TEACHER‟S TECHNIQUES IN TEACHING ENGLISH TO STUDENTS IN
SMA NEGERI 1 BRINGIN
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Ani Setiyani 112008083
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
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Name : Ani Setiyani
Student ID Number : 112008083
Study Program : English Language Teaching Department Faculty : Language and Literature
Kind of Work : Undergraduate Thesis
In developing my knowledge, I agree to provide SWCU with a non-exclusive royalty free right for my intellectual property and the contents therein entitled:
Techer‟s Techniques in Teaching English to Students in SMA Negeri 1 Bringin
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Copyright@ 2012 Ani Setiyani and Prof. Dr. Gusti Astika, M. A.
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TEACHER‟S TECHNIQUES IN TEACHING ENGLISH TO STUDENTS IN
SMA NEGERI 1 BRINGIN
Ani Setiyani
ABSTRACT
This study investigates the teacher‟s techniques in teaching English to tenth grade students in SMA Negeri 1 Bringin. It used a descriptive method and the subject of the study was the English teacher in the school. The data for the study were collected from classroom observations and unstructured interview with the English teacher. The analysis of the data shows that there were five techniques that the teacher used in teaching English in SMA Negeri 1 Bringin; Repetition Drill, Translating a Literature Passage, Question and Answer Drills, Memorization, and Use Words in Sentences.
Key words: Drill, Translation, Question and Answer, Memorization, and Use of Words.
INTRODUCTION
English language plays an important role in this globalization era since it is used as an international language in the world. English also has become the key of international communication in global sense; one of its primary functions is to enable speakers to share their ideas. It is used in many aspects of life, such as in education, tourism, politics, trade, etc. Because of the importance of English, many people want to learn and master English. Harsono (2005) mentioned that almost all aspects of the world use English as the media of communication.
all levels of schools and language courses. Teaching English in Senior High School level aims at helping the students to make simple transactional and interpersonal conversations which are potentially needed to communicate in the context of school.
Teaching English as a foreign language to Senior High School students really need great consideration in choosing appropriate teaching techniques. According to Celce-Murcia (1991), a teaching technique concerns the relationship between the teacher and the learner that is likely to be the crucial factor in the teaching and learning process, therefore it is necessary to use an appropriate teaching technique.
A teaching technique covers a wide variety of exercises, activities, or devices used in the long classroom for realizing lesson objectives. Some techniques are widely used and found in many methods, such as imitation, repetition, dictation, translation, role play, and many more. Teaching techniques have their own advantages and disadvantages depending on some factors such as the objectives of teaching, the student‟s characteristic, etc. It means that a well organized teacher must choose the best techniques for their student‟s need and
situations. In addition, proper teaching techniques will help students to learn English in an interesting and joyful way.
It is extremely important how a teacher teaches English using appropriate techniques. Since there are so many techniques in teaching English, as a result there is no best technique because each technique has its own weaknesses. It means that every technique has different advantages and disadvantages in English language teaching. Therefore, a teacher should be able to adapt his or her teaching to accommodate learner‟s situations. It means that it is very
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set everything in the language lesson, such as: teaching materials, classroom activities, and teaching techniques that are appropriate to students at senior high school level.
Teaching technique has become a vital element in teaching a language because it is the way how a subject is being delivered to students. Techniques can be fixed to teaching systems with prescribed strategies and practices. However, the teaching learning process will not go smoothly without teacher‟s guidance. It is extremely important how a teacher teaches
English to students using appropriate techniques.
Teaching is the tactics for the teachers in teaching to achieve the goals of the teaching and learning process (Wipf 1984).According to Anthony, as stated in Celce-Murcia (1991), a teaching technique is a classroom device or activities which are more specific than method. Teaching technique seems to be the central factor in teaching and learning process which concerns with relationship between the learner and teacher. That is why; the teacher‟s
technique becomes the most important thing in teaching learning process because a teacher must choose appropriate technique for students. As we all know that there are a lot of techniques in teaching.
grammar rules and examples. The meaning of the target language is made clear by translating it into the student‟s native language. The language that is used in class is mostly the student‟s
native language.
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Some other techniques can be obtained from the Direct Method (Larsen-Freeman, 2000). Unlike the Grammar-Translation Method, the Direct Method has one basic rule; no translation is allowed. This method is applied to make students to be able to use a foreign language to communicate. Both the teacher and students are not allowed to speak in their native language. Although the teacher directs the class activities, the interaction of the teacher and students is more flexible. They are more like partners in teaching and learning activities. The teacher explains the new word or phrase by using pictures and the teacher never translates into student‟s native language. Grammar is taught inductively, which means
students are given the examples first then they are asked to figure out the rules or the grammar.
There are some techniques of the Direct Method (Larsen-Freeman, 2000) such as; Reading Aloud. In this technique students take turns to read aloud a passage, a play, or a dialog. To make things clearer, a teacher can use gestures and pictures. The next technique is Questions and Answer Exercise. It is a technique that is used to check students‟
understanding about an explanation or a reading passage. This technique focuses on speaking the target language by asking or answering questions. This activity uses the target language and no native language is allowed. Another technique closely associated with Direct Method is Dictation. In this technique, the teacher reads a passage three times. First, the teacher reads the passage with a normal speed. Then, the teacher reads the passage with several pauses and each pause is long enough to allow students to write down what they have heard. At the end, the teacher rereads the whole passage with normal speed to give students a chance to check their work.
system of reinforcement. Audio lingual method relies on drills to form these habits so that the students are continuously learning and, moreover, is protected from the possibility of making mistakes by the plan of the drill (Harmer, 2001). In this method, the teacher drills the students to form those habits that make them to learn continuously. And it will reduce the possibility of making mistakes. The teacher only uses the target language while teaching the students. The learners study about the grammatical sentence patterns by drilling.
According to Larsen-Freeman (2000) there are several techniques closely associated with the audio lingual method such as: Dialog memorization. A dialog is used in this technique. Students have to memorize the dialog and practice it in pairs or with the teacher. The teacher drills certain patterns and grammar which are included in the dialog at the end of the activity. The next technique is Repetition Drill. Repetition drill is a technique in which the students are asked to repeat the teacher‟s model as accurately and as quickly as possible. The teacher says a word from a vocabulary list under a certain topic and then the students repeat it. Drills that involve controlled oral practice would help the learners use structure and vocabulary introduced in the lesson and to practice the pattern. Drills contain materials to be heard and aim at evoking immediate and oral responses. The repetition drills helps the students to improve their listening and speaking skill ability. Another technique is Question and Answer Drills. In this technique students are given some questions and they have to answer them quickly. The last technique closely associated with the audio lingual method is Complete the Dialog. In this technique students complete the dialog by filling in the blanks with the missing words.
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through joyful and non-stressful activities. As a result, students will enjoy the lesson and can learn English easily. In addition, Brown (1994: 14) says that language is personal and creative thing. Brown also says that teachers should sometimes allow their students to learn in free atmosphere by using a combination of pictures and games in teaching and learning activities. Adeyanju (1997) cites that teaching English to children and teaching adults is not the same. The use of media while teaching will gives a huge effect to the teaching learning process. It will make the students enjoy the lessons and understand the material easily.
Based on discussion above, it is very clear that there are many techniques in teaching English. It is necessary for an English teacher to choose an appropriate technique for their student‟s need and situations. The aim of this study was to find out the answer of the following research question, “What kinds of techniques did the teacher use in teaching English
to tenth grades students of senior high school? And why the teacher used the certain techniques?” Theoretically, this study would be able to help the readers‟ understanding of various kinds of teaching techniques, especially for those who are interested in teaching English. As the scope of my study, I only bounded the teaching techniques from 1950s until early 1960s, such as: Grammar Translation Method, Direct Method, and Audio Lingual Method.
THE STUDY
This study used a descriptive method to describe the teacher‟s techniques in teaching
All data for this study were collected from classroom observations and interviews. According to Richard and Lockhart (1994), observation involves visiting a class to observe different aspects of teaching. The observations were done six times. I did the observation in Mei 2012. I was as a non-participant observer recording the teaching learning process. While doing the observations, I wrote notes containing the information of observation such as the time, topic, activities, and classroom situation. Field notes also contained descriptions of what aids and techniques were used by the teacher.
The transcripts of observations were analyzed to identify the teaching techniques used by the English teacher and the reasons why the teacher used the certain techniques. The data from the classroom observations was analyzed descriptively. The first step in the analysis was coding the data. The transcribed data of classroom observations were coded and labeled for each type of techniques such as; drill, translation, etc. Finally, the data were analyzed and interpreted to answer the research question.
DISCUSSION
This section presents the analysis of the techniques that the teacher used in teaching English to the students in SMA Negeri 1 Bringin.
1. Repetition Drill
According to Larsen-Freeman (2000), Repetition Drill is a teaching technique in which the students are asked to repeat the teacher‟s model as
accurately and as quickly as possible. It is hoped that the repetition of sentences will automatically settle the structures and vocabulary in the minds of the learners.
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the handout for all of the students. In the handout, there were many kinds of words to describe a person. Then the teacher asked the students to read the words, but some students spoke with incorrect pronunciations. So, the teacher drilled the students to read with correct pronunciations. It is shown from the transcripts of classroom observations as follows:
Student : Spiky (wrong pronunciation). Teacher : Hah? Repeat!
Student : Spiky hair (wrong pronunciation).
Teacher : No, „spiky hair, spiky hair‟ (correct pronunciation). Student : Spiky hair (correct pronunciation). Rambut jabrik. Teacher : „spiky hair‟ (correct pronunciation).
We could see that the teacher drilled the student to speak with the correct pronunciation. He drilled the students until he did not make a mistake in pronouncing the words „spiky hair‟. Below is another example when the teacher
used a repetition drill:
Student : crew-cut hair (wrong pronunciation).
Teacher : Ulangi crew-cut hair (correct pronunciation). Student : Crew-cut hair (wrong pronunciation). Teacher : Crew-cut hair (correct pronunciation). Student : Crew-cut hair (correct pronunciation). Teacher : Iya.
Student : Average built (wrong pronounce)
Teacher : Dengarkan yang lain membacanya /’ævƏrij bilt/ . Repeat Jum, diulang Jum
Student : Average built (wrong pronounce) Teacher : Average built
Student : Average built
2. Translating a Literature Passage
The second technique used by the teacher was translating a literature passage. According to Larsen (1984), translation is changing some forms from a source language to target language without changing the meaning of the source language. The form of language refers to the actual words, phrase, clause, sentences, paragraphs, etc., which are spoken or written. The teacher used this teaching technique when he taught about descriptive text. The topic that the teacher discussed contained a lot of vocabulary items. The teacher asked the students to read the vocabularies and the meanings in Indonesian. Sometimes the students did not know the meaning of the vocabularies. The teacher translated the words into Indonesian.
Below is the teaching excerpt that shows the translation teaching technique used by the teacher:
Teacher : Membacanya „Well-build‟. What is well-build? Student : Bangunan baik.
Teacher : Itu building, itu asalnya dari situ juga, build itu the first verb, bentuk
pertama „built‟ yang pakek „t‟ di belakangnya itu the second verb itu
bentuk kata kerja kedua. Well-built artinya? Student : Lumayan gemuk.
Teacher : No, well itu baik. Well-built itu dibangun dengan baik, tubuhnya dibangun dengan baik itu, we can say dalam bahasa Indonesianya itu tegap, kekar. Well-built kekar dan tegap.
It is clear that the teacher translated the vocabulary from English to Indonesian and explained a little bit about the words. Below is another example when the teacher used Translating a Literature Passage technique:
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Student : Wavy
Teacher : Is that wavy? Very wavy sangat bergelombang sekali. Almost curly hampir keriting ya. Ok, good, the color?
From the transcripts above, we can see that the teacher gave the instruction to the students using English and then translate it in Indonesian. It is clear that the teacher used this technique when he taught the students to make them understand the teacher‟s instruction and the lesson more easily.
3. Question and Answer Drills
This technique uses questions and answers from the students and the teacher. Students are given questions and they have to answer the questions quickly. It is shown from the transcripts of classroom observations as follows:
Teacher : Tinggi? Student : Tall.
Teacher : Sangat tinggi? Salah nggak papa. Student : Very tall.
Teacher : Good, repeat after me „very tall‟! Student : Very tall.
The teacher used this technique when he taught about people‟s height.
He drilled the questions to the students and the students answered the questions quickly. The teacher did not only ask about people‟s height, but also gave
questions about people‟s weight:
Teacher : Ok, Febi weight tentang berat tubuh gendut? Student : Fat.
Teacher : Sangat gendut? Student : Obese.
Student : Overweight. quickly, and correctly. From the transcript above, we can see that teacher used this technique to know the students understanding. He asked questions to the students and the students answer the teacher‟s questions. We can see that the students
understand the lesson so that they can answer the teacher questions correctly.
4. Memorization
According to Larsen-Freeman (2000), in this technique students are given a set of vocabulary in the target language translated into the native language and the teacher asks them to memorize the vocabularies. Below is the teaching excerpt that shows the memorization teaching technique used by the teacher:
Teacher : Memorize it 2 minutes, dihafalkan itu 2 menit. Setelah itu I ask you to close, saya meminta kalian untuk menutup. Memorize the name, diingat-ingat.
Dibalik. Only the person that I ask to answer, answer the questions. For the other stay silent.
Abi Mansyur, rambut panjang. Student : Long hair
The topic of the teaching above was about people‟s hair. Here, after the teacher explained about people‟s hair, he asked the students to memorize the
vocabulary for about 2 minutes. Then, to know if they could memorize it, he asked questions to the students related to the topic. Below is another example when the teacher used memorization technique:
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vocabulary. We start from people‟s hair kita mulai dari rambutnya dulu. Silahkan, only people‟s hair. Ok, and make sure you master also the pronounciation everyone, pastikan pengucapannya juga betul. In the previous class di kelas
sebelumnya dari someone yang pengen ngomong „rambut bergelombang‟ „wavy hair pak‟ (wrong pronounce), no you don‟t say „wovy‟ butyou say „wavy‟
Student : Wavy
Teacher : Make sure ingat the pronounciationnya juga harus betul.
the new items. Below is an example of using the technique in language learning that was taken from the transcripts of observation.
Teacher : Good. Now we can talk about the face, bagian-bagian matanya, hidungnya, bibirnya. Ok, pertama hidungnya dulu. Dia mempunyai hidung? using the new vocabularies that they learnt. The students described her nose and eyes correctly. Another example of teaching excerpt using this technique is presented below.
Teacher : Oh iya wajahnya gimana? Mengucapkannya gimana? Student : She has got round face.
Teacher : Good, wajah sudah terus apa lagi? Student : Bibir.
Teacher : Tipis atau tebal? Student : She has got thin lips.
Teacher : Good. Weight berat badan. Oh tingginya dulu. Tall/short? Bela tingginya sedengan, how do you say?
Student : She is medium height.
In this technique the teacher asked the students to make some sentences about people‟s face and weight. They made the sentences like the teacher‟s
instructions.
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CONCLUSION
The analysis and interpretation above show the kinds of techniques that the teacher used in teaching English to the students of Senior High School level at SMA Negeri 1 Bringin. The techniques used were: Repetition Drill 15%, Translating a Literature Passage 30%, Question and Answer Drills 35%, Memorization 10%, and Use Words in Sentences 10%.
In the repetition drill, the students have to repeat the teacher‟s model as
accurately and as quickly as possible. It is hoped that the repetition of words, clauses, and sentences will automatically formulate the structures and vocabularies in the minds of the learners such as how to read and write a word correctly.
The second technique is Translating a Literature Passage. In teaching the students, the teacher used this technique frequently. In this technique, the students have to translate a passage from English into Indonesian.
The third technique is Question and Answer Drill. This technique contains questions and answers between the students and teacher. The students are given questions and they have to answer the questions quickly. The teacher uses this technique to test the student‟s ability in memorizing the materials.
The next technique is Memorization. In this technique, the students are given a set of vocabulary in English translated into Indonesia and teacher asks them to memorize the vocabularies. Grammar rules and patterns are also required to be memorized.
In conclusion, I can say that the English teacher of SMA Negeri 1 Bringin uses five teaching techniques such as: Repetition Drill, Translating a Literature Passage, Question and Answer Drills, Memorization, and Use Words in Sentences, in order to make the students easy to understand the lesson.
In my opinion, in language learning, teaching techniques become the crucial elements in delivering knowledge from teachers to students especially in Senior High School level. There are many teaching techniques, so it is the teacher‟s time to choose the best techniques for their student‟s need and situations. An appropriate technique will help students
to easyly understand the materials and learn English in an interesting way.
21 Acknowledgement
This thesis would not have been completed without the help and support from many
people. Therefore, I would like to express my sincere appreciation and gratitude to the
following people who have assisted me in completing this thesis. First, I would like to thank
ALLoh SWT, the One who gives me strength, spirit, and guidance to finish this thesis. All ED
teachers thank you for all knowledge, understanding, and things that have been shared.
Moreover, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Prof. Dr. Gusti Astika, M. A. ,
my supervisor, I thank to his kindness and patience in giving good suggestions for me so that
I could finish this thesis.
I wish to express my gratitude to my examiner Debora Tri Ragawati, S. S., MA-ELT, without whose knowledge and assistance this study would not have been completed.
I would also like to thank to my participants, Mr. Anjas and all tenth grade students in
SMA negeri 1 Bringin for giving me chance to collect the data in SMA Negeri 1 Bringin.
I would also like to extend my appreciation to my family especially for my father,
Bapak Supardi Alm, my mother, Ibu Lasmirah, and my brother Bagus Setiyana. Thank you for
the support, love, patience, and never-ending prayers. My love, Lutvya De Omy, thank you
for your care, love, faithfulness, and gives spirit every time. I love you.
Finally, I am particular grateful to all of my friends in ED especially the 2008ers, we are
great we are eight, and all the people who contribute in finishing my thesis which can not
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Celce-Murcia, M. (1991). Teaching English as a second or foreign language. (second edition). Massachusetts: Heinle and Heinle Publishers.
Harmer, J. (1993). The practice of English language teaching. New York: Longman Publishing.
Harmer, J. (2001). The practice of English language teaching. London: Longman.
Harsono, Y.M. (2005) English language teaching (ELT) in Indonesia: fact, problems, and possible solutions. English Journal of Language Teaching and Research.
Larsen-Freeman, D. (2000). Techniques and principles in language teaching (second edition). New York: Oxford University Press.
Richards, J. C. & Lockhart, C. (1994). Reflective teaching in second language classroom. New York: Cambridge University Press.
