Teaching Speaking with Gossiping in the Period of Pandemic

The mastery of speaking is important in English language learning, even in the period of pandemic, due to the outbreak of COVID 19. Teacher should use interesting method to keep students engage in the teaching and learning process. One of methods in teaching speaking is by using gossiping. The aims of this research is to describe the application of gossiping as one of the techniques in the teaching speaking which focuses on intermediate level students. This research will explain: 1) gossiping and its advantages, 2) topics to be gossiped in speaking English activity, 3) the application of gossiping in teaching speaking. Gossiping as a talk with inspiration and emotion has three major function: a) As a mechanism of information exchange, b) As an entertainment, c) As a portal to brings groups together and d) As a way to be influential. Topics to be gossiped in speaking can be someone famous or popular. The conclusion shows that there is an example of teaching procedure in speaking English using gossiping and it can be a way to keep students engage in the process of teaching speaking, thus it an improve the students mastery in speaking skill.


Introduction
The Covid-19 or Coronavirus Disease was declared as pandemic by the WHO (World Health Organization). It became a global public health threat (Dwinantoaji & DW, 2020). All of the education systems had moved into online learning. It was impossible to get proper education process in the period of pandemic (Ariawan & Malang, 2020).
However, the demand of a good teaching and learning process is still high, especially in English learning. With the reshaped of many aspects of teaching and learning, students faced difficulties to cope with process. In online learning, teachers could not fully control the students. Virtual meeting using application like Zoom or Google Classroom was indeed a good way to promote teaching and learning process in the period of pandemic. But, sometimes students just stay there in front of the camera without fully paying attention to what their teachers said.
Speaking as one important skill for EFL learners should be mastered well even  183 in the period of pandemic, where the teacher and students could not meet face to face. Most students are good in theory, yet bad in practice (Wijaya, 2018) . Whereas Richards (2008) explained that speaking skill mastery in English is a priority for many second-language or foreignlanguage learners. In this case, teachers had to find more interesting method to keep students engage with the online process of teaching and learning, so that the transfer of knowledge between teacher and students could run well. Here, the writer offers one fun way to teach speaking by using gossiping. Integration. This is helpful for language teachers to adopt it in the teaching and learning process. Therefore, this research aims to adopt gossiping as an activity in teaching speaking.

Methods
This research will review gossiping as an activity in teaching speaking. In order to do that, the writer tried to answer the following questions: (1) What is gossiping and what are the advantages of gossiping in speaking?
(2) What to be gossiped about in speaking English activity?
(3) How to apply gossiping in speaking English activity?

Speaking
Gossiping is one of the human ability that tends to be done simultaneously and continuously. It is one of the most common types of discourse people do for ages. Toffelmire (2013) states 186 make students be actively involved in speaking in a fun way.

Topics to be gossiped in Speaking Activity
Generally, it may be humiliating if the students are asked to gossip face to face about their own classmates or those whom they personally know. One possible case, in order not to hurt someone whom they personally know they might exchange any angry words into the positive one.
Consequently, the gossiping activity will not run well. The students will not be able to express themselves freely. In a contrary, using an imaginary person may not produce inspired gossip, as "meaning and mental images come only when connection is made with the learners' own world of experience" (Lindstromberg, 1990).
Meaning that it will be easier for the students to create meaning and mental images in their brains through something real and familiar to them. Moreover, talking about someone famous and scandalous will engross students' interest to get involved in it.
When students get along together into a conversation that they interest, it will strengthen their relationship. The act of gossiping involving talking, listening, sharing secrets and stories bonds them together and helps them to form friendships and distinctive group identities.
Subsequently students' shyness will get lower if they feel save to gather with their to stories than to raw data (Toffelmire, 2013). Gossip is a form of storytelling, and an interpersonal folklore which can be drawn as our ancestors' heritage. Instead of saying "Once upon a time" we say, in gossiping this opening might be more engrossing "Did you hear about her?" By hearing and sharing these stories, the social norms and conventions happening around us will be learned. Bad act of famous celebrities will be humiliated, while good act that reflect a certain norm will be appreciated. Thus, it can inspire students to act well.
In addition, the students can also gossip about fictional character (Baw, 2002

Conclusion
There are three aspects discussed in this research. The first is what is gossiping.
It shows the definition of gossiping and its advantages in the teaching and learning process. There are four major function of gossiping, they are: a) As a mechanism of information exchange, b) As an entertainment, c) As a portal to bring groups together and d) As a way to be influential The second is topics to be gossiped about in speaking. The most entertaining thing to be gossiped is someone famous or celebrities. The last is teaching procedure. It offers a sample of teaching speaking by using gossiping as an activity in the process of teaching and learning. In conclusion, gossiping as something fun can be implemented as an activity in speaking. Especially in the period of pandemic, teaching speaking in a fun way is crucially needed to make students engage to the teaching and learning process.