IMPROVING STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILL TROUGH GUESSING GAMES

Rizky Allivia Larasati Haibar

ralhaibar@gmail.com

Faculty of Language and Arts, Yogyakarta State University

Abstract
Speaking is an activity of two or more people in sending and receiving information or messages
in oral communication. The reason of teaching speaking to students is because it belongs to the
basic language skill in English. There is a main problem that the students have less motivation to
practice speaking in the class. To overcome that problem, one of alternative techniques applied is
by having a game. As we know, game is an activity providing entertainment or amusement. One
of the effective game for teaching speaking is Guessing game. Guessing game is considered to
apply because in this game, students are expected to be involved actively in speaking class activity.
The purpose of this paper is to give further explanation about teaching speaking through guessing
games, as an alternative teaching technique which can be used in teaching speaking. The
conclusion is drawn that guessing game is appropriate to apply in teaching speaking, and it was
supported by many research and experts’ statements. The writer hopes this technique will improve
student’s speaking ability.
Keyword: Speaking skill, guessing game, teaching, media, technique

INTRODUCTION

Language is very important thing in our daily activity. As a media to interact and
communicate, language delivered ideas, concepts, thoughts, or feelings. Language means words
which can express our thought. A good communication results mutual understanding. According
to Clark (1981), language is not only the principle medium that human beings use to communicate
with each other but also the links people together binds them their culture. Therefore, language
has important role in communication.

There are so many languages in the world. From all the languages in all over the world,
English is the one of the most widely spoken. As an International language, it is used a mean of
communication among people all over the world. English is very important to everyone. English
is learned seriously by people to have a good prospect in the community of international world.
We can easily communicate with other people all over the world if we mastering English.
 As an International language, English is important to learn especially for Indonesian people
because it will help us to face free trade and global era in which English is widely use. Because of
that, the Indonesian government tries to improve the students’ ability in using English by including
English as one of the important subject in the school. English is taught widely at formal school
starting from Kindergarten up to Universities even at informal or non-formal school in Indonesia.

Actually, there are four basic skills in learning English that should be mastered by the
students. They are listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Among those skills, speaking is the
most important one due to the large number of students who want to study English in order to be
able to use English for communicative purposes. Hybel (2001: 45) mentioned that speaking is any
process in which people share information, ideas, and feeling. In other words, speaking skill is
used to convey our idea or messages to others in oral communication. As we know that English
used as an international language, it becomes the reason why people is competing to master English
as communication tool in this globalization era. Speaking has essential part in English teaching-
learning process. In addition, English speaking skill is used in real life. It is because mastery in
English communication is one of the main goals in learning English.

In Indonesia, English speaking is quite difficult skill to master because English is the
foreign language for Indonesian. Speaking in a foreign language is far from simple. Mastering
speaking is one of the main goals in learning English. One target of teaching language is to improve
students’ skill to speak that language. Meanwhile, Burns (2012:37) believed that for most foreign
language learners, speaking in target language is not easy thing to undertake because learning to
speak a foreign language requires more than knowing grammatical and semantics rules. Mostly,
Indonesian students are unconfident to speak in English. There are many factors cause this, such
as untrained teacher, being lazy, afraid to make mistake, boring class, inappropriate teaching
method, etc.

According to Baker and Westrup (2003), there are many reasons why students may find
learning and using English difficult such as cultural differences, personal differences, and lack of
confidence, no time for speaking when studying for examinations, preparation for speaking, and
interest in topic. This can lead to real barriers to communication, and can contribute to poor
motivation in learning. Whereas, we know that the purpose of learning English especially in
speaking is to enable the students to use English well both accurately and fluently. In a language
lesson, students need to spend time on becoming more accurate. But they also need to practice
using the language fluently.

Teacher’s competence is one of the important roles in teaching speaking. A competence

teacher should be able to create a good atmosphere in class. Teacher should use one effective
method for teaching speaking that make student active and motivate in learning speaking. The
students can be motivated to say something to make possibility activities and giving opportunity
for them to practice their speaking skill. A game as a technique in language teaching can be used
as an alternative way to make better condition in the class in order that students do not feel bored.
Games may also be used to make the English lesson interesting. By using games, teaching and
learning process will be more affective.

According to Brewster and Ellis (2002), games are not only motivating and fun but also
provide excellent practice for improving vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar, and the four
language skills. It is easy to do in the classroom. Games is one techniques that can be applied in
teaching speaking because games are one potential activity that gives students’ feeling of freedom
to express themselves. Games are also potentially useful to encourage students to interact and
communicate with other students orally.

In relation to the techniques in teaching speaking skill, guessing games is one of the
techniques that can be used in learning English. Kipple (2012:34) stated that, the basic rule of the
guessing games is very simple, someone knows the vocabulary and the others are trying to find it.
Similarly, Wright (2006) said that, in a guessing games and speculating game, some one knows
something and the others must find what it is by purposes. Based on the definition above, it can be
concluded that guessing games is a game in which a person or participant knows something and
competes individually or in a team to identify or to find out the answer. The basic rule of guessing
game is very simple; one person knows something that another one wants to find out.

This article will first introduce of what is speaking skill in English. This article will also
explore about classroom speaking activities for foreign language learners. Then, it will talk about
games for teaching activity. After that, it will discuss about guessing game and its implementation
as media of teaching speaking. Finally, this article will argue for the advantages of using guessing
games to improve students’ speaking skill.
SPEAKING

Speaking is one of the four language skills that has to be mastered by students in learning
English. According to Longman Dictionary, speaking is the utterance of intelligible speech or
seeming to be capable of speech. Many experts define speaking in different way. Thornbury (2005:
20) states that speaking is an activity in real life that is carried out by speaker to carry out his/ her
ideas to interact with listeners. The activities are unplanned and their continuity is based on
situations. Speakers talk in order to have some effect on their listeners. When speaking to other
people, speakers try to make their communication run well.

Brown and Yule (1989:267) state that speaking I to express the need, request, information,
service, and etc. Furthermore, Chaney in Susanti (2007:6) wrote that speaking is the process of
building and sharing meaning by using verbal and non-verbal symbols, in varied situation. It means
speaking is used by human to communicate with other to convey messages.

From the definition above, it can be inferred that speaking is one of the most important role
in people’s communicating life among one and other. Speaking is oral communication that is
needed by human being to fulfil their ideas, thoughts, responses, and some opinions. Speaking is
a productive skill in the oral mode. It involves more than just pronouncing words. It requires
process of thinking of what one wishes to say, choosing the right words to use, putting the words,
communicating the feelings we have, and so on. Usually, speaking is performed face to face and
happens in dialogue or other form of verbal language that can be done by two or more people. By
communicating, they are able to build relationship, convey messages, share and find information.
In this case, speaking is the most important part in expressing the students’ ideas, opinion, though
or feelings, and they are able to communicative with others by doing some activities in classroom.

In academic context, speaking is a crucial part of foreign language learning and teaching.
Teaching speaking, especially English is teaching students how to communicate orally to others.
The goal of teaching speaking skills is communicative efficiency. Students should be able to make
themselves understood, using their current proficiency to the fullest. They should try to avoid
confusion in the message due to faulty pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary, and to observe the
social and cultural rules that apply in each communication situation. Teaching speaking should
improve students’ communication skill, because through speaking students express themselves in
the form of communication. Teacher plays important role in teaching speaking because he or she
is the key success to help students to have better English proficiency. Teacher as the facilitator
should help the students to speak English fluently. There are four components of speaking skill
introduced by Heaton (1988:100), they are accuracy, fluency, comprehensibility, and content. In
order to four components can be covered in learning speaking demand for special technique or
method to teach.

The focus of teaching speaking is to improve the oral production of students in real
situation. In fact, there are some problems in teaching speaking. First, the students do not have
much time to practice English in the classroom because the teacher just explains the topic. The
teaching is focused on developing writing and reading skill. Thus, it will make a little chance for
the student to practice English orally. Second, they have lack vocabulary. Teacher do not provide
new vocabulary and students are lazy to bring or open dictionary. The last, they still feel shy to
speak English. They are not confident to speak English and they are afraid of being laughed by
their if they make mistake.

Based on the problems above, English teacher have to make their speaking class
atmosphere interesting and give more chance for students to practice their speaking. Teacher
should give opportunities to students to use and practice the language learned by applying certain
activities. The teacher also should be able to select an appropriate teaching methodology to be used
in teaching materials as well classroom leaning activities that can motivate students to learn. As
cited by Hence (2004: 3), the students will feel enjoy during the class and keep on practicing their
speaking ability.

CLASSROOM SPEAKING ACTIVITIES

According to Harmer (2001), it can sometimes be easy to get students to speak in the
classroom if the atmosphere of the class is good such as students who get on with each other and
whose English is in an appropriate level. However, he added that it will be difficult for the teacher
to make the students to speak if they are reluctant to speak, the topic chosen is not appropriate, the
organization of teaching plan is at fault, and if there is an unpredicted event happened. Therefore,
the roles of the teacher and the techniques the teacher used are essential.
 An interesting classroom teaching activity has a contribution to create an enjoyable
atmosphere and to relax the speaking teaching learning process. Harmer (2001) suggests a number
of widely-used categories of classroom speaking activities.

1. Acting from a script. There are two kinds of acting from a script that should be
considered by the teacher those are play scripts and acting out the dialogues. On the
play scripts, it is important for the students to treat is as a ‘real’ acting. The role of
the teacher on this activity is becoming as if theatre directors, drawing attention to
appropriate stress intonation and speed. On the acting dialogue, rehearsing dialogues
before the performance facilitates students to improve their speaking ability. In other
words, the students gain much more from the experience on the process of rehearsal.
2. Communication games. Games is the most effective and interesting activity to teach
language to students. Game is also an activity with role. Teachers should be careful
in choosing the game. They have to choose appropriate game to practice speaking for
students. It should depend on an information gap. “Information gap is a useful
activity in which one person has information that the other lacks. They must use the
target language to share that information”. (Bailey, 2003:56). It means that in
information gap exercise, one student must be in the position of telling another
something that the second student does not know yet.
3. Discussion. A discussion is one of the ways to share an idea of an event or find the
solution of the problem. Discussion is also one of good activities for teaching
speaking. Discussion must be done by the students in a group. The teacher is
preparing the students, offering choices, setting a goal or outcome, using small
groups instead of whole class discussions, limiting discussion’s time, allowing
students to participate in their own way, doing topical follow-up and giving feedback
on their grammar or pronunciation problems. This activity can make students learn
how to say politely to other people when their idea is different from others. It also
teaches students to talk about something spontaneously.
4. Prepared talks. It is an activity where students make a presentation on a topic of their
own choice. Such talks are not designed for informal spontaneous conversation
because they are prepared. However, if possible, students should speak from notes
 rather than from a script. Prepared talk represents a defined and useful speaking genre
and if properly organized can be interesting for both speakers and listeners.
5. Questionnaires. It is useful because they ensure that both questioner and the
respondent have something to say to each other. Students can design questionnaires
on any topics that are appropriate for them so that the teachers can act as a resource,
helping them in the design process. The result obtained from questionnaires can then
form the basis for written work, discussion, or prepared talks.
6. Simulation and Role-play. Role play is one of the best techniques to make students
speak. This technique is very useful for developing the interpersonal skills of
learners, for example, in role play activities a teacher gives a role to students and
invites them to act as artist, doctor, teacher and others by giving them a scenario.
According to Harmer in Solcova (2011) states that role play and simulation increase
learners’ self-confidence and encourage more hesitant learners to speak because it is
not themselves who they present when conversation happens and thus they do not
have to take responsibility for their utterance and actions.

According to these theories, the classroom speaking activities proposed by some experts
are almost the same. Teachers can choose an activity that is related to the topic and objective of
the lesson. Every activity has its own advantages and disadvantages. If teachers want to use one of
the activities, they have to consider the situation, condition of their students and the material that
will be taught.

GAMES FOR TEACHING ACTIVITIES

It is possible to learn a language well as enjoy oneself the sometime one best way of doing
this trough games. Games can be applied in teaching learning English. This idea is supported by
Andrew Wright, Betteridge and Buckby (2006). “Games can be found to give practice in all skills
(Reading, speaking, listening, and speaking) in all stages on teaching – learning sequences….”.
Beside on the statements above, it is clear that all skill can be applied in teaching, one of them is
speaking.

As we know, game is an activity providing entertainment or amusement. “A game is an

activity carried out by co-operating or competing decision-makers, seeking to achieve, within a set
of rules, their objectives” (Rixon 1981). A game is an activity that both the teacher and students
enjoy doing. Using games in English class can get students relaxed and enjoying using the
language. Martin (1995) in Brewster and Ellis (2002: 172) explains a game in language teaching
is any fun activity which gives young learners the opportunity to practice the foreign language in
a relaxed and enjoyable way. According to Krashen (1982), second language acquisition is
influenced by affective factors either positively or negatively. One of the teacher’s task is to create
a situation where students’ affective filter is lowered so that the comprehensible input could be
taken in. It can be conclude that the first aim of using games in class is just to create interesting
situation.

Games are communicative in essence, and so using game in English teaching and learning
can well realize the fundamental idea of the communicative language teaching approach. It means
that using game is a good way to improve students’ various skills. Hadfield (1990) says that a
game is an activity with rules, a goal elements of fun. In playing language games, students have to
know and well understand the rules of the games. They have to take some action, doing or saying
something, to compete in the games.

There are some reasons a teacher uses games in teaching speaking. Games provide fun and
relax activity while remaining very much within the framework of language learning. It is expected
that shy or slow learners can be active participants to show their ability and find their confidence
in communicating in the foreign language. Games also give students chances to use English orally,
it means that students can practice and develop their ability to speak in English.

From the description above, we can conclude that games are activities in which there are
rules designed for and goal achieved by the participants in order to have pleasure. Games are
useful to stimulate students in the English teaching and learning process, especially in teaching
speaking. Students are more relaxes in learning English language because they feel fun and
confident. Since it provides stimuli, games make learning English useful and meaningful for
students.

GUESSING GAMES AND ITS IMPLEMENTATION AS MEDIA OF TEACHING

SPEAKING

A guessing game is a simple game which can be applied in the class as the learning method
which will make the teaching-learning process become more interesting and interactive than
before. “The basic rule of guessing game is eminently simple, one person knows something that
another one wants to find out” (Klippel 1994:13). It means that guessing game are game that can
be played by making a group or not. If we want to make groups, one group will give question about
something and another group will guess the answer from the question. Simply, guessing game
technique is a way of game to guess an object such as a verb, noun, abstract noun or phrase by
giving many clues to the guesser as much as possible.

According to Webster (2001:8), in teaching speaking through guessing games, students are
expected to be involve actively in speaking class activity, they are much courage to think what
they want to say. In other words, by guessing game students more active and interest in learning
speaking. Lee (2002) says, “Among them are number of guessing games which can be applied at
various age level in general, the challenge to guess arouses considerable interest and encourages
the learners to communicate….”. That statement says that guessing games can be applied at
various age levels. It has the same idea Klippel, he says, “Everybody knows guessing games it is
not only children that like guessing games; adults like guessing too, as shown by many popular
TV programmers.”

From the expert’s statement above, it can be said that guessing games are interested by
students all of ages from children to adult, and it encourages the learners to communicate because
it is combination between language practice with fun and excitement. By using guessing games
technique in teaching speaking made students really were active and looked happy in learning
process.

There are some procedures that teacher can instruct to the students to perform the activities
in the implementation of guessing game. The procedure of conducting the guessing game
technique to motivate students to speak can be classified into three parts; pre-teaching activity,
whilst-teaching activity, and post-teaching activity.

A. Pre-teaching Activities

In the first activities, the teacher greets the students and checks the students'
attendance. Then the teacher checks the students' readiness to study and also review
the previous lesson to remind the students about the last lesson. In this stage, the
teacher builds the students' background knowledge related to the lesson that will be
 given. Besides that, the teacher tells the students about lesson which are going to be
taught and the teacher tells the achievement indicators and the objectives of the lesson
which are going to be taught.

B. Whilst-teaching Activities

Then in the main activities the teacher begins this stage by introducing the
first lesson by use guessing game technique. Here are some of the procedures in apply
guessing game technique in the classrom:

a. Class is divided into four groups; one chairperson is given a picture of the
object, and then tells a group a clue about the object is household tool,
clothes, vehicles, or any other stuff. The group should find the answer by
asking yes or no question, for at least twenty questions. A group which has
twenty questions and answer correctly will be the winner. (Dwi, 2009, p.24).

b. The teacher has a picture, which the students can’t see. The teacher presents
a brief explanation about the picture and then asks the students to ask
questions and find out exactly what the picture looks like or draw the picture.
Hiding the pictures gives students a genuine reason to ask questions because
they want to find out information about the picture. They also have to listen
carefully to answers, so that they draw the pictures. (Doff, 1990 as cited in
Shojaee, n.d, p.7) or one student stands at the front of the class with a picture
in his or her hands and other students guess.

c. Two students stand at the front of the class. One shows the picture to the
class but not to the other student. The other student guesses and the rest of
the class response in chorus. This activity can also be organized with
students working in small groups. The teacher gives a picture to one student
in each group, and the others in the group try to guess it.

d. Secretly put an object in a paper bag or hide it. Then, get the students to
guess what's in the bag, by asking an appropriate question. The student who
guesses correctly takes over from the teacher. Do this a couple of times, and
then let the students take over. Students can do this group vs. group, or in
 pairs. (Sheryl Carvalho in Shojaee, n.d, p.11). Another version of that
activity is that the teacher sends two students out of the room. The other
students hide an object. The two students come back and guess what the
object is and where it is hidden, by asking questions, e.g.

 Is it made of wood?
 Is it a pencil?
 Is it on this side of the room?

e. One student chooses a job, and mimes a typical activity which it involves.
The others try to guess the job by asking questions either about the activity
or the job, e.g.:

 Were you mending something?

 Were you digging?
 Do you work outside?

f. Twenty Questions (Harmer,2001)

“Twenty questions” is one kind of guessing games. The essential

rule of this game is that someone knows something and others must find out
what it is (Wright et al., 1984). This game is a useful teaching technique
since it can create a true communicative situation and combine the language
practice in fun and excitement ways.

Procedures: Students are divided in two teams. Each team thinks of

an object and tells the other team that the object is either animal, vegetable,
or mineral- or a combination of two or three of these. If team A is in charge,
so team B has to find out what the object is by asking only “yes/no”
questions such as “Can you use it in the kitchen?”, and team A can answer
the question in a complete answer like “No, we can’t” or just in short answer
like “No” or “Yes”.

If team B can find out what the object is in twenty questions or less,
team B will get point. At this phase, the teacher should arrange how many
 point that the team B will get if they can answer it in just five questions, ten
questions, or fifteen questions, e.g. in or less than five questions, the team
will get 20 points, in or less than ten questions the team will get 15 points,
and so on.

C. Post-teaching Activities

In the last activities, the students are asked to be a volunteer to tell or conclude
what are the lesson for today in front of the classroom. Then the teacher will give
feedback by pronounce some words correct or well which the students pronounce unwell
while guessing game activity.

Based on the procedure of playing guessing game above, it can be concluded that there are
many ways to apply the guessing game, the teacher just need to adapt the games based on the
situation on the class and students.

ADVANTAGES OF USING GUESSING GAMES TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’

SPEAKING SKILL

“Guessing games can be used to develop or reinforce concept, to add diversion to regular
activities, or just to break the ice. However, their must important function is to give practice in
communication.” (Richard-Amato, 1988, p. 156 as cited in Dwiyanti, 2009, p.16). It says that
guessing games give students do not feel bored during learning process. Nevertheless, the most
important thing is to give the students in practicing their English.

They also add that: Guessing games can be painless to develop or reinforce any
number concepts. “Guessing what I am,” Guess who I am” for example, can be used
teach about animals, profession or people in different age groups (baby, child, teenager, young adult,
elderly person). (Richard-Amato, 1988, p. 156 as cited in Dwiyanti, 2009, p.17).

Silver (1980–1983, p.244) says as cited in Dwiyanti (2009, p.17) “Real guessing games
provide the students with much needed practice in formulating questions, an essential skill that
does not always receive sufficient attention.” From it, we can conclude that guessing games give
students more chance in formulating question.
 Another advantages of use guessing game in teaching speaking is guessing game gives
students more pleasure from regular activities in class. It creates a relaxed atmosphere in the
classroom. Then using guessing game can encourage the students to communicate in English
because the games are combination between language and practice with fun and excitement.

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

Speaking ability is a very important in our life because it used to interact or to do dialogue
even formal and informal with other. Speaking is also one important skill that covers the whole
skills which should be mastered by students, especially in Indonesia. In fact, Indonesian students
still unconfident to speak English because they are afraid of making mistake while uttering the
words or expressing their idea and opinion.

To overcome those problems, the teacher should be able to motivate their students to speak
English by choosing an interesting technique of teaching speaking. One of the techniques that
writers suggest is using guessing game. By using guessing game to teach speaking, all students
will participate actively during the class activities because the students have the same chance to
speak. This game can improve their speaking ability because it requires the students’ innovative.
Guessing games also will make the students motivated to speak because it will create comfortable
atmosphere where students feel relax and are not under pressure to speak. They will enjoy the
process and are eager to speak.

Speaking is sometime more difficult that other skills. In the fact most of students find
difficulties to express their idea in speaking communication. In order to create comfortable
atmospheres in the classroom, the writer suggests the English teacher to apply this game in
teaching speaking. This game will make the students understand in speaking and the students also
can receive the lesson easily. The writer hopes that, this technique could involve students in the
activities in order that they will be good in fluency to speak.
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