14
initial planning. You must come up with a tentative division of the topic into subparts or main ideas. Clustering works as follows:
―1. In a word or phrase, write the center of a piece of paper. Circle it. 2. Also in a word or phrase, write down the main ideas of your topic in
the center. 3. The next step is to generated facts, details, examples, or ideas related
in any way to these main parts‖.
16
In line with the experts‘ idea above, clustering, devised by Gabriele Rico, is combination of uncensored brainstorming with doodling. This technique
produce an overview of a subject, suggests specific topics, and yields related details. First; take a fresh sheet of paper and write a general subject in the center.
Then circle the word. Jot it near the word then prompted it. Circle the new word. Third; draw a line between the two. Repeat the procedure. The sample cluster
figure 2.1 began with the main topic. That central idea branched out, leading to the key words related to the topic.
17
Figure 2.1 The Application of Clustering Technique
One key word or target word must be has relation to other problem or situation. It can be seen that the word badminton has relation to words smash and
serve because smash and serve are activities in badminton. While the word badminton has relation to words interesting and popular because badminton is
kind of sport which is very interesting and popular. Whereas, the word badminton
See
16
Rise B. Axelrod and Charles R. Copper, The St . Martin’s Guided Writing, New
York: ST. Martin‘s press, 1985, p. 461.
17
Betty Mattix Dietsch, Reasoning and Writing Well, New York: Mc. Graw Hill, 2003, pp. 26
– 27.
Smash Court
Serve
Badminton
Popular Racket
Interesting
15
has relation to words racket and court because racket is one of equipment which is used to play badminton, and court is the place to play badminton.
By giving a certain key word or target word to the students and ask them to make clustering based on it, we made the students to increase their connected
vocabularies. It‘s also able to trigger their background knowledge and help them in memorizing of new vocabulary. Even though clustering is actually a technique,
which is usually used in pre-writing paragraph but the researcher assumes that the technique is also applicable in increasing the vocabulary of the students.
4. Relevant of the Study
The research about clustering technique has been done by
Mela Eka Faransari
that was
―Increasing Students’ Vocabulary Achievement through Clustering Technique at the First Year of SMP Gajah Mada Bandar Lampung
‖
this research explain about the application of Clustering Technique in teaching
vocabulary. She conducted the observation on april 28
th
, 2010 to mei 23
th
2010. She used Clustering technique to teach vocabulary in order to overcome students
difficulties and as a technique to improve students vocabulary. In fact, the result of analysis of interpretation of the data shows that teaching vocabulary is probably
more effective by using Clustering Technique. It can be seen from the result of the test. By using Clustering Technique in teaching vocabulary, the researcher
hopes that the students will be interested in achieving vocabulary. Based on the result of research has been observed by
Mela Eka Faransari
the researcher continue to the research about implementation of Clustering Technique. The researcher
expected Clustering Technique help the teacher to improve students‘ vocabulary.
17
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
A. Place and Time of the Study
The Classroom Action Research CAR went on from January up to March. The research takes place at SMP Al-Kautsar BKUI Jakarta which is
located Jl. Jembatan Selatan no. 06, Petogogan, Kebayoran Baru. The writer holds CAR in this school. The writer thinks that it is important to improve students’
vocabulary mastery and the student’s achievement in English.
B. Research Method and Design
The research method which is used is classroom action research CAR. CAR is viewed as a device to improve the quality of teaching learning ability in
the physical classroom. Beside of solving diagnosed problems in conditional classroom activity, CAR also helps the teacher through any new methods, skills,
and strategies through pair-teaching between the researcher and the teacher as collaborative study.
1
It means that this method can help quality of teaching learning ability and solve real problems in the classroom through new methods,
skills, and strategies through collaborative between researcher and teacher. Creswell said that CAR is the practical design which explores a problem
with an aim toward developing a solution to a problem, and also action research designs are systematical procedure done by the teachers or other individual in an
educational setting to improve their teaching, and their students learning.
2
It means that teachers have an aim at improving the practice of education by
studying issues or problems they face, and teachers reflect about these problems, collect and analysis data, and also implement changes based on their findings.
Meanwhile Wallace stated that CAR is a type of classroom research that the teacher found the problem in order to solve problems or to find answers toward
1
Suharsimi Arikunto, et al., Peneltian Tindakan Kelas, Jakarta: Bumi Aksara, 2009, pp. 106
—108.
2
John w. Creswell, Educational Research, Pearson Educational International, 2008, pp. 596
—597.
