Conducting Need Survey Research Findings

1. Conducting Need Survey

A need survey was conducted to find out students’ interests, difficulty and understanding in learning English, especially in learning grammar. This need survey was realized in the form of questionnaire and interview. The questionnaire was distributed to the 11 th grade students of SMAN 1 Depok, particularly distributed to XI IPS 1 and XI IPA 1 classes which consisted of 65 participants. The questionnaire was distributed on October 27, 2009 in the classrooms. Meanwhile the participants of the interview were two English teachers of the 11 th grade. The interview was done on October 27, 2009 and October 30, 2009 at break times in the library. Besides to gather data about students’ interests, difficulty and understanding in learning English, the questionnaire was also to gain students’ opinions on their preferable activities and media in learning English. The students were also asked about some themes they liked most in learning English based on their real life condition and environment. An interview was conducted to the two English teachers in searching for students’ interests, difficulty and understanding in learning English so that the information gathered was obtained from teachers’ and learners’ points of view. Therefore, the data gathered from students were strengthened by those from teachers. After distributing the questionnaire, it was found that the difficulty the students met in learning grammar was that they hardly understood when to use a certain tense or pattern in forming a sentence. Through the questionnaire it could be seen in which skill students liked most to learn grammar. Most of them chose listening and speaking. These students stated that games, role plays or dialogues PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI and exercises were their preferable activities in leaning English. Meanwhile, pictures and audio recording were chosen to be their favorite learning media in materials presentation. Related to students’ real life condition or environment, the students suggested themes about their favorites or idols, family, daily or outdoor activities, holiday or traveling, unforgettable experience, best friend, dreams or ideals and school life. Through the interview, the English teachers justified the information about their students’ interests, difficulty and understanding in learning English, especially in learning grammar. The teachers saw that their students were quite interested in grammar learning because it was delivered through English skills. But their understanding about grammar was relatively low. It was difficult for those students to identify when to use a particular pattern or what pattern to be applied to convey an appropriate meaning in producing a sentence or an utterance. The teachers found that students’ enthusiasm to grammar learning came up when they used an audio-visual media and games in delivering the materials. The audio- visual media could be realized through songs and pictures. Furthermore, the teachers were asked whether the implementation of the Scholl-based Curriculum influenced students’ understanding of grammar or not. They stated that it indirectly affected students’ understanding since the School- based Curriculum recommends grammar not be taught separately. Grammar should be conveyed through four English skills. Consequently, grammar presentation in English learning was limited. Concerning Contextual Teaching and Learning, the teachers recommended the writer provide texts in the designed materials to begin the units. These texts could be suited to students’ daily life setting. According to those English teachers, reading was a good lead-in activity to enter the topic being learnt.

2. Reviewing the School Syllabus