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YULIANDRI

Assignment One

Reflective Journal: Chapter I

272.702

I want to make a short elaboration based on the question asked in the study

guide; how can you categorized your students ESL, EFL or EAL, in this case I

would also put myself in the same place as my students, on account of some

English learners in Indonesia. There is terminology discussed (Stern, 1989) that

mentions some key terms like second and foreign language, or in other words

L1 and L2. L1 here represents the mother tongue or the primary (Stern, 1989,

p.9) and L2 is the weaker language. Based on these key terms I would like to

explain my viewpoint that would probably answer this question, but this

elaboration is not exclusively intended to judge the type of students that I teach.

Firstly I would go into a deeper definition that second language is a language

learned later than the native language (1989, p.12). Generally in Indonesia we

can simply put into this context that L1 is Indonesian orBahasa Indonesia and

L2 is English. But, as we explore deeper, this context is not fully acceptable to

English learners throughout Indonesia because in fact, in some area or

provinces in Indonesia, the mother tongue or the L1 is not necessarily Bahasa

Indonesia. There are so many ethic languages that actually become regional

language. In this case, for English learners that come from these provinces,

English will become their third language. This is not the main issue that I want

elaborate, but at least this will guide me into my first clue that in Indonesia, it is

quite reasonable that I could categorize my self and also my students as

learners in EFL category.

The above explanation is not the main reason why the clues to my answer tend

to lead to EFL. Other aspects that considered supporting this point of view are

the purpose and the context of English learning of most of my students. In my

opinion what is called ESL learners is what Brown (2007, p.3) would describe

as trying to acquire the second language complete with its all cultural and

linguistic aspects. The purpose of the learning is to be able identify closely with

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the culture and people of the target language. Meanwhile, EFL students are

somewhat that I believe Brown (2007, p.3) explains as focusing on a

foreign language context in which the second language is heard and spoken

only in artificial environment, and the reason of acquiring the language is

merely the pursuit of successful career or passing some foreign language

requirement for some purposes (2007, p.3).

There has been a lot of arguments about the use of second, additional or

foreign language terms. The terms ESL, EFL, and EAL sometimes lead into

ambiguity to some beginners ears. But I believe, as a Language teacher, for

me, the term used is not a big problem, because each classroom has its own

special need, and no specific language teaching method that could universally

be applied to every classroom, as what Brown explains as every learner-

teacher relationship is unique, and every context is unique (2007, p.18). It is

the role of the teacher to see this uniqueness and somehow manage to find the

right formulation out of it (2007, p. 19). So I believe, ESL, EFL, or EAL are only

a matter of terminology that does not necessarily influence or limit the richness

of the flexibility of the classroom itself.