IMPROVING THE EIGHTH GRADE STUDENTS' SPEAKING ABILITY BY USING REALIA AT SMPIT AL-GHOZALI JEMBER IN THE 2008/2009 ACADEMIC YEAR

Abstract

This classroom action research was intended to improve the eighth grade students’ speaking ability by using realia. The eighth grade students of SMPIT AlGhozali

Jember was chosen as the subjects of the research due to their problems in speaking in the target language because they still experienced difficulties in mastering some components of speaking skill. Those are pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary. In addition, they lack motivation and concentration in learning speaking. Therefore, this influenced their ability in speaking. They were reluctant to speak the target language (English) because they were afraid to make mistakes. Afterwards, when they were forced by the teacher to practice speaking in front of the class, they spent more time to think what to say next. As a consequence, these influenced their fluency. They could not speak the language smoothly and easily, so the listeners were difficult to catch the main idea. It also happened because they did not have enough time to practice speaking in the classroom. Using realia, the researcher found that the students were motivated and able to concentrate on the material given by the teacher; their speaking ability and the activeness was improved. It meant that the use of realia had strength to help the students learn language easily. The research method was Classroom Action Research with cycle model. The research was done collaboratively with the English teacher with some steps. They are identifying the problem, finding the solution, planning the action, implementing the action, observing and evaluating the action, analyzing the data and reflecting the action. The research was conducted in one cycle which includes two meeting for treatment and one meeting for conducting the test. The research subject was the eighth class. The total number of the students in this class was eighteen. There were two kinds of data used in this research; they are the primary and the secondary data. The primary data was collected by speaking test and observation in the form of checklist, while the secondary data was obtained from documentation and interviewing. There were two types of evaluation done by the researcher; they were process evaluation and product evaluation. Having evaluating, it was found that the result of the process evaluation had fulfilled the target. More than 75 % students were actively involved in speaking activities. Moreover, the result of the product evaluation also had achieved the target. The students' main score had increased from 51.76 up to 65.67. This means that it had achieved the standard passing score, which is 60. Based on the results, it can be concluded that the use of realia to teach speaking can improve the students' speaking ability. Therefore, it is suggested to the English teachers to use realia as an alternative media or authentic material in teaching speaking.