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7 Cooperative learning help students develop skills in oral communication like
sharing an idea, clarifying, turn-taking, and etc. In addition, Cooper and Robinson 2000:12 state that cooperative learning
method is not only provide rich experiences that foster achievement and critical thinking but also develop affective dimensions of students, such as sense of
community, altruism, self-efficacy, and learner empowerment. In line with Cooper and Robinson, Bill McKeachie in Cooper and Robinson 2000: 14
suggests that if teachers want students to become more effective in meaningful learning and thinking, they need to spend more time in active, meaningful
learning and thinking. The learning process is not just sitting and just passively receiving information. Based on the benefits that are mentioned by experts above,
it can be said that cooperative learning gives positive effects on students in teaching learning process.
d. The Jigsaw Technique in Cooperative Learning
1 Definition of the Jigsaw Technique
There are some kinds of technique in cooperative learning such as Students Teams-Achievement Division STAD, Teams-Games-Tournaments
TGT, Team Assisted Individualization TAI, Jigsaw, Group Investigation. Learning Together, and Think-Pair-Share. Borich 2007: 391 proposes
differences of the jigsaw technique among four cooperative learning activities that are presented in table below:
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Table 2: The Differences of the Jigsaw Technique among Cooperative Learning Activities
Student Teams- Achievement Division
STAD 1.
The teacher presents content in lecture or discussion 2.
Teams work through problemsquestions on worksheets
3. The teacher gives quiz over material studied
4. The teacher determines team average and individual
improvement scores
Team-Games-Tournament TGT
1. The teacher presents content in lecture or discussion
2. Teams work through problemsquestions on
worksheets 3.
Teams play academic games against each other for points
4. The teacher tallies team points over 4 week period to
determine best team and best individual scores
Jigsaw 1.
Students read section of text and are assigned unique topic.
2. Students within teams with same topic meet in “expert
groups” 3.
Students return to home group to share knowledge of their topic with teammates.
4. Students take quiz over each topic discussed
5. Individual quizzes are used to create team scores and
individual scores
Team-Assisted Individualization TAI
1. Students are given diagnostic testexercise by student
monitor to determine placement in materials. 2.
Students work through assigned unit at their own pace.
3. Teammate checks teaxt agains answers and student
monitor gives quiz 4.
Team quizzes are averaged and number of units completed are counted by monitor to create team
scores.
Mattingly and Van Sickle in Mayer Alexander 2011: 356-357 define the jigsaw technique as group work that group members share the same section
and then join with another pair of students. If the sections are more open-ended so there is no single right answer, or if students are encouraged to take notes during
the focus groups to provide a support when the original groups re-assembles. It means when group members are doing the jigsaw technique, they have all the
pieces or few pieces in front of them. Each group has a different part with other
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groups which may be information from a story or factual fact, parts of picture or comic strip, parts of short explanation of relating materials, have to be fitted
together to find the solution. That is why the jigsaw technique is said to improve cooperation and mutual accpetance within the group and well-known for
cooperative learning. In this context, the group members also have to do a lot of talking before they are able to fit the pieces together in the right way.
In addition,
Burkart 1998
states that the jigsaw technique is focused in group working and more elaborate information gap activities that is able to build
the students’ bravery and communication ability with other people or friends because by using this technique each student gets one or few pieces of the
“puzzle”. With that piece, students are expected to share, retell the story or discuss certain topic with English language in their group or other group and also can give
opinion or response from other students’ opinion to fit all the pieces and get meaningful information.
It can be said that the jigsaw technique is a kind of group work that the students are expected to share the information, retell the story, or discuss the
certain topic with other members in the same and in the different group to get meaningful information and find the solution. Besides, because each group has
different part of information, the group members have to make a good cooperation with involving actively in order collecting all the pieces together.
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2 Benefits of the Jigsaw Technique in Language Teaching
Dycus 1996 states that the jigsaw technique is focused on peer tutoring and information gaps. It means that the students can express their idea and their
ability to solve the problems. Besides, the students are motivated to ask some questions if there is difficulty to their friends who are clever. This technique also
increases the participation of the students in teaching learning process. In addition, the jigsaw technique is a kind of group work activities.
Related to this, Harmer 2001: 117 proposes some advantages of group work. First, group work increases the amount of talking for individual students. It gives
more opportunity for students to practice language without hesitant. Second, personal relationships are usually less problematic. There is greater chance of
different options or opinions and varied contributions than in pair work. Third, group work helps students who have difficulty to master the lesson material as a
result of asking and interacting with other friends. In other words, it allows the students to interact at all stages to accomplish a given task. Fourth, group works
creates a comfort and creative atmosphere. It can enhance students’ self confidence and motivation to speak English fluently. Last, group work encourages
boarder skills of cooperation and negotiation. In summary, the jigsaw technique is expected to give some benefits in language teaching process like the benefits of
group work as well.
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3 The Implementation of the Jigsaw Technique to Improve Speaking
Skills
Implementing the jigsaw technique to improve speaking skills is not easy. It needs hard efforts to be successful on it. The jigsaw technique involves some
groups; therefore, it needs a good time management. When the jigsaw technique is conducted in classroom, the students are asked to complete a task by obtaining
missing information. This activity is related to the real communication. The following are the guidelines on applying the jigsaw technique to
enhance speaking skills of students at classroom. First, on pre-teaching process, the teacher explains the objective of the lesson, gives direction how to conduct a
the jigsaw technique. Second, on whilst-teaching process, the teacher introduces the topic, presents the materials based on Standard Competency and Basic
Competency at SMK N 1 Depok, introduces language function and the context, modelling, and so on. After that, the teacher gives each students in group one
topic. Students within teams with same topic meet in ‘expert groups’. Next, after discussing and finishing some tasks, students return to home group to share
knowledge of their topic with teammates. They can share, retell, ask some questions to the others. In the end of this section, students take quiz over each
topic discussed. It creates team scores and individual scores. Third, in post- teaching process, students and teacher review the material and make a conclusion.
In conclusion, those are some steps to conduct the jigsaw technique in classroom. Generally, the jigsaw technique tries to involve all students to work
together in finishing the task. The teacher can vary the activities with the
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interesting topics and media. Moreover, the teacher can brainstorm with the students when setting up the activity to preview the language they will need,
eliciting what they already know and supplementing what they are able to produce themselves.
B. Review of Relevant Studies
In this study, the researcher summarizes the related studies to prove the originality of the research. The first is Nurkasih 2010 in her thesis Improving
Students’ Speaking Skill through Communicative Group Technique A Classroom Action Research at SMP Negeri 1 Bojonegoro. From the research, she concludes
that Communicative Group Technique CGT has implication to improve students’ speaking ability. The English teachers are expected to use CGT that
makes students communicate based on the context to increase and apply some teaching learning techniques to motivate in speaking English. She also states that
making a mistake becomes a natural part of the teaching learning process for someone in English learning.
The second is Khameis 2006 in Using Creative Strategies to Promote Students’ Speaking Skills. In this research, she states that teachers should
encourage students to work collaboratively on speaking tasks. She also strongly recommend that teachers consider implementing other strategies to promote
students’ speaking skills, such as presentations, interviews, role plays and show- and-tell sessions. The data collected seem to support her assumptions that using
songs and puppets would have a positive impact on students’ spoken production,
