52 students while stronger students assume leadership role, so that cooperative spirit
is promoted in learner to learner interaction. In this activity, students are encouraged to fill their own portfolio with their own self-learning results on a
weekly assignment in the forms of texts, films, or articles. The learning results should contain elements obtained from the texts, such as key vocabulary,
summary, and students’ questions and opinions towards the texts. Based on his study result, Carlson 2016 claims that this self-learning portfolio makes students
come to the class equipped with material to engage with peers, so discrepancies in ability could be mitigated. In addition, students’ interaction, learning
responsibility, motivation, and self-esteem are increased p.39. All in all, the related studies reviewed in this section shed light for EFL
researchers who are interested mainly in handling mixed-competence class. For me personally, these studies are useful in broadening my knowledge in how to
teach the mixed-competence group of students. Through reviewing other research reports, I can understand possible problems that may occur in a mixed-
competence speaking classroom and explore the suitable strategies to deal with them.
C. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
This study seeks to discover whether differentiated instruction is incorporated in the taken action to solve problems in a mixed-competence English
speaking class. Other than that, this research intends to see if the taken action is effective in improving learning process, which is represented through
learners’ PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
53 collaboration skill throughout the TL process
, as well as learners’ speaking achievement.
This chapter has outlined relevant theories underpinning the study. Based on the theoretical evidence elaborated throughout this chapter, there were absolute
possibilities for complexity of problems to exist in the speaking classroom consisting of mixed-competence students. Therefore, some sorts of strategies need
to be prepared in the aim to solve those presupposed problems. The teaching and learning process in mixed-competence classes has not been given a lot of attention
in Indonesia as a limitation is indicated in terms of the number of papers published in Indonesia, compared to inner circle countries. This lack of attention
to the appropriate remedy toward the commonly existing problems in mixed- competence students has provided me with a basic justification to undertake
action research on the respective issue. Thus, the participatory action research Kemmis, et al., 2014 was adopted as the basis of guiding the overall planning,
implementation, as well as evaluation throughout the course program. Based on the reviewed literature, the concept of differentiated instruction
was adopted as the underpinning principle in developing the appropriate action to solve the problems as it could provide learners with the opportunity to receive the
most appropriate instructional aids according to their personal academic necessity. Additionally, the broad alternatives of strategies offered in differentiated
instruction have resulted in much success in training mixed-leveled students. Therefore, differentiated instruction-based strategies could help achieve the first
objective of the study, which was to find the effective action to teach mixed- PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
54 competence students. Accordingly, the aspect of collaborative learning as a part of
differentiated instruction is highlighted in the effort of achieving the second objective of this research. That is, to see the effectiveness of the action in
promoti ng students’ collaboration skill and further, learning autonomy, which was
in line with Xu- Sheng’s 2010 notion that collaborative learning has positive
effects on students’ readiness and the ability of being autonomous. Embarking from the elaboration above, it is argued that the strategies in
differentiated instruction Tomlinson, 1999, 2014 incorporated with collaborative learning Chang, 2012 Lin, 2015 can solve the problems existing in the mixed-
competence speaking class. Besides, those approaches are effective in making everyone learn according to their varied capacity throughout the learning process,
and therefore achieve their maximum learning outcome at the end of the course. Other than that, differentiated instruction and collaborative learning could
improve students’ collaboration skill and learning autonomy, which are beneficial for their long-term individual learning process in the future.
