Exposition text

How to Encourage English Department Students to Speak English More Often and Confidently 

Teaching literacy and composition is a high priority in the inner city. It is also one of its greatest challenges. Large majorities of the population are either bilingual or ESL learners, and the demands and complexities become even more daunting. And this does not even take into account the various intellectual ability groupings. The concerns can be overwhelming. Speaking English is very important to a language student especially English department but the fact is that many student didn't speak English to improve their skill Although they studied in the English department. Therefore we must advise them to improve their language skills especially for those who study in college in the field of language.

First, face the challenge of students who speak Indonesian as their primary language. Many of them have begun their English language learning after the age of four. This compounds the difficulty of acquiring a second language. Indonesian is the language they speak as well as think. It is dominant. Some students are transient, making their continuous exposure to English intermittent. Some are in the country illegally, so they try to stay "below the radar," doing as little speaking and writing as possible, so that no attention will be paid to them. Indonesian is spoken at home; television programming is viewed in Indonesian. Their exposure to English occurs only during school hours and only in classes. The students speak Indonesian to each other during class changes and during lunch breaks. Because speaking is easier than writing in English class, students are much more willing and comfortable when they are speaking English. Some of them do very well using this modality , others become self-conscious about their ability because they realize they have issues with the language.

Second, for any middle-school, Indonesian-speaking population, becoming proficient in English is often a very difficult transition. Students are not only learning a new language but they are also in the throes of becoming adolescents. They need a great deal of support because the complex experience of adolescence, coupled with school and an emerging language, can be frustrating, embarrassing, and painful, especially at this age.

Third, inexperienced teachers sometimes hold the attitude that these students are not capable of reading and writing on grade level, so expectations and assignments are greatly reduced. Many of them are initial teachers with only a few years experience. It is essential that there be consistency across the disciplines.  The attitude that low English-speaking proficiency or lack of knowledge of the classroom culture is a sign of uncooperative. Coupled with high expectations and activities, the necessary language support must be provided.

Fourth, social networking, emailing, Facebook, blogging, twitting, texting, and listening to Ipads are activities on which students want to spend their time. Calls this cognitive style "hyper attention": students "switch focus rapidly among different tasks, preferring multiple information steams, seeking a high level of stimulation, and having a low tolerance for boredom.There needs to be an educational answer for the chasm that exists between what they want to do and what is necessary. Students need to spend time hearing language, seeing and reading language, writing language, and speaking language in ways that excite them.

A fifth concern worth mentioning is that often students, even native speaking ones, just do not want to spend the time reading as a way of understanding the nuances of the language. Students lack this motivation to read-- hence, to critically think and write. Their understanding at times seems limited. They see these academic pursuits as too hard and not worth the effort. They are inexperienced readers partly because they have trouble deciphering meaning or purpose while reading texts. Lack of adequate vocabulary sometimes gets in the way. They cannot grasp the difference between oral explanations of any assignment and the written. Their parents often cannot assist them with these understandings because they themselves have the same issues. Terms such as analyze, synthesize, and critique are standard requests in my directions, yet they hold fuzzy meaning for students, so the desire to read and complete their assignments is greatly diminished. As a result, their work is often incomplete or off task and their focus is unclear or even lost. This lack of focus is not only indistinguishable in terms of words, sentences, and forms of address, but the presentation sounds different as well. Their writing syntax is not one of a native speaker. Their writing "sounds Indonesian." Because they think in Indonesian, they write that way. Syntactical errors and misuses of vocabulary lead to awkward sentence patterns and structures.So I think we should give them motivation to make them improve their skill of speaking English not just for teacher but parents must give them motivation too so they can be a good person in their life.