7 From the teacher aspect, Talking Chips strategy could help the teacher to vary
the activities to maintain the students’ motivation on learning, and gradually it would help the teacher to support the students to improve their speaking skills.
As for the students, this strategy could help the students to have equal opportunity to practice their speaking skills since they need to give contribution
during the learning process.
C. Delimitation of the Problem
The lack of students’ speaking skills were caused by many factors; the teacher, the students, and the activities done in the classroom. Based on the
problems presented above, Talking Chips strategy could be the way to solve the problems. From the teacher aspect, it would help the teacher to improve her
ability to create good atmosphere in learning and to be creative on the learning process. From the students’ aspect, Talking Chips strategy could give equal
opportunity for the students to practice their English speaking skills. From the process aspect, Talking Chips strategy could help the students to maintain their
motivation on learning since it could help the students to improve their speaking skills in a fun way.
D. Formulation of the Problem
Based on the limitation of the problem, the problem was formulated as follows “How could speaking ability be improved through the implementation of
Talking Chips strategy ?”
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E. Objective of the Study
The study is carried out to improve the students’ speaking ability by
implementing Talking Chips strategy.
F. Significance of the Study
1. To the Teachers of English
The results of this study are hopefully useful for teachers of English they may also find it easier to develop the materials which are interesting to the
students so that teachers will be more creative in teaching. 2.
To the Students For the students, hopefully they will improve their speaking skill whether in
the learning process or in other occasions. 3.
To the Writer Herself By conducting this research, the writer expects she will improve her
knowledge about English teaching in Indonesia and raise her creativity in the teaching world.
4. To Other Students of English Education Study Program
This thesis could be used as the source of information for future research on relevant written work.
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CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW
A. Literature Review
1. The Nature of Speaking
a. Definitions of Speaking
There are four skills of language that need to be learned by the language learners. They are listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Bailey in Nunan
2003: 48 states that the four skills are described in terms of their direction. Language generated by the learner in speech or writing is referred as
productive, while language directed at the learner in reading or listening is called receptive. Another important idea is the channel, which refers to the
medium of the message aural oral or written. So that, Bailey in Nunan 2003: 48 describes speaking as the productive aural or oral skill which consists of
producing systematic verbal utterances to convey meaning. Harmer 2001: 269 defines speaking as the ability to speak fluently
presupposes not only knowledge of language features, but also the ability to process information and language „on the spot’. It requires the ability to
cooperate in the management of speaking turns and non-verbal language. In addition, Thornbury 2005: 20 states that speaking is an activity in
real life that is carried out by speaker to convey his or her ideas to interact with the listeners. The activities are unplanned and the continuity of the activities is
based on situations. Since the speaking activities do not have much planning
10 time, so the grammar used in speaking activities tend to be less complex than
grammar in writing. However, speaking activities are not simply producing words and sounds, yet every speaker has purposes on doing the activities
From some definitions above, it could be concluded that speaking is productive skill in which it is used to communicate with others. It is not only
producing words and sounds, but the speakers has purposes on doing the activity which is to convey meaning and share the speakers’ ideas to the listeners.
b. Functions of Speaking
There have been numerous attempts made to classify the functions of speaking in human interaction. Richards 2008: 21 distinguishes the functions
of speaking into three categories which are quite distinct in terms of form and function and requires different teaching approaches. Those functions are
categorized into talk as interaction, talk as transaction, and talk as performance. Talk as interaction refers to what we normally mean by “conversation”
and describes interaction that serves a primarily social function Richards, 2008: 22. People do the speaking activity in order to be friendly and to establish a
comfortable zone of interaction with others. The focus on this category is more on the speakers and how they wish to present themselves to each other than on
the message. The main features of talk as interaction described by Richards 2008: 22 could be quoted as follow:
a. Has a primarily social function
b. Reflects role relationships
c. Reflects speaker’s identity
d. May be formal or causal
e. Uses conversational conventions
f. Reflects degrees of politeness
