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Games have so many types and teachers can choose one they think compatible for the students. One of the simple games can be applied to English class is board
games. Studying with board games might be more exciting since it also requires students’ competitiveness. Their eagerness to become the best among their groups
will motivate them to study better.
B. The Identification of the Problems
In identifying the problems, the researcher used three techniques, i.e. interviewing the English teacher, observing the teaching and learning activity, and
doing tests. From the interview with the English teacher, it is found that the grade X learners are always having the same problems for each year that are in applying
grammatical tenses and distinguishing countable and uncountable nouns. These problems are further seen in their writing products that are showing the low
awareness of the aspects said previously. On the other hand, from the identification of the problem, the researcher found that the main problems occurring during the
English classes of SMA N 1 Pengasih Grade X relate to the students, the students’
writing, the teacher, and the media. The first problem dealing with the students was their low motivation in learning.
From the class observation done on February 16
th
2013 in class X-3, it could be seen that students were not eager to learn. It appeared that they had not done their best to
keep struggling for focusing to the lesson. Some just stay quiet neither doing anything nor listening to the lesson. Mostly, the students preferred to discuss
activities they did outside the class, academic and non academic ones. During the
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PPL as well, the researcher found that the students of class X-3 were only excited to study if the lesson was presented through games.
The next problem was on the students’ writing. From the writing tasks
conducted during the PPL, it is obvious that the students of class X-3 were still confused with the concept of appropriate grammatical structure. This can be seen
easily from their low quality of writing. Most of them seemed to have difficulties in distinguishing the use of present and past tenses, countable and uncountable nouns,
and punctuations and spelling. The lack of grammar and spelling accuracy might not be considered as a vital matter but as it could lead to misunderstanding to the reader,
this have to be prevented. The third problem was the teacher. The teacher carried the teaching and learning
activity in a traditional way. The teacher only used course books like Look Ahead and students’ worksheet, without any supporting media to make the lesson more
interesting. The materials covered in the books are definitely well designed and are completed as they are written by English teaching and learning experts. However, the
teaching style that is only using oral explanation along 2 x 45 minutes lesson will bore the learners. It is worsened by the teaching style that is orally discussing every
point mentioned inside the books while asking the learners to translate the terms. This led to a boring atmosphere and made the students lose their interest to learn.
The lack of motivation resulted to the passiveness of the students as only some of them played along with the teaching style the teacher applied. The condition of being
not too acquainted with the terms used on the genre of the text being learned at that time can also be the one of the students’ passiveness. This made the students keep
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repeating the same mistakes like grammatical and mechanical writing mistakes although the teacher had explained and repeated the rules.
The fourth problem is the lack of media usage. The teaching approach using textbooks and oral explanation made the teaching and learning felt bored and not
motivating to learn. As English is not even their second language and as most of Indonesians do not really live with English in their surroundings, it makes English
becomes something uncommon among Indonesian people and the students here are not the exceptions. Learning something new like that must be conducted in such a
slow and fun way and if not, the students would prefer to not think about it as it just beyond their ability. Teachers need to find a better way to teach the students. As
students’ willingness to learn depends on their learning motivation, teachers need to find a teaching method that is motivating and fun so that the students will be more
eager to follow the lesson. As long as it is fun, the students will still be motivated and will not feel pressured. However, the school itself does not provide sufficient
teaching and learning media. Thus, if the teacher wants to use media, she has to bring her own media and this is perhaps the reason of the lack of media usage.
C. Delimitation of the Problems
