Planning of the First Cycle

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1. The First Cycle of CAR

The description and the findings of the first cycle would be elaborated into three stages of CAR. Those were planning, acting and observing, and reflecting.

a. Planning of the First Cycle

After obtaining the preliminary observation data which were collected on July 28 th and August 4 th , 2010, the researcher decided that the most problematic factor occurring during the English teaching and learning process in XII IPS 1 class was the lack of students’ vocabulary mastery. This situation was proven by the students’ scores in the pervious vocabulary test. The average score of XII IPS 1 in the previous vocabulary test was 48.69 see Appendix F.11. It was lower compared to the average scores of other classes. Furthermore, after having further discussion with the teacher regarding to the real situation of English teaching and learning process in XII IPS 1 class, the researcher could conclude that the students showed bad results in English because of the limited exposure on using the words which had been learnt. As a result, the students failed to apply the vocabulary in real or new contexts. In accordance with the problem found in English teaching and learning process, the researcher decided to introduce one of the vocabulary learning strategies which seemed appropriate to improve the vocabulary mastery of XII IPS 1 students. Then, the chosen strategy was contextual guessing strategy. After studying the details of contextual guessing strategy which is proposed by Clarke Nation 1988, the researcher attempted to arrange a set of learning activities in a form of a lesson plan. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 57 To develop the lesson plan, the researcher referred to the standard competence and basic competence stated in the syllabus of English lesson for XII Grade for Science or Social Program of SMA Stella Duce II Yogyakarta see Appendix C. Afterwards, the researcher determined the learning indicators to be achieved. The first indicator stated that the students were expected to be able to identify the principles of contextual guessing strategy. Then, the second indicator stated that the students were hoped to be able to apply the strategy to determine the meaning of unknown words found in contexts, in this case was in the narrative texts. After deciding the learning indicators, the researcher chose the learning methods which would be used during the teaching and learning process. The learning methods planned were lecturing, pair work, class discussion, and individual work. Those learning methods were aimed to foster the interaction between teacher-students and student-student, so that the class atmosphere would be lively and meaningful. After determining the learning indicators and choosing the learning methods, the researcher developed a set of learning materials in a form of a handout and a worksheet. The handout contained a brief introduction about the concept of contextual guessing strategy as well as the steps involved in the strategy and the examples on how to do the guessing. By developing a handout which was adapted from the steps of guessing procedure by Clarke Nation 1988, the students were expected to have a clearer understanding on the basic concept of contextual guessing strategy. As a result, the students would feel easier when applying the strategy in the real context. Furthermore, so as to facilitate the PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 58 students in practicing the strategy, the researcher developed a worksheet which consisted of vocabulary exercises in some particular contexts. The vocabulary exercises were adapted from American Vocabulary Builder 1. After fixing the learning materials, the researcher came to the next plan, namely arranging the learning activities. The activities would be divided into pre- activity, whilst-activity, and post-activity. In the pre-activity, the teacher would focus on the introduction of contextual guessing strategy. The learning method used was lecturing. Then, in the whilst-activity or also known as the action phase, the teacher explained the details of the strategy as well as the steps of guessing procedure. In this activity, the teacher was also expected to give the students a brief review on English parts of speech, for instance, Noun, Verb, Adjective, and Adverb. Moreover, the teacher was hoped to give the students some examples on how to apply the guessing procedure. On the other hand, the students were planned to practice on implementing the strategy by answering the worksheet in pairs. This activity was intended to challenge the students to have a discussion session and to foster more interaction between the students. Still in the whilst-activities, the researcher planned a whole class discussion, which was led by the teacher. In class discussion session, the teacher was supposed to encourage the students to be actively engaged in asking and answering the questions. Moreover, the teacher was expected to accommodate any ideas or answers from all the students and justify the most correct one. The teacher would also not give the answers on the worksheet to the students directly. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 59 The purpose was to challenge the students to be more active and confident in using the vocabulary that had been learnt to express their ideas. The next planning was determining the learning activities in the post- activity. The post activity also refers to closure phase. It is usually used by the teacher to check students’ understanding and summarize the materials being studied Bauer Sapona, 1991. Based on the theory above, the researcher planned that in the post-activity, the teacher together with the students would review what they had learnt during the meeting and repeat parts of the steps involved in doing the guessing. Those were the summary of the lesson plan which would be implemented in the first cycle. Before implementing the strategy, the researcher and the teacher discussed first the learning materials, the learning activities, and the assessment that would be employed. Firstly, the researcher and the teacher studied the steps of guessing procedure before being introduced to the students.

b. Acting and Observing of the First Cycle