IMPROVING SPEAKING SKILLS OF GRADE VIII B STUDENTS OF SMP NEGERI 1 JOGONALAN THROUGH NUMBERED HEADS TOGETHER STRATEGYIN THE ACADEMIC YEAR OF 2014/2015

The objective of this research was to improve the speaking skills of grade VIII B students of SMP Negeri 1 Jogonalan in the academic year of 2014/2015 through Numbered Heads Together strategy. This research was categorized into action research that consisted of two cycles. This research used model proposed by Kemmis and Taggart in Burns (2010) that involved four phases in a cycle of research: planning, action, observation, and reflection. The participants of this research were 40 students in grade VIII B of SMP Negeri 1 Jogonalan. The focus of this research was improving the students’ speaking skill. The data of this research were in the forms of qualitative and quantitative data. The qualitative data were in the forms of interview transcripts, vignette, and photos, which were collected by interviewing the students and the English teacher, observing the teaching and learning processes, and taking photographs. The quantitative data were in the forms of the students’ speaking scores, which were collected by conducting a pre-test and a speaking test. In this research, the researcher used three triangulation principles: time triangulation, space triangulation, and investigator triangulation. Based on the results and findings of the research, it showed that the implementation of Numbered Heads Together (NHT) strategy was successful to improve speaking skills of grade VIII B students of SMP Negeri 1 Jogonalan in the academic year of 2014/2015. The improvement involved in four aspects of speaking: pronunciation, intonation, fluency, and accuracy. The students were able to speak in falling or raising intonation based on the type of the sentences. Most of the students delivered their speaking fluently without hesitation. They were able to make dialogues by themselves. Most of the students placed the words in the right order and used various expressions based on the situation. The improvements were showed by comparing the mean scores of the students’ speaking scores in the pre-test and Cycle 2. The gain score of pronunciation aspect was 1.04; the gain score of intonation aspect was 1.26; the gain score of accuracy aspect was 1.32; and the gain score of fluency aspect was 1.38. It can be concluded that the improvements were found in each aspect of speaking