CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
This chapter elaborates the research problem, namely using songs and games in the English teaching and learning process and its implementation for
seventh grade students of SMP BOPKRI 2 Yogyakarta. Furthermore, it presents research background, problem formulation, problem limitation, research
objectives, research benefits, and definition of terms.
A. Background of the Study
One of the most fundamental factors in the successful teaching and learning process is students’ participation. There will not be any learning if the
students do not participate in the teaching and learning process. It is a very influential factor in the achievement of the learning output. The learning is not
going well if the students do not participate in the teaching and learning process. The higher the students’ level of participation, the better learning achievement
will be. Students’ participation is needed in all teaching and learning process including the English teaching and learning process. Thus, in order to get a better
learning output, the English teachers have to increase students’ participation in the teaching and learning process.
Every teaching and learning process aims at reaching an improvement in learning achievement. In that process, the participation of both the teacher as the
educator and the students as the learners is needed. In other words, in a teaching-
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learning activity, the teacher and students need to be involved. The most essential thing in a teaching and learning process is the process of ‘learning’, which
happens in the students’ mind. Besides receiving the learning material from the teacher, the students are also expected to participate in doing activities supporting
their learning process such as reading the textbook, taking note, asking and answering questions, doing discussion, and working in pairs or groups, so that
they can be more physically and mentally involved in the teaching and learning process.
The research reported in this thesis was classroom action research with an aim to increase the students’ participation in the English teaching and learning
process of seventh grade students in SMP BOPKRI 2 Yogyakarta. It was based on the several observatio ns done by the researcher in Class 7A that the students there
lacked participation in the English teaching and learning process. Actually there were some problems needed to be solved, but the problems in the students’
participation was the most urgent to be solved. Moreover, results of many tests of Class 7A in SMP BOPKRI 2 Yogyakarta showed unsatisfying results. There were
more than 50 students of Class 7A got score fewer than the standard score 60. Through this classroom action research, it was expected that more than 75
students in Class 7A participated in the English teaching and learning process and more than 75 students in Class 7A got the standard score 60.
According to the several observations done by the researcher in the classroom, the students were categorized cognitively passive, but physically
active. The students could be called cognitively passive if they were passive in
doing activities connected with thinking process. For example asking and answering teacher’s questions and participating in class discussion. The other one,
if the students were active in doing physical movements, they were called physically active. These could be seen in these following descriptions. When the
teacher explained a new material, the students looked confused. Actually, they did not understand what the teacher said. Thus, they decided to do another activity
such as drawing and making unimportant notes in their books, disturbing other friends and talking with friends, instead of listening to the teacher’s explanation.
Some students liked walking around the classroom during the teaching and learning process. Moreover, the students did not take a note of the teacher’
explanation, whereas in fact they did not have good ability to memorize the materials they had go t. When the teacher asked the class, only certain students
answered. In the discussion session, only active students participated in the discussion. Some passive students only acted as observers and let their friend did
the task. As a result, they were not always ready to face examination so that they often got low scores for examination.
Results of questionnaires showed that the students’ participation in the English teaching and learning process was low. More than 50 students often
felt sleepy in class, more than 50 students seldom listened to the teacher’s explanation, more than 50 students seldom took note of the teacher’s
explanation, more than 50 students seldom asked the teacher about the unclear material, and more than 50 students seldom answered questions when the
teacher asked the class. These indicated that the students did not pay much attention during the English teaching and learning process.
After investigating further by conducting some interviews, the researcher found out the root of these problems, which could be categorized as an internal
factor and an external factor. The internal factor was that the students had been lack of motivation to learn English because in their minds they considered English
as a difficult and confusing subject. The external factor was that the teaching and learning process lacked variations.
Concerning that, the researcher concluded that the low learning output was not merely caused by the teacher who delivered the material, but it was also
caused by the students themselves as subjects of learning. Therefore, it was needed to improve the teaching strategy which focused on learners’ improvement
of their participations in the English teaching and learning process in order to maximize their learning achievement.
There are many teaching strategies which can be implemented to increase the students’ participation in the English teaching and learning process. They are
game, song, discussion, group work, drill and practice, role play, presentation, and field trip. In this research, the researcher chose song and game to increase
participation of Class 7A students in SMP BOPKRI 2 Yogyakarta. The consideration of choosing songs and games was based on many
factors. The first factor was based on interviews to class 7A students of SMP BOPKRI 2 Yogyakarta. They mostly said that they liked songs and games in the
English teaching and learning activity. The second factor was based on the
research of some experts. They say that songs and games can encourage students to sustain their interest in the English lesson. According to Lewis 1999 games
can make unmotivated student interested. Similarly, Wright, Betteridge, Buckby 2006 state that using songs and games in the teaching and learning
process can increase interest toward language learning. Moreover, songs and games also create an environment that is conducive to learning. The last but not
least, the researcher have had many teaching repertoire about songs and games that would be useful to be implemented.
The researcher made plan which consisted of two actions. First action was implementing songs in the beginning of the English lesson. The second was
implementing games in the middle of the English lesson. Songs can be conducted in the beginning of a lesson as teaching strategy to capture students’ attention at
the start of a lesson. Thus, the students’ interest can be maintained Burden and Byrd, 1999. The songs and games were treated as a track in one meeting. The
track would be songs- material- games-evaluation in every meeting of English lesson. Following this track enabled the students to participate in the English
teaching and learning process. Gordon 1999 explains that the appropriate time to conduct games was when students’ understanding and energy are at their best.
Thus, the researcher inserted games after the material was explained.
B. Problem Limitation
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