TEACHING SPEAKING SKILL THROUGH

COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING

(An Experiment Study in the First Grade of MA Pembangunan UIN Jakarta)

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of Study

In the last decade, English has become the most popular foreign language

used for communication between people who do not share the same first language.

As Harmer point out, English is spoken by at least a quarter of the worlds

population. It is important, too, to realize that this means it is not spoken by three

quarter of the population. However, it is clear from the way its use has grown in

the last decade that this situation is about to change.1 It means English is really

important for our life, especially for development of knowledge, science, culture,

and relationship among country.

According to Edward David Allen and Rebecca M. Valette in their book,

foreign language is one course in the curriculum where students should be

encouraged to talk a great deal in class and to express their ideas, not simply what

the teacher tells them to say.2 English is one of the foreign languages that was

taught in Indonesian school from Elementary School as a local content, SMP up to

SMU as compulsory subject and a complementary subject of the higher education

institution. It has been taught in order to increase the English students competence.

They are expected to become fluent in oral and written skills. Recently, in the

1 Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching (Fourth Edition), (England: Longman, 2002), p. 18.

2 Edward David Allen and Rebecca M. Valette, Classroom Techniques: Foreign Languages and English as a Second Language, (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Inc, 1997), p. 211.

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global world, many fields of our life such as, educational, occupation, and social,

English has become a crucial factor of being used in the international

communication in successful life.

The objective of teaching speaking at the first grade of MA In the

curriculum based on KTSP (Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan ) states that

English is part of the subjects that must be taught and mastered by students in all

levels of schools in Indonesia. English learning activities curriculum in high

school has many purposes, such as;

1. Mengembagkan kompetensi berkomunikasi dalam bentuk lisan dan tulisn

untuk mencapai tingkat literasi informational (improve the communication

competence in oral and written to get the informational literacy).

2. Memiliki kesadaran tentang hakikat dan pentingnya bahasa inggris untuk

meningkatkan daya saing bangsa dalam masyarakat global (to have an

awareness of the principle and importance of the English language to

increase the competition between countries in global society).

3. Mengembangkan pemahaman peserta didik tentang keterkaitan antara

bahasa dan budaya (developing students understanding about the collerration

between language and culture).3

There are four skills that must be mastered by students, which are listening,

speaking, reading, and writing. According to Harmer in his book, the four skills

are divided into two types. Receptive skill is a term used for reading and listening,

skills where meaning is extracted from the discourse. Productive skills is the term

for speaking and writing, skills where students actually have to produce language

themselves.4 The four skills are crucial, but the most crucial is speaking which

seems to naturally be the most important.

There are many English experts considered if speaking is the important point

3 Departemen Pendidikan Nasional, KTSP, (Jakarta:Depdiknas, 2007) p, 2784 Jeremy Harmer, the Practice of English Language Teachin ( Fourth Edition), (England:

Longman, 2002), p. 265.

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in language teaching. As McDonough and Shaw opinions, in many contexts,

speaking is often the skill upon which a person is judged, at face value .5 In other

words, speaking skills is the major criterion to judge the

English students competent are good or lack.

Teaching speaking skill has been given to the students by the teacher based

on curriculum since SMP up to the MA, but still there are many students in High

School such as the students at first grade of MA Pembangunan UIN Jakarta who

have problems in speaking skill. They cannot make communication actively and

spontaneously with others. Although, they have enough vocabulary to express

their ideas and feeling but they do not know how to say and what should they say

then. Therefore, the students cannot improve their conversation into great

communication. While, according to one of the books, simply put, the goal of a

speaking component in a language class should be to encourage the acquisition of

communication skills and to foster real communication in and out of the

classroom.6 The one implication that these routines have is a need for speaking

skills classes to place more emphasis on frames of oral interaction.7

Based on the writer opinion there are several factors that initiate problems in

teaching speaking skill. They are lack of practice in speaking skill because the

teacher usually uses the English class by doing exercise, Inappropriate choosing

method that make students do not interest to the activity, lack of mastering the

aspects of oral proficiency; fluency, pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary, and

educational cultural difference. The last factor is stated by Thorp a British lecturer

who wrote about an Indonesian student “his work shows that he is very bright, but

he is quiet in the class”. Whereas for Indonesian student judgment might not be

about that students personality at all, but rather about norms of the classroom

behavior that student feels are culturally appropriate.

5 Jo MCDonough and Christopher Shaw, Material and Methods in ELT: A Teacher Guide, (Cambridge: Blackwell Publisher, 1993), p.151.

6 Jo MCDonough and Christopher Shaw, Material and Methods in ELT: A Teacher guide, (Cambridge: Blackwell Publisher, 1993), p.157.

7 Jeremy Harmer, the Practice of English Language Teaching (Fourth Edition), (England: Longman, 2002), p. 76.

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Today, there are many English teachers who have been teaching speaking

skill by using conventional method, which is one way or passive teaching method

and not the interactive method in class. Furthermore, many teachers just inquire

their students to do some exercises and spend their time at the class in mastering

other skill such as writing and reading because they have to make their students

achieve a good result in the last examination. Therefore, the students lack practice

in English communicating orally.

Based on the cases above, the writer considers if a problem occurs, can be

solved by choosing a suitable method and several techniques that will build the

student initiative in interacting and communicating in the class. After words, the

students will improve their competent in speaking skills. MCDonough and

Christopher Shaw stated in their book, speaking is desire and purpose-driven, in

other words we genuinely want to communicate something to achieve a particular

end.8

There are several methods for English teaching that can help the speaking

teacher to build or create the situation where language is used actively. But, to

reach successfully in teaching speaking skill achievement, the writer concludes if

communicative language teaching (CLT) is one of the method which suites with

the major purpose in teaching speaking skills. According to the Harmer, activities

in CLT typically involve students in real or realistic communication, where the

successful achievement of the communicative task they are performing is at least

as important as the accuracy of their language use9

The writer believes communicative language teaching method can solve the

problem faced in the speaking class activities and make students more interested

and more desirable to communicate and interact in many possibilities they have.

Students must use the opportunity to express their opinions, feelings, and to get

some of information and to make a situation which can involve students in real

8 Jo MCDonough and Christopher Shaw, Material and Methods in ELT: A Teacher guide, (Cambridge: Blackwell Publisher, 1993), p.152. 9 Jeremy Harmer, the Practice of English Language Teaching (Fourth Edition), (England: Longman, 2002), p. 69.

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communication, the writer has chosen many techniques in teaching speaking skill

through communicative language teaching they are language games, picture strip

story and role play. It stated in Freman book, that …to try to use any techniques or

material associated with CLT. They are authentic material, scrambled, sentences,

language games, picture strip story, role-plays.10

B. The Limitation and Formulation of Study

1. The Limitation of Study

To prevent misunderstanding and clarify the study, the making of

limitation of study should be made. The writer limits the study of this research

project in application of teaching speaking skills through communicative

language teaching at first grade of MA, in an experiment study of the first grade

of MA Pembangunan UIN Jakarta.

2. The Formulation of Study

According to the limitation of study, the formulation of study in this

research project is “is there any improvement in the students speaking skill after

being taught by communicative language teaching method?”.

C. The Objective of Study

Based on the formulation the research project, the objective of study is to

measure the significant differences between the application of communicative

language teaching and the grammar translation method in teaching speaking skill

to students at the first grade of MA Pembangunan UIN Jakarta.

D. The Significance of Study

The significance of this research project is hopefully to give the information

10 Diane Larsen-Freeman, Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching (UK: Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 132

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and suggestion to the writer and English teachers in teaching speaking English

activity. The research project that is written by the writer is to support the teachers

and to improve the students speaking skill in using English language as the

communication and interaction language by using the interesting methods that will

engage the students to express their ideas, feeling and to get or share the

information.

E. The Organization of Study

The writer arranges the research project into five chapters. Chapter one is

introduction, it illustrates the background of the study, the limitation and

formulation of study, the objective of study, the significance of the study, and

organization of study.

Chapter two is theoretical of framework. This chapter divided into four

parts. Part A, is speaking skill, it explains the definition of speaking, the goal of

speaking, the characteristics of good speaking activities, and the types of speaking

activity. Part B, is communicative language teaching CLT that contains the

definition of CLT, the purpose of CLT, and the type of CLT. Part C, is Grammar

translation method (GTM) that contains the definition of GTM, the purpose of

GTM, characteristic of GTM and several techniques of GTM. The last part is the

implementation of using communicative language teaching (CLT) that includes of

the problems involved and the advantage.

Chapter three is research methodology. This chapter has seven parts. research

methodology that are the place and time of research, the method of research, the

method of sample taking, the method of data collecting, the instrumentation of

research, technique of data analysis and hypothesis of study.

Chapter four is research finding. This research finding gives detail in the

description of data, the analysis of data, hypothesis testing data, and interpretation of

data.

The last chapter is conclusion and suggestion. This chapter is the primary

review of the previous discussion of this chapter.

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CHAPTER II

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

A. Speaking Skill

As the writer wrote in the first chapter, there are four skills in learning

English language and the most important one is speaking.

According to the MCDonough and Shaw, as a language skill, speaking is

sometime undervalued or, in some circle, taken for granted.11 It is because really

in English language teaching, an English teacher almost uses all of his time in the

class by taught grammar and vocabulary. The teacher only engages his students to

memorize some of the vocabulary and many grammar rules and does not give

them the opportunities to practice and perform their speaking skill in the class. He

thinks grammar and vocabulary are the most important.

Actually, speaking is the essential skills from any other language skills that

must be mastered by students. As Richard, Speaking in a second and foreign

language has often been viewed as the most demanding of the four skills.12 And to

know how important of the speaking skill is?, to know about what is the

definition of speaking?, how many various forms of speaking is?, what is the goal

of speaking?, what are the characteristics of good speaking activities? and finally,

what are the types of speaking activity that can promote speaking skill?

1. The Definition of Speaking

There are many various definition of speaking from many English

language experts, but it is impossible to discuss all of them. Therefore, the

11 Jo MCDonough and Christopher Shaw, Material and Methods in ELT: A Teacher Guide, (Cambridge: Blackwell Publisher, 1993), p.151.

12 Jack C. Richards, New Ways in Teaching Speaking (Alexandria: TESOL, Inc. 1994 ) p.v.

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writer only chooses several definitions that based on her opinion are important

to talk about.

The first definition is from MCDonough and Shaw, they wrote”…as a

skill which enables us to produce utterances, when genuinely communicate,

speaking is desire and purpose-driven, in other words we genuinely want to

communicate something to achieve a particular end. This may involve

expressing ideas and opinions; expressing a wish or a desire to do something;

negotiating and/or solving particular problem; or establishing and maintaining

social relationships and friendships. Another expert Brudden, states that “…

speaking is an activity which is done by a person to communicate with others

in order to express ideas, feeling, as well as opinions to achieve a particular

goal.13

Speaking is human verbal communication which set out with the ability of

utilizing mechanism that will involve oral production language. It is the main

concern in speaking. Based on the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English,

speaking, from the word of speak, is say words.14

Based on some various definitions above, the writer concludes the definition

of speaking as the essential skill of language is naturally the way human

communicate to express ideas, feelings, as well as opinions to achieve a particular

goal while to maintain social relation between people.

2. The Forms of Speaking

Speaking usually takes one of the following forms:

a) Conversation/discussion

b) Circumlocution (description)

c) Memorized speech

d) Oral reports

e) Interviews

13 Philips M. Brudden, Effective English Teaching (Second Edition), (New York: The Bob Merril Company, 1995), p. 85.

14 Longman, Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, (England: Pearson, 2004), p.15.

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More detail about the form of speaking, Brown and Yule (1983a) also

examine the various forms of language which are most frequently used by

speakers of the language. There are:15

Incomplate sentences

Very little subordination (subordinate clauses etc.)

Very few passives

Not many explicit logical connectors (moreover, however)

Topic comment structure (as in „the sun-oh look its going down) the syntax of

the written language would probably have a subject-verb-predicate structure.

Replacing/refining expression (e.g. „this fellow/this chap she was supposed to

meet)

Frequent reference to things outside the text such as the weather for

example.This kind of referencing is called exophoric.

The use of generalized vocabulary (thing, nice stuff, place, a lot of)

Repetition of the same syntactic form

The use of pauses and fillers (erm, well, uhuh, if you see what I mean, and so

on.)

3. The Goal of Teaching Speaking

Murcia states in her book that the goal of speaking component in a language

class should be to encourage the acquisition of communication skill and foster real

communication in and out of the classroom.16 Higgs and Mohan have moved us

away from the goal of accurate form toward a focus on fluency and communicate

effectiveness.17

The writer agrees with various opinions above, therefore she concludes that

15 Jo MCDonough and Christopher Shaw, Material and Methods in ELT: A Teacher Guide, (Cambridge: Blackwell Publisher, 1993), pp.155-156

16 Marianne Celce-Murcia, Teaching English as Second or Foreign Language (Boston; Heinle &Heinle Publisher, 1991), p. 126.

17 Marianne Celce-Murcia, Teaching English as Second …..p. 125.

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the main goal in teaching speaking is use the language for communication fluency

and effectiveness. Harmer writes in his book, there are three main reasons for

getting students to speak in the classroom. Firstly, speaking activities provide

rehearsal opportunities. Secondly, speaking tasks in which students try to use any

or all of the languages they know provide feedback for both teacher and students.

Finally, the more students have opportunities to activate the various elements

become.

There are many factors of conversational English proficiency as cited in

Higgs & Clifford;

1) Accent

a.Pronunciation frequently unintelligible

b. Frequent gross errors and a very heavy accent make understanding

difficult, require frequent repetition.

c.Foreign accent requires concentrated listening and mispronunciations

lead to occasional misunderstanding and apparent errors in grammar

or vocabulary.

d. Marked foreign accent and occasional mispronunciations that do not

interfere with understanding.

e.No conspicuous mispronunciation, but would not be taken for native

speaker.

f. Native pronunciation, with no trace of foreign accent.

2) Grammar

a. Grammar almost entirely inappropriate or inaccurate, except in stock phrases.

b. Constant errors showing control of very few conversational micro skills or

major pattern, and frequently preventing communication.

c. Frequent errors showing inappropriate use of some conversational micro skills

or some major patterns uncontrolled, and causing occasional irritation and

misunderstanding.

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d. Occasional errors showing imperfect control of some conversational micro

skills or some patterns, but no weakness that causes misunderstanding.

e. Few errors, with no patterns of failure.

f. No more than two errors during the conversation.

3) Vocabulary

a. Vocabulary limited to minimum courtesy requirements.

b. Vocabulary limited to basic personal areas and very familiar topic

(autobiographic information, personal experiences, etc.)

c. Choice of words sometimes inaccurate, limitations of vocabulary prevent

discussion of some common familiar topics.

d. Vocabulary adequate to discuss special interests and any nontechnical subject

with some circumlocutions.

e. Vocabulary broad, precise and adequate to cope with complex practical

problem and varied topics of general interest (current events, as well as work,

family, time, food, transportation).

f. Vocabulary apparently as accurate and extensive as that of an educated native

speaker.

4) Fluency

a. Speech is so halting and fragmentary that conversation is virtually impossible.

b. Speech is very slow and uneven, except for short or routine sentences;

frequently punctuated by silence or long pauses.

c. Speech is frequently hesitant and jerky; sentences may be left uncompleted.

d. Speech is occasionally hesitant, with some unevenness caused by rephrasing

and groping for words.

e. Speech is effortless and smooth, but perceptibly nonnative in speed and

evenness.

f. Speech on all general topics as effortless and smooth as a native speaker.

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5) Comprehension

a. Understand too little to respond to conversation initiation or topic

nominations.

b. Understand only slow, very simple speech on topic of the general interest;

requires constant repetition and rephrasing.

c. Understand careful, somewhat simplified speech directed to him or her, with

considerable repetition and rephrasing.

d. Understand everything in normal educated conversation, except for very

colloquial or low-frequency items or exceptionally rapid or slurred speech.

e. Understands everything in informal and colloquial speech to be expected of an

educated native speaker.

4. The Characteristics of Good Speaking Activities

The characteristic of good speaking activities is broadly speaking, spoken

communications are essentially transactional or interactional. Transactional

language is said to be that which contains factual or propositional information.

Typically, written language is transactional. Example of transactional language

would be a policeman giving direction to a driver or of someone filing an

insurance claim. In each case the message has to be very clearly communication.

The characteristics on successful speaking activity according Penny Urare:

1. Learners talk a lot. As much as possible of the period of time allotted to the

activity is in fact occupied by learner talk.

2. Participation is even. Classroom discussion is not dominated by a minority of

talkative participants: all get a chance to speak, and contributions are fairly

evenly distributed.

3. Motivation is high. Learners are eager to speak: because they are interested

in the topic and have something new to say about it, or because they want to

contribute to achieving a task objective.

4. Language is of an acceptable level. Learners express themselves in utterances

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that are relevant, easily comprehensible to each other, and of an acceptable

level of language accuracy.17

5. The Types of Speaking Activity

Marianne Celce-Murcia classifies speaking activities and materials into four

types:18

a) Drills, or linguistically structured activities Prator classifies classroom

activities for ESL (English as a second language) learners by means of

continuum, with “manipulative” activities at one extreme and

communicative at the other extreme. Although today, in ESL/EFL (English

as foreign language) classroom throughout the world, communicative

activities tend to more effectively meet the goals of curriculum, also

useful are “manipulative” activities, or those which provide the student

with “prepackaged” structure by mean of teacher, tape or book. Such

activities need not be void of meaning, as were some of the more classic

manipulative techniques associated with the audio-lingual approach, with

its repetition drills and pattern practices. Rather, it is possible to

contextualize such activities so that they are predominately rather then

wholly manipulative and thus meet some of requirements of a

communicatively oriented design. In controlled practice the teacher can

model the form to be produced, providing necessary linguistically correct

input. The students are then allowed to practice the material, and the

teacher follows up by reinforcing the forms practiced. What is important is

that students are allowed to speak about what is true, real, and interesting.

b) Performance activities

18 Marianne Celce-Murcia, Teaching English As Second or Foreign Language (Boston: Heinle &Heinle Publisher, 1991), pp. 128-132.

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Performance activities are those in which the student prepares beforehand

and delivers a message to a group. A good example of such an activity is the

student speech, which could be made as specific in content as necessary. An EST

course, for example, might require students to explain a process or experiment; a

course in conversational or social English might assign students to simply tell a

story from their own experience in casual and social setting.

A variation on the speech given by one person is assigning two or more

people to deliver a talk. Role-plays and dramas, if performed in front of the class,

can also function as performance activities. Finally, debates can serve as an

opportunity for a classroom performance activity for immediate and advanced

learners.

c) Participation activities

Participation activities can be some of the most diverse and interesting in the

oral communication repertoire. These are activities where the student participates

in some communicative activity in a “natural setting.” One of the commonly used

participation activities is the guided discussion, where the instructor provides a

brief orientation to some problem or controversial to some problem or

controversial topic, usually by means of a short reading. Students in MAll groups

discuss the topic, suggesting possible solutions, resolutions, or complications.

d) Observation activities

These are activities in which a student observes and /or records verbal and

nonverbal interactions between two or more native or fluence speakers of the

target language. This technique is useful for building student apriciation and

awareness of language as it is actually used in the real world, and since the student

is taking the role of nonparticipant observer, he or she is free to concentrate on the

subject without fear performance errors, a problem for beginners, whose

productive skills usually lag behind their receptive capabilities.

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B. Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)

Freeman proposes a communicative language teaching aims broadly to

apply the theoretical perspective of communicative approach by making

communicative competence the goal of language teaching and by

acknowledging the interdependence of language and communication.19

To know exactly about CLT, the writer will discuss about what is the

meaning of CLT?

1) The Definition of CLT

Central to an understanding of communicative language teaching is an

understanding of the term communicative competence. Coined by sociolinguist

Hyme to include knowledge of sociolinguistic rules, or the appropriateness of

utterance, in addition to knowledge of grammar rules, the term has to be come

used in language contexts to refer to the ability to negotiate meaning-to

successfully combine a knowledge of linguistic, sociolinguistic and discourse rules

in communicative interaction.

A major strand of CLT centre around the essential belief that if students are

involved in meaning-focused communicative tasks, then language learning will

take care of itself and that plentiful exposure to language in use and plenty of

opportunities to use it are vitally important for student development of knowledge

and skill. 21

Based on the definition above the writer states that CLT is one of methods

which design to help the English learners to use the target language for daily

communication that can improve the students knowledge and skill especially in

speaking skill.

2) The Purpose of CLT

19 Diane Larsen-Freeman, Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching (UK: Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 121.

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Freeman clarifies the goal of CLT is to enable students to communicate in

the target language. To doing it students need knowledge of the linguistic forms,

meanings, and function.

According to Hymes the goal of the communicative language teaching is to

develop communicative competence. In his view, a person who acquires

communicative competence acquires both knowledge and ability for language use

with respect to;

1. Whether (and to what degree) something is formally possible

2. Whether (and to what degree) something is feasible in virtue of the means

of implementation available

3. Whether (and to what degree) something is appropriate (adequate, happy,

successful) in relation to a context in which it is used and evaluated

4. Whether (and to what degree) something is in fact done, actually

performed, and what its doing entails.

Jack C. Richards and Theodore S. Rodgers describe in their book that

communicative purposes may be of many different kinds. What is essential in all

of them is that at least two parties are involved in an interaction or transaction of

some kind where one party has an intention and the other party expands or reacts

to intention.20

The writer assumes that the purpose of the communicative language teaching

is developing communicative competence which establishes an interaction and

transaction activity.

3) The Characteristics of CLT

The most obvious characteristic of CLT is that almost everything that is done

is done with a communicative intent. Students use the language a great deal

through communicative activities such as language games, pictures strip story and

roles play.

Littlewood states, “Ones of the most characteristics features of 20 Jack C. Richards and Theodore S. Rodgers, Approaches and …, p.154

16

communicative language teaching are that it pays systematic attention to functional

as well as structural aspects of language”.21

According to Richards and Rodgers, analysis of theoretical base of

communicative language teaching offer the following four characteristics of a

communicative view of language:

1. Language is a system for the expression of meaning

2. The primary function of language is for interaction and communication

3. The structure of language reflects its functional and communicative uses

The primary unit of language is not merely its grammatical and structural

features, but categories of functional and communicative meaning as exemplified in

discourse.

Based on the three opinions above the writer makes one of the basis assumption

of characteristic of CLT is everything that is done is often carried out learners in true

communication situation.

4) Several techniques of CLT

Littlewood distinguishes between “functional communication activities” and

social interaction activities” as major activity types in communicative language

teaching. Functional communication activities include such tasks as learners

comparing set of pictures and events in a set of picture; discovering missing features

in a map or picture; one learner communication behind a screen to another learner

and giving instruction on how to draw a picture or shape, or how to complete a map;

following direction; and solving problems from share clues. Social interaction

activities include conversation and discussion sessions, dialogues and role plays,

simulations, skits, improvisations, and debates.

According to Morrow, activities that are truly communicative have three features

in common: information gap-the students in the groups did not know what the

picture contained. They had a choice as to what their prediction would be and how

21 Jack C. Richards and Theodore S. Rodgers, Approaches and Methods in …, p.155

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they would word it. And they received feedback not on the form but on the content

of the prediction, by being able to view the picture and compare it with their

prediction.29

Based on the previous paragraph the writer states, if effective teaching

speaking skill trough CLT has many techniques. So she has to make a decision, what

kinds of techniques are suitable for CLT?

1.Several Techniques in CLT

There are many effectiveness techniques in communicative language teaching

to improve students speaking skill, as in Diane Larsen and Freeman book, they are

reviewing many techniques and materials. These are authentic materials, scrambles

sentences, language games, picture strip story, and role play. But the writer just

uses some of them, they are language games, picture strip story, and role play

a. Language game

Games are used frequently in CLT. The students find them enjoyable, and if

they are properly designed, they give students valuable communicative

practice.22

Speaking activities based on games are often useful way of giving students

valuable practice, especially, although by no mean exclusively where younger

learners are involved. Game-based activities can involve practice of oral

strategies such as describing, predicting, simplifying, asking for feedback,

through activities such as filling questionnaires and guessing unknown

information.

a) Filling questionnaires

One such activity based on questioners can be found in Interaction: an

22 Diane Larsen-Freeman, Techniques And Principles In Language Teaching (UK; Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 129.

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interaction workbook where learners have to decide what constitutes job

satisfaction. They have to decide first of all what criteria would lead to job

satisfaction and then the class is divided into 4 or 8 equal, A to D or A to I for

example. Each group then decides which job/s are going to be discussed (own

parents, husbands, wifes and so on). Each group has to interview members of

another group and then learners have to discuss who of the group they interviewed

has the best job. The questionnaire can include details of job, the approximate

salary, the hours worked, distance to work, holiday entitlement, what fringe

benefits are included and so on.

At the end of the activity each group can tell the rest of the class about the best

job that they found. They then compare these and decide which is the best in the

whole class and why. Successful completion of the type of activity clearly depends

on the effective communicative use of the language and of the sharing of

information amongst the participants.

b) Guessing Unknown Information

The Describe and Draw principle is based on a series of plans and diagrams

which one student has to describe to another so that the latter can complete the task.

The idea behind this describe and draw communication activity is to give learners

practice in handling, by means of oral description and drawing in pairs, a core of

material of non-verbal data, i.e. maps, plans, shapes, graphs. The activities are

motivated by the fact that many EFL learners have difficulty when trying to handle

this sort of data in the spoken form.

c) Guessing games

The teacher asks one student to think about something he or she has done. The

rest of the class guesses what it is.

1) Time

Teacher: Maria, you know what time you went to bed last night?

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Don’t tell us. We’ll guess.

Carlos : at 11 o’clock?

Maria: no. [Earlier]

Chang: At 10:30?

Maria: No. [Later]

Etc.

2) Birthday

Teacher : Armando, tell us the month of your birth, but not the day.

Armando : March

Teacher : Let’s guess the date.

Ingrid : March 10th?

Armando : No

Paolo : March 19th?

Armando : No

Etc.23

b. Picture strip story

Many activities can be done with picture strip stories. In this activity

one student in a MA group was given a strip story. She showed the first

picture of the story to the other members of her group and asked them to

predict what the second picture would look like. The activity just described

is an example of using problem-solving task as a communicative technique.

Problem-solving tasks work well in CLT because they usually include the

three features of communication.

What more, they can be structured so that students share information

or work together to arrive at a solution. This gives students practice in

negotiating meaning.

23 Edward David Allen and Rebecca M. Valetta, classroom techniques: foreign languages and English as a second language, (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1977), p.240.

20

The other experts applies strip story activity by using short story or

anecdote select that has exactly the same number of sentences as there are

students in the class. Each sentence is written on a separate strip of paper.

(if the same story is used with several classes, the sentences may be typed

on a stencil, dittoed, and then cut into strips.) The strips are randomly

distributed to the students. Each student must memorize the sentence of his

or her strip. Then the strips are collected. The students move around,

speaking only the target language, and ask each other questions until they

have reconstituted the original story. The teachers role is merely that of

facilitator; it is recommended that the teacher remain silent during the

reconstruction activity.

b. Role-play

Role-play is very important in CLT because they give students an

opportunity to practice communicating in different social contexts and in the

different social role.24

Teacher use the term role-play to refer to a number of different activities,

ranging from simple dialogues prompted by specific information on role cards

to more complex simulations which pass through a number of stages.

Role play material are often written specifically to get learners express

opinions, to present and defend points of view and to evaluate arguments based

on the notion of what Prabhu calls an opinion gap, in that the activity involved

the learner in formulating an argument to justify an opinion for which there is

no one objective way of demonstrating the outcome as right or wrong.

C. Grammar Translation Method

1. The Definition of GTM

The grammar translation method which was first named as such in

Germany in 1780 introduced the idea of presenting students with short 24 Diane Larsen-Freeman, Techniques And Principles … , pp. 133-134

21

grammar rules and word lists, and then translation exercises in which they

had to make use of the same rules and words.

Grammar translation still has relevance today, though it is not

practiced as a method in the same way. But most language learners translate

in their heads at various stages anyway, and they can learn a lot about a

foreign language by comparing parts of it with parts of our own mother

tongue. However, a total concentration on grammar-translation stops students

from getting the kind of natural language input that will help them acquire

language since they are always looking at L1 equivalents, and it fails to give

them opportunities to activate their language knowledge. If they are always

translating the language, they are not using the L2 for communication. The

danger with Grammar-translation, in other words, is that it teaches people

about language but does not really help them to communicate effectively.25

Harmer wrote in his book about a number of features of the grammar

translation method are worthy commenting on. In the first place, language was

treated at the level of the sentence only, with little study, certainly at the early

stages, of longer texts. Secondly, there was little if any consideration of the

spoken language. And thirdly, accuracy was considered to be a necessity.26

2. The Purpose of GTM

There are many purposes of GTM they are:

a. Helping students read and appreciate foreign language literature.

b. It was also hoped that, through the study of the grammar of the target language,

students would become more familiar with the grammar of their native

25 Jack C. Richard and Willy A. Renandya, Methodology in language Teaching: An Anthology of Current Practice, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002) Pp. 48-49

26 Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language …, p. 63.

22

language and that this familiarity would help them speak and write their native

language better.

c. Finally, it was thought that foreign language learning would help students grow

intellectually; it was recognized that students would probably never use the

target language, but the mental exercise of learning it would be beneficial

anyway.

d. A fundamental purpose of learning a foreign language is to be able to read

literature written in the target language.

e. Students need to learn about the grammar rules and vocabulary of the target

language.

f. It is believed that studying a foreign language provides students with good

mental exercise which helps develop their minds.

3. The Characteristic of GTM

1) The goal of foreign language study is to learn a language in order to read

its literature or in order to benefit from the mental discipline and

intellectual development that result from foreign –language study.

Grammar-translation is a way of studying a language that approaches the

language first through detailed analysis of its grammar rules, followed by

application of this knowledge to the task of translating sentences and text

into out the target language. it hence views language learning as consisting

of little more than memorizing rules and facts in order to understand and

manipulate the morphology and syntax of the foreign language. “the first

language is maintained as the reference system in acquisition of the second

language.

2) Reading and writing are the major focus: little or no systematic attention is

paid to speaking or listening.

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3) Vocabulary selection is based solely on the reading text used, and words

are taught through bilingual word lists, dictionary study and memorization.

In a typically grammar-translation text, the grammar rules are presented

and illustrated, a list of vocabulary items are presented with their

translation equivalents, and translation exercises are prescribe.

4) The sentence is the basis unit of teaching and language practice. much of

the lesson is devoted to translating sentences into and out of target

language, and it is this focus on sentence that is distinctive feature of the

method. Earlier approaches to foreign language study use grammar as aid

to the study of texts in a foreign language. But this was thought to be too

difficult for students in secondary schools, and the focus on the sentence

was an attempt to make language learning easier.

5) Accuracy is emphasized. Students are expected to attain high standard in

translation, because of “the high priority attached to meticulous standard of

accuracy which, as well as having an intrinsic moral value, was a pre

requisite for passing the increasing number of formal written examination

that grew up during the century”.

6) Grammar is taught deductively- that is, by presentation and study of

grammar rules, which are then practiced through translation exercises. In

most grammar-translation texts, a syllabus was followed for the sequencing

of grammar points trough out the text, and there was attempt to teach

grammar in an organized and systematic way.

7) The student native language is the medium of instruction. It is used to

explain new items and to enable comparisons to be made between the

foreign language and the student native language.

24

Consequently, though it may be true say that grammar translation

method is still widely practiced, it has no advocates. It is a method for which

there is no theory.

4. Several Techniques in GTM

1) Translation of a literary passage

a. Students translate a reading passage from the target language into their

native language.

b. The reading passage then provides the focus for several classes: vocabulary

and grammatical structures in the passage are studied in subsequent

lessons.

c. The passage may be excerpted from some work from the target language

literature, or a teacher may write a passage carefully designed to include

particular grammar rules and vocabulary.

d. The translation may be written or spoken or both.

e. Students should not translate idioms and the like literally, but rather in a

way that shows that they understand their meaning.

2) Reading comprehension questions

a) Students answer questions in the target language based on their

understanding of the reading passage.

b) The questions are sequenced so that the first group of questions asks for

information contained within the reading passage.

c) The second group of questions requires students to make inferences based on

their understanding of the passage.

d) The third group of questions requires students to relate the passage to their own

experience.

3) Antonyms/synonymsa)

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a) Students are given one set of words and are asked to find antonyms in the

reading passage.

b) Students could also be asked to find synonyms for a particular set of words.

c) Students might be asked to define a set of words based on their understanding

of them as they occur in the reading passage.

4) Cognates

a. Students are taught to recognize cognates by learning the spelling or sound

patterns that correspond between the languages.

b. Students are also asked to memorize words that look like cognates but have

meanings in the target language that are different from those in the native

language.

5) Deductive application of rule

a. Grammar rules are presented with examples.

b. Exceptions to each rule are also noted. Once students understand a rule, they are

asked to apply it to some different examples.

6) Fill-in-the-blanks

Students are given a series of sentences with words missing. They fill in the

blanks with new vocabulary items or with items of a particular grammar type, such

as prepositions or verbs with different tenses.

7) Memorization

a. Students are given lists of target language vocabulary words and their native

language equivalents and are asked to memorize them.

b. Students are also required to memorize grammatical rules and grammatical

paradigms such as verb conjugations.

8) Use words in sentences

In order to show that students understand the meaning and use of a new

26

vocabulary item, they make up sentences in which they use the new words.

9) Composition

a. The teacher gives the students a topic to write about in the target language.

b. The topic is based upon some aspect of the reading passage of the lesson.

c. Sometimes, instead of creating a composition, students are asked to prepare a

précis of the reading passage.

The writer concludes that this method is still applied by many English

teachers in the school. However, they know if Grammar-translation cannot help

learners to communicate effectively and to improve their speaking ability.

5. The Implementation of Using CLT and GTM in Teaching Speaking to the

students of MA Pembangunan UIN Jakarta

The writer makes a conclusion from the previous chapter that speaking is

the essential skills to be mastered by all students. It is because people judge

students are really good in English if they can speak in English communicatively

and fluency .

Based on the writers opinion, the first grade students of MA Pembangunan

UIN Jakarta the place where she did the research, have many problems in speaking

skill, such as in active communication and interaction, difficult to create the great

conversation, lack of spontaneously in communication, difficult to comprehends

message that they receive it makes them do not know what they want to or should

say and the last problem is fluency.

Those problems can be solved by applying communicative language

teaching as a method and suitable techniques that enable the first grade students of

MA Pembangunan UIN Jakarta to reach their goal in learning of speaking skill.

The writer uses many techniques those are language game, picture strip story and

27

role-play in this research to solve the problems faced in the school. Therefore, the

students can improve their speaking skill.

The implementation of using communicative language teaching in teaching

speaking skill to the first grade students of MA Pembangunan UIN Jakarta,

involve many problems and advantages of using CLT and GTM. They are:

1. The Problems Involved in Teaching Speaking Skill Trough CLT and GTM

a. The Problem involved in teaching Speaking Skill Trough CLT

The writer suggests, CLT is one of the methods for teaching

speaking skill that has many characteristics which are suitable with the goal

of speaking skill. However, there is an opinion told, that CLT cannot solve

all of the problems in speaking skill. As Harmer writes in his book, CLT

has sometimes been seen as having eroded the explicit teaching of

grammar with a consequent loss among students of accuracy in the pursuit

of fluency.27

CLT consequently recommend that learners learn to see that failed communication is a joint responsibility and not the fault of speaker or listener. Similarly, successful communication is an accomplishment jointly achieved and acknowledge. The focus on fluency and comprehensibility in communicative language teaching may cause anxiety among teachers accustomed to seeing error suppression and correction as the major instructional responsibility, and who see their primary function as preparing learners to take standardize or other kinds of tests. A continuing teacher concern has been the negative effect in pair or group work of imperfect modeling and student’s error. Although this issue is far from resolved, it is interesting to note that some research finding suggest that “data contradicts the notion that other learners are good conversational partners because they can’t provide accurate input when it is solicited”.28

Based on the opinions above the writer concludes if some problems

involved in the teaching speaking skill through CLT are not only because the

activities of speaking skill through CLT that is unable to the characteristic of

27 27 Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language …, p. 71.28 Jack C. Richards and Theodore S. Rodgers, approaches and methods in language

teaching (New York; Cambridge University Press, 2001), Pp.166-168.

28

a communicative view of language, but also many other aspects in teaching

speaking skill. So, in this research the writer wants to find a new formula that

can cover and prevent the problems involved in speaking skill teaching.

2. The problem of teaching speaking trough GTM

These are the problems in teaching speaking through GTM they are:

a. Learner motivation and participation

The GTM approach involves no learner participation and little

teacher-student relationship. Students are required to learn from a

textbook and use the same method throughout their learning. Because

lessons using GTM are not interactive and engaging for students, they

become more likely to lose interest in their subject and less motivated to

learn. Furthermore, the method does not require students to participate in

any activities or communicate with each other, so they will not learn how

to use the language in a real-life conversation or situation and will only

know how to translate one language to another.

b. Unnatural and Inaccurate Pronunciation

As children, people generally learn how to speak before they learn how to

write and read. In the GTM approach, this natural learning method is

reversed. Students are only taught how to read and write the language.

This can affect how they learn to speak the learned language. The mere

application of grammar and sentence structure cannot adequately prepare

them for realistic conversations or verbal communication, as no emphasis

is given to spoken language in the GTM approach. Translations may also

be inaccurate, as it is not always possible to simply translate one word or

phrase accurately to another language for example, the translation of

"computer" in English to Latin is not possible, as there is no Latin word

for computer.46

29

Based on the opinion above the writer concludes that grammar

translation method is one of the methods that use in teaching English

language. There are different characteristics between GTM and speaking

skill that make teaching speaking skill activity cannot be effective and

cannot achieve the goal of the activity.

3. The Advantages of Teaching Speaking Skill Trough CLT and GTM

a) The advantages of teaching speaking skill through CLT

The writer believes if the advantages of teaching speaking skill

trough CLT can encourage the successful of teaching speaking skill.

Because this statement has proved by many suggestions from many

experts, they are McDonough and Shaw who suggest seven implications

of communicative approach for teaching purposes;

1. Communicative implies semantic a concern with the meaning

potential of language.

2. There is a complex relationship between language form and language

function.

3. Form and function operate as part of a wider network of factors.

4. Appropriacy of language use has to be considered alongside accuracy.

This has implication for attitudes to error.

5. Communicative is relevant to all four language skills.

6. The concept of communication takes us beyond the level of the

sentence.

7. Communicative can refer both to the properties of language and to

behavior.

They also wrote a number of reasons why a communicative

approach is an attractive one, providing a richer teaching and learning

environment. It can:

30

a) include wider considerations of what is appropriate as well as what

is accurate

b) handle a wider range of language, covering texts and conversations

as well as sentences

c) Provide realistic and motivating language practice

d) Use what learners, know about the function of language from their

experience with their own tongues.

b) The advantages of teaching speaking skill through GTM

1. Reduced Teacher Stress

Resources for GTM are easier to come by than other

approaches and generally require less teacher involvement. Class

activities or learning games are rarely necessary, as students are

translating text to another language directly. Teachers who are not

fluent in English (but fluent in the other language that the students

primarily use) can teach English using this approach, as the emphasis

is not on the spoken word but on translations. Communication

between student and teacher is reduced with this method, which avoids

misunderstandings and prevents language barriers that may occur in a

method that focuses on teacher-student communication or verbal

language learning.

2. Focus on Grammar, Sentence Structure and Word Meanings

Unlike a verbal approach to language learning, GTM focuses

31

on the application of grammar and correct sentence structure. This is

especially helpful in teaching students how to write and read in

another language, allowing them to explore interchangeable words and

phrases more effectively than a verbal teaching method. The approach

is also easily applied and can be less stressful on students; verbal

teaching methods do not describe the application of grammar and

sentence structure as effectively as GTM does. Word meanings are

also easily learned through direct translation a foreign word can be

compared to the native language quickly. The method of

comparing/translation of the learned language with a native language

provide reference for students.

According to writer the implementation of GTM and CLT in

teaching speaking skill has different advantages. Based on the opinion

above it is clear that in teaching speaking skill the advantage of GTM

cannot promote the students to be active in communication activity. In

other way CLT can help the students involve in realistic

communication. It means CLT is the suitable methods for teaching

speaking skill.

CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

A. Research Methodology

1. The Place and Time of Research

32

The field research was held at SMAN 5 Bandara Lampung. The field

research was done from Mei 2015. On April 18th, the writer asked permission to

the headmaster of the school and then she did research from Mei 10 th, 2011 up

to Mei 31, 2015.

2. The Method of Research

This research used comparative analysis method. In the process of writing,

the writer did field research. She took the student’s speaking test of pre-test and

post-test directly to be compared. Then, she used t-test formula in counting the

two variables and in testing the writer’s hypothesis.

3. The Technique of Sample

Taking

a. Population

Actually, there are three classes at first grade of Islamic Senior High

School of state 5, namely X.A, X.B and X.C with no more than 27 students

each class. Therefore, the total population of this research is 77 students.

b. Sample

In taking the sample of this research, the writer used random sampling by

lettering the tree of the classes, then took the two of lotteries they are X.A class

as an experiment class and X.C class, as a control class. But the writer took 50

students from two classes. They are 25 students of X.A and 25 from X.C.

4. The Method of Data Collecting

Collecting data is an important thing for this study. To get the data which

related to the language game, picture strip story and role play as techniques in

improving the students’ speaking skill, the writer used two sources; namely

library and field sources.

Firstly, the writer used some books related to the research to support

theoretical framework as a library sources. She got the sources by visiting

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some libraries such as; the library of State Islamic University including the

library of English Education Department, the library of Faculty of Tarbiyah

and teacher’s Training.

The writer got field sources by giving the students of the first grade of

MA Pembangunan UIN Jakarta, oral test. She did the test twice, at first she

did pre-test and the second was post-test. The test did in pairs.

5. The Instrumentation of Research

Based on the explanation above, the instruments used in research

followed:

1. Observation

Firstly, the writer observed the location where the research carried out

before doing the research. It was done to get data needed, such as to know the

number of students and teachers, to know the curriculum and method which is

used by English teacher.

2. Test

The writer gave oral test that made by herself based on the English

book. She scored the students directly by using scoring sheet (see in

appendix)

The students did the oral test through role play. In role play

technique, the students must play the role as the situation in the card that

was chosen by them. (See in appendix) then the students perform their role

play. The students need to do the tests in pairs.

The students’ test was scored by using the rating scores of oral test by Higgs & Clifford as follow:29

Table 1

29 Jack C. Richards and Willy A. Renandya, Methodology in Language Teaching: An Anthology of Current Practice, (New York: Cambridge university press, 2002), pp. 223-224.

34

The Rating Scores of Oral Test

Conversational English Proficiency Weighting Table

Proficiency Description 1 2 3 4 5 6 Total

Accent 0 1 2 2 3 4

Grammar 6 12 18 24 30 36

Vocabulary 4 8 12 16 20 24

Fluency 2 4 6 8 10 12

Comprehension 4 8 12 15 19 23

Total

Conversational English proficiency conversion table

Total score Level

16-25 0+

26-32 1

33-42 1+

43-52 2

53-62 2+

63-72 3

73-82 3+

93-99 4

4+

6. Technique of Data Analysis

35

The writer analyzed the data of students’ oral tests and scored their

speaking skill by using statistics calculation of the t-test formula. Based on

the sample, t-test can be classified into two, they are:

1. T-test for small sample (N is no more than 30).

2. T-test for big sample (N is similar with or more than 30).30

Because of the samples in this research have no correlation and the

writer only take 20 students as samples, therefore in calculating the data

the writer used t-test formula for the small sample where the two

samples have no correlation with significance 5%. The formula as

follows:

to =M1− M2

+ X 2 (N + N )X 21 2 2(N1 + N2 − 2)(N1 . N2)Note: M1 = Mean of the scores of the experiment class

M2 = Mean of the scores of the control class12 = Sum of the squared deviation score of the experiment class

22 = Sum of the squared deviation score of the control classN1 = Number of students in the experiment classN2 = Number of students in the control class

7. The Hypothesis of Study

The writer’s hypothesis is there is significant difference between

30 Anas Sudjana, Pengantar Statistic Pendidikan, (Jakarta:Raja Grafindo Persada, 1944), p.286.

36

teaching speaking through Communicative Language Teaching and

through traditional method at the first grade of SMAN 5 Bandar

Lampung.

37