Thesis Jadi : Chapter I

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1       Background of the Study

Language is a communication tool used by humans to communicate, interact and share with each other. It has been ongoing since the first appearance of people on this earth. The presence of the language completely need among the human life because through this means they still running of the social function and survival of human civilization. It is inconceivable if there is no language in the community, it would become dumb, mute,  it’s not need each other because they cannot interact with each other, unable to express what they want and what they need.

During his life, the human has produced many languages around the world. It is the main reason people from different countries or different continents learn another language. The presence of different languages from different regions confirms the people who want to extend their interaction learn more about the language used by people from other regions. For example, people who want to expand their business all over the world tend to master several different languages to communicate with their colleagues, especially the dominant language used by their colleagues such as English, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Germany and even the Netherlands.

English is the predominant language learned as a foreign language by almost all countries around the world. Even the English language is referred to as the international language for the role to connect people who use different languages. This means that the English language has been used by the most people in the world. On the other hand, English is also used as a medium for conveying knowledge, as evidence, it can be seen in the library, there are many books, researches, sciences, arts and technologies are written in English. There are a lot of products in our environment also written in English. So English is really needed to learn the various types of knowledge such as science, technology, art, history, culture, politics and economics.

Regarding the presence of English in the world, then in Indonesian, English is considered as the most important foreign language taught in most schools. It has been studied as a compulsory subject at all levels of education. This fact proves that the English language has played a very important role in the education in Indonesia. English teaching goal is to enable students to use English as a means of communication. Therefore, teachers must provide and choose the most appropriate method in teaching their students.

However, almost every English teacher admitted that it is not an easy job to do for teaching English as a foreign language is still facing many problems. The problems are found generally derived from the learning process which involves problems in teaching methods, teaching media, materials and methods of teaching or teaching strategies. Teachers use a variety of techniques in teaching and learning. One of them is code switching.

Code switching has become an interesting phenomenon to be studied, especially in the areas of classroom interaction because it is one of the main aspects of the bilingual development process. Therefore, this phenomenon is considered as a useful strategy in classroom interactions. Especially if the goal code switching that makes meaning clear and efficiently transfer knowledge to other members of the classroom community. Generally, code switching is occurred for two reasons; for lack of speakers in the target language and because some of communicative purposes. Speaker deficient in the target language is a result of linguistic constraints. Code switching is occurred because the speaker cannot express hers / himself in one language to compensate for the shortage. In line with the objectives and communicative strategy, stated that code switching occurred because some social function, and discourse / pedagogical function. Furthermore, English is often used as a language of instruction in other school subjects as well. Thus, further studies are needed to investigate code switching that occurred in the EFL classroom setting.

Based on the description above, this study aims to explore the lecturers and students code switching, the types and functions of code switching in the EFL classroom at IPDN NTB Campus in academic year 2014/2015. This problem is done with the assumption that the result is not only to identify and address of code switching phenomenon but also, it can significantly extend the understanding of the current process spoken language. In addition, this research is expected to help raise awareness about the issue of code switching in EFL classroom context.

1.2       Aims of the Study

Regarding the phenomenon of code switching in the EFL classroom, this study tries to do the following:

1.2.1       To identify the types of code switching in EFL classrooms at IPDN NTB Campus;

1.2.2       to identify the functions of lecturers and students code switching in EFL classroom at IPDN  NTB Campus;

1.2.3       To identify the reasons both lecturers and students for code switching  in EFL classroom instruction at IPDN NTB Campus.

1.3       Questions of the Study

In line with the above aims, therefore, it is to find the answer of the following questions:

1.3.1       What types of code switching are found in EFL classroom at IPDN NTB Campus?

1.3.2       What functions do lecturers and students code switching serve in EFL classrooms at IPDN NTB Campus?

1.3.3       What reasons do motivate the lectures and students code switch in EFL classroom instruction at IPDN NTB Campus.

1.4       Significant of the Study

The result of the study give contribution for theoretically and practically providing useful information for evaluating the development of the students’ English proficiency and lecturers’ English performance in EFL classroom.

1.4.1       Theoretically:

1.4.1.1            This research is expected to enrich the study of sociolinguistics. The finding of this research shows that sociolinguistic finding can sometimes be universal or culture-specific. What can be inferred from a certain language might be different from another language.

1.4.2       Practically:

1.4.2.1            The results of this study can be used as reference material of sociolinguistics in further research, especially those directly related to code switching.

1.4.2.2            This research can provide knowledge for lecturers, researchers and the public about code switching that can be occurred in a multilingual society is not exception in EFL teaching and learning process in the classroom.

1.4.2.3            This study can be used as an alternative sociolinguistics research model for the future.

1.5       Clarification of Key Terms

To avoid possible confusion from the use of some of the terminologies used in this study, this section give a definition of the term.

1.5.1       Code switching is defined as “the alternate use of two or more languages in the same utterance or conversation” (Grosjean 1982: 145). Moreover, In this study “Code switching as the use of English and Indonesian in the same utterance or conversation without a clear phonological assimilation from one variety to the other”. Code switching in this research covers of code mixing, borrowing.

1.5.2       Types of code switching,  in the literature there are generally three types of code switching.  As Poplack (1980) and Lipski (1998:5), stated that code switching can be either inter-sentential, intra-sentential and tag-switching. In intra-sentential code switching,  the language switch is done at sentence boundaries. In inter-sentential code switching,  the switch is employed in the middle of the sentences, with no interruptions, hesitations, or pauses indicating a shift. The last, tag-switching as the third type of code switching which requires as only little integration of the two languages.

1.5.3       An EFL Classroom (or English as a Foreign Language Classroom) refers to the classroom in which English is taught and learned as a foreign language. Foreign language is the other term of ‘second language’ has been increasingly applied for all non-native language learning” and in this case is EFL Classroom at IPDN NTB Campus.

1.5.4       IPDN NTB Campus (Institut Pemerintahan Dalam Negeri) is educational institution in The Ministry of Home Affair of Republic Indonesia, where it’s location in Praya, Central Lombok Regency, West Nusa Tenggara Province.