The use of information gap as a technique of teaching to improve students’ speaking ability (a classroom action research with students of X2 of MA Nurul Islam Jepara in the academic year of 2009 – 2010)

Teaching speaking is not an easy task. It depends on students’ ability in absorbing the knowledge, but also teacher’s creativity in presenting the lesson. It is a big challenge the teacher to make the classroom interesting and enjoyable. Moreover English is not their mother tongue. So the teacher must try to give a good model for them, and then encourage them to practice the language. The objectives of this study were to describe the implementation of using information gap in teaching speaking, to find out the improvement of students’ speaking ability after being taught by using information gap technique and to describe the implementation of information gap to improve students’ speaking ability The subjects of this study were the students of X2 of MA Nurul Islam Kriyan Kalinyamatan Jepara in the academic year of 2009/2010. The number of the subjects was 26 students. This research was a classroom action research. The process of this research was conducted in three stages, including, pre cycle, cycle 1, and cycle 2. Cycle 1 was planned after conducting pre cycle. Cycle 2 was conducted based on the reflection results of cycle 1. The data were collected using observation and test during the teaching learning process in pre cycle, cycle 1 and cycle 2. The data were analyzed using quantitative descriptive analysis The results of the analysis were used to describe the improvement of students’ speaking ability which was indicated by their activeness in speaking. It can be seen from the result of cycle 1, where in pre cycle the mean of students’ achievement in speaking was only 31.7, it had increased up to 43.2 in cycle 1.and to 58.5 in cycle 2 the minimum passing grade from the school is 50. The minimum score is 25 and the maximum score is100. Based on the results of the research, it can be concluded that by using information gap in teaching speaking, teacher can improve students’ speaking ability. And it was hoped that it can be valuable as the information resource for students, teachers, and the writer herself