SIKAP PARA GURU TERHADAP PILIHAN VARIASI BAHASA INGGRIS SEBAGAI MODEL BAHASA PENGANTAR PADA SEKOLAH YANG MEMILIKI PROGRAM IMERSI DI SURAKARTA

Abstract

The status of English as an International language has made English practitioners question the appropriateness native speakers’ variety as the model in English teaching. The current study is aimed to describe the attitudes of the teachers in schools with immersion program in Surakarta towards three varieties: American English (AmE), British English (BrE) dan Indonesian English (IndE) and to investigate the teachers’ perception on variety that is appropriate as the language instruction in the class. The attitudes in this study were investigated through four categories: speed, pronunciation, delivery and content. The data in the research were collected through questioners and interview. Before the teachers filled in the questionnaires, they were asked to listen to the recorded varieties: AmE, BrE, and IndE respectively. There were 24 respondents teaching at Junior High School and Senior High School level. The twenty four teachers can be divided into 2 groups: 12 teachers teaching natural science and 12 teachers teaching social science. The results of the study shows there is level of preferences with IndE the first, BrE the second, AmE the third. According to the teachers of immersion class—based on the four categories investigated—the speed of IndE is the easiest to follow, the pronunciation of IndE is the clearest of all, the delivery of IndE is the most interesting, and the content of IndE is the easiest to understand from the four categories investigated in IndE variety, the pronunciation has the most positive response from the teachers. On the other hand, in two other varieties, AmE and BrE, the most positive response is found in the delivery category, with BrE the first and AmE the last. Variety AmE has negative response in speed and content category. It means, according to the teachers teaching immersion class, the speed of AmE is relatively hard to follow and its content is relatively hard to understand. Meanwhile, in the question of the appropriate variety as the model of language instruction, 91,67% of the teachers choose IndE as the most appropriate model. The judgments of this decision are in line with the positive responses shown in the measurement of the four categories previously mentioned. However, some respondents choose IndE because it is considered as the most familiar one, the easiest to imitate, and easiest to use as a mean to deliver the material. Both native speaker varieties— AmE dan BrE—are chosen because of their appropriateness in pronunciation. The findings of the current study have implications for teaching English in Indonesia in which IndE can be used as a model of language instruction in the class.