The Importance Of Language Teaching

English is one of the international languages used as a means of communication among nations in the world. It is used in international trades, tourism, and other important international affairs. In Indonesia, English is not used in daily communication, but, it is used as the first foreign language.

English is introduced into the curriculum and it is a compulsory subject in junior high schools, senior high schools and in some universities. Even in some areas, English becomes a local content at elementary schools starting from grade four. The Indonesian government always makes effort to improve the quality of education by improving the quality of the teachers and other teaching components, which involve the educational processes. However, the

There are a lot of factors that influence the result of the language teaching. According to the Education Unit Level Curriculum (KTSP) of the English curriculum 2004 for Senior High School, the teaching English aim is to develop the four language skills. They are listening, speaking, reading, and writing. These skills are learned through selected materials based on their developmental level. However, in teaching and learning process, a teacher must develop the four language skills in an integrative way. Qualified teachers, good environments, facilities, and media also support the success of language learning. One of factors a teacher can be said “qualified” is their pronunciation, because their pronunciation will affect the pronunciation of their students. Since pronunciation is related to phonology, the writer suggests that phonology is a very crucial matter in learning English on the “next phase”. Yet, we have to consider things that lower the pronunciation of English learner. For example, learners think that they don’t have to pronounce a word correctly as long as they

One such case is the sound [eɪ] as in take, which is often pronounced [tæk] in the ESL variety common in Taiwan. If students are told to simply make the Mandarin [eɪ] when pronouncing take, they keep trying to “anglicize” [eɪ] to the version they’re more familiar with, in the process producing the wrong sound, either [ɛ] or [æ]. Many students seem to find it difficult to suddenly switch to a “Chinese” sound in the middle of an English word, even though the results are excellent when they manage to do it. They tend to find it [strɛndʒ] and laugh. This is an example of the effects of reinforced faulty models. It shows that students in fact learn some of their lessons extremely well and hold on to them tenaciously–it’s just unfortunate it is sometimes a wrong sound that is taught so successfully. Such errors can however be fixed, with effort, and the most motivated learners do