Activating Students to Speak English by Using ELTIS Resource Pack

*Corresponding Author: nurfadillahnurchalis@stainmajene.ac.id Abstract: Students are mostly talkative outside the classroom, but in English class, they are more apathetic. This research aims to examine how English Language Training for Islamic Schools (ELTIS) resource pack is able to activate students‟ to speak English. This research is designed as Classroom Action Research (CAR) which is specific to collaborative action research. The subjects of this research are 25 students of the eighth class of MTs Pacongan Pinrang in academic year 2019/2020. Instruments of the research are test, observation checklist and interview. The test aims to gain quantitative data, while observation checklist and interview aim to gain qualitative data. The result finds that the use of various media available in ELTIS Resource Pack activates students to speak English. Variety of learning media reduces students‟ boredom and engages students during the learning process enthusiastically.


INTRODUCTION
Being a professional teacher in language teaching especially English as a foreign language is not as easy as people think. English for Indonesian is a foreign language which has complex difficulties to master (Abrar et al., 2018). Either the structure or pronunciation has significant differences from Indonesia. Foreign languages are not easy to be acquired like native language in which people are immersed. Learners need to learn it consciously and effort fully, as well as teachers need to be more creative to teach it.
For some decades there are a number of methods which have been applied by English teachers. The success of method implementation relies on learning circumstances. There are several factors influencing it such as students" interest, learning styles, class atmosphere, etc. Teaching English as foreign language is challenging (Kline & Walker-Gibbs, 2015), therefore; creativity and innovation become a demand in teaching and learning.
Teacher has influential role in encouraging students to use target language, English, as often as possible. This goal can be achieved by applying appropriate approaches, methods and techniques. Teachers should think to improve their English teaching methodologies continuously through professional development (Grant, Bell, Yoo, Jimenez, & Frye, 2017). The modern era resists teachers to create interesting learning and to build instructional process more effective and efficient. Teacher should be creative, either in using complex media like internet based applications or simple media like cards. That"s why teacher should open their mind and modify applicable methods and media in their teaching.
For many years our government has backed teachers up for professional development by facilitating some workshops or trainings which are usually hold in "Balai Diklat". It shows governments" attention to educational development. Not only Indonesian government but also Australian government shows their great attention to Indonesian Education. Australian government through collaboration works have provided scholarship, empowering programs, training and workshops for Indonesian in a partnership programs (Heni Dwi Iryanti, 2018). Those efforts are much respected.
Australian government under Learning Assistant Program for Islamic Schools (LAPIS) program trained Islamic School teachers at Junior high school level by providing English Language Training for Islamic Schools (ELTIS) resource pack. The pack contains some teaching materials and media to help teachers in teaching English with various topics and media which are ready to use. It has several activities to stimulate students to speak up in English.
In language learning, spoken language becomes main source for young learners (Al Hosni, 2014). Based on the history, spoken language is considered more essential than written language (Anderson, 2018 The courses provided appropriate resources which were designed especially for Islamic Schools into a pack. The resource pack consists of Listening Aids, Islamic Life Topics, Games & Pictures, and Assessment. The content of ELTIS recourse pack covers materials for students in the year VII, VIII, and IX. It is also equipped with teachers" note. It assists teachers to build comprehensive instructional process since the pack is completed. It is ready to use. However, teachers may adapt it for specific purposes.
The listening resource pack is composed with the listening texts in mp3 format. It is easy to download. The assessment resource pack includes practice tests, puzzles, portfolio tasks, self-assessment forms, speaking tests, as well as advice on exam taking strategies. The games and pictures resource pack contains a series of collection of colorful big and small pictures. It is acceptable for group, paired of individual work. In addition, the pack also contains laminated board games such as snakes and ladders which practice a range of language points covered in speaking, writing, grammar, vocabulary activities.
Styarni et al discovered that the use of pictures improved students" speaking skill. The students" motivation increased to speak since they were interested in doing various activities in the classroom (Styarini & Pratiwi, 2017). Teachers have to create creative and useful scenarios. Through the scenarios, students think critically to arrange sentences which represent their mind.
The pack also supports numerous attractive activities like role play. Islam and Islam revealed in their research that role play contributes positively to the improvement of students" speaking skill. Students were so enthusiastic since they tried to think creatively to acts as their roles (Islam & Islam, 2013). The situation demanded students to speak. They are able to utilize their memorized vocabularies to express their idea or opinion.
The resource pack materials focus in Islamic practices and values as well as cross cultural understanding. It is very suitable for students who are educated within an Islamic environment (Lapis Eltis, n.d.). The relevant and meaningful content of the course raises students" awareness to learn because they realize that the acquired knowledge is useful in their real life (Prabandari, Aji, & Yulia, 2016). Language learning should be meaningful.
Memorizing tons of vocabulary without practices means nothing. Therefore, vocabularies related to students" life ease them to practice their English.
The aim of teaching speaking is assisting students to improve their ability to communicate in the target language. In teaching speaking, there are several points that teachers should consider. They are (1) enriching students" vocabulary, (2) improving grammar mastery, and (3) managing interactions (Maher & Al, 2016). However, teachers also have to recognize kinds of students" problems, challenges, inhibitions and difficulties in speaking class. It will be useful to formulate appropriate strategies to apply in the classroom.
Leong et.al found that students faced difficulties in speaking English due to a low self-esteem, higher anxiety, and low motivation. Those factors are more dominant than linguistic factors. They suggested providing a cooperative and friendly language learning environment so that it can reduce students" difficulties in oral performance (Lai-Mei Leong, 2017). Teachers should identify students" interest, feeling and inhibition. They also have to boost students" confidence and use multisensory activities to keep the students involve in speaking activities.
There are some problems encountered by students in speaking class. They are fearful of mistakes, mothertongue use, lack of motivation, low participation rate (Lai-Mei Leong, 2017). First, mostly students are anxious when they speak. They think over and over for what they will say. They repeat many times for the sentences they construct. They make sure whether the structure of the sentences is well-arranged or not. They are really afraid of making mistakes. They are so stammer. Because of this, mostly students prefer to say nothing (Ariyanti, 2016). They feel shy when other students laugh at him/her due to the mistakes they made.
Second, the use of mother tongue affects bad language habits for the target language expertise. Littlewood & Yu in Debreli argued that the use of mother tongue in EFL class impact negatively to mastery of target language. It inhibits acceleration of learners" comprehension in English (Debreli & Oyman, 2015). Therefore, the use of it should be minimized. Teachers are responsible to create opportunities for students to use target language as often as possible, so that students have high frequency to practice.
Third, motivation is a key of learning. One of factors causing low English language achievement from learners is motivation (Alrabai, 2016). When students have no any motivation in speaking class, they have no idea to say. They are difficult to remember the words they want to express. Rivers in Leong goes with those statements. He argues that the cause of students" blank in speaking is inappropriate topics provided by teachers (Lai-Mei Leong, 2017). They do not have prior knowledge about the topic to discuss. For those reasons, teachers should count on students" motivation. ELTIS resource pack presents Islamic issues which is relevant to students" field.
Forth, participation in the speaking class is sometimes low (Ariyanti, 2016). In English class, every student has to have chance to speak. Teachers should prevent a situation where some students speak dominantly and some of them never talk. In a big class, students will have little time to speak. However, it does not mean that students have no any opportunity to express themselves in English. Managing class by using teaching aids will overcome this problem, for instance, the use of cards which are available at the resource pack.
ELTIS resource pack potentially solves those barriers. Various activities contained in the resource pack reduce teachers" talk and provide lots of opportunity to increase students" talk.
There are some research supports the use of ELTIS Resource packs in speaking activities. Fauzan applied a Classroom Action Research (CAR) under the title "Enhancing Speaking Ability of EFL Students through Debate and Peer Assessment". He found that score improvement and class atmosphere was better after having two cycles of treatment. in the first cycle, the gained score improved 9 points, while in the second cycle, it improved 15 points from the pre-test. The score indicated positive achievement. Debate practice could help students to express their though and opinions. It sharpened students" creativity to construct argumentative statements from different motions. The chosen motions were familiar topics for them. It aimed to involve them to talk about what they understood (Fauzan, 2016).
Usman also conducted CAR. He applied "Think-Pair-Share" to improve students speaking ability. He discovered that the first cycle was unsuccessful. Students" score improve insignificantly. He, then, continued the second cycle by reformulating the plan. In the second cycle, the gained score and classroom atmosphere met criteria of successful. He concluded that "Think-Pair-Share" strategy was effective to speaking ability improvement (Abdurrahman Usman, 2015).
The review of related literature and previous research findings above show that to improve students" speaking skill teachers should accommodate students to increase their engagement in the classroom. Based on the previous observation, students at MTs Pacongan Pinrang are active students, but when the class is toneless, they become passive. English is one of the flat classes that students had since students" activities are unvarying. Students have lack of vocabulary. They do not know for what they learn English. They have a great fear of making mistakes. The ambience make students rarely practice speaking English.
ELTIS resource pack comes with a variety of activities to address those problems. It supplies various activities for students to involve themselves in the class. Teaching Speaking using varied and multisensory media will enable students to speak in target languages actively and faster since it is combination of some media. The resource pack has power to change teachers-centered to studentscentered learning. Hence, in this research, the writer focuses on the use of ELTIS Resource packs at the eighth class of MTs Pacongan Pinrang in academic year 2019/2020. This research aims to know to what extend ELTIS Resource Pack is able to improve students" speaking skill in MTs Pacongan Pinrang.

METHOD
This research applied Classroom Action Research (CAR), in which observer collaborated with English teachers. It used a model developed by Kemmis and Taggart, namely spiral reflection system. It consists of four components in one cycle, namely planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. The subjects of the research were students in the eighth class of MTs Pacongan Pinrang. There were 25 students in the class. This research was conducted in two cycles. Every cycle consisted of two meetings. Preliminary studies had been carried out to identify problems before starting the first cycle. Researchers also determined that it was categorized success if 80% students could pass standard of minimal completeness criteria, namely 75. If the students had not passed the criteria, then the second cycle was applied.
This research used test, observation checklist and interview to collect the data. Speaking test was used to gain students" learning outcomes. Observation checklist was used to gain students" oral activities. The indicators of oral activities used were indicators developed by Paul D. Dietrich , namely stating, formulating, asking, giving advice, expressing opinions, conducting interviews, discussions, and interruptions (Pratiwi & Sofiawati, 2018). Interview was used to gain feedback from students related to implementation of ELTIS Resource Pack to activate them to speak. Quantitative data were taken by using tests, and qualitative data were taken by using observation and interview.

RESULT AND DISCUSSION First Cycle
After finding students" problems when conducting preliminary studies, researchers designed learning by using various media provided in ELTIS Resource Pack. The English teacher worked as a collaborator. Researchers used pictures, board games, flash cards, role play cards, and audio player. Those media are used sequentially from warming up activity to evaluation during the class.
In this cycle, there were only ten students who pass the standard of minimal completeness criteria. It was around 40% students. There were still 60% who did not meet the standard of minimal completeness criteria. Look at the following diagram: It showed that some students still faced obstacles to be more active in speaking class. Mostly students were still stammer in expressing opinion and other oral activities. After analyzing results of observation checklist and interview, there were four identified problems which still happened in implementation of various media from ELTIS Resource Pack in the first cycle. Those problems are: firstly, students had not found the benefits of learning English for themselves, so that they ignored teacher"s explanation. Secondly, they did not have enough vocabularies to express their idea. Thirdly, they were still passive in responding orally because they got fewer stimuli. Finally, they were not confident to speak since they were doubt with their pronunciation. The cycle did not deal with the successful criteria; therefore there should be other action in the next cycle.

Second Cycle
Considering the results of reflection in the first cycle, activities in the second cycle concerned on these following activities to address those problems. Firstly, researchers explained advantages of learning English for students of Madrasah.
Secondly, researchers enriched vocabularies through flash cards, board games, and puzzles. Thirdly, researchers used role play cards to stimulate students to give responds such as asking, commenting, objecting, answering questions and giving opinion. Finally, researchers use audio player to practice pronunciation.
In this cycle, there was improvement in students" learning outcome and students" oral activities. Students" mean score increased. There were 21 students who met the standard of minimal completeness criteria. It meant that there were 84% students who passed the standard score. Look at the following diagram: Quantitatively, the use of ELTIS Resource Pack was successful to activate students to speak in English class because more than 80% students achieved the standard. Considering the students" oral activities, each indicator showed positive results. There were 52,3% of students" improvement in oral activities from cycle 1 to cycle 2. Students were able to formulate and state sentences based on the pictures they saw. Students were able to express their opinion in responding their roles in role play. Students asked questions when they did not know the meaning of words which was played through audio player. Students could interrupt the teacher when she pretended to do mistakes. Students also worked in pairs. They interviewed and discussed with their partners when role play. In addition, students even gave advice to their friends when they mispronounced.
In the second cycle, students learnt more independent, either learning individually or learning in pairs and group. They spoke more than in the first cycle. They used their chances to speak. They were enthusiastic to learn since they were curious to know what would be the next activities. Using various media reduced students" boredom and increase students" eagerness to learn. They were more active to speak. They produced many more sentences.
The use of various media available in ELTIS Resource Pack attracted students" attention in learning. It activated students" to speak up. Here are the roles of media in ELTIS Resource Pack which help students to speak actively. Firstly, the use of vocabulary flashes cards. It is a interesting, creative and fun way to assist students to remember the vocabulary words. Using flash cards enrich students" vocabulary effectively (Komachali, 2012). Vocabulary richness helps students to formulate sentences they want to express. The many more input they have, the many more sentences they can produce.
Secondly, the use of pictures. Pictures work as tools to develop students" idea or imagination. They can construct sentences systematically by using chronology of pictures. Pictures illustrate evens. Pictures also have many interpretations, so that every students is able to interpret according to their own version (Fantika, 2016). Vocabularies in students" memory help them to interpret the picture orally. It is very useful media in teaching.
Brown and Lewis in Fantika emphasizes that the pictures used should consider several factors as follow: whether the pictures are appropriate for students" age; whether the size of pictures is proportional so that they are clear to see; whether the pictures represent the topic discussed at that time; whether the information is accurate; and whether the pictures attractive (colorful). Pictures available in ELTIS Resource Pack meet the factors mentioned before. Those pictures help students to expressing opinions.
Thirdly, Board games. Chang and Cogswell in Norhayati argued that board game is a flexible media. Board games are able to use to teach particular language functions and forms (Norhayati, 2016). It also can be adapted for English for Foreign Language (EFL) contexts to communicate in the classroom. Board games available in ETIS Resource Pack are designed for communicative purposes. Oral activities done through board games are asking and answering questions as well as interrupting.
Various activities such as gaming in the classroom make the learning more fun for students. Games build two-way communication. When students" play board games, they feel excited since they have partners to communicate. Wright in Rohdiana explains that games are beneficial for both teachers and students. Games maintain students" interest and work in learning. Games also assist teachers develop useful and meaningful contexts (Rohdiana, 2017). Teachers are expected to develop and to adapt games which are contributive to learning process.
Fourthly, Audio Player, One of the obstacles of speaking class is the fear of students to speak. It mostly happens because they are not confident with their pronunciation. Most of students memorize a bunch of English vocabularies, but they cannot pronounce it properly (Cakir, 2012). Audio recorded by using native speakers" voice is appropriate source of pronunciation improvement. Audio available in ELTIS Resource Pack is available with transcription. Reading transcription repeated by listening to the audio improves students" pronunciation. Cakir found in his research that extensive listening contribute positively to correct students" pronunciation and increase students" confidence in using target language. Better pronunciation perfects students" oral communication.
Finally, Role Play Cards. In ELTIS Resource Pack, there are role play cards. Students are demanded to act a role stated in the card. Role play activate students" participation in speaking class (Mahdeeyah, 2016). Role play cards give chances for students to interview, to discuss and to give advice one another based on the instruction given in the cards. Students behave as the way someone behaves in certain situations to them. Instruction given in role play cards encourages students to speak up based on their roles.

CONCLUSION
Based on the research findings and discussion above, it can be concluded that the use of numerous learning media in the classroom raise students" involvement in the classroom. Media available in ELTIS Resource Pack are able to activate students" in speaking class. It can be seen from the increase of the number of students who reach the standard of minimum completeness criteria. In the first cycle, there were only ten students" who pass the standard and in the second cycle, it increased to twenty one students from twenty five. The use of various media or multimedia in learning is very beneficial. It reduces students" apathy. It increases students" excitement in learning because they are curious to know what the next activities. It is like they wait for surprises in learning. Therefore, it is recommended for teachers to use several media in every meeting. It aims to reduce monotony which affect to students" passivity. Teachers have to integrate several media in their class. In addition, teachers have to enrich their learning media through self development to support their class.