IMPLEMENTING COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING (CTL) APPROACH IN AN INTERNATIONAL STANDARD SCHOOL IN BATAM

Various teaching approaches have been developed all the time to meet the learners' needs and to achieve the objective of learning successfully. One of the most popular and effective approaches that has been developed is Communicative Language Teaching (CLT). Many scholars have found implementing CLT is challenging since it needs certain criteria of learners to engage with the whole process. This research investigated whether the CLT approach fits perfectly in one of the International schools in Batam. Class Action Research with 2 cycles was employed with 19 twelfth grade students participated in the study. Data were collected by having observation: checklist and notetaking. The result showed that CLT was a suitable method for the students. It was evaluated by the classroom engagement that improved gradually. Cycle I and II result were compared using the motivational conceptualization of engagement instruments. It was also found out that CLT is challenging ways that influence the learners' behaviour to finally gain knowledge.


INTRODUCTION
English Language Teaching (ELT) has been modified for decades to improve the students' learning success. The quality of English-teaching has significantly improved and resulted in many beneficial methods that can be implemented in various English language teaching settings. Many English language teaching methods have been criticized and upgraded to achieve the learning objective. Hence, it is important to note that the learning objectives should be related to important issues for the students (Nugraha & Suherdi, 2017).
However, the implementation of those methods now has been determined carefully by not avoiding important factors that indirectly influence the learner. The methods that have been modified for years by redesigning or revising have always been a weak point that does not affect teachers and the learners significantly. Therefore, deciding an effective method for the learners possibly becomes a bitter work and challenging step. For that reason, not every great method can bring a great result for the learners. It is significant to find out what the learners want to learn instead of what they have to learn (West, 1998). Hence, the characteristics of the learners are one of the major key factors to find the appropriate method to accomplish certain English proficiency at the end of the lesson.
Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is an English language teaching approach that focuses on interaction. CLT utilizes the interaction as an instrument of learning and as the main purpose of the lesson (Waheed, 2018). It means that during the English language teaching, the teacher should plan an activity that will trigger the learners' oral ability so that the interaction happens. It can be either with their peers or in groups. The main purpose is to create an environment where the learners are actively allowed to speak English. After noticing the situation during the observation and teaching, communicative language teaching is a suitable method to position the learner's ability in the right place.
The CLT method surely improves learners' speaking ability. It boosts the learners' confidence when they are used to the language. This approach also allows the learners to participate actively in class with their speaking partner based on their knowledge and experience (Lumy, 2018). Conducting the discussion in class also creates a safe and calm atmosphere where the learners feel fully encouraged to speak the target language (Fauzi, 2017). It also implies how interacting with their peers improves their self-confidence in speaking English. However, it is crucial to focus on the factors that influence the success of the CLT method in a classroom before implementing CLT. Professional Development (PD) for the teachers is one of the most important factors that affect the learner in achieving the target language proficiency (Nuby et al., 2019). PD is a program for teachers to assist them in improving their skills (Kennedy, 2016). The teachers who will implement the CLT method shall be well-trained. The training program that the teacher participates in should be conducted regularly and constantly. This is used to maintain the quality of the teachers.
Implementing the CLT method is not simple. It takes lots of consideration before finally implementing it in the classroom. Before applying CLT, it is better to consider and discuss the cultural and contextual aspects of the learners. As a result, adapting the CLT method should be conducted slowly but surely (Panhwar, Baloch, & Khan, 2017). Acknowledging the culture and context of the learners is a good step before implementing CLT. It will give the teacher clues on their current learning situation, whether or not they are capable to follow the class.
To begin this research, pre-observation was conducted twice in an English for Academic class for one meeting, and teacher taught the students for three periods. The researchers found that the students had a good English-speaking ability. It was shown from how well they communicated in pairs during the periods. They also easily engaged in conversations. The way they could understand and comprehend what their peers said to them was a green light that their English ability was undoubtedly decent.
On the other hand, the students were extremely vocal in a way that they actively talked during the observation even when the teacher did not ask any questions. The other learners highly responded to his peers to the point that it could create a less effective atmosphere to learn. However, the researchers positively considered this condition and directly notice a potential method that would be suitable for the learners and could improve their English ability. The researchers initiatively proposed communicative language teaching as a way to overcome this situation.
This research employed a Class Action Research (CAR) method which mainly investigated the implementation of the CLT method for students at an international school in Batam. The objective of this research is to improve the effectiveness of learning during English language teaching in everyday class. Moreover, it analyzed the position of the learners' condition to fully learn comfortably and highlymotivated. This research is expected to benefit future teachers who encounter or face the same situation later.

METHODOLOGY Subjects
The setting of this study is an international school in Batam, that adopts the Cambridge Curriculum in the learning process. The participants of this research were 19 12 th grade students both in Science and in Social class. Since it was an international school, there were three English subjects that the students learned every week. They were General English, English as a Second Language, and English for Academic Purposes. To find the data before implementing the teaching method, English for Academic Purposes was chosen for the observations.

Design and Procedures
The Classroom Action Research (CAR) method was conducted to achieve the aims of this research. Action Research is considered to allow teachers to investigate their classrooms, such as their instructional method and their assessment (Mertler, 2017). Action research consists of four steps, identification of focus, data collection, data analysis, and a plan action development (Mills as cited in Mertler, 2017).
This research adopted Riel's model (as cited in Mertler, 2017) to solve the classroom's problem through action research. Those sets of processes become the main guild line of conducting the whole research starting from planning the whole teaching including determine the topic, gather the material, and choose a suitable activity for the learners. The action stage includes how the teacher executed the learning process, while observation is how the teacher analyses the class after implementing the teaching in the Action stage. All of those Planning, Action, Observation, and Reflection are parts of one cyclical process. The research was done in two cycles, namely Cycle I and Cycle II.

Data Collection and Data Analysis
To collect the data, motivational conceptualization of engagement was used as an instrument to measure the class engagement of the students during the learning process. It is an instrument that focuses on learners' active contribution to learning activities in class (Pierson & Connell, 1992;Ryan, 2000;Skinner et al., 1998;Wentzel, 1993). It consists of two aspects which are behaviour and emotions. There are 7 indicators in behaviour engagement including action initiation, effort and exertion, attempts and persistence, intensity, attention and concentration, absorption, and involvement. Whilst in emotional engagement, there are enthusiasm, interest, enjoyment, satisfaction, pride, vitality, and zest. The researchers measured each indicator between 0-10 and find the average number of each cycle. The aim was to find out the significant difference between Cycle I and Cycle II after each cycle was done, and also to support data described by the researchers.
The data collected using the research instruments were analysed after the implementation was done. The results from Cycle I was described to help the preparation of Cycle II. After Cycle II finished, the results of the motivational conceptualization of engagement from Cycle I and Cycle II were compared to conclude the results. Additionally, notetaking and observation results were elaborated to address the issues faced during the teaching and learning process.
Subsequently, data analysis was done as follows: (1) classifying data by focusing and simplifying data according to its type; (2) Presenting the selected data in the form of simple information. The information was about the learning process and the results obtained from the observation; (3) Concluding the results. From the obtained data, a conclusion was written in the form of a short sentence but with to show the meaning of the data obtained in the field.

Cycle I 1. Planning
On March 2 nd , 2020, the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) method was employed for Grade 12 th in the English for Academic Purposes class. Cycle I of the teaching process happened in 2 periods where each period was 40 minutes long. Note-taking was used as a tool to collect the data and the motivational conceptualization of engagement instrument to measure the classroom engagement process. The teaching topic was about how to make a Job Resume. After creating the lesson plan, the researcher also decided on a suitable assessment. The usual way to assess students' understanding of Job Resume is a writing test. However, based on the observation, it was decided to implement the CLT in the classroom by conducting a speaking activity in groups.

Action
During learning activities, one group pretended to be a company that would hire someone to work in the group's company while the other groups sent one person as a representative to apply in the company. Each group prepared a script later. The company group had to prepare questions for the future candidate that wanted to apply for his job and decided later which one was the most suitable person for their company. On the other hand, the candidates had to write down the quality in them which includes their profile, experience, education, etc. Instead of writing a resume, the students were asked to present what they wrote in their resume and to make the students understood how to assess a good or bad resume.

Observation
The students were instructed to sit in groups. The lesson also included a video and slides media of teaching. There was an introduction "What is your dream job?" before the material explanation. The aim was to show their current knowledge and experience about the topic. Then, the CLT method was applied by having a group presentation as planned. There was a significant difference before and after implementing the CLT. Before implementing CLT, the students were mostly quiet during the explanation. However, after implementing the CLT method, the students highly reacted to and responded to the topic. They were quite serious in paying attention when another group was presenting their idea. The students also kept asking questions and reacted spontaneously to the presenter.

Reflective
The result of the observation using motivational conceptual of engagement can be seen as follows: The data results showed that the emotional engagement number is higher than the behaviour engagement number. Both are from Cycle I. The gap is 0.9. This implies how the students' emotional state is better than their behaviour during Cycle I.
Despite the good results during learning activities, there were some issues found after the class. The first one is limited duration. The class ended 10 minutes late from its schedule. The second one is the instruction of the activity. Due to a lack of guidance, many questions were asked by the students regarding the activity flow. They asked specifically about the discussion rules, what if something happened, what they would do later after completing a particular activity step, etc. Moreover, during the class, some of the students spoke with each other in Bahasa Indonesia. From this result, the students should have been reminded to speak English during the lesson.

Revised Planning
The teaching plan was revised based on the results from the previous cycle. The CLT method was still implemented in the class because the students found the topic and the activities were interesting. The learning process involved two videos, two audios, and PowerPoint presentation slides to attract the students' attention. The lesson took 3 periods with 40 minutes each.

Action
Once again, note-taking became the tool to gather the data. However, in Cycle II, what to note and what to discuss later were more specific in completing the data taken from the classroom activities. The teaching process in Cycle II more focused on the active engagement between the teacher and students during the material explanation. Questions and answer techniques could engage all the students simultaneously.

Observation
The class was started by showing the students the video related to the topic. Two videos were shown before implementing the teaching. Based on Cycle I result, using video as a way to activate their knowledge was effective. Later, questions and answer techniques and active discussions were applied in the classroom activity. Most of the students were actively engaged since they answered the questions. They went very active when it came to responding to their peers' answers. They helped their peers in answering the questions that continuously were asked.
The effective atmosphere of this class came from their current knowledge of the topic. They seemed to have many experiences with immigration and traveling which became an interesting topic to discuss. The students also asked some questions related to the teaching material. It means that they paid attention to the lesson.

Reflection
Here are the results of Cycle II using the motivational conceptualization of engagement. The data results showed that the emotional engagement number is still higher than the behaviour engagement number. Both data were collected from Cycle II. The gap is 0.5. This implies how the students' emotional state is better than their behaviour during Cycle II even if the gap is and quite big.

Comparison of Cycle I and Cycle II
Based on the results of observation on the achievement of teacher action in conducting learning process with Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and students' engagement in the learning activity during Cycle I and Cycle II, the percentage of students' engagement showed improvement. The increase of behaviour engagement score from 6.7 to 7.9 implies how the CLT method influenced students' behaviour in learning English in a way it made them participate in class more than usual. The gap is also quite significant. The number increased by 1.2 points from Cycle I. The emotional engagement indicators' average points were also increased. It went from 7.6 to 8.4 meaning 0.8 gap points. It can be implied that their emotional state increased from Cycle I to Cycle II. This number must be the result of the revised plan after conducting Cycle I, and several factors noticed during the previous cycle.
To sum up, the students actively participated in classroom activities as it included many speaking activities. These activities encouraged them to focus more on their learning and utilize their speaking abilities, showing the improvement of students' engagement. Factors leading to teacher practice, classroom atmosphere, lesson planning, and teaching materials, worked together to make learners comfortable when participating in classroom activities. The students had to speak English actively during the lesson which later showed their behaviour engagement during English class. The CLT used in the lesson provided the experience of class discussions since the students were free to talk and easily motivated to meet the learning objectives.

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
After conducting two cycles of action based on the prior observation, the researchers discovered that implementing CLT in this particular classroom brought positive effects on the students. The students were actively engaged in the classroom activity where it involved several speaking activities. Those activities encouraged them to focus on their learning more and utilized their speaking ability to the point they felt the need to use it during the class. Moreover, the behaviour and emotional indicators improved Cycle I to Cycle II. The behaviour engagement indicators result increased 1.2 points whilst the emotional engagement indicators increased 0.8 points. The researchers also found out how the topic was chosen as one of the factors that increased their motivation. For further research, the researchers recommend future researchers to conduct a study analysing topic-based research where the researchers focus on how certain topics influence students' motivation in learning English