CHAPTER
I
INTRODUCTION
This
chapter contains general background of the study, reasons for choosing the
topic, statements of the problems,
objectives of the study, significance of the study, limitation of the problems,
and organization of the study.
1.1. General Background of the Study
Human
being is created as a social creature. S/he cannot live by her/himself. S/he needs
other people’s help in order to live. Therefore, s/he uses a language to convey
her/his messages and to express her/his feelings, ideas, opinions, thoughts, and
wishes. S/he does not have to study hard in order to speak a language perfectly.
There
are two major functions of language use i.e. interactional function and
transactional function. Interactional function has to do with how humans use
language to interact with each other, socially or emotionally; how they
indicate friendliness, cooperation, or hostility, or annoyance, pain or
pleasure. The transactional function has
to do with how humans use their linguistic abilities to communicate knowledge, skills, and information. (Yule,
1985:5) Even a baby has his own language to convey her/his desires; babbling
and cooing. These are the results of how a baby imitates sounds around him. A
healthy baby is able to hear sounds around her/him and imitate them. Years
later s/he can speak his mother tongue perfectly.
There
are two forms of language, the spoken and the written form. The spoken form is
regarded as the primary language. Someone will still be able to use a language
without knowing the writing system of the language. There are many languages used in the world.
It is impossible to cooperate with other countries without understanding their
culture and language. Among many major
languages in the world, English is
considered as an international language. Harmer (1983:1) identified English as
a lingua franca, that is: “A language widely adopted for communication between two speakers \whose
native languages are different from each other and where one or both speakers
are using it as a second language.”
English
is used in many sectors of international affairs such as economy, education,
politics, science, etc. Many books,
magazines, newspapers, etc from other countries are written in English.
Realizing the importance of English, it is taught in many countries in the
world, including Indonesia.
In
Indonesia, English has been taught since the proclamation of Indonesia’s
independence. Years ago, only the language of the rulers were taught in
schools. Now, English is taught in many institutions either formal or informal.
It is taught for six years as a compulsory subject from Junior High School up
to Senior High School and it is also taught for some semesters at university.
According
to the 1995 English curriculum for
Elementary School, it is taught in Elementary School as a local content. According
to the 1994 Basic Curriculum Outline, English teaching in Indonesia, covers the
four basic skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing (Depdikbud,
1994:108). However, teaching learning
English needs a???????????????/
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