Case 2

A. Related Problem in the Class

When I taught in XII NS B2 on the topic of complex sentences, some students have
problem on differentiating the complex sentences and compound sentences. Mainly
they have problem with differentiating the clauses, independent and dependent
clauses. It happened when they do not know what are the main differences of the
types of sentences. Another concern was on the meaning of “complex” in complex
sentences, when I write four sentences on the board:

1. I usually visit my grandparents in Banjarmasin every holiday.

2. I like to visit my grandparents when I have holiday.
3. My parents have bought a new big round brown wooden Chinese dining table.
4. She likes to eat.

The students tended to choose sentence 1 or 3. When I asked why, they said that
those sentences are longer than the rest.

B. The Aspect or Perspective that Was Used

To me, those problems were related to the aspects of content knowledge, including
sub content, and knowledge of learners, in PCK. Since many students didn’t have
adequate prior knowledge about clauses, I need to break it down into some parts
before talking about complex sentences.

C. Method/Ways to Solve the Problem

What I did was doing brainstorming, simulation and giving more examples. Ask more
questions about clause, and gather the answer on the board. I write a sentences which
consist of at least two clauses. I asked the students to identify what are the clauses. I
asked students “What makes those clauses different?”. When they found two separate
clauses, they might get confuse again on differentiating the independent and
dependent clause. Therefore, I use the following ways:

1. I write a complex sentence:

I will visit you when I have holiday.

2. I cover one part and let the other part be seen by students.

I will visit you. (Could you still understand this sentence? Does it have a
complete meaning?)

when I have holiday. (Could you still understand this

sentence? Does it have a complete meaning?)

3. The students conclude that the independent clause has complete idea while
dependent does not.

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D. Outcome
More students could understand better about the different of independent and
dependent clauses by making them understand about the idea of the clauses.