The Student Wheels Strategy in Teaching Speaking Skills to Cultivate Politeness at Junior High School

Abstract

The English Course is one of the foreign language courses that must be taught as a compulsory subject at school, especially in the Junior High School. It is more stressed on knowledge of the four standards of competence or the four language skills, without considering the ethical values contained in that four language skills. It means that the teaching and learning English, especially in speaking skills, should be taught not only in the cognitive skills, but also in the affective skills as well. The education regarding how language-speaking politely, considering the value of tolerance, sympathy, and empathy. So implementing politeness in the process of teaching English speaking skills is important. Politeness is the rules of conduct established and agreed upon jointly by a particular community so that politeness as well as be concluded by the prerequisite of social behavior. To cultivate politeness in English speaking class, the English teachers at Junior High Schools (SMP) can use the teaching strategy, such as <i>Student wheels </i>strategy. <i>Student Wheels</i> is adopted from Hadfield (in Sulistiyowati, 2009: 72-73) to get the students more active in speaking class and accustomed in using polite language. Using <i>Student wheels</i>, all students can get their roles in speaking because they have to interact each other by standing in two circles formed as wheels. In this strategy, all students use the expressions of English speaking thought by the teacher and they can accustom by themselves in implementing politeness in the classroom.