Use of the Snowball Throwing Technique for Teaching Better ESL Speaking

This research was to investigate the effect of Snowball Throwing Technique (STT) application in teaching speaking to the eleventh grade students of a senior high school in Banda Aceh. The topic given to the students was the expression of asking and giving opinion and suggestion. A number of 29 students were randomly selected for the experimental class (EC) and another 29 students for the control class (CC). The data of this research was collected by giving the pre-test and post-test, and analyzed using statistical formula including mean, standard deviation, and t-test. The results showed that the mean of the post-test of EC was 48.51, while the mean of CC was 42.43. The mean score of the pre-test of EC was 38.58, and the mean score of CC was 38.89. In order to prove the hypothesis, the t-test score of EC was compared with the t-table score, and the result of t-test of the post-test of EC and CC was 1.38 while the result of t-table at a level of significance with α=0.05 is 2.048. It indicates that the t-test scoret-table, 2.048. It means that the alternative hypothesis (Ha) was accepted and the null hypothesis (Ho) was rejected. It can be concluded that the students who were taught by using the STT have a better performance than those who were not. As a follow up for this research, it is suggested that English teachers should use various techniques in teaching. In teaching speaking, the STT can be an alternative technique to be applied by the teachers