The Four Strands by Nation

19 part presents some focuses which are the four strands by Nation 2007:1 and Fluency Development strand.

a. The Four Strands by Nation

Language course involves many activities for students in classroom. Learning activities can influence learning process. How to combine activities should be considered in order to achieve the goal of language learning. A certain activity may not be the only focus in a language course because each activity should have a portion in language course. Consequently, language course should cover balanced activities. Balancing activities in language course is necessary. In balancing activities in language course, Nation 2007 classifies main types of activity into four stands of language course. The four strands of language course consist of four focuses. Besides, every strand should be proportional in implementing. The four strands of language course by Nation 2007: 1 are Meaning-focused input that means learning through listening and reading and is called as receptive language use, Meaning-focused output that is productive language use and refers to learning through speaking and writing, Language-focused learning which is also called as form-focused instruction and refers to deliberate learning of language figures like spelling, pronunciation, grammar or vocabulary and Fluency Development activity that involves four skills of English, such as speaking, listening, reading and writing. 20 1 Learning through Listening and Reading The first strand is related to listening and reading. Nation 2007:2 says, “In this strand which is meaning-focused input, students’ focus is on understanding and obtaining knowledge from what they are listening to and reading.” This strand promotes students to learn using listening and reading activity. Students’ activities will cover listening and reading sections. The activities for this meaning-focused input can be listening to story, extensive reading, watching video or TV, etc. However, Nation 2007: 2 gives limitation that meaning-focused input only exists when students are familiar to what they are listening to and reading, when they like the input and want to understanding it, when they can get knowledge by clue and background knowledge and when the quantities of input are large. Meaning-focused input also exists when students may not know only a small proportion of language features, for example, they should know 95-98 of vocabulary and they may not know only 5 Hu and Nation 2000 as cited in Nation, 2007: 2. 2 Learning through Speaking and Writing This strand which is meaning-focused output involves activities like writing letter or diary, conversation, role play and so on. Meaning-focused input and meaning- focused output can be combined. It is possible when a student’s outp ut may become another student’s input. Nation 2007: 3 assumes that this strand can be presented if students write and talk something that is familiar to them, if s tudents’ main goal is to express their message or communicate with 21 other, if they can use communication strategies, dictionary or previous input when they need and if there are sufficient opportunities to write and speak. 3 Language-focused Learning Language-focused learning may not spend the whole time allocation in classroom although it is also important. Thus, each strand should be balanced. Nation 2007 also gives restraint to language-focused learning. Language- focused learning will succeed when students have conscious attention to language features, when they should process the language features deeply and considerate ways, when there should be chance to provide spaced and repeated attention to the same features, when the features that students learn should be simple and should not depend on the knowledge that they do not have, and when features in language-focused learning should also be included in the other three strands frequently Nation, 2007:5. 4 Fluent in Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing Fluent in listening, speaking, reading and writing refers to Fluency Development. In this strand, students can transfer and receive message so that communication can occur. The fluency strand occurs when students listen to, read, speak and write things that are familiar to them, when their focus is on transmitting and receiving message, when there are some supports to perform faster, and when input and output should be large Nation, 2007: 6. In addition, the four strands of language course should be balanced to make language course effective. Nation 1996: 11 states that language-focused, 22 meaning-focused input, meaning-focused output and fluency should have their portion to be balanced. For example, in intermediate level, language-focused spends 20 from time allocation, meaning-focused listening and reading needs 30, meaning-focused speaking and writing spends about 20 from time allocation, and fluency activities needs 30 Nation, 1996: 11-12. Therefore, those four stands focus on activities that promote students to practice the English skills. In summary, those four strands can be described as follows. Figure 2.2 Summary of four strands Nation, 2007 Figure 2.2 shows Language Input includes learning language through listening and reading. It means learners should understand and get information from what they read and listen Nation, 2007: 2. Besides, Language Output in LANGUAGE OUTPUT LANGUAGE FOCUS FLUENCY DEVELOPMENT speaking and writing spelling, pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary FOUR SKILLS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE INPUT reading and listening 23 figure 2.2 means learning langua ge through speaking and writing. “The focus of the learners in this language output is on conveying ideas and messages” Nation, 1996: 7. On the other hand, Language Focus in figure 2.2 refers to learning through language items and language figure such as grammar explanation, spellling excercises, or vocabulary study” Nation, 1996: 7. Fluency Development in figure 2.2 includes listening, speaking, reading, and writing in the learning. Thus, “the activities in this Fluency Development consist of speed reading, repeated retelling, ten- minutes writing, and listening to easy story” Nation, 2007: 6. The learners should accept and communicate the information in Fluency Development. However, this research uses one strand that is Fluency Development strand. Fluency Development strand engages four English skills. This strands is suitable with English for the vocational high schools because English is intregated in the vocational high schools. Therefore, this research considers Fluency Development to design the Communication Practice Model.

b. Fluency Development Strand