STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS TOWARD TEACHERS’ USE OF BAHASA 
                  INDONESIA IN ENGLISH LEARNING CLASSROOM 
                           Rike Rizkia Permatasari 
                               Abstract 
             There have been pros and cons regarding the issue toward the use of first language 
         (L1) by teachers in English learning classroom. In this case, L1 refers to Bahasa Indonesia. 
         Many teachers in Indonesia still use L1 in their teaching English process. That is why the 
         aimed  of  this  study  is  to  find  out  students’  perceptions  toward  teachers’  use  of  Bahasa 
         Indonesia. In this study, quantitative data from 102 students from first and second grade of 
         Mater Alma Junior High School were obtained through closed-ended questionnaires. There 
         were 15 questions and categorized them in students' preferences, students' feeling, students' 
         positive perception and the advantages toward teachers’ use of Bahasa Indonesia in English 
         learning  classroom.  They  were  chosen  as  they  were  believed  to  be  more  aware  of  their 
         needed  of  language  used  by  teachers  regarding  their  understanding  in  English  learning 
         process.  The  finding  reveals  that  teachers’  use  of  Bahasa  Indonesia  brought  positive 
         perceptions  toward  students.  Students  prefer  teachers  used  Bahasa  Indonesia  in  English 
         learning process because they have a better understanding on the material, have a secured 
         feeling in expressing the intent/idea/experiences and mastered grammar points without losing 
         the essences or feels afraid of making mistakes using English.  
         Key words : first language(L1), students’ perception, the advantages of teachers’ use L1 
          
                            INTRODUCTION 
             The maximum use of English in the classroom can help the students improve English 
         proficiency.  Krashen  (1988:  44)  as  quoted  by  Kurnia  (2011)  claims  that  more  exposure 
         means more proficiency. It means that students should get an opportunity to listen English if 
         they want to be skillful at using English. However, the maximum exposure in a language 
         classroom  sometimes  becomes  a  challenge  because  many  teachers  still  use  their  first 
         language (L1). Al Sharaeai (2012) as quoted by AL-Burke (2008) found that most of the 
         teachers are using L1 to facilitate English language learning and enhance students’ language 
         proficiency. On the other hand, Swain and Lapkin (2000) declared that facilitating the L2 by 
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       teacher using L1 is not a guarantee of student’s English proficiency. They thought that it is 
       impossible for low proficiency students to get English exposure by listening their teachers 
       using  L1  in  their  English  learning  process.  In  situations  where  students  have  little 
       opportunities to meet L2 outside the classroom that considering English as Foreign language 
       here,  maximizing  the  use  of  L2  is  important.  That  is  why,  more  exposure  means  more 
       proficiency. 
          The issue about the use of first language (L1) in English classroom has been debated 
       for years. By looking at the issue, the use of L1 is still necessary and unavoidable. There are 
       pros  and  cons  regarding  the  use  of  L1  in  English  classroom.  In  a  study,  Knight  (1996) 
       reported that the teachers who did the preparatory L1 discussion made the students did much 
       better on the L2 written task than other learners who did preparatory L2 discussion even 
       though that discussion was in the same language. According to Atkinson (1987) as quoted in 
       Miles (2004) there is now a belief that the use of L1 can be a positive resource for teachers, 
       and they should be focused on it. On the other hand, the extensive use of L1 should be 
       avoided by the teachers because if teachers use L1 in language teaching, it will make high 
       dependency toward L1 for students. Such as in translation matter, students will wait for the 
       teacher to translate everything in L1 first rather than make an effort to think of it at first. 
       Bowen (2004) stated that in language teaching classroom teacher’s use of  L1  was “bad 
       things” in learning English. Teachers will make students get limited exposure of English. It 
       also will get less controlled of achieving an effective and efficient English learning process. 
       That is why, teachers’ use of L1 in developing students’ skills has become a major issue that 
       it should be avoided or not in English learning classroom. 
           As  there  is  not  a  clear  agreement  among  teachers  yet,  inconsistency  toward  the 
       language  used  in  the  classroom  emerged.  It  also  happens  in  Indonesian  context.  Some 
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         teachers  were  in  favor  to  the  use  of  Bahasa  Indonesia,  whereas  some  others  were  not. 
         Besides,  some  teachers  exposed  the  students  with  English  only  but  some  others  do  not. 
         Teachers  who  teach  using  Bahasa  Indonesia  might  think  that  switching  from  English  to 
         Bahasa Indonesia can help students absorb the lesson more easily. Teachers who use English 
         are  focus  more  on  students’  English  proficiency  by  getting  as  much  as  English  in  their 
         teaching. In fact, some students have various attitudes toward this two language teaching. 
             Based on that issue I focus on how the students perceived the teacher use of L1 in 
         English learning classroom at Mater Alma Junior High School. The research question is what 
         are  students’  perceptions  toward  the  teachers’  use  of  L1  (Bahasa  Indonesia)  in  English 
         learning classroom? The purpose of this study is to give deeper insight into what students’ 
         opinion toward the use of L1 by teachers during teaching and learning process. Hopefully, the 
         study will help teachers to have a deeper insight on students’ preferences  and justification of 
         using L1 by the teacher in English learning classroom. The results may also help teachers 
         understand in which situations their students tend to prefer to use their L1 and not English. 
         By understanding that, teachers will be better informed about teachers’ use of L1 should be 
         avoided or not in English learning classroom. 
                          LITERATURE REVIEW 
         Definition of perceptions 
             Perception is someone thought about something that they learn to measure how their 
         attitude  toward  using  something,  whether  they  agree  or  not  about  that  method  or  about 
         something that they learn (Hong, K.-S. 2003). It means that students have their own opinion 
         toward something that get from teaching learning process and how they react toward it. A 
         theory from Sidhu (2003) stated that students’ perceptions are students’ point of view toward 
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       something  that  happened  in  learning  process  class  and  produced  it  with  suggestion  or 
       argument for teacher or classmate to improve their learning process. The observation process 
       can be so challenging and interesting experience for students’ perception that can increase 
       their  awareness  of  a  whole  process  of  teaching  as  well  as  their  own  learning.  From  the 
       definition above, students’ perception is how students’ thought to response about what they 
       have done or about what they learned. 
       The Advantages and Disadvantages of using L1 
       The use of first language (L1) by the teacher has some advantages and disadvantages for 
       students in developing English skills. The following studies show the advantages of teachers’ 
       first language in classroom for students: 
         1.  The use of L1 can be used as “Learner’s shelter” 
           The first advantage of using L1 are that it can be used as learner’s shelter. Zacharias 
       (2003) declared that the students’ L1 can be metaphorically described as “a shelter” (p.7) that 
       is using the students’ L1 by teachers in teaching English learning process will create a less 
       threatening atmosphere. The use of L1 in the English classroom by the teachers creates a 
       better  teaching-learning environment. Meyer (2000) stated that a language anxiety comes 
       when  the  students  have  communication  anxiety.  Teachers’  use  of  L1  is  comforting  the 
       language  anxiety  around  the  students.  Besides  decreasing  the  language  anxiety,  L1  also 
       builds self confidence for the students. The use of L1 by the teachers in English classroom 
       encourages students to learn English. It also helps students to understand the expression used 
       by the teachers, they can use the expression with great confidence. 
            
            
          8 | S t u d e n t s ’   P e r c e p t i o n s   T o w a r d   T e a c h e r s ’   U s e   o f   B a h a s a  
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