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B. Rationale
The students’ speaking skill in SMAN 1 Sakra is still considered as the most difficult skill because the skill contains a complex substance such as
pronunciation, grammar, fluency, discourse, and the social context of culture and situation.
There are two factors causing their difficulties in achieving speaking ability, the first one is from the students. In the classroom during the teaching and
learning process the students are passive, less motivated, less confident, nervous, shy, and afraid of making making mistake, afraid of being laugh by friends and
never practice. they just listen to the teacher explaining the material without understanding the meaning, they just keep silent without any respond when the
teacher asked them questions or when their friends were having conversation, they can hardly use English for communication even in the simple form, they always
use their mother tongue for communication, they are not able to produce English word correctly, they are not able to arrange English sentence even in simple
sentence, they cannot produce the language correctly, etc. While the second one comes from the teacher. The teacher tended to
teach text comprehension monotonously. For example, when the teacher taught a certain topic, he or she just explained the expressions related to the topic while the
students listened to the teacher’s explanation, and took notes, or even for sometimes took a nap. The teacher oriented herhis teaching at the written test
which was held in the mid or end semester, even in the final exam. The teacher
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felt guilty if the students could not do the test correctly, because their English mark automatically would be bad or less than standard score. There was no
specially allocated time to evaluate the students’ speaking skill at the end of semester or final exam. This caused the teacher tend to ignore the teaching of
speaking communicatively. The marks of speaking skill were taken from the teacher’s daily observation. The teacher still taught the students with routine
activities without realizing that it would make the students bored and lost their attention to the teaching learning process. As a result, the students were not able
to catch the material easily because of their lost interest and participation. Pondering the above causes of students’ difficulties in learning, the teacher
should be able to discover and create a situation that enables the teaching and learning process to become more easily and enjoyable participated by the
students. In this case, shehe must modify the class into a comfortable condition and apply proper techniques which are adapted to the materials being taught. So,
the students will be enthusiastic in following the class activity without feeling boredom.
Based on the problem and causes above, the researcher proposes Critical Debate Technique as solution to develop the speaking ability of the second year
student of SMAN 1 Sakra. Critical debate is a medium where the students can train their
argumentative competence in form of debating process that demands them to communicate their opinions, argumentations, statements, and other substances
which support their position in the debate process.
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By applying Critical Debate Technique, students are able to increase their motivation, enhance research skill, promote critical thinking, and develop
communication proficiency. Besides, the debates expose the class to a focused, in- depth, multiple-perspective analysis of issues. Because critical debates have the
added dimension of requiring students to assume a position opposite to their own, they encourage students to challenge their existing assumptions. This can move
students beyond simple dualistic thinking, deepen their understanding of an issue, and help them to recognize the range of perspective inherent in complex topics. In
this way, critical debate may also build appreciation for diversity and develop tolerance for other viewpoints.
Critical Debate Technique has great contribution in speaking since it is a task-based. It is encourage the students to practice their English in real
communication. By using Critical Debate Technique, the students will more confident to speak, more active, freer to talk with their friend in team, without
being afraid of making mistakes and shy or being laugh by friends, lessen their nervousness mainly in their English speaking ability.
Critical Debate Techhique can improve the students’ achievement- speaking ability such as produce the English speech sounds and sound pattern,
select appropriate words and sentences according to the proper social setting, organize their thoughts in meaningful and logical sequence, use the language
quickly and cofidently with few unnatural pauses, which are called as fluency, understanding of content and to overcome the problem face in learning teaching
process.
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Critical Debate Technique is a collaborative technique which can activate the students in teaching learning process in speaking class. It is also hoped to
give the students better understanding of the basic elements of speaking. By understanding the basic elements of speaking, they can improve their ability in
speaking.
C. Action Hypothesis