Background of Study INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. Background of Study

In the last decade, English has become the most popular foreign language used for communication between people who do not share the same first language. As Harmer point out, English is spoken by at least a quarter of the world’s population. It is important, too, to realize that this means it is not spoken by three quarter of the population. However, it is clear from the way its use has grown in the last decade that this situation is about to change. 1 It means English is really important for our life, especially for development of knowledge, science, culture, and relationship among country. According to Edward David Allen and Rebecca M. Valette in their book, foreign language is one course in the curriculum where students should be encouraged to talk a great deal in class and to express their ideas, not simply what the teacher tells them to say. 2 English is one of the foreign languages that 1 Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching Fourth Edition, England: Longman, 2002, p. 18. 2 Edward David Allen and Rebecca M. Valette, Classroom Techniques: Foreign Languages and English as a Second Language, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Inc, 1997, p. 211. was taught in Indonesia’s school from Elementary School as a local content, SMP up to SMU as compulsory subject and a complementary subject of the higher education institution. It has been taught in order to increase the English students’ competence. They are expected to become fluent in oral and written skills. Recently, in the global world, many fields of our life such as, educational, occupation, and social, English has become a crucial factor of being used in the international communication in successful life. The objective of teaching speaking at the first grade of MA In the curriculum based on KTSP Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan states that English is part of the subjects that must be taught and mastered by students in all levels of schools in Indonesia. English learning activities curriculum in high school has many purposes, such as; 1. Mengembagkan kompetensi berkomunikasi dalam bentuk lisan dan tulisn untuk mencapai tingkat literasi informational improve the communication competence in oral and written to get the informational literacy. 2. Memiliki kesadaran tentang hakikat dan pentingnya bahasa inggris untuk meningkatkan daya saing bangsa dalam masyarakat global to have an awareness of the principle and importance of the English language to increase the competition between countries in global society. 3. Mengembangkan pemahaman peserta didik tentang keterkaitan antara bahasa dan budaya developing students understanding about the collerration between language and culture. 3 There are four skills that must be mastered by students, which are listening, speaking, reading, and writing. According to Harmer in his book, the four skills are divided into two types. Receptive skill is a term used for reading and listening, skills where meaning is extracted from the discourse. Productive skills is the term for speaking and writing, skills where students actually have to produce language themselves. 4 The four skills are crucial, but the most crucial is speaking which seems to naturally be the most important. 3 Departemen Pendidikan Nasional, KTSP, Jakarta:Depdiknas, 2007 p, 278 4 Jeremy Harmer, the Practice of English Language Teachin Fourth Edition, England: Longman, 2002, p. 265. 5 Jo MCDonough and Christopher Shaw, Material and Methods in ELT: A Teacher Guide, Cambridge: Blackwell Publisher, 1993, p.151. There are many English experts considered if speaking is the important point in language teaching. As McDonough and Shaw opinions, in many contexts, speaking is often the skill upon which a person is judged „at face value’. 5 In other words, speaking skills is the major criterion to judge the English students’ competent are good or lack. Teaching speaking skill has been given to the students by the teacher based on curriculum since SMP up to the MA, but still there are many students in High School such as the students at first grade of MA Pembangunan UIN Jakarta who have problems in speaking skill. They cannot make communication actively and spontaneously with others. Although, they have enough vocabulary to express their ideas and feeling but they do not know how to say and what should they say then. Therefore, the students cannot improve their conversation into great communication. While, according to one of the books, simply put, the goal of a speaking component in a language class should be to encourage the acquisition of communication skills and to foster real communication in and out of the classroom. 6 The one implication that these routines have is a need for speaking skills classes to place more emphasis on „frames’ of oral interaction. 7 Based on the writer opinion there are several factors that initiate problems in teaching speaking skill. They are lack of practice in speaking skill because the teacher usually uses the English class by doing exercise, Inappropriate choosing method that make students do not interest to the activity, lack of mastering the aspects of oral proficiency; fluency, pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary, and educational cultural difference. The last factor is stated by Thorp a British lecturer who wrote about an 5 Marianne Celce-Murcia, Teaching English as Second or Foreign Language Boston; Heinle Publisher, 1991, p. 126. 6 Jo MCDonough and Christopher Shaw, Material and Methods in ELT: A Teacher guide, Cambridge: Blackwell Publisher, 1993, p.157. 7 Jeremy Harmer, the Practice of English Language Teaching Fourth Edition, England: Longman, 2002, p. 76. Indonesian student “his work shows that he is very bright, but he is quiet in the class”. Whereas for Indonesian student judgment might not be about that student’s personality at all, but rather about norms of the classroom behavior that student feels are culturally appropriate. 8 Today, there are many English teachers who have been teaching speaking skill by using conventional method, which is one way or passive teaching method and not the interactive method in class. Furthermore, many teachers just inquire their students to do some exercises and spend their time at the class in mastering other skill such as writing and reading because they have to make their students achieve a good result in the last examination. Therefore, the students lack practice in English communicating orally. Based on the cases above, the writer considers if a problem occurs, can be solved by choosing a suitable method and several techniques that will build the student initiative in interacting and communicating in the class. After words, the students will improve their competent in speaking skills. MCDonough and Christopher Shaw stated in their book, speaking is desire and purpose-driven, in other words we genuinely want to communicate something to achieve a particular end. 9 There are several methods for English teaching that can help the speaking teacher to build or create the situation where language is used actively. But, to reach successfully in teaching speaking skill achievement, the writer concludes if communicative language teaching CLT is one of the method which suites with the major purpose in teaching speaking skills. According to the Harmer, activities in CLT typically involve students in real or realistic communication, 9 Jo MCDonough and Christopher Shaw, Material and Methods in ELT: A Teacher guide, Cambridge: Blackwell Publisher, 1993, p.152. 10 Jeremy Harmer, the Practice of English Language Teaching Fourth Edition, England: Longman, 2002, p. 69. where the successful achievement of the communicative task they are performing is at least as important as the accuracy of their language use 10 . The writer believes communicative language teaching method can solve the problem faced in the speaking class activities and make students more interested and more desirable to communicate and interact in many possibilities they have. Students must use the opportunity to express their opinions, feelings, and to get some of information and to make a situation which can involve students in real communication, the writer has chosen many techniques in teaching speaking skill through communicative language teaching they are language games, picture strip story and role play. It stated in Freman ’s book, that …to try to use any techniques or material associated with CLT. They are authentic material, scrambled, sentences, language games, picture strip story, role-plays. 11

B. The Limitation and Formulation of Study