skripsi bahasa inggris

1. perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id
1
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Nowadays, English plays a prominent role in the world, where most people
use it as a means of communication. Meanwhile, in Indonesia, English is
considered as a foreign language (EFL). It has been introduced to educational
institutions as an obligatory subject learnt from elementary school up to university
level. It is one of the subjects tested in the final examination.
Learning foreign language, especially English is always related to ability of
mastering four skills. They are listening, speaking, reading and writing. Speaking
is one of the important and essential skills that must be practiced to communicate
orally. People who have ability in speaking will be better in sending and receiving
information or message to another. Learning speaking is habit formation that
needs practicing as often as possible.
SMA Negeri 5 Surakarta is a school where the writer did the observation.
The teacher there actually is really competent in teaching English. But she seldom
develops methods and techniques in teaching and learning process to increase the
because of the limited time of achieving all learning indicators.
The students actually are also really cooperative and have the ability and
willingness to master English enough. But, one of the weaknesses which they
have in learning English, according to the writer's observation, is speaking ability.
Their English speaking ability is still low. The causes of the weaknesses in
speaking can be considered by many factors. They may come from the students,
the teacher, and the method and technique used.
From the students their speaking problem can be traced from the way
they do not know how to start the idea when they have to speak because they feel
shy to express their ideas in English. They seem to be doubtful and nervous to

2. perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id
2
speak English. They are afraid of being laughed by others so that they usually
have no courage to speak in front of the class and also because they lack chance to
express their ability. The chance of speaking is usually dominated by the teacher
or certain students. Occasionally, when they want to try to speak, they think twice
because of their anxiety in making mistakes in grammar and pronunciation.
Actually it is also because they never use English in their daily communication
either inside or moreover outside the classroom. It influences their fluency in
speaking English. And the most prominent problem is their limited vocabulary.
Secondly, the teacher tends to teach monotonously. The teacher does not
apply various teaching techniques. She always uses presentation of learning
materials to evaluate the es her
teaching on written test which is held in the mid or at the end of the semester,
even in the final exam. There is no special time allocated to evaluate the students'
speaking skill at the end of the semester or in the final exam. All of them make the
teacher tends to ignore teaching speaking communicatively.
The teacher actually becomes a crucial factor to develop students' skills,
especially in English speaking skill. Of course, he/she is a person who is actually
responsible for educating students through the teaching and learning process. In
observing the learning situation, the teacher is required to design the teaching
technique that will make them easy to follow and understand the lessons given.
Teaching and learning process usually uses technique which is centered to
the teacher while the students are just silent to listen the teache
They will not be active in that teaching and learning process. The teacher-centered
activity places the teacher as the only learning source who knows everything. It is
proved when the lesson starts, the students seem bored and just chatting with their
friends. It may also be caused by the brainstorming that does not provoke
enthusiasm. There are several method and techniques which are
frequently used by the teacher to teach speaking to overcome these problems. In
, there are two techniques which are appropriate to solve the

3. perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id
3
characteristics of the students of SMA N 5 Surakarta for developing
their speaking skill. They are Think-Pair-Share and Critical Debate.
Think-Pair-Share is a technique in which students think individually for a
few minutes, and then discuss and compare their responses with a partner before
sharing with the entire class. It helps them to generate ideas and encourage them
to speak in small group discussion before they do speech in front of the
classroom. It is particularly useful for preparing them to participate more fully and
effectively in whole class discussions.
Critical Debate is a technique for developing critical thinking skills and
encouraging students to challenge their existing assumption (Barkley, Cross &
Major, 2005). The students have to assume and argue the side of an issue that is in
opposition to their personal views. All the students must be ready to be involved
in this activity because in this technique, they have to develop arguments and
determine evidence that support the side of the issue then deliver it when debating
with their opponent.
For improving the Think-
Pair-Share and Critical Debate Techniques will encourage both teacher and
active and creative teaching and learning process in
order to achieve an improvement in English learning activities.
The target of this research is the improvement of the students' speaking skill,
which is indicated by their speaking score that reaches at least 70.00 as the
minimal score. By using Think-Pair-Share and Critical Debate Techniques, the
writer is sure that all the problems will be overcome.
Based on the problem identification above, in this research the writer would
like to conduct a research entitled "Implementing Think-Pair-Share and Critical
Debate Techniques
Research at the Second Grade of SMA N 5 Surakarta in the Academic Year
2012/2013).

4. perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id
4
B. Limitation of the Study
This research has broader scope and it is impossible for the writer to
handle all of the problems. Therefore, the writer limits the scope of the research
by focusing on Think-Pair-Share and Critical Debate Techniques used in teaching
English speaking to the students of social class of second grade. The subject of the
research is limited to English teacher and the second grade students of SMA N 5
Surakarta in the academic year 2012/2013.
C. Problem Formulation
Based on the background of the study, the writer wants to find out whether
using Think-Pair-Share and Critical Debate Techniques can improve the students'
English speaking skill. The problems are formulated as follows:
1. Do the use of Think-Pair-Share and Critical Debate Techniques improve the
students' speaking skill?
2. How is the teaching-learning process when Think-Pair-Share and Critical
Debate Techniques are applied in the classroom?
D. The Objectives of the Study
The success of the teaching-learning process in the language classroom
depends on the process of interaction between the teacher and the students and
among the students. The degree of the interaction in the classroom is influenced
by certain factors such as the materials taught, the methods of teaching used and
the atmosphere of the class that motivates the students to learn. Therefore, the
objectives of the study are:
1. To find out whether the use of Think-Pair-Share and Critical Debate
Techniques improve the students' speaking skill or not.

5. perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id
5
2. To find out how the teaching-learning process is when Think-Pair-Share and
Critical Debate Techniques are applied in the classroom.
E. The Benefits of the Study
The result of the study is expected to be able to give benefits to the students,
the teachers and the other researchers.
1. For students
a. The students' speaking skill will increase.
b. The students will not feel bored to join the learning activity.
c. The students are motivated to speak.
2. For teachers
a. The teachers will find a new approach which is appropriate for teaching
speaking.
b. The teachers will develop their creativity to improve their teaching and
learning process.
3. For other researchers
a. Think-Pair-Share and Critical Debate Techniques probably will be used as
a reference for those who want to conduct a research in English teaching
process, especially in improving the students' speaking skill.
b. Think-Pair-Share and Critical Debate can be used as an input in English
teaching and learning process.