IMPROVING THE ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILL OF THE ELEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS OF SMAN 2 SLEMAN OF YOGYAKARTA THROUGH DIRECTED DISCUSSION GAMES IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR OF 2013/2014

The objective of this research is to improve the English speaking skill of the eleventh grade students of SMAN 2 Sleman in the academic year of 2013/2014 through the directed discussion games. The research applied the principles of action research. The subject of the research was the students of XI IPS 1. The English teacher, the researcher, and the students of class XI IPS 1 were the team members of the research. The data were obtained through observations and interviews with the students and the collaborators. The data were in the forms of field notes and interview transcripts. To support qualitative data, quantitative data were obtained from the pre-test and the post-test scores. The actions implemented in this research were engaging the topic, studying the topic by doing discussion session and activating that required the students to present their discussion result. The use of expression in the teaching and learning process of speaking was about asking and giving opinion. The research was conducted in two cycles. The result shows that the implementation of the directed discussion games in this study is succesful to improve the students’ speaking skills. The indicators of the succes of the implementation were that: 1) the students showed good understanding about the context of the given topic, 2) the students showed good understanding in expressing asking and giving opinion using the appropriate language features, 3) the students were to practice those expressions with the guidance of the teacher and/or by working together in groups, 4) the students were able to practice speaking through various given topics within different contexts, 5) the students showed enthusiastic in getting involve with the activities. The researcher found that the students’ speaking ability improves by implementing the directed discussion games by looking at the scores result. There was a significant improvement between the pre test mean (6.3) and the post-test mean (7.3)