Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Implementing Panel Discussion to Improve the Speaking Ability of the Fourth Semester Students of Muhammadiyah University of Jember

By Indah Werdiningsih


It is clear that speaking is a crucial part of the language learning process (Kayi, 2006). However, many students find speaking as one of the most difficult skills. It was supported by Shumin (2002) who stated that spoken language production or learning to talk in foreign language is often considered to be one of the most difficult aspects in language learning. Many students still cannot speak English fluently, including the fourth semester students of Muhammadiyah University Jember (MUJ) in 2013 / 2014 academic year. Majority of the students said that the problems were lack vocabulary, poor grammatical structure, and poor self-confident.
To overcome these problems, there were some techniques used in teaching learning process, one of them was panel discussion (Rahman et al, 2011). In a panel discussion class, the students are actively involved in processing information and ideas. So, using Panel Discussion is expected to develop the students’ ability in spoken English.
Literature Review
Panel Discussion
Definition of Panel Discussion
Abdu-Raheem (2011) stated that panel discussion is a technique in which the teacher leads or guides the students in expressing their opinions and ideas with a view to identifying and solving problems collectively.



Types of Members in Panel Discussion
According to MIER (2011), members in the Panel Discussion are moderator, panelists, and audience.
a.      Moderator is someone who presides over a forum or debate (Hornby, 2000).
b.     Panelists are group of people who discuss topics of interest, especially on a radio, television program, or in-class discussion (Hornby, 2000).
c.      Audience is a group of people gathered together to hear or watch something (Hornby, 2000).

Speaking Ability
Definition of Speaking
Speaking is one of two productive skills in a language teaching. It is defined as "the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts" (Chaney cited in Kayi, 2006).

The Importance of Speaking
Speaking is the most important and essential skill (Oradee, 2012). Oradee stated that mastery of this skill illustrates that the speaker possesses precise knowledge of language. Speaking capability can be measured whether a foreign language learner is successful in learning or not.

The Components of Speaking Ability
a.      Fluency
Fluency in speaking ability can be obtained through students’ experience in practicing the language repeatedly. The fluency of the students in speaking ability is not only focused on how students produced the language fluently, but it is also necessary to consider the appropriateness of what they want to talk, or in other words its accuracy.
b.     Accuracy
Accuracy is the state of being exact or correct; the ability to do something skillfully without making mistakes (Hornby, 2000). In this case, the students need to know the aspects of the language system such as the pronunciation rules and the knowledge of vocabularies and grammar.
1.     Pronunciation
The students should know and identify the stress or intonation of each vocabulary.
2.     Vocabulary
To make an effective communication, the students need to know a large number of vocabularies and also the ability of using it.
3.     Grammar
Grammar is one of the aspects of the language system and essential element of speaking that relates to whether or not the students use correct form of the target language. Through grammar we will know the way to be fluent in a language, so that the listeners do not get difficulties to understand what they mean.

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