Improving the Tenth Graders’ Participation in Speaking through English Contest in Class at SMA BSS Malang

ABSTRACT Lestari, Hernina Dewi. 2011. Improving the Tenth Graders' Participation in Speaking through English Contest in Class at SMA BSS Malang. Thesis, English Language Teaching Program, English Department, Faculty of Letters, State University of Malang. Advisor: Drs. Murdibjono, M.A. Key Words: improving, participation, speaking, English contest in class In this modern era, it is important to learn English since most of the aspects in the daily life require great skill and mastery of English. From the English mastery, it is expected that at least students can communicate using English properly. To be able to communicate properly, students are expected to master the four language skills; one of them is speaking skill. However, learning speaking is not easy. The most common difficulties of the students to actively speak up are their shyness and fear to make mistakes. It is true that the students are taught based on the right teaching procedures, but they do not have enough opportunities to apply their knowledge into the real situations. Reflecting upon those problems, English teachers need to find a teaching strategy in which the students can have greater opportunity to participate in learning process and encourage the students to get rid of their shyness and reluctance to be more active in speaking. The English Contest in Class is an inter-group competition among students in class scale to become the first winner after passing three rounds of the contest. The researcher applied this method to improve the students' participation in speaking. Employing an Action Research, this thesis presents the procedures of English Contest in Class to improve the tenth graders' participation in speaking in Senior High School. The subject of this research is one class of the tenth grade students at SMA BSS Malang. The research instruments are the students' participation rubric, observation checklists, field notes, and questionnaire for students. The basic procedure of English Contest in Class were as follows: (1) divide the students into six groups; (2) conduct the first round of the contest to eliminate two groups; (3) conduct the second round of the contest to eliminate another two groups; (4) conduct the final round of the contest to decide the winner of the contest; and (5) give an award to the winner of the contest. The following is the steps in one cycle of Classroom Action Research design. They are namely: (1) planning an action; (2) implementing the action; (3) observing the action; and (4) reflecting the action. In this study, the research was conducted until the criteria of success were achieved. The first thing that researcher needed to do before planning an action was conducting preliminary study. This study aimed at knowing the real condition of the students that reflected their real ability. The results of this study are: (1) in the initial state, none of the students was considered as very active, while the students who were considered as active was 7 students (26%), and the students who were passive was 20 students (74%); (2) in the Cycle 1 meeting 1, the students who were considered as passive decreased to be only 5 students (18.5%), while 17 students (63%) were considered as active and 5 students (18.5%) were very active; (3) in the Cycle 1 meeting 2, the number students who were considered as passive was 3 students (11%), while 14 students (52%) were considered as active and 10 students (37%) were considered as very active; (4) in the Cycle 1 meeting 3, 7 students (26%) were considered as passive, 7 students (26%) were considered as active and 13 students (48%) were considered as very active; and (5) the students' participation improves from 26% to 74%. In conclusion, through well-prepared materials and procedures, English Contest in Class can effectively improve the students' participation in speaking English. The students will actively participate in the teaching and learning process because this method provides their favorite games as the teaching and learning technique and give them an opportunity to practice speaking in a fun and challenging way. They also can learn to be competitive in a fair-play contest and work together with friends as a team.