THE EFFECT OF ROLE PLAYING TECHNIQUE ON STUDENTS’ SPEAKING ABILITY

This study attempted to investigate the effect of role playing technique on student’s speaking ability. The purpose of the study is to find out whether or not there is a significant effect of the technique. The population of this study was 72 students of Potensi Utama University which located at Jl.K.L.Yos Sudarso, Km. 6,5 No. 3A Tanjung Mulia Medan. From this population, two groups were chosen randomly as sample by using lottery system, namely: The control group and experimental group. The total number of sample was 30 students. The instrument used for collecting data was oral test. The scoring system based on a rating system in which a short description on the student’s performance in a scale. In order to see whether or not there is a significant effect between the two techniques, the result of the tests were analyzed statistically by using the t–test. From the calculation, it is obtained that t–observed is higher than t–critical value. It means that the hypothesis is accepted. In other words, it can be concluded that the role-playing technique significantly influenced the students’ speaking ability in English.


Introduction
A teacher of English should be familiar with various techniques of teaching the language. This is true because students learn with different motivation. They may find a lesson boring because the teacher cannot perform well in class. A proper technique must be applied to achieve the objective of the teaching. Teaching English as a foreign language can be performed in many ways applying different teaching techniques. A technique is a 2. MELT Journal, Vol 1 Issue 1, June 2016 ISSN: 2528-0287 particular implementation created by teacher to enhance the learning process. The teacher knows that he is supposed to improve the students' skills in using the language.
There are a lot of techniques that can be chosen by the teacher for classroom interaction. The choice is determined by the learning or teaching objectives. If he wants to emphasize communicative competence, he might choose the technique that stimulates the students' interest in using the language. Or if he wishes to teach grammar, he can concentrate on sentence patterns that can be introduced through a game.
Teachers of English know very well that a technique requires skills and practice to apply it to the teaching. Without some knowledge on the idea of effective techniques, the teaching performance may fail to achieve the learning objectives. It is important to understand how and why a technique is applied to accomplish the goals. The problem of teaching may come from lack of knowledge about the various techniques introduced in textbooks or guidelines for teaching. Every technique has its own advantages in the teaching process. The teacher's creativity to modify a given technique is an essential requirement to the teaching of the language. Using particular technique implies that the teacher should be familiar with the effect that the technique will produce in the teaching process.
One of the popular techniques today is role playing. It is said that this technique is quite simple and flexible. It can be performed in a classroom with the creative skill of the teacher. Klippel (1989:112) even claims that role playing improves students' oral performance generally. To prove the validity of the statement above, a research should be made by actually applying the technique in the classroom. It is expected that through the application of such a technique is really effective in improving the speaking ability of the students.
The writer wishes to replicate research in the sense that the claims that have been stated by other teachers or experts must be verified. It is not enough to say that role playing is effective. There must be an actual experiment to support the claims. In addition, role playing involves various skills such as listening, speaking, reading and writing. In the application of the technique, there may be unexpected factors that influence the effectiveness of the technique.
It should also be clarified that applying a role-playing technique must be based on a certain approach. A communicative approach demands that the teacher should speak English in the class interaction. There may be problems of comprehension as well. Judging from the aspect of the learning process, a role-playing technique should be followed by clear instructions on how to carry out the activities. Perhaps, not many teachers wish to use this kind of technique since they have problems of communicating the ideas or giving clear instructions. The writer believes that, with his proficiency in giving instructions in English, he can perform the activities well enough to serve the purpose of this study.
This study focuses on the application of role playing technique in improving the students' speaking ability. Speaking as one of the four language skills will be analyzed in terms of the students' comprehension on the given materials. Thus, their speaking ability is measured from their proficiency. The proficiency will be determined by classifying the factors that influence the speaking ability such as the speed of delivery, amount of information given in a session of speaking, and comprehension of the topic.

Review of Literature
In order to achieve scientific trustworthiness, it is important to clarify terms or theories that are the basis of the analysis. The theoretical viewpoints explain the stages of the analysis. All the concepts as used in this study will provide the framework of reference from which a conclusion can be drawn. Therefore, the following description is aimed at providing the clarification of terms used in this study.

Role-Play
Role-play as a technique in teaching foreign languages, especially English either as a foreign language or an international language has been popular among teachers of English. The role-play technique refers to a teacher's strategy to improve the students' speaking ability by assigning them to certain roles in a conversation. This technique follows the practice of simulation in class. Richards's et.al (1985:246) explains the terms as follows: Role-playing is drama-like classroom activities in which students take the roles of different participants in a situation and act out what might typically happen in that situation. For example, to practice how to express complaints and apologies in a foreign language, students might have to role-play a situation in which a customer in a shop returns a faulty article to a salesperson.
Thus, it is important to note the relationship between a "real "situation and the "simulated "situation in class. The situation in class should be designed in such a way as to represent the situation in the real world. Students will use the language in various situations. To be able to communicate, they ought to understand how situations affect their way of speaking. For instance, a formal situation requires them to use formal words. On the other hand, in a less tense situation, they can use words of the daily jargon.
Since a role play may have different teaching purposes, this term can be an umbrella term. It means that a role-play can be seen from different perspectives. Ladousse (1987:5) explains that the terms "role-play "takes on different meanings for different people. It certainly seems to encompass an extremely varied collection of activities. These range from highly controlled guided conversations at one end of the scale, to improvise drama activities at the other; from simple rehearsed dialogue performance, to highly complex simulated scenarios.
Roleplaying is part of simulation. In simulation all four skills, namely listening, speaking, reading and writing are often trained. A role-play may emphasize one of two skills at the same time. The complexity of simulations, which run over several stages, prevents the teacher from exactly determining beforehand which structures, words and language skills will be needed by the players.
Clearly, however, simulations are complex, lengthy, and relatively inflexible events. They will always include an element of role play, though other types of activity, such as analysis of data, discussion of options, etc are always involved. Role play, on the other hand, can be a quite simple and brief technique to organize. It is also highly flexible, leaving much more scope for the exercise of individual variation, initiative, and imaginative. Whereas role play is included in simulations, it is not by any means confined to them. The problem with applying the role playing technique in class to be more effective is that teachers force the students to act out the roles according to the instructions or scripts given. As a result, the students tend to play the roles of participants without any creativity on the part of the students. In other words, there is little improvisation from the students to do the role play in the class simulation. Piper & Piper (1984:35) observe this situation by saying that the difference between the type of role play that normally takes place in the classroom and that which takes place in real life can be reduced if classroom role play emphasizes the communicative interaction of individuals acting on their own behalf and without the assumption of personae superimposed by the teacher. This observation should be realized by teachers who want to make the role-play more effective to attain its goals as a teaching technique.
There must be reasons for using a role play as part of the teaching process in the classroom. If the objective of the teaching is to improve students' speaking ability, the students should be exposed as much as possible to the use of conversations in class. It should be noted that the students' fluency is related to their listening. They process the sounds and imitate them in their language production. In other words, speaking as the productive skill is influenced by the listening as the receptive skill. However, to improve the speaking skill, they should be encouraged to use the language in a real situation. Rivers (1968:169) supports the idea of using a role play for the teaching process in her statement as follows: Apart from the linguistic value of teaching contemporary speech in an immediately usable form, dialogue learning has definite pedagogical advantages, especially at junior high school level when many students are having their first experience of the study of a foreign language. At this age, students like to act out roles, and some of the embarrassment of making strange sounds is eliminated as students take on the personalities of people who speak the language in everyday situations.
It is then true to say that role playing involves listening and speaking. When the emphasis is placed on speaking, this technique must be designed to students to act out roles that will never be realized in their real life situations. It is essential to choose what roles are really significant to improve their speaking ability.
From the explanations of teachers who have used the role play in their teaching, Ladousse (1987:7) concludes the reasons for choosing role-play in their teaching process as follows: 1. A very wide variety of experience can be brought into the classroom through role play.
The range of functions and structures, and the areas of vocabulary that can be introduced, go far beyond the limits of other pair of group activities, such as conversation, communication games, or humanistic exercises. Through role play we can train our students in speaking skills in any situation. 2. Role play puts students in situations in which they are required to use and develop those phatic forms of language which are so necessary in oiling the works of social relationships, but which are so often neglected by our language teaching syllabuses. Many students believe that language is only to do with the transfer of specific information from one person to another. They have very little small talk, and in consequence often appear unnecessary brusque and abrupt. It is possible to build up these social skills from a very low level through role play.
3. Some people are learning English to prepare for specific roles in their lives. For example, those people who are going to work or travel in an international context must know the appropriate words for the communication in that particular place. It is helpful for these students to have tried out and experimented with the language they will require in the friendly and safe environment of a classroom. For these students role play is a very useful dress rehearsal for real life. It enables them not just to acquire set phrases, but to learn how interaction might take place in a variety of situations. 4. Role play helps many shy students by providing them with a mask. Some more reticent members of a group may have a great deal of difficulty participating in conversations about themselves, and in other activities based on their direct experience. These students are liberated by role play as they no longer feel that their own personality is implicated. 5. Perhaps the most important reason for using role play is that it is fun. Once students understand what is expected of them, they thoroughly enjoy letting their imagination rip. Although there does not appear to be any scientific evidence that enjoyment automatically leads to be better learning, most language teachers would probably agree that in the case of the vast majority of normal people is surely so. 6. Role play is one of a whole gamut of communicative techniques which develop fluency in language students, which promotes interaction in the classroom, and which increases motivation. Not only is peer learning encouraged by it, but also the sharing between teacher and student of the responsibility for the learning process. Role play is perhaps the most flexible technique in the range, and teachers who have it at their fingertips are able to meet an infinite variety of needs with suitable and effective role-play exercises.
In conclusion, role-play is not an isolated activity, but integral part of the lesson in which it is used. Exactly how it is used will depend on the individual teacher. It may be the climax of the lesson, for which the preceding work has built up the necessary skills, or it may be only a small part of the lesson contributing to some other more general aim. Useful structures can be presented before the role play starts, or can be fed in afterwards as remedial work.

Speaking Ability
Speaking is a production skill is language. Speakers use language to communicate ideas and thoughts to other. The interaction has the purpose of influencing their listeners. Clark and Clark (1977:223) defines speaking as fundamentally instrumental in conveying meaning. Speakers talk in order to have some effect on their listeners. They assert things to change their state of knowledge. They ask them questions to get them to provide information. They request things to get them to do things for them. And they promise, bet, warn, and exclaim to affect them in still other ways.
Speaking is not as simple as it looks. Speakers have to formulate their ideas in grammatically acceptable sentences. Therefore, their fluency in talking is very much influenced by many factors. If they are not knowledgeable, they may find it hard to discuss a topic. The topic can be of anything that has some interest. They will start talking about it when they think it is the right moment to talk to their listeners. Brown and Yule (1983:5) say that speakers talk to fulfill the social needs (phatic communion). This means that they talk for the sake of getting the attention of other people. As social beings, they wish to get associated with their friends. Talking to each other gives them a certain meaning. They can exchange views and opinions on certain issues in their life. This is in accordance to the function of language namely to establish interaction among speakers. The topic should be interesting and familiar. Both a speaker and a listener will be involved in an exchange of views about the content of the topic. They can contribute some ideas to what one has said. For instance, one of them as the speaker may say something more to their knowledge. In this case, the language is used for transaction (exchange and dissemination of knowledge). They can continue to the talk until they are satisfied with the amount of information that has been exchange. There are rules that they have to follow in terminating the talk. These rules are understood when they hear certain expressions to signal the end of the talk.
One of the speakers may be more fluent. This is due to the fact that the speaker has more information to share. Pride and Holmes (1972:54) mention some of the social variables that determine the fluency such as social class, sex, occupation, religious affiliation, political affiliation, family, locale, national origin, school and informal factors. This is obvious when speakers are observed in their speaking. A more highly-educated person might be more fluent in discussing a certain topic because he has more confident in rendering his story. A father is usually dominant in his family and so he is more fluent in the sense that his children will not argue severely against his ideas. All these events are common sense to outsiders. It is possible to identify other factors that influence the fluency of the speakers.
Speaking ability is therefore related to many factors. There is a relationship between the ability to listen and the ability to speak because some information is gained from listening. In other words, the topic to be discussed in speaking is relevant to what the speaker has heard from another person. That is the reason why in teaching, listening is always related to speaking. Pierce (1988:13) claims that teachers should recognize that listening is an interactive, not a passive process, requiring much effort and practice on the part of the students. They need only remember how difficult it is to learn to distinguish sounds and extract the meaning from foreign language in the early stages of language learning in order to appreciate the difficulty of the task. For this reason, the role of the teacher both as listener and presenter of highly relevant listening and speaking activities is of paramount importance in the EFL (English as a Foreign Language) situation. Teachers should also know how to select and design appropriate and authentic language-learning materials and activities in consonance with the age group, interest levels, and language ability of the students. Specifically, a repertoire of learning activities to be used before listening, while listening, and after listening should be developed. These activities must be based on extremely high-interest-level topics in order to promote learning. They should also provide extended practice in grammar, vocabulary, and language functions presented in the classroom. It is impossible to separate listening from speaking in terms of reaching a higher proficiency.
The word "ability" refers to the potential or capacity to do something physical or mental (Hornby, 1984:2). In this sense, speaking ability involves many activities. Apart from pronouncing words correctly with the organs of articulation, speakers should mentally understand the situations where they speak. Situations affect manners of speaking. In a market place certain words will be used instead of those words used in hospital. This knowledge must be instilled in the minds of speakers. Van Ek (1987:78) agrees to the idea of training students to analyze situations for their speaking ability. He says In order to define the learning-objective for a target group we first have to specify the situations in which they will need the foreign language. Specifying a situation means stating the roles a language-user has to play, the settings in which he will have to play these roles, and the topics he will have to deal with.
When a speaker realizes the type of situation in which he is involved, he then has the chance of choosing the right words for the communicative interaction. His speaking ability is influenced by the nature of the situations. If he can respond to any language behavior of other people, his speaking ability is said to be sufficient. He can always learn how to improve his speaking ability based on the purpose of the communication.

Technique
In order to accomplish a certain goal of teaching a foreign language, a technique should be familiar to the teacher. Techniques can help him improve the students' skills in mastering the language. In other words, techniques are very useful to be applied in class so that the teaching process is facilitated. It is true that teachers often confuse the term "technique" with an approach or a method. This is due to the overlapping meaning of each term. Also, the other terms may include the basic idea of technique.
In fact, technique is a kind of strategy to make a lesson more understandable to the students. In other words, the teacher devises a kind of activity that can stimulate the curiosity of the students to learn more. It is also aimed at facilitating the comprehension of the students when the learning process occurs. Anthony (1972:7), for instance, explains that, " A technique is implementation-that which actually takes place in classroom. It is a particular trick, stratagem, or contrivance used to accomplish an immediate objective. Techniques must be consistent with a method, and therefore in harmony with an approach as well. In this case, role-technique is based on the Audio-Lingual method because the method implies the use of the target language. It means the teacher, when practicing the role play, should speak English in giving the tasks to the students. Also, the role play is consistent with the linguistic approach because the first objective of teaching a language is the practice of communication. Further, techniques depend on the teacher, his individual artistry, and on the composition of the class. Particular problems can be tackled equally successfully by the use of different techniques.
Role-playing techniques then refers to a certain technique which requires students to play a certain role in an imaginary situation in everyday life. The real situation can reconstructed in class. For instance, a dialogue in a restaurant can be simulated in class by giving the students roles assumed by the characters in the dialogue. One student will take the role of a waitress and the other is a customer. The setting will also influence the topic of the conversation. The teacher should be able to control the class through the technique. In other words, he or she should know the aims of the technique which is to facilitate the comprehension of the students on certain topics or grammatical features. There should be cooperation between the teacher and the students to make the technique workable. Shy students should not be punished. The activity must be interesting and conducive to the use of English as the target language. The more creative the teacher in designing the role-play, the better the students will enjoy learning the language.
Considering the nature of role-playing technique, it is believed that this technique can enhance the students' speaking ability. This teaching technique allows them with ample 8. MELT Journal, Vol 1 Issue 1, June 2016ISSN: 2528 opportunities to express themselves in the foreign language. The factors such as grammar, vocabulary, ease of pronunciation, speed of delivery, mastery of the topic and automatic response determine the level of fluency of the students. Each of the factors may be exploited in the application of role-playing technique.

Methodology Research Design
This study was conducted in experimental design. There were two groups of students, namely the control and experimental groups. The pretest was administered to both groups before treatment. The post test was given after the treatment. The design is as follows: Pretest → Control Group + Experimental Group Treatment → Experimental Group (2 months) Post-Test → Control Group + Experimental Group

Population and Sample
There were 72 students of Potensi Utama University at Jl.K.L. Yos Sudarso No. 3A, Tanjung Mulia Medan. The students have learned English for 4 months at the University and their level is categorized as intermediate. For practicality of the research, a sample was randomly drawn through a lottery system. The sample were 60 students since the minimum size for experimental study is 30 (Gay, 1987:115). The homogeneity of the sample is acceptable from their level of proficiency at the intermediate level. The 60 sample students were divided into the control group and experimental group consisting of 30 students. The assignment of the two groups for both control and experimental group was done by lottery technique too.

Treatment
After the control group and experimental group have been decided, then treatment in the form of role-play was given to the experimental group pretending to have a talk in a restaurant. Each of the groups consists of 30 students who have almost similar background skills in relation to speaking ability. This procedure is to eliminate bias of different potentials in terms of speaking ability.
There were 8 meetings for each group. This is considered enough for the effect of the role-playing technique since role-playing requires basic understanding of spoken language. The control group was taught in the conventional way, that is, they were asked to memorize conversations instead of assuming roles as in the role-playing technique. On the other hand, the experimental group was given the treatment of the technique. The material consists of instructions to be carried out. For instance, they were given some roles to perform in a small talk session. The topic is about a talk in a restaurant. They are free to choose or use any expressions to accomplish the goals or roles that they have to perform in a small talk session. Speaker A and Speaker B should be able to perform the talk or conversation without any prompt from the teacher or there was no intervention from the teacher when the students practiced the conversation. Questions about the topic can be asked later as part of the speaking ability activities.

Instrument of Data Collection
The data was collected by administering an oral test. This is done by asking the 15 pairs of the students to conduct a conversation. The topic is chosen on the basis of the students' familiarity with their surrounding, A talk in a restaurant is assumed to be easy or practical because the students have had some experience in the use of the language. Hence, the topic is about the common talk in a restaurant. Each pair is supposed to use expressions commonly uttered in that place.
The arrangement of the test is as follows: 1) Pair of students are called up to perform the role-play. The pair should be chosen on the basis of approximate linguistic ability.
2) The pair consists of different sexes (male and female) to eliminate the bias of sex. A male will be a waiter and a customer will be a female or vice versa.
3) The simple instructions are given to the pair before they perform talk in the role-play thus letting them to be creative in the choice of expressions used in the particular situation. 4) The talk or conversation in the role-play will be recorded by using a tape-recorder. This machine is put near the students to make sure that their voice is audible on the tape. 5) The researcher should be nearby to make sure the machine operates will (in case of changing the new tape). 6) The students are instructed to speak louder with the free body movements which can influence their fluency in the language.

Scoring System
The scores are given on the basis of the students' performance in role-playing the guided conversations. The recorder conversations are played to other teacher for their "impression". The criteria are provided. These criteria include grammar, vocabulary, ease of pronunciation, speed of delivery, mastery of the topic and automatic response.
The scoring system is based on a rating system in which a short description on the students' performance provided with the scores in a scale (Heaton, 1988:98). Rating: Ability to communicate orally in a role-play situation (from highest to lowest level). 5 = Excellent in expressing ideas using the relevant vocabulary, grammar without any trouble in pronunciation and in continuing the topic spontaneously. 4 = Very good in explaining certain things by using the relevant vocabulary with a minor number of mistakes in grammar and pronunciation without damaging the continuation of the talk. 3 = Quite communicative in telling their ideas about the topics with some mistakes in grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation without damaging the continuation of the talk. 2 = Talks rather slowly in continuing the topic with some mistakes in grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation but responds to any questions quite spontaneously. 1 = Talk hesitatingly with many mistakes in grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation without responding to questions that support the topic.

The Validity of the Test
The oral test is in the form of role play is based on the theoretical assumption that the students who have mastered grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and other non-linguistic 10. MELT Journal, Vol 1 Issue 1, June 2016ISSN: 2528 factors will be able to speak fluently. Therefore, this test has the construct validity in which the results of the test can confirm the theoretical views on the nature of speaking.

The Reliability of the Test
The oral test in the form of role-play is aimed at discovering the effects of the roleplaying techniques on speaking ability. This is reliable because the students' role play has something to do with speaking ability. To establish the reliability of the scores, a technique called "inter-rater reliability" is applied. The scores of the role play are given by two or three teachers who evaluate the students' performance on the basis of the scoring system. The purpose of using this technique is to achieve objectivity in the assessment of the role play. The sets of scores by the other teachers (other than the researchers) will be correlated using the Pearson product-moment.

The Procedure of Analyzing the Data
After the data have been recorded, they are transcribed as linguistic evidence for the analysis. The aspects of grammar, vocabulary and ease of pronunciation, speed of delivery, mastery of the topic and automatic response will be included. The steps in analyzing the data as follows: 1. Establish the criteria (rating) for scoring the conversations namely the grammar, vocabulary and ease of pronunciation (fluency), speed of delivery, mastery of the topic and automatic response. 2. Check the time for the conversations to last (the longest is 10 minutes). The ten-minute period is considered long enough to tell much about a topic in a conversation. This can be extended, however, depending on the speed of delivery and mastery of the topic. 3. Find out the relevance of the topic to the content of the conversations as part of the scoring system. 4. Play the tape again to make sure that the aspects have been judged. 5. Ask two other teachers to give the scores on the basis of their impression with reference to the rating system provided. 6. The three scores (including the writer's) are combined to have the mean score as the objective score for each conversation. 7. The five conversations for each group (control and experimental) will be compared through the mean scores. 8. The difference (if any) will be put into a t-test for the significance of the difference. 9. If the t-test proves that the difference of the mean scores of the five conversations for each group is significant, then, the hypothesis is accepted. 10. The criteria for the grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation are established according to the expectation of the relationship between the topic and the content. If the topic is about a narration, for instance, the simple past will be expected in the conversations.

Findings
There were 60 students involved in the research. They were divided into two groups, namely the control group and the experimental group. The control group was taught conventionally whereas the experimental group was given some treatment in the form of teaching them conversations through role playing. The experimental group had 8 meetings or sessions for the meeting.
Before the treatment was started, a pre-test was administered to both groups. The pretest form consisted of a description of activities in a restaurant. In other words, each student was expected to talk about what he or she knew about activities in the restaurant. Two students were asked to have a short conversation which setting was a restaurant. The test covered the aspects of conversation such as: grammar (G), vocabulary (V), ease of pronunciation (EP), speed of delivery (SD), mastery of the topic (MT), and automatic response (AR). These elements are believed to support the speaking ability. Each is scored on the basis of impression of the researcher. The score was on the basis of 0-100 scale. The results of the test for both control and experimental groups are as follows: The score of each student or speaker in the conversation was given according to the rating scale already understood by the raters (the other two raters were also teachers of English). The real score is the mean of the three raters' scaling scores. This is the result of the role-playing post test of the experimental group: The two means score of both control and experimental groups is different. The mean score of the experimental group is higher than of the control group (4.208 -2.652 = 1.556). This difference can indicate that there was an effect of the role-playing technique over the students' speaking ability. This technique improved the ability of the students by the difference of the score 1.556. However, this difference should be tested by using a ttest to find out or prove if it is really significant. This means that if the difference can show that the observed t-value is greater than the critical value of t-table, then it is quite significant. Based on the hypothesis proposed (null hypothesis, directional), then the t-table should be in the one-tailed test at the level of significance of 0.05. To get the t-observed value, the t-test formula is applied as follows:

( ) √
Where: Xe = mean score of experimental group Xc = mean score of the control group = the total of the squared deviations of the experimental group = the total of the squared deviations of the control group = the number of the students in the control group = the number of the students in the experimental group. (Hatch&Farhady, 1982:111) Having identified the value of each component in the formula of t-test, then the t-value can be obtained: This t (obs) is later compared to the t-table critical values at the df (degree of freedom = 30 which is 1.697 (one-tailed test at p=0.05; null (directional) hypothesis. Since the value of the t-obs is higher than the critical value (2.228 > 1.697) then, the role-playing technique had a significant effect over the students' speaking ability. Consequently, the nullhypothesis was rejected and the alternative hypothesis was accepted.

Conclusion and Suggestions Conclusion
The role-playing technique as performed in the classes at University of Potensi Utama Medan had significant effect over the students' speaking ability. With 30 students in each control and experimental group, it was discovered that the technique improved their speaking ability. The result of the t-test has proved the significance of the different means of the control and experimental groups (1.556) in which the t-observed value 2.288 exceeds the critical value of t (1.697) at df = 30, p = 0,05 (one-tailed test). It can be concluded that the role-playing technique significantly affected the students' speaking ability in English.

Suggestions
Learning how to speak English fluently requires prerequisites such as grammar, vocabulary, each of pronunciation, speed of delivery, mastery of the topic and automatic 16. MELT Journal, Vol 1 Issue 1, June 2016 ISSN: 2528-0287 response. All these skills can be enhanced through the application of role-playing technique in teaching English. Therefore, when the purpose for teaching English is to enable the students to speak fluently, they should be given more chance to practice the language. The following suggestions may be useful to improve the speaking ability: 1. For the English teachers especially those who emphasize the importance of speaking ability can use this technique as a reference for material designs in the classroom. 2. For the course designers and textbook writer might benefit from the discovery of the truth in applying the technique to the teaching of English.