IMPROVING STUDENTS SPEAKING SKILL

THROUGH DEBATE TECHNIQUE

RESEARCH PROPOSAL

Presented to fulfill the final assignment of Qualitative Research Methodology

By:

DWI AINUN FADZILAH

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
TARBIYAH FACULTY
STATE ISLAMIC INSTITUTE OF RELIGION (IAIN)
KEDIRI
2020
1. Background of The Study :
Students learn four skills – listening, speaking, reading, and writing, at
school. If they are asked which one they have difficulty to perform, their answer
might be speaking is usually hardest to perform. When they will call to perform in
front of class or teacher asks directly to the students, they are usually silent and
afraid to speak something and answer the question from the teacher.
Speaking is not only used in formal but also wherever and whenever.
Speaking also need skill/competence in order to make communication clearly. This
skill/competence is not only profitable for students 'ability to communicate
personally but also to identify the students' ability to communicate with other
people. Many societies tend to judge a person's English skills through their own
speaking proficiency. So it‟s make students/person afraid to speak.
There are three benefits of studying public speaking. First, public speaking
provides personal benefits such as helping people success in college, becoming
more informed, and gaining self-confidence. Second, public speaking gives
professional advantages such as enhancing the chances to obtain employment and
helping people build a successful career. Finally, public speaking provides public
benefits by helping people interact with each other so that they can play their roles
in the society.
In speaking, students should master the elements of speaking, such as
vocabularies, grammar, pronunciation, and fluency. Speaking skills is the most
important language skills in order to achieve the learning achievement (Oduke,
2014). As a foreign learner in Indonesia, many students have lot of vocabularies
and mastering the grammatical structure, but they still have difficulty in speaking.
As we know that students in Indonesia only have a little chance to practice using
English language. But if in international Scholl, they have lot of chance to practice
it.
In curriculum 2013, the students should be more active and their teacher just
is a supervisor. The method which is commonly used in this curriculum is
discussion. “discussion is an effective way to facilitate learning with an opportunity
to assess student understanding of course material by introducing their own
observations and questions, students can explore ideas thoroughly” . (Schwarthz,
2013: 1). But this technique is less effective at this school that affected by the
problems above.
From the facts above, the researcher finds out an alternative way to create
suitable and interesting technique to the students‟ condition. Debate is one of the
techniques that could be used to improve students‟ speaking skill. Debate is a way
of expressing thought, opinion, and arguments in which two opposing teams try to
defend their idea, opinion and argument. Case building, motion, definition, team
line, team split, rebuttal are parts of debate.
Debate is very useful for students who have less participation in the class.
According to (Dundes, 2001), the students who rarely talk or have less participation
in speaking class can be encouraged by the debate as one of the teaching strategies
by teacher. Debate technique also makes the students to master the content of the
debate which requires more knowledge, more think critically and more preparation
to make support their arguments in debate. It supported by statements from
(Maryadi, 2008) which states that debate is one of the students motivation since it
supports the student‟s thinking which as the participants, students must defend their
opinion or arguments which is in contradiction with conviction them. This strategy
make all students to be active and not only as the debate performer.
Debate can develop students‟ public speaking skills. It gives students
opportunity to expand debating skills, such as English proficiency, logical and
critical thinking, public speaking, and ability to formulate, present, and defend
arguments (Freely: 1969, p. 30). The debate extracurricular has been carried out for
some years in some schools in Indonesia. Therefore, the students experienced the
debate activities and they have formed a perception of the activities. This research
is concerned with the students‟ perception of the implementation of debate
activities in improving speaking skills.
Debating will help the students to overcome their fears to share ideas and
develop students‟ oral English skill. Based on (Rybold, 2006:2) debating will help
students to be a better speaker in any situation. Through debate, students will gain
confidence and they will express their ideas more clearly when they speak. Through
debate students learn how to use the library to reason, to analyze, to clarify ideas,
and to present arguments (Othman, 2013:158). Debate also develops several other
skills that will help students to communicate effectively in English or in any
language student use.
(Krieger, 2005:185) says that debate forces students to think about the
multiple sides of an issue and it also forces them to interact not just with the details
of a given topic, but also with one another. Based on the definitions above, it can be
concluded that debate is an activity which students take up positions on issue and
defend their position.
(Quinn, 2005) explained about the most widely used format that is used in
most schools in the world. There are two teams competing in a match. The side that
supports the motion is called Government. The other side is opposition. Each team
is formed of three speakers and one between the first and second speaker will
deliver reply speech. Each speaker has eight minutes to deliver substantive speech
but for reply speech, the duration is half of the substantive speech. In the other
words, the time to deliver reply speech is four minutes. They debate upon the same
motion.
Debate has many benefits for students (Joe Bellon: 2000, p 4):
1. Improve students‟ critical thinking. In debating, every student is proposed
to analyze a problem critically.
2. Develop students‟ communication skill. Debaters spend many hours
assembling and practicing hundreds of public speeches on topics of
national importance.
3. Questioning skill developed in and struggle--often in the face of
disappointment and defeat.
4. They are capable of making and defending informed choices about
complex issues outside of their own area of interest because they do so on
a daily basis.
5. Debate is thus not only a way to connect students with academic subjects
in meaningful ways; it is also a way to re-connect students to public life if
they have been overcome by feelings of alienation.
6. Policy debate specifically teaches students to adopt multiple perspectives
which describe as one of the most important problem solving skills.
 Because of some benefits above, debate can improve students speaking skill.
It is appropriate for classroom activities also.

Parts of Debate In the debate technical system, we will get some regulation
which relate to the debate process. The following are some regulation or structure
related to debate (Mellshaliha: 2008, p 1):

1. The topic debate is called a motion. Sometimes, motion stars with word
like “this house” (TH) or “this house believes that (THB) or “this house
believes that (THBT)”. Both government and opposition teams are
debating upon a motion which should be debatable and impartial.
Debatable means that the motion is still falsifiable can be denied in some
ways. For example, this house believes that (THBT) smoking should be
banned. So, both teams need to prove or justify whether cigarette is
danger for our surrounding.
2. Definition, Debaters should “down to earth” or sees the current issue
happened in society or in our country even in the world. Definition can be
done in two ways; word by word definition or the global definition. Or
anyway, when we heard motion, “that sex education must be socialized in
the school” what we need to do is giving the global meaning on it.
3. Theme line, to agree or disagree towards a motion, the reason must lie on
a strong ground that could cover the whole argumentation. Theme line is
the underlying reason which answers the big question “why” one side of
the house supports or opposes a motion. Theme line is what a team needs
to proof, it is also the main reason why a team attacks the opponent‟s
case.
4. Argument, a debate is like a battle of argument, in which each team stands
on their position, attacks the opposite and defends their own case. The
praiseworthy jobs can be done well by using critical and logical thinking.
Argument is the fragment of thought to support the theme line.
5. Rebuttal, to win a debate, debaters not only needs to build a strong case
but they also have to attack their opponent‟s arguments and provide
 strong defense from any attacks. That is why, rebuttal is one of the key to
get the victory. Basically, there are two kinds of rebuttal.
Global rebuttal: it is an attack against the main core of the opponent‟s
case, the theme line. Consequently, their case is crumbling down.
Detailed rebuttal: it is an attack towards each argument for example.
6. Sum-up/closing, closing is simply concluding what has been through. A
nice summary is preferable. Before start debating, debaters should know
these parts of debate in order to be a good debater. It also hoped that
debate will run success.
There are Strengths and. Every technique that applied in process learning and
teaching has strengths. Debate has much strength. They are:
1. Train the students to cooperate well with other friend. In debating,
students are trained to work in team and hoped to have good cooperation
each other.
2. Train the students to express their opinion. Opinion is very needed in
process of debating. Students are encouraged in expressing their opinion
to defend their position.
3. Students not bored, but very enjoy with debate activity. Every student
takes a role in debating, so they are actively join the activity.
4. Improve the students‟ speaking ability. Speaking skill automatically
improved when students practice debating, because they have a lot of
opportunity in practicing speaking.(Quinn: 2005, p 2)
This statement correlates with (Austin, 2005) who says that there are three
benefits of debate for students. One of them is “ it can be embolden students‟
critical thinking and develop students‟ speaking ability in oral communication”.
Systems of Debate, there are three systems of debate. They are (Mulgrave,
2004: 64-83):
1. Asian parliamentary debate: In the Asian parliamentary debate there are
two teams. They are government team and opposition team. Each team
consists of three members. The role of the government team is to support
the motion. This involves defining the motion, constructing a positive
case in favor of the motion, providing substantive materials and
 arguments in supporting of the case and responding to the challenges
which made by the opposition team. The role of the opposition team is to
negate the motion. This involves responding to the government‟s
definition, constructing a case in opposition to the motion, providing
substantive materials and arguments in supporting the case and
responding the arguments delivered by the government.
2. Australasian parliamentary debate: Australasian parliamentary debate
system consists of two teams, which debate over an issue, more
commonly called a topic or proposition. The two teams in Australasian
parliamentary debate are called the affirmative team and the negative
team. The affirmative team agrees with the topic and presents arguments
to demonstrate the truth of the topic. The negative team disagrees with the
topic and presents arguments to disprove the truth of the topic.
3. British parliamentary debate: In British parliamentary debate, there are
four teams two on each sides, they are: government and opposition. The
teams are known as opening government, closing government, opening
opposition and closing opposition. The general roles of the government
and opposition teams are the same as those in Asian / Australasian format.
The two teams on the same side have to work together in supporting the
same general idea although they are from different team.

Since English speaking important to every individual, it is very crucial to find

2. Research Problem
Based on the background of study above, the writer specifies the research in
improving student‟s speaking skill through debate technique. The problem that will
be discussed in this study can be stated as follows:
a. How can debate technique improve student‟s speaking skill?
b. How the implementation of debate technique to improve student‟s speaking
skill?
3. Research Design
The research design is a good planning in conducting the research. And it also
gives strong evidence in order to ensure the result is true. So, the researcher can
design his research design.
This research used Classroom Action Research (CAR) as the design. Action
research is a group of activity and a piece of descriptive research carried out by the
teacher in his or her own classroom, without the involvement of others, which is
aimed at interesting our understanding rather than changing the phenomenon under
the investigation that would not be considered by these commentators to be „action
research‟, the essential impetus for carrying out action research is to change the
system (David Nunan: 1993, p 18).
Classroom Action Research (CAR) is research conducted by teachers in their
own classroom through self-reflection with the aim of improving performance as a
teacher, so that students learning outcomes increase (Wardani, 2008:14). Classroom
Action Research is action research conducted in class with the aim of improving/
improving the quality of learning practices. This cycle does not only last one cycle
but several times to achieve the expected goals in social studies learning in class.
CAR (Classroom Action Research) is carried out as a problem-solving
strategy by utilizing real action then reflecting on the quality of subjects to be
studied. This research was conducted to improve student‟s speaking skill through
debate technique. This research uses data observation toward teaching speaking
through debate, this data was analyzed through two cycles in action.
Action research is regularly done to improve a learning process. With this
research, the teacher will know his or her weakness in teaching their students. They
will know the effective methods in teaching speaking. There are four components
in one cycle for conducting classroom action research. It consists of planning,
action, observation, and reflection. The four phases of the classroom action cycle
were conducted integrated like spiral.
4. Subject of The Study
In this research the subject of this research is the students at Vocational High
School academic year 2020/2021, even students who joined English Debate School,
because they are still fresh, so we can minimize the possibility of the emergency of
variable outside. The total of population is 33 students. They were encountered with
the joy and happiness of practicing the material as well as the drilling conducted by
the teacher in teaching learning process.
5. Data Collection
The classroom action research needs the data to support the investigation.
There are several ways to collect data such as observation, questioner, interview,
field notes, documentation, test, and others. In this research, the researcher gathered
the data to support above. The researcher chooses some of them which is
appropriate to the school environment, and can be done there. The techniques and
methods which are used by the researcher to collect the data are observation and
test.
1. Observation
In this classroom observation, the objects of observation are students‟
activities in English language teaching learning. The researcher used the
checklist observation to make it more systematic, containing list of students‟
activities and response. Observation is intended to see and to know about the
condition of class and students. Process of teaching and learning through
debate to know the obstacles appear during teaching learning process, the
students‟ motivation, to see their difficulties, their problem, and their
understanding about the material given that can be seen from their attitude,
behavior, and response.
2. Test
Test is important part of every teaching and learning experience. Both
testing and teaching are so closely interrelated that it is virtually impossible to
work in either field without being constantly concerned with the other. The
researcher used an achievement test to measure the student‟s progress in
speaking. The forms of tests are spoken test in the form of debate. From those
forms, the researcher can get score directly the specific learning. The scoring
 can be done quickly and easily. There are five aspects of assessment in
speaking. Those are vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, fluency and
comprehension.
6. Data Analysis
Technique of data analysis comes from the interpretation of the data
collection. In analysis the data, the researcher gets the data from document,
observing the teaching learning process, and the result of the students‟ test. In
processing the data, the researcher uses descriptive analysis. It is to explain the
condition in raising indicator achievement every cycle, and to describe the success
of the teaching learning process using debate technique in improving speaking skill.
The data from observation are grouped based on students‟ behavior and
students‟ response that can be taken as a clue or indicator for students‟ activeness
when the debate technique is introduced. The result of observation is analyzed such
as below:
Total Score
Score = x 100%
Maximal Score
In this research, the researcher also use mean formula to know the average of
students‟ score and to check students‟ improvement in speaking. The formula is:
Σx
M=
N
Explanation:
M : The average of students‟ score
Σx : Total score
N : The number of students
The researcher gets score from the two cycles conducted in the research..
Mean of score from first cycle will be compared with mean of second cycle. It is to
know how far the progress of students in this research.
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