THE EFFECTIVENESS OF PROCESS APPROACH IN TEACHING WRITING VIEWED FROM STUDENTS LEARNING INTEREST

SKRIPSI THE EFFECTIVENESS OF PROCESS APPROACH IN TEACHING WRITING VIEWED FROM STUDENTS' LEARNING INTEREST

This chapter presents the background of the study, problem statements, identification of the problem, limitation of the problems, statement of the problems, and the benefits of the study. Each part will be discussed in different section orderly.

A. Background of the Study

English is still considered one of the most important school subjects and therefore, beginning teachers can find the responsibility of teaching it both exciting and challenging. Everyone agrees that the subject 'English' is vitally important and typically. It is described as the most important of all school subjects, principally because reading, writing, speaking and listening are needed to a greater or lesser degree in every school's subject.

English is also the most consistently controversial and debated subject. It might be argued that English is the subject that many interested parties would most like to control. The history of English is simply a history of constant change. Inevitably, this makes teaching it a special kind of challenge, but it also imbues the subject with energy and excitement. All subjects have their debates and passions but English seems to have the most, and they are very often unusually public and attract plenty of media attention. As media attention is almost inevitably negative, the public perception of English nationally can be that children cannot spell, produce a decent paragraph or even conduct a reasonable conversation; at the same time parents, i.e. members of that 'public', will tell people that their children have received an excellent English teaching at the local school.

Generally speaking, more reading does contribute to greater awareness of the use of language and this will have an impact on pupils' writing. However, this will probably be quite subtle and almost unconsciously achieved as the more sophisticated aspects of language use are adopted in much the same way as grammar is absorbed from birth. But what about those pupils who do not want to read, or do not have the same opportunities to read, or can read at only a decoding level? How do they develop their writing skills?

Writing is one of the most often used skills by the teachers in teaching English at all levels of education. The writing skills include compositions like writing reports, designing posters and invitations, drafting business letters and letters to the editors. Visual and verbal clues can be given to the students as inputs without any additional inputs from the teachers and the students can be asked to form stories, narratives, conclusions, reports and criticisms.

It is undeniable that writing is probably one of the most familiar things in our life. Every day people get written announcements, advertisements, letters, information, even warning in the form of writing. In school, they do a lot of writings such as taking note, making lists, completing laboratory reports and composing any kinds of texts and others. In short, people are consciously or unconsciously engaged in writing a lot. As it becomes crucial to enhance their life, they learn the skills from pre-elementary school to university level. Then, they master them by applying them into business of life.

However learning to write is not an easy task to do. Many students still make errors and mistakes and, then, they are fossilized. Their interest becomes less and less and students begin to create negative stimuli about learning to write. This condition drives the students to assume that writing is a very difficult task to do. Based on the writer's observation in SMK Negeri X in which he teaches English, the task of writing will become more difficult when they have to write in a foreign language like English. The problem emerges as students are not familiar yet with the types of written discourse in English due to lack of exposure. Consequently, they are not able or willing to think directly in English. They, therefore, tend to formulate their ideas in Indonesian language when they express ideas in writing. Afterward they try to translate them in English which is not an easy task and even dangerous.

In fact, the students get insufficient score in writing. They are not able to develop good paragraphs. Although they are able to write paragraphs, they make a lot of grammatical mistakes.

Besides, teachers should be aware of the importance of interest in facilitating and aware of the use of a variety of methods to induce students' interest. Teachers should be able to apply methods that can motivate students to learn English writing and make them actively involved during the instructional activity. In addition, the methods used are hoped can evolve the students' self-confidence and behavior that are creative and innovative.

A good method will have a great influence in teaching learning process. Conversely, if the teacher uses inappropriate method, it will make the students bored in joining the lesson. The learning output, undoubtedly, will not be satisfying. There are several methods that can be used to facilitate learning English writing like process approach and product approach.

Most of traditional approaches of teaching writing focus merely on the product. The production of the composition is structurally correct and well -looking. Unfortunately, this path does not reach the crux of teaching writing itself. In this case the students cannot show up their own ability in writing maximally. They cannot express their ideas. It seems that their ideas just stay put in their mind. This path emphasizes on grammatical correctness and adherence to given models or guidelines only. This method, however, is less effective and makes students having no confidence in expressing their ideas. There is little or no opportunity for the students to add any thoughts or ideas of their own. The inevitable consequence is that little attention is paid to the ideas and meaning of student's writing, what it communicates to the reader, the purpose and the audience (Raimes 1983 : 75). Most students do not know how to do free writing, and they do not possess the strategies for composing texts independently. Furthermore, most of them do not enjoy writing and lack of confidence in writing on their own.

Therefore, the teachers should select and apply an appropriate method and a learning technique in teaching writing that can make the students able to explore and discover their thoughts, construct meaning and asses it at the same time. These characteristics navigate to the process approach. The implementation of process approach is considered as the most appropriate method used to teach writing. In spite of the characteristics possessed by the process approach, this approach can lead the students compose free writing. What is meant by free writing here is a composition that gives freedom to the students to determine the ideas and thoughts about a certain topic given by the teacher. The teacher still determines the framework of the composition that is the genre of the text. By referring to the same genre, the students can freely make their own outline.

By implementing the process approach, the teacher gives opportunities to the students to generate their ideas and thoughts. Consequently, the grammar of the composition might not be totally correct. This condition navigates the teacher to play his role as a guide, a motivator, and also a facilitator. It is important because the ultimate thing that needs to be measured in process approach is the end of the process.

From this idea, the title of this thesis is formulated as follows : THE EFFECTIVENESS OF PROCESS APPROACH IN TEACHING WRITING VIEWED FROM STUDENTS' LEARNING INTEREST (An Experimental Study in SMKN X).

B. Identification of the Problems

The problems that can be identified from the background of the study above are :

1. Students' writing skill is influenced by traininng systematically.

2. Students' writing skill is influenced by the graphics system and spelling convention of language.

3. Students' writing skill is influenced by grammatical knowledge and vocabulary mastery.

4. Students' writing skill is influenced by learning strategies.

5. Students' writing skill is influenced by Process Approach and Product Approach.

C. Limitation of the Problems

Based on the problems that emerge on the identification of the problems above, the research problems are limited to the significant effect of Process Approach viewed from students' learning interest to improve students' English Writing Skill. In this case, the writer merely discusses several genres, i.e. narrative, report, and descriptive. The writer's choice of genre is based on the handout that has been determined by the school.

D. Statement of the Problems

Based on the limitation of the problem above, the problem that will be analyzed in this research is :

1. Is there any difference in English writing skill achievement between students who are taught by process approach and those who are taught by product approach?

2. Is there any difference in English writing skill achievement between students who have high learning interest and those who have low learning interest?

3. Is there the interaction effect between teaching methods and students' learning interest in teaching writing?

E. Objective of the Study

The objectives of the study can be elaborated as follows :

1. To find out whether there is any difference in English writing skill achievement between students who are taught by process approach and those who are taught by product approach.

2. To find out whether there is any difference in English writing skill achievement between students who have high learning interest and those who have low learning interest;

3. To find out whether there is the interaction effect between teaching methods and students' learning interest in teaching writing.

F. Benefits of the Study

The result of the study will be useful for both teachers and students. They might be essential in :

1. Giving information to the students to enrich their insight, and get better learning by which they will be able to improve their writing skill;

2. Giving information to the teachers about process approach and the importance of students' learning interest to improve the students' English writing skill. In addition, the teachers are also motivated to find an active, creative, and fun strategy as an effort to minmize the students' weaknesses and maximize the students' writing skill in vocational high school;

3. Giving reference to other researchers who want to conduct research in the same field or topic.

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF USING SIMULATION IN IMPROVING STUDENTS SPEAKING SKILL

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF USING SIMULATION IN IMPROVING STUDENTS SPEAKING SKILL

CHAPTER I 

INTRODUCTION

This chapter is divided into seven subsections. They are background of the study, reasons for choosing the topic, statement of problems, objectives of the study, hypothesis, significance of the study, and outline of the report.

A. Background of the Study

The globalization era that demands man power with sufficient competency and professionalism has made Vocational High School so important. This phenomenon is reflected in that many students leaving Junior High Schools enter Vocational Schools.

It goes without saying that Vocational High School has some special qualities. Firstly, the alumni that leave from this institution could meet the job requirements in industry or company because they have certificate of Uji Kemampuan Kompetensi. With this certificate they would have a chance to get a job easily. Secondly, the alumni could continue their study if they are qualified; adjusted to their vocations.

Hence, the teaching and learning process in Vocational High School needs special techniques in order to achieve the necessary competencies for the students. That demand increases when there is free market in this era that makes manpower exchange takes place rapidly. So that, the students need to master the subjects and skills suitable with their vocations. They also have to be good in English as an international language, which also used both in industry and business nowadays.

However, according to my observation and interview before doing this final project, the English subject in Vocational High School is still conventional, monotonous and boring for the students. The teachers' successful orientation is still how to deliver all materials from the occupied literature (Suyatno, 2004 : 2). It potentially becomes one of the problems for them to reach the goal of the learning process.

Moreover, the situation becomes worse when the teachers rarely update the necessary skills in teaching according to the education progress. They have a drawback to evolve teaching techniques and strategies. The result is teaching and learning process operated in an old way that generates alumni without any sufficient competences.

Another cause is the very limited chance for the teachers to join in seminar, discussion, and training. It makes instructional processes become less innovative. This condition is usually complained especially by those who teach in remote areas.

The phenomena above are contrary to the spirit of the new curriculum (KTSP) which suggests that teachers should be able to enhance their teaching strategies for the sake of the student's competence development (KTSP 2007) (http://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurikulum_Tingkat_Satuan_Pendidikan).

Beside the above demand of the curriculum, the teacher's techniques and the students' learning styles should be in line. Teaching and learning process should be able to accommodate the different and unique characteristics of the students.

Based on the above arguments, simulation would be an effective technique to solve those problems for Vocational High School. This technique would give supporting environment for the students to elaborate themselves with their own learning styles. I focused on improving students' speaking skill for Vocational High School. Here, the subject of my study will be THE EFFECTIVENESS OF USING SIMULATION IN IMPROVING STUDENTS' SPEAKING SKILL FOR VOCATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL.

B. Reasons for Choosing the Topic

There are some reasons in choosing this topic. The first one is because the topic has not been examined yet by many researchers. Most of the them investigated the area of teaching and learning process in Junior or Senior High School in the terms of methods, strategy, and the interaction among the students or between teacher and students in the English class. There are still a few who conducted researches about teaching and learning techniques, especially simulation, for Vocational High School.

The second one is the topic will promise a valuable contribution for English teaching and learning process especially for Vocational High School that is being improved constantly by the government. The simulation technique adapts the students' learning styles and also uses Contextual Teaching and Learning that is needed in vocational classes as demanded by the curriculum. So that, this technique would be an alternative solution for education problem.

The third, the topic would be useful for language development because the simulation technique concerns on speaking skill. Therefore, by analyzing this matter, I hope that the second language learner could get knowledge and information in using English through simulation. This technique uses English as a means of communication not merely studying the language itself.

The last one is the topic gives an advantage for the students in improving their speaking skill and elaborating their learning styles. All the teaching and learning processes held in the context of situation according to the students' vocations. It would give much information for them in using English as the means of communication on their fields.

C. Statement of Problems

The problems that are discussed in this study are : 

1. How is the speaking test achievement for students taught using simulation technique ?

2. How is the speaking test achievement for students taught without using simulation technique ?

3. Is there any significant difference in students' speaking test achievement between those taught by using simulation technique and those taught without using simulation technique ?

D. Objectives of the Study

The purposes of this study are : 

1. to find out the speaking test achievement for students taught using simulation technique

2. to find out the speaking test achievement for students taught without using simulation technique

3. to find out whether there is significant difference in students' speaking test achievement between those taught by using simulation technique and those taught without using simulation technique.

THE USE OF MIND MAPPING TECHNIQUE IN TEACHING RECOUNT TEXT TO IMPROVE STUDENTS READING COMPREHENSION ABILITY

THE USE OF MIND MAPPING TECHNIQUE IN TEACHING RECOUNT TEXT TO IMPROVE STUDENTS READING COMPREHENSION ABILITY

CHAPTER I 

INTRODUCTION

This chapter contains a brief explanation of the introduction. It consists of background, research questions, the scope of the research, aims of the research, hypothesis, research methodology, clarification of key terms, and organization of the paper. 

A. Background

In the structure of curriculum program in Junior high school, English is one of the most important subjects for students in the seventh grade until nine grades by having about four hours lesson every week. English has been identified as the most important parameter in the curriculum development that should be mastered by Indonesian students. It means that students in the junior high school have three years opportunity to learn English and they are expected to master it.

There are four skills in English teaching that the students should master it. The four skills are listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Standard competence of Junior High School states that the seventh grade students in the second semester should be able to express spoken text and short monologue in descriptive and procedure text to interact with surrounding. It means that, the seventh grade students should be able to express meaning in simple short monologue and dialogue used in oral language variety accurately, fluently, and understandably to interact with surrounding.

Speaking is the productive skill in the oral mode. It consists of producing systematic verbal utterance to convey meaning. Speaking also is an important skills to communicate because in speaking students convey ideas, opinion, etc. According to Brown (2001) speaking is one of the important skills in language learning in the classroom. It is used twice as often as listening and the most used skill, it means that students should be good in speaking because speaking is used more than listening.

However in reality, since English is introduced to students, they cannot talk fluently it can be seen when they make small conversations they cannot talk as the teacher want and they get some difficulties to speak English. They feel uneasy and they are afraid to speak with each other to share about their opinion. It can be drawn from their negative attitude toward speaking activity, one of the reason is the teaching method which is used is boring.

In teaching and learning process, the effective and interesting method is one of the ways to motivate students to be involved in the activity. It can make the students feel more comfortable with the materials. As Dewey states, cited in Mooney (2000; p. 15), that enjoyable teaching learning process will occur when students are interested in the materials because the beginner students are interested in many new things such as foreign language. According to Brown (2001 : 100) the characteristic of novice level is the students' ability to communicate using learned material and oral production consists of isolated words.

Unfortunately many teachers still apply traditional method in teaching. For example, teachers make the students keep learning English through teachers' explanation of new words or grammar. In fact, this method is not effective because students will easily forget the words and the material if they learn different topic. Especially for students, those who are seven to twelve years old, this method is uninteresting. Keskil and Cephe note that students who are 10 and 11 years old like game, puzzles and song most, those who are 12 and 13 years old like activities built around dialogues, question-answer activities and matching exercises most. (Harmer, 2001 : 61).

There are many methods that can be used in teaching or learning speaking. But the applied methods which are used need to be not only interesting but also effective in teaching speaking. Clearly, students will not be able to speak foreign language well just by memorizing lists of words, repeating mechanically some useful expressions, and so on. Cameron's (2001) state that speaking is the active use of language to express meanings. To speak in the foreign language in order to share understandings with other, people require attention to precise details of the language. Thus, if students do not understand the spoken language, they cannot learn it effectively.

As Dawson (1975) state that speaking is truly basic skill in language learning. Students need to get themselves involved in the classroom to get more practice in speaking foreign language. For the purpose of getting students involved in the classroom, enjoyable activities are recommended to be used by the teachers to make the students focus on teaching learning process.

The teachers have to use different kinds of teaching approach in order not to make the students feel bored. Klancar (2006 : 53) states that the teacher will get some advantages when they teach student by various types of activities such as reading aloud and describing pictures.

Speaking activity can be modified by using media to help students in organizing their idea, for example by using pictures. Based on the basic competence designed for seventh grade in the junior high school, students are expected to be able to describe something such as objects, things people or procedure. It means that teachers have to help them to be able to describe it. There are many ways to make students more involved in the activity one of them is by using pictures. Besides using pictures and posters teacher can also use the real media such as desks, chairs, and the other things to help them to describe people, things or object. Pictures, as the media, are expected to give explanation and description, without having the students to memorize the text.

Pictures can be a media to stimulate students in describing an object or person in the pictures. Students can acquire the meaning by seeing the things in the pictures without explanation. It also helps them to communicate or explain the events in the picture. As Thornbury (2005; p. 75) explains that the script of conversation can be illustrated in picture form to make it memorized easily. So that teachers can create joyful learning through pictures that can affect students to participate and also motivate them to be active in the class. Providing tools especially pictures could encourage students to focus on the materials. They are interested in the pictures and become actively participate in the class. Furthermore, through pictures, fun learning can be created and speaking activity will not be seen as difficult as students might have thought.

In relation to the teaching and learning, pictures are potential source in the transferring information. In the other words, picture can become a bridge to transfer knowledge from the teacher to the student. As Goodman (2006 : 75) states, that picture can act as a bridge between students who have different learning style. According to Canning-Wilson (2001 : 91) pictures are important since they facilitate students understanding. Furthermore, she explains that for most people, the mental image of what they see has greater impact than auditory input.

Based on the explanation above, this research aimed is to find out the effectiveness of using pictures in teaching speaking English. Thus, the entitled "TEACHING SPEAKING ENGLISH THROUGH PICTURE IN IMPROVING STUDENTS SPEAKING ABILITY".

B. Research Questions

According to the previous explanations, this research was intended to answer the following questions : 

1. Is the use of Pictures effective in improving students speaking ability ?

2. What are the students' responses of teaching speaking English through pictures ?

C. The Scope of the Research

Based on the aforementioned problems, the scope of this study was to find out the effectiveness of picture in teaching speaking English. The context of the study was limited on teaching speaking English, especially to the seventh grades of SMP X.

D. Aims of the Research

The aims of this research are : 

1. To investigate the effectiveness of picture in teaching speaking English through picture.

2. To analyzed students' responses towards the implementation teaching speaking English through picture.

COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING (CLT) APPROACH IN IMPROVING STUDENTS SPEAKING ABILITY IN EFL

COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING (CLT) APPROACH IN IMPROVING STUDENTS SPEAKING ABILITY IN EFL

CHAPTER I 

INTRODUCTION

This chapter describes the general issues related to the present study. These include the background of the study, limitation of the problem, formulation of the problem, hypothesis of the study, definition of the key terms, the purposes and significance of the research. 

A. Background of the study

The recent change of our national curriculum has a great effect on the instructional procedures and material contents in Primary school, Junior High School and Senior High School. Especially in Junior High School, the curriculum change from Competence-Based Curriculum to School-Based Curriculum has given opportunities for teachers to plan and make the curriculum based on the set of competences. Teachers are obliged to be creative and innovative (Karnadi & Ansyar, 2007) in developing the curriculum and portraying lessons in classroom.

Karnadi (2006) stated that the Education Ministerial regulation no. 22, 23 and 24 year 2006, dated May 23, about School-Based Curriculum giving a broad opportunities for schools as well as the teachers to determine and develop the curriculum. The curriculum developed by the school should refer to national standard of education, and operationally should be in line with the standard of content and competence arranged by BSNP (The Board of National Standard of Education). In such a way, school has a full authority to determine and develop the syllabus, curriculum and indicators in order to show the schools' potentials and competitions (Bambang Wasito Adi, The head of Information centre of BSNP). Principally, it is always intended to have teaching and learning process that finally can lead to have better learning outcome.

The goal of teaching English in Junior High School level is to communicate in English at the level of literacy performative competence and literacy functional competence (PERMEN 22 in 2006). The literacy performative competence level leads the students to be able to read, write, listen and speak English in simple symbols. The literacy functional competence level encourages the students to communicate in English orally and written for their daily activity needs.

As such, the way of teaching and learning process of English should be taken more emphasize on communicative approach. This approach gives focus on communicative proficiency rather than on mere mastery of structure (Richards, 1986 : 64). It is in line with the function of language that is to communicate opinion, ideas, information, etc. So that language is to communicate meaning as effectively as possible in concrete situation.

Nowadays, communication becomes more and more important in our daily life, because they are indispensable as a means of communication for Indonesia international activities. But it has been a big problem for Indonesian learners of English to develop communicative competence. This is partly because we have few opportunities to use English in a real world and partly because we usually regard English as knowledge instead of a mean of communication. As English is not the main approach for the people to transfer information with each other in Indonesia, it's mainly as the way of finding a good job and passing an examination. As a result, reading skills and linguistic competence are emphasized in school. What is more, Indonesia and English are completely different languages in many aspects, so it's difficult for the students to learn English. Also in Indonesia, there are a few opportunities for students to speak and listen to English; there is no real language environment for students to improve their communicative competence.

Additionally, there are two reasons why we should teach speaking skills in the classroom, they are;

- Motivation

Many students equate being able to speak a language as knowing the language and therefore view learning the language as learning how to speak the language, or as Nunan (1991) wrote, "Success is measured in terms of the ability to carry out a conversation in the (target) language." Therefore, if students do not learn how to speak or do not get any opportunity to speak in the language classroom they may soon get de-motivated and lose interest in learning. On the other hand, if the right activities are taught in the right way, speaking in class can be a lot of fun, raising general learner motivation and making the English language classroom a fun and dynamic place to be.

- Speaking is fundamental to human communication.

Just think of all the different conversations we have in one day and compare that with how much written communication we do in one day. Which do we do more of ? In our daily lives most of us speak more than we write, yet many English teachers still spend the majority of class time on reading and writing practice almost ignoring speaking and listening skills. Do we think this is a good balance ?

If the goal of our language course is truly to enable our students to communicate in English, then speaking skills should be taught and practiced in the language classroom.

In case of teaching English as a foreign language, the goal of teaching as stated above is accordance with the standard and basic competence in school based curriculum (PERMEN 22 in 2006), especially for the eight-year of junior high school level, which take more emphasize on the students' communicative competence in speaking skill, as in the following that;

- The ability to express meaning in a simple short dialog with other people in transactional and interpersonal conversation. 

- The ability to express meaning in a simple short functional and monolog in descriptive and recount texts for interacting and communicating with other people.

- The ability to express meaning orally in transactional and interpersonal for interacting and communicating with other people.

- The ability to express meaning in a simple short functional and monolog in recount and narrative texts for interacting and communicating with other people.

Additionally, the standard of competence as stated above encourages the students to have the basic competence (PERMEN 22, 2006) as in the following;

- Expressing meaning in transactional (to get things done) and interpersonal conversation (socialization) to ask for and give things.

- Expressing meaning in transactional (to get things done) and interpersonal conversation (socialization) to ask and give opinions (make questions).

Expressing meaning in transactional (to get things done) and interpersonal conversation (socialization) to invite people, agree and disagree, and talk about past experience.

- Expressing meaning in transactional (to get things done) and interpersonal conversation (socialization) to express admiration and congratulation ask for and give ideas and ask for information.

- Expressing meaning in transactional (to get things done) and interpersonal conversation (socialization) to talk about favorite tales, ask for a favor, ask and offer things.

- Expressing meaning in transactional (to get things done) and interpersonal conversation (socialization) to get information, ask and give opinion, predict and retell the story.

- Expressing meaning in transactional (to get things done) and interpersonal conversation (socialization) to ask for and give agreement, respond to a statement, talk about one's biography.

- Expressing meaning in transactional (to get things done) and interpersonal conversation (socialization) to make a telephone call, leave and take messages, make an appointment, and tell funny experience.

This paradigm shifting has happened in English teaching in Junior High School especially in SMPN X where the goal of teaching is aimed at teaching English for communication. However, the application of teaching in the field is still far from satisfying. For instance; it often can be seen that English teaching still emphasize on language form. It also can be observed that many Junior High School students who have been studying English for more than 3 years are not able to speak English, even though it is in a simple conversation. Their English mark in their final examination (NEM) is considered low and their communicative proficiency is also poor. 

The students' achievement nationally makes parents as well as teachers unhappy. The unsatisfactory results make people then turn more intention to the implementers in the fields. The teachers become the scapegoat of the failure because they directly face the students in class. This phenomenon is concluded that English teaching result is still far from satisfaction. It means that the problem of English teaching still can not be overcome maximally. The implementation of the normative approach underlying the curriculum is considered on the teachers' hand. Teachers as the teaching implementers in the field should be able to understand the curriculum as part of the system, since it should be understood as guideline that give direction towards the target decided. Their understanding will very much determine their preparation and their actual implementation in class. But the case is not like what it has been expected. Teachers as the spearhead are not well prepared. They are predicted of not having enough knowledge or experience about the approach.

The purpose of English teaching in Indonesia is very often limited to the four language skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking). And all the classroom activities are designed around the four language skills. However this is not necessarily the case. Many teachers and learners get accustomed to traditional teaching methodology and neglect the nature of language and language teaching. To avoid such misunderstanding the thesis insists that the aim of English teaching is to develop the learners' communicative competence.

In Indonesia, some existing problems, of which dumb English and low efficiency are most evident. Generally, the learners have spent at least three years or so studying English before entering senior high school. During such long learning span too much emphasis has been put on rote learning and accumulation of English knowledge, such as the mastery of usage words and grammatical rules. Many learners with many years experience in English learning still have considerable difficulty coping with English in its normal oral communicative use. Therefore, it is of great significance and urgency to further discuss the objective of language teaching and the approach in English language teaching is most self-evident. The learners are required to develop the comprehensive ability to communicate orally in English. In the process of improving the comprehensive proficiency the teaching should focus on the learners' proficiency instead of the presentation of abstract linguistic forms.

The objective of the English teaching is to develop the learners' English communicative competence likewise. Viewing English as a kind of meaning potential and a functional system, its learning should be the realization of English behavior potential. English teaching will focus on how to use English grammatically and appropriately. In a word, our English teaching will concentrate on the knowledge and ability to use. In addition to the ability to produce and understand grammatical utterances the learners are to develop the ability to know when to select a particular grammatical sequence that should be appropriate to the context, both linguistic and situational.

The common problems encountered by teachers with the teaching of English, especially teaching of speaking skills in junior high school can be seen in the following that; 

1. Students won't talk or say anything

One way to tackle this problem is to find the root of the problem and start from there. A reason for student silence may simply be that the class activities are boring or are pitched at the wrong level. Very often our interesting communicative speaking activities are not quite as interesting or as communicative as we think they are and all the students are really required to do is answer 'yes' or 'no' which they do quickly and then just sit in silence or worse talking noisily in their L1.

2. When students work in pairs or groups they just end up chatting in their own language.

This problem is mostly happen when the activity or the task is not interesting to students. If students do not have something to say or do, or don't feel the need to speak, we can be sure it won't be long before they are chatting away in their L1.

3. Passive class

A common problem for EFL teachers is dealing with a passive class, where students are unresponsive and avoid interaction with the teacher. This is especially true when a teacher seeks interaction in a teacher-class dialog, such as asking questions to the class as a whole, expecting at least one student to respond. This can be a frustrating experience for both parties. Obviously, there will be times when no student can answer a teacher's question, but often students do not answer even if they understand the question, know the answer, and are able to produce the answer. Furthermore, students can often be very reluctant to give feedback or ask the teacher a question in front of the class.

This condition interests the researcher to investigate the effectiveness of CLT to EFL teaching in order to overcome those problems, to help students to learn English more effectively and efficiently, especially in improving students' speaking ability.

B. Limitation of the Problem

It has been previously stated in the background that students with many years experience in English learning still have considerable difficulty coping with English in its normal oral communicative use. In the other hand, students who have been studying English for more than 3 years are not able to speak English, even though it is in a simple conversation. Their English mark in their final examination (NEM) is considered low and their communicative proficiency is also poor.

Concerning the outcome that has not made us happy yet, it is necessary to take a look at the communicative language teaching approach to the teaching of English as a foreign language. Through this study the researcher will investigate the effectiveness of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) in the English Foreign Language (EFL) classroom, especially in improving students' speaking ability in SMPN X.

C. Formulation of the Problem

The problem that will be observed in this research is;

1. Is Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach effective in improving students' speaking ability ?

2. Is there any significant difference between the speaking ability of the respondents who are trained on applying CLT with those who are not ?

D. Hypothesis of the Study

The researcher sets the hypothesis as follows that students who are taught using Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach get higher speaking ability than those who are taught using the conventional method.

E. Definition of the Key Terms

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is an approach to the teaching of second and foreign languages that emphasizes interaction as both the means and the ultimate goal of learning a language. In other words, Communicative language teaching (CLT) is the way of teaching language that takes more emphasize on communicative approach (Wilkins, 1980s). CLT refers to the process of learning which makes use of real-life situation that necessitate communication (Ann Galloway, center for applied linguistics). The teacher sets up a situation that students are likely to encounter in real life. Unlike the audio-lingual method of language teaching, which relies on repetition and drills, the communicative approach can leave students in suspense as to the outcome of a class exercise, which will vary according to their reactions and responses. The real-life simulations change from day to day. Students' motivation to learn comes from their desire to communicate in meaningful ways about meaningful topics.

Communicative language teaching (CLT) refers to both processes and goals in classroom learning. The central theoretical concept in communicative language teaching is ‘‘communicative competence,’’. Competence is defined in terms of the expression, interpretation, and negotiation of meaning (Sauvignon, 1971). Sauvignon (1971) used the term ‘‘communicative competence’’ to characterize the ability of classroom language learners to interact with other speakers, to make meaning, as distinct from their ability to recite dialogues or perform on discrete-point tests of grammatical knowledge.

Approach, according to Anthony as quoted by Richards (1986) is a set of correlative assumptions dealing with the nature of language and learning. Following Richards (1986), states that approach is theories about the nature of language and language learning that serve as the source of practices and principles in language teaching. Additionally, approach refers to the beliefs and theories about language, language learning and teaching that underlie a method. While speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing information (Brown; Burns & Joyce, 1997). Its form and meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs, including the participants themselves, their collective experiences, the physical environment, and the purposes for speaking.

F. The Purpose of the Research

There are two purposes of the research : 

1. To investigate whether CLT is effective in improving students' speaking ability.

2. To find out the improvement of students' speaking ability after being trained compared to those who are not trained.

SKRIPSI THE USE OF GUESSING GAME IN TEACHING SPEAKING

THE USE OF GUESSING GAME IN TEACHING SPEAKING

This chapter elaborates background, research questions, aims of study, limitation of study, hypothesis, research methodology which presents four parts namely research design, population and sample, data collection, data analysis. Moreover, clarification of the term and organization of the study are in the end of the chapter.

1.1 Background

Speaking is included in productive aspect as a communicative competence, in which means that there is a process to conceptualize data happen in a brain then produce it as an orally information. In line with the statement, Harmer (2001) says that the ability to speak fluently presupposes not only knowledge of language features, but also the ability to process information and language 'on the spot'.

Learning speaking means learning an interactive processing of constructing meaning that involves producing, receiving, and processing information, stated by Brown (1994) quoted by Florez (1999). Its form and meaning are dependent on the context, participants' experiences, physical environment, and the purposes of speaking.

Like three other categories of language performances; listening, reading and writing, speaking is viewed as the significant one. Speaking is a sort of productive skill which is used in oral model. It means that through speaking people produce words, expressions, or utterances to express our ideas and feelings as well as to respond towards particular situations.

It is in line with Kartimi (1986 : 38) that speaking is an instrument for communicating thought, feeling, idea and intention to other people through spoken language, in order that what we say can be understood by the listeners.

Speaking is a way of expressing ourselves in whatever language we use. The most motivating language to learn therefore enables us to talk in a way that is true to our personality. As described by Hendarsyah (2003) cited in Mulgrave and Tarigan (1987 : 24), speaking is defined as a tool for conveying (message) almost directly to figure out whether or not it is understood by the listener and whether or not the materials are comprehended by both the speaker and listener.

As one of language skills, speaking competence in English subject is taught in Vocational School (SMK) for the English Teaching-Learning requirement. In terms of level, Vocational School has the same grade with Senior High School. This study observes the second graders which are in Elementary Level with Competence Standard that is to communicate English which is equal to Elementary Level. Furthermore, Basic Competence is to comprehend daily conversation in professional and personal context.

The language teaching success has something to do with teacher's involvement to improve students' speaking ability. Therefore, teacher needs some efforts to attain that purpose, one of them is by doing the arrangement procedures as Lynch and Anderson (1992) states :

All the speaking tasks involve three elements : preparation, performance, and feedback. They have been designed to make you think as well as speak and listen. Becoming a more effective communicator is not simply. It is a matter of practicing the spoken comes from planning how to approach a speaking task and evaluating how well you spoke.

One of alternative technique used in teaching speaking is guessing game technique, in which students are expected to be involved actively in speaking class activity. Guessing game which is adopted from a television and radio game can create the teaching-learning situation based on the students' excitement of playing game. Thus, students are much courage in thinking what they want to say.

Through guessing game, students are provided by a set of well-arranged activities as follows : an object's picture is shown to the chairperson; in addition the chairperson tells a clue to the team that the object is household tools, clothes, vehicles or any other stuff. In finding the answer of what the object is, the team should ask yes or no questions to the chairperson, for instance "is it for helping us?" Therefore, the chairperson is allowed only to say 'yes' or 'no'. The team will get point if they guess the answer by having twenty questions or more.

There are some tasks that teacher can instruct to the students to do the activities in guessing game. Byrne (1987 : 21) says as follows : name of the object, spell the object, say something about the object, give one or more uses for the object, say what they would do with the object if they had it, and make up sentence using the object.

In conducting this kind of game, teacher and students can work each other to build a good atmosphere of teaching-learning process in class. This technique requires teacher to facilitate students with some new chunks, it also gives a chairperson an experience to process his/her peers' speaking in front of class. Meanwhile, for the rest, this game motivates them to make a question with loud and clear voice and then explore some new chunks and language exposure in one time.

This study is expected to have some contributions to the language teaching-learning process, especially for teaching speaking in Vocational School. Therefore, it serves as an alternative in teaching speaking strategies in order to improve students' speaking ability.

1.2 Research questions

This study is conducted to reveal the following research questions :

1. Is guessing game effective in improving students' speaking ability?

2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of Guessing Game technique from the students' point of view?

3. What strategies do the students use to overcome obstacles in learning speaking by using Guessing Game?

1.3 Aims of Study

This study is aimed at :

1. Finding out whether guessing game is effective in improving students' speaking ability.

2. Finding out the advantages and disadvantages of Guessing Game technique from the students' point of view.

3. Finding out the strategies used to overcome the obstacles in learning speaking by using Guessing Game technique.

1.4 Limitation of Study

This study emphasizes on the effectiveness of the use of Guessing Game in teaching speaking. The study will be conducted in SMKN X by selecting two classes in same level of speaking as a control group and an experimental group. Furthermore, this study is hopefully able to give an alternative teaching model in teaching speaking.

1.5 Clarification of the Term

In order to avoid unnecessary misinterpretations, some terms are clarified as follows.

1. Guessing Game is a game in which class divided into four groups, one chairperson is given a picture of the object, and then tells a group that the object is household tools, clothes, vehicles or any other stuff. The groups are required to find the answer by asking yes or no questions, for at least twenty questions. A group which has made twenty questions and answered correctly will be the winner.

2. Speaking is the ability of speaker to convey message to the hearer in intention to be understood by the hearer, as well as the capability of expressing ideas, thoughts, feelings, emotions, and reactions in spoken language.

1.6 Organization of the Study

This study will begin with preface, abstract and will be divided into five chapters, namely (1) Introduction, (2) Theoretical Foundation, (3) Research Methodology, (4) Findings and Discussion, (5) Conclusion and Suggestion.

Chapter one will provide the background of the study, research questions, aims of the study, limitation of the study, research methodology, research design, population and sample, data collection, data analysis, clarification of terms, and organization of the paper.

Chapter two will focus on the review of related theories and literatures related to Speaking, Teaching Speaking in Classroom, Game and Guessing Game.

Chapter three will contain further explanation about methodology of the study that has been briefly introduced in Chapter 1.

Chapter four will cover data collected, data analysis and the interpretation of the findings from the study by using certain statistical formula so that it would be easier to discuss.

Chapter five will explore the conclusion of the study and also suggestion for further study.

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE EDUCATIONAL DEBATING METHOD IN IMPROVING STUDENTS ORAL COMMUINCATION SKILLS

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE EDUCATIONAL DEBATING METHOD IN IMPROVING STUDENTS ORAL COMMUINCATION SKILLS

The chapter gives a brief description of the whole content of the research, including the background, statement of the problem, aim of the study, scope of the study, significance of the study, hypothesis, research methodology, clarifications of key terms and organizations of the paper.

1.1 Background

Oral communication ability, especially in English language as International Language, is considered to be an important skill needed in a global era. Nowadays, the Indonesian Government implements Kurikulum Berbasis Kompetensi (KBK) or Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) that forces students to be able to practice something through a learning process. The English learning objectives according to CBC for English at Senior High School (Puskur, 2002) are that students should be able to speak actively in various contexts to convey information, thoughts and feelings as well as create social relationships in various forms of interactive and enjoyable activities.

In contrast to the objectives above, most classes in Indonesian schools only give little attention for speaking. Most class activities are based on memorizing new vocabulary, discussing grammar rules and analyzing dialogues. Thus, they cannot have enjoyable speaking experiences and they mostly unable to speak actively as needed in CBC.

Accordingly, we need teaching methodology which is not only designed to produce students who can master the language but also to produce school graduates who can practically operate using English with communicative circumstances. Otherwise, if there is no any research conducted to this problem, presumably all education practitioners unable to improve the students' mastery of oral communication skill and hard to reach the better standard from the government.

Hunt (1998) states that through debate students can learn how to examine arguments from various points of view and importantly they can have better arrangement and organization of speech in an appropriate language. Thus debate teaches students to be able to communicate in better oral communication skills.

A study on using debate in helping students discuss controversial topics was conducted by Fallahi (2007) found that most students enjoyed debate, would like to participate in debate in the future, and felt empowered by the experience. This shows that debate is a useful tool to facilitate verbal participation by students in classes where the subject matter is controversial.

Hence, this study is intended to investigate the effectiveness of educational debate method in improving students' oral communication skills in Indonesian school and it is expected that this research will contribute to the practice of speaking teaching in the future.

1.2 Statement of The Problem

This study was conducted to answer these following question : Is the educational debating method effective in teaching oral communication skills ?

1.3 The aim of The Study

Based on the questions formulated above, the aim of the study is : To examine the effectiveness of the educational debating method in teaching oral communication skills.

1.4 The Scope of The Study

There are two types of debate, namely substantive and educational debates. Substantive debate is one in which the speakers present arguments with a special interest that focuses on true and false facts before the judge attacks them, while the educational debate focuses on academic purposes and the judge evaluates the quality of students way of convincing others through their oral communication skills.

Based on that, this study focuses on the use of the educational debating method in improving students' oral communication skills and the subjects were the second graders of Senior High School and Vocational High School.

1.5 The Significance of The Study

This study is expected to contribute to the EFL teaching methodology where the educational debating method has not been used by schools in Indonesia as an English teaching tool. It is also hoped to enhance students and teachers' knowledge related to oral communication skills. This educational debating method hopefully can develop students' and teachers' creativity especially in teaching oral communication skills or speaking.

1.6. Organization of The Paper

This research paper will be organized as following :

Chapter I Introduction

This chapter will consist of an introduction which provides the information on the background of the study, the scope of the study, statement of the problem, significance of the study, research methodology, clarification of terms and organization of paper.

Chapter II Theoretical Foundation

This chapter will concentrate on theoretical foundations that are relevant to the research, which is the educational debate method is the main issue.

Chapter III Research Methodology

This chapter will discuss about methodology of the research that consits of formulation of the problem, aims of this research, data collection, scope of the study, analytical frameworks and data analysis.

Chapter IV Findings and Discussions

This chapter will discuss about the results of the research and discussion of research findings.

Chapter V Conclusions and Suggestions

This chapter will consist of conclusion of the study includes the implication and suggestions for further research an for the related institutions.

TEACHERS TECHNIQUES IN TEACHING SPEAKING SKILL

TEACHERS TECHNIQUES IN TEACHING SPEAKING SKILL

CHAPTER I 

INTRODUCTION

This chapter describes the general issues related to the introduction of this study. The issues cover background of the study, research questions, the purpose of the research, the significance of the study, the definition of the terms, and thesis organization.

A.. Background of the Study

English has become a lingua franca, a language which is internationally used by people with different first language background (Harmer, 2001), and which is used for communication by more than one billion people around the world (see Johnson, 2001). This makes English an important tool that everyone should master; making it one important school subjects in most schools in the world.

In Indonesia, English has been taught and received serious attention in all levels of study, i.e. Elementary School, Junior High School, and Senior High School. The goal of teaching English in Indonesia, and probably in most schools in the world, is the students' ability to use English for communication through four language skills, i.e. listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

Among other language skills, mastery speaking which is "the basic means of human communication" (Lazarton, 2001 : 103) and English speaking which has become "the most demanding skill" ((Bailey & Savage, 1994 in Lazarton, 2001) is a must. This is due to the fact that most learners often evaluate their success in language learning as well as the effectiveness of their English course on the basis of how much they feel they have improved in their speaking proficiency (Richards, 2008).

Besides the importance of speaking skill, learning speaking in second or foreign language, has a great challenge. Brown (1994 in Lazarton, 2001) mentions a number of features that interact to make speaking as challenging as it is. First, fluent speech contains reduced forms, such as contractions, vowel reduction, and elision, so that learners who are not exposed to or who do not get sufficient practice with reduced speech will retain their rather formal-sounding full forms. Second, students must also acquire the stress, rhythm, and intonation of English. In line with that, Lazarton (2001 cited in Celce-Murcia, 2001 : 103) states that perhaps the most difficult aspect of spoken English is that it is almost always accomplished via interaction with at least one other speaker. This means that a variety of demands are in place at once : monitoring and understanding the other speakers, thinking about one's own contribution, producing that contribution, monitoring its effect, and so on.

To cope with the challenges of teaching speaking, the language teachers are required to be able to create and employ certain techniques in order to achieve the goal of language learning and teaching for speaking skill. By this, it means that the teacher plays an important role in determining what technique can best encourage students' participation in the learning process. This is supported by Celce-Murcia, 1979 who mentions that teacher needs to know the strategies and exercises to ensure that each is getting a relevant practice in speaking English in order to develop his fluency and confidence. In line with that, Rahmawati (2008) proposes that teacher, particularly in speaking instruction, is always expected to provide an engaging-students techniques to make them able to explore their experiences and idea in oral way.

In teaching speaking skill, the teachers are expected to be able to promote students' speaking skill by employing several types of techniques such as discussion, speeches, role plays, conversation, audio taped oral dialogues journal and other accuracy-based activities (Lazarton in Celce-Murcia, 2001 : 106). Thus, it is expected that the strategies will explore the students' speaking performance.

Among other language skills taught in EFL schools, speaking skill has been likely received little concern by investigators since the complexity and impracticality of this skill to be investigated (See Lengkanawati, 2007). Therefore, this study attempts to investigate the teaching of speaking skill particularly the English teacher's techniques in teaching speaking skill. Besides, it also investigates the students' responses to those techniques.

B. Research Questions

Based on the consideration above, this study is focused on the research questions as follows : 

1. What techniques does the teacher use in teaching speaking skill ?

2. What are the students' responses to the teacher's techniques ?

C. Aims of the Study

Related to the research questions above, this study aims to : 

1. investigate the English teachers' techniques in teaching speaking skill,

2. identify the students' responses to the techniques used by the teachers in teaching speaking skill.

D. Significance of the Study

It is expected that the result of this study will be useful for those who participate in teaching English as a foreign language. They are involved : first, the teachers of English; second, the education officers and the school stake holders who hold and facilitate any kinds of teachers training; third, the writer as the researcher would like to meet the magister degree; and fourth, the other researchers who are interested in conducting the same field of study.

E. Thesis Organization

This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter one is general introduction that relates to the background of the study. Chapter two discusses the literature review as the basic guidelines which underpinning the study. Chapter three presents the methodology of the research. This involves the data collection techniques and instruments used in conducting the research. Chapter four is about data presentation and data analysis in the study. And the last, chapter five presents conclusion and offers some recommendation.

THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING TO YOUNG LEARNERS A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY AT THREE KINDERGARTENS

THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING TO YOUNG LEARNERS A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY AT THREE KINDERGARTENS

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background

English as an International language is needed by all levels of education to be mastered. This has made educators from all levels of education try to facilitate the best way of teaching and learning English. As a result, the teaching and learning English has been placed in a very important position and has been taught in almost all countries in the world.

In Indonesian teaching context, English is a foreign language that becomes a compulsory subject in all schools from lower secondary to upper secondary schools. It is where the department of education and culture number 060/U/1993 includes English into curriculum for the elementary level of education as one of the local content subjects from grade four to grade six (www.depdiknas.go.id). In addition, Suyanto (2008 : 15) states that now English is also introduced to preschool where the students are grouped into very young learners.

In relation to this, many parents send their young learners to schools that offer a good English program. They do this with an assumption that learning foreign language will be much easier at an early age. Hence, young learners have a better chance to be successful in acquiring foreign language. Actually, there are many other factors that will determine the success of language learners such as exposure, support, engagement, teachers' confidence, capabilities and sponsorship (Musthafa, 2008 : 4).

In line with this, Suyanto (2008 : 15) notes that the maturity of students are not simply from the age but also from any other factors, such as environment, cultural, interest, and the influence of parents. Furthermore, Nunan (1999) says that whether or not it's a 'good thing' to begin a foreign language for very young learners (4-5 years old) will depend on many factors including the amount of time the kids are given, the competence of the teachers, the quality of the resources etc.

As mentioned above, in Indonesian teaching context English is included into curriculum for the elementary level of education and many studies have been investigating the process of teaching and learning English to young learners in elementary level. Furthermore, the researcher tries to consider about the process of teaching and learning English to young learners or early childhood education, where the age range of the students is around four to six years old. This study will focus on the process of teaching and learning English to young learners, the process of English language assessment to young learners as well as the effect of these processes. Hopefully the findings of this study will provide an insight of the process of teaching and learning as well as assessment to young learners. It is also expected that this study will contribute some lucid information on how teaching and learning as well as assessment should be carried out. Hence, there will be improvement on the way teachers teach and assess to young learners.

Since in this study there will be a discussion about assessment, there will be a definition about assessment which is related to the study. Assessment is the process of data analysis that teachers use to get evidence about their learner's performance and progress in English (Pinter, 2006 : 131). In terms of purpose, assessment is needed by administrators, teachers, staff developers, students and parents assist in determining appropriate program placements and instructional activities as well as in monitoring students' progress (O'Malley and Pierce, 1996 : 3). More specifically, all teachers need to know how effective their teaching is and all learners are interested in how well they are doing. Since assessment is the teaching and learning process, therefore it is an integral part of teaching and learning and it occurs all the time.

B. Research Questions

Relevant to the main points explained above, the questions in this research are formulated as follows : 

1) What is the process of teaching and learning English language to young learners in some kindergartens in northern part of X ?

2) What is the process of assessment of English language to young learners in these kindergartens ?

3) What is the effect of these processes to young learners in these kindergartens ?

C. Purpose of the Study

In line with the research questions mentioned above, the aims of this research are specified into the following points : 

1) To identify the process of teaching and learning English language to young learners in some kindergartens classroom in northern part of X.

2) To identify the process of assessment of English language to young learners in those kindergartens.

3) To identify the effect of these processes to young learners in these kindergartens.

D. Definition of Terms

- Young learners : children are at preschool or in the first couple of years of schooling (Pinter, 2006 : 2).

- Teaching : work of a teacher, idea or belief that is taught (Oxford Learner's Pocket Dictionary, 1995 : 425)

- Assessment : calculating the value of something (Oxford Learner's Pocket Dictionary, 1995 : 21). According to Pinter (2006 : 131) Assessment is the process of data analysis that teachers use to get evidence about their learner's performance and progress in English.

E. Significance of the Study

This study will provide an insight of how English language learning is conducted in terms of the process of teaching and learning, assessment and the effect of these processes to young learners. Findings of the study will give empirical evidence of the process of teaching and learning, the process of assessment of English language and the effect of these processes to young learners at some kindergartens in northern part of X. The results of this study hopefully make teachers are aware of the crucial things in teaching and assessing English language learning to young learners.

IMPROVING STUDENTS READING SKILL THROUGH INTERACTIVE APPROACH

IMPROVING STUDENTS READING SKILL THROUGH INTERACTIVE APPROACH

CHAPTER I 

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of Study

Reading is a crucial skill for students both English as a Second Language (ESL) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL). By reading activities, in the writer's view, the students can get information that is needed and they can broaden their horizons. Moreover, ESL/EFL readers will make greater progress and attain greater development in all academic areas. Besides, indirectly they can communicate and interact with the people who have a different language, social and cultural background.

According to Anderson (1999 : 1), reading is an active, fluent process that involves the reader and the reading material in constructing the meaning. Furthermore, he notes that meaning does not reside on the printed page, nor is it only in the head of the reader. It means that reading can be constructed by combining the words on the printed page with the reader's background knowledge and experiences. Consequently, the teaching of reading should involve activities which connect the ideas on the text to what students already know.

In relation to the objective of teaching of English at senior high schools, the National Curriculum Board of Education (BSNP, 2006) targets the students at the information level. At this level, the students are supposed to understand various genres of English written texts, i.e. procedure, descriptive, recount, narrative, report, news item, analytical exposition, spoof, explanation, discussion, review and public speaking to access knowledge. It means that the teaching of reading will not be successful if the students can only read words without understanding the message being read. In other words, whatever we read should be well understood. Smith and Robinson (1980) argue that comprehension means understanding. This means that reading comprehension is a process of thought where the readers understand the writer's ideas and interpret them into his or her own needs.

In achieving the objective above, English teachers sometimes have many problems on how to improve the students' ability in reading. Based on the researcher's experiences and informal observation, it is found that most students at senior high school level frequently find it hard to understand English texts though the text is simple. It is difficult for them to find the word and sentence meaning contextually, get the main ideas, paragraph, comprehend the ideas' text and find the view of writer.

The difficulty may be due to the students' linguistic deficiencies. The students often lack of vocabulary or they may know a word but with a different meaning. Moreover, the students may be unfamiliar with grammatical structures. These deficiencies may lead students to inaccurate reading, which result in erroneous interpretation (Tamar Feuerstein and Miriam Schcolnik, 1995). In addition, they frequently, in reading English text rely on their language competency more-or bottom- up reading text-and less activate their background knowledge (top-down reading text).

Another difficulty may also be due to insufficient teaching of the skill in a structured way (Yuil & Oakhill, 1991 in Aarnoutse, 1999). Based on the researcher's observation, in many schools, reading instruction seems not to focus on the content of passage. They traditionally teach reading by answering questions based on the text and finding out unfamiliar words in dictionary. The main activities are mostly dominated by reading aloud, translating the texts and answering text-based questions presented in the text book used in teaching. They do not activate the students' background knowledge before reading activities. Consequently, this overemphasis act on decoding sometimes produces students who can decode and pronounce words but fail to comprehend what they read. They even get bored involving in reading instructions.

To overcome the above difficultness and to develop the students' reading skill, interactive approach becomes an alternative solution to be used in teaching. This approach is considered as more comprehensive one since it emphasizes not only on how students decode the text but also how they interpret the text as Eskey (1988) states that good readers are both good decoders and good interpreters of text.

With respect to interactive approach, there are two approaches of reading that become the basic principle of interactive approach. The first one is bottom up processing. This theory emphasizes on developing basic skill, matching sounds to the letters, syllables and words in the text, and the second one is top down processing. It stresses on the reader's background knowledge to comprehend the text. Bottom up approach is associated with teaching methodology called phonics and top down is related to the schema theory. Both of approaches have strength and weakness. Bottom up is more appropriate used to the students in the basic level while top down to the higher level. The third is interactive approach. This approach combines both bottoms up and top down (Elba in Max Koller, (Ed.), and 2006 : 8).

According to Stanovich (1980 in Carell, et.all 1990 : 31) interactive model of reading appear to provide a more accurate conceptualization of reading performance than strictly top down or bottom-up models. From this view, it can be stated that interactive can be best applied in teaching reading both for lower and higher level.

A recent research, conducted by Liu, et.al. (2007), on teaching reading has shown that an interactive model is effective in improving students' reading comprehension due to the importance of both processes. In practice, a reader continually changes from one focus to another. It means that besides a reader needs a top-down to predict meaning, he requires bottom up approach to check whether that is really what the writer said (Nutall, cited in Brown, 2001 : 299).

As an interactive links to bottom up, Eskey (1988) asserts that structure of the language of the text contributes much more to the readers' reconstruction of meaning than strictly top down theorists. Similar to Eskey view, Carell (1988) states that both processes interacting are efficient and effective reading in spite of the fact that top down processing is strongly linked to the teaching of reading.

To examine the effectiveness of interactive approach in teaching reading comprehension, this study involved grammar translation method as applied in control group. This method used in this study as comparison to interactive approach because it has been commonly used in teaching reading at MA X. In teaching reading comprehension, this method emphasizes on translating text from target language to native language. It also focuses on answering comprehension question.

Referring to the phenomena above, this research attempts to investigate the application of interactive approach proposed by Eskey (1988) as one of many reading strategies. This study intends to help students improve their reading skill by practicing both bottom-up and top-down model reading activities. In bottom-up model students are trained to develop their vocabulary and knowledge of structure. In top-down model, students are trained to activate their background knowledge before reading to predict the text. 

B. Statement of the Problem

Reading comprehension is a complex task and a difficult skill for many students. As a result, students' achievement in reading comprehension is still far from being expected. Consequently, teachers need to teach comprehension strategies in order to improve students' comprehension. This phenomenon has become the researcher's starting point in conducting his study. Thus, this study attempts to investigate the effects of the application of interactive approach to develop students' comprehension in reading compared to grammar translation method.

C. Research Questions

Based on the background of study, the research problem can be formulated as follows : 

- Is there a significant difference between students who are trained on applying interactive approach with those are trained with grammar translation one ?

D. Hypothesis

There is no a significant difference between students who are trained on applying interactive approach with those are trained with grammar translation method.

E. The Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the study is to investigate the effects of the application of interactive approach in teaching reading comprehension. The study specifically attempts to find out whether the interactive approach can be used to develop students' ability in reading comprehension.

THE USE OF SERIES OF PICTURES IN STUDENTS NARRATIVE WRITING PROCESS

THE USE OF SERIES OF PICTURES IN STUDENTS NARRATIVE WRITING PROCESS

CHAPTER I 

INTRODUCTION

This chapter briefly describes the contents of the study including background, research questions, aims of the study, the scope of study, significance of study, research methodology, clarification of the key terms, and organization of the paper.

A. Background of the Study

Writing is often considered as a difficult skill to master. Students who learn the writing skill need to be able to deal with some writing elements. The elements are the combination of a number of diverse elements namely content, form, grammar, style and mechanics (Harris, 1968). In other words, the students are required to be able to develop the ideas, organize the content of the text, employ appropriate grammatical form, choose structures and lexical items, and demonstrate appropriate spelling and punctuation in the text.

Dealing with the difficulties in writing can be carried out by implementing strategies in teaching writing. The strategies should make the students be able to develop their writing skills. Moreover, the strategies need to have the ability to motivate the students to write and allow them to have enough practice in writing so that the difficulties can be minimized.

Strategies in teaching writing can be various. Teachers may use teaching media as their strategies to support them presenting the materials. Teaching media are defined as equipments to support teaching and learning activities and help teachers to present the materials (Saiful, 2006). By using teaching media, teachers can increase the students' motivation and create an interesting learning atmosphere (Kamaludin, 2009).

Using teaching media is not merely about using supporting equipments in the classroom. The teacher should be able to choose appropriate teaching media in order to achieve the benefits of using teaching media. The teaching media should be chosen by considering the goals of the lessons and the characteristics of the students. Specifically, there are several aspects that should be considered in choosing teaching media : the age, interests, type of intelligence and experience of the students; the physical circumstances of the classroom; the cost of the media; and convenience of the materials available (Wright, 1976). By considering those factors, the teachers can determine what teaching media can be used in certain teaching and learning process.

Determining the appropriate supporting equipments in the classroom can also be done by choosing common teaching media. One of the common teaching media is pictures. They tend to be practical and easy to use. Teachers can deliver certain questions and ask the students to explain a word or concept (Haycraft, 1978) simply by showing or pointing on pictures while the students are paying attention to what happens in the pictures. Moreover, the information served by pictures can possibly avoid boredom and lack of interest in the classroom (Jonassen, 1982).

As the common teaching media, pictures may be presented in many ways. Besides presenting the picture as a single picture, presenting pictures in form of series of pictures is also a good choice. The use of series of pictures not only provides the students with the basic material for their compositions but also stimulates their imagination powers (Heaton, 1989). Moreover, teachers can use the series of pictures to guide the students to write well-organized text. The series of pictures contains a number of pictures that are joined into one another to explain certain events.

In relation to the teaching writing narrative text, a series of pictures is useful to use. The series of pictures can support the process of teaching writing narrative text. It helps teachers to serve the important aspects in teaching narrative genres that are to introduce the genres and to point out some distinctive characteristics of the genres such as the social purposes, generic structures and the language features of the text (Kim, 2006). In doing so, the teacher can start by showing the pictures while introducing the genre and explaining that each picture in a series indicates the sequence of events in the story. Showing the series of pictures before writing the narrative text also can help the students to predict the sequence of events that happen in the story. Later, when the students are in the writing stage, the series of pictures is hoped to lead the students to arrange the events of the story based on the arrangement of the pictures with appropriate generic structures. At the end, the students can write a narrative story with well-organized events.

Considering the explanation above, this study is conducted to find out the benefits of using series of pictures in narrative writing process and to describe the students' attitudes toward the use of series of pictures in narrative writing activity. It is hoped that this study can be one of references for English teachers to teach writing narrative text in interesting and enjoyable ways so that the students can be motivated to write. It is also hoped that by using series of pictures, the students can be stimulated to think creatively in gathering the ideas and learn narrative writing enthusiastically.

B. Research Questions

This study is conducted in order to answer the following questions : 

1. What are the benefits of using series of pictures in students' narrative writing process ?

2. What are the students' attitudes toward the use of series of pictures in narrative writing process ?

C. Aims of the Study

Based on the research questions above, the aims of this study are to find out : 

1. The benefits of using series of pictures in students' narrative writing process.

2. The students' attitudes toward the use of series of pictures in narrative writing process.

D. Significance of the Study

This study is expected to give theoretical, practical, and professional benefits.

1. Theoretical Benefits

The results of this study can be used to enrich the theories in English teaching media and become one of references for further studies related to the use of visual media in narrative writing.

2. Practical Benefits

For teachers, students, and readers who practically deal with the use of series of pictures in narrative writing, this study can be useful. For the students, they will able to write better and be motivated to practice their English skills. Moreover, for teachers and readers, the results show the implication of the use of series of pictures in narrative writing activity, provide information related to the students' attitudes toward the use series of pictures in narrative writing, and become evidence that series of pictures give benefits during the process of writing narrative texts.

3. Professional Benefits

In professional benefits, teachers and schools can hopefully get the benefits from the results of the study. The teachers are informed that series of pictures can be useful media to be used during the process of teaching and learning. Moreover, they can improve the strategy on teaching writing narrative texts. For the schools, this study can be used as a consideration that series of pictures are needed as one of teaching media. Thus, series of pictures can be provided in the schools.

E. Organization of the Paper

This paper is organized as follows. 

Chapter I : Introduction

This chapter discusses the background of the study, the limitation of the problems, the research questions, the purpose of the study, the significance of the study, and the organization of the paper.

Chapter II : Theoretical Foundation

Chapter II provides the theoretical review served as the base for investigating the problem in this study.

Chapter III : Research Methodology

This chapter explains the research design, the site and participants, the data collection techniques, the research procedures, and the data analysis.

Chapter IV : Findings and Discussions

In chapter IV, the analysis and discussions of the result in the study are presented.

Chapter V : Conclusions and Recommendations

This chapter presents the conclusion of the study and provides recommendations in accordance with the study.