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To assess speaking ability, the teacher or scorer should pay attention to the elements of speaking. Harmer 1991 states speaking ability assessments involve
5 indicators. They are pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, fluency, and comprehension. Pronunciation relates to sounds production such as the production
of vowel, consonant, stress, and intonation. To have good pronunciation level, the students have to imitate or listen from their teachers or other students who are
capable in pronuncing. Vocabulary is the list of words which can be combined in a sentence. The more speaking activities the students have, the more vocabularies
the students posses. Having good vocabulary is essential in speaking to add the creativity in discussing the topic of speaking. Grammar is the science of sentences
syntax and forms morphology. Fluency is the smoothness of the speaking activity. Fluency relates to the mastery of the speaking topic. Comprehension is
the coherence of the speaking topic. Comprehensive speaking affects the listeners’
understanding of the speakers’ utterances.
5. Academic Performance
Students are able to measure their understanding ability of certain subjects at school from their academic performance result. Geiser and Santelices 2007
state that academic performance can be used to predict the competence level of high school students in understanding certain fields of study. Then, the teachers
are able to describe the learning outcome from the level of students’ competence. Learning outcome contains brief, clear, and specific statements describing what
the learner is expected to achieve as a result of instruction Simpson 1972. The learning outcome shows what the learner is expected to achieve and the learner is
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expected to demonstrate that achievement. The learning outcome is written based on the learners’ perspective. In this case, there is no tendency of assessing learners
based on like or dislike. The learning outcome reflects how far learners master the learning objectives which are determined on the learning syllabus.
Academic performance is the combination of learners’ understanding in the
previous learning theories they have studied and also the summit of previous learning activities. Carter 1959 defines academic achievement or performance as
knowledge acquired and skills developed in a certain school subjects. The indicators of the students’ knowledge acquisition and skills development are
usually indicated by the school test. Since the academic performance test is already planned in school curriculum and known by the students, then the students
usually prepare their academic performance their best. Academic performance prosecutes the students to blend their cognitive, affective, and psychomotor senses
to in the best construction. The cognitive field includes knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. This field relates
to the scores of the students in a theoretical test. The affective field includes receiving, attending, responding, valuing, organizing, and characterizing by a
value complexities. Psychomotor field is the establishment of performance through perception, set, guided response, mechanism, complex overt response,
adaptation, and origination. This field relates to the level of students in performing practical skill of learning materials.
The scores of academic performance become the guidance for the teachers to determine the ranks of students in their class
describing the students’ competence level. This definition supports the recent application in a school
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curriculum which uses students’ academic scores to decide the students’ academic
competence on the academic reports. Therefore, the academic report content must be clear for students and
reliable based on the students’ academic result during a certain academic period. Chaplin 1965 states that academic performance is
someone special achievements in doing academic task. Here, the result of students’ academic performance is the students’ identity which differentiate their
academic competence with other students. The scores of the test or exam which are taken by the teachers can describe
the quality of students’ achievement. In accordance, every teacher who has given the scores to the students must possess competency to establish scoring system,
including in making the questions sheets to be tested to the students in order to conduct
reliable scores considering the students’ knowledge and skill. Good in Slameto 2002 states that academic performance is an achievement or capability
seen in an expertise or bunch of knowledge, attitude, and skill. Academic performance is stated as reached knowledge or skill which is improved in certain
field of subject at school, usually settled by a test or an exam established and guided by teachers. The lack of knowledge and teaching method from a teacher
becomes a problem for the education system since the students mostly rely on their
teachers’ instruction to establish learning activities. Hence, learning outcomes or achievements are useful to support the availability of appropriate
instructional learning activities as well. If the teachers want to seek for the level of learning outcome and learning or
academic achievement of their students, they have to conduct academic performances. Simpson and Weiner 1989 state that performance is measurable
