The Use of First Language at Bilingual Preschool:Satya Wacana Children Centre

Abstract

The existence of the students' first language (L1) in the L2 classroom has become an ongoing debate for many years and has made the pros and cons toward the topic emerge. Inspired by the controversion, this study aiming to discuss the use of Indonesian (L1) in a bilingual preschool which uses Indonesian (L1) and English (L2) as the daily language communication. The context of the study was at a bilingual preschool, Satya Wacana Children Centre. The data for this study were collected through classroom observation and post-interview with the teacher as the participant. The result of this study suggest that the use of L1 in teaching bilingual preschool was useful for the teacher in teaching L2 to young learner. There are 7 usage of L1 used by the teacher, they were for checking comprehension, classroom management, giving instruction, teaching new vocabulary items, showing empathy and solidarity, delivering information and the last are giving feedback and encouraging. This study is expected to give a better insight for teacher in teaching bilingual school especially to those the very young learner.