopoeias. Thus, it is suggested that the books are best suit to English teaching for children of kindergarten or early elementary.

Introductions

Children’s literature, focused on the literary works written for children viewers, up to twelve years old

(Lynch-brown and Tomlinson 1993:1, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children%27s_literature), is commonly used as a teaching source due to its important roles in personal and cognitive development. It may help children in interpreting, reflecting and affirming their own feelings as well as introducing them to the interaction with others and world knowledge (Dowling 2000:139). Literary works also provide an exposure for language usage; that different language forms will effect on different communicative goals (McKay 2001:319). These advantages made such literary works are commonly used in Indonesian EFL classes; those which are written either by the English native speakers or Indonesian writers. From the various choices, the hard job is in the hand of teachers; doing adjustment between the appropriate works and learners needs. One of the considerations is about the linguistic choices relevant to the learners, as a results from having a stylistic analysis. Due to the width of stylistics, the present study will focus on the analysis at the vocabulary level.

Stylistics Analysis in Children’s Literature Selection

At the beginning, there was a reject on stylistic analysis due to the possible effect that doing stylistic analysis will make learners give more concern on language form rather than the content of communication. As the result, reading a literary work may no longer become an enjoyable activity for readers. This opinion then proved works in reverse that the concern on language forms –being aware of language forms—will encourage learner’s effort in comprehending a text, either spoken or written. In fact, the knowledge on style may support learners to use language properly; increasing reader’s awareness on the linguistic effects and giving opportunity to prove the reader’s subjective interpretation by implying objective analysis (linguistics)(Gower 1986:126-127). Then how does stylistics work in selecting literary work for EFL classes?

Stylistic, in general, refers to the study of the varieties of linguistic forms and their relevancies on the interpretation of a literary work (Wales 1989 in Thornborrow and Wareing 1998:3, Verdonk 2002:4). In other words, in doing a stylistic analysis an analyst applies certain linguistic analysis in interpreting the distinctive linguistic features in a target text. The results may reveal the causal factors behind the text’s creation, in text interpretation, and even on the effect of the text. Such analyses are important in selecting learning sources, in terms of ‘how’ they are chosen, especially on the language aspect (Gower 1986:127-128). In order to fulfill this need, it is important to relate the language with the children’s psycholinguistic factors; their cognitive and language level development.

Cognitive development refers to the children’s mental stages, their brain capacity and abilities. Sensory motor (0-2), preoperational (2-6/7), concrete operational (6/7-11/12), and formal operational (11/12-adulthood) stages (Piaget in McDevitt and Ormrod 2002:114). In relation to language, McDevitt and Ormrod (p.262-263) divided the children’s language level development into: the early childhood (2-6), rapid memorization on vocabulary and syntax; middle childhood (6-10), concrete vocabularies processing; and early adolescence (10-14), the abstract concept processing. With this brief description of the psycholinguistic background, the appropriate style of children’s language forms and levels can be matched.

A Stylistic Analysis on the Three Erlangga for Kids’ Story Books

Erlangga for kids’ stories are bilingual story books published by Erlangga. These books were written by native speaker of English, mainly from United Kingdom, which brings to the usage of British dialect. Out of the language variation, the books offer various stories, for different level of language abilities (which is unfortunately not mentioned in the book). This causes difficulty for teacher to identify which book for which student. Perhaps, from beeping out some linguistic feature in three sample story books; The Teeny Weeny Tadpole (TWT), The Tickly Octopus (TO), and The Very Lazy Ladybird (VLL), the exact target audience could be identified.

In terms of vocabulary, the language used in books shows some characteristics of children’s language which are summarized as (1) simple but creatively-built, (2) used in daily casual interaction, and (3) rhythmical in productions. These features can be represented in various linguistic forms dominantly found in the three texts, prominently, (a) registers specific to children and (b) onomatopoeias; registers are vocabularies which are identified specific for children users and onomatopoeias are those derived from the imitation of the real objects’ sound. Here are some examples:

1. Simple vocabularies are realized by the simplicity of sounds, which are children’s tongue-like, and simplicity of concept. For example, in TWT: teeny weeny, tummy, wooly-face (goat), bug-eyed (eyes of grasshopper); tickly (love to tickle), twirly, super-speedy (very vast) (TO); bumpy, snooze (VLL).

2. Vocabularies used in the three story books are also those used commonly in daily interaction, with the concrete function on casual interaction, like splish splash, look out, watch (TWT); snap, tumble down, huff, puff (TO); all day, all night (VLL)

3. Rhythmical effects. Vocabularies found in the three books also rich in rhythm. It may be used to attract interest (sound play) as well as mimic the real object’s characteristic, especially movement. The words are like flippity-flop (for goat), springity-sprong (grasshopper), jumpity-bumb (for rabbit) (TWT); clickety-clackety (crab) (TO); bounded by (kanggoroo)-padded by (tiger)-swam by (crocodile)- swung by (monkey)- amble by-plodded by-trundled by (elephant) (VLL)

Conclusion

From the language of the three Erlangga for Kids’ Story Books, it can be concluded that the books seems best suit for children whom are in the process of storing vocabularies. In EFL context, the process is found in kindergarten and early elementary level, due to the books’ simple, concrete, and playful vocabularies. Thus, the books may provide the accessible (in-context language uses), theme engaging, and balance conceptual and linguistic levels (McKay 2001:322).

References

Cain, Sheridan and Jack Tickle. 2006. The Teeny Weeny Tadpole. Translated by Eka Cahyani “Kecebong Kecil Mungil.” Jakarta: Erlangga

Dowling, Marion. 2000. Young Children’s Personal, Social and Emotional Development. London: SAGE

Finn, Isobel and Jack Tickle. 2006. The Very Lazy Ladybird. Translated by Eka Cahyani “Kepik yang Sangat Pemalas.” Jakarta: Erlangga

Galloway, Ruth . 2006. Tickly Octopus. Translated by Eka Cahyani “Gurita yang Suka Menggelitik.” Jakarta: Erlangga

Gower, Roger. 1986. “Can Stylistic Analysis Help The EFL Learner To Read Literature?” ELT Journal, Vol. 40/2, April, P.125-130

McDevitt, Teressa M. and Jeanne Ellis Ormrod. 2002. Child Development and Education. Ohio: Merrill Prentice Hall

McKay, Sandra Lee. 2001. “Literature as Content For ESL/EFL”. In Marianne Celce-Murcia (ed.) Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language, 3^rd edn. P.319-332. Boston: Heinle & Heinle

Thornborrow, Joanna and Shan Wareing. 1998. Patterns in Language: An Introduction to Language and Style. London: Routledge

Verdonk, Peter. 2002. Stylistics. Oxford: Oxford University

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children%27s_literature

Peer Assessment...(Umi Rokhyati)

2009-05-14T00:44:00.000-07:00

PEER ASSESSMENT IN AN EFL WRITING CLASS: POSSIBLE OR IMPOSSIBLE?

Umi Rokhyati

Ahmad Dahlan University

Assessment is an important activity in the teaching and learning process. This activity will help a teacher notice how far the students understand the teaching material. It becomes the feedback for the teacher of how well he has given knowledge or skill to his students so that a teacher can improve the teaching and learning activity. Assessment is also important to judge whether the learner succeeds or fails in a certain subject.

There are different types of assessment done for different purposes. One of them is a peer assessment that is still rarely done. Why? It seems that peer assessment, especially in writing, is difficult to do. How can an EFL student assess his/her friend’s work while he himself does not know which one is wrong and which is correct for English is a difficult language for them? Does it mean that it is impossible to do peer assessment in writing?

In this paper I would like to share ideas that peer assessment in writing is possible to do. I will explain how peer assessments should be done and what is the role of the teacher when the assessment is done by peer. We, English teachers, can apply it in teaching writing by doing the followings. First, the teacher must have a very clear objective, focus on it, and make the students know it. Next, when he wants the students to do a peer assessment, again, he must focus on the objective, and then make sure that the students assess only the one which becomes the objective of the learning activity. However, a teacher still has to play a role in this kind of assessment by checking what each student has done in assessing his/her friend.

Writing as a complex Skill

One of the language skills that is considered complex, even the most complex, is writing. To be able to write, one has to master different aspects comprising linguistics and non-linguistics. Heffernan (1998: 6) said that good writing requires a working knowledge of grammar, a refinement of the basic or instinctive knowledge you already have. He added that it is also the art of rhetoric-arranging words, phrases, and paragraphs in such a way as to engage and sustain the reader’s attention.

In linguistics factors a writer must be able to use grammar, vocabulary, spelling, and mechanics correctly. Using grammar correctly is very important for it will help the writer compose sentences precisely. In addition, mastering vocabulary will lead to the correct choice of words that is very important in expressing ideas. The next factor is spelling and mechanics. Different from speaking skill, spelling and mechanics in writing is very important for it will help the reader understand the message as what the writer intends to write. Therefore a writer must use spelling and mechanics correctly; otherwise it will cause misinterpretation on the readers.

Besides the linguistics factors, a writer should master the non-linguistics factors needed in writing. First, she/he must have a clear idea of what to write. A deep understanding of what is going to be written (the content) will influence the information given to the readers. Equipped with clear ideas, then he must be able to organize them well. He must be able to arrange sentences logically- to achieve coherence and unity in his piece of work.

This complexity has caused difficulties for the learners to master the skill. Besides, it also makes assessment in writing not easy.

Assessment

Assessment is an important activity in the teaching-learning process. It is always done to check the achievement of the students, to get feedback, and to grade the students. Without assessment the teaching-learning process will be incomplete because the teacher will not know the students achievement; he will not get a clear picture of the students’ competence, of his weakness and strengths in teaching, and will not be able to grade the students precisely.

There are different forms of assessment known. According to O’Malley there are alternatives and traditional forms of assessment in education (1996:1). Traditional assessment usually refers to test, such as multiple choice tests. Meanwhile, alternatives assessment may include portfolio, project, self assessment, peer assessment, etc. The alternative assessment is now getting more interest in education including in ELT.

What and why peer assessment

What is peer assessment? There are some definitions given to explain what peer assessment is.Topping, quoted by Cheng, defined peer assessment as an arrangement in which individuals consider the amount, level, value, worth, quality of success of the products or outcomes of learning of peer of similar status (Cheng, 2005:94). In an EFL context, according to Cheng, peer assessment has been commonly incorporated into English language writing instruction. In this assessment peers respond to and edit each other’s written work. The purpose is helping with revision. Other definition explains that peer assessment is assessment of students by other students, both formative reviews to provide feedback and summative grading. Both the two definitions show clearly that peer assessment is assessment of a student by other student with the same status or level to give feedback or to grade. Thus in this kind of assessment each student is given a right to examine another student’s work, to value or to judge, and to give feedback on his/her friend’s work.

Is peer assessment good to assess writing skills? According to Ur (2002:335) the forms of authentic assessment including peer assessment “are more student-centered in that they provide students with a tool to be more involved in their learning and give them a better sense of control for their own learning”. Meanwhile, Peer stated that peer assessment is an alternative assessment which is commonly done in writing. It is a good thing to do because there are lots of benefits that can be taken. The benefits are among others:

1. It helps expose misconception

2. It can provide immediate support in the classroom

3. Pupils will often respond more positively to a peer than to a teacher

4. When writing for peers, pupils may improve specifics such as handwriting

5. Peers often know more about the work than parents and can give more help, especially in secondary stages.

6. It is individualized and interactive.

7. The assessor gains as well as the assessed

8. Social and communication skills can be improved

9. Teacher can stand back, observe and make focused interventions.

10. Pupils take more responsibility for their own learning

11. It helps develop skills needed in the world of work

12. Pupils can understand better the role of and need for assessment

Bostock (2002) quoted Race and others who listed the advantages of peer assessment. They described some potential advantages of peer assessment for students as

1. giving a sense of ownership of the assessment process, giving motivation

2. encouraging students to take responsibility for their own learning, developing

them as autonomous learners.

3. treating assessment as part of learning, so that mistakes are opportunities rather

than failures

4. practicing the transferable skills needed for life-long learning, especially

evaluation skills

5. using external evaluation to provide a model for internal self-assessment of a

student’s own learning (metacognition), and

6. encouraging deep rather than surface learning

In addition to those benefits, Saito (2008) said that some researchers have claimed that working with peers is a critical means of promoting learning. Peer involvement in assessment holds tremendous potential for learning. The potential benefits of peer assessment among others are:

encouraging reflective learning through observing other’s performance and becoming aware of performance criteria
seemingly generating positive reactions from students, although some students have concern and worries
developing students’ sense of shared responsibility.

The benefits of peer assessment are obvious and many. However, its implementation in the classroom still needs other requirements. Students need to be guided and teachers need to do some preparation in order that it can be implemented.

How to implement peer assessment in writing class

Assessment can be done in every learning process or after some learning processes. Thus, it is in the form of formative or summative assessments. Formative assessment usually becomes feedback for teachers so that they can improve their teaching. While summative assessment will help teachers to grade their students or to judge whether they fail or are successful in a subject.

Peer assessment can also be done in the formative or summative forms. However, in learning writing peer assessment is better conducted after the students finish one learning process not some learning processes. So, it is more to give feedback and to make the students revise their work rather than to score or judge the students. The most important reason for this is that the students do not master all the writing skills as English is a foreign language to them. If it is a formative assessment, then the skills that the students assess will be reduced or limited so that it is manageable. .Besides, the right to judge failure and success is better given to the teacher. Just as O’Malley (136) stated that teacher judgment has always played an important role in the assessment in writing.

Although peer assessment only is not enough to assess the students’ writing competence, it is wise to do this because this form of assessment gives advantages for both teacher and students. The followings are steps to be taken in conducting the peer assessment in writing class.

1. determining the skills to be assessed

When starting teaching, the teacher should tell the students the objective that will be gained after the learning process – what skill/s they are supposed to master. There are many micro skills of writing that the teacher can teach in writing class. The teacher has to focus whether he will teach linguistics or non linguistics aspect in writing. He should determine what skills that will be taught to the students, for example writing a thesis statement, using transition signal, using paraphrases, arranging ideas logically, etc. The higher the level of the students the more skills the students can assess.

2. focusing on the skill/s

The teaching activity should be focused and emphasized on the objective- what skill/s to be taught. If the objective set is the ability to use transition signal, the teaching should not be focused on the ability to use simple past tense. The focused skills should not be many but must be limited. It will help the students to concentrate on mastering that skill.

3. implementing the peer assessment

When the students finish writing, the teacher asks the students to assess the work of each other. The teacher should remind the students of the skill they learn at that time and tell that they should pay attention on that skill when they examine their peer’s work and not on other skills. In this case the students must ignore other mistakes found.

The peer assessment will be easier to do and can give clear feedback if a form of assessment is provided. This form should contain criteria of assessment. The teacher can prepare it and distribute it to the students. This form will guide the students in assessing and help them work faster. The example of forms for assessment which are adapted from O’Malley’s design can be seen below.

Peer Assessment form for writing

Model 1 (description)

Skill: writing an introduction

Reader’s Name _______________________________ Date ______________

Author’s Name _______________________________

Title of piece _______________________________

Peer Evaluation

the content of the introductory paragraph was…………………………………….
the general statement was………………………………………………………...
the thesis statement was ………………………………………………………….
the appeal of the paragraph ………………………………………………………

This piece can be improved by …………………………………………………………….

Model 2 (scaling)

Skill : using simple past tense and transition signals

Reader’s name : _________________

Writer ‘s name: _________________

Title of piece: _________________

Date _________________________

The writer :

Never

Sometimes

Often

Always

uses simple past tense

uses transition signals

Etc

Comment

When the students have finished assessing, they give the work back to the writer. Every student gets the feedback and has to revise the work based on that feedback.

The role of teachers in peer assessment

Although in peer assessment the students do the assessment, it does not mean that the teacher has nothing to do. As English is a foreign language for students and they are still learning it, mistakes are always possible to happen. And this is the teacher’s responsibility to check whether it happens or not, whether they make mistakes in assessing or not. This is an important role of a teacher in implementing peer assessment. However, this is not the only one. The roles of teachers in peer assessment are :

deciding and showing what should be accessed to the students

This is done by reminding the students of the objective of the lesson stated at the beginning of the lesson

guiding the way in assessing through description, scaling, and/or giving comment

The teacher distributes the assessment forms and explains what the students should do and should not do with the forms.

monitoring the students when assessing

The teacher walks around, is ready to answer students’ questions, and observes what the students are doing

checking the students’ assessment

When the students finish revising and collect their work to the teacher, the teacher needs to check whether the students have assessed correctly.

checking the revised work

The teacher checks the final work of the students. From this activity he will know the students’ performance and get feedback from the students so that he can improve his teaching. Students need appreciation, the teacher can do it by giving signature and give a short motivating expression.

Conclusion

Peer assessment in which a student assesses another student’s work is an alternative form of assessment that can give advantages to the students. This is so because by doing peer assessment the students will learn much.

In an EFL writing class, a teacher can implement this type of assessment by considering some important points. First, he must set and show the objective in teaching clearly. Next he must guide the students in the assessment by providing assessment form and show how to assess the work. Finally, he must monitor how the students assess and check the students’ work to see their performance in writing.

To summarize, peer assessment can be implemented in an EFL writing class. However, the teacher should play his role of guiding, monitoring and checking.

Bibliography

Bostock, Stephen.2000. Student Peer Assessment.

Cheng, Winnie and Martin Warren.2005. Peer assessment of language proficiency.

Edward Arnold. http://www.ltj.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/22/1/93.On line journal downloaded on April 4, 2009.

Heffernan, James A.W. and John E. Lincoln.1998. Writing- A College Handbook

USA: W.W. Norton & Company Inc.

O’Malley, J Michael and Lorraine Valdez Pierce. 1996. Authentic Assessment for

English Language Learners- Practical Approach for Teachers. USA :Addison-Wesley Publishing Company Inc.

Saito, Hidetoshi. 2008.EFL classroom peer assessment : Training effects on rating and

commenting.LosAngeles:SAGE Publication.

http://www.ltj.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/22/1/93. On line journal downloaded on April 4, 2009.

Ur, Penny. 1996. A Course in Language Teaching – Practice and Theory. Cambridge :

Cambridge University Press.

Learning and Teaching should be Flexible: Peer and Self Assessment. Highland

Council Education, Culture and Sport Service. Down loaded on April 21,2009.

The Accuracy of Message...(Adventina Putranti)

2009-05-14T00:43:00.000-07:00

THE ACCURACY OF MESSAGE INTERPRETATION IN THE SIGHT TRANSLATION (INDONESIAN TO ENGLISH) PERFORMED BY THE 7^TH SEMESTER STUDENTS OF ENGLISH LETTERS DEPARTMENT,

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

Adventina Putranti

English Letters Department, Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta

ABSTRACT

Interpreting is now playing an important role in international communication. Interpreters are needed to fulfill the demands. As a result, there are a lot of educational institutions providing training for interpreters. The skills needed by interpreters, among others, are language competence in both the source language (SL) and the target language (TL), and giving accurate oral delivery of the message in the TL. Those skills must be accompanied with ability in drawing conclusion, summarizing, note-taking, and concentrating.

At the English Letters Department, Sanata Dharma University, the subject of Interpreting is given to the students of the seventh semester. One of the interpreting modes learned is sight translation in which the students interpret messages from a written SL text into a spoken TL. When interpreting from Indonesian into English many the students encounter the problem of promptness in finding the appropriate TL expressions, and in delivering the message in natural and acceptable TL. The root of such a problem is the students’ poor mastery of English, which can be observed from their inability in delivering the TL message fluently.

A. INTRODUCTION

Interpreting is now playing an important role in international communication. Interpreters are needed to fulfill the demands. As a result, there are a lot of educational institutions providing training for interpreters. Being responsive to the demand, the English Letters Department, Sanata Dharma University, offers a course on interpreting training. This Interpreting course provides basic training for the 7^th semester students.

In this Interpreting class, the students are trained to perform English-Indonesian and Indonesian-English interpreting in two different interpreting modes, consecutive and sight translation. In sight translation, that is the interpreting mode discussed in this article, the students interpret messages from a written SL text into a spoken TL text. In practice the problems encountered by the students when interpreting from English to Indonesian are different from when interpreting from Indonesian into English. In dealing with English-Indonesian interpreting, most of the students find difficulties in understanding the message of the SL due to poor vocabulary, as well as grammar and structure. On the other hand, when they have to interpret from Indonesian to English, many of the students encounter the problem of promptness in finding the appropriate TL expressions, and in delivering the message in natural and acceptable TL. The root of such a problem is the students’ poor mastery of English, which can be observed from their inability in delivering the TL message orally and fluently.

This article intends to describe and explain the students’ problems when performing Indonesian – English sight translation. The data presented in this article are obtained by recording the students’ oral interpretation during the Interpreting test.

B. A BRIEF REVIEW ON INTERPRETING

Interpreting is a skill in reproducing a SL message into a TL orally (Ginori & Scimone, 2001). Since the reproduction of the message is done orally, the interpreter must be concerned more with the transfer message than with the form, such as sentence structure or language style. This is due to the nature of both the SL and TL text. The SL text is presented only once and cannot be reviewed or replayed. Meanwhile, the TL text is produced under time pressure, which barely allows the interpreter to make revision or correction (Kade, 1968 in Pochhacker, 2004).

Basically, there are two modes of interpreting that involve spoken language both on the SL and the TL. They are consecutive and simultaneous interpreting. Consecutive interpreting consists of listening to a speech in one language which, then, is followed by translating or summarizing orally into another, while simultaneous interpreting consists of interpreting the speech while listening to it. Simultaneous interpreting can be done in-booth, such as the ones done in conferences, or out-of-booth like whispered interpreting in court (Ginori & Scimone, 2001). The mode of interpreting that involves a written SL text which must simultaneously be translated orally into a TL is called sight translation, for example when suddenly there is a written text, such as a letter, or a note to be interpreted during the interpreting session (Ginori & Scimone, 2001). This mode is, in fact, frequently practiced in daily life, for example when someone has to read and translate orally instructions written on a package of a product, such as food, beverages, drugs, cosmetics, etc.

Considering the nature of interpreting, interpreters must obtain the skills required to carry out the tasks. Proficiency in both the SL and the TL is the basic requirement for an interpreter to be able to do his job (Ginori & Scimone, 2001). Hamers and Blanc mention that an interpreter generally ‘masters one, sometimes two, active languages and several passive ones (Hamers & Blanc, 1989). This quality must also be accompanied with ability in giving accurate oral delivery of the message in the TL, abilities in drawing conclusion, summarizing, and note-taking (Ginori & Scimone, 2001). As this job is normally done under time pressure, an interpreter must also have “special attributes such as resistance, promptness of speech and of mind, in addition to several intellectual gifts including memory, power of concentration, and sense of responsibility” (Ginori & Scimone, 2001).

C. PROBLEMS OF THE ACCURACY OF MESSAGE INTERPRETATION

In performing sight translation from Indonesian into English, the 7^th semester students of the English Letters Department of USD are given a type of texts that they may have to deal with in their daily life, such as instructions for preparing hot tea, or interpreting an announcement below. In this activity, the students are presented with a text in Bahasa Indonesia. Once they receive the paper and read the text, at the same time they have to produce oral translation of the Indonesian text into English. Let us observe the following example.

SL1:

Teh Gopek Hangat

Cara Penyajian:

Masukkan 1 teh celup Gopek ke dalam cangkir. Tuangkan air mendidih ( 150 ml), diamkan selama + 5 menit. Tambahkan gula sesuai selera untuk menambah kenikmatan teh melati ini.

Baik digunakan sebelum 29/10/10. Komposisi: Daun teh hijau, bunga melati

TL1: (repetions considered insignificant are not mentioned)

Student 1:

Heat Gopek Tea

How to serve:

Fill Gopek tea into the cup, then pour the boiled water, 100 ml, keep it for 5 minute. Then add the sugar, depends on our apetite to increase eee…. to decrease the enjoyment during drink the ee…melati tea. It is good to use before the twenty nine ten two thousand ten. Composition is green tea leaves and flower

Student 2:

Warm Gopek Tea

The way to serve:

Get one Gopek tea into the cup. Pour the boiled water for 150 ml and make it there for at least 5 minute. Add the sugar for your taste to add the jasmine tea taste. It’s used best before twenty nine ten and two thousand and ten, and the composition is tea leaves and jasmine flower.

Student 3:

Teh Gopek

How to prepare it?

First enter one Gopek tea in a cup and mix with warm…with boiled water more about one and fifty mililiters. Wait more about five minute, then you can mix with sugar or up to your need to create the jasmine…this jasmine tea. This is good to use before nineteen October two thousand and ten. Ingredients: the green tea leaves and also jasmine.

In the first version of TL 1, it can be seen that Student 1 uses several inappropriate expressions such as ‘heat’, ‘fill’, ‘apetite’, ‘increase’, and ‘decrease’ beside his inability in using good English structure. The hesitation shown by uttering ‘eee…’ indicates that this student’s vocabulary is poor although it may signify the students’ difficulties in working with two languages at the same time. It can be seen from the use of the word ‘melati’ in his interpretation, which later is replaced by the word ‘flower’.

The third student shows incompetence in using English. He tends to translate the message word-by-word with a lot of hesitation and inappropriate expressions and poor fluency. He even misunderstands the meaning of ‘masukkan’ and ‘enter’, mistranslates ‘twenty nine’ into ‘nineteen’, and uses the expression ‘more about’, which meaning is not recognized in the TL.

Student 2 performs better English than the other two. The more accurate expressions used by this student, such as ‘get…into’, as the translation of ‘masukkan’, ‘pour’ rather than ‘mix’ for ‘tuangkan’ shows that this student’s vocabulary is better than the other two.. The sentences he produces is also better-formed although there is still some interference of SL structure, such as translating ‘cara penyajian’ into ‘how to serve’ instead of ‘serving suggestion’. This fact also implies students’ difficulties in working with two languages at the same time.

From the three versions of interpretation above it is seen that the three students could substantially comprehend the SL message, but cold not easily produce the TL message easily due to their limited ability in using the TL, in this case English, and due to time pressure. A student whose vocabulary is poor shows poor ability in making good sentences (Student 1 and 3) and needs more time to produce complete interpretation, while a student who has better vocabulary also shows better performance in making sentences (Student 2). Student 1 and 3 also show that their effort in finding the right expressions is not always successful because at the same time his mind is busy thinking about the correct expressions or sentence structure.

Another example can be observed below.

SL2:

Pengumuman

Bagi seluruh peserta pelatihan kepemimpinan diumumkan bahwa penyelenggaraan pelatihan tahap ke-2 diundur sampai ada pemberitahuan selanjutnya. Apabila ada hal-hal yang perlu ditanyakan, dimohon mengubungi nomor telepon sekretariat panitia: 123987, pada jam kerja. Harap maklum.

TL2: (repetions considered insignificant are not mentioned)

Student 1:

Announcement

To all the organization trainee, the second training is delayed until the next announcement. Should you need information, please call the secretary of committee 123987 in office hour. Please be advised.

Student 2:

Announcement

For all those who follow leadership training… will be announced …that it will be hold… that the second step will be delayed until the next announcement. If there is any question, please contact the committee secretary 123987 in their hour. …Thank you.

Student 3:

Announcement

For all the leadership training ehm… that there is held … there is second training ehm…there is held second training ehm…is delayed ehm…with further information. If there is something to ask, please call the secretariat at 123987 at work hours. … Thank you (whispering).

One obvious mistake that the three students make in TL 2 is the use of the word ‘delay’ as the translation of ‘diundur’, which should more appropriately be translated into ‘postpone’. Student 1 shows more confidence in producing the TL message compared to the other two. Students 2 and 3 show a lot of hesitation. It can be observed through the pauses (… & ehm…), and feeling of uncertainty every time they begin with another part of a sentence. The use of ‘conditional without if’ (should you…), instead of ‘if you/there…’, performed by Student 1 shows her knowledge on more advanced English structure although at the end of her interpretation she misinterprets the idea ‘please be (well-) informed’ into ‘please be advised’. Meanwhile, after some hesitation, students 2 and 3 interpret ‘harap maklum’ as ‘thank you’. Student 3 even whispers that part seemingly uncertain that it is the correct expression.

Of course, inaccurate interpretation is not tolerable because it means the message intended in the SL is not transferred, either. Based on the students’ performance, most of their problems lie on their language competence. The hesitation they show could also be interpreted as their lack of promptness of mind, especially, because they have to work under time pressure. Although this course is given in the seventh semester, in which the students are assumed to have acquired minimum requirements to communicate in English fluently, still, they have difficulties when they have to work with more than one language at the same time. Time pressure is another obstacle because it influences the students’ promptness of mind.

D. CONCLUSION

From the discussion above, it can be concluded that the message interpretation in the sight translation from Indonesian to English performed by the 7^th semester students of the English Letters Department, Sanata Dharma University, is not accurate due to the students’ poor English competence, lack of ability in working with two languages at the same time. Beside that, due to time limitation, which makes the students work under pressure, their promptness of mind becomes weak, thus, it worsens their performance.

E. REFERENCES

Ginori, Luciano. And Ezio Scimone. Introduction to Interpreting: Background Notes to

Interpreting as a Profession in a Multicultural Society, Sydney: Lantern Press

Publication, 2001.

Hamers, Josiane F. and Michel H.A. Blanc. Bilinguality and Bilingualism, Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press, 1989

Pochhacker, Franz. Introducing Interpreting Studies, New York: Routledge, 2004