Speaking is one of the four basic skills in learning foreign language besides listening, reading, and writing. It has been taught for senior high school students, however, there are some difficulties faced by senior high school students to communicate in English. One of the improvements of the speaking ability deals with the method which is reflected in the material and the way of teaching given to the students. Discussion texts as material here usually involve carefully and strategically selecting and organizing information - often as a two or more different ‘views’ or ‘arguments’ on an issue. Since each student has different problems in understanding the material being taught, the use of multiple intelligences model is expected to solve their problems.
Research Questions in This study is intended to answer the following questions (1) How is the implementation of multiple intelligences model to improve students’ speaking skills in discussion texts, (2) How is the improvement of students’ speaking skills in discussion texts by using multiple intelligences model and (3) How is the students’ activeness in discussion texts by using multiple intelligences model. The objective of this study are (1) to describe the implementation of multiple intelligences model to improve students’ speaking skills in discussion texts, (2) to find out the improvement of students’ speaking skills in discussion texts by using multiple intelligences model and (3) To find out the students’ activeness in discussion texts by using multiple intelligences model .
This research was conducted at the XIth grade students of MAN 1 Semarang in the academic year of 2014/2015. The research design used was action research which consists of three cycles. Test, questionnaire, documentation and observation were used to collect the data. Result of the study showed that there was good implementation of multiple intelligences model, it could be seen from the result of questionnaire from the first cycle (69,06%), second cycle (70,59%) and third cycle (73,66%). There was significant improvement of students’ speaking skills in discussion texts, it could be seen from the result of test from the Pre cycle (62,14), first cycle (63,65), second cycle (65,65) and third cycle (76,89). And also there was students’ activeness by using multiple intelligences model in discussion text. it could be seen from teacher’s observation in the pre cycle (56,92%), first cycle (61,54%), second cycle (64,42%) and third cycle (76, 92%) and students’ observation in the pre cycle (48,57%), first cycle (54,29%), second cycle (65,71%) and third cycle (77,14%). Finally the result of this study showed that the implementation of multiple was good and it could improve students’ speaking skills in discussion text. It was signed by their improvements of each test result and their activeness in teaching learning activities..
Based on the conclusion above, the writer would like to give some suggestions to be considered by English teachers as follows : Multiple Intelligences model as an alternative method of the teaching process is a good way to be applied in the second year students of senior high school to improve their ability in speaking, conducts a study using the multiple intelligences model for their speaking class with a larger number of subjects, The teacher should give more chances to the students to be more active and then let the students to do several practice and the teacher should not rush to add new material before their students internalize the words, sentences, and or dialogues given before.