LANGUAGE CHOICE OF THE 2 ND AND 6 TH SEMESTER ENGLISH DEPARTMENT STUDENTS, ACADEMIC YEAR 2009 AND 2011 AT THE CAMPUS OF FACULTY OF LETTERS, JEMBER UNIVERSITY

Abstract

English Department students are required to have excellent command in English but the use of English among them is still very limited. This problem urges the writer to conduct this research. The objective of this research is to find out their language choice and their reason to choose other languages instead of English. The findings then can be used as reference to find out the solution of the problem mentioned above. Using domains theory, this research tries to look at the problem from social point of view rather than psychological one. This is under the consideration, that language is socially mediated. Using survey technique as the main instrument in collecting the data, questionnaire are distributed to more than a hundred of students of two academic years at the campus of Faculty of Letters, Jember University. This numbers are taken from 50% students of 2009 and 2011 academic years each. In addition to the survey technique mentioned above, this research also incorporates interview and observation to ensure the validity of the survey data and to get information, which are more relevant dealing with the students’ limited use of English at campus. A descriptive method is used to analyze the data, both in the form of quantitative data as got from the surveys, or description as collected from the interviews, and observations. From two domains included, education and friendship domain, English is dominant in the education domain only, in which more formal situation occurs, but it is inferior against other languages in the latter domain, the friendship domain. Meanwhile, among their reasons of language choice, the students’ less confidence and the availability of company become two of the most popular reasons of the students. As the data suggest, the very limited use of English by the students does not always deals with competence or psychological matters, but deal more with the lack of support the students get from their social environment, especially from their friends, despite their good competence and high motivation to use English. Accordingly, the lecturers as the interlocutors to whom English is most appropriately used at the campus should consider English as their main language, to provide exposure, which the students cannot easily get among themselves.