A PROPOSAL

Improving Students’ Speaking Ability through English Rap Song at SMP

YLPI

Complied to complete one of the assignment of Research Methodology

Lecturer: Dr. Rugaiyah, M.Pd

Complied by:

Widi Sahaya
156310998

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION

TEACHER TRAINING EDUCATIONAL FACULTY
UNIVERSITAS ISLAM RIAU
PEKANBARU
2018

i
 Table of Contents

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Problem ...................................................................... 1
1.2 Identification of the Problem .................................................................... 2
1.3 Focuses of the Problem ............................................................................. 2
1.4 Research Questions ................................................................................... 3
1.5 Objective of Research ............................................................................... 3
1.6 Significance of the Problem ...................................................................... 3
1.7 Definition of Key Terms ........................................................................... 4

CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

2.1 Concept of Speaking .................................................................................. 5
2.1.1 Nature of Speaking........................................................................... 5
2.1.2 Component of Speaking ................................................................... 7
2.1.3 Teaching Speaking ........................................................................... 8
2.2 Nature of Rap Song .................................................................................... 10

CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research Design ......................................................................................... 13
3.2 Participants ................................................................................................. 13
3.3 Location and Time of Research .................................................................. 13
3.4 Instrument of Research ............................................................................... 14
3.5 Procedure of Research ................................................................................ 14
3.6 Technique of Collection Data..................................................................... 17
3.7 Technique of Analyzing Data..................................................................... 18

REFERENCES...................................................................................................... 10

ii
 CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Problem

Teachers have to realize that in Indonesia, English is a taught as a foreign

language that is not used in daily communication in society. Therefore, it is
considered as a difficult thing to learn, especially for junior high school students.
Thus, teachers should consider a good strategy to be applied so that the students
will be motivated and interested in the teaching and learning process. Moreover,
teachers have to create a good learning situation to make students happy,
interested, and highly motivated in learning English.

Basically, student being emphasized to learn four skills in learning

English, that are writing, reading, listening, and speaking. Speaking is the most
important skill, because it is one of the abilities to carry out conversation.
Speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves
producing, receiving, and processing information. Speaking is a skill which
deserves attention every bit as much as literary skills, in both first and second
language. To most people, mastering the speaking skill is the single most
important aspect of learning Language. According to Chaney (1998: 13), speaking
is the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-
verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts. People can define speaking as the way to
carry out our feeling through words, conversation with other. Speaking also used
to communicate as by talking, to make a request, to make a speech.

In this case, there are many ways to improve students’ performance in

speaking, whether it fluency or pronunciation. One of the way is to teach English
by using song. Griffee (2001: 10) said, song is part of music that your sing
through words. It closely related to speaking, because speaking is an action of
having a communication with the others in using oral language. Oral language can
be defining simply just an activity which is combining the words together into

1
something understandable. Also there are many kinds or genres of song. One of
them is hip hop music or rap music. It is a one of genre of song with vocal
technique that speaks quickly, usually over a backbeat or musical accompaniment.
Someone who performs rap music called as a rapper. When learning English by
using song, it not also improves students’ speaking skill, but listening and writing
skill will improve too. Using a song can improve students speaking skill also their
pronunciation, vocabulary and fluency. Therefore, using this way to learning
speaking will create an enjoy full situation and students’ speaking ability could be
improved.

Based on the explanation above, the researcher is interested in studying

this problem entitled “Improving Students’ Speaking Ability through English
Rap Song at SMP YLPI”.

1.2 Identification of the Problem

In the country where English as foreign language, teaching speaking has a

lot of difficulties. The first cause is problem with teaching habits and multimedia.
The teacher just use a book provided by school and library. The second is the
teacher. Sometimes teacher explains the material to the students was always same
time to the time, explaining at first and doing exam later. This condition created a
boring situation in the teaching learning process. The third is the students. They
have no enough motivation to learn speaking. It caused by the teaching method
and teaching media that use in the classroom.

1.3 Focuses of the Problem

This study focused on the use of English rap song to improve students’
speaking ability at SMP YLPI.

2
1.4 Research Questions

Based on the background, identification, and focuses of the problem, the

formulation of this problem can be formulated as in the following questions:

1. How can students’ speaking ability be improved through English rap song
at SMP YLPI?
2. What are the factors that influence the students’ improvement speaking
ability through English rap song at SMP YLPI?

1.5 Objective of the Problem

The objectives of the research can be formulated as follows.

1. To improve students’ speaking ability at SMP YLPI.

2. To find out the factors that influence the students’ improvement speaking
ability through English rap song at SMP YLPI.

1.6 Significance of the Problem

The results of this study confer significance for the following parties:
1. Teacher
The findings are expected to give information about the improvement of
students’ speaking ability by using English rap song is one of the best way
to teach English.

2. Students
It can help them to improve their speaking skills in a fun way and
understand
the lesson better.

3. The researcher
The research findings are expected to motivate them to conduct further
research in order to increase the quality of English teaching learning

3
 process, also as an experience in how to conduct action research related to
teach speaking ability.

1.7 Definition of Key Terms

To avoid misunderstanding and misinterpretation of the topic of the study,
the researcher explains some terminologies used as follows.
1. Improving
Improving is an activity to raise to a better quality or condition. (Merriam-
Webster Dictionary).
2. Speaking ability
Speaking is the process of building and sharing meaning through the use
of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts, (Chaney (1998:
13)).
3. Rap song
Rap song is a genre of song with vocal technique that speaks quickly,
usually over a backbeat or musical accompaniment. Someone who
performs rap music called as a rapper.

4
 CHAPTER II
RIEVEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

The researcher presented in this chapter is divided into two sections. The
first section furnishes concept of speaking, here include definitions, components
and purposes about speaking itself. The second section discusses the content and
the meaning of English rap song.

2.1 Concept of Speaking

2.1.1 Nature of Speaking
a. Definition of Speaking
Wilson (1983:5) defines speaking as development of the
relationship between speaker and listener. In addition, speaking
determining which logical linguistic, psychological a physical rule
should be applied in a given communicate situation. It means that the
main objective of speaking is for communication. In order to express
effectively, the speaker should know exactly what they want to speak
or to communicate, they have to be able to evaluate the effects of their
communication to the listener, they have to understand any principle
that based their speaking either in general or in individual.
Speaking is an activity of delivering massage, it occurs between
speaker and listener orally. In other words, the main point of speaking
activity is that speakers communicate their massage to the listeners. In
this case, the speaker and listener should be able to understand each
other. The speaker can produce the sounds that involved the massages
and the listener can receive, process, and response the massages.
However, speaking is more than just share information, but the
primary intention is to maintain the relationship in social interaction.
People who speak sometime do not really mean to get or share the
information; they just need to create a relationship.

5
 Tarigan (1990: 3-4) defines that speaking is a language skill that is
developed in child life, which is preceded by listening skill, and at that
period speaking skill is learned. It means that speaking is the basic
language. The goal of teaching speaking skills is to communicate
efficiency.
In the conclusion, speaking is the skills for human fulfill the
demands of their life in social interaction. To get a meaningful
communication in social, speaker should really consider to speaking
skills. When people hear someone speak, they make kinds of
judgments of the speakers.

b. The Function of Speaking

There are three functions of speaking according to Brown
and Yule in Richards (2008). They are talk as interaction,
transaction and performance.
 Talk as Interaction
Talk as interaction is usually called a conversation. This
communication is done in order to fulfill the social
function. Talk as interaction refers to the communicative
contact between and among human being that simply
allows them to establish social contact and to keep channels
of communication open. This is how people to keep their
social relation and interaction.

 Talk as Transaction
Talk as transaction is done to fulfill the human transaction
of deals. This is done not merely to keep the relationship
but more than it. This refers to the situations where the
focus of the speaking is on the content. Brown (2001) states
that talk as transaction has purposes to convey or exchange
the specific information.

6
  Talk as Performance
This talk refers to public talk, for example public
announcements, morning talks, and speeches. Watkins
(2004) states that talk as performance refers to spoken
language activities which often be done in the front of
audience. Talk as performance is often done in the front of
public or audience in the form of monolog rather than
dialog.

In conclusion, people use speaking to fulfill the demands of

human life. They have their own needs in doing speaking; as
transactional or interpersonal. However, the point of the speaking
used is generally to maintain the relationship of human interaction.

2.1.2 Components of Speaking

Speaking is the production skill that is included in two main
categories: accuracy and fluency. Accuracy consists of using
vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation through some activities,
fluency take into account “the ability to keep going when speaking
spontaneously” (Gower, Philips, & Walter, 1995). Bygate (1987)
identified two elements: production skill and interaction skill. In
production skill, speaking ability take place without time limit
environment and in interaction skill, there is a negotiation between
learners. Both skills help learners to improve their speaking ability
easier. Stuart (1989) proposed that learners should plan and adjust their
talk; and effective speakers should be proficient by practicing. It shows
that speaking is high risking activity that creates anxiety and causes
learners worry about losing face.

7
 Based on Brown (2001), there are five categories of speaking,
those are:
1. Imitative
At one end of a continuum of types of speaking performance is
the ability to simply parrot back (imitate) a word or phrase or
possible a sentence. This type is a purely phonetic level of oral
production, a number of prosodic, lexical, and grammatical
properties of language may be included in the criterion
performance.
2. Intensive
A second type of speaking frequently employed in assessment
context is the production of short stretches of oral language
designed to demonstrate competence in a narrow band of
grammatical, phrasal, lexical, or phonological relationship.
3. Responsive
Responsive assessment tasks include interaction test and
comprehension but at the somewhat limited level of very short
conversation, standard greetings and small talk, simple requests
and comments, and the like.
4. Interactive
The difference between responsive and interactive speaking is
in the length and complexity of the interaction which
sometimes includes multiple exchanges and/ or multiple
participants.
5. Extensive (Monologue)
Extensive oral production tasks include speeches, oral
presentations, and story-telling, during which the opportunity
for oral interaction from listeners is either highly limited or
ruled out altogether.

8
2.1.3 Teaching Speaking
a. The Roles of the Teachers and the Students in the EFL of Speaking
Teachers and students are playing actors during teaching
learning activities in the classroom. They have their own role in
the teaching learning process. According to Harmer (2001:347-
348), there are three important roles of teacher to make the
students speak fluently. The described as follows.
First of all is as a prompter. In this case the teacher cannot
help the students when they lost their idea. Sometimes students
are silent during their conversation. Without disrupting them, it
will stop the sense of frustration for some students when they
lose their language or ideas.
The second role of teacher is as a participant. In this case
the teacher can be participant among the students. The teacher
can join one or two groups as an ordinary participant during the
teaching learning process. Even if, the teacher can join the
activity, the teacher cannot interrupt the activity too much.
The last is feedback provider. The teacher can give
feedback to students, when they have completed their activity.
The teacher will tell and respond to the students concerning to
the content of the activity as well as the language used.
The students‘ roles are as communicators to be actively
engaged in negotiating meaning. This is done to make them
understand and also the others even when their knowledge of
the target language is complete. Since the teacher‘s role is less
dominant, students are seen as more responsible managers of
their own learning.
Based on the teacher‘s and students‘ role in the teaching
learning activity, the writer concludes that the roles should
motivate the students to speak independently without
disrupting from the teacher and also the teacher give them

9
 feedback without over-corrected the students‘ mistakes unless
it de-motivate them to speak during the activity. It is believed
that the students‘ speaking skill will improve after the teacher
and the students obey their own roles.

2.2 Nature of English Rap Song

2.2.1 Definition of English Rap Song
Song can be defined as the word that refers to pieces of music that
have words, especially popular songs such as those one hears on the
radio. By music is meant instrumental music, for example, symphonic,
chamber, easy listening, or soloinstruments such as the organ, flute or
guitar. (Griffee in Rosova, 2007).
Actually, rap song and song have same definition because rap is
one of the genre of song. The defferences only in the way to sing. Rap
is a type of music in which the words are not sung but are spoken in a
rapid, rhythmic way.
Kinds of rap song are as follows.
 Alternative Rap
 Bounce
 Dirty South
 East Coast Rap
 Gangsta Rap
 Hardcore Rap
 Hip-Hop
 Latin Rap
 Old School Rap
 Rap
 Underground Rap
 West Coast Rap

10
2.2.2 Types of Using Rap Songs Activities
Suzanne Medinna (2002) divides the activities of using music in
the classroom activities into three kinds:
1. Dialogue From Songs
This activity began with introducing the key word in the songs by
showing the songs‘ lyrics to the students and continued by listening
to the songs. Then the students discussed and write a dialogue
based on the songs in pairs or groups.
2. Musical Discussion Circle
Started by organizing students in groups of three or four then have
groups discuss the meaning of the lyrics. This activity needs a
secretary in each group to record any questions regarding
unfamiliar vocabulary, idioms, etc. which make the lyrics
incomprehensible.
3. Party Time
This activity began with identifying several sentence patterns that
are found in the lyric and create two-line mini dialogue; other
sentences also can be added to the line. Then discuss the songs
lyric with the students such as unfamiliar vocabulary, verb, idioms,
etc. Afterward, the teacher showed the mini-dilaogue in the
blackboard, and then has students‘ pairs around stand room as
having a party. This acvituvy can be repeated several times.

2.2.3 Advantages of Using Song Activities

Griffee (2001: 39) said “teaching English using song has many
advantages for students in improving their pronouncing in British and
American”.

11
 According to Orlova (2003) these are some of the advantages for
working in class with songs: practicing the rhythm, stress and the
intonation patterns of the English language.
 Teaching vocabulary, especially in the vocabulary reinforcement
stage.
 Teaching grammar. In this respect, songs are especially favored by
teachers while investigating the use of the tenses.
 Teaching speaking. For this purpose, songs and mainly their lyrics
are employed as a stimulus for class discussions.
 Teaching listening. Music can be helpful for comprehension.
 Developing writing skills. For this purpose a song can be used in a
variety of ways; for example, speculation as to what could happen
to the characters in the future, writing a letter to the main character,
etc.

2.2.4 The Implementation of Song in Speaking Activity

Suzanne Medina (2002) stated three based steps on using music in
teaching English; these are before listening or pre-listening, while
listening and post-listening. In pre-listening, the teacher discusses the
songs lyric with the students, then the students listen to the songs and
after that the teacher gives further task to the students

12
 CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research Design

This research is an action research. The aim of the research is to improve

the students’ speaking ability at SMP YLPI through rap songs. The researcher
tried to improve the way of teaching speaking by using different method and rap
song as the media.

There are two cycles in this research. The researcher plans the action,
implemented the action and doing reflection in each cycle. In the planning stage,
the researcher prepares the lesson plans, the course grid, the pre-test, the post-test
1 and the post-test 2, the observation checklist, interview guidelines and the
questionnaire. In implementing the actions, the researcher worked together with
the English teacher as a collaborator and the students to identify and to investigate
the problems that occurs in the English teaching and learning process. The
researcher then doing a reflection and continue to the next cycle when the action
of the previous cycle is considered unsuccessful.

3.2 Participants

The participants of this research are the 50 students in the second grade at
SMP YLPI.

3.3 Location and Time of Research

The researcher conducted the action research in the second semester of the
academic year of 2018/2019. The action was held from Februari to March 2019 at
SMP YLPI. In conducting the actions, the researcher followed the school calendar
in which the English would be taught two times a week.

13
3.5 Instrument of Research

In this research, the researcher uses the instruments as follows.

 The lesson plans

 Class observation
 The interview guideline
 The pre-test and post-test

3.6 Procedure of Research

There were five phases in the action research, which include problem
identification, planning, action and observation, and reflecting. The researchers
used the procedure of action research proposed by Kemmis and Mc Taggart
(1988) in Koshy (2005:4). The procedure was followed.

1. Reconnaissance

In this first step, the researcher carried out the research collaboratively with the
English teacher in this school. In this case, the researcher was collecting
information concerning the students’ speaking skill. The research would do pre-
test, observation and interviews with the students and English teacher to identify
the existing problem in class related to the students’ speaking skill. After that, the
researcher determined the research concern.

2. Research Cycle

In this process, the researcher implemented the actions in two cycles depending
on the need of the research. There were three procedures implement in this action:
planning, the action, implementing the action and doing reflection. The procedure
was described as follows.

a. Planning the cycle

14
 In this phase, the researcher identified problems or issues and made some
plans to choose the actions that were feasible to be implemented in the
field, based on the results of the reconnaissance. In the action plan, the
researcher worked together with the English teacher of class. In this step,
the researcher prepared the lesson plans, the materials and the research
instruments. Then, the research instrument such as the lesson plan, the
interview guideline, the pre-test and post-test, the questionnaire were
designed by considering the kinds of data needed. The plans per cycle
were described as follows.
1. Planning the Pre-Test
In the planning of the pre-test, the researcher considered the materials
which would be the material of test reviewing the basic competency. In
this part, the researcher did not use any implementation method yet.
The researcher conducted a test as the students’ condition.
2. Planning Cycle 1
In the planning of the first cycle, the researcher considered the
materials which would be taught by reviewing the basic competency.
3. Planning Cycle 2
In the planning in the cycle 2, the research reviewed the result of the
discussion and the plan based on the problem appearing at the first
cycle. The dialogues and songs were planned to be included in the
same types and forms as in the first cycle.

b. Action and observation of the cycle

In this step, the researcher was got involved in observing the effects of the
actions and took note on how the students reacted to the actions and some
obstacles in implementing the action.
1. Action and Observation of Based-Test
In this stage, no lesson plan was implemented in the class as the
teacher was. The teaching and learning processed were observed and

15
 recorded in the form of field notes. In this stage, the researcher and the
collaborator noted some problems appearing during the test.
2. Action and Observation of Cycle 1
In this stage, the lesson plans were implemented in the class, the
teaching and learning process were observed and recorded in the form
of field notes and video. Some changes were made in relation to the
students’ learning progress. Even though, in this stage, the researcher
and the collaborator noted some problems appearing during the
teaching and learning process. In this cycle, there was a topic that was
discussed in two meetings. A post-test was conducted in the end of the
meeting, and they asked by the researcher to join with the interview
after class.
3. Action and Observation of Cycle 2
As what the researcher done in the second stage of the first cycle, in
this stage the researcher implemented the revised method decided in
the planning session and observed its progress. The mistakes,
weaknesses, changes and improvements were recorded as a
consideration to draw the conclusion about the whole teaching and
learning process. In this cycle, the researcher was taught one topic. It
was delivered in two meetings. The second meeting of the second
cycle was delivered for doing posttest 2. The researcher asked to the
students to join interview and do the questionnaire.

c. Doing the reflection

In the last step, the researcher made some evaluations or reviews on what
happens in the implementation of the action. In this case, the reflection
was giving the result, which was the action successful or not. If the action
was not success, it would be repeated in the next cycle with the suitable
action so that the condition would be better.
1. Reflection of Cycle 1

16
 In this stage, the researcher and the collaborator discussed the
problems and solutions in each meeting and at the end of the cycle,
based on the interview result, they discuss the whole stages of the
cycle as a consideration to plan for the next cycle.
2. Reflection of Cycle 2
In this stage, the implementation and observation of the Cycle 2 was
reflected in the discussion between the researcher and the collaborator.
Furthermore, the results made in the cycle 1 and cycle 2 would be
discussed to draw the conclusion about the overall teaching and
learning process.

d. Validity and Reliability of the research data

To fulfill the validity of the research, five criteria proposed by Anderson
cited in Burns (1999:161) were employed. Those five criteria are namely
democratic validity, outcome validity, process validity, catalytic validity
and dialogic validity.
Democratic validity is a process validity related to the extent to
which the research is truly collaborative. This study tried to fulfill this
criterion by doing interviews with the students and having discussions
with the English teacher in finding and selecting problems to be solved.
Outcome validity is related to the notion of action leading to
outcomes that are “successful” within the research context. This research
solved more than one problem in the teaching-learning process, for
example those which are related to speaking skills, motivation and
involvement.
Process validity is related to the extent which raises questions
about theprocess of conducting the research. Observing classroom
activities, making field

3.7 Technique of Collection Data

17
 The data of the research were qualitative and quantitative data. The data
were collected by observing the teaching and learning process in the classroom,
interviewing the students and the English teacher, testing the students and also
giving them a questionnaire. In line with the aims of this research, the research
used an observation sheet, interview guidelines, questionnaire data and students
scoring rubrics of speaking as the instruments of the data collection.

3.8 Technique of Analyzing Data

The data collected were analyzed quantitatively. All of the data were
gathered by the observation checklist, and interview transcripts. While the data
obtained from the tests (pre-test and post-test) and the questionnaire data were
analyzed quantitatively. The steps of the data analysis included collecting the
data, comparing and cross checking the data from the observation checklist,
interview transcript, and students’ tests. The pre-test was done for knowing the
students’ speaking skill before using rap songs. Then, the post-test was done
twice, in the last meeting of Cycle 1 and in the last meeting of Cycle 2. The data
analysis tests were using Microsoft Excel. The function of the program was to
know the mean score of each aspect in pre-test, post-test 1 and post-test 2. The
researcher was comparing the results of pre-test and post-test 1, if there were
improvements from the pre-test to post-test 1, it indicated that the actions has been
succeeded. After that, the second post-test was done for strengthening the result of
improvements in the first cycle. When in the result of the post-test 2 was higher
than the pre-test, it indicated that the improvements of the students speaking skill
in the Cycle 1 were not coincidental results. However, when in post-test 2 there
were not improvements, it indicated that there was any hesitancy of the result in
Cycle 1.

18
 REFERENCES

Azhar, Fadly. 2015. Developing English Language Teaching Materials, Tests and
Assessments: A Practical Guide for English Language Teaching.
Pekanbaru: UR Press.
Clara Liva, Y. Gatot Sutapa, Y. Eusabinus, Bunau. 2014. Improving the Students’
Speaking Ability Through English Song. p. 1-13.
Creswell, John W. 2012. Educational Research: Planning, Conducting and
Evaluation Quantitative and Qualitative Research the Fourth Edition.
Lincoln: University of Nebraska.
Craswell, John W. 2014. Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Miked
Methods Approaches the Fourth Edition. Lincoln: University of Nebraska.
Febriyanti, E.R. Teaching Speaking of English As A Foreign Language: Problems
And Solutions. p. 1-16.
Fernand, Z., Pourgharib, B. 2013. The Effect of English Songs on English
Learners Pronunciation. International Journal of Basic Sciences &
Applied Research. Vol., 2 (9). p. 840-846.
Harmer, J. 2001. How to Teach English: An Introduction to the Practice of
English
Language Teaching. Essex: Longman
Leong, L. M., Ahmadi, S. M. 2017. An Analysis of Factors Influencing Learners’
English Speaking Skill. International Journal of Research in English
Education. p. 1-8.
Nanda. Narius, Don. 2012. Improving Student’s Speaking Ability through
Western

19
 Song at Junior High School. Journal of English Language Teaching. Vol.
1. No. 1. p. 102-108
Nazara, S. 2011. Students’ Perception on EFL Speaking Skill Development.
Journal of English Teaching. Vol. 1. No. 1. p. 1-16.
Qureshi, I. A. The Importance of Speaking Skills For Efl Learners. p.1-10.
Putra, Seno Himala. 2014. Cara-Cara Penulisan Karya Ilmiah Populer dan
Karya
Ilmiah Akademik. Pekanbaru: UR Press.
Romero, M. D., Bernal, L. M. T., Olivares, M. C. 2012. Using Songs to
Encourage
Sixth Graders to Develop English Speaking Skills. Vol. 14, No. 1. Bogotá,
Colombia. p. 11-28.
Rosova, Veronika. Diploma Thesis: The Use of Music in Teaching English.
Retrieved on Mei 2nd, 2018.
Ryan, Stephen B. 2001. Overcoming Common Problems Related to
Communicative Methodology. Yamagata University. The Internet TESL
Journal, Vol. VII, No. 11, November 2001 (http://iteslj.org/. being
accessed on April 30, 2018)
Zardini, M. C., Barnabe, F. H. L. 2013. How to Improve the Speaking Skills
Through the Communicative Approach. Universidade de Franca (Unifran).
Vol. 9. No. 2. p.27-43

20