Social and Cultural Contexts

8 deliver the grammatical words such as nouns, verbs, etc., system such as tense, agreement, pluralization, etc., word order, patterns, rules, and elliptical forms leaving out the unnecessary words, 9 deliver speech in natural grouping such as suitable phrases, pauses groups, breath groups, and sentences, 10 show a certain meaning in a different way, 11 use cohesive devices in spoken texts. In the same reference, the macro-skills of speaking are: 1 appropriately achieve the communicative functions based on the situation, participants, and goals, 2 appropriately use style, registers, implicature, pragmatic conventions, conversation rules, floor-keeping and yielding, interrupting, and other sociolinguistics features in face-to-face conversations, 3 express links and connections between occasions and convey that kind of relation as important and unimportant ideas, occasions and opinion, new information and given information, generalization, and exemplification, 4 use facial expressions, movement, body language, and other nonverbal language alongside the verbal language, 5 improve and use the strategies of speaking such as stating the key words, repeating words in different way, determining the context to find word meaning, requesting helps, and knowing whether the other speaker has reached the same understanding. Comprehending the micro- and macro skills of speaking helps teachers and students know what kind of activities and techniques should they teach and learn to accomplish teaching and learning objectives of speaking successfully.

2. The Characteristics of the Junior High School Students

Piaget cited in Centre for Learning Innovation 2006: 4 states that children’s thinking are separated in four stages. Based on this theory, the children of age 12 years and over belong to formal operation stage. This is the final stage that includes the rest of the lives. When children reach the age of 12, they are capable to think abstract and solve problem in their minds. In other words, they are capable enough to solve complex problems. Mostly junior high school students ’ age is around 12-15 years old, belong to adolescents learners. Harmer 2007: 83 states that those group of adolescent learners will be excited as long as they are engaged with the learning process. However, there are situations that distracted them. S tudents’ disruption may be caused by many factors. However, one of the essential factors is the teaching and learning material that they cannot meet the challenge in the process. In other words, less challenging materials will make them bored. In contrast, if the materials are far beyond their levels of competence, they will feel frustrated. Therefore, the materials have to be designed at the students’ level. The topics of the materials should meet student s’ expectation and make them excited. Here, the teacher’s role is providing relevant and interesting materials that provoke students’ engagement. Teachers need something, such as enjoyable materials, to engage students in the learning process.