Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Teaching and Learning Cycle and the Implementation of 2013 Curriculum


Enhancing Report Writing through Teaching and Learning Cycle: An Attempt to Connect the Implementation of 2013 English Curriculum with Student’s Writing Ability

Written By: 

Putri Ayu Septiningsih


I.                   Introduction
Writing is one of the productive skills in which students of EFL produce the language as an input of their comprehension and learning. In this paper, the writer focuses on report writing of the students which is defined as a product of their knowledge toward the topic of one chapter. That is, in order to produce good report writing, the students should comprehend the lesson from the teacher; in this case the input they get through interaction is very important to them. As the input is very important for students’ writing ability, there should be a relevant approach to help them to obtain the input of learning as to increase their comprehension. That is, however, in teaching practice nowadays, many teachers of EFL practice the lesson without considering to a hope of our new curriculum (2013 Curriculum), which emphasizes on the scientific approach (observing, questioning, associating, experimenting and networking). The lack of modeling for example, or practice without involving all the students in learning, this might give an effect for them to obtain the language input. The teacher only comes to class, ask the students to read the textbook and ask them to do exercise. This way of teaching students are usually found in the teaching and learning nowadays. As a result, the report writing of students could not be enhanced.
In this paper, the writer chooses Teaching and Learning Cycle approach to enhance the report writing of English Second Language learners (especially for Junior High School) and describes how it is related to the implementing of 2013 curriculum.  
Before produce the report writing, the students’ knowledge need to be built, the first stage of Building Knowledge of Field (BKoF) is a good starting points for the students to prepare themselves produces the report text. This cycle aims for the students to build comprehensive understanding about the topic. In the next stage Modeling of Text (MoT), the students are given a lot of models and examples about the text that is why this stage puts on the main teaching in the lesson plan. Then the students can also rehearse and practice about the text with their friends individually or collaboratively, this stage is called Joint Construction of Text (JCoT) and it applies in the post teaching, because in TLC the students are expected to be able to construct the text collaboratively before they construct the text independently later in Independent Construction of Text (ICoT).

II.                Discussion

2013 Curriculum and TLC Approach

The revolution of our curriculum is that the use of scientific approach which is applied in 2013 curriculum. It requires the students to do observing, questioning, associating, experimenting and networking which implants in 2013 curriculum. It means that the students of EFL have to be communicative and involved in learning process as being the center of learning (student-centered). The BKoF is the stage in TLC in which the students can do the observing, and the teacher may do questioning technique to gain the students experiences or knowledge related to the vocabularies and grammar, they can also ask questions as they are listening to the teacher. In MoT, the students can be communicative and both the teacher and the students can do the experiment while the teacher modeling the text. The students can also associating to the text while they join in the learning process individually and collaboratively (networking), this stage is called as JCoT. Whereas ICoT is the stage where the students produce the language based on the comprehension they get from the three-stages in TLC. In this stage, the teacher can check the students’ comprehension through their report writing. As we know that writing ability is one of the productive skills, not only does 2013 curriculum assess the student’s knowledge, good skill also involved as well as the attitude (spiritual and social). Whatever the knowledge is taught, good attitude must also be taught couple with it in order for the students has a good skill. Report writing could be a tool for the teacher to see the writing ability of the students, especially Junior High School students. 

Teaching and Learning Cycle

Furthermore, in order to make clear about TLC, the writer tries to describe what TLC is. Teaching and Learning Cycle (TLC) is an approach which embraced by Genre-Based Approach, this approach is based on the functional model of language which was introduced by Halliday in 1978; he claims that the context of language must be closely related to the text.  As to integrate between the context and the text, TLC in practice is divided into four stages, i.e. Building Knowledge of Field (BKoF), Modeling of Text (MoT), Join Construction of Text (JCoT), and Independent Construction of Text (ICoT). That is, in order to enhance the students of EFL report writing, teacher of EFL should integrate these four stages in the implementation of 2013 English curriculum, it puts on the lesson plan, it is then implemented in the teaching and learning process.

Report Writing 

Report writing could be defined as the product knowledge of EFL students’ language input, this product is got by the students through their learning process. In other words, EFL test of report writing give information about how extent that they have comprehended the input that they get through teaching and learning process. Such product of students in the ends of teaching and learning which is written spontaneously could be called as report writing. It usually written in one paragraph as to measure the student’s comprehension about the topic or the text which had been taught, the result of the students’ report writing is very depending on their understanding about the lesson from the beginning.  In order to enhance this, the teacher of EFL should use the proper method or approach as a procedure. That is, in this case, the writer describes about TLC approach and how it is connected to the lesson plan of 2013 curriculum. 

Application of TLC in the Implementation of 2013 English Curriculum

Practical teaching is divided into three stages, i.e. pre-teaching, main teaching and post teaching. In the first stage, the students are introduced to the topic or new materials. In the second stage, the students are hoped to actively communicate as the teacher delivers the materials. When the students are collaboratively asked to participate and have to apply the lesson comes to the third stage. Building Knowledge of Field (BKoF) is applied to the first stage of teaching, in this stage the students do the preparation before producing the report text.    The teacher gain the student’s knowledge based on their experience related to the topic will be taught, such guessing vocabularies could be involved, introducing the vocabularies and the structure of language needed to that particular topic. This stage where questioning and observing is playing a role.  The knowledge of students should be built by gaining the experience related to grammar or vocabulary based on the content taught.
Moreover, after BKoF activity, the students are modeled by the teacher about the text and are delivered the function of the text, e.g. descriptive text. For instance, describing people, the teacher models the text through interaction, such using two dolls as the media could be included, that is, in the Modeling of Text (MoT) the students can make conclusion about the lesson according to what they see and learn. This stage is used in the main-teaching where the students can actively communicate through questioning and associating. In the next stage, the students individually and collaboratively join to the learning practice; this is also called as reinforcement stage in which student get the reinforcement from their practice, this based on the behaviorism theory by Skinner that human learn language as they learn the behavior, if they do the right behavior, then they get the positive reinforcement, if they do the negative behavior, then they get the negative reinforcement from their caretakers. That is similar with they learn language, in Join Construction of Text (JCoT) stage, where students actively join the practice learning, they get the positive reinforcement unless they do mistakes. This stage where communicating and associating as well as networking play role as the students join to construct the text. The examples for this are making the dialogues and reading the text, recall the vocabularies as the instruction from the teacher also could be involved.
Finally, the Independent Construction of Text (ICoT); this stage is applied in the post-teaching, the report of students comprehension could be seen from this stage. The students independently write the text according to their comprehension from teaching and learning, and the report writing is the product of their comprehension.
Scaffolding
Teaching and learning using TLC can scaffold the students to achieve their goal which is relevant to the stages in TLC. First, the student’s experiences are built through introducing to the structure and vocabularies that related to the topic which will be taught. After their knowledge is built, they are given the example of the text through the modeling.  In this stage, the students are required to do the observing and asking question as the result of their listening. After they are given the example of the text, then they are asked to construct the text collaboratively with their friends, in this case, they might imitate the example from the teacher. They practice with their friends under the control of the teacher; the teacher might also support the students in giving questions or by giving the students the reinforcement about their behavior. In order to give the students reinforcement, feedback is very important to them.
Furthermore, According to Cohen and Cotterall (2003), feedback from tutors and peers is important; the teacher’s feedback aims to reinforce the uptake of ideas relating to the content and structure which had been discussed in the class sessions each week (Cohen and Cotterall, 2003). In the last goal, the students are required to construct the text by themselves independently, that is, according to Bruner, in order to develop the notion of scaffolding; supporting is needed in order to give the gradually instruction as the students become increasingly independent. The term of ‘scaffolding’ comes from the works of Wood, According to Bruner and Ross in Berge and Muilenburg (2013), the term ‘scaffolding’ was developed as a metaphor to describe the type of assistance offered by a teacher or peer to support learning. 

III.             Conclusion   

In sum, Teaching and Learning Cycle is the approach which divided into four stages, i.e. Building Knowledge of Field (BKoF), Modeling of Text (MoT), Join Construction of Text (JCoT) and Independent Construction of Text (ICoT) which is applied through the teaching regulation in practical teaching, BKoF is applied to pre-teaching, MoT is applied to the main-teaching, and JCoT and ICoT is applied to the post-teaching. As the requirement of our new curriculum to help the students to be communicative and involved in learning situation, this approach should help the teacher to enhance students’ report writing as to check their comprehension. TLC approach supports the scientific approach in 2013 English Curriculum.
References:

Cotterall, and Robin Cohen. (2003) “Scaffolding for Second Language Writers: Producing Academic Essay”. ELT Journal. 57 (2), 158 – 166. 

Sari, Novita Eka (n.d). Enhancing Report Writing for Eleventh Grade Students Through Genre Based Approach (GBA): An Attempt to Connect Reading Compression and Writing Ability. Retrieved from https://secure.icsei.net/membership/papers/166_rqvyf_166.doc. Access on Sunday, 23rd of November, 2014.

McKoy, J. ESL Workshop: Scaffolding Theory. Retrieved from esl.fis.edu/teachers/fis/scaffold/page1.htm. Access on Sunday, 23rd of November, 2014.

Berge and Muilenburg (2013). Retrieved from books.google.co.id/books?isbn=113631153X. Access on Sunday, 23rd of November, 2014.


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