CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Research
Language learning is important for human’s social
development. As a language which is used by more than a half of population in
the world, English holds the key as international language. English is a tool
of communication among peoples of the world to get trade, social-cultural,
science, and technology goals. Moreover, English competence is important in
career development, therefore students need to understand and use English to
improve their confidence to face global competition.
English as a formal subject is given to junior high
school (SMP) level, which the goals are translated as follows: “The goals of
teaching and learning English for this level are improving the four English skills.
They are the mastery of the receptive skills (reading and listening) and the mastery
of the productive skills (speaking and writing), within a specified word level
and relevant grammatical structures and notions, in the context of the
specified themes which are enclosed for junior high school (SMP) students”
(Balitbang Depdiknas, 2002:42).
The fact shows that the result of teaching learning
English is still low. Somantri said (2003) that there can be a wonder about the
condition of the student’s English ability. The students have learned English from
the first-grade of junior high school until senior high school, but most of
them still cannot use English as tool of communication. Zamroni in Somantri (2003)
found that it not only happened to the students who have score below five, but
the students who have score over eight in junior high school can not use
English in real communication in their level. Besides, their receptive skills
are also below the expectation. For example, the students who have graduated
from senior high school, they still find difficulty in reading English
literatures (Balitbang Depdiknas, 2002:1).
These failures are influenced by many factors. According to Zamroni in
Somantri (2003), it happens because of the education system at school just
transfer the dead knowledge where the knowledge is separated from the
application. Teachers teach materials that will be tested. The goal is that the
students get good score in the final test. While Ali in Ant-O2 (2005) argues
that the low of the students quality in teaching and learning English happens
because the students are used to memorizing and doing multiple choice
assignment. Both of arguments above show that the process of teaching and
learning English is not so support the improvement of life skills. Students can
get good score in the final test and they can memorize the theory well but they
cannot use English in real communication.
Assessment is one of important thing that has important role in
education. The importance of assessment in education is stated by Hughes (1989)
who says that the proper relationship between teaching and assessment is
partnership. By assessment process teacher can discover how far students have
achieved the objectives of a course of study. Teacher also can use the result
of assessment to analyze which material that should be explained again and
which instruments that should be repaired. Besides, assessment is useful for
the students to motivate in teaching learning process.
Based on the earlier observation, researcher finds that most of teachers
still use traditional assessment. The students are given some tasks in the form
of multiple choice, do the LKS, practice a dialog in textbook and another task,
which make the students as a passive subject. Traditional assessment includes multiple-choice
questions and asking students to respond questions with short answers. Many
kinds of task are given in order the students can respond the questions with
correct answers in the final test. The product of learning is more emphasized
then the process it self. Teacher gives quizzes and tests to assess cognitive
aspect only. This kind of assessment is just recall student’s memorization.
In traditional assessment process, teachers give less attention and
rarely to assess the student’s work. It brings the students become lack of
attention toward their error in finishing their work. According to Kasiram (1984:10),
learning will be on the decline if the students do not know the result of their
work. The students want to know feedback of their effort in doing the work as a
motivation in learning process. Dimyati and Mudjiono (2002:48) stated that
students would be more motivated in learning if the students know the result of
their work as a feedback.
Under the government policy, the Ministry of National Education develops new
curriculum to improve the education quality that is Competency Based Curriculum.
The success of Competency Based Curriculum may be consider successfully if
followed by the change of teaching and learning strategy at class, the choosing
of media, and the choosing of assessment process. (Balitbang Depdiknas,
2002:1). Assessment processes in Competency Based Curriculum are
more varies. One
of them is Portfolio Assessment.
Arter & Spandel (in Luitel, 2002) state the notion of portfolio. The
literary meaning of the term ‘portfolio’ is a collection of the past work.
However, in the context of assessment, portfolio does not represent only a mere
collection of the past work. The Northwest Evaluation Association urges that
the portfolio is a purposeful collection of student work that tells the story
of the student’s effort, progress, or achievement in given areas. Portfolio can
be viewed as a systematic and organized collection of evidence used by the
teacher and student to monitor the growth of student’s knowledge, skills, and
attitudes in a specific content area.
The indicators of portfolio assessment are daily test result, structured
tasks, anecdotal record, and report of the student’s activity out of school
(Budimansyah, 2002: 108). These indicators are put on the list and documented
in a file. From the collection, teacher
assesses skill of the students. Teacher turns the students to see their ability
in learning by using portfolio and turns the students to be careful in doing the
work, pay attention to the error in their work and correct the error.
Based on the background, researcher interested in studying the student’s
learning achievement in the classes which use traditional assessment and
portfolio assessment. Researcher was conducting this study on the students of SMP
4 Jambi, with the title “Student’s Learning Achievement with Traditional
Assessment and Portfolio Assessment”.
1.2 Formulation of the Problems
The problems of this research are:
(1)
How is the student’s learning achievement with traditional
assessment?
(2)
How is the student’s learning achievement with
portfolio assessment?
(3)
How is the difference between the student’s learning
achievement with traditional assessment and portfolio assessment?
1.3 Objectives of the Research
Based on the research questions above, the main purposes of this research
are to find out the following:
(1)
To describe the student’s learning achievement with
traditional assessment.
(2)
To describe the student’s learning achievement with portfolio
assessment.
(3)
To find out the difference
between the student’s learning achievement with traditional assessment and
portfolio assessment.
1.4 Significance of the Research
The result of this research might be significant for education field, in
the form of giving information to the teachers and the students about how
portfolio is implemented at school especially at SMP 4 Jambi. Furthermore, it
might be able to help the teachers and the students understand benefits and
weakness of using portfolio assessment. It also can be a reference for further
research, especially a research about portfolio assessment.
1.5 The Limitation of the Research
This research is limited to the following problems:
(1)
The lesson that will be studied in this research is
English subject for the 1st semester of the 1st Class at
SLTPN 4 Jambi.
(2)
The subjects who are involved at this research are the
students of the 1st class who still use traditional assessment and
also the students who have used portfolio assessment at SLTPN 4 Jambi.
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