review journal "Improving speaking ability by using series of picture"

Title  : Improving speaking ability by using series of picture.

Introduction and purposes :

Teaching English at Junior High School in Indonesia as stated in Curriculum 2004 revised in 2006 covers abilities four aspecs of language. One of them is speaking ability. Paultson and Brunder (1975) stated that the objective of the language teaching is the production of the speaker’s competence to communicate in the target language. Rivers (1968) stated that the teacher should give the students opportunities to practice speaking. She further stated that if the students are able to practice the new speech habit throughout as the children do in his native language, the problem of speaking fluency of foreign language would be lessened.

This research had one dependent variable and one independent variable:

(1) the independent variable of this research was the teaching device using series of pictures through pair work. Using series of pictures means the pictures belong to the students (e.g. pictures taken from magazines and newspapers) or the pictures that the students had drawn by themselves. Pair work was a teaching technique/activity which allowed students to act in accordance with the assignment;                              

(2) the dependent variable of this research was speaking ability. It was empirically by the students’ mastery of using series of picture which covered fluency, pronunciation, vocabulary, structure, discourse and the social context of speaking.

The result of this research is expected to be useful information to: (1) increase the teachers’ knowledge of English and share experiences in improving speaking ability using series of picture; (2) encourage the teachers’ colleagues in doing action research in improving their teaching as the professional practices; (3) give any contribution to the general public in increasing knowledge concerning about classroom action research and get any reflection for being perfection.

This research is done by the subject of the students of the third class of SMP Ar-Risalah Kediri using series of pictures through pair work to improve their ability to speak English

The theory who supports this journal ,as follow :

Westnood, Peter and Oliver (1975) stated that in improving oral language there are four ways should be considered in which teachers sometimes operate to restrict language development or indeed at times train students not to listen but to speak

Hergenhalm in Elliott (1996) stated that good teaching begins with knowing what you want to teach: the stimuli, you must also identify the responses you want to connect to the stimuli and timing of appropriate satisfiers.

Hulse in Elliott (1996) on the effective teaching and effective learning stated that feedback or reinforcement of asking question is very important. It is a powerful tool of controlling behaviour of the students. If you praise students’ correct responses immediately and the students increase correct responses.

Erna (2006) in his research stated the way of teaching speaking as follow: The stages of teaching and learning speaking is divided into three stages which commonly known as presentation, practice, and production.

Nunan (1993) distinguished between motor-perceptive skills, which are concerned with correctly using the sounds and structures of the language, and interactional skills, which involve using motor-perceptive skills was all that one needed in order to communicate successfully.

The study concluded that using series of pictures through pair work as a teaching strategy variation has brought a new nuance in English language teaching in improving their ability to speak English.

Related speaking with use media

The statement strengthens to improve speaking ability by using series of pictures as media to teach English. Pictures as visual aids will attract students’ attention, and motivate them to learn. In addition, using series of picture means that the students try to connect the plot in the picture to be a link of story.

Brown (2007) stated that picture can be used in many stages of the instructional process, to introduce and motivate study of new topics, to clarify misconceptions, to communicate basic information, and to evaluate student’s progress and achievement. Furthermore, he suggests some ways of using pictures for ensuring maximum students benefit from using them; (2) Using pictures can be an effective technique for any proficiencies level or language skill. The following is an example of how one picture can be used in improving speaking ability. To teach speaking where the students share personal experiences that somehow relate to what is happening in a picture they have been given and drawn.

Method

Subject : 20 students of the third class of SMP Ar Risalah Kediri in 2007-2008 academic year.

Research question

Based on the background above, the researcher formulates the following research questions:

(1) Do the students have high motivation in speaking English using series of picture?;

(2) Does the use of series of pictures through pair work significantly improve their ability to speak English?

Methods of data collection

To collect data, the instruments to be used:                                                  

(1) test consisted of pre-test, post-test, and formative test;

(2) observation. Test after the first treatment and test after the second treatment administered to find out the improvement of the students’ speaking ability, the formative test was administered to measure about the improvement of their speaking ability from the cycle 1 and cycle 2. The observation was administered to measure the characteristics of the students towards the application of using series of pictures through pair work, and questionnaire was administered to support the data of the students’ improvement in speaking English ability

Methods of data analysis

The writers uses first treatment and the second treatment. (tests, questionnaires, and observation) and were analyzed using the scoring system, tabulating, percentage, classification, calculating the mean score, from the first treatment.

Result

Before the treatment, students mean in speaking was 65.0. Then after the treatments, data on the students’ speaking skills were collected in line with the instruments (tests, questionnaires, and observation) and were analyzed using the scoring system, tabulating, percentage, classification, calculating the mean score, from the first treatment, the researcher got the mean of the students reached 68.3. Then after the second treatment, the mean increased to be 78.8. Based on the observation after the treatments, it indicated that among students had more selves confidences and had more participant in speaking.  The rating scale (band) used for measuring the improvement of the students’ speaking skill was taken from Sujiono (1992: 47):

First Treatment

In the first treatment , the result from the interval 0-44 there are no students and the percentage are 0.0.  The criteria is poor. The second result at interval 45-55 , there are no students and the percentage are 0.0.The criteria is Less. The third result at interval 56-69, there are eleven students  and the percentage are 55.0.  The Criteria is fair. The fourd result at interval 70-79, there are five students and the percentage 25.0. The criteria is good. And the last interval 80-10, there are  four students and the percentage are 20.0. The criteria is very good.

Second treatment

In the second treatment , the result from the interval 0-44 there are no students and the percentage are 0.0.  The criteria is poor. The second result at interval 45-55 , there are no students and the percentage are 0.0.The criteria is Less. The third result at interval 56-69, there are no students  and the percentage are 0.0.  The Criteria is fair. The fourd result at interval 70-79, there are ten students and the percentage 50.0. The criteria is good. And the last interval 80-10, there are ten students and the percentage are 50.0. The criteria is very good.