PROPOSAL: IMPROVING STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILL THROUGH ROLE PLAY

INTRODUCTION

A.  Background of Study

English becomes the most essential language in the world. Almost all the people from many different countries around the world use it to communicate. The area of English has always become a special interest. It is because of the importance of English in any scope of our lives. English holds the key of position as an international language. According to Departemen Pendidikan Nasional (2003 : 43) English is a tool of communication among peoples of the world to get trade,    social cultural, science, and technology goals. Moreover, English competence is important in career development, therefore students need to understand and use English to improve their confidence to face global competition.

“The Objective of teaching-learning English is to develop four language skills, namely speaking, listening, reading and writing” (Nababan, 1993 : 19). “In the international relationship, English speaking ability is very important to be able to participate in the wider world of work. The speaking skill is measured in terms of the ability to carry out a conversation in the language” (David, 2001 : 89). People who know a language are referred  to as “speakers” of that language. This reality makes teachers and parents think that speaking ability should be mastered by their students and children.

Based on the reasons above, in recent years, English language teaching has focused on the teaching the English language rather than teaching about the English language. The emphasis is not only on linguistic competence of the language learners but also on the development of their communicative ability. In order to develop the learners' communicative ability, the teacher needs to create a scenario to teach the target language in a vibrant, active and interesting manner (Permadi, 2002 : 24-24).

Getting students to speak in class can sometimes be extremely easy. In a good class atmosphere, students who get on with each other, and whose English is at an appropriate level, will often participate freely and enthusiastically if we give them suitable topic and task. However, at other times it is not easy to get students going. In learning speaking skill, the students often find some problems. The problem frequently find is that their native language causes them difficult to use the foreign language. Other reason is because of motivation lack to practice the second language in daily conversation. They are also too shy and afraid to take part in the conversation. Many factors can cause the problem of the students. speaking skills namely the students. Interest, the material, and the media among others including the technique in teaching English (Donn, 1986 : 2).

Many techniques can be applied to solve the problems above including role play because many research finding says that this technique effective to use in teaching speaking. Role play is important in teaching speaking because it gives students an opportunity to practice in different social contexts and in different social roles. In addition, it also allows students to be creative and to put themselves in another person’s place for a while. Livingstone (1983: 6) said that role play is therefore a classroom activity which gives the student the opportunity to practice the language, the aspects of role behavior, and the actual roles he may need outside the classroom. On the book Pictures for Language Learning, Wright (1989 : 126) state that in role play the students imagine they are in a specifieed situation. They may take on the character and role of someone else or be themselves. From explanation above, this study concludes that by using role play technique, the students are expected to be active language speaker.

For these reasons, the writer is interested in analyzing the use of role play in teaching speaking for first grade of senior high school students in MAN 1 Meulaboh, and this study has been entitled “Improving Students’ Speaking Skill Through Role Play”

B.       Research Question

Based on the background of the study, the present research proposes to answer the following questions:

1.    Will role play solve students’ problem in speaking?

2.    How far role play activity can improve students’ speaking ability?

C.      Aim of The Study

The main purpose of this study are:

1.      To know if role play solve students’ problem in speaking.

2.      To find out how far the role play activity can improve students’ speaking ability.

D.      Hypothesis

As Budiman (2004 : 15) defined that hypothesis as is the summary of theoretical conclusion of library research and it is considered as answer assumption of the problem. The hypothesis of this proposal is role play will solve students’ problem in speaking, and it can improve students’ speaking.

E.       Significance of Role Play in Improving Students’ Speaking Skill

In my opinion, this method is very useful for anyone who interest in English, especially for the students, teachers and institution. First for the students, it assists them to solve their problem in speaking activity and it can help them to improve their speaking ability. It has been mentioned before in the above discussion that role play is one of the activities to promote speaking. Through role play activities the students learn how to express ideas, opinions, or feeling to others by using words or sounds of articulation. Second for the teacher, it gives the alternative solution in teaching speaking. Finally for the institution of MAN 1 Meulaboh, it can be beneficial regarding to improve the education quality.

F.       Research Method

a.       Population and Sample

1.      Population

The population of this study is the first grade students of MAN 1 Meulaboh. The total numbers of population is 160 students.

2.      Sample

The study collect one class as sample. The study choose X IPA-B’s sampling technique used was cluster random sampling, so that data collection will be easier.

b.      Data Collection Prosedure

1.      Experimental Teaching

To gain the data, the writer perform experimental teaching at MAN 1 Meulaboh. The writer conduct the research by using role play in speaking. This experimental class held for three time in teaching, and it take two weeks.

2.      Pre-test

The writer gives students some oral questions. Then, the scores are devided into five criteria, which are the scores of vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, fluency and comprehension. Then, to get the mean, the scores from all criteria are summed up and divide into five.

3.      Post  Test

The writer gives post-test to the students. The test similar to the pre-test. The post test will give after the treatment by teaching speaking using role play. the scores are devided into five criteria, which are the scores of vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, fluency and comprehension. Then, to get the mean, the scores from all criteria are summed up and divide into five.

4.      Questionnaire

The use of this technique is to gain the data form students in accomplishing this study; it is to know their improvement.

G.        Terminology

It is important to clarify  some terms used in this research. They are defined as follow:

1.      Speaking

According to Collins (1986 : 766) The word “speaking” derived from the word “speak” which mean an oral communication between two or more persons to exchange ideas by talking together.

According to Chaney (1998 : 13) speaking is .the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts.

While another expert, Huebner (1960 : 5) said language is essentially speech, and speech is basically communication by sounds. and according to him, speaking is a skill used by someone in daily life communication whether at school or outside. The skill is acquired by much repetition; it primarily a neuromuscular and not an intellectual process. It consists of competence in sending and receiving messages.

From the above definition, it can be inferred that speaking means process in which a speaker sends information or message to a listener. In this research, speaking means the ability of students to express their ideas, opinion, or feelings to others by using words.

2.      Role play

Procter (1996 : 123) defined role as the person whom an actor represents in a film or play, while role play is a method of acting out particular ways of behaving or pretending to be other people who deal with new situations. It is used in training courses language learning and psychotherapy.

According to Haycraft (1978 : 88) Role play is one of communicative techniques which develops fluency in language students, which promotes interaction in the classoom, and which increases motivation. Haycraft mentioned the three elements in role playing: what the characters want, who they are, and their moods or attitudes at the time. These elements are ten affected by how the situation develops.

In this research, role play means a method of teaching speaking to improve student ability in English, it is will be like short drama.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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