36 During performing the tasks in groups, some students did not do the tasks
seriously. The students had difficulties in finding some words in English.
During the whilst-activity, there was one student operating his mobile phone. The students took time longer than the planning time in doing tasks 3 and 4.
The tasks were too many. The students did not have much time in doing the test.
c. The Reflecting Phase of the First Cycle
The reflection step was conducted by reflecting on the implementation activity in the first cycle. In this stage, the researcher focused on how the problem
happened and what to do to prevent the problem. The researcher employed the field notes and the observation sheets.
From the activity of the first cycle, the researcher found that during performing the tasks in groups, some students did not do the tasks seriously. They
were busy chatting with the students from other groups. The researcher assumed that it happened because every group had the same tasks. Thus, in the next cycle
the researcher should vary the tasks which had to be done in groups in order to prevent the students had chatting and let them be responsible in completing their
own group tasks. The data gathered from the observers also showed that the students had
difficulties in finding some words in English. The students did not bring any dictionary was the problem cause. Due to the situation, the teacher allowed them
to use their mobile phones to open the electronic dictionary. Yet, there was one
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student operating his mobile phone for playing a game. Therefore, the teacher would not allow the students to operate their mobile phones during the class to
prevent the problem in the second cycle. Another problem was the students spent too much time in doing tasks 3
and 4. The researcher presumed that it occurred because there was no picture to describe each word as what existed in task 1. In consequence, the researcher
should put pictures as the visual media in every task to prevent the problem in the following cycle.
Other things which needed to be repaired were the time management and the number of the tasks. The students only had five minutes to do the test because
the tasks were too many. The class average score decreased from 72.03 to 64.70 due to the limited test time. Nevertheless, there were six students who obtained
higher score than their score before the implementation. Therefore, in the next cycle the researcher had to simplify the tasks and reduce them in order to have a
good time management. The good points in the first cycle
were the students’ enthusiasm and cooperation. The researcher expected that those good points occurred in the
following cycle. The students were enthusiastic and active in responding to the teacher’s apperception or questions, completing the tasks, and asking the teacher
if they had difficulties. The students also cooperated well in group.
2. The Implementation of Task-Based Learning in the Second Cycle
The second cycle was conducted on Monday, November 26, 2012. All students were present during the implementation of second cycle. There were
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eighteen students as the participants in the second cycle. Based on the reflection of the first cycle, in the second cycle, the researcher focused on reducing the
amount of the tasks in order to manage the time well. The second cycle of this research was also composed of three phases of CAR. Those phases were planning,
acting and observing, and reflecting.
a. The Planning Phase of the Second Cycle
The topic for the second cycle based on the syllabus was procedure text on a user guide. Based on the reflection of first cycle, the researcher decided to
decrease the tasks. Besides, the researcher also simplified the tasks. In the activities of the second cycle, the researcher
used Willis’ theory 1996 on the pre- task language activities; namely
“matching phrases to pictures” p. 26 for task one. The researcher also used Pattinson’s theory, as cited by Nunan 2004, on
tasks and activity types in TBL, namely “matching activities” for task two,
“pictures and picture stories” for task three, and “communication strategies” for the presentation of task three p. 57.
After deciding the type of tasks for the second cycle, the researcher designed the tasks and determined the indicators. There were three tasks in the
second cycle namely task one, task two, and task three. The researcher designed task one of the second cycle as matching phrases to pictures. In task one, the
students were ordered to complete two procedure texts by selecting the words provided. After that, the students were asked to rearrange the steps in order by
matching each step to its picture. Thus, there were two indicators for task one. First, the students were expected to be able to select the suitable words to
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complete the procedure texts. Second, the students were hoped to be able to rearrange the steps of the procedure texts. The pictures might help them to do so.
Thereupon, task two of the second cycle was matching activities. Its instruction was matching each word in one column with its synonym in another
column. By the end of task two, the students were expected to be able to recognize the synonym of verbs which usually existed in a procedure text of a
user guide of a particular thing. In order to fix the time management, task one and task two of the second cycle should be completed in pairs.
Hereafter, in task three, each group had the same type of task but the researcher designed different task content text for every group. The task type of
task three of the second cycle was pictures and pictures stories. There were four groups, group A, B, C, and D. Therefore, there were four different texts. Group A
would get a text on how to send a short message using a cell phone. The text for group B was about how to charge the battery of a cell phone. A text on how to
save a number in a cell phone would be given to group C. The last text would be received by group D was about how to insert a SIM card to a cell phone.
However, all groups had the same instruction. They had to arrange a procedure text based on the pictures provided in their own text. After they had finished
doing it, they had to report their texts in front of the class. By the end of task three of the second cycle, the students were expected to achieve two indicators. The
students were able to arrange a procedure text of the instruction to do a particular action and report their text in spoken language.
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After designing the tasks, the researcher designed the test for the second cycle. In order to avoid misinterpretation, the researcher put the vocabulary in the
sentences. There were twenty numbers in the test which consisted of fifteen numbers of word meaning and five numbers of synonym. The vocabulary in the
test of the second cycle was taken from the words which existed in the tasks of the same cycle.
b. Acting and Observing Phases of the Second Cycle
In the second cycle, the researcher focused on how to avoid the problems happened in the previous cycle and how to solve them. Hence, this cycle was the
improvement of the implementation process of the first cycle. Similar to the first cycle, in this part, the researcher reported the action done by the teacher and also
the students’ responses during pre-activity, whilst-activity, and post-activity.
1 Pre-Activity of the Second Cycle
The teacher opened the teaching and learning process by greeting the students and checking their presence. All students were present. In order to avoid
the students misused their electronic dictionaries, the use of them was forbidden in this cycle. Since the students did not bring the dictionary book, the teacher
asked two students to borrow ten dictionaries from the library, five English- Indonesian dictionaries and five Indonesian-English dictionaries. The teacher later
continued the pre-activity by encouraging the students to review the previous materials. Most of the students were active to do so. Hereafter, the teacher
distributed the handout and asked the students to read and comprehend the instruction of tasks in the second cycle. A problem occurred. When the students
