rarely brought their dictionary, if not at all. The mini pictorial dictionary consisted of 60 verbs in their three forms, i. e. present, past simple, and past
participle tense. For the organization of the text, the researcher used a time table to make the students’ written works more organized, cohesive, and
coherent. In Cycle 1, the researcher also used a table, but because the text discussed in Cycle II was recount text, there should be adverbs, especially
the adverb of time in the text. Thus, the researcher added an extra column for the adverbs. The students were first asked to fill the time table including
the adverbs, then connected all the sentences using sequencing words provided in their hand-outs.
c Enhancing the students’ motivation to learn English
To enhance the students’ motivation, the researcher had carefully picked the topic of the text the students were going to learn. It had to be
something that the students could easily relate to. That is the reason why the researcher used famous characters to be the topic of their text by using cue
cards that showed series of events. Other than that, the researcher also gave praise to the students personally to enhance their motivation. In Cycle I, the
researcher did give praise to the students, but it was given to the whole class. The researcher only did it in front of the class and praise the students when
they did a good job. In Cycle II, the researcher decided to give more personal praise to the students, especially ones who were lacking in motivation.
2. Actions and Observations of Cycle II
The actions were carried out two times on May 19
th
and 20
th,
2014. The schedule of Cycle II can be seen in the table below.
Table 4.5: Schedule of Teaching and Learning Process in Cycle II Meeting
Day and Date Time
Material
3 Monday, May
19
th
, 2014 2 x 40 minutes
08.35 – 10.10,
including break for 15 minutes
Recount text
4 Tuesday, May
20
th
, 2014 2 x 40 minutes
11.10 – 12.30
Recount text
Cycle II consisted of two meetings. The students learned a recount text in this cycle. Actually, the English teacher had taught the students a
recount text for a while, but it had not finished yet when the researcher carried out Cycle II. Thus, the students had had some basic knowledge on a recount
text when the actions were implemented. As a result, the researcher taught the theory on a recount text not too deeply and most of the time was used by the
students to practice constructing sentences to form paragraphs.
a Implementing Cue Cards as an effort stimulate the students’ ideas
The researcher used cue cards in all meetings in Cycle II. At first, the cue cards were discussed collectively by the whole class while guided by
the teacher, and then they would start doing the exercises in pairs, finally they constructed their own text individually. The cue cards used in all of the
meetings were in the form of series of pictures. In one cue card there would be 8-12 pictures portraying an event. In the presentation stage, the researcher
delivered a cue card for each student and then asked some questions to stimulate the students’ ideas regarding the pictures in the cue card. The
students discussed the picture in the cue card one by one until they came to one conclusion of what the picture was about. In this stage, the researcher did
not correct the students’ ideas about the pictures, but she asked further questions to guide the students to the right path. It can be seen in the vignette
below.
Continued The researcher then asked, “What do you think the pictures here are
about?”. Some students answered, “Upin Ipin”, while some students said, “Kerja bakti They are cleaning the school.”. The researcher said, “Upin
Ipin, okay, correct. Tau Upin Ipin semua kan? Nah, itu di papan tulis itu tulisannya apa? Lomba menghias taman kan? Upin Ipin, okay, correct.
You all know Upin Ipin
, don’t you? Now, what is written on the white board? Gardening competition, right?
”. The students answered, “Iyaaa. Yes.
”. The researcher continued, “Siapa yang ikut lomba kira-kira disini? Who join the competition here?
”. “Upin Ipin, buu. Upin and Ipin, Ma’am.”. “Terus, kita lihat dari awal ya. Yang gambar pertama itu
gimana? Upin Ipin ngapain itu? Now, let’s look at it from the beginning.
What do you think of think the first picture? What are Upin and Ipin doing?
”. “Pergi ke sekolah. They are going to school.” “Terus setelah itu, yang di depan siapa? and then what else? Who is it in front of the
class? ”. Some said, “Itu cikgu. It is ‘cikgu’.”, while others said “Ibu
guru. It is the teacher. ”. “Betul sekali. Itu lagi ngapain? Kira-kira lagi
ngomong tentang apa itu gurunya? It’s correct. What is she doing? What
do you think she is talking about? ”.
Continued
And then the real text of the cue card was delivered. In the text, the students saw what the cue cards were really about.
In the practice stage, the students were given another cue card. This time, the researcher also guided the students to understand the content of the
cue card. The students, together with the researcher, discussed the pictures in the cue cards one by one. After that, the students were asked to work in pairs.
They were asked to choose the right verb in the form of the past tense to fill in the blanks. It
was used to test the students’ understanding on vocabulary items mastery, especially in the verb word class. However, when the
researcher walked around the class, she noticed that most of the students were confused and did not have idea at all of the answer even though the researcher
had explained about verbs a bit. It was because almost all of the students did not bring any dictionary. It can be seen from the following vignette.
Continued The
researcher walked around to see the students’ progress in doing the exercise. She asked one of the students, “Is it difficult?”. “Yes, Ma’am.”
“Kamu tidak bawa kamus, ya? Don’t you bring your dictionary?”. “Tidak bawa, bu.
No, Ma’am.”. “Oh iya, kemarin kata Pak Miftah sudah dikasih daftar kata kerja irregular, dibawa atau tidak sekarang? Well, Yesterday
“Lomba menghias tamannnn. Gardening Competition.”. “Okay, good. Ada tulisannya kan, ya? Sudah tau kan apa bahasa Inggrisnya lomba?
Iya, bisa pakai competition, atau contest juga bisa. Okay, good. It is written there, isn’t it? You all know the English word for ‘lomba’, right?
Yes, you can use competition or contest.” The researcher continued guiding the students until she was sure that all of the students really
understood the content of the cue card.
Vignette 4, May 19th 2014
