CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

Language is the most important skill for communication between human

being. Using language, people can express their idea to one another. There are many

languages that used by the people around the world. Each nation or tribe has their

own language. And English is one of the language that used by the majority people in

the world.

This is why English has been taught in every level of school from elementary

to the university. Each level of the education institution teaches English on its grade.

Many parents put their children in to the course to learn English more, because they

want their children to be able to speak English. By mastering English, someone could

reach his goal of life. English as an international language, is also used formally in

any ceremonies or other events. So it’s important to speak English well and also the

other skills.

In English subject, there are many skills that should be learned by the students

to master the four basics of language, the skills are: listening, reading, speaking, and

writing. Besides the four skills, they also have to master grammar properly.

There are some experts who state that speaking is the most important skill. Jo

McDonough and Christopher Shaw state that speaking is often the skill upon which a

person is judge ‘at face’. In other words, people may often form judgments about our

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language competence from our speaking rather than from any of the other language

skills.1 Jack C. Richards and Willy A. Renandya also write in their book that speaking

is one of the central elements of communication. In EFL (English as a Foreign

Language) teaching, it is an aspect that needs special attention and instruction.2

Many students feel difficult in practicing speaking. They are not confident to

practice what they have learned in school. Based on the writer’s observation at the

second grade of…………………………….., the students are poor in English

speaking skill. When the writer asked them some questions about their self identity,

some of them cannot answer the questions correctly even some of them did not say

anything, they were just silent. The writer found that they are poor in pronouncing

their words, intonating their expressions, and they are less in mastering vocabulary.

Therefore, the students answered the questions unclear and there are major

hesitations. Actually, they have learned this lesson at their elementary school. Other

case, the students were shy in pronouncing the words because they are afraid to be

laughed at by others.

According to the principle of………………………, 50% of students can

achieve the standard of English subject, which is decided in 60 on scale 10-100. And

50% others can not reach it. This means that half of the student in

………………………can not learn English subject well.

The phenomenon happened because of some factors. The first factor is they
1 McDonough, Jo, and Christopher Shaw, Materials and Methods in ELT: Teacher’s Guide,
(Massachusetts: Lackwell Publisher, 1993), p. 151
2 Jack C. Richards and Willy A. Renandya, Methodology in Language Teaching: an Anthology of
Current Practice, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), p. 210.
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never practice to speak English formally and informally. The second factor is they are

afraid of making mistakes, both in the structuring and in the pronouncing the words,

so they will be laughed at by others. Moreover, it can make the students loose their

self-confidence. The last factor is because the teachers use unsuitable technique.

Today, many teachers still use traditional technique in teaching speaking. That

is the students read dialogues and then find the difficult words to get the meaning of

the dialogue. They are less in practice to speak English. One of the teacher’s reasons

that the time constraint and the class size.

The writer concludes that the time constraint and the class size as the big

problems involved. According to the writer, the solution of the problem is a technique

where the students can practice their speaking skill. Because the most important

feature of a classroom, speaking activity is to provide an authentic opportunity for the

students to get individual meanings across and utilize every area of knowledge they

have in the second or foreign language.3 Group or pair work activity can solve the

time constraint and the class size problems.

There are many activities to make a fun activity in teaching speaking in the

classroom. Using pictures, cards, and other visual aid usually add a great joy to the

class. Language teacher may use them as meaningful teaching aids in order to attract

students’ attention and facilitate them to understand the lesson better. The use of

music or recorded conversation also can be a good idea. Music makes students feel

3 Marianne Celce-Murcia and Elite Olshtain, Discourse and Context in Language Teaching,
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), pp. 176-177.
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relaxed, and if it is well designed, music can be an interesting resource for listening

practice as well as recorded conversation of native speakers. In addition, it can be a

good model in teaching speaking.

In the audio lingual method language learners are equipped with the

knowledge and skill required for effective communication in a foreign language. The

language learners are also required to understand the foreign people whose language

they are learning and the culture of the foreign people. The language learners have to

understand everyday life of the people, history of the people and their social life.4

In audio lingual method, structures are presented initially and students drill

those structures until they have mastered them orally. This method provides variety

drills such as repetition, substitution (inflection), replacement, completion, expansion,

contradiction, transformation, combination (interrogation), formation (restoration),

question-and-answer, and pronunciation drills.5

The writer assumes that by using audio lingual method, learning English

would be a nice activity, especially in practicing speaking. One of those methods is

audio lingual method. This method tries to make the teacher more easily in teaching

speaking to their students. This method gave the teacher many options in teaching

English, especially in teaching speaking. Audio lingual method provides many

techniques in teaching English such as using dialog memorization by using role play

game, repeat drill, and so on.

4 Bambang Setiadi, et.al, Tefl 1, Jakarta: Universitas Terbuka, 2007, p. 2.4
5 Muhlise Cosgun Ogeyik, Ph.D., and Sinem Dogreur, MA., An Evaluation of the Communicative
Approach and Audio-Lingual Method in Teaching Grammar in a Private High School in Turkey,
articles downloaded from http://www.languageinindia.com/march2009/grammarinturkey.html
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According to the background having stated above, the writer decided to

conduct a research under the title “Improving the Students’ Speaking Skill Through

Audio Lingual Method (A Classroom Action Research at Second Year Students

of……………………………….)”.

B. Identification of the Problem

Based on previous background, the writer would like to identify the problem,

as below:

1. Why do students feel unconfident and shy in

speaking English?

2. Why are the students afraid of making mistakes in

pronouncing word or sentence?

3. What method can be applied in learning speaking?

4. How does audio lingual method improve the

speaking ability of students?

5. How does audio lingual method influence the

speaking ability of students?

C. Focus of the Research

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In this research, the writer should focus the research on improving the

students’ speaking skill through audio lingual method at the Second Year Students of

………………..

D. Formulation of the Problem

After identifying the problem and then make the limitation of it, the writer

would formulate the problem as follow:

How to improve the speaking skill of the students by using audio lingual

method?

E. Benefits of the Study

By doing this research, the writer would like to hope that the result of this

study can give some benefits, mainly:

1. For the institution, in which this research was held

in ……., this research will give an alternative

method in improving English, especially in

speaking.

2. For the writer herself, this research will give much

information about English especially in speaking

skill, which is an important skill that must be

practiced in order to be fluently in English.

3. For the students, this research will give a

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motivation to learn English more easily.