THE EFFECTIVENESS OF DEBATE METHOD IN ACHIEVING

COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE
(A Survey Design Study of Students in Vocational High School)

A Research Proposal




Chika Aldila
1100534



ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION
INDONESIA UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION
2014

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Table of Contents .......................................................................................................... 2
I. Introduction ................................................................................................. 3
1.1 Background .............................................................................................. 3
1.2 Purpose of the Study ................................................................................ 5
1.3 Research Question ................................................................................... 5
1.4 Hypothesis ............................................................................................... 5
1.5 Significance of the Study ......................................................................... 6
1.6 Clarification of the Study ........................................................................ 6
1.7 Clarification of Key Terms ...................................................................... 6
1.8 Organization of the Paper ........................................................................ 7
II. Literature Review ........................................................................................ 8
2.1 Communication ....................................................................................... 8
2.2 Communicative Competence ................................................................... 8
2.3 Communicative Skill ............................................................................. 10
2.4 Communicative Language Teaching ..................................................... 11
2.5 Debate .................................................................................................... 14
III. Research Methodology.............................................................................. 16
3.1 Research Design .................................................................................... 16
3.2 Research Site and Participants ............................................................... 16
3.3 Data Collection ...................................................................................... 17
3.4 Analysis ................................................................................................. 17
References ................................................................................................................... 18





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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background
English has been introduced to Indonesian students since elementary level. In
each degree of level, the goal of studying English is different. But, in accordance
with the National Ministry of Education in Kepmendiknas No. 22/2006 who
states that English is a tool for communicating both in written or oral, we may
conclude the main goal of study English in school is as a preparation of
communicating with other people, in any context, when English is required.
In Vocational High School level, students are specifically prepared for
acquiring a good communicative skill, both in native language and foreign
language, which in this case is English. The skill has to be acquired in order to
prepare them for real life communication. Students are expected to perform
certain functions as well, such as promising, inviting, promoting, and denying
within a social context (Wilkins, 1976 cited in Freeman, p. 121). It is not only
achieved with reading and writing, but also speaking and listening. The ability to
communicate in oral is highly needed by the students. But, with the methods that
are implemented in classroom activities nowadays, such as listening to some
records or completing some reading exercises, lots of teachers still doubt
themselves whether they can achieve the goal of making students able to
communicate both written or orally (Freeman, 2000, p. 121).
The goal of studying English in Vocational High School surely has a
correlation with the communicative competence stage in principle of teaching
(Brown, 1994). The use of language in communicate require more than linguistic
competence, it requires communicative competenceknowing when and how to
say to whom (Hymes, 1971 cited in Freeman, p. 121). The communicative
competence requires not only linguistic knowledge such as grammatical structure
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of a sentence, but also social knowledge in which students have to know how they
use a language according to specific situation or context (Freeman, 2000).
Some activities in enriching students ability in communication are conducted
in various ways. The activities and teaching method that are usually used in this
case is Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) Approach. The most
frequently used activities in CLT are games and role-playing (Littlewood, 2008).
With these kinds of activities, students are motivated and given opportunities to
practice speaking and communicating in different social context and in different
social roles (Freeman, 2000, p. 134).
Debate is a variation of the kind of role-playing activity which may be used
by teacher to achieve communicative competence principle in second language
learning (Littlewood, 2008). The content of the debate may be a real one of a
simulated one, based on the knowledge of the students in order to create a social
context activitiesactivities in which the contents are based on the real life
situation or event (Littlewood, 2008). Several previous studies have found the
benefit of using debate method in enhancing students speaking skill. One study
reveals that debate tends to encourage students to use their linguistic knowledge
in real communication context and situation, especially in oral communication; it
increases their ability and capability in speaking English (Mabrur, 2002). Nisbett
(2003) declares that:
Debate is an important educational tool for learning analytic thinking skills and
for forcing self-conscious reflection on the validity of ones ideas.
Based on the consideration above, the present study tries to investigate
whether the debate method can be applied effectively in achieving communicative
competence of second language learning principle and it will be seen through
students responds based on questionnaires. This study is expected to give a brief
explanation and suggestion about debate method which can be used by teachers in
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encouraging students to achieve their communicative principle in learning
English.
1.2 Purpose of Study
This study is aimed to:
1. See students responds toward the implementation of debate method in
English classroom
2. See how effective debate method for students in achieving communicative
competence.
1.3 Research Question
The study is conducted to answer the problem formulated in the following
question:
1. How do students respond to the use of debate method in teaching and
learning process?
2. How effective is debate method for students in achieving communicative
competence?
1.4 Hypotheses
The hypotheses stated below are made related to this study. The research that
formulates hypothesis is the research in which use quantitative method, while the
quantitative research method is expected to find the hypothesis (Sugiyono; 2011,
p.64). The hypotheses formulated in the study are:
Ho : There is no significant difference between students communicative
competence level before using debate method and after using debate method.
H1 : There is significant difference between students communicative competence
level before using debate method and after using debate method.

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1.5 Significance of the Study
The present research is believed to have several significances for theoretical,
practical, and professional benefits.
1. Theoretical benefit
The research findings can be used as the contribution toward the research
about using debate method to help students in achieving communicative
competence level in Vocational High School.
2. Practical benefit
The research findings will be useful to teachers, students and also the readers
who are interested in teaching English especially for those in Vocational High
School environment.
3. Professional benefit
The research problem can help teachers to improve the quality of teaching,
students relationship, and to create an interesting classroom in communicative
English classroom.

1.6 Clarification of the Study
The study focuses on finding out how debate method can be used
effectively in English learning process or not based on the principle of
communicate competence by Brown (1994) and communicative language
teaching techniques by Freeman (2000). The analysis and observation will focus
on how the method can enhance the students communicative competence.

1.7 Clarification of the Key Terms
There are some terms in this study that need to be clarified. The definition of
them as follows:
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Effectiveness in this study means to measure the good result of the use of
debate method in achieving students communicative competence which
focuses on the speaking and listening skill.
Debate method in this study focuses on the classroom/education debate.
Study research is the study of.

1.8 Organization of the Paper
This research will be organized in three chapters. Each chapter has some sub-
topics which will help the reader to clarify and give detail on the information off
what the writer put into this research proposal. The paper of this study is
organized as follows:
Chapter I: Introduction
This chapter provides the information of the background of the study,
purposes of the study, hypotheses, significance of the study, clarification of
the study, clarification of key terms, and organization of the paper.
Chapter II: Literature Review
This chapter consists of literature review which functions as theorotical
foundation of the focus of the study; this part elaborates in detail theories
which are relevant to the study.
Chapter III: Research Methodology
This chapter will discuss the methodology in conducting this research. It
includes the design of the research, the site and participants, data collection
techniques, and data analysis technique that will be used to measure the
findings.




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CHAPTER II
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Communication
Communication can be simply defined as a process of assign and convey
meanings through the exchange of ideas, thoughts, by verbal or non-verbal
methods such as gestures, and writing. The process of communication requires a
sender, the one who sends the message/information, and the receiver, the one
who receives the message/information (Kayi, 2006; Brown, 2001; Harmer, 2001;
Littlewood, 2008).
2.2 Communicative Competence
Communicative Competence (CC) is a term which was coined by Dell
Hymes in 1967 (Brown, 2000, p. 246). Research about CC was conducted in
1970s to distinguish between linguistic competence and communicative
competence in order to make a difference between knowledge about language
form and knowledge that enables people to communicate functionally and
interactively (Hymes, 1967 cited in Brown, 2000, p. 246).
Based on Brown (2001), CC consists of some following components:
Organizational Competence: This competence covers grammatical and
discourse competence of functional aspect of communication.
Grammatical competence here encompasses the knowledge of lexical
items and rules of morphology, syntax, sentence-grammar semantics,
and phonology (Canale & Swain, 1980, p. 29; Brown, 2000, p. 247).
While discourse competence is more likely the knowledge of how
someone to connect sentences in order to make a meaningful whole
out of a series of utterances. Organizational Competence focuses on
the linguistic knowledge that someone has.
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Pragmatic Competence: This competence covers functional and
sociolinguistic competence of functional aspect of communication.
Functional competence is more likely an ability to accomplish
communication purposes in language, which has strong correlation
with sociolinguistic competence that is the knowledge of sociocultural
use of language and discourse (Brown, 2000, p. 247). In pragmatic
competence, these elements should come together in order to conduct
a proper communication process between individuals.
Strategic Competence: This competence described as the verbal and
non-verbal communication strategies that may be called into action to
compensate for breakdowns in communication due to performance
variables or due to insufficient competence (Canale & Swain, 1980
cited in Brown, 2000, p. 247). This competence is simply a condition
where someone has the ability to conduct a communication in respect
to the proper language forms use and cultural context in order to make
a coherent flow of communication process.
Psychomotor skills: Based on Blooms Taxonomy of Learning,
psychomotor skill is a basis of human ability to use physical
movement, coordination, and use of the motor-skill capacities in order
to communicate (Morealle, 2012). It is simply the ability of someone
to communicate with not a verbal process only, but also a gesture to
support the meanings of sentences that is being delivered.
The four components of CC above have given a clear explanation that CC is the
stage of language mastery in which someone has both the linguistic knowledge
and sociocultural knowledge where the language is used and the strategy of how
to use a language not only in verbal but also in psychomotor way.
Nowadays, Communicative Competence is considered as the most
important linguistic principle of learning and teaching (Brown, 2001, p. 69). Brown
(2001) states that:
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Given that communicative competence is the goal of a language
classroom, instruction needs to point toward all its components organizational,
pragmatic, strategic, and psychomotor. Communicative goals are best achieved
by giving due attention to language use and not just usage, to fluency and not
just accuracy, to authentic language and contexts, and to students eventual
need to apply classroom learning to previously unrehearsed contexts in the real
world. (p. 69)
Based on the statement above and the definition of CC that has been
discussed in the previous paragraph, and in relation with the goal of teaching
English for Vocational High School that has been stated in the previous chapter,
CC becomes the highest stage in principle of language learning and teaching and
has to be achieved by those who are intended to use English for a real-life
communication. And this study is aimed to see whether debate method can be
used to achieve this competence, in order to develop students ability in
communicate, especially in speaking and listening.
2.3 Communicative Skill
The term Communicative Competence (CC) has been briefly explained in
the previous sub-chapter and it has provided the understanding of the reason in
considering CC for language learning and teaching process.
In order to achieve CC, the communicative skill has to be developed for
well. The focus of communicative skill in this study is speaking and listening.
Speaking can be said as the key of communication. Brown (2001) states that
speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves
producing and receiving and processing information. The words producing and
receiving is the main element of communication process, where producing refers
to speaking skill and receiving refers to listening skill. These two skills are very
important for Tourism major students who learn English as they will use English
mostly for oral communication with foreign tourists or business partners.
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With respect to the two communicative skills mentioned above, the focus
of this study is on debate method which will cover and enhance students ability
both in speaking and listening.
2.4 Communicative Language Teaching
Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is best understood as an
approach, not a method (Brown, 2000, p. 266). Based on Freeman (2000), CLT
aims broadly to apply the theoretical perspective of the Communicative
Approach (CLT) by making the Communicative Competence the goal of
language teaching and by acknowledging the interpendence of language and
communication (p. 121). This approach beliefs that not only a re-examination of
what aspects to teach, but also a shift in emphasis in how to teach. It means that
teachers, instead of teaching the language knowledge to students, should also
teach students how to use the language in various situation and knowledge
(Harmer, 2001).
Nowadays, the Communicative Approach or Communicative Language
Teaching (CLT) have become the umbrella terms to describe learning
sequences which aim to improve students ability to communicate, with several
activities that is specifically design to achieve the aim (Harmer, 2001, p. 86).
There are four characteristics of CLT (Brown, 2000, p. 266-267; Freeman,
2000, p. 129) that teachers have to remember in designing CLT-based activities:
a. Classroom goals are focused on all of the communicative components
(has been stated in the previous sub-chapter) and not restricted to
grammatical or linguistic competence.
b. Language techniques are designed to engage learners in the pragmatic,
authentic, and functional use of language for meaningful purposes. It
focuses on the language that enables the user to deliver their purposes
clearly.
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c. Fluency and accuracy are seen as complementary principles underlying
communicative competence. At times fluency may have to take on
more importance than accuracy in order to deliver a meaningful
language.
d. Students have to use the language, productively and receptively, in
unrehearsed context.
Based on the four characteristics of CLT approach that has been stated above,
Harmer (2001) states several characteristics of communicative activities that
teachers may use in the English classroom:
A desire to communicate
A communicative purpose
Content not form
Variety of language
No teacher intervention
No materials control
In accordance with the characteristics of communicative activities that are
stated by Harmer, other characteristics are stated by Freeman (2001). She states
that communicative activities have three features in common (Johnson &
Morrow, 1981 cited in Freeman, 2001, p. 129): information gap, choice, and
feedback. Information gap means that there is an exchange of information from
the one who knows information to the one who does not know information. The
choice means that the student has choice of what he will say to another person;
exercises/activities which provide students with decided answers will not give
students choice in communicate authentically. Feedback means that students can
evaluate whether their purpose on communication is achieved or not based on the
information she receives from other students. Freeman also emphasizes that the
material that will be used in the classroom have to be authentic materials. It is
used to give students some opportunity to practice their communication ability in
facing the real-life conversation. By the activities, students are expected to feel
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more motivated to study foreign language since they will feel they are learning to
do something useful with the language (Freeman, 2001, p. 130).
Littlewood (2008) states a reason for using communicative activities and
implementing Communicative Language Teaching Approach in English
classroom:
The learning activities are pre-communicative rather than
communicative. That is, they aim to equip the learner with some of the skills
required for communication, without actually requiring him to perform
communicative acts. The criterion for success is therefore not so much whether
he has managed to convey an intended meaning, but rather whether he has
produced an acceptable piece of language. However, by emphasizing the
communicative nature of this language, the activities also aim to help the learner
develop links with meaning that will later enable him to use this language for
communication purpose. (p. 8).
Based on the characteristics that have been elaborated above, there are
some activities that teachers may use in communicative English classroom
(Freeman, 2000, p. 133-134): language games, picture strip story, role-play.
Between the three activities introduced by Freeman, role-plays are very important
in CLT because they give students an opportunity to practice communicating in
different social contexts and different social rules (2001, p. 134). It also gives
students more choices, because role plays can be done with a very structural way
or less structural way depends on the purpose of the activities. And there also
several types of role-play, kinds of role plays in social interaction activities are
debate and discussion (Littlewood, 2008).




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2.5 Debate
The focus on communicative activity that will be used in this study is
debate method. As stated in the previous chapter, debate can be used to enhance
students communication skill by carrying them to use the linguistic knowledge
into a functional competence in a structured or less-structured situation or context
of classroom activity (Littlewood, 2008).
Debate can be simply defined as a discussion between people or groups in
which they have different opinions toward one topic (ACT, www.actdu.org.au). It
is an excellent activity for language learning because it engages students in a
variety of cognitive and linguistic ways (Krieger, 2005).
Debate can motivate students thinking, moreover if they must defend
their stand or opinion which is in contradiction with conviction themselves
(Maryadi, 2008, p. 16 cited in Khoironiyah, 2011). In accordance with Maryadis
statement, Krieger also states that debate provide students with meaningful
listening, speaking, and writing practice, and also effective for developing
argumentation skills for persuasive speech and writing (2005).
Manning and Nakamura (2006) presents some benefits of using debate in
teaching English as Second/Foreign Language (Baker, 2009):
1. Debating ability is a valuable skill.
2. Debate utilizes useful English.
3. It is a unique way to teach grammar.
4. It develops critical thinking skills.
5. It introduces global issues.
6. It develops research skills.
Based on the benefits that has been mentioned above and the characteristics of
both communicative activities and Communicative Language Teaching (CLT),
debate is very compatible for student to achieve communicative competence. It
utilizes useful English, which means students use English purposefully while
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conducting communication in debate process, in which has correlation with the
pragmatic competence in communicative competence. It provides a unique way
to teach grammar, directly or indirectly, to students as they conducted the debate
process, which has correlation with linguistic competence. It is also introduces
global issues, which means that debate uses authentic materials in order to
prepare students to face real-life conversation in various situation and context.


















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CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research Design
This study employs both surveys and experimental design. By employing
the quantitative method, this study will try to analyze whether the use of debate
method in achieving communicative competence is effective for students and
how students respond to the method.
3.2 Research Site and Respondents
This study will be conducted in a Vocational High School with Tourism
major in Bandung. The respondents are students of first or second grade of
tourism class.
3.3 Data Collection
The data are gathered through classroom observation and questionnaire as
follow:
a. Classroom Observation
The classroom observation will be to observe, analyze, and
conduct debate method in order to enriching students ability and
capability in communicative skills. The level of communicative
competence of each student will be seen through their performance in
communication before and after using debate method in English
classroom.
b. Questionnaire
The questionnaire will be given to students before and after the
implementation of debate method in the classroom. The questionnaire
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given before the implementation of debate method will function as a pre-
test form that test students communicative skill in written form in order
to see their communicative competence level; and as a respond measurer
of students toward the activities that they usually face in English
classroom with its impact towards their communicative skill. The
questionnaire which will be given to students after implementation of
debate method will function as a measurer of students responds toward
the effect of debate method in achieving communicative competence.
3.4 Data Analysis
The analysis of data collected will be conducted in several steps as
adapted from Quantitative Method in Creswell (2009b). The steps are elaborated
below.
Step 1. Collecting data through first questionnaires (the questionnaire given
before the implementation of debate method).
Step 2. Adjusting the result of first questionnaires into the implementation and
practice of debate method in English classroom.
Step 3. Conducting the debate activity and observe the students performance
during the process. It may be done twice or third during the study period.
Step 4. Collecting data through second questionnaire to see students responds
and the development of their communicative competence.





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