The Background of Study

1

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

This chapter elaborates the background of the study, the problem of the study, the objective of the study, the significance of the study, the scope of the study, the definition of key terms, and the organization of the study.

A. The Background of Study

Nowadays, with the economic and social development, English plays a vital role globally. It seems intuitively the most important, which has become the most prominent language in the world. As an International language, most countries in the world use English as medium of communication in entire aspects of life. It is necessary for those who want to make a good communication and good relationship with other countries. Therefore, English is taught in every institution in the world. English is quite different from other subjects. English is a language. The main purpose of learning language is to communicate with others. In Indonesia, the awareness of mastering English as the first foreign language is quite high. It also has been introduced to educational institutions from lowest kindergarten up to highest level of education university. By mastering English, the learners can follow development in countries all over the world. In mastering the language, they have to learn the language by practicing and using it in their daily activities. As stated by Lee “A language 2 is learnt by using it, and this means using it in situation and communicatively.” 1 Basically, there are four language skills that one must possess in learning English; listening, speaking, reading and writing skill. Speaking and writing, which are produced by learners, are considered to be productive skills, while listening and reading are the skills which lead the learner to get to comprehend the language are considered as receptive skills. As stated by Harmer that “Speaking and writing are obviously skills and involve some kind of production on the part of the language user. Listening and reading are receptive skills in that the language user is receiving written or spoken language”. 2 To make students able to use English for communication, one of the skills that has to be mastered by the students is speaking skill. Furthermore, Indonesia involves English into education curriculum. Consequently, the government revealed the policy that English is the only foreign language which is included into National Examination standard as some special subjects such as Bahasa Indonesia, Science and Mathematics from Junior High School up to Senior High School. The current curriculum now is School-Based Curriculum Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan or what is so called 2006 curriculum. Based on School-Based Curriculum KTSP of speaking skill at seventh grade of second semester has two Competence Standard and four Basic Competence. In this study, the writer took one Competence Standard of speaking skill and one basic competence for conducting the research. The Competence Standard of speaking skill is: “to express meaning in the simple short transactional and interpersonal conversation to interact with around environment”. Then, The Basic Competence is: “to express meaning in the simple short transactional to get things done and interpersonal conversation by using oral mode accurately, fluently and accepted for interacting with around setting which involves expression: asking and 1 W R LEE, Language Teaching and Contests, 2 nd Ed, Oxford University Press, 1980,p.1 2 Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching, New York: Longman, 1989, p. 16 3 giving opinion, expressing like and dislike, asking for clarification, and responding interpersonally. 3 It becomes the reason why the students have to possess speaking for communicating with each other. But, there were still some difficulties faced by the students in learning speaking. Based on the unstructured interview, observation and questionnaire result during preliminary study at SMP YMJ Yayasan Miftahul Jannah, speaking is the most difficult skill faced by the students such as: First, most of students have difficulties to express their ideas by using English because they lack of vocabulary. Second, they are too shy and afraid to speak English because lack of practicing and afraid of making mistakes in speaking. Third, students mostly use uncorrected pronunciation. Then, they are bored in learning English because the teaching learning speaking activities are done in a monotonous technique. Besides, the teacher seldom creates any instructional media. Consequently, they are passive in teaching learning speaking process. Considering the fact and problems above, the English teachers have to work hard to solve the problems. The teacher should create a good circumstance for students, create the students’ motivation in English speaking, create the interesting teaching technique to improve the quality of students, change teaching methods and develop the learner’s communicative competence in English. So the writer needs to provide students with appropriate techniques for speaking class. Actually, there are many techniques can be applied by the teacher to create communicative atmosphere in the classroom and make their enjoyable of learning English, especially for oral communication activities. In this case, Harmer divides speaking activities into seven categories, they are: Reaching a consensus, discussion, relying instructions, communication games, problem solving, talking about yourself, simulation 3 Departemen Pendidikan Nasional, 2006, Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan School Based Curriculum 2006: Standar Isi SD, SMP dan SMA. Jakarta. Translated by the Writer 4 and role play. 4 The teacher can choose one of those activities suitable to the material of speaking. The teachers should apply the appropriate teaching technique in order to solve the problem of the students in learning speaking skill, so the writer offers the teacher to use communication games in teaching speaking skill. The teacher can play an English game in class. No doubt, all students like to play games. In addition, an English game is a good way for students to participate. It can reduce students’ boredom and made students’ interested in teaching learning activities. It can also make learning process more enjoyable. McCallum said that games automatically stimulate students’ interest; a properly introduced game can be one of the highest motivating techniques. 5 Based on the explanation above the writer is interested in improving students’ speaking ability and in this research she will try to apply communication games as a strategy in teaching Speaking. In this case, the writer will do an action research entitled: “Improving Students’ Speaking Ability through Communication Games A Classroom Action Research in the Seventh Grade of Junior High School of SMP YMJ Yayasan Miftahul Jannah in 20102011 Academic Year”.

B. The Problem of the Study