educational process. They will become the prominent factor. So, they can influence everything that is applied by the teacher in the classroom from the
planning until the evaluating process to reach what they need. It can be seen from what material is prepared, what method is chosen, and what media is used that are
appropriated with the students‘ characteristic. The students need to be involved in all activities which are conducted by the
teacher. Palmer states that ―Our students listen to lectures, explanations, and material read aloud. They ask questions, speak in small groups, and present
reports on va rious topics.‖
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It means that the students have big role in classroom activities since they are the subject of learning process. Thus, they will be able to
be more active in learning process not only individually but also in group working. In addition, it is necessary for the students to completely realize their
learning motivation and goals. So, that they will consciously accept materials given to them and involve themselves in any kind of tasks and projects from the
teacher. The students involvement means that they actively role in the teaching and
learning process. Their activeness needs to support by the teacher‘s role by providing them the chances to take part in every classroom activity. Furthermore,
Riddell proposes what makes a good student as: Wha
t makes a good student?: respect your teacher, know that you‘re not the only student in the class, you must have a desire to study, listen, respect other
students, be interested, socialize with other students and teachers, speak in class, pay attention, do your homework, spend time outside class using
English, go over what you have learnt in class, know why you are learning English, respect the culture of the country, be attentive, disciplined, active in
class.
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d. Methods
To teach this skill is not easy since English is not our native language. The teacher might have some difficulties that come from inside or from outside him or
43
Palmer, op. cit., p. 2.
44
Ridell, op. cit., p. 4.
her. Those which come from inside the teacher can be the lack of competencies
whether in performing speaking skill ability or in teaching speaking skill.
Some teachers cannot perform their speaking skill well. For instance, they do not pronounce English words correctly. So, in communicative activity, the
students may misunderstand what their teacher has said and it would slow the communicative activity. In addition, teacher may not be able to speak English
fluently which could decrease the students‘ learning desire. Other is that teacher may lack of specific method for teaching speaking skill.
In teaching speaking skill, the teacher should make the students practice their speaking skill since to perform this skill well the students need to practice it again
and again. To facilitate the students in practicing their speaking skill, the teacher can give them the speaking related-instructions or provide them some methods.
Brown defines method as: A generalized set of classroom specifications for accomplishing linguistic
objectives. Methods tend to be concerned primarily with teacher and student roles and behaviors and secondarily with such features as linguistic and
subject-matter objectives, sequencing, and materials. They are almost always thought of as being broadly applicable to a variety of audiences in a variety of
contexts.
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Here are some methods which can be employed by the teachers in teaching and learning process to make the students perform their speaking skill:
1. Oral drills Drilling can be good practice for the students who begin to learn speaking
skill since drilling gives the students opportunity to rehearse the language to produce the accuracy.
Harmer promotes some kinds of drills for the students‘ practices. They are:
a. Four-phase drills
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This type of drilling activity is so called because there are four phases or stages, for instance Q-A-Q-A. The phase can be added become more or less
phases. It could become six- or eight- phase drills – or any other number for
45
Brown, op. cit., p. 16.
46
Harmer, op. cit., pp. 92 —95.
the addition. It can have more questions and the questions can be asked in any order.
b. Mixed questions and answer drills
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Soon after learning the language, the students can be provided with such drills to give a good opportunity for quick revision. This type of activity is
suitable for short practice session.
c. Talking about frequency of activities
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In doing this activity, the teacher firstly prepares set of flashcards which show activities in different places. Secondly, the teacher divided the students
into groups of four with a set of flashcards placed in front of them. The students are asked to face downwards and to pick up a card. Afterwards, the
student has to ask another student in the group about how often a relative of asked student performs the activity shown on the card. This activity is a
simple cue-response drill. However, the benefit of this activity is that the students are conducting the drill themselves rather than being controlled by
their teacher.
d. Chain drills
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This type of drill is suitable for practicing particular structure over and over again. This activity could be employed as a game or as a personal
element. If we have large class with a big amount of students, the teacher can put the students in some groups. Such activity is an amusing way of getting
quick and involving practice of a particular structure. 2. Discussions
One of effective way to make the students practice their speaking skill is discussion. In this classroom activity, the teacher could divided the students
47
Ibid., pp. 92 —95.
48
Ibid.
49
Ibid.
become several groups and ask them to solve the problem given. The problem could be from any topics such as social context or others. By doing this activity,
the students will have the responsibility to themselves and to the other members of their group. In addition, the students will improve their speaking skill because
this activity forces them to ask information and to convey ideas through speaking English which relates to the topic given by the teacher.
3. Debates Standing up in front of many people to convey arguments and to persuade the
others is not easy. It takes a lot of confidence and debate helps the students improve their self confidence. Besides performing themselves, the students could
learn from the others by paying attention on how people demonstrate their thoughts and persuade each other. It also improves
the students‘ general knowledge since the students need to understand the topic deeply. Debate strongly
helps the students to practice their speaking skill since they need to get to converse with others and see other people‘s point of view. This classroom activity
not only makes the students practice their speaking skill but also makes them practice their listening skill.
4. SimulationRole Play Improving
the students‘ ability in speaking skill also can be done by doing role play. It allows the students to explore their hidden resources and to engage
with others. The students also can express their experiences through actions on the stages. Therefore, they could improve their ability to perform their speaking skill.
5. Information Gap It is an activity where the students are given a task to complete the problem.
Each student is given different missing information and they must complete the missing information and must communicate it to the others to fill in the gaps. This
activity is one of communicative activity which can help the students to perform their speaking skill and if this classroom activity is done regularly, it can improve
