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32 potential to offer learners opportunities for much more valuable communicative
interaction in the target language than was ever possible in the traditional foreign language classroom.
By considering the concept of the nature of writing, the use of e-mail, and review of related research, it can be assumed that by using e-mail in this research,
the students can improve their writing skill.
D. Rationale
In teaching learning process especially for writing, the students have some problems. They are: 1 the students have difficulties in punctuation and capital
letter; 2 they have difficulties to select appropriate words; 3 they have difficulties to write sentences grammatically; 4 their difficulties to develop ideas
logically; 5 their difficulties in organizing the writing well. Unfavorable situation is obvious in teaching and learning process such as:
1 some students pay little attention to the teacher’s explanation; 2 many students do not do the homework when the teacher ask them to do the task at
home; 3 some students enjoy talking with other during the lesson; 4 at the same time, some of them often ask for permission to go to the bathroom; 5
students just keep silent when the teacher ask them to make questions related to lesson given.
The students’ failure in writing is caused by many things namely: 1 the students’ motivation is low due to monotonous teaching and the traditional
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33 method used by the teachers in teaching writing; 2 lack of practices in writing;
3 their lack of knowledge in grammar and vocabulary and; 4 they ignore the rules of mechanical writing; 5 limited time given by the teacher at school.
To overcome the students’ problems and to improve their writing skill, the researcher is interested in using e-mail to practice writing in teaching learning
process. Utilizing e-mail in teaching and learning process has some advantages. Those are; e-mail is considered as one of the newly communication tools for
writing activity at SMK PGRI 6. By using e-mail, students do not study in monotonous teaching. The atmosphere of teaching learning process will be more
inspiring and enjoyable. Therefore, the students will be more interested and enthusiastic when the teacher use email in teaching and learning process. In
general, e-mail can encourage students to use computers in realistic, authentic situations in order to develop communicative and thinking skills. It can help the
students to organize and develop the ideas. Students’ vocabulary mastery is gradually improved. This is due to the fact
that generally the computer language is English. They can look up the meaning, synonym, even antonym of the words electronically. While typing on the
computer, they learn spelling of the words and punctuation by correcting ones which is red underlined. Besides, the use of e-mail in teaching writing can cope
the problem dealing with the limited time for classroom teaching writing. The students can do writing outside the class e.g. in a lab, a campus network, or across
the Internet, and the teacher can monitor their writing as well.
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34 E-mail allows student to send a message via a computer to other user that
will then be available for reading at that person’s convenience. The students receiving the message can respond easily by typing in a reply and pressing a key
or clicking the mouse. E-mail allows the students to keep in touch with their teachers and other students around the world via mailing list and discussing
groups. Unconsciously, they have practiced writing frequently. It can be said that by utilizing e-mail, students and teachers become better
problem solvers and better communicators. Students can begin to realize their full potential when they are trigged to deal such feature as a tool in completing their
writing tasks more effectively. Students have the chance to collaborate and work together with other classmates and teachers. On the other hand, by working
electronically, teachers can help learners create, analyze, and produce information and ideas more easily and efficiently. In this case, teachers directly make their
works easier in teaching and learning process. Based on the strengths of e-mail, it is assumed that utilizing e-mail for
teaching writing is able to improve the students’ writing skill.
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35
CHAPTER III THE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
A. Context of the Research
This classroom action research was conducted at SMK PGRI 6 Ngawi for six months from September 2010 to February 2011. It is located on Jl. Raya
Klitik, KM. 05 Ngawi, East Java. Students can get to the school easily because it is located on the main road connecting east Java and Central Java. They usually
ride motor cycle or public transportation which can exactly stop in front of the school to reach there. There are many schools and a government institution
surrounding there. Behind and across the school there are rice fields. The students usually choose the school because they are not accepted by
the state school because of their low scores of final examination in the previous
Junior High School. Most of them come from surrounding villages. Their parents are farmers and labors who do not have much education, so they often should help
their parents to work in getting money. Many students do not continue their study after graduating from this school. They tend to look for a job to earn money.
SMK PGRI 6 Ngawi has many facilities to support the teaching and learning activities. Almost each class has been equipped with a unit of laptop and
LCD. However, the facilities are not sufficient for all students. For example in the computer laboratory only has 30 units, whereas each class consists of about 45
students. So a computer sometimes is used by two students. There are a lot of
