5 had were by preparation. The students were rarely trained to speak
spontaneously. Besides, during the teaching and learning process in the class, the dominant languages were Bahasa Indonesia and Javanese. The students
rarely practiced to speak in English with their friends nor the teacher. On the one hand, the input texts the students had were limited. Furthermore,
inappropriate learning media were used. In conclusion, all aspects related to the students, teacher, teaching and
learning process, materials, and media needed to be improved. The improvement could be achieved by minimizing the problems above as well as
improving the teaching and learning process quality that then enabled the students to improve their speaking in English ability.
C. Delimitation of the Problem
This action research study focused on the students of VIII E in SMP Negeri 1 Muntilan. Besides, based on the problems elaborated in the previous
point, it mainly focused on improving the students’ speaking skill by using
information-gap activities.
D. Formulation of the Problem
In reference to the limitation of the problem above, the problem was formulated as follows, “How can the speaking skill of VIII E students in SMP
Negeri 1 Muntilan be improved through information-gap activities ?”.
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E. Objective of the Research
The research was carried out to improve the speaking skill of VIII E students in SMP Negeri 1 Muntilan through information-gap activities.
F. Significance of the Research
The results of the research are expected to give some theoretical and practical significances as follows.
1. Theoretical Significance
Theoretically, the results of this action research study provide beneficial and referential contribution in giving general knowledge of the way to improve
the students’ speaking skill through information-gap activities. 2.
Practical Significance a.
To the students To the students, this action research study is expected to be able to:
1 let them experience various information-gap activities to help them
improve their speaking ability 2
boost their motivation in practicing English as a means of communication, and
3 improve their speaking ability by having a meaningful
communicative practice of speaking English.
b. To the collaborators
7 To the collaborators, particularly the English teacher and my colleagues,
this action research study is expected to be able to: 1
deepen their understanding of teaching speaking communicatively 2
deepen their understanding of conducting some collaborative action research
c. To the readers
1 help teachers create better speaking activities,
2 be a good model of teaching speaking communicatively, and
3 provide a resource to make some further research.
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CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
