students’ pre-test score for the aspect of vocabulary also increased. It was 2 and increased to 3.5 for the post-
test. The increase was also found in students’ fluency. It was 1 for the pre-test and 3.5 for the post-test. Next, the mean
score of grammar also increased from 1 to 3.5. Another improvement was on students’ interactive skill. The pre-test mean score for this aspect was 1 then
increased to 3. In conclusion, it can be seen that the students’ speaking skill
improved. All of the students’ scores on post-test were higher than those on pre-test.
B. Research Discussion
The focus of this research was to improve the students’ speaking skill of Grade VII A at SMP N 1 Kasihan Bantul through the use of cue cards. The
findings revealed significant main effect of using cue cards to improve students’ speaking skill. By being involved in the teaching and learning
process of speaking using cue cards, the students were motivated to participate actively and shown their best speaking performance. Thus,
students can speak English confidently with their friends. This finding supports Harmer 2007 which reported that cue cards will help students to
speak up easily in the form of words or phrases even sentences when they are involved in a conversation.
In addition, the use of cue cards media in presentation, practice and production activities attracted students’ interest. They always gave close
attention to the cue cards in teaching and learning process. By being involved
in the use of cue cards media, the students got sufficient inputs such as vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation to stimulate their ideas to speak.
Generally, they contributed more in every learning activity. This seems to confirm Briggs 1970 suggestion that media as physical means which are
used to send message to the students and stimulate them to learn. Furthermore, by creating comfortable atmosphere and giving rewards to
the students’ participation and achievement in the teaching and learning process, they competed each other to show their best performance in speaking
activities. They also participated actively since they did not feel threatened in the whole teaching and learning process using cue cards. This result lends a
support to a previous study finding reported by Harmer 2001 who said that adolescents are attractive if they are engaged, have a great potential for
creativity, and a passionate commitment. Finally, here is the diagram which presents the summary of research findings carried out during the teaching and
learning process using cue cards.
Figure 3: The summary of research findings
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CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
