The Use of Communication Strategies among Indonesian Young Learners of English in Early Total Immersion Program

Abstract

This study aims at describing how Indonesian young learners of English act in responding to the interlocutor's move to keep a conversation going. The research questions are (i) what speech functions are involved in the kindergarten students' conversation; and (ii) what communication strategies are used by the learners? The participants of the research are kindergarten students of Mondial School of the Academic Year of 2015. The study uses descriptive qualitative research. The section of analysis is move(s). The learners' speech is recorded, transcribed and identified to figure out what speech functions are involved in the conversation. The data are then analyzed and interpreted to reveal what communication strategies are used by the learners. The findings suggest that the learners use communication strategies involving four major speech function choices: opening, continuing, react responding, and react rejoinder moves. The leaners produce initiation and react-responding the most. Opening in the form of demanding information and react responding in the form of replying answer moves are mostly realized through declarative clauses. Regardless the incongruent or congruent of mood types, it proves that they are able to sustain the conversation. The learners use three basic types of communication strategy: interpersonal negotiation, logico-semantic negotiation, and " channeling " negotiation. It is reasonable to argue that their conversation is natural. The conversation is also meaningful because the children are involved in the process of exchange. It is recommended that total immersion program can be applied in Indonesia as it provides precious opportunities for learners to speak. Introduction Being able to speak English is a dream come true for most Indonesian learners of English. Unfortunately, English has been considered as foreign language in Indonesia where English is taught as a school subject that makes it difficult for the learners to have access to spoken English outside the classroom. Kirkpatrick (2008) states that English is the second language of educated urban elites and the first foreign language taught at schools in Indonesia but with limited success. Equipping learners to carry out ordinary conversation in English is therefore a challenge to be faced by English teachers in Indonesia in order that learners are able to negotiate meanings. English teachers need to know what to teach so that learners are able to negotiate meanings. This study is aimed at describing (i) what speech functions are involved in the kindergarten students' conversation; and (ii) what communication strategies are used by the learners. Communication strategies here refers to the one which enables learners to keep a conversation going by relating the learners' contribution to what has been said previously by the other interactant(s). This study focuses on investigating communication strategies at the discourse semantic level. Literature Review A study conducted by Nguoi & Ahmad (2015, p.175-190) aims at exploring Limited English Language Proficiency (LEP) learners' meaning negotiation in communicative tasks. It is found that meaning negotiation can be a potential platform to facilitate language development among learners, particularly through clarification requests which can create the linguistic urgency to push LEP learners to expand their inter-language. This study implies that meaning negotiation strategies is an issue needs to be addressed further. The present study is similar in concern but distinct in the way that it focuses on young leaners and that the method used is discourse-semantic-oriented.