CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
Chapter I presents discussions of the thesis background that motivates the writer to write the thesis. There are six major concerns presented in this chapter.
Those are background of the study, problem limitation, problem formulation, objectives of the study, benefits of the study, and definition of terms.
A. Background of the Study
Language is the center feature of cultures in communication and the spoken language is the primary Richard and Rodgers, 1986: 8. Lado 1961: 240
describes speaking ability as the ability to express oneself in life situations or the ability to report situations in appropriate words, or the ability to converse, or to
express the intended messages without undue hesitation. In communication, there are at least two individuals involved. The first individual is the speaker and the
other is the hearer. In a moment, the speaker tries to send the intended message and the hearer tries to comprehend the message received. Their roles in
communication exchange continually. In accordance with the development of human resource, the request for
international language, English, is increasing rapidly. It appears because English is a means of communication and interaction across the world. As a matter of fact,
English is used in broad areas such as education, economy, entertainment, information, news, etc. As a support to the issue, English language teaching has
received special attention. This attention is due to the role of English as a means
1 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
of global communication, and the transfer of science and technology. As a result, the mastery of this language is highly required. Schools and universities now offer
English as a compulsory subject. English language teaching has a special position in schools. It is
compulsory for Indonesian students mainly from lower secondary schools to university level. According to the decree of the Minister of Education and Culture
1967 number 69 or National Education, English is the first foreign language for all Indonesian students from lower secondary education to university levels. The
main goal is to provide students with good English mastery so that they are able to participate in various academic activities, most of which are conveyed in English.
In achieving the goal, learners should master the English skills; they are reading, listening, speaking and writing. Nunan 2003: 48 explains that speaking
skill in new language is more difficult than other skills. Davies 2000: 82 also states that speaking comes naturally to humans, but it is not as simple as it seems.
It needs high effort to be able to utter something in English. Bailey and Savage 1994 as cited by Lazarton 2000: 103 explain that “speaking in a second or
foreign language has often been viewed as the most demanding of four skills.” It means that speaking skill is very important to be mastered by students. However,
many learners in Indonesia are less able to speak actively in English, especially before they enter university level. Rivers 1968: 161 explains that speaking
English well means that those learners are aware of certain aspects of the code. The codes are vocabulary of the language, phonological and morphological
features, and syntactical rules. Learners should master or at least approach some PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
characteristics in speaking such as task completion, comprehensibility, fluency, pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. IX,
No.4, http:iteslj.org. Learners should prepare their four English skills before entering university
or higher level of study. They study English in schools. Franke 1884 as cited by Richards 2001: 11 explains that in teaching a new language teacher should use it
actively in the classroom. It means that teachers should encourage students to try to speak in order to communicate with each other. Nevertheless, schools do not
provide sufficient time to learn English. Moreover, learners have limited opportunity to use and practice the language, either in the classroom or outside
classroom. The researcher found that schools in Yogyakarta provided extra time to study in extracurricular activities. One of them was SMA Stella Duce Bantul.
SMA Stella Duce Bantul states that English is one of the main subjects in the school education system. In the regular hours of teaching English, the time to
study was limited. Learners only have four hours a week to study. Knowing that there are many English materials that learners should master in the limited time,
SMU Stella Duce Bantul gives extra hours for learning. Extracurricular activities seem to be the solution. Nouveldt 1997: 482 explains that extracurricular
activity is not the part of the required curriculum and outside the regular course of the study. However, it is under the supervision of the school. The extracurricular
activity is intended to broaden the students’ knowledge in one or more fields. Extracurricular activities give more time for teachers to teach the learners in
informal situation and to give the learners more opportunity to explore, practice, PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
and express their feelings, thought, and opinion. SMU Stella Duce Bantul has many extracurricular activities including English. In this activity learners have
opportunities to practice and participate in problem solving activities and develop their skills in English.
The researcher had taught the twelfth grade students of SMA Stella Duce Bantul English in extracurricular activity for a year. Related to the fact, the
researcher identified the general area of the learners and she found that they had problems in speaking English well. It covered content, comprehensibility, fluency,
pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar. The researcher found that the students were talkative but they could not speak fluently because of bad grammar and lack
of vocabulary. Besides, students often had difficulties in choosing topics to talk. In order to solve the problems in students’ speaking ability, the researcher
employed classroom action research. The research deals with the technique in teaching speaking. In this research, the researcher conducted cycles until she
found an appropriate technique to teach speaking. Techniques in teaching speaking are in various and the techniques support the learners to master the
materials. The researcher stopped the cycle when she obtained satisfying result on students’ speaking ability. The satisfying result is when students achieved 87 or
score 18 points in speaking ability in the level at the minimum. The researcher conducted research in teaching speaking to the students in XII IPS 1 of SMA
Stella Duce Bantul. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
B. Problem Formulation
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