CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

In this globalization era, English plays important role in human life.

Now days English is not only an important language for western countries, but

also English is an outstanding language in this world. Consequently, English is

practiced in many fields such as: business, sports, industry, and especially in

education. It is strengthen by Jeremy Harmer who state that there is no doubt that

English is and will remain a vital linguistic tool for many business people,

academics, tourist, and citizens of the world who wish to communicate easily

across nationalities for many years to come.1 Being able to communicate using

English will make it easier for people to interact, to get and share any

information from and with other people around the world.

Generally English involves some skills. Students must learn to achieve

integrated English skills. In common, they are identified as receptive skills and

productive skills. Receptive skills concern with the ability to encode others

messages; reading and listening. Productive skills deal with the ability to decode

messages to others; speaking and writing. All of the language skills support each

other.

1
Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching “Third Edition”, (USA:
Longman, 2001), 2.

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In many fields, we always need to communicate with other people. The

communication by using the language can be direct or indirect; speaking is one

of the skills of language which is using direct communication. Scoot Thornbury

state that speaking is so much a part of daily life that we take it for granted. 2 It is

impossible that human being does not need speaking skill in the social life

because it is not only a part but being the important part in social life.

In speaking, speaker should pay attention of two aspects in order to make

their speaking skill better, namely fluency and accuracy. Speaking English

fluently is a goal for many learners of English. Fluency means being able to

communicate the ideas without having to stop and think too much about what

you are saying.3 Being able to speak fluently will enable speaker to speak quickly

and without pauses. Sometimes, people can say anything spontaneously without

thinking about what they want to say. Their ideas or messages will be delivered

or accepted by other people.

However, if speaker deliver their ideas or messages with many errors of

grammar, their ideas will not be accepted by listener clearly. Therefore besides

fluency, accuracy becomes another important aspect in speaking that should be

considered by speakers in order to make comfortable of their speaking skill.

Speaking accurately can be meant as speaking without errors of grammar and

vocabulary.4 Being able to speak accurately helps speaker in conveying their

ideas or messages to other people. According Michael Strumpf and Auriel

Douglas “we study grammar so that we may speak and write in clearer and more

effective manner”.5 According Kathleen M. Bailey accuracy refer to the ability to

speak properly that is selecting the correct words and expression to convey the

intended meaning, as well as using grammatical patterns of English.6 Therefore,

have a good grammar mastery is needed to help people speak more accurately.

Grammar is partly the study of what forms (or structures) are possible in a

language.7

Another important thing which is supporting in speaking skill is non

linguistics factors: one of them is self confidence. Sometimes, when learners

speak English in front of the class, teachers, or other people, they will feel

nervous. The nervousness can be caused by some factors: being afraid of making

mistake in their grammar and pronunciation, using in appropriate vocabulary, not

being able to understand or comprehend by other people etc. According Stephen

Krashen’s affective filter hypothesis, in acquiring second language, learner is

affected by some affective factors. One of those factors is self confidence. 8 Many

learners afraid that they are going to make a mistake or that the listeners will not

5
Eris Isnaini, “The Effectiveness of Inquiry Based Teaching to Teach Grammar,” 61.
6
Kathleen M. Bailey, Practical english Language Teaching: Speaking, (New York: The
McGraw-Hill Companies, 2005), 5.
7
Scott Thornbury, How to Teach Grammar, (England: Pearson Education Limited, 1999), 1.
8
Retno Rismi Untari, “The Correlation between Students’ Self Confidence And English
Speaking Ability in SMPN 2 Ponorogo,” (Thesis, STAIN, Ponorogo, 2012), 4.
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understand them. Therefore, having high self-confidence is needed by learners to

be able to have a good speaking skill or to improve their speaking skill.

Confidence is a very important element in learning to speak a language. 9

Some researchers believe that self-confidence can influence in speaking skill.

Zoltan Dornei points out that learners need not only to be able to communicate

but also be willing to communicate. Yashima, Zenuk-Nishide, & Shimizu, in Al-

Hebaish state that self-confidence is the most essential factor that determines

learners' willingness to participate in oral activities in language classroom.10 In

other words, we can say that if speaker has self-confidence, so their

communication will be good. Therefore based on those opinion can assumed that

self-confidence is important of psychological factor which can influence in the

successful of students’ speaking skill.

In English Education Department of STAIN Ponorogo during lecturing in

the classroom, the lecturers teach the students using English language. They

require the students to communicate with the lecturers or the other students using

English in order to increase their speaking skill and accustom of them to

communicate using English language. Therefore, speaking become one of the

important language skill should be mastered by students of English Education

Department of STAIN Ponorogo.

9
“Learning English BBC,” 1.
10
Safaa Mohammad Al-Hebaish, “The Correlation between General Self-Confidence and
Academic Achievement in the Oral Presentation Course,” Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 1
(January, 2012), 61.
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From observation in STAIN Ponorogo, especially in the Department of

English Education, when the students speak English, sometimes their ideas or

messages cannot delivered or accepted by other people smoothly, it caused of

their grammatical error. Beside it also when students are speak English in front

of the class, teachers, or other people, their performance is less maximal. It

caused by the face nervous and has less self-confidence. The nervousness and the

lack of self-confidence can be caused by: being afraid of making mistake in their

grammar and pronunciation, using in appropriate vocabulary etc.

Based on description above, in order to have a good speaking skill, the

speaker should be able to speak accurately by mastering grammar. Meanwhile, to

strengthen their speaking performance, self-confidence is also needed, so they

will be able speak without being afraid of making mistakes. So to research the

phenomenon above, in this study the researcher can take the title “Grammar

Mastery, Self Confidence, and Speaking Skill (The Correlation Study in

STAIN Ponorogo).

B. Limitation of the Problem

Based on phenomenon above this study has a board scope. Then in order

to easy to realize this research, the researcher limits the problem on the

correlation between grammar mastery, self-confidence, and speaking skill. To the

materials of grammar and speaking which have been taught in the second
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semester Students English Department of STAIN Ponorogo in academic Years

2014/2015. The study is focused on three variables, that is: grammar mastery,

self-confidence, and speaking skill. And also to analyze the problem in this

research, the researcher uses correlation method.

C. Statements of the Problem

1. Is there any correlation between grammar mastery and speaking skill for

second semester English Education Department of STAIN Ponorogo in

Academic Years 2014/2015?

2. Is there any correlation between self confidence and speaking skill for

second semester English Education Department of STAIN Ponorogo in

Academic Years 2014/2015?

3. Is there any correlation between grammar mastery, self confidence, and

speaking skill for second semester English Education Department of STAIN

Ponorogo in Academic Years 2014/2015?

D. Objectives of the Study

Based on statements of the problem, this study has some objectives

described as follows:

1. To indentify whether there is a correlation between grammar mastery and

speaking skill.
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2. To identify whether there is a correlation between self confidence and

speaking skill.

3. To identify whether there is a correlation between grammar mastery, self

confidence, and speaking skill.

E. Significances of the Study

The significance of this study can be viewed from both theoretical and

practical aspects, as describes below:

1. Theoretical significance: after conducting the research, this study is expected

can give contribution of knowledge about important of grammar mastery and

self confidence in students’ speaking skill.

2. Practical significance

a. Student

Students will know the importance of grammar mastery and self-

confidence in speaking skill, so they will be know of those aspects. And

the result they will improve their grammar and self-confidence in order

to increase their speaking skill.

b. Teacher

For teachers, the result of the research can give an input to

consider language and psychology aspect, in this case grammar mastery

and self-confidence, in order to increase students' speaking skill without

omitting other factors which can play important role in increasing

students' speaking skill.

c. Reader

For the readers this study is expected to give a contribution for

further study to do scientific researches concerning with students'

grammar mastery, students' self-confidence, and students’ speaking skill.

F. Organization of the Thesis

The report organization of this study as follows:

Chapter one is about introduction. This chapter explains about

background of the study, limitation of the problem, statement of the problem,

objectives of the study, and the Significances of the study.

Chapter two is about review of related literature. This chapter explain

about theoretical background, previous research finding (the synthesis of other

research that inspiring this research), theoretical framework, and hypothesis.

Chapter three is about research methodology. In this chapter give the

explanation about technique that is to make research. It is consists of the method

of the research, population, sample, and respondent, the instrument of data

collection, technique of data collection, and technique of data analysis.

Chapter four is about research result. In this chapter give explanation

about the research location, data description, data analysis, and discussion.
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Chapter five is about conclusion. There is explained about conclusions of

this study and the suggestion for the next researcher or the reader.