1. INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background of Study
The fact that teaching
English as a foreign language in Indonesia
To improve oral communicative English
proficiency, it should not be only in the classroom but also it is a crucial
part of the language learning process out of it as students need more exposures,
engagement, and support from which they can learn.
(http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/speaking/stratspeak.htm). The Students must accustom
themselves to use the language. They need the exposures and environment to
improve and develop their language especially oral communicative proficiency.
It means that they should have ample opportunities to hear and see the English
language being used for communication purposes in their social environment
(Musthafa: 2003).
Developing oral communicative English
proficiency definitely deserves a closer look since we, all human being,
communicate each others through the language to convey our ideas and meanings.
Hence, the focus must be on how to facilitate the students to use English and
communicate by it. Mastering oral language
skills may be very rewarding for students since a good command of oral
communicative proficiency helps them express their feelings, thoughts and ideas.
(http://www.iatefl.org.pl/tdal/n7kleban.htm).
Concerning with oral communicative proficiency,
Nunan (1991) stated:
“To most people, mastering the
art of speaking is the single most important aspect of learning a second or
foreign language, and success is measured in term of the ability to carry out a
conversational in the language.”
Thus, oral communicative proficiency must have got more
attentions since human being communicate and interact with the other using that
language skill. In teaching oral communicative
English proficiency, students should get as many speaking opportunities as
possible and their speaking time should slowly but steadily rise so as to
prepare them for various communicative situations. The teachers should provide
them with a proper environment that would help them develop their skills,
independent of their basic characteristics and diversity. There is a great role for the language teachers to assist and help their
students as they work towards improving their speaking
skills.
Nowadays, one of the old institutions which has been
improving and increasing its education and teaching is boarding school system.
It has been exist for hundreds years ago, and has proven its effectiveness in
educating its students as well as succeeded in establishing students’
character. It becomes one of the country pillars to impart strong and firm
human resources. It has unique and typical teaching and education. It was the
essential education since last decades.
Boarding school is the institution where teachers,
students and staff are under one system with certain strict discipline to obey.
The life in boarding school is structured and arranged to improve their
knowledge and skills.
Based on the environment and life in boarding school
system, it is beneficial to apply and develop the language especially in oral communicative
proficiency in it since it is integrated and ruled in one system and discipline
becomes paramount thing to hold.
1.2. Aims of the study
The study intends to do
the followings: (1) to know developing oral communicative English Proficiency
in the Boarding School System at Ummul Quro’ Banyuasih Leuwimekar Leuwiliang
Bogor (2) to know the strengths and the weaknesses of developing oral
communicative English Proficiency in the Boarding School System. (3) to know the
students’ perspectives towards developing oral communicative English Proficiency
in the Boarding School System.
1.3. Questions of the research
In compliance with the aforementioned purposes, this
research strives to address the following questions below:
1. How is
developing oral communicative English Proficiency in the Boarding School System
at Ummul Quro’ Banyuasih Leuwimekar Leuwiliang Bogor?
2. What are the strengths
and the weaknesses of developing oral communicative English Proficiency in the
Boarding School System at Ummul Quro’ Banyuasih Leuwimekar Leuwiliang Bogor?
3. What are the
students’ perspectives towards developing oral communicative English
Proficiency in the Boarding School System?
1.4. Significance of the Study
This research will give some contributions as follows:
(1) It attempts to describe developing oral communicative English Proficiency in the Boarding
School System at Ummul Quro’ Banyuasih Leuwimekar Leuwiliang Bogor. This is
important as Minister of religious affair Muhammad Maftuh Basyuni said that
there are about thirteen thousands Islamic Boarding Schools in Indonesia (http://www.humasdepag.or.id/berita_isi.php?id=1020) and still eager to improve their progress and development, not to
mention foreign language especially English to accommodate the challenges in
this global era. This becomes a model of developing oral communicative proficiency
in the Boarding School system for the rest of it. (2) It
is also expected to be able to identify the strengths and the weaknesses, this
will be beneficial for the Islamic Boarding Schools itself to develop more
progress and increase the language as means of communication. (3) it is
ultimately expected to be able to know the students’ perspectives towards developing oral communicative
English Proficiency in the Boarding School System, this will be rewarding for
the students themselves and for the boarding school to increase more progress
through the students’ perspectives and needs.
2. REVIEW OF
RELATED LITERATURE
2.1. Oral Communicative English proficiency
According to Hadley
(2001) that proficiency is implying a high level of skill, well developed
knowledge, or polished performance. It needs efforts and more practices to
achieve.
Oral communicative
proficiency is one of the most aspects of language since human being
communicates and interacts with that language. There are many definitions of
oral communicative English proficiency such as follows:
The ability to function in a truly
communicative setting that is in a dynamic exchange in which linguistic competence
must adapt itself to the total information. Savignon in Lubis (1988)
“Communicative competence” was understood as
the underlying system of knowledge and skill required for communication (e.g.
knowledge of vocabulary and skill in using the sociolinguistic conventions for
a given language) Canale and Swain in Lubis (1988)
From
the definitions above, it is stated that there are two abilities that must be
mastered. First is “to know about” a language like verb form, vocabulary items,
basic grammatical pattern, and so on. And the second is “to know how” to use it
effectively in a conversational exchange. There is also a suggestion of
language or linguistic competence which is affected or modulated by context.
Teaching oral
communicative proficiency must not merely to develop students’ knowledge of
structure, grammar, but also to develop their skill how to use and practice the
language in their daily life conversation.
Meanwhile, Bygate (1987)
in Nunan (1991) suggests that oral interaction can be characterized in term of
routines, which are conventional (and therefore predictable) ways of presenting
information routines, which can either focus on information or interaction. The
information routine contains frequently recurring of information structure. It
can be expository like narration, description, instruction, and comparison. And
it can be evaluative like explanation, justification, prediction, and decision.
The interaction routines can be either service like a job interview or social
like a dinner party.
He added that a further
feature of oral interaction is that the participants need constantly to
negotiate meaning and generally manage the interaction that is how to say what,
to whom, when, and about what. He describes in such scheme below:
Meanwhile Bachman (1990) in Azies and Alwasilah stated:
“Communicative language ability
consists of language competence, strategic competence, and psycho physiological
mechanisms. Language competence includes organizational competence which
consists of illocutionary and sociolinguistics competence. Strategic competence
is seen as performing assessment, planning and execution function in
determining the most effective means of achieving a communicative goal. Psycho
physiological mechanism involved in language use characterizes the channel
(auditory, visual) and mode (receptive, productive) in which competence is
implemented.”
Thus we know that
language competence consists of certain knowledge and skills that needed to
operate language system, to determine meaning, to use the language in context
and to use the language out of sentence limitation.
One of the rules that can be applied in developing oral
communicative English proficiency is that it should be slowly but steadily,
through constant revision and recycling. Furthermore, teachers should strive to
achieve a positive and relaxed atmosphere in learners’ classroom, as this
proved a decisive factor in achieving maximum results. With the help of mixed
activities, such as dialogues, choral revision, chants, songs, poems and rhymes
students’ speaking abilities grow, their pronunciation gets better and their
awareness of the language improves. (Klancar:
http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Klancar-SpeakingSkills.html)
2.2. The Boarding School System
A boarding school is an educational institution where some or all
pupils not only study, but they also live, amongst their peers. The word
'boarding' in this sense means to provide food and lodging. Boarding school
pupils may spend the majority of their childhood and adolescent life away from
their parents, although pupils return home during the holidays. Pupils may be
sent to boarding schools at any ages up to eighteen. In United Kingdom
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boarding_school#Boarding_school_description)
In Indonesia context, the story of boarding school
system first came from India Indonesia
There are at least five
elements of Islamic boarding school system, namely dormitory, mosque, students,
leaning classic books and the leader (Kiyai).
According to Parsons (2004), there are four
main types of Islamic boarding school as follows:
“Type
A – (pesantren) it is that which retains the most traditional characteristics where the
students (santri) stay in boarding house (pondok) around the kiyai’s house;
there is no set curriculum and thus the kiyai holds full authority over the teaching-learning
process including the type and depth of the offered subject matter. The method
of teaching is typically “traditional”, relying on the (individualised
instruction) and the bandongan (collective learning) methods. In either one,
the santri sits around the kiayi who reads, translates and explains his lessons,
which are repeated or followed by his students. The lessons only consist of
religious subjects and Arabic language, usually taken from or using classical religious
texts.
Type
B – (pesantren) it
includes those which, besides offering the traditional instructions in
classical texts with sorongan and bandongan, have madrasah (modern religious
school) where both religious and secular subjects are taught. The madrasah has a
curriculum of its own or adopts the curriculum set by the Ministry of Religious
Affairs.
Type
C – (pesantren) it is a pesantren which, along with providing
religious education of a type B model with both traditional instruction
(sorogan, bandongan and madrasah system), has also an ordinary public school administered
by the Ministry of Education and Culture such as a Primary (SD)and Secondary
(SLTP and SLTA). Thus, a type-C pesantren is a type-B plus public school.
Type
– D (pesantren) it is
that which provides only boarding accommodation to students. These students go
to either madrasah or public schools somewhere outside this boarding complex.
No formal instruction is given in this type of pesantren. The function of kiayi
is only as a counsellor and spiritual guide to create a religious atmosphere at
the complex”.
Minister of religious
affair Muhammad Maftuh Basyuni stated that Islamic boarding school has some excellent values which are rarely owned
by the other institutions. The values are still relevant with the recent
condition. Autonomy is one of the values which is owned by Islamic boarding
school. Because of the autonomy the number of Islamic boarding school has been
increasing since the last three last decades.
Nowadays, there are many “modern boarding school”
which combine many curriculums. The integrated curriculum from minister of
religious affair, minister of education and other curriculum have been applied
to improve and complete their goal and achievement. They set some rules and
discipline for all students. The discipline is the main key of activities in
Islamic modern boarding school system.
2.3. Principles to develop oral
communicative proficiency.
According to Angela Scarino (1994: 3-6) in Azis and
Alwasilah (2000), there are eight principles of learning communicative
language; namely:
- Students will learn better if they
are considered as that they have need and interest (Need analysis)
Teachers must consider all aspects of students’ needs,
intellectual, social, and affective development.
- Students will learn better if the
teachers give more chances to explore themselves in communication.
Teachers should encourage and invite all students to be
active in teaching learning process.
- Students will learn better if they
are exposed to communicative data which can be understood and relevant
with needs and interest.
Teachers should create conducive situations and some
activities in the linguistic and cultural target for learners that encourage
them.
- Students will learn better if they
intently focus on their learning inform, skill, strategy, and knowledge to
enhance learning achievement.
Teachers should focus on form (vocabulary, grammar),
skill, strategy and knowledge through various exercises which can be done in
pre, whilst and post activities.
- Students will learn better if they
are introduced directly to sociocultural and direct experience with the
culture of the target language.
Teachers should encourage students to speak with the
native speaker or at least with people who have been abroad where English is
spoken.
- Students will learn better if they
realize the role and the essence of language and culture.
Teachers should give consciousness of
role and language culture.
- Students will learn better if
teachers give appropriate feed back for the learners’ advance.
Teachers should give appropriate feed back during the
learning process.
- Students will learn better if
teachers give the learners an authority to study by their own ways.
Teachers should give more opportunities for the students
and give them more attention the development of teaching learning.
3. METHODOLOGY
OF THE RESEARCH
3.1. Research Design
This
research will employ a naturalistic qualitative research method. Sugiyono
(2005) said that Qualitative research method is a research method which used to
observe natural objects where a researcher becomes a key instrument. A case
study has been chosen for several reasons.
3.2. Setting and Host Institution
The
research will be conducted at Ummul Quro’ Islamic Boarding School Banyuasih
Leuwimekar Leuwiliang Bogor West Java. I have several reasons for it. The first
is that this institution is located not far from my residence that will give
ease to me in term of time management in running the research. The second
reason is that in term of accessibility, I will have no problem. This is
because I am familiar with them to which I will conduct my research since my
background is from Islamic boarding school too. I have good relationship and
colleagues in it.
3.3. Participants
The
participants of this study will be students and teachers of Ummul Quro’ Islamic
Boarding School Banyuasih Leuwimekar Leuwiliang Bogor West Java. They should
have been at it at least for three years. It is because they have experience
and know more about condition and situation.
3.4. Data Collection Method
As
the study employs a qualitative research, it will use some techniques in
collecting data. There are four major methods used in qualitative research
(Silverman: 1993) namely observation, analyzing text and document, interview,
and recording and transcribing. In this case I will employ two methods namely
observation and interview.
3.4.1. Observation
According
to Alwasilah (2006), observation is done to infer a
conclusion about meaning, respondents’ perspective and event or processes that
have been observed. By observation, researcher will see the invisible
understandings or tacit understanding,
theory-in-use (how theory is directly used) and respondents’ perspectives that
cannot be exposed by interview or survey.
The disadvantages of observation are
tendency to disturb situation and make the background no more natural and some
respondents may be threaten because their attitudes are documented. A good
researcher must be careful to make sure all respondents are safe and secure.
3.4.2. Interviews
Interview
is used to gather information that cannot be attained by observation. (Alwasilah: 2006), Researcher can get in-depth information using observation because
some factors:
Ø Researcher can describe or rephrase some
difficult questions for respondents.
Ø Researcher can propose follow-up questions.
Ø Respondents tend to answer if they are given
some questions.
Ø Respondents can tell something that happens in
the past and in the future.
Meanwhile,
the disadvantage of interview is that the respondents may be not honest or
reluctant to be frank in answering a very sensitive question or will threat
themselves. In this respect, respondents will tend to conclude that researchers
want respondents to answer as they want. This disadvantage should be
neutralized by other methods such as observation or survey and so-called Triangulation.
3.5. Data Analysis
The
data will be transcribed and subsequently categorized and interpreted to answer
the research questions. Then it will be confirmed and sent back to the
participants to make sure that it is exactly what the respondents say and mean.
The
data of interview will be analyzed in some steps. It will be put into
categories and it will be analyzed using thematic analysis. Then the last the
data from interviews will subsequently be presented in a condensed body of
information and interpreted.
3.6. Validity of
issues
There
are several methods to validate the data. We can use combination methods or
triangulation. According to Willai Wierma 1986 in Sugiyono (2005) triangulation
is qualitative cross-validation. It assesses the sufficiency of the data
according to the convergence of multiple data sources or multiple data
collection procedures.
Several
steps will be used to valid the data, those steps are triangulation, members
check and long-term observation. Alwasilah (2006)
states that it is useful because some reasons: (1) to reduce limitation of
conclusion of methods and certain resource data (2) to increase validity of
conclusion.
The member check is useful to ensure
the internal validity. The respondents will reread of what they have said
before and it can added some new information if it is necessary. To assure that
what have been said by the respondents is not biased, the data from questionnaires
will be crosschecked with the data gained from interview
4. REFERENCES
Alwasilah,
A. Chaedar. (2006). Pokonya Kualitatif . Jakarta
Alwasilah, A. Chaedar. (2007). Language, culture, and
education: a portrait of contemporary Indonesia Bandung
Azis, Furqonul dan
Alwasilah, A. Chaedar. (1996). Pengajaran Bahasa Komunikatif, teori dan
praktek. Bandung
Hadley, Alice
Omaggio.(2001). Teaching Language in Context. USA
Klancar, Natasa Intihar.
(2006): Developing Speaking Skills in the Young Learners Classroom. The
Internet TESL Journal, Vol. XII, No. 11, [Online] http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Klancar-SpeakingSkills.html
[March 24, 2007]
Lubis, Yusnaini.
(1988). Developing communicative proficiency in the English as foreign
language (EFL) class. Jakarta
Musthafa, Bahrudin. (2003).
EFL for young learners. Bandung : Indonesia University
Nunan, David. (1991).
Language Teaching Methodology.UK: Prentice Hall International.
Parson, Jemma.
(2004). Peran Pesantren dan cita-cita santri putri. Malang :
Universitas Muhammadiyah Malang
Silverman, David.
(1993). Interpreting Qualitative Data. Great Britain
Sugiyono. (2005). Memahami
Penelitian Kualitatif. Bandung
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar