1 ELT FORUM 2 (1) (2013) English Language Teaching Forum http://journal.unnes.ac.id/sju/index.php/elt USING DIGITAL DISCUSSION THROUGH COMMENTING BLOG TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ ABILITY IN WRITING ANALYTICAL EXPOSITION TEXT Widya Arum Wicaksani  Department of English, Faculty Language and Arts, Semarang State University, Indonesia Info Artikel ________________ SejarahArtikel: DiterimaJanuari 2013 DisetujuiFebruari 2013 DipublikasikanJuni 2013 ________________ Keywords: Video, Nursery Rhymes, Speaking, Young Learners, Experimental ____________________ Abstract ___________________________________________________________________ The aim of the study is to find out whether using video-typed nursery rhymes can enhance speaking ability of young learners of grade four of Elementary School. The subject of the study were 19 students of class four Al-Khawaritzmi of SD Islam Bilingual An-Nissa Semarang. The research applied was experimental research and the research design was one group pretest-posttest. In the research, the students were taught using video-typed nursery rhymes. The result of this research was found by comparing the result of pretest and posttest. The researcher used t-test to find out the significance enhancement. Based on the result of the study, there were some enhancement in students’ speaking ability after they were given the treatment using video-typed nursery rhymes. After getting the treatment, the students were able to absorb the lesson better by being taught using video-typed nursery rhymes than using the usual way of teaching. The colorful video and the cheerful melody of the nursery rhymes gave some fun and happy atmosphere inside the classroom. The students understood easily for they enjoyed the lesson. The conclusion taken from the study is that the video-typed nursery rhymes can enhance the students’ speaking ability and suitable for teaching speaking. © 2013UniversitasNegeri Semarang Alamatkorespondensi: GedungB3Lantai3 FBSUnnes KampusSekaran, Gunungpati, Semarang, 50229 E-mail: arumsani666@yahoo.com ISSN 2252-6706 mailto:arumsani666@yahoo.com Widya Arum Wicaksani / Journal of English Language Teaching 2 (1) (2013) 2 INTRODUCTION Speaking and listening has become a profile component of English within the national curriculum; it becomes as important as reading and writing (Wray, 1994: 7). Therefore, in few years, there has been an increasing interest in the spoken language of young learners. They started to learn how to communicate properly in English. The speaking ability becomes very important because it is useful for international communication. In the speaking activities, the ability to express feeling and opinion in an oral form is really needed. In Indonesia, English has been taught since elementary school. In elementary school, the students should master four abilities of English. They are listening, speaking, reading and writing. Among those abilities, the most essential one is speaking. It is because the students use the language mostly in spoken. Bailey (2003:42) stated that speaking ability is more difficult than the other abilities. The speaking ability is different to the reading and writing abilities because speaking happens in real time. People prefer to speak right away everything they need to tell than write it down in a paper and read it to the others. Besides, when people speak, they definitely cannot revise everything that they have spoken, as they can if they are writing. Since people use spoken more intensely than written, they mostly convey their message to the others orally. That is why they should pay more attention to their speaking ability. Teaching speaking for young learners is an uneasy task for the teachers. They need any appropriate and interesting media to deliver the materials so that the students do not get bored easily and understand the material well. There are some kinds of media which can be used in teaching. According to Gerlach and Elly (1980:297) the media to teach are classified in the six general categories, they are: 1. Picture Picture consists of photographs or any objects or events, which may be larger or smaller that the object or event represents it. 2. Audio recording Recording is made on magnetic tape, disc, motion picture, and soundtrack. There are reproductions of actual event or soundtrack. 3. Motion picture A motion picture is a moving image in color or black and white produced from live action or from graphic representation. 4. Television This category includes all types of Audio Video Electronic distribution system, which eventually appear on TV monitor. 5. Real things, simulation, and model. This category includes people, events, objects, and demonstration real things as constructed with their media, are not substituted for the actual objects or events. Teaching speaking using media can help the teachers in delivering their lesson. Colorful pictures can be a good option for, as we know, elementary school students are interested in colorful picture, but the colorful moving picture will be more interested for the students and will catch their attention. One of the media which has moving picture is video. Video is about the display of photographic-style images, generally of real- world scenes and objects (Symes, 2001: 17). Even though video is generally about real-world scenes and object, there are also many videos of animation scenes and object, video-typed nursery rhymes. Nursery rhymes itself are short tales, poems or songs made up of trivial or nonsensical musical verse. The origins of nursery rhymes can be traced to children‟s lullabies intended to help a child fall asleep (Opie & Opie taken from Dunst, 2011: 1). Nursery rhymes are trivial, poetical, and musical. Some of them do not make sense. However, many of them have simple but meaningful lyrics, not to mention, a good moral value for children. Contrary to songs, nursery rhymes have simple and easy lyrics. They can enjoy singing without having troubles in memorizing the lyric. The melody and easy lyric can build up children‟s enthusiasm. Since young learners like to sing and are interested in colorful pictures, video-typed Widya Arum Wicaksani / Journal of English Language Teaching 2 (1) (2013) 3 nursery rhymes can be applied in teaching speaking. It goes without saying that young learners get bored easily if the teacher teaches young learners only by “teaching” and reading the material, their concentration will not be lasting long. By using video of nursery rhymes, the teachers will not only “teaching” the students, but also “playing” with them. They watch the video together, sing the nursery rhymes together, and do the activities (including performance) together. As long as the students do fun activities in learning English, they will pay attention to the activities. They will not feel burdened in learning the material. THE STUDY This study was one group pretest-posttest. It was done in SD Islam Bilingual An-Nissa Semarang from May, 3rd until May, 11th 2012 in five meetings. The subject of this study was fourth grade students of SD Islam Bilingual An- Nissa in the academic year 2011/2012. The aim of this study was to determine whether video- typed nursery rhymes can enhance students‟ speaking ability. There were two video-typed nursery rhymes which were used in this study, they are “Where Is Thumbkin” and “Good Morning”. In this study, the students watched the video together. Then, they memorized the lyric of the nursery rhymes. By memorizing and practice the video over and over again, they will be more fluent in speaking the words in the nursery rhymes. After memorizing, they sing the nursery rhymes on the video together. Some of the students are asked to sing in front of the class one by one. Then, the students should make groups of pair and each pair make a simple conversation about greetings. METHOD This study was a kind of experimental study which concerned with the use of video- typed nursery rhymes to enhance students‟ speaking ability of young learners of grade four. This study tried to solve the problems faced by the students in speaking, especially in „greetings‟ section. This experimental study used video- typed nursery rhymes in mastering „greetings‟ section. First, the students were observed to find out the problems in „greetings‟ section they faced. Then the students were given the pretest to measure their mastery in speaking „greetings‟. The pretest used „Question and Answer‟ test design (Brown, 2004: 159)They were asked five questions related to „greetings‟. Then, the students were given the treatment. The treatment was done in three meetings. The video-typed nursery rhymes was applied in the treatment. After that, on the fifth meeting, the student were done the posttest. The posttest used „Discussions and Conversations‟ test design (Brown, 2004: 175). The students were asked to pairing. Each pair was asked to make a simple conversation and they should perform the conversation in front of the class. The students‟ achievements before and after getting the treatment were analyzed based on Harris (1969: 84). There were five aspects which were analyzed, they are pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. Every aspect had 5 maximum score, and the total of all the aspects were 25. Even though Harris‟ rubric assessment was used, some modifications were made in it, especially in scoring number 5 and 4 in each aspect. The modifications were made because Harris‟s rubric assessment is unsuitable for Indonesian young learners. The rubric is most likely made for assessing advanced students. In some of the assessments made by Harris, it seems there are some possibilities that the students can speak as good as native speakers. In the scoring number 5 in pronunciation aspect, for example, it is stated that the students have few traces of foreign language. In addition, in vocabulary and fluency aspects, the students are able to use the vocabulary and speech as fluent as native speakers. In the scoring number 4 in pronunciation aspect, for example, it is stated that the students‟ pronunciation is always intelligible, and in comprehension aspect, the students understand nearly everything at normal speed. But in reality, young learners cannot Widya Arum Wicaksani / Journal of English Language Teaching 2 (1) (2013) 4 pronounce every English word intelligibly all the time. There are still many words which are difficult to pronounce by them. Moreover, they would find some difficulties in understanding English at normal speed; the speed that the native speaker uses. Through the explanation above, the rubric is difficult to achieve by Indonesian young learners, especially for the 8-10 year children. There are many Indonesian young learners who are able to learn how to speak English in a proper way, but it is nearly impossible for them to speak as good as native speakers. They cannot speak using native accent and speak as fast as native speakers. Therefore, the rubric was modified so that it would fit to assess young learners‟ speech. Here is the rubric assessment of speaking which has been modivied. Table 1. Rubric Assessment Based On David P. Harris Components Assessments Score P ro n u n c ia ti o n The pronunciation is clear and quite understandable for elementary students 5 There are some pronunciation problems, but still quite understandable 4 Pronunciation problem necessitate listening and occasionally lead a misunderstanding 3 Very hard to understand because of pronunciation problem. Must frequently be asked to repeat 2 Pronunciation problem so severe as to make speech virtually un- intelligible 1 G ra m m a r Errors in grammar are quite rare 5 There are few grammatical errors but still intelligible 4 Makes frequent errors grammar and word order occasionally obscure meaning 3 Grammar and word order errors make comprehension difficult. Must often rephrase sentences or restrict him to basic patterns 2 Errors in grammar and word order so severe as to make speech virtually unintelligible 1 V o c a b u la ry Almost all vocabularies used are in a proper use 5 Frequently use inappropriate terms or must replace ideas but still intelligible 4 Frequently uses the wrong word, conversation somewhat limited because of inadequate vocabulary 3 Misuse up words and very limited vocabulary make comprehension quite difficult 2 Vocabulary limitation so extreme as to make conversation virtually impossible 1 F lu e n c y Able to use the language fluently, rare skip, and the speed of speech are at the normal rate 5 Speed of speech seem to be slightly affected by language problem 4 Speed and fluency are rather strongly affected by language problem 3 Usually hesitant often forced into silent by language limitation 2 Speech is so halting and fragmentary as to make conversation 1 Widya Arum Wicaksani / Journal of English Language Teaching 2 (1) (2013) 5 virtually impossible C o m p re h e n si o n Understand most of what is said at average speed 5 Understand what is said at average speed, but occasional repetition may be necessary 4 Understand what is said is at slower than average speed repetition 3 Has great difficulty following what is said. Can comprehend only, “social conversation” spoken slowly and with frequent repetition. 2 Cannot be said to understand even simple conversational English 1 Then, the percentage analysis was used to find the percentage of students‟ mastery. Here is the formula of the percentage analysis: (Arikunto, 2009: 236) In which: P : percentage of student‟s mastery n : number of scores obtained by the student N : total score To find out the significance of students‟ enhancement in speaking, the t-test was used. Here is the formula of the t-test: √ ∑ (Arikunto, 2010: 349) In which: Md : mean of the difference between pretest and posttest (posttest – pretest) Xd : deviation of each subject (d – Md) ∑ : Total number of quadrate deviation N : number of students This study succeeded if there is significance enhancement. Students‟ enhancement in speaking is significant if t-value is bigger than t-table (t-count < t-table). The t- table is determined by looking at t distribution table based on the d.b. (N – 1) and α = 5%. FINDINGS AND DISSCUSSIONS Before doing the research, the the activities that would be done were arranged. The topic which was going to be used in the research was determined. The research instruments, including the questions for the pretest and posttest, lesson plan, and research assessment, were also arranged. Based on the arrangement, it was decided that there were five meetings in this research; the first meeting was pretest, the second, third, and fourth meetings were treatments, and the fifth meeting was posttest. The total time allotment was 10x35 minutes. The first meeting, the pretest, was conducted on May, 3rd 2012. There were 19 students who followed the pretest. The students were asked to come to the teacher‟s desk one by one. There they were asked five questions related to the topic. The score was made based on the students‟ answers. The result of the pretest can be seen in the table below: Widya Arum Wicaksani / Journal of English Language Teaching 2 (1) (2013) 6 Table 2. Pretest Score NO CODE SCORE 1 R-01 36 2 R-02 32 3 R-03 20 4 R-04 72 5 R-05 20 6 R-06 28 7 R-07 40 8 R-08 52 9 R-09 72 10 R-10 36 11 R-11 32 12 R-12 56 13 R-13 60 14 R-14 60 15 R-15 36 16 R-16 36 17 R-17 20 18 R-18 28 19 R-19 44 Based on the table, there were 5 students who got 20-30, 7 students who got 31-40, 1 student who got 41-50, 4 students who got 51- 60, and 2 students who got 71-80. The lowest score was 20 and the highest score was 72. There were only 2 students (10.5%) who could achieve score more than 60. The result showed that the students‟ speaking ability still low. The second meeting was the first day of the treatment. It was conducted on May, 4th 2012. In this meeting, the video-typed nursery rhyme entitled “Where Is Thumbkin” was showed. Then the students were given a sheet of lyric. The students were asked to memorize the lyric in 10 minutes. After the students finished memorizing, the video was showed again. This time, the students were asked to sing together. Then they were told that there were some expressions of greetings in the lyric of “Where Is Thumbkin” and they were asked to mention the expressions if they found them. The third meeting was the second day of the treatment. It was conducted on May, 7th 2012. In this meeting, the expressions of greetings were shown through a powerpoint presentation. The students were asked to take a note and memorize the expressions. After they finished taking a note and memorizing the expressions, The powerpoint presentation was closed and the students were also asked to close their book. The students should mention the expressions and they answered one by one. Then, they were shown one more video-typed nursery rhyme entitled “Good Morning Song”. “Good Morning Song” has more greetings‟ vocabularies but also more difficulties than “Where Is Thumbkin”. The students were given a sheet of lyric. The students were asked to memorize the lyric in 15 minutes. After the students finished memorizing, the video was shown again. The fourth meeting was the third day of the treatment. It was conducted on May, 10th 2012. In this meeting, some students were asked to come forward and sing “Good Morning Song” together; the other students pay attention. There were some expressions of greetings in the lyric of “Good Morning Song”, they were asked to mention the expressions. After that, another powerpoint presentation about conversations of Widya Arum Wicaksani / Journal of English Language Teaching 2 (1) (2013) 7 greetings was shown. There were some examples of conversation in the powerpoint presentation. Then, the student ahould make groups of pair. After given the example how to do the conversation, the students tried to practice with their pairs. After that, each pair should make a simple conversation of greeting, but they were not allowed to use words “good morning”, “how are you”, and “I am fine, thank you”. The fourth meeting, the posttest, was conducted on May, 11th 2012. In this meeting, the students came forward with their pair and do the conversation in front of the class. The score was made based on the students‟ conversation. The result of the posttest can be seen in the table below: Table 3. Posttest Score NO CODE SCORE 1 R-01 68 2 R-02 52 3 R-03 44 4 R-04 72 5 R-05 44 6 R-06 64 7 R-07 68 8 R-08 56 9 R-09 84 10 R-10 68 11 R-11 48 12 R-12 76 13 R-13 72 14 R-14 72 15 R-15 60 16 R-16 52 17 R-17 36 18 R-18 44 19 R-19 52 Based on the table, there were 1 student who got 31-40, 4 students who got 41-50, 5 students who got 51-60, 4 students who got 61- 70, 4 students who got 71-80, and 1 student who got 81-90. The lowest score was 36 and the highest score was 84. There were 9 students (47.4%) who could achieve score more than 60. The result showed that there were some enhancements in students‟ speaking ability. The comparison between the students‟ pretest and posttest score can be seen in the diagram below: Widya Arum Wicaksani / Journal of English Language Teaching 2 (1) (2013) 8 Image 1. Comparison between the Students‟ Pretest and Posttest Score The diagram showed how much the students enhanced their speaking ability after they were taught using video-typed nursery rhymes. Because there were five aspects which were assessed, the enhancements of those aspects were also being analyzed. The enhancement of speaking aspects can be seen in the comparison between the pretest and posttest aspects‟ result below. 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 R -0 1 R -0 2 R -0 3 R -0 4 R -0 5 R -0 6 R -0 7 R -0 8 R -0 9 R -1 0 R -1 1 R -1 2 R -1 3 R -1 4 R -1 5 R -1 6 R -1 7 R -1 8 R -1 9 Pretest Posttest Widya Arum Wicaksani / Journal of English Language Teaching 2 (1) (2013) 9 Table 4. Pretest Aspects‟ Result NO CODE ASPECT (%) P G F C V 1 R-01 40 40 20 40 40 2 R-02 20 40 20 40 40 3 R-03 20 20 20 20 20 4 R-04 60 80 60 80 80 5 R-05 20 20 20 20 20 6 R-06 20 20 20 40 40 7 R-07 40 40 20 40 60 8 R-08 40 40 60 60 60 9 R-09 80 60 60 80 80 10 R-10 20 40 20 40 60 11 R-11 20 40 20 40 40 12 R-12 60 60 40 60 60 13 R-13 40 80 40 80 60 14 R-14 60 40 60 80 60 15 R-15 20 40 40 40 40 16 R-16 40 20 20 40 60 17 R-17 20 20 20 20 20 18 R-18 20 40 20 20 40 19 R-19 40 40 40 40 60 MEAN 35.79 41.05 32.63 46.3 2 49.4 7 Table 5. Posttest Aspects‟ Result NO CODE ASPECT (%) P G F C V 1 R-01 60 60 60 80 80 2 R-02 40 40 40 60 80 3 R-03 40 40 40 40 60 4 R-04 80 60 80 60 80 5 R-05 40 40 40 40 60 6 R-06 80 60 60 40 80 7 R-07 60 60 60 80 80 8 R-08 60 60 40 60 60 9 R-09 80 80 80 80 100 10 R-10 60 60 60 80 80 11 R-11 60 40 40 40 60 12 R-12 80 80 80 80 60 13 R-13 80 60 100 40 80 14 R-14 60 80 60 80 80 15 R-15 60 60 40 60 80 16 R-16 60 40 40 40 80 17 R-17 40 40 40 20 40 Widya Arum Wicaksani / Journal of English Language Teaching 2 (1) (2013) 10 18 R-18 40 40 40 40 60 19 R-19 40 60 40 60 60 MEAN 58.95 55.79 54.74 56.84 71.58 Based on the mean of the pretest and posttest aspects‟ result, the mean of the posttest aspects‟ result was higher that the pretest. The pronunciation aspect enhanced 23.16%, the grammar aspect enhanced 14.74%, the fluency aspect enhanced 22.11%, the comprehension aspect enhanced 10.52%, and the vocabulary aspect enhanced 22.11%. The comparison between the mean of the pretest and posttest can be seen clearly in the diagram below. Image 4.2 Comparison between the Mean of the Pretest and Posttest The diagram showed that there were any enhancements in every aspect. It is proven that using video-typed nursery rhymes can enhance students‟ speaking aspects. After analyzing the pretest and the posttest, the significance of students‟ enhancement in speaking was analyzed using the t-test. The purpose of the t-test was to find out whether the enhancement of students‟ speaking ability was significant. The formula of t-test is as follows: √ ∑ In which: Md : 18.53 ∑x2d : 1670.74 N (N – 1) : 342 The result of the t-test (t-value) was 8.38. Based on the t distribution table, the t-table of 19 students is 1.73. The condition to state that the research is significant is by comparing the t- value and the t-table. The t-value must be higher than t-table. From the definition above, it was concluded that the enhancement of the study was significant; the t-value (8.38) was higher than the t-table (1.73). Mastering the speaking ability is not an easy task for the teachers and students. The teachers should use proper media in teaching speaking so that the students understand easily. This research used video-typed nursery rhymes as the media to teach speaking. The purpose of using this media was to find out whether the media could enhance students‟ speaking ability. 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 Pretest Posttest Widya Arum Wicaksani / Journal of English Language Teaching 2 (1) (2013) 11 When the fourth grader students of An-Nissa Islamic Bilingual School were taught by using this media, they found it was enjoyable. They felt a new atmosphere in learning speaking. They did not only sit and take notes, but they could express themselves by singing the nursery rhymes freely. The colorful appearance of the video also made the students interested in learning the lesson. The happy and cheerful atmosphere stimulated the students to increase their curiosity to participate in the activities. Moreover, there were also group work and performance. The function of group work was to habituate the students to work together in solving the problem. They could discuss and decide how to make a good conversation together. Beside the group work, the students also performed by singing together in front of the class. The performance could increase their confidence before doing the real performance in the posttest activity. The use of video-typed nursery rhymes were also enhance the five aspects which are assessed. The students‟ pronunciation aspect enhanced because they imitated the speaker when they were singing the nursery rhymes. They could remember how to pronounce the words because they had sung the nursery rhymes many times. The grammar aspect enhanced because there were utterances that they have learnt in the video. The utterances found in the nursery rhymes became examples for the students to make utterances on their own. The fluency aspect was assessed through the way the students speak. They were called fluent if they could speak in English without any meaningful skip. The fluency aspect enhanced because the students have listened to the nursery rhymes many times and they already knew how to speak fluently. The comprehension aspect enhanced after the students understand the meaning of the nursery rhymes. Through the video-typed nursery rhymes, they understand how to greet people, how to answer the greeting, and how to make the conversation of greetings. The vocabulary aspect enhanced because the students memorized the nursery rhymes‟ lyrics. By memorizing the lyrics, they have memorized the vocabulary as well. The students could create the conversation because they have known the vocabularies of greetings. The enhancement of each aspect is a proven that using video-typed nursery rhymes as the media in teaching speaking can enhance the students‟ speaking ability. CONCLUSION Based on the discussions before, there are some conclusions of this study, they are as follow: First, video-typed nursery rhymes were implemented well in the treatment. The students were able to absorb the lesson better by being taught using video-typed nursery rhymes than using the usual way of teaching. Video-typed nursery rhymes helped the students to speak up; even the shy students could speak. The colorful video and the cheerful melody of the nursery rhymes gave some fun and happy atmosphere inside the classroom. The students understood easily for they enjoyed the lesson; they did not feel they are forced to learn. Second, video-typed nursery rhymes was successfully enhance the students‟ speaking ability, especially in „greetings‟ section. The enhancement was significant since the t-value (8.38) was higher than the t-table (1.73). The pronunciation aspect enhanced 23.16%, the grammar aspect enhanced 14.74%, the fluency aspect enhanced 22.11%, the comprehension aspect enhanced 10.52%, and the vocabulary aspect enhanced 22.11%. It can be concluded that vide-typed nursery rhymes can be a proper media in teaching speaking. REFERENCES Bailey, Kathleen M. 2003. Practical English Language Teaching. New York: Mc Graw Hill. Brown, H. D. 2004. Language Assessment (Principles and Classroom Practices). New York: Pearson Education, Inc. Widya Arum Wicaksani / Journal of English Language Teaching 2 (1) (2013) 12 Dunst, Carl J. 2011. Development of Nursery Rhymes Knowledge in Preschool Children. CELLpapers. 6/1: 1-7. Gerlach, V.S and Elly D.P. 1980. Teaching Media, a Systematic Approach. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc. Harris, David P. 1969. Testing English As a Second Language. New York: McGraw-Hill. Symes, Peter. 2001. Video Compression Demystified. Singapore: McGraw-Hill Book Co. Wray, David. and Medwell, Jane. 1994. Teaching Primary English: The State of The Art. New York: Routledge.