IMPROVING STUDENTS’ ABILITY IN WRITING SHORT FUNCIONAL

TEXT CONGRATULATION AND COMPLIMENTING USING PICTURE

SEQUENCES
Mohamad ikhsan Aditia

ABSTRACT

This study is aimed to improve students’ ability in writing short funcional

text congratulation and complimenting using picture sequences at X MA
Nurulhidayah Batujajar academic year 2018/2019 as the subject of the study. This
study was conducted for two months.
The writer conduct CAR based on Kurt Lewins’ design. did two cycles in
which each cycle consists of planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. The data
were gathered through qualitative and quantitative data. The qualitative data were
gained by analyzing the interview and observation result. Then, quantitative data
were obtained from the students’ writing score of pretest and posttest.
The finding of this study showed that there was improvement on the
students’ ability in writing short funcional text congratulation and complimenting
using picture sequences. It can be seen from the mean score of pretest was 56,75.
Then, the mean score of posttest cycle 1 was 66,37 and the mean score of posttest
cycle 2 was 72,62. In addition, there were 3 students (12,5 %) who passedKKM in
the pretest. Meanwhile, in the cycle 1, there were 9 students (35%) who passed
KKM and it gained which was in the posttest cycle 2 there were 32 students (80%)
who passed KKM , so the criteria of success was achieved. 21, from the result of
questionnaire, it showed that there was improvement of positive responses in the
teaching-learning process of writing short funcional textcongratulation and
complimenting. Related to the result of observation and interview, it can be
concluded that the students’ ability in writing short funcional texcongratulation and
complimenting using picture sequences improved and the students’ were motivated
in the teaching-learning process.
A. Background of Study

Nowadays, in modern society, English becomes more important as a tool of

communication. It becomes one of the international languages used by many people
in the world. In some countries, such as: Singapore, Malaysia, etc English is used
as a second language. It has become one of the main languages in international
communication. English is used in many aspects of human life in this globalization
era, such as in technological field, scientific field, economic field, etc. So, we can
follow the rapid development of globalization era by using it.

For Indonesia, English is a foreign language. English was taught at schools

from elementary school up to university. Moreover, the English language teaching
in Indonesia is based on the Minister of Education and Culture decree No. 096 of
1967, declared that:

“Bahasa Inggris sebagai bahasa asing pertama di Indonesia dan mata pelajaran
wajib untuk SLTP sampai perguruan tinggi”.

“English becomes the first foreign language that should be taught formally to all
Indonesian students, started from Junior High Schools up to Colleges or
Universities level”1.

As a foreign language, English has to be learnt in every grade of education

start from elementary up to university. Indonesian students should have a better
ability of English, because they have learnt it for many years. But, the fact is far
from hope. Most of Indonesian students can’t master it well. When someone learns
a foreign language, he/she often faces interference. For example, when he/ she tries
to use the foreign language in active or passive way, he/she often applies his/her
mother tongue or first language structure to the structure of the foreign language;
but, English structure is different from Indonesian structure. As stated before,
Indonesian students learn English as the first foreign language. Therefore, English
is a new language for them, that is why they get some difficulties and they also need
much time to learn it in a better way.

Indonesian students are expected to be able to fulfill four language skills,

they are: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. They are integrated and related
to each other. Therefore, it must be learnt and taught by both students and teachers
at school. In this research, the writer will focus on one of four skills, it is writing
skill.

According to Sheridan Baker, “Writing is one of the most important things

do. It helps us catch our ideas, realize our thoughts, and stand out as fluent
persuasive people both on paper and on our feet in front of the meeting or the boss”.
Writing will help students in mastering the English completely. It can ease them to
deliver their purpose. Many of Indonesian students are sometimes afraid and shy to
speak what they want to say in English, but they can tell what they think and what
they want to say into draft or writing before speaking. Furthermore, if students are
having problem in expressing an idea, he/she can write it down. Then, students itself
or the other will possibly understand it. On the other side, there are still some
teachers who haven’t given their attention on this case completely. If a teacher
wants to help the students to be a good writer in English, he/ she must be able to
teach writing effectively in the classroom.

Writing is considered as the most difficult skill for students. It is in line w

ith Jack C. Richard’s statement, “Writing is the most difficult skills for second
language learner to master of putting together strings of grammatically correct
sentences”. It can be seen from the unsatisfactory writing score and some problems
that the students confronted in writing based on writer experience in her PPKT
(Praktek Profesi Keguruan Terpadu).

When the writer was being a “praktikan ” English teacher during her PPKT
period at MA Nurulhidayah Batujajar, she taught the tenth grade students, which
consist only two classes. The writer found some problem during her teaching
period, one of them is writing the genre texts. In writing English, there are several
text types that have to be learnt by the students, which is known by the text genre.
There are many categories of text type (genre) for instance, descriptive, narrative,
recount, report, procedure, exposition, explanation, discussion, etc. The writer just
taught three of them to her
When the writer was being a “praktikan ” English teacher during her PPKT
period MA Nurulhidayah Batujajar, she taught the tenth grade students, which
consist only two classes. The writer found some problem during her teaching
period, one of them is writing the genre texts. In writing English, there are several
text types that have to be learnt by the students, which is known by the text genre.
There are many categories of text type (genre) for instance, descriptive, narrative,
recount, report, procedure, exposition, explanation, discussion, etc. The writer just
taught three of them to her students, they are: narrative, descriptive and recount
text. The students’ often get the same problem when they learn it, such as: they
often find a difficulty to understand the text or the story even though they have tried
to translate the words by a dictionary. Then, they often cannot remember well the
schematic structures of the text. These problems will badly affect to their writing.
They do not know well what the text they have to write is. They cannot find the
appropriate words to be written. Furthermore, it is hard for the students to get ideas.
They cannot write smoothly because they do not know what they want to write or
to develop the topic and they get stuck in the middle of writing. Besides, they also
have difficulty in how to compose sentences. As a result, the students have no
motivation to write, and writing becomes a boring and hard activity for them.

These problem led the writer to find the solution of all this about. The writer
tries to solve this problem by using picture sequences as a visual aid to see the
sequence events of a writing congratulation and complimenting, in order to ease the
students in writing congratulation and complimenting. Picture is one of visual aids
used to help the students to understand their material to be learned. An expert said
that:

Kinds of ready-made pictures can be used to develop and sustain motivation, to

procedure positive attitudes toward English and to teach or reinforce some
language learning skills. The teacher must supply the necessary motivation and
make up for the lack of natural stimuli, in order to develop the enthusiasm his/her
students’ imagination to help him/her. But words alone are not sufficient to carry
the student over into an imaginary situation. More than anything else, it is visual
aids in form or another that the students enter an imaginative experience beyond
the classroom.
 Picture is a useful media in teaching-learning activities. It can create the
students’ mindset, so that they will be easy to catch their teacher’s explanation.
Besides, the pictures as an instructional media can also create enjoyable atmosphere
of teaching-learning activities. In addition, pictures can attract the students’
attention, and they can raise the students’ motivation and interest in learning
English, especially for English text.

This research will be focused in improving students’ writing ability of the

text congratulation and complimenting at the first semester of tenth grade of Senior
High School. It based on the competence standard of Senior High School stated
that:

In this CAR, the writer will focus on the picture sequences as a visual aid in
teaching conratulation and complimenting. As Betty Morgan Bow en said that,
“Picture sequence is a series of pictures of a single subject. Its function is to tell a
story or a sequence of events”

According to the explanations above and the strong desire of solving these
problems, the writer has motivation to do a classroom action research in improving
the students’ ability in writing congratulation and complimenting in real class by
using picture sequences as the instructional media. It is hoped that the media can
improve the students’ ability in writing,

According to the preceding statement, the topic that will be discussed by the
writer is “IMPROVING STUDENTS’ ABILITY IN WRITING SHORT
FUNCIONAL TEXT CONGRATULATION AND COMPLIMENTING
USING PICTURE SQUENCES”

B. The Scope and Limitation of the Research

This “skripsi” focuses on the teaching writing short funcional text
congratulation and complimenting at tenth grade of MA Nurulhidayah Batujajar
at the first semester 2018/2019 academic year. To make it deeper, the problems
 will be limited to: The students’ ability improvement in writing short funcional
textcongratulation and complimenting picture sequences.

C. The Research Problem

Based on the background presented above, the writer plans to solve the
problem through picture sequences in improving students’ writing ability of
short funcional text congratulation and complimenting first semester of tenth
grade of MA Nururhidayah Batujajar. The general question of this research is
“Can picture sequences improve efectively the first year students’ ability in
writing short funcional text congratulation and complimenting at MA
Nurulhidayah Batujajar – Bandung Barat City?”

D. The Objective of the Research

In line with the research problem above, the objectives of this research is:
To know whether picture sequences can improve efectively the first year
students’ ability in writing short funciolal text congratulation and
complimenting at MA Nurulhidayah Batujajar

E. The Significance of the Research

The results of this research are expected to provide useful information
about teachingin writing short funciolal text congratulation and complimenting
by using picture sequences at the first semester of tenth grade at MA
Nurulhidayah Batujajar. It is expected that these results can help the teachers to
solve the problems happened in the English classroom, especially when
learning writingshort funciolal text congratulatin and complimenting. And also
contribute to all people involved in developing quality of English education,
especially for students.

The writer expects that the research will be useful for the English
teachers who might use this technique when they teachshort funciolal text
congratulation and complimenting It might become a guide for teachers to teach
in a better way. And for the students, hopefully it can help them to build their
understanding of the sequence events inshort funciolal text congratulation and
complimenting by having images ofshort funciolal text congratulation and
 complimenting. Therefore, they can get a better achievement and higher interest
in learning English.

F. The Definition of Key Terms

To make the reader have the same perception for some of the terms used in this
study, the following definitions are needed, they are:
A.Write congratulations and praise for the purpose of appreciating someone
B.The sequence of images is a series of learning methods that are easy to
remember
C.MA Nurulhidayah Batujajar in an Islamic school in Batujajar

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Abercrombie, D. (1967). Element of General Phonetics. Chicago: Aldine

Publishing Company.
Avery, Peter & Ehrlich, Susan. (1992). Teaching American English Pronunciation.

Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Baker, Ann & Goldstein, Sharon. (1990). Pronunciation Pairs. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press.

Boyer, S., & Leonard, B. (2002). Understanding English pronunciation: an

integrated practice course. Glenbrook N. S. W: Boyer educational

Resources.

Burns, A. (1999). Collaborative Action Research for English Language Teachers.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

The researcher used the assessment rubric of writing which adapted the analytical

rubric from Brown (2007).