THE EFFECTIVENESS OF RTDA (READ TO DEBATE ACTIVITY) TO

IMPROVE STUDENTS' SPEAKING SKILL OF THE 11th GRADE

STUDENTS OF SMA LIFE SKILLS KESUMA BANGSA

A Thesis Proposal
Submitted to fulfillment of the requirements for Thesis

By
Juwita Dining Sari
Npm : 1911040114

Advisor : Dr. M. Muhassin, M.Hum

Co-Advisor : M. Fikri Nugraha K, M.Pd

ENGLISH EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM

TARBIYAH AND TEACHER`S TRAINING FACULTY
STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY OF RADEN INTAN LAMPUNG
2023
 CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

A. Title Confirmation

In order to clarify the title in this study, some definitions are put forward :
1. Speaking
Speaking is the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and nonverbal
symbols.
2. Read to Debate Activity (RTDA)
This activity requires students to engage in a debate from an article that they find in a textbook or other
source. A debate can deepen students’ understanding of the issue discussed in the text. In addition, they
learn how to view and orally defend a topic from a different perspective

B. Background of Problem
English has become the most common foreign language used for communication among people who
do not speak the same first language. According to Anderson, Maclean and Lynch that “English is now
by far the most frequently used language in International conference. Increasingly, it is the only official
language.”1 It means that English is important to learn because it is very needed as the medium of
communication. Learning English will facilitate people to get through the world information. In order to
participate in international communities, the need of English learning has increased in many countries
included in Indonesia. That is why English has been taught as a compulsory subject of education level in
Indonesia.
In High School level, students are specifically prepared for acquiring a good communicative skill,
both in native language and foreign language, which in this case is English. The skill has to be acquired
in order to prepare them for real life communication. Students are expected to perform certain functions
as well, such as promising, inviting, promoting, and denying within a social context. Wilkins in Freeman
states that it is not only achieved with reading and writing, but also speaking and listening.2 The ability
to communicate in oral is highly needed by the students.
Speaking is one kind of oral communication, as one of the basic skills in English, oral communication
is important in order to use English actively. Communicative and whole language instructional
approaches promote integration of listening, speaking, reading, and writing in ways that reflect natural
language use. But opportunities for speaking and listening require structure and planning to support
language development. This digest describes what speaking involves and what good speakers do in the
process of expressing themselves. In a conclusion, without speaking can be said that, communication
cannot be done optimally. According to Harmer in speaking, students should master the elements of
speaking, such as vocabularies, pronunciation, grammar, comprehension, in fluency and accuracy. 3 As a
foreign learner in Indonesia, many students have amount vocabularies and mastering the grammatical
structure, but they still have difficulties in speaking.
Teachers should place great emphasis on speaking rather than other components as the main priority
in the early stages of language learning. But the fact in the four skills, speaking is usually the poorest for
the students in learning English at senior high school. This problem also appears to the students of SMA

1
Kenneth Anderson, Joan Maclean and Tony Lynch, Study Speaking A course is Spoken English for Academic
Purposes (Second Edition), (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), p. 18
2
D. L. Freeman ., 2nd Edition. Techniques and Principle in Language Teaching. (Oxford University Press 2000). 121
3
Jeremy Harmer. 4th Edition. The Practice of English Language Teaching (Fourth edition). (England: Longman,
2007). 345
 Life Skills Kesuma Bangsa, from the result of interview with the teacher, the researcher found that the
students still difficult to express simple expression in English even greeting and parting expression. He
also stated that the students had low motivation in learning English, because they rarely try to speak
English in class and also out of the class. Based on the information from the teacher, the teacher usually
carries out speaking activities with the students when they first enter class to ask a number of things
about their activities while at the same time practicing students` speaking skill. They have never
specifically learned speaking in English class. This causes students to be less fluent in speaking English
because there are few activities that encourage them to speak. It is one of the reasons of the researcher to
apply the RTDA in teaching English.
Besides doing the interview with the teacher, the researcher also interviewed some of the students.
Based on the result of interview, the students’ difficulties occurred when they speak English. They did
not feel confident to speak English, they feel afraid of making mistakes when they had to speak English
and they get difficulties in expressing their ideas or opinion fluently. They also rarely practiced speaking
English. Some of students claimed that they only had a little chance to practice speaking English in the
class because their teacher did not speak English in presenting the topic lesson. So that, they never
practiced speaking English out of the class or even in the class. Besides, most of students who stated
that they still difficult to pronounced the words correctly that make them shy to practice their English
orally. Furthermore, some of students stated that the techniques applied by the teachers sometimes
were not suitable enough to elicit the students speaking that made them felt bored with the class
condition. Therefore, they hard to express their expression in English. The other factor is the students
only have a little chance to practice speaking English out of class because most of their friends speak
Indonesian and also most of them feel shy and not confident when they want to speak English. So, the
students need an appropriate activity to help them achieve their speaking ability so they can practically
operate using English with communicative circumstances.

Debate activities can encourage pupils to speak up. Alasmari and Ahmed describe how discussion
can encourage students to speak: Debating is an excellent way to improve pupils' English speaking skills. 4
Also Trissulfi Anggraini and Leni Marlina in their study says that RTDA can motivate students to speak
English and have a critical mind; it can also increase students' self-confidence; and provide students with
an initial experience of debate. Every step in RTDA motivates students to speak in English. They
suggest that Read to Debate Activity needs to be researched. It is important to know whether this activity
effective or not implemented for the Senior High School students at second grade 5.

Practices can be structured in a variety of ways. When students apply to universities in many
EFL contexts, they are afraid of communicating in English. The majority of the time, their lack of
background knowledge and experience in English is to blame. The use of debate, speech, and discussion
in EFL classrooms will help students overcome their phobia of the English language. Furthermore,
regular debate, speech,and conversation practice will help them enhance their fluency, pronunciation,
and vocabulary. As debate covers a wide range of topics, they will become familiar with jargon and
technical vocabulary of issues and areas.

Zhang is the one who first introduced RTDA. She adds that "read to debate" necessitates pupils
"engaging in a debate based on an article from a textbook or other sources." The activity is organized
according to the following steps. Step 1 is that students read the materials while concentrating on the
contentious issue. Step 2, t h e s t u d e n t s f o r m p a i r s a n d d e b a t e t h e i s s u e w i t h t h e i r

4
Ali Alasmari and Sayed Ahmad. “Using Debate in EFL Classes.” ELT Journal. Vol. 6. Pp 147-152.
http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/elt.v6n1p147. 2013
5
Trissulfi Anggraini and Leni Marlina. THE IMPLEMENTATION OF RTDA (READ TO DEBATE ACTIVITY) IN
MOTIVATING SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS TO SPEAK ENGLISH. Vol. 2 No.2 Serie B. 2014.
 p a r t n e r . One student will argue in favor of the issue and one will argue against it. Students are required
to quote ideas from the text to support their arguments. Step 3, Students scan the article again to discover
useful expressions and additional ideas to support their point of view. Students take notes of key words
they will need. Step 4, Students participate in a whole class or a group debate. Besides quoting ideas
from the text, students are encouraged to personalize the topic with information about themselves.6

Thus, the writer would like to propose an RTDA (Read to Debate Activity) exercise that boosts
students' motivation to speak English. RTDA is a motivational activity for students to speak English
since it addresses the four students' speaking issues. The purpose of this article is to examine the
effectiveness of RTDA (Read to Debate Activity) in improving the ability of Senior High School students
to communicate in English. In addition, after reading the texts, RTDA can help students develop
critical thinking skills. Critical thinking is a considered manner of dealing with events, issues,
problems, decisions, or situations, according to Pirozzi, Martin, and Dziewisz. It indicates that
critical thinking teaches students to think critically. They are capable of dealing with a variety
of events, difficulties, problems, decisions, and situations. They also have the best possibility of
understanding concerns and forming an opinion on the subject. It's a great way to get students
to speak up in RTDA because they've studied the literature about the subjects and can express
their thoughts.7
Based on the explanation above, the researcher then think that RTDA is a useful activity to achieve
students‟ speaking skill (oral communication) in classes. Hence, this study is intended to investigate
“The Effectiveness of RTDA(Read to Debate Activity) to Improve Students‟ Speaking Skill” focus on
speaking ability and it is expected that this research contribute to the practice of speaking teaching in the
future. English language teachers and practitioners have already prove debating and RTDA as an
effective tool in teaching English which is a strong source of motivation for English teachers who are yet
to use RTDA in their classes.

C. Identification and Limitation of the problem

1. Identification of the problem

Based on the background of the problem, the writer recognized the students' speakingchallenges in
the following areas:
1. Pronunciation; When learning English expressions students find it difficult to produce the
correct pronunciation.
2. Grammar; Students find it difficult to apply grammatical rules in situations such as telling a
story in the past tense, using the correct article or preposition, and so on.
3. Vocabulary; Students admit to having a limited vocabulary when it comes to producing speech,
such as a narrative monologue or a debate with peers. Students should use the proper language
to support their message because English contains many terms with different meanings.
4. Fluency; students discovered that when speaking English, their speech is halting. It can happen
when students give a protracted speech, such as when they are elaborating a case in a narrative.
They still have to scrounge for words in order to say more.
5. Lack of comprehension; students have difficulty comprehending the message, such as finding it
difficult to understand the meaning of an English expression and distinguishing it from the

6
Yun Zhang. “Reading to Speak: Integrating Oral Communication Skills.” English Teaching Forum. Vol.1. pp 32-34.
2009.
7
Richard Pirozzi Gretchen Starks Martin, and Julie Dziewiesz. Critical Reading Critical Reading. United States:
Pearson Education. pp 177. 2012.
 meaning of another expression. When students communicate, they also require more repetition
to understand the message.

2. Limitation to the Problem

It is vital to minimize the problem in order to clarify the situation. The author places the limits for
the effectiveness of RTDA to improve students' speaking skill. The writer concentrated on the aspects
of pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension that affect speaking ability in this
research.

D. Formulation of the problem

Based on the description above, the problem is stated as follows: "Is there any significance influence in
using RTDA to improve students' speaking skill in the eleventh year of SMA Life Skills Kesuma
Bangsa?".

E. Objective of the study

The study's goal is to know whether there is significance influence in using RTDA to improve students'
speaking skill in the eleventh year of SMA Life Skills Kesuma Bangsa?".

F. Significance of the study

The writer hoped to provide useful information to the teacher, students, school, and other readers by
conducting this research. For teachers, the author expects that this study will aid inthe resolution of
students' problems with pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension, allowing
teachers to improve their students' speaking abilities. This research will aid students in improving their
speaking abilities. Furthermore, students might discover solutions to their English learning issues. It will
assist in determining their speaking ability once they have been trained with RTDA. This study will
benefit the school by assisting in the execution of the curriculum and the development of students'
competencies, as well as improving and resolving student education issues.

G. Relevance of the study

Some researchers have attempted to study the topic of the RTDA in students' speaking ability (oral
communication) :
1. First, Trissulfi Anggraini and Leni Marlina(2014) the research entitled THE IMPLEMENTATION
OF RTDA (READ TO DEBATE ACTIVITY) IN MOTIVATING SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLS
STUDENTS TO SPEAK ENGLISH, the result shows that RTDA can motivate students to speak
English and have a critical mind; can also increase students' self-confidence; and provide students
with an initial experience of debate. Every step in RTDA motivates students to speak in English.
Therefore, RTDA is very suitable to be applied in teachingEnglish in Senior High School
students in Indonesia.8

2. Second, The Effectiveness of Classroom Debate to Improve Students' Speaking Skill at Eleventh
Year Students of SMAN 3 South Tangerang is the title of Nuraeni's thesis (2014). She finds that
using classroom discussion to improve students' speaking skills is an effective method. After
learning about classroom arguments, the experimental class improved significantly. The
students' understanding, fluency, vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammatical issues were

8
Trissulfi Anggraini and Leni Marlina. THE IMPLEMENTATION OF RTDA (READ TO DEBATE ACTIVITY) IN
MOTIVATING SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS TO SPEAK ENGLISH. Vol. 2 No.2 Serie B. 2014.
 resolved, and their speaking scores increased dramatically. 9

3. Third, Putu Shela Widiawati, Ni Made Ratminingsih, Dewa Ayu Eka Agustini(2020) in their
journal entitles The Effect of Debate Technique towards Eleventh Grade Students’ Speaking
Competency. They concludes that students who were taught by utilizing debate technique
attained an improvement of speaking score than those who were taught by using conventional
technique. There is a significant mean difference in speaking competency among students who
were assigned in both control and experimental groups. By comparing the dissimilar average
scores in both groups, the researcher concluded that debate technique gave beneficial
contributions to students’ speaking skill than that of the conventional technique. It implies that
debate technique can be effective for teaching speaking.10

4. Halvorsen (2005) in his study, reveals 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. In this study, in debate process need forces to comprehend an issue or
topic given. Students must understand is well about forces interact with one another in order
debate process can improving students’ vocabulary and can speak is well. Debate is the process
of presenting ideas or opinions which two opposing parties try to defend their idea or opinion.11

Based on the opinions above, the writer can concludes that debate method can give effect to
achieve students‟ speaking skill (oral communication). It is important for the students who learn an
English language. It is the way to express the feeling through words, even conversations with others. The
most of people communication is done by using spoken language. It means that students have to speak
in other to express their aim, feeling, and ideas to the others. Therefore, it can be said that without
speaking, a language can`t be learned optimally.
Meanwhile, this research has similarity and difference with the previous study above. The
similarity is that all researchers above using debate method to improve the speaking ability which the
differences are that this study use difference location of the research that is the Eleventh Grade of SMA
Life Skills Kesuma Bangsa. While the ability of students is difference in mastery English, especially in
speaking. This problem based on the condition of the students itself in senior high school level.

9
Siti Nuraeni. The Effectiveness of Classroom Debate to Improve Students’ Speaking Skill (at the Eleventh Year
Students of SMAN 3 South Tangerang). Thesis: Syarif‟ Hidayatullah‟ State Islamic University Jakarta. 2014.
10
Widawati, P. S., Ratminingsih, N. M., & Eka Agustin, D. A. (2020). The Effect of Debate Technique towards
Eleventh Grade Studensts' Speaking Competency. Journal of Educational Research and Evaluation Vol. 4, Number 3, 242-246
11
Halvorsen. (2005). Debate Instruction in EFL Classroom: Impacts on the Critical Thinking and Speaking Skill.
International journal of Instruction, 87-108. Vol.10
 CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF LITERATURE

A. Definition of Speaking

Speaking is a productive skill that can be directly and empirically observed, those observations are
invariably colored by the accuracy and effectiveness of a test-taker's listening skill, which necessarily
compromises the reliability and validity of an oral production test. 12According to Hall speaking is an ability
that is taken for granted, learned as it is through process of socialization through communicating. It consists
of producing systematic verbal utterances to convey meaning. 13 According to Louma, speaking is an
interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing, receiving, and processing
information. 14

Based on the experts above the researcher concludes that speaking is the skill that is involved the
oral production of language to share or express ideas, to negotiate, or establish social relationship and
friendship. Speaking has particular goals and components so people can maintain the communication. It
can be measured empirically when the process of transferring information is effectively done. With the
English speaking ability the students can automatically connect with people around.

B. The Concept of Speaking

Liao believes that speaking was considered an art mastered by learning its principles, studying
models, and gaining experience through practice. This classic understanding is still a useful point of
departure whether the goal is having students speak to learn or learn to speak. 15 People produce their
speech to express their ideas to build communication. Mostly by speaking, people are engaged to discuss,
criticize, and other possible ways of interaction. A good speaking will bring the speaker and the listener
to process the message clearly. Since speaking skill becomes that significant, this skill has been considered
as one of main skills in learning English.

According to Zare and Othman, students are most likely to improve if opportunities to speak are
accompanied by instruction in basic techniques and consideration of good (or bad) models. 16 This is true
whether the oral activity is formal (a podium speech or structured debate), semi-formal (a class or small
group discussion), or informal (one-on-one student discussions interspersed through a teacher).
Instructors are well-served not to just “turn students loose‟ with a speaking exercise but instead to detail
the aims of the exercise, criteria distinguishing good and bad performances, and principles the students
might draw upon to guide their efforts.

In general, the ability to speak in formal settings is grounded and builds on more informal
speaking abilities, both in terms of material discussed and in confidence as a speaker. Students come to
class with a wide range of experiences in oral communication. Some students have been encouraged to
express themselves and their opinions from an early age; others have had no such experience or may
even have been actively discouraged from doing so. Some students find it very anxiety-provoking to

12
Brown. Language Assessment. USA : Longman. 2003. pp 140
13
Rubiati. Improving Students` Speaking Skill Through Debate Technique,(Online).
http//library.walisongo.ac.id/digilib/files/disk1/122/jtptiain-gdl-richarubia-6100-1-skripsi-p.pdf. 2010. pp 7
14
Louma. Speaking. http://www.cambridge.org/download_file.pdf. 2004. pp 4
15
G Liao. Improvement of Speaking Ability Through Interrelated Skills. English Language Teaching, 2(3), 11-14.
http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/elt.v2n3. 2009. Pp 11.
16
P Zare and M Othman. Sciences Journal: Using Classroom Debate as a Teaching/Learning Approach. Department of
Language and Humanities Education, Faculty of Educational Studies, 28 (11), 1506-1513. Doi:10.5829/idosi. Wajs:
2013.28.11.1809. 2013.
address the class as a whole, while others revel in it. In order to provide opportunities for all students to
develop their speaking skills, instructors can use informal or low-stakes speaking activities, especially
early in a term, to provide experiences in dealing orally with course ideas and to raise students‟ comfort
level with speaking in class. There are three components of speaking skill introduced by Heaton, they
are; accuracy, fluency, and comprehensibility. 17

a. Accuracy
Hammerly said that to start communicating right away forces the beginning learner to pay more
attention to language structure than to content. Attending early to structure results is greater
accuracy in the long run than plunging right away into communication. Distant-language speakers
may perform better than close-language speakers on tasks requiring detailed accuracy. Brown
states that accuracy is important goals to pursue in communicative teaching learning. Accuracy is
achieved to some extent by allowing students to focus on the element of phonology, grammar,
and discourse in their spoken output. From the some definition, it can conclude that accuracy is
the ability to produce correct sentences using correct pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary.
Teachers who concentrate on accuracy help their students to produce grammatically correct
written and spoken English.

b. Vocabulary
Harmer distinguished two types of vocabulary in the words, which we want students to
understand, but they will not use themselves. Vocabulary is important parts that must be mastered
those wants to increase speaking ability. Vocabulary is the word having meaning and function of
language. Teaching vocabulary teacher should select the vocabulary that can be used by students.
Vocabulary is always used in every time we speak because without in the communication among
people is difficult occurrence.

c. Pronunciation
Brown states pronunciation was key to gaining full communicative competence. Based on Harmer
in Sutrisno the key to successful pronunciation teaching, however is not much getting students to
produce correct sounds or intonation tunes, but rather to have them listen and notice how English
is spoken either on audio or videotape or from the teacher themselves. The more aware they are
the greater the chance that their own intelligibility level will rise. In short, pronunciation is one
factor influencing the student’s ability in speaking language, because by good pronunciation
someone can understand what someone say. Harmer in Sutrisno states that the key to successful
pronunciation teaching, however is not much getting students to produce correct sounds or
intonation tunes, but rather to have them listen and notice how English is spoken either on audio
or videotape or from the teacher themselves. The more aware they are the greater the chance that
their own intelligibility level will rise.

d. Grammar
Harmer in Sutrisno said that the grammar of a language is the description of the ways in which
words can change their forms and can be combined into sentences in that language. Competent
speakers know how to use these smallest units of grammar (morphemes) to combine
grammatically with words to create new meaning. The knowledge of morphology (using
morphemes to change the meaning or grammar of a word) and syntax (the order that words can
be arranged in) is essential to successful communication whether in writing or in speech. A
sentence needs at least a subject and a verb, which 19 can then be followed by an object, by a

17
J.B Heaton. (1988). English Language Test. New York: England: Longman.
 complement or by an adverbial.

e. Fluency
Statped in Sutrisno states that fluency is a speech language pathology term that means the
smoothness or flow with which sounds, syllables, words, and phrases are joined together when
speaking quickly. Fluency is the one of speaking parameter to assess students speaking ability.
Fluency means that the students could speak naturally and the listener comprehend what the
speaker said. Base on the statement the researcher conclude that Fluency is the ability to read,
speak, or write easily, smoothly, and respond in a language clearly and concisely while relating
meaning and context 18.

f. Comprehension
Clark and Clark states that comprehension has two common senses. 19 In it is narrow sense it
denotes the metal processes by which listener take in the sounds uttered by a speaker and use them
to construct an interpretation of what they think the speaker intended to convey. In it is boarder
sense extract the new information it conveys and store that information in stand the written in
memory. The writer thinks that comprehension is the ability to understand the written language
and interpret the spoken language, so the teacher should begin learning process by describing one
or two sentences exactly what he or she expect the students to achieve in learning language. The
speakers have to be sure that the listener can understand the speakers intention and general
meaning by few interruptions or clarifications required so the speaker and listener can understand
each other.

C. The Concept of Debate

1. Definition of Debate

Debate is well enough known as arguing ideas between two opposite sides. In school or campus
environment, debate is well known as an English competition among students in which the students are
representatives from their school or campus. Debate demands students to be able to defend their opinions
so it requires good ability to speak English well.
As Quinn (2005), states that debating gives you the chance to meet new people and new ideas. 20
Best of all, you have opportunity to stand up and argue with someone in public, in a simulating and
organized dispute about real issues. Debating is an important and interesting way to discuss issues facing
our society. Students have to speak with some evidences and defend their opinion to win the debate.
Debate allows students to know many different people with different ideas. Chan also states that a debate
involves students in researching and analyzing a controversial topic based on a stance which will lead to
a series of oral presentation of standpoints and arguments by the two opposite teams (sometimes may
involve interaction with the audience as well). 21
Based on opinion above, the writer assumes that debate is a more communicative interaction that
involves opposite point of views and builds critical and strong characteristics. Chan (2009), states that
debate can be arguing, presenting, and defending point of view and evidence. 22 In the form of classroom
debate, it presents opportunities for students engage and use extended chunks of language for a purpose
to convincingly defend one side of an issue.

18
Sutrisno. (2016). Using Group Leadership Technique in Improving the Students Speaking Ability (at the Second
Year Students of SMAN 1 Alla Kab. Enrekang). Thesis : Muhammadiyah University of Makassar.
19
V Clark and H Clark. (1977). Psychology and Language. An Introduction to Psycholinguistics. Stanford University.
20
S Quinn and Queensland Beisbane. (2005). Debating. Australia.
21
C Chan. (2009) Assessment: Debate, Assessment Resources@HKU, University of
Hong Kong.
22
Ibid
 Debate helps students to enrich their vocabulary through criticizing and comprehending the
issue. In convincing their ideas, students need to present it fluently and grammatically correct so people
can strongly believe and support their ideas. Besides that, presenting the ideas with clear pronunciation is
also important to deliver the message correctly. Classroom debate helps students to develop their personal
oral production and teamwork ability. If we can speak publicly and convey our ideas and thoughts
coherently and passionately, we will hold a valuable tool for our public, private, and future life.

2. Debate Method

Debate method can influence students learn more effectively by actively analyzing, discussing,
and applying content in meaningful ways rather than by passively absorbing information 23. Therefore,
students benefit when instructors utilize instructional strategies that promote active engagement. Define
active learning as “anything that involves students doing things and thinking about the things they are
doing”. Meyers and Jones, states that active learning as anything that “provides opportunities for students
to talk listen, read, and write. In class debates provide an opportunity for students to be actively engaged,
particularly if the instructor uses a debate model that involves more than just two to four students”. 24
According to D‟Cruz, method is the structure and organization of the speech. It can be contrasted
with the presentation style of the speech. It can be contrasted with the presentation style of the speech
(manner) and the content of the speech (matter). In spite of “method includes the fulfillment of speaker
roles, the management of speaking times, the allocation of arguments between speakers and the cohesion
of the team. It includes the capacity of speakers to adapt their structure to respond to the dynamic issues”
25
The elements of method are:
1) Responsiveness; Responsiveness impact on both method (for the reasons above) and matter. It terms of
matter, the response should be assessed for its logic and relevance.
2) Structure; the second element of method is structure. Without wanting to force speaker into a rigid or
stereotyped style of speech, it is true to say that there are certain structural elements of a speech which
its tend to enhance its effectiveness.
Some people believe in debate as training for law or politics. Actually for the vast majority of
debaters, participating in debate is about training for everyday life. Debating can be the ultimate multi-
task campus activity since it involves research, writing, speaking, listening, and teamwork.

D. Read to Debate Activity (RTDA)

Read to Debate Activity (RTDA) is an activity that integrates reading and speaking skills. This
activity improves students‟ ability in speaking. By integrating English skills, it can give motivation for
students in learning English. Rebecca Oxford states, “integrating the language skills also promotes the
learning of real content, not just the dissection of language forms. The integrated skill approach, whether
found in content-based or task-based language instruction or some hybrid form, can be highly motivating
to students of all ages and backgrounds”. Integrating the language skills makes learning in real content
that gives motivation to the students. Because of that RTDA integrates reading and speaking.
RTDA integrates reading and speaking. This activity is introduced by Zhang. She emphasizes
that “read to debate” requires students “to engage in a debate from an article that they find in a textbook
or other sources.” The text selected for this activity should (1) discuss a controversial issue, and (2) be

23
C Bonwell and J Eison. (1991). Active Learning: Creating Excitement in the Classroom. Washington, D.C.: Jossey-
Bass.
24
Meyers, C., & Jones, T. (1993). Promoting Active Learning: Strategies for The College Classroom. San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass.Nunan, David. 2003. Practical English Language Teaching Series. USA: McGrawHill.
25
D‟Cruz, (2003). The Austral-Asian Debating Guide Second Edition, (Online),
(http://catalogue.nla.gov.au./Record/2544636, accessed 19 July 2022).
within students’ ability to discuss. The activity is organized according to the steps outlined below.
Step 1: Students scan the text while focusing on the controversial topic. Students do not take any notes at
this point. Step 2: Students form pairs and debate the issue with their partner. One student will argue in
favor of the issue and one will argue against it. Students are required to quote ideas from the text to support
their arguments. Step 3: Students scan the article again to discover useful expressions and additional ideas
to support their point of view. Students take notes of key words they will need. Step 4: Students participate
in a whole class or a group debate. Besides quoting ideas from the text, students are encouraged to
personalize the topic with information about themselves. A debate can deepen students’ understanding of
the issue discussed in the text. In addition, they learn how to view and orally defend a topic from a different
perspective. 26
Hedge explains, “The challenge for the communicative classroom is to find activities and
procedures for speaking which will prepare students for spontaneous interaction and which will aid the
acquisition process, though of course the two aims may usefully coincide.” 27 The teacher has to find the
activities that increase students‟ motivation. RTDA is one of activities that can motivate students to
participate actively in the classroom.
In addition, RTDA can encourage students‟ critical thinking after reading the texts. According
to Pirozzi, Martin and Dziewisz, critical thinking is a thoughtful way of dealing with events, issues,
problems, decisions, or situations.28 It means that critical thinking makes the students become critical
thinkers. They can deal with events, issues, problems, decisions, or situation. They also have the best
chance of making sense of issues, and coming up with opinion for the issue. It is very useful to motivate
students to speak in RTDA, because they have read the texts to deal with the issues and give their opinions
toward the issues.
RTDA has similarities and differences with a Common Debate Competition (CDC). The
similarities are both of RTDA and Common Debate Competition have affirmative and negative teams and
both of them also have motion. The differences are, the RTDA is aimed to encourage all students to speak
in speaking class and it is without POI (Points of Information). In contrast, the Common Debate
Competition is aimed to encourage all members to win in the competition and it uses POI. In addition,
RTDA is without POI because RTDA is a beginning process to becomes a real debate. The similarities
and the differences between the RTDA and the Common Debate Competition can be seen on the following
table.

Table 1 Similliarities and differences RTDA and CDC

No. Indicators RTDA CDC

1 Motion  
2 Affirmative team  
3 Negative team  
4 Arguments  
5 Encourage all students to speak  
English
6 Encourage all members to win in the - 
competition
7 POI - 

26
Yun Zhang. “Reading to Speak: Integrating Oral Communication Skills.” English Teaching Forum. Vol.1. pp 32-34.
2009.
27
Tricia Hedge. 2011. Teaching and Learning in the Language Classroom. New York: Oxford Uniersity Press.
28
Pirozzi, Richard; Martin, Gretchen Starks and Dziewisz, Julie. 2012. Critical Reading Critical Reading. United
States: Pearson Education.
E. Hyphothesis of the Research

Based on the literature reviews above, the researcher states the hyphothesis oh this research as
follows :

1. Ha : There is no significant effect in using RTDA to improve students' speaking skill.

2. Ho : There is significant effect in using RTDA to improve students' speaking skill