example by asking questions. They only focused on the final product of writing asked by the teacher. It can be seen from their work of the last assignment. The teacher
showed the students’ book to the researcher. Most of the students did not finish their work. Moreover, the atmosphere can also come from the condition of the class. When
the researcher observed the class, the condition was quite good, but the space of each class was too close. It made the students can hear the noise from the other class.
The learning process will be more interesting if the teachers use media to help them deliver the material. The media can be Power Point slides, cue cards, songs,
videos, stories, games, and films. Based on the observations, the researcher saw that the facilities in the class were quite complete. There were LCD, speakers,
whiteboards, desks, and the other things that support the learning process but the teacher in that time did not use it. She just used the whiteboard. From the interviews
with some students, they said that the teacher seldom gave them games. Meanwhile, students liked games very much.
Based on the problems above, the researcher thought that it was necessary to find the solution of the problems in the teaching and learning process so the writing
ability of the students could be improved.
C. Limitation of the Problems
There are many problems in teaching and learning process. It is impossible to deal with all problems that have been mentioned before. Therefore, the researcher
limited the problems to be solved. This research focused on how cue card as media
were used in the teaching of writing. Using media to teach writing, the researcher expected the students to be more motivated to write in English. For all the examples
of media, the researcher chose cue cards as the best media to teach writing. It is because cue cards consist of pictures that could make the students interested and
vocabularies that could lead the students to express their ideas in writing.
D. Formulation of the Problem
Based on the background of the problems, identification of the problems, and limitation of the problems, the problems of this study can be formulated as follows:
How can cue cards be used to improve the students’ writing ability in grade eight of SMPN 4 Yogyakarta at the academic year of 20152016?
E. Objectives of the Research
Based on the formulation of the problem, the objectives of the research was to improve the students’ writing ability in grade eight of SMPN 4 Yogyakarta at the
academic year of 20152016 by using cue cards.
F. Significance of the Research
This research is expected to give a valuable to the following parties: 1. Practical Significance
a. For the students, this research is expected to make them enjoy the learning process of writing. It also gives them motivation and helps them to write well.
b. For the teachers, this research is expected to help them have an interesting teaching and learning process by using cue cards as media to teach writing to the
students. 2. Theoretical Significance
The result of this research is expected to be an input of reference for other researchers who want to improve the students’ writing ability using cue cards as
media. Besides, to other researchers who wish to develop media for the teaching of writing, the result of this research can also be a reference.
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CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEWS
A. Theoretical Review
This sub-chapter discusses some relevant theories which are related to the study. Those are divided into five parts. They are writing, teaching writing, teaching
writing in junior high school, factors influencing writing ability, and cue cards media. The discussion of each part will be presented below.
1.
Writing a. The Nature of Writing
In learning English, students will deal with four skills. They are listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Those four skills are integrated in teaching English as
foreign language. Most of students think that writing is the most difficult skill. Westwood 2008: 56 asserts that written language becomes the most difficult skill
because its development involves the effective coordination of many different aspects such as cognitive, linguistic, and psychomotor process.
Writing is a productive skill that means it involves producing language rather than receiving it Spratt et al., 2005: 26. Speaking is also a productive skill. Yet they
are different. Westwood 2008: 56 asserts that speaking and written works are different in some ways. One of them is a written work cannot be understood well by
the reader if it does not use appropriate language use and mechanics such as tense, spelling, punctuation, an so on. Langan 2005: 4 also says that speaking does
