94 The researcher stopped the cycle in cycle three because all the criteria of
successfulness had been reached. The first criteria, which was more than 75 of the students got scores more than 75, had been achieved since 88 of the students
got scores more than 75. The second criteria, which was the students perceived positively toward the use of cue cards and their speaking improvement, had also
been achieved.
B. Contribution of Cue Cards to Improve the Students’ Speaking Ability
Before cue cards were applied during the teaching and learning English, the students in X Kimia Industri of SMK Negeri 2 Depok faced a lot of problems in
speaking. The first problem that the students had was the students were not confident to speak in English. Most of the students admitted that speaking in
English was very hard and scary. The second problem was the students did not have any idea about what they were going to speak in the conversation. The
students did not know how to start a conversation or build a conversation into a meaningful conversation.
The third problem was the students had very limited English vocabulary. As a result, the students tended to create some fillers
such as “ehmmmm….”, “duh apa yaa...
” It was difficult for the students to speak fluently. The fourth problem was the students were not accustomed to speak in spontaneous condition. When the
students had to practice speaking in the class, the students tended to write the script down before they practiced. The last problem which the students had was
they did not have enough time to practice. Their time to practice speaking English
95 in the class or outside the class was also limited and therefore the students were
never accustomed to speaking English.
To see the contribution of cue cards to the improvement of the students’ speaking skill, the researcher corroborated the data gathered from all of the
instruments. The result gathered from cycle one until cycle three showed that cue cards helped the students improve their speaking skill. The cue cards which were
designed in cycle one enhanced the students ’ confidence in speaking. The card
game done in cycle one helped the students be more accustomed to speaking
English and not to be afraid of making mistakes.
The cue cards designed in cycle two enhanced the students ’ ideas when they
were speaking. They needed to manage their idea in order to reduce unnecessary pauses so that the students could speak fluently and naturally. The students’
improvement on developing ideas for speaking could be seen from their performances using communication cards. Most of the students were enthusiastic
to perform a dialogue using the communication cards. The students could follow the cues provided on the cards and produced the meaningful conversation with
their peers.
Cycle three was conducted to confirm that the students had improvement on developing ideas and enough vocabulary in order to speak fluently without many
unnecessary pauses. The cue cards in cycle three helped the students build the speaking ideas in order to speak in English spontaneously and fluently. Because
cycle three was confirming cycle, the cue cards designed were more challenging
96 than previous cycles. However, the students enjoyed the activities and were more
enthusiastic.
The contribution could be seen from the results of the students’ speaking test.
Their understanding of the task, pronunciation, fluency, and grammar were getting better. The students could understand the instructions well. The students
’ pronunciation was also getting better since they listened to and repeated the
conversation in the video provided. The improvement of their speaking skills was also followed by their attitude aspects. They were more polite and enthusiastic in
the class. The students showed respect and tolerance not only to the teacher but also to the other students.
Figure 4.9 The Comparison of the Students’ Speaking Scores
from Cycle One until Cycle Three
Figure 4.9 shows the three kinds of lines which represented the improvement in each cycle. The blue line showed the results of the
students’ speaking test in
97 cycle one. The red line showed the results of the
students’ speaking test in cycle two. The green line showed
the results of the students’ speaking test in cycle three. Through figure 4.9, it could be seen that the red line was higher than the
blue line. Then, the green line was higher than the red line. Therefore, it could be concluded that there was improvement toward the aspects of speaking skill every
cycle. In order to corroborate the results
deducted from the students’ speaking scores, the researcher distributed the questionnaire to all the students who were
present in the class. The questionnaire was distributed in the end of every cycle. There were two parts in the questionnaire. The first part consisted of 10 closed-
ended questions. Questions 1-6 reflected the students’ perception about the use of
cue cards. Questions 7-10 reflected the students’ personal reflection to what they
had got after learning speaking English using cue cards. The second part, which consisted of 5 open-
ended questions, reflected the students’ opinion on the use of cue cards during teaching and learning process.
To find the perception in the first part of the questionnaire, the researcher calculated the mean scores. As described in Chapter Three, the researcher
calculated its mean score to conclude the data gathered from the questionnaire. The perception is positive if the mean score is higher than 25. If the mean score
equals or is less than 25, it means that the students have a negative perception. The mean scores showed that the students’ perceptions from cycle one until cycle
three were positive. The mean scores in cycle one, cycle two and cycle three were 31.74, 35.16 and 34.15.
98 The second part of questionnaire consisted of five open-ended questions.
Questions one up to three were designed to look into the students’ personal
feeling about their participation in the use of cue cards. Questions four up to five were designed to look into the strengths and weaknesses of the use of cue cards.
From cycle one until cycle three, the students wrote that they felt more confident to speak in English because there were a lot of friends who also tried to speak in
English. The students also admitted that learning speaking English was fun and not stressful. Related to the focus of cycle two, the students admitted that cue
cards helped them to develop their ideas for speaking. The students could speak spontaneously. In short, cue cards were useful in the teaching and learning process
and could improve their speaking ability. When the students were asked about the strengths and weaknesses of the use
of cue cards, the students mostly wrote that using cue cards made learning English become more interesting and less boring. On the other hand, the weakness that
most of the students found was the use of time. They wrote that the time for learning English was too short.
The data from questionnaire were also supported on the interview conducted in the end of every cycle. The results of the interview with five randomly selected
students showed that the students enjoyed the card games done in cycle one and hoped that they could learn using card games more frequently. The students
admitted that cue cards helped them understand the material more easily and faster. Cue cards also gave them idea. Therefore, the students felt more confident
in speaking.
