Academic Writing

Course English
Education
Postgraduate Program Indraprasta PGRI

TEACHING SPEAKING SKILL THROUGH SMALL

GROUP DISCUSSION
(A Literature Review Study)

SUSI LAWATI ( 20197470160 )

Student of Postgraduate Program of Indraprasta PGRI University
susilawati21112@gmail.com

Abstract

This research was intended to know about the implementation of small

group discussion can improve students’ speaking skill / ability in every level
of education. The method that was conduct in this research is literature
review study, which all the sources data taken from some previous
research / journals. The number of journal that had been analyzed was six.
The data analyze method which applied in this paper are thematic and
methodology, which all the journal would be analyze based on level of
education and based on method that applied in the journal research. In the
junior high school the researcher done by Roni La’libran in SMPN 2
Salaputi Tana Toraja, the result showed that there is significant
improvement in students speaking skill, the first number score of students
was totally failed, but after treatment using small group discussion just one
student was failed from 16 students.in senior high school the research was
done by Azhar Aziz Lubis and Masitowarni Siregar and Imam Fauzi. In
Azhar Aziz Lubis and Masitowarni research the finding is very significant in
three times evaluation students got score 55,8, 67.07, and 73.50. Contrast
to Imam Fauzi research the result showed little improvement from three
cycles. In higher level of education, the research had done by Rivi Antoni
and Hudriana. They are done research with similar result. Both of their
result just gave little improvement in students’ speaking score. In the end
the writer state that from all the research which gives more positive impact
or significant result is the implementation of small group discussion in junior
high school and senior high school.
Keywords : Speaking, Small Group Discussion, Literature Review.
Academic Writing
Course English
Education
Postgraduate Program Indraprasta PGRI

A. INTRODUCTION
Language is a system for expressing meaning, and the primary
function is for interaction and communication. As one of international
language in the world, English should be mastered by people around the
world. Owning to the reason, English become the first foreign language that
is taught in Indonesia, starting from elementary to higher education level.
Studying foreign language become a necessity when it comes to building
relationship among people across the world. Rubin and Thompson ( as cited
in Ma’mur, 2006:27 ) state that in today’s world, contact with speaker of
language other than English is increasingly common; we encounter such
people in school, in our travels, in our jobs, as these contacts increase out
motivation to study foreign languages. In English there some aspect that
have to master by the students / learner, the aspects are reading, listening,
writing and speaking. All aspect should mastery as well as the native does.
But the important one is speaking.
Speaking is an integral part of communication and one of language
skills learned. For most people the ability to speak a language is
synonymous with knowing that language since speech is the most basic
means of human communication. Brown, Rogers, and Rogers (2004) define
speaking as a productive skill that can be directly and empirically observed
and colored by the accuracy and effectiveness of listening skill. It can be
inferred that speaking is an activity involving two or more people in which
the participants are both the listener and speaker making their contribution.
To communicate successfully, they should use effective language, as stated
by Fulcher (2003 : 23) that a speaker has to employ language effectively and
appropriately in order to communicate his/her needs to a listener.
Speaking plays an important social role to human life, also. It is the
most vital tool of communication. Therefore, we may not communicate well
if the ability of speaking is not good. The ability to speak effectively is an
important element of our success in any field. Achieving speaking ability,
however, is not simple. Spratt, Pulverness, and Williams ( 2005 48 – 49 )
argue that :
Speaking involves a lot more than just using grammar and
vocabulary accurately in speech. When we speak we constantly
have in mind the person we are speaking to and our wish to
communicate our meaning successfully to them. We use
interactive strategies to help us achieve this. These include
Academic Writing
Course English
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Postgraduate Program Indraprasta PGRI

using body language such as gestures, eye contact, facial

expression and movement to put our message across more
strongly and clearly, and functions such as clarifying our
meaning …, asking for opinions …, agreeing … to keep the
interaction (communication) going and check that is successful.
Furthermore, Luama ( 2004 : 1 ) comments that speaking is also the
most difficult language skill to assess reliably. A person’s speaking ability
is usually judged during a face to face interaction, in real time, between an
interlocutor and a candidate. Speaking skill is an important part of the
curriculum in language teaching, and the majority of teachers consider it as
the most difficult skill to be taught since it is an interactive process that
requires the ability to corporate the management of taking turns.
The difficulties itself caused by the students, the social atmosphere in
classroom and the lecturer / teacher. The first cause come from students, for
example feeling afraid to making grammatical error in their speech,
uncomfortable feeling in pronouncing the word, or sentences and lack of
vocabularies. The second cause related to social atmosphere during
teaching and learning process in the classroom. A good atmosphere would
make students feel free to speak or ask question and express their ideas
without being overly worried about making mistakes, here good sense of
humor from the teacher can very helpful. The last cause is doing by the
teacher that concerned with her teaching techniques that mostly focused to
memorizing.
To solve the problem, the teacher should improve his teaching
technique. There have been a lot of techniques in teaching speaking skills
that believe can improve students speaking skill. One of them is small group
discussion. The literature informs that small group could be an effective
organizational medium for encouraging, clarifying, and guiding students’
participation in planning classroom activities, both academic and social. In
conducting a discussion group, a teacher presents the students with a
problem to solve. In small groups, they discuss possible solutions, which
they then present to the class for comparison or further discussion. During
the small group interaction, the teacher acts as a facilitator and at the end
may summarize group comments or give other possible solutions.
Sharan (1976) states that small group discussion in an approach to
classroom organization, encompassing a wide variety of teaching
techniques, for structuring the relationships of students and teachers. They
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Course English
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Postgraduate Program Indraprasta PGRI

wish to emphasize that the aim of small groups is to foster cooperation and
communication among students for learning purposes and create a social
context for individual investigation and involvement.
Regarding small group discussion as an effective teaching strategy in
language activity, Harmer (2001) points out that there are some classroom
tasks for which pair work is not sufficient and could be ineffective. Thus, it
will be better to organize them in groups through which students can write a
group story or role-play. Small-group activities help students create more
interactional environment. Similarly, Ur (2000) asserts that in a group work,
learners perform a learning task through interaction. It is a form of practice
of oral fluency. In small groups, learners have the opportunity to interact,
question, and elaborate with peers more frequently than they have in a
teacher-centered environment, thus enhancing learning and understanding.
The importance of student-student interaction should not be
underestimated as it is considered to be an interaction that mostly influences
students’ performance in instructional situations. The use of small groups
for learning creates a non-threatening environment that allows all students
to participate in discussions that they may not have the opportunity to do so
in a large group environment. The use of group work could improve
learning outcomes because it fosters learners’ responsibility and
independence, apart from creating an interactional classroom atmosphere.
Through participating in group, learners will have more language practice
since they do not just listen to their teachers.
Effective study in small group discussion necessitates the social skill
and function for group participation, such as attentive listening, effective
implementation of peers’ ideas, cooperation and sharing of information,
mutual help, talking in turn, serving as group leader and so on. Group
discussion helps pupils to clarify their own ideas and help them become
aware of others opinion. Constructive group discussion could produce a
better solution problem.
Some studies regarding speaking through small group discussion have
been conducted. For example, Hartoyo (2010) did some small-group
activities to 35 students to their speaking competencies. Using action
research, the results show that that the activities conducted through small
group can improve students’ speaking competences in terms of their content
aspect, accuracy, pronunciation, and fluency.
Academic Writing
Course English
Education
Postgraduate Program Indraprasta PGRI

Table 1: The improvement of speaking competences using small-group

activities
No Speaking Competence Cycle 1 Cycle 2
Pre-Test Post-Test Pre-Test Post-
Test
1 Students content aspect 5.83 6.11 5.83 6.57
2 Students speaking 5.91 6.31 6.92 8.18
accuracy
3 Pronunciation aspect 6.23 6.40 6.23 6.88
4 Fluency aspect 5.77 6.25 5.77 6.74

In addition, the findings are also supported by Antoni (2014) who also
conducted action research using small-group activities. After cycle 1 and 2,
there was always improvement in the average score of five speaking
components: pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, fluency, and
comprehension.
Table 1: The improvement of speaking competences using small-group
discussion
No Indicator of speaking Average of Average score Average
skill based score of cycle 1 score of
cycle 2
1 Pronunciation 26 30 42
2 Grammar 30 40 46
3 Vocabulary 30 50 62
4 Fluency 24 36 50
5 Comprehension 24 34 42
From those all above explanation, the writer try to make a literature
review that would discuss and compare every result from every sources and
investigate the effects of implementation of small group discussion in
teaching speaking skill in various level of study. The result of this study
would show the best implementation of small group discussion is
appropriated for what kind of level.

B. METHOD
The method that use in this research is a literature review. Literature
review is a scholarly paper, which includes the current knowledge including
Academic Writing
Course English
Education
Postgraduate Program Indraprasta PGRI

substantive findings, as well as theoretical and methodological contribution

to particular topic. Literature review as secondary sources, and do not report
now or original experimental work. Most often associated with academic -
oriented literature, such as review that found in academic journal.
In this study the writer use some journals from some sources as the
instruments for analyze. Totally there are six journals that become the
sources. The journals that found and chosen with one topic that want to
discuss in this paper, the theme of the journal all about teaching speaking
skill / ability through small group discussion in various level of study. The
reader or other researcher can found the journals which chosen as the
sources in search engine with key word teaching speaking or small group
discussion.
The analyze method that use by the writer in this study is thematic and
methodology. Thematic here means concerned with the subject, theme, or
topic in general. Here the writer try to organize the sources based on level,
start from junior high school, senior high school and higher lever
( University ). Thematic would show that what kind of level of education
that get more positive effect of implementation small group discussion.
Next, as methodology, it is means that the sources would divide base on the
method / approach. The writer would divide the sources based on the
approach that use in every journal is that as qualitative or quantitative
method to show what approach that shows more significant and clear result.

C. FINDING
The finding that got from the sources would be discuss in two ways,
first in thematic and the second in methodology way.
Thematic
Junior High School
1. The first finding is taken from a research that had been done by
Rony La’libran in SMPN 2 Salaputin in Tana Toraja.
This research was taken in academic year 2015 / 2016 with the
number of population is one hundred and twenty four students and
scattered in four class. The sample was taken as randomly with take
four students from every class, as totally sixteen students. The
instruments were oral test that done by pre - test and post – test.
Academic Writing
Course English
Education
Postgraduate Program Indraprasta PGRI

The result from pre-test shows the lowest score is 16.6 and the
highest is 22.7, it is means that there is none student who pass the
test ( 100 % failed ) and can classified to very poor category. After
treatment used small group discussion then the teacher do post – test,
the result of the post - test shows there are significant improvement
in students achievement. The data shows 2 students ( 13% )
classified to very good category, 9 students ( 56% ) classified as
good category, and there were 4 students ( 25% ) classified as fair
( the save zone ), and just 1 student ( 6% ) that classified as poor.

Senior High School

1. The first source is taken from a research that had been done by
Azhar Aziz Lubis and Masitowarni Siregar in SMA Negeri 1 Sei –
Rampah.
Sample of this research was students of eleventh grade IPA – 3
as much forty four students. The score take from the test which had
been done in three times evaluation.
In first evaluation from forty four students, the average or mean
of score is 55.8 it means that the first evaluation is failed. Continue
to the second evaluation that had been applied small group
discussion in the process, the result shows score 67.07 as mean,
there is a bit improvement here. The last in third evaluation that
small group discussion applied more intensively shows score 73.50.
From those evaluation conducted, it was found that by the
application of small group discussion method, students can improve
their speaking skill as showed in the result of every evaluation
conducted.

2. The second source is taken from a research that had been done by
Imam Fauzy in Vocational High School in Serang.
The number of sample in this research is 35 students in second
grade. The research is taken in three cycle which focused on five
aspect supporting speaking skills : pronunciation, grammar,
vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension.
In cycle one, students learning process was focused to give
every group a scenario which consist of patterns of communicative
interaction which students should discuss and present in front of
class. The result showed that 13 students ( 37.2% ) did well, 15
Academic Writing
Course English
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students ( 42,8% ) were categorized good and 7 students ( 20% )

were weak.
In cycle two, learning process was focused to doing interview
with other group partner and present in front of class as long 10
minutes for each group. From this activity the result showed that 16
students ( 45.7% ) were recognized as good and the other still got
not so good score because of they still finding difficulties to
communicate in appropriate sentences.
The last cycle was conducted with learning process gave the
students a scenario like doing in the first meeting, asking question,
about personal data, introducing someone else, getting to know each
other, expressing of accepting and refusing invitation, agreeing and
disagreeing, starting certainly and certainly, asking yes or no
question, and giving sample directions. That’s why the expressions
were reintroduced in this cycle with necessary changes. The students
kept going in group and do discussion. The result showed that 25
students ( 71.4% ) were considered good and 10 students ( 28.6% )
were still classified in weak.

Higher Level Education ( Academy or University )

1. The first source from higher level of education is taken from Rivi
Antonis’ research that had been done in Pasir Pangaraian University.
This research was taken sample as much twenty four students in
second semester of the Accounting study program of Pasir
Pangaraian University. The researcher used observation checklist /
field note, recording, test, and interview as the instrument. This
research had been done in three cycle, the first cycle was conducted
without applied of small group discussion and two cycles after was
applied small group discussion as the method in learning process.
The result of the first cycle without applied small group
discussion method showed the score in every aspects / indicators :
Pronunciation as 26, grammar was 30, vocabulary was 30, fluency
was 24, and comprehension was 24. As we see the number of score
in every instrument is very low, and it could be conclude that the
students’ speaking skill was skill fair or almost poor.
The second cycle where small group discussion method was
applied showed result in every indicator : pronunciation was 30,
grammar was 40, vocabulary was 50, fluency was 36 and
Academic Writing
Course English
Education
Postgraduate Program Indraprasta PGRI

comprehension was 34. If we compare with the result from cycle one
there was a bit of improvement in every aspect.
The last cycle ( the third cycle ) where the small group
discussion applied more intensively showed result in each
indicator : pronunciation was 42, grammar was 46, vocabulary was
62, fluency was 50 and comprehension was 46.

2. The second source of implementation small group discussion in

higher level of education was taken from Hudriana’s research that
had been done in FKIP UNRI.
This research was done at English education program of FKIP
UNRI, the participants was the third semester students at class A who
taking speaking II in academic year 2008 – 2009. The number of the
students was 36. To get data the researcher used oral presentation
test, observation sheet, and field notes as instruments. The researcher
did the research in three cycles. The result of three cycles that had
been done by the researcher would be showed in the table below :

The average score of students’ speaking skill

Speaking Students’
Cycle 1 Cycle 2 Cycle 3
Indicators Base Score
Pronunciation 48.3 60.6 63.3 73.9
Structure 46.7 53.9 60.3 71.1
Vocabulary 51.7 56.7 63.9 75.0
Fluency 48.3 55.6 63.9 74.4
Content 46.7 51.7 61.7 72.8
Average 48.3 55.7 62.6 73.4

Methodology
As methodological / approach could divided into qualitative and
quantitative. From all the sources that had been found and analyzed by the
writer, it could conclude that all the journal use quantitative method /
approach. the sources consist of four journals action research and one
experiment research.
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Course English
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The data collecting technique which is used in action research are test
that consist of written and oral test, observation checklist / field notes,
recording, and interview. For the experimental research, data collecting
technique that applied is oral test.
The instruments or aspects which become scoring criteria are
pronunciation, accuracy, fluency, vocabulary, structure sentence, content,
grammar, and comprehensions.

D. DISCUSSION
Several finding from some sources confirm the positive effect of
implementation of small group discussion in every kind level of education
( as we see in the findings ). There is improvement in every research. The
finding shows the improvement even not too significant.
In junior high school level, the research that done by Rony La’libran
( 2017 ) in SMPN 2 Salaputin Tanah Toraja shows that all the students was
failed in the test without treatment using small group discussion, but after
small group discussion applied there was improvement not all students
failed, but just one person ( 6 % ) that got poor score. This improvement is
more than fifty percent, so the implementation of small group discussion is
success.
The research that taken in senior high school that had been done by
Imam Fauzi ( 2017 ) and Rivi Antoni ( 2014 ) showed same result, that
small group discussion can improve students speaking skill. It prove with
the result, in Imam Fauzi ( 2017 ) research the result showed in cycle one
that small group discussion has not applied the students achievement in
speaking got score 37.2 % in did well, 42.8 were good, and 20% were weak.
In the cycle two that small group discussion was applied there is significant
improvement, the result showed 71.4 % did well and just 28.6 % in good
category. The improvement is very good, there is no one students in the
weak category. In addition the research that done by Rivi Antoni ( 2014 )
showed the same result in implementation of small group discussion in
senior high school as Imam Fauzi did. But the result form Rivi Antoni shoed
not too significant, there is improvement in every cycle that had done but
the number of score is not too big and still under the standard.
The sources was taken from higher level education research is almost
showed same result as pervious research in junior high school and senior
high school. The research that had been done in this part owned by
Hudriana ( 2009 ) and Aziz Azhar Lubis and Masitowarni Siregar ( 2013 ).
Academic Writing
Course English
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Hudriana states in his research that there is improvement in students

speaking achievement through the implementation of small group
discussion method even the number of score is not too significant. The
result showed in the average score, basic of student score was 48.3 in the
end of cycle one the score become 55.7, then in the end of cycle two the
score was improve to 62.6 ant the last in the result of cycle three the score
climb to 73.4. From the second research that done by Aziz Azhar Lubis and
Masitowarni Siregar ( 2013 ) showed good result too. The result in
evaluation 1 that has not applied with small group discussion got score
58.55, in the evaluation 2 and evaluation 3 that small group discussion was
applied the improvement showed the score become 67.07 and 73.50. both of
two research that taken in higher level of education the improvement of
achievement score is not too significant. There was a little differences
improvement score in every cycle or evaluation.
Concluding of all the sources that had analyze, the writer though that
small group discussion is more appropriate to apply in junior high school
and senior high school. Because the basic character of students in junior and
senior high school is more need to accompany. They are still do not have
brave to do something alone, including in speaking. Speak in front of lot
people is become hard thing to do. So when small group discussion applied
in teaching learning process it is very helpful, they can study and try to
speak not alone. It is also influenced to students achievement in every cycle
and evaluation score.in university or academy the implementation of small
group discussion not to effective it prove by the score result, the students in
high level education is more oriented to do something as individual.
Because students in this level just need to improve their own knowledge
with themselves.

E. CONCLUSION
Small group discussion is one strategy to improve students speaking
skill / ability, much research that had been conducted to prove in every level
of study. In this paper the researcher just mention 5 sources ( journal ) from
junior, senior high school and higher level education. The result of each
level showed the improvement. The best improvement is in journal that
conducted in junior high school and junior high school. In the higher level
the improvement is not too significant, the differences of score is not too
big. But even there was improvement in students’ achievement the problem
Academic Writing
Course English
Education
Postgraduate Program Indraprasta PGRI

still faced the teacher, such as in limited vocabulary, grammar, fluency and
comprehension. The teacher should find out the solution to solve that
problem. Hopefully, the implementation of small group discussion is not
only do when the research is taken, but do along the teaching and learning
process is happen.

REFERENCES

Antoni, Rivi. 2014. Teaching Speaking Skill through Small Group

Discussion Technique at Accounting Study Program. Journal of
Education and Islamic Studies Vol. 5, Num. 1, January-Juni 2014
Fauzi, Imam. 2017. Improving Students’ Speaking Ability through Small
Group Discussion. Journal of ELT Vol. 2, No. 2, 2017
Hudriana. 2009. Improving Students’ Speaking Skill through
Communicative Activity in Small Group Discussions at the Third
Semester Class A of the English Study Program of FKIP UNRI.
Universitas Riau : Journal published on https://garuda.risetdikti.go.id/
La’libran, Roni. 2017. Improving Students’ Speaking Ability through Small
Group Discussion for the Eight Year Students of SMPN 2 Saluputti in
Tana Toraja. Education Journal Volume 4 Number 1, June 2017,
Publish on https://garuda.risetdikti.go.id/
Lubis, Azhar Aziz, and Masitowarni, S. 2013. Improving Students’
Achievement in Speaking through the Application of Small Group
Discussion Method. Education Journal Publish on
https://garuda.risetdikti.go.id/