The Effectiveness of Guided Questions towards Students’ Writing Skill of Descriptive Text
THE EFFECTIVENESS OF GUIDED QUESTIONS TOWARDS
STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILL OF DESCRIPTIVE TEXT
(A Quasi-Experimental Study at the Eight Grade Students of
SMPN 3 Tangerang Selatan)
By:
Ilfa Hidayah
1110014000106
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH EDUCATION
FACULTY OF TARBIYAH AND TEACHERS TRAINING
SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY
JAKARTA
2015
ABSTRACT
Ilfa Hidayah (NIM: 1110014000106). The Effectiveness of Guided Questions
towards Students’ Writing Skill of Descriptive Text; A Quasi Experimental Study
at the Eight Grade Students of SMPN 3 Tangerang Selatan. Skripsi of English
Education Department at Faculty of Tarbiyah and Teachers Training UIN Syarif
Hidayatullah Jakarta, 2015.
Key words: Guided Questions, Descriptive Text, SMPN 3 Tangerang Selatan.
This study is aimed to find out the empirical evidence of the effectiveness of
teaching writing of descriptive text by using guided questions at the eight grade
students of SMPN 3 Tangerang Selatan.
This study is categorized as quasi experimental research design. The
population of this study is all the eight grade students of SMPN 3 Tangerang Selatan.
In selecting the sample, the researcher uses purposive sampling and the students of
class 8.6 and 8.7 of SMPN 3 Tangerang Selatan are chosen as the sample. The data
collecting is done by giving the test (pre-test and post-test). The researcher uses T-test
formula to analyze the difference of students’ score in experimental class (teaching
writing of descriptive text by using guided questions) and the controlled class
(teaching writing of descriptive text without using guided questions).
Based on the data analysis, the researcher find that t o > t t = 6.15 > 1.7 in
significance level 5% and t o > t t = 6.15 > 2.4 in significance level 1%. It means that
there is obvious difference between the average score from the result of teaching
descriptive text in experimental class and controlled class. Thus, it can be inferred
that teaching descriptive text by using guided questions is effective to improve the
students’ score in writing.
iii
ABSTRAK
Ilfa Hidayah (NIM: 1110014000106). The Effectiveness of Guided Questions
towards Students’ Writing Skill of Descriptive Text; A Quasi Experimental Study
at the Eight Grade Students of SMPN 3 Tangerang Selatan. Skripsi Jurusan
Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris Fakultas Ilmu Tarbiyah dan Keguruan UIN Syarif
Hidayatullah Jakarta, 2015.
Key words: Guided Questions, Teks Deskriptif, SMPN 3 Tangerang Selatan.
Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui bukti empiris tentang keefektifan
pengajaran menulis teks deskriptif dengan menggunakan guided questions atau
pertanyaan terbimbing pada siswa kelas delapan SMPN 3 Tangerang Selatan.
Penelitian ini dikategorikan sebagai penelitian quasi experimental. Populasi
dalam penelitian ini adalah seluruh siswa kelas delapan SMPN 3 Tangerang Selatan.
Dalam pemilihan sampel, peneliti menggunakan teknik purposive sampling, dan
kelas 8.6 dan 8.7 SMPN 3 Tangerang Selatan dipilih sebagai sampel dalam penelitian
ini. Pengumpulan data dilakukan dengan memberikan tes (pre-test dan post-test)
kepada siswa. Peneliti menggunakan T-test untuk menganalisa perbedaan skor antara
kelas experimental dan kelas kontrol.
Berdasarkan analisis data, peneliti menemukan bahwa t o > t t = 6.15 > 1.7 pada
taraf signifikan 5% dan t o > t t = 6.15 > 2.4 pada taraf signifikan 1%. Hal tersebut
menunjukkan bahwa terdapat perbedaan antara nilai rata-rata dari hasil pengajaran
teks deskriptif di kelas experimental dan kelas kontrol. Dengan demikian, dapat
diambil kesimpulan bahwa pengajaran teks deskriptif dengan menggunakan
pertanyaan terbimbing efektif untuk meningkatkan kemampuan siswa dalam menulis.
iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. All praises be to Allah,
the Lord of the world who has given His Mercy and Blessing upon the writer in
completing this Skripsi. Peace and salutation always be upon the prophet
Muhammad Shallallahu ‘Alaihi wa Sallam, his family, his relatives, and his
faithful followers.
In this occasion, the writer would like to express her greatest appreciation,
honour and gratitude to her beloved husband (Turmudi) and her beloved parents
(Umi Hanik and Gusnadi), for their valuable supports and moral encouragement
in motivating the writer to finish her study. Then, the writer thanks to her beloved
younger brother and sister (M. Muhanna and Uswa Husnia) for their love and
support to the writer in writing this Skripsi.
The writer also would like to express her deepest gratitude to her advisors,
Ismalianing Eviyuliwati, M. Hum. and Desi Nahartini, M. Ed., for their advices,
guidances, corrections, and suggestions in finishing this Skripsi.
Her gratitude also goes to:
1. All lecturers of the Department of English Education who have taught and
educated the writer during her study at UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta.
2. Drs. Syauki, M.Pd., the Head of the Department of English Education.
3. Zaharil Anasy, M.Hum., the Secretary of the Department of English
Education.
4. Dra. Nurlena Rifa’i, MA., Ph. D, the Dean of Faculty of Tarbiyah and
Teachers Training.
5. Her academic advisor, Dr. Fahriany, M. Pd., for her advices, guidance,
suggestions, and supports.
6. Maryono, SE. M. Pd, the Headmaster of SMPN 3 Tangerang selatan, who
have allowed the writer to conduct the research in his school.
v
7. Her beloved best friends, Rinda Nuraini, Nurdina Mecca, Dede Iros,
Suaeni, ErmaVelanda, for sharing knowledge, care, motivation, time,
support, laugh and happiness.
8. Her beloved friends in English Education Department Academic Year
2010, especially EED class C, for giving cares and supports.
9. All of her dorm-mates, Atsna Dziroyyah, Tatu Hilaliyah, and Quroh, for
sharing their happiness and support.
10. Her beloved niece in law, Sintha and Claranita, for giving support and
motivation.
11. Any other person who cannot be mentioned one by one for their
contribution to the writer during finishing her Skripsi. The words are not
enough to say any appreciations for their help.
May Allah bless them for all of what they have done.
Finally, the writer feels that it is really pleasure for her to receive critics
and suggestions to make this Skripsi better. She also hopes that this Skripsi would
be beneficial, particularly for her and for those who are interested in it.
Jakarta, January 2015
The writer
vi
TABLE OF CONTENT
ENDORSEMENT SHEET .......................................................................................... i
SURAT PERNYATAAN ............................................................................................ ii
ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................ iii
ABSTRAK .................................................................................................................. iv
ACKNOWLEGMENT ............................................................................................... v
TABLE OF CONTENT ............................................................................................ vii
LIST OF TABLE ........................................................................................................ x
LIST OF APPENDICES ........................................................................................... xi
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of Study............................................................... 1
B. Identification of Problem......................................................... 3
C. Limitation of Problem ............................................................. 3
D. Formulation of Problem .......................................................... 3
E. Objective of Study ................................................................... 4
F. Significance of Study ............................................................... 4
CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
A. The Nature of Writing ............................................................. 5
1. Definition of Writing ........................................................... 5
2. Purpose of Writing .............................................................. 6
3. Process of Writing ............................................................... 7
vii
B. Guided Question Technique .................................................. 10
C. The Nature of Descriptive Text ............................................. 11
1. Definition of Descriptive Text .......................................... 11
2. Purpose of Descriptive Text .............................................. 12
3. Language Features of Descriptive Text............................. 14
4. Kinds of Descriptive Text ................................................. 14
D. Using Guided Questions in Teaching Descriptive Text ........ 15
E. Advantages of Using Guided Question ................................. 16
F. Conceptual Framework .......................................................... 17
G. Relevant Previous Studies ..................................................... 17
H. Research Hypotheses ............................................................ 18
CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
A. Research Method and Design................................................ 20
B. Place and Time of Study ....................................................... 20
C. Population and Sample .......................................................... 20
D. Instrument of Study ............................................................... 20
E. Test of Instrument Validity and Reliability ........................... 22
F. Technique of Data Collection ................................................ 23
G Technique of Data Analysis ................................................... 23
H Statistical Hypotheses ............................................................ 24
CHAPTER IV
RESEARCH FINDING
A. Data Description.................................................................... 26
B. Data Analysis ........................................................................ 29
viii
C Testing the Hypothesis ........................................................... 31
D Data Interpretation ................................................................. 32
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
A. Conclusion............................................................................. 34
B. Suggestion ............................................................................. 34
BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................... 36
APPENDICES ........................................................................................................... 38
ix
LIST OF APPENDICES
APPENDIX 1 RPP in Experimental Class .................................................................................... 38
APPENDIX 2 RPP in Controlled Class ........................................................................................ 52
APPENDIX 3 The Result of Validity and Reability of the Instrument ........................................ 64
APPENDIX 4 Form of the Student’s Pre-test ............................................................................... 65
APPENDIX 5 Form of the Student’s Post-test.............................................................................. 66
APPENDIX 6 The t-table and df at significance level 1% and 5% .............................................. 67
APPENDIX 7 Surat Pengesahan Proposal .................................................................................... 68
APPENDIX 8 Surat Bimbingan Skripsi ........................................................................................ 69
APPENDIX 9 Surat Permohonan Izin Penelitian ......................................................................... 70
APPENDIX 10 Surat Keterangan Telah Melakukan Penelitian ................................................... 71
xi
LIST OF TABLE
Table 3.1 Five Components in Scoring Writing ......................................................... 21
Table 4.1 The Students’ Score of the Experimental Class .......................................... 26
Table 4.2 The Students’ Score of the Controlled Class .............................................. 27
Table 4.3 The Comparison Scores of Experimental and Controlled Class ................. 23
x
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of Study
Writing is one of language skills that have to be learned by any foreign
language learner and students all over the world besides listening, speaking, and
reading. Writing has been taught from Elementary School level to University
level. Through writing, the students may express their ideas freely without having
to face the reader directly. However, some students in Indonesia consider that
writing is the most difficult skill to be mastered by them. It is strengthened by
Jack C. Richard’s statement, “Writing is the most difficult skills for second
language learner to master of putting together strings of grammatically correct
sentences”. 1 Hence, it proves the reason of why many students feel that writing is
difficult.
Concerning educational in Indonesia, primarily in Junior High School,
Writing is considered as one of the important skills that should be taught.
Moreover, the curriculum in Indonesia Kurikulum 2013 stated that one of the
main goals of English language teaching at Junior High School is that the students
must able to expose and be able to write different kind of texts. It is obviously
stated in the Kompetensi Inti (KI) and Kompetensi Dasar (KD) that “The students
of Junior High School are expected to be able to compile a descriptive text about
people, animal, or things by observing the aim, text structure, and language
feature correctly and contextually”. 2
However, the Indonesian students’ achievement in writing, especially
writing descriptive text is very low due to several reasons. Based on the writer’s
experience during PPKT, she found the students’ writing score is relatively low. It
means that most of the students have not clearly mastered the material about
descriptive text. Besides, the students usually confused when they were going to
1
Jack C. Richard, Methodology in Language Teaching: an Anthology of Current
Practice, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002) p. 303.
2
Tim Inti Kurikulum 2013, Kompetensi Dasar SMP/MTs,(Kementrian Pendidikan dan
Kebudayaan: Depdikbud, 2013), p. 70.
1
2
start writing, and they were not being able to construct their written ideas well.
They also said that the way the teachers teach writing is monotonous. Moreover,
classroom assignments which are assumed to be handed out are often
uncompleted and given as homework. Yet, the result is the students cannot finish
the assignment effectively.
From the writer’s experience above, it is known that the teacher’s
technique in teaching writing is one of the students’ problems in learning English.
The students need more teachers’ creativity which will motivate them to do
writing activity in the classroom. So, in order to facilitate the students to
communicate in good writing, the teachers have to tried many efforts with the
appropriate technique for teaching writing in the class because it will help solving
the students’ problems in writing activity. Therefore, the use of appropriate
technique in teaching-learning process may help teachers to achieve learning
objectives better.
Due to this situation, several theorists propose to use guided questions as a
technique in teaching descriptive text. Guided question is one of techniques that
can make the students easier to write their ideas into a written paragraph. It is a
technique in which the teacher gives a topic and some questions to the students,
then they answer those questions based on the topic given. According to Gould,
“A series of well planned question, applied methodically to a topic, can deepen
your (student) understanding of it and offer you (student) interesting insight to
write about.” 3 Thus, by using guided question based on the topic given, the
students will get their ideas and know what they want to write.
In addition, teaching descriptive writing by using guided questions has
some advantages. It may motivate the students to write well because they are
guided to develop and explore their ideas into a written paragraph. Furthermore,
guided questions are simple technique that brings an innovation in teaching,
especially teaching writing of descriptive text. It makes students pay more
attention in learning process and guides them to build up their ideas in writing
activity.
3
Eric Gould. The Act of Writing, (New York: Random House Inc, 1989), p. 119.
3
From the explanation above, the writer entitles the study as “The
Effectiveness of Guided Questions towards Students’ Writing Skill of Descriptive
Text (A Quasi Experimental Study at the Eight Grade Students of SMPN 3
Tangerang Selatan)”.
B. Identification of the Problem
Based on the background of study above, there are some problems which
can be identified as follows:
1. Writing is one of language skills that have to be mastered by the students.
2. The way teachers teach writing is monotonous.
3. The students have difficulties when they are going to start writing descriptive
text.
4. The students are not being able to construct the ideas into a written paragraph
well.
C. Limitation of the Problem
Based on the background explained above, the problem will be limited
only on the effectiveness of guided questions towards students’ writing skill of
descriptive text.
The writer carried out the research at the eight grade students of SMPN 3
Tangerang Selatan, because writing descriptive text is included one of the crucial
courses taught in Junior High School.
D. Formulation of the Problem
Based on the limitation of the problem above, the formulation of the
problem in this study is “Is the guided questions technique effective towards
students’ writing skill of descriptive text at the eight grade students of SMPN 3
Tangerang Selatan?
4
E. Objective of the Study
In line with the statement of formulation of the problem stated above, the
objective of the study is to know the empirical evidence about the effectiveness of
guided questions towards students’ writing skill of descriptive text at the eight
grade students of SMPN 3 Tangerang Selatan.
F. Significance of the Study
The result of this study is expected to provide useful information for three
people. They are:
1.
The English teachers.
The findings of this study is expected to be able to enrich the teachers’
knowledge in terms of the teaching descriptive text by using guided questions at
the eight grade students of SMPN 3 Tangerang Selatan.
2.
The students.
The finding of this study is expected to make process of learning more
interesting and enjoyable, so that it will increase their writing skill especially in
writing descriptive text.
3.
Further researchers.
The result of this study is hoped as a basic consideration and information for
doing a further research. Furthermore, the finding of this study is expected to be
able to bring positive impact in teaching-learning process in Junior High School.
CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
A. The Nature of Writing
1. Definition of Writing
Writing is one of the important skills to be mastered by the students. They
use it to communicate each other, as means of ideas and emotional expression.
On the other hand, when they write their ideas and emotions creatively, they are
communicating on paper in their best way.
According to Richard, “Writing is the most difficult skills for second
language learner to master of putting together strings of grammatically correct
sentences”. 1
From the definition above, it can be said that writing can be distinguished
from other skills as the most difficult one. There are many factors influencing
writing to be good one such as grammatical, vocabularies, punctuation, and
spelling knowledge. They are integrated into a paragraph.
According to Murcia, writing is “the ability to express one’s ideas in
written form in a second or foreign language”. 2 It means that writing is an
activity to express our ideas in written form.
Furthermore, Ur said “Writing is widely used within foreign language
courses as a convenient means for engaging with aspects of language other than
the writing itself”. 3 For example: learners note down new vocabulary, copy out
1
Jack C. Richards, Methodology in Language Teaching: An Anthology of Current Practice,
(New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002), p. 303.
2
Marianne C. Murcia, Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language Teaching, (Boston:
Heinle and Heinle Publishers, 1991), p. 233.
3
Penny Ur, A Course in Language Teaching, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996),
p. 162.
5
6
the grammar rules, write out answers to reading or listening comprehension
questions, and do written tests.
Another definition was given by Raymond, “Writing is a way of
remembering and a way of thinking well.” 4 Writing makes words permanent and
it can expand the collective memory of human beings from small store and the
collective memory of our culture until produce writing as many as capacity of
library. In addition, writing is a tool for clear thinking, for sharpening our
awareness of the realities around us, for solving problems and shaping argument
and for developing knowledge.
From the definition above, it can be concluded that writing should be seen
as the way to express ideas from the writer’s knowledge and sources; also writing
needs some mental efforts that must be combined and arranged. Without
forgetting the linguistic rule, the writing will be full of meaning.
2. Purpose of Writing
When the students do writing activity, they certainly have some purposes.
They have to consider the purpose of their writing since this will influence, not
only to the type of text they wish to produce, but including the language they use
and the information that they choose.
According to Nunan, written language serves a range of purposes in daily
life, including the following:
a.
Primarily for action
Public signs, e.g. on roads an stations; products labels and instructions,
e.g. on food, tool or toys purchased; recipes; television and radio guides; bill;
menus; telephone directories; ballot papers; computer manuals, monitors and
printouts.
4
James C. Raymond, Writing (Is an Unnatural Act), (New York, Harper & Row Publisher,
1980), p. 2.
7
b.
Primarily for information
Newspapers (news, editorials) and current affairs magazines; hobby
magazines; nonfiction books, including text books;
public notes;
advertisements; political pamphlets; scholastic, medical, etc. reports;
guidebooks and travel literature.
c.
Primarily for entertainment
Light magazines, come stripes; fiction books; poetry and drama;
newspapers features; film subtitles; games, including computer games. 5
Moreover, according to Penny Ur, the purpose of writing is to express the
ideas, and to convey a message to the reader. Hence, it can be concluded that the
purpose of writing is to deliver the writer’s ideas and message to the reader. In
other word, the writer needs something to write about and also needs to pay
attention what they will write and what the purpose of it, and tells the readers
exactly what the writer is trying to accomplish in her/his writing.
Finally, the writer concluded that when someone writes, he/she hopefully
can express her/his own ideas or thoughts in a correct form of written text which
has a well relation in each of paragraphs. It is strengthened by Ur, “The objective
of the teaching writing in a foreign language is to get learners to acquire the
abilities and skills they need to produce a range of different kinds of written texts
similar to those educated person would be expected to be able to produce in their
own language.” 6
3. Process of Writing
According to Oshima and Hogue (1998), “Writing is not easy. It takes
study and practice to develop this skill for both native speakers and new learners
of English. It is important to note that writing is a process, not a product”. 7 This
5
David Nunan, Language Teaching Methodology, (New York: Prentice Hall, 1991), p. 84.
Penny Ur, A Course in Language Teaching: Practice and Theory, (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1996), p. 162.
7
Alice Oshima and Ann Hogue, Writing Academic English, (New York: Longman, 1999), p.
3.
6
8
means that a piece of writing that you have written needs to review and revise,
and review and revise again.
In addition, there are three main stages in the writing process: prewriting,
planning, writing and revising drafts into final copy to hand it. Each stage will be
explained as follows:
1. Prewriting; it is an activity to help the writer generated ideas for his/her
writing assignments.
2. Planning (Outlining); in this stage, the writer organized the ideas
generated by brainstorming into an outline.
3. Writing and revising draft; in this stage, the students start to develop
their ideas into a paragraph. 8
Meanwhile, another expert stated that there is no single correct writing
process. In fact, there are as many different writing processes as there are writers.
In line with Lunsford (2010), he categorized the writing processes into seven
stages. They are:
1. Exploring a topic
One of the most important parts of the entire writing process,
therefore, is choosing a topic that will engage your strength and your
interest, surveying what you need to know about it, and determining
what you need to find out.
2. Narrowing a topic and researching
After exploring ideas, you may have found a topic that interests you
and would also be interesting to your reader. However, the topic may
be too large to be manageable. If this is the case, narrow your topic in
order to focus on a more workable idea.
8
Ibid; p. 10.
9
3. Organizing and designing
In this stage, you will find it helpful to write out an organizational
plan or outline. To do so, simply begin with your main idea, review
your explanatory notes, research materials, and then list all the
examples and other good reasons you have to support the main idea.
4. Drafting
Drafting is not just putting ideas down on paper. More often, it
involves coming up with new ideas.
5. Reviewing
Reviewing calls for you or another reader to look at your draft with
a critical eye to reassess the main ideas, organization, paragraph
structure, sentence variety, word choice, attitudes toward topic, and the
thoroughness with which the topic is developed.
6. Revising
Revising involves reworking your draft on the basis of the review.
It may means writing new sentences, moving paragraphs, eliminating
sections, searching additional sources for information or images, or
even choosing a new topic and starting over.
7. Editing, formatting, and proofreading
Editing involves making what you have written ready to meet those
traditional conventions of written form usually called correctness.
Sometimes it may lead you to reconsider an idea, a paragraph, a
transition, an organizational pattern, or a format. 9
In conclusion, the writing process is one of important parts to be done by
the writer. So, for the teachers, they have to convince the students that actually
writing is a process, not a product. Therefore, to make a good writing, the
students have to apply the stages of writing stated above.
9
Andrea A. Lunsford, The St. Martin’s Handbook, (New York: Bedford, 2010), p. 25-26.
10
B. Guided Question Technique
Guided question is a technique for teaching in which the teacher gives
some questions to the students applied to a topic in teaching. Cooper and Axelrod
said that asking questions about a problem or topic is a way to learn about it and
decide what to do or say. 10 It is a useful and systematic approach to explore a
topic.
They also said that there are several steps in using questions for invention.
They are:
a. Think about your subject. (“Subject” means any event, person, problem,
project, idea, or issue. In other words, anything you might write about).
b. Start with the first question, and move right through the list. Try to answer
each question at least briefly with a word or phrase.
c. Write your responses quickly, without much planning.
Moreover, Robinson called this technique by guided writing or controlled
writing. He said that guide or controlled writing is writing in which one cannot
make a serious error so long as he follows directions. 11 This is the same
technique which gives some questions about a topic which are called question
paragraph, then, turning the questions into a paragraph of affirmative statements.
Guided questions can help the students to explore their idea in learning
writing skill, as Raymond (1980) said that questions can be a way to help
exploring topic in writing skill. Asking questions can be a way of playing with
material before deciding what you want to make of its shape. 12 Moreover, by
asking question about your subject, you can also generate ideas and details such
questions include Why, What, When, Where, Who, and How. White (1986) also
10
Rise B. Axelrod and Charles R. Cooper, The ST. Martin’s Guide to Writing, (New York:
ST.Martin Press, 1985), p. 475.
11
Lois Robinson Guided Writing and Free Writing, (New York: Harper and Row Publisher,
1967), p. 2.
12
James C. Raymond, Writing is Unnatural Act, (New York: Harper & Row Publisher, 1980),
p. 16.
11
said that the needs to know the topic might consider using the questions. He
called this method by 5Ws and the H grid. It works because the question
generates and provides a wraparound understanding of the topic. 13
Based on the explanation above, it can be concluded that guided question
is a technique of writing in which the students are guided to express their ideas
into a written form by giving some questions related to the topic, which is going
to be written by the students, in order to minimize the mistakes made by the
students and help them organize their ideas coherently as long as they follow the
questions given by the teacher.
C. The Nature of Descriptive Text
1. Definition of Descriptive Text
Descriptive text is a part of factual genres. As Andersons stated that a
factual description describes a particular person, place or things. A description
text generally describes a specific subject; it differs from an information report
which describes a general group. Examples of factual descriptive text include
description of a particular building, a specific animal, a particular place, and a
specific person. 14 So, we can say that descriptive text is factual genres of text
which describes of a specific subject, it usually tells about characteristics of the
subject.
Descriptive text is also a text which describes something that appeal
directly to the sense, like Warriner said that descriptive text is giving a picture in
the words that appeal directly to the sense (sight, sound, smell, touch, taste). He
13
Fred D. White, The Writer’s Art, (Los Angeles: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1986), p.
61-62.
14
26.
Mark Anderson and Kathy Anderson, Text types in English 3, (Yarra: MacMillan, 1998), p.
12
also said that descriptive text is normally full of vivid verbs and precise
adjectives. It depends on details, not action to hold the readers’ interest. 15
According to George and Julia, descriptive is used to create a visual
image of people, place, and things, even units of time or seasons. It may be used
also to describe more than the outward appearance of people, and it may tell
about their traits of character or personality. Description also “gives sense
impressions such as the feel, sound, taste, smell, and look of things. Emotions
(feelings) may be described too, like happiness, fear, loneliness, gloom, joy,
comfort, etc. In addition, description helps the reader through his/her imagination
to visualize a scene or a person, or to understand a sensation or an emotion." 16 It
means that descriptive text is used to describe physical appearance and
personality of people, places, things or objects, feelings and emotions, and units
of time.
2. Purpose of Descriptive Text
There are so many purposes of descriptive text developed by some
experts. Thus, Rosa and Eschholz said that description is to create a verbal
picture. A place, person, a thing, even an idea or a state of mind can be made
vividly concrete through description. 17 Writing any description requires the
writer gather may details about a subject, relying not only on what the eyes see
but on the other sense impression, touch, taste, smell, hearing as well. So it can
be said that description is drawing a subject through the words to make the reader
see and feel the subject.
Meanwhile, White (1986) said that there are several aims of descriptive
text, they are:
15
John E. Warriner, English Grammar and Composition, (New York: Harcourt, Barace
Jovanovich Publishers, 1982), p. 327.
16
George E. Witshon and Julia M. Burks, Let’s Write English, (New York: American Book
Company, 1980), p. 128.
17
Alfred Rosa and Paul Eschholz, Models for Writers, (New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s,
2003), p. 287.
13
a. To see; means to help the reader to see the objects, persons, and sensations
you present, as you might guess, description is important for all rhetorical
aims, not just for expressiveness.
b. To explain; means to explain the reader about a subject. For example, a
science writer will describe the shape of an airplane to help explaining the
reader how mechanized flight is possible.
c. To persuade; means the writer describes something to make readers interested.
d. To re-create; means to make a reader create something. For example, the
description allows the reader to re-create the experience, particularly the
sensory pleasures of that experience in their own minds.
e. To demonstrate; means that the writer wants to demonstrate something to
readers. 18
Another purpose stated by Anderson is that descriptive is to tell about the
subject by describing its features without including personal opinion. 19 It means
that the aim of description is to enable the reader what something looks like
generally.
In addition, according to Barbara, the purposes of description are:
a.
To entertain
b.
To express feelings
c.
To relate experience
d.
To inform (for a reader unfamiliar with the subject)
e.
To inform (to create a fresh appreciation for the familiar)
f.
To persuade (to convince the reader that some music degrade women). 20
Based on Barbara’s statement, when the readers read the text of
description they will probably be entertained, it also becomes the way of the
writer to express their feeling or drawing their experiences through the words
18
White. loc. cit.
Mark Anderson and Kathy Anderson, Text types in English 3, (Yarra: MacMillan, 1998), p.
19
26.
20
Barbara Fine Clouse, The Student Writer, (New York: McGraw Hill, 2004), p. 143.
14
because the writer can inform unfamiliar subject or gives the appreciation for the
familiar subject to the reader.
From those statements above, it can be concluded that the purpose of
descriptive text is to describe the subject of the text specifically. It is also to
entertain the readers, to express the writer’s feeling and emotion.
3. Language Features of Descriptive Text
a. Generic Structure of Descriptive Text
1. Identification: Identifies the phenomenon to be described
2. Description of features: Describes features in order of importance:
a) Parts/things (physical appearance).
b) Qualities (degree of beauty, excellence, or worth/value).
c) Other characteristics (prominent aspects that are unique).
b. Generic Features of Descriptive Text
1. Use of simple present tense
2. Use of “be (is, are)” for the identification and showing qualities.
3. Use of verb “has/have” to give detailed description of the object’s
features.
4. Use of action verbs related to the topic. Especially when describing
behaviors or personalities (for person).
5. Use of adjectives in describing the objects, especially the qualities.
4. Kinds of Descriptive Text
According to George and Julia (1980), there are three kinds of descriptive
text. They are: 21
21
George E. Witshon and Julia M. Burks, Let’s Write English, (Ottawa: Atlantis Publisher,
1980), p. 131.
15
a. Describing People.
People are different, and writing descriptions of people is different. In
direct description, the writer tells how the person looks like. While in indirect
description, the character is revealed through what he or she does, thinks, or
says in certain situations.
b. Describing Places and Scenes
In describing place, it would be better for the writer to describe a place that
he or she enjoys. In description, the writer chooses words that will create vivid
mental picture for the reader, and some other aspects such as using proper
noun, effective verb, and including action and people.
c. Describing Things or Objects
When the writer describes a thing or an object, he or she must have good
imagination about a thing or an object that will be described. Besides, pictures
also have the important roles in describing a thing or object. Meanwhile, to
make a thing or an object as interesting and as vivid to the readers as it is to
writer, the writer should use proper nouns and effective verbs.
D. Using Guided Questions in Teaching Descriptive Text
In teaching writing of descriptive text through guided questions, the
teacher follows the following procedures:
1. Pre-writing Activity
a. The teacher explains what descriptive text is, and also explains the parts
or generic structures of descriptive text that the students must write in a
paragraph.
b. The teacher decides a topic to be given to the students.
c. The teacher gives the students some questions related to the topic.
d. The teacher gives an example of descriptive text based on the question as
the model for the students.
16
2. Writing Activity
a. The teacher asks the students to write their own descriptive text.
b. The students begin to write a descriptive text by answering the questions
given by the teacher.
c. While the students are writing, the teacher moves among the, gives
assistance and guidance as required.
3. Re-writing Activity
a. Collecting the student’s work, monitoring and marking their work one by
one right way, writing the comment and suggestion underneath.
b. The teacher asks the students to do their final revision and collect their
work.
E. Advantages of Using Guided Question
By using guided questions before doing writing activity, the writer can
get some advantages from them. The following are some advantages of guided
question. They are:
1. It can facilitate the teaching of writing to the students.
2. It can minimize mistakes by the students when they write.
3. The students will not be confused what they are going to write because they
are guided to write by answering the questions related to the topic.
4. It makes their writing more coherent because they write the paragraph by
following the questions.
5. It makes the students easier to explore the topic which they will write about.
From that statement, the students can achieve many benefits through
guided questions. They can be easier to write a text, especially in writing
descriptive text. Besides, it gives more details in writing a descriptive text.
17
F. Conceptual Framework
Many experts have explained about the nature of guided question, and
one factor that interfere the students from knowing how to write well and
correctly is the technique of teaching which is applied by the teacher. However,
guided question is a technique that can be used to teach writing of descriptive
text. Through guided questions, the students are helped to avoid any serious
errors as long as they follow the direction and answer the questions given by the
teacher before start writing. Furthermore, by using guided questions, the students
are also helped to focus on the ideas that they want to write and link sentences
into coherent ideas in the target language.
From the explanation above, the researcher assumes that guided questions
can produce a good descriptive text as long as the students answer the questions
well, and it can also develop all aspects of writing descriptive text, such content,
organization, vocabulary, and language used.
G. Relevant Previous Studies
This part discusses the previous study, especially those dealing with the
research about the use of guided questions in teaching writing of descriptive text.
Nawawi (2011) conducted the research under the title Improving
Students’ Writing Skill of Descriptive Text through Guided Questions. This
research used Classroom Action Research (CAR) design and it attempted to
improve students’ achievement in writing descriptive text by using guided
questions. The subject of this research was the students of second grade of SMP
PGRI 1 Ciputat Tangerang Selatan. The result of this research showed that
students’ achievement score in writing descriptive text improved in every test. In
18
other word, the application of learning descriptive writing by using guided
questions has improved in the end of third cycle. 22
The second study was conducted by Iwan (2012) under the title
“Developing the Students’ Ability in Writing Recount Text through Guiding
Questions Technique at the Second Year Students of SMPN 1 Terbanggi Besar
Lampung Tengah”. From his study, he found that the students’ score in writing
recount text has improved by applying guiding questions technique. 23
Another study was held by Kurniawan (2009). His research is about using
pictures and guided questions in teaching descriptive writing. The aim of his
study is to know the students’ improvement in learning descriptive writing by
using picture and guided questions. The result showed that the implementation of
picture and guided questions in teaching descriptive can improve the students’
ability in writing descriptive text.24
Different from the previous study explained above, the writer will focus
on using a quasi-experimental study in her research. It is different from the
previous study which they were using classroom action research design in
conducting their research. Furthermore, the writer expected that guide question
technique can help the teacher to increase students’ ability in writing descriptive
text. Then, by using guided question technique, the writer hopes that the students
will be easier to write descriptive text coherently.
H. Research Hypotheses
1. H 0 (Null hypothesis): There is no significant difference between the students’
score in learning writing of descriptive text taught by using guided questions
22
Muhammad Bagus Nawawi, Improving Students’ Writing Skill of Descriptive Text through
Guided Question, Skripsi of UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta: 2011. Unpublished.
23
Iwan, Developing the Students’ Ability in Writing Recount Text through Guiding Questions
Technique, Thesis of Lampung University: 2012. Unpublished.
24
Irwan Kurniawan, Using Picture and Guided Question in Teaching Descriptive Writing,
Skripsi of UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta: 2009. Unpublished.
19
and the students’ score in learning writing of descriptive text taught without
using guided questions at eight grade students of SMPN 3 Tangerang Selatan.
2. H a (Alternative Hypothesis): There is significant difference between the
students’ score in learning writing of descriptive text taught by using guided
questions and the students’ score in learning writing of descriptive text taught
without using guided questions at eight grade students of SMPN 3 Tangerang
Selatan.
CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
A. Research Method and Design
This study is a quantitative research. It is categorized as a quasi
experimental research design. The writer conducted the research in two different
classes (experimental class and controlled class). In the experimental class, the
writer gave a treatment by using guided questions in teaching writing of
descriptive text, while in the controlled class, the writer taught writing of
descriptive text by using conventional method without using guided questions.
The treatment given in experimental class is purposed to compare whether it gives
more significant effect on the students’ score in writing descriptive text.
B. Place and Time of the Study
The study was conducted at the eight grade students of SMPN 3
Tangerang Selatan at Jl. Ir. H. Juanda No. 1 Ciputat, Tangerang Selatan. It was
conducted for about three months, started from September 2014.
C. Population and Sample
The population of this study was all of the eight grade students of SMPN 3
Tangerang Selatan in academic year 2014/2015. The total number of the students
is 450 students divided into 10 classes.
In this study, the writer used purposive sampling to choose the classes
which almost have the same score. The writer chose class of VIII.6 as the sample
of experimental class and class of VIII.7 as the controlled class.
D. Instrument of the Study
In this study, the writer used test as an instrument. The instrument of the
study is a tool or facility that is used by researcher for collecting data in order to
20
21
get better result. Therefore, to get the accurate data, the researcher of this study
chose test as an instrument.
To know the effectiveness of teaching writing by using guided questions,
the writer gave written test to the students. The written test was divided into two
parts; pre-test and post-test. The form of written test was an instruction to make a
descriptive text based on the topic given by the teacher. Because of it is written
test, the writer used writing rubric in scoring the student’s writing. It is divided
into five criteria, which are content, organization, vocabulary, language use, and
mechanics. Furthermore, each criteria was rated into four scale of rating scores
adapted from Jacobs et al.’s (1981) scoring profile. 1 Then, to get the mean of
students’ writing score, the writer had to calculate all components of writing as
follows:
Table 3.1
Five Components of Grading Writing Score
30 – 27
CONTENT
26 – 22
21 – 17
16 – 13
20 – 18
ORGANIZATION
17 – 14
13 – 10
9–7
VOCABULARY
1
20 – 18
EXCELLENT TO VERY GOOD: knowledgeable,
substantive, thorough development of topic, effective
and appropriate details of topic or story
GOOD TO AVERAGE: adequate range, adequate
development of topic, sufficient details of topic or
story
FAIR TO POOR: little substance, inadequate
development of topic and detail
VERY POOR: non-substantive, not pertinent, or not
enough to evaluate
EXCELLENT TO VERY GOOD: fluent expression,
ideas clearly stated/supported, well-organized,
logical sequencing, cohesive
GOOD TO AVERAGE: somewhat choppy, loosely
organized but main ideas stand out, logical but
incomplete sequencing
FAIR TO POOR: non – fluent, ideas confused or
disconnected, lacks logical sequencing
VERY POOR: does not communicate, no
organization, or not enough to evaluate
EXCELLENT TO VERY GOOD:
effective
word/idiom choice and usage, word form mastery
Arthur Hughes, Testing for Language Teachers, (New York: Cambridge University
Press, 2003), p. 104.
22
17 – 14
13 – 10
9–7
25 – 22
21 – 18
LANGUAGE USE
17 – 11
10 – 5
5
4
MECHANICS
3
2
GOOD TO AVERAGE: occassional errors of
word/idiom form, choice, usage but meaning not
obscured
FAIR TO POOR: frequent errors of word/idiom
form, choice, usage, meaning confused or obscured
VERY POOR: little knowledge of English
vocabulary, idioms, word form, or not enough to
evaluate
EXCELLENT TO VERY GOOD: effective complex
constructions, few errors of agreement, tense,
number, word order/function, articles, pronouns,
prepositions
GOOD TO AVERAGE: effective but simple
construction, minor problems in complex
construction, several errors of agreement, tense,
number, word order/function, articles, pronouns,
prepositions but meaning seldom obscured
FAIR TO POOR: major problems in simple/complex
constructions, frequent errors of negation,
agreement, number, word order/function, articles,
pronouns, prepositions and/or fragments, run-ons,
deletion, meaning confused or obscured
VERY POOR: virtually no mastery of sentence
construction rules, dominated by errors, does not
communicate, or not enough to evaluate
EXCELLENT TO VERY GOOD: demonstrates
mastery of conventions, few errors of spelling,
punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing
GOOD TO AVERAGE: occasional errors of
spelling, punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing
but meaning not obscured
FAIR TO POOR: frequent errors of spelling,
punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing, poor
handwriting, meaning confused or obscured
VERY POOR: no mastery of conventions,
dominated by errors of spelling, punctuation,
capitalization, paragraphing, handwriting illegible, or
not enough to evaluate
E. Test of Instrument Validity and Reliability
To know the validity and reliability of the instrument, the writer, first,
match the instrument with the objective of the subject which can be seen from the
syllabus of Junior High School. Then, the writer gave a try out to other class
before conducting the research, which is aimed to know the validity and reliability
of the instrument. In this study, the writer gave the try out to class VIII.5 of
23
SMPN 3 Tangerang Selatan academic year 2014/2015. Furthermore, after
conducting the try out, the writer obtained the data and calculated the result of the
instrument. From the result, it can be seen that the instrument used to test writing
is valid and reliable (See appendix 3).
F. Technique of Data Collection
In this study, the researcher conducted pre-test and post-test to collect the
data.
1. Pre-test
Pre-test is used to ensure the equivalency
STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILL OF DESCRIPTIVE TEXT
(A Quasi-Experimental Study at the Eight Grade Students of
SMPN 3 Tangerang Selatan)
By:
Ilfa Hidayah
1110014000106
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH EDUCATION
FACULTY OF TARBIYAH AND TEACHERS TRAINING
SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY
JAKARTA
2015
ABSTRACT
Ilfa Hidayah (NIM: 1110014000106). The Effectiveness of Guided Questions
towards Students’ Writing Skill of Descriptive Text; A Quasi Experimental Study
at the Eight Grade Students of SMPN 3 Tangerang Selatan. Skripsi of English
Education Department at Faculty of Tarbiyah and Teachers Training UIN Syarif
Hidayatullah Jakarta, 2015.
Key words: Guided Questions, Descriptive Text, SMPN 3 Tangerang Selatan.
This study is aimed to find out the empirical evidence of the effectiveness of
teaching writing of descriptive text by using guided questions at the eight grade
students of SMPN 3 Tangerang Selatan.
This study is categorized as quasi experimental research design. The
population of this study is all the eight grade students of SMPN 3 Tangerang Selatan.
In selecting the sample, the researcher uses purposive sampling and the students of
class 8.6 and 8.7 of SMPN 3 Tangerang Selatan are chosen as the sample. The data
collecting is done by giving the test (pre-test and post-test). The researcher uses T-test
formula to analyze the difference of students’ score in experimental class (teaching
writing of descriptive text by using guided questions) and the controlled class
(teaching writing of descriptive text without using guided questions).
Based on the data analysis, the researcher find that t o > t t = 6.15 > 1.7 in
significance level 5% and t o > t t = 6.15 > 2.4 in significance level 1%. It means that
there is obvious difference between the average score from the result of teaching
descriptive text in experimental class and controlled class. Thus, it can be inferred
that teaching descriptive text by using guided questions is effective to improve the
students’ score in writing.
iii
ABSTRAK
Ilfa Hidayah (NIM: 1110014000106). The Effectiveness of Guided Questions
towards Students’ Writing Skill of Descriptive Text; A Quasi Experimental Study
at the Eight Grade Students of SMPN 3 Tangerang Selatan. Skripsi Jurusan
Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris Fakultas Ilmu Tarbiyah dan Keguruan UIN Syarif
Hidayatullah Jakarta, 2015.
Key words: Guided Questions, Teks Deskriptif, SMPN 3 Tangerang Selatan.
Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui bukti empiris tentang keefektifan
pengajaran menulis teks deskriptif dengan menggunakan guided questions atau
pertanyaan terbimbing pada siswa kelas delapan SMPN 3 Tangerang Selatan.
Penelitian ini dikategorikan sebagai penelitian quasi experimental. Populasi
dalam penelitian ini adalah seluruh siswa kelas delapan SMPN 3 Tangerang Selatan.
Dalam pemilihan sampel, peneliti menggunakan teknik purposive sampling, dan
kelas 8.6 dan 8.7 SMPN 3 Tangerang Selatan dipilih sebagai sampel dalam penelitian
ini. Pengumpulan data dilakukan dengan memberikan tes (pre-test dan post-test)
kepada siswa. Peneliti menggunakan T-test untuk menganalisa perbedaan skor antara
kelas experimental dan kelas kontrol.
Berdasarkan analisis data, peneliti menemukan bahwa t o > t t = 6.15 > 1.7 pada
taraf signifikan 5% dan t o > t t = 6.15 > 2.4 pada taraf signifikan 1%. Hal tersebut
menunjukkan bahwa terdapat perbedaan antara nilai rata-rata dari hasil pengajaran
teks deskriptif di kelas experimental dan kelas kontrol. Dengan demikian, dapat
diambil kesimpulan bahwa pengajaran teks deskriptif dengan menggunakan
pertanyaan terbimbing efektif untuk meningkatkan kemampuan siswa dalam menulis.
iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. All praises be to Allah,
the Lord of the world who has given His Mercy and Blessing upon the writer in
completing this Skripsi. Peace and salutation always be upon the prophet
Muhammad Shallallahu ‘Alaihi wa Sallam, his family, his relatives, and his
faithful followers.
In this occasion, the writer would like to express her greatest appreciation,
honour and gratitude to her beloved husband (Turmudi) and her beloved parents
(Umi Hanik and Gusnadi), for their valuable supports and moral encouragement
in motivating the writer to finish her study. Then, the writer thanks to her beloved
younger brother and sister (M. Muhanna and Uswa Husnia) for their love and
support to the writer in writing this Skripsi.
The writer also would like to express her deepest gratitude to her advisors,
Ismalianing Eviyuliwati, M. Hum. and Desi Nahartini, M. Ed., for their advices,
guidances, corrections, and suggestions in finishing this Skripsi.
Her gratitude also goes to:
1. All lecturers of the Department of English Education who have taught and
educated the writer during her study at UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta.
2. Drs. Syauki, M.Pd., the Head of the Department of English Education.
3. Zaharil Anasy, M.Hum., the Secretary of the Department of English
Education.
4. Dra. Nurlena Rifa’i, MA., Ph. D, the Dean of Faculty of Tarbiyah and
Teachers Training.
5. Her academic advisor, Dr. Fahriany, M. Pd., for her advices, guidance,
suggestions, and supports.
6. Maryono, SE. M. Pd, the Headmaster of SMPN 3 Tangerang selatan, who
have allowed the writer to conduct the research in his school.
v
7. Her beloved best friends, Rinda Nuraini, Nurdina Mecca, Dede Iros,
Suaeni, ErmaVelanda, for sharing knowledge, care, motivation, time,
support, laugh and happiness.
8. Her beloved friends in English Education Department Academic Year
2010, especially EED class C, for giving cares and supports.
9. All of her dorm-mates, Atsna Dziroyyah, Tatu Hilaliyah, and Quroh, for
sharing their happiness and support.
10. Her beloved niece in law, Sintha and Claranita, for giving support and
motivation.
11. Any other person who cannot be mentioned one by one for their
contribution to the writer during finishing her Skripsi. The words are not
enough to say any appreciations for their help.
May Allah bless them for all of what they have done.
Finally, the writer feels that it is really pleasure for her to receive critics
and suggestions to make this Skripsi better. She also hopes that this Skripsi would
be beneficial, particularly for her and for those who are interested in it.
Jakarta, January 2015
The writer
vi
TABLE OF CONTENT
ENDORSEMENT SHEET .......................................................................................... i
SURAT PERNYATAAN ............................................................................................ ii
ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................ iii
ABSTRAK .................................................................................................................. iv
ACKNOWLEGMENT ............................................................................................... v
TABLE OF CONTENT ............................................................................................ vii
LIST OF TABLE ........................................................................................................ x
LIST OF APPENDICES ........................................................................................... xi
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of Study............................................................... 1
B. Identification of Problem......................................................... 3
C. Limitation of Problem ............................................................. 3
D. Formulation of Problem .......................................................... 3
E. Objective of Study ................................................................... 4
F. Significance of Study ............................................................... 4
CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
A. The Nature of Writing ............................................................. 5
1. Definition of Writing ........................................................... 5
2. Purpose of Writing .............................................................. 6
3. Process of Writing ............................................................... 7
vii
B. Guided Question Technique .................................................. 10
C. The Nature of Descriptive Text ............................................. 11
1. Definition of Descriptive Text .......................................... 11
2. Purpose of Descriptive Text .............................................. 12
3. Language Features of Descriptive Text............................. 14
4. Kinds of Descriptive Text ................................................. 14
D. Using Guided Questions in Teaching Descriptive Text ........ 15
E. Advantages of Using Guided Question ................................. 16
F. Conceptual Framework .......................................................... 17
G. Relevant Previous Studies ..................................................... 17
H. Research Hypotheses ............................................................ 18
CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
A. Research Method and Design................................................ 20
B. Place and Time of Study ....................................................... 20
C. Population and Sample .......................................................... 20
D. Instrument of Study ............................................................... 20
E. Test of Instrument Validity and Reliability ........................... 22
F. Technique of Data Collection ................................................ 23
G Technique of Data Analysis ................................................... 23
H Statistical Hypotheses ............................................................ 24
CHAPTER IV
RESEARCH FINDING
A. Data Description.................................................................... 26
B. Data Analysis ........................................................................ 29
viii
C Testing the Hypothesis ........................................................... 31
D Data Interpretation ................................................................. 32
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
A. Conclusion............................................................................. 34
B. Suggestion ............................................................................. 34
BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................... 36
APPENDICES ........................................................................................................... 38
ix
LIST OF APPENDICES
APPENDIX 1 RPP in Experimental Class .................................................................................... 38
APPENDIX 2 RPP in Controlled Class ........................................................................................ 52
APPENDIX 3 The Result of Validity and Reability of the Instrument ........................................ 64
APPENDIX 4 Form of the Student’s Pre-test ............................................................................... 65
APPENDIX 5 Form of the Student’s Post-test.............................................................................. 66
APPENDIX 6 The t-table and df at significance level 1% and 5% .............................................. 67
APPENDIX 7 Surat Pengesahan Proposal .................................................................................... 68
APPENDIX 8 Surat Bimbingan Skripsi ........................................................................................ 69
APPENDIX 9 Surat Permohonan Izin Penelitian ......................................................................... 70
APPENDIX 10 Surat Keterangan Telah Melakukan Penelitian ................................................... 71
xi
LIST OF TABLE
Table 3.1 Five Components in Scoring Writing ......................................................... 21
Table 4.1 The Students’ Score of the Experimental Class .......................................... 26
Table 4.2 The Students’ Score of the Controlled Class .............................................. 27
Table 4.3 The Comparison Scores of Experimental and Controlled Class ................. 23
x
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of Study
Writing is one of language skills that have to be learned by any foreign
language learner and students all over the world besides listening, speaking, and
reading. Writing has been taught from Elementary School level to University
level. Through writing, the students may express their ideas freely without having
to face the reader directly. However, some students in Indonesia consider that
writing is the most difficult skill to be mastered by them. It is strengthened by
Jack C. Richard’s statement, “Writing is the most difficult skills for second
language learner to master of putting together strings of grammatically correct
sentences”. 1 Hence, it proves the reason of why many students feel that writing is
difficult.
Concerning educational in Indonesia, primarily in Junior High School,
Writing is considered as one of the important skills that should be taught.
Moreover, the curriculum in Indonesia Kurikulum 2013 stated that one of the
main goals of English language teaching at Junior High School is that the students
must able to expose and be able to write different kind of texts. It is obviously
stated in the Kompetensi Inti (KI) and Kompetensi Dasar (KD) that “The students
of Junior High School are expected to be able to compile a descriptive text about
people, animal, or things by observing the aim, text structure, and language
feature correctly and contextually”. 2
However, the Indonesian students’ achievement in writing, especially
writing descriptive text is very low due to several reasons. Based on the writer’s
experience during PPKT, she found the students’ writing score is relatively low. It
means that most of the students have not clearly mastered the material about
descriptive text. Besides, the students usually confused when they were going to
1
Jack C. Richard, Methodology in Language Teaching: an Anthology of Current
Practice, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002) p. 303.
2
Tim Inti Kurikulum 2013, Kompetensi Dasar SMP/MTs,(Kementrian Pendidikan dan
Kebudayaan: Depdikbud, 2013), p. 70.
1
2
start writing, and they were not being able to construct their written ideas well.
They also said that the way the teachers teach writing is monotonous. Moreover,
classroom assignments which are assumed to be handed out are often
uncompleted and given as homework. Yet, the result is the students cannot finish
the assignment effectively.
From the writer’s experience above, it is known that the teacher’s
technique in teaching writing is one of the students’ problems in learning English.
The students need more teachers’ creativity which will motivate them to do
writing activity in the classroom. So, in order to facilitate the students to
communicate in good writing, the teachers have to tried many efforts with the
appropriate technique for teaching writing in the class because it will help solving
the students’ problems in writing activity. Therefore, the use of appropriate
technique in teaching-learning process may help teachers to achieve learning
objectives better.
Due to this situation, several theorists propose to use guided questions as a
technique in teaching descriptive text. Guided question is one of techniques that
can make the students easier to write their ideas into a written paragraph. It is a
technique in which the teacher gives a topic and some questions to the students,
then they answer those questions based on the topic given. According to Gould,
“A series of well planned question, applied methodically to a topic, can deepen
your (student) understanding of it and offer you (student) interesting insight to
write about.” 3 Thus, by using guided question based on the topic given, the
students will get their ideas and know what they want to write.
In addition, teaching descriptive writing by using guided questions has
some advantages. It may motivate the students to write well because they are
guided to develop and explore their ideas into a written paragraph. Furthermore,
guided questions are simple technique that brings an innovation in teaching,
especially teaching writing of descriptive text. It makes students pay more
attention in learning process and guides them to build up their ideas in writing
activity.
3
Eric Gould. The Act of Writing, (New York: Random House Inc, 1989), p. 119.
3
From the explanation above, the writer entitles the study as “The
Effectiveness of Guided Questions towards Students’ Writing Skill of Descriptive
Text (A Quasi Experimental Study at the Eight Grade Students of SMPN 3
Tangerang Selatan)”.
B. Identification of the Problem
Based on the background of study above, there are some problems which
can be identified as follows:
1. Writing is one of language skills that have to be mastered by the students.
2. The way teachers teach writing is monotonous.
3. The students have difficulties when they are going to start writing descriptive
text.
4. The students are not being able to construct the ideas into a written paragraph
well.
C. Limitation of the Problem
Based on the background explained above, the problem will be limited
only on the effectiveness of guided questions towards students’ writing skill of
descriptive text.
The writer carried out the research at the eight grade students of SMPN 3
Tangerang Selatan, because writing descriptive text is included one of the crucial
courses taught in Junior High School.
D. Formulation of the Problem
Based on the limitation of the problem above, the formulation of the
problem in this study is “Is the guided questions technique effective towards
students’ writing skill of descriptive text at the eight grade students of SMPN 3
Tangerang Selatan?
4
E. Objective of the Study
In line with the statement of formulation of the problem stated above, the
objective of the study is to know the empirical evidence about the effectiveness of
guided questions towards students’ writing skill of descriptive text at the eight
grade students of SMPN 3 Tangerang Selatan.
F. Significance of the Study
The result of this study is expected to provide useful information for three
people. They are:
1.
The English teachers.
The findings of this study is expected to be able to enrich the teachers’
knowledge in terms of the teaching descriptive text by using guided questions at
the eight grade students of SMPN 3 Tangerang Selatan.
2.
The students.
The finding of this study is expected to make process of learning more
interesting and enjoyable, so that it will increase their writing skill especially in
writing descriptive text.
3.
Further researchers.
The result of this study is hoped as a basic consideration and information for
doing a further research. Furthermore, the finding of this study is expected to be
able to bring positive impact in teaching-learning process in Junior High School.
CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
A. The Nature of Writing
1. Definition of Writing
Writing is one of the important skills to be mastered by the students. They
use it to communicate each other, as means of ideas and emotional expression.
On the other hand, when they write their ideas and emotions creatively, they are
communicating on paper in their best way.
According to Richard, “Writing is the most difficult skills for second
language learner to master of putting together strings of grammatically correct
sentences”. 1
From the definition above, it can be said that writing can be distinguished
from other skills as the most difficult one. There are many factors influencing
writing to be good one such as grammatical, vocabularies, punctuation, and
spelling knowledge. They are integrated into a paragraph.
According to Murcia, writing is “the ability to express one’s ideas in
written form in a second or foreign language”. 2 It means that writing is an
activity to express our ideas in written form.
Furthermore, Ur said “Writing is widely used within foreign language
courses as a convenient means for engaging with aspects of language other than
the writing itself”. 3 For example: learners note down new vocabulary, copy out
1
Jack C. Richards, Methodology in Language Teaching: An Anthology of Current Practice,
(New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002), p. 303.
2
Marianne C. Murcia, Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language Teaching, (Boston:
Heinle and Heinle Publishers, 1991), p. 233.
3
Penny Ur, A Course in Language Teaching, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996),
p. 162.
5
6
the grammar rules, write out answers to reading or listening comprehension
questions, and do written tests.
Another definition was given by Raymond, “Writing is a way of
remembering and a way of thinking well.” 4 Writing makes words permanent and
it can expand the collective memory of human beings from small store and the
collective memory of our culture until produce writing as many as capacity of
library. In addition, writing is a tool for clear thinking, for sharpening our
awareness of the realities around us, for solving problems and shaping argument
and for developing knowledge.
From the definition above, it can be concluded that writing should be seen
as the way to express ideas from the writer’s knowledge and sources; also writing
needs some mental efforts that must be combined and arranged. Without
forgetting the linguistic rule, the writing will be full of meaning.
2. Purpose of Writing
When the students do writing activity, they certainly have some purposes.
They have to consider the purpose of their writing since this will influence, not
only to the type of text they wish to produce, but including the language they use
and the information that they choose.
According to Nunan, written language serves a range of purposes in daily
life, including the following:
a.
Primarily for action
Public signs, e.g. on roads an stations; products labels and instructions,
e.g. on food, tool or toys purchased; recipes; television and radio guides; bill;
menus; telephone directories; ballot papers; computer manuals, monitors and
printouts.
4
James C. Raymond, Writing (Is an Unnatural Act), (New York, Harper & Row Publisher,
1980), p. 2.
7
b.
Primarily for information
Newspapers (news, editorials) and current affairs magazines; hobby
magazines; nonfiction books, including text books;
public notes;
advertisements; political pamphlets; scholastic, medical, etc. reports;
guidebooks and travel literature.
c.
Primarily for entertainment
Light magazines, come stripes; fiction books; poetry and drama;
newspapers features; film subtitles; games, including computer games. 5
Moreover, according to Penny Ur, the purpose of writing is to express the
ideas, and to convey a message to the reader. Hence, it can be concluded that the
purpose of writing is to deliver the writer’s ideas and message to the reader. In
other word, the writer needs something to write about and also needs to pay
attention what they will write and what the purpose of it, and tells the readers
exactly what the writer is trying to accomplish in her/his writing.
Finally, the writer concluded that when someone writes, he/she hopefully
can express her/his own ideas or thoughts in a correct form of written text which
has a well relation in each of paragraphs. It is strengthened by Ur, “The objective
of the teaching writing in a foreign language is to get learners to acquire the
abilities and skills they need to produce a range of different kinds of written texts
similar to those educated person would be expected to be able to produce in their
own language.” 6
3. Process of Writing
According to Oshima and Hogue (1998), “Writing is not easy. It takes
study and practice to develop this skill for both native speakers and new learners
of English. It is important to note that writing is a process, not a product”. 7 This
5
David Nunan, Language Teaching Methodology, (New York: Prentice Hall, 1991), p. 84.
Penny Ur, A Course in Language Teaching: Practice and Theory, (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1996), p. 162.
7
Alice Oshima and Ann Hogue, Writing Academic English, (New York: Longman, 1999), p.
3.
6
8
means that a piece of writing that you have written needs to review and revise,
and review and revise again.
In addition, there are three main stages in the writing process: prewriting,
planning, writing and revising drafts into final copy to hand it. Each stage will be
explained as follows:
1. Prewriting; it is an activity to help the writer generated ideas for his/her
writing assignments.
2. Planning (Outlining); in this stage, the writer organized the ideas
generated by brainstorming into an outline.
3. Writing and revising draft; in this stage, the students start to develop
their ideas into a paragraph. 8
Meanwhile, another expert stated that there is no single correct writing
process. In fact, there are as many different writing processes as there are writers.
In line with Lunsford (2010), he categorized the writing processes into seven
stages. They are:
1. Exploring a topic
One of the most important parts of the entire writing process,
therefore, is choosing a topic that will engage your strength and your
interest, surveying what you need to know about it, and determining
what you need to find out.
2. Narrowing a topic and researching
After exploring ideas, you may have found a topic that interests you
and would also be interesting to your reader. However, the topic may
be too large to be manageable. If this is the case, narrow your topic in
order to focus on a more workable idea.
8
Ibid; p. 10.
9
3. Organizing and designing
In this stage, you will find it helpful to write out an organizational
plan or outline. To do so, simply begin with your main idea, review
your explanatory notes, research materials, and then list all the
examples and other good reasons you have to support the main idea.
4. Drafting
Drafting is not just putting ideas down on paper. More often, it
involves coming up with new ideas.
5. Reviewing
Reviewing calls for you or another reader to look at your draft with
a critical eye to reassess the main ideas, organization, paragraph
structure, sentence variety, word choice, attitudes toward topic, and the
thoroughness with which the topic is developed.
6. Revising
Revising involves reworking your draft on the basis of the review.
It may means writing new sentences, moving paragraphs, eliminating
sections, searching additional sources for information or images, or
even choosing a new topic and starting over.
7. Editing, formatting, and proofreading
Editing involves making what you have written ready to meet those
traditional conventions of written form usually called correctness.
Sometimes it may lead you to reconsider an idea, a paragraph, a
transition, an organizational pattern, or a format. 9
In conclusion, the writing process is one of important parts to be done by
the writer. So, for the teachers, they have to convince the students that actually
writing is a process, not a product. Therefore, to make a good writing, the
students have to apply the stages of writing stated above.
9
Andrea A. Lunsford, The St. Martin’s Handbook, (New York: Bedford, 2010), p. 25-26.
10
B. Guided Question Technique
Guided question is a technique for teaching in which the teacher gives
some questions to the students applied to a topic in teaching. Cooper and Axelrod
said that asking questions about a problem or topic is a way to learn about it and
decide what to do or say. 10 It is a useful and systematic approach to explore a
topic.
They also said that there are several steps in using questions for invention.
They are:
a. Think about your subject. (“Subject” means any event, person, problem,
project, idea, or issue. In other words, anything you might write about).
b. Start with the first question, and move right through the list. Try to answer
each question at least briefly with a word or phrase.
c. Write your responses quickly, without much planning.
Moreover, Robinson called this technique by guided writing or controlled
writing. He said that guide or controlled writing is writing in which one cannot
make a serious error so long as he follows directions. 11 This is the same
technique which gives some questions about a topic which are called question
paragraph, then, turning the questions into a paragraph of affirmative statements.
Guided questions can help the students to explore their idea in learning
writing skill, as Raymond (1980) said that questions can be a way to help
exploring topic in writing skill. Asking questions can be a way of playing with
material before deciding what you want to make of its shape. 12 Moreover, by
asking question about your subject, you can also generate ideas and details such
questions include Why, What, When, Where, Who, and How. White (1986) also
10
Rise B. Axelrod and Charles R. Cooper, The ST. Martin’s Guide to Writing, (New York:
ST.Martin Press, 1985), p. 475.
11
Lois Robinson Guided Writing and Free Writing, (New York: Harper and Row Publisher,
1967), p. 2.
12
James C. Raymond, Writing is Unnatural Act, (New York: Harper & Row Publisher, 1980),
p. 16.
11
said that the needs to know the topic might consider using the questions. He
called this method by 5Ws and the H grid. It works because the question
generates and provides a wraparound understanding of the topic. 13
Based on the explanation above, it can be concluded that guided question
is a technique of writing in which the students are guided to express their ideas
into a written form by giving some questions related to the topic, which is going
to be written by the students, in order to minimize the mistakes made by the
students and help them organize their ideas coherently as long as they follow the
questions given by the teacher.
C. The Nature of Descriptive Text
1. Definition of Descriptive Text
Descriptive text is a part of factual genres. As Andersons stated that a
factual description describes a particular person, place or things. A description
text generally describes a specific subject; it differs from an information report
which describes a general group. Examples of factual descriptive text include
description of a particular building, a specific animal, a particular place, and a
specific person. 14 So, we can say that descriptive text is factual genres of text
which describes of a specific subject, it usually tells about characteristics of the
subject.
Descriptive text is also a text which describes something that appeal
directly to the sense, like Warriner said that descriptive text is giving a picture in
the words that appeal directly to the sense (sight, sound, smell, touch, taste). He
13
Fred D. White, The Writer’s Art, (Los Angeles: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1986), p.
61-62.
14
26.
Mark Anderson and Kathy Anderson, Text types in English 3, (Yarra: MacMillan, 1998), p.
12
also said that descriptive text is normally full of vivid verbs and precise
adjectives. It depends on details, not action to hold the readers’ interest. 15
According to George and Julia, descriptive is used to create a visual
image of people, place, and things, even units of time or seasons. It may be used
also to describe more than the outward appearance of people, and it may tell
about their traits of character or personality. Description also “gives sense
impressions such as the feel, sound, taste, smell, and look of things. Emotions
(feelings) may be described too, like happiness, fear, loneliness, gloom, joy,
comfort, etc. In addition, description helps the reader through his/her imagination
to visualize a scene or a person, or to understand a sensation or an emotion." 16 It
means that descriptive text is used to describe physical appearance and
personality of people, places, things or objects, feelings and emotions, and units
of time.
2. Purpose of Descriptive Text
There are so many purposes of descriptive text developed by some
experts. Thus, Rosa and Eschholz said that description is to create a verbal
picture. A place, person, a thing, even an idea or a state of mind can be made
vividly concrete through description. 17 Writing any description requires the
writer gather may details about a subject, relying not only on what the eyes see
but on the other sense impression, touch, taste, smell, hearing as well. So it can
be said that description is drawing a subject through the words to make the reader
see and feel the subject.
Meanwhile, White (1986) said that there are several aims of descriptive
text, they are:
15
John E. Warriner, English Grammar and Composition, (New York: Harcourt, Barace
Jovanovich Publishers, 1982), p. 327.
16
George E. Witshon and Julia M. Burks, Let’s Write English, (New York: American Book
Company, 1980), p. 128.
17
Alfred Rosa and Paul Eschholz, Models for Writers, (New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s,
2003), p. 287.
13
a. To see; means to help the reader to see the objects, persons, and sensations
you present, as you might guess, description is important for all rhetorical
aims, not just for expressiveness.
b. To explain; means to explain the reader about a subject. For example, a
science writer will describe the shape of an airplane to help explaining the
reader how mechanized flight is possible.
c. To persuade; means the writer describes something to make readers interested.
d. To re-create; means to make a reader create something. For example, the
description allows the reader to re-create the experience, particularly the
sensory pleasures of that experience in their own minds.
e. To demonstrate; means that the writer wants to demonstrate something to
readers. 18
Another purpose stated by Anderson is that descriptive is to tell about the
subject by describing its features without including personal opinion. 19 It means
that the aim of description is to enable the reader what something looks like
generally.
In addition, according to Barbara, the purposes of description are:
a.
To entertain
b.
To express feelings
c.
To relate experience
d.
To inform (for a reader unfamiliar with the subject)
e.
To inform (to create a fresh appreciation for the familiar)
f.
To persuade (to convince the reader that some music degrade women). 20
Based on Barbara’s statement, when the readers read the text of
description they will probably be entertained, it also becomes the way of the
writer to express their feeling or drawing their experiences through the words
18
White. loc. cit.
Mark Anderson and Kathy Anderson, Text types in English 3, (Yarra: MacMillan, 1998), p.
19
26.
20
Barbara Fine Clouse, The Student Writer, (New York: McGraw Hill, 2004), p. 143.
14
because the writer can inform unfamiliar subject or gives the appreciation for the
familiar subject to the reader.
From those statements above, it can be concluded that the purpose of
descriptive text is to describe the subject of the text specifically. It is also to
entertain the readers, to express the writer’s feeling and emotion.
3. Language Features of Descriptive Text
a. Generic Structure of Descriptive Text
1. Identification: Identifies the phenomenon to be described
2. Description of features: Describes features in order of importance:
a) Parts/things (physical appearance).
b) Qualities (degree of beauty, excellence, or worth/value).
c) Other characteristics (prominent aspects that are unique).
b. Generic Features of Descriptive Text
1. Use of simple present tense
2. Use of “be (is, are)” for the identification and showing qualities.
3. Use of verb “has/have” to give detailed description of the object’s
features.
4. Use of action verbs related to the topic. Especially when describing
behaviors or personalities (for person).
5. Use of adjectives in describing the objects, especially the qualities.
4. Kinds of Descriptive Text
According to George and Julia (1980), there are three kinds of descriptive
text. They are: 21
21
George E. Witshon and Julia M. Burks, Let’s Write English, (Ottawa: Atlantis Publisher,
1980), p. 131.
15
a. Describing People.
People are different, and writing descriptions of people is different. In
direct description, the writer tells how the person looks like. While in indirect
description, the character is revealed through what he or she does, thinks, or
says in certain situations.
b. Describing Places and Scenes
In describing place, it would be better for the writer to describe a place that
he or she enjoys. In description, the writer chooses words that will create vivid
mental picture for the reader, and some other aspects such as using proper
noun, effective verb, and including action and people.
c. Describing Things or Objects
When the writer describes a thing or an object, he or she must have good
imagination about a thing or an object that will be described. Besides, pictures
also have the important roles in describing a thing or object. Meanwhile, to
make a thing or an object as interesting and as vivid to the readers as it is to
writer, the writer should use proper nouns and effective verbs.
D. Using Guided Questions in Teaching Descriptive Text
In teaching writing of descriptive text through guided questions, the
teacher follows the following procedures:
1. Pre-writing Activity
a. The teacher explains what descriptive text is, and also explains the parts
or generic structures of descriptive text that the students must write in a
paragraph.
b. The teacher decides a topic to be given to the students.
c. The teacher gives the students some questions related to the topic.
d. The teacher gives an example of descriptive text based on the question as
the model for the students.
16
2. Writing Activity
a. The teacher asks the students to write their own descriptive text.
b. The students begin to write a descriptive text by answering the questions
given by the teacher.
c. While the students are writing, the teacher moves among the, gives
assistance and guidance as required.
3. Re-writing Activity
a. Collecting the student’s work, monitoring and marking their work one by
one right way, writing the comment and suggestion underneath.
b. The teacher asks the students to do their final revision and collect their
work.
E. Advantages of Using Guided Question
By using guided questions before doing writing activity, the writer can
get some advantages from them. The following are some advantages of guided
question. They are:
1. It can facilitate the teaching of writing to the students.
2. It can minimize mistakes by the students when they write.
3. The students will not be confused what they are going to write because they
are guided to write by answering the questions related to the topic.
4. It makes their writing more coherent because they write the paragraph by
following the questions.
5. It makes the students easier to explore the topic which they will write about.
From that statement, the students can achieve many benefits through
guided questions. They can be easier to write a text, especially in writing
descriptive text. Besides, it gives more details in writing a descriptive text.
17
F. Conceptual Framework
Many experts have explained about the nature of guided question, and
one factor that interfere the students from knowing how to write well and
correctly is the technique of teaching which is applied by the teacher. However,
guided question is a technique that can be used to teach writing of descriptive
text. Through guided questions, the students are helped to avoid any serious
errors as long as they follow the direction and answer the questions given by the
teacher before start writing. Furthermore, by using guided questions, the students
are also helped to focus on the ideas that they want to write and link sentences
into coherent ideas in the target language.
From the explanation above, the researcher assumes that guided questions
can produce a good descriptive text as long as the students answer the questions
well, and it can also develop all aspects of writing descriptive text, such content,
organization, vocabulary, and language used.
G. Relevant Previous Studies
This part discusses the previous study, especially those dealing with the
research about the use of guided questions in teaching writing of descriptive text.
Nawawi (2011) conducted the research under the title Improving
Students’ Writing Skill of Descriptive Text through Guided Questions. This
research used Classroom Action Research (CAR) design and it attempted to
improve students’ achievement in writing descriptive text by using guided
questions. The subject of this research was the students of second grade of SMP
PGRI 1 Ciputat Tangerang Selatan. The result of this research showed that
students’ achievement score in writing descriptive text improved in every test. In
18
other word, the application of learning descriptive writing by using guided
questions has improved in the end of third cycle. 22
The second study was conducted by Iwan (2012) under the title
“Developing the Students’ Ability in Writing Recount Text through Guiding
Questions Technique at the Second Year Students of SMPN 1 Terbanggi Besar
Lampung Tengah”. From his study, he found that the students’ score in writing
recount text has improved by applying guiding questions technique. 23
Another study was held by Kurniawan (2009). His research is about using
pictures and guided questions in teaching descriptive writing. The aim of his
study is to know the students’ improvement in learning descriptive writing by
using picture and guided questions. The result showed that the implementation of
picture and guided questions in teaching descriptive can improve the students’
ability in writing descriptive text.24
Different from the previous study explained above, the writer will focus
on using a quasi-experimental study in her research. It is different from the
previous study which they were using classroom action research design in
conducting their research. Furthermore, the writer expected that guide question
technique can help the teacher to increase students’ ability in writing descriptive
text. Then, by using guided question technique, the writer hopes that the students
will be easier to write descriptive text coherently.
H. Research Hypotheses
1. H 0 (Null hypothesis): There is no significant difference between the students’
score in learning writing of descriptive text taught by using guided questions
22
Muhammad Bagus Nawawi, Improving Students’ Writing Skill of Descriptive Text through
Guided Question, Skripsi of UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta: 2011. Unpublished.
23
Iwan, Developing the Students’ Ability in Writing Recount Text through Guiding Questions
Technique, Thesis of Lampung University: 2012. Unpublished.
24
Irwan Kurniawan, Using Picture and Guided Question in Teaching Descriptive Writing,
Skripsi of UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta: 2009. Unpublished.
19
and the students’ score in learning writing of descriptive text taught without
using guided questions at eight grade students of SMPN 3 Tangerang Selatan.
2. H a (Alternative Hypothesis): There is significant difference between the
students’ score in learning writing of descriptive text taught by using guided
questions and the students’ score in learning writing of descriptive text taught
without using guided questions at eight grade students of SMPN 3 Tangerang
Selatan.
CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
A. Research Method and Design
This study is a quantitative research. It is categorized as a quasi
experimental research design. The writer conducted the research in two different
classes (experimental class and controlled class). In the experimental class, the
writer gave a treatment by using guided questions in teaching writing of
descriptive text, while in the controlled class, the writer taught writing of
descriptive text by using conventional method without using guided questions.
The treatment given in experimental class is purposed to compare whether it gives
more significant effect on the students’ score in writing descriptive text.
B. Place and Time of the Study
The study was conducted at the eight grade students of SMPN 3
Tangerang Selatan at Jl. Ir. H. Juanda No. 1 Ciputat, Tangerang Selatan. It was
conducted for about three months, started from September 2014.
C. Population and Sample
The population of this study was all of the eight grade students of SMPN 3
Tangerang Selatan in academic year 2014/2015. The total number of the students
is 450 students divided into 10 classes.
In this study, the writer used purposive sampling to choose the classes
which almost have the same score. The writer chose class of VIII.6 as the sample
of experimental class and class of VIII.7 as the controlled class.
D. Instrument of the Study
In this study, the writer used test as an instrument. The instrument of the
study is a tool or facility that is used by researcher for collecting data in order to
20
21
get better result. Therefore, to get the accurate data, the researcher of this study
chose test as an instrument.
To know the effectiveness of teaching writing by using guided questions,
the writer gave written test to the students. The written test was divided into two
parts; pre-test and post-test. The form of written test was an instruction to make a
descriptive text based on the topic given by the teacher. Because of it is written
test, the writer used writing rubric in scoring the student’s writing. It is divided
into five criteria, which are content, organization, vocabulary, language use, and
mechanics. Furthermore, each criteria was rated into four scale of rating scores
adapted from Jacobs et al.’s (1981) scoring profile. 1 Then, to get the mean of
students’ writing score, the writer had to calculate all components of writing as
follows:
Table 3.1
Five Components of Grading Writing Score
30 – 27
CONTENT
26 – 22
21 – 17
16 – 13
20 – 18
ORGANIZATION
17 – 14
13 – 10
9–7
VOCABULARY
1
20 – 18
EXCELLENT TO VERY GOOD: knowledgeable,
substantive, thorough development of topic, effective
and appropriate details of topic or story
GOOD TO AVERAGE: adequate range, adequate
development of topic, sufficient details of topic or
story
FAIR TO POOR: little substance, inadequate
development of topic and detail
VERY POOR: non-substantive, not pertinent, or not
enough to evaluate
EXCELLENT TO VERY GOOD: fluent expression,
ideas clearly stated/supported, well-organized,
logical sequencing, cohesive
GOOD TO AVERAGE: somewhat choppy, loosely
organized but main ideas stand out, logical but
incomplete sequencing
FAIR TO POOR: non – fluent, ideas confused or
disconnected, lacks logical sequencing
VERY POOR: does not communicate, no
organization, or not enough to evaluate
EXCELLENT TO VERY GOOD:
effective
word/idiom choice and usage, word form mastery
Arthur Hughes, Testing for Language Teachers, (New York: Cambridge University
Press, 2003), p. 104.
22
17 – 14
13 – 10
9–7
25 – 22
21 – 18
LANGUAGE USE
17 – 11
10 – 5
5
4
MECHANICS
3
2
GOOD TO AVERAGE: occassional errors of
word/idiom form, choice, usage but meaning not
obscured
FAIR TO POOR: frequent errors of word/idiom
form, choice, usage, meaning confused or obscured
VERY POOR: little knowledge of English
vocabulary, idioms, word form, or not enough to
evaluate
EXCELLENT TO VERY GOOD: effective complex
constructions, few errors of agreement, tense,
number, word order/function, articles, pronouns,
prepositions
GOOD TO AVERAGE: effective but simple
construction, minor problems in complex
construction, several errors of agreement, tense,
number, word order/function, articles, pronouns,
prepositions but meaning seldom obscured
FAIR TO POOR: major problems in simple/complex
constructions, frequent errors of negation,
agreement, number, word order/function, articles,
pronouns, prepositions and/or fragments, run-ons,
deletion, meaning confused or obscured
VERY POOR: virtually no mastery of sentence
construction rules, dominated by errors, does not
communicate, or not enough to evaluate
EXCELLENT TO VERY GOOD: demonstrates
mastery of conventions, few errors of spelling,
punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing
GOOD TO AVERAGE: occasional errors of
spelling, punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing
but meaning not obscured
FAIR TO POOR: frequent errors of spelling,
punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing, poor
handwriting, meaning confused or obscured
VERY POOR: no mastery of conventions,
dominated by errors of spelling, punctuation,
capitalization, paragraphing, handwriting illegible, or
not enough to evaluate
E. Test of Instrument Validity and Reliability
To know the validity and reliability of the instrument, the writer, first,
match the instrument with the objective of the subject which can be seen from the
syllabus of Junior High School. Then, the writer gave a try out to other class
before conducting the research, which is aimed to know the validity and reliability
of the instrument. In this study, the writer gave the try out to class VIII.5 of
23
SMPN 3 Tangerang Selatan academic year 2014/2015. Furthermore, after
conducting the try out, the writer obtained the data and calculated the result of the
instrument. From the result, it can be seen that the instrument used to test writing
is valid and reliable (See appendix 3).
F. Technique of Data Collection
In this study, the researcher conducted pre-test and post-test to collect the
data.
1. Pre-test
Pre-test is used to ensure the equivalency