The Use Of Communicative Games To Improve The Students’ Speaking Achievement At Senior High School

Abstract

This Classroom Action Research (CAR) raised the issue of speaking skills. Speaking is one of the important elements in language skills that must be mastered. However, some students still have many problems with their speaking skills. From the results of interviews with English teachers at an Islamic High School in Situbondo, students still have difficulty speaking English due to limited practice, monotonous teaching methods, and a lack of motivation. Communicative games are considered an effective solution to create a more enjoyable and interesting learning atmosphere, increase student confidence, and improve their speaking skills. Communicative games is one of the problem-solving speaking skills. This research was conducted in one cycle. The cycle consisted of two meetings: the first meeting for the implementation of the action and the second meeting for the test. This research investigated quantitative data (i.e., students' speaking performance) in the form of students' speaking scores collected through a speaking test. The participants of this study were 22 students. Before the action was taken, data was obtained that 10 students had speaking scores below average, ≤75. After the study was conducted, the results of the students' speaking tests in cycle 1 showed an increase in students' speaking skills. There were 17 students who were able to achieve ≥75, and 5 students achieved scores below ≤75. This means that 79.27% of students obtained scores ≥75, an increase from 72.82% in cycle 1. The results showed that the target of this study was achieved in cycle 1, so it was not continued to cycle 2. Thus, it can be concluded that the results of classroom action research using communicative games can improve students' speaking skills in one of the Senior High Schools in Situbondo. For English teachers, it is recommended that teachers use communicative games as input and consideration in speaking learning. In addition, the results of this study can also be used as a reference and as useful information for future researchers in conducting further research