THE EFFECT OF ACROSTIC TECHNIQUE ON STUDENTS’ ACHIEVEMENT IN WRITING DESCRIPTIVE TEXT.

THE EFFEC
ECT OF ACROSTIC TECHNIQUE
E ON
STUDEN
NTS’ ACHIEVEMENT IN WRITING
NG
DESCRIPTIVE TEXT
A THESIS
In Par
Partial Fulfillment of the requirements
for
or the Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan

By:

RAFIKA AZMI
Reg. No. 2111321002

ENT
ENGLISH
SH A

AND LITERATURE DEPARTMEN
FACULTY
ULTY OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS
STA
STATE UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN
2015

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First of all, the writer would like to express her deepest gratitude to Allah
Swt, uncountable blessing, loves, opportunity and strength given to the writer
during her study and in completing this thesis which entitled: “The effect of
Acrostic Technique on Students’ Achievement in Writing Descriptive Tex”. This
thesis is aimed to fulfill one of the requirements for the degree of Sarjana
Pendidikan of the English Department, Faculty of Languages and Arts, State
University of Medan (UNIMED).
In completing this thesis, the writer realized that she faced some problems
and she had received the academic guidance, suggestions, and comments and got
a lot of assistance and moral support from many people. Therefore, the writer
would like to express her gratitude and special thanks to:


Prof. Dr. Syawal Gultom, M.Pd.,as the Rector of State University of
Medan.

Dr. Isda Pramuniati, M.Hum., as the Dean of Faculty of Languages
and Arts, State University of Medan.

Prof. Dr. Hj. Sumarsih, M.Pd., as the Head of English and Literature
Department and also as her Advisor of Thesis.

Nora Ronita Dewi, S.Pd, S.S, M.Hum., as the Head of English
Department Program, Faculty languages and Arts, State University of
Medan.

Indra Hartoyo, S.Pd, M.Hum., as her Thesis Advisor who has given
his precious time for guidance, suggestion and comments to the writer
in every kind of situation

Dr. Zainuddin, DTEFL, M.Hum., as her Academic Advisor who
always give his time to guide the writer in every kind of situation


Dr. Siti Aisah Ginting, M. Pd., as her Reviewer and Examiner, who
who has given her precious time, guidance, suggestions, and
comments in process writing thesis.

Drs. Johan Sinulingga, M.Pd., as her Reviewer and Examiner, who
who has given his precious time, guidance, suggestions, and
comments in process writing thesis.

Tiarnita M. Siregar, S.Pd, M.Hum., as her Reviewer and Examiner,
who who has given his precious time, guidance, suggestions, and
comments in process writing thesis.

All the lecturers of English Department who have taught, guided,
and advised her throughout the academic years.

Eis Sri Wahyuningsih, M.Pd., as the Administration Staff of English
Department, for her attention, assistance, and information in
completing it.

Utari Situmorang as a motivator, supporter, and also gives guidance,

suggestions and comments in the process of completing this thesis.
ii










PPLT SMPN 3 KISARAN 2014 as her motivations and support in
the process of finishing this thesis.
Her beloved parents Indra Junaidi Panjaitan and Masdelima
Harahap, A.Ma, and Kak Dessy & Bang Boni, Yudhi, Yoppy,
Caca and Kai for their endless love, pray, inspiration, motivation and
everything that they have given to the writer during her whole life.
Her beloved uncle and aunt Prof. Dr. Asmin Panjaitan, M.Pd and
Syavitri Nasution, M.Pd., Papa & Bunda, Bibi, Upi, Devi, Nisa,

Kak Eny & Bang Ipul, Syika, and Bang Wanda for their endless
consideration, pray, support and love that gives while completing this
thesis.
All her classmates in Extension A 2011 UNIMED who cannot be
mentioned one by one that conquered the lectures and shared
knowledge , ideas and the experiences of bitter sweet from campus
life together and have been cooperatively supporting the writer in
completing this thesis.
Especially for her partners in doing this thesis, Tria Meilani Handani
Sinulingga, S.Pd., and Dessy Putri Utami, S.Pd., who shared the
same struggle with the writer “we did it girls!!!”.

The writer realizes that this thesis still has the paucity, she conveniently
welcomes anysuggestions, comments critics, and advices that will improve the
quality of this thesis. She hopes that this thesis would be useful for those who are
read and interested in the field of this study.

Medan, September 2015
The writer,


Rafika Azmi
Reg. No. 2111321002

iii

ABSTRACT

Azmi, Rafika. 2111321002. The Effect of Acrostic Technique on Students’
Achievement in Writing Descriptive Text. A thesis, English Department,
Faculty of Languages and Arts, State University of Medan 2015.
This research aims to find out whether students’ achievement taught by using
Acrostic Technique has significant effect than that was taught by Group
Investigation Method in Writing Descriptive Text. The research was conducted by
Experimental research using two groups. They are Experimental group that used
Acrostic Technique and Control group that used Group Discussion Method. The
population of this research was the tenth grade students of SMA Swasta Kesuma
Bangsa Londut. There were three parallel classes which consist of 30 students for
each class. The data was taken from writing test. After analyzing the data, it was
found that the value of tobserved was 4.511 with degree of freedom (df) 28 at the
level of significance p (0.05) = 2.048. It means that tobserved (4.511) is higher than

ttable (2.048). It was found that students’ achievement in Writing Descriptive Text
taught by Acrostic Technique has significant effect.
Key words: Acrostic Technique, Students’ Achievement, Writing Descriptive
Text.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................ i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ................................................................................... ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS..................................................................................... iv
LIST OF TABLE ................................................................................................ vii
LIST OF FIGURE ............................................................................................. viii
LIST OF APPENDIX .......................................................................................... ix
CHAPTER I : INTRODUCTION ........................................................................1
A. The Background Of the Study .........................................................................1
B. The Problem Of the Study ...............................................................................4

C. The Objectivity Of the Study...........................................................................4
D. The Scope of the Study....................................................................................4
E. The Significance of the Study..........................................................................5
CHAPTER II : REVIEW OF LITERATURE ....................................................6
A. Theoretical Framework ..................................................................................6
1. Writing.............................................................................................................6
a. Writing Process ........................................................................................7
1. Planning ...............................................................................................7
2. Drafting................................................................................................7
3. Editing .................................................................................................7
4. Final Draft ...........................................................................................7
b. Achievement of writing............................................................................8
2. Text..................................................................................................................9
a. Text Based Genre .....................................................................................9
b. Descriptive text ......................................................................................12
c. The Parts of Descriptive Paragraph ........................................................14
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d. The Assessment of Descriptive Text......................................................15
1. Content ................................................................................................7

2. Organization ........................................................................................7
3. Vocabulary...........................................................................................7
4. Language Use ......................................................................................7
5. Mechanism ..........................................................................................7
3. Students’ Achievement..................................................................................19
4. Technique ......................................................................................................19
5. Kinds of Technique .......................................................................................20
a. Creative Teaching Technique.................................................................20
b. General Technique .................................................................................20
a) Assumption Busting ..........................................................................21
b) Brainstorming....................................................................................21
c) Concept Mapping ..............................................................................21
d) Brain-Sketching.................................................................................21
e) Fishbone ............................................................................................21
c. Field-Specific Technique........................................................................22
6. Acrostic .........................................................................................................22
7. Acrostic Technique........................................................................................23
a. The Procedure of Acrostic Technique ....................................................23
b. The Advantages and Disadvantages of Acrostic Technique ..................27
B. Conceptual Framework.................................................................................28

C. Hypothesis ....................................................................................................30
CHAPTER III : RESEARCH METHODOLOGY...........................................31
A. Research Design ...........................................................................................31
B. Population and Sample .................................................................................32
C. Instrument for collecting data .......................................................................32
D. The Procedure of the Test.............................................................................33
.

1. Pre-test ...................................................................................................33
2. Treatment ...............................................................................................33
3. Post-test ..................................................................................................36
v

E. Scoring System .............................................................................................36
F. Validity and Reliability ................................................................................37
G. Technique of Data Analysis ........................................................................38

CHAPTER IV : DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION................................40
A. The Data .......................................................................................................40
B. Data Analysis................................................................................................42

1. Testing The Reliability of The Test ……………………………………..42
2. Analyzing the data using t-test…………………………………………...43
a. The Calculation of the t-table………………………………………..43
b. The Calculation of the t-observed…………………………………...44
3. Reliability of the test………………………………………………………44
C. Testing Hypothesis .......................................................................................45
D. Discussion.....................................................................................................45
E. Research Results ...........................................................................................46
CHAPTER IV : CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION ...................................48
A. Conclusion…………………………………………………………............48
B. Suggestion………………………………………………………….............48
REFERENCES.....................................................................................................50

vi

vii

viii

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1.1 Students who could not pass KKM…………………………..3
Table 3.1 Experimental research Design………………………………..31
Table 3.2 Teaching Procedure of Experimental Group…………………35
Table 3.3 Teaching Procedure of Control Group……………………….35
Table 4.1 The Result Score of Experimental Group………………….....41
Table 4.2 The Result Score of Control Group…………………..............42

LIST OF FIGURE

Figure 1.1 Step in writing process based on Harmer (2004:4-6)…………..9
Figure 2.1 The example of bridge word…………………………………...25

LIST OF APPENDIX

APPENDIX A……………………………………………………………..52
APPENDIX B……………………………………………………………..54
APPENDIX C……………………………………………………………..56
APPENDIX D……………………………………………………………..57
APPENDIX E……………………………………………………………..58
APPENDIX F……………………………………………………………..60
APPENDIX G……………………………………………………………..61
APPENDIX H……………………………………………………………..62
APPENDIX I……………………………………………………………...64

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. The Background of the Study
Language is a means of communicating idea in all activities in every social
situation to others people, Language also stands at the center of human affair,
from the most prosaic to the most profound (Clarck and Clarck, 1977: 04).
Learning English is more important nowadays, because English is used
internationally as one of the main languages of international communication and
even for people who are not English’s speaker. Although English is not the
language with largest number of native or ‘first’ language speakers, it has become
a lingua franca. A lingua franca (Greece) can be defined as a language
systematically use to make communication possible between two or more persons
that not sharing the same native speaker, it also can be defined as language widely
adopted for communication in most of all country around the world (Harmer,
2001: 01).
Based on the researcher’s Preliminary observation in SMA Swasta
Kesuma Bangsa Londut, the researcher found that the students still have
difficulties when they are asked to comprehend all the English skill, especially
writing. The students state that writing is the English subject that caused a lot of
worry for them.
Students felt writing was followed by the pressure of sentence and
paragraph construction and often make student bored and gave up on their writing
assignment.

1

2

Writing as one of the important skills in English has always formed part of
syllabus in the teaching of English. However writing can be used for variety of
purposes, ranging from being merely a ‘backup’ for grammar teaching to a major
syllabus strand. Writing also encourage on accurate language use and language
development as they resolve the problems which the writing puts into their mind.
Students write to help them learn better (Harmer, 2004:31).
Writing is not easy for students because in writing students have to
comprehend the vocabulary, grammar, appropriate contents, word selections,
topic and occasion. The researcher found that many students at SMA Swasta
Kesuma Bangsa Londut still lack in writing. There are many types of writing that
should be learned by students of high school level but the researcher is interested
in descriptive text because it is probably the easiest one for students to learn.
Even though descriptive text is the easiest types of writing, many students
still face problem in writing descriptive text. In reality most of the students have
difficulties when they asked to write in English and it seems the students cannot
write even a simple writing. The students frequently confused of what to write and
how to start. As a result, they always get bad scores in their writing. It was proven
when the researcher asked for the list of students’ scores for writing test, many
students could not pass KKM (Kriteria Ketuntasan Minimun) applied by the
school in English Subject.

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Table 1.1 Students who could not pass KKM
No.

Students’ Initial
Score

KKM

Name
1.

SM

32

75

2.

RA

40

75

3.

TP

46

75

4.

FW

50

75

5.

YA

50

75

6.

JKS

50

75

7.

CA

50

75

8.

ADP

51

75

9.

DY

51

75

10.

AP

53

75

Writing should be taught more intensively and widely to student in order
for students to know how to get idea of the entire text that they are going to write
before they start to write a text. The are many technique that can be used to help
students generated idea and gather detail for their descriptive text writing, but in
this case the researcher choose Acrostic Technique. Acrostic can be use as a prewriting activity for descriptive text writing (Glandon, 2000: 145).
According to Landsberger (2002) acrostic is a sequence of letters that
helps you remember poem and other text. Acrostic using word letters as a tool for

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gathering idea and details in order to arrange descriptive text. Acrostic is a series
of lines or verses in which the first letters form a word, phrase or sentence.
This technique is really uncomplicated to understand and comprehend by
the students, because it is a fun and simple way to synthesize and organize idea.
Writing descriptive text using this technique was highly effective strategy to
engage learners in learning process and this technique also had been used by
Ebbinghaus (1908) in his study about teaching writing strategy using acrostic.
Most of students try to find a shortcut to do their assignment by searching
descriptive text from internet and copy-paste, because they think that is an easiest
way to do the assignment. So that’s why the researcher interested to do a research
and tries to analyze this case in order to know whether acrostic technique is really
effective in helping students to write a descriptive text.

B. The Problem of the Study
Based on the description and the explanation presented in the background
of study, the problem of this study are formulating in the following question:
“Does Acrostic Technique significantly effect on students’ achievement in writing
descriptive text?”

C. The Objective of the Study

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This research intended to investigate whether does any significant effect of
Acrostic Technique on students’ achievement in writing descriptive text.

D. The Scope of the Study
As we know there are many kinds of teaching approach, procedure,
technique or model which are invented by many experts to ease teaching and
learning process included in teaching writing. In this study, the researcher chooses
Acrostic Technique, because acrostic is one of many fun ways to gather details
and idea to compose a text.
Beside, there are also many genres of text such as narrative, recount,
descriptive, report, explanation, exposition (analytical, hortatory), discussion,
procedure, spoof, anecdote, news item. The researcher chooses Descriptive text.
So, this study is focus on identifying the effect of Acrostic Technique on
students’ achievement in writing Descriptive Text.

E. The Significance of the Study
The findings of this study are intended to give contribution to teaching
English both theoretically and practically
1. Theoretically
a. The finding of this study is expected to be a basic knowledge for further
research of acrostic technique in writing descriptive text.

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b. The finding of this study is expected as a reference to the other researcher
who wants to study more about descriptive writing text through acrostic
technique.

2. Practically
a. For the teachers
1. The findings of this study are expected to improve the English teachers
and add this techniques as an alternative technique for teaching writing
descriptive text.
2. The findings of this study are expected to help the teachers solve the
problem in teaching especially writing skill.
b. For the students
1. The findings of this study are expected the students can easily to know
how to write descriptive text and motivated them to be better in writing
in order to mastery all the English skill.
2. The findings of this study are expected as guidance for English teachers
in teaching English mainly to increase the students’ achievement in
writing descriptive text.