IMPROVING THE ENGLISH SPEAKING ABILITY OF GRADE XI STUDENTS OF OFFICE ADMINISTRATION DEPARTMENT OF SMK PGRI 1 SENTOLO THROUGH PLAYING DETECTIVE GAMES

This research aimed to improve the speaking skill of Grade XI students of Office Administration Department of SMK PGRI I Sentolo, in the 2015/2016 academic year. The problem was that they had low speaking ability.This was an action research study. The actions were implemented in two cycles based on the class schedule. The study involved 13 students of Grade XI of Office Administration Department of SMK PGRI I Sentolo, in the 2015/2016 academic year and the English teacher as the collaborator. The data were qualitative and quantitative. The qualitative data were obtained through the observations during the teaching and learning process of speaking, the interviews with Grade XI students of Office Administration Department and English teacher, the discussions with the collaborator, the pictures taken during the implementation, and the videos taken during the implementation. Meanwhile, the quantitative data were collected through a pre-test and two post-tests.The results showed that the use of Detective Games as a teaching method was proven to be effective to improve the students’ speaking ability. It successfully grabbed students’ interest and increased their enthusiasm. They could have better understanding of the use of English in real situations as they played the games. They also got adequate opportunities to practice speaking in order to speak fluently and confidently. The students’ mean score of the pre-test was 69.8. The mean score improved during Post-test 1 up to 77.2 and in Post-test 2 up to 82.8. It indicated that there was an improvement in their speaking skill