TEACHING HOW TO IMPROVE SPEAKING SKILL IN THE CLASS ROOM USING VOICE CHAT

TEACHING HOW TO IMPROVE SPEAKING SKILL IN THE CLASS ROOM USING VOICE CHAT
by Afni Rahma Layina

Chapter I

Background
English is an international language which people afford to master. English use as guidance for any instruction or any communication in the world involve relationship, business, networking etc. so most of people think that English become a main need language after their mother tongue because it has many advantage in many aspect.
The important of speaking skill for student is in order that they can speak it forthrightly and confidently with their classmates, and then, they get used in rehearsing English conversation so that they are at clumsy in practicing at gradually.
In this case, the teacher need to motivate student through new atmosphere that make the student more interested in improving their speaking ability and more enjoyable to practice their speaking with certain technique.
To help the teachers create the student more interesting and enjoyable in speaking the writer offer a teaching technique in speaking which may help the student to achieve their speaking skill better.

Statement of problem
Many learners are not able to speak English well because they seldom to practice it in their days caused of nervous. They feel afraid to make some errors in speaking English so, they decide to be quiet. They are afraid their friends will mock them whether they make errors in talking.
Using voice chat is very effective to improve the learners speaking skill. But this method makes students brave to speak. This method needs the speaker to be active because if the speakers are passive those activities cannot be entered.
Pronunciation and vocabulary is also the most problem for common English learners. Both must be mastered by learner in other that they can communicate. Without English vocabulary learners cannot communicate in English. And without pronunciation mastery the misunderstanding between learners can be occurred. So pronunciation is very important.
Many learners have problem in vocabularies and pronunciations even many vocabularies they know but they still do not know how to say those words correctly. Indeed pronunciation has rules that can be learnt.
Besides that many learners who is not motivated to talk English. This problem can be solved by giving some effective methods to them by their teacher. Here English teacher is challenged to help students like that to give some effective methods to improve their speaking skill.
Speaking is the most important skill in oral communication. And oral communication is the most often used to communicate by people. If someone cannot speak he cannot be communicate to another. But there are some ways to solve this problem.




CHAPTER II

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

Teaching Improving Speaking Skill by Using Voice Chat
Generally teaching is not only transferring knowledge or tough to the student, but it is guiding the students in order that they are able to be success. The process of teaching has three main components, the components are teacher who teacher, students who accept the knowledge and the last is material or knowledge it self which is taugh.
According to Tarigan in Lestari (2006:13), speaking is one of speech activity by using oral speech. Tarigan defined that’s speaking was a skill in conveying the message through oral speech. Meanwhile according to Kridalaksana in Lestari (2006:13) stated that speaking was an activity which produced language to communicate as a basic skill in speech.
Speaking is the difficult skill to develop among many students. It is most likely the most difficult activities among the four basic language skills. It needs basic knowledge which enables students to cover all necessary things to communicate with other people.
In teaching how to improve speaking skill, there are many methods used in teaching learning process. It is base on the use of method is adjusted with the materials that will be taught. Every teacher should always prepare the suitable teaching method before presenting the materials in the class.
Speaking Skill can be explained as language abilities needed to interact in social situations. Language abilities include speaking with appropriate vocabulary, pronunciation, tone, intonation, rhythm, pauses, politeness and timing. To help students to be a better learner of English, there are ten “rules” for successful language learning that encourage them to follow. These rules suggest ways to help students become a successful learner, if they can follow this advice; they will learn English more successfully.

Benefits of using voice in teaching how to improving speaking skill in classroom
Using voice chat in class room can be hugely motivating to learners. By using voice chat with learners, the teacher is bringing current technology into the language learning process, creating variety by using a “new” tool and also opening up the possibility of contacting and communicating with classes in other parts of the world. There are increasing numbers of teachers in all levels of education using chat to connect learners at a distance, from primary student to adults.

Advantages of using voice in teaching how to improving speaking skill in classroom
With increasingly easy access to voice chat, it is probably worth expressing your learner to a combination of both voice chat and text chat. If possible, as with any tool, there are a number of advantages such as:
1. Learner may already use voice chat at home.
2. Bring current technology into the class room.
3. Use of a new tool can be motivating for learners.
4. Enable learners to make contact with learners in other countries
5. ‘real’ oral practice of language
6. Voice chat software increasingly easy to download and use.

Technology Improves English Speaking Skills
Technology in language teaching is not new. Indeed, technology has been around in language teaching for decades. The use of technology in the class room is becoming increasingly important, and it will become a normal part of ELT (English Language Teaching) practice in the coming years and it will improves English speaking skill. There are many reasons for this:
• Internet access- either in private home, or at internet cafes-is becoming increasingly available to learners.
• Younger learners are growing up with technology, and it is natural and integrated part of their lives. For these learners the use of technology is away to bring the outside world into the class room. And some of these younger learners will in turn become teacher themselves.
• English, as an international language, is being used in technologically mediated context.
• Technology especially the internet presents us with new opportunities for authentic tasks and materials, as well as access to wealth of ready made ELT materials.
• The internet offer excellent opportunities for collaboration and communication between learners who are geographically dispersed.
• Technology is offered with published materials such as course books and resources books for teacher.
• Learners increasingly expect language school to integrate technology into teaching.
• Technology offers new ways for practicing language and assessing performance
• Technology is becoming increasingly mobile. It can be used not only in the class room, lecture hall, computer room or self-access center; it can also be used at home, on the way to school and in internet cafés.
• Using a range of ICT (Information and communication Technology) tools can give learner exposure to and practice in all of the four main languages skill-speaking, listening, writing and reading.










CHAPTER III
FINDING DATA

Chat in language teaching
Chat has enormous potential to link student around the world, in real time. It is a technology that many learners will often be familiar with and will use in their social lives, so it is worth exploiting in the class room where possible. Having said that, although types of cultural exchange describe above are hugely motivating to student, they will probably take place no more than a few times a term or semester.
In this chapter we look at the use of chat in the class room, where the teacher can link up classes and group in different locations, as part of collaborative project work or for one-off chat sessions such as those described above, we also look at the most likely application of chat, which is outside the class room, where learners in the same class chat together (or with the teacher) to improve their English as part of their homework or self-study activities.
One important issue to bear in mind is that using chat needs to have a clear purpose for learners. There is not much point taking a class of learners who regularly meet face-to-face to a computer room during class time simply to chat each other via computer when they can do so more effectively simply by turning to their partner! We will look at ways in which chat can be effectively integrated into teaching in the next sections.


Types of voice chat
Chat is a tool that allows for synchronous, i.e. real time, communication over the internet. When talking about chat, we need to distinguish between text and audio chat, and between public and private chat. all of which can take place one-to-one or between group or user. What makes chat essentially different from other forms of synchronous communication such as mobile phone texting, for example, is presence. Chat user are able to see the status / availability of other chat users, such as whether the user is online, away, busy, and so on.
There are several different types of educational chat that one can set up with learners. One way of classifying educational chats, suggested by practicing teacher Daphne Gonzalez is set out here:
• Free topic chat
Here, there is no topic or agenda set for the chat, and no specific moderator role. An example of such a chat might be learners meeting in pairs or small groups via an instant messaging program to practice English together, for example at the weekend.
• Collaborative, task-oriented chat
With this, learner meet via chat out of class to complete a real task, such as preparing a power point presentation or putting together the result of a survey which they will then present to peers in the classroom. Typically the learners are preparing some sort of ‘product‘ together as part of project work, and will probably have previously emailed a document or power point presentation to each other, which they can then refer to during the chat itself.
• Informative or academic chats
This kind of chat disseminates information. For example, a learner or teacher gives a presentation on a topic via chat. This is then followed by a question and answer stage. Another example is where a learner or the teacher bring specific question on the topic to be explored in the chat itself. This approach works well in the context of a blended learning solution, where learners meet some of the time online and some of the time face-to-face.
• Practice chats
These chat will practice a specific function or form of language, or specific skill or strategy, and will probably take place out of class time. Examples are: a voice chat practicing communication strategies such as circumlocution to describe an object. Practicing specific language forms such as the past tense, or future tenses for predictions; and practicing pronunciation features via voice chat.

Ways in using Voice Chat
To start using chat in the class room, we would suggest a carefully stage approach, which will help get both learners and teachers familiar with the chat program, how it works and what it can be used for. We would suggest starting out with text chat. And then move on the voice chat once learners would include a ‘real’ use of chat. For example chatting to learners in a different country, or using chat outside of class time with learner from their own class. Initially it is good idea to use chat in class with your learners a couple of times, to help them become comfortable with it, so that they can then go on and use it outside class.
Step 1 – install and learn to use the software
Download and install a popular instant messaging program which include both text and voice chat facilities (e.g. Yahoo! Messenger, MSN messenger, Google talk or Skype- this last is especially recommended) to your school computers. If you are not familiar with instant messaging yourself, get a colleague to practice using the program with you, and make sure you understand the basic of how to use the text and voice chat in your chosen program. Note that you will need a partner to do this.
Step 2- A practice chat class
One you have established how much chat experience and expertise you already have in the class, run a practice’ chat session with your learners on the computer, preferably in pairs. With less experienced chat user paired with more experienced chat users. Explain the clearly that the aim of the practice class in simply to encourage them to chat to each others to become familiar with the software, even if the situation is somewhat unrealistic as learners will be sitting together in the same computer room! Make clear to learners that the goal of using chat will be for them to use chat to practice their English outside class. Remember that before learner can chat together they will need to have created a user name and password for the software, and to have invited each other to join their contact list.


Step 3- contact with another class
The potential of chat for linking groups of learner, who are far apart, in real time, is vast. How can a teacher go about sitting up such a project? Through an internationals teacher’s network make contact with teacher who would like to link up their classes via chat, and together decide on a time to chat. it is well worth first getting the two classes to email each other a little before chatting online. To make the initial contact with a class in a different country less intimidate for your learners. You may first want to set up several encounter using text chat only.

















Chapter III

Conclusion
In teaching how to improve speaking skill, there are many methods used in teaching learning process. It is base on the use of method is adjusted with the materials that will be taught. Every teacher should always prepare the suitable teaching method before presenting the materials in the class.
Many learners are not able to speak English well because they seldom to practice it in their days caused of nervous. They feel afraid to make some errors in speaking English so, they decide to be quiet. They are afraid their friends will mock them whether they make errors in talking.
Using voice chat is very effective to improve the learners speaking skill. But this method makes students brave to speak. This method needs the speaker to be active because if the speakers are passive those activities cannot be entered.

Suggestion
It is very suggested for English learners to use technologies in practicing speaking English. Speaking English must be practiced and habited. Using voice chat is also suggested for English teachers to be applied in their class if it is enable to do. This way will be very effective to improve students speaking skill. This way also will help learners to kill their nervous that has been most problem for common English learner in Indonesia.


References

Dudeney, Gavin & Nicky Hockly. 2007. How to Teach English with Technology. Edinburgh Gate: Pearson Education Limited.
Thornburry, Scott.2005. How to Teach Speaking. Edinburgh Gate: Pearson Education Limited.
Hughes, Rebecca. 2002. Teaching and Researching Speaking. Edinburgh: Longman
Harmer, Jeremy. 2004. How to Teach English. Edinburgh Gate: Pearson Education Limited.
Brindley, Susan. (2003). Teaching English. London: Routledge