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 PICTURE SERIES TO HELP THE STUDENTS WRITE A RECOUNT TEXT

(KODE : PTK-0712) : SKRIPSI PTK THE USE OF PICTURE SERIES TO HELP THE STUDENTS WRITE A RECOUNT TEXT (MAPEL BAHASA INGGRIS KELAS X)

CHAPTER I 

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

English is well-known as a global language used by people to communicate with other people around the world. If someone does not know English, he will get difficulties in having communication with other people that use English. Therefore, mastering English language is very important.

The fact that mastering English is very important becomes the background for the government of Indonesia to put English in the formal education curriculum. The government of Indonesia has put English as a compulsory subject since the fourth grade of elementary school. It is expected that every student will be able to master English so the student does not find any obstacles dealing with language when the student is having communication with other people from around the world.

Feez (1998) argues that enabling learners to develop the knowledge and skills which will allow them to engage with whole texts appropriate to social context is the aim of English language teaching. Because of that, the government of Indonesia is implementing the School Based Curriculum which focuses on texts both in junior and senior high school levels. In the curriculum, senior high school students are obliged to learn English through different texts which have different function based on social context. Therefore, the syllabus used in the learning and teaching activities is text-based syllabus. The genre-based approach is one example of approaches used in text-based syllabus (Feez, 1998). Some texts to be taught in senior high schools are recount, narrative, procedure, descriptive, news item, report, analytical exposition, spoof, hortatory exposition, explanation, discussion, and review (BSNP, 2006).

Those texts should be learned by the students in all language skills which are listening, speaking, reading, and writing. However, each student has different types of difficulties related to those four skills. Some of them consider writing as the most difficult skill to be learnt. Tiedt (1989 : 6) states that "of all the language skills, writing is the most difficult and it is a hard work." As with speaking, the writer generates ideas. On the other hand, writing is important to be mastered to express ideas without the pressure of face-to-face communication (Raimes, 1983). 

Unfortunately, based on the researcher's experience and observation when he was doing his Program Pengalaman Lapangan (PPL), many English teachers usually do not give equal portion of teaching to the four language skills when they are teaching the students. Many English teachers usually assign the students to write a text at home and then they submit their writing in the following meeting. The teachers do not understand that writing has to be done after several stages of writing starting from brain-storming until final draft of writing. They even do not give any feedback on the students' writing so that the students cannot know whether their writing is good or not. It can be the obstacle for the students to improve their writing skills.

The students in SMAN X also considered writing as the most difficult skill to learn. The researcher asked the students to write down their simple opinion towards writing on the back side of their drafts while the researcher taught the students. From the data, there were more than 50% students who stated that writing is difficult. They found a lot of difficulties in writing. Based on the researcher's observation, the students had problem in writing a recount text. They needed much time to start writing because they did not have any idea to write and they had very limited English vocabulary. Besides, the result of the students' recount texts was not really satisfying. Their ideas were not organized well. They also made mistakes mostly on the use of past tense, minimum requirements, and even some of them did not write proper recount text based on the generic structure of a recount text. It was so ironic since recount is one of the texts that have more value in the context of schooling (Gerot and Wignell, 1994) as cited by Mulya (2007 : 17). Feez (1998) adds that recount is classified as the simplest story text.

The reasons motivated the researcher to conduct a classroom action research to help the students write a recount text. Besides, the researcher, who considers that writing is not really difficult, wants to help the students in that class write a recount text so that they will not think that writing is difficult anymore.

The research offered a solution in the form of instructional media to overcome the problem faced by the students by using picture series. Picture series were chosen because they have many advantages. Using what appears in the pictures, the students can get ideas and opportunity to write in a connected way (Kreidle, 1968). It will help the students write a text without spending much time only to find ideas. Well-chosen picture series also give motivation to the students in learning situation, especially in learning how to write (Kieffer and Cochran, 1985). Besides, picture series provide material that offers guidance on vocabulary, sentence structure, and organization yet lets the students write about new subject matter (Raimes, 1983).

Some previous research dealing with the use of picture series in teaching writing showed good results. One of them was done by Setiawaty in 2003. Setiawaty used the picture series to help her students write a narrative text. Based on Setiawaty's research, the use of picture series helped her students write a narrative text. Understanding the advantages provided by picture series and also the problems in writing a recount text faced by the students, the use of picture series can be a good solution in the form instruction media for the students in this research in writing a recount text.

SKRIPSI THE USE OF MIND MAPPING TECHNIQUE IN TEACHING RECOUNT TEXT TO IMPROVE STUDENTS READING COMPREHENSION ABILITY

(KODE : PENDBING-0048) : SKRIPSI THE USE OF MIND MAPPING TECHNIQUE IN TEACHING RECOUNT TEXT TO IMPROVE STUDENTS READING COMPREHENSION ABILITY

CHAPTER I 

INTRODUCTION

This chapter contains a brief explanation of the introduction. It consists of background, research questions, the scope of the research, aims of the research, hypothesis, research methodology, clarification of key terms, and organization of the paper. 

A. Background

In the structure of curriculum program in Junior high school, English is one of the most important subjects for students in the seventh grade until nine grades by having about four hours lesson every week. English has been identified as the most important parameter in the curriculum development that should be mastered by Indonesian students. It means that students in the junior high school have three years opportunity to learn English and they are expected to master it.

There are four skills in English teaching that the students should master it. The four skills are listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Standard competence of Junior High School states that the seventh grade students in the second semester should be able to express spoken text and short monologue in descriptive and procedure text to interact with surrounding. It means that, the seventh grade students should be able to express meaning in simple short monologue and dialogue used in oral language variety accurately, fluently, and understandably to interact with surrounding.

Speaking is the productive skill in the oral mode. It consists of producing systematic verbal utterance to convey meaning. Speaking also is an important skills to communicate because in speaking students convey ideas, opinion, etc. According to Brown (2001) speaking is one of the important skills in language learning in the classroom. It is used twice as often as listening and the most used skill, it means that students should be good in speaking because speaking is used more than listening.

However in reality, since English is introduced to students, they cannot talk fluently it can be seen when they make small conversations they cannot talk as the teacher want and they get some difficulties to speak English. They feel uneasy and they are afraid to speak with each other to share about their opinion. It can be drawn from their negative attitude toward speaking activity, one of the reason is the teaching method which is used is boring.

In teaching and learning process, the effective and interesting method is one of the ways to motivate students to be involved in the activity. It can make the students feel more comfortable with the materials. As Dewey states, cited in Mooney (2000; p. 15), that enjoyable teaching learning process will occur when students are interested in the materials because the beginner students are interested in many new things such as foreign language. According to Brown (2001 : 100) the characteristic of novice level is the students' ability to communicate using learned material and oral production consists of isolated words.

Unfortunately many teachers still apply traditional method in teaching. For example, teachers make the students keep learning English through teachers' explanation of new words or grammar. In fact, this method is not effective because students will easily forget the words and the material if they learn different topic. Especially for students, those who are seven to twelve years old, this method is uninteresting. Keskil and Cephe note that students who are 10 and 11 years old like game, puzzles and song most, those who are 12 and 13 years old like activities built around dialogues, question-answer activities and matching exercises most. (Harmer, 2001 : 61).

There are many methods that can be used in teaching or learning speaking. But the applied methods which are used need to be not only interesting but also effective in teaching speaking. Clearly, students will not be able to speak foreign language well just by memorizing lists of words, repeating mechanically some useful expressions, and so on. Cameron's (2001) state that speaking is the active use of language to express meanings. To speak in the foreign language in order to share understandings with other, people require attention to precise details of the language. Thus, if students do not understand the spoken language, they cannot learn it effectively.

As Dawson (1975) state that speaking is truly basic skill in language learning. Students need to get themselves involved in the classroom to get more practice in speaking foreign language. For the purpose of getting students involved in the classroom, enjoyable activities are recommended to be used by the teachers to make the students focus on teaching learning process.

The teachers have to use different kinds of teaching approach in order not to make the students feel bored. Klancar (2006 : 53) states that the teacher will get some advantages when they teach student by various types of activities such as reading aloud and describing pictures.

Speaking activity can be modified by using media to help students in organizing their idea, for example by using pictures. Based on the basic competence designed for seventh grade in the junior high school, students are expected to be able to describe something such as objects, things people or procedure. It means that teachers have to help them to be able to describe it. There are many ways to make students more involved in the activity one of them is by using pictures. Besides using pictures and posters teacher can also use the real media such as desks, chairs, and the other things to help them to describe people, things or object. Pictures, as the media, are expected to give explanation and description, without having the students to memorize the text.

Pictures can be a media to stimulate students in describing an object or person in the pictures. Students can acquire the meaning by seeing the things in the pictures without explanation. It also helps them to communicate or explain the events in the picture. As Thornbury (2005; p. 75) explains that the script of conversation can be illustrated in picture form to make it memorized easily. So that teachers can create joyful learning through pictures that can affect students to participate and also motivate them to be active in the class. Providing tools especially pictures could encourage students to focus on the materials. They are interested in the pictures and become actively participate in the class. Furthermore, through pictures, fun learning can be created and speaking activity will not be seen as difficult as students might have thought.

In relation to the teaching and learning, pictures are potential source in the transferring information. In the other words, picture can become a bridge to transfer knowledge from the teacher to the student. As Goodman (2006 : 75) states, that picture can act as a bridge between students who have different learning style. According to Canning-Wilson (2001 : 91) pictures are important since they facilitate students understanding. Furthermore, she explains that for most people, the mental image of what they see has greater impact than auditory input.

Based on the explanation above, this research aimed is to find out the effectiveness of using pictures in teaching speaking English. Thus, the entitled "TEACHING SPEAKING ENGLISH THROUGH PICTURE IN IMPROVING STUDENTS SPEAKING ABILITY".

B. Research Questions

According to the previous explanations, this research was intended to answer the following questions : 

1. Is the use of Pictures effective in improving students speaking ability ?

2. What are the students' responses of teaching speaking English through pictures ?

C. The Scope of the Research

Based on the aforementioned problems, the scope of this study was to find out the effectiveness of picture in teaching speaking English. The context of the study was limited on teaching speaking English, especially to the seventh grades of SMP X.

D. Aims of the Research

The aims of this research are : 

1. To investigate the effectiveness of picture in teaching speaking English through picture.

2. To analyzed students' responses towards the implementation teaching speaking English through picture.