Teaching English Speaking Using Flash Cards

Teaching English Speaking Using Flash cards

At Kindergarten Miftahul ‘Ula

Purwakarta

Naryo (09220262)

English Education Study Program Language and Arts Department

Sekolah Tinggi Keguruan Dan Ilmu Pendidikan (STKIP) Siliwangi Bandung

ABSTRACT

The objective of this research entitled “Teaching English Speaking Using Flash Cards at Kindergarten Mifthaul ‘Ula Purwakarta” was to find out whether or not teaching speaking using flash cards was effective to improve the students’ speaking ability. In this research, the writer used “One group pretest-posttest design” and quantitative research method. The population of this research was 30 students taken from the second year students of Kindergarten Miftahul ‘Ula-Purwakarta in academic year2012-2013 and the sample was entire population. The instrument of this research was speaking test. The data of this research were collected by giving speaking test to the students as sample. The collected data were analyzed using the t-test formula. The results of this research showedthat : mean score of pretest was 1.87, mean score of posttest was 3.20, tobserved was 12.09. The ttable with degree of freedom (df) 29 and significance level at 5% was 2.02.Based on the results of data analysis above, alternative hypothesis of this research was accepted because tobservedwas higher than ttable(12.09 > 2.02). It also means that “Teaching English Speaking Using Flash Cards at Kindergarten Mifthaul ‘Ula Purwakarta in academic year 2012-2013, was effective to improve the students’ speaking ability.

Keywords : Teaching Speaking, Young learner and Flash Cards

The Background

Language is the most important means of communication for us. By using language, we can communicate, send or obtain some information to each other in spoken or in the written form. One of them is English. Now English has become an important language throughout the world. For many countries, English is not only used in business field, technology, economic field, but also in the department of education.Being a developing country, Indonesia has to improve the education sector because it is the key used for developing human resources of the country. Now days, Indonesian people live in the era of globalization, era of information and era of competitiveness, so they need to master English as a means of communication. In other words, English education should be improved therefore the students should be familiar with English

Inspired by the above idea, the writer would like to propose the technique used for teaching English to the students of pre-school by using Flash Card at “Kindergarten Miftahul ‘Ula – Purwakarta”. English should be introduced to students of kindergarten and vocabulary is very important. They should be familiar with English sounds, numbers, colors, things, animals and family, etc. therefore the writer would like to make them familiar with English vocabulary. The writer writes his research paper entitled “The Teaching English Speaking to Pre-School Students through Flash Card (A Pre-Experimental Study at “Kindergarten Miftahul ‘Ula - Purwakarta)”.The writer determined the statements of the problems as follows:

a.Is teaching English to pre School students by using Flash Card effective?

b.Is teaching English to pre School students by using Flash Card interesting?

Flash Card is one of the ways of teaching English speaking. A Flash Card is a collection of large pages which are bound together at the top. The pages are “flipped” or brought up to the back as they are used. Flash Cards are useful in teaching situations

There are several aims of the research, among other things could be put forward as follows:

1The writer would like to know the difficulties of students in speaking.

2He would like to find out whether or not the teaching techniques using Flash Card can improve student’s skill in English.

3He would like to find out the factors needed in the teaching of English for Pre-School students, especially the skills’ students of “Kindergarten Miftahul ‘Ula”.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Definition of Teaching

The teaching process not only in teaching –learning process but also in our daily life for example; When parent give an explanation how to wear shoes their under five children (Brumfit, 1984:115).Teaching is showing or helping someone to learn how to do something providing with knowledge causing to know or to understand (Brown, 1994: 7)

The Definition of Young Learners and Very Young Learners

We sometimes make distinction between very young learners (VYLs) age under 7 years, and young learners (YLs) aged 7 to 12 (Mary Slattery and Jane Willis, 2001:4).According to Mary Slattery and Jane Willis (2001:4), if you are teaching a second language to children under seven, remember that very young learners:

-Acquire though hearing and experience lots of English, in much the same way as they acquire their first language.

-Learn through doing thing and playing; they are not consciously trying to learn new words or phrases-for them this is incidental

-Loves playing with language sounds, imitating and making funny noises so have fun playing with words and phrases for example singing them, exaggerating your expression.

Teaching Speaking

Larsen(1986:123)state that”since the communication is a process. The goal in learning to speak a second language is to be able to communicate orally with s native speaker. Chastain (1976:333) states that “Speaking isa productive skill. As such, its development is undertaken after the receptive skill”. There are five components of speaking skill, they are: grammar, vocabulary, pronounciation, fluency, and comperhension. “Teaching speaking is to teach English language learners to use the language quickly and confidently with few unnatural pauses, which is called fluency” (Nunan:2003).

The Audio and Visual Media

The word “media” comes from Latin that means middle, transporter, and in Arabian language is mediator (Arsyad, 1997:30). According to Gerlach and Ely (1971) Media is human, material, or the moment that builds the condition to get science, skill and attitude. Media can be defined as “ The physical means by which instruction is delivered to students “ (Reiser, Robert and Dick Walter, 1996).The word Audio means connected with hearing the sound 2000:68), and Visual means connected a picture, video, etc used in teaching to help people to learn or understand something (Hornby,2000:1446). Sujana and Rivai (1992:2) said that the purposes of learning media, are:

Learning process will interest the student’s attention
The materials of teaching will be clearer
Teaching method will be more various
The students can do many learning activities, because they are not only listening but also watching, doing, practicing, and so on.

Flash card as Media in Teaching Speaking

A flash card is a collection of large pages which are bound together at the top. The pages are “flipped” or brought up and to the back as they are used..Flash cards are useful in teaching situations where you need to teach a number of people at a time. They are used:

When books are unavailable, scarce, or too expensive for individuals to have their own copy
When other media such as overheads and slides are not available, and where group learning is most culturally appropriate.

C. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design

In this research, the writer used the one group pre-test – post-test design. Crowl (1996 :290) said, once as a pretest (O1) before students start writing with the processor (X) and again as post test (O2) after students used the word processor.

PretestTreatment Posttest

O1 X O2

Research Method

In this research the writer used the quantitative method. According to Crowl (1996 : 10), quantitative research methods are used to examine questions that can be answered by collecting and statistically analyzing data that are in numerical form.

Research Instruments

The instruments used for gathering the data were:

Pretest

Pretest was given in order to find out the students’ achievement before giving treatment. It was a speaking test consisting of 5 questions .It means that the students should answer some questions related to colours before giving treatment.

Posttest

At the end of the treatment the same test was given as post test. Posttest was given in order to find out the result of the treatment. The posttest was given to measure the students’ understanding after giving explanation using flash cards. The test scores were taken as the data for further analysis.

Population and Sample

According to Burns (1994), a population is a group of people (specifically and clearly defined) which have at least one characteristic in common. However, a simple is stated as “any part of the population regardless of whether it is representative or not”.In this study the population examined was all of second year students of a kindergarten located in the city of Purwakarta.. Since there are only thirty students in the second year, the study took all of them as participants. The choice of taking the second year kindergarten students as subjects was based on the assumption that they were more capable to cope with English than the first graders.. The sample was same with the population, so the writer used the entire population.

Data Collection

In this study the data are collected through the use of : (1) pre test, that was given to one group before the treatment, and (2) post test, that was given after the treatment.

Test Instrument

In this study, an oral test form it also called as interview.

Teaching Instrument

The teaching instrument consisted of a series of materials organized as exercises in speaking learning by using flash card. The presentation of the materials was guided by a lesson plan. This instrument can be categorized as tailor made or teacher-made materials for it is designed by the researcher himself..

Data Analysis

Pre test Analysis

The steps to follow in pre test data analysis are listed below:

Find the mean of each group. To do so, the formula as stated in Crowl (1996:140) is:

Mean = ∑X

Where, ∑X is the summary of all scores, and n is the total number of sample.

Find the initial differences .The last calculation is t-test:

By Crowl (1996:179)

= the mean differences between the two sets of scores

∑= summation (sum up)

D= the differences between the scores of one person (or matched)

D2= the squared difference between the scores of one person (or matched pair)

= square each difference and sum the squares

= sum the differences and square the sum

N= the number of differences

Post test Analysis

The procedures for analyzing the post test were same with those the pretest. The post test scores were used in testing the hypothesis.

Scoring Techniques

According to Harmer (2007:172) the way of making the marking more objective is to use marking scale for a range of different items. If we are marking a students’oral presentation, but the writer used this scale in marking the oral test/interview by change the coherence aspect into comperehension aspect. It used the following scale :

Table 1

Scoring scales

0 / 1 / 2 / 3
Vocabulary
Pronounciation

And the writer used the criteria of scoring for each aspect reffered to this scale :

Table 2

The criteria of vocabulary and pronounciation scoring

Score / Vocabularies / Score / Pronounciation
3 / 5 (words) / 3 / 5 (words)
2 / 3-4 (words) / 2 / 3-4 (words)
1 / 1-2 (words) / 1 / 1-2 (words)

D. RESULT OF RESEARCH

Results

The Calculating of Pre-test

The pre-test scores were obtained from the oral test or interview. It was processed in the oral test score sheet below (see table 4.1).It shows the raw scores of the students in the pre test and for estimating initial differences. And based on the result below the highest score are 6 for speaking score.

Table 3

Pretest score ( y )

No. / Name / Score
Vocabulary / Pronounciation / Total
1 / A / 2 / 2 / 4
2 / B / 1 / 1 / 2
3 / C / 1 / 1 / 2
4 / D / 2 / 2 / 4
5 / E / 2 / 2 / 4
6 / F / 1 / 1 / 2
7 / G / 3 / 3 / 6
8 / H / 3 / 3 / 6
9 / I / 1 / 1 / 2
10 / J / 2 / 2 / 4
11 / K / 1 / 1 / 2
12 / L / 1 / 1 / 2
13 / M / 3 / 3 / 6
14 / N / 2 / 2 / 4
15 / O / 1 / 1 / 2
16 / P / 2 / 2 / 4
17 / Q / 2 / 2 / 4
18 / R / 2 / 2 / 4
19 / S / 3 / 3 / 6
20 / T / 2 / 2 / 4
21 / U / 1 / 1 / 2
22 / V / 2 / 2 / 4
23 / W / 2 / 2 / 4
24 / X / 1 / 1 / 2
25 / Y / 1 / 1 / 2
26 / Z / 3 / 3 / 6
27 / Aa / 2 / 2 / 4
28 / Ab / 2 / 2 / 4
29 / Ac / 3 / 3 / 6
30 / Ad / 2 / 2 / 4
∑ = / 56 / 56 / 112
Mean / 1.87 / 1.87

For computing the means of pretest, the writer used the formula :

Mean = ∑X(Crowl, 1996:140)

Where ∑X=the sum of the score of pretest

n = the number of the scores

Mean = ∑X

= 56

= 1.87

After conducting the score from pretest, the writer found the mean of the pretest was 1.87

The Calculating of Posttest

After treatment done, the similar test was given was called posttest, in oral test form/ interview. The highest score become 8, it was processed in the oral test score sheet (see table 4.2). Pretest and posttest were completely done. And both score also completed.

Table 4

Posttest score ( x )

No. / Name / Score
Vocabulary / Pronounciation / Total
1 / A / 3 / 3 / 6
2 / B / 3 / 3 / 6
3 / C / 3 / 3 / 6
4 / D / 4 / 4 / 8
5 / E / 4 / 4 / 8
6 / F / 2 / 2 / 4
7 / G / 4 / 4 / 8
8 / H / 4 / 4 / 8
9 / I / 2 / 2 / 4
10 / J / 3 / 3 / 6
11 / K / 4 / 4 / 8
12 / L / 2 / 2 / 4
13 / M / 4 / 4 / 8
14 / N / 4 / 4 / 8
15 / O / 2 / 2 / 4
16 / P / 3 / 3 / 6
17 / Q / 3 / 3 / 6
18 / R / 2 / 2 / 4
19 / S / 4 / 4 / 8
20 / T / 3 / 3 / 6
21 / U / 3 / 3 / 6
22 / V / 3 / 3 / 6
23 / W / 4 / 4 / 8
24 / X / 3 / 3 / 6
25 / Y / 2 / 2 / 4
26 / Z / 4 / 4 / 8
27 / Aa / 4 / 4 / 8
28 / Ab / 3 / 3 / 6
29 / Ac / 4 / 4 / 8
30 / Ad / 3 / 3 / 6
∑ = / 96 / 96 / 192
Mean / 3.2 / 3.2

For computing the means of posttest, the writer used the formula :

Mean = ∑X(Crowl, 1996:140)

Where ∑X=the sum of the score of posttest

n = the number of the scores

Mean = ∑X

= 96

= 3.20

After giving treatment, the writer gave the test again to the students as a posttest. And the mean of posttest score was 3.20

The Calculating t-test

The next step is processing the data and computing them into the t-test formula.

The processing of computing the data to t-test formula by following steps:

Analyzing the data of pretest score in each aspect(see table 4.1).
Analyzing the data of posttest score in each aspect(see table 4.2).
Finding the average/ mean of each data (pretest and posttest)
Computing the difference (see table 4.3)
Computing the data to t-test formula

Tabel 5

Pretest-Posttest Score Distribution

No. / Name / Score
Pretest (Y) / Posttest (X) / Difference (D=x-y) / Square (D2=(x-y)2)
1 / A / 2 / 3 / 1 / 1
2 / B / 1 / 3 / 2 / 4
3 / C / 1 / 3 / 2 / 4
4 / D / 2 / 4 / 2 / 4
5 / E / 2 / 4 / 2 / 4
6 / F / 1 / 2 / 1 / 1
7 / G / 3 / 4 / 1 / 1
8 / H / 3 / 4 / 1 / 1
9 / I / 1 / 2 / 1 / 1
10 / J / 2 / 3 / 1 / 1
11 / K / 1 / 4 / 3 / 9
12 / L / 1 / 2 / 1 / 1
13 / M / 3 / 4 / 1 / 1
14 / N / 2 / 4 / 2 / 4
15 / O / 1 / 2 / 1 / 1
16 / P / 2 / 3 / 1 / 1
17 / Q / 2 / 3 / 1 / 1
18 / R / 2 / 2 / 0 / 0
19 / S / 3 / 4 / 1 / 1
20 / T / 2 / 3 / 1 / 1
21 / U / 1 / 3 / 2 / 4
22 / V / 2 / 3 / 1 / 1
23 / W / 2 / 4 / 2 / 4
24 / X / 1 / 3 / 2 / 4
25 / Y / 1 / 2 / 1 / 1
26 / Z / 3 / 4 / 1 / 1
27 / Aa / 2 / 4 / 2 / 4
28 / Ab / 2 / 3 / 1 / 1
29 / Ac / 3 / 4 / 1 / 1
30 / Ad / 2 / 3 / 1 / 1
∑= / ∑Y=56 / ∑X=96 / ∑D=40 / ∑D2=64

Calculating t-test formula :

Find the initial differences .The last calculation is t-test:

By Crowl (1996:179)

= the mean differences between the two sets of scores

∑= summation (sum up)

D= the differences between the scores of one person (or matched)

D2 = the squared difference between the scores of one person (or matched pair)

= square each difference and sum the squares

= sum the differences and square the sum

N = the number of differences

So;

Where :

= 40:30 =1.33

= 64

= (40)2

N= 30

1.33

(40)2

t =64 -

30 (30-1)

1.33

t = 64 - 53.33

870

1.33 1.33

t = 0.0123 = 0.11

t = 12.09

After computing the data in to the t- formula, the value of t is 12.09, to determine if the t is statistically significant, it is necessary to determine how many df there are. The df value taking by the number of subject minus 1. In this study the 30 of subjects, consequently the df = 30-1=29.The t values for df 29 in the t-table is 2.02, and the significant at the significant at 0.5 level. It showed that the t-values = 12.09 is higher than t- table = 2.02.

Testing Hypothesis

The hypothesis in this research has stated such at the chapter one, it is designated as the Alternative Hypothesis (H1), it stated that:

There is an influence in result of teaching speaking to students’speaking proficiency after taught using Flash Card. It made learning more effective and more interesting for pre-school students.

The result of t-formula is 12.09 with the values of t-table is 2.02 at the level .0.5.

Interpretation

After computing the data by using t-test formula, the result show that the value of t is 12.09, it means that there is a significance increase in teaching speaking using flash card. Based on the result of the data observation, it also means that H1 was accepted. There is significance increase after flash card used to teach speaking.

1If the result of t-observation is higher than t-table (to > t), the alternative hypothesis is accepted, it means that there is significant difference between variable X and variable Y.

2If the result of t-observation is lower than t-table (to < t), the alternative hypothesis is rejected, it means that there is no significant difference between variable X and variable Y.

Based on the result above, it is showed that students’score in teaching speaking using flash card is better, it means that teaching speaking using flash card is quite effective.

Discussion of Findings

The computation of all data above, the increase of students score in pronunciation and vocabulary presented as follows:

Table 6

The Increasing of Pronunciation and Vocabulary

Speaking Aspects / Pretest / posttest / increase
Pronunciation / 1.87 / 3.2 / 1.33
Vocabulary / 1.87 / 3.2 / 1.33

The result (see table 4.4) shows that using flash card in teaching speaking increases students’ achievements in any aspects of speaking skills. The result above shows that the flash card effective in teaching speaking to preschool students.

E. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

In this chapter, the writer provides the conclusions and suggestions based on the data as the results of this research. They include:

Conclusion

According to the result of data analysis and data interpretation relating to teaching speaking using flash card, the writer can make the conclusion that can improve the students’speaking proficiency, it’s shown by the result of the t-test, in which the value t-observed (12.09) was greater than the value of t-table for df 29 is 2.02

The writer draws conclusion as follow:

Before the treatment, the mean of pretest score was 1.87, after the treatment, the data analysis showed that the students range ability (mean) of pretest score was 1.87 while the posttest score was 3.20, with gain 1.33, it showed that the students got better score after taught using flash card in other word, teaching speaking using flash card was effective.
The mean of pretest score and posttest score was different. But it was not known yet that the difference was significant or not. So the writer used t-test. From the calculation the writer gets the result that the obtained t-observed was 12.09 and the table t-critical was 2.02, because the obtained t (to) was greater than the table t-critical (tc ) the alternative hypothesis (Hi) was accepted. In other word that Teaching Speaking Using Flash Card influenced on students’speaking proficiency.

Suggestions

After the writer gets several result of the research, the writer would like to give some suggestion as follow: