This study is aimed to find out (1) a significant difference in speaking skill between students who are active participants of English club and those who are not active participants of English club, (2) to explain the participation of students of the eleventh grade of SMA Islam sultan Agung 3 Semarang in English Club, (3) to explain speaking skill of students of the eleventh grade of SMA Islam sultan Agung 3 Semarang in English Club.
This study was conducted at SMA Islam Sultan Agung 3 Semarang from May 23rd, 2012 to June 14th 2012. The population of this study was students of the eleventh grade of SMA Islam Sultan Agung 3 Semarang, whereas, the sample of this study was the whole students who joined actively in the English club, numbering 23 students. In collecting the data the writer used interview, observation, questionnaire and speaking test. Then, the data was analyzed by using descriptive statistic and product moment correlation formula in SPSS 16 (ά = 5%, n = 23, r table = 0.413).
From the descriptive analysis, it was known that (1) 5 students (23 %) had very low participation, 4 students (17 %) had low participation, 8 students (35 %) had fair participation, 4 students (17 %) had high participation, and 2 students (8 %) had very high participation. (2) it was found that 3 students had very poor speaking skill (13 %). 3 students had poor speaking skill (13 %), 6 students had fair speaking skill (26 %), 7 students had good speaking skill (31 %), and 4 students had very good speaking skill (17 %). The correlation between participating in English club and their speaking skill was 0.866.
This result of this study means that there was a positive correlation between participating in English club and students speaking skill. So, there is a significant difference in speaking skill between students who are active participants of English club and those who are not active participants of English club. The writer proposes students are supposed to join and active in the English club.
Keywords: correlation, students, English club, speaking skill