33
communicator. They learn to communicate by communicating. As the communicator, the learners are engaged in negotiating meaning even
their knowledge of target language are incomplete Larsen, 1986: 131. It means that the learners act as negotiator in which they try to
make themselves understood about the target language. Richard and Rogers 1986: 77 states that since communicative interaction
encourages cooperative relationship among the learners, the learners have role as joint negotiator within the group and within the classroom
procedures and activities. Thus, the learners do not only negotiate meaning by themselves but also interact with other learners rather than
with the teacher. The interaction can be in the various configurations such as pairs, triads, small group, and whole group.
2 Characteristics of Successful Speaking Activity
The goal of teaching speaking is communicative efficiency. Learners should be able to make themselves understood, using their
current proficiency to the fullest. They also should observe the social and cultural rules that apply in each communication situations.
According to Ur 1999: 120, there are some characteristics of a successful speaking activity:
1 Learners talk a lot As much as possible of the period of time allotted to the activity is
in fact occupied by learner talk. This may seem obvious, but often most time is taken up with teacher talk or pauses.
34
2 Participation is even Classroom discussion is not dominated by a minority of talkative
participants: all get a chance to speak, and contributions are fairly evenly distributed.
3 Motivation is high Learners are eager to speak: because they are interested in topic
and have something new to say about it, or just because they want to contribute to achieving a task objective.
4 Language is of an acceptable level. Learners express themselves in utterance that is relevant, easily
comprehensive to each other, and of an acceptable level of language accuracy.
g. Assessing Speaking
Oller 1979: 1 defines language test as a device that tries to assess how many students have learned a foreign-language course, or some
parts of course. In this definition, Oller refers to the measurement of how far students master the learning materials and reach the objectives of
language course. According to Ur 1996: 34, there are nine reasons for conducting a
test. A test can be used as a means to: 1
give the teacher information about where the students are at the moment, to help to decide what to teach next;
35
2 give the students information about what they know, so that they also
have an awareness of what they need to learn or review; 3
assess for some purpose external to current teaching a final grade for the course, selection;
4 motivate students to learn or review specific materials;
5 get a noisy class to keep quite and concentrate;
6 provide a clear indication that class has reached a “station” in
learning, such as the end of a unit, thus contributing a sense of structure in the course as a whole;
7 get students to make an effort in doing the test itself, which is likely
to lead to better result and feeling of satisfaction; 8
give students task which themselves may actually provide useful review or practice, as well as testing;
9 provide students with a sense of achievement and progress in their
learning. Ur 1996: 39-41 suggests that the techniques of speaking test to
test oral proficiency. They are questions and answers, monologue, making dialogues, role plays, and debate. There also are many techniques
to conduct oral or spoken test. The most commonly used spoken test types are suggested by Thornburry 2005: 124-125, they are interviews,
live monologues, recorded monologues, role plays, collaborative tasks and discussions.
36
Thornberry 2005: 127 proposes two main ways of scoring in spoken test, holistic scoring and analytic scoring. In line with the
description before, Madsen 1983: 167 states that holistic scoring is used to evaluate a wide variety of criteria simultaneously such as
appropriateness, fluency, grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. He states that the holistic scoring concentrates on communication while not
overlooking the components of speech. In this type of scoring, the rating scale can be adapted for the use of teachers, and teachers can prepare
their own scale Madsen, 1983: 169-170.
2. Communicative Games a. The Definition of Games
Games have become crucially important for English language learners and teachers not only because they provide enjoyment and
relaxation, but also they encourage students to use their language in a creative and communicative manner.
Wright stated “…. ‘game’ to mean an activity in which the learners
play and usually interact with others”. They also said that “Games help and encourage many learners to sustain their interest and work”. Next,
their opinion is “Games also help the teacher to create contexts in which the language is useful and meaningful. The learners want to take part and
in order to do so must understand what others are saying or have written,
