Background of the Problem
learning. The teacher was the only source of the knowledge. Moreover, the teaching and learning process was emphasized in reading and writing skills, but never on
teaching speaking skills. During the observation, the teacher rarely spoke in English. When he was teaching, he usually uses Indonesian or sometimes Javanese language.
Another aspect related to the teacher was the use of the teaching and learning media. The uninteresting and inappropriate media could demotivate the students in learning.
For example, there was once when the teacher only wrote jumbled recount text on the white board and asked the students to make a good paragraph of it. For about 80
minutes in one meeting, the teacher just used that text to teach the students. It was so regrettable since during those times, the teacher could give more examples for the
students. The second factor was related to the students. The students had less interest and
motivation towards English. They had different proficiencies and abilities of English. Just a few of the students were good in English, some others were not very good.
Particularly, the students had low ability of speaking. They found it difficult to pronounce English words. They were shy and afraid of making mistakes when they
spoke in English. It caused them rarely used English in class. Based on the researcher’s observation, the students rarely spoke in English in their class. They still
pronounced the words just like what they are written, not what they should be said. The teacher only occasionally used English in class. It caused the students did not get
enough exposure to English input. Most of the students were non-accustomed to speaking in English in class. They had low motivation to speak because they were
shy and afraid of making mistakes. They did not know how English can be useful for their daily activities, since they lived in the rural area in which the people were rarely
using English. They did not have a good attitude towards their friends who could not speak in English well. When one of the students made a mistake, the other students
would directly make fun of them by laughing aloud. The third factor was related to the media being used. The teacher rarely used
media while he was teaching. It was hard to catch the students’ attention because there was no interesting media which could attract them. When the teacher taught
them, the students paid attention for a while and then they were busy doing something else. Recording and video were also seldom used. When the students
mispronounced the words, only the teacher corrected it. The media were not very interesting. It was shown during the observation, the teacher gave a task by writing
jumbled recount text on the whiteboard. The students had to write the text on their book and made a good recount text. The students had to use their imagination to deal
with what happened in the story. The facilities such as LCD projector, speaker, television, computer, and many others were ready in this school, but the teacher did
not use the technology and facility provided by the school. It would be more difficult for the students because their vocabulary mastery was still low. The teacher reminded
them to bring their dictionary, but many of them didn’t bring it. They wasted their time to go to the library and borrowed dictionary. Even when the students had the
dictionary with them, they found it difficult to pronounce the words by themselves. They still needed the teacher to help them. The only model of the students to speak in
English was only the teacher. They were very dependent on what the teacher’s said and believed that was true and correct.
The fourth factor was the materials. The materials were less varied and this condition affected the students as well. They were not very interested in the lesson
because of the uninteresting materials being used. There were only a few students that understood the materials well, many of them did not.