This thesis reports a research in identifying: (1) how Talking Chips technique can be implemented in improving the students? speaking skill and (2) how the implementation of Talking Chips technique can improve the class atmosphere.
It is a Classroom Action Research gone through four stages; planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. Those stages lasted for two months starting from October to November, 2015. Observational technique covering field note and teacher?s journal; and non-observational technique covering questionnaire, interview, student?s journal, and test were employed to collect the qualitative and quantitative data. The qualitative data were analyzed using Burns?s theory, which includes data assembling, data coding, data comparing, intrepretation building, and outcome reporting. While the quantitative data were analyzed using Descriptive Statistic.
The results show that: (1) Talking Chips technique can be implemented in improving the students? speaking skill due to its language function as communication regulator and fluency builder. By implementing this technique in such conditions, the students? comprehension, fluency, grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary improved and as a consequence their speaking skill also improved. The student?s comprehension mean score in the pre-test was 11.45; it was improved to 14.48 in post-test I and 16.11 in post-test II. The student?s fluency mean score in the pre-test was 10.11; it was improved to 14.48 in post-test I and 15.57 in post-test II. The student?s grammar mean score in the pre-test was 12.61; it was improved to 16.18 in post-test I and 17.84 in post-test II. The student?s pronunciation mean score in the pre-test was 12.45; it was improved to 14.93 in post-test I and 15.41 in post-test II. The student?s vocabulary mean score in the pre-test was 13.16; it was improved to 14.27 in post-test I and 15.50 in post-test II. The students? speaking mean score in the pre-test was 59.77; it was improved to 74.34 in post-test I and 80.43 in post-test II. The improvement was also seen from the students? process and performance during the speaking activity. (2) the implementation of Talking Chips technique can improve the class atmosphere due to the activeness of the students in the learning activity. It facilitates the students to participate in the speaking activity equally by using chips. Further researches in larger number of subject, various levels of students, and within a long period are recommended to enrich teachers in references to the implementation of Talking Chips technique.
Keywords: Talking Chips technique, students’ speaking skill, classroom action research, collaborative learning technique