IMPROVING STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION IN SPEAKING SKILLS THROUGH SONGS FOR THE SEVENTH GRADE OF SMPN 7 WONOGIRI IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR OF 2012/2013

The research was aimed to investigate how to improve students’ motivation in speaking skills through songs of the class VII A SMPN 7 Wonogiri in the academic year of 2012/2013. The problem was that they were less motivated in the speaking skills. This research was categorized as an action research. This research involved 32 students of class VII A of SMPN 7 Wonogiri in the academic year of 2012/2013 and English teacher as the research collaborator. The researcher used data instrument such as, interview, observation, and documentation. The technique to analyzed data in this research, the researcher used qualitative and quantitative data. The qualitative data were obtained by observing the speaking teaching learning process, interviewing the students of class VII A and the English teacher, holding discussion with the collaborator and taking pictures. The quantitative data were acquired through inter – rater. The researcher used 20 as highest score (Xh) and 5 as the lowest score (XI) above, so the formulation of the ideal mean (XI) and the ideal standard deviation (oi) and the result used to make conversion table to score students’ speaking skills. The validity of the data was obtained by applying democratic, outcome, process, and dialogic validity. The research findings showed that through songs as the teaching media combined with speaking activities in the English classroom was proven to be effective to improve the students’ motivation in speaking skills. It could get students attention and increased their motivation. They also had opportunities to practice speaking. This could also be seen from the speaking scores on conversion table of which at the first meeting students who were in category of excellent was only 3 students in amount, they were able to increased their category into 32 students. It indicated that they made a considerable improvement in some aspects of speaking skill such as pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary