ABSTRACT
This research was conducted to students of Class XI Science 4 of SMA Negeri 7 Surakarta in the Academic Year of 2014/2015. The aims of this research are: (1) to find out whether the use of Project-Based Learning could improve students’ speaking skill and class situation; and (2) to find out the strengths and weaknesses of implementation of Project-Based Learning in improving students’ speaking skill.
The action research was conducted in two cycles. Each cycle consisted of four meetings. The research procedures were divided into four stages: planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. In collecting the data, the writer used observations, interview, questionnaire, and test.
The result of the research showed that: (1) Project-Based Learning could improve the students’ speaking skill which consisted of vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar, fluency, and comprehension aspects; (2) The strengths of Project-Based Learning implementation in teaching speaking could be shown as follows: Project-Based Learning increased the students’ interest and motivation in following the classroom activities, and the students’ positive responses were also indicated by the students’ good interaction and collaboration in a group work. Meanwhile, the weaknesses of Project-Based Learning implementation are: Some students still did not take a part or were not active like the others and they needed more teacher’s control in doing project.
Based on the result of the study, the implementation of Project-Based Learning in teaching speaking could improve products and process of learning speaking. It can be concluded that students’ speaking skill could be improved through Project-Based Learning implementation.
Keywords: speaking skill, Project-Based Learning, Classroom Action Research