Pedagogical Values of Mobile-Assisted
Task-Based Activities
in Improving Students’ Competence in
Speaking Skill
for Senior High School
ABSTRACT
Mobile technologies prove to be
beneficial in language learning. The
aim of this research is to investigate the pedagogical impact of the mobile-assisted
task-based activities in
improving students’ competence in speaking skill. This study applies an action research technique
to conduct the research. The study is conducted in Indonesia with second grade
students of senior high school as the participants. They are conducted via
online recorded task based activities through WhatsApp mobile application. The
activities include 3 stages: pre-task, cycle task, and post-task. Pre- and post-tests
are implemented to determine the improvement of students’ competence in
speaking skill. The research findings indicate that mobile-assisted task based
activities is effective on improving students’ speaking skill. The result of
this research is learners outperform in regarding their speaking skills.
Keywords: Pedagogical Values, Online Task-Based Activities, Mobile-Assisted Language Learning, Speaking
INTRODUCTION
Speaking skills can benefit from the pedagogical values of mobile phones
which can serve educational purposes, such as developing language learning. Speaking
as a mean of communication is a way of making your ideas, sharing them with
other people and of influencing other people. It is more highly structured to
the ability to use the language for communicative purpose (Lucas, Stephen,
2009, p. 4).
Arnesen, Korpas, Hennissen, & Stav (2013) stated “there is a need in
the new educational framework for mobile-assisted task-based activities aimed
at developing learner skills rather than just assessing learner knowledge and
proficiency” (p.70).
In the earlier study, it has some limitations that need to be
highlighted. Firstly, mobile-assisted task-based activities enable the teacher
to diagnose not only group performance but also each student’s performance. Further,
more research is needed to investigate the effect of mobile-assisted task-based
activities on improving students’ competence in speaking skill.
On the basis of these data, the decision is made to create pedagogically
advantageous for language teachers, teacher educators, and material developers.
In the current study, the researcher tries to investigate the way of effective
learning through mobile technologies, a shift from teacher to students, via
m-learning.
LITERATURE REVIEW
A. The
Nature of Speaking
Given
the importance of speaking skill, it is not surprising that it has been taught
and studied around the world for thousands of years. According to Rizvi (2006:
92), speaking is an interactive communicative process that involves speakers
and listeners. In communicative process, speakers need to learn to adapt their
talk to the listeners; use a range of ways to express themselves; use talk to
clarify their ideas and sustain their talk to develop thinking and reasoning.
Speaking
can be difficult because it requires a number of abilities which everyone has a
different level. Thornburry (2005: 40) proposes the terms of the basic knowledge
that enables in speaking skill, such as: grammar, vocab, intonation, and pronunciation.
B.
MALL (Mobile Assisted Language Learning)
Mobile technologies are expected to be an innovation of pedagogical practices in education. The concept of
MALL (Mobile Assisted Language Learning) has come into existence. MALL is a branch of technology-enhanced learning which
can be implemented in classroom. Moreover, learners are able to access and
communicate with their teachers and peers at any time. As Kloper et al (2002)
mention that there are four properties of mobile devices which can result
pedagogical affordances:
1.
Portability:
the small size and weight of mobile devices eases the relocation of these technologies
within different sites.
2.
Social
interactivity: mobile devices can help the face-to-face data exchange and
collaboration among the language learners.
3.
Connectivity-connecting:
the ability to gather and respond to the real or stimulated data via the
current location, environment and time.
4.
Individuality:
the various tasks and activities can be customized for the individual and team
C.
Online
Task-Based Activities
Technology
is expected can improve learning process including in creating a task. We can
access anything at any time from any mobile phone with internet access,
integration of graphics, audio, and text; and ease and low cost of publication
(Kern and Warschauer, 2000). These activities are concern with the students’
activity. The function of the teachers are to create and provide various tasks
so the learners get a chance to learn by themselves and able to apply to real
life situations.
Adopted from Ellis (2006,
pp. 19-20), there are three stages activities, such as: pre-task, during task
and post task. The pre-task phase is a process where the topic is introduced
and the instructions of the tasks are given by the teacher. In during task, the
teacher provides the students in negotiating words or phrases, grammar, and
pronunciation when and where needed. The teacher is also available for students
to call for advice or to give feedback in language (Frost, 2004). While in post
task, the students are conducted discussion. It is ended with presentation.
ACTION PLAN
A. The
Subject of The Research
This
research applies at second grade students of senior high school. There are 42
students in this class as the participants: twelve
male learners and thirty female learners.
B. The Method of The Research
In this study,
the researcher applies the action research to conduct this study. The action research is the reflective process whereby
in a given problem area, where one wishes to improve practice or personal
understanding, inquiry is carried out by the practitioner - first, to clearly
define the problem; secondly, to specify a plan of action, evaluation is then
undertaken to monitor and establish the effectiveness of the action taken.
Finally, participants reflect upon, explain developments, and communicate these
results to the community of action researchers. Action research is systematic
self-reflective scientific inquiry by practitioners to improve practice
(McKernan 2000: 5).
C. The
Action of The Research
A representation of an
action research by Kemmis (cited in Hui, F.
N., 2011: 48) is provided in
the following figure:
In
order to conduct the present study, the researcher uses the same steps. The following
steps are taken:
1.
Planning
In this stage,
the researcher plans the pretest to know the students’ previous competence in speaking
skill, the lesson plan to conduct the classroom activities, the post-test in
order to know if there is any improvement in the students’ competence in
speaking skill through mobile- assisted task-based activities.
2.
Action
In this stage,
students are expected to follow three stages: pre-task activities, task cycle,
and post-task activities.
In the pre-task
activities, photos play an important role. The students are enhanced to communicate, give and ask
opinion and experiences among themselves and comment to each other. Moreover,
teacher facilitates them to interact to each other and gives comment and
feedback to their presentation.
During the task cycle, the researcher performs opinion exchange tasks
asking students an opinion-based question on the lesson’s topic. The
participants are required to ask each other question and to comment on others
orally. Teacher gives advice,
comment and feedback to their opinion and ideas.
In the post-task activities, participants are expected to present what
they discovered. It primarily focuses on summarizing the outcome of the task.
3.
Observing
In this stage,
the researcher observes their learning process and their engagement or their
involvement, their response, their attitude of the learning process during the speaking class during the implementation of mobile-
assisted task-based activities.
4.
Reflecting
After conducting
the teaching and learning activities under the mobile- assisted task-based
activities, the researcher evaluates the result to investigate the
effectiveness of the action program so the researcher knows whether it is necessary to conduct the action program in
teaching and learning activities.
D. The Possibilities of The Research
a.
The Condition Before The Research
There are some
conditions of the students before the research, as follows:
-
low
motivation
-
low achievement
-
cannot speak fluently
-
stuck in making ideas
-
grammatical error in making sentence
-
the atmosphere of the classroom not alive
-
not use interesting technique to get the students’ interest
-
monotone activities
b.
The Condition After The Research
There are some
improvements in students’ speaking ability after the research, such as:
-
learning
motivation
-
achievement
-
ability to speak
-
ability in making ideas
-
the use
of grammar.
In addition, there are also some improvements in classroom situation after the
research, such as:
-
atmosphere of the classroom
-
technique in teaching
-
the form of activities.
From the data above, it means that mobile-assisted task-based activities can
improve students’ competence in speaking skill.
E. The
Challenge of The Research
There are some
challenges in doing this research, such as:
-
how
to make the students speak a lot
-
how
to teach in a serious way but relax
-
how
to make students curious
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