This study aims at identifying whether 1) Group Investigation is more
effective than direct method to teach speaking; 2) Students with low level of
communication apprehension have better speaking skill than those with high level
of communication apprehension; 3) there is an interaction between teaching
methods used and students? level of communication apprehension.
The research was conducted in the second semester of the eighth grade of
SMP N 1 Trucuk in the academic year of 2013/2014. The sampling used was
cluster random sampling. The samples were two classes which consist of 28
students of class VIIIG as the experimental class and 28 students of class VIIIA as
the control class. The instruments used to collect research data cover the
communication apprehension?s questionnaire, and speaking test.
The data obtained after the treatment was analyzed using descriptive
analysis and inferential analysis. Descriptive analysis was used to find out the
mean, median, mode, histogram and polygon of speaking score. Still, it is
important to assign normality and homogeneity test as the prerequisite of using
inferential analysis. Normality test was used to know whether the sample
distributes normally or not while homogeneity test was used to know the data are
homogeneous or not. Inferential analysis used was ANOVA and Tukey Test. The
hypothesis was tested using ANOVA to find out whether the difference is
significant or not. If Ho is rejected, the analysis was continued to know the degree
of effectiveness between two method using tukey test. The finding reveals that:
(1) Group Investigation is significantly different from direct method to teach
speaking; (2) the students with low level of communication apprehension have
better speaking performance than those with high level of communication
apprehension; (3) there is an interaction between teaching methods and the
students? level of communication apprehension.
Based on research findings, it can be concluded that Group Investigation is
an effective method to teach speaking to the eighth grade students of SMP N 1
Trucuk in the academic year of 2013/2014. However, in the implementation of the
method, a teacher must consider the students? level of communication
apprehension. As proved in this research, communication apprehension influences
the students? speaking skill. By considering the students? level of communication
apprehension, a teacher can use the method properly to teach speaking in order to
improve the students?achievment optimally. For other researchers, it is hoped that
these research findings can be used as a reference for future researches. Moreover,
other researchers may conduct researches viewed from other psychological
aspects.
Keywords: experimental research, speaking skill, group investigation, direct
method, communicaton apprehension