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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
This chapter deals with general background of the study, reasons for choosing the topic, statement of the problem, objective of the study, statement of
the hypothesis, significance of the study, definition and key terms and organization of the report.
1.1 General Background of the Study
In Indonesia, English is taught as a compulsory subject for Senior High School, Junior High School, and even in Elementary School. In each level of school, there
are four skills that should be mastered in learning English, they are; listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
Based on the KTSP Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan in the year of 2006, the students in the tenth grade of Senior High School level have to be
able to tell the meaning of essays in the form of narrative, descriptive, and news item to the others orally in the context of daily conversation. It means that it is
important for students to have a lot of speaking practices so that they are able to speak fluently.
As a matter of fact, most students get difficulties in speaking English as their foreign language. Actually, the problem which occurs frequency in speaking
is the unwillingness of students to speak during speaking class. As in the school
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that I have observed, SMA N 1 Karangkobar, most students are less active in speaking class. According to the data from the examination in the last semester,
their speaking ability score is under average. Commonly, the basic problems are about vocabularies and pronunciation. That is why they are often inhibited about
trying to say things in a foreign language in the classroom. They are worried about making mistakes, fearful of criticism or losing face in front of the class.
Based on this condition, it is better if the teacher trains them indirectly or uses indirect way in order to make a good atmosphere in learning English especially
speaking, for example by using pair work. In order to solve the speaking activity problems, there are several
solutions such as: role play, picture cued elicitation, and so on. Actually, the teacher had tried those learning strategies in teaching speaking but there are no
significant differences of the students result in the end of the exam. In this study, I use Think-Pair-Share as one of cooperative learning strategies to be applied in
speaking class. The topic is “The Use of Think-Pair-Share Strategy to Improve
Students’ Speaking Ability”. I choose think-pair-share strategy in which the students are asked to think by themselves silently first in order to answer the
question and then they are divided into pairs called consensus building to have students collaborate in completing an assigned task. Finally, they have
presentation activity in which they have to share their ideas to the rest of the class. This study is expected will be a more significant way to improve students’
speaking ability.
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1.2 Reasons for Choosing the Topic
