The correlation between students’ background knowledge and their speaking ability at SMA Negeri 1 Parigi

Abstract

This study focused on the correlation between students’ background knowledge and their speaking ability. The research design was quantitative ex post facto research. The research was conducted at SMAN 1 Parigi in the 2029/2020 academic year. The sample was 32 students. The data collection was carried out by giving several tests to students, namely a test of previous knowledge on a predetermined topic, and continued with a speaking test in front of the class, with a total of forty-eight questions for a previous knowledge test and nine questions for a speaking ability test. The data was analyzed by using SPSS version 16.0 (descriptive analysis and inferential statistics). Descriptive analysis was used to describe the maximum score, minimum score, average score, and standard deviation, while inferential statistics were used to test the hypothesis. The results of this research showed that there was a relationship between prior knowledge of a topic and students' speaking ability. In order to prove this hypothesis, the researcher drew conclusions by comparing the Sig (2-tailed) value with the α significance value, which showed that the Sig (2-tailed) value was 0,000, while the α significance value was 0.05. Therefore, it could be concluded that the Sig value (2-tailed) was lower than the significance value α (0.000 <0.05). In other words, the alternative hypothesis (H1) was accepted, indicating a significant correlation between students' background knowledge and their speaking ability.