THE APPLICATION OF A ROLE-PLAY TECHNIQUE TO IMPROVE THE SPEAKING ABILITY OF CLASS VIII A STUDENTS OF SMP NEGERI 1 PAKEM IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR OF 2013/2014

This research study aims to improve the students' speaking ability through the application of a role-play technique in the teaching and learning process. This was an action research study which was conducted in two cycles starting from April – May 2014. A total of 24 students of Class VIII A at SMPN 1 Pakem participated in this study. The research steps were reconnaissance, planning, action and observation, and reflection. The data were collected both qualitatively through observations and interviews and quantitatively through tests. The instruments for collecting the data were field notes, interview guidelines, speaking scoring rubric, and documentations. The data from the field notes and interview transcripts were analyzed qualitatively to build interpretations of the data, while the result of the students’ speaking performances during the research study were analyzed quantitatively by using a speaking scoring rubric to obtain the mean, median, mode and standard deviation. A t-test of the students’ scores was also conducted by using IBM SPSS Statistics 20 software to investigate the improvement. The data were reliable indicated by Pearson’s correlation coefficients (r) which 0.739 (in the pre-test) and 0.819 (in the post-test). The results showed that there was a significant improvement of the students who performed speaking using the role-play technique. The role-play which was applied in the lesson could improve the students’ vocabulary mastery, pronunciation, accuracy and fluency. Furthermore, the application of a role-play technique created a more interesting atmosphere during the lesson and increased the students’ self-confidence in speaking English. The students were also happy during the lesson. The mean score of the students’ performances in the post-test was 25.17. It was higher than that in the pre-test which was 16.25. These achievements proved that the application of a role-play technique could improve the students' speaking ability significantly