Research and Innovation in Language Learning Vol. 2(1) January 2019 pp. 65-74 P- ISSN: 2614-5960 e-ISSN: 2615-4137 http://jurnal.unswagati.ac.id/index.php/RILL Copyright ©2019 Sri Arfani, Atika Sulistia 65 TEACHING SPEAKING USING A “SNAKE AND LADDER” BOARD GAME: A TEACHER STORY Sri Arfani Fakultas Komunikasi dan Bahasa UBSI Jakarta Atika Sulistia Fakultas Komunikasi dan Bahasa UBSI Jakarta ABSTRACT The objective of this research is to know how the implementation of Teaching Speaking Using a “Snake and Ladder” Board Game to the students in an English class of a private schools in a Jakarta. Employing descriptive study, the English teacher made her story from her classroom. The data of the research included on-site-observation and recording. The results show that (1) using a snake and ladder board game is potential to promote students‟ eagerness to speak within the peers, (2) despite of some difficulties, students seem enjoy the learning, and (3) a “friendly‟ learning atmosphere was established. Keywords: teaching speaking, Snake and Ladder, fun Sari Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk memotret mengajar berbicara Bahasa Inggris dengan menggunakan Papan Permainan “Ular Tangga”. Penelitian ini dilakukan di sebuah sekolah di Klender, Jakarta. Data diperoleh melalui observasi kelas saat proses belajar mengajar dan juga hasil rekaman. Hasil dari penelitian ini memperlihatkan bahwa: (1) mengajar berbicara dalam bahasa inggris menggunakan papan permainan “ular tangga” dapat memfasilitasi siswa berbicara bahasa inggris, (2) Siswa menjadi aktif dan menikmati suasana belajar bahasa inggris, dan (3) dengan pembelajaran menggunakan papan permainan “ular tangga” terbukti dapat menciptakan suasana yang bersahabat antara guru dan siswa. Kata kunci: Pembelajaran berbicara, permainan ular tangga, menikmati Received 29 October 2018 last revision 21 November 2018 published 24 January 2018 INTRODUCTION Indonesia is one of the countries where English is used as the foreign language. Language has an important rule for human life to express ideas, emotion, and desires. Arfani, S. & Sulistia, A. 66 p-ISSN 2614-5960, e-ISSN 2615-4137 Therefore, English is taught from elementary school to university level. Nowadays, English is often used in formal or non formal situation, e.g. State offices, banks, and schools, and markets. English is considered a difficult subject for the Indonesian students because English is completely different from Indonesian language, e.g. the system of structure, pronunciation and vocabulary. English teaching involves four language skills. They are listening, speaking, reading and writing. Listening and reading are receptive skills whereas speaking and writing are productive skills. They ask the learners to produce outputs. All of these skills are integrated English in the learning contexts for the successful teaching and learning in the supported environment. Speaking, one of the English skills taught at schools is an important part of in language teaching. Speaking is important for students to practice. In this practice, their capability and their understanding, sending idea and spelling word well and the student‟s motivation and interest are central to make hearer and speaker‟s understanding easily. However, Speaking is well-known as one of the most difficult aspect for students to master in the context of Indonesian classes. This is hard when one considers everything when speaking, e.g. ideas, words to say, language, how to use grammar and vocabulary, and pronunciation. Ur, Penny (2009:120), argues “All off the four skill (listening, speaking, reading and writing) speaking seems intuitively the most important: people who know a language are referred to as „speaker‟ that language, as if speaking included all other kinds of knowing and many if not most foreign language learners are primarily interested in learning to speak”. According to Nunan (2003), speaking is oral skills which consist of producing system verbal language to convey meaning. He also adds that speaking is someone‟s ability to express ideas, feelings, thoughts, and emotions and to respond the other speaker orally. Teaching English to students of junior high school is almost the same as teaching English to student of elementary school. It is possible that there are some students who are still characterized as elementary school children. Many factors can cause the problem of the students, e.g. media. Research and Innovation in Language Learning Vol. 2(1) January 2019 p-ISSN 2614-5960, e-ISSN 2615-4137 67 In facts, the material of English learning varied. So, the teachers are obligated to choose the suitable approach, strategy, and media in order to achieve the teaching purposes easily. Moreover, the media will make the students motivated to learn. Games, for an examples, are potential for making English learning fun and exciting. Thus, the study was aimed at to answering the following research questions. 1. How is the process of teaching speaking using a “snake and ladder” board game? 2. What are the difficulties of using a “snake and ladder” board game in teaching English Speaking? 3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using a “snake and ladder” board game in teaching English Speaking? Methods The methods and some procedures were used to complete the data analysis. The descriptive quantitative methods was employed in the current study. The research took place at MTs Al – Fath, Klender. The seventh English classroom was chosen as the research setting. In collecting the data, recording and on-site observation were used. In this case, the researcher acted as the participant observer. Procedures (1) The researcher taught English using a snake ladder game (2) First of all, all students were shown how to use the Snake Ladder Game for learning Speaking (3) Observation and assessment was conducted to evaluate the activities and students‟ engagement in the Speaking class (4) Problems, advantages and disadvantages were indentified and discussed. Results and Discussion The teaching Process The writer did a research English speaking at MTSS Al-Falah Klender for 7th (seventh) grade, especially 7-2 class; they are 29 students, 13 girls and 17 boys. In this school, the Arfani, S. & Sulistia, A. 68 p-ISSN 2614-5960, e-ISSN 2615-4137 writer had teaching time up to two meeting in a week for 1 class, on Monday at 07:30 AM until 08:50 AM and Thursday at 10:50 AM until 11:40 AM. The Preparation of Teaching The teacher prepared the material before starting the learning process to make it easier for teaching in the classroom. The things that teachers need to prepare instructional administration matters including worksheets, exercises, attendance lists, whiteboards, markers, and some other instructional things to motivate students to learning. First all of, after having completed administration and instructional media, the teacher started to handle the class. The first day, teacher introduced herself as the English teacher in the class. Then, she called student‟ name one-by-one according to the attendance list. In the the first part, teacher provided warming up. Warming up is an activity to make students stimulated, relaxed, and motivated to learn. In the second part, the writer started delivering the materials to the students about the “Family Tree”. The teachers gave vocabulary by write on whiteboards and explaining to students. The teacher asked the students to write them on their books. After that, the students start the practice. In the third part, the teacher asked the students to complete the exercise. The teacher made evaluation or assessment. The teacher just reminded the topic and the purpose of the subject they were learning on the day. The teacher asked to student about material and another question to remind students about the material. The teacher made exercises in two versions: oral and written exercises. In the last part, the teacher ensured the topics by making a review. After that, the teacher gave the students homework. Teaching Process The writer followed three steps. First is warming up. This step is as an opening for the class. Second is the main activity. Third is the closure. In this step, review and homework task were provided. a) Warming up Research and Innovation in Language Learning Vol. 2(1) January 2019 p-ISSN 2614-5960, e-ISSN 2615-4137 69 The First, before starting the teaching learning process, the teacher asked the students to pray together. After that, the writer maded the warming up sessions to make sure the students were ready for the lessons. The duration of warming up was 15 minutes for the greeting and conversation as follows. Teachers : “Hi! Everyone. Good morning!” (Hai semuanya. Selamat pagi!) Students : “Good morning Ms” (Selamat pagi Bu) Teacher : “How are you today?” (Bagaimana kabarmu hari ini) Students : “I‟m Fine Ms. and you?” (Baik Bu. Dan kamu?) Teacher : “I‟m great. Thank you”. (Saya baik. Terima kasih) The writer did a warming up to the students for every meeting and after that, the teacher previewed the material for that day. b) Main activity After warming up session, the teacher delivered the material to students. The material is about Family Tree. In the main activities, not only the presentation but also a snake ladder game were made in the classroom. After the teacher explained the rules of the play, the teacher arranged students to move quickly to create groups according to the rules explained by the teacher. The teacher also provided the "board game snake and ladder" equipment to the students who had obtained the group. After all students had their own group, the teacher gave a command to play the game. Teacher : “Ok class, you have got the group?” (kalian semua sudah mendapatkan grup?) Students : “Sudah, Bu” (have done, Ms) Teacher : “Baik, tolong 2 siswa maju untuk menjadi contoh? Siapa yang mau” (Right, 2 students come forward to be an example, please? Who wants?) Aziz : “Me, Ms” (saya Bu” Tamam : “Saya bu” (Me, Ms) Both students were going to the front of the class. The teacher gave an example of how to play. All students paid attention. After teacher explained how to play the "snake and ladder” board game, the teacher asked all students to start the game. Teacher : “This group who get the first turn” (Grup ini siapa yang dapat giliran pertama?) Arfani, S. & Sulistia, A. 70 p-ISSN 2614-5960, e-ISSN 2615-4137 Iqbal : “Me, Ms” (Saya, Bu) Teacher : “Come on (ayo) Iqbal sekarang lempar dadunya!” (Now, throw the dice please?) Students enjoyed the game of snake and ladder. Their expressions looked very happy and they started learning to speak English without coercion. c) Closure The game ended in 60 minutes. The teacher made a review before giving the instruction of the homework tasks. Homework is considered important as it makes students keep learning. Teaching difficulties Teaching reflection is important (Nurfaidah, 2018). Therefore, the teacher here made reflection of the results of the using a snake ladder board game. There are several problems appeared during the teaching English speaking using the “snake and ladder”board game. First, Students still found difficulties in the pronunciation of vocabulary. Sometimes they found it difficult to fix them. One of the reasons identified here students‟ habits are as the main sources, e.g. mother, the some students said that “moter” or “mot-her”, and the Nephew was pronounced “nepew” and etc. Second, the situation in the class is very noisy. However, students‟ activeness is an indication that there is an empowerment in the class (Misdi, Hartini, & Mahaputri, 2016). Third, there are some students found it difficult to understand the rules of playing board game "snake and ladder". As an indication of this, they do not obey the rules. Advantages and disadvantages board game “snake and ladder” in learning process. In the teaching process, the writer found the advantages of board game "snake and ladder" as media in the teaching-learning process. The media board game "snake and ladder" is an effective, easy, and fun way for students to learn and practice students' communication skills. With the board game, students can grow their motivation Research and Innovation in Language Learning Vol. 2(1) January 2019 p-ISSN 2614-5960, e-ISSN 2615-4137 71 (Badroeni, 2018) to try practice the ability to talk them, without the tensions inside, and to create an atmosphere of friendship between teacher and students. Board game has advantages, but board game also has disadvantages is the writer need to prepare the equipment used while playing such as dice, the counter and photocopy of board game “snake and ladder” according with the number of group of students. The writer also must manage time to explain the rules. In the game should be monitored by teachers in order to avoid mistakes in the technical implementation of the fun or do not understand the rule. The teacher let students to have their own learning is important. In other words, the teacher only control learning (Misdi, Hartini, Farijanti, & Wirabhakti, 2013). Conclusion, research implication, and recommendation After analyses and discussion have been discussed in chapter previously, so the conclusion will be discussed in this chapter. Teaching using board game “snake and ladder” at MTSS Al-Falah Klender Jakarta Timur the writer conclude that is effective used in learning process, especially in teaching speaking makes students more understanding and confidence to practice the ability to speaking English. The result of the research shows that games can improve the students‟ speaking proficiency and the atmosphere of teaching and learning process becomes more alive. Besides those result findings, there is also the result finding on the teacher behavior that is she knows another media in teaching speaking. The atmosphere during the implementing of games also improved. The improvement could be seen in the terms of their participation in answering question, asking the teacher if they got difficulties, paying attention to the teacher explanation, and increasing their motivation to learn. The process of teaching and learning became more communicative and learning anxiety reduced. The students were not ashamed of asking question to the teacher and answering her question. They also were active discussing the task with their friends. In the guessing game, they looked more competitive. They had to discuss with their group to find the prediction of the Arfani, S. & Sulistia, A. 72 p-ISSN 2614-5960, e-ISSN 2615-4137 words meant. The competitive atmosphere also made them concentrate and think intensively during the learning process. In language teaching and learning, it is necessary to implement an appropriate method and technique. It can be seen from thebfindings that to make the teaching learning process successful, the teacher is not only the source of the knowledge and dominates the learning process but also, she or he should create the situation where the students are involved in experiencing in learning. Based on the conclusion of this study, it can be shown that after implementing the research, The implication includes: 1). The use of games helps the students to comprehend the vocabulary and grammar. Finally, they can use the vocabulary, grammar and the expression in real communication. 2). Games can make the students think intensively and concentrate in learning process. By so doing, they will able to express their idea, think naturally. 3). Games increase creativity and courage; they have more discussion with their friends. It also increases their enthusiasts to ask the teacher about their difficulties. The traditional way of teaching and learning applies the technique during the speaking lesson, the teacher asks students to do the exercise in the student worksheet (LKS). They just rely on the task in the worksheet. Sometimes they just cheat other students‟ answer and copy it. If there is a dialogue, the teacher asks them to complete it and read it in front of the class. This technique cannot enhance their speaking proficiency. On the basis of the research finding, the teaching and the learning process changes from the traditional way of teaching to an innovative way, applying "snake and ladder game. However, this media of games should be investigated more thoroughly by conducting the relevance research in four skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing). REFERENCES Badroeni, B. (2018). IMPROVING STUDENTS‟ MOTIVATION IN SPEAKING ENGLISH THROUGH ACTIVE LEARNING STRATEGY. Research and Innovation in Language Learning, 1(2), 76-88. Research and Innovation in Language Learning Vol. 2(1) January 2019 p-ISSN 2614-5960, e-ISSN 2615-4137 73 Misdi,M., Hartini, N., & Mahaputri, R. (2016) Empowerment in Madrasahs: Sound from English Language Teacher. Proceeding: The First International Conference on Linguistics and Language Teaching, May 2015 Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta Misdi, M., Hartini, N., Farijanti, D., & Wirabhakti, A. (2013) Teacher-centred and Teacher Controlled Learning: a Postmodernism Perspective. English Language Teaching Perspective, 1(1). Nunan, D. 2003. Practical English Language Teaching. New York: Mc.Grow Hill Nurfaidah, S. (2018). Three Attitudes of a Reflective Teacher. Research and Innovation in Language Learning, 1(1), 39-48. Ur, Penny. 2009. A Course in Language Teaching Practice. UK: Cambridge University Press. Biography Dr. Sri Arfani, M.Pd. is an English lecturer in Communication and Language Faculty Bina Sarana Informatika University Jakarta. She earned her doctoral degree of UNJ in 2017. She can be reached at sri.saf@bsi.ac.id Atika Sulistia is an English staff of the Faculty of Komunikasi dan Bahasa UBSI Jakarta. Her research interests are about the language teaching and linguistics. Arfani, S. & Sulistia, A. 74 p-ISSN 2614-5960, e-ISSN 2615-4137