CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
As an introduction this chapter presents the background of the study, statement of the study, objective of the study, significance of the study, hypothesis and definition of key terms.
1.1 Background of the Study
Language is the important part in communication. Language is being the way to transfer an idea, thinking, opinion and feeling. In the world, there are so many languages and English is an important language to be learned because it becomes an international language. English influences our daily life; many sectors need English as the prerequisites. For example, English is widely used in mass media and oral communication as means of exchanging information including science, education and technology reasons. In Indonesia, English is the first foreign language. It is taught from elementary school as an alternative subject until high school as one of the compulsory subjects. It means that English has an important position so the Indonesian students need to learn English as well as possible.
There are four important skills that students have to master in English. They are speaking, reading, listening and writing. Furthermore, the students have to master English components such as vocabulary, grammar, spelling and pronunciation. In current curriculum, the English literacy level of junior high school is the ability to use English for communication in daily life. It means that the objective of English teaching is the ability to speak English fluently. But in reality, there are so many students are not able to speak English well. Commonly, they only have capability in grammar, reading or writing. It is because English is not spoken in society, so the accuracy and fluency to speak English is difficult for the students. Moreover, the use of conventional teaching techniques which only use the same way for each section of teaching English becomes the second reason of the problem in speaking English. Setiyadi (2006: 21) states that “speaking is the productive skill in the oral mode. It likes the other skills, is more complicated that it seems at first and involves more than pronouncing words.”
Based on the statements above, the researcher knows that the fluency in speaking becomes the problem in learning English. Here, the using of appropriate techniques in teaching and learning English is one of the ways to solve the problem. It is needed in order to make the students be motivated in speaking English in the classroom and out of classroom. There are many techniques to make English teaching especially speaking is fun, interesting and active. So the students are encouraged to expose themselves to speak English. One of the techniques which can be used in English speaking is cooperative learning technique, so the teachers have to analyze the most appropriate technique to teach English in their class. Cooperative learning has so many techniques which can be a good alternative to be applied in teaching English and it can make an interesting teaching and learning for the students.
Based on the backgrounds above, the researcher will conduct a study in the form of Classroom Action Research entitled “Enhancing the Eighth Students’ Ability in Speaking through Team-Game-Tournament of Cooperative Learning Technique at SMP Negeri 1 Rejotangan in Academic Year 2013/2014.”
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Referring to the background of the study previously presented, the researcher formulates the statement of the problem as follows “How can the Team-Game-Tournament of cooperative learning technique enhance the eighth students’ ability in speaking at SMP Negeri 1 Rejotangan in academic year 2013/2014?”
1.3 Objective of the Study
The objective of the study is to enhance the eighth students’ ability in speaking through Team-Game-Tournament of cooperative learning technique at SMP Negeri 1 Rejotangan in academic year 2013/2014.
1.4 Significance of the Study
The advantages that can be acquired from this research are:
- For the students
This research can encourage them to learn English especially in learning speaking so that they can enhance their speaking ability and find the interesting teaching and learning process. It can be new experience for them in learning English so that their speaking achievement can be better.
- For the teachers
It can be input and reference to the English teachers in teaching speaking. They can get an appropriate technique so that they can enhance their students’ speaking ability and make the students’ speaking achievement can be better than before.
- For other researcher
It can be used to be reference in conducting further research to develop another technique to motivate the students to speak English.
1.5 Hypothesis
If the Team-Game-Tournament of cooperative learning technique is applied well, it will improve the students’ ability in speaking at SMP Negeri 1 Rejotangan in academic year 2013/2014.
1.6 The Definition of Key Terms
To avoid misunderstanding and misinterpreting of any terms used in this class action research, the researcher defines the key words as follow:
- Speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing, receiving and processing information (Brown, 1994; Burn & Joyce, 1997). Its form and meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs, including the participant themselves, their collective experience, the physical environment and the purposes for speaking. However, speaking is not always unpredictable.
- Team-Game-Tournament is one of the games based on the procedure and developing of cooperative learning technique. The major characteristic of the game is group work. The students study in group and assigned a task that involves collaboration and self-initiated language.
- Cooperative learning technique is group learning activity organized so that learning is dependent on the structured social exchange of information between learners in group and in which each learner is held accountable for his or her own learning and is motivated to increase the learning of other (Kesler 1992: 8). It means that cooperative learning technique can enhance the motivation and spirit of the students to study with their friends in group.
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
This chapter presents some related literatures that support this class action research. It includes English curriculum for SMP, learning English, speaking, cooperative learning and Team- Game- Tournament.
2.1 English Curriculum for SMP
English curriculum for SMP is The School Based Curriculum 2006 is called KTSP 2006. The objective of KTSP namely KKM, it does include the indicator of competence that use for determining the minimum score of passing grade in every school. As stated in the 2006 curriculum that every school has full authority and responsibility for determining the subject matter and learning instruction in line with the vision, mission, purpose, condition and characteristic of every school.
According to 2006 English curriculum: Pengembangan kemampuan siswa dalam berbahasa Inggris yaitu dengan memiliki empat ketrampilan dalam berbahasa Inggris (speaking, listening, reading, writing) yang bertujuan untuk mengembangkan kompetensi berkomunikasi secara lisan secara terbatas untuk mengiringi tindakan (language accompanying action).
The 2006 curriculum based on Depdiknas 2006 targets the students to be able to understand various types of texts, i.e. descriptive, procedure, recount, narrative and report. Those kinds of text types have to be mastered by the students in four skills; they are listening, speaking, reading and writing. The standard competence especially in speaking the students should be expressing the meaning in written functional text and short essay of descriptive and procedure to interact with the closest environment. Moreover, the basic competence in speaking the students must express the meaning and the steps accurately, fluently and acceptably in very simple short essay related to the closest environment.
2.2 Learning English
Learning English has an essential point in order to make the students master in English. As we know that in Indonesia, English is the first foreign language. This section introduces and explains the definition of learning and English language learning for SMP.
2.2.1 Definition of Learning
The formal definition of learning describes the process as a relatively permanent change in behavior based on individuals’ interactional experience with its environment. As such, learning is an important form of personal adaptation. It means that learning is relatively permanent is to emphasize that behavior is flexible and not genetically pre- programmed in form or function.
2.2.2 English Language Learning for SMP
In KTSP Mata Pelajaran Bahasa Inggris (Depdiknas, 2006: 278) learning English in SMP has aims as follows: (1) developing communicative competence either oral or written ways to achieve literacy level; (2) having awareness of the essence and importance of English to enhance competitive power of nation in global society; (3) developing understanding of the students about the relationship between language and culture.
2.3 Speaking
This section focuses in some important aspects of speaking as one of the skills in learning English involves the definition of speaking and the importance of speaking.
2.3.1 Definition of Speaking
Of all the four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing), speaking seems intuitively the most important: people who know a language are referred to as ‘speakers’ of that language, as if speaking included all other kinds of knowing; and many if not most foreign language learners are primarily interested in learning to speak (Paulo, 2010:120). Moreover, (Shrouf in Brown, 1994; Burns & Joyce, 1997) defines that speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing information. It means that speaking is a crucial part of language and it became a communicative skill for the students.
2.3.2 Teaching Speaking
Hornby (1995: 37) quoted that teaching means giving the instruction to (a person): give a person (knowledge, skill etc). While speaking means to make use of words in an ordinary voice, so teaching speaking is giving instruction to a person in order to communicate. Many students equate being able to speak a language as knowing the language therefore view learning the language as learning how to speak the language.
Speaking is fundamental to human communication. Just think of all the different conversation we have in one day and compare that how much the written conversation we do in one day. In our daily lives most of us speak more than we write, yet many English teachers still spend the majority of class time on reading and writing practice almost ignoring speaking and listening skills. If the goal of English course is truly to enable the students to communicate in English, then speaking skill should be taught and practiced in the language classroom. Classroom activities that develop the ability of learners to express themselves through speech would therefore seem an important component of a language course and it is usually called an effective speaking activity.
2.4 Cooperative Learning
This section focuses in some important aspects of cooperative learning that includes the nature of cooperative learning and the five key elements of cooperative learning; positive interdependence, face to face interaction, individual and group accountability, interpersonal small- group skill and group processing.
2.4.1 The Nature of Cooperative Learning
As humans we are social animals and have an inherent social nature. It is not in our nature to life alone (Johnson and Johnson, 1975: 1). Based on the statement above we can conclude that make a group is needed in our life. It seems for the students that they need to learning together through group work. Group work is a generic term covering a multiplicity of techniques in which two or more students are assigned a task that involves collaboration and self initiated language (Brown, 2001: 177). Group work is usually called cooperative learning. (Kessler, 1992: 8) states that “cooperative learning is group learning activity organized so that learning is dependent on the social structured exchange of information between learners in group and in which each learner is held accountable for his or her own learning and is motivated to increase the learning of other”. It means that cooperative learning can increase the spirit of the students to study with their friends in group.
2.4.2 Key Elements of cooperative Learning
It is only under certain conditions that cooperative efforts may be expected to be more productive than competitive and individualistic efforts. Those conditions are positive interdependence, face to face interaction, individual and group accountability, interpersonal and small- group skill and also group processing. Then this section focuses on explanation of each key element is defined below:
2.4.2.1 Positive Interdependence
Positive Interdependence exists when each member realizes that success is impossible without the support and interaction of all members, that is, each one has an awareness of “sink or swim together” (Burns- Roe- Ross 1996: 588). It is also can make the students have responsibility to themselves and also to their groups’ member. Each member tries to give the best for his or her group.
2.4.2.2 Face to Face Interaction
Face to Face Interaction promotes each other’s success. It has five points, they are: (1) orally explaining how to solve the problem, (2) teaching one’s knowledge to other, (3) checking for understanding, (4) discussing concepts being learned and (5) connecting present with past learning. The students share each other to solve the problems. They share their knowledge and their experience with the other members in the group.
2.4.2.3 Individual and Group Accountability
Individual and Group Accountability exist when the performance of each individual is assessed and the results are given back to the group and the individual in order to as certain who needs more assistance, support and encouragement in learning (David & Johnson, 2009). Individual and group accountability refer to the teachers’ monitoring of each group members and provision of feedback to ensure that each student is learning (Burns- Roe- Ross, 1996: 588).
2.4.2.4 Interpersonal and Small- Group Skills
Interpersonal and Small- Group Skills also called Collaborative Skills include such group interaction skills as leadership, decision- making, trust- building, communication and conflict- management skills. The purpose of learning together in group work is that they can make collaboration of the skills with their friends in the group and share those all collaborative skills.
2.4.2.5 Group Processing
Group Processing occurs when the students discuss their progress in reaching goals and analyze their working relationship within the group. Group processing exist when group members discuss how well they are achieving their goals and maintaining effective working relationship. The effective working relationship shows and describes what member actions are helpful and not helpful.
2.5 Team- Game- Tournament
Basically, Team- Game- Tournament is one of the techniques of cooperative learning. Then this section presents the definition of Team- Game- Tournament and the characteristics of Team- Game- Tournament.
2.5.1 Definition of Team- Game- Tournament
Team Game Tournament (TGT) is a cooperative learning technique that enhances students’ academic achievement and attitudes towards the content material. The purpose of the Team- Game- Tournament is to create an effective classroom environment in which students are actively involved in the teaching process and are consistently receiving encouragement for successful performance. The Team- Game- Tournament structure encourages competition and cooperation in a way that promotes peer group rewards for academic achievement and this strategy is appropriate for secondary school students of all abilities especially speaking ability (Abrami, 1991: 83).
2.5.2 The Characteristics of Team- Game- tournament
Team- Game- Tournament has three basic elements: (1) teams— students are assigned to equal teams categorized by equivalent academic levels; (2) games —skill exercises relating to content material are played during weekly tournaments; (3) tournament —students represent their teams and compete individually against students from other teams. The winnings are brought back to their teams. Total winnings are tallied across teams and team champions are announced. Not only is Team- Game- Tournament a fun activity, it also helps students review what they have just learned in the unit for a future test. There is an incentive for playing the game. The team that wins the tournament gets a reward. For example, stickers or extra time to play outside.
CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHOD
Research method is a significant element in the research activity. In this chapter, some aspects will be used to conduct the study. They include the research design, research procedure, setting and subject of the study, data collection method and data analysis.
3.1 Research Design
To conduct a useful research, a systematic way or a well-done plan must be made in order to obtain the valid answers of the research questions. It means that the appropriate research design has to be selected. In conducting this study, classroom action research would be used. It was designed to describe a condition objectively and information concerning the status of phenomena of the sample. This study also attempts to describe the analysis of improving the eighth grade student’s ability in speaking through one of the cooperative learning techniques that is Team- Game- Tournament. The research design is used to find out the result of “enhancing the eighth grade student’s ability in speaking through Team- Game- Tournament at SMPN 01 Rejotangan in Academic Year of 2013/2014” using Classroom Action Research.
Carr and Kemmis (2005:7) state that action research is a form of self-reflective enquiry undertaken by participants in social (including educational) situation in order to improve (a) the rationality and justice of these practices; (b) their understanding of the practices, and the situations in which the practices are carried out. It can be said that an action research is a “learning by doing” action a group of people or person (researcher), identifies a problem, does something to resolve it, sees how successful the efforts which has been made, and if the result is not satisfying, that group or that person will try again the efforts in the next action.
Applying the principle of an action research design, the researcher took the model of an action research proposed by Kemmis and Mc.Taggart model Aqib (2006: 23). The action research consists of four main steps, namely planning, acting, observing, and reflecting in which the cycle is shown in figure 3.1.
Figure 3.1 the Procedure of Classroom Action Research
(Adapted from Kemmis and Mc Taggart’s model)
The explanations of the figure above were presented more clearly as the following:
3.1.1 Cycle I
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Planning |
Finding an institution to do an action (Eighth students of SMPN I Rejotangan). |
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Asking permission to the headmaster and English teacher to carry out the research there. |
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Designing a well-prepared plan (lesson plan and test). |
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Acting |
First Activity (Pre-test) Giving a pre-test to the students. |
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Second Activity (Treatment 1) |
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The researcher |
Students |
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The researcher distributes the practice version of the test to each student and instruct them to answer the question orally and cooperatively as a team, ensuring that all team members understand how each answer was obtained the intension. |
Students give their attention. |
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The researcher evaluates and corrects the students’ answer then displayed a copy of the answer on the data projector and get each team to check their answer and resolve any issues with their answer. |
Students who know, then answer the question orally then check their answer and attention the teacher’s explanation. |
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The researcher asks the students to sort there team on the basis of their understanding of the topic from very good understanding (A students) to poor understanding (E students). |
Students rank their members on the basis of their understanding. |
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After that, the researcher regroups all of the teams and asks them to seat all of the A students in one area of the room, B students in another area, etc. |
Students regroup their selves. |
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The researcher gives out the test version question to each student and instructs them to individually answer the questions under formal test conditions. |
Students answer the question orally. |
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The researcher evaluates and corrects then displays a copy of the answer on the data projector and get each student to mark their answers and then to rank themselves amongst the group of students they are group with. That is, the A students will rank themselves from best to worst score. The students with best score is given a score of 5 points while the students with the lowest score is given a score 1 point. Students with equal scores receive the same number of points (e.g. the point’s distribution could be 5, 4, 4, 4, 1, if three students have same score). |
Students give their attention and rank their scores. |
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The researcher gives feedback for the students’ activity within teams, so that the researcher can give evaluation for their speaking activity. |
Students give attention and improve their speaking ability. |
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Third Activity |
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The researcher |
Students |
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The researcher plays the rule once more. |
Students do the rule once more with increase attention. |
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The researcher gives a cycle I test to check the students’ progress. |
Students do the cycle I test. |
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Monitoring |
Collecting and analyzing the result of the action. Its purpose was to know to what extent the result of the action reached the objectives. |
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Reflection |
Finding out the progress from the first activity to the last activity. |
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3.1.2 Cycle II
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Planning |
Designing a well-prepared plan (lesson plan and test). |
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Acting |
Fourth Activity (Treatment 2) |
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The writer |
Students |
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The researcher distributes the practice version of the test to each student and instructs them to answer the question orally and cooperatively as a team, ensuring that all team members understand how each answer was obtained the intension. |
Students give their attention. |
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The researcher evaluates and corrects the students’ answer then displays a copy of the answer on the data projector and get each team to check their answer and resolve any issues with their answer. |
Students who know, then answer the question orally then check their answer and attention the teacher’s explanation. |
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The researcher asks the students to sort there team on the basis of their understanding of the topic from very good understanding (A students) to poor understanding (E students). |
Students rank their members on the basis of their understanding. |
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After that, the researcher regroups all of the teams and asks them to seat all of the A students in one area of the room, B students in another area, etc. |
Students regroup their selves. |
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The researcher give out the test version question to each student and instructs them to individually answer the questions under formal test conditions. |
Students answer the question orally. |
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The researcher evaluates and corrects then displays a copy of the answer on the data projector and got each student to mark their answers and then to rank themselves amongst the group of students they are group with. That is, the A students will rank themselves from best to worst score. The students with best score is given a score of 5 points while the students with the lowest score is given a score 1 point. Students with equal scores received the same number of points (e.g. the point’s distribution could be 5, 4, 4, 4, 1, if three students have same score). |
Students give their attention and rank their scores. |
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Third Activity |
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The writer |
Students |
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The researcher plays the rule once more. |
Students do the rule once more with increase attention. |
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The researcher give a cycle II test to check the students’ progress. |
Students do the cycle II test. |
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Monitoring |
Collecting and analyzing the result of the action. Its purpose was to know to what extent the result of the action reached the objectives. |
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Reflection |
Finding out the progress from the first activity to the last activity. |
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From the cycles above, the main difference of each cycle is the role of the teacher in giving the more motivation to the students in speaking. The researcher motivates the students to do their best within team. The students give more attention for their team. Then researcher gives another form of test in cycle 2, so that the students will beyond the previous failure in the cycle 1 from this class action research.
3.2 Research Procedure
The procedure of this classroom action research will be conducted in cycle covering four steps of activities, namely the planning, acting, monitoring and reflecting.
a. Planning
Before conducting the action, observation is done to find out the condition of the student performance in English teaching learning process. The researcher consulted her thesis advisor to find information wether the situation of the eighth year students, which the researcher found while she did the preliminary study, could improved students’ speaking ability in English teaching learning process through Team- Game- Tournament.
b. Acting
In this study, the researcher acted as the practitioner who implemented the proposed strategy by referring to the activities done in class. The study was conducted in two meetings in which each meeting had a different focus. The first meeting was focused on introducing teaching with Team- Game- Tournament. In the step, the researcher divided the class into teams of four or five. A class of 40 would have 9 teams of 5. The second meeting was focused on the teaching and learning process using Team- Game- Tournament.
c. Monitoring
Monitoring is the process of recording and collecting data about any aspect which happened during the implementation of the action. This active is done by the observer. In conducting the observation, the observer is equipped with observation sheet and field notes to record the required data. Thus, the data of this research were obtained from the result of the observation and interview.
d. Reflection
During the process using Team- Game- Tournament, the researcher got data. The researcher tried to criticize the strengths and weaknesses of her procedure in implementing the research plan. After the analyzing of data, she made the reflection from the action in cycle 1, based on observation sheets, to decide and plan the next cycle’s step. The result of the analysis from next cycle had matched the criteria of success, the action was finished.
3.3 Researcher Attendance
The researcher needs to conduct this class action research in order to increases the eighth students’ ability in speaking. The researcher found the students’ difficulty in pronouncing the word correctly and their fluency in speaking English is decrease. In this class action research, the researcher acts as a practitioner and observer. In order to making success this activity, the researcher also collaborates with the English teacher and the head master of SMPN 1 Rejotangan.
3.4 Setting and Subject of the Study
Each person or participant in the study was considered as a subject (Brown, 1993: 48). The subjects of the study of this research were the eighth students of SMPN 01 Rejotangan in academic year of 2013 – 2014. The school is in the Jl. Raya Kandung- Tanen Rejotangan 66293 and it leads by the head master that is Bpk. Haidar Alwi Zamzamy, M.Pd.
This school has 24 classes from the seven classes up to nine classes. As the sample, the researcher took the eighth students of SMPN 01 Rejotangan. In the eighth grade class, English was taught two times a week. The time was divided 2×45 minutes twice a week.
The school was chosen because it has applied the School Based Curriculum 2006 which is suitable with the implementation one of the strategies from cooperative learning that is Team- Game- Tournament. The setting is chosen because based on the preliminary study conduct by the researcher, it was found that the students have low score and difficulties to mastery the speaking ability. As shown on the students’ score list, this score is only on the average of less than 75. The passing grade is 75 in the students’ score.
3.5 Data Collection Method
Data collection method is manner, used by researcher in collecting the data. In this research writer used interview, questionnaire, observation sheets, test and documentation. The following are the explanation of each method that is used in this class action research.
3.5.1 Interview
Interviewing is a technique that primarily used to gain and understanding of the underlying reasons and motivations for people’s attitudes, preferences, or behavior (Thames Valley University). In this research the researcher used the free-guided interview. It is an interview in which the interviewer uses a set of questions and each question, is developed to gain detail information.
The interview was conducted at preliminary study. At the preliminary study, an informal was done to find out what kind of teaching and learning process in English speaking were faced by English teacher. So the researcher found the most appropriate technique or strategy in this class action research.
3.5.2 Questionnaire
Questionnaire is a form containing a set of questions, especially one addressed to a statistically significant number of subjects as a way of gathering information for a survey The American Heritage (2003).
The researcher distributed questionnaire to the students at preliminary study. It was enabled to know the students’ difficulties in learning English skills especially mastery speaking. The result was enabled to find out the suitable strategy to solve the problem in class.
3.5.3 Observation Sheets
Observation sheets were used to see and the note the real activities proceeded in the classroom. There were two sheets of observation sheets used in this study. The first set was for the teacher and the second one was for the students. The observation sheets contained some important steps that the teacher and students had to do during the implementation speaking class through Team- Game- Tournament in teaching learning process.
3.5.4 Test
Test is a series of questions, problems or physical responses design to determine knowledge, intelligence, or ability (The American Heritage: 2003). The tests use in this study was pre-test test and post-test. The pre-test was use in the preliminary study to find out information dealing with the students’ speaking ability. To obtain data about the students’ progress in learning speaking after the strategy apply, the researcher conducted an evaluation by administering a post-test to the students individually at the end of each cycle.
3.5.5 Documentation
American Heritage (2003) states that documentation is act or instance of the supplying of documents or supporting references or records. The researcher print in some information such as: attendance list of the students in the classroom and the score list.
3.6 Data Analysis
Data analysis is an important aspect of the reflectivity of action research. The reflecting steps use to analyzing whether the action success or failed. The whole of action research is that analyzing the data, interpreting it, and developing theories about what it means are constantly feedback into practice Burn (1999:155). The researcher used descriptive analysis and score analysis in analyze the action research data.
The descriptive analysis was used to analyze the data of interview, observation and questionnaire. The data gained through field interview were analyses and report descriptively. While the data collect through interview, questionnaire and documentation were reported in the form of table, in order to make it easier to compare the result and analyses descriptively.
The score analysis was used to analyze the students’ speaking ability after implementing the plan. The score analysis consists of preparing the instrument of scoring, the tabulation of the data and the summarizing of the data (Arikunto,1993: 205). The writer prepared the students’ score list. It contains three score data: they are score of preliminary study, score of cycle I, and score of cycle II. This step calculated the individual degree of score and subject’s mean score. The formulation will be described as follow:
Individual Degree of Score = Sum of Score Earned x 100
Maximum Score
Subject Mean Score = Sum of Students’ Score x 100
Sum of Students
Percentage Gain Students = Gain Students x 100%
Total of Students
The conclusion of the data is whether the research could improve the students’ ability in speaking or not. It described that the research categories’ in success if (1) the students’ post- test mean score on speaking ability is improved not less than 75 and no students got the score under 75; and (2) 75% of the students test in cycle I until cycle II test go up.
Amalia Aljauhariy 