Journal of Languages and Language Teaching, Vol. 4 No.2, November 2016 67 THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TEAM ASSISTED INDIVIDUALIZATION (TAI) TOWARDS STUDENTS’ WRITING Erni Susilawati SMP Negeri 4 Praya Barat, Lombok Tengah, NTB Susi331@gmail.com Abstract This research was aimed to find out The Effectiveness of Team Assisted Individualization (TAI) is effective towards students’ writing. The research was quasi experimental research and the design that used was the pre-test and post-test design. The population of the study was the second grade students of SMPN 4 Praya Barat which consisted of two classes. Those classes were took as the samples, those were VIIIC as experimental class and VIIIA as control class. Experimental class was treated by using Team Assisted Individualizati0n (TAI) and control class was treated by using Roundtable technique. The instrument that was used essay test, the topic was about descriptive text. The score were analyzed by using descriptive and inferential analysis, descriptive analysis was used to describe mean, median, mode and standard deviation both of group, and the inferential analysis was used describe the value of t-test for comparison between t-table. Based on the analysis, it shows that the value of (t-test) was 2,95 is higher than the value of (t-table) was 1,688 as the level of significance level was 0,05 and the number of degree of freedom (df) was 36. Therefore, based on the result of the analysis, it be concluded that Team Assisted Individualization (TAI) was effective toward students’ writing. The results of this research showed that Team Assisted Individualization (TAI) was compatible in writing because the technique given many advantages, the students’ feel comfortable to learn in group and they were argued that Team Assisted Individualization (TAI) make the teaching learning process more interesting since they can ask and can be peer tutoring for their friends. Finally, the researcher suggests that in teaching writing the teacher should be creative in preparing and delivering writing materials. Key Words : Team Assisted Individualization (TAI) and Writing Abstrak Penelitian ini umumnya bertujuan untuk menemukan keefektifitas dari Team Assisted Individualization (TAI) apakah efektif terhadap kemampuan menulis siswa. Penelitian ini menggunakan kuasi eksperimental dan desainnya menggunakan pre-test dan post-test desain. Populasi dari penelitian ini dari kelas dua di SMPN 4 Praya yang terdiri dari dua kelas. Kelas tersebut digunakan sebagai sampel, kelas tersebut adalah VIIIC sebagai eksperimental kelas dan VIIIA sebagai kelas kontrol. Eksperimental kelas dengan menggunakan Team Assisted Individualization (TAI) dan kontrol kelas menggunakan Roundtable tehnik. Test yang digunakan adalah tes esai, topiknya tentang deskriptif teks. Nilainya dianalisis menggunakan deskriptif dan inferensial analisis, deskriptif analisis digunakan untuk menjelaskan mean, median, modus dan standar deviasi dari masing- masing kelas, dan inferential analisis digunakan untuk menjelaskan nilai dari t-testnya untuk dibandingkan dengan t-tabel. Berdasarkan analisis, nilai dari (t-test) 2.95 lebih besar dari nilai (t-tabel) 1.688 dengan signifikan level 0.05 dan nomor derajat kebebasannya (df) 36. Oleh karena itu, berdasarkan hasil dari analisis, dapat disimpulkan bahwa Team Assisted Individualization (TAI) effektif terhadap kemampuan menulis siswa. Hasil dari penelitian ini menunjukan bahwa Team Assisted Individualization (TAI) cocok dalam menulis karena tehnik ini memberikan banyak manfaat, siswanya merasa nyaman dalam belajar kelompok dan mereka merasa bahwa Team Assisted Individualization (TAI) membuat proses belajar mengajar lebih menarik karena mereka dapat bertanya dan bisa menjadi guru pribadi untuk teman mereka. Akhirnya, peneliti menyarankan didalam mengajar menulis gurunya harus kreatif dalam mempersiapkan dan menyampaikan materi tentang menulis. Kata Kunci : Team Assisted Individualization (TAI) dan Menulis Journal of Languages and Language Teaching, Vol. 4 No.2, November 2016 68 INTRODUCTION Writing is productive skill which needs proper handling of the mechanics involved in it like spelling and punctuation. According to Murray & Sarah (2004: 46) state that writing is very creative process-all the more so as you target your writing at increasingly exacting audiences. It has been remarked that writing is the most difficult of the language abilities to learn. In teaching writing sometimes the students felt difficult to follow the writing materials which have been delivered by the teacher. As same as the students, sometimes, the teacher also felt difficult in delivering the materials because of the complex organization in writing skill. Heaton (1989: 135) state writing skill is complex and sometimes difficult to teach. Therefore, the teacher should be creative in preparing and giving writing materials to students. In giving materials, it must be fun, detail and understandable. Based on the researcher observation there were some problems found in the classroom when giving writing materials. The problem of the students were lack in vocabulary, errors in spelling, difficult to understand grammatical structure, like they cannot arrange the sentence by following grammatical rule. That was because writing is difficult for them since they have to master enough vocabulary, spelling, and grammar. The teacher also did not have interesting technique or method in teaching learning process, they were still use roundtable technique with no specific steps when they teach the students to write about something and the condition of class was very noisy. That was might be the causes that makes the students are still difficult in writing. The researcher tried to use the technique which involves some aspects to solve some the difficulties in writing class. This technique was Team Assisted Individualization (TAI) to teach students’ writing. Team Assisted Individualization is a branch of cooperative learning method which emphasize the team work. In addition, the team involves some heterogeneous students which should be work together to finish the assignment. The researcher assume Team Assisted Individualization (TAI) was a suitable technique for students in learning writing. It technique also can make the students’ easily to study and understand because the students do assignment together in group and the students can be a peer tutoring in their group. It is technique was can make the students enjoy to learning process because the tutoring is their friends after the teacher give a short materials before ask the students do the assignment through team work and in the end of learning process the teacher giving problem solving strategy. The purpose of the study in this research is “to find out the effectiveness of Team Assisted Individualization (TAI) toward students’ writing at second grade of SMPN 4Praya Barat in academic year 2016/2017.” Review of Related Literature According to Murray & Sarah (2004:46), writing is a very creative process- all the more so as your writing at increasingly exacting audiences. It requires you to do something, to put words on paper, to make sense, to structure, to analyze and to contribute. Meanwhile according to Hyland (2003:22), writing is to see it as marks on a page or screen, a coherent arrangement of words, clauses and sentences, structured according to a system of rules. It means that writing is the process of writing some ideas and sentences. The indicator of writing. They are, vocabulary, grammar, content, organization and mechanic. Cooperative learning model type TAI (Team Assisted Individualization or Team Accelerated Instruction), initiated by Robert E. Slavin is a combination of cooperative learning and individualized instruction. According to Slavin (2005: 186), learning is designed to help overcome the learning difficulties faced by individuals, then be brought into the group. Within the group, the individual can learn and solve problems or questions that have been given by the teacher with friends in their group. With the combination of cooperative and individual Journal of Languages and Language Teaching, Vol. 4 No.2, November 2016 69 learning, it can be obtained two advantages at once in TAI: (a) The advantages of cooperative learning, that the cooperative learning is an effort to empower peers, improving the interaction among students, as well as bring a mutual beneficial relationship among students. Students in the group will learn to hear ideas of others, discuss agree or disagree, offer, or receive constructive criticism, and students do not feel overwhelmed when their work result is incorrect. Students work in groups to help each other to master the teaching materials. (b) The advantage of individual learning, that individual learning is educate students to learn independently, not only receive lessons from a teacher. Through this individualized learning, students will be able to explore their own knowledge and experience to learn the subject matter, so the students will have a meaningful learning. When implementing the technique, the teacher shaped the students as heterogeneous groups that included various students score level. Some students complained about the teacher’s making the groups since students usually make group of their own. Each group consisted of eight until nine students whereas the rules in used this technique a group consist of 4-5 students. Slavin (1984) stated:” each group consists of 4 – 5 students with different competency level shaped as a heterogeneous group in implemented T.A.I” it means in applying steam assisted individualization the teacher should divide the students in some group, each group consist of 4-5 students. But based on the finding, when the teacher divided the group, each group included 8-9 students. It happened because the student number was in great quantity and the teacher tried to adapt the class situation in order to focus for the students’ activity in learning process. The teacher decided the good decision, in making group the teacher should be know the students situation and class condition in order to create the comfortable class when teaching learning process conducted. When the students did the assignment by group, the smart students can be a peer tutoring who helps the other partner in a group, in order to help the passive students in done the assignment. Even though the assignment was made by team work, the student had to answer the assignments on their own paper. This point in line with the statement from Slavin (1984) argues: “Team assisted individualization is a cooperative learning system whereby heterogeneous groups of individual work together to master individual assignments.” The goal of team assisted individualization is to help the students in solve the difficult problem when do the assignment in learning process, in here the teacher should gave the interpretation for the smart students to be peer tutoring in their group. So the goal of teaching learning process can materialize maximally. The all students enjoyed following the team assisted individualization. The students were not bored with the material and did not consider the material too difficult anymore. It could be seen from their response and enthusiastic when the activities were being conducted. Learning narrative text by using team assisted individualization in teaching learning process was interesting and enthusiastic. Because the activities which had been conducted in teaching and learning process is liked by the students, students enjoyed in did assignments through team work thus it made what they learned can be understood easily by helping each other. RESEARCH METHOD The researcher was used quantitative method. This research was an experimental research with pre-test and post-test design. Design of this method is called quasi experimental. Quasi experiment has treatment to the both of class. The population of the research 59 students’ and the sample was 38 students’. The instrument of this research was essay test. Technique of data collection in this research was pre-test and post-test design. RESEARCH FINDING The researcher presents the statistical finding and analysis of the data which determine the effectiveness of Team Assisted Journal of Languages and Language Teaching, Vol. 4 No.2, November 2016 70 Individualization toward students’ writing. The experimental class was treated by Team Assisted Individualization (TAI) and for the control group was treated by roundtable technique. The frequency distribution of the data as follows: After doing computation and analysis of the data, the researcher found the value of t-test was 2.95 with degree of freedom 36. It was measured from the t-table and critical value was 1.688 at the level of significance 0.05. Based on data found above, the researcher compared between t-test and t- table. The result showed that t-test value was higher than t-table, it means the hypothesis that Team Assisted Individualization (TAI) provided positive effect toward students’ writing was accepted. The result of data analysis showed that the highest score was 70 and the lowest was 44. The mean score was 53.9, the median was 53, the mode score was 51.5 range was 26 and standard deviation was 9.8. The frequency distribution of the data as follows: Table 1.1 Frequency Distribution Pre test of Experimental group Class limits Class bound. Mid point Tally Freq. Per cen t. 44-48 43.5- 48.5 46 IIII 4 21 49-53 48.5- 53.5 51 IIII I 6 31. 5 54-58 53.5- 58.5 56 II 2 10. 5 59-63 58.5- 63.5 61 IIII 4 21 64-68 63.5- 68.5 66 II 2 10. 5 69-73 68.5- 73.5 71 I 1 5.2 Total 19 100 Graphic 1.1 Histogram and Polygon Pre test of Experimental group The result of data analysis showed that the highest score was 90 and the lowest was 64. The mean score was 77.5, the median was 77.5, the mode score was 81 range was 26 and standard deviation was 9.8, the frequency distribution of the data as follows: Table 1.2 Frequency Distribution Post test of Experimental group Class Limits Class Bound. Mid point Tally Freq. Per cen t. 64-68 63.5- 68.5 51 II 2 10 69-73 68.5- 73,5 71 I 1 5.26 74-78 73.5- 78.5 76 IIII II 7 36.8 79-83 78.5- 83.5 81 IIII III 8 42.1 84-88 83.5- 88.5 86 0 0 0 89-93 89.5- 93.5 91 I 1 5.26 Total 19 100 Graphic 1.3 Histogram and Polygon Pre test of Experimental group The result of data analysis showed that the highest score was 84 and the lowest score was 30. The mean score was 46.6, the median score was 44.6, the mode score was 46, range was 54 and standard deviation was 12.4, 0 2 4 6 8 Series1 0 2 4 6 8 Series1 Journal of Languages and Language Teaching, Vol. 4 No.2, November 2016 71 Table 1.3 Frequency Distribution Post test of Experimental group Class Limits Class Bound. Mid point Tally Freq. Per cen t. 64-68 63.5- 68.5 51 II 2 10 69-73 68.5- 73,5 71 I 1 5.2 6 74-78 73.5- 78.5 76 IIII II 7 36. 8 79-83 78.5- 83.5 81 IIII III 8 42. 1 84-88 83.5- 88.5 86 0 0 0 89-93 89.5- 93.5 91 I 1 5.2 6 Total 19 100 Graphic 1.3 Histogram and Polygon of Experimental group The result of data analysis showed that the highest score was 93 and the lowest score was 50. The mean score was 56.05, the median score was 59.4, the mode score was 55.7, range was 43 and standard deviation was 13.67, the frequency distribution of the data as follows: Table 1.4 Frequency Distribution Pre test of Control group Class limits Class bound. Midp oint Tally Freq. Per cen t. 30-40 29.5- 40.5 35 IIII 5 26.3 41-51 40.5- 51.5 46 IIII IIII II 12 63.1 52-62 51.5- 62.5 57 0 0 0 63-73 62.5- 73.5 68 0 0 0 74-84 73.5- 79 II 2 10.5 84.5 Total 19 100 Graphic 1.4 Histogram and Polygon pre-test of Control group Writing is one of the language skills that developed beside other skills as listening, reading and speaking. There are many people like writing and they can write about everything. Writing is a form of communication to deliver through written form (Harmer, 2001: 79) by writing someone can expose an idea, opinion, thinking and feeling in his or her own language style. So, that they are also can receive and understand it. According to Slavin (2005: 186), learning is designed to help overcome the learning difficulties faced by individuals, then be brought into the group. In general team member work in difference unit teammates check each other’s work against answer sheets and help one another with any problem. Students usually feel more relax working in group. The statistical analysis of the data obtained that was done hence the discussion of the result of the analysis came. The result of statistical analysis of t-test in this study was 2.95 it is higher than t-table in the significant levels 0.05 (1.688) in degree of freedom (36). From this fact. the researcher concluded that the effectiveness of Team Assisted Individualization (TAI) was significant effective towards students’ writing at the second grade students of SMPN 4 Praya Barat in academic year 2016/2017. It also can be seen from the comparison result of this research and the previous of the study showed that from observation data showed an increase in student's accounting learning 0 2 4 6 8 10 Series1 64-68 69-73 74-78 79-83 84-88 89-93 0 5 10 15 Series1 30-40 41-51 52-62 63-73 74-84 Journal of Languages and Language Teaching, Vol. 4 No.2, November 2016 72 activity for 13.77%, from 73.92% in the first cycle to 87.69% in the second cycle. In addition, the questionnaire data also showed an increase in the score of student's writing for 9.85%, from 72.61% in the first cycle to 82.46% in the second cycle. Finally from the data, the Implementation of Cooperative Learning Model Type Team Assisted Individualization (TAI) technique able to Improve Student’s writing of grade X Ak 3 SMK Negeri 1 Klaten academic year of 2013/2014. So, based on the result showed that Team Assisted Individualization was suitable in teaching writing. Before the researcher gives the treatment by using Team Assisted Individualization (TAI) the students are still passive they are individualize, and after the researcher give the treatment the students were more active because they work together and they were felt comfortable when they do the assignment together that they can ask their friends and they can be a peer tutoring for their friends. It can make the students more understand than before using the technique. Finally, the analysis and the interpretation of data eventually led the researcher to the conclusion that the effectiveness of Team Assisted Individualization (TAI) towards students’ writing at the second grade students of SMPN 4 Praya Barat in academic year 2016/2017 has positive effect. It was proved by the result of the statistical analysis above. CONCLUSION Based on the statement of the problem “Is Team Assisted Individualization (TAI) effective toward students’ writing?” There were the effective of Team Assisted Individualization (TAI) for the students, it help the students easier to make a sentence or paragraph about descriptive text. It can be conclude that Team Assisted Individualization (TAI) was effective in teaching writing. It was found that the students’ mean score of experimental group was higher than the students’ mean score of control group, and the score in post-test was higher than the students score in pre-test. The test of both group were same but little different and difference in the treatment, the experimental group was treated by using Team Assisted Individualization (TAI), whereas the control group was treated by using Roundtable. From the result of the analysis of the research, it is proven that the students’ score of writing by using Team Assisted Individualization (TAI) is better. The result of statistical analysis of t-test in this study is 2.95 it is higher than t-table in the significant levels 0.05 (1.688) in degree of freedom (36). This result has answered the research question that by using Team Assisted Individualization in teaching writing is significant effective especially in writing descriptive text at the second grade students of SMPN 4 Praya Barat in academic year 2016/2017. It was proved by the result of the statistical analysis above. 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