cxiii Project Work, the atmosphere
changed. Students could answer the teacher‘s questions using new vocabulary.
Another finding of the research showed that there was an improvement of the students
‘ method to express ideas. After the implementation of Project Work, the students could express their ideas clearly using new vocabularies and
grammatical forms. Their use of their mother tongue decreased during the implementation of Project Work. Formerly, the mother tongue was used in the
following occasions: 1 presenting the speech; 2 answering questions dealing with the dialog; 3 translating the dialog presented by the teacher; 4 preparing
material for presentation, both in monolog and dialog; 5 answering teacher‘s
questions. After the implementation of Project Work, the use of the mother tongue decreased. The mother tongue was used only when the students had
difficulties in understanding the meanings of certain words and when they referred to some complicated points.
b. Improvement of classroom atmosphere
The findings of teaching and learning process showed that there was a change of classroom atmosphere before and after Project Work PW was
implemented in the speaking class. The teaching and learning process using PW was more alive. Most of the activities were student-centered. The authentic
material in the students‘ life was more interesting for them so that they felt more motivated to do the work. Working in a group collaboratively also supported the
students‘ interest to study harder. The activities were conducted individually, in pairs and in groups.
cxiv Students showed high participations in speaking class. They were eager to
conduct the project with high spirit. They were not afraid of making mistakes because the class was far away of humiliating the students and tolerating the
students with various level of ability. The teacher was appreciated all of the students‘ effort in speaking, although the speech was not perfect in the form. The
speaking class was full of enjoyment; the group work was colored with students‘
laugh. It showed the eagerness of the students in learning speaking in a relax atmosphere.
The students could get a life skill from the implementation of Project Work in the classroom. The writer asked the groups to prepare one project to be
practiced at home and to bring the results to school. They were able to describe the process. They were very proud of working in group to practice it.
Other findings in this research were dealing with the teacher. As a teacher, she improved herself in many points. First, she was better than before in
designing and developing teaching materials, such as in preparing work sheets that were suitable with the teaching purpose. Second, she became more familiar
with her students. She noticed her students‘ potencies and problems in speaking.
Therefore, she could find a suitable way of teaching speaking to her students. Lastly, she appreciated her students better than before the implementation of
Project Work.
b. The Strengths and weaknesses
