DEVELOPING STUDENTS’ ABILITY IN WRITING DESCRIPTIVE TEXT: A CASE STUDY IN SMA NEGERI 1 WONOSARI Developing Students’ Ability In Writing Descriptive Text: A Case Study In Sma Negeri 1 Wonosari.
DEVELOPING STUDENTS’ ABILITY IN WRITING DESCRIPTIVE TEXT:
A CASE STUDY IN SMA NEGERI 1 WONOSARI
PUBLICATION ARTICLE
Submitted as a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for Getting Bachelor Degree of Education
in English Department
by
YOSI MARETA MUTIA CHUSNA
A320120281
ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
SCHOOL OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION FACULTY
MUHAMMADIYAH UNIVERSITY OF SURAKARTA
2016
DEVELOPING STUDENTS’ ABILITY IN WRITING DESCRIPTIVE TEXT:
A CASE STUDY IN SMA NEGERI 1 WONOSARI
ABSTRAK
Yosi Mareta Mutia Chusna. A320120281. DEVELOPING STUDENTS’
ABILITY IN WRITING DESCRIPTIVE TEXT: A CASE STUDY IN SMA
NEGERI 1 WONOSARI. Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta: Research
Paper. 2016.
Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk mengamati langkah-langkah pembelajaran,
teknik yang digunakan oleh guru, masalah yang dihadapi dan solusi guru untuk
mengatasi masalah yang dihadapi dalam kegiatan belajar mengajar menulis teks
deskriptif di SMA Negeri 1 Wonosari. Jenis penelitian ini adalah deskriptif kualitatif.
Teknik yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini yaitu observasi, wawancara dan
dokumentasi. Data dari penelitian ini adalah informasi dari siswa dan guru tentang
langkah-langkah pembelajaran, teknik yang digunakan oleh guru bahasa inggris
SMA Negeri 1 Wonosari, masalah yang dihadapi dan solusi guru dalam mengajar
menulis teks deskriptif. Subjek dari penelitian ini adalah guru bahasa inggris dan
siswa dari kelas A dan B. Penelitian ini menggunakan pemilihan data, menunjukkan
data, dan menulis kesimpulan dan pembuktian untuk menganalisis data. Temuan
dalam penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa langkah-langkah pembelajarannya
berdasarkan pada KTSP yaitu: pembukaan, kegiatan inti (eksplorasi-elaborasikonfirmasi), penutup. Teknik pembelajaran yang digunakan oleh guru adalah
mendeskripsikan gambar, umpan balik, menggunakan benda nyata, hafalan,
menerjemahkan, membuat grup, dan mengoreksi. Masalah yang dihadapi saat
pengajaran menulis deskriptif teks adalah mengembangkan ide, mengorganisasikan
ide, kesulitan pada kosakata, pola kalimat, dan tata bahasa, kemampuan siswa yang
berbeda, dan waktu yang singkat. Solusi guru untuk mengatasi masalah adalah
memberi materi dengan jelas, memberi tugas yang sederhana, mengulangi materi,
dan menggunakan dua bahasa.
Kata kunci : langkah-langkah pembelajaran, teknik pembelajaran, masalah dan
soluti, kelas menulis.
ABSTRACT
The objectives of this study are to describe classroom procedures, teachers’
techniques, problems faced and teacher’s solutions of teaching writing descriptive
text at SMA Negeri 1 Wonosari. This research uses descriptive qualitative research.
The techniques for collecting data used in this study are observation, interviews, and
documentation. The data of this research is information elicited from the students and
teacher concerning classroom procedures and the techniques used by English teacher
of SMA N 1 Wonosari. The writer also obtained data from the English teacher and
students regarding problems faced and teacher’s solutions of teaching writing
descriptive text. The subject of this research is English teacher and students of A and
B class. This research used data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing and
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verification to analize the data. The findings of this study shows that the teacher used
classroom procedures based on School-Based Curriculum: opening, main activities
(exploration-elaboration-confirmation), and closing. The techniques used by the
teacher are describing the picture, feedback, real objects, memorizing, translating,
grouping, and correcting. The problems faced in teaching writing descriptive text are
problem in developing idea, organizing idea, difficulties in vocabulary, tenses, and
grammar, different capability of the students, and limited time. The solutions of
English teacher’s problems are: give material clearly, give simple assignment, repeat
the previous materials, and used mix language.
Keywords: classroom procedures, teacher’s technique, problem faced and solution,
writing class.
1. INTRODUCTION
Mastering English means mastering the four basic skills, namely listening,
speaking, reading, and writing. People have to master all of those skills in order to
improve their English language. In addition, they must learn other aspects of
English which can support their ability.
Teaching English in Indonesia is focused on the ability of student’s
communication. The communication can be in oral and written forms. The
learners should be capable of the four language skill (Depdiknas, 2006: 6).
One of skills that must be learned is writing. According to Byrne (1997:1)
writing is producing sequence of sentences arranged in a particular order and
linked together in certain ways. Then, according to Admin (2009:16) that based
on generic structure and language feature dominantly used, there are some types
of text. They are report, analytical exposition, narrative, procedure, recount,
spoof, anecdote, discussion, description, explanation, review, hortatory
exposition, news item. In the teaching of writing skill a descriptive text is
popularly known as descriptive paragraph. The students are trained to describe
certain object in a written language by developing one main idea as a topic
sentence. So it will be quite easy to them producing the simple text.
In this study the writer is interested in researching descriptive text as one of
types of genre implemented in teaching writing. Descriptive text is a text which
describes what a person or a thing is like. The main aim of descriptive text is to
inform about the thing to be described. So, it provides generalized information on
facts, qualities and characteristics about the object under consideration so as to get
a systematic, accurate and almost photographic description. This type of texts are
just straight facts and do not give the reader any ideas about the feelings or
opinions of the author. Descriptive text has structure as below: (1) Identification;
identifying the phenomenon to be described. (2) Description; describing the
phenomenon in parts, qualities, and characteristics.
Writing is an important part of language teaching, it also functions as an
essential tool for learning. This skill must be explicitly taught because writing
outside school setting is relatively rare. Writing is also viewed as a social and
cultural phenomenon as it is meaning-making that is socially and culturally
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shaped and individually and socially purposeful (Weigle, 2002). In this sense,
writing falls into complexity and importance as well.
Andiko (2009:1) stated that there are some functions of writing: First, writing
can be the media for us to express what we feel, what we think. Second, writing
can enlarge our knowledge, because it will motivate and stimulate people to learn
something new. Third, through writing the charity side comes. When we are
writing something, we will probably share useful things to others - worldwide in
the internet.
There are some general difficulties that EFL students face in writing the
descriptive paragraph. First is problem in developing the ideas. Students write
many main ideas in one paragraph; the ideas of the paragraphs are ambiguous.
Second is problem in organizing the ideas to write a descriptive text. A paragraph
needs more than a unified point. Third, the students find difficulties in grammar.
Fourth, students have limited knowledge of vocabulary. As we know that English
is not the Indonesian native language. It is difficult for the students to remember
all the words in English. Many of the students have poor choice of words.
Dixon and Nessel (in Cahyono, 2001:44) noted that writing is the most difficult
skill among the four language skills. It is because of writing is not only mastering
how to use language but also everything about what we are going to write and the
way we arrange and write it. According to Meyers (2005:2), writing is an action.
There are some steps in writing process, they are process of discovering and
organizing the idea, writing or putting them on paper, reshaping and revise the
writing.
To write well, people must have good capabilities in writing. Moreover, people
who want to write the essay must know the steps of writing process and aspects of
writing. They must be able to organize the idea, to construct the sentences, to use
punctuation and spelling well. Besides, they must be able to arrange their writing
into cohesive and coherent paragraphs.
English teacher especially in SMA Negeri 1 Wonosari is encouraged to teach
interactively and communicatively in classes. The phenomenon is found that
many students have difficulties to write text especially descriptive text. They have
problem to develop main idea, difficulties in grammar and vocabulary. Some
students try to find out word by word using dictionary. There are many
alternatives techniques used by teacher.
The writer is interested in having a study on the techniques of teaching writing
descriptive text at the first year of SMA Negeri 1 Wonosari. The writer wants to
know the technique used in teaching writing descriptive text.
Based on the review above, the writer interested to describe the classroom
procedures, teacher’s techniques, problems faced and solution of problems faced
by English teacher of SMA Negeri 1 Wonosari. To prove the originality of this
research, the writer takes some previous study related to the teaching writing.
There are Windiyati (2010), Emilia (2008), Sari (2007), Ikrima (2014), Wijayanti
(2008), Mustika (2014), Kristanti (2013), Nurjannah (2012), Setiawati (2012),
Sarlinda (2015).
Windiyati (2010) studied about the problems faced by English teacher in
teaching writing. The significance of her study was to reveal that problems in
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writing were not only faced by the students but also by the teachers of SMPN 1
Kasembon Malang. The data obtained from questionnaires, observation,
interview, and field notes was classified then tallied. All the data were analyzed
descriptively. The teachers face problems in relation to teaching preparation,
teaching techniques, and the textbook used. Both teachers made teaching
preparation before they taught. However, they only made lesson plans and a
semester program for one year in the early semester. As a consequence, the
teachers got difficulties in (1) understanding the instructional objectives, (2)
choosing themes and topics, (3) combining materials from the textbook and the
workbook used, and (4) having insufficient time to prepare all the instructional
preparation. In the process of teaching writing, the techniques used by the teachers
were almost the same for every meeting. Both teachers rarely used other
techniques because of their lack of knowledge on teaching writing and they got
difficulties in (1) determining an appropriate technique for the students who had
low ability and interest in writing, (2) choosing an activity that could encourage
and attract students' attention to write better, and (3) arranging the activities which
were going to be used in the class. To overcome this problematic condition, the
teachers explained the materials for several times until the students understood. In
relation to the textbook used, the teachers got difficulties because there was not
any clear guidance and the instruction given was unclear.
Emilia (2008) studied the effects of picture strip story on writing skill at the
first grade of MTs Ma’hadul Muta’alimin Katerban Ngawi. The study aimed to
describe the implementation of teaching writing by using picture strip story to
improve the students’ writing skill at MTs Ma’hadul Muta’alimin Katerban
Ngawi. To collect data, the writer conducted observation, document and test. The
writer used new picture strip story to influence students’ attention, so that they
focused on the material. The result of the research showed that 13 students
increased their writing achievement and 2 students had static achievement. The
results of pre-test was 66, 25% and post-test was 82, 81% which means that the
students’ writing skill increases after they were taught using picture strip story.
Sari (2007) observed the method of teaching writing at SMA Negeri Kebak
Kramat. That research aimed at describing the method of teaching writing applied
by the second year teacher at SMA Negeri Kebak Kramat. It was conducted to
know the objectives of teaching writing and the problem faced by the teacher at
SMA Negeri Kebak Kramat. The result of analysis showed that objectives if
teaching writing SMA Negeri Kebak Kramat were to improve the writing
competence of the students, prepare the student to face the national examination
and prepare the students to continue their study to university. The methods
applied by the teacher were process-based approach and product-based approach.
Ikrima (2014) observed the problems faced of writing by senior high school
students in writing. To gain the data, the writer conducted a descriptive qualitative
research at SMA 4 Banda Aceh. To conduct this study, the writer used interview
and writing test. The result of her research showed that EFL students faced the
main problem in grammatical and the least problem was vocabulary. In addition,
many efforts are able to be used for students that given by teachers such as
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learning more about grammar, memorizing the vocabulary, and giving more
feedback to students.
Wijayanti (2008) observed the error correction feedback at SMA Negeri 1
Wonosari. The study aimed to describe the improvement of the students’ writing
skill after the facilitative error correction feedback was applied at the second
grade students of SMA Negeri 1 Wonosari of Klaten in 2008/2009 academic year.
The data sources were event, informants, and document. The methods of
collecting data were observation, interview and documentation. The data were
analyzed through the steps, namely reducing data, presenting data, and verifying
the data. The study was conducted in following the four procedures, namely
planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. The result of the study showed that
was each cycle, there is improvement in the study. The genre used was report text,
and the focused in improvement are draft, grammar, and vocabulary. The
improvement was proven by the scores of pre-test and post-test. The scores of
post-test were higher than pre-test. Thus it can be concluded that the student
writing skill in improved.
Mustika (2014) studied about feedback technique to improve writing skill
hortatory exposition text. Her study was intended to find out whether teacher’s
feedback can improve students’ writing skill in writing hortatory exposition text
or not and to know the aspect of writing which was improved more after teacher’s
feedback. To gain the data, the writer conducted an experimental research in SMA
Negeri 1 Model PBKL Peukan Bada in which the writer acted as a teacher. She
used one group pretest-posttest design. She took one class from six classes by
applying purposive sample technique and took nineteen students. Pre test was
conducted before experimental action in order to know the students’ achievement
before the treatment. On the other hand, post test was conducted to know the
students’ achievement after the treatment. To find the differences between pre-test
and post-test achievement, the writer used t-score. The result showed that the
mean score of the pre test was 53.97 and the score of the post test was 71.03and
the result of t-score was 7.68. The t-Value at the level significant 0.05 was 2.101
and at the level of significant 0.01 were 2.878 with the degree of freedom 18.
Since, the result of t-test was higher than t-Value, the alternate hypothesis was
accepted. In other words, there was a significant difference between pre test and
post test score. It proved that the use of teacher’s feedback was effective to
improve students’ achievement in writing hortatory exposition text. In addition, it
was found out that the aspect of content was improved more than other aspects of
writing.
Kristanti (2013) observed about students’s ability in writing descriptive text.
Her research was descriptive research. It was intended to describe the eighth grade
students’ descriptive text writing ability and the students’ ability in each aspect of
writing. It was conducted at MTsN Tlasih chosen by purposive method. The
sample was taken through proportional random sampling by lottery as many as
50% from the population. Thus, the number of the sample taken was 50 students.
The data of her research were collected by conducting descriptive text writing
test. The students were asked to write a descriptive text based on the picture
chosen consisting of 2-3 short paragraphs. The result of the students’ descriptive
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text writing test showed that the eighth grade students’ descriptive text writing
ability at MTsN Tlasih in general was 67. 22 which achieved the students’
standard score (SKM). It meant that their ability categorized as good. Based on
the Students’ Standard Score (SKM), it can be known that the categories of the
eighth grade students’ ability in writing descriptive text at MTsN Tlasih are 64%
of students categorized as good and 36% of students categorized as fair Based on
the students’ classification score in each aspect of writing, it can be concluded that
the most serious problem of the eighth grade students’ descriptive text writing
ability at MTsN Tlasih was grammar because most of the students categorized as
fair. Most of the students not mastered well and still got difficulties in making
grammatically correct and meaningful sentences especially simple present tense.
While the students’ problem in vocabulary is most of the students’ lack of
vocabularies. They also made some errors of word choice and usage that
sometimes make the meaning of the sentences obscured and difficult to
understand. While the students’ problem in the aspect of content was most of their
writing was relevant with the topic they have chosen but lack details. It might be
caused the students did not have much information about the topic. The students’
problem in mechanic was their writing did not show their mastery in using capital
letter, punctuation devices, and word spelling well.
Nurjannah (2012) studied about improving writing skill using picture series.
The data were obtained from the observation during the implementation of the
actions, interview with the students and the collaborator, students’ writing tasks,
and tests. The data were in the forms of interview transcripts, field notes and
students’ writing scores. The validity of the data was obtained through process
validity, outcome validity, democratic validity and dialogic validity. Based on the
result of the research, the use of picture series in this study was believed to be
effective to improve the students’ writing skills. Implementing picture series was
also effective to improve the students’ motivation in the writing process. In
reference to the students’ writing scores, the students’ skills in four aspects of
writing improved after picture series were implemented. The students’ gain score
from pre-test to post-test in the content was 4, 52. Then, the gain score in the
organization aspect was 3, 63 and 2, 91 in the vocabulary aspect. Lastly, students’
gain score in the language use aspect was 3, 56.
Setiawati (2012) studied about ability in writing descriptive text of seventh
grade. This research was quantitative research. The writer used experimental
research method. The population of this research was the seventh grade students
of SMP N 4 Bae Kudus in the academic year 2011/2012. The total number of
sample was 35 students. And the instrument that used to get the data of this
research was written test from pretest and post-test. Before getting the post test
data, the writer gave the treatment in five meetings to the students. Then, the data
that had been taken were analyzed by using t-test method to find out whether or
not there was any significant difference between the ability in writing descriptive
text of the seventh grade students of SMP N 4 Bae Kudus in the academic year
2011/2012 before and after being taught by using classical music. The result of
this research showed that the mean of pretest was 61, 8 and the mean of post-test
was 78, 67. It can be concluded that the t-observation (to) 9, 29 in the level of
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significance α = 0, 05 and the degree of freedom (df) 34, the t-table (tt) was 2, 04.
Thus Ho was rejected and Ha was accepted. So, the hypothesis stated, “There is a
significant difference between the ability in writing descriptive text of the seventh
grade students of SMP N 4 Bae Kudus in the academic year 2011/2012 before and
after being taught by using classical music” was accepted.
Sarlinda (2015) studied an instructional design of extracurricular speaking
class. The study was aimed to describe the teaching learing process based on
instructional design at SMP N 2 Kebakkramat, Sragen. This was a descriptive
research. The subjects of the research were English teacher and the students of the
first year of SMP N 2 Kebakkramat. The object of the research was an
instructional design. The techniques of collecting data were observation,
interview, and documentation. The result of her research revaled that there were 3
syllabus used by English teacher: lexical syllabus, structural syllabus, and taskbased syllabus. The classroom procedures used by the teacher in teaching
speaking was 5E (Engagement, Exploration, Explanation, Elaboration,
Evaluation) and 3E (Engagement, Exploration, Evaluation). The classroom
techniques used by teacher were discussion, problem solving, read aloud, and
question/answer. The teacher’s roles for teaching were as facilitator, instrucor,
consultant and evaluator. The student’s roles for teaching were as listere and
performer. The assessment models for teaching English were quiz, homework,
daily test, and oral test.
This research extends it aims at describing the classroom procedures, the
teacher’s technique, problems faced and teacher’s solution. The underlying
consist of notion of writing skill, notion of descriptive text, classroom procedures,
roles of teacher in the writing class, strategy for teaching writing process,
principles for teaching writing, the technique of teaching writing, the general
problem of writing descriptive text, writing skill according to School-Based
Curriculum used in SMA Negeri 1 Wonosari.
According to Harper (2004: 160), writing is one of four main macro-skills
taught in the ESL classroom, besides reading, speaking, and listening. He also
adds that writing is one of four basic skills which involved in productive (output)
skill.
According to Larson (1984:118), a descriptive text is a text which says what a
person or a thing is like. In other words, it’s used to develop a picture of “what it
looks like”. When someone describes something, he needs to capture both details
wholeness.
Bybee (1997) stated that there were five steps in the classroom procedures in
writing class: engagement, exploration, explanation, elaboration, and evaluation.
Richards and Lockhart (1999: 101) stated that role of teacher in the context of
classroom teaching and learning may also be influenced by methodology which is
followed by teacher. The following are the roles of teacher: need analyst,
curriculum developer, material developer, counselor.
Harmer (2004:96) stated there are a number of strategies we need to consider
for concentrate on the process of writing, they are: get students to plan writing,
encourage students to draft, reflect and revise writing, respond to students’
writing, general concept of text, general concept of genre.
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Nunan (2003: 74) stated that there were principles that every teacher should
consider while planning a course, they are: understand your students’ reasons for
writing, provide many opportunities for students to write, make feedback helpful
and meaningful, clarify for yourself, and for your students, how their writing will
be evaluated.
According to Raimes (1983: 97) there are some techniques for teaching
writing, they are: describing the picture, controlling composition, feedback,
guided composition, paragraph completion, real objects, role-play.
According to Barnet and Stubbs (1990:105) “A good paragraph has unity, it
makes one point, or it indicates where one unit of the topic begins and ends”.
Second, the problem in organizing the ideas to write descriptive text. Students do
not know the way to deliver organizing ideas to write descriptive text. It was
related to use coherence of writing descriptive text. Reep (2009:82) stated that “a
paragraph achieves coherence when the sentences proceed in a sequence that
supports one point at a time. Transitional, or connecting, words and phrases
facilitate coherence by showing the relationship between ideas and by creating a
smooth flow of sentences”. Third, the students found difficulties in grammar.
There were only few mistakes find in grammar component. It might because by
using simple present tense in descriptive text. Baron (1982) stated that English
teacher was often portrayed as an unattractive grammar monger whose only
pleasure in life is to point out the faults of others. Fourth, students had poor choice
of words. It might be because the students do not know many vocabularies in
English. Stahl (2005) stated that vocabulary is the knowledge of words and word
meanings and also puts vocabulary knowledge as the knowledge of a word
implies not only a definition, but also how that word fits into the context.
According to School Based Curriculum (2006), the goal of teaching and
learning at Senior High School is that students will be able to develop
communicative competence in written as well as in spoken form to achieve
functional literacy level. They are expected to be able to communicate in written
as well as in spoken form to solve problems in their daily live. In this curriculum,
the English material is taught based on the text. There are many types of written
form that should be learnt, for example, narrative, recount, report, news item,
procedure, spoof, etc.
2. RESEARCH METHOD
According to Bodgan and Taylor (1987) the qualitative research is a research
which the descriptive data in the form of written or oral words from observing
people and behavior. In other words, a qualitative research is a type of research
which does not include any enumeration. The writer takes descriptive qualitative
research because the writer wants to observe and describe classroom procedures,
teachers’ techniques, problems faced and teacher’s solutions of teaching writing
descriptive text at SMA Negeri 1 Wonosari.
The object of the research are classroom procedures, teacher’s techniques,
problems faced and teacher’s solutions of teaching writing descriptive text at
SMA Negeri 1 Wonosari.
Subjects of the study are English teacher and students of SMA Negeri 1
Wonosari in Academic Year 2015-2016. The English teacher who participated in
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this studied. There are 68 students, 40 males and 28 females. They are average
15th years old. And they studied English material from elementary school second
grade.
The data of this research is information elicited from the students and teacher
concerning classroom procedures and the techniques used by English teacher of
SMA N 1 Wonosari. The writer also obtained data from the English teacher and
students regarding problems faced and teacher’s solutions of teaching writing
descriptive text.. There are three sources of data: event, informant, and document.
The method is a means that is used to solve problem, they are observation,
interview and documents.
The writer uses triangulation as the method and data to make credibility of the
data. Cohen and Manion (2000: 254) in Mohamed (2013: 30) define triangulation
as an attempt to map out, or explain more fully, the richness and complexity of
human behavior by studying it from more than one standpoint.
In this research adopted the framework developed by Miles and Huberman
(1994: 10-11) to describe the major phases of data analysis: data reduction, data
display, and conclusion drawing and verification.
3. FINDING AND DISCUSSION
The main points of this chapter is to describe the classroom procedures of
teaching writing descriptive text, the teachers’ techniques in teaching descriptive
text, the problems faced in teaching writing descriptive text and the solutions
applied by the teacher.
a. The classroom procedures of teaching writing descriptive text
In general, the teacher of SMA Negeri 1 Wonosari used School-based
Curriculum. The procedures are opening class, main activities, and closing
class. There are three steps in the main activities: exploration, elaboration, and
confirmation.
b. The techniques used to teaching writing descriptive text.
1) Describing the picture
English teacher always used picture to teach descriptive text. That
strategy can improve students’ creativity. The teacher used this technique at
A and B class. Describing pictures is the effective technique. From the
picture, the students could imagine about what they saw. The teacher also
said to the students that with picture, they could describe about the picture.
2) Feed back
The teacher applied feedback technique in teaching descriptive text. It
was very effective technique, because it helped them to make a good and
correct writing. They knew their errors, they knew the reasons why that
were wrong, and then they could correct it by themselves.
3) Real object
The teacher used real object to teach English at B class.
4) Memorization
Based on interview with some students, this strategy was commonly used
by English teacher. This strategy is the one of strategies to improve
students’ ability to memorize the new vocabulary.
5) Translating
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Translating is when the teacher asked students to translate some
sentences. Teacher helped the students when they find difficulties and
confused in translating sentences.
6) Grouping
The teacher also used grouping strategies to manage the class activity.
The teacher divided students in a group.
7) Correcting
Based on observation, the teacher always corrected the student’s work
and checked student’s understanding of the new vocabularies or material
that explained by teacher. While the students practiced the works,
sometimes they made some mistakes, so the teacher used the strategy to
correct their works.
c. Problem faced in teaching writing descriptive text.
1) Problem in developing the idea
They could not develop the paragraph well, they usually wrote in simple
sentences. Students always asked teacher how to write something. The
students admitted that this problem was due to the difficulties of
transforming the ideas from their mind into written text.
2) Problem in organizing the idea
The second is problem organizing the idea. Students did not know the
way to deliver organizing ideas to write descriptive text. In organizing ideas
students have to use two components of generic structure of descriptive text,
there are identification and description.
3) Difficulties in vocabulary, tenses, and grammar
Based on interview to English teacher, students have many difficulties
about vocabulary and grammar. They have poor choice to choose the good
vocabulary; it made the students always asked the teacher about the
vocabulary that they did not know. They usually use the vocabulary that
they known and if they have difficulty, they seldom look for the new
vocabulary in dictionary, internet, or they want to ask the teacher. The
students felt difficult to use correct tenses and arrange the good sentences to
support the paragraph.
4) Different capability of the students.
Some of students could understand faster and the others learned slowly.
That situation make the teaching learning process did not run well. Every
student has different ability.
5) Limited time
Based on observation, one of the problems faced by teacher is limited
time. The teacher felt difficult to deliver all materials to the students. The
teacher has not enough time with 2x40 minutes in each meet. Whereas, the
material about descriptive text just one meet. It made the teacher felt
difficult to give the material. With the available time the English lesson
could not run well.
d. Teacher’s solutions of problems faced in teaching writing descriptive text.
1) Teach how to write descriptive text.
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The first solutions is explained the material clearly. Started by explained
the pattern of simple present tense. After that give example of adjective that
used to write descriptive text. The students had to improve their vocabulary.
2) Give simple assignment
The teacher seldom gives students difficult assignment that made the
students confused. The teacher just asked the students to do the simple
assignment. That solution helped the students with low understanding the
material.
3) Repeat the previous material
The teacher gave some practices to the students in the bottom level about
understanding material. The students had to repeat the previous materials
until the students understood the material.
4) Used mix languages
The teacher always used two languages to teach English. Because not all
of students knew the meaning of teacher’s said if teacher used full English
in the lesson. In the teaching activity, teacher did not use English language
fully. She combined with Indonesian language, because the students still got
difficulties to understand English language. So, in one utterance the teacher
used 2 languages.
4. CONCLUSION
After describing and analysis the data, the writer draw conclusion based on
result of observation of clasroom procedures, interview with English teacher and
some students and also documents when the writer did the research at SMA
Negeri 1 Wonosari.
Based on the findings, the writer concludes that the teacher used classroom
procedures based on School-Based Curriculum. The procedures are opening class,
main activities, and closing class. There are three steps in the main activities:
exploration, elaboration, and confirmation.
The teacher used some techniques to develop students’ ability in writing
descriptive text, they are: describing the picture, feedback, real object,
memorization, translating, grouping, and correcting.
There are some problems faced in teaching writing descriptive text are:
problem in developing idea, organizing idea, difficulties in vocabulary, tenses,
and grammar, different capability of the students, and limited time.
The solutions of English teacher’s problems are: give material clearly, asked
simple assignment, previous the material, and used mix language.
From the results of her observation, the writer gets some informations about
the teaching-learning process especially classroom procedures, teacher’s
techniques, problems faced and teacher’s solutions of problems faced in teaching
writing descriptive text of SMA Negeri 1 Wonosari in 2015/2016 academic year.
The writer draws some pedagogical implications such as:
a. In the teaching-learning process the teacher should prepare before conducting
the lesson. The first is classroom procedures in teaching-learning process.
Classroom procedures used by English teacher of SMA Negeri 1 Wonosari are
opening, main activities (exploration-elaboration-confirmation), closing.
11
b. Using some techniques in teaching writing is to help the teacher convey the
materials when teaching-learning process. The teacher should use several
techniques in teaching writing process. The consequently, the teacher should
use effective technique based on classroom’s condition to make the students
more active in teaching writing especially writing descriptive text. So, the
teacher should have update their knowledge about technique to use in the
writing class in order to make the students more interesting to learn writing
especially writing descriptive text.
c. There are some problems faced in the teaching-learning process. The problems
faced are problem in developing idea, organizing idea, difficulties in
vocabulary, tenses, and grammar, different capability of the students, and
limited time. The consequently, the teacher should give solutions to cope the
problems faced in teaching-learning process. So, the teacher should be creative
to minimize the problem faced in teaching-learning process in order to make
the students enjoy with the materials and develop student’s ability.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Departemen Pendidikan Nasional. (2006). Panduan Kurikulum Satuan Tingkat
Pendidikan (KTSP). Jakarta : Depdiknas.
Dixon and Nessel (in Cahyono, 2001:44)
Emilia, Rizka Tina. (2008). Increasing Students’ Writing Skill Using Picture Strip
Story
at
the
First
Grade
of
MTs
Ma’hadulMuta’aliminKaterbanNgawi.Surakarta : UMS.
Harmer, Jeremy. (2004). How to Teach Writing. England: Pearson Education Ltd.
Ikrima, Mawla (2014). The problem of Writing Faced by Senior High School
Students: A Descriptive Qualitative Study at SMA Negeri 4 Banda Aceh .
Banda Aceh.
Kristanti, Efi Selvia. (2013). A Descriptive Study of the Eighth Grade Students’
Descriptive Text Writing Ability at MTsN Tlasih in the 2010/2011 Academic
Year . Jambi: UNEJ.
Larson, Mildred L. (1984).Meaning-based translation: A guide to cross-language
equivalence. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
Miles, M.B., and Huberman, A.M. (1984). Qualitative Data Analysis, 16. Newbury
Park, CA: Sage.
Mustika, Wina. (2014). Feedback Technique to Improve Writing Hortatory
Exposition Text: A Case Study in SMAN 1 Model PBKL Peukan Bada. Banda
Aceh.
12
Nurjanah, Siti. (2012). Improving Writing Skill of Tenth Grade Students of SMA N 1
Prambanan by Using Picture Series in the Academic Year of 2011/2012 .
Yogyakarta : UNY.
Raimes, A. (1983). Techniques in Teaching Writing. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Richard, Jack C. (2003). The Language Teaching, New York: Cambridge University
Press.
Robert Lado (1955), "Patterns of difficulty in vocabulary" International Journal
Language Learning, 6, p.23-41.
Sari, Fitria Wulan. (2007).Descriptive Study on the Method of Teaching Writing
Applied by the Teacher at SMA NegeriKebakKramat in 2006/2007 Academic
Year . Surakarta : UMS.
Sarlinda, Adisti. (2015). An Instructional Design of Extracurricular Speaking Class
at First Year of SMP Negeri 2 Kebakkramat in 2014/2015 Academic Year:
Anaturalistic Study: Skripsi Thesis. UMS.
Setiawati, Sri. (2012). The Ability in Writing Descriptive Text of the Seventh Grade
students of SMP N 4 Bae Kudus in the Academic Year 2011/2012 Taught by
Using Classical Music. Kudus : Muria Kudus University.
Wijayanti, Anita. (2008). Improving Students’ Writing Skill Through Facilitative
Error Correction Feedback at the Second Grade of SMA Negeri 1 Wonosari
of Klaten 2008/2009 Academic Year . Surakarta : UMS.
Windiyati, Tri. 2010. A Study on the Problems Faced by English Teachers in
Teaching Writing for Grade VIII at SMPN 1 Kasembon Malang . Thesis,
English Education Department of Undergraduate Program, State University
of Malang.
13
A CASE STUDY IN SMA NEGERI 1 WONOSARI
PUBLICATION ARTICLE
Submitted as a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for Getting Bachelor Degree of Education
in English Department
by
YOSI MARETA MUTIA CHUSNA
A320120281
ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
SCHOOL OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION FACULTY
MUHAMMADIYAH UNIVERSITY OF SURAKARTA
2016
DEVELOPING STUDENTS’ ABILITY IN WRITING DESCRIPTIVE TEXT:
A CASE STUDY IN SMA NEGERI 1 WONOSARI
ABSTRAK
Yosi Mareta Mutia Chusna. A320120281. DEVELOPING STUDENTS’
ABILITY IN WRITING DESCRIPTIVE TEXT: A CASE STUDY IN SMA
NEGERI 1 WONOSARI. Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta: Research
Paper. 2016.
Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk mengamati langkah-langkah pembelajaran,
teknik yang digunakan oleh guru, masalah yang dihadapi dan solusi guru untuk
mengatasi masalah yang dihadapi dalam kegiatan belajar mengajar menulis teks
deskriptif di SMA Negeri 1 Wonosari. Jenis penelitian ini adalah deskriptif kualitatif.
Teknik yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini yaitu observasi, wawancara dan
dokumentasi. Data dari penelitian ini adalah informasi dari siswa dan guru tentang
langkah-langkah pembelajaran, teknik yang digunakan oleh guru bahasa inggris
SMA Negeri 1 Wonosari, masalah yang dihadapi dan solusi guru dalam mengajar
menulis teks deskriptif. Subjek dari penelitian ini adalah guru bahasa inggris dan
siswa dari kelas A dan B. Penelitian ini menggunakan pemilihan data, menunjukkan
data, dan menulis kesimpulan dan pembuktian untuk menganalisis data. Temuan
dalam penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa langkah-langkah pembelajarannya
berdasarkan pada KTSP yaitu: pembukaan, kegiatan inti (eksplorasi-elaborasikonfirmasi), penutup. Teknik pembelajaran yang digunakan oleh guru adalah
mendeskripsikan gambar, umpan balik, menggunakan benda nyata, hafalan,
menerjemahkan, membuat grup, dan mengoreksi. Masalah yang dihadapi saat
pengajaran menulis deskriptif teks adalah mengembangkan ide, mengorganisasikan
ide, kesulitan pada kosakata, pola kalimat, dan tata bahasa, kemampuan siswa yang
berbeda, dan waktu yang singkat. Solusi guru untuk mengatasi masalah adalah
memberi materi dengan jelas, memberi tugas yang sederhana, mengulangi materi,
dan menggunakan dua bahasa.
Kata kunci : langkah-langkah pembelajaran, teknik pembelajaran, masalah dan
soluti, kelas menulis.
ABSTRACT
The objectives of this study are to describe classroom procedures, teachers’
techniques, problems faced and teacher’s solutions of teaching writing descriptive
text at SMA Negeri 1 Wonosari. This research uses descriptive qualitative research.
The techniques for collecting data used in this study are observation, interviews, and
documentation. The data of this research is information elicited from the students and
teacher concerning classroom procedures and the techniques used by English teacher
of SMA N 1 Wonosari. The writer also obtained data from the English teacher and
students regarding problems faced and teacher’s solutions of teaching writing
descriptive text. The subject of this research is English teacher and students of A and
B class. This research used data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing and
1
verification to analize the data. The findings of this study shows that the teacher used
classroom procedures based on School-Based Curriculum: opening, main activities
(exploration-elaboration-confirmation), and closing. The techniques used by the
teacher are describing the picture, feedback, real objects, memorizing, translating,
grouping, and correcting. The problems faced in teaching writing descriptive text are
problem in developing idea, organizing idea, difficulties in vocabulary, tenses, and
grammar, different capability of the students, and limited time. The solutions of
English teacher’s problems are: give material clearly, give simple assignment, repeat
the previous materials, and used mix language.
Keywords: classroom procedures, teacher’s technique, problem faced and solution,
writing class.
1. INTRODUCTION
Mastering English means mastering the four basic skills, namely listening,
speaking, reading, and writing. People have to master all of those skills in order to
improve their English language. In addition, they must learn other aspects of
English which can support their ability.
Teaching English in Indonesia is focused on the ability of student’s
communication. The communication can be in oral and written forms. The
learners should be capable of the four language skill (Depdiknas, 2006: 6).
One of skills that must be learned is writing. According to Byrne (1997:1)
writing is producing sequence of sentences arranged in a particular order and
linked together in certain ways. Then, according to Admin (2009:16) that based
on generic structure and language feature dominantly used, there are some types
of text. They are report, analytical exposition, narrative, procedure, recount,
spoof, anecdote, discussion, description, explanation, review, hortatory
exposition, news item. In the teaching of writing skill a descriptive text is
popularly known as descriptive paragraph. The students are trained to describe
certain object in a written language by developing one main idea as a topic
sentence. So it will be quite easy to them producing the simple text.
In this study the writer is interested in researching descriptive text as one of
types of genre implemented in teaching writing. Descriptive text is a text which
describes what a person or a thing is like. The main aim of descriptive text is to
inform about the thing to be described. So, it provides generalized information on
facts, qualities and characteristics about the object under consideration so as to get
a systematic, accurate and almost photographic description. This type of texts are
just straight facts and do not give the reader any ideas about the feelings or
opinions of the author. Descriptive text has structure as below: (1) Identification;
identifying the phenomenon to be described. (2) Description; describing the
phenomenon in parts, qualities, and characteristics.
Writing is an important part of language teaching, it also functions as an
essential tool for learning. This skill must be explicitly taught because writing
outside school setting is relatively rare. Writing is also viewed as a social and
cultural phenomenon as it is meaning-making that is socially and culturally
2
shaped and individually and socially purposeful (Weigle, 2002). In this sense,
writing falls into complexity and importance as well.
Andiko (2009:1) stated that there are some functions of writing: First, writing
can be the media for us to express what we feel, what we think. Second, writing
can enlarge our knowledge, because it will motivate and stimulate people to learn
something new. Third, through writing the charity side comes. When we are
writing something, we will probably share useful things to others - worldwide in
the internet.
There are some general difficulties that EFL students face in writing the
descriptive paragraph. First is problem in developing the ideas. Students write
many main ideas in one paragraph; the ideas of the paragraphs are ambiguous.
Second is problem in organizing the ideas to write a descriptive text. A paragraph
needs more than a unified point. Third, the students find difficulties in grammar.
Fourth, students have limited knowledge of vocabulary. As we know that English
is not the Indonesian native language. It is difficult for the students to remember
all the words in English. Many of the students have poor choice of words.
Dixon and Nessel (in Cahyono, 2001:44) noted that writing is the most difficult
skill among the four language skills. It is because of writing is not only mastering
how to use language but also everything about what we are going to write and the
way we arrange and write it. According to Meyers (2005:2), writing is an action.
There are some steps in writing process, they are process of discovering and
organizing the idea, writing or putting them on paper, reshaping and revise the
writing.
To write well, people must have good capabilities in writing. Moreover, people
who want to write the essay must know the steps of writing process and aspects of
writing. They must be able to organize the idea, to construct the sentences, to use
punctuation and spelling well. Besides, they must be able to arrange their writing
into cohesive and coherent paragraphs.
English teacher especially in SMA Negeri 1 Wonosari is encouraged to teach
interactively and communicatively in classes. The phenomenon is found that
many students have difficulties to write text especially descriptive text. They have
problem to develop main idea, difficulties in grammar and vocabulary. Some
students try to find out word by word using dictionary. There are many
alternatives techniques used by teacher.
The writer is interested in having a study on the techniques of teaching writing
descriptive text at the first year of SMA Negeri 1 Wonosari. The writer wants to
know the technique used in teaching writing descriptive text.
Based on the review above, the writer interested to describe the classroom
procedures, teacher’s techniques, problems faced and solution of problems faced
by English teacher of SMA Negeri 1 Wonosari. To prove the originality of this
research, the writer takes some previous study related to the teaching writing.
There are Windiyati (2010), Emilia (2008), Sari (2007), Ikrima (2014), Wijayanti
(2008), Mustika (2014), Kristanti (2013), Nurjannah (2012), Setiawati (2012),
Sarlinda (2015).
Windiyati (2010) studied about the problems faced by English teacher in
teaching writing. The significance of her study was to reveal that problems in
3
writing were not only faced by the students but also by the teachers of SMPN 1
Kasembon Malang. The data obtained from questionnaires, observation,
interview, and field notes was classified then tallied. All the data were analyzed
descriptively. The teachers face problems in relation to teaching preparation,
teaching techniques, and the textbook used. Both teachers made teaching
preparation before they taught. However, they only made lesson plans and a
semester program for one year in the early semester. As a consequence, the
teachers got difficulties in (1) understanding the instructional objectives, (2)
choosing themes and topics, (3) combining materials from the textbook and the
workbook used, and (4) having insufficient time to prepare all the instructional
preparation. In the process of teaching writing, the techniques used by the teachers
were almost the same for every meeting. Both teachers rarely used other
techniques because of their lack of knowledge on teaching writing and they got
difficulties in (1) determining an appropriate technique for the students who had
low ability and interest in writing, (2) choosing an activity that could encourage
and attract students' attention to write better, and (3) arranging the activities which
were going to be used in the class. To overcome this problematic condition, the
teachers explained the materials for several times until the students understood. In
relation to the textbook used, the teachers got difficulties because there was not
any clear guidance and the instruction given was unclear.
Emilia (2008) studied the effects of picture strip story on writing skill at the
first grade of MTs Ma’hadul Muta’alimin Katerban Ngawi. The study aimed to
describe the implementation of teaching writing by using picture strip story to
improve the students’ writing skill at MTs Ma’hadul Muta’alimin Katerban
Ngawi. To collect data, the writer conducted observation, document and test. The
writer used new picture strip story to influence students’ attention, so that they
focused on the material. The result of the research showed that 13 students
increased their writing achievement and 2 students had static achievement. The
results of pre-test was 66, 25% and post-test was 82, 81% which means that the
students’ writing skill increases after they were taught using picture strip story.
Sari (2007) observed the method of teaching writing at SMA Negeri Kebak
Kramat. That research aimed at describing the method of teaching writing applied
by the second year teacher at SMA Negeri Kebak Kramat. It was conducted to
know the objectives of teaching writing and the problem faced by the teacher at
SMA Negeri Kebak Kramat. The result of analysis showed that objectives if
teaching writing SMA Negeri Kebak Kramat were to improve the writing
competence of the students, prepare the student to face the national examination
and prepare the students to continue their study to university. The methods
applied by the teacher were process-based approach and product-based approach.
Ikrima (2014) observed the problems faced of writing by senior high school
students in writing. To gain the data, the writer conducted a descriptive qualitative
research at SMA 4 Banda Aceh. To conduct this study, the writer used interview
and writing test. The result of her research showed that EFL students faced the
main problem in grammatical and the least problem was vocabulary. In addition,
many efforts are able to be used for students that given by teachers such as
4
learning more about grammar, memorizing the vocabulary, and giving more
feedback to students.
Wijayanti (2008) observed the error correction feedback at SMA Negeri 1
Wonosari. The study aimed to describe the improvement of the students’ writing
skill after the facilitative error correction feedback was applied at the second
grade students of SMA Negeri 1 Wonosari of Klaten in 2008/2009 academic year.
The data sources were event, informants, and document. The methods of
collecting data were observation, interview and documentation. The data were
analyzed through the steps, namely reducing data, presenting data, and verifying
the data. The study was conducted in following the four procedures, namely
planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. The result of the study showed that
was each cycle, there is improvement in the study. The genre used was report text,
and the focused in improvement are draft, grammar, and vocabulary. The
improvement was proven by the scores of pre-test and post-test. The scores of
post-test were higher than pre-test. Thus it can be concluded that the student
writing skill in improved.
Mustika (2014) studied about feedback technique to improve writing skill
hortatory exposition text. Her study was intended to find out whether teacher’s
feedback can improve students’ writing skill in writing hortatory exposition text
or not and to know the aspect of writing which was improved more after teacher’s
feedback. To gain the data, the writer conducted an experimental research in SMA
Negeri 1 Model PBKL Peukan Bada in which the writer acted as a teacher. She
used one group pretest-posttest design. She took one class from six classes by
applying purposive sample technique and took nineteen students. Pre test was
conducted before experimental action in order to know the students’ achievement
before the treatment. On the other hand, post test was conducted to know the
students’ achievement after the treatment. To find the differences between pre-test
and post-test achievement, the writer used t-score. The result showed that the
mean score of the pre test was 53.97 and the score of the post test was 71.03and
the result of t-score was 7.68. The t-Value at the level significant 0.05 was 2.101
and at the level of significant 0.01 were 2.878 with the degree of freedom 18.
Since, the result of t-test was higher than t-Value, the alternate hypothesis was
accepted. In other words, there was a significant difference between pre test and
post test score. It proved that the use of teacher’s feedback was effective to
improve students’ achievement in writing hortatory exposition text. In addition, it
was found out that the aspect of content was improved more than other aspects of
writing.
Kristanti (2013) observed about students’s ability in writing descriptive text.
Her research was descriptive research. It was intended to describe the eighth grade
students’ descriptive text writing ability and the students’ ability in each aspect of
writing. It was conducted at MTsN Tlasih chosen by purposive method. The
sample was taken through proportional random sampling by lottery as many as
50% from the population. Thus, the number of the sample taken was 50 students.
The data of her research were collected by conducting descriptive text writing
test. The students were asked to write a descriptive text based on the picture
chosen consisting of 2-3 short paragraphs. The result of the students’ descriptive
5
text writing test showed that the eighth grade students’ descriptive text writing
ability at MTsN Tlasih in general was 67. 22 which achieved the students’
standard score (SKM). It meant that their ability categorized as good. Based on
the Students’ Standard Score (SKM), it can be known that the categories of the
eighth grade students’ ability in writing descriptive text at MTsN Tlasih are 64%
of students categorized as good and 36% of students categorized as fair Based on
the students’ classification score in each aspect of writing, it can be concluded that
the most serious problem of the eighth grade students’ descriptive text writing
ability at MTsN Tlasih was grammar because most of the students categorized as
fair. Most of the students not mastered well and still got difficulties in making
grammatically correct and meaningful sentences especially simple present tense.
While the students’ problem in vocabulary is most of the students’ lack of
vocabularies. They also made some errors of word choice and usage that
sometimes make the meaning of the sentences obscured and difficult to
understand. While the students’ problem in the aspect of content was most of their
writing was relevant with the topic they have chosen but lack details. It might be
caused the students did not have much information about the topic. The students’
problem in mechanic was their writing did not show their mastery in using capital
letter, punctuation devices, and word spelling well.
Nurjannah (2012) studied about improving writing skill using picture series.
The data were obtained from the observation during the implementation of the
actions, interview with the students and the collaborator, students’ writing tasks,
and tests. The data were in the forms of interview transcripts, field notes and
students’ writing scores. The validity of the data was obtained through process
validity, outcome validity, democratic validity and dialogic validity. Based on the
result of the research, the use of picture series in this study was believed to be
effective to improve the students’ writing skills. Implementing picture series was
also effective to improve the students’ motivation in the writing process. In
reference to the students’ writing scores, the students’ skills in four aspects of
writing improved after picture series were implemented. The students’ gain score
from pre-test to post-test in the content was 4, 52. Then, the gain score in the
organization aspect was 3, 63 and 2, 91 in the vocabulary aspect. Lastly, students’
gain score in the language use aspect was 3, 56.
Setiawati (2012) studied about ability in writing descriptive text of seventh
grade. This research was quantitative research. The writer used experimental
research method. The population of this research was the seventh grade students
of SMP N 4 Bae Kudus in the academic year 2011/2012. The total number of
sample was 35 students. And the instrument that used to get the data of this
research was written test from pretest and post-test. Before getting the post test
data, the writer gave the treatment in five meetings to the students. Then, the data
that had been taken were analyzed by using t-test method to find out whether or
not there was any significant difference between the ability in writing descriptive
text of the seventh grade students of SMP N 4 Bae Kudus in the academic year
2011/2012 before and after being taught by using classical music. The result of
this research showed that the mean of pretest was 61, 8 and the mean of post-test
was 78, 67. It can be concluded that the t-observation (to) 9, 29 in the level of
6
significance α = 0, 05 and the degree of freedom (df) 34, the t-table (tt) was 2, 04.
Thus Ho was rejected and Ha was accepted. So, the hypothesis stated, “There is a
significant difference between the ability in writing descriptive text of the seventh
grade students of SMP N 4 Bae Kudus in the academic year 2011/2012 before and
after being taught by using classical music” was accepted.
Sarlinda (2015) studied an instructional design of extracurricular speaking
class. The study was aimed to describe the teaching learing process based on
instructional design at SMP N 2 Kebakkramat, Sragen. This was a descriptive
research. The subjects of the research were English teacher and the students of the
first year of SMP N 2 Kebakkramat. The object of the research was an
instructional design. The techniques of collecting data were observation,
interview, and documentation. The result of her research revaled that there were 3
syllabus used by English teacher: lexical syllabus, structural syllabus, and taskbased syllabus. The classroom procedures used by the teacher in teaching
speaking was 5E (Engagement, Exploration, Explanation, Elaboration,
Evaluation) and 3E (Engagement, Exploration, Evaluation). The classroom
techniques used by teacher were discussion, problem solving, read aloud, and
question/answer. The teacher’s roles for teaching were as facilitator, instrucor,
consultant and evaluator. The student’s roles for teaching were as listere and
performer. The assessment models for teaching English were quiz, homework,
daily test, and oral test.
This research extends it aims at describing the classroom procedures, the
teacher’s technique, problems faced and teacher’s solution. The underlying
consist of notion of writing skill, notion of descriptive text, classroom procedures,
roles of teacher in the writing class, strategy for teaching writing process,
principles for teaching writing, the technique of teaching writing, the general
problem of writing descriptive text, writing skill according to School-Based
Curriculum used in SMA Negeri 1 Wonosari.
According to Harper (2004: 160), writing is one of four main macro-skills
taught in the ESL classroom, besides reading, speaking, and listening. He also
adds that writing is one of four basic skills which involved in productive (output)
skill.
According to Larson (1984:118), a descriptive text is a text which says what a
person or a thing is like. In other words, it’s used to develop a picture of “what it
looks like”. When someone describes something, he needs to capture both details
wholeness.
Bybee (1997) stated that there were five steps in the classroom procedures in
writing class: engagement, exploration, explanation, elaboration, and evaluation.
Richards and Lockhart (1999: 101) stated that role of teacher in the context of
classroom teaching and learning may also be influenced by methodology which is
followed by teacher. The following are the roles of teacher: need analyst,
curriculum developer, material developer, counselor.
Harmer (2004:96) stated there are a number of strategies we need to consider
for concentrate on the process of writing, they are: get students to plan writing,
encourage students to draft, reflect and revise writing, respond to students’
writing, general concept of text, general concept of genre.
7
Nunan (2003: 74) stated that there were principles that every teacher should
consider while planning a course, they are: understand your students’ reasons for
writing, provide many opportunities for students to write, make feedback helpful
and meaningful, clarify for yourself, and for your students, how their writing will
be evaluated.
According to Raimes (1983: 97) there are some techniques for teaching
writing, they are: describing the picture, controlling composition, feedback,
guided composition, paragraph completion, real objects, role-play.
According to Barnet and Stubbs (1990:105) “A good paragraph has unity, it
makes one point, or it indicates where one unit of the topic begins and ends”.
Second, the problem in organizing the ideas to write descriptive text. Students do
not know the way to deliver organizing ideas to write descriptive text. It was
related to use coherence of writing descriptive text. Reep (2009:82) stated that “a
paragraph achieves coherence when the sentences proceed in a sequence that
supports one point at a time. Transitional, or connecting, words and phrases
facilitate coherence by showing the relationship between ideas and by creating a
smooth flow of sentences”. Third, the students found difficulties in grammar.
There were only few mistakes find in grammar component. It might because by
using simple present tense in descriptive text. Baron (1982) stated that English
teacher was often portrayed as an unattractive grammar monger whose only
pleasure in life is to point out the faults of others. Fourth, students had poor choice
of words. It might be because the students do not know many vocabularies in
English. Stahl (2005) stated that vocabulary is the knowledge of words and word
meanings and also puts vocabulary knowledge as the knowledge of a word
implies not only a definition, but also how that word fits into the context.
According to School Based Curriculum (2006), the goal of teaching and
learning at Senior High School is that students will be able to develop
communicative competence in written as well as in spoken form to achieve
functional literacy level. They are expected to be able to communicate in written
as well as in spoken form to solve problems in their daily live. In this curriculum,
the English material is taught based on the text. There are many types of written
form that should be learnt, for example, narrative, recount, report, news item,
procedure, spoof, etc.
2. RESEARCH METHOD
According to Bodgan and Taylor (1987) the qualitative research is a research
which the descriptive data in the form of written or oral words from observing
people and behavior. In other words, a qualitative research is a type of research
which does not include any enumeration. The writer takes descriptive qualitative
research because the writer wants to observe and describe classroom procedures,
teachers’ techniques, problems faced and teacher’s solutions of teaching writing
descriptive text at SMA Negeri 1 Wonosari.
The object of the research are classroom procedures, teacher’s techniques,
problems faced and teacher’s solutions of teaching writing descriptive text at
SMA Negeri 1 Wonosari.
Subjects of the study are English teacher and students of SMA Negeri 1
Wonosari in Academic Year 2015-2016. The English teacher who participated in
8
this studied. There are 68 students, 40 males and 28 females. They are average
15th years old. And they studied English material from elementary school second
grade.
The data of this research is information elicited from the students and teacher
concerning classroom procedures and the techniques used by English teacher of
SMA N 1 Wonosari. The writer also obtained data from the English teacher and
students regarding problems faced and teacher’s solutions of teaching writing
descriptive text.. There are three sources of data: event, informant, and document.
The method is a means that is used to solve problem, they are observation,
interview and documents.
The writer uses triangulation as the method and data to make credibility of the
data. Cohen and Manion (2000: 254) in Mohamed (2013: 30) define triangulation
as an attempt to map out, or explain more fully, the richness and complexity of
human behavior by studying it from more than one standpoint.
In this research adopted the framework developed by Miles and Huberman
(1994: 10-11) to describe the major phases of data analysis: data reduction, data
display, and conclusion drawing and verification.
3. FINDING AND DISCUSSION
The main points of this chapter is to describe the classroom procedures of
teaching writing descriptive text, the teachers’ techniques in teaching descriptive
text, the problems faced in teaching writing descriptive text and the solutions
applied by the teacher.
a. The classroom procedures of teaching writing descriptive text
In general, the teacher of SMA Negeri 1 Wonosari used School-based
Curriculum. The procedures are opening class, main activities, and closing
class. There are three steps in the main activities: exploration, elaboration, and
confirmation.
b. The techniques used to teaching writing descriptive text.
1) Describing the picture
English teacher always used picture to teach descriptive text. That
strategy can improve students’ creativity. The teacher used this technique at
A and B class. Describing pictures is the effective technique. From the
picture, the students could imagine about what they saw. The teacher also
said to the students that with picture, they could describe about the picture.
2) Feed back
The teacher applied feedback technique in teaching descriptive text. It
was very effective technique, because it helped them to make a good and
correct writing. They knew their errors, they knew the reasons why that
were wrong, and then they could correct it by themselves.
3) Real object
The teacher used real object to teach English at B class.
4) Memorization
Based on interview with some students, this strategy was commonly used
by English teacher. This strategy is the one of strategies to improve
students’ ability to memorize the new vocabulary.
5) Translating
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Translating is when the teacher asked students to translate some
sentences. Teacher helped the students when they find difficulties and
confused in translating sentences.
6) Grouping
The teacher also used grouping strategies to manage the class activity.
The teacher divided students in a group.
7) Correcting
Based on observation, the teacher always corrected the student’s work
and checked student’s understanding of the new vocabularies or material
that explained by teacher. While the students practiced the works,
sometimes they made some mistakes, so the teacher used the strategy to
correct their works.
c. Problem faced in teaching writing descriptive text.
1) Problem in developing the idea
They could not develop the paragraph well, they usually wrote in simple
sentences. Students always asked teacher how to write something. The
students admitted that this problem was due to the difficulties of
transforming the ideas from their mind into written text.
2) Problem in organizing the idea
The second is problem organizing the idea. Students did not know the
way to deliver organizing ideas to write descriptive text. In organizing ideas
students have to use two components of generic structure of descriptive text,
there are identification and description.
3) Difficulties in vocabulary, tenses, and grammar
Based on interview to English teacher, students have many difficulties
about vocabulary and grammar. They have poor choice to choose the good
vocabulary; it made the students always asked the teacher about the
vocabulary that they did not know. They usually use the vocabulary that
they known and if they have difficulty, they seldom look for the new
vocabulary in dictionary, internet, or they want to ask the teacher. The
students felt difficult to use correct tenses and arrange the good sentences to
support the paragraph.
4) Different capability of the students.
Some of students could understand faster and the others learned slowly.
That situation make the teaching learning process did not run well. Every
student has different ability.
5) Limited time
Based on observation, one of the problems faced by teacher is limited
time. The teacher felt difficult to deliver all materials to the students. The
teacher has not enough time with 2x40 minutes in each meet. Whereas, the
material about descriptive text just one meet. It made the teacher felt
difficult to give the material. With the available time the English lesson
could not run well.
d. Teacher’s solutions of problems faced in teaching writing descriptive text.
1) Teach how to write descriptive text.
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The first solutions is explained the material clearly. Started by explained
the pattern of simple present tense. After that give example of adjective that
used to write descriptive text. The students had to improve their vocabulary.
2) Give simple assignment
The teacher seldom gives students difficult assignment that made the
students confused. The teacher just asked the students to do the simple
assignment. That solution helped the students with low understanding the
material.
3) Repeat the previous material
The teacher gave some practices to the students in the bottom level about
understanding material. The students had to repeat the previous materials
until the students understood the material.
4) Used mix languages
The teacher always used two languages to teach English. Because not all
of students knew the meaning of teacher’s said if teacher used full English
in the lesson. In the teaching activity, teacher did not use English language
fully. She combined with Indonesian language, because the students still got
difficulties to understand English language. So, in one utterance the teacher
used 2 languages.
4. CONCLUSION
After describing and analysis the data, the writer draw conclusion based on
result of observation of clasroom procedures, interview with English teacher and
some students and also documents when the writer did the research at SMA
Negeri 1 Wonosari.
Based on the findings, the writer concludes that the teacher used classroom
procedures based on School-Based Curriculum. The procedures are opening class,
main activities, and closing class. There are three steps in the main activities:
exploration, elaboration, and confirmation.
The teacher used some techniques to develop students’ ability in writing
descriptive text, they are: describing the picture, feedback, real object,
memorization, translating, grouping, and correcting.
There are some problems faced in teaching writing descriptive text are:
problem in developing idea, organizing idea, difficulties in vocabulary, tenses,
and grammar, different capability of the students, and limited time.
The solutions of English teacher’s problems are: give material clearly, asked
simple assignment, previous the material, and used mix language.
From the results of her observation, the writer gets some informations about
the teaching-learning process especially classroom procedures, teacher’s
techniques, problems faced and teacher’s solutions of problems faced in teaching
writing descriptive text of SMA Negeri 1 Wonosari in 2015/2016 academic year.
The writer draws some pedagogical implications such as:
a. In the teaching-learning process the teacher should prepare before conducting
the lesson. The first is classroom procedures in teaching-learning process.
Classroom procedures used by English teacher of SMA Negeri 1 Wonosari are
opening, main activities (exploration-elaboration-confirmation), closing.
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b. Using some techniques in teaching writing is to help the teacher convey the
materials when teaching-learning process. The teacher should use several
techniques in teaching writing process. The consequently, the teacher should
use effective technique based on classroom’s condition to make the students
more active in teaching writing especially writing descriptive text. So, the
teacher should have update their knowledge about technique to use in the
writing class in order to make the students more interesting to learn writing
especially writing descriptive text.
c. There are some problems faced in the teaching-learning process. The problems
faced are problem in developing idea, organizing idea, difficulties in
vocabulary, tenses, and grammar, different capability of the students, and
limited time. The consequently, the teacher should give solutions to cope the
problems faced in teaching-learning process. So, the teacher should be creative
to minimize the problem faced in teaching-learning process in order to make
the students enjoy with the materials and develop student’s ability.
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