Developing Language Games for Teaching Speaking at Eighth Grade MTs An-Nur Bululawang Malang

By Heru Yulianto

According to the curriculum 2006 Competence Standard for speaking skill, junior high school students are expected to be able to express meaningful ideas for both simple transactional (to get something done or get the information) and interpersonal (to get in touch with others for social purposes) to interact with their environment (Depdiknas: 2006).

In consideration of the situation above, it is needed to develop language games for teaching speaking that offer activities in which the students can actively be involved during an enjoyable and interesting teaching and learning process. It is in order to make the students able to speak in a short and simple conversation. Alcantara (1990, p. 33) say that games are activities that can provide intensive language practice because they remove the inhibition that the students usually have formed in a language lesson. Besides, language games can give more chances for students to practice their speaking ability.

The games help and encourage many learners to sustain their interest and work. Games also help the teacher to create contexts in which the language is useful and meaningful. The learners want to take part and in order to do so they must understand what others are saying, and speak in order to express their own points of view or give information. As a result, to provide input to the answer of the difficulty, a research on developing language games for teaching speaking the second year students of MTs An-Nur Bululawang Malang will be conducted. The researcher has  the certainty that This research is based on language games can provide a positive result on the students’ interest and inspiration in studying English as well as to progress their speaking skill because it provides exposures for students to communicate their opinion, ideas and feelings.

This study is intended to give the theoretical and practical contributions for the English teaching and learning process especially in spoken English. Theoretically is hoped to help the teacher in developing knowledge and method in teaching speaking. Practically is for contributing teaching English in the school. For the institution, the study is intended to develop the teaching and learning process, especially in improving students’ skill in speaking. And for researchers, the study can become more information and references in developing English games for teaching.

As stated in the 2006 standard curriculum content (Depdiknas, 2006), the eighth grade student’s standard of speaking competence is presented below:

Topic	Activities	Competence
Asking, giving and declining service	·  Reviewing vocabularies and expressions related to the topic ·  Questioning and answering ·  Role-playing in front of the class ·  Using the learned expression in the real life situation	To express ideas in oral simple transactional conversations accurately and fluently which involve asking for, giving, and refusing service/ goods; admitting and denying facts; asking for and giving opinions; inviting; accepting and refusing invitations; and agreeing/ disagreeing
Asking, giving and declining things
Admitting and declining fact
Asking and giving opinion
Accepting and declining invitation
Agree and disagree
Compliment	·  Reviewing the previously learned vocabularies ·  Introducing new vocabularies to be learned ·  Questioning and answering using the learned expression ·  Imitating the conversation practiced by the teacher ·  Performing the provided conversation	To express ideas in oral simple interpersonal conversations accurately and fluently which involve admiring and congratulating
Congratulation
Invitation text	·  Questioning and answering about the content of the functional text in the form of invitation ·  Creating simple sentence related to the invitation: ·  Practice inviting people orally,       either in pair or in  group.	To express ideas in oral short simple functional texts accurately and fluently
Massage
Announcement
Descriptive text
Recount text

Harmer (1990:, p. 94) states that games are vital part of a teacher’s equipment, not only for a language practice but also for the therapeutic effect they have. They can be used at any stage of a class to provide an amusing and challenging respite for another classroom activity, and more especially useful at the end of a long day to send the students away teaching cheerful about their English class.

There are various types of picture games in which the use of pictures plays a major part. Wright (2004, p. 6) defines that picture games involve the learners in the relatively free use of all languages at their command. Broadly, they involve comparing and constructing picture, describing key features so that someone else may identify them or represent them in similar way. Specifically, pictures contribute to: (1) interest and motivation, (2) a sense of the context of the language and (3) a specific reference point or stimulus.

To get the effective selection of games, Mei and Yu-Jing  (2002, p. 46) proposed a set of criteria, like: (1) a game must be more than just fun, (2) a game should involve “friendly” competition, (3) a game should keep all students involved and interested, (4) a game should encourage students to focus on the use of language rather than on the language itself, (5) a game should give students a chance to learn, practice, or review specific language material.

In line with the statement above, Kim (1995, p. 35) states that there are  many advantages of using games in the classroom, namely (1) games are a welcome break from the usual routine of the language class, (2) they are motivating and challenging, (3) learning a language requires a great deal of effort. Games help students to make and sustain the effort of learning, (4) games provide language practice in the various skill-speaking, writing, speaking, and reading, (5) they encourage students to interact and communicate, (6) they create a meaningful context for language use.

In short, learning language through games is an effective and interesting way that can be applied in any classroom. Games allow students to work cooperatively, compete with each other, strategize, think in different way, compare and share knowledge, learn from others, learn from mistakes, work in less stressful and more productive environment and allow people to have fun. Language games do not only provide supportive activities and practice that can motivate students to interact and communicate, but also they can create opportunity for students to acquire the language in a meaningful way.

Method

Research Design

This study belongs to Research and Development (R & D) since it is mainly designed to develop materials for use in education. It is a process used to develop and validate educational product. The steps of this process are referred as R & D cycles that encompass studying research finding pertinent to the product to be developed, developing the product based on the findings, field testing the product in the setting where it will be used eventually and revising the product to correct deficiencies found in the field testing stage (Borg & Gall, 1983, p. 772).

Subjects of the Study

The subjects of the study were the eighth year students of MTs AN-NUR Bululawang of the Academic Year of 2013/2014. There was one class for the eighth year (VIII-D). The class consisted of 40 students. For the reason of practicality, half of the students in this class were taken as subjects for the study.

In needs analysis steps there were three instruments employed to collect the data. The instruments comprise with questionnaires, interview guide and field notes. The questionnaires were distributed to the eight year students and to the teacher of English. Next, interviews were done with the teacher of English. This procedure was aimed to get the information on the learners' and teacher’s needs of the games. The questionnaires for the students were aimed at gathering information about the students' backgrounds including their previous English achievement, way of learning English, experience in speaking English, interest and motivation in learning English, and their opinion about the necessary of the games.

Instrument

The aim of the questionnaires for the teacher was to obtain information about teacher's background including their education, teaching experience, the distribution of the classes to be taught and their opinion about the needs of the games. Two kinds of questions were used in the questionnaires, namely close-ended questions and open-ended questions.

The interview with the teacher of English was carried out using the interview guide. The instrument was used to get the information about the games, and the needs of the speaking games. There was an observation done to get the factual picture of the teaching and learning process by taking notes on some important information as the basic line to develop the games. To do this, the researcher used field notes.

The data got from needs analysis were presented in different ways. The data from the questionnaires for the students were calculated in percentage, whereas the data from the questionnaires and interviews from the teacher and field observation was described in a qualitative way in which all the data from the teacher were presented descriptively.

Results and Discussion

Needs Analysis

In observation was found out the data that in teaching and learning that it was not appropriate. The teacher is monotonous in class activities. He is used not much variant in teaching English. The teacher didn’t give examples how to speak English.

Based on the questionnaire that was given to the student of the eighth grade of MTs AN-NUR Bululawang, the researcher could find out the result of students’ responses on questionnaire are as follows:

The Result of Questionnaire about Students’ Needs for Speaking Materials

No	Indicators	Response	Total	Percentage
1	Students’ interest in English	-  Very interest -  Interest -  Less interest -  Not interest	1 student 19 students 20 students 0 student	2.5 % 47.5 % 50 % 0 %
2	Students’ opinion on learning English	-  Very difficult -  Difficult -  Less difficult -  Not difficult	5 student 27 students 5 students 3 student	12.5 % 67.5 % 12.5 % 7.5 %
3	Students’ opinion on English speaking skill	-  Very interest -  Interest -  Less interest -  Not interest	23 student 10 students 6 students 1 student	57.5 % 25 % 15 % 2.5 %
4	Students’ opinion on importance of speaking sill	-  Very important -  Important -  Les important -  Not important	17 student 19 students 4 students 0 student	42.5 % 47.5 % 10 % 0 %
5	Students’ interest in speaking	-  Very interest -  Interest -  Less interest -  Not interest	16 student 21 students 3 students 0 student	40 % 52.5 % 7.5 % 0 %
6	Students’ interest in speaking activity	-   Role play -  Practicing dialog -  Memorizing dialog -  Pract.  Pronunciation	23 student 7 students 9 students 1 student	57.5 % 17.5 % 22.5 % 2.5 %
7	Students’ opinion on the need for speaking materials	-  Really needed -  Needed -  Less needed -  Not needed	5 student 27 students 6 students 2 student	12.5 % 67.5 % 15 % 5 %
8	Students’ opinion on the illustration	-  Really needed -  Needed -  Less needed Not needed	7 student 30 students 3 students 0 student	17.5 % 75 % 7.5 % 0 %
9	Students’ preference on the illustration	-  Colorfully Pictures -  Black & white pictures -  Colorful photo -  Black & white photo	36 student 0 students 4 students 0 student	90 % 0 % 10 % 0 %
10	Students’ opinion for games in speaking materials.	-  Really needed -  Needed -  Less needed -  Not needed	14 student 25 students 1 students 0 student	35 % 62.5 % 2.5 % 0       %

According to the teacher, in interview was the speaking games match with curriculum 2006 Standard of Content, because they can help the teacher to teach speaking skill. Moreover, most of the students had poor English ability although they already learned English in MTs AN-NUR Bululawang.

            Consequently, in order that the teaching of spoken English is better, the attractive games should be developed and appropriate for the eighth grade students of MTs AN-NUR Bululawang ability and the curriculum 2006 Standard of Content.

            The teacher hoped that the development of speaking games had to be completed with the teacher’s guide containing the objective. Besides, the method had to be provided clearly in order that he could have good preparation before teaching spoken English by using language games.

            In addition, the teacher suggested to the researcher to complete the teacher’s guide book with photocopiable handouts. The teacher believed that the photocopiable handouts could create more practical games to be applied in teaching speaking.

Materials of the Textbook

The result of the developed speaking games consisted of 15 Ice Breaker and 20 Games. All games were modified by adding/ expanding, deleting, simplifying, reordering, and contextualizing. The topics of the units are based on the Standard of Content of the 2006 School Based Curriculum (KTSP). The speaking games were in the form of the teacher’s guide book. Each unit of the teacher’s guide book is completed with Objectives, Speaking games, Classroom organization, and Procedure of the game (See Table).

No	Name of Ice Breaker	Time	Objective
1	Drown boat	10 min	Making group
2	Elephant and ant	10 min	Balancing of right and left brain
3	Password	10 min	To train students’ inter personal cooperation
4	Chain story	15 min	Quick response in making a sentence
5	Going to the jungle	10 min	Quick response in making a group
6	The human chair	10 min	Togetherness
7	Body spell	15 min	Making a word with parts of body
8	Scramble	10 min	Arranging the letters
9	Knots	10 min	Making a web of interlocking arms
10	Name grid	10 min	Arranging the letters
11	Super market	10 min	Making a word based on a series
12	Telling stories	15 min	Continuing the stories
13	One minute please!	15 min	Talking for one minute
14	What’s your opinion?	10 min	Giving an opinion
15	What for is this?	10 min	Telling thing functions

No	Name of Games	Time	The Competence
1	How do you spell it	20 min	Asking, giving and declining service
2	Picture information	20 min	Asking, giving and declining service
3	Shopping list	30 min	Asking, giving and declining things
4	Where is my …?	25 min	Admitting and declining fact
5	Group opinion	30 min	Asking and giving opinion
6	Would you rather …?	45 min	Asking and giving opinion
7	Find out likes and dislikes	25 min	Asking and giving opinion
8	Matching a date	20 min	Accepting and declining invitation
9	Find the pair	25 min	Agree and disagree
10	Picture talk	30 min	Compliment
11	Bingo	30 min	Congratulation
12	Making an invitation	25 min	Invitation text
13	Doctor and patients	30 min	Message
14	Land then says	30 min	Message
15	Running Diction	25 min	Sending massage
16	Group investigation	30 min	Announcement
17	Drawing and guessing the picture	30 min	Descriptive text
18	Where is the ball?	25 min	Descriptive text
19	Our experiences	30 min	Recount text
20	The most interesting things	30 min	Recount text

Expert Validation    

The writer had consulted the product to three experts, namely Dr. Hj. Mutmainnah Mustofa, M.Pd. She is the English lecturer at Islamic University of Malang,  Yayuk Widyastuti H, M. Pd., an English lecturer at Maulana Malik Ibrahim University UIN Malang. And Choiron, S.Pd, the teacher of English of MTs AN-NUR Bululawang.

Conclusion and Suggestion

Conclusion

Based on the problem of the study, that language games based on the 2006 Standard of Content are suitable to teach spoken English to the eighth grade students of MTs AN-NUR Bululawang can be concluded as follows: (a) the fifteen ice breakers, and twenty games, are all of them relevant to the curriculum 2006 Standard of Content. (b) The fifteen ice breaker and twenty games are in accordance with the students’ needs, interest and level of students’ English ability, and (c) The fifteen ice breaker and twenty games can progress the students’ spoken English fluency and motivation to learn English.

Suggestion

A number of recommendations are presented in this part which might be taken into concern by English teachers, schools, principles, and other researchers.

            First is the recommendation for teachers of Junior High school, mainly teachers of MTs AN-NUR Bululawang. It is recommended that (1) teachers should have a particular function in using language games for spoken English skill. (2) The teachers should support the students to take out all spoken English activities. (3) The teachers should encourage the students not to worry to speak English. (4) The teachers should give detail procedures before using language games in speaking class.

            Second is the recommendation for schools, mainly for MTs level. It is recommended that schools make available satisfactory materials of teaching and learning especially when teachers use language games in the class such as a plastic ball, English dictionary and photocopiable handouts.

            Third is the recommendation for headmaster of junior high school, mainly headmaster of MTs. It is recommended that the headmaster gives many chances for English teachers to attend English workshop in order the quality of teaching English is greater than before.

            Fourth is the recommendation for the researchers. It is recommended that they can carry out further study in developing language games for the ninth grade students and even, for the seventh grade with the new curriculum of 2013 by employing the same model since the study focuses on the spoken English skill improvement.              

References

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Borg, R. W., & Gall, M. D. (1983). Educational research: An introduction (4th ed.),

Departemen Pendidikan Nasional. (2006). Standar isi mata pelajaran bahasa inggris sekolah menengah pertama. Jakarta

Harmer, J. (1990). How to teach English. Cambridge: Addison Wesley Longman Limited.

Kim, L. S. (1995). Creative games for the language class. English Teaching Forum. Volume 33 Number 1 January 1995.

Mei, Y. Y & YU-Jing J. (2002). From using games in an EFLclass for children. (online) (http:/www.TEFLGAMES com/wyhtml, accessed on March 7, 2007)

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Wright, A., Betteridge, D, & Buckby, M. (2004). Games for language learning. Wittgenstein, Ludwig: Philosophical investigations. Malden: Blackwell, 2001. Cambridge University Press.