FINDING AND DISCUSSION
Statement 10: Team teaching method can improve my speaking performance
4. Descriptive analysis of Classroom observation
This first observation was conducted on Wednesday, 28th of March 2018 in AL Kindi class (the 7th grades of Junior High School at SMPIT Ar Rahmah). The researcher
59
and the team teachers entered the class 10 minutes before the lesson begun. There were 3 teachers and 27 students in this class. In this first day, the pre-test was carried out to 27 students. Before running the test, teacher split the class into 3 small groups to apply team teaching concept. The groups were handled by the same teacher from the first till the end of the study. The number of students in each group was 9 students.
Afterwards, each teacher took one group and started the pre test which lasted for 45 minutes.
The word “test” seemed frightening for some students. That is why some of them looked reluctant and did not enjoy the test. This situation looked obvious in the first group when the teacher invited students to come forward to run the speaking test. The same image happened to the second and the third group in which students seemed not to enjoy the test. However, this situation became more relaxing after the test. The pre test itself ended 15 minutes before the class end. During the pre test, the teachers used rubrics as guidance to score the students speaking performance.
The second observation was on Wednesday, 4th of April 2018. In this meeting, team teaching using parallel instruction model was implemented and. Team teachers entered the class 5 minutes before the lesson. The seating arrangement was still the same as the first day. There were 27 students join the class. It means that there were no students absent. There were some steps in this meeting. The first of all, one teacher opened the class by greeting and asking student‟s condition. Afterwards, teachers moved to the next item namely warming up session. In this session, students work and sit with their group. Teachers then shared a secret code card. Each group should break the code and write the answer on the board. This warming up was really fun and all
60
students were participated. They looked so amaze and wanted to be the winner of the warming up
After the warming up, each teacher sat with their group and taught the material provided. In this small group activity, all groups agreed to sit and study on the floor.
Therefore, chairs and tables are removed. The first material was about animals‟ body parts. This is the ninth chapter on the book. Each chapter consists of 4 sub chapters. It means that there would be 4 meetings in each chapter.
Teacher in each group followed the lesson plan they have made and designed before. The lesson plan started with a presentation, practice, and production. In the first group, there were 10 students and most students looked really interested in studying.
They fully participated and followed the teacher‟s instruction. The second group was quite different. From the 8 students, one student looked ignorance and did not really follow the teacher‟s instruction. In the third group, 9 students turned up and all of them seemed to enjoy the class. Finally, teachers played a game before closing the meeting.
The game called “picked tail” became the quiz and also to cross check students comprehension on the given lesson.
In evaluation session, all team teachers held discussion on what happened in the class and students‟ responses to their teaching strategies. In this session the teachers also discussed about their upcoming materials and strategies used for their group.
The third observation was on Friday, 6th April 2018. The phase was quite similar with the second observation in which parallel team teaching model was implemented to all groups. The topic was still about animal but specifically about pet. The target of this lesson was students to be able to describe their own pet.
61
This meeting was opened by group competition as a warm up. Afterwards, all groups sat together with their team mates and the teachers handled their group.
Teachers started delivering the material by presenting the vocabulary. In this part, students looked enthusiastic since the teachers provide picture cards to stimulate students‟ comprehension. These picture cards were used also for playing cards games in each small group.
The next teaching phase was practice and production. In this phase, teachers paired the students up and shared a “gap fill” sheet to each student. (See appendix 2.2-teaching material 2) The goal of this phase was to provide more speaking time to each student while teachers watching and controlling them. The classroom atmosphere was quite crowded since all pairs tried to describe the animal they had on their sheet while the rest of others did their best to guess what animal it was.
The next observation was on Wednesday, 11th April 2018. In this meeting, class was opened by a teacher and started the class by means of warming up session. The so – called “running dictation” game was implemented in the warm up to review the previously learnt topic. The teaching phase after the warm up was similar with the second and the third day. The only different was the target or the goal of the lesson. In the last two meetings, teachers focused more on speaking, however, this meeting focused more on writing, notably to write a descriptive text about animals. The class atmosphere was quite silent and did not look exiting. However, some students in each group looked asking question about unfamiliar vocabulary. The majority of the students were not familiar with adjectives and also some new terms on animals‟ body.
62
The lesson was continued by reading a descriptive text. In this phase, teachers invited some students in their group to read the text they had written and afterwards, they gave feedback on the students work. The feedback was about the use of wrong adjectives and spelling of animals‟ body parts.
The evaluation was conducted after the class end. In this evaluation, the researcher and the team teachers discussed the class situation including the material taught. The team teachers also discussed about the upcoming meeting topic, including the lesson plan and the teaching aid. One of the problems faced by the teachers was about handbook. School did not provide handbook for the teachers. Therefore, they took a photo of the content of the book which was later integrated with other sources.
On April 13, the fifth observation was conducted. In this meeting, the students learnt new topic in chapter 10, namely describing things. The goal of this chapter was that students are able to describe object around them and be able to write a description of a particular object. Similar with the previous meeting, the class was started with a warm up for each team and afterwards, each teacher responsible for their own group.
In each small group, teachers present the vocabulary by brainstorming technique. This technique let students to speak their mind and freely to shout out the vocabulary they had in their mind. And then, teachers explain how to describe things which covered shape, color, and material of the things. To check whether the students already understood or not, teachers ask each of them to think of an object in the classroom, describe it, and let others guess what it was.
The last teaching phase was production. In this phase, teachers shared a sheet to be filled out (see appendix 2.4 – teaching material 2) and let students to walk around
63
the classroom, listed any objects they see, and wrote it on their sheet. Then they write each object‟s description. Finally, teachers ask them to read what they had written and ask more detailed questions.
The sixth observation was conducted on 2nd May 2018. This meeting was continued after examination break for two weeks. Some students did not come without clear information. This class was also started quite late because two teachers came late. The topic was the same as the previous meeting. However, the goal was quite more complex than before. Students must be able to describe objects and be able to write a good descriptive text.
In warm up session, teachers reviewed the previously learn topic by playing
“guess my words” game. This game was quite fun for students. To play this game, teachers share the list of words to each student, and paired the students up. Then, students take a turn describe the words on their list and the other one guess what the words were. The class atmosphere was really crowded since all students spoke simultaneously.
The next phase is presentation of the new topic. In this phase, teachers grouped the students into two and provided some pieces of small paper with a sentence on it.
The teachers then read a text, and each team had to re-arrange the text. Afterwards, teachers explain the text which was about describing things and asked students to answer questions on their book.
In practice and production phase, students played scavenger hunt game. In this game, students were asked to go out the class, note down some objects anywhere they
64
found based on the given clues (see appendix 2.6 – meeting 6) and report it back to their teacher as they finished.
The next observation was on meeting number 7. In this meeting, teachers played the so called “Go fish” game as warm up session. To play this game, teachers shared a number of picture cards to each student. Then, they mingled in the classroom, asked others whether they got the same pictures or not. The classroom atmosphere was really crowded and interaction among students ran very well when this game was played.
The presentation phase was continued after the warm up. In this stage, teachers presented vocabulary in relation with school by brainstorming technique. In practice and production phase, teachers shared some small pieces of paper, and asked students to write some vocabularies related to school. After that, each student came forward, describe things they had written, and the rest of the group guessed the objects. To make this activity running interesting, teachers provided prize like candy for every correct guess. Though this way created a noisy class but it was fun for students because they play the game, practice speaking, and get the prize from the teachers.
The last treatment was on 9 may 2018. The teaching steps were similar to the previous ones. It was begun with a warm up in a big group, presentation and production in small groups, and evaluation after the class. In evaluation phase, team teachers along with the researcher discussed the students‟ progress during the treatment and also prepared the material for the post test.
65 B. Discussion
In this part, the researcher would like to discuss the result of findings. In addition, it concerned to explain the extent to which Team Teaching can improve students‟
speaking performance and their perception on the use of Team Teaching in EFL classroom.
The first objective of this study is to explain the extent to which team teaching can improve students’ speaking performance. In the analysis of the students‟
achievement the researcher found that there is a significant score on students‟ speaking performance on pre test and post test (see appendix 7). It was proved by the frequency and percentage of students‟ scores in some categories, the mean score and standard deviation which showed the post-test result is higher than pre-test (see table 6)
Based on the score on pre test, the students‟ mean score were weak due to some factors. Firstly, students did not have sufficient time to practice their speaking in the class since the number of students is more than twenty while there is only one teacher. It means that the intensity to speak is less than the smaller class. In fact, they had learned about topics on pre test before they took the test. It is indicated that the students did not understand well what they have learned in their previous studying.
Secondly, the lesson was focused more on reading and writing task and only spent little time for speaking task. This situation leads students to spend more time doing the reading and writing task than speaking practice. In addition, teachers will be easier to score the students‟ achievement in reading and writing rather than speaking.
The above reasons became the fundamental ideas to apply team teaching method in the classroom. As a matter of fact, the result of the post-test scores increased
66
well compared to the pre-test scores. Implementing team teaching with parallel instruction model had brought new insight and experience to students. Learning English in a smaller group with a teacher in each group has given them more time and chance to practice their speaking performance. The intensity of student‟s talking time is more than conventional teaching method.
Lesson plan was easier to design since the teachers work together as a team.
The lesson plan designed was not only focused on reading and writing exercise, but it is designed to give more time for students on their speaking. Therefore, teachers integrated all skills into one lesson plan and collaborated the source or handbook used in the classroom. The teaching materials were not just taken from the students‟
handbook but also from other sources.
The second objective of the study is to find out the students‟ perception on the use of Team Teaching in EFL classroom. Based on the data on questionnaire, students‟
responses revealed that team teaching method was more preferred by students than conventional teaching. The core reason is team teaching provides more students‟
speaking time. It is also more fun than conventional teaching method. In addition, students feel more enjoyable and feel free to ask and interact with the teachers and other students.
Students‟ perception was also supported by the data from the interview. This interview revealed that the majority of students were more excited in team teaching method as compared with conventional teaching. This reason was due to the ease of the teachers to control the class and the availability to design more fun learning atmosphere. Since the class was split into some groups, the teachers have more
67
choices to apply fun game among the groups. Furthermore, the explanation above has brought some potential advantages of team teaching. Firstly, team teaching creates fun and enjoyable classroom atmosphere from which students are more motivated to learn English. Secondly, students talking time is more available since the number of students is less and it will improve their speaking performance. Finally, team teaching enables students to get knowledge from more than one teacher.
The finding indicates that team teaching method was responded positively and preferred by students in their class. There are some factors affecting students‟
perception. Firstly, team teaching lessens the number of students by breaking them into small groups. This way has provided more students‟ talking time than teacher talking time. Secondly, students have more attention from their teacher. They can ask for help and inquire for certain unfamiliar vocabulary and information. And the third, students seems to enjoy the class since they are working in groups with their best friends.
Despite team teaching has brought positive effects and perception towards students, this method also has drawbacks that need to be fixed. These drawbacks affects for both teachers and students. The most challenging drawbacks regarded to the planning the lesson. In team teaching, it is obviously required for all team teachers to get together writing a lesson plan for their class.
Drawback towards students was also found in this study. Firstly, the students were expected to be grouped with their best friends. In this case, grouping by the teachers is sometimes not satisfied the students. Some students felt more comfortable with some friends but not comfortable with others. Therefore, students tend to choose their own group mates instead of being grouped by teachers. Secondly, the class
68
atmosphere was quite noisy. This happens when the teachers apply the same teaching steps in their group. This situation creates a crowd in the class and students automatically get distracted. In order to avoid the crowd teacher sometimes move to other spaces with the group, either at the other corner of the room or go outside the room, like going to corridor or school mosque.
69 CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS
The result of analysis suggests an important basis of implementing team teaching method in improving the students` speaking performance. The overall discussion confirms a positive improvement of students‟ speaking performance after the treatment using team teaching method. Before the research was conducted, the students` speaking performance belonged to weak category. It was based on this assumption that encouraged the researcher to undertake this research in order to resolve the problems of students‟ oral proficiency. In addition, it was evident that students‟ vocabulary was so insufficient to cater for the teachers‟ pedagogical skills that hampered their language performance in EFL context. The present study appears to support the belief that team teaching plays the central roles in comprehension process notably when performed by non-native teachers.
It is worth nothing that improving speaking performance needs effective and efficient method which encourages and motivates students to speak. The use of team teaching method in this study has been proven to be an effective way to improve students` speaking performance. Moreover, the students` speaking performance improved significantly in their post-test. They committed minor errors in answering questions addressed by the teachers. In addition, the students become more active and engaged in the class during the teaching and learning process by implementing team teaching.
The findings from the present study also revealed if team teaching generated convenient situation of classroom teaching. This method made learning and teaching
70
process more relaxing and interesting as compared with conventional teaching method.
This method has brought more time for students to speak and to learn more focus. In addition, Students also enjoyed learning due to good environment and friendly teachers.
Finally, the researcher puts forward some suggestions concerning several things that further research should implement. The first suggestion is that further researchers should try to implement team teaching method in other different areas, such as vocabulary enrichment, grammar teaching, or reading comprehension since this study focused only on speaking skill. Secondly, team teaching is good to apply in a large class and to help teachers in terms of classroom management. It is also essential to encourage additional pedagogical training for novice and senior English teachers at both regional and national level in Indonesia to equip them strategy on how to implement team teaching method to make it fully effective and productive in Indonesian context.
71
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Ahmad, Z. 2016. “The Effect of Yatama English Meeting Club on Students‟ Interest in Speaking”. Hasanuddin University (unpublished)
Ariyanti. 2016. Psychological Factors Affecting EFL Students‟ Speaking Performance. Journal of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics.
www.Asian-Tefl.com
ATL (Association of Teachers and Lecturers). 2009. (School and Class) Size Matters, finds atl survey. Annual Conference Press Release., Liverpool.
Retrieved from http://www.atl.org.uk April 6-9, 2009
Bauwens, Jeanne; Hourcade, Jack J 1995 `Cooperative Teaching: Rebuilding the School House for All Students` (Austin, TX,PROED).
Baeten, M. & Simons, M. 2016. Student Teachers‟ Team Teaching: How Do
Learners in the Classroom Experience Team-Taught Lessons by Student Teachers. Journal of Education for Teaching, 2016 VOL . 42, NO . 1, 93–105 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02607476.2015.1135226
Benoit, Rebecca & Haugh, Bridget 2001`Team Teaching Tips For Foreign Language Teachers`. The Internet TESL Journal 7(10). Retrieved on 9 August, 2005. http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Benoit-TeamTeaching.html .
Brown. H.D. 2004. Language Assessment: Principles and Classroom Practices.
Pearson ESL.
Brown. H.D. 2001. Language Assessment: Principles and Classroom Practices.
Pearson ESL.
Burns, A., & Joyce, H. 1997. Focus on Speaking. National Centre for English Language Teaching and Research, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Carless, D. 2006. Collaborative EFL Teaching in Primary Schools. English Language Teaching Journal, 60(3).
Chaney, A.L., and T.L. Burk. 1998. Teaching Oral Communication in Grades K-8.
Boston: Allyn&Bacon.
Choi, Y. 2001. Suggestions for the Re-Organisation of English Teaching Program By Native Speakers in Korea. English Teaching 56, 101-122.