CHAPTER IINTRODUCTION1.1. Background of the ProblemLanguage is the most significant possession of human being to do communication in conveying and sharing idea, feeling, emotion, and information to people both in spoken and written forms. Language has an important role in everyday life interactions. Nowadays, in global era, English is used as international language for business, tourism, political and international relationship.Related to the fact above, Broughton (2003) states that English is an international language and most people in the world use this language. It is the most broadly studied as foreign language in the world. This fact can also be seen in Indonesia. English is learnt widely either for general or specific purpose in formal as well as information and education from the elementary school up to junior and senior high school as well as universities or colleges.Richard (2008) states that a large percentage of the worlds language learners study English in order to develop proficiency in speaking. This is caused by the functions of speaking that cover many aspects of human interaction, such as involved expressing ideas and opinions, expressing a wish or a desire to do something, negotiating, solving a particular problem, establishing and building social relationship and friendships, maintaining business or other professional reasons. Those are just a few reasons why people may wish to speak, and then it seems fair to assume that speaking skills play a large part in this overall competence. Furthermore, Harmer (2005) drawn that one of communicative activities in English language teaching (ELT) is simulation. By applying simulation in ELT classroom, the students are given an opportunity to practice communicating in different social context and in different social roles. The students are given more chances for practicing their English skills, particularly their English speaking by carrying out the conversation in meaningful contexts and functionally situations that commonly occurred in their daily activities.Since the speaking is an essential to improve, the researcher thinks that it is necessary for the teacher to find out the applicable technique in order to create a situation which leads the students to consider that learning is for fun. From a lot of methods of teaching speaking, the researcher is interested in applying the simulation to improve the students` ability in speaking skill. Therefore, in accordance with the above facts, the researcher is highly motivated to find out the effectiveness of simulation in improving the students` speaking mastery.

1.2. Setting of the ProblemBased on teachers experience along teaching at tenth grade students of SMK 1 Muhammadiyah, there are some problem appearing during learning and teaching process, they are:1. Some of the students are not able to speak confidently2. Some of the students are afraid of speaking English3. Some of the students are not able to pronounce English accurately.4. Some of the students are not able to speak fluently.

1.3. Limitation of the ProblemIn relation to problems above, so teacher intends to apply another strategy hopefully will improve students speaking skill at the tenth grade students of SMK 1 Muhammadiyah Pekanbaru by using simulation.

1.4. The Formulation of the ProblemConcerning the review of related literature and the conceptual framework the hypothesis of this research are formulated as follows: (1) there is a significant improvement of the students achievement in speaking taught by using simulation, (2) the students are interested to speak English through simulation.

1.5. The General objectives of the ResearchThe general objective of the study is certainly intended to answer and solve the research question which has been stated before. This thesis also has its purpose. In line with the research question stated above, the objectives of this research are as follows: to find out how far the use of simulation improve the students speaking skills at the tenth grade students of SMK 1 Muhammadiyah Pekanbaru.

1.6. The Needs of the ResearchThe result of the research are generally needed to be: (1) the source of information to improve the teaching techniques in encouraging students to speak English, (2) the useful information for teachers, particularly the English teachers at SMK to develop their speaking class activities, so their activities become more effectively, communicatively and functionally, (3) the source of information for teachers or other researcher who want to have further study on speaking activities.

1.7. The Definition of Key Terms UsedThere are some terms, which are define operationally so as to avoid misunderstanding on the part of the readers, that is, the speaking skill, Simulation, and the students interest at tenth grade of SMK 1 Muhammadiyah Pekanbaru.1. Speaking skill is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing, receiving and processing information (Brown, 2001: 26). It is form and meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs, including the participant themselves, their collective experiences, the physical environment , and the purpose for speaking. It is often spontaneous, open-ended, and evolving. However, speech is not always unpredictable. Therefore, in line with this study the term `speaking skill` refers to the skill of the students in producing, receiving and processing information orally after they are taught through Simulation.2. Simulation is one of oral communicative activities that used as the teaching technique in improving the students speaking skills. By applying simulation in speaking class, the students carry out conversations in meaningful and functional context, and performing how to use English in the real situation.The students interest is the aspect that enables students to be active in speaking English. By simulating the teaching materials, the students interest are hope to be improve, because they believe that the activities will be useful and matches with the situation when they get the job training or the world of work after graduated.

REFERENCES

Broughton, Geoffrey. 2003. Teaching English as a Foreign Language. London: Franchise-Library University.Brown. H. Douglas. 2001. Teaching by Principle: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy. New York: Longman Harmer, Jeremy. 2005. The Practice of English Language Teaching. New York: Longman.Richards, J.C. 2008.Teaching Listening and Speaking. United Kingdom: Cambridge University PressSchollaert, Rudy. 2000 Effective staff Development: An Evaluation Manual. Belgium: The Author and Grant Publisher

AN ACTION RESEACH IN IMPROVING SPEAKING SKILL THROUGH SIMULATION AS THE COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES AT TENTH GRADE STUDENT OF SMK 1 MUHAMMADIYAH PEKANBARUIN ACADEMIC YEAR 2014/2015

DAMALIS

ENGLISH POSTGRADUATE PROGRAMSTATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY OF SULTAN SYARIF KASIM RIAU2015RESEARCH ON ELT IIACTION RESEACH

INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENTDAMALIS

ENGLISH POSTGRADUATE PROGRAMSTATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY OF SULTAN SYARIF KASIM RIAU2015

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