52 not bright. Even the students who pay attention do not always do well in the
subject. Like those female students. They do not do well in tasks even though they pay attention in the class.
See appendix, interview
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Despite the teacher‟s judgment on students‟ manner, the classroom
observations suggested that there were other factors contributing to the students‟ low motivation in learning English. The classroom observations revealed that the
teaching and learning activities tended to be dominated with doing exercises. Moreover, the teacher rarely used media in her teaching and her time management
was not effective. It took so long for students to complete even the easy exercises as, instead of doing the exercise immediately as told, they played with their
friends and only did the exercise later. Such condition is illustrated in the following vignette.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ɑround twenty minutes later the teacher asked, “Have you finished?” but the
students said they had not finished the tasks yet, so she gave them five more minutes to complete the tasks.
With five minutes left for them to complete the tasks, a male student came forward and asked what to do with the tasks. All those 20 minutes he and the
members of his group did not know what to do with the tasks. The students then got back to work with the tasks while a few of them were still playing, either
because they gave up with the tasks or because they relied on other members of their groups to complete the tasks.
See appendix, vignette
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From the observations and interview, it was revealed that there were some
problems in the teaching and learning process in class VII A of SMP Institut Indonesia. Given the fact, the teacher and I identified the problems and analyzed
what may be the possible main causes of the problems. Figuring out the main
53 causes is essential in order to get a clear view of the root problems and give a
better insight on what actions should be taken, thus the next phase —think.
2. Think
My discussion with the English teacher resulted in finding the main causes of the problems. They are:
a. Lack of scaffolding
Lack of scaffolding in teaching caused the students to have a hard time understanding the subject and completing tasks given. This also led to the students
to not pay attention to the teacher because they have a tendency to avoid difficult subjects. Meanwhile, scaffolding can make English easier to learn by giving the
materials in sequence from easy to hard implementing the ZPD concept.
b. Lack of use of facilities and media for learning
SMP Institut Indonesia is considered as a small private school. The school did not lend textbooks to the students and did not have enough financial resources
to provide any copy of English materials. In addition, the students were also from poor families who could hardly afford education. However, the school has
technology to make it possible to provide interesting materials and media without needing any money, i.e. LCD projector and laptop. Not to mention that the
school‟s environment can also be a good media in teaching English.
54
c. Monotonous teaching techniques
While the teacher did realize and clearly said it during the interview that her teaching techniques were monotonous and boring, she ran out of ideas on how
to make the teaching and learning process more interesting. As she admitted, classroom discussions did not work because the students tended to cheat while
doing group tasks. The challenge was then to create various teaching techniques to engage the students in the teaching and learning process. To make it more
enjoyable, introducing games in the classroom was also included as a part of the plan.
d. Some students that need special attention
The English teacher and some of the teachers at the office had a mutual view that some students had so little respect to the teachers. This might come
from the fact that they were from problematic and poor families. Some of the students even needed to help their parents working after school. The challenge
was to get these students to positively participate in the classroom by making the learning process interesting to them. Competition in games can be the answer for
this problem.
55 To summarize, the problems hindering the teaching and learning process
in class VII A SMP Institut Indonesia are presented in the following table. No. Problems
1. Most students showed low participation in classroom activities.
2. Most students were slow learners.
3. Some students completely ignored the teacher and have so little respect to
her. 4.
Classroom discussions did not work. 5.
Lack of scaffolding caused students to have a hard time understanding the subject and completing tasks.
6. Lack of time and classroom management.
7. The technique of teaching was not varied.
8. The teacher tended to focus more on teaching reading.
9. The materials were lack of visual aids.
10. Teaching media was rarely used.
Table 4. The Field Problems in Class VII A of SMP Institut Indonesia
As the possible main causes of the problems had been identified, the teacher and I discussed the possible actions to be taken, thus the next phase
—act.
3. Act
This phase included planning, teaching and evaluating the implementation of actions in cycle I.
a. Planning
The analysis of the field problems revealed that the teacher, the teaching method, the use of media, and the students were all contributing to the problems.
Based on the identification of the problems, the first cycle was designed for several aims. They were:
56 a.
There would be more variation of activities in teaching and learning process focusing on writing practices.
b. There would be more tasks sequenced from simple to complex and easy to
difficult to help the slow learners learn English little by little. c.
The students would be able to finally produce a descriptive text. d.
The teaching of English would be more interesting. In order to achieve these objectives, the team discussed the action plans of
the first cycle in a democratic and dialogic situation. The following action plans were designed so that the students could improve their writing skill and were
motivated in learning English. 1
Implementing Genre-Based Approach emphasizing on scaffolding 2
Involving students in playing games for motivational purposes 3
Code switching between English and Indonesian 4
Using media
b. Teaching Process in Cycle I
The actions on Cycle I were carried out in four meetings on May 13, 18, 20, and 25, 2015. Each meeting lasted for 80 minutes. The actions were focused
on implementing the cycle through the Genre-Based Approach and the principles of the genre-based. In executing the actions, I acted as the teacher, while the
English teacher as the collaborator observed the teaching and learning process at the back of the class. The English teacher also took notes on how the teaching and
learning process was going. The Cycle I consisted of the full cycle of the Genre-Based Approach
— Building Knowledge of the Field, Modeling and Deconstructing of the Text, Joint
Construction of the Text, Independent Construction of the Text, and Linking Related Texts. The details of the process are presented below.
