5 insights to develop their professional skills in teaching the language and planning program evaluation. At the
more relevant knowledge and skills and the institutions’ accountability is assured. It needs to be noted that this study is conducted with the above mentioned objectives within the domain of English language teaching.
C. Review of the Related Literature
This study is organized under the discussion of English language syllabus designs Nunan, 1988, 1999; Widdowson 1984; Nation and Macalister, 2010, which emphasizes on communicative competence Hymes
1971, 1972, 1974; Canale and Swain 1980, Canale 1983, Scarcella, Andersen, and Krashen 1990, Savignon 1997, which involves four areas of knowledge and skills: grammatical competence, sociolinguistic
competence, discourse competence, and strategic competence. The successful language use for communication presupposes the development of communicative competence in the users of that language and that the use of
language is constrained by the socio-cultural norms of the society where the language is used.
This study develops a proposed syllabus
to seek for more effective ways for improving students’ communication skills to replace the traditional, grammar-oriented approach in the past.
The curriculum model was in the form of the design of a proposed syllabus which is based on the new perspective of communicative competence. This model of the proposed syllabus design, named ‘
competency- task based sy
llabus’, was the strategy for easing students’ transition from structurally based approach to communicative competence based language teaching.
This study reviews the theoretical aspects of the study such as: language curriculum development Allen, 1984; Kelly, 1989; Richards, Platt, and Platt, 1992; Nation and Macalister, 2010; Nunan, 1988c; Finney,
2002; Tumposky, 1984; Clark, 1987; Prabhu, 1987 Long and Crookes, 1992; Olive, 1982; Johnson, 1989, communicative competence in English Language Teaching Chomsky, 1965; Samimy and Kobayashi, 2004;
Hymes, 1972; Hymes, 1974; Scarcella, Andersen, and Krashen, 1990; Canale and Swain, 1980; Canale, 1983, syllabus design Nunan, 1988c; Widdowson, 1984; Allen, 1984; Nunan, 1999; Candlin, 1987; Brown, 1995,
different types of syllabus designs Richards and Rodgers, 1986; Mc Donough, 1984; Nunan, 1988c; Wilkins, 1978; Widdowson, 1990; Long and Crookes, 1993; Robinson, 1998; Littlewood, 1991; Prabhu, 1987; Richards,
2001; Savignon, 1997; Halliday, 1970; Paulston, 1974; Kern, 1990; Nunan, 1990; Rodgers, 2001; Ellis 1998; Ellis, 2000; Richards, Platt, and Weber, 1986; Nunan, 1989; Breen, 1987; Candlin, 1987; Long 1985; Gardner,
1992, needs analysis Richards, 2001; Nunan, 1988c; Nunan, 1999; Brown, 1995; Brindley, 1984, 1989; Berwick, 1993; Hutchinson and Waters, 1987; Dudley-Evans and St John, 1991, 1998; Robinson, 1989, 1991,
1998; Nation and Macalister, 2010; Jordan, 1997; Long, 1985; Crookes, 1986; Ferries and Tagg, 1996; Ferris, 1998; Benesch, 1996; Widdowson, 1984, their implementation, assumptions and weaknesses Helena, 2003;
Doughty and Williams, 1998, English for children Curtain and Dahlberg, 2010; Brewer, 2007; Nelson, 1973; Berko and Gleason, 1985, as it is relevant to the syllabus design; English for specific purposes Richards,
2001; Hutchinson and Waters, 1987; Strevens, 1988; Robinson, 1991; Dudley-Evans and St. John, 1998; Crocker, 1981; Early, 1981; Widdowson, 1987. The major part of the review presents current thinking of
competency, task related, competency-task based syllabus, and language functions Long, 1985; Nunan, 1989; Crookes, 1986; Prabhu, 1987; Carroll, 1993; Ellis, 2000; Pica, Kanagy, and Falodun, 1993; Dwiraharjo, 2001;
Brown and Yule, 1988; Halliday, 1973; Van and Trim, 1991 D. Method of the Study
This study uses the Research and Development RD approach as pointed out by Borg and Gall 1983, p. 775-776, in which a model of an English syllabus design as an alternative English syllabus for ESTD of
SUY is produced. It is conducted at Elementary School Teacher Education Department ESTD of State University of Yogyakarta SUY. The participants of this study were five English lecturers, and 1696 students
of ESTD, Faculty of Education, the State University of Yogyakarta. Besides, to complete the information, there were English teachers of elementary schools. Besides those subjects, there were experts of English language
education who gave judgments or suggestion for the writing process of this study. The data for the study were collected from two different sources. The first sources of data were informants, and the second were
documents. The first group of respondents consisted of English lecturers at the department. There were five English lecturers participating in this study. The data were obtained from questionnaires and interviews about
6 the competencies and tasks. The second group of respondents consisted of students of ESTD. There were 152
‘
purposive sampling technique
’, which was selective in the sense that the participants selected were the lecturers who taught at the ESTD, and
the students who studied at the ESTD. There was also an expert of English language education who gave judgments or provided information or data needed for this study. The strategy used to draw the samples was a
convenience sampling method Patton, 1980: 180, taking whoever was available on the day of the process of collecting the data. There were three techniques of data collection. These were observation and field notes,
questionnaires, and interviews. The data were analyzed by using an
Interactive Analysis
. According to Miles and Huberman 1994: 100, an interactive analysis is a data analysis through four components of analysis. They
are data reduction and categorization, data display, drawing conclusion, and verification. In this study, the units of analysis were competences, tasks, and language functions. This study attempted to identify the kinds of
competencies, tasks, and the language functions which were needed to accomplish the competencies and the tasks presented in the commentaries that were considered important. In this study, the competencies, tasks, and
language functions were considered as themes that were identified in the data. In this way, the data were reduced according to each theme, and then presented in a matrix table from which conclusions were drawn. The
data were verified by using a triangulation technique according to the multiple data collection technique in order to improve the credibility of the data. The triangulation was carried out by checking the data of similar
types obtained from the different techniques: questionnaires, interviews, and observation.
The framework for the tasks analysis was based on Long 1985 and Long and Crookes 1992 in which a task was defined as a real world activity with an emphasis on meaning of communication, while the analysis
for competencies used the framework from Brown and Yule 1988 and Paltridge 1994 in which competencies were determined on the basis of content or what was being talked about. And the analysis of
language functions used the framework proposed by Brown and Yule 1988, Dudley-Evans and St. John 1998, and Van Ek and Trim 1991. Brown and Yule 1988 differentiate between speaking monologues and
conversations. They state that a speaking monologue has a transactional function or an information-transferring function. This function may be realized in descriptions, narratives story telling or opinions. Conversations, on
the other hand, have interactional functions. Conversations may contain short turns and long turns. A short turn may consist of only one or two utterances, while a long turn may consist of many utterances. According to
Dudley-Evans and St. John 1998, conversations may consist of utterances, which contain statements or requests for information or clarification. More specific language functions are identified using the framework
from Van Ek and Trim 1991.
The process of this research was carried out by conducting 10 steps of research as pointed out by Gall and Borg 1983: 775-776. They are: 1 research and information collecting, 2 planning, 3 developing a
preliminary form of research, 4 preliminary field testing, 5 main product revision, 6 main field testing, 7 operational product revision, 8 operational field testing, 9 final product revision, 10 dissemination and
implementation. These research steps were developed from the four main stages. They are: 1 exploration which consists of preliminary study, participants of the study, sources of data, procedure of the study including
data collection, data analysis, discussion and expert judgment; 2 draft development which consists of two activities: determining the type of the study, and the procedure of the draft development; 3 field testing which
consists of trying the design in the field and revision of the product, and 4 finalization which was in the form of validation of the draft, where the syllabus was in the form of a proposed English syllabus. This finalization
was conducted by expert judgment, in which the expert gave her judgment to the proposed syllabus. The evaluation again involved primarily qualitative methods.
This study followed the following research framework, as shown below:
7 Research Framework
Educational Research: An Introduction
4
th
ed.. New York London: Longman
E. Result of the Study
