EMPOWERING THE STUDENTS’ AUTONOMOUS LEARNING TO IMPROVE THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE SKILLS OF THE TENTH GRADE STUDENTS OF RSBI SMA N 7 PURWOREJO

The objective of the research is to empower the autonomous learning techniques to improve the English language skills of the tenth grade students of RSBI SMA N 7 Purworejo. Some techniques were applied to improve the students’ language skills. The research was carried out at the first semester from September 23rd to October 28th 2009 in class X.1 of SMA N 7 Purworejo. The subjects of this research were the tenth grade students of SMA N 7 Purworejo In this research, the English teacher functions as the controller and the facilitator of English learning activity, and the researcher functions as the teacher’s collaborator and the observer of the implementation of the action. The steps were: reconnaissance, plan, action and observation, and reflection. The research was conducted in two cycles. The cycle consists of two stages. At the first stage, the students were asked to do self-discovery activity in order to improve their self-investment. The next stage, the students worked in groups in order to improve their language skills. Since in the Cycle 1, the research was not successful yet and the focus of the problems was still the same as the problem in Cycle 1, the researcher still used self-discovery and jigsaw activity to improve the students’ language skills. However, the topic given in Cycle 2 was different from the topic in Cycle 1. The data were obtained by observing the learning process and interviewing the English teacher and the tenth grade students. The instruments were observation sheet, interview guide, and questionnaires. The result shows that the autonomous learning through Self-discovery improved the learners’ self-investment that affects their learning achievement on language skills in the English learning process. Self-discovery activities facilitated the students to improve their self-investment and reading skill, while Jigsaw activity itself improved the students’ language skills on speaking, listening, and writing. The improvement of students’ self-investment affected their learning achievements on language skills. It can be seen in the improvement of their mastery of language aspects such as the mastery of vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, etc., which are integrated in their four basic skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing