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This research is conducted in order to improve students' writing ability using Clustering Technique at eighth grades of MTs. Darul Ma'arif Jakarta. In ...
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( An Action Research at Eight Grade Students of MTs. Darul Ma’arif Cipete- Jakarta )
By:
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In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. Praise be to Allah, The Lord of the worlds who gives the writer guidance and strength, so he could finish this scientific paper ( skripsi ). Peace and blessing be upon our prophet Muhammad SAW, his family, his companions and his followers. This skripsi is presented to the English Education Department of Tarbiya and Teaching Sciences Faculty of UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta as a partial fulfillment of the requirements for Strata 1 (S1). This research could not be completed without a great deal of help of many people, especially Dr. H. M. Farkhan, M. Pd, as his advisor who has patiently given valuable advice and guidance to finish this research paper. His gratitude also goes to those who helped him in finishing his work, among others:
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Fikri Fauzi Alawi, “ Improving Students’ Ability in Writing Descriptive Text Using Clustering Technique (An Action Research at eighth grades of MTs. Darul Ma’arif Cipete-Jakarta) ”. Skripsi, English Education Department, Faculty of Tarbiyah and Teachers Training, State Islamic University Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta, 2011. This research is conducted in order to improve students’ writing ability using Clustering Technique at eighth grades of MTs. Darul Ma’arif Jakarta. In conducting this research the researcher used Classroom Action Research (CAR) as the method of research. This research consisted of two cycles and each cycle consisted of four steps, they were: Planning, action, observation, and reflection. Each cycle was conducted in three meetings, so the researcher conducted this research in one month and one day. To collect and analyze the data, the researcher used the information from interview, observation, questionnaire, and the students’ achievement in pre-test and post-test in order to support the data collected. The result of this research shows that using clustering technique in teaching descriptive writing can improve their writing’s ability. The students’ responses showed that they were interested to learn writing subject, because they felt easier to write using the technique. Moreover, the students’ achievement in pre-test and post-test showed a significant improvement. The students’ mean in preliminary study was 49.5%. In the first cycle the mean score was 64.8%. Meanwhile the mean score in the second cycle was 74.3%. it means that there was 15.2 points or 30% of mean improvement from the students’ score in the preliminary study to the first cycle and there was 24.7 points or 49.8% of mean score improvement from the students’ score in preliminary study to the second cycle. From this result, the researcher concludes that teaching descriptive writing using clustering technique at eighth grades of MTs. Darul Ma’arif Jakarta can improve their writing ability.
Key words: Writing Ability, Clustering Technique
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Fikri Fauzi Alawi, “ Improving Students’ Ability in Writing Descriptive Text Using Clustering Technique (An Action Research at eighth grades of MTs. Darul Ma’arif Cipete-Jakarta) ”. Skripsi, Jurusan Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Fakultas Ilmu Tarbiyah dan Keguruan, Universitas Islam Negri Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta, 2011. Penelitian ini dilaksanakan untuk meningkatkan kemampuan menulis siswa kelas VIII MTs. Darul Ma’arif Jakarta menggunakan teknik Cluster. Dalam melaksanakan penelitian ini peneliti menggunakan Penelitian Tindak Kelas (PTK) sebagai metode peneletian. Penelitian ini terdiri dari dua siklus, yang mana setiap siklusnya terdiri dari empat tahap, yaitu: perencanaan, pelaksanaan, observasi dan refleksi. Setiap siklusnya terdiri dari tiga tatap muka. Peneliti melaksanakan penelitian ini selama satu bulan lebih satu hari. Untuk mengumpulkan dan menganalisa data, peneliti menggunakan informasi dari hasil wawancara, observasi, angket dan untuk menunjang data, peneliti juga menggunakan pre-test dan post-test. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukan bahwa penggunaan teknik cluster dalam menulis paragraf deskriptif dapat meningkatkan kamampuan menulis mereka. Sedangkan respon siswa menunjukan bahwa bahwa mereka merasa lebih mudah dalam menulis dengan menggunakan teknik cluster. Disamping itu, pencapaian siswa dalam pre-test dan post-test menunjukan peningkatan yang signifikan. Bisa dilihat pada nilai rata-rata siswa ketika pre-test hanya menunjukan angka 49.5%, sedangkan nilai rata-rata pada siklus pertama mencapai 64.8%, lebih jauh lagi nilai rata-rata siswa pada siklus kedua mencapai 74.3 %. Ini menunjukan terdapat peningkatan yang cukup signifikan yakni sebesar 15.2 poin atau 30% antara nilai pre-test dengan nilai rata-rata pada siklus pertama dan terdapat peningkatan sebesar 24.7 poin atau 49.8% dari nilai pre-test dengan hasil akhir pada siklus ke dua. Dari hasil tersebut, peneliti menyimpilkan bahwa pengajaran menulis deskripsi menggunakan teknik cluster pada siswa kelas delapan MTs. Darul Ma’arif dapat meningkatkan kemampuan menulis mereka
Kata Kunci: Kemampuan Menulis, Teknik Cluster
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c. Observing ................................................................ 51 d. Reflecting................................................................ 54
A. Conclusion......................................................................... 61 B. Suggestion ......................................................................... 62
BIBLIOGRAPHY APPENDICES
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Page
Figure 2.1 The Application of Clustering technique ............................................ 31
Figure 3.1 Classroom Action Research Design of H. E. Mulyasa ....................... 35
Figure 4.1 The Students’ Achievement in Writing Product ................................. 59
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Page Appendix 1a: Interview for the English teacher in the Preliminary Study (Before Classroom Action Research) …………………….. 63 Appendix 1b: The result of interview in the preliminary study ………….. 64 Appendix 2a: Interview for the English Teacher after Classroom Action Research …………… ……………………………………… 66 Appendix 2b: The result of interview in the last of classroom action research …………………………………………….. 67 Appendix 3a: Questionnaire for Students in the Preliminary Study ……… Appendix 3b: The Result of Questionnaire in the Preliminary Study …… 71 Appendix 4a: Questionnaire for Students after Classroom Action Research ………………………………………………… 72 Appendix 4b: The Result of Questionnaire after Classroom Action Research ……………………………… 73 Appendix 5a: Instrument of pre-test …………………………………….. 74 Appendix 5b : Students’ Writing Descriptive Paragraph Score in Preliminary Study ………………………………………. 75 Appendix 5c: The Sample of Students’ Descriptive Writing in the Preliminary Study ………………………………………… 77 Appendix 6a: Students’ Writing Descriptive Paragraph Score in the Cycle 1 ……………………………………………. 78 Appendix 6b: The Sample of Students’ Descriptive Writing in the First Cycle ………………………………………… 80 Appendix 7a: The students’ descriptive writing score in the cycle 2 ……. 81 Appendix 7b: The Sample Students’ Descriptive Writing in the Second Cycle ……………………………………… 83 Appandix 8a: Field Notes in the first cycle ……………………………… 84 Appendix 8b: Field Notes in the second cycle ………………………….. 87
Appendix 9: Photographs of the Students’ Participation in
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Language is an important tool for communication. According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English, language is “(1)The system of communication in speech and writing that is used by people of a particular country, (2) the use by humans of a system of sound and words to communicate, (3) a particular style of speaking or writing”.^1 It means people can express their ideas, thoughts, feelings, and desires by language. One of the international language is English. English is the language used by most countries among other languages in the world. As Jack C. Richards and Theodore S. Rodgers said, “Latin was most widely studied as foreign language five hundred years ago. However, English has become the most widely studied foreign language today.^2 In Indonesia, English has become the first foreign language which is taught from elementary level up to university. English is also intensively used in international communication, in written as well as in spoken (^1) AS. Hornby, Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English, 6th (^) ed., (Oxford:Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 752 (^2) Jack C. Richards and Theodore S. Rodgers, Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1986), p. 1.
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communication. In addition, many books of science and technology, art, and other published issues are written in English. In English language, there are four skills to be mastered. They are listening, speaking, reading and writing. Writing is one of the four language skills which is very important to learn. As it know, writing is not easy. Among the skills, writing is the most difficult skill to be learnt, because it needs hard thinking in producing words, sentences, and paragraph at the same time. As Jack C. Richard and Willy A. Renandya said, “writing is the most difficult skill for second language learners to master. The difficulty lies not only in generating and organizing ideas, but also in translating these ideas into readable text.”^3 In the second year of junior high school, the basic competency that should be achieved in the writing English subject is that the students have ability to develop and produce written simple functional text in the descriptive text, recount text, and narrative text. Descriptive text is one of the functional texts which is difficult enough to be learnt by the students. Descriptive text is a text that describes the features of someone, something, or a certain place.^4 Descriptive text consists of introduction and description. Introduction is the part of paragraph that introduces the character, and description is the part of paragraph that describes the character. The students can use the simple present and adjective clause in writing descriptive text. In writing the descriptive text, students often find some difficulties. The students usually feel difficult to organize their ideas. Furthermore, many students made some mistakes and faced difficulties to build and develop their imagination
(^3) Jack C. Richards and Willy A. Renandya, Methodology in Language Teaching: An Anthology of current practice , (New York, Cambridge University Press:2002), p. (^4) Artono Wardiman, et. al. English in Focus, for grade VII Junior high school (SMP/MTs) , (Jakarta: Pusat Pembukuan, Departemen Pendidikan Nasional, 2008), p. 115
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descriptive text, how to identify the descriptive text, and how to describe persons, places, and things in English writing. Beside that, the teacher uses the old technique in teaching descriptive text (Grammar Translation Method) which makes the students felt bored and difficult to understand the material when teaching learning process conducted. Therefore, the teacher needs to be more creative in teaching, including the use of technique. Based on the background above, the writer takes a title of this “skripsi” “Improving Students’ Ability in Writing Descriptive Text Using Clustering Technique”.
Based on the background presented above, the writer plans to analyze the use of clustering technique in teaching writing of descriptive text at the eighth grades of students of MTs. Darul Ma’arif Cipete. The general question of this research is “how can the use of clustering technique improve students’ ability in learning descriptive writing?”
In this “skripsi”, the writer only focuses on eighth grades of MTs. Darul Ma’arif Cipete-JakSel at the first semester 2010/2011 academic year, and to make a description of this “skripsi” deeper, the problems will be limited in the implementation of using clustering technique in teaching descriptive writing.
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From the previous discussion in the background of the study, the objectives of this study are as follows:
The result of this study can provide useful information for:
The organization of study facilitates the readers in discussing the problem presentation and helps readers to understand what they read easily. This study is divided into five chapters. Chapter one is introduction. It consists of six parts: the background of study, the statement of problem, the scope and limitation of the study, the objective of study, the significance of study, and the organization of study.
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1. The definition of writing In learning English, there are four skills that should be mastered; those are listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Among the four skills, writing is the most difficult skill to be learnt. This opinion is supported by Jack C. Richards and Willy A. Renandya ,”Writing is the most difficult skill for second languange learners to master”.^1 The difficulty is not only in generating and organizing ideas, but also in translating idea into readable text. There are many different definitions about writing given by experts from many resources. According to Rise B. Axelrod and Charles R. Coopers’ said, “writing is a complex process and as such contains
(^1) Jack C. Richards and Willy A. Renandya, Methodology in Language Teaching: An Anthology of Current Practice , (Cambridge University Press, 2002), p. 303
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element of mystery and surprise. But we know and believe that writing is a skill that anyone can learn to manage”.^2 Marianne C. Murcia said, writing is “the ability to express one’s ideas in written form is a second or foreign language”.^3 It means that writing is an activity to express our ideas in written form On the other side, Barnet and Stubb’s said that writing as a physical act, it requires material and energy. And like most physical acts, to be performed fully, to bring pleasure, to both performer and audience, it requires practice”.^4 From definitions above, it can be said that writing can be distinguished from other skills as the most difficult one. There are many factors influencing writing to be a good one such as grammatical, vocabularies, punctuation, and spelling knowledge which must be integrated to be a paragraph. From the ideas previously, the writer conclude that writing is more than a medium communication. It is a way of remembering and a way of thinking. Because of that, writing is not easy. It needs a hard work. In writing we have to produce words, phrase, sentences, and paragraph at the same time. It is a way of leaarning. None of us can write much of interest without first thinking, probing, observing, asking question, experimenting, and reading.
(^2) Rise B. Axelrod and Charles R. Chooper, The St. Martin’s Guide to Writing, (New York: St Martin’s Press, Inc, 1985), p. (^3) Marianne C. Murcia, Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language , (Boston: Heinle Publishers, 1991), p. 233 (^4) Barnet and Stubbs’s, Practical Guide to Writing , (Canada:Brown Company, 4th edition 1983), p.
