THE EFFECTIVENESS OF RECAST IN THE TEACHING OF GRAMMAR IN EFL CLASS (An Experimental Study on the Second Year Students of SMP N 1 Sumbang in Academic Year 2011 / 2012) - repository perpustakaan

CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW A. Grammar 1. The Definition of Grammar There are some definitions of grammar which is completing each

  other. Carter and McCarthy (2006:2) explain that grammar is concerned with how sentences and utterances are formed. In a typical English sentence, we can see the two most basic principles of grammar, the arrangement of items (syntax) and the structure of items (morphology).

  Moreover, grammar is defined by Ur in Tuan and Doan (2010: 61) as the way language manipulates and combines words (or bits of words) in order to form longer units of meaning. Harun et.al. (2007:123) adds that grammar is structure or the system of language which is formed by the users of the language. Then, O‟Grady et.al. (1997:715) define grammar as the mental system of rules and categories that allows humans to form and interpret the words and sentences of their language.

  From the definitions above, it can be seen that grammar is the rule of a language. Learning grammar means studying how elements are constructed in sentence well, when we use the pattern of grammar appropriately, and how we should interpret the sentence correctly.

  2. Teaching Grammar

  Teaching grammar is not as easy as we think. Teacher should know some considerations in teaching grammar. McKay in Nunan (1991:154) explained that there are three views on how to teach grammar: a. Teaching grammar entails the formal explanation of grammar rules.

  While learners who receive a great deal of grammatical explanation will end up knowing quite a lot about the language, they will not necessarily be able to put the language to communicative effect.

  b. Teaching grammar is basically a matter of providing learners with practice in mastering common grammatical patterns through a process of analogy rather than explanation. The learners may become fluent in the structures they have been taught, but may not be able to use them appropriately in genuine communication outside the classroom.

  c. Teaching grammar is a matter giving students the opportunity to use English in a variety of realistic situations. The disadvantage of this approach is that learners will not be able to provide explanations of the grammatical rules of the target language.

  3. Tense

  A tense is one of parts in grammar. It functions to differentiate the sentence that happened in different time. As Hornby (2003: 1393) states that tense is any the forms of a verb that may be used to show the time of the action or state expressed by the verb. There are about 16 kinds of tenses; some of them are simple present tense and simple past tense. Both of them should be mastered by students, especially since Junior High School. The writer will discuss both tenses clearly; start from its form, the construction, and the use of those tenses.

a. Simple Present Tense

  Generally, Simple Present Tense is divided into two basic patterns, they are: 1) Simple Present Tense that consists of subject (S) and verb (V). In this term, V

  1 or V s without auxiliary.

  a) Positive Form

  Subject Verb ( S ) (Object/ Adverb) I study English in my school.

  Lina works in a American Bank. The office has two conference rooms. They come here every day.

  Note: (1) Subject of third person singular (he, she, it) use Vs (s-form), in this term the suffix of s, es or ies should follow the rules bellow: (a) s is added in the most of verbs.

  (b) es is added in verb which have sibilant sound such as s, sh, and x.

  For examples: pass fix

• – passes – fixes wash watch-watches
• – washes

  (c) es is also added in the verb with suffix o.

  For examples: do – does, go – goes. (d) ies is added in verb with suffix y which preceded by consonant. The process of addition, y should be replaced with i then added with es. For examples: study – studies, cry – cries, fry – fries. (e) verb with suffix y which is not preceded by consonant just added s.

  For examples: play – plays, say – says. (2) The use of simple present tense with V or V

  1 s (a) Habitual action

  The activity of habit and it is done continually at the time including past, present, and future.

   Dogs bark. Teacher works in school.

  (b) Statement of general truth It can be fact, geographical, historical etc.

  Water flows from high to lower place.

  (c) Present state

  The present condition (usually it is used when we are speaking).

  I like travelling. She has a problem. b) Negative Form

  

Subject Do/Does Not Verb 1 (Object/ Adverb)

I do not study English in my school.

  Lina does not work in a American Bank. They do not come here every day.

  Note: (1) do not (don‟t) for subject I, you, we, they or first and third person plural such as I and my father, the people, the houses etc.

  (2) does not for subject he, she, it or third person singular such as Adi, the class, water, etc.

  Both positive and negative form can be added with adverb of frequency, such as always, usually, often, frequently, sometimes, occasionally, seldom, rarely, hardly ever, ever.

  c) Interrogative Form (Question) (1) Verbal Question (Yes/No Question)

  

Do/Does Subject Verb1 (Object/Adverb)

  Do you study German in campus? Does fish breath with lungs?

  (2) Pronominal Question (Question-word Question/Wh-question)

  Who/What Verb+ s (Object/Adverb)

  Who teaches you English? What makes day and night?

  

It is preceded by what, where, when, which, who, how, how

much, how many, how old, how long, whose.

  (3) Asking other than subject

  Question Do/Does Subject Verb (Object/Adverb) Word

  Where does Tono save his money? How many do you bring? pens

  (4) Asking subject We may also make negative sentence by putting not after do/does.

  Who Verb 1 (Object/Adverb) Doesn’t

  Who Bring pen? doesn‟t Which car have air conditioner? doesn‟t

  (5) Asking other than Subject

  Question Do/Doesn’t Subject Verb1 (Object/Adverb) Word

  Why he agree with us? doesn‟t Why you bring money? don‟t

  2) Simple Present Tense with complement (noun, adjective, adverb)

  a) Positive Form

  Subject Be Complement I am a secretary.

  You are Beautiful. Note :

  am for subject I is for subject he, she, it are for subject you, we, they. b) Negative Form

  Subject Be not Complement I am not in a good condition.

  This book is not expensive.

  c) Interrogative Form (1) Verbal Question

  Be Subject Complement

  Are you a doctor? am I wrong?

  (2) Pronominal Question QW Be Subject Complement Why are you sad? What is capitalism?

b. Simple Past Tense

  1) The Use of Simple Past Tense Simple past tense is used to declare the activity in the past. It uses verb II (regular/irregular verb) and to be II (was/were).

  2) Adverb of Time Usually, simple past tense uses adverb of time such as: yesterday, this morning last ....(week, month, year, Wednesday, October, July, etc.) .... ago (two weeks, a century, two days, etc.)

  3) The Form of Simple Past Tense

  a) Simple Past Tense with “ verb” (1) Positive Form

  

Subject Verb II (Object/Adverb)

I bought a book yesterday.

  They built a bridge near the hut. (2) Negative Form

  Subject Did not Verb 1 (Object/Adverb) I did not come here yesterday.

  He did not buy anything there. (3) Verbal Question

  Did Subject Verb 1 (Object/Adverb)

  Did you come here last night? Did they work last week?

  (4) Asking Subject

  Who/What etc. Verb II (Object/Adverb)

  Who wrote this letter? Which team won the last word cup?

  (5) Asking other than subject

  QW Did Subject Verb 1 (Object/Adverb)

  What did we study last week? Why did you say that to me?

  b) Simple Past Tense with “to be” (1) Positive Form

  

Subject Was / were (Object/Adverb)

I was angry.

  They were Late.

  (2) Negative Form

  Subject Was/were not (Object/Adverb) I was not angry.

  They were not late. (3) Interrogative Form

  Was/were Subject (Object/Adverb)

  Was he late? Were they angry?

  Note: was is used for subject I, he, she, it.

  were is used for subject they, we, you.

B. Feedback 1. Definition of Feedback

  Cole (1994: 215), Silverius (1991: 148), Hattie and Timperley (2007: 81) define feedback as a reaction to a stimulus offered by others such as teacher, book, parent related with aspects of one‟s performance or understanding. In giving information to the students, teacher may use test or another measurement tool that can be involves homework or task and the questions from the teacher in the class.

  From those definitions, it can be concluded that feedback means giving information about the result of assessment or evaluation to the other people, in this term is students. It aims to make students‟ achievement or students‟ comprehension better.

2. The Function of Feedback

  According to Silverius (1991:149), feedback has three main functions, those are: a. Informational Function

  Feedback has close relationship with teaching learning process which should be evaluated by using an evaluation tool.

  The result of evaluation gives information about how far the student‟s mastery in material which has been given by teacher in teaching learning process.

  b. Motivational Function Feedback has function as motivator for students to study hard. Unfortunately, some teachers regard the test result as tool to punish students than make it as the power of constructive to train and develop students. They think that by using test as a threat, it can improve students‟ motivation to study hard. One of things that they often do is by giving test to the students suddenly. They think that it can make students always ready in receiving test anytime. In contrary, it will increase students‟ anxiety. So the result will be not maximal.

  c. Communicational function Giving feedback means building communication between teacher and students. Teacher conveys the evaluation result to the students, then they will discuss about the solution for its remedial. So, by giving feedback, students will know their weaknesses.

3. Types of Feedback

  Cole (1994:218) states that one type of the feedbacks is positive and negative feedback. He also defines that positive feedback is used to give information to students about correct aspect of their learning or performance. In another word, positive feedback is given to the students when they answer teacher‟ questions correctly. Teacher may respond students‟ answer by saying “that‟s right, that‟s fine answer, good, etc”.

  While, negative feedback or corrective feedback is given to the students when they answer teacher‟ questions incorrectly. As Cole (1994: 218) state that negative feedback is used to inform students of those aspects of their performance or behaviour that are inappropriate or incorrect. Teacher may give response “not right, incorrect, that‟s wrong, etc”. It also can be given to the students explicitly or implicitly, depends on the type of corrective feedbacks that will be used.

  A Study from Lyster and Ranta in Fawbush (2010: 19) divided corrective feedback into six types of corrective feedbacks, they are:

  a.

   Explicit correction

  It refers to the explicit condition of the correct form. As the teacher provides the correct form, he or she clearly indicates that what the student said was incorrect.

  b.

   Recasts

  It involves the teacher‟s reformulation of all or part of a student utterance, minus the error.

  c.

   Clarification requests

  It indicates to students either the teacher has misunderstood their utterance or that the utterance is ill formed in some way and that a reformulation is necessary.

  d.

   Metalinguistic Feedback

  It contains either comments, information, or questions related to the well-formedness of the student‟s utterance, without explicitly providing the correct form.

  e.

   Elicitation has three different techniques:

  1) Elicit completion of their own utterance by strategically pausing to allow students to fill in the blank as it were.

  2) Use questions to elicit the forms. 3) Teacher occasionally asks students to reformulate their utterance.

  f.

   Repetition refers to the teacher‟s repetition, in isolation, of the

  student‟s erroneous utterance. In most cases, teachers adjust their intonation so as to highlight the error.

  The types of corrective feedback above can be divided into two categories that are implicit and explicit. Implicit includes recasts, clarification requests, elicitation, and repetition. While, explicit includes explicit correction and metalinguistic feedback.

C. Recast 1. The Nature of Recast

  Recast is one kind of corrective feedbacks, especially implicit feedback. Long in Ellis et.al (2006:341) stated that recast is a

  reformulation of all or part of a learner‟s immediately preceding utterance in which one or more non-target like lexical, grammatical, etc. Items are replaced by the corresponding target language forms, and where, throughout the exchange, the focus of the interlocutors is on meaning not language as an object.

  According to Nabei and Swain (2002:43), recast is defined as a reformulation of a previously erroneous utterance into a more target-like form while preserving the original meaning.

  In another words, recast means the correction that given by teacher by repeating students‟ answer or utterance with doing some changing in the specific part that is incorrect. Here is the example of giving recast as corrective feedback in a conversation:

  Teacher: what did you do at 4 p.m yesterday?

Students: I play football with my friends in Garuda field.

  Teacher: oh, you played football with your friends... Students: yeah, I played football....

  From the example of conversation above, it can be concluded that recast is given by teacher to the students indirectly. It means that recast need studen ts‟ ability or awareness to know what the teacher‟s mean. It is why recast includes implicit corrective feedback.

2. The Advantages and Disadvantages of Recast a. Advantages of Recast

  1) Recasts acknowledge the content of the child‟s utterance, creating positive effect, which enhances the child‟s motivation and attention to participate in the conversational exchange (Nicholas, Lighbown, and Spada in Tsybina et al., 2006:178). In another word, recast can motivate and encourage students to be more active.

  2) Through exposure to recasts, children are provided with opportunities to compare their own productions to similar utterances containing complex structures that are not yet acquired (Conti-Ramsden, Hutcheson, and Grove in Tsybina, 2006:178).

  3) Recasting is an informal strategy that occurs spontaneously during educator-child interactions (Tsybina, 2006:184).

  Therefore, it can improve communication between teacher and students. Besides that, it can facilitate them to practice their speaking ability.

b. Disadvantages of Recast

  Perdomo (2008: 164) states that among all the choices of implicit negative feedback recast is seen a literature as one of the best, especially for those students with higher level of proficiency. It means that:

  1) recast may tend to benefit more proficient students 2) not all students know what the teacher mean 3) not all students are able to be aware comprehend which part of their errors.

  To overcome the disadvantages of recast in teaching grammar, the teacher should give appropriate recast technique.

  Besides that, teacher should know his or her students capability. Thus, the teacher can manage the class or person when delivering the questions. This is done to avoid tendency on proficient students.

3. Procedure of Teaching Grammar using Recast

  Perdomo (2008:159) states that in teaching grammar, teacher may use pictures to elicit conversation. The procedure is as follows: 1) The teacher asks a question based on the picture. 2) Then, the student is expected to answer the question using the right form of the verb and to be in simple present tense and simple past tense.

  3) The teacher provides positive feedback under both conditions and appropriate negative feedback for each one according to the condition.

  The short dialogues have a similar structure for subjects in both conditions: 1) Initial question (by the teacher).

2) Students‟ answer.

  3) Positive or negative feedback.

  The following examples illustrate a dialogue in class which use positive feedback. It is given when students have right answer.

  Teacher : (after showing a picture containing a man who went to Bali yesterday) “where did he go yesterday?”or “please make a sentence based on the picture!”.

  Student : “he went to the Bali yesterday.” Teacher : “That’s right.”

  The next is an example illustrates a dialogue use explicit negative feedback:

  Teacher : (after showing a picture containing a man who went to Bali yesterday) “where did he go

  yesterday?”Or “please make a sentence based on the picture!” Students : “he go to Bali yesterday.” Teacher : “That’s incorrect. You should say: he went to

  Bali yesterday”

  The last is an example illustrates a condition in giving recast in teaching grammar:

  Teacher : (after showing a picture containing a man who went to Bali yesterday) “where did he go yesterday?”Or “please make a sentence based on the picture!”

  Students : “he go to Bali yesterday” Teacher : “yes, he went to Bali yesterday.” Students : “Oh yes, he went to Bali yesterday.”

D. Basic Assumption

  The use of recast as corrective feedback in teaching grammar is one of a good ways in giving corrective feedback, especially in teaching grammar.

  It will very helpful to the students. Recast is given to the students implicitly means a teach er does not give students‟ error correction directly. In other words, teacher does not judge students‟ errors directly, which can make students down. By paying attention on students‟ feeling, the teacher can raise the students‟ motivation in following teaching learning process. Consequently, it can make teaching learning process more effective.

E. Hypothesis

  Based on the basic assumption above, the writer proposes the hypothesis that recast is effective in teaching grammar on the second year students of SMP N 1 Sumbang in academic year 2011 / 2012.