IMPROVING STUDENTS’ ABILITY IN WRITING DESCRIPTIVE TEXT THROUGH WORD CLUSTER AT THE SECOND YEAR STUDENTS OF SMA NEGERI 3 METRO
ABSTRACT
IMPROVING STUDENTS’ ABILITY IN WRITING DESCRIPTIVE TEXT THROUGH WORD CLUSTER AT THE SECOND
YEAR STUDENTS OF SMA NEGERI 3 METRO
Eka Dewi Sosilawati
Writing is one of the language skill which expresses ideas, feelings, and thought
arranged in words, sentences and paragraph. Based on the researcher’s
experiences when doing PPL, although the students have been given a topic to write, they cannot automatically start their writing assignment. The problems always arise because the teachers have no specific technique to guide the students in developing their ideas and put them in written form. Finding the fact above, the researcher seeks to find a way on how to make students enjoy writing classes and assignment. The researcher applied word cluster to develop their descriptive text writing ability because it can help them generalize the ideas to be put in their paragraph writing.
The objective of this research was to find out whether there is improvement of
students’ descriptive text writing ability in the second year students after being taught through word cluster. This research was conducted based on experimental method. It applied one group pre test post test design because there was only one class in this research and the class was chosen by using purposive sampling. The data were in the form of score which was taken from pre-test and post-test and analyzed by using t-test.
By comparing the result of pre-test and post-test, it can be found that there is an increase of the students ability in writing descriptive text. The total score of pre-test was 2006.50 and the total score of post-pre-test was 2431.50. It meant that the total score of pre-test to post-test had increased 425 points. The aspect with the highest increase was content (4.14). The second was grammar (2.66) then vocabulary (2.31), organization (1.99), and mechanic (1.39). The result of the computation shows that the value of two tailed significance is 0.00. It means that H1 is accepted and H0 is rejected since 0.00 < 0.05. It proves that the treatments
which was given by the researcher had better effect to the students’ achievement
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Research Tittle : IMPROVING STUDENTS’ ABILITY IN
WRITING DESCRIPTIVE TEXT THROUGH : WORD CLUSTER AT THE SECOND YEAR : STUDENTS OF SMA NEGERI 3 METRO Student’s Name : EKA DEWI SOSILAWATI
Student’s Number : 0813042028
Department : Language and Arts Education
Study Program : English Education
Faculty : Teacher Training and Education
APPROVED BY
Advisory Committee
Advisor Co-Advisor
Prof. Dr. Patuan Raja, M.Pd. Drs. Ramlan Ginting Suka
NIP 19620804 198905 1 001 NIP 19570721 198603 1 003
The Chairperson of
Language and Education Department
Drs. Imam Rejana, M.Si.
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ADMITTED BY
1. Examination Committee
Chairperson : Prof. Dr. Patuan Raja, M.Pd. ...
Examiner : Dr. Muhammad Sukirlan, M.A. ...
Secretary : Drs. Ramlan Ginting Suka ...
2. The Dean of Teacher Training and Education Faculty
Dr. Hi. Bujang Rahman, M.Si. NIP 19600315 198503 1 003
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CURRICULUM VITAE
The writer’s name is Eka Dewi Sosilawati. She was born in Metro, June 10th, 1990. She is the second child of Sukarno and Marliah. She has a sister, Ida Yanti, S.T.
She entered TK Pertiwi Metro in 1994 and then continued her study in SD Negeri 6 Metro Barat in 1996. Having graduated from the elementary school in 2002, she entered SMP Negeri 1 Metro and graduated in 2005. After that, she finished her high school at SMA Negeri 3 Metro in 2008.
After finishing her school, she entered the S1 regular program at English Department of the Teacher Training and Education Faculty at Lampung University in 2008. From July 11th to September 30th, 2011 she carried on Teaching Practice Program (PPL) at SMP Negeri 1 Adiluwih.
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DEDICATION
This script is fully dedicated to: My beloved parents: Sukarno and Marliah
(Thank you so much for your pray, love, and support, you’ve given) My beloved sister: Ida Yanti, S.T.
(Thank you so much for your support) My beloved Ta: Ramadhita Gumilar
(Thank you so much for giving a wonderful color in my life and especially for cheering me up )
My great English 08: Anugerah, Devina, Milah, Siska, Epi, Nisa, Ica,
Mb’ Hesti, and Diah (Who make my spririt carried on) My Almamater, University of Lampung
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MOTTO
“Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.”
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Praise is for Allah SWT, The Almighty God, for Blessing the writer with health and determination to finish this script. Then, sholawat is for our Prophet Muhammad SAW, with his family, followers, and all Moslems. This script,
entitled “Improving Students’ Ability in Writing Descriptive Text through Word Cluster at the Second Year Students of SMA Negeri 3 Metro”, is presented to the Language and Arts of Teacher Training and Education Faculty of Lampung University as a partial fulfillment of the requirements for S-1 degree.
Among many individuals who gave generously suggestion for improving this script, first of all the writer would like to express her sincere gratitude and respect to her first advisor, Prof. Dr. Patuan Raja, M.Pd. and also to her second advisor, Drs. Ramlan Ginting Suka, who had contributed and given their evaluations, comments, suggestion during the completion of this script. The writer also would like to express her deepest gratitude and respect to Dr. Muhammad Sukirlan, M.A., for his encouragement and contribution during the seminar until the accomplishment of this script. The writer also wants to express her gratitude and respect to Prof. Dr. Ag. Bambang Setiyadi, M.A.,Ph.D. as her academic advisor along the writer’s college time.
Besides, the writers wants to extend her deep appreciation to Drs. Hi. Jumadi, M.Pd. as the headmaster of SMA Negeri 3 Metro, Sungatiyan Warsih, S.Pd. as the English Teacher of SMA Negeri 3 Metro, and to the students of SMA Negeri 3 Metro for their nice cooperation during the research.
Most importantly her special gratitude should go to her beloved father, Sukarno and her beloved mother, Marliah, who always give their prayer and support for every path the writer chose. Her thankfulness is due to her sister, Ida Yanti, S.T. for her encouragement. Her special thankfulness is also due to her beloved Ta for his great support. The writer also would like to thank for supports to her beloved friends: Anugerah, Devina, Milah, Siska, Epi, Nisa, Ica, Mb’ Hesti, and Diah. Hopefully, this script would give a positive contribution to the educational development or to those who want to carry out further research.
Bandar Lampung, 2012
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CONTENTS
page
ABSTRACT ... i
ADVISOR APPROVAL ... ii
ADMISSION ... iii
CURRICULUM VITAE ... iv
DEDICATION ... v
MOTTO ... vi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ... vii
CONTENTS ... viii
LIST OF TABLES ... x
LIST OF FIGURES ... xi
LIST OF APPENDICES ... xii
I. INTRODUCTION ... 1
1.1 Background of the Problem ... 1
1.2 Research Problem... 4
1.3 Objective of the Research ... 4
1.4 Uses of the Research ... 5
1.5 Scope of the Research ... 5
1.6 Definition of Terms ... 6
II. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ... 7
2.1 Writing ... 7
2.2 Descriptive Text ... 9
2.3 Teaching Writing ... 13
2.4 Teaching Descriptive Writing ... 14
2.5 Word Cluster ... 16
2.6 Procedures of Teaching Descriptive Text Writing through Word Cluster ... 19
2.7 Teaching Descriptive Text Writing through Word Cluster ... 21
2.8 Advantages and Disadvantages of Word Cluster ... 22
2.8.1 Advantages of Word Cluster ... 23
2.8.2 Disadvantages of Word Cluster ... 23
2.9 Theoretical Assumptions ... 24
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III. RESEARCH METHODS ... 26
3.1 Research Design ... 26
3.2 Population and Sample ... 27
3.2.1 Population ... 27
3.2.2 Sample ... 27
3.3 Data Collecting Technique ... 28
3.4 Instrument of the Research... 29
3.4.1 Scoring System ... 29
3.4.1.1 Scoring Writing Test ... 30
3.4.1.2 Calculating of Mean ... 31
3.4.1.3 Standard Deviation ... 32
3.4.2 Validity of the Test... 33
3.4.3 Reliability of the Test ... 34
3.5 Research Procedure ... 36
3.6 Data Analysis ... 37
3.6.1 Data Analysis on Pre-test and Post-test ... 38
3.6.1.1 Normal Distribution Test ... 38
3.6.1.2 Paired Sample t-test... 39
3.6.2 Hypothesis Testing ... 40
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS ... 41
4.1 Results of Research ... 41
4.1.1 The Result of Pre-test ... 42
4.1.2 The Result of Post-test ... 54
4.1.3 The Increase of Students’ Ability in Writing Descriptive Text .. 66
4.1.4 Learning Process as the Additional Result ... 69
4.1.5 Hypothesis Testing ... 78
4.2 Discussions ... 79
V. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS ... 91
5.1 Conclusions ... 91
5.2 Suggestions ... 91
REFERENCES ... 94
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LIST OF TABLES
Table page
3.1. Result of Reliability Test of Pre-test and Post-test ... 36
3.2. Table of Specification in Writing Test ... 40
4.1. The Distribution of Students’ Content Score in Pre-test ... 43
4.2. The Distribution of Students’ Grammar Score in Pre-test ... 44
4.3. The Distribution of Students’ Organization Score in Pre-test ... 46
4.4. The Distribution of Students’ Vocabulary Score in Pre-test ... 48
4.5. The Distribution of Students’ Mechanic Score in Pre-test... 49
4.6. The Distribution of Students’ Pre-test Scores ... 51
4.7. The Distribution of Students’ Content Score in Post-test ... 55
4.8. The Distribution of Students’ Grammar Score in Post-test ... 56
4.9. The Distribution of Students’ Organization Score in Post-test ... 58
4.10. The Distribution of Students’ Vocabulary Score in Post-test ... 59
4.11. The Distribution of Students’ Mechanic Score in Post-test ... 61
4.12. The Distribution of Students’ Post-test Scores ... 63
4.13. The Increase of Students’ Score in the Five Aspects of Writing ... 66
4.14. The Increase of Students’ Score ... 69
4.15. t-test Result of Pre-test and Post-test ... 78
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure page
2.1. Word Cluster ... 17
4.1. The Average Score of Pre-test ... 51
4.2. The Student’s Pre-test Score ... 54
4.3. The Average Score of Post-test ... 63
4.4. The Student’s Post-test Score ... 66
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LIST OF APPENDICES
Appendix page
1. Schedule of the Research ... 99
2. Lesson Plan ... 100
3. Pre-test ... 104
4. Post-test ... 105
5. Scoring System ... 106
6. Result of Students’ Pre-test in Experimental Class ... 107
7. Result of Students’ Post-test in Experimental Class ... 108
8. The Score of Each Aspect in Pre-test ... 109
9. The Score of Each Aspect in Post-test ... 111
10. Reliability of the Pre-test ... 113
11. Reliability of the Post-test ... 115
12. Normality Test ... 117
13. Paired Sample t-test... 119
14. Students’ Pre-test 1 ... 120
15. Students’ Pre-test 2 ... 121
16. Students’ Pre-test 3 ... 122
17. Students’ Post-test 1 ... 123
18. Students’ Post-test 2 ... 125
19. Students’ Post-test 3 ... 127
20. Surat Izin Penelitian ... 129
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I. INTRODUCTION
This chapter discusses certain points; introduction that deals with background of the problem, research problem, objective of the research, uses of the research, scope of the research, and definition of terms clarified like the following.
1.1Background of the Problem
English teaching is intended to develop students’ ability to use English as a means of communication. Students should practice intensively so that they will be able to use English communicatively both in oral and written form. Writing in a foreign language is a complex process involving the ability to communicate in foreign
language and the ability to construct a text in order to express one’s ideas
effectively. It requires a combination of clear set of rules and communicative application that serves effective communication. Classroom writing instruction, therefore, should give students the opportunity to participate in writing as a holistic process of composition not just controlled exercises in sentence structure, grammar, or bits of paragraph development if the main goal of the instruction is to enable the students to write effective communication.
Based on School – based Curriculum (Depdiknas: 2006) the students are required to communicate oral and written text, mainly in the descriptive, narrative, recount, explanation, discussion, commentary, and review by stressing on the interpersonal
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complex meaning and variety textual meaning. Raimes (1983: 76) said that writing is an ability in which we express the ideas, feelings, and thought arranged in words, sentences and paragraph using eyes, brain, and hand. But, this objective is very hard to achieve. The students often get the difficulties during the learning process, especially to express their ideas into words or sentences. Almost of the students are still confused about what will they write and how to write it.
Accordingly, most of students still experience difficulties in writing. Diharyono (1990: 1) said that students know or have the ideas what they were going to write but they did not know how to put them into words. The students often get difficulties to express their ideas into words or sentences. When their teacher asks them to make a composition, they get confused about expressing themselves in written form. This might be caused by the following facts: firstly, the students do not know the specific technique that can guide them in developing their ideas. Secondly, they almost never get writing exercise (Juwitasari, 2005: 2), and thirdly, many English teachers still teach writing in conventional way and technique in teaching text.
The students may have writing classes but they sometimes feel confused of what
will be done after finding a topic. Based on the researcher’s experiences when
doing PPL in SMP Negeri 1 Adiluwih, Pringsewu, it was found out that although the students had been given a topic to write, they could not automatically start their writing assignment. This fact supports Marini’s statement (1995: 7) who states that the students still need a long time to figure out how to organize the idea to build a good paragraph and to make their paragraph readable and effective.
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They still have problems to relate all sentences in the paragraph to the main idea. Another problem faced by the students was that because they have no specific technique to guide them in developing their ideas and put them in written form.
Referring to the description above, it was assumed that word cluster was an
appropriate technique to solve the problem and improve the students’ writing
ability. Theoretically, word cluster could facilitate the students to plan their ideas in systematical way (Oshima, 1997: 155). Word cluster provided students a frame of ideas that guide the students to write. Therefore, word cluster could help the students to focus on the idea that they intend to write in relation to the content and to link sentences into coherent ideas in the target language. In addition, making word cluster was an active process that also gave the students opportunities to monitor their writing in order to minimize grammar errors and inaccuracy of selection of words. Hence, it it assumed that word cluster can improve students’ writing ability.
In relation to word cluster, it was necessary to choose related text which would be
used as media to measure students’ writing ability. Due to its similar structure
with the essential paragraph, descriptive text was choosen. The use of descriptive text was reasonable since the recent curriculum stated that descriptive text was the one of the texts that should be learnt by the second year students of Senior High School. It pointed out that the students should be able to understand and create a descriptive text coherently and accurately based on the social function and the generic structure of the text. Besides that, the students feel confuse how to develop the topic to be put in their descriptive text writing. Although they have
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started writing, they naturally found difficulties on how continue their writing. This will frustate the students and as the effect, they tend to stop practicing their writing. In this case, word cluster is considered as an alternative technique that can be used to develop students’ descriptive text writing.
Based on the facts above, the researcher tries to find a way on how to make students enjoy their writing classes and assignment. The researcher will try to apply word cluster to develop their descriptive text writing ability because it can help them generalize the ideas to be put in their paragraph writing. Hopefully, it can help the students become easier to write a descriptive text clearly and communicatively.
1.2 Research Problem
In relation to the background, this research focuses on the following problem, namely:
Is there any improvement of students’ descriptive text writing ability after being taught through word cluster?
1.3Objective of the Research
Concerning with the problem above, the objective of this research is:
To find out whether there is improvement of students’ descriptive text writing ability after being taught through word cluster.
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1.4Uses of the Research
This research aims at having the following uses:
1. Theoretically, the results of this study are expected to give contribution to the theories in which word cluster could be applied to improve students’ text writing.
2. Practically, to inform readers, English teacher, language researcher, and other practitioners the improvement of the students’ writing ability by using word cluster in order to develop English teaching method further. Hopefully, this study can activate the students in learning process so that the ability in writing text will increase.
1.5Scope of the Research
This research was conducted at SMA Negeri 3 Metro. The sample of the research was XI IPA 2 students in academic year 2012/2013 in second semesters which consists of 34 students was chosen as the sample of the research. This sample was chosen because in accordance to the SMA curriculum, the students had already studied about structure, vocabulary, and reading comprehension in the previous semesters.
This study was focused on teaching descriptive text through word cluster. In this research there were two topics of descriptive text, they were describing person and place. The students’ achievement of descriptive text was evaluated in relation to content, grammar, organization, vocabulary, and mechanic. The test was given twice; pre-test and post-test. The materials was adopted from the School Based Curriculum / Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan Senior High School 2006.
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1.6Definition of Terms
In relation to the use of this study, there are some definitions clarified in order to have similar understanding. The terms can be described as follows:
Writing
Writing is one of language skill in which the students learn how to get ideas and expresses the ideas in written form by applying content, grammar, vocabulary, mechanics, and organization.
Text
Text is any meaningful stretch of language either oral or written in the form of word, cluse, and sentence.
Descriptive Text
Descriptive text is a composition that consists of sentences that develops the main idea that makes the readers see or paint a verbal picture. It also conveys the physical or abstract image of persons, events, ideas, and objects.
Word Cluster
Word cluster is a type of free associated listing. It begins with a core-word, a word that acts as a metal stimulus to make the writer come up with related terms that branch out from the center term. One term leads to another and another to create a complex network of diverse ideas, all related back in the same way to the core stimulus word.
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II. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
This chapter discusses about theories underlying the research that covers: writing, descriptive text, teaching writing, teaching descriptive writing, word cluster, procedure of teaching descriptive text writing through word cluster, teaching descriptive text writing through word cluster, advantages and disadvantages of word cluster, theoretical assumptions, and hypothesis.
2.1 Writing
According to Raimes (1983: 76), writing is a skill in which we express the ideas, feelings, and thoughts arranged in words, sentences, and paragraph using eyes, brain, and hand. Thus, writing is the process of expressing the ideas and thoughts of the writer using knowledge of the structure and vocabulary to combine the
writer’s ideas as a means of communication.
Writing is productive skill in the written form. Writing is a language skill that is used for indirect communication. The students can communicate their ideas and thought to others through a written form such as letter, message, or invitation for communication. Furthermore, Linderman (1983) said that writing is a process of communicating using conventional graphic system to convey a message to the reader. Writing skill deals with the ability to arrange graphic system such as letter, word, and sentences of a certain language being used in writing communication in order that the reader can understand the message or information.
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In the process of writing, the writer can be concluded successful if his/her writing contains some aspects of writing. According to Jacobs et al (1981: 90) there are five aspects of writing as follows:
1. Content refers to the subatance of writing, the experience of the main idea (unity), i.e., groups of related statements that a writer presents as unit in developing a subject. Content paragraph do the work of conveying ideas rather than fulfilling special function of transition, restatement, and emphasis.
2. Organization refers to the logical organization of the content (coherence). It contains sentences that are logically arranged and flow smoothly. Logical arrangement refers to the order of the sentences and ideas.
3. Vocabulary refers to the selection of words those are suitable with the content. It begins with the assumption that the writer want to express the ideas as clearly and directly as he or she can. As general rule, clarity should be his or her primary objective. The selection of words that express his or her meaning precisely is considered much rather than skew it or blur it.
4. Language use refers to the use of correct grammatical and syntactic pattern or separating, combining, and grouping ideas in words phrases, clauses, and sentences to bring out logical relationship in paragraph.
5. Mechanic refers to the use graphic conventional of the language. For instance, the steps of arranging letters, words, sentences, paragraphs, punctional, and capitalization.
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In summary, it is obvious that fundamental aspects writing skills are the content (the substance of what the writer wants to say), the organization of ideas (in order to achieve unity and coherence aspects), grammar (the system of rules governing the conventional arrangement and relationship of words in a sentence), vocabulary (the selection of words those are suitable with the content), and mechanics (the use of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, hyphenation and abbreviation). All of these aspects should be covered so the intended readers can understand the message or information shared by the writer effectively.
Here is the example of descriptive text:
An elephant is the largest and strongest of all animals. It is a strange looking animals with it thick legs, huge sides and backs, large hanging ears, a small tile, little eyes, long white tusks and above all it has a long nose named the trunk.
The trunks is the elephant’s peculiar, and it has various uses. The elephant draws up water by its trunk and can squirt it all over its body like a shower bath. It can also lift leaves and puts them into its mouth. In fact the trunk servers the elephant as a long arm and hand. And elephant is very clumsy and heavy and it can move very quickly.
The elephant is a very intelligent animal. Its intelligence combined with its great strength makes it very useful servant to man and it can be trained to serve in various ways such as carry heavy loads, hunt for tigers and even fight.
(Adopted from English Book for Junior High School)
2.2 Descriptive Text
Descriptive text is one of the texts taught in KTSP besides narrative, spoof, procedure, report, news item, anecdote, exposition, explanation, discussion, commentary, and review. Descriptive text is a text that is used to give the readers description about a particular person, place, or thing (DEPDIKNAS 2006: 81). It focuses on the characteristic features of a person, an animal, or a particular thing. When reading, a reader is expected to be able to visualize how the person, the place or the thing looks like through the description in the descriptive text.
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Social function of communicative approach of descriptive text is to describe a particular person, place, or thing in detail or clearly. To achieve its purpose, the descriptive text will move through a different set of stages:
1. Identification: identifies phenomenon to be described.
2. Description: provides details of the topic such as parts, qualities, characteristics, etc.
The stages above are the generic structure/ text organization of the descriptive text. The generic structure of this text has two parts, which are identification and description. Identification is used to identify the phenomenon to be described. It is usually begun with the statement responding to the questions of what or who: what is going to be described or who is going to be described in the following sentences. For examples, when a writer wants to describe about a person, he or she will start his identification by mentioning the name of the person and the general identification about who he is. And if we will describe about a room, he or she can start by mentioning what room he will describe and the general information or identification about the room. Therefore, in description, the writer focuses on the description of the parts, the qualities and the characteristics of a place, person or thing to be described. After a person is identified, for instance, the writer describes characteristics of the person from his personal information, personality traits and physical appearance. But when a writer a writer describes about a room, he can describes about the furniture, the function of the room and many others.
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Besides generic structure, descriptive text also has language features (lexica grammatical features). The following are the language features of descriptive text:
1. Focus on specific participants: a particular class or thing, person, or place (e.g. Queen Elizabeth, Radar Lampung, and Train) rather than generalized participants (e.g. the royal family, newspaper, public transportation).
2. Use of attributive and identifying process: additional adverbs of the subject mentioned (e.g. adjective clause, adjective phrase, and linking verbs such as taste, smell, appear, look, is am, are, etc.).
3. Use of simple present tense.
4. Frequent use of classifier in nominal group (e.g. one of…, many of…, et.)
The significant lexicon grammar features of descriptive text include the use of specific participants, attributive, process identification, epithets and classifiers in nominal groups, simple present tense and sometimes past tense. The present tense is mostly used in descriptive texts. The past tense is also used to describe an object that does not exist anymore. Beside that, descriptive text also often uses neutral and objective language. As in this research, students are expected to write a short descriptive text, about 100-150 words, they will only be asked to write a text of descriptive text. In a longer text, the first text is usually used to identify what or who will be described. Then, the following text is used to describe the specific characteristics of the phenomenon described. But as its short length, the first to the third sentences will be used for identification and the following sentences will be used for description.
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The following is the example of descriptive text taken from School-Based Curriculum (2006:149):
1) Identification
Natural bridge national park is a luscious tropical rainforest.
Identification is used to identify the phenomenon to be described. It is usually begun with the statement responding to the questions of what or who: what is going to be described or who is going to described in the following sentences. For examples, when a writer wants to describe about a place, he will start his identification by mentioning the name of the place and the general identification about the place.
2) Description
It is located 110 kilometers south of Brisbane and is reached by following the pacific highway to Nerang and then by traveling through the Numinbah valley. The scenic roadway lies in the shadow of the Lamington National park.
The phenomenon of the rock formed into natural ‘arch’ and the cave through
which a waterfall cascades is a short 1 kilometers walk below a dense rainforest canopy from the main picnic area. Swimming is permitted in the rock pool. Night-time visitors to the cave will discover the unique feature, of the glow worms.
Picnic areas offer toilets, barbecues, shelter shed, water and fireplaces; however, overnight camping is not permitted.
In description, the writer will focus on the description of the parts, the qualities and the characteristics of a place to be described. After a place is identified, for instance, the writer will describe characteristics of the place from the location, the scenery of the Lamington National Park and many others.
From the example of the descriptive text above, it can be seen that the organization of the text consists of two part, they are identification and
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descriptions. Identification identifies phenomenon to be described (Natural Bridge National Park). In other hand, descriptions tell the Natural Bridge National Park more clearly.
2.3 Teaching Writing
According to Brown (1980:7), teaching is showing or helping someone to learn how to do something providing with knowledge, causing to know or to understand. It means that in teaching, teachers helps the students and guides them to learn the material easily. In relation in teaching writing, Reid (1993:27) said that teaching writing is a unique way to reinforce learning. It means teaching
writing is very important in order to built students’ language ability. Therefore,
teachers should know the problems faced by the students during teaching learning process in order to know the appropriate way to overcome the writing problem in writing class.
Meanwhile, Lado (1959:125) states that the goal of teaching foreign language is the ability to use it, to understand the speech and of its native and target culture in terms of their meaning as well as their great ideas in achievement. Raimes (1983) also states that learning to write is not only learning how to use orthographic symbol, but primarily how to select and organize experience according to certain purpose. It follows that teaching to write is different in every important way from teaching to speak to teaching active thought.
Yuwono (1994:16) states that in order to be successful in writing, an English teacher should guide his students in writing, in which the material presented are relevant to their interests, needs, capacities and age until they are able to make a
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composition with few or even no error. Since teaching writing is to teach the students how to express the idea or the imagination in writing form, it is very important for the teacher to provide the materials which are relevant to the
students’ interests and needs. Besides, the students’ capacities and age are crucial
aspects to be taken into account in guiding the students it make a composition.
Since both writing and speaking are productive and active ability, teaching writing is not similar to teaching speaking because both of the activities are different. In speaking, the speaker can express their mind orally and the results can be evaluated directly by the reader. While in writing, the writer might have enough time to express the idea in written form. There are some elements of writing skill that are needed in teaching writing such as content, grammar, organization, vocabulary, and mechanic. These elements can not be separated each other. Teacher needs it take account into them while teaching writing. In other words, teaching writing guides the students not only to write sentence in text but also to organize the ideas in written form.
2.4 Teaching Descriptive Writing
Smalley and Ruetten (1986) says that descriptive writing is referring to passage intended to describe the reader about something. In relation to teaching descriptive text writing, teacher should help students express anything in their mind about certain object into words and sentences. They should describe an object clearly in order to make the readers able to see the object in their mind as clearly as possible.
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To achieve this goal, the students need teacher’s helps. Teacher can start to help the students by asking them to describe a topic. They can start to describe the topic by explaining its habits, parts, characteristics, quantities, and qualities. If the students are able to describe them clearly, the purpose of descriptive text automatically can be achieved easily.
To sum up, when the teacher teaches the descriptive text writing, he/she focuses on three important things. The first is how to express and develop students’ ideas into the text. Students should know how to choose and write the main idea and then develop it with the generic structure of the text. The second is the three steps of writing process. They are planning, drafting, and revising. And the last, the teacher should think of interesting activities that can help students to express their ideas. Interesting activities can motivate the students and make them enjoy the learning process. Here is the example of descriptive writing:
Niagara Falls is a famous area of waterfalls. It is one of the most beautiful natural wonders of North America. It is on the Niagara River, about halfway between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. The Niagara River forms part of the border between Canada and the United States. At Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada is on one side of the river, and the U.S. state of New York is on the other side.
Niagara Falls really has two waterfalls. The Horseshoe Falls are in Canada, and the American Falls are in the United States.
The Niagara River drops into a steep gorge or canyon, at the falls. Most of the water flows over the Horseshoe Falls. They are not as high as the American Falls, but they are 2,600 feet (792 metres) wide–about 0.5 mile (0.8 kilometre). The American Falls are about 1,000 feet (305 metres) wide.
Beyond the falls are the Whirlpool Rapids. There, the powerful swirling water has carved a bowl out of the rock.
At night, coloured lights shine on the thundering falls. About 10 million people visit Niagara Falls each year.
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2.5 Word Cluster
Macdonald and Macdonald (1996: 34) say that word cluster is a type of free associated listing. It begins with a core-word, a word that acts as a mental stimulus to make the writer come up with related terms that branch out from the center term. One term leads to another and another to create a complex network of diverse ideas, all related back in the same way to the core stimulus word. Meanwhile, Manser (1991: 73) states that cluster means a group of things close together or forms a close group. It means that cluster is a group of specific words that are related to a general word.
Macdonald and Macdonald (1996: 34) also state that word cluster is a good way to generate general unifying categories (abstractions) as well as a way to come up with specific support (details). This is true because the word clue is developed
from the most general (the core) until the most specific (the branch). The students’
task is only to develop sentences from the clues that are already made before. It will be much easier because they already know what they are going to write in their paragraph.
Hogue (1996: 91) states that word cluster like listing is another way to get ideas to write about something and write them in circle or bubbles, around the topic. Based on this statement, word cluster is the writing technique to develop their ideas (learners) and write the words or phrases in circles or bubbles. Seow (2002: 316) defines that clustering is a simple yet powerful strategy. Its visual character seems to stimulate the flow of association and particularly good for students who know what they want to say but just cannot say it.
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Word cluster is a type of prewriting that allows the learners to explore many ideas as soon as they occur to the learners. Like brainstorming or free associating, word cluster allows learners to begin without clear ideas. So, it can be concluded that word cluster can explore many ideas from mind. It is a good way to develop idea before starting the writing activity. The learners can do it on their own or with friends or classmates to try to find inspiration or ideas.
Word cluster is a nonlinear activity that generates ideas, images and feelings around a stimulus word as follows:
Figure 2.1 Word Cluster
Based on this statement, word cluster is an activities that generate idea by using circles and it starts from a stimulus word or the words expectation, then develop them into several groups.
Reid (1993: 6) mentions that the invention of word cluster helps writers to generate, develop, and arrange their ideas. It can be said that word cluster helps the learners in developing their idea. The goal of word cluster is to determine the intrinsic grouping a set of unlabeled data. It can be shown that there is no absolute
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Consequently, it is used to supply this criterion, in such way that the result of the clustering will suit their needs.
To begin to cluster, choose a word that is central to your assignment. For example, the core-word is “expectations”, write that word in the middle of your
sheet of paper. Circle “expectations,” then write words all around it—words that
occur to you as you think of “expectations.” Write down all words that you
associate with “expectations,” words that at first may seem to be random. Write
quickly, circling each word, grouping words around your the central word. Connect your new words to previous ones with lines; when you feel you have exhausted a particular avenue of associations, go back to your central word and begin again.
Based on the statement, it can be concluded that in clustering technique, there are some steps: (1) Choosing a word or phrases; (2) Putting the word or phrases in central; (3) Circling the word or phrases; (4) Writing words all around the word or phrases that associate with the word in central; and (5) Connecting the new word or phrases to previous ones with lines. Moreover, word cluster technique helps the writer or learners to start the writing activity from the new expectation words and develop them in a bubbles or circles form. Word cluster involves writing down a word or phrase and engaging in free association. Each association is written down and connected to the original stimulus by an arrow or line. If association generates further associations, chains of associated words are produced. Furthermore word cluster is related to words or phrases. The learners start to write down the ideas and then the ideas are connected by using an arrow or line. It is used to overcome
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the difficulty in developing ideas. It is effective in reading activity and developing writing skill. It is also effective if the learners are rich in vocabulary.
2.6 Procedures of Teaching Descriptive Text Writing through Word Cluster
The material is presented like the followings: AGNES MONICA
Agnes Monica is famous actress in Indonesia. She was born in Jakarta, Indonesia, on July 1, 1986. Her full name is Agnes Monica Sukma, but she is well known as Agnes Monica. Her parents are Ricky Muljoto and Jenny Siswono and they are 100% behind her in everything she does. Agnes Monica has only one sibling. His name is Steve Muljoto. He is about nine years older than Agnes. Despite her young age, Agnes has already released three albums, Si Meong, Yess, and Bala-Bala. She also became a TV presenter. When she was 15,she played a significant role in a TV series called Pernikahan Dini. She received several awards for her role as Dini. Agnes Monica continues producing more albums and acting. She becomes more famous everyday. Thousand of her fans attend her concerts.
The procedure of Teaching Descriptive Text Writing through word cluster is presented as follows:
Pre-writing activity:
a. The students are asked to mention the most famous actress or actors in Indonesia, e.g.
T: Students, who is the most famous actress or actors in Indonesia? S: The most famous actress is Agnes Monica.
b. The students are asked what they know about descriptive text, e.g.
T: Students, do you know what descriptive text is?
S: Descriptive text is a text that describes about something. T: Good, Descriptive text tells about person, place, or thing.
c. The students’ answer are collected and concluded by the teacher. Teacher may write it on the board, e.g.
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T: Students, we can conclude that descriptive text is describing person, place, or thing.
d. The students are explained about the generic structure, language features, and social function of the text, e.g.
T: Students, let me explain about the generic structure, language features, and social function of descriptive text.
e. The students are explained about word cluster and given an example of word cluster, e.g.
T: Students, let me explain about word cluster. Writing activity:
a. The students are asked to make a group consists of five students, e.g.
T: Students, make a group consists of five students.
b. The students in groups are given a topic, e.g.
T: (Give the topic to the students in groups).
c. The students write a short list of associated key words for the topic given,
e.g.
T: Firstly, you write a short list of associated key words based on the topic.
S: Yes, Mom. We will write a short list of associated key words based on the topic.
d. The students discuss the key words and delete any unrelated word or add some more words related to the topic based on the discussion, e.g.
T: Secondly, you discuss with your friends to delete any unrelated word or add some more words related to the topic.
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S: Yes, Mom.
e. The students write a descriptive text based on the clues they have made, e.g.
T: Next, you develop your key words.
f. The students’ writing are checked by the teacher, e.g.
T: After you finish your writing, I will check it. S: Yes, Mom.
Post-writing activity:
a. The students rewrite or revise their writing, e.g.
T: After that, revise your work may involve additions and deletions; changes in syntax, sentence structure, and organization; and in some cases.
S: Yes, Mom. We will revise our work may involve additions and deletions; changes in syntax, sentence structure, and organization; and in some cases.
b. The students submit their descriptive text writing, e.g.
S: (the students submit their writing).
2.7 Teaching Descriptive Text Writing through Word Cluster
When using word cluster, teachers should be aware of the following three general guidelines. First, because writing is difficult, the teacher should adopt the role of assistant and guide the work closely with the students to encourage them, offering helpful feedback and suggestions. It is crucial for teachers to offer positive and constructive advice in teaching descriptive text writing. Teacher also can make
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efforts to arrouse curiosity and self-confidence by matching student interest to the writing topic, and they should be sensitive to any individual differences that arise in the word cluster.
Second, teacher should directly train students about writing strategies. If teachers demonstrate how prewriting activates the schemata and outline strategies for the drafting and revision processes, students will be more successful in writing compositions. You (2004) states writing performance is as much a result of
students’ use of strategies in various processes of writing as it is of their handling
of the language.
Third, teacher should include the listening, speaking, and reading skills in the writing class. Integrating the four language skills promotes the expansion of the
students’ overall language competence (Goodman, 1986). The word cluster makes this feasible, as background material is read during prewriting activities, and speaking and listening occur during lectures and when giving or receiving feedback. Descriptive text is one of famous text in Senior High School. It describe about particular person, place, or thing. Everyone likes to write about the thing that is exist and the thing that does not exist, something that can not be seen, felt, smelt, or even touched. This topic makes the students interested in writing class. It is hoped the teacher can use word cluster to teach descriptive text to the students.
2.8 Advantages and Disadvantages of Word Cluster
As a matter of fact, every strategy bears some advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, it is important to determine each of advantages and disadvantages in
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order to make the implementation of the strategy in teaching process more effective.
2.8.1 Advantages of Word Cluster
Word Cluster is considered as an alternative technique to teach writing because it has many advantages. The advantages of using word cluster technique can be described as follows:
1. It helps students to generate and develop their ideas (Reid, 1993: 6). 2. It allows the students to focus to the topic when they are writing.
3. Word cluster makes their writing flow coherently because they write the paragraph by following the plan.
4. Word Cluster can help students arrange their ideas in the sense that they will not include any irrelevant thought or unimportant points.
From the advantages above, we can see that the first and the second points mean content aspect. The third and the last points mean organization aspects. So we can conclude that teaching using word cluster will help the students to improve their content and organization aspects in writing.
2.8.2 Disadvantages of Word Cluster
The disadvantages of using word cluster technique can be described as follows: 1. Word cluster is not a good technique when it is used to write an essay writing
which has long paragraph.
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Since word cluster is one of the brainstorming techniques, it is called as the natural way in developing the writing. Word cluster is the surface of technique in teaching writing that is consisted of word or phrase so word cluster also have the disadvantages that have been mentioned above.
2.9 Theoretical Assumptions
In teaching writing, there are many techniques that can be used by the teachers to reach the goal of teaching learning process. As has already been stated that writing is counted as the most difficult skill, students need to consider the five aspects of writing namely content, grammar, organization, vocabulary, and mechanic. Besides some cases showed that it is hard to students are facilitated to plan their ideas in systematical way.
Word cluster is a technique that can be used to teach descriptive text writing. It is also a tool that helps the students to express their ideas in writing descriptive text. In the teaching process, the teacher guided the students to organize and write descriptive text including the five aspects of writing; content, grammar, organization, vocabulary, and mechanic.
The researcher assumed that word cluster enables the students to write descriptive text writing more easily because it helps them to develop the ideas that they will put in their descriptive text writing. In other words, it will help the students to make the content of their writing relate with the topic that have given.
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2.10 Hypothesis
Based on the theoretical assumption above, the writer formulated the hypothesis:
“There is improvement of students’ descriptive text writing ability after being
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III. RESEARCH METHODS
In research methods, research design, population and sample, data collecting technique, instrument of the research, research procedure, data analysis, and table of specification in writing test are presented. It is presented to clarify research
question “is there any improvement of students’ descriptive text writing ability
after being taught through word cluster?”.
3.1 Research Design
This research was a quantitative research. It applied an experimental method. It aimed to find out whether there is any improvement of students’ descriptive text writing ability taught by using word cluster. This research would involve one group of students with pre-test and post-test design.
The design of this research could be represented as follows:
T1 X T2
Hence, it could be said that the illustration above classifies that it was a true experimental design. The experimental class was selected purposively. To add, pretest would be given to see the initial ability of the experimental class.
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Where:
T1 : Pre-test. This test is a preliminary test administered to determine a student's baseline knowledge or preparedness for an educational experience or course of study. The pretest would be administered to find out the students’ initial ability in writing descriptive text before the treatments.
X : Treatment. Treatment is something that researcher administer to experimental units. Subsequently, the students’ in the experimental class would be given two treatments by using word cluster.
T2 : Post-test. This test is a test given after a lesson or a period of instruction to determine what the students have learned. A post test would be administered to find out the students’ ability in writing descriptive text after the treatments.
(Hatch and Farhady, 1982)
3.2 Population and Sample 3.2.1 Population
The subject of this research was conducted at the second year student of SMAN 3 Metro in academic year 2012/2013.
3.2.2 Sample
This reaserach was conducted in SMAN 3 Metro. There were three XI IPA classes; IPA 1, IPA 2, and IPA 3. Based on the the scores that they got in English writing test, XI IPA 1 was the best class, but XI IPA 2 was the worst class. The sample of this research was XI IPA 2 students in academic year 2012/2013 in second semester which consists of 34 students was chosen as sample of the research. These students are selected purposively. The selection of the subject was done by using purposive sampling. Based on the students’ English writing score
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that was conducted by their teacher, the lowest, middle, and the highest score are in class XI IPA 2. It meant that XI IPA 2 was heterogeneous students’ level. The researcher chooses that class because hopefully word cluster can help the students to improve descriptive text writing ability in all level. It means that by using word cluster, not only the cleverest students that can increase their descriptive text writing ability but also the students who are not clever be able to increase their
descriptive text writing ability. So, words cluster can improve students’ writing
ability in writing descriptive text in all students’ level (lowest, middle, and highest).
3.3 Data Collecting Technique
In collecting the data, the researcher used the following technique:
1. Administering the Pre-test
The pre-test was given before the treatment in order to know how far the competence of students in writing descriptive text. By giving the pre-test, we would know some problems of students in writing. The test was in written form and the materials that would be tested based on the curriculum that was used in the school.
2. Treatment
The researcher used word cluster as a treatment that would be applied in this research. Word cluster began with a core-word, a word that acted as a mental stimulus to make the writer come up with related terms that branch out from the center term. One term leaded to another and another to create a complex network of diverse ideas, all related back in the same way to the core stimulus word. Then, the researcher gave the treatment to the students twice.
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3. Administering the Post-test
The post-test was given after the treatment in order to know whether there is any improvement of students’ descriptive text writing that is taught by word cluster. The test was written form and the materials that would be tested, relate to curriculum that was used in the school and suitable with their level. The result of the post-test would be compared with the pre-test in order to make sure whether word cluster improves students’ ability in writing descriptive text or not.
3.4 Instrument of the Research
There was only one instrument of the research going to be employed in this research. The instrument of the research was essay test. The researcher gave the written test to the students related to the descriptive text. The students must choose only topic from the topics that was given. It would be person or place. And the evaluation criteria were content, grammar, organization, vocabulary, and mechanics.
3.4.1 Scoring System
The researcher used impression method; a method of scoring that used multiple marking (Heaton, 1991: 147) in order to minimize the subjectivity. The researcher used two raters in scoring students’ writing test. The first rater was the English teacher of SMA Negeri 3 Metro and the second rater was the researcher. The formula is:
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Where:
FS = Students’ final score
C = Score from content
G = Score from grammar
O = Score from organization
V = Score from vocabulary
M = Score from mechanic
3.4.1.1 Scoring Writing Test
To gain the data in this research, the researcher considered based on the following (adopted from Haris, 1979: 68-89):
1. Content : the sentence of the writing, the idea expressed (unity).
2. Grammar : the employment of grammatical forms and syntactic patterns.
3. Form : the organization of the content (coherence).
4. Vocabulary : the selection of word that suitable with the content.
5. Mechanic : the conventional devices used to clarify the meaning.
The score of the test in writing descriptive would be derived as follows:
Content : 20%
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Organization : 20%
Vocabulary : 20%
Mechanic : 20%
Based on the content above, the writer evaluated the aspects of descriptive text writing based on content, grammar, organization, vocabulary, and mechanics. The lowest score was 35 and the highest score was 100.
3.4.1.2 Calculating of Mean
The researcher listed the scores and calculated the means through mean formula as follows:
Where:
X = mean
∑x = total score
N = number of students
Mean can show whether the test was easy or difficult. If the mean score was too high, it means the test was very easy for the students. And there was an error in giving the score for the students. A mean of 90 means that the test was easy while an average of 40 means the test was difficult. According to Heaton (1991, p.175), the mean score of any test was the arithmetical average i.e. the sum of the separate
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scores divided by the total number of students. It was not the most efficient measure of central tendency, but it was not always appropriate.
3.4.1.3 Standard Deviation
Standard deviation (s.d) was another way of showing the spread of scores. It measured the degree to which the group of scores deviates from the mean in other words, it showed how all the scores were spread out and thus degree to which the group of scores deviated from the mean; in other words, it showed how all the scores were spread out and thus gave as a fuller description of test scores than the range, which simply described the gap between the highest and lowest marks and ignores the information provided by all the remaining scores. To see the calculating of s.d researcher used following formula:
. � =
√∑��Where:
s.d = find out the amount by which each score deviates from the mean
d2 = square each result
∑d2 = total all the result
N = numbers of testees
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In order to know the students get any progress, the following formula would be used:
I = M2 – M1
Where:
I = the improve of students’ ability
M2 = the average score of post test
M1 = the average score of the pre test
(Arikunto 1997: 68)
3.4.2 Validity of the Test
A test can be considered valid if the test measures the objectives to be measured and suitable with the criteria (Hatch and Farhady, 1982: 250). According to Hatch and Farhady (1982: 281) there are two basic types of validity; content validity and construct validity. In order to measure whether the test has a good validity, those two types of validity will be analyzed.
Content validity is concerned with whether the test is sufficiently representative and comprehensive for the test. In the content validity, the material given was suitable with the curriculum. Content validity is the extent to which a test measures a representative sample of subject matter content, the focus of content validity is adequacy of the sample and simply on the appearance of the test (Hatch and Farhady, 1982: 251). This study used descriptive writing test that was supposed to be comprehended by the second year of junior high school students. The test was considered as valid in content validity since the test of writing
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constitutes a representatives sample of the language skill and structure and also the material used were chosen based on 2006 English Curriculum of KTSP for second year junior high school.
Construct Validity is concerned with whether the test is actually in line with the theory of what it means to know the language that is being measured, it would be examined whether the test given actually reflect what it means to know a language. In this research, scoring criteria was based on the five aspects of writing; content, grammar, organization, vocabulary and mechanics that were suggested by the notion suggested by Jacobs et al (1981: 90).
3.4.3 Reliability of the Test
Hatch and Farhady (1982: 243) established that the reliability of a test can be defined as the extent to which a test produces consistent result when it administered under similar conditions. In order to ensure the reliability of scores and to avoid the subjectivity of the research, there will be inter-rater reliability. Inter-rater reliability was used when score on the test is independently estimated by two or more judges or raters. In this case, the first rater was English teacher of SMA Negeri 3 Metro, Sungatiyan Warsih, S.Pd. and the second rater was researcher. Before scoring the students descriptive text writing, it is important to make sure that both raters used the same criteria of scoring. Hereby, the first and the second rater used scoring criteria devised from Haris (1974: 68-89).
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To measure how reliable the scoring was, this tudy used Spearman Rank Correlation with the formula that can be described as follows:
= − � � −�. ∑�
Where:
r = Coefficient of rank correlation
d = Difference of rank correlation
N = Number of students
(Sugiyono, 2006: 228)
In this case the researcher also uses the standard of reliability (Arikunto, 1997: 260) below:
1. 0.80 – 1.0 = very high reliability
2. 0.60 – 0.79 = high reliability
3. 0.40 – 0.59 = medium reliability
4. 0.20 – 0.39 = low reliability
5. 0.0 – 0.19 = very low reliability
Based on the standard of the reliability above, the result of the calculation showed that the reliability coefficient of the pre test and post test was very high. It meant that the test produce consistent result when it administered under similar condition.
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It can be seen from the table below:
Table 3.1 Result of Reliability Test of Pre-test and Post-test (r-value)
Pre Test 0.934988541 Post Test 0.81
According to the table above, it is found that the reliability coefficient of pre-test were 0.934988541 respectively (see Appendix 10). Meanwhile, the reliability coefficient of post-test were 0.81 respectively (see Appendix 11). Based on the standard criteria list, both of the tests were considered as very highly reliable and, therefore could be used in this research.
3.5 Research Procedure
There were three steps that would be done in research procedure, they were:
a. Planning
1. Preparing the pre-test
This test was prepared by providing the topic and materials that would be tested. The test was in written form.
2. Preparing the materials
The materials that was prepared to the students relate to the curriculum that were used in the school and also suitable to introduce word cluster in teaching writing of descriptive text to the students in the class.
3. Preparing the post-test
This test was prepared by providing the topic and materials that would be tested in the post-test. The topic that was given in this test was based on the materials that had been taught before.
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b. Application
After making planning, the planning that had been prepared could be applied. There were some steps that must be applied, they were:
- In the first meeting, the pre-test was given. The test was given in written form. The test papers administered to the students for experimental class. The students were asked to do the test based on the instruction that had been given.
- After the pre-test, the treatment was conducted, the class was taught by word cluster. The researcher taught the students for two times.
- Post-test was given in the last meeting. This test was given in written form. The papers administered to the students for experimental class. Then, they would be asked to do the test and for last ask them to hand in their test.
c. Reporting
The last point that should be done in the research procedure was reporting. There were two steps that were done in reporting:
- Analyzing the data from pre-test and post-test whether word cluster
can improve students’ ability in writing descriptive text or not.
- Making a report on the findings.
3.6 Data Analysis
To analyze the data, the writer analyzed the result of pre-test and post-test of the experimental class. If the post-test is better then pre-test, it means that there is a
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progress on the students’ achievement. If the pre-test is better then post-test, it
means that there is no progress on the students’ achievement. And then the
reseracher analyzed the probability result by using SPSS.
3.6.1 Data Analysis on Pre-test and Post-test 3.6.1.1 Normal Distribution Test
The normality test was used to determine whether the data in experimental class are normally distributed. The writer used One-Sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov Formula (SPSS 17) to test the normality of the data. In this research, the significant level of 0.05 was used. The hypothesis of normal distribution were: H0: The distribution of the data is normal
H1: The distribution of the data in not normal
The hypothesis was accepted if the result of normality test is higher than 0.05
(sign > α). In this case, the researcher used level significance of 0.05.
The result of normality test of pre test in experimental class showed that the value of two tailed significance was 0.200 (see Appendix 12). It means that H0 was accepted and H1 was rejected since 0.200 > 0.05. It implied that the distribution of the test was normal. The result of normality test of post test showed that the value of two tailed significance was 0.200 (see Appendix 12). Since 0.200 > 0.05, it could be stated that the data of post test was normally distributed.
From the result of normality test above, it can be concluded that the hypothesis was accepted which mean that the data was normally distributed.
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3.6.1.2 Paired Sample t-test
After revealing the result of normality, the next statistical computation was analyzing paired sample t-test. Paired sample t-test compares the means of two variables. It computes the difference between the two variable for each case, and test to see if the average difference is significantly different from zero. These are the procedures to follow in calculating paired sample t-test of pre-test and post-test data:
1. Setting the level of significance (p) at 0.05 and establishing the alternative hypothesis for pre-test and post-test data analysis. The hypotheses were stated as below:
Ha : there is significant difference between the means in pre-test and post-test. H0 : there is no significant difference between the means in pre-test and post- test.
2. Analyzing paired sample T-test by using SPSS 17.
3. Comparing t and t table with the level of significance at 0.05 for testing
hypothesis and reporting the findings: “Ha is accepted if t < -t table with the level of significance at 0.05.
From the data in appendix 16, it could be known that t was -9.631. It is negative. It means that the score in pre test was lower than in post test. It also can be seen that t table was 2.034515. It could be known that t < -t table or -9.631 < -2.034515 and 0.00 < 0.05. Therefore, for the hypothesis, the null hypothesis was rejected and the reaserach hypothesis was accepted. It meant that there is significant different between the mean of pre-test and the mean of post-test.
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3.6.2 Hypothesis Testing
The hypothesis testing which showed that there was any improvement of students’ descriptive text writing would be approved at the significant level of 0.05 in
which α < 0.05 (Setiyadi, 2006: 97).
To determine whether the first hypothesis was accepted or rejected, the following criteria acceptance was used:
Ha: There is improvement of students’ descriptive text writing after being taught by word cluster.
Ho: There is no improvement of students’ descriptive text writing after being
taught by word cluster.
The criteria are:
Ha (alternative hypothesis) is accepted if alpha level is lower than 0.05 (α < 0.05).
H0 (null hypothesis) is accepted if alpha levelis higher than 0.05 (α > 0.05).
3.2 Table of Specification in Writing Test
Writing Elements
Aspects in Writing Test Score
Content Find a topic of paragraph, make an effective descriptive paragraph.
20
Grammar Make ten sentences, use the right connectors. 20 Organization Use transational words. 20 Vocabulary The suitable words that they use. 20 Mechanic Conventional devices used to clarify the meaning. 20
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V. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
5.1 Conclusions
After conducting the treatments and analyzing the data gained, the writer takes some conclusions as follows:
1. Word cluster can be applied as one of the techniques to increase the
students’ descriptive text writing ability. It can be proved from the
increase of the students’ average scores from the pre test and the post test.
2. Word cluster enables students to write descriptive text writing with unity and coherence because the clues developed by the students are related to the topic.
3. It can increase the students’ writing on each aspect, moreover on content.
It means that word cluster is appropriate in developing students’
descriptive text writing especially on content.
5.2 Suggestions
Referring to the conclusion above, the writer suggests that: 1. Suggestions for the teacher
a. English teacher can apply word cluster as one of the ways to
increase students’ descriptive text writing ability. Word cluster can help students develop the ideas related to the topic. Thus, it helps them a lot in writing.
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b. From the result, the lowest aspects of writing are organization and mechanic. Therefore, the writer suggested that the teacher should
focus more on the students’ organization and mechanic when
asking the students to write.
c. English teacher is hoped to design class activity in the group. Group work will help the students to share ideas, give a chance to them in learning one to another, and train the students to increase their life skill.
d. The teacher should ask the students to bring dictionary in order that they will not depend on the teacher and their friend anymore in getting information or meaning of words. The students will be independent and can get more knowledge.
e. English teacher should give self assessment. The self assessment is
given by underlining the students’ mistakes in their work and
giving it back to the students. Then, the teacher gives a chance to the students to improve their works. So, the students can check their mistakes by themselves and the teacher give guidance how to improve their writing.
2. Suggestions for further researcher
a. The writer applied word cluster to increase students’ ability in writing a descriptive text but having seen their score, further researcher should pay more attention to the lowest aspects without ignoring the other aspects of writing.
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b. In this research, the researcher used word cluster to help students of Senior High School, especially in paragraph writing. Further researchers should conduct this technique on different levels of students. It can be Junir High School.
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Charles, M. 1990. Responding to Problems in Written English Using Students Self-monitoring Technique. ELT Journal 44/4: 286-93.
Darwis, Maryana, and Suprapto. 2007. Link to the World 1 for Senior High School. Jakarta: Yudhistira.
Depdiknas. 2006. Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan. Jakarta: Depdiknas. Diharyono. 1990. Teaching Writing through Story to Improve Student’s Writing
Ability. Universiatas Lampung Press. Unpublished.
Goodman, K. 1986. What’s whole in whole language?. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann EducationalBooks.
Harris, David, P. 1974. Testing English as Second Language. Englewood: Prentice Hall.
Hatch, Evelyn & Farhady, Hossein. 1982. Research Design and Statistics for Applied Linguistics. University of California, Los Angeles: Newbury House Publisher, Inc.
Heaton, J. B. 1991. Writing English Language Testing. New York: Longman Inc. Hernawati. 2007. Developing Students’ Descriptive Paragraph Writing Ability
through Word Cluster at SMA Negeri 5 Bandar Lampung. Universiatas Lampung Press. Unpublished.
Hogue, Ann. 1996. Writing Academic English. New York: Addison Wesley Longman.
Jacobs, H., Zinkgraf, S., Wormuth, D., Hartfiel, V., & Hughey, J. 1981. Testing
(58)
Juwitasari, Ratna. 2005. Increasing Student’s Descriptive Writing through CTL. Universiatas Lampung Press. Unpublished.
Lado, R. 1959. Language Testing: The Construction and Use of Foreign
Language Tests. London: Longman Group United.
Lenneberg, E. H. 2001. Foundations of Language Development. New York: Academic Press.
Linderman, E. 1983. A Rhetoric for Writing Teachers. New York: Oxford University Press.
Macdonald, Andrew and Macdonald Gina. 1996. Mastering Writing Essential.
New Jersey: Practice Hall Regents.
Manser, Martin H. 1991. Oxford Learner’s Pocket Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Marini. 1995. Developing Students’ Pragraph Writing Achievement through
Diagram at the Second Year Students of Biology of SMUN XI Teluk Betung. Universitas Lampung Press. Unpublished.
Nunan, David. 1998. Desiigning Task for the Communicative Classroom.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Oshima, Alice and Ann Hogue. 1997. Introduction to Academic Writing-Second
Edition. New York: Longman.
Raimes, Ann. 1983. Techniques in Teaching Writing. New York: Oxford University Press.
Reid, J. M. 1993. Teaching ESL Writing. New Jersey: Prentice Hall Regents. Seow, A. 2002. The Writing Process and the Process Writing. in Richards, J., &
Renandya, W., (eds) Methodology in Language Teaching: An Anthology of Current Practice. Cambridge: CUP.
Setiyadi, Ag. Bambang. 2006. Metode Penelitian untuk Pengajaran Bahasa Asing: Pendekatan Kualitatif dan Kuantitatif. Yogyakarta: Graha Ilmu Publish.
Smalley, R. L. and Reutten, M. K. 1986. Refining Composition Skills: Rhetoric and Grammar for ESL students, 2nd Edition. New Orleans: Macmillan Publishing Company.
Sudarwati, Th. M., and Eudia Grace. 2005. Look Ahead 2. Jakarta: Erlangga. Sugiyono. 2006. Statistika untuk Penelitian. Bandung: Alfabeta.
(59)
Tim Penulis. 2003. Standar Kompetensi Mata Pelajaran Bahasa Inggris Kurikulum 1994. Jakarta: Departemen Pendidikan Nasional.
Universitas Lampung. 2006. Pedoman Penulisan Karya Ilmiah. Universitas Lampung Press. Unpublished.
You, X. 2004. The Choice Made from no Choice: English Writing Instruction in a Chinese University. Journal of Second Language Writing.
Yuwono, Agustinus. 1994. Developing Students’ Paragraph Writing Ability
through Maps at the Second Year of SMAN Metro. Universiatas Lampung
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b. From the result, the lowest aspects of writing are organization and mechanic. Therefore, the writer suggested that the teacher should focus more on the students’ organization and mechanic when asking the students to write.
c. English teacher is hoped to design class activity in the group. Group work will help the students to share ideas, give a chance to them in learning one to another, and train the students to increase their life skill.
d. The teacher should ask the students to bring dictionary in order that they will not depend on the teacher and their friend anymore in getting information or meaning of words. The students will be independent and can get more knowledge.
e. English teacher should give self assessment. The self assessment is given by underlining the students’ mistakes in their work and giving it back to the students. Then, the teacher gives a chance to the students to improve their works. So, the students can check their mistakes by themselves and the teacher give guidance how to improve their writing.
2. Suggestions for further researcher
a. The writer applied word cluster to increase students’ ability in writing a descriptive text but having seen their score, further researcher should pay more attention to the lowest aspects without ignoring the other aspects of writing.
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b. In this research, the researcher used word cluster to help students of Senior High School, especially in paragraph writing. Further researchers should conduct this technique on different levels of students. It can be Junir High School.
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REFERENCES
Arikunto, S. 1997. Dasar-dasar Evaluasi Pendidikan. Jakarta: Bina Aksara. Brown, H. D. 1980. Teaching by Priciples. San Francisco State University:
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Charles, M. 1990. Responding to Problems in Written English Using Students Self-monitoring Technique. ELT Journal 44/4: 286-93.
Darwis, Maryana, and Suprapto. 2007. Link to the World 1 for Senior High School. Jakarta: Yudhistira.
Depdiknas. 2006. Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan. Jakarta: Depdiknas. Diharyono. 1990. Teaching Writing through Story to Improve Student’s Writing
Ability. Universiatas Lampung Press. Unpublished.
Goodman, K. 1986. What’s whole in whole language?. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Educational Books.
Harris, David, P. 1974. Testing English as Second Language. Englewood: Prentice Hall.
Hatch, Evelyn & Farhady, Hossein. 1982. Research Design and Statistics for Applied Linguistics. University of California, Los Angeles: Newbury House Publisher, Inc.
Heaton, J. B. 1991. Writing English Language Testing. New York: Longman Inc. Hernawati. 2007. Developing Students’ Descriptive Paragraph Writing Ability
through Word Cluster at SMA Negeri 5 Bandar Lampung. Universiatas Lampung Press. Unpublished.
Hogue, Ann. 1996. Writing Academic English. New York: Addison Wesley Longman.
Jacobs, H., Zinkgraf, S., Wormuth, D., Hartfiel, V., & Hughey, J. 1981. Testing ESL Composition: A Practical Approach. Rowley, MA: Newbury House.
(5)
Juwitasari, Ratna. 2005. Increasing Student’s Descriptive Writing through CTL. Universiatas Lampung Press. Unpublished.
Lado, R. 1959. Language Testing: The Construction and Use of Foreign Language Tests. London: Longman Group United.
Lenneberg, E. H. 2001. Foundations of Language Development. New York: Academic Press.
Linderman, E. 1983. A Rhetoric for Writing Teachers. New York: Oxford University Press.
Macdonald, Andrew and Macdonald Gina. 1996. Mastering Writing Essential. New Jersey: Practice Hall Regents.
Manser, Martin H. 1991. Oxford Learner’s Pocket Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Marini. 1995. Developing Students’ Pragraph Writing Achievement through Diagram at the Second Year Students of Biology of SMUN XI Teluk Betung. Universitas Lampung Press. Unpublished.
Nunan, David. 1998. Desiigning Task for the Communicative Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Oshima, Alice and Ann Hogue. 1997. Introduction to Academic Writing-Second Edition. New York: Longman.
Raimes, Ann. 1983. Techniques in Teaching Writing. New York: Oxford University Press.
Reid, J. M. 1993. Teaching ESL Writing. New Jersey: Prentice Hall Regents. Seow, A. 2002. The Writing Process and the Process Writing. in Richards, J., &
Renandya, W., (eds) Methodology in Language Teaching: An Anthology of Current Practice. Cambridge: CUP.
Setiyadi, Ag. Bambang. 2006. Metode Penelitian untuk Pengajaran Bahasa Asing: Pendekatan Kualitatif dan Kuantitatif. Yogyakarta: Graha Ilmu Publish.
Smalley, R. L. and Reutten, M. K. 1986. Refining Composition Skills: Rhetoric and Grammar for ESL students, 2nd Edition. New Orleans: Macmillan Publishing Company.
Sudarwati, Th. M., and Eudia Grace. 2005. Look Ahead 2. Jakarta: Erlangga. Sugiyono. 2006. Statistika untuk Penelitian. Bandung: Alfabeta.
(6)
Tim Penulis. 2003. Standar Kompetensi Mata Pelajaran Bahasa Inggris Kurikulum 1994. Jakarta: Departemen Pendidikan Nasional.
Universitas Lampung. 2006. Pedoman Penulisan Karya Ilmiah. Universitas Lampung Press. Unpublished.
You, X. 2004. The Choice Made from no Choice: English Writing Instruction in a Chinese University. Journal of Second Language Writing.
Yuwono, Agustinus. 1994. Developing Students’ Paragraph Writing Ability through Maps at the Second Year of SMAN Metro. Universiatas Lampung Press. Unpublished.