My First Writing Taken from ELTM class

Well, for my first writing, I'd like to post the one I wrote for ELTM class in my first semester in PBI PPs UNY.

Yet, I only put the introduction and discussion parts. Here it is:

TEACHING GRAMMAR COMMUNICATIVELY: AN ALTERNATIVE

FOR GRAMMAR TEACHING IN INDONESIAN CONTEXT

         In eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Classical Method was adopted for teaching foreign languages which later known as Grammar Translation Method (GTM). This method focuses on grammatical rules, memorizing vocabulary, translating text, and doing written tasks (Brown, 2001). Thus, speaking the language is not the main goal and practicing orally is limited. Students will only do reading aloud after translating their sentences from target language into their native language. These sentences will be the illustration of the grammatical rules of the language which is not addressed to real communication (Richards & Rodgers, 2001). Even though many teachers prefer to use other methods nowadays, GTM is still relevant to apply for teaching academic reading to university students. Therefore, it will not be appropriate to secondary students because it requires high logical reasoning ability (Madya, 2013). Yet, the fact that the access to the world is widely opened by the growing of internet and infrastructure demands the ability not only to understand but also to use the language in real communication. Consequently, GTM is found quite not relevant for answering this problem.

            As a result, a new approach is required to answer the needs for the means of communication. This also aligns with the development of language concept during the 1970s which sees language as a system for expression of meaning and this concept began to change the way of teaching language (Nunan, 1999, p. 9). For that reason, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) might be the appropriate approach since it provides authenticity, real-world simulation, and meaningful exercises. It also means to facilitate students for being lifelong language learners (Brown, 2001). Hence, it is not surprisingly if educators and governments in East Asia move their national policies and syllabuses towards CLT since they mean to increase the number of people who can speak English effectively (Littlewood, 2007). Since CLT was introduced in Indonesia in 1980s, it displays the potential to increase students’ ability to communicate in English. Thus, this approach is maintaining to adopt starting from curriculum 1994 to the current curriculum, Kurikulum 2013 (Madya, 2013).

            However, the appropriateness of CLT is still remaining questions especially in Indonesian context. An interesting article is entitled “Communicative Language Teaching: Is it appropriate for Indonesian Context?” was written by Adi (2012). In his article he argued that mostly the schools in Indonesia has large number of students, lack materials, lack equipment, lack of students’ motivation, lack teacher proficiency, and use ineffective teaching methods. Those conditions are considered as the barriers in applying CLT in Indonesian context.

            Yet, even though the appropriateness of CLT for language teaching in Indonesia is still questioned, the writer believes that CLT will help students to learn the grammar of English communicatively. Firstly, in CLT approach, grammar is not learnt solely from the context for the focus of CLT is to make the communication meaningful for the students. Thus, the materials will be selected based on the students’ context. Secondly, since the learning of grammar in communicative way has several stages, students will be scaffold intensively until they are ready to move to the last stage which is communicative application stage. Lastly, CLT proposes fair testing format. The tests are constructed by considering not only what have been taught but also how it was taught (VanPatten in Lee and VanPatten, 2003). For those reasons, the writer believes that teaching grammar communicatively can be an alternative to teach grammar especially in Indonesian context.

            Here is an example of teaching activities which adopt the four stages of grammar teaching. The context is that the learners are beginner learners. In Indonesian context, junior high school students especially in the first year are still considered as beginner learners since the latest curriculum, Kurikulum 2013, includes English as a compulsory subject starting from junior high school until the next higher levels of education. In other words, the students are understood that they have just started to learn English in junior high school. Therefore, the following activities will only cover the first stages which is the input stages. The grammatical points will be presented as lexical items. They will not be explained barely. The writer chose inductive approach for the following activities.

            Moreover, the activities are divided into three parts (pre-, while, and post activities). The ideas are coming from the concept of Pembelajaran Bahasa Kontekstual-Komunikatif (Madya, 2013). Therefore, pre-activity will be warning up activity where students will be introduced to the topic and teacher will attract students’ attention and motivate them to reach the teaching objectives. While activity will be the core activity where students will learn the materials and teacher will facilitate students understanding the text (what the text is about), identify the nouns, and pay attention to students’ pronunciation. Last, post activity will be closing where students will be explained what nouns are in real life context, checking students understanding, and remind students to read more and notice the nouns within the texts in order to broader their learning process. In this activity students are assumed that they have had a little knowledge of English words such as green is hijau in Bahasa and they have known how to create very simple sentence such as my name is Nuna.          

Level                          :first year of junior high school (beginner)

Objectives                  : students are able to identify nouns through descriptive text.

Grammatical points   : nouns: singular and plural nouns.

Inputs                         : short descriptive text

Activities - Pre-activity:   1. Students are asked to see some picture of animals.   2. Teacher asks students to mention what are in the pictures.   3. Teacher shows students a short descriptive text about zoo. The text describe what       animals that students might find if they go there.   4. Teacher tells students some benefits knowing animals in English. - While activity:   1. Teacher spreads out the texts to the students.   2. Teacher and students read the text and highlight some sentences with animals in it.   3. Teacher asks students to work in group consisting 4 to 5 members to identify the rest       sentences with animals in it trough out the text.   4. Teacher asks the students to classify the sentences into two groups. One group consists        of sentences that have single animal and the other group consists of sentence that have        more than one animals.   5. Teacher asks the students to read their works and pay attention also to their       pronunciation. Teacher might give correction right away or later depends on the        conditions.   6. Teachers asks students to compare English to Bahasa Indonesia how the two language       express plural nouns. - Post activity:   1. Teacher asks students what nouns that they have learnt.   2. Teacher explains what nouns are in real life context besides animals.   3. Teacher asks students to read more and notice the nouns within the text they read.

Assessment: Teacher can use structured input formats for the test, because students are still developing their vocabularies. In other words, the input given through the test will help the students to answer the questions. It is important to compose the test alike to the way how the teacher teach the materials in the classroom.

        To sum up, CLT can be used as an alternative approach for grammar teaching in Indonesian context regarding to several reasons. First, CLT helps students to learn grammar meaningfully through context. Second, students will be helped to go through the stages in grammar learning until they are able to use the language communicatively. Last, students will get fair testing format. 

Posted in Makassar @SultanHasanuddinAirport

Waiting for ma next flight.

Bismillah.