CHAPTER II
THEORITICAL REVIEW
A. Speaking
1. Definition of speaking
There are many definitions of speaking that have been proposed by some experts. Byrne (1984: 9) defines speaking as two wayscommunication between a speaker and a listener, it involves productive and receptive skill of understanding. It can be inferred that in speaking process, one tries to communicate with and send out his / her message to the others. The communication needs at least two people, a speaker who produces a message and a listener who receives the message.Tarigan (2008: 13) defines speaking as a skill in conveying message through oral speech.Furthermore, speaking also defined as the ability to speak fluently presupposes not only a knowledge of language features, but also the ability to process information and language “on the spot” (Harmer, 2001).
2. Elements of Speaking
In speaking activity there are elements that should be considered by the speaker in order to make information that would be delivered to other people can be accepted well.Among the elements necessary for spoken production are the following (Brown, 2007) as cited in At-Tamimiet.al., 2014:
a. Pronunciation
Pronunciation is “the production and perception of the significant sounds of a particular language in order to achieve meaning in context of language use. Carter &Nunan(2004: 56 in Al-Tamimi 2014) saythat pronunciation comprises the production and perception of segmental sounds of stressed and unstressed syllables and of the speech melody or intonation”. Without a good pronunciation, listeners
cannot understand what another person says and this will make the communication process more difficult. Therefore, pronunciation has a central role in both academic and social fields in the way that students can be able to participate and integrate successfully in their community.
b. Fluency
(Richards, 2006 in Al-Tamimi 2014). If the fluency of speaker is good, the communication would be effective, the information which is delivered by the speaker can be accepted easily by other people.
c. Accuracy
Accuracy which refersto the mastery of phonology elements, grammar and discourse. It also refers to the linguistic competence that deals with the correction of the utterances to get a correct communication.Thornbury (2005 in Al-Tamimi 2014) says that speaking English accurately means doing without or with few errors on not only grammar but vocabulary and pronunciation.Al-Tamimi,et.al(2014) saysthat the accuracy of using language is also become a key to create good communication which is acceptable to other people, especially for among English users.
In conclusion, fluency, accuracy, and pronunciation are three important components in the development of students’ speaking skill
to create effective communication.
3. Speaking problems
a. Inhibition
Inhibition is a nervous feeling that prevents human from expressing their thoughts, emotion, or desire (accessed from www.meriam-webster.com).Foreign language classroom can create inhibitions and anxiety easily (Littlewood: 2007, as cited in Tuan & Mai 2015). Inhibition occurred when students try to say things in a foreign language in the classroom. They worried about making mistakes, afraid of criticism or losing face. They are shy of the attention that their speech attracts.
b. Students’ lack of topical knowledge or idea
Students often complain that they do not have any idea to be said and they have no motivation to express themselves. Rivers (1968, as cited in Tuan & Mai 2015) believes that the learners having nothing to express perhaps because the teacher had chosen a topic which is not suitable for students or about which he knows very little. It is difficult for many students to respond when the teachers ask them to say something in a foreign language because they might have little ideas about what to say without guidelines.
c. Low of participation
class room which make them just sitting, listening to the teacher’s
explanation and they have to practice.
4. Speaking Ability
Speaking ability is related to the competencies of the students to utter words or expressing their idea and feeling orally with communicative way.Somjai&Jansem (2015) say that to achieve good speaking ability, students are actually trying to develop and improve their speaking.
Students who have good speaking ability in English can be looked from their performance in speaking English in the classroom.The students’ speaking English abilitycan be measured by considering some aspects of language which are contained in sentences that they are uttered. They tend to have good accuracy which refers to their grammar and also vocabulary. Their sentences can be accepted easily by other people. Besides that, the students’ fluency is also good, they can speak English spontaneously and
In conclusion, students who comprehend the elements of language will make other people understand to what they are speaking. It means that they have good mastery in English.
5. Teaching Speaking
Speaking is a crucial part of language learning and teaching. Bahadorfar&Omidvar(2014 ) state the mastery of speaking skills in English is a priority for many second language or foreign language learners. Students’ mastery of speaking English becomes determiner of the successfulness of teaching English in a class. It can be looked from their speaking performances score, if the students’ speaking performances
mostly are good means that they master the whole of speaking aspects which makes their competencies in speaking also good. The teacher should pay attention to some principles for teaching speaking English in the classroom to help the students achieve their success in speaking English. There are five principles for teaching English ( Nunan, 2003 : 54-56), namely:
a. Being aware of the differences between second language and
foreign language learning context.
language outside the classroom. While a second language (SL) context is where the target language is the language of communication in the society. In this case, the status of English in Indonesia is as the foreign language, so the teacher should know the students’ need and choose
technique which is appropriate with the students’ condition.
b. Giving students practice with both fluency and accuracy.
Accuracy is related to the students’ ability in speaking English, whether their language is acceptable by other people or not. Fluency is related to the students’ ability in using English quickly and
confidently, with few hesitations or unnatural pauses, etc. Students must be given opportunities to develop both their fluency and their accuracy. The students cannot develop fluency if the teacher is constantly interrupting them to correct their oral errors. Teacher must provide students with fluency-building practice and realize that making mistakes is a natural part of learning a new language. Teacher also should apply technique which is appropriate to increase their accuracy in speaking English.
c. Providing opportunities for students to talk by using group work
or pair work, and limiting teacher talk.
normally filled by the teacher. The teacher should be aware of how much he is talking in class so he does not take up all the time the students could be talking.
d. Planing speaking tasks that involve negotiation for meaning.
Negotiating for meaning involves checking to see if the students have understood what someone has said, clarifying students understanding, and confirming that students has understood about the meaning. By asking for clarification, repetition, or explanations during conversations, studentslearn from other people about the language which is used.
e. Designing classroom activities that involve guidance and practice
in both transactional and interactional speaking.
Teacher is expected to be able to design classroom activities which guide the students to practice English in interactional speaking where the students communicate with someone for social purposes that includes both establishing and maintaining social relationship, and transactional speech which involves communicating to get something done, including the exchange ideas and/ or services.
6. Classroom Speaking Activities
speaking activities, namely: Acting from script, Communication games, Discussion, Prepared talks, Questionnaires, Simulation and Role play. a. Acting from script
The activity in acting from script is the teacher can ask the students to act out from plays and/ or their coursebook, sometimes filming the results. Students will often act out dialogues they have written themselves. This frequently involves them in coming out to the front of the class. The teacher roles here are theater directors, drawing attention to appropriate stress, intonation, and speed. Teacher can give the students opportunity to practice before they give their final performances, the teacher ensure that acting out is both a learning and a language producing activity.
b. Communication Games
Games which are designed to provoke communication between students frequently depend on an information gap, so that one student has to talk to a partner in order to solve a puzzle, draw a picture ( describe and draw), put things in the right order ( describe and arrange), or find similarities and differences between pictures. Television and radio games, imported into the classroom, often provide good fluency activities.
c. Discussion
opinions. Harmer (2001: 272) discussion range is divided into several stages from highly formal, whole-group staged events to informal small-group interactions. The first is the buzz group that can be used for a whole range of discussion. For example, students are expected to predict the content of a reading text, or talk about their reactions after reading the text. The second is instant comments which can train students to respond fluently and immediately is to insert ‘instant
comment’mini activities into lessons. This involves showing them
photographs or introducing topics at any stage of a lesson and nominating students to say the first thing that comes into their head. The last is formal debates, students prepare arguments in favor or against various propositions. The debate will be started when those who are appointed as 12 ‘panel speaker’ produce arguments whereas
others, the audience, pitch in as the debate progresses with own thoughts on the subject.
d. Prepared talk
In prepared talk students make a presentation on a topic of their own choice. They prepared the presentation, they are more ‘writing like’. However , if possible, students should speak from notes rather
e. Questionnaires
Questionnaire is useful because, by being pre-planned, the
students ensure that both questionnaire and respondent have something
to say to each other. Students can design questionnaire on any topic
that is appropriate. As they do so the teacher can act as a resource,
helping them in the design process. The results obtained from the basis
for written work, discussions, or prepared talks.
f. Simulation and Role play
Simulation and role play can be used to encourage general oral
fluency, or to train students for specific situations. Students can act out
simulation as them or take on the role of completely different character
and express thoughts and feelings as they doing in the real world.
Those activities can be used by teachers to teach speaking. Teachers
can choose an activity that related to the topic and objective of the
lesson. The teacher should consider the situation, condition of the
students and materials that will be taught. For example, the teacher can
use simulation and role play activities when the teacher teach
expressions. Teacher can ask the students to write some dialogues and
after that the students have to act them out in front of the class.
Teacher also can use some media such as script, pictures or perhaps
video in certain situation. These activities can be used to measure how
7. Types of Classroom Speaking Performance
Students are expected to carry out six categories to the oral production in the classroom ( Brown, 2001). The six categories as follows:
a. Imitative
In this category the students practice intonation or try to utter a certain vowel sound. Imitation of this is carried out not for the purpose of meaningful interaction but for focusing some particular element of language form.
b. Intensive
It includes any speaking performance that is design to practice some phonological or grammatical aspects language. Intensive speaking usually places students doing the task in pairs (group work), for example: reading aloud that includes reading paragraph, reading dialogue with partner in turn, reading information from chart, etc.
c. Responsive
Responsive performance includes interaction and test comprehension but in limited level of very short conversation, standard greeting and small talk, simple request and comments. It is short replies to teacher or student-initiated questions or comments. Those replies are usually sufficient and meaningful.
d. Transactional (dialogue)
e. Interpersonal (dialogue)
Interpersonal dialogue carried out more for the purpose of maintaining social relationships than for the transmission of facts and information. The forms of interpersonal speaking performance are interview, role play, discussions, conversations and games.
f. Extensive (monologue)
Finally, students at intermediate to advanced levels are called on to give extended monologues in the form of oral reports, summaries, or perhaps short speeches. Here the register is more formal and deliberative. These monologues can be planned or impromptu.
8. Teaching Speaking in Senior High School
Teaching speaking in Senior High School level is challenging activity. Teacher should know students’ characteristics in order to help the
teachers to help them. By knowing students’ characteristics will help the
Meanwhile, Harmer (2001: 40) states that adult learners are notable for a number of special characteristics:
a. They can engage with abstract thought.
b. They have a whole range of life experiences to draw on.
c. They have expectations about the learning process and may already
have their own set patterns of learning.
d. Adults tend to be more discipline than some teenagers and crucially, they are often prepared to struggle on despite boredom.
e. They come into classroom with a rich range of experiences which allow teachers to use a wide range of activities with them.
f. Unlike young children and teenagers, they often have a clear understanding of why they want to get out of it.
The important thing that should be considered is that the teachers have to involve the students in more communicative speaking activities. Teachers also must encourage their students to use their own experience in the learning process, it will students be able to understand the material deeply.
9. Speaking Assessment
a. Definition of Assessment
It is important for the teacher to know the students’ ability in
making decisions in all aspects of instruction. Assessment includes both quantitative descriptions (measurement e.g. test score) and qualitative description (non-measurement e.g. anecdotal records of behavior) of performance. The process of assessment typically requires a higher level of analysis than merely measuring task performance. Educational assessment of students usually involves a series of steps designed to answer specific questions (Cole &Chan , 1994 : 445).
b. Aspects for speaking assessment
In testing speaking proficiency, or oral skills of second language learning, five components are emphasized, those can be the determiner of students’ quality of their speaking competence. These
include: fluency, grammar, comprehension, vocabulary, and pronunciation (Nurgiyantoro, 2001: 284-287).
c. Types of Speaking Assessment
pronunciation. In scoring the students’ speaking performance the teacher should make scale for every element, the scale can be proposed from the bad score to the good score to represent the students’ ability in speaking English and consult the score to the weighting table to be calculated as the final score of the students’ speaking performance.
B. Three-Step Interview
1. The Definition of Three-Step Interview
Three-Step interview is a teaching technique where the students work in a group to share their idea. Bennet (2001 : 167-168) says that Three-step interview is a way which encourages students to share their thinking, ask questions, and take notes. It works with three students per group, but it can be modified for groups of four. Furthermore, Nolinske, 1997 et al.also states that Three-step interview is a team building exercise that reinforces information learned during listening to teachers or reading texts. Three-step interview includes three basic steps. Step 1, teacher shares issues to encourage the students’ opinion, and then propose some questions for the students in classroom.Step 2, students work in pair or with group of three students and play a role as interviewer and resource.Step 3,after the first interview section is well done, then they change their roles.
have little prior knowledge about the topic, they will gain information as they interview one another.
2. The purpose of Three-Step Interview
Three-step interview as a technique in language learning has a purpose. The purpose is that gathering students in a conversation for analysis purpose and new information synthesis (Kagan, 1994 in Sejnost 2009). Furthermore, Millis et al,.(1998) as cited in Barkley, et al,.(2014) says that Three-step interview creates the opportunity for students to network and improve specific communication skills, draws out students’
experience and knowledge from outside of class. This technique gives the same opportunities tio the students, every students will be able to feel when they are in the position as interviewer, interviewee and reporter. Students in the position of interviewer, they have to be able to create some questions dealt with the topic. They should know and use the structure of question sentences, for e.g. they have to be able to use WH Questions and pronoun. While the students in interviewee position must have good knowledge related to the topic as a basic to answer the questions. and the students as being reporter, they have note what are the interviewee saying correctly, they also have to be able to make a conclusion of the interviewee’s statements and report it to other students in form of reported
In short, three-step interview is a strategy for teaching students’ communication skills, digging up their knowledge and giving opportunity to the students to work together in group for building their confidence.
3. Strategies in Three-Step Interview
There is a guidance ideas in implementing Three-step interview technique, they are(Bennet, 2001: 1) :
a. Questioning
Before students start using this technique, the teachers should help them to explore the reporter’s questions types and the points of the
interview they should ask.
b. Reinforcing the need to “ take time”
Taking time to think what topic they talk about and how to answer a question during an interview.
c. Using recording sheet
These sheets are used by the students who stand as the “reporter”.
d. Determining the length of time for each interview
The teacher may have to suit the length of time for the interviews by looking at their differences in experience of using this cooperative learning strategy.
4. Implementing of Three-Step Interview
1. First, the teacher develops an interview focus question for the students. Example of focus questionsfrom the interviewer to the resource, are the following (Kagan, 1994):
a. What do you know about this topic?
b. What experiences have you had with the topic?
c. Look at the cover of this book, the pictures, the table of contents, and the index. What do you think this bookwill be about?
d. As you read the subheadings of the chapter, what do you think we will be learning about?
e. What question do you now have about this topic? 2. Place students into groups of three.
3. Assign each student a letter and a role. Example: A = Interviewer, B = Interviewee, C = Reporter.
4. Rotate roles after each interview.
5. Have students do a Round Robin and share the key information they recorded when they were person ‘C’.
When the groups have discussed and compared their findings, they are ready to read or research the new topic they will study.
5. The Advantages of Three-Step Interview
a. Three-step interview creates simultaneous accountability. The students learn together in a group and they have responsibility to bring their own group successful in achieving the goal of the lessons.
b. Students share and apply different questioning strategies.The students can make questions by their own ideas and point of view toward the topic, it is enable their questions will be different.
c. Students can be introduced to different taxonomies of thinking to extend their ability to use different levels of questioning and thinking. d. Three-step interview is effective for reinforcing virtually any topic (
Nolinske, et al,1997:35).
e. Three-step interview can give an opportunity to express own opinion, develop active listening skills, and understand others’ point of
view(Nolinske, et al.,1997: 35).
f. Three-step interview allows learners to consider the problem from different aspects(Nolinske, et al.,1997:35).
6. Relevant Study of Three-Step Interview
Three-step interview is one of cooperative learning strategies that can be implemented as a teaching technique. This technique is effective to improve students’ speaking competence. Some studies had proved the
There-step interview also influenced students’ responses in learning speaking.Permanasari(2014)says that through this technique the students’ responses in learning speaking was good. The students enjoyed
the activities using three-step interview technique in class by having a discussion, sharing and cooperating well. The students improvement was proved by their speaking test result which increased from test to test.
In addition, Saifuddin (2013)states that three-step interview technique could stimulate students to express their ideas, made them confident when they speaking English. The students also could enrich their vocabulary and improve their pronunciation. Besides that, this technique trained the students to produce English sentences in a text using appropriate vocabulary and grammar.
C. Basic Assumption
This technique can be an interesting way of learning speaking for the students. So the students’ speaking ability will improve. It is expected, in the
result of the study that the experimental class which is taught by using three-step interview technique will get better result than the control class in their speaking ability.
D. Hypothesis
