IMPROVING STUDENTS` SPEAKING SKILLS AND CHARACTERS THROUGH THINK, PAIR AND SHARE : ( A CLASSROOM ACTION RESEARCH at JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 3 MRANGGEN, DEMAK IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR OF 2010 – 2011

ABSTRACT The writer is the English teacher of class 8-1 SMPN 3 Mranggen, in the academic year of 2010-2011.The 8-1 here is the parallel class of 8 that consists of 8-1 up to 8-8. The writer finds that some students got bad scores in speaking so that the writer tries to find a technique to teach speaking. The problems of this speaking lesson are some students feel afraid and shy to speak English, some students do not show their activity , and do not show good characters such in speaking lesson such as responsibility, curiousity, being proud of Indonesia, friendship and appreciate other people`s achievement. That is why the writer wants to improve students` speaking skills, students` activity and students` character in teaching speaking through Think, Pair and Share . This research aims at improving the students’ English speaking skills and character to the 8-1 students of SMP 3 Mranggen in the academic year 2010 / 2011, a class room action research by using Think, Pair and Share technique. Classroom Action Research (CAR) was conducted at the 8-1 students of Pilot International Standard School 3 Mranggen in the academic year of 2010 / 2011 in three cycles to achieve the indicators of success of 75, and the number of students as sample is 22 students. The result of the speaking test showed that the average score of the students in cycle1, cycle2 and cycle3 was increasing that is 71, 76 and 80 respectively. Besides, out of 22 students,14 ( 64% ) in cycle1, 8 students ( 36%) in cycle2, 3 students (14%) failed. The writer used giving opinion through reading from the students` work in their books in cycle 1 and the number of the failed students was 14 next the writer changed the task through making advertisement by their own creation in cycle 2 and the number of the failed students decreased to 8 students, and in cycle 3, the writer asked the students to down load the subject and shared their works in front of the class the students who failed became 3 students. It showed us that Think, Pair and Share can improve students` speaking score. Also, the activity of the students increased; 14 students (64%) in cycle1, 17 students (77%) in cycle2, and 22 students (100%) got active. The students got active in cycle 1 through the activity of giving opinion about someting they read the case and write their opinion, discuss their result with their partner and share in front of the class, the number of the active students was 14 students. In cycle 2 students got more active by making advertisement by themselves , finding partner to discuss about their work and shared their works in front of the class and the number of the active students became 17 students. In cycle 3 the activity of the students improved through the activity of of down load advertisements from the internet and discussed with their partners and shared their works in front of the class and the number of the active students was 22 students. It means that Think , pair and share can improve the the writer`s students activity in speaking. The result of the implication of character building in teaching speaking through Think, Pair and Share suggests that in cycle1, 2 and 3, 14 students (64%), 18 students (82%) and 22 students (100%) respectively showed good characters. In cycle 1 only 14 students showed their good characters such as responsibility, curiousity, love of Indonesia ,friendship and appreciate other people`s works. But in cycle 2, 17 students showed their good characters of responsibility, love of Indonesia ,friendship, democracy and appreciate other people`s works. And in cycle 3, 22 or all of students showed their good characters of responsibility, curiousity, love of Indonesia ,friendship and appreciate other people`s works. It means that Think , pair and share can improve the the writer`s students good characters in speaking. This research implies that the average score of students` speaking test,the number of active students and the number of students having good characters gradually rose. Therefore, Think, Pair and Share can be applied as one alternative techniques to teach speaking for Junior High School students. Hopefully this teaching can also be used to overcome the problems in teaching speaking with the topic Short Functional Text ` Advertisement`. Key Words : Classroom Action Research, Think, Pair and Share, Speaking’s Skills, Character Building