Students’ Strategies to Overcome Speaking Problems in the Conversation Class as an Intra-curricular Program at SMA Negeri 8 Malang
| Main Author: | Yuliyastutik Yuliyastutik; The Department of English Language, Faculty of Letters, State University of Malang. Advisors: (1) Drs. Murdibjono, M.A. (2) Dra. Sri Andreani, M.Ed. Pd |
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| Format: | PeerReviewed application/msword |
| Bahasa: | eng |
| Terbitan: |
, 2009
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: |
http://karya-ilmiah.um.ac.id/index.php/sastra-inggris/article/view/577 |
Daftar Isi:
- English is taught as an integrated subject to develop the students’ language competences. It is learnt by the students in order to be utilized in communication. The ability to communicate, including the ability to speak in English is important because it enables the students to interact with others. To increase the speaking ability, the students should practice it reguarly. Therefore, many schools conduct an extra-curricular activity as elective program to give the students more opportunities to improve their speaking ability. However, the students who attend the elective program are those who are interested in increasing their proficiency in speaking and are good enough in it. Thus, another kind of English program, called English Conversation class, is conducted as an intra-curricular activity. Since the program is compulsory, all the students are required to join it. One of the schools which have applied this program is SMA Negeri 8 Malang. This school has conducted this kind of program since 1997. In the English conversation class, the students must speak English. Unfortunately, they are not used to speaking English in their daily life. Hence, they have some difficulties in delivering their ideas. To minimize the problems, the students invent some communication strategies. This present study aimed at describing the students’ problems in speaking and the strategies they used to overcome the problems. The subjects of this study were students of the eleventh grade since the conversation class is compulsory for the eleventh grade only. The data were collected through direct observation, field notes, a questionnaire, and interviews concerning the students’ problems and strategies in speaking English. This study is a descriptive qualitative study because it describes facts dealing with the process of situations and the course of events happening in natural settings. The findings of study show that the problems which occured in the conversation class were caused by three factors: lack of support, lack of motivation and peer pressure. The problems included worrying about others’ responses, using Indonesia rather than English, having inadequate English vocabulary, being unable to pronounce well what they mean, focusing more on correct function and structure, being timid or less confident of speaking English. Of all the problems, lack of support was considered as the main reason for their speaking problem. Lack of motivation is the next reason, and peer pressure is the last reason for their speaking problems. iii The findings show that to cope with the speaking problems, the students employed eight communication strategies: avoiding communication, adjusting the message, paraphrasing, using approximation, creating new words, switching to the native language, using non-linguistic resources, and seeking help. Among these strategies, switching to the native language and seeking help occurred most frequently in the class. Based on the findings of this study, the research, the researcher suggests that the students can adopt and apply communication strategies identified in this study to handle their speaking problems. For the teacher, it is suggested that they help students to minimize their speaking problems and introduce other strategies to the students to overcome the problems. The last suggestion is for other researchers. It is suggested that they make in-depth investigation about the students’ problems and strategies in dealing with the problems which are not mentioned in this study.