Theoretical Review LITERATURE REVIEW

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CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW

There are mainly two variables in this research, namely mobile phone video-making task and students’ communicative skill. This chapter is presented with the aim at clarifying relevant concepts between those two variables and their interrelationships to build research theoretical framework. A number of related literatures and previous studies on similar topics are presented, reviewed and combined to as the basis in conducting the study. At the last part of this chapter, theoretical framework is constructed as the summary of all related theories and findings in order to get conceptual and operational definition for each variable of this study.

A. Theoretical Review

Five major discussions under the research variables are presented in the theoretical review section. The discussions cover Language Learning, Communicative Skill, Information and Communication Technology, Vocational Education and Related Studies. 1. Language Learning Every person has begun to realize the importance of learning a language other than his first language. The main reason is because of by mastering some languages, one is able to actualize himself through a higher level of communication which will provide him a chance to improve his life quality. One of the foreign languages that is considered beneficial and influential to be learnt is English. The ability to speak and write English properly allows people to advance in the professional world. Moreover, being able to speak in English also widens one’s horizon in communicating globally. Some issues in language learning including competence and performance, language input and language output, and interaction are discussed here. a. Competence and Performance In language learning context, basic distinction between competence and performance has been significantly drawn by some language experts and practitioners. Chomsky 1965 distinguished between competence and performance by making a fundamental distinction between the speaker-hearer’s knowledge of his language competence and the actual use of language in concrete situation performance. It is generally agreed that by the term competence, Chomsky was referring exclusively to knowledge, not including the notions of capacity or ability. Thus, competence refers to a ‘state’ or product rather than to a process to the underlying knowledge of an idealized native speaker of a language in the area of grammar. In the term of performance, Chomsky referred to actual performance, and not the realization ability and potential. A few years later, an expansion of the competence or performance distinction was made by Hymes 1972 who differentiated between linguistic and communicative competence, and linguistic and communicative performance. This difference refers to the relationship and interaction between grammatical and sociolinguistic competence and performance. Hymes included a new type of ability, i.e. the ‘ability for use’ which is the individual’s underlying potential to realize a possible, feasible and appropriate speech act, and not the actual performance. Thus, the term performance, according to Hymes, refers to ‘actual use and actual events’ and ‘ability for use’. Referring to Hymes 1972 cited in Mitchell Myles 2004, competence is the abstract and hidden representation of language knowledge held inside one’s mind. Performance, on the other hand, concerns with the process of applying the underlying knowledge to the actual language use in a concrete situation. Besides, Brown 2000 identifies competence as, “One’s underlying knowledge of a system, event or fact”. It is the non-observable ability to do something, to perform something. Further, he describes performance as, “The overtly observable and concrete manifestation or realization of competence. It is the actual doing of something: walking, singing, dancing and speaking”. From the above definitions, some inferences about the distinction between competence and performance are drawn. Competence is the knowledge or usage or skill of a language system which has potential that enables students to create and understand original utterances in a given language. Differ from competence, performance is the actual use of language, including production speaking and writing and comprehension listening and reading. That is to say, a student’s competence can be seen from their performance. As what Ellis 2008 suggested, competence is identified as a language user’s underlying knowledge of language, which is drawn on in actual performance. Furthermore, the competence can be measured and assessed by observing the elicited samples of performance called ‘tests’ or ‘examinations’. b. Language Input and Language Output In acquiring a second or foreign language, the role of input is undeniably essential. There are some arguments that associate the needs of input in language learning. One of the most well-known input theories is proposed by Krashen 1985; 1990; 2003. Input refers to all the target language that the learner is exposed to and that potentially provides the learner with knowledge about the target language Egbert Hanson-Smith, 1999. Simply, input is defined as every target language that the student is exposed to through senses. The Input Hypothesis as proposed by Krashen 1985 involves students’ understanding of what they hear and read or the input which goes into their minds through ears and eyes. Based on the Krashen’s points of view, students need to receive a lot of comprehensible input in the target language in order to assist them in understanding it. In addition, that input should foster meaningful communicative use of the language in appropriate contexts. Krashen 1985 also asserts the affective filter hypothesis in which a low anxiety instruction setting helps comprehensible input build students’ language skill. The affective filter hypothesis is incorporated by Krashen as one of his five input Hypotheses. Krashen argued that people acquire second languages only if they obtain comprehensible input and if their affective filters are low enough to allow the input ‘in’. In his theory, affect includes motivation, attitude, anxiety, and self-confidence. People with high affective filter will lower their intake whereas people with low affective filter allow more input into their language acquisition device. Although there are some critiques of this input hypothesis, affective factors are seen to play an important role in acquiring a L2. Comprehensible input may not be utilized by L2 acquirers if there is a “mental block” that prevents them from fully profiting from it. The affective filter acts as a barrier to acquisition. The filter is up when the acquirer is unmotivated, lacking in confidence, or concerned with failure. The filter is down when the acquirer is not anxious and is trying to become a member of the group speaking. However, the Krashen’s view about input hypothesis that becomes the only matters in language acquisition did not receive many supports. Swain 2000 identifies that much of the input the students get is comprehensible without any need for analyzing the grammar fully. That is to say, when a student’s focus is to understand the message instead of the grammar, then, why should be bothered by the grammar. Other theorists believed to focus more on the practice function of language production rather than merely on input, especially in fluency. This view is based on the information-processing theory that views language competence consists of both a knowledge component or knowing what and a skill component or knowing how. Researchers in this point of view come to an agreement that language use and language performance are equally important to develop skill components in language learning. Contrast to Krashen’s view is the so-called comprehensible output hypothesis, asserted by Swain and colleagues Swain, 1985; Swain and Lapkins, 1995. Output is language produced by the student. The Output Hypothesis states that to learn a language, in addition to comprehensible input, students also need to create comprehensible output, involving students speaking or writing. The output can be comprehensible or incomprehensible to an interlocutor. Swain 1985 as cited in Ellis 2008, p. 957 has proposed that, “When students have to make efforts to ensure that their output is comprehensible, acquisition is fostered”. Swain argued that, while input is necessary, it is not sufficient for language acquisition. In addition to input, students need opportunities to produce the target language. That is to say, both language input and language output impact a student’s acquisition of the target language. Therefore, the researcher highlights both the comprehensible input and output as factors being considered in designing the research methodology. c. Interaction Related to the notion of input is that of output. Moreover, another significant aspect that plays a role in language learning is interaction. Interaction is considered essential since it is a means by which input and output, at the same time, can be provided. Learners need practice in processing the input and producing comprehensible output using all the language resources they have already acquired. Thus, discussions of the concept and the roles of interaction in language learning are presented as follows. There are different ways of defining the term ‘interaction’ in language learning. Referring to Longman dictionary of Contemporary English, the word ‘interaction’ is formed by the prefix inter, which implies togetherness or reciprocity, and the noun action. Interaction, thus, is a mutual activity which requires at least the involvement of two persons and which causes mutual effect. Ellis 1999, p.1 defines interaction as “The social behavior that occurs when one person communicates with another”. He also says that “Interaction can occur inside our minds, both when we engage in the kind of ‘private speech’ and when different modules of the mind interact to construct an understanding of or a response to some phenomenon”. Moreover, Hedge 2000 views interaction as an integral and powerful aid that bridges students to communicate in the target language. Inferred from those definitions, interaction is defined as both interpersonal and intrapersonal activities in which students are required to produce more accurate and appropriate language to communicate. By interaction, students have a chance to receive and to use English as the media of communication as occurred in the real-life context. Interaction facilitates students’ language acquisition in terms of the following. First, students are facilitated by interaction to get input in the form of ‘models’ Ellis, 2008. The models can be in the forms of statements, questions and instructions. Besides, students are assisted not only to get input but also to produce ‘output’ and to also get feedback from their interlocutor. Therefore, students can practice both receptive and productive skills at the same time. Secondly, Egbert Hanson-Smith 1999 argues that during interaction, students have opportunities to check the comprehensibility of their own messages as well as to request clarification, confirmation or reiteration of each other’s messages. 2. Communicative Skill Some educational experts have pointed out the importance of adapting communicative skills in language learning for preparing students to be able to communicate well in working fields. The arguments on the need of improving communicative skill are elaborated in the following discussions. a. Concept of Communicative Skill The term communicative competence was first introduced by Hymes in 1972 as a sociolinguistic concept in reaction to the concept of linguistic competence which was proposed by Chomsky in 1965. Chomsky’s concept was “concerned with the tacit knowledge of language structure” but “omits almost everything of socio-cultural, significance” Hymes, 1972, p. 270- 280. According to Hymes 1972, p. 28, communicative competence refers to the level of language learning that enables language users to convey their messages to others and to understand others’ messages within specific contexts. It also implies the language learners’ ability to relate what is learnt in the classroom to the outside world. From this perspective, Hymes 1972 described the competent language user as the one who knows when, where and how to use language appropriately rather than merely knowing how to produce accurate grammatical structures. Hymes’ ideas about the communicative competence were later developed by Canale and Swain in 1980 who introduced a theoretical model of communicative competence. Their concept of communicative competence refers to “the relationship and interaction between grammatical competence, or knowledge of the rules of grammar, and sociolinguistic competence, or knowledge of rules of language use” Canale Swain, 1980: 6. Communicative skill covers the four different yet highly integrated competences Canale and Swain, 1980, as cited in Savignon, 1997. The competences include grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence and strategic competence. They define grammatical competence as “Mastery of the linguistic code, ability to recognize the lexical, morphological, syntactical and phonological features of a language and to manipulate these features to form words and sentences” p. 41. In this sense, students with grammatical competence are able to demonstrate the grammatical correctness of those language features. The next comes socio-linguistic competence or cultural awareness dealing with the social rules of language use. It requires an understanding of the social context in which language is used. Savignon 1997 points out that socio- linguistic competence covers many aspects such as the roles of participants, the information they share, and the functions of the interaction. Furthermore, it is also related to the aspect of appropriateness of content as well as degree of formality. The context of appropriateness involve knowing what to say in a situation and how to say it, while degree of formality is evidenced by the ability to maintain a formal or an informal register in some situations. The third crucial element is discourse competence or known as textual competence which refers to the ability to interpret a series of sentences or utterances in order to form a meaningful whole or cohesive and to achieve coherent that are relevant to a given context Canale, 1983. It is to say that discourse competence enables students to understand the organizational patterns of discourse, such as recognizing the theme or topic of a paragraph, chapter or book, getting the gist of a telephone conversation, poem, television, commercial, office memo, recipe or legal document. The meaning of a text, then, depends on the values, intentions, and purposes of the readerhearer, as well as the writer or speaker. Lastly, when the three competencies have come into play, successful students need to be equipped with the strategies to overcome communication problems resulted from distractions or interference, namely, strategic competence. Strategic competence helps interlocutors to cope with the flow of smooth and successful communications. To name a few, strategic skills can be manifested through one’s ability to use expressions, for instance, to restate or to ask for clarification or repetition, paraphrase, circumlocution, guessing and even message modification. This last skill is very beneficial for the non-native English users. Referring to those four competencies, successful language learning can be measured through student’s ability to integrate them within one’s performance when he or she is involved in communicative activities. In order to be able to communicate well, students need to possess communicative skills. There are some possible definitions of communicative skill. Communicative skill is the ability to use language and express information. It refers to the repertoire of behaviors that serve to convey information for the individual Sato and Kleinsasser, 1999. Furthermore, Sullivan 2000 defines communicative skills as the ability an individual displays in consistently demonstrates the ability to effectively communicate with others. The communicative skill is, then, set of skills through the use of either oral language or written language that enable students to convey information so that it is received and understood. In a broader sense, communicative skill is the ability of students either spoken or written to interact with other speakers and make meaning. There have been strong notions supporting communicative skills to become the main goal of language learning outcomes. As Kasper 1997 points out, models of communicative skill serve as goal specifications for second language teaching and testing. It is to say that the objectives of language teaching should be based on the improvement of communicative skill and on the ability of students to use the target language for communication. Besides, Richards 2006 suggests that a communicative approach underlying communicative skills as the goal of language teaching. He asserts that communicative skill enables students to use the language properly in a range of different purposes and functions. In the sense that it enables the students to vary the language based on the participants, settings and the degree of formality as well. Besides, Richards 2006 also argues that a competent language speaker demonstrates some characteristics. Two of the characteristics are first, competent language speaker understands the ways to produce different language genres such as narratives, reports, interviews, etc, and the other characteristic is a competent language speaker should be able to manipulate communications despite his or her limited language knowledge through his or her communication strategies. It is also communicative skill which is addressed by Skehan 1998 which plays an important role in enhancing one’s success in learning the language and using the language to cope with the working demands. Thus, it is important for today’s teachers to shift paradigm in changing the focus of instructions, from the teaching of grammatical structures to the development of communicative skills. b. Communicative Language Teaching Communicative language teaching CLT is becoming more common in second or foreign language learning. CLT has become a term for methods and curricula that views communication in terms of social interaction. The use of language for communication is embraced in both the goals and the processes of teaching practice. With the importance of English in the world today to satisfy various communicative needs, English teachers, especially EFL teachers, have felt an urge to learn the newest and best methods of teaching. Below, some of the relevant theories related to CLT are discussed, including the theory of CLT, the need for CLT, also the issues in CLT principle and practice. 1 Theory of CLT Some language learning and teaching practitioners have attempted to define CLT. The followings are some theories emerging the CLT definition. CLT is based on the work of sociolinguists, particularly that of Hymes 1972 in Savignon 1997. Hymes proposes that knowing a language involves more than knowing a set of grammatical, lexical, and phonological rules. In order to use the language effectively, further, he suggests that students need to develop communicative competence which is the ability to use the language they are learning appropriately in a given social encounter. Hymes’ notion of communicative competence was examined by a number of practice oriented language educators. His notion was then redefined by Canale and Swain 1980 who argue that communicative competence comprises not only grammatical but also sociolinguistic, discourse, and strategic competence as explained above. Moreover, Brown 2000 offers four interconnected characteristics as the definition of CLT. 1. Classroom goals are focused on all of the components of communicative competence and not restricted to grammatical or linguistic competence. 2. Language techniques are designed to engage learners in the pragmatic, authentic, functional use of language for meaningful purposes. Organizational language forms are not the central focus but rather aspects of language that enable the learner to accomplish those purposes. 3. Fluency and accuracy are seen as complementary principles underlying communicative techniques. At times fluency may have to take on more importance than accuracy in order to keep learners meaningfully engaged in language use. 4. In the communicative classroom, students ultimately have to use the language, productively and receptively. Some implications can be drawn from the four characteristics. Firstly, CLT suggests that grammatical structure might better be inserted under various functional categories. CLT pays considerably less attention to the presentation and discussion of grammatical rules than traditionally practiced. Secondly, a great deal of use of authentic language is implied in CLT, such as teachers attempt to build fluency and students’ interaction. Furthermore, the practice of using the language for communication is important to improve fluency, as fluency is considered as important issue in CLT implementation. Finally, the activities in CLT facilitate students to receive and at the same time to produce the language. In the application, CLT has certain characteristics in its curriculum which are significantly mediate students’ communicative skills. Richards and Rodgers 2001 argues that communicative skill is considered more important than grammar mastery in CLT. It is based on the beliefs that a student learns a language best through communicating in it and thorough several activities which are meaningful and involve real communication. Furthermore, there are two aspects in CLT supporting the improvement of students’ communicative skills, namely activities and interaction Savignon, 1997. Activities in CLT settings provide opportunities for students to improve both accuracy and fluency. Also, the activities provide chances to link different skills such as speaking and listening, or reading and writing together, since they usually occur simultaneously in the real world context. The other aspect is interaction which is important in CLT since it enables students to get involved in interpretation, expression and negotiation of meanings. In this sense, both teacher-students and students-students interactions should be highly promoted in the classroom settings. The classroom activities of CLT that can be implemented are varied. As recommended by Richards 2006, the activities include information gap, task- completion, information-gathering, information-transfer activities and also role plays. Those activities emphasize the important aspects of classroom task in CLT, specifically, that they are designed to be carried out in pairs or small groups. By the use of such activities, it is argued that students will obtain several benefits in terms of the chance to have meaningful, purposeful interactive communication, and the increase of motivational level. In the sense that students can learn from listening the language used by other group members, they can produce more language, they can have the chance to improve fluency, and also, their motivational level is likely to increase. 2 The need for CLT CLT has been considered significant to language learning context. Liao 2004 observes that by introducing CLT, teachers can keep up with developments in English methods. If not then, teachers will return to the traditional way of teaching. In addition, CLT assists students to develop greater competence in the use of English for communication. Indeed, as Savignon 2002, p. 2 observes, “Communicative language teaching methods designed to enhance the expression, interpretation, and negotiation of meaning will continue to be explored and adapted.” The goal of CLT is to increase communicative competence, which means being able to understand and interpret messages, understand the social contexts in which language is being used, apply the rules of grammar, and employ strategies to maintain communication. Besides, with CLT, instructional emphasis shifted from grammar translation, memorization of dialogues, and drills or practice of structural patterns to using language in real-life contexts for meaningful purposes Savignon, 2002. Grammar practice with drills can be appropriate at certain times, but CLT demands authentic use of language, which means people interacting with other people. Furthermore, the primary principle underlying CLT is that students need to be given opportunities to use the language in authentic conversations. This interactive view of language teaching has its roots in SLA research studies that have examined how interactions contribute to SLA Moss Ross-Feldman, 2003. Studies report how negotiation of meaning which is an exchange between a speaker and listener to solve a comprehension problem, affects what students produce Ellis, 2; Pica, 2005. After all, daily life requires people to communicate in a wide range of contexts for many diverse purposes. 3 Issues in CLT Principle and Practice Since CLT is based on a theory of communicative competence, its implementations should then, trigger students’ communicative skill. However, when this theory is implemented into classroom practice, several problems and issues arise. These include the challenge of creating authentic communication in the classroom, questions about the goal of developing native speaker competence and contradictions in the values underlying many CLT classroom techniques. Furthermore, some literatures on English language teaching ELT criticize the transfer of CLT from Western English speaking countries to other developing countries. This transfer is seen as problematic since pedagogy imported from abroad conflicts with the social, cultural, and physical conditions of the recipient countries Holliday 1994, Pennycook 1989. However, abandoning the implementation of CLT in the English classroom of non-English speaking countries seems not to be a prudent thought. The solution, therefore, appears to be a modified version of CLT, made appropriate to the local condition. In principle, CLT theory holds that learning takes place through authentic communication. However, determining how to create genuine communication within the classroom setting presents challenges to teachers. Some ELT authors have proposed general principles and practices to help do this. Richards and Rodgers 2001 suggest the use of activities that involve oral communication, carrying out meaningful tasks, and using language which is meaningful to the student. The activities are task-based and authentic. Brown 1994 proposes that communication is likely to occur in the classroom when a significant amount of pair work and group work is conducted, authentic language input in real life context is provided, students are encouraged to produce language for genuine, meaningful communication and classroom tasks are conducted to prepare students for actual language use outside the classroom. Larsen-Freeman 2000, p. 65 also notes that it is important “To facilitate small group and paired activities in which students have opportunities to interact. The activities themselves often engage students’ in communicative tasks such as filling information gaps using authentic materials.” c. Task-Based Instruction As discussed previously, the activities in the classroom language teaching should involve oral communication, carrying out meaningful tasks, and using language which is meaningful to the student. A collection of role plays, games, and other communicative classroom activities which belong to task-based activity are implemented. 1 Task-based Instruction in Practice As language instruction has continued to emphasize classroom interaction, learner-centered teaching, authenticity, and viewing the learner’s own experiences as important contributors to learning, task-based instruction draws the attention of teachers and learners to tasks in the classroom. Skehan 2003 defines a task as an activity in which meaning is primary; there is a problem to solve, and relationship to real world activities, with an objective that can be assessed in terms of an outcome. Furthermore, Nunan 2004 refers task in terms of pedagogical definition to a range of work plans which have the overall purpose of facilitating language learning, from the simple and brief exercise type, to more complex and lengthy activities such as group problem-solving or simulations and decision making. He suggests that tasks are concerned with communicative language use. In other words, he refers to the activities allowing the learners to comprehend, produce and interact in the target language in contexts in which they are focused on meaning rather than form. In the implementation of task-based interaction, there are two types of tasks that should be carefully designed. As proposed by Nunan 2004, the tasks include target tasks and pedagogical task. The target task relates to the uses of language in the world outside the classroom, while the pedagogical task uses the language that occurs in the classroom. All of those tasks should be designed to equip students with the communicative language needed in certain topic discussions in the classroom which are also related to real-world situations. Furthermore, a task should have the combination of the following components. The tasks should have either explicitly or implicitly goals and particular objectives. The goals and objectives of a task are intended to set specific language skills, language competence and language function which are going to be achieved. They are also used as a guideline of overall learning processes and evaluation. Besides, the task consists of some input and one or more related activities. ‘Input’ refers to the lesson that learners are exposed to and the contexts provided during the learning process. Another component is an appropriate ‘content’ which means the subject matter being taught, including the selections of topic being discussed. Specific ‘roles of teacher and students’ also become the component of a task referring to the social and interpersonal relationship between learners and teachers in a task. While ‘setting’ refers to the classroom arrangement affecting interaction entailed in the task. The other component is a detail of working ‘procedure’ or steps in conducting or accomplishing a task. Procedure also related to the instruction or direction of the task given by the teacher. Giving clear instruction is a paramount to the success of any classroom activity. Willis 2007 argues that teachers who spent more time in guided practice also had students who were more engaged during individual work. His idea suggests that, when teachers provides sufficient instruction during guided practice, the students are better prepared for the independent practice, but when the guided practice is too short, the students are not prepared for the task and make more errors during the independent practice. Another component of a task is “Activity” which refers to the work that the students do on the task, it also includes the discussion about group work. Moreover, the task should also have a range of ‘outcomes or output’ for those who carry out the task. Figure 2.1. Components of Task Adapted from Nunan, 2004 This research aims at analyzing the features of mobile phone video- making task that contribute to the improvement of students’ communicative skill. The features are adopted from Nunan’s categorization of task’s components and also from the principal activities in the communicative language teaching CLT. Therefore, the features being analyzed include goal and objective, input, content, role of teacher, role of students, setting, procedure, activity, and output. Task Goal Input Content Role of Teacher Role of Students Setting Procedure Activity Output Table 2.1. The Features of Mobile phone video-making task No. Feature Definition Example 1. Goal and Objective  Goals are the teachers’ general aims for the task while objectives are the specific skills the students should obtain after a course Nunan 2004.  Goal provides direction Improving students’ communicative and interactional skill. Increasing students’ confidence, encouraging students to negotiate information. 2. Input  Input refers to all the target language that the learner is exposed to and that potentially provides the learner with knowledge about the target language Egbert Hanson-Smith, 1999.  Candlin 1987, Input is the lesson presented for learners to work on. Input can be attained from teaching media or aids, materials, teacher, and other learners Wright, 1987. Input is also obtained from the contexts provided during the learning process 3. Content  Nunan 2004, content is the subject matter to be taught, in this case is English.  Contents could also be the materials being taught. Materials are the things that the learners can observe or manipulate.  The content includes the topics being taught which are describing process and telephoning.  Besides, it is also in terms of the language expressions used in those contexts. 4. Role of teacher Candlin 1987, roles are the relationship between participants in a task. Roles of teacher are:  Monitoring: the supervision of the task in progress  Providing feedback: the evaluation of task 5. Role of students Candlin 1987, roles: the relationship between participants in a task Roles of students are:  Participating in group work: group discussion  Providing feedback: give comment on other groups’ video results 6. Setting  Candlin 1987, setting is where the task takes place inout of class  Setting also includes social community which belongs to the class as a whole and its sense of groupness Shevelson Stern, 1981: 478 In the context of communicative language teaching, the setting of learning activities includes interaction, negotiation of meaning, and task difficulty. 7. Procedure Nunan 2004, procedures are what learners will actually do in the real world, rehearsal and activation task. Procedures include actions or steps which are sub-tasks to be performed by the learners. 8. Activity Nunan 2004, Activities are the things that learners and teacher do during a lesson. Activity includes the task being assigned. The three principals of task type in information gap, reasoning gapopinion gap are:  Dialogues and role play  Communication strategies include restating or asking for clarification or repetition, paraphrasing, guessing meaning from context, etc  Discussion and decision. 9. Output Candlin 1987, output also known as outcome is the achieved goal of a task. Nunan 2004 identifies that output includes conversation skill, fluency, pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary. 2 The Benefits of Task-Based Activity Among recent manifestations of CLT, task-based instruction has emerged as a major principal idea of language teaching practice worldwide Nunan, 2004; Skehan, 2003. A review of numerous case-study reports Gardner 1995; Levine 2004 reveals that successful task-based learning focuses on real-world subject matter that can sustain the interest of students. It requires student collaboration and, at the same time, some degree of student autonomy and independence. Besides, it is a process oriented, with an emphasis on skills integration. Therefore, the task-based instruction is designed to maximize language, content, and real-life skill learning. It requires a combination of teacher guidance, teacher feedback, student engagement, and elaborated tasks with some degree of challenge. Although task-based learning presents challenges for teachers and students, most task-based proponents assert that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. The principal goal of the task is to enable students to engage in critical thinking activities, partially through combination of activities in which students complete a task by creating a product. It is also to improve their language skills and to use English with more self-confidence. Furthermore, as asserts by Lee 2002, the end result of task-based activity is often authenticity of experience, improvement of language and content knowledge, increase of metacognitive awareness, enhancement of critical thinking and decision-making abilities, intensity of motivation and engagement, improvement of social skills, and familiarity with target language resources. Furthermore, the benefits of task are to actively engage students in information gathering, processing, and reporting over a period of time and the outcome is the increased content knowledge and language mastery. A simulation of the open forum or real context provides opportunities to work on fluency, pronunciation, intonation, and conversational gambits that will contribute to the flow of the event Mach, Stoller Tardy, 1997. In addition, students experience increased motivation, autonomy, engagement, and a more positive attitude toward English Beckett 2002. 3. Mobile Phone Technology One of the techniques that has been proved to be able to mediate students to use language to communicate or perform optimally is a technology-based language teaching and learning. The discussion about the importance of ICT and mobile phone technology as one of parts of ICT in language learning and teaching is presented in this section. Moreover, the integration of video resources in language instruction is also highlighted. a. ICT in Language Learning and Teaching The term ICT, short for Information and Communication Technologies, embraces many technologies that enable us to receive information and communicate or exchange information with others. The implementation ICT into the classroom language learning is believed to give benefits to the students. Firstly, the nature of ICT provides an ideal framework for language teaching and learning, since its main entity is information and its purpose is communication Levy, 2010. Besides, technology provides the potential as mentioned by Ganderton 1999, to engage native speakers at a distance, to utilize authentic materials and to enable students to interact with rich, multi-dimensional learning environments, all of which are contexts that facilitate communicative skills. Thirdly, technology reflects a non-traditional and less boring teaching. Lastly, it also reflects student-centeredness which caters students’ interests and views in learning a language. With the emerging new technologies, the teaching profession is evolving from an emphasis on teacher-centered, teacher-based instruction to students-centered, interactive learning environments. b. Mobile Phone in Language Learning and Teaching A Growing research on using mobile phone as a media of language instruction has been emerged. This part discusses the useful features of mobile phone and the characteristics of mobile phone that assist language learning. 1 Useful Features of Mobile Phone In the last decade, mobile phone technology has witnessed incredible developments in technology, from analogue to digital and from plain and simple mobile phones to the current 3G smartphones or even tab which can serve as mini-computers, telephones, radios, televisions, cameras even video recorders. Digital media players, commonly referred to as MP3 or MP4 players, based on the types of files, these players support has recently begun to make their way into the mobile phone devices. As impressive as the increasing numbers of mobile phone users are, equally surprising is the development in the wireless telecommunications infrastructure and mobile device manufacturing technology. Infrared, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth technology enable data communication between mobile phones and other digital devices. The increasing availability of mobile technologies is allowing users to interact seamlessly with a variety of content anytime, anywhere. In the context of language learning and teaching, with the help of recent mobile phones, students may send SMS text-messages, take pictures, record conversations and have Internet access. In practice, studies indicate that students use the device more for sending instant messages, talking with friends and listening to music. In addition, it can now be used as a communication or educational tool. The device offers scope for recording speeches both video and audio, saving them as both audio and video files, listening to and watching them anytime and anywhere. The mobile phone features provide helps for students to download, transfer data, convert data formats and finally upload new data. Mobile phones offer the facility to transfer any information from one device to another or to a computer system through MMS, Bluetooth, or data cable. The software that comes with most mobiles offers either a USB or Bluetooth connection that enables the transfer of images, audio and video files from mobiles to computers and vice versa. All in all, mobile phones are used as more than merely voice communication tools, they have changed our lives and have the potential to drastically change the way we learn instead. 2 Characteristics of Mobile Phone There are some characteristics of mobile phone technology which support language learning. Lan, Sung and Chang 2007, point out that mobile phones provide rich, real time, collaborative and conversational experiences to students. Mobile phones challenge students’ concentration and retention capacity, supply classroom instruction by providing lot of input and finally paves the way for collaborative learning as there are some facilities for students to communicate with each other. Besides, Naismith et al. 2004 assert that, “Students are encouraged to be active constructors of knowledge, with mobile devices now surrounding them in a realistic context at the same time as offering access to supporting tools” p. 2. Needless to say, students’ active participation helps them in applying what they already know and in learning new concepts of the target language. Moreover, the basic reason of using mobile phone is based on the consideration of how adept most students are with mobile phone these days. That consideration emerges the ideas of utilizing it, to which the students get much exposure, to learn a language. Besides, it assists the aim of showing students what can be achieved with technology, and may also help them improve their level of comfort to use the target language by mobile phones Dudeney, Gavin and Hockly, 2007. As discussed earlier, mobile phones are an advanced technological tool that can be used by every one for varied purposes. Recently, mobile phones are used as more than merely voice communication tools. During recent years the concept of mobile learning has come into vogue. Mobile learning m-Learning or known as mobile-assisted language learning MALL is regarded as the new generation of learning Lee, 2006; Chinnery, 2006. Kineo 2007 defines mobile learning as “the ability to learn independently of place and time, facilitated by a range of mobile devices” p. 3. Quinn 2000, further, points out that “m- Learning is the intersection of mobile computing and e-learning: accessible resources wherever you are, strong search capabilities, rich interaction, powerful support for effective learning, and performance-based assessment e-learning independent of location in time or space”. As proposed by Norbrook and Scott 2003 quoted in Chinnery 2006, ‘portability and immediacy’ are the main factors motivating mobile language learning since students can learn any time they wish to and as many times as they want. Consequently, teachers and researchers have begun to investigate the ways in which mobile phone can encourage, support, and transform learning. c. Integrating Mobile Phone Video-Making Task in Language Learning The use of video in language learning is believed to benefit the students in the process of improving their communicative skills. Tatsuki 1996 argues that a video as a medium of language learning can be used to various kinds of activities. Videos are to train listening comprehension, to activate students’ schema, and to show a real experience of communication by native speaker. In line with Tatsuki, Fisher 1996 observes some practical aspects of videos as materials in language learning classroom. The audio-visual materials can promote perception, understanding, transfer of training, reinforcement, or knowledge of results and retention. By using video, students can easily perceive what knowledge presented especially to remember such things a long while and make the students easily retain the knowledge gained. That is to say, the knowledge which is transferred through the audio-video materials is easily gained, memorized, and sometimes recalled for further activities. Besides, Ryan 1998 argues that student’s motivation increases when students learn language using video. From the social perspectives, utilizing video in the language learning and teaching context is beneficial due to some reasons. Richards and Renandya 2002 state that by using audio-visual, the lack of opportunity in foreign language settings to interact with native speakers can be minimized because of the exposure to many kinds of scenes, situations and accents as well as voices. Inferred from that assumption, video can be utilized as a means to practice communication using the target language and to show a real experience of native speaker communication by the assistance of audio and visual facilities provided by video. Accordingly, video breaks the monotony of traditional class teaching and is enjoyable and stimulating. Canning 2000 further mentions that by using video, students are able to familiarize what and how English is used in such a situation. By using audio-visual materials, it results intensity of motivation, autonomy, interaction, improvement of social skills, and familiarity to the target language resources. That is to say, the use of video in language learning assists students’ acquisition and improves their communicative skills. Moreover, as Kineo 2007 has pointed, video recording task facilitates collaborative learning, students could involve themselves in groups to check their performance, identify their mistakes and learn how to improve on their communicative skills. Besides, the researcher could also keep track of students’ performance by playing the recorded videos repeatedly and providing students with feedback. Since students need to take benefits of how mobile phones can be used as a learning tool, thus, this research focuses on creating videos facilitated by mobile phone as a media in language learning. This research focuses mainly on encouraging students to practice conversational and questioning skills that become parts of communicative skills. Their performance is monitored periodically and feedback is given to make them understand the errors committed in their dialogues. Students record the dialogues and their role plays based on a given situation in mobile phone and they can be encouraged to watch the recordings to have peer-evaluation. After that, the students save the recordings as audio-video files and transfer the files from mobile to the computer with the help of USB drive or via Bluetooth. The use of mobile phone video recorder is based on the following reasons. Firstly, the presence of mobile phone technology and its usage is growing. It means students become more and more used and dependent to mobile phone. Secondly, compared to computers, handhelds and mobile phones are compact, light and filled with a wide variety of features such as text, audio listening, photo and video recording. Because of mobile phone’s complete features and flexibility, students do not need to bring another DVD or video recorder with them. Another reason, is because mobile phone’s friendly prices. With one device, mobile phone, lots of activities can be done such as making a phone call, texting, browsing, sound and video recording. In other words, everything is in your palm. 4. Vocational Education SMK Based on the National Educational System Act No. 20 year 2003 in article 18 and 15, Vocational High School is ‘as a continuation of elementary education which aims at preparing its students to have a certain special skill’. Furthermore, the objectives of Indonesian vocational education are to prepare the students to develop professional skills, to enter work field, to apply the ability to compete and develop independently, and to foster a national workforce to meet the manpower needs of business and industry in the era of globalization The curriculum of Vocational Secondary Education, Decree No. 080U1993. Different from general high school education which offers three majors: natural science, social science and language, SMK offers specialized education programs which are provided based on the demands for employment types. The programs are divided into six groups as the following. The first program is agricultural and forestry group, for occupations in such areas as agribusiness, agronomy, animal husbandry, fisheries, and agriculture production management. The second program is industrial technology group, offering professions in building construction, mining, marine engineering, graphics, textiles, informatics, and industrial instrumentation. The next program is business and management group, leading to careers in accounting, office management, finance and banking, trade, and secretarial work. The fourth is community welfare group, targeting employment with social services, community health, and community development. The other program is tourism group, whose graduates move into the hotel, catering, fashion, and beauty occupations. Meanwhile the last program is the arts and handicraft group, whose skills are focused on applied arts, visual arts, and the handicraft industry. In terms of curriculum, some general characteristics in vocational schools are as the followings. First, the implemented curriculum is focused on students’ potential development, needs, and interest. Curriculum is developed based on the principles that students have their own unique potentials to develop their competence to become religiously devoted, bright, competitive, and responsible citizens. Therefore, the curriculum is a students’ oriented curriculum that views students as the central attention of learning activities. Second, the curriculum is varied and integrated and must contain required subjects, local content, and integrated self-development. Besides, it is also need to be responsive to the development of science, knowledge, technology, and art. Curriculum of SMK is developed based on awareness that science, knowledge, technology, and art is developing dynamically. Therefore, the contents of the curriculum are required to provide students with learning experience that enable them to keep up with and apply science, knowledge, technology, and art development. Finally, the curriculum of vocational school should be relevant to the need of life. In the sense that learning activities, materials, and media should be carefully selected and should be tailored to their work field. The Indonesian Government has given a significant attention to further improve vocational high school and increase its quality and its quantity on students’ enrollment. The improvements done by the Government include the following areas such as the curriculum is developed and improved, the number of teachers is increased, new buildings are constructed, books and workshop equipment are purchased. Other things done by the government are developing international vocational high school with bilingual methods, imaging SMK credibility through socialization programs, and enhancing the needs of production equipment on their own through the production unit in each vocational school. According to Bakri 1994, a system called “School integrated development” was introduced as a new strategy for quality improvement. This system is intended to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of SMK. It is demanded all activities of school elements to be interrelated as a system. Students, curricula or programs, teachers, facilities, and graduates are improved, developed, and renovated simultaneously in this system which they influence each other. As the results, Vocational School SMK is currently experiencing rapid development. SMK is no longer a second choice after high school SMA, as the proof, there have been many students who choose to continue their education to vocational than general high school. Besides, some vocational schools have successfully established their production units which are closely link to industry through partnership. Some of the innovation and production units created by vocational school students are robots, mobile phone, computer, laptop, helicopter, the most well-known product by SMK students are KIAT ESEMKA car which is being massively produced. The 1,500 cc engine car is the result of cooperation and learning processes of students in 33 vocational school in Indonesia since 2009, some of which are SMKN 4 Jakarta, SMKN 1 Singosari Malang, East Java, SMK Warga Surakarta Central Java, SMKN 5 Surakarta, and SMK Muhammadiyah 2 Borobudur Magelang, Central Java. 5. Related Studies In order to reveal the validity of the study, some related studies on the use of mobile phone in language learning context and the implementation of video or audio-video materials are provided in the discussion. These related studies serve as the basis for developing mind frame in determining the research contexts. An action research on the use of mobile technology and podcast to teach soft skills by Revathi Viswanathan 2009, ICFAI National College Chennai, India, was conducted with the aim at developing soft skills and employability skills by means of technology which are mobile technology and podcasts. Employability skills refer to skills used to describe the preparation or foundational skills upon which a person must build job-specific skills, including foundational skills related to communication, personal and interpersonal relationships, problem solving, and management of organizational processes. Interview and discussion skills are also included in the above list. As a result of this process, students learned a lot of new expressions from authentic situations provided by the mobile technology and podcasts. Also, it helped them to apply their knowledge in the real life situation created by the researcher in the classroom. By the use of a video recorder device attached in a mobile phone, Viswanathan argues that collaborative learning could be facilitated. Students could involve themselves in groups to check their performance, identify their mistakes and learn how to improve on their interview skills. Besides, the researcher could also keep track of students’ performance by playing the recorded interviews repeatedly and providing students with feedback. “It should be pointed out that this study helped students to learn to use the instrument mobile phone for learning rather than listening to music and sending SMS, the two typical pastimes of students using mobile devices” Viswanathan, 2009. Another research that has been conducted in the area of technology and language learning is a phenomenological research by Yuana Liverita Goodianti, Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta, about the learners’ experiences in learning English using video clips. Learners’ experiences in this case can include various kinds of things and events which happened in certain time and place. A thing refers to an object which is heard, read, talked about, thought about, touched, used and some other actions which are addressed to this object. Moreover, students also experience feeling, thinking about, behaving and perceiving something in their event of experience. The study focuses upon description of students’ experiences and their meanings of experiences in learning English using video clips. Their experiences are obtained from students’ narratives through a series of interviews and diaries. In relation to the sources of video clips, the sources of video clips are films which have English closed caption of subtitles. Films are cut into short segments at approximately from one to five minutes. These video clips can be played by using a video record player or with Windows Media Player on a computer. All of these materials show students how the language expressions used in certain situation. Besides the sources, there are other issues which can be investigated, for example what kinds of film is played, how long the duration of the clip are made, what kinds of registers are used in the clip, and so forth. Results of the study show that “Video clips can be used to train the listening comprehension, to activate the schema, to train the pronunciation of words phrases and sentences, and to help students to practice their speaking skills. Furthermore, the study also reveals that students’ motivation increased when they learnt language using video clips” Goodianti, 2007. Unfortunately, though there have been increased interests in the use of mobile phone and video into the language learning, it is surprising that most of the literature reviews on technology place students in the consumer seat. Most of those researches position the students only as the passive user of those technological advancements. What disregards to be considered is how students can use the technology to further produces and share their own learning materials. These situations become a challenge for the researcher to create learning environments in which students can participate actively improving their communicative skills and to provide learning media which fit the students’ needs.

B. Theoretical Framework