CHAPTER II UNDERLYING THEORY
In this chapter, the researcher would like elaborate the theory related to the research which is done by the researcher. It is crucial for the researcher
and the readers to recognize the definition or the meaning of title of this research in order to make easier for the researcher in analyzing and
understanding the problem deeply. Follows are the theories that will be discussed in this research globally: teaching speaking and information gap.
A. Teaching Speaking
1. Notion of Speaking Speaking skill should be taught and practiced in the language
classroom. Because the language course truly enables the students to communicate in English, so speaking skill needs the special treatment. In the
reality, in our daily life most of us speak more than we write; yet many English teachers still spend the majority of class time on reading and writing
practice almost ignoring speaking and listening skills. Based on the statement above, there should be a good balance to practice in classroom.
According to Hornby 1995:826 speaking is making use of words in an ordinary voice, offering words, knowing and being able to use a
language expressing one-self in words, and making speech. Therefore the writer infers that speaking uses the word and produces the sound to express
ourselves either ideas, feeling, thought and needs orally in an ordinary voice. Furthermore, success in communication is often dependent as much on the
listener as on the speaker. There are three components to make fluent in producing speech,
namely vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar. According to Walter 1973:11 speaking is one way of learning
about one self. In speaking, someone must face problems that have history and relatively to other people, groups, and the predictions we have formed
for living together. While Tarigan 1990:3 states speaking that is gotten by the children preceded by listening skill. After getting the language input the
students are able to master speaking skill. So that, speaking is the way to express our idea and feeling to one another.
2. Notion of Teaching Speaking Teaching speaking is sometimes considered as a simple process of
commercial language school around the world, which hires people with no training to teach conversation. Although speaking is totally natural, speaking
in a language other than our own is anything but simple Nunan, 2003:48. Based on the statement above that teaching conversation to the
students in foreign language is simple. Because learning spoken language sometimes ignores the grammar rule and the other hand the students need to
form good habit in English speaking practice.
Furthermore, the writer will elaborate the notion of teaching according to oxford advanced learner’s dictionary teaching which means
giving the instruction to someone else: give someone else knowledge, skill, etc
While Haskew and Mc Lendon in Sutopo, 2000:9 states as follows: a.
Teaching is action to increase the odds that potential learners will learn. b.
Teaching is action to point learning toward desired to accomplishment by learners.
c. Teaching is action to make knowledge create sense.
d. Teaching is to present learners a live opportunity to learn.
e. Teaching is action to enhance the persons who are learning.
Moreover, teaching speaking skill emphasizes on the activities to make the students active and creative. West 1968 in Fauziati,2002:145 states
that to increase students’ speaking mastery the teacher must concern with the student –to –student –interaction. The great part of time in the process of
learning speaking is dominated by students. Afterwards, it’s dominated by the instructor. This maximizes the students’ competence in speaking. The
students learn what they are going to say with other in front of the class and try to develop their creativity orally. Therefore, the writer tries to give
definition of teaching speaking is the instruction of the teachertutor to the students to encourage them in using the language orally to express their
ideas, feeling and opinion to someone else and also encourage the potential of the learners to develop their speaking skill naturally.
3. Element of Speaking In speaking, it is very important for student to acquire the ability to
express their ideas and opinions. Consequently, this competency should be mastered by the learners of language. Following are the elements of
speaking ability according to Harmer, 2001:269-271, a. language features such as the connected speech, expressive devices, lexis and grammar, and
negotiation language. Connected speech is the modifying in sounds production or utterances such as assimilation, omission, addition, weakened
through contraction and stress patterning. An expressive device is the alteration of the speed, volume, and stress of utterances to show the feeling.
The use of this device contributes the ability to convey meaning. Then lexis and grammar is necessary for the teacher to give of supply of certain words
and language function, such as agreeing or disagreeing, surprise, and so forth. Those make students can produce at various stages of an interaction.
Lastly, negotiation language is the benefits to clarify and to show the structure what we are saying. Therefore, those elements are completely
significant a speaking ability. Furthermore, Harmer 2001: 104 states that the other element of
the speaking is mentalsocial processing except the language skill for the speaker, but the rapid processing skill is also necessary, such as language
processing, interaction, and information processing. The language processing is the effective speaker to convey their intention to someone else
and they process the words or retrieval of words or phrases from memory to
communicate with people. It helps the students to develop habits of rapid language processing English. Then, interaction is the student interacting
with the other and they understand each other. Lastly, information processing is related to the perception of some else concerning the response
to other feeling in using the language. Consequently, the mental has important role to succeed the communication particularly in speaking ability.
4. Principles of Teaching Speaking Principles of teaching speaking are as follows Harmer, 2001: 102
a. Help students overcome their initial reluctance to speak. Be encouraging; provide opportunity; start from something simple;
b. Ask students to talk about what they want to talk about. c. Ask students to talk about what they are able to talk about.
d. Provide appropriate feedback. e. Combine speaking with listening and reading.
f. Incorporate the teaching of speech acts in teaching speaking.
5. Method of Teaching Speaking The method of teaching speaking as suggested by Harmer
1998:95 is Engage Activate-Study. Engage means that the teacher gives warming to the students. For instance: the topic of the discussion is about
‘daily activity,’ so, the teacher tells or gives stimuli to the students concerning with the topic. Then, activate the teacher give an opportunity to
the students to express their ideas and opinions. Afterwards, study means that it concerns with the material of the discussion. Therefore, the students
can get the learning experience.
The other method of teaching speaking skill is through
information gap activities that are suggested by Raptou 2001: 211.
Information gap is useful activity in which one person has information that the other lacks. They must use the target language to share that information.
For instance, one student has the directions to a party and must give them to a classmate. One type of speaking activity involves the so-called
‘information gap’-where two speakers have different parts of information making up a whole. Because they have different information, there is a ‘gap’
between them.
6. Classroom Speaking Activities The activities of speaking class are as follows Harmer, 2001:271-274.
a. Acting from a script.
In this section the teacher asks the students to perform the play based on the dialogue in the script. Thus, the teacher as the director and
the students perform the dialogue. b. Communication Games
A game is one of activities that can help students relaxed in learning the language. This technique is particularly suitable for the
children in mastering the language. It is designed to provoke communication between students, so that the students has to talk to a
partner in order to solve a puzzle, draw a picture, puts the things in right order, and differences between picture.
c. Discussion
The problem in conducting the discussion is the students’ reluctant to give opinion in front of their friends. Particularly when the students are
not mastering the topic of discussion. Therefore to encourage the students is to provide activities which force the students in expressing the ideas
through the topic which is familiar with student’s world. For instance, are: their daily activity, the situation of their class, and describing.
d. Problem solving The material is used in this technique giving the students to work
in pairs or groups. They share their problem, opinion and feeling. In this case the teacher as the bridge to communicate among the participants.
Then, the students give a question and answer each other. This communication will help the students practicing and expressing their ideas
in spoken language.
e. Role Play
A popular way of the aspect of speaking activities is to use simulations and role plays. This is where students pretend that they are in
a different situation, either as themselves or playing the role of someone is quite different. We could ask them to be guest at some parties and go there
as different characters. They could, as themselves, pretend to be at an airport trying to check luggage, or either as themselves or another
character take part in a television program. In all these cases the students are using language in order to participate in the activity rather than other
way round Some students find it very comfortable to use language in a simulated environment, playing the role of someone else –it allows them
to experiment freely to be another people.
7. Problem in Speaking Skill The learners have their own difficulties in learning the language.
Particularly in improving speaking skill is not easy for the students. The Following are the problems of speaking skill Munjayanah ,2004:17:
a. Inhabitation: unlike reading, writing or listening activities, speaking
requires some degree of real-time exposure to an audience. Learners are often inhibited about trying to say thing in foreign
language in the classroom: worried about mistakes or simply shy of the attention that their speech attract.
b. Nothing to say. Even they are not inhibited, you often hear learners
complain that they cannot think of anything to say: they have no motive to express themselves beyond the guilty feeling that they
should be speaking.
c. Low or uneven participation. Only one participant can talk at a time if
he or she is to be heard; and in large group this means the each one will have only very little talking time. This problem is compounded
of some learners to dominate, while other speaks very little or not at all.
d. Mother tongue use. It is easier for the student to use their mother
tongue in their class because it looks naturally. Therefore, most of the
students are not disciplined in using the target language in the learning process.
B. Information Gap Information gap is a useful activity in which one person has
information that the other lacks. They must use the target language to share that information. For instance, one student has the directions to a party and
must give them to a classmate. I teach core French at the secondary level and students complain
that when they go to a French-speaking part of the world, they cannot say what they wish to say in French, even thought they have had years of French
education. We, therefore, need to actively engage students in speaking activities that are enjoyable and that are based on a more communicative
approach. One solution is using an information gap activity that is suggested by Violet Raptou 2001: 213
One of the challenges many second language-teachers face is motivating their students to speak in the target language, confident students
always participate and students who are less confident are reluctant to speak. Even when students speak in the target language, they are usually answering
a question and this approach greatly limits students output. Oral presentations provide opportunities for students to speak in the target
language for an extended period of time and these activities are useful, but they should not be the only opportunities students have to speak at length.
Because students prepare for this presentation by writing a script and then rehearsing it, they have difficulty speaking in the target language
spontaneously because they are given little opportunity to do so. When students choose learn a language, they are interested in learning to speak that
language as fluently as possible. One solution is using information gap activities.
In information gap activity, one person has certain information that must be shared with others in order to solve a problem, gather information
or make decisions Neu Reeser, 1997. These types of activities are extremely effective in the L2 classroom. They give every student to
opportunity to speak in the target language for an extended period of time and students naturally produce more speech than they would otherwise. In
addition, speaking with peers is less intimidating than presenting in front of the entire class and being evaluated. Another advantage of information gap
activities is that students are forced to negotiate meaning because they must make what they are saying comprehensible to others in order to accomplish
the task Neu Reeeser, 1997: 156.
C. Conceptual Framework Information gap is useful activity in which one person has information
that the other lacks. They must use the target language to share that information. For instance, one student has the directions to a party and must
give them to a classmate. With information gap give each student has an opportunity to speak in the target language for an extended period of time
and students naturally produce more speech than they would otherwise and
in this activity the students must make what they are saying comprehensible to others. As a result, such a technique can improve students’ speaking
mastery. D. Action Hypothesis
Dealing with the underlying theories, the action hypothesis of this research is: By giving information gap technique, the students’ speaking
mastery can be improved or better”. E. Performance Indicator
The writer needs to establish some criteria in order to know whether the research is effective or event not. The writer considers the research to be
effective if the subjects of the study are able to increase students’ achievement after being taught through information gap technique. Here, the
subject is categorized as successful, if the students’ scores belong to adequate level. While an adequate level is titled to subject that is not only
able to improve but also to convey, at least the standard of performance which is 2.9. It means that teaching speaking using information gap is
significant. It is line with the score as explained below:
Table II.1 Standard of Performance Performance
3.6-4.0 3.1-3.5
2.6-3.0 2.1-2.5
0-2.0 Excellent
Very Significant Significant
Fair Less Significant
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD
Kategori