Enhancing Speaking Ability of EFL Students through Debate and Peer Assessment

Abstract

The objective of the study was to implement the debate technique and peer assessment to improve the third semester student’s speaking ability. This study employed classroom action research and it was done in two cycles.  There were four meetings in each cycle; three meetings was for the implementation of debate in the teaching of speaking and one meeting was for conducting speaking test. The instruments used to collect the data were: (1) observation checklist, (2) field-note, (3) score sheet, and (4) questionnaire. The result of the research showed that the criteria of success had been reached in cycle 2. There were two aspects determined as the success criteria; score improvement and classroom atmosphere. The result of speaking test showed that the students had made some progress, the average scores raised from 60 in pre-test, 69 in cycle 1 and 75 in cycle 2. These scores indicated that there is an increasing ability from being ‘fair’ to being ‘good’. The classroom atmospheres were also increasing positively. The result shows that the students gradually could express their thought and opinions in debate practice. This activity encouraged the students’ creativity to explore the language, since they were asked to develop their arguments from certain motions. The motions were made familiar to them so that they found it easy to speak on the topics. By practicing speaking in the debate practice, they improved their fluency as well as their confidence.