to make the students aware of the use of expressions in daily life. These language- focused activities were to let the students know how to use and produce words or
sentences correctly using appropriate language and how to manipulate sentences or how to construct grammatically correct sentences.
In conducting comprehension-focused activity, I gave the students as an input text in each meeting with different topic for every meeting in the forms of written
dialogues as the input texts. The input texts in the meetings in cycle I were designed in certain contexts so that the students could understand the language
function more easily. At first, the students were not very active in doing the activities. However, later the students could improve their involvement in asking
and answering the questions. I also varied the input texts and the students were interested in joining the class. By giving the input texts and discussing them, the
students could understand the use of language functions based on the context. In this cycle, I also taught grammar in contexts to the students to improve their
accuracy in constructing sentences. I explained the grammar construction by giving them examples and suggesting that they should start to practice to use
English by making simple sentences and that they should simplify their sentences by focusing more on the meaning than dictions, and avoid making complex
sentences. Moreover they were very interested and enthusiastic when they played the games. It was proven by the fact that the students could correct their mistakes
when they discussed the answers with me.
d. Conducting Communicative Activities
Before conducting the actions, the English teaching and learning processes at VIII.II tended to be very formal and very interactive. The students did not have
many opportunities to practice their English. The teacher did not give enough free practice where they students could practice their English autonomously. The class
atmosphere was not very supporting, the teacher did not give enough language exposure to the students, so that they students hesitated to speak in English. Most
activities were controlled activities and although the class was conversational class, they students did not really engage in activities in which they could freely
talk about their opinion, feelings and experiences. Most activities were reading texts, dialogues and the speaking practice was limited to answering the
comprehension questions. Students could only answer oral questions in short sentences. The teacher did not take consider the probl
ems related to the students‘ autonomy and the students‘ lack of vocabulary mastery. The teacher used to
translate the words that the students wanted to use. Thus the students tended to repeat after the teacher without memorizing the vocabulary, hence they did not get
vocabulary enrichment. They might have problems in speaking autonomously and accurately. The teacher also did not respond to the students‘ mistakes by giving
them feedbacks. They students thus felt reluctant in using English. They did not really engage in the class activities and they were not enthusiastic in joining the
class. During the cycle I, I applied some communicative activities through various
informative gap
activities, questions
and answers,
and discussions.
Communicative activities could, in fact, stimulate students to produce English
using the language functions. Moreover, students could also share their opinions, suggestions and their experiences that they used to strengthen their reasons and to
support their opinion. They seemed to try to express themselves in English. Therefore, when I applied the communicative activities, the students engaged in
the activities and their responses were good. At first, they seemed to hesitate to speak and they were not accustomed to talk spontaneously and share their opinion.
Their involvement was even better in the next meeting. I then asked them to play card games called ―Helping my classmate activity‘, Please‖. The students were
grouped consisting of three to four students. In groups, each student must pick one card in turns. Each card consisted of a problem. The student taking the card must
ask for suggestions from herhis friend. I monitored the group by being involved in the groups. I mainly observed the students while they were speaking. I always
corrected their mistakes by reminding them back of the grammar material that they got previously. I kept on doing this in a friendly way. I listened to the
students‘ opinions, gave praise to the students and he asked the students to correct each other when they thought that they made mistakes. They were allowed to
open their vocabulary list and I always welcomed every question whenever the students found any difficulty. The class atmosphere was very supporting and
conducive. There were problems, such as, vocabulary, and grammar construction. However
they were improving. The students could correct their friend‘s mistakes and they could help each other. They had a very supporting atmosphere. That was why the
students were confident to speak using English. They worked cooperatively very
well. The complete description could be seen in vignette. It could be described through the following interview transcript.
A. R: Bagaimana pelajaran bahasa Inggris hari ini? ‗How was the English lesson today?‘
S2: Sangat menyenangkan mister. ‗It‘s fun, Mister.‘
S3: Gak bosenin sir dan gak kerasa dah habis jamnya.‗It‘s not boring and I enjoyed the time.‘
S6: Lumayan ga boring sih sir. ‗It‘s fun and I don‘t feel bored.‘ B. R: Aktivitas apa yang paling menarik yang kita lakukan hari ini?
‗What was the most interesting activity of the day
?‘ S4: Nonton minion sir…‗When we watch a Minion movie Sir.‘
S7: Lihat video percakapan Bule tadi sir. ‗When we watch the foreigner‘ conversation Sir.‘
S5: Pas maju kedepan praktek ngomong tadi sir. ‗When we practiced speaking in front of the class Sir.‘
Interview transcript, October 2, 2013
Students were groups and I could not always watch all of them at the same time; I then c
ould not fully control the students‘ production and correct their mistakes. However, I monitored all groups and took the time to sit and listen to the students
while they were speaking and gave corrections, remark, praise and sometimes jokes.
e. Giving Feedbacks for Students
