Background of the Study

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents several important parts of the study. The first part is the background of the study, which reveals the writer’s reason for conducting the study. The second part is the problem formulation, which conveys the problem that will be discussed in the study. The third part is the problem limitation. This part gives a clear border of the study being discussed. The fourth part is the objectives of the study, which shows the aims of the study. The fifth part is the benefits of the study, which reveals the advantages of the study that other researchers may gain through reading the study. The last part is the definition of term that clarifies the terms used in the study.

A. Background of the Study

Globalization is an inevitable phenomenon. It is an era in which everybody is required to develop and compete in almost every aspect of life. The globalization of the capital markets and the increased mobility of work force, students and specialists will increase cross – cultural contacts…Contacts are facilitated enormously by the new information technology. It will make vast amounts of information services rapidly available to more and more people through international networks. The development will create new demands for global communication and tolerance for intercultural diversity. They will certainly open new opportunities especially for language learning through an easy access to authentic data in a variety of languages Kaikkonen, et al, 2001. The demands of global communication will challenge people to be able to communicate in international language. People need to master English as an PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI international language to support their activities at their workplace or even in their daily life. English is needed in many aspects of life such as economics, politics, culture, and education. Therefore, mastering English will be the main key to the mastery of science and technology. This reality increases the demand of people in learning English. Our government is really aware of this condition, so English is taught as a compulsory subject in our education to prepare students to be ready in facing the global world. School-based Curriculum is a curriculum that is now implemented in our education. Based on this curriculum, students are expected to be able to enhance their intelligent, knowledge, personality, character and skill to be autonomous in their life. One of the competence standards of the high school graduate in the School-based Curriculum is to be able to master skills in the four basic skills in English, e.g. listening, reading, writing and speaking. Reading, as one of the four basic skills in English, is very important in human life. We gain information and knowledge through reading. Students’ reading ability will bring them not only into their success in English mastery but also academic. Students who read more will have more knowledge; therefore good reader will do better in school, moreover reading is also used in almost every formal test. Most formal tests use the written word as a stimulus for test – taker response; even oral interviews may require reading performance for certain tasks. Reading, arguably the most essential skill for success in all educational contexts, remains a skill of paramount importance as we create assessments of general language ability Brown, 2004:185. Developing reading skill in EFL setting is not easy to do. There are PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI many factors influencing students’ ability in reading; vocabulary, structural knowledge, background knowledge, motivation and purpose, etc. This problem also occurs in SMA N 1 Klaten. Teachers find difficulty in developing students’ reading skill. Students often feel bored when they have reading class, since the materials provided are not interesting and the technique is monotonous. The students rarely get additional reading materials which support their need in their daily life, as now many of the instructions they meet in their daily life are provided in English. Hence, a careful material selection is needed. Concerning this problem, the writer attempts to design a set of reading instructional materials using contextual teaching and learning method. Contextual Teaching and Learning is a learning concept which relates the material being learned with students’ experience in their daily life. This method requires students’ active participation and motivates students to relate their background knowledge with the application in their daily life. Through this method, students’ are expected to draw meaning from their learning. Thus, through this method student will be expected to have better understanding about materials being learned. Contextual Teaching and Learning is one of methods that best suit the framework in School-based Curriculum. Some of the characteristics in Contextual Teaching and Learning reflect the characteristics of School-based Curriculum. The first is developmentally – appropriate practice, while in Contextual Teaching and Learning CTL and School-based Curriculum education practitioners should develop learning process appropriate to PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI students’ needs. The second characteristic is learner centered curriculum, in which students are actively involved in the learning process. Therefore, Contextual Teaching and Learning can be concluded as the appropriate method which in line with School-based Curriculum.

B. Problem Formulation