IMPROVING CLASS VII A STUDENTS’ SPEAKING ABILITY BY USING THINK PAIR SHARE TECHNIQUE OF COOPERATIVE LEARNING METHOD AT SMP NEGERI 7 JEMBER IN THE 2012/2013 ACADEMIC YEAR

Abstract

SUMMARY

Improving Class VII A Students’ Speaking Ability by Using Think Pair Share Technique of Cooperative Learning Method at SMP Negeri 7 Jember in the 2012/2013 Academic Year; Zubaidatul Hasanah, 090210401107; 2012: 61 pages; English Language Education Study Program, Language and Arts Education Department, the Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Jember University.

This Classroom Action Research was intended to improve class VII A students’ speaking ability by using Think Pair Share Technique of cooperative learning method at SMP Negeri 7 Jember in the 2012/2013 academic year. Based on the preliminary study in the form of interview with the seventh year English teacher, it was known that the seventh year students, especially class VII A students still found difficulties to speak English. The students of class VII A had less active participation in joining speaking class, so it affected their speaking score. From the result of the previous speaking score of class VII A, it was found that among 42 students, 28 students (66.67%) got score under the minimum standard score requirement of 65, and 14 students (33.33%) could reach the minimum standard score. It showed that many students could not reach the minimum standard score because they got some difficulties in speaking, such as they lack of vocabulary, they did not know how to express their ideas with good grammar and appropriate vocabulary. Besides that, the students also did not have motivation in joining the speaking activity, so their active participation was low during the teaching learning process. To solve this problem, the researcher used Think Pair Share Technique of cooperative learning method. This classroom action research consisted of two cycles in order to achieve the objectives of this classroom action research, in which each cycle covered four main stages, namely planning the action, implementing the action, evaluating the action, and reflecting the action. The first cycle was done in three meetings included viii the test in the third meeting. There were two data collection methods used in this research. They were primary data and supporting data. The primary data of this research were gathered from the speaking test and the classroom observation in the form of checklist. Meanwhile, the supporting data were gathered from the interview with the seventh English teacher and the documentation. The results of the speaking test in the first cycle had not achieved the criteria of success of the research that was 70% of the students got score ≥65 in the speaking test. The students who reached score ≥65 were only 57.00% or 24 of 42 students. In addition, the results of the classroom observation showed that 38.09% or 16 of 42 students in meeting 1 and 50.00% or 21 of 42 students in meeting 2 of the students were active during the teaching learning process. It showed that there was an improvement of the students’ active participation from meeting 1 to meeting 2 in Cycle 1, but it had not achieved the objective of the research. Based on the results of the first cycle, the second cycle was necessary to be conducted. After that, some revisions were implemented in Cycle 2. Thus, the speaking test and classroom observation in the second cycle showed an improvement. In the speaking test, they were 81.00% or 34 of 42 students who achieved the standard requirement. Furthermore, in the classroom observation, they were 64.28% or 27 of 42 students who actively participated in the teaching learning process in meeting 1, while in meeting 2 there were 76.10% or 32 of 42 the students who were active in the teaching learning process of speaking. Thus, the results of the observation in meeting 1 and meeting 2 had met the objective of the research. Based on those results, it can be concluded that the actions in the second cycle were successful because the results of speaking test and the classroom observation achieved the objectives of the research. Finally, it could be concluded that the use of Think Pair Share Technique of cooperative learning method could improve the seventh year students’ speaking ability especially class VII A and the students’ active participation in the teaching and learning process of speaking at SMP Negeri 7 Jember.