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Basic Competences Learning Indicators
2.8. Be able to speak to ask for or to give information about the
place of something and asking for permissions in the context
of house. 2.8.1
Be able to mention the rooms’ names in the house.
2.8.2 Be able to use the prepositions to
show the place appropriately. 2.8.3
Be able to use the expressions of asking permissions appropriately.
2.8.4 Be able to ask where a place is.
2.8.5 Be able answer to someone’s
question about a place.
4. Listing the Subject Content Step 4
After formulating learning objectives, the writer completed the next step which was listing the subject content. This step is included in the third stage of
RD namely, developing preliminary form of product. The content of each unit of the materials was listed clearly.
Listing the subject content was the part where the writer described the content of each unit of the designed materials. The content of each unit of the
designed materials was based on the notion of the Task-Based Language Teaching framework proposed by Willis 1996:40. The framework consists of three phases,
namely pre-task phase, task-cycle and language focus. In order to design well- arranged speaking materials, the framework of Task-Based Language Teaching
proposed by Willis was adapted. There were eight units in the designed materials. Each unit was divided
into three major sections and one additional section. The three major sections included Let’s Get Ready, Let’s Do It and Let’s Practice while the additional
section included Review: Short but Smart. The three major sections were applied
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as the implementation of the Task-Based Language Teaching framework for beginners and young learners in which Let’s Get Ready was the pre-task phase,
Let’s Do It as the task-cycle and Let’s Practice included task-cycle as well as language focus. Language focus in Let’s Practice was an additional part since
the language focus for beginners and young learners was not a compulsory phase to have.
Pre-task phase was longer compared to the other phases. In line with Willis who argued that pre-task should involve all the learners actively, give
relevant exposure and create interesting condition to learn the topic, the writer attempted to fulfill those three considerations through longer pre-task. The pre-
task phase was mostly divided into three main activities which covered singing songs or playing games, vocabulary building as well as pronunciation practice and
practicing dialogs. Pre-task provided the students with more relevant exposure to be ready for the main task. There were two reasons why pre-task took longer time
in the designed materials. First, knowing that the students were the 2
nd
graders and their vocabulary mastery was limited, the writer offered the vocabulary and
pronunciation practice to make them feel secure to use the target language in the main task. Second, pre-task was intended to attract the students to be interested in
learning the topic by offering songs and games. Based on the observation and interview done to gather the learners’ needs, the students were very enthusiastic to
play games. Task-cycle was not only presented in the Let’s Do It section but also in
the Let’s Practice section. The main reason was the time allocation, which was
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lasted for only sixteen minutes. The writer considered it was more efficient to merge task-cycle and language focus phase in the last section, which was Let’s
Practice. Language focus for the beginners and young learners did not take a lot of time because the goal of the extracurricular activity emphasized on developing
the communicative skill of the students, particularly in speaking. Task-cycle consisted of two to three short tasks. Task-cycle in the Let’s Practice section was
the main task in which the students had to use the target language added by short language focus of specific features. Knowing the students were the 2
nd
graders of elementary school, the writer simplified the instructions of the tasks. The teacher’s
role in conveying the instructions would also determine how the students worked on the task. The other teacher’s role was managing sixteen minutes teaching and
learning process to be efficient to cover the three major sections. The teacher’s competence in class management was needed to determine the success of the
teaching and learning process. Considering the facts that the students were accustomed to have drilling
activity and easily to forget what they have learned if they did not have enough phase to repeat and review, the writer gave an additional section, Review: Short
but Smart, which took short time. The additional section, Review: Short but Smart was added to facilitate the students with a phase to repeat what they have learned.
Besides, this section offered a time for the teacher to measure whether the indicators had been achieved by the students. The Review: Short but Smart, the
teacher might show the flash cards which they had learned to recall their memory.
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It was not impossible to have a reflection on the teaching and learning activities on that day by simply asking their feelings towards the lesson.
Task-Based Language Teaching approach was applied to reduce the merely drilling activity in the classroom with various activities in form of tasks.
Based on the observations done by the writer, the students’ span to pay attention on the topic was lasted for the first thirty minutes. Therefore, the writer offered
various activities in form of tasks to attract the students and reduce their boredom. Task-Based language Teaching covered the real-world task which was brought
into the classroom in form of pedagogical task. The pedagogical task rehearsed the students to reveal the daily conversation. Though, the imagination and fantasy
were authentic parts as children. Hence, the combination of real-world and imaginary world was good for the children so that they would not lose their
imagination. The Task-Based Language Teaching offered more opportunities for the students to use the target language when they were communicating to finish
the tasks. The consideration of involving pair and group works was the result of the needs analysis which showed that the students were in different levels. The
pair and group works allowed the students to work together and the higher level students would help the lower level students in finishing the task.
To give clearer explanations of the three major sections included Let’s Get Ready, Let’s Do It, Let’s Practice
and an additional section, Review: Short but Smart
, the writer described them on the next page.
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a Let’s Get Ready
This pre-task phase was intended to introduce the topics as well as attract the students’ attention. This section was divided into three main activities as the
exposure for the students. The first activities mostly covered singing songs, identifying pictures and playing puzzle. These activities aimed at attracting the
students’ attention to begin the lesson and to know their background knowledge about certain topic. A relaxed atmosphere was created to make the students feel
secure to enter the lesson. Besides, the first activity of the first pre-task activities was used to find out the students’ background knowledge on the topic. Therefore,
some games which involved identifying pictures and playing puzzle were offered. The second activities dealt with vocabulary building and pronunciation practice.
This section was dominated by a lot of teacher’s explanation and teacher’s talk since it dealt with how to pronounce the words correctly which would make the
students feel secure to use the target language in the next phase. The teacher needed to simplify the language and use the gestures as well as mime. The third
activities were in forms of reading and practicing the dialogs’ examples. The students practiced reading the dialogs correctly in groups. The results of the
interview showed that the 2
nd
graders often found difficulty in reading English words correctly. As a result, the Let’s Get Ready offered chance for the teacher
talk to get the students to tune the target language by giving examples how to read and pronounce them appropriately.
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b Let’s Do It
This task-cycle phase was the core of the designed materials. In this section, there were two short tasks which needed to be completed by the students,
except the first topic due to the time allocation. The purposes of this section were to build the students’ confidence, to stimulate the students to use the target
language and to make the students produce the language through learning by doing. The students mostly worked in pairs and a group of four. This is meant to
build their confidence and allow the interactions between them. The tasks would be listing, ordering and sorting, comparing, problem solving, survey and some
creative tasks. The writer also made use of some videos to watch and identify to reduce the students’ boredom during the lesson. The media used affected the
students’ motivation to follow the lesson based on the writer’s experience as well as the interview results.
The role of the teacher in this section was a facilitator who should be patient to correct the students’ mistakes because the core of the phase was in the
process instead of product. Therefore, the teacher should give the correction in the last additional activity or in the language focus. The students were prepared to be
ready to report their results individually, in pairs or in groups. Since the students were the 2
nd
graders, the report was not very long but short where the students wrote down the findings or read them.
c Let’s Practice
This pre-task and language focus phases were porposed to give the opportunities for the students to produce the language and to gain feedback of
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what they have done. The last task to complete was merely using the language to have which should be done in groups. The intention to use games and role play
was to create relaxed and secure circumstances for the students to use the target language freely.
The last additional part of this section was language focus, except for the last unit which was “May I Go to Your House?” due to the time limit. In this
phase, the students were given several activities such as flash cards, singing a song, and ordering and sorting to check their understanding of certain language
features or grammar, such as pronoun, vocabulary, singular and plural forms, etc. In this phase, the teacher corrected the students’ mistakes that they might make
during the lesson. The language focus part was an additional part in “Let’s Practice”. In teaching beginners and young learners, the language focus should
not have taken a long time. The most important thing was letting the students know the very simple pattern of utterances and grammar rules.
The other additional section was Review: Short but Smart. This additional section was intended to review what the students’ have learned though offering
some questions to answer. The teacher might check the students’ achievement during the lesson. The review was done to the whole class and the fastest student
would have a chance to answer. This is meant to challenge the students so that they would be enthusiastic. In this section, the teacher may add some reflective
questions to give the students chances to reflect on their performances during the lesson. The examples of the questions are “Are you happy?”, “How do you feel
today”, and others.
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5. Selecting Teaching and Learning Activities and Resources Step 5
