and the demands of speaking. They also must critically consider the strategies that can facilitate their oral communication. Learners may work collaboratively with
their peers.
2. 1. 4 Assessing Speaking
Assessing speaking is considered as a challenging activity because teacher as the examiner often finds difficulties in deciding of how well the students speak
the language. Luoma 2004 states that there are so many factors which can influence the teacher impression about the
students’ ability in speaking the language. It happens because the teacher expects the test scores to be accurate and
appropriate for the purpose. Sometimes, it will be very difficult to judge the students’ speaking skill if the teacher only gives focus to one out of the five
elements of speaking skill, namely pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. Because it is often found in the field that there are many
students have large vocabulary but they are lack of grammar. Meanwhile, there are some students that have good pronunciation and grammar, but they only have
small vocabulary. Some students are very talkative in delivering the idea, in the other hand, they often mispronounce the words. Other students are not talkative.
They only speak few words but they speak accurately and grammatically correct. Those factors often give the teacher a lot of considerations before he or she
decided the score. In this situation, the teacher must give a fair judgment to the students.
Creating a language test to measure the students’ ability in speaking is sometimes confusing. As a teacher, we are often wondering what is the best
technique to apply in assessing students’ speaking ability. Therefore, before the PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
teachers create the test, they must think of it carefully. Hughes 1989 state that the test or the testing system should consistently provide accurate measures of
precisely the abilities in which the teachers are interested. It must have a beneficial effect on teaching, especially in the cases where the test is likely to
influence teaching. It is also economical in terms of time and money. There are some purposes why the testing is conducted. Hughes 1989
mentions that the purpose of the testing is to measure the language proficiency. That is why testing is often conducted after one or some materials have been
finished to discuss. Testing is also to discover how successful students have been in achieving the objectives of a course of study. Testing
is to diagnose students’ strength and weaknesses, means to identify what they know and what they do not
know. It is to assist placement of students by identifying the stage of or part of teaching program most appropriate to their ability.
A test can be said valid if it measures accurately what it is intended to measure. In assessing speaking, the teachers should be clear with the purpose of
the test. If the main purpose is to find out the students’ skill in talking the language, then the teachers will not give the focus to students’ reading or writing
skill. Hughes 1989 mentions that there are two empirical evidences which are needed to support the test construct validity. Content validity is the first form of
evidence relates to the content of the test. A test is said to have content validity if the content constitutes a representative sample of the language skills. The test
should have content validity if it is included a proper sample of the relevant structures. The relevant structures will depend upon the purpose of the test. Since
the researcher conducted the research in the eighth grade of Junior High School, it PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
means that the researcher should not expect that the students’ speaking skill will be much better than the students in the ninth grade. The second form of evidence
relates to the content of the test is criterion-related validity. It relates to the degree to which results on the test agree with those provided by some independent and
highly dependable assessment of the students’ ability. In other words, the material of the test for eight grade junior high school may not be mixed with the material
for the ninth grade of Junior High School. Having validity in scoring is also very important. Hughes 1989 says that
not only the items that should be valid but also the score. It is no use having excellent items of testing if they are scored invalidly. When the teachers wish to
measure the students’ speaking skill, it is not enough to elicit speech in a valid fashion. The rating of the speech should be valid too. The teachers may give
different score to the students who can deliver the idea smoothly to those who need more time to speak the idea.
Reliability gives more support to the validity of the test. Hughes 1989 mentions that we may not believe a hundred percent of all the results of the test in
any set of test scores. The teachers must know that the result of the test may be different if it is conducted in a different day. This situation cannot be avoided;
therefore, the teachers must accept it. What the teachers have to do is construct, administer, and score the tests in any ways that the scores actually reached on a
test on a particular occasion at least should be similar to those which would have been reached if it had been conducted to the same students and the same ability
but in different time. The more similar of the score, then the more reliable the test is said to be.
2. 1. 5 Action Research
Action Research AR is one of the best ways for the researcher to find the problem during the teaching and learning process, analyze it, and then find the
best solution for it. McNiff Whitehead 2002 state that AR is a practical way to check whether how the way you are teaching in the classroom runs just the way
that you are planning or expecting. If you think that your practice is satisfactory, then you may explain how and why that makes you think that this is the case.
Later on you can provide some evidences to prove your claims. However, when you think that your practice is the opposite or less satisfactory, then you may take
an action to improve it. Later on, you may produce the evidences to show that in what way that your practice has changed and improve.
Action Research is quite important to apply in the classroom. It can help the teacher to find the solutions of the problem that is found during the teaching and
learning process. Mills 2011 says that AR can be defined as systematically investigation conducted by the teachers, the administrators, the counsellors, or
anyone else which has a special interest in teaching and learning process in order to gather some information about their school, how the way the teachers teach,
and how the way the students learn. Meanwhile, Johnson 2008 says that AR is a kind of research which is conducted by the teachers and for their own beneficial.
Syamsuddin and Damaianti 2006 state that AR is a way for a group or individual in organizing of a condition in order to learn their experiences and
make those experiences are accessible for other people. It is hoped that the experiences made by the previous researchers can be learned by other people who
have the same difficulties in handling the problems in the classroom because the PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
aim of AR is to improve the work quality of others. Practically, this research purpose is to improve the quality of the research subject. The subject of the
research may be a group of people or only an individual who have the same purpose which is to improve the quality of their work. Syamsuddin and Damaianti
2006 conclude that AR is more emphasize to the activity action by experimenting the ideas through the practice or the real situation in a micro scale,
and it is hoped that the activity may repair and improve the quality in a certain situation, teaching and learning process for the example. Parson Brown 2002
mention that AR can make the teachers to study about their own classes. It includes the method that the teachers use during the teaching and learning
process, study about the students, and study about the teachers themselves. AR is applied in the classroom to gain better understanding and to improve the quality
and the effectiveness of the teachers themselves. The research is focus on the unique characteristics from a population.
Action Research has some characteristics. Syamsuddin and Damaianti 2006 mention that the researcher is the active agent in the main activity. They
also mention that the researcher is the agent of change. Meanwhile, the participant of the research will have the benefit from the result of the action which was given
regularly by the researcher. Besides that, Stringer 2007 states that AR is democratic because it gives many chances for the people to participate. AR is
equitable because it gives value to every person’s work. AR is liberating because it provides the people’s freedom from pressure situations and weak conditions.
AR is life enhancing because it is able to show the expression of the people’s
potential. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
