CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

This chapter provides the background of the study, the formulation of the research problems, the scope of the study, the discussion of the previous study, and the definition of the key terms.

1.1 The Background of the Study A teacher plays very important role in the teaching and learning process because the success of learning process is one of the teachers responsibilities. As the teacher has such responsibilities, s/he should have high capability in transferring the knowledge. In deriving new knowledge, preparation and planning are the important aspects to contribute to the success of the teaching and learning process. Good teachers are the ones who think carefully and systematically about what they are going to teach in the classroom, and who prepare or plan how they are going to organize the teaching and learning in order to achieve the objectives that have been decided before (Prajas, 2009:15). In the Government Law No. 19 Year 2005 Chapter IV Section 20, it is stated that the teaching preparations include syllabus and lesson plan which at least cover teaching objectives, teaching materials, teaching method, resource of material and also assessment. Therefore, one of the most important preparations the teachers need to pay attention is the lesson plan.

Lesson plan is teachers guide in conducting the teaching and learning process inside classes. It is a detailed plan aimed to help the teachers conduct a classroom interaction in a guided way. According to Muslich (2007:45), lesson plan is defined as a plan of certain subject matter applied in the teaching instruction in a class. The purpose is to plan students learning experiences to achieve the teaching objectives. In designing a lesson plan, the teachers should relate to the current curriculum. In formal education, curriculum is defined as a set of courses and their content offered at a school or university. Juliana (2009:15) exclaimed that curriculum was a vital device in teaching world as it arranges the teaching and learning activities at schools. Recently, the Indonesian government introduced the new curriculum widely known as School - Level Curriculum or it is widely known as Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan (KTSP). As its name indicates, this curriculum is developed by the school as an autonomous body in particular educational level (Rachmajanti and Sulistyo, 2008:43). The schools must refer to the National Education Standards in order to develop the School - Level Curriculum. According to the Government Law 19/2005, the National Education Standards consist of eight standards, i.e. content standards, process standards, graduate competence standards, educational staff standard, budgeting standard, structure and infrastructure standard, management standard, and education evaluation standard. The content standards and graduate competence standards are the main standards in developing a curriculum. The content standards and graduate competence standards are then developed into syllabus and finally into lesson plans.

Both syllabus and lesson plan are very important during the teaching and learning process. Brown (2001) as cited in Rachmjanti and Sulistyo (2008:40) said that a syllabus is an outline of a course of a study with some specific features such as specifications of linguistic objectives, sequencing, of what to be presented, kinds of instructional materials for group of learners in a defined context. The principal purpose of designing a syllabus as stated by Rachmajanti and Sulistyo (2008:40) is to equip students with the nature of a course, contents of the course, policies and procedures, and logistic. The teachers should design syllabus based on the schools and students needs. Basically, both syllabus and lesson plan have a purpose to plan the competences that should be achieved by the students. Arrends (2004:144) said that most people can memorize plans for hours. However, they cannot memorize the details and sequencing of activities for several days or even weeks. Since the lesson plan serves as a reminder for the systematic way of teaching, it is generally written in a fair amount of detail. Before constructing a lesson plan, the teachers have to know and comprehend the curriculum well, so that they know what competences that they are going to teach to the students and how to achieve those competences. The teachers must be able to elaborate, define, and map the competence standards and basic competences determined by the government and finally achieve the objectives through the lesson plan (Prajas, 2009:2). The teachers do not compose the lesson plan from zero because they have already given the content standards by the government. From the content standards, the teachers develop the objectives and also the indicators. The lesson plans of National Standard Schools are different from the National School with International

Standards or Rintisan Sekolah Bertaraf Internasional (RSBI) because the curriculum used is different. The establishment of National Schools with International Standards is based on Legislation No. 20 year 2003 article 50 (3) about the national education system. The article states that the central government and/or a local government hold at least one unit of education at all levels to be improved as a National School with International Standards unit of education. The National Schools with International Standard is imposed by the government in order to improve the Indonesias education quality in terms of the students mastery of English, math, natural science, and information of communication technology (ICT) in order to compete in the global world (Bahrul, 2010:11). A number of studies which have been conducted by International Association for the Evaluation of Education Achievement (IEA) show that the reading ability of the Indonesian elementary students is very low. Indonesia ranks the 38th level out of 39 countries. In junior high level, Indonesia is in number 39 out of 42 countries on the students ability in mathematics and number 40 for the ability in natural science (Bahrul, 2010:11). Besides the low quality of education, Indonesian people also have low competitiveness in the global words. According to the data reported by the World Economic Forum in 2000, Indonesia is in the 37th position out of 57 countries. The concept of National Schools with International Standards can be formulated SNP + X. The SNP is the National Education Standards which consist of eight national education standards namely: content standards, process standards,

graduate competence standards, educational staff standards, budgeting standards, structure and infrastructure standards, management standards, and education evaluation standards. The X symbol represents the insertion curriculum in the National School with International Standard and functions as additional key indicators. The insertion curriculum which is used is curriculum used by one of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) members and/ or other developed countries (Education Guide and Training: Provincial Core Team for English Teachers, 2009) There are several steps to be followed in order to create a good lesson plan. According to the Guide of Lesson Plan Development published by Board of National Education Standard (2007b) , it is stated that there are seven steps to develop lesson plan: (1) mentioning the identity (name of the school, subject matter, class/semester, competence standard, basic competence, indicator, and time allotment), (2) mentioning the learning objectives, (3) mentioning the instructional materials, (4) mentioning the method of teaching/learning, (5) mentioning the learning stages instruction, (6) mentioning material resources, and (7) mentioning assessment. These seven steps are efforts to compile and develop a lesson plan based on their components. These components must be developed correctly and systematically based on the curriculum of National School with International Standard so that the lesson plan reflects a good planning. However, based on the observation that has been done by the researcher in SMPN 1 Malang, it is found that the teachers of Grade eight do not really pay attention at designing the lesson plan. Mostly, the teachers do not write the

new lesson plans. They still use the same lesson plans which are based on the previous curriculum. In reference to the fact, how teachers of the National School with International Standard develop the components of the lesson plans such as competence standard, basic competence, indicator, learning objectives, instructional materials, teaching and learning method, learning stages, material and learning resources, and assessment should be an interesting subject to study. Of the four macro language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing, this study focuses on the analysis of lesson plan for learning and teaching speaking skill. This skill is selected because one of the characteristics of the National School with International Standard is that English should be used by both teachers and students as a medium of instruction during the learning and teaching process of not only English subject but also other subjects especially math, natural science, and information of communication technology (ICT) (Zaenuri, 2007:3). Consequently, the ability of the students in speaking skill is closely connected to the English teachers capability in teaching speaking. Based on the previous descriptions, this study has a title An Analysis of Lesson Plans on Teaching Speaking at National Junior High Schools with International Standards in Malang

1.2 The Research Problems In line with the background of the study, the research problems mainly concern on how the development of the components in the lesson plans.

More specific questions are specified into the following: 1. How are the standard competence, basic competence, and indicator developed? 2. How are the time allotments developed? 3. How are the learning objectives developed? 4. How are the instructional materials developed? 5. How are the teaching and learning methods developed? 6. How are the teaching and learning stages developed? 7. How are the material and learning resources developed? 8. How are the assessments developed?

1.3 The Significance of the Study The result of this study is expected to be beneficial for the English teachers and other researchers. For the English teacher at junior high school, the result of this study will give information and offer feedback how to compose a good English lesson plan especially for teaching speaking skill. It is assumed that there are many English teachers especially of National School with International Standard who find difficulties in composing a good lesson plan. From the perspectives of the teachers, based on the results of interview before conducting the study, the result of analyzing the lesson will support the teacher to always develop their lesson plans with the current curriculum and materials. For other researchers who conduct the similar research, the result of this study can give information and they can use this as a reference to conduct their research.

1.4 The Scope of the Study In Government Regulation No. 19 Year 2005 Chapter IV Section 20, it is stated that teaching preparations include syllabus, lesson plan which covers at least teaching objectives, teaching materials, teaching method, resource of material and also assessment. Yet, this study only focuses on the lesson plan as one of teaching preparations because lesson plan is more closely related to the action of teaching The lesson plans which are going to be analyzed are lesson plan of teaching speaking. This skill is selected because one of the characteristics of the National School with International Standard is that English should be used by both teachers and students as an active communication tool during the learning and teaching process of not only English subject but also other subjects especially in teaching math, natural science, and information of communication technology (ICT). The schools as the subject of this study are limited on national junior high schools with international standard in Malang city (town) i.e. SMPN 1 Malang and SMPN 5 Malang. SMPN 1and SMPN 5 Malang are chosen as the subjects of this study because they have been recognized as National Schools with International Standards in Malang. To date, SMPN 1and SMPN 5 Malang employs two different kinds of classes: acceleration class, where higher-standard students may attend classes in two years only and International Standard class, the one which adopts and applies international curriculum.

The lesson plans are obtained from two different schools. Each school is represented by one of the English teachers who teaches grade VIII on the second semester.

1.5 The Discussion of the Previous Study The previous study about the lesson plan has been done by some researchers. Prajas (2009) analyzed the English lesson plan of public senior high schools in Malang. The result of his study showed that of the eight English teachers at public senior high schools, six of them have been developed the lesson well. Another study was conducted by Pangastuti (2010). She conducted the study about the implementation of the English lesson plan in SMPN 1 Malang. The result of her study showed that the teacher of SMPN 1 Malang has implemented the lesson plan during the teaching and learning process.

1.6 Definition of The Key Terms 1. Lesson Plan: a set of plan that the teachers have designed based on the current curriculum to reach the predetermined competences which have been settled by the government. 2. KTSP: an abbreviation of Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan (SchoolLevel curriculum) in which the schools have responsibility to develop curriculum in line with their local needs.