IMPROVING THE EIGHTH GRADE STUDENTS’ SPEAKING ABILITY BY USING PICTURE SERIES AT MTs NEGERI BONDOWOSO I

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.