IMPROVING STUDENT’S ABILITY IN WRITING SKILL OF … fileII Medan Amplas, Kota Medan, Sumatera...

Jurnal Pendidikan Riama

ISSN 2089-287X (Media Cetak)

Vol. 3 No. 04. 2018

Page | 159 JURNAL PENDIDIKAN RIAMA

LPPM - STKIP Riama Medan

Sekolah Tinggi Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan “STKIP” Riama Medan

IMPROVING STUDENT’S ABILITY IN WRITING SKILL OF PROCEDURE TEXT

BY USING PICTURES SERIES FOR THE EIGHT GRADE STUDENTS

OF SMP NEGERI 4 MEDAN

Oleh :

Marice Saragih 1)

1) Dosen Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris STKIP RIAMA Jl. Tritura No. 6, Harjosari

II Medan Amplas, Kota Medan, Sumatera Utara 20147

E-mail : [email protected]

Abstrak

This research is about Improving Students’ Writing Skill Of

Procedure Text By Using Picture Series For The Eighth Grade Students Of SMP

Negeri 4 Medan. The objective of this research are to find out challenges that

students’ faced in writing procedure text for the eighth grade students of SMP

Negeri 4 Medan and to find out whether writing skill of procedure text can be

improved by using picture series for the eighth grade students of SMP Negeri 4

Medan . The research methodology was an experiment research, which was

conducted in two classes, the experimental VIII-7

and control class VIII-8

as the

sample. The VIII-7

was taught by using picture series, while the VIII-8

class was

not taught by using picture series. The researcher gave writing test to gather the

data. The test had been tried out before it was used. The main purpose of

conducting the try-out was to find out the validity, and reliability. The media used

in analyzing the data was t-test formula. It was used to determine whether there

was a significance difference between the means of the experimental and control

group. The mean of pre test in experimental group is 61.37 and control group is

58.5. The mean of post-test in experimental group is 75.03 and control group is

67.40. The obtained t-test is 5.76, whereas the t-table is 2.00 for α = 5%. The t-

test value is higher than the t- table (5.76 > 2.00). Based on the result, pictures

series can improving writing skill in SMP N 4 medan. Finally, the researcher

suggests to the teachers that they should use picture series as one of the media in

teaching writing of proceduret text

Keywords: Writing Skill, Procedure Text, Picture Series

INTRODUCTION

Language is very important for someone to communicate with others.

Communities need to communicate to understand one each other. Therefore,

language is essential for life. Without language, it is impossible to

communicate within society. Language as a system of communication enables

humans to cooperate. Language is a part of the culture of a community. Humans



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use language as a way of signaling identity with one cultural group and difference

from others.

As the foreign language, English has become a tool for international

communication in transportation, commerce, banking, tourism, process of

technology, diplomacy, and scientific research Nunan in Cahyono, (2010:91). It

is formally thought students of elementary school, junior and senior high

school, and even to university. An English teacher has to know about strategie to

guide the students in order to get better result in learning. The teacher who has

important role must guide the students to have creativity in classroom. If strategy

is not suitable with situation of the class, the teaching and learning will not be

successful.

The basic of teaching and learning English is to make students able to

master four language skills; those are listening, speaking, writing and reading.

Writing is an important English skill that has to be learned beside the other

language skills. Writing is a communicative act; it is a way of sharing

information, thoughts, experiences, or ideas, between ourselves and others

Cahyono, (2009:16). Among other language skill, writing is considered the

most difficult skill since it involves several component including contents,

vocabularies, rhetorics, grammatical structures, and mechanics, such as

punctuation and capitalization.

According to Harmer in Cahyono (2011: 13), in junior high school

students are young learner. The students in this ages have several characteristics

which are different from adults in learning a language. In this case, they have to

learn some texts such as narrative, descriptive, recount, report and procedure texts.

Unfortunately, many students of junior high schools are not good enought

in writing. The students consider that writing is one of the most difficult language

skill because they are demended to express their ideas in written English

appropriately. It means that in teaching junior high school students, teachers need

to be creative in correlating the main topic to the real situation and students can

learn the linguistic features automatically.



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Teaching materials and media are developed by teacher in teaching and

learning activities. Techniques and approaches to teach skills, in this case, writing

influenced by the use of media. Therefore, the materials will give more power to

motivate the students to learn English. Then, students get the interesting media

and it will help them to learn English easily.

Learning use media have a great influence in education system to explore

students‟ ability. Teaching learning activities in the classroom have used learning

media to facilitate the teacher and students‟ knowledge. In addition, learning

media must be suitable with the lesson plan that is used by teachers.

Teachers as facilitator, must be well-prepared to teach students in front of

the class. Then, teachers give interesting things to support students learning

activities, especially when teachers teach writing. The media such as pictures, can

be used as a guideline for students in completing a task.

A good writing was done with appropriate rules and principles that

applicable by teacher to teach students in writing. Furthermore, the use of media

can help students to select for the idea, grammatical accuracy, vocabulary, and

correct organization of contents.

The reasons of the researcher for choosing the topic are first, writing is one

of the basic skills that have to be learn by students in the tenth year of senior high

school. Second, Recount text is one of the genres that must be taught to students

of senior high school. Third, Picture series is one of the interesting media for

student which can help student‟s skill in writing recount text. The researcher hope

that by using picture series the students can feel interested and be more active

when teachers teach writing also can motivate the students in learning writing.

Based on the researcher experience when the field teaching practice (PPL).

The researcher found that there are some problems occurred in writing process.

Students have some problems to find the idea in writing. Then, students often

made some mistakes in grammatical errors in their writing. It is very

common when students write, because they were undeveloped in grammatical

mastery. Afterwards, they do not organize the sequence of paragraphs well. The

teacher used a coursebook in teaching writing and rarely used pictures as media.



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The media that were used by the teacher to support the teaching and learning of

writing were not sufficient. Furthermore, students had low motivation in

composing a story. The correlation between writing skill and picture series is a

picture that contains of the pictures sequence, that every picture have relation one

each other and telling an even and has a sequence of events that have a unity of

story which made in a writing. Through Picture series student have imagination to

write a story based on their imagination from the picture and produce more words

and various vocabularies which can be put in their writing. The focus of the

research is picture series media to improve the students‟s writing skill in learning

writing.

LITERATURE RIVIEW

Writing

Writing is functional communication, making learners possible to create

imagined worlds of their own design. Writing as one of four language skills is

consider as a difficult skill because the writer should make some aspects in

writing such as content, organization, purpose, vocabulary, punctuation, and

spelling in a balance way.

Writing is the activity or occupation of writing, for example books, stories,

or articles. We can take more times to think and choose words in order to express

our idea, thought, and feeling. We still can make editing or revision if it is not so

clear to express what intends to write. Writing is a progressive activity. This

means that when you first write something down, you have already been

thinking about what you are going to say and how you are going to say it. The

after you have finished writing, you read over what you have written and make

changes and corrections. Therefore, writing is never a one step actions; it is a

process that has several steps.

Writing is a discovery process that involves discovering ideas, how to

organize them and what that you want to put over to your order, so a lot of what a

writer does as a writer doesn‟t actually appear on the page. It is a means of

communication. Whenever the writer want to write, he has to knowing the



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audience or reader, it will help in reaching the the goal of communicating clearly

and effectively. Communication in writing tends to involve a thinking process

because writing requires the process of selecting and organizing ideas into

coherent and logical whole, so in this case writing is undeniably based in thought.

Finnochiaro (1974: 85) says that writing has been characterized as written

thinking. It means that writing is a way to produce language that comes from our

thought. In the writing process, the writer tries to developing their ideas and

feelings to produce into a good sentence, in order to inform the other.

Types of Writing

Finocchiaro (1974: 85) pointed out that naturally; the type of writing

system (alphabet, picture) which exists in the native language is an important

factor in determining the case or speed which students learn to write. There are

two types of writing:

1. Practical Writing

This type deals with the fact and functional writing. It is purposed to special

goal that we can find it in letters, papers, summaries, outlines, essays, etc.

2. Creative or Imaginary Writing

This type usually exists in literature. Such as novel, romance, poem, short

story, science fiction, etc. Louis Robinson (1975), states that writing is divided

into two types as follows:

1. Guided writing

Guided writing helps ascertain the students feel certain that they are doing

the right thing.They follow instru ction and change or complete sentences .

The students were instructed to write certain sentences into organized simple

paragraph based on the certain clues or guidelines. For instance, the students were

given a picture and some questions leading to simple paragraphs describing

about the given pictures. Then the students were also given a series of pictures.

telling a story and some sentences representing the picture, but the sentences

were not in order. The students were then instructed to rewrite the sentences

according to the pictures so that they form a paragraph that makes sense.

2. Free writing



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In free writing, the students are given a composition topic, which makes it

possible to use freely what they have just practiced. This statement is in line with

Pincas, who gives the objective of free writing in Karmaden, the ability to write

freely what has been taught not the ability to write anything at all (1998: 8). Based

on the objective given by Pincas above we can say that what is mean t by free

writing here is not writing freely what we want to write, but, writing according

to what has been taught. „Free‟ here means free in expressing our ideas.

Purposes of Writing

According to Malley and Pierce (2000: 29), there are three purposes of

writing based on the types of writing in English language learning, those are:

1. Informative

It is represented by “informative writing,” that is purposed to share

knowledge or information, give directions, and state ideas to other. Informative

writing involves describing events or experiences, analyzing concept, speculating

on causes and effect, and developing new ideas that are purposed to inform

something may important to the readers.

2. Expressive or Narrative

It is represented by “expressive writing” or “narrative writing is” that is

purposed to share a personal or imaginative expression. Commonly it is

composed by the writer story or essay. Expressive or narrative often used to

perform a pleasure discovery, story, poems, or

short play.

3. Persuasive

It is represented by “persuasive writing” that is purposed to persuade the

readers to do something. It effort to influences others and initiate action or change.

This type of writing includes evaluation of book, movie, consumer product, or

controversial issues.

Genre

According to Gerot and Wignell (1994), A genre can defined as a

culturally specific text-type result from using language (written or spoken) to

helps accomplish something. Meanwhile, Diane (2004: 4) states:“Genre is a term



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for grouping texts together, representing how writers typically use language to

respond to recurring situations. The concept of genre is based on the idea that

members of a community usually have little difficulty in recognizing similarities

in the texts they use frequently and are able to draw on their repeated experiences

with such texts to read, understand, and perhaps write them relatively easily.”

Kinds of Genre

Kinds of genre are mentioned by Gerot and Wignell (1994:192-219) :

1) Spoof

The social function is to retell an event with a humorous twist. The generic

structure in spoof is orientation (sets the scene), events (tell what happened),

and twist (provides the punch line).

2) Recount

The social function is to retell events for the purpose of informing or

entertaining. The generic structure in recount is orientation (provides the

setting and introduces participants), events (tell what happened, in what

sequence), and re-orientation (optional-closure of events).

3) Reports

The social function is to describe the way things are, with reference to a range

of natural, man-made and social phenomena in our environment. The

generic structure in report is general classification (tells what the

phenomenon under discussion is), and description (tells what the phenomenon

under discussion is like in terms of parts, qualities, and habits or behaviour.

4) Analytical Exposition

The social function is to persuade the reader or listener that something is the

case. The generic structure in analytical exposition is thesis (introduces topic

and indicates writer‟s position, outlines the main arguments to be presented),

arguments (restates main argument outlined in thesis, develops and supports

each point/argument), and reiteration (restate writer‟s position).

5) News Item

The social function is to inform readers, listeners or viewers about events of

the day which are considered newsworthy or important. The generic structure



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in news item is newsworthy event (recounts the event in summary form),

background events (elaborate what happened, to whom, in what

circumstances), and sources (comments by participants in, witnesses to and

authorities expert on the event).

6) Anecdote

The social function is to share with others an account of an unusual or

amusing incident. The generic structure in anecdote is abstract (signals the

retelling of an unusual incident), orientation (sets the scene), crisis

(provides details of the unusual incident), reaction (reaction to crisis), and

coda (optional; reflection on or evaluation of the incident).

7) Narrative

The social function is to amuse, entertain and to deal with actual or vicarious

experience in different ways; Narratives deal with problematic events which

lead to a crisis or turning point of some kind, which in turn finds a resolution.

The generic structure in narrative is orientation (sets the scene and introduces

the participants), evaluation (a stepping back to evaluate the plight),

complication (a crisis arises), resolution (the crisis is resolved, for better or for

worse), and re- orientation (optional).

8) Procedure

The social function is to describe how something is accomplished through

a sequence of actions or steps. The generic structure in procedure is goal,

materials, and the steps.

9) Description

The social function is to describe a particular person, place or thing. The

generic structure in description is identification (identifies phenomenon to be

discussed) and description (describes parts, qualities, characteristics).

10) Hortatory Exposition

The social function is to persuade the reader or listener that something should

or should not be the case. The generic structure in hortatory exposition is

thesis (announcement of issue of concern), arguments (reasons for concern,



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leading to recommendation), and recommendation (statement of what ought or

not to happen).

11) Explanation

The social function is to explain the processes involved in the formation or

workings of natural or socio cultural phenomena. The generic structure in

explanation is a general statement to position the reader and a sequenced

explanation of why or how something occurs.

12) Discussion

The social function is to present (at least) two points of view about an issue.

The generic structure in discussion is issue (statement and preview),

arguments for and against or statements of differing points of view, and

conclusion or recommendation.

13) Reviews

The social function is to critique an art work or event for a public audience.

Such works of art include movies, TV shows, books, plays, operas,

recordings, exhibitions, concerts and ballets. The generic structure in review is

orientation, interpretative recount, evaluation, and evaluative summation.

Those are types of genres. In this research, the researcher chooses

procedure text as the material used. Procedure text explain how something works

or how to use instruction, procedure text use present tense.

Procedure text

There are three definition about procedure text : (1)Texts that explain how

something works or how to use instruction / operation manuals e.g. how to use the

video, the computer, the tape recorder, the photocopier, the fax. (2) Texts that

instruct how to do a particular activity e.g. recipes, rules for games, science

experiments, road safety rules. (3) Texts that deal with human behavior, e.g how

to live happily, how to succeed. The purpose of procedure text : to explain/tell

(the reader) how to make/operate/do something through a sequence of actions or

steps and to explain steps/instruction to make/operate/do something. Language

feature of procedure text are : use adverbial of sequence / Using temporal

conjunction (e.g: first, second, third, the last), use command / imperative sentence



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(e.g : put the noodles on the . . ., cut the onion. . ., wash the tomatoes. . ). Using

adverbials (Adverbs) to express detail the time, place, manner accurate, for

example, for five minutes, 2 hours, etc, using action verbs, e.g : make, take, boil,

cook.Using Simple Present Tense. Example of Procedure :How to make a

sandwich (aim/goal).Materials: 2 slices of bread, peanut butter, a

banana, honey. Steps : Take two slices of bread, Spread peanut butter, Cut up a

banana onto small slices and put them on one of the slices, Pour some honey over

the bananas, Put the other slice of bread on top.

Picture Series

Visual media were used in teaching and learning process as the tools to

improve students‟ ability in learning English. Visual media have a constribution to

help students comprehending the explanation from the teacher easily. The visual

media are used by the teacher can be in many forms: videos, slides, pictures or

illustrations. Besides that, the use of visual media create natural situation to attract

students‟ attention in teaching learning process. In this case, the researcher

decided to choose pictures as the media.

There are some theories proposed that the use of pictures are very useful in

the teaching process. According to Wright (1989:17) pictures contribute to

improve the students‟ interest and motivation in the teaching learning process.

Furthermore, he explains that pictures have a sense of the context of the language

and it can be aspecific reference point or stimulus to the students.

Joklova (2009:19) states “The picture is used in a more meaningful and „real-life-

communivative‟ way than being just displayed for students to say what they can

actually see.”

Pictures are easy to find from many sources. It can be taken from books,

the Internet, and magazines. Furthermore, there are some kinds of picture; series

of picture, cue cards, flash cards, posters, and photographs. However, there are

roles of picture. Wright (1989:17) explained that pictures can motivate the

students to take part in the teaching and learning process. They contribute to the

context in which the language is being used. The pictures can be described in an

objective way or interpreted or responded to subjectively. Then, pictures can cue



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responses to questions or cue substitutions through controlled practice. They can

stimulate and provide information in the conversation, discussion and story

telling.

In this research, the researcher focuses on the use of picture series. The

sequences of picture show several action is called picture series. Picture series

consist of three or more pictures. It helps the students to developing ideas to write

a text. According to Wright (1989:201) sequences of picture can be kept as they

are and used to contextualize a story or a description of a process. Yunus states

that “A picture series is a numberof related composite pictures linked to form a

series of sequences. Henice,its main function is to tell a story or sequence of

events.” The researcher modified the picture series to teach writing a recount text

for eighth grade students of junior high school. [

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The study of this research used quantitative research and qualitative

research supported by observation and interview. The design of study is to find

out improvement writing skill of procedure text by using picture series.

The research design of this study is experimental design. There are two

variables that used in this research they are independent and dependent variable.

Independent variable is picture series media and dependent variable is writing

skill of procedure text.

This study conducted with two groups, which is experimental group taught

by using picture series media and control group by using conventional way

(without picture series media). Both of group were giving pre-test and post-test

with the same item.

Table 1. Research Design

Group Pre-test Treatment Post-test

Experimental Using picture series

Control Using Conventional Way

Population and Sample



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According to Ary, at all (1997 : 129) “Introduction to research in

Education", Population is defined as all members of any well-defined class of

people, events, or objects.

Based on the study, the researcher gathering the population from the students

grade eighth SMP Negeri 4 Medan, each class consists of 32 students. There are 8

classes in the eighth grade. So the total of population is 256.

Sugiyono (2013:118) defined sample as a part of number or characteristic

had by the population. Further, Bobbie Latham (2007:9) states in his journal,

purposive sampling is selecting a sample “on the basis of your own knowledge of

the population, its elements, and the nature of your research aims”. That is the

population non randomly selected based on a particular characteristic.

Considering those theories, the researcher determined 64 students as the

sample, they were from grade VIII-7

and VIII-8

. As the reason, the two classes was

classes that the researcher taught when doing teaching practice. The sample was

divided into two groups namely experimental group and control group. VIII-7

became the experimental group while VIII-8

became the control group. Therefore,

there were 32 students in each group.

Data Analysise

The kind of the data in this research is quantitative data. Quantitative data

was taken from writing test, given two times. In scoring the students‟ writing

achievement, there are five categories of the criteria to analyze the students

writing namely content, grammar, organization, vocabulary and mechanic.

Quantitative was taken from writing text given two times : pre-test and post-test.

Pre-test was given in the first meeting and post test was given in the last meeting.

Writing test was given to evaluate the students‟ achievement in writing. To obtain

the quantitative data, the researcher giving a writing test using procedure text to

the students and collecting the data. After collecting the data by using test, writer

analyzes the result of the test. to be able to describe the data it is necessary to look

for any change in mean( average) score (M) and Standard Deviation (SD) To find

out the result of the test the writer uses some statistic and take steps the following

: 1. Identifying the students‟ mistake by reading the students worksheet one by



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one. In reading the writer will identify the mistake retelling to grammar, content,

vocabulary and mechanics. 2. Giving the score, in determining this, the writer will

find percentage of each problem. 3. Statistical procedure, in the statistical

procedure the writer analyze the students achievement and to interpret the result

of the students‟ worksheet the writer used statistical procedure as follow : 1. To

find out the mean of the students‟ score in the experimental class and mean of the

score in the control class. 2. To find out the deviation of each post test score from

pre test score of experimental class. 3. To find out the deviation of each post test

score from pre test score of control class.

RESULT AND DISCUSSION

Based on the observation of this research, there were the challenges that

students‟ face in writing procedure text. First, the students difficult to compose the

story of procedure text. The second, the students difficult use the verb add with s

and without s.The third, the students difficult to determine the generic structure of

procedure text. Teaching procedure text by using picture series helped students to

solve the challenges that faced by students in term of building and developing

their knowledge of writing a recount text.

The result of this research shows that there is a difference of output

between both of groups. Based on the calculation, t-test (5.76) is higher than the t-

table (2.00) for the degree of freedom (62) at the level of significance (0.05). this

difference took place because of different treatment in both of groups. The

experimental group was taught by using picture series while control group was

taught without using picture series. Therefore, it can be concluded that using

picture series media can improve students writing skill of procedure text.

CONCLUSION

After analyze the whole data, it was found that the students‟ writing test

score improve from the pre test until post test. The conclusion are shown as

follows :



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1. The students‟ writing skill improve by using picture series is higher than the

students‟ taught without picture series.

2. Teaching procedure text by using picture series helped students to solve the

challenges that faced by students in term of building and developing their

knowledge of writing a procedure text.

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