Background of the Study

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

Language is the way people communicate to one another. By using language, people start to broader their knowledge and compete with global society. And for that, the international language, that is English, is used. As stated by Richards and Rodgers that today, English is the world’s most widely studied foreign language. 1 English has an essential role for developing countries such as Indonesia. In Indonesia, the awareness to compete with the global society has grown. Therefore, English teaching is spread all over the country. In formal school, English is taught since elementary even play group. English has also become a compulsory subject for Junior and Senior High School. English subject provides students with the ability to communicate one another in their daily activities along with the global demand and to improve it to the higher level. 2 English subject has also become one of the requirements to graduate in middle school. In short, the students are really expected to master English. Mastering English means mastering its skills; speaking, reading, listening and writing. And in all those skills, we always can find what we call as structure or grammar. Grammar may be roughly defined as the way a language manipulates and combine words in order to form longer units of meaning. 3 There is no doubt that knowledge of grammatical rules is essential for the mastery of a language. The words can not be put together accurately without using structure. Grammar is also central to the teaching and learning of languages. It is also one of the most difficult aspects of language to teach. Many people, including language teachers, hear the word grammar and think of a fixed set of word forms and rules of usage. 1 Jack C. Richards and Theodore S. Rodgers, Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986 p.1 2 Standar Isi Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan Untuk Sekolah Menengah Kejuruan, Jakarta: Puskur 3 Penny Ur, Grammar Practice Activities : A practical Guide for Teachers, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988 p. 4 They relate good grammar with the forms of the language, such as those used in writing and in formal oral presentations, and bad or no grammar with the language used in everyday conversation or used by speakers. Language teachers who adopt this definition focus on grammar as a set of forms and rules. They teach grammar by explaining the forms and rules and then drilling students on them. This results in boredom, disaffected students who can produce correct forms on exercises and tests, but consistently make errors when they use the language in context. Other language teachers, who were influenced by recent theoretical work on the difference between language learning and language acquisition, tend not to teach grammar at all. Believing that children acquire their first language without overt grammar instruction, they expect students to learn their foreign language the same way. They assume that students will absorb grammar rules as they hear, read, and use the language in communication activities. 4 This approach does not allow students to use one of the major tools they have as learners: their active understanding of what grammar is and how it works in the language they already know. Many students consider grammar as the most difficult subject in English. It makes the burden to teach it even harder, but it is also a challenge for creative teachers to present grammar in a non stress way. Dealing with grammar means dealing with patterns and rules, therefore, students find it more complicated and more difficult to learn it alone by himself or herself without sharing it and discussing it with another friend. Based on this fact, Collaborative Learning Method probably can solve students’ problem in learning grammar. Collaborative Learning is one of methods where students can get a depth understanding about the difficult subject they learn by listening and discussing it with their friends. For many teachers, this method is familiar enough. Many teachers believe by grouping students, the goal of teaching will soon be achieved since students will find it easier to learn the difficult materials and really get involved to the learning process. Students learn best when they are actively involved in the process. Regardless of the subject matter, students working in small groups tend to learn more of what is taught and retain it longer than when the same content is presented in other instructional formats. 4 Patricia Byrd, “Grammar in the foreign language classroom: Making principled choices” in Modules for the Professional Preparation of Teaching Assistants in Foreign Languages Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics, 1998 Http:www.nclrc.orgessentialsgrammarassessgram.htm Students who work in collaborative groups also appear more satisfied with their classes. 5 Grouping students can build the tolerance sense among students. They not only learn about the subject, but also reinforce the sense of belonging. The writer experiences it when having practice teaching in one of the schools in Pondok Pinang. The students are really tired and unsatisfied with the traditional method used to teach them, especially English. They just sit in the classroom and listen quietly to the explanation. When it comes for them to do the exercises, they get confused. Because they feel they do not get involved with the learning process. Most of times, they understand what has been taught to them in the classroom, but this understanding does not retain much longer in their brain. As time goes by, they will forget the material. This condition makes the writer felt eager to find the best method to teach them, not just improving their learning achievement, but also strengthening the spirit of togetherness and competitiveness. And collaborative learning surely can make them believe that they are not alone in solving the grammar problem they have. The writer chooses Conditional Sentence type 2 because the writer thought that Conditional Sentence is one of subjects that need to be discussed for its unique characteristics such as tenses that are used there. In learning and mastering conditional sentence type 2, students are expected to master both Simple Present Tense and Simple Past Tense. Simple present tense is used to conclude the real condition and simple past tense is used to create a conditional sentence type 2 statement. The ability to master both tenses will make their understanding deeper and they certainly can apply it in their daily activities. For example: • If the rain stopped, I would go to theatre. the fact: the rain doesn’t stop, so I can’t go to theatre. The consideration to choose this subject is also because Conditional Sentence Type 2 is one of the subjects stated in the textbook used in SMK YANUSA. Based on the background above, the writer intended to find out how far the effectiveness of using Collaborative Learning Method in teaching grammar especially for Conditional Sentence subject for second grade students at SMK YANUSA Pondok Pinang. 5 Barbara Gross David, Tools for Teaching, San Fransisico: Jossey-Bass inc, 1993 p. 147

B. Statement of the Problem