Improving The Students’ Speaking Skill Through The Key Words Technique

By

Duloh Suherman

ABSTRACT

In learning English, there four main skills which must be mastered by the students those are listening, speaking, reading and writing. The fourth skills have the same things and connection to each other. For example : Speaking skill which can not be separated from Listening and Writing skill that is also supported by Reading ability. Speakingactivities in learner’s community in Indonesia are still minus. The learners would prefer reading and writing to speaking and listening. Normally, the learners use their spare time for speaking.By speaking a lot, they can avoid doing useless things, such as fighting amongst themselves. It’s about the time the governments participate on the education system such as providing an adequate and room for Laboratory of English language for on every public school. The writer hopes that the students will be more active in speaking English in daily activities at their school,because it will be make them easy in learning English generally.Based on the explanation above, the writer is interested to find out “ Does teaching speaking English by using key words technique improve students ‘speaking skill.? ”. What do you do when students don’t want to put that extra mile to do a speaking presentation, so they get cold feet and read from their notes. Improving speaking skills takes a lot of classroom practice, there are two main of elements for the students in order to get theirImproving speaking skills, i.e. motivation and creative thinking to speak, and skill. Their teacher has to give motivation the students in order to dare to speak English. The most important skill to study English is speaking, because it is commonly used in our daily life. Teaching speaking must use techniques in order to increase the speaking ability.

( KeyWords : motivation , creative thinking ,speak, keywords technique )

A. INTRODUCTION

English language, is primarily essential to have a great success in every field of work , because the national prosperity are not based on natural resources and physical capital anymore , but it is based towards the intellectualism, socialism, and credibility. Thus, the demand to keep exploring the knowledge is a must.English as the first foreign language in Indonesia is formally studied from Elementary School to University. In Indonesia, English has become the main subject for students of TK, SD, SMP, and SMU. In Junior High School, English must be mastered for helping students to develop their communicative competent both oral and written.

In educational context, English language has function as a means of communication. For example : to convey information, and in daily context, as a means to build interpersonal relationship, changing information and enjoy language esthetics in English culture. Speakingactivities in learner’s community in Indonesia are still minus. The learners would prefer reading and writing to speaking and listening. Normally, the learners use their spare time for speaking.

The writer hopes that the students will be more active in speaking English in daily activities at their school,because it will be make them easy in learning English generally.Based on the explanation above, the writer is interested to find out “ Does teaching speaking English by using key words technique improve students ‘speaking skill.? ”. What do you do, when students don’t want to put that extra mile to do a speaking presentation, so they get cold feet and read from their notes. Improving speaking skills takes a lot of classroom practice, there are two main of elements for the students in order to get theirImproving speaking skills, i.e. motivationto speak, and skill.

Their teacher has to give motivation the students in order to dare to speak English.Sometimes it is necessary to think beyond the box, adding creative elements wherever possible depending of course, on the skills of your students and how open they are tocreative thinking. Improving the speaking skills of your students may be difficult, but the added benefit is building confidence in students for speaking skills and strategies. Even though the professional years are still way in the future, help your students by starting small. Teach both speaking and listening activities, sometimes even in one lesson, while preparing them for that future presentation.

That way, students don’t feel the pressure and burden when it comes their turn to present a presentation due to remembering the fear of those earlier years during those speaking activities. The most important skill to study English is speaking, because it is commonly used in our daily life. Teaching speaking must use techniques in order to increase the speaking ability..

From the above statements, it is concluded that speaking , is some time difficult not only for the students but also for the teacher, it means that the teacher must use the righttechnique in teaching speaking while the students must have a lot of speaking practice in order to overcome their difficulty in English. Moreover, speaking activities do not always work in the class because there are many factors that prevent students from speaking English among their friends. They were lack of confidence and afraid of making mistakes and being laughed at by his or her friends.

Moreover, speaking sections in the text books give very few students the chance to talk, while the rest of the class remains as listeners , often inattentive ones. It is the similar phenomenon around us where students are too many in each class but it does not become a threat to educate them. Conversation lessons and exercise are intended to improve conversational skills. For this reason, it is helpful to first focus on buildingskills by eliminating some of the barriers that might be in the way of production. Reaching this objective, students have to be supported by one important activities in speaking, by using key word technique. Using Key Words technique . Depending on the variety of visual resources and class level and ability, a teacher can brainstorm with the class a variety of sentences, key words, and phrases around a particular category or situational context that is the building block for a presentation.

Teaching keyword technique is important for speech classes. It is valuable for teaching essay writing too. However, teaching the concept of keyword is sometimes difficult. Before you can teach a keyword outline, students must understand the difference between a main idea and supporting details. Once they understand the difference and can show clearly that they understand what each is, it will be easier to teach students about key word technique. In practicing key word technique, the students find various difficulties, for example;correctly, and using correct intonation while they are speaking because the students have some common problems that usually occurred from three aspects ; linguistic, psychological, and cognitive.

B. THEORITICAL DESCRIPTION

The theoretical description will explain about learning speaking through the key words technique. According to the title is “. Improving students’ speaking through the key wordsTechnique “.Students often think that the ability to speak a language is the product of language learning, but speaking is also a crucial part of the language learning process. Effective instructors teach students speaking strategies; using minimal responses, recognizing scripts, and using language to talk about language. that they can use to help themselves expand their knowledge of the language and their confidence in using it.

Language learners who lack confidence in their ability to participate successfully in oral interaction often listen in silence while others do the talking. One way to encourage such learners to begin to participate is to help them build up a stock of minimal responses that they can use in different types of exchanges. Such responses can be especially useful for beginners.

Minimal responses are predictable, often idiomatic phrases that conversation participants use to indicate understanding, agreement, doubt, and other responses to what another speaker is saying. Having a stock of such responses enables a learner to focus on what the other participant is saying, without having to simultaneously plan a response. Some communication situations are associated with a predictable set of spoken exchanges a script. Greetings, apologies, compliments, invitations, and other functions that are influenced by social and cultural norms often follow patterns or scripts. So do the transactional exchanges involved in activities such as obtaining information and making a purchase. In these scripts, the relationship between a speaker's turn and the one that follows it can often be anticipated.

Instructors can help students develop speaking ability by making them aware of the scripts for different situations so that they can predict what they will hear and what they will need to say in response. Through interactive activities, instructors can give students practice in managing and varying the language that different scripts contain. Language learners are often too embarrassed or shy to say anything when they do not understand another speaker or when they realize that a conversation partner has not understood them. Instructors can help students overcome this reticence by assuring them that misunderstanding and the need for clarification can occur in any type of interaction, whatever the participants' language skill levels. Instructors can also give students strategies and phrases to use for clarification and comprehension check.

By encouraging students to use clarification phrases in class when misunderstanding occurs, and by responding positively when they do, instructors can create an authentic practice environment within the classroom itself. As they develop control of various clarification strategies, students will gain confidence in their ability to manage the various communication situations that they may encounter outside the classroom.

Improving your English speaking skills will help you communicate more easily and effectively. But how do you become a more confident English speaker?. Any practice is good – whether you speak to someone who is a native English speaker or not. If possible, use simple English sentence structure that you know is correct, so that you can concentrate on getting your message across. Use key words and phrases you know in new situations. Native English speakers are more likely to correct you if you use the wrong word than if you use the wrong grammar. Experimenting with vocabulary is a really good way of getting feedback.

You can often get clues to what people think by looking at their body language. Respond to them in a natural way. Try not to translate into and from your own language. This takes too much time and will make you more hesitant. If you forget a word, do what native English speakers do all the time, and say things that 'fill' the conversation. This is better than keeping completely silent. Try using ‘um’, or ‘er’, if you forget the word.

It's important to use a natural rhythm when speaking English, i.e. don’t speak too fast ! , but if you speak too fast it will be difficult for people to understand you. Try to relax when you speak – you'll find your mouth does most of the pronunciation work for you. When you speak English at normal speed, you'll discover that many of the pronunciation skills, such as linking between words, will happen automatically. Remember, when speaking English…, Try to become less hesitant and more confident.The students have to dare to speak and don't be shy to speak – the more you do it, the more confident you'll become. Remember to be polite – use "please" and "thank you" if you ask someone to do something for you.

C. LEARNING TO SPEAK

Before considering how this can be done , it should be noted that the speaking in a language is a must . Many language learner’s regard speaking ability as the measure of a understanding a language. This learner define fluency as the ability to converse with other much more than the ability to write or comprehend oval language. They regard speaking as the most important skill they progress in the terms of accomplishments in spoken communication. Before we will discuss about the subject, There are a lot of definitions of speaking.

1.Definitions of Speaking

Speaking is a media for understanding and expressing the information, thoughts and feeling. It is also used to develop science ,technology, and culture Language is essentiallyspeech and speech is basically communication by sounds, and speaking is a skill used by someone in daily life communication whether at school outside. The skill is acquired by much repetition : itprimarily a neuromuscular and not an intellectual process. It consist of competence in sending and receiving message. When we talk about speaking or conversation teaching we do not refer to the kind of social conversation that goes around the family dinner or friends gathering. The kind of conversation is rarely achieved in any language classroom as previously mentioned as a very artificial situation. The English teaching in .language schools covers the teaching off all for language skills ; reading, speaking, listening and writing which are taught in a integrated way.

Douglas Brown said that, speaking is the actual practice with the others use the oral language. In this case, the writer used role play technique to improved the ability of speaking students and based on principles stated by Larsen-freeman, The principles are :

a.Being able to understand what a speakers says is a part of the ability to communicate .

b.The communicative approach emphasizes on path of communication process, not the language forms.

c.In communicating, a speaker has a choice of what he/she is going to say and how to say it.

d.Most of grammar and vocabulary learned by the students are from the language functions they have studied and the situation context from the other speaker.

e.The use of games is considered important since it involves students in the actual communication.

f.The students mistakes should be tolerated since they are considered natural in the improvement of communicative ability.

According to opinion above, the writer would like to say that the characteristic of teaching English speakingis not focused on the teacher anymore. Teacher are only a facilitator in the classroom, they give some support for the students to study. The focus in this case is students studying, it means that the lesson and the activities in the classroom have the orientation for the students. The goal most speaking classes is communication when the students are able to function the language inreal. Situation and they are able to express themselves in a real situation under the guidance of a teacher. The communicative competence will simply be achieved. There are some contribution that communicative activities can make language learning better. At first, they provide task practice or various kinds of skill performance. Practice in the classroom is well – achieved through giving various kind of communicative activities. Second, they improve motivation ,not as a structural system it takes place only through natural processes that operate them when a person is involved in using the provide the opportunities for positive personal relation ship between learners and teachers.

According to opinion W.H. Burton, that speaking is regard speaking ability as the measure of a understanding a language. This learner define fluency as the ability to converse with other much more than the ability to write or comprehend oval language. They regard speaking as the most important skill they progress in the terms of accomplishments in spoken communication. Based on two definitions of speaking above , we can conclude that Language learned need to recognize that speaking involves there areas of knowledge ( pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary ) : using the right words in the right order with the correct pronunciation, function ( transaction and interaction ) knowing when clarity of message is essential ( transaction / information, exchange ) and when precise understanding is not required (interaction/relationship building ),social and cultural rules and norms ( turn, taking, rate of speech, length of pansies between speakers, relative roles or participants): understanding how to take into account who is speaking to whom in what circumstances ,about, what, and for what reason .

Interactive speaking situations include face to face conversation and telephone calls, in which we are alternately listening and speaking, and in which we have a chance to ask for clarification, repetition, or slower speech from our conversation partner. Some speaking situation are partially interactive, such as when giving a speech to alive audience and judge from the expression on their face and body language whether or not he or she is being understood. Some few speaking situations may be totally non-interactive, such as when recording a speech for a radio broadcast.

2.Speaking skill

In learning English, there four main skills which must be mastered by the students those are listening, speaking, reading and writing. The fourth skills have the same things and connection to each other. For example : Speaking skill which can not be separated from Listening and Writing skill that is also supported by Reading ability.

Micro-skills

Here are some of the micro-skills involved in speaking. The speaker has to:

a.pronounce the distinctive sounds of a language clearly enough so that people can distinguish them. This includes making tonal distinctions.

b.use stress and rhythmic patterns, and intonation patterns of the language clearly enough so that people can understand what is said.

c.use the correct forms of words. This may mean, for example, changes in the tense, case, or gender.

d.put words together in correct word order.

e.use vocabulary appropriately.

f.use the register or language variety that is appropriate to the situation and the relationship to the conversation partner.

g.make clear to the listener the main sentence constituents, such as subject, verb, object, by whatever means the language uses.

h.make the main ideas stand out from supporting ideas or information.

i.make the discourse hang together so that people can follow what you are saying “ .

3.The Importance of Speaking

The important of communicative competence support the ability to speak generally ,communicative competence is taken to be the objective of language teaching. It means that communicate competence is the communication ability in verbal and large. It includes the ability to identify ; when ,why, with, who, where, whom ,what and how from of definite speech that have to be spoken. Based on that opinion, the researcher concludes how important speaking is for the students, because it can help them develop their mind and awareness of aspects necessary to enhance their critical speaking ability. Speaking can also improve their knowledge of language only by speaking would they be able to convey their ideas to other people.

When we learn first language, we always speak it first. There are not many children who can understand a letter telling them not to play with fire. We all start life as illiterates and most of us remain illiterate for at least four years. We are often illiterate in several languages. When we live in area, where we live in area where people speak a language that we do not know, we will great the people and express our basic needs in speech.

Although it is possible to speak without expecting an immediate answer (such as a lecture or in radio broadcast), speech is most commonly used in conversation between two or more people. Speech allows two-way communication in the last 24 hours. We have certainly enhanced greeting with people. we will have ordinary social conversation about events, which have taken place in the college, school, town or village.

4.The Process of Speaking

There are some process that people use in communication : tounderstand and produce written and spoken text by collaboration with friends, asking help and using the dictionary, to easy understanding of other people or record texts, by hearing the text more times and repetition to overcome deadlock communication, by changing to other massage, avoiding the topic, and not continuing the massage, to reach the goals and compensate the grape by describing , using otherterm identical to the target ,using multifunction words, .using gesture, changing the structure, changing to a new word, translating and brushing up, to stop measure and delay the time by using the voice “hmm, err, wait : the sign of hesitating like : well, actually …..where was I …? Reviewing the word.

If we want to communicate well we need to know the technique of speaking well. Process “ specifics methods or approaches where working with materials in creating work or arts. The clearness process of speaking and width of comprehension have strong affect on the speaking skill. Mean while according to Kenneth Hence in the book of principle ofspeaking stated that speaking is means of convening ideas orally from one mind to another by means of a system of symbols called language

Based on some definitions above the writerconcludes that speaking is a way for sending or giving massage to another people orally in order to get response from them about something we wish. With speaking we can interact with other people in our environment. In speaking process we have to arrange the true component for speaking in order to understand what we mean and what we wish. Through speaking there will be a good relationship among us.

D. KEY WORD TECHNIQUE

1. Definition of Key Word Technique

The Key Word Technique is one of techniques in teaching conversation. Another useful activities used in teaching conversation is an activity called ‘Key Word Technique ‘. We may say that ‘Key Word Technique‘ is a primary Technique to provide participation and involvement in the learning process.

In training environment,‘Key Word Technique ‘ allows the learners to know objective feedback about something or the main idea in any conversation. ‘Key Word Technique ‘can be used to diagnose interactive skills , to provide models and practice, and motivate individuals to pay more attention to their interpersonal impact. One of its primary benefits is that it allows the learners to develop speaking skill in a real condition.

2.Why we use Key Word Technique

Using Key Words technique . Depending on the variety of visual resources and class level and ability, a teacher can brainstorm with the class a variety of sentences, (key) words, and phrases around a particular category or situational context that is the building block for a presentation.Teaching keyword outlining is important for speech classes. It is valuable for teaching essay writing too. However, teaching the concept of keyword is sometimes difficult. Before you can teach a keyword outline, students must understand the difference between a main idea and supporting details. Once they understand the difference and can show clearly that they understand what each is, it will be easier to teach students about keyword outlining.

In practicing key word technique, the students find various difficulties, for example;correctly, and using correct intonation while they are speaking because the students have some common problems that usually occurred from three aspects ; linguistic, psychological, and cognitive. Using the keyword technique to learn vocabulary The keyword is undoubtedly an effective means of learning the words of a foreign language. How well you remember depends on how well you learned them, not on whether you have learned the words using a keyword.

Even using a keyword, you still need to rehearse the information to be learned. The keyword mnemonic is not always the best method of learning particular words. Skilled learners may be best to use the keyword mnemonic selectively, for particularly difficult words. The keyword mnemonic requires individual instruction and practice, to use effectively. Using a verbal (sentence) link is at least as effective as an image, and is easier for many people..

The quality of the keyword mnemonic may affect its durability. Mnemonics that emphasize distinctiveness, that increase the vividness and concreteness of the word to be learned, are remembered less well over time than mnemonics that emphasize relational and semantic information (which is why the emphasis in recent times is on making interactive images or sentences, in which the keyword and definition interact in some way). Having bizarre images seems to help remembering immediately after learning (when there is a mix of bizarre and less unusual images), but doesn’t seem to help particularly over the long term. In the mid-seventies, Rough and Atkinson had remarkable results using the keyword method to teach Russian vocabulary to college students. While later studies have not tended to find such dramatic results, nevertheless, a large number of studies have demonstrated an advantage in using the keyword mnemonic to learn vocabulary.The key word method is undeniably an effective method for accelerating learning of suitable material. Nor is there any doubt that it improves immediate recall. Which can be useful in it self. However, what people want is long-term recall, and it is there that the advantages of the keyword technique are most contentious.

The question of the relative forgetting curves of the keyword and other learning strategies is chiefly a matter of theoretical interest , the writer don’t think any researcher would deny that repetition is always necessary. But the “magic” of the keyword, as espoused by some mnemonic enthusiasts, downplays this necessity. For practical purposes, it is merely sufficient to remember that, for long-term learning, you must strengthen this link between keyword and image (or sentence) through repeated retrieval (but probably not nearly as often as the repetition needed to “fix” meaningless information that has no such mnemonic aid.

A number of factors may affect the strength of a keyword mnemonic. One that’s often suggested is whether or not the mnemonic is supplied to the student, or thought up by them. Intuitively, we feel that a mnemonic you’ve thought up yourself will be stronger than one that is given to you. One study that compared the effectiveness of keywords provided versus keywords that are self-generated, found that participants who were required to make up their own keywords performed much worse than those who were given keywords. This doesn’t answer the question of the relative durability, but it does point to how much more difficult the task of generating keywords is. This has been confirmed in other studies. The advantage of a semantic connection may be seen in the following example, taken from an experimental study. Students in a free control condition (those told to use their own methods to remember), almost all used a keyword-type technique to learn some items. Unlike those in the keyword group, the keywords chosen by these subjects typically had some semantic connection as well. ( The use of somewhat arbitrary keywords is characteristic of the strategy as originally conceived by Atkinson).