17 Postmodern education values in foreign language classes have several
characteristics calls in its implementation. First of all, bo th teachers and students’
are encouraged to be self-reflective upon their own teaching and learning environment Kumaravadivelu, 2003, p.1. In relation to this, language teachers
are urged to promote learner autonomy through helping them “learn how to learn, equipping them with means necessary to self-direct and self-monitor their own
learning” Kumaravadivelu, 2003, p.39. Therefore, teachers can maximize students’ learning opportunities through playing the role as learning facilitators.
These are the concrete efforts to manifest the constructivism value in language education.
Other than that, the postmodern education believes that learning is a holistic unit. It means that the educational focus is not only on knowledge
transmission, but broader than that , it moves towards students’ life skills,
attitudes, and personal awareness. Transmitting subject knowledge is crucial; however, it needs to be complemented with the development of knowledge and
skills. Finally, in postmodern language education, students have to be encouraged to actively construct knowledge and understandings through social interaction and
collaboration with peers Fahim Pishghadham, 2009, p.43. Lastly, the values of postmodern education are embraced as the
underpinning principles of the overall research implementation. Holding the beliefs that students are appreciated as a whole person, therefore, this action
research aims at not only developing learners’ communicative skills, but also helping them to gain more concrete self-actualization.
18
2. Mixed-Competence Speaking Class
There are three parts related to issues in mixed-competence language class discussed in this section. First of all, the definition of competence together with its
components is elaborated. The next parts discuss problems in teaching mixed- ability classes as well as the alternatives to solve them.
a. Mixed-competence class
In a language class, the ability to perform the language is often stated as language proficiency. There is always a possibility in which a teacher has students
with different language proficiency in the same classroom. This phenomenon is often addressed with mixed-ability class e.g. Bremner, 2008, mixed-proficiency
class Elizondo, 2013, or heterogeneous classroom Ur, 2005 in Faleiros, 2009. All the three terms refer to classrooms which are composed of learners with
differences in their language learning ability, learning styles and preferences, previous learning experiences, motivation, not to mention the possible age gaps
Bremner, 2008; Ur, 2005 in Faleiros, 2009; Elizondo, 2013. In this study, however, the term used is mixed-competence, in order to comply with the
educational system in Indonesia, as well as holistic learning principle of postmodern education. Further, language proficiency is only one among the
capabilities that a language learner has. In fact, the concept of competence that will be the study focus is broader than proficiency.
Indonesian national curriculum has been adopting the term competence to achieve the same standard of national education outcomes since the
implementation of Competency-based curriculum in 2006. This is stated in The PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
19 Minister of National Education Decree No. 22 and 232006 which establish the
content standard and graduate competences standard in developing curriculum Dharma, 2008.
According to The Minister of National Education Decree No. 642013, competence can be defined as the graduates’ qualification that embodies
knowledge, skills, and attitude which is in line with the agreed national standard. In this research, the term competence is used since as a concept, competence
covers a comprehensive and holistic definition of a learner’s ability, which is
constituted from knowledge, skill, and attitude Mulyasa, 2013. Thus, the whole learning results following the implementation of the actions are reported in this
study so as to reveal relativity besides the objective thruths. Those are: learning process, which represents attitude, and learning achievement, which represents
knowledge and skill. This is in accordance also with postmodern education principles that take into account individual life skills, attitudes, and personal
awareness rather than a mere knowledge transmission. Thus, the term mixed- competence is adopted as it suits most the classroom condition addressed in this
study. Mixed-competence language class in this study refers to the situation faced
when students with different language proficiency levels beginner, intermediate, and advanced as well as learning styles and preferences are placed in the same
group to receive language instruction Bremner, 2008; Elizondo, 2013. This type of classroom, without proper ways of handling, may bring both serious
consequences on teaching and learning process for the students, instructors, even PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
20 the institutions. For students, studying in a classroom composed of classmates
with different competence levels may affect their learning process, including their motivation in learning and classroom participation. Eventually, this may impact
their progress during the course as well as final achievement. For the teachers, teaching in a mixed-competence class may lead to confusion on finding the
midpoint from which to teach Elizondo, 2013. As a consequence, the teacher may fail to help students achieve the learning goals. When learning goals are not
achieved and students fail the course, the institution is consequently faced to a difficult issue of successfully educating its studentscandidates.
b. Problems in teaching mixed-competence speaking class
Research on teaching language in mixed-competence class has been performed quite frequently. In 2012, Elizondo 2013 conducted a study aiming at
identifying the consequences and common problems faced by students and teachers that are found in a mixed-proficiency language class MPLC. In her
study, she investigated data from both the teachers and the students in the Associate Program in English as Brunca Campus, National University of Puerto
Rico in order to draw more objective results. Elizondo elaborated the findings and classified the problems found in MPLC on student participation, classroom
management, and student progress. Regarding student participation, disparities emerged between stronger and weaker students. Students with high proficiency
took part a lot without any problems in expressing ideas, so these students tended to take control of the class. On the contrary, low proficient students gave very
21 little contribution and sometimes remained silent. In terms of classroom
management, similar thing occurred when stronger students influenced the lesson by answering without being asked and not giving a chance for others to answer.
Other than that, weaker students take more time to both understand the materials and solve exercises. This situation caused difficulty for the teachers in managing
the time as well as dilemma in deciding whether to re-explain the materials or to continue. Regarding the student progress, it was found that the students had
unbalanced progress, in which the low proficient students progress at a lower rate. According to Joyce and McMillan 2010, p.216, the low progress might also be
influenced by demotivation experienced by lower proficient learners as they find the classroom atmosphere stressful and pressuring for they have to work with
higher proficiency classmates. Further, Joyce and McMillan 2010 reported mixed findings from other
research that were quite different from Elizondo’s 2013 findings on problems in MPLC. Liu, Wang, and Parkins 2005 as reported by Joyce and McMillan 2010
explained that stronger students who study with lower ability classmates may be led to a negative self-concept. In contrast, the lower ability students gained a
more positive academic self-concept although they need more time to do so. As a sum
mary of Liu et al.’s 2005 finding, in a longer course term, higher proficiency students had relatively lower progress compared to those lower proficiency
students, which contrasted with Elizondo’s findings. Problems existing in mixed-competence language class are not only
experienced by students, but also teachers. Gurgenidze 2012, p.57 asserts some PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
22 problems that teachers possibly encounter in common mixed-competence classes.
First of all, there is an issue on learning effectiveness when dealing with students who learn and progress at different speeds. While some students find learning
tasks are easy to deal with, others may find it the other way around. Secondly, having a single learning material will probably be ineffective remembering that
learners have diverse needs of topics and contents of the materials. In language speaking class, some of the students find it difficult to speak in the target language
for some reasons such as knowledge, confidence, and proficiency. This raises issues in students’ classroom participation.
Further, Gurgenidze 2012 reports that classroom management becomes another problem occuring in mixed-competence classes. Stronger students can
possibly finish tasks quicker than those weaker students. This will bring consequences for teachers in terms of classroom management. For other students,
it might raise issues in terms of discipline, since discipline is closely associated with boredom and lack of challenge Ur, 2005, as cited in Faleiros, 2009. When
students with faster speed could finish earlier than other peers, it is possible for them to end up committing indiscipline. For weaker students, they might
experience confidence and motivation issues as they feel inferior due to their inability to accomplish tasks within the same speed. The latter issue raises because
motivation is strongly related to achievement in learning the target language Ur, 2005, as cited in Faleiros, 2009.
After all, various problems are reported to have occurred in mixed- competence language classes. Therefore, teachers teaching in this kind of class are
