Students’ Perceptions Toward The Use of L1 (Indonesian) in English Classroom

Abstract

The use of L1 in teaching a foreign language became a controversial issue. Nowadays, many teachers confused to use the language when they taught their students. It is because the students often get hard to understand the materials. This study examined the perceptions of students toward the use of L1 (Indonesian) in English classroom at SMA Laboratorium UKSW and SMA N 1 Salatiga. The research was focused on Language Stream which had 60 students from both schools. The data is collected from the questionnaires that were given to the XI and XII year students which would be analyzed using SPSS software. One of the findings shows that the students actually perceived L1 as a tool to help them study English better, especially when they would have to ask their teachers something they do not understand. However, the result also shows that if L1 is used too much, the students would then perceive it would not be effective for students; they thought that it makes the students get used to using Indonesian and disturbs the English learning. Another finding revealed that the students liked their teacher to use L1 when the teacher explains things that are difficult.