Research and Innovation in Language Learning Vol. 1(2) May 2018 pp. 76-88 P- ISSN: 2614-5960 e-ISSN: 2615-4137 http://jurnal.unswagati.ac.id/index.php/RILL Copyright @ RILL 2018 76 IMPROVING STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION IN SPEAKING ENGLISH THROUGH ACTIVE LEARNING STRATEGY Badroeni Muhammadiyah Teacher Training and Education, Higher School of Kuningan, West Java – Indonesia ABSTRACT This research is to analyze the implementation of active learning strategy in improving students‟ motivation in speaking English. Active learning strategy was intended to improve students‟ motivation. The researcher undertakes in three procedures; trading place, question students have, and action learning. In this research, the researcher uses classroom action research in three cycles. The model used is Kemmis and Mc Taggart. The stages are four stages including planning, action, observation, and reflectionThe calculation of student‟s mean score, the data of motivation improvement in every cycle;the pre-testis 54.65%, the cycle 1 is 82.55%, cycle 2 is 92.35 and cycle-3 is 98.60.Every cycle is done in three meetings. The test is given in four times; the first is pre-test, the second test is in the end of cycle 1, the third test is in the end of cycle 2, and the forth test is in the end of cycle 3. The result of research indicates the improvement of students‟ speaking ability. In this case, quantitative data in every cycle describes the improvement. The pre test has average score 31, cycle 1 has average score 57.83, cycle 2 has average score 69.17, and cycle three has average score 95.34. Keywords: Motivation, speaking ability, active learning strategy Sari Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis penerapan strategi pembelajaran aktif dalam meningkatkan motivasi siswa dalam berbicara bahasa Inggris. Strategi pembelajaran aktif dimaksudkan untuk meningkatkan motivasi siswa. Peneliti melakukan dalam tiga prosedur; trading place, question students have, dan action learning. Dalam penelitian ini, peneliti menggunakan penelitian tindakan kelas dalam tiga siklus. Model yang digunakan adalah Kemmis dan Mc Taggart. Tahapannya adalah empat tahap termasuk perencanaan, tindakan, observasi, dan refleksi. Perhitungan skor rata-rata siswa, data peningkatan motivasi dalam setiap siklus, pre-tes 54,65%, siklus 1 adalah 82,55%, siklus 2 adalah 92,35 dan siklus-3 adalah 98,60. Setiap siklus dilakukan dalam tiga pertemuan. Tes diberikan dalam empat kali; yang pertama adalah pre-test, tes kedua ada di akhir siklus 1, tes ketiga ada di akhir siklus 2, dan tes keempat ada di akhir siklus 3. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan peningkatan siswa kemampuan berbicara. Dalam hal ini, data kuantitatif di setiap siklus menggambarkan peningkatan. Tes pra memiliki skor rata-rata 31, siklus 1 memiliki skor rata-rata 57,83, siklus 2 memiliki skor rata-rata 69,17, dan siklus tiga memiliki skor rata-rata 95,34. Kata Kunci: motivasi, kemampuan berbicara, strategi active learning Received 03 April 2018 last revision 29 April 2018 published 18 May 2018 Badroeni p-ISSN 2614-5960, e-ISSN 2615-4137 77 Introduction English lesson is one of the difficult subjects in students‟ view. It is indicated with the difficulty in speaking and understanding the meaning what they hear. Of course, this problem will affect students‟ speaking competence, the students cannot understand the meaning therefore they had difficulties to speak English. Harmer (2007:123) states that there are three main reasons for getting students to speak in the classroom. Those are chances to practice real-life speaking in the safety of the classroom, trying to use any or all of the language they know, and having opportunities to activate the various elements of language. Based on the researcher experience, most of the students at the second grade of MTs. Galaherang Kuningan, West Java, have difficulties in speaking. It hasn‟t mean that they have lack of ideas, but it is related with their motivation to speak out in front of class. They still have low motivation for speaking English. The alternative strategy the researcher will practice is active learning strategy. From this view point, the researcher tried to diagnose, analyze, and follow up the activity that the researcher should do in the future for making progress in teaching and learning process, especially in learning English language. The researcher realized that the difficulty comes from many factors that are related with the activities in the class. Furthermore, the researcher would like to take part in the activities in the class by means of action research. Giving different treatment, engaging the students, and giving motivation by using three strategies, namely, trading place, question students have, and action learning for speaking, are the procedures that the researcher did. The teachers at MTs Galaherang, especially English teachers, have conducted classic strategy in teaching and learning process, namely conventional strategy, dictation, and hearing the recording of conversation. They use the strategy in accordance with their experience in the past time when they stated as a teacher. In this case, they undertake the teaching process without an academic consideration well to get the students better than before. This situation is realized that as the educational place in the village with the simple perception of societies in education, the teachers have a little competition in enriching their knowledge of teaching and learning theory. Research and Innovation in Language Learning Vol. 1(2) May 2018 78 p-ISSN 2614-5960, e-ISSN 2615-4137 THEORETICAL REVIEW Brown (2000:160) statesthat motivation is probably the most frequently used catch-all term for explaining the success or failure of virtually any complex task. It is easy to assume that success in any task is due simply to the fact that someone is “motivated”. According to Keller in Brown (2000:160), in cognitive terms, motivation places much more emphasis on the individual‟s decision, “the choices people make as to what experiences or goals they will approach or avoid, and the degree of effort they will exert in that respect. Besides according to Williams and Burden in Brown (2000:161), a constructivist view of motivation places even further emphasis on social context as well as individual personal choices. Each person is motivated differently, and will therefore act on his or her environment in ways that are unique. Maslow in Brown (2000:161) viewed motivation as a construct in which ultimate attainment of goals was possible only by passing through a hierarchy of needs, three of which were solidly grounded in community, belonging, and social status. Maslow saw motivation as dependent on the satisfaction first of fundamental physical necessities (air, water, food), then of community, security, identity, and self-esteem, the fulfillment of which finally leads to self-actualization. Meanwhile, Moore (2005:372) states that motivation can be defined as something that energizes and directs our behaviors. That is, motivated behavior is behavior that is energized, directed, and sustained. As many experts‟ opinion is declared, motivation in general can be divided into two kinds. They are intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic is meant as the influences can come from within the individual. Extrinsic can come from outside the individual. Moore states motivation focused on behavior. It relates with the real performance resulted from the inner forcing called „energized‟. He also tells „directed‟, as understood that motivation can be appeared in many actions we can observe. From Moore‟s opinion above, motivation is clear understood that it gives the mobilization of someone‟s behavior. Someone‟s behavior means an individual action that can be proved with the encouragement to do something. Futhermore, motivation -in Moore‟s point of view- mentioned as the steps gradually and sustainability from time to time. Badroeni p-ISSN 2614-5960, e-ISSN 2615-4137 79 Teaching Speaking Harmer (2007:123) states that there are three main reasons for getting students to speak in the classroom. Those are chances to practice real-life speaking in the safety of the classroom, trying to use any or all of the language they know, and having opportunities to activate the various elements of language. Besides the three main reason above, Classroom speaking activities should be created like a dynamic class as Harmer (2003:271) states there are several preparation making classroom activities active. There are acting from a script, communication games, discussion, prepared talks, questionnaires, simulation and role-play. Some theories above explains the prominant cases for preaparing dynamic class. in creating dynamic or active class, not only the prepation of material concepts, but the teacher performance in managing class as well. The teacher‟s duty is to make sure that his teaching is appropriate to his class, that is organized systematically, and that it is exciting (Broughton, et al;175). And of course, in supporting the understanding of students‟ situation before starting the class, the teacher should observe th speaking framework (Luoma;24). The speaking framework lists the potential social and contextual factors influencing speech as; situation, participant, ends, act sequence, key, instrumentalities, norms, and genre. Active Learning Strategy John Dewey and many others (J.Millis, 2012:1) were clearly on target: Active learning is a crucial element of the new thrust toward what is now commonly called “learner- centered” or “learning-centered” teaching. If teachers‟ desire increased student learning, then active learning is an essential component of effective teaching. Active learning is generally defined as any instructional method engages students in the learning process. In short, active learning requires students to do meaningful learning activities and think what they are doing (Michael, 01:2004). In this case, the students are interested in doing their activities as their initiation. A teacher gives the facilities to develop their skill development. For making the class dynamic, active learning strategy should be applied by the teacher who can elaborate some activities that engage the students like demonstrations, structured activities, small group discussion, quizzes, interactive lecture Research and Innovation in Language Learning Vol. 1(2) May 2018 80 p-ISSN 2614-5960, e-ISSN 2615-4137 cues, videos, humorous stories, taking field trips, and games (Hackathorn, at al, 2011:41). While Michael and colleagues in Hackathorn (2011:42) described that class is called as „active‟ class if it is containing quizzes, critical thinking exercises, demonstrations, discussion, and in-class activities. As has been stated above that the strategy of Active Learning to pay attention to the students in their development. Learners are given the widest opportunity to show the skills in the classroom with all the innovations and improvisations that they have the technical level. Associated with increased speaking skills is the main goal, the researchers chose some of the strategies practiced in class. These strategies are drawn from Mel Silbermen, including; Trading Places Strategy, Question Students Have Strategy, Action Learning strategy. Methods RESEARCH METHODOLOGY This method used in this research is Classroom Action Research design divided into several stages. This research was practiced into three cycles. The subjects of the research are the second graders of MTs Galaherang, Kuningan, West Java of academic year 2017/2018. The number of students in the class consists of 30 students. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION Findings Pre-observation Formallypre-observationis held twice meetings which are on 27 and 28 of November, 2017. This includes the introduction of a field, observation during the learning process and comprehension ofthe problems faced by students in speaking. However, it will be observed and student questionnaires about the things that affect their speaking skills. In addition, there are also pre-test step to determine the ability of their inception. Observation Formally, the observation has been carried out on 25 and 26 of November, 2017. The activity includes the field observation related the teaching and learning process and the Badroeni p-ISSN 2614-5960, e-ISSN 2615-4137 81 problems faced on by the students during their practicing speaking in classroom. It‟s continued with the filling questionnaire for students about the influence factors of their speaking ability. For getting information more, the researcher gives students pre-test intended to know the pre-competence. The object in this research is the students at the second grade of MTs Galaherang Kuningan District, West Java Province. The focus of research is to know closely the students‟ English speaking competence. It is as postulate of research to collect the information from many people, like students, collaborators and other observers. The second is the identification of problem; observation undertaken by the researcher can describe the situation of the students. They look the awareness of English speaking problems. The lack of speaking competence is indicated on the former observation. They cannot use a good grammar, low vocabularies, and lack of English expressions contextually. The researcher determines the main focus of the research is improving students‟ motivation in speaking English. In the same time, the researcher discusses with collaborators about the role of researcher is as observer and teacher directly.The researcher continues for gaining the comprehend data after pre-observation activity. The second case is giving questionnaire to the students. It‟s needed for taking the real condition of students in facing on English language class activity. Some data needed are from students‟ response in teaching activities. Here are the data of questionnaire given before teaching practiced.There are 20 statements given to the students in this case. Every student gives comment to the teaching activities experienced in the obvious. They respond some teaching strategies having been given as called as the strategy used by the teacher before the researcher undertakes this research. In the following case, the table will explain number of questionnaire from number 1 to number 20 by means of abbreviation criterion: Strongly Disagree (SD) = 1; Disagree (D)=2; are Neutral (N)=3; Agree (A)=4; Strongly Agree (SA)=5 Planning Research and Innovation in Language Learning Vol. 1(2) May 2018 82 p-ISSN 2614-5960, e-ISSN 2615-4137 Based on the research concept obviously, the research has several steps, including problem identification, determining focus, problem formulation and problem analysis. The research identifies problems from two aspects, namely skill aspect and learning process aspect. Based on the beginning skill collected on the pre-observation step, it‟s known that the problems faced on the students at the second degree of MTs Galaherang, Kuningan District West Java Province are the lack of awareness in practicing English. They do not have any bravery yet to speak out in front of the class and do not have any opportunity to demonstrate speaking skill in the class. Therefore, the solution the researcher finds is to try active learning strategy in learning process. Acting The action of the first cycle was done on Monday, December 4 th 2017 and Wednesday, December 6 th 2017. The teacher starts the class by giving a choice for being practiced. The theme of material is asking, giving and declining opinion. The students are practicing in pairs. For 30 students in the class, they are divided into three groups, in every group there is one observer who helps the researcher observe the development students‟ speaking skill in practicing. Reflecting After learning and teaching process, the teacher with other collaborators/observer participants reflects the weaknesses in teaching and learning process. From three groups that were observed, they still indicated the lack of motivation. They underwent the influence of the earlier teaching strategy that was not stimulated more to be developed one in speaking. Table1 Data of Students’ Speaking Ability No. Subject Pre-test Cycle-1 Cycle-2 Cycle-3 1 S1 45 65 85 100 2 S2 35 55 75 95 3 S3 45 65 85 100 4 S4 40 60 80 100 5 S5 40 60 75 95 6 S6 40 60 75 95 Badroeni p-ISSN 2614-5960, e-ISSN 2615-4137 83 7 S7 45 60 80 100 8 S8 45 60 75 100 9 S9 40 60 75 100 10 S10 40 60 75 100 11 S11 45 65 80 100 12 S12 35 55 80 100 13 S13 50 65 80 100 14 S14 45 60 75 100 15 S15 50 60 80 100 16 S16 35 55 75 95 17 S17 45 60 75 95 18 S18 35 55 75 100 19 S19 50 65 75 100 20 S20 40 55 80 100 21 S21 45 60 75 100 22 S22 35 50 70 95 23 S23 50 65 70 90 24 S24 40 55 75 95 25 S25 45 60 70 95 26 S26 40 55 75 100 27 S27 50 65 75 100 28 S28 40 55 70 95 29 S29 50 65 75 100 30 S30 35 55 75 95 The Result of Speaking Test After doing teaching in every cycle, the researcher did the test for students. For the first cycle, the researcher gave speaking test on December 6 th 2017. The second cycle test was on December 13 th 2017 and the third cycle test was done on December 20 th 2017. For understanding simply, the result of speaking ability test can be described in the following diagram. Research and Innovation in Language Learning Vol. 1(2) May 2018 84 p-ISSN 2614-5960, e-ISSN 2615-4137 Graphic 1 The Average Data of The Result in every cycle From the result of pre-test, cycle-1, cycle-2, and cycle-3, it indicates the progress report of speaking English skill. The students got the better encouragement in practicing without the obstacles they found before. Active learning strategy gave the good stimulation to improve students‟ motivation in communicating or practicing English speaking in front of the class. The Result of Motivation Improvement After doing teaching in every cycle, the researcher gave the questionnaire to the students for knowing how far the students have motivation in English speaking practicing. For the first cycle, the researcher gave questionnaire on December 6 th 2017. The second cycle test was on December 13 th 2017 and the third cycle was done on December 20 th 2017. The result of motivation improvement can be described in the following diagram. 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 Pre test Cycle-1 Cycle-2 Cycle-3 Series1 42,76 59,66 76,21 98,1 A x is T it le The Average of Speaking Ability Test Badroeni p-ISSN 2614-5960, e-ISSN 2615-4137 85 Graphic 2 The Average Data of motivation improvement in every cycle From the result of pre-test, cycle-1, cycle-2, and cycle-3, it indicates the progress report of motivation in speaking english. The students got the better encouragement in practicing without the obstacles they found before. Active learning strategy gave the good stimulation to improve students‟ motivation in communicating or practicing English speaking in front of the class. CONCLUSION The researcher would like to sum up this research using Classroom action research (CAR) method. Having conducted the research on teaching speaking by using active learning strategy in secondary high school, it can be seen that active learning strategy is very effective to improve student‟s motivation in speaking English. This statement is answered in research question. Active learning strategy is one of the alternative teaching 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 Pre test Cycle-1 Cycle-2 Cycle-3 Series1 54,65 82,55 92,35 98,6 % The Average of Motivation Improvement Research and Innovation in Language Learning Vol. 1(2) May 2018 86 p-ISSN 2614-5960, e-ISSN 2615-4137 strategies. The researcher undertakes the active learning strategy in three procedures; trading place, question students have, and action learning. The students have many opportunity to develope their encouragement in speaking practice. They can find out, share and practice their experience in speaking in group. Trading place procedure gives the opportunity to students to open their mind for preparation in practice, question students have procedure gives the opportunity to share their ideas before practicing, and action learning procedure gives the real practice in speaking. The data of motivation improvement and speaking ability improvement are described as the following: Based on the calculation of student‟s mean score, the data among pre-test, cycle-1, cycle-2, and cycle-3. In the pre-test, motivation in speaking English is 54.65%, the cycle 1 is 82.55%, cycle 2 is 92.35 and cycle-3 is 98.60. These data indicates that there is improvement of students‟ motivation in speaking English by means of using active learning strategy. Active learning strategy indicates the improvement of students‟ speaking ability too. In this case, quantitative data in every cycle indicates the improvement. The pre test has average score 42.76, cycle 1 has average score 59.66, cycle 2 has average score 76.21, and cycle three has average score 98.10. REFERENCES Broughton, Geoffrey.,CristopherBrumfit, Roger Flavell, Peter Hill and Anita Pincas. (2003). Teaching English as a Foreign Language. London:Routledge. Brown, H. Douglas. Teaching by Principles, An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy. (2007). New York: Pearson Longman. Burns, Anne. (2010). Doing Action Research in English Language Teaching.New York; Routledge. Creswell, John W. (2003). Research Design-Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed Methods Approaches. California: Sage Publications, Inc. C. Richards, Jack and Theodore S. Rodgers. (2001). Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. New York: Cambridge University Press. Cohen, Manion and Morrison. (2007). Research Method in Education-sixth edition. New York: Routledge. D. Moore, Kenneth. (2005). Effective Instructional Strategies-From Theory to Practice California: Sage Publication, Inc. Badroeni p-ISSN 2614-5960, e-ISSN 2615-4137 87 E. Mills, Geoffrey. (2003). Action Research-A Guide For The Teacher Researcher,second edition. Columbus Ohio: Merill Prentice Hall. E. Cooperstain. Susan and Kocevar. Weidinger. Elizabeth. (2003). Beyond active learning: a constructivist approach to learning. Emerald Journal. Vol. 32. Number 2. P. 141. Fulcher and Davidson. (2007). Language Testing and Assessment-and advanced resource book. New York: Routledge. Ghazali, Syukur. (2010). Pembelajaran Keterampilan berbahasa-dengan pendekatan komunikatif-interaktif. Bandung: Refika Aditama. Hackathorn Jana. At all. (2011). Learning by Doing: An Empirical Study of Active Teaching Technique. The Journal of Effective Teaching. Vol. 11. P. 42. Hadley, Alice Ommaggio. (2001). Teaching Language in Context-third edition. USA: Thomson Heinli. Harmer, Jeremy. (2001). The Practice of English Language Teaching-third edition. Longman. Harmer, Jeremy. (2007). How to teach english. Longman. Pearson Education Limited. Harmin and Toth. (2006). Inspiring Active Learning-a complete handbook for today’s teacher. USA: ASCD Publication. Hopkins, David. (2002). A Teacher’s Guide to Classroom Research-third edition Buchingkham: Open University Press. Hughes, Rebecca. (2002). Teaching and Researching Speaking. London: Pearson Education. Biography Badroeni is a teaching staf at Muhammadiyah Teacher Training and Education Higher School of Kuningan. His research interest includes TEFL and Speaking. He can be reached at ibad_best@upmk.ac.id mailto:ibad_best@upmk.ac.id Research and Innovation in Language Learning Vol. 1(2) May 2018 88 p-ISSN 2614-5960, e-ISSN 2615-4137