| dc.description.abstract | The independent curriculum was developed to be more flexible and focused
on essential material and the development of the character and competence of
students. One of the characteristics used in this curriculum is the flexibility of
teachers to carry out differentiated learning according to students' learning needs.
Although differentiated learning initiated by the Ministry of Education and
Culture has been going on for a long time, many teachers still do not understand
and practice what and how differentiated learning is. Research that focuses on
differentiated learning is also not much.
Therefore, the researcher is interested in knowing 1) the implementation
process-differentiated learning for speaking skill in one of “Sekolah Penggerak”
in Batu City, 2) the obstacles faced by the teacher and the students in the learning
process, and 3) the efforts to overcome the challenges.
The researcher conducted a single-site case study in this research to collect
the data and obtain precise information about the phenomenon based on a real world setting. The research participants were an English teacher and six SMP
Negeri 3 Batu students. The researcher used non-participant observation, open ended interviews, and documentation to collect the data.
The teacher's obstacles in implementing differentiated learning are
managing the time to focus on each student's characteristics, a mismatch between
differentiation applied and student wishes, and motivating the students to speak
up. Meanwhile, the barriers faced by the students in speaking are psychological
factors and technical challenges like they still lack understanding of a new
vocabulary, lack pronunciation of English words or sentences, and still feel
embarrassed or insecure in speaking English.
At the same time, the efforts taken to overcome these obstacles, the teacher
gave the students several questions appropriate to their understanding. He also
devised a personal agenda, including things like to-do lists with student work on
them and the needs of the students. The teacher must assess and improve by
examining each diagnostic test question to ensure accurate profiling. Meanwhile,
to overcome the psychological obstacles of students in general in mastering
English speaking competence, the teacher could set the class layout before
providing teacher material, using ICT to make the learning enjoyable and not
monotonous. While those related to the technical aspects of students, the teacher prepares a general vocabulary provision, uses drilling methods to train students'
English pronunciation, and motivates students to want to speak with direct
practice without fear of making mistakes.
In conclusion, the researcher hopes EFL teachers are expected to implement
suitable teaching strategies for speaking skills by creating a comfortable
environment for students' learning needs. It also recommended that other
researchers examine other differentiated learning focuses, such as content,
product, and process differentiated learning with different topics, and its
assessment to produce comprehensive research and a complete picture of the three
differentiated learning types | en_US |
