CHAPTER
I
INTRODUCTION
1.1
General Background of the Study
In
social life, communication is very important and crucial among human beings. It
is as fundamental as the physical requirements for food and shelter. When they want
to convey their ideas, feelings and wants, they must contact others naturally. Communication
need is very important to make their lives more meaningful. As a result, they
need a means of communication. Related lo communication, language is much
needed for people, so the writer will give the definitions of language.
Hornby
(1987:473) states that “Language is human and non-instinctive method of
communicating ideas, feelings and
desires by means of a system of sounds and sound symbols”. Ramelan (1992:10) slates
that “Language is an arbitrary system of speech sounds or sequences of speech
sound which is used or can be used in interpersonal communication by an
aggregation of human beings, and which rather exhaustively catalogs things,
processes, and events in the human environment”. Kretch et al. (1962:275) also
describe that “communication—the interchange of meanings among people-occurs
mainly through language and is possible to the degree to which individuals have
common cognition, want, and attitude”.
From
the definitions of language above, the writer concludes that language is proper
for communication. Communication will go smoothly if the speakers and the
hearers share the same language. It is easy for people who live in the same country
to communicate with each other, because
at least they have the national language. The problem will arise when they have
to communicate with people from different countries. So, there is English.
English as an international language plays an important role in the
international world. It is used to communicate, to strengthen and to foster the
relationship among all countries in the world in all fields. People throughout
the world use English in oral and written forms. Indonesian people try to learn
English, and the government states that English is the first foreign language
in Indonesia. It is taught as a
compulsory subject both in junior and senior high school; even it has been
tried out in elementary school.
Mastering
English cannot be reached in a short
time, since it is not our own language. It can also be seen from the fact that
many students face problems in using good grammar or in comprehending
textbooks. It can be concluded that the students' mastery of English is low.
“The learners will obviously meet all kinds of learning problems dealing with
the learning new sound system, the
learning of the new vocabulary items, and the learning of the unfamiliar ways
of arranging the foreign words into sentences” (Ramelan 1992:4). This problem
needs a solution to help the learners.
Based
on the concept of English as stated in
the 1994 curriculum, the teaching of English at Junior and Senior High Schools
aims at?????????????
INFO LEBIH LANJUT SILAHKAN KONTAK ADMIN ATAU
KLIK PEMESANAN
