Teaching Context Teaching Development

23 reflection that involves teaching context, English language teaching methodology, and conducting a lesson are described.

a. Teaching Context

The concept of context tends to refer to a broad social situation. Context, such as the curriculum, the institutions, and the specific roles of the practitioners will determine what an English language teacher should do. Tudor 2001 states that language teaching and learning take place in a certain place or setting or ‗lived in a particular context‘ as cited in Kabir, 2012. Kabir 2012 emphasizes that teaching language cannot overlook the culture i.e. socio-political and geopolitical aspect, institutional aspect of a country where the teacher teaches. The current curriculum in Indonesia has been implementing the National curriculum of 2013, by which the notions of this new curriculum cannot be disregarded by English language teachers in particular. Teachers are increasingly necessary to comprehend the personal, intellectual and cultural value of learning English languages in the country or institution where they are teaching. Richards 2005 explains the importance of curriculum studies that refers to a very broad field of enquiry that deals with what happens in schools and other educational institutions, the planning of instruction, and the study of how curriculum plans are implemented. Therefore, beside being able to plan a certain possibility of overall, long-term aims based on needs and expectations of English language learners, teachers are also required to take into account on the expectations and impact of educational stakeholders, such as the National curriculum, employers, or parents. 24 1 Curriculum 2013 In Indonesia, The improvement of curriculum 2013 from ―curriculum for each education unit‖ Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan, abbreviated by KTSP, to ―competency-based curriculum‖ according to Ministry of Education and Culture is reflecting some principles. Those principles of improvement curriculum are: a curriculum must be designed by giving opportunity to learners to improve the differences in skill and interest, b curriculum must be centered on potency, improvement, need, and benefit of learners and his environment; curriculum must designed based on the principle that learners is on central position and must be active while learning, c curriculum must be perceptive to change of knowledge, culture, technology and art, d curriculum must be relevant with need of life. Through curriculum 2013 which is competency-based curriculum, there are three domains that hoped to be transformed, namely; a Graduate competency. Curriculum 2013 expects the students to have good character, significant skill and related knowledge. b Subjects. Through curriculum 2013, subjects are demanded to be relevant with needed competency, become more essential and suitable for children development. c Learning process. The transformations are described in the following table. 25 Table 2.1: Transformation of Curriculum in Indonesia Modified from Pengembangan Kurikulum Ministry of Education and Culture, 2012 Previous Curriculum Curriculum 2013 Graduate Competency Not clearly stated characters Having good characters Having irrelevant skill with the need Having relevant skill Having general knowledge Having related knowledge Subject matters Irrelevant with competency needed Relevant with competency needed Heavier too many subject matter More Essential Too wide, not deep Suitable for children development Learning process Teacher centered learning Learner centered activate learning Book oriented learning Contextual learning Text books contain only material for learning Text books contain material and process of learning, system of assessment and also targeted competency. Priyana 2014 states that according to the Graduate Competence Standard, curriculum 2013 seeks to develop the students‘ spirits, attitudes, knowledge, and skills. This statement is relevant with the fact that students need to be aware of their own culture, such as cultural facts, events, attitudes and identity, religious views, and many more. Moreover, Priyana 2014 mentions that should be at least three aspects of values that needs to be carried out in the classroom, involving honesty, cooperation, and responsibility. 2 The Role of English Language Teacher English language teachers work in a different context with different functions of the development of the education. Richards and Rodgers 2001 consider context as the ‗starting point in language program design‘. They underline that teaching and learning process will consider several important 26 contexts; cultural context, political context, local institutional context, and context constituted by the teachers and the learners in the classroom. According to Kabir 2012, cultural context embodies the total set of beliefs of the people of a particular society. It also refers to attitude, behavior, social customs, and habits of the people of a society. English language teachers are expected to appreciate and carry out the values added to the classroom environment by learners with many and different cultural backgrounds. In addition to being able to apply on appropriate theories of English language teaching and learning, cultural context plays a big role in determining what teachers take decisions in the school or the classroom. Richards 2001 describes six core components that underline knowledge that a qualified teacher should have. First, p ractical knowledge: it is dealing with the teacher‘s repertoire if classroom techniques and strategies. Teacher has to take into account the knowledge of the mother or first languages learners may already possess and help them to build on this knowledge when learning English language. Second, content knowledge: i t is about the teacher‘s understanding of the subject of teaching English, such as pedagogical grammar, phonology, teaching theories, second language acquisition, as well as the specialized discourse and technology of language teaching. Apart from teaching learning context, teachers have to apply on appropriate theories of English language teaching and learning as well as relevant research findings to guide the teaching process. 27 Third, contextual knowledge: the knowledge that has something to do with the school or institutional context, school norms, and knowledge of the learners, including cultural and other relevant information. This understanding might lead the teachers to take into account the knowledge of the mother or first languages learners may already possess and help them to build on this knowledge when learning English language. Fourth, pedagogical knowledge: the ability to restructure content knowledge for teaching purposes, and to plan, adapt, and improve. Teachers have to be able to identify and investigate specific pedagogical or didactic issues related to their learners or their teaching process in order to make a plan for improvement. Fifth, p ersonal knowledge: it deals with the teachers‘ personal beliefs and principles and his or her individual approach to teaching. This will critically assess the teachers‘ teaching process in relation to the theoretical principles. Sixth, reflective knowledge: it covers the teachers‘ capacity to reflect on and assess their teaching practice.

b. English Language Teaching Methodology