“Pedich English?” Using Local Context to Help Understanding

 

 

Kania Anggraeni

Maya M. Yasmin

 

 

Teachers who teach beginner learners of English often find it hard to help their students comprehend the lessons. While these teachers try to use the target language as much as possible in their classes, their efforts are hindered not only by the students’ very limited vocabulary but also by their lack of familiarity with the foreign context of the target language. Therefore these students sometimes cannot differentiate the foreign-sounding names of people and places from the vocabulary. For example they may not identify the word Thames as a name of a river in England (because they have never heard of a river by that name) and confuse it for another English word, just like the words walk, sad, money, etc. Such problems usually occur in listening activities, in which the students do not have any clues (such as the use of capital letters in reading and writing activities) to differentiate names from other vocabulary items. As the teachers are somewhat more familiar to the foreign context than the students are, the context-related comprehension problems have often been overlooked or unnoticed for quite a long time before they are realized. Many teachers are surprised at their students’ limited vocabulary and lack of exposure to context other than their own. We, as teachers, must realize that context is very important in the students’ language learning.

 

 

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Anggraeni, K., & Yasmin, M. M. (2005, March). Pedich English? Using local context to help understanding. Paper presented at LIA International Conference, Jakarta, Indonesia.

 

 

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