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8/13/2019 Chapter i Dawet

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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents background of the research, problem of the research,

object of the research, operational of the definition, significance of the research,

and scope of the research.

1.1Background of the ResearchLanguage is very important for our daily life. English is the one of

language that is used as international language. In Indonesia, English has been

learnt as a foreign language which is available from the junior high school up to

university in all departments. The main skills of the language consist of four

language skills; they are listening, speaking, reading and writing. The other

important things in language are including the three language components;

pronunciation, vocabulary, and structure. In junior high school, English is learnt

as a compulsory subject which becomes one of requirements of the students

graduation on National examination.

In the 2006 English Competence Based Curriculum it is stated that one of

the objectives of learning English is to develop the communication competency,

both spoken and written form of language. This means that speaking is very

important skill in studying language because it is used to express idea, feeling, or

make a communication. Speaking is so much a part of daily life that we take it for

granted (Thornbury, 2005:1). Many students are still unable to use target language


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for communication purpose and most of them also have the opinion that English

speaking is difficult to be learnt.

Based on the interview with the English teacher in SMP Muhammadiyah 6

Wuluhan, it was found that actually the seventh grade students were not interested

to speak in the class. It was identified that the students still had some problems

dealing with speaking English in the class. They had problems in courage, self-

reliance, and sentence on the speaking ability. Besides they also have a problem

dealing with the motivation and concentration in communication orally. Those

things happened because they did not have adequate knowledge of English, lack

of background knowledge, lack of vocabulary, and they also lacked of interest in

speaking English so they found difficulties in learning speaking.

To overcome the students speaking ability problem, the English teacher

had done the great effort. She had used the English textbook and students

worksheet (LKS) in teaching speaking, but the result was still unsatisfactory. For

the vast majority of children, no one provides any instruction on how to speak the

language (Yule, 2006:154). Therefore, giving various materials was not the only

way to overcome the problem, but an appropriate technique for teaching reading

was also required.

Related to the problem above, the researcher tried to conduct a classroom

action research using Problem Based Learning (PBL). Problem based learning

gives opportunities to examine and try out what they have already known; to

discover what they need to learn; to develop the people skills they need for

improving their performance in a team. By presenting the students with real-life

situations, it enhances the problem solving skills of the students as opposed to


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providing only theoretical knowledge. Learning, therefore, goes beyond bookish

knowledge and helps the students face and see through practical problems.

According to Hmelo (1997 : 236) PBL helps students become active learners

because it situates learning in realworld problems and makes students

responsible for their learning. Allowing the students to use prior knowledge to

solve a new problem, it ensures deeper understanding. According to researches,

learning is enhanced when new information is presented through a meaningful

context and comes in conflict with the existing knowledge. Hence the learning in

realworld make the student most active and responsible. PBL demands a

collaborative approach towards problem solving, thus, creating an environment in

which the students learn to see various approaches to solve one problem through

group interactions. This makes the team responsible for each other and not just for

one's own self. The objective is to know that problem based learning as teaching

technique can make the students interested with the lesson and make them brave

to speak.

Based on the above discussion, a research entitled:Improving Students

Speaking Ability by Using Problem Based Learning to Students at SMP

Muhammadiyah 6 Wuluhan in the Academic Year 2013/2014 is conducted to

know whether Problem Based Learning will be successful in improving the

students speaking ability.

1.2Problem of the ResearchBased on the background of the study above, the problems will be

formulated as follows:


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How can the use of Problem Based Learning improve the seventh grade students

speaking ability at SMP Muhammadiyah 6 Wuluhan in the 2013/2014 academic

year?

1.3Objective of the ResearchBased on the problems of the research, the objectives of the research can be

formulated as follows:

To know how the use of Problem Based Learning can improve of the seventh

grade students speaking ability at SMP Muhammadiyah 6 Wuluhan in the

2013/2014 academic year.

1.4Operational Definition of the ResearchThe operational definition of the terms is intended to avoid

misunderstanding of the concept used in the research. These are as follows:

1.4.1 Problem Based LearningProblem Based Learning (PBL) is an instructional method in which

students learn through facilitated problem solving. In PBL, student learning

centres on a complex problem that does not have a single correct answer to

identify what they need to learn in order to solve a problem. The Problem Based

Learning here functions to make students more active and responsible in speaking

English language.

1.4.2 Speaking AbilitySpeaking ability refers to studentsability to communicate in the learning

of the productive language skills by using his own words orally to transfer his or


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her ideas using the target language effectively and to convey a message orally by

identifying fluency also accuracy in grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation.

1.5Significance of the ResearchEvery research must have its own significance to know why this research

is made. This research is expected to have both theoretical and practical

significance as follows:

1.5.1 Theoretical SignificanceThe result of this research is useful for English teacher as reference to

encourage them to use Problem Based Learning in teaching speaking to improve

the studentsspeaking ability.

1.5.2 Practical Significance

The result of this research will be useful for the teachers and readers, in

order to use it in teaching learning process, to make the students more interested

in studying English. In addition, they can have new learning experience by using

Problem Based Learning in process of speaking that can help them to increase

their speaking ability.

1.6Scope of the ResearchThis research is intended to find out how Problem Based Learning can

improve students speaking ability. This research is conducted to seventh grade

students at SMP Muhammadiyah 6 Wuluhan in the 2013/2014 academic year.

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