USING THE DIRECT METHOD IN TEACHING TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILL AT PURIKIDS LANGUAGE COURSE

摘要

There are two objectives in this study. The first objective is to know the profile of students’ speaking skill after the implementation of the Direct Method. Then, the second one is to describe the effectiveness of using the Direct Method in teaching in teaching to improve students’ speaking skill at Purikids Language Course.udThis research took place at Purikids Language Course, Yogyakarta. The subjects of this study were 18 students of Superkids Class Program which were divided into three classes. The type of this research is Action Research. This research consisted of two cycles. The first cycle had three meetings and the second cycle had two meetings. The data collection techniques were observations, interviews and tests. The data were in the form of field notes, interview transcripts and scores of the pretest and the posttest. The data were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. The researcher analyzed the qualitative data through three steps: 1) reducing, 2) displaying, and 3) verifying the data. The quantitative data were analyzed by means of the score to obtain the total mean of the class. The research validity was accomplished by adopting five criteria of validity: 1) democratic validity, 2) outcome validity, 3) process validity, 4) catalytic validity, and 5) dialogic validity.udThe findings of the research showed that the use of the Direct Method was able to improve students’ speaking skills. Based on the qualitative data, the students could develop their ideas to produce a short sentence with better vocabulary, sentence structure and pronunciation. They also enthusiastically joined the teaching and learning activities. Based on the quantitative data, the research showed that the total mean score of the class was higher after the posttest. From the data, it showed that students’ mean score for the speaking skill was improved