THE EFFECTIVENESS OF LANGUAGE GAMES IN IMPROVING SPEAKING COMPETENCE OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

This study investigates the effectiveness of language games in improving the speaking competenceof junior high school students. Speaking is widely recognized as one of the most challenginglanguage skills for EFL learners because it requires not only grammatical accuracy and vocabularyknowledge but also fluency, pronunciation, and interactional ability. Many students struggle withanxiety, lack of motivation, and limited opportunities to practice English orally in authenticcontexts. To address these challenges, this research employed a quasi-experimental design with apre-test and post-test control group.The participants consisted of two classes of eighth-grade students in an Indonesian junior highschool during the 2024/2025 academic year. One class (the experimental group) was taught usingvarious language games, while the other (the control group) was taught using conventionalmethods such as drills and textbook-based exercises. Both groups took speaking tests before andafter six weeks of instruction. The tests were assessed based on five components: fluency, accuracy,vocabulary, pronunciation, and interaction.The results revealed that the experimental group showed significantly greater improvement inoverall speaking competence compared to the control group. The most notable progress wasobserved in fluency, vocabulary, and interaction, while accuracy and pronunciation also improvedto a lesser extent. These findings indicate that language games not only enhance students’motivation and confidence but also provide meaningful opportunities for communication. Thestudy concludes that language games are an effective and enjoyable strategy for improvingspeaking skills and should be integrated into junior high school English instruction.