THE USE OF ACTIVE LEARNING TECHNIQUES IN THE TEACHING OF GRAMMAR FOR SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

THE USE OF ACTIVE LEARNING TECHNIQUES IN THE TEACHING OF GRAMMAR FOR SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

Dacia Chesia Seilatuw Faculty of Language and Literature, Satya Wacana Christian University, Salatiga – Indonesia.

Abstract Active learning has been used nowadays in all areas of language learning to make the students actively participate in the learning process. However, research which presented the use of active learning techniques in teaching grammar is very few. Thus, this study focused on the application of popular active learning techniques that are used in teaching grammar for Senior High School students. The participants were two teachers from SMA Negeri 1, two teachers from Satya Wacana High School, and one teacher from SMA Negeri 3. Through the observations and interviews the researcher found that there were five active learning techniques that are used in teaching grammar. They were questioning purposefully, pair or small group, games, role play, and English songs. These active learning techniques were related one another and cannot be used alone in class activities. The teachers usually combined two or three techniques at the same meetings to encourage the students’ participation in classroom activities. Key Words: active learning, teaching techniques, grammar, purposes.

INTRODUCTION Nowadays, English has become a necessity in education field. Almost all levels of education from the elementary school to the higher level of education and University level, teach English to their students. However, teaching English as a foreign language is not easy. Teachers really need to pay attention in choosing the appropriate teaching method for a certain level of education. Each level of education may need a different kind of method in teaching English. The methodologies should be adjusted to the students’ needs and situation.

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Teaching methods always change based on the needs and the situations of the students. This may occur because in the learning process the teacher found that each method has their own purpose. As the example, there is a good teaching method that has often been used by teachers named Active learning. Active is usually defined as all instructional methods that involve students in the learning process (Prince, 2004). It is supported by Hernández-Gantes & Blank (2008) who said that involving students in active learning helps them to improve their memory and ability to think gradually and also to understand the new knowledge better. It is because by doing something eventually the students may have a good habit and master the lesson. Active learning can be applied in all skills of English which are writing, reading, speaking, listening, as well as in grammar. Nevertheless grammar has been considered the most difficult task in English teaching. Dykes (2007) pointed out that grammar is a complicated system referring to the pattern and transmission of the language which is being told to learners. Based on that issue, the teachers are trying to explore better techniques in teaching grammar. Active learning is a kind of student-centered teaching that includes many specific techniques. All active learning techniques can be used in class to help teachers in grabbing students’ attention and involving them in the teaching process. Moreover, they can also help teachers to create a lively atmosphere in grammar class. It is because active learning techniques make the students do something more than simply listens to the teacher. According to Abhiyan & Nadu (2008) there are many teaching techniques that can be used to actively engage students in the learning process. Some of these are group discussions, problem solving, case studies, role plays, journal writing, and structured learning groups.

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Based on the previous explanation about techniques of active learning in teaching grammar, the researcher wanted to know how active learning techniques are applied in the teaching of grammar for Senior High School students. The research questions to be answered are, “what are the applications of some popular active learning techniques that the teacher use in the teaching of grammar, and what are the teachers’ aims for using those kinds of techniques?” The objective of this study was to describe active learning techniques in teaching grammar used by some Senior High Schools teachers in Salatiga and the aims for using those techniques. The study could offer important information to the teachers about active learning techniques and determine appropriate techniques that can be applied in teaching grammar. The teachers and pre-services teachers also could get various teaching techniques which are suitable for the materials that would be taught in the class.

LITERATURE REVIEW Below are some theories that become the foundation of this study. This section is divided into three sub headings: The Definition of Active Learning, Active Learning in Teaching Grammar, and Type of Active Learning Techniques in Teaching Grammar. The Definition of Active Learning For many years active learning has been understood “as any instructional method that engages students in the learning process,” (Prince, 2004) by doing something meaningful and participating actively. The core elements of active learning are student activities and engagement in the learning process. Active learning is often contrasted with the traditional method where students passively get the information from the teachers. It happens because in active learning,

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students are receiving, practicing and doing something rather than listening to the teacher and taking notes. Students have to involve in talking and listening to one another. In contrast with the previous explanation, many educators argued that all learning is active. This statement may occur because “the term “Active Learning” has been more understood intuitively than defined in commonly accepted terms.” (Abhiyan & Nadu, 2008) They believed that students’ active involvement while listening to lectures or presentations in the classroom is a part of active learning process. Actually active learning is not something like that. In active learning, the students must do something more than listen to the explanation. Furthermore, students must be engaged in critical thinking such as, clarifying, questioning, analyzing, applying, and evaluating, and being actively involved. (Abhiyan & Nadu, 2008) As the result of the previous statements from the educators, the researchers have made the definition and explanation about active learning method to become more understandable. One of them defines active learning techniques as techniques that “can be created and used to engage students in (a) thinking critically or creatively, (b) speaking with a partner, in a small group, or with the entire class, (c) expressing ideas through writing, (d) exploring personal attitudes and values, (e) giving and receiving feedback, and (f) reflecting upon the learning process.”(Eison, 2010)

Thus, active learning method emerges to help the teacher as the

instructor to deliver the lesson better. It also has the benefits for the students in comprehending the lesson that they receive. Active Learning in Teaching Grammar Grammar is the core in learning English because “grammar is the rules to form and understand language.” (Gelderen, 2002) In teaching English as a foreign language, grammar is always used as the basis to master the language. Thus grammar is given to students since they were in elementary school. According to Pennington (2003) grammar is an important tool for 4

success in school, work and life. That is why our spoken and written words usually reflect our background, education and ability to communicate. On the other hand the students might think that grammar is the most difficult part in learning English. Even though the students have learned English for years, most of them still got difficulties in learning it.

Hence, teaching grammar is truly challenging, interesting and

complicated altogether. To cope with the challenge, the teachers should think about the best and appropriate teaching techniques which are also suitable with the students’ characteristics and needs. In a study that was conducted by Jing Xu (2011) active learning method can be applied in teaching grammar. In promoting active learning method the teachers tend to use active learning techniques with some purposes; First the teachers want to grab the students’ attention, Second they want the students believe that grammar is not as difficult as they think, and the most important thing is to make a lively atmosphere in grammar class so that the student will not get bored so easily. Those statements are supported by Harmer (1983) who said that the students need activities which are interesting to encourage their curiosity. It means that the students need to be involved in something active like games, role plays, group discussions and many other techniques. In that way the students will not think that grammar is boring and monotonous anymore. Active learning in teaching grammar actually is not a new term. Penny Ur (1988) asserted that a well-designed grammar practice activity is a task that has clear objectives and requires active use of the structure being practiced and it should preserve the learners’ interest and motivation through a good choice of topic, the use of information-gap procedures, role-plays, personalization, etc.

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Type of Active Learning Techniques in Teaching Grammar Actually there are so many techniques of active learning method. Hernández-Gantes & Blank (2008) said that “All kinds of active learning teaching techniques can be used to teach grammar in a short class time or a whole course, such as group discussions, questioning, reflective activities, brainstorming, case studies, role plays, journal writing and other active learning strategies. All these techniques can be easily applied to the grammar class for nonnative English speakers in EFL class”. However the researcher only focused on some popular techniques of active learning method in teaching grammar. Here is a list of several techniques of active learning method in the teaching of grammar that were taken from various journals. 1. Small group or pairs Harmin and Toth (2006) stated that the use of very small groups or pairs is preferred to involve students in the class so that nobody will be dissociated in the group activity. This happens because learning in pairs is aimed to make the students work together and share the problems that arise with their partners. Hence, all the students should participate in the group. However, group work with a lot of members might cause some students unable to involve or actively participate in the group activity. Moreover, this technique is aimed to stimulate the interaction between students and their classmates. In here each student can actively participate in class and have the same portion to convey their idea. Therefore to make the students more comfortable in sharing and working, teachers usually give freedom for the students to decide who will be their learning partners or the member of the group. However according to an article in University of North California at Chapel Hill entitled “Classroom activities for active learning”, this technique was divided into three categories which were pair-share, buzz group, and three-step interview. Think/write-pair-share technique according to Lyman (1992) is one of the potential ways to get students talking about an issue or 6

topic in class activity. In this technique, the teacher just poses an issue or problem to the class and then the students get the opportunity to think about or to write their thought for about 30 seconds to one minute. Students then work in pairs and share their thoughts to one another for 35 minutes. Finally, the issue or result is discussed by the whole class. While according to McKeachie (2006), the use of buzz group technique is influential in ensuring students’ participation in large classes. McKeachie pointed out that buzz group usually consist of five to eight people to talk about the issue. In this technique each member of the group should contribute at least one idea to the discussion in the group activity. And after that, the group should report their discussion and asks other group who came to the same conclusion to raise their hands. 2. Questioning Purposefully According to Eison (2010), questioning purposefully is an effective technique that is used to enhance students’ engagement in classroom participation and also their critical and creative thinking. This technique consists of two kinds of questions which are the questions posed by the instructor or teacher to the students and the questions posed by the students to either classmates or to their teacher. There are several purposes pointed out for those two kinds of questions according to Eison (2010). 1. Instructor-posed questions are to (a) stimulate student interest and curiosity; (b) sharpen students’ thinking skills, (c) present the application of theory to practice, and (d) evaluate students’ knowledge, skills, or attitudes. 2. Student-posed questions can (a) stimulate interaction between student and instructor, (b) identify areas of confusion or test students understanding, (c) create personal relations between the students and the lessons content, and (d) encourage the collaboration between students and students. 7

Actually those two kinds of questions are meant to make the students to become the center of the lesson. The teachers only lead the students to understand the lesson by giving them some questions. Furthermore the students can respond to the teacher by asking some questions related to the lesson. 3. Games Games have always been used in a learning activity to give students motivation and enthusiasm. As a result, games become one of active learning techniques that can be used in teaching grammar. Since grammar is often assumed to be boring and dull, Baleghizadeh and Oladrostam (2011) have promoted to use games in grammar class. They also stated that based on the previous research, games could be a potentially powerful instrument for practicing grammatical structure. In fact, there are many kinds of games that can be used in teaching grammar. The teacher can also make one as long as the game is related to the topic or grammar that will be taught. 4. Role-plays This technique is quite challenging and unusual in teaching English as a foreign language especially in teaching grammar. However, Campbell & Campbell (2008) argued that watching or joining in a role-playing performance would enhance students’ memories and their understanding of grammar rules. This study is also supported by Eison (2010) in his journal says that classroom role-plays are extremely efficient active learning technique to arouse students interest and engagement. Further he explained that role plays would provide the opportunities for students to connect the lesson with their personal and professional life, apply their critical thinking, transfer the knowledge, and develop their empathy for others.

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5. Brain drain Brain drain is another technique suggested by Harmin and Toth (2006). In this technique the students are asked to write down what comes on their mind or what they have learned like the grammar rules or patterns, structures, etc in a limited time. This brain drain activity will help students take a break from the previous learning and clear their minds for the new learning (Xu Jing 2011). So in this technique the students will vacate their brain by writing all things in their mind into a piece of paper. 6.

English Songs This technique is promoted by Saricoban and Metin (2000). They stated that “Songs are

one of the most enchanting and culturally rich resources that can easily be used in language classroom”. Songs may both be used for the presentation or the practice phase of the grammar lesson. It should be noted that active learning instructional strategies can (a) be completed by students either in-class or out-of-class, (b) be done by students working either as individuals or in group, and (c) be done either with or without the use of technology tools ( Eison Jim, 2010).

THE STUDY The Context This study used qualitatively descriptive research to describe all active learning techniques in teaching grammar used by the teachers in some Senior High Schools in Salatiga. A qualitative descriptive research is a research which concerned in providing descriptions of phenomena that occur naturally without the intervention of an experiment or an artificially contrived treatment (McKay, 2006, p.6 cited by Nugrahenny T.Z 2012). The setting of the study itself is in SMA Negeri 1, Satya Wacana Christian Senior High School, and SMA Negeri 3, 9

which are located in Salatiga, Central Java, Indonesia. The reason of choosing this setting is that the teachers of those three schools use active learning technique in teaching grammar regularly. Participants The participants for the study were five English teachers from three different schools. They were two teachers from SMA Negeri 1 Salatiga, two teachers from Satya Wacana Christian Senior High School, and one teacher from SMA Negeri 3 Salatiga. In choosing the participants, stratified random sampling was used. There were six classes observed by the researcher. Data Collection Instrument The data were collected through observation. To capture the observational data, the researcher used observational protocol which was event-sampling protocol to emphasize more in the use of active learning techniques in teaching grammar. One example of event-sampling protocol below is adapted from Yucel’s (2000) in Research method’s book by Nugrahenny T.Z (2012) to investigate active learning techniques in teaching grammar as written in table 3.1 below. Table 3.1 An event-sampling protocol for active learning techniques in teaching grammar Observational Protocol

Name of course: ……..

Name of Instructor: …………

Class time: from….. to ….

Topic: ……..

Class length: …….minutes

Total number of students: ……..

No

Types of techniques

Description of the activities

or strategies

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j

Beside the observation, the data were also collected through interviews right after the observation. It was aimed to gain more information from the participants. The interview was about 5-10 minutes. Here, the researcher used unstructured interview because the researcher wanted the participants to be more open and to give details when explaining about the aims of using those kinds of techniques and strategies in teaching grammar. However, the main point of the interview was not to compare one purpose to the other purposes, but to simply explain the purposes of using those strategies. Another reason for selecting unstructured interview was that it would enable the participant to describe or explain the situation or give any detailed information that might be missing from the researcher’s point of view, so the researcher could get richer data. Data Collection Procedure To gather the data, firstly the researcher did an observation within three months. The purpose was to identify which techniques or strategies used by the teacher. In the observation, the researcher acted as a non-participant observer. The focus of the observation itself was on the teaching techniques and class activities. Right after the observations or a day after the observations, an interview to the teacher or participant was conducted. Data Analysis Procedure To analyze the data, the researcher classified the types of strategies or techniques used by teachers based on the list of active learning techniques that has been mentioned before in chapter two, literature review which are small groups or pairs, questioning purposefully, games, roleplays, brain drain, and English songs. After that the researcher explained the techniques which occurred in the observation by describing the applications of the techniques based on the event11

sampling protocol. The researcher also gathered the data of some examples of sentences that was used in class by the teachers. The data about the aims were gathered through interviews. Later, the researcher transcribed the recording of interviews and then categorized the aims based on the type of the techniques. Finally, the researcher concluded the results of the study.

DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION This chapter is about the analysis and the interpretation of data that has been collected through observation protocol and transcripts of the interviews. This study focused on answering, what are the applications of some popular active learning techniques that the teachers used in the teaching of grammar to Senior High School students and the aim of using those kinds of techniques. Based on the result of the study there were six techniques that the teachers used in teaching grammar to students of SMA Negeri 1 Salatiga, Satya Wacana Christian Senior High School, and SMA Negeri 3 Salatiga which were questioning purposefully, pairs or small groups, games, role-plays, and English songs. Questioning Purposefully Questioning purposefully is a good teaching technique that is used to increase students’ engagement and development in critical and creative thinking (Eison, 2010). This technique was often used by the teachers to get students’ attention and also to check students understanding. Based on the observation, all of the teachers or the participants used this technique in teaching grammar. According to Eison (2010) questioning purposefully consists of two kinds of questions which are instructor-posed questions and 12

students-posed questions. Instructor posed-questions are the questions which are given from the teacher to the students while students-posed questions can be from the students to the other students or to the teacher. There were twenty questions given by the teacher to the students (instructor-posed questions) during the observation. However, there are only two questions taken from the observation protocol as the examples: o What is the similarity between present participle and gerund? (1st observation) o What are the patterns of simple past and past perfect? (2nd observation) All the questions given by the teachers were almost similar because they all about tenses and pattern. However, some of the teachers used this technique to attract students’ attention by giving it in the beginning of the lesson as pre-teaching activities yet the others gave it in the middle of class activity as whilst-teaching activities or the core of the lesson. There were two examples of student-posed questions that are taken from the observation protocol: o Ma’am is this word a gerund or present participle? (1st observation) o Ma’am in future tense we have to use the word will, right? Then why my friend uses may? (6th observation) These two examples of student-posed questions can help the teacher to identify areas of confusion or test understanding of the students in order to help them in understanding the lesson better. In addition, to get various respond from the students to questions posed in the classroom, it is important that the responses increase in cognitive levels to show the course improvement. Therefore the questions which are given by the teachers should consist of various levels of questions, also. 13

Moreover, dividing questions into several levels has three purposes according to Eison (2010) “first to maximize the participation of all students since it is important to adapt the level of complexity and difficulty of one’s questions to the students’ skill level. The second purpose is to enhance students’ comprehension because it is usually helpful to ask questions in a logical and sequential order. And the last is to maintain students’ interest because it is generally helpful to ask questions at various levels.” According to Anderson and Krathwohl (2001), there are three levels of questioning technique which are particularly important. At the lowest level, remembering questions help to ascertain whether the students have facts information. Examples include:      

So what are the differences between present participle and gerund? Do you know? ( 1st observation) What are the patterns of simple past and past perfect? (2nd observation) Do you know the pattern of simple past? (3rd observation) Who still remember the rule of simple present?(4thobservation) What do you know about simple past and present perfect? (5th observation) What tense is used in the first sentence of this text? (6th observation)

Median level application questions require students to use information to apply the formula to a new problem, relate the theoretical form into the real situations, and to analyze patterns of several concepts and develop generalizations from them. Examples include:    

Which one is the predicate in this sentence? (1st observation) What had you done before you went to school? (2nd observation) Can you give an example of it? (3rd observation) Could you change this sentence into indirect sentence? (4th observation)

Evaluation questions require students to exercise judgment – one of the higher levels of cognition. Students must choose the best alternatives or solutions and be able to justify

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those choices or in other words, to demonstrate the same thought processes that a professional in the field uses to make decisions. Examples include:  

Could you find gerund and present participle in the lyric of the song entitled “What hurts the most” by Rascal Flatts? (1st observation) Are you sure this sentence is using future tense? (6th observation) From the interview, it was known that the teacher used questioning technique for

several purposes. The first purpose is to recall the students’ knowledge.”Questioning is only to help the students to remember the previous lesson, because actually gerund is not a new thing for them”. Another purpose mentioned by a teacher is to stimulate the students to think and actively participate in the learning process. “For the learning technique, I want the students to be more active. So I only stimulate them to think, thus they can expose what they have done”. The other teacher also said that the purpose of questioning technique is to check students’ knowledge and test their understanding. “Questioning is used to check whether the students applied the tenses properly or not. In addition, this technique is also used to know their cognitive level or to test their understanding”. Moreover, through this technique the teacher can assess and also sharpen students’ knowledge, skill, or attitudes. It is supported by Bilgh (2000) who said that the use of questioning and follow-up questions will encourage students to try to answer the more difficult and complex questions. As the result they will get more benefits in learning grammar. Additionally, they could have many chances to practice thinking critically and creatively, and also their motivation to study and keep up with coursework will improve.

Pair or small group This technique was promoted by Harmin and Toth (2006) that a very small group especially pairs can involve students in the class so that nobody will be kept out in the group activity. They recommended the teacher to use small group or pairs in class 15

activities to help the teachers in producing learning. By working in a small group, students can work together with their partners, solve the problems together and can help each other in understanding the issue or the lesson. Based on the observations the researcher divided this technique into two small categories according to the quantity of the members. Small group technique involved three until five persons and pair involved of two people. From six observations the researcher found that the teachers often used both small group and pair in teaching grammar. Pair was used in the second observation, third observation, and fourth observation, while small group was used in first observation, fifth observation, and sixth observation. The researcher also analyzed this technique based on the analysis used by University of North California at Chapel Hill in the article of “Classroom activities for active learning” which divided this technique into three categories which are pair-share, buzz groups, and three-step interview. According to this article there are many small group techniques that can be used in almost any course with a very little effort or risk. The primary focus is getting students to really think about the material so they are able to convey what they are thinking about. Surprisingly, the result of the observation was corresponding with the three categories of group work that has been explained before. In this section the researcher explained how the teacher used each category of this technique in teaching grammar and the class activities based on the data in the observation protocol. 1. Pair-share According to Lyman (1992), “think/write-pair-share” technique is one of the potential ways to get students talking about an issue or topic in class activity. In this 16

technique, the teacher just poses an issue or problem to the class and then the students get the opportunity to think about or to write their thought for about 30 seconds to one minute. Students then work in pairs and share their thoughts to one another for 3-5 minutes. Finally, the issue or result is discussed by the whole class. Based on the fourth observation the teacher used pair-share to teach direct and indirect speech. The teacher wrote five direct speeches in the white board then the teacher asked the students to change them into indirect speech individually. After that the teacher asked the students to discuss and review their work with their friends who sit next to them. In the end the whole class discussed it together with the teacher. 2. Buzz Group According to McKeachie (2006), the use of buzz group technique is influential in ensuring students’ participation in large classes. McKeachie pointed out that buzz group usually consist of five to eight people to talk about the issue. In this technique each member of the group should contribute at least one idea to the discussion in the group activity. And after that, the group should report their discussion and asks other group who came to the same conclusion to raise their hands. The finding shows that buzz group was used in the first, fifth and sixth observation, yet the researcher only discussed fifth observation as an example of buzz group. During the fifth observation whose topic was past tense and present perfect, the students were grouped into three or four. Then the group should discuss the differences and the similarity of simple past and present perfect. Then the representative of each group should come forward and write their answer in the board. After that the teacher discussed the answer together with the whole class.

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3. Three-step interview In this small group technique, firstly, the students work in pairs. The first person interviews or questions the second person. The second person then interviews or questions the first person. For the next step, they work together. One person from each pair will report or explain their summary to the whole class. In the third observation, the teacher presented seven questions in the slide that used simple past and past continuous tense. Then the students should work in pairs. The students were free in choosing their partner. The first person in each pair asked the second person with seven questions that was given by the teacher and the second person had to answer those questions using simple past or past continues and vice versa. After that, the teacher chose some students to come forward and report their partners’ answers to the whole class. All those various kinds of group work effectively help the students in mastering grammatical structure. The teacher also believed that. During the interview, the teachers mentioned some purposes why they used this technique: Through this technique, the students can share their opinion with their friends and they also can help each other. “I used this technique because the students will be more comfortable to discuss the lesson with their friends rather than think by themselves”. Another purpose posed by the teacher was that group work can help the students in practicing the language use itself by working together with their friends and to dissociate them from passiveness. “Of course, we always said that English is not only knowledge of the language, yet we need to know how to use it. Not usage but how to use it. How can we use it if there is no group work?” So group work technique enhances collaborative learning for the students to work together with their friends in a group, and there is no chance to become passive learners. 18

Games As the researcher has mentioned before in the literature review, games have always been used in learning activity to give students motivation and enthusiasm. As a result, games become one of active learning techniques that can be used in teaching grammar. Since grammar is often assumed to be boring and dull, Baleghizadeh and Oladrostam (2011) have promoted to use games in grammar class. They also stated that based on the previous research, games can be a potentially powerful instrument for practicing grammatical structure. Since, learning grammar is known to be boring, dull, and complicated at once, the teacher usually grab the students’ attention through this technique. According to Chen (2005), grammar games rapidly introduce students to the applied part of language learning. Therefore, Herbet (2012) defined grammar game as a mix of theory and practical activities. There were many kinds of games that can be used. It is supported by Rinvolucri & Davis, (2005) that learning games used in language class are games provided by the teacher, ready-made, to the students, which are cognitive games, guessing games, board games, and role play games. However, the teacher may also make one as long as the game is related to the topic or grammar that will be taught. During six observations, there were three kinds of games created by the teachers. In the third observation the teacher used the game named memorizing game. This game was used to learn about past tense and past continues. The teacher showed some pictures in the slide only for about 10 seconds. Then the teacher gave some questions related to the picture that had been shown, in the next slide. Thus, the students couldn’t see the previous picture, but they had to memorize it. According to the teacher, this kind of 19

games was aimed to make the students understand the grammatical structure of past tense and past continuous better, as seen in the following comment: “This technique is to make the students understand the lesson about past tense and past continuous better. Hence, they will easily remember the pattern as well as applying it in their daily activity for speaking and also writing”. Another game that was used by the teacher in the fourth observation was about direct –indirect speech. In this game the teacher gave three colors of papers (pink, blue, and green) to the students randomly. The students were grouped based on the colors and were asked to make two direct speech sentences. The students who got pink papers should write direct speech in the present tense, blue papers should write direct speech in the simple past, and the green papers should write direct speech in the future tense. Then the teacher asked the students to pass the papers that they had to right side for six times. So that they would get their friends work and their job was to change those two sentences into indirect speech. In the fifth observation, the teacher also used game technique in teaching grammar. Since grammar has known as something difficult and boring the teacher used this technique to create a lively atmosphere. And the grammar topic that was taught by the teacher was about the past tense and present perfect. The students were divided into two big groups. Then the teacher asked them to listen to a conversation. After that there were several questions related to the conversation and the students had to compete in answering the questions. They had to stand-up before answering the questions. Only the quickest students got the chance to answer the question. And if the answer was right the group would get ten points. But the teacher has a rule to make all the students involve in

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the game. The rule is that one person in each group only has two chances to answer the question. Therefore everybody has to actively participate in this grammar game with no excuse. The teacher believed that the purposes of using this technique were to arouse students’ enthusiasm, so that they will not get sleepy, as well as increasing their motivation in learning grammar. ”All the students must involve. Moreover, to make them more excited, I make a rule. So I give them a question, but the rule is the question can be answered if all the members of the group do certain moves. As an example, the students should stand-up and dance together before answering the question. By doing this, the students who are passive and sleepy in the class will involve, because their group will not get access to answer the question if they don’t do that”.

Role plays According to Eison (2010) classroom role-plays are a generally effective active learning instructional strategy to develop and apply students’ critical thinking skills. This technique is quite challenging and unusual in teaching English as a foreign language especially in learning grammar. Yet Campbell & Campbell (2008) argued that when the students are watching or joining in a role-play performance, their memories and understanding of grammar patterns would obviously increase. Actually, role play is a part of dialogues. Moreover, the dialogue itself according to Rivers 1981 cited by Eison 2010, is divided into two broad categories of dialogues: conversation-facilitation and grammar-demonstration dialogues. Thus, in the second observation the researcher found that the teacher used grammar-demonstration dialogues in class activity. Grammar-demonstration dialogues contain certain grammatical structures that are to be studied. Eison (2010) pointed out that this technique help 21

students to know the generalizations of a certain grammartical structure by giving them contextual examples. In the point of fact, Eison (2010) stated that role-plays are widely used in the audio-lingual era, and being exploited by the dialogues. Through role-plays the students can practice language more freely. It is supported by Larsen-Freeman (2000) that role plays are primary importance in language teaching because it provides chances for the students to interact and practice their communication acts in various contexts. In addition, role-playing grammar-demonstration dialogues give sufficient opportunity for the students in learning the targeted grammatical structure. During six observations, the researcher found only one teacher who used this technique. The teacher used this technique to evaluate students understanding about the simple past and past perfect tense. First the students were asked to make a short conversation using simple past and past perfect tense with their partner. The teacher didn’t give a certain topic or situation so there is no limitation for the students in making the dialogue. After twenty minutes, the teacher asked the students to do in class role play based on the dialogue that has been made before. All pairs got turn to do the role play. While doing the role play, the teacher corrected grammatical mistakes that the students made. From the interview it was known that, the teacher used role-play in teaching grammar in order to encourage the students to apply the grammatical pattern that they have learnt before. ”When the students made their conversation, automatically they applied what they have learnt. The students can figure out the grammatical pattern and then apply it into the conversation, dialogue or monologue”.

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English songs Another technique promoted by Saricoba and Metin (2000) is to use English songs in teaching grammar. They have pointed out that in the learning process’ knowing the context is a very important part especially, for grammar teaching. This happens because the teacher should provide contextual examples in order to better help students understand the grammar points or patterns, rather than only a theoretical explanation. Therefore, songs are one of the most suitable sources that can be used in teaching grammar. The finding during six observations showed that there were two teachers who used this kind of technique in teaching grammar. The first one is in the first observation, where the teacher used the song entitled “What hurts the most” by Rascal Flatts. And the second one is in the second observation, where the teacher used the song entitled “Yesterday” by the Beatles. In the first observation the teacher used English songs to assess the students understanding. So the students can apply what they have learnt through the real context through the content in the song. The topic that is being discussed in the first observation is gerund and present participle. The teacher gave the lyric of the song entitled “What hurts the most” by Rascal Flatts to the students then they had to find out the gerund words or phrases and present participle which are used in the lyric of that song. The teacher said in the interview that she used this technique to check or evaluate the students understanding of a particular grammatical structure that has been taught which in this context were gerund and present participle. ”I preferred to use song analysis in order to know whether the students are able to understand the lesson better or not”. 23

Another example of using this technique was in the second observation. In here the teacher used an English song in the beginning of the lesson as the pre-teaching activity to attract students’ attention. The song was “Yesterday” by the Beatles. This song really connected to the topics which were the past tense and past perfect. After listening to that song the students were asked to describe what the song was about and also the tenses that were used in that song. Therefore, that song can help the students in applying the pattern of simple past and past perfect. Based on the interview, the teacher said that using English songs can attract the students’ attention as well as increasing their motivation in learning English. “I used English songs because the students love it. They like singing so this technique can stimulate their motivation in learning grammar”. Listening to a song can make the students more enthusiastic in learning grammar because songs are a part of the students’ life especially for Senior High School students, where music is not something new, and even music for them is a tool to learn new vocabulary, idioms and also to learn grammar. The students will get bored easily if they only get the explanation of the grammar pattern from the teacher. Hence, the students may think that this activity is more fun and interesting. They can listen to the song and also sing the song together with the teacher.

DISCUSSION Based on the six observations that have been done, all these teaching techniques were not separately one another, but they were combined. In other words, one technique is connected with another technique and cannot be separated, for example in the first observation the teacher used questioning purposefully, small group, and English songs at the same time. When the students had to analyze the song, the teacher asked the students to work in groups to enhance their 24

participation. It also happened in the second observation where the students had to do the roleplays in pairs. Of course the students had to work with their partners otherwise it would not be a role-play but a monologue or storytelling. This phenomenon shows that in using active learning techniques the teacher need to combine more than one techniques to make the students really participate actively in the learning process. The findings also show that questioning purposefully is an active learning technique that is always used by the teacher to teach grammar because this technique may become the starting point of the lesson to attract the students’ attention and create an active atmosphere in class activities.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS Conclusion As the researcher has mentioned before, the research questions of this study are “what are the applications of some popular active learning techniques that the teachers use in the teaching of grammar for Senior High School students, and what are the teachers’ aims for using those kinds of techniques?” In order to find the answer for these two research questions, six observations were done in three different Senior High Schools in Salatiga which are SMA Negeri 1, Satya Wacana Christian Senior High School, and SMA Negeri 3. Beside observations, interviews with the teachers were done especially for obtaining more details about the aims for using each active learning technique in teaching grammar in class. It was found out that all popular active learning techniques for teaching grammar rules which include questioning purposefully, small groups or pairs, games, role-plays, and English song were all used in class. The applications of all these techniques were also varied and creative 25

in order to make the students participate actively in the learning process and to handle the boredom syndrome of the students. The teachers believe that all these techniques can help the students in understanding the lesson better, especially the grammar patterns. It was interesting to see that the teacher always combined some active learning techniques to be used at the same meeting. The researcher concludes that an active learning technique should be combined with other active learning techniques in teaching the grammar patterns or any other materials. It was also found out that questioning technique was used by all the teachers during the observations. In conclusion, the researcher can say that the English teacher used those five techniques such as questioning purposefully, small group or pair, games, role-play, and English song, in order to make the students understand the knowledge better and thus they can apply it in their daily activity. Since Senior High School students will get bored easily if only listen to teachers’ explanation, the teacher tries to use those techniques in teaching grammar to arouse students’ interest in learning grammar. Recommendations The technique used by the English teacher of SMA Negeri 1, Satya Wacana Christian Senior High School, and SMA Negeri 3 in teaching grammar are good enough, but of course there are still some weaknesses. For example, the role play is a good technique to apply the structural pattern, but the teacher should give the situation or the topic for the students to help them in making the dialogue. The situations that are given by the teacher could prevent the students from becoming confused or having difficulties in making the conversation.

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However, there are so many teaching techniques that can be used to teach grammar for Senior High School students and every technique may have its own strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, the teacher should choose the technique wisely and adjust it with the students’ needs. For example in game, maybe it should be better if the teacher firstly group the students into small group before doing the game. If the group is too big and consists of more than 8 people, it can lead to chaos. This study has one thing that needs to be improved for the further research since this study only covers some popular active learning techniques which were used by the teachers. For further research, the applications of many other active learning techniques may also be examined. At the end, this study is hoped to be useful for the teachers to create appropriate techniques and activities in the class which may arouse the students’ enthusiasm and motivation in learning all the grammatical structure.

Acknowledgement First and foremost I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my Almighty God, my Jesus Christ, who has blessed and guided me so that I am able to accomplish this thesis. I could never have done this thesis without the faith I have in Him. He also showing His mercy by giving various people surrounds me who contribute, support, and stood by me in my trouble times. Hence, I would like to offer my special thanks to Dra. Martha Nandari, M.A, my supervisor, who had given her valuable time, advice, guidance, suggestions, and corrections to this thesis from the beginning up to the end of writing. I also would like to express my deep

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gratitude to Dian Toar Y.G Sumakul, M.A , my second reader, for all his support and advice that also help me in doing my thesis. Deepest thanks should also be given to my beloved parents and my family, for their love encouragement and support both financially and mentally during my study. I am eternally grateful to have my mother who always support me, remind me, and pray for me. Thanks for the unconditional love and strength that has been given to me during my whole life. My parents have been selfless in giving me the best of everything. I also sincerely acknowledge all my teachers in faculty of language and literature. Thank you for all the knowledge and encouragement throughout my study. I also cherish the friendship I had and take this opportunity to thank each one of them, to my best friends Mira, Thisa, Raindrops, Lentera Kasih, and FC Dippo girls for all their support and wholeheartedly solidarity. My friends have been a strength and motivation that had helped me in completing my thesis and also become my partner during all these lovely years in this University. Also I am deeply thankful to my dearest Franly Jacobs for his great support and love. Thank you for always listening to me and become my best partner during my hardest time. Finally, I want to say that there are so many others whom I can not mention one by one and I sincerely thank all of them for their help. Thanks a million for everything. God bless you all

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Salatiga, 15 July, 2014

Dacia Chesia seilatuw

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Appendix 1st observation Observational Protocol Name of course: English

Name of Instructor: Ma’am Agustina

Class time: from 8.30 to 10.00

Topic: Gerund

Class length: 90 minutes

Total number of students: 23

No

Types of techniques


or strategies 32

1.

Questioning

The teacher asks some questions that are related to the material

Purposefully

to test or to check students’ understanding. E.g. Have you ever felt as if your writing is monotonous and dull? Why? ; What is the similarity between present participle and gerund? ; What is a gerund? ; Which one is the predicate in this sentence? ; Could you find some gerund phrases in the lyric of the song? The student also asks a question: Ma’am kalau kata ini gerund atau present participle ya ma’am? (Ma’am is this word a gerund or present participle?)

2.

Using English song

The teacher gives a lyric of a song. Then the students should find present participle and gerund phrases in the lyric of the song.

3.

Small group

In analyzing the song the students are divided into small group consist of four or five person.

2nd observation Observational Protocol Name of course: English

Name of Instructor: Ma’am Lucy


Topic: simple past & past perfect tense



33

No

Types of techniques


or strategies 1.

Using English song

In the beginning of the lesson the teacher plays a song entitled “Yesterday’ by the Beatles. Then the teacher asks the students what the song is about and what tenses that appear in that song.

2.

Questioning

The students read a text (recount text) in turn. Then they are

Purposefully

asked to answer some questions related to the text. E.g “What is the song about? Do you know the pattern that is used in this song? What is the text about? What kind of tense that is used in the text? And what are the pattern of simple past & past perfect?”

3.

In pairs

The students should make a short conversation using simple past and past perfect tense with their friends beside them.

4

Role-play

The teacher asks the students do in class role-play about their short conversation that has been made before. All pairs get their turn to do the role-play. While the students doing the role-play, the teacher still correct the mistake of the structure that the students made in their conversation.

3rd observation Observational Protocol Name of course: English

Name of Instructor: Ma’am Diana


Topic: Past tense & past continues

34

Class length: 90 minutes No


Types of techniques


or strategies 1.

Questioning

The teacher asks to the students the structure of simple past. Do

Purposefully

you know the pattern of simple past? What is the pattern of simple past? Can you give an example of it?

2.

In pairs

The teacher gives seven questions that must be answered by the students. But the students should answer the questions to their friends who sit right beside them. So they work in pairs and after that they must report their friends’ answer in front of class.

3.

Game

The games named memorizing game. The teacher will show some pictures for only about 10 seconds and then the teacher will give some question related to the picture that has been shown before.

4th observation Observational Protocol Name of course: English

Name of Instructor: Ma’am Dani 35


Topic: Direct-Indirect



No

Types of techniques


or strategies 1.

Questioning

The teacher explains the pattern of direct and indirect then she

Purposefully

asks some question to the students related to the material. E.g. Who still remembers the rule of simple present? What about simple past? Do you still remember the pattern of indirect sentence using future tense?

2.

In pairs

The teacher writes five direct sentences in the white board and then the students have to change it into indirect sentences. In doing the exercise the students are asked to work with their friends who sit next to them.

3.

Game

The teacher gives three colors of papers to the students randomly. The students were grouped based on the colors and were asked to make two direct speech sentences. The students who got pink papers should write direct speech in the present tense, blue papers should write direct speech in the simple past, and the green papers should write direct speech in the future tense. Then the teacher asked the students to pass the papers that they had to right side for six times. So that they would get their friends work and their job was to change those two sentences into indirect speech


Name of Instructor: Ma’am Andriani


Topic: Past tense & present perfect


Total number of students: 24 36

No

Types of techniques


or strategies 1.

Questioning

The teacher asks to the students about simple past and present

Purposefully

perfect. E.g. What do you know about simple past and present perfect? What are the differences or the similarity between them?

2.

Small group

The teacher asks the students to discuss those questions with their group. There are eight groups that consist of 3 person of each group. Then the representative of the group should come forward and write their answer in the board.

3.

Game

The teacher divides the class into two big groups and asks them to listen to a conversation. Then there are several question related to the conversation and they have to compete to answer by standing up right after the teacher mentions the question. And for the one who stand up first will get the chance to answer the question. And if the answer is right the group will get 10 point. But for one person in each group only get two chances to answer the question. So that everybody can involve in this game.


Name of Instructor: Ma’am Dani


Topic: Tenses 37

Class length: 45 minutes No


Types of techniques


or strategies 1.

Small group

The students are asked to count one until seven and make a group of five based on the number that they get. They will work with the group in analyzing tenses which are appeared in a text.

2.

Questioning

After 20 minutes the teacher discusses the task together with

purposefully

the students. The teacher gives some questions to check their understanding and also their work. E.g. What tense is used in the first sentence? Are you sure this sentence is using future tense? What is the pattern of future tense? While checking their work, one of the students asks the teacher “Ma’am bukannya future tense itu pakainya will ya ma’am? Kok teman saya pakainya may? “(Ma’am in future tense we have to use the word will, right? Then why my friend uses may?

Interview’s Transcription of the 1st Observation

Interviewer: Selamat siang Bu Tina Interviewee: Selamat siang Interviewer: Nama saya Dacia mahasiswi dari FBS Univeristas Kristen Satya Wacana saya di SMA Negeri 1 mengobservasi tentang active learning yang diterapkan dalam pembelajaran grammar. Nah boleh memperkenalkan nama ibu. 38

Interviewee: Nama saya Agustina Sukawati saya mengajar bahasa Inggris di SMA Negeri 1 sudah sejak tahun 2007 Interviewer: Langsung saja pada pertanyaan yang pertama ya ibu. Menurut ibu apakah mengajarkan grammar sangatlah penting dan mengapa? Interviewee: Tentu saja grammar itu penting karena grammar itu merupakan dasar dari adanya sebuah bahasa, dasar dari tata bahasa. Karena apa? Terutama kalau dalam bidang penulisan, kita kalau menulis itu harus sesuai dengan paemnya. Bahkan dalam bahasa Indonesia pun yang merupakan bahasa ibu, kita juga tetap belajar tata bahasanya apalagi ini bahasa yang merupakan bahasa asing bagi kita otomatis kita juga harus tahu tata bahasanya seperti apa. Interviewer: Oke. Mengenai pembelajaran grammar tersebut apakah menurut ibu kita harus menggunakan teknik-teknik pengajaran atau seperti apa? Interviewee: Kalau untuk pengajarannya sendiri bisa perpaduan. Jadi semua teknik itu sebetulnya bisa. Jadi kita mau pake yang ceramah ya memang bagus karna memang seperti itulah kita harus menerangkan. Kemudian untuk kegiatannya sendiri kita bisa pakai yang disebut active learning tadi. Bisa lewat small group, bisa lewat games, bisa lewat song analysis. Interviewer: Nah berdasarkan hasil obervasi saya kemarin saya melihat ibu menggunakan beberapa teknik dalam mengajarkan grammar. Seperti questioning, small group, dan using English song. Adakah alasan tersendiri ibu menggunakan teknik itu dalam mengajarkan gerund pharse? Jadi mengapa ibu munggunakan teknik tersebut? Interviewee: Kalau alasan khususnya tidak, cuman kenapa saya pilih questioning ini hanya sekedar membantu mereka mengingat karena sebenarnya gerund itu bukan hal baru buat mereka hanya sekedar ulasan. Kemudian kenapa pake small group karena siswa akan lebih nyaman kalau mereka berdiskusi dengan teman daripada mereka harus berpikir sendiri. Kemudian yang satu lagi pake song, itu sebenarnya saya lebih ke song analysisnya. Kenapa ? Supaya saya tahu apakah mereka itu benar-benar memahami apa yang sudah saya sampaikan atau belum. Interviewer: Tapi secara keseluruhan penggunaan teknik itu untuk membuat anak lebih aktif ya? Interviewee: Iya supaya mereka lebih aktif, dan juga lebih enjoy Interviewer: Apakah ada tujuan yang hendak dicapai dari pengajaran yang menggunakan teknik tersebut? Interviewee: Kalau tujuannya sebenarnya satu supaya juga lebih memahami tentang penggunaan tata bahasa yang diajarkan pada hari itu. Maksudnya bukan hanya dalam bentuk tertulis tapi juga dalam bentuk lisannya. Kapan sih kita bisa pake tata bahasa yang model seperti itu? Karena terus terang siswa itu kalau sudah masuk ke hal tulis menulis atau pidato itu pasti mereka monoton. Mereka sifatnya lebih monoton. Jadi sperti itu. 39

Interviewer: Monoton dalam hal pemilihan…. Interviewer & interviewee: Pemilihan kata Interviewee: Pemilihan tata bahasanya kurang berani bereksplorasi Interviewer: Apakah ada perubahan setelah ibu menggunakan teknik-teknik kemarin? Melihat respon siswanya seperti apa? Interviewee: Kalau responnya sudah pasti mereka bagus karena mereka memang pada dasarnya belum terlalu memahami. Tetapi kalau untuk istilahnya hasilnya itu baru bisa kita lihat nanti setelah saya memberi tugas kepada mereka. Interviewer: Oh jadi dievaluate lagi? Interviewee: Iya dievaluate lagi. Dan itupun bentuknya bukan hanya sekedar membuat kalimat tapi bisa jadi dalam bentuk teks gitu. Interviewer: Jadi dari hasil inetrview kita hari ini bisa saya simpulkan bahwa menurut ibu penggunaan teknik dalam mengajarkan grammar itu sangat penting karena bisa membantu siswa untuk lebih memahami pembelajaran tersebut. Terima kasih ibu Interviewee: Sama-sama

Interview’s Transcription of the 2nd Observation

Interviewer: Selamat siang Bu lucy. Nama saya Dacia Seilatuw dari Fakultas Bahasa dan Sastra Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana. Hari ini saya mengobservasi ibu untuk penelitian saya tentang active learning dalam mengajarkan grammar. Silahkan perkenalkan nama ibu dan sudah berapa lama mengajar di SMA Negeri 1. Interviewee: Lucia Sudianty. Sudah hampir 25 tahun mengajar.

40

Interviewer: Ada beberapa pertanyaan yang ingin saya tanyakan mengenai hasil observasi saya hari ini. Langsung saja pada pertanyaan yang pertama ya bu? Menurut ibu seberapa pentingkah penggunaan teknik-teknik pengajaran dalam mengajarkan grammar? Interviewee: Teknik-teknik? Interviewer: Pengajaran dalam mengajarkan grammar Interviewee: Yang dimaksudkan teknik pengajaran bagaimana itu? Interviewer: Ya seperti misalnya yang tadi ibu menggunakana role-play, atau in pairs kemudian questioning jadi menanyakan anak-anaknya kalau mereka mengerti atau tidak. Kemudian song seperti itu bu. Bagaimana menurut ibu ? Seberapa pentingkan penggunaan teknik-teknik tersebut dalam mengajarkan grammar? Interviewee: Ya itu penting karna untuk membawa anak sudah menggunakan grammar tersebut yang akan kita bahas. Jadi secara tidak langsung mereka itu sudah menggunakan. Dan setelah itu kita mempelajari tentang grammarnya. Kenapa kok bisa seperti itu? Ya jadi sebelum kita tahu patternnya apa mereka itu sebetulnya secara tidak langsung secara tidak sadar secara tidak menyadari mereka anak-anak itu sudah menggunakan dan sekarang kita pelajari structurenya ya grammarnya tu structurenya itu. Interviewer: Berarti sebelumnya mereka sebenarnya sudah mengaplikasikannya dalam kehidupan Interviewee: Secara tidak langsung dan tidak sadar. Mereka tidak menyadari sudah menggunakan itu. Tapi kadang tidak tahu. Oh ternyata oh ini gini . Ternyata oh kita itu memakai grammar ini. Interviewer: Kemudian berdasarkan hasil observasi saya hari ini saya menyimpulkan bahwa ibu menggunakan 4 teknik. Yang pertama itu song, kemudian questioning, kemudian in pairs, dan role-play. Apakah ibu setuju dengan hasil yang saya katakana tadi? Interviewee: Ya memang benar. Interviewer: Nah sebenarnya apakah ada tujuan yang hendak dicapai dari pengajaran menggunakan teknik tersebut. Jadi tujuannya apa yang hendak dicapai dari pengajaran? Interviewee: Nah karena kalo dengan lagu anak-anak itu biasanya kan suka menyanyi sehingga membuat anak tertarik untuk kesitu. Lalu tadi dengan teks dulu dengan reading dengan questioning tadi mereka secara tidak langsung juga kan sudah menggunakan itu, sudah menggunakan itu sehingga nanti bisa menemukan grammar –grammar yang akan kita ajarkan itu di dalam teks tersebut atau di dalam lagu. Dalam lagu-lagu yang kita pilih sudah menggunakan grammar yang akan kita ajarkan. Setelah itu mereka diskusi dia membuat discussion, trus membuat conversation dengan itu, kan berarti dia mengaplikasikan yang dari sebelum tau 41

menjadi tau dan diaplikasi lagi walaupun sebelumnya sudah mengaplikasikan juga didalam lagu tadi, dalam song, atau dalam bisa teks seperti tadi, atau bisa juga dalam percakapan dalam dialog atau monolog seperti tadi. Interviewer: Kemudian setelah menggunakan teknik tersebut menurut ibu bagaimanakah respon dan minat para siswa terhadap pelajaran bahasa Inggris? Apakah ada perbedaan yang nampak ketika ibu menggunakan teknik tersebut? Interviewee: Ya kalau dari hasil observasi tadi gimana? Mereka tertarik atau tidak? Interviewer: Kalau conversation seperti role play itu sepertinya mereka excited dan ingin ikut andil dalam berdialog bersama temannya. Interviewee: Ya walaupun sudah dijelaskan seperti tadi ternyata ini ada beberapa juga yang masih keliru menggunakan itu. Berarti perlu kita gali lagi, kita dalami lagi. Ya ternyata ditanya ada kesulitan ada pertanyaan? Interviewer & Interviewee: Tidak ada Interviewee: Tapi kalau sudah mempraktekkan ternyata kita masih menemukan kekeliruan, mereka masih membuat kekeliruan, sehingga harus kita ulang lagi. Interviewer: Adakah solusi dari ibu selain mengunakan teknik-teknik tersebut? Mungkin ada teknik yang lain yang ingin ibu gunakan supaya anak-anak lebih mengerti dan bisa mengaplikasikanya. Interviewee: Kalau sudah mentok seperti itu akhirnya ya anak saya panggil saya ajari sendiri. Kalau tidak, selagi anak yang lainnya membuat tugas membuat laithan-latihan saya panggil saja jelaskan sendiri. Interviewer: Berarti secara personal. Interviewee: Iya secara personal begitu. Interviewer: Oke bu itu saja dari saya hari ini berarti kesimpulannya teknik-teknik dalam mengajarkan grammar itu sangat penting, dan ada banyak sekali teknik yang bisa digunakan, sehingga anak bisa lebih aktif, bisa mengaplikasikan dan bisa mengerti tentunya pelajaran yang diajarkan.

Interview’s Transcription of the 3rd Observation

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Interviewer: Selamat siang ma’am nama saya Dacia mahasiswi dari FBS akan mewawancarai tentang active learning dalam pembelajaran grammar di SMA Lab. Silahkan perkenalkan nama ma’am dan sudah berapa lama mengajar di SMA Lab. Interviewee: Nama lengkap saya Diana Erlianti. Saya mengajar dari tahun 96 jadi sudah 18 tahun saya mengajar di sekolah ini. Interviewer: Langsung saja pada pertanyaan yang pertama ya ma’am. Menurut ma’am seberapa pentingkah penggunaan teknik-teknik pengajaran dalam mengajarkan grammar? Interviewee: Itu sangat penting karena grammar itu menurut siswa sulit. Dites itu banyak mereka hasilnya jelek di grammar karena mungkin mereka kurang begitu memperhatikan soal itu karena banyak rumus-rumusnya, karena banyak hafalannya juga jadi kita harus menggunakan teknik supaya mereka gampang mengingatnya misalnya itu tadi dengan pair work dengan mereka memberikan seperti itu tadi ya report apa yang dilakukan temannya atau dengan contoh apa yang mereka lakukan sehari-hari itu mereka lebih bisa mengingatnya. Interviewer: Berdasarkan hasil observasi saya hari ini, saya menyimpulkan bahwa ma’am menggunakan beberapa teknik diantaranya questioning, pairs, dan game. Untuk yang game tadi apakah betul game yang terakhir tentang memorizing? Interviewee: Oh iya Interviewer: Apakah ma’am setuju dengan hasil observasi saya? Interviewee: Iya Interviewer: Dengan penggunaan teknik-teknik tadi sebenarnya tujuan apa yang hendak dicapai ma’am? Interviewee: Ya tentu saja supaya mereka lebih bisa ngerti tentang pengajaran past tense dan past continues tense tadi jadi mereka lebih nyantel gitu ya jadi kalau ada diberikan soal mereka lebih mudah mengingatnya dan bisa menerapkannya untuk penerapan sehari-hari untuk speaking maupun written. Interviewer: Kalau untuk gamesnya sendiri juga alasannya sama ma’am? Interviewee: Iya karena game itu tadi juga menggunakan pattern past tense dan past continues kan? Jadi yang sudah terjadi. Interviewer: Bagaimanakan respon atau minat para siswa terhadap penggunaan teknik tersebut apakah ada perbedaan yang nampak pada siswa ketika ma’am menggunakan teknik tersebut? Interviewee: Tentu saja karena kalau kita hanya menerangkan saja apalagi kalau di white board gini menerangkan apalagi tanpa memberikan itu di slide mereka akan segera lupa dan tidak 43

memperhatikan. Kalau seperti yang anda lihat tadi mereka kan lebih memperhatikan mereka merespon tadi mereka lebih bisa lebih mengerti. Interviewer: Dari hasil interview kita ini bisa saya simpulkan bahwa ma’am menggunakan teknik’ pengajaran dalam mengajarkan grammar karena itu sangat penting dan dapat membantu siswa untuk mengingat patternnya dari grammar tersebut. Nah apakah ada yang mau ditambahkan dari ma’am? Interviewee: Ya untuk teknik pengajaran itu saya lebih banyak mereka yang aktif jadi mereka yang berpikir saya hanya memancing mereka supaya apa yang mereka lakukan itu dieksposkan. Jadi mereka akan tahu “oh aku sudah melakukan ini”. Sehingga menjadi lebih mudah. Interviewer: Seperti teknik question tadi ya ma’am? Yang ada beberapa pertanyaan? Interviewee: Iya lalu contoh-contoh dari mereka sendiri apa yang mereka lakukan. Jadi mereka mengingat oh ini berarti pakai pola ini kalau saya sudah melakukan kemarin apa yang sedang saya lakukan. Interviewer: Thank you ma’am untuk kesempatannya Interviewee: Sama-sama

Interview’s Transcription of the 4th Observation

Interviewer: Selamat pagi bu nama saya Dacia mahasiswi dari FBS Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana. Hari ini saya mengadakan observasi di SMA 3 Salatiga tentang active learning yang di terapkan dalam pembelajaran grammar. Silahkan perkenalkan nama ibu Interviewee: Oke nama saya Wahyu Wiyandani. Saya mengajar di SMA Negeri 3 Salatiga. Yang tadi miss Dacia observasi adalah kelas 10.10 dan itu grammarnya yg dipakai adalah direct indirect. Interviewer: Langsung saja pada pertanyaan yang pertama ya bu. Menurut ibu seberapa pentingkah pengajaran menggunakan teknik-teknik dalam mengajarkan grammar? Interviewee: Maksudnya teknik-teknik yang dipakai itu adalah seperti games dan lain sebagainya tadi? Interviewer: Iya Interviewee: Karena pengajaran grammar itu adalah sesuatu yang tentang pola aturan kalimat jadi itu menurut saya sebisa mungkin anak-anak itu senang dulu dengan yang apa yang mereka pelajari kalau mereka itu senang dulu dengan teknik yang di gunakan itu maka mereka akan 44

lebih muda seperti contohnya tadi saya menggunakan kata “love” itu kan paling gampang sama anak-anak sebenarnya karna itu dekat sama kehidupan mereka itu yang dipakai. Dan nama-nama yang dipakai adalah nama-nama yang lucu atau nama mereka sendiri. Jadi sebenarnya untuk mengingatkan anak-anak kalau saya menggunakan kata ini berarti ini masuknya ke present atau past itu mereka bisa. Interviewer: Jadi menurut ibu apakah penggunaan teknik-teknik tersebut penting? Interviewee: Sangat penting Interviewer: Berdasrkan observasi saya hari ini saya menyimpulkan bahwa ibu menggunakan teknik questioning, in pairs dan game. Apakah ibu setuju dengan hasil observasi saya? Interviewee: Iya dan saya juga menggunakan rules yang dari grammar dulu setelah itu anak-anak mereka, kan ada dua teknik kalau nggak salah kalau yang satu adalah mereka menyimpulkan sendiri dari satu kalimat trus mereka menemukan rumusnya. Kalau saya menemukan rumus dulu setelah itu baru mereka mengaplikasikan ke kehidupan atau ke latihan yang nyata. Interviewer: Sebenarnya tujuan apa yang hendak dicapai dari pengajaran yang menggunakan tiga teknik tersebut? Interviewee: Tentu saja tujuannya agar anak-anak lebih mudah memahami grammar tersebut jadi anak-anak bisa lebih mengingat-ingat grammarnya itu lebih kena daripada kita hanya menggunakan teknik traditional yang hanya apa namanya? Interviewer: Menjelaskan Interviewee: Ya guru menjelaskan sesuatu anak disuruh mengerjakan setelah itu kita koreksi, kalau itu tadi anak-anak bisa menemukan ternyata temennya tidak menggunakan ini, trus setelah itu mereka kan bisa menyimpulkan oh kalau penggunaan simple present harusnya pakai apa mereka bisa tahu. Interviewer: Menurut ibu bagaimanakah respon atau minat para siswa terhadap penggunaan teknik-teknik tersebut apakah ada perberbedaan yang nampak pada siswa ketika ibu menggunakan teknik tersebut? Interviewee: Tentu saja ada perbedaan ketika saya menggunakan teknik tersebut mereka akan aktif bertanya contohnya “Kok ini membuatnya seperti ini harusnya kalau future menggunakan kata will kok ini pakainya may ini kan jadi masuknya ke simple present pakai modals kan? Dengan seperti itu berarti anak-anak bisa menganalisa jadi tahapan taksonomi itu mereka dapat tahapan yang lebih tinggi menganalisa hasil teman mereka bisa finding errors dari temen mereka walaupun juga mereka mengerjakan itu benar tapi cuma penempatan grammarnya salah. Interviewer: Apakah ada yang mau ditambahkan lagi bu? 45

Interviewee: Menurut saya sudah nanti kalau ada yang mau ditanyakan silahkan tanyakan ke saya Interviewer: Jadi saya simpulkan untuk hasil interview kita hari ini ibu mengatakan bahwa teknik-teknik pengajaran dalam mengajarakan grammar itu sangat penting untuk membantu siswa untuk lebih memahami grammar yang diajarkan. Terima kasih bu Interviewee: Sama-sama


Interviewer: Selamat siang bu Interviewee: Selamat siang Interviewer: Terima kasih atas kesempatannya bisa mewawancarai ibu berdasarkan hasil observasi saya kemarin. Nama saya Dacia dari Fakultas Bahasa dan Sastra Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana akan mewawancarai ibu berdasarkan hasil observasi kemarin mengenai active learning in teaching grammar. Tolong perkenalkan nama ibu dan sudah berapa lama mengajar disini? Interviewee: Saya Andriani sudah 27 tahun mengajar di SMA Kristen Satya Wacana Interviewer: Iya langsung saja pada pertanyaan pertama ya bu. Interviewee: Oke Interviewer: Menurut ibu seberapa pentingkah pengguaan teknik-teknik pengajaran dalam mengajarkan grammar? Interviewee: Ya saya pikir sangat penting sekali karena grammar itu bagi beberapa siswa dianggap seperti mathematical problems gitu. Sehingga kita harus find a way how to make them get involved enthusiastically when learning grammar. Jadi sangat penting untuk memanfaatkan teknik-teknik tertentu tidak hanya ceramah. Ceramah akan membuat mereka semakin tidak mengenali sebagai momok begitu ya. Interviewer: Oh ya maksudnya sebagai momok itu seperti apa? Interviewee: Sebagai momok itu misalnya mereka merasa wah seperti sebuah rumus yang harus dihafalkan. Padahal menurut kami tidak perlu menghafalkan structural pattern itu tidak perlu yang penting gimana kalian menggunakan itu diberitahu pertama begini kemudian penggunaanya kalau mereka sudah terbiasa digunakan,digunakan, dan digunakan, kan kemarin bu Andri terapkan dipenggunaan di dalam dialog ya masih spoken cycle ya kemarin itu kan mereka ada 46

get a costume to hear it. Not starting with the structural pattern. Structural pattern will be ya akan, bu Andri lebih suka yang inductive gitu. Interviewer: Berdasarkan hasil observasi saya kemarin saya menyimpulkan bahwa ibu menggunakan tiga teknik, yang pertama questioning, yang memancing anak untuk menjelaskan patternnya dengan sendirinya tanpa dijelaskan, kemudian group, yang terakhir game. Apakan ibu setuju? Interviewee: Ya betul jadi itu benar tapi ada something left harusnya ada… Interviewer: Oh ada yang mau ditambahkan boleh bu Interviewee: Harusnya memang maksudnya itu kan waktunya sangat terbatas sebetulnya yang saya rencanakan itu ada yang namanya communicative approach menggunakan itu dengan apa bertukar informasi begitu. Interviewer: Oh seperti discussion gitu bu Interviewee: Oh bukan misalnya completing the blanks based on your activities what you have done or you did. This is the comparison between simple past dan present perfect ya seperti itu tapi tentang hal yang dilakukan siswa jadi dealing with their daily activities. Ya masih ada itu tapi karena waktunya karna memang harusnya dua jam tapi yang satunya buat presentasi short story. Interviewer: Nah dari teknik-teknik yang tadi itu sebenarnya tujuan apa yang hendak dicapai oleh ibu? Interviewee: Sekali lagi bu Andri selalu berprinsip bahwa teaching is fun learning is fun jadi bagaimana bisa menghadirkan suasana yang menyenangkan fun di dalam kelas tidak hanya ended with student sitting and teachers preaching lecturing like that it’s very tiring for the students and monotones sehingga bu andri berusaha mencari cara supaya ada aktifitas the clue is activity students do something begitu. Jadi mereka bisa dipanggil dengan bentuk pertanyaan to express the ideas. Mereka juga tadi apa satu lagi? Games. Oleh karna itu game sangat penting tapi tetap games yang ada hubungannya dengan topic itu. Interviewer: Bagaimana dengan grouping ma’am apakah ada tujuan tersendiri? Interviewee: Oh iya jelas, kita selalu tekankan bahwa English itu bukan suatu hal yang hanya memahami within the language tapi kita juga harus how to use it not usage but how to use it. Bagaimana menggunakannya kalau ngga ada group work. Nah yang kedua adalah siswa boleh saling apa ya boleh artinya tidak passive. Bu Andri kan membatasi misalnya mereka menjawab pertantanyaan hanya boleh satu kelompok itu satu orang menjawab dua paling banyak setelah itu sisanya harus diberikan kepada temannya seperti itu. Jadi satu menghadirkan fun dua ada

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collaborative learning mereka bisa bekerja sama yang tidak ada kesempatan untuk menjadi passive. Interviewer: Jadi meskipun group work tapi mereka harus terlibat semuanya di dalam group itu harus terlibat. Interviewee: Ya terlibat malah sebelum menjawab biasanya bu Andri membuat hal-hal yang misalnya membuat mereka lebih excited yaitu misalnya membuat akses. Itu kan kemarin saya tunjukan seharusnya lanjutannya dikasi pertanyaan tapi pertanyaan itu harus dijawab setelah mereka melakukan gerakan tertentu satu group semuanya. Jadi misalnya ada yang orang yang lagi menari-nari mereka untuk menjawab pertanyaannya mereka harus berdiri semua serentak menari-nari dulu baru menjawab pertanyaannya. Nah kalau begini anak-anak yang tadinya ogahogahan, ngantuk, atau apa, karna dia akan dimarahi oleh teman kelompoknya karna kalau ada satu yang masih tertinggal di kursi masih belum berdiri dia tidak akan mendapat akses. Kamu kan tau anak-anak begitu game, competisi itu selalu enthusiastic ya kan itu to arise the enthusiasm as well. Interviewer: Ya berdasarkan hasil observasi yang kemarin lagi bagaimanakah respon atau minat para siswa terhadap penggunaan teknik-teknik yang tadi bu? Apakah ada perbedaan yang nampak ketika ibu menggunakan teknik tersebut? Interviewee: Ya karena saya bu Andri tu sering ya menggunakan teknik-teknik permainan. Saya itu permainan dari apa saja di TV dari baca buku itu yang diterapkan. Nah saya pikir pasti akan membawa dampak positive bagi siswa itu tadi kalau itu memang misalnya game mereka kan sudah sangat-sangat tired of sitting or hearing so mereka harus melakukan sesuatu supaya tidak sleepy tidak ngantuk dan mereka akan lebih termotifasi untuk mengikuti karna itu tadi group work tadi mereka ngga ada kesempatan aku ogah-ogahan diseneni nanti dimarahin sama groupnya. Pasti ada dampaknya disitu. Karena saya pernah mencoba kalau saya hanya menjelaskan sesuatu yang serius satu aja poin grammatical point mereka easy come easy go gitu hanya hearing gitu. Interviewer: Menjadi lupa gitu. Interviewee: Lupa dan… Interviewer: Tidak memahami. Interviewee: Dia mungkin ada yang sibuk apa kek sibuk dreaming apa day dreaming gitu kita ngga tahu. Interviewer: Apakah ada yang ingin ibu tambahkan lagi bu? Interviewee: Ya memang bu Andri bilang kalau apalagi kalau anak yang baru mau jadi guru yang baru itu biasanya saya selalu katakan atau mungkin untuk teaching practicum pertama 48

kamu harus bisa memenangkan hati to win students’ heart get acquainted first create intimacy with the students. Kalau mereka sudah melakukan itu anak-anak mau dibawa kemana dengan teknik apa saja itu akan okay, karena mereka sudah ada hubungan secara emotional dulu. Kalau pertama-tama sudah jaim menjaga jarak seperti itu. Jadi kita kadang bisa sebagai facilitator, bisa sebagai concelor, sebagai teacher, bisa sebagai teman sebaya mereka gitu. Saya kalau dalam permainan sering ikut jadi saya lari sana lari sini, kan dalam group ada misalnya how do you like your neighbors, I like them lalu rebutan kursi menjawab pertanyaan. Jadi bisa memakai semua available games adapted into this jadi menjawab pertanyaan tidak hanya ni number one kamu, number two kamu, ngga gitu jadi anak harus mengerjakan sesuatu dulu baru bisa jawab. Jadi sebetulnya sama intinya bahwa anak kalau didalam suatu tujuan instructionalnya siswa mampu menjawab pertanyaan tentang atau mungkin detail information dari apa gitu ya. Nah itu dengan yang diberikan di buku aja jawab ditulis sama yang dengan permainan aktifitas itu sebernanya sama tujuannya tapi anak kan bisa mendapatkan fun, intimacy between friends with teacher gitu. Interviewer: Jadi lebih menguntungkan Interviewee: Iya tapi it needs a lot of time to prepare. Not only time but energy not to prepare but energy to conduct to as well. Interviewer: Jadi guru harus lebih bekerja keras kalau menggunakan active learning. Interviewee: Oh ya pasti Jadi saya minimal tidur itu jam 12, jam 1, jam 3 sekarang lebih molor. Terutama untuk create juga power point. Power point itu kan sesuatu visual yang harus ada karna anak kalau hanya mendengarkan hilang cepat. Interviewer: Iya. Ada lagi yang mau ditambahkan bu? Interviewee: Udah. Interviewer: Oke sekian untuk interview kita hari ini terima kasih untuk kesempatannya. Interviewee: Sama-sama.


Interviewer: Selamat siang bu nama saya Dacia ini interview yang kedua kali bersama bu Dani untuk menanyakan hasil observasi hari ini. Langsung saja pada pertanyaan intinya ya bu. Berdasarkan hasil observasi saya hari ini saya menyimpulkan bahwa ibu menggunakan dua teknik yang pertama small group dan yang ke dua questioning. Apakah ibu setuju? Interviewee: Iya setuju memang itu yang saya gunakan.

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Interviewer: Apakah ada teknik lain yang mungkin mau di tambahkan? Interviewee: Oh itu mungkin tambah game itu saja. Interviewer: Sebenarnya tujuan apa yang hendak dicapai dari pengajaran menggunakan teknikteknik tersebut tadi bu? Interviewee: Jadi anak-anak bisa menganalisa tenses yang ada di real life. Itu kan ada diteks dan mereka harus menganalisa sendiri mana yang apakah itu harus memakai past atau present dan apakah kalau past itu yang pakai pastnya simple apa continues. Itu mereka harus bisa menganalisa sendiri. Interviewer: Itu secara umum ya bu. Kalau dari spesifiknya misalnya small group sendiri tujuannya apa bu? Interviewee: Jadi teman yang tidak mengatahui sesuatu tenses mereka bisa bertanya kepada teman yang lain jadi sperti apa ya transfer knowledge. Interviewer: Jadi students bisa bekerja sama dengan temannya. Interviewee: Iya jadi saling mengisi, yang tiak bisa itu tanya ke yang bisa Interviewer: Untuk question sendiri dengan games itu tujuannya apa bu? Questioning seperti yang tadi ibu menanyakan “ini tensesnya apa?” Interviewee: Itu untuk mengecek apakah mereka sudah benar atau tidak dan pengetahuan mereka sudah sampai dimana? Interviewer: Untuk gamesnya bu tujuannya? Interviewee: Eh mereka biar tidak bosan saja. Biar mereka bisa lebih mengenal saja sperti itu. Interviewer: Lebih memahami gitu ya bu. Interviewee: Iya Interviewer: Bagaimanakah respon atau minat para siswa terhadap penggunakan teknik tersebut yang tadi sudah ibu gunakan? Apakah ada perbedaan yang nampak ketika ibu menggunakan teknik tersebut? Interviewee: Ya, perbedaannya adalah ketika menggunakan teknik tadi mereka lebih konsentrasi untuk mengerjakan apa yang ada di dalam. Kalau mereka individu sperti itu kadang-kadang mereka mau tanya ke temenya itu nanti malah jadi berisik. Kalau itu tadi mereka relative lebih tenang, dan mereka relative lebih tertata seperti itu. Interviewer: Ada yang mau ditambahkan lagi bu? 50

Interviewee: Saya rasa sudah. Interviewer: Jadi dari hasil observasi saya hari ini bisa saya simpulkan bahwa penggunaan tiga teknik yang tadi game, questioning, dan group itu membantu anak-anak untuk terus memahami materi yang diberikan dan bisa bekerja sama dengan temannya. Interviewee: Iya begitu. Interviewer: Terimakasih bu. Interviewee: Iya sama-sama.

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THE USE OF ACTIVE LEARNING TECHNIQUES IN THE TEACHING OF GRAMMAR FOR SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

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