IMPROVING STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS USING COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES: A CLASSROOM ACTION RESEARCH AT ABE’S CLASS, A PREINTERMEDIATE LEVEL CLASS OF ENGLISH MADE EASY

The objective of this research was to improve students’ speaking skills using communicative activities at Abe’s class, a pre-intermediate class of English Made Easy, an English course for adult learners. The research was conducted in two cycles involving communicative activities in the forms of various information gap activities and games as the main actions. They were panel discussion, ‘give me a suggestion, please’, and ‘sharing my preference’. Using classroom English, communicating the objectives of the learning to the students, conducting precommunicative activities, conducting communicative activities, giving feedback, giving vocabulary and pronunciation check, using media in learning processes and giving rewards to ‘the student of the day’ were the actions conducting during this research. The data were obtained by observing the teaching and learning processes, interviewing the collaborators, holding discussions with the collaborators and taking pictures during the teaching and learning processes. The instruments of this study were observation sheets, interview sheets, recorder and a camera. The data collected were qualitative in nature. The data were analyzed from the vignette and interview transcripts during the actions. To avoid the subjective analysis, investigator and time triangulation were used. Democratic, process, outcome, catalytic, and dialog validity were also used to fulfill the validity and reliability of the data. The research result showed that the students’ speaking skills improved through communicative activities. The improvements were achieved gradually which covered some aspects, such as responsiveness, fluency, accuracy, self-confidence and cooperation. The students got better atmosphere of learning and got ample opportunities to practice their English and to experience English by themselves. It resulted in the students; improvement of both quantity and quality of their language production. They became more confident to speak in English. All implemented actions were successful to make the students active in joining the teaching and learning processes