The Use Of Small Group Discussion To Improve Students’ Speaking Skill (A Classroom Action Research In The Tenth Grade Of Sma N 8 Surakarta In The Academic Year 2012/20

Oleh :
Esti Ratih - K2209027 - Fak. KIP

The aims of this research are to identify whether or not Small Group Discussion improves the students’ speaking skill and to analyze the classroom situation when Small Group Discussion is implemented in the classroom. In the research, the writer conducted a classroom action research. The research was conducted in two cycles from March 28th to June 10th2013 at the tenth grade of SMA Negeri 8 Surakarta. The data of research were collected through observation, interview, field notes, questionnaire, and test (pre-test and post-test). The qualitative data were analyzed through some steps proposed by Burns. They are assembling the data, coding data, comparing the data, building interpretation, and reporting the outcomes. Meanwhile, the quantitative data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics. The research findings show that Small Group Discussion improves the students’ speaking skill and the classroom situation. The improvement of students’ speaking ability includes: (1) the students were able to state content of speech; (2) the students were able to perform acceptable pronunciation; (3) the students could make utterances using correct grammar; (4) the students were able to use appropriate vocabulary to express ideas; (5) the students could speak fluently. Meanwhile, the improvement of classroom situation includes: 1) calmer classroom situation; 2) good attention to the material given in class; 3) good confidence of the students in classroom teaching learning process in volunteering and giving feedback. In addition, the final result of the test shows that the students’ scores improved. The mean score increased from 52.44 (pre-test) to 63.40 (cycle 1) and 72.51 (cycle 2). Based on the research finding, it shows that there is improvement in some aspects of students’ speaking skill and classroom situation. Considering the result of this research, it is suggested that other teachers use Small Group Discussion to overcome the students’ problem in learning speaking.