CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Research

People use language as a means of daily communication. It involves the

process of sending and receiving information. Unlike other languages, English is

the international language used to communicate among different ethnic groups. It

is used in schools even office settings in Indonesia. Learning English as Foreign

Language is not easy. It is different from learning a native language. Although the

students have learned English more than six years. English as a foreign language

in Indonesia has been taught starting from primary school to university level.

Learning language is important for human’s social development

especially for students each grade from elementary school, junior high school,

senior high school up to university. As a language which is used by more than a

half of population in the world, English holds the key as international language.

English is a tool of communication among peoples of the world to get trade,

social-cultural, science, and technology goals. Moreover, English competence is

important in career development, therefore students need to understand and use

English to improve their confidence to face global competition especially in

learning speaking.

In Indonesia, speaking English is the most aspect that must be by the

students at the school. It will be important for daily life, for example, introducing

Indonesia to foreign by using English, etc. Speaking English fluently to be is also

important for debate competition, making conversation with foreign as the tool of

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commerce. So, the students at the school should be prepared all of them by

making English speaking habit. In high school, English in the high school

curriculum aims to teach students to communicate in English without difficulty in

speaking English and making students confident for English. Students are

interested in learning difficulties students in speaking English everyday so that

teachers can solve the problem students in speaking English.

While we are all aware of the status that English currently enjoys as a

world language, an international system of communication. So, learning English

language it mean learning how to talk the people in English. Learning to talk the

people, the students have to learn English about speaking. The students must

develop their speaking skill. The fact shows that the result of learning English

especially for speaking is still low. The students have learned English from the

first-grade of Junior High School until Senior High School. In expressing the

ideas, the text should be clear in order to enable the readers to catch the

information and the message.

Speaking plays an important role in the context of English teaching as a

foreign language in Indonesia. English is an international language which has an

important role in communication by people to interact with other people in the

world. As international language, English is used to conduct communication, in

almost the entire world in many countries.

One of the purposes of English teaching to improve students’ speaking

skill in Indonesia University are that they can understand to speak in each other on

using English. As a stated university level set of English education to the

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depatrment of English students show about the understanding in speaking. In the

University, speaking for each level. They cannot speak well based on the English.

In teaching English for four years there are many problems happen to the students

such as the difficulties to understand, same time they know the meaning but they

cannot pronounce the words and they are not confidents to speak in front of the

class. The result of their study is no satisfied. However, in case of system

differences between the first and second languages, there will be disorder which

will cause irregularities or errors identified by the term of the problem. Problem

also occurs at the senior high school students at English lesson of MAS

Darussaadah Bireuen. Based on the writer experience when talking to the

students, they do an problem in speaking level. In this case, problem involve the

use of speaking in English.

Problem is understood as an aberration that occurs in biligualism that is

still in the second language learning stage is English. Problem also arises because

of the dominance of the first language system that influences the use of a second

language in communication, emotion, sensitivity, and speaker attitudes. The

language contact event that occurred will not cause problem as long as the

language system in the first language has similarities to the language system in the

second language. The existence of problem creates obscurity in the use of

language especially in speaking, for it is a logical consequence that problem as

soon as possible should be avoided and even eliminated.

Thus, it is easier to understand when a speaker uses a second language

properly and correctly according to the rules and systems applicable in the use of
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a second language. English is a foreign language that has long been learned by

language learners in Indonesia. English has also been taught at every level of

education. However, the reality of the learner in Indonesia, has not been able to

master and apply English in everyday life correctly in accordance with the rules

that exist in the language especially in speaking, as when they write.

There are many factors that can induce the students get the difficulty

when they speaking in English language. They do not have a confidence and they

always feel nervous in daily English speaking. Besides that, the students limited in

vocabulary mastery, so they feel there is not to say. Limited in motivation to learn

speaking English and there is not speaking habit from the teacher also make the

students getting the difficulty to speak English smoothly.

There are many students do not understand in speaking. They felt

difficult to express their idea. Nevertheless, the influence of Indonesian language

usage whose frequency of time is longer than English still affects students in

speaking. The effect is apparent when the teacher teach students to write English

structure text that is included in Indonesian language. This directly leads to

adverse impacts so that the text is poorly understood. Impacts that are not good or

negative due to the application of Indonesian structure into the speaking is called

problem. The emergence of problem caused by speakers who are accustomed to

using these words in everyday life, resulting in the selection of words that are not

appropriate in using the language being used. However, from preliminary

observations at MAS Darussaadah Bireuen, it was found that English students of

third semester still had some difficulties in speaking.

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They made errors due to the influence of the pronounce aspects of their

first language. The students do not master vocabulary, they can not answer the

question who has explained by teacher. The students had some problems in

understanding to speak each other. They also faced the problems in speaking was

still far from what is expected. They still got difficulties in speaking and talking

each other. The second year students’ score were still poor in speaking. Further,

the use of many words such as speech in front of people was also a problem for

students. They got difficulty in explaining their ideas into a logical order. So their

speaking was not easy to speak.

The factors above can be caused students get the difficulty when they

asked to speak English. Probably, the teacher in the school doesn’t know what the

factors that can because students get the difficulties in speaking English language.

All of the students’ speaking problems should be solved by the English language

teacher. The students’ problem in the speaking skill must to be identified so we as

the teacher can solve the problem, because speaking English ability is very useful

for students to prepare their future. Generally, the difficulties can be referred to a

lack of knowledge, understanding the difficulty of materials in learning, as well as

difficulties in tasks. In particular, the difficulties encountered by the students

cannot be mastered the basic competencies specific subjects for speaking. So,

based on the problem mentioned above, the researcher would like to do a research

entitled “The Speaking Ability of the First Grade Students of MAS Darussaadah

Bireuen”.
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1.2 Identification of the Research

Based on the background above, the researcher had identified some

problems:

1. There were many difficulties in pronouncing the English words.

2. The students did not master vocabulary and phonology.

3. The students could not answer the question which had explained by the

teacher.

4. The students had some problems in understanding to speak each other.

5. They made errors due to the influence of the pronounce aspects of their first

language.

1.3 Problem of the Research

Based on the research background of study, the researcher states the

problem of study are:

1. How are the students’ ability in learning speaking at MAS Darussaadah

Bireuen?

2. What are the problems students faced in learning speaking?

3. How are teacher’s contributions to overcome the students’ problem in

learning speaking at MAS Darussaadah Bireuen?

1.4 Objective of the Research

This research is done by the researcher because the researcher wants to

answer the question which has been mentioned in the problem of study above.

The objective of the research are:

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1. To find out the students’ ability in learning speaking at MAS Darussaadah

Bireuen.

2. To analysis the problems students faced in learning speaking.

3. To describe teacher’s contributions to overcome the students’ problem in

learning speaking at MAS Darussaadah Bireuen.

1.5 Scope of the Research

Talking about speaking it is related to many kinds of ability in speaking.

In this research the researcher only focuses on the speaking ability to the first

grade students of MAS Darussaadah Bireuen.

1.6 Significance of the Research

The researcher expects that this research will be able to give some

benefits in the study of English especially about speaking ability used by students

in learning English. In this research there are two kinds of benefits, they are

theoretical and practical. So the result of the study is requested to be significance

either theoretically or practically as follows:

1. Theoretically

Theoretically, the result of this research is beneficial for the students as

reference in learning language related to the problem of speaking ability. Apart

from that, this research is also beneficial for knowing some common mistakes

caused by speaking ability problem. The result of this research is very important

to be known by English teachers. It can help them in language teaching learning

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process. By studying the result of this research, hopefully they will know about

language problem commonly happened.

2. Practically

The results of this study later are expected to:

a. Teacher

As input of teaching learning process to the students of MAS Darussaadah

Bireuen especially in problem to students in speaking.

b. Student

This research help the students to solve the problem about learning English

speaking of the problem to the students of MAS Darussaadah Bireuen.

c. Faculty

This result of the research can be made as an input for the school and

administrative in developing teaching learning pocess The additional reference

for other researchers in teaching especially in teaching speaking.

1.7 Definition Operational

To be able to understand, further detail about this research. It is better to

know a few terms used in this research; the term are related to some words used

on the title of this research.

1. Learning Speaking

Speaking is derived from “Speak” the suffix “ing” makes it as gerund. Speak

is to use a certain language. 1 Speaking is an interactive process of

constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing

1
Webster’s World University dictionary, (Webster’s New American Dictionary, 2006),
P.960.
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information. Speaking means expressing our ideas in language we learn in

oral communication. Thus, speaking is an activity involving two or more

people in sending and receiving the information.

2. Ability

Hornby state that ability is the fact that somebody is able to do something.

Speaking ability is a component language user or learners in having oral

interaction to negotiate the meaning so that the listener can understand what

the speaker means.2

2 ?
Hornby, A.S, Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current English, 8th Edition,
(Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2010), 1713 p