ASE: ACTIVE SPEAKING ENGLISH, THE EFFECTIVE CLASS TO IMPROVE STUDENT’S ENGLISH SKILL IN SMAK FRATERAN MALANG

Introduction

Frateran Senior High School has founded exactly 23 years ago at 15 August 1988. It is located in Celaket, Jaksa Agung Suprapto Street, Malang. Frateran Senior High School has vision and mission to produce the best graduates, so they would be easy to apply science to the environment or social life. As a private school that based on Catholic concept, this school is leaded by a Frater (in Islam, it may be an Ustad, while in Hindu it can be a Pedanda). The motto of this school is: in fraternitatis discimus docemus et amamus, which means: in brotherhood, we learn, teach and love). So, the activities in this school are always interesting where teacher can be like student’s friend or family, which always share knowledge to each other.

Today, student of Senior High School tends to use English in the regular English class only. They speak English effectively in that class, but after the class end, they will go back to speak in Indonesian or Javanese language with friends. It may be caused by the environment which does not support them to practice English language efficiently, at least in a simple speaking. They do not enjoy speaking English because it feels strange and difficult. Students prefer to use Indonesian or Javanese as their dominant language. In fact, using native language for communication is more enjoyable than speaking foreign language (English).

 Knowing that English is actually an important language for international communication, Frater (the headmaster) of Frateran Senior High School decided to make an extra class namely ASE (Active Speaking English). This class is expected to be an effective solution for student who wants to learn English well especially in speaking. As a teacher of this ASE Class, I take a big responsibility to always control my students that already use English successfully or not. This class is scheduled every Saturday, even though it is labeled as “mata pelajaran bakat minat”, ASE class is held in the same hour like other regular classes.

ASE (Active Speaking English)

Bakat Minat ASE is a proclivity class programmed by school with a goal to sharpen the student’s English language skills especially in speaking. Student of Frateran Senior High School can join this class if they want to learn more how to use English well.

This class is different from the regular class which is commonly scheduled in English Subject, because in ASE we can learn English in a fun and relaxing way. The activity is also focused on student’s skill in speaking that is usually tested by discussion activity or conversation. In ASE, these activities can motivate students to use English both in speaking which is really fun. They are invited to be always active in speaking without feeling worried that they will be right or wrong. As long as the students want to be active, teacher will always appreciate their efforts.

I started to teach students in ASE Class since June 2011. I have a lesson plan that is developed continuously from year to year. There are several materials we discussed in class, such as: The Introduction of Program ASE, Greeting and Goodbyes, Story Reading, Story Telling, News Reading, Song, Speech, Poetry, Marketing / Promotion, Free Time Activity, and Evaluation.

In this paper, I am going to explain one specific activity that I applied in ASE Class two weeks ago. That activity is story telling.

Story Telling

Storytelling can be a powerful tool in the ASE Class, especially to motivate students to speak English fluently. In this case, this activity is often to begin with the teacher playing the role as storyteller. But it will be the greatest contribution to the classroom when the students themselves become the storytellers to others. In this activity, i have a procedure that is well prepared to guide me in teaching.

Procedure

·         Tell and re-tell

In this part, I tell (or read) a story in front of the class. The students will re-tell the same story in pairs, in small groups, or to the whole class. Sometimes it is not necessary to have one student to tell the whole story but rather take turns until the story is told. Sometimes, I also do additional activity like: the small group chooses a storyteller and helps them to prepare the story for telling it to the whole class.

·         Tell a familiar story from another perspective.

This activity will make students interested to my explanation in front of class and I will give questions related to their own opinion. In this case, my question will stimulate their willing to share perspectives. Sometimes, we need to choose story that is familiar to make them easy to understand. Example: Story of superman or other American superheroes which is discussed from Javanese or Indonesian’s perspective; then compare it with our heroes like Gatutkaca etc.

·         Tell a personal story about something that happened to me, about someone who is important in my life, or some experiences that is memorable in my life.

This activity will interest students to share their personal story too. This is very good idea to encourage a warm conversation in class. It will make other students want to share their opinion too. There will be a close relationship between student and teacher. It is related to the motto of this school that teachers should be a family for their students.

·         Conduct interviews for some students to check they already understood the content of that story or not

·         Create student’s original stories following the typical format of a folktale. Who is the hero? What challenge must be overcome? What obstacles are presented to prevent the hero from reaching the goal? How are they overcome? Element of magic?

·         Map out the main events that occur in a story to aid in the telling. Once children learn to create story maps for telling, the skill can be applied to their personal writing experiences.

·         Give the students a story outline (story map) and have them tell it filling out the details to make the story more interesting.

·         Examine stories that should be read rather than told because the language needs to be maintained as it was written or because the pictures carry the story.

·         Examine different kinds of stories: fables, legends, fairy tales etc.

·         Challenge students to tell the story in front of class

·         Invite the students to use some media for telling story in front of class. The media can be picture, music, doll, or map.

Discussion

By doing this activity, I found that actually story telling activity has several other benefits. At first i thought that story telling will only improve student’s skill in speaking, but then i realized that story telling has other great contributions related to other skills for the student in Frateran Senior High School.

1.      By listening to stories that are told by another, students can:

• Develop their listening skills

In this part, doing story telling activity in class will improve students listening skill too. By listening to other student’s story, they will develop their ability in listening English effectively.

• Increase concentration

When students listen to their friend’s story, it will increase concentration. They will focus on the content of story, to find mistakes or some new vocabularies.

• Develop vocabulary

Sometimes, student can find a new vocabulary that is mentioned by his/her friend in front of class. In this case, if this activity is repeated continuesly, their knowledge of English vocabulary will be improved continuesly.

• Develop a sense of story

Some stories have a sense for students. Especially for story that has messages or moral values. In this case, students develop their skill in learning some new lesson from story.

• Motivate students to read

This is really important part because some stories can motivate students to read. When they wonder to know where the story from, or when the story tell them about some beautiful places, they will search book related to that story and read it.

2.      By learning to tell stories to others:

• improves oral language skills

• improves story writing

• develops the students’ understanding of plot and sequence on that story

• encourages reading and critical thinking skills

Conclusion

            By applying storytelling activity in ASE Class, I found this method is successful to make my students develop their speaking skill. In this case, stories can be used to remember important events, explain creation, and preserve culture.

Students in my class are rediscovering the joys of telling and listening to stories. They are learning that storytelling is an intimate experience where, regardless of the size of the audience, it seems that there are only two people present - the teller and the listener. Each listener feels that the teller is speaking only with him/her. In this case, it makes them to be more confident to always share opinion especially to improve their ability in speaking English.

In this part, i want to recommend storytelling as part of lesson plan in every speaking class, because this method has so many benefits, such as: engages student’s imaginations, promotes language development, encourages reading, develops listening skill, and helps students understand to each other.

References

Brown, Gillian, and George Yule (1983). Teaching the Spoken Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Harmer, J (2007). The practice of English language teaching. Fourth edition. Essex: Pearson-Longman