Improving Students’ Speaking Skill Through Card Games (A classroom Action Research of the Eighth Grade Students of SMP Muhammadiyah 4 Surakarta in 2010/2011 Academic Year)

Oleh :
Sita Nurlaeli - X2206051 - Fak. KIP

This thesis is written 1) to identify the improvement of students’ speaking skill and 2) to identify the situation when games are implemented in the speaking class at the eight grade students of SMP Muhammadiyah 4 Surakarta. The method used in this research was an action research. The research was conducted in two cycles from October 21st until November 10th 2010 at the eighth grade students of SMP Muhammadiyah 4 Surakarta. The research data were collected by some techniques: observation, interview, document and test (pre-test and post-test). The data were analyzed through qualitative data and descriptive statistics. The research findings prove that card games could improve the students’ speaking skill. The improvement of students’ speaking skill includes: a) the students could make description based on the material in simple sentences b) the students could construct some sentences into good grammatical arrangement of short description c) the students enjoyed and were interested in the classroom situation d) the students were good enough to pronounce some words e) the mean score is improved from 5,7 for pre-test, 6,7 for first-post test, to 7,1 for second post-test. The improvement of classroom situation includes: a) the students were not noisy during the teaching learning activities b) the students tended to be active learners c) the students were willing to speak in English in the classroom d) the students paid attention to their teacher’s explanation e) the students were diligent to do homework. The result of the research implies that English teachers need to choose the appropriate media in teaching speaking. The appropriate media to teaching speaking is card games.