Background of the Study

1

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

English has become a primary language of communication. It is spoken by millions of people all over the world. It has become a dominant language in many fields of activity, such as industry, military, business, tourism, transportation, sports, international relations, etc. Besides, English language also covers abilities of language. One of them is speaking ability. Speaking is a process to convey and to share ideas and feeling orally. It involves some skills such as accuracy, appropriateness, fluency, and vocabulary building. It is a crucial part of second language learning and teaching so that we need to practice it in our educational environment, especially in an English lesson. Despite its importance, for many years, teaching speaking has been undervalued and English language teachers have continued to teach speaking just as a repetition of drills or memorization of dialogues. However, teaching speaking to vocational high school students tends to be different comparing to that for high school students. Also, with t h e increased number of students enrolled in nursing programs and lack of clinical training sites, there is a need to adopt alternative innovative ways to teach the clinical component of a nursing programme. Based on the observation and interviews conducted to grade X Nursing Class students of SMK Muhammadiyah 3 Klaten Tengah, it was revealed 2 that there were some problems identified regarding the English teaching and learning there. The first problem was the pronunciation. The materials used to teach the students were merely from the handbook which focused more on teaching grammar and could not attract th e students’ attention to practice their speaking though there were some listen and repeat activities. They found it difficult to pronounce certain English words which made them afraid of making mistakes. They also did not know how to express their ideas orally as they were not confident to speak English. The second problem was the vocabulary. Based on the classroom observation, most students lacked vocabulary mastery that made them difficult to build sentences in English. They preferred to be silent and did not actively participate in the classroom activities. Furthermore, it could be seen that the activities done in the classroom were monotonous and less motivating. The activities could not encourage students to speak English. The teacher tended to use explanation and discussion as the activities. When the observer did the interview to some students, it was found that the methods used by the teacher made them bored and sleepy. Even though the students could communicate with their friends during the discussion activity, they felt that they did not get enough time to practice their speaking. Also, the facilities in the school were not the complete ones. Almost all of the activities were held in the classroom. There was no LCD projector available for each classroom that made it difficult for the teacher to use video or power point as the media. 3 Regarding the problems mentioned above, the observer decided to use role play as the innovative way to improve speaking skill for grade X Nursing Class at SMK Muhammadiyah 3 Klaten Tengah. It was because unlike traditional teaching methods utilized in common classes, innovative teaching strategy like role play helps students to learn the skills that they need to accommodate with their future career.

B. Identification of the Problem