1 ELT FORUM 2 (1) (2013) English Language Teaching Forum http://journal.unnes.ac.id/sju/index.php/elt DIGITAL STORYTELLING TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ MASTERY IN WRITING NARRATIVE Dillyan Anugrah Joko Saputro Department of English, Faculty Language and Arts, Semarang State University, Indonesia Info Artikel ________________ SejarahArtikel: DiterimaJanuari 2013 DisetujuiFebruari 2013 DipublikasikanJuni 2013 ________________ Keywords: Digital Storytelling, Writing Narrative Text, Experimental Study ____________________ Abstract ___________________________________________________________________ This study is an experimental study. It aims to find out whether teaching narrative text using digital storytelling is effective to enhance students’ mastery in writing. This research also reveal the significant difference in the achievement between students who are taught using digital storytelling and those who are taught using conventional technique. In order to achieve those objectives, I conducted an experimental study. The population of this study was the eighth graders of SMPN 1 Grobogan. The experimental group was VIII-1 and the control group was VIII-2. The experimental group was taught using digital storytelling and the control group was taught using conventional technique. The result after a treatment was given shows that the mean of experimental group was higher than the control group. Therefore, there is a significant difference in students’ achievement that was taught using digital storytelling and using conventional technique. It is concluded the use of digital storytelling as visual aid can improve students’ mastery in writing narrative. © 2013UniversitasNegeri Semarang Alamatkorespondensi: GedungB3Lantai3 FBSUnnes KampusSekaran, Gunungpati, Semarang, 50229 E-mail: dillyananugrah@gmail.com ISSN 2252-6706 mailto:dillyananugrah@gmail.com Dillyan Anugrah Joko Saputro / Journal of English Language Teaching 2 (1) (2013) 2 INTRODUCTION The achievement of students in English is still insufficient even though they have been learning English since they were in elementary school. Students are still poor in mastering the four language skill (listening, speaking, reading, and writing). They find it is very difficult to improve their language skill. In this final project, I focus on students‟ writing achievement. Writing skill is needed in written communication. In writing, students have to convey their ideas, put them into paper, and also revise them. However, writing is not an easy skill to master. Brown (2000:335) states “writing needs a process of thinking, drafting, and revising that requires specialized skills, skills that not every speaker develop naturally”. It means that students need a lot of practices in mastering writing skill in order to produce a good text. There are some difficulties which are faced by the students in mastering writing skill. The most common difficulty which is faced by students is to build an idea. Building an idea is an essential thing to start writing. If the students have found an idea, they will know what they are going to write. The other difficulties students face is the lack of vocabulary. The lack of vocabulary limits them in creating a good writing composition. If they have lack of vocabulary, they will use the same terms in their writing frequently. It will make their writing monotonoues. Besides the lack of vocabulary and difficulties in building ideas, the problem which students face is that they do not understand the organization of the text they are going to write. Therefore, one of the solutions is to introducing text types or genre to the students. Anderson and Anderson (1997:17) say that “a genre can be defined as a culturally specific text- type which results from using language (written or spoken) to (help) accomplish something”. Thus, the teaching learning material should be centered on genre. In the 1994 curriculum of English for Junior High School, reading skill should be given more attention from both teachers and students. It means that reading is a more important skill than the other skills. Now we use 2004 curriculum of English for Junior High School which is stressed on the ability to communicate both in the spoken and written ways. English is taught as a compulsory subject from junior high school up to senior high school and for some semesters at university level. In addition, many English courses have been run in almost every town in our country to facilitate those who want to learn English. It becomes the teacher‟s job to help the students to solve their problem in improving their writing abilities. Harmer (2001:257) explains “in teaching of writing we can focus on the product of that writing or on the writing process itself”. It means that teacher has a choice on how he/she will improve the students‟ ability in writing. If teacher chooses to concentrate in the process of writing, it means that the teacher needs to provide clear guideline on how to construct different kinds of text they have to write. Hyland (2003:10) states that “…the process approach to writing teaching to address the issue of what teachers should do to help learners perform a writing task”. In this case, the existence of learning media is important. It helps both of teacher and students. Media support teacher to provide an interesting learning material. On the other hand, through the use of media the students can learn the material easily. Games, song, film, pictures, and photos can be a good medium because they are easy to find and also to use. Digital storytelling is one of the media that can be used in teaching activities. It can be a motivating medium in teaching writing especially in teaching narrative text. Anderson and Anderson (1997, p. 6) explain that “the narrative text type is a text that tells a story whose purpose is to present a view of the world that entertains or informs the reader or listener”. In teaching narrative text, digital storytelling helps teacher to gain students‟ interest and involve them in the learning process because of its moving and interesting animations. It also contains subtitle of the story which can make the students understand about the story it self. The students‟ interest will make them feel Dillyan Anugrah Joko Saputro / Journal of English Language Teaching 2 (1) (2013) 3 comfortable in joining the learning process. It is expected that the use of digital story as teaching media can help the students‟ mastery in writing narrative text. DISCUSSION Digital Storytelling Bull and Kajder (2004: 47) states that “A digital story consists of a series of still images combined with a narrated soundtrack to tell a story”. The another definition comes from Porter (2009: 7). He explains “the digital storytelling process helps to transform isolated facts into illuminated, enduring understandings. By „living in the story‟, we makes the information come emotionally alive. By exploring „lessons learned‟, we go beyond telling about content to find its deeper meaning”. From the definitions above, the writer can conclude that digital story combines the art of telling stories with a variety of digital multimedia such as images, audio, and video. Using digital story can help teachers to build the students‟ understanding about the delivered material; in this case is narrative text. As stated above, narrative is a text which retell past events in a chronological order. It means that using digital story can help students to understand the story of narrative text. Writing is one way to deliver what it is on our mind. Writing is one of four skills of language. Writing is not an easy skill to master. Before writing, we must have something in mind about what we are going to write. Writing means that we convey our ideas put them into a paper and also revise them. We need to consider several things when we are writing so that people can understand our writing. It means that before writing something we have to know and decide what kinds of text or genre we are going to write. Writing Writing requires some skills. In producing a good piece of writing someone must have a good skill in spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Harris (2003: 22) states “… that writing is a tool for communication that comprises a series of predetermined skills in spelling, punctuation, and grammar”. In general, writing is a complex process that involves many skills. Students also have to master some learning concepts such as the rule of constructing paragraph. In teaching writing, teacher should clearly explain what kinds of text he or she is going to develop. Teacher also needs to develop what material and/or media he/she uses to facilitate teaching learning activities. One of the independence of teaching English is to facilitate students with writing ability. Unfortunately, many students find that writing is the most difficult skill to master. They get difficulty to produce an English text. To solve the problem, I try to use pictures in chronological order in teaching writing, especially in teaching narrative text. Narrative Narrative text is used to amuse, entertains and to deal with an actual or vicarious experience in different ways; Narratives deal with problematic events which lead to a crisis or turning point of some kind, which in turn finds a resolution. Anderson, M and Anderson, K explain that narrative text used to tells a story and, in doing so, entertains or informs the readers or listeners. In writing a narrative text we use past tense and it also uses specific participant. Method This study uses quasi experimental design designed by collecting data with a treatment using pre-test and post-test. The design of the experiment can be described as the following: Table 3.1 Design of the experiment E 01 X1 02 C 03 X2 04 Dillyan Anugrah Joko Saputro / Journal of English Language Teaching 2 (1) (2013) 4 Source: (Arikunto, 2006:86) In which: E : Experimental group C : Control group 01 : Pre-test for the experimental group 02 : Post-test for the experimental group 03 : Pre-test for the control group 04 : Post-test for the control group X1 : Treatment using digital storytelling X2 : Treatment using conventional method There are two groups in this study. The first group is the experimental group which is given a new treatment or in this case is taught by digital storytelling, while the second group is the control group which is taught by conventional method. In conducting this research, the writer used several appropriate techniques and methods to gather the information. In order to collect the data in this study, the writer used pre-test, and posttest. The pre- test is used to check the quality of the subject of the study before they get the treatment. The post-test is employed to know whether there is an improvement on their writing ability after they get the treatment. The result of the test will be computed statistically. Subject of the Study Population The population of this study is the eight grade students of SMP Negeri 1 Grobogan in the academic year 2012/2013. Sample Based on the random sampling I took the eight grade students of SMP Negeri 1 Grobogan as subject of the study. The writer took class VIII-1 and VIII-2 as the samples of the study. Instrument for Collecting the Data In a research program, instrument is an important device to collect data. The instrument used in this experiment is to measure the students‟ ability in constructing narrative text. Therefore, the writer used a test as the instrument in collecting data. In this study, the writer used written test as the instrument for collecting data. Since writing is a productive skill which means this activity shows someone ability to produce (write) something on a paper. So, the written test is the most suitable instrument to use. Pretest A pretest is a test given before the treatment. The function of pre-test is to find out the prior knowledge or ability of the test takers before the treatment given. Treatment I use digital storytelling to teach narrative text. The treatment was given to the students before the posttest conducted. Digital storytelling was used as the media in teaching writing narrative text in this study. Post-test After the treatment, a post-test was given. The function of the posttest was to measure students‟ ability after they got the treatment. The posttest was the same with the pretest. Scoring Technique I use an analytical method to give the score to the paper test. I use the analytical scale for rating composition tasks suggested by Brown & Bailey as cited by H. Douglas Brown. This formula adapted by Brown‟s scoring rubric. The adaptation was based on the need of the study with the criterion in every component. It covered content, organization, grammar, vocabulary and mechanism. The score 3xC+2xO+2xG+1.5xV+1.5xM x 10 4 Dillyan Anugrah Joko Saputro / Journal of English Language Teaching 2 (1) (2013) 5 of every aspect was different. The maximum content aspect was 12; the organization was 8; the grammar was 8; the vocabulary was 6; and the mechanism was 6. The total score would be divided by 4 and equal by 10. Therefore, the maximum score of student‟s writing was 100 and minimum score was 25. Method of Data Analysis In analyzing the research data, I took the following step as below: 1. Tabulation of the data It includes scoring the test items of each students and arranging the scores into the rank order. 2. Applying the appropriate formula for analyzing the data. The obtained data were analyzed to get the final result. t- Test formula was used in this research to analyze the data. It showed the final result from both experimental and control groups given different treatments. Figure 3.1 T-test formula Source: (Arikunto, 2006:311) Where: Mx : the mean score of the experimental group My :the mean score of the controlled group Nx :the number of students of the experimental group Ny :the number of students of the controlled group x2 :the total of the square deviation of the experimental group y2 :the total of square deviation of the controlled group Result Computation between Two Means After getting all the test scores, the computation was made. The first way to know the significant difference of the experimental and control group‟s score could be seen through the difference of the means. The following formula was used to get the means: mean = The Mean Score of Pretest A pretest was conducted at the beginning of the research. The purpose of this test was to check the students‟ ability inwriting a narrative text. There were 26 students took the test. They had to re-write the story given. In order to know further on the students‟ achievement in detail, I used the following formula to find out the average of the students‟ achievement. The formula was: Mean score of experimental group: M = =860 26 = 33.08 Mean score of control group: M= N = 771 26 = 29.65 From the analysis above, we can see that the mean score of the students of experimental group was 33.08 and the students of control group was 29.65. Thus, based on the scoring categories the means score of both groups were categorized as very poor. Iconcluded that the students had difficulties in constructing the sentences and they were confused in choosing the right vocabulary based on the result of pre- test. Therefore, teaching narrative with a new technique in each activity was important to improve the students‟ achievement. The Mean Score of Posttest The students were given posttest after they got the treatment. In this activity, the                     NyNxNyNx yx MyMx t 11 2 22 Dillyan Anugrah Joko Saputro / Journal of English Language Teaching 2 (1) (2013) 6 students had to do the same test as the pre-test given. Then, I calculated the means score of the posttest of experimental and control group. It can be computed as follows: Mean score of experimental group: M = =1696 26 = 65.23 Mean score of control group: M= N = 1320 26 = 50.77 The achievement of the posttest of experimental group students was 65.23, and control group students was 50.77. Based on the result of the final test, it could be concluded that there was an improvement of the students‟ achievement inimproving their mastery in writing narrative text for both group. After computing the mean score, I calculated the sum for both group‟s score. The sum of experimental group‟s score is: ΣX= ∑ - = 28898 - = 28898 – 26880.62 = 2017.38 The sum of control group‟s score is: ΣY= ∑ - = 14335 – = 14335 – 11529.35 = 2742.65 Test of Significance As stated earlier, the mean of control group was lower than the mean of the experimental group. However, we still cannot conclude that the difference between the both means was significant. Therefore, in this analysis t-test was applied. This formula was used to check whether the two means were statistically significant. As I mentioned before, in analyzing the data, I used t-test formula in order to strengthen the result of analysis. Here is the formula: √* + * + Where: ΣX= ∑ - = 28898 - = 28898 – 26880.62 = 2017.38 And: ΣY= ∑ - = 14335 – = 14335 – 11529.35 = 2742.65 So the t value could be computed as follow: √( ) ( ) √( ) ( ) = √ = 4.08 After I got t-test result, the critical value of the t-table was consulted to check whether the Dillyan Anugrah Joko Saputro / Journal of English Language Teaching 2 (1) (2013) 7 difference was significant or not. For = 5%, and the number of the students, 26 + 26 – 2 = 50, from the formula: I found that t-table = 1.68. Based on the computation I found that t-value (4.08) was higher than the critical value on the t-table (1.68). It could be inferred that there was significant difference between experimental group and control group. As I conducted my experimental research in SMPN 1 Grobogan, I noticed that the students who were taught using digital storytelling were so interested and enthusiastic during the lesson. In constructing the sentences in writing narrative text, the students need imagination to understand what the story about. They need an illustration to illustrate the plot in the story; they need to have a visual illustration to make their understanding clearer than only by reading the story in their books. During my experimental research, the experimental group showed their improvement in understanding it, while the control group students had difficulties in constructing their sentences in writing narrative text and did not show improvement. Although using digital storytelling, was proven effective enough in improving their understanding in writing narrative text, it does not mean that teaching and learning process without using digital storytelling was not effective. The use of digital storytelling also faced some obstacles. First, the blank out electricity might happen during the lesson. Therefore, teachers who are using technology and electricity in teaching should anticipate this condition. Second, the hysteria of students knowing that they will be taught using digital storytelling was another obstacle in applying this method. Students sometimes got too excited in the classroom so that they could not hear the explanation well. However, those obstacles were not serious problems, so that the teaching and learning process could still be done well until the experiment was completed. CONCLUSION Digital storytelling is one of the media that can be used in teaching activities. It can be a motivating medium in teaching writing especially in teaching narrative text. Digital storytelling helps teacher to gain students‟ interest and involve them in the learning process because of its moving and interesting animations. It also contains subtitle of the story which can make the students understand about the story it self. The students‟ interest will make them feel comfortable in joining the learning process. It is expected that the use of digital story as teaching media can help the students‟ mastery in writing narrative text. After doing an analysis and discussion, I have several conclusions. The study aimed to find out whether teaching narrative text using digital storytelling is effective to enhance students‟ mastery in writing. This research also reveal the significant difference in the achievement between students who are taught using digital storytelling and those who are taught using conventional technique. The result of the study showed that the differences between the two means (of experimental and control group) was significant. This can be proved with the test of significant (t-test). The t-test result was 4.08. When the result of t-value is compared to t- table on the level significance of 5% and the number of degree freedom was 50, which the result was 1.68, the comparison shows that the result of t-value was higher than the critical value on the t-table. Based on the result of the study, I would like to offer some suggestions to be considered to improve the teaching of writing. The students should practice their English especially writing ability in their daily lives because it will make them get used to writing in English and it will improve their writing ability. Teachers should be able to use the appropriate teaching media. It is very important for them to use various methods in teaching writing to the students. Through various methods, the teaching and learning process can be more enjoyable, so that the students will not  2 yx NN Dillyan Anugrah Joko Saputro / Journal of English Language Teaching 2 (1) (2013) 8 get bored in learning. Therefore, Digital Storytelling can be an appropriate method in teaching since it is an interesting medium which gives students illustration through audio and animated picture. I hope other researchers can use it as one of the references in conducting their researches on the same field of study. Besides, it could be applied for teaching writing to solve students‟ difficulties in constructing narrative text. There is also a possibility to find another more effective way in teaching writing narrative text. REFERENCES Anderson, M. and Anderson, K. 1997. Text Type in English 1. South Yarra: Macmillan. ______________________________. 1997. Text Type in English 2. South Yarra: Macmillan. Arikunto, S. 2002. Prosedur Penelitian Suatu Pendekatan Praktek. Jakarta: PT Rineka Cipta. Brown, H. D. 2000. Principles of Language Learning and Teaching (4 th Ed). London: Longman. _____, ____. 2004. Language Assessment Principle and Classroom Practice. New York: Pearson Education, Inc. 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