In Indonesia, English is taught as a foreign language in Indonesia from junior to senior high school, requiring students to develop four primary skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Among these, speaking remains one of the most challenging skills for students. Many learners tend to be passive and reluctant to participate in speaking activities due to limited confidence and ineffective classroom management strategies. Therefore, teachers need to implement appropriate instructional approaches that foster active participation and create a supportive learning environment. One such approach is positive discipline, which emphasizes mutual respect, responsibility, and constructive behavior reinforcement. This pre-experimental study investigated the effect of positive discipline on students’ English-speaking skills at a public junior high school in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. The sample consisted of 29 seventh-grade students. Data were collected through pre-tests, post-tests, observation sheets, and questionnaires. The treatment was conducted over five meetings, during which essential agreements were established and consistent positive reinforcement strategies were applied to encourage active engagement. The findings indicate a significant improvement in students’ speaking performance, particularly in vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, fluency, and comprehension. In addition, questionnaire results revealed that students responded positively to the implementation of positive discipline, reporting increased motivation, confidence, and a greater sense of responsibility in the classroom. These findings suggest that positive discipline is an effective strategy for enhancing student engagement and improving English speaking skills in junior high school contexts.
Achmad et al. (Wed,) studied this question.