Improving Speaking Skills through Pictures for Grade VIII Students of SMPN 2 Tempel

Abstract

: The objective of this research was to improve Grade VIII students’ speaking skills of SMP Negeri 2 Tempel that were still low through pictures as main media and supported by other media in the academic year of 2016/2017. This research was classified as classroom action research. It was conducted in two cycles, which was held for three meetings in the first cycle and two meetings in the second cycle. The subjects of this research were 33 students of class VIII E of SMP Negeri 2 Tempel. The data were qualitative and quantitative. The qualitative data were obtained through observations and interviews with the students and the English teacher as the collaborator. The data were in the forms of field notes and interview transcripts. While the quantitative data were obtained from the pre-test and post-test. The validity of the research was obtained by adopting five criteria of validity namely democratic validity, process validity, outcome validity, catalytic validity and dialogic validity. In addition, this research applied time triangulation and investigator triangulation. The actions implemented in this research were using pictures in the teaching and learning process of speaking, implementing picture-based activities, giving feedback to students’ performances, accustoming students to open the dictionary, and some other activities (actions). The results of the research showed that the use of pictures in the teaching and learning process of speaking was believed to be effective to improve the students’ speaking skills. The students’ motivation also increased. They were more enthusiastic in learning speaking. Moreover, the students were interested in various materials presented by the teacher. They could get involved actively in the speaking learning process. Furthermore, the result of the research also showed that the improvement on the teaching and learning process affected the improvement on the students’ speaking skills. The students made improvements in five aspects of speaking namely accuracy, fluency, pronunciation, vocabulary, and performance. The students’ speaking skills were measured quantitatively by comparing the mean score of pre-test and post-test. The result revealed that the mean score of the students’ speaking performance increased from 51.6667 in the pre-test to 64.1515 in the post-test. The gain score of the students’ speaking skills was 12.4848.

Keywords: pictures, speaking skill