Background of the Study

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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents the introduction. It consists of background of the study, reasons for choosing the topic, limitation of the study, statement of the problem, objective of the study, significance of the study and outline of the study.

1.1 Background of the Study

The use of a specific curriculum influences an education’s condition in a country. In Indonesia, the curriculum implemented also influences the condition of education in Indonesia. Curriculum is a basis of teaching-learning process, so every teaching-learning process has to follow the curriculum. It is the set of courses, coursework, and content offered at school or university http: en.wikipedia.orgwikiCurriculum. Because of that, every teacher has to understand and follow the current curriculum before planning and developing a kind of teaching-learning process and the materials for the teaching-learning process. Most of the Indonesian students have not acquired the English language skills as required by the curriculum, although the process of teaching-learning has been done for along time. In order to solve this problem, the Indonesian curriculum has been made an evolution from 1945 until now. Lie 2007 who did a study on Education Policy and EFL Curriculum in Indonesia: Between the Comitment to Competence and the Quest for Higher Test Scores mentioned about English curricula since Independence. Since its dependence in 1945, Indonesia has changed its English curriculum seven times using three different approaches. The latest curriculum, in 2006, School Based Curriculum was launched, a new curriculum that is based on school level. The content of the School Based Curriculum is 80 of Competence Based curriculum. Based on UU no.20 in 2003 about national education system states that educational implementation should be done in decentralization. Globalization era demands a democratic and accurate educational implementation in order to increase the quality of national education, so that it can compete with other countries educational result. One of government’s efforts to achieve it is by determining the standards of national education Pedoman Penyusunan KTSP, 2008: 1. English teaching learning process in Elementary School is aimed to develop students’ language ability, which is used for accompanying action. English is used to interact and has the characteristics of “here and now”. The materials are ranging from class context to students’ surroundings. Based on KTSP 2006, the objectives of English teaching and learning process in elementary school are: 1 to develop students’ verbal communication competence, and 2 students know the importance of English to increase the nation’s competiveness in the global society. School-based Curriculum is an operational curriculum which is formed and practiced by each school in Indonesia. Consequently, the curriculum used in a school may be different from the one to the other schools. The different form and practice depend on the needs of the school; still, the government has given the standard curriculum as a model for the school Badan Standar Nasional Pendidikan: 2006 . In relation to documents needed in the implementation of the SBC curriculum, school practitioners and teachers are required to develop documents, such as syllabus and lesson plan. However in the field, there are still many problems, for example: they have not got enough School Based Curriculum information and understanding in order to implement the School Based Curriculum. Moreover, not all schools have done successfully in conducting and applying the School Curriculum. Related to this problem, I would like to do a study entitled Teachers’ problems in teaching documents in the implementation of KTSP.

1.2 Reason for Choosing the Topic