IMPOVING SPEAKING SKILLS THROUGH USING STRUCTURED ROLE PLAY OF GRADE VIIIB STUDENTS AT SMP NEGERI 1 PIYUNGAN IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR OF 2014/ 2015

The objective of this research was to improve Grade VIIIB students’ speaking skills by using structured role play technique at SMPN 1 Piyungan. It was an action research study which consisted of two cycles. The researcher worked collaboratively with the English teacher, the students, and the collaborators. The subjects of the research were students of VIIIB at SMPN 1 Piyungan in the academic year of 2014/2015. The data collected were qualitative and quantitative. The qualitative data were collected by observing the teaching and learning process, and interviewing the students, the teacher and the collaborators. The data were in the form of field notes, interview transcripts, and photographs. The quantitative data were collected through assessing the students’ speaking performance in the form of speaking tests. In analyzing the data, the researcher used two methods, the qualitative method and the quantitative method. The results of this research showed that the use of structured role play technique with some appropriate activities was successful to improve the students’ speaking skills. Based on the qualitative data sources, structured role play made the lesson more interesting. Furthermore, the students had adequate chances to speak and got an improvement in speaking skills. In addition, they had more courage to speak. Based on the quantitative data, the students’ mean scores improved from 8.65 in the pre-test to 17.23 in the post-test. The normalized gain score from the pre-test to the post-test was 0.52 which was categorized as medium improvement