THE EFFECT OF REALIA ON STUDENTS ACHIEVEMENT IN WRITING DESCRIPTIVE PARAGRAPH.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Praises and greatest thanks to almighty Allah SWT, the most merciful who
has blessed and given time, opportunity, and health so that this thesis entitled ‘The
Effect of Realia on Students’ Achievement in Writing Descriptive Paragraph’
could be completed. This thesis is aimed to fulfill one of the requirements for the
degree of Sarjana Pendidikan (S.Pd) of the English Department, Faculty of
Languages and Arts, State University of Medan (UNIMED).
In completing this thesis, the writer would like to express her gratitude,
indebtedness and thanks for giving permission, suggestion, advising and
contribution during completing her thesis. Support, love, prayer, motivation, help
and encouragement to pursue a better life and achieve the best education that
might not requited to people who have been involved in her accomplishment the
thesis.















Prof. Dr. Syawal Gultom, M.Pd., the Rector of State University of
Medan.
Dr. Isda Pramuniati, M.Hum., the Dean of Languages and Arts Faculty.
Prof. Dr. Hj. Sumarsih, M.Pd., the Head of English and Literature
Department as well as her Thesis Consultant I.
Dra. Meisuri, M.A., the Secretary of English Department.
Nora Ronita Dewi, S.S., M.Hum., the Head of English Education Study
Program.
Dr. Rahmad Husein, M.Ed., her Thesis Consultant II, who has given his
valuable advice, guidance and spent his precious time in the process of
completing this thesis.
Dra. Sri Juriaty Ownie, M.A., her Academic Consultant, who has
supported her throughout the academic years.
Dr. I Wayan Dirgeyasa, M.Hum., her Reviewer and Examiner who have

given their precious time, guidance, suggestions, and comments.
Drs. Johan Sinulingga, M.Pd., her Reviewer and Examiner who have
given their precious time, guidance, suggestions, and comments.
Dra. Masitowarni Siregar, M.Ed., her Reviewer and Examiner who have
given their precious time, guidance, suggestions, and comments.
All the Lecturers of English Department who have taught, guided, and
advised her throughout the academic years.
Mam Eis Sri Wahyuningsih, S.Pd., M.Pd and Mr. Pantes the
administration staffs of English and Literature Department who always
helped the writer during her academic year.








Mr. Syahromadhon Ritonga, S.Pd, the Headmaster of MTS S GUPPI
Tanjung Harapan, Rantauprapat who has given the permission to conduct

the research in the school. And also for students in VIII-A and VIII-B for
their intention and participation during the research.
The deepest thankfulness goes to her beloved wonderful parents, Dukut
Wijaya and Alm. Muliyati for the struggle, loves, faithfulness, patience,
prayers, supports, and everything for her. Hariyanto, Rubino, Teguh
Broto, Sumariah, S.Pd., Basirun, Pandoyo, Syahputra, Farida
Hanum, Surti, Muliyani, Kiki, Dwi, Kenzie and Fira Putriah her
brothers, sisters, and nephew for their support and prayer who always
waiting her the Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan.
The deepest thankfulness goes to her engage man Budi Yanto, S.Pd
someone special in her live that always supports, suggest, and accompany
her until the Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan.
All her best friends, Fahrunnisa Mariyam, Ayu Purnama Sari,
Rifa’atul Inayah, Khalida Gustani Nst, Khairuni Syafitri, Phupuh
Citra Dewi and also Extention B 2011 who have gave her support and
nice friendship.

Finally, the writer hopes this thesis can give contribution to the English
Education students and further pedagogical research.
Medan, August 2015

The Writer

Karmila
NIM. 2113321023

ABSTRACT
Karmila.Reg. No.2113321023. The Effect of Realia on Students’ Achievement
in Writing Descriptive Paragraph. A Thesis. English and Literature
Department of Faculty of Languages and Arts. State University of Medan.
2015.
This study was an attempt to discover the effect of using Realia on students’
achievement in writing descriptive paragraph. It was conducted by using
experimental research design. The population of this research was the eight grade
students of MTS S GUPPI Tanjung Harapan, Rantauprapat which consists of
three parallel classes with the total number of students are 90. The sample of this
research was taken by random sampling. The result was class VIII-A consisting
30 students became the experimental group and VIII-B consisting of 30 students
became the control group. The experimental group was taught by using Realia
meanwhile the control group was taught by using Picture. The instrument for
collecting the data was writing test. In the calculation of Ttest, the mean of

students’ score in experimental group was 21.8 and the mean of students’ score in
control group was 14.6. Standard deviation of experimental group was 1630.2,
standard deviation of control group was 1568.8, and the total number of samples
was 58, Tobserved is higher than Ttable. 3.977 > 2.004 at the level significance 0.05
for two tailed. The finding is if hypothesis stated that there is significant effect of
using Realia as media learning on students’ achievement in writing descriptive
paragraph is accepted.
Keywords: Realia, Writing, Descriptive Paragraph.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………….
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT…………………………………………….
TABLE OF CONTENTS……………………………………………...
LIST OF TABLES ………………………………………………….....
LIST OF APPENDICES………………………………...…………….

i
ii
iv

vi
vii

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ……………………………………
A. The Background of the Study ……………………......
B. The Problem of the Study ……………………………
C. The Scope of the Study ………………………………
D. The Objective of the Study ………………………......
E. The Significance of the Study ………………………..

1
1
4
4
5
5

CHAPTER II: REVIEW AND RELATED LITERATURE ………
A. Theoretical Framework ………………………………
1. Students’ Achievement……………………………

2. Writing ……………………………………………
a. The Stages of Writing Process ……….……..
b. Assessment in writing…………………………
1) Content…………………………………….
2) Organization………………………………..
3) Vocabulary…………………………………
4) Language Use………………………………
5) Mechanics…………………………………..
3. Genre ………..…………………………………….
a. Genre in Writing………………………………
b. Structure Genre……………………………….
c. Parts of Genre in Writing……………………..
d. Types of Genre……………………………….
4. Descriptive …...…….…………………………….
a. The definition of Descriptive…………………
b. The characteristic of Descriptive…………….
1) Social function…………………………….
2) The generic structure and textual elements...
3) Language feature of Descriptive…………...
5. Media………………………………………..….....

6. Realia ………...……………………………………
a. The Types of Realia.........................................
b. The Characteristic of Realia …..……………..
c. The Advantages of Using Realia …………
d. The Disadvantages of using Realia………..

6
6
6
7
7
8
8
9
9
10
10
11
12
12

13
14
14
14
15
15
16
16
16
18
18
19
20
21

e. The Steps of Implementing Realia …..……
7. Pictures …………………………………...............
a. The Advantages of applying pictures……...
b. The Disadvantages of applying pictures…..
B. Relevant of Studies………………………………….

C. Conceptual Framework ……………………………..
D. Hypothesis…………………………………………

22
23
25
25
26
27
29

CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHOD ……………………………
A. Research Method ……………………………………
B. Population and Sample……..…………………………
C. The Instrument for Collecting Data……..……………
D. The Procedure of the Research ………………………
1. Pre-Test…………………………………….
2. The Treatment………………………………
3. Post-Test……………………………………
E. The Validity and Reliability of the Test……………..

1. Validity of the Test………………………..
2. Reliability of the Test………………………
F. The Technique for Analyzing the Data………………

30
30
31
31
32
32
32
35
35
35
36
37

CHAPTER IV: THE DATA ANALYSIS ……………………………
A. The Data ……….……………………………………
B. The Data Analysis ……..…………………………….
1. Reliability of the Test…………………………
2. Analyzing the data by using t-test formula ….
C. Testing Hypothesis …………………………………..
D. Research Findings……………………………………
E. Discussion…………………………………………….

38
38
39
39
39
41
41
42

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION……………
A. Conclusion………………………………………………
B. Suggestions………………………………………………

44
44
44

REFERENCES ……………………………………………………….

45

LIST OF TABLES
Page
Table 2.1

Criteria of Scoring Test …………………………….

11

Table 3.1

Research Design ……………………………………

30

Table 3.2

Teaching Procedure for Experimental Group………

32

Table 3.3

Teaching Procedure of Control Group…………….

34

LIST OF APPENDICES

APPENDICES

Page

APPENDIX A

Pre-test for Experimental and Control Group……..

47

APPENDIX B

Post-Test for Experimental and Control Group… …

48

APPENDIX C

The score of Pre-Test and Post-Test in Experimental
Group………………………………………………

APPENDIX D

49

The score of Pre-Test and Post-Test in Control
Group........................................................................

50

APPENDIX E

Testing the Reliability of the Test…………………

51

APPENDIX F

The Calculation of T-Test……………………….....

53

APPENDIX G

Percentage Points of the T Distribution……………

56

APPENDIX H

Lesson Plan of Experimental Group …………… …..

57

APPENDIX I

Lesson Plan of Control Group ……………………..

76

APPENDIX J

Sample of Score of Experimental & Control Group...

96

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. The Background of the Study
Language is used to communicate to other people. It plays a very
important role in human life in expressing feelings, opinions, emotions and ideas.
It means that language is a medium of a code of communication using the system
of sound and works.
One of the languages used in a global setting is English. It is very
important to be learnt because it is a tool that is used to communicate
internationally. In Indonesia, English has been taught since the Elementary up to
University level.
In learning English language, there are four skills should be taught to the
students. They are speaking, listening, reading and writing. In practice, learning
the lessons taught writing after speaking, listening and reading. But, it can not be
said that learning writing is not important. In fact, since writing is a very
important lesson learning why writing is taught after the third important element
is taught and writing also is the very difficult subject for the students. It is related
to Oshima and Hogue (1999:3) that writing, particularly academic writing is not
easy. It takes study and practice to develop this skill. For both native speaker and
new learners of English, it is important to note that writing is a process, not a
“product”. This means that a piece of writing, whether it is a composition for your
English class or a lab report for your chemistry class is never complete; that is, it
is always possible to review and revise, and review and revise again. Writing is a

very important capability for being owned by students, writing is also an excellent
communication tool. Through writing, each person will be able to convey
feelings, ideas, and announcements to others. Student can convey their ideas in
their mind by organizing them into a good text so that the others know them and
they can think critically. Therefore, learning is very important to improve writing
skill in particular learning of English in Indonesia because the writing is a process
of transforming of thoughts and ideas into tangible forms of writing. In addition,
many people choose writing as a means of effective and efficient communication
of information to be conveyed in some ways like posting letters, business letters
and important information in a company's product.
In addition, writing has many kinds of text genre such as narrative,
descriptive, recount, report, and procedure. According to Educational Unit
Curriculum in Junior High School, the students are expected to be able to
understand and write procedure, descriptive, narrative and report text.
Based on the above, the descriptive text is one genre that must be mastered
by students in learning English. And theoretically, according to Ervina Evawina S
(2010:7) descriptive paragraph is a paragraph vividly portrays a person, place, or
thing in such a way that the reader can visualize the topic and enter into the
writer’s experience.
In fact, not all students are able to write descriptive paragraph properly and
in accordance with the existing elements in the descriptive text. Based on data
during interviewing the English teacher at MTS Swasta Guppi Tanjung Harapan
Rantau Prapat, there are some problems in teaching English. The most problem is

writing. Many students cannot write good text especially in descriptive text.
Almost 75% students got the score under the Minimum Criteria Mastery (KKM).
The KKM that applied for the subject in that school is 75. Most of them got lower
score in writing. The students were not able to write and did not pay attention on
the writing task. They do not know how to recognize their ideas in writing. They
frequently being confuse of what to write and how to start. For the students,
writing is difficult because it is complex subject that involves organization of
thought, the usage of English language and imagination. These conditions affect
the students’ achievement in writing descriptive text. In order to solve this
problem, it is needed some creative and engaged strategy to make the teaching
writing more effective and interesting.
The failure of the students in writing is likely to happen because of the
media used by the teacher during teaching and learning process take place. During
teaching and learning process, teacher just explained the materials without giving
an interesting media so the students cannot enjoy the lessons and make the
students difficult to understand the materials. The teacher should not just explain
the subject or materials and force the students to memorize or do their activities
because it can make the students are not interesting in their lessons.
So, based on the explanation in advance, the researcher tries to give media
that may help the students elaborate their ideas in writing and the media that was
used in this study are Realia and Picture. Realia was used in experimental group,
while picture was used in control group. Realia means using real items found in
everyday life as media to teaching English. Using Realia helps students to make

English lessons memorable by creating a link between the objects and the word or
phrase they represent.
Picture is visual representation or image painted, drawing, photograph, or
otherwise rendered on a flat surface. Pictures as a media make the instruction
clear and interesting. Pictures can be used to express idea, present information and
to make the presentation or instruction more efficient.
By using Realia will be expected to enhance students' skills in writing
descriptive paragraph properly and in accordance with the existing elements in the
descriptive paragraph. Realia can increase the students’ ability in writing
descriptive paragraph and will be interested in learning English because using
Realia that is making a connection between objects and language.

B. The Problem of the Study
Based on the background of the study, the problem of this study is
formulated as follows:
“Is the students’ achievement in writing descriptive paragraph taught by
Realia higher than the students’ achievement taught by Picture?”.

C. The Objective of the Study
The objective of the study is to find out whether students’ achievement
taught by Realia is higher than the students’ achievement taught by Picture in
writing descriptive paragraph.

D. The Scope of the Study
There are many genres of writing learnt in the SMP (Junior High School)
such as recount, narrative, procedure, descriptive, and etc. The scope of the study
is focused in writing descriptive paragraph applying of Realia and Picture in
teaching.

E. The Significance of the Study
The study is expected to have both theoretical and practical perspectives:
1. Theoretical Perspectives
a. The result of the research will be useful to improve the teaching
learning process; not only for descriptive text material, but also the
other materials.
b. The results of this research can be used as a reference for those
who want to conduct a research about writing descriptive text.
2. Practical perspectives
a. For the teachers
The writer hopes that this research and technique will be inspiring
for English teacher to develop the teaching learning process; not
only in teaching writing but also other skills.
b. For the students
This study also expected to encourage the students to develop their
writing achievement, especially in writing descriptive text through
Realia.

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