An instrument to measure spoken English communicative competence for elementary school students.

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xiv ABSTRACT

ATIK WIDYAWATI. 2014. An Instrument to Measure Spoken English Communicative Competence for Elementary School Students. _Yogyakarta: English Language Studies. Graduate Program. Sanata Dharma University.

This study was conducted to design a model of spoken English communicative competence test for elementary school students in Indonesia. The research was intended to provide a theoretical foundation for developing the test model as an instrument to measure the spoken English competence of elementary school students. The designed test model is expected as the pilot model of measurement for children in Indonesia. Therefore the information acquired from the test is able to help the learners to be more developed.

There were two research questions in this study: (1) What is the expected spoken English communicative competence of elementary schools learners in Indonesia like? (2) What is the instrument model used to measure the students’ spoken competence like? To answer the research questions, the researcher conducted the Research and Development method. To answer the first research question, the researcher conducted literature review and respondents’ validation. This becomes the foundation to formulate a theoretical model of the Indonesian elementary school students’ spoken competence. The second research question was developed by designing the test model of the communicative competence for young language learners.

From the literature review and the respondents’ validation it was found that standard competence of the spoken English communicative competence is the ability to understand and produce meaningful spoken text organizationally and pragmatically. Understanding the text means the learners are able to discriminate words and the meaning of the sentence, identify a growing range of vocabulary and structure of sentences and short dialogue, predict meaning from a range of cues in the dialogue, and understand the connection between ideas by recognizing words and sentences of the context. Meanwhile, to produce a text means the learners are able to utter sounds, words, and sentences clearly with appropriate pronunciation and intonation, speak with cohesive and well-organized sentences, use language to get what they want, to learn, to imagine things, to think about things, and use oral language appropriate to the language use situation that they are in.

From the theoretical model then the researcher designed a set of a test. The test consisted of 5 parts of listening section and 2 parts of speaking section. The listening test was an objective test in the form of multiple-choice task, matching, and answering. The speaking test consisted a set of picture which required the students to produce a spoken text.

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xvi ABSTRAK

ATIK WIDYAWATI. 2014. Alat Untuk Mengukur Kompetensi Berkomunikasi Secara Lisan Untuk Siswa Sekolah Dasar.Yogyakarta: Kajian Bahasa Inggris. Program Pasca-Sarjana. Universitas Sanata Dharma.

Penelitian ini dilakukan dengan tujuan untuk merancang sebuah model kompetensi berkomunikasi secara lisan dalam bahasa Inggris siswa-siswa sekolah dasar di Indonesia. Penelitian ini dimaksudkan untuk dapat menyediakan landasan teoritis untuk menyusun sebuah tes sebagai alat untuk mengukur kompetensi berkomunikasi secara lisan siswa-siswasekolah dasar di Indonesia. Rancangan tes ini akan menjadi contoh alat ukur yang tepat untuk siswa sekolah dasar. Sehingga informasi yang diperoleh dari alat ukur ini dapat digunakan untuk meningkatkan kemampuan lisan bahasa Inggris siswa SD.

Ada dua pertanyaan yang dirumuskan dalam penelitian ini, yaitu: (1) seperti apakah kompetensi berkomunikasi secara lisan dalam bahasa Inggris siswa-siswa sekolah dasar di Indonesia? Dan (2) seperti apakah alat ukur untuk mengetahui kompetensi berkomunikasi secara lisan dalam bahasa Inggris siswa-siswa sekolah dasar di Indonesia? Untuk menjawab pertanyaan-pertanyaan tersebut, peneliti menggunakan metode Research and Development. Rumusan masalah pertama terjawab dengan melakukan analisis kepustakaan dan validasi dari responden. Hal ini akan menjadi dasar teori penyusunan tes. Sedangkan rumusan masalah kedua dijawab dengan menyusun model tes untuk siswa sekolah dasar di Indonesia.

Berdasarkan analisis kepustakaan dan validasi para responden ditemukan bahwa kompetensi standar berkomunikasi lisan siswa – siswa SD di Indonesia adalah kemampuan untuk memahami dan memproduksi teks lisan secara runtut dan praktis. Memahami teks artinya siswa mampu membedakan kata–kata dan arti kalimat, beberapa kelompok kata dan struktur kalimat dan percakapan pendek, memprediksi arti dari petunjuk-petunjuk dalam sebuah percakapan, dan memahami kesinambungam antara beberapa ide dengan cara mengenali kata–kata dan kalimat berdasarkan konteksnya. Sedangkan memproduksi sebuah teks artinya siswa dapat mengucapkan kata dan kalimat secara jelas dengan lafal dan intonasi yg tepat, berbicara dengan kalimat yang urut dan runtut, menggunakan bahasa untuk mendapatkan sesuatu yang diinginkan, untuk belajar, untuk membayangkan benda, untuk berfikir tentang benda, dan menggunakan bahasa lisan yang tepat dalam ragam kegunaan bahasa dalam sebuah situasi tertentu.

Dari tes blueprint lalu peneliti merumuskan sebuah tes. Tes mendengarkan berbentuk objektif yang meliputi pilihan ganda, menjodohkan, dan menjawab singkat. Tes berbicara berupa bercerita dan dialog percakapan pendek.

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i

AN INSTRUMENT TO MEASURE SPOKEN ENGLISH

COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE FOR

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

A THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain theMagister Humaniora(M.Hum) Degree

in English Language Studies

by Atik Widyawati

106332011

THE GRADUATE PROGRAM OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

YOGYAKARTA

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ii

AN INSTRUMENT TO MEASURE SPOKEN ENGLISH

COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE FOR

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

by

Atik Widyawati

106332011

Approved by:

F.X. Mukarto, Ph.D. _______________________

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iii

A THESIS

AN INSTRUMENT TO MEASURE SPOKEN ENGLISH

COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE FOR

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

by

Atik Widyawati

106332011

Defended before the Thesis Committe and Declared Acceptable

THESIS COMMITTEE

Chairperson : Dr. J. Bismoko …………...

Secretary : F.X. Mukarto, Ph.D …………...

Members : 1. V. Triprihatmini, S.Pd., M.Hum., M.A. …………...

2. J.S.M. Pudji Lestari, S.Pd., M.Hum. …………...

Yogyakarta, September , 2014 The Graduate School Director Sanata Dharma University

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STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY

This is to certify that all the ideas, phrases, and sentences, unless otherwise stated, are the ideas, phrases, and sentences by the writer. The writer understands the full consequences including degree cancellation if she took somebody’s ideas, phrases or sentences without a proper reference.

Yogyakarta, June 30, 2014

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v

LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI

KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS

Yang bertandatangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma:

Nama : Atik Widyawati

Nomor Mahasiswa : 106332011

Dengan perkembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan UniversitasSanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:

AN INSTRUMENT TO MEASURE SPOKEN ENGLISH

COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

STUDENTS

beserta perangkat yang diperlukan. Dengan demikian, saya memberikan hak kepada Universitas Sanata Dharma untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikannya secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin dari saya maupun memberi royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.

Demikian pernyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya. Dibuat di Yogyakarta.

Padatanggal: 30 Juni 2014 Yang menyatakan,

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vi

This thesis is dedicated to:

Jesus Christ, my beloved brothers and sisters, my husband, Widi,

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vii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all I would like to thank God, Jesus Christ, for His blessing and guidance throughout the process of thesis writing.

I realize that this thesis writing would have never been realized without the support of others. Therefore, on this occasion, I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation to my sponsor F.X. Mukarto, Ph.D, and Dr. J. Bismoko, for their patience, and willingness to spare their precious criticism, advice, and correction during the research.

My deepest gratitude is also addressed to my lecturers in English Language Studies, Dr. Novita Dewi, Dr. B.B. Dwijatmoko, and Dr. Alip for their comment, suggestions, and support during my study.

I would like to reveal my greatest gratitude to my parents, (†)Bapakand (†) Ibu F.X. Madirun who had given me unconditional love and care. Mas Nang andMbakNik who had given me inspiration and chance to pursue higher degree in this University. Without them I would not have gone this far. I thank Mbak Wik,Mbak Tut, Mbak Rien, Mas Ook, Mbak Lies. I know they always support me in any conditions.

My thanks go to my respondents, Bu Pipin, Bu Hening, Bu Dwi, Bu Lusi, and the sixth grader of SD Marsudirini Muntilan, from their cooperation I got the helpful data as the source from which I can conduct this research.

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I am greatly indebted to my friends, Mawar, Uci, Mbak Dwi, and Rusdiana who had struggled together to accomplish this thesis and face the “scary situation”.

Last but not least, my deepest love and appreciation goes to my husband, MasWidhi, and my sons, Vinsen and Windriya, who have given me unlimited love, support, and prayer so I can pass my difficulties. Special thanks to them for giving me strength to pass through the sorrows and giving me a reason to finish this thesis. May God bless them all with His unlimited love.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE ... i

APPROVAL PAGES ... ii

THESIS DEFENCE APPROVAL PAGE ... iii

STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY ... iv

LEMBAR PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH_{... v}

THESIS DEDICATION PAGE ... vi

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT... vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS... ix

LIST OF TABLES ... xi

LIST OF FIGURES ... xii

LIST OF APPENDICES ... xiii

ABSTRACT ... xiv

ABSTRAK_{... xvi}

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ... 1

A. Background of the Study... 1

B. Problem Identification... 6

C. Research Focus ... 6

D. Statement of Research Question ... 7

E. Goal of Research ... 8

F. Product Specifications... 8

G. Benefit of Research ... 9

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW... 11

A. Theoretical Reviews ... 11

1. Communicaive Competence Theories ... 14

a. Hymes ... 14

b. Canale and Swain ... 15

c. Savignon ... 17

d. Bachman and Palmer ... 20

e. Celce – Murcia ... 22

2. The Young Learners ... 25

a. Children’s Growth ... 26

b. Children’s Literacy ... 27

c. Children’s Need ... 28

d. Children Language Development... 28

3. Language Testing ... 31

a. The Phase of the Test Development ... 33

b. The Test Characteristics ... 34

c. Reliability, Validity, Practicality, and Authenticity ... 36

4. Testing Spoken Language Competence ... 38

B. Theoretical Framework ... 40

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A. Research Method... 43

B. Research Setting and Respondents... 46

C. Research Instruments ... 47

D. Data Gathering and Analysis Techniques ... 50

CHAPTER IV: RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ... 52

A. Result of Experts’ Validation on the Preliminary Product... 52

1. The Result of the Experts’ Validation on the Theoretical Model ... 53

2. The Result of the Experts’ Validation on the Test Items ... 58

B. Product Revision ... 61

C. Results of Determining the Test Appropriateness, Practicality, and Usefulness ... 72

D. The Results of the Test Trial ... 79

E. Discussion ... 87

1. Theoretical Model ... 87

2. The Test Prototype ... 88

a. Listening Test... 88

b. Speaking Test ... 90

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMENDATIONS ... 93

A. Conclusions ... 93

B. Recommendation ... 95

BIBLIOGRAPHY ... 97

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1: Spoken Activities (Penny McKay 2006, 198) ... 39

Table 3.1: Test Blueprint ……….48

Table 3.2: The Blueprint of Test Assessment ... 49

Table 4.1: Some Characteristics of Oral Language Ability ... 54

Table 4.2: The Spoken English Competence for Children in Indonesia ... 57

Table 4.3: The Results of Experts’ Validation... 58

Table 4.4: The Results of Experts’ Validation on Questionnaire Part B ... 72

Table 4.5: The Summary of the Tests Item Analysis... 79

Table 4.6: The Category of the Test Items ... 80

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LIST OF FIGURES

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LIST OF APPENDICES

Appendix 1: The Blue Print ... 100

Appendix 2: The Listening Script ... 101

Appendix 3: The Questionnaire ... 109

Appendix 4: The Final Product of the Test Prototype ... 122

Appendix 5: The Raw Data... 135

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xiv

ABSTRACT

ATIK WIDYAWATI. 2014. An Instrument to Measure Spoken English Communicative Competence for Elementary School Students. _Yogyakarta: English Language Studies. Graduate Program. Sanata Dharma University.

This study was conducted to design a model of spoken English communicative competence test for elementary school students in Indonesia. The research was intended to provide a theoretical foundation for developing the test model as an instrument to measure the spoken English competence of elementary school students. The designed test model is expected as the pilot model of measurement for children in Indonesia. Therefore the information acquired from the test is able to help the learners to be more developed.

There were two research questions in this study: (1) What is the expected spoken English communicative competence of elementary schools learners in Indonesia like? (2) What is the instrument model used to measure the students’ spoken competence like? To answer the research questions, the researcher conducted the Research and Development method. To answer the first research question, the researcher conducted literature review and respondents’ validation. This becomes the foundation to formulate a theoretical model of the Indonesian elementary school students’ spoken competence. The second research question was developed by designing the test model of the communicative competence for young language learners.

From the literature review and the respondents’ validation it was found that standard competence of the spoken English communicative competence is the ability to understand and produce meaningful spoken text organizationally and pragmatically. Understanding the text means the learners are able to discriminate words and the meaning of the sentence, identify a growing range of vocabulary and structure of sentences and short dialogue, predict meaning from a range of cues in the dialogue, and understand the connection between ideas by recognizing words and sentences of the context. Meanwhile, to produce a text means the learners are able to utter sounds, words, and sentences clearly with appropriate pronunciation and intonation, speak with cohesive and well-organized sentences, use language to get what they want, to learn, to imagine things, to think about things, and use oral language appropriate to the language use situation that they are in.

From the theoretical model then the researcher designed a set of a test. The test consisted of 5 parts of listening section and 2 parts of speaking section. The listening test was an objective test in the form of multiple-choice task, matching, and answering. The speaking test consisted a set of picture which required the students to produce a spoken text.

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xv

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xvi

ABSTRAK

ATIK WIDYAWATI. 2014. Alat Untuk Mengukur Kompetensi Berkomunikasi Secara Lisan Untuk Siswa Sekolah Dasar.Yogyakarta: Kajian Bahasa Inggris. Program Pasca-Sarjana. Universitas Sanata Dharma.

Penelitian ini dilakukan dengan tujuan untuk merancang sebuah model kompetensi berkomunikasi secara lisan dalam bahasa Inggris siswa-siswa sekolah dasar di Indonesia. Penelitian ini dimaksudkan untuk dapat menyediakan landasan teoritis untuk menyusun sebuah tes sebagai alat untuk mengukur kompetensi berkomunikasi secara lisan siswa-siswasekolah dasar di Indonesia. Rancangan tes ini akan menjadi contoh alat ukur yang tepat untuk siswa sekolah dasar. Sehingga informasi yang diperoleh dari alat ukur ini dapat digunakan untuk meningkatkan kemampuan lisan bahasa Inggris siswa SD.

Ada dua pertanyaan yang dirumuskan dalam penelitian ini, yaitu: (1) seperti apakah kompetensi berkomunikasi secara lisan dalam bahasa Inggris siswa-siswa sekolah dasar di Indonesia? Dan (2) seperti apakah alat ukur untuk mengetahui kompetensi berkomunikasi secara lisan dalam bahasa Inggris siswa-siswa sekolah dasar di Indonesia? Untuk menjawab pertanyaan-pertanyaan tersebut, peneliti menggunakan metode Research and Development. Rumusan masalah pertama terjawab dengan melakukan analisis kepustakaan dan validasi dari responden. Hal ini akan menjadi dasar teori penyusunan tes. Sedangkan rumusan masalah kedua dijawab dengan menyusun model tes untuk siswa sekolah dasar di Indonesia.

Berdasarkan analisis kepustakaan dan validasi para responden ditemukan bahwa kompetensi standar berkomunikasi lisan siswa – siswa SD di Indonesia adalah kemampuan untuk memahami dan memproduksi teks lisan secara runtut dan praktis. Memahami teks artinya siswa mampu membedakan kata–kata dan arti kalimat, beberapa kelompok kata dan struktur kalimat dan percakapan pendek, memprediksi arti dari petunjuk-petunjuk dalam sebuah percakapan, dan memahami kesinambungam antara beberapa ide dengan cara mengenali kata–kata dan kalimat berdasarkan konteksnya. Sedangkan memproduksi sebuah teks artinya siswa dapat mengucapkan kata dan kalimat secara jelas dengan lafal dan intonasi yg tepat, berbicara dengan kalimat yang urut dan runtut, menggunakan bahasa untuk mendapatkan sesuatu yang diinginkan, untuk belajar, untuk membayangkan benda, untuk berfikir tentang benda, dan menggunakan bahasa lisan yang tepat dalam ragam kegunaan bahasa dalam sebuah situasi tertentu.

Dari tes blueprint lalu peneliti merumuskan sebuah tes. Tes mendengarkan berbentuk objektif yang meliputi pilihan ganda, menjodohkan, dan menjawab singkat. Tes berbicara berupa bercerita dan dialog percakapan pendek.

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1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

This chapter will explain the reasons of conducting a research on spoken English communicative competence test for elementary school students in Indonesia. This chapter consists of six subheadings in which the researcher elaborates the background of the study, problem identification, research focus, statement of research question, goal of research, product specifications, and benefit of research. Further discussion will be presented in the following section.

A. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

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community besides their mother tongue. The second one is the growth of economics. The issue of free trade also influences the reasons why people must be able to speak English. By acknowleging the reasons above, it is very crucial that every person must be able to speak English in order to compete with the others. One of the solutions is by teaching English since the early age. The aim is to equip the children with good English competence particularly in speaking English. Intentionally in the future they can work professionally and can compete with people from around the world. Moreover, when children learn English in the early age they will be able to speak English fluently.

Indonesia as part of the developing country has put English as the local load in the elementary curriculum. Knowing its importance, many elementary schools teachers teach English to their students. Hopefully the students can communicate in English since early age. Yet there is unclear description of how far they have been studying English and what they can do with it. Even their interests in learning English decrease when they continue their study in Junior High school (Kasihani, 2004: 10). Moreover, there is not clear and standard measurement of the elementary school students’ competence. If there is standard measurement, it is expected the process of teaching and learning English will be more effective. Yet, it is not easy to find an instrument to measure the students’ competence especially for young language learners.

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to monitor the students’ progress. This progress will give accurate information about their language competence.

English has been taught in the elementary school in Indonesia around 1990’s. It is taught since the fourth grade in elementary school. Recently, English has been taught from the first year. Even, in some schools, it has been taught in the play group. English becomes the local load in the elementary school curriculum. The intention is that the students can communicate in English since early age. So, the practice of teaching English to young learners must be done to develop their competence.

From Kasihani’s research (2004: 3), it was also reported that the practice of teaching English to young learners has been done for years, but it is still questioned why the students are not able to communicate in English effectively. The reality showed the teaching methods and techniques were not appropriate for elementary school students. In addition, there were some teachers who did not have appropriate backgrounds in English education. Moreover some schools sometimes do not prepare appropriate instruments to assess the children’s language competence even some teachers do not know how to assess them.

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listen and speak. Even the test given is not in the same line with the teaching practices that have been done. In the classroom teachers often ask the children to speak, sing, retell, and also have a dialogue but they test designed is really far from the activities given in the classroom. Therefore, it needs a set of test which covers the children’s needs and lead to the betterment of the children’s competence.

As part of the language programs, assessment is used to collect information about the practice of language program itself. Assessment takes an important role in the teaching and learning process. Assessment will be useful to monitor the students’ progress. The students may be assessed on their skills or knowledge. As has been stated before, in Indonesia the assessment is conducted mostly by giving a test. The test is applied to measure the students’ knowledge of the materials given and also their skills. It means every student has opportunity to show their knowledge and skills in learning the language. A test can also be used to evaluate the material itself, whether the material given is appropriate enough for the students, especially for young language learners. Therefore, a teacher can make a good decision related to the material which is given in the school.

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positive impact, parents can find appropriate ways to motivate and support their children, so that every child can grow and bloom well.

Although the practice of teaching English for elementary school students has been implemented years ago, there is still not enough serious attention from the government to give more concern on this area. The government may provide the curriculum, however the follow up is still limited. The materials may also be various, but the appropriate assessment is also still limited. It is, therefore, important to provide the instrument that covers the young learners’ need.

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B. PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION

There are two main concerns of this research. The first concern is related to the communicative competence of the elementary students. The second is the test design to measure the students’ communicative competence.

Since English has been taught in the elementary school, it is expected that students have ability to communicate in English. So far there is not clear description of what kinds of communicative competence should be possessed by the students. This study tries to identify the communicative competence in children. The children’s competence will be derived from the theories of communicative competence and then they will be adjusted to the children’s characteristics. In short, the identification of children’s communicative competence is the first concern of this study.

The second concern of this study is the test design which is used to assess the children communicative competence. Communicative competence becomes the main goal of the language program so the test design should represent the students’ ability to communicate in speaking or listening. This test design hopefully will make the teaching practice to be more effective and the children will be more competent.

C. RESEARCH FOCUS

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test to measure spoken competence of the elementary school students in Indonesia.

Communicative competence in this study focuses on the spoken skills, they are listening and speaking. Since language is not used separately therefore this research to focus on the integration of the two skills above. To be more specific, this study will describe the spoken competence of elementary school students. The description of the elementary school students’ spoken competence will become the theoretical model of this study. The theoretical model then will be developed to be a set of spoken English tests.

The next focus is the product of this study. This study is oriented to the product. In this study the product is a set of test to measure the spoken competence of the elementary school students. The test is developed from the theoretical model and the product will become the spoken test of the elementary school students.

D. STATEMENT OF RESEARCH QUESTION

There are two points that are crucial to be answered based on the phenomenon above. They are the communicative competence of the students and the designing of a test itself. These concerns lead to the following research questions:

1. What is the expected spoken competence of elementary school students like? 2. What is the instrument model used to measure the students’ spoken

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E. GOAL OF RESEARCH

The goals of the research are to suggest the spoken competence of the elementary school students and to design the test which is used to measure the students’ spoken competence.

The first goal is related to the theories of the spoken competence of the elementary school students. Since this research is not based on the national curriculum, the description of the students’ competence is derived from the theories which are accepted by people around the world in general. Then the theories mentioned above will be developed to be the blueprint of the test.

The second goal is the test design. The design of the test will be derived from the test blueprint. The designed test model will be adapted to the situation in Indonesia in order to get the correct test model to measure the children’s spoken competence.

F. PRODUCT SPECIFICATIONS

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of the instruments to measure the spoken competence of elementary school students in Indonesia.

Technically, the test takers can perform the test in their proper time. The result of the test provides information about the children’s competence. The information would be beneficial to the parents or teachers to develop the children’s spoken English competence.

G. BENEFITS OF RESEARCH

There are several benefits of this study. First, from this study it is expected that there is a clear and appropriate description of the children’s communicative competence. This description will help the teacher to decide the main goal of the language program.

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CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW

In this section there are several theories presented concerning this study.

The theories are used to answer the first research questions and to develop the

same understanding related to the study. The theories discussed here are

communicative competence, young language learners, and language testing.

A. THEORETICAL REVIEWS

The theoretical review starts with the theories as the basic of this study.

They are also used to answer the previous research questions and it ends with the

theoretical framework of this study. The following section will discuss more about

them.

Language is viewed as an organized system which is used by people with

certain goal or function. Halliday, in his book An Introduction to Functional

Grammar, proposed language referred to four views. First, language is “as text

and system”. Second, “as sound, as writing, as wording”. Third, “as structure –

configurations of parts”, and fourth “as resources – choices among alternative”

(Halliday: 19). Language as system and language as a set of text cannot be

separated (Halliday: 26). They have close relationship; the system is essential

potential of a language. Texts are various and their varieties are categorized by

their context in used (Halliday: 27). Halliday also points out that a text which is

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It means the text must be “coherent, comprehensive and richly dimensioned”

(Halliday: 5). This is to say that grammar is viewed as the working system to

make and understand the meaning (Halliday: 5). It means that every part and the

interaction among language pattern play significant part in building the meaning.

In a simple way we can say people can understand what others say by

understanding the meaning of the sentences. “ .... The analysis points up how the

interaction among patterns at different strata plays a significant part in the

construction of meaning” (Halliday: 41). It is seen that grammar is functioned as

the working system which form the text and can be understood in certain situation

or context. Therefore, the text will be coherent and comprehensible.

Starting from the definition proposes by Halliday it is inferred beyond the

structure of the language there is an important meaning to be understood by the

hearer. It means people used the language to send their message to others. Then

there is modern understanding about language view. Since meaning of the text

also depends on the context so the view of language use is also changed. There is

a view of what are going to say is more important than how to say it. When people

exchange information or message each other it means they communicate. It is

obvious that people use the language as a media of communication. The structure

of the language is also important to make the communication more effective. Thus

the meaning of the sentence becomes the priority in the communication. In this

case, language has its function that is functioned as a media of communication

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Starting from Halliday’s point of view then there are some language

theories related to the function of language. There are some changes on the

language view. Previously language program is done to make the learners become

native speakers like. They have to master the grammar rules in order to be able to

communicate in English. The view has changed. There is deeper expectation

about the language program. Now the most important objective is how people can

use the language to communicate with others. The ability to communicate in a

target language can be interpreted as a communicative competence.

The term “competence” was introduced by Chomsky along with

performance. There is a difference between competence and performance.

Competence refers to the language system. In this context competence relates to

one’s knowledge about grammar rules while performance refers to the use of the

language. In some context performance is about one’s speech perception and

production in the real situation. In Chomsky’s theory, competence is considered

stronger than performance. According to Chomsky, competence focuses on the

linguistic competence, “...Noam Chomsky who focuses on linguistic competence

and claimed that any consideration of social factors was outside the domain of

linguistics” (Celce-Murcia: 42).

The term competence according to Chomsky emphasises on the

linguistics competence. In other words competence is one’s ability to

communicate each other effectively which emphasis on the grammatical

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Chomsky did not directly mention the term of communicative

competence. But he had introduced the term competence as the starting point of

some theorists to define the communicative competence. There are some

definitions about communicative competence that have been proposed. Those

definitions and their aspects will be presented in the section below.

1. Communicative Competence Theories

To define the communicative competence that answers the research

question, it is appropriate to review some theories of communicative competence

proposed by some experts. There are, among others, five experts who have

defined the term communicative competence and its aspects.

a. Hymes (1972)

Hymes defined the term of communicative competence in 1972.

Communicative competence refers to two competencies, linguistics competence

and sociolinguistic competence. Linguistic competence focuses on knowledge of

the grammatical components and the use. This competence also includes the

selection of the grammar related to its appropriateness in the context.

Sociolinguistics refers to the knowledge of the rule of the language use. In other

words sociolinguistics competence is the ability to understand the social situation

in which communication takes place. This ability includes the participants to share

the ideas or information.

Furthermore Hymes gives his review on the relation of the linguistic role

in the communicative system. They are correctness, feasibility, appropriatness

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system. Feasibility refers to the acceptance of the grammar use which is

implemented in the communication. Appropriatness relates to the use of the

grammar in the contextual features. Occurance refers to the ability to use other

knowledge (unconsious knowledge) in communication (Hymes, 1972: 284-286).

In conclusion, Hymes’s view about communicative competence covers

two competence, they are linguistics competence and sociolinguitics competence.

From his definition it is summarized, the communicative competence is the ability

to use the language based on the linguistic role to communicate in a certain social

situation and context. It means the learners can communicate to each other by

using appropriate language in a certain context.

Figure 2.1 Dell Hymes’ model of communicative competence

b. Canale and Swain (1980)

The term competence refers to personal ability. Canale and Swain point

out that there are three aspects of communicative competence; they are

grammatical competence,sociolinguistic competence, andstrategic competence. system. Feasibility refers to the acceptance of the grammar use which is

grammatical competence,sociolinguistic competence, andstrategic competence. Communicative

grammatical competence,sociolinguistic competence, andstrategic competence. Sociolinguistics

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Grammatical competence

Grammatical competence refers to the one’s knowledge about lexical

items and morphology use, syntax, sentence-grammar semantic, phonology. The

grammatical competence is very important to help the learners produce and

express accurate literal utterances. Therefore, the utterances can be understood

easily.

Sociolinguistic competence consists of two components, sociocultural

rules of use and the rules of discourse. Sociocultural rules relate to the selection of

utterances to be produced and understood appropriately. The main focus of this

component is how far the utterances will be appropriate in the communication in a

certain context or situation. While the discourse rules refer to the cohesion and

coherence. Cohesion refers to the knowledge of grammatical links, coherence

refers to the appropriate combinations of communicative function.

Strategic competence refers to verbal and nonverbal communication

strategies. These strategies will help the speakers to negotiate with others in a

breakdown communication. These strategies will occur when the learners

communicate in the real situation.

Figure 2.2 Canale and Swain’s model of communicative competence Communicative

easily.

Figure 2.2 Canale and Swain’s model of communicative competence Strategic

Competence

easily.

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c. Savignon (1972, 1983)

People need a language when they interact to each other. The purpose is

to understand and to be understood by other people. Understanding what other

people say will make the interaction effective because each person can understand

and give responses to others. It means people often use language to communicate.

That is why Savignon’s theory about communicative language teaching is based

on a view of language as communication. This means language is used as a means

of communication with other people orally or in writing.“...language is seen as a

social tool that speakers use to make meaning; speakers communicate about

something to someone for some purpose, either orally or in writing” (Savignon,

1983: 6)

The concept of communicative competence in language teaching has

broader meaning than the linguistic theory. In communicative competence people

and languages they use are viewed in the social context or setting (Savignon,

1983: 16). While linguistic theory sees people as the ideal speakers and listeners.

In these conditions the grammatical correctness becomes the main concern.

Therefore, sometimes the meaning or message itself is delayed. People incline to

focus on the grammar structures rather than to the meaning itself.

There are three main focuses of communicative competence proposed by

Savignon. The first one is the use of the language. She explains in using a

language the message in it is more important than the grammar, “... a view of

language learning is going from the surface grammatical structures to meaning”

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understand what they say and what is said by other people in the target language.

The second one is the view of language acquisition, “language acquisition is seen

as proceeding from meaning to surface structure”. It means that the focus in using

language as a means of communication is that learners understand “the meaning

or getting one’s message across” (Savignon, 1983: 35). The third one is

specification of context. In this view the language should be taught in the correct

way. It means the communicative purpose or function should be the main concern.

Therefore the language used becomes meaningful for the learners because they

use the language based on the contexts.

There are some components of communicative competence. Savignon

proposes four components of communicative competence. They are grammatical

competence, discourse competence, sociocultural competence, and strategic

component. The components above are interrelated each other. Every component

takes an important role in the development of the language learners.

Grammatical competence refers to the grammatical forms of the sentence.

Savignon argues “the ability to identify the lexical, morphological, syntactical and

phonological features of language, “ and “to make use of those features to

interpret and form words and sentences” (Savignon, 1983: 9). It means how

second or foreign language learners are able to use grammatical features to form

words or sentences and to interpret the words or sentences. Furthermore she states

grammatical competence is not related to the theory of grammar or the ability to

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Discourse competence relates to “the interconnection of a series of

utterances or written words or phrases to form a text, a meaningful whole”

(Savignon, 1983: 9). The texts are various. They can be a poem, an email

message, a sportscast, a telephone conversation, or a novel.

Sociocultural competence refers to ability to understand the social

context in which language is used. Social context consists of the role of the

participants, the information they share, and the function of the interaction. By

possessing sociocultural competence the learners are able to communicate in

many different situational contexts. Communicative competence also includes “a

willingness to engage in the active negotiation of meaning” (Savignon, 1983: 10).

Strategic competence refers to the ability to cope strategies that someone

uses in unfamiliar contexts, “with constraints arising from inadequate knowledge

of rules or such impediment to the applications as fatigue or distraction

“(Savignon, 1983: 10).

From the explanation above it can be concluded that communicative

competence means the ability to understand, identify and use language or

language features as a whole meaning to communicate one another in different

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grammatical competence,

Figure 2.3 Savignon’s model of communicative competence

d. Bachman and Palmer (1996)

Bachman used communicative language ability to refer to the

communicative competence. He defined communicative language ability ‘as a

concept comprised of knowledge or competence and capacity for appropriate use

of knowledge in a contextual communicative language use” (cited in Bagaric:

2007).

Bachman and Palmer propose four areas of language knowledge that

should be included (as cited in McKay, 2006: 183). They are grammatical

knowledge, textual knowledge, functional knowledge, and sociolinguistic

knowledge. The grammatical knowledge and textual knowledge are called as the

organisational knowledge while the functional knowledge and sociolinguistics are

called as pragmatic knowledge.

Grammatical knowledgeincludes areas of knowledge such as knowledge

of vocabulary, syntax, phonology and graphology. McKay points these areas of

knowledge needs to grow and deepen (Bachman and Palmer in McKay, 2006:

183). In this area, the children need to sharpen their abilities in both producing

and understanding sounds, words, and sentences. It means that the children learn

how to “utter sounds, words and sentences clearly with appropriate

2007).

how to “utter sounds, words and sentences clearly with appropriate

strategic component.

2007).

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pronunciation and intonation” (183). Besides, the children also need to

understand others’pronunciation and intonation clearly.

Textual knowledge refers to the ability to speak in ways which are

cohesive and well-organized. Textual knowledge can be applied to comprehend or

produce texts. It is necessary for the children to use and understand the connecting

words that combine sentences and paragraph together. In this area the children

also “need to learn how to refer back to other parts of the sentence” (183). In

listening they need to sharpen their ability to use textual knowledge to understand

what is being said (Bachman and Palmer in McKay, 2006: 183).

Functional knowledge refers to the ability to use language for many

different functions. They learn how to use language to get what they want, to

learn, to imagine things, to think about things (Bachman and Palmer in McKay,

2006: 183). On the other side it is also essential for the children to understand the

purposes behind the language even when the speakers do not state the purpose

directly.

Sociolinguistic knowledge refers to the children’s ability “to use oral

language appropriate to the language use situation that they are in” (Bachman

and Palmer in McKay, 2006: 184). They need to use and understand expression

and culture references. Also children learn to communicate and act in ways which

help them to reach out people from different culture (Bachman and Palmer in

McKay, 2006: 184).

From the discussion above there are four areas of children’s spoken

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spoken ability. These abilities also facilitate the children to use the language

appropriately. Bachman and Palmer’s model of communicative competence is

intended directly for children. This model is acceptable for children whose first

language is not English.

Figure 2.4 Bachman and Palmer’s model of communicative competence

e. Celce-Murcia (2008)

Celce-Murcia elaborates communicative competence into six aspects.

They aresociocultural competence,discourse competence,linguistic competence,

formulaic competence,interactional competenceandstrategic competence.

“Sociocultural competence refers to the speaker’s pragmatic knowledge”

(Celce-Murcia, 2008: 46). It means the speaker’s ability to communicate

effectively inside the social and cultural context. This kind of competence

consists of three variables (Celce-Murcia, 2008: 46). The first is social context

factors. This factors include the “participants’ age, gender, status, social distance,

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factors include “politeness strategies, a sense of genres and registers”. The third is

cultural background factors. These factors include “background knowledge of the

target language group, major dialects or regional differences, and cross cultural

awareness” (Celce-Murcia, 2008: 46).

Discourse competencesare defined as the ability to select, sequence, and

arrange the words, structures, and utterances to achieve a unified spoken message

(Celce-Murcia, 2008: 46). The combination of them can express the speakers’

messages and create coherent texts. The sub- areas of the discourse competence

proposed by Celce-Murcia (2008) are: (1) cohesion, some rule related to the “use

of reference, substitution, conjunction, and lexical chain” (pg. 47), (2) deixis

refers to the “situational grounding achieved through use of personal pronouns,

spatial terms, temporal terms, and textual reference” (pg. 47), (3) coherence,

refers to the expression of goal or intent through “proper content schemata,

organizing of old and new information, maintaining temporal continuity and other

organizational schemata through conventionally recognized means” (pg. 47), (4)

generic structure refers to the “formal schemata which permit the user to identify

an oral discourse segment as a conversation, nrrative, interview, service

encounter, report, lecture, sermon, etc”.

Linguistics competence consists of four types of knowledge, they are

phonological, lexical, morphological, and syntacttic. Phonological knowledge

refers to “both segmental knowledge (like vowels, consonants, syllable type) and

suprasegmentals (such as stress, intonation, and rythm) (pg. 47)”. Lexical refers to

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words (pronouns, determiners, prepositions, verbal auxiliaries, etc) (pg. 47)”.

Syntactic refers to “constituent/phrase structure, word order (both canonical and

marked), basic sentence types, modification, coordination, subordination, and

embedding”.

Formulaic competencerefers “to those fixed and prefabricated chunks of

language that speakers use heavily in everyday interaction” (pg. 49). This

competence has four aspects, they are routines such as fixed phrases, collocations

such as verb-object, idioms, and lexical frames.

Interactional competence consists of three sub-component, they are

actional competence, conversational competence, and non-verbal/paralinguistics

competence. Actional competence is defined as “knowledge of how to perform

common speech acts and speech acts sets in the target language involving

interactions” (pg. 48). The interactions in communication are like information

exchanges, interpersonal exchanges, expression of opinions, and feelings,

problems, and future scenarios. Conversational competence is the knowledge of

the turn-taking system in conversation. Non-verbal/paralinguistic competence

refers to the body language, haptic behaviour, and non-linguistic utterances.

Strategic competence refers to cognitive, metacognitive, and

memory-related. Cognitive strategies are defined as the ability to “use logic and analysis to

help oneself learn a new language through outlining, summarizing, notetaking,

organizing and reviewing materials” (pg. 50). Metacognitive refers to strategies of

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Memory-sociocultural competence,

discourse competence,

related refers to the “strategies that help learners recall or retrieve words through

the use of acronyms, images, sounds, or other clues” (pg. 50).

Figure 2.5 Celce Murcia’s model of communicative competence

2. The Young Learners

Young learners are children who are at the ages of five and eleven

(McKay: 5) while young language learners are children who study a foreign

language or a second language. They learn the language because it is taught in the

school. They learn it because of the school policy, so they sometimes do not have

specific reason and need in learning certain language. In Indonesia young learners

mostly study English as a foreign language. English is a foreign language in

Indonesia because this language is only spoken in the classroom. Children do not

speak English outside the classroom.

Children around the world share the same characteristics. The issue of

multiple intelligence theory by Gardner also needs to be considered related to the

development of the characteristics of the children. Multiple intelligence theory

shows that every child possesses different kind of intelligence. There are eight

interactional competence

strategic competence

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types of intelligences, they are linguistic, musical, logical mathematical, spatial,

bodily kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic. Each child has

his/her specific characteristics. This condition leads the children vary in their

competence.

Children grow cognitively, socially, emotionally, and physically. In

assessing young learners it is very important to know their cognitive development

in order to make it suitable with their abilities. McKay, in his book Assessing

Young Language Learners (2006), points “assessment task should not extend

beyond the child’s experience of the world”. It means children will not be able to

give response if they do not have experience or they have not been told before

about the real objects. Besides, children should not be asked to analyze pictures or

ideas or to describe language rule (McKay: 8). There are some characteristics of

young learners to be concerned when they are assessed. Those characteristics fall

into three general categories. They aregrowth, literacy andvulnerability(McKay:

8). In which these three characteristics give big influences in the assessment.

Further discussion is presented in the following section.

a. Children’s Growth

The physical growth of the children is characterized by continuing and

rapid development of gross and fine-motor skills (McKay: 10). Physically

children are active, sometimes children are restless and like activities which are

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focus in more or less10 to 15 minutes because children are easily distracted and

diverted by other children (McKay: 6). They like physical activities.

Emotionally young learners have wide range of emotional needs (Ellis

et.al: 27). Children are excitable and enthusiastic. On the other hands children

easily get bored and they tend to learn slowly and forget things easily (Ellis et.al.

27). The children are interested in something based on what they like and dislike.

Therefore task used in assessment should deal with familiar content, simple

genres like children’s stories and folktales. The purpose of using genres is to

achieve particular communicative goal (McKay: 10). They continue to develop

the ability to work and play with others.

b. Children’s Literacy

The development of foreign language depends on the children’s literacy

development on the first language. The background of the first language literacy

development will be brought to develop the improvement of foreign language

literacy. At the age 9 to 12 years old children can expand thinking more readily

through writing and reading. In this phase oral ability grows when they interact

with other people in conversation in different situations, with different goal and

on different topics (McKay: 13). The topics can be home, family, school and other

topics which are familiar to the children. In this phase children can also talk in

longer stretches of interactions related to different types of talk beyond narratives

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c. Children’s Need

Children are at the age where they need to be supported emotionally.

Sometimes they feel so confident at the same time they may be nervous or

unconfident. Therefore they need to be praised and encouraged to develop their

self-esteem. Children can succeed if they have good experience in learning.

Therefore it is crucial to make them feel successful and good about themselves.

This condition can help the children to keep their interest and creativity.

Therefore, giving a test to the children should provide them a sense of success

and progression.

d. The Children Language Development

Severals language theorists are interested to study about children

language acquisition. Some of them are Chomsky, Crystal, Aitchison, and Piaget.

From their studies, they have made theories about children’s acquisiton on

language. This section tries to review their theories about the development of the

children’s language. Chomsky believes that children are born with an inherited

ability to learn any human language. He states that a child possess “language

acquisition devices”. It is known as LAD. In his view, children acquire the

language by using their “LAD” system to form a sentence to communicate with

others. It means they do not only imitate from the adults.

David Crystal, in Prosodict Development (1979: 37 - 45), defines the

theory about how children learn a language. There are five stages how language is

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get something they want, to get someone’s attention and to draw attention to

something. Stage two is the stage when children start to ask questions, the first

question is “where”. They also begin to learn the opposite word for example

up/down, big/small. Stage three is the stage where children start to have more

complex questions and their questions are signalled with the intonation. Stage four

is the phase when children use increasingly complex sentence structures and begin

to explain things, ask for explanation, and make a wide range of requests. In this

stage children can use the complex sentences to express wider range of meanings.

They also begin to use the abstract verbs and can comprehend the meaning.

Furthermore Crystal points out that in this phase children are able to use auxiliary

verbs and may duplicate modal verbs for example “please, can I, may I”. Stage

Five is the stage where children regularly use language to do all the things that

they need. They use the language for asking and giving information, asking and

answering questions, requesting directly and indirectly, suggesting, offering,

stating and expressing.

Referring to the Piageat’s theory, the language development of children

is influenced by the cognitive development of the children. There are four main

stages of the cognitive development of the children. The first stage is

sensorimotor. This stage begins when children are at the age 0 to 2 years old. In

this stage children interact and learn by their sensory inputs. They are hearing,

feeling, and seeing. The language development starts from the ability to hear