Journal Article Critique #7 (CAR)

Citation: Dewi. R. S, Kultsum, U, Armadi, A. (December 19, 2016). Using Communicative Games in Improving Students’ Speaking Skills. English Language Teaching. 10. 63-71. 10.5539/elt.v10n1p63

This journal article is a collaborative action research between the researcher and some of the teachers in a junior high school in South Tangerang. They did a research about how the implementation of communicative games in improving students’ speaking skills. As it is known that speaking is one of the skills which have to be mastered in learning English, the fact says that in Indonesia students still have difficulties in speaking English. The problems come from the students themselves and the learning process. For those reasons, the researcher tried a new activity solve the problems by using communicative games.

The method used in this study was a collaborative action research which consists of two cycles and each cycle consisted of four phases; planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. In collaborative action research, the teacher acted as an observer while the researcher acted as teacher who taught by using communicative games. The teacher was as an active participant who was not only functioning as an observer but also taking actions by making lesson plan and giving assessment.

The result shows that the use of communicative games can improve students’ speaking skill. In my opinion, this method is appropriate to teach speaking skill for the junior high school students because they are still categorized as young learners, and young learners usually learn something by doing. That is why using games in the process of teaching and learning is suggested.