Proposer : Devi Rufiana (A1B008016), English Study Program, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, University of Bengkulu.

Title : Improving Students’ Speaking Ability by Using Cue Card Technique at 1st Grade of SMAN 4 Bengkulu

1. BackgroundIn the international relationship, speaking is very important to be able to

participate in the wider world of work. Speaking is measured in terms of the ability to carry out English conversation well. This reality makes teachers and parents think that speaking ability should be mastered by their students and children.

In learning speaking, students often find some problems. Based on data of researcher speaking observation in 2nd grade of SMAN 4 Kota Bengkulu, the problem frequently found is that their native language causes them difficult to use the foreign language. Other reason is because of motivation lack to practice the foreign language in daily conversation. They are also too shy and afraid to take part in the conversation. SMAN 4 Kota Bengkulu has only 18% of students who got highest score in speaking and the rest are low.

Teacher should be able to teach English well based on the curriculum. The emphasis is not only in linguistic competence but also on develop student’s communicative ability. In order to develop the communicative ability of students, teacher should be able to create a good way in teaching the target language more interest and fun. But it is still focused on the aim of learning it self.

Cue card is introduced as one of the teaching media. Cue card is card with words or picture on, which are used to encourage the students to respond (Harmer, 2001:134). Cue card is interesting due to its simplicity and attractiveness. Besides inexpensive, the process of making it is not complicated. A teacher, sometimes, needs creativity to make the cards more attractive. Cue card as the modification of picture has many advantages, one of which is that it is clearly visible. Thus, when students are asked to describe something/someone in detail, cue cards can help them to produce the description easily.

For the reasons above, the researcher wants to find out what extent can Cue Card technique improve the students’ speaking ability at 2nd grade of SMAN 4 Bengkulu? And what factors influence the students’ speaking ability at 2nd grade of SMAN 4 Bengkulu?

The purposes of this study are first, to explain whether Cue Card technique can improve the students’ speaking ability at 2nd grade of SMAN 4 Bengkulu and second, to explain what factors influence the students’ speaking ability at 2nd grade of SMAN 4 Bengkulu.

2. DesignThe research will use classroom action research. Classroom action research is

research that is done by a person (teacher) which aims to improve teaching and learning process in his/her classroom (Kemmis and McTaggart, 1988:6, as cited in Riana, 2007, thesis). Classroom action research capitalizes to students as object but the researcher is also involved as teacher. Both teacher and student will collaborative together in the classroom. There are some cycles that will be done by the researcher. Every cycle consist of two meetings. Then, every cycle consists of planning, acting, observing, and reflecting.

3. Participants

The participants of this research are the students at 2nd grade of SMAN 4 Bengkulu, class XI IS 3. The number of the students are 36, consists of 15 females and 21 males. Location of this research is at 2nd grade of SMAN 4 Bengkulu; class XI IS 3, Timur Indah, Bengkulu.

4. Instrument

The instruments that will be used in this study are test, observation, fieldnotes, and interview. First is test, the researcher will make a speaking test to the students at 2nd grade of SMAN 4 Bengkulu. The test divided into pre-test and post-test. It will help the researcher to see ability of students in speaking. By this test, the researcher can get the data in the form of score or marks. Second is observation, this instrument will be making in checklist form that contains of information about how they learned speaking in class, and respond of them about it. Third is Fieldnotes, this instrument containing of data that can not be finding in either test or observation, such as cheating. Fourth is Interview, this instrument contains of some questions from the researcher and simply answers from the students. The data will be a recorder or written answer or statement from the students.

5. Technique of Analyzing the DataThe data analysis will be taken from data collection, quantitative and

qualitative. Quantitative data is used to describe the counted or measured of data, while qualitative is used to describe data which are not ready to be counted measured.Table 1. Percentage of students’ speaking ability.

No Percentage Ranges Category1 80-100 Excellent2 60-79 Good3 50-69 Poor4 0-59 Very Poor

Data analysis technique means that the activities of utilizing the data so that the researcher can answer the study problem. The data will be used to justify or support study objective so that the people or reviewer are convinced or find that study objective are valid, reliable, and logical and therefore they can be believed to be true at least for that occasion (Safnil, 2010: p. 74). In the process of, the researcher will be cooperated with the collaborator (teacher).

6. ReferencesBudiastuti, Riana Eka. 2007. The use of cue cards in teaching spoken descriptive text.

Semarang. Thesis. p. 26.Harmer, J. 2001. the Practice of English Language Teaching (rev. ed).

London:LongmanSafnil. (2010). English Language Teaching Research. English Department, FKIP –

Bengkulu University. p. 42.