Presented in LLTC (international conference on Language and Language Teaching Conference) Sanata Darma University, Jogjakarta Indonesia 21-22 Oktober 2016 TEACHERS’ STRATEGY IN MAINTAINING CLASSROOM COMMUNICATION IN PRE SERVICE TEACHING CLASS: A FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS Titis Sulistyowati, S.S. M.Pd Muria Kudus University Pre service teaching is a training program for teacher candidates implementing theory and knowledge in teaching English in the classroom with real students at school. As pre service teachers, students do not have enough experience in managing classroom, especially in interacting with students, but they are expected to cope with the students as the class manager. Classroom interaction is one of important aspect which supports the success of teaching and learning processes. Therefore, it is very important for teachers to acknowledge the way to interact with students as part of giving effective classroom instruction. The focus of this research is to discover the strategy of classroom communication applied by teachers. It is done by analysing discourse purposes produced by the English education department students of Muria Kudus University in giving instruction in their pre service teaching program. The data of the research are derived from the transcription of the recorded teaching and learning process. Key words : teachers strategy, discourse purposes, pre-service teaching INTRODUCTION Most interaction that is used in the classroom by the teacher are instructions. Teacher usually initiates the interaction by giving instruction. Giving instruction is becoming crucial issue in teaching and learning. Once a teacher fails in giving instruction, then the whole learning process is a waste of time. The teacher in the class has to be sure that the students understand his instruction clearly and do what the teacher ask them to do. The students’ activity should h as been the central attention of the teacher as it is the indication whether the students have understood their role. By giving good instruction hopefully teachers will be able to manage effective learning processes and at the same time generate the students’ enthusiasm in participating the lesson. Teachers sometimes do not realize that they often make mistakes in initiating interaction with the students. It is because sometimes we use over complicated language, give more than one instruction at a time, or maybe we fail to observe the students attention. There are many aspects that cause the failure of giving instruction. Therefore teachers need to do some reflection after the process of teaching and learning. Besides giving good instruction, teachers should also be able to respond appropriately to the students. These responses could create good atmosphere in the students-teachers classroom interaction and develop good students-teachers relationship. However managing good interaction need a skill and this communicative skill derived from direct interaction with the students. Students and teachers need to get to know each other well.