The particular dialect or language that a person chooses to use on any occasion is called a code 2758 Copyright © 2024 The Author IDEAS is licensed under CC-BY-SA 4.0 License Issued by English study program of IAIN Palopo IDEAS Journal of Language Teaching and Learning, Linguistics and Literature ISSN 2338-4778 (Print) ISSN 2548-4192 (Online) Volume 13, Number 1, June 2025 pp. 2758 - 2765 Improving Students’ Skill in Writing Recount Text Using Storyboard at The Ninth Grade of Junior High School Putri Adilah1, Amalia Yahya2, Rusdiansyah3 1,2,3Faculty of Education and Teacher Training, Palopo State Islamic University Corresponding E-Mail: amalia_yahya@iainpalopo.ac.id Received: 2025-01-16 Accepted: 2025-06-30 DOI: 10.24256/ideas. v13i1.6173 Abstract This research attempted to determine the use of Story Board in teaching writing skills in recount text in the ninth grade of SMPN 7 Palopo. This study applied a pre-experimental method. The researcher gets the score on five aspects of writing skills, content, organization, vocabulary, grammar/language use, and mechanics, by using a pre-test and post-test test. The population of this research was the ninth-grade students at SMPN 7 Palopo. There were 19 students as the sample, which is by purposive sampling. This research showed that the mean score of students writing tests in the post-test was 73.21, which is higher than the pre-test score, 60.37. Then the value of tc(tcount)= 7.56 was higher than tt(ttable)= 2.064. It means the alternative hypothesis (H1) is accepted, and (H0) is rejected. It concludes that using a storyboard to improve students' writing skills in recounting text in the ninth grade of SMPN 7 Palopo was effective. Keywords: Story Board; Recount Text; Writing Skill; Teaching Writing. Introduction Most English teachers expand their students to master writing skills. This writing plays a crucial role as one of the scientific methods for students to articulate their thoughts and feelings (Patricia, Elizabeth, Clarie, 2004). Writing skills are specific abilities that help writers put their thoughts into words in a meaningful form and interact with the message mentally. The ideas in our minds can be realized in writing. People tell their stories through writing to share their experiences about something to be a lesson or motivation to the reader, and people also speak their mind about something through writing which they think others may want to know whether to give a review or to criticize it like article review and critics writing. Writing is considered a fairly good skill because it can trigger http://u.lipi.go.id/1457703302 mailto:amalia_yahya@iainpalopo.ac.id IDEAS, Vol. 13, No. 1, June 2025 ISSN 2338-4778 (Print) ISSN 2548-4192 (Online) 2759 students to improve their literacy skills by pouring ideas into writing that can be enjoyed by the readers (Andi Tenrisanna Syam, 2020) Several types of writing can be introduced to students, such as narrative, recount, descriptive, argumentative, expository, and so on. Each of the texts has its purpose and characteristics. The students as academic writers must know the text's organization and forms (Dewi Furwana and Andi Tenrisanna Syam, 2019). Recount text retells past events or experiences with an orientation, a series of events chronologically, personal remarks on the events, and a reorientation (British Course, 2023). Many factors cause students difficulties in writing, especially in writing recount text, such as lack of ideas, vocabulary, writing practice, grammar, understanding of the organizational structure of writing, and ineffective teaching methods. The teacher needs to build a writing habit that makes students feel comfortable as writers in English and so gain their willingness to participate in more creative or extended activities (Jeremy Harmer, 2004). Based on observation, students' writing ability in SMPN 7 Palopo is still underrated, especially in recount text. This can be seen in the lack of motivation, the process of generating ideas, grammatical features, and organization. Generally, Junior High School students still have difficulties generating ideas. The students also hesitate to write sentences in English. Then, in grammatical features, the students cannot use the grammar appropriately based on the text type. Some of them also still use inappropriate vocabulary and punctuation. In the organization and generic structure aspects, they still cannot apply it appropriately (Rita Susanti, 2023). So, finding a solution to be applied in the writing learning process is necessary to improve their writing ability. One of the solutions that we can apply to improve students' writing skills is using interesting teaching media. The existence of media is expected to support the learning process and make the material clearer and easier for the students to understand (Masruddin, 2018). Media have a positive effect and can change the students’ behavior to be creative and dynamic (Masruddin, 2015). In this study, the researcher would like to use storyboards as the media in teaching writing. If students are given a model of the story through pictures, developing their own slightly different version is easy because pictures can stimulate writing habit activities. Students can describe pictures, write descriptions of the pictures given, or tell the story through reconstruction activities where students have to build up a story from a set of those pictures (Miftahul Jannah, 2018) A storyboard is a sketch or a picture story that describes a story based on the pictures sequentially according to the occurrence (Ika Novita, 2020). Through the storyboard, students will be instructed to make a text recount based on the pictures that have been presented. Pictures help the students imagine a story by following the pictures on the storyboard, and they also help students find vocabulary0 and develop the ideas to compose a story when they have some Putri Adilah, Amalia Yahya, Rusdiansyah3 Improving Students’ Skill in Writing Recount Text Using Storyboard at The Ninth Grade of Junior High School 2760 vocabulary from the pictures listed. Method This research used a pre-experimental method. This research implemented a purposive sampling technique, that involved 19 students from class IX C of SMPN 7 Palopo. Since the researcher needed data and information, the instruments of this research were pre-test and post-test, then the pre-test and post-test were evaluated according to the writing assessment aspect namely; content, organization, vocabulary, language use/grammar, and mechanics. The researcher classified the students’ scores into the following categories to assess the quality of the students writing on the five aspects of writing (Depdiknas, 2005). Table 1 The Score for Test Classification Score Classification 87-100 Excellent 73-86 Very good 59-72 Good 45-58 Average 30-44 Poor <30 Very poor After classifying the students’ scores, the researcher used a formula that follows to determine the rate percentage of students’ scores (Riduwan, 2009) P = 𝐹 𝑁 X 100% Notes: P: The percentage F: Cumulative frequency of subjects N: The total number of samples. Results The results of the students’ pretest and posttest of the experimental group are indicated by the mean score and standard deviation. The analysis of the mean score meant to know if there was a difference between the student’s scores in the pretest and posttest of the experimental group. IDEAS, Vol. 13, No. 1, June 2025 ISSN 2338-4778 (Print) ISSN 2548-4192 (Online) 2761 Table 2 The Mean Score and Standard Deviation in the Pre-Test and Post-Test N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation Pre-test Post-test 19 19 34 45 75 94 60.37 73.21 14.86 13.69 Valid N (listwise) 19 Table 1 shows students' pre-test and post-test mean scores and standard deviations. The mean score of the pre-test was 60.37, and the mean score of the post-test was 73.21. Meanwhile, the pre-test standard deviation was 14.86, and the post-test standard deviation was 13.69. To determine whether the pre-test and post-test were significantly different and the acceptability of this research's hypothesis, the researcher used SPSS 22 to analyze a rate paired sample test of the pre-test. Table 3The rate of Paired Samples Test of Pre-Test and Post-Test Paired Differences T df Sig. (2 tailed ) Mean Std. Deviatio n Std. Error Mean 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lower uppe r Pair 1 Pre-Test & Post-Test -12.84 7.40 1.69 -16.41 -9.27 -7.56 18 .000 According to Table 4.28, the paired sample test illustrates the value of t₀ (t- count) was 7.56, with the df (degree of freedom) was 18, while the tt (t-table) for the standard of significance level 0.05 (5%) on df = 18 was 1.374. it means the value of the t-count is higher than the value of the t-table. Furthermore, table 4.28 shows the significance (2-tailed) value = 0.000, which means smaller than 0.05 (value for the standard of significance level). It is also related to the result that (t₀ >tt). It means the null hypothesis (H₀) was rejected, and the alternative hypothesis (H₁) was accepted. It can be concluded that there was a significant improvement in teaching writing recount text before and after using the storyboard. Putri Adilah, Amalia Yahya, Rusdiansyah3 Improving Students’ Skill in Writing Recount Text Using Storyboard at The Ninth Grade of Junior High School 2762 Discussion This study aims to determine the effectiveness of storyboards on students' writing skills of recounting text in the ninth grade of SMPN 7 Palopo. The researcher examined five aspects of writing. Content, organization, vocabulary, language use/grammar, and mechanics are those. There were 19 students as the respondents in this research. Before receiving the treatment, the students had some problems in learning to write, such as a lack of vocabulary, generating ideas, motivation, and using grammar appropriately based on the text type. The researcher then gave treatments containing three meetings for students, but before that, the researcher gave a pre-test to know students' speaking ability. In the treatments section, the researcher gave three topics for each treatment, then the material about the type of tenses that the students will use in writing recount text, and the researcher also gave some lists of vocabulary that contain each topic to the students. After the treatments, the researcher gave a post-test to know if there was an improvement in students' writing ability. The result of the data analysis showed that fluency had improved. The mean score of the students' pre-test was 60.37, the mean score of the students' post-test was 73.21, the standard deviation of the pre-test was 14.86, and the post-test was 13.69. Also, the t0(tcount)= 7.56 and df (degree of freedom) = 18. The Sig.(2-tailed) = .000, means the H₁was accepted and the H0was rejected. it proves that using a storyboard in teaching writing recount text can improve the students' writing skills. The storyboard could effectively improve students' writing skills because pictures help the students imagine a story by following the pictures on the storyboard. In this research, the researcher presented some events in the form of pictures on the storyboard. If students are given a model of the story through pictures, developing their own slightly different version is easy because pictures can stimulate writing habit activities (Ekarista Felix, 2018). The picture learning model makes it easier for students to understand the material because it stimulates students to think more creatively. Such learning is the expected learning. That is, the teacher acts as a facilitator while students must be able to build their knowledge (Maya Puspita Sari, 2021). Storyboarding is an appropriate teaching technique that can be implemented in the classroom. It can make students learn about recounting text easily and enjoyable. In the learning activity, the researcher explained to the students the function and structure of recount text through the pictures on the storyboard. They can easily learn about the social function and generic structure of recount text because storyboard gives them knowledge about certain topics based on the pictures (Jannah, Miftahul, 2018). The students also can easily construct and generate ideas for a story based on the picture series on the storyboard that had been given (Ekarista Felix, 2018). IDEAS, Vol. 13, No. 1, June 2025 ISSN 2338-4778 (Print) ISSN 2548-4192 (Online) 2763 On the other hand, the students could organize their stories well according to the generic structure of the recount text, which consisted of orientation, events, and reorientation. In this research, the students are presented with a series of pictures on the storyboard, that are arranged based on the generic structure of the recount text. If the students are given some pictures in chronological order, it makes their writing systematic from the beginning until the end (Laela Komala Susilawati, 2021). The picture series in the storyboard contains simple stories that the students in junior high school can easily understand. The students can easily write a good story by seeing the picture series on the storyboard and listening to the explanation, which contains simple stories that have been arranged based on the generic structure ( Reyvaldi and Khatimah, 2022). Besides, the students also could create better writing than before by using simple past tense because the picture series in the storyboard contains some vocabulary. This research contains one learning activity, where the researcher asked the students to change the verb 1 into verb 2 in correct forms and then develop it into a sentence. It can improve students' writing skills because vocabulary is an important aspect of writing. The more vocabulary the students know, the more they have the opportunity to create systematic and better writing (Khafidhoh and Carolina, 2019). Furthermore, storyboards can improve students' motivation by presenting attractive pictures in various materials. In this research, the researcher used animation images with bright colors and detailed activities to attract students’ attention visually. Pictures are utilized as communication media, and use of them is reasonable and necessary for visual literacy because they have the power to attract attention and arouse students’ interest (Wahibah, 2016). By seeing and understanding the interesting pictures on the board, the students will become interested and motivated to participate actively in the teaching-learning process (Devi and Gaffar, 2023). Lastly, the student's writing skills could improve by practicing using picture series in the storyboard. They could write a story with more detailed information based on the picture on the storyboard. They also could produce longer paragraphs with sufficient supporting details, such as the vocabulary in each picture, use word transition (conjunction), and use punctuation. The students could get the ideas and inspiration to write a recount text after seeing the picture on the storyboard and listening to the teacher's explanations (Ekarista Felix, 2018). Conclusion According to the research results, the researcher concludes that using a storyboard in teaching writing recount text effectively enhances students' writing skills in ninth grade at SMPN7Palopo. Storyboard can motivate students to think creatively and critically by visualizing the story they will write. The storyboard contains some pictures of activities, which can improve students' writing ability by Putri Adilah, Amalia Yahya, Rusdiansyah3 Improving Students’ Skill in Writing Recount Text Using Storyboard at The Ninth Grade of Junior High School 2764 leading their imagination with the pictures and then developing them into a paragraph. The students could write a story with more detailed information, make a longer paragraph with sufficient supporting details, and organize their story better from the beginning, middle, and end. The students could make sentences in the past tense better and learn more vocabulary and motivation. The result of the research presented that there are. There is a significant difference between the Pre-Test score and the Post-Test score. The students' mean score on the pre-test was 4.64, while the mean score on the post-test was 9.36. In conclusion, using a storyboard to teach writing skills by recounting text effectively improves students' writing ability. References Ar, N. A. E., & Syam, A. T. (2024). Increasing Students' Reading Skills Using Reading Box in Junior High School. IDEAS: Journal on English Language Teaching and Learning, Linguistics and Literature, 12(2), 1249-1260. Barkley, E. F., Cross, K. P. & Major, C. H. Collaborative Learning Technique. Jossey- Bass, 2005. Of course, British. "Definition, Purpose, Generic Structure, Language Features of Recount Text," 2018. http://britishcourse.com/recount-text-definition- purposes-generic-structures-language-features.php Depdiknas. Petunjuk Pelaksanaan Proses Belajar Mengajar Dan Petunjuk Pelaksanaan Sistem Penilaian. Jakarta: BNSP, 2005. Dietsch, Betty Mattix. "Reasoning and Writing Well: Fourth Edition," 2006. Furwana Dewi, Syam Andi Tenrisanna “Improving Students’ Writing Skill in Descriptive Text by Estafet Strategy of the Eleventh Year Students of SMAN 4 Palopo,” IDEAS, vol. 7, No. 1, 2019. Harmer, J. How to Teach Writing. Longman: Pearson Education Limited, 2004. Interviewed Dra. Rita Susanti, Difficulties in Teaching Writing at SMPN 7 Palopo, SMPN 7 Palopo, (August 22, 2023). Ismayanti, D., Said, Y. R., Usman, N., & Nur, M. I. (2024). The Students Ability in Translating Newspaper Headlines into English: A Case Study. IDEAS: Journal on English Language Teaching and Learning, Linguistics and Literature, 12(1), 108-131. Masruddin. “Using Movies in Teaching Writing (A Classroom Action Research).” Ethica Lingua Journal of Language Teaching and Literature 2 (2015). Masruddin. “Learning Style in Language Learning Classroom,” IDEAS, vol. 6, no. 2, 2018. Miftahul Jannah, “Improving Students’ Writing Ability Through Storyboard.” Jurnal Smart, (Lampung, 2018) Ika Novita, “Pengembangan Bahan Ajar Menulis Teks Cerpen Berdasarkan Teknik IDEAS, Vol. 13, No. 1, June 2025 ISSN 2338-4778 (Print) ISSN 2548-4192 (Online) 2765 Storyboard Pada Siswa Kelas XI SMA,” Diglosia: Jurnal Kajian Bahasa, Sastra, Dan Pengajarannya 3, no. 1 (2020). Ekarista Felix. "Improving Students' Writing Ability in Recount Text Through Picture Series." Knowledge E 1 (2018): Reyvaldy, Muhammad, and Khatimah Khusnul. "Improving Students' Writing Skills by Using Storyboardsat Junior High School." Borneo Student. Riduwan. Dasar-Dasar Statistika. Edited by Prana Dwija Iswara. Ed Rev. Bandung: Alfabeta, 2009. Susilawati, E. Laela Komala. “Improving Students’ Writing Skills in Recount Text Using Teaching Media Pictures and Learning Interests.” INFERENCE: Journal of English Language Teaching 4, no. 1 (2021) Syam, Andi Tenrisanna, “Developing Writing Module for the Fourth-Semester Learners of English Department at State Islamic Institute of Palopo,” IJELTAL, vol. 5, no. 1, 2020. Wahibah. “The Effectiveness of Using Pictured Story to Upgrade Students’ Vocabulary.” Ejournal IAIN Palopo 4 (2016).