IMPROVING SPEAKING SKILL BY USING SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION (A

CLASS ROOM ACTION RESEARCH IN THE TENTH GRADE STUDENTS OF

MAN I SURAKARTA)

By
Wahyuning Murtiyana
13520045

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION FACULTY
SLAMET RIYADI UNIVERSITY
SURAKARTA
2016

SPEAKING SKILL USING SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION

By
Muhammad Hafizh MCN
Slamet Riyadi University Surakarta

ABSTRACT
Speaking skill is the art of communication and one of 4 productive skills, that must
mastered in learning foreign language. Good speaking skill is the act of generating words that
can be understood by listeners. A small group discussion method is a group that creates active
students, develop social and leadership skills.This model is based on cognitive learning
theory and social learning theory. Learning is divided into several step with the sequence
indicators, namely, to convey the purpose and motivate students, provide information,
organize students into study group study, evaluation and reward. For classroom management
in small group is affected by the membership of the group. This could be the result of
personalities, attitudes toward race and culture, and the relationship between boys and girls.
Group members learn how to work together as they practice social and cooperative skills.

Keywords: small group discussion,speaking skill, learning.

A. INTRODUCTION
Education in Indonesia applies new innovations continuously to improve it is
quality. Language is a means of communication that is used to transfer information,
ideas, and feelings from one person to another. It is used to communicate both in
written and spoken form. Considering the importance of the language. Language is a
system for the expression of meaning. Its primary functionis for interaction and
communication. Language is used by human in order to know and understand each
other. As a foreign language in Indonesia, English is learned seriously by many people
to have a good prospect in the community of international world.
According to Brown (2007) states that speaking is a productive skill that can
be directly and empirically observed, those observations are invariably collared by the
accuracy and fluency. While, he also states that speaking is the product of creative
construction of linguistic strings, the speakers make choices of lexicon, structure, and
discourse.
Poerdarminta (2007) states that the classical meaning of speaking is the ability
to talk, and to speak. The main purpose of speaking is to send the message for the
other one or to be able to communicate about something in language and understood
by someone who becomes a listener.
According Kidsvatter (1996:242) states that small group discussion is dividing
the large classroom into small groups of students to achieve specific objective social
and leadership skills and become involved in an alternative instructional approach.
It means that the small group discussions is an effective method because the
member of the group is not large, all of the students expected to be able responsible
for their own learning, developing social interaction with their friends, and trying to
be a leader in their group.

B. RESEARCH METHOND
In this research, the researcher used classroom action research. According to J.
Mason and Bramble (1997), classroom action research is reseach designed to uncover
effective ways of dealing with real word problems. Julian Hermida (2001) state that
classroom action research is a method of finding out what works best in your own

classroom so that you can improve student learning. Cohen and manion (in Nunan
1992) states that action research is first and foremost situational, being concerned with
the identification and solution of problems in a specific context. They also identify
collaboration as an important future of this type of research,and states that the aim of
action research is to improve the current state of affairs within the educational context
in which the research is being carried out.
The researcher analyzed the data collection carefully. In this research the
researcher used two kinds of technique analyzing, they were qualitative and
quantitative :
1. Qualitative Data
In this research the researcher used qualitative data analysis in analyzing data.
The researcher used interactive model of data analysis. Miles and Huberman
(247:1984) describethe interactive model of data analysis as follows :
a. Data reduction
Data reduction refers to the process of selecting, focusing, simplifying,
abstracting, and transforming the raw data that appear in written up field notes.
As data collection process, there are further episodes of data reduction ( doing
summaries,

coding,

teasing

out

themes,

making

clusters,

making

partitions,writing memos). And the data reduction/transforming process

continues after fieldwork, until a final is complete.
b. Data Display
The second major flow of analysis activity is data display. We definea
display as an organised assembly of information that permits conclusion
drawing and action taking. Looking at displays helps us to understand what is
happening and to do something-further analysis or action-based on that
understanding.
c. Conclusion drawing/verification
The third styreas of analysis activity is conclusion drawing and
verification. From the beginning of data collection, the (classroom researcher) is
beginning to decide what things mean, is noting regularities, patterns,
explanation, possible configurations, ccausal flows and propositions. The
competent researcher holds these conclusion lightly, maintaining openness and
scepticism, but the conclusions are still there, incoate and vague at first, then
increasingly explicit ang groiunded.

2. Quantitative Data
The quantitative data analysis is used to analyze the data from the result of the
vocabulary test. It was done to compare the students speaking skill before and after
each cycle or the result of pre-test and post-test. The result of the test is analyzed
using non-independent t-test. The formula of the t-test used in analyzing the data is as
follows :
1. The mean of the pre-test and post-test could be calculated with the formula as
follows:

x=

y=

y
N

x
= Mean of pre test scores
y
= Mean of post test scores
N
= Number of participants
(Johanes, 2004:28)
2. The t-value can be calculated with the formula as follows:
2

t= 2

t = the t- value for non-independent (correlated) means

D
= the differences between the paired scores
D
= the mean of the differences
D2
= the sum of the squared differences scores
N
= the number of pairs
(Furchan, 2007:226)
C. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
The score for speaking test involved the accuracy and fluently. The total of
speaking score was 10, and the mean of students speaking score just get 4.43.Eight
students got 4 score, thirteen students got 5 score. The score of the pre-test showed
that almost of the students did not do their speaking in a good way. Almost of them
were not serious to conduct the pre-test. The result of the post-test 1 was adequate

good, and the researcher appreciated what the students done. What was your feeling
after you did the first post-test? asked the researcher. All of the students said that they
were satisfied and happy have done the first post-test better that pre-test. Their score
in speaking also increase. From the mean of the pre-test which4.43 in a post-test 1 the
mean score became 5.81. There were five students who get 5 (five) score, fourteen
students who get 6 (six) score, and two students who get 7 (seven) score. The result of
the post test 2 was adequate satisfying, since it showed development on their score.
From the mean of the post-test 1 which5.81 in post test 2 the mean score became 7.95.
The score can be categorized as a good score, especially for speaking skill. The
researcher was very satisfied from the students score and their effort to speak well.
D. DISCUSSION
This section, the researcher wanted to discuss about what she had done during
the research. From the cycle 1 and cycle 2 had been conducted, she believed that it
was true that Small Group Discussion gave students opportunities to speak more.
In the early reflection which had done by the researcher before conducting the
research, it was known that the students at MAN 1 Surakarta, especially in class X3,
stated that the most difficult skill to master was speaking. Through the activity done
by the researcher, she observed what was happened during the English lesson. In fact,
when their teacher explained some materials, they just stayed passive. Even their
teacher ending the explanation, there were only few students who responded him.
They did not have any willing to speak. And when the researcher asked them the
reason through interview section, they stated that they felt not confident and lack of
their vocabularies, pronunciation and grammar.
Based on the problem found out, the researcher decided to use group
discussion method to improve their speaking skill. In the cycle 1, when the researcher
told them that they had to stay in group to do a discussion, they were really happy. In
group, they could help each other, and could practice about what they were going to
explain the meaning of vocabulary. There was a positive change. In group, they
wanted to speak. It implied that their willingness to speak was increased. It was
because they had more opportunities to speak in their each group.

In the cycle 2, they were much better. If in the cycle 1, they still copied the
vocabulary on their article, in cycle 2 they could produced their own words related to
the topic. It proved that in group, the students could get a bigger opportunity to speak.
From what the researcher had discussed above, it was true that Small Group
Discussion could improve the students speaking skill. It could be seen from the score
improvement happened after cycle 1 and cycle 2. The mean score in pre-test was 4.43,
and in the first post-test was 5.81 and for the second post-test was 7.95. It was an
adequate positive change considering there was only a limit time in conducted
implementing the action. But even though it was a great result, referring its criteria of
assessment, time of research, and the students level, it was not a failure.
As an experience of teaching English, it was a precious thing for a researcher.
Since not only students-teacher relationship she has, but also friend to friend
relationship.

E. CONCLUSION
Speaking skill is the ability to speak appropriate and effectively in a real
communicative situation in order to communicate ideas to other. A small group
discussion method is a group that creates active students, develop social and
leadership skills. So, A small group discussion method is good method to improve
speaking skill.The researcher concluded a research which aims to improve speaking
skill by using Small Group Discussion. The researcher conducted it at the tenth grade

students of MAN 1 Surakarta. She conducted the research by doing some process,
such as: (1) identifying the problems; (2) implementing the action; (3) observing the
action; and (4) reflecting.

F. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Alexander, William M and Paul M. Halverson. 1956. Effective Teaching in Secondary
Schools. New York: Rinehart & Company, Inc.
Brown, Douglas.2001. An Interactive Approach to language pedagogy. San Francisco.
San Francisco States University Press.
Bramble, William J and Emanuel J. Mason. 1997. Research in Education and the
Behavioral Sciences Concepts and Methods. United States: Brown and
Benchmark.
Bygate, Martin. 1997. Speaking. New York: Oxford University Press.

Huberman and Miles. 1984. Metode Penelitian Kuantitatif Kualitatif R&D. Bandung:
Alfabeta.
Kessler, Carolyn. 1992. Cooperative Language Learning: A Teachers Resource Book.
United States: Prentice hall regents.
Kidsvatter, Ricard. 1996. Dynamics of effective teaching. London: Longman Published
Ltd.
Lewis, Michael and Hill, Jimmie.1993.English Language Teaching.London: Heineman.
Muijs, Daniel and David Reynols. 2008. Effective Teaching: TeoridanAplikasi. London:
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Nunan, David. 1998. Language Teaching Methodology. London: Prentice Hall.