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 ELT FORUM 3 (1) (2014) 

 

Journal of English Language Teaching 
 

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

 

 

COMPARISON BETWEEN USING AUTHENTIC SONG LYRICS AND 

PICTURES AS MEDIA TO TEACH STUDENTS’ WRITING COMPETENCE 

OF NARRATIVE TEXT 

 

Aditya Rizkiyanto   
 

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

 

Article Info 

________________ 
Article  History: 

Received in April 2014 

Approved in Mei 2014 

Published in Juni 2014 

________________ 
Keywords: 

Authentic song lyrics, 

Pictures, Media, Writing, 

Narrative text 

____________________ 

Abstract
 

___________________________________________________________________ 

This final project is a quasi experimental research aiming at investigating any significant difference 

of students’ achievement in writing narrative texts which are taught by using authentic song lyrics 

and the one who are taught by using pictures with an assumption that these media can help them 

to interpret the content of the course. The subjects of the study were the eleventh graders of 

Semarang State Senior High School 2 in the academic year of 2013/2014. There were two groups 

which were given different treatments. The first group was the experimental group consisting of 34 

students that was taught by using “authentic song lyrics” as media and the second group was the 

control group consisting of 34 students that was taught by using “pictures”. In conducting 

experimental research, there were two classes that were used, XI Natural Science Program 11 as 

the experimental group and XI Natural Science Program 9 as the control group. Both groups were 

given pre test, treatments, and post test. In analyzing the data, normality test, homogeneity test, 

and t-test were used. The results of the study showed that the “authentic song lyrics” media which 

was applied in creating narrative text gave contribution in helping them write narrative texts. The 

data proved that there was a significant difference between the experimental and the control group 

achievement. Based on the statistical analysis, it could be seen that the students’ post-test in the 

experimental group was higher than the control group. The mean of the experimental group 

improved than the control group. The t-value for two means of post-test was 3.333; meanwhile the 

critical value at α = 5% was 2.035. It proved that there is significant difference between the 

experimental group which was given “authentic song lyrics” media and the control group which 

was given “picture”. It can be concluded that the “authentic song lyrics” is more effective than 

“pictures” to help the students in writing narrative texts. 

 

© 2014 Universitas Negeri Semarang 

 
 Correspondent Address:  

   B3 Building FBS Unnes   

   Sekaran, Gunungpati, Semarang, 50229 

   E-mail: storyofmachiatto@yahoo.com 

ISSN 2252-6706 



 

Aditya Rizkiyanto / Journal of English Language Teaching 3 (1) (2014) 

2 

INTRODUCTION 

 

“Language”, that is a simple word, but it 

has an enormous meaning in our life. Every 

word that human said is language. Every activity 

that human do is language. But, they are simple 

forms of language. Language is a very important 

thing for human being as a means to 

communicate among society. Human in society 

needs languages both spoken and written not 

only to convey their problems but also to 

communicate each other. As Ramelan (1992:8) 

said, “With language man can express his ideas 

and wishes to other people such as when he 

needs their help so that close operation among 

members of the group can be carried out”. In 

order to communicate each other, human not 

only use first language but also second language. 

There are many kinds of language used 

among the country that is also different among 

other country because language is an identity of 

the country. Every country has its own language 

that usually used by their society in order to 

communicate each other. In this case, every 

country need a unite language in order to do 

communication between at least two countries 

or more. They agree that English is a language 

that can unite every country around the world. 

With English they can communicate with other 

people from other countries. No wonder if there 

is no united language; it is very difficult to 

communicate with people around the world 

even when it can be conducted, there are a lot of 

misunderstandings between two countries when 

they are communicating using their own 

language. So, English is an important language 

which has to be understood by every human in 

the world during their life. 

“Some people study English  because  

they  think  it  offers  a  chance  for advancement  

in  their  professional  lives.  They will  get  a  

better  job  with  two languages  than  if  they  

only  know  their  mother  tongue.  English has 

special position here since it becomes the 

international language of communication” 

(Harmer 1991:1). 

Based on this statement, we know more 

that English is a united language that is very 

important to learn because of there are many 

advantages of it. Study English is compulsory 

for every productive people, especially students 

in many stages like elementary school, junior 

high school, senior high school, even at a 

university level. Considering the important of 

English, the government included English as a 

program in education field. Indonesia as a 

developing country needs English as an 

international language to communicate with 

other country in many sectors. With English 

included in the curricula, hopefully most of the 

Indonesian society can acquired English as a 

foreign language carefully. We can imagine if 

every people in Indonesia can acquire English 

fluently both spoken and written, it can be a 

pride of our nations to master in English. It also 

can make our nations not only as a developing 

country but also developed country in every 

people’s point of view. It also can be applied on 

all of students that are still learning English in 

their education programs. It would be a part of 

life when students acquire English because 

through mastering in English, every student can 

apply for job in virtually every profession that is 

needed English as a communication means. It 

can be an important thing for their future life by 

mastering in English both spoken and written. 

By mastering English, the students are supposed 

to be able to gain valuable information and 

knowledge from the texts and books about 

science, commerce, economy, technology, etc 

which are written in English. 

Based on the School – Based Curriculum 

(SBC) or we can called it as Kurikulum Tingkat 

Satuan Pendidikan (KTSP), the teaching 

learning of English has to develop four language 

skill; listening, speaking, reading, and writing. 

However, not only the four aspect that must be 

acquired by students, but also there will be 

others aspects that can support the development 

of students in mastering English, they are 

vocabulary, structure, and also pronunciation. 

These components are very important to support 

the four English skills. It means that English 

teachers have to mastering on these aspects and 

also taught them for supporting four skills on 

English. 



 

Aditya Rizkiyanto / Journal of English Language Teaching 3 (1) (2014) 

3 

In order to teach all of components and 

skills in English, the English teachers should use 

a certain media related to the material that will 

be delivered. The use of media itself has been 

applied for increasing students’ interest during 

the lessons. Another purpose that should be 

achieved from the use of media is to make 

students understand about material. One of the 

writer’s suggestions that will be examined in this 

final project is about the implementation of 

teaching English to see the students’ 

improvement in writing narrative text by using 

media that are authentic song lyrics and pictures 

and also find out the most effective of it by 

comparing the significant differences between 

both of them. 

Harmer (2004:24), states that students 

who are writing within certain genre need to 

consider a number of different factors. Based on 

this statement, the students have to consider 

many components constructing a text with 

certain genre. According to Anderson (1997:1), 

creating a text requires us to make choices about 

the words we use and how we put them 

together. It means that in order to know how to 

construct a text, we have to understand about 

the important elements before creating a text. 

Hazel (2007:1), states that narrative is first and 

foremost a prodigious variety of genres, 

themselves distributed amongst different 

substances as though any material were fit to 

receive man’s stories. 

“Narrative text type tells a story using 

spoken or written language. It can be 

communicated using radio, television, books, 

newspapers or computer files. Pictures, facial 

expressions and camera angles can also be used 

to help communicate meaning.” (Anderson, M 

& K. Anderson, 1997:2). Based on the 

explanation, several media can be used to 

deliver and also create narrative text. 

The study will focus on writing a narrative 

text only, which is included on the material in 

English lesson for SMA. We know that writing 

is very complex skill that must be acquired by 

students in Senior High School. In this study, 

the writer will compare two media that can be 

used in writing narrative text in order to know 

which media is more effective for narrative. 

Song lyrics can be delivered by using paper at 

the same time as the music played. While 

pictures can be deliver in a form of printed paper 

that must be understood by students. The 

students have to write a narrative text by their 

own words based on the story from both media 

used. Hopefully both media can be understood 

easily by the student in writing narrative. 

The objectives are to find out the 

significant difference of students’ achievement in 

the improvement of students’ competence in 

writing narrative text between using authentic 

song lyrics and pictures; to compare the 

effectiveness of both medium that for students in 

order to improve their competencies in writing 

narrative text. 

 

METHODS OF THE STUDY 

 

This study used quasi experimental design 

that can be described as follow: 

 E 01 X 02 

 C 03 Y 04 

 

 (Arikunto, 2006:86) 

 

E is experimental group 

C is control group 

01 is pre – test for the experimental group 

02 is post – test for the experimental group 

03 is pre – test for the control group 

04 is post – test for the control group 

X is treatment for experimental group 

(authentic song lyrics) 

Y is treatment for control group (pictures) 

The population of the study was the 

eleventh grade students of SMA N 2 Semarang 

in the academic year of 2013/2014 and the 

samples were XI IA 9 as a control group and XI 

IA 11 as an experimental group. 

The hypotheses of this study are stated 

below: 

(H1): There is a significant difference of 

students’ achievements in writing narrative text 



 

Aditya Rizkiyanto / Journal of English Language Teaching 3 (1) (2014) 

4 

that are taught by using authentic song lyrics 

and those who are taught by using pictures. 

(H0): There is no difference of students’ 

achievement in writing narrative text that are 

taught by using authentic song lyrics and those 

who are taught by using pictures. 

I used experimental method by doing 

three activities: a pre-test, a treatment, and a 

post-test. The pre-tests of experimental and 

control were conducted on the first meeting. For 

two next meetings, both classes were given 

different treatment. The experimental group was 

given “authentic song lyrics” media as the 

treatment and the control group was given 

pictures equipped with helper sentences. On the 

forth meeting, they were given a post-test to 

measure their achievement in creating narrative 

texts. 

After collecting data, I analyzed it by 

doing these steps: scoring, tabulating data, and 

using the appropriate formula to analyze the 

data.  

In facilitating to analyze the students’ test 

result in writing narrative text of the both 

groups, i.e. the experimental and the control 

group, the writer limited only to the analytic 

scale as stated by Brown and Bailey (1984:39-41) 

as quoted by Brown (2004:244). The following is 

the table of analytic scale for rating composition 

task devised by Brown: 

 

 20-18  

Excellent 

to Good 

17-15  

Good  to  

Adequate 

14-12 

Adequate 

to fair 

11-6 

Unacceptable 

– not  

5-1 

College –level 

work 

1. 

Organization: 

Introduction, 

Body, and  

Conclusion. 

Appropriate title, 

effective 

introductory 

paragraph, topic  

is stated and  

leads to body;  

supporting 

evidence given  

for  

generalizations;  

Conclusion 

logical and  

complete. 

Adequate title,  

introduction, 

body  

and conclusion  

of essay are  

acceptable but  

some evidence  

may be lacking. 

Mediocre or  

scant 

introduction or  

conclusion; 

problems with  

the order of  

ideas in body. 

Shaky or  

minimally 

recognizable 

introduction; 

severe 

problems 

with ordering 

of ideas; lack 

of supporting 

evidence; 

conclusion 

weak or  

illogical. 

Absence of  

introduction  

or conclusion;  

no apparent  

organization 

of body. 

2.Logical 

development of 

ideas: content 

Essay addresses  

the assigned  

topic; the ideas  

are  

concrete and  

thoroughly 

developed; no  

extraneous 

materials; essay  

reflect thought. 

Essay addresses  

the issues but  

misses some  

points; Ideas  

could be more  

fully developed;  

some extraneous  

material is  

present. 

Development 

of ideas is not  

complete or  

essay is  

somewhat off  

the topic;  

paragraphs 

aren’t divided  

exactly right. 

Ideas 

incomplete; 

essay doesn’t  

reflect careful  

thinking or  

was hurried  

written; 

inadequate 

effort in the  

area of  

content. 

Essay is  

completely 

inadequate 

and doesn’t  

reflect college  

level work;  

no apparent  

effort to  

consider the  

topic 

carefully. 



 

Aditya Rizkiyanto / Journal of English Language Teaching 3 (1) (2014) 

5 

3.Grammar Native-like  

fluency in  

English  

grammar; correct  

use of relative  

clauses,  

prepositions, 

modals, articles,  

verb forms, and  

tense sequencing;  

no fragments or  

run-on sentences. 

Advanced 

proficiency in  

English 

grammar; some  

grammar  

problems don’t  

influence 

communication;  

no fragments or  

run-on sentences. 

Grammar 

problems are  

apparent and  

have a negative 

effect on  

communication

; run-on  

sentences or  

fragments 

presents. 

 

 

 

 

 

Numerous 

serious 

grammar 

problems 

interfere with 

communicati

on of the  

writer’s ideas; 

grammar 

review of  

some area  

clearly 

needed; 

difficult to  

read 

sentences. 

Severe 

grammar 

problems 

interfere 

greatly with  

the message,  

reader can’t  

understand 

what the  

writer was  

trying to say. 

4.Punctuation, 

spelling, and  

mechanics 

Correct use of  

English writing  

conventions: all  

needed capitals,  

paragraphs 

intended, 

punctuation and  

spelling; very  

neat. 

Some problems  

with writing  

conventions or  

punctuations; 

occasional 

spelling errors;  

paper is neat and 

legible. 

 

 

 

 

 

Uses general  

writing 

conventions 

but has errors;  

spelling 

problems 

distract reader;  

punctuation 

errors interfere  

with ideas. 

Parts of essay 

not legible;  

errors in  

sentence 

punctuation 

and final  

punctuation; 

unacceptable 

to educated  

reader. 

Complete 

disregard for 

English 

conventions; 

paper 

illegible; 

obvious 

capitals 

missing, 

severe 

spelling 

problems. 

5.Style and  

quality of  

expression 

Precise 

vocabulary 

usage; use of  

parallel 

structures; 

concise; register  

good. 

Attempts variety; 

good vocabulary; 

not wordy;  

register OK; style 

fairly concise. 

Some 

vocabulary 

misused; lack  

awareness of  

register; may be 

too wordy. 

Poor 

expression of  

ideas; 

problems in  

vocabulary; 

lack variety of 

structure 

Inappropriate 

use of  

vocabulary; 

no concept of 

register or  

sentence 

variety. 

(Brown, 2004:244) 

 

RESULTS OF THE STUDY  

After conducting the pre-test, treatment for both groups, and the post-test, I calculated the 

scores which are shown in the following tables: 

Experimental 

Group 

Five Components 

Organization Content Grammar Punctuation Style 

Pre Test 13.235 13.118 12.029 12.412 12.029 

Post Test 15.323 15.559 13.823 14.294 13.5 

 



 

Aditya Rizkiyanto / Journal of English Language Teaching 3 (1) (2014) 

6 

Control 

Group 

Five Components 

Organization Content Grammar Punctuation Style 

Pre Test 12.794 12.235 11.206 12.147 11.441 

Post Test 14.353 13.677 12.853 13 12.118 

 

According to the data from the pre-test and the post-test, it was obtained the average scores 

for both groups: 

Group Average 

Score of Pre 

Test 

Average 

Score of Post  

Test 

Difference between Pre  

Test and Post Test 

Experimental Group 62.823 72.5 9.677 

Control Group 59.823 66 6.177 

The difference between  

experimental group and control 

group 

3 6.5  

 

The average difference between the pre 

test of the experimental group and the control 

group was 3. The average difference between the 

post test of the experimental group and the 

control group was 6.5. The difference between 

pre test and post test of the experimental group 

was 9.677. Meanwhile, the difference between 

pre test and post test of the control group was 

6.177. It means that the difference between pre 

test and post test of the students who are treated 

by authentic song lyrics is better than the 

students who are treated by sequence of pictures. 

In analyzing data, I calculated the 

normality test and the homogeneity test by using 

SPSS program. The following tables are the 

normality test result and the homogeneity test 

result: 

 

Table of Normality Test 

Pre-Test of Experimental Group Sig. = 0.200 

Pre-Test of Control Group Sig. = 0.434 

Post-Test of Experimental Group Sig. = 0.076 

Post-Test of Control Group Sig. = 0.844 

According to the table, all the Sig values 

as p-values are higher than the level of 

significance: 0.05. Then, all the scores of pre-

tests and post-tests for experimental and control 

group are said to be normally distributed. 

 

Test of Homogeneity of Variance 

 Levene Statistic df1 df2 Sig. 

VAR00001 

Based on Mean 1.910 1 66 .172 

Based on Median 2.008 1 66 .161 

Based on Median and  

with adjusted df 

2.008 1 65.406 .161 

Based on trimmed mean 1.870 1 66 .176 

 



 

Aditya Rizkiyanto / Journal of English Language Teaching 3 (1) (2014) 

7 

According to the table, Sig value Based on 

Mean is 0.172, while the level of significance is 

0.05. Because of Sig value is higher than level of 

significance; it means that the data of both pre 

tests are homogeny. 

In order to measure the significance of pre 

test and post test, t-test was used. The writer 

used SPSS 21 to calculate the t-test result. Below 

is the table of T-Test calculation by using SPSS. 

 

T-Test Table 

Paired Samples Test 

 Paired Differences T df Sig. (2- 

tailed) Mean Std.  

Deviation 

Std.   Error  

Mean 

 

95% Confidence 

Interval of the 

Difference 

Lower Upper 

Pair 

1 

VAR00001 - 

VAR00002 

6.50000 11.37048 1.95002 2.53265 10.46735 3.333 33 .002 

 

Based on the calculation of t-test using 

SPSS 21, t-value should be interpreted. In order 

to interpret t-value, it should be consulted with t-

table whether the difference was significant or 

not. If the t-value is higher than t-table, it means 

that there is significant difference between the 

experimental group and control group. Level of 

significant in educational research was 0.05 and 

the degree of freedom was 33. 

Based on the degree of freedom, it was 

obtained that t-table was 2.035. Meanwhile, 

according to the calculation by using SPSS 

above, t-value was 3.333. It meant that t-value 

was higher than t-table, so it could be concluded 

that there was significant difference between the 

experimental group and the control group. 

Based on that result, the hypothesis that 

there is significant difference of students’ 

achievement in writing narrative text that are 

taught by using authentic song lyrics and those 

who are taught by using picture was accepted. 

Thereby, the hypothesis that there is no 

difference of students’ achievement in writing 

narrative text that are taught by using authentic 

song lyrics and those who are taught by using 

pictures was refused. 

After calculating all data, I can conclude 

that the improvement of the students’ writing in 

experimental group is higher than the control 

group. There was a pre test for the experimental 

group and a post test for the experimental group. 

Both of the tests were aimed to measure the 

students’ competence in writing narrative text. If 

the pre test was designed to measure the 

students’ basic competence in writing narrative 

text, it would be different with the post test that 

was designed to measure the students’ 

competence after given treatment. When the 

results were compared, the post test result 

showed improvements in the students’ writing 

competence. Based on the result, the writer 

concluded that there is a significant difference in 

achievement between the students of the 

experimental group that was taught by using 

authentic song lyrics as media and the students 

of the control group that was taught by using 

pictures as media. The following table is the 

table which shows the average score of pre test 

and post test difference based on the five 

components. 

 

 
 

Test 
Five Components 

Organization Content Grammar Punctuation Style 

Pre Test 13,235 13,118 12,029 12,412 12,029 

Post Test 15,323 15,559 13,823 14,294 13,5 



 

Aditya Rizkiyanto / Journal of English Language Teaching 3 (1) (2014) 

8 

 

From the table above, it can be seen that 

there is an improvement in the post test of the 

experimental group for each component. 

After analyzed the students’ project, it 

was found that the students’ competence in 

organizing sentences into a good paragraph was 

poor at the first time before treatment. They 

arranged sentences to introduce the participants 

in narrative not clearly enough. After being 

given the treatment by using “authentic song 

lyrics” as media, the students’ organization in 

writing improved. They were not producing 

uncompleted introduction anymore and they 

used more appropriate title in the story to 

construct better narrative text than before given 

treatment. 

The students’ competence in developing 

content or idea to be a good paragraph was poor 

at the first time before treatment. Most of them 

developed uncompleted ideas on the paragraph 

and seemed like produced it hurriedly in the pre 

test. Thereby, they produced uncompleted 

chronological of situation in the text, so it could 

make the reader confuse when reading the story. 

After being given treatment by using “authentic 

song lyrics” as media, their competence in 

developing content component improved. The 

media that used could stimulate their creativity 

to construct good paragraphs in order to make 

the content better than their pre test. 

The students’ competence of the 

experimental group in grammar was so poor. 

Their work in the pre-test showed that they had 

poor ability in producing good structure. They 

could not differentiate word forms and did not 

use the correct tense in writing narrative text. 

The given treatment influenced their grammar 

understanding and gave contribution in 

improving their grammatical structure in writing 

although there were still many students made 

mistakes in their writing. 

In constructing a narrative text, the 

students’ competence in spelling the words, 

using punctuation and mechanics in writing was 

poor at the first time before treatment. They 

often used wrong spelling, punctuation, and 

mechanics when they wrote words and 

combined into sentences. The errors made by 

the students in spelling words, using punctuation 

and mechanics in writing interfered with their 

ideas. The treatments given influenced the 

students’ competence to use right spelling, 

punctuation, and mechanics in writing text. 

In constructing a narrative text, the 

students’ style and quality of expression in 

writing was poor at the first time before 

treatment. They often chose the inappropriate 

words to construct sentences in writing narrative 

text. They also lacked of vocabulary mastery. 

The given treatment by using “authentic song 

lyrics” influenced their style and quality of 

expression and gave contribution in improving 

their vocabulary to construct sentences in 

writing. 

Using “Pictures” in Control Group 

In the control group, the result of pre test 

and post test were lower than the experimental 

group. In the control group, the media that used 

to improve the students’ competence in writing 

narrative text was sequence of pictures. The 

students were interested in this media because 

the media showed the chronological pictures of 

the story. Sequence of pictures in the control 

group was applied to improve the students’ 

creativity in writing story. By using the media, 

the students understood the story line, but they 

didn’t understand well about the participants in 

the story. In order to help the students, the 

writer mentioned the participants in the story 

and gave information about the participants’ 

background. Thereby, the students could 

understand who were the participants and they 

could develop the story by using their creativity 

to make a good narrative text. 

 

CONCLUSION 

According to the results of the study, I 

will conclude that in writing narrative text, the 

use of “authentic song lyrics” gives much 

contribution and supports the students. By using  

 

This media, the students are able to catch 

the story in the lyrics. They are able to use their 

own words to convey their own story based on 



 

Aditya Rizkiyanto / Journal of English Language Teaching 3 (1) (2014) 

9 

the lyrics. By using this media, the students’ 

creativity is used to make the story more 

colorful. This media stimulates the students to 

think creatively after the story in a form of song 

was available. On the other side, the use of 

“pictures” also gives contributions to the 

students in writing narrative text. However, it 

has many disadvantages to apply this media in 

order to write a narrative text. 

 

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