CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Introductory issues that will be discussed in this section are; (1) the
background of the study, (2) reasons for choosing the topic, (3) the statements of
the problem, (4) the objectives of the study, (5) the significance of the study, (6)
the scope of the study, and (7) the definitions of key terms in order to give an
overview of the study, and outline of thesis.

1.1 Background of the Study

Learning English as a foreign language in senior high school is not merely
about the process of language acquiring, but also how to relate the language use
with the learners daily lives. This consideration comes from what Hein (1999: 4
-5) cited by Fauziati (2009: 69) writes that learning is contextual. Learners do not
learn isolated facts and theories which are separated from their lives. They learn in
relationship to what else they know, what they believe, and their fears.
Furthermore, Fauziati (2009:63) states that individuals make meanings through
the interactions with each other and with the environment they live in. It can be
inferred that to make the learning meaningful, it should involve interaction of
learners and their environment which they find in their daily lives.
Hauschild et al. (2012: 3) reports that many teachers understand the
importance of protecting Earth planet but others might be skeptical about
introducing environmental awareness in the classroom because of its political
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issues and controversies. One of the political issues in Indonesia is the

implementation of new curriculum. Since 2013, some schools are demanded to
apply the new curriculum. Based on my observation, some English teachers feel
they are not well prepared to teach with 2013 Curriculum because they learn the
curriculum in short time. Moreover, they are only facilitated with core
competence, basic competence and syllabi but the English textbooks promised by
Indonesian government have not shown up yet. Short preparation and limited
facilities make it uneasy for teachers to facilitate their students with proper
materials.
Brown (1991) and Cotton (2006) cited by Hauchild et al. (2012: 3) mentions
that language teachers generally do not see themselves as science teachers so they
do not pay attention on the environmental issues. Additionally, many teachers
wish to remain neutral about environmental topics. However, one of teachers
goals should be helping learners become informed about as many issues as
possible that intrinsically affect their lives. On one hand, teachers do not bring
environmental issues into their class because they consider that they do not see the
importance of their roles. On the other hand, it is crucial to introduce the topics to
make the students aware of their environment.
Some studies shows how the integration of the environmental education into
language classroom. Rivers (1976: 96) cited by Jacobs and Cates (1999: 47-48)
has written that language teachers are the most fortunate of teachers because all
subjects are theirs. Whatever the learners want to communicate about, what they
want to read about is their subject matter. Indeed, the communicative approach

emphasizes that language are best learned by using them to communicate

meaning, rather than by focusing on explicit learning of grammar and vocabulary.
On another journal article, Gursoy (2010: 237) says that in foreign language
teaching there are certain approaches and techniques that make it possible to
provide environmental education. Such integration has multiple benefits for the
learners such as to learn the foreign language meaningfully and purposefully, and
to gain environmental awareness. It may be implied that learning would be
meaningful if it connects learners to their daily lives. In relation to this, it is
important for the language teachers to connect the language use to the everyday
life situations. One of the actual topics which connect the learners to everyday life
is environmental education.
Based on the writers previous observation, her English colleagues do not
integrate environmental education in their classrooms for some reasons. Firstly,
they are still grasping the essential of 2013 Curriculum. Some of them even do not
comprehend the use of scientific approach in English class based on 2013
Curriculum. Secondly, some of the teachers think that cross curriculum materials
are not easy to prepare since they are still confused about the curriculum itself. On
the other hand, they consider that the learners environmental awareness is low so
they think that it is important to integrate Environmental Education in their
English classrooms.
Based on the explanation above, the writer assumes that English teachers
need to develop materials which introduce environmental education to the

learners. Furthermore, these materials can improve the learners language

competence, especially writing recount text as well as environmental awareness.
This study aims to develop environment based materials to teach writing
recount text. The designing materials were related to the environmental education
and it is aimed to improve learners environmental awareness because the
materials related closely to learners daily lives.

1.2 Reasons for Choosing the Topic

Teaching English as a foreign language needs various effort to connect the
use of the language with learners daily lives. One of them is by developing
written recount text materials which is integrated with environmental education.
Some reasons which come along with this issue were as follows:
1. Learners learn English as a foreign language with little opportunities to relate
its use in their daily lives.
2. Learners have low environmental awareness.
3. The tenth graders of senior high school have not got the 2013 Curriculum
textbook.
Concerning to the above condition, the writer is willing to improve teaching
learning process by developing environment based materials to teach recount
text writing. It is expected to improve learners writing competence and
environmental awareness.

1.3 Statements of the Problem

In this study, the writer limits the discussion by stating the following
problem:
1. What were the existing materials to teach writing recount text for the tenth
graders like?
2. What kind of materials did the tenth graders of senior high school need to
write recount text?
3. How were the environmentbased materials developed to teach writing
recount text for the tenth graders of senior high school?
4. How effective was the environment-based materials to teach writing recount
text for the tenth graders of senior high school?

1.4 Objectives of the Study

In particular, the objectives of the study are as follows:
1. To describe the existing materials to teach writing recount text for the tenth
graders.
2. To describe the tenth graders of senior high school needed to write recount
text.
3. To explain the development of the environment based materials to write
recount text for the tenth graders of senior high school.
4. To explain how effective the environment based materials to teach recount
text writing for the tenth graders of senior high school.

1.5 Significances of the Study

The result of this study hopefully could contribute some benefits to the
learners and teachers. Here were the benefits:

1. Theoretically, this study could confirm that relating the language use to the
learners daily lives improve learners writing competence.
2. Practically, it showed that teachers were able to improve their learners
writing competence and the environmental awareness at the same time.
3. Pedagogically, this study can give benefits to some parties, such as:
a. For learners, it could improve their writing competence and
environmental awareness.
b. For teachers, it could add their general knowledge in teaching methods
and materials. Furthermore, they will gain more information about
environmental education.
c. For educational authorities, they could recommend English teachers to
integrate environmental education in their classes.

1.6 Scope of the Study

Present study used Research and Development approach. It developed
environment based materials to teach writing recount text. Teaching English
focused on the learners competence of writing recount text for the tenth graders
of senior high schools based on 2013 Curriculum. The recount text was chosen
because it was one of the basic competencies of the even semester of the tenth
graders. Furthermore, the study was held in the even semester in the academic
year of 2013 - 2014.

1.7 Definition of the Key Terms

To avoid ambiguity and misunderstanding, it was important to give
definitions of the terms used in the study. The terms were developing, 2013
curriculum, environmental education, and environmental awareness.

1. Developing
It comes from the verb develop which means to grow or change into
something bigger or more advanced, or to work on a new idea or product to
make it successful
(Longman Dictionary of American English Fourth Edition, 2008: 276)
2. 2013 Curriculum
Curriculum is a set of plans and arrangements regarding the purpose, content,
and teaching materials and methods used to guide the organization of learning
activities to achieve specific educational goals.
(Government Act No. 32 Year 2013: 4)
The 2013 Curriculum was developed with the mindset as follows:
1) teacher-centered learning changes into the learner-centered learning.
Learners should have the choices of materials studied to have the same
competence;
2) one-way learning (teacher-student interaction) changes into an interactive
learning (interaction among teacher, student, society, environment,
source/ other media);
3) isolated learning patterns changes into learning networks (learners can
gain knowledge from anyone and from anywhere that can be reached and
obtained via the Internet);
4) passive learning changes into active seeking learning (students actively
seek further strengthened by science approach);
5) independent learning becomes a group work (team-based);

6) learning with single media changes into with multimedia;

7) mass learning changes into the needs of customers (users) to promote the
development of specific potential of every learner;
8) single science learning (monodiscipline) changes into plural scientific
(multidiscipline) , and
9) passive learning becomes critical learning.
(Education and Culture Minister Decree No. 70 Year 2013: 5-6)
3. Environmental education
It is a blending of various sciences and social studies topics that affect
ecosystems, environmental education is the study of the circumstances and
conditions by which an organism is surrounded, how the surroundings affect
the organism, and how the organism affects the surroundings. The study may
include the causes and effects of changes to the system, whether natural, like
climate or competition, or manmade, such as population, pollution, energy,
development and use, and urbanization, and the associated impacts.
Subdivisions may include forestry, wildlife biology, fisheries game
management, and water studies.
(The Greenwood Dictionary of Education 2nd Edition 2011: 165)
4. Environmental awareness
Being aware means realizing that something is true, exists, or is happening
(Longman Dictionary of American English Fourth Edition, 2008: 64).
Environmental awareness is broadly defined. Among other things, awareness
encompasses incorporating knowledge of contemporary issues affecting

nature locally and beyond, discovering which actions can make a difference
in ones surroundings.
(Schmidt, 2007: 2)
Environmental awareness is the ability to see and understand the causes and
effects of environmental problems in the transitional future that humans (and
others) now face.
(Saylan and Blumstein, 2011: 79)
5. Recount Text
Recount text discusses the experiential content which refers to the immediate
past and to a brief sequence of activities involving material processes, using
the simple past tense (went, got) and mental processes (saw, hear) reflecting
the sensory nature of the experience.
(Christie et al., 2010: 92)
Recount is a kind of genre that has social function to retell event for the
purpose of informing or entertaining. The tense that used in recount text is
past tense. Social purpose of recount is to reconstruct past experiences by
retelling events in original sequence. We can look at the sample of recount in
personal letters, police report, insurance claims, and incident reports.
(Hyland, 2007: 124)
1.8 Outline of the Thesis
This thesis is organized as follows:
Chapter I consists of introduction which discuss about the background of the
study, the reason of choosing the topic, statement of problems, objectives of the
study, significance of the study, scope of the research, definition of terms, and
outline of thesis.

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Chapter II explains about the review of related literature which consists of

previous study, theoretical review, and theoretical framework. Theoretical review
consists of 2013 Curriculum, content standard, syllabus, lesson, teaching writing,
recount text, and environmental education.
Chapter III explains the method of investigation. It contains the research
design, research and development procedure, method of data collection, the
instruments of the study, the steps of data analysis, and activity schedule of
research and development.
Chapter IV is intended to present and discuss the findings of the study. It
embodies four sub chapters, that is, the analysis and description of the existing
materials to teach writing recount text, the materials needs of the tenth graders to
write recount text, development of the environment based materials to teach
writing recount text for the tenth graders, and the effectiveness of the environment
based materials to teach writing recount text for the tenth graders.
Chapter V is the conclusion of the investigation and the suggestion for the
improvement of teaching and learning process.