Increasing Students’ Fluency in Producing Invitation in Speaking Through Pair Work Technique at Grade VIII of SMP N 8 Bandar Lampung

ABSTRACT

Increasing Students’ Fluency in Producing Invitation in Speaking Through Pair Work Technique at Grade VIII of

SMP N 8 Bandar Lampung

By

ERRA PUJI ASTUTI

Speaking has important role in social life and uses for communication among people in society. It is known that speaking is one of oral communication in English that should be mastered by students of Junior High School. However, the students often get difficulties in using English when they are interacting with other. Therefore, the teacher should be able to provide various communicative activities that can facilitate students to speak and to interact each other. Pair Work technique is applied in this research to improve the students’ speaking ability. It is one technique in teaching speaking that gives students an opportunity to practice communicating in different social context.

The objective of the research is to find out whether there is an improvement of students’ fluency in producing invitation after being taught through pair work technique. The subject of this research was the VIII G students of SMPN 8 Bandar Lampung in the 2009/2010 learning year. The sample was selected using simple probability sampling.

This study used one group pretest-posttest design. The students were given three treatments. To collect the data, the speaking test was administered both in pretest and posttest. There were two raters to judge students’ speaking performance. Repeated Measures T-Test was used to analyze the data and the hypothesis testing was computed using SPSS version 12.0 at the level significant of 0.05.

The result shows that the Pair Work technique is applicable to improve the students’ speaking fluency in producing invitation. Fluency improves from 59.08 in pretest to 74.52 in the posttest, it gains 15.44. The hypothesis test shows the value of two tail significant is p= 0.000 in which the significant improvement is determined by p < 0.05. In other words, H is approved if sig < p. the result shows

0.00 significant levels. However, it is suggested that the teacher manage the time allocation efficiently.

It can be concluded that Pair Work technique is applicable to improve the students’ speaking ability especially in terms of fluency in producing invitation.

V. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

In reference to the result of the research some conclusions and suggestions are derived as follows:

A. Conclusions

1. Based on the research, it could be seen that applying Pair Work technique can improve students’ fluency in speaking. This can be identified from the improvement of students’ fluency after being taught through Pair Work technique. The gain from the mean of their pretest (59.08) to the posttest (74.52) is 15.44.

2. The highest improvement of students’ fluency refers to the aspect of speed and flow of language production. It happens because by the students

practice more often with their friends during the teaching learning process in the classroom. By practicing often, their fluency, especially in speed and flow of language production unconsciously improves.

3. By using Pair Work technique, the students are more active and motivated to speak, because they can express their idea by making dialogue with their pair. So, Pair work technique is appropriate to be used in improving students’ fluency in speaking.

B. Suggestions

Based on the finding, some suggestions are proposed as follow:

1. Since pair work technique can improve students’ fluency in speaking the researcher suggests English teachers apply the technique in the classroom for teaching speaking. The students are led to be active, since they can freely voice their idea by making dialogue.

2. In applying pair work technique in speaking the teacher must manage the time allocation efficiently. In the teaching learning process, if the time allocation is not enough for the day, the teacher should continue the practice in the next meeting.

3. The teacher should explain the activity clearly. It is better to make sure that the students know what they have to do with pair work technique and give chance to the students to ask questions about the process.

I. INTRODUCTION

A. Background of Problem

One of the objectives of teaching English is to make the learners able to

communicate using the language in form of oral and written communication. It is known that speaking is one of oral forms of English that should be mastered by students of Junior High School. Everything which has been read or listened can be expressed and responded through speaking. Moreover, it is useless to master so much vocabularies and very good grammar if they can not be implemented in communicating and interacting with others. It implies how essential speaking in communication and interaction is.

Speaking in English is a crucial skill to function in any aspects of global transformation. It is likely to be in any aspects of modern life. Therefore, it is reasonable that policy makers of our national education, put English as a

compulsory subject as part of school curriculum. In this case, the Department of National Education states English as a compulsory subject which is learned from elementary school to university levels. The goal of teaching English at school as stated in the 2006 Curriculum is to enable the students to communicate in English both in spoken and written form. However, today’s world requires that the goal of

teaching speaking should improve students’ communicative skill, because only in that way students can express themselves and learn how to follow the social and cultural rules appropriate in each communicative circumstance.

Despite of the fact that English has been taught for years, the capability of speaking English for Indonesian students is still unsatisfactory (Yunila, 2002). When the writer did her Field Practice Program (PPL) in SMP N 8 Bandar Lampung from February up to April 2009, she also faced this problem. The students of SMP N 8 Bandar Lampung had difficulty to speak English in a simple form of dialogue or even tell their ideas and they had difficulty in memorize the dialogue. The students were reluctant to express their idea or communicate in English, because they could not speak English fluently and they were afraid if their utterances were wrong their friends would laugh at their mistakes. They also thought that the teacher would blame them. The students were rarely trained to speak the target language in class. They still hesitated to interact with their friends and their teacher by using English. These may be the reason why the students of Junior High School get some problems in speaking though they have studied English more than three years. Inability to speak English is influenced by many factors.

One of those factors is the technique used by the teacher in teaching English, especially teaching speaking. Students’ hesitation in using English, as described above, tends to happen because their teacher almost never gives them various communicative activities that can encourage them to speak and to interact to each

other (Tarigan, 1985).It might be caused by the teacher’s technique in the

classroom during teaching learning process is more concerned on learning than on transferring the language in their daily teaching activities, for example oral test was done in written task rather than oral activity. In teaching learning process, the teacher’s technique is give some tasks in written form, for example did the LKS (Students Task Book) and learnt about grammar. The teacher also used less English as medium in transferring knowledge and gives little chance for students to practice speaking. Actually, language teachers should provide appropriate teaching technique, for example by using role play or pair work tecknique, where the student has many opportunities to develop their speaking ability.

Regarding those problems, the English teacher should found out the effort on searching and creating a new model in presenting materials in order to increase the students’ ability to speak. According to Wilkins (1993), the students’ learning depends on the effectiveness of teacher’s technique. Technique is defined as a particular trick, contrivance use to accomplish immediate objectives (Antony in Allen 1979: 7).

Previous studies done by researcher in Lampung University found that the students of Junior High School have difficulties in improving their speaking ability. Yunila (2002) found in her research that 85 % of students in her class failed in doing speaking test. It is expected that students should score higher than 60, otherwise they fail on the exam. This might happen due to lack of vocabulary,

mispronunciation, and students feel nervous and scared if they want to speak English.

As stated above there are some methods which bear many kinds of techniques that can be used in teaching speaking. One of the techniques supposed to be useful and appropriate in teaching speaking is pair work. Pair work is one of the classroom interactions that is often implemented in oral communication. Pair work may keep students stimulated to speak. Pair work is a process in which students work in pairs for practice or discussion. Another extremely important advantage of pair work is the learner’s confidence.

Pair work also increases students’ fluency. As it has already been stated, students really do not have too much possibility to practice the language in a traditional classroom. The teacher presents new grammatical structure and then makes the students do exercises or drills connected with the new materials. In fact, the learners do it automatically, without thinking – if the drills are not meaningful – and can forget it easily after a week or a month. It goes without saying that they do not develop their speaking skill, let alone fluency in a foreign language. On the contrary, pair work does influence these abilities. The students can use the

language freely and express their opinions and thoughts without any restrictions. It is difficult not to get the impression that fluency can be improved only during constant speaking practice in the atmosphere of independence and in the state of relaxation.

By those reasons, the researcher used pair work as a technique in classroom in teaching speaking at SMP Negeri 8 Bandar Lampung. SMP Negeri 8 Bandar Lampung was chosen as the subject because the researcher did her Field Practice Program (PPL) in SMP N 8 Bandar Lampung and she knows that most students in that school have low speaking ability. The researcher will chose grade VIII as experiment class, because the material of speaking being studied is related to KTSP (School Based Curriculum). Furthermore, grade VIII students have some knowledge about English when they are learning in Elementary and grade VII before. Using these techniques may make the students at SMP more active in speaking and they are encouraged to speak English.

Based on the background above, the researcher concerns to find out whether pair work technique can significantly develop the students’ speaking ability through

her research entitled “Increasing Students’ Fluency in Producing Invitation in

Speaking through Pair work technique at Grade VIII of SMP N 8 Bandar Lampung”.

B. Research Problem

Based on the explanation above, the researcher formulates the problem as follows: Is there any increase of students’ fluency in producing invitation in speaking after they are taught through pair work technique?

C. Objective of the Problem

The objective of this research is to find out whether there is any significant increase of students’ fluency in producing invitation in speaking after they are taught through pair work technique.

D. Uses of the research

1. Practically, the result of this research can be used by teacher to solve the problem of teaching speaking at grade VIII of junior high school and can be used as an alternative to increase students’ fluency in producing invitation.. 2. Theoretically, the result of this research can be beneficial as information for

other researcher who is interested in conducting research in this field.

E. Scope of the Research

This research was experimental research. The researcher was interested to found out whether there is a significant development of students’ fluency in producing invitation after taught through pair works technique. In this research, the writer focused on speaking skill in forms of transactional dialogue. The speaking test

conducted as an instrument to measure the students’ fluency in producing

invitation. The dialogue would be scored in terms of fluency in producing invitation. The subject of the research was the students of grade VIII of SMP Negeri 8 Bandar Lampung. The subject is chosen because it has already studied English since grade VII of Junior High School and this class still has lower score in speaking. The materials taught are relevant to the KTSP (School Based

carried out orally and directly, the teacher calls the students in pair to perform transactional dialogue. They have 10 minutes for preparing their performance, and each pair had 4 minutes for performing the dialogue. In performing the dialogue, the researcher asked the students to speak clearly since the students’ voice will be recorded. In this test the researcher used inters – rater to asses’students’

performance. The raters are the researcher herself and another English teacher.

teaching speaking should improve students’ communicative skill, because only in that way students can express themselves and learn how to follow the social and cultural rules appropriate in each communicative circumstance.

Despite of the fact that English has been taught for years, the capability of speaking English for Indonesian students is still unsatisfactory (Yunila, 2002). When the writer did her Field Practice Program (PPL) in SMP N 8 Bandar Lampung from February up to April 2009, she also faced this problem. The students of SMP N 8 Bandar Lampung had difficulty to speak English in a simple form of dialogue or even tell their ideas and they had difficulty in memorize the dialogue. The students were reluctant to express their idea or communicate in English, because they could not speak English fluently and they were afraid if their utterances were wrong their friends would laugh at their mistakes. They also thought that the teacher would blame them. The students were rarely trained to speak the target language in class. They still hesitated to interact with their friends and their teacher by using English. These may be the reason why the students of Junior High School get some problems in speaking though they have studied English more than three years. Inability to speak English is influenced by many factors.

One of those factors is the technique used by the teacher in teaching English, especially teaching speaking. Students’ hesitation in using English, as described above, tends to happen because their teacher almost never gives them various communicative activities that can encourage them to speak and to interact to each

other (Tarigan, 1985).It might be caused by the teacher’s technique in the

classroom during teaching learning process is more concerned on learning than on transferring the language in their daily teaching activities, for example oral test was done in written task rather than oral activity. In teaching learning process, the teacher’s technique is give some tasks in written form, for example did the LKS (Students Task Book) and learnt about grammar. The teacher also used less English as medium in transferring knowledge and gives little chance for students to practice speaking. Actually, language teachers should provide appropriate teaching technique, for example by using role play or pair work tecknique, where the student has many opportunities to develop their speaking ability.

Regarding those problems, the English teacher should found out the effort on searching and creating a new model in presenting materials in order to increase

the students’ ability to speak. According to Wilkins (1993), the students’ learning

depends on the effectiveness of teacher’s technique. Technique is defined as a particular trick, contrivance use to accomplish immediate objectives (Antony in Allen 1979: 7).

Previous studies done by researcher in Lampung University found that the students of Junior High School have difficulties in improving their speaking ability. Yunila (2002) found in her research that 85 % of students in her class failed in doing speaking test. It is expected that students should score higher than 60, otherwise they fail on the exam. This might happen due to lack of vocabulary,

mispronunciation, and students feel nervous and scared if they want to speak English.

As stated above there are some methods which bear many kinds of techniques that can be used in teaching speaking. One of the techniques supposed to be useful and appropriate in teaching speaking is pair work. Pair work is one of the classroom interactions that is often implemented in oral communication. Pair work may keep students stimulated to speak. Pair work is a process in which students work in pairs for practice or discussion. Another extremely important advantage of pair work is the learner’s confidence.

Pair work also increases students’ fluency. As it has already been stated, students really do not have too much possibility to practice the language in a traditional classroom. The teacher presents new grammatical structure and then makes the students do exercises or drills connected with the new materials. In fact, the learners do it automatically, without thinking – if the drills are not meaningful – and can forget it easily after a week or a month. It goes without saying that they do not develop their speaking skill, let alone fluency in a foreign language. On the contrary, pair work does influence these abilities. The students can use the

language freely and express their opinions and thoughts without any restrictions. It is difficult not to get the impression that fluency can be improved only during constant speaking practice in the atmosphere of independence and in the state of relaxation.

By those reasons, the researcher used pair work as a technique in classroom in teaching speaking at SMP Negeri 8 Bandar Lampung. SMP Negeri 8 Bandar Lampung was chosen as the subject because the researcher did her Field Practice Program (PPL) in SMP N 8 Bandar Lampung and she knows that most students in that school have low speaking ability. The researcher will chose grade VIII as experiment class, because the material of speaking being studied is related to KTSP (School Based Curriculum). Furthermore, grade VIII students have some knowledge about English when they are learning in Elementary and grade VII before. Using these techniques may make the students at SMP more active in speaking and they are encouraged to speak English.

Based on the background above, the researcher concerns to find out whether pair work technique can significantly develop the students’ speaking ability through her research entitled “Increasing Students’ Fluency in Producing Invitation in Speaking through Pair work technique at Grade VIII of SMP N 8 Bandar Lampung”.

B. Research Problem

Based on the explanation above, the researcher formulates the problem as follows: Is there any increase of students’ fluency in producing invitation in speaking after they are taught through pair work technique?

C. Objective of the Problem

The objective of this research is to find out whether there is any significant increase of students’ fluency in producing invitation in speaking after they are taught through pair work technique.

D. Uses of the research

1. Practically, the result of this research can be used by teacher to solve the problem of teaching speaking at grade VIII of junior high school and can be used as an alternative to increase students’ fluency in producing invitation.. 2. Theoretically, the result of this research can be beneficial as information for

other researcher who is interested in conducting research in this field.

E. Scope of the Research

This research was experimental research. The researcher was interested to found out whether there is a significant development of students’ fluency in producing invitation after taught through pair works technique. In this research, the writer focused on speaking skill in forms of transactional dialogue. The speaking test conducted as an instrument to measure the students’ fluency in producing invitation. The dialogue would be scored in terms of fluency in producing invitation. The subject of the research was the students of grade VIII of SMP Negeri 8 Bandar Lampung. The subject is chosen because it has already studied English since grade VII of Junior High School and this class still has lower score in speaking. The materials taught are relevant to the KTSP (School Based

carried out orally and directly, the teacher calls the students in pair to perform transactional dialogue. They have 10 minutes for preparing their performance, and each pair had 4 minutes for performing the dialogue. In performing the dialogue, the researcher asked the students to speak clearly since the students’ voice will be recorded. In this test the researcher used inters – rater to asses’students’

performance. The raters are the researcher herself and another English teacher.