CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

Language is the most important means for communication among human

being. Using language, people can express their idea to one another. There are many

languages that used by the people around the world. Each nation or tribe has their

own language. And English is one of the language that used by the majority people in

the world.

This is why English has been taught in every level of school from elementary

to the university. Each level of the education institution teaches English on its grade.

Many parents put their children in to the English course to learn English more,

because they want their children to be able to speak English. By mastering English,

someone could reach his goal of life. English as an international language, is also

used formally in any ceremonies or other events. So it’s important to speak English

well and also the other skills.

In English subject, there are many skills that should be learned by the students

to master the four basics of language, the skills are: listening, reading, speaking, and

writing. Besides the four skills, they also have to master grammar properly.

Many students feel difficult in practicing speaking. They are not confident to

practice what they have learned in school. Based on the writer’s observation at the

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second grade of ………………….., the students are poor in English speaking skill.

When the writer asked them some questions about their self identity, some of them

cannot answer the questions correctly even some of them did not say anything, they

were just silent. The writer found that they are poor in pronouncing their words,

intonating their expressions, and they are less in mastering vocabulary. Therefore, the

students answered the questions unclear and there are major hesitations. Actually,

they have learned this lesson at their elementary school. Other case, the students were

shy in pronouncing the words because they are afraid to be laughed at by others.

According to the principle of ………….., 50% of students can achieve the

standard of English subject, which is decided in 60 on scale 10-100. And 50% others

can not reach it. This means that half of the student in ………………….. can not

learn English subject well.

The phenomenon happened because of some factors. The first factor is they

never practice to speak English formally and informally. The second factor is they are

afraid of making mistakes, both in the structuring and in the pronouncing the words,

so they will be laughed at by others. Moreover, it can make the students loose their

self-confidence. The last factor is because the teachers use unsuitable technique.

Today, many teachers still use traditional technique in teaching speaking. That

is the students read dialogues and then find the difficult words to get the meaning of

the dialogue. They are less in practice to speak English. One of the teacher’s reasons

that the time constraint and the class size.

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The writer concludes that the time constraint and the class size as the big

problems involved. According to the writer, the solution of the problem is a technique

where the students can practice their speaking skill. Because the most important

feature of a classroom, speaking activity is to provide an authentic opportunity for the

students to get individual meanings across and utilize every area of knowledge they

have in the second or foreign language.1 Group or pair work activity can solve the

time constraint and the class size problems.

There are many activities to make a fun activity in teaching speaking in the

classroom. Using pictures, cards, and other visual aid usually add a great joy to the

class. Language teacher may use them as meaningful teaching aids in order to attract

students’ attention and facilitate them to understand the lesson better. The use of

music or recorded conversation also can be a good idea. Music makes students feel

relaxed, and if it is well designed, music can be an interesting resource for listening

practice as well as recorded conversation of native speakers. In addition, it can be a

good model in teaching speaking.

In the audio lingual method language learners are equipped with the

knowledge and skill required for effective communication in a foreign language. The

language learners are also required to understand the foreign people whose language

they are learning and the culture of the foreign people. The language learners have to

1 Marianne Celce-Murcia and Elite Olshtain, Discourse and Context in Language Teaching,
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), pp. 176-177.
understand everyday life of the people, history of the people and their social life.2

In Audio Lingual Method, structures are presented initially and students drill

those structures until they have mastered them orally. This method provides variety

drills such as repetition, substitution (inflection), replacement, completion, expansion,

contradiction, transformation, combination (interrogation), formation (restoration),

question-and-answer, and pronunciation drills.

The writer assumes that by using Audio Lingual Method, learning English

would be a nice activity, especially in practicing speaking. One of those methods is

audio lingual method. This method tries to make the teacher more easily in teaching

speaking to their students. This method gave the teacher many options in teaching

English, especially in teaching speaking. Audio lingual method provides many

techniques in teaching English such as using dialog memorization by using role play

game, repeat drill, and so on.

According to the background having stated above, the writer decided to

conduct a research under the title “Improving the Students’ Speaking Skill Through

Audio Lingual Method ”.

B. Identification of the Problem

2 Bambang Setiadi, et.al, Tefl 1, Jakarta: Universitas Terbuka, 2007, p. 2.4

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Based on previous background, the writer would like to identify the problem,

as follows:

1. Why do students feel unconfident and shy in

speaking English?

2. Why are the students afraid of making mistakes in

pronouncing word or sentence?

3. What method can be applied in learning speaking?

4. How does Audio Lingual Method improve the

speaking ability of students?

5. What can teacher do to help students improve their

speaking ability?

C. Focus of the Research

In this research, the writer should focus the research on improving the

students’ speaking skill through audio lingual method at the second year students of

……………………..

D. Formulation of the Problem

After identifying the problem and then make the limitation of it, the writer

would formulate the problem as follow:

How to improve the speaking skill of the students by using audio lingual
method?

E. Benefits of the Study

By doing this research, the writer would like to hope that the result of this

study can give some benefits, mainly:

1. For the institution, in which this research was held

in ………………, this research will give an

alternative method in improving English, especially

in speaking.

2. For the writer herself, this research will give much

information about English especially in speaking

skill, which is an important skill that must be

practiced in order to be fluently in English.

3. For the students, this research will give a motivation

to learn English more easily.