Improving speaking ability of the twelfth grade students of SMA Stella Duce Bantul Yogyakarta - USD Repository
IMPROVING SPEAKING ABILITY
OF THE TWELFTH GRADE STUDENTS
OF SMA STELLA DUCE BANTUL YOGYAKARTA
A THESIS Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree in English Language Education
By Natalia Dewi Primasari
Student Number: 031214075
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM
DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION
FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2008
IMPROVING SPEAKING ABILITY
OF THE TWELFTH GRADE STUDENTS
OF SMA STELLA DUCE BANTUL YOGYAKARTA
A THESIS Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree in English Language Education
By Natalia Dewi Primasari
Student Number: 031214075
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM
DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION
FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2008
Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small people who find it easier to live in the world they have been given than to explore the power they have to change it.
Impossible is not a fact.
It is an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration.
It is a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary.
Impossible is nothing.
(unknown)
I d ed i ca te th i s th esi s to m y bel oved pa r en ts, m y
br oth er , a n d m y N i col a u s M .
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, I would like to thank God the Almigthy, Jesus Christ for giving me the strength, courage, and compassion so that I could finish this thesis.
His guidance gave lights and strengths to deal with the hard time I had to go through during the making of this thesis.
This thesis is accomplished and improved by the guidance and comments of people who are willing to be involved during the writing of my thesis. I owe much to Christina Kristiyani, S.Pd., M.Pd., my major sponsor, for giving me attention, suggestions, guidance, and motivation during the finishing of my thesis.
She gave me her valuable time, energy, and understanding in the middle of her busy days so that I could finish my thesis. In finishing this thesis, I am greatly indebted to Laurentia Sumarni, S.Pd., my co-sponsor, for valuable time, guidance, support, and feedbacks in correcting my writing. I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to Ouda Teda Ena, S.Pd., M.Pd, who gave me suggestions to improve my thesis and times for sharing my thesis. My sincere gratefulness also goes to all PBI lecturers, who always provided valuable lessons and secretariat staff, Mbak Danik and Mbak Tari, for all help and kindness during my five-year study. I would also like to thank Ag. Suwardi, S.Pd, the head of SMA Stella Duce Bantul, who allowed me to conduct the research at the school.
I am going to give my deepest thank to my beloved parents, my father,
Supriyadi, my mother, Suharismi, for their love, support, guidance to face this
wild life, beautiful care, and patience. Also my beloved brother, Eko ‘boentoet’, for his love, laughter, and time we share together. My deepest love and gratitude goes to my coolest gift from the Lord, Nicolaus, for his love, patience, care, warmth, kindness, sharing moments, and support.
My special thanks go to all of my participants: Ayu, Jocki, Novian, Fika,
Lia, Rahma, Indar, Rina. I thank them for their cooperation and time in giving
me data in the research. I thank them a lot for allowing me to be their english extracurricular teacher in the last two years. I also thank Kristin for her willingness to be the observer in the research. May God bless them all.
My gratitude goes to cewe-cewe populer: Iphat, Mak Miertah, Dita,
Dame’, Dek Tika, for all the love, friendship, laughter, tears, support, discussion,
suggestions, criticism, foods, foolishness we shared during our study in the university. I hope that our friendship will never end. I thank Ria, Veni, NitNot, as my friends, let’s have our victory soon! I also thank all my friends of PBI’03 Paul,
Layung, Monci, Ratna, Hepi, Proti, Ethy, Iyaz, Joyce, Christine, Moniq, Rere,
Ardhi, Bagong, Si Be, Jii, ‘Babah’ Lukas, Punto, Suki, Yessi. I thank them for
the laughter, friendship, and for being my great friends. I am really blessed to have them all. Finally, I wish to appreciate all people who have colored my life whom I could not mention one by one.
Natalia Dewi Primasari
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page TITLE PAGE ....................................................................................... i APPROVAL PAGES ........................................................................... iiPAGE OF DEDICATION .................................................................... iv
STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY .................................. v
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI ................ vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ..................................................................... ix LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................... xii LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................. xiii LIST OF APPENDICES ...................................................................... xiv ABSTRACT .......................................................................................... xv ABSTRAK .............................................................................................. xviCHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study...........................................................
1 B. Problem Formulation.................................................................
5 C. Problem Limitation....................................................................
5 D. Objectives of the Study .............................................................
5 E. Benefit of the Study ..................................................................
6 F. Definition of Terms...................................................................
6 CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE A. Theoretical description .............................................................
8 1. Theories of Language Learning ...........................................
8 a. Foreign Language Learning ..............................................
8 b. Interactive Learning ..........................................................
9 2. Theories of Language Teaching...........................................
10
a. Communicative Language Teaching.................................
11 1). Learner’s Role .............................................................. .
12 2). Teacher’s Role ..............................................................
12 3). Communicative Competence ........................................
13 4). Teaching Learning Activities .......................................
14 5). Procedure ......................................................................
16 b. Interactive Language Teaching.........................................
16 3. Speaking...............................................................................
20 a. Nature of Speaking............................................................
20 b. The Process of Speaking ...................................................
22 c. Teaching Speaking ............................................................
22 1). Teaching Techniques ...................................................
23 a). Cued-Dialogue .......................................................
24 b). Role-Play ...............................................................
25 (1). The Uses of Role-Playing ...............................
26 (2). The Procedures of Using Role-Play ...............
27 B. Theoretical Framework .............................................................
29 CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY A. Method ......................................................................................
33 B. Participants of the Study............................................................
34 C. Research Instruments ................................................................
35 D. Data Gathering Techniques.......................................................
39 E. Data Analysis Techniques .........................................................
40 F. Research Procedure....................................................................
44 CHAPTER IV: RESULTS AND ANALYSIS A. The Research Findings and Discussion.....................................
47 1. First Cycle ...............................................................................
47
b. Action Planning.................................................................
49 c. Action Taking....................................................................
50 d. Evaluation .........................................................................
51 1). Content.......................................................................
51 2). Comprehensibility......................................................
52 3). Fluency ......................................................................
53 4). Pronunciation .............................................................
53 5). Vocabulary.................................................................
53 6). Grammar ....................................................................
54 e. Specifying Learning ..........................................................
56 2. Second Cycle ..........................................................................
56 a. Diagnosing .......................................................................
56 b. Action Re-Planning ..........................................................
57 c. Action Taking .................................................................
58 d. Evaluation ........................................................................
59 1). Content ......................................................................
59 2). Comprehensibility .....................................................
60 3). Fluency .....................................................................
61 4). Pronunciation ............................................................
61 5).Vocabulary .................................................................
62 6). Grammar ...................................................................
63 e. Specifying Learning ..........................................................
64 CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS A. Conclusions ................................................................................
66 B. Suggestions ................................................................................
68 REFERENCES .................................................................................... 70
LIST OF TABLES
Table Page
3.1 Analytic Rubrics for Speaking Ability..............................................
38 3.2 The Percentage of Overall Speaking Ability ....................................
43 4.1 The Improvement of Speaking Ability in the First Cycle.................
55 4.2 The Improvement of Speaking Ability in the Second Cycle ............
64
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure Page
2.1 The Process of Communication System ...........................................
22 2.2 The Action Research Cycle...............................................................
31 4.1 Cued-dialogue in Describing Things ...............................................
49 4.2 Role-Play in Making Invitation.........................................................
57
LIST OF APPENDICES
Page
Appendix 1: Permission Letter ...............................................................72 Appendix 2: Statement of Research Completion ....................................
73 Appendix 3: Lesson Plans.......................................................................
74 Appendix 4: Speaking Materials.............................................................
79 Appendix 5: The results of Students’ Speaking Rubrics ........................
91 Appendix 6: Field Notes .........................................................................
97 Appendix 7: Students’ Comments on Role-Play .................................... 110 Appendix 8: Examples of Students’ Role-play....................................... 118
ABSTRACT
Primasari, Natalia Dewi. 2008. Improving Speaking Ability of the Twelfth Grade Students of SMA Stella Duce Bantul. Yogyakarta: Sanata Dharma University.
Speaking, among others, is one important skill in English skills. Therefore, students should master English speaking ability. A technique which is used in teaching English speaking should help teachers to improve students’ speaking ability.
The research discussed two teaching techniques to teach English speaking ability of the twelfth grade students of SMA Stella Duce Bantul. The main purpose of the study is to find out the most appropriate technique in teaching English speaking to improve students’ speaking ability. There is a question formulated in the study. The question was, “what is the most appropriate technique to improve English speaking ability of the twelfth grade students of SMU Stella Duce
Bantul ?”
In order to find out the answer to the research question, the researcher employed a classroom action research. In the research, the researcher played important roles as a teacher and a researcher. Moreover, two instruments, namely speaking rubrics and fieldnotes, were used to obtain important data. Fieldnotes were used to obtain data in students’ speaking ability and teaching learning activities generally. Speaking rubrics were used to obtain data on students’ improvements in English speaking. The researcher conducted two research cycles. In the first cycle, the researcher employed a cued-dialogue as the first technique. There were two meetings in the first cycle. In the second cycle, the researcher employed role-play as the second technique. The researcher conducted three meetings in the second cycle.
The result of the study showed that there was improvement on students’ English speaking ability. In the first cycle, students showed significant improvement only in the content and comprehensibility. Whereas, there were no significant improvements in fluency, pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar. In conclusion, cued-dialogue was not effective to improve students’ speaking ability.
In the second cycle the researcher used role-play as a technique and there were satisfying improvements. All students made improvement in speaking components. From the result of the study, it is concluded that role-play is more appropriate technique to improve students’ speaking ability of the twelfth grade students of SMA Stella Duce Bantul.
ABSTRAK
Primasari, Natalia Dewi. 2008. Improving Speaking Ability of the Twelfth Grade Students of SMA Stella Duce Bantul. Yogyakarta: Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Berbicara, diantara kemampuan yang lain, merupakan kemampuan yang penting dalam kecakapan berbahasa Inggris. Oleh sebab itu, siswa harus memiliki kemampuan berbicara yang baik dalam berbahasa Inggris. Teknik yang digunakan dalam mengajar berbicara sebaiknya membantu guru untuk meningkatkan kemampuan siswa dalam berbicara.
Penelitian ini membahas teknik untuk mengajar kemampuan berbicara bahasa Inggris siswa kelas duabelas SMA Stella Duce Bantul. Tujuan utama dari penelitian ini adalah menemukan teknik yang tepat untuk meningkatkan kemampuan dalam berbicara bahasa Inggris siswa kelas XII SMA Stella Duce Bantul. Ada satu permasalahan yang dikemukakan dalam studi ini, yaitu, “metode apakah yang paling tepat untuk meningkatkan kemampuan berbicara bahasa Inggris siswa kelas XII SMA Stella Duce Bantul.”
Untuk menjawab pertanyaan pada penelitian ini peneliti menggunakan metode penelitian tindakan kelas (classroom action research) dimana peneliti berperan sebagai guru dan peneliti. Ada dua alat untuk memperoleh data-data penting, yaitu catatan lapangan dan rubrik berbicara. Catatan lapangan digunakan untuk memperoleh data tentang kemampuan berbicara siswa secara umum. Sedangkan rubrik berbicara digunakan untuk mengetahui dan mengukur peningkatan kemampuan berbicara siswa. Dalam penelitian tindakan kelas ini, peneliti melakukan dua siklus penelitian. Pada siklus pertama peneliti menggunakan cued-dialogue sebagai teknik pertama untuk mengajar berbicara bahasa Inggris. Terdapat dua kali pertemuan dalam siklus pertama. Pada siklus kedua, peneliti menggunakan role-play sebagai teknik kedua untuk mengajar berbicara bahasa Inggris. Peneliti melakukan tiga kali pertemuan pada sklus kedua.
Hasil yang diperoleh dari penelitian ini menunjukkan adanya peningkatan kemampuan berbicara bahasa Inggris. Pada siklus pertama, siswa mengalami peningkatan penting hanya pada isi dan tingkat pemahaman dalam berbicara. Sedangkan komponen lain dalam berbicara seperti kelancaran, pelafalan, kosakata, dan struktur tidak terdapat peningkatan penting. Disimpulkan bahwa cued-
dialogue kurang efektif untuk meningkatkan kemampuan berbicara siswa. Pada
siklus kedua peneliti menerapkan role-play dan terdapat peningkatan yang sangat memuaskan. Semua siswa mengalami peningkatan dalam komponen berbicara. Dari hasil yang diperoleh dalam penelitian ini disimpulkan bahwa role-play merupakan teknik yang lebih tepat untuk meningkatkan kemampuan berbicara siswa kelas XII SMA Stella Duce Bantul.
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION Chapter I presents discussions of the thesis background that motivates the writer to write the thesis. There are six major concerns presented in this chapter. Those are background of the study, problem limitation, problem formulation, objectives of the study, benefits of the study, and definition of terms. A. Background of the Study Language is the center feature of cultures in communication and thespoken language is the primary (Richard and Rodgers, 1986: 8). Lado (1961: 240) describes speaking ability as the ability to express oneself in life situations or the ability to report situations in appropriate words, or the ability to converse, or to express the intended messages without undue hesitation. In communication, there are at least two individuals involved. The first individual is the speaker and the other is the hearer. In a moment, the speaker tries to send the intended message and the hearer tries to comprehend the message received. Their roles in communication exchange continually.
In accordance with the development of human resource, the request for international language, English, is increasing rapidly. It appears because English is a means of communication and interaction across the world. As a matter of fact, English is used in broad areas such as education, economy, entertainment, information, news, etc. As a support to the issue, English language teaching has received special attention. This attention is due to the role of English as a means of global communication, and the transfer of science and technology. As a result, the mastery of this language is highly required. Schools and universities now offer English as a compulsory subject.
English language teaching has a special position in schools. It is compulsory for Indonesian students mainly from lower secondary schools to university level. According to the decree of the Minister of Education and Culture (1967 number 69) or National Education, English is the first foreign language for all Indonesian students from lower secondary education to university levels. The main goal is to provide students with good English mastery so that they are able to participate in various academic activities, most of which are conveyed in English.
In achieving the goal, learners should master the English skills; they are reading, listening, speaking and writing. Nunan (2003: 48) explains that speaking skill in new language is more difficult than other skills. Davies (2000: 82) also states that speaking comes naturally to humans, but it is not as simple as it seems.
It needs high effort to be able to utter something in English. Bailey and Savage (1994) as cited by Lazarton (2000: 103) explain that “speaking in a second or foreign language has often been viewed as the most demanding of four skills.” It means that speaking skill is very important to be mastered by students. However, many learners in Indonesia are less able to speak actively in English, especially before they enter university level. Rivers (1968: 161) explains that speaking English well means that those learners are aware of certain aspects of the code.
The codes are vocabulary of the language, phonological and morphological features, and syntactical rules. Learners should master or at least approach some characteristics in speaking such as task completion, comprehensibility, fluency, pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar (The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. IX, No.4, http://iteslj.org/).
Learners should prepare their four English skills before entering university or higher level of study. They study English in schools. Franke (1884) as cited by Richards (2001: 11) explains that in teaching a new language teacher should use it actively in the classroom. It means that teachers should encourage students to try to speak in order to communicate with each other. Nevertheless, schools do not provide sufficient time to learn English. Moreover, learners have limited opportunity to use and practice the language, either in the classroom or outside classroom. The researcher found that schools in Yogyakarta provided extra time to study in extracurricular activities. One of them was SMA Stella Duce Bantul.
SMA Stella Duce Bantul states that English is one of the main subjects in
the school education system. In the regular hours of teaching English, the time to study was limited. Learners only have four hours a week to study. Knowing that there are many English materials that learners should master in the limited time,
SMU Stella Duce Bantul gives extra hours for learning. Extracurricular activities
seem to be the solution. Nouveldt (1997: 482) explains that extracurricular activity is not the part of the required curriculum and outside the regular course of the study. However, it is under the supervision of the school. The extracurricular activity is intended to broaden the students’ knowledge in one or more fields.
Extracurricular activities give more time for teachers to teach the learners in informal situation and to give the learners more opportunity to explore, practice, and express their feelings, thought, and opinion. SMU Stella Duce Bantul has many extracurricular activities including English. In this activity learners have opportunities to practice and participate in problem solving activities and develop their skills in English.
The researcher had taught the twelfth grade students of SMA Stella Duce
Bantul English in extracurricular activity for a year. Related to the fact, the
researcher identified the general area of the learners and she found that they had problems in speaking English well. It covered content, comprehensibility, fluency, pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar. The researcher found that the students were talkative but they could not speak fluently because of bad grammar and lack of vocabulary. Besides, students often had difficulties in choosing topics to talk.
In order to solve the problems in students’ speaking ability, the researcher employed classroom action research. The research deals with the technique in teaching speaking. In this research, the researcher conducted cycles until she found an appropriate technique to teach speaking. Techniques in teaching speaking are in various and the techniques support the learners to master the materials. The researcher stopped the cycle when she obtained satisfying result on students’ speaking ability. The satisfying result is when students achieved 87% or score 18 points in speaking ability in the level at the minimum. The researcher conducted research in teaching speaking to the students in XII IPS 1 of SMA Stella Duce Bantul .
B. Problem Formulation
The problem is formulated in the following question: What is the most appropriate technique to improve English speaking ability to the twelfth grade students of SMU Stella Duce Bantul?
C. Objective of the Study
The research is intended to find out the most appropriate technique to improve English speaking ability to the twelfth grade students of SMA Stella Duce Bantul.
D. Problem Limitation
This research is limited to the discussion on finding the most appropriate technique in teaching speaking to increase the students’ speaking ability. To focus on the study, the researcher conducts the research only to the twelfth grade of Senior high school students in SMA Stella Duce Bantul, Yogyakarta. The researcher conducted the research only in extracurricular activity. The reason why the researcher chose SMA Stella Duce Bantul as the place of conducting the research is because the researcher is also one of the English extracurricular teachers of SMA Stella Duce Bantul.
E. Benefits of the Study
The study is expected to give valuable contribution to the senior high school students, senior high school teachers, and other researchers.
1. The students The students will improve their English speaking ability using the most suitable technique. They will be able to interact and converse in English. Besides, they can apply the interactive communication in their real communication in their community.
2. The teachers The study may provide information about the technique in teaching speaking in English class whether in regular classes or extracurricular activities.
3. The other researchers The result of the research hopefully can be used as the background knowledge or reference for the next researchers. They may use the result of this study for their own research on related issues.
F. Definition of Terms
1. Extracurricular activity Nouveldt (1997: 482) explains that extracurricular activity is not the part of the required curriculum and outside the regular course of the study. However, it is under supervision of the school. In this study, extracurricular activity is used to enhance speaking English ability.
2. Speaking Ability Lado (1961: 240) explains speaking ability as the ability to express oneself in life situation, or the ability to report acts or situations in precise words or the ability to converse, to express the sequence of ideas fluently. This study deals with the improvement of speaking ability. This study is aimed to find the most appropriate technique to improve students’ English speaking ability.
3. Action Research Mills (2003: 4) describes action research as any systematic inquiry conducted by teacher researchers to gather information about the ways that their particular school operates how they teach, and how well their students learn. The information is gathered with the goals of gaining insight, developing reflective practice, effecting positive changes in the school environment and on educational practices in general, and improving student outcomes.
4. SMA Stella Duce Bantul
SMA Stella Duce Bantul is a private senior high school under the
Tarakanita Institution. It is located in Ganjuran, Bambanglipuro, Bantul, Yogyakarta. The goal of the school is similar to that of the other public schools.
The vision of the school is forming good personality, good quality, and friendly human beings.
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE This chapter deals with some theories that become the bases for the
discussion. The purpose of this chapter is to get the understanding of what the basic principles of the research are, so that the problem stated in the previous chapter can be answered. The discussion will be divided into two major parts as the bases for classroom action research; they are theoretical description and theoretical framework. In this chapter, the writer presents discussion on some theories as the foundation this research.
A. Theoretical Description
The theoretical description contains related theories to this research. This part presents three major topics. They are theories of language learning, theories of language teaching, and the description of speaking.
1. Theories of Language Learning
a. Foreign Language Learning
According to Johnson (2001: 5) there are five characters why people take time to learn foreign language in today’s world. They are, for study purposes, for the sake of cross-cultural understanding, for strengthening persons’ cultural identity, for purposes of international communication, for facilitating international communication.
The goal of learning English as foreign language as study purpose appears in educational systems. Students who learn English as the foreign language have a purpose to pass the exams in the educational systems. Gebhard (1996: 3) explains, “The primary goal for children studying in the educational system is to pass English entrance exams to enter good high schools and universities.” Meanwhile, in educational system nowadays the teaching is directed in making the learners able to comprehend and interpret English so that they can also use the language in real communication.
In order to reach the goal of leaning English as a foreign language, teachers should be creative in their roles. The teachers’ role of teaching English as a foreign language is concerned with many aspects. Gebhard (1996: 3) explains that teachers should concern on how to get the students speak in English class.
Therefore, the teachers should use authentic materials or tests and get the students take on their own responsibilities for their learning.
b. Interactive Learning
According to Brown (2001: 48) the essentially interactive nature of communication is at the basis of current theories of communicative competence.
In communication activity there are two factors involved, production and reception of the speaker and listener. The point is a result of interaction, of “give and take”, as a participant in communication activity. In other words, people collaborating in the communication; talk as a form of social activity. In conclusion, the interaction means two or more people involving in the situations and exchanging thoughts in oral or written activities to make relations.
Thus, the communicative purpose of language compels students to create opportunities of communication and interaction in the classroom. Teacher should provide an interactive course or technique which brings students to get involved in communicative activities. As learners interact with each other through oral and written discourse, their communicative abilities are enhanced. Burns (2002: 214) explains that motivation for interactional communication is primarily to create and maintain social relationships, for example, casual conversation between friends. That is primarily because in reality talk in daily life is a mixture of transactional and interactional communication. Brown (2001: 48) mentions the characteristics of interactive classes that the teachers should do. They are as follows: 1). Doing a significant amount of pair work and group work.
2). Receiving authenticity language input in real-world context. 3). Producing language for genuine, meaningful communication. 4). Performing classroom tasks that prepare them for actual language use
“out there.” 5). Practicing oral communication through the give and take and spontaneity of actual conversation.
6). Writing to and for real audiences, not contrived ones.
(Brown, 2001: 48) Based on the theory of interactive learning above, it is considered that role-play is one of the most suitable techniques of interactive learning. Moreover, role-play has all the characteristics of interactive learning. It is suitable to administer to the students who want to increase their speaking ability.
2. Theories of Language Teaching
Language teaching becomes a profession in the twentieth century (Howatt characterized by frequent change and innovation on language teaching ideologies and methods. This part presents discussions on two language teaching ideologies that give foundation to the study. They are Communicative Language Teaching and Interactive Teaching.
a. Communicative Language Teaching
Richard and Rodgers (2001: 151) explain that Communicative Language Teaching marks the beginning of a major paradigm shift within language teaching in the twentieth century. The general principles of CLT are widely accepted around the world today.
One of the characteristics of CLT according to Littlewood (1981: 1) is that it pays systematic attention to functional as well as structural aspects of language, combining these into a more fully communicative view. The goal of foreign language teaching in communicative view is, therefore, communicative ability.
Nunan (2003: 50) explains that Communicative Language Teaching has two versions. The weak version says that teachers should teach the components of language but include communication activities. The strong version says that lessons should consist of opportunities to communicate in the target language because the students learn through interaction. Teachers should also pay attention to the accuracy and the way the students speak the target language.
Richard and Rodgers (2001: 160-161) explain that Communicative Language Teaching has a basic theory. The basic assumptions are as follows: 1. Language is a system for the expression of meaning.
2. Allowing the interaction and communication in the language system is the main function.
3. The aspect or the features that indicate its functional and communicative uses are the structures of the language itself.
4. The grammatical and structural features are not the only units of language but categories of functional and communicative meaning.
(Richard and Rodgers, 2001: 160-161) The four basic assumptions of language that show what aspects of the language should be taught, how language should be presented in classrooms and how language competence should be evaluated. Setiyadi (2006: 147) explains the four assumptions that Richards and Rodgers suggested came from a single theory that emphasizes the use of language in daily life that is communication.
1). Learner’s Role
The learners’ role in communicative approach as described by Breen and Candlin (1980: 110) quoted by Richard and Rodger (2001: 166) is in the following:
The role of learner as negotiator-between the self, the learning process, and the object of learning –emerges from and interacts with the role of joint negotiator within the group and within the classroom procedures and activities, which the group undertakes. The implication for the learner is that he should contribute as much as he gains, and thereby learn in the interdependent way.
Richard and Rodger, 2001: 166)
(
From what Breen and Candlin say, it can be seen that the communicative approach recommends the use of cooperative interaction between the learner in the teaching and learning activities. The learners learn to see that if there is a communication, which is not done smoothly, it is a responsibility and not the fault of the speaker or the listener.
2). Teachers’ Role
The role of the teacher in Communicative Approach is to create the natural environment in the classroom. This approach also requires the teacher to be more creative in varying the activities of the teaching learning process, so that it can be more natural as in a real situation.
A teacher knows that individuals learn in different ways and at different rates. Older learners usually learn best by applying generalization to a situation and from hearing much comprehensible input.
Richard and Rodgers (2001: 167) explain the teacher’s role in communicative approach as follows: The teacher has two main roles: the first role is to facilitate the communication process between all participants in the classroom, and between these participants and the various activities and the texts. The second role is to act as an independent participant within the learning- teaching group. From the discussion on the teacher’s role above, it obvious that teacher should be creative in teaching activities. It will send the learners to the successful learning.
3). Communicative Competence
Theories on communicative competence now emphasize on the importance of interaction as people that use language in contexts or situation to get an idea from other people to himself and vice versa. In Hyme’s view (1972:281) as quoted by Richard and Rodgers (2001: 159) a person who acquires communicative competence acquires both knowledge and ability for language use. Communicative competence is an equipment to be able to communicate in both interactional and transactional communication. It can also be said that the successful indicator in communication is when a person has mastered the communicative competence. Halliday (1970: 145) as quoted by Richard and Rodgers (2001: 159) explains a powerful theory of the language function of communicative competence. He explains seven basic functions that language performs for children learning their first language.
1. The instrumental function: using language to get things
2. The regulatory function: using language to control the behavior of others 3. The interactional function: using language to create interaction with others.
4. The personal function: using language to express personal meanings and feelings.
5. The heuristic function: using language to learn and to discover.
6. The imaginative function: using language to create a world of imagination.
7. The representational function: using language to communicate information.
(Richard and Rodgers, 2001: 159) Littlewood (1981: 6) specifies his discussion on communicative ability in foreign language teaching and learning. He proposes understanding on communicative ability through observing four domains of skill, which make up a person’s communicative competence. They are as follows:
1. The learner must attain as high a degree as possible of linguistic competence.
2. The learner must distinguish between the forms which he has mastered as part of his linguistic competence, and the communicative functions that they perform.
3. The learner must develop skills and strategies for using language to communicate meanings as effectively as possible in the concrete situations.
4. The learner must become aware of the social meaning of language forms.
Brown (2001:166) explains that in order to be able to communicate or interact in a community successfully people should master and involve elements of communicative competence such as grammatical, discourse, linguistic, pragmatic and strategies. In other words, people should have good communicative competence in order to minimize the error production and misunderstanding in communication.
Richards, Platt and Weber (1985: 49) as cited in Brown (2001) explain the characteristics of communicative competence includes (a) knowledge of the grammar and vocabulary of the language; (b) knowledge of rules of speaking (how to begin the conversations, knowing what topics can be talked and etc); (c) knowing how to use and respond to different types of speech acts such as requests, apologies, thanks, and invitations; (d) knowing how to use language appropriately.
4). Teaching and Learning Activities
The theories on the goal of CLT presented above encourage a discussion on ways to develop communicative skills through exercises and activities. The range of exercise types and activities appropriate with a communicative approach is unlimited. Such exercises enable learners to attain the communicative objectives, engage learners in communication and require the use of such communicative processes as information sharing, negotiation of meanings and interaction. Littlewood (1981) distinguishes between “functional communicative activities” and “social interaction activities” as major activity types in CLT.
Teachers can device communicative activities for the classrooms which emphasis on the functional aspects for communication. This functional aspect for example is problem solving by the students or the learners. They as the learners should also digest some information in the communication. In other words, the purpose of this activity is that the learners should use the language, in this term is English, in order to get meanings or do conversation as effective as possible.
Furthermore, language should not only effective but also appropriate in social context or situation where the interaction takes place. Littlewood (1981: 21) explains that success in the conversation or in negotiating meaning is not only in terms of “functional effectiveness” but also in terms the language that is acceptable in the community. Littlewood (1981:21) also explains that acceptability of the beginner learner may take concern more on accuracy in pronunciation and grammar. Then it will come to have it as a part of producing language which is appropriate to specific kinds of social situation.
5). Procedure
Finnochiaro and Brumfit as cited in Richard and Rodgers (1986: 81) explain evolutionary procedures for the CLT. The procedures suggest of eleven activities as follows:
1. Presentation of a brief dialog or several mini-dialogs, preceded by a motivation and a discussion of the function and the situation.
2. Oral practice of each utterance of the dialog segment to be presented by the teacher’s model.
3. Questions and answers based on the dialog topics and situations themselves.
4. Questions and answers related to the students’ personal experiences but centered on the dialog theme.
5. Study one of the basic communicative expressions in the dialog or one of the structures which exemplify the function.
6. Learner’s discovery of generalizations of rules underlying the functional expression or structure.
7. Oral recognition, interpretive activities.
8. Oral production activities. It proceeds from guided to freer communicative activities.
9. Copying the dialogs or mini dialogs or modules if they are not in the class text.
10. Sampling of the written homework assignments, if given.
11. Evaluating on learning. (Oral only).
The steps above introduce the learner to a well-organized practice which motivates students to speak. The implementation of Communicative Language Teaching in this study basically is to enforce communicative learning objectives as the result of interactive factors in the classroom.