Actional Functional Model (AFM) as an Instructional Method
a. Concept of Method in Teaching Learning Process
Jeremy Harmer said that a method is the real practice of an approach. The originators of a method have arrived at decisions about types of activities, roles of teachers and learners, the kinds of material which will be helpful and some model of syllabus organization. In his opinion the methods include of the various procedures and techniques as part of the standard fare.
Edward Anthony gives the definition about method; he states that the method is an overall plan for systematic explanation in the class to make easy the matter explanation from the teacher based on the approach that has choose before.
However, a method according to Ag. Bambang Setiadi is some assumptions of an approach that includes of the whole plan for the presentation of language materials. Since the plan is developed based on the same assumption, no part of the plan contradicts an all parts make a unity. The unity of a method makes the method distinctive. Even though some assumption of two different methods may derive from the same theories, some other assumption may be developed from others. To mentions some, the methods that have the whole plan for the presentation of language materials are Audio Lingual Method, Direct Method, Silent Way, Total Physical Response, Community Language Learning, and Suggestopedia.
The method based on the statements above the researcher can infer that the method is the plan of the systematic real practice in teaching and learning process which is consistent with the theories and still has relation with the approach to make easy in class matter delivery.
In this research, the researcher chooses the newest method that is found and developed by Zainil in 2002, the method is Actional Functional Model (AFM) that will be combine with Total Physical Response (TPR) in evaluation to know how far the students understand about the teacher’s explanation, it can make the language learning process more active and interesting.
b. Concept of Actional Functional Model (AFM)
Actional Functional Model (AFM) focuses on action and function done by the learners. In Actional Functional Model (AFM) teaching process there is no more explanation about the lesson and there are no more patterns in deliver the lesson. The students just get the information from the teacher’s model in teaching method. In Actional Functional Model (AFM), the action is the teacher’s instruction which is taught right from the beginning and the function is the learners’ response to the teacher’s functional model which is taught gradually step by step in the process of teaching. The functional model should be the learners’ comprehensible word and it is not the foreign word for them because they are still the beginners. The word here can be the input for the learners which develop their language use. The use of their comprehensible word can develop their communicative competence in daily activity which develops gradually. And their communicative competence develops their language acquisition to communicate each other using comprehensible word which they are able to use it. The acquisition produces their language fluency for verbal (spoken and written) performance and non-verbal performance as the learners’ comprehensible output that is daily conversation.
Zainil says in his book that the learners’ comprehensible input is that the message listened, read, or looked at which is understood by the learner. The action and function are the learners’ physical responses to the teacher’s instruction as well as their meaningful expressions as the response of the teacher’s functional model. The use is that the natural verbal (spoken and written), or natural non-verbal performance that develops their communicative competence. The communicative competence is the learners’ ability to communicate effectively in a culturally significant setting.
It develops the learners’ acquisition. The acquisition is the learners’ mastery of the language. It produces the learners’ fluency. The fluency is the learners’ natural use of the language without thinking of its structure and without translating the language into their native language. Finally, the comprehensible output is the learners’ natural verbal (spoken and written) performance as well as their natural non-verbal performance which is understood by the message sender and the message receiver.
Based on statement above that Actional Functional Model (AFM) is one of the methods that can apply in teaching and learning process. Thus method focuses communicative approach on teaching and learning process. The process must be focused on the delivery of the message or meaning from the use of model, not on usage forms. Therefore, Actional Functional Model (AFM) aims at developing the learners’ communicative competence in order to developing their verbal and non-verbal performance naturally as well as increasing their motivation in the teaching and learning process.
c. Procedure of Teaching Present Continuous Tense through Actional Functional Model (AFM)
Commonly, English teacher still think of delivering the patterns only while they are talking about structure. It comes up with the understanding of the theoretical form only with they cannot use in real communication. Furthermore, when presenting a new structural item, teachers should be the first trying to achieve to things, they are:
1) To enable the students to recognize the structure well enough to be able to produce it themselves (establish the form).
2) To make the usage of patterns absolutely clear, so that when the students produce them, prompted by the teacher, they are know what they are saying (establish the meaning).
The techniques and steps of using Actional Functional Model (AFM) in teaching present continuous tense to the learners to do the action and function are formulated as follow:
1) Doing The Action
The lesson begins with a Total Physical Response (TPR) technique, for example:
a) The teacher sits in front of the classroom. She has two chairs on her left and right side that had prepared before the class begins.
b) The teacher begins the lessons by using her hand signals to motion two learners to move in front of the class. She gestures for them to sit on the chairs, facing the class.
c) The teacher says, “moving beside me” and she immediately gives the gestures as she motions the two learners to come in front of the class. Then, she says, “facing your friend now” and she immediately arrange the students’ position to be facing each other as she motions. The teacher commands to shake hand each other “shaking hand now” The teacher repeats this step two or three times with different command.
d) The teacher does the steps above for the whole class.
e) The teacher teaches a new word “walking” to the entire class by doing the steps, a) to d).
f) The teacher combines old and new commands and models with the group, individual learners, or entire class.
g) The teacher recombines old and new commands without modeling and the group, individual learners, or entire class responds.
h) The teacher may add the new command, “stopping”, “turning”, etc. by doing the previous steps, a) to h).
2) Doing The Function
The lesson begins with a model of the language function, for example, present continuous tense:
a) The teacher says “I am writing now” or uses hand in white board position while write down on the white board and teacher give signal to the learners to write down on their book.
b) The teacher gives the model of the language function, by saying “I am writing now” two or three times.
c) The teacher says “I am ………..” the learners continue what the teacher had said before.
d) The teacher does above steps with the others examples till the learner understand what the teacher talking about. If the learners have not understood yet, the teacher can repeat it untill the student can do the teacher’s instructions.
In the teaching learning process, if there is any hesitance displayed by the learners for the new command or the new functional model, the teacher immediately returns to modeling with them. She must keep changing the order of commands in order to increase the learners’ interest during the process. Therefore, she must evaluate the learners’ performance during the process of teaching and learning. In addition, she also gives an oral test using Total Physical Response (TPR) after four or five lessons individually. The lessons will be continued or reviewed on the basis of the process evaluation results.
The teacher should use repetitions in teaching technique in order learners understand more about what we had explained.