CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, the researcher presents background of the research, question

of the research, objective of the research, significances of the research, hypothesis of

the research and definition of key terms.

1.1. Background of the Research

As English becomes the global language in the world, people’s demand for

mastering English gradually increasing. The widespread need for English as a second

language or foreign language needs a considerable pressure on the educational

resources of many countries. In countries where English is regarded as a foreign

language not as a second language, for example in Indonesia, it may be an important

school subject and necessary to pass an examination in English to enter a higher

education. According to Richard, Platt, and Weber (1985:93), as a foreign language,

English has a role as a subject in school but used as a medium of instruction in

education not as a language of communication in government, business, or industry

within country.

English becomes a compulsory subject taught by most school in Indonesia,

starting from kindergarten, elementary school, junior high school, senior-high school

until university. It covers the four basics language skills: listening, speaking, reading

and writing. As the main purpose of learning English is to interact and communicate

with other people, speaking skill take the highest place as the most important skill to

master (Bright & McGregor, 1970). Speaking, which is said to be one of the

productive skills of language, is an essential part in learning language. As stated by

Spratt, Marry, et. al. (2005:34), speaking is a productive skill, like writing which

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involves using speech to express meanings to other people. Therefore, speaking

involves not only an active or productive participation but also receptive

participation.

Speaking becomes a crucial skill that should be acquired by the learners. It

is also as a part of people’s daily life. According to Lazarton (Kurniawati, 2013),

speaking is an active interaction between speaker and listener as the process of

building and sharing meaning involving the components of pronunciation, grammar,

vocabulary, fluency and comprehension.

In this era, technology grows rapidly in most aspect of life. People try in

using technology to find a lot of information through the existence of technology for

instance by using internet. People can browse any information and news through

internet. The development of English is said to the expansion of technology also.

Technology can change the way people work, learn, communicate and spend the

spare time. It also helps to lead the way in improving the teaching and learning

process in school. Today, many schools have applied technology as a learning media

in their teaching and learning process. The implementation of English curriculum

considers the use of technology. It is an essential part to support the teaching and

learning process in order to make it more enjoyable and interesting. So far, audio,

video, movie, cassette, and power-point presentation are used in teaching and

learning process.

In addition, it will be one of the teaching and learning instructional that was

used either in the class or in outside class.

According to National Research Council (1995, p. 51), technology offers new ways

of teaching and learning, and provides new ways for all students in education to be
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openly accountable to parents, communities, and students. The use of technology can

facilitate the learner’s achievement since it provides interesting media to learn

English to become more fun and effective. Technology has a crucial role in teaching

and learning process. Bajcsy (2002, p. 81) says that technology in teaching and

learning is more variety. He suggests that technology can effort to help organize and

provide the material for students, help students, teachers, and parents interact,

anytime and anywhere. In addition, technology can facilitate and assist in the

authentication and prioritization of internet material and simulate, visualize, and

interact with scientific structures, processes, and models. For instance, the students

are able to find the additional materials from the Internet. Dudeney and Hockly

(2007) states that the Internet access is becoming increasingly available to learners.

Younger learners are growing in technology era, and English as an International

language is being used in technological context. Therefore, it is substantial to employ

the technology as the media to support the teaching and learning materials without

the limitation of time.

The use of internet or technology is popularly mentioned as CALL

(Computer Assisted Language Learning). As Warschauer (1996) states that it is an

approach to teaching and learning foreign languages through which the computer and

computer-based resources such as the internet are used to present, reinforce, and

assess material to be learned. And nowadays, the use of internet can be more easily

accessed through mobile devices. Another term, MALL (Mobile Assisted Language

Learning) has come to its existence to supply independent and effective learning.

Kukulska-Hulme and Shield (2008) define MALL as an access to wireless device

network, which will communicate with such networks increase, the utilization of
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mobile devices in supporting learning becomes more common. MALL deals with the

use of mobile technology in language learning (Miangah & Nezarat, 2012). Since

mobile technology develops, it creates new opportunities for improving learning

experience of students at all level of education. It can facilitate students to access

educational resources without need to be present at the working environment. Mobile

devices are a useful tool and a way to access last recent events in the classroom

(Calimag, Miguel and Conde, 2014).

There are many applications used in learning English. One of the

applications of technologies that popular is Duolingo. In Wikipedia web site,

“Duolingo” uses a heavily data driven approach to education. At each step along the

way, the system measures which questions the users struggle with and what kinds of

mistakes they create. Then it aggregates those data and learns from the patterns

recognizes”. To ease the process of learning English language, and supported by a

very advanced technology currently, the young learners who want to learn English

with practical and fun applications might use Duolingo to practice English. Practices

are important to enable students to master English skills, and exercise is very

important since it is made as a tool for measuring and evaluating student’s ability in

achieving the material, in which is given. When doing exercises someone should

examine whether the exercises are relevant or not. The researcher focuses on the

exercises of speaking-vocabulary presented in Duolingo Free Language Learning

Application.

Duolingo Free Language Learning Application can be downloaded on the

mobile phone or PC/Laptop; therefore, the user can practice anytime and anywhere.

Duolingo uses a strategy of game mechanics to create the incentive to keep students
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learning. It is built very similarly to a computer game, where the participants have to

pass certain levels. The following lessons are unlocked after a learner has mastered

the previous material or level. Users can complete a variety of exercise types

including multiple choice, writing and speaking through a microphone.

Duolingo deliberately brought the concept of play and learn in order to feel

more comfortable and easier to use by all occupations. We certainly have felt tired

doing daily routines and for a flash, we will relax while learning a foreign language.

The research aims to offer convenience to learn English with the use of

multimedia learning applications using Duolingo, which can be used to practice

independently and can be used in place of study, course, school, home or everywhere.

Two previous studies were conducted by Mahmudah (2015) and Bermudez

(2017). The similarity of these two researches are about using Duolingo application

these two previous researches are Mahmudah used descriptive qualitative approach

and the field of her research was pronunciation. Bermudez also used qualitative

approach. Her research was about showing the possibility effectiveness of using

Duolingo as a complement for English lessons. Whereas, in this research the

researcher wants to know the effectiveness of using Duolingo application in

Madrasah Aliyah Bilingual Batu and how Duolingo can improve the students’

speaking skill. The researcher will be used quantitative approach with quasi

experiment type.

In this study, the researcher will use the Duolingo application to improve

the students’ speaking skill at tenth grade of Madrasah Aliyah Bilingual Batu. The

researcher wants to conduct a research entitled “The Effectiveness of Duolingo in

Improving Speaking Skill at the Tenth Grade of Madrasah Aliyah Bilingual Batu,

School Year 2019/2020”.

1.2. Question of the Research

The researcher formulates the research question as follow:

Is Duolingo application effective to improving speaking skill at the tenth grade of

Madrasah Aliyah Bilingual Batu?

1.3. Objective of the Research

To find out the effectiveness Duolingo application to improving speaking skill

at the tenth grade of Madrasah Aliyah Bilingual Batu.

1.4. Hypothesis

Hypothesis is a statement of the research assumption about the influences of

two variables that the researcher plans to test within the framework of the research.

The hypothesis of this study was prepared as a tentative answer for research

problem stated previously. In this case, the alternative hypothesis (Ha) is read as

follows:

There is a significant difference in students’ achievement in speaking skill

between students who are taught by Duolingo application and students who are

taught without Duolingo at the tenth grade of Madrasah Aliyah Bilingual Batu.

Because of statistical computation, the alternative hypothesis needs to be

changed into null hypothesis (Ho) as follow:

There is no significant difference in students’ achievement in speaking skill

between students who are taught by Duolingo application and students who are
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taught without Duolingo application at the tenth grade of Madrasah Aliyah

Bilingual Batu.

1.5. Definition of Key Terms

In order to make the readers get easier in understanding this study, here the

researcher will give the definition of some key terms that important to be

understood as the following:

1. Effectiveness

“Effectiveness refers to the intervention’s ability to do many good than

harm for the target population in real world setting”. (Schillinger, 2010, p.

43). In this research, effectiveness is expected outcome on how Duolingo

application is effective to improving speaking skill at the tenth grade of

Madrasah Aliyah Bilingual Batu.

2. Speaking skill

Speaking skill is one of four language skills that should be mastered by

the students as means for communication. So, as the teachers we should

always explore and examine the student’ ability in speaking. In this

study, speaking means that the teacher will record all student or

student’s action (performance of conversation).

3. Technology

“Technology in teaching and learning as an enabler and suggests that

technology can work to help organize and provide structure for material

to students; help student, teachers, and parents interact, anytime and

anywhere” Bajcsy (2002, p. 81)

In this research, technology means an application that can be used as

English learning medium. It can be installed in PC, laptop, and

smartphone. It is free language-learning application that called

Duolingo Application.

4. Duolingo

Duolingo is a free language-learning application. To ease the process of

learning English language, and supported by a very advanced

technology currently, the young learners who want to learn English with

practical and fun applications might use Duolingo to practice English.