THE USE OF PROJECT-BASED LEARNING TO IMPROVE THE SPEAKING SKILLS OF
GRADE XI STUDENTS OF SMA N 1 YOGYAKARTA IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR OF
2016/2017
E-Journal
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the
Attainment of Guru Degree in the Specialisation Program for Teaching as Profession
By:
Satrio Aji Pramono
15222299008
ENGLISH EDUCATION
SPECIALISATION PROGRAM FOR TEACHING AS PROFESSION
YOGYAKARTA STATE UNIVERSITY
2016
THE USE OF PROJECT-BASED LEARNING TO IMPROVE THE SPEAKING SKILLS OF
GRADE XI STUDENTS OF SMA N 1 YOGYAKARTA IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR OF
2016/2017
Satrio Aji Pramono, Margana
Yogyakarta State University
satriopower@yahoo.co.id margana@uny.ac.id
Abstract
The objective of this research was to improve the students’ speaking skills through
Project-based Learning at grade eleven of SMA N 1 Yogyakarta in the academic year of
2016/2017. This study is action research in nature. The members of the research were the
researcher, the collaborators, and the students of class XI MIA 2. The steps involved
planning, action and observation, and reflection. The data were qualitative in nature and
supported by quantitative data. The qualitative data were obtained by observing the
teaching-learning process, interviewing the students and the collaborators, holding
discussions with the collaborators, taking pictures, and recording the teaching-learning
process. The instruments used in this research were observation sheets, observation
checklist, and interview guidelines. The qualitative data that were in the forms of field notes
and interview transcripts were analyzed based on the qualitative analysis. Meanwhile, the
quantitative data that were in the forms of the students’ speaking scores from each cycle
were analyzed by comparing the means.
The actions implemented in this research were carrying out Project-based Learning, using
classroom English during the teaching-learning process, using interesting media, giving
feedback on the students’ performance and giving students a chance to correct their
performance and others’. The results of the research showed that the students’ speaking
skills improved through the use of Project-based Learning. The students made good
improvement in some aspects of speaking skills such as pronunciation, accurracy, and
fluency, and vocabulary. Moreover, it also changed the students’ behaviour. They were more
confident to speak English and more actively got involved in the teaching-learning process.
In addition, they had more opportunities to speak up. Furthermore, the activities of Project-
based Learning made the class athmosphere enjoyable.The findings were also supported by
the result of means of the students’ speaking scores that improved from 8.6 in Cycle I to
11.7 in Cycle II (with the scale of 1-16).
Keywords: Project-based learning, speaking skills
Abstrak
Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk meningkatkan kemampuan berbicara siswa kelas XI
menggunakan pembelajaran berbasis proyek pada tahun ajaran 2016/2017.Penelitian ini
merupakan penelitian tindakan kelas. Anggota penelitian ini adalah peneliti dan kolaborator
serta siswa kelas XI MIA 2. Langkah-langkah yang dilakukan berupa perencanaan,
pelaksanaan, observasi dan refleksi. Data yang dikumpulkan berupa data kualitatif yang
didukung dengan data kuantitatif. Data kualitatif sendiri diperoleh melalui observasi proses
pembelajaran, wawancara terhadap siswa dan kolaborator, diskusi denan kolaborator,
mengambil gambar dan merekam proses pembelajaran. Instrumen yang digunakan dalam
penelitian ini adalah lembar observasi, ceklis observasi dan panduan wawancara. Data
kualitatif berupa catatan lapangan dan transkrip wawancara dianalisis berdasarkan analisis
kualitatif, sedangkan data kuantitatif yang berbentuk nilai siswa dianalisis dengan
membandingkan nilai rata-rata.
Perlakukan yang diterapkan dalam penelitian ini adalah mengimplementasikan
pembelajaran berbasis proyek, menggunakan bahasa Inggris selama proses pembelajaran,
menggunakan media yang menarik, memberikan umpan balik terhadap penampilan siswa
dan memberikan kesempatan bagi siswa untuk mengoreksi penampilan teman dan
penampilan sendiri. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa kemampuan berbicara siswa
meningkat karena penerapan pembelajaran berbasis proyek. Pelafalan, akurasi, kelancaran
dan kosakata siswa mengalami peningkatan yang positif. Selain itu, tingkah laku siswa juga
berubah. Mereka lebih percaya diri dalam berbicara dan lebih aktif terlibat dalam proses
pembelajaran. Selain itu, mereka juga memiliki lebih banyak kesempatan untuk berbicara.
Pengimplementasian pembelajaran berbasis proyek juga menciptakan atmosfir kelas yang
menyenangkan. Hasil-hasil penelitian tersebut didukung oleh hasil nilai rata-rata siswa yang
meningkat dari 8.6 di siklus I menjadi 11.7 di siklus II (dalam skala 1-16)
Kata kunci: pembelajaran berbasis proyek, kemampuan berbicara
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Introduction
English as a compulsory subject is now becoming an important subject taught in high
schools, done to prepare the students in facing the real life. The language is used as a mean
of communication in nature. Furthermore, the language itself also can be a key to access
information, get job, or apply scholarship.
There are four skills in English language, namely reading, writing, listening, and speaking.
Those skills are taught in senior high school level, including the last-mentioned skill. In the
basic competence of English in SMA, it is stated that students should master the
competence of creating not only written text but also spoken text. It means that speaking skill
is no more the least thing to teach at the school. In other words, speaking now equals to the
other skills.
To have a good speaking skill, students do not only need to master the knowledge of
language. Harmer (2001:269) states that to speak fluently, the students need to master the
ability to process information and language on the spot. To be a good speaker, the students
need to master not only grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation but also speech
production, articulation, automaticity, fluency and other certain skills. Those skills are needed
to be mastered by the students to help them master the skill of speaking. Unfortunately,
mastering those skills is considered as uneasy thing since English is not the native language
in Indonesia. In the process of teaching and learning English, it is a problem to be solved.
Based on the observation done in grade XI of SMA N 1 Yogyakarta, there are some
problems related to the process of teaching and learning speaking. The first is the students’
lack of confidence. The problem came from the students’ tendency to give much attention to
the grammar accuracy. Therefore, their attention to the fluency was still low. It caused them
afraid to make mistakes. The next problem is the students often mispronounced the words.
The students often pronounced the words incorrectly without realizing it. Another problem
found is there was a lack of speaking time. Although there were time allocations to learn
speaking, the students’ time was mainly used for preparation. Less challenging activities
also made the students less motivated to speak. The last is students’ domination. Not all
students got the same portion to speak. The observation results are strengthened by the
result of interview with the teacher that the students still have difficulty in speaking. They
looked shy when speaking because they were afraid of making mistakes.
Speaking skill is one of skills in learning English. Ability to speak mean ability to master
English. Moreover, speaking skill can be used to improve other aspects, including their
communicative skill and interaction. Yet, the problems found in the process of teaching and
learning of speaking become barrier for the students to gain their speaking mastery.
Therefore, it is important to improve the students’ speaking skill. Related to the problems
found in the process of teaching and learning speaking in SMA N 1 Yogyakarta, problem-
based learning is supposed to be a good technique to be applied in the teaching and
learning process. Project-based learning demands the students to develop products or to
solve problems (Moss and van Duzer, 1998). The use of Project-based Learning in teaching
English is said to foster students autonomy and encourage active, students-centered
language practice (Philips, 1999). In addition, it boosts students’ confidence (Klein, 2009).
Besides, it carries out self-directed learning activities, from memorizing and repeating to
discovering, integrating, and presenting; from listening and reacting to communicating and
taking responsibility; from knowledge of facts, terms, and content to understanding
processes; from theory to application of theory; from being teacher dependent to being
empowered (Candau, 2003). There would be more chances for the students to practice
speaking and being active during the lesson. It could be concluded that it could solve the
SMA N 1 Yogyakarta students’ problem on speaking.
Research Methods
This study was an action research study and conducted from September to November 2016
in the first semester of the academic year of 2016/2017. The subjects of the research were
31 students of Class XI MIA 2 of SMA N 1 Yogyakarta. The researcher collaborated with the
English teacher in conducting the research. This study adopted cyclical action research
proposed by Kemmis and Mc Taggart(1998) in Burns (2010: 8) that consists of four stages:
planning, action, observation, and reflection.
There were two kinds of data used in this research; qualitative data and quantitative data.
The qualitative data were gained from classroom observation and interview and transformed
into field notes and interview transcripts by using qualitative data analysis proposed by Miles
and Huberman(1994: 10-12). The steps of analyzing qualitative data were data reduction,
data display and drawing and verifying conclusion. The quantitative data were gained from
speaking test in Cycle I and Cycle II and transformed into speaking score by using scoring
rubric of speaking by Nakatsuhara (2007: 83-103) and O’Sullivan, et all (2002: 33-56). Then
the mean scores of the students’ scores in each test was compared.
Findings and Discussions
In doing this research, the researcher acted as a teacher and delivered the teaching and
learning process. The English teacher acted as the collaborator and observed the teaching
and learning process. There were two cycles in this research. There were some actions that
were implemented by the researcher in the teaching and learning process; 1) carrying out
Project-based Learning, 2) using classroom English during the teaching-learning process, 3)
using interesting media, 4) giving feedback on the students’ performance and 5) giving
students a chance to correct their performance and others’..
The use of classroom English improved students’ participation. It was effective to increase
the students’ opportunities to speak. The implementation of Project-based Learning helped
the students improve their involvement in learning English. They had more time to speak,
resulting in their improved speaking skill. Group work also boosted their confidence. It also
improved because the researcher gave feedback on students’ performance. The use of
interesting media was helpful in improving students’ comprehension. To sum of, those
actions successfully improved the students’ speaking skill. However, there were some
problems to overcome, such as students’ shyness to speak up, script dependency in
speaking, and students’ lack of attention in listening to their peers. Consequently, some
actions were conducted in Cycle II to gain better improvement in students’ speaking skills.
In Cycle II, the researcher implemented the same actions of Cycle I with a change of action.
The use of classroom English improved students’ participation in using English. Their
opportunities to speak English increased. Moreover, by carrying out Project-based Learning,
students’ speaking skill improved as well as their involvement. Since they knew what
aspects to assess, they tried to improve their accuracy, fluency, vocabulary and their
pronunciation, which resulted in the improvement of their proficiency. Interesting media used
by the researcher made the students pay their attention to the process of teaching and
learning. It also resulted in the establishment of challenging teaching and learning process.
The action of giving the students chance to correct their performance and others, which
replaced the action of giving feedback on the students’ performance in Cycle I made them
feel challenged as well as motivated to take parts in teaching and learning process. Through
the implementation of some modified actions the students’ speaking skills improved
significantly in Cycle 2. The results of the students’ speaking scores which supports the
findings is presented in the table below.
Score Cycle I Cycle II
Mean 8.6 11.7
Table 1: The Comparison between Cycle I and Cycle II Speaking scores
Conclusions
After implementing Project-based Learning in the teaching and learning process of speaking,
the students’ speaking skills improved. It is proven by their improvement in pronunciation,
fluency, accuracy and vocabulary. Moreover, they had better involvement and confidence.
The improvement of speaking test supports the findings. The mean of Cycle I speaking
score increased in Cycle II, from 8.6 to 11.7. Therefore, it can be concluded that Project-
based Learning was effective to improve the students’ speaking skills. It is suggested for the
English teachers to implement Project-based Learning as an alternative technique to deal
with the problem in the teaching and learning process of speaking.
References
Candau, Debbie, et all. 2003. Project-based classroom: Bridging the gap between education
and technology. Intel Teach to the Future. Retrieved from:
http://download.intel.com/education/Common/ro/Resources/DEP/projectdesign/DEP_
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Burns, A. 2010. Doing Action Research in English Language Teaching; A Guide
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Harmer, J. 2001. The practice of English Language Teaching, 3th edition. Essex: Pearson
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Klein, Joel I, et al. 2009. Project-Based Learning: Inspiring Middle School Students to
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Moss, D., & Van Duzer, C. 1998. Project-based Learning for Adult English Language
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Philips, Diane, at all. 1999. Projects with Young Learners. New York: Oxford University
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