LEARNING STRATEGIES USED TO IMPROVE SPEAKING SKILL: A CASE STUDY ON STUDENTS OF ENGLISH DEPARTMENT MUHAMMADIYAH UNIVERSITY OF SURAKARTA

The research studies about learning strategies used to improve speaking skill: a case study on students of English Department Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta. The type of this research is case study which aims at describing the subject’s learning strategies in improving speaking skill. The subjects of this research are tree students chosen based on the score of the speaking subject. The methods of collecting data are interview, observation, and documentation. The result of this research shows that the three of the subjects uses almost all of the learning strategies proposed by O’malley and Chamot. However their action and attention in learning are different. S1 uses 12 learning strategies which consists of 5 metacognitive strategies; advance organizer, directive attention, selective attention, self-management, self-evaluation, 6 cognitive strategies which consists of repetition, resourcing, imagery, elaboration, note taking, recombination, and one socio-affective strategy that is question for clarification. S2 uses 11 learning strategies which consists of 5 metacognitive strategies; advance organizer, directed attention, selective attention, self-management, self-evaluation, 5 cognitive strategies which consists of repetition, resourcing, imagery, elaboration, note taking, and one socio-affective strategy that is cooperation. S3 uses 9 learning strategies which consists of 3 metacognitive strategies; advance organizer, selective attention, self-management, 4 cognitive strategies which consists of repetition, resourcing, imagery, elaboration, and two socio-affective strategies that are cooperation and question for clarification. Based on the result of this research, the writer concludes that all of learning strategies used by the subjects are effective strategy to improve speaking skill. Some learning strategies which are important to improve the learners’ speaking skill are: advanced organizer, selective attention, self-management, repetition, resourcing, imagery and elaboration