Improving English Speaking Skills Through Debate Methods in Students Junior High School

This study was conducted to describe the improvement of speech skills and the activeness of learners in English language development through debate methods, the implementation of this activity through Class Action Research. The study was conducted in class VII-B SMPN 2 Gunungsitoli Idanoi, which numbered 27 people. This research was conducted in the Even Semester of the Academic Year 2020/2021. Data sources in this class of research include learners, peers, researchers, and documents. The data collection techniques used are observations, tests, and questionnaires. The data analysis carried out in this study is a descriptive analysis technique that includes quantitative data and qualitative data. Quantitative data is obtained from the results of learning learners, while qualitative data is obtained from observation results. The results showed that debate methods in English learning could improve learners' ability to speak. This is seen from the observation that student activity increased from 68.63% in cycle I to 86.75% in cycle II. The final score of learners increased from 70.37 in cycle I to 88.9 in cycle II. This means that the debate method has a positive effect on improving students' speaking skills.


INTRODUCTION
Learning English in schools aims, among others, to communicate with English both orally and in writing (Kamilah et al., 2019). This is indicated by having the language skills that listen, speak, read and write. Learners must be able to communicate according to the context they face. Failure or success in learning English is very dependent on the ability and readiness of learners to participate in learning activities, one of which is influenced by how their attitude and interest in English (Meinawati et al., 2020).
The attitudes and interests of learners can be created and developed with innovations made by teachers to attract attention and foster the interest and motivation of learning learners. In the learning process, there is meaningful communication between teachers and learners, between learners and learners, so that the learning process can increase passion and motivation to create a meaningful and pleasant learning atmosphere. The implementation of "real communication" in the classroom can be determined by factors such as lesson goals, the level of proficiency of learners, and the type of role-playing activities, paired interviews, surveys/polls, or problem-solving situations (Delvia et al., 2019).
Communicative classes should engage learners in dynamic and interactive communication processes and experience language while analyzing it. The learning experience must involve learners as a whole, involving cognitive and psychomotor dimensions and effective. Meaningful and enjoyable learning experiences in learning English will significantly affect the condition of learners' learning interests (Mustika & Lestari, 2020).
The difficulties that occur in learning English are most people who already have good knowledge of English vocabulary and grammar but have not been able to use English in communicating even for daily conversation. Likewise, for students of class VII-B SMPN 2 Gunungsitoli Idanoi., one of the causes of their lack of ability to speak English is the limited space and time to practice and use English outside of English lessons. Most students still think English is a scary subject. They think English is a complex subject; no wonder if students lack the motivation and desire to learn English, causing their achievement in learning English has not shown satisfactory results. This can be seen from the list of daily test scores, assignment scores, semester test scores, and national final exam scores that have not met the expectations of teachers and students. Most learners still think English is a scary subject; they consider it a complex subject; no wonder if learners lack motivation and desire to learn English, learning English has not shown satisfactory results. This can be seen from the list of daily repeat scores, assignment scores, semester test scores, and national final exam scores that have not been in line with the expectations of teachers and learners. Especially in terms of the ability to speak and communicate in English is still very far from what was expected.
These problems emerge: (1) Learners still think English is an unattractive, complex, and dull subject. When the learning process takes place, there are still less passionate about following the learning process, so teachers should instill a sense of pleasure in English subject matter by providing stimulation, encouragement, and motivation to them, (2) The process of learning English is less conducive and innovative so that students can not even accept the learning that has been given by their teachers, which results in English learning results not by expected., (3) The low learning outcome of English learners is also because teachers still often have difficulty conveying English language materials to learners, (4) The lack of teacher variation in using learning media, learning techniques, learning methods, learning models. Teaching materials also cause learners to lack passion or lack of enthusiasm in receiving lessons.
This situation causes the ability of learners to communicate English tends to be not optimal, which leads to low learning achievement of learners. In order for learners to use communicative English, good teaching interaction is needed between teachers and learners in the learning process. In order to establish good communication and interaction between teachers and learners, a teacher must pay attention to the intellectual readiness of learners and the selection of appropriate learning methods and uses in the learning process. The success of learners in learning depends on the presentation of the subject matter, learning media, learning techniques, preparation of teaching materials, and teaching methods used by teachers in the learning process. One learning model that is expected to increase motivation and learning outcomes is to use debate learning methods. Debating methods are essential learning methods to improve English language skills (Nainggolan, 2017). A debate is an argument between two or more parties, both individually and in groups, discussing and deciding issues and differences. When we talk about the debate in the context of English, it means that the language used to argue in English. The debate can also be interpreted as a cross-opinion on a particular theme between supporters and deniers through an organized formal dialogue (Pradana, 2017). In the debate, learners tested the ability to think, especially the ability to speak in expressing opinions and refuting the opinions of others.
Speaking skills are one of the language skills possessed by every human being. It is obtained as a form of language sound imitation. Speaking is a process of conveying ideas or ideas from the speaker to the listener. The speaker is domiciled as a communicator while the listener is a communicant. Information presented orally can be received by the listener if the speaker can convey it correctly and adequately. Thus, the ability to speak is a factor that significantly affects one's proficiency in the delivery of information orally (Musfirah, 2019). For the conversation to achieve its goals, the speaker must have the ability and skills to convey information to others. This means that the speaker must understand how to speak effectively so that others (listeners) can capture the information conveyed by the speaker effectively.
Speaking is one of the language skills that are productive orally because, in this activity, the person who speaks (the speaker) is required to produce oral exposure, which reflects his ideas, feelings, and thoughts (Meika et al., 2019;Tianame et al., 2019). In order to be able to communicate verbally appropriately and effectively, learners must have communicative competence. Speaking is a tool to communicate ideas compiled and developed by the needs of the listener or examiner. The primary purpose of speaking is to communicate. In order to convey the mind effectively, the speaker should understand the meaning of everything that wants to be communicated. He must evaluate the effect of his communication on his listeners and must know the principles underlying all conversation situations, both in general and individually (Ulfa & Wijaya, 2019;Widyaningtyas et al., 2013).
Speaking skills are essentially the skill of producing the flow of the articulation sound system to convey the will, needs of feelings, and desires to others (Parmawati & Inayah, 2019). Speaking skills are language skills that students want to master. In the language itself, they can express emotions, communicate, and use language to entertain themselves. Therefore they hope to do the same when they learn English. Debate learning methods include interactive defense methods and force learners to play an active role in the learning process. Debate learning methods are effective in increasing learners' learning participation.
To measure speech skills, the most proper way is to have learners speak. Therefore, it needs to be tried to measure the ability to speak to do oral activities. By speaking, the teacher can know the level of speaking ability (such as the ability to express the meaning in question by using vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation correctly and fluently). Then the debate method is one of the methods that can be used to assess learners in the English speaking skills of learners (Nisa & Nasution, 2019).
To do the activity of speaking reasonably, the speaker certainly needs an interlocutor. This interlocutor can also gauge whether the speaker's speech is understandable, which means showing he or she is successful in communicating the meaning he wants to say. The interlocutor can be a teacher or a student. In the debate, the interlocutor is another group that acts as a pro group and a counter group. Teaching materials are selected and organized into packages of pros and cons. Learners are divided into groups, and each group is divided into four people. Two people took propositions in the group of learners, and two people took counter positions, conducting debates on assigned topics. Each group's report concerning both pro and con positions is given to teachers. Furthermore, teachers can evaluate each learner's mastery of English speaking materials and skills  (Pradana, 2017;Zainuddin, 2018). The application of the debate method in the learning process has changed students and has a positive impact. For example, students belonging to the experimental group showed higher scores in grammar and vocabulary. This is in line with previous research where there was an increase in linguistic aspects after learning by utilizing debate techniques (Widarmana et al., 2015;Zainuddin, 2018). In addition, students are encouraged to participate in class because students conduct debates. They seemed enthusiastic in discussion sessions, motivated to win debates, and active in their groups. The debate can increase student involvement in the learning process and respect differences and tolerance of other people's points of view (Musfirah, 2019;Pradana, 2017). The study also found that students' involvement in class increased as they became more enthusiastic and enjoyed teamwork activities. Tianame et al. (2019) mention that in addition to improving critical and problem-solving skills, using debate can also improve collaborative skills.
The purpose of this study was to see the improvement of students' English speaking skills. Therefore, the writer is interested in researching teaching speaking English through the application of the debate method.

RESEARCH METHODS
Research is a Class Action Research. The research was carried out in two cycles, each cycle was carried out in four meetings involving the steps of planning, implementing actions, observing, and reflecting. The implementation of class actions in two cycles, each cycle of two meetings. Research with the application of debate methods in class VIIB SMPN 2 Gunungsitoli Idanoi, which amounted to 27 people. This research was conducted in the even semester of the Academic Year 2020/2021 which lasted for 2 months. The study was conducted in two cycles. Cycle I with four meetings and 1 test. At the same time, cycle II with two meetings and one-time giving tests. At the planning stage, researchers analyze the syllabus to find out basic competencies and subject matter. After that, create a Learning Implementation Plan, prepare debate methods, create research instruments in test sheets, observation sheets, and determine observers. Data sources in this class of research include learners, peers, researchers, and documents. The data collection techniques used are observations, tests, and questionnaires. The data analysis carried out in this study is a descriptive analysis technique that includes quantitative data and qualitative data. Quantitative data is obtained from the results of learning learners, while qualitative data is obtained from observation results. If the percentage is 75% and it increases every cycle, it is assumed that the debate method can improve students' English speaking skills. The results of the reflection from the first cycle became the basis for carrying out the second cycle, and so on.

Research Results
This Class Action research is conducted in two cycles, each cycle of two meetings. Learning activities in this class action include initial activities, core activities, and final activities. The initial activity starts with greetings, praying, conditioning learners, checking the presence of learners, conveying perceptions to connect the material studied by previous learners with the material that the teacher will present, and conveying the learning goals to be achieved. In the core activities of the teacher carrying out learning using debate methods. During the learning process, the teacher observes and provides assessments to learners, both process assessment and results.
Assessments made in the learning process using debate methods are actively speaking, expressing opinions, refuting opinions, vocabulary, sentence arrangement, intonation, pronunciation, and working together. Based on the results of observations and evaluations conducted in cycle I and cycle II, it can be known the activeness of learners in the learning process as presented in the table as follows: Based on the table above, it is seen that there is an increase in the activeness of learners from cycle I and cycle II. This gives an idea that the learning methods used positively affect the activeness of learners. From the student activity table above, it is seen that there is an increase in the number of active learners. This is seen in the number of learners who actively express and refute opinions, vocabulary, sentence arrangement, intonation, pronunciation, and cooperation.
The results of the learning ability to speak English in cycle I and cycle II can be seen from the following table: Based on the average ability to speak, English learners in cycle I and cycle II increased, namely the average score of 70.37 to 88.9. So, it can be concluded that learning using debate methods can improve the English speaking skills of class VII B. Based on the results of evaluations conducted in cycle I and cycle II show an increase in the percentage of learning completion.

Discussion
Based on the analysis of the problem faced by partners, teachers' low creativity in determining learning techniques speaking skills to students so that students seem inactive while learning. During the teaching and learning process in the classroom, teachers are more likely to focus on reading, writing, and listening skills. Aside from the low factor of teacher creativity in determining learning techniques, there are also factors in students who are not used to being active, shy until the knowledge or understanding that students have is still low so that students prefer silence rather than actively speaking in the classroom. Both of these factors must be provided the right solution so that the difficulties faced by students in conveying ideas, thoughts, and questions can be adequately conveyed.
Based on the analysis of the study results, it is generally obtained that the use of the model of learning debate methods can positively influence speech skills. Research conducted (Rediasih et al., 2017;Wagu & Riko, 2020;Wardani & Sabardila, 2020) debate methods can be another alternative to improve students' speech skills. Furthermore, research conducted (Nainggolan, 2017;Setianingsih et al., 2019;Zainuddin, 2018) found that students' speaking skills in subjects Indonesian can be improved with active debate learning methods. Then, research conducted (Musfirah, 2019;Widiawati & Agustini, 2020) concluded that the application of debating methods can improve students' speaking skills.

CONCLUSION
Based on the results of research that has been implemented, it can be concluded that the use of debate methods in English learning can improve the ability of learners in speaking, especially in accuracy, understanding of topics of conversation (comprehensibility), how to convey arguments, ideas/opinions (method of delivering arguments, ideas/opinions), fluency. This is evident from the results of the processing of observational data; the activity of learners increased from 68.63% to 86.75%. The final score of learners increased from 70.37 to 88.9. The application of debate methods can foster and instill cooperation and mutual respect between friends in addressing differences of opinion.