Using Information Gap Activities in Teaching Speaking

classroom. In the lecturing class the students sit quietly and listen to the teachers’ explanation. As Sanjaya explains in his book: 26 “Metode ceramah dapat diartikan sebagai cara menyajikan pelajaran melalui penuturan secara lisan atau penjelasan langsung kepada sekelompok siswa.” Based on the definition above, it is clear that in lecturing method the teachers are encouraged to be covered the classroom in delivering the materials for the pupils. In addition, another technique that used in this method is using memorization dialogue. It is not complicated to carry out this technique; the students are familiar with it. According to Larsen and Freeman, memorization can be done in teaching vocabulary, grammar rules, or verb conjugations. 27 For instance, when the teachers are eager to teach vocabulary items he or she just gives the list of words which have been memorized, it is presented in both of target language and the students’ native language. Nevertheless, the students just memorize it without understanding the meaning of the sentence, because it is emphasized in accuracy. Based on the steps above, the conventional method is commonly used in the classroom from the basic level until upper level by the teachers from many years ago but it is also depend on the s tudents’ need and capacity. In the communicative method as in information gap activities where the students give their chance to express their ideas using the target language learned especially in learning speaking. The students give the freedom to increase their knowledge by themselves; the teacher as their facilitator. Whereas, in conventional method the teachers is the dominant person who deliver the knowledge, the students just take it literally and they are rare to speak up in learning English definitely. 26 Wina Sanjaya, Strategi Pembelajaran, Jakarta: Kencana Prenada Media Group, 2006, p. 145. 27 See: Diane Larsen and Freeman, Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000, p. 20.

3. Using Conventional Technique in Teaching Speaking