This study is intended to understand teaching quality of English student teachers when they conduct their teaching practicum. Teaching quality is conceptualized based on the principles of effective teaching resulted by teacher effectiveness studies. Thes IRJE |Indonesian Research Journal in Education| |Vol. 6| No. 1|June|Year 2022| |E-ISSN: 2580-5711|https://online-journal.unja.ac.id/index.php/irje/index| 105 The Utilization of Flashcard to Enhance Students’ Writing Performance: An Action Research MUHAMMAD EKO SAPUTRO 1 , ULFA AMALIA 2 , AND JUHANSAR 3* Abstract The development of science and technology facilitates teachers to conduct their learning-teaching processes effectively. However, it does not mean that all conventional media are ineffective at all to be used in the learning-teaching processes. Therefore, this present research aimed to explore the utilization of flashcards as learning-teaching media to improve students' writing performance and to discover students' performance in writing English sentences through flashcards. This research applied action research, employing interviews, observation, and tests to collect qualitative and quantitative data. The qualitative data were analyzed using interpretations, while the quantitative data were analyzed using IBM SPSS version 24.0. The results of qualitative data showed that students were active, enthusiastic, diligent, brave, and motivated in writing English sentences using flashcards. Meanwhile, the quantitative data showed the mean score of the pre-test was 2,86; the post-test I was 3,14, and the post-test II was 3,89. The percentage was 10% from the pre-test to post-test I and 12% from the post-test I to the post-test II. It indicated that the scores and the mean in the post-test II were better than in the post-test I. It proved that using flashcards as a learning-teaching medium is sufficient to enhance students' performance in writing English sentences. This research recommends further research to discover the flashcard utilization in the learning-teaching processes at a different school or educational institution levels and conduct experimental research to seek the effectiveness of flashcards as a medium in English writing learning-teaching processes. Keywords English sentence, flashcard utilization, mix method action research, students’ performance, writing Article History Received: 20 March 2022 Accepted: 23 June 2022 How to Cite Saputro, M.E., Amalia, U., & Juhansar. (2022). The utilization of flashcard to enhance students’ writing performance: An action research. Indonesian Research Journal in Education |IRJE|, 6(1), 105–122. https://doi.org/10.22437/irje .v6i1.17528 1 Universitas Teknologi Yogyakarta, Yogyakarta, Indonesia; ekos92166@gmail.com Universitas 2 Universitas Teknologi Yogyakarta, Yogyakarta, Indonesia; ulfaamalia.psi@uty.ac.id *3Universitas Teknologi Yogyakarta, Yogyakarta, Indonesia; ulfaamalia.psi@uty.ac.id https://doi.org/10.22437/irje.v6i1.17528 https://doi.org/10.22437/irje.v6i1.17528 mailto:ekos92166@gmail.com mailto:ulfaamalia.psi@uty.ac.id mailto:ulfaamalia.psi@uty.ac.id IRJE |Indonesian Research Journal in Education| |Vol. 6| No. 1|June|Year 2022| |E-ISSN: 2580-5711|https://online-journal.unja.ac.id/index.php/irje/index| 106 Introduction In Indonesia, English becomes one of the main subject matters of the national curriculum that must be learned, including listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Writing is a sophisticated English skill to be mastered, among others. Writing has become a crucial issue (Mukminin, Ali, & Ashari, 2015), where the learners need to express their idea in a written form. It is an activity of communicating and developing the concept in a written way (Utami, Pabbajah, & Juhansar, 2018). Therefore, the concepts and ideas must be clear before writing. In English writing, students learn to arrange a proper order of words to be phrases, clauses, and sentences. It is considered an essential skill since it is not only an object of education but also a skill leading to professional development (Yuliarto, 2015). It is the most difficult skill for learners. Its complexity lies not only in inventing, expressing, and organizing ideas but also in translating or interpreting them into readable texts. Writing an English sentence will not be easy since students should understand its form. The form helps students analyze and place the word order correctly. Furthermore, the structure allows students to put a subject or verb in the sentence correctly. Every sentence has its form of word order. A sentence is a group of words that people use to communicate and explore their ideas. Every simple, complex, compound, and compound-complex sentence forms complete thoughts (Oshima & Hogue, 2007). A simple sentence is one independent clause that needs a subject and a verb to express a complete thought. Therefore, a better technique is needed to enhance the students' English sentence writing performance in the learning-teaching processes. The media used as the tool in the learning-teaching process aims to develop students' interest, attention, and confidence in exploring ideas. Eodice, Geller, and Lerner (2019) offered a writing project as an approach to developing students' performance in writing English. Writing project is meaningful when students can extend a personal connection, i.e., experiences or histories, social relationships, and subjects and topics for writing based on the teacher's description. Based on the preliminary research, most vocational high school students, where the researchers conducted this study, regarded that writing an English sentence such as a simple sentence was quite difficult since students lacked vocabulary, creativity, and grammar understanding (interview with MT, an English teacher). Meanwhile, students should explore ideas and imagination in writing a simple sentence. Lillge (2019) stated that to enhance student writing performance, English teachers should rely on professional literacy development to improve the quality of their writing instruction. Indeed, to stimulate and encourage students to explore ideas and imagination, the teacher should be more creative in delivering the subject. A teacher needs to use appropriate media in the learning-teaching process. Drawing and deepening characters, making mind mapping, and developing a shorter text (Nuraeni & Fadhly, 2017) and flashcards (Nuraeni & Fadhly, 2017) are interactive media to explore the students' imagination in English writing. As a medium in the learning-teaching process, a teacher uses a flashcard to stimulate the students' creativity (Senzaki, Hackathorn, Appleby, & Gurung, 2017). Besides, it also helps teachers in the learning-teaching process to improve their performance (Chien, 2015). IRJE |Indonesian Research Journal in Education| |Vol. 6| No. 1|June|Year 2022| |E-ISSN: 2580-5711|https://online-journal.unja.ac.id/index.php/irje/index| 107 Students can enhance their ideas and opinions through flashcards (Ngarofah & Sumarni, 2019). Students can analyze the picture or the word in the flashcard (Harisanty et al., 2020). It makes the class alive because the activity in the class is taken from the students’ opinions. Students are required to make a sentence by themselves. It makes students more active in classroom activities (Azhima, Meilanie, & Purwanto, 2021). This research aimed to explore the utilization of flashcards as a learning-teaching medium in the learning-teaching processes to enrich students' writing performance and to discover students' performance in writing English sentences through flashcards. Literature Review Writing English sentence Writing is a productive skill (Kempenaar & Murray, 2019). It is one of the four language skills; reading, listening, speaking, and writing. It focuses on how to produce language rather than receive it (Jackson, 2018). Therefore, it has several steps to take. Oshima and Hogue (2007) argued that writing is a continuous activity that is open with the result of thinking and what the writer will say. After finishing text writing, the writer should read the draft and make corrections. It is not a one-step action. Writing needs some processes of thinking. Students need to gather ideas to write a good story or text. Evans, Gruba, and Zobel (2014) stated that the task of writing a comprehensive document such as a thesis is a very different process from that of writing a shorter work. Therefore, several stages include brainstorming, making notes, planning, writing a draft, editing, producing another manuscript, and proofreading or editing again. Those stages can help students in the writing process. Besides, the one dominant theme in pedagogical research on writing is the nature of the composing process of writing (Evans, Howson, Forsythe, & Edwards, 2021). It means communicating through signs or symbols on paper. It needs to make a series of words or sentences in the writing process in the written language. It is one of the essential skills that students must develop because it is significant for the academic context, business, and the relationship with others in the world. Students are indeed required to develop this skill to express their idea in written form in the educational setting. Writing is an activity that explains one's idea in written form. It can be a sentence, a phrase, or a paragraph. Ardiasih, Emzir, and Rasyid (2018) mentioned that writing is a productive skill that a learner must master in learning a language. A learner also must be able to put his or her ideas into a writing product. Writing is a productive skill because its output is a product. It focuses on how to produce language rather than receive it. Therefore, there should be several steps to follow. Abbas and Herdi (2018) stated that writing is an activity of expressing, developing, and organizing ideas into a written form. It means that writing is never a one-step action. It is one of the productive skills that needs a process. This process asks a learner to write in sequence stages. The writing process is the stage that a writer goes through to produce something before coming to the final draft. A sentence is a set of words arranged and written in systematic and grammatical order to form meaning. According to Andersen (2014), there are four sentence categories: simple sentences, compound sentences, complex sentences, and compound-complex sentences. The IRJE |Indonesian Research Journal in Education| |Vol. 6| No. 1|June|Year 2022| |E-ISSN: 2580-5711|https://online-journal.unja.ac.id/index.php/irje/index| 108 first is a simple sentence. A simple sentence is a sentence that contains one independent clause. A simple sentence should be meaningful and have one subject and one predicate, for example, 1) Johnny rode his bike to school; 2) Where is your best friend?; 3) She loves her mother. The researchers use the type of sentence that best communicates the purpose of an idea (Andersen, 2014). Andersen (2014) also mentioned that using a simple sentence is when presenting a limited amount of information. Although a simple sentence may be shorter, it is not less academic than other sentence types. The second is a compound sentence. A compound sentence contains two independent clauses (Andersen, 2014). It means that a compound sentence is a long sentence with two phrases. Having an independent clause and forming meaning are the characteristics of a compound sentence. A compound sentence usually has coordinating conjunctions. Coordinating conjunction often links the two independent clauses preceded by a comma. The following examples are: 1) She wanted to go on vacation, so she waved up to her money; 2) I like apples, but my sister loves bananas; 3) Tio loves to read, and he also loves to hike. The third is a complex sentence. Its word order has one independent clause and one or more dependent clauses that include at least one subordinating conjunction (Andersen, 2014). In this type, one clause is the main clause. Therefore, every clause cannot be independent and always needs the other clause. A complex sentence includes at least one subordinating conjunction as the following examples: 1) She went to class even though she was sick; 2) As John was arriving to work, he realized that he had forgotten his lunch; and 3) While I enjoy classical music, I prefer rock and roll because I play the drums. The last is a compound-complex sentence that combines complex and compound sentence forms (Andersen, 2014). A compound-complex sentence contains one or more independent and dependent clauses that include at least one subordinating conjunction. The following are examples of the sentence. 1) Although he felt guilty for missing his friend's birthday, he took him out to have dinner the next day, and they had a great time. 2) She tries to eat healthy food, but because fast food is so convenient, she cannot maintain a healthy diet; and 3) If I got a job, I would have to commute 50 miles to work, so I decided the job was worth it (Andersen, 2014). Instructional media According to Clark (2008), the instructional media are the media used within the instructional design, determined by the actual content and instructional method requirements. Furthermore, Kirkwood and Price (2014) asserted that media are all aids that the teachers and learners may use to attain educational objectives. Moreover, they are used to improve the learning-teaching output. The instructional media provide concrete experiences and help students integrate prior experiences. Besides, Eady and Lockyer (2013) stated that instructional media use the power of pictures, words, and voices to get students' attention, help them understand ideas by acquiring information, and help them solve the limitation of time, size, and space. A teacher uses instructional media in the learning-teaching process to help the students integrate their prior knowledge or experiences so that the learning-teaching process can be successful. IRJE |Indonesian Research Journal in Education| |Vol. 6| No. 1|June|Year 2022| |E-ISSN: 2580-5711|https://online-journal.unja.ac.id/index.php/irje/index| 109 Many kinds of instructional media can be used in the learning-teaching of English. Those instructional media are divided into three types: audio-visual, visual, and audio aids (Bahar & Soegiarto, 2020; Dewi & Kareviati, 2021; Omenge & Priscah, 2016; Sukmahidayanti, 2015; Syahril, Nabawi, & Prasetya, 2020). The visual aids are in the forms of real objects, boards, models, miniatures, puppets, clocks, time boards, pictures, photos, wall charts, flannel boards, flashcards, posters, and slides (Dewi & Kareviati, 2021). Audio aids could be radio and tape recorders; meanwhile, audio-visual aids such as television, video, and PowerPoint (Baker, Goodboy, Bowman, & Wright, 2018; Gao, 2020; Knight, Paroutis, & Heracleous, 2018). Flashcard Flashcard is a teaching medium implemented in the learning-teaching process, such as writing (Harisanty et al., 2020). It is the most widely used teaching medium in the language classroom. It may contain a word, a sentence, or a simple picture. Herlina and Dewi (2017) mentioned that using a flashcard as a graphic medium promotes the sense of sight. This medium presents visual symbols, numbers, and ideas by word and image. A flashcard is a medium to help the teacher and students in the learning-teaching process to improve students' performance in writing English sentences. Flashcard is also a simple form of a visual aid, which is a picture or word on a card. There are at least two flashcard types, i.e., picture card and sentence card. The first card is a picture card. Picture cards are beneficial for learning-teaching writing and enhance students' writing skills (Tiara, 2020). These picture cards can be drawings or cut-outs from magazines or perhaps photos or any other picture cards of a teacher's creativity. It is easiest to sort these picture cards — the size is based on the classwork, the smaller ones for individual or group work. The second card is a sentence card. There is a word or a sentence in the flashcard that is familiar to students. The sentence should have meaning, for example, "phone." The teacher chooses one of the students to share ideas after the students see the flashcard. Finally, a teacher asks the students to write a simple sentence with his word. It can be used as a group or as an individual work. Methodology Research design, site, and participants Research designs are inquiries within qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-method approaches that provide specific research design procedures (Creswell, 2009). This research applied action research (Ivankova & Wingo, 2018). This action research used both qualitative and quantitative data to achieve the research objectives or to answer research questions. The first research objective was achieved using qualitative data, and the second was achieved using quantitative data. Furthermore, in this research, the researchers acted as teachers and observers in the classroom during the learning-teaching process by using flashcards at Vocational High School 1 Pleret Yogyakarta. The research participants were 30 tenth-grade students of TKJ B and two English teachers. IRJE |Indonesian Research Journal in Education| |Vol. 6| No. 1|June|Year 2022| |E-ISSN: 2580-5711|https://online-journal.unja.ac.id/index.php/irje/index| 110 Research procedures Research procedure describes the process involved in collecting and conducting a topic for research investigation (ten Have, 2011). It means that a research procedure guides the process of collecting data and conducting research. The researchers used a pre-test before utilizing a flashcard in the learning-teaching process. In the pre-test, the researchers asked the students to write ten simple sentences in English on "holiday" to know the students' understanding of the materials. In implementing flashcards as a medium in the learning-teaching process by using mixed methods of action research, there were four steps in every cycle, i.e., planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. In planning activities, the researchers did some activities such as making lesson plans based on the interview, observation, and pre-test data; preparing the test to measure the result of the study; doing a simulation and examining the action in the class, and students should be involved actively in the learning-teaching process. In acting activities, the researchers asked students to show and learn the flashcards from the researchers. The researchers asked the student to make some sentences in English from the picture and the word in the flashcard. Then, researchers asked the students to ensure that the sentences were simple. The researchers conducted the acting in two cycles. Cycle one had two meetings. In meeting one, the researchers explained making a simple sentence in English using a flashcard as a medium in a group. In meeting two, the researchers corrected the result of students' group works in writing a simple sentence in English. It was to ensure the students' understanding of the material. Then, the researchers conducted post-test I in cycle 1. After doing cycle 1, the researchers did feedback and innovation. In this phase, the researchers took the feedback on the learning-teaching process by implementing a flashcard as a medium. From this feedback, the researchers got the new problems of the students' difficulty in implementing flashcards as a medium in the learning-teaching processes. The challenges found were then analyzed. Based on the analysis results, the researchers made innovations. The innovation was the implementation of a flashcard as a medium in the learning-teaching processes from group work to individual work. The change indeed made the classroom more conducive. It helped students to understand the materials to improve their writing performance. Based on cycle 1, cycle two should have a better effect than cycle 1. This cycle has a similar action to cycle 1. However, the researchers hoped that in cycle 2, there was improvement and betterment in this cycle as it was the last cycle at all. Furthermore, the researchers also ensured that the feedback and innovation from cycle 1 succeeded in getting the best result in cycle 2. Cycle 2 consisted of two meetings. In the first meeting, the researchers asked students to explain their difficulties related to post-test I. After that, the researcher gave more explanations to students about the materials learned by using flashcards as a medium in the learning-teaching process. In the second meeting, the researchers reviewed the students' understanding of the subject matter based on individual work by using a flashcard as a medium for writing a simple sentence in English. If the post-test I result was unsuccessful, the researchers conducted the post-test II. IRJE |Indonesian Research Journal in Education| |Vol. 6| No. 1|June|Year 2022| |E-ISSN: 2580-5711|https://online-journal.unja.ac.id/index.php/irje/index| 111 In the observing activity, the researchers observed the processes that occurred during the learning-teaching process. It focused on improving students' performance in writing an English sentence using a flashcard. It was a way of finding more information about the students' and teachers' activities toward implementing flashcards as a medium, including the factors improving students' performance in writing English sentences. The last step was reflecting. The reflection was conducted to know the result of every cycle. In this research, the reflection was after analyzing the data of students' test results and implementing flashcards as a medium in the learning-teaching process. It could also guide the researchers to know the weakness in the previous cycles. Then, the researchers made feedback and innovation to improve students' performance in writing English sentences using flashcards. Research instruments and data collecting techniques The researchers used observation and interviews to find qualitative data. Observation and interviews were conducted to find preliminary data on student-teacher perspectives in English writing learning-teaching. The observation was conducted in the classroom during the learning-teaching processes, while interviews with students and teachers were conducted before and after the learning-teaching processes. Furthermore, tests (pre-test, post-tests I, and II) were used to get quantitative data. The purpose of using observation and interview was to see the condition of the classroom atmosphere during the implementation of flashcards as a medium in the learning-teaching processes and to know the responses (students' problems, i.e., preliminary research) of the participants (students and English teachers) related to its implementation. Meanwhile, the pre-test and post-test I and II aimed to discover the students' performance in writing a simple sentence of English utilizing a flashcard. Data analysis techniques Before analyzing qualitative data, the researchers first classified, displayed, coded, and verified data to make interpretations easier. Qualitative data interpretation was conducted based on the relevant theories mentioned in the literature review. Meanwhile, to analyze the quantitative data, the researchers used IBM SPSS 24.0 by calculating the mean of writing aspects and the mean of improvement percentage by using scoring rubric criteria that consisted of some English writing aspects: grammar, vocabulary, and creativity. There were five criteria used to decide the students' means. They were excellent (5), good (4), average (3), poor (2), and very poor (1). Findings Flashcard utilization in the learning-teaching process Pre-Cycle and Problems Identification 1, the results of the interview, observation, and pre-test in the preliminary research showed some students’ problems in writing English IRJE |Indonesian Research Journal in Education| |Vol. 6| No. 1|June|Year 2022| |E-ISSN: 2580-5711|https://online-journal.unja.ac.id/index.php/irje/index| 112 sentences. Those problems are explored in the following data as the sample, starting from English teacher perspectives to students’ perspectives: ―Students often find difficulties exploring their ideas and imagination in writing English sentences. Students also lack vocabulary, word organization, creativity, grammar patterns, understanding, and misunderstanding about the meaning.‖ [ET] ―Teacher just explains the material and gives assignments to students by using a handbook. Thus, students could not understand the content clearly.‖ [ES] Interview data showed that besides students having difficulties writing English sentences, English teachers also had less creativity and innovation to solve students’ problems in the learning-teaching processes. To support the above interview data, the researchers explore the following preliminary observation, and pre-test data that support previous data related to students' problems in writing English sentences as following table 1 and table 2: Table 1. The results of observation No. Observed items Pre-cycle 1 2 3 4 1 The teacher comes on time √ 2 Teacher’s performance in opening class √ 3 A teacher explains the assignment clearly. √ 4 Teacher’s performance in organizing the class √ 5 The teacher gives a task to the students. √ 6 Students respond to the explanation of the teacher. √ 7 The students ask a question to the teacher if there is something unclear. √ 8 Students follow the rule of the teacher. √ 9 Teacher’s performance in closing the class √ Note: Give (√) in each column, where 4 (very good), 3 (good), 2 (enough), and 1 (poor) The observation results showed teachers' and students' enthusiasm in the learning-teaching processes with no significant problems. To support the interview and observation data above, the researchers explored the following pre-test data: Table 2. Students’ pre-test score No. Students ID Grammar (G) Vocabulary (V) Creativity (C) Total Score Mean 1 A D R 3 3 3 9 3 2 AA 2 2 3 7 2,3 3 A D I 3 2 4 9 3 4 AF 3 3 3 9 3 IRJE |Indonesian Research Journal in Education| |Vol. 6| No. 1|June|Year 2022| |E-ISSN: 2580-5711|https://online-journal.unja.ac.id/index.php/irje/index| 113 No. Students ID Grammar (G) Vocabulary (V) Creativity (C) Total Score Mean 5 D E S 3 2 3 8 2,6 6 D R A 3 2 3 8 2,6 7 F AM 2 1 4 7 2,3 8 FS 2 3 2 7 2,3 9 F H 2 3 2 7 2,3 10 H A 3 4 4 11 3,6 11 H N J S 3 2 2 7 2,3 12 I W H 2 3 3 8 2,6 13 IS Z 1 3 4 8 2,6 14 M H R 3 3 4 10 3,3 15 M B F N 2 1 2 5 1,6 16 M M F 3 2 4 9 3 17 M Z A 3 2 3 8 2,6 18 N I R 3 3 4 10 3,3 19 R P 2 3 4 9 3 20 R T A 3 2 4 9 3 21 R OF 3 4 4 11 3,6 22 R KA 2 2 3 7 2,3 23 R A 3 3 4 10 3,3 24 S H 2 3 3 8 2,6 25 S T H 4 2 4 10 3,3 26 T F Z 2 4 3 9 3 27 V HP 4 2 4 10 3,3 28 W E S 2 3 3 8 2,6 29 W I M 3 3 4 10 3,3 30 Y H N 2 4 4 10 3,3 Total 78 79 101 Overall Mean = 2,86 Mean 2,60 2,63 3,36 According to interviews, observation, and pre-test data, students' problems became a preliminary understanding for the researchers to identify the English writing issues encountered by students in the learning-teaching processes before implementing flashcards as a learning-teaching media. The data above show some students' problems, i.e., less creativity in the learning-teaching process, lack of grammar understanding, and lack of vocabulary understanding. Cycle 1: The utilization of flashcard in the learning-teaching process In this cycle, the researchers had three meetings. Two-first meetings were for learning-teaching a simple sentence using a flashcard, and one session was for conducting the post-test 1 to examine students' pre-understanding of writing simple English sentences. Cycle 1 steps were planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. The first is planning; in this step, there were some preparations for the researchers. They were the appropriate learning-teaching materials related to the syllabus. Another development was standard preparation, which would IRJE |Indonesian Research Journal in Education| |Vol. 6| No. 1|June|Year 2022| |E-ISSN: 2580-5711|https://online-journal.unja.ac.id/index.php/irje/index| 114 be applied in the learning-teaching process. The researchers took writing simple English sentences as the material and flashcards as a medium in the learning-teaching. To make it clear, the researchers designed a lesson plan. When the preparations were ready, the researchers asked the English teacher to ensure that the flashcard could be applied in the learning-teaching process. The researchers also prepared the research instruments to collect the data in this phase. The second is acting; in the acting phase, the researchers served as what was planned in the lesson plan, which consisted of two meetings. In every session, the researchers did some activities to apply the flashcard as the medium in learning-teaching to write simple English sentences. The researchers divided the acting into two sections to ensure the acting, i.e., the two-first meeting and the one-second meeting section. In the two-first meeting, one of the researchers acted as a teacher who explained the materials using a flashcard. This section was organized into pre-activity, main activity, and post-activity. In the pre-activity, the researchers began the learning-teaching process by greeting the students. After greeting, the researchers asked students to pray together based on their religious beliefs. In the main activity, the researchers asked the students to explain their understanding of the simple sentence and then told them about it. Furthermore, the researchers applied flashcards as the medium in the learning-teaching process. After explaining the materials and using a flashcard, the researcher asked students to make groups of 4 students in every group. In this activity, the researchers gave a packet of flashcards to every group. Every package has a different topic. There are some parts of the flashcard and an assignment for every member in the pack. The researchers then asked every member to make some simple sentences using the topic in the flashcard. The assignment was submitted to the researchers at the end of the learning-teaching process. In the post-activity, the researcher ended the learning-teaching process by evaluating the learning-teaching process. The purposes of the evaluation were to know the students' understanding of the material and the students' difficulty related to using flashcards as a medium in writing simple English sentences. The researchers asked students to prepare the post-test I, conducted in the next meeting. In the one-second meeting, one of the researchers acted as a teacher by explaining a simple sentence as a type of English sentence. After giving a theory on the subject matter, the researcher, again, used a flashcard as a medium in the learning-teaching process. The activities in the second meeting were similar to the first meeting, only different in a particular case. The difference was in the assignment of post-test I in cycle 1. As the sections did in the first meeting, the second meeting consisted of three activities. The activities are pre-activities, main activities, and post-activities. However, in this meeting, the researchers were not going to explore them one by one since they were almost similar to the first meeting. The researchers only would like to explore the different actions. The difference action was just about the students' assignment in the post-test I in cycle 1. After planning and acting, the researchers did the third step, namely observation, using the observation checklist, which was prepared before. In this phase, the English teacher helped researchers. According to the observation results, by using flashcards as a medium in learning-teaching writing about simple sentences, the class could also be active, but some students have difficulty in the learning-teaching process. Therefore, the researchers needed to do feedback and innovation. The fourth step, conducted in cycle 1, was reflecting. In this cycle, IRJE |Indonesian Research Journal in Education| |Vol. 6| No. 1|June|Year 2022| |E-ISSN: 2580-5711|https://online-journal.unja.ac.id/index.php/irje/index| 115 the researchers evaluated the learning-teaching process at the end of the meeting of the first cycle. The researchers found that some students had difficulties and problems understanding the subject matter. The evaluation results of the two meetings became the primary consideration for the researchers to do cycle two in this research, even though there was an improvement in students' performance in writing English sentences. Problem solving In this phase, the researchers did feedback on the learning-teaching process based on the implementation of flashcards as a medium in the learning-teaching process result in the first cycle. The first cycle results showed students' understanding improvement of English sentence writing. Some students still have problems with it, such as a lack of vocabulary knowledge and understanding of grammar patterns. The researchers implemented a flashcard as a medium in the second cycle to get a better result and solve the issues. From this cycle, the researchers found some students got difficulties exploring their idea because their group was noisy. Therefore, in cycle 2, the researchers changed the flashcard implementation from group work to individual work. The researchers believed this innovation could help students increase their vocabulary and grammar pattern understanding. Problem Identification 2, related to post-test 1, the researchers identified the implementation of flashcards as a medium in the learning-teaching process. The students' challenge was that some students still lacked vocabulary knowledge, and some even got difficulty with the grammar that students used to make a simple sentence in English. Related to the problem above, the researchers applied the flashcard as a medium in the second cycle to improve the students' performance in the second cycle. The researchers made innovations by changing how flashcards were implemented as a medium from group work to individual work. Then, in the end, the researchers gave a post-test 2 to discover the improvement of students' writing performance. Cycle 2: The utilization of flashcard in the learning-teaching process Based on the implementation results of flashcards as a medium in the learning-teaching process in cycle 1, the researchers applied some innovations by revising the planning to improve the student's performance in writing simple sentences in English. Since this research design was classroom action research, the researchers did four steps in implementing flashcards as a medium in the learning-teaching process. The steps were similar to the first cycle. The steps are re-planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. The first is the re-planning step; in this step, the researchers changed students' assignments from group work to individual work to get a student responsible more for his work. The second is performing the step. In acting action, the researchers asked students' problems in doing post-test I. Students found difficulties understanding grammar patterns, word organization, and vocabulary understanding. The researchers grouped the activities into three kinds to organize the implementation, i.e., pre-activity, main activity, and post-activity. In the pre-activity, the researchers began the learning-teaching by greeting students. After greeting, the researchers asked students to pray based on their religious beliefs, then IRJE |Indonesian Research Journal in Education| |Vol. 6| No. 1|June|Year 2022| |E-ISSN: 2580-5711|https://online-journal.unja.ac.id/index.php/irje/index| 116 checked the students' attendance. The researchers asked students to express their understanding of a simple sentence in the main activity. To ensure students' knowledge, the researchers re-explain the subject matter and then apply flashcards as a medium in the learning-teaching process. In the implementation, the researchers gave a flashcard to each student. Based on the flashcard taken, the researchers asked students to analyze the picture and the word in the flashcard and then make ten simple sentences in English based on the flashcard they got. In the post-activity, the researchers ended the class by doing the evaluation. The assessment purposes were to know the students' understanding of the material and to know the students' difficulties in the learning-teaching. The researchers asked students to prepare everything for the post-test II in the next meeting to end the learning-teaching process. At the last meeting in cycle 2, the researchers, again, tested students' understanding of the subject matter. If there was no problem, the researchers conducted the planned activities. The activities were the same as the previous activities, i.e., pre-activity, main activity, and post-activity. In this part, the researchers would not explain the actions one by one since they were almost similar to the activities mentioned previously in each meeting. The researchers would only like to explore the innovative activities conducted in the main action. The activities were of emphasized students' understanding of the subject matter. Besides, the other main activity in this meeting was to solve students' difficulties in post-test I in cycle 2. Students' difficulties are solved together between researchers and students. If there was no problem, the researchers gave post-test II to measure students' understanding of English sentence writing after implementing flashcards as a learning-teaching medium. The third step is observing. Observation in cycle 2 showed that students were more active and enthusiastic in the learning-teaching process by properly responding to the researchers. Furthermore, students did post-test II with high confidence to get the best results. This result is proved by increasing the students' mean scores from the pre-test to the post-test I and the post-test II, as mentioned in the next part. Their responses were also confirmed when the researchers asked them to explain what researchers asked in the classroom. Most, if not all, students raised their hands to answer. The fourth step is reflecting. In this step, the researchers evaluated and revealed the results of the post-test II. The results of the post-test II showed a better improvement in students' performance in writing a simple sentence in English using flashcards as a medium in the learning-teaching process. The researchers considered that the cycle could be stopped because the students had already gotten better results. Implementing flashcards as a medium in the learning-teaching process of writing a simple sentence in English helped students explore their idea and imagination to write an excellent and correct simple sentence in English with fewer grammar and vocabulary mistakes. Problem solving The result of the post-test II showed that the problems faced by students have already been solved. It means that flashcards as a medium used in the learning-teaching improved students' performance in writing a simple sentence in English. It showed that the classes ran effectively as the researchers wished during the flashcard implementation. Students seemed more active and enthusiastic in learning the subject matter. Students' difficulties understanding IRJE |Indonesian Research Journal in Education| |Vol. 6| No. 1|June|Year 2022| |E-ISSN: 2580-5711|https://online-journal.unja.ac.id/index.php/irje/index| 117 a simple sentence in the first meeting have already been solved. It indicated that the students were familiar with the medium used. Indeed, students said that it was easy to understand the subject matter and to explore and express their idea and imagination using the chosen technique or medium in the learning-teaching process. Besides, the English teacher also agreed that the medium used was suitable for students' performance in writing an English sentence. After using flashcards in the English writing learning-teaching process, the following table shows students’ English writing performance in the pre-test, the post-test I, and the post-test II. Table 3. Students’ tests scores and means No Students ID Pre-Test Post-Test I Post-Test II Total Score Mean G V C G V C G V C 1 A D R 3 3 3 3 3 4 3 5 4 31 3,44 2 A A 2 2 3 4 4 3 3 3 4 28 3,11 3 A D I 3 2 4 3 3 3 3 4 4 29 3,22 4 A F 3 3 3 3 3 4 4 3 4 30 3,33 5 D E S 3 2 3 3 3 3 4 5 4 30 3,33 6 D R A 3 2 3 4 3 4 3 4 4 30 3,33 7 F AM 2 1 4 2 4 3 4 4 4 28 3,11 8 FS 2 3 2 3 2 3 4 3 4 26 2,89 9 F H 2 3 2 2 3 4 4 3 3 26 2,89 10 H A 3 4 4 4 3 3 3 4 4 32 3,56 11 H N J S 3 2 2 4 4 4 4 3 5 31 3,44 12 I W H 2 3 3 2 3 3 5 5 4 30 3,33 13 IS Z 1 3 4 3 3 3 3 5 4 29 3,22 14 M H R 3 3 4 3 3 3 3 3 4 29 3,22 15 M B F N 2 1 2 3 3 3 5 4 4 27 3,00 16 M M F 3 2 4 3 2 4 3 4 4 29 3,22 17 M Z A 3 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 4 27 3,00 18 N I R 3 3 4 2 3 3 4 4 4 30 3,33 19 R P 2 3 4 3 2 4 5 3 5 31 3,44 20 R T A 3 2 4 3 4 3 3 5 4 31 3,44 21 R OF 3 4 4 2 2 3 5 3 4 30 3,33 22 R KA 2 2 3 3 3 4 3 4 5 29 3,22 23 R A 3 3 4 3 4 4 4 3 4 32 3,56 24 S H 2 3 3 4 3 3 3 4 4 29 3,22 25 S T H 4 2 4 3 2 3 5 3 4 30 3,33 26 T F Z 2 4 3 3 3 4 5 3 5 32 3,56 27 V HP 4 2 4 3 3 3 5 5 4 33 3,67 28 W E S 2 3 3 3 4 3 4 3 3 28 3,11 29 W I M 3 3 4 4 3 3 4 4 4 32 3,56 30 Y H N 2 4 4 3 3 4 4 5 4 33 3,67 Total Score 78 79 101 91 91 101 115 114 122 Total Score 892 Mean 2,60 2,63 3,36 3,03 3,03 3,36 3,83 3,80 4,0 6 IRJE |Indonesian Research Journal in Education| |Vol. 6| No. 1|June|Year 2022| |E-ISSN: 2580-5711|https://online-journal.unja.ac.id/index.php/irje/index| 118 The tables above show that students’ performance in writing English sentences before implementing flashcards as a learning-teaching medium was lower than in the post-test I and the post-test II. The post-test I and II were the tests given to students after implementing flashcards as a medium in the learning-teaching process. Discussion The utilization of flashcards in the English writing learning-teaching process indicates students' scores and means for grammar aspect; in the pre-test, students scored 78 with a mean of 2,60; the post-test I score was 91 with a mean of 3,03, and the post-test II score was 115 with a mean of 3,83. For the vocabulary aspect in the pre-test, students scored 79 with a mean of 2, 63; the post-test I score was 91 with a mean of 3,03, and the post-test II score was 114 with a mean of 3,80. For the creativity aspect in the pre-test, students scored 101 with a mean of 3,36; the post-test I score was 101 with a mean of 3,36, and the post-test II score was 122 with a mean of 4,06. English writing aspects show that students have good performance in the creativity of writing a simple sentence in English, followed by the grammar aspect and vocabulary aspect. It is in line with studies conducted by Azhima et al., (2021); Chen & Chan, (2019); Nuryani & Fadloeli, (2021); Sun et al., (2021); Wen et al., (2020). Indeed, the student's performance in writing a simple sentence in English based on the result of post-test II (3, 89) is considered above average or almost good. IBM SPSS 24,0 analysis shows that the improvement percentage of student scores from the pre-test to the post-test I and II in cycle 1 and the cycle 2 was outstanding. The mean score and percentage improvement in every test. Students' mean from the pre-test (2, 86), the post-test I (3,14), and the post-test II (3,89) increased significantly. The percentage of the students' performance improvement in writing a simple sentence in English from the pre-test to the post-test I increased by 10% and 12% improvement from the post-test I to the post-test II. It is in line with several studies that show students' performance in using flashcards in the learning-teaching process (Khairunnisa, Riyadi, & Mahfud, 2018; Kusumawardhani, 2020; Musyaffa, 2020; Rahman & Haryanto, 2014). In short, implementing a flashcard as a medium in the learning-teaching process could improve the students' performance in writing simple English sentences. The results of this study support the statement of Habsari (2014) that flashcard is used to stimulate the students' imaginations in all grades and ages. Pictures can work to describe an object which is shown. Indeed, flashcards could solve students' problems understanding the subject matter and help English teachers deliver the material efficiently and effectively. Conclusion and Recommendations This research concludes that using flashcards as a medium in the learning-teaching process toward students' performance in writing a simple sentence in English is recommended. Flashcards help vocational high school students of the Computer Network Engineering Department improve their performance in writing a simple sentence in English by exploring their idea and imagination and help the teacher teach English writing efficiently and effectively. Through the utilization of flashcards in the learning-teaching process, students are active, enthusiastic, diligent, brave, and motivated to learn. Meanwhile, students' scores and IRJE |Indonesian Research Journal in Education| |Vol. 6| No. 1|June|Year 2022| |E-ISSN: 2580-5711|https://online-journal.unja.ac.id/index.php/irje/index| 119 means in cycle 2 are better than in Cycle 1. The improvement percentages are 10% from the pre-test to the post-test I and 12% from the post-test I to the post-test II. Student’s difficulties in writing English sentences, such as less grammar and creativity, including word order understanding and lack of vocabulary knowledge, could be solved by using flashcards as a medium in the learning-teaching process. This research is limited to using flashcards in the learning-teaching process at the vocational high school level. Therefore, the current researchers recommend further research to discover flashcard utilization in the learning-teaching process at a different school or educational institution levels and conduct experimental research to seek the effectiveness of flashcards as a medium in the English writing learning-teaching process. Disclosure Statement The authors of this article declare no potential conflict of interest in this research. Acknowledgment The researchers highly appreciate all respondents' participation and cooperation while writing this article. 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Biographical Notes MUHAMMAD EKO SAPUTRO is an alumnus of English Language Education Department, Faculty of Business & Humanities, Universitas Teknologi Yogyakarta, Indonesia. ULFA AMALIA is a lecturer and a head of Guidance and Counseling Department, Faculty of Business & Humanities, Universitas Teknologi Yogyakarta, Indonesia. JUHANSAR is a lecturer and a secretary of English Language Education Department, Faculty of Business & Humanities, Universitas Teknologi Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Corresponding Author: juhansar@uty.ac.id mailto:juhansar@uty.ac.id