1 ELT FORUM 5 (1) (2016) Journal of English Language Teaching http://journal.unnes.ac.id/sju/index.php/elt THE EFFECTIVENESS OF JOURNALIST QUESTION TECHNIQUE TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILL IN NARRATIVE TEXT (An Experimental Study at Eighth Grade Students of SMP N 19 Semarang in the Academic Year of 2014/2015) Puspa Dewi Ayu Kurniyasari English Department. Faculty of Languages and Arts. State University of Semarang. Aticle Info ________________ Article History: Received in February 2016 Approved in March 2016 Published in April 2016 ________________ Keywords: Journalist questions technique, Writing, Narrative text, Experimental research. ____________________ Abstract ___________________________________________________________________ This research is about using Journalist Question technique for teaching writing in junior high school. Journalist Question technique is a technique that can help the students to explore their idea in writing to cover the content of the narrative text. This research that aims to investigate the effectiveness of Journalist Questions technique to improve students’ writing skill in narrative text. The research design used was an experimental research. Tests were used as the instruments to collect the data and information. Before conducting the experiment, try out was given to 33 students of VIII-B to make sure that they were valid and reliable. The researcher used class VIII-D as the experimental group and VIII-C as the control group. Both classes were in the same level, background, and competence. The result of this research showed that the average score of the pre-test in the experimental group was 54.78 and the post-test was 66.42. The improvement on the experimental group was 11.64. While, on the control group, the average score of the pre-test was 53.69 and the post-test was 60.48. The improvement on the control group was 6,73. From the t-test computation of the post-test score, the t-value was higher than t-table (t-value > t-table = 2.083 > 1.998). Therefore, the null hypothesis was rejected and the working hypothesis was accepted. It means that there is a significant difference between the experimental group and the control group. The results indicate that Journalist Question technique technique is effective in improving the writing skill at the eighth graders of SMP Negeri 19 Semarang in the academic year of 2014/2015. It is suggested that the findings of this study could be applied regularly and continously or developed by the English teachers to have a better teaching writing. © 2016 Universitas Negeri Semarang  Correspondent Address: B3 Building FBS Unnes Sekaran, Gunungpati, Semarang, 50229 E-mail: puspadewiayu@gmail.com ISSN 2252-6706 Puspa Dewi Ayu Kurniyasari / Journal of English Language Teaching 5 (1) (2016) 2 INTRODUCTION In learning English, there are four skills that have to be mastered by students. Those skills are listening, speaking, reading and writing skills. Writing is considered as the most difficult skillif it is compared to the other skills. It becomes difficult because it needs many competencies including grammar, diction, cohesion, etc to express theideas or opinions. According to Brown (2001:335), “the process of writing requires an entirely different set of competencies. Written products are often the result of thinking, drafting, and revising procedures that requires specialized skills, skills that not every speaker develop naturally.” The result of observation that the researcher conducted in SMP N 19 Semarang showed that writing is also the most difficult skill for students in junior high school. The students sometimes face many problems in learning English, especially in writing. They will face with many difficulties like expressing their idea, mastering the competencies, through the steps of writing. Based on School Based Curriculum in junior high school, there are three kinds of text taught in the eight grade of senior high school, they are: descriptive, recount, and narrative. Narrative text is considered as the difficult text to create because there are difficult things like the foreign words and the complicated cotent that have to be learned by the eighth grade students. The other texts like descriptive and recount are not too difficult for the students because it uses a simple words and the content is easier to be learned. In order to enable students to express their ideas in writing, Therefore, the teacher will help the students by using many kinds of techniques so that the students will enjoy the teaching learning process. In addition, they will easier to learn about the subject taught by the teacher. One of the alternatives techniques is using Journalist Question technique which is developed by Charles et. al. (1985:129). In this technique, there are six key questions (journalist questions) that journalism students are taught to answer somewhere in their news articles to make sure that they have covered the whole story. The Journalist Question technique is used to help the students in writing to cover the whole story in narrative text. LITERATURE REVIEW There have been a number of researchers conducted some studies related to the use of Journalist Question technique to improve students’ writing skill in narrative text such as Octaviani, Santi (2009), Rokhayani, Atik(2006), Nurdwiansyah, Denni (2013), Kurniati(2015), and Zulfida (2012). From the above previous research findings, the researcher would like to use Journalists Question Technique in writing narrative text with the eighth grade students of SMP N 19 Semarang in the academic year 2014/2015. The researcher would like to know whether it is an effective technique or not to use in teaching narrative text. The Journalist Question technique Journalists Question is one of the techniques to teach narrative text text. It consists of 6 words (who, what, where, when, why and how) which are use by reporters to ask interviewees. Those words can stimulate the students to generate their ideas in writing narrative texts. Based on Urquhart and McIver (2005), "Journalists' Questions (who, what, where, when, why and how), or the questions that are referred to as the five Ws and one H, have been the mainstay of newsrooms across the country. The first word is who. “Who” is used to explore about the person in the news. The second word is what. “What” is used to explore about something happened in the news. The third word is when. “When” is used to explore about the time in the news. The fourth word is where. “Where” is used to explore about the location of the news. The fifth word is why. “Why” is used to explore about cause and result of the news. The sixth word is how. “How” is used to explore about how is something happened. The students can use that words to explore their idea in writing narrative text. It can help tem to explore their idea in covering the whole story of writing narrative text. Puspa Dewi Ayu Kurniyasari / Journal of English Language Teaching 5 (1) (2016) 3 The General Concept of Writing Based on Meyers (2005: 2), “Writing is a way to produce language you do naturally when you speak. Writing is speaking to other on a paper or on a computer screen. Writing is also an action, a process of discovering and organizing your ideas, putting them on a paper and reshaping and revising them”. According to White and Arndt(1991:5) in Harmer (2003) “writing is re-writing that revision, seeing with new eyes, has central role to play in the act of creating text”. In their model, process writing is in interrelated set of recursive stages which includes : - Drafting - Structuring (ordering informatin, experimenting with arrangements, etc) - Reviewing (checking context, connections, assessing impact, editing) - Focusing (that is making sure you are getting the message across you want to get across) - Generating ideas and evaluation (assessing the draft) One of the disadvantages of getting students to concentrate on the process of writing is that it takes time : time to brainstorm their ideas, time to draft a piece of writing andf then, with the teacher’s help perhaps, review it and edit it in various ways before, perhaps, changing the focus, generating more ideas, redrafting, re- editing and so on. This cannot be done in fifteen minutes. Therefore, writing is not an easy process for the students. It has several steps to be done by the students guiding b y the teacher. The teacher has a significant section in students steps of writing. METHODS OF INVESTIGATION In this study, the researcher decides to use an experimental research design with the use of non-equivalent control group design. Best (1981:73) states that “The pre-test post-test non- equivalent groups design is often used in classroom experiments when experimental and control groups are such naturally assembled groups as intact classes which maybe similar”. The design of the pre-test-post-test non- equivalent group design can be described as the following: The pre-test-post-test non-equivalent group design O1 X O2 O1 O3=pre-tests O3 C O4 O2 O4=post-tests (Best, 1981:73) Where; X : Treatment using Journalist Questions technique C : Treatment without using Journalist Questions technique O1 : Pre-test for experimental group O2 : Post-test for experimental group O3 : Pre-test for control group O4 : Post-test for control group The population was eight classes of eighth grade students of SMP N 19 Semarang. It consisted of 258 students. The sample was VIII-C as the experimental group and VIII-D as the control group. The instrument of this research was test. Before the test is used to collect the data, the try-out test was conducted to measure the validity and reliability of the test. The researcher used t-test based on Arikunto (2002) to measure the significance of the pre-test and post-test of the both groups, RESEARCH FINDINGS Tryout The tryout test was conducted on May 15th, 2015 in class VIII B. The index validity of number 1 (grammar) was 0,7848, it was found by calculated using Pearson Product Moment. Then from the table of critical r-value, the significant level 5% for N = 33 is 0.344. Based on the data, the index validity of the item number 1 (Grammar) was considered to be valid because the result of the computation was higher than critical r-value. The index validity of number 2 (Vocabulary) was 0,861802 , number 3 (Mechanics (Spelling)) was 0,769964 , number 4 (Fluency) was 0,88024, and number 5 (Relevance (Content)) was 0,88024 , it is all higher than r- value which considered to be valid. Based on the Puspa Dewi Ayu Kurniyasari / Journal of English Language Teaching 5 (1) (2016) 4 result, the reliability of the test showed that the estimated r11 was 0.871772. Then from the table of critical r-value with significant level 5% for N=32 is 0.349. It can be considered that the test was reliable because r11 was higher than r-value. Pre-Test A pre-test was given before doing the experiment. The pre-test of experimental group was conducted on May 18th, 2015 in class VIIID and the pre-test of the control group was conducted on May 19th, 2015 in class VIIIC. The result of the pre-test find out that the average score of the experimental group was 54.78 and the control group was 53.69. The result of t-value was 0.374 and the result of t-table was 1.998. T-value was lower than t-table (0,374 < 1.998). It meant there is no significant difference between experimental and control groups, and it was relatively the same before the treatment was given. Treatments In conducting the experiment, the treatment was given to the students after the pre- test. The VIII-C as the experimental group was taught by using Journalist Question technique as a technique to learn narrative text, meanwhile VIII- D as the control group was taught by discussion guided teaching. The first treatment for experimental group was done on May 20th, 2015 and the second meeting was on May 25th, 2015. On the other hand the treatments for control group were done on May 21st, 2015 and on May 26th, 2015. After doing the treatment, the researcher found that there were some advantages of using Journalist Question Technique. The advantages of using Journalist Question technique are easy to learn and help the students in generating their ideas. Besides the advantages of using Journalist Question technique, the researcher also found out the disadvantages of this technique. The teacher have to explain clearly about the key questions so that the students can understand well about the questions when they applied them to create a narrative text. Post-Test A post-test was given after doing the experiment. The post-test of experimental group was conducted on May 27th, 2015 in class VIIID and the pre-test of the control group was conducted on May 28st, 2015 in class VIIIC. The result of the post-test find out that the average score of the experimental group was 66,42 and the control group was 60,48. The result of t-value was 2.49 and the result of t-table was 1.998. T-value was lower than t-table (2.49 < 1.998). It meant there is a significant difference between experimental and control groups. However, the improvement of students writing skill in experimental group was higher than in the control group. The Significance Difference of Two Tests The computation of the data was made after analyzing the sudents score. By comparing the difference means of those two groups is a way to identify the significant difference between the experimental and control groups. The data being compared were the difference between the two means of the pre-test and post-test because the data showed the result of the treatments. Based on Best (1981:225), the difference between the two means could be computed as follows : 𝑀 = ∑ 𝑋 𝑁 M1= ∑ 𝑋1 𝑁1 M2= ∑ 𝑋2 𝑁2 Where; M = mean M1 = mean of experimental group M2 = mean of control group ∑= sum of X = scores in distribution N= number of scores The mean of the experimental group on the pre-test is: M1= ∑ 𝑋 𝑁 = 1808 33 = 54.78 The mean of the experimental group on the post-test is: M1= ∑ 𝑋 𝑁 = 2192 33 = 66.42 Puspa Dewi Ayu Kurniyasari / Journal of English Language Teaching 5 (1) (2016) 5 The mean of the control group on the pre- test is: M2= ∑ 𝑋 𝑁 = 1772 33 = 53.69 The mean of the control group on the post- test is: M2= ∑ 𝑋 𝑁 = 1996 33 = 60.48 Based on the calculation above, it can be seen that the mean of the pre-test in the experimental group was 54,78 and the post-test was 66,42. The different meanfrom those score between pre-test and post-test in the experimental group was 11,64. While,on the control group, the mean of the pre-test was 53.69 and the post- testwas 60.48. The different meanfrom those score between pre-test and post-test on the control group was 6.73. It can be concluded that the different mean from the average score of the students in the experimental group was higher than the control group. CONCLUSIONS The purpose of this research is to find out the improvement and the effectiveness of using Journalist Question technique at the eighth grade students of SMP N 19 Semarang in the academic year 2014/2015. Based on the research that has been done, the researcher drew some conclusions. Firstly, the computation of the students improvement showed that in the experimental group, the average score of the pre-test was 54.78 and the post-test was 66.42. the difference between the pre-test and post-test score was 11.64. The post-test score was higher than the pre- test score, it meant that there is an improvement of students skill in writing narrative text. In addition, the improvement of students skill in writing narrative text can be seen at the t-test of the gain score between the pre-test and post-test of the experimental and the control groups. The t-test was 2.29, it was higher than t-table (1.998). It meant that there is a significant improvement of students skill in writing narrative text. Secondly, the effectiveness of using Journalist Questions technique could be drawn by looking at the significant differences between the experimental and the control groups. The average score of the pre-test in the experimental group was 54.78 and the post-test was 66.42. The improvement of the experimental group was 11.64. While, in the control groups, the average score of the pre-test was 53.69 and the post-test was 60.48. The improvement in the control group was 6.73. The means of both groups increased in the post-test but the mean of the post-test in the experimental group was higher than the control group. The computation showed that the t-test value of the difference means between experimental and control group (2.083) was higher than t-table (1.998). It means that there is significant difference mean between experimental and control group. It can be concluded that it is more effective to teach writing narrative text by using Journalist Questions technique to improve students’ skill compared to teach writing narrative text without using it. REFERENCES Arikunto, S. 2002. Dasar-Dasar Evaluasi Pendidikan. Jakarta: Bumi Aksara Best, J.W. 1981. Research in Education. London: Prentice-Hall. Brown, H Douglas. 2001. Teaching by Principles. New York: Longman. Charles, M. et.al. 1985. Exploring American English. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company. Harmer, Jeremy. 2003. The Practice of English Language Teaching. Malaysia: CPM, Cambridge. Kurniati. 2015. Journal of The Effect of Peer Editing Technique Toward Writing Skill in Narrative Text of The First Year Students at SMAN 3 Rambah Hilir in the Academic Year of 2014/2015. Online at http://e- journal.upp.ac.id/index.php/binggrisfkip/arti cle/view/300 (accessed 02/02/2016). Meyers A. 2005. Gateways to Academics Writing: Effective Sentences, Paragraph and Essay. New York: Pearson Education. http://e-journal.upp.ac.id/index.php/binggrisfkip/article/view/300 http://e-journal.upp.ac.id/index.php/binggrisfkip/article/view/300 http://e-journal.upp.ac.id/index.php/binggrisfkip/article/view/300 Puspa Dewi Ayu Kurniyasari / Journal of English Language Teaching 5 (1) (2016) 6 Nurdwiansyah, Denni. (2013). Journal of Teaching Reading Comprehension on Narrative Text by Using Powerpoint Animations in the Second Year students of SMA Negeri 1 Kembayan in Academic Year 2012/2013. Online at http://jurnal.untan.ac.id/index.php/jpdpb/ar ticle/view/9180 (accessed 02/02/2016). Octaviani, Santi. 2009. A Descriptive Study on Students’ Ability in Writing Narrative Text (The Case of the Ninth Grade Students of SMP N 1 Cepu in the Academic Year of 2007/2008). Semarang: UNNES. Rokhayani, Atik. 2006. Error Analysis of Simple Past Tense in Narrative Text Made by the 8th Grade Students of SMP 1 Jekulo Kudus in the Academic Year 2005/2006”. Semarang: UNNES. Sari Saragih, Zulfida. 2012. Journal of Improving Students’ Achievement in Writing Narrative Text Through Think-Pair-Share Technique at SMP N 1 Teluk Mengkudu in the Academic Year of 2012/2013. Online at http://jurnal.unimed.ac.id/2012/index.php/j elt/article/view/364 (accessed 02/02/2016). Urquhart and McIver. 2005. Teaching Writing in the Content Areas. Available Online at http://www.kilibro.com/books/97814166017 15/teaching-writing-in-the-content-areas (accessed 11/02/2015). http://jurnal.untan.ac.id/index.php/jpdpb/article/view/9180 http://jurnal.untan.ac.id/index.php/jpdpb/article/view/9180 http://jurnal.unimed.ac.id/2012/index.php/jelt/article/view/364 http://jurnal.unimed.ac.id/2012/index.php/jelt/article/view/364 http://www.kilibro.com/books/9781416601715/teaching-writing-in-the-content-areas http://www.kilibro.com/books/9781416601715/teaching-writing-in-the-content-areas