Background of this study is an effort to know which technique is suitable to use in teaching speaking. Teaching a foreign language is considered to be one of the most challenging teaching practices. In Indonesia, students are usually afraid of joining foreign language classes. They may feel unmotivated, discouraged easily. Their mindsets say foreign language is difficult to learn because most of them know nothing from the start. Usually, students know nothing how to express what they want to say. Students who have learned English for several years have not been can communicate used English. So the researcher thought that there should be a solution to cope with that problem. The researcher tried to use describing picture as a method to improve students’ speaking skill especially in descriptive text.

This study is about the use of describing picture as technique/method to improve student’s speaking skill in descriptive text of the eighth grade students of SMP H. Isriati Semarang in the 2010/2011 academic year. The statement of the problem in this study is; how effective is describing picture to improve students’ speaking skill in descriptive text at the eighth grade students of SMP H. Isriati Semarang? The objective of the study was to know the effectiveness of using describing picture to improve students speaking skill in descriptive text at the eighth grade students of SMP H. Isriati Semarang in the academic year 2010/2011.

The population of the research was the eighth grade students of SMP H. Isriati Semarang. The research methodology was an experimental research, which conducted in two classes; the experimental group (VIII A) and control group (VIII C) as sample. The VIII A was taught by using describing picture, while the VIII C was taught without describing picture (Direct Method). The writer gave speaking test to gather the data. The test had been tried out to find out the validity, reliability, difficulty level, and discriminating power before it was used to gather the data. The formula that was used to analyze the data was t-test. It was used to determine whether or not there was a significance difference between students’ score in experimental group and students’ score in control group.