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be min imized and students‟ talk time must be maximized.
In the learning process, discussion is used as a stimulus to develop
students‟ interest, enthusiasm, motivation on what is being presented in a particular lesson. Thus, in the study,
the writer intends to propose discussion technique, which is a part of Communicative Language Teaching Approach. It is believed that discussion
technique can reduce the student‟s feeling of being burdened with the English
learning process in the classroom through its activities such as communicating, asking, interpreting, making summary and debating. These activities then can also
encourage better speaking skill in communicative contexts. Nowadays, the successful language class is determined by the situation
when the learner can communicate effectively with others. Harmer 1991: 76 states that discussion can help students to practice their speaking well. It can make
the students use their language by building sense of community in the classroom, then encourage students to speak because when they are asked to express
themselves in a foreign language, they may find some difficulties expressing their intentions.
1.2 Research Problem
The problem in this research can be formulated as follows. a. Is discussion technique effective to improve
student‟s mastery of speaking among the third year students of SMK N 2 Depok, Yogyakarta?
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1.3 Problem Limitation
There are two limitations that the writer has for this research. First, this research is quasi-experimental research; this kind of research is used to know
whether discussion technique is effective to improve the speaking mastery. Second, this research focuses on two classes of the third grade of SMA N 2
Depok, Yogyakarta.
1.4 Research Objective
Based on the research problem, the objective of this research is to investigate whether the use of discussion technique is effective in improving
students‟ mastery of speaking. It is hoped that this research can give good contribution in teaching learning process, especially on the improvement of
speaking mastery. This research hopefully can also help teachers to rethink their decisions in choosing the effective technique in order to help students obtain the
best achievement.
1.5 Research Benefits
The writer hopes that this thesis can give advantages to all readers. It is expected that this research will be able to contribute theoretically and practically
on how discussion technique can be used in the learning process of English. Three
significances are expected in this present study.
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1.5.1 Theoretically The result of this study is on academic speaking that serves as a technique
for students to improve their competence in speaking. It is believed that the discussion technique which is suggested in this research can encourage students to
develop their ability in asking, communicating, interpreting, and making summary. In other words, the result can provide a technique that gives a lot of
chance for learners to speak. 1.5.2 Practically
a. For the English teachers The English teacher knows the effective strategy to build a sense of
communication in the classroom. In this case, the discussion technique could be the answer because this technique facilitates the students to communicate they are
working in. Moreover, teachers can also use some activities in the discussion technique to encourage student to communicate such as problem based discussion
or sharing based discussion b. For the Students
This research can broaden students‟ knowledge by learning through
discussion, so that it can motivate students to learn and improve their speaking ability. It can also encourage students to master the other skills: listening, reading,
and writing. It is expected that the technique can increase the students‟ interest
and help them to learn better, so they will not become marginalized, but empowered, autonomous and emancipated.
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1.5.3 To the Readers, Course Developers and the Next Researchers Hopefully, this research can give helpful information to the readers, course
developers and the next researchers who conduct the same study. It is also expected that this preliminary study can activate other people to do related studies
in this field. It is because this research proposes great suggestions for teaching and learning process. The future researchers can also conduct another analysis through
this research point of views.
1.6 Definition of Terms
