wordpress the_title will split

wordpress the_title will split

hello I am creating my own theme on wordpress and i want to split the
the_title() function into array all i want is the last item on array will
be on <span> and the other one is on <h1>. i tried this
$str = the_title();
$val = explode(" ", $str); // also tried implode
echo "<pre>";
print_r($val);
echo "</pre>";
but it only return array with no items hope someone will help me. this wat
i really want to be the output <h1> This is a <span>Title</spam></h1>
thanks in advance