







































 
 
 

 
 EDUCATIO : Journal Of Education  
 Volume 6 , Number 1, May 2021  

ISSN : 2579-8383 (Print) ISSN : 2579-8405 (Online) 
92 

 

  

  

 
Improving Student’s Speaking Fluency  through the Implementation 

on Direct Interview Activity in University 

 
Mukhlisin 

Sekolah Tinggi Agama Islam Miftahul ‘Ula 
mukhlisin.endemic@gmail.com  

 
Accepted: 

Jan 3th   2021 
Reviewed:  

March 5th 2021 
Published:  

May 30th 2021 

 
Abstract : The objectives of this research are to find out whether the use of direct interview type 
improves the students’ speaking skill and the strengths and weaknesses of direct interview type. The 
method used in the research is collaborative classroom action research. This research consisted of two 
cycles in which there were four steps in each cycle, namely planning, implementing, observation, and 
reflection. The researcher collected qualitative data of speaking test and qualitative data of classroom 
situation, field note, photograph, interview, and questionnaires. The results are (1) the students’ 
speaking skill improved the improvement of speaking score (2) direct interview type established good 
communication activity between the teacher and the students and improved classroom management. 
 
Keywords: Speaking fluency, direct interview activity, and classroom action research 
 

INTRODUCTION 

Human always interact and communicate one another as social human. Speaking is the first way to do 

the interaction and communication each other1. That is why speaking is very essential problem, 

moreover speaking English. English is International languages must be mastered by learners. English 

is very essential element in communicating with each other because most of foreign people who are 

expert to speak English. Widdowson (1996: 59) states that speaking as an example of use is a part of 

reciprocal exchange in which both reception and production play a part where in this perspective; the 

skill of speaking involves both receptive and productive participant2. Vilimec (2006: 11) views in 

research that Speaking is the skills as comprising two components: production skills and interaction 

skills, both of which can be affected by two conditions: firstly, processing conditions, taking into 

considerations the fact that ‘a speech takes place under the pressure of time, secondly, reciprocity 

conditions connected with a mutual relationship between the interlocutors3.  

 
1 Takayuki Kanda et al., “Interactive Robots as Social Partners and Peer Tutors for Children: A Field Trial,” Human–

Computer Interaction 19, no. 1–2 (2004): 61–84. 
2 JANINA BRUTT‐GRIFFLER and Keiko K Samimy, “Revisiting the Colonial in the Postcolonial: Critical Praxis 

for Nonnative‐English‐speaking Teachers in a TESOL Program,” Tesol Quarterly 33, no. 3 (1999): 413–431. 
3 BRUTT‐GRIFFLER and Samimy, “Revisiting the Colonial in the Postcolonial: Critical Praxis for Nonnative‐

English‐speaking Teachers in a TESOL Program.” 

mailto:mukhlisin.endemic@gmail.com


 
 
 

 
 EDUCATIO : Journal Of Education  
 Volume 6 , Number 1, May 2021  

ISSN : 2579-8383 (Print) ISSN : 2579-8405 (Online) 
93 

 

  

  

According to Thornbury (2005;10) said that speaking is an capacity to oversee turn-taking on 

the utilize of production strategies such as the filling delays too contribute to familiarity at the same 

time as they are talking as well as take the commitments others speakers are making to conversation 

both phonetic and paralinguistic4. Speaking is used to express their ideas and to communicate with 

other people, when people can do reading skill, listening skill and writing skill by themselves without 

somebody joining with them then however in speaking skill people need interlocutor to do this 

activity5. 

The goal of the research is improving the English education program students’ speaking 

fluency for Islamic department for the first semester in STAI Miftahul ‘Ula Nganjuk since the 

researcher believes that as an English lecture to be, the students are able to speak accurately in learning. 

However fluency comes as new problem to be overcome. Christian Dustmann said to the journal that 

the students live at time where the ability to speak a second language fluently has become necessary, 

especially for those who want to advance in certain field of human endeavor6. 

Fluency in speaking is known as the natural ability to speak spontaneously, quickly and 

comprehensibly with few numbers of errors that may distract the listener from the speaker’s message, 

when accuracy is focus on the elements of phonology, grammar and discourse in spoken output7. In 

other words, Dustmann said that to speak fluently and confidently in variety of situations is an 

important goal of any language department8. 

Generally, the issue confronted managing with familiarity was when the learners talk to the 

others, the learners attempted to form the listeners get it approximately what they need to say9. The 

author found that the learners tended to falter and fragmentary whereas talking since they have issues 

in recovering the lexical things, encoding the syntactic shape of their message and adjusting their claim 

yield. This condition made the learners talk reluctantly and divided, as cruel that the recurrence of stop 

filler like ”ee” “well”,”mm”,”oo”, conjointly the generation of dissiliency such as reiteration, repair, 

restarts and too prolongation will smoothly their talks.  

The first aspect came from the language speaking such as mispronunciation, showed by such 

word as when they said “white” but said “wait”. The students were difficult to comprehend in 

understanding grammar10. It was showed when they wrote the dialogue on the paper. They could not 

use their grammar accurately when they tried to make some interrogative sentences such as “where 

 
4 Situjuh Nazara, “Students’ Perception on EFL Speaking Skill Development,” JET (Journal of English Teaching) 1, 

no. 1 (2011): 28–43. 
5 BRUTT‐GRIFFLER and Samimy, “Revisiting the Colonial in the Postcolonial: Critical Praxis for Nonnative‐

English‐speaking Teachers in a TESOL Program.” 
6 Christian Dustmann, “Speaking Fluency, Writing Fluency and Earnings of Migrants,” Journal of Population economics 

7, no. 2 (1994): 133–156. 
7 Dustmann, “Speaking Fluency, Writing Fluency and Earnings of Migrants.” 
8 Dustmann, “Speaking Fluency, Writing Fluency and Earnings of Migrants.” 
9 Murray J Munro and Tracey M Derwing, “Foreign Accent, Comprehensibility, and Intelligibility in the Speech of 

Second Language Learners,” Language learning 45, no. 1 (1995): 73–97. 
10 Michael A K Halliday, “Some Grammatical Problems in Scientific English,” Australian Review of Applied Linguistics. 

Supplement Series 6, no. 1 (1989): 13–37. 



 
 
 

 
 EDUCATIO : Journal Of Education  
 Volume 6 , Number 1, May 2021  

ISSN : 2579-8383 (Print) ISSN : 2579-8405 (Online) 
94 

 

  

  

you live? “. The other difficulty was the students’ lack of vocabularies so the learners got difficulty to 

speak well. It was showed when they made dialogue they would repeat one word in many times such 

as “tell” they did not change into other words such as “talk, say, explain,”. 

The second aspect came from the learning environment. The learners always felt ashamed and 

afraid to speak English, it was showed when the lecture asked them to read the text, they were seriously 

nervous11. Next, the learners had never practiced and used English and also used mother tongue during 

teaching learning process12. The learners were silent when the lecture asked them and give some 

questions in discussion section always said that English is difficult to speak. D. Atkinson argued in the 

research the last indicators in speaking class come of them were in passive students13.  

The other aspect that influenced the students’ familiarity in talking was the propensities in 

utilizing Indonesian or Javanese term when they seem not discover fitting English words. This wonder 

characterized as delay filers that ordinarily happened when they attempted to precise complex ideas14. 

The next important aspect is the high frequency of silent pause that produced by the students. 

According to pretest analyzed by the researcher, there were so many silent pause occurred when the 

students delivered their speech. The more silent pause produced means as the more fragmented and 

hesitant the speech delivered. 

Another aspect that also affected the students’ fluency in speaking was related with the type 

of activities provided by lecturer in the teaching and learning process. Lecturers need to be very careful 

in implementing and developing particular methodology including choosing the approach and 

technique to be implemented in teaching and learning process15. 

The sources of problems also came from there parts. They came from the students, the lecture 

and the material. From the students, most of them were not interested in joining English and English 

was one of the most difficult lessons16. It was showed when the lecture gave assignment, they told that 

it was difficult and they could not do it. Secondly, the lecture did not make many varieties of teaching 

and learning method then the students felt bored joining the lesson. It was showed by the result of 

pre-observation. During teaching learning process the students seemed bored because the lecture did 

not communicate with the students well17. There was no joke during teaching learning process and 

make the classroom situation was boring. Last, from the material, the teaching and learning material 

that was provided monotonous then the students felt bored and also the lecture used teacher centered 

method was create the passive students. 

 
11 Halliday, “Some Grammatical Problems in Scientific English.” 
12 David Atkinson, “The Mother Tongue in the Classroom: A Neglected Resource?,” ELT journal 41, no. 4 (1987): 

241–247. 
13 Atkinson, “The Mother Tongue in the Classroom: A Neglected Resource?” 
14 Atkinson, “The Mother Tongue in the Classroom: A Neglected Resource?” 
15 Munro and Derwing, “Foreign Accent, Comprehensibility, and Intelligibility in the Speech of Second Language 

Learners.” 
16 Fred Hewitt and Marlene Clayton, “Quality and Complexity–Lessons from English Higher Education,” 

International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management (1999). 
17 Halliday, “Some Grammatical Problems in Scientific English.” 



 
 
 

 
 EDUCATIO : Journal Of Education  
 Volume 6 , Number 1, May 2021  

ISSN : 2579-8383 (Print) ISSN : 2579-8405 (Online) 
95 

 

  

  

Development in language teaching must depend on our ability to understand the effects of 

our methodology18. Classroom activities that develop learners’ ability to express themselves through 

speech would therefore seem an important component of a language. The implement and developing 

inappropriate approach, method, and technique in teaching and learning process may create some new 

problems19. The students felt bored with the activities in the classroom, most of them felt sleepy when 

the activities learning and finally, their motivation in following the lecturing activities decreased slowly 

also provide some characteristics of successful speaking activity20. There are provides some 

characteristics of successful speaking activity. 

1. Learners talk a lot. As much as possible of the period of time allotted to the activity in fact 

occupied by learner talk. This may seem obvious, but often most time is taken up with teacher 

talk or pauses. 

2. Participation is even. Classroom discussion is not dominated by a minority of talkative 

participants: all get a chance to speak, and contributors are fairly evenly distributed. 

3. Motivation is high. Learners are eager to speak: because they are interested in the topic and 

have something new to say about it or because they want to contributed to achieving a task 

objective. 

4. Language is of an acceptable level. Learners express themselves in utterances that are relevant, 

easily comprehensible to each other, and of an acceptable of language accuracy. 

Having observed on that situation, the researcher was interested in changing the condition by 

conducting action research concern on implementing direct interview type to solve the problems of 

students’ speaking skill in the First Semester Islamic department STAI Miftahul ’Ula Nganjuk. 

Widdowson (1996: 58 – 59) defines that term of speaking in two ways according its sense which in 

the usage sense, involves the manifestation of the phonological system or of the grammatical system 

of the language or both21.  

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

manner of communicating22. It 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 with 

the reference to usage; it is perfectly true that speaking is active, or productive, and makes use of the 

aural medium23. In other words its explains that speaking as an instance of use is a part of reciprocal 

exchange in which both reception and production play a part where in this perspective, the skill of 

speaking involves both receptive and productive participation24. 

 
18 Munro and Derwing, “Foreign Accent, Comprehensibility, and Intelligibility in the Speech of Second Language 

Learners.” 
19 Halliday, “Some Grammatical Problems in Scientific English.” 
20 Halliday, “Some Grammatical Problems in Scientific English.” 
21 Henry George Widdowson, Linguistics (Oxford University Press, 1996). 
22 Widdowson, Linguistics. 
23 Widdowson, Linguistics. 
24 Widdowson, Linguistics. 



 
 
 

 
 EDUCATIO : Journal Of Education  
 Volume 6 , Number 1, May 2021  

ISSN : 2579-8383 (Print) ISSN : 2579-8405 (Online) 
96 

 

  

  

From the theories above it can be concluded that speaking is the kind of tactical maneuvering 

of oral interaction to express one of intelligibility which can either focus on information or interaction 

involving both receptive and productive participation in interactive communicative25. Though 

components of speaking such the manifestation of phonological and grammatical system of language 

then accurately sufficient vocabulary26.  

Dugan said to the research that direct interview type is a means of gathering data from one 

person by another or others that allows the individual to express view and opinion to others in 

structured ways27. Direct interview type is a one in which interviewer establish the purposes of 

interviewing and at least at the outset, control the pacing of the communication situation. Typical 

direct interview type includes information giving, information gathering, and employment selection. 

Mc Groarty identifies six primary benefits of direct interview type as one technique of 

cooperative learning. They are 1) increased frequency and variety of second language practice though 

different types of interaction 2) Possibility for development or use of the first language in ways that 

support cognitive development and increased second language skill. 3) The opportunities to include a 

greater variety of curricular material to stimulate language as well as concept learning. 5) Freedom for 

teachers to master new professional skills, particularly those emphasizing communication. 6) The 

opportunities for students act as resources for each other28. Thus assuming a more active role in their 

learning activity. 

On the other hand, identify four kinds of associated with direct interview type in cooperative 

learning classroom management29. They are 1) to assist with classroom environment and social task. 

2) To be useful in selecting content and setting goals. 3) To help in developing materials such as flash 

card and posters. 4) To assist in monitoring progress and evaluating tasks30. 

Steward (2006: 13 – 14) adds the advantages of applying direct interview type in teaching 

language skill. It is divided into three aspects, they are 1) Interviewing are more useful in discovering 

attitudes, feelings, thought, beliefs, and what bids them together31. 2) Interviewing encourages the use 

of all kinds and type of questions.  

3) The nature of interviewing generally does not permit kind of selectivity except in phrasing 

some question32. 

 

Surveying and measuring speaking fluency  

 
25 Martin Bygate, Speaking (Oxford university press, 1987). 
26 Widdowson, Linguistics. 
27 Widdowson, Linguistics. 
28 Widdowson, Linguistics. 
29 Irma Sri Anggraeni and Hefy Sulistyawati, “IMPROVING STUDENTS’SPEAKING SKILL USING DIRECT 

INTERVIEW TYPE,” English Education 2, no. 1 (2013). 
30 Widdowson, Linguistics. 
31 Robert J Johnston et al., “Contingent Valuation Focus Groups: Insights from Ethnographic Interview 

Techniques,” Agricultural and Resource Economics Review 24, no. 1 (1995): 56–69. 
32 Widdowson, Linguistics. 



 
 
 

 
 EDUCATIO : Journal Of Education  
 Volume 6 , Number 1, May 2021  

ISSN : 2579-8383 (Print) ISSN : 2579-8405 (Online) 
97 

 

  

  

 Overall, there is qualitative assessment done by the recent studies provided by experts. In 

qualitative assessment, professional judge listener such as in a class of professional linguists, teachers 

or lectures are needed to be the scorers or assessors33. However, the goal of this research is not provide 

the assessment of oral fluency qualitatively since more studies has been done related to this kind of 

assessment. The analyst center around dissecting and assessing the information gathered qualitatively 

later it depicted in subtleties of each qualitatively information taken. The objective is to gauge the 

degree of understudies' talking familiarity through the estimation of worldly factors34.  

 

   

METHOD 

 The method of this research is a classroom action research. The researcher passed some 

procedures during conducting this research. It is a stated by Kemmis and Mc Taggart35, that the 

procedure of each steps in this researcher is as follows: 

1. Identify a problem area 

In this research, the problems were identified by using four techniques they were  

a) Pre observation, to know the model of classroom management and students’ behavior. 

b)   Interviewing the teacher and the students, to know problems faced by the teacher and the 

students.  

c) Questionnaire to know problem of English in teaching learning process faced by the 

students.  

d) Pretest, to know how far their speaking skill. 

2. Planning the actions 

The researcher made some plans before conducting this research, they were  

A) Choosing the topic or the material, the researcher chose descriptive text as the topic of the 

research. B) Designing lesson plan in every meeting. C) Preparing for teaching. D) Preparing 

for worksheets observation. F) Preparing for camera. 

3. Implementation the action 

There were two cycles and every cycle consisted of two meetings. Every meeting there were 

these types of activities; opening, main activities and closing. 

4. Observing / monitoring the action 

The researcher did pre – research observation before implementing the research in class that 

used as consideration to design the next activity. 

5. Reflecting the result of the observation 

 
33 Franz Pöchhacker, “Quality Assessment in Conference and Community Interpreting,” Meta: Journal des 

traducteurs/Meta: Translators’ Journal 46, no. 2 (2001): 410–425. 
34 Pöchhacker, “Quality Assessment in Conference and Community Interpreting.” 
35 Wilfred Carr and Stephen Kemmis, Becoming Critical: Education Knowledge and Action Research (Routledge, 2003). 



 
 
 

 
 EDUCATIO : Journal Of Education  
 Volume 6 , Number 1, May 2021  

ISSN : 2579-8383 (Print) ISSN : 2579-8405 (Online) 
98 

 

  

  

The research the process and the result of implementation of the direct interview type. This 

evaluation was evaluated after finishing first cycle that purposed to know the strength and the 

weakness. 

6. Revising the plan 

After conducting cycle 1 the research revised this research that focused on managing students 

to be more active on speaking36. 

 

CONCLUSION 

To solve the problems In speaking direct interview type to solve it of students’ speaking skill in the 

First Semester Islamic department STAI Miftahul ’Ula Nganjuk. To define that term of speaking in 

two ways according its sense this in the usage sense, involves the manifestation of the phonological 

system or of the grammatical system of the language or both. Speaking is the kind of tactical 

maneuvering of oral interaction to express one of intelligibility which can either focus on information 

or interaction involving both receptive and productive participation in interactive communicative 

though components of speaking such the manifestation of phonological and grammatical system. 

Direct interview type in cooperative learning classroom management is useful especially for 

learners to improve their speaking skill. Direct interview type includes information giving, information 

gathering, and employment selection to assist with classroom environment and social task. Direct 

interview type useful in selecting content and setting goals. Direct interview type can help in 

developing materials such as flash card and posters and to assist in monitoring progress and evaluating 

tasks. 

  

 
36 Jupri Jupri and Haerazi Haerazi, “Teaching English Using Two Stay Two Stray in Improving Students’ English 

Speaking Skills Integrated with Foreign Language Anxiety,” Journal of Language and Literature Studies 2, no. 1 (2022): 33–42. 



 
 
 

 
 EDUCATIO : Journal Of Education  
 Volume 6 , Number 1, May 2021  

ISSN : 2579-8383 (Print) ISSN : 2579-8405 (Online) 
99 

 

  

  

 

REFERENCES 

Anggraeni, Irma Sri, and Hefy Sulistyawati. “IMPROVING STUDENTS’SPEAKING SKILL 
USING DIRECT INTERVIEW TYPE.” English Education 2, no. 1 (2013). 

Atkinson, David. “The Mother Tongue in the Classroom: A Neglected Resource?” ELT journal 41, 
no. 4 (1987): 241–247. 

BRUTT‐GRIFFLER, JANINA, and Keiko K Samimy. “Revisiting the Colonial in the Postcolonial: 

Critical Praxis for Nonnative‐English‐speaking Teachers in a TESOL Program.” Tesol Quarterly 
33, no. 3 (1999): 413–431. 

Bygate, Martin. Speaking. Oxford university press, 1987. 
Carr, Wilfred, and Stephen Kemmis. Becoming Critical: Education Knowledge and Action Research. Routledge, 

2003. 
Dustmann, Christian. “Speaking Fluency, Writing Fluency and Earnings of Migrants.” Journal of 

Population economics 7, no. 2 (1994): 133–156. 
Halliday, Michael A K. “Some Grammatical Problems in Scientific English.” Australian Review of 

Applied Linguistics. Supplement Series 6, no. 1 (1989): 13–37. 
Hewitt, Fred, and Marlene Clayton. “Quality and Complexity–Lessons from English Higher 

Education.” International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management (1999). 
Johnston, Robert J, Thomas F Weaver, Lynn A Smith, and Stephen K Swallow. “Contingent Valuation 

Focus Groups: Insights from Ethnographic Interview Techniques.” Agricultural and Resource 
Economics Review 24, no. 1 (1995): 56–69. 

Jupri, Jupri, and Haerazi Haerazi. “Teaching English Using Two Stay Two Stray in Improving 
Students’ English Speaking Skills Integrated with Foreign Language Anxiety.” Journal of Language 
and Literature Studies 2, no. 1 (2022): 33–42. 

Kanda, Takayuki, Takayuki Hirano, Daniel Eaton, and Hiroshi Ishiguro. “Interactive Robots as Social 
Partners and Peer Tutors for Children: A Field Trial.” Human–Computer Interaction 19, no. 1–2 
(2004): 61–84. 

Munro, Murray J, and Tracey M Derwing. “Foreign Accent, Comprehensibility, and Intelligibility in 
the Speech of Second Language Learners.” Language learning 45, no. 1 (1995): 73–97. 

Nazara, Situjuh. “Students’ Perception on EFL Speaking Skill Development.” JET (Journal of English 
Teaching) 1, no. 1 (2011): 28–43. 

Pöchhacker, Franz. “Quality Assessment in Conference and Community Interpreting.” Meta: Journal 
des traducteurs/Meta: Translators’ Journal 46, no. 2 (2001): 410–425. 

Widdowson, Henry George. Linguistics. Oxford University Press, 1996. 
 


