Indonesian Journal of Islamic and Social Science Vol. 3 No.1 Juni, 2025 : 82-92 TEACHING SPEAKING BY APPLYING TEAMS-GAMESTOURNAMENTS TECHNIQUE An Nisaa Rahmadani Universitas Islam Aceh annisarahmadani807@gmail.com Abstract The teams-games-tournaments technique used in this study is based on the students’ difficulty in the master of speaking skill. This technique aims to involve students’ speaking skill in their real life situation. The objective of this study is to investigate the students’ in the master after they practice speaking through teams-gamestournaments technique. In order to address issue, this study employed two groups as the sample classified into the experimental and control group. The experimental group was taught by using teams-games-tournaments technique, while the control group was taught by using traditional technique. In collecting the data, the test was used, and then the procedures in the collecting the data was experimental study. The research findings show that the mean score of the post-test of the experimental group, 79, is higher than that of the control group 53. Furthermore, the result of Zscore reveals that the score of experimental group is higher than that in the control group. The data indicates that the students taught by using teams-gamestournaments technique significantly achieved better score in speaking than those taught by using traditional technique. Keywords: Teaching Speaking, Teams-Games-Tournament Technique Abstrak Teknik teams-games-tournaments yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini didasarkan pada kesulitan siswa dalam menguasai keterampilan berbicara. Teknik ini bertujuan untuk melibatkan keterampilan berbicara siswa dalam situasi kehidupan nyata mereka. Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk menyelidiki siswa dalam menguasai keterampilan berbicara setelah mereka berlatih berbicara melalui teknik teams-games-tournaments. Untuk mengatasi masalah tersebut, penelitian ini menggunakan dua kelompok sebagai sampel yang diklasifikasikan menjadi kelompok eksperimen dan kontrol. Kelompok eksperimen diajarkan dengan menggunakan teknik teams-games-tournaments, sedangkan kelompok kontrol diajarkan dengan menggunakan teknik tradisional. Dalam pengumpulan data, digunakan tes, kemudian prosedur pengumpulan data adalah studi eksperimental. Temuan penelitian menunjukkan bahwa skor rata-rata post-test kelompok 82 An Nisaa Rahmadani: Teaching Speaking By Applying Teams-Games-Tournaments Technique eksperimen, 79, lebih tinggi daripada kelompok kontrol 53. Lebih lanjut, hasil Zscore mengungkapkan bahwa skor kelompok eksperimen lebih tinggi daripada kelompok kontrol. Data tersebut menunjukkan bahwa siswa yang diajarkan dengan menggunakan teknik teams-games-tournaments secara signifikan mencapai skor yang lebih baik dalam berbicara daripada mereka yang diajarkan dengan menggunakan teknik tradisional. Kata Kunci: Pembelajaran Berbicara, Teknik Permainan Tim dan Turnamen INTRODUCTION English becomes more and more important, especially in Aceh, since December 26th 2004 tsunami affected area and it has been broadly opened up the global community. Many job opportunities with a various positions are offered and of course a various skills are also needed and highly required. Unfortunately, our school and university graduates do not have such good mastery of English that enable them to get jobs offered by government or non government organizing assisting Aceh in rehabilitation and reconstruction programs. That fact is also proven by many of the writer’s former students who came to reported to the writer that they were having difficulty in finding job since they do not have a good command of English, even those who are good at the written exam. Furthermore, BSNP (National Education Standard 2006) states that the aim of teaching speaking is to train the students to be able to express their ideas meaningfully in the real life; it is also directing students to apply the language in daily communication even outside school. By speaking, students will be familiar with the sentences that they are using in speaking. Many students still have limited ability to practice English in the classroom and outside of it. There were two factors which caused this problem. They were external and internal factors. The external factors were caused the factors such as teaching strategy, class management, and materials mastery, evaluation, and media. The internal factors come from students themselves. Most of the students were afraid to make mistakes when they speak to the teacher or their friends. The writer’s conducted observation on August 2014 at MAN Beureunuen, it was found that most of the students were not good at speaking but good at the grammar and reading comprehension than speaking. It was because time allocation for English was limited and the teacher did not train students to speak. Students were not given enough opportunity to experiment with English. Some of the English teachers still teach speaking by reading and memorizing technique based on the dialogues on the text books, the strategy and technique used are still monotonous, from pre activities until post activities only asked the students to read and practice Indonesian Journal of Islamic and Social Science Vol. 3 No 1, Juni, 2025: 82-92 83 An Nisaa Rahmadani: Teaching Speaking By Applying Teams-Games-Tournaments Technique the dialogue in the text book and evaluate in post activity. The teacher did not give students a good chance to speak freely and to express their ideas; they just follow teacher’s instruction so that the learners did not have good ability in speaking. Some students did not want to speak because they were afraid of making mistakes. This caused the students did not interested in speaking. To make the students speak, teacher needs to create interesting ways, various and interesting tasks for the students. They can cause students’ interests and more active in learning English especially in speaking class. Sadtono stated that the causes of the failure in teaching English are (1) the limited number of hours for English classes, (2) the overcrowded classroom, the expensive supplementary reading material for the students, and (3) the social situation which is not particularly conducive to learning English as English is not spoken in society. So we can conclude the teaching learning process is not running well because of insufficient facilities. 1 Another factor that causes the difficulties in learning speaking was that the students were rarely given the idea of what to say. This causes the class to be passive and the students just keep silent when the teacher asks them to speak. Penny (1996:121) states that the problems faced in speaking activities are: 2 (1) Inhibition. Unlike reading, writing, and listening activities, speaking requires some degree of real time exposure to an audience. Students are often inhibited about trying to say things in a foreign language in classroom; worried about making mistake, fearful of critics of losing face, or simply shy of the attention that their speech attract. Low or uneven motivation. Some students want to talk while others just keep silent or speak very little. (2) Mother tongue use. In most of the foreign languages class, this case always happens. Students tend to use their mother tongue since it is easier. They feel it is unnatural to speak one another in a foreign language. (3) Nothing to say or the student have no ideas. Even if they are not inhibited, the students complain that they cannot think of anything to say, they have no motivate to express the idea. Related to this fact, the writer tried to find the interesting way to teach English speaking. The reason of the researcher used team-games-tournament (TGT) because it is a useful and effective technique to increase the students’ achievement in speaking. It is supported by DeVrie (2006:15) that TGT is created with objective 1 Sadtono (1997). The Development of TEFLIN in Indonesia. Malang: IKIP Malang. Ur Penny. (1996). A Course in Language Teaching: Practice and Theory. London: Cambridge University. 2 DeVrie (2006). Teams-Games-Tournament in the Elementary Classroo. National Inst. Of Education: Washington Indonesian Journal of Islamic and Social Science Vol. 3 No 1, Juni, 2025: 82-92 84 An Nisaa Rahmadani: Teaching Speaking By Applying Teams-Games-Tournaments Technique of increasing academic achievement for all students, particularly children who have difficulties in mastering the learning material. TGT not only help students to increase academic achievement, but also gives a positive outcome on their social life. TGT is capable of producing positive outcomes on society, attitude, and academic performance dimension.3 Moreover, this interesting technique is believed can give chance for students to be involved in discussion, encourage and train them to have critical thinking and take responsibility of their own learning. Although it considers as an active role of students as more important, it does not mean that the teacher in the classroom is not participating. In the learning process, teacher has roles as designer, facilitator and guide in the learning process. Research Questions Is there a significant improvement in speaking performance between students who are taught by using Team-Games-Tournament (TGT) and those who are taught by using traditional technique. Research Objectives To find out if there is a significant improvement in speaking performance between students who are taught by using Team-Games- Tournament (TGT) and those who are taught by using traditional technique? REVIEW OF LITERATURE Speaking as a skill Speaking as one of the four language skills is very important in teaching learning process. To speak is to express our ideas to other in oral communication. defines oral communication “as an activity involving two or more people in whom the participants are both hearers and speakers having to react to what they hear and make their contributions at high speed”. In order words, to communicate is a process in which a speaker conveys information or messages to listeners. Therefore, “speaking is an activity on the part of the other to understand what is in the mind of the first.”4 However, speaking is not an easy task to do. When we speak, not only do we make a sound but we must also have other skill such as pronunciation, structure, and vocabulary. Danough (1969: 11) supports that “if you are now studying, or have 3 Scoot (2002). Speaking communication in the Classroom, Application and Methods for Communicative Approach, Ed. Keith Johnson and Keith Morrow, Second Impression, Hongkong; Wing Tai Cheung Printing Co.Ltd 4 Chaney & Burke (1998). Teaching Oral Communication in Grades K-8. Boston: Allyn and bacon, Inc Indonesian Journal of Islamic and Social Science Vol. 3 No 1, Juni, 2025: 82-92 85 An Nisaa Rahmadani: Teaching Speaking By Applying Teams-Games-Tournaments Technique studied some foreign languages, you realize that learning to speak a language is not a simple task.” If we think about how we use our first language, and then it is obvious we spend most of our time expressing me utterances or using sentences, and very little of our knowledge or trying to compose perfect sentences. We would find it most difficult to describe and explain all the decisions we take when we speak. Therefore, knowledge is only a part of the affair; we also need skill. What is the difference between knowledge and skill? A fundamental difference is that while both can be understood and memorized, only a skill can be limited and practiced. Definition of Speaking Speaking is the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts. Chaney (1988,13). Speaking is a crucial part of second language learning and teaching. Despite its importance, for many years, teaching speaking has been undervalued and English language teachers have continued to teach speaking just as repetition of drills or memorizing of dialogues. However, today’s world required communicative skills, because, only in that way, students can express themselves and learn how to follow the social and cultural rules appropriate in each communication circumstance. In order to teach second language learners how to speak in the best way possible, some speaking activities are provided below, that can be applied to ESL and EFL classroom setting, together with suggestions for teachers who teach oral language.5 In teaching speaking, the teacher should teach the students the following activities: 1. Produce the English speech sounds and sound patterns. 2. Use the word sentence stress, intonation patterns and the rhythm of the second language 3. Select appropriate words and sentences according to the proper setting, audience, situation and subject matter. 4. Organizer their thoughts in a meaningful and logical sequence. 5. Use language as a means of expressing values and judgements. 6. Use the language quickly and confidently with few unnatural pauses, which is called as fluency (Nunan, 1991). Elements of Speaking The ability of speaking fluently presupposes not only knowledge of language features, but also the ability to produce at language on the spot. Here, the 5 Harmer (2001). The Practice of English Language Teaching. London: Cambridge University Indonesian Journal of Islamic and Social Science Vol. 3 No 1, Juni, 2025: 82-92 86 An Nisaa Rahmadani: Teaching Speaking By Applying Teams-Games-Tournaments Technique writer would like to explain about the elements of speaking by Harmer (2001:269276). They are:6 1. Language features : Among the elements necessary for spoken production are the following: Connected speech, Expressive device, Lexis and grammar and Negotiation 2. Mental processing is Language processing, Interacting with other and On the spot information processing Teaching Speaking by Applying Team-Games-Tournament. Team-Games-Tournament (TGT), originally developed by David DeVries and Keith Edwards at the University of Johns Hopkins as a cooperative learning method. It uses the same teacher presentations and teamwork where replaces the quizzes with weekly tournaments, in which Students play academic games with members of other teams to contribute points to their team scores. TGT is one type of cooperative learning that place students in groups study, a groups comprising 5 to 6 students who have variety in ability, gender and ethnicity. The teacher presents the material, and students work in their respective in-group. The teacher gives worksheet to each group. Tasks assigned to work together with members of group. If any members of the group did not understand the assignment, then the other group members are responsible to provide answers or explain it, before submitting the question to the teacher. Finally, to ensure that all group members have mastered the lesson, all students will be awarded an academic game. In academic game students will be divided in the table (a table tournament), where every table tournament consisting of 5 to 6 people which is representative from each group. In each table game the participants are not from the same group. Students that grouped in single table tournaments are homogeneous in terms of academic ability; it means that in a single table tournament, each participant should be having same ability or knowledge. This can be determined by the student’s score they had at the pre-test. Group main score collected each participant in the academic game then scores are recorded on a recording sheet. Total group score is obtained by summing scores then divided by the number of members of the group and the teacher will know about mean score of each group. The group that has highest mean score is the winner group and awarded by giving certificate for specific predicate. argues that type of TGT cooperative learning consists of five step are Class presentation, Teams, Games, Tournament, and Group recognition.7 1. Class presentation The teacher delivers the material, usually by direct instruction from teacher, or teacher led discussions about material. At the class presentation, students should pay attention and understand the material presented by the teacher. 6 Slavin, (1994). A Practical Guide to Cooperative Learning. Massachusetts (1994): A division of Paramount Publishing, Indonesian Journal of Islamic and Social Science Vol. 3 No 1, Juni, 2025: 82-92 87 An Nisaa Rahmadani: Teaching Speaking By Applying Teams-Games-Tournaments Technique Team, The group usually consists of 4 to 5 heterogeneous students. The teacher divided a group based on student’s ability gender. It make a group can work properly and optimally in the game. Games, The game consists of the numbered questions. Students select a numbered card and try to answer the questions. Students who answer correctly the question would get a score. These scores are collected as group score. Tournament, Usually the tournament conducted on weekends or on each unit, after the teacher does class presentations and the student do group work sheet. Awards group, In this case, the teacher announced the best group and gave the rewards to the winner group, which raise the highest score. Based on what is state by Slavin, then a model of cooperative learning has characteristic of type TGT as follows: Students Working in Group, Small Group Students are placed in groups – study groups comprising 5 to 6 people who have the ability, gender, and ethnic or racial differences. Given the heterogeneity of group members, is expected to motivate students to help other among the students who are capable of more with less capable students in mastering the subject matter. This will cause a growing sense of self-awareness in students that cooperative learning is fun. Tournament, In this game, every student is a representative of the group and placed in a tournament table. Each table consists of 5 to 6 tournament participants and no participants from the same group. The game was preceded by notifying the rules of the game. In the first stage, the teacher gives the first question to the participants. And then participants compete to answer questions with the best possible. After the player give his answer than the teacher will ask the other player to give a comment about the answer has given. After that the teacher will open the answer key, if the comment given is wrong the player win. Scores are also given to the players who answer incorrectly and who active in the games. The game continued to the next question until the entire question run out. Appreciation Group, The first step before the award is calculated the group means score from each group. To determine mean score of the group by summing the scores obtained by each member of the group divided by number of group members. The award is based on the average score of the group. The score table made based on how many player in the combination player. After the teacher got the group winner then teacher gives a certificate for group recognition. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Experimental research or categorized as quantitative research intended to find out the significant contribution in improving students’ speaking skill through TGT technique. Millan argue that in order to find out cause-and-effect relationship a researcher should use experimental research. This argument is inferred in his statement as follows. “Experimental design is the best approaches to investigating cause-and-effect relationship”. Millan also argue that there is one essential characteristic of all experimental research: direct control of the independent Indonesian Journal of Islamic and Social Science Vol. 3 No 1, Juni, 2025: 82-92 88 An Nisaa Rahmadani: Teaching Speaking By Applying Teams-Games-Tournaments Technique variable, it means that the investigator determines when the subjects receive the investigation and how much of it subjects receives. Population and Sample The study was conducted at MAN Beureunuen. It is located at Kampung Meunasah Paga, Kec. Mutiara, Kab. Pidie. The status of the school is now Sekolah Standar Nasional ( SSN). There are fifteen classes of the whole grades (grades VII, VIII and IX) in which each grade consists of five classes. The writer took two classes as the sample by using random sampling trough lottery and the total sample was 80. Class XII A consist of 40 students was chosen as the experimental class taught by using Teams-Games-Tournament. Meanwhile, Class XII B consist of 40 students was as the control class taught by using traditional technique. The sample was taken based on the socioeconomic background and different level of proficiency which the students have different ability in term of gender which male and female were combined in the class. There were 12 male and 28 female in the experimental group while in the control group consist of 24 male 16 female. Research Instrument The pre-test was given in the first meeting to know the students’ ability both in the experimental and the control classes before teaching by using treatment. The students were given some questions orally and they answer orally. For example, do you like coffee? (Asking for opinion, fact and expressing like and dislike), Why do you like coffee? (Asking for opinion), please tell me how to make a cup of coffee! (Asking for facts), etc. If the students can correctly answer all the questions, they get 100 points. Post-test was used to measure the students understanding of the speaking after TGT and traditional technique was implemented in the class. In this case, the students were asked to answer questions orally. The writer followed the curriculum outline for the second year students of MAN Beureunuen based on speaking aspect namely pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, fluency and comprehensibility. In order to get the data needed, the writer used two classes in this study; one class as an experimental group and another is as a control group. The experimental group was treated through TGT Technique and it was compared with the control group who was treated with traditional technique. The writer was preparing material teaching related to the syllabus for the second grade of MAN Beureunuen, the researcher used a pre-test and post-test. Before the research conducting this research, a pre-test was given to both groups on same day but different time. To analyze the data, the researcher used quantitative and qualitative analysis Borg . The quantitative analysis was used to analyze data for the first research question. The data analysis was conducted by organizing the data gained through pre-test and Indonesian Journal of Islamic and Social Science Vol. 3 No 1, Juni, 2025: 82-92 89 An Nisaa Rahmadani: Teaching Speaking By Applying Teams-Games-Tournaments Technique post-test. Based on those data, the researchers form a table of distribution frequency and analyze the mean, standard deviation and Z-score.8 FINDING AND DISCUSSIONS According to the result of test, the differences of achievement both experimental and control groups can be seen from the score of pre-test and posttest. Furthermore, the same procedure was followed by the post-test scores. For each class, a mean score of the post-test results was calculated. The difference between these mean scores of the experimental and control class was compared by employing an independent sample Z score. Therefore, the null hypothesis (Ho) is rejected and consequently the hypothesis alternative (Ha) is accepted in which there is a significance difference in speaking score between the students who were taught through teams-gamestournament and those were taught through traditional technique. In fact, Colon-vila commented that teams-games-tournament helps EFL learners become more self-confident to express themselves spontaneously and creatively. Based on the research finding, it was found that teams-gamestournament as teaching technique is surely shows the real effectiveness, because it can help the student in improving their speaking ability. It is as supported by Cooter, that state the primary reason to recommend teams-games-tournament in the EFL speaking classroom is motivating and immensely interesting, can best attract listeners and promote communication. The students also give positive respond on the material given. The material which is taught to them are family introducing, how to make a cup of coffee, asking opinion and giving opinion. It encourages the student to learn the passages because they are have been familiar. Thus, it could be said that the students’ responses toward the implementation of TGT in speaking was positive. As the result, the students not only get better improvement in speaking but also get positive outcomes on social relationship with their friends. So that, the teaching learning by using TGT is effective to apply as has been proved in the theories, previous studies done by other researchers and finding of this study. CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS Based on the theories, findings, and discussion explored in the previous chapters, there is a conclusion can be drawn that: The applying of Teams-GamesTournament in teaching speaking to the second grade students of MAN Beureunuen was most significant difference than by using free speaking activity. In fact, the alternative hypothesis (Ha) is accepted and the null hypothesis is rejected. It means 8 Borg, Walter and Gall, Meredith 1989. Educational Research. 5th edition. London: Longman Group Ltd Indonesian Journal of Islamic and Social Science Vol. 3 No 1, Juni, 2025: 82-92 90 An Nisaa Rahmadani: Teaching Speaking By Applying Teams-Games-Tournaments Technique that there is any significant difference in speaking perfomance between taught by using Team-Games-Tournament (TGT) and those taught by using traditional technique. In other word, the use of Team-Games-Tournament technique affects students’ speaking ability. Thus, Team-Games-Tournament technique encourage students to develop their speaking ability that they regard it as a very helpful technique for them to improve their speaking ability. SUGGESTIONS There are some suggestions proposed both for further research and for practical purposes. The suggestions are intended to enhance and find the best technique in teaching speaking for the teacher as below: It is suggested for the English teachers at senior high school to apply TGT based on cooperative learning model because it gives many advantages for English skills especially in speaking. TGT can improve the students’ speaking because it is taught based on group work. Moreover, the teacher also can use this strategy for other English skills. The strategy provides some procedures briefly to the students because the procedures are little bit complex. If the teacher do not apply the procedures appropriately and the students do not understand how to be involved in teamwork. The result will be not satisfied. Therefore, the teacher should avoid to conventional method regularly in teaching English. Especially in teaching speaking. It cannot motivate and involve the students actively in learning Moreover, the writer suggests that other researchers who conduct similar study to choose wider population in senior high school students. The sample also should be taken based on cooperative learning characteristics including different level of proficiency, sex and economic background to get the satisfied result. This learning model also increase students’ self confidence, social interaction, individual accountability, group skill and individual responsibility even though they learn in a group. Finally, consider about the weakness of this strategy that the researcher should prepare the solution to overcome it. REFERENCES Borg, Walter and Gall, Meredith 1989. Educational Research. 5th edition. London: Longman Group Ltd Burns & Joyce 1999. Focus on Speaking. National Centre for English Language Teaching and Research (NCELTR). Sydney: Macquarie Inc. Borg, Welter and Gall, Meredith (1989). Educational Research. 5th edition advanced ESL/EFL. New York and London: Longman DeVrie (2006). Teams-Games-Tournament in the Elementary Classroo. National Inst. Of Education: Washington Hughes, Arthur. (1993). Testing for Language Teacher. London: Cambridge University. Indonesian Journal of Islamic and Social Science Vol. 3 No 1, Juni, 2025: 82-92 91 An Nisaa Rahmadani: Teaching Speaking By Applying Teams-Games-Tournaments Technique Harmer (2001). The Practice of English Language Teaching. London: Cambridge University Pimsleur (1972). Condition for Success in Language Learning. In Lestary, L Amien, 1999, TEFLIN English Classroom Culture Reformations. Paul (2008). Communication strategies. A division of Thompson, Great Britain: Cambridge University Sadtono (1997). The Development of TEFLIN in Indonesia. Malang: IKIP Malang Slavin (1994). Research method education, A practical guide. New York, Printed in the United States of America Ur Penny. (1996). A Course in Language Teaching: Practice and Theory. London: Cambridge University Indonesian Journal of Islamic and Social Science Vol. 3 No 1, Juni, 2025: 82-92 92