Improving Students English language Competence through Inquiry-Based

Learning of X Grade Students of SMA Negeri I Abiansemal in Academic

Year 2010 – 2011

1.1 Background of the Study

Language is used as a means of communication in everyday life. It can be

used in spoken or written. It is used as a means of communication among the

countries. In Indonesia, it is also involved in the school’s curriculum. Language is

used in various ways, by various patterns. Language use cannot be understood,

interpreted or valuated unless it is related to the social context in which is being

used. Moreover, language and its patterns are learned through social use, as part

of human activity for purpose in various social contexts.

As an international language, English has been taught as a required school

subject starting fourth grade elementary students until university. According to the

recently introduced English curriculum for education unit which is called KTSP

states that the purpose of communicative language teaching, as its names suggest,

is to enable and equip the students with communication skills. This means that

after finishing their study, the students are expected to be able to communicate in

English in their daily life and careers.

However, the results of communicative language teaching, in Senior high

School, particularly in Bali, are not yet satisfying. Most of the Senior High School

graduates can hardly communicate in English as soon as they have completed

their study. Many factors are directly blamed to be causes of the failure, such as

teachers’ teaching qualification and students’ low learning motivation in learning

English. Teachers’ learning approaches cannot be accommodating the diversities

of students’ characteristic, and have less creativity in developing their teaching

learning activities. We can see that from their formal lesson plan and focus to

finish the material quickly, or before the final test begun. That is way, teacher

should develop their teaching method in the class room in order to make their

students understand and easy to rich the material. To improve students’ mastery in

English, teachers should step out from the comfort zone and develop their

teaching method, so that the students’ leaning motivation can be improved, and

their result can be increased to.

Language competence is a broad term which includes linguistic or

grammatical competence, discourse competence, sociolinguistic or socio-cultural

competence and what might be called textual competence. The specific learning

outcomes under language competence deal with knowledge of the language and

the ability to use that knowledge to interpret and produce meaningful texts

appropriate to the situation in which they are used. Language competence is best

developed in the context of activities or tasks where the language is used for real

purposes, in other words, in practical applications.

Language competence should be developed through classroom activities

which focus on meaningful uses of the language and on language in context.

Tasks will be chosen based on the needs, interests and experiences of students.

The vocabulary, grammatical structures, text forms and social conventions

necessary to carry out this task will be taught, practiced and assessed as students

are involved in various aspects of the task itself, not in isolation.

 Inquiry based learning is a technique whereby a teacher involves students

in the learning process through focusing on questions, problem-solving activities,

and the use of critical thinking. Inquiry-based learning is a process where students

are involved in their learning, formulate questions, investigate widely and then

build new understandings and knowledge. That knowledge is new to the students

and may be used to answer a question, to develop a solution or to support a

position or point of view. The knowledge is usually presented to others and may

result in some sort of action (branch and Oberg: 2004). Some students prefer this

type of learning approach because when they become involved they understand

concepts better. Inquiry is a process that all individuals naturally use in

approaching new situations and solving problems in life. By engaging in inquiry,

children gain experience with the mental activities that will improve their capacity

to handle life situations and solve everyday problems (Edmund Marek and Ann

Cavallo: 1997)

Inquiry-based learning approach based on the assumption that students are

the subject and object in learning process. They have basic competence to be

evolve based on their ability.

1.2 Statement of Research Question

Based on the background of the study above, the problem that’s focused

on this study can be stated as follow:

 To what extent is the effectiveness of Inquiry-Based Learning method in

Improving Students English language Competence to the X Grade

Students of SMA Negeri I Abiansemal in Academic Year 2010 – 2011

1.3 Objective of the Study

Any scientific study, like thesis writing, is certainly intended to answer

and solve the research question which has been formulated for the study. In line

with the research question stated above, the undertaking of the present

investigation intends to improve the students English language competence to the

X grade students of SMA Negeri I Abiansemal in academic year 2010 – 2011

through inquiry-based learning method.

1.4 Limitation of the Study

Based on this fact, challenges related to improving the students English

languages competence faced by the subject are definitely too board and complex,

to be dealt with in a single study. Accordingly, the researcher limits the study on

improving the students English language competence to the X grade students of

SMA Negeri I Abiansemal in academic year 2010 – 2011 through inquiry-based

learning method.

1.5 Significance of the Study

The findings of the present study are expected to bear both theoretical and

practical significances.

1. Theoretically, the findings of the present study are expected to

contribute substantial support to the existing similar research finding

 which have been revealed the importance to make students involved to

the study, to understand the concept better, which is known as inquiry-

based method.

2. Practically, the findings of the present study are meant to provide

informative feedback to English teacher. The results tell the success

and the failure of the teachers on the effort of helping the students to

understand the concept better. To improve the students’ language

competence in English, the teacher should plan and design the teaching

more effectively and efficiently and also focus on the students

3. The findings of the present study are also meant to help the teacher in

the teaching learning process, especially in teaching English for tenth

grade students.

4.

1.6 Assumption
There are some other variables that may relate and have effects to this
research, however the researcher is only concerned with the variables as stated on
the research question. Some statements are assumed as follow:
1. The tenth grade students of SMA N 1 Abiansemal have sufficient
English to study and learning processes during the research is
conducted.
2. The tenth grade students of SMA N 1 Abiansemal have studied
English since fourth grade students of Elementary School.
3. The tenth grade students of SMA N 1 Abiansemal have similar quality
of English language environment or have the same level of English
language ability.
4. The tenth grade students of SMA N 1 Abiansemal have the same high
motivation in learning English.
1.7 Hypothesis
On attempting to give a tentative solution to the problem, the hypothesis
will be stated as the following:
The language competence of the tenth grade students of SMA N 1
Abiansemal can be improved through inquiry-based learning.

1.8 Definition of Key Term

To give a clear understanding of the term used in this present study,
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