The Classification of Language Acquisition in General

By: Ramdan Nugraha

According to some of the experts on the field of language learning, Djonhar (2012, p.1) sums up that language acquisition classified into three categories; 1) First language, 2) Second language, and 3) Foreign language. She goes further to explain each category with their implication on the teaching of English as Foreign Language (EFL).

Based on many research it is defined that language is a matter of agreement where people or community agree to speak and write using the language they use for communication. The first category named First language (L1) is the language which has been rocognised by people since they were as babies and it was listened in people daily activities. Djonhar (2012, p.1) states L1 or native language or mother tongue is the language primarily learned and used by children or native speakers in a community where the language is spoken.

For the second category named Second language (L2) is defined as the language which is learned by non-native speakers in the environment of community where that language is spoken (Djonhar: 2012, p.1). It could be an example that India is the country who have their own mother tongue (L1) but they decide that English is dominantly spoken as the second language (L2) by the people in many opportunities dealing with the communication in that country.

The last category of language acquisition, Djonhar (2012, p.2) confirms Foreign language is language which refers to a non-native language which is learned and used by non-native speakers in the environment of non-native language. In Indonesia, there are many languages that consist of national language which is Indonesian that used by Indonesian to communicate among different area or ethnic , and then there are the local languages that have big number from each ethnic around Indonesia such as Sundanese, Javanese, and so on. The last one is English as International language and the foreign language at once.

In conclusion, each language category used by countries has its own functions and positions to the people who live in those countries. In addition, it obviously influences the Teaching English as Foreign Language (TEFL) especially for those countries who define English as foreign language must have different approaches with those who have English as the second language or even the mother tongue.

EDUCATION ACCORDING TO THE MUSLIM SCHOLARS

Oleh: Ramdan Nugraha

I believe that education is the root of human civilization since it brings ideas and builds the meaning of life in every generation of the mankind. From education, there are a lot of aspects born and influence what people do on earth such as justice, honesty, humanity, morality, cleanliness, tolerance, respectability, belief, etc. It shows that education seems to be the mother of all the good things exist in life.

Besides, the importance of education can be seen from the school curriculum that changes very often adapting the needs of the learners and goals of learning. Most of the countries around the world put more attention to education. Further, Indonesia is the only one country allocating the goverment’s budgeting 20% for education. Those facts are clear enough to define that education has its high position on the top of the states’ priority. In this short writing I would like to figure out the essence of education according to some muslim’s scholars who have been dealing with the field of education with the well-experienced paradigm.

Ahmad Dahlan (1868-1923) is one of the greatest muslim scholars in Indonesia who chose education as the main area for establishing and sharing his thoughts to people in Yogyakarta in order to develop Islamic understanding by directly implemented the Islamic values which popularly called as The Spirit of Al-Ma’un. Kiayi Dahlan believes that education is the important aspect to help people change their mind paradigm to be the better social creature for creating and implemeting good deeds in the social enviroment.

Kiayi Dahlan established Islamic movement that focusing on education namely Muhammadiyah in 1912. He believes that Muhammadiyah as the social organization can bridge and maintain the paradigm direction among its members to the surroundings. Besides, education which is built up in term of organization will easily create cadres with the expected thoughts and paradigm that keep struggling on the right track of doing good things. In this case, the education of religion is the way to run the organization effectively.

Another scholars, Abdul Mu’ti and Fajar Riza Ul Haq (2009) state specifically that education of religion have the meaningful role to create the generation with good character and have more tolerance among society. Since there are a lot of problems happened in Indonesia caused by the less of morality and being intolerance among the believers of religions, the position of education is crucial to be the problem-solving. In further, Sudhamek (2010) assumes education should be viewed as the knowledge industry that can be professionally maintained by the new paradigm.

Education is found to be important too according to Ali bin Abi Thalib (in Rinaldi, 2014) as the fourth Caliphate of Islam who stated that the position of knowledge is much more important than the wealth and there is no serious poverty except the stupidity. It obviously shows that knowledge can be gained through education as the meaningful value in life. That statement clearly defines the role of education has higher level than any other aspects of life such as wealth which means money, houses, clothes, cars, and so on. In fact, education leads and guides human to reach those kind of life’s components or the secondary needs.

In brief, education is strongly integrated with human civilization in shaping the view points to run the life better. I could say that education has become the main aspect for building up the states as what we still remember when Hiroshima and Nagasaki were exploded by America by using the atomic bom in the world war 2. The first question uttered by the survivor was “are there any teachers still alive?”.

References

AWS, Sudhamek (2010). Tantangan dan Rejuvenasi Peran Strategis Muhammadiyah. Jakarta: MAARIF Vol. 5, No. 1 – Juni 2010, p.61-70

Mu’ti, Abdul and Haq, Fajar Riza Ul (2009). Kristen Muhammadiyah: Konvergensi Muslim dan Kristen Dalam Pendidikan. Ciputat: Al-Wasat Publishing House

Rinaldi, John (2014). Nasihat-Nasihat Emas Khulafau Rasyidin: Pesan-Pesan Agung Dari Penduduk Surga. Yogyakarta: Sabil

Salam, Junus (2009). K.H. Ahmad Dahlan: Amal dan Perjuangannya. Ciputat: Al-Wasat Publishing House