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No. Field Problem
Code
10. The students preferred working individually even though
they were assigned a group work S
11. The students were less encouraged to ask questions
S 12.
The teacher did not make any lesson plan for each learning activity in the class
T 13.
The teacher interrupted the students when they were reading aloud texts
T 14.
The teacher did not give any sanction to those who laughed at their friends who made mistakes
T 15.
The teacher did not maximize the use of the provided media
T 16.
The speaking activity in the class was not communicative See Appendix P, Picture 1, 2, 3
TL 17.
Javanese language and Bahasa Indonesia are the dominant languages in the learning activity
TL 18.
The input texts were limited M
19. Inappropriate media of learning were used
Md Code:
S : Students
T : Teacher
TL: Teaching and Learning Activity M : Materials
Md : Media
2. Identification of the Field Problems to Solve
By having the problems identified, I had some discussion in a democratic atmosphere with the teacher as my first collaborator to identify the field
problems to solve based on the urgency level and the feasibility of solving that thus were the foci of the research. Based on our discussion, there were several
problems to solve as presented in the following table.
Table 2: The Field Problems to Solve in the Teaching and Learning Process in VIII E SMP Negeri 1 Muntilan Year 20152016
No. Field Problem
Code
1.
The students were not confident in answering the teacher’s
classical question S
2.
The students found it hard to understand the teacher’s
instructions delivered in English S
3.
The students were not used to speaking in English
S
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No. Field Problem
Code
4.
The students were less encouraged to practice their English
S 5.
The students were not able to speak spontaneously
S 6.
The students were afraid of making mistakes in practicing to
speak S
7.
The students’ pronunciation was poor to fair
S 8.
The students found it hard to pronounce English sounds
S 9.
The students rarely used their dictionaries
S 10.
The students preferred working individually even though
they were assigned a group work S
11.
The students laughed at their friends who made mistakes
S 12.
The teacher interrupted the students to correct their
pronunciation when they were reading aloud texts T
13.
The teacher did not give any sanction to those who laughed
at their friends who made mistakes T
14.
The speaking activity in the class was not communicative
15.
Javanese language and Bahasa Indonesia are the dominant
languages in the learning activity TL
16.
The input texts were limited
M 17.
Inappropriate media of learning were used
Md
After determining the field problems to solve, the next step was analyzing the main causes of the field problems. This was done to recognize the reason
behind the problems that would then be useful in planning the action of the research. In doing this, I analyzed the cause and effect relationships among the
problems. Then, I grouped the problems that had cause and effect relationships. Besides, I analyzed the main causes begetting the problems based on the results
of the observation, questionnaire and interviews. In addition to this, a discussion was carried out with the teacher to complement the analyzed causes.
Below is the table containing the focused field problems as well as the main causes.
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Table 3: Focused Field Problems and Causes No.
Field Problem Cause
1. The students were not
confident in answering the teacher’s classical question
1 The students were afraid of
making wrong answers 2
The students were ashamed if their friends laughed at them
when they made mistakes 3
The teacher did not give any sanction to those who laughed
at their friends who made mistakes
4 The teacher did not highly
appreciate the students to encourage them to answer the
classical questions
2. The students found it hard to
understand the teachers’ instructions delivered in
English 1
The teacher spoke too fast so the students found it difficult
to follow and understand the instruction
3. Javanese language and
Bahasa Indonesia were the dominant languages in the
learning activities 1
There was no obligation for the students to speak in
English 2
The students did not encourage the students to practice to
speak in English during the class
The students were not used to speaking in English
The students were less encouraged to practice their
English
4. The students were afraid of
making mistakes in practicing to speak
1 The teacher interrupted the
students with pronunciation drills when they were reading
aloud texts
5. The students were not able to
speak in English spontaneously
1 The students never had any
communicative speaking activity
2 The speaking activities they
had were mostly performing a designed conversation in front
of the class
6. The students found it hard to
pronounce English sounds 1
The students’ organs of speech were unlikely trained to
produce English sounds 2
There was lack of speaking activities since the teaching
and learning process mostly The students’ pronunciation
was not good enough
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No. Field Problem
Cause
prepared the students to pass written final examination
7. The students rarely used their
dictionaries 1
The teacher did not encourage the students to find the
meaning of words in their dictionaries. When the
students asked her about the meaning of some word, she
tended to ask them to think instead of to check their
dictionaries. If they could not get the answer, the teacher
directly told them the meaning.
8. The students sometimes lost
their focus while having the teaching and learning process
1 The teaching and learning
process was mostly listening to the teacher’s explanation
9. The students preferred
working individually even though they were assigned a
group work 1
The design of the group work did not assign the students in a
group to reach any common goal
10. The input texts were limited 1 They were taken only from the
students’ textbooks and workbooks
11. Inappropriate media of
learning were used 1
The teacher had limited time to find or make appropriate
media of learning From the identification of the problems and analysis of the main causes
above, it could be seen that the English teaching and learning process in VIII E SMP Negeri 1 Muntilan needed to be improved especially in the focus of
improving the students’ speaking skill. This, then, motivated me to conduct some research
focusing on the students’ speaking skill improvement by using information-gap activities. The kind of activities was chosen because of its
strengths elaborated in the second chapter.
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B. The Implementation of the Research
