JOURNAL RESEARCH OF

THE USE OF SPEAKING PAL APPLICATION IN TEACHING EFL

STUDENTS IN DEVELOPING SPEAKING AND LISTENING SKILL
(A Quasi-experimental Study at the First Grade Students of Senior High School at SMAN 1
Tirtayasa)

Submitted as a Partial Fulfillment of Research Methodology Subject as Final Test of

Second Semester in Master Degree of Education in English Department
From The Lecturer: Dr. Syafrizal, M.Pd.

UES ATHOILLAH
7777180011

MAGISTER PROGRAM OF ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF SULTAN AGENG TIRTAYASA
2019

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THE USE OF SPEAKING PAL APPLICATION IN TEACHING EFL STUDENTS IN
DEVELOPING SPEAKING AND LISTENING SKILL

Ues Athoillah - 7777180011

Abstract

Speaking and listening is a part that represents the mastery capacity of one's English as a
foreign language in Indonesia. Speaking belongs to productive skill and listening belongs to
receptive skill. Both are very important to master. Because when someone masters the
language, then of course he will produce information and also receive information. This
research aimed to find out the effect of speaking pal application on students’ speaking and
listening skill. The research design is quasi-experimental, with a t-test. The population is the
students’ first grade of senior high school at SMAN 1 Tirtayasa academic year of 2018/2019.
The researcher divides the research into two classes. X IPA 1 as experiment class and X IPA
2 as control class. In the end of this research, the researcher got the data from the post-test
that T count = 57.571 > T table + 2.032 in α significance 0.05 ad degree of freedom 67.
While in listening, the researcher got the data that T count 21.314 > T table = 2.032 with the
similarities α significance and degree of freedom. Listening comprehension is a complex skill
particularly in mastered by non-native speaker settings. This research aimed at finding out the
effect of multimedia application on students’ listening. The research design is experimental,
with a t-test. The population is the sixth semester of HKBP Nommensen University at the
academic year of 2016/2017, six classes of listening comprehension, 3 classes for
experiemnts and the other for control, each class of 20 students. The findings states that the
Tcount = 14.68 > Ttable = 2.02 in α significance 0.05 and degree of freedom 38. It means
that, multimedia aplication is effective than conventinal media. Multimeadi in this study can
be used by other lecturer or teacher as the optional instrument in teaching listening
comprehension.

Keywords: effectiveness, multimedia, listening comprehension

1. Introduction

In this era, we live in a period of global competition where mastery of technology and
language is often deflated to the younger generation. Awareness of mastering technology and
communication in welcoming the industrial revolution 4.0 in each individual has been widely
carried out where mastery of language and technology is the key interpreter in preparing to
live in this era. So, many efforts from the educators and the government encourage preparing
the ability in mastering communication and technology. For example, Indonesia’s
government realizes their responsibility on their citizen ability to master foreign language
especially for English language as international language. They prepare children that will
lead this country in the future by making suitable regulation related to educational system.
The government regulation number 22 year 2006 about standard of content for English lesson
points out that: [ CITATION Per06 \l 1033 ]

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 English subject in high school / MA aims to have students the ability so that students
have the ability, 1. ...., 2. Have an awareness of the nature and importance of English
to improve the competitiveness of the nation in global society 3. ... (English senior
high school / MA aims at the learners have the ability to, 1 ... ... 2. The awareness of
its importance and importance to improve the nation's competitiveness in a global
society, 3. ...)

Based on the regulation above English language is the most important foreign
language that Indonesian people need to communicate in this era in the context of global
competition. One of the global competitions is mastery of technology and communication.
The use of technology is often used in various ways such as business, health, science and
education. Of course, in implementing education in the field of language technology has
become a trend. This becomes a very effective method that can make it easier for every user.
Language learning through technology is able to present audio, visual and even both media
which are presented in interesting forms that make it easy. This is similar to Ahmadi
[ CITATION Moh18 \l 1033 ]

The use of technology has become an important part of the learning process in and
out of the class. Every language class usually uses some form of technology.
Technology has been used to both help and improve language learning. Technology
enables teachers to adapt classroom activities, thus enhancing the language learning
process. Technology continues to grow in importance as a tool to help teachers
facilitate language learning for their learners.

In learning English, it has four basic skills; speaking, listening, writing, and reading
that should be mastered by Indonesian learner as a basic to communicate using this language.
Among the mentioned skills, speaking and listening skills are very important to learn. Both
skills represent productive and receptive skills. Productive skill is a skill that emphasizes
mastery of learners in producing language such as ability in speaking and writing. While
receptive skill is a skill that emphasizes a learner on the acceptance of language such as
mastery in listening and reading skills. Speaking and listening skills are active skills which
can be the main measure in mastering a foreign language by a learner. So on this occasion,
the researcher conducted a research test on learning English by using speaking pal application
on speaking and listening skills. Research is carried out using the quantitative method of
quasi experiment with α significance 0.05. This research aims to determine whether there is
an effect of teaching through the use of speaking pal application on the development of
speaking and listening skills.

2. Related Literature

2.1 Speaking Pal Applcation

Speaking pal can help boost your speaking skills. This application is very interactive and
features 5 minute lessons where you can interact with video tutors in short dialogues.
The great advantage with Speaking Pal is that students can have instant feedback on
their speaking performance. [CITATION 9ap13 \l 1033 ]

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In the speaking pal application provides a variety of interactive learning videos, so
students can observe, listen, and imitate all English learning activities contained in the
video. In addition, in the speaking pal application, we can assess the extent to which we
can imitate by reciting sentences that have been provided in interactive videos so that
students can find out where there are errors in listening, observing and reciting the
sentences provided.

The advantage and disadvantage of using video in Teaching

Teaching by using video has been used since years ago. It is believed that video gives
potential impact on foreign language study. It is beneficial to present both linguistic and non-
linguistic aspects. A video is a resourceful tool for teaching foreign language speaking.
Harmer (2007: 308) states that a video can provide language in use. For example, the
students can see how intonation matches facial expression and what gestures accompany
certain phrases. Another great advantage of video is that it provides authentic language input
for the students. Cakir (2006) states movies and TV programs are made for native speakers,
so in that sense video provides authentic language input. Smaldino, Lowther, and Russell
(2007: 316) say that one of the advantages of using video is cultural understanding. It means
that the teacher can develop a deep appreciation for other cultures by seeing depictions of
everyday life in other society.

A video offers some exceptional qualities that make it particularly useful in education. Lever-
Duffy and McDonald (2008) say that video can appear to alter both time and space as it
captures events. They also state that video has the potential to shift the viewer‟s ___location as
well as the time frame experience. Video travelogues, documentaries, and docudramas can
seem to shift where viewers are located, from the classroom to the ___location they are viewing.
However, above all the advantages of using video to teach speaking, Riddel (2003: 223)
states that there are also the disadvantages of using video. The disadvantages of using audio-
visual media are the concern of the using of equipment such as students may not see it as a
real learning. Students sometimes are frustrated with the „stop-start‟ nature of lesson, and
with a very big class not everyone may be able to see the screen. The teacher may have to
prepare their own materials and tasks. Riddle also suggested not overusing video type of
lesson.

From the theories above, it can be concluded that video brings many advantages in teaching
and learning speaking. Using a video in teaching speaking gives authentic model of English.
It can also provide language in use. Moreover, a video in speaking allows students learning
correct pronunciation, improving their vocabularies and understanding different culture.

A video is generally easy to understand because of the available visual clues. Using it in
learning is interesting and motivating for the students to learn. However, the teacher should
also concern about the equipment used in teaching video. Teacher should also manage the
use of video and the impact for the students, so they can see it clearly and become aware of
what the aims of video for their learning.

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2.2 Speaking

Speaking is considered as one of the four basic skills in English: listening, reading, speaking,
and writing. As productive skill, speaking skill is demanded to produce a result of processing
a language. Speaking is the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of
verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts (Chaney, 1998: 13). Considering as
that definition, speaking is the most important skill because it is one of the abilities to carry
out conversation in the language. The students need speaking in their second language
learning because it is related to the success contribution of the learner in school and later in
every phase of life. According to Richard (2008: 19) “the mastery of speaking skills in
English is a priority for many second-language or foreign-language learners”. Based on the
statement above, it can be concluded that speaking skill is important aspect to elaborate
English for communcation. Speaking skill is one of criteria for the succesful foreign
language learning. The goal of learning foreign language is sited on reaching the
communacative (Littlewood, 1992).

Speaking is a kind of tactical maneuvering that can be characterized as an overtly interactive

manner of communicating that means that talking is reciprocal because it takes the form of
an exchange between two or more participant with each participant taking turns to say
something (Widdowson, 1996: 64). In addition, Broughton (1980: 27) argues that speaking is
producing a sequence of vocal sounds in such a way that another person can reconstruct from
those sounds a useful approximation to our original meaning.

2.3 Listening

Listening is very important in second and foreign language study. It is a skill that looks like
passive activity but actually it is not. It not only listen what the speaker said but the receiver
processes what he/she listens to. In processing the information that listeners listen at least
they do five elements inside the process- hearing, attending, understanding, responding, and
remembering [ CITATION Ste16 \l 1033 ]. If the elements are incomplete, it’s only hearing not
listening.

In addition, Michael Rost said listening in language teaching refers to a unique complex
process that allows the listeners to understand spoken language by pacing, units of encoding,
and pacing factually[ CITATION Mic01 \l 1033 ]. In short, listening asks the listeners to process
what they hear to gain information that informed by the speaker. Also, Harmer categorizes
listening as a receptive skill and including in sub-skill area and he also stated there are
differences how people understand for specific and general information through their
listening [ CITATION Har91 \l 1033 ] . In short from some definitions above, listening is a
language skill that has complex process which need some elements to complete that process
for gathering information of spoken language by hear sense that human has.

3. Methodology

The research design is a quantitative t-test with classroom-action research as its treatment.
This design was used to know the effect of speaking pal application. This research design is

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to find out to what extent the speaking pal application helps the improving mastery of
speaking and listening comprehension, as follows.

Pre-test Treatment Post-test

Experiment Class √ Using Speaking Pal Application √

Control Class √ Without Speaking Pal Application √

Pre-test are given to both of groups (experimental and control), but in teaching and learning
process both of groups had difference treatment (experience) whether experimental group are
taught with speaking pal application while control group with textual dialogue or without
speaking pal application. At the end of this design, both of classes are given the post-test.
Finally the data (pre-test and post-test) was analyzed with t-test and compare with t-table.

4. Result and Discussion of Research

The research findings states that there is a significant Tcount = 57.571 > Ttable = 2.032 in
speaking skill. And in listening skill is Tcount = 21.314 > Ttable. The observation and
teaching reflection says that a teacher using of multimedia need to adjust and sometimes
rewind the use of speaking pal application to enhance and to help facilitate inputs for the
speaking and listening and to give time to accommodate new-old information strategy to
enhance the process of speaking and listening skill capacity and acquisition. It happened that
when a students has master at speaking and listening comprehension discourse material,
students need more practices of similar text generic content so that the logical spot capacity
grows better upon further speaking and listening comprehension discourse. The need analysis
shows that sentence extent the discourse material of listening materials is relevant to the need
of the learners as the table below depicted it.

Table 2. Mean score and standard deviation score for speaking skill

EXPERIMENT CLASS CONTROL CLASS

PRE-TEST POST-TEST PRE-TEST POST-TEST

X S X S X S X S

60.71 6.39 78.86 7.15 56.32 5.81 64.11 4.84

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Table 3. Mean score and standard deviation score for listening skill

EXPERIMENT CLASS CONTROL CLASS

PRE-TEST POST-TEST PRE-TEST POST-TEST

X S X S X S X S

59.57 7.98 73.71 6.10 56.02 5.87 63.97 2.24

5. Conclusion

As a conclusion, speaking pal is necessary for the students to improve their learning activities
on the subject of speaking and listening skill. It is significant to improve the students’
speaking and listening skill at mean score on the pre-test of experiment class is 60.71 with the
higher score on 75 and the lowest score on 50 with deviation score on 6.39, while the mean
score on the post-test is 78.86 with the higher score on 90 and the lowest score on 60 with
deviation score on 7.153 in speaking skill. While in listening skill the researcher got the data
for experiment class with mean score 59.57, the higher score on 75 and the lowest score on
50 with deviation score on 7.98, while the mean score on the post-test is 73.71 with the
higher score on 85 and the lowest score on 65 with deviation score on 6.10. Suggestions to
this research are to make more time conducting in a longitudinal research project with more
funds and developments on the progress of designing the multimedia according to the goals
of especially to the speaking and listening skill in order to improve the students’ speaking and
listening skill. Experiment is absolutely needed in this research in more variables as a
scientific method to show the reader in accurate and significant results of students’ speaking
listening due to the development of speaking pal application to support the learning.

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Bibliography