Background of the Study

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

This chapter consists of seven parts. The first part is the background of the study, which describes the researcher’s reasons conducting the study. The second is the problem formulation, which conveys the problem that will be discussed in the study. The third is problem limitation, which specifies the problem being discussed. The fourth is the objective of the study, which reveals the aim of the study. The fifth is product specification, which defines the product being designed in this study. The sixth is benefit of the study, which explains the benefits of the study that either the researcher or other parties may gain through reading the study and the last is definition of terms, which clarifies the terms used in the study.

A. Background of the Study

Applying the School Based Curriculum or Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan KTSP, schools in Indonesia have become so much more autonomous being compared to the previous years. They have more freedom to set up policies to provide a better education for their students. As a result, many schools in Indonesia establish international classes for the sake of education quality improvement and SMP Pangudi Luhur I Yogyakarta belongs to one of those schools. The establishment of international classes is meant to be a process of building a school that has international standard quality. The school that is conducting the process is called Rintisan Sekolah Berbasis Internasional RSBI or International-Based School Pioneering. RSBI School establishes several classes 2 with international standard teaching and learning which is called RSBI classes. In the future, when a school has been already successful in applying international standard teaching and learning in every class, the school will be called Sekolah Berbasis International SBI or International-Based School. This policy is in accordance with the policy set up by the Management General Directorate of Elementary and Intermediate Education or Direktorat Jenderal Manajemen Pendidikan Dasar dan Menengah. In 2009, SMP Pangudi Luhur I Yogyakarta became an RSBI School by establishing an international class started from the lowest grade. Thus, the school started from the seventh-grade class. The class is called RSBI seventh grade class. There are certain requirements that need to be fulfilled by the students to be able to join in this class. The requirements for the students are 1 students must have minimum 8 of the average academic score, 2 have good computer skill, 3 have basic English skill, 4 have above average intelligence, and 5 have critical thought. To see whether the candidates are eligible to join RSBI class, the school has a committee that is assigned to check the candidates’ qualifications. The committee’s tasks are to see students’ scores report whether all the scores are above 8, and to conduct an interview to see the candidates’ level of English skills. From the interview results, the interviewers also can measure the candidates’ level of intelligence and how critical the candidates are. Meanwhile, the computer skill can be seen from the enclosed certificate that proves students’ having computer literacy. 3 Meeting all those requirements, the students of RSBI class are considered to be smarter and more qualified than other students from regular classes. Therefore, the English lesson for them is designed differently which is obviously more challenging. As a result, their English test must also be designed more challenging than the one designed for the regular classes. Here, the researcher attempts to design a combination of Reading and Writing test for the RSBI seventh grade students of SMP Pangudi Luhur I Yogyakarta by using authentic materials. The researcher chose RSBI seventh grade students of SMP Pangudi Luhur I Yogyakarta because she was a teacher trainee who has experienced a three- month internship there. While being a teacher trainee, the researcher was assigned by the English teacher to teach the RSBI seventh grade students and to design a combination of Reading and Writing test for them. In designing the test, the researcher was asked by the teacher to make a combination of Reading and Writing test that was relatively more challenging than that given to students in regular classes. English test with high level of challenge is given to the RSBI seventh grade students because 1 they have high level of English skill, 2 they learn in an international standard teaching and learning environment where they are expected to be able to use English as good as use their mother tongue, and 3 they deal so much with scientific English in their teaching-learning process. Thus, the test must be able to fit in their needs. In order to be able to produce a combination of Reading and Writing test that has high level of challenge, the researcher used authentic materials. 4 According to Wallace 1992, as cited by Berardo 2006: 61, authentic materials are real-life texts, not written for pedagogic purposes. Materials that belong to authentic materials are articles in newspapers, magazines, the internet, songs, films, advertisements, and so on. Those materials can provide the students with exposure of words, grammar, and sentences used in real life contexteveryday life. As the authentic materials are not designed for the teaching and learning activity, they can create certain challenge for the learners. In authentic materials, too many structures are mixed so lower levels have a hard times decoding the texts Martinez, 2002: 1. Obviously, high level of English skill is needed to learn with the materials. It is in accordance with the statement, “Using authentic materials is one of the mainstays of an imaginative and motivating higher level course, but rarely features at levels lower than Intermediate” anonymous,www.teachingenglish.orgukthinkarticlesusing-auth entic material. The problem found in RSBI seventh grade class of SMP Pangudi Luhur I Yogyakarta above has led the researcher to design an appropriate combination of Reading and Writing test for RSBI seventh grade students of SMP Pangudi Luhur I Yogyakarta. The researcher only designed a test to measure Reading and Writing skills because in mid semester and in the final examination the students will only face an achievement test which only measure Reading and Writing skills. Meanwhile, Listening and Speaking skills have been measured by an achievement test conducted weekly by the English teacher. 5

B. Problem Formulation