Improving Speaking Ability of Fourth Semester Students of English Education Program at Teacher Training and Education Faculty of Muhammadiyah University of Jember through Communication Games

By Indri Astutik

Speaking a second/ foreign language can be extremely difficult for it learners if they do not have adequate knowledge on the language they learn. The process of learning a second/ foreign language is almost the same. It starts from listening then practicing what they hear. Learning second/ foreign language starts from imitating. The learners repeat what they hear or listen from people who use the target language. In other words, it is hard to separate speaking from listening. They usually come together. From pragmatic view of language performance, listening and speaking are almost always closely interrelated. It is very difficult to isolate oral production tasks that do not directly involve the interaction of aural comprehension. Only in limited context of speaking (monologues, speeches, or telling a story and reading aloud) can we assess oral language without aural participation of an interlocutor (Brown, 2004, p. 140).

            Speaking is a talk. It is a primary expressive language mode. Both children and adults use it more frequently than writing, and children learn to talk before they learn to read and write. Talk is the communication mode that all people around the world develop (Tompkins and Hoskitsson, 1991). It is the main reason why speaking plays a very important role in communication. Richard and Renandya (2002) define speaking is the ability of expressing some purposes, and each purpose involved different skills. In this study, the researcher define speaking as the ability to use of a language that is English to express ideas, thoughts, and feelings in the real life situation, or the ability to give or elaborate information clearly and completely, or the ability to elaborate or to converse sequences of ideas fluently.

            There are five components of speaking i.e., pronuncitation, grammar, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehensibility/ accuracy. Pronunciation is the way how a word is said. Pronunciation is essential in learning target language. Jenkins (1998, p. 199) indicates the intention of pronunciation is to make the students able to pronounce the target language correctly in order to get message across their listener. There are two aspect of pronunciation—segmental and suprasegmental. Segmental dealts with long/ short vowel sounds. Supre-segmental deals with intonation. Grammar is the rules of producing sentences or utterances. Hall (1993, p. 3) indicates grammar is a description of certain organizing aspect of particular language, it usually includes phonological (sound), morphological (word combination), and syntactic (sentence combination) points. The ideas above show that grammar is set of rules of combining words into sentences, sentences into paragraphs. Grammar is a structure of a particular language that is different from the other language. Even though grammar in speaking is slightly different from grammar in writing, but understanding grammar is very essential in speaking and writing. Vocabulary is words which are understood and used to communicate. Vocabulary is essential in speaking because up to now for normal people there is no oral communication without words as means of delivering ideas, opinions, feelings, or thought. Words are the central in oral communication or speaking. Fluency is the ability to speak smoothly. Byrne (1986, p. 9) indicates that fluency is the skill to express oneself intelligibly, reasonably, accurately, and without too much hesitation. The speaker which cannot communicate  fluently can break communication down because the listener loses his interest or he loses his patience to wait what the speaker wants to say. Comprehensibility or accuracy is the ability to use a target language correctly. Byrne (1986, p. 15) writes accuracy in speaking English depends on the mastery of the language system. The mastery of language system consists of the mastery on pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary.      

Teaching speaking can be extremely difficult if the students who study the target language are passive. Their passive participation may indicate their lack knowledge of the language components of the target language. They do not have enough vocabulary to convey their ideas, opinions, thoughts or feelings. They do not know the rule how to produce sentences or utterances in the target language. Often, they do not know how to pronounce correctly the words of the target language. When students have lack knowledge of three language components mentioned, it can be predicted that their fluency and comprehensibility or accuracy is not good either.  When students have lack knowledge of the target language components it is not unusual if they become passive in speaking classes.

Teachers should be able to create a situation that encourage students to get engaged themselves in speaking classes to avoid students’ passive participation. They should be selective in choosing techniques of teaching by considering their students’ speaking ability. They should always think what technique matches their students’ level and ability. They should not neglect students’ interest in deciding what activity they wil select for their speaking classes. By considering students’ level, ability and interest, teachers will always be able to create a good asmosphere for students to participate in speaking classes. The speaking class is not a boring class that inhibits them to participate.

Teacher should be able to bring students to many exposures in using the target language. By introducing many situations of speaking activities to students, teachers will be able to encourage the students to participate actively in speaking classes. Speaking classes are always interesting because teachers always bring a new topic with new activity in every meeting.  Students will not get bored with a new activity everyday. The speaking class atmosphere is always fresh. The situation will lead the students to always be active and the active participation of students in speaking classes will lead a good result in their speaking ability.

To create a good asmosphere for students to practise, teachers should be creative in selecting techniques of teaching speaking. Experts suggest teachers to use communication games to teach students with low speaking ability and passive participation in speaking classes. Communication games are effective in improving students’ speaking ability and students’ active participation in speaking classes. Games is always amusing. There is always fun in playing games. There are a lot of activities in games. Teachers can select approriate games for their students. They can determine the level of difficulty of the games. They can adjust which games are appropriate with students’ age and level. Kim (1995, p. 35) writes there are many advantages of using games in classroom: (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 skills—speaking, writing, listening, and reading; (5) They encourage students to interact and communicate; (6) They create a meaningful context for language use. Langeling and Malacher (1997, p. 42) describe some benefits of using games. They are (1) affective: it lowers affective filters; it encourages creative and spontaneous use of language; it promotes communicative competence; it motivates the students; and it is fun; (2) Cognitive: it reinforces the students; it reviews and extend the subject; and it focuses on grammar communicatively; (3) Class dynamics: it is student centered; it allows teacher to act as facilitator; it builds class cohesion; it fosters whole class participation; and it promotes healthy competition; (4) Adaptability: it is easily adjusted for age, level, and interest; it utilizes all four skills; it requires minimum preparation after development. In short, games are really beneficial both for the students and the teacher.

There are some kinds of communication games. Hadfield (1990) divides games into some kinds. They are; 1) Information-gap; 2) Guessing games; 3) Search Games; 4) Matching games; 5) Matching-up games; 6) Exchange games; 7) Exchange and collecting games; 8) Combining games; 9) Arranging games; 10) Board games and Card Games; 11) Puzzle solving games; 12) simulation. In this research, the researcher used matching games, and  arranging games , guessing games, fuzzled-solving games, simulation games. These kinds of games were selected based on the level of students’ difficulties and students’ interest.

Exchange Games. Exchange games are based on the ‘barter’ principle. Players have certain articles, cards or ideas which they wish to exchange for others. The aim of the game is to make an exchange which is satisfactory to both sides (Hadfield 1990, p. vi).

Arranging Games. They are also sometimes called sequencing or ordering games. These are games where the players must acquire information and act on it in order to arrange items in a specific order. Items to be arranged can be picture cards, events in a narrative, or even the players themselves (Hadfield 1990, p. vi).

Puzzled-solving Activities. They occur when participants in the game share or pool information in order to solve a problem or a mystery—where did the aliens come from? Did Annie commit the murder?, etc. Many games include an element of role-play. Players are given the name and some characteristics of a fictive character. However, these are not role plays in the true sense, as the role play element is always subordinate to the game for the purposes of language use. The outcome of the game is ‘closed’; once cards are distributed it develops in a certain predetermined way, while role play proper is open-ended  and may develop in any number of ways (Hadfiled 1990, p. vi).

 Simulation—the imitation in the classroom of a total situation, where the classroom becomes a street, a hotel, or an office—are also used in the book, particularly in those games which practice interaction between the individual and services such as cinemas, theatres, and estate agents. However, for reasons discussed above, these activities are simulation-games rather than true simulations since the outcome is again ‘closed’: students have a specific task or series of tasks to complete within the context of the situation (Hadfield 1990, p. vi).