Background of the Study

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

In this globalization era, the world needs a universal language that unifies many people from many different countries in communication. Crystal 1997: 2 says that a language achieves its global status when it develops a ‘special role which is recognized in every country’.This special status can be achievedif a language becomes an official language of the country or if the country gives special priority to the language by requiring its study as a foreign language. English meets that requirement. McKay 2002: 17 mentions that 90 of international bodies in Asia and the Pacific and many international scientific organizations carry on their proceedings only in English. Hence, he concludes that as an international language in a global sense, English is the key which enables countries to discuss and negotiate political, social, educational, and economic concerns. That is why nowadays almost all companies in many countries including companies in Indonesia propose a specific requirement of English ability, orally in particular, on their vacancy letters. Even in the beginning of the job application, job applicants sometimes have to do an oral test in English in their interview process. The aim is no other than to seek employees who are able to make communications and relations with any business partners around the world. That PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI is why learning English can be a necessity to anybody before entering the working world. In order to make students accustomed to this international language, teachers of any school levels have been teaching English as early as possible. Language materials used are improved and adjusted to curriculum and learning purposes. Teachers of senior high schools have a greater duty and responsibility to enhance their students’ English skill; preparing them to continue to a higher educational level – college – before finally entering the gate of working world. Then teachers of vocational schools have to prepare their students to face the working world right after their graduation. In Kurikulum SMK Edisi 2004 2004: 1 Departemen Pendidikan Nasional saysthat as a part of national educational system, vocational schools focus on the development of the students’ abilities to work in certain fields, to adapt to the working environment, to catch working opportunities, and to develop themselves in the future. That is why teachers of the vocational schools have to push themselves to be more active, creative and innovative in the learning process so that their students will get more interest into the subject and eventually improve their language skills. Tourism department is one of the departments held by vocational schools. Pusat Pengembangan Penataran Guru Kejuruan Bisnis Pariwisata says in Materi Sosialisasi Kurikulum SMK 2004 Mata Diklat Bahasa Inggris that based on Undang-undang Sistem Pendidikan Nasional, the general objective of vocational school is to prepare the students to work in certain fields. It also stated there that specifically the objective of Hotel Accomodation Skill Program is to PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI enrich the students with skills, knowledge and manner to do the duty in Front Office area as receptionists, reservation staff, telephone operators and Porters or the duty in Housekeeping are as Public Area Attendants, Room Attendants, Order Takers, Linen and Uniform Attendants and also Laundry Attendants. Tourism and English influence and are related each other. McKay in her book Teaching English as an International Language Rethinking Goals and Approaches 2002: 18 mentions that travel and tourism fuel the current spread of English. As cited by McKay, Graddol 1997 points out that over 10 per cent of the world’s labor is employed in tourist-related industries and notes international travel has a globalizing effect, promoting the need for a common language; that is English. She adds that international airports around the world have essential information available in English and major international hotels have English- speaking staff available. It is not surprising if employees working in tourism field are required to master English actively. Staff working on the tourism field should be able to master English not only to have conversation but also to explain or describe something to the guests. Unfortunately, the researcher’s experience when teaching three eleventh grade students of SMK Karya Rini YHI Yayasan Hari Ibu Kowani in an English course showed that the students there had lack of chances to practice speaking. The researcher found that they needed much time to express their opinion or thought on certain topics. They even had difficulty in choosing appropriate vocabulary to produce sentences orally. That is why their speaking ability was poor. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI An approach is needed to teach speaking based on the needs of the eleventh grade students of tourism department. Richards 2002: 204 states that speaking a language is especially difficult for foreign language learners because effective oral communication requires the ability to use the language appropriately in social interactions. He adds that owing to minimal exposure to the target language and contact with native speakers, adult learners of English as Foreign Language in general are relatively poor at spoken English, especially regarding fluency, control of idiomatic expressions, and understanding of cultural pragmatics. These statements direct the researcher to choose an approach that requires the learners to interact each other during the lesson with authentic materials as the teaching aid to present the real atmosphere of communication in the classroom. Nunan 1991: 51 says that learning to speak in a second or foreign language will be facilitated when learners are actively engaged in attempting to communicate. Nunan 2003: 50 then adds that several studies led to the conclusion that people don’t learn the pieces of the language and then put them together to make conversations but infants acquire their first language and people acquire second languages by interacting with other people. It is suitable with the concept of communicative language teaching or often called communicative approach: if people learn by interacting, then learners should interact during the lessons. To replicate communication in real life, activities in communicative language teaching involve students in realistic communication Harmer, 2002: PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 69. Richards and Rodgers 2001: 170 state that many proponents of communicative language teaching make use of authentic materials in the classroom. They also mention that learning activities are selected according how well they engage the learner in meaningful and authentic language use than merely mechanical pratice of language patterns. They add that pair and group work is suggested to encourage students to use and practice functions and forms. With respect to this, the writer offers a set of speaking materials using communicative approach to be applied in a selected vocational school, that is, SMK Karya RiniYHI Kowani, specifically to teach the eleventh grade students of tourism department. The writer chooses the students of tourism department as the subject of the study because the graduatesare predicted to potentially meet, face and communicate with much more people with various foreign citizens and background languages due to their job in tourism field.

B. Problem Formulation