EYL TEACHERS’ STRATEGIES IN CONDUCTING SPEAKING ASSESSMENTS : A Qualitative Research in Five English Courses in Bandung.

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EYL TEACHERS’ STRATEGIES IN CONDUCTING

SPEAKING ASSESSMENTS

A Qualitative Research in Five English Courses in Bandung

A THESIS

Submitted to the English Education Program in Partial fulfillment of the Requirement for the Master Degree

By:

Astri Yuniar Sri Utari, S.Pd. 1007119

GRADUATE SCHOOL

INDONESIA UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION 2014

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STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I hereby certify that this thesis entitled EYL Teachers’ Strategies In

Conducting Speaking Assessments is truly my genuine work. I am fully aware

that I have quoted some statements and ideas from various sources. All quotations are properly acknowledged. I am ready to bear the risk imposed on me if later found a violation of scientific ethics in my work, or there is a claim of any other party to the authenticity of my work.

Bandung, January 2014

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APPROVAL PAGE

This thesis entitled “EYL Teachers’ Strategies in Conducting Speaking Assessments” has been approved by the supervisors:

Supervisors,

Prof. Fuad Abdul Hamied, MA.,Ph.D Bachrudin Musthafa, MA.,Ph.D (1st Supervisor) (2nd Supervisor)

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PREFACE

Alhamdulillahirrabbilalamiin, all the praises and thanks be to Allah, The

Most Gracious and The Most Merciful, for giving me health and strength to complete this thesis entitled EYL Teachers’ Strategies In Conducting Speaking

Assessments. This thesis is presented in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the master’s degree in English Education at School of Postgraduate Studies of

Indonesia University of Education.

This thesis is based on observations, interviews, and document analyses. Therefore, I would like to thank all those who have helped in the process of this thesis.

I do realize that there could be many fundamental flaws in this thesis. Therefore, any comments, criticisms, and suggestions will be much appreciated and welcomed. Overall, I do hope that this thesis contributes to the language education, especially EYL teachers in assessing their students so the students’ skill can be measured effectively. Furthermore, hopefully this thesis can give contributions for the government regarding the assessment training programme for EYL teachers.

Bandung, January 2014

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Alhamdulillahirrabbilalamiin, all the praises and thanks be to Allah, I am

able to finish this thesis. The completion of this thesis is due to many supports, prayers, and guidances from the helpers. In finishing this thesis, the writer really gives her regards and thanks to people who have given guidance and help.

I would like to express my sincere thanks and greatest appreciation to

Prof. Fuad Abdul Hamied, MA., Ph.D. and Bachrudin Musthafa, MA., Ph.D,

my brilliant supervisors, who have patiently and sincerely guided, advised, and supported me in writing this thesis.

I would also like to thank all EYL teachers who had participated in this study. I am very thankful that they became my respondents and helped me in collecting the data. My special gratitude is conveyed to all my lecturers in the English Education Department who have shared their knowledge during my study at the School of Postgraduate Studies. I am also grateful for all my classmates who always support me and become my proofreaders.

My deepest appreciations are due to my beloved parents (Euis Rohaeti, S.Pd. and Asep Suparno, MM.), my parents-in-laws (Ibu Karwati and Bapak Suyanto), my brother and sister (Rendy Yusuf and Yulia Nita Sari) for all their supports and prayers. Lastly, for my beloved husband, Febriansyah, you are my handsome soldier, thank you for always being beside me. I love you so much.

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ABSTRACT

Speaking is one of the important skills in English language program. Many strategies have been introduced to help teachers in teaching the speaking skill effectively. Yet, assessing this skill is one of the difficult tasks in language learning, especially in English for Young

Learners’ classrooms in Indonesia. Teachers need to be competent in applying strategies to

conduct a good speaking assessment. Employing qualitative methods and descriptive analyses, this study addressed the questions of what EYL teachers know about speaking assessment and

what strategies they use in assessing young learners’ speaking skill. The categories of speaking strategy used in this study are the ones proposed by Hughes (2003), Brown (2004) and McKay (2006). The respondents were five EYL teachers from five English Courses in Bandung. The findings based on observations and interviews showed a pattern that teaching experience and

education background were in line with the number of strategies used for young learners’

classrooms. The longer their experience and the higher their education level, the more strategies

were used in assessing young learners’ speaking skill. There were ten strategies used in assessing young learners’ speaking skill. They were Question and Answer, Role-Play/Mini Dialogs, Word Repetition Tasks, Translation (of limited stretches of discourse), Picture Cued Tasks, Picture-Cued Story-Telling, Read-Aloud Tasks, Interview, Games, and Storytelling.

ABSTRAK

Berbicara merupakan salah satu kemampuan yang penting dalam program pembelajaran bahasa Inggris. Banyak strategi yang telah diperkenalkan untuk membantu para guru dalam mengajarkan kemampuan berbicara secara efektif. Namun, menilai kemampuan ini adalah salah satu tugas yang cukup sulit dalam pembelajaran bahasa. Para guru dituntut untuk lebih kompeten dalam menerapkan strategi-strategi untuk melaksanakan penilaian berbicara. Menggunakan metode kualitatif dan analisis deskriptif, penelitian ini mengajukan pertanyaan-pertanyaan mengenai apa yang para guru ketahui tentang penilaian berbicara untuk anak-anak dan strategi-strategi apa yang mereka terapkan dalam menilai kemampuan berbicara anak-anak. Kategori strategi yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini merupakan strategi-strategi yang diusung oleh Hughes (2003), Brown (2004), dan McKay (2006). Para responden terdiri dari 5 orang guru bahasa Inggris yang mengajar anak-anak di 5 tempat kursus bahasa Inggris. Hasil penemuan yang berdasarkan observasi dan wawancara menunjukkan bahwa pengalaman mengajar dan latar belakang pendidikan sejalan dengan jumlah strategi yang digunakan untuk anak-anak. Lebih lamanya pengalaman dan lebih tingginya tingkat pendidikan yang dipunyai para guru, maka akan lebih banyak pula strategi yang digunakan dalam menilai kemampuan berbicara anak-anak. Terdapat 10 strategi yang digunakan dalam menilai kemampuan berbicara anak-anak. Strategi-strategi tersebut adalah Question and Answer, Role-Play/Mini Dialogs, Word Repetition Tasks,

Translation (of limited stretches of discourse), Picture Cued Tasks, Picture-Cued Story-Telling, Read-Aloud Tasks, Interview, Games, dan Storytelling.

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STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ... i

APPROVAL PAGE ... ii

ABSTRACT ... iii

PREFACE ... iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ... v

TABLE OF CONTENTS ... vi

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ... 1

1.1 Background of The Study ... 1

1.2 Research Questions ... 3

1.3 Aims of The Study ... 4

1.4 The Scope of The Study ... 4

1.5 Significance of The Study ... 4

1.6 Overall Approach to the Study ... 4

1.7 Clarification of Terms ... 5

CHAPTER TWO: THEORETICAL FOUNDATION ... 6

2.1 Young Learners ... 6

2.1.1 The Characteristics of Young Learners ... 6

2.1.2 Young Learners’ Learning Styles ... 15

2.2 Assessment ... 19

2.2.1 Purpose of Assessments ... 22

2.2.2 Kinds of Assessments ... 23

2.2.3 Assessments for Young Learners ... 26

2.2.4 Principles in Assessing Young Learners ... 27

2.3 Speaking for Young Learners ... 31

2.3.1 Speaking Assessments for Young Learners ... 33

2.2.1.1 Performance-Based Assessment ... 33

2.2.1.2 Aspects to be Assessed in Speaking Assessment ... 34

2.3.2 Speaking Assessment Strategies for Young Learners, The Scoring Process, and Designing the Strategies ... 34

CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ... 42

3.1 Research Design ... 42

3.2 Research Setting and Participants ... 43

3.3 Data Collection ... 43

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3.3.2 Interview ... 43

3.4 Data analysis techniques ... 44

CHAPTER FOUR: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS ... 45

4.1 EYL Teachers’ Knowledge of Speaking Assessment ... 48

4.1.1 Teachers’ Purpose of Speaking Assessment ... 48

4.1.2 Teachers’ Considerations in Conducting Speaking Assessments ... 50

4.2 Strategies in Assessing Young Learners’ Speaking Skill ... 55

4.2.1 The Assessment Process ... 56

4.2.2 The Strategies Used in Conducting The Assessment ... 59

4.2.3 The Scoring Process ... 74

CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS ... 79

5.1 Conclusions ... 79

5.2 Suggestions ... 80

BIBLIOGRAPHY ... 82

RESEARCH INSTRUMENTS Interview Questions ... 86

Observation Sheet ... 88

APPENDICES APPENDIX 1: Interview Transcripts Interview with teacher A ... 89

Interview with teacher B ... 93

Interview with teacher C ... 97

Interview with teacher D ... 101

Interview with teacher E ... 106

APPENDIX 2 : Observation Fieldnotes ... 110

LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1: The Learners’ Learning Characteristics ... 9

Table 2.2: The Categories of Young Learners ... 10

Table 2.3: The Characteristics of Younger and Older Learners ... 13

Table 2.4: Types of Classroom Assessment ... 25

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LIST OF FIGURES

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of The Study

For many years, English has been officially taught in Indonesian schools as a foreign language. Since then, English has become a necessity among the Indonesian public. Many English courses have been developed rapidly. This phenomenon also affects education for young learners. English has begun to be introduced to them, either as subject matter or for communication. Therefore, parents are busy to involve their children to the English course institutions hoping that they can follow the demands of the times.

Most of English courses in Indonesia offer English for communication programs. Since the aim of the learning program focuses on communication, it is not wrong if we assume that speaking ability plays an important role in the process. Speaking is considered as an important skill that should be acquired by someone who learns a foreign language. Moreover, for children, it is very important to acquire the speaking skill in their language development (Linse, 2005). Linse further says that it would be better if teachers teach the speaking skill first to the students than other skills since it is a foundation to develop other language skills. As Brown (2001) states that this skill helps students to convey their ideas or opinion. It means that if students have achieved the speaking skill, it would be much easier for them in mastering the other skills. Therefore, it is so obvious that speaking takes a crucial role among other skills.

In supporting teachers to have a better way in teaching speaking, many strategies have been discovered by researchers. These strategies are believed to help students in improving their speaking ability, such as studies conducted

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by Brown (2001), Linse (2005), Geoffrey (2006), Szpotowicz (2012) that reveal many interesting strategies in teaching speaking skill to young learners. But then, the other problem emerges. The problem is related to the assessment made by the teachers. Georgiou and Pavlou (2003) found that most teachers have not been able to make an assessment that appropriate with the strategies they use in teaching process. Appropriate assessment is very crucial for the teachers in evaluating their students. Přibilová (2008) says that assessment leads to students’ development. It is one of the important aspects of teaching learning process that influences students' learning. It concerns the quality of the teaching as well as the quality of the learning. Therefore, teachers must have an appropriate assessment that will not interfere with their students' language development.

Obviously, assessing speaking skill is a challenge in language teaching (Weir, O’Sullivan & Horai cited in Boxer & Cohen, 2004), especially, when it relates to young learners. McCauley (2004) explains, conducting an assessment for young learners is a quite difficult task since they have higher activity levels and they are easy to be distracted by others. They also have a shorter attention span, wariness of strangers, and inconsistent performance in unfamiliar environments. In line with her, Grieve (1992) states that assessment for young learners is more complex than for the other learners because they have an uncertain temperament that may affect their cognitive ability. Katz (1997) also says that teachers need to have a great sensitivity in deciding the best assessment strategies. Young learners have unique characteristics. They are considered as poor test takers. It will be hard to assess young learners who are easy to produce errors.

To overcome this problem, several studies have been conducted in recent years. Smith (2006), Kallonen (2011), Ovalles and Mata (2011) advise teachers to conduct an informal assessment of the speaking skill since teachers often encounter difficulties in organising oral testing. It can be done by

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observing and listening to oral performance. This is in line with Nancy and Rubin (1985) that explain there are two approaches used for assessing speaking skills; observational approach and structured approach. In observational approach, students are observed and assessed from their behaviour, while in the structured approach, the students are asked to perform specific oral communication tasks.

However, Nancy and Rubin (1985) explain, before conducting speaking skill assessments, teachers must know the principles of reliability, validity, and fairness. They must prepare accurate and consistent instruments. It is important to know what abilities they want to assess and what for they do the assessments. Therefore, it is so obvious that teachers must understand the purpose of assessments they used, so they will have a more accurate data after they assess their students.

On previous studies in Indonesia, most of researchers only focused on teaching speaking strategies (Yuliani, 2010; Gantika, 2010; Suherman, 2011; Astarina, 2012; Ningsih, 2012; Widya, 2012), yet they did not discuss the assessment. Based on the facts above, the researcher is interested in investigating teachers’ strategies in conducting speaking assessments for young learners. This study wants to explore more about how speaking assessment conducted for young learners. Hopefully findings of this study will provide an insight for the teachers in applying appropriate assessments for assessing young learners. It is also expected that this study will give useful information about how to assess young learners in teaching learning process.

1.2 Research Questions

Based on the explanation above, the following questions are carried out to guide the study.

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1. What do EYL teachers know about speaking assessment?

2. What strategies do they use in assessing young learners’ speaking skill?

1.3 Aims of The Study

The aims of this study will be elaborated as follows.

1. To know teachers’ understanding of speaking assessments, especially for young learners.

2. To identify teachers’ strategies in conducting speaking skill assessments.

1.4 The Scope of The Study

This study is concerned with speaking assessment strategies that are used by EYL teachers in assessing their students’ speaking skill at five selected English courses in Bandung.

1.5 Significance of The Study

The results of the study are expected to give contributions to EYL teachers in assessing their students so the students’ skill can be measured effectively. In addition, hopefully this study can give contributions to the government regarding to the assessment training programme that is obviously rarely conducted for EYL teachers. This study is also expected in providing an insight on how young learners should be assessed.

1.6 Overall Approach to the Study

. This study employs a qualitative research design. As Preissle (2002) says, “qualitative design is useful to obtain an in-depth data and to understand

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a particular phenomenon”. This study also employs a descriptive method. To obtain accurate data, this study relies on observations and interviews.

1.7 Clarification of Terms

 In this study, the researcher defines young learners as a unique person. Sometimes they are sensitive, therefore they need to be praised and encouraged.

 The meaning of strategies in this study are generalized plans for a lesson or lessons that made by teachers which include structure, desired learner behavior; in terms of the goals of instruction and an outline of tactics necessary to implement the strategy.

 Speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing information.

 Assessment defined as any method used by teachers in testing students' understanding of current knowledge.

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CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents the steps taken by the researcher in conducting the study. There are four sections in this chapter. The first section is research design. It presents the methodology used in this study. The second section is research setting and participants. The third section is data collection. It shows the instruments used in collecting the data. The last is data analysis techniques. It explains the steps on how the data gathered is analyzed and interpreted.

3.1 Research design

This study tried to investigate EYL teachers’ strategies in conducting

speaking assessments, therefore it was conducted using qualitative design. This design was relevant to the nature since it could be used to investigate the quality of relationship, activities, situation, or materials (Fraenkl & Wallen, 1993). It was also useful to obtain an in-depth data and to understand a particular phenomenon (Preissle, 2002). In addition, Creswell (2008) defined

a qualitative study as “an inquiry process of understanding a social or human problem, based on building a complex, holistic picture, formed with words,

reporting detailed views of informants, and conducted in natural setting.”

During the term of the method, descriptive method was used in conducting the study. It was used to find a variety of possibilities in solving the actual problem through collecting, collating, or classifying the data, analyzing, and interpreting it (Surakhmad, 1994). Alwasilah (2002) also explained that descriptive method is useful for describing the characteristics of groups and the phenomenon.

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3.2 Research setting and participants

Since this study related to young learners, therefore this study was conducted at five English Courses in Bandung. The participants were five English teachers who are teaching EYL in Bandung. The reason why the researcher chose those English courses because she has an access to go there. Thus, the data were gathered easily.

3.3 Data Collection 3.3.1 Observation

Observation was conducted first in collecting the data in order to know

the framework of strategies that teachers used in assessing young learners’

speaking skill. The observation could give the researcher some data that may not come up in the questionnaire or interview (Maxwell, 1996).

In this study, the participants’ classes were observed using video recorder and field note. In the observation, the researcher did not take an active role in the classroom in order to have brief information related to the study that will be conducted.

3.3.2 Interview

To gain more accurate and specific data, a one-on-one interview with the participants were conducted. There were 24 questions delivered. They were asked with open-ended questions so that they have a freedom in expressing their perspectives of assessments for young learners. This is in line

with Cresswell (2008) that explained, “asking the participants individually with open-ended questions or semi-structured interview will make the participants easier to have their best voice of their experiences unconstrained by any perspectives of the researcher findings and it allows the participants to

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create the options for responding”. All the interviews were recorded and transcribed. The guideline questions for the interview were focused on the purpose of speaking assessment, their consideration in conducting the speaking assessments, the aspects to be assessed, the speaking assessment strategies they used in the classroom, how do they design the assessments, how do they understand the assessments, and how do they score the students.

3.4 Data analysis techniques

The data analyses were guided by the research questions. The data were taken from observations and interviews. After the data were collected, they were coded and classified based on research questions. Each classification was analyzed and interpreted.

In observation, the data collected was coded and categorized based on the types of speaking assessments proposed by the experts (Hughes, 2003; Brown, 2004; McKay, 2006). The analysis was interpreted by reviewing the major findings and it was reported in narrative discussion.

The interview was conducted in order to validate the findings. It was useful for checking the accuracy or credibility of the findings. The aim of interview in this study was to know specifically what teachers done in conducting the speaking assessment.

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CHAPTER V

CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

This chapter consists of two sections. The first section presents the conclusions of the study. They are drawn based on the data analysis discussed in the last chapter. The second one presents the suggestions that are relevant to this study. They are provided to give information for further research related to this study.

1.1 Conclusions

The aim of English language program in Indonesian Private Courses focuses on communication. Thus, speaking skill plays an important role in teaching and learning process. In helping teachers to teach speaking skill effectively, many strategies have been introduced by experts. Yet, in the process, these strategies are not followed by appropriate assessments. Appropriate assessments are needed since young learners have different characteristics. They need specific assessment strategies which support their development.

This study focused on how speaking assessment is conducted for young learners. It addressed the questions of what EYL teachers know about

speaking assessment and what strategies they use in assessing young learners’

speaking skill.

The first research question is answered by the data from interviews. It was found that there were two main purposes of their speaking assessment.

They were to measure young learners’ speaking ability and to motivate them

to be more confident in speaking English. They used assessment table that

was consisted of scores which became an indicator to measure young learners’

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In deciding the aspects to be assessed, most teachers have had their own authority since the place they worked believed that teachers know best what students need for the future. Thus, there were no teachers who faced any difficulties in conducting speaking assessments for the students.

the number of strategies used in assessing students’ speaking skill. It also

showed that respondents implemented ten different strategies in assessing

young learners’ speaking skill. They were Question and Answer, Role-Play/Mini Dialogs, Word Repetition Tasks, Translation (of limited stretches of discourse), Picture Cued Tasks, Picture-Cued Story-Telling, Read-Aloud Tasks, Interview, Games, and Storytelling. Those strategies were proposed by

Hughes (2003), Brown (2004), and McKay (2006). Most respondents claimed

that those strategies were able to measure young learners’ speaking ability as

well as to increase their confidence in speaking English without harm young

learners’ characteristics.

Those findings showed a pattern that teaching experience and education background were in line with the number of strategies used and

their appropriateness for young learners’ classrooms. The longer their experience, the more strategies were used in assessing young learners’

speaking skill. The higher their education level, the more appropriate the strategies were used by the teachers.

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Based on the findings of this study, the researcher realizes that there are many things that need to be explored in young learners’ teaching and learning process. Thus, the researcher proposes several suggestions. Hopefully, these following suggestions would enhance knowledges for the program of teaching English for young learners.

1. Teachers should increase their professional development.

They have to keep improving their ability in teaching students by reading books that are relevant to their profession. They can attend some seminars

or workshops that discuss young learners’ world, include teaching and

assessing strategies. They also have to be more get involved in peer discussion that might help them in improving their knowledge on EYL.

2. Government should participate in increasing EYL teachers’ proficiency. Nowadays, government and also private parties have been conducted so many seminars or training programs on how to teach English to young learners. However, unfortunately, it is still rare in facilitating EYL teachers for the assessment aspect. Therefore, it is expected that government can support EYL teachers in increasing their teaching ability by providing them seminars or workshop related on appropriate assessments for young learners.

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Ability. Indonesia University of Education: Unpublished.

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From the findings, it was known that although most teachers did not fully understand about the principles of speaking assessment, however they were able to conduct speaking assessments for their students. They did not recognize the terms in assessment, yet in the process, their understanding of the assessment was in accordance with the principles proposed by the experts. The second question is answered by observations and interviews. The result indicated that teaching experience and education background affected the number of strategies used in assessing students’ speaking skill. It also showed that respondents implemented ten different strategies in assessing young learners’ speaking skill. They were Question and Answer, Role-Play/Mini Dialogs, Word Repetition Tasks, Translation (of limited stretches of discourse), Picture Cued Tasks, Picture-Cued Story-Telling, Read-Aloud Tasks, Interview, Games, and Storytelling. Those strategies were proposed by Hughes (2003), Brown (2004), and McKay (2006). Most respondents claimed that those strategies were able to measure young learners’ speaking ability as well as to increase their confidence in speaking English without harm young learners’ characteristics.

Those findings showed a pattern that teaching experience and education background were in line with the number of strategies used and their appropriateness for young learners’ classrooms. The longer their experience, the more strategies were used in assessing young learners’ speaking skill. The higher their education level, the more appropriate the strategies were used by the teachers.

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1. Teachers should increase their professional development.

They have to keep improving their ability in teaching students by reading books that are relevant to their profession. They can attend some seminars or workshops that discuss young learners’ world, include teaching and assessing strategies. They also have to be more get involved in peer discussion that might help them in improving their knowledge on EYL.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Alwasilah, A. C. (2006). Pokoknya Kualitatif: Dasar-dasar Merancang dan Meletakkan Penelitian Kualitatif. Jakarta: Dunia Pustaka Jaya, PT.

Astarina, A. N. (2012). The Use of Videos to Improve Young Learners’ Speaking Ability. Indonesia University of Education: Unpublished.

Boxer, D. and Cohen, A. D. (2004). Studying Speaking to Inform Second Language Learning. Multilingual Matters.

Brown, H. D. (2001). Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy. Longman.

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