ENGLISH:
This study aims to examine the significant differences in English speaking skills between eighth-grade students of SMPN 6 Toboali who were taught using a cooperative learning approach and those who were not. Specifically, it investigates the effect of cooperative learning on students’ speaking performance, focusing on vocabulary and pronunciation. This research employed a quantitative experimental design involving 58 students, divided equally into an experimental group (29 students) and a control group (29 students). A pre-test and post-test were administered to measure students’ progress, and the data were analyzed using SPSS version 25. The findings reveal that the implementation of the cooperative learning approach enhanced students’ enthusiasm, motivation, and confidence in speaking. The statistical analysis showed that the significance value (p-value) was 0.100, with a t-obtained score of 3.870, which was higher than the t-table value of 2.000. These results indicate a significant difference in the post-test scores between the experimental and control groups, confirming that cooperative learning has a positive and significant effect on improving students’ English speaking skills.