APPLYING EMPHATIC COMMUNICATION SKILL TO ENCOURAGE SPEAKING PERFORMANCE AT SMA SWASTA KATOLIK 2 KABANJAHE

Abstract

The main objective of this study is to identify and comprehensively assess the efficacy of applying empathic communication strategies to educational practice, especially on student performance in speaking with the ultimate goal of fostering and strengthening students' speaking performance, which ultimately contributes to their language learning and overall communication skills. In this research, the employment of a quasi-experimental research method has been carefully chosen and implemented to enable a systematic investigation and evaluation of the causal relationship between the application of empathic communication techniques and the enhancement of students' speaking performance, ensuring reliable and valid findings for educational practitioners and policymakers. The results of this study found that there is a significant difference between students' speaking performance by applying emphatic communication and without applying emphatic communication.  Where students who receive treatment have an improved score compared to students who do not receive treatment. This shows that emphatic communication is effective in encouraging students' speaking performance. This research makes a valuable contribution by focusing on the application of empathic communication skills to encourage students' speaking performances at SMA KATOLIK 2 Kabanjahe. This research can provide a new direction for improving students' speaking learning through empathic communication skills, as well as opening potential for further research in this area on how to encourage students' speaking performance. This research can be useful in different regions with similar approaches and disciplines, especially in high schools across Indonesia, where the application of empathic communication skills is important to encourage improved student speaking performance. In addition, the results of this research can be useful for the fields of education, educational psychology, and language studies.