BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

This chapter will explain the reasons of conducting a research on spoken English communicative competence test for elementary school students in Indonesia. This chapter consists of six subheadings in which the researcher elaborates the background of the study, problem identification, research focus, statement of research question, goal of research, product specifications, and benefit of research. Further discussion will be presented in the following section .

A. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

English as a means of communication becomes very important today. It is mostly used by people around the world. They use English to maintain their relationship to international business, education, tourism, etc. Therefore, there is a strong demands to have good skills in English. Knowing the strong demands of the society, people are aware of its importance. People from expanding country try to learn it. There are some reasons why people want to speak English. The first reason is that it will help them to communicate each other especially to communicate with people from other countries. This importance brings an understanding that in order to survive every person must be able to speak English. Given the fact, some of the Asia countries have used English as a second language. There is, therefore, English community in some areas of the country. English has been used as a means of communication with the people in that community besides their mother tongue. The second one is the growth of economics. The issue of free trade also influences the reasons why people must be able to speak English. By acknowleging the reasons above, it is very crucial that every person must be able to speak English in order to compete with the others. One of the solutions is by teaching English since the early age. The aim is to equip the children with good English competence particularly in speaking English. Intentionally in the future they can work professionally and can compete with people from around the world. Moreover, when children learn English in the early age they will be able to speak English fluently. Indonesia as part of the developing country has put English as the local load in the elementary curriculum. Knowing its importance, many elementary schools teachers teach English to their students. Hopefully the students can communicate in English since early age. Yet there is unclear description of how far they have been studying English and what they can do with it. Even their interests in learning English decrease when they continue their study in Junior High school Kasihani, 2004: 10. Moreover, there is not clear and standard measurement of the elementary school students’ competence. If there is standard measurement, it is expected the process of teaching and learning English will be more effective. Yet, it is not easy to find an instrument to measure the students’ competence especially for young language learners. Measurement is a part of the language program. It is utilized to measure the students’ ability of expected competence. A good measurement must be supported by appropriate instruments. The appropriate instruments will be useful to monitor the students’ progress. This progress will give accurate information about their language competence. English has been taught in the elementary school in Indonesia around 1990’s. It is taught since the fourth grade in elementary school. Recently, English has been taught from the first year. Even, in some schools, it has been taught in the play group. English becomes the local load in the elementary school curriculum. The intention is that the students can communicate in English since early age. So, the practice of teaching English to young learners must be done to develop their competence. From Kasihani’s research 2004: 3, it was also reported that the practice of teaching English to young learners has been done for years, but it is still questioned why the students are not able to communicate in English effectively. The reality showed the teaching methods and techniques were not appropriate for elementary school students. In addition, there were some teachers who did not have appropriate backgrounds in English education. Moreover some schools sometimes do not prepare appropriate instruments to assess the children’s language competence even some teachers do not know how to assess them. Assessment activity is often done by giving a test to the children. Unfortunetely, most of the tests focus more on the grammar and vocabulary items. In this kind of test the students often do the multiple choice and matching test. The test only recalls the children’s memory about words and rules. The designed test does not support the children to develop their creativity in using the language they have learned. The test also rarely focuses on the language skills, the ability to listen and speak. Even the test given is not in the same line with the teaching practices that have been done. In the classroom teachers often ask the children to speak, sing, retell, and also have a dialogue but they test designed is really far from the activities given in the classroom. Therefore, it needs a set of test which covers the children’s needs and lead to the betterment of the children’s competence. As part of the language programs, assessment is used to collect information about the practice of language program itself. Assessment takes an important role in the teaching and learning process. Assessment will be useful to monitor the students’ progress. The students may be assessed on their skills or knowledge. As has been stated before, in Indonesia the assessment is conducted mostly by giving a test. The test is applied to measure the students’ knowledge of the materials given and also their skills. It means every student has opportunity to show their knowledge and skills in learning the language. A test can also be used to evaluate the material itself, whether the material given is appropriate enough for the students, especially for young language learners. Therefore, a teacher can make a good decision related to the material which is given in the school. A test is also one of the sources of information for the parents. It is very important for parents to have enough and objective information about their children. It will help them to make appropriate decision to support their children in learning a language. From the test parents will know whether learning another language gives positive impacts on their children or not. If it does not give positive impact, parents can find appropriate ways to motivate and support their children, so that every child can grow and bloom well. Although the practice of teaching English for elementary school students has been implemented years ago, there is still not enough serious attention from the government to give more concern on this area. The government may provide the curriculum, however the follow up is still limited. The materials may also be various, but the appropriate assessment is also still limited. It is, therefore, important to provide the instrument that covers the young learners’ need. Concerning to the matters above, it is necessary to prepare and design appropriate tests for young learners. It is crucial to be done because most of the tests emphasize more on the written text. It is still needed the appropriate tests that measure not only the written competence but also the spoken competence. The tests must emphasize and develop the children’s communicative competence It means the tests must encourage the children in developing their writing and speaking skills. In addition, the tests must also motivate the children to be more creative and competent in using the language. Since there is still difficulty to find this kind of test, in this study the writer is interested in designing a set of test to measure the children’s competence. The instrument designed is based on the theories related to the communicative competence. The main purpose is to encourage the students to be able to develop their communicative competence. Thus, the children will become more competent and more self-actualized to prepare them to participate and take a part in this global era.

B. PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION