This action research was aimed to improve students? motivation and students? peaking ability using students? video model. This video model was used in teaching the material of explanation text. This research consisted of two cycles. In each cycle, there were planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. This research was conducted in SMA Batik 1 Surakarta. The subject of this research was 37 students of grade X Science 1. There were two kinds of data in this research, qualitative and quantitative. The data was collected through interview, questionnaire, observation, test, and field notes. The improvement of students? motivation were: at the preliminary, students did not have any willingness to do the assignment, it was viewed from their responses in receiving the instruction, they tended to note the instruction but not seriously such as just note something which was not belonging to the instruction. Meanwhile, at the end of cycle-one, the students noted the instruction clearly. At the cycle two the students focused on the instruction given to them, it is proven with their responses such as asking question and responding fast of the instruction. The video at the second cycle was clearer than the first cycle. During the process of taking the video, some of the students also actively asked about how to pronoun some words or consulted about the video, which was the evidence that the students set high standard in creating the video with maximum standard. In the process of teaching learning, the students were more actively than the previous cycle. The students had been brave to give arguments or suggestions to other student?s video, whereas in the first cycle they spoke only when they were asked. In students? speaking ability, the improvement was seen from the students? mean in each aspect from the pre-test, post-test 1 and 2. The improvement in the aspect of pronunciation was 13.04% from the pre-test to the post-test 1, and 3.86 from the post-test 1 to the post-test 2. In the aspect of grammar, the mean from the pre-test to the post-test 1 improved 4.25% and from the post-test 1 to the post-test 2 increased 1.02%. In the aspect of vocabulary, the students? mean improved 4.25% from their pre-test to the post-test 1. From the post-test 1 to the post-test 2, it improved 6.12%. In the aspect of fluency, it increased 17.8% from the pre-test to the post-test 1, and 4.46% in the post-test 2. In the aspect of content, the improvement was 15.62 % from the pre-test to the post-test 1, and 3.60% in the post-test 2. From the result above, it can be concluded that using students? video model is useful to improve students? motivation and speaking ability. Keywords: motivation, speaking ability, students? video model, explanation text