IMPROVING STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS

THROUGH STORYTELLING ACTIVITY IN GRADE VIII

OF SMP ISLAM TERPADU SALMAN AL FARISI
YOGYAKARTA

An E-Journal
Presented as a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain
a Sarjana Pendidikan Degree in English Education

by:
MUHAMAD ARDIA RAFIQ AL QHOZALI
12202241024

ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS
YOGYAKARTA STATE UNIVERSITY
2017
 Improving Students’ Speaking Skills .. (Muhamad Ardia Rafiq Al Qhozali) │ 1

IMPROVING STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS THROUGH STORYTELLING ACTIVITY

IN GRADE VIII OF SMP ISLAM TERPADU SALMAN AL FARISI YOGYAKARTA

MENINGKATKAN KEMAMPUAN BERBICARA SISWA MELALUI AKTIVITAS

BERCERITA DI KELAS VIII SMP ISLAM TERPADU SALMAN AL FARISI
YOGYAKARTA

By: Muhamad Ardia Rafiq Al Qhozali, Prof. Suwarsih Madya, M.A., Ph.D., English Education
Study Program, Faculty of Languages and Arts, Yogyakarta State University,
ardia.rafiq@yahoo.com

Abstract

This action research study was aimed at improving the students’ speaking skills in Grade
VIII of SMP Islam Terpadu Salman Al Farisi Yogyakarta in the 2016/2017 academic year through
storytelling activity. This action research study was conducted in two cycles. The first cycle consisted of
four meetings while the second cycle consisted of three meetings. The actions conducted in the research
used storytelling activity which was supported by several actions: (1) using classroom English during the
teaching and learning process, (2) engaging the students in pre-communicative activities, (3)
encouraging them to use dictionaries, (4) setting a fun learning atmosphere, and (5) appreciating their
participation and achievement. The data were qualitative and quantitative in nature. The qualitative data
during the research process were collected by observing the teaching and learning process, having
interviews with the students and collaborators, distributing questionnaires to the students, recording their
speaking, asking them to make written reflections, and taking photographs. The instruments used to
collect those data were observation checklist, interview guidelines, and questionnaire sheets. Data
reduction, data display, conclusion drawing and verification were used to analyze the qualitative data.
Meanwhile, the quantitative data were got by assessing the students’ speaking performance using an
assessment rubric. The research results show that the students’ speaking skills improved through
involving them in storytelling activity. In addition, the results of the assessment show that the
students reached some improvements at different rates. In the pre-test, the lowest quantitative
improvement score was 6, while the highest was 13,5. In the post-test, the lowest quantitative
improvement score reached 10,5, while the highest was 19,5. Those improvements were mainly on
their speaking fluency, interactive skill, and vocabulary mastery. The pair work and group work
technique used in conducting the activities supported their speaking skills improvement since it
encouraged them to speak up one another. As a result, their speaking skills improved.

Keyword: Improvement, storytelling activity, students’ speaking skills

Abstrak

Studi penelitian tindakan ini bertujuan untuk meningkatkan kemampuan berbicara siswa di kelas
VIII SMP Islam Terpadu Salman Al Farisi Yogyakarta pada tahun akademik 2016/2017 melalui
kegiatan bercerita. Studi penelitian tindakan ini dilakukan dalam dua siklus. Siklus pertama terdiri dari
empat pertemuan sedangkan siklus kedua terdiri dari tiga pertemuan. Tindakan yang dilakukan dalam
penelitian ini menggunakan aktivitas bercerita yang didukung oleh beberapa tindakan: (1)
menggunakan bahasa Inggris selama proses belajar mengajar, (2) melibatkan siswa dalam kegiatan
pra-komunikatif, (3) mendorong mereka untuk menggunakan kamus, (4) menyiapkan suasana belajar
yang menyenangkan, dan (5) menghargai partisipasi dan prestasi mereka. Data bersifat kualitatif dan
kuantitatif. Data kualitatif selama proses penelitian dikumpulkan dengan mengamati proses belajar
2 | Jurnal Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris. Edisi .. Tahun..ke.. 20 ..

mengajar, melakukan wawancara dengan siswa dan kolaborator, menyebarkan kuesioner kepada siswa,
merekam pembicaraan mereka, meminta mereka untuk membuat refleksi tertulis, dan memotret.
Instrumen yang digunakan untuk mengumpulkan data tersebut adalah daftar periksa observasi,
pedoman wawancara, dan lembar kuesioner. Pengurangan data, tampilan data, pengambilan gambar
dan verifikasi digunakan untuk menganalisis data kualitatif. Sementara itu, data kuantitatif diperoleh
dengan menilai kinerja siswa dengan menggunakan rubrik penilaian. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan
bahwa kemampuan berbicara siswa meningkat dengan melibatkan mereka dalam aktivitas bercerita.
Selain itu, hasil penilaian menunjukkan bahwa siswa mencapai beberapa perbaikan pada tingkat yang
berbeda. Pada pre-test, skor perbaikan kuantitatif terendah adalah 6, sedangkan yang tertinggi adalah
13,5. Pada post-test, skor perbaikan kuantitatif terendah adalah 10,5, sedangkan yang tertinggi
mencapai 19,5. Perbaikan tersebut terutama terkait dengan kelancaran berbicara, keterampilan
interaktif, dan penguasaan kosakata. Teknik kerja berpasangan dan berkelompok yang digunakan,
mendukung peningkatan kemampuan berbicara mereka karena mendorong mereka untuk saling
berbicara satu sama lain. Hasilnya, kemampuan berbicara mereka meningkat.

Kata kunci: Peningkatan, aktivitas bercerita, kemampuan berbicara siswa

INTRODUCTION listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

English has an important position in our life.
It is one of the essential means to
communicate and to express ideas among
people from different backgrounds. Moreover,
in this globalization era, people need to have
competition and cooperation which are not
only within a single country. There has been
huge chances for people to compete and work
together with other people around the world.
In this kind of circumstance, the English
contributes a very significant function and role
as a means of communication. Consequently,
the skill of communicating using English turns
out to be necessary and required in life.
Especially, in terms of education, people can
gain better education then get better jobs
which absolutely lead to have better life by
mastering English since they can access
information and opportunities more advanced.
As English is significant for carrying out
communication in education process and in
daily life, thus, it becomes one of the
compulsory subjects in many countries
including Indonesia. One of the learning goals
in this subject is to improve students’ English
speaking skills. Since they study the language
in order to communicate, the learning
activities must support them to obtain the
language and be able to use it as a means of
communication. Additionally, learning
English means learning four skills which are
Besides those four language skills, it also
includes three important elements which are
pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar.
Those four major skills and the three
components of English cannot be separated
one to another, since the four skills are
supported by the three components of English
language. Speaking is one of the skills which
must be perceived in language learning. Susan
(1981) declares that speaking is defined as
saying things, expressing thought, and using
voice talk. This meaning can be understood
further through the word “express and aloud.”
Then expressing means showing feeling,
desire, and opinion aloud which means using
voice that can be heard.
O’Malley and Pierce (1996) say that speaking
is an essential skill that learners should
acquire. It is vital in order to qualify them to
communicate effectively through oral
language as the disability to speak can lead
them to be unable to express their ideas. In
addition, Burn and Joyce (1997, as cited in
Thornbury, 2005) explain that one of the aims
of most language learning is to develop
spoken language skills and most learnings aim
to integrate both spoken and written language.
Many experts like Brown (2001), and Richard
and Rodgers (2001) had found out the
techniques in speaking learning, one of the
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technique is story telling. According to Otto
(1979), telling measures comprehension by
asking the students to tell as much as the story
as he or she can recall. The results of the
observations and the interviews conducted
during the research showed that there were
several problems arising in the English lesson
in grade VIII of SMP Islam Terpadu Salman
Al Farisi. Those problems focused on the
students, the teacher, the teaching and learning
process, the learning materials and the
learning media. Those aspects were required
to be improved. The improvement could be
done by minimalizing those problems as well
as improving the quality of the teaching and
learning process and encouraging the students
to improve their speaking skills. The research
was conducted to improve the students’
speaking skills in grade VIII of SMP Islam
Terpadu Salman Al Farisi through storytelling
activity.
LITERATURE REVIEW
There are some general definitions of speaking.
Cameron (2001) states that speaking is the
active use of language to convey the
significance so that other people can make sense
of them. He concludes that in ELT process, the
students need to pick the proper words in
expressing the meanings so that the listeners can
understand their speaking clearly. The other
expert, Louma (2004) identifies that speaking is
a meaningful interface among people. Speaking
is a share of our daily life. Hornby (1995) says
that speaking is making practice of words in an
ordinary voice, offering words, knowing and
being able to utilize a language expressing one-
self in words, and making speech. Therefore the
researcher infers that speaking uses the word
and generates the sound to communicate ideas,
feeling, thought and needs orally in a common
speech.
According to Thornbury (2005), speaking is an
activity where two or more people rolling as
hearers and speakers have to respond to what
they hear and make their part of talk at high
speed. Harmer (2001: 271) utters that a
speaking activity concerns a mental or social
processing which includes language
processing, interacting with others, and
information processing. Brown (2001) divides
the types of speaking into two segments. They
are monologs and dialogs. Each of the
monologs and dialogs consists of two sub-
categories. Monologs are of two kinds. There
are planned monologs and unplanned
monologs. Planned monolog like speech and
other pre-written materials usually have little
redundancy and therefore are relatively
difficult to understand. Meanwhile, unplanned
monolog has more redundancy which makes
for ease in comprehension. On the other hand,
the dialogs is subdivided into interpersonal
dialogs and transactional dialogs which talk
about the propositional or factual information.
Brown and Yule (1983) offer the types of
speaking based on their functions. They are
interaction, transaction, and performance. The
interaction refers to the conversation and
describe interaction that serves primarily
social functions. The examples are small talks
and greetings. The transaction relates to
situations where the focus is on what is said or
done. The purpose is the message and making
oneself understands correctly or in other
words speaking to get things done for instance
classroom group discussions and problem-
solving activities, and asking someone for
directions on the street. The performance is a
public talks. The cases are classroom
presentation, public announcements, and
public speeches.
Richards (2006) mentions that
“communicative” becomes one of the
methodology of choice nowadays to improve
students’ language skills, including speaking.
It is called as communicative language
teaching (CLT). It is argued that the
communicative language teaching
methodology makes students learn language
through the process of communicating. That
communication gives a better opportunity to
improve learners’ skills, especially speaking.
In the Communicative Language Teaching
system, there is an approach called text-based
Instruction or commonly known as genre-
based approach. Richards (2006) says that this
genre-based approach asks students to
4 | Jurnal Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris. Edisi .. Tahun..ke.. 20 ..
improve their competence by mastering
different types of texts. Feez and Joyce (1998,
as stated in Richards, 2006: 39-41) gives
several steps to implement the text-based
approach in teaching and learning process: (1)
building the context; (2) modeling and
deconstructing the text; (3) joint construction
of the text; (4) independent construction of the
text; (5) linking to related texts. Furthermore,
Thornbury (2005) presents six criteria for
speaking tasks. These principles should be
considered before deciding what activities will
be given to the learners in order to help them
gain maximum opportunities for speaking and
enhance the chance to be autonomous that
they will experience in learning process. The
speaking activities should be: (1) productivity;
(2) purposefulness; (3) interactivity; (4)
challenge; (5) safety; (6) authenticity. In terms
of storytelling activity, according to
Thornbury (2005), it can be used to focus on
spoken language aspects such as overall
organization, the discourse makers, grammar
features, lexical chunks, and stress and
intonation. Other theorists consider
storytelling is same as the perspective of
narrative inquiry, whether is it written down
or provided orally (Denning, 2005; Heo 2003;
Rossiter, 2002, as stated in Eck, 2006). Heo
argues that narrative inquiry involves the
telling and retelling of stories since the tellers
reconstruct meaning from their experiences
lived and then re-told. According to Denning,
storytelling and narrative inquiry are the same
and are simply an account of a series of events
which are casually related.
Harmer (2007) gives some terms, which the
researcher believes, related to storytelling
activity. These activities have same basic as
the storytelling which is presenting something
orally in front of the class. Thomas (2011)
presents several techniques that involve
storytelling. Students are asked to tell stories
based on their experience, childhood
recollection, jokes, or stories based on an
input such as text. They can also tell stories
using visual materials. After that, students tell
the story of the person to their classmates.
Barnes (1997: 1) says that storytelling is the
art of telling a story that contains telling a
story with the use of the written word, with
the use of song, acting, mime, dance and other
mediums. According to Handayani (2013: 1)
storytelling activity can encourage students to
explore their unique expressiveness and can
intensify a student's aptitude to communicate
thoughts and feelings in an articulate, lucid
manner.
O‘Malley and Pierce (1966) propose five
criteria in speaking which are vocabulary and
expression, grammar, fluency, pronunciation
and intonation, and interactive skill. In terms
of the practical and reliable scoring
procedures, Brown (2007) mentions two types
of scoring rubrics for speaking: (1) holistic
and (2) analytical. A holistic rubric ranges, for
example, from 1 to 4. Each score reflects the
capacity of the speaker. 4 is very good while 1
is poor. The analytical rubric scores
performance in different subcategories. Those
different subcategories are grammar,
vocabulary, comprehension, fluency,
pronunciation and task completion. There are
two common practices: (1) the total score is
summed in average to reflect an overall score
or (2) each category is given a different
weight without the necessity to sum up the
total score.
RESEARCH METHOD
The research was conducted in SMP Islam
Terpadu Salman Al Farisi. It was located in
Street Kaliurang, KM. 12,5 Village Mriyunan
Sardonoharjo, Ngaglik, Sleman, Yogyakarta.
It was around 12 km from the central point of
the Yogyakarta town. The subjects of this
research were 18 students of grade VIII. The
number of the male students were 9 persons
while the female are 9 students. Their ages
were between 12 - 13 years old.
Kemmis and McTaggart spiral model of
action research was applied for this research.
Kemmis and McTaggart (1988, as stated in
Burns, 2010) mentioned that Action Research
(AR) typically includes four broad stages in a
5 | Jurnal Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris. Edisi .. Tahun..ke.. 20 ..
cycle of a research. The first cycle may
continue to the next cycles until the action
researcher has achieved a satisfactory results
and feels it is time to finish the research. The
types of the data were qualitative and
quantitative. The qualitative data formulated
in the form of interview transcripts, vignettes,
result of questionnaire, photographs, school
lay out and students’ lists, while the
quantitative data constructed in the form of
the students’ speaking scores in the pre-test
and post-test. The researcher used several
procedures to collect the data. Interviews,
observation, taking photograph, recording,
and questionnaires were used to get the
qualitative data, while the quantitative data
were got through conducting the students’
speaking pre-test and post-test.
The analysis of the qualitative data used the
interactive model proposed by Miles and
Huberman (1994, as cited in Miles,
Huberman, and Saldana, 2014) while the
quantitative data were analyzed with mean
score comparison. There were five varieties of
validity used in this action research (Burn,
1999, as stated in Madya, 2011). They were
democratic validity, outcome validity, process
validity, catalytic validity, and dialogic
validity. They intended to compose the
research valid.
Further, I also applied four different kinds of
triangulation in this research, which were time
triangulation, data triangulation, investigator
triangulation and theoretical triangulation. The
procedure of this research consisted of
reconnaissance stage, planning stage, act and
observation stage, and reflection stage. In
reconnaissance stage, I did interviewing the
teacher, interviewing the students, observing
the English Language Teaching processes in
the classroom, doing the school observation,
and conducting speaking pre-test, to discover
the problems in the field. Then in planning
stage, my collaborators and I made a plan to
resolve the problems, after deciding it. We
considered the plan which was practicable in
the field. In action and observation stage, I
became the English teacher while my
collaborators were the observers. They helped
me managing the students and all the
classroom activities. In reflection stage, I did
interview with my collaborators, the students.
I also asked them to make a notes for me.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
I collected the data using several techniques to
identify the filed problems: (1) observing the
English teaching and learning process in three
meetings; (2) distributing questionnaires; (3)
interviewing the teacher. By collecting the
data using those techniques, my collaborators
and I could decide the identification of the
problems as well as the main causes.
Furthermore, I analyzed the main causes
based on the results of the observation in the
classroom, questionnaire and interviews with
the students, the English teacher and the
curriculum official. After finding the problems
in the reconnaissance stage, my first
collaborator and I formulated several actions
for the cycle 1 and cycle 2. The actions
focused on improving the students’ speaking
skill by using storytelling activity. To support
it, there were supporting actions which would
be conducted during the teaching and learning
process: (1) using classroom English during
the teaching and learning Process; (2)
engaging the students in Pre-Communicative
activities which consisted of pronunciation
drill, finding the key vocabulary in the text,
improving their understanding about
grammar, doing exercise; (3) involving them
in storytelling activity which would done in
pairs, group, and individual; (4) encouraging
them to use dictionary; (5) setting a fun
atmosphere of learning; (6) appreciating the
their participation and achievement. In cycle
1, the students showed their learning behavior
change. They were more active in the teaching
and learning process, and more confident to
speak up. Consistently, in cycle 2, they also
showed it. Their enthusiasm to be involved in
the teaching and learning process was higher.
It was supported by the results of the
observation, the interviews with them and
with the collaborators, their learning
reflection, and the questionnaire results.
6 | Jurnal Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris. Edisi .. Tahun..ke.. 20 ..
The quantitative results were the assessment
on their speaking skill performance before and
after the research was conducted. There were
two performances assessed quantitatively.
Those performances were assessed by using
an assessment rubric adapted from O’Malley
and Pierce’s. There were five aspects assessed
which were pronunciation and intonation,
vocabulary and expression, fluency, grammar,
and interactive skill. The score for each aspect
ranged from 1 - 4. 1 was for poor
performance, 2 was for fair performance, 3
was for good performance, and 4 was for
excellent performance. Thus, when the score
of each aspect was summed, the maximum
score would be 20. The results of the
assessment showed that all students reached
some improvements at different rates. In the
pre-test, the lowest quantitative improvement
was 6, while the highest was 13,5. In the post-
test, the lowest quantitative improvement
reached 10,5, while the highest was 19,5.
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
The research findings showed that the
speaking skills of students in grade VIII of
SMP Islam Terpadu Salman Al Farisi in the
2016/2017 academic year improved through
storytelling activity supported by several
activities: (1) using classroom English; (2)
engaging the students in pre-communicative
activities; (3) encouraging them to use
dictionaries; (4) appreciating their
participation and achievement; (5) setting a
fun atmosphere of learning and. Their
speaking skill developments were constant
during the two cycles.
In addition, the results of the assessment
showed that all students reached some
improvements at different rates. In the pre-
test, the lowest quantitative improvement was
6, while the highest was 13,5. In the post-test,
the lowest quantitative improvement reached
10,5, while the highest was 19,5. Their
speaking skill improvements were mostly on
their vocabulary mastery, fluency, and
interactive skill. Meanwhile, their speaking
accuracy on the grammar and the
pronunciation still needed process to be
enhanced.
Numerous suggestions would be directed to
the English teacher. The main thing to do to
advance the excellence of the teaching and
learning process is making a fun atmosphere
of learning in order to improve the students’
speaking skill. They need to feel well-to-do to
speak up and to give other appearance of
participation to the teaching and learning
process. Furthermore, it is also needed to
develop extra exercises and materials. In
addition, it is also important to involve them
in storytelling activity. This kind of speaking
activities encourage them to speak up since
they have to tell story based on their own
experience and tell many kinds of story. These
suggestions are also directed to other teachers,
not only the English teachers in the school.
All of them must work together to improve the
teaching and learning process and finally
improve their students speaking skills or their
other skills. They can use classroom language
during the teaching and learning activity,
involve their students in pre-communicative
activities before continuing to the
communicative activities, engage them to
many communicative activities which relate to
the topic of the lesson, appreciate their
participation and achievement in order to
make them happy and believe in themselves
that they can do the best, and set a fun
atmosphere during the teaching and learning
process so that they will enjoy it and practice
their skills without afraid of making mistakes.
In addition, it is fundamental for the school
principal to support the teachers to conduct
those actions. The school principal also should
recommend the teachers to conduct this kind
of action research in the school and implement
it in the classroom since it will enhance the
quality of the teaching and learning process as
well as improve the teachers’ action of
teaching, especially improve the students’
skills.
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