CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
This chapter presents the backgound of the study, Reasons for choosing topic, Statement of the Problem, Objectives of the Study, Significance of the
Study, Definition of Key terms, Outline of the Study.
1.1 Background of the Study
Learning English is very important, because English has become an international language, which is used by most communities in the world. Many countries use
English as their second language. In spite of the difficulties in studying English, it is worthwhile to study the language because it plays a very important role in
almost all fields of life such as: communication, commerce economy, politics, education, science, technology and so on.
As Depdikbud 1994:1 states English in Indonesia is the first foreign language, which is important to study modern science and technology. For this
very important reason, our government has included English in our education curriculum in order to make our society is able to speak English actively or
passively. In a Speaking class, students are expected to participate actively. The more
students participate, the better their speaking skill will be. However, many educators regretted the fact that speaking classes are very quiet. Students do only
speak when they are asked by the teachers. Besides, only few of them are willing 1
to answer the questions voluntarily without being asked too. More students have to speak when they are finally pointed by the lecturers to answer. Being forced in
that way, students answer the questions doubtfully and in a muffed voice, almost inaudible by other students. There is only one interaction pattern, from the
lecturers to the students. If the students are invited to draw questions and express their ideas, most of them will bow their heads and say nothing.
It is well known that final result of teaching is affected by some factors, they are: learners, the teacher, time allotment, material, the use of visual aid,
methodology, teaching material and interaction between the teacher and students in the classroom.
Interaction is viewed as significant as it is argued that: 1 only through interaction can the learners decompose the target language
structures and derive meaning from classroom events ; 2 interaction gives learners the opportunities to incorporate target
language structures to their own speech the scaffolding principle ; 3 the meaningfulness for learners of classroom events of any kinds
whether thought of as interactive or not, will depend on the extent to which communication has been jointly constructed between the teacher
and the learners. Craig Chaudron, 1998 : 10
From the statements above it can be inferred that classroom interaction includes all of the classroom events, both verbal interaction and non-verbal
interaction. The verbal interaction takes place because of the teacher and learners
talk, while non-verbal interaction covers gestures or facial expression by the teacher and learners when they communicate without using words. These two
kinds of talk are important; they dominate the classroom events and influence students‟ foreign language acquisition.
Teaching and learning English is not the same as learning any other subject. It should cover four language skills; those are listening, speaking, reading and
writing. According to communicative approach, those skills should not be ignored since they are essential to support the achievement of learning English. Naturally,
besides those language skills, there are thinking skills which include understanding skill. Nunan 1983:80:81 claims that understanding a text involves
understanding different kinds of meaning at the same time. This skill is very special skill, because it is always on all of the skill of language. Such as the
reading skill without understanding, it is very difficult to getting the information from the text; speaking skill without understanding, it will not be able to deliver
the messages well to other people; listening skill without understanding, it cannot catch the content of the communication, and writing skill without understanding it
cannot make a writing which is correct in form or structure. Because of the reason above, it is important for the teacher to use the right
technique in teaching. Althought English for elementary school is only purposed to improve students‟ language accompanying action using simple activities to
introduce students with English subject, it becomes a good starting point for learning English. In the senior high school, the students are in the age of 15
– 17 years old. Learners in those ages are called teenagers who are in the age of
puberty. The students are in the transition period between their childhood and adulthood that causes self - conciousness. In this age, they have a big curiosity
and they are very energetic. This situation actually can enable the teacher to explore the students‟ curiosity and energy to learn something new included
learning English that can be said as new language for them. In line with the background of this study, I interested in knowing how well
the teacher applying cooperative learning in their teaching. In this case, I want to know
“ How can the interactive activities be used to teach speaking skills? However, it is not easy for the teachers to apply cooperative leaning as the part of
their teaching because of the limitation of their knowledge and experience with cooperative learning.
1.2 Reasons for Choosing Topic
