37 ideas, and applying tenses used in an informal memo and an informal invitation
letter. They also felt bored in learning writing. Therefore, the researcher tried to find the appropriate technique to teach
them writing an informal memo and an informal invitation letter. Based on the observation, the researcher concluded that it was better for the students to
experience the practice and use of the language rather than to listen to teacher
’s
explanation. Therefore, the students writing skill was expected to improve. Moreover, the students of X Accountancy 2 students felt bored easily. They
needed interesting activities in learning writing.
B. The Implementation of Games in the First Cycle
The use of games in the teaching learning process in the first cycle was conducted in two meetings on Friday, March 22
nd
, 2013 and Thursday, April 4
th
, 2013. The first meeting was conducted in eighty minutes. The second meeting
was conducted in a hundred and thirty five minutes. There were 24 students who joined the class. The topic in the first cycle was an informal memo. The games of
this studywere implemented based on the steps of classroom action research. The steps were planning, action, observation, and reflection.
1. Planning
After identifying the writing problems encountered by X Accountancy 2 students of SMK Putra Tama Bantul, the researcher began to do classroom action
research to help X Accountancy 2 students of SMK Putra Tama Bantul improve their writing skill in composing an informal memo by using games. In this step,
38 the researcher prepared the lesson plan and the materials. In the lesson plan, there
were 3 main activities, namely: pre activities, whilst activities, and post activities. In pre activities, the researcher planned to review the informal memo that
had been taught by the English teacher. The researcher planned to give some questions about elements and language features used in informal memos. These
activities aimed to give the students
’ view about what they were going to do in
class and recalled what they have learned about an informal memo. After that, the
researcher planned to distribute the students’ call card to each student in order to
help them memorize their numbers. In whilst activities, the researcher planned to give jumbled sentences of an
informal memo. The class was divided in to six groups so there would be four students each group. The researcher also planned to give some questions about
elements and language features used in an informal memo. The informal memo was about a memo from Rani to Tono. The activities aimed to help the students
have experience in arranging an informal memo correctly and applying the elements and language feature used in an informal memo.
In the next meeting, the researcher planned to give the second game which was jumbled words. This activity helped the students make correct sentences by
experiencing to arrange the jumbled word and enrich their vocabulary. Therefore, by playing the games, the students are expected to be able to compose correct
arrangement and sentences in writing an informal memo. Both games were competition games so the researcher planned to give a gift to the group which won
the games.
39 The last game was flash pictures. It was an individual game. The
researcher planned to ask the students write an informal memo after flashing the pictures in order to know their improvement in composing an informal memo.
The researcher planned to flash some pictures which helped the students organize their ideas to compose an informal memo. There were seven pictures; a market, a
watermelon, ten grams of grapes, a half of kilogram of carrots, a kilogram of chilies, a house and a clock shown 11 a.m. The researcher planned that the girls
pretended to be mother who wrote an informal memo to their sons or daughters to buy the vegetables and ingredients. The boys pretended to be fathers who wrote
an informal memo to their sons or daughters to buy the vegetables and ingredients. In conducting the study, the researcher planned to permit the students
to find difficult words in the dictionary. The researcher planned to collect the
students’ drafts in the in the end of the class. After that, the researcher planned to give feedback to students’ drafts. Then, the researcher planned to give the students
drafts to the students on Friday, April5
th
, 2013. Finally, the students were asked to submit their revised written texts on Saturday, April6
th
, 2013. In post activities, the researcher planned to have a question and answer
session. It was to make sure that the students had understood the topic material. The researcher also planned to give written reflective questions to the students in
the end of this cycle. Reflective questions were aimed to help the students reflect what they had learned and help the researcher to reflect the teaching learning
process of the first cycle.
40
2. Action
