Improving Students' Ability in Speaking Through Role Play Technique (A Classroom Action Research on the Eighth Grade Students of SMP Negeri I Serawai in Academic Year 2014/2015)

Role-play in learning leads to a teaching-learning activity more focused on students. This research aimed to investigate the improvement of the speaking aspect in the classroom. This research was Classroom Action Research (CAR) in two cycles for 25 eighth-grade students of SMPN 1 Serawai in the academic year 2014 – 2015. The results showed that the mean fluency score increased from 24.20 in the first cycle to 28.88 in the second cycle. This shows that speaking is sometimes hesitant. The pronunciation has risen from 24.20 to 30.60, which indicates student’s pronunciation is in the category of not foreign accents and occasional mispronunciation but does not interfere with the understanding. The grammar component was 9.76, increasing to 13.88, indicating that the student’s grammar has occasional errors showing interference control and some pattern but no weakness that causes misunderstanding. The result of the observation and the student assessment also showed that there were improvements in the student's participation during teaching and learning activities. The researcher suggests that teachers can use this technique to help students improve their speaking and other English skills.


Improving Students' Ability in Speaking Through Role Play Technique (A Classroom Action Research on the Eighth Grade Students of SMP Negeri I Serawai in
Academic Year 2014/2015)

INTRODUCTION
Speaking is one of the ways to convey information to others and to help others comprehend the significance of our communication in everyday life.Furthermore, speaking is regarded as the most important and difficult of the four abilities when it comes to studying any foreign language because it includes several processes that interact (Rao, 2019).The capacity to carry on a conversation in the languages is used to assess speaking skills.Speaking is the process of verbally conveying and exchanging thoughts and feelings.Teaching speaking ability is difficult.Being able to speak successfully in their first language does not imply that they will learn to speak in a new language quickly.Carroll (1964) contends that the circumstances of learning a second language are comparable to those of acquiring one's native tongue.According to Cook (2016), many of the difficulties that a second language learner experiences with the phonology, vocabulary, and grammar of the second language are related to the interface of habits from the first language, such as the interface pattern in first language in order to build sentence pattern in second language.
Oral and written communication are the two modes of communication.The successful interpretation, composition, and presentation of information, ideas, and values orally to a specified audience is known as oral communication.In general, written language is used for transactions, and spoken language is utilized for interaction.In the speaker's mind, transactional language denotes the urgency of efficiently transmitting information.There are numerous issues in teaching, particularly in classroom activities.The first is that pupils consistently make mistakes in grammar and pronunciation when speaking English as a foreign language.They are unconcerned about phrase structure or perfect pronunciation.The kids are then terrified of making mistakes when speaking English.It suggests that the kids have a restricted language mastery.When the teacher dominates when teaching the pupils in Indonesian, the students' speaking talents do not improve.
Many aspects, including the students' interest, the subject, and the media, among others, might contribute to the problem of students' speaking abilities.various strategies can be used, including role play, which according to various research findings is more effective in teaching speaking and also more motivating for students to be active and creative in their learning process.Budden (2006) defines role play as a speaking activity in which you put yourself in the shoes of another person or in an imaginary scenario.Role play is used not just for interactive classroom learning, but also to motivate students in real-life situations.
The researcher considers role play to be a way for resolving the preceding dilemma.If students are exposed to a variety of topics, they will appreciate sharing their language with their partner (Nunan, 1991).Liu and Ding of Qingdao University in China demonstrated that role play is an effective strategy for improving speaking performance (Liu & Ding, 2009).Those who have had successful experiences teaching speaking through role play pique the writer's interest in conducting a comparable study with kids in the eighth-grade level.According to Ur (1996), role play encompasses any activities in which students picture themselves in situations outside of the classroom.According to the researcher's observations at SMP Negeri 1 Serawai, most of the students struggled to speak English orally during the teaching-learning process; they were frequently hesitant due to a lack of vocabulary mastery and grammar knowledge, which distracted their willingness to participate in speaking.

METHOD
The researcher employed a classroom action research (CAR) to study the students' speaking skills on eighth-grade students at SMPN Serawai.According to Carr and Kemmis (1986) Action research is a type of self-reflective inquiry conducted by participants (for example, teachers, students, or principals) in social (including educational) situations in order to improve the rationality and justice of (a) their own social or educational practices, (b) their understanding of these practices, and (c) the situations (and institutions) in which these practices are carried out.The researcher plans an activity that hopefully would overcome the problem that appears in the classroom and put the plan into action as a real treatment.The researcher examines the process and then evaluates the treatment.Action research is research in which the teacher, who simultaneously serves as the researcher, attempts to improve the teaching and learning process.The treatment is administered by the researcher with the assistance of collaborators.At the research site, the collaborator is also a teacher.The collaborator serves as the observer for the treatment.The procedures of action research are planning, acting, observing, and reflecting.
The teacher devises a teaching and learning activity to address the issue that arose during the previous teaching and learning process.The preparations comprise the preparation prior to the teaching activity, such as a lesson plan, as well as the tools used to gather data, such as an observation checklist, field notes, supplementary material, and some expert theories.It will be carried out throughout the early stages of the research.
To act on the plan, the researcher will conduct the research in the classroom where the problem was encountered.The researcher in this stage acts as the teacher to teach the lesson that will be prepared and also as the observer to observe the student's speaking frequency in English class.Because the teacher is the person who found the problem in his previous teaching process and knows the exact situation in the classroom, in this case the teacher is the appropriate person to conduct the research rather than an outsider or other teachers.Teachers used the role-play technique to teach speaking to students.
During the observation phase, the teacher gives students a test by instructing them to play parts with their friends based on the roles given in their own material.While the kids are acting out their parts, the teacher grades their performance using a checklist table that includes the students' activities.During this phase, the collaborator serves as the teacher's assistant, noting anything that occurs during the teaching and learning process, including challenges faced and possible solutions to overcome them.The collaborator is equally concerned about the teacher's work and whether or not he follows the phases of role play.
The teacher has a role play regarding the presentation based on the notes taken, observation sheet, and interview with students.The teacher receives useful input from the role play.Feedback is essential for re-planning the next action or role-play session.It can modify or add new actions to better the teaching and learning process.

FINDING AND DISCUSSION
In this study, Classroom Action Research (CAR) is used.In this investigation, the researcher ran two cycles.Each cycle had four phases: planning, action, observing, and reflecting.The participants are eighth-grade students of SMP Negeri 1 Serawai in Academic year 2014/2015.The number of total 25 students who faced the problem toward their speaking skill especially in their pronunciation aspect.The pronunciation is therefore concerned with the appropriateness of putting the words into spoken communication.The last point is about grammar.Grammar is concerned with the correctness of sentences written in accordance with the rules of the target language.

Planning
Based on observations and analyses, it was discovered that using the role-playing strategy boosted some students' speaking in English classrooms.Students felt more confident speaking in English after engaging in role play.Some youngsters are still hesitant to speak up.It made them afraid to speak up.Many pupils struggled with communicating information in English.It could be because they were raised to speak in their mother tongue.Students were encouraged to participate in the role play by incorporating it into each meeting.They attempted to recall English sentences in order to converse with their spouse.As a result of this, the researcher devised a system for doing role plays for persons who could not communicate effectively in English by memorizing some phrases.

Acting
Students were requested to participate in a role play at this point.First, the researcher discussed the broad understanding of the Asking and Giving Information topic.Following the explanation, the researcher handed them a conversation to read together.The researcher divided them into groups after they read the exchange together.The first group will talk about an activity in which they were required to ask and give information.They then discussed it with their buddies, followed by other groups.For each group, there were four people.They continued to discuss the condition to ask and offer the information after discussing the location.The researcher asked them to hold a conversation about the condition they had discussed.They were terrified to make a mistake because their English was inadequate.The researcher then convinced them that they could accomplish it without using a book.Only a few of them are capable.After each group stood in front of the class, the teacher asked them about the difficulties they encountered throughout the role play.

Observing
The researcher observed the outcome of the action process at this step.He saw the entire process, from the beginning to the end.He attempted to determine the role play's strengths and faults.According to the observation checklist, pupils were excited when the teacher told them about the lesson and the technique they would use.The learning procedure Using role play to ask and give information engaged students in the session.He was also present to help them through the acting process.The researcher calculated the role play score to end the learning process.

Reflecting
The researcher reflected following an action process.The purpose of the reflection was to assess the activity in order to determine whether the research should be reimplemented with some alterations in the following cycle or not.Based on the results of cycle 1, the action procedure was successful.The researcher discovered that students had a positive attitude toward role play.They preferred to complete the activity in front of the class.The utilization of role play was a novel technique for kids to communicate in English at school.They basically just read from a book and utilize Indonesia to explain it to each other.Some students were unable to convey their phrases or sentences because they were attempting to memorize the words.

Planning
The researcher attempted to remedy the deficiencies of the previous meeting based on the findings of the first cycle's reflection.The lesson plan, teaching materials, and observation checklist were all organized by the researcher.Role play was still used to teach public speaking.The role play would take place in front of the entire class, with no teacher present.The researcher began the lecture by inquiring about the new nopic "to Get Things Done."The teacher wrote the title of the discussion and explained it.While the teacher spoke to them, the pupils opened their books.After the teacher had many discussions with the pupils regarding the issue, they moved on to a group discussion.The researcher had divided them depending on their ability to communicate in English.One group had four people.Each group presented a discussion that they had in their group.The researcher would provide feedback to the students following the presentation.

Acting
The researcher began the lesson by greeting the students and asking how they were doing.He also verified the student's attendance record.Then he told them about the "Get Things Done" lesson they were about to do.The lesson began with the question, "What will you do next week?"Students described activities such as playing with their friends, playing video games, fishing, staying at home, and so on.The teacher then scribbled "role play" on the whiteboard.The teacher asked them again if they remembered the role play.They responded briefly to the meaning of role play before continuing the discussion in Bahasa Indonesia.
The researcher began connecting the role play with the information they had reviewed after discussing the meaning of role play row by row of students' desks.They were invited to look through their textbooks and look at the discussion about "Getting Things Done."They were separated into groups of four persons each.The teacher led the class in discussion of the conversation they had read.Following that, each group must recall and execute the dialogue in front of the class.Each group's presentation went nicely.The pupils felt more energized than in the previous round.They learned about role playing and practiced it at home.After the entire group had delivered the conversation, he reviewed the lesson with the students.

Observing
The researcher examined the second cycle procedure utilizing the observation checklist and field notes.The study discovered that pupils actively participated based on the data collected.Their buddies urged them to speak even though their English was adequate.They also displayed strong collaboration during the activity.It advanced faster than the first cycle.The researcher observed pupils' behavior throughout this stage of group activity.

Reflecting
The researcher considered on the action in the second cycle following the second cycle.Each student's presentation score was used for the reflection.The findings indicated that students' speaking abilities have improved.A few pupils were still shy to talk, whilst others grew to speak boldly.They talked English with little errors such as searching for certain vocabulary to speak and not being confused to explain the activity to say.Using role play to memorize accelerated the process.They gained confidence through role play with their friends.As a result, the researcher discovered that role play simplified the process of speaking English.The second cycle outperformed the first.Many children feel encouraged to speak in front of their peers.They responded to the researcher more favorably than in the previous cycle.Every group was well-managed since active students were distributed among numerous groups.Finally, role play proved useful in improving the students' speaking ability.

CONCLUSION
The teacher has to pay close attention to students' speaking abilities.As a means of communication.English must be taught in a communicative manner.Listening is one of the four language skills.Speaking.Writing and Reading Students who learn the speaking skill can communicate with others via oral language.Speaking is a method of communicating one's thoughts and ideas to others.Students' self-confidence grows as a result of their ability to communicate in English.It is a fact that not all students are fluent in English.Some of them may be good at structure or grammar, but they are not always able to communicate orally.SMPN I Serawai, as a children's education institution, prepares students to be good communicators.
The use of role play techniques to teach speaking skills yields considerable results.The fluency component in the first cycle is 24.20, increasing to 28.88 from the maximum score of 40.From a maximum score of 40, the pronunciation component is 24.20 in the first cycle and 30.60 in the second cycle.The grammar component is 9.76, up from the maximum score of 20.The strategy also improves the outcome of teaching and student activity, as well as the teaching and learning process.The observation field note demonstrated this.Finally, there were some notable gains in the teaching of speaking skills to eighth-grade students at SMP Negeri 1 Serawai throughout the academic year 2014/2015.

Table 3 :
The score comparison between cycle 1 and cycle 2