By: Aries Fachriza, M.Pd
Today, English language has an important role in global era. English has admitted as international language that has been used in many sectors or aspects in human life such as technology, education, economic, social, politic etc. Maxom states that these days English is viewed as a language which gives everyone access to the world. Some want to study at prestigious English-speaking universities; some want a high flying career with international connections so that many people has assumption that English is the key for communication in social community.
Base on the statement above, It is known that English language need to be learned by the people in the world. Because 300 million native speakers of English are to be found in every continent, and an equally widely distributed body of second language speakers, who use English for their day-to-day needs, totals over 250 million. So that many schools or institutions provide English as a subject. The students in the school was given English language as a subject in order to communicate each other by using English.
The people in every country use English as their language for communication and interaction. Some of them use it as The first language and many of them use English as the second and Foreign language. Braj Kachru states that between 320-380 million people spoke English as a first language and anywhere between 250-350 million as a second language. Base on the data, it indicated that English language was popular to use for communication.
The use of English in each country is based on the political history. English language is from United Kingdom (UK), then this country took a colonial domination in every country in the world. So that English has been found in each country. But the use of English are distinguished in three categories. English as First Language, English as Second language and English as Foreign Language. English as first language means that language which is used in the community as the mother tongue ( MT) as in the USA , UK and Australia. English as Second Language means that English is used just for commercial, administrative and educational institutions as in Singapore, Malaysia and Ghana.
English as Foreign language means that it is taught in schools, often widely, but it does not play an essential role in national or social life. The aim in learning English is just to express ideas rather than emotion: for his emotional expression he has the mother tongue.It is a useful general rule that intensive words and items are of secondary importance to a foreign learner, however common they may be. The people does not need English or any other foreign language to live his daily life or even for social or professional advancement. English is just for communication when the people go abroad in other country. Such in Indonesia, Brazil, spain etc
The use of English language in indonesia is must. It means that Indonesian people should be able to speak or to communicate with English language for interaction. Because Indonesia will face globalization era such MEA ( Asean Economic Community) in 2016. So that the goverment should provide the ways in order to Indonesian people ready to face the condition especially mastering English language.
The Problems that always faced by the people or learner in Indonesia in learning this language are comprehending all the aspect in English context. because The Indonesian students placed English as Foreign language. It is difficult enough to use English as their communication in daily activities because Indonesian use Bahasa Indonesia as their mother tongue in daily communication although most of them had studied English language in their education level. Besides that, The competencies that should be mastered by the learner in learning English are Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing.
From the statement above, the main factor that have important role to solve this condition is The competencies of teacher in teaching language. It means that the teacher should master the technique or method in transfering the knowledge or skill to the learner. Although, There are many approaches that has been used by the teacher in teaching English. But the implementation is not appropriate with the condition of students. so that it needs a solution to solve this problem. One of solution in overcoming this case is the use of scientific Approach in teaching English in EFL classroom. But this approach should be supported with the teacher who has good competency .
