Increasing Students' Speaking Skill Through Fishbowl

DIDASCEIN: Journal of English Education March 2023, Vol.4 No.1 INCREASING STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS THROUGH FISHBOWL Sara Wati, Farnia Sari Universitas Tridinanti sarawati2011@gmail.com, farnia_sari@univ-tridinanti.ac.id ABSTRACT: This study was intended to find out whether or not there was a significant influence on speaking achievement of the eighth-grade students of SMP Utama Bakti Palembang who were taught by using the fishbowl technique and those who were not, and there was the significant difference in speaking achievement between the eighth-grade students of SMP Utama Bakti Palembang who were taught by using fishbowl technique and those who were not. The quasi-experimental method was used to conduct the study. The population of this study was the eighth-grade students of SMP Utama Bakti Palembang in the academic year of 2020/2021. In this study, the sample was taken using the purposive sampling technique. In this study, the sample was taken from the population, and they would be divided into two classes. VIII A was an experimental group with a total of 23 students and VIII B was a control group with a total of 23 students. The results showed that the value significance of 0.001 was higher than the value significance of 0.05. While the value of t-obtained (3.592)was higher than t- table (2.079) with a degree of freedom was 44. In other words, there was a significant difference in speaking achievement between the eighth-grade students of SMP Utama Bakti Palembang who were taught by using the fishbowl technique and those who were not. Keywords: fishbowl technique, speaking skill MENINGKATKAN KEMAMPUAN BERBICARA SISWA DENGAN TEKNIK FISHBOWL ABSTRAK: Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui (1) ada pengaruh yang signifikan terhadap prestasi berbicara siswa kelas delapan SMP Utama Bakti Palembang yang diajar dengan menggunakan teknik fishbowl dan yang tidak dan (2) perbedaan yang signifikan dalam berbicara prestasi belajar siswa kelas VIII SMP Utama Bakti Palembang yang diajar dengan teknik fishbowl dan yang tidak. Metode kuasi-eksperimental digunakan untuk melakukan penelitian. Populasi penelitian ini adalah siswa kelas delapan SMP Utama Bakti Palembang pada tahun 2020/2021. Dalam penelitian ini, sampel diambil dengan menggunakan purposive sampling technqiue. . Dalam penelitian ini, sampel akan dipilih dari populasi, dan kemudian akan dibagi menjadi dua kelas. VIII A sebagai kelompok eksperimen dengan total 23 mahasiswa dan VIII B sebagai kelompok kontrol dengan total 23 mahasiswa. Sampel penelitian ini menggunakan purposive sampling. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa nilai signifikansi 0.001 lebih tinggi dari nilai signifikansi 0.05. Sedangkan nilai t yang diperoleh (3.592) lebih tinggi dari t-tabel (2.079) dengan derajat kebebasan 44. Dengan kata lain, ada perbedaan yang signifikan dalam prestasi berbicara antara siswa kelas delapan SMP Utama Bakti Palembang yang diajarkan dengan teknik fishbowl dan yang tidak. Kata kunci: Teknik fishbowl, keterampilan berbicara 1 DIDASCEIN: Journal of English Education March 2023, Vol.4 No.1 INTRODUCTION T he meaningful communication in the aspects of economics, politics, and trades is essential tool for working in global context due to demands of communication skills through English language that used by over the world (Luis, 2004, p.1). Consequently, the demands of the use of English are increased in order to communicate with other people from any other countries. In Indonesia where English is a foreign language, the people are expected to increase their communication skill that is a speaking skill. Speaking is a way of communication with other people. Speaking is the active use of language to deliver the messages which has meaning and to interact with other people where the interaction constructed by interlocutors intend to produce the meaning through producing and receiving the messages conveyed which have the function that are to express their ideas, thought, and feeling (Bailey, 2005; Cameron, 2001, p. 40). In other words, speaking is human act or process of sharing and exchanging information, ideas, and emotions using oral language (Fisher & Frey, 2007, p. 16). Furthermore, in Indonesian education, English is a mandatory subject that is included in the curriculum (k-13), particularly in junior high school or SMP. Furthermore, English skills include writing, reading, listening, and speaking skills. According to Pollard (2008, p. 34), speaking is one of the most difficult aspects for students. Generally, when students speak English, they only listen what the teachers’ material and then the students did assignment without giving feedback and discussing about the speaking material. Speaking practice rely solely in the class activities that becomes the students inactive and demotivated to involve the speaking activities and feel bored to do the speaking tasks due to the students’ speaking competencies were low and unsatisfactory. Therefore, many things must be considered in the use of good teaching techniques. It must also pay attention to the potential of students and the goal is how those students can easily understand the material. In addition, other teaching materials can be easily taught and shorten the time to teach one teaching material. To overcome the obstacles, a teacher needs a dozen different methods and various kinds of techniques and selects a good strategy and technique for students who had particular purposes. The selection of the strategy and a technique should depend on the student's needs. One of the techniques to teach speaking achievement is the fishbowl technique. A fishbowl technique consists of students groups seating in circles. Each circle has the roles in terms of observers, respondents who give responses orally and writer who takes notes during the learning process (Yee, 2001, p. 11). According to Jaya & Habibi (2016), the use of fishbowl encourage the students to be active in the discussion. They have the same position to ask question and talk about the hot issues and their cultures. They are free to express their ideas or opinion with their groups. Moreover the group discussion could stimulate the students’ mind or activate their critical thinking and allow them learn from other students. Automatically, the students increase their language skills. Moreover, a fishbowl techniques is used to accommodate the students delivering their opinions or the information regarding the topics discussed and to stimulate their thinking more critically (Khadijah, 2017, p. 214). In a classroom, some students have different abilities and characteristics that affect their engagement during the learning process. In some cases, some of them make noise or tend to be reluctant to show their thoughts or ideas to each other. Furthermore, in the fishbowl activity, the students have an equal position to deliver the messages to the other students. Therefore, they have to fully concentrate and give attention to students' talk. It means that all of the students give a response and none of them are passive. It provokes the 2 DIDASCEIN: Journal of English Education March 2023, Vol.4 No.1 students to be active and sustain their motivation and attention. Therefore, it is necessary to improve the quality of teaching and learning speaking achievement by applying an appropriate technique to develop the students’ speaking achievement. Based on the observation conducted by the writers at SMP Utama Bakti Palembang, the writers found that eighth-grade students' speaking achievement scores varied and could be classified as middle. According to the results of the tests, the average score of the students was 65. Despite the fact that the teacher had been teaching speaking for a long time, the results were considered unsatisfactory due to a lack of vocabulary mastery, pronunciation, and motivation. As a result, it is a essential to enhance the quality of teaching and learning speaking achievement by implementing an appropriate technique to develop students' speaking achievement. The writers would like to use a fishbowl to help the students overcome their speaking difficulties. Wood & Taylor (2007, p. 75) claimed that fishbowls could be useful teaching tools for group discussions. The fishbowl technique has inherent value in assisting certain students in identifying and overcoming barriers to speaking. Fishbowl is concerned about the students' ability to communicate. Students are free to express themselves verbally. They have the freedom to express themselves in front of the other students using spoken language. When the students were speaking, the teacher noticed some common errors. The correction was given at the end of the lesson so that the students could identify the difficulties they encountered while participating in speaking activities. A fishbowl is also used in class to provide condition interaction among students. The more students interact, the more practice they will have speaking English. The writers were interested in conducting research because of the effectiveness of the fishbowl technique. The purpose of this study is to determine whether there was a significant influence on the eighth-grade students of SMP Utama Bakti Palembang who were taught using the fishbowl technique and those who were not, as well as whether there was a significant difference between the eighth-grade students of SMP Utama Bakti Palembang who were taught using the fishbowl technique and those who were not. The findings of this study assist students in reducing their difficulties in learning to speak and in becoming interested and motivated in the learning process, allowing them to improve their speaking achievement. Students could improve their critical thinking skills by implementing this technique because of the interesting speaking class interaction. The findings of this study should help teachers understand how to use the fishbowl technique to improve student speaking. Fishbowl Technique A fishbowl technique is a method of teaching various social skills. It is one method of shedding light on the specific social skills that can either advance or derail a discussion. Fishbowl allows the class to learn about social interaction, which can be applied to any particular areas (Chris Opitz, 2008, p. 102). A fishbowl is a technique in which groups of people sit in circles (Yee, 2001, p. 11). Furthermore, a fishbowl is a method of organizing the inner and outer circles to encourage student engagement and discussion (Wood & Taylor (2007, p. 54). The groups are separated based on the students' abilities. The students in the inner circle have lower ability than the students in the outer circle. It means that a fishbowl is used to organize medium to large group activities involving people of varying abilities. The teacher assigns a topic for discussion to the inner group, and the outer group is to observe them. Students in the inner circle discuss in depth, while students in the outer circle consider what is said and how it is said. Students in the inner circle are challenged to 3 DIDASCEIN: Journal of English Education March 2023, Vol.4 No.1 participate in a high-level discussion, while students in the outer circle can listen to the discussion and critique the content, logic, and group interaction. Additionally, this technique serves two purposes: it provides structure for in-depth discussion and it allows students to model or observe group processes in a discussion setting (Barkley, et al., 2005, p. 145-146). Furthermore, the fishbowl technique is used to solve problems in groups by gathering knowledge or ideas from others. A fishbowl can be used to help people come to an agreement on how to solve a problem. A moderator will pause the discussion and invite those who are not in the circle to offer their thoughts and comments on what they have heard. In other words, the fishbowl technique may be just what you need to get students to share their thoughts. This technique can be used effectively in class discussions. This technique can also be used to keep students from becoming bored while learning in class. Kindzt (2011, p. 7) proposes two reasons for implementing fishbowl in teaching speaking. First, fishbowl technique has simple rules that generate a wide range of complex interaction. It means that fishbowl will build classroom interaction among students. It makes a good condition where the interaction among the students more dominant than interaction between the teacher and the students. Second, fishbowl technique students identify and deal with inhibitions about speaking. It means each student shows their understanding by producing their opinions orally. The students think and find some reasons as the background of what they are going to say. The application of fishbowl techniques can also improve students' speaking skills in terms of fluency, pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary. This is obtained from students who are self-sufficient to be able to speak English as an achievement that must be taken by these students. By doing many discussions for each meeting, the students have a lot of vocabulary. The teacher must evaluate the results of the discussion at each meeting, the goal is that students can improve and add good ways to speak English. This fishbowl technique will continue to be carried out alternately for groups that have not yet appeared or discussed. The aim is to train students who do not have the skills to speak more skillfully and dare to express their opinions. In this fishbowl technique, each student is required to be responsible for what is being conveyed. In this case, students are trained to solve their problems independently. Next, they will learn from mistakes or get new knowledge from friends who criticize the student's assumptions. With this fishbowl technique, students also learn to dare to speak English in front of public or in crowds. Besides that, it grows and strengthens their mentality in public to speak English. Briggs (2005, p. 1) said that there are four procedures for fishbowl techniques as follows: a. First, a fishbowl is a technique that involves a group of people sitting in a circle. In this case, people are made into groups to form a circle consisting of various abilities. Student b. The chair is arranged in two circles, one inner and one outer. 4 DIDASCEIN: Journal of English Education March 2023, Vol.4 No.1 c. The group is divided into two groups and seated in a chair with an inner and outer circle. d. The inner circle is comprised of students with lower abilities than those in the outer circle. The goal is for students in the inner circle who are low-ability students to participate and better understand what discussed. Due to the differences in personalities, it frequently occurs in students with high abilities who are influenced by students with low abilities. The influence provided is that students with low ability occasionally come to talk and do not treatments like students with low abilities. In brief, the fishbowl technique can be used through online learning. Therefore, the writers used the fishbowl technique with the zoom application because of the pandemic situation. The teaching procedures using the fishbowl technique with zoom application are as follows: a. The group is divided into two groups, namely the inner and outer. b. Students change their names in the zoom meeting application according to their groups. Example: Rama (the inner circle) and Rani (Outer circle). c. The inner circle consists of students whose abilities are lower than technique is very goodfor use in such conditions. Students can observe, take notes and respond and listen. Students are allowed to speak in turns to respond and ask questions. This is done to avoid situations where students influence other students to disregard the students in the outer circle. d. In the inner circle, speak more actively than in the outer circle. The students in the outer circle observed the discussion process and noted the important point of the discussion. Moreover, the challenges of using the fishbowl technique via online make the students a bit difficult in discussing because the atmosphere at home affects students' concentration. Therefore, the zoom application would be used to assist in teaching speaking which is an effective way to use the fishbowl technique. According to Abriati, Atmanegara, & Manurung (2022), during the Covid-19 pandemic, the use of the Zoom application as a tool for online learning provides a solution. METHODOLOGY This study used a quasi-experimental design where the writers used a pre-test, treatment, and post-test. In this study, the writers used an experimental group that is taught by using the zoom application. There are two kinds of a variable. They are independent variables and dependent variables. In this study, the independent variable is the fishbowl technique and the dependent variable is students' speaking achievement. The population of 5 DIDASCEIN: Journal of English Education March 2023, Vol.4 No.1 this study was the eighth-grade students of SMP Utama Bakti Palembang in 2020/2021 with a total number of 69 students. In this study, the samples would pick out from the population, and they would be divided into two classes. VIII/A was an experimental group with a total of 23 students and VIII/B was a control group with a total of 23 students. The purposive sampling was used to take a sample by taking some consideration as follows: 1) the students have a low capability in speaking, 2) the similar total number of students in both classes, and 3) both classes are taught by the same teacher. For this study, The collected data is speaking test in the form of monologue which were twice in terms of pretest, and post-test. A pre-test was given to the students before giving treatment, and a posttest was given at the end of treatment to know the result of the treatment given. Content validity was to be administered as a research instrument to the validators. The result of the validity of the speaking instrument test shows that V-value was 3.6. Since V-value (3.6) was higher than 0.8, it means that the instrument was strongly valid. Inter-rater reliability is measured in this study by two or more assessors evaluating the same instrument. It is used to avoid subjectivity and bias when test scores are independently rated by two or more judges or raters. Based on the results of the reliability test the writer found the values of the correlation of coefficient in the pre-test for the experiment group was 0.843 and for the post-test experimental group was 0.916. Meanwhile, the pre-test for the control group was 0.837 and the post-test was 0.884. The correlation score of the test was higher than 0.70. It was indicated that the results of the reliability test for both groups were reliable. Before analyzing the data, the normality and homogeneity test was used to determine whether the data was distributed normally and uniformly. The KolmogorovSmirnov test was used to assess the normality of the experimental group's pre- and posttests. The normality pre-test result was 0.116 and the normality post-test result was 0.157. Based on the results, the significance was higher than 0.05. So, the data obtained was considered normal. Then, in analyzing the normality of the pre-test and post-test in the control group, the writer used the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. The normality pre-test result was 0.154 and the post-test was 0.175. Then, results showed that the significances were higher than 0.05. It can be said that the data obtained were normal. The Levene test was used to assess the homogeneity of the pre-test in the experimental and control groups. The homogeneity score showed that the significanceof the pre-test in the experimental and control group was 0.389. It means that the significance value was higher than 0.05. Next, the homogeneity score showed that the significance of the post-test in the experimental and control group was 0.012. It means that the significance value was higher than 0.05. Therefore, it can be concluded that the data obtained had the same variance. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 1. The Results of Paired Sample t-test The result of paired sample t-test in the experimental group showed that the value of t-obtained was 14.835 at the significance level of 0.000 with a degree of freedom was 22. Since the t-obtained (14.835) was higher than the t-table (2.079) and the significance level (0.000) was a lower alpha value (0.05), it was assumed that there was a significant influence on students’ speaking achievement after they were taught by using fishbowl technique. Meanwhile, the result of paired sample t-test in the control group showed that the value oft-obtained was 8.165 at the significance level of 0.000 with a degree of freedom was 22. Since the t-obtained (8.165) was higher than the t-table (2.079) and the significance level (0.000) was lower than the alpha value (0.05), it can be stated that the students’ 6 DIDASCEIN: Journal of English Education March 2023, Vol.4 No.1 speaking achievement in the control group was also significantly influenced after given the treatment (lecturing method). It can be seen in table 1. Table 1. A Summary of results of paired sample t-test Group Experimental Control Mean Pretest Posttest Pretest Posttest 47.70 67.00 48.70 58.61 Mean Difference 19.304 Std. Deviation 6.241 tobtained 14.835 df 22 Sig. (2 tailed) 0.000 9.913 5.822 8.165 22 0.000 2. Independent Sample T-test The writers used an independent sample t-test to compare the result of the post-test from both control and experimental groups after being given the treatment. Table 2 presents the results of the independent sample t-test. Table 2. A summary of the results of the independent sample t -test Group Posttest Experimental Control Mean 67.00 58.60 Mean Difference 8.391 tobtained 3.592 df 44 Sig. (2-tailed) 0.001 The post-test result from the independent sample t-test showed that the valueof tobtained was 3.592. The significance level was 0.001 with a degree offreedom was 44. As the t-obtained (3592) was higher than the t-table (2.079) and the significance level was lower than the alpha value (0.05), it can be stated that the null hypothesis (Ho2) was rejected and the alternative hypothesis (Ha2) was accepted. Therefore, there was a significant difference in speaking achievement between the eighth-grade students of SMP Utama Bakti Palembang who were taught by using the fishbowl technique and those who were not. Based on the findings, the writer presented the interpretations. Some interpretations were made based on the statistical analysis related to the hypothesis testing. Based on the results of paired sample t-test, there was an achievement of students in speaking skills for the experimental group. It meant that the students’ speaking achievement was influenced by using the fishbowl technique. Meanwhile, the lecturing teaching technique can also improve students’ speaking skill. It is assumed that the fishbowl technique was effective to teach speaking skills. The students have the freedom to share their thoughts orally. After students got treatment, students were more excited and enthusiastic taught by using the fishbowl technique than students who were not. Fishbowls can be effective teaching tools for modeling group processes (Wood & Taylor, 2007). Fishbowl technique has intrinsic value in helping certain students identify and deal with inhibitions about speaking. Based on the results of the independent sample t-test, the difference between the two groups was significant. It can be seen the result of the post-test between the experimental group and control groups had a significant difference in speaking achievement between students who were taught by using the fishbowl technique and lecturing teaching technique. In brief, the fishbowl technique contributed a significant improvement to the students speaking skill achievement. It might be caused that the use of the fi shbowl technique which could make the students participate actively during the lesson. The study was conducted by Khoirunnisyak (2019) the use of fishbowl technique stimulate the 7 DIDASCEIN: Journal of English Education March 2023, Vol.4 No.1 students’ cognitive and affective. The students had opportunity to express their ideas which can activate their brain. In contrast, Anakotta, Nursalim, & Latuher (2020) study found that the fishbowl technique was not really effective for the students that can be seen the results of speaking grade of students were still low. Meanwhile, the affective was constructed through the active discussion with the members of group or another group to achieve the goals together. It is assumed that the use of the fishbowl technique is very effective because students are more active during the learning process, students are also allowed to participate in developing creative ideas in solving problems, demanding students think, and training students to accept and appreciate each answer from their friends. CONCLUSION In conclusion, fishbowl technique was significant to influence students' speaking achievement that students in the experimental group had higher progress than those in the control. Based on the results of paired sample t-test, there was an achievement of students in speaking skills for the experimental group. It means that the students' speaking achievement was influenced by using the fishbowl technique. The students have the freedom to share their thoughts orally. After students got treatment, students were more excited and enthusiastic taught by using the fishbowl technique than students who were not. Based on the results of the independent sample t-test, the difference between the two groups was significant. It can be seen the result of the post-test between the experimental group and control groups had a significant difference in speaking achievement between students who were taught by using the fishbowl technique and lecturing teaching technique. It assumes that the use of the fishbowl technique is very effective because students are more active during the learning process, students are also allowed to participate in developing creative ideas in solving problems, demanding students think, and training students to accept and appreciate each answer from their friends' achievement between students who were taught by using fishbowl technique and lecturing teaching technique. Furthermore, the use of the fishbowl technique is very effective due to students more active during the learning process. REFERENCES Abriati, Atmanegara, & Manurung. (2022). Students’ perception in using zoom application during online learning in FKIP at Tridinanti University Palembang. Didascein: Journal of English Education, 3 (1), 14 – 21. Doi. http://dx.doi.org/10.52333%2Fd.v3i1 Anakotta, R., Nursalim, & Latuher. (2020). Fishbowl technique towards the students’ speaking skill. Interaction: Jurnal Pendidikan Bahasa, 7(1), 35 – 42. Bailey, K. M. (2005). 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