AN INTRODUCTION TO SECOND
LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
TEACHER TALK


Gestiana Purwaningtias
0813042005














ENGLISH EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM
LANGUAGE AND ART EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
SCHOOL OF EDUCATION AND PEDAGOGY
UNIVERSITY OF LAMPUNG
2011


INTRODUCTION
Teacher talk is one of the variations of foreigner talk in an educational setting. Study of teacher talk reveals how teacher who uses foreign language communicate with Non Native Students. The recordings of the teacher talk has characteristics, they are well-form utterances, showing systematic modifications from the native speaker-directed tapes in aspect of phonology, syntax, lexicon, and delivery.
Teacher talk in the classroom differs from speech in other contexts, but the differences are not systematic. The adjustments in teacher speech to nonnative speaker learners were aimed at maintaining communication: clarifying information and eliciting learners’ response. The term of teacher talk show that there were attempts of native speaker to modify their speech. These modifications were aimed at enabling the nonnative speaker to understand the message and maintain their conversation with the native speakers.


THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Wong-Fillmore (1985) suggest that there are characteristics of teacher talk are:
1. The talk has clear separation of languages (no mixing),
2. The talk emphasizes on comprehension, it focus on communication by use of demonstration-enactment to convey meaning, new information presented in context of known information, and heavy message redundancy.
3. The language used is entirely grammatical, appropriate to the activity by using simple structure-avoiding complex structures, repeating the use of some sentence pattern or routines, and using repetitiveness-using paraphrase fro variation.
4. The talk use tailoring of elicitation questions of allow for different levels of participation from students.
5. The talk has richness of language use, going beyond books, playfulness.

Based on the he behaviorist approach by B.F. Skinner, language is not a mental phenomenon: it behavior. Like other forms of human behavior, it is learnt by a process of habit-formation., in which the main components are:
1. The child imitates the sounds and patterns which they hear around them.
2. People recognize the child’s attempts as being similar to the adult models and reinforcement (reward) the sounds by approval or some other desirable reaction.
3. In order to obtain more of these rewards, the child repeats the sounds and patterns, so that these become habit.
4. The child imitates the sounds and patterns which they hear around them.
5. People recognize the child’s attempts as being similar to the adult models and reinforcement (reward) the sounds by approval or some other desirable reaction.
6. In order to obtain more of these rewards, the child repeats the sounds and patterns, so that these become habit.

In this way the child’s verbal behavior is conditioned (or ‘shaped’) until the habit coincide with the adult model.


DATA COLLECTING TECHNIQUE

This data was taken on Saturday, April 23, 2011 at the first grade of Elementary School of SD Negeri 1 Endang Rejo. The teacher’s name is Septi.
Transcript of the Recorded Event

Teacher : “Kalau sudah, siapa yang berani perkenalan dirinya sendiri di depan? Hayo, yang berani nanti, apa? Nanti nggak di hu…”
Students : “Kum…”
Teacher : “Yang nggak brani nanti di hukum. Ayo cepet, siapa yang berani?”
Student 1 : “Saya…”
Teacher : “Ho’o sini, sini… ayo… sini. Siapa namanya?”
Student 1 : “Korin.”
Teacher : “Tadi perkenalannya gimana, sama temen-temen? Hayo gimana tada perkenalannya sama temen-temen? Hei..hei...hei…”
Teacher : “Hello,”
Student 1 : “Hello,”
Teacher : “He’eh terus? My…”
Student 1 : “My…”
Teacher : “My name…”
Student 1 : “Name…”
Teacher : “Is…”
Student 1 : “Is…”
Teacher : “Siapa namanya?”
Student 1 : “Korin.”
Teacher : “Iya, ulangi-ulangi… Hello…”
Student 1 : “Hello…”
Teacher : “Terus, my name…”
Student 1 : “My name…”
Teacher : “Is…”
Student 1 : “Is Korin.”
Teacher : “Iya, siapa lagi? Ayo… pinter. Ayo siapa lagi?”
Student 2 : “Amel.”
Teacher : “Ayo Amel sini.”
Students : “Hahahahaha…”
Teacher : “Hei! Nggak boleh diketawain. Nanti yang ngetawain disuruh maju! Ayo amel.”
Students : “Ahahahaha…”
Teacher : “Nggak boleh ketewa, nanti kalo ketawa disuruh maju lho. Ayo Amel, hello…”
Student 3 : “Hello…”
Teacher : “Ho’oh terus? My… my name…”
Student 3 : “My name…”
Teacher : “Is…”
Student 3 : “Is…”
Teacher : “Amel.”
Student 3 : “Amel.”
Teacher : “Ulangi, ulangi, ulangi lagi, sekali lagi. Ayo sendiri!”
Student 3 : “My name… is… Amel.”
Teacher : “Iya, ayo siapa lagi? Paton… sini. Paton sini Paton. Yang keras Paton. Ayo… my name…”
Student 4 : “Ahahahaha kamu belum nulis, belum nulis…”
Student 5 : “My name …”
Teacher : “Is Paton…”
Student 5 : “Is Paton.”
Teacher : “Ulangi yang keras biar temen-temennya denger. Ayo, Hello…”
Student 5 : “Hello… my name is… Paton.”
Teacher : “Iya.”


ANALYSIS DATA

From the data, we can see that the teacher give the students a very simple material. It is about how to introduce him/her self to other people. First of all, the teacher introduce the material by write the material on the white board, then the teacher ask the student to repeat what that teacher say. And then the teacher asks them to write it on their book. This process actually not appropriate, it will be better if the student listen to the teacher about the material first, then they try to speak by repeating the teacher utterance, then after the students have some repetition, the teacher can write the material on the white board, and asks them to write it.

Based on the video-recording, teachers in SD Negeri 1 Endang Rejo within teach the materials have to use demonstration and repetition. Besides, when teacher give an instruction they used simple and clear language, and also they always repeat some new pattern that had been already studied. For example,

Teacher : “Hello,”
Student 1 : “Hello,”
Teacher : “He’eh terus? My…”
Student 1 : “My…”
Teacher : “My name…”
Student 1 : “Name…”
Teacher : “Is…”
Student 1 : “Is…”
Teacher : “Siapa namanya?”
Student 1 : “Korin.”
Teacher : “Iya, ulangi-ulangi… Hello…”
Student 1 : “Hello…”
Teacher : “Terus, my name…”
Student 1 : “My name…”
Teacher : “Is…”
Student 1 : “Is Korin.”

Besides, teachers use reinforcement when their students do something good. Take for example from the script:

Teacher : “Iya, siapa lagi? Ayo… pinter. Ayo siapa lagi?”

But, unfortunately the teacher is less of reinforcement. Here, the teacher gives the students reinforcement, but it will be better if the teacher give more and more. It will make the students confident, because they know that they have done their best performance.

Then the teacher does not gives the students chance to try it by their self with their chair mate but ask them to come in front of the class immediately to try to introduce her/his name. And then the teacher force them by asks them to come in front of the class, if they do not want to do it, so the teacher threat them with a punishment. For example;

Teacher : “Kalau sudah, siapa yang berani perkenalan dirinya sendiri di depan? Hayo, yang berani nanti, apa? Nanti nggak di hu…”
Students : “Kum…”
Teacher : “Yang nggak brani nanti di hukum. Ayo cepet, siapa yang berani?”

After the teacher said like that, there is a student who wants to try to speak in front of the class, but when she comes in front of the class she can not say anything. She just waits to the teacher instruction to repeat her teacher utterance. After the teacher help the student to introduce her name, the teacher asks her to repeat it again, but the result is still same. The student can not repeat it fluently because she does not know what she has to say, and teacher should help her again. After the long process in front of the class she can say it completely but not fluently.

That process is not completely wrong, but it is bad if the teacher forces the students to come in front without giving them chance to try it by their self because it will make the students not confident, and make them do not know what they have to say. It is also too bad if the teacher threatening the students who do not want to come in front with the punishment. Most of the students which who get threaten; they will be lazy to learn more, do not want to do whatever the teacher asks to them, and for they are that afraid to speak because they will make mistake, finally they get nothing since the lesson. After that they will afraid to learn English more in other day.

In learning Foreign Language, the students need the teacher’s attention to help them to understand the material. Here, the teacher to be a counselor so that the learners feeling secure. The teacher helps them by translate what the learners want to say into English and vice versa, when the teacher translates English material into Indonesia. It is the final way to make the students understand the material, although it is not good enough.

Well, those examples appropriate with the behaviorist approach by B.F. Skinner. Language is not a mental phenomenon: it behavior. Like other forms of human behavior, it is learnt by a process of habit-formation., in which the main components are:
1. The child imitates the sounds and patterns which they hear around them.
2. People recognize the child’s attempts as being similar to the adult models and reinforcement (reward) the sounds by approval or some other desirable reaction.
3. In order to obtain more of these rewards, the child repeats the sounds and patterns, so that these become habit.
4. The child imitates the sounds and patterns which they hear around them.
5. People recognize the child’s attempts as being similar to the adult models and reinforcement (reward) the sounds by approval or some other desirable reaction.
6. In order to obtain more of these rewards, the child repeats the sounds and patterns, so that these become habit.
In this way the child’s verbal behavior is conditioned (or ‘shaped’) until the habit coincide with the adult model.


CONCLUSION
Based on the analysis above, I can conclude that when the teachers teaching Foreign Language, it will be better if he or she does not force the students to do something without giving them a chance to practice first by them self in pairs. And it is very bad if the teachers threat the students with a punishment although it is just a lying. Then other important thing is reinforcements by reward. Because it will increase the students’ confident and motivate them to do the better thing. In additional, it can make them understand whether they have done something is true or not.