IMPROVING STUDENTS’ SPEAKING ABILITY THROUGHudTASK-BASED LEARNINGud(A Classroom action research on the tenth grade students of SMK N IudKedawung in the academic year of 2012/2013)ud

摘要

ABSTRACTudThis study is based on the speaking problems of vocational school students.udThe aims of this study are to identify whether or not Task-Based Learning improvesudthe students‟ speaking ability and to analyze the class climate when Task-BasedudLearning is implemented in the classroom.udIn the research, the writer conducted a classroom action research. Theudresearch was conducted in two cycles from February 28th to April 13th at the tenthudgrade students of SMK N 1 Kedawung. The Writer conducted two cycles of actionudresearch. The two cycles consisted of series of steps, namely: planning the action,udimplementing the action, observing the action, and reflecting the result ofudobservation.udThe data of the research were collected through observation, interview, fieldudnotes, questionnaire, and test (pre-test and post-test). The qualitative data wereudanalyzed through some steps proposed by Burns. They are assembling the data,udcoding the data, comparing the data, building interpretation, and reporting theudoutcomes. Meanwhile, the quantitative data were analyzed by using descriptiveudstatistics.udThe research findings show that Task-Based Learning improves students‟udspeaking ability and the class climate when Task-Based Learning is applied duringudthe teaching-learning process. The improvement of students‟ speaking abilityudincludes: (1) students were able to state content of the speech; (2) the students wereudable to perform acceptable pronunciation; (3) the students could make utterancesudusing correct grammar; (4) the students were able to use appropriate vocabulary toudexpress ideas and; (5) the students could speak fluently. Meanwhile, theudimprovements of class climate includes: (1) the students were much easier to control;ud(2) the students became active in teaching and learning process; (3) there wereudinteraction between teacher and students which could decrease students‟ anxiety inudteaching and learning process; (4) there were interaction among the students whichudcould support the teaching and learning process to be more active and; (5) theudstudents were motivated to do the task.udIn addition, the final result of the tests showed that the students‟ scores wereudalso improving. The mean score increased from 54.4 (pre-test) to 70.44 (test in cycleud1) and 78.75 (test in cycle 2).udBased on the research finding, it shows that there is improvement in someudaspects of students‟ speaking ability and class climate. It can be stated that Englishudclass was more conducive. It is recommended when applying Task-based learning toudteach speaking, the teacher should guide the students to do the task well. Consideringudthe inspiring result of this study, it is suggested that other teachers can use Task-udBased Learning to overcome the students‟ problem in learning speaking