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grammar, mechanics, and vocabulary, encourage the students to explore their ideas, class situation was
more alive, the students were more active, Indonesian translation style was reduced.
-: the challenging of tasks need to be increased. Final Reflection
Writing ability increased in all aspects of writing from cycle to cycle, Indonesian translation style was
reduced, and the students were active in conducting the tasks.
Classroom situation: The students’ participation was increased in exploring their ideas, the teacher was
more innovative, and the teacher explored the students’ potentials in writing.
The implementations of the research in its cycles are described on the following section.
a. Cycle 1
The overall description of Cycle 1 can be seen in Table 4. 6
Table 4.6 Result of Cycle 1
Planning Topic: Describing Things. Giving a task in each meeting.
Each meeting consists of pre – task, task, and language focus.
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Using picture and real object. Action
First meeting – third meeting: - Exploring vocabulary and phrases.
- Doing various tasks about the topic. - Discussing the form in language focus.
Fourth meeting: - Having a test of describing things.
Observat ion
Students: - Many students were active and interested in doing the
tasks, tried to write, tried to explore their ideas, but some students were still confused what should they
do. The teacher:
- The teacher prepared the worksheets. - The teacher did not give enough examples of written
model and grammar discussion, gave too many translation of English words for the students.
- Lack of monitoring. Classroom situation:
- More alive and enjoyable for various types of activities.
- Most students were active to participate.
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Reflec tion
Strength: - There were various activities of vocabulary building
- Using various tasks can improve students’ participation in writing class.
- There was an improvement of students’ self- confidence.
- The exploration of ideas was increased make the students interested to write with logical development
of ideas to the topic content. Weaknesses:
- There was lack control of the teacher. - There was lack of time allocation, limited time
because so much time to review the last material basic English because the students forgot it.
- There was lack of discussion about grammar. - There were too many tasks to do in a meeting.
- The students still had difficulties in organization, syntax grammar, and mechanics of writing.
The process of Cycle 1 is described in the following section.
1 Planning
Before implementing the action, the researcher gave the students a pre – test. The test was aimed to know how well the
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students’ writing ability was. Having identified students’ problems, the indicators and the causes of the problems, the researcher chose a
teaching technique that could be a solution for the problems. In this case, the researcher applied Task – Based Language Teaching TBLT
in the writing class. In the First Cycle, the researcher planned to teach writing
using TBLT. The topic for the First Cycle was Describing Things. The researcher planned four meetings for the First Cycle; three meetings
for giving tasks, classroom discussions and activities using TBLT; and one meeting for post – test. Each meeting consisted of five parts
namely Opening the class, Pre – task, Task, Language Focus, and Closing the class.
In Pre – task phase, the researcher tried to build students’ vocabulary and developed related phrases. In the Task phase, the
researcher gave various activities to the students to conduct the tasks using TBLT. The students could optimize the use of vocabularies and
related phrases that they had learnt in Pre – task. During the task, the students were hoped to write a lot in exploring their ideas with an
appropriate vocabulary suitable to the topic. The activity was followed by Language Focus. In this phase, the researcher underlined the
sentence pattern dealing with the language that had been used by the students in the task phase. The language focus was mainly dealing
with form in written exercises.
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2 Implementing the action
a First Meeting 1 Opening the class
It was a beautiful morning. After the bell rang, the researcher entered the class with her collaborator. The
researcher greeted the students “Good morning students” and they replied eagerly. The activity was followed with checking
the students’ attendance. 2 Pre – task
The researcher introduced the topic of discussion. The researcher said that that day the topic was Describing Things,
accordingly the teaching material would discuss about describing objects. The researcher delivered the work sheets to
the students and started the activity. The researcher referred to the pictures in Activity 1. By looking at the picture, the
researcher asked the students to describe various objects in the picture such as “Describe the following objects in the pictures”
namely book, pen, duster, bag, broom, fan, glass, helmet, motorcycle, and cat. Firstly, they started to discuss the meaning
of the words. The students could answer well. They had known various names of the objects, but, some students did not know
the meaning of duster. The students made some mistakes in writing the names of the objects. Then, the researcher spelt the
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words and the students tried to write it and sometimes they had to remember the alphabet that the researcher said. Then, the
researcher asked the students to describe the characteristics of those objects. Some students still did not have the courage to
answer the researcher’s question even though they could answer it. So, the researcher pointed one of them to answer it and this
activity continued to other students. The researcher said that she would not be angry with them if they gave a wrong answer.
The researcher continued to Activity 2. In Activity 2, the students did the activity of counting the objects in the pictures.
Some students could count correctly; however, they still made mistakes to write it. Most of the students could answer the
number of the objects correctly but ignored singular or plural nouns. They still used a singular noun form for plural objects.
The researcher monitored the class and corrected some mistakes in pronunciation, spelling and remembered the number. Then
the teacher explained the correct singular and plural forms clearly, so the students could use them well. The researcher gave
an opportunity to the students to ask some questions about the problem they had related to the topic. Afterward, the researcher
continued to the Task Phase.
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3 Task Phase Main Activity In the Task Phase, students worked in group. After
dividing the class into five groups, the researcher explained the way of conducting the task. There were two tasks in this phase.
The first task was described in Activity 3. In the first task, the students had to write down the singular and plural forms of the
objects in Activity 1. The second task was exploring the students’ ideas to find other objects and to make their singular
and plural nouns. They started with the first task. To give a clear
understanding the researcher gave an example of how to conduct the task. She chose an object and asked the students to answer
what were the singular and plural forms of the object, and then wrote down them on the table. When the students had
understood the way to do the task, they started working in group. The students were working with the group, while the
researcher monitored the activity. There was no problem with the students in conducting the task. Each group had to be able to
write singular and plural forms of the objects in the pictures in Activity 1. Some of them could not distinguish plural nouns of
the regular and irregular nouns. The students discussed it with their own groups. After the students had finished working, the
researcher checked the result.
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The researcher asked a member of the First Group to write down their work on the white board. And the activity
continued to the next group and the turn continued to the other groups. The common mistakes that the students made were
spelling. Some students made wrong spelling by missing or adding one or more characters. For the kind of mistakes the
researcher usually corrected the spelling at once. After conducting the first task, they continued to the
second task. The second task was exploring the students’ ideas to find other objects and to write their singular and plural forms.
Each member of the groups had to give an idea what object that should be used in the task. Then they found the singular and
plural forms of the objects. After finishing the tasks, the researcher asked which group wanted to present their work in
front of the class. Many students from all groups raised their hands to get this chance. The researcher chose one student from
the fifth group to present her group’s work. The representative of the fifth group came to the front of the class, and then
presented her group’s work. The other students listened to her carefully and gave their opinions and correction to her group’s
work. This activity was continued to other groups. However, because of the limited time, she had to stop the presentation. The
other groups seemed very disappointed because they did not get
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the turn to conduct the task. The researcher had to stop the task because she had to continue the last part of the lesson, the
language focus. 4 Language Focus
In this phase, the researcher conducted a review about numbering, singular and plural nouns of the objects. She also
explained how to use “there is…” and “there are …” in the sentence. A student asked the difference of using “there is” and
“there are”. Most of the students had difficulties in using irregular nouns. Thus, the researcher explained the kinds of
regular and irregular nouns. Since there was no question anymore about the regular and irregular nouns, the activity was
followed by written exercises in Activity 5. The researcher asked the students to write down the words and phrases in
Activity 1 and 4 in a good sentence using “There is ….” Or “There are….”
She could not give sufficient practices in this stage because of the limited time. As a solution, she gave them
homework. 5 Closing the class
When the bell finally rang, she ended the class by saying good bye and asked the students to do their homework.
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b Second Meeting 1 Opening the Class
The researcher and her collaborator started the class by greeting the students “Good morning students” and they
responded enthusiast. After checking the attendance, she said to the students that they would discuss further about Describing
Things. She went on with reviewing the material in the previous meeting dealing with mentioning the objects and their amount.
2 Pre – task That day’s meeting was aimed at exploring various
adjectives that were used in describing things. The researcher took her book and asked the students about the characteristics of
her book. They said that her book was rectangle and blue. Then, after she asked some questions, they concluded that the book
was thin. The researcher continued to the vocabulary exploration.
She stated that in describing things, they needed several adjectives. She made some notes on the whiteboard while
discussing the words. The first was about shape. They mentioned some adjectives of shapes such as rectangle, circle,
triangle and square. The second was about color. They could mention some colors such as brown, blue, white, pink, and
yellow. The third was size. The students said that her book was
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big; they mentioned some adjectives of size namely small, long, and short. She asked question about the quality of the book; and
they said that her book was good. Then the researcher explored some adjectives of quality such as good, bad, beautiful. So far,
they had learned about adjectives of shape, color, size, and quality. She stated that she had another type of adjective,
dealing with age. She listed about new, old, and modern. She nearly missed another type of adjective, the adjectives of
material. Students could identify the words such as paper, wood, iron, and plastic.
She continued to Activity 1 in the worksheet. She supplied various adjectives and the students had to put the
adjectives into their category of shape, color, size, quality, age and material based on the pictures. The students discussed it
with their partners. She monitored the students’ activity. It took a long time for the students to make a categorization of the
adjectives. Considering the length of time, she took control of the activity by having a class discussion. The researcher
discussed Activity 1 by asking the students to write down the characteristics of the objects in the whiteboard. Most of the
students raised their hands to get a chance to write in front of the class. She chose one student to do question number 1 and then
discussed it with other students. This activity was continued to
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other students until question number 10. Some students got the problems. Most of the problems were about vocabulary. Some
students did not know the English words for describing the objects. In this case, she told them the correct words. The
students had problem with the names of objects such as sapu, perahu, tempat sampah, and some adjective words like ungu,
and canggih. She asked the other students who knew the English words to share with their friends. Some students could answer it,
but no one knew the English word for canggih, she still did not tell the students because she wanted the students to be active and
tried hard to know that word. She asked the students to open their dictionary, but unfortunately no one could find it, so she
told them that the English word for canggih was sophisticated. Finally, they could understand the English words and completed
their task. 3 Task
In this stage, she divided the students into five groups. They had to work in groups to arrange the characteristics of the
objects in the worksheet in a good order. The students worked in the group; the researcher monitored the groups and helped if
there was a problem. They did their task with their own group eagerly. They worked together to do the task. They worked hard
to make a good order of the objects. While the students were
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working in group, she monitored them. To check their understanding, she asked the students in the group to describe
the objects. Some students still confused to make a good order of the adjectives of the objects. So the researcher explained
about that. Having finished with the group work, she asked them to sit in their own chairs. She checked the whole class in making
the good order of adjectives of the objects and they had no problem.
The activity was followed by making a composition paragraph of the objects in the worksheet based on their
characteristics. In this activity, the class situation was quieter because all students did their composition seriously based on the
characteristics of the objects with their own point of views. Some students asked her about some words in English and after
she answered them, they continued their task. Even though this activity was serious, the students enjoyed this activity because
they could write freely what they wanted to say. After finishing the task, she asked the students to read their work in front of the
class. Some students were shy to show their work but some of them were enthusiastic to present their work in front of the class.
While one student read his work, the researcher asked the others to make note of the mistakes that were made by their friend.
After the students finished reading his composition, the
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researcher asked the rest of the students to give their opinions and tell the mistakes that should be corrected. And then all
students discussed the correct ones. The activity was fun for the students. They were eager to participate in the activity.
4 Language Focus In the last point, the researcher made a review of how to
describe an object. She also underlined the way to make a good order of adjectives of the objects and how to make a good
composition after that. She gave an exercise to the students. 5 Closing the class
Before ending the class, she gave homework to the students. She ended the class by thanking the students for their
participation and said goodbye. They gave a big applause together.
c Third Meeting 1 Opening the class
It was a cloudy afternoon. The researcher and her collaborator entered the class and started the lesson. She greeted
the students “Good afternoon students” and the students responded properly. She checked the attendance and then started
the lesson.
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2 Pre – task The researcher told the students that they would learn
about Describing Rooms. She delivered the worksheets and asked the students to pay attention to the pictures in the
worksheets. First, they would learn about the name of the rooms and then the students identified the things objects in those
rooms. 3 Task
In the task phase, the students had to make a composition about describing the rooms in the worksheets. The researcher
divided the class into 5 groups. Each group had a theme based on the pictures in their worksheets. But all students had to make
their own composition even though they were in the same theme and group. So the students worked individually. The groups
were made to make the students easier to explore their ideas and to share the difficult words to be solved together. To give a clear
understanding the researcher gave an example of how to make a good composition. She gave an example of how to make
outlines and how to develop it. When the students had understood the way to do the task, they started making their
composition. In this activity the students had many chances to explore their ideas.
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When the students were working individually, the researcher monitored them from one group to another. She told
the students that they had to be fair and not to cheat. She only gave permission for them to ask others about English words that
they did not know. The students discussed it with their own groups. When the students from the same group also did not
know, she asked them to ask the other groups. So, in this activity, the role of the teacher was minimal, it forced the
students to find the words by themselves and to work together with their own group or the other groups. Finally, if there was
no student who could answer, she gave them the answer. There was no problem with the students in conducting
the task. After the students finished working, the researcher checked the result.
4 Language Focus In this phase, the researcher conducted a review about
vocabulary related to the topic and how to make logical development of ideas. The researcher gave exercises about
finding as many as words and phrases related to the topic and composed them into a paragraph.
Because of the limited time, she could not give sufficient practices in this stage. As a solution, she gave them homework.
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5 Closing the class She ended the class because the bell rang. She said good
bye and asked the students to do their homework. d Fourth meeting
1 Opening the class The researcher and her collaborator entered the class and
started by greeting the students “Good morning students” and the students responded happily. After checking the attendance,
she said to the students that that day they would have a test. 2 Conducting the test
Before starting
the test,
the researcher
gave brainstorming to the students. She went on with asking the
students about their special things. One by one, the students mentioned their special things. The researcher pointed to one
student and asked him what kind of special thing he had. She also asked many questions about it, such as “How do you get it?
Why do you like it? Where is it now? and How are your feeling about it?”. Those questions were also given to the other
students. All of the students were enthusiastic to answer the questions. Some students asked the difficult words that they did
not know in English. This session was really enjoyable because all students participated in this session. The researcher asked the
students to have in their mind their own special thing. After that,
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the researcher explained to the students about the reason why she asked them about their special thing. She said that she would
ask the students to make a composition about their own special thing. She asked the students to prepare their paper to do their
task. After explaining the kind of test that would be conducted
and the time allocation that should be done, the test was conducted.
3 Closing the class When the bell finally rang, she asked the students to
submit their work and ended the class by saying good bye.
3 Observation
The observation was conducted during the teaching and learning process. The observation was very important to do because it
could be used as indicators of knowing the progress during the research. The observation was conducted by the researcher and her
collaborator. The focuses of the observation were the students, the teacher, and the teaching – learning process. The result of the
observation was described in the following paragraphs. Based on the observation, the students had high participation in
the writing activities. Many students were interested in the activity. When the teacher gave them various tasks to write individually, the
students used the chances well. They tried to explore their ideas.
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However, some students lack of self-confidence in writing, they did not know what they should do. They did not have enough courage to
write and also found difficulties in finding appropriate words. Those problems were reduced by doing the tasks in groups because the
teacher gave the interesting pictures and asked them to work with their group. In group, the students were willing to write because they felt
much more relax and could share their difficulties with their friends. From the result of the post – test in Cycle 1, it can be seen that
the mean score was 63.61, the highest score was 78, and the lowest score was 42. There were 12 students or 36 who passed the passing
grade. In more detail, the students’ scores for each aspect of writing from each scorer in the post – test are as follow:
3. Form the first scorer. a. Organization: the mean score was 11.39, the highest score was
16, and the lowest score was 4. b. Content: the mean score was 20.18, the highest score was 30,
and the lowest score was 12. c. Syntax grammar: the mean score was 14.70, the highest score
was 20, and the lowest score was 5. d. Mechanics: the mean score was 2.91, the highest score was 5,
and the lowest score was 2. e. Vocabulary: the mean score was 14.18, the highest score was
20, and the lowest score was 8.
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4. Form the second scorer. a. Organization: the mean score was 11.15, the highest score was
16, and the lowest was 4. b. Content: the mean score was 12.73, the highest score was 30,
and the lowest score was 12. c. Syntax grammar: the mean score was 13.79, the highest score
was 20, and the lowest score was 5. d. Mechanics: the mean score was 3.27, the highest score was 5,
and the lowest score was 2. e. Vocabulary: the mean score was 14.55, the highest score was
20, and the lowest score was 12. The average of those two scores of organization was 11.27
56, content was 20.46 68, syntax grammar was 14.25 57, mechanics was 3.09 62, and vocabulary was 14.37 72.
The students’ writing ability especially in choosing the appropriate words that were suitable to the topic vocabulary and
using logical development of ideas content in making a composition were developed well during the First Cycle. Furthermore they could
write their ideas even though there were many mistakes in grammar. Most of them still used the wrong mechanics. The mistakes were also
found in organizing the paragraph. The organization of paragraph was still bad.
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4 Reflection
Based on the observation results, she made a reflection about the strengths and weaknesses of Cycle 1, as follows:
a. Strengths The writing aspects:
- The word choices and vocabularies building were increased. - The use of logical development of ideas related to the topic
content was also increased. The students and class situation:
- Using TBLT could improve students’ participation in the writing class because there were various types of motivating
activities that were interesting. - The exploration of ideas was increased and made the
students interested to write. - Group work enhanced the students’ participation in the
writing class. - Group work in TBLT was beneficial for eliminating
psychological barriers in writing such as the fear of making mistakes, lack of self-confidence, and shyness in exploring
their ideas. b. Weaknesses
The writing aspects: - The use of wrong grammar syntax was still appeared.
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- The use of correct spelling and punctuation mechanics was still bad.
- The arrangement of sentences into a good organization was also still bad.
The students and the class situation: - There were lacks of control and monitoring from the teacher
in the group work. - There were lacks of discussion about grammar.
- There was limited time because there were too many tasks to do in a single meeting.
- Time was not enough because they had to review the Basic English material because they forgot it.
By analyzing the observation results as the reflection, she and her collaborator concluded that using Task – Based Language
Teaching TBLT brought a positive result in learning. However, there were many weaknesses found during the teaching – learning process.
The weaknesses had to be solved to get a better result. As a conclusion, she considered they needed to revise the action plan for
the next cycle.
b. Cycle 2
