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 ELT FORUM 2 (1) (2013) 

 

English Language Teaching Forum 
 

http://journal.unnes.ac.id/sju/index.php/elt 

 

 

IMPROVING STUDENT’S WRITING ABILITY IN NARRATIVE TEXT BY 

USING CHRONOLOGICAL 3D PICTURES AS MEDIA  

 

Kukuh Arif Wibowo 

 

Department of English, Faculty Language and Arts, Semarang State University, Indonesia 

 

Info Artikel 

________________ 
SejarahArtikel: 

DiterimaJanuari 2013 

DisetujuiFebruari 2013 

DipublikasikanJuni 2013 

________________ 
Keywords: 

writing skill, narrative text, 

chronological 3D pictures, 

action research. 

____________________ 

Abstract 
___________________________________________________________________ 

The use of chronological 3D pictures in this study has a purpose at developing students’ 

competence in writing narrative texts. The objective of the study is to find out the student’s 

difficulties in writing narrative text, how effective chronological 3D pictures improve student’s 

ability in writing narrative, and why chronological 3D pictures proposed as media in teaching 

narrative text. Four tests given to the students showed student’s improvement. The mean of the pre-

test was 63.12. Cycle 1’result was 69.25 and cycle 2 ‘result was 77.37. After that, the mean of the 

post-test was 86.25. From the result, it can be seen that chronological 3D pictures gave significance 

improvement in teaching narrative text for tenth grade students. In line with the result, I propose 

that using chronological 3D picture as a media to improve student’s writing narrative text can be 

one of the positive ways to increase students’ enthusiasm in learning English. 

 

 

 

 

 

© 2013UniversitasNegeri Semarang 

 
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KampusSekaran, Gunungpati, Semarang, 50229 

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ISSN 2252-6706 

 

 

 

 

 



 

Kukuh Arif Wibowo/ Journal of English Language Teaching 2 (1) (2013) 

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INTRODUCTION 

 

Writing is a mean of communication that 

enables someone to communicate to each other. 

Martha (2005:281) stated that writing is a tool 

that enables people in every discipline to wrestle 

with facts and idea. Writing is effective because 

in writing the readers are able to know and 

understand more about the information because 

they are able to read it repeatedly it until they get 

the point.  

Writing is different from speaking where 

the listener only listens to the speaker once. 

According to Kenneth Beare (1997), for many 

English learners, learning to write fluently in 

English is much more challenging than learning 

to speak fluently. Even for advanced level 

learners, written communications can come 

much more slowly in English than spoken 

communications.  

In line the problem above, there is also 

some writing problems occur in learning 

process. Obviously, students have difficulties in 

expressing their idea into written form. 

Especially in writing narrative text, students 

have to express their idea to make a story which 

is can entertain the reader. This is what the 

writer found in his Teacher Training Practice 

(PPL/Praktik Pengalaman Lapangan) in 

August-October 2011 that there were students 

who had difficulties in writing narrative text. In 

doing his teaching practice, the writer was 

requested by the English teacher to teach the 

seventh grade students of SMP Kristen 1 

Magelang. Based on the syllabus, the writer had 

to give the English lesson of narrative text. 

Once, in the classroom activities, he found some 

of his students got trouble when they were 

requested to practice writing a narrative text. 

After being observed, they got difficulties in 

developing ideas into written form.  

In teaching language, the teacher should 

find out some media, methods or techniques in 

order to make the teaching senior high school 

students enjoy the learning process. The writer 

found an idea to use pictures as media to help 

them developing their idea. Those media 

inspired students’ imagination which leads to be 

more creative in writing. In this case, the writer 

intends to use chronological 3D picture into 

classroom in teaching writing narrative text.  

By using chronological 3D picture as 

media in teaching writing narrative text, the 

Senior High School students are given 

something new and different from what they 

usually get in class. They are not only the object 

of the teaching learning process but also the 

participant. In other words, the teacher makes 

the students active instead of being silent. 

Through this study, the writer wants to find out 

a new teaching technique to increase the quality 

of English teaching learning process in Senior 

High School.  

. Dealing with this study, the writer wants 

to emphasize in using chronological 3D picture 

in learning writing process. The writer believes 

that chronological 3D pictures are very helpful 

to develop student’s ability in writing, especially 

narrative text.  

 

METHOD OF INVESTIGATION 

 

This study is an action research which 

concerned with the use of chronological 3D 

picture in teaching narrative texts to develop 

students’ writing ability. An action research was 

a form of educational inquiry that used real 

action of the teachers in response to a certain 

problem encountered during the teaching and 

learning process through cycles of action.  

In the action research there are four steps, 

there are: 

1. Planning 

Plan means identify the problem area. 

Planning is the important steps in conducting an 

action research. It is conducted before a 

researcher starts her action research. The 

purpose of this activity is to know the problems 

and find a good solution for the problems. 

2. Action 

Acting is the second step after the 

planning step to implement the instructional 

strategy that has been planned. 

3. Observing 

The third step is an observation which is 

done by the observer in the same time with the 

http://esl.about.com/bio/Kenneth-Beare-2205.htm


 

Kukuh Arif Wibowo/ Journal of English Language Teaching 2 (1) (2013) 

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acting. An observer observes the outcomes of the 

intervention and reflects on the effectiveness of 

the acting done. 

4. Reflecting 

Reflection is the process of analyzing data 

to determine how far the data collected have 

shown the success of the strategy in solving the 

problem. 

In this research, the writer used test and 

checklist as the instruments. 

1. Test  

To assess the development achieved by 

the students, a series of test were carried out.  

The test itself was used to measure the 

improvement of students’ spelling ability. The 

tests were conducted four times, they were; pre-

test, test in the end of cycle 1 and cycle 2, and 

also post-test.  

2. Classroom Observation 

Classroom observation is used in this 

study because observation technique is based on 

the direct experiences of the subject observed. 

Observation allows researcher to see and observe 

behavior changes from his own point of view. 

In this study, the writer gave writing tests 

and then analyzed the scores to measure the 

students’ improvement, proficiency and 

achievement. In detail this method of analyzing 

data consists of method of scoring and 

classifying the scores. 

 

1. Method of scoring 

I used the scoring guidance taken from 

Heaton Grid and Categories (1975:109-111) in 

five areas. They are fluency, grammar, 

vocabulary, content and spelling. The scoring is 

rated 1 until 5. Here is the description: 

 

 

The Scoring Guidance Modified From Heaton Grid and Categories 

 

Criteria Score Descriptor 

Fluency 5 Excellent: Flow style, very easy to understand, both complex and 

simple sentences, very effective. 

4 Good: Quite flowing in style, mostly easy to understand, and a few 

complex sentences, very effective. 

3 Fair: Style reasonably smooth, not too hard to understand mostly 

(but not all), simple sentences, fairly effective. 

2 Inadequate: Bad style, an effort need to understand and enjoy, 

complex sentences, confusing, mostly simple sentences or compound 

sentences. 

1 Unacceptable: Very bad, hard to understand, cannot enjoy reading, 

almost all simple sentences, complex sentences confusing, excessive 

use of “and”. 

Grammar 5 Excellent: Mastery of grammar taught one course, only 15% 

mistakes. 

4 Good: 25% mistakes only (prepositions, articles, etc). 

3 Fair: Only 30% mistakes, but there are 3-4 minor ones. 

2 Inadequate: 50% mistakes in grammar 

1 Unacceptable: There are more 50% mistakes. 

Vocabulary 5 Excellent: Use of wide range of vocabulary taught previously. Only 

one mistake vocabulary. 

4 Good: Good use of new words acquired, fairly appropriate 

synonyms, circumlocutions. There are 2-3 mistakes vocabulary. 

3 Fair: Attempts to use words acquired fairly appropriate vocabulary 

on the whole but there are 4 mistakes vocabulary. 



 

Kukuh Arif Wibowo/ Journal of English Language Teaching 2 (1) (2013) 

4 

 

2 Inadequate: Restricted in vocabulary, use of synonyms (but not 

always appropriate), imprecise and vague, affects meaning. There are 

5 mistakes vocabulary. 

1 Unacceptable: Very restricted vocabulary, not inappropriate use of 

synonyms seriously hinders communications. There are more than 5 

mistakes vocabularies. 

Content 5 Excellent: all sentences support the topic, highly organized, clear 

progression of ideas, well linked, like educated native speaker. 

4 Good: Ideas well organized, linked could occasionally be clearer but 

communication not impaired. 

3 Fair: Some lack of organization, reading required for classification of 

ideas. 

2 Inadequate: Little or no attempt at connectivity, though reader can 

deduce some organization, individual ideas may be clear but very 

difficult to deduce connection between them. 

1 Unacceptable: Lacks of organization to serve that communication is 

seriously impaired. 

Spelling 5 Excellent: 15% error in spelling. 

4 Good: 25% errors in spelling. 

3 Fair: 40% errors in spelling. 

2 Inadequate: 60% errors in spelling 

1 Unacceptable: 80% errors in spelling 

 

2. The classifying score 

 

The Classifying Scores 

Criteria of mastery Grade 

91-100 Excellent 

81-90 Very Good 

71-80 Good 

61-70 Fair 

51-60 Poor 

Less than 50 Very Poor 

 

RESULT AND INTERPRETATION OF THE 

STUDY 

 

This research was conducted in State 

Senior High School Banyumas. Before I conducted 

the research, I had done the observation on 

November 28th 2012. I met the headmaster of 

the school. I asked permission to conduct the 

research in Xc (Tenth C) class for six meetings. 

Then, I set the schedule for the research. 

In conducting the research, test 

instruments were used to collect the data. They 

were pre-test, test of cycle one, test of cycle two, 

and post-test. 

1. Result of pretest 

Before conducting this action research, a 

pre-test was given. The purpose of the pre-test 

was to find out some problems in the classroom 

especially in writing narrative text. This stage 

was intended to know the students’ weaknesses 

before having some treatments. 

The average of students’ score percentage 

was then calculated by using this formula: 

Mean = 
                               

                      
  

  =  
    

  
 X 100% 

  = 63.12% 

The average score of pre-test is 63.12. 

2. Result of cycle 1 

In this cycle, I started the lesson by asking 

whether they have known about the narrative 

text or not. Almost all students already knew 

about narrative text since they have learned it 

before. Then I continued by proposing the 

objectives of the study. To refresh the student’s 

memory about narrative, I told them the review 



 

Kukuh Arif Wibowo/ Journal of English Language Teaching 2 (1) (2013) 

5 

 

about what exactly narrative text is, the social 

function, and what the generic structure and 

language feature of narrative text are. 

The average of students’ score percentage 

was then calculated by using this formula 

 Mean = 
                               

                      

     

  = 
    

  
 X 100% 

  = 69.25% 

3. Result of cycle 2 

In this cycle, I developed my lesson plan 

into a better one since at the last meeting I did 

not satisfied enough with the result of 

observation.  

The average of students’ score percentage 

was then calculated by using this formula; 

Mean = 
                               

                      
  

  =  
    

  
 X 100% 

   = 77.37% 

4. Result of post-test 

The post-test was aimed to find out the 

students’ skill in writing narrative text after the 

treatment given. In this test, the students were 

given a work-sheet. The items were same as pre-

test. I gave them 90 minutes to write a narrative 

text based on their idea. They did the test very 

seriously since I told them that the test was 

intended as final test which will be submitted it 

to the teacher. The students’ scores were very 

high. 

The average of students’ score percentage 

was then calculated by using this formula; 

Mean = 
                               

                      
  

 =   
    

  
X 100% 

   = 86.25% 

Since action research was process-

oriented, it means the research is focused on the 

students’ process, not on the students’ result. 

Thus, I observed and analyzed the students’ 

behavioral changes in the learning process. In 

taking students’ data about the behavioral 

changes in the process of learning, I used 

observation sheet as my instruments. 

Observation sheet was used to observe the 

students’ activity. Here are the indicators: 

A : Student’s response toward teacher 

instructions 

B : Student’s attention in listening to the 

teacher’s explanation 

C : Student’s activities in asking questions 

D : Student’s activities in answering 

questions 

E : Student’s activities to look up the 

dictionary 

F : Student’s activities in taking notes 

 

CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 

 

After conducting my study, I would like 

to conclude that Chronological 3D pictures 

successfully improved the students’ writing skill 

in narrative text. The students’ interests and 

motivation after being taught by using 

Chronological 3D pictures were better. It 

seemed that they felt more relaxed to write their 

narrative story. It meant that there was an 

improvement in the students’ behaviors. The 

students’ improvements were shown by the 

students’ interest in responding the questions 

and their motivation in taking part of the 

activities in the learning process. It meant that 

there was a better participation of the students at 

class. Therefore, it indicated that Chronological 

3D pictures definitely developed a better 

students’ behavior in writing narrative texts. 

Based on the whole result of the study, the 

writer could recommend some suggestions in 

this study. Based on the research, it is good for 

students in writing narrative text by using 

Chronological 3D pictures. This will make them 

to be better and better in their writings’ 

achievement. 

For other researchers, they can use this 

study as their reference to conduct other 

researches on the same field. They are also 

expected to be able to cover the limitation in this 

study and provide more detail information about 

this.  

 

 

 



 

Kukuh Arif Wibowo/ Journal of English Language Teaching 2 (1) (2013) 

6 

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Ruddel, Martha Rapp. 2005. Teaching Content 

Reading and Writing. USA: John Wiley and Sons, Inc 

Beare, Kenneth.1997. English as Second 

Language. Available at www.about.com.  

Heaton, J.B. 1975. Writing English Language 

Test. New York: McGraw-Hill. Heinich. 1982.  

McNiff, J and Whitehead, J 2002. Action 

Research: principles and practice. Second Edition. 

London and NewYork: Routledge Falmer. 

Harmer, J. 2001. The Practice of English 

Language Teaching. Cambridge: Longman. 

Harris, P. 2003. Writing in the Primary School 

Years. South Melbourne: Social Science Press. 

Hyland, K. 2002. Teaching and Researching 

Writing. London: Longman. 

Tendero, A. 2006. Facing versions of the self: 

The effects of digital storytelling on English education. 

Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher 

Education, 6(2), 174-194. Retrieved February, 13, 

2013, from 

http://www.citejournal.org/articles/v6i2languagearts

2.pdf. 

 

 

 

 


