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An Article

IMPROVING THE STUDENTS SPEAKING ABILITY THROUGH

CONTEXTUAL TEACHING AND LEARNING (CTL)
IN THE SECOND GRADE OF SMA N 1 SEDAYU
IN THE ACEDEMIC YEAR
OF 2013/2014

DESSI ASTHARINA
29002097

Approved by the Consultant

TMA. Kristanto, S.Pd., M. Hum.

IMPROVING THE STUDENTS SPEAKING ABILITY THROUGH

CONTEXTUAL TEACHING AND LEARNING (CTL) IN THE SECOND
GRADE OF SMA N 1 SEDAYU IN THE ACEDEMIC YEAR OF 2013/2014

Dessi Astharina / 29002097

TMA. Kristanto, S.pd., M.Hum
dessiastharina@ymail.com

English Language Education Program, Teacher Training and Education Faculty,

Sarjanawiyata Tamansiswa University, Yogyakarta 2013

Abstract
The objectives of this research are to improve the students speaking ability
through CTL, and to explain the strengths and weaknesses of CTL. This research is
classroom action research. The data were collected through observation, interview,
questionnaire, and speaking test. The analysis technique is descriptive qualitative that
involves the activities of reducing, displaying, and concluding. The writer used pre,
while, and post-teaching stages. The CTL method was applied in while-teaching
stage. The strengths of CTL are; the students were more active, braver, confident, got
more motivation, easier to comprehend and very enthusiastic in learning speaking.
The weakness of CTL is that the teacher was difficult to control the students.
Key words: action research, contextual teaching and learning, speaking

A. Introduction

English has been decided as one of local-content subject at the elementary

school in the fourth since 1994, fifth and sixth year (Depdikbud, 1994:30) In line with
GBPP (Garis- Garis Besar Pedoman Pengajaran/ The General Instruction of
Teaching), the teaching-learning process of English language is focus on the four
skills, that are; listening, speaking, reading, and writing.One of the four skills above
which plays a significant role in mastering English is speaking. As a skill, speaking is
the most used skill by people rather than the three other skills. According to Jack
Richards (2007:1), learners consequently often evaluate their success in language
learning as well as the effectiveness of their English course on the basis of how well
they feel they have improved in their spoken proficiency.
In teaching English at the second grade of SMA N 1 Sedayu, the teacher
teaches the students traditionally. The traditional method influences the teaching of
speaking in which there are many problems appear. In this paper, the researcher limits
the subject matters because of the limited of time, knowledge, energy, and fund. The
researcher will only focus on the improving the students speaking ability through in
the second grade of SMA N 1 Sedayu and to find the strengths and weaknesses of
Contextual Teaching and Learning in teaching speaking in the second grade of SMA
N 1 Sedayu. Based on the limitation of the problem above, this research studies the
implementation of Contextual Teaching and Learning in teaching speaking.

B. Theoretical Review
1. Speaking

There are the reasons of choosing topic: (a) Speaking should be mastered as
one of the four language skills and must be taught effectively through the
classroom activities. (b) Teaching speaking should apply some good techniques to
make students speak English well, (c)There should be effort to eliminate the
students problem in speaking Tarigan (1981:15) defines that, speaking is a skill of
conveying words or sounds of articulation to express or to deliver ideas, opinions,
or feelings. Byrne (1998:8) states that, oral communication (or speaking) is a two
way process between speaker and listener and involves the productive skill of
speaking and the receptive skill of understanding. According to Richards and
Renandya (2007:205-206), there are four factors that affect student oral
communication ability that are age or maturational constraints, aural medium,
socio-cultural factors and affective factors
2. Contextual Teaching and Learning (CTL)
a. The Definition of CTL

There are many methods of language teaching that may be selected for
teaching speaking skill. One of them that are appropriate in developing speaking
skill is Contextual Teaching and Learning (CTL). According to Johnson (2002:25):
CTL is an educational process that aims to help student see meaning in the
academic subject with the context of their daily lives, that is, with the context of
their personal, social, and cultural circumstances. To achieve this aim, the system
encompasses the following eight components: making meaningful connections,
doing significant work, self-regulated learning, and collaborating, critical and
creative thinking, nurturing the individual, reaching high standards, and using
authentic assessments.

In addition, Berns and Errickson ( 2007:27) stated that,

Contextual teaching and learning is a conception of teaching and learning

that helps teachers relate subject matter content to real world situations and
motivates students to make connections between knowledge and its applications to
their lives as family members, citizens, and workers and engage in the hard work
that learning requires.
From the statement above, it can be said that CTL is the method that helps
students relate subject matter content to real world situations and motivate students
to make connections between knowledge and its applications to their lives as
family members, citizens, and workers and engage in the hard work that learning
requires. John Dewey, as quoted by Donald freeman (1999:34), said that what an
individual has learned in the way of knowledge and skills in one situation becomes
an instrument of understanding and dealing effectively with the situation which
follows. The process goes on as long as life and learning continue. The writer tries
to give a solution for the teacher to implement this method.
b. The Principles of CTL
1) Constructivism

Constructivism is the individuals processing of stimuli from the

environment and the resulting cognitive structure that produce adaptive
behavior rather than the stimuli themselves. In the classroom teaching
learning process, the application of constructivism are applied in five step
of learning that are activating knowledge, acquiring knowledge,
understanding knowledge, applying knowledge and reflecting on
knowledge. This model of learning emphasizes meaning making through
active participation in situated context socially, culturally, historically, and
politically.
2) Inquiry

Inquiry is asking, asking something valuable that related to the topic

discussed. Inquiry is defined as a seeking for truth, information or
knowledge.
3) Questioning
Questioning is the mother of contextual teaching and learning, the
beginning of knowledge, the heart of knowledge and the important aspect
of learning.
4) Learning Community

In learning community, the result of learning can be gotten from gathering

others and also can be taken from sharing with friends, other groups, and
between make out person and not. Actually, learning community has the
meaning as follows: 1).Group of learning which communicate to share the
idea and experience, 2).Working together to solve the problem and 3).The
responsibility of each member of learning group.

5) Modeling

Basically, modeling is verbalization of ideas, teacher demonstrates to

students to study and acting what the teacher need to be implemented by
students. Modeling activity can be summarized into demonstrates the
teachers opinion and demonstrates how does the teacher want the student
to learn.

6) Reflections

Reflection is the ways of thinking about what the students have learned
and thinking about what the students have done in the past.
7) Authentic Assessment

According to Harmer (2002:100), authentic assessment is a procedure of

achievement in the CTL. Assessments of students performance can come
from the teacher and the students. Authentic assessment is the process of
collecting the data that can give the description of student learning
development.

C. Research Method

In this research, the writer used classroom action research (CAR). Mc Niff
(1988:27) in Arikunto (2006:102) states that action research is a form of selfreflective inquiry undertaken by participants in a social (including educational)
situation in order to improve the rationality and justice of their own social or
educational practices as well as their understanding of these practices and the
situations in which these practices are carried out. It consists of planning,
acting/implementing, observing, and reflecting. Furthermore, Kasbolah (2001:15-17)
states that there are four characteristics of action research; first, the action research is
carried out by practitioners rather than outside researcher. In this research, the
classroom action research was carried out by the researcher and English teacher as the
collaborator. Second, action research is the systematic study attempting to overcome
real problems. In this Classroom Action Research (CAR), the writer used the CAR
principles to collect the data. The research consists of two cycles in which each cycle
consist of four elements.

1. Place and Time of the Research

The place of the research was SMA N 1 Sedayu. The research was done from
August up to September 2013. The object of the study was the second grade
students of SMA N 1 Sedayu, especially class XI IPA 1, consist of 30 students.
2. Research Instrument

Arikunto (2010:192) states, Instrument penelitian adalah alat yang digunakan

pada waktu penelitian dengan menggunakan suatu metode untuk mendapatkan data.
It means that research instrument is a tool or facility that is used by the researcher by
using certain method in collecting the data in order to get the easier and better
research. The instruments that are used in this research are (a) observation guidelines,
(b) questionnaire, (c) interview guidelines, (d) speaking test.
3. Data Collection Techniques

Techniques of collected the data about the implementation of Contextual

Teaching and Learning in the teaching speaking were (a) observation guidelines, (b)
interview guidelines, (c) questionnaire, (d) speaking test
4. Data Analysis Technique

The researcher conducts the action research of teaching speaking using Contextual
Teaching and Learning in the second grade of SMA N 1 Sedayu. These are steps in
analyzing the data based on Miles and Huberman (1984: 170); (a) reducing the data,
(b) displaying the data, (c) drawing conclusion .

D. Finding and Discussions

There were the problems faced by the second grade of SMA N 1 Sedayu in
speaking. The problem faced by the students in learning speaking were: (a) The

students found difficulties in speaking English with the right grammar, (b) The
students found difficulties in making sentences and dialogue with the right grammar,
(c) The students were afraid to speak English because of their less vocabulary, (d)
The students seldom practiced speaking English in the class, (e) The students found
difficulties to find the meaning of words in the dialogue. The researcher used three
steps in applied CTL in teaching speaking, the steps were pre-teaching, whileteaching, and post-teaching. The description each steps can be seen as follows.
1. Pre-teaching

In this step, the teacher greeted the students, check the students attendance list and
start the lesson by praying together.
2. While-teaching
In applying CTL, the teacher used the principles of CTL as a guide in teaching
process. They are constructivism, modeling, inquiry, learning community
questioning, reflecting, and authentic assessment. Those are the stages in while
teaching:
a. Constructivism
In this stage, the teacher constructs the students knowledge by asked them
about their experience which is appropriate with the lesson materials.
b. Modeling
In modeling stage, the teacher gave the example of learning materials.
c. Inquiry
In this stage, the teacher gave students a task as lesson materials, and told
them that they could use any sources to answer it.

d. Learning community

In learning community, the students work with their group. The aim of this
activity is they could solve the problem together and work together.
e. Questioning

In solving the problem, the students could ask their friends. It means that they
shared their idea. In questioning, they students also ask teacher if they had
difficulties.
f. Reflection
Teacher did a reflection by a make conclusion from the result of discussion.
g. Authentic assessment
The teacher not only assesses the students work sheet but also the students
activity in doing the task.
3. Post- teaching
Post teaching is the last steps in teaching and learning process. In this step, the
teacher closed the activity by praying and greeting.
E. Conclusions

The results of this action were, the students get improvements in their
vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar, fluency, and comprehension. In this research,
the researcher used three steps in teaching speaking using CTL, they were preteaching, while-teaching, and post-teaching. In pre-teaching, the learning process was
greeting to the students, in while-teaching, it was the stages which applied Contextual
Teaching and Learning (CTL) method. There were seven steps in applying to teach
speaking in the second grade of SMA N 1 Sedayu, they were constructivism, inquiry,
questioning, learning community, modeling, reflection, and authentic assessment. In
post-test activity, the teacher closed the teaching and learning process by praying and
greeting to the students.
F. Bibliography

Berns , Robert G. and Patricia M. Erickson. 2007. Contextual Teaching and

Learning: Preparing Students for the New Economy. New York.
Logman.
B. Miles Matthew and Michael Huberman.1994. Qualitative data Analysis..New
Delhi: Sage Publication.
Donn, Byrne. 1998. Teaching Oral English. New York: Longman.

Elaine B.Johnson. 2002. Contextual Teaching and Learning: What It Is and Why Its
Here to Stay. Thousand Oaks: Corwin Press, Inc.
Freeman, Donald. 1999. Insight Into Individual Development In The Contexts Of
School. Singapore: SEAMEO Regional Language Center.
Harmer, Jeremy. 2002. The Practice of English Language Teaching. New York:
Longman.
Jack C Richard and Willy A Renandya. 2007. Methodology in Language Teaching:
An Anthology of Current Practice. Amerika: Cambridge University Press.
Kasbolah Kasihani. 2001. Penelitian Tindakan Kelas. Malang. Universitas Negeri
Malang.
McNiff, Jean. 1988. Action Research: principles and Practice. Macmillan: Macmillan
Education Ltd.
Suharsimi Arikunto. 2010. Prosedur Penelitian Suatui Praktek. Jakarta: PT Rineka
Cipta.
Tarigan Henry G.1981. Berbicara
Bandung: Angkasa.

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