CORRELATIONAL STUDY BETWEEN STUDENTS’ HABIT IN WRITING DIARY AND STUDENTS’ WRITING ACHIEVEMENT

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CORRELATIONAL STUDY BETWEEN STUDENTS’ HABIT IN

WRITING DIARY AND STUDENTS’ WRITING ACHIEVEMENT

THESIS

This thesis is submitted to meet one of the requirements to achieve

Sarjana Degree in English Education

By:

BAYU CAKRA BUANA

201010100311291

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION

UNIVERSITY OF MUHAMMADIYAH MALANG


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This thesis written by Bayu Cakra Buana was approved on February 5th, 2015.

By:

Advisor II, Advisor I,

Rahmawati Khadijah Maro, S.Pd., M.PEd Bayu Hendro Wicaksono, S.Pd., M.Ed., Ph.D


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This thesis was defended in front of the examiners of the Faculty of Teacher Training and Education of University of Muhammadiyah Malang

and accepted as one of the requirements to achieve Sarjana Degree in English Education

on February 5th, 2015

Approved by:

Faculty of Teacher Training and Education University of Muhammadiyah Malang

Dean,

Dr. Poncojari Wahyono, M.Kes

Examiners: Signatures:

1. Rinjani Bonavidi, M.Ed, Ph.D. 1. 2. Nina Inayati, M.Ed. 2. 3. Bayu Hendro Wicaksono, S.Pd., M.Ed, Ph.D. 3. 4. Rahmawati Khadijah Maro, S.Pd., M.PEd. 4.


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ORIGINALITY DECLARATION

The undersigned:

Name : Bayu Cakra Buana Student ID number : 201010100311291 Program of Study : English Department

Faculty : Faculty of Teacher Training and Education

I declare that the work presented in this thesis was carried out by myself and does not incorporate without acknowledgement any material previously submitted for a degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my knowledge this thesis does not contain any materials previously publish or written by another person except where due reference is made in text.

Malang, February 5th, 2015


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MOTTO AND DEDICATION

“Karena sesungguhnya sesudah kesulitan itu ada kemudahan” (QS. Al Insyirah: 5)

I dedicated this thesis to:

My beloved mother (Eti Tularsih, S.Pd) and father (Jaenudin, S.Pd)

My Advisors (Bayu H. Wicaksono, S.Pd., M.Ed., Ph.D and Rahmawati K. Maro, S.Pd., M.PEd.)

My lovely sisters (Wulan and Ega)

My adored (Ika Oktafani)

All of my friends (

Penghuni Kos

336,

Mbleyer

Family, Community of FPP Part-timer, MBC, F

2010, Uli, Reas, Yogik, Atiq, Laila, Defika, Novi and all of you)


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CORRELATIONAL STUDY BETWEEN STUDENTS’ HABIT IN WRITING DIARY AND STUDENTS’ WRITING ACHIEVEMENT

ABSTRACT

Writing is one of the skills in English that involves students’ creativity and confidence in expressing the ideas, feelings and thoughts into a written form. Nevertheless, most students are afraid of writing due to the grammatical feature. However, it is believed that students are able to minimize their anxiety by starting to write diary. Thus, in this present study the researcher intended to investigate the correlation between students’ habit in writing diary and students’ writing achievement.

This study employed correlational research design to meet the objective that is to investigate the correlation between students’ habit in writing diary and students’ writing achievement. The target population of this study was students on the second year of SMP N 1 Belik. The sample of this study was students of class VIII A and VIII C which consisted of 76 students. They were cluster randomly selected from 7 classes of the total population of 266 students. In collecting the data, the researcher used document of paper test result and questionnaire lists as the research instrument. In order to understand the correlation, this study applied Pearson Product Moment as the analysis.

The result of this study showed that there was a low positive correlation between students’ habit in writing diary and students’ writing achievement. The result was strengthened by the calculation of comparison between r-value and r-table. It was found that r-value was 0.258 and r-table at 0.05 level of significance in the degree of freedom (df = 74) was 0.225. It claimed that the r-value was higher than r-table. Besides, the result of this study showed that p = 0.024 and α = 0.05. It means the p value was lower than α. Thus, the alternative hypothesis (Hi) was accepted and the null hypothesis (H0) was rejected. To sum up, the increase of students’ habit in writing diary score might be followed by the increase of students’ writing achievement score.

Key words: habit in writing diary, writing achievement, correlation.

The Advisor I, The Researcher,


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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

In the name of Allah, the most gracious and the most merciful, all praises given to Allah SWT for the uncountable blessing given to the researcher during his study in English Department of UMM and especially in completing this thesis.

In this chance, the researcher would like to express his gratitude to his beloved parents: Eti Tularsih, S.Pd and Jaenudin, S.Pd for the endless love, pray as well as support. Their motivation, advice, support, and even anger have been making the researcher to be better person.

Let the researcher expresses his great appreciation to Mr. Bayu H. Wicaksono, S.Pd., M.Ed, Ph.D as the first advisor for the excellent advisory that help the researcher to finish this thesis. Besides, the researcher would like to say his gratitude to Miss Rahmawati K. Maro, S.Pd., M.PEd as the second advisor for her superb suggestions during finishing this study. The researcher’s admiration is also given to all the lecturers in English Department.

Next, the researcher’s thanks given to Mr. Kaharudin, S.Pd as the headmaster of SMP N 1 Belik and Mr. Budi Sumantri, S.Pd as the English teacher of the second year at SMP N 1 Belik for allowing the researcher to take data for several days. It is surely disturbing the daily activity there. Without their permission, the researcher may not be able to finish this study.

Malang, February 5th, 2015


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE ... i

APPROVAL ... ii

LEGALIZATION ... iii

ORIGINALITY DECLARATION ... iv

MOTTO AND DEDICATION ... v

ABSTRACT ... vi

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ... vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS ... viii

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of Study ... 1

1.2 Statement of the Problem ... 3

1.3 Hypothesis ... 3

1.4 Purpose of the Study ... 3

1.5 Significance of the Study ... 4

1.6 Scope and Limitation ... 4

1.7 Definition of Key Terms ... 5

CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE 2.1 Teaching English in Junior High School ... 7

2.2 Teaching Writing ... 9

2.2.1 Writing Skill ... 13


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2.3 Diary ... 19

2.4 Type of Diary ... 19

2.5 The Effectiveness of Diary to Improve Writing Skill ... 21

2.6 Related Study ... 22

CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHOD 3.1 Research Design ... 25

3.2 Data Collection ... 26

3.2.1 Population and Sample ... 26

3.2.2 Research Instrument ... 27

3.2.2.1 Questionnaire Lists ... 28

3.2.2.2 Document (Paper Test Result) ... 29

3.2.3 Validity and Reliability ... 30

3.2.4 Procedures of Data Collection ... 31

3.3 Data Analysis ... 32

CHAPTER IV: RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 4.1 Research Findings ... 35

4.2 Discussion ... 38

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS 5.1 Conclusion ... 40

5.2 Suggestions ... 41

REFERENCES ... 43 APPENDIXES


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REFERENCES

Alice Oshima, A. H. (2007). Introduction to Academic Writing. New York: Pearson Education.

Arikunto, S. (2013). Dasar-Dasar Evaluasi Pendidikan. Jakarta: PT Bumi Aksara. Bowker, D. N., Ed. (2007). Academic Writing: A Guide to Tertiary Level Writing.

Palmerstone North: Palmerstone North Student Learning Center.

Brown, H. D. (2000). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. New York: Pearson Education.

Brown, H. D. (2001). Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy. New York: Pearson Education.

Brown, H. D. (2007). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching, Fifth Edition. New York: Pearson Education.

Brown, H. D. (2007). Teaching by Principles, An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy, Third Edition. New York: Pearson Education.

Bungin, M. B. (2009). Metodologi Penelitian Kuantitatif: Komunikasi, Ekonomi, dan Kebijakan Publik Serta Ilmu-ilmu Sosial Lainnya. Jakarta: Kencana.

Chaniago, Junaidi. (2010). Tabel r Lengkap. Retrieved on December 1, 2014, from http://junaidichaniago.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/tabel-r.pdf.

Creswell, J. W. (2012). Educational Research Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitaive and Qualitative Research. Boston: Pearson Education.

Donald Ary, L. C. J., Chris Sorensen, Asghar Razavieh (2010). Introduction to Research in Education. Belmont: Wadsworth.

Harmer, J. (2004). How to Teach Writing. Essex: Pearson Education Limited. Harmer, J. (2007). How to Teach English. Essex: Pearson Education.

Jack R. Fraenkel, N. E. W., Helen H. Hyun (2012). How to Design and Evaluate Research in Education. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Lea, P. C. a. M. R. (2003). Writing at University a guide for students. Berkshire: Open University Press Maidenhead Philadelphia.


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Lefrancois, G. R. (2000). Psychology for Teaching. Belmont: Wadsworth.

Leki, I. (2010). Academic Writing Exploring Processes and Strategies. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Longman (2000). Longman Handy Learner's Dictionary of American English. Essex: Pearson Education Limited.

Mahanani, R. (2005). Using Diaries to Improve Englidh Writing Skill for the Third Year Students of SMP N 1 Lamongan. Department of English. University of Muhammadiyah Malang. S-1.

Mary Lou Brandvik, K. S. M. (2011). The English Teacher's Survival Guide: Ready-to-Use Techniques & Materials for Grades 7-12, Second Edition. San Fransisco: Jossey-Bass, A Wiley Imprint.

Nurgati, I. T. (2008). Correlation Between Reading Ability and Writing Ability on Fifth Semester of English Department at University of Muhammadiyah Malang. English Department. University of Muhammadiyah Malang. S-1. Raimes, A. (1983). Techniques in Teaching Writing. New York: Oxford University

Press.

Sejnost, R. L. (2009). Tools for Teaching in the Block. Thousand Oaks: Corwin. Tarigan, D. H. G. (1985). Menulis Sebagai Suatu Keterampilan Berbahasa.

Bandung: Angkasa.

Yliopisto, T. (2014). "Learning Diary." Retrieved January, 16, 2014, from http://www.utu.fi/en/units/soc/units/conthist/studying/methods/learning-diary-instruction/Pages/home.aspx.

Yunita, W. V. L. (2009). The Correlation between Speaking and Writing Achievement in Fourth Semester Students of English Department. English Department. University of Muhammadiyah Malang. S-1.


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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

For the purpose to provide clear understanding in conducting this study, the researcher discusses several topics such as background of the study, statement of problem, purpose of study, hypothesis, significance of study, scope and limitation as well as definition of key terms. Each section is presented as follows.

1.1 Background of Study

In teaching English, it compiles four skills such as writing, speaking, reading and listening. Writing and speaking are well-known as productive skills. Meanwhile, the rests of them are called receptive skills. Those four skills are related to each other and they work together encouraging students to communicate in their daily life with a correct structure of English.

Writing is considered as an essential skill in teaching and learning English. It involves students’ creativity and confidence in expressing their ideas, feelings and thoughts into a written form. Crème and Lea (2003, p. 5) have stated, “Writing consists of words and these words are put together in particular formations to make sentences”. It means that students only need to write down a group of words that appear in their brain. The problems are students do not have enough self-confidence to express their idea. Other than that, to have a good writing product, they are afraid of making mistakes.


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Making a mistake could be a factor that hampers students in expressing their ideas. According to Leki (2010, p. 9), “It does not have to be perfect so don’t worry about grammar, spelling, punctuation, or other details yet”. Thus, whenever students have an idea, they should write it down without wasting too much time.

In writing, especially diary, students do not need to be worry that their work is wrong in the grammatical context so automatically their confidence in writing academic will increase. Besides, the researcher believes that pouring what students feel into a diary is very fun since commonly people feel shy to share their problem to the others. Yliopisto (2014) stated that if students write diary, they could replicate their understanding to the material given by the teacher in the class and become more conscious of the teaching and learning process. Hence, students might write what they feel freely without any doubts.

In the previous research which has been done by Mahanani (2005) shows that diaries could be used to improve students’ writing skill and effective to be used to improve the students’ skill in writing. However, her study did not give the clear correlation yet between students’ habit in writing diary and students’ achievement. She did not prove yet about that correlation. Thus, the researcher would like to investigate deeper on that study.

Finally, for the purpose to investigate more about the correlation between students’ habit in writing diary and students’ writing achievement, the researcher is attracted to conduct a study entitled “The Correlational Study between Students’ Habit in Writing Diary and Students’ Writing Achievement”.


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1.2 Statement of the Problem

Based on the background of study above, the problem is formulated as follow:

1. Is there any correlation between students’ habit in writing diary and students’ writing achievement on the second year students of SMP N 1 Belik, Pemalang, Central Java?

1.3 Hypothesis

The researcher provides a tentative answer in the norm of hypothesis in order to answer the statement of the problem above:

1. Null hypothesis (Ho): there is no positive correlation between students’ habit in writing diary and students’ writing achievement on the second year students of

SMP N 1 Belik, Pemalang, Central Java.

2. Alternative hypothesis (Hi): there is positive correlation between students’ habit in writing diary and students’ writing achievement on the second year students of

SMP N 1 Belik, Pemalang, Central Java.

1.4 Purpose of Study

In relation with the problem stated above, the purpose of study is:

1. To investigate the correlation between students’ habit in writing diary and students’ writing achievement on the second year students of SMP N 1 Belik, Pemalang, Central Java.


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1.5 Significance of Study

Theoretically, the result of this study is expected to give information for the teachers about variation in teaching writing. They would know what they should do to conduct the best way to increase their students’ writing achievement. Meanwhile, students might understand about how to construct a simple sentence, complex sentence or even compound sentence so their writing skill could be improved.

Other than that, practically, this study could help the teachers to organize the teaching and learning activity especially in writing and hopefully the students’ achievement could increase significantly by asking them to write diary at home. For students, the researcher hopes the result of this study could give an encouragement to fill their time by writing diary that help them improve their writing skill in the classroom. Also, the result of this study is expected to give contribution for the next researchers who want to conduct a similar research with different topic.

1.6 Scope and Limitation

Dealing with the scope of the study, the researcher focuses on the correlation between students’ habit in writing diary and students’ writing achievement. Meanwhile, the researcher limits his study on the second year students (seven classes that consist of 266 students) of SMP N 1 Belik, Pemalang, Central Java.


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1.7 Definition of Key Terms

The researcher gives the definition of key terms in order to avoid the ambiguity and misunderstanding of terms used in this study. Those operational definitions are as follows.

Correlational study : It is a statistical test to determine the tendency or pattern for two (or more) variables or two sets of data to vary consistently (Creswell 2012). In this study, correlational study is a study providing a numerical estimate the correlation coefficient about the relationship between two variables.

Habit : It is person’s usual behaviour (Longman 2000). In this context, habit means students’ daily activity that they do in particular time regularly.

Writing : It is a skill that is required in many contexts throughout life (Bowker 2007). In this case, writing is an activity of visualize the ideas into written form. It could be academic term as well as the daily one.

Diary : Diary is a book for daily record of events in one’s life (Longman 2000). Usually it is produced by students everyday at the end of the day.

Achievement : Achievement is the status of the subject-matter knowledge, understanding and skills at one point in


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time (Linn 2009). In this study, achievement means school grade or score that given by the teacher to measure the result of students’ learning activity.

Following this section, chapter two would like to review some related literatures which are needed to expand researcher’s understanding and support the theoretical views of this topic. In the chapter two, the researcher discusses about teaching English in junior high school, teaching writing, diary, type of diary, the effectiveness of diary to improve writing skill and related study.


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1

C

HAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

For the purpose to provide clear understanding in conducting this study, the researcher discusses several topics such as background of the study, statement of problem, purpose of study, hypothesis, significance of study, scope and limitation as well as definition of key terms. Each section is presented as follows.

1.1Background of Study

In teaching English, it compiles four skills such as writing, speaking, reading and listening. Writing and speaking are well-known as productive skills. Meanwhile, the rests of them are called receptive skills. Those four skills are related to each other and they work together encouraging students to communicate in their daily life with a correct structure of English.

Writing is considered as an essential skill in teaching and learning English. It involves students’ creativity and confidence in expressing their ideas, feelings and thoughts into a written form. Crème and Lea (2003, p. 5) have stated, “Writing consists of words and these words are put together in particular formations to make sentences”. It means that students only need to write down a group of words that appear in their brain. The problems are students do not have enough self-confidence to express their idea. Other than that, to have a good writing product, they are afraid of making mistakes.


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Making a mistake could be a factor that hampers students in expressing their ideas. According to Leki (2010, p. 9), “It does not have to be perfect so don’t worry about grammar, spelling, punctuation, or other details yet”. Thus, whenever students have an idea, they should write it down without wasting too much time.

In writing, especially diary, students do not need to be worry that their work is wrong in the grammatical context so automatically their confidence in writing academic will increase. Besides, the researcher believes that pouring what students feel into a diary is very fun since commonly people feel shy to share their problem to the others. Yliopisto (2014) stated that if students write diary, they could replicate their understanding to the material given by the teacher in the class and become more conscious of the teaching and learning process. Hence, students might write what they feel freely without any doubts.

In the previous research which has been done by Mahanani (2005) shows that diaries could be used to improve students’ writing skill and effective to be used to improve the students’ skill in writing. However, her study did not give the clear correlation yet between students’ habit in writing diary and students’ achievement. She did not prove yet about that correlation. Thus, the researcher would like to investigate deeper on that study.

Finally, for the purpose to investigate more about the correlation between students’ habit in writing diary and students’ writing achievement, the researcher is attracted to conduct a study entitled “The Correlational Study between Students’ Habit in Writing Diary and Students’ Writing Achievement”.


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1.2Statement of the Problem

Based on the background of study above, the problem is formulated as follow:

1. Is there any correlation between students’ habit in writing diary and students’ writing achievement on the second year students of SMP N 1 Belik, Pemalang, Central Java?

1.3Hypothesis

The researcher provides a tentative answer in the norm of hypothesis in order to answer the statement of the problem above:

1. Null hypothesis (Ho): there is no positive correlation between students’ habit in writing diary and students’ writing achievement on the second year students of SMP N 1 Belik, Pemalang, Central Java.

2. Alternative hypothesis (Hi): there is positive correlation between students’ habit in writing diary and students’ writing achievement on the second year students of SMP N 1 Belik, Pemalang, Central Java.

1.4 Purpose of Study

In relation with the problem stated above, the purpose of study is:

1. To investigate the correlation between students’ habit in writing diary and students’ writing achievement on the second year students of SMP N 1 Belik, Pemalang, Central Java.


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1.5 Significance of Study

Theoretically, the result of this study is expected to give information for the teachers about variation in teaching writing. They would know what they should do to conduct the best way to increase their students’ writing achievement. Meanwhile, students might understand about how to construct a simple sentence, complex sentence or even compound sentence so their writing skill could be improved.

Other than that, practically, this study could help the teachers to organize the teaching and learning activity especially in writing and hopefully the students’ achievement could increase significantly by asking them to write diary at home. For students, the researcher hopes the result of this study could give an encouragement to fill their time by writing diary that help them improve their writing skill in the classroom. Also, the result of this study is expected to give contribution for the next researchers who want to conduct a similar research with different topic.

1.6 Scope and Limitation

Dealing with the scope of the study, the researcher focuses on the correlation between students’ habit in writing diary and students’ writing achievement. Meanwhile, the researcher limits his study on the second year students (seven classes that consist of 266 students) of SMP N 1 Belik, Pemalang, Central Java.


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1.7 Definition of Key Terms

The researcher gives the definition of key terms in order to avoid the ambiguity and misunderstanding of terms used in this study. Those operational definitions are as follows.

Correlational study : It is a statistical test to determine the tendency or pattern for two (or more) variables or two sets of data to vary consistently (Creswell 2012). In this study, correlational study is a study providing a numerical estimate the correlation coefficient about the relationship between two variables.

Habit : It is person’s usual behaviour (Longman 2000). In this context, habit means students’ daily activity that they do in particular time regularly.

Writing : It is a skill that is required in many contexts throughout life (Bowker 2007). In this case, writing is an activity of visualize the ideas into written form. It could be academic term as well as the daily one.

Diary : Diary is a book for daily record of events in one’s life (Longman 2000). Usually it is produced by students everyday at the end of the day.

Achievement : Achievement is the status of the subject-matter knowledge, understanding and skills at one point in


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time (Linn 2009). In this study, achievement means school grade or score that given by the teacher to measure the result of students’ learning activity.

Following this section, chapter two would like to review some related literatures which are needed to expand researcher’s understanding and support the theoretical views of this topic. In the chapter two, the researcher discusses about teaching English in junior high school, teaching writing, diary, type of diary, the effectiveness of diary to improve writing skill and related study.