IMPROVING STUDENTS' WRITING SKILLS ENGLISH REVIEW: Journal of English Education ISSN 2301-7554 Vol. 1, Issue 1, December 2012 http://journal.uniku.ac.id/index.php/ERJEE IMPROVINGSTUDENTS' WRITINGSKILLS THROUGHFIELDTRIPMETHOD RisaMeiranti Department of English Education, University of Kuningan, Indonesia E-mail: rmeiranti@gmail.com APA Citation: Meiranti, R. (2012). Improving students' writing skills through field trip method. English Review: Journal of English Education, 1(1), 89-96 Received: 12-08-2012 Accepted: 03-10-2012 Published: 01-12-2012 Abstract: This research is aimed to improve the students’ writing skill and learning activity by applying the implementation of field trip method in English subject in class VIII-2 SMP N 1 Luragung. The problem in this research contents is about the low of students’ skill in writing and learning activity. The kind of this research is classroom action research which was conducted in two cycles. The subject of this research is English subject in class VIII-2 with total number of students 34. The research instrument that had been used is the test and also the observation sheet for observation the learning activity of the students and teacher. Based on the result, the improvement could be seen from the increase of students’ mean writing score from 47 in the preliminary study and 70,51 at the first cycle to 73,24 in the second cycle. The result of field notes showed that the class condition during teaching learning process creates the positive atmosphere in the classroom and makes students creative in finding the ideas, organize the text and can use better grammar. Students who had been afraid of learning in the second cycle looked more confident. Students in the second cycle was more confident in working task of the students and students’ participation in learning increased, they actively asked, answered questions from teacher. Keyword: writing skill, field trip method, improvement, action research INTRODUCTION Many students said that writing is difficult but if there are appropriate methods, interesting teaching technique and actual material writing can be an easy and enjoyable activity for them. Writing is one of the important skills to be mastered by the students. They use it to communicate to each other, as means of ideas and emotional expression, because when they write their ideas and emotion creatively, they are communicating on paper in their very best way and purposes. Brown (2001, p. 336) claims that writing is a thinking process. Furthermore, he states that writing can be planned and given with an unlimited number of revisions before its release. In this writing activity students are required to master grammar, vocabulary and punctuation. Besides that Harmer (2001, p. 79) states that the students are expected to be able to present their ideas and feeling in the written form. The scope of learning English in VIII grade of junior high school are interpersonal discourse, transactional and functional and coherent rhetoric and logic, as a means of communication and the development of academic potential in five varieties functional discourse such as; recount, narrative, procedure, descriptive and report (Syahmadi, 2013, p.79). Emerging issues in education is the number of students who are "not thinking" (Hassoubah, 2008, p.10). The RISA MEIRANTI Improving Students' Writing Skills Through Field Trip Method phrase "not thinking" here is not meant students do not have a mind, but directed on student learning in school. Student at the school was limited to listen to explanations of teachers, and then try to understand the explanations of the teacher to the next can help them fill out questions in examinations held in the school. “In the education system, there are learners who fail to understand the learning because they simply memorize without understanding what they are learning” (Hassoubah 2008: p10). These problems could be influenced by some factors. The researcher assumed these problems appear caused by the method or technique in teaching writing, because some teachers taught writing just give the explanation and exercises. It makes students less comprehended, less interest in writing, and makes students bored. These problems were important to be solved, therefore students comprehend the material of writing and students thought that writing is an interesting skill and could continue English material in the next semester. To help students solved these problems it needs another method that more interesting in teaching writing and make students become active in learning activity. There are a lot of methods in teaching writing. The researcher would like to propose a method which is “Field Trip Method”. Field trip method was conducted by inviting students to a place or object outside of school to learn or investigate something, such as visiting the shoe factory, workshop of cars, department stores, garden and so on (Asmani, 2010: p.150). The field trip method is not just recreation but students learn a lesson with see reality. Field trip method applied by getting students to learn outside the classroom and with guide from teachers through the instructions and implementation of a written assignment. Instructions and clear assignment of teachers intended that the activities carried out in outside the classroom can be run in accordance with the objectives and lesson plans. Many studies related to field trip learning shows that learning on a fieldtrip can, indeed, produce different results than learning in a classroom. Koran, Koran & Ellis (1989, p.7) examined field trip literature and found positive outcomes, both cognitive and affective, on students in 20 of the 27 studies reviewed. Cognitive outcome from pre- and post-test measures was children exhibit more knowledge about a subject if they learn about the subject on a field trip instead of learning about the subject in a classroom. Students even enjoyed learning on their field trip more than socializing. When asked to pick their favorite parts of a field trip taken to a park, the students identified educational activities such as “casting animal tracks” and “studying animal and plant in the pond”. These studies showed that students’ learning outcome and their attitude become better when teacher used field trip method. The study by Orien (1993) in Mogk (2012) entitled “Field Note” said that the most important role of field trips in the learning process is in "direct experience with concrete phenomena and materials”. The very nature of field trip exercises requires students to be active learners, rather than merely covering material in a passive mode in a traditional classroom. Furthermore, experiential activities facilitate the transition from lower-order learning strategies to the higher cognitive learning. ENGLISH REVIEW: Journal of English Education ISSN 2301-7554 Vol. 1, Issue 1, December 2012 http://journal.uniku.ac.id/index.php/ERJEE Based on interviews with students at the second grade and English teacher in SMPN 1 Luragung, writing is the most difficult learning. The researcher interested in conducting action research in class VIII-2 because according to English teacher here, this class has the lowest grades in writing compared to other classes. I chose a class action research because according to Mills (2003) in Fraenkel and Wallen (2006, p. 590) this type of research aims to improve students' ability with deliver the material continuously in several cycles. One characteristic of action research is collaboration between researcher and teachers, principals, students, etc. In the implementation of the action research collaboration between teachers and researcher is important because through collaboration they will together explore and assess the real problems faced by teachers or students at school (Arikunto et al, 2012, p.63). Based on the interview with the English teacher Junior High School 1 Luragung and the result from test 1, there were some difficulties faced by students in writing class, such as: (1) they did not have idea to write, (2) they were still confused in organizing the writing, (3) they did some mistakes with the lack of knowledge in vocabularies and (4) they were still confuse to use the correct grammar. In the classroom, students often complained and say it was difficult when the teacher assigns students to write. Students looked unconfident when they were given the writing task. They were fear cannot complete the task of writing, because they did not know what to write, how to start and end. METHOD The design used in this study is Classroom Action Research (CAR). Action research is any systematic inquiry conducted by teacher, researcher, principals, school counselors, or other stakeholders in the teaching/learning environment. It means that “CAR is aimed to overcome problems in teaching learning process in order to improve educational practice” (Mills, 2003 in Fraenkel and Wallen, 2006, p. 590). The researcher used the CAR procedure based on Kemmis and McTaggart (1988) design. According to Kemmis and McTaggart (1988) in Burns (2005, p. 32), “action research occurs through a dynamic and complementary process, which consists of four essential “moments”: of planning, action, observation and reflection”. The data in this study was both qualitative data and quantitative data. The researcher used qualitative data consist of interview, field notes, and questionnaire sheet. While quantitative data consists of students’ final writing as a test 1, test 2 and test 3. Interview was particularly useful for getting data behind the English teacher’s experiences before classroom action research. It was used to know students’ difficulties in writing ability, and the technique used by teacher when writing activity. The interview also carried out after classroom action research to know the teacher’s response toward the idea of Field Trip method. Beside the interview, the researcher and observer used field notes to record activities during the teaching and learning of writing through Field Trip method in the classroom. The contents of field note including description of classroom atmosphere, students’ attitude, and teacher’s RISA MEIRANTI Improving Students' Writing Skills Through Field Trip Method creativity in presenting the material of writing. The quantitative data were used to evaluate the success of implementation of each cycle. Weigle (2002, p.116) claimed “there are five components presented in the analytical scoring rubric for writing, are: content, organization, vocabulary, language use, and mechanics”. The researcher used analytical scoring rubric to analyze the data related to the students’ paragraph writing test of writing ability. Table 1. Analytical scoring rubric (Jacobs et al., 1981 cited in Weigle, 2002, p. 115-116). ASPECT SCORE LEVEL/CRITERIA C O N T E N T 30-27 26-22 21-17 16-13 EXCELLENT TO VERY GOOD: knowledgeable  substantive  thorough development of thesis  relevant to assigned topic GOOD TO AVERAGE: some knowledge of subject  adequate range  limited development of thesis  mostly relevant to the topic, but lacks detail FAIR TO POOR: limited knowledge of subject  little substance  inadequate development of topic VERY POOR: does not show knowledge of subject  non-substantive  not pertinent  OR not enough to evaluate O R G A N IZ A T IO N 20-18 17-14 13-10 9-7 EXCELLENT TO VERY GOOD: fluent expression  ideas clearly stated/ supported  succinct  well-organized  logical sequencing  cohesive GOOD TO AVERAGE: somewhat choppy  loosely organized but main ideas stand out  limited support  logical but incomplete sequencing FAIR TO POOR: non-fluent  ideas confused or disconnected  lacks logical sequencing and development VERY POOR: does not communicate  no organization  OR not enough to evaluate V O C A B U L A R Y 20-18 17-14 13-10 9-7 EXCELLENT TO VERY GOOD: sophisticated range  effective word/ idiom choice and usage  word form mastery  appropriate register GOOD TO AVERAGE: adequate range  occasional errors of word/ idiom form, choice, usage but meaning not obscured FAIR TO POOR: limited range  frequent errors of word/ idiom form, choice, usage meaning confused or obscured VERY POOR: essential translation  little knowledge of English vocabulary, idioms, word form  OR not enough to evaluate L A N G U A G E U SE 25-22 21-18 17-11 10-5 EXCELLENT TO VERY GOOD: effective complex constructions  few errors of agreement, tense, number, word order/ function, articles, pronouns, prepositions GOOD TO AVERAGE: effective but simple constructions  minor problems in complex constructions  several errors of agreement, tense, number, word order/ function, articles, pronouns, prepositions but meaning seldom obscured FAIR TO POOR: major problems in simple/ complex constructions  frequent errors of negation, agreement, tense, number, word order/ function, articles, pronouns, prepositions and/ or fragments, run-ons, deletions meaning confused or obscured VERY POOR: virtually no mastery of sentence construction rules  dominated by errors  does not communicate  OR not enough to evaluate M E C H A N IC S 5 4 3 2 EXCELLENT TO VERY GOOD: demonstrates mastery of conventions  few errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing GOOD TO AVERAGE: occasional errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing but meaning not obscured FAIR TO POOR: frequent errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing  poor handwriting meaning confused or obscured VERY POOR: no mastery of conventions  dominated by errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing  handwriting illegible  OR not enough to evaluate ENGLISH REVIEW: Journal of English Education ISSN 2301-7554 Vol. 1, Issue 1, December 2012 http://journal.uniku.ac.id/index.php/ERJEE To get the mean of students’ writing score uses the formula (Sudijono, 2008, p. 81): Mx : Mean X : Individual score N : Number of students RESULTSANDDISCUSSION The following are the evaluation results out of cycle 1 in this research. At the cycle 1, the researchers asked the student went to several places and collect the data by seeing the object directly. This field trip activity make students more creative in writing the descriptive text, they open their dictionary when they find some new words in this field trip activity. The result of test 2 showed that the mean score of the class derived 70,51 in which there were 18 students who pass Minimum Mastery Criterion- Kriteria Ketuntasan Minimal (KKM) 75 (seventy five). The following were the detail results of students’ writing in the first cycle: The researcher needs to calculate the mean score firstly, to know the result of students’ writing. The mean score derived from the following formula: There was a slight improvement of students’ mean score from the students’ writing on the preliminary study to the students’ writing on the first cycle. The improvement percentage derived from the formula: Table 2. The mean’s score of five skill in writing in cycle 2 No Writing skill Mean from teacher from researcher mean 1 Content 20.74 20.71 20.73 2 Organization 15.65 16.03 15.84 3 Vocabulary 14.74 15.15 14.95 4 Language use 15.26 15.53 15.40 5 Mechanic 3.59 3.62 3.61 Table 3. A comparison of students’ writing means score No Test 1 Test 2 criteria score Criteria Score 1 highest 78.00 highest 84.00 2 average score 47.26 average score 70.51 3 lowest 32.50 lowest 43.00 RISA MEIRANTI Improving Students' Writing Skills Through Field Trip Method Meanwhile, field notes showed that there are some strength and the weaknesses in teaching learning activities in cycle 1. Table 4. Classroom situation in class VIII-2 No Aspects Observed Indicator Preliminary Study Cycle 1 1 The seriousness of students a. Students giving attention to the teacher a. Students giving attention to the teacher b. Students didn't bring the material book b. A few students brought the material book c. Students were passive in asking or making comment about material c. Student dare to ask the researcher about the material 2 The enthusiasm of students in doing a task a. Students didn't try to understand the instruction by using various learning aids (book, dictionary, ask their teacher or friend) a. Students tried to do their task by using various learning aids (dictionary and books) b. Students didn't have a discussion with the teacher or their friends b. Students have discussion with their friend in doing their task 3 Students' participation a. Students didn't participate in asking question or giving suggestion a. Students participate in asking question but they didn't dare to give comment or suggestion b. Students help their friend to examine the material and the task b. Students help their friend to examine the material and the task The result of test 3 showed that the mean score of the class derived 73,24 in which there were 23 students who pass Minimum Mastery Criterion- KriteriaKetuntasan Minimal (KKM) 75 (seventy five). The following were the detail results of students’ writing in the first cycle: The researcher needs to calculate the mean score firstly, to know the result of students’ writing. The mean score derived from the following formula: There was an improvement of students’ mean score from the students’ writing preliminary study in test 1 to the students’ writing on the second cycle in test 3. The improvement percentage derived from the formula: Based on the result of the students’ writing, there was better improvement of students’ mean score from the students’ writing in the preliminary study to the students’ writing in the second cycle. The mean score for the first test was 46,47 and the mean score of writing test 3 in the second cycle was . It means that there was % of mean score improvement. The students who passed the Minimum Mastery Criterion- Kriteria Ketuntasan Minimal (KKM) were 23 students or 67,70% into class percentage. It indicated that the first criterion of success has been achieved. The following was the table of students’ writing score in test 1 , test 2 and test 3. Meanwhile, field notes showed that there are some strength and the weaknesses in teaching learning activities in cycle 2. ENGLISH REVIEW: Journal of English Education ISSN 2301-7554 Vol. 1, Issue 1, December 2012 http://journal.uniku.ac.id/index.php/ERJEE Table 5. Classroom situation in class VIII-2 No Aspects observed Indicator Cycle 1 Cycle 2 1 The seriousness of students a. Students giving attention to the teacher a. Students giving attention to the teacher b. A few students who brought the material book b. Most of students brought the material book c. Student dare to ask the researcher about the material c. Student dare to ask the researcher about the material 2 The enthusiasm of students in doing a task a. Students tried to do their task by using various learning aids (dictionary and books) a. Students tried to do their task by using various learning aids (dictionary and books) b. Students have discussion with their friend in doing their task b. Students have discussion with their friend in doing their task c. Students give a suggestion to the teacher about the field trip activity 3 Students' participation a. Students participate in asking question but they didn't dare to give comment or suggestion a. Students participate in asking question, give a comment and suggestion b. Students help their friend to examine the material and the task b. Students help their friend to examine the material and the task c. Students help the researcher in preparing the material CONCLUSION This study is focused on improving students’ writing skill through field trip method at second grade in junior high school in Luragung. Field trip method can improve students' skills in writing in cycle 1 in several ways. In the first cycle the material is descriptive text. At the first meeting, I explain the material of descriptive text. I give some examples for the students. At the second meeting, I give some exercise to them. With this exercise, students can write the right paragraph. At the third meeting, I give a worksheet and ask all students go outside the classroom and find some data of object that they will describe. By involving students in the activity field trip, students will be able to see the objects they describe directly. A weakness of student in finding ideas in writing can be resolved by looking at the objects directly. The number of objects written in the student worksheet encourages students to search for the meaning of these words and their vocabulary knowledge increases. In the student worksheet also has rules to sort the objects characteristic of the most general to the particular, it is intended that students can make a well-organized paragraphs. Field trips can improve students' writing in a second cycle in several ways. The material in the second cycle is recount text. In writing recount text, students are asked to describe the events that happened in the past. At the first meeting I give the explanation to the students about recount text. I explain that in recount text we can tell something in past. At the second meeting, I give some exercises to the students. I do this to make students understand the differences of simple present in descriptive text and past tense in the recount text. Researcher invites students to participate in a field trip on Sunday by following some joint activities. It is intended for students to tell the field RISA MEIRANTI Improving Students' Writing Skills Through Field Trip Method trip activities that have been implemented. The implementation of field trip method in the second year of 8-2 class of SMP 1 Luragung in academic year 2015/2016 can be concluded that field trip can improve students’ writing ability. It can be proved from the improvement that could be seen from the increase of students’ mean writing score from 47 and 70,51 in the first cycle, to 73,24 in the second cycle. From the result of field notes show that field trip method makes students creative in finding the ideas, organize the text and can use better grammar. Students who had been afraid of learning at the first meeting looked more confident at the second cycle, it can be seen from the number of students who dared to ask about the material being taught. Different at the first cycle, students in the second cycle is more confident in working task of the students this was because they brought a dictionary and tried to do the work individually. Students’ participation in learning increased, they actively ask, answer questions from teachers and want to help their friend in doing the task. The result of questionnaire showed that students give positive responses to the implementation of field trip in the teaching learning process of writing. Moreover, field trip method would be method strategy in teaching writing. REFERENCES Anas, S. J. (2008). Pengantar statistik pendidikan. Jakarta: Raja Grafindo Persada. Asmani, J. M. (2010). Tips menjadi guru inspiratif, kreatif, dan inovatif. Yogyakarta: DIVA Press. Brown, H. D. (2001). Teaching by principles an interactive approach to language pedagogy. San Francisco: San Francisco State University. Fraenkel, J. R., and Norman, E. W. (2006). How to design and evaluate research in education. 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