The Implementation of English Conversation Class (ECC) as an Intracurricular Program at SMP Negeri 10 Malang

ABSTRAK Rusdi, A. 2011. The Implementation of English Conversation Class (ECC) as an Intracurricular Program at SMP Negeri 10 Malang. English Department, Faculty of Letters, State University of Malang. Advisor: Harits Masduqi, S.Pd, M.Pd, M.Ed. Key words: speaking skill, conversation, ECC program, intracurricular program. English is used in many non English speaking countries as second or foreign language as a medium to build communication. Therefore, mastering English especially speaking skill is really important. Someone’s success in learning a target language is determined by the ability to use the target language in real life communication. However, in Indonesia, there is very limited chance for the students to practice their English speaking skills. As a result, they find it difficult to improve their mastery in English speaking skills. Regarding this condition, some schools, including SMP Negeri 10 Malang, established a special program as a medium in which the students are given opportunities to practice their speaking skills. The program was called English Conversation Class (ECC). This research was intended to describe the implementation of English Conversation Class (ECC) as an intracurricular program at SMP Negeri 10 Malang. There were five components investigated in this research, namely kinds of teaching techniques applied by ECC teachers, kinds of facilities, instructional media, and materials employed in ECC program, the problems in the implementation of ECC as an intracurricular program, the students’ opinions toward ECC program, and the regular English teachers’ opinions toward ECC program. This research applied a descriptive-qualitative design. The subject of this study were the school principal of SMP Negeri 10 Malang, the ECC teacher, the regular English teachers, and the grade VII B and VII F; with sixty-eight students in those two classes as the samples for this research. The main instrument to collect data needed in the research was the researcher, who was supported by some instruments, i.e. field notes, the headmaster and the regular English teachers’ interview guides, and questionnaires. The data gained were then analyzed using the techniques of data analysis proposed by Miles and Huberman (1994). The findings of this research were as follows. First, the techniques applied in ECC were: warm-up, setting, drill, brainstorming, game, Cued Dialogue, dialogue recitation, and story telling. Second, the facilities provided by the school to support the ECC program were the same with those used by the regular English class, namely: classroom, gazebos, language laboratory, library, and multimedia instruments—LCD projector and LCD screen; the media used by the ECC teacher in the class namely whiteboard, pictures and story books; the materials used was mainly taken from the ECC handout with some additional materials developed by the ECC teacher. Third, it was found that the problems in ECC were: the ECC teachers’ lack of preparation, unwillingness of the students to use English, the overcrowded of the class, the unpredictable changes of the ECC teachers’ composition and, additional duties for the ECC teachers. Fourth, it was revealed that most of students (97.05%) were in agreement with the existence of the ECC program. The agreement was supported by their response about the teaching and learning process in ECC program (38.23% really like ECC and 55.88% like ECC) and whether or not the activities conducted in ECC was enjoyable (58.82% said that the activities very enjoyable and 36.76% said it was enjoyable). The last, it was found that all the regular English teachers (100%) agreed with the implementation ECC program. Based on the result of the research, the researcher suggests that the school principal give more attention to the implementation of the ECC as intracurricular program. Next, the researcher suggests the ECC teachers to always improve their performance in teaching ECC especially by maximizing the use of the facilities available. Afterwards, the researcher suggests the other schools which conduct or plan to conduct the same program to provide sufficient facilities and funds to the program in order to conduct the program successfully. The last, for future researchers, they are expected to conduct further studies to observe and analyze more deeply on other aspects such as the effectiveness of intracurricular activity in supporting the regular English class, the effectiveness of using storytelling technique to teach English in the English intracurricular program, and the like, that have not been explored or revealed yet in this research