promoted and time will prove that it deserves the promotion. Further, he states that in the theory of communicative competence, focusing on meaning rather than
form does not mean that grammar can be ignored. Instead, it should mean a balance between language system and competence in its use, with an emphasis on
meaning.
D. Rationale
Grammar is one of the language aspects should be well-mastered by the language learners. Someone who masters grammar well will be easy to convey the
idea and messages to other people, and it helps people understand the message in the written or spoken forms.
In the early of the emergence of communicative approach, many advocates and language teachers neglected teaching grammar in the process of learning
language. They thought that grammar should not be thought explicitly because it is covered in learning language skills. But lately, teaching grammar is thought
important because every language has grammar and grammar is thought to furnish the basis for a set of language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing.
Having good mastery in grammar helps the students understand what they listen and read and also helps them convey the message they speak and write
effectively. The reality, many students sometimes consider that learning grammar is
difficult and confusing for them because there are a lot of rules should be learned and understood. The problems they have in using correct grammar can be
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identified when they are speaking or writing. For example, when they want to speak “I forget.” they tend to say “I am forget.” They are not able to classify the
words its word classes, they are also confused in using auxiliary verbs. In spite of they are difficult in classifying the word classes or parts of speech, they are also
difficult to identify and comprehend tenses. They still do not understand how to describe something in present, past or future, to use appropriate tense based on
time, to use auxiliary and many other aspects. The poor students’ knowledge of grammar especially in tenses; their
perspective towards grammar subject; their motivation in learning grammar; and the teaching methodology the teacher uses become some of the factors influencing
the students face the problems. Those factors should be overcome to help the students improve their grammar mastery.
To overcome the problem, I propose task-based language teaching to improve the students’ grammar mastery. By using this method, the students are
encouraged to learn grammar communicatively. They are led to experiment their store of knowledge using the language they are learning to accomplish the task.
There are three steps when task-based is implemented. The first step is pre-task. Teacher introduces the topic by brainstorming the students using several activities,
but heshe does not teach new language structure. The second step is task-cycle. The students usually work in small group work to accomplish the task using
interactive activities, such as information gap or role play. The teacher functions to monitor the students when they are doing the task and also to help them but not
teaching new language structure. And the last step is language focus. The students perpustakaan.uns.ac.id
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are lead to be aware of the language rules they use in the task-cycle. In this grammar class, the students are asked to analyse the sentences they have made
whether or not those sentences correct and in correct. The teacher gives explanation about language structure to reinforce their grammar mastery. At the
end of the task, the students are asked to do the exercise focusing on their language structure. It means that only in the last step the language grammar is
taught. In the first-two steps, the teacher monitors the students’ grammar by helping them using correct language without stating that it is correct or incorrect.
By using this method, it is expected that the students comprehend not only how the language is formed but also how it is used because by using task-based
the students learn the language form and also they practice it directly in written and oral forms as an outcome of the task.
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CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
A. Context of the Study
1. Research Location
I conducted the research in the first grade students class A of English Department at Siliwangi University in the academic year of 20122013 where the
location of this university is at Siliwangi Street No. 24 Tasikmalaya West Java. This university is the biggest university in East Priangan consisting of several
Faculties, such as, Educational Sciences and Teacher Training Faculty, Economics Faculty, Agricultural Faculty and so forth.
English Department is one of the departments the Educationa Sciences and Teachers’ Training Faculty has which has a lot of students in it. There are five
classes for the first grade in the academic year of 20122013. Although this department is supported by several facilities used for the process of teaching and
learning, it still needs some more facilities such as classrooms and language laboratory.
2. Time of Research
To have a valid result, this research was conducted in eight months from August 2012 to March 2013. This research was started from conducting the pre
observation until reporting. The implementation of the research was conducted in two cycles consisting of six meetings in the cycle one and five meetings in the
cycle two. The schedule of the research is described in table 3.1.
50 perpustakaan.uns.ac.id
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