THE CORRELATION BETWEEN GRAMMAR MASTERY AND SPEAKING ABILITY OF THE SEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS OF SMP NEGERI 4 DENPASAR IN ACADEMIC YEAR 2021/2022

For English language learners, speaking is the most crucial skill. The objective of the study was to find out whether there is any correlation between grammar mastery and speaking ability of the seventh-grade students of SMP Negeri 4 Denpasar in academic year 2021/2022. The research methodology was correlation research, the researcher wanted to know the correlation between students’ grammar mastery and speaking ability. The research population was taken from the students of seventh-grade at SMP Negeri 4 Denpasar consisted of 400 students. Cluster random sampling technique was used to take the sample. The sample was taken from the VII-6 class then, Slovin formula was used to determine the amount of the sample with the result 40 students were taken. The research instruments to collect the data were multiple-choice items for grammar mastery and performance assessment for speaking ability. The data was analyzed using SPSS 25.0. There was a positive and no significant correlation between grammar mastery and speaking ability of the seventh-grade students of SMP Negeri 4 Denpasar in academic year 2021/2022. It can be seen from the result of the r-counted found 0.188 (very low correlation) and r-table with N=40 is 0.312. The r-counted was smaller than r-table (0.188>0.312). It means that the correlation between grammar mastery and speaking ability was not significant. The hypothesis was not accepted.