Improving Students’ Speaking Skills through Drama Teaching Technique: A Classroom Action Research at a Junior High School in Pontianak

Abstract

This research was conducted because the ninth-grade students of SMP Negeri 5 Pontianak experienced difficulties in speaking English, particularly in pronunciation, fluency and vocabulary. Therefore, this research aimed to improve the speaking skills through Drama Teaching Technique. The researcher applied Classroom Action Research (CAR), which was conducted in two cycles. The first cycle consisted of three meetings, while the second cycle consisted of two meetings. Each cycle involved four stages, namely planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. The subjects of this research were 30 students of class IX F at SMP Negeri 5 Pontianak. The researcher used observation checklists, field notes, and speaking performance tests as the tools of data collection. The results of the research showed that Drama Teaching Technique improved the students’ speaking skills. The students’ mean score increased from 65.52 in Cycle 1 to 78.42 in Cycle 2. In addition, the students showed more active participation, greater confidence, and higher enthusiasm during the teaching and learning process. Therefore, these findings indicate that the Drama Teaching Technique was considered as a way to improve students’ speaking skills of ninth-grade students of SMP Negeri 5 Pontianak.