SKRIPSI PTK USING CLUSTERING TECHNIQUE TO IMPROVE STUDENTS WRITING OF RECOUNT TEXT

(KODE : PTK-0713) : SKRIPSI PTK USING CLUSTERING TECHNIQUE TO IMPROVE STUDENTS WRITING OF RECOUNT TEXT (MAPEL BAHASA INGGRIS KELAS VIII)

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. The Background of the Study

As we know, language is an integral part that can not be separated from human being, because of its function as communication. Communication is mainly divided into two, there are verbal and non-verbal. Verbal language consists of spoken and written language. On the other hand, non-verbal language is like gestures and body language. Human language has chanced form simple to complex from time to time. “communication between humans is an extremely complex and ever-changing phenomenon.” Undoubted, language is needed to interact one to another. 

Nowadays, the most language which used widely is English language. People surround the world who use English as lingua franca is bigger than another languages, such as; French, Latin, Spanish, Chinese or Arabic. English has become an international language. Jack C Richards and Theodore S. Rodgers said,

“latin was most widely studied as foreign language five hundred years ago. However, English has become the most widely studied foreign language today.” So that, if we want to communicate to another countries, nations, from any place in the world, we should master English which is lingua franca.

There are many reasons why people learn language. One of the reasons is Advancement, some people want to learn English because they think it offers a chance for advancement in their professional lives. They will get better jobs by mastering two languages than if they only know their mother tongue. “English has a special position since it has become the international language of communication.”

There are many aspects that can not be separated from English language, moreover; English domination takes technology, social-culture, economy, education, art, science, ideology, research, information, etc. By mastering English we can enhance and enrich many aspects. In many countries, English is used as a first language, a second language or a foreign language.

English is one of the important foreign languages in Indonesia that has purpose to absorb and to develop knowledge, technology, and to establish relationship with other nations. Thus, it is essential to learn English to help people’s need to get information and knowledge in every aspect such as education, science, religion, social and technology.

Because of the reason our government puts English as a first foreign language. Minister of Education and culture decree No : 372/2003, stated that English becomes the first foreign language and the compulsory subject that should be thought in Indonesia school from junior high school up to university level.4 It means that students in our country in any level must study English.

Commonly, English is divided into two; written and oral. It also consists four skills that should be learned by students. They are listening, speaking, reading and writing. Listening and reading are included as receptive skills, on the other hand speaking and writing are included as productive skills.

Among the skills, writing is the most difficult skill. “many people find it easy to speak but hard to write things down on paper.” Writing is a complex skill, Leo Masiello stated “writing is hard work, or one students explains, „for me, writing is like running or exercise. The reason that say this is because both of these activities take a lot of effort.” Writing is unlike another skills, it requires background knowledge, vocabulary, spelling, grammar, punctuation, coherence, etc. In learning writing, students face several problems in their writing such as; limited vocabularies, difficulty in organizing ideas, no ideas to write about, no motivation to write and lack of confidence in grammar. The effect can be seen in English writing score, it is regarded as a main problem in many schools. To overcome this problem, a technique which can improve students’ score in English writing is needed.

One of the techniques is clustering, it is kind of prewriting activity that enrich idea before students start writing. As Regina L. Smalley and Mark K. Ruetten said that “clustering is making a visual map of the ideas.” At the beginning writing activity, students have to find out the ideas what they want to write about. Dorothy Sedley said that “the most common complaint English Composition teachers hear from students is “I don’t have anything to write about”. Actually, you have plenty to write about. After all, you live in the same world that “real” writers live in, and that world provides the raw material for millions of books every year. What you really need is not “something to write about”, but some suggestions that will help you exploit the resources all around you.”

Developing ideas for making a composition cause problems in writing class, if the teacher does not conduct pre-writing activity. Getting stuck of ideas and a block of writing can be problems in writing activity. As a result, writing process goes slowly and stops immediately.

Students at junior high school learn two kinds of writing. There are narrative text and recount text. Both of texts talk about past events, besides they have similarities and dissimilarities. Narrative text is a text that tells a story and entertains the reader, for example novel. While recount text is a text that retells past events, its purpose is to provide the reader with a description of what occurred and when it occurred. For students at junior high school are emphasized in personal recount text.

“Personal recount text usually retells an experience in which the writer was personally involved. It lists and describes past experiences by retelling events. It presents the events chronologically (in order in which they happened). The purpose of a personal recount are to inform, entertain the audience (listener or reader), or both”.

Even though the basic differentiation between narrative and recount is the purpose, recount is more emphasize to entertain and to inform.

In addition, Based on the writer’s personal experiences while he took PPKT in SMP Z, he found students’ problems in writing especially in developing idea. The students could not start their writing because they did not have any idea. Meanwhile, the writer had been learned a technique how to develop idea in fourth semester, the technique is clustering. So, he decided to apply it in order to solve students’ problem in writing. The writer assumed that students in other school had the same problem in writing, but to convince there is a problem in writing or not. The writer observes the school before.

Based on the writer’s observation on SMPN X, in teaching learning process the English teacher did not use the clustering technique in teaching writing especially recount text. Students did not understand clearly what recount text is, how to identify generic structure of recount text. Besides, the teacher also less preparation in teaching recount text. Moreover, SMPN X is not far from the writer’s house, so it is easier for him to do a research.

Because of the reasons that have been mentioned above, the writer takes a title of this “skripsi” “USING CLUSTERING TECHNIQUE TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ WRITING OF RECOUNT TEXT AT SECOND GRADE OF SMPN X”.

SKRIPSI PTK THE USE OF ANIMATION MOVIE FOR DEVELOPING STUDENTS WRITING SKILL OF NARRATIVE TEXTS

(KODE : PTK-0588) : SKRIPSI PTK THE USE OF ANIMATION MOVIE FOR DEVELOPING STUDENTS WRITING SKILL OF NARRATIVE TEXTS

CHAPTER I 

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

Besides our mother tongue, Indonesian and Javanese language, we also learn English as our foreign language. English is very important because nowadays English already be one of the most important language. In other words by mastering English either actively or passively, we can grasp a half of this world, not only in business world but also in politics and also in education. Our government is aware of how important of English is, so they made English be one of the subject which is taught from playgroup until the university.

We can see the importance of writing in daily life and also in social life, like in education and business aspect. Writing also gives some other benefits. Besides being means of communication, writing can also create jobs. In beginning writing, it is just an activity to express our idea, opinion, or feeling in the text. Writing can also be a hobby to spend our time, but finally in this modern life, people can get money from doing their writing, for example a journalist, novelist or script writer. 

Although, writing is very important for us, it is a difficult subject especially for the student. The reason is because writing is a mixture of our idea, vocabulary and also grammar, we also must pay attention to the grammar, so it is normal if the student think that writing is a difficult subject because they must pay attention to many things (idea, concept, vocabulary and grammar). 

Besides that reason, there is another factor that makes writing be the most difficult subject. The other reason is that there are a lot of many kinds of texts in English, such as narrative, descriptive, recount, and many more. Each text has different characteristics. There are generic social function, structure and language features.

To solve that problem, the teacher also must try to develop the ability of writing, grammar and structure of the student, and they also must find out an interesting method or visual aid to teach writing, so they will be interested in writing class. According to Kreidler (1965 : 1) visual aid can be useful to the language teacher because;

1. They create situations which are outside the class room wall,

2. They introduce the students to unfamiliar cultural aspects,

3. They give reality to what might be understood, verbally by the students,

4. They change situations quickly and easily in a drill, provide decoration for the classroom.

Any kinds of visual aid that teacher uses must make the students comfortable with the material or the class so they can easily understand the lesson. Kreidler (1965; 41) also has another opinion, he said that : 

Using any kind of method has goals to give the students the opportunity to express their own idea, using the language pattern that they have learned. And that the students need this kind of opportunity in order to begin to use English in a way that enables them to express their ideas, interest, feeling and needs, clearly, correctly and confidently.

Based on Kreidler opinion, the writer can conclude that visual aid has an important function that the teacher can use in teaching and learning process, visual aids can also give the students an opportunity to extend their ability and also to explore their talent. Since long time ago teacher already use any kinds of visual aid for example; in book, picture, song, real object, etc. In this final project the writer chose a film, Brother Bear in a writing class, the writer hopes that by using film the students will be more interested in learning writing in a class. According Charles et al (1985 : 129), he had an opinion : 

A narrative is a story, a narrative writing is writing that tells about a story. We use narrative writing when we tell a friend about something interesting that happened to you at work or in school, when you tell someone a joke, or if you write about the events of the day in the privacy of a diary or journal.

A narrative text is very suitable for the students in writing class because they can easily express their own idea drawn from their own experience at school, house or anywhere, in their narrative writing.