There are four language
skills in English that should be mastered by students such as: listening,
speaking, reading, and writing. Almost people are from many countries and
around the world using English to communicate. Speaking is an active process of
negotiating meaning and of using social knowledge of the situation, the topic
and the other speaker (Burn & Joyce, 1999, p. 14). Speaking is an active or
productive skill. The target of speaking skill is an ability to express ideas
freely and spontaneously (Fahrurrazy, 2012, p. 79).
Speaking
takes place everywhere and has become part of our daily activities, when
someone speaks; he or she interests to use the language to express his or her
ideas, feeling, and thought. He or she also shares information to other through
communication. Speaking is so much a part of daily life that we take it for
granted. The average person produces tens of thousands of words a day, although
some people like auctioneers or politicians may produce even more than that. So
natural and integral is speaking that forget how we once struggled to achieve
this ability until, that is, have to learn how to do it all over again in a
foreign language. What then is involved in speaking? The first point to
emphasize is that speech production takes place in real time and is therefore
essentially linear. Words follow words, and phrases follow phrases. Likewise,
at the level of utterance (that is to say, the spoken equivalent of sentence),
speech is produced utterance by utterance, in response to the word by word and
utterance by utterance productions of the person is talking to (interlocutor)
(Thornbury, 1988, pp. 1-2).
According
to Burns & Joyce (1999, p. 4) argued that a common sense explanation of
what happens when people speak to each other is that they “are making
conversation”. However, in everyday life we speak for many different kinds of
reasons. Some of these reasons are to do with our desire to relate to each
other as people, while others have to do with exchanging information or seeking
a practical outcome.
On
the other hands, there are external and internal factors that influence
students to succeed to learn English, especially to acquire speaking. The
external factors consist of conditions around the students, for example their
family, friends, environment, culture, teaching materials and technique,
teachers and curriculum, etc. Whereas the internal factors are factors that
come from the students’ themselves, for example the students’ intelligence,
interest, motivation, personality, etc.
In
the real condition, the students often meet difficulties in speaking, such as
inhibition, nothing to say, low or uneven participant, and mother tongue use.
according to Burns & Joyce (1999, p. 132) argued that there may be any
number of social and cultural factors which account for this situation, the
factors accounting for limited English practice outside the classroom may
include; lack of contact with native speakers, dependence on other family
members who may undertake interactions in English on their behalf, lack of confidence
or motivation, previous negative experiences in using English, and cultural
factors based on religion, gender or age.
Nowadays,
along with the strengthening position of English as a language for
international communication, the teaching of speaking skill has become
increasingly important in the English as a Second or Foreign language (ESL/EFL)
context. The teaching of speaking skill is also important due to the large
number of students who want to study English in order to be able to use English
for communicative purposes. This is apparent in Richards and Renandya’s (2002,
p. 201) publication where they stated, “A large percentage of the world’s
language learners study English in order to develop proficiency in speaking”.
Moreover, students of second/foreign language education programs are considered
successful if they can communicate effectively in the language (Riggenback
& Lazaraton, 1991). The new parameter used to determine success in
second/foreign language education programs appear to revise the previously-held
conviction that students’ success or lack of success in ESL/EFL was judged by
the accuracy of the language they produced. Thus, the great number of learners
wanting to develop English speaking proficiency and the shift of criteria of learning
success from accuracy to fluency and communicative effectiveness signify the
teaching of ESL/EFL speaking (Cahyono&Widiati, 2011, p. 29).
To
improve the students’ speaking skill , the teacher can choose the better techniques
for example individual and group activities. Individual activities such as storytelling,
describing things, and public speech are usually transactional, while group
activities such as role-plays, paper presentation, debates, small group/panel
discussions are interaction (Cahyono & Widiati, 2011, p. 39). And beside
that the teacher can be able to control speaking class and using technology to
invite the students feel motivated in speaking competence. But, realizing the
high importance of speaking skill in English Foreign Language, it is very
important to find and use the best instructional methods, materials,
activities, media, and other requirements that will help the learners to
improve their speaking skill.
The
goal of teaching speaking skills is communicative efficiency. Learners should
be able to make themselves understood, using their current proficiency to the
fullest. They should try to avoid confusion in the message due to faulty
pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary, and to observe the social and cultural
rules that apply in each communication situation (Yunus: 2012, p. 30).
In
preliminary study of this research at the seventh grade of SMP SABILILLAH
Sampang was which conducted in the beginning of the second semester; on April
19st 2014, showed that the students’ speaking skill were still under
the average of satisfying. It was still under the minimum passing score. And
based on interview between the researcher with a teacher and questionnaire
stated that the students get difficulty in pronunciation, grammar,
vocabularies, and their expression of ideas.
Therefore,
the researcher uses mind mapping to improve the students’ problem in speaking
skill because mind-mapping techniques have many advantages, the main benefit is
that you use both halves of the brain which makes it easier to remember.
Moreover, making mind-map is fun. It is a creative process and a natural way to
organize your thoughts. Most of pupils like it because it is not boring. It
will also save time because pupil will memorize the subject material much faster
so it take less time to teach it to them (Hofland, 2007, p. 30).
Mind-map,
invented and copyrighted by Tony Buzan, is a technique of representing
information in a visual way by demonstrating connections among key concepts and
ideas (Buzan & Buzan, 1993, p. 93). Mind map is widely believed to ease the
path towards successful communication of people around the world.
Mind
mapping take all these elements into account (Buzan & Buzan, 1993, p. 93).
It is proved by the use of curve lines, symbols, words, pictures, and colors in
creating a mind mapping. Your brain is naturally attuned to beauty. So, the
more beautiful your mind map is, the more you will create and remember from it
(Buzan & Buzan 1993: 109). The Mind
Map is a multi-dimensional memory jogger and a fantastic revision tool.
Understanding the way you think will help you to use words and imagery in Mind
Map formats for recording, revising, recalling, remembering, organizing,
creative thinking and problem solving in your studies and when revising for exams.
You must also be able to store, recall and retrieve information and data
effectively (Buzan, 2006, p. 11).
There
are seven steps in creating mind mapping (Buzan, 2005, pp. 15-16) as follows:
1.
Start at the center of the paper and put
it horizontally. Why? It does so as starting from the central will provides a
free thinking to the way of thinking mind and also follows the natural rule.
2.
Use a picture or photos for the central
ideas. Why? The saying “A picture is worth a thousand words” may be a cliché,
but it is true. The pictures will help us focus, and activate our brain.
3.
Use colors. Why? Because color is as
interesting as pictures for our brain that are able to trigger thinking.
4.
Draw a thick line out from the center
and write an idea associated with the topic. Then draw thine lines from the
thick line and write ideas associated with it. Continue to map until any more
ideas cannot be thought of.
5.
Use a curve line, not a straight line.
Why? Because the straight line will make our brain bored.
6.
Use one word per line. Why? Since each
word has an enormous number of associations, and this rule allow each one more
freedom to link to other associations in our brain.
7. Use
as many images as possible. Why? As like the center picture, a picture is
worth a thousand words.
In Ningrum’s
research (2012, p. 98) under title “Mind Mapping as Writing Strategy across
Gender Differences”. He found that mind-mapping plays a considerable role in
enhancing the students’ writing ability. Using mind-mapping will help the
students to identify important ideas and shows how these ideas fit together.
Furthermore, it also triggers the students’ thinking and understanding of
structuring the information needed to develop a paragraph or essay since the
structure of mind map will represent the structure of their writing.
Siriphanich
(2010, p. 10) stated in his research under title “Using Mind Mapping Technique
to Improve Reading Comprehension Ability of Thai EFL University Students. He
found that after teaching mind mapping
techniques, the majority of the students improved their reading ability in
their post-test mean score was12.15 compared to the pre-test mean score which
was 11.17. The post-test mean score was higher than pre-test mean score at the
0.05 level of significance. Most students were satisfied with their own reading
comprehension ability (72.4%) and enjoyed to work in groups (45.7%). However, a
large number of the students had problems about vocabularies and could not
construct sentences to complete the mind maps by themselves (42.9%). So,
the purpose of this study is to examine
whether the use of mind mapping technique can improve the students’ speaking
skill. It also investigates the students’
attitude towards the use of mind mapping technique.
woderful
ReplyDelete