where each picture should be placed in the sequence. A student is asked to stand at the front of the class and to hold up one of the pictures. The class then decides
whether the next picture comes before or after it, and another student holds up and stands in the appropriate position. Each student then tells the story.
The third is Yesterday activity. There are some pictures required: actions and people there should be about 40 pictures and there must be quite a few
showing the same action. The pictures are placed upside down in four piles three piles of actions and one pile of people. The first student takes a picture
of a person and asks a question. The second, the third, and the forth student take a picture of action and make a statement of what the person did yesterday.
Th last is Group Sequence Stories activity. The students will be divided into some groups. Each group is given a picture. Each group makes at least two
statements about the picture. Each group then studies the new picture and adds two more statements to the story based on the new picture. When the fourth
picture has passed, the stories are displayed and compared. In conclusion, pictures are a kind of media used by the teachers due to
their benefits of using pictures. Furthermore, they can provide various activities to support the teaching and learning process.
B. Conceptual Framework
Speaking is important for the students. However, some problems were still found in the students’ speaking abilities in VIII C class at SMP N 2 Godean.
Speaking skill was considered difficult to be accomplished by the students. The
students were not confident to speak. They often refused to speak and preferred to be silent. They hesitated to express their ideas and opinions because they
were afraid of making mistakes. They had difficulties in grammar and pronunciation. They also lacked vocabulary. They were also less motivated
because of the monotonous and less fun learning activities in the classroom. In addition, only few of them brought a dictionary in the classroom.
There were other factors contributing the problems above. The use of media was sometimes absent in the classroom, such as pictures, cards realia,
etc. Then, the materials were also limited to the use of LKS. Eventhough each
students had got their own coursebook from the library, not all of them brought the book to the class and the teacher also seldom made use of the book. The
classroom activities were less motivating the students in learning. The class was monotonous and less fun learning activities. The classroom activities were
focused on repeating after the teacher, memorizing a dialog, or responding to drills. Moreover, there were few opportunities for the students to practice
speaking. As the consequences, the absent of media, the limited speaking activities and practice taught in the class promoted to the
students’ low speaking abilities.
By improving the component of English Teaching and Learning process, the students’ speaking skills could also be improved. One of the
component was media. From many kinds of media, pictures were chosen as they were powerful elements of which benefits could support the success of
teaching and learning. Pictures serve a shared experience in the classroom and
a sense of the context of the language. They provide a specific reference point or stimulus in speaking. Besides, they propose a variety of fun speaking games
and activities. Pictures also contribute to interest and motivation as they serve for illustration, develop learners’ imagination, and make the learning process
more interesting and entertaining. Sometimes, teachers and students could create their own drawings as the media. Through pictures, students are
stimulated to express ideas and to speak up in interesting and entertaining atmosphere.
Pictures as one of the media in teaching and learning process was expected to overcome the problems as they provide a number of benefits.
Pictures themselves are powerful to develop learners’ imagination and stimulate
them to express ideas. Finally, pictures were expected to be able to overcome the problems and to help the students to improve their speaking skills.
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Figure 6: Conceptual Framework of the Research
Speaking
Pictures are implemented in the teaching and learning process to improve the students’ speaking skills.
Participant Feedback
Provider
Pictures Definition
Benefits Procedure
Printed Still
JHS Curriculum
Text-Based Approach
Prompter
Audio Recount
Text
Visual Audio
visual
Teaching Speaking
Real object
Simulated
Curriculum Skill
Teacher Students
Assessment Techniques
Material Activities
Media
Nature Definition
Micro- and Macro-skills
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CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODS
This chapter presents the methods used in this research. They consist of type of the research, research setting, subjects of the research, type of data, instruments
and data collection techniques, techniques of data analysis, validity and reliability, and the research procedure. Each and all of them will be presented below.
A. Type of the Research
The research conducted was Action Research. According to Burns 2010, action research is a self-reflective, systematic and critical approach to
enquiry by participants who are at the same time members of the research community. The aim is to identify problematic situations or issues considered
by the participants to be worthy of investigation in order to bring about critically informed changes in practice. Action research is underpinned by democratic
principles in that ownership of change is invested in those who conduct the research.
In other words, the central idea of Action Research is to solve the problematic situation and to bring about changes and better improvements in
practice. In this research study, the researcher directly participated in the research in order to solve the problems existed in the teaching and learning
process of speaking and to bring improvements to the students’ speaking skills of grade VIII students of SMP Negeri 2 Godean through pictures.
