COMPETENCY-BASED TEACHING AND LEARNING 
                                                   AT SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLS 
                                                           Anik Nunuk Wulyani 
                                            Jurusan Sastra Inggris Fak. Sastra Universitas Negeri Malang 
                           Abstract: This article discusses practical ideas teachers, particularly senior high school 
                           teachers, could use in the classroom activities in line with the most recent teaching ap-
                           proach  based  on  Competency-Based  Curriculum  (CBC).  The  discussion  begins  with 
                           CBC's background, characteristics, and practical formats for classroom activities. The pa-
                           per offers teachers with handy experience of applying CBC for English teaching at senior 
                           high schools. It is anticipated that later on EFL teachers extend their own activities in 
                           their class to craft the English teaching at senior high schools to be more meaningful and 
                           fun.  
                           Key words: Competency-based teaching and learning, practical classroom activities.
                           There  has  been  a  growing  interest  in    (Cahyono:2005)  and  to  utilize  various 
                      Competency-Based  Curriculum  (CBC)  re-           monologue texts (Suryati:2005) required in 
                      cently.  To  help  teachers  comprehend  the       the  new  curriculum.  There  is  an  article 
                      curriculum better, many books, articles and        which  describes  the  teaching  of  Genre-
                      papers about CBC have been written. For            Based Writing written by Guo Yan (English 
                      example a series of book are written to as-        Teaching  Forum,  Volume  43,  Number  3, 
                      sist teachers in understanding CBC at Eng-         2005). 
                      lish  teaching  and  learning  entitled  Materi        What is Competency-Based Curriculum 
                      Pelatihan Terintegrasi: Bahasa Inggris (Ma-        (CBC)?  Basically,  CBC  has  been  intro-
                      terials of Integrated Training: English, Dep-      duced for some time and is part of the com-
                      diknas:2004).  There  are  also  some  papers      ponents  of  what  is  called  Competency-
                      written to socialize CBC to English teachers       Based  Education.  The  curriculum  aims  to 
                      and lecturers (Mukminatien and Anugerah-           achieve for the highest level of mastery of 
                      wati:2004). Some other papers are also writ-       science  and  technology  for  the  students 
                      ten to facilitate High School teachers to ac-      (Mulyasa, 2003:8). 
                      quire the general explanation of CBC and to            To be able to transfer and use science 
                      identify types of texts discussed in the new       and  technology  which  mostly  come  from 
                      curriculum (Furaidah &Widiati:2005). Fur-          developed  countries  (some  English  speak-
                      thermore, there are also some papers written       ing  countries  such  as  USA,  Australia  and 
                      to  aid  High  School teachers to understand       England), students need to understand their 
                      the nature of each type of texts and provide       languages for sure. Language, then, is es-
                      training in developing those types of texts        sential in the development of students  so-
                                                                      261 
                       262 BAHASA DAN SENI, Tahun 35, Nomor 2, Agustus 2007 
                       cial and emotional lives and intelligence. It     outcomes)  dan  keberagaman,  3)  penyam-
                       is also believed to be the key of success in      paian  dalam  pembelajaran  menggunakan 
                       learning all lessons. Language is hoped to        pendekatan dan metode yang bervariasi, 4) 
                       help the students to know themselves, their       sumber  belajar  bukan  hanya  guru,  tetapi 
                       cultures and other people s cultures (Depar-      juga  sumber  belajar  lainnya  yang  me-
                       temen  Pendidikan  Nasional.  2003).  Corre-      menuhi  unsur  edukatif,  dan  5)  penilaian 
                       sponding to that ideals, curriculums for high     menekankan pada proses dan hasil belajar 
                       school is made to prepare students in reach-      dalam upaya penguasaan atau pencapaian 
                       ing  competency  in  which  they  can  mirror     suatu  kompetensi  (Pusat  Kurikulum  Balit-
                       back their own and others  experiences, ex-       bang Depdiknas, 2002:1-2).  
                       press their ideas and feeling, and understand 
                       differences in meanings.                               Looking back at points number 3 and 4, 
                           In conclusion, CBC refers to a combi-         we  can  conclude  that  both  teachers  and 
                       nation of knowledge, skills, values and atti-     learners have to be creative and resourceful 
                       tude which is reflected in someone s way of       which, sometimes, can be daunting as stated 
                       thinking  and  acting.  Indeed,  it  refers  to   by Basthomi (2005). As in English teach-
                       knowledge, skills and abilities or capabili-      ing, Basthomi reports that English teachers 
                       ties that a person achieves, which becomes        neither pay attention nor really try to com-
                       part of his or her being to the extent that he    prehend  the  new  curriculum.  Besides,  he 
                       or she can satisfactorily perform particular      also reports that due to their  moonlighting 
                       cognitive,  affective,  and  psychomotor  be-     tradition, English teachers will find no time 
                       havior (Mulyasa, 2002:38-39). Based on the        to read and understand the new curriculum. 
                       explanation, we can see that the goal of the      Furthermore, if English teachers are asked 
                       curriculum  is  to  enable  students  to  relate  to  be  adventurous  and  creative,  it  means 
                       what they have obtained at schools with the       that they need extra time and energy, which 
                       work world. Due to that reason, the curricu-      again,  becomes  not  only  burdensome  but 
                       lum also stipulates a good cooperation be-        also  troublesome  for  them.  Despite  its 
                       tween the worlds of education and works.          seemingly negative approach to viewing the 
                       Furthermore,  Pusat  Kurikulum  Balitbang         condition  of  Indonesian  English  teachers 
                       Depdiknas (The Center of Curriculum Bu-           above, he concludes that we have to do jus-
                       reau, 2002:1-2) describes CBC s character-        tice by also approaching the problem from 
                       istics. It 1) puts an emphasis on the learners    the  optimistic  angle.  In  the  light  of  the 
                       achievement of the set competence at both         aforementioned  ideas  some  practical  ideas 
                       individual and classical levels, 2) is oriented   are  gathered  from  some  different  sources 
                       at learning outcomes and multidimensional-        that are possible to be done to make CBC 
                       ity,  3)  requires  a  variety  of  learning-     implementable at the teaching and learning 
                       teaching activities, 4) puts teachers as those    of English in senior high schools. 
                       among  various  educational  resources,  and 
                       5)  sets  evaluation/assessment  to  be  on  the  PRACTICAL FORMATS FOR CLASS-
                       learning  processes  and  outcomes.  The          ROOM ACTIVITIES 
                       original version is quoted below:                      There have been many papers that pre-
                       Kurikulum  Berbasis  Kompetensi  memiliki         sent about the competence model, and com-
                       karakteristik  sebagai  berikut:  1)  mene-       ponents of CBC and their explanation. Let 
                       kankan pada ketercapaian kompetensi siwa          us pay attention to the competence standard 
                       baik secara individual maupun klasiskal, 2)       of  the  materials.  The  Department  of 
                       berorientasi  pada  hasil  belajar  (learning     National  Education  (Departemen  Pendi-
                                                                           Wulyani, Competency-Based Teaching and Learning  263
                        dikan Nasional ), 2004 states:                         abilities. 
                        Standar Kompetensi Bahan Kajian adalah                 Stage 1: Building Knowledge of the Field 
                        berkomunikasi dalam bahasa Inggris lisan                    As  this  stage  aims  to  make  students 
                        maupun  tulis  secara  lancar  dan  akurat             have enough background knowledge of the 
                        sesuai  dengan  konteks  sosialnya.  1)  Men-          text/topic,  to  be  able  to  talk  or  to  write 
                        dengarkan,  memahami  berbagai  makna                  about it, it focuses mainly on the content or 
                        (interper-sonal,  idesional,  tekstual)  dalam         information of the text. Suryati (2005) men-
                        berbagai  teks  lisan  yang  memiliki  tujuan          tions that at this stage, students are still a 
                        komunikatif, struktur teks, dan ciri kebaha-           long way from producing a text themselves, 
                        saan  tertentu,  2)  Berbicara,  mengungkap-           and activities will involve speaking, listen-
                        kan berbagai makna (interpersonal, idesio-             ing,  reading,  information  gathering  and  so 
                        nal,  tekstual)  dalam  berbagai  teks  lisan          on. Here are some ways to build the context 
                        yang memiliki tujuan komunikatif, struktur             which are taken from Suryati, 2005:1) build 
                        teks,  dan  ciri  kebahasaan  tertentu,  3)            up  a  semantic  web  of  student s  current 
                        Membaca,  memahami  berbagai  makna                    knowledge of the topic, teaching new vo-
                        (interpersonal,  idesional,  tekstual)  dalam          cabulary as appropriate, 2) use wallpapering 
                        berbagai  teks  tulis  yang  memiliki  tujuan          to  collect  ideas  based  on  students  current 
                        komunikatif,  struktur  teks,  dan  ciri  keba-        knowledge,  3)  gather  a  list  of  questions 
                        hasaan tertentu, and 4) Menulis, mengung-              from the children of things they would like 
                        kapkan  berbagai  makna  (interpersonal,               to  find  out  about,  4)  read  about  the  topic 
                        idesional,  tekstual)  dalam  berbagai  teks           students used shared reading or big books, 
                        tulis  yang  memiliki  tujuan  komunikatif,            5) use pictures to elicit or teach vocabulary, 
                        struktur teks, dan ciri kebahasaan tertentu.           6) develop a word wall/word bank about the 
                             The standard competence of the materi-            topic,  where  technical  vocabulary  can  be 
                        als  for  the  four  skills  (listening,  speaking,    displayed, 7) use jigsaw listening or reading 
                        reading,  and  writing)  is  to  enable  the  stu-     to extend the children s knowledge base, 8) 
                        dents to communicate in spoken and written             use technological resources (the internet is a 
                        English appropuiately and accurately.                  wonderful resource for many topics) to ac-
                             It is not an effortless thing to translate        cess additional information, 9) get the stu-
                        the  ideas  into  practice.  English  teachers,        dents to interview an expert in the field, 10) 
                        however, must not feel disheartened about              use  picture  and  sentence  matching  game, 
                        it.  Practically there are two cycles in Eng-          11)  use  barrier  games,  12)  watch  a  video 
                        lish  learning  method,  as  is  stated  in  the       and provide an information grid for pairs of 
                        CBC.  Each  cycle  consists  of  four  stages:         students to complete as they watch, and 13) 
                        Building Knowledge of the Field (BKoF),                use the topic to practice or introduce gram-
                        Modeling of Texts (MoT), Joint Construc-               mar structure that are particularly meaning-
                        tion of Texts (JCoT), and Independent Con-             ful to the topic. Here are some more practi-
                        struction  of  Texts  (ICoT).  The  proposed           cal classroom activities that the writer also 
                        formats  of  teaching  strategies  and  tech-          uses  in  BKoF  of  the  students:  1)  use  re-
                        niques will encompass the above cycles and             corded  materials  and  provide  jumbled  in-
                        stages.  Since the strategies and techniques           formation for students to work on, 2) use 
                        can be implemented in any grades in senior             teacher s voice in the reading of monologue 
                        high  schools,  English  teachers  have  the           texts,  3)  use  photographs  such  as  family, 
                        freedom  to  decide  which  techniques  and            holiday,  wedding  and  pets  photographs  to 
                        strategies  suit  their  students      needs  and      build students  knowledge on the discussed 
                        264 BAHASA DAN SENI, Tahun 35, Nomor 2, Agustus 2007 
                        topic, 4) brainstorm ideas, and 5) use mind         izational  structure.  As  an  alternative,  they 
                        mapping to collect vocabulary.                      maybe given jumbled pictures and are asked 
                                                                            to order them. 
                        Stage 2: Modeling of the Text 
                            This  stage  is  meant  to  make  students      Stage 3: Joint Construction of the Text 
                        become familiar  with  the  purpose,  overall            At  this  stage,  the  students  work  in 
                        structure, and linguistic feature of the type       groups to produce a text together. It is also 
                        of the text they are going to produce. The          possible that the teacher and students create 
                        form and function of the particular text type       a  text  together.  Suryati  (2005)  notes  that 
                        that students are going to write become very        students  are  now  ready  to  think  about 
                        essential here. Suryati (2005) notes teacher        speaking/writing, although they will not yet 
                        should choose a text that is similar to the         be speaking/writing alone. She, further, re-
                        one he/she will use in the next stage (Joint        marks  that  teacher  and  students  together 
                        Construction) and  to  the  one  that  the  stu-    discuss  the  overall  structure  of  the  text, 
                        dents  will  eventually  produce  themselves.       suggest more appropriate vocabulary, con-
                        She also says that model texts maybe com-           sider alternative ways of wording an idea, 
                        mercially  produced,  teacher-produced  or          and work on correcting grammar mistakes, 
                        text produced previously by other students.         spelling and punctuation. It is also said to be 
                        Here  are  some  steps  that  Suryati  (2005)       the time when there can be an explicit focus 
                        suggests: 1) play the tape or read the mono-        on grammar although it only occurs in func-
                        logue text to the students, 2) ask their com-       tionally relevant ways. However, it should 
                        prehension about the text, 3) draw students         not be out of the contexts of actual language 
                        attention  to  the  organizational  structure  or   use and must be used at the point of need. 
                        the  shape  of  the  text  and  the  function  of   The teachers  tasks  here  are  to  encourage 
                        each stage, 4) students (in pairs) do a text        the students to focus on all aspects of writ-
                        reconstruction of part of the text, 5) or mix       ing/speaking  and  to  guide  the  students  to 
                        up  sentences  from  two  texts  of  the  same      write/speak.  The  following  are  activities 
                        genre and students must sort out which sen-         which can be done in making use this stage. 
                        tence  belong  to  which  text,  and  then  se-     In groups, students are asked to: 1) create 
                        quence  them,  6)  use  the  model  text  as  a     poster  on  related  topic,  2)  prepare  some-
                        cloze  exercise,  and  7)  once  the  students      body s profile to be put in a back cover of a 
                        have  clear  idea  of  the  characteristics  of  a  book, novel, or biography, etc., 3) write a 
                        certain genre, remind them of these charac-         plot  outline  on  recount,  journal,  review, 
                        teristics and write up as a chart can be dis-       short story, speech, etc., 4) prepare and pre-
                        played  on  the  wall.  Here  are  some  other      sent an interview between a reporter and a 
                        practical ideas that can be carried out in the      prominent figure, and 5) draw an illustration 
                        classrooms. First,  ask  students  to  read  the    of a poem, story, scene, etc. 
                        model  text  on  certain  genre.  Second,  ask 
                        their  comprehension about the text. Third,         Stage 4: Independent Construction of the 
                        since  they  have  previewed  the  organiza-        Text 
                        tional  structure  of  the  text,  they  can  be         This is  the  final  stage  of  the  learning 
                        asked to identify it in the reading passage.        process. At this stage students produce their 
                        Fourth, students (in pairs) are given exercise      own texts which are similar to the texts they 
                        on  new  reading  passage  which  has  been         have learned on the previous stages. Suryati 
                        jumbled. They should reorder the parts of           (2005)  states  that  while  the  students  are 
                        the text and then match them with its organ-        writing, the teacher must remind them about