Encouraging Students to Speak
through the Use of Interesting Media
Bambang
Widi Pratolo
The main problem faced by
teachers of English is how to make the students want to speak in English and
enjoy it. Many teachers have tried a lot of things such as reminding them about
the importance of English, giving them rewards etc. but the students still feel
reluctant to speak. If they want to speak, it is because they have to do it,
not because they really want. This is one of the reasons why the students’
speaking skill is not as good as the students’ mastery of grammar. To solve
this problem, teachers need to find ways to make the students want and feel
encouraged to speak. One of the ways that teachers can do is by using
interesting teaching media.
Teachers can find a lot of
teaching media from available books that they can apply in and outside the
classrooms. These ready for-use media are usually designed based on certain grammar
points. Before using media, teachers need to do some selection and preparation
so that they can work well. Teachers need “bravery” to use media, they should
not be book-oriented teachers. Besides, they also need to be creative in
producing and manipulating media so that the students can enjoy practicing
their English.
In this paper, the
writer will describe media that will exploit the students speaking skill. These
media include rummy card and domino. The rummy cards are designed to teach all
tenses with all forms. The domino is designed to teach all types of conditional
sentences. The students will enjoy playing rummy cards and domino and at the
same time they will learn English especially practice their speaking skills.
------- ---- -------
Pratolo, B. W. (2002,
March). Encouraging students to speak through the use of
interesting media. Paper presented at the national conference on
Autonomy,
Website: www.geocities.com/eltindonesia
Email:
eltindonesia@yahoo.com