Weekly Project Of Problem (W-Pop): A Pathway to Boosting Students’ Speaking Ability in the English Classroom

Abstract

The background of this study is the result of the researcher's observation during teaching practice at SMA Islam Nusantara that tenth grade students in the 2022/2023 school year have low English speaking skills and student scores that still need to be improved. The formulation of the problem in this study is how the application of the Weekly Project of Problem (W-PoP) scheme can improve the speaking skills of tenth grade students of SMA Islam Nusantara in English classes. The purpose of this study is to improve the speaking skills of tenth grade students of SMA Islam Nusantara in English class by using W-PoP scheme. This research used Classroom Action Research (CAR) method which consisted of two cycle and each cycle consisted of five meetings. The subjects of this study were tenth grade students of SMA Islam Nusantara totaling 13 students consisting of 5 male students and 8 female students. The data collection procedure used observation, interviews, field notes, and speaking tests. Furthermore, in analyzing data, researcher used qualitative and quantitative data analysis, qualitative data analysis using data reduction, display data, and conclusion drawing. Quantitative data analysis is measured from five aspects of student speaking which include pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. Each aspect was classified into excellent, very good, good, fair and poor. The research findings show that learning by using the Weekly Project of Problems (W-PoP) scheme can improve students' speaking ability through the following steps: (1) Questioning, (2) Planning, (3) Researching, (4) Creating, (5) Improving, (6) Presenting. The increase can be seen from the average score of students in the pre-cycle test of 59.7, cycle I of 66.8, and cycle II of 75. From the observation results in cycle I, the results obtained in the observation of the researcher's activity of observer I were 87.5% and observer II was 90%. The results obtained in the observation of student activity of observer I amounted to 82% and observer II amounted to 89%, where the observation of the activities of researcher and students was declared successful. However, for the final speaking test of cycle I, the results obtained were only 54%. In cycle II, the results obtained in the researcher activity observation from observer I amounted to 94% and observer II amounted to 92%. The results obtained in the observation of student activity from observer I amounted to 93% and observer II amounted to 96%. The results obtained in the final speaking test of cycle II amounted to 77% and the interview results obtained 90%. Based on the results of the pre-test, cycle I, and cycle II, students' speaking ability has increased so that in cycle II the research was successful. From pre-cycle, cycle I to cycle II, it can be interpreted that there is always an increase in each cycle. Thus, the researcher concluded that the W-PoP scheme can improve students' speaking ability. Key words: Speaking Ability, Weekly Project of Problem (W-PoP) Scheme