1 ELT FORUM 5 (2) (2016) Journal of English Language Teaching http://journal.unnes.ac.id/sju/index.php/elt THE EFFECTIVENESS OF SEND A PROBLEM TECHNIQUE FOR TEACHING WRITING AN ANALYTICAL EXPOSITION TEXT (A Quasi-Experimental Study of the Eleventh Grade Students of SMA N 8 Semarang in the Academic Year 2015/2016) Intan Kris Amilia Drs. Amir Sisbiyanto, M.Hum. English Department. Faculty of Languages and Arts. State University of Semarang. Aticle Info ________________ Article History: Received in April 2016 Approved in April 2016 Published in May 2016 ________________ Keywords: Send a Problem, Analytical Exposition Text, Quasi- Experimental.. ____________________ Abstract ___________________________________________________________________ The aim of the study is to find out whether teaching writing analytical exposition text by using Send a Problem technique is effective or not for Senior High School students. In the working hypothesis (H1), “There is significant difference in students’ writing achievement between those who are taught using Send a Problem and those who are taught using conventional way.” Meanwhile, in the null hypothesis (Ho), “There is no significant difference in the students’ writing achievement between those who are taught using Send a Problem and those who are taught using conventional way.”The population of this study was the eleventh grade students of SMA Negeri 8 Semarang in the academic year 2015/2016. The total number of the sample was 60 students that consisted of 30 students of class XI IS 4 as the experiment group who were taught using Send a Problem technique and 30 students of class XI IS 5 as the control group who were taught using conventional way. The design of this study was a quasi-experimental study. The data were collected through the writing test. In the pre-test, the mean score of the experimental group was 62.80 and the control group was 62.77. After the treatment, the result of post-test of the experimental group was 75.57 while the control group was 68.57. The independent sample t-test used by the writer showed that there was a significant difference between post-test of control group and experimental group. Lastly, teaching writing analytical exposition text using Send a Problem technique is effective than conventional way. English teachers are suggested to concern better in their technique variety in teaching writing any kind of texts especially analytical exposition text. © 2016 Universitas Negeri Semarang  Correspondent Address: B3 Building FBS Unnes Sekaran, Gunungpati, Semarang, 50229 E-mail: amiliaintankris@gmail.com ISSN 2252-6706 Intan Kris Amilia / Journal of English Language Teaching 5 (2) (2016) 2 INTRODUCTION Background of the Study Nowadays, English is taught in any education level as foreign language in Indonesia. It is line with globalization era on which English is mostly used in entire world as International language. Students should be accustomed to take English in order to convey their ideas including information or messages especially in writing. So, the teachers have responsibilities to teach how to write in a good and appropriate ways to the students. Teaching is actually not an easy task for teachers. Teachers have to make their students understand what is taught in order to achieve the learning objectives. Teaching comes from basic word “teach”, it is an activity to show somebody to do something so that they will able to do it themselves (Oxford Advance Learner Dictionary, 2010: 1531). Teaching activities can cover many things, not only lesson in school but also everything around human beings. Teaching- learning process itself is a means whereby society trains its young ones in selected environment (usually the school) as quickly a possible to adjust them to the world in which they live (Al Rahman : 2004). He says that there are four aspec influence teaching and learning, they are teacher, students, learning process and learning situation. The process is the interaction between the students and the teacher. Teaching-learning process means through which the teacher, the learner, the curriculum and other variables are organized in a systematic manner to attain pre- determined goals and objectives. The teaching- learning situations have to be brought into an intelligible whole. The teaching-learner activities are varied and complex have to be harmonized. For example the individual differences, the methods of teaching, the material tobe taught, classroom conditions, teaching devices,questioning and answering, assignments, thinking, creating, practical skills, discussion and many others. Teaching-learning process is influenced by the totality of the situation. So, the teacher can play an important role in facilitating learning when they take account the needs of the learners. Beside that the creativity of the teacher in conducting the teaching learning process also influences the student in acquiring the target language. For that reasons, the teacher must choose the best method in their teaching learning process. The system of teaching English in Indonesia as a foreign language has changed from time to time based on the curriculum. The school used curriculum 2013 and now some schools go back to School Based Curriculum (KTSP). In Senior High School, the students are required to master the four language skill: speaking, writing, reading, listening and they have to know the language components grammar, vocabulary and pronounciation. Most of all, writing is the difficult one. Writing is a process of thinking from planning or drafting to revising. According to Nunan (1989:35), learning to write fluently and expressively is the most difficult of the macroskills for all language users. He also added, writing is an extremely complex cognitive activity in which the writer is required to demonstrate control of a number of variables simultaneously. Tessema (2005:26) states that writing courses must focus on the specific writing purposes that are most relevant to students’ needs. The importance of writing can be seen in people daily activities when they need to write short text such as memos, invitation letters, sympathy notes, brochures, articles, business letters, application letters. It also goes to the genre text like recount text, narrative text, report text,analytical exposition and many others. Most of them always feel difficult when students are asked to write them. They know the concept but less knowledge of good structure and the use of appropriate sentence. There are so many approaches of teaching. One of them which is effective according to some teachers is cooperative learning or called collaborative learning, is a teaching strategy in which the students work in small teams using a variety of learning activities to enhance their understanding of a lesson. By doing such activities, each student is expected to be responsible not only for his/her understanding but also for helping teammates. Intan Kris Amilia / Journal of English Language Teaching 5 (2) (2016) 3 There are some techniques which are developed based on the principles of cooperative learning. According to Kagan (1989), one of techniques in cooperative language learning is to Send a Problem. He notes that “ this structure is particularly effective for problem solving”. It can also increase students’ creativity and get multi answer from the topic. Here the rules of this technique. The students place in small group. There are several list of problem that attached in the envelope. Then the students brainstorm the effective solutions/give the responses about the problem. The envelope is passed to the next group and this process is repeated. Last, it gives back to the first group, they review all suggested and choose the best responses. Therefore, Send a Problem may be a good technique to improve students’ writing skill. One of text types which is taught in the eleventh grade of Senior High School is analytical exposition. In learning this material, students sometimes find difficulties in understanding the requirements of analytical exposition. They also sometimes find difficulty in writing their idea on the topic given, and choosing vocabulary they want to use to develop the text. Therefore, the teacher needs to find a good method to teach analytical exposition. In this case, Send a Problem technique will be good to help students in creating an analytical exposition text. By designing this research, the writer hopes that by using Send a Problem technique, the teacher can teach collaboratively and it will improve the students’ achievement in writing an analytical exposition text. LITERATURE REVIEW Writing Hyland (2003: 3) said that writing is seen as a product constructed from the writer’s command of grammatical and lexical knowledge,and writing development is considered to be the result of imitating and manipulating models provided by the teacher. As we know that grammatical and lexical knowledge include to the language structure, as a basis for teaching writing. Writing is not only arranging words into sentences but it is also arranging sentences or paragraphs. Then, itis neither an easy nor spontaneous activity. In writing, students do not only have to keep the idea in mind and then write it, they need to have creativity to express and develop their idea as well. Analytical Exposition There are some experts that gave similar description of analytical exposition. Djuharia (2007:13) defined analytical exposition as argumentative text because writer providing readers or listeners with point of view,ideas, or thoughts of topic or issue or problem needs to get attention or explanation with no appeared efforts to persuade readers. In addittion, Priyana (2008:59) adds that “analytical exposition proposes or suggests a certain topic which may only be pro or contra, not both.” Gerot and Wignell (1994:197) also explain that the generic structure of analytical exposition is organized in three stages: a) Thesis Thesis consists of position and preview. Position introduces topic and indicates writer’s position. On the other hand, preview is the outlines the main arguments to be presented. b) Arguments This stage consists of point and elaboration. Point restates main argument outlined in preview and elaboration develops and supports each point. c) Reiteration Reiteration is to restate writer’s position. According to Gerot and Wignell (1994:198), the lexicogrammatical features of analytical exposition are: (1) focus on generic human and non-human participants (car, pollution) (2) use of simple present tense (do, say, think) (3) use of relational processes (it is important) (4) use of internal conjunction to stage argument(firstly., secondly.., next.., finally...) Intan Kris Amilia / Journal of English Language Teaching 5 (2) (2016) 4 (5) use the causal and contrastive conjunction( the cause of an event.., because.., but.., nevertheless) Cooperative Learning Cooperative learning is a successful teaching strategy in which small teams, each with students of different levels of ability, use a variety of learning activities to improve their understanding of a subject. According to Brown (2001:47) cooperative learning is defined as students work together in pairs and groups, they share information and come to each others’ get helps. Each member of a team is responsible not only for learning what is taught but also for helping teammates learn, thus creating an atmosphere of achievement. Students work through the assignment until all group members successfully understand and complete it. Send a Problem Technique This structure is particularly effective for problem solving. Its exact source is unknown. The Howard County Maryland Staff Development Centre developed a version of it inspired by Kagan’s work (1989). The starting point is a list of problems/issues, or case studies, which can be generated by students or can be teacher-selected. The teams then brainstorm effective solutions or responses for these problems, issues,or case studies, recording them on a piece of paper. At a predetermined time, the ideas are placed in the folder or envelope and forwarded to another team. The members of the second team, without looking at the ideas already generated, compile their own list of solutions or responses. The folder with the two sets of ideas is forwarded to a third team which now looks at the suggestions or conclusion provided from the other teams, adds its own, and then synthesizes the ideas from all three teams. Alternatively, if the problems generate a list of ideas, then the teams can select the best two or more responses or solutions. During this activity, students are engaged in thehighest levels of Bloom’s taxonomy (1956)-evaluation and synthesis. Procedures/Steps: (1) Place students in small groups. (2) Ask each group to think of topic related situation and write this on a card or piece of paper (it can be from students or teacher will selected). The problem is attached to the outsideof a folder and swapped with another group. (3) Give groups three to five minutes to consider the problem and brainstorm a range of solutions or give the responses to the problem. The solutions or responses are listed and enclosed inside the folder. (4) The folder is then passed to the next group and the process repeated. Remind groups not to look in the folders or read the solutions or responses identified by previous groups. (5) Repeat this process until groups have completed several problems. (6) Groups should be given their original problem to review all the suggested ideas and develop a prioritized list of possible solutions or responses. This list is then presented to the class to discuss and decide which responses that they would feel confident to use. METHODS OF INVESTIGATION In this research, the writer used quasi- experimental research design in the form of non- equivalent control group design. This study involved two groups: an experimental group and a control group. This research used pre-test and post-test to obtain the data. Pre-Test Treatment Post-Test Experimental Group O1 X O2 Control Group O3 O4 The population in this study was the eleventh grade students of SMA N 8 Semarang in the academic year of 2015/2016. The number of the students was 300, which were divided into 10 classes. The sample was XI-IS-4 class as experimental group who are taught using cooperative learning Send a Problem and XI-IS-5 as control group who are taught using Intan Kris Amilia / Journal of English Language Teaching 5 (2) (2016) 5 conventional way. Each class consists of 30 students, so the sample in this study are 60 students. The instrument of this research was written test and questionnaire. Before the test is used to collect the data, the try-out test was conducted to measure the validity and reliability of the test. To measure the significance of the post-test of the both groups, the researcher used independent sample t-test. RESEARCH FINDINGS Tryout To find out whether the instrument was good or not to be used in the real test, the writer held the try out test first . The writer held try out on 20 of October 2015. It was administered to the students of class XI IS 2 of SMA N 8 Semarang in which there were 30 students took the try-out test. Validity of the Test The writer used content validity to find out whether the test valid or not, it can be checked by comparing the test with the materials dealing with the curriculum requirement. The School Based Curriculum states that the eleventh grade students are supposed to make an analytical exposition texts. So, the content of the test offered in this research is valid enough. Reliability of Test A test cannot measure anything well unless it measures consistently. The result of interrater reliability of the try out test was 0,74, for α = 5% with N = 30. The r-table = 0.361. Since the result values (0,74) were higher than critical value (0.361), the instruments were reliable. Pre-Test A pre-test was given before doing the experiment. The pre-test for both group (XI-IS-4 as experimental group and XI-IS-5 as control group) was held on October, 29th 2015. There were 60 students in both group. From the pre-test results, the average pre-test’s score of control group was 62.77 and the average pre- test’s score of experimental group was 62.80. It can be concluded that there is no significant difference between each aspect in both groups. In other words, the experimental group and the control group have the same quality in English subject, especially in writing analytical exposition text. Treatments The study was conducted from November 4th to November 11th 2015 in SMA Negeri 8 Semarang. There were two groups in this research, they were class XI IS 4 as the experimental group and class XI IS 5 as the control group. Each group consisted of 30 students. In the implementation of this study, first, the writer gave pre-test to the students in the control and the experimental groups. Then they were given treatments. The special treatments were given to the experimental group in form of applying Send a Problem technique in teaching writing analytical exposition texts. Furthermore, the control group was given treatments without Send a Problem technique. The treatment was given 3 times, 6 x 45 minutes which consisted of three meeting. Post-Test A post-test was given after doing the experiment. The pre-test for both group (XI-IS-4 as experimental group and XI-IS-5 as control group) was held on November, 12th 2015. There were 60 students in both group. . After the experimental group and control group received different treatments, the average of the experimental group was higher than the control group’s. The average post-test’s score of control group was 68.9, and the average post-test’s score of experimental group was 75.57. Significant Differences of Post-Test between Control and Experimental Group The writer calculated the normality and homogeneity of the test before conducting independent sample t-test to find the significant difference. Intan Kris Amilia / Journal of English Language Teaching 5 (2) (2016) 6 Normality of the Test Post-test normality is presented in table below: Tests of Normality Kolmogorov-Smirnova Shapiro-Wilk Statistic df Sig. Stati stic df S ig. Post_Test_Cont rol_Group .140 29 .153 .947 29 . 157 Based on the table of SPSS result above, the Sig Shapiro-Wilk value was 0.157. It meant that pvalue was higher than 0.05. The post-test in this study was normally distributed in this group. Post-test normality is presented in table below. Tests of Normality Kolmogorov-Smirnova Shapiro-Wilk Stati stic df Sig. Stati stic Df Sig. Post_Test_Experime nt_Group .132 29 .200 * .938 29 .088 Based on the table of SPSS result above, the Sig Shapiro-Wilk value was 0.088. It meant that pvalue was higher than 0.05. The post-test in this study was normally distributed. Homogeneity of the Test Homogeneity tests were used to decide whether a test was homogeneous or not. It was important because the similarity of both groups would influence the result of test. Moreover, homogeneity of a test was used as a requirement to calculate t-test. The following is the result of homogeneity test for both experimental and control group post-test: Test of Homogeneity of Variances Variance _001 Levene Statistic df1 df2 Sig. 2.198 7 14 .099 According the table above, Sig value was 0.099 which was higher than the level of significant (0.05). It could be concluded that the population between experimental and control Intan Kris Amilia / Journal of English Language Teaching 5 (2) (2016) 7 group were homogenous. By knowing the result of post-test homogeneity, the writer concluded that the population of the two groups was homogenous so the t-test could be counted. Independent Sample T-test Analysis of Post- test between Experimental Group and Control Group The writer calculated t-test by using SPSS program to find out if there was a significant difference or not. Before calculating independent sample t-test, the data should have normal distribution and homogeneity. Post-test of control group and experimental group were normally distributed and homogeneous. The writer conducted independent sample t-test calculation by using SPSS program. The result of the calculation is as follows: Group Statistics Group N Mea n Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean S core Experimental_ group 30 75.5 7 8.353 1.525 Control_group 30 68.5 7 6.218 1.135 Independent Samples Test Levene's Test for Equality of Variances t-test for Equality of Means F S ig. T Df Si g. (2- tailed) M ean Differe nce S td. Error Differe nce 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference L ower U pper Sc ore Equ al variances assumed 3. 547 . 065 3. 682 58 .0 01 7 .000 1 .901 3 .194 1 0.806 Equ al variances not assumed 3. 682 53 .591 .0 01 7 .000 1 .901 3 .188 1 0.812 To prove that there were significant differences between the result in control and experimental group, it was important to analyze independent sample t-test based on the calculation of SPSS program conducted by the writer. If Sig. (2-tailed) was lower than 0.05 then Intan Kris Amilia / Journal of English Language Teaching 5 (2) (2016) 8 there were significant differences between the result of control and the experimental group. Furthermore, the writer also calculate an effect size to determine the magnitude of this significant effect. Based on the independent sample test result above, the test was significant, t(58)= 3.68 , p< .05 , d= .95. It means the tvalue from 58 degree of freedom was 3.68 . The probabilty of obtaining tvalue was 0.05 and the effect size was 0.95. The 95% confidence interval for the average precentage of post-test’ score ranged from 3.19 to 10.8. An examination of the group means indicate that post-test’ score of experimental group (M= 75.57, SD= 8.35) is significantly higher than post-test’ score of control group (M= 68.57, SD=6.22). Null hypothesis (Ho) was rejected and alternative hypothesis (H1) was accepted because the mean of experimental group is differ with the mean of control group. In conclusion, Send a Problem technique is effective for teaching writing analytical exposition because there was a significant difference in the students’ score after being taught using this technique. CONCLUSIONS Based on the result of the data analyses in the previous chapter in this study, there are several conclusions that can be drawn as following: Firstly, teaching writing using Send a Problem technique is more effective than using a conventional way. The effectiveness of Send a Problem technique is supported by the average of the experimental group is improving higher (from 62.80 to 75.57) than the control group (from 62.77 to 68.57). Furthermore, the test is significant, it can be seen from result of the independent sample t-test is t(58)= 3.68 , p< .05 , d= .95. It means the tvalue from 58 degree of freedom was 3.68 . The probabilty of obtaining tvalue was 0.05 and the effect size was 0.95. The 95% confidence interval for the average precentage of post-test’ score ranged from 3.19 to 10.8. Secondly, the students are more motivated when they are taught using Send a Problem technique , they can shares new ideas and concepts through this technique. Moreover, it helps the students solve the problems/issues through team work. With writing, directly the students find some vocabulary which never they heard before. In addition, they can construct a sentence with well – arrange and good grammar. 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