IMPROVING SPEAKING SKILL BY USING CUE CARD TO CLASS VII-B OF THE SEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS OF SMP 2 GEBOG IN ACADEMIC YEAR 2013/2014 (A CLASSROOM ACTION RESEARCH)

Ratnasari, Devy Kartika. 2013. Improving Speaking Skill by Using Cue Card to Class VII-B of the Seventh Grade Students of SMP 2 Gebog in Academic Year 2013/2014 (A Classroom Action Research). Final Project: English Education Department, Teacher training and Education Faculty. Muria Kudus University. Advisors: (1) Drs. Suprihadi, M.Pd., (2) Fajar Kartika, S.S, M.Hum. Key Words: Speaking skill, Cue Card and classroom action research. Speaking considers as the skill that has to be mastered by the language learners because it is thought as one of the indicators to measure the success of learning language. In fact, teachers has less motivation to give the students’ special treatment to make them eager to participate fully in learning speaking in the class. That condition is also happened in SMP 2 Gebog. The students cannot be focus and active. It is proved by the percentage of students that get high score is only 36.6% and 63.4% gets low score in speaking in the class. After analyzing the problems, the writer assumes to use instructional media that is cue card to improve the students’ speaking skill. This final project is action research. In this study, I limited the discussion by stating the following problem: “how is the achievement of speaking skill of class VII-B of the seventh grade students of SMP 2 Gebog in academic year 2013/2014 with the use of cue card?”. The aim of the study was to describe the achievement of speaking skill of class VII-B of the seventh grade students of SMP 2 Gebog in academic year 2013/2014 with the use of cue card as the teaching medium. It is expected that the result of the study will provide a deeper understanding of the use of cue card as a teaching medium. There were four steps in conducting the Classroom Action Research i.e. planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. This action research was done in three cycles. The first cycle was how to express thanking and apologizing expression, like and dislike expression, and shopping list. In the result, the students’ speaking skill improves from cycle I until cycle III. In cycle I, the average of students’ speaking skill score is 71.06, in cycle II the average of the students’ speaking skill score is 75.33 and in cycle III the average of students’ speaking skill is 81.46. Besides, the students and teacher’s activity are improved and the problem that faced by the teacher are decreased in every cycle. Therefore, the writer can conclude that the use of cue card can improve students’ speaking skill of class VII-B at the Seventh Grade Students of SMP 2 Gebog in Academic Year 2013/2014. Referring to this action research, the writer offer several suggestions. First, she suggest that the English teacher should try to use cue card as one of the teaching media. Second, English teacher should encourage the students to improve their speaking skill by giving more practice and exercise, such as retelling story, performing speech, practicing dialogue, and so forth