implemented in teaching and learning processes brought good improvement in students’ speaking skills.
Students’ vocabularies and pronunciation skills were improved as they always did pronunciation drills and vocabulary practices every meeting. It was
shown when they practiced dialogs and played communicative games. The use of classroom English in the classroom increased students’ vocabularies as well. New
words and expressions increased since everyday they heard English. They understood what the researcher meant, even they could respond using English.
Their English production slowly showed improvement. Although they still made mispronunciation and used Bahasa Indonesia, they used English more often than
before the actions were implemented. Students were more confident and less nervous when they spoke English,
because they were put in small groups and in pairs when doing the activities. They felt more secure when they could express their ideas and opinions in small groups.
The activities done were also fun, since the activities were communicative games that were enjoyable. Everyone was excited and seemed to enjoy the activities.
They were less shy as everyone also had to speak English. They were not afraid of making mistakes since everyone would also be possible to make mistakes.
Students were more active and gave more attention to the researcher’s explanation. It was because they would get rewards if they were active in the
classroom. Everyone was very competitive and passionate to get the reward. The
classroom atmosphere was more alive and the teaching and learning processes were more interesting.
The improvement of students’ speaking skills was also proved by the students’ test scores. The pre-test and the post-test scores showed a difference.
The mean of pre-test scores was 48.18, while the mean of post test scores was 75.6. The difference of both means was 27.42
. It showed that students’ speaking skills were improved.
E. Discussion
The focus of this research is using communicative games to improve grade V
III students’ speaking skills. Communicative games were implemented in both cycle 1 and cycle 2. The general findings showed that communicative games
successfully improved students’ speaking skills. The clearer explanation can be seen as follows.
The first, communicative games were believed to improve students speaking skills in some aspects such as vocabulary and pron
unciation. Students’ vocabularies increased. Their pronunciation was also better. They spoke English
with no doubts as they already mastered more various vocabularies and knew how to pronounce them correctly. They spoke English more automatically and
communicatively as they were put in communicative activities. It is in line with Thornbury 2005: 79-84. He says that to make the speaking class fruitful, the
teacher can conduct some communicative tasks. Through this, students will be trained to produce English automatically.
The second, communicative games gave students opportunities to experience speaking in a real life situation, since games were designed as if
students communicated in a real communicative context. It is in accordance with Richards’ 2006: 16 statements. He states that communicative practice refers to
activities where practice in using language within a real communicative context is the focus, where real information is exchanged, and where the language used is
not totally predictable. The third,
students’ involvement in classroom’s activities increased. They were more active and confident when they played communicative games. Beside
communicative games were more fun and relaxing, they were carried out in small groups or pairs. This made students feel more confident and secure to express
their ideas. In accordance with Harmer ’s 2001: 272 statement, he says that many
students feel extremely exposed when they had to speak in front of the whole class. That is why working in small groups helps students’ minimize anxiety when
they express their opinions. The last, communicative games were carried out along with giving
rewards as the promise for those who were actively involved in classroom activities. Giving rewards to active students successfully got students participating
in the classroom activities. They paid more attention to the researcher ’s
explanation as each of them wanted to correctly do tasks and activities. This is in agreement with Brown 2000: 55-70. He says that in the classroom, students also
need reward when they do good things or achieve something. This has to be done
to trigger their motivation in the classroom. Students will compete to get the reward.
In conclusion, the implementation of communicative games successfully improved speaking skills of grade VIII students in MTs Negeri Ngemplak.
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CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
This chapter presents conclusions of the research, implications of the research, and suggestions.
A. Conclusions
This research is aimed to improve students’ speaking skills through communicative games for grade VIII students of MTs Negeri Ngemplak. The
research was action research. The researcher collected data through classroom observation and interviews with the students and the English teacher. The research
was carried out in two cycles. Each cycle consisted of three meetings. Cycle 1 was implemented on March 30, 31 and April 20, 2015, while cycle 2 was implemented
on April 21-28, 2015. In cycle 1, there were one main action and five supporting actions
implemented to solve problems existing in the English teaching and learning processes. The main action was implementing communicative games and the
supporting actions were conducting pronunciation drills, conducting vocabulary practices, using classroom English, giving handouts, and displaying pictures and
videos. Communicative games conducted in cycle 1 were a survey game and a ‘Lifeboat debate’ game.
In cycle 2, there were two more additional actions implemented. It was done due to some problems existing in cycle 1, so there were eight actions to be
implemented in cycle 2. They were implementing communicative games,
