1 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 Alamatkorespondensi: GedungB3Lantai3 FBSUnnes KampusSekaran, Gunungpati, Semarang, 50229 E-mail: ISSN 2252-6706 Kukuh Arif Wibowo/ Journal of English Language Teaching 2 (1) (2013) 2 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) 3 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. 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