Improving the XI IPS 2 Year Students’ Speaking Achievement by Using Information Gap Activities at SMA Negeri 2 Tanggul in the 2008/2009 Academic Year

Abstract

This Classroom action research was intended to improve the XI IPS 2 year students’ speaking achievement by using information gap activities. The subject of the research was the XI IPS 2 year students at SMA Negeri 2 Tanggul in the 2008/2009 academic year because they still experienced difficulties in speaking English and they were reluctant to speak the Target Language (TL). They were reluctant to speak English because they were afraid of making mistakes. They also spoke the language properly, so it was difficult for others to their ideas. It also happened because they did not have enough time to practice speaking in the classroom due to the short time allocated for English classes. The information gap activities were used to solve the problem of the students in speaking. They will make students take part in speaking and also give every student the opportunity to speak in the TL. In these activities, the students will work in pairs. They will encourage the students to ask and answer the questions based on tasks given until they accomplish their tasks. The research method was Classroom Action Research with cyclical. The research was done collaboratively with the English teacher with a sequence of steps. They are identifying the problem, planning the action, implementing the action, observing and evaluating the action, analyzing the data and reflecting the action. The research was conducted in two cycles. Each cycle consists of three meetings including the test. There were two kinds of data obtained in this research; they are the primary and secondary data. The primary data was collected by speaking test and observation in the form of checklist, while the secondary data was obtained by documentation and interviewing.