commit to user
115 tended to ignore the classroom activities held by the teacher. It could be seen in
their passive involvement in doing homework given by the teacher. They also tended to talk with other during the lesson and paid little attention to the teachers’
explanation. In addition, some of them often asked for permission to go to the bathroom. They were also passive in answering and responding the teacher’s
questions. After the implementation of the research, generally there were changes and
improvements in class situation during the teaching and learning process. The changes were the positive ones such as they paid much attention to the lesson,
took a part actively in the lesson, and the more serious intention to do the assignment.
1. Summary of Cycle 1
The implementation of cycle 1 was divided into four meetings and conducted in three main teaching activities namely opening the class, main
activities, and closing the class. All of the meetings were focused on the teaching of writing covering punctuation and capital letter, vocabulary,
grammar, supporting detail, and organizing ideas. The topic given in Cycle 1 was descriptive text. Post test in Cycle 1 was done outside the class. The
implementation of cycle 1 used e-mail in sending, marking, revising, and receiving the assignments to the students.
The result of reflection showed that utilizing e-mail in teaching and learning activities was effective to improve the students’ mechanical writing
commit to user
116 mastery. The teacher presented the use of punctuation and capital letter,
giving examples of the sentences to make the student understand it well. The teacher also informed them how to identify the use of punctuation and capital
letter in a sentence correctly on the computer when they are typing the task before sending it via e-mail. This way was effective to improve their
knowledge in punctuation and capital letter gradually. In teaching vocabulary, the teacher could present some new words
from the authentic material of descriptive text taken from internet which sent via e-mail by the students as their assignment in the previous meeting. Then,
the students were asked to find the meaning of the unknown words by themselves. More descriptive text they found, more vocabularies they got.
The teacher also explained about word class such as noun, verb, adjective, and adverb. The students were suggested to find out the meaning, synonym,
and antonym electronically when they are typing the task before sending through e-mail, because it could save the time. As the result, the students’
vocabulary mastery was improved gradually in test Cycle 1. In teaching grammar, the teacher presented the material about simple
present tense. It covered verb 1, verb ses, be ‘is’, ‘am’, ‘are’, and singular- plural. The teacher provided jumble sentences to be arranged into good order
by the students as their assignment. The students were also suggested to practice more in making sentence. As the result, the students’ grammar
mastery was improved gradually.
commit to user
117 By sending message via e-mail even it was just simple sentence in
English, it meant that students had practiced to improve their writing skill in elaborating ideas. That is why the researcher sent and received the project just
through e-mail; it was intended to encourage students to express their ideas. Through e-mail, students could express their feeling and ideas freely
with better atmosphere. In other word, they elaborated the ideas clearly by practicing writing a text more and more. In fact, the average score of all
writing aspects were improved. In post test Cycle 1, every student was asked to write descriptive text.
It was evaluated by two examiners, the researcher and collaborator by using a scoring rubric of writing.
The result of post-test in cycle 1 showed the students’ writing skill improved. The highest score was 90, the lowest score was 35, and the average
score was 66.04. The scores indicated that the students’ writing skill improved. The scores of writing aspects also showed improvement. The
average score of punctuation was 62.50, vocabulary was 64.63, grammar 49.09, supporting detail was 76.83, and organizing writing was 77.13. In
general, all writing aspects improved but the teacher and collaborator decided to improve the aspects of punctuation, vocabulary, and grammar since they
were still lower than the other aspects. Although utilizing e-mail in teaching and learning activities was
advantageous, the researcher note some weaknesses related to the teacher and students appeared during the implementation of Cycle 1.
commit to user
118 Especially in grammar, the students were still limited in practising so
that the students did not really understand especially about verb 1, verb ses, be ‘is’’are’, modal, and singular-plural. In other words, the students were lack
of grammar practice. Due to the poor grammar mastery, most of the students’ grammar scores were low and needed improvement in the following cycle.
Some students also complained that they spent extra money to rent the computer.
2. Summary of Cycle 2
