Teaching Speaking Trough Contextual Teaching Learning At Second Grade Student Of SMPN 01 Tanjung Raja North Lampung ( A Classroom Action Research)

ABSTRACT

Teaching Speaking Trough Contextual Teaching Learning At Second Grade Student Of SMPN 01 Tanjung Raja North Lampung

( A Classroom Action Research)

By

YULIKA NORMALIA

Contextual Teaching Learning as the teaching method has seven steps that provide students a good opportunity for speaking exercises. Most of the students still have a low speaking ability especially in fluency, accuracy and comprehensibility due to the inappropriateness of teaching technique used by the teacher. Therefore, Diknas suggests the teacher to implement it as a teaching method. The aims of this research are to find out whether Contextual Teaching Learning can increase the students speaking ability in terms of fluency, accuracy and comprehensibility and to find out whether Contextual Teaching Learning can improve the quality of learning process of speaking.

This is a Classroom Action Research and the subject is the students of second year at SMPN 01 Tanjung Raja. This research lasted from 26th of April 2010 till 2nd of May 2010.

The results of this research prove that there are some improvements in the students speaking ability in terms of fluency, accuracy, and comprehensibility that described as follow, fluency from 24,3% to 62,2%, in term of accuracy is 35,1% to 48,7% and for comprehensibility is 54,1% to 89,2% and consequently improve students speaking score from 63,9% to 83,8%. For the quality of learning process, the improvement is from 63,9% to 90, 1%, as a Contextual Teaching Learning gave students a lot of opportunities to practice their speaking in form of discussions in small group. Based on the data, it is concluded that Contextual Teaching Learning is applicable to be used as teaching method in teaching speaking. However, teacher should select the text that is suitable to the condition of students and familiar in helping them to have broader information to be discussed in the process of teaching learning.

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of Problem

Speaking is one of the important aspects for human to live in a community because people should communicate their ideas or opinion to other people to get their need. Tarigan (1982:18) said that speaking is an ability to produce

articulation sounds or words to express feelings, ideas and opinions. Therefore it is really important for student not only to be able to listen, read and write English well but also to be able to speak English well. Besides, speaking is a compulsory subject for junior high school students.

Based on School Based Curriculum (KTSP) for the 8th grade of junior high school, students are expected to be able to comprehend and express the meaning of simple transactional and interpersonal conversation to interact with the

society.However, based on researcher’s the interview with the English teacher of SMPN 01 Tanjung Raja it is found that most of students of VIII B’ speaking ability was low. It also can be seen from their low mark at first semester

examination in year 2009-2010. From 40 students of second grade of junior high school of SMPN 01 Tanjung Raja, 21 students or 52,5 % got score fewer than 60 or under the minimum passing goal(KKM) in first semester. Besides, they still cannot communicate in English by using some expressions used in a short conversation like asking, giving information and making clarification etcetera.

Considering the fact in the school the researcher is interested in carrying a classroom action research to improve the condition. In addition, there is no classroom action research in English lesson has been conducted in this school. The problem above is also supported by the result of pre observation done by researcher at the first semester. She found that when the students were asked to present the dialogue, they got some difficulties in expressing their ideas so the listener can not receive the message in communication well. There are lots of fillers, such as umm and err, in accuracy, there are many ungrammatical disorder such as you is my friend and she don’t know. In other words, their speaking was not comprehendible even though they have learned English since they were students of elementary school. Their ability to express their mind or ideas is still too limited. This fact was found when their speaking was rated; most of students failed to pass the standard goal that is 65.

In pre observation, the researcher also found the inappropriate way of teaching used by the teacher. The teacher taught speaking by explaining the form of sentence, drilling it to students and asking students to do some written exercises at students’ work sheet or LKS (Lembar Kerja Siswa). This made the students passive and the students only knew the form of sentences but they were not able to implement it in their real world. They were able to write well but cannot implement it orally when it is needed. So, speaking class became writing class and students did not have enough chance to speak.

The low ability of students is also due to the lack of information about the context of lesson that made students have limited idea in discussion. This condition made

students’ performance at speaking presentation in front of the class worse. The presenter could not deliver their material well because they were not able to speak and the listener also could not respond to it well because first, listener did not get the point of material and secondly because they could not express their idea either. So, discussion ran so slow and boring. The last, speaking goals could not be

reached.

Concerning to the use of teaching aid, the teacher only used the text book. Students’ speaking ability became worse because they did not have sufficient sources as references. They just focused on the example provided in their text book. meanwhile the successful language learner needed lots of chance to exercise as Richard cited in Jones (1996:12) states in speaking and listening we tend to be getting something done, exploring ideas, working out some aspects of the world, or simply being together.

Due to the results of pre observation, the researcher discussed with the teacher about the problems in the classroom and researcher assumed that the students’ problems were fear of being blamed, little chance for exercising, little sources, and boredom and in appropriate way of teaching. By taking look the problems of the students, the researcher together with the teacher triggered to implement contextual teaching learning in classroom action research due to its benefits to improve students speaking ability.

A classroom action research that had been done is a way for the instructor in this case the English teacher to discover what works best in her own classroom

situation, thus allowing informed decisions about teaching ( Mettetal, 2003 in Merry Novita : 2010).

The previous class room action research in implementing CTL in teaching speaking was done by Helda Irianto(2007) who says that this concept of teaching provided teacher how to make the teaching learning becomes meaningful for student. That is first, by relating their experience or existing knowledge toward their new knowledge by constructing the importance of new knowledge into a problem that is needed to be solved. When students felt that the lesson is

important for them, they will be more eager to learn (constructivism). Second, by gathering information from the real world around them by observing or

questioning so they could explore their world (inquiry and questioning). These steps gave benefit to student that they would find more impressive facts that would be remembered longer than they got from teacher and provide lot of chances to exercise their speaking. This finding is also supported by previous research that also implemented the CTL in junior and senior high school in Georgia done by Nancy Knapp(2002)who found that students enjoy more to learn when they engaged to the lesson.

Third, by drafting their finding about the problem that they have constructed in the early lesson, the data they got, then made a hypothesis about the answer together with their friend that would help them to decrease their fear of being blamed because of doing or expressing something wrongly. Next step was sharing and discussing the finding. When students had came to the finding the teacher gave evaluation and adjustment toward their finding, then the teacher gave good models and then let students do the task to measure the achievement of

learning(modeling and Authentic Assessment). Students were demanded to show their ability through demonstration so that all aspects of speaking ability would be shown clearly. Reflection would adjust students’ finding without making students feel blamed because of mistakes that they have made. Next step was authentic assessment that would make students focus on accuracy and the comprehensibility because they wanted their audience understand the material that was presented.

According to Howey’s (1998) contextual teaching enables learning in which students employ their academic understandings and abilities in a variety of in and out of school contexts to solve simulated or real world problems, both alone and with others. Activities in which teachers use contextual teaching strategies help students make connections with their roles and responsibilities as family

members, citizens, students, and workers. Learning through and in these kinds of activities is commonly characterized as problem based, self regulated, occurring in a variety of contexts including the community and work sites, involving teams of learning groups, and responsive to a host of diverse learners needs and

interests. Furthermore, contextual teaching and learning emphasizes higher-level thinking, knowledge transfer, and the collection, analysis, and synthesis of information from multiple sources and viewpoints. Contextual teaching learning includes authentic assessment, which is derived from multiple sources, ongoing, and blended with instruction.

By analyzing the problems in the classroom and the benefits of contextual teaching learning, the researcher intended to implement the Contextual teaching

learning in teaching speaking. Hopefully this research can improve not only students speaking ability but also the teaching process in the classroom.

1.2 Research Problems

In this research, the researcher proposed the research problems as follow:

1. Can contextual teaching learning improve students speaking ability? 2. How can contextual teaching learning influence the quality of teaching

learning process of speaking at SMPN 01 Tanjung Raja North Lampung?

1.3 Objective of Research

The objectives of this research are:

1. To investigate how Contextual Teaching Learning can improve students’ speaking ability in teaching learning process.

2. To find out whether there is an improvement in quality of teaching learning process of speaking in the classroom after being taught through Contextual Teaching Learning.

1.4 Uses of Research

The uses of this research are:

1. Theoretically

This research is expected to be able to show the process of how the

speaking ability and their mastery of lesson and to support the previous theory about contextual teaching learning. This research is also expected to show whether there is an improvement in students speaking ability after taught with contextual teaching learning.

2. Practically

a. Student : this research hopefully can help student improve their speaking ability

b.Teacher : this research hopefully can be the consideration in teaching speaking skill and can inform the teacher about the process and benefit of contextual teaching Learning.

c. School : this research hopefully can be consideration of all aspects of school in determining the strategy for running the successful English learning.

1.5 Scope

This classroom action research was focused on teaching speaking by using contextual teaching learning. The speaking ability here focused on fluency, accuracy and comprehensibility. Condition of speaking here was transactional. Material was about One’s Biography in presentation form. This material based on Curriculum of SMP (learning competence-based curriculum). The research used a week for doing first cycle that contains preparation/planning, dealing schedule and task, and preparing instrument, action, data analysis, and reflection.

1.6 Definition of Terms

1. Contextual Teaching Learning : Contextual Teaching Learning is a concept that helps teachers to tie the materials with real world situations and encourage students to make the relationship between students'

speaking with the implementation in daily life through the involvement of seven major components (constructivism, inquiry, questioning, learning community, modeling and authentic assessment).(DIKNAS:2004)

V. CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

5.1. Conclusion

Based on the result on the learning product and the learning process in this research, the conclusion can be formulated as follows:

1. Contextual Teaching Learning is applicable to be used as a teaching method in teaching speaking since it can increase students’ speaking ability. The result in learning product improved from 63,9% to 83,8%. The result of the increase of students speaking ability occurs in fluency, accuracy and comprehensibility consequently improves students speaking score. The improvement of students ability for fluency is 24,3% to 62,2%, for accuracy is 35,1% to 48,7%, and for comprehensibility is 54,1% to 89,2% .

2. Contextual teaching learning improves the teaching speaking skill in teaching learning process in the classroom. It can be seen from the improvement of observation result of students’ participation that is from 63,9% to 90, 1%. The improvement of students’ participation in learning process also supported by the mastery of speaking skill of students. The mastery of speaking skill of students increased with the increasing of participation of students in teaching learning. Since, contextual teaching learning gave a lot of opportunities to students to practice their speaking in form of discussions in small group work and questioning the real object students have good media to improve their ability.

The CTL procedures trigger students to be more active in joining the teaching learning because group work made them freer in expressing their ideas. They also had more chance in practicing their English through the steps of CTL through learning community. Through constructivism and inquiry students experienced the meaningful learning since they are bridged to their real world. The presentation gave them long term memory. By reflection the teacher and learner adjust their new finding. Good selection of material for learning helps students to be more active in following the teaching learning. The test also should be best given in same form of the topic.

Some problems were found in teaching speaking through contextual teaching learning in this research. They are; when first time meeting students confused what they had to do almost of them were passive. Next problem is in doing the discussion in group as a learning community some students did not do the conversations. In grouping the students, students are tended to join their close friend who sometimes has the same capability as them.

5.2. SUGGESTION

Based on the conclusions, it is suggested that:

1. Teacher uses CTL in teaching speaking. Because CTL provides students lot of chances in practicing their English.

2. Teacher maximizes the use of realia and real object around the school that can help students to connect the lesson to the real world.

3. Teacher should select the text that is suitable to the condition of students and make it to be more familiar to help them in having broader information to be discussed in the process of teaching learning.

4. Teacher should ask the students to prepare the questions before conducting the observation for the sake of efficiency. Besides, in group discussion the teacher had better control the class by going around to ensure that discussion runs well. 5. For further researcher, they can use this research as a literature to guide them in

doing same field of the research. And also suggested in smaller class than 37 students to see whether it is also applicable in small class.

learning in teaching speaking. Hopefully this research can improve not only students speaking ability but also the teaching process in the classroom.

1.2 Research Problems

In this research, the researcher proposed the research problems as follow:

1. Can contextual teaching learning improve students speaking ability? 2. How can contextual teaching learning influence the quality of teaching

learning process of speaking at SMPN 01 Tanjung Raja North Lampung?

1.3 Objective of Research

The objectives of this research are:

1. To investigate how Contextual Teaching Learning can improve students’ speaking ability in teaching learning process.

2. To find out whether there is an improvement in quality of teaching learning process of speaking in the classroom after being taught through Contextual Teaching Learning.

1.4 Uses of Research

The uses of this research are:

1. Theoretically

This research is expected to be able to show the process of how the

speaking ability and their mastery of lesson and to support the previous theory about contextual teaching learning. This research is also expected to show whether there is an improvement in students speaking ability after taught with contextual teaching learning.

2. Practically

a. Student : this research hopefully can help student improve their speaking ability

b.Teacher : this research hopefully can be the consideration in teaching speaking skill and can inform the teacher about the process and benefit of contextual teaching Learning.

c. School : this research hopefully can be consideration of all aspects of school in determining the strategy for running the successful English learning.

1.5 Scope

This classroom action research was focused on teaching speaking by using contextual teaching learning. The speaking ability here focused on fluency, accuracy and comprehensibility. Condition of speaking here was transactional. Material was about One’s Biography in presentation form. This material based on Curriculum of SMP (learning competence-based curriculum). The research used a week for doing first cycle that contains preparation/planning, dealing schedule and task, and preparing instrument, action, data analysis, and reflection.

1.6 Definition of Terms

1. Contextual Teaching Learning : Contextual Teaching Learning is a concept that helps teachers to tie the materials with real world situations and encourage students to make the relationship between students'

speaking with the implementation in daily life through the involvement of seven major components (constructivism, inquiry, questioning, learning community, modeling and authentic assessment).(DIKNAS:2004)

V. CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

5.1. Conclusion

Based on the result on the learning product and the learning process in this research, the conclusion can be formulated as follows:

1. Contextual Teaching Learning is applicable to be used as a teaching method in teaching speaking since it can increase students’ speaking ability. The result in learning product improved from 63,9% to 83,8%. The result of the increase of students speaking ability occurs in fluency, accuracy and comprehensibility consequently improves students speaking score. The improvement of students ability for fluency is 24,3% to 62,2%, for accuracy is 35,1% to 48,7%, and for comprehensibility is 54,1% to 89,2% .

2. Contextual teaching learning improves the teaching speaking skill in teaching learning process in the classroom. It can be seen from the improvement of observation result of students’ participation that is from 63,9% to 90, 1%. The improvement of students’ participation in learning process also supported by the mastery of speaking skill of students. The mastery of speaking skill of students increased with the increasing of participation of students in teaching learning. Since, contextual teaching learning gave a lot of opportunities to students to practice their speaking in form of discussions in small group work and questioning the real object students have good media to improve their ability.

The CTL procedures trigger students to be more active in joining the teaching learning because group work made them freer in expressing their ideas. They also had more chance in practicing their English through the steps of CTL through learning community. Through constructivism and inquiry students experienced the meaningful learning since they are bridged to their real world. The presentation gave them long term memory. By reflection the teacher and learner adjust their new finding. Good selection of material for learning helps students to be more active in following the teaching learning. The test also should be best given in same form of the topic.

Some problems were found in teaching speaking through contextual teaching learning in this research. They are; when first time meeting students confused what they had to do almost of them were passive. Next problem is in doing the discussion in group as a learning community some students did not do the conversations. In grouping the students, students are tended to join their close friend who sometimes has the same capability as them.

5.2. SUGGESTION

Based on the conclusions, it is suggested that:

1. Teacher uses CTL in teaching speaking. Because CTL provides students lot of chances in practicing their English.

2. Teacher maximizes the use of realia and real object around the school that can help students to connect the lesson to the real world.

3. Teacher should select the text that is suitable to the condition of students and make it to be more familiar to help them in having broader information to be discussed in the process of teaching learning.

4. Teacher should ask the students to prepare the questions before conducting the observation for the sake of efficiency. Besides, in group discussion the teacher had better control the class by going around to ensure that discussion runs well. 5. For further researcher, they can use this research as a literature to guide them in

doing same field of the research. And also suggested in smaller class than 37 students to see whether it is also applicable in small class.