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 ELT FORUM 2 (1) (2013) 

 

English Language Teaching Forum 
 

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

 

 

USING SEQUENCED PICTURES ON THE FLICKR SOCIAL NETWORK IN 

TEACHING WRITING NEWS ITEM FOR THE TENTH GRADE STUDENTS 

OF SMA 3 PURWOKERTO  

 

Rufiah Ning Asrianti 

 

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

 

Info Artikel 

________________ 
SejarahArtikel: 

DiterimaJanuari 2013 

DisetujuiFebruari 2013 

DipublikasikanJuni 2013 

________________ 
Keywords: 

Flickr Social Network, 

Written News Item Text, 

Writing Ability 

____________________ 

Abstract 
___________________________________________________________________ 

This study mainly aims at determining the effectiveness of using Flickr social network in teaching 

written news item text to improve students’ writing ability and also to find out the significant 

difference between the students who are taught using Flickr social network and the students who 

are taught using conventional method (a sequence of pictures). The subject of my research was 64 

students of X7 and X8 class of SMA N 3 Purwokerto. The research applied was experimental 

research. By using purposive sampling, the students of X8 were taken as the samples of the 

experimental group and the samples of control group were students of X7. In this research, the 

students were taught using Flickr social network. The result of this research was found by 

comparing the result of pretest and posttest. I used t-test to find out the significance enhancement. 

Based on the result of the research, the result of the observed t-value is higher than the critical t-

value; observed t-value 3.24 and the critical t-value is 2.04, the result of the writing aspects in the 

posttest is higher than the pretest, and the percentage of the students who got the score more than 

60 in the posttest was 53% while in the pretest was only 16%. Therefore, it can conclude that using 

Flickr social network can effectively enhance students’ writing ability. 

 

 

 

 

 

© 2013UniversitasNegeri Semarang 

 
Alamatkorespondensi:  

GedungB3Lantai3 FBSUnnes 

KampusSekaran, Gunungpati, Semarang, 50229 

   E-mail: hanien1423@gmail.com 

 

 

 

 

ISSN 2252-6706 

 

 

 

 

 

mailto:arumsani666@yahoo.com


 

Rufiah Ning Asrianti / Journal of English Language Teaching 2 (1) (2013) 

2 

 

INTRODUCTION 

 

In this global era, we learn language in 

many ways. As we can see English is taught in 

all levels of school, including Elemantary 

School, Junior High School, Senior High School 

and Vocational School as an optional subject or 

usually called local content. 

Based on the present curriculum, namely 

KTSP (Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan), 

one of the competence standards for the ten 

grade students of Senior High School is that they 

are demanded to be able to write the news items 

test by using sequence picture in Flickr social 

network. 

From the statement above, we know that 

news item text is one of the essay forms that 

must be taught in Senior High School. For the 

students, it is one of the difficult texts to 

understand and create orally. Therefore, the 

teacher should provide interesting media so that 

students can create written news item text. 

One of the way that can be used to teach 

written news item text is sequenced pictures on 

Flickr social network. It can make the process of 

teaching written news item text easier and more 

exciting than teaching without any media. 

News item text is infact rather similar 

with the reported of sequenches pictures. In 

writing news item text using sequenced pictures 

on Flickr social network, the students are 

expected to give an analysis about the pictures. 

They can give their report analysis based on the 

picture they uploaded before in Flickr social 

network. Therefore, I want to know whether 

Flickr social network is effective to be used as a 

media in teaching writing the news items text. 

 

METHOD 

 

The study was carried out through three 

activities. In this research, sequenced picture and 

Flickr social network are used in the teaching 

and learning process. Its objectives were to prove 

that the use of sequenced pictures on the Flickr 

Social Network to improve students' ability to 

master the technique of writing News Item text 

is more effective than conventional technique; 

and discuss the reason of why using sequenced 

pictures on Flickr social network is effective to 

improve students’ ability in producing writing 

news item text for ten grade students. The result 

of this research will show that the post test is 

better than the pretest; the statement “using 

sequenced pictures on the Flickr social network 

in teaching writing news item for the tenth grade 

students of SMA 3 Purwokerto” was accurate. 

Pretest was given before the treatment. 

Pretest was an observation that was done before 

an experiment or treatment. I had the same 

pretest between experimental group and control 

group. First, the writer came to the class and 

explained what they were going to do. Then, the 

answer sheets of pretest were distributed to the 

students and they were asked to do the pretest. 

In this research, the experimental group and the 

control group was asked to make a news item 

text to know the students ability in writing news 

item text. 

For the treatment in the experimental 

group, the students were introducing to used 

sequenced picture on the Flickr social network 

to make News Item text. They were introduced 

to the News Item, started from its structures, 

function, and also its features. In this section, 

researcher also introduces about Flickr social 

network in the experimental group and makes 

the students understand how to use it as a fun 

media to write news item text. But for control 

group, I used the conventional method to teach 

News Item text. Then, it was continue with the 

session of question-answer to make sure that 

they had understood about the material. In the 

control group, pictures were provided to teach 

news item.  

Post test was given after conducting the 

pretest and the treatments. Posttest was an 

observation that was done after an experiment of 

treatment. Posttest in this study had a purpose to 

measure the students writing ability 

improvement getting treatments. Before the 

students had their posttest, they were asked to 

understand how to used sequenced picture on 

the Flickr social network in writing news item 

text and pictures for the control group. Then, 

they were asked to submit the post test. Then, 



 

Rufiah Ning Asrianti / Journal of English Language Teaching 2 (1) (2013) 

3 

 

the data were collected and analyzed. The score 

of the test is based on four categories; 

Coherence, grammar, vocabulary, and content. 

The total sore of each category is 20. 

Here is the formula about how to make 

the sample of the oral English rating based on 

J.B Heaton (1975: 109-111). 

In this study, scoring guidance taken from 

Heaton’s Grid and Categories was chosen to 

analyze the students’ test in writing News Item 

text. 

According to Heaton (1975:109) “there 

are five areas on a marking composition 

suggested by Heaton’s grid and categories: 

coherence, grammar, vocabulary, and content.” 

Some procedures were used to analyze the 

data.  

For the first step, the writer adds the 

scores of writing components to get the total 

number. Here is the formula: 

Total number = C+G+V+CT 

In which: 

C  : Coherence 

G  : Grammar 

V  : Vocabulary 

CT : Content 

(J.B Heaton) 

After conducting the research, the 

students’ works were analyzed and given score 

based on the quality of their works and the next 

step was analyzed the data using SPSS 16.0 

(Statistical Package for the Social Science). To 

ensure the calculation, the researcher analyzes 

deeper using the descriptive statistics analysis 

and the inferential statistics analysis.  

 

RESULT AND DISCUSSION 

 

Before doing the research, the the 

activities that would be done were arranged. The 

topic which was going to be used in the research 

was determined. The research instruments, 

including the questions for the pretest and 

posttest, lesson plan, and research assessment, 

were also arranged. Based on the arrangement, it 

was decided that there were four meetings in this 

research; the first meeting was pretest, the 

second and the third meetings were treatments, 

and the fourth meeting was posttest. The total 

time allotment was 8x35 minutes.  

In analyzing the data, I used statistical 

analysis and interpretation analysis. 

In collecting the data, firstly I conducted a 

pre-test in writing of news item text from the 

newspaper to both experimental and control 

group of the tenth grade students of SMA Negeri 

3 Purwokerto, Kabupaten Banyumas in the 

academic year 2011/2012. For the post-test I 

used a little bit more difficult test to see whether 

any significance difference between 

experimental and control group or not. 

Since the research had been conducted, 

data gathered could be processed. Before 

calculating the ttest, I calculated the pre-test and 

post-test. And this is the result of the comparison 

between experimental group and control group. 

From the tables 4.1, it can be seen that 

there is no far difference between the 

experimental group and the control group. The 

similarity of the two test results obtained average 

yield of 0,986 from Sig. (2-tailed) equal variances 

assumed. The value was greater than the 

significance level of 0,05. It means that there 

was no significance difference. 

Having the result of the pre-test, I then 

applied the next step of the collecting data 

procedure. It was administering a teaching 

learning process on writing news item text using 

sequences of pictures in Flickr social network to 

the experimental group and using the sequences 

of pictures in text book to the control group. The 

process took four meetings or eight lesson-hours. 

It was hoped that by using Flickr social network, 

the students of the experimental group were able 

to understand and to improve their writing 

ability better than the students of the control 

group who were taught using text book. 

After giving treatments, the next step was 

giving post-test to both the experimental and the 

control group. The test was the same for both of 

the groups. It was almost the same as pre-test, 

but a little bit more difficult. The result of the 

post-test would be analyzed to answer the 

research question. Here is the result of the post-

test (table 4.2). 



 

Rufiah Ning Asrianti / Journal of English Language Teaching 2 (1) (2013) 

4 

 

Based on the table, Sig (2-tailed) Equal 

variances assumed = 0,002 less than significance 

level = 0,05 then H0 is rejected. 

The result of the test showed that the 

average score of post-test score of the students 

who were taught using Flickr Social Network 

was higher than those who were taught using a 

sequence of pictures. The average of the 

experimental group before treatment was 44.22, 

and after treatment were 78.12. It means that 

there was a significance difference after doing 

treatment. So, it can be concluded that in this 

study, the use of Flickr social network was more 

effective than a sequence of pictures in teaching 

writing news item text. 

We can see that the experimental group 

had higher values than control group. The media 

was one of the factors which made the students 

understand about the material. The media that I 

used was sequenced picture of Flickr social 

network. Besides, the computer labs and internet 

network in the school was quite adequate. 

Due to the fact that there was significant 

difference in writing skill in the news item text 

achievement between two groups, the null 

hypothesis saying that “There is no significant 

difference in achievement between students who 

are taught written news item text by using Flickr 

social network and those who are taught without 

Flickr social network” is rejected. On the 

contrary, the working hypothesis is accepted. 

Therefore, it can be concluded that using Flickr 

social network in teaching written news item 

text to the tenth grade students of SMA N 3 

Purwokerto in the academic year 2011/2012 is 

effective. 

 

 

Table.1 the Scoring Guidance Taken from Heaton Grid and Categories with some 

modifications (1975: 109-111) 

Components Score Characteristics 

Coherence 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

5  

 

4 

 

3 

 

2 

 

 

1 

 

The writing style is very easy to understand; both complex 

and simple sentences very used effectively. 

The writing style is quite easy to understand; a few complex 

sentences very used effectively. 

The writing style is reasonably smooth; not too hard to 

understand mostly (but not all); simple sentences used are 

fairly effective. 

Rough writing style; an effort is needed to understand; some 

complex sentences are confusing; although most simple 

sentences are used fairly effective. 

Very rough writing; hard to understand; almost all sentences 

used are simple sentences and redundant. 

 Grammar 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5  

 

4 

 

3 

 

2 

 

1 

 

Use present tense, other grammars are used well and 

everything uses present tense; only 1-2 minor mistakes. 

 Use mostly present tense, only a few minor mistakes found 

(preposition, articles, etc.) 

Use present tense in some parts, only 1 or 2 major mistakes 

with a few minor ones. 

Use present tense in some parts; major mistakes lead to 

difficulty in understanding lack of mastery of sentence 

construction. 

Numerous serious mistake; including not using present tense 

properly and horrible sentence construction; almost illegible. 

 Vocabulary  5 Use of wide range of vocabulary. 



 

Rufiah Ning Asrianti / Journal of English Language Teaching 2 (1) (2013) 

5 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 4 

 

 3 

 

 2 

 

 1 

 

Good use of new words acquired; fairly appropriate words 

used in context, less redundancy. 

Attempts to use broad range of words; fairly appropriate 

vocabulary in context still found redundancy. 

Narrow range of vocabulary; uses some inappropriate words 

for some context. 

Very narrow range of vocabulary, inappropriate use of words 

such as slang for indirect sentences, etc.  

Content  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 5 

 

 4 

 3 

 2 

 

 1 

 

All sentences support the main story; highly organized and 

clear progression of ideas. 

Ideas are well organized and quite organized with some 

minor errors. 

Ideas seem to be well thought but not organized quite well. 

Little or no attempt to give new ideas or organizing the 

sentences to look interesting. 

Lack of ideas and do not relate to the main story at all. 

 

 

Independent Samples Test 

   Nilai 

   

Equal 

variances 

assumed 

Equal 

variances not 

assumed 

Levene's 

Test for 

Equality of 

Variances 

F .049  

Sig. 
.826 

 

t-test for 

Equality of 

Means 

t .131 .131 

df 62 61.998 

Sig. (2-tailed) .896 .896 

Mean Difference .312 .312 

Std. Error Difference 2.385 2.385 

95% Confidence 

Interval of the Difference 

Lower -4.455 -4.455 

Upper 5.080 5.080 

Table 4.1 the Distribution of Pre-Test 

 

 

 



 

Rufiah Ning Asrianti / Journal of English Language Teaching 2 (1) (2013) 

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Table 4.2 the Distribution of Post-Test 

 

 

  

   Nilai 

   

Equal 

variances 

assumed 

Equal 

variances not 

assumed 

Levene's 

Test for 

Equality of 

Variances 

F .476  

Sig. 
.493 

 

t-test for 

Equality of 

Means 

T 3.240 3.240 

Df 62 61.952 

Sig. (2-tailed) .002 .002 

Mean Difference 9.062 9.062 

Std. Error Difference 2.797 2.797 

95% Confidence 

Interval of the Difference 

Lower 3.472 3.472 

Upper 14.653 14.653 



 

Rufiah Ning Asrianti / Journal of English Language Teaching 2 (1) (2013) 

7 

 

REFERENCES 

 

Anderson, M. and Anderson, K. 1997. Text Types in 

English. South Yarra: Macmillan Education 

Australia Pty Ltd. 

Arikunto, S. 2006. Prosedur Penelitian: Suatu 

Pendekatan Praktik. Jakarta: PT Asdi 

Mahasatya. 

Astuti, Puji. 2011. Kurikulum Bahasa Inggris SMA 2006. 

Available: 

http://pujiastutiunnesfiles.wordpress.com/20

11/04/sajian-kurikulum-sma.ppt. (May 11, 

2011). 

Brown, H. 2004. Language Assessment: Principles and 

Classroom Practices. New York:  Longman.com 

Websites: 

http://flickr.com (Accessed on January 21, 2011) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://pujiastutiunnesfiles.wordpress.com/2011/04/sajian-kurikulum-sma.ppt
http://pujiastutiunnesfiles.wordpress.com/2011/04/sajian-kurikulum-sma.ppt
http://flickr.com/

