The Use of Pop-Up Cards to Improve the Seventh Grade Students’ Speaking Achievement at a Junior High School

Abstract

This classroom action research focused on using pop-up cards to improve the seventh-grade students‟ speaking achievement at a junior high school. The research was conducted from December 17th, 2019 to January 13th, 2020 at SMP Negeri 2 Jember. The research participants were the students of class VII F. This class was chosen because it had the lowest mean score on the speaking pre-test (72). Besides, the results of the observation also showed that this class was passive during the English lesson. Further, the English teacher also informed that the students of class VIII F had the difficulties in learning speaking because they lack vocabulary and grammar, and they were passive in English teaching and learning process. This research was carried out in one cycle that consisted of five meetings; four meetings for executing the action and one meeting for administering the speaking test. The cycle covered three stages that include planning a change, acting and observing, and reflecting. In this research, documentation, observation, and the speaking test were used to get the data. This classroom action research was done collaboratively with the English teacher. The researcher taught the students in all meetings; Meeting 1-Meeting 4, while the English teacher observed the students‟ active participation during the process of teaching and learning of speaking by using pop-up cards. The observation was assisted by the help of some colleagues. The evidence of the research success was indicated by two improvements in two matters. The first was the number of students who involved actively in the teaching and learning process of speaking by using pop-up cards that improve from 43.33% in the preliminary study to 81% in cycle one. Further, the second evidence dealt with the enhancement of the students‟ speaking test mean score that improved from 72 to 81 as well as the percentage of the students who passed the passing grade improved from 40% to 86%. Reflecting on the findings of this study, it proved that the use of pop-up cards in the teaching and learning process could help students in learning speaking. During the action given, it showed that pop-up cards could be used as an effective media to facilitate students in improving their speaking skill. As proven by the result of the observation and speaking post-test, applying the pop up cards in the teaching and learning process could help the teacher gain the students‟ attention and enthusiasm during the learning process, help students develop their idea about what they want to say through the content of the pop-up cards, and also build their confidence to perform in front of the class. Hence, it could be said that the students‟ participation and the students‟ speaking improvement reflect the benefits of using pop-up cards by which the conducive learning environment and an interesting learning situation were emerged. As a result, it could be concluded that the use of pop-up cards could improve the class VII F students‟ active participation and students‟ speaking achievement. In consequence, it was suggested to the English teacher to use pop up cards as alternative media or variation for teaching speaking to improve students‟ speaking achievement.