SUPRIATNOKO’S FIVE-FINGERS TECHNIQUE MODEL: INNOVATION IN ENGLISH GRAMMAR LEARNING TO IMPROVE INDONESIAN STUDENTS’ COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE

Abstract

Mastery of grammar, especially English tenses, is a fundamental component in developing effective communication skills among Indonesian EFL students. However, in practice, tenses remain one of the most challenging aspects for students across educational levels to comprehend and apply. Despite the wide range of instructional methods available, tense instruction in Indonesian classrooms still predominantly emphasizes formula memorization rather than functional use in real communication. Consequently, students tend to forget grammatical rules easily, struggle to apply tenses flexibly, and experience low confidence in speaking and writing. This study aims to (1) develop the Supriatnoko Five-Finger Technique Model as an innovative instructional framework for teaching English tenses, (2) examine its theoretical foundations in embodied learning and communicative language teaching, and (3) evaluate its preliminary effectiveness in improving students’ functional use of tenses in speaking and writing. The study employed a research and development (R&D) design combined with a limited pilot implementation. The development phase included conceptual design, model formulation, and instructional material preparation. The pilot implementation involved classroom application at Sekolah Terbuka Madani Depok using a quasi-experimental approach with comparative observation of students’ performance before and after the intervention. Data were collected through speaking and writing assessments, classroom observation, and student feedback questionnaires. The Supriatnoko Five-Finger Technique Model is a visual and kinesthetics’ instructional approach that maps five major English tense categories—present, past, future, perfect, and continuous—onto the five fingers of the hand. Each finger is associated with a distinct communicative question type: WH-questions, Yes/No questions, Negative tag questions, Positive tag questions, and Assumption questions. The novelty of this study lies in its integration of embodied learning, functional tense categorization, and communicative question-based interaction into a single instruction model that operationalizes grammatical tenses to support functional language use, rather than focusing on vocabulary acquisition or classroom commands. Preliminary findings indicate that 97.4% of students demonstrated measurable improvement in their speaking and writing performance compared to conventional teaching methods. Although promising, the model requires further large-scale testing and refinement across diverse secondary and language training contexts to ensure broader applicability and effectiveness.