Background of the Study

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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents the background of the study, the reasons for choosing the topic, the research problems, the objectives of the study, the significance of the study, and the outline of the report.

1.1 Background of the Study

English as an international language has an important role in the world. It is not only used in communication, but also in transferring information. Without mastering English well, Indonesian people cannot communicate well. Because of that, Indonesia, as a country that use English as the second language, English should be taught to the students early on starting from elementary school to the university level. In teaching and learning process of English subject, students are required to master four English skills; they are listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Listening and reading includes passive or receptive skills, while speaking and writing includes active or productive skills Harmer, 2001:199, 246. Nevertheless, those skills have to be mastered by the students, especially writing skill, because, according to Harmer 2004:3 , “being able to write is a vital skill for „speakers‟ of a foreign language as much as for everyone using their own first language ”. In addition, writing is used for a wide variety of purposes. It is produced in any different forms Harmer, 2004:4. For examples, letter, book, etc. So, in everyday life, Indonesian people need to master writing. Compared to other skills, writing is the most difficult skill to be learned. It needs competencies of many language aspects, include grammar, diction, cohesiveness, etc to express th e writer‟s opinion, thought, knowledge, and feeling. Furthermore, “writing takes time and energy. It is a long process”. Bram, 1995:64. The steps of writing may include planning, drafting, editing, and final draft Harmer, 2004:5. In planning step, a topic should be prepared. To find an inspiring topic might be sometimes rather difficult. Dealing with the statement, it is not easy for the students to create their own writing in short time especially for beginners because they need much time in the writing steps. In fact, many Indonesian students face many difficulties when they begin writing especially recount text. Based on the researcher‟s observation when she had a teaching practice in State Junior High School 2 Semarang grade VIII B, the students spent much time to think what they had to write because they did not get ideas quickly. They had difficulties in generating the ideas, writing mechanic, grammar, and they lacked of vocabulary. Moreover, the teachers of State Junior High School 2 Semarang commonly uses the conventional strategy such as explaining the generic structure, the language features, give the text example, and give a task to the students to make a text. “For many years the teaching of writing focused on the written product rather than on the writing process. In other words, the students‟ attention was directed to the what other than the how of text construction”. Harmer, 2004:11. The researcher in this research tries to use an innovation strategy in writing that is Picture Word Inductive Model PWIM. Silitonga and Ernidawati n.d. stated that PWIM is as a model of teaching that uses picture and words to stimulate students‟ thinking inductively, from specific thinking see the pictures and words into general thinking make the words that are available become paragraph. The PWIM strategy is the combination between picture and word. According to Harmer 2004: 67, “just as music can provoke creativity in students – especially those who are particularly responsive to auditory stimuli – so too pictures work really well as spurs to written production ”. So, by giving the combination of picture and word to the students, their creativity will run well. Those combination can also stimu late students‟ ideas in writing. The sequence of lessons by using PWIM strategy begins with a picture. The students study the picture and then shake out the words. It means that the students identify things or objects they see in the picture; and the teacher draws a line from those things to a place outside the picture, reiterates the word, and writes and spells the word aloud. The students repeat the word, its spelling, and interpret it. After that, the students create sentences by using the words before, then organizing the sentences into paragraph. From these reasons, the researcher conducts a classroom action research about improving students‟ writing skill of recount text by using PWIM strategy for the eighth graders of State Junior High School 2 Semarang in the academic year of 20142015.

1.2 Reasons for Choosing the Topic