p–ISSN 2614-6320

Volume 1, No. 6, November 2018 e–ISSN 2614-6258

THE CORRELATION BETWEEN ENGLISH GRAMMAR

COMPETENCE AND SPEAKING FLUENCY
Siska Anisa Kusumawardani1, Endah Mardiyani2.
1
IKIP Siliwangi
2
IKIP Siliwangi
1
zaynsiska@gmail.com, 2mardianiendah4@gmail.com.

Abstract
The objective in this case to examine how English grammar competence can influence speaking fluency.
The authorcharity quantitative method, and correlation research design. The population was 170 of tenth
grade students from 6 classes, at MAN Cimahi in academic year 2018/2019 and the sample was 34
students from design class. The instruments took grammar test and speaking interview. The student’s
grammar competence scores (X) and the student’s speaking fluency (Y) were analysed and it is found
that the distribution of data is not normal. The result of data analysis showed that correlation coefficient
(r) equals to 0.259, larger than social significance value which is 0.05. the interpretation of the
relationship is weak correlation. The Null hypothesis is accepted.

Keywords: Grammar Competence, Speaking Fluency

INTRODUCTION

English is an important language for communication,with language we can share information.

In globalization era, we have to major the English language. To master English, we have to
strengthen: Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing. The most needed nowadays is speaking
English. Speaking English is used as a second language for communication in some country.
Therefore speaking English is important for students to face the era of globalization. The
government of Republic of Indonesia has placed English language in the curriculum not only
at the secondary school, senior high school, but also at university or institute.

According to (Harmer, 2001) and (Gower, Philips, & Walter, 1995) in (Wardah, Regina, &
Utami, n.d.2015:3), speaking has many different aspects that including in two major categories:
accuracy and fluency.One good sign of speaking, certainly marked also with a good
grammatical mastery. It is one part of the category of accuracy. English grammar is main role
in English use.Grammar in speaking is very important, so because of that, we have to
understand grammar.

Fluency is the ability to speaking spontaneously, without having to stop and pause a lot. It is
can be done with habituation so that mutual understanding communication materials can be
captured between speakers and listeners.

Some people are more concerned with fluency. Fluency on the other hand, the ability to speak
fluently, confidently and at a level consistent with the language community standards. People
like the ones who like to keep talking. They have a desire to keep trying a new language without

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mistake. But if it keeps on making a lot of mistakes, it's not impossible to speak, the ideas that
these students say are hard to catch. This is in connection with the theory of (Skehan & Foster,
1999) in (Derakhshan, Khalili, & Beheshti, 2016:180) which mention that speaking fluency
pertains to the ability to produce the spoken language “without undue pausing or hesitation”.

Grammar
In foreign language acquisition accurate understanding is the key of language structure. Every
language in the world must have a rule. In English we call it grammar.

(Harmer, 1991) in (Malova, 2016:3) states that Grammar knowledge is essential for competent
users of a language. It means that the language user must learn grammar because grammar skills
will help students organize words and messages and make it meaningful. Moreover, (A, 1989)
in (Arief et al., 2016:3) said that grammar is a model of those linguistic abilities of native
speakers of language which enable them to speak fluently. In this case, grammatical
competence of the native speaker can be reflected by type of institution which speaker has about
their native speaker.

Based on explanations and definitions above, the researcher assumed that grammar is a science
of rules that governs the order of sentences, phrases, and words to show some meaning. By
knowing the grammar our abilities are improved in using an effective style to train expressions
in speaking and writing.

Grammatical Competence
According to the (Council, 2001) in (Artunduaga, 2013:14) competence is defined as
understanding of, and capability to use, the grammatical resources of a language. It is the ability
to understand and express meaning through generations and the recognition of well-formed
sentences in accordance with these principles (as opposed to memorization and reproduction)
them as fixed formulae).

Furthermore, (Chomsky, 1965) in (Maksimova, n.d.:115) defined grammatical competence as

theoretical and practical knowledge of a partial number of grammatical rules, which allow
generating an infinite number of correct sentences. In addition, (Lock, 1997) in (Agulló &
Rama, 2012:180) mentioned that grammatical competence was acquired with the approach of
the rule plus drilling methodology typical of audio lingual or traditional grammar methods.

As defined above, we concluded that the learners have to major grammatical competence
progressively.Progressively is to the training of thinking skills to deal with problem solving

Speaking
Speaking is a tool to share information and idea. It is the first the way to do interaction and
communication. According to (Rickheit, Strohner, & Hans, 2008) in (Efrizal, 2012:127)
speaking is a speech or utterance produced by the speaker with the purpose, for the listener to
process the intent of the speaker's speech. Moreover,(Bailey & L, 1994) in (Nunan, 2003:48)
stated that speaking is the productive aural/oral skill. It consists of producing systematic verbal
utterances to convey meaning. So we can concluded to convey meaning, it can be determined
by aural or oral skill.

From the definition above, the researcher can conclude that speaking is the productive aural or
oral skill, which is producing utterance or speech from speaker to listener.

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Aspect of Speaking
According to (Brown, 2003:140) there are several traits in speaking such as pronunciation,
fluency, vocabulary, grammar, and comprehensible. Below, the description of some the
relevant components of speaking by expert.

1. Pronunciation
Pronunciation is considered a sub-discourse skill. (Fraser, 2002) in (Gilakjani & Branch,
2011:2) explained that his fluent English knowledge includes a number of sub-qualifications in
which pronunciation is paramount (other sub-skills of speaking include vocabulary, grammar,
and pragmatics).
2. Fluency
Fluency is speak slowly at normal speed without hesitation, repetition and the use of
harmonious compound statements speech. It deals with the way students to speak fluently.
(Matthews, Alan, Spratt, & Dangerfield, 1991) in (Irawati, 2014:7).
3. Vocabulary
According to (Neuman & Dwyer, 2009) in (Alqahtani, 2015:24) vocabulary can be defined as
''words we must know to communicate effectively; words in speaking (expressive vocabulary)
and words in listening (receptive vocabulary)''.
4. Grammar
Grammar is a set of rules that explores the forms and structures of sentences that can be used
in a language (Gleason & Ratner, 2009) in (Uibu & Liiver, 2015:71).
5. Comprehension
(Irianti, 2011:9) stated Comprehension is defined as the ability to understand something by a
reasonable comprehension of the subject or as the knowledge of what a situation is really like.

Speaking fluency
(Fillmore, 1979) in (Yang, 2014:197) stated speaking fluency as : a) the ability to speak for a
long time with several interval; b) can create coherent, justified and semantic sentences; c) have
appropriate expressions in different contexts d) language use should be creative and
imaginative. It means those statement are needed to measure the student’s in their speaking
fluency. Speaking is part of second language learning and teaching, so it is important for student
to speak English fluently.

In addition, (Harmer, 2007) &(Crowther, Trofimovich, Issacs, & Saito, 2015) in (Albino,
2017:2) stated the term of speaking fluency is linked to the meaning of “communication”. For
example, in a conversation, a learner can make a grammatical error, such as Maria live in
Cazenga [live vs. lives]), but the learner can still speak the sentence with some fluency. In this
case, we can still speak the sentence, although with an error grammatical. But if we often do
this one, then the information obtained in a conversation is not perfectly.

Then, (Richards, 2006:14) maintained that the speaking fluency is developed by many
variables: the interaction in problem solving tasks, the negotiation of meaning in pair work and
the use of communication strategies. It means that, with these variables can help learners in
improving speaking fluency.

From the definition above, it can be conclude that speaking fluency is part of the second
language and learning, so that by improving speaking fluency it will train grammar ability.

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Criteria of Fluency
(Ers, Stitutio, & Lee, 2008) mentioned there are two criteria in determining fluency. First,
Hesitation. Hesitation phenomena such as fillers are most likely to occur at the beginning of an
utterance or phrase, presumably as a consequence of the greater demand on planning processes
at these junctures (Barr, D., 2001) in (Corley & Stewart, 2008:2) .
Second, Formulaic phrases. (Fonseca, 2018) mentioned that the expression of the formula is
associated with the language. SIL (Summer Institute of Linguistic) International defines an
idiom as an expression made up of multiple words that function as a meaningful or
understandable unit. Idioms are difficult for second language learners because their meaning is
not clear when looking at the individual words. Both formulaic phrases and idioms are related
to figurative language, or language which does not mean exactly what it says.

The Relationship between Grammar Competence and Speaking Fluency

As it has been already conveyed by expert about grammar and speaking fluency, both of them
are so closely related, they are inseparable. Because, grammar is branch of accuracy. Accuracy
and fluency is aspect of speaking. As we can see if people who understand about grammar they
will speak more fluently than the others who do not understand about grammar. According to
(Richards & Renandya, W., 2002) in (Abbaspour, 2016:146)grammatical competence helps
speakers to use and understand English language structures accurately and immediately, which
facilitates their fluency. In addition, they stated that accuracy is the basis of fluency, while
fluency is a further improvement of a person's linguistic competence and a better revelation of
his/her communicative competence. It means that we should to keep a balance between
accuracy and fluency in an English classroom teaching.

METHOD
This research use a descriptive quantitative research which applies correlation research design,
it was choosen because the research will present a correlation between grammar and speaking
fluency, and at the end build the conclution based on the data gained. The researcher uses
instrument such as : first, interview for speaking. The writer using oral test like interview, which
consists of five questions and based on the topic. Second, multiple choice. Test for grammar
to gather information from students, grammar test consisting of 20 multiple choices. The last
are population and sample, the writers take students eleventh grade at MAN Cimahi, there are
6 classes with all of students are 170. In this research the writers took 34 subjects as sample
from population. The writers collected the data from grammar test by numbers of student’s
correct answer then multiplied 10, then divided 2. From speaking the writers converted the
small scores of O'Malley & Pierce to the scale of 100 as follows; 4=100, 3= 75, 2=50, 1=25.
And analysis the data, the writers used Spearman Product Moment formula in SPSS Program.

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Table 1
Speaking Rubric
for Fluency Activity by (J & Lorraine, n.d.) in (Santos, 2005:3)

Table 2

Interpretation Correlation by (Siregar, 2013:337)

Correlation Value (r) Interpretation

0,00 - 0,199 Very weak

0,20 - 0,399 Weak

0,40 – 0,599 Enough

0,60 – 0,799 Strong

0,80 – 0,100 Very strong

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Results
Test was taken in 13 March 2018 by the eleventh grade students of 34 in MAN Cimahi in
academic year 2018/2019. For speaking fluency, the writer gives students time to answer within
3 minutes, it relates to the number of students as 34 people. Every rating has 25 score, the
maximum score is 100; means that students can answer the question correctly and the minimum
score is 25, means student can answer the questions with limited. For grammar test, the writer
contributed the question to students, and they had 45 minutes to choose the best answer of 20
question. Each number has one point, to get a score; the correct answer will be divided by two,
and then multiplied by 10.

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Table 3

Students Score from Grammar and Speaking test

Grammar Speaking
No. Students Scores Scores
1 Student 1 80 75
2 Student 2 45 25
3 Student 3 60 25
4 Student 4 65 50
5 Student 5 35 75
6 Student 6 75 75
7 Student 7 70 25
8 Student 8 65 50
9 Student 9 65 25
10 Student 10 80 75
11 Student 11 60 25
12 Student 12 60 50
13 Student 13 60 25
14 Student 14 75 75
15 Student 15 55 25
16 Student 16 65 25
17 Student 17 60 25
18 Student 18 80 25
19 Student 19 75 25
20 Student 20 60 50
21 Student 21 50 25
22 Student 22 55 50
23 Student 23 60 25
24 Student 24 65 25
25 Student 25 55 25
26 Student 26 65 50
27 Student 27 40 25
28 Student 28 60 50
29 Student 29 60 25
30 Student 30 60 25
31 Student 31 45 25
32 Student 32 75 25
33 Student 33 55 25
34 Student 34 65 25
From the table students’ scores above the writers will find the descriptive statistics.

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Table 4

Descriptive Statistics

N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation

Grammar 34 35 80 61.76 10.932

Speaking 34 25 75 37.50 18.718
Valid N
34
(listwise)

The writer found that the student’s grammar competence was good. It is because the mean score
of the students was 61.76. The student’s speaking fluency was poor. It is because the mean
score of students was 37.5

Table 5
One-Sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test

grammar speaking

N 34 34
Normal Parametersa,b Mean 61.76 37.50
Std.
10.932 18.718
Deviation
Most Extreme Absolute .171 .395
Differences Positive .148 .395
Negative -.171 -.252
Test Statistic .171 .395
Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) .013c .000c

a. Test distribution is Normal.

b. Calculated from data.
c. Lilliefors Significance Correction.

It can be concluded that the data from speaking is not normal due to less than 0.05, and data
from grammar is not normal due to less than 0.05. The conclusions of the data are not normally
distributed. The writer find out the correlation between those two variables used the Spearman’s
product moment to compute the data, because the data was not normal.

Table 6
Analysis result of Spearman rho Correlation

grammar speaking

Spearman's rho grammar Correlation Coefficient 1.000 .277

Sig. (2-tailed) . .113

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N 34 34

speaking Correlation Coefficient .277 1.000

Sig. (2-tailed) .113 .

N 34 34

From the table above, the correlation between English grammar competence and speaking
fluency of the eleventh grade students of MAN Cimahi in the academic year 2018/2019 is
0.277, which indicated there was weak correlation between two variables. To compute the
correlation, the writer prepared the computation of two variables by Spearman’s Product
Moment. There are two variables; English grammar competence is the first variable and
speaking fluency is the second variable.

Discussion
From this research, the writer found that the student’s grammar competence was good. It is
because the mean score of the students was 61.76.The student’s speaking fluency was poor. It
is because the mean score of students was 37.5. The data from speaking is not normal due to
less than 0.05, and data from grammar is not normal due to less than 0.05. The conclusions of
the data are not normally distributed. And for correlation value there is no correlation between
grammar and speaking fluency, with significant value is 0.113, it is larger than 0.05 (social
significance value) and it means that “there is no correlation between English grammar
competence and speaking fluency”. It means that the level of relationship of the correlation
coefficient of the two variables is weak.

CONCLUSION

The aim for this research is to find out there is any correlation between grammar competence
and speaking fluency.The result of data analysis shows that as follows; The student’s grammar
competence was good. It is because the mean score of the students was 61.76. And the student’s
speaking fluency was poor. It is because the mean score of students was 37.5. For, the
significance (2-tailed) is 0.113, it is larger than 0.05 (social significance value) and it means
that “there is no correlation between English grammar competence and speaking fluency”.The
value of correlation coefficient obtained is 0.277, while the criteria of the correlation 0.20 to
0.399 are considered weak based on Siregar. It means that the level of relationship of the
correlation coefficient of the two variables is weak.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Praise to Allah who has given us knowledge healthy and opportunity. The accomplishment of
this research paper is made possibly because of Allah’s help and mercy. Shalawat and salam
are presented to our prophet Muhammad SAW, who has brought people from the darkness into
brightness age of knowledge. Finally, this final project can be finished on time, the article is
entitled “The Correlation between English Grammar Competence and Speaking Fluency”.

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