Improving students' speaking skill through role play (an action research on the eighth grade students of SMP N 14 Surakarta in academic year of 2010/2011)

Oleh :
Elida Aries Tantia - X2208512 - Fak. KIP

ABSTRACT Elida Aries Tantia. X 2208512. Improving Students’ Speaking Skill through Role Play (An Action Research on the Eighth Grade Students of SMP N 14 Surakarta in Academic Year of 2010/2011). Thesis, Teacher Training and Education Faculty, Sebelas Maret University, Surakarta. 2011. This study is based on the problem of the low speaking achievement of the eight grade students of SMP Negeri 14 Surakarta in academic year of 2010/2011. The objectives of this research are (1) to describe whether role play can improve students’ speaking skill of the eight grade students of SMP Negeri 14 Surakarta and (2) the students’ response toward the implementation of role play in teaching speaking to the eight grade students of SMP Negeri 14 Surakarta. The research was conducted in two cycles which each cycle was conducted in three meetings including post test. Each cycle consisted of: planning, action, observation and reflection and ended by post test. To collect the data, the researcher used teaching journal, questionnaire, interview and recorded speaking test. In this research, there are two types of data namely quantitative data analyzed by using descriptive statistic, finding out the mean of the score in the test and qualitative data analyzed by using interactive model consisting of the following steps: (1) data reduction, (2) data display, (3) conclusion drawing/verification. The research findings show that: (1) role play can be used to improve the students’ speaking skill by giving language system such as related vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar in pre communicative activity. The students arrange the dialogue by using appropriate vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar, (2) the students’ response toward the implementation of role play in teaching speaking was very good. It was shown by the students’ high motivation in the class. They were actively participate in teaching learning process by frequently response the teacher question and rising some questions to the teacher. Class interaction was also improved. It makes the class was getting alive. The good response was shown by shy students who always get involved in the class. The students eagerly accomplish the task as well. Therefore, role play is a potential technique to be applied in speaking class.