Improving students’ speaking English ability by using snake and ladder board game: a classroom action research at the 2nd Grade Students of Al-Aqsho Islamic Modern Boarding School, Jatinangor, Sumedang

Speaking is an important subject in learning English. In the study of speaking, there are a lot of media that can be used, one of them is game. For those who learn English material, Speaking is considered as the most complicated aspect. They said that Speaking is very confusing and sometimes hardly understandable. It can be seen from the score of the eight grade students of SMP Plus Al-Aqsha Jatinangor, Sumedang. The students’ score is less then the minimum passing score (KKM) in English subject. This problem of English speaking can be solved by selecting appropriate media. One of the media that can be used to teach speaking is snake and ladder board game. The main purposes of this research are (1) to know the progress of the students in speaking English ability in every cycle after using Snake and Ladder board game as the media.(2) to know the strength and the weaknesses of teaching spoken descriptive text by using Snake and Ladder board game toward teacher and students. This research was classroom action research study which consisted of two cycles. This action was used to do something directly in improving the unsuccessful teaching practice to be better and more effective. The researcher worked collaboratively with the English teacher, the students, and the observant. The subjects of the research were 35 students of VIIIA of SMP PLUS Al-Aqsha, Jatinangor, Sumedang in the academic year 2016/2017. The data was qualitative. The qualitative data were collected by observing the teaching and learning process, and interviewing the students, the teacher and the observan. The data were in the form of interview transcripts, and photographs. The result of the students ability progress were collected through assessing the students’ speaking performance by comparing the means of the pretest and posttest. The procedure of the research consisted of Observing, planning, acting, reflecting, and revising plan. The results of this research showed that the use of the Snakes and Ladders board game was effective to improve the students’ speaking skills. Based on the qualitative data, the use of classroom English helped the students to be more familiar with English. The vocabulary practice and pronunciation drilling also helped them to enrich their vocabulary knowledge and build their accuracy. Furthermore, the Snakes and Ladders board game was effective to encourage them to practice speaking. Besides, the use of various media could grab their attention during the class. The students get 7 in the pretest, 9.01429 in the cycle 1, and 13.67143 in the cycle two (posttest) as the mean score. Based on the result of the students ability progress, the students’ mean scores for the speaking skill improved from 7 in the pretest to 13.67143 in the posttes