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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
This chapter presents and discusses about background of the research, identification of the problem, limitation and the formulation of the problem,
objectives of the research and the significance of the study.
A. Background of the Problem
Since 1960 until now, teachinggrammar becomes the crucial issue which invites some controversial in English teaching - learning
process.
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Whether it is being taught or not, it invites a controversy for students to be able to use communicative competence appropriately.
According to Dykes, a grammar teaching is so important because if it is not taught, it will decrease the literacy of people.
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So that‟s why the role of teaching grammar should not be neglected. As Richards Renandya
also emphasized that grammar is more important than to be neglected and a language development of learner will be seriously constrained without a
good knowledge of grammar.
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Also, Mart stated that grammar teaching is important because “it holds an important place in foreign language
learning to make great contribution to language competence”.
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The demanding existence to communicate properly makes the CLT becomes important too. As Savignon stated that the central idea of
Communicative Language Teaching is communicative competence, in term of expression, interpretation, and negotiation of meaning.
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It gives the challenge for the position of grammar teaching to adapt with the
development of the process in teaching English. In order to make a
1
Barbara Dykes, Grammar for Everyone, Victoria : ACER Pres, 2007, p.3.
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Ibid.
3
Jack C Richards Willy A Renandya, Methodology in Language Teaching : An Onthology of Current, Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2002, p.145.
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Cagri tugul Mart, Teaching Grammar in Context : Why and How?, Theory and Practice in Language Studies, vol 3,no.1,2013, pp. 124-129.
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Sandra J. Savignon, Interpreting Communicative Language Teaching-Contexts and Concerns in Teacher Education, London : Yale University Press, 2002, p.1.
grammar class becomes more communicative and avoid a boredom, a grammar teaching- learning process should get a proper attention.
In the countries where English is EFL English Foreign Language such as Indonesia, the debates and discussions about whether we should
teach grammar or not is still exist. Here, the writer agree with other experts who believe that we should teach grammar, such as Dykes,
Richards Renandya, and Mart. Teaching grammar should be taught because it can facilitate students to speak accurately, communicatively,
and to understand the language easily. To be able to communicate accurately and to understand the language properly, grammar is important
to be learned
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. The discussion for those who believe that grammar should be taught mainly focus on whether to teach grammar structure deductively
or inductively
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, whether to present grammar through communication or not, whether to teach grammar explicitly or implicitly
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and so on. Mostly, “traditional grammar teaching”
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Grammar teaching which emphasizing the way to learn grammar through memorizing rules or pattern has
existed since a long time ago. However, it gives some problems such as, it might not fulfil the needs in contextuality and sometimes gives a
confusion about how to communicate accurately.
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Traditional grammar teaching is often marked with prescriptive , which contains some rules for what is correct and incorrect in a language.
So, people also have to follow the rules for usage
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. It makes the students get some difficulties to implement grammar in speaking because they just
learn about the language. Students only learn the pattern and try to
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Ron Cowan, The Teacher’s Grammar of English, Cambridge : Cambridge University
Press, 2008, p. 2.
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Jack C Richards Willy A Renandya, Methodology in Language Teaching : An Onthology of Current, Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2002, p.145.
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Yun, Xiao Yan, Interactive Grammar Teaching, Asian EFL Journal, vol 17.no. 3, 2012, pp.34-37.
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Ibid.
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James E. Purpura, Assessing Grammar, Cambridge University Press, 2004, p.21.
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NF, Blake, Traditional English Grammar Beyond, London : Macmillan, 1992, p.2.
remember the dry memorization of rules without implementation, so it gives negative feelings like boredom and even fear of grammar.
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In Indonesia, grammar becomes one of the important parts in English subject. Based on the syllabus of 2013 curriculum, the aim of
grammar mastery is to achieve the goal in comprehending the material about structure or grammar in a written form or oral. Also, based on the
syllabus of 2013 curriculum, the eleventh grade students have to learn about English grammar.
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In eleventhgrade‟s student based on the syllabus, students have to learn about some grammatical theories. They need to achieve the goals in
comprehending those materials. They are expected to be able to use some structures such as tenses, active-passive, and also conditional sentence.
The way to teach those materials are often explained through traditional grammar.
From those materials in grammar, conditional sentence also becomes one of the parts that is quite difficult for students. According to
Covitt, he conducted a survey and found that conditionals ranked fifth behind articles, prepositions, phrasal verbs, and verbals among the most
difficult teaching problems.
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The material about conditional sentences have some types and various meaning. Therefore, students often get some
problems to understand it from the form, meaning, and also the time-tense relationship.
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The third type of conditional sentence is considered as the most complex type that gives the specific problems for students. Pyle also
stated that the third type of conditional sentence is difficult to be understood for foreign learners because the fact or the truth value of a
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Yun, Xiao Yan, Interactive Grammar Teaching, Asian EFL Journal, vol 17.no. 3, 2012, pp.34-37.
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http:kemdikbud.go.idmain?lang=id, syllabus for the eleventh grade, retrieved at 10062016.
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R.I, Covitt, “Some Problematic Grammar Areas For ESL Teachers”, M.A Thesis in
TESL UCLA : England, 1976, Unpublished.
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Ron Cowan, The Teacher’s Grammar of English, Cambridge : Cambridge University
Press, 2008, p. 461.
sentence is contrary to the fact.
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For example, if the sentence of conditional sentence is positive, the meaning is actually negative, and so
on. There are some studies which have already emphasized for
students who are using conditional sentence.Pratama
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has revealed that the second type of conditional sentence gave the further problems for
students at SMA Dua Mei Ciputat. Students often make the mistakes in using conditional sentence type II because of the time-tense relationship
and also they got the difficulties to understand about the meaning of the sentence. In the second type of conditional sentence, the meaning of the
sentence is contrary to the fact, so the students get the difficulties in understanding the meaning of the sentence. Not only him but also Aulia
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found some problems in conditional sentence for university students in Universitas Gadjah Mada, she explained that the problems are on each
type of conditional sentence and also about the way to understand the meaning of each type. Both studies emphasize the problems in
understanding the meaning of the sentence for each type of conditional sentence. Next, Yusuf
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also stated that conditional becomes one of the problem which appears in student
s‟ understanding about grammar, especially to differentiate the meaning of conditional sentence for each
type. Considering about this condition, hence, it is urgent to find the
appropriate technique to impro ve the students‟ ability in conditional
sentence. Based on some preliminary studies, conditional sentence becomes one of the most difficult parts for students. The paradigm about
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Michael A.Pyle Mary Ellen Munoz Page, TOEFL-Preparation Guide Test of English As A Foreign Language, New Delhi : Wiley, 2002, p.115.
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Muhammad Ridho Pratama, “Error analysis on the second grade students of senior high school in using type two of conditional sentences at SMA Dua Mei Ciputat”, Skripsi ofUIN Syarif
Hidayatullah Jakarta, Jakarta, 2011, Unpublished.
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Hernita Ratna Aulia, “Conditional Sentences in English and Their Problems for First Year Students of Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Universitas Gadjah Mada”, Skripsi of UGM,
Yogyakarta, 2013, Unpublished.
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Dewi Yusuf, “Improving Students‟ Understanding of If Conditional Type 2 By Using Problem Solving Activity”, Skripsi of UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta, 2013, Unpublished.
monotonous grammar is still exist. Students feel bored and difficult to learn about conditional sentence, especially with the monotonous learning
activities in a traditional grammar classroom. Consequently, this problem should be solved, because if there is no solution, students will get further
problems in their learning process. The paradigm of traditional grammar must be changed with the new method that can improve
students‟communicative competence. The learning process can be achieved through interactive technique.CLT sets the students tend to be
more active to be involved in a learning process. Also, the learning process will be beneficial if it provides fun and interesting activities. The
alternative way that should be achieved is through interactive grammar. Interactive grammar provides a various type of learning. According
to Murcia, teaching technique should vary based on the match being emphasized.
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Hence, a various technique in interactive grammar can facilitate students to learn communicatively. By applying this technique in
a classroom, it will be easier for students to comprehend the material and also it can make students become more active in learning grammar,
especially in conditional sentence type III past unreal. There have been several researches conducted to use an interactive
grammar for improving students‟ grammar mastery. Yan Xiao Yun has revealed that a traditional grammar teaching can be interesting, inspiring,
and creative through an interactive grammar. In addition, Yahya Dkhissi
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also proves that the system of formal grammar does not give the effective feedback. It means that a various way or technique should facilitate
students in learning grammar. Another studies have been conducted by Md. Kawsar Uddin and Tazin Ahmed
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The study reveals that to
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Marianne Celce-Murcia Sharon Hilles. Techniques and Resources in Teaching Grammar, New York : Oxford University Press , p.11
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Yahya Dkhssi, An Integrative Model of Grammar Teaching : From Academic to Communicative Needs, International Journal of Language Linguistics, vol. 2 no. 3,2014. pp
145-153.
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Md. Kawsar Uddin Tazin Ahmed, Inductive and Contextual Approaches to English Grammar teaching, Language in India Journal, vol. 12, 2012 pp. 1-14.
internalize grammar, it should be taught in inductive and contextual approaches interactively.
Therefore, in this study the writer will apply an interactive technique in conditional sentence type III. The writer chooses the
technique of interactive because it provides interesting learning activities through various mediaeclectic and students will not only learn and
remember about the rules or the pattern only, but also students can know about how to apply it in a contextual way.
The writer will use a classroom action research CAR for the design of the research. Classroom action research is suitable to solve the
problem of the research, especially in a science 3 of SMAN 7 Kota Bekasi and interactive technique is also considered suitable because it can
improve students‟ ability better. This design is also chosen in order to distinguish from the previous preliminary studies at the beginning.
SMAN 7 BEKASI is also choosen becauseat the beginning, the researcher had conducted an interview and observation in that school.
Based on those data, the result showed that students got some difficulties in understanding conditional sentence, especially in type III. It could be seen
from the minimum mastery criterion KKM on that school. The minimum mastery criterion KKM on that school is 75, whereas there are many
students who got below 75, especially in conditional sentence. It means that the students‟ understanding about conditional sentence was still low. So,
the solution will be done in this school. The writer has already confirmed to the English teacher in SMAN 7 BEKASI to conduct a classroom action
research in that school and he allowed the writer to do this research. The writer is interested in conducting a classroom action research
by using interactive technique with the title of “Improving Students’ Ability in Using Conditional Sentence Type III Through Interactive Technique in
SMAN 7 BEKASI ”. The writer assumes that interactive technique can be
beneficial and effective for students because it creates the students to be active and avoid the monotonous learning through various media and tools.
B. Identification of the Problem