Background of the Study

Since the research is conducted in 2010, the researcher only focused on the last two curricula used in Indonesia those are Competence-based Curriculum and School-based Curriculum which played significant effects for the research. Therefore, the researcher only provided the comparison for the last two curricula in Table 1.1. Table 1.1 The Comparison for Each Curriculum No. Curriculum Focus 1. Curriculum 2004Competence- based Curriculum Focuses of the students’ competence achievement individually as well as collaboratively, learning outcomes oriented and diversity of the students, variation in the use of approaches and methods in the learning process, teachers are not the only source of the learning and study, assessment focuses on the learning process and learning outcomes in the effort of gaining competence mastery and achievement. 2. Curriculum 2006School-based Curriculum Focuses of the students’ competence achievement individually as well as collaboratively, learning outcomes oriented and diversity of the students, variation in the use of approaches and methods in the learning process, teachers are not the only source of the learning and study, assessment focuses on the learning process and learning outcomes in the effort of gaining competence mastery and achievement. Dwitagama, 2008 Ginanto, 2009 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI Referring to Table 1.1 number 8 and 9, there are no differences in the focus of the curriculum between Competence-based Curriculum and School-based Curriculum. The difference is in the application. Competence-based Curriculum provides indicators by which students pass the test or not but School-based Curriculum does not. It is the school responsibility to provide the indicators. It means that every school in Indonesia may have different indicators for students learning achievement. School-based Curriculum provides the teachers more spaces for teaching their students, considering that each school even each student has their differences either the inside factors and the outside factors. That each student has their unique way of learning is one of the inside factors which has to be well considered instead of the curriculum itself. The outside factor includes where the location of the school is. Teaching the students in a remote area obviously needs different approaches and methods compared to teaching them in a big city. Using the latest curriculum, the government is expecting that it will match the needs of every province in Indonesia because the government only provided the basic competence and the standard of competency, the rests -including the materials, approaches and methods used, and also media- is the teachers’ responsibility to decide as long as it matches the needs of the students and the curriculum KTSP, 2006. Considering the curriculum, learning English is a matter of learning the four skills; listening, reading, speaking, and writing. In writing skill, there are 12 kinds of text types considered as the text types taught in Senior High School. These test types included recount, narrative, procedure, descriptive, news item, report, analytical exposition, hortatory exposition, spoof, explanation, discussion, and review. Senior High School teachers must be aware of these kinds of text types that the government of Indonesia suggests the students to learn these text types well based on the graduate competence standard. In order to graduate from Senior High School, students have to comprehend the theory or the generic structure and the lexicogrammatical features and the use or the social function of the text types. This is the teachers responsibility to teach them so that they comprehend the concept and the use of it. Ironically, based on the researcher’s personal involvement with teachers in one of private schools in Yogyakarta, there are some teachers that have no clear understanding of the recent curriculum especially when dealing with text types. It goes worse because in School-based Curriculum, text types are always discussed in the end of every chapter of the study. It means that text types become an essential part of the curriculum. It is in the consideration of the changes of the curriculum used in the education in Indonesia that nowadays is changing too often. There are few trainings which are not sufficient enough conducted by the government of Indonesia. Specifically, there are some teachers that had no sufficient understanding of text types whereas it has to be taught in class Dya, 2008. It is also stated by Syamsury, the Head of Yogyakarta Education Department that, Belum semua guru memahami KTSP. Kami perlu terus mensosialisasikannya, [“Not all teachers have understood School-based PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI Curriculum. We have to keep socializing it,”] after opening Technical Guidance and Training of School-based Curriculum at SMAN 7 Yogyakarta Dya, 2008. Microteaching students who are expected to be future teachers have to prepare themselves solving these problems. By testing them about their level of comprehension of text types, it will provide them with more awareness of their current skills and after the researcher provides the result of the research, students with low and even average level of understanding had to study more in order to be better teachers in the future they are expected to.

B. Problem Formulation

The research was aimed to answer these two major questions as follows. 1. What is the microteaching students level of comprehension of text types? 2. What are the microteaching students’ difficulties in comprehending text types?

C. Problem Limitation

The problem is limited only to the comprehension of the 12 kinds of text types offered by the government of Indonesia which have to be taught in the Senior High School and especially in what part of the text and in what kinds of text the microteaching students have the low comprehension of. The subjects of the research are also limited for only 21 microteaching students of Sanata Dharma University.

D. Research Objectives

There are two objectives of the research. The first objective of the research is to know the microteaching students’ level of comprehension of text types especially in what part of the text and in what kinds of text the microteaching students have the low comprehension of. The second objective is to know why the microteaching students have low level of comprehension of text types. This is to identify their difficulties on comprehending text types.

E. Research Benefits

There are five groups of people will have the benefits of the research. They are microteaching students of English Language Education Study Program, lecturers of English Language Education Study Program, Indonesian government, other researchers, and policy makers.

1. Microteaching Students of English Education Study Program

By testing the microteaching students, the researcher recognizes that they need to develop their mastery of text types in order to be better teachers in the future by having better mastery of text types.

2. Lecturers of English Language Education Study Program

The benefits of the research are aimed to the lecturers of English Language Education Study Program so that they can be aware of how important having better comprehension of text types is and teach text types to their students. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI