Conducting Needs Analysis The Elaboration of the Steps in Designing Grammar Instructional

49 the tasks. 3 Students’ Interaction during the Lesson The students were not actively interacting with the teacher. They would interact with the teacher when the teacher asked them. The students would give their answers and opinions after the teacher appointed them. In other words, the students were pasively interacting with the teacher. However, when they were asked to discuss with their friends or do something in group, they interacted with others properly and enthusiastically. They really discussed the lesson not about something else. However, due to their lack proficiency of English vocabulary, commonly they did not speak in English. 4 The Use of Media in the Lesson Although the teaching and learning media were limited, the teacher along with the students took the advantages of them. During the lesson, they used the available teaching and learning media such as blackboard, chalk, pictures, and many others to support their lesson. Individually, the students brought their own dictionary to assist them in learning English in class. They would use the dictionary to find the meaning of a new word or difficult vocabulary. Sometimes, the teacher distributed additional handouts to give other sources to the students. The results of the observation about the teacher’s activities in the class were presented below. a. Pre-activity Teacher opened the lesson by greeting, checking the presence of the stu- 50 dents, and preparing the teaching and learning media such as blackboard, chalk, handouts, and any other media. Then the teacher did pre-test by asking them some questions or giving a short quiz. The teacher did not directly explain the topic to the students but she delivered some inquiry questions related to the topic. From the inquiry questions from the teacher, the students could predict what topic they would learn. However, sometimes the teacher asked the students to do apperception activity such as singing a song, play a game, or short class discussion to introduce the topic. Then, the teacher explained about the goals of the topic to the students to give them brief description about what would they learn and conquer at the end of the lesson. b. Whilst-activity The learning strategy, the teaching method, and the use of media were focused in the whilst-activity phase. Each of them would be briefly discussed below. 1 Learning Strategy The teacher applied a proper learning strategy which was appropriate to the students’ needs and development. Specifically, the teacher suited the learning stategy with the students’ vocabulary proficiency. Moreover, the teacher chose fun and chalenging learning strategy such as group work activity during the lesson. The teacher related the materials to students’ daily life and experiences in order to ease them in understanding the materials. Talking about something they had known would ease them to join the class activities. Implementing group activities would give the students time to work with others 51 because in their age they were interested to interact with their friends. Relating the materials with the students’ favorite activities could also attract their attention to the lesson for example, male students were interested to football while female students were interested to Korean style and so on. Having a close relation with the students would also assist the teacher in attracting the students’ attention. It could be done by memorizing the names of the students and calling them with their names familiarly. In encouraging the students to participate in the class activities, the teacher could deliver them some leading questions. Motivating the students to learn through giving reinforcements was also needed. Verbal and nonverbal reinfocrements were addressed to the students who correctly answered the questions or delivered their opinions in class. Common verbal reinforcements such as “Good job, Well, Perfect,” and so on were addressed to the students. In delivering the materials to the students, the teacher firstly prepared the lesson plan. It was arranged to make sure that the teaching and learning activity in class were proportional and suitable with the time allotment. 2 The Teaching Method Common teaching methods that were implemented in class were drilling, question and answer activity, and group discussion. Drilling method was particularly chosen to teach grammar. The teacher expected that the more exercises the students did, the better comprehension they would reach. Question and answer activities between the teacher and students or among students with their classmates were chosen to encourage the students in 52 speaking English. Moreover, the teacher expected that through question and answer activities their interaction ability could also be built. Meanwhile, group discussion was offered to train the students working with others and build their team work skill. 3 The Use of Media Although the teaching and learning media in the school were limited, the teacher tried to maximize them in supporting the teaching and learning activity in class. Conventional teaching and learning media such as blackboard and chalk were still used. Moreover, the teacher provided pictures, flascards, table, and other teaching and learning media to assist the students in learning English in class. The teacher also facilitated the students with textbook and module. Both of them were used as the primary teaching and learning materials sources. However, the students were also distributed additional references such as student’s handouts. In assisting the students to more comprehend the mataerials, the teacher suggested them to use English dictionary. Although the school had provided the dictionary, the students were expected to bring their personal dictionary because of the limited dictionary that the school owned. c. Post-activity Before closing the lesson, commonly the teacher gave some post-test to the students. The post-test was conducted to measure their understanding of the previous materials they had learned. Commonly, the teacher gave individual post-test by giving short quiz or delivering some questions to the students. However, the teacher also asked the students to sum up the materials. The 53 teacher gave some leading questions to assist the students in summarizing the materials. The teacher also gave extra assignments or homework to the students. The assignments and homework could be individual or group work which were taken from student’s textbook, module, or the teacher’s own assignments. The results of the interview with the English teacher of SMP Negeri 1 Jogonalan Klaten were explained below. a. The Teacher’s Background The teacher of SMP Negeri 1 Jogonalan Klaten was S1 graduates. The teacher was graduated from Teachers Training Faculty. Therefore, the teacher had had proper educational background to teach English in the school. The teacher had six years experience in teaching English in the school. It indicated that the teacher had known about the students and the school itself. b. The Students’ Characteristics and Interest Most of the students had low motivation in learning English. They entrusted their English ability to their teacher. They had low motivation to enrich their English ability outside the class. Their interests in learning English depended on their teacher’s techique in delivering the materials. They were interested in English if the materials were related to their favorite and hobbies such as sports and entertainment. The students were enthusiactic to learn English in group because they liked to work with others and shared their knowledge with their classmates. Particularly in English grammar, the students felt that it was difficult to learn English grammar individually. Moreover, because of their lack 54 vocabulary mastery, they could not do grammar exercises without any dictionary with them. c. The Students’ Difficulty The students told the teacher that there were many patterns in English grammar and they were used in every different situation and time. They were also confused of the difference between Verb 1, Verb 2, and Verb 3. Their lack of vocabulary mastery, once more, affected their grammar comprehension. Therefore, usually the students did the grammar exercises with their dictionary and notes. They had also tried to remember the English patterns by making colorful notes and brought it with them in class. d. The Teaching Technique Commonly, the teacher became the central focus and source of the lesson. It sounded conventional but it was still employed in class. The teacher played important role during the lesson. Mostly, the teacher talked a lot in front of the class from the beginning until the end of the lesson. Relating to English grammar, the teacher usually employed drilling teaching technique to give more exercises and time for the students to comprehend the pattern. e. The Teaching Media As the references of the materials, the teacher along with the students used Interactive English from Yudistira as the textbook in class. They also used Mandiri to support their materials reference. However, the teacher also took other sources to complete the provided materials. Other English books and internet sources were used to give more references and knowledge to the students. 55 f. The Teaching Activity Considering the students’ interests of certain learning activities in class, the teacher varied the teaching and learning activities to attract students’ attention. Common activities which were implemented in class were group activities, games, and discussion. The students told that they liked to have group activities because they could interact with friends and shared their knowledge and difficulty in learning English with others. They also liked to learn through games because they could learn in fun and relaxed situation. Moreover, discussion was also recommended by the students because the students could solve the problem of the discussion together as well as build their team work skill. g. The Teaching Obstacle Basically, the teacher found it was difficult to encourage the students to memorize forms of verb. Therefore, the teacher should remind them many times to always memorize them. Moreover, the teacher should also review the previous materials because usually the students had forgot it when they learned another grammar item. Relating to those obstacles, the teacher gave some solutions to the students. The teacher sometimes distributed the summary of the previous materials and asked the students to do more exercises to train their grammar mastery. The teacher also informed the students to learn English grammar from other sources such as English grammar book and internet. h. The Teaching Curriculum It was rather difficult to teach grammar separately in KTSP. The English teacher should teach grammar contextually because there was no special time to 56 teach grammar in KTSP. Although it was an effective way to teach grammar and directly used it to construct a text, it would be different toward students who had low grammar mastery. Therefore, the teacher modified the materials with the students’ comprehension level and school condition. i. The Expectations for the Designed Materials The teacher of SMP Negeri 1 Jogonalan Klaten expected that the designed materials were based on students’ needs and suited with students’ characters and interests in learning English. The type of activity on the designed materials should also be varied to keep attracting the students’ attention. Interesting layout was also important to raise students’ learning motivation. However, the teacher also suggested the designer to carefully consider the time allotment in every lesson. Students’ level of comprehension should also be considered to develop the designed materials.

2. Formulating Goals, Listing Topics, and Stating General Purposes

In this research, the researcher adapted School Based Curriculum, which is known as 2006 Curriculum or Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan KTSP. Therefore, the researcher modified some terms in accordance with the term used in KTSP. The researcher modified the goal as the standard competence, the general purpose as basic competence, and the learning objectives as learning indicators. The competence standard for writing skill of the eighth grade students of junior high school for the even semester is “expressing the meaning of simple functional written text and short essay of recount and narrative to interact with 57 surroundings area.” Therefore, the basic competence is “expressing the meaning and rhetoric action of simple and short essay of recount and narrative by accurately, fluently, and meaningfully using written language to interact with surroundings area.” Based on the competence standard and the basic competence, the researcher made four topics in the designed materials. The materials covered two genres of text, narrative and recount. Every topic took one unit. Moreover, the topics were chosen from the students’ interests and needs as the results of the needs analysis. The competence standard, basic competence, and the topics of the designed materials are presented in Table 4.1. Table 4.1 The Elaboration of Competence Standard, Basic Competence, and Topics COMPETENCE STANDARD Expressing the meaning of simple functional written text and short essay of recount and narrative to interact with surroundings area. NO TOPIC BASIC COMPETENCE 1 Cinderella Cried Alone Being able to use simple past tense regular and irregular form to construct a narrative text in the form of fairytale. 2 The Hare was Sleeping Being able to use past continuous tense to construct a narrative text in the form of fable. 3 I Went Fishing in the River Being able to use adverb of place and time to construct a recount text in the form of personal experience. 4 He Passed Away After ... Being able to use subordinators after and before to construct a recount text in the form of personal biography.

3. Formulating Learning Objectives

After stating the goals, topics, and general purposes, the researcher formulated learning objectives in each topic. The researcher defined the learning objectives as indicators. The indicators were formulated to measure the students’ 58 achievement of the competence. The detail indicators of the designed materials could be seen in Table 4.2.

4. Listing Subject Contents

After formulating learning objectives, the researcher listed subject contents of each unit of the materials. In determining the subject contents, the researcher took the theory of Pekoz’s Teaching Grammar Stages. There were four units in this designed material. Each unit was divided into five sections. They were Open Your Mind, Do You Know, Grammar Pit Stop, Try This, and Let’s Sum Up. The elaborations of those sections were presented as follows. a. Open Your Mind This first section provided lead-in to the topic being discussed in the unit. This section aimed to introduce the topic and attract the students’ attention in the topic that was going to be learned. The researcher filled this part with several learning activities such as analyzing the pictures, answering the teacher’s questions, sharing with friends, matching pictures and discussing with the whole class in order to reach the aim of the section. b. Do You Know This section aimed to conceive the features of the text. In this activity, students analyzed definition, function, generic structure, and language feature of the text by discussing with friends. Moreover, there was an activity which leads to the grammar topic. The activity was brainstorming the grammar points in the analyzed text. Besides analyzing the text, the students also discussed the grammar