A RESEARCH ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF USING SHORT STORIES TO DEVELOP SPEAKING SKILLS AMONG ONE CLASS OF 37 STUDENTS FORM ONE

ESL LEARNERS AT SEKOLAH MENENGAH KEBANGSAAN BANDAR BINTANGOR.

JULIA ANAK BERANDI

A RESEARCH FOR THE DEGREE OF B. ED. (TESL) (HONS)

FACULTY OF EDUCATION, ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES OPEN UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA SEMESTER SEPTEMBER 2006

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SALUTORY DECLARATION I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no materials previously published or written by another person nor materials which to a substantial extent has been accepted for the award of another degree or diploma of the university or other institute of higher learning, except where due acknowledgement has been made in the text.

Signature Name Date

: : JULIA ANAK BERANDI :

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Abstract

The purpose of this School-based Research was to examine and determine the effectiveness of using short stories in developing the students speaking skill. The chosen short story was How Dalat Got Its Name by Heidi Munan. The study involved a class of thirty-nine Form One students. The experimental groups consisted of 39 students respectively. The research was carried out at SMK Bandar Bintangor, Bintangor, Sarawak. Specifically this study will investigate the extent of the effectiveness of using short stories in promoting speaking skill among students in a communicative classroom. Short stories were seen as an innovative tool to create students positive attitude and motivation as language learners. This research was conducted through an experiment, in which the subjects in the experimental group exposed to short stories in the Literature Component. The research instruments were questionnaire, observation, test and interview. The data analyzed using frequency and percentage.

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DECLARATION/ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This thesis is dedicated to my beloved husband, Mr. Donald Anak Moss and my children Getrude Donald (17), Daxter Gerislat Donald (14), Dominc Senyam (4) for the sacrifice they have made and their love and care which helped me through this course. Lastly but not least, I wish to express my most sincere appreciation to Tuan Pengetua( Mr. Mohd Kasim Bin Arbain) and Guru Pembimbing (Mr. Suhai Ak Labai@Sabat) of SMK Bandar Bintangor,Bintangor who had assisted me in my work, either directly or indirectly. I wish to thank all the tutors and coursemates, PPT Sibu administrator for their patience and guidance, who have in one way or another helped me in this dissertation.