CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
From the 1999 syllabus of vocational school, it can be seen that the school started to teach their students not only English for specific purpose but also general English. The syllabus is designed to fulfill the needs of the students. Graduating from vocational school, most of the students wish to implement the skill they have learned. They have to meet certain requirements in order to get work. One of the requirements is having sufficient skill in foreign language especially English.
Learning English means learning language components and language skills. Grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and spelling are examples of language components. Meanwhile, language skill covers listening, writing, reading, and speaking. Among the four skills, speaking is often considered as the most difficult skill to be learned by the students. Brown and Yule (1983) state that learning to talk in the foreign language is often considered being one of the most difficult aspects of language learning for the teacher to help the students with. Helping the students develop the speaking skill not merely so that they can pass examination but also for more general use when they want to use the English in the outside world. They may need for further study, work or leisure, so that they will not be among the many people who unable to express his idea in English after having studied it for some years.
The teachers, therefore, are challenged to develop various teaching techniques. The variety of teaching techniques will help learners to get higher motivation to learn English. William and Burden (1997:111) say that motivation is the most powerful influences on learning.
In this research, teaching speaking using video is introduced. Video as an audio visual aids is beneficial for the teacher and students in English Language Teaching. Video can be used as an aid to teach the four skills namely reading, listening, speaking and writing. Rice (1993) says that video has so much to offer.
Furthermore, Heimei (1997) states that students love video because video presentation is interesting, challenging, and stimulating to watch. It also brings how people behave in culture whose language they are learning into the classroom. It enables students to have authentic experience in controlled environment. It is also contextualizing language naturally by showing real life into the classroom.
Based on the phenomenon above, it is necessary to conduct a classroom action research. This research is originated with Kurt Lewin, an American psychologist, who introduced it in educational research in the mid 1940s. Although the research is classified as either quantitative or qualitative research, the method applied in this research is qualitative methods. It allows us to describe what is happening and to understand the effects of some educational intervention.
The principal foundations conducting this research are to solve the identified problem and to understand the effects of some interventions. These two principals are aimed to make improvement and to see change. Mills (2006:6) says that the goals of conducting action research are to gain insight, to develop reflective practice, to effect positive changes in the school environment (and on educational practices in general), and to improve student outcomes and the lives of those involved. That’s why a collaboration classroom action research with a vocational school teacher to improve speaking skill of the second grade students of SMK X is conducted in this research.
B. Identification of the Problem
There are some problems that can be identified dealing with the students speaking skill. They are as follows:
1. How do the students practice the speaking skill?
2. How far do the students develop their speaking skill?
3. Do the techniques in teaching speaking used by the teacher improve students’ speaking skill?
4. Have the teacher tried new technique in teaching speaking in order to improve students speaking skill?
5. Will the students get improvement in speaking if the teacher uses video?
C. Limitation of the Problem
To limit the research, it is necessary to focus the problem discussed in the research. The problems are limited into:
1. The speaking improved in the research covers information routines especially giving justification
2. The videos used are only commercial breaks and a short documentary film
3. Improvement seen from the students’ motivation in speaking activity
D. Formulation of the Problem
The problem of this research can thus be formulated in the two questions bellow:
1. What factors causing the low speaking proficiency of the students?
2. Does and to what extent video improve students’ speaking proficiency?
3. Does and to what extent video increase students’ motivation in speaking class?
E. The Objectives of the Research
The objectives of this research will be the answers to the questions stated in the formulation of the problem. The objectives of this research, therefore, can be stated as follow:
1. To find out factors causing low ability in the speaking class
2. To identify the effectiveness of videos in the speaking class in improving the students’ speaking proficiency
3. To describe the effectiveness of videos in increasing students’ motivation in the speaking class
F. The Benefits of the Research
The result of the research hopefully will be very beneficial for:
1. The students at SMK X
Through video, they are expected to have good development in speaking skill. By having video, they will feel happy to learn English since they are put in an enjoyable situation.
2. The teachers of SMK X
It is expected that the research can give inspiration to the teachers of SMK X to have had efforts in developing various teaching techniques. It also expected that the teacher will conduct the same research with her colleagues to get some improvements in the teaching learning process since being a self-reflective teacher is important for teacher professionalism development.
3. The principal
It is expected that the principal promotes this research to the teachers and facilitate them to do the research. As a place to gain knowledge and education, school having good facilities that support TL process is not enough. There should be effort to teacher professional development. School regulator should provide the effort for the sake of students, teacher, and school committee itself.
4. The other researchers
This study is one of the ways in improving students’ speaking skill. It is expected that the findings will be used as starting points to conduct another research. There are many others techniques to make TL process more effective.