He showed the Ss the expressions of asking and giving opinion in the LKS. He pronounced the expressions loudly. The Ss listened and repeated after him. After
pronouncing the expressions, he explained the expressions. He explained the materials mostly using Bahasa Indonesia. English was rarely used. Then, he
asked the Ss the meaning of the expressions they just pronounced. Unfortunately, no one answered.
While the ET explained and pronounced the expressions of asking and giving opinion, some boys sitting in the back rows were noisy. They were busy having
chit-chat. A boy was laying his head on his table. Some others looked sleepy. Some were busy doing random things like scrawling random pictures on their
books, playing with their pens, and many more. Only few Ss sitting in the front rows paid attention to the ET.
The ET realized that a S was sleeping. He then came to the S and woke him up. The ET asked him the expressions of asking and giving opinion, yet the S could
not answer the question. Then, the ET continued explaining the materials. All Ss were invited to have a look at a dialog in their LKS. The ET got them, in
pairs, observed and underlined which statement showed the expressions of asking and giving opinion. After few minutes finding out the expressions in the
dialog, the Ss were asked to mention the expressions orally. Then, they practiced the dialog in pairs.
Not all Ss did what the ET asked them to do. Again, some boys sitting in the back rows were noisy and did not practice the dialog.
After the dialog practice, some students were voluntarily invited to perform the dialog in front of the class. Not all Ss performed the dialog in front of the class,
since the time was almost up. No one was willing to come forward. After few minutes waiting, the ET then called on a pair of boys who were so noisy during
the lesson to perform the dialog in front of the class. They rejected, yet the ET insisted.
After the dialog performing, the Ss did a task in their LKS in pairs. While all Ss did the task, the ET went around the classroom making sure that all Ss knew
what to do. He gave some help to those who did not understand yet. The bell rang, but all Ss had not finished the task yet. Therefore, they brought the
task home and submitted it in the next meeting. The ET ended the class by greeting and saying good bye.
Based on the observation and interview, the researcher found some problems happening during the English teaching and learning process. The
problems needed to be fixed, so the English teaching and learning goal could be achieved.
1. Identification of the Problems
Based on the observation and interview that the researcher conducted in VIII B class of MTs N Ngemplak, the researcher found some problems coming
from five aspects in the English teaching and learning process. The five aspects were the students, the teacher, the s
tudents’ speaking skills, the activities carried out in the classroom, the learning materials and media. The table below will give
clearer description of the problems.
Table 2: The Problems Found in the English Teaching and Learning Process in VIII B Class of MTs N Ngemplak
No. Problems Found
1.
The Students
a. The students had low motivation in learning English.
b. The students were afraid of making mistakes.
c. The students had low confidence.
d. The students did not pay attention to the teacher.
e. The students rarely used English in the classroom.
2. The Teacher
a. The teacher rarely used English in the classroom.
3.
The Students’ Speaking Skills a.
The students produced incorrect pronunciation. b.
The students made grammatical mistakes frequently. c.
The students lack vocabulary. 4.
The Activities a.
The activities were monotonous. b.
The activities were not engaging. c.
The activities were not communicative. d.
The activities were not meaningful. 5.
The Learning Materials and Media a.
The sources of learning materials were limited. b.
The materials mainly were in the form of teacher’s explanation. c.
Pictures and videos were rarely displayed as the input. The students had low motivation in learning English. They seemed lazy
when the teacher explained. They did not do the task seriously. They were afraid of making mistakes as well. They kept silent whenever the teacher asked
something or they answered the questions softly. It was like they whispered. They lacked confidence in speaking English. They were shy to speak up in front of their
friends. The exposure of classroom English was also limited. Besides, the only
opportunity to speak English is in the classroom. Using English in the classroom is very helpful in impro
ving students’ speaking skills, yet the teacher mostly used Bahasa Indonesia or even Javanesse. The teacher assumed that the students would
not understand what the teacher intended to say. English was used only few times. The students produced incorrect pronunciation. They also frequently made
grammatical mistakes. Their vocabulary mastery was low. When they were asked to speak, they could only produce few words. Lack of vocabulary actually
becomes the number one cause of limited chances to speak. The students were afraid of speaking English as they did not have enough vocabulary. They already
had something in mind to say, yet they did not know how to say it in English since they did not know the English vocabulary. This problem blocked the students to
speak English. It is in line with a linguist, David Wilkins in Thornburry 2007: 13.
He says, “Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed.”
The activities conducted in the classroom did not give them chances to speak either. Mostly, the teacher only explained over and over again rather than
giving students opportunity to practice the target language. The speaking activities done by the students were commonly dialog practices, which were not challenging
and meaningful. The students only had to memorize their turns in the dialog.
