TEACHING ENGLISH SPEAKING USING STORY TELLING

TECHNIQUE AT SMP PASUNDAN PURWAKARTA

Toni Maharjo
Email: maharjo_toni@yahoo.com
Reg.No: 08.22.0278
English Education study Program Language and Arts Department
Sekolah Tinggi Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan (STKIP) Siliwangi Bandung
ABSTRACT
The objective of this research entitled Teaching English Speaking Using Story Telling Technique at SMP
Pasundan Purwakarta was to find out whether or not Teaching English Speaking Using Story Telling Technique
was effective to improve the student speaking ability. This research used one group pretest-posttest design and
Quantitative research method. The instrument of this research was pretest and posttest. The population o f this
research was 66 of the first grade students of SMP Pasundan Purwakarta and the sample was 33 students selected
using simple random sampling technique. The data of this research were collected by giving the pretest and
posttest to the students sample. The collected data were analyzed by using t-test formula. The results of data
analysis showed that: the mean scores of pretest was 54.54 and the mean scores of posttest was 71.51, the t obs was
12.12. The t cri value with degree of freedom (df) was 32 and significance level at 0.05% was 2.042. Based on the
data analysis the alternative hypothesis (H 1) of this research was accepted because the t obs was higher than ttable
(12.12>2.042). It also meant that teaching English speaking using story telling technique was effective to improve
the student speaking ability.
Key words: Teaching, Speaking Achievement, Story Telling Technique

A. Background
Speaking is a key to communication. It is an
interactive process of constructing meaning that
involves producing, receiving, and processing
information. Brown (1994) states that form and
meaning depend on the context in which they occur,
including the participants themselves, their collective
experiences, the physical environment, and the
purposes of speaking. They are often spontaneous,
open ended, and evolving. Outside the classroom,
speaking is used twice as often as listening, which is
in turn is used twice as much as reading and writing.
Inside the classroom, speaking and listening is most
often used skill.
English speaking is one of English skills. For
most students of junior high school it is the most
difficult skill master. To master speaking skill,
students should master lot of vocabulary. English
speaking is one of English skills. For most students
of junior high school it is the most difficult skill
master. To master speaking skill, students should
master lot of vocabulary. Based on the background
above, this study is intended to investigate
effectiveness of storytelling to improve the students
ability in speaking.

B. Theoretical Foundation
There are many various means of teaching, like
the old definition which means a process of
transferring knowledge or skill connected with the
definite subject to the students. In bringing literacy to
life by Wrigley and Guth (1992:102), Teaching is
supporting adult with little English and little formal
education in their efforts to understand and use
English in its many form. Teaching is also one of
the means by which education is often achieved (if it
is) and education is a common purpose of teaching,
(Carr: 1996:98).
Speaking is the second skill of language after
listening that needs a kind of practice such as how to
pronounce the word. Speaking is also an instrument
to express message to listener whether the listener
understands or not, and quoted by Tarigan (1996:15)
as follows: Speaking is an instrument in expressing
(message) to the listener almost directly whether the
listener understands or not and whether speaker or
the listener is in control and able to adjust the
situation when there is communicating his idea or
not.
Storytelling is one of the techniques commonly
used in language learning. The following are
definitions of storytelling from several sources.
According to Cameron (2001:160), story telling is

an oral activity, and stories have the shape they do

because they are designed to be listened to and in
many situations, participated in. In addition, a
journal article titled Definition of Storytelling
(http://www.letresearchwork4you.com/2011/04/25/th
e-definition-of-storytelling/) defines, the interactive
art of using words and actions to reveal the elements
and images of a story while encouraging the
listeners imagination.The storyteller may use
gestures, mime and pictures while telling a story to
help the listeners understand the story more easily
and clearly.
Related to principles for designing speaking
techniques, Brown (1994) states as follows:
a) Techniques should cover the spectrum of learner
need, language-based focus on accuracy to
message-based focus on interaction, meaning, and
fluency.
b) Techniques should be intrinsically motivating.
c) Techniques should encourage the use of authentic
language in meaningful contexts.
d) Provide appropriate feedback and correction.
e) Capitalize on the natural link between speaking
and listening.
f) Give student opportunities to initiate oral
communication.
g) Encourage the development of speaking
strategies.

questions should be answered orally or

communication or dialogue between each
student and the writer. The writer processed his
data, which he has collected to find out the pretest and the post-test result. The scores of are
shown in the table as follows:
Table 1
Score of the Comparison Result

C. Research Methodology
The method that the writer used to analyze the
data was the matched t-test. The t-test is probably the
most widely used statistical test for the comparison of
two means because it can be used with very small
sample sizes. In this case to determine whether the
difference between the means score of pre test and
post test is significant.
The population of this research was 66 students of
the first grade students of SMP Pasundan Purwakarta,
and the sample was 33 students selected using simple
random sampling technique.
In this research the instrument used to collect the
data was test. The test was divided into pre test and
post test. The speaking test is a set of questions
through the available oral answers and the writer
gave the questions to 33 students. The questions
consist of 5 questions. The aspects of the scoring
were
pronunciation,
grammar,
vocabulary,
comprehension, and fluency.

No

Name

Pre test Post test

D2

Student 1

40

60

20

400

Student 2

72

84

12

144

Student 3

56

68

12

144

Student 4

52

72

20

400

Student 5

60

84

24

576

Student 6

52

72

20

400

Student 7

56

56

Student 8

76

92

26

676

Student 9

52

76

24

576

10

Student 10

40

60

20

400

11

Student 11

60

92

32

1024

12

Student 12

40

64

24

576

13

Student 13

40

72

32

1024

14

Student 14

60

60

15

Student 15

56

52

-4

16

16

Student 16

52

72

20

400

17

Student 17

44

64

20

400

18

Student 18

52

64

12

144

19

Student 19

60

92

32

1024

20

Student 20

60

84

24

576

D. Findings and Discussions

To collect the data, the writer took the sample

scores of their achievement in speaking test, the
2

21

Student 21

52

52

56-65

Fair

22

Student 22

48

72

24

576

40-55

Unsatisfactory

30-39

Very unsatisfactory

23

Student 23

68

92

24

576

24

Student 24

72

84

12

144

25

Student 25

44

64

20

400

26

Student 26

60

60

The first stage is to find the different between

each pairs of scores. These appear to the right

27

Student 27

52

64

12

144

28

Student 28

64

68

16

under the column labeled D (for different). These

different scores are then squared in the next column.
Each column is added, and the total appears below.
These values are then plugged into the matched t-test
formula:

29

Student 29

52

84

32

1024

30

Student 30

44

72

28

784

31

Student 31

52

72

20

400

32

Student 32

52

84

32

1024

33

Student 33

60

52

-8

64

It is adapted from Arikunto, (1999:245)

Based on the table above, the writer says that: The
result of the post test shown the students' speaking
achievement at the first grade of SMP PASUNDAN
PURWAKARTA is in good categories with the mean
71.51

(Hatcth and Farhady, 1982:116)

Where:

is the means of post-test.

is the means of pre-test.

1800

2360

570

11916

Means

54.54

71.51

is the standard error of differences

between two means.
The formula

From the table above, the test result of pre test

shows that 30 out of 33 students (90.9%) get scores
between 4-6, while the rest, 3 out 33 students (9.1%)
get scores 6.5 7.5. the overal mean scores of the pre
test is 54.54. The second test is the post test. It was
given after the writer taught the materials.
The result of the post test shows a slight
improvement. From the table we can see that 12 out
of 33 students (36.36%) get scores between 5 6.5,
while the rest 21 out of 33 students (63.64%) get
scores between 7 9. The overall mean score of post
test is 71.51
Table 2
The Categories of the Students' Speaking
Achievement
No

Score

Categories

80-100

Very good speaking

66-80

Good speaking

is:
=

(Hatcth and Farhady, 1982:1662)

Where: SD is the Standard Deviation of the
differences. The formula SD is:

1 n ( )
n 1

(Hatcth and Farhady, 1982:116)

The n of the formula refers to member of pair (in

this case the number of students). The number of
deviation of the differences is then, adjusted for the
number of pair.

E. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

Based on the investigation at the first year
students of SMP Pasundan Purwakarta, he gets the
idea:
1. The result of this research showed that the main
scores of pre test were 54.54 and the main scores
of post test were 71.51. It means the students can
understand the subject easily by using story telling
because story telling is easy to memorize and
enjoyable for students.
2. The t-test was 0.05 at a significant level by using
the degree of freedom (df = 32), it was known as
2.042. In fact t-test was 12.12 and it was higher
than the table. Based on the data analysis the
alternative hypothesis (H 1) was accepted because
the tobs was higher than tcri (12.12>2.042). It also
meant that teaching English speaking using story
telling technique was effective to improve the
student speaking ability.
There are many suggestions, they are as follow:
1. Teacher
a. Curriculum should be integrated with the four
language skills such as speaking, reading,
listening, and writing.
b. The teacher should give extra time or more
activities to practice their speaking achievement.
2. Students
a. The students must increase their speaking ability
through listening to a lot of English story that they
can get from the radio, television, and many other
media and they can also read the stories from
magazine, newspaper or internet.
b. The proportion of storytelling in teaching
techniques should raise the students' interest in
English
speaking
to
increase
speaking
achievement.
c. The students' should have extra time or more
activities to practice their speaking achievement.

11916 1 33 ( 570 )
=
33 1
=
=

11916 9845.45
32
2070.55
32

= 8.04

We can calculate SD, the standard error of

differences between two means:
=
=

.
.

= 1.40
We have denominator, all we need to do is divided
the difference we found between two scores by the
dominator to obtain the t-value.

=
=

= 12.12

Bibliography
Arikunto, Suharsimi. (1999). Dasar-dasar Evaluasi
Pendidikan. Jakarta:PT Bima Angkasa Jakarta.

To check significant of this value, we use tdistribution table at 5 %( 0.05) level with 33 degree
of freedom. At the degree of significance 5% the ttable was 2.042, so the observed was higher than ttable, 12.12 > 2.042. Because t- calculated (12.12) is
bigger than t- table (2.042), it means that the result of
post test is higher than the result of pre test.
Based on this statistical test, it can be concluded
that the process of teaching English speaking using
story telling technique is effective, and the students'
speaking achievement is high, it can be indicated by
Means 71.51

Brown, H. Douglas. (1994). Teaching by Principle:

An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy.
New Jersey:Prentice Hall- Inc.

Carr, David. (1996). Making Sense of Education.

New York:Roudledge Falmer.
Cameron, Lynne. (2001). Teaching Language to
Young Learners. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.

Hatcth and Farhady. (1982). Research Design and

Statistic. Los Angeles:New bury House
Publisher, INC
Tarigan, Henry G. (1986). Berbicara Sebagai
Sesuatu Ketrampilan Berbahasa.
Bandung:Angkasa.
Wrigley, Heide Spruck and Guth. Gloria J.A. (1992).
Bringing Literacy to Life: Issues and Options in
Adult, ESL Literacy.
(http://www.letresearchwork4you.com/2011/04/
25/ the-definition-of-storytelling/)