Key word : male and female ability, speaking skill this research is intended to figure out the difference between male and female ability in english speaking skill at the first grade students of sma lab school, banda aceh. the sample of this research were 20 students from x- ipa 2 class which was selected by random sampling. the data of this research were collected through spoken test, interview and picture description. the spoken test was conducted to identify male and female ability in english speaking skill, especially in five aspects of speaking skill; pronunciation, grammar, fluency, comprehension and vocabulary. the findings from the spoken test showed that the mean scores of male and female students are relatively similar, female students reach 68,5 while male students reach 63,3. therefore, the result of the spoken test found that there is no significant difference between male and female ability, since the t-test was lower than t-table (-1,67 < 1,72). thus, the alternative