Using Fun Activities to Improve Speaking Skill

by : enisa cahya . [email  protected] com Using Fun Activities to Improve speaking skill for senior high school learners There are many definition of speaking. Speaking is one of the skills that have to be mastered by students in learning English. It is important for students to known definition first. Many experts define speaking in different ways. Brown and Yule (1989) stated in their book. The speakers say words to the listener not only to express what in her mind but also to express what he needs whether information service.Most people might spend of  their everyday life in communicating with other. According to Syafrudin (2001) speaking is as active productive skill makes us of oral communication. Finocchiro and Bonomo (2001) stated that speaking as one or more sound make by human being for purposing of  communication. Beside, Chaney in Alfira (1998) says that speaking is the process of building and sharing meaning. So, the student should have capability in telling their i deas about some  problems or some things.The goal of speaking is to improve students ¶ communicative skill. By telling their ideas, the students can improve their speaking ability and increase their confidence. Mc. Donough and shaw (1993) says speaking is the ways to express ideas and opinion, expressing and desire to do something, negotiating or solving a particular problem, and maintaining social relationship and friendship. Long and Richard ( 1982 ) says speaking is a complex set of ability that involve many component, including pronunciations, listening and grammar skill.From the explanation above it can conducted that speaking is very important to communicated with others to take and give information learning language speaking skill should  be taught and practiced in the classroom event in real life situation, in order to an able our  students to communicate effectively and accurately by using component such as vocabulary and  pronunciation, fluency and basic grammati cal pattern. Video is one of the technological aids that use in the classroom nowadays.Video is an extremely use media which incorporates a wide variety at visual element and a great range of  audio experiences in additional to spoken language based on speaking descriptive text. Sane (2009) stated that video is the technology to capture, record, and process, transmit and rearrange the moving picture also video can use for tutorials, videos for learning, and even videos for  entertainment or for documentation of activities. It means in teaching English language we can use video to make students not bored and like to study English language.To improve the students speaking ability, it needs innovation and creation to motivate them while learning speaking skill. Therefore, the teachers need to prepare the material, for example the teacher commands the students to prepare a dialogue based on a video that has been watched. Teaching speaking to the students needs innovation and creatio n to motivate them while learning speaking. One way that can be used by the teacher is by using media especially video. The advantages of teaching speaking by using video are to create enjoy and fun atmosphere in teaching learning process.These media are really useful and helpful for the student. Besides, video are also used to motivate the students in learning English. Teaching by using video is used to give variety in explaining material. Like Stempleski (1987) that said video can be used in a variety of instructional setting such as in classroom and in self study and evaluation situation. Every person will have different to describe same video. It will motivate them to have an opportunity to tell what they see about the video. There are another ways to teach English besides Video, games also appropriate to improve speaking skill for students.There are many reasons a teacher uses games in teaching speaking. Games give students chance to use English orally, it means that students c an  practice and develop their ability to speak English. Games provide fun and relax while remaining very much within the framework of language learning. It is expected for shy or slow learners can be active participants to show their ability and find their confidence in communicating in the foreign language. Games are not just time filling activities in the class, but also have a great educational value. W. R.Lee (in Uberman,2002) holds that most language games make learners use the language instantly without thinking about the correct form of the language itself. So at this phase, the language games can lower students’ anxiety in using the target language, they are also highly motivating and entertaining so that the shy students will get more opportunities to express their opinion and feeling. Further suppport comes from Zdybiewska (as cited in Uberman,2002), she believes that games can be a good way in practicing the target language that being learned by the children, si nce they are able to provide a model of language on what the earners will use in the real life According to Betteridge and Buckby (1990), â€Å"Essentially, in guessing and speculating games, some one knows something and the others must find out what it is. † In addition, Merriem Webster (1986) said that â€Å"Guessing games is game in which the participates compete individually or team in the identification of something indicate obscurely (as in riddles or charades). Based on the definition, it can be conclude that guessing games is a game in which a person or participant knows something and competes individually or in a team to identify or to find out it.There are many concepts of guessing games, which can be applied in teaching speaking. According to Richard – Amato (1988), â€Å"Guessing games can be used to develop or reinforce concept, to add diversion to regular activities, or just to break the ice. However, their must important function is to give practice in communication. † It says that guessing games give students do not feel bored during learning process. Nevertheless, the most important thing is to give the students in practicing their English. Based on the statement above, we can conclude that guessing games give students more chance in formulating question.But we know that language classes are spent answering questions puts forth by the teacher or text book. This idea is also supported by Silver (1980) : â€Å"Language classes are often inadvertently structured so that most of the students speaking time is spent answering questions put forth by teacher or text book: as a result the students often have difficultly in forming own question. So, by using this game students are asked to practice in formulating questions. Here the students can apply their ability in using question – word (WH) question.