TEACHING SPEAKING USING NATURAL APPROACH FOR SEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS OF SMP 1 DEMAK
Roif Ahmad
Diponegoro University
[email protected]
Abstract
This study is aimed to explore the use of Natural Approach (NA) in teaching speaking. It is concerned with how the procedures in implementing natural approach and problems faced by teacher in the classroom. This study employed descriptive qualitative design in which the data were gained from observation, interview and document study. Those data were analyzed by using three major phases of analysis: reduction, data display, and verification. This study revealed that the teacher used three stages in teaching speaking using Natural Approach. Those stages included comprehension (preproduction), early production, and extending production.
Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengeksplorasi penggunaan Natural Approach (NA) dalam mengajarkan bicara. Hal ini fokus pada prosedur dalam menerapkan metode Natural Approach (NA) dan kendala yang dihadapi guru di dalam kelas. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode deskriptif kualitatif yang mana data diperoleh dari observasi, wawancara dan penelitian dokumen. Data tersebut dianalisa menggunakan tiga fase analisis yaitu reduksi, penyajian data, dan verifikasi. Penelitian ini menemukan bahwa guru menggunakan tiga tahap pembelajaran dalam menggunakan metode NA yaitu pra-produksi, produksi awal, dan memperpanjang produksi.
Keywords: Teaching Speaking, Natural Approach, Young Learners.
INTRODUCTION
Tell me, I forget
Show me, I remember
Involve me, I understand (ancient Chinese proverb)
Speaking is one of four language skills which is taught in the classroom. It is a productive skill in which using verbal production as means to share idea or feeling. Most students learn foreign language aimed to communicate with other people fluently and accurately. Krashen and Terrel (1995: 57) outlined that Speaking is of course a primary goal of most language students. It is also important in that it stimulates conversation which in turn will encourage more comprehensible input. Speaking also triggers someone to accept comprehensible input.
Teaching speaking is not easy for the beginners. It is caused by many factors, those are vocabularies mastery, grammar mastery, and sometimes caused from inside of learners. For instance, they are not confident to speak up in the early real interaction. In line with this, Bailey and savage (as quoted Murcia, 2001) claimed that Speaking is an "activity requiring the integration of many subsystems….all these factors combine to make speaking a second or foreign language a formidable task for language learners….yet for many people, speaking is seen as the central skill"
Selected method seems become the most important thing to improve language learners. There are many methods of teaching foreign language such as Grammar Translation Method (GTM), direct method, audio langual method (ALM), situational language teaching, community language learning (CLL), total physical response (TPR), natural approach (NA), silent way, suggestopedia, and communicative language teaching (CLT). There are no the best method for teaching all language skills but a method might become the best one if it brings the class into meaningful learning, helpful setting, purposefull classroom. Therefore, a teacher should slowly consider what method is apropriate for the students before entering the class.
As mentioned earlier that there are many methods of language teaching, the researcher is interested to investigate the implementation of Natural Approach for teaching speaking. This study is concerned with how the procedures in implementing natural approach and problems faced by teacher.
The underlying theory of Natural Approach, language acquisition in the classroom, was introduced by Krashen and Terrell. It can be implemented to all level from elementary to advance class with particular other target language. This method allows learners to learn foreign or second language much as the same way as acquiring mother tongue and grammatical rules are ignored. Krashen and Terrel(1995:58) stated that The general goal of natural approach is the ability to communicate with native speakers of the target language. Particular objectives are also specified in communicative terms.
Language acquisition in the classroom (Natural Approach) is built by three characteristics. The first is all activities in the classroom have to foster students to acquire language, might students' task activity is submitted as homework. Second is that grammar correction and speech error are ignored directly. The last one is learners can communicate by mixing both native language and foreign language. Classroom activities are intended to communicate much within the topic selected by the teacher instead grammatical understanding (learning the pattern of language). The assumption is that grammar will put into communication setting. By this way, learners will communicate fluently and grammatical accuracy ( Krashen and Terrell, 1995: 71).
Furthermore, Krashen and Terrel (1995: 75-85) also proposed three early stages of activities in the natural classroom setting. Those are (1) comprehension (preproduction), (2) early production, and (3) extending production.
Comprehension (preproduction), before teachers force students to produce utterance, it is important for teachers to have activities in which learners receive language input. The input should be easy and understandable. If necessary the input kept the learners motivated. In this stage, the role of teacher according to Krashen and Terrell is to generate a constant flow of language input in context which enables the learner comprehend the message. The techniques can be used in this stage are Total Physical Response (TPR), using visual such as photos, magazine, and using physical characteristic.
Early production, the transition after preproduction is early production that allows students to produce simplest utterance or even non verbal production. The students can respond with gesture, names, single word (yes or no questions), or phrases (E.g. the bird flying).
Extending production, learners produce utterance much than in the early production. Some activities should be facilitated by teachers to encourage learners communicate as much as possible. Open-ended dialogues, prefabricated patterns, open sentences are several activities can be applied. The topic selected by teachers should be authentic and based on their purpose. The teachers select the topic by considering students' background knowledge, interest, and motivation.
RESEARCH METHOD
The design of this study is descriptive qualitative. This design was selected because the purpose of this study is to describe the implementation of teaching speaking using Natural Approach. In line with this, Best (1981: 107) stated that descriptive research concerned with the explanation of the status of some phenomenon at a particular time.
The data of this study was gained through three ways; there were observation, interview and document study. An observation means an activity to observe how certain teaching method are employed in the classroom, how classroom are organized, and how students respond to the classroom environment. In this case, the researchers also used an interview to the teachers. It was implemented to gain deep information how teaching speaking applied and how problems were encountered. Moreover, document study used to get information about how well teaching speaking prepared by teachers. The document that used is referred to lesson plan made by the teachers.
To analyze the data, the researchers used three steps namely data reduction, data display, and verification. It is in line with Miles and Huberman (as cited in Sugiyono, 2010) there are steps in data analysis; namely: data reduction, data display, and verification. Data reduction means summarizing, choosing the subject matter, focusing on things that are important, looking for themes and patterns (Sugiyono, 2010).
FINDING AND DISCUSSION
The object of this study was the students of seventh grade. They had few hours of english class before this approach applied so that not many vocabularies were mastered. Teacher used three stages namely preproduction, early production and extending production. In observation activity, the researcher recorded the activity. A few conversations will show later on and the activity summed up as follows:
No
Stage
Method
Classroom activities
Time
(m)
1
Comprehension
(Preproduction)
Total Physical Responses (TPR)
Teacher touch parts of her body and said what she touch
Learners followed the teacher's instruction
It was done for several times.
Teacher asked what she touched "what is this" then learners answered "ear, nose, etc".
Teacher commanded learners to do what she said. E.g. touch your nose!
20'
2
Early production
Questioning single word answer
Open sentence model
Teacher asked to learners then they answered with single word answer. E.g. teacher's question: "is aulia's hair black?"
Students' Answer : "yes"
Teacher provided simple task for learners. E.g.
aulia's skin is _______
20'
3
Extending production
Pairs work
teacher put students in pairs
passed out the picture in pairs
students described people appearance with their partner
30'
4
Eror Correction
teacher corrected the erors and gave positive things in the lesson
10'
Comprehension (Preproduction)
In this stage, teacher used Total Physical Responses (TPR) as technique to comprehend language input. This technique commands students to actually act out what teacher said. They are not expected to speak up even one word. No verbal response is enough for them. The point is that they can participate in the language activity. The reason using this method is that teacher wanted to connect language with a context or real word. The context dealt with part of their body in which is easy to touch by students. A few conversations as scripted bellow:
(In the early season, teacher drilled students while she said what she touched)
Teacher: "hair" (while touched)
Students: "hair" (repeated)
Teacher: "ear" (while touched)
Students: "ear" (repeated)
(Gradually until all parts of body mentioned, then continued to the next activity)
Teacher: "what is this?" (while touched her ear)
Students: "ear"
Teacher: "then, what is this?" (While touched nose)
Students: "nose"
(It was done for several minutes, continued to next season, teacher commanded students then they acted out)
Teacher: "touch your nose"
Students: they acted what teacher commanded while keep silent.
Teacher: "touch your neck"
Students: they acted what teacher commanded while keep silent.
Conversation between teacher and students above explained that there were three seasons, drilling, confirming, and commanding in receiving comprehensible input. Drilling was to introduce the name of things and how to pronounce them. It was done with very slowly pronunciation. While confirming was to confirm that they were still remember or not about what they learnt previously, the last commanding was to know that they focused on entire attention on comprehension of what is said. If they acted out based correct instruction, it could be said that they were able to participate language activity without respond using verbal means. Parts of the body could be taught through TPR for instance, touch your nose, touch your neck, clap your hand, close your eyes, step your foot, slap your left leg, stand up, turn right your head, give your fingers, shake your hand with friend. Etc.
Some problems also found in this stage. Several students pronounced incorrect spelling in the early season for example, when teacher said "hair" but they said "hir", or "her". There was no speech correction directly from the teacher by assumption it would be corrected naturally. In the next season, few students still forgot the name of part of body when teacher asked them. For example, teacher asked the name of neck then they answered cheek. This situation required teacher to repeat her question until they answered correctly. Incorrect respond also acted by students in the TPR technique. When teacher commanded them to "turn right the hand", some of them acted with turning head to left. Then the instruction was repeated until they acted out correctly.
Early Production
Students can not produce speech when they are not ready yet and teacher can not force them to speak up. The comprehension language input had already done, it meant that despite of not many vocabularies were received. In this stage, students are not forced to speak much and fluently. One or two words respons are good enough for their language development. The researcher had already sricpted a minute of conversation between teacher and students in classroom activity.
Teacher: "what is his name?" (while pointed a student)
Students: "zulfikar"
Teacher: "is he short or tall?"
Students: "tall sir"
Teacher: "is his hair black?" (While pointed a student)
Students: "yes sir"
Teacher: "is his hair straight and long?" (While pointed a student)
Students: "no"
Teacher: "so what is his hair?"
Students: "stand up"
Teacher: "who is the hair stands up?"
Students: "bambang, yusril, hadi, ridho, mizan".
The conversation above can be analyzed that teacher always asked students contextually by means she used something existed in the classroom. Therefore, students could see figure in the real life not just picture. Activities in this stage involved asking Simple question which started by using Wh-question and students answered with short answer. Then teacher moved on using either-or questions. Later, yes-no questions were asked to students.
Other activity was open sentence model. Teacher provided students a picture, consist of boy and girl. There were open sentence model under the picture then they answered the task. The name of the boy is (ardian), his hair is (short), he goes to(school). Then the girls' name is(aulia). Her skin is (white), and she also goes to (school).
Students error happened in this stage. Some students kept silence when teacher asked to them. They might not understand with the question or they were less motivated joining the class. The next eror was that students answered incorrectly. For instance, teacher expected with yes-no answer, but they answered the name of student or others. Correction was immediately implemented by repeating question one or more until they answered correctly or they gave respons to teacher.
Extending Production
the last is extending production. In this stage, students is expected to produce utterance more than one word and short phrase is good enough for them. It distinguishes to previous stage that requires students to produce minimum one word. Students generally need to give opportunity to use their oral ability. There are many activities can be used. Those are according to the target language that teacher wants to achieve. Such activities as open-ended dialogue, problem solving using chart, games, and pair/group discussion.
Based on the observation, teacher used pairs work to give students oral activity. She put students in pairs and passed out picture one person to the pairs then they did open-ended dialogue in pairs related to the picture. For example, one student asked "would you like to describe his hair, please" then a partner responded "short black hair". "What does he wear?","White shirt and short red trousers".
The researcher also found students' problem in this stage. They spoke both Indonesian and English. It was common error for the students because they were limited in vocabularies. Teacher helped them immediately as language input.
Error Correction
Before closing the class, teacher needs to give error correction to the students. It functions to avoid error in the next days. Error correction is not necessary given directly by teacher since it will make students ashamed to produce much utterance. The correction included how to pronounce the word, the lexical item, and grammatical item. They generally produced limited error because they only produced one to three words in the whole activities. In addition, teacher needs also to give positive feedback for students in order to motivate them.
The role of teacher and students
In the teaching learning process especially for young learners, teacher has important role starting from input provider, material presenter, and activity supervisor. In addition, teacher also needs to improve students' motivation, self-confident, and positive thinking. In other hand, students take role as passive participant. They commonly receive input, accept material and join activity.
Teachers' role is vary depends on the stages of activities in the classroom. At the comprehension stage, teacher is primary actor to give language input and to ensure that the input is acceptable for the student. In this stage, teacher is a central focus so that she has to decide the appropriate material and how it is presented. The following stage is early production. The role of teacher is rather same as the previous stage. Teacher provides picture or realia as media to facilitate learning process. The final stage is extending production. Teacher provides pairs work or group to require students' involvement and trigger them to produce more. Teacher takes role peripherally than earlier one.
Students' role at comprehension stage is passive. They are assumed that they just receive the input and respond by acting out the command. The important point is that students are conscious to expand vocabularies that they accept. The final stage is students involved in learning activities as like pairs work, drama, and group. Learning target will be successful if they are motivated to join those activities.
CONCLUSION
Natural Approach or most people say language acquisition in the classroom gives students to speak up than traditional grammar exercises because the point of this approach based on activities is to build communicative competence. The activities can be started from comprehension (preproduction) and then early production and finally extending production. In the learning process, teacher is not necessary to correct students' error directly but it must be other chance for instance, few minutes before closing the class. Students' error in this stage is limited because they do not produce much utterance.
REFERENCES
Best, John W. 1981. Research In Education. USA: Prentice Hall International.
Krashen, Stephen D and Terrel Tracy D. 1995. The Natural Approach: Language Acquisition in the Classroom. London: Prentice Hall International.
Murcia, Marianne C. 2001. Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language. USA: Heinle & Heinle.
Sugiyono. 2010. Metode Penelitian Kuantitatif, Kualitatif, dan R & D. Bandung: Alfabeta.
