Role Playing in Indonesian Language Learning: Its Effect on Fifth-Grade Elementary School Students' Speaking Skills

Abstract

Speaking skills are essential in Indonesian language learning because they enable students to express ideas, respond to interlocutors, and participate in classroom interaction. This study aimed to analyze the effect of role-playing instruction on the speaking skills of fifth-grade students at SD Al-Ittihadiyah. A quantitative quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design involving an experimental and a control group was employed. The sample comprised 38 students, with 19 students in each group, selected through total sampling. The experimental group received role-playing instruction, whereas the control group followed conventional learning. Speaking performance data were obtained through observation/assessment before and after the intervention and analyzed using descriptive statistics, normality and homogeneity tests, paired-samples t-tests, and an independent-samples t-test. The experimental group mean increased from 56.84 (SD = 13.664) to 76.58 (SD = 6.882), while the control group increased from 53.95 (SD = 13.802) to 65.26 (SD = 10.603). The posttest comparison showed a significant between-group difference, t(36) = 3.902, p < .001, with a mean difference of 11.316. The findings indicate that role playing is associated with higher speaking performance and can be considered a participatory instructional alternative for Indonesian language learning in elementary schools.