Use of context approach in the foreign language teaching in the senior grades

Context approach in teaching English language in Senior grades. Definition, characteristics and components of metod. Strategies and principles of context approach. The practical implementation of Context approach in teaching writing in senior grades.

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Язык английский
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Principle of Self-Regulation. Self-regulation means everything is set up, maintained, and recognized by yourself. The principle motivates the students to show all of their potentials. Moreover, it also explores them to get the new talents. The teacher should give them belief by giving responsibility for taking the decision, behavior, choice, plan, solution etc.

Understanding the notion of self-regulation is important for teachers because teaching requires problem-solving and invention. Teachers face problems and challenges that are complex and rarely straightforward. As Jonson points out, teaching teachers facts and rigid decision-making models is less effective than nurturing within teachers the capacity and skills to deal with the difficult problems of the real world. It is ironic that teachers are often taught with pedagogical methods that are contrary to the principles that they are being taught, such as direct instruction on problem-based learning or cooperative learning. It can be advocated that teachers should be given the same contexts, challenges, and choices that are beneficial for students and we agree wholeheartedly. They describe a model of professional development called "collaborative innovation” in which teachers work together to adapt, invent, evaluate, discuss, and revise instruction that fits their own classrooms and contexts, including such factors as students, time, buildings, resources, accountability pressures, and parents. In our view, collaborative innovation provides opportunities for teachers to become self-regulated, strategic, and motivated themselves as they invent their methods of instructing and assessing students which mimic the processes of collaborative innovation that they want their students to discover and create. It is a professional development model of the co-construction of meaningful experiences.

1.3 Teaching English productive skills through Context approach

Writing is one of the four language skills: reading, writing, speaking and listening. Writing and speaking are considered to be productive skills that means, they involve producing language rather than receiving it.

There are various ways how to define writing. Oxford Dictionary defines writing as: "the representation of language in a textual medium through the use of a set of signs or symbols (known as a writing system)." [9,722]

On the other hand, in The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Writings Systems, Florian Coulmas defines a writing system as: "a set of visible or tactile signs used to represent units of language in a systematic way, with the purpose of recording messages which can be retrieved by everyone who knows the language in question and the rules by virtue of which its units are encoded in the writing system." [10, 545]

Writing has served different functions in society. It is typically used for the transmission for cultural knowledge, keeping records of historical facts or scientific developments, codifying laws etc. In everyday life, writing is used for sharing information (newspapers), for entertainment (comics, computer games), for social contact (e-mails, SMSs) and for action (telephone directories).

While writing, we have to distinguish between accuracy and fluency. Writing accurately involves spelling correctly, forming letters correctly, writing legibly, using correct pronunciation, using correct layouts and choosing the right vocabulary [11,]. We also have to use grammar correctly, joining sentences correctly and using paragraphs correctly.

As it was mentioned earlier, when we write we communicate. To communicate means: e. g. express somebody's experience, respond to greeting or invitation. Therefore we can state, that both accuracy and fluency are very important in writing and while teaching it we have to strongly focus on both of them.

The goal of a language teacher is to enable students to produce fluent, understandable, accurate and appropriate written English. But this is a hard work for English teachers in mixed ability classes where the students are on the different level.

According to G. Broughton, English teachers can use three stages of writing. They are controlled writing, guided writing and free writing [12,118].

Controlled writing. It is sensible to distinguish between writing exercises in which the final product is linguistically determined by the teacher and exercises in which the final content is determined. Thus, by controlled writing G. Broughton understands e. g. exercises in which a paragraph with blank is to be filled in which picture prompts or memory of a model presented by the teacher, leads to reproducing more or less exactly the same final product as each other.

Guided writing. A composition support in which the teacher provides the situation and helps the class to prepare the written work is guided writing. Each piece of work is different in the language used.

Free writing. By free writing we understand a writing in which the title is provided and everything is done by the students. Further, G. Broughton claims that to be successful in teaching writing skills it is necessary to make sure that the students start with controlled writing and when they become more confident in working with controlled exercises more and more guided writing exercises should be available.

Another aspect that English teachers should be aware of is functional style or register. Therefore, the teachers must select the conventions and style which are most likely to be useful to the students, if they want to be successful. But the great deal of sensitivity which students need in using language develops unconsciously from spinoff from reading.

In teaching writing skill teacher is an essential factor. Before giving a task to students, the teacher should check whether the task is appropriate for the needs of the students, the task is within the level of the students, the task is just above their level, so they will be really challenged or whether the task is enjoyable.

In dealing with written work G. Broughton suggest the teacher to grade the task in following ways (these strategies help the teacher to organize lesson and can be used in any combination):

a) limit the length of the written material to be produced;

b) increase the amount of class preparation for the task;

c) provide guidance on the final form of the written work, for example with picture prompts or memory prompt;

d) encourage students to collaborate in the actual process of writing;

e) allow cross-checking between the draft stage and the writing of the final product;

f) limit the complexity of the writing task itself;

g) demand that the task be completed either slowly or quickly [12,121].

On the other hand, Jeremy Harmer in his book How to Teach Writing distinguishes between writing for learning and writing for writing [13, 25].

In writing for learning students write predominantly to spread their learning of grammar and vocabulary of the language. Further Harmer divides writing for learning into reinforcement writing, preparation writing, activity writing and reinforcement writing [13, 29].

It is a simple form where students are asked to write sentences using grammar they have recently learnt, write paragraphs or longer compositions to practice recently focused-on aspects of language. Students also can be asked to write a story about something that happened in the past (to practise past tenses), or to write a description of someone they know to use the character and physical description vocabulary.

The aim of this phase is to give students opportunity to practise and remember new language they have learnt better. The act of writing these exercises makes them think about the new vocabulary or grammar.

When learning second language sometimes it is more useful to use writing as preparation for some other activities. J. Harmer suggests using preparation writing for example when students are asked to prepare discussion. Writing sentences "gives the students time to think up ideas rather than having to come up with instant fluent opinions, something that many, especially at lower level, find difficult and awkward." [13,33]

Another technique that Harmer suggests to use is for students to talk in groups to prepare their arguments. It is effective for students to make notes which they can use during their discussion. Preparation writing can be a vital help for weaker or shy students who are not so confident to speak immediately [13, 47].

Writing is frequently used with activities that focus on something else such as language practice, acting out or speaking. Activity writing is used with activities in which students are asked to write their dialogue before they act it out. It is helpful for students to plan and write the dialogue before they act it out. Other types are questionnaire-type activities. Groups of students design a questionnaire and then they circulate around the class asking their colleagues the questions they have prepared.

They write down the answers and later students report what they have found out. The aim of activity writing is to use writing to help students to perform other activity but "students need to be able to write to do these activities, but the activities do not teach students to write." [13, 33]

In writing for writing students are able to study written texts to become better writers. Writing for writing includes activities such are writing stories or poems, journals or creating dramatic scenarios. These tasks "force" students to express more personal and more complex thoughts. But this is not easy because most of students feel limited by knowledge of second language and they do not feel so ambitious and do not want to take risks.

When helping students to improve their writing or to become better writers, the teacher plays a very important role. He or she brings the language to the class, supports students when they are stuck or evaluates them. Among the teacher's tasks J. Harmer includes:

1. Demonstrating. When students are involved in writing activities they need to be aware of writing conventions and genre constraints. The task of the teacher is to draw these features to their attention.

2. Motivating and provoking. Sometimes students are stuck while writing and do not know how to start or continue. Then, the teacher's task is to help, stimulate or encourage students and persuade them that writing can be an enjoyable activity. When students do not know what to do, it is good to prepare suggestions for them, rather than having students to think for a long time.

There are several ways how to get students going. One of them is to give students several words they need for starting writing the activity. From time to time, the teacher can give the students several words they need for starting writing the activity as a good way of getting them going.

3. Supporting. Supporting is one of the most important teacher's tasks. Students need a lot of help and reassurance and therefore teachers need to be very supportive when students are writing in the class and be prepared to help students to overcome problems.

4. Responding. By responding J. Harmer understands reacting to the construction and content of the studentsґ written work. Teachers make suggestions for improvement but do not judge or grade the work. The aim is to tell students how well they are doing. The teacher may also make suggestions and comments about the students' use of language.

The teacher might respond by saying how much he/she appreciates reading their work and enter a dialogue with the students. The teacher can also encourage students to look at each other's work and ask for advice or suggestions about how to improve their writing.

5. Evaluation and correction. Many teachers say that to evaluate their students is the hardest work. There are many situations when the students are evaluated. All students want to know how they are doing so far, what is necessary to improve and what standard they have achieved [13, 53].

6. When evaluating tests the teacher indicates what was written well and where the mistakes were made. When the teacher hands back marked work, he/she should get a student to have a look at the errors that are highlighted and try to put them right. By correcting J. Harmer means correcting syntax (word order), concord (grammar agreement), and collocation and word choice.

Feedback is also very important here. When the teacher corrects, he/she actually plays several roles [13, 109]: students see the teacher as the examiner, in fact the teacher takes a role of audience (responds to the ideas), he/she can act as an assistant (helps students with writing), a resource (is available when students need information), an evaluator (says how well the students have done so far) and an editor (helps to select and rearrange the studentsґ writing).

The way the teacher corrects is also significant. Jeremy Harmer suggests seven ways of correction [13, 134]:

1. Selective correction. It means that the teacher does not have to correct everything. The teacher can correct only punctuation, verb tenses, grammar or to concentrate on using appropriate level of formality, using correct paragraphs and so on. It is important to tell students before the writing that the teacher will use this approach.

2. Using marking scales. The idea of this approach is to give marks out of 10 for each category the teacher chooses for students (e. g. grammar, vocabulary or verb tenses). With indications of mistakes this scale helps students to focus on the particular area they need to improve.

3. Using correction symbols. Many teachers use correction symbols. The advantage of this method is that it encourages students to think about the mistakes they have made, in fact, the students correct the mistakes themselves.

4. Reformulation. It is a way how the teacher can show the students to write something more correctly. The teacher shows how he/she would write the incorrect sentences or parts. The student then can compare his/her version with the teacher's one.

5. Referring students to a dictionary or a grammar book. When the mistake is made the teacher can ask a student to go and look the problem up in a dictionary of a grammar book. The advantage of referring students to use dictionaries or grammar books is that it is encouraging students to look at the information with a purpose in mind. The students learn as they correct.

6. Ask me. From time to time it is difficult to explain a mistake on paper. In this case the teacher can ask the students to talk about the problem in face-to-face interaction.

7. Remedial teaching. The aim of remedial teaching is to deal with the most common mistakes that students make. In this case, the correction is effective when the teacher points to the most common mistakes the students made and asks the students to correct the mistakes. The advantage of this way of correcting is that it is anonymous so nobody in the class feels ridiculous.

As it was mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, to be able to spell correctly is significant. English spelling is considered to be quite difficult for learners. The best way how to teach students to spell correctly is to have them read as much as possible.

Extensive reading (e. g. reading short articles) helps students to remember English spelling rules. But this is not the only way and teachers should be more proactive. Give students word formation exercises, let them find out spelling rules or to use many other activities help students not only to learn spelling but also improve it, so they become more familiar with English spelling.

J. Harmer suggests very interesting ideas how to prepare enjoyable tasks for students:

· to work out a rule by looking at the spelling of pair or groups of words;

· dictionary activities - are also suitable for lower level students e. g.: ask students to put a written list of words in an alphabetical order, focus on the spelling of the initial letters of words;

· dictations - there are many alternatives how to write dictation with students. The traditional way is to read a paragraph to the learners. Another version is to write words that students hear on a cassette or they can dictate to each other.running dictation is ideal for spelling practice. Harmer suggests giving points for the correct spelling for each and every word;

· cards - students at lower levels can be given cards with letters (individual letters, digraphs etc.); students have to make words as many as possible from these cards. [14, 48]

To be able to write with correct punctuation is an important skill. Very often we are judged by the quality of what is written. If capital letters, commas, paragraphs bounders, full stops are not used correctly in our writing, we can make a negative impression and our writing can be easily misunderstood. "If we want our students to be good writers in English we need to teach them how to use punctuation conventions correctly." [13, 49]

It means to teach the system of writing at all types of schools. Harmer suggests these procedures for teaching punctuation:

1. Disguised word copying. Students are given a list of words randomly organized and they have to rewrite these words in an alphabetical order.

Other activities are: to give students a list of words they have recently learnt and ask them to write five most favourite and five least favourite words, or to give students several sentences which they have to write in an appropriate column (e. g. like dislike, advantage-disadvantage).

2. Copying from the board. It is probably the most common activity used in classes. But this activity can be turned into a game, too. For example the teacher writes words or phrases with difficult spelling on the board. Students look at the board for thirty seconds and try to remember them. Then the teacher rubs the words off and the students have to try to write them correctly.

3. Making notes. During studies students write notes for many reasons. Because note taking involves copying it is a good activity for improving writing. Harmer suggests getting students to read encyclopaedia about a country and write accurately as many places names as possible, or to read an extract about history and write down the names of people mentioned there. It is essential to check these activities by the teacher and indicate where the problem is.

4. Whisper writing. In this activity students are given a written sentence. A student can read the sentence for a short time. He/she is told that the spelling matters. The sentence is taken away and the student has to write the sentence from memory and pass it to another student [13, 54].

Finally we can state, that writing is a difficult skill to learn. We expect the learner to be able to spell correctly and to use punctuation correctly too. To make the learning as easy as possible and to make learners successful, confident and willing to write the teacher should provide the students with information (it means that students have to be given clear and logical instruction what the teacher wants them to do and to be clear about the topic details), language (if students need any specific language they should be given it before the activity so they will not be stuck) and ideas (teachers need to be able to suggest ideas to help students when they do not know how to start or continue).

Speaking belongs to productive skills; it is more frequently used than writing. The main function of spoken language is to socialize individuals. On the contrary to writing, spoken language is produced and processed in real time, the speaker and hearer have limited time to plan and produce what they want to say and understand what they hear. Speech is generally used in face-to-face conversations; it is temporary, spontaneous and variable. Spoken language is supported by body language such as gestures or facial expressions (often called non-verbal communication).

Among other features of spoken language belong the opportunity for feedback: the hearer may ask for clarification, explanation or repetition of what sounds problematic. For speaking is typical different speed, false starts, pauses, unfinished sentences or hesitation.

The main aim of teaching speaking skills is to communicate efficiently. Learners of a foreign language should be able to make themselves understood while speaking the language. The goal is to avoid misunderstanding in the message due to faulty vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation.

To help learners develop communicative efficiency, the teachers can use activities based on language input, language output and communicative output.

In the document released by The National Capital Language Resource Centre (NCLRC) is said that: ” language input comes in the form of the teacher talk, listening activities, reading passage and the language heard and read outside of class. It gives learners the material they need to begin producing language themselves." ("Teaching Speaking”) NCLRC further divides language input into content-oriented input and form oriented input [15, 23].

Content-oriented input deals with information, it also includes description of learning strategies and example of their use. Form-oriented input deals with ways of using the language: guidance from the teacher or source of grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and then discourse competence (language used in specific context), sociolinguistic competence (turn taking, pause, length) and strategic competence (phrases to use to ask for clarification and repair miscommunication).

The amount of input, NCLRC says, depends on students listening proficiency and on the situation. Learners at lower levels, where the level of communication is not high, should be given an explanation in mother language rather than in the target language to avoid misunderstanding. However, listening proficiency and situation are not the only factors that influence the input. J. Harmer adds: "we must also look at the conditions under which language learning takes place and who the students are. ”

Harmer also says that some methodologies (e. g. Suggestopedia) demands on time, conditions and resources. [14, 38] Structured output deals with correct form. The aim is to make learners comfortable when producing language recently introduced sometimes with previously learned items. Structured output tasks are frequently used as the connection between the presentation stage and the practice stage.

Communicative output is focused on the learner's purpose to complete a task. To complete it the learners use the language they have recently learned as well as items of language they have already known. "In communicative output activities, the criterion of success is whether the learner gets the message across." [15, 29]

Finally, NCLRC says: "In a balanced activities approach, the teacher uses a variety of activities from these different categories of input and output. Learners at all proficiency levels, including beginners, benefit from this variety, it is more motivating, and it is also more likely to result in effective language learning." [15,143]

However, not only a balanced activities approach is important for teaching speaking successfully and therefore NCLRC came with strategies for using speaking to learn.

1. Using minimal respond. In every group that we teach there are some students who do not feel confident to speak and they rather stay silent and just listen. To encourage these students to speak is to help them to build up a certain amount of minimal responses they can use in different types of exchanges. Such responses are often idiomatic phrases to indicate understanding, doubt, agreement or other responses. NCLRC affirms that: "Having a stock of such responses enables a learner to focus on what the other participant is saying, without having to simultaneously plan a response. ” [15,47]

2. Recognizing scripts. Invitations, greetings, compliments and other functions follow patterns of scripts as they are influenced by social and cultural norm. Teachers should make learners aware of the scripts in different situations, so the learners can predict what they will hear and what they will need to say in response [15,49].

3. Using language to talk about language. Sometimes the learners come across the situation when they are misunderstood by their conversation partner. They often feel embarrassed or shy and they refuse to continue in speaking. Therefore the teacher should help the learners to overcome this situation by assuring them that misunderstanding can occur in any type of interaction and the teachers should give students strategies and phrases to use for comprehensible check [15,53].

Finally we can state, that by using these strategies the teacher can create authentic practice environment and students will get more confidence to manage various communication situations.

Form-focused Speaking goes deeply into details of pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary. This stage is suitable for beginners. An effective way how to start teaching foreign languages is to base speaking on some simple, useful phrases and sentences e. g. greetings, simple questions and answers or personal descriptions which are easy to remember. These can be practiced by repetition drills. By repetition drills the teachers can change speed, the learner who is to repeat, the content of the sentence and the way of choosing the substitution [16,14].

Meaning-focused Speaking deals with the message of the communication. The activity develops learner's ability to speak. R. S Brown and P. Nation suggest several ways [16,25]:

1. The teacher presents new vocabulary or grammar (it is based on form-focused instruction) and then the students are given some practice.

2. Frequently, before the students start to speak they work in groups or pairs to prepare the activity. The activity gives learners the opportunity to learn form each other.

3. The students are given topics to talk about. They may prepare it for homework, use dictionaries or a reference text and then they present what they have prepared.

4. Often, the activities are supported by pictures or written texts. They appear in a Raking activity or a Problem solving activity where the text contains important data about the situation and so on.

5. Many speaking activities force students to ask each other. The pattern of these activities is that each learner receives different information for completing the activity. In these kinds of activities students discover different names, two-way tasks or information gap.

On the other hand, G. Broughton and his colleagues divide speaking activities into controlled oral work, guided oral work and free oral work [12,34].

Controlled oral work. Among controlled oral work the authors include the dialogue. The advantage of dialogue is that it can be used for controlled, guided or free work. It is also possible to use the dialogue for each level, starting with elementary level. The students prepare mini-dialogue in pairs even in the first lesson.

Controlled oral work can be supported by drills, especially substitution drills which are widely used. The advantage of drills is that the error is almost eliminated so the students feel more comfortable to speak, which is a very important point mainly at lower levels.

G. Broughton says that substitution drills: "demonstrate much more clearly to the class that this is not simply mechanical drill but language practice with a visually demonstrated communicative function in a real life situation in which the student can find himself. ” [12,35]

Guided oral work. The aim of the guided oral work is to give students a limited freedom and to practice what they have learnt. In this phase, making mistakes in learning is taken as a natural part. Among guided oral work the authors include role-plays. Here the students can learn some practical phrases used in everyday life (e. g. shopping in the supermarket). However, not only a role-play but also setting up a role-play situation is another way how to practise speaking skills in a guided way.

Free oral work is the last phase in which the students should be able to produce such an amount of language that they will be able to express themselves. This phase is typical for advanced students.

The aim of the teacher in this phase is to create such situation and stimuli that all students will be actively involved in a communicative way. By the stimuli the authors mean: visual stimuli - pictures, maps, cartoon, films or photographs that are motivating for discussion starters. Another stimulus is written word - magazines, newspapers (excellent for developing skill of reporting), leaflets, book according to the level etc. and aural stimuli - sound on CDs or cassettes. Also games or puzzles play an important role in teaching speaking skills.

Further, the authors suggest group work as a good tool of free oral production activities. Most of the techniques are prepared in groups at the beginning and then they are brought back to the class, of course, there is automatically less teacher control and more pupil-centeredness. [12,83]

As we can see there are various activities that can be used for teaching speaking skill. More or less the authors follow the same pattern: to start with drills in lower levels, so the students become familiar with useful phrases or expressions, to such activities that challenge the learners to express themselves and to produce as much language as possible.

There are three basic reasons why teachers should provide students with activities:

1. Rehearsal: to organize e. g. a role-play for students in a shop or an airport offers them an opportunity to rehearse a real-life event and the students get the feeling of what is the communication in a foreign language like.

2. Feedback: having students to present what they know, that means, to use all the language they have learnt provides feedback for the teacher as well as for the students. The teachers can see what the students are doing well and what is needed to be improved.

3. Engagement: all speaking activities should be highly motivating so the students find them interesting to work on and to participate fully. Many tasks such as role-plays, discussion or problem solving are enjoyable even more if they copy the real life situations.

There are teachers that constantly correct mistakes made during speaking activities, either during pronunciation exercises or during discussion. But it is important for the teachers to realize when the right time to correct is.

J. Harmer claims that: "when students are repeating sentences trying to get their pronunciation exactly right, then the teacher will often correct (appropriately) every time there is a problem." [16, 94]

On the other hand, when students hold a discussion about a chosen topic the teacher should not interrupt the discussion by correcting. Jeremy Harmer says: "Constant interruption from the teacher will destroy the purpose of the speaking activity." [16, 94]

Many teachers, when talking about role-plays or discussion, prefer to watch or observe, listen and take notes. After the role-play the teacher asks students about their opinions and then the teacher presents his or her feedback.

Generally speaking, the principle of watching, listening and taking notes is considered to be the most appropriate.

In conclusion, Contextual teaching and learning is a concept that helps the teachers and students relate the meaning through prior and new knowledge to get new understanding. It has five components comprising constructivism, inquiry, questioning, learning community, modelling, reflection and authentic assessment and based on three basic principles as principles of interdependence, the principles of differentiation, and the principles of self-regulation.

Various scientists defined different strategies used in context approach. Jonson delivers six strategies of Context approach in teaching English language. They are problem based, using multiple contexts, drawing upon student diversity, supporting self-regulated learning, using interdependent learning groups, employing authentic assessment.

2. The practical implementation of Context approach in teaching writing in senior grades

2.1 The implementation of teaching English productive skills using Context approach

The implementation of teaching English productive skills using Context approach consisted of two cycles. Each cycle consisted of two meetings for presenting the material. Each meeting took 60 minutes. For the first cycle, the researcher used context approach to teach writing and speaking with a topic "Personality”. For the second cycle, the topic was "Sport”. Every cycle consisted of a series of steps: identifying the problem, planning the action, implementing the action, observing and monitoring the action, reflecting and evaluating the result of the observation, and revising the plan.

Figure 2. an Illustration of Action Research

Table 3. The Schedule of the Research

Date

Activity

1

Monday, September 7th

Pre-test

2

Monday, September 14th

Cycle 1

3

Wednesday, September 16th

Cycle 1

4

Monday, September 21st

Post-test

5

Monday, September 28th

Cycle 2

6

Wednesday, September 30th

Cycle 2

7

Monday, October 1st

Post-test

Before implementing the action in cycle one, the researcher had conducted a pre-test to know students' prior knowledge. This was aimed to measure students' knowledge of the topic before the treatment and to make a comparison with the post-test to know whether or not the student' skills improved. After finishing the action, the researcher conducted a post-test to measure students' improvement after having the treatment. The topics of pre-test and post-test were Personalities and Sport. Each test comprised short interview about their hobbies and writing a short essay about strange hobbies they had learnt about.

Before the implementation of the research, there was conducted a pre-research through observation. Students and the teacher were interviewed. Based on the result of pre-observation, it was found that the class was very active, students' level varied from pre-intermediate to upper-intermediate. However, most of them had difficulties with fluency in speaking and vocabulary, spelling and grammar accuracy problems with writing.

Based on the interview done with the teacher, the students had problems in argumentation and coherence. Although they had got the materials in the previous lesson, they had forgotten what they had learnt. It was also proven by the researcher observation. When the teacher asked some questions, only few students gave the answer. The students also had problems in pronouncing the words. It was connected with their inability in spelling the words. The students had difficulty in pronouncing and spelling the words because the written English word is different from the pronunciation.

In pre-research, the researcher identified that the students' writing and speaking skills should be improved by implementing a method that could overcome the problems. Therefore, the researcher designed teaching writing and speaking using context approach.

Considering student's level, the researcher would implement an action that is suitable and interesting for the students. The researcher would implement contextual teaching and learning, a method which relate subject matter content to real world situations and motivate students to make connections between knowledge and its applications in their lives as family members, citizens, and workers and to get engaged in the hard work that learning requires. The researcher believed that contextual teaching and learning is appropriate method to improve the students' productive skills.

The researcher has to prepare the lesson plan before implementing the action. The researcher also has to prepare the materials and students' worksheet consists of some tasks and other thing related to the action. There are three section in lesson plan: opening, main activities, and closing. Cycle one consisted of two meetings. Each meeting took 60 minutes.

The researcher planned different activities for each meeting. There were two topics discussed, "Personality" and "Sport”. The objectives of the 1st lessons of each cycle were to teach students to use appropriate subject-specific vocabulary and syntax to talk about an increased range of general topics, and some curricular topics. The objectives of the 2nd lessons of each cycle were to teach students to plan, write, edit and proof-read work at text level with minimal teacher support on the given topics.

a) The First Meeting (Monday, 14th September 2015)

1. Opening. The lesson started at 8.00 a. m. the teacher entered the class. The teacher greeted the students and checked the students' attendance. Students were introduced the topic and the plan of the lesson. Students were asked to find out the objectives of the lesson by asking what they would be able to do after that lesson. After that students were introduced success criteria which included explaining their ideas clearly using opinion expressions, supporting ideas with at least two strong evidences and evaluating others' points of view by commenting and making conclusion.

2. Main Activity. After formatting small groups, students were given the list of new vocabulary and list of their definitions. The task was to match definitions to the given words. After discussing the new vocabulary, students were given tables with two columns. First is How I see myself, and the second - How others see me. First, students had to write about themselves using new words. When they finished the teacher told them to interview their classmates about their characters as if they were real journalists. Students could use questions given on the power point presentation. When they had finished, students presented the information about their classmates.

In groups, students were given pictures of different rooms. The task was to make a description of the person who lived in that room. Students felt enthusiastic about acting detectives and gave various predictions.

In the end of the lesson students were asked to prepare a short presentation about a person they admire. After each presentation other students gave their feedbacks according to the success criteria.

3. Closing. The teacher reviewed the lesson of that day by asking some questions to the students. The teacher gave a chance for the students to recall what had learned by their learning experience and then they took a conclusion together. The teacher asked to the students whether they had questions or not. But no students asked question. When the time given was over, the teacher asked the students whether they were happy or not in the lesson. The students answered "Yes”. Then the teacher said goodbye and closed the lesson.

b) The Second Meeting (Wednesday, 16th September 2015)

1. Opening. The second meeting was conducted on Monday, 21st September, 2015. Topic of the lesson was `Personality'. The teacher started the lesson by greeting and checking students' attendance. Then she reviewed the lesson of the last meeting. After that, the students were introduced the topic and the plan of the lesson. Students were asked to find out the objectives of the lesson by asking what they would be able to do after that lesson. After that students were introduced success criteria which included writing a plan and a summary of at least 120 words with grammar accuracy (80 %)

2. Main Activity. Students were given a text about Jane Goodall's biography. The task was to read and discuss it in groups. Students begun by discussing what they thought Jane was interested in when she was growing up using key language. Students told about their own interests and how these could be translated into future careers or whether these should just remain hobbies and why.

The teacher introduced the main steps of writing a summary. She asked if students had had write or present summaries in their lives. Students answered that they gave a summary when they answer at lessons, talk about movies or books and make reports at school.

Students were given a model of summary. Teacher gave the students worksheets where were three columns. In the first column there was a text about Nelson Mandela. The second column contained key words for the first and second paragraphs of the text. In the third column there was a summary of the first paragraph only. First, students discussed the first paragraph and key word. Then, in groups, they wrote a summary for the second paragraph. After that, they searched for key words for the third and fourth paragraphs and wrote summaries together.

When they had finished teacher asked to write a summary for the first text about Jane Goodall. When students had finished their work they read it aloud and their classmates gave them feedback.

3. Closing. Before closing the lesson, the teacher reviewed the lesson of that day by asking some questions to the students. The teacher summed up the lesson together with the students. She also asked the students whether they were happy or not in today's lesson. The students answer "Yes”. The teacher said goodbye and closed the lesson.

c) The Third Meeting (Monday, September 21st, 2015)

In the third meeting, the teacher conducted the first post-test. The first post-test was conducted to know the students' learning achievement after the treatment.

Observing or monitoring is an important aspect in a classroom action research. The data resulted from observing or monitoring would be the basis in deciding further action. Observation is done to know whether context approach could be implemented in teaching English to improve students' productive skills. Observing or monitoring was done during the implementation of the action. When the students were doing the activity, the researcher observed the students' behaviours to know the advantages and weaknesses of the method being applied.

When the teacher implemented teaching vocabulary using contextual teaching and learning, the process was observed and the result can be explained as follows:

a) The first meeting. In the first meeting students were introduced the topic of the lesson and list of activities they were going to have. Moreover, they were asked to make a list of objectives of the lesson. At first students were unconfident, however, they made a list of thing they were going to learn from this lesson. Moreover, teacher introduced the success criteria and students were told what they were expected to do to get high marks. Students were very enthusiastic working in groups. They felt more confident communicating with each other. However, some students still looked ashamed and reluctant when the teacher asked them, they answered in low voice to the teachers' question. Furthermore, in group work activity, the situation was not exactly like what the teacher hoped. Some students dominated in the group and there was a group of students who did not know what to do. The teacher guided them answering their questions and translating some moments. She also reminded them to work in team. But in general, the students paid more attention to the lesson.

In the situational activities, where students had to speak as journalists or detectives, students were very active. There were some grammar mistakes, but the teacher gave feedback to each speaker in the end of the lesson. Moreover, students tried to give positive feedback to each other and gave argumentations why they thought so.

Based on the observation of the learning process in the first cycle, the researcher found out that the implementation of context approach could motivate the students to be more active.

However, there were some drawbacks. When the students found difficulties in finding the meaning of new words, they were not reluctant to ask the teacher. The students could also learn to work in team. In general, the class was well managed although there were some dominated students in the groups.

b) The second meeting. In the second meeting, the teaching learning process ran more smoothly than the previous meeting. The students were more familiar with some activities comprising making a list of objectives, working in groups and giving feedbacks.

The teacher explained the topic and asked if students had had to make summaries in their lives. After some time students could make a connection between writing summaries and their real life experience. So, students were able to tell the steps of writing a summary without teacher's help. When the teacher gave the students the model with steps of writing summary, students attended discussion actively.

After that, students worked individually to write their own summaries about Jane Goodall's life. Students helped each other and finished the work in time. However, there were some students who found it difficult to finish the work in 20 minutes. When each student read their summaries, their classmates listened to them and gave feedback according to the success criteria discussed in the beginning of the lesson.

Although the steps of writing a summary was not arduous to most of students, some of them made mistakes such as giving too much information, rewriting a paragraph and etc. All mistakes were discussed and students took feedback from the teacher.

c) The third meeting. In the third meeting, the first post-test was conducted to know the students' achievement in learning writing and speaking. The result of the first post-test showed improvement of students' means score. The mean score increased from 57.76 in pre-test to 65.56 in post-test.

Based on the result of the observation, the researcher did the reflection of the action. The researcher wanted to know whether the action was successful or not by doing the reflection. Several positive results and weaknesses were found.

There were things which the researcher noted down as the positive results. The teaching learning activities during the implementation of the contextual teaching and learning were generally well organized.

The researcher noticed that the students were very excited in doing some activities, for example: detectives and searching for key words. From the implementation of the method, there were some positive results that the researcher noted down. They are:

1) learning by experiencing gave the students motivation;

2) students learned how to write a summary and succeeded in it;

3) group work gave them a chance to help each other

4) making up objectives of the lesson made students feel responsible about the lesson

6) giving feedback made students to support their speech by argumentation.

Those points showed a positive change of students' behaviour in joining the lesson. It was reflected from their active role in identifying the things around them. The students had enough courage to ask questions.

Besides, there were also several things which were considered to be weaknesses. Some students dominated the group and there was a group where students were very passive. For example: when the teacher supervised group two, only one or two students did their task. Another group, group five were not able to complete the task successfully. The reason is the fact that groups were not well balanced. It means that the researcher had to arrange a new plan to solve these problems.

The result of the test shows that the mean score of pre-test is 57.76 and the mean score of post-test is 65.56. It means that the students' writing and speaking skills increased though it was not significant. In the result of post-test I, the students made a lot of mistakes bounded with coherence and intonation. Based on the research reflection above, it can be concluded that the result of cycle one was not satisfactory yet.

Based on the results of the reflection above, it could be seen that the action showed both the positive results and weaknesses. So, the researcher had to make the next plan and to conduct the next cycle in order to solve the problems and the weaknesses that appeared in the first cycle. In the next cycle, the researcher revised the plans and prepared two meetings. In this cycle, the researcher made a teaching and learning plan.

In cycle 2, the researcher planned to make more group activities, it was hoped that the students would be more familiar with group work activity and there was not any student who would dominated in doing task in a group. The researcher divided the groups based on their test scores. There were groups that consisted of all smart students while the other consisted of students with lower level of English. Moreover, the researcher decided to make differentiation by outcome and individual support.

The Second Cycle. Based on the result of cycle one, there were some problems which were found by the researcher. One of the problems was that some students dominated the group in doing task because they were not familiar with group work activity.

The group activity was not balanced because the students were not divided based on their ability. There were groups that consisted of all smart students while the other groups consisted of students with lower English level.

Before conducting the second cycle, the researcher prepared lesson plans and materials which were related to the topic. The implementation of teaching writing and speaking using contextual teaching and learning would be held in two meetings. The topic of this cycle was `Sport'. The objectives of the 1st lessons of each cycle were to teach students to use appropriate subject-specific vocabulary and syntax to talk about an increased range of general topics, and some curricular topics. The objectives of the 2nd lessons of each cycle were to teach students to plan, write, edit and proof-read work at text level with minimal teacher support on the given topics.


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