Improving Early Childhood Speaking Ability Through the Role-Play Method at Ar-Rahima Playgroup: A Classroom Action Research

Abstract

Speaking ability is a foundational component of early language development that shapes a child's communicative competence, reasoning, and self-concept. Preliminary observation at Ar-Rahima Playgroup (Kelompok Bermain, KOBER) revealed that only 27% of Group B children reached the expected level of oral expression; most remained passive, produced fragmented utterances, and lacked confidence in speaking. This study examines whether the role-play method can improve the speaking ability of children aged 5–6 years and how the improvement unfolds across action cycles. A Classroom Action Research design following the Kemmis and McTaggart model was conducted over two cycles, each comprising planning, action, observation, and reflection, with fifteen children and the classroom teacher as collaborator. Data were collected through a rating-scale observation sheet, documentation, and teacher interviews, then analysed using descriptive quantitative percentages and the qualitative model of Miles and Huberman. The proportion of children in the well-developed category rose from 27% at baseline to 60% in Cycle I and 87% in Cycle II, surpassing the 80% success criterion. Children became more willing to initiate talk, constructed longer and better-structured sentences, and asked as well as answered questions. The findings position role-play as a socially situated scaffold for oral language, while acknowledging the small single-site sample as a limit on generalisation