1

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the study

Education is one of the things that are important and needed in

human life. Education is a necessity for humans as a provision when living

life. Education is a process of trying to develop human beings, both in terms

of knowledge and in terms of self-ability to be able to live well in society.

Education can be pursued in 2 ways, namely non-formal and formal. Non-

formal education is education that is obtained when living everyday life,

formal education is education that is obtained through an educational

institution. In Indonesia, formal education consists of basic education,

secondary education, and higher education.

At the secondary education level, there are 2 types of education,

namely general secondary and vocational secondary. Vocational secondary

education is secondary education that is oriented toward preparing students

to have the ability to enter the workforce. According to Law No. 20 of 2003,

the specific objectives of vocational secondary education: (1.) prepare

students to become productive and independent human beings who can fill

job vacancies following the competencies of the expertise program they

choose, (2.) prepare students to have competence, be able to adapt and have

a professional attitude in the work environment, (3.) equip students with

knowledge according to the expertise program so that it can be developed

1
 2

in higher education, and (4.) equip students with competencies according to

the chosen expertise program.

Vocational High School (SMK) is a form of formal educational

institution that organizes vocational secondary education. Vocational

schools have a role in creating superior human resources because vocational

graduates are said to have special skills acquired during vocational

education, which are not possessed by graduates of public high schools. To

have this special expertise, learning in SMK is emphasized in vocational

lessons where there is more practice than theory in the learning process.

To meet practical needs during the learning process, an appropriate

learning system is needed to optimize the acquisition of special skills by

students. The learning system that is most widely used in SMK is block

system. Block learning system is a learning system in which each class has

its unit of time due to the restructuring of the daily schedule. Block learning

system creates a learning process in a small number of meetings but the

meetings are held for a longer time. Block system learning in Vocational

Schools for productive/vocational lessons is considered good because it can

improve students' abilities to prepare themselves to enter the world of work.

However, with the implementation of block learning system it will affect

other general subjects, for example, the English subject.

The implementation of the block system as a learning system which

is still rarely used in the world of education in Indonesia makes

implementing this system still have many difficulties. In Vocational High

 3

Schools which prioritize vocational or practical lessons to implementing a

block system, it also has an impact in the learning process of general

subjects. With a longer learning time in each learning, students feel bored

when participating in the learning process. In addition, the few meetings and

the distance from the theories make students sometimes forget the previous

subject matter. From the teacher's point of view, it is also difficult to

implement the block system in general subject learning, especially for

teachers who are learning about block systems for the first time. The

preparation of the subject matter for a longer learning time is a major

problem. In addition, the teacher must also have a variety of learning

methods to deal with students who feel bored or bored. Teachers also have

to repeat learning material more often to remind students who have

forgotten about the previous subject matter. Those are some of the

difficulties in implementing the block system in Indonesia.

English education is no less important for students than vocational

lessons. English is currently a global language and mastering English is also

important for students. Mastering English will be an added value and it will

be easier to get a job, with the hope that English skills can expand

cooperation or relations with global companies. Proficiency in good English

will support a higher career. Not only in terms of work, having good English

skills makes it easier for us to understand increasingly sophisticated

technology. Current technology such as laptops, smartphones, and machines

are operated using English. Given the importance of English for vocational
 4

students, it is only natural that learning English is given more attention and

priority apart from vocational subjects.

SMK N 1 Kebumen is one of the SMK that implements a block

learning system. One of the competency skills developed at SMK N 1

Kebumen is the visual communication design (DKV) or multimedia.

Expertise Competency in the field of Information Technology which studies

the use of computers to present text, sound, image, animation, and video

data that is made as attractive as possible with the tools that are already

available such as Adobe Photoshop, CorelDraw, Freehand, Adobe After

Effects, etc. In the process of learning visual communication design,

students must master basic material, and advanced material to development

material that is applied to the real world so that the allocation of learning

time required is longer. In addition, students must also learn English as one

of the skills needed to understand computer language which is usually in

English, and also to know the names and functions of the tools in an

application. Because usually, the names of the tools available in Adobe

Photoshop, CorelDraw, Freehand, and Adobe After Effect applications use

English.

Based on the explanation, the researcher wants to know how the

block system is implemented in the English teaching and learning process.

It is important to investigate the perceptions of teachers and students

regarding the implementation of block system in order to measure how

suitable and effective the block system is for the English learning process
 5

and find out what difficulties teachers and students face in the process of

learning English in the block system. The researcher is interested in

conducting the research entitled: " The implementation of the block system

in English teaching and learning process at visual communication design

department of SMK N 1 Kebumen in the academic year 2022/2023".

B. Identification of the problem

Before doing the research, the researcher had already done pre-

research in which observing when the PLP was conducted at one of the

schools that implemented the block learning system. The researcher found

some problems in learning English in block learning system as follows:

1. Block system in general subject

So far, system blocks are known to have positive and good

effects on learning vocational or productive subjects, but several

studies on system blocks, have not shown significant results for

learning general subjects, for example, English subject.

2. Block system is implemented due to limited classroom space.

SMK N 1 Kebumen has 5 study programs. Therefore, a large

number of classrooms are needed for theory and classrooms for

practice. In addition to supporting practical needs, block systems

are also commonly implemented by schools that have few or

limited classrooms.
 6

3. Students sometimes forget the material taught at the previous

meeting, because it is one week of practice blocks.

The distance of one week from the theoretical block to the

theoretical block again makes students often forget about the

lessons of the previous week. This is also caused because

vocational students prefer vocational subjects so during the

practice block students do not pay attention to general subjects.

This situation also causes the third problem to arise.

4. The teacher repeats of the subject matter more often to remind

students of the subject matter.

Because students often forget the general subject matter, the

teacher repeats more subject matter to remind students of the

previous subject matter. Indeed, the learning time on block

system is longer but if it is used to repeat continuously it will

reduce efficiency during the learning process.

5. Students look bored when learning English because the learning

hours are longer.

Longer learning time and monotonous or unvaried learning

methods make students bored in participating in the learning

process.
 7

6. Students will miss the subject matter if they don't take part in the

lesson.

With a small number of meetings in one week and a longer

learning time, students will be left behind if they don't take part

in learning, even if it's just one meeting.

7. Less varied learning methods.

Teachers do not yet have many varied learning methods. It

also affects the motivation or interest in student learning.

Monotonous learning will make students feel bored, especially

with a longer learning time.

C. Limitation of the study

In this study, the researcher limits to the problem, especially to

observation of the implementation of block system in English teaching and

learning process at SMK N 1 Kebumen. The subjects of this research

consisted of principal, curriculum staff, English teacher in the visual

communication design or multimedia department, and tenth-grade,

eleventh-grade, and twelfth-grade students visual communication design

department of SMK N 1 Kebumen in the academic year 2022/2023.

‘
 8

D. Statement of the problem

Based on the background of the study and problem limitation, the

statement of the problem are:

1. How is the implementation of block system in English teaching

and learning process at visual communication design department

of SMK N 1 Kebumen in the academic year 2022/2023?

2. How are teacher and students’ perception of the implementation

of block system in English teaching and learning process at

visual communication design department of SMK N 1 Kebumen

in the academic year 2022/2023?

3. What are the difficulties of the implementation of block system

in English teaching and learning process at visual

communication design department of SMK N 1 Kebumen in the

academic year 2022/2023?

E. Objective of the study

Based on the statement of the problem above, the objective of this

study as following:

1. To describe the implementation of block system in English

teaching and learning process at visual communication design

department of SMK N 1 Kebumen in the academic year

2022/2023.
 9

2. To describe teacher and students’ perception of the

implementation of block system in English teaching and learning

process at visual communication design department of SMK N

1 Kebumen in the academic year 2022/2023.

3. To find out the difficulties of the implementation of block

system in English teaching and learning process at visual

communication design department of SMK N 1 Kebumen in the

academic year 2022/2023.

F. Significance of the study

The result of this research is expected to give significance to:

a. The school

The researcher hopes that the result of this study can help

schools to fix the shortcomings of block system for general

subjects, especially English so that the English teaching and

learning process can be more optimal.

b. The English teacher

The researcher hopes that the results of this study are useful

for teachers to be able to create appropriate English learning

methods in accordance with block learning system.

c. The students

The researcher hopes that the results of this study can

motivate SMK students to pay more attention to English lessons

 10

because mastering English is very important in the world of

work.

d. The next researcher

The researcher hopes that the results of this study can

provide information about block system and can also be a

reference for conducting similar research on different topics with

deeper investigations.