Implementing the
Competence-Based Curriculum: Making Students Write Different Genres
Helena I. R.
Agustien
One
of the most challenging tasks English teachers face nowadays is making their students
write different genres as required by the new competence-based curriculum
(CBC). To carry out this task, teachers need to have clear ideas regarding what
micro and macro skills students need to develop so that they can develop essays
of different types. This means that writing activities are no longer geared
around what to write (topics), but how to write (skills of writing). This is by
no means saying that topics are not important; they are still important, but
they are used as a means of acquiring the writing skills. Topics are always
needed, but high school students do not need to address topics that are not
very relevant to their immediate needs. With limited time allotment, teachers
need to focus on the key issue, that is, teach and show students how to write.
It is important to note that at SMP (Junior
High School) level students are not expected to write in written style of
English. For example, if they can write a descriptive text using “spoken
English written down”, that would be acceptable as long as they can produce
simple grammatical sentences, well organized text or create a unified whole. Later,
at SMA (Senior High School) level, students are expected to learn how to
produce essays using written style of English. To achieve this goal, it is
important that teachers know what micro skills are involved in writing English
texts using written English style. However, many teachers think that writing is
complicated and they do not know where to start. A sensible way to start would
be examining the differences between spoken and written language.
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Agusttien, H. I. R. (2005, December). Implementing
the competence-based curriculum: Making students write different genres . Paper presented
at the 53rd TEFLIN International conference,
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