Redesigning
The Scientific Approach for English Language Teaching and Learning
Denny Nugraha
TBI – B – 7
Genre-based Literacy Pedagogy
Introduction
Innovative learning strategy in
English language teaching has been seen as the necessity to fulfill the demand
of the changing era. In Indonesia, in search of the suitable educational
curriculum, the government has indeed made several changes in the policy of
education. The changes periodically were believed to make the national
education better than the policy made by the previous government and so on
until now. However, the recent curriculum, curriculum 2013 (henceforth K-13),
is seen as problematic by some parties. It was perceived as controversial especially
by some of English teachers, academicians and even politicians since it was
officially set as the national curriculum by the government. This can be seen
in many of education institutions from the secondary schools (SMP/MTs) and high
schools (SMA/SMK/MA) which still implement the preceded curriculum (KTSP 2006).
The problem draws some importances why it is high time to redesign the
scientific approach for English teaching and learning in schools.
Scientific
Approach in English Teaching
Firstly, the controversy of the
scientific approach comes from its complicated learning stages. The
characteristic of K-13 is that the learning activities in the classroom should
be conducted using the approach. The approach is recommended by the curriculum
in every school subject including English. In this approach, the teachers are
expected to empower learning activities that are scientifically based on the
factual procedures. By some respects, it is strange to apply the approach in English
lesson that has its own characteristic different with the science studies such
as physics, biology, and chemistry. In addition, Hidayat (2016) quoted
Nasution’s statement (2013) that the scientific approach has several stages,
namely starting from observing, questioning, exploring or experimenting,
reasoning or associating, and communicating or creating. Based on the stages,
the learning process is indeed regarded as serious and difficult as the
scientists who want to reveal something new. Therefore, it should be rearranged
to make the learning process not only meaningful but also joyful.
Lastly, Hidayat (2016) concludes that,
as he considered some studies (Panjaitan, 2014; Sehatiin, 2015), the scientific approach makes the language
teaching become inflexible. It can be seen that many teachers who found difficulties
to conduct all of the learning stages because the time allotment for the
approach is not enough. Therefore, the approach must be reset to be synchronous between the policy and the reality in its
implementation. It is supported by the late Alwasilah (2014) that English teaching
should be redesigned to promote new forms of knowledge and culture and this
would require a great deal of flexibility in the teaching methods. In line with
this, the scientific approach should reflect the language teaching not only
English to discover new forms of knowledge and culture. So that, it can be
suitable for language teaching that is more flexible than the science studies.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the writer believes
that it is high time to reconsider the implementation of scientific approach
especially for English language teaching. Two important things to redesign the
approach must be taken into account. The first is that to promote new forms of
knowledge and culture, the approach should be in line with the objectives of
teaching English in schools. The objectives are to encourage students
communicating in English according to the context of the language being used
and to facilitate students with the aspects of interpretation, convention,
collaboration, cultural knowledge, problem solving, and reflection. Then, the
second is that English teaching should deal with its flexibility in teaching
methods. In other words, it should not be taught by only one method/approach,
but it should be flexible to adopt various methods/approaches in order to make
the learning process joyful and not boring or even complicated for students.
This has also to do with the teaching time management in the classroom by the
teachers, so that the whole learning stages can be done properly.
References
Alwasilah, Chaedar. 2014. Islam, Culture, and Education:
Essays on Contemporary Indonesia. Bandung: PT Remaja Rosdakarya.
Hidayat, Hendi. 2016. Revisiting the Scientific Approach in
Language Teaching.
An unpublished essay.
Nasution, K. (2013). Aplikasi Model
Pembelajaran dalam Perspektif Pendekatan Saintifik, Diktat Kemenag.
Panjaitan, S. (2015). The Implementation of
Scientific Approach in Teaching Reading Comprehension at Smk Negeri 3 Jambi in
the Academic Year 2014/2015. Jambi.
Sehatiin, B. (2014). The
Implementation of Scientific Approach in the Teaching of Reading Narrative Text
to the Tenth Grade Students. UNESA.
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