| dc.description.abstract | Improving the Eighth Grade Students’ Speaking Ability by Using
Picture Series at MTs Negeri Bondowoso I”, Fatimah, 110210401081;
2014: English Language Education Study Program, Language and Arts
Department, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Jember University
English is one of the international languages that is used by many people
in the world and in many areas of everyday’s life. In learning English, there
are four language skills that should be learnt, that is, listening, reading,
speaking, and writing. Speaking belongs to productive skills in which the
language users require the ability to produce language in the spoken form.
There are some aspects concerning with speaking ability. They include
fluency, accuracy on pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary, content.
Further, based on the preliminary study that was held on August 25
2014, it
was found that the eighth grade students of MTs Negeri Bondowoso 1 faced
difficulties in speaking so the students could not improve their English scores.
To overcome the problems above, the teacher used media in teaching
speaking. The media were picture series. Picture series were a number of
related composite pictures linked to form a series or sequence.
The classroom action research with cycle model was applied in this study.
It was intended to improve the eighth grade students’ speaking ability at MTs
Negeri Bondowoso 1 in the 2014-2015 academic year. The subjects of the
research were the VIII D students of MTs Negeri Bondowoso 1 in the 20142015
academic year. They were chosen because they still had difficulties in
speaking, especially in delivering their ideas because of less of vocabulary,
afraid of making mistakes and sometimes they did not have enough chance to
practice in English so most of the students did not achieve the target score of
the school, that was 65.
This research was done in two cycles in which each cycle covered four
activities as follows: the planning of the action, the implementation of the
action, observation of the action, and reflection of the action. Each cycle had 3
meetings. The first and the second meetings were conducted to teach speaking
xiii
th
by using picture series. Next, the third meeting was held to give speaking
ability test. The primary data about the students’ speaking test were conducted
to measure the students’ speaking abilit y covering fluency, accuracy on
pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and content and the observation was
used to monitor the process of the teaching learning process of speaking. The
results of speaking test and class observation were analyzed statistically. The
criteria used as the main consideration to determine the success of the actions
were as follows: 1) 75% of the students actively participated in speaking
teaching learning process by using picture series and 2) 75% of the students
could get score ≥ 65 in the speaking test. Meanwhile, the supporting data were
collected by using interview and documentation.
The result of the observat ion and students’ speaking ability in Cycle 1 did
not achieve the target of the research. As the average percentage of the
students’ act ive participation in Cycle 1 was 72%. Moreover, the result of
students’ speaking ability test showed that 16 students of 25 students or 64%
of the students got score ≥ 65 in the speaking test. It means that the percentage
of students’ active participation and speaking ability test did not achieve the
target of the research yet. It might happen because there were some
weaknesses influenced. They were as follows: 1) The students tended to use
verb 1 in their monologue, 2) The students experienced difficulty in
pronouncing the English words correctly, 3) The students tended talking to
their friends, making noise and disturbed the other student, 4) The students did
not respond communicatively and did not work cooperatively with their group
discussion.
Having conducted the action in Cycle 2, the result of the students’
observations and speaking test showed improvement. The average percentage
of the students’ act ive participation in Cycle 2 was 86%. Further, the result of
students’ speaking test also reached the standard score of the research. There
were 19 of 25 or 76% students who got score ≥ 65 in the speaking test in
Cycle 2. Thus, the result of the observations in Cycle 2 of the students’ act ive
participation achieved the target criteria of the research, that was 75% of
xiv
students actively participated in the teaching learning process of speaking by
using picture series and the result of the speaking ability test in Cycle 2
achieved the target criteria of the research, that was 75% of the students got
score ≥ 65 in the speaking test.
Based on the result above, it could be concluded that the use of picture
series could improve the eighth grade students’ active participation and
speaking ability in the speaking teaching and learning at MTs Negeri
Bondowoso 1 in the 2014-2015 academic year. Therefore, it is suggested that
the English teacher use picture series as alternative media in teaching and
learning process in order to help students who have difficulties in speaking to
guide the students’ idea, so that the construction of the sentences becomes
easier. | en_US |
