THE HINDRANCE ENGLISH STUDENTS IN
FIRST LANGUAGE SETTING:
OTHERS LANGUAGE ATTITUDE
Mohamad Ramdhan
English Language and Literature Department
Universitas Negeri Surabaya
Surabaya, Indonesia
mohamadramdhan1664@gmail.com
Abstract— the aim of this paper is to know the obstacles of
English Student Who Want Apply Mixing Language term to get
more fluency In Speaking. This Research Used Qualitative
Research. Six students participated in this research were chosen
by purposive sampling from mandarin student, two student from
Germany student, and three student from English Student at
Faculty of Language and Art in states university of Surabaya.
What their reasons, their point of view and the response from the
informants. Since this phenomena is occur in our society
especially for student in English department. The method of this
paper is using interview method to collect the result of data. The
data analysis showed that there was problem in applying mixing
language because of some factors such as a first language
settings, sociocultural factor, environment or the habit. Mixing
Language is chosen to communicate as well as learning for
English students in their environment. The reasons for using
mixing language, point of view, and response will be explained
further.
Keywords: the obstacle, mix language, English student
I. INTRODUCTION
Difficulties or obstacles often become a phenomenon that
must be faced by everyone in this world. All planning, life
learning, until the process of learning about something will
also experience an obstacle. The hindrance [1] is something or
people that makes situation difficult.
This might also happen to English students who still
learning process. Learning is something that will always exist
in human life. Nothing can suddenly, suddenly exist, because
everything needs to be learned.
The usage of English is kind of reasonable for every
people in this world. Especially for the student who choose
English language program in their study. Even English is
become lingua franca[2] which is used by many people around
world. There is four basics English study[3] that have to
accomplished by English student study program. There are
Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing. This means that
English students must master at least four of these things.
Speaking is become benchmarks of English students in
showing their abilities in the general public. All people judge
English students by their ability to speak rather than listening,
writing, and reading problems because they may all be
covered by speaking ability. Talking about the community that
is around us, is inseparable from an assessment, the
environment, culture, and attitudes of each individual around
will be revealed. So, it's no wonder children who choose
language majors are children who have bilingual or
multilingual abilities.
The assessment, environment, culture and attitude of each
individual in Indonesia is different. Indonesia is one of the
countries that does not use English as the main second
language, in contrast to Singapore which does apply a variety
of languages[4] such as Malay, English, Tamil and Mandarin,
and make it a formal or informal language in communication
[5].
First language setting [6] is a place where mother tounge
is created and popular since it used by all the people in
particular country or region. Like in Indonesia, the formal
language is Bahasa Indonesia and because of many regions
belongs to Indonesia, they create some languages, different
cultures, different environment, and etc.
The first language setting in Surabaya is Javanese. Most
of Surabaya people using Javanese as main language to
communicate since the relationship among society will feel
more closely and there is no gap each other. Many student in
Surabaya choose English as their program study. Because of
the technology or any different background to support their
study English. But surely there is an obstacle experienced by
several English student in one of popular university in
Surabaya.
The writer will analysis the obstacle that happened by
English student in State University of Surabaya when they
apply the basic things of English language rather than other
language. Also, know some attitude from other major student.
This paper will focus on the English student setting in state
university of Surabaya only.
Because it is setting or place of residence that rarely uses
and is not accustomed to speaking in English, and wants to
practice speaking as well, it is necessary for mixing languages.
Aside from being an English student, they must adjust to the
cultural conditions of the society.
Mix language [7] in general definition, mix language are
category of contact language, which emerges in bilingual
contexts where a common language is already present but
drastic social change is underway. Mixed languages combine
the vocabulary and grammar of both languages to different
degrees. This is show that mix language considerable diversity
in structure, social function and historical origins, with little
obvious predictive power.
Similar with a previous study, Exploring English
student problems in applying full English speaking area at
English study program of Khairun University [8], this is show
that the obstacle to apply speaking in English is really exist
especially in the country that didn’t use English as daily
conversation. Fluency is the first goal. It means being able to
communicate your ideas without having to stop and think too
much about what you are going to say [8]. But there is
something that previous study didn’t search yet, it is about
how the response of the informant from other majors program
such as Mandarin, Germany, Japanese, even English.
Another previous study, Foreign Language Learners’
Attitudes and Perceptions of L1 Use in L2 Classroom[9] This
study investigates the attitudes and perceptions of Saudi
university students towards entering L1 (Arab) they are in
English class. This study also explains the relationship
between students' perceptions and the level of proficiency in
the target language. L1 means first language that belongs to
the person and L2 means the use of second language. This
study has big question purposes, whether to avoid learners’
first language or to make use of it in the second language
classes is a controversial issue.
II. METHOD
This paper is employed a qualitative method using
interview technique. The informants consist of six students
who has been participated on the interview. These six students,
two students from Germany department program, one student
from Mandarin department program and last three students
from English department program.
The former is to know how the hindrance from English
students in the first language setting in Surabaya.
The writer wants to choose this topic because English has
become a subject included in the education curriculum in
Indonesia. Starting from elementary school, junior high
school, high school, to the level of college (university).
This paper is quite challenging to find the data, the writer
must ask one by one randomly to the informants from
different majority which has different schedule for available
time too. Fortunately, the writer got the data from the
informants. To make more complete the information through
this paper, the writer try to make a question interview via
Google form and ask their point of view, their response and
their experiences related to this topic. The writer will
summarize the answers as the origin from the informants. To
make it more specific categorized of informant, the writer
share the Google form to particular majors only.
The writer has found:
a) The reasons informant using mix language,
b) The point of view from the informants,
c) the response from the informants
III. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
English students often practice learning outside of lectures.
Demands to learn basic things like speaking, listening, reading
and writing. So, often they are carried away or provoked to
apply English as their daily language. Therefore, it leads them
to a habit. Not only do they make learning to be accustomed to
using English, but they make language to communicate.
Because of learning process, they push their speaking ability
which is sometimes they use mix language. Mix language they
use is Indonesia - inggris, jawa- Indonesia-inggris-jerman,
mandarin-inggris.
The relation between mix languages with the obstacle that
occur by English student is learning process.
A. The reasons informants using mix language
Interaction is something that is familiar in social life.
Communication, information sharing, sharing feeling. All that
requires a language so that each other understands what is
meant. Not apart for students who are able to use bilingualism
[10] in their activity communication will use mix language [7]
that has been explained above.
Besides bilingualism, there is one informant who is willing
to answer some questions from the author. The Informants is
from English department, a girl student. She is often use
mixing language in her communication daily activity. Even
when the writer interviewed her, she said one sentence that
contained a mixing language as below:
a. Informant 1: “eh sumpah yo hari ini literally very hot aku
gak kuat pol sama cuacanya”
Translate: “I swear today’s weather is very hot. I can’t handle
it.”
This shows that she is familiar with the use of mixing
languages. According to her, this helps double the function,
first, learning new vocabulary, second is provide her feelings.
When the author asks views about English students who use
Mixing language, the result is;
b. The informant 1: “ya ga gimana2 dhan, cuma kelihatan
punya higher status seh. Karena kan pasti dia well educated.”
Translate: “yeah that's fine, dhan, it seems to have a higher
status. Because surely he or she is well educated.”
Based on her answer, she believes that students who have
ability to communicate in two languages (bilingualism)[6] is
an educated person and has its own privileges. Then what is
the reason she uses mix language, is it due to other factors?
c. The informant 1: “Karena aku belajar second language [11]
kali ya dan aku sudah terbiasa. Jadi kadang secara gasadar aku
replace bahasa Indonesia pake bahasa inggris”
Translate: “Because I learned second language[11] this time
and I'm used to it. So sometimes I replace my language using
English”
Alasan yang dia berikan tidak jauh berbeda dari kegiatan
kebiasaan yang dia lakukan.
Also, she give a message for English student who want apply
mix language:
d. The informant: “jangan pernah malu buat ngomong”
Translate: “don't be ashamed to talk”
Freedom of speech is the right of everyone to use mixing
language in daily conversation, don’t worry about bad
marking because she knows that as an English student she
must be able to learn the basics of a lesson[3], one of them is
Speaking. Because by chance he was learning about second
language and majored in English which is very rarely used in
everyday life in Indonesia, especially the people of Surabaya.
It does not matter if there is a speech error when learning to
say an English word because it is called learning process.()
B. The point of view from the informants
In this chapter, the writer will focus on the point of view
from all informants. The aim is to how the point of view about
English student yang pernah menggunakan mix language di
depan informant and there will have many perception and
interpretation.
1. Informant from Germany department
a. Informant 2 (male): “Risih, terutama jika sudah
menjadi temen yang udah cukup dekat sih. Kayak
gak enak gitu ngobrolnya”
Translate: “It feels uncomfortable, especially if we
are close friends. It feels like it's not comfortable
when chatting with them.”
b. Informant 3 (female): “Tidak apa2, itu merupakan
salah satu cara untuk melatih diri berbicara bahasa
inggris. Karena belajar bahasa tanpa dipraktekkan
secara langsung akan sulit.”
Translate: “It's okay, it's one way to train yourself to
speak English. Because learning a language without
hands-on practice will be difficult.”
2. Informant from Mandarin department.
a. Informant 4 (male): “Geli”
Translate: Amused
3. Informant from English department
a. Informant 5 (female): “Biasa saja, tapi kalau misal
mix languagenya dengan bahasa yg kurang tepat
artinya, ya agak mengganjal aja.”
Translate: “it’s just ordinary thing. But if the meaning
of the mix language isn't quite right, it doesn't seem
good”
b. Informant 6 (male): “Tidak apa- apa selama mereka
bisa menggunakannya di waktu yang tepat atau lupa
bahasa awalnya.”
Translate: “It's okay as long as they can use it at the right time
or forget their initial language.”
These six point of view come from various majors students
with different experiences. For Germany informant, he doesn’t
like if his friend using English or mixing language since
sometimes the meaning is unclear. He always told his friend
that he doesn’t want hear mixing language again. Besides, the
meaning is unclear, the informant feel uncomfortable when
they have conversation. It is same answer with informant 4
which is from Mandarin department. When he look at to the
person who use mixing language, he feel amused, means he
was not used to hearing such things and quite annoying when
hearing people use mix language.
Different response precisely present to German informants
2 and English student itself. According to informant 2, she
understand that the learning process of study is not always
occur in the class, but it can be occur in the other place.
Especially for speaking, sometimes when the students didn’t
practice directly, then it could be difficult to learn because
practice is one of learning process.
For informant 5, she assumed that this was normal, and she
did the same thing, using mix language in her conversation.
But when she hears other students use mix language that has
the wrong meaning, it is not good because it can make
misunderstanding in communication.
For informant 6, it’s free to use mix language especially
when he forgets the word he want to say in Indonesian, then
he usually uses English to start a conversation replace
Indonesian word that he meant. But it’s better to use in the
right time, means it must to see the condition and with whom
to talk.
The informants told the writer that they have experience
use mix language in daily life too. Usually, they using mix
language for communication and to provide some information.
Most of them is use mix Indonesian-English, Javanese-
Indonesian-English. As we know that Javanese is the first
language for the most population of students in state university
of Surabaya. Even in English student, they are from Javanese
people [12]. So, it’s not surprise if the informant mostly
answer like that.
C. The response from the informants
In this chapter, the writer will provide some response from
the informants about English student who using mix language:
1. Informant from Germany department
a.Informsnt 2 (male): “Jancok gaenak rasae, kon koyok
koncoan ambek sopo ae”
Translate: “Shit it’s uncomfortable, it’s like you don't know
me”
b. Informant 3 (female): Tidak pernah menegur mereka.
Translate: never rebuked them.
2. Informant from Mandarin department
a. informant 4: Pakai satu bahasa saja
Translate: it’s better for you to use one language.
3. Informant from English department
a. informant 5 (female): “wih, gaya rek nyampur-nyampur
bahasa"
Translate: “wih, your language is mixing.”
b. informant 6 (male): Gapapa mixing language tapi jangan
sampai salah arti dengan yang diinginkan.
Translate: It's okay mixing language but don't get it wrong
with what you want. What's mixing language but don't get it
wrong with what you mean.
Informant 2 said that he has a close friend from English
student department, he always hear his friend using mix
language English-Indonesian and often the response is quite
surprising by scolding his friend. Sometimes he doesn’t
understand what it meant. According to him, it looks like they
are not close friends, therefore using Javanese or Indonesian is
better than having to mix languages with English.
For Informant 3 she never give a response since she know the
reasons of English students did kind of mixing language.
Response from informant 4, he suggest to his friend to use one
language only since it’s more comfortable to communicate.
While response from informant 5 and 6 who has similar
program study, choose to tease and insinuate students who use
mix language. Basically, they have similar answer that it's
okay to use mix language as long as the messages are
delivered accordingly.
IV. CONCLUSION
All activities have a hindrance[1] including
communication which is often influenced by several factors.
One of them is an assessment of friends around who positive
and negative. The negative side, some of the informants are
not support their friends to do mix language. The positive side,
some of them will support and understanding the position of
English student who need to learn the basic lesson[3]
The occurrence of obstacles is also caused by the use of
English in first language settings [6], which means the place is
not applied and used with foreign language, English, in formal
and informal situation[5].
There are 6 informants that willing to share their opinion,
experience to support this paper. They are two student from
Germany department, one student form Mandarin department,
and three students from English department.
Activities such as mixing languages are carried out by
some English students who are often get underestimated.
Students who can apply mixing languages are usually people
who have the ability of bilingualism[10]. Because they can
mix two languages in one sentence.
As noted above, the informants have conducted mixing
languages such as Javanese-Indonesian, Mandarin-Indonesian,
and so on.
The writer has been identified three point from the informant
The writer will divided into three section:
a) The reasons informants using mix language
b) The point of view from the informants
c) The response from the informants
All answers are based on what informants have done to their
friends who often use mixing languages.
REFERENCES
[1] S. Word, L. In, and N. Light, “Hindrance meaning,”
2019. .
[2] B. Seidlhofer, “English as a lingua franca,” ELT
Journal, 2005. .
[3] L. M. Sadiku, “The Importance of Four Skills
Reading, Speaking, Writing, Listening in a Lesson
Hour,” Eur. J. Lang. Lit., vol. 1, no. 1, p. 29, 2015.
[4] F. Cavallaro and N. B. Chin, “Language in Singapore:
From multilingualism to English plus,” Challenging
the Monolingual Mindset, vol. 051, no. January 2017,
pp. 33–48, 2014.
[5] C. Informal and C. Informal, “Ormal and.”
[6] D. Mizza, “The First Language (L1) or Mother
Tongue Model Vs. The Second Language (L2) Model
of Literacy Instruction,” J. Educ. Hum. Dev., vol. 3,
no. 3, pp. 101–109, 2014.
[7] F. Meakins, “Forthcoming . Mixed Languages,” no.
January, 2019.
[8] A. Tuguis, “Exploring Students’ Problems in Applying
Full English Speaking Area At English Study Program
of Khairun University,” Khairun University, 2017.
[9] M. S. Almohaimeed and H. M. Almurshed, “Foreign
Language Learners’ Attitudes and Perceptions of L1
Use in L2 Classroom,” Arab World English J., vol. 9,
no. 4, pp. 433–446, 2018.
[10] A. Grant, “Defining bilingualism.,” Encycl. Lang. Lit.
Dev., no. October, pp. 1–7, 2008.
[11] L. Ortega, “Second language acquisition,” Routledge
Handb. Appl. Linguist., pp. 171–184, 2011.
[12] S. Word and L. In, “Javanese meaning,” pp. 1–8,
2019.