The Use of Guessing Games in Improving Students’ Speaking Ability at the Second Year Students Of MTS Ikhtiyarul Ummah Pamekasan

Buzanni. 2008. The Use of Guessing Games in Improving Students’ Speaking Ability at the Second Year Students Of MTS Ikhtiyarul Ummah Pamekasan. English Department, Sarjana Program, Faculty of Social Science and Humanity Education, Institute of Teacher Training and Education Budi Utomo Malang. Advisor: Drs. Mukarom, M. Hum

Key words: Guessing game, speaking skill

This research is based on the preliminary study at the second year of MTS Ikhtiyarul Ummah Pamekasan in English especially in speaking skill. The problem was the teacher had not yet found the appropriate strategy to improve the students’ speaking ability, and so the researcher is motivated to conduct a classroom action research on it. The result of the preliminary study revealed that the causes of the students’ inability to speak English are: (1) the limited opportunities for the students to speak in class, (2) the lack of variation of teaching techniques used by the teacher in class, (3) the teaching strategy application was monotonous that made the students bored and disinterested in studying English. Supported by some theories, experiences, and previous studies in the speaking skill, the researcher decided to use guessing game strategy to solve the students’ problem on speaking: for this purpose, the researcher then formulated the research problem as: How can guessing game strategy improve the speaking ability at the second  year of MTS Ikhtiyarul Ummah Pamekasan”. The objective of this study is to improve the speaking ability of the students of MTS Ikhtiyarul Ummah Pamekasan.

This research employed collaborative classroom action research design in which the researcher and collaborator teacher worked together in designing the lesson plan, implementing the action, doing observation, and making reflection. The subjects of this research were 35 students of class II MTS Ikhtiyarul Ummah Pamekasan. This research was conducted in the cycles by following the procedure of the classroom action research, planning, implementing, observing, and reflecting. To collect the data, the researcher used the following instruments: observation checklist, field note, interview guide, and questionnaire.

The findings of the research showed that using guessing games strategy is appropriate for the teaching of the speaking skill. It can improve the students’ speaking ability. The improvement is indicated by the increase of the presentation of the students’ participant in learning activities and the students’ speaking ability from 8.6% students who could respond to the teacher’ questions in preliminary study to 94.2%. In conclusion, the students were able to speak in short conversations and were able talk to one another in simple English.

On the basis of the findings, some suggestions are proposed. For the English teacher, in applying the guessing games in teaching of the speaking skill, they should develop their own techniques in applying the guessing game through discussion in teacher meetings, workshops and / or training. For the students, it is suggested to use the guessing games as a learning strategy to practice their speaking ability, which can be done extra activities. Guessing game can be played without the teacher’s presence. For the future researcher, it is recommended that they conducted a study in guessing games strategy in teaching and learning of speaking skills in other schools and other skills for the improvement of the teaching of English at the same or different level of education