BALANCING TASK DEMAND AND TASK SUPPORT
DESIGNED BY THE STUDENT-TEACHERS AT SMK
NEGERI 1 SURABAYA
THESIS
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan (S.Pd.) in English Teaching
By:
Tusela Ardikawati
NIM D55211063
ENGLISH TEACHER EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF TARBIYAH AND TEACHER TRAINING
SUNAN AMPEL STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY
SURABAYA
BALANCING TASK DEMAND AND TASK SUPPORT
DESIGNED BY THE STUDENT-TEACHERS AT SMK
NEGERI 1 SURABAYA
THESIS
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan (S.Pd.) in English Teaching
By:
Tusela Ardikawati
NIM D55211063
ENGLISH TEACHER EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF TARBIYAH AND TEACHER TRAINING
SUNAN AMPEL STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY
SURABAYA
ABSTRACT
Ardikawati, Tusela. (2016). Balancing Task Demand and Task Support Designed by the Student-Teachers at SMK Negeri 1 Surabaya. English Teacher Education Department, Faculty of Education and Teacher Training, Sunan Ampel State Islamic University Surabaya. Advisor: Dra. Arbaiyah YS, MA.
Key words:Task Demand, Task Support, Balancing Task Demand and Task Support,
Student-Teachers.
This study is conducted based on the personal experience of the researcher while doing the internship program and the phenomena where many English teachers at nearby schools often instruct learners to do a task on either textbook or workbook without adequately explaining or supporting with a careful sequence of activities, where it can put the learners into difficult condition since the demand of the task becomes high supported by the different background knowledge and learning styles of learners which needs to be directed toward the learning objectives. The student-teachers (ST) who got the chance to practice teaching in the real class have to face this challenge to provide some changes in learning English.
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the task support provided by student-teachers at SMKN 1 Surabaya by assessing and justifying its appropriateness. The intended support is scaffolding as the help for learners to meet the balance in completing the demand of the task and automatically achieves the learning objectives. The observed classes were X grade of Accounting department which is taught by both student-teachers in turn. The researcher uses three kinds of data as required in qualitative approach: natural-setting observation video, transcript of recorded interview, and document of lesson plan. The instruments used are checklist, interview guidelines, and framework to analyze the learning activity sequence written on the lesson plan.
LIST OF CONTENT
TITLE …………... i
ADVISOR APPROVAL SHEET..………. ii
EXAMINERS APPROVAL SHEET…..………... iii
PERNYATAAN KEASLIAN TULISAN………..………… iv
DEDICATION SHEET……….. v
MOTTO………. vi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT………. vii
ABSTRACT……….. ix
LIST OF CONTENT………. x
LIST OF TABLES………. xii
LIST OF FIGURES………... xiii
LIST OF APPENDICES………... xiv
CHAPTER I………... 1
INTRODUCTION..………. 1
A. Background of the Study………... 1
B. Research Question………. 9
C. Objectives of the Study………. 9
D. Scope and Limit……… 9
E. Significance of the Study……….. 10
F. Definition of Key Terms……… 13
CHAPTER II……….. 17
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE………... 17
A. Task in Language Teaching……… 17
C. Balancing Task Demand and Task Support………... 30
D. Previous Studies………. 33
CHAPTER III……… 37
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY………. 37
A. Research Design……… 37
B. Research Subject………... 38
C. Data Collection………. 39
D. Data Analysis Procedure………... 56
CHAPTER IV………... 58
RESEARCH FINDING AND DISCUSSION……….. 58
A. Research Finding……….. 58
B. Discussion ……… 71
CHAPTER V……… 75
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION……… 75
A. Conclusion ………... 75
B. Suggestion ………... 76
REFERENCES ……… 78
LIST OF TABLES
Table 2.1 Types of Task Demand and Task Support……… 28 Table 3.1 Framework of Scaffolding Activities Designed by Student-Teacher…... 45 Table 3.2 Rubric to Assess Scaffolding Activities Designed in Lesson Plan……... 47 Table 3.3 Interview Guideline ……….. 51 Table 3.4 Task Support Appropriateness Checklist ………. 54 Table 4.1 Framework of Lesson Plan Designed by ST 1 in Teaching about
Condolence Letter ……… 59
Table 4.2 Framework of Lesson Plan Designed by ST 2 in Teaching about
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1 Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy with Action Verbs……….. 32 Figure 2 The Learning Process Done by ST 1 for the Material of Condolence
Letter According to the Observation……… 62 Figure 3 First Cognitive Level of Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy………. 63 Figure 4 Second and Third Cognitive Level of Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy……… 64 Figure 5 The Learning Process Done by ST 2 for the Material of Showing Care
LIST OF APPENDICES
Appendix 1 Lesson Plan of ST 1 ………. 81
Appendix 2 Lesson Plan of ST 2 ………. 92
Appendix 3 Interview Transcript of ST 1 ……… 97
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
This first chapter explains the background umderlying this study, the
research questions appear because of the background, the objectives of the study, the
significance of this study for some groups of people, the scope and limitation to keep
this research out of the topic, and the operational definition of key terms used within
this research.
A. Background of the Study
Task or activity that many students do in typically English language
classroom is listening to a lecture discussing about particular grammar structure,
how to change sentences into negative form in that particular tense, translate
sentences in target language into their native language, or write a short narrative
text or descriptive one applying the tense has just been learned. Precisely, Chang
states that what learners learn is mostly about grammar and language structures
which can improve their accuracy but not flexible in using the language for
commnication.1 Sahiruddin reviewed that the changing of curriculum from 1945
to 1994 had brought no changes in teaching and learning language since the
1
Shih-Chuan Chang, “A Contrastive Study of Grammar Translation Method and Communicative Approach in Teaching English Grammar”, Canadian Center of Science of Education, vol. 4, no. 2 (2011), p. 13, www.ccsenet.org/elt, accessed 29 Feb 2016.
focus was still on grammar, form, and reading comprehension.2 It was proved by
the course book used and the large number of students in a class.3
Sahiruddin also added that the problem of student number in a class
which tend to make teachers choose Grammar Translation Method because it is
easy and effective for large classes.4 Another activity is completing all exercises
on workbook (LKS) without any sufficient explanation from the teacher because
he or she has to attend school committee meeting or welcoming personal guest in
the office. The students are just commanded to read their coursebook and
complete the exercise and it has to be submitted on the teacher’s desk in the end
of the class.
Since the learners have student books and workbooks, which are
usually far different in content, another phenomenon happened. The teacher only
used the workbook for learners’ learning process because it contains more
exercises so that learners will get used to do exercises in order to pass the test.
Teacher tends to only teaches what the workbook contains to make learners
become capable of completing the exercises since the workbook presents more
about grammatical rules and language structures which perhaps appear mostly in
test items. This kind of teaching is believed to have more effects on learners’
2
Sahiruddin, “The Implementation of the 2013 Curriculum and the Issues of English Langugae Teaching and Learning in Indonesia”, The Asian Conference on Language Learning 203, vol. 362 (2013), pp. 568–70.
3
Ibid., p. 568.
ability and readiness to pass exams, as what Chang illustrated in his thesis about
English language learning in Taiwan.5
However, teaching only what the book contains or teaching grammar
potentially put the learners into boredom and lack of attention because there is
nothing to make them interested in learning. The confession of the researcher’s
students about what they had done in their English classes is supported by the
researcher own experience proved that those kinds of mentioned activities lose
learner’s engagement in learning because it had been done for years in almost all
English classes. By this point, engagement seems to be the key of learning. Rao
quotes the wise words of Horace in 1840 which is “a teacher who is attempting to teach without inspiring the pupil with the desire to learn, is hammering on a cold iron”.6 The quote warns the importance of the desire of learning that should be encouraged not only internally from the learners but also from the teacher
outside since they are receiving the knowledge teachers transfer.
Tamura explains that learners cannot gain the knowledge if the teacher
does not adequately encourage their attention and imagination, which result in
the learning, which cannot be considered successful because the learners are no
5
Chang, “A Contrastive Study of Grammar Translation Method and Communicative Approach in Teaching English Grammar”, pp. 13–4.
6
Bolla Rao, “Use of Media as an Instructional Tool in English Language Teaching (ELT) at Undergraduate Level”, International Journal of English and Literature, vol. 5, no. P.V.K.N Government College (2014), p. 141.
longer engaged and do the work diligently.7 Chang confirms that learners should
also be able to use the language appropriately instead of only understanding the
language knowledge to improve communicative competence.8
Teachers actually can do many things to attract learners’ interest to the
learning. For example they can apply various teaching approaches and strategies
and provide many kinds of media. Learners may not be very aware of the
different applied teaching strategy, but they will notice the various media used to
learn a particular topic. The use of media will support learners in understanding
the lesson more easily.. A research by Azis shows that there is a significant
improvement of experiment group students in mastering vocabulary after being
taught using video media to describe people. It was based on their score of
pre-test and postpre-test. The average score of experiment group’s pre-pre-test was 59,28 and
the post test was 85,24.9 Despite providing media, the exact decision in what a
particular media should be used and how to present is also important to make
more meaningful learning. Hymes, as cited by Chang, states that learners should
not only learn the language knowledge but also be able to use it in various
situations.10 The various situations can be created by using particular related
7
Elena Tamura, “Concepts on The Methodology of Teaching English”, The Economic Journal of Takasaki City Unversity of Economics, vol. 48 (2006), p. 181.
8
Chang, “A Contrastive Study of Grammar Translation Method and Communicative Approach in Teaching English Grammar”, p. 14.
9
Sony Azis, “The Influence of Using Video Media to Students’ Vocabulary Mastery of Tenth Grade Vocational High School 6 Surabaya” (Surabaya: University of PGRI Adi Buana, 2013), pp. 23–7. 10
Chang, “A Contrastive Study of Grammar Translation Method and Communicative Approach in
media and the flowing sequence of the activities in every stage of learning helps
learners accept and process the knowledge they gain.
Therefore, there is a need to balance between task demand and task
support during learning.11 As teacher instructs learners to complete a task or to
do a particular activity, he or she is also responsible to provide some helps once
the learners in a class get difficulty in completing the task because they have
different background knowledge and learning ability. However, the teacher needs
to make sure all of them achieve the designed learning objectives. Learners’
engagement will ease teacher to direct them to achieve the goal of learning
maximally. It can make learners get ready to do any activities sequenced by the
teacher. The engagement makes learners do activity not only because they are
instructed but it includes in a series of learning.12
Harmer confirms that teacher has a role of being an organizer in a class
and has a necessity to make learners keep engaged to the learning activity to
maximize the potential benefit they can get. This can be done by stating a clear
instruction about how to do an activity or even giving a demonstration of what to
do in an activity as a good example.13
11
Lynne Cameron, Teaching Languages to Young Learners (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001), p. 26.
12
Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching, Third Edition edition (Cambridge, UK: Longman), pp. 58–9.
13
Ibid., p. 58.
A research conducted by Dickinson which looks at evaluating and
adapting material for young learners shows that learners had no idea to do a
particular task due to the teacher only instructed them to do it. Therefore, he
adapts the task to make it more promote learning by balancing task demand and
task support in each activity. Once the balance is reached and move to another
activity, teacher will gauge learners’ engagement to learning improved in
achieving the objectives.14
One of the ways to balance task demand and task support is
scaffolding. Scaffolding is defined as the sequence of organized activities
designed by the teacher to have learners’ engagement in achieving learning
objectives. It is what being sought in this research because of the conducted
simple and accidentally research shows that the teacher did not try to organize his
or her teaching activity and it also happened in monotonous pace. The teacher
seems only demand the learners to understand by just explaining what is meant
by the lesson. This is considered unacceptable due to learners have different
learning ability.
Scaffolding consists of a series of activities started from warming up
stage or lead in to the follow up stage. The activity in each stage has to flow
smoothly in right pace, so learners will stay focus, enjoy and experience learning.
A research by Rivera about scaffolding support for second language learners
14
Paul Dickinson, “Evaluating and Adapting Materials for Young Learners” (Birmingham, UK: The
proves that learners shows better learning when the environment and instruction
were organized carefully.15 On the contrary, when the instructions were
organized insufficiently, learners were unable to activate their background
knowledge to grab the meaning of the lesson.16
That explanation shows that scaffolding is important in learning to
help learners activate their prior knowledge and promote learning so they enjoy
and experience the learning process and do not feel like being demanded by the
teacher or school. In this study, scaffolding is considered as a support in
completing demand of the task that learners have to achieve in each meeting. The
demand can be derived directly from the specific learning objectives or using
another demand which is broken down from them.
This research was conducted towards student-teachers who did
internship programs (PPL 2) at SMKN 1 Surabaya which is the only one
partnership vocational high school. There were a couple of student-teachers from
English Education Program and they taught 10th grade learners of Accounting
department in turn. Internship program is the time to practice teaching in the real
class after having adequate teaching training at microteaching class (PPL1).
These student-teachers created their own pedagogic items particularly the lesson
plan and were advised by the responsible teacher about what and how to teach.
15
Ayllin Rivera, “Scaffolding Support for Second Language Learners” (St. John Fisher College), p. 31.
16
Ibid.
As observed, the school applies K13 and does not use the English book with ESP
(English for Specific Purposes) although it has various departments. And
according to one of the student-teacher’s confession, English teachers in that
school ‘teach the book’.
This research attempts to evaluate the appropriateness of task support
provided by the student-teachers, which in this case is scaffolding, to help the
learners complete the demand of the task. The completion of the task
automatically means that learners achieve the learning objectives. The use of
media is also included in because it becomes interrelated part of teaching. In this
research, the scaffolding and media is classified as task support, so the
appropriateness of both uses and application in class is going to be analyzed in
detail.
The supports being discussed are provided as a purpose to help
learners complete the demand of learning. It is known that in every meeting,
learners do some activities or tasks where the task demand lies beyond them.
Therefore, this research is trying to study about balancing task demand and task
support to achieve learning objectives. The balance is determined when the
provided support help learners complete the demand, or simply said when the
supports meet the demand. Once it is happened, the learning objectives are
automatically achieved. Again, the supports meant here are the flow of teaching
B. Research Question
The background above causes these following research questions:
1. How do the student-teachers provide relevant task support to help the
learners of 10th grade of Accounting department at SMKN 1 Surabaya
complete the demand of the task?
2. Are the provided task supports appropriate for the task demand?
C. Objective of the Study
This conducted research has some following objectives, they are:
1. To assess and criticize how relevant the supports provided by the
student-teachers to help learners in different department at SMKN 1 Surabaya meet
the demand of the task and achieve the learning objectives.
2. To justify whether the provided task supports, both the teaching stage and
media, are appropriate for the demand of the task.
D. Scope and Limit
1. Scope
The scope of this research is actually about designing teaching. It is
how the student-teachers organize their teaching to make the learners enjoy
of media is also considered in this research because it includes in teaching
unity.
2. Limit
Since the learners’ achievement of the task demand is determined
by the provided supports, this research limits the intended support to be
discussed which is scaffolding. That is because what is intended by supports
here are the learning activities done by the learners in each stage of learning.
Those activities determine the successful completion of the main task in
learning.
E. Significance of the Study
The result of this research is expected to give some significance to
some people, they are:
1. Lecturers of English Education Department
Since this research is conducted towards student-teachers of
English Education Department UIN Sunan Ampel Surabaya, it is expected to
be one of the evaluation sources in facilitating learners during practice
teaching class (PPL 1). Besides the use of appropriate teaching strategy for
particular language skill, the attention in the teaching stage organization and
the sequence of activity or task should have bigger portion to make
This research is also expected to train and emphasize intern
teachers to write achievable learning objectives by using clear and
observable words instead of the abstract and unclear one.
2. Student-Teachers
This research gives significance to the student-teachers in terms of
the way they design their teaching. Any kinds of activity that will be done by
the learners during learning should be organized well and carefully because
it will determine the success of learning, which can be seen by the achieved
learning objectives.
3. English Teachers at SMKN 1 Surabaya
This research is hopefully able to help English teachers at SMKN
1 Surabaya about the strategy in teaching English. They may have been able
to handle the different characteristics of learners in various departments there
with, but along with the differences teachers should also apply more than
one teaching strategy adjusting with learners’ characters.
Since the discussion in this study is about balancing task demand
and task support to achieve the learning objectives, it is expected to help
figure out the idea how to make the learners more experience learning
4. English Teachers in General
The result of this research can hopefully be an evaluation for
teachers who still directly teach what the book contains without any
preparation or follow up activity. Not only can it put learners to boredom,
teaching the book will also limit the discussion about particular topic and the
learners will be more difficult in understanding the language.
5. Further Researcher
Regarding to the use of some new terms which requires detail
analysis, the finding of this research, which appears to be various in applied
teaching stage, is expected to encourage further researcher to develop this
research. They can conduct a research about the various analysis result from
a different point of view. Although this conveyed topic was inspired from a
reference to teach young learners but it can be developed for adult learners
since it discusses about the task, not about teaching approach.
6. Readers in General
When readers read this study, hopefully they can be informed that
being a teacher is not that easy. Teachers do not only instruct learners to do
the task but need to carefully think and design appropriate activities to make
learners capable of the knowledge. It would be much better if parents and
family take a role do not only rely on teachers to make children smart, but
F. Definition of Key Terms
This following key terms are defined operationally for this research,
they are:
1. Student-Teachers
Student-teachers are 7th semester students of English Education
department UIN Sunan Ampel Surabaya batch 2012 who practiced teaching
for internship program at SMKN 1 Surabaya. There are two student-teachers
there, and they actually taught more than one classes. But for this research,
the class being observed is 10th grade of Accounting department. This
internship program started from August – September 2015.
2. Task
According to Nunan’s statement about task in language teaching,
the task meant here is the pedagogical task. It is a task that learners do in a
classroom.17 English Teachers of Alberta Community define task as the
course materials that is used by instructor to help learners achieve their
language and communication goal.18 From those two references, task in this
research is defined as the main activity that learners do in classroom which
becomes the main point of learning objectives. It is neither a homework,
outdoor task, nor a tests.
17
David Nunan, Task Based Language Teaching (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004), p. 1.
18
Alberta Teachers, “Sequencing Task”, Alberta Teachers of English as a Second Language (ATESL), p. 5, accessed 23 Dec 2014.
3. Task Demand
According to Cambridge Dictionary, the word ‘demand’ is defined
as a strong request of something. What Cameron illustrates in her theory
about task demand, it is defined as something that learners have to achieve
through doing a series of relevant activity. It can, for example, say sentence
of a picture, complete the missing parts of a story with suitable words,
arrange pictures to form a good story, and some other activities. From those
definition and illustration, it can be concluded simply that task actually holds
something to be completed which becomes the demand of the task.
Considering that explanation, the intended task demand in this
research is the level of difficulty that task have. The level can be determined
by the support’s relevancy and appropriateness to the task. The more
relevant and appropriate the supports are, the more suitable the demand is.
4. Task Support
As defined in Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, the word
support means giving or being ready to give help to somebody if they need
it. The intended help in terms of completing the demand of the task comes
need to encourage learners in constructing knowledge instead of simply
provide all the information needed.19
As a purpose to construct the knowledge, the support for the task
meant in this research is scaffolding. Reiser refers scaffolding as the
assistance for the learners given by the teacher to accomplish the task. This
research defines scaffolding as the series of learning activities designed by
the student-teachers in each learning stage as the assistance for the learners.
5. Relevant
Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines relevant as closely
connected with the subject being discussed. Roberson, as cited by Briggs,
uses the term relevance and considers it as the crucial aspects in teaching and
learning since knowing that the content is relevant, learners will be
motivated and engaged to work with it inside or outside the classroom.20
Considering the importance of relevance in teaching and learning
and regarding to the need for providing relevant support for the learners to
complete the demand of the task, in this research relevant task support is
when the learning activities are the continuation of previous one and staying
19
R.M. Harden and J.R. Crosby, “The Good Teacher is More Than A Lecturer - The Twelve Roles of Teacher”, AMEE Medical Education Guide, no. 20 (2000), p. 10.
20
Saga Briggs, How To Make Learning Relevant to Your Students (And Why It’s Crucial To Their Success) (2014), http://www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/features/how-to-make-learning-relevant/, accessed 17 Aug 2016.
connected each other in a good sequence. Each activity contructs the whole
understanding about the content.
6. Appropriate
Dictionaries explicitly defines appropriate as suitable, acceptable,
or correct for particular circumstances. Appropriate task support in this
research is when the learning activities are objective oriented, started with
the easy one and move to more difficult. Simply, the appropriate task
supports are the activities applying Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy which
concists of remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating,
and creating. Absolutely, the activities in each level of taxonomy must refer
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Before going further to the analysis, it would be better if some related
literatures are reviewed to give an understanding about some terms used and
explanations of what is meant by this research.
A. Task in Language Teaching
1. Definition of Task
Nunan differentiates task into two types, they are target task or
real-world task and pedagogical task. Real-world task is the task involving
the use of language in the real world outside the classroom. Otherwise,
pedagogical task is the task occurred in a classroom.1
Any kind of task, either in form of translation, analyzing error
sentence, changing word form, or another more communicative task provides
a gap to fulfill independently. But there, Ellis creates a differentiation
between ‘task’ and ‘situational grammar exercise’. A task in language
teaching should be focused on meaning semantically and pragmatically, and
the outcome is also clear in the use of language instead of manipulating
1
David Nunan, Task Based Language Teaching (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004), p. 1.
form.2 So the task meant here is a piece of work contains not only a gap
between learner’s current level and the learning goals but also contains a
meaning to be acquired as the outcome and it should be observable and
evaluative. Teachers of Alberta Community emphasize that task should not
be about just busy work doing exercise although it is purposed to follow the
pedagogy. Real-world focus as the provision to achieve communicative
outcomes is more important.3
To make it clearer, Brown cites the essential points of task based
on Skehan, which (1) put meaning on primary, (2) hold some communication
problems to solve, (3) present some relations to real life activity, (4) hold the
priority completion, and (5) use the outcome as the assessment.4 These
points adequately explain that the expected task in language learning is
different from grammar exercise. Ellis confirms the idea that task ideally has
to be input-providing or output-prompting to have learners really achieve the learning objectives and acquire the language for communication skill not
immersing or just manipulating form.5
As explained, task in this research is the activity done by the
learners in the class, so what is meant by input-providing here is the activity
2
Rod Ellis, “Task-based Language Teaching: Sorting Out the Misunderstanding”, Blackwell Publishing Ltd, vol. 19, no. Studentational Journal of Applied Linguistics (2009), p. 223. 3
Alberta Teachers, “Sequencing Task”, Alberta Teachers of English as a Second Language (ATESL), p. 6, accessed 23 Dec 2014.
4
H. Douglas Brown, Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy, Second Edition edition (Pearson Education), p. 50.
which gives learners a new information or understanding toward the
learning. It usually involves receptive skills, which are reading and listening.
About the output-prompting, the activity should induce learners to produce
language orally or written.6 The output-prompting activity, for example, may
involve picture as the tool for telling a story
Since task has to be either input-providing or output-prompting, it
indicates that task cannot just be instructed to be done and submitted. Yet it
has to be organized well to maximize the receive-and-retrieve process to gain
learning objectives. Krashen explains that input in language learning, the
task or the activity has to be i+1, where i is the learners existing knowledge and 1 is the new understanding they get from learning.7 This means each learning activity should continuously give new knowledge to construct a
whole understanding of particular topic.
The formula of i+1 is reached when the learners understand the
input.8 So for instance, to compose a recount text applying simple past tense
sentence, first step that teacher takes should be classifying verb form for
present and past time by drawing sun and moon on the board as the time
signal. Once learners understand the function of verb changing, i+1 is
automatically reached.
6
Ibid.
7
Stephen D. Krashen, Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition, Internet Edition edition (2009), pp. 20–21.
8
Ibid., p. 21.
Giulio calls task as an instruction that should be broken down into
smaller learning by introducing the very basic concept then moving to the
first easy step which is called patterning.9 Patterning helps learners
understand points to construct the whole new knowledge.10 After that,
teacher should conduct association activities to facilitate learners in
integrating the patterned knowledge and finally understand what is meant by
the learning topic on that day.
Mainly, teachers cannot demand learners to do any tasks as they
have to do so for learning. Task is only a tool to facilitate learners
understanding knowledge and a tool normally facilitates the process and be
able to solve the faced problem and not burdening.
2. Purpose of Task
A task must be goal-oriented, content-focused, outcome-based, and
opportunity-provided by involving learners communicate what is meant by
the task and even discuss it instead of busy work doing grammar structure
exercises. 11 By those requirements, the purposes of giving a task are:
a. To help learners acquire language by understanding meaning rather
than sentence patterns.
b. To guide learners develop their communication skills.
9
Robert C. Di Giulio, Positive Classroom Management: A Step-by-Step Guide to Helping Students Succeed, Third edition (California: Corwin Press, 2007), pp. 54–55.
10
Ibid.
c. To offer opportunity for learners to deal with the language themselves
(not immersing).
d. To provide new information through introducing real-life contexts.
e. To supply additional and extensive vocabulary words that will
potentially support learners’ communication skill.
f. To prompt the ability of problem-solving.
The purpose above shows that task or learning activity is to
facilitate learners in learning language. Therefore, teacher should organize
it well to have learners use their potential capability to achieve prevailed
learning objective with maximum learning outcomes.
3. Criteria of A Good Task
Considering that task should not be about busy work but
goal-oriented and outcome-based, there are some criterion of a good task
according to Ellis. These following points should be fulfilled for the sake of
learners acquiring language. They are:12
a. The main focus must be on meaning semantically and pragmatically.
b. A task should have some “gap” as the opportunity for learners to chain
the information and figure out or at least assume the meaning.
12
Ellis, “Task-based Language Teaching: Sorting Out the Misunderstanding”, p. 223.
c. Learners have to rely on their personal resource, which means teachers
do not immerse them to complete the activity.
d. The outcome is clearly defined besides the use of language. So it will not
only about the use of ‘modal verbs’, for instance, in saying request and
asking for permits, but also an understanding how, when, and where to
use it.
Teacher has to realize that learners’ need in learning language is
mastering communication skill that requires understanding meaning. So the
task as learning facilitator should help learners to be able to create and
understand meaning instead of only manipulating particular grammar pattern
and translate its sentence to be submitted and graded.
The reason why that kind of manipulating pattern task is not
suggested is the learning outcomes will not be defined clearly. In her theory,
Cameron explains further that all learners in a class may appear completing
the task well, but it is hard to differentiate which learner has the true ability
and which one is only cheating.13 Yet some teachers who choose to use that
kind of task may be puzzling about what to do with a large number of
learners in a class with reasonably limited time. The worse, learners may be
immersed during doing the task to have them finish it on that day. This sort
13
Lynne Cameron, Teaching Languages to Young Learners (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University
of learning will give no significant impact for learners because they do not
think or process the language themselves. Immersion does not provide a
space for learners to develop their mental function. As narrated by Vygotsky
that child needs a space, which is called as Zone of Proximal Development,
to develop their mental function.14 The space comes between child’s current
ability to solve problem independently and the potential problem-solving
ability under adult guidance or collaboration with more capable peers.15
In conclusion, task or activities that learners do in a class should be
organized well to construct the whole understanding of today’s lesson and
direct them to achieve the learning objectives. The move of each activity
should get more difficult or more challenging as the learners build their
understanding and acquire language.
B. Task Demand and Task Support
The sub chapter above has explained about how a task in language
teaching should be. Every organized activity from the easy to do to the more
challenging one which are directed to achieve learning objectives absolutely
have a demand to complete. The completion of each activity demand is the
14
Joan Littlefield Cook and Greg Cook, “Cognitive Development: Piagetian and Sociocultural Views”, in Child Development: Principles and Perspectives, Sample Chapter edition (Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 2005), p. 27.
15
Ibid.
preparation to complete the next activity.16 Teachers usually provide some
supports in form of media for the learners to help them complete the demand
of the task and surely the supports have to be relevant for the activity to make
them really supporting for learners.
Before going to the detail explanation about task demand and task
support, an important thing to be emphasized is teachers have to very firstly
set their learning objective achievable.17 This becomes important because the
statement of objectives describe the outcomes that learners should acquire
and demonstrate as the sign of learning completion.18 Therefore, it has to be
stated clearly using action verbs followed by intended knowledge, skill, or
competency so the decision of outcomes performances will be easy to
observe, assess, and evaluate.19
1. Task Demand
This term can be simply defined as what teacher wants learners
to do or to perform through a task. The demand is classified into two
major categories: cognitive demands and language demands. Cognitive demands are the anything that connects to understanding and conteeextualizing concept which convey various level of difficulty in
16
Cameron, Teaching Languages to Young Learners, p. 32. 17
Ibid., p. 26. 18
Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives and Writing Intended Learning Outcomes Statements
(Kansas: International Assembly for College Business Education, 2015), p. 5.
each. In other words, cognitive demands are about understanding what is
meant by the task and know how to deal with. Language demands are absolutely those related to the use of both target language and native
language in terms of how to perform the task, orally or written.20
In determining task demands, student-teachers should imply
the principle of i+1 in each conducted activity to have the successful learning process.21 This is because classroom activities are the pieces to
gain the whole meaning of the lesson which means as the input. Having
the input containing i+1 means student teachers offer additional
knowledge learners may not know before (the 1) for their existing knowledge (the i). So every single activity conducted by the studentship teacher from the warming up session, lead-in, to the follow up must
include i+1 for language acquisition. The parts of i+1 can be found in the
theory of input hypothesis:22
a. It links to acquisition and not learning.
b. Input must contain i+1.
c. When the input is understood = i+1 is automatically provided.
d. The ability of language production is appeared by the
comprehensible input over time. It is not directly taught.
20
Cameron, Teaching Languages to Young Learners, pp. 22–23. 21
Krashen, Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition, p. 21. 22
Ibid., pp. 21–22.
It seems the parts are similar with the principle of Task-Based
Language Teaching in terms of focusing on the acquisition and
understanding instead of manipulating thing. Yet it cannot be
intentionally designed i+1 because the criteria of i+1 is met when learners understand the input. So to answer the question of how teacher
include i+1 is just by providing a staging and simultaneous activities that
will always add new knowledge from the existing one.
Talking more detail about the “i+1”, teacher can assure the “i”
by asking question relating to what the learners know about particular
topic. Or, as Hong stated, the first step of teaching is teachers can provide
any receptive skills activity and let the learners deliberately grasp what
the lesson meant. (Hong, p.61). The first demand of the first activity has
to be the basic input for learners to construct the whole understanding of
the lesson. Then the next activity goes increasingly challenging.
Task demand of series of learning activity is established by
reflecting on the learning goals and especially learning objectives or
indicator. That is why setting clear and specific learning objective is
important to help decide what task to give. The task demand can be
derived directly from or lead to the objectives. This demand can be
2. Task Support
If the demand is about what teacher wants learners to do or
perform, task support is the attempts to help learners be able to
accomplish the task. The help or the support can be in form explanation,
instruction, use of media, or any receptive skill activities
Task support is similarly as the guide teacher tells to deal with
tasks, and it relates to scaffolding. Task demand is taken as a building,
while the ladder used to come to the higher part of the building helps the
laborers construct the building. That is the illustration to draw how task
support presents. Theoretically, scaffolding is providing supportive help
when a child or learners developing mental function or learning to do a
particular task.23
Both task demand and task support appear in some varieties. For
details, the following table breaks down the types of both.24
23
Cook and Greg Cook, “Cognitive Development: Piagetian and Sociocultural Views”, p. 28. 24
Cameron, Teaching Languages to Young Learners, pp. 25, 27.
Table 2.1
Types of Task Demand and Task Support
Task Demand Task Support
Cognitive
Demands vary with the degree of contextualization of language
difficulty of concepts that are needed to do the task (e.g. use of graphic, colors, telling the time).
Cognitive
Supports can come from the
contextualization of language; from the use of concepts already
developed; from familiar formats or graphics or activity; from familiar topics and content.
Language
Demands vary whether the language is spoken or written, understanding or production, extended talk or
conversation with vocabulary and grammar needed; with the genre; with the amount of L1 and L2.
Language
Support can come from re-use of language already mastered; from moving from easier domain to more difficult, e.g. spoken to written; from using known vocabulary and
grammar to help with the new; from use of L1 to support L2
development. Interactional
Demands vary with the type of interaction, e.g. pair work; with the participants in talk – adult / peers; with the nature of the interaction, e.g. question + answer.
Interactional
Support can come from the type of interaction, e.g. pair work; from helpful co-participants; from the use of familiar routines.
Metalinguistic
Demands may include the use of technical terms about language in production or comprehension e.g. in instruction, in feedback.
Metalinguistic
Support can come from familiar technical terms to talk about new language; clear explanation.
Involvement
Demand vary with the ease or
difficulty the learners has in engaging
Involvement
with the task, e.g. length of task stages; links to child’s interest and concern; novelty, humor, suspense.
engage with, e.g. links to child’s interest and concerns; from mixing physical movement and calm, seated activity.
Physical
Demands vary with how long the child must sit still for; with action needed; with fine motor skills needed e.g. to write or draw.
Physical
Variations in sitting and moving; use of familiar actions; match to level of fine motor skills development, e.g. to write or to draw.
It is shown that each type of demands comes altogether with the
support. It is also known that the varieties appear for the sake of facilitating
learners to achieve learning objectives and acquire language.
As observed from the table above, when the teacher decides the
cognitive demand about describing professions, for example, he or she can
start the learning activity by reviewing students’ vocabulary about
profession and make sure they know where each of them takes place. Then
in the next stage, teachers may provide a number of vocabulary words about
profession and ask the students to classify which professions works in
hospital, restaurants, schools, and so on. For the next, teacher can develop
another related activity which leads students get closer to the main learning
objectives of that day.
The existence of relevant and appropriate task support is a must
and has proved to be helpful for learning. It has been emphasized that task
of the learning activity. Hence, teacher need to organize and sequence their
designed activity for students for learning to make learning happens more
naturally.
The organized and sequenced activity is called scaffolding, but
other researchers were found to call it instructional strategy. Both of those
terms have similar definition, that is about providing continuous support for
learners to do the task or activities as a purpose to achieve learning
objectives. Reiser declared that scaffolding is used for either assisting the
task completion and then let the students learn from their experience.25That
is why the teachers need to organize the teaching stage well so the students
experience the learning in nature.
C. Balancing Task Demand and Task Support
Task demand and task support need to come along together dynamically
which every demand should be followed by sufficient support. Before deciding
what demand learners will achieve, teachers need to firstly break down lesson
goal into some specific objectives using operational verbs to make them clear,
measurable and achievable.26 Then, after setting that kind of objectives, the
student-teachers in this research need to organize their teaching stages.
25
Brian Reiser, “Scaffolding Complex Learning: The Mechanism of Structuring and Problematizing Sudent Work”, The Journal of The Leraning Sciences, vol. 13 (2004), p. 274.
This research agrees with the theory that the higher challenge of the
learning activity, the lesser the support provided.27 The hint for the balance is
seen from the relevancy and appropriateness of the task supports. If the a task or
an activity is the continuation of the previous one and leads the learners get
closer to and finally achieve the learning objectives, with the use of related and
appropriate choice of activity, it can be said that the task demand and task
support are balance. The support meant here is the scaffolding where teacher
carefully design his or her lesson to become manageable and directed activity.
The theory of Bloom’s Taxonomy helps to understand this explanation
since it is proposed and published to plan and deliver appropriate instruction for
the sake of having learners achieve the great learning outcomes.28 The figure
below presents how teachers and educators should design their learning activity
for the learners. The use of action verb is expected to help organizing the
activities easier.
27
Ibid., p. 27. 28
Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives and Writing Intended Learning Outcomes Statements, p. 5.
Figure 1: Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy with Action Verbs
That taxonomy provides the beginning steps to be very easy and
fundamental due to the various background knowledge of learners and there
educators need to grip the low level learners and ensure the ability of the high
level one. Therefore, the support must be adequately coherent and supportive for
the development, which means student-teachers should understand in what the
level the learners are and what they are already able to do. The task of student
teachers is to develop their knowledge about what is being learned. not for the
test score, time allocation, reducing difficulties.
For that reason, to provide the balance between task demand and task
the learners to determine their present knowledge or ability in language. From
there, they can just set the clear, appropriate, achievable, and measurable
objectives. After that, the student-teachers design the task and provide the
supportive and sufficient support so that the learners can complete the task and
achieve the objectives at once.
How to create appropriate instruction is through identifying the learners
need to decide the concept and breaking it down into smaller learning.29 Those
learning have to be structured and associated well as the unity of task. The time
allocated for learning should also be considered to help design appropriate
task.30
D. Previous Studies
This part is identified as the source of evaluation and the proof that this
research is not considered as copying someone else’s work. For the topic
conveyed by this research, there are two people who had studied about tasks
demand and scaffolding.
Paul Dickinson studied about evaluating and adapting for young
learners in Japan. He tried to overcome the issue about EFL teachers who tend to
use published book and teach what the book contains. This method does not
promote learning because of its monotonous pace although the book layout is
29
Giulio, Positive Classroom Management: A Step-byStep Guide to Helping Students Succeed, p. 34. 30
Ibid., p. 54.
nice. Dickinson evaluated the content of the book then adapted to make it more
meaningful learning by setting a sequence of activities towards acquisition as a
purpose to balance the task demand and task support.
The strength of this study is from the material adaptation. Dickinson
presented the detail sequence of suitable activities for the young learners on a
framework by Cameron. As the result, he successfully proves that young
learners’ English teacher can adapt the materials on the book into more valuable
learning by providing some simple media and thinking about scaffolding the
learning thus the demand of the task is balanced by the provided supports.31
Otherwise, the weakness of this study is the learners’ profile was not explained
clearly. This is important to know the condition of the learners to determine
what activity they will do in the class so that the principle of i+1 can be fulfilled.
The second is Aylin Rivera who focused on the use of scaffolding
supports on second language learners. She emphasizes the importance of
scaffolding instructions since realizing that learners in a class have different
literacy and learning ability, and immersion does not help much for language
acquisition and practice. Her learners performed better by learning with related,
consistent, revisited, and incorporated materials.
Rivera shows the strength of her study by doing an intense observations
and collecting the students’ artifacts, worksheet, formative and summative test
31
Paul Dickinson, “Evaluating and Adapting Materials for Young Learners” (Birmingham, UK: The
assessment to see how the students’ progress towards the lesson as the result of
applying various teaching strategies, such as activating prior knowledge, using
venn diagram, graphic organizers that include sentences starters, chunking,
teacher model, think-aloud, visualization, small group work, whole class
instructions and jigsaw. All strategies were used in scaffolded instruction to
make the learners gain the literacy acquisition.
She narrates the various activities done by the students from
brainstorming to the closure in very detail way. Since there are many activities,
however, it would be much better if the illustrations are attached with figures of
each learning steps. Regarding to the lesson dealt with is more about
implementing imagination on utopia and dystopia as a purpose to acquire
literacy acquisition instead of language acquisition. In addition, Rivera does not
explicitly explain the sequence of the activities. She just tells the activity
learners did in each steps. the way how she observed the class is also not
presented.
From those two studies, the similarity appears on the way educators
present a set of activities in each learning stage to help learners acquire
knowledge through careful process to make learning more meaningful. This
research is also focused on how the student-teachers provide the supports which
include a sequence of incorporative activities. It emphasizes on the support
demand. Furthermore, the purpose of this research is just to evaluate the support
provided by the student-teachers whether or not it is balance towards the
demand. It is not to adapt the supports for overcoming the obstacles faced upon
the student-teachers during teaching.
In addition, the researcher of two studies above intentionally deigned
the scaffolding strategies well for the sake of achieving particular goals. On the
contrary, this research observes the strategies applied in the classroom which
probably out of plan caused by some immediate conditions. The student-teachers
had absolutely designed their teaching stages carefully but it could be far
different in practice. Therefore, the researcher intentionally observed the natural
CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This chapter discusses about how the two problems stated in chapter I
would be answered. Here is the methodology used in this research:
A. Research Design
Since the purpose of this research is to evaluate task support
appropriateness to help learners complete the demand of the task, the design of
this research is considered as evaluative research. Arikunto defines evaluative
research as an activity of collecting data or information to be compared with
particular criteria and then to be concluded as the result of evaluation.1 He also
adds that evaluative research can also be categorized as descriptive research
because it can be applied to objects that the quality is to be observed.2 So the
result of this research is presented descriptively based on determined criteria.
Regarding to the purpose of this research and the research question,
the researcher applies the theory of evaluative research from Arikunto. To
answer the first research question about how student-teachers set their teaching
was found by observing their lesson plan. A special attention was put on the
1
Suharsimi Arikunto, Prosedur Penelitian Suatu Pendekatan Praktik, Edisi Revisi edition (Rineka Cipta, 2010), p. 36.
2
Ibid.
indicator section and learning activity because it was analyzed using a
framework for each teaching stage.
The answer of first research question was also supported with kinds
of media that the student-teachers use during teaching. That supporting answer
was figured out through interview while the relevancy of the media can be
checked with the learning objectives written on the lesson plan.
The second question about whether the task support appropriate for
learners to complete task demand which automatically achieve learning
objective was answered by the combination of the analysis of all data.
B. Research Subject
Research subject tells about to whom the research conducted. The
subject of this research is a couple student-teachers who did internship program
at SMKN 1 Surabaya. They are the students of English Education Department in
7th semester. They could participate in this program because they had passed the
required subject in their semester.
The reason why the researcher chose SMKN 1 Surabaya as the
research place is that school has various departments which has different
characters in each of them. Along with the application of K13, the researchers
actually wanted to find out too how this curriculum prevails in vocational high
based on their department. In fact, the researcher found that the learners learn the
same material as those in senior high school. This shows that there is actually no
difference in learning material between senior high school learners and
vocational high school learners in practice.
In addition, SMKN 1 Surabaya is one of favorite vocational high
school in Surabaya and the only one partnership vocational high school. Another
supporting reason why this research chose the student-teachers in vocational
high school was the striking characters of learners which in of each department
which influences the way teacher teaches to help them achieve the learning
objectives. Moreover, there is an issue that vocational high school learners are
less interested in English because in their opinion, they just need to only master
the skill of their department. All of those reasons are going to be proved by this
research.
C. Data Collection
In this chapter, kinds of data needed and the instruments to analyze
the data are discussed in detail. Here are the explanations.
1. Data Source
Data is any information needed to be analyzed as the source and
is considered as descriptive with one evaluative question, there are three
kinds of data sources needed to figure out the answers.
a. Place
The first data source which becomes the place for this
research is SMKN 1 Surabaya where the student-teachers practiced
teaching thus the researcher collected the data. The class as the object
taught by the student-teachers was 10th grade of Accounting
department.
What the researcher did to collect the data was observing the
whole learning activities in the classroom from the beginning to the end
naturally. It means there was no managed or situated class thus
everything happened during learning was adequately recorded.
b. Document
In the discussion of evaluative research, Arikunto explained
that paper or document is one of the important data sources used to
evaluate a phenomenon because it can be convincing evidence.3
Therefore, the document used for this research is lesson plan. By
observing the lesson plan carefully, the researcher identified how
student-teachers organized their teaching from the opening session to
the end. It can also be noticed the learning and kinds of media used
during teaching.
The biggest attention in identifying and analyzing lesson plan
was put on the indicator and learning activity designed by the student-
teachers because those two determine the balance between task demand
and task support. The media used is also looked at as one of the
supporting points to meet the balance.
c. People
In his further explanation about evaluative research, Arikunto
stated that person or people is also one of the sources to collect data.4
Therefore, the people as the source of data in this research are the two
student-teachers who had done the internship program at SMKN 1
Surabaya. They taught the same class in turn replacing two English
teachers there.
Since both student-teachers did not teach in team, the
researcher called them using particular initial to make it easy. The first
teacher is a girl, and she is called ST1. The second
student-teacher is a boy, and he is called ST2.
4
Ibid.
2. Data Collection Technique
Data collection technique discusses about how the way the
researcher collect the data from the research subject. There three ways
which were applied to get the data:
a. Observation
As a purpose to have more valid data, according to
Denscombe, the researcher conducted participant observation to break
into the real situation and real learning process in that school.5 For that
reason, the observation has to be in natural setting and avoid any
distraction to the naturalness of the setting.6
For this research, the extent to be observed was the learners’
activity in every stage of learning. In other words, to make it easy the
researcher recorded the whole learning activities in a class so the video
can be analyzed more carefully in another time after the recording
finishes.
b. Study of the Document
As mentioned in the explanation of data source, the document
needed for this research is the lesson plan of the student- teachers. So
5
Martyn Denscombe, The Good Research Guide, Fourth edition (Berkshire, Englang: Open University Press, 2010), pp. 196–197.
the researcher had a copy of the lesson plan the student-teachers used to
teach the learners and observed by the researcher all at once.
The researcher did not only copy the lesson plan but also any
used worksheet or handout, the textbook, and the slides that the
student-teachers used to help them during teaching. All of those data were
collected since this research also needs to analyze other supports for the
tasks.
c. Interview
Interview was conducted to support the result of the study
document and natural setting observation. The interview guidelines
were adopted from the theory of balancing task demand and task
support. There are 20 questions to be asked to the couple of student-
teachers at SMKN 1 Surabaya.
This interview consisted of open-ended questions since the
researcher wanted to dig deeper into the true answer based on what the
student-teachers experienced during the internship program. The
researcher argues that the process of achieving learning objectives
needs some interrelated factors, therefore the open-ended interview is
3. Instrument
Instrument is the guidance in collecting the data.7 Widoyoko
explained that there are two kinds of instrument, test-based instrument and
non-test-based instrument.8 Test-based instrument is contains of questions
to be answered by the participants to find out their learning achievement.9
The instruments used here are non-test-based instruments because
this research needs open-ended answers since the data is about individual’s
idea in organizing teaching. Therefore, the instruments that help collect the
data are framework, open-ended interview guidelines, and checklist.
a. Framework
The first research question about how student- teachers set or
organize their teaching, a grid framework designed by Cameron is used
to find out the answer. The component in each column in the grid is
also explained.
The source to complete that framework is from the lesson
plan designed by the student-teachers. The learning activity for learners
is separated in each grid for each teaching stage and is written in detail.
The grid is read according to the teaching stage on the head of each
column and goes down following the rows.
7
Ibid., p. 192. 8
Eko Widoyoko, Teknik Penyusunan Instrumen Penelitian (Yogyakarta: Pustaka Belajar, 2012), p. 57. 9
Table 3.1
Framework of Scaffolding Activities Designed by Student- Teachers TASK: (What kind of task given to the learners, e.g.: Say sentence about personal weekend, order meals in a restaurant, etc)
Preparation Core Activity Follow Up
Language learning goals
(Something we want our learners achieve at the beginning of the lesson or
Activities (List of activities teacher conducts in the opening / lead-in activities).
(List of activities where learning process and acquisition is focused on. It deals with the main point of the lesson).
(The idea or purpose of the conducted activity in warming up session, i.e. we want the learners get the idea of what they
