Specific Features and Language Components of English Used by EFL Learners in Sundanese Cultural Context: A Case in a Paper Presentation Class

摘要

What had happened to EFL learners now in our country needs to be reviewed and evaluated far back to the first learning process in their Elementary School or Junior High School. The language skills given in this level are focused more to Reading and Writing with Grammar as the core. EFL learners in Indonesia are not given the Speaking skill the same portion as other skills. Speaking is given later in the next level like in the upper grade of Junior High School or even in Senior High School. This is the major reason why most Indonesian students are not well-trained in speaking and this situation continues to the next level of education, higher education, and it is getting more complicated with the influence of their cultural background. In the EFL learning process, the culture background of a learner may cause a certain effect that can be challenging to fix it. This influence becomes significant in speaking classes like Paper Presentation class which is given in the fourth semester in English Studies of Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Universitas Padjadjaran. The way they speak, how they express themselves in English, what vocabularies they choose are influenced by their culture. They use specific features from their culture in their presentation and they use language components of English as the direct equivalents taken from their Sundanese words that leads to a total misunderstanding and confusing to their audience from other culture background.