IMPROVING STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS AT GRADE VII OF SMP MUHAMMADIYAH 3 DEPOK THROUGH THE USE OF AFFECTIVE LEARNING STRATEGIES IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR OF 2011/2012

Abstrak / Ringkasan

The research study is aimed at improving students? speaking skills through the use of affective learning strategies at SMP Muhammadiyah 3 Depok. To limit the aspects to be analyzed in this study, the researcher formulated three research questions: (1) what are the possible techniques that can be used for the affective learning strategies? (2) how do the affective learning strategies improve students? speaking skills? (3) what are the students? responses toward the use of affective learning strategies?
The study was action research in two cycles with three meetings in each cycle. In this study, the researcher collaborated with the English teacher and seventh grade students of the SMP Muhammadiyah 3 Depok. Data of this study were qualitative in nature supported by quantitative data. The qualitative data were obtained from the results of the classroom observations and interviews. The quantitative data were obtained from the pre-test and post test results. The instruments for collecting the data were observation guides, interview guides, and the pre-test and post-test. A t-test was used to analyze the quantitative data.
The findings of the study show three important results. First, there are three sets of affective learning strategies that can be used in the teaching and learning process of speaking. They are anxiety-reducing strategies, encouraging-oneself strategies, and monitoring-emotion strategies. Second, the use of affective learning strategies in the teaching and learning process of speaking improves the students? confidence, motivation, involvement, and aspects of speaking skills. Based on the qualitative data analyses, the students can speak at the normal speech without pausing, respond to the expressions appropriately, speak without being shy, speak with correct pronunciation, use language functions with correct grammar, and join the teaching and learning process enthusiastically. Meanwhile, the quantitative data analyses show the improvements of the mean scores of the aspects of speaking skills. They are 1.12 for fluency, 0.46 for accuracy, 0.85 for pronunciation, and 1.18 for vocabulary. There is also an increase of the average score of students? speaking skills of 0.9437 from 6.1826 (pre-test) to 7.1263 (post test). According to the t statistic, the difference is significant at p <0.05. Third, there are two kinds of students? responses toward the use of affective learning strategies. They are the students? willingness to use the strategies and the students? difficulties in using the strategies.

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