CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION
A. Background of The Problem
Nowadays, the ability to speak at least one foreign language is a necessity. As
Nunan (1999:71) says that language is arguably the defining characteristic of the human
species and knowledge of language in general, as well as ability to use ones first and, at
least one other language, should be one of the defining characteristics of the educated
individual. It means that people do not only communicate with those who come from the
same country, but also with those who come from different countries. In order to be able to
convey meaning and talk to people around the world, they must be able to speak English
since it is an international language. Due to its importance, it is very reasonable why
English as a foreign language is taught as a compulsory subject from the elementary level
to the university level.
In addition, based on Curriculum 2013, the students should be able to be well in
communication. The aim of teaching speaking is acquiring students have abilities to
arrange and express their ideas through transactional communication, such as asking and
giving opinion, asking and giving suggestion, and complimenting, functional
communication and monolog text. Besides, the students should be able to be creative to
develop and convey their ideas through oral form.
In fact, it is not easy to master speaking skill. There are many problems in learning
speaking skill. The problems are, there is no practice speaking intensively, lack of idea, no
model to imitate, , lack of technique and strategy in teaching speaking, lack of media, and
so on. It is supported by Buzzani (2008) says that there are many problems in learning
speaking skill: (1) the limited opportunities for the students to speak in class, (2) the lack
of variation of teaching techniques used by the teacher in class, (3) the teaching strategy

application was monotonous that made the students bored and disinterested in studying
English.
First, the practice of speaking in schools is not intensive or it can be said that there
is limited opportunities for the students to speak in class. The teachers seldom asks the
students to practice and improve their speaking. Speaking is not priority in teaching in the
class because it will be not in examined in national examination so that teachers tend to
improve their students in other skills like; listening, reading, and writing than speaking.
Moreover, in curriculum 2013, if the teachers have no enough time to test students
speaking, teachers can change into writing task. Therefore, it is one of the reasons why
most of students are poor in speaking.
Second, students have lack of idea. As Bailey (2005:19) says when we speak in a
foreign language, there are times when we wish to say something but we do not have the
words or grammatical structures to say it. It means that whenever teachers ask students to
express their idea in front of class, students often refused it and prefer to silence. They
understand what the teachers ask, but whenever they want to speak up they tend to lost the
idea. They have problem on finding and developing an idea because teachers seldom ask
students to practice speaking in the class and more focus on another skills without ask
them to give critical think about their idea and say it. It makes them feel doubt in speaking
and do not have confidence.
The next problem is related to model in speaking. Sometimes, students get confuse
while talking: how to pronounce it correctly, how to say it in English and so on. There is
no model that given by the teacher to students in classroom which give experience how
native speakers in their daily life. Learning a language not only about that language itself
but also it is culture. Language and culture cannot be separate each other. However,

teacher has to bring culture into classroom so that students can learn a language from
culture itself.
Then, the problems do not only come from the students but also from the technique
used by the teacher is not appropriate to the situation of students. The teacher usually uses
the same technique and only make a few of students want to participate in speaking. The
teachers just ask the students to read the dialogue and then in pair, they practice it in front
of the class without knowing when they use the expression in the real situation. The
teacher does not give the students a chance to express and explore their idea because they
just asked to drill the dialogue that has been written in their books.
Actually, it is necessary for the teachers to find a proper learning technique teach
speaking. The technique that is used in teaching speaking also should be supported by
media. It can be said that media should be related to the technique of teaching speaking.
For example, teachers can attract students to practice the expression of asking, accepting
and refusing invitation by using flash card that is filled by a familiar context and
instructions.
It is necessary for the teacher to find a proper learning technique to do the
discussion. In choosing the technique of learning, it requires a deep understanding about
the material to be taught and knowledge about appropriate learning technique. There are so
many learning techniques that exist so that the teachers should choose the right technique
according to the purpose of learning. Therefore, an English teacher should choose and
apply the best technique in order to deliver the materials. Besides, teachers must be able to
adjust the technique to the conditions of student learning in the classroom during the
learning process so that it can improve students' speaking skills.
Teachers should find the activity that can involve the majority of students to explore
their ideas. Therefore, in choosing a speaking activity, teachers must consider the good
3

opportunities that this activity will bring. As Harmer said Good speaking activities can
and should be extremely engaging for the students. If they are all participating fully and
if the teacher has set up the activity and can then give sympathetic and useful feedback
they can get tremendous satisfaction from it (2007: 123)
The problems that generally found while learning speaking skill; the students do
not know how to do it well, the students pretend to be passive and do hard to say a word,
and the students are afraid or have no self confidence to speak in front of the class when
they are asked to share the idea about the topic discussed. On the other hand, the problems
do not only come from the students but also from the technique used by the teacher is not
appropriate to the situation of students. The teacher usually uses the same method and only
make a few of students want to participate in learning. This condition will make the
students unmotivated to train their ability to speak in front of their friend. Therefore, the
writer wants to apply Practice Rehearsal Pairs as one of techniques in teaching speaking
skill.
Practice Rehearsal Pairs technique is a kind of active learning technique which the
students can exchange the information, ideas and opinions. The students only need to
explain the information to their pairs and their pairs will observe the information that is
given. Then they change their role until they master the information. By using this
technique, students will learn about how to be active in teaching learning process.
This technique forms some pairs. Next, all pairs are asked to do something. Then,
each pair will share about a topic which was determined by the teacher. Thus, this
technique will make students have a chance to speak out. It requires that each pair will
share his or her opinion about the topic in their own pair. Furthermore, the writer believes
that Practice Rehearsal Pairs technique will enhance the knowledge of students because

they will share their knowledge among friends related to the topic. Besides, this technique
will encourage students interaction. Next, this technique will minimize the grammatical
mistakes in speaking because there will be teachers feedback at the end of meeting. Then,
in this technique, speaker of each pai talk about the same topic several times, so that it
makes them easy to remember the words, and pronounce the words. Because of those
positive impacts from this technique, the writer wants to elaborate the ways to do this
technique in this paper.
A. Formulation of the problem
Based on the background of the problem has explained above, the problem of this
paper is formulated as follows: How do the English teachers use Practice Rehearsal Pairs
technique in teaching speaking to senior high school?
B. Purpose of the problem
The purpose of this paper is to explain how the English teachers use Practice
Rehearsal Pairs as a technique in teaching speaking to senior high school student.

CHAPTER 2

REVIEW OF LITERATURE
A. The Nature of Speaking
Generally, speaking can be described as the activity of a person to express his/ her
ideas and feelings to others by using spoken language. There are many definitions of
speaking that have been proposed by some experts in language learning. According to
Chaney in Kayi (2006) says that speaking is the process of building and sharing meaning
through the use of verbal and non verbal symbol, in a variety context. Channey explains
speaking as the process where there will be patterns, steps, and moves happen in it. The
process of building and sharing are also appear during speaking activity. In can be
concluded speaking is an interactive process where the speaker need the ability to produce,
to receive, to process information, to build and to share meaning through verbal and non
verbal in different context.
Thornburry (2005: 1) says that speaking is a speech production that becomes a part
of our daily activities. He seems to put speaking in what kind of skill it is (from the word
production) and in what part of life it can be found. Therefore, speaking is a productive
skill that always be found in daily life. Through speaking one can express his ideas,
emotions, and attentions, react to order person on situation influences other person.
Speaking is also called a speech communication or oral communication.
Then, according to Nunan (2005), to speak English well the students have to know
that speaking involves three areas of knowledge:
1. Mechanics (pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary): using the right words in the
right order with the correct pronunciation.
2. Functions (transaction and interaction): knowing when clarity of message is
essential (transaction/information exchange) and when precise understanding is not
required (interaction/relationship building).
6

3. Social and cultural rules and norms (turn-talking, rate of speech, length of pauses
between speakers, relative rules of participants): understanding how to take into
account, who is speaking to whom, in what circumstances, about what and for what
reason.
From the statements above, it can be concluded that speaking is very important in
human communication. It is an active process to convey message from speakers to the
listeners. Some considerations such as the context, the language components, and the nonverbal language are needed to be taken into account to avoid misunderstanding between
the speakers and the learners. In addition, competence (knowledge of a language) and
performance (ability to use a language) should be taught by teachers to their students. The
goal of teaching speaking will be reached when students know and practice the correct
choice of the word and pronunciation, function the language, and the rules of speaking in
some contexts in real life.
In conclusion. in expressing the idea, speakers need the grammatical, lexical and
cultural features. Speakers must consider the situation where the conversation is taking
place. The aim of speaking is to cope for what people want to say, in order to fulfill their
immediate communicative needs. They need it as means of communication to express their
idea.
B. Types of Speaking Performance
Brown (2004: 271) describes six categories of speaking skill area. Those six
categories are as follows:
1. Imitative
This category includes the ability to practice an intonation and focusing on some
particular elements of language form. That is just imitating a word, phrase or sentence. The
important thing here is focusing on pronunciation. The teacher uses drilling in the teaching
7

learning process. The reason is by using drilling, students get opportunity to listen and to
orally repeat some words.
2. Intensive
This is the students speaking performance that is practicing some phonological and
grammatical aspects of language. It usually places students doing the task in pairs (group
work), for example, reading aloud that includes reading paragraph, reading dialogue with
partner in turn, reading information from chart, etc.
3. Responsive
Responsive performance includes interaction and test comprehension but at the
somewhat limited level of very short conversation, standard greeting and small talk, simple
request and comments. This is a kind of short replies to teacher or student-initiated
questions or comments, giving instructions and directions. Those replies are usually
sufficient and meaningful.
4. Transactional (dialogue)
It is carried out for the purpose of conveying or exchanging specific information.
For example here is conversation which is done in pair work.
5. Interpersonal (dialogue)
It is carried out more for the purpose of maintaining social relationships than for
the transmission of facts and information. The forms of interpersonal speaking
performance are interview, role play, discussions, conversations and games.
6. Extensive (monologue)
Teacher gives students extended monologues in the form of oral reports,
summaries, and story telling and short speeches.
Based on the theory above, it can be concluded that there are some points that
should be considered in assessing speaking. The students need to know at least the

pronunciation, vocabularies, and language functions that they are going to use. When the
students have been ready and prepared for the activity, they can use the language
appropriately.

C. Teaching Speaking and Its Problem

Since English is included as a compulsory subject in senior high schools in
Indonesia, the learners have the same need. The need is passing the examinations to move
to the next level and graduate from the school, and the general requirement is the students
are able to speak and hold conversations. The goal of teaching speaking should improve
students' communicative skills, because, only in that way, students can express themselves
and learn how to follow the social and cultural rules appropriate in each communicative
circumstance.
As Brown and Yule (1983:27) say that the aim of language teaching is to help the
students to have ability to express themselves in the target language in all aspect of their
lives, such as in greetings, expressing their gratitude, share their feelings, asking to people
or doing negotiations. In conclusion, the main goal of teaching speaking is to enable the
students to communicate in the target language. So, good English teachers should be
creative in maximizing the opportunities for the students to practice the target language
freely and communicatively.

Hence, the teaching of speaking should not be ignored

because the purpose of language teaching and teaching is to enable the students to
communicate in their target language.
Furthermore , Brown (2004: 5) says that teaching speaking in general as a
practicing games of language learning: the opportunities for learners to listen, think, speak,
take, risk, set goals, and process feedback from the coach and recycle through the skills
they are going to master. It can be said that to support studentsdevelopment in learning,
9

teachers have to develop communicative learning which give chances to students to speak
and share with others and also teachers have to create good atmosphere in class so children
will feel enjoy in learning process and they will never think that the subject is tricky for
them.
According to Nunan ( 2003) says that teaching speaking is to teach EFL learners
to: produce the English speech sounds and sound patterns; use word and sentence stress,
intonation patterns and the rhythm of the second language; select appropriate words and
sentences according to the proper social setting, audience, situation and subject matter;
organize their thoughts in a meaningful and logical sequence; use language as a means of
expressing values and judgments; use the language quickly and confidently with few
unnatural pauses, which is called as fluency. In addition, Harris (1969: 81-82) says that
there are five components in analyses of the speech process:1. Pronunciation including the
segmental features-vowels and consonants- and the stress and intonation patterns.2.
Grammar.3. Vocabulary.4. Fluency: the ease and speed of the flow of speech.5.
Comprehension. It means that some aspects above have a big role in teaching speaking.
They are should be learned by students. Therefore, students can be said success in
improving ability in speaking after they master about all aspects above.
Before we continue to the stages of teaching speaking, there are some important
points that should be considered in teaching speaking. The first thing to be considered is
who the learner is and why they are. The clear objective is the next. In the end of the
lesson, students at least are able to do something using oral English. In addition, since the
final objective of learning speaking is communication, all materials that are given to the
students such as vocabulary, grammatical structures, and other language items, are
expected to be applied by students in the daily life. Teachers role in the speaking learning

10

is creating activities in which the students can practice and apply what they have learnt
orally. In other words, this is the turn of the students to practice communication.
Then, the process of teaching speaking itself can be done in several stages. Scott
(1981) mentions three stages to complete the teaching of speaking. They are stating
objectives, presentation, and practice and production. The first stage is stating objectives.
The teacher has to put across what operation the students are going to learn. When the
students understand the objectives of learning, the instruction will be done
communicatively. The teacher could tell students the objective of the lesson directly.
Giving students clues for brainstorming the objectives is preferable. Another way is using
visual aids to attract studentsattention and participation.
The next stage is presentation. One thing that should be considered in this stage is
the whole language operations that will be given in the lesson are presented in context. It is
very important to make language items clear. To contextualize a language item, the teacher
can use text, video, recorded or picture in the form of transaction of native speaker and the
like.
The last is practice and production. Drilling check will be given to the students in
the phase to see if they have understood of what is being learnt through choral repetition of
language presented and then move to individual responses. The teacher will direct the
students by providing information gap and feedback for students. And the students replies
are not only seen from the grammatical accuracy point of view but rather of language
appropriateness and acceptability.
According to Rachmajanti (1995:8), in a formal language instruction, the speaking
class is one of the domains to practice the target language a lot. At early stages the students
are usually reluctant to speak English in class or in groups. They feel shy to do it. As an

11

alternative, the speaking-class teachers might launch other techniques in teaching speaking
combined with instructional aids.
Learning to speak a second language is a lengthy process. First, students must learn
carefully, repeat models, and imitate the teacher. They may memorize basic sentences to
gain confidence in their ability to speak the second language. They may practice sentences
and do oral drills (Allen and Valette, 1977:211). Further, they stated that in the classroom
the teacher should try to allow for some true speaking activities either guided conversation,
at later stages, or free conversation in every unit. Students should be encouraged to talk a
great deal in class and to express their own ideas, not simply what the teacher tells them to
say. They also stated that as the student begin to speak the foreign language, the teacher
plays the role. He/she can tell the students whether they are pronouncing the new language
accurately and whether they are using correct forms. Gradually the teacher guides the
students to a point where they can begin to judge whether they are producing the new
sounds correctly and whether they are using appropriate sentence patterns. When this point
is reached, the teachers main concern is no longer primarily to correct, but rather to
encourage the students to practice speaking the foreign language as frequently as possible.
Teaching speaking is started at teaching the students how to speak in English as
their foreign language, for then ask them to be able to pronounce the new language
accurately. It is continued then to guide students to a point where they can begin to judge
whether their sound productions are correct or not. At this point, teacher is no longer
primarily to correct, but he or she is supposed to encourage students to practice speaking
the target language. Meanwhile, teacher should be able to encourage students speaking
some sounds, repeating, and imitating him/her. Finally, the students are required to be used
to practice and do oral language.

12

On the other hand, in teaching and learning process of speaking, most of English
learners students claim that they frequently face trouble in speaking. Several problems
which often happen to English learners are:
1. The students are shy to speak English in the class. They are worry to make a mistake
while speaking in English and other students will laugh at them. According to
Wallace, Stariha and Walberg (2004, p.12) states that fear of challenge formal
speaking is occurred in children, teenagers and even adults.
2. The students cannot express their ideas in appropriate diction. It is caused by lack of
vocabulary and knowledge about sociolinguistic competence which are important
sub skills that should be mastered by students.
3. The students cannot pronounce some words correctly. It is caused by lack of
knowledge about pronunciation itself which contain of stress and intonation.
4. The students have lack of interest in speaking.
5. The methods or technique and the use of media in teaching speaking are lack.
Based on the problems above, it can be concluded that students usually find the
difficulties in pronunciation, diction and so on. Therefore, That problems will be a reason
for learners do not feel ready o speak. If a teacher repeatedly puts pressure on learners to
speak, they may become discouraged and distressed. As a result they may develop
reluctance to speaking and become unwilling to participate in speaking activities.
In addition, Brown and Yule (1999: 14) states that speaking is depending on the
complexity of the information to be communicated; however, the speaker sometimes finds
it difficult to clarify what they want to say. Thus, in order to solve this problem, there
should be enough sensitivity on the part of a teacher to assess when it is suitable to ask
learners to speak, and what tasks at what stage of learning he may require his learners to
perform.students should be supported in using the language from early stages. Then,
13

teachers should be creative in order to create friendly atmosphere so students fear and
anxiety can be minimized and they will interested in speaking. Besides the teachers have
to use creative strategy or technique in teaching speaking, they also need to use approriate
the media to support the process learning and teaching speaking.

D. Practice Rehearsal Pairs

E. The Advantages and Disadvantages of Practice Rehearsal Pairs
F. Previous Studies

A. The Nature of speaking

14

Speaking is considered as a productive skill which means people generate the

language and it focuses on communication. Speaking is an essential element when a
person wants to interact to another people. Nunan says that people talk to communicate
that is, to express themselves, to get goods and services, to influence people, to
convey meanings and messages, and to enjoy the company of others (2005:37).
Therefore, developing oral skills is a real challenge for many EFL teachers to
accomplish the goal of speaking since the students do not live in an English speaking
environment and they only have a few opportunities to use English outside the
classroom.
Luoma (2004:20) explains that speaking can be defined as a meaningful
interaction between two or more people. They are talking each other about things that
they think are mutually interesting and relevant in the situation. Their aim can be to
pass the time, amuse each other, share opinion or get something done, or they can aim
to do several of these. It means that they do this interaction together. Luoma adds that
both participants (speaker and listener) will construct the event together and share the
right to influence the outcomes.

Huebner (1960:15) says that speaking is a skill that used by someone in his/her
daily life communication whether at school or outside. This skill is acquired by much
repetition and it primarily a neuromuscular and not an intellectual process. It consists
of competence in sharing and receiving messages. It means that when people speak,
they will do an interaction each other which make them know something new.
According to Kramsch in OMalley and Pierce (1996: 59), speaking means
negotiating intended meanings and adjusting ones speech to produce the desired effect
on the listener. It means anticipating the listeners response and possible

15

misunderstandings, clarifying ones own and the others intention and arriving at the
closest possible match between intended, perceived, and anticipated meanings.
Based on the experts opinion about speaking, it can be concluded that speaking
is a kind of activity that involves people to share information. During the speaking
activity, speakers transfer their idea or massagers to their listeners. Speaking can be
learnt by using some teaching-learning methodologies.
B. Teaching Speaking
Teaching English as the foreign language is a demanding activity for the
teachers. It is not merely teaching the students to make a sound from the words they
build, but also they have to understand what they have said. Therefore, the teachers
have to think deeply about the technique that should be used before they come into the
classroom. According to Cameron (2001:40), teachers are the ones who take the
responsibility for checking whether the pupils understand the language being used and
the purpose of activities being carried out.
Lindsay and Knight (2006; 57) mentions that speaking is a productive skill. It
involves putting a message together, communicating the massage, and interacting with
other people. They add some that learner needs to develop skills: 1) Producing
connected speech, 2) The ability to interact, 3) Talking round gaps in their knowledge,
4) Speaking in range contexts, and 5) Balancing accuracy
Nunan (2005: 32) points out that the ones who are teaching (or plan to teach)
English in the EFL context need to be particularly creative in designing syllabus and
planning lessons that promote speaking skills. Students probably should face the
obstacles of speaking English when their exposure to English outside the classroom is
limited. In these situations, the classroom is extraordinarily important to providing
input and practice opportunities for the learners. Thus, teachers should make a
16

supportive situation for the students and they should not underestimate their students
when they can do the activity as it should be.
Teaching speaking also means teachers should have some reasons in asking the
students to do speaking activities. Harmer (2007: 123) explains that there are three
main reasons for getting students to speak in the classroom. Firstly, speaking activities
provide rehearsal opportunities chances to practice real-life speaking in the safety of
the classroom. Secondly, speaking tasks in which students try to use any or all of the
languages they know provide feedback for both teacher and students. Everyone can see
how well they are doing: both how successful they are, and also what language
problems they are experiencing. And finally, the more students have opportunities to
activate various elements of language they have stored in their brains, the more
automatic their use of these elements become. As a result, students gradually become
autonomous language users.
In conclusion, the purpose of teaching speaking is to encourage students to be able
to speak English with others not only in the classroom but also in their daily life. In
teaching speaking, teachers are the ones who take the responsibility for checking whether
the pupils understand the language being used and the purpose of activities being carried
out. Besides, there are three main reasons for getting students to speak in the classroom.
First, speaking activities provide rehearsal opportunities chances to practice real-life
speaking in the safety of the classroom. Second, speaking tasks in which students try to use
any or all of the languages they know provide feedback for both teacher and students. And
finally, the more students have opportunities to activate various elements of language they
have stored in their brains, the more automatic their use of these elements become.

CHAPTER III
17

DISCUSSION

This chapter will tell about Practice Rehearsal Pairs as a technique in

teaching speaking. Practice Rehearsal Pairs is a technique which helps the teacher in
teaching process in speaking activity. Students can develop their ability to speak if they
were given the chance to speak. Therefore, this technique exists to accommodate all
students to be able to speak and share information, ideas, and opinion. In order to make
this technique work out well to the students, the teacher must organize the things that
should be prepared beforehand. Thus, this chapter will elaborate the preparation and
the way of conducting this technique so that the students speaking ability will be
improved. The preparations of using this technique that are going to be explained are:
the material and the classroom management.
A. Material
There are some considerations that should be thought deeply in selecting the
materials. Teachers have to prepare the material which is appropriate according to the
technique used and students levels. In this case, Practice Rehearsal Pairs is a active
technique which can be suitable to some kinds of monolog texts which can be used
perfectly as a source of a discussion topic. Moreover, these texts also have to make the
students feel at ease in exchanging their ideas while they are in the discussion group.
There are three kinds of texts that are suitable to be used in using Practice
Rehearsal Pairs, they are: Descriptive text which is used to describe a particular thing,
person, or place; Recount text which is used to retell something that happened in the
past and to tell a series of past event; and News Item text which is used to inform
readers about events of the day which are considered newsworthy or important.

18

Descriptive text is the text which is used to describe about a particular place,
person or thing. Among three kinds of descriptive text, descriptive text about tourism
destination place is very suitable to be used in using Round Robin technique. This text
is appropriate to be the material of speaking activity because the students can describe
and give the opinion about the features of the place, the price of the ticket, the cost that
the visitors should provide to use the facilities or ride the games, the quality of the
place, the view of the place, and many other things that can be described. Therefore,
this text will help the teacher in achieving the goals, that is to make the students
articulate their ideas, respond to their classmates point of view, and develop skills in
evaluating the evidence of their own and others position
The second text is recount. This text tells the readers about the story, action or
activity of someone. Its goal is to entertaining or informing the reader. Because this
text is about retelling someones experience, the students also can share the events of
their own story. In understanding this text, the students can link the text with another
students story. Therefore, the students will only have a few obstacles since it is not
going out of the students context.
The last text is News Item. This text informs the readers about an even which is
important or newsworthy. By giving the student this kind of text, they can relate the
news with the things happened around them. Besides, the students can give their
opinion about the news, what the government should do about the issue, what is going
to do if the problems are not solved, and what are the impacts of that problem for the
citizens. Many things can be the topic of discussion by using this kind of text. Based
from those reasons, the writer can say that it is suitable to teach speaking by using
Round Robin technique with those three texts: Descriptive, Recount, and News Item
text.

19

B. Classroom Management
Setting the classroom management has an important role in order to get the
students more concentrate while studying. The seat arrangement can be done in such a
way according to students needs. As known, each of students has a different ability
with others. Some can understand the material quickly, some other thinks so slowly.
Therefore, the teacher needs an attempt or effort to balance these problems. An attempt
that could be done is to set the students to work as pairs in a discussion forum,
especially in using Practice Rehearsal Pairs technique.
One special characteristic that Practice Rehearsal Pairs technique has the
position of the students while doing the discussion. This technique suggests a spacious
classroom so that it will be easier in arranging the seats. The teacher divides the
students into small groups which are consist of 4 to 6 people in a group. Then, the
teachers will ask the students to move into their groups and seat up the chairs becomes
round. This position enables every member to see another members face clearly in
communicating their ideas.

C. The Procedure of Using Practice Rehearsal Pairs Technique at Senior High

School
The procedures of conducting the Practice Rehearsal Pairs technique which
teacher have to do are as below:
1. The teacher first should form some small groups, and each group consists of four to
six members. The way of dividing the groups can be varied, it depends on the
teacher. Then, the teacher ask the students to arrange the position of their seats
become round. Give the time limit while the students arranging the seats to prevent

20

the wasting of time and the students from playing around the class. Next, have the
students to sit in their own groups.
Teacher says: Now, please sit with your groups of 5!
The purpose of making the groups become round is to make all the students
focus when one member is sharing his/her opinion. They have to speak one by one
in a neat sequence. Because of that reason, this position will enable every member
to pay attention to the one who is describing the idea.
2. Tell the students the rules and the purpose of this discussion activity. The teacher
should inform that every group members will be given some discussion
assignments or questions, and every student should answer the question or give
their ideas in a turn, moving clockwise one by one. Also, tell them that the purpose
of this activity is to overcome the problem of the students who tend to be inactive
and who did not have the opportunity to speak in speaking class.
Teacher says: We will do a discussion activity, namely Round Robin. I will give
you some questions and you have to discuss it with your groups. Remember, same
answer is prohibited. Later, you must saying your answer out loud one by one in
turn.
3. The teacher starts the discussion activity. The teacher has the role to guide the
students works. In the beginning, the teacher gives the different tasks to each
group. For example, in discussing a descriptive text about tourism place, the
teacher can assign each group to discuss about different places. If they were
divided into three groups, for example, the teacher could point some popular
tourism spots in Indonesia that the students familiar with, such as: if the topic were
about islands, Group A talks about Lombok Island, Group B talks about Bali
Island, and Group C talks about Wakatobi Island. Give them some time to think
about the answer in their own group and let them speak up. Some possible
questions that could be given to the students are follows:

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What do you think about the price of the entrance ticket? It is suitable or

not? State your idea.

How do you describe that place?
Give your comment about the facilities they provide.
How is the parking area, is it enough?
How is the location of this place, is it easy to reach?
What about the transportation to4 get into that place?
How much it will cost to spend a day there?
4. After giving some questions to the students, give them some enough time to think
about the answers. Tell them that every group member should say a different
answer to each question in order to generate as many ideas. They may discuss it
with another member to prevent them from saying the same answer.
Teacher says: Now, discuss the possible answers with your group members, think
about as many as answers, Ill give 10 minutes to think.
5. Next, ask the students to begin the activity. It is difficult for the teacher to have all
groups practicing this activity in the same time because it will cause the students
start to make a noise and the learning activity becomes ineffective. Therefore, the
teacher has made the solution by giving the different objects to each group. When
one group performs, other groups listen to that group.
Point one group to perform the activity and tell other groups to watch the
performance of this group. Then, one member of this group begins the activity by
stating an idea or answer aloud. The rest of the students should remain quiet during
his or her answer. Once the first member finishes contributing the ideas, the
member who sits directly next to him or her should continue the discussion session
by stating a new idea or give the additional opinion or thought. The activity
continues, moving clockwise from member to member in sequence, until all
members have participated.
6. After one group finished performing their discussion, it is other group chance to do
the activity. Ask them to in the same way as the previous. All groups should have
their turn to perform. Make sure that all of the members give their contributions,

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especially for those who usually tend to remain silent in the classroom. Finally, the
teacher evaluates the students by stating the mistakes and correcting them in the
end of the class.
Based on the discussion above, it can be assumed that Round Robin
technique is very useful to improve the students speaking ability at Senior High
School because the procedures of this activity is easily to be followed and
understood by the students. So, the teacher can apply Round Robin technique to
help students in learning English speaking.

CHAPTER IV
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
A. Conclusion
In learning English, speaking is a skill that needs to be mastered by the
students in order to reach the target of language. Discussion is a kind of activity
used in teaching the students in order to improve their speaking ability. In
conducting this activity, one of the problems found is the students are not given

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enough chance to speak so that they pretend to be passive in the classroom. A

teacher needs to find a new technique, which can help students improve their
speaking ability such as Practice Rehearsal Pairs technique.
In applying Practice Rehearsal Pairs technique for teaching speaking,
teacher should do some steps below: First, the teacher first should form the
students into some pairs. Second, teacher explains the rules and the purpose of this
activity. Third, Give each group different objects to be discussed so in order to get
different opinions. Fourth, give a time limit to the students to discuss the questions.
Fifth, Point one group to do the activity. Dalam pengaplikasiannya anak anak
dibentuk berpasangan-pasangan. Dalam setiap pasangan, dibuat dua peran, (a)
penjelas atau pendemonstrasi, dan (b) pengecek/pengamat. Kemudian peserta didik
yang

bertugas

sebagai

penjelas

atau demonstrator

menjelaskan

atau

mendemonstrasikan cara mengerjakan keterampilan yang telah ditentukan.

Pengecek/pengamat bertugas mengamati dan menilai penjelasan atau demonstrasi
yang

dilakukan

temannya.

Kemudian

pasangan

bertukar

peran. Demonstrator kedua diberi keterampilan yang lain. Proses diteruskan

sampai semua keterampilan atau prosedur dapat dikuasai.
B. Suggestion
In this paper, the writer suggests the teachers to notice some aspects in applying
Practice Rehearsal Pairs technique. It will be effective if the teacher select the materials
that are familiar to the students so that it could be easier to the students to share their ideas.
It is hoped that the ability to speak of the students will improve because they are training to
speak continuously by using this technique

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