SKRIPSI IDENTIFIKASI KEBUTUHAN PENGEMBANGAN KOMPETENSI PEDAGOGIK GURU

(KODE : PG-PAUD-0065) : SKRIPSI IDENTIFIKASI KEBUTUHAN PENGEMBANGAN KOMPETENSI PEDAGOGIK GURU

BAB I 

PENDAHULUAN

A. Latar Belakang

Pendidikan merupakan hal terpenting bagi kehidupan manusia. Pendidikan adalah suatu hal yang sangat diprioritaskan, karena pendidikan merupakan kewajiban yang berlangsung sepanjang hayat, selama seseorang masih hidup dan berakal sehat. Oleh karena itu dengan adanya pendidikan dapat menghasilkan manusia yang memiliki kemampuan berpikir logis, bersikap kritis, berinisiatif, unggul, dan kompetitif selain menguasai ilmu pengetahuan dan keterampilan dasar. Pendidikan bisa memberikan peluang yang besar bagi manusia untuk berkembang menjadi diri yang lebih baik lagi.

Masa kanak-kanak merupakan fase yang paling subur dalam menanamkan kreativitas yang mapan dan arahan yang bersih dalam jiwa dan sepak terjang anak. Potensi anak sudah tersedia dalam diri anak yang masih lugu dan polos yang belum terkontaminasi dengan lingkungan luar. Pada masa ini orang tua dapat memaksimalkan pendidikan anak dengan sebaik-baiknya, harapan besarnya untuk keberhasilan anak di masa mendatang. Menurut Nugraha (2006 : 62) anak akan berkembang menjadi remaja dan menjadi dewasa yang tahan dalam menghadapi berbagai macam tantangan. Seiring berjalannya waktu, pendidikan senantiasa mengalami dinamika yang membawa perubahan yang sangat signifikan, dengan berkembangnya pendidikan yang sangat luas maka perilaku anak juga harus diimbangi dengan sosial emosi yang baik, selain itu agama juga yang harus ditanamkan pada diri anak. Sehingga anak akan mempunyai pedoman untuk melangkah.

Dalam memudahkan pendidikan anak, maka diperlukan guru yang mempunyai kompetensi yang baik. Sosok guru yang ideal adalah guru yang mempunyai empat kompetensi dasar, kompetensi ini merupakan kompetensi yang paling utama bagi guru. Empat kompetensi yang paling dasar dan utama yaitu kompetensi pedagogik, kompetensi profesional, kompetensi pribadi, dan kompetensi sosial. Kompetensi sangat diperlukan untuk melaksanakan fungsi profesi. "Teacher Is The Heart Of Quality Education." Ungkapan ini mengisyaratkan bahwa guru merupakan salah satu indikator yang menentukan kualitas pendidikan. Bagus tidaknya kualitas pendidikan akan terlihat dari kinerja dan kompetensi guru sebagai pendidik yang melaksanakan proses pembelajaran.

Kompetensi pedagogik merupakan bagian yang tak terpisahkan dari empat kompetensi utama yang harus dimiliki seorang guru. Kompetensi pedagogik yaitu kemampuan seorang guru dalam mengelola proses pembelajaran peserta didik. Selain itu kemampuan pedagogik juga ditunjukkan dalam membantu, membimbing dan memimpin peserta didik. Kompetensi pedagogik ini sangat penting yang berkenaan dengan pembelajaran. Menurut Permendiknas Nomor 16 Tahun 2007 : 62 kompetensi pedagogik guru terdiri atas 37 buah kompetensi yang dirangkum dalam 10 kompetensi inti seperti disajikan berikut ini; kemampuan menguasai karakteristik peserta didik dari aspek fisik, moral, sosial, kultural, emosional, dan intelektual; menguasai teori belajar dan prinsip-prinsip pembelajaran yang mendidik; mengembangkan kurikulum yang terkait dengan bidang pengembangan yang diampu; menyelenggarakan kegiatan pengembangan yang mendidik; memanfaatkan teknologi informasi dan komunikasi untuk kepentingan penyelenggaraan kegiatan pengembangan yang mendidik; memfasilitasi pengembangan potensi peserta didik untuk mengaktualisasikan berbagai potensi yang dimiliki; berkomunikasi secara efektif, empatik, dan santun dengan peserta didik; menyelenggarakan penilaian dan evaluasi proses dan hasil belajar; memanfaatkan hasil penilaian dan evaluasi untuk kepentingan pembelajaran; serta melakukan tindakan reflektif untuk peningkatan kualitas pembelajaran.

Kemampuan pedagogik menurut Suparno (2002 : 52) disebut juga kemampuan dalam pembelajaran atau pendidikan yang memuat pemahaman akan sifat, ciri anak didik dan perkembangannya, mengerti beberapa konsep pendidikan yang berguna untuk membantu siswa, menguasai beberapa metodologi mengajar yang sesuai dengan bahan dan perkembangan siswa, serta menguasai sistem evaluasi yang tepat dan baik yang pada gilirannya semakin meningkatkan kemampuan siswa. Dengan mengerti hal-hal itu guru akan mudah mengerti kesulitan dan kemudahan anak didik dalam belajar dan mengembangkan diri dan guru akan lebih mudah membantu anak didik untuk berkembang.
Untuk itu, guru perlu menguasai beberapa teori tentang pendidikan terlebih pendidikan di jaman modern ini. Oleh karena sistem pendidikan di Indonesia lebih dikembangkan ke arah pendidikan yang demokratis, maka teori dan filsafat pendidikan yang lebih bersifat demokratis perlu didalami dan dikuasai. Dengan mengerti bermacam-macam teori pendidikan, diharapkan guru dapat memilih mana yang paling baik untuk membantu perkembangan anak didik. Karena guru berperan untuk memberikan gambaran serta contoh yang nyata supaya para peserta didik tidak berfikir secara angan-angan yang ada di pikiran mereka saja, dan harapannya para peserta didik dapat memahami apa yang disampaikan oleh guru.

Guru dalam proses belajar mengajar merupakan faktor kesuksesan setiap usaha pendidikan, karena guru merupakan komponen yang paling terpenting. Guru mempunyai peranan dalam memberikan motivasi kepada siswa, karena motivasi berperan sangat penting dalam kegiatan utamanya dalam proses belajar. Guru merupakan sosok yang dapat digugu dan ditiru, dalam arti orang yang memiliki karisma atau wibawa hingga perlu untuk ditiru dan diteladani. Menurut Uno (2010 : 17) seseorang yang ingin menjadi guru yang baik maka sudah seharusnya dapat selalu meningkatkan wawasan pengetahuan akademis dan praktik melalui jalur berjenjang atau pelatihan yang bersifat in service training dengan rekan-rekan sejawatnya. Peran guru sangat dominan, dimana guru merupakan pengelola ruang, waktu, serta alat dan media pembelajaran sesuai dengan cara yang dikehendakinya.

Peran guru juga tidak bisa tergantikan dengan siapa pun atau apa pun, sekalipun dengan teknologi canggih. Keberhasilan ataupun kualitas faktor pendidikan tidaklah bisa terlepas dari peran guru. Menurut Hoyyima, 2010 : 58 peran guru yang berkualitas sangatlah dominan bagi terwujudnya pendidikan di tengah-tengah masyarakat. Oleh karena itu, faktor pendidikan tidak bisa dipandang sebelah mata dalam upaya meningkatkan perwujudan kesejahteraan dalam masyarakat di suatu daerah. Setiap anak mengharapkan guru mereka dapat menjadi contoh atau model baginya. Oleh karena itu tingkah laku pendidik baik guru, orang tua atau tokoh-tokoh masyarakat harus sesuai dengan norma-norma yang dianut oleh masyarakat, bangsa dan negara. Karena nilai-nilai dasar negara dan bangsa Indonesia adalah Pancasila, maka tingkah laku pendidik harus selalu diresapi oleh nilai-nilai Pancasila.

Menurut Uno (2010 : 22) guru dituntut untuk berperan aktif dalam merencanakan suatu pembelajaran dengan memerhatikan berbagai kompetensi dalam sistem pembelajaran yang meliputi; membuat dan merumuskan teknologi informasi dan teknologi; menyiapkan materi yang relevan dengan tujuan; merancang metode yang disesuaikan dengan siswa; menyediakan sumber belajar, media, dalam hal ini guru sebagai mediator. Jadi bisa disimpulkan bahwa guru diharapkan bisa merancang dan mempersiapkan semua komponen agar berjalan dengan efektif dan efisien.

Mutu pendidikan guru juga mempengaruhi dan menentukan mutu pendidikan. Peningkatan mutu pendidikan merupakan fokus perubahan dalam rangka peningkatan kualitas sumber daya manusia sesuai dengan Peraturan Pemerintah No 19 Tahun 2009 Pasal 29 menyatakan bahwa pendidik pada Pendidikan Anak Usia Dini memiliki : (a) kualifikasi akademik pendidikan minimum diploma empat (D-IV) atau Sarjana S1. (b) latar belakang pendidikan tinggi pendidikan anak usia dini, kependidikan lain, pendidikan Psikologi dan (c) sertifikasi pendidikan PAUD.

Menurut Hoyyima (2010 : 36) dalam melaksanakan tanggung jawab tersebut guru (pendidik) dan tenaga kependidikan mempunyai peranan menentukan dalam mencapai tujuan yang ditetapkan. Untuk itu kualitas pendidik dan tenaga kependidikan perlu terus ditingkatkan. Kompetensi guru tersebut perlu terus dikembangkan secara terprogram, berkelanjutan melalui suatu sistem pembinaan yang dapat meningkatkan kualitas profesional guru. Dalam pengertian yang lebih substantif kompetensi merupakan gambaran hakikat perilaku seseorang.

Identifikasi kebutuhan pengembangan guru saat ini sudah banyak mendapat perhatian, baik oleh para ahli pendidik maupun oleh para administrator pendidikan dalam berbagai tingkat wewenang dan tanggung jawab dalam sektor pendidikan. Perhatian itu wajar diberikan mengingat pentingnya peranan lembaga pendidikan guru, baik pre-service maupun in-service, dalam rangka mempersiapkan dan menyediakan calon-calon guru. Pemerintah juga memandang bahwa guru merupakan media yang sangat penting artinya dalam kerangka dan pengembangan bangsa. Oleh karena itu, pengembangan diri harus selalu dikembangkan untuk meningkatkan kualitas diri dalam mendidik putra-putri bangsa yang akan menjadi pemimpin negeri.

Guru memiliki peran yang sangat penting dalam menentukan kuantitas dan kualitas pengajaran sehingga pada akhirnya guru berperan dalam meningkatkan mutu pendidikan nasional. Guru berperan sebagai pengelola proses belajar mengajar, bertindak selaku fasilitator yang berusaha menciptakan proses belajar mengajar yang efektif, mengembangkan bahan pelajaran dengan baik dan meningkatkan kemampuan peserta didik untuk menyimak pelajaran dan menguasai tujuan-tujuan pendidikan yang harus mereka capai.

Namun, kenyataan di lapangan kompetensi pedagogik guru sering tidak dipahami dan dimengerti oleh sebagian guru, tidak sedikit guru yang hanya mengajar saja tanpa mau tahu apa itu kompetensi dasar yang harus dimiliki. Sehingga guru tidak maksimal dalam pengorganisasian kelas, pengelolaan kelas, penggunaan metode belajar mengajar, penggunaan teori-teori pembelajaran, strategi belajar mengajar, maupun sikap dan karakteristik guru dalam mengelola proses belajar mengajar. Selain itu, kenyataan yang ada pada saat ini banyak guru yang belum memenuhi kualifikasi dan banyak para guru yang tidak mendapatkan pendidikan, pendampingan serta pelatihan tentang bagaimana teknik kompetensi pedagogik. Akibatnya, dapat menurunkan mutu dan kualitas pembelajaran atau pendidikan, untuk itu guru harus segera mendapatkan berbagai pelatihan maupun pendampingan dengan menganalisis kebutuhan apa saja yang diperlukan guru untuk mengembangkan kompetensi pedagogik itu sendiri.

Selain itu, diperlukan analisis kebutuhan para guru tentang pengembangan kompetensi pedagogik guru yang meliputi kesadaran guru dalam dipahami kompetensi pedagogik guru tentang penguasaan terhadap materi perkembangan peserta didik, teori-teori belajar, pengembangan kurikulum, teknik evaluasi, penguasaan terhadap model-model dan metode pengajaran, adalah perlu, di samping penguasaan terhadap mata pelajaran dan iptek yang berkaitan dengan pengajaran. Untuk mendukung hal tersebut skripsi ini disusun untuk memetakan kebutuhan pengembangan kompetensi pedagogik para guru. Berdasarkan uraian diatas maka peneliti tertarik untuk menyusun skripsi dengan judul : IDENTIFIKASI KEBUTUHAN PENGEMBANGAN KOMPETENSI PEDAGOGIK GURU (STUDI DESKRIPTIF GURU TK).

B. Pembatasan Masalah

Berdasarkan berbagai masalah yang telah dikemukakan. Peneliti tertarik untuk mengadakan penelitian terhadap kebutuhan pengembangan kompetensi pedagogik. Peneliti melakukan batasan masalah, agar pembahasan masalah tidak terlalu luas untuk diteliti.

Batasan masalah dalam skripsi ini yakni pada kebutuhan pengembangan kompetensi pedagogik yang berhubungan dengan guru dalam melaksanakan pembelajaran. Kompetensi pedagogik merupakan kompetensi dasar yang harus dikuasai oleh guru. Oleh karena itu, setiap guru diharapkan mampu mengembangkan kompetensi pedagogik.

C. Penegasan Istilah

Berdasarkan pembahasan diatas, maka perlu adanya pembatasan masalah dalam judul penelitian ini agar tidak terjadi kesalahan dalam pembahasan selanjutnya dijelaskan sebagai berikut : 

1. Kebutuhan

Kebutuhan merupakan hal penting bagi kehidupan manusia untuk mempertahankan hidup serta untuk memperoleh kesejahteraan dan kenyamanan.

2. Kompetensi pedagogik guru

Kompetensi pedagogik guru merupakan kemampuan seorang guru dalam melaksanakan kewajiban secara bertanggung jawab dan layak. Dari pendapat tersebut dapat disimpulkan bahwa kompetensi pedagogik guru merupakan kemampuan guru dalam melaksanakan tugas-tugas sebagai pengajar yang dilakukan secara bertanggung jawab dan layak.

D. Rumusan Masalah

Berdasarkan latar belakang masalah yang ada dan agar dalam penelitian ini tidak terjadi kerancuan, maka penulis dapat membatasi dan merumuskan permasalahan yang akan di angkat dalam penelitian ini. 

1. Bagaimana gambaran kompetensi pedagogik guru TK di Kecamatan Kota X ?

2. Apakah yang menjadi kebutuhan pengembangan kompetensi pedagogik guru TK di Kecamatan Kota X ?

E. Tujuan Penelitian

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk : 

1. Mengetahui tentang gambaran kompetensi pedagogik guru TK di Kecamatan Kota X.

2. Mengetahui kebutuhan pengembangan kompetensi pedagogik guru TK di Kecamatan Kota X.

F. Manfaat Penelitian

1. Manfaat Teoritis

Penelitian ini bermanfaat bagi pengembangan konsep dan teori mengenai pengembangan kompetensi pedagogik.

2. Manfaat Praktis

a. Bagi sekolah

Memberikan sumbangan positif dalam mengembangkan kompetensi pedagogik guru untuk meningkatkan pembelajaran yang ada di TK.

b. Bagi guru

Sebagai masukan bagi para guru agar dapat mengembangkan kompetensi pedagogik guru dan disesuaikan dengan kebutuhan dari masing-masing guru.

c. Bagi penulis

Menambah pengalaman, wawasan, dan untuk bekal peneliti sebagai pendidik yang selalu mengamalkan ilmu pengetahuan. Sebagai bahan masukan berupa informasi kepada mahasiswa agar dapat menambah perbendaharaan kepustakaan tentang identifikasi kebutuhan untuk mengembangkan kompetensi pedagogik guru TK supaya diterapkan ketika mengajar nantinya dan mengaplikasikannya pada kehidupannya kelak.

SKRIPSI AN INVESTIGATION OF THE STUDENTS ABILITY AND DIFFICULTIES IN WRITING A NARRATIVE TEXT

(KODE : PENDBING-0056) : SKRIPSI AN INVESTIGATION OF THE STUDENTS ABILITY AND DIFFICULTIES IN WRITING A NARRATIVE TEXT

CHAPTER I 

INTRODUCTION

The chapter presents general points of the study including background of the study, research questions, aims of the study, scope of the study, significance of the study, method, and organization of the paper.

A. Background

Writing is very important in learning language. Writing also plays a very significant role in the success of learning Thomson (1978) in Emilia (1996 : 5). Therefore, it is not surprising in Indonesia that writing has been paid more attention to by the government. This can be seen from the last two curricula of English for secondary school (Kurikulum berbasis kompetensi (KBK/Curriculum Based Competence) and kurikulum tingkat satuan pendidikan (KTSP/ Curriculum of Educational Unit)). These two curricula put a strong emphasis in writing. The students are told to write different text types including, recount, descriptive, procedure, exposition, discussion, report, Narrative, news item, etc.

The current curriculum for senior high school released by BSNP (Badan Standar Nasional Pendidikan) states that one of the main purposes of English in this stage of education is comprehending and creating various short functional text types and monolog and also essays of procedures, descriptive, recount, Narrative, report, news item, analytical exposition, hortatory exposition, spoof, explanation, discussion, review, and public speaking. From the BSNP, it can be seen that the curriculum gives emphasis in writing various text types, unexceptionally Narrative.

However, research on the students' ability and difficulties in writing has not been well documented by expert in Indonesia. Thus, this research tried to investigate the students' ability and difficulties in writing those texts, particularly Narrative.

Narrative is one of the two modes of our thinking (Bruner 1986, cited in Abdulmanan 2008 : 2). While communicating with others, we may describe an incident as a way of explaining his/her thought or a part of his/her argument. As much, (cited in Abdulmanan 2008 : 2) Narrative is usually an essential text type required to practice in writing class for learners of English as a foreign language. However, when it comes to the first graders' composition in X, some students who are lacking in practice and having limited vocabularies to tell their imagination often do not have much to say.

In this research, the writer focuses on analysis of a Narrative text written by first graders of one SMAN in X. Based on the writer's observation the students still found it difficult to make a Narrative text, moreover there was limited research that revealed about the reason why they have difficulties in writing a Narrative text.

Regarding the above phenomenon, it is thus necessary to conduct research which focuses on the students' ability and difficulties in writing a Narrative text. This research is also expected to investigate ability and what difficulties that the students encountered. Knowing what difficulties that the students usually found, teachers are expected to know what to do to their students.

In the end, this study will show the ability of the first graders of senior high school who write a Narrative text.

B. Research Questions

In line with the purposes of the study above, this study will attempt to address the following questions :

1. How is the ability of students in writing a Narrative text ?

2. What difficulties did the students find in writing a Narrative text ?

C. Aims of The Study

The aims of this study are : 

1. To identify students' ability in writing a Narrative text

2. To identify students' difficulties in writing a Narrative text

D. Significance of the Study

The writer expects this research can enrich the literature on research dealing with ability and difficulties of students in writing a Narrative text. The result of this can also give valuable information to teachers of teaching writing and to the students on the need of realizing the weaknesses in order to improve their ability in writing a Narrative text.

Moreover, for the teacher professionalism, it requires teachers to find teaching approach to develop students' ability in writing a Narrative text.

E. Organization of the Paper 

Chapter One : This chapter presents general points of the study including background of the study, research questions, aims of the study, significance of the study, and organization of the paper. 

Chapter Two : This chapter elaborates theoretical overview that supports this study. 

Chapter Three : This chapter provides details on method that will be applied on this study. 

Chapter Four : This chapter presents, analyzes and discusses the finding. 

Chapter Five : This chapter explores the summary of the study and also some suggestions for further better study.

SKRIPSI TEACHERS TECHNIQUES IN TEACHING SPEAKING SKILL

(KODE : PENDBING-0055) : SKRIPSI 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.

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

(KODE : PENDBING-0054) : SKRIPSI 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.

SKRIPSI IMPROVING STUDENTS READING SKILL THROUGH INTERACTIVE APPROACH

(KODE : PENDBING-0053) : SKRIPSI 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.

SKRIPSI THE USE OF SERIES OF PICTURES IN STUDENTS NARRATIVE WRITING PROCESS

(KODE : PENDBING-0052) : SKRIPSI 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.

SKRIPSI THE EFFECT OF USING SONG ON STUDENT'S SPEAKING ABILITY

(KODE : PENDBING-0051) : SKRIPSI THE EFFECT OF USING SONG ON STUDENT'S SPEAKING ABILITY

CHAPTER I 

INTRODUCTION

This chapter provides the background of the study that describes the reason why the writer intends to conduct this study. First, the reasons or background of the study, problem of the study, and significance of the study are formulated. Next, the scope and limitation of the study is presented. The last part is the definition of the key terms.

A. Background of the Study

Generally, language is a system of arbitrary conventionalized vocal, written, gesture symbols that permit members of a given community to communicate intelligibly with each other. There are many languages in the world that used to communicate each other such as Chinese, Russian, Spanish, French, German, Arabic, English and etc. English is the important one, as international language, means that people around the world use it for communication each other in the daily life for relationship of business, trade, education and etc.

In Indonesian schools, thus, English, for the English department students is not a new subject, since English has been given when they were studying English in their junior high schools level. It is as one of main lesson that examined in UAN (Ujian Akhir Nasional). Based on the brief description of the English position, we know that English is very important to learn.

Talk about Language, it can not remove with teaching and learning. According to the 1994 curriculum, teach language, especially English. It magnifies on the development of four areas influencing the ability in mastering English as well. They are : reading, listening, writing, and speaking. Speaking and writing are productive skills, while reading and listening are the receptive skills. Therefore, in this thesis, the writer would like to discuss further more about one important aspect of language, speak. Speaking is the ability to express opinions, ideas, or thought orally; it consists of producing systematic verbal utterance to convey meaning in order to be understood by the people we are speaking with.

We know that speaking is included all aspects of language like explain before, it is the most important to master it. It is also considered as the most difficult aspect and as primary skill. This opinion can be proved by the fact that almost speakers can orally use the language to carry out their daily activities and to communicate in their life experiences.

In the process of teaching and learning, teachers often find situations when students are not motivated because they get bored, if the students are bored or emotionally upset they will find it difficult to concentrate and participate in the classroom activity. Beside that, according to the writer experience that the students also not confidence to speak English because they are not usual to do it and they are not very good at English and they know about it. They do not know many English words or, even if they remember some words they have problems with pronunciation, so do not want to speak, because they are shy to produce their language in front of the classroom.

In other way, part of the techniques of teaching and learning are still monotones (teacher only explain the material of the lesson and then give student some assignment), it causes the students are unless motivated to speak English. Actually, there are many methods that used by the teacher in English's teaching and learning in order to reach the goal, the student can speak English fluently such as; using cartoon movies, pictures, jigsaws, games and etc. But, in the study, the writer would like to use song as media teaching and learning. She thinks that songs are interesting way to teach English, especially in speaking class. Neurologists have found that musical and language processing occur in the same area of the brain, and there appear to be parallels in how musical and linguistic syntax are processed.

Noorman stated that no man can live without art and music is a part of it. That means, music is an important thing in human's life. And song is a part of music. It is defined as a sort piece of music that has words or musical words that use words on it which is called lyrics. It is human way in expressing their passion which is a part of music. It is a part of people collective history and also every day lives. People can express something that they feel by music. It has been received in all level people, such as; children, adult, old, or rich and poor, all of them can enjoy music. Noorman added that is considered as relaxing, they feel a little more comfortable in the class, music lovers suffer less from stress and high blood pressure than people who do not enjoy music.

Bertrand said (as cited by Ika) that songs makes the lesson more communicate, livelier to be motivated and one way to motivating them is by means songs. It is expected that song can be used as attractive in teaching English in order to the students will not get bored. Hancock said (as cited by Dessy) There are two advantages by using song in teaching English. First is to motivation. When songs are used in teaching learning process it is enjoyable. So the students are more motivated to learn English. Second is memorable. Songs have melodies that make to words or sentences easy to remember or memorize. A sentence without melody is much less memorable than the some sentence with melody. Song can be used to give students a break from the teachers they hear everyday which enable then to have a closer and stronger relationship with the teacher. Therefore, using songs material in the classroom activity can attract the student's interest and arouse the student's motivation in learning English.

In the other opinion, said that for two last decades, EFL (English as foreign language) methodology has been actively considering the possibility of using music and song in the class. Songs can be effectively used in an intermediate class for the purpose of teaching speaking to prospective EFL teachers. There are main reasons supported this idea. First, as a cultural phenomenon, songs can introduce students to the musical and cultural patterns typical for the target language community. Second, songs belong to a synthetic genre, which includes both lyrics, music and these two constituents may be used as a good incentive for speaking English in the class. Kisito said that English songs can be used for a wide variety of ESL learning and teaching activities. In speaking class, they can start discussions on a topic or even become the centre of debate. This is especially true of songs that develop a particular theme. Nevertheless, songs have their own identities such as it is convey a lower amount of information, have more redundancy and a personal quality. According to Wang B, songs present opportunities for developing automatic which is the main cognitive reason for using songs in the classroom. It means that automatic as "a component of language fluency which involves both knowing what to say and producing language rapidly without pauses”. Therefore, songs can help automatic the language development process.

B. Problem of Study

From the background of the study above, the writer states the problems as follows : 

1. How is the application of using song at MAN X ?

2. How is the effect of using song on students' speaking ability at MAN X ?

C. Objectives

In line with the problem of the study above, the writer states the objectives of the study such as : 

1. Describing the applications of using English songs at MAN X

2. Describing the effect of using song on students' speaking ability at MAN X.

D. Significance of the Study

Looking at the objectives above, this study is trying to develop the instructional practices at IPA study program of Man X by developing the student's speaking ability by using songs. The results of the study later are expected to : 

1. Give contribution to the development of English teaching, especially to the development of instruction.

2. Provide English teachers with the appropriate procedure to developing the student's speaking ability by using song,

3. Give the students experience in learning English by song.

SKRIPSI THE EFFECTIVENESS OF USING SIMULATION IN IMPROVING STUDENTS SPEAKING SKILL

(KODE : PENDBING-0050) : SKRIPSI 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.

SKRIPSI STUDENT'S READING STRATEGIES AND THEIR READING COMPREHENSION

(KODE : PENDBING-0049) : SKRIPSI STUDENT'S READING STRATEGIES AND THEIR READING COMPREHENSION

CHAPTER I 

INTRODUCTION

This research is intended to investigate the students' reading strategies and their reading comprehension in a junior high school. This chapter illustrates the background of the study, the research problems, and the purposes of the study. This chapter also includes the significance of the study, and the hypothesis. Moreover, this chapter also presents the research method and organization of the thesis.

A. Background of the Study

Reading is an essential skill for English as second/foreign language (ESL/EFL) learners; and for many, reading is the most important skill to master (Anderson, 1999). Anderson also states that with good reading skills, ESL/EFL readers will make great progress and attain great development in all academic areas (1999 : 21).

In a junior high school in Indonesia, reading skill is a first priority. The goal of reading in Indonesia English curriculum is to make the students comprehend what they read, and enhance students' oral and written communication ability (SMP-SBI curriculum 2007 the third grade of a junior high school). Further, SMP-SBI curriculum 2007 the third grade of a junior high school clarifies that the communication in this case is the ability to understand and to express the feeling, thought and information, to develop science, culture and technology (Depdiknas, 2007). It is also stated that standard competence of reading is to understand a meaning of procedural, report, explanatory written text or short essay, narrative, and news items, in order that students are able to communicate in daily and academic context.

In the last decade, many reading experts have investigated English reading strategies in order to solve the reading problems. Reading strategies are considered one of the fundamental factors that promote students' comprehension improvement in reading. Furthermore, reading strategy "is the foundation of students' self-regulated reading" (Syafrizal, 2000 : 4). A motivated and self-regulated reader will encourage himself to set his own planning in determining his reading strategies which contribute a great deal of success to his reading comprehension (Wenden, 1987 : 11).

Based on the description above, it can be said that reading strategies play an important role in reading English texts, especially in a junior high school. In line with this, the present study focuses on the investigation of students' reading strategies and their reading comprehension, a case study at a junior high school.

B. Research Problems

The study is aimed at investigating the junior high school students' reading strategies and their reading comprehension. Specifically, this study investigates the following questions : 

1. What reading strategies are used by the third grade students of the junior high school ?

2. Is there any correlation between the students' reading strategies and their reading comprehensions ?

C. Purposes of the Study

The study was conducted in order to : 

1. discover the reading strategies used by third grade students of the junior high school.

2. find the correlation between the students' reading strategies and their reading comprehensions

D. Significance of the Study

This study is intended to find the correlation between the junior high school students' reading strategies and their reading comprehension. Hopefully, the study will be valuable for teachers and students, for improving the teaching learning process. By knowing the students' reading strategies and their reading comprehension, the teachers could also select and design the appropriate teaching materials and techniques. Besides, by identifying reading and its strategies, it could be expected that some valuable findings could be implemented in the process of reading in order to make reading course better. Moreover, this study could also become an empirical study over viewing classroom learning activities in Competence-Based Curriculum. It could be an insight to teaching and learning activities in KTSP context. Furthermore, it can be a bridge for the students to encourage them to improve their reading comprehension by using reading strategies.

In addition, this study can be valuable for researcher because the result of the study provides some informative input to conduct another investigation in the same field in different contexts.

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

(KODE : PENDBING-0048) : SKRIPSI 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.