students communicate the real information and the controlled language is not provided anymore.
Teachers usually follow the teaching and learning process steps which are the opening activity, exploration, elaboration, confirmation; and closing activity
the steps in School Based Curriculum teaching. In the opening activity, the teacher opens the class and gives a clue question related to the topic the students
are going to discuss. In the exploration step, the teacher gives the students opportunity to find some information related to the topic, whether they work in
individually or in a group. In the elaboration step, the teacher asks the students to explain the result of findings from the exploration step in oral andor written
forms. Although in any steps, the teacher and students can make a discussion, most of the discussions happen here.
In the final step of the main activity, the confirmation step allows the teacher and students to have a reflection of what they have learned from the first
to the last activities and figure out what is missing from their discussion. If they have not understood the discussions, their questions are answered here. In the
closing activity, they make the conclusion of the lesson. From those steps above, speaking is normally placed in every steps of the
main activity. As the learning process in School Based Curriculum is integrated skills which is not only one skill is taught here, the speaking learning is usually
accompanied by other skills. For example, speaking skill is usually accompanied by listening andor writing skill; or by all skills of English.
From the explanation above, it can be said that teaching and learning process can be conducted in many ways. Many teachers are likely following the
teaching and learning sequence according the sequence in a textbook. However, it is better to manipulate the activities in the book in appropriate sequence.
6. English Speaking Assessment
Before discussing the speaking skill assessment, the basic types of speaking
should be discussed first. Brown 2004: 141 proposes those types of speaking as
follows: a.
Imitative. This type of performance is simply imitating the sentence to see the students’ pronunciation.
b. Intensive. This type of performance allows the students to perform with only
small knowledge of grammatical, lexical, or phonological relationships. This type of performance refers to activities such as reading aloud, limited picture-
cued tasks, simple sentence translation level, sentence and dialogue completion, and directed response tasks.
c. Responsive. This type of performance includes interaction and test
comprehension at a low level such as short conversations, greetings, and small talk, etc.
d. Interactive. This type of performance is similar to responsive performance,
but the length and the level of complexity are higher. e.
Extensive monologue. This type of performance include oral production such as speeches, oral presentation and story-telling.
The English assessment can come from the teacher or from the students. Here is the explanation based on Harmer 2007: 138.
1. Teachers assessing students
There are some ways to assess students’ work: a.
Comments: the teachers can comment the students’ work inside or outside the class. They will give positive and negative assessment. To
give the negative assessment, they should acknowledge the students’
effort before they start to give the assessment. b.
Marks and grades: the teachers can give the assessment criteria before give the assessment. Therefore, the students will understand the grade
they received later. c.
Report: the teachers write the reports on students’ performance in a term or a year for the students or the school or the parents. It is important to
write the positive and negative assessment on the report to show the students what weakness and strength they possess.
2. Students assessing themselves
Harmer 2007: 140 says that through self-assessment, the students can reflect upon their own learning.
The students’ involvement in the assessment gives a good opportunity for their understanding of the feedback to enhance
their awareness of the learning process improvement. In relation to the conversation book, the basic types of speaking for the
junior high school Grade VIII students are likely similar to intensive and responsive types. After studying the unit of the book, the teacher gives an
assignment to the students. Since the conversation book is used for outside class activities, this assignment is in the form of a recording as a report after studying
the unit. This kind of report will help the students to perform their speaking skill although it is not a direct performance. This kind of assignment also helps the
teacher to assess students’ speaking skill without having problem with the time limitation inside the class.
7. Materials Development for Language Learning
There are many kinds of materials that can be used as language learning materials such as course books, games, video, pictures and so on. Tomlinson
2012: 143-144 says that materials development includes the process of materials evaluation, materials adaptation, materials design, materials production, materials
exploitation, and material research to produce or use the language learning materials. Graves 2000: 149 says that materials development is a planning
process where teachers can develop units and lessons to reach the objectives of the course. It
means that materials development needs teachers’ creativity and skill in developing materials.
The conversation book is likely compatible for a text-based course. As it is mentioned in the School-Based Curriculum, students Grade VIII should learn
speaking skills from texts. This kind of book should provide model texts and well designed activities to be used for outside class. Tomlinson 1998: 2 states that
materials refer to anything that are used by teachers and learners to facilitate the
