CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
D. Objective and Benefits of the Study
2. Definition of Speaking Ability
There are many definition of speaking ability according to expert.
Carol a Capella states speaking ability is defined as consisting of abilities for use of particular types of lexico grammatical forms and illocutionary functions within a particular register, but the scoring of performance on a speaking test consists of a single rating based on a judgment of overall performance, the resulting performance data offer no means for testing the construct theory.12
Sari Louma defines speaking is also the most difficult language skill to assess reliably. A persons speaking ability is usually judged during a face-to-face interaction, in real time, between an interlocutor and a candidate. The assessor has to make instantaneous judgements about a range of aspects of what is being said, as it is being said.13
Therefore, Richard Young and Agnes Weiyun states that speaking ability in a second language is in fact a theoretically challenging undertaking. Before we can say what speaking ability is, we have to have
12Carol A Chapella, Language Learning and Language Teaching: English Language Learning and Technology (Amsterdam: Lowa State University, 2003), 155.
13Sari Louma, Assessing Speaking (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), ix-x.
an understanding of the properties of naturally occurring spoken language and of what it means for someone to speak a language better or worse than someone else.14
Based on the explanation above, the researcher conclude that speaking ability is special skill or competence that has to be mastered by students in an activity. The researcher would know the students’
speaking ability focused on their speaking fluency by measuring their fluency, grammar, vocabulary and comprehension. Hence, in order to be able to speak English fluently, the students must be mastering four components above.
a. The Characteristics of Speaking Ability
Students often think that the ability to speak a language is the product of language learning but speaking is also a crucial part of the language learning process. So, the teacher should teach students speaking strategies through the following characteristics of spoken language that can make oral performance easy as well as, in some cases, difficult. According to Brown, There are some characteristics of speaking, the explained that below15:
1) Clustering
14Richard Young and Agnes Weiyun He, Talking and Tasting: Discourse Approach to The Assesment of Oral Proficiency (Philadelphia: John Benjamin Publishing Company, 1998), 2.
15H. Douglas Brown, Teaching by Principles An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy Second Edition,(San Francisco:Longman, 2001) , 270-271
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Fluent speech is phrasal, not word by word. Learners can organize their output both cognitively and physically (in breath groups) through such clustering.
2) Redundancy
The speaker has an opportunity to make meaning clearer through the redundancy of language. Learners can capitalize on this feature of spoken language.
3) Reduced Forms
Contractions, elisions, reduced vowels, etc, all form special problems in teaching spoken english (see the section below Teaching pronouncation). Students who don’t learn colloquial contractions can sometimes develop a stilted, bookish quality of speaking that in turn stigmatizes them.
4) Performance Variables
One of the advantages of spoken language is that the process of thinking as speak allows you to manifest a certain number of performance hesitations, pauses, backtracking, and corrections. Learners can actually be taught how to pause hesitate.
5) Colloquial Language
Make sure your students are reasonable well acquainted with the words, idioms, and phrases of colloquial language and that they get practice in producing these forms.
6) Rate of delivery
Another salient characteristic of fluency is rate of delivery. One of the task in teaching spoken English is to help learners achieve an acceptable speed along with other attributes of fluency.
7) Stress, Rhythm and Intonation
This is the most important characteristic of English pronouncation ,as will be explined below. The stress timed of spoken English and its intonation patterns convey important messages.
8) Interaction
As noted in the previous section, learning to produce waves of language in a vacuum without interlocutors would rob speaking skill of its richest component the creativity of conversational negotiation.
Based on the characteristics of speaking above, the writer inferred that speaking has some characteristics that have to be understood. If all of characteristics above is completed, it will be producedspeaking well.
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b. The Measurement of Speaking Ability
To assess students’ speaking skill, the researcher a speaking rubric stated as follows:16
Table 2
Analytic Speaking Rubric
Aspect Category Indicators
Fluency
4 (excellent)
Generally natural delivery, only occasional halting when searhing for appropriate words/expressions.
3 (good)
The students hesitates and repeat himself at times but can generally maintain a flow of speech, although she/he may need an occasional prompt.
2 (adequate) Speech is slow and hesitant. Maintains speech in a passive manner and needs regular prompts.
1 (fair) The student speaks so little that no ‘fluent’
speech can be said to occur.
Pronunciation
4 (excellent)
Occasional errors of pronounciation a few inconsistencies of rhythm, intonation and pronunciation but comprehension is not impeded.
3 (good)
Rhythm, intonation and pronunciation require more careful listening; some errors of pronunciation which may occasionally lead to incomprehension.
2 (adequate) Comprehension suffers due to frequent errors in rhythm, intonation and pronunciation.
1 (fair) Words are unintelligible.
16 Cyril J. Weir, Language Testing and Validation, (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), 195-196.
Vocabulary
4 (excellent) Effective use of vocabulary for the task with fewinappropriacy.
3 (good) For the most part, effective use of vocabulary for the task with some examples of Inappropriacy.
2 (adequate) Limited use of vocabulary with frequent inappropriacies.
1 (fair) Inappropriate and inadequate vocabulary.
Grammatical accuracy
4 (excellent) Very few grammatical errors evident.
3 (good)
Some errors in use of sentence structures and grammatical forms but these do not interfere with comprehension.
2 (adequate) Speech is broken and distorted by frequent errors.
1 (fair) Unable to construct comprehensible sentences.
Interactional strategies
4 (excellent) Interacts effectively and readily participates and follows the discussion.
3 (good)
Use of interactive strategies is generally adequate but at times experiences some difficulty in maintaining interaction consistently.
2 (adequate) Interaction ineffective. Can seldom develop an interaction.
1 (fair) Understanding and interaction minimal.
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B. The Concept of Bilingualism