Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Improving Speaking Ability at the Seventh Grade Students of Smp Wahid Hasyim Malang through the Direct Method

By Neeny Sumarni
Introduction
The first chapter discusses about the background of the study, research problem, objective of the study, scope and limitation of the study, significance of the study, and some definition of the key terms used in this study. 
1.1 Background of the Study
Nowadays English has become an important language in the world because English as one of the international languages that is used in communicating with other people in the world such as in education,business,politic,etc.Thus,many people have been mastering English because of it.
In Indonesia, English as a foreign language is taught in formal and informal school, starting from kindergarten up to the higher education. It indicates that English is a very important language to be learned, by hoping the student will use it well either in the form of oral or written.
To most people, mastering the art of speaking is the single most important aspect of learning a second or foreign language, and success is measured in terms of the ability to carry out a conversation in the language. In other words, speaking as a means of communication orally is highly needed and has to be taught in the school as good as possible Nunan (1991) in Eduard (2009:3).
In the reality, some students think that learning English especially in speaking skill is very difficult. There are some factors for it. One of the factors is not absorbing in learning English, so that it influences their ability in learning English such as become a passive student and there is no effort to improve their ability. Then, this is homework for a teacher of English to have an extraordinary way to make the students interested in learning English, especially in speaking. As Hasanah (1997) in Eduard (2009:5) says that the passiveness of the students was caused by internal and external factors. The internal factors cover lack of motivation, lack of vocabulary, and reluctance to express the ideas. And the external factors cover no variation of teaching method, large classes, and uninteresting topics.
 Based on the observation of the researcher in grade seventh students of SMP Wahid Hasyim Malang, the students were difficult to speak English because of two reasons: (1) the students were lack of vocabulary so that they reluctance to express their ideas. (2) the students were very difficult to perform their speaking in front of their friends because they are afraid of making mistakes so that their friends are laughing at them. Therefore, the students seem to be passive students. Finally, the researcher concluded that this problem because of the internal factors, such as lack of motivation, lack of vocabulary and reluctance to express the ideas. Based on the background above, the researcher proposes a method that can be taken into consideration to improve speaking ability at Junior High School by applying an interesting method that is The Direct method.
The Direct Method has one very basic rule:No translation is allowed.In fact,the Direct Method receives its name from the fact that meaning is to be conveyed directly in the target language through the use of demonstration and visual aids,with no resources to the students’ native language (Diller 1978).
This method gives motivation to the students in the teaching and learning process exactly in the students’ speaking class. Furthermore, the students will be easy to be controlled when their friends are performing their speaking in the class. 
Therefore, the study is conducted to improve students’ speaking ability of the grade seventh students of SMP Wahid Hasyim Malang.
1.2  Research Problem
Based on the research background above, the statement of the problem is formulated as “How can The Direct Method improve the speaking ability of grade seventh students of SMP Wahid Hasyim Malang.
1.3  Objective of the Study
Based on the research problem above, the purpose of this study is to improve student’s speaking ability of grade seventh at SMP Wahid Hasyim Malang.
1.4  Scope and Limitation of the Study
The scope of this study is applying The Direct Method for Junior High School to improve student’s speaking ability. This research is implemented for grade seventh of SMP Wahid Hasyim Malang.
Furthermore, it is impossible for the researcher to handle all of speaking materials because of the broad scope of the materials and the limited skill of the researcher herself. Therefore, the researcher limited this study to the teaching of speaking which is focused on monolog speaking only.
1.5  Significance of the Study
Based on the research problem and the purpose of the study, the result of this study can be useful theoretically and practically. Theoretically, the result of this study is expected to give information to the teachers and other researchers about the technique of teaching English, especially in teaching speaking by using Direct Method. And practically, the result of this study can be useful for the teacher and for the students.
1.     For the teacher, the result of this study is hoped to be useful as the additional knowledge that can be applied in the process of teaching and learning English, especially in improving speaking ability. In other words, teacher can use The Direct method as the alternative method in teaching and learning English. Therefore, teacher is able to enhance the effectiveness of teaching and learning English by having a reason that The Direct method can be applied easily and makes the students more enthusiastic in learning English, especially in speaking.
2.     For students, the result of this study is expected to improve students’ interest in speaking as students’ spirit to achieve their achievement. 
1.6  Definition of Key Terms
Avoiding some misunderstanding on the term and concepts used in this research, some definitions are provided as follows:
1.     Improving
Process which enhances students knowledge and enables them to acquire skills such as communication, independent learning and collaboration for lifelong learning and the challengges.
2.     Speaking ability
Create the students in the classroom environment to speak and express their idea in English and ability of students to use English in their daily communication which is showed by their speaking scores.
3.    The Direct Method
The Direct Method that use in speaking subject is guessing on no translation allowed. In this method, the students should not translate one by one words into native language. So that, this is support for the students to understand the meaning of the words directly from speaking practice while the lesson running.





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