Maulana, Ahmad Defa. 2026. The Effectiveness of Fishbowl Technique
in Eleventh-Grade Students' Speaking Skill at SMAN 1 Banjarmasin. Sarjana’s Thesis, English Language Education Study Program, Faculty of Teachers’ Training and Education, Lambung Mangkurat University, Banjarmasin, The first advisor: Dr. Novita Triana, S.Pd., MA., the second advisor: Emma Rosana Febriyanti, M.Pd.

Keywords:Fishbowl technique, speaking skill, teaching speaking, effectiveness, communicative competence

This study aimed to find the effectiveness of the Fishbowl technique compared with the Small Group Discussion technique in producing better speaking skill outcomes among eleventh-grade students at SMAN 1 Banjarmasin. Speaking is an essential English skill that supports effective communication. However, many students still experience difficulties, such as low confidence, limited vocabulary, and passive participation, which can affect students’ outcome in speaking skill and hinder the achievement of communicative competence. This study employed a quantitative approach using a quasi-experimental design and 64 eleventh-grade students were selected through cluster sampling and assigned to an experimental group taught using the Fishbowl technique and a control group taught using the Small Group Discussion technique. Data were collected through an oral speaking test and analyzed using the Mann–Whitney U test with SPSS 26. The findings showed that the experimental group achieved a higher post-test mean score than the control group (65.25 and 59.13). The Mann–Whitney U test indicated a significant difference between the groups (p < 0.05), while the effect size (ES = 0.31) demonstrated a moderate effect. Therefore, the Fishbowl technique was more effective than the Small Group Discussion technique in producing better speaking skill outcomes. Although implementation challenges were encountered, English teachers are encouraged to adopt the Fishbowl technique, and future researchers should address these challenges in further studies.