The influences of content-based instruction implementation in international class of SMAN 3 Yogyakarta towards the 11th grade students` english writing skill proficiency.

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xiv ABSTRACT

Malilang, Chrysogonus S. 2008. The Influences of Content-Based Instruction Implementation in International Class of SMAN 3 Yogyakarta towards the 11th Grade Students’ English Writing Skill Proficiency. Yogyakarta: English Language Education Study Program. Department of Language and Art Education. Faculty of Teachers Training and Education. Sanata Dharma University

This study is about the relation between Content-Based Instruction and students’ English writing skill proficiency. It is interesting to discuss the phenomenon of the international class, since it is the major trend these recent days. This is supported by the claim that the international class uses English as the instructional language within the teaching-learning activity. However, there is also a doubt within the society about the implementation of this international class, whether this class is really used to answer the global challenge or merely to increase the prestige of some exemplary schools. To prove this claim, the researcher chose the writing skill as the object, since it is one of the most important skills in the global era.

Departing from those facts, this research was then conducted. It aimed to answer two problems, which are 1) how are the main principles of Content-Based Instruction implemented in the international class of SMAN 3 Yogyakarta? and 2) to what extent is the influence of the implementation of the Content-Based Instruction in the international class to the students’ proficiency of the English Writing skill?

The research is a descriptive study combining both qualitative and quantitative method. The population of this research is the eleventh grade students of the international class in SMAN 3 Yogyakarta taken randomly. In order to answer the first formulated problem, field notes of the observation and interview were conducted, while for the second formulated problem, rubric and interview were utilized along with descriptive statistic. The comparison between pre-test and post-test was also conducted for the second problem.

The result of this study showed that the implementation of the Content-Based Instruction in the international class of SMAN 3 Yogyakarta is still imperfect. Thus, this brought about a little influence towards English writing skill proficiency. The result of the t-test showed that there was no significant improvement in the directly-influenced criterion.

Keywords : International class, content-based instruction, immersion program, writing proficiency

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ABSTRAK

Kajian ini membahas mengenai hubungan antara penerapan Content-Based Instruction dan kemampuan menulis bahasa inggris siswa-siswi kelas internasional SMAN 3 Yogyakarta. Fenomena kelas internasional ini cukup menarik untuk dikaji karena hal ini telah menjadi tren tersendiri akhir-akhir ini. Hal ini semakin didukung pula dengan klaim bahwa kelas ini menggunakan bahasa Inggris sebagai bahasa pengantar dalam kegiatan belajar mengajar. Akan tetapi, ada sebuah keraguan pula di tengah-tengah masyarakat mengenai kesahihan dari kelas internasional ini, terutama berkaitan dengan tujuannya, antara menjawab tantangan dari era globalisasi atau hanya meningkatkan gengsi sekolah-sekolah unggulan. Untuk membuktikan klaim ini, peneliti memilih kemampuan menulis sebagai obyek kajian, karena kemampuan itu merupakan salah satu kemampuan yang penting di era global.

Berangkat dari fakta-fakta tersebut, maka dilakukanlah penelitian ini. Kajian ini bertujuan untuk menjawab dua masalah, 1) bagaimanakah prinsip-prinsip dasar dari Content-Based Instruction diterapkan dalam kelas internasional SMAN 3 Yogyakarta? dan 2) seberapa besar pengaruh dari penerapan Content-Based Instruction di kelas internasional ini terhadap kemampuan menulis bahasa Inggris siswa-siswi?

Penelitian ini merupakan kajian deskriptif yang menggabungkan metode kualitatif dan kuantitatif. Populasi dari penelitian ini adalah siswa-siswi kelas sebelas di kelas internasional SMAN 3 Yogyakarta yang dipilih secara acak. Untuk menjawab masalah pertama, field notes dan interview digunakan. Sementara itu, guna menjawab masalah yang kedua, rubrik dan interview dilakukan bersamaan dengan statistik deskriptif. Perbandingan antara pre-test dan post-test juga dilakukan berkaitan dengan masalah kedua.

Hasil dari penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa penerapan Content-Based Instruction dalam kelas internasional di SMAN 3 Yogyakarta masih belum sempurna. Hal ini tidak membawa banyak pengaruh terhadap kemajuan kemampuan menulis bahasa Inggris siswa. Hasil dari t-test juga menunjukkan bahwa tidak ada kemajuan yang berarti dalam criteria yang mendapatkan pengaruh secara langsung.

Kata kunci : kelas internasional, Content-Based Instruction, program imersi, kemampuan menulis bahasa Inggris

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THE INFLUENCES OF CONTENT-BASED INSTRUCTION IMPLEMENTATION IN INTERNATIONAL CLASS

OF SMAN 3 YOGYAKARTA TOWARDS THE 11th GRADE STUDENTS’ ENGLISH WRITING SKILL PROFICIENCY

A THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree

in English Language Education

Chrysogonus Siddha Malilang 041214025

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM

DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION

FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

YOGYAKARTA

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The divine turtle may live long,

But it is still mortal and finally gone.

The mythical snake may ride cloud and mist,

Yet in the end it will turn to dust.

An old steed confined to his stable,

To gallop a thousand miles he aspires to be able.

A man of ambition in twilight years,

Extinguished not are his lofty ideals.

To meet calamity or fortune in the end,

Not only on fate does this depend.

If one knows the art of keeping healthy,

He will surely enjoy a long, long life.

Now I feel the greatest delight,

I pen this poem to glorify my thought.

(

Cao Cao – Three Kingdoms

)

I dedicate this thesis to all scholars, teachers, and academicians For teaching is a way to an eternal life, Where the parts of us will be transmitted to our students

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vii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, I would like to express my thanks to Lord God. Without His blessing, I would not have been able to complete my thesis and reach this point. He gives me strength to stand firm on any circumstances and supports me anytime I’m down.

I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to my major sponsor, Paulus Kuswandono, S.Pd., M.Ed., for his patience and guidance during my process of completing this writing. I would also like to give my gratitude to all PBI lecturers for their great contribution in my personal and social development, their honest and critical sharing, and many unforgettable memories.

I would also like to address my thanks to the teachers of SMAN 3 Yogyakarta who helped me during the research. Bu Teri, Bu Susilawati, Pak Kusworo, Pak Ichwan Aryono, Bu Ninik Sutarsini, Pak Budi Setyawan, and Bu Cherry. Without their kindness, it was impossible to gather all the required data for this research. I will not forget all students of XI A 1 SMAN 3 Yogyakarta 2007-2008, for their cooperation during my research. Thus, I owe them my deepest gratitude.

My thanks also go to my father, Drs. Richardus Wisma Nugraha Christianto, M.Hum., for all the times he spared for me. Anytime I need to consult my thesis, he is always there. My mother, Maria Caecilia Fellyana Junaedi, also played a significant role in supporting me, both physically and mentally. Thus, I also pledge my recognition for all her merits and credits to me

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during the completion process of this thesis, especially for the emotional support and guidance. I would also like to express my appreciation to my aunt, Dr. Marcelina Felicitas Sheelyana Junaedi, S.E., M.M., for giving me “morning session” of consultation about the whole statistical things as well as providing the books and theories. My deepest gratitude also goes to my brother, Agal, who coloured my every single day with his jokes and anger. To my beautiful cousins, Vindy and Sienna, who cheered me up and gave me their purest affection, I will also thank them.

My sincerest thanks go to my best friends as well as research collaborators, Elizabeth Bara, Ratna Paramita, and Brigitta Andriani, as well as my other best friends, Ronald, Panggih, Ruri, Andhi, and Eddy. I found precious friendship, even a bond of brethren with them. They have been providing a back up for me and warmth in time of great cold. Fransiska Novitasari, as the one helping me with the scoring sheet also get my special thanks. Last but not least, I would also like to thank Vina Andriani for her willingness to spare time and proofread my thesis.

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Page

TITLE PAGE... i

APPROVAL PAGES... ii

STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY... iv

DEDICATION PAGE…... v

STATEMENT OF PUBLICITY... vi

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS... vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS... ix

LIST OF TABLES... xiii

ABSTRACT... xiv

ABSTRAK... xv

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Research Background... 1

1.2 Problem Identification... 4

1.3 Problem Formulation... 5

1.4 Problem Limitation... 6

1.5 Research Objectives... 6

1.6 Research Benefits... 7

1.7 Definition of Terms... 8

CHAPTER II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE 2.1 Theoretical Description... 10

2.1.1 Content-Based Instruction... 10

2.1.1.1 The Definition of Language……….... 10

2.1.1.2 The Principles of Content-Based Instruction... 12

2.1.1.3 Objectives of Content-Based Instruction... 12

2.1.1.4 The Role of Teacher and Learners... 13

2.1.1.5 Comprehensible Input and Material Design... 14

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2.1.2 International Class... 17

2.1.3 Writing Skill………... 18

2.1.3.1 Nature of Writing……….…... 18

2.1.3.2 Principles of Teaching Writing…...…….…... 20

2.1.3.3 Criteria of Writing Proficiency……...….…... 21

2.1.3.4 Difficulty in Writing...……….…... 22

2.1.4 Discourse Analysis... 22

2.1.4.1 Background of Discourse Analysis.…….…... 22

2.1.4.2 Discourse Analysis on Written Language…... 23

2.1.4.3 L1 Interference towards L2……….…….…... 25

2.2 Theoretical Framework... 26

CHAPTER III. METHODOLOGY 3.1 Research Method... 28

3.2 Research Participants... 29

3.3 Research Instruments... 31

3.4 Data Gathering Technique... 34

3.5 Data Analysis Technique... 35

3.6 Research Procedure... 36

CHAPTER IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 4.1 The Content-Based Instruction Implementation in the International Class... 40

4.1.1 Brief Overview of International Class in SMAN 3 Yogyakarta... 41

4.1.1.1 The Implementation of Content Based Instruction... 41

4.1.1.2 The System of the Classes………... 41

4.1.1.3 The Emphasis of the Language Use..………... 43

4.1.2 The Implemented Principles of Content-Based Instruction in the International Class………...………. 44

4.1.3 The Role of Teacher and Learner………... 45

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4.1.4.2 The Material Delivery within the Lecturers’ Class... 48

4.1.4.3 The Modules………... 49

4.1.4.4 The Handouts Given in the Lecturers’ Class... 50

4.1.5 Types of Content-Based Instruction Implemented... 50

4.2 The Influences of CBI towards Students’ Writing Proficiency 52 4.2.1 Learners’ General Writing Proficiency Development... 53

4.2.2 Learners’ Awareness of the Audience and / or Purpose... 55

4.2.3 Idea Development………... 58

4.2.4 Organization of the Composition………... 60

4.2.5 Sentence Structure………... 62

4.2.6 Word Choice………... 65

4.3 The General Result of Content-Based Instruction Implementation 67 CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 5.1 Conclusions…... 69

5.2 Suggestions…... 72

5.2.1 Suggestions for Future Researchers... 72

5.2.1 Suggestions for SMAN 3 Yogyakarta... 73

REFERENCES... 75

APPENDICES... 78

APPENDIX 1 Introduction Letter for the Head of Bapeda DIY………... 79

APPENDIX 2 Permission Letter from the Head of Bapeda DIY………...……... 81

APPENDIX 3 Introduction Letter for the Mayor of Yogyakarta………... 83

APPENDIX 4 Permission Letter from the Mayor of Yogyakarta………... 85

APPENDIX 5 Interview Checklist……….………... 87

APPENDIX 6 Task for Pre-Test……….………... 88

APPENDIX 7 The Sample of Student’s Work in Pre-test………. 89

APPENDIX 8 Field Notes of Lecturer’s Chemistry Class……….... 91

APPENDIX 9 Field Notes of Teacher’s Physics Class ……….... 95

APPENDIX 10 Field Notes of Lecturer’s Physics Class………….……….... 99

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APPENDIX 13 The Sample of Student’s Work in Post-test……… 104

APPENDIX 14 The Result of Pre-test ……….... 106

APPENDIX 15 The Result of Post-test ………...………... 107

APPENDIX 16 The Calculation Result of SPSS 16.0.1 Full Version ………... 108

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Page

Table 3.1 Rubric of Writing Proficiency………... 32

Table 4.1 The Result of t-test for Pre-test – Post-test………... 55

Table 4.2 The Result of t-test for Learners’ Awareness………... 56

Table 4.3 The Result of t-test for Idea Development.………... 58

Table 4.4 The Result of t-test for Organization……..………... 60

Table 4.5 The Result of t-test for Sentence Structure………... 63

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xiv ABSTRACT

Keywords : International class, content-based instruction, immersion program, writing proficiency

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ABSTRAK

Kata kunci : kelas internasional, Content-Based Instruction, program imersi, kemampuan menulis bahasa Inggris

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1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

This chapter is divided into seven sections. The first section is the research background which explains the background knowledge of the study. The second section, problem identification, provides the identification of the specific problem in the study. Problem formulation, as the third section in this chapter, presents two research questions to answer as the focus of the study. The next section is Problem Limitation, which places the boundaries and limits the study to make it more focus. In the fifth section is the Research Objectives. The Benefits of the Study is in the sixth section, discusses the advantages of this study. The last section of this chapter is the Definition of Terms, which explains the terms used in this study to enable the reader reaching better understanding of this research.

1.1 Research Background

The needs and demands of English Language Mastery has surely become an inevitable requirement which every individual should have for facing the upcoming globalization era. This fact is closely related to the position of English as the first International Language, which will be used in many aspects, such as social, politic, commerce, and trading. Hence, the human resources with no good ability of English will be left behind in this era and rendered useless.

Regarding this problem, the Minister of Education in Indonesia has tried to implement several things in order to fix and improve the quality of English

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proficiency level and mastery in Indonesia. Some were counted failed. Whereas some others were not able to fulfil the deepest hope and objectives.

Responding to such challenge, based on the discussion with several headmasters in Yogya, some schools in Indonesia has tried to implement the immersion class. This immersion class is taking form of the international class where all the subjects are taught in English and told to be standardized by the so-called international curriculum. This programme is expected to result in the competitive human resources ready for the coming globalization era.

This programme, in turn, stirred up some confusion lingering in the discussion among international class and the immersion class. The real nature of international class is the class where the students came from the different countries, and thus learning the subject by making use of the international language, which is English. So, English serves as the uniting language. It does not become the main goal of the teaching-learning process.

The immersion class itself possesses the nature of learning the second or foreign language by utilizing that language in learning subject matter (Krashen, 1982). Thus, the immersion class is actually focusing on learning the language by providing more exposure towards target language. This exposure means that language will be the by product of this method.

By considering these natures of both international class and the immersion class, we can see that there is a slight misunderstanding and the confusion among the calling of international class towards the so-called international class held in the exemplary schools. The students are coming from the same countries, and thus

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sharing the same first language. Therefore, the use of English in this class serves as one of the goals rather than a uniting language.

Regardless of the effort and strategy used by the Minister of Education, there are always some controversies. One of the problematic problems lies in the aspect of the feasibility of the implementation of this class. Many people said that this class would bring no benefit at all, and no difference between this class and the regular class. Some people even think that the existence of the immersion class in certain schools is not more than the schools’ way to maintain or gain prestige in public, thus they will be famous and get the title of exemplary school (sekolah unggulan).

This assumption is strengthened through the researcher’s discussion with some teachers in some state schools in Yogyakarta as well as with some parents whose children study in the international class. Most of them see the effort of constructing the international class is just another way to justify and assume the title of exemplary school. These opinions are based on their observation that the international classes exist in some school are just merely a name. However, whether or not the international class is really making use of English language in delivering the materials to the students in all subjects, the decision of using the name international or immersion class brings about consequences that the implementation of Content-Based Instruction is of important.

The implementation of Content-Based Instruction implies its most crucial characteristic, the teaching of other subjects by using the second or foreign language. Therefore, the language mastery does not become the main goal or

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objective, but rather a by-product. The main goal of Content-Based Instruction is the mastery of the subject matter (Richards & Rodgers, 2001).

Content-Based Instruction itself is based on the principle of not teaching the formal aspects of language directly, but giving a lot of exposure through the authentic material instead. By giving more exposure, then logically the students will have better environment to facilitate his language learning and acquisition. Thus, this method, in one way or another must have connection with students’ language skills proficiency, such as reading, listening, speaking, and writing.

Among all of those skills, writing skill is the hardest to learn and acquire. This happens because writing is a productive skill, like speaking. However, unlike speaking, which can be acquired naturally as a result of being exposed to the language, writing has to be consciously learnt (Harmer, 2004). Nevertheless, writing skill plays an important role in the education and the globalization era.

The role it plays is in the informational and formal aspects. These include giving written direction, making report, or even composing the proposal for something, as well as to help the transfer of information or knowledge. In a broader and wider sense, writing is needed in a larger and industrialised society in order for bureaucratic organization to be successful (Harmer, 2004).

1.2 Problem Identification

The fact stated in the previous section becomes the basis of putting the emphasis on the writing skill in the research. Relating the formal purpose of the international or immersion class in Indonesia to prepare and produce competitive

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graduates in globalization era and the importance and urgency of English Skills mastery, so hereby the researcher started the study of the relation between the implementation of Content-Based Instruction in immersion class in Indonesia and this skill. Besides, by relating the nature of writing as the tacit knowledge to the implementation of Content-Based Instruction in the immersion class, the researcher really hopes to find the significances of this method, and thus at the same time also gives a clear illustration and portrayal of the International class itself.

There is no preceding research conducted on this topic, especially the implementation of Content-Based Instruction and the English Writing Skill mastery. So, this research will be expected to serve as the groundbreaker and the pioneer of this field. It is also expected to continue the study in the future.

1.3 Problem Formulation

In this thesis, the writer proposes some questions to answer, and thus being the guidelines of the process of writing and the research. Those questions are :

1. How are the main principles of Content-Based Instruction implemented in the international class of SMAN 3 Yogyakarta?

2. To what extent is the influence of the implementation of the Content-Based Instruction in the international class to the students’ proficiency of the English Writing skill?

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1.4 Problem Limitation

The research is limited to the English Writing skill proficiency, not covering the other skills, such as Speaking, Reading, and Listening. The limitation is also placed in the approach used, which is Content-Based Instruction, though in the later development, it may discuss a bit of Natural Approach since both of the approaches share the similar principles and nature. To achieve better result in the research itself, the subject will also be limited to the 2nd year students of the International Class in the SMAN 3 Yogyakarta. This part about the participants will be elaborated later on in the Chapter III.

1.5 Research Objectives

The objectives of conducting this research are related to the problem identification. They are :

1. To provide a clear and critical analysis of the implementation of the main principle of the Content-Based Instruction in the international class. This will also expose the practical level of teaching learning activity in the international class itself.

2. To unveil the influence of the implementation of the Content-Based Instruction in the teaching-learning activity in the immersion class to the students’ English Writing skill proficiency. This objective seeks to prove that the exposure to English continuously, not only in the English class, will bring a greater impact on the students’ English Writing Skill proficiency.

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1.6 Research Benefits

The researcher expects that this research will bring benefits to the readers, to the English teachers, and will bring insight on the implementation of the Content-Based Instruction in the immersion class, especially to the policy makers, and thus it is expected also to be helpful for everyone needing it.

For the students, especially the English Education Study Programme students, the researcher expects that this thesis will give clearer information on the Content-Based Instruction, by giving the clearer and feasible case. Thus, the students know not only the main principles of the Content-Based Instruction, but also how to apply and the problem facing the implementation of the approach in the further development.

For the policy makers, the researcher expects that this thesis will give a suggestion and guidelines for the evaluation of the policy, and hence will lead into the policy betterment, thus increasing the quality of Education in Indonesia.

For the English teacher, the researcher expect to give a clear evaluation on the Content-Based Instruction, and its implementation, so that the English teachers will be able to cope up with both the weaknesses and the strength of the application of this approach in the teaching-learning activity, and thus lead into the betterment of the approach, or even give birth to the new and better approach.

This thesis is also expected to give at least basic insights into the Content-Based Instruction, and so it will be helpful for the future researchers who want to conduct a study on the similar topic.

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1.7 Definition of Terms

In order to clarify the concept used in the research, avoid the misinterpretation, and thus give clearer boundaries of the discussion in the research, the researcher provides the definition of the key-terms used in the research.

1. Content-Based Instruction

According to Krahnke, Content-Based Instruction is the teaching of content or information in the language being learned with little or no direct or explicit effort to teach the language itself separately from the content being taught (Krahnke, 1987).

2. Immersion Class / Programme

In the revised book of How Languages are Learned, Lightbown and Spada provided a clear definition of the immersion class, which is an educational programme in which a second language is taught via content-based instruction. That is, students study subjects such as mathematics and social studies in their target language. In this programme, the emphasis is on the subject matter learning, and little time is spent focusing on the formal aspects of the target language. Typically, students in immersion class all share the same first language (Lightbown & Spada, 2000).

3. International Class

To avoid having the confusion and misinterpretation between International Class and the Immersion Class, therefore the researcher would like to distinguish those two by making use of different definitions.

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By referring to the nature of the international school, thus the researcher proposes the definition of International class as the class which use the same introductory language, as the students came from different countries. Hence, there is the fact that there is a great possibility that the students do not share the same first language. Thus, in this international class, the second language is served as the unifying language among those students coming from different countries. However, in this thesis, both terms are used interchangeably.

4. 2nd Year Students of Senior High School

Seeing from the average age of 2nd year students of Senior High School, we can see that they are mostly teenagers in the age of 15 – 17. At this age, their motivation to study is based by their choice of future occupation and skills related to it. (Hurlock, 2004) Therefore, it is safe to conclude that the 2nd year students of senior high school refer to those teenagers with the average age of 15 – 17, equipped with enough background knowledge from their ten years studying in school.

5. Writing Skill

The writing skill is defined by Sokolik as both a physical and mental act, both to express and impress, and both a product and process (Sokolik, 2003, in Nunan, 2003). Basing the definition on Sokolik’s, this research would define writing as the physical and mental act to express something and give impression, which can be seen both as a product and also a process.

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10 CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

In this chapter, the researcher provides the theoretical description serving as the basis and ground for the whole research itself. Beside the theoretical description, the researcher also provides the theoretical framework which will link and give the logical order of the theories used in the research as a whole.

2.1 Theoretical Description

The theoretical description includes the basic theory of Content-Based Instruction, which is one of the main emphases in this research. The next theory provided is the nature of the international class itself, to give a clear insight of the object of the research. After explaining the nature of the international class, the researcher also provides a theoretical description of the nature of English Writing skill and its teaching. The next theoretical description will deal with the theory of discourse analysis and the L1 interference which will be employed in the analysis.

2.1.1 Content-Based Instruction 2.1.1.1 The Definition of Language

In the implementation of certain method or approach, the first thing to do is to define the language, so that it will help reaching the goal of the method. Therefore, it also provides a clear basis of the method’s direction. This thing is also applied in the Content-Based Instruction.

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In this approach, the language is defined as text and discourse based, which is considered as a vehicle for learning content. Thus learning the language is considered as a by product of learning the content or subject matter. The focus of the teaching itself is in how meaning and information are communicated and constructed through texts and discourse. The central linguistic unit is not limited to the level of the sentence, but also to the discourse in form of authentic material. The second definition of language in content-based instruction is the combination of several skills. This in turn makes language as a single integrated skill. In the flow of the programme, the students are often involved in activities that link the skills, according to how the skills are generally involved in the real context.

In the third definition, language is regarded as something purposeful, and may be used for specific purpose. The purpose may be academic, social, recreational, but it gives direction, shape, and ultimately meaning to discourse and text. In order to receive maximum benefits from Content-Based Instruction, the learners need to be clearly in tune with its purposes and the language codes that signal and link these expressions of purpose (Richards & Rodgers, 2001).

From the definition of the language used in formulating Content-Based Instruction, we can get a clear illustration of the method. This illustration also involves insight on the main principles of Content-Based Instruction. These principles will be elaborated in the next part.

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2.1.1.2 The Principles of Content-Based Instruction

As defined before in the previous chapter, content-based instruction mainly deals with the subject matter and the content, and thus it is not organized around the formal aspects of the language or the linguistic fields.

According to Richards and Rodgers (2001), there are two central principles in Content-Based Instruction, namely :

a. People learn a second language more successfully when they use the language as a means of acquiring information, rather than as an end in itself.

b. Content-Based Instruction better reflects learners’ needs for leaning a second language. This implied the fact that many content-based programme serves to prepare ESL students for academic purpose or for mainstreaming, therefore the main emphasis of this case is the effectiveness and the speed of learning and mastering the content. Considering the two central principles in Content-Based Instruction, we can really see that it deals mainly with the content, not the language used in delivering the course. Thus, language will be the by-product of this method, not the main focus. On the other hand, the effectiveness and the learning pace will also be increased.

2.1.1.3 Objectives of Content-Based Instruction

As an approach in language teaching, Content-Based Instruction possessed some objectives. These objectives have been elaborated by Brinton, Snow, and

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Wesche (1989) in their book, Content-Based Second Language Instruction. They are :

a. To activate and develop existing English language skills

b. To acquire learning skills and strategies that could be applied in future language development opportunities

c. To develop general academic skills applicable to university studies in all subject areas

d. To broaden students’ understanding of English-speaking people Seeing the stated objectives, we can clearly see that content-based instruction aims to excel both the content mastery and language mastery. Furthermore, there is also the objective to help the further improvement. The additional aim is also related to the cross-cultural understanding, as seen in the last stated objective.

2.1.1.4 The Role of Teacher and Learners

The ideal role of teacher in the implementation of the Content-Based Instruction is to be the facilitators. They need to keep context and comprehensibility especially in their planning and presentation, analyze the students’ needs, and responsible to create a truly-learner centred class.

The learners themselves should also assume their role as the autonomous beings responsible for their own learning process. The real nature of Content-Based Instruction is “learning by doing”, and thus most Content-Content-Based Instruction anticipate that students will support each other in collaborative learning.

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Therefore, the learners are also expected to be active learners. They may become the source of content and joint participants in the selection of topics and activities.

2.1.1.5 Comprehensible Input and the Material Design

According to Krashen (1985), the material for the immersion class should be constructed by considering the comprehensible input hypothesis. Comprehensible input itself will give significant impact towards students’ language acquisition, especially in the immersion program such as the international class. Enough exposure of the comprehensible input itself will give higher guarantee of achieving success in acquiring the language for the students.

To place material as the comprehensible input does not necessarily mean that the difficulty level should be downgraded, but placing the difficulty level at least a level higher than students’ proficiency (i + 1). Other than posing challenge towards students, they will actually be able to decode the message, by utilizing extra linguistic context, knowledge of the world, and the previous linguistic competence. Thus, by utilizing previous competence to decode higher level message, students will subconsciously tap into a higher level of language proficiency.

In the case of immersion program, the speech taking place around the students is considered as the comprehensible input. So, by the constant trial of using second language in class, students are having a larger exposure. And since most of them are in the same proficiency level, then the input is comprehensible

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for them. Therefore, students’ proficiency is allowed to develop on its own, with little emphasis on error correction and grammatical accuracy.

One interesting point from the comprehensible input hypothesis in immersion class (Krashen, 1985) is the fact that students are allowed to give respond in their first language during the early years of studying, simultaneously with their silent period in second language to gather enough grammatical rule and vocabulary items. This will increase their communication and chances of getting enough comprehensible input.

2.1.1.6 Prototypes of Content-Based Instruction

In order to provide a clearer illustration of the content-based instruction, there are three different prototypes given by Brinton (2003), such as :

1. Theme-based language instruction

In this kind of instruction, the teacher uses a certain theme as a point of departure for instruction in teaching all the language skills. The thematic content stretches over several meetings of instruction, providing rich input for lesson that are either language-based or skill-based.

2. Sheltered content instruction

In this type of instruction, the subject-matter teacher has already had special training in working with second language. Since the students are still in the process of acquiring the second or additional language, then the teacher will modify the presentation style to help the students comprehend the material. The main objective is still helping students mastering the subject

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matter, but at the same time, the teacher also spends more time helping students with language-related issues.

3. Adjunct instruction

In using the adjunct instruction, there must be more than two instructors. These two instructors will make use of the same material to teach the class, but from different point of emphasis. One instructor will use the material to teach the content matter, whereas the other will use it to teach the language skills.

The different types of Content-Based Instruction carry with themselves a number of implications concerning the matter of appropriateness for particular teaching-learning setting and proficiency level. Furthermore in this matter, Brinton et al. (1989) also pointed out that sheltered and adjunct instruction are not suggested for lower level of second language proficiency, for their insufficient language competence and the conceptual complexity of subject matter.

2.1.1.7 Advantages and Disadvantages of Content-Based Instruction

The use of subject matter and content in this approach provides certain advantages. The first one is the raising motivation of the students, because they will get the desire material, which sometimes can be so interesting as well. The second advantage is the indirect process of learning the language, or can also be regarded as the acquisition process. The third advantage lies to the fact that the students are sometimes having the greater background knowledge towards some subjects, and thus the teaching-learning activity will be more interesting and

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efficient, for the teacher only needs to activate prior knowledge (schemata). The next advantage lies in the fact that the learners will acquire the language in the context of its use, eliminating the problem of transfer from instruction to use. (Krahnke, 1987).

However, besides having those advantages, the Content-Based Instruction also has some drawbacks, such as the problem of the adult learners in learning the language as explained also by Krahnke (1987: 70). It happened because of the adult needs’ of analytical and formal instruction in language. This analytical and formal instruction will help them to overcome their affective resistance and to equip them with limited formal and metalinguistic skill needed to refine their second language ability. This problem is rarely encountered in the children learners, most possibly because of the existence of the brain lateralization process, following the critical period theory.

2.1.2 International Class

There are several interpretations about international class. Most people believe that international class is a mere classroom with English as the language of instruction. On the other hand, some other people interpret international class as a classroom employing the international curriculum, and do not use English as the language of instruction fully.

However, whichever interpretation is employed, we can still come into the conclusion that the international class employs a Content-Based Instruction, whether it is complementary or fully. It means that the regular school curriculum

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is taught through the medium of foreign language. It is the vehicle for the content instruction, not the subject of instruction.(Richards & Rodgers, 2001)

Richards and Rodgers (2001) stated that in immersion programme, the students’ goals are:

• Developing a high level of proficiency in the foreign language

• Developing positive attitude toward those who speak the foreign language and toward their culture

• Developing English skills commensurate with expectations for a student’s age and abilities

• Gaining designated skills and knowledge in the content areas of the curriculum

In the setting of the research, there is an additional characteristic of the international class, which are the assumption of the smart students. This is because of the needs of conducting the pre-test, one thing that the regular class doesn’t have, to determine whether a candidate is eligible or not to join the International Class.

2.1.3 Writing Skill 2.1.3.1 Nature of Writing

Most people believe that the writing skill is the hardest part of language to learn. This belief rises based on the fact that writing has to be taught, unlike speaking which is acquired naturally, and often considered innate. It also

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considered hard because writing is also involving the spelling, punctuation, grammar, register, and diction.

Sokolik (2003) provides a series of contrast which can be employed to define writing appropriately. She defined writing as the physical act – in the way that the writer should commit words or idea into some medium – and as the mental act – in the way that the writer should also organize and arrange the idea in the mental process. From the point of purpose, writing is both to express the writer’s idea or opinion, and also serves to impress the readers. The last contrast is in the concept of writing as the process – in which the writer should imagine, organize, draft, edit, read, and reread – and the product, in which the reader only sees.

Ong in his book, Orality and Literacy, The Technologizing of the Word (1982) also gave the explanation of writing as mark of the higher literacy of man. He pointed out that the thinking and verbal communication of purely oral cultures is basically man’s primary orality. Without writing, verbal utterances can be exquisitely tooled and beautiful, but lack of word-for-word accuracy. Thus, by the creation of writing, it verifies and at the same time extends the span of man’s memory.

Still from Ong (1982), writing in its full sense of a visual code truly represents the individual sound of a given language. It does not represent objects or things, but utterances. By the nature of writing as the coded system of visible system, the writer can determine the exact words that a reader will generate from the text. It even puts records of utterances on a visible surface that works normally

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or even ideally with both isolated reader – whom a group of associated readers would normally only impede - and non-isolated reader. Therefore, it gives universal effect.

2.1.3.2 Principles of Teaching Writing

In relation with the teaching English, Sokolik (2003) also proposed several principles of teaching writing. They are:

a. Understand student’s reason for writing

b. Provide many opportunities for students to write

The opportunities are important and play important role, for according to Capricornia (2001), individual learning occupied more than 50 % of the activities in learning writing.

c. Make feedback helpful and meaningful

The immediate feedback is considered helpful. The consideration of the gradation or sequencing of the activity types is considered important to support the development of students’ writing performance. (Capricornia, 2001)

d. Clarity for the teacher and students, how to evaluate the writing

These principles are the ones implemented in an ideal writing class. After seeing the basic principles of teaching writing, the next step is the evaluation of the teaching process, the scoring. Thus, the criteria of writing proficiency is as important as the principles.

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2.1.3.3 Criteria of Writing Proficiency

Setting up the criteria to determine students’ proficiency in writing can be complicated, because there are many things implied in writing. Several experts gave the criteria to asses and thus determine students’ writing proficiency, but they are differing one another.

The first criterion is given by Ken Hyland in his book Second Language Writing (Hyland, 2003). He only pointed out three major areas in determining students’ proficiency, which are Content (dealing with stated event, document event, significance, and personal comment on event), Structure (dealing with orientation, background, chronological order, and reorientation), and Language (dealing with language control, diction, grammar, and style). This, by far is the simplest criteria of writing proficiency.

The next criteria are developed by Brown and Balley (1984, as quoted by Brown, 2004). They are Organization, Logical Development of Ideas, Grammar, Punctuation, Spelling, Mechanics, and Styles. Seeing from the included criteria, we can see that these are concerned about the structure and the mechanic of the writing itself.

Another expert, Arthur Hughes (1989) developed other criteria. These criteria include Communicative Quality, Organization, Argumentation, Linguistic Accuracy, and Linguistic Appropriately. These criteria are mostly concerned with the application and communication mean of the writing rather than the structure.

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2.1.3.4 Difficulty in Writing

Irmarini (2003) in her thesis Why English is so Difficult for Senior High School Students stated that the most common difficulty in the writing faced by the students is that they are confused in formulating the opening and closing sentences, how to produce acceptable good sentence for a particular kind of composition. Another obstacle in writing is closely related to the students’ concentration, which will be split up over many things to consider, such as the grammar, spelling, punctuation, and many others.

This difficulty, together with the fact that writing is a tacit knowledge has formed an assumption towards students that writing is very hard.

2.1.4 Discourse Analysis

2.1.4.1 Background of Discourse Analysis

Discourse analysis is basically a study of the relationship between language and the contexts in which it is used (McCarthy, 1991). Coulthard (1985) explained that this branch of linguistic basically has its root in the incapability of syntax in explaining the nonsense structure. Thus, this gave birth to the semantics. Semantics grew into pragmatics after considering the existence of context. In a broader context, when the language is seen not only as single sentence or utterances but also as a discourse, the study of discourse analysis was born.

It has become a wide-range and heterogeneous discipline that unites in the description of language above the sentence and an interest in the contexts and cultural influences which affect language in use (McCarthy, 1991). When we say

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that a particular bit of speech or writing is a request or an instruction or an exemplification we are concentrating on what that piece of language is doing, or how the listener/reader is supposed to react; this is called speech acts (Fromkin, Rodman, and Hyams, 2007). Discourse analysis is fundamentally concerned with the relationship between language and the context of its use.

2.1.4.2 Discourse Analysis on Written Language

Basically, the main questions in conducting the analysis on written discourse is the norm or rules people adhere when creating written texts. The written discourse analysis seeks to find the recurring principles in the structure of the text, the hierarchy of units comparable to acts, moves, as well as the exchanges. (McCarthy, 1991)

Other than looking for those principles, the written discourse analysis also tries to see at how the grammar of English offers a limited set of option for creating surface links between the clause and sentences, or commonly known as cohesion (McCarthy, 1991). Furthermore, the written discourse analysis also tries to analyse the coherence of the text. Coherence is the link or the relation in the meaning between one sentence to another.

In doing the written discourse analysis from a certain text, we can also see the writer’s lexical competence and the register mastery, instead of only the organization of the text. In analysing register mastery, we need to also consider the three aspects of register as proposed by Halliday (Aveling, 2007). They are the field (what is happening), the tenor (who is involved and the relationship among

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them), and the mode (how this is worked out). By considering these three aspects, we can also see students’ appropriateness of using the vocabulary items. Thus, measuring writer’s lexical competence and the register mastery will be seen in a broader context, not only from how many items that they already master.

However, to understand fully all those things, we also need to consider the type of the text or the genre. According to Carolyn Miller (as quoted by Aveling, 2007), genre is a typified rhetorical action in recurrent situation which becomes regular / pattern. From the definition above, we can see that a genre is not strictly applied, since it must also consider the specific context in which it occurs.

According to Aveling (2007), in the pedagogical realm, there are six common genres of writing used in school, which are :

a. recount Æ used to tell what had happened b. instruction Æ how to make something c. narrative Æ telling a story

d. information report Æ communication with another person e. explanation Æ how something works

f. arguments Æ building a case about a particular topic

Related to the culture, we can also see from the discourse analysis that the L1 culture might be transferred to L2 sentences, thus resulting in syntactically correct sentences, but semantically or pragmatically incorrect in L2. This has a close relation to the interference of L1 towards L2 acquisition

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2.1.4.3 L1 Interference towards L2

In teaching the language, its goal was to develop L2 as the coordinate system, which is independent of the learners' L1, rather than being a compound system, in which the L1 accompanied and dominated attempted behaviour in the L2 (Ellis, 1992). However, this goal is so hard to achieve in reality. Most of the case, L2 being a compound system in the classroom. This, in turn, raising the case of transfer / interference error, in which the learners attempt to use L1 pattern in L2 context, thus the resulting form is incorrect within the context (Gass & Selinker, 2001).

The interference is mostly caused by learners' limited awareness and overgeneralization of language-neutral item. According to Gass and Selinker (2001), language-neutral-items are the items a learner believes are common across all languages. In relation to this concept, the learners would probably assume that learning to express some concepts in L2 only involves learning the specific lexical items and appropriate word order of the L2. In doing so, learners have ignored the existence of language specific items, which includes syntactic structures, idioms, slang, collocation, and many others. However, if learners are successfully noticing the useful language-neutral-item, not over generalizing it, the knowledge of the L1 might be useful. Thus, the transfer of L1 will be a positive transfer, when the previous knowledge facilitates the learning of a new material.

The theory of L1 interference is employed here based on the Yoseph’s finding (1996) in his thesis, that the students’ prior knowledge of Indonesian Loan Words will influence the mastery of English vocabulary, although very small.

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Moreover, in the case of the similar form, it needs special treatments, because mostly it will function differently in L1 and L2 context.

2.2 Theoretical Framework

In conducting the research, the theories that will be used are the basic theory of content-based instruction, the theory of discourse analysis, and the theory of the L1 Interference.

Content-Based Instruction is basically an approach about how to teach a language through certain subject matter. Thus, the language acquisition is not the main product, but a by-product instead. This theory will be used mainly to identify the teaching-learning activities done in the international class. The research aims to seek the implementation of the principles of content-based instruction in the international / immersion class, so the theory will practically serve as the checklist of the observation. However, the theory will not only be used as the checklist, but also as the basic theory of the research, for further analysis. The analysis will be conducted by comparing and contrasting the activities in the practical level with the ideal practice in theory.

As the object of this research is writing proficiency, the researcher also includes the basic theory of writing skill. The elaboration of this theory includes the nature of writing, the principles of teaching writing, difficulties in writing, and the criteria of writing proficiency. This elaboration serves as the basic in conducting the research. The elaboration of the criteria also serves as the basic in determining students’ writing proficiency later on.

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The theory about discourse analysis, serves as the basic theory of the analysis of students’ English writing skill proficiency. Discourse analysis itself is the theory which deals with the language use in the specific context, a development from pragmatics. The theory will be used as the basic theory and guidelines for analysing the students’ composition, to see students’ achievement in English writing skill. From the discourse analysis, the researcher will be able to find out the obstacles in writing, such as the weak lexical competence, writing organization (including the use of cohesion and coherence), and also the transfer culture happened, whether the students, with all their exposure towards English, are able to construct syntactically and semantically correct sentences according to the English language.

As the setting of the research is the Indonesia, in which English is not L1, the researcher includes one of the theories from the study of second language acquisition. This theory is about L1 interference towards L2. The theory explained that the mastery of L1 will have one or more interference towards the acquisition and use of L2 in the real context. This theory of the L1 interference is employed to help in the discourse analysis, to seek the influence of L1 to the L2 in the written discourse. The interference is expected to happen within the wording and sentence structure formation. From the result of the analysis, the students’ writing proficiency can be concluded.

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28 CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY

In this chapter, the researcher will provide the methodology applied in conducting the research. The explanation of the detailed methodology in this research will be elaborated under several subtitles, which are Research Method, Research Participants, Research Instruments, Data Gathering Technique, Data Analysis Technique, and Research Procedure.

3.1 Research Method

The methodology which was used in this research was the combination of qualitative and quantitative research. The qualitative method was used considering its nature to provide the comprehensive understanding on social phenomena from the perspective of the human participants in the study (Ary, Jacobs, and Razavieh, 1999). Furthermore, the problem of the research here about Content-based Instruction and students writing is closely related to the unique human behaviour as well as a new phenomenon. Since the basic root of qualitative research is phenomenology, thus this methodology was taken into account. Another consideration of taking qualitative method was its ability to take into account not only what people do, but also how they think and feel, thus providing the chance to conduct the in-depth analysis (Ary et al., 1999).

The quantitative method was also used in the research, combined with the qualitative method. Though both have different nature, the combination of both

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methods is also widely used. Hammersley (1996, as quoted in Ary et al., 1999) said that researchers can combine both approaches in three ways: using one to verify the findings of the other; using one as the groundwork for the other; and using them in complementary fashion. In this case, the third way was the basic consideration of the combination, where the supporting data acquired through the quantitative means conducted in some stages would greatly help the flow of the study.

This study was divided into two studies; they were review of the literature as the secondary study, serving as the basic theory that would support the analysis later. Beside to find the basic theory to serve as the underlying principles, the researcher also hoped that by doing the literature review, the researcher would not end up re-inventing existing wheel that was already in the literature.

The primary study of this research is the descriptive study, a study attempted to describe certain phenomenon. The reason of choosing the method of descriptive study is the fact that this subject is a whole process with many interdependent and interconnected variables playing role in the event, which cannot be seen through quantitative study or merely statistical study.

3.2 Research Participants

After getting the permission from the government (Appendix 2 and 4), the population was selected. The population which was used in this research is the second year international class students of SMAN 3 Yogyakarta. The second year students were chosen based on certain considerations, which were the amount of

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the exposure to English, the experience, and the broader knowledge compared to those of first year students. Another consideration of choosing the second year students was the fact that the third year students should not be disturbed and should place their concentration and the priority to the coming National Exam.

Beside based on the fact that the second year students are having more exposure to the English, the sampling was also based on the consideration that the second year students are by far more relaxed because they have adjusted themselves to the school environment, whereas the first year should adjust themselves to their new school environment, which puts burden on them.

Basically, the background knowledge of the samples on English Language was quite good because of the nature of the immersion class. Every student who is accepted in the international class has been selected by using a test, especially on English, and thus we could safely assume that their basic ability in English is quite good, compared to those in regular class. But, things needed to be taken into account were the talented people who were not interested in the immersion class, and thus were placed on the regular class.

For the sake of the research reliability and validity, the researcher made use of random sampling, which draws a sample randomly from the whole population, so that it was not subject to the researcher's biases. In this case, the list of population was generated through student number in the presence list. The number of the subject is n = (N / 2) + 1, in which N is the total number of population, to maintain the validity of the sample as well as limiting the probability of data saturation.

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The total number of students in the class is 38 (N). So, the number of the sample is:

n = (38 / 2) + 1 = 20

Seeing the result of the calculation, then the researcher would take 20 students out of the whole population.

3.3 Research Instruments

The research instruments employed in this research were the field notes of class activity, rubric for the document analysis, the interview checklist, and the tests.

1. Field Notes

The field notes were employed as one of the research instruments to ensure the validity, reliability, and the objectivity of the observation. Other than that, it was also used to provide a clearer insight and references in analyzing the real teaching-learning activity as well as the unbiased judgement. The unbiased observation data was acquired through the division of the fact and the observer’s comment (OC). The use of field notes is closely related to the first research question, the implementation of the main principle of Content Based Instruction in the immersion class. The result of the field notes can be seen in the Appendix 7 – 10.

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2. Rubric

The rubric was adapted from the original Holistic Scoring rubric developed by Callahan (1997, as quoted in Hyland, 2002). There are five categories scored in the rubric, which are the awareness of audience and / or purpose, the development of the idea and detail usage, organization of the composition, sentence structure used within the writing, and the word choice.

Each category will be classified again in three levels, regarding the condition, as seen in the following table.

Category Novice (1) Apprentice (2) Proficient (3) Distinguished (4) Awareness of the audience and/or purpose Limited awareness of audience and/or purpose Attempting to establish and maintain purpose and communication with the audience

Focused on purpose, evidence of voice and/or suitable tone

Establishes and maintains clear focus; evidence of distinctive voice and/or appropriate tone

Idea

development and details use

Minimal idea development, limited details Unelaborated idea development, unelaborated and/or repetitious details

Depth of idea development supported by elaborated details

Depth and complexity of ideas supported by rich details; insight analysis, reflection Organization of the composition Random and/or weak organization

Lapses in focus and/or coherence Logical organization Careful and/or subtle organisation Sentence structure Incorrect and/or ineffective sentence structure Simplistic and/or awkward sentence structure Controlled and varied sentence structure

Variety in sentence structure and length Word choice Incorrect and/or

ineffective wording Simplistic and/or imprecise language Acceptable, effective language

Precise and/or rich language

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This rubric played an important role in analyzing students’ compositions and notes, for the students’ English writing skill proficiency is reflected here. Thus, the role of the rubric in this research is closely related to the second research question, which is the extent of the influence of the implementation of the Content-Based Instruction in the immersion class to the students’ mastery of the English Writing skill.

3. Interview Checklist

The interview checklist was employed in conducting the interview, so that the information obtained were complete and comprehensive. The interview itself was conducted to gather supporting data about the influence of the implementation of Content Based Instruction to the students’ English writing skill mastery. Most of the questions in the interview dealt with students’ personal opinion on the implementation of the Content-Based Instruction towards their progress in mastering English Writing skill, the second formulated problem.

In order to be in depth in the research investigation, the interview also employed a checklist on the ESL generated by Lightbown & Spada (1999) to go deeper into the analysis, which included the information about the learning condition including the freedom to be silent, ample time, corrective feedback on grammar, pronunciation, diction, and the existence of modified input. The sample can be seen in Appendix 5.

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4. Pre-test and Post-test

The pre-test and post-test were employed to see whether the Content-Based Instruction employed within the international class helped students improved their writing proficiency. The pre-test was taken from the final test of the odd semester, while the post-test was conducted as the quiz in the end of even semester. In both tests, students were expected to write essay. In the pre-test, they were expected to write general essays, while in the post-test, the specific genre, argumentative essay, was expected. The tests can be seen in the Appendix 6 and Appendix 12

By utilizing these three instruments, each corresponded to the formulated problem, and then the result of this research is expected to be clear and comprehensive.

3.4 Data Gathering Technique

The data gathering was conducted through the interview, the observation, field notes, and the given task. All of these techniques will be explained in the next paragraphs.

The interview was conducted to unveil the in-depth relation between the implementation of the content-based instruction and the students’ English writing skill mastery in a personal level. From the result of this interview, it is expected that the discussion could be more comprehensive and detailed.

The observation was conducted in the classroom during the teaching-learning activity. However, in this research, researcher observed without

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participating or taking any active part in the situation (nonparticipant observation). In order to obtained unbiased and valid data, the field notes were used. This method was expected to guarantee the validity and reliability of the data due to the basic nature of the field notes itself.

The documents were gathered through the task to write composition and also borrowing some students’ written project and report on other subjects. Thus, the document to analyze here is the primary source.

3.5 Data Analysis Technique

To analyze the data, the researcher made use of the existing theory. The gained data were compared and contrasted to the theory, so that the researcher gained the result. For example, from the field notes, the researcher compared the teaching-learning activity according to the basic and central principles of the content-based instruction, and thus the deviation in the practical level of the approach can be found, if any.

In analyzing the students’ writing mastery, the researcher made use of students’ task to write certain composition. The compositions themselves were then analyzed by using the theory of discourse analysis and sociolinguistics to get the insight on students’ fluency and organization in writing, and also to analyze the remaining influence of students’ L1 in writing in L2. All the employed theory had been applied in the rubric. Thus, the analysis was done through the rubrics.

During the analysis process, there were several criteria that were used to measure students’ mastery. These criteria are the awareness of audience and / or

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purpose, the development of the idea and detail usage, organization of the composition, sentence structure used within the writing, and the word choice. Each criterion had three different score, from 1 to 4. The scores for all the criteria were then be summed up and calculated for the average value.

Students will be considered to have excellent proficiency if their average score is 3,3 - 4. Whereas if they can only obtain the average score of 2,5 - 3,2, then they can only be considered as having good proficiency of writing. If the students are only able to obtain the average score of 1,7 – 2,4 then they is considered as having a medium proficiency of writing. If the students are not able to reach the average score of 1,7, then the writing proficiency is considered as bad.

In order to point out whether the influence in each criterion is significant or not as well as the triangulation method, the researcher made use of statistical mean. The data from pre-test and post-test were calculated for the t-test by utilizing SPSS 16.0.1 Full Version. The result of the t-test was automatically converted into the p-value or the significance by the embedded t-table within the SPSS program. Combined with the social statistical research rule of thumb which places the threshold of tolerance higher than those in scientific research, the maximum tolerance value (p-value) is 0.10 or 10%.

3.6 Research Procedure

In conducting this research, the steps of doing the descriptive research given by Ary et al. (1972) were used. These steps are:

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a. Selection of the problem and the topic of the research. The reason of choosing this has been already elaborated on the first chapter of this thesis. b. Identification of the information needed to solve the problem. In this steps, the researcher listed what information should be collected, as well as classified the information. The review of the literature needed to serve as the basic of the research was also conducted here. From the wide range of the theories available, the researcher chose some that were suitable for this research. These theories would then be put into some theoretical framework. This also included designing the rough draft of the research. c. Selection or development of instruments for gathering the data. In this

step, the researcher began selecting and developing appropriate instrument used in gathering the data. The choice of the instrument was based on the formulated problems, so that the gained data were really the data needed to answer the problem. Considering the problem formulation in Chapter I, then the researcher developed the interview checklist to be the guidelines of the interview.

d. Identification of the target population and determination of any necessary sampling procedure. In this step, the researcher looked for the information needed to identify the characteristic of the sample. After the researcher acquired the information that all the XI students in SMAN 3 Yogyakarta are in the international class, then the discussion with the teacher responsible to the classes was conducted. From the discussion, the researcher then decided to use XI IPA 1 as the sample. However, since the

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class consisted of 40 students, in which will be difficult to conduct in-depth research, thus the method of random sampling with the amount of 50 % + 1 was chosen.

e. Design of the procedure for data collection. In this step, the researcher made the practical schedule for obtaining the sample and using the instruments.

f. Collection of the data. This step began with the analysis of the pre-test. The pre-test was taken from the writing section of English final test result that was held in December 2007 (Appendix 6). After that, the research continued with the observation to the immersion class. In the observation itself, the researcher made field notes. During this process, the researcher was also gaining new data and information about international class through the discussion with the headmaster and the teacher. The information was about the adaptation of Cambridge international curriculum to the international class in SMAN 3 Yogyakarta, the technical problem, and the additional test, A Level. On the other hand, to assess the students’ English writing skill mastery from the subconscious personal level, the researcher also assessed and analyzed students’ notes on the subjects other than English for the spontaneous writing result. The data gathering was continued into the deeper level by employing the interview technique, so that the personal data may be collected. In the interview, the concept of data saturation was also employed to avoid having redundancy of the information. The last data gathering process was done by giving

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task to the students to make their own composition, serving as the data of their achievement after underwent the teaching learning process (Appendix 15).

g. Analysis of the data. The analysis of the data was conducted through the analysis of students´ compositions. The compositions were analyzed by employing the theory of discourse analysis to find about the students’ level of English writing mastery, and also the diction and choice of words. To help the analysis, the rubric elaborated in this chapter was used. The result of the document analysis was taken into account and the researcher peeked at the result of the pre-test as the comparison. The score from pre-test and the post-test were calculated for t-test by SPSS 16.0.1 Full Version. Using the automatically converted t-value to p-value, the significance was concluded.

h. Preparation of the report. Within this step, the researcher started to arrange the gained data, and then processed all the data into a report.

By implementing these steps, the result of the research is expected to be organized and structured in a logical order. The result and discussion of it will be done in the next chapter.

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40 CHAPTER IV

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter discusses the answers to questions that are formulated in the problem formulation and the result of the whole research. The discussion is divided into two parts. The first part is the discussion of the implementation of content-based instruction within the international class. This part provides the answer to the first formulated problem. The second part provides the answer for the second formulated problem. The last part overviews the general result of the content-based implementation in the class. Each analysis is discussed and strengthened by using theories that are stated in the review of related literature.

4.1 The Content-Based Instruction Implementation in the International Class This section specifically discusses the whole content-based instruction implemented in the International Class in SMAN 3 Yogyakarta. The discussion includes the basic nature of this international class to give a brief and clear portrayal of the real condition in the research setting. The implementation of this method will also be discussed in some sections covering the role of teacher and learners within the class, the analysis of the authentic material used in the teaching learning process based on the consideration of the principle of comprehensible input, as well as the type of the content-based instruction implemented. Thus, this section specifically addresses the first research question in chapter I.

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4.1.1 Brief Overview of International Class in SMAN 3 Yogyakarta 4.1.1.1 The Implementation of Content-Based Instruction

Based on the interview with the teaching team of the international class in SMAN 3 Yogyakarta, which was conducted before the observation, the researcher acquired the information that the Content-Based Instruction was not fully implemented in all the subjects. Rather, the method was only implemented within mathematic and science classes. The consideration of choosing only these classes to implement the content-based instruction was the fact that the terms and register used in these fields are not much different than the usual terms used in Indonesian. For example, the terms Kinetic Energy in physics is usually translated into Energi Kinetik in Indonesian, the terms Moment of Inertia translated as Momen Inersia, chemistry terms Titration translated as Titrasi, biologic terms Vena Hepatica translated as Vena Hepatika, and many more. Thus, it was expected that the students will not have any difficulty in understanding the lesson, since they could find similarities in the form of the vocabulary items between Indonesian and English. This way, they were expected to acquire new vocabulary items more easily, since the inferring process would take place automatically.

4.1.1.2 The System of the Classes

The system of these classes itself was also different from the common assumption of the international class. There were basically two sections of the classes. These sections will be elaborated in the following paragraphs.

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The first section was when the regular subject teacher entered and taught in the class. In this section, the discussion was conducted by Indonesian as the instructional language. The notes given by the teacher also used Indonesian. However, the module and the exercises were given in English. The exercises themselves were not spontaneously given and created in that time, rather being taken from some kind of dummy for the teacher. According to the teaching team, this was done since the regular teachers were not all prepared to teach in English for the whole class.

The second section was when the regular teacher was replaced by the lecturers from some reputable universities in Yogyakarta. Within this section, it was expected that the lecturers were giving and explaining the material using English fully. This section, however, was rarely conducted. A lecturer for each subject only came to the class once in two months. In that rare occasion itself, most of the lecturers did not fully utilize English as the instructional language. The extreme case was the physics lecturer who used Indonesian all the time, whereas the English exposure was only given in the presented Power Point material. In this case, the researcher proposes the term of pseudo-instructional language to refer to this phenomenon.

From the observation conducted by the researcher, only the chemistry lecturers used English most of the time within the class, both in the given material, notes, explanation, and conducting class discussion. The biology lecturer promised class at first that she would use mixed language between English and Indonesian as the instructional mean in the class. But she ended up using

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Indonesian most of the time. However, she also tried to utilize English in engaging student to present their interpretation towards the lesson. The other lecturers used only Indonesian in class, and English is only used in the presented Power Point material.

4.1.1.3 The emphasis of the language use

Based on the interview with the teaching team, the international class put more emphasis on the writing language rather than the spoken language. Thus, the portion of English use was mostly done in writing. The students were expected to be able to make the practice report in English as well as doing the exercise and the test, be it quizzes, mid-term tests, or final test. To support this way, there are modules written in English. So, though most of the explanation in class was delivered in Indonesian, students were expected not to meet any difficulties in the register employed within the course.

The emphasis was made by considering the fact that most of the teachers were not ready to speak in English the whole time. It was also true that the policy maker also considered students’ difficulty, but the main reason of making this system lied within the teachers’ inability to utilize English fully in class. However, based on the interview conducted, there will be an improvement in the system every year. This improvement is planned to take form in the increasing exposure of English given to students, even by the teachers themselves. So, in some years from now, the policy maker expect that the full utilization of English

(1)

(2)

106 THE RESULT OF PRE-TEST

No Name Awareness Idea Organisation Structure Wording Mean Predicate

1 Anjani 3 2 4 3 3 3 Good

2 Banowati 1 2 2 1 2 1.6 Bad

3 Sumbadra 1 3 1 3 4 2.4 Medium

4 Arjuna 4 3 3 4 4 3.6 Excellent

5 Duryudana 1 1 1 1 1 1 Bad

6 Semar 1 2 1 1 1 1.2 Bad

7 Larasati 1 3 2 2 4 2.4 Medium

8 Utari 3 4 4 4 4 3.8 Excellent

9 Srikandi 2 2 1 1 2 1.6 Bad

10 Drupadi 1 2 2 3 2 2 Medium

11 Tari 3 3 3 3 2 2.8 Good

12 Kresna 2 3 2 1 1 1.8 Medium

13 Widura 3 3 2 3 4 3 Good

14 Tara 2 3 2 2 3 2.4 Medium

15 Pandu 2 2 2 1 2 1.8 Medium

16 Drona 1 2 1 3 3 2 Medium

17 Bima 2 2 1 2 1 1.6 Bad

18 Sri 2 2 1 2 2 1.8 Medium

19 Sadewa 1 2 1 1 2 1.4 Bad

20 Nakula 2 2 3 2 2 2.2 Medium

MEAN 1.9 2.4 1.95 2.15 2.45 2.17 MEDIUM

(3)

THE RESULT OF POST-TEST

No Name Awareness Idea Organisation Structure Wording Mean Predicate

1 Anjani 2 3 3 2 3 2.6 Good

2 Banowati 2 3 2 2 2 2.2 Medium

3 Sumbadra 3 3 4 3 4 3.4 Excellent

4 Arjuna 4 3 3 3 3 3.2 Good

5 Duryudana 1 2 3 1 2 1.8 Medium

6 Semar 2 1 3 2 3 2.2 Medium

7 Larasati 2 1 2 3 3 2.2 Medium

8 Utari 4 3 4 4 4 3.8 Excellent

9 Srikandi 2 2 1 2 3 2 Medium

10 Drupadi 3 3 3 3 3 3 Good

11 Tari 3 4 4 2 3 3.2 Good

12 Kresna 1 2 3 2 2 2 Medium

13 Widura 4 3 4 4 3 3.6 Excellent

14 Tara 3 2 4 2 3 2.8 Good

15 Pandu 2 2 1 2 2 1.8 Medium

16 Drona 3 2 2 3 3 2.6 Good

17 Bima 2 1 1 1 2 1.4 Bad

18 Sri 2 2 2 4 3 2.6 Good

19 Sadewa 2 4 3 2 2 2.6 Good

20 Nakula 3 4 3 2 2 2.8 Good

MEAN 2.5 2.5 2.75 2.45 2.75 2.59 GOOD

(4)

108 THE CALCULATION RESULT OF SPSS 16.0.1 FULL VERSION

Group Statistics

group N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean

Pretest 20 1.90 .912 .204

Post test 20 2.50 .889 .199

Pretest 20 2.45 .686 .153

Post test 20 2.50 .946 .212

Pretest 20 1.95 .999 .223

Post test 20 2.75 1.020 .228

Pretest 20 2.15 1.040 .233

Post test 20 2.45 .887 .198

Pretest 20 2.45 1.099 .246

Post test 20 2.75 .639 .143

Pretest 20 2.1800 .75366 .16852

Post test 20 2.5900 .64718 .14471

t-test for Equality of Means

95% Confidence Interval of the

Difference t df Sig. (2

tailed) Mean Difference Std. Error Diference Lower Upper Awareness -2.108 38 .042 -.600 .285 -1.176 -.24 Idea

Development

-.191 38 .849 -.050 .261 -.579 .479

Organization -2.507 38 .017 -.800 .319 -1.446 -.154 Sentence

Structure

-.982 38 .333 -.300 .306 -.919 .319

Word Choice -1.055 38 .298 -.300 .284 -.875 .275

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Table of

t-

values

LEVEL OF SIGNIFICANCE FOR TWO-TAILED TEST

df .20 .10 .05 .02 .01 .001

1 3.078 6.314 12.706 31.821 63.657 636.619 2 1.886 2.920 4.303 6.965 9.925 31.598 3 1.638 2.353 3.182 4.541 5.841 12.941 4 1.533 2.132 2.776 3.747 4.604 8.610 5 1.476 2.015 2.571 3.365 4.032 6.859 6 1.440 1.943 2.447 3.143 3.707 5.959 7 1.415 1.895 2.365 2.998 3.499 5.405 8 1.397 1.860 2.306 2.896 3.355 5.041 9 1.383 1.833 2.262 2.821 3.250 4.781 10 1.372 1.812 2.228 2.764 3.169 4.587 11 1.363 1.796 2.201 2.718 3.106 4.437 12 1.356 1.782 2.179 2.681 3.055 4.318 13 1.350 1.771 2.160 2.650 3.012 4.221 14 1.345 1.761 2.145 2.624 2.977 4.140 15 1.341 1.753 2.131 2.602 2.947 4.073 16 1.337 1.746 2.120 2.583 2.921 4.015 17 1.333 1.740 2.110 2.567 2.898 3.965 18 1.330 1.734 2.101 2.552 2.878 3.922 19 1.328 1.729 2.093 2.539 2.861 3.883 20 1.325 1.725 2.086 2.528 2.845 3.850 30 1.310 1.697 2.042 2.457 2.750 3.646 40 1.303 1.684 2.021 2.423 2.704 3.551

(6)

The influences of content-based instruction implementation in international class of SMAN 3 Yogyakarta towards the 11th grade students` english writing skill proficiency.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM

DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION

FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

YOGYAKARTA

The divine turtle may live long,

But it is still mortal and finally gone.

The mythical snake may ride cloud and mist,

Yet in the end it will turn to dust.

An old steed confined to his stable,

To gallop a thousand miles he aspires to be able.

A man of ambition in twilight years,

Extinguished not are his lofty ideals.

To meet calamity or fortune in the end,

Not only on fate does this depend.

If one knows the art of keeping healthy,

He will surely enjoy a long, long life.

Now I feel the greatest delight,

I pen this poem to glorify my thought.

(

Cao Cao – Three Kingdoms

)

106

THE RESULT OF PRE-TEST

THE RESULT OF POST-TEST

108

THE CALCULATION RESULT OF SPSS 16.0.1 FULL VERSION

Table of

t-

values

Parts

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