THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE SCHOOL’S ORIGIN AND ENGLISH PROFICIENCY AT MIDDLE CLASS LEVEL OF FOOD AND BEVERAGE SERVICE OF STPBI

Abstract

English in the era of globalization has a very important role, especially in the working industry. Almost all types of jobs require English proficiency, especially in tourism area. As the most demanding international language in hospitality industry, English is taught as the main menu in the tourism school in a various majors, including the food and beverage service, both in the context of active and passive English. Tourism Schools, especially food and beverage service major, has become a target from those who just graduate from SMA and SMK. In the curriculum of both SMA and SMK, they have been taught English language both in general and in terms of tourism. After that they will get the broader English base on their major in the tourism school. For this reason this study was conducted to determine the relationship between the schools’ origin and English proficiency at middle class level of Food and Beverage Service of STPBI. This study uses Leven’s test analysis which is then descriptively translated to clarify data acquisition. By using SPSS 16.0 it was obtained t calculation, 0.544, that the value is greater than the level of significance, 0.05, which means that the school’s origin does not significantly affect the students’ English proficiency at middle class level of Food and Beverage Service of STPBI. It is quite reasonable for both the SMA and SMK, English is taught by the same order of curriculum, either with KTSP and K13, which adopt teaching English communicatively. The difference is; English is taught in general manner in SMA, while in SMK, English is taught in specific way based on their major. However, the duration of their learning in the classroom is less that SMA, where SMK need to conduct their training section in the industry. On the same side, classroom English lessons in both SMA and SMK are not often taught by using full English, but rather using partly Indonesian or even worst, fully Indonesian. Meanwhile in the food and beverage major, they are taught English by the same means and methods, resulting in equality of the subject comprehension. The equality can also be seen from a thin difference on their mean value of their English proficiency in the class. It is concluded that the schools’ origin does not determine the level of English proficiency at middle class level of Food and Beverage Service of STPBI. Hopefully this research can be used as reference methods of teaching English in the classroom so that students can get equal opportunity regardless their schools’ origin.