Modified British Parliamentary Debate Technique in Teaching Speaking to Indonesian EFL Learners

Abstract

For English language learners, speaking is an essential skill that should be achieved. By practicing continuously, they can become trained and skilled. To support their proficiencies and competencies, they also should master the language subskills: pronunciation, structure, and vocabulary. The teachers, therefore, should facilitate their students by applying appropriate techniques of language learning in the classroom so that their students can speak English quickly. Through this study, the researchers managed an effective teaching technique for speaking class by implementing a modified British Parliamentary Debate to train the students' speaking skills. This study, therefore, projected to find out whether or not the use of the Modified British Parliamentary Debate technique in teaching speaking can increase their speaking skill. This study also aims to determine whether or not the students are interested in learning to speak through the modified British parliamentary debate. The study applied the quasi-experimental method with a nonequivalent control group design. The subjects of the study were students of Madrasah Aliyah Negeri Enrekang, Indonesia. The population of the research was 64 students. The researchers grouped the students into two groups. There were 32 students in group one and 32 students in group two. The researchers assigned both groups to the same activities in pretest and posttests but different treatments of teaching techniques. The researchers gave a modified British parliamentary debate model for the experimental group and a small group discussion for the control one. The instruments of the research were an oral speaking test and a questionnaire. The results of data analysis exhibited a significant improvement in the students' speaking skills after the treatments. The result of hypothesis testing showed that the t-test value (2.087) was higher than the t-table value (2.000) at the level of significance 0.05 and the degree of freedom 62. Moreover, based on the questionnaire, this study found that the students were interested in learning the speaking skill through modified British Parliamentary debate. In short, implementing the modified British parliamentary debate in teaching speaking can develop the students' speaking skills and encourage the students to learn speaking ability.