TEACHING ENGLISH USING “HIGH TOWN” CARD GAME TO ENHANCE STUDENTS’ SPEAKING ABILITY


CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

This chapter has six sections. They are the background of the study, reasons  for choosing the topic, statements of the problem, objectives of the study, significance of the study, and the last is outline of the report.
 1.1  Background of the Study
Language is a very important means of communication in daily human live. With language, people can cooperate and get along with each other. They can do whatever they are going to do, such as communicating with  others or giving arguments. Dreyer (2009:10) states: A language is a dynamic set of visual, auditory, or tactile symbols of communication and the elements used to manipulate them. Language can also refer to the use of such systems as a general phenomenon.
It means language is considered to  be an exclusively human mode of communication; although other animals  make use of quite sophisticated communicative systems, none of these are known to make use of all of the properties that linguists use to define language. In other words, we can say that language is the key of communication. 
English is one of the international languages most widely used in the world. English as one of the international languages has been used in many countries at various fields worldwide. Harmer (2001:1) states “English is called a lingua franca”. A lingua franca can be defined as a language widely adopted for communication between two speakers whose native languages are different from each other’s and where one or both speakers are using it as a ‘second’ language.  All around the world, students of all ages are learning to speak English, but their reasons for studying English may differ from one another. Harmer (2007:11) states “some students, of course, only learn English because it is on the curriculum at primary or secondary school”. Based on the Basic Course Outline 2006, English is the first foreign language  in Indonesia and is  regarded as an important subject to absorb and to develop science, technology and culture as well as to establish relationship with other nations. It has become an essential subject in curriculum and is first formally introduced in the fourth year of elementary school.
Education Ministry of Indonesia (2006:277) states that in the teaching of English in Junior High School it is expected to enable the students to achieve the functional literacy level, which means that they can communicate in spoken and written forms to solve the daily problem. Additionally, it should be supported with the communicative competence which can be defined as the competence in understanding or producing spoken and written texts that are realized in four language skills, namely: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Those four skills are used to respond to or create discourse in society.
Based on Education Ministry of  Indonesia (2006:278), the purposes of teaching English in Junior High School are as follows:
1.  Improving communicative competence in the production of spoken and written to achieve the functional literacy.
2.  Having awareness of the nature and importance of English to improve the competitiveness of nations in a global society
3.  Improving the students’ understanding  about the relationship between language and culture. As part of language teaching, speaking is an important skill besides listening, reading, and writing.
 Speaking is  regarded as more representing what the speaker wants to say. By speaking, one can express his mind, ideas and thought freely and spontaneously. Speaking  is the term that someone uses for verbal communication between people. When two people are engaged in talking to each other, they are doing communication. People do communication for some reasons. Harmer (2001:46) states the reasons as follows:
1.  They want to say something.  What is used here is a general way to suggest that speakers make definite decisions to address to other people.  Speaking may, of course, be forced upon them. But we can still say that they feel the need to speak, otherwise they would keep silent. 
2.  They have some communicative purposes.  Speakers say something because they want something to happen as a result of what they say. They may decide to flatter, agree or complain. In each of these cases, they are interested in achieving this communicative  purpose, what is important is the message they wish to convey and the effect they want to have. 
3.  They select from their language store.  Speakers have an infinite capacity to create new sentences. In order to achieve this communication purpose they will select from the ‘store’ of language they have. 
Bygate (1987:vii) states the definition of speaking. Speaking is, however, a skill which  deserves attention every bit as much as literary skills, in both first and second languages. Our learners often need to be able to speak with confidence in order to carry out many of their most basic transactions. It is the skill by which they are most frequently judged, and through which they may make or lose friends. It is the vehicle par excellence of social solidarity, of social ranking, of professional advancement  and of business. It is a medium through which much language is learnt, and which for many is particularly conducive for learning.  Perhaps, then, the teaching of \speaking merits more thought.
Since English is a foreign language in Indonesia, it is understandable that the teaching of English is  still unsatisfactory. Most  Indonesia students consider English as a difficult subject to be learnt, especially  speaking. It is not an easy way for students to communicate in English. They are afraid of making mistakes in their speaking. They do not have confidence to???????????????????????????????????????

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