The second is “Comic Strips: A Study on the Teaching of Writing Narrative Texts to Indonesia EFL Students”, written by Fika Megawati and
Mirjam Anugerahwati. In this research, the researchers stated that comic strips are appealing forms for children in the teaching of writing, and also as media which
have content, organization and grammatical aspects of narrative texts. The objective of this research was to investigate the implementation of comic strips in
teaching writing through a collaborative classroom action research at MAN Bangil. The procedure in conducting the research are planning, implementing,
observing, and reflecting. The use of comic strips could help and gave them confident in writing narrative text. It also could give benefit for the teacher as
guidance in teaching writing to the students. Based on the related study above, it can be inferred that in the process of
developing writing material, especially narrative, the instructional media have an important role. The material can be delivered effectively to the students if the
teacher uses suitable media and so does the teaching writing. The media depend on how the teacher designs enjoyable and meaningful instruction. The media
usage does not only help teacher to create a meaningful instruction but also motivate students to improve their writing skill.
Conceptual Framework
Learning English as a foreign Language needs a set of methods and process. The process of learning is an important part to master a language
especially writing. In improving the writing learning process the researcher needs
to find some efforts to be implemented in the process of English teaching and learning process. As stated earlier, there are some problems which can make the
students get difficulty when writing a text. It can be underlined that there are some problems related to students’ writing skills. The problems are possibly caused by
some factors from the students, they could not produce a coherent and understandable text. They also could not develop their idea in order form. The
technique which is used by the teacher to teach and the classroom activities is one of the problem. The teacher does not provide any interesting media to help
students understandable the materials. in teaching and learning process. To overcome this problems, appropriate media is needed.
Comic strips usually contain language items and language function that can be use to scaffold the students. It also provides wide range of vocabulary and
expression. So that students can easier understand by using visual aids. In narrative text, as one text type that mentioned in standard competence, there are
language features that students’ need to mastered. By using comic strips which is has a panels and visual aids, student will able to learn and organized then
transform it into a good and coherence narrative text. As a media, comic strips also help the teacher to engaged students’ interest in teaching learning process.
Because of those advantages of comic strips it will effects the teaching and learning process that more enjoyable.
The researcher believes that comic strip can be a solution to overcome the students’ low writing skills. By using comic strips, the students’ skills of writing
narrative texts can be improved.
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD
The previous chapter presents the theoretical framework and conceptual framework. In relation to the previous chapter, to determine the result and
procedure of this study, the researcher presents the research methodology as
presented below. A.
Type of the Research
This research was an action research study. According to Kemmis and McTaggart 1988 in Burns 2010:7, “action research has four major steps. There
are planning, action, observation and reflection”. In this scheme, the researcher was helped by the teachers to find a problem, formulated a possible solution,
implemented the action, and reflected on the outcome of the action. The process in action research can be shown in the scheme taken from
Kemis and McTagart in Burn 2010 below:
Figure 1: Kemmis and McTaggart’s Action Research Model
The researcher tried to find and implement the actual actions in order to improve the students’ learning of writing using comic strips for eleventh grade
grade XI students of Science Class XI of MAN Yogyakarta II in academic year of 20122013. The researcher and collaborator work together in finding the
problems and weaknesses of students’ learning of writing, identifying the collected problems, planning and carrying the actions, and then conducted the
evaluation and reflection of the implementations of action. B.
Setting
This research was conducted in Science Class XI of MAN Yogyakarta II in the first semester in academic year of 20122013. The research was started on
March 2013. MAN Yogyakarta II is located on Jalan K.H. Ahmad Dahlan 130, Yogyakarta.
The English teaching learning process was carried out twice a week with the duration of 60 minutes each meeting. The research was conducted within the
first semester of the 20122013 academic year. The research was conducted from
March to April 2013. C.
Research Participants
This research involved the researcher, the English teacher, and the grade XI students of Science Class of MAN Yogyakarta II in academic year of
20122013. This class consists of 34 students. The object of the research was the
English teaching and learning process in Grade XI of Science Class.
D. Instruments of the Research
The instruments of this research were presented as the following. 1.
Observation checklist
Observation checklists gave the information about the effectiveness of using comic strips to teach writing narrative texts. The English teacher checked some
aspects in teaching and learning process such as the lesson plan, the tasks, the materials and the media by putting a tick to statements in the observation
checklists. 2.
Interview guidelines
The interview guidelines were used to get some data about the teacher’s and the students’ perspective in writing before, during and after the teaching and
learning process using comic strips when the researcher conducted interviews. 3.
Students’ writing tasks
Students’ writing tasks were used to get information about students’ writing performance and to give the written feedback on the students’ writing. The tasks
also be used to see whether or not there was improvement on the students’ writing
skills. E. Data Collection Technique
The data in this research are qualitative and quantitative. The qualitative data were obtained through interview and observation. This was used to meet the
process validity. The researcher and the collaborator recorded all of the information in the process of teaching and learning during the actions by using
interview guidelines and observation checklists. Everything related to the students’ behaviour, progress and problems related to the teaching and learning
process were noted. The researcher interviewed the students and the English teacher to get the data related to their perspectives in writing before, during and
after implementing the actions.
Tests were used to attain the quantitative data. The researcher used pre-test before implementing the actions and post-test after implementing the actions. The
scores from pre-test and post-test would be compared to acquire the data. F. Data Analysis Techniques
Analyzing data of action research is a continuing process of reducing information to find explanations or patterns Burns, 1999:157. In this study, the
researcher used 5 steps to analyze the data, they are assembling the data, coding the data, comparing the data, building interpretations and reporting the outcomes.
1. Assembling the data In this step, the researcher collected all the data to see what really occured
over period of the research. The data were gathered in the form of field notes and interview transcripts.
2. Coding the data Coding the data is a process of attempting to reduce the large amount of
data that may be collected to more manageable categories of concepts, themes or types Burns, 1999:157. In this study, the researcher identified the data by coding
it into more specific patterns and categories.
3. Comparing the data After coding the data, the researcher compared the categories or patterns
across different data collection techniques. This activity was aimed to identify the relationships and connections between different sources of data.
4. Building interpretations In this stage, the researcher should deal with a great amount of creative
thinking about what the data were saying by reflecting beyond the immediate surface details. The researcher discussed with the English teacher to pose
questions, identify connections and develop explanations about the meanings of the research. Discussing the data can be a catalyst for new discoveries or
interpretations. 5. Reporting the outcomes
In this stage, the researcher considered some aspects in reporting the results of this study such as discussing the issues or questions that prompted the
study, describing the context of the research, analysing the findings by providing the samples of the data and interpreting how the project could lead to other areas
for research. G. Validity and Reliability of the Research
The validity of the data in this research was based on the criteria proposed by Anderson et al. 1999: 30-33. To enhance the validity of the data, the
researcher used these five types of validity; democratic validity, outcome validity, process validity, dialogic validity and catalytic validity as follows:
