THE USE OF “TEACHER RACES GAME” IN TEACHING SPEAKING DESCRIPTIVE TEXTTO THE SEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS OFSMP MUHAMMADIYAH 2 TAMAN

Abstract

Abstrak
Bahasa Inggris merupakan salah satu ketrampilan yang harus bisa dikuasai oleh siswa, namun masih
banyak siswa yang malu dalam mengungkapkan idenya dalam berbicara bahasa inggris. Dengan
memberikan kesempatan lebih untuk menyampaikan ide, para siswa diharapkan untuk bisa memotivasi
diri untuk mampu berbicara dalam Bahasa Inggris. Salah satu usaha yang bisa dilakukan oleh guru adalah
menerapkan permainan di dalam kelas. Permainan merupakan salah satu tehnik yang dapat memotivasi
siswa dalam proses pembelajaran di dalam kelas. Permainan Teacher races game merupakan sebuah
permainan yang dapat mengaktifkan kemampuan berbicara siswa. Item bahasa yang diaplikasikan dalam
permainan ini menggunakan salah satu jenis teks yaitu teks deskriptif. Penelitian ini menggunakan jenis
penelitian deskriptif kualitatif. Subyek dalam penelitian ini adalah siswa kelas VII A di SMP
Muhammadiyah 2 Taman. Instrumen dalam penelitian ini adalah tabel observasi dan rubrik ketrampilan
berbicara. Data dalam penelitian ini adalah hasil observasi dan deskripsi nilai ketrampilan berbicara siswa
yang dikumpulkan selama proses pembelajaran di dalam kelas. Setelah observasi dilakukan, peneliti
mendeskripsikan hasil observasi dan nilai ketrampilan berbicara siswa.
Kata Kunci: Permainan Teacher Races, ketrampilan berbicara, teks deskriptif
Abstract
Speaking is one of the skills that have to be mastered by student in learning English. But, there are many
students that still afraid to make mistake and feel depressed in speaking activity. By giving more
opportunities to speak, students are asked to encourage themselves to speak in English. One of the
teacher’s efforts is implementing the game since games can motivate students in learning process.
Teacher races game is a kind of simulation game that can activate students’ speaking ability. The
language applied in this game uses the descriptive text. This research is a descriptive qualitative research.
The subject is VII-A class of SMP Muhammdiyah 2 Taman . The researcher uses observation checklist
and students‟ performance score from rubric of speaking proficiency as the instrument. The data are
obtained from the observation during the implementation of Teacher Races game and students ‟
performance score. After being observed, the researcher described two findings. the observation result
from the implementation of Teacher Races game that the teacher had done and the students‟ speaking
ability are addressed.
Keywords: Teacher Races game, speaking, descriptive text
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
English has to be taught in all grades of junior high
school, senior high school and even in elementary school.
(decree no. 060Fu/1993 in Dellyana, 2008:1). Besides
that, based on the competency based curriculum (2006:2)
the teaching of English is emphasized on the four language
skills: reading, listening, speaking, and writing
Speaking has an important role for English
Foreign Learner (EFL) in the real language learning.
Speaking is one of the skills that have to be mastered by
student in learning English. Many experts define
speaking in different ways. Lado (1961: 240-241) states
that speaking ability is someone‟s ability to transfer their
knowledge and to express their idea in real
communication by selecting correct words and
systematized idea. It means that speaking ability is the
ability to express oneself in one live situation in precise
Ejournal Unesa. Volume 01 Nomor 01 Tahun 2013, 1 - 11
words, or the ability to converse, or to express a sequence
of ideas fluently.
Teaching speaking in junior high school
students is not easy as turning a hand, because Seventh
grade students include in teens or young adult that “an
age of transition, confusion, self-consciousness,
growing, and changing bodies and minds” (Brown
2001:106), so it is between childhood and adulthood.
The thing that should be considered is that children have
their own characteristics. Some of the teachers feel that
the students are reluctant and get difficulty in speaking.
They feel that it is very difficult to arrange the class in
the good atmosphere. On the other hand there are many
students that still afraid to make mistake and feel
depressed in speaking activity.
Alongside those statements, English teacher
should be able to encourage and facilitate the students in
order to speak English as much as possible. The one of
appropriate technique to build the students‟ motivation
in learning speaking English is by using game while
they are learning. Games can motivate the students in
learning the language. They will be encouraged in the
learning process if they are given the cheerful technique.
In line with the benefit of game has been
stated, in this study, the game is used to teach speaking
descriptive text to the seventh graders. And it is called
teacher races game. Teacher races game is one of the
good ways to teach speaking and to improve the
student‟s speaking ability. In the teacher‟s races game,
the students have chance to deliver their idea to their
teacher. Smith (2008) states although in practicing this
game the pupils will need extra energy to run more and
more to get the right answer. It means, at the same time
while they do drilling they memorize the lesson by
themselves. So it is believed by doing this game, the
students‟ speaking ability will be better that before. As
Smith (2008) teacher races game has several benefits.
First by doing this game, it is also teaches the pupils
how to work cooperatively in a group is. They will learn
about time management, divide job and take
responsibility in their own group. Second, in conducting
this game, the kinesthetic activity is very dominant. So
they will not get bored while they are learning.
The researcher formulates the research
question as follow: (1) How is the implementation of
Teacher Races game to teach speaking of descriptive
text to the seventh grade students of SMP
Muhammadiyah 2 taman? (2) How is the students ‟
speaking ability toward the implementation of Teacher
Races game?
Literature Review
Speaking
Nunan (2003:48) point out that speaking is a
productive oral skill in which consisted of constructing
systematic verbal, utterances to convey meaning.
Meanwhile, Chaney (1998:13) describes speaking as “the
process of building and sharing meaning through the use
of verbal and non verbal symbols in a variety of
contexts”. So, speaking is an oral skill which uses verbal
and non verbal systematic symbols .
Speaking is one of the important aspects in the
process of learning language. The teacher should be
aware of their students‟ speaking ability because the main
purpose of learning foreign language is to make the
students able to communicate. According to Nunan
(2001: 39) “speaking is the single most important aspect
of learning foreign language“
Lado (1961: 240-241) states that speaking
ability is someone‟s ability to transfer their knowledge
and to express their idea in real communication by
selecting correct words and systematized idea. It means
that speaking ability is the ability to express oneself in
one live situation in precise words, or the ability to
converse, or to express a sequence of ideas fluently.
Teaching Speaking
The main purpose of teaching and learning
foreign language is to make the students able to
communicate using the target language. The opportunity
to speak in a group should be given to the students as
much as possible in order to facilitate the students in
using the target language. Nunan (2001: 51) states that
learning to speak in a foreign language will be facilitated
when learners are actively engaged in attempting to
communicate.
Teaching speaking must be done based on the
student‟s level. In the speaking there are three levels of
the students such as beginning level learners,
intermediate level learners, and advanced level learners.
Actually the seventh grade students of SMP
Muhammadiyah is still in the beginning level learners.
There are some principles for teaching speaking to
beginning level based on Bailey and Nunan (2005: 36-
40) :
1. Provides something for learners to talk about.
2. Create opportunities for students to interact by
using group work or pair work.
3. Manipulate physical arrangements to promote
speaking practice.
Classroom Speaking Activities
There are many speaking activities that can be
done in the classroom during the teaching and learning
process. According to Harmer that there are some of the
The Use of Teacher Races Game in Teaching Speaking Descriptive Text
3
speaking activities that widely-used in the classroom
(2002: 271-275):
 Acting from a Script
 Communication games
 Discussion
 Prepared Talks
 Questionnaire
 Simulation and role play
 The roles of the teacher
Descriptive Text
Descriptive text ix one of the text-genres which
should be taught in secondary school, they are junior and
senior high school. Depdiknas (2003:49) define
descriptive text as a text which is used to describe a
particular person, place or things. Descriptive text is
different from report text because it describes a specific
subject rather than a general class.
Depdiknas has also classified the characteristics
must have been different from other text-genres. Here,
Depdiknas differ them into several points:
1. Social Function
Based on depdiknas (2003:49), descriptive text has a
social function describe a particular person, place,
or things. It means that, by learning descriptive text,
the students are supposed to be able to describe the
physical appearance and the personality of a
particular person, or even the physical appearance,
the characteristics, and the quality of a certain
place.
2. Generic Structure
According to Depdiknas (2004:52), the schematic
structures in generic structure of descriptive text
are:
 Identification : in this part, we describe the
phenomenon that we have in mind.
 Description : after expressing the main point in
identification, we will explain it more in supporting
detail to give clearer description of particular parts,
qualities, and characteristic. Since the study focuses
on describing people, the identification will be on
the people, the identification will be on the people
that are going to described.
3. Linguistic Feature
The linguistic features of descriptive text are divided
into several points as follows: certain nouns,
detailed noun phrases, adjective, verb, figurative
language to describe something in more detail,
simple present tense.
Game
Gibbs (1978:60) states that a game is an activity
carried out by cooperating of competing decision makers,
seeking, and active. Within a set of rules and their
objectives, games are closed activities, in other words,
they have a very clearly mastered.
Game is an activity that could give enjoyment in
teaching and learning process between the teacher and
the students. It is also such a great way to encourage the
whole students in the class to work together and to
provide an often-welcome change in working pattern.
They are mostly applied to young learners.
Teacher Races Game
Teacher races game is one of the game which is
commonly used in some language courses. In this game,
the students will work in group of five to six, but each
member of the group have own task. Each member has to
answer the question that have been given before to the
teacher. The teacher is waiting outside the classroom.
While approaching to the teacher, the delegation is not
allowed to bring out the paper. They must memorize the
answer. The teacher decide whether the students get the
point or not based on the accuracy and fluency the
students‟ answer. If the answer is not proper yet, the
teacher will say “sorry, your answer is not proper yet, go
back and repair your answer”. However if the answer is
proper, the teacher will give a sign.
To obtain the goal of the study, the teacher
should decide to use the appropriate media in teaching
learning. There are many kinds of media, one of them is
picture. Pictures are appropriate media to be used in
teaching learning process, especially in teaching
speaking. Individual picture also can be used as a media
in “Teacher Races” game. The students will not get
difficulties to describe a particular thing by using
individual picture. According to Sadiman et,al, (1993:29)
among teaching, pictures are commonly used as visual
media. In this case, pictures can help students to visualize
language from abstract to concrete.
Besides that, pictures can give stimulus for the
students to be more creative and attract the students to
speak. On the other hand, pictures are the most available
teaching material (Yunus1981:50). Pictures that are used
as the media in teaching learning process can be obtained
easily. Because pictures are simple, cheap, and everyone
does not nedd much money to get it. The teachers can cut
pictures from books, magazines, newspaper, and they can
copy it from flashdisk, etc. therefore, pictures are an
interesting media which can be used in the learning
process.
The Rules of Teacher Races game
1. Ask the students to make a group of seven. One
group consist of six students. Then explain that each
member have own task.
Ejournal Unesa. Volume 01 Nomor 01 Tahun 2013, 1 - 11
2. Choose a proper picture which is suitable with the
topic. The picture must be clear enough.
3. Give the different picture all of members.
4. Explain that each member must send their
descriptive monologue to the teacher.
5. The teacher wait outside the classroom.
6. After the students receive their picture. Then they
have to deliver their description to their teacher one
by one.
7. Teacher decide whether the answer proper or not.
Proper means they can describe about the picture that
have been given.
8. If the description is proper enough. teacher will give
sign equal with one point.
9. The winner group is the fastest group that have more
sign.
The Benefit of Teacher Races Game
Teacher races game has many benefits for the
students, by doing this game, the motoric aspect is
explored, by doing motoric activity, the students will not
get bored. Smith (2008) states that teacher races game is
not difficult to prepare and not spending so much money.
Smith (2008) also states that teacher races game
has several benefits. First by doing this game, it is also
teaches the pupils how to work cooperatively in a group
is. They will learn about time management, divide job
and take responsibility in their own group. Second, in
conducting this game, the kinesthetic activity is very
dominant. So they will not get bored while they are
learning.
The Implementation of Teacher Races Game in
Teaching Speaking of descriptive text.
The illustration below showed the steps of the
teaching speaking descriptive text using teacher races
game.
Pre Activity
In pre activity, the teacher told the students about
the objective of study that they will learn. The teacher
explains about a descriptive text included the generic
structure and the language features. The teacher teaches
the vocabulary about the parts of the person. Then the
teacher ask one students to come in front of class as a
model as the example. The teacher asked to the students
what the friend is and ask the students to describe it.
For example: The teacher ask Muhammad fikri to come
in front of class, Then, the teacher let the students
describes Muhammad fikri is. If the students get
difficulties in understanding the teacher‟s oral descriptive
monologue, they may open their dictionary to find out the
vocabularies they don‟t understand its meaning. After
they successfully describe the person correctly, the
teacher will give them appreciation by making applause
together which indirectly aims to make the students more
attracted and interested to join the game.
Whilst Activity
After the students really understand about the
explanation before, the next is the teacher has to prepare
everything that related to the material which is used to
conduct the teacher races game. In this case, the teacher
prepare the person picture. Then he asked the students to
make a group pf six. The number of the students in SMP
Muhammadiyah is 42 students, means every group have
7 members. After that, the teacher distribute a picture to
every member, then he explain about what the students
will do in teacher races game, the goal, rules, and also the
reward that they will get if become the winner, this is to
motivate the students to be more active in learning
activity.
In this step, time to play teacher races game.
This game can be played for 30 minutes. They work in
group but their send their own task that is describing a
picture to their teacher individually, the teacher wait
outside the class. He waits the description of each
member of group who are ready to give description.
Post Activity
The students who already send their description
to the teacher will get sign, one sign equal one point. this
section will make some noisy since all of
member/students are hurry to give their descriptive
monologue to the teacher. However, through this activity,
most of students focus on the lesson more than if we
teach them by conventional way. For the last doing this
game. (in last meeting), the students had to send their
descriptive monologue in front of class. To make them
more briefly to speak. Then The fastest group who have
more sign is the winner. So, teacher will give reward to
make them more active.
Review of Previous Study
The researcher found a previous study which has
similarity with this study. The previous study is “The
Effectiveness of Using Teacher Races Game to Teach
Simple Past Tense in Recount Text for Eight Graders of
SMP Negeri 13 Surabaya.” which was conducted by
Ratna Ayu Pawestri Kusuma Dewi (2012). It was an
experimental research that focused on the teaching of
simple past tense in the recount text. she didn‟t used a
media in that game, she only gave some question to the
students and the students had to answer the question.
The study is conducted by the researcher with
different media from the one in the previous study, this
study use person pictures. The researcher applied pictures
media in Teacher Races game
The Use of Teacher Races Game in Teaching Speaking Descriptive Text
5
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This chapter describes the steps taken to conduct
the study. The description involves research design,
subject, setting, data of the study, data collection
technique, and data analysis.
This study used a descriptive qualitative research.
The subject of this study were the teacher and the aeventh
graders of SMP Muhammadiyah 2 Taman. The setting of
the study was Muhammadiyah 2 Taman which is located
on Wonocolo jl. Belakang pasar lama sepanjang. The
researcher collected the data through some instruments.
The instruments were observation checklist and students‟
speaking rubric performance from Haris‟s rubric of
speaking proficiency. The first data was observation
result which was taken from observation checklist. The
second data was the result of the students‟ speaking score
which was taken from students‟ speaking rubric
performance.
RESULT AND DISCUSSION
This chapter contains the description of the data obtained.
The researcher will describe the data from the daily
observation and assessment which show the condition of
the class and the students‟ speaking ability during the
implementation of Teacher Races game. The data
obtained from the observation checklist and the students‟
speech were analyzed based on the criteria of each aspect
in the Hari‟s speaking proficiency measurement.
Results
The research was conducted in three meetings.
Here, the researcher described the results based on the
observation checklist and students‟ speaking score. The
researcher divided the results into two chapters. The first
chapter described the implementation of Teacher Races
game to teach speaking of descriptive text to the seventh
grade students of SMP Muhammadiyah 2 Taman. The
second chapter described the students‟ speaking ability
toward the implementation of Teacher Races game.
The Observation Results of Teacher Races Game Activity
During the research, the observation was
conducted by the researcher through data observation
checklist. The researcher observed directly while the
teacher was implementing Teacher Races game. The
observation was done in three meetings.
1. The First Meeting
The first meeting was held on Monday, 6th 2013. The
time was 2x40 minutes. Before starting the lesson, the
first thing that the researcher did was greeted the students
and introduced the researcher to his students.Then he
checked the attendance list before starting the lesson. He
called every name of class 7-A students and three
students were absent today. Then the teacher explained
the objectives of the study at that day. At that time the
teacher reviewed the material of the descriptive text
because he had taught the descriptive text last week.
After that he gave vocabulary list related to the
describing person to the teacher.
Then the teacher continued the explanation about the
language feature about descriptive text. After that, the
teacher let the students to made pairs. There were some
student complaining about the teammates. She didn‟t get
the partner. Then the teacher divides students by the
absent number.
The teacher introduced the rules, the topic, and
language features related to Teacher Races Game. He
also influenced and encouraged the students to be
creative and free to speak. Before starting the game, she
checked students‟ understanding by giving the
opportunity to ask some questions related to the game.
First of all, the teacher asked one students to came in
front of class as a model as the example, there was
Muhammad Fikri. The teacher asked to the students what
the Muhammad fikri was and asked the students to
describe it. If the students got difficulties in
understanding the teacher‟s oral descriptive monologue,
they might opened their dictionary to find out the
vocabularies they don‟t understood its meaning. After
they successfully describe the person correctly, the
teacher gave them appreciation by making applause
together which indirectly aims to made the students more
attracted and interested to joined the game.
After gave the example, the teacher asked the
students to make groups of seven. Each group consisted
of six students. Then, the teacher distributed a picture to
every member of the group. There were famous person at
the first meeting. After getting the picture, all of the
member of the groups had time to made description about
the picture which they had got. The group did not take a
long time. It seemed that the students in the class were
accustomed to work in group.
The teacher gave 15 minutes to the students to
discuss the picture and to gain the information about the
person. During the discussion, the teacher was going
around the class to checked and to helped the students
whether they had difficulties or not.
After that, the teacher wait outside, then the students
had to sent their description to the teacher individually.
The students who already sent their description
monologue to the teacher get a sign equal one point. The
sign was a smile emoticon. The fastest group and got
more sign is the winner.
The teacher listened and paid attention to the
students‟ performance, the teacher corrected several
Ejournal Unesa. Volume 01 Nomor 01 Tahun 2013, 1 - 11
students‟ mistakes such as mispronunciations,
grammatical errors, wrong choice vocabularies, improper
fluency and comprehension.
In the end of the game, group C was the winner.
After conducting the game, the teacher appreciated the
students by giving applause. Though there were many
mistakes done during the speaking activity, it did not
make students gave up. Then, the teacher corrected
pronunciation errors, sentence constructions, and the use
of the language, after that the teacher asked the students
to brought a picture of their father/mother for the next
meeting.
The students were enthusiastic with the game, While
the teacher was teaching implementing teacher races
game, the observer observed all activities that happened
whether it harmonized with all aspects stated in the field
note well or not. The observation process included the
preparation, the presentation, the technique or method and
the students- teacher interaction
2. The Second Meeting
The second observation was held on May, 7th, 2013,
at that time, the class began at 07.00 a.m. and ended at
08.30 a.m. the teacher entered the class and greeted the
students
Before the teacher began the learning activities, he
checked the attendance list. There were thirty eight
students who joined the class. There were three students
who was absent. Then the teacher began the learning
activity and started with the objective of the study at that
day that was implementing of teacher races game in
speaking of descriptive text.
As a warming up activity, the teacher gave the
example by described about his father. In the main
activity, the teacher introduced the game that would be
played. The game and its rules were the same but used
different object. The object had to described was the
picture that have been brought by the students. There was
the picture of the students‟ parents.
The teacher gave 15 minutes to the students to
discussed the picture and to gain the information about
the person. During the discussion, the teacher was going
around the class to check and to help the students
whether they had difficulties or not.
After that, the teacher wait outside, then the students
had to send their description to the teacher individually.
The students who already sent their description
monologue to the teacher get a sign equal one point. The
sign was a smile emoticon. The fastest group and got
more sign is the winner.
The teacher listened and paid attention to the
students‟ performance, the teacher corrected several
students‟ mistakes such as. In this second observation,
the students‟ performance was better than in the first
observation.
Based on the observation, it could be said that the
teaching learning process was successfully done. The
teacher felt happy with the improvement made by the
students in this meeting. The class became very active
and alive. All students tried to speak up and some of
them asked some questions to the teacher. The topic and
also the technique of the teacher was able to motivate the
students. The students‟ speaking ability was getting better
than in the previous day.
After that the teacher gave the conclusion of the
lesson today. The last the teacher said goodbye and left
the class.
The Third Observation
The third observation was conducted on May 13th,
2013. This was the last day of the implementing Teacher
Races Game. There were only 38 students because 2
students were absent. The teacher started to begin the
lesson with opening session. The teacher greeted and
asked the students the previous lesson that they had
studied. It was meant to know whether or not they still
remember about the previous lesson. Then she checked
the attendance list. Then he began the activities/the game.
In the third meeting, the game was different. In that
meeting, the teacher asked the students to make present
the descriptive monologue about their best friends in
front of class without any preparation. The teacher only
gave 5 minutes to the students to prepare their descriptive
monologue. Then the students had to describe their best
friend in front of class. The student who had already sent
their description got a sign equal one point. The fastest
group and had more sign is the winner
While the students were working their task, the
teacher controlled the class by monitoring the students‟
behavior. He walked around the class and helped the
students who got difficulties in working their task. After
15 minutes was over, the students have to came to the
teacher and send their description. The fastest group who
had more sign is the winner.
In the end of the game, group C was the winner
again. Because that was the last conducting this game.
The researcher gave a reward to the winner group and
also to all of students in that class. And also, the teacher
appreciated the students by giving applause. Though
there were many mistakes done during the speaking
activity, it did not make students gave up. Then the
teacher corrected mispronunciations, grammatical errors,
wrong choice vocabularies, improper fluency and
comprehension.
The Use of Teacher Races Game in Teaching Speaking Descriptive Text
7
The Result of the Students’ Speaking Ability of
Descriptive Text by Using Teacher Races Game.
To answer the second question of the research
questions, the researcher scored the students‟
performance by using rubric from Haris (see appendix).
There were five components that were measured such as
the students‟ They are pronunciation, grammar,
vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. Every
component has been analyzed based on the criteria in the
rubric for descriptive text.
The First Meeting
The first meeting was on May 7th 2013. Based on the
students‟ performance, mostly they were able to speak
English.
The first descriptive speaking task was given to the
students at the first meeting. The students were asked to
make a group, then they have to describe about certain
person individually.
The following description are the result of students‟
speaking ability in the first meeting. The researcher took
4 students as the examples of the progress in the speaking
ability. Those 4 students were student A, student B,
student C, and student D. Here is the result of descriptive
monologue by student A,B,C, and D
1. Student A : Varin (student number 37 in 7A)
“Hallo, my name is Varin. I want describe
Obama. He is the president of United State of
America. He Is handsome, he has sharp nose, curly
hair, but he has brown skin. Obama was live in
Indonesia.
At the first meeting, Varin was in the second level of
pronunciation. She always repeat her words and not clear
in pronounced the words. For the grammar aspect she
frequent errors of grammar which didn‟t obscure
meaning. She used limited vocabulary to describe the
person. Then, in fluency aspect, her speech was very
slow and uneven except for short or routine sentence. In
the comprehension aspect, she was in the second level,
she understand only slow and requires constant
repetition, in explaining the language feature and generic
structure of descriptive text.
2. Student B : Syailendra (student number 21 in 7-
A)
“Hai..my name is Rico. I want describe Luna
maya. His nose is sharp, skin is white, he is tall,
and beautiful. He has many friends because he
is beautiful girl. His favorit hobby is singing.”
In the first meeting, Student B‟s pronunciation was
in the second level, her pronunciation was very hard to
understand. Then, in the grammatical aspect, his
grammar was in the first level, because he used the wrong
grammatical aspect. In the vocabulary aspect, his word
choices were inadequate for even the simplest
description. In the fluency aspect, his speech was often
stop because of his anxiety to speak. In the
comprehension aspect, he had low understanding. He
understood for only the simplest description.
3. Student C : Nindita (student number 24 in 7-A)
“Hii… my name is Nanda. I will describe Nikita
Willy. She is famous artist in Indonesia. she is
cute, she has white skin, strong hair and curly
hair, she also has sharp nose, but she is not tall.
She is kind girl.”
In the fisrt meeting, student C was in the third level
of pronunciation, She gave the detail description about
the person. She used many variety vocabularies to
describe the person. Her fluency and grammar level were
in third level because she spoke in speed and fluency was
rather strongly affected by language problem and . In the
comprehension aspect, she was in the Third level, she
understand most of what is said at slower-than-normal
speed with repetitions.
4. Student D : Reina (student number 29 in 7-A)
“Hallo, my name is Reina. I want to describe
about Robert Pattinson. He is the actor of
Twilight movie. He Is handsome, he has sharp
nose, straight hair, and he has white skin.
Every girl in this world love him. Because he is
handsome.”
In the first meeting, Student D was in the second level of
pronunciation. Her pronounced was very hard to
understand, but she gave the detail description about a
certain person. Her fluency and grammar level were in
the third level because she spoke in speed and fluency
which was rather strongly affected by language problem
and she could apply the rules of simple present tense
appropriately although she made a few mistakes. In the
comprehension aspect, she was in the second level, she
understand only slow and requires constant repetition, in
explaining the language feature and generic structure of
descriptive text.
The Second Meeting
The second meeting was on April 11th 2013. The
result in the second meeting was almost the same as the
first meeting. Based on the students‟ performance, mostly
they were able to make description monologue related to
the picture. The picture on the second meeting was the
picture of their mother/father. There was an
improvement. Their confidence was getting better.
There was an improvement in the second meeting.
The students‟ speaking ability had risen. Here, the
Ejournal Unesa. Volume 01 Nomor 01 Tahun 2013, 1 - 11
researcher described the increasing score of student A,
student B, student C, and student D, as the examples.
1. Student A : Varin (student number 37 in 7A)
“Hi.. Today I want to describe about my mother, the
name is Mahmudah. She is 40 years old. She is
housewife. She is beautiful, she has sharp nose,
she has white skin, the hair is long and straight.
But she wear jilbab. I love my mother.”
In the second meeting, the student A showed her
progress. she is in the third level of pronunciation, she
gave clear description. Because she have good motivation
in speaking English. She used rich variety of
vocabularies. Their speech was effortless and smooth. He
appeared to understand everything without difficulty. But
she still made word-order error which did not obscure
meaning. In the comprehension aspect, she was in the
Third level, she understand most of what is said at
slower-than-normal speed with repetitions.
2. Student B : Syailendra (student number 21 in 7-
A)
“Hi.. I am Syailendra, I want to describe about my
mother. Name is Bu Wanda. She has straight
hair, her nose is snub nose, she has white
setengah brown skin. She is tall. Because my
mother dulunya model. My mother is beautiful
woman. Thank you.”
In the second meeting, Student B‟s pronunciation
was the same in the first meeting. His pronunciation was
hard to understand. Then, in the grammatical aspect had
raisen. In the first meeting he in the first level. But in the
second meeting, he is the second level, he use correct
grammatical order. He use correct pronoun. In the
vocabulary aspect, he use limited vocabulary. In the
fluency aspect, his speech was frequently hesitant, often
forced into silence by language problem. In the
comprehension aspect, he had low understanding. He
understood for only the simplest description.
3. Student C : Nindita (student number 24 in 7-A)
“Hi,,, Meet again with me ya sir..heheehe… I
am Nindita, I want to describe about my father.
He is 40 years old. He is tall, he has beard and
mustache, but no like pak raden. Hehe.. my
father has brown skin. He hobby is singing. He
has good voice. Oke that’s all.”
Student C‟s pronunciation in the second meeting was
still the same as in the first meeting. Then, her ability in
the grammatical rules had risen. She spoke with
occasional errors that showed imperfect control of some
patterns but no weakness that caused misunderstanding.
In the vocabulary aspect, she already had better choices
of word. In the fluency aspect, her speech was
occasionally hesitant. She started to be confident while
she were speaking. In the comprehension aspect, she
quite well understood more complex speech directed to
her.
4. Student D : Reina (student number 29 in 7-A)
“Hi.. I want to describe about my mother. She
has straight hair, she has snub nose, she has
brown skin, she is not tall. She is thin. She wear
a veil. My mother is Muslim woman. Her hobby
Is planting flower. So I have so many flower in
my house.”
Student D‟s speaking ability in the second meeting
showed the same result as the first meeting. There was no
improvement in his speaking. His pronunciation was
frequently be asked to repeat. It was hard to understand.
Then, in grammatical aspect, his grammar was almost
entirely inaccurate except in typical or usual phrases. In
the vocabulary aspect, his choices of word were
inadequate for even the simplest conversation. In the
fluency aspect, his speech was often left uncompleted
because he was worried to speak. In the comprehension
aspect, he had low understanding. He understood for only
the simplest type of description.
Third meeting
The third meeting was on May 13th 2013. In third
meeting, students‟ speaking ability was significant better.
All students mostly had better improvement than before.
The following descriptions are the improving ability from
student A, student B, student C, and student D.
1. Student A : Varin (student number 37 in 7A)
“Hi.. let me introduce myself.. my name is
Varin, I have best friend, the name is Tasya .
She is my friend in this class. Tasya has short
and straight hair, she has sharp nose, her skin is
white, she is not tall not short. and she is thin.
her favorite food is pizza.
In the third meeting, the student A showed her
progress. She was in the third level in pronunciation. She
gave enough detail description about the person. She used
an adequate variety of words and most of them were
correctly used. Her grammar level was in third level,
there were a few errors in the use of verb. Her fluency
was in the fourth level because her speed or speech
seemed to be slightly affected by language problem. In
the comprehension aspect, she was in the Third level, she
understand most of what is said at slower-than-normal
speed with repetitions.
2. Student B : Syailendra (student number 21 in 7-
A)
“Assalamualaikum wr wb. My name is
Syailendra. I will introduce about my best
friend. He is Doni. He is my family. Sepupu.
Hehe. He is handsome, he is tall and slim. He
The Use of Teacher Races Game in Teaching Speaking Descriptive Text
9
has sharp nose, curly hair, and her skin is agak
white. His hobby is play computer. He is smart
with computer”
The pronunciation of the student number 3 was in
the second level. His pronunciation frequently asked to
repeat. But he made good word-order and did not obscure
the meaning at all. he also used variety vocabularies.
From the fluency aspect, her speed or speech seemed to
be slightly affected by language problems. She could give
enough clear description about the person even though he
made a few mistakes. In the comprehension aspect, she
was in the Third level, she understand most of what is
said at slower-than-normal speed with repetitions.
3. Student C: Nindita (student number 24 in 7-A)
“Assalamualaikum wr wb. My name is Nindita. I will
introduce about my best friend, her name is
Yasmin. She is beautiful, because she has sharp
nose, theher hair is strong and curly hair, her
hobby is eating, but she is not fat. She is
talkative girl, but she is cute. That’s all Thank
you.”
The pronunciation of the student C was intelligible,
conscious a definite accent. She made good word-order
and did not obscure the meaning at all. She also used
variety vocabularies. From the fluency aspect, her speed
or speech seemed to be slightly affected by language
problems. She could give enough clear description about
the person
4. Student D: Reina (student number 29 in 7-A)
Assalamualaikum wr wb.. hallo my name is
Reina. I want to describe about my best friend.
She is my friend in this class. Her name is
nabila. She has beautiful face. She has sharp
nose, strong hair, and white skin.
The pronunciation of the student number 3 was
intelligible, conscious a definite accent. She made good
word-order and did not obscure the meaning at all. She
also used variety vocabularies. From the fluency aspect,
her speed or speech seemed to be slightly affected by
language problems. She could give enough clear
description about the person. In the comprehension
aspect, she quite understood in simple description
followed by some repetitions.
DISCUSSION
In this section, the researcher discussed two aspects.
Firstly. The researcher would discuss the suitability of the
implementation Teacher Races game with the theory.
Secondly, the researcher would discuss the result of
students‟ speaking ability
The first thing that should be noted was the
suitability of the implementation Teacher Races game
with the theory. Based on the observations, what the
teacher had done followed the theory. Teacher Races
game which was introduced by Smith (2002) in
practicing this game the pupils will need extra energy to
run more and more to get the right answer. The activity in
teacher races game and how to send their description to
their teacher can motivate the students to speak more and
increase their speaking ability. On the other hand, in
conducting this game, the kinesthetic activity is very
dominant. So they will not get bored while they are
learning.
Teacher Races game which teacher had implemented
also followed the theory of game. A game, as it is defined
by Hadfield (1984) as quoted in Ninaber (2004:10), is an
activity with rules, a goal, and element of fun. There were
some reasons why Teacher Races game was appropriate.
First, From the observation, the researcher can say that
the topics were appropriate with the students‟ interest.
Moreover, the topics dealt with the local curriculum
stated in the topics of the seventh grade students in the
second semester. They were describing about person,
place, noun, and others. It means that the topics stated in
the first to the third meeting were appropriate with the
local curriculum. As a result, the study gave some
contributions for the students‟ competence.
At the first meeting, it can be seen that there were
many things that should be evaluated. Some students still
got confused with the technique. Even though the
students found some difficulties during the lesson, the
students felt difficult in describing person. In addition,
the media were suitable with the topic. The topic could
motivate the students because it was familiar with their
daily life. But in the second and third performance, they
looked more confident in expressing their ideas because
the teacher gave them support to be more confident in
performed their idea.
In the first meeting, The teacher explained about
descriptive text, then he asked the students to made
groups and introduced about teacher races game. In the
first meeting, the teacher asked the students to make a
descriptive monologue based on the picture that have
been given by the teacher. The students sent their
description to their teacher individually. In the second
meeting, the students produced descriptive monologue
based on the picture of their own parents. The teacher
made it different because it could make them not to be
bored because of the same topic as the last meeting. In
this activity, the teacher asked the students to performed
spontaneously. In the third meeting, the teacher asked the
students to make a descriptive monologue about their
best friend. Because this is the last meeting, the students
did not permitted to bring a picture. From this
performance, the students did better than before. Because
Ejournal Unesa. Volume 01 Nomor 01 Tahun 2013, 1 - 11
from this performance, who got better performance, got a
reward.
The second was the results of students‟ speaking
ability. The students‟ speaking ability was getting better
from the first meeting until the third meeting. The
students had practiced speaking more than before.
There were five components; pronunciation,
grammar, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension had
been analyzed. Most of them made a progress in each
component. Based on the observation of the students
performance, at the first meeting of using Teacher Races
game in the teaching learning process of speaking, most
of students only could performed simplest describing
person . They were reluctant to deliver their idea. The
pronunciation frequently was hard to understand. The
comprehension was quite good with the occasional errors
on grammar. In the second meeting, there was a little
significant improvement to their speaking ability. They
could relax in performing their idea. The pronunciation
had been corrected. There were still errors on grammar
but not as much as in the first meeting. The students‟
understanding was also good. In the third meeting, there
were some changes in the students' speaking ability. In
this meeting, most students could speak confidently
though there were still errors on grammar. The
pronunciation was better than the previous day. The
fluency and the comprehension were better than the
second day. The students were more familiar with
English better than two previous days.
From the above explanation, it could be concluded
that there was an increase in the students' speaking ability
taught by Teacher Races games in the process of
teaching-learning. The students‟ speaking ability was
getting better in every meeting and it can be seen from
the scores of the students' speaking descriptive task. The
table showed that the scores of the students were getting
better. Some students got bad marks in the first and two
meeting, and finally achieved better in the last meeting.
By looking at the result of students speaking descriptive
task, the researcher concluded that the technique could
help the students in their understanding.
From the observation, the researcher can say that
Teacher Races games helped to motivate the students and
reduced their boredom in the learning process. Teacher
Races Game became better technique that fulfilled the
students' interest in the learning process. Thus, it could be
concluded that Teacher Races game has many
contributions to the teaching of Speaking of Descriptive
text.
Conclusion
Teacher Races game can be applied as a technique to
teach speaking because this technique is able to increase
the students‟ interest to speak up in the speaking class. At
the beginning of the lesson, the teacher explain about
descriptive text, then did a game. In addition, the
application of Teacher Races game helped the students to
memorize the vocabulary easily and it could reduce the
students‟ boredom so they could participate actively in
the learning process.
Suggestion
1. Teacher Races game can be applied to teach
speaking of Descriptive Text to the seventh
graders of junior high school in order to build
students‟ willingness to speak up and to make
students interest in English language.
2. The teacher should prepare an interesting media
to reach the goal of teaching learning process,
because an interesting media will lead the
students to be more enthusiastic to
3. The material should not too easy or too difficult.
It must be in accordance with the students‟
ability.
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