CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

In this chapter provides a brief description of whole contents of the research

including background, research questions, objectives of the research, significance

of the research, scope and limitation, definition of key terms.

A. Background of The Research

Speaking is an activity used by someone to communicate with other. It takes

place everywhere and has become part of our daily activities. People interact and

use language to express their ideas, feeling and thought. People also share

information to other through communication. In some situations, speaking is used

to give instructions to someone.

There are many definitions of speaking according to experts. Harmer

(2007:284) stated that speaking is the ability to speak fluently and presupposes not

only knowledge of language features, but also the ability to process information

and language. meanwhile, Quianthy (1990:7) defined speaking as the process of

transmitting ideas and information orally in variety of situations.

According to Thornbury (2005:1), speaking is very important for daily life and

he recommend learning and mastering more than one language, especially English

as an international language. So, mastering speaking is one of students’ efforts to

prepare them to follow international relationship around the world in the next day.

In Indonesia, English is considered as the first foreign language and taught

formally from elementary school up to the university level in the form of four skills,

listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The four language skills of listening,

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speaking, reading, and writing are all interconnected. Proficiency in each skill is

necessary to become a well-rounded communicator, but the ability to speak

skillfully provides the speaker with several distinct advantages. The capacity to put

words together in meaningful way to reflect thoughts, opinions, and feelings

provides the speaker with these important advantages, such as ; (1) ability to inform,

persuade, and direct, (2) ability to stand out from the rest, (3) ability to benefit

derivatively, and (4) career enhancement. According to Rosamond Mitchell and

Florence Myles (2004 : 06) stated that second language learning in an immensely

complex phenomenon. Millions of human beings have experience of SLL, some of

them have a good practical understanding of the activities that help them to learn

but this practical experience, and the commonsense knowledge which it leads to,

are clearly not enough to help us understand fully how the process happens.

According to Achmad (2012:1), teaching speaking is very challenging for

English teachers in non-English speaking countries such as Indonesia. It is because

; (1) their first languages (L1) do not support to speak English as second language,

(2) the students feel shy and awkward, (3) their environment discourages them to

speak, and (4) the method of teaching can be monotonous so that the students are

not motivated to speak. For the English learners in Indonesia, mastering speaking

is a challenging since it needs a huge powerful effort.

Problems also coming from the English teacher which make the students feel

difficulty in teaching learning process, The problem which comes from the low of

students’ proficiency and also comes from themselves (their teaching speaking

ability). However, reminding that speaking skill is very important, especially for
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the students, even though it will be challenging, the teacher should set up the

speaking class as interesting as possible which not only enhances the students’

participation in speaking but also in improving their speaking skill.

Based on the preliminary study in SMKN 2 Tarakan through interview with

English teacher, many students still could not express their ideas or speak in actual

situation. It is caused by many factors including the limited students’ vocabularies

and knowledge of grammar, even the method may be used by the teacher in teaching

English. The other factor that may influence the students speaking ability is the lack

of practicing English in their daily life.

Considering the problems above, the researcher wanted to apply debate as one

of ways to conduct the students’ speaking skill. Debate is a formal method of

interactive and representational argument aimed at persuading judges and audience.

It is a rhetoric practice in which different strategies of logic building as well as

delivery are used to pull in the target audience to a conclusion on a controversial

issue. Othman (2013:1506) stated: That debate has the potential to improve

speaking ability, since the activity requires a lot of speaking practices and verbal

discussions among debaters.

Furthermore, Alasmari & Ahmed (2012;147) study showed that debate could

be conducted in EFL classes. The experts also examined utilities of the modules

and exhibited how students while practicing debate can improve their English

language. Their study presented the rationable behind using debate in EFL classes

and proposes a few modules of debating which, if practiced properly, will make
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students confident to use English language in academic, social and professional

settings.

Scott (2008:39) found that from the result of conducting debate, the students

believed that the debates helped them understand the topic better, learn new

knowledge, and gain an understanding of the debate process. The researcher also

added that students thought that debates increased their critical thinking. As a

solution to improve students’ speaking skill the researcher wanted to implement

debate in teaching speaking skill for eleventh grade students of SMKN 2 Tarakan in

the first semester of academic year 2018/2019

B. Problem Statement of the Research

The researcher would like to formulate Problem Statement of the Research

the as follow:

can the use of debate technique improve the students English speaking skill

at leventh grade students of SMKN 2 Tarakan ?

C. Objectives of Research

To find out the difference of the students’ speaking skill in one class before and

after being taught using debate as a technique.

D. Scope and Limitation

It is necessary for the researcher to limit the study. It is intended to avoid a

big problem area and helped the researcher to focus on the research. In the reference

to the background of the problem and identification of the problem, this research

would focus on improving students’ English speaking skills by using debate

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technique. The reason why the researcher chose debate because it required a lot of

oral performance which can help the students to improve students speaking ability.

The researcher believed that it would give them more opportunities to practice

speaking in the class. In light of view, the study is conducted by focusing on

improving the English speaking skill at eleventh grade students of SMKN 2

Tarakan by using pre-experimental research design.

E. Significance of Research

The findings of the research may have two significances, that are, theoretical

and practical as elaborated in the following section:

1. Theoretically

The result of this research is expected to support and clarify the previous

theories and reference about debate as a technique for the further research.

2. Practically

This finding may give information that can be used as consideration for

English teacher. The researcher hopes that debate technique is more effective way

to improve the students’ speaking skill.

F. Definition of the Key Term

In order to avoid misunderstanding, the following terms are defined as follow:

1. Speaking

Speaking is the productive oral skill. It consists of producing systematic

verbal utterances to convey meaning.

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2. Debate

Debate as the process of presenting idea or opinion which two opposing

parties try to defend their ideas or opinions.