CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents background of the research, problem of the research, object of the research, operational of the definition, significance of the research, and scope of the research.

1.1 Background of the Research Language is very important for our daily life. English is the one of language that is used as international language. In Indonesia, English has been learnt as a foreign language which is available from the junior high school up to university in all departments. The main skills of the language consist of four language skills; they are listening, speaking, reading and writing. The other important things in language are including the three language components; pronunciation, vocabulary, and structure. In junior high school, English is learnt as a compulsory subject which becomes one of requirements of the students graduation on National examination. In the 2006 English Competence Based Curriculum it is stated that one of the objectives of learning English is to develop the communication competency, both spoken and written form of language. This means that speaking is very important skill in studying language because it is used to express idea, feeling, or make a communication. Speaking is so much a part of daily life that we take it for granted (Thornbury, 2005:1). Many students are still unable to use target language

for communication purpose and most of them also have the opinion that English speaking is difficult to be learnt. Based on the interview with the English teacher in SMP Muhammadiyah 6 Wuluhan, it was found that actually the seventh grade students were not interested to speak in the class. It was identified that the students still had some problems dealing with speaking English in the class. They had problems in courage, selfreliance, and sentence on the speaking ability. Besides they also have a problem dealing with the motivation and concentration in communication orally. Those things happened because they did not have adequate knowledge of English, lack of background knowledge, lack of vocabulary, and they also lacked of interest in speaking English so they found difficulties in learning speaking. To overcome the students speaking ability problem, the English teacher had done the great effort. She had used the English textbook and students worksheet (LKS) in teaching speaking, but the result was still unsatisfactory. For the vast majority of children, no one provides any instruction on how to speak the language (Yule, 2006:154). Therefore, giving various materials was not the only way to overcome the problem, but an appropriate technique for teaching reading was also required. Related to the problem above, the researcher tried to conduct a classroom action research using Problem Based Learning (PBL). Problem based learning gives opportunities to examine and try out what they have already known; to discover what they need to learn; to develop the people skills they need for improving their performance in a team. By presenting the students with real-life situations, it enhances the problem solving skills of the students as opposed to

providing only theoretical knowledge. Learning, therefore, goes beyond bookish knowledge and helps the students face and see through practical problems. According to Hmelo (1997 : 236) PBL helps students become active learners because it situates learning in real world problems and makes students responsible for their learning. Allowing the students to use prior knowledge to solve a new problem, it ensures deeper understanding. According to researches, learning is enhanced when new information is presented through a meaningful context and comes in conflict with the existing knowledge. Hence the learning in real world make the student most active and responsible. PBL demands a collaborative approach towards problem solving, thus, creating an environment in which the students learn to see various approaches to solve one problem through group interactions. This makes the team responsible for each other and not just for one's own self. The objective is to know that problem based learning as teaching technique can make the students interested with the lesson and make them brave to speak. Based on the above discussion, a research entitled: Improving Students Speaking Ability by Using Problem Based Learning to Students at SMP Muhammadiyah 6 Wuluhan in the Academic Year 2013/2014 is conducted to know whether Problem Based Learning will be successful in improving the students speaking ability. 1.2 Problem of the Research Based on the background of the study above, the problems will be formulated as follows:

How can the use of Problem Based Learning improve the seventh grade students speaking ability at SMP Muhammadiyah 6 Wuluhan in the 2013/2014 academic year? 1.3 Objective of the Research Based on the problems of the research, the objectives of the research can be formulated as follows: To know how the use of Problem Based Learning can improve of the seventh grade students speaking ability at SMP Muhammadiyah 6 Wuluhan in the 2013/2014 academic year. 1.4 Operational Definition of the Research The operational definition of the terms is intended to avoid misunderstanding of the concept used in the research. These are as follows: 1.4.1 Problem Based Learning Problem Based Learning (PBL) is an instructional method in which students learn through facilitated problem solving. In PBL, student learning centres on a complex problem that does not have a single correct answer to identify what they need to learn in order to solve a problem. The Problem Based Learning here functions to make students more active and responsible in speaking English language. 1.4.2 Speaking Ability Speaking ability refers to students ability to communicate in the learning of the productive language skills by using his own words orally to transfer his or

her ideas using the target language effectively and to convey a message orally by identifying fluency also accuracy in grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. 1.5 Significance of the Research Every research must have its own significance to know why this research is made. This research is expected to have both theoretical and practical significance as follows: 1.5.1 Theoretical Significance The result of this research is useful for English teacher as reference to encourage them to use Problem Based Learning in teaching speaking to improve the students speaking ability. 1.5.2 Practical Significance The result of this research will be useful for the teachers and readers, in order to use it in teaching learning process, to make the students more interested in studying English. In addition, they can have new learning experience by using Problem Based Learning in process of speaking that can help them to increase their speaking ability. 1.6 Scope of the Research This research is intended to find out how Problem Based Learning can improve students speaking ability. This research is conducted to seventh grade students at SMP Muhammadiyah 6 Wuluhan in the 2013/2014 academic year.