4. The teachers need to realize that they teach to serve the students so that
there will be empathy between the teachers and the students. Therefore, it will create a good atmosphere that makes the students learn at ease.
5. It is better for the teachers to work collaboratively because the teachers
can get criticism and suggestions to improve the teaching and learning processes better. Moreover, by working collaboratively the can see
alternatives and share ideas to make those processes run more effectively.
6. Based on the reflections of the actions, it could be seen that there were
some successful and unsuccessful actions in the use of communicative activities as the method in the teaching and learning process. This
implies that the researcher needs to provide more varied communicative activities to enhance students‘ speaking skills to improve his teaching
ability.
C. Suggestions
After conducting the research, I proposed some suggestions for the English teacher, English Education Department‘s students and other researchers, SMP N
8 Yogyakarta, and English Education Department. The suggestions are as follows.
1. For the English teacher as the collaborators
It is important for the English teacher, especially the English teachers in VIII.II SMP N 8 Yogyakarta to improve
students‘ speaking skills. The teacher needs to develop their speaking skills and create an enjoyable classroom atmosphere in
the classroom, so that they will be motivated to learn. It can be done by using communicative activities as the method accompanied by some activities enabling
students to develop their speaking skills. The teacher should continue the successful actions which had been conducted.
They should continue the efforts to improve the students‘ speaking skills. It is necessary for them to create various activities and use various media to support
the leaning processes so that the learning processes can be enjoyable and students can find them motivated. The class should be prepared well before it is
conducted. The collaborators should plan and design the class activities well so that the learning processes can be done more effectively and the teachers do not
forget to deliver certain points or skip particular activities. They need to give balance proportion of pre-communicative activities and communicative activities
so that the students could use the language for communication fluently and accurately. If the teachers want to make the students achieve the best in the
teaching and learning processes, make sure that the students understand the tasks and materials and the objectives that they need to accomplish by the end of the
lesson. Furthermore, it is also important to improve the use of classroom English, since it can also encourage the students to improve their language production.
Moreover, the teachers can use various media to make the activities more enjoyable and interesting. They need to give more opportunities for the students
to practice their English so that the students can be involved in every single activity. Furthermore, they also need to solve the problems that have not been
solved yet. The teacher should recommend others to do the same to make the
teaching and learning processes better. 2. For the English Education Department‘s Students
The students should be more aware and careful in choosing a method to teach English, especially in speaking. In this case, communicative activities as the
method can be one of the alternative materials to teach speaking since communicative activities allows students to see the use of particular expressions
in certain contexts. 3. For other researchers
After conducting this action research, I should have more practices to use classroom English since it can really motivate students to learn. In addition to
that, I should be more creative in creating activities and media to support the teaching and learning processes. It is also necessary for me to read more because
the more I read the more knowledge I get. I can learn something new through reading. Moreover, the results of this research are expected to be able to
encourage other researchers to conduct further study related to speaking skills or the use of communicative activities as the method for other skills.
4. For SMP N 8 Yogyakarta
To support the teaching and learning processes, the school needs to allocate the funds to the development of the media and materials. The school needs to provide
the students with adequate books since the students need a lot of exposures to master English language.
5. For the English Education Department
In conducting this research, I found a technical problem dealing with the
references. The references are not enough to provide an example of research. So, I suggest the English Education Department to prepare and make sure that the
research is well-prepared through providing the adequate reference. In addition, the results of this research are expected to be able to provide some information
and as reference before conducting further study related to speaking skills or the use of communicative activities for other skills.
REFERENCES
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Functions in English
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Brown. H. D. 2001.
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Pendidikan Dasar dan Menengah
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Burns, A. 1999.
Collaborative Action Research for English Language Teachers
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Mastering English Language.
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Cameron, D. 2001.
Teaching Languages to Young Learners
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Celce-Murcia, M., Dornyei, Z., and Thurell, S. 1995.
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Specifications
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APPENDICES
Improving Students‟ Speaking Skills through Communicative Activities at SMP N 8 Yogyakarta
- Teacher‘s greeting
- Having chit-chat with the students
- Reviewing the previous lesson
- Questions and answer activities leading to
the topic -
Media: Picture -
Setting: Classical Warming-up activities:
Attracting and directing students‘ attention and arousing their motivation.
It is conducted not only for reminding students of the previous lesson but also
leading them to the topic of the lesson and creating good rapport.
Communication focus: -
Providing students with opportunities to learn to use
target language functions for communication
Language focus: -
Enriching students‘ vocabularies -
Allowing students to practice pronunciation and grammar in
contexts -
Allowing students to manipulate sentences
Closing: -
Giving feedback and appreciation -
Summarizing the lesson -
Improving students‘ awareness in using certain language functions in daily life
Main Activities: -
Providing students to practice the language elements separately or to learn
the part-skills of communication. -
Giving lots of opportunities for the students to learn to use the language
functions. Pre-communicative activities:
- Preparing students to communicative
activities by giving language and comprehension focused activities
Communicative Activities: -
Conducting Information Gap Activities The gaps can be differences in opinions,
experiences, knowledge, attitudes, feeling, etc that will always be related to the topic.
- Characteristics of the activities:
1 They provide the whole task practice
2 They improve motivation
3 They allow natural learning
4 They create contexts which support
learning 5
They provide gaps, information exchange, curiosity, attractiveness and cooperation
In communicative activities, students learn to use language for bridging the gaps to each other
according to the topic. Comprehension focus:
- Allowing students to comprehend
the expressions used in real-life situation
- Vocabulary practice vocabulary check
- Pronunciation practice
- Written exercises
- Translating sentences
- Describing pictures
- Media: picture, sheets, etc
- Setting: individual, group work
- Presentation of input text
- Comprehension questions and personalized
questions -
Media: pictures, input texts -
Setting: classical, individual work -
Communicative activities using certain language functions in a game, discussions,
interview, conversation, etc -
Media: cards, topic sheet, pictures -
Setting: individual, pair and group work
- Question and answer activity
- Teacher‘s talk
- Setting: classical
LESSON PLAN
School : SMP N 8 YOGYAKARTA
Grade : VIII
Semester : I
Skill : Speaking
Subject : English
Meeting : 1 2 x 45 minutes
I. Standards
A. Standard of Competence
