' .. 
'-"", T~'" 

OPTIMIZING COMPREHENSmLE INPUT ~ 
SECOND LANGUAGE CLASSROOM 

Heny Hartono I 

Abstract: English teachers who leach E"glish as second la"guage 
with ill aforeign language context such as in IIrdonesia should realize 
that the goal oflhe English teaching is not only 'knowing' the language 
but the acquisition ofthatlallguage. In order to allow lhe acquisition 
lake place in the classroom learning sellillg, comprehensible illput 
should be provided. As suggested by Krashen, L2 learners gain the 
comprehensible inpUlthrough whalthey read and w'hal the)' listen. 
Have English teachers ill lIuJonesia provided their sludents such 
comprehellsible illput ? This paper,is inviting EIlglish teachers to 
lrave a self-reflection towards this question. 

Key words : acquisition. classroom leamillg selling, comprehensible 
iI/put 

LEARNING AND ACQUISITION 
One factor which contributes to the success of a second language 

acquisition is the environment to which L2 learners are exposed in their 
way of the target language mastery. Thus L21earners who live in the target 
language country have greater chance to expose the language through the 
supportive environment Those learners have more chances to contact and 
communicate with native speakers which means they have greater chance 
to practice and learn than L2 learners who live in a foreign language context. 

I. Heny Hartono, SS. is a lecturer of the Faculty of Letters, Soegijapmnata Catholic 
University, ~emarang, who is currently studying in Semarang slate university 
for her M.A. in applied linguistics. 















41 •. CeIt, Volume 2, Number I. July 2002: 34 - 41 

""e~tore'lhe comprehensible input itself still offers some opportunities to 
. ae _~Te~ ·through various perspectives. Consequently, how to optimize 
. eompreflensible input will also depend on the way comprehensible input is 
viewed. Anyhow, what is important for English teachers is teacher's 
awareness to put acquisition as the goal of L2 learning. The target of a 
language learning is not just 'knowing' about the language but the acquisition 
of that language. Have English teachers in Indonesia started to think about 
this idea ., It seems that we need to have a self-reflection to answer this 
question. 

OmLIOGRAPHY 
Chaudron, Craig. Second Language Classrooms. Research on Teachi"g mId 

Learning. England: Cambljdge University Press, 1993. 

Croft. Kenneth. Readings on English as a Seco"d Language. USA: lillie, Brown 
and Company. 1980. 

Ellis, Rod. Instructed Second Language Acquisition Lean,;ng in the Classroom. 
USA: Basil Blackwell Inc., 1990. 

Ellis. Rod. Understanding Second Language Acquisition. 1989. England: Oxford 
University Press. 1989. 

Harmer, Jeremy. How 10 Teach English A" Introductioll to the Practice 0/ English 
Language Teaching. Malaysia: Longman. Malaysia, 1998. 

Klein. Wolfgang. Second Language AcquistiOl'. England: Cambridge University 
Press, 1990. 

Krashen. Stephen O. Principles and Praclice ill Second Language Acquisition. 
Britain: Prentice Hallintemational. 1987. 

Mclaughlin. Barry. Theories o/Second Language Learning. England: Routledge, 
1989. 

Nation, Paul. Managing Vocabulary Learning. Singapore: SEAMEO Regional 
Language Center. 2002. 

Pasaribu, Baharuddin. The use o/Bahasa Indonesia in the El..TClassroom. TEFLIN 
~icles, 2001. 

Tang, nnlan. Using LI in the English Classroom. FORUM. January 2002. 


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