USING INFORMATION-GAP ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE THE ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILLS OF XI KR 4 STUDENTS AT SMK NEGERI 3 YOGYAKARTA IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR OF 2013/2014

Abstrak / Ringkasan

This study was aimed at improving the English speaking skills of XI KR 4 students at SMK Negeri 3 Yogyakarta through the use of information-gap activities during the teaching and learning process. It consisted of two cycles with three meetings in each cycle.
The instruments used were observation checklists, interview guidelines, a camera, a recorder, and speaking rubrics. The data were collected in two forms: qualitative (through interviews and observations) and quantitative (through speaking tests). The qualitative data were analyzed through data collection, data reduction, data display, and conclusion, while the quantitative data were analyzed by means of the descriptive technique to obtain the mean, median, mode, and standard deviation. A t-test in SPSS 16.0 was also applied using the students’ scores to investigate the improvement. The data of this study were reliable by the fact that their Pearson’s coefficient correlations (r) were 0.850198 (in the pre-test) and 0.935613 (in the post-test).
The results of the research showed that the use of information-gap activities was able to improve the students’ speaking skills. Based on the qualitative data, the pre-communicative activities improved the grammatical competence of the students, while the drills improved their accuracy and fluency. Furthermore, the information-gap activities could grab the students’ attentions and make them calmer, be focused during the class, and enthusiastically joined the teaching and learning activities. Based on the quantitative data, the students’ mean score for the speaking skills improved from 17.81 in the pre-test to 28.54 in the post-test.

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