THE EFFECTIVENESS OF USING BANANA TREE GAME IN TEACHING SPEAKING (An Experimental Research at the Seventh Grade Students of SMP N 2 Ajibarang in Academic Year 2011/2012) - repository perpustakaan

CHAPTER II THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK A. Speaking 1. Definition of Speaking There are some definitions of speaking. Nurgiyantoro (2001: 274)

  states that speaking is an activity to produce language and communicate ideas orally. While, Tarigan (1998: 15) states that speaking is an ability to express and deliver ideas, suggestions, thoughts and feelings in the form of sound, articulation. In other words, speaking is explained as the ability to pronounce articulation of sounds or words to express, state, and convey thoughts, ideas, and feelings.

  According to Nunan (1991: 40), “speaking is the same as oral action, expressing our ideas, and thought have in our mind.” So, speaking is not only expressing our ideas, but also presenting new information to others. Speaking as an interactive process of constructing meaning always involves in producing words and the meaning depends on the context.

  Based on the definitions above, it can be synthesized that speaking is the process of sharing with another person, one’s knowledge, interests,

  Deliveries of ideas, opinions, or feelings are attitudes, opinions or ideas.

some important aspects of the process of speaking in which a speaker

’s idea become real to him and his listeners.

2. The Function of Speaking

  According to Brown and Yule, as quoted by Richards (1990: 2), “The functions of speaking are classified into three; they are, speaking as interaction, speaking as transaction and speaking as performance. Each of these speech activities is quite distinct in term of form and function and requires different teaching approaches.” Below are the explanations of the functions of speaking:

  a. Speaking as Interaction Being able to interact in a language is essential. In fact, much of our daily communication remains interactional. This refers to what we normally mean by “conversation”. The primary intention in speaking as interaction is to maintain social relationship.

  Mastering speaking as interaction is difficult and may not be a priority for all learners. In talk as interaction, the ability to speak in natural way is required in order to create a good communication. That is why some students sometimes avoid this kind of situation because they often lose for words and feel difficulty in presenting a good image of them selves. This can be a disadvantage for some learners where the ability to use talk as interaction can be important.

  b.

  Speaking as Transaction This type of speaking refers to situations where the focus is on what is said or done. The message is the central focus here and making oneself understood clearly and accurately, rather than the participants and how they interact socially with each other. In this type of spoken language, students and teachers usually focus on meaning or on talking their way to understanding.

  Speaking as transaction is easier than speaking as interaction for some student because it only focuses on messages delivered to others.

  Moreover, speaking as transaction is more easily planned since current communicative materials are a rich resource of group activities, information-gap activities and role plays. It can provide a source for practicing how to use talk for sharing and obtaining information as well as for carrying out the real-world transactions.

c. Speaking as

  Performance This refers to public speaking, that is, speaking which transmits information before an audience such as morning talks, public announcements, and speeches. Speaking as performance tends to be in the form of monolog rather than dialog. Often follows a recognizable format and is closer to written language than conversational language. Similarly it is often evaluated according to its effectiveness or impact on the listener, something which is unlikely to happen with talk as interaction or transaction. Examples of talk as performance are giving a class report about a school trip, conducting a class debate, making a sales presentation, and giving a lecture. It is clearly seen from the features and skill involved in using speaking as performance that initially speaking as performance needs to be prepared in much the same way as written text.

  From all of the function mentioned above, the function of speaking that will be used in this research is speaking as transaction where the students speak based on the material.

3. Classroom Speaking Activities

  According to Harmer, (2007: 348 - 353), the activities of speaking class are: a. Acting from a Script

  In this section the teacher asks the students to perform the play based on the dialogue in the script. Thus, the teacher as the director and the students performs the dialogue.

  b. Communication Games A game is one of activities that can help students relaxed in learning the language. This technique is particularly suitable for the children in mastering the language. It is designed to provoke communication between students

  In this research, one of the communicative games that are banana tree game will be used in teaching speaking. Banana tree game is suitable for the learners in mastering English. c. Discussion The problem in conducting the discussion is the students’ reluctant to give opinion in front of their friends, particularly when the students are not mastering the topic of discussion. Therefore to encourage the students is to provide activities which force the students in expressing the ideas through the topic which is familiar with student’s world. For instance, are: their daily activity, the situation of their class, and describing.

  d. Problem solving The material is used in this technique giving the students to work in pairs or groups. They share their problem, opinion and feeling. In this case the teacher as the bridge to communicate among the participants.

  Then, the students give a question and answer each other. This communication will help the students practicing and expressing their ideas in spoken language.

  e. Role Play A popular way of the aspect of speaking activities is to use simulations and role plays. This is where students pretend that they are in different situation, either as themselves or playing the role of someone is quite different. We could ask them to be guest at some parties and go there as different characters. They could, as themselves, pretend to be at an airport trying to check luggage, or either as themselves or another character take part in a television program. In all these cases the students are using language in order to participate in the activity rather than other way round! Some students find it very comfortable to use language in a simulated environment, playing the role of someone else –it allows them to experiment freely to be another people.

4. Speaking Competence

  The main goal in teaching the productive skill of speaking is to develop the students speaking competence. Speaking competence is ability to make us in an ordinary vice to express his feeling and ideas using appropriate language. It means that someone can speak fluently, grammatically, correctly and understandably for the listener.

  To measure speaking competence, there are the five components of speaking competence. Brown as quoted by Trimarga (2012: 12) states the five component of speaking test, as follows: a.

  Fluency It refers to ones’ ability to speak smoothly and easily. Fluency is the matter of the way someone speaks the language without any trouble like thinking, confusing the idea, etc.

  b.

  Comprehension Comprehension relates with effectiveness of communication between speakers and hearers in delivering the message. c.

  Vocabulary Vocabulary is the basic of language. It appears in every language skill.

  It is very important because we can say nothing without vocabulary in our mind. Vocabulary is about choice of word which is used appropriately based on the context of speaking.

  d.

  Grammar It refers to ones’ ability to organize sentences which are grammatically correct, and the ability to apply the grammatical rules appropriately.

  Grammar is mostly focused on the sequence of word to form meaningful utterances so that it can be understandable.

  e.

  Pronunciation It measure ones’ to pronounce English sounds correctly include its aspect like stress, intonation and accent. Someone is said to be competent in speaking when he can speak good in accent. Accent involves two important points: pronunciation and intonation. It will influence the listeners understanding of the speaking.

B. Teaching Speaking 1. Definition of Teaching Speaking

  Nunan (2001: 48) said that teaching speaking is sometimes considered as a simple process of commercial language school around the world, which hires people with no training to teach conversation. Although speaking is totally natural, speaking in a language other than our own is anything but simple.

  Based on the statement, teaching conversation to the students in foreign language is simple because learning spoken language sometimes ignores the grammar rule and the other hand the students need to form good habit in English speaking practice.

2. Problem and Solution in Teaching Speaking

  Foreign language learning is a complex process and not a set of easy steps that can be programmed in quickly way. There were several factors generally to be a problem that could influence the result of teaching and learning speaking ability. They were student, teacher and techniques for teaching problem as an involving number of variables in teaching and learning process.

  a.

  Student Some personal problems of student’s characteristic have an important role in the result of teaching learning process. The problems like creativity, language ability, motivation and style of learning, mental condition of the students. The writer used banana tree game as one of the active learning technique that could make the students active and enjoyable in teaching learning process. It also makes the students get a ne style learning of language ability. b.

  Teacher Some teachers could not be able to become an aspirator cause they did not have creativity in the class management and the teacher still used conventional technique that made their students not interested in teaching and learning process. Teacher is a crucial ingredient in teaching learning process. They have a big influence to bring students to reach the goal of learning process.

  c.

  Technique for Teaching Generally, technique has an important role which can help the teacher in delivering the material to the students to reach the goal of teaching and learning process. The teacher must select what the technique that will be used in teaching and learning process. There are many teaching and learning technique that teacher can use, no one is the best because whether the technique good or bad depends on how the teacher brings the technique to achieve in the teaching goal and of course the technique must be appropriate to class situation, the students ability and time of learning process.

  Those are some teaching speaking problem. The writer wants to minimize all of the problems by using the way as follows: a.

  The students are given creativity, language ability, motivation and style of learning, attitude and mental condition by giving task. b.

  Teacher must have creativity, good style of management class, teacher’s mastery towards material, talkative communication and teacher as an aspirator of the students.

  c.

  Technique as tool in delivering material to reach the goal of teaching is important. So the teacher should be smart to choose the technique that is appropriate to the class situation, the student’s ability and time learning. The teacher also should be smart to apply the technique.

  Therefore, the writer chose one of technique of teaching and learning process that was banana tree game to solve the speaking problem at the seventh grade students of SMP N 2 Ajibarang.

3. The Evaluation of Teaching Speaking

  Davies in Koizumi (2005: 42) states that speaking test is defined as a test in which oral utterance is elicited and rated. There are the types of speaking test: a.

  Direct item test means asking candidates to perform the communicative skill which is being tested (Harmer, 2007: 381). Related to this research, oral test is used in which students respond the situational clue by making dialogue in pair then present it in front of the class.

  b.

  Indirect item test tries to measure a student’s knowledge and ability by getting at what lies beneath their receptive and productive skills (Harmer, 2007: 382). For example students speak and their speaking is recorded (e.g., a tape recorder) or test taker talks to an interviewee. It should be noted that this explanation expels indirect paper and pencil tests.

  In this study, some proficiencies such pronunciation or accent, grammar, vocabulary and fluency will be evaluated.

  In this research, the evaluation uses direct test in which students perform dialogue in pair based on the situational clue given by the teacher.

C. Banana Tree Games 1. Definition of Banana Tree Game

  Dani in blogpakdani.blogspot (2010: 1) says banana tree game is a game played with banana trees picture. It is played in a group work and the group should respond the teacher’s clues or question as soon as possible to be the winner.

  Slavin (2005: 143) states that Banana tree game is a cooperative learning technique for mixed-ability groupings involving team recognition and group responsibility for individual learning.

  From the definition above, it can be synthesized that banana tree game is a game played with banana tree picture that mixed-ability groupings involving team recognition and group responsibility for individual learning.

2. Speaking and Banana Tree Game in Teaching Learning Process

  Banana tree game is one of the communicative games in teaching learning process where the players or teams race to be the first to reach the goal. This game is appropriate to be used in all the skills and all the levels of the learners. This game is designed for the students to have experience the task.

  According to Dani in blogpakdani.blogspot (2010: 1), there are some steps to apply banana tree game. Those are: a.

  Show the banana tree picture and patch it on the board. The tree has 5 level (add more or less depending on the amount of time you wish to play), and some bananas at the top (see the picture below).

  b.

  Teacher gives animal name, picture and flag based on the group name which will climb the tree for each group. Teacher explains that the aim of the game is to eat the banana fruit at the top of the tree. c.

  Teacher gives clue or task for the group to do something and they do it in group work as soon as possible. After finishing, they should raise the flag and the group’s representatives go to forward to share the result orally.

  d.

  If the students get it right, their group animal picture climbs one level the tree. Repeat from step c and d until one team reaches the top and the banana fruit.

  e.

  The first group who reaches the banana is the winner.

  Based on the steps above, the students will participate actively in which students play the game and speak English. In fact, to speak English can only be gained by practicing. Students are not able to express their opinion without any mediator that supports them to speak. Therefore, Banana Tree Game plays its role in speaking learning as mediator for the students to talk and to participate in speaking class by responding the teacher’s question as soon as possible and reach the goal. It can be said that the implementation of Banana Tree Game in speaking class is a communication game.

  Concerning this communication game, Harmer (2007: 349) states that communication games gets the students to talk quickly and fluently as possible. Therefore, these trains will effective for the students to speak. And the main result of this game is the students participate in speaking class actively.

  This game is good for a review session, or even for practicing the material. By using banana tree game in teaching speaking, the students will understand the material better because not only practice the task but also it is fun activity and make the student interest.

  So, speaking and banana tree game will be a unit in learning process because it produces active learning. Starke (2008: 1) states that active learning is anything that students do in a classroom other than merely passively listening to an instructor’s lecture.

3. The Strength and the Weakness of Banana Tree Game

  The strengths of banana tree game are: a. Banana tree game is a simple game. Goldsmid and Wilson (2004: 1) in

  Ender note that simple games offer the instructor opportunities to foster communication with students in both large and small classes.

  b.

  Game brings an opportunity for the students to do real communication as a bridge between the classroom and real world (Hadfield, 1987: 3).

  In short, the explanation above means that the usage of banana tree game to teach speaking can encourage active learning and avoid passive learning. The students react to the teacher’s question to be the winner.

  Whereas, the weaknesses of banana tree game in the class are: a. Some passive students in group can not participate in solving the clue or give respond to the question because it is possible to give more chance and time to the active students to solve the problem individually.

  b.

  Students feel bored by playing the game time after time. It disturbs the goal of the teaching learning process itself because the students just try to be the winner.

  Yet, the weakness can be avoided if the teacher guides and monitors the students all the time.

  D. Basic Assumption

  If the learners want to be able to speak a foreign language, they should practice seriously and intensively. Having any willing to practice plays an important role. Unfortunately, sometimes the teacher found it difficult to make the students enjoy in speaking class. In fact, the students have low score in speaking class. Low participation, shyness and unresponsive are the factors that influence students speaking score. To solve the problem, one of the techniques is using banana tree game. Banana tree game is a competitive game that motivates the students to participate in speaking class. Fun activity, challenging task and the reward will play a good impact for the students. So this condition will not make the students afraid and bored in expressing their ideas. It means that banana tree game can effective for teaching speaking.

  E. Hypothesis

  Based on the assumption above, the writer’s hypothesis of the research is banana tree game is effective in teaching speaking.