TEACHER'S COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING (CLT) STRATEGIES IN IMPROVING THE SPEAKING ABILITY OF THE HOSPITALITY STUDENTS (A CASE STUDY AT SMKN 5 BARRU)

Abstract

The descriptive study focused on investigating CLT strategies employed by the English teacher in hospitality classrooms to improve the hospitality students' speaking abilities. This research conducted a mixed method design with the quantitative analysis applied in small proportion only to measure the mean score of pre-test and post-test students speaking improvements. The participants in this study involved one teacher and one class from twelfth-grade (XII) students of hospitality at SMK N 5 Barru that consisted of 20 students. Observation with field notes and interviews were used as instruments for data collection. This research utilized Richards's (2006) three practices of mechanical practice, meaningful practice, and communicative practice as the basis in investigating the CLT strategies used by the teacher. The data were analyzed in three major steps such as data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing proposed by Miles & Huberman (1994). The findings indicated that the English teacher mostly used meaningful and communicative practices rather than mechanical practices. In applying CLT strategies to improve the hospitality students speaking abilities, the teacher mostly provided active discussion activities and worked in pairs or groups with the encouragement of integrating some additional tools such as the online platforms and applications. Moreover, cumulative score analysis from pre-test and post-test verified that the level of speaking proficiency in hospitality students demonstrated a 57.5% improvement, leading to the enhancement in their speaking score, which was classified as moderate categorization. The findings of this study concluded that CLT strategies that applied by the teacher helped improve the students speaking abilities gradually, as these applications also serve the purpose of engaging and captivating students in language learning by encouraging them with opportunities to utilize technological advancements in developing their language skills.