IMPROVING STUDENTS SPEAKING SKILL BY USING THINK PAIR

SHARE TECHNIQUE
Ajeng Diar Kartika
University of Muhammadiyah Malang

A. INTRODUCTION
Learning English means mastery of four language skills namely listening, reading,
writing, and speaking. Richard (2008:19) states that English is a major skill for many
second-language learners including the mastery of speaking skill. Moreover, the
functions of speaking serve to establish and maintain social relations, and the
transactional functions, which focus on the exchange of information.
In the context of speaking, speaking is an important aspect in teaching learning
because it is useful for sharing information or saying something about feelings,
perceptions, and ideas to other people. Speaking is the most important skill to
master that involves producing, receiving, and processing information. According to
Harmer (2001:269), the ability to speak fluently emphasize not only on the
knowledge of language feature but also on how the ability to process information on
the spot. Unfortunately, students as a learner of English still have problems in
speaking skill. Many students still feel that speaking is harder than reading, writing,
and listening. They feel shy to speak up and also they do not seem interest with
speaking activity. It shows that sometimes it can be occured because they lack of
vocabulary and the teacher used a monotonous technique so the atmosphere of the
class is not interesting for them. Therefore, in order to avoid the problem above, an
effective and interesting technique is needed to improve students speaking ability.
One of the cooperative learnings that can be used to avoid the problem above is
think pair share technique. Think pair share requires students to think about a
question or topic, then they do in pair and share their thoughts. Based on the
research from Isnaini (2012:42), think pair share is a good strategy since it can be a
practical contribution on how to improve students speaking ability with more
practice of using oral communication in a real activities. Therefore, this technique is
needed to give more practical conversation in speaking skill.
Based on the explanation above, this article will discuss about benefits, teaching
procedures, reflection of using TPS in teaching speaking.
B. THE BENEFIT OF THE TECHNIQUE
Cooperative learning is the umbrella term used to refer to a family of instruction
methods in which the teacher instructs and guides groups of students to work
together (Villa, et al, 2010:27). Teacher can increase students performance if they
work together in a large group or in pair. Students will not feel anxious for the first
time they learn about speaking. One of the techniques in cooperative learning in this
article is think pair share (TPS).
TPS is a collaborative learning strategy in which students work together to solve
a problem or answer a question. In this case, think means that student thinks about
the topic, then students move around to get a partner in a pair, and the last students
share or explain about their thought to other students.
This technique allows students to think first before answer a question or solve
the problem. In other words, the benefits of using this technique are giving every
student opportunity to share an answer of the question. It also trains students self-
confidence by sharing in pair. As a result, TPS can increase the personal
communication of every student, and retain the idea in speaking skill.

C. TEACHING PROCEDURES
Speaking plays more important role in English learning. In teaching speaking,
more activities are needed to improve students ability. Here, the teaching
procedures of TPS are divided into three activities such as pre-teaching, whilst
teaching, and post teaching activity.
Pre-teaching
1. Give brainstorming about the material that will be learned.
2. Explain that we are going to learn about the material, for example giving
command
3. Explain the purpose of the study that will be reached.
Whilst-teaching
4. Teacher gives explanation about the material and how to give a good
command.
5. Give a specific question about the topic that will be discussed.
6. Teacher applies TPS technique in the process of teaching as follows:
Think: students think about what they know or what
they have learned about the topic.
Pair: after they think, each student is asked to have
a group in pair.
Share: students share their thoughts with their
partner.
7. Then, teacher expand the share into a whole-class discussion.
8. Every partner should present their thought or discussion to another student in
class.
Post-teaching
9. Teacher reminds the material through the question which is given to students.
10. Make a conclusion about what they have learned.

D. REFLECTION
TPS as a technique of teaching speaking can help students feel connect and
commit to learning cooperatively. As a pre-speaking activity, giving a brainstorming
and the purpose of the material will help students to understand the purpose of the
teaching itself. Students will motivate themselves to reach that goal. In whilst
speaking activity, students are asked to think, pair, and share their opinion or
thought in which it can help them to increase their knowledge by sharing with other
students who have different thoughts. It can also train them to work in a pair before
work in large group. Making them confidence to speak and making a teaching
learning more interesting are the goals of this technique. At the last activity of
teaching, it can measure the students understanding about the material that have
learned.

E. CONCLUSION
Based on the teaching procedures and the reflection of each activity, it can be
concluded that TPS has some advantages such as all students can participate in a
class and students confidence in advance. Students are more active in thinking and
more critical about something. The writer thinks that student and teacher gain much
understanding of expectation and participation in a classroom. As a teacher, to make
the teaching learning interesting, this technique can be a sample to increase
students speaking ability.

F. REFERENCES
Richard. 2008. Teaching Listening and Speaking From Theory to Practice. New
York: Cambridge University Press.
Villa, et all. 2010. Collaborating with Students in Instruction and Decision Making.
United States of America: Library of Congress.
Harmer, Jeremy. 2001. The Practical of English Language Teaching.
England:Longman.
Isnaini, Moh. Hasbullah. 2012. Improving The Speaking Ability of the Tenth
Grades of SMK Negeri 1 Singosari Malang Through the Think-Pair-Share Strategy.
Skripsi