Kaswan: Elicitation Technique 47 ELICITATION TECHNIQUE AND ITS IMPACT ON COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE (An experiment Study Conducted at SMP Pasundan 1 Cimahi) KASWAN STKIP Siliwangi, Bandung ABSTRACT This study is inspired by the fact that the English teaching and learning is still dominated by the teacher centred approach. As a result, students‟ communicative competence is below expectation. For that reason and another, the teacher should shift their teaching approach from the teacher centred approach to learner centred approach by using elicitation technique. The main objective of this study is to find out the impact of elicitation technique on students‟ communicative competence. Accordingly, the research method used is quantitative research, or more specifically the quasi-experimental design with the Matching-Only Posttest-Only Control Group Design which consists of two classes (86 students) as the sample. Data analysis shows that the observed value of t (2.36) is bigger than the critical value of t (1.67). As a conclusion, the elicitation technique has a significant impact on students‟ communicative competence. Keywords: teacher centred approach, communicative competence, elicitation, learner centred approach A. Introduction Teachers are very familiar with what is called “lockstep” in which the teacher wholly controls the content, stages and pace of the lesson (Nolasco and Arthur (ed), 1998: 39). In this form of language teaching, the teacher typically takes up a position in front of the class and is responsible for controlling who should speak and when. As a result, students have less time to use English as a means of communication, self-expression, and social interaction. In other words, this style of learning has led to the students‟ poor communicative competence. To develop the students‟ communicative competence, teachers should shift their approach of teaching from teacher-centred instruction to learner-centred approach – that is, , a belief that attention to the nature of learners should be central to all aspects of language teaching, including planning teaching, and evaluation. Learning is dependent upon the nature and will of the learners (Richards and Schmidt, 2010:326-7). In addition, learner centred instruction includes techniques that focus on or account for learners‟ needs, styles, and goals (Brown, 1980: 46 ). Furthermore, learner-centred approach is based on humanistic approaches and constructivist approaches (Paul, 2003).Two essential things adhering to this approach are that (1) the teacher is a “facilitator” who steps back and encourages children to learn “naturally,” and (2) all students are active learners. As mentioned above, learner-centred approach comprises a number of techniques, one of which is elicitation (Harmer, 1983). Elicitation, as stated by Richards and (2010:.191). is any technique or procedure that is designed to get a person to actively produce speech or writing, for example, asking someone to describe a picture, tell a story, or finish an incomplete sentence. ELTIN journal, Volume 2/I, April 2014 48 This research is focused on answering the following research questions: a. How good is the students‟ communicative competence? b. To what extent does elicitation influence students‟ communicative competence? B. Literature Re view There are two main concepts which will be reviewed in this section: elicitation and communicative competence. 1. Elicitation Elicitation technique, or elicitation procedure is defined by Richards and Schmidt (2010: 191) as “any technique or procedure that is designed to get a person to actively produce speech or writing, for example asking someone to describe a picture, tell a story, or finish an incomplete sentence. In linguistics, these techniques are used to prompt native speakers to produce linguistic data for analysis,” Elicitation is a technique reflecting the learner-centred approach with the following advantages:  Elicitation enables the students to participate fully in all states of material presentation.  Elicitation activates the known language  Elicitation increases students‟ motivation  Elicitation can provide students with more time to talk  Through elicitation students can learn useful incidental language  Elicitation makes students more confident and less dependent on a teacher (Edge, 1999; Brown, 2000; Nolasco and Arthur, 1988; Kaswan: 2010; .Case, 2009). Elicitation in the model of new language introduction can be depicted in Figure 1. The figure describes that during the Lead-in, the context is introduced and the meaning or use of the new language is demonstrated. During the elicitation stage, the teacher tries to see if the students can produce the new language. If they can, it would be wasteful and de-motivating if a lot of time was spent practing the language they already know. If they cannot, the teacher will move on to the explanation. During the explanation stage, the teacher shows how the new language is formed. In the accurate reproduction stage, students are asked to repeat and practice a certain number of models. Finally, in the immediate creativity stage, students try to use what they have just learnt to make sentences of their own. Students Perform Well Lead-in Elicitation Explanation Accurate Reproduction Immediate Creativity Students perform badly Figure 1 General Model for Introducing New Language (Adopted from Harmer, 1983: 57) Kaswan: Elicitation Technique 49 Looking again at the diagram more closely, we will com to the conclusion that the model above is flexible. If the students perform well during elicitation, the teacher can move straight to immediate creativity. If at that stage they perform badly, the teacher finds it necessary either to return to a short accurate reproduction stage, or in extreme cases, to re-explain the new language. There are a lot of ways the teacher can do to elicit new language. The following are some of them:  Pause after asking a question, to give all students time to think.  If there is more than one possible answer, encourage a range of answers from different students.  Elicit vocabulary by using word association or structure onto the white/blackboard, writing as students offer suggestion 2. Communicative Competence A communicative competence is a term in sociolinguistics for a speaker‟s underlying knowledge of the rules of grammar ( understood in its widest sense include phonology, orthography, syntax, lexicon and semantics) and rules for their use in socially appropriate circumstances (McArthur, 1992:239). Communicative competence includes :  knowledge of the grammar and vocabulary of the language  knowledge of rules of speaking (e.g. knowing how to begin and end conversations, knowing what topics may be talked about in different types of speech events, knowing which address forms should be used with different persons one speaks to and in different situations)  knowing how to use and respond to different types of speech acts, such as requests, apologies, thanks and invitations  knowing how to use language appropriately (Richards and Schmidt, 2010). There are four components of communicative competence which can be identified :  Grammatical Competence.: the mastery of the linguistic code, the ability to recognize the lexical, morphological, and phonological features of a language and to manipulate these features to form word and sentences.  Sociolinguistic Competence : an interdisciplinary field of inquiry having to do with the social rules of language use.  Discourse Competence is concerned not with the interpretation of isolated sentences but with the connection of a series of sentences and utterances to form a meaningful whole.  Strategic Competence :the strategies that one uses to compensate for imperfect knowledge of rules – or limiting factors in their application such as afatigue, distraction, and inattention (Savignon, 1983). C. Research Methodology 1. Research Design In this study, the writer used the quasi-experimental design with the Matching-Only Posttest- Only Control Group Design (Frankel, Wallen, and Hyun, 2012) This design does not include the use of random assignment. One group receives the experimental treatment while the other does not, and then both groups are posttested on the dependent variable. A diagram of this design is as follows: ELTIN journal, Volume 2/I, April 2014 50 Experimental Group M X O Control group M C O The symbol X represents exposure to the treatment and O refers to the measurement of the dependent variable. The M in this design means that the subjects in each group have been matched (on certain variables) but not randomly assigned to the groups. 2. Data Collection To get the data, the writer constructed the test items reflecting communicative competence based on the existing curriculum (school-based curriculum). After that, the test was administered. The scores of students‟ communicative competence (SOSCC) constituted the data. The data were presented in tabular forms (Table 1 and Table 2). Table 1 SOSCC of Experimental/Treatment Group Students’ (conceived) identities Scores Students’ (conceived) identities Scores SE 1 97 SE 23 80 SE 2 100 SE 24 54 SE 3 93 SE 25 93 SE 4 93 SE 26 90 SE 5 83 SE 27 100 SE 6 100 SE 28 100 SE 7 90 SE 29 93 SE 8 97 SE 30 83 SE 9 83 SE 31 83 SE 10 94 SE 32 90 SE 11 100 SE 33 87 SE 12 97 SE 34 100 SE 13 87 SE 35 90 SE 14 97 SE 36 93 SE 15 97 SE 37 83 SE 16 77 SE 38 87 SE 17 97 SE 39 80 SE 18 97 SE 40 93 SE 19 93 SE 41 90 SE 20 90 SE 42 100 SE 21 93 SE4 3 63 SE 22 77 TOTAL 3864 Kaswan: Elicitation Technique 51 Table 2 SOSCC of Control Group Students’ (conceived) identities Scores Students’ (conceived) identities Scores SC 1 83 SC 23 73 SC 2 77 SC 24 97 SC 3 80 SC 25 63 SC 4 83 SC 26 87 SC 5 60 SC 27 93 SC 6 97 SC 28 87 SC 7 93 SC 29 80 SC 8 97 SC 30 76 SC 9 90 SC 31 90 SC 10 70 SC 32 87 SC 11 73 SC 33 80 SC 12 100 SC 34 97 SC 13 87 SC 35 73 SC 14 100 SC 36 80 SC 15 93 SC 37 93 SC 16 80 SC 38 73 SC 17 97 SC 39 80 SC 18 97 SC 40 93 SC 19 83 SC 41 100 SC 20 97 SC 42 60 SC 21 73 SC4 3 80 SC 22 90 TOTAL 3642 3. Data Analysis and Interpretation The data in this research are analyzed using t-test for independent, that is, a parametric test of significance used to determine whether there is a statistically significant difference between the means of two independent samples (Frankel, Wallen, and Hyun, 2012: G-9). In addition, the data are analysed using SPSS with the following results: Table 3 Paired Samples Statistics Mean N Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean Pair 1 VAR00001 89.8605 43 9.71641 1.48174 VAR00002 84.6977 43 11.02062 1.68063 Table 4 Paired Samples Test Paired Differences T Df Sig. (2- tailed) Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lower Upper Pair VAR00001 - VAR00002 5.16279 14.31937 2.18368 .75594 9.56964 2.364 42 .023 ELTIN journal, Volume 2/I, April 2014 52 Based on the Table 3 and Table 4, it was interpreted as follows:  Communicative competence of experimental group or the students taught through elicitation techniques (89.86) was better than that of control group or the students taught without elicitation technique (84.70).  The spread of scores of the experimental group (9.72) is smaller than the spread of scores of the control group (11.02). It means that the scores of the experimental group are more homogeneous than those of the control group 4. Hypothesis Testing and Effect Size The hypothesis proposed in this research is as follows: “The students who are taught using elicitation technique have better communicative competence than those who are taught using another technique.” Based on Table 4, the observed-t value was 2.36 and the critical t value was 1.67 and f sig(2- tailed) of 0.02 with df (degree of freedom) of 84 (N1 + N2 -2) at the significance level of 95 % for one-tailed test. Since the observed-t value ( 2.36 ) was bigger than the critical t value (1.67), or sig(2-tailed) of 0.02/2 was smaller than 0.05 level of significance, the hypothesis was accepted. This proved that the students who are taught using elicitation technique have significantly better communicative competence than those who are taught using another technique. In other words, the elicitation technique has a significant effect on the communicative competence. To know effect size of elicitation technique on the communicative competence, the formula used is: r = t 2. t 2 + df Based on the formula above, it was obtained that the effect size of elicitation technique on the communicative competence was 0.34. This means that the effect size was medium and fairly substantial (Field, 2009: 341). E. Conclusions and Suggestions 1. Conclusions  The communicative competence of students belonging to both experimental and control group are respectively 89.8684.70. They reflect the effective learning mastery, which is beyond minimum mastery criteria (KKM) of 70.  Elication technique has a significant impact on students communicative competence . In other words, the students who are taught using elicitation technique have significantly better communicative competence than those who are taught using another technique. 2. Suggestions  Elicitation technique should be considered as an alternative teaching technique in teaching or introducing new English learning material.  This study is limited in terms of educational setting (secondary school). Therefore, the next researcher(s) should replicate it in different setting, such as primary school, high school (SMA or SMK), or university. (Field, 2009: 332) Kaswan: Elicitation Technique 53 References Brown, Douglas H. (1980). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. USA: Prentice Hall. Case, Alex. (2009). The Advantages and Disadvantages of Eliciting in the EFL Classroom. Retrieved on January 3, 2013 from: www. usingenglish.com. Edge, Jukian. (1999). Essentials of English Language Teaching. London: Longman. Field, Andy.(2009). Discovering Statistics Using SPSS. Oxford: Sage. Frankel, Jack R., Norman E. Wallen and Helen H. Hyun. (2012). How to Design and Evaluate Research in Education. New York: McGraw Hill. Harmer, Jeremy. (1984). The Practice of English Language Teaching. London: Longman. Kaswan. (2010). A Brief Introduction to Language Acquisition. Cimahi: STKIP Siliwangi Press McArthur (ed). (1992). The Oxford Companion to the English language. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Nolasco, R. and Arthur l. (1988). Large Classes. London: MacMillan Publisher. Paul, David,(2003). Teaching English to Children in Asia. Hongkong: Pearson Education Bort Asia Limited. Richards, Jack C. and Richarss Schmidt. (2010). Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics. London: Pearson Education Limited. Savignon, Sandra J ( 1983) Communicative Competence : Theory and Classroom Practice . Massachusetts : Addison-Wasley Publishing Company.