




































Putri Anggraeni, et al / Journal of English Language Teaching 6 (1) (2017) 

176 

 

 
ELT FORUM 6 (2) (2017) 

 

Journal of English Language Teaching 

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

 
 

GROUP GRID AND ROUNDTABLE FOR 

TEACHING WRITING OF DESCRIPTIVE TEXT 

 

Silvia Urunami, Dwi Anggani Linggar Bharati, Abdurrachman Faridi  
 

English Department, Faculty of Languages and Arts, Universitas Negeri Semarang, Indonesia  

 

Article Info 
________________  
Article History: 

Received in October 

2017  
Approved in November 

2017 Published in 

December 2017 
________________  
Keywords: writing, quasi-
experimental research, 
group grid and round table. 
  
____________________ 

 
Abstract  
___________________________________________________________________ 
This paper is based on a research aiming to describe the effectiveness of Group Grid and Round Table 

technique in teaching writing descriptive text. By using a quasi-experimental design, the research involves 

the tenth grade students of SMA Taruna Nusantara Magelang in the academic year of 2016/2017. In this 

case, the experimental group is X IA 12 and the control group is X IA 10. The result shows that the mean 

score of the experimental group increases from 69.15 to 79.34 after several treatments applying the strategy. 

The t-test computation reveals that there is a significant difference between the two groups. It is proven by 

the tvalue (2.844) which is higher than the ttable (1.998). In addition, a questionnaire is administered to 

know the effect of implementing the technique to the students. The analysis shows that 59.37% of the 

students agree that the implementation of the strategy assists their comprehension and 31.25% of them 

even strongly agree towards the statement. Therefore, Group Grid and Round Table technique is proven 

an effective strategy in teaching writing descriptive text. 

 
 © 2017 Universitas Negeri Semarang 

  


 Correspondent Address: ISSN 2252-6706 
B3 Building FBS Unnes  

Sekaran, Gunungpati, Semarang, 50229  

E-mail: unnes_english@yahoo.com   

 

 

 

 

 



S. Urunami & D. Anggani Linggar Bharati & A. Faridi/ Journal of English Language Teaching 6 (2) (2017) 

177 

 

INTRODUCTION 

Writing is one of the ways of people to communicate to each other for expressing their 

thinking and feeling. Writing is unnatural act like speaking. Writing needs more efforts than 

speaking does. Writing needs hard effort to dig and manage the ideas which are from the writer’s 

mind and pour it into written form effectively so it will be readable. So, writing is one of the four 

skills which is considered difficult to be mastered. According to Paul (2003:96), “writing is generally 

as the most difficult of the four skills”. Besides, Richard and Renandya (2010: 303) stated, writing 

can be said as the most difficult skill among the four skills; listening, speaking, reading, and writing.  

Seow (in Richards and Renandya 2010:304) states that “Writing consists of four basic stages; 

planning, drafting, revising, and editing. Three other stages could be inserted after the drafting stage; 

these are responding, evaluating and post-writing.” It means that writing is not an instant activity, it 

cannot be acquired easily. Hence, it needs hard effort to master it. To improve this skill students 

need to do a lot of practices by using some steps/ stages. Furthermore, teacher needs hard effort to 

teach writing because it requires many aspects in order to make students master the writing skill. 

Therefore, teaching writing is not an easy job to do. 

In Indonesia, English is used as a foreign language. English is taught as a compulsory subject 

in junior and senior high schools which becomes one of the requirement subjects that stated in the 

national examination. The objective of teaching English is to enable students to communicate both 

orally and in written form. Meanwhile teaching and learning English as a foreign language is not an 

easy thing to do. As a matter of fact, the process of teaching and learning are commonly still using 

traditional method such as lecturing so that the achievement of the students are still low. Moreover, 

by applying the new curriculum of 2013 students have to think deeply to succeed in doing scientific 

approach. Of course, in doing so they face a lot of problems. Among the four skills, one of the 

problems is in writing problem. Students are not able to produce the correct written product in every 

genre of text because they have to consider many aspects. The aspects are grammar, generic 

structure, and lexicogrammatical order. Sometimes students also find difficulties with the sentence 

structure and how the sentences are linked together and sequences. 

Based on my observation at SMA Taruna Nusantara Mangelang, I found out that the students 

are still confused to write many kinds of genre which they have to master. As we know each genre 

has different grammar, generic structure, and lexicogrammatical order. The students have to write 

according the type of genre, so it goes without saying that they have to memorize all of them. 

Especially, in writing descriptive text, some students said it was one of the easiest texts, however 

they could not write it well and differentiate it from report text. They were confused to find a key 

word in each sentence. In addition, they were lack of vocabulary in a certain register. I can say that 

they felt difficult even to write descriptive text which they have got in Junior High School. As the 

mastery of descriptive text is one of the final exam’s requirements, the problem of understanding this 

text needs to get extra attention. Furthermore, it is clearly stated in the 2013 curriculum the students 

have to master writing skill of descrptive text.  

Considering the importance of mastering writing skill to produce  descriptive text, the teacher 

should improve the teaching of writing especially in teaching descriptive text. One of the ways to 

improve it is that the teacher can use an interesting and succesful method. The method is called 

Cooperative Learning Method. Cooperative learning is a teaching method that offers “principles and 

techniques for helping students work together more effectively” (Jacobs, Power, & Loh, 2002, p. ix). 

In other words, cooperative learning is much more than just putting students together in groups and 

asking them to work together. Instead, cooperative learning principles help us understand what is 

involved in helping groups succeed, and cooperative learning techniques embody those principles in 

an attempt to provide structure for student interaction (Baloche, 1998, Johnson & Johnson, 1999). I 



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also find many benefits based on the reasearch done by the experts, they promote student learning 

and academic achievement, increase student retention, enhance student satisfaction with their 

learning experience, help students develop skills in oral communication, develop student’s social 

skills, promote student self-esteem, and help to promote positive race relations.  

As Kagan states in his book, there are so many techniques that can be used by teachers in 

teaching and learning process, especially in writing. Two of them are group grid and round table 

techniques. In the study, I used the combination of those two techniques. First group grid, in 

applying this technique, students are divided into some groups. Each group consists of four-five 

students. The teacher gives each group an envelope which consists of many pictures. The students 

are asked to clasify each picture into some categories in a limited time. Then, both teacher and 

students discuss it together. The group that get many correct items will be given a reward from the 

teacher. Second, round table tecnique, the students are divided into some groups. Each group 

consists of four-five students. Each person writes one idea for an issue or task and then passes their 

paper to the person on the right. The paper circulates around the entire group at least once. Each 

time a person receives the paper, they should write a different task. Then, whole class discussion 

should follow. Therefore, all students will participate in teaching learning process. 

In teaching writing, based on Harmer (2004:41) teachers have a number of important tasks to 

do when helping students to become better writer. The tasks which teachers have to do before, 

during, and after student writing are the following: 

1. Demonstrating 

Teachers have to be able to explain the text specifically. Teachers have to make the students 

know the layout of the text and language used in a certain text. 

2. Motivating and provoking 

The teachers help students to get the ideas when the students get stuck in writing. It is better if 

the teachers prepare amusing and engaging ways in teaching and learning process so can get the 

students’ involvement in writing task. For example, students can be asked to do the reassemble 

jumbled texts on the board. Sometimes, teachers can give them the words to start writing.  

3. Supporting 

Students need a lot of help and reassurance when they are writing, both with ideas and how to 

carry them out. Teachers need to support the students when they are writing in class, always 

available for them, and prepare to help students overcome difficulties. 

4. Responding 

In order to respond students’ writing, the teachers may give comments or suggestion for its 

improvement. It is better to react to what they have said rather than filling their work full of 

correction symbols. 

5. Evaluating 

Teachers indicate where students work well and where they made mistakes, and of course 

give award for them who work well. Teachers should highlight the students’ error and try to put 

them right before handing back the marked scripts to the students. 

According to Anderson and Anderson (1997: 86), descriptive text is included in information 

reports, an information report usually contains facts about the subject, a description and information 

on its parts, behaviour, and qualities. “This kind of paragraph is used to describe a particular person, 

place, or thing.” (Gerot and Wignell, 1994: 208). They added the generic structure of descriptive text 

can be defined as identification and description.  

(a) Identification: Identifies phenomenon to be described. 

(b) Description: Describes parts, qualities, characteristics, etc. 

Group grid and Round table techniques used in this research were designed for teaching 

writing descriptive text. Therefore, it is expected that group grid and roundtable are effective and 



S. Urunami & D. Anggani Linggar Bharati & A. Faridi/ Journal of English Language Teaching 6 (2) (2017) 

179 

 

efficient to learn the material, yet it has not been proved by any preliminary study. Therefore, this 

research is aimed to describe the effectiveness of implementing the technique in teaching writing 

descriptive text through an experimental research entitled “The Effectiveness of Using Group Grid 

and Roundtable for Teaching Students’ Writing Skill of Descriptive Text”. 

METHODOLOGY OF THE RESEARCH  

Applying Creswell pre- and post-test design, below is the design of this research.  

Pre- and Post-test Design  Time 

Select CG Pre-test No Treatment Post-test 

Select EG Pre-test Experimental Treatment Post-test 

 

This research was conducted at SMA Taruna Nusantara Magelang in academic year of 

2016/2017. The population of this research was 392 tenth grade students of the school in the 

academic year.  Because there were some reasons, the researcher took purposive random sampling 

of two group. The two groups were X IA 9 and X IPS 7. The experimental group was X IPS 9; 

while, the control group was X IPA 7.  

There were two kinds of instruments used in this research. Those are test and questionnaire. 

The test used was written test method. The researcher analyzed the data collected from both of the 

groups’ pre-test and post-test scores. Before the test, the researcher checked the validity and 

reliability condition of the test. Below was the procedure of analyzing the data; 

1. Analyzing try-out test; 

2. Analyzing pre-test and post test scores of both groups; 

3. Analyzing questionnaire. 

By calculating the validity and the reliability of the test instrument, the researcher analyzed the 

condition of the test. After analyzing the try-out test, the pre-test and post-test scores were analyzed, 

independently. The following were the procedures of analyzing the test scores; 

1. Scoring students’ works; 

2. Analyzing the normality of the test scores; 

3. Analyzing the homogeneity of the test scores; 

4. Analyzing the t-test of the test scores; 

5. Analyzing the paired-samples t-test of each group scores. 

Nonetheless, in order to analyze the pre-test and post-test scores, the researcher used the SPSS 

18.0. Through the program, the normality, homogeneity, and t-test were analyzed. The significant 

difference between the two groups’ scores is accepted if the value of Sig.(2-tailed) on the t-test is less 

than 0.05. in addition, the effectiveness is proven if the t value is more than the  t table. Thus, if the 

prerequisites are fulfilled, it is concluded that there is a significant difference between students who 

were taught by using Group grid and Round table and those who were taught by using group work 

brainstorming. 

In order to support the result of tests, students were given questionnaire in the end of the post-

test. It was used to further describe the effect of Group grid and Round table for the experimental 

group. Through the questionnaire, the researcher intended to analyze the responses of students 

towards the implementation of Group grid and Round table. The format of the questionnaire was 

Likert-type items. They were ten question written in Indonesian, it was supposed to gain students’ 



S. Urunami & D. Anggani Linggar Bharati & A. Faridi/ Journal of English Language Teaching 6 (2) (2017) 

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better understanding in fulfilling the questionnaire. Thus, they could easily share their opinions. The 

Likert-type items were completed with four likert scales. The four scales were strongly disagree, disagree, 

neutral, agree and strongly agree. Each of the scales represented different scores; strongly disagree = 1, 

disagree = 2, agree = 3, and strongly agree = 4. Next, the questionnaire was administered to describe 

the effect of implementing the technique towards the students. It supports the result of the test. In 

this case, the questionnaire was analyzed by calculating the mean scores of each test-item. 

RESULT AND DISCUSSION 

Results of the Test 

 

Based on the try-out analysis, the test instrument was reliable and valid to be used. Since the 

test given was based on the syllabus and the result of the try out test showed 0,81, for α = 5% with N 

= 32. The r-table = 0.344. Since the result values (0,81) were higher than critical value (0.344), the 

instruments were reliable because it was supported with a clear rubric of scoring scale that used to 

guide assessors in marking the essay. Due to the try-out analysis, the researcher was confident to use 

the written test for pre-test and post-test.  

The achievement of pre-test in the control group was 69.71 and the experimental group was 69.15. 

The test was aimed to investigate students’ initial level of ability to write descriptive texts. The 

distribution of test in both group was normal, because the value of Asymp. Sig.(2-tailed) of experimental 

group was 0.999 and control group was 0.300. Those were higher than 0.05. Meanwhile, the Significance 

value was 0.295. The hypothesis was accepted if the Significance value was more than 0.05. The pre-test 

scores of both groups were homogeneous; since the Significance value was higher than 0.05. By using 

Independent Sample T-test in SPSS 18.0 program, the result showed that the students of both groups were 

initially in the same level of ability. It was proven by the value of Sig.(2-tailed) which was 0.681. Based 

on the results; hence, Ha was accepted. Therefore, the initial levels of both groups were equivalent.  

A satisfying result was achieved on post-test. The post-test was conducted to investigate students’ 

achievement after treatments were given. On one hand, the mean score of the experimental group was 

79.34. On the other hand, the mean score of control groups was 77.40. Both of the mean scores showed 

that both of the groups were enhanced after the treatments. The distribution test of both group was also 

normal. It was proven by the value of Asymp. Sig.(2-tailed) of experimental group was 0.688and control 

group was 0.522. In addition, the significance value showed 0.082 so that the homogeneity for both group 

was homogeneous.  

The Independent Sample T-test on the table also showed that there was a significant different 

between the post-test scores of both groups. It was proven by the result of Sig.(2-tailed) which was 0.003 

and 0.004. Those were below than 0.05. Thus, it could be concluded that there was a significant 

difference on both groups after the treatments. Hence, the implementation of Group Grid and Roundtable 

Technique in teaching writing descriptive text resulted satisfying result to students’ achievements. 

In addition, the analysis of Paired-Sample T Test showed that both of the groups were improved 

after the treatments. For control group improvements from pre-test up to post-test, the result showed that 

the mean scores difference was 7.68. In addition, the t-value was 5.873 and the Sig.(2-tailed) was 0.000. 

Ha was accepted since the value of Sig.(2-tailed) was lower than. 0.05. Thus, the scores of post-test was 

higher than the pre-test. For experimental group improvements from pre-test up to post-test, the result 

showed that the mean scores difference of the experimental group was 10.18. Moreover, the t-value was 

8.042 and the Sig.(2-tailed) was 0.00. Ha was accepted since the value of Sig.(2-tailed) was lower than. 

0.05. Thus, there was improvement on the post-test after the treatment. 

Finally, after completing the procedures of analyzing the result of test, it showed that there 

was a significant difference on tenth grade students of SMA Taruna Nusantara Magelang in the 



S. Urunami & D. Anggani Linggar Bharati & A. Faridi/ Journal of English Language Teaching 6 (2) (2017) 

181 

 

69.15 

79.34 

69.71 

77.4 

60

65

70

75

80

85

PRE-TESTPOST-TEST Experimental Group

academic year 2016/2017 who were taught by using Group Grid and Roundtable Technique 

compared to those who were taught by using group work Brainstorming. Thus, the working 

hypothesis (Ha) was accepted. In order to make the analysis to be more comprehensible, the 

comparison result of pre-test and post-test scores would be presented on this chart below: 

According to the chart, Group Grid and Roundtable technique was proven to be an effective 

technique for teaching writing descriptive texts. By using the technique, tenth grade students of SMA 

Taruna Nusantara Magelang in the Academic Year 2016/2017 gained significant achievement in 

writing descriptive text.  

Results of the Questionnaire 

In order to investigate the effect of implementing the technique, several statements were 

provided in the questionnaire. The students had to give check mark () based on their degree of 

agreements. The test-items of the questionnaire were about:  

1. interest in learning English;  

2. interest in writing;  

3. difficulty of writing descriptive text;  

4. initial interest towards Group Grid and Roundtable technique;  

5. feeling easier after applying Group Grid and Roundtable Technique for writing 

descriptive texts;  

6. interest towards Group Grid and Roundtable Techniques for writing descriptive 

texts;  

7. feeling bored after applying Group Grid and Roundtable techniques for writing 

descriptive texts;  

8. effectiveness of applying Group Grid and Roundtable techniques for writing 

descriptive texts;  

9. motivation to write descriptive text after applying Group Grid and Roundtable 

techniques; and  

10. consideration of applying the technique for teaching writing other kinds of text in 

English. 

The following is the results of the questionnaire. 

T
es

t 
It

em
 

st
ro

n
gl

y 
d

is
a

gr
ee

 

d
is

a
gr

ee
 

a
gr

ee
 

st
ro

n
gl

y 
a

gr
ee

 

M
ea

n
 



S. Urunami & D. Anggani Linggar Bharati & A. Faridi/ Journal of English Language Teaching 6 (2) (2017) 

182 

 

1 0 2 16 14 3.37 

2 0 5 23 4 2.96 

3 7 14 6 5 2.21 

4 0 2 20 10 3.25 

5 1 2 19 10 3.37 

6 0 2 18 12 3.18 

7 10 21 1 8 1.71 

8 0 1 27 4 3.09 

9 0 7 21 4 2.90 

10 0 4 18 10 3.18 

 

The result of the questionnaire showed that more than a half number to the total respondents 

like English (mean: 3.375), there were thirty of the respondents who like learning English. 

Furthermore, twenty-three students of the total respondents also like to write in English. Even so, 

many of them twenty-two (68.75%) students found difficulty in writing especially writing descriptive 

text in this case.  

At the beginning of the treatment, students were interested towards Group Grid and 

Roundtable Techniques for Writing Descriptive text (mean: 3.25). They recognized that the 

implementation of the technique for writing descriptive texts made them so happy and interesting 

(agree: 56.25% and strongly agree: 37.5%). After the treatments, twenty-five students were motivated 

to apply the technique. They argued that the strategy assisted them to write descriptive texts (mean: 

       ). Moreover, Twenty-seven or 84.37% students of the total respondents agreed that it was 

effective to write descriptive text after applying group grid and roundtable technique. The last item, 

eighteen students agreed to apply group grid and roundtable technique in writing other kinds of text 

in English material (56.25%) and ten students were strongly agree to apply it (31.25%). Finally, the 

result of questionnaire above further elaborated how Group Grid and Roundtable technique gave 

effects on tenth grade students of SMA Taruna Nusantara Magelang in the academic year 

2016/2017 in teaching writing descriptive such as students get more happy and interested in 

following the material, they also feel easier in writing descriptive text, and they thought the 

techniques can be applied in other material, especially in writing a text. 

CONCLUSIONS 

The first objective of conducting the research was to describe the significant difference 

between tenth grade students of SMA Taruna Nusantara Magelang in the academic year 2016/2017 

who were taught by using Group Grid and Roundtable Technique and those who were taught by 

using group work brainstorming. By determining the significant difference, the effectiveness of 

Group Grid and Roundtable Technique could be proven. The research findings from pre-test and 

post-test mean scores of experimental group showed that it statistically increased from 75.81 to 

82.68. Meanwhile, the scores of control group only increased from 76.34 to 79.18. The data were 

analyzed by using Independent Sample T-Test. The mean scores comparison of both groups in post-

test proved that the working hypothesis (Ha) was accepted. The analysis showed that the value of 



S. Urunami & D. Anggani Linggar Bharati & A. Faridi/ Journal of English Language Teaching 6 (2) (2017) 

183 

 

Sig.(2-tailed) (0.03) was less than the value of α = 5% = 0.05.  In addition, the data were also 

investigated by using Paired-Sample T-Test. The analysis showed that both of the groups improved 

after the treatments. However, the mean scores differences indicated that the experimental group 

(6.87) improved better than the control group (2.84). Through the mean scores differences, the t-

value of the experimental group was 4.785. Meanwhile, the t-value of the control group was 1.858.  

Based on the results, it can be concluded that there was a significant difference between the two 

groups, after being given several treatments. Thus, the analysis of significant difference revealed that 

Group Grid and Round table Technique was effective in teaching writing descriptive texts for the 

subjects of this research.  

The second objective, in order to describe further about how the strategy effects on the objects, 

the researcher gave a questionnaire. The questionnaire was used to recognize the responses of 

students towards the implementation of Group Grid and Round table Technique. The questionnaire 

with Likert-type items was delivered to fill in. The analysis showed that 59.37% of the students 

agreed that the implementation of the strategy assisted them to write descriptive texts. In addition, 

31.25% of them even strongly agreed towards the statement.  

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Baloche, L. (1998). The cooperative classroom: Empowering learning. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.  

Creswell, John W. 2012. Educational Research: Planning, Conducting and Evaluating Quantitative and 

Qualitative Research. Boston: Pearson.  

Harmer, J. 2004.How to Teach Writing. New York: Longman Group. Ltd. 

Jacobs, G. M., Power, M. A., & Loh, W. I. (2002). The teacher's Sourcebook for Cooperative learning: 

Practical techniques, basic principles, and frequently asked questions. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin 

Press. 

Johnson, D. W., & Johnson, R. T. (1999). Learning together and alone: Cooperative, competitive and 

individualistic learning (5Th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon 

Kagan, S. 1994. Cooperative Learning. San Clemente, CA: Kagan Publishing. Online. Available at 

www.KaganOnline.com. [Accessed on 12/03/2016] 

Paul, David. 2003. Teaching English to Children in Asia. Hong Kong: Longman Asia ELT. 

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