CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. RESEARCH BACKGROUND

The mastery of speaking skills is considered as a priority by many teachers and students who teach and learn English as a foreign language. Most students and administrative of schools will evaluate the effectiveness of the English teaching on the basis of how well the students can speak. Other reason why speaking skill is a priority is people who know a language will be referred as the speaker of that language, therefore most people are interested in learning to speak (Ur:2003). Such speaking skills are to express ideas orally without any confusion in the message due to the incorrect pronunciation, grammar, and/or vocabulary. Stovall (1998) proposed three areas of knowledge learners should recognize in speaking, Mechanics (pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary), functions (transaction and interaction), and social and cultural rules and norms (turn-taking, rate of speech, length of pauses between speakers, relative roles of participants) (http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/speaking/spindex.htm). Harmer

pointed out two elements of speaking in order to speak fluently; a knowledge of language features (connected speech, expressive devices, lexis and grammar, and negotiation language) and mental processing (language processing, interacting with others, and information processing) (2001: 269-271).

As the goal of speaking is to convey messages through spoken language, mechanics and language features are important to make the message become clear as well as the mental processing. Different functions of spoken language (transaction, interaction, and performance) have different features. It affects the focus of the language features. By helping students develop knowledge of language features (mechanics and expressive devices), functions, and mental processing, teachers may enable students to use the language in a variety of contexts inside and outside classroom. Thus, English is important to be developed not only to meet the students academic achievement at school, but also their usage of the language outside the school (e.g. working world and social life). Education in Indonesia has been reformed, especially in the English language teaching. Few decades ago, the teaching was emphasized on the grammar rules, lists of vocabularies, and sentence for translation. In recent years, English language teaching has focused more on teach English language, rather than teach about English language. Thus, not only students linguistic competence but also students communicative ability is emphasized. In KTSP (Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan) 2006 for Sekolah Menengah Kejuruan (Vocational High School), the goal of English learning is to provide students ability to communicate orally or written in the context of their technical skills. In the competence standard of the tenth grade of vocational school, the students must be able to communicate using English in novice level. One of the basic competence is students must be able to understand words and terms and also simple sentences

in a correct grammar structure. The main material for this basic competence are words and expressions used in expressing preference, conditional sentence type 1, words and expressions used to talk about capabilities, and words and expression used in asking for and giving direction (location). The type of spoken language in the basic competence mentioned above is transactional. Harmer stated that transactional talk is to get business done and so it is message oriented (1998:5). Stovall was in agreement with Harmer by saying that in transactional talk, it is important that the message is clearly expressed so that there is less chance for misunderstanding (1998 :5). Richard in his article also agreed that the message and making oneself understood clearly and accurately is the central focus (2006 : 3). It can be concluded that to communicate orally, especially in transactional talk, message is the most important factor, not the accuracy. Speaking is important, yet it is one of the most difficult skills to be mastered. Ur seemed note problems with speaking activities in psychological point of view which is anxiety, lack of motivation, domination from other students, and the use of same mother-tongue in the classroom (1991:121). While Brown outlined in more mechanical view; clustering, redundancy, reduced forms, performance variables, colloquial language, rate of delivery, stress, rhythm, and intonation, and interaction (2001 : 270-271). We may conclude that to speak inside or outside classroom, students must overcome their anxiety, fear, shyness, and at the same time they have to develop their knowledge on language features.

The lack of motivation also seems to be one of the problems caused by their boredom of certain teaching atmosphere. Most of English teachings consist of dialogue reading or question and answer. The interaction in the classroom is also dominated by the teacher rather than the students. This situation is a result of lack of motivation for learners to speak in English and insufficient fluency to carry on a spontaneous interaction (Richards : 1984). Focus on the formal aspect of conversational language (vocabulary, grammar, conversational phrases and expression) in teaching-learning process does not allow students to participate and practice the conversational interaction. process to practice the language. The teaching atmosphere can cause boredom for students and give very little improvement in students speaking skill. Various problems in motivation and knowledge on language features also occurred in the eleventh grade students of Bina Putra Vocational High School. By indicating the problems in improving students ability in convey message and making themselves understood clearly and accurately, the writer is interested in investigating a method to develop the students speaking skill. The method that is going to be applied is role play. Ur stated that by using role play, teacher can give the students opportunity to practice improvising a range of real-life spoken language in the classroom (1991 : 133). Moreover, role-play is one of the technique that based on communicative language teaching method which improves motivation, provide whole-task practice, allows natural learning, and create a context which Students must be more active in the

supports learning (Littlewood in Xu Liu ). Richards and Rogers (1986 : 76) mentioned role play as one of example of the social interaction activities compatible with a communicative approach which fluency and acceptable language is the primary goal rather than accuracy. Varela and Torre support this idea by stating that role-play contributes to the development of conversational skills and are suitable to develop students fluency and interaction (http://www.spertus.es/Publications/Luisa/NEW%20INSIGHTS.pdf). Therefore,

the main objective of this technique is to prepare students for the real-life language use by practicing in the classroom the situation that may happen in real life. In practicing transactional talk where message is more important than accuracy, role play can be used as a technique that require students to be involved in information sharing and participate a lot in order to convey the message. Unconsciously, this activity also motivates them to speak in English with the other students. The effectiveness of role play in teaching speaking had been proven by Ayu Diyah Harni Susanti, a student at English Department Faculty of Tarbiyah and Teachers Training Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta, State Islamic University, in 2007 who had investigated the effectiveness of this technique in improving students score of speaking at junior high school. The investigation had proven that the students score taught by using role play is better. It means that the use of role play in teaching speaking is quite effective. Most students found it enjoyable and it leads to better attention in learning and stimulate them to participate in role play activities.

This classroom action research will be arranged in Sekolah Menengah Kejuruan Bina Putra Sungai Raya. The subject of this research is tenth grade students. The students had learnt about the expressions in transactional talk at junior high school. However, most of them have lack confidence in expressing themselves, less motivation in learning English, and low English proficiency. In conducting the study in this class, the writer as the teacher will prepare an interview for each students in order to know the real students communicative competence. The students will have to take performance test in every meeting in order to be administered to the sample as the comparison of the significant improving in speaking skill. Besides, questionnaire, observation, field notes and scoring criterions are used to support the data collecting. This research is expected to be one solution to improve speaking skills of the tenth grade students of Sekolah Menengah Kejuruan Bina Putra Sungai Raya.

B. RESEARCH QUESTIONS In order to carry out this research systematically, the problems of this research needs to be formulated as follows: 1. How effective is the use of role play to improve the speaking skill of tenth grade students of Sekolah Menengah Kejuruan Bina Putra Sungai Raya in academic year 2011/2012. 2. What makes role play effective in improving speaking skill of tenth grade students of Sekolah Menengah Kejuruan Bina Putra Sungai Raya in academic year 2011/2012.

C. RESEARCH PURPOSE The purpose of the research is to find out the effectiveness of role play in improving the speaking skill in transactional talk to the first semester of tenth grade students of Sekolah Menengah Kejuruan Bina Putra Sungai Raya in academic year 2011/2012.

D. ACTION HYPOTHESIS The action hypothesis is proposed as follows : 1. Role play does not improve very effectively the speaking skill of tenth grade students of Sekolah Menengah Kejuruan Bina Putra Sungai Raya in academic year 2011/2012. 2. Role play improves quite effectively the speaking skill of tenth grade students of Sekolah Menengah Kejuruan Bina Putra Sungai Raya in academic year 2011/2012. 3. Role play improves very effectively the speaking skill of tenth grade students of Sekolah Menengah Kejuruan Bina Putra Sungai Raya in academic year 2011/2012.

E. SCOPE OF RESEARCH To clarify the limits of research, it is required to state the scope of this research. The scope of this research covers: 1. Research Variable

Research variables are the characteristics of persons, things, groups, programs, and so forth that can take one value. a. Independent Variable The independent variable of this research is role play technique. b. Dependent Variable The dependent variable in this research is the students speaking skill. 2. Terminology In order to clarify the terms and avoid misunderstanding and misinterpreting writing, the researcher provides the following explanation: a. Role play refers to the technique of teaching to improve learners ability in spoken language where learners are assigned roles which they act out in a given scenario. b. Students speaking skill is the students ability to speak fluently and clearly. c. Transactional talk refers to a type of talk where the central focus is the message and making oneself understood clearly and accurately (Richards; 2008).