STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES AND STRATEGIES TO REINFORCE THEIR SKILL IN WRITING DESCRIPTIVE TEXT AT ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF UNIVERSITAS MUHAMMADIYAH YOGYAKARTA
STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES AND STRATEGIES TO REINFORCE
THEIR SKILL IN WRITING DESCRIPTIVE TEXT
AT ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
OF UNIVERSITAS MUHAMMADIYAH YOGYAKARTA
A Skripsi
Submitted to the Faculty of Language Education in a Partial Fulfillment of
the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan
Written by:
Hanjaya Sukma Aji
20110540070
ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE EDUCATION
UNIVERSITAS MUHAMMADIYAH YOGYAKARTA
2016
ii
STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES AND STRATEGIES TO REINFORCE
THEIR SKILL IN WRITING DESCRIPTIVE TEXT
AT ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
OF UNIVERSITAS MUHAMMADIYAH YOGYAKARTA
A Skripsi
Submitted to the Faculty of Language Education in a Partial Fulfillment of
the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan
Written by:
Hanjaya Sukma Aji
20110540070
ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE EDUCATION
UNIVERSITAS MUHAMMADIYAH YOGYAKARTA
2016
iii
AUTHOR’S DECLARATION OF ORIGINALITY
I hereby certify that I am the sole author of this skripsi and that no part of
this skripsi has been published or submitted for publication.
I certify that, to the best of my knowledge, my skripsi does not infringe
upon anyone’s copyright nor violate any proprietary rights and that any ideas,
techniques, quotation, or any other material from the work of other people
included in my skripsi, published or otherwise, are fully acknowledged in
accordance with the standard referencing practices.
I declare that this is a true copy of my skripsi, including any final
revisions, as approved by my skripsi committee and the Faculty of Language
Education, and that this skripsi has not been submitted for a higher degree to any
other University or institution.
Hanjaya Sukma Aji
20110540070
iv
Acknowledgement
All praises belong to Allah SWT who always gives blessing to the
researcher so that this research can be completed and accomplished successfully.
This research entitled “Students’ Difficulties and Strategies to Reinforce Their
Skill in Writing Descriptive Text at English Education Department of Universitas
Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta” is an undergraduate thesis that is a requirement to
complete the study in Strata-One (S1) English Education Department of
Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta.
Hereby, as this research accomplished, the research would give his
appreciative gratitude for:
1. My beloved parents, Soewardjo and Tri Haningsih and also my brother
Johan Satria Pamungkas who always remind and support me to finish this
research.
2. My awesome supervisor, Evi Puspitasari, S.Pd., M.Hum who always
patient in guiding and helping me to finish this research.
3.
The examiners of my research, Ika Wahyuni Lestari, S.Pd., M.Hum and
Fitria Rahmawati, S.Pd., M.Hum who also patient in guiding and helping
me to finish this research.
4.
The Dean of Language Education Faculty, Gendroyono, M.Pd. who gives
support for his students.
5.
All Lecturers at EED of UMY whose experience, patience, skill and
persistence made meaningful learning processes.
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6.
Staffs at EED of UMY, Pak Wiji, Bu Icis, Pak Rahmat and Pak Wahono
who always help and support me to finish this research.
7.
Participants of this research who were conveniently to give a hand to me in
order to carry out this research.
8.
My beloved friends at EED of UMY: Kenang, Wahyu, Fajar, Oskar, Tiar,
Aris, Zali, Fabyan, Sidik, Catur, Hafidz, Wanda, Hery, Seroja, Fendy, Rio,
and also my awesome friends: Dwi Atmono, Gunawan, Alex, Pak Eko and
the others who cannot mentioned here. Thanks for your supports.
The researcher expects this research will have benefits for people who
concern on this case and everyone who need this study. The researcher realizes
this research still far from perfection, therefore the researcher need suggestion or
recommendation for better research in the future.
Yogyakarta, August 27th 2016
Hanjaya Sukma Aji
NIM.20110540070
vi
Table of Contents
Title Page ..............................................................................................................i
Approval Page .....................................................................................................ii
Author’s Declaration of Originality..................................................................iii
Acknowledgement ..............................................................................................iv
Abstract ...............................................................................................................vi
Table of Contents ...............................................................................................vii
Chapter One ........................................................................................................1
Introduction .........................................................................................................1
Background of the study ...........................................................................1
Identification and Limitation of the Problem ............................................3
Formulation of the Problem ......................................................................4
Purpose of the Study .................................................................................4
Significance of the Study ..........................................................................4
Chapter Two.........................................................................................................6
Literature Review.................................................................................................6
Writing Skill ..............................................................................................6
Descriptive Text ........................................................................................8
Students’ Difficulties in Writing Descriptive Texts ..................................11
Strategies in Writing Descriptive Texts ....................................................14
Review of Related Research .....................................................................18
Conceptual Framework .............................................................................21
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Chapter Three......................................................................................................23
Methodology........................................................................................................ 23
Research Design ........................................................................................23
Research Participants ................................................................................24
Research Setting .......................................................................................26
Research Instrument .................................................................................26
Data Collection Method ...........................................................................27
Data Analysis ............................................................................................28
Chapter four.........................................................................................................31
Finding and Discussion........................................................................................31
Students’ difficulties in writing descriptive texts at English Education
Department of UMY ................................................................................31
Students’ strategies to overcome their difficulties in writing descriptive
texts at English Education Department of UMY ......................................41
Chapter five..........................................................................................................49
Conclusion and Recommendation......................................................................49
Conclusion ................................................................................................49
Recommendation ......................................................................................51
References............................................................................................................53
Appendices ...........................................................................................................59
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Abstract
Descriptive text has been taught at English Education Department of Universitas
Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta in the beginning of semester, especially in Academic
Reading and Writing subject. This study aims to investigate the difficulties faced
by students in writing descriptive and the strategies used by students to overcome
their difficulties in writing descriptive text. This study used descriptive qualitative
research design to answer the research questions. In collecting the data, interviews
were conducted by the researcher. The participants of this study were six students
taken from EED of UMY batch 2015. The participants had learned descriptive
text at EED of UMY, especially in Academic Reading and Writing subject. The
result of this study shows that there researcher found nine difficulties in writing
descriptive text that were supporting sentences, developing ideas, main idea, lack
of vocabulary, grammar, lack of sources, arrangement, coherent and cohesion and
diction. The researcher also found from the participants that there were four
strategies in writing descriptive text that were mind mapping, analyzing examples
of descriptive texts by looking the structures of the texts, observing objects or
pictures and using songs’ lyrics.
Keyword: descriptive text, difficulties, strategies
1
Chapter One
Introduction
This chapter presents introduction of the study. In the introduction, points
such as background of the study, identification and limitation of the problems are
discussed. Formulation of the problem, purposes of the study and significances of
the study are also elaborated in this chapter.
Background of the study
English has four basic skills that are listening, speaking, reading and
writing. Those skills are categorized into two types that are receptive skill and
productive skill. Listening and reading are receptive skills. Meanwhile, speaking
and writing are productive skills (Brown, 2000).
From those four basic skills, writing as a productive skill is the highest
level of language skill because it demands students to think and express their idea
into a sentence. It is supported by Tangpermpoon (2008) who stated that when
compared with other skills, writing is the most difficult skill because it requires
writers to have a great deal of lexical and syntactic knowledge as well as
principles of organization in L2 to produce a good writing. Lei, Man, & Ting
(2014) highlighted the importance and complexity of writing on a hierarchy of
language skill by saying that writing is a major class of discourses and evidences
that can give students insights into deeper learning and high-order skills such as
critical thinking, argumentation and mastery of complex ideas.
In university level, students are required to have a good skill in writing. It
is because they have many writing assignments such as essay, research paper,
2
report, thesis, and other writing work. According to Faisal & Suwandita (2013),
the students do not have many concepts to write something. It means that, when
doing some writing exercises, students need a long time to think of an idea to
write.
A difficulty of thinking about an idea to write also happened when
students write descriptive texts. Descriptive text is a text that describes something
in order the readers or listeners are able to understand and get the same sense as
what the writer experienced (Husna, Zainil, & Rozimela, 2013). It means that
when students write a text such as essay or thesis, they have to describe the points
of their writing clearly to make their readers understand. A descriptive text is
important since it can make the readers imagine a thing without see it. For
example, when the readers read a description about a house, they can have
understood how that house looks like, the shape, colors and size. Clouse (2004, p.
143) stated the importance of descriptive texts as follows:
As social beings, we want to share our experience, so we write to others to
describe things such as vacations, childhood homes, and people we
encounter. We even use description to persuade others to think or act in
particular ways: advertisers describe products to persuade us to buy them;
travel agents describe locales to entice us to visit them; and real estate
agents describe properties to stimulate a desire to see them (p.143).
At English Education Department of Muhammadiyah University of
Yogyakarta, students have learned different kinds of text types including
descriptive texts. Based on the researcher’s experience as the student of English
3
Education Department UMY, descriptive text is a challenging text. The researcher
faced difficulties when he did not know how to develop the topic in good
sentences, including descriptive texts. Grammar and lack of vocabulary are also
the factors why the researcher got stuck in writing a descriptive text. Some
students may face similar difficulties when they wrote a descriptive text. They got
confused dealing with how to build their idea into their writing or what they
should write although they knew the topic.
Teachers may give some examples of strategies and show the way how to
use those strategies to help students improve their writing, especially writing a
descriptive text. However, students have to find the most suitable and comfortable
strategies for themselves to increase their skill in writing a descriptive text. That
becomes an important reason why a study about students’ strategies to overcome
their difficulty in writing descriptive texts at English Education Department of
UMY needs to be conducted.
Identification and Limitation of the Problem
Based on the researcher’s experience in the writing class at the first
semester, students of English Education Department of UMY learned about
descriptive text in Academic Reading and Writing subject. The researcher learned
dealing with the definition, function, and how to write it. To write descriptive
texts, the teacher gave a material related to the generic structure and language
features.
In fact, the students faced difficulties in writing descriptive texts such as
lack of vocabulary, developing ideas, difficulty in arranging the sentences
4
correctly, and grammar. This study was limited on students of English Education
Department of UMY batch 2015 that had learned descriptive text in writing class.
The researcher was interested in investigating difficulties faced by students in
writing descriptive text and finding out the strategies used by students to improve
their skill in writing descriptive text at English Education Department of UMY.
Formulation of the Problem
The research questions being investigated in this study are:
1.
What are the difficulties faced by students at English Education Department
of UMY in writing descriptive texts?
2.
What are the strategies used by students at English Education Department of
UMY to overcome their difficulties in writing descriptive texts?
Purpose of the Study
This research is intended to find out:
1.
The difficulties faced by students at English Education Department of UMY
in writing descriptive texts.
2.
The strategies used by students at English Education Department of UMY to
overcome their difficulties in writing descriptive texts.
Significance of the Study
This research aims to give benefits specifically to the researcher, English
teachers and students.
The researcher. This research gives benefits to the researcher in
understanding difficulties of writing descriptive texts and gives a reference of
strategies in writing descriptive texts for teachers and students at English
5
Education Department UMY. The researcher as a future teacher will understand
related to the difficulties in writing descriptive texts and the strategies that can be
used to overcome the difficulties in writing descriptive texts.
English teachers. The strategies are applicable for teachers as a solution
to overcome their students’ difficulties in writing descriptive texts. The students’
difficulties in writing descriptive texts are revealed through this study. The
teachers also can motivate students to face the difficulties in writing descriptive
texts.
Students. The strategies in writing descriptive texts can be valuable
references for students as a device to improve their skill in writing descriptive
texts at English Education Department UMY.
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Chapter Two
Literature Review
This chapter discusses some experts’ opinions related with the research.
Some other research results are also incorporated to support. For the beginning,
this research discusses the learning strategies, writing skill, descriptive text, and
writing descriptive text. This chapter also presents related research and conceptual
framework.
Writing Skill
Writing skill is one of four basic English skills. Nunan (2003) stated that
writing is the process of thinking to develop ideas, thinking about how to express
into good writing, and arranging the ideas into sentences and paragraph clearly. In
other way, writing is a kind of speaking to others on paper or on a computer
screen. It is in line with Meyers (2005) who stated that writing is also a process of
discovering and organizing your ideas, putting them on a paper and reshaping and
revising them. It means that by writing, the writer will be able to express ideas
into sentences for their readers. Siburian (2013) stated that writing is a very
important capability for being owned by students, writing is also an excellent
communication tool. Through writing, each person is able to convey feelings,
ideas, and announcements to others.
Students may think that writing is just a skill to put some words into some
sentences. However, according to Hedge (2005), writing is more than producing
accurate and complete sentences and phrases. So, it is not just putting some words
into a sentence. However, the students should concern about accuracy and the
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correctness of their writing. She also stated that writing is about guiding students
to produce whole pieces of communication, to link and develop information,
ideas, or arguments for a particular reader or a group of readers.
Students as the writer have to know dealing with categories of writing
evaluation. Brown (2000), mention six components of writing that are Content,
Organization, Discourse, Syntax, Vocabulary, and Mechanics.
The first component is content. Content of writing is related to the ideas,
illustrations, facts, and opinions. It means that students have to generate the idea
and give some supporting details. Students may describe the topic, gives cause
and effect, and comparison and contrast. They also have to consider dealing with
the consistency of their writing.
The second component is organization. Organization is related to the
effectiveness of introduction, logical sequence of ideas, conclusion, appropriate of
length. The students need to write a good introduction to make their readers
interest. Sequencing of the ideas is also considered as important part of writing. It
means that do not make the readers confused. At the end of writing, they may give
conclusion to close their writing. The length of paragraph is also an important part
of writing, the readers may get bored if they read much sentences in one
paragraph.
The third component is discourse. The discourse is related to topic
sentences, paragraph unity, transitions, discourse markers, cohesion, rhetorical
conventions, reference, fluency, economy, and variation.
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The forth component is syntax. Syntax is related to the rule of making
sentences in order that the readers understand dealing with the written text.
According to Van Valin & LaPolla (1997), it refers to the branch of grammar
dealing with the ways in which words, with or without appropriate inflections, are
arranged to show connections of meaning within the sentence.
The fifth component is vocabulary. The writer has to use an effective word
when they write. They have to choose the most suitable word in their writing
(formal or informal).
The sixth component is mechanic. It is related to the spelling, punctuation,
citation of references, and neatness and appearance. In the mechanic category, the
writer has to use a correct English writing. It means that they have to
demonstrating mastery of correct spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and
paragraphing.
Writing allows students to express something about themselves, explore
and explain ideas. Student can convey their ideas in their mind by organizing
them into a good text so that the others know them and they can think critically
(Sharples, 1999). As students, writing can express and identify who they are. The
use of words, manipulating sentences, organizing structure, grammar and
vocabulary shows the level of students’ creativity, especially in writing skill.
Descriptive Text
Students have to know about the definition of descriptive text, the purpose,
generic structure and language features used in writing descriptive text. Moreover,
they have to know dealing with the functions and the importance of descriptive
9
text. After that, they can find the most suitable strategy in writing descriptive text
for them.
Definition of descriptive text. To define what descriptive text is, Siburian
(2013) stated a descriptive text is a piece of writing intended to convey meaning
to the reader through sensory details and it also provides images to the reader.
Evawina (2010) is also defined the descriptive texts by saying that descriptive
texts is a paragraph vividly portrays a person, place, or thing in such a way that
the reader can visualize the topic and enter into the writer’s experience. According
to Pardiyono (2007), description paragraph is a type of written text paragraph, in
which has the specific function to describe about an object (living or non-living
things) and the purpose is giving description of the object to the reader clearly. To
conclude, descriptive texts can be defined as a text that describes what something
is like. Descriptive text does not only describe a thing, but also a person, and a
place.
Generic structure in descriptive text. Descriptive text has generic
structure which is different from the other types of texts. There are two parts in
the generic structure of descriptive text that are identification and description. The
identification part identifies a certain object to be described. This part mentions
the name and common thing of the object. The descriptive part mentions the
characteristic of the object. Wardiman, Jahur, & Djusma (2008) stated that there
are two parts of generic structures in descriptive text that are introduction and
description. Introduction is the part of paragraph that introduces the character.
Different with introduction, description is the part of paragraph that describes the
10
character. This indicates that a descriptive text has two elements. The first element
is to identify phenomenon (identification) and another one (description) to portray
parts, qualities, or characteristics.
Example of descriptive text. The following text is the example of
descriptive text about house taken from web site by English Indo (2015).
Figure 1
My Small House
I live in a small house. It has five rooms: there are two bedrooms, a
living room, a bathroom, and a kitchen. Indeed it is a small house; but I like
living in here for wasting my spare time.
When the door is open, I can see the living room. It is so small with
only three chairs and a table, nothing else. I prefer reading a novel in this
room.
My bedroom is in the left side of the living room. In this room there
is a night table next to the bed, a TV, a radio, and a computer. When being
bored of reading, I usually play online games, chat with my friends via
Facebook and so on.
Next to my bedroom is my mother's. I do not know what is inside
because I never come in to see it. In the right side of the living room there is
the kitchen. In the kitchen I have everything I need when I get hungry. It is
very pleasure when my mother cooks, the smell fills my whole house.
I know it is a very small house; but it is the best place I have ever
seen.
Online: http://www.englishindo.com/2012/03/simple-descriptive-text-examples.html#ixzz4IAQmGZ9h
Language features of descriptive text. The language features of
descriptive text are using simple present tense, using adjective and compound
adjective and using attributive has and have. Hammond (1992) mentioned the
language features of descriptive texts that are using simple present tense, using
11
simple past tense if extinct, verbs being and having 'Relational Processes', using
adjectives, using noun phrase, using action verbs, using adverbials, using
figurative language.
Functions and importance of descriptive text. Besides to describe
something, descriptive texts have the other functions. According to White (1986),
a descriptive text has three important functions that are to see, to explain, and to
persuade. To see means to help the readers to see the objects, persons, and
sensations you present. It allows the reader to know about the object without see it
directly. Different from to see, to explain means explain the readers dealing with a
subject. The writer can describe a house to explain the readers dealing with the
shape, size, and color of the house. To persuade means the writer describes
something to make readers interested. The writer can describes a book to catch
attention of the readers read or buy that book.
Based on explanation above, students who have a good skill in writing
descriptive text are able to explain the topic clearly and make their readers
interested in their writing. Descriptive texts demand students to write a structured
text.
Students’ Difficulties in Writing Descriptive Texts
Writing for students in university level is important since there are some
assignments of writing such as essay and research paper. Students have to know
that being a good writer is much needed. When students write an essay or research
paper, they have to put words into a good sentence. They need to be good in
vocabulary, grammar, capitalization, punctuation since those assignments should
12
be written using formal language. Since writing skill is challenging, students have
to practice well to achieve a better skill and be a good writer. Although it is
important, many students faced difficulties in writing. The students consider that
writing is one of the most difficult language skills because they are demanded to
express their ideas in written English appropriately (Cahyono, 2010).
The difficulties of students in writing are also found in writing descriptive
texts. Related to the diffculties in writing descritive texts, Siahaan (2013) stated
that students are still confused in identifying the structure of descriptive text and
seemed to have less sense about English grammar and they still make a lot of
mistakes in the text they wrote. Nurgiyantoro (2001) also mentioned the problems
faced by the students in learning writing descriptive texts those are organizing
idea, lack of vocabulary and grammar accuracy. From those statements above, it
can be said that grammar, organizing idea and lack of vocabulary are factors
influenced the students in writing descriptive texts. It also line with Husna, Zainil,
& Rozimela (2013) who stated that there are some difficulties that students face
during writing the descriptive paragraph those are the problem in developing the
ideas, the problem in organizing the ideas, grammar, lack of vocabulary, spelling,
punctuation and capitalization.
Related to the difficulties in developing ideas of writing descriptive texts,
students faced difficulty in making the main idea and supporting sentences.
Husna, Zainil, & Rozimela (2013) added that some students wrote many main
ideas in one paragraph and the idea of the paragraph was still ambiguous. The
main idea is the central of a paragraph; it can be said as the most important part of
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paragraph. It supported by Smith & Morris (2004) who stated that the main idea
of a passage is the core of the material, the particular point the author is trying to
convey. It means that by writing the main idea, the writer can share the point of a
whole paragraph.
Moreover, supporting sentences are also an important as main idea. Since
it explains the main idea, supporting sentences should be written clearly in order
that the information of paragraph can be sent to the readers. According to Reid
(2000), a paragraph is complete when it has all the supporting sentences and it
needs to fully explain the topic sentence. But the students cannot make the
supporting sentences well. It is line with Ramadani (2013) who stated that
students just combined the sentences without considering the main idea and
supporting details in writing descriptive texts.
The other difficulty faced by students in writing descriptive texts is
coming from arrangement of the sentences or paragraph. It is line with Ramadani
(2013) who stated that in writing descriptive texts, students could not arrange the
sentence well. Students have to know dealing with how to write a good paragraph.
Beside the used of grammar, a paragraph can be said as a good paragraph if the
arrangement of sentences is correct. It supported by Ali (2014) by saying that
writing is an activity that produces something from mind becomes meaningful a
text of the sentence.
To conclude, there are many difficulties can be found in writing
descriptive texts. Students who faced difficulties in writing descriptive texts will
need a long time to write. It supported by Ramadani (2013) who stated that when
14
the teacher gives students the assignment to write a descriptive text, they felt
difficult to start writing because they lack in vocabulary mastery, so they need a
long time to explore their ideas. That is the reason why students need to overcome
their difficulty in writing descriptive texts, so that they will not waste their time in
vain. Furthermore, the difficulties of writing that have been mention above are the
common problem. Every student has different characteristics; it means that one
student can have different problems with the other students.
Strategies in Writing Descriptive Texts
There are some examples of writing strategies that can be used in writing
descriptive texts that are Mind Mapping, TPS, FRESH, Guided Questions, TTW
and Media Audio. Actually, those strategies have been used by other researchers
in previous research. The first strategy is Mind Mapping. Mind Maps were
popularized by author and consultant, Tony Buzan in 1970. Mind mapping (or
concept mapping) involves writing down a central idea and thinking up new and
related ideas which radiate out from the center (Riswanto & Putra, 2012).
Actually, mind mapping is a strategy that can be used to write descriptive texts. It
is supported by Purnomo (2014) by saying that mind mapping can be used to
explore almost any topics in writing and also used in every kind of writing such as
narrative, descriptive, recount, persuasive, argumentative and essay.
The second strategy is Think Pair Share (TPS). According to Siburian
(2013), Think Pair Share (TPS) is one of the Cooperative Learning strategies
which poses a challenging or open-ended question and gives time for students to
think about the question. Students can make a circle with collaborative group
15
member or neighbor sitting nearby and discuss their ideas about the question for
several minutes. Cooperative Learning refers to a variety of teaching strategies in
which students work in small group to help one another learn academic content. In
cooperative classrooms, students are expected to help each other to discuss and
argue with each other, so that the learning process can be improved not only
individually but in groups or together (Slavin, 1995). In TPS, Think means one
student think dealing with the topic or question given by the teacher. Pair means
one student join with the other student to make a small group and discuss their
thoughts. Share means the students are presenting or share their ideas to the larger
groups in classroom, or they can share to all students of the class. Actually, TPS
strategy is a strategy that can be used in writing descriptive texts. It was proven by
Sumarsih & Sanjaya (2013) who conduct a research related to the use of TPS in
writing descriptive texts. The result of their research showed that the students
were very interested on the TPS technique and they do not only improve their
achievement in writing descriptive text but also improve their teamwork,
responsibility and self-confidence. Sumarsih & Sanjaya was also added that there
is a significant improvement on the students’ achievement in writing descriptive
text by applying the application of Think Pair Share technique.
The third strategy named FRESH (Faisal & Suwandita, 2013). This
strategy used by Faisal and Suwandita to teach descriptive texts. FRESH is a
strategy in which each of its letter has own meaning. “F” means “Fact”. “Fact”
means the identification of the object or it can be called general description of the
object. Usually, it contains object’s name and kind of the object. Different from
16
“F”, “R” means “Reason” which means a supporting idea that strengthen the fact.
Then, there is “E” that means “Elaboration”. Elaboration means the explanation of
the reason. The writer should elaborate it in detail, so the readers can get clear
description of the object. Different from “E”, “SH” means “Shift”, which can also
mean conclusion. It is the conclusion of the information before. Faisal also stated
that FRESH strategy has four advantages for students. First, the students can
improve their descriptive writing skill because the material can be designed well.
Second, they can follow the lesson logically. Third, they can participate or interact
actively. Fourth, the students can understand the material easily. In FRESH
strategy, the students will be able to determine what should be written first and
next to get a fluent descriptive text easily. Students can also enrich their
vocabulary when they developing their ideas. Faisal & Suwandita also added that
the students’ competence in writing a descriptive paragraph will increase by
applying FRESH technique.
The fourth strategy can be used to write a descriptive text is Guided
Questions. According to Nawawi (2011), Guided Questions is a method for
teaching English in which the teacher gives some questions to the students applied
to a topic in teaching writing. Guided Questions is one of strategies for writing
that uses 5W+1H (What, Where, When, Why, Who, and How). Nawawi
conducted a research dealing with the impacts of using Guided Questions in
writing descriptive texts. The result of his research showed that the used of guided
questions in writing descriptive texts bring a good impact. It was proven by
Nawawi (2011) by saying students think that guided questions make them more
17
creative in creating descriptive texts. It means that by using guided questions,
students can improve their creativity in writing descriptive texts. It also means that
guided questions can be a strategy to write descriptive texts.
The fifth strategy is Think, Talk, and Write (TTW). Think-Talk-write
Strategy was introduced by Huinker and Laughlin. According to Maulidah,
Musyarofah, & Aulia (2013), Think-Talk-Write (TTW) is a strategy that
facilitating the exercise of language both oral and written fluently. This strategy
based on the interpretation that learning is a social action. The word “Think”
means the students think about what they get after reading something. After that,
the word Talk means they share to the other students, they can make a group
discussion when they share their ideas. The last word, “Write” means the students
write their ideas after sharing session is done in a paper. Related to the use of
TTW in writing descriptive texts, Maulidah, Musyarofah, & Aulia (2013) added
that the use of TTW can minimize the students’ difficulties in creating descriptive
text and can help the teachers in teaching writing.
The last strategy is the use of Media Audio, especially the use of songs in
writing descriptive texts. According to Saricoban & Metin (2000), music contains
authentic, informal language that is natural to the ear. Songs offer precious
resources that develop students’ abilities in listening, speaking, reading and
writing. Students can use song lyrics as a strategy to improve their skill in writing
descriptive texts. They can apply what they have learned when listening or sing a
song. The use of song in writing descriptive texts has been used by Ramdani
(2015) in her research. The result of her research showed that the used of English
18
song can help students’ ability in writing descriptive text, in term of generating
idea, gaining vocabulary, and also motivate students
Mind Mapping, TPS, FRESH, Guided Questions, TTW, and Media Audio
are the examples of strategies can be used by students to reinforce their skill in
writing descriptive texts. Actually, the using of strategy depends on students’
interest. They can use one of them if they think that strategy can increase their
skill in writing descriptive text. Moreover, they may use another strategy if those
strategies above are not suitable with them or uncomfortable to use. Teachers as a
facilitator can introduce the other strategies and help their students to use it.
Review of Related Research
The researcher found three studies related to students’ strategies to
reinforce their skill in writing descriptive texts.
The first study is from Nawawi (2011). The title of his study is “Improving
Student's Writing Skill of Descriptive Text through Guided Questions”. This
study took 43 (100%) students of VIII-8 grade class of SMP PGRI 1 Ciputat-Kota
Tangerang Selatan as the sample. This research is aim to find out whether
teaching writing of descriptive texts using guided questions is effective to
improve students writing skill, to collect students’ perception and impression of
guided questions process, and to collect the progressive result of students’
participation in learning writing of descriptive texts. Moreover, this study used
quantitative research and qualitative research. The instruments used in this study
were the English test sheet, observation sheets, questionnaire sheets and interview.
Based on the result of this study, students’ learning dealing with writing skill
19
using guided questions had improved. The result of posttest showed that there
were 43 students (100%) who passed the KKM, there were also 100% of students
understand the material. They thought that guided questions made them easily in
making descriptive paragraph. Besides, 88.37% of students thought that guided
questions made them more creative in creating descriptive text. Based on these
findings, the researcher concludes that the application of guided questions can
improve students’ writing ability of grade VIII-8 of SMP PGRI 1 Ciputat-Kota
Tangerang Selatan.
The second study is from (Ali, 2014). The title of his study is “Improving
the Student Writing Skill on Descriptive Text by Using Think, Talk, Write (TTW)
at MTs N Tunggangri”. The subject of the research was the VII-I students of MTs
N Tunggangri kalidawir in the period 2014/2015 by 40 students with 18 boys and
22 girls. The aim of this research is for improving students’ skill in writing
specifically in writing descriptive text. So researcher was hope this research can
truthful for improving students’ skill. The instruments of this research were
questionnaires, interview Guideline, Observation sheet, Test, and field Note.
Based on the observation sheet from the analysis of the teaching and learning
process in writing descriptive text by using think talk write strategy, in cycle 1, it
was found that most of the students still have low in writing descriptive text.
Although, some of them could get improvement in their score, but the criteria of
success was not achieved yet. In conclusion, the implementation of the strategy in
cycle 1 is still need to be revised. Based on the observation sheet from the analysis
of the teaching and learning process in writing descriptive text by using think talk
20
write in cycle 2, it was found most of the student got improvement in writing
descriptive, the students more active during teaching and learning process. The
differences between cycle one and cycle two was in dividing the groups. On the
first cycle, the researcher used the group work that arranged from five until six
students. Whereas, on the second cycle the researcher used pairs work arranged
from two students.
The third study is from Yeyen (2014). Her title is “Teaching Descriptive
Text Writing to Students by Using Clustering Technique”. The students involved
in the research were 70 students who were divided into two classes. The subjects
of the research were class XA-6 with 35 students as experimental class and XA-7
with 35 students as control class. This research aims to find out the effect of using
clustering technique in writing descriptive texts. This research was using quasi
experimental method. The technique of collecting the data was by using tests (pretest and post-test). The result of this study showed that there was a positive impact
of teaching writing of descriptive text using clustering technique. It can be seen
from the mean score result of experimental class had impact or increased 14.40
point from the pre-test 59.60 to the post-test 74.00. Moreover, the mean score in
the control class had increased 8.73 point from pretest was 57.26 to post-test was
65.96
Although, there are some differences between the method, strategy used,
and the results of those studies, all of them are helpful to be a guideline and
consideration to help the researcher in conducting this research. Actually, this
study aims to find out the difficulties of students in writing descriptive texts and
21
find out the strategies used by students to overcome their difficulties. This study
used qualitative research design to answer those research questions and used
interview to gain the data. The participants of this study are six students of
English Education Department of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta batch
2015. Next, the data from interviews were analyzed using three steps of Coding
those are Open Coding, Axial Coding and Selective Coding.
Conceptual Framework
This study aimed at investigating the students’ strategies to reinforce their
writing skill in descriptive texts at EED UMY. It focused on the difficulties faced
by students and the strategies used to improve their writing skill, especially in
writing descriptive texts which become the references to investigate the data in
this study.
Firstly, this study tried to investigate the difficulties by students in writing
descriptive texts. Based on the literature review, developing the ideas, the problem
in organizing the ideas, grammar, lack of vocabulary, spelling, punctuation and
capitalization, main idea and supporting sentences and arranging sentences are the
difficulties that faced by students in writing descriptive texts. Those difficulties
are affecting the result of their writing, especially writing descriptive texts.
Students who faced one or more difficulties may get a lower grade.
Secondly, this study also tried to find out the strategies used by students in
writing descriptive texts. Actually, students of EED UMY have learned
descriptive texts in writing class. It has been mentioned previously that Mind
Mapping, TPS, FRESH, Guided Questions, TTW, and Media Audio are the
22
example of strategy that can be used by students in writing descriptive texts.
However, the way of using one strategy is different from the others. Students may
use the strategy given by the teachers or they can find another strategy that is
suitable with them.
However, the discussions are not limited to those explanations above.
Others evidences emerged from the interview sessions also will be discuss.
Writing Descriptive
Texts
Difficulties:
1. Developing the ideas
Strategies:
2. Organizing the ideas
3. Grammar
4. Lack of vocabulary
5. Spelling
6. Punctuation and capitalization
7. Main idea and supporting sentences
8. Arranging sentences
1. Mind Mapping
2. TPS
3. FRESH
4. Guided Questions
5. TTW
6. Media Audio
Students’ Strategies
23
Chapter Three
Methodology
This chapter discusses the method used to gather data that complete this
research included the description of the research design, research participants,
research setting, research instrument, data collection method, and data analysis.
Research Design
This study aims to find out the difficulties and the strategies used by
students to overcome their difficulties in writing descriptive text at English
Education Department UMY. It also investigates the experience of the students
when they learned to write descriptive texts. Based on those objectives above, the
researcher used qualitative research design in this study since it encouraged
participants to explain their experience. The used of qualitative research design is
supported by Maxwell (2005) by saying that qualitative research questions are
suitable for answering questions dealing with: (a) the meaning attributed by
participants to situations, events, behaviors and activities; (b) the influence of
context on participants’ views, action and behaviors; and (c) the processes by
which actions, behaviors, situations and outcomes emerge.
Actually, this study used descriptive qualitative as a method. The
researcher used this method to get the detail data related to the difficulties of
students in writing descriptive texts and the strategies used by students to
overcome their difficulties in writing descriptive texts. The researcher needed to
show the data in a description, it means that the use of descriptive qualitative is a
suitable method. The goal of qualitative descriptive studies is a comprehensive
24
summarization, in everyday terms, of specific events experienced by individuals
or groups of individuals (Lambert, 2012).
Research Participants
The participants of this research were students of English Education
Department UMY batch 2015. The reason why the researcher chose batch 2015
was because they were the newest students at English Education Department of
UMY. It means that batch 2015 had just learned descriptive texts in Academic
Reading and Writing subject compared to the previous batch who might have
forgotten because the previous batch was not learn descriptive texts anymore. It
also made batch 2015 have bigger chance to remember what they have learned in
writing descriptive texts.
The researcher took six respondents as the sample. In determining the
number of participants, the researcher used the opinion from Creswell (2012) who
stated that one of the characteristics in qualitative research is small sample size
and there is no definite sample size. The researcher might study few individuals
even single individual, because it was better to have few individuals to be studied,
and it allowed the researcher to explore the information deeply. Based on the
explanation above, the researcher chooses six participants to be interviewed.
The samples were taken using purposive sampling. The use of purposive
sampling technique was to determine the participants of this study. The
consideration in selection of purposive sampling for this study was based on
Creswell (2012) who stated that in purposive sampling, the researchers
intentionally select individuals and sites to learn or understand the central
25
phenomenon. Cohen, Manion, & Morrison (2011) also stated that in purposive
sampling, researcher is hand-pick the cases to be included in the sample. In this
way, they build up a sample that is satisfactory to their specific needs. The
selection of six students of EED UMY as the participant was because they have
experience in joining writing class. Creswell (2012) stated that in qualitative
research, the researcher can identify the participants and sites on purposive
sampling based on people which can best help the researcher to understand the
central phenomenon.
There was one criterion in determining the participants. The criterion for
the participants was students who had a good grade in writing class. The
researcher used this criterion to get much information from participants’
experiences in writing class. So, by having those participants who met the criteria,
the researcher got information which was adequate enough to obtain the data. In
choosing the participants, the researcher asked one teacher who taught descriptive
texts about which students who had a good grade in Academic Reaching and
Writing. Then, the teacher showed the grade of all students at EED of UMY batch
2015. After that, the teacher told the researcher to choose ten students in every
class; it means that the researcher had 40 name of students since batch 2015 have
four class. After that, the researcher chooses one participant started from class A
until D and asked them to be participant; it means that the researcher already had
four participants. The last, the researcher chooses again from class A & B to get
the rest two participants.
26
Research Setting
There were two kinds of research setting. The first kind was setting of
place which explained the place where the researcher conducted the study. The
second kind was setting of time which explained when the researcher conducted
the study.
THEIR SKILL IN WRITING DESCRIPTIVE TEXT
AT ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
OF UNIVERSITAS MUHAMMADIYAH YOGYAKARTA
A Skripsi
Submitted to the Faculty of Language Education in a Partial Fulfillment of
the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan
Written by:
Hanjaya Sukma Aji
20110540070
ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE EDUCATION
UNIVERSITAS MUHAMMADIYAH YOGYAKARTA
2016
ii
STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES AND STRATEGIES TO REINFORCE
THEIR SKILL IN WRITING DESCRIPTIVE TEXT
AT ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
OF UNIVERSITAS MUHAMMADIYAH YOGYAKARTA
A Skripsi
Submitted to the Faculty of Language Education in a Partial Fulfillment of
the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan
Written by:
Hanjaya Sukma Aji
20110540070
ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE EDUCATION
UNIVERSITAS MUHAMMADIYAH YOGYAKARTA
2016
iii
AUTHOR’S DECLARATION OF ORIGINALITY
I hereby certify that I am the sole author of this skripsi and that no part of
this skripsi has been published or submitted for publication.
I certify that, to the best of my knowledge, my skripsi does not infringe
upon anyone’s copyright nor violate any proprietary rights and that any ideas,
techniques, quotation, or any other material from the work of other people
included in my skripsi, published or otherwise, are fully acknowledged in
accordance with the standard referencing practices.
I declare that this is a true copy of my skripsi, including any final
revisions, as approved by my skripsi committee and the Faculty of Language
Education, and that this skripsi has not been submitted for a higher degree to any
other University or institution.
Hanjaya Sukma Aji
20110540070
iv
Acknowledgement
All praises belong to Allah SWT who always gives blessing to the
researcher so that this research can be completed and accomplished successfully.
This research entitled “Students’ Difficulties and Strategies to Reinforce Their
Skill in Writing Descriptive Text at English Education Department of Universitas
Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta” is an undergraduate thesis that is a requirement to
complete the study in Strata-One (S1) English Education Department of
Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta.
Hereby, as this research accomplished, the research would give his
appreciative gratitude for:
1. My beloved parents, Soewardjo and Tri Haningsih and also my brother
Johan Satria Pamungkas who always remind and support me to finish this
research.
2. My awesome supervisor, Evi Puspitasari, S.Pd., M.Hum who always
patient in guiding and helping me to finish this research.
3.
The examiners of my research, Ika Wahyuni Lestari, S.Pd., M.Hum and
Fitria Rahmawati, S.Pd., M.Hum who also patient in guiding and helping
me to finish this research.
4.
The Dean of Language Education Faculty, Gendroyono, M.Pd. who gives
support for his students.
5.
All Lecturers at EED of UMY whose experience, patience, skill and
persistence made meaningful learning processes.
v
6.
Staffs at EED of UMY, Pak Wiji, Bu Icis, Pak Rahmat and Pak Wahono
who always help and support me to finish this research.
7.
Participants of this research who were conveniently to give a hand to me in
order to carry out this research.
8.
My beloved friends at EED of UMY: Kenang, Wahyu, Fajar, Oskar, Tiar,
Aris, Zali, Fabyan, Sidik, Catur, Hafidz, Wanda, Hery, Seroja, Fendy, Rio,
and also my awesome friends: Dwi Atmono, Gunawan, Alex, Pak Eko and
the others who cannot mentioned here. Thanks for your supports.
The researcher expects this research will have benefits for people who
concern on this case and everyone who need this study. The researcher realizes
this research still far from perfection, therefore the researcher need suggestion or
recommendation for better research in the future.
Yogyakarta, August 27th 2016
Hanjaya Sukma Aji
NIM.20110540070
vi
Table of Contents
Title Page ..............................................................................................................i
Approval Page .....................................................................................................ii
Author’s Declaration of Originality..................................................................iii
Acknowledgement ..............................................................................................iv
Abstract ...............................................................................................................vi
Table of Contents ...............................................................................................vii
Chapter One ........................................................................................................1
Introduction .........................................................................................................1
Background of the study ...........................................................................1
Identification and Limitation of the Problem ............................................3
Formulation of the Problem ......................................................................4
Purpose of the Study .................................................................................4
Significance of the Study ..........................................................................4
Chapter Two.........................................................................................................6
Literature Review.................................................................................................6
Writing Skill ..............................................................................................6
Descriptive Text ........................................................................................8
Students’ Difficulties in Writing Descriptive Texts ..................................11
Strategies in Writing Descriptive Texts ....................................................14
Review of Related Research .....................................................................18
Conceptual Framework .............................................................................21
vii
Chapter Three......................................................................................................23
Methodology........................................................................................................ 23
Research Design ........................................................................................23
Research Participants ................................................................................24
Research Setting .......................................................................................26
Research Instrument .................................................................................26
Data Collection Method ...........................................................................27
Data Analysis ............................................................................................28
Chapter four.........................................................................................................31
Finding and Discussion........................................................................................31
Students’ difficulties in writing descriptive texts at English Education
Department of UMY ................................................................................31
Students’ strategies to overcome their difficulties in writing descriptive
texts at English Education Department of UMY ......................................41
Chapter five..........................................................................................................49
Conclusion and Recommendation......................................................................49
Conclusion ................................................................................................49
Recommendation ......................................................................................51
References............................................................................................................53
Appendices ...........................................................................................................59
vi
Abstract
Descriptive text has been taught at English Education Department of Universitas
Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta in the beginning of semester, especially in Academic
Reading and Writing subject. This study aims to investigate the difficulties faced
by students in writing descriptive and the strategies used by students to overcome
their difficulties in writing descriptive text. This study used descriptive qualitative
research design to answer the research questions. In collecting the data, interviews
were conducted by the researcher. The participants of this study were six students
taken from EED of UMY batch 2015. The participants had learned descriptive
text at EED of UMY, especially in Academic Reading and Writing subject. The
result of this study shows that there researcher found nine difficulties in writing
descriptive text that were supporting sentences, developing ideas, main idea, lack
of vocabulary, grammar, lack of sources, arrangement, coherent and cohesion and
diction. The researcher also found from the participants that there were four
strategies in writing descriptive text that were mind mapping, analyzing examples
of descriptive texts by looking the structures of the texts, observing objects or
pictures and using songs’ lyrics.
Keyword: descriptive text, difficulties, strategies
1
Chapter One
Introduction
This chapter presents introduction of the study. In the introduction, points
such as background of the study, identification and limitation of the problems are
discussed. Formulation of the problem, purposes of the study and significances of
the study are also elaborated in this chapter.
Background of the study
English has four basic skills that are listening, speaking, reading and
writing. Those skills are categorized into two types that are receptive skill and
productive skill. Listening and reading are receptive skills. Meanwhile, speaking
and writing are productive skills (Brown, 2000).
From those four basic skills, writing as a productive skill is the highest
level of language skill because it demands students to think and express their idea
into a sentence. It is supported by Tangpermpoon (2008) who stated that when
compared with other skills, writing is the most difficult skill because it requires
writers to have a great deal of lexical and syntactic knowledge as well as
principles of organization in L2 to produce a good writing. Lei, Man, & Ting
(2014) highlighted the importance and complexity of writing on a hierarchy of
language skill by saying that writing is a major class of discourses and evidences
that can give students insights into deeper learning and high-order skills such as
critical thinking, argumentation and mastery of complex ideas.
In university level, students are required to have a good skill in writing. It
is because they have many writing assignments such as essay, research paper,
2
report, thesis, and other writing work. According to Faisal & Suwandita (2013),
the students do not have many concepts to write something. It means that, when
doing some writing exercises, students need a long time to think of an idea to
write.
A difficulty of thinking about an idea to write also happened when
students write descriptive texts. Descriptive text is a text that describes something
in order the readers or listeners are able to understand and get the same sense as
what the writer experienced (Husna, Zainil, & Rozimela, 2013). It means that
when students write a text such as essay or thesis, they have to describe the points
of their writing clearly to make their readers understand. A descriptive text is
important since it can make the readers imagine a thing without see it. For
example, when the readers read a description about a house, they can have
understood how that house looks like, the shape, colors and size. Clouse (2004, p.
143) stated the importance of descriptive texts as follows:
As social beings, we want to share our experience, so we write to others to
describe things such as vacations, childhood homes, and people we
encounter. We even use description to persuade others to think or act in
particular ways: advertisers describe products to persuade us to buy them;
travel agents describe locales to entice us to visit them; and real estate
agents describe properties to stimulate a desire to see them (p.143).
At English Education Department of Muhammadiyah University of
Yogyakarta, students have learned different kinds of text types including
descriptive texts. Based on the researcher’s experience as the student of English
3
Education Department UMY, descriptive text is a challenging text. The researcher
faced difficulties when he did not know how to develop the topic in good
sentences, including descriptive texts. Grammar and lack of vocabulary are also
the factors why the researcher got stuck in writing a descriptive text. Some
students may face similar difficulties when they wrote a descriptive text. They got
confused dealing with how to build their idea into their writing or what they
should write although they knew the topic.
Teachers may give some examples of strategies and show the way how to
use those strategies to help students improve their writing, especially writing a
descriptive text. However, students have to find the most suitable and comfortable
strategies for themselves to increase their skill in writing a descriptive text. That
becomes an important reason why a study about students’ strategies to overcome
their difficulty in writing descriptive texts at English Education Department of
UMY needs to be conducted.
Identification and Limitation of the Problem
Based on the researcher’s experience in the writing class at the first
semester, students of English Education Department of UMY learned about
descriptive text in Academic Reading and Writing subject. The researcher learned
dealing with the definition, function, and how to write it. To write descriptive
texts, the teacher gave a material related to the generic structure and language
features.
In fact, the students faced difficulties in writing descriptive texts such as
lack of vocabulary, developing ideas, difficulty in arranging the sentences
4
correctly, and grammar. This study was limited on students of English Education
Department of UMY batch 2015 that had learned descriptive text in writing class.
The researcher was interested in investigating difficulties faced by students in
writing descriptive text and finding out the strategies used by students to improve
their skill in writing descriptive text at English Education Department of UMY.
Formulation of the Problem
The research questions being investigated in this study are:
1.
What are the difficulties faced by students at English Education Department
of UMY in writing descriptive texts?
2.
What are the strategies used by students at English Education Department of
UMY to overcome their difficulties in writing descriptive texts?
Purpose of the Study
This research is intended to find out:
1.
The difficulties faced by students at English Education Department of UMY
in writing descriptive texts.
2.
The strategies used by students at English Education Department of UMY to
overcome their difficulties in writing descriptive texts.
Significance of the Study
This research aims to give benefits specifically to the researcher, English
teachers and students.
The researcher. This research gives benefits to the researcher in
understanding difficulties of writing descriptive texts and gives a reference of
strategies in writing descriptive texts for teachers and students at English
5
Education Department UMY. The researcher as a future teacher will understand
related to the difficulties in writing descriptive texts and the strategies that can be
used to overcome the difficulties in writing descriptive texts.
English teachers. The strategies are applicable for teachers as a solution
to overcome their students’ difficulties in writing descriptive texts. The students’
difficulties in writing descriptive texts are revealed through this study. The
teachers also can motivate students to face the difficulties in writing descriptive
texts.
Students. The strategies in writing descriptive texts can be valuable
references for students as a device to improve their skill in writing descriptive
texts at English Education Department UMY.
6
Chapter Two
Literature Review
This chapter discusses some experts’ opinions related with the research.
Some other research results are also incorporated to support. For the beginning,
this research discusses the learning strategies, writing skill, descriptive text, and
writing descriptive text. This chapter also presents related research and conceptual
framework.
Writing Skill
Writing skill is one of four basic English skills. Nunan (2003) stated that
writing is the process of thinking to develop ideas, thinking about how to express
into good writing, and arranging the ideas into sentences and paragraph clearly. In
other way, writing is a kind of speaking to others on paper or on a computer
screen. It is in line with Meyers (2005) who stated that writing is also a process of
discovering and organizing your ideas, putting them on a paper and reshaping and
revising them. It means that by writing, the writer will be able to express ideas
into sentences for their readers. Siburian (2013) stated that writing is a very
important capability for being owned by students, writing is also an excellent
communication tool. Through writing, each person is able to convey feelings,
ideas, and announcements to others.
Students may think that writing is just a skill to put some words into some
sentences. However, according to Hedge (2005), writing is more than producing
accurate and complete sentences and phrases. So, it is not just putting some words
into a sentence. However, the students should concern about accuracy and the
7
correctness of their writing. She also stated that writing is about guiding students
to produce whole pieces of communication, to link and develop information,
ideas, or arguments for a particular reader or a group of readers.
Students as the writer have to know dealing with categories of writing
evaluation. Brown (2000), mention six components of writing that are Content,
Organization, Discourse, Syntax, Vocabulary, and Mechanics.
The first component is content. Content of writing is related to the ideas,
illustrations, facts, and opinions. It means that students have to generate the idea
and give some supporting details. Students may describe the topic, gives cause
and effect, and comparison and contrast. They also have to consider dealing with
the consistency of their writing.
The second component is organization. Organization is related to the
effectiveness of introduction, logical sequence of ideas, conclusion, appropriate of
length. The students need to write a good introduction to make their readers
interest. Sequencing of the ideas is also considered as important part of writing. It
means that do not make the readers confused. At the end of writing, they may give
conclusion to close their writing. The length of paragraph is also an important part
of writing, the readers may get bored if they read much sentences in one
paragraph.
The third component is discourse. The discourse is related to topic
sentences, paragraph unity, transitions, discourse markers, cohesion, rhetorical
conventions, reference, fluency, economy, and variation.
8
The forth component is syntax. Syntax is related to the rule of making
sentences in order that the readers understand dealing with the written text.
According to Van Valin & LaPolla (1997), it refers to the branch of grammar
dealing with the ways in which words, with or without appropriate inflections, are
arranged to show connections of meaning within the sentence.
The fifth component is vocabulary. The writer has to use an effective word
when they write. They have to choose the most suitable word in their writing
(formal or informal).
The sixth component is mechanic. It is related to the spelling, punctuation,
citation of references, and neatness and appearance. In the mechanic category, the
writer has to use a correct English writing. It means that they have to
demonstrating mastery of correct spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and
paragraphing.
Writing allows students to express something about themselves, explore
and explain ideas. Student can convey their ideas in their mind by organizing
them into a good text so that the others know them and they can think critically
(Sharples, 1999). As students, writing can express and identify who they are. The
use of words, manipulating sentences, organizing structure, grammar and
vocabulary shows the level of students’ creativity, especially in writing skill.
Descriptive Text
Students have to know about the definition of descriptive text, the purpose,
generic structure and language features used in writing descriptive text. Moreover,
they have to know dealing with the functions and the importance of descriptive
9
text. After that, they can find the most suitable strategy in writing descriptive text
for them.
Definition of descriptive text. To define what descriptive text is, Siburian
(2013) stated a descriptive text is a piece of writing intended to convey meaning
to the reader through sensory details and it also provides images to the reader.
Evawina (2010) is also defined the descriptive texts by saying that descriptive
texts is a paragraph vividly portrays a person, place, or thing in such a way that
the reader can visualize the topic and enter into the writer’s experience. According
to Pardiyono (2007), description paragraph is a type of written text paragraph, in
which has the specific function to describe about an object (living or non-living
things) and the purpose is giving description of the object to the reader clearly. To
conclude, descriptive texts can be defined as a text that describes what something
is like. Descriptive text does not only describe a thing, but also a person, and a
place.
Generic structure in descriptive text. Descriptive text has generic
structure which is different from the other types of texts. There are two parts in
the generic structure of descriptive text that are identification and description. The
identification part identifies a certain object to be described. This part mentions
the name and common thing of the object. The descriptive part mentions the
characteristic of the object. Wardiman, Jahur, & Djusma (2008) stated that there
are two parts of generic structures in descriptive text that are introduction and
description. Introduction is the part of paragraph that introduces the character.
Different with introduction, description is the part of paragraph that describes the
10
character. This indicates that a descriptive text has two elements. The first element
is to identify phenomenon (identification) and another one (description) to portray
parts, qualities, or characteristics.
Example of descriptive text. The following text is the example of
descriptive text about house taken from web site by English Indo (2015).
Figure 1
My Small House
I live in a small house. It has five rooms: there are two bedrooms, a
living room, a bathroom, and a kitchen. Indeed it is a small house; but I like
living in here for wasting my spare time.
When the door is open, I can see the living room. It is so small with
only three chairs and a table, nothing else. I prefer reading a novel in this
room.
My bedroom is in the left side of the living room. In this room there
is a night table next to the bed, a TV, a radio, and a computer. When being
bored of reading, I usually play online games, chat with my friends via
Facebook and so on.
Next to my bedroom is my mother's. I do not know what is inside
because I never come in to see it. In the right side of the living room there is
the kitchen. In the kitchen I have everything I need when I get hungry. It is
very pleasure when my mother cooks, the smell fills my whole house.
I know it is a very small house; but it is the best place I have ever
seen.
Online: http://www.englishindo.com/2012/03/simple-descriptive-text-examples.html#ixzz4IAQmGZ9h
Language features of descriptive text. The language features of
descriptive text are using simple present tense, using adjective and compound
adjective and using attributive has and have. Hammond (1992) mentioned the
language features of descriptive texts that are using simple present tense, using
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simple past tense if extinct, verbs being and having 'Relational Processes', using
adjectives, using noun phrase, using action verbs, using adverbials, using
figurative language.
Functions and importance of descriptive text. Besides to describe
something, descriptive texts have the other functions. According to White (1986),
a descriptive text has three important functions that are to see, to explain, and to
persuade. To see means to help the readers to see the objects, persons, and
sensations you present. It allows the reader to know about the object without see it
directly. Different from to see, to explain means explain the readers dealing with a
subject. The writer can describe a house to explain the readers dealing with the
shape, size, and color of the house. To persuade means the writer describes
something to make readers interested. The writer can describes a book to catch
attention of the readers read or buy that book.
Based on explanation above, students who have a good skill in writing
descriptive text are able to explain the topic clearly and make their readers
interested in their writing. Descriptive texts demand students to write a structured
text.
Students’ Difficulties in Writing Descriptive Texts
Writing for students in university level is important since there are some
assignments of writing such as essay and research paper. Students have to know
that being a good writer is much needed. When students write an essay or research
paper, they have to put words into a good sentence. They need to be good in
vocabulary, grammar, capitalization, punctuation since those assignments should
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be written using formal language. Since writing skill is challenging, students have
to practice well to achieve a better skill and be a good writer. Although it is
important, many students faced difficulties in writing. The students consider that
writing is one of the most difficult language skills because they are demanded to
express their ideas in written English appropriately (Cahyono, 2010).
The difficulties of students in writing are also found in writing descriptive
texts. Related to the diffculties in writing descritive texts, Siahaan (2013) stated
that students are still confused in identifying the structure of descriptive text and
seemed to have less sense about English grammar and they still make a lot of
mistakes in the text they wrote. Nurgiyantoro (2001) also mentioned the problems
faced by the students in learning writing descriptive texts those are organizing
idea, lack of vocabulary and grammar accuracy. From those statements above, it
can be said that grammar, organizing idea and lack of vocabulary are factors
influenced the students in writing descriptive texts. It also line with Husna, Zainil,
& Rozimela (2013) who stated that there are some difficulties that students face
during writing the descriptive paragraph those are the problem in developing the
ideas, the problem in organizing the ideas, grammar, lack of vocabulary, spelling,
punctuation and capitalization.
Related to the difficulties in developing ideas of writing descriptive texts,
students faced difficulty in making the main idea and supporting sentences.
Husna, Zainil, & Rozimela (2013) added that some students wrote many main
ideas in one paragraph and the idea of the paragraph was still ambiguous. The
main idea is the central of a paragraph; it can be said as the most important part of
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paragraph. It supported by Smith & Morris (2004) who stated that the main idea
of a passage is the core of the material, the particular point the author is trying to
convey. It means that by writing the main idea, the writer can share the point of a
whole paragraph.
Moreover, supporting sentences are also an important as main idea. Since
it explains the main idea, supporting sentences should be written clearly in order
that the information of paragraph can be sent to the readers. According to Reid
(2000), a paragraph is complete when it has all the supporting sentences and it
needs to fully explain the topic sentence. But the students cannot make the
supporting sentences well. It is line with Ramadani (2013) who stated that
students just combined the sentences without considering the main idea and
supporting details in writing descriptive texts.
The other difficulty faced by students in writing descriptive texts is
coming from arrangement of the sentences or paragraph. It is line with Ramadani
(2013) who stated that in writing descriptive texts, students could not arrange the
sentence well. Students have to know dealing with how to write a good paragraph.
Beside the used of grammar, a paragraph can be said as a good paragraph if the
arrangement of sentences is correct. It supported by Ali (2014) by saying that
writing is an activity that produces something from mind becomes meaningful a
text of the sentence.
To conclude, there are many difficulties can be found in writing
descriptive texts. Students who faced difficulties in writing descriptive texts will
need a long time to write. It supported by Ramadani (2013) who stated that when
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the teacher gives students the assignment to write a descriptive text, they felt
difficult to start writing because they lack in vocabulary mastery, so they need a
long time to explore their ideas. That is the reason why students need to overcome
their difficulty in writing descriptive texts, so that they will not waste their time in
vain. Furthermore, the difficulties of writing that have been mention above are the
common problem. Every student has different characteristics; it means that one
student can have different problems with the other students.
Strategies in Writing Descriptive Texts
There are some examples of writing strategies that can be used in writing
descriptive texts that are Mind Mapping, TPS, FRESH, Guided Questions, TTW
and Media Audio. Actually, those strategies have been used by other researchers
in previous research. The first strategy is Mind Mapping. Mind Maps were
popularized by author and consultant, Tony Buzan in 1970. Mind mapping (or
concept mapping) involves writing down a central idea and thinking up new and
related ideas which radiate out from the center (Riswanto & Putra, 2012).
Actually, mind mapping is a strategy that can be used to write descriptive texts. It
is supported by Purnomo (2014) by saying that mind mapping can be used to
explore almost any topics in writing and also used in every kind of writing such as
narrative, descriptive, recount, persuasive, argumentative and essay.
The second strategy is Think Pair Share (TPS). According to Siburian
(2013), Think Pair Share (TPS) is one of the Cooperative Learning strategies
which poses a challenging or open-ended question and gives time for students to
think about the question. Students can make a circle with collaborative group
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member or neighbor sitting nearby and discuss their ideas about the question for
several minutes. Cooperative Learning refers to a variety of teaching strategies in
which students work in small group to help one another learn academic content. In
cooperative classrooms, students are expected to help each other to discuss and
argue with each other, so that the learning process can be improved not only
individually but in groups or together (Slavin, 1995). In TPS, Think means one
student think dealing with the topic or question given by the teacher. Pair means
one student join with the other student to make a small group and discuss their
thoughts. Share means the students are presenting or share their ideas to the larger
groups in classroom, or they can share to all students of the class. Actually, TPS
strategy is a strategy that can be used in writing descriptive texts. It was proven by
Sumarsih & Sanjaya (2013) who conduct a research related to the use of TPS in
writing descriptive texts. The result of their research showed that the students
were very interested on the TPS technique and they do not only improve their
achievement in writing descriptive text but also improve their teamwork,
responsibility and self-confidence. Sumarsih & Sanjaya was also added that there
is a significant improvement on the students’ achievement in writing descriptive
text by applying the application of Think Pair Share technique.
The third strategy named FRESH (Faisal & Suwandita, 2013). This
strategy used by Faisal and Suwandita to teach descriptive texts. FRESH is a
strategy in which each of its letter has own meaning. “F” means “Fact”. “Fact”
means the identification of the object or it can be called general description of the
object. Usually, it contains object’s name and kind of the object. Different from
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“F”, “R” means “Reason” which means a supporting idea that strengthen the fact.
Then, there is “E” that means “Elaboration”. Elaboration means the explanation of
the reason. The writer should elaborate it in detail, so the readers can get clear
description of the object. Different from “E”, “SH” means “Shift”, which can also
mean conclusion. It is the conclusion of the information before. Faisal also stated
that FRESH strategy has four advantages for students. First, the students can
improve their descriptive writing skill because the material can be designed well.
Second, they can follow the lesson logically. Third, they can participate or interact
actively. Fourth, the students can understand the material easily. In FRESH
strategy, the students will be able to determine what should be written first and
next to get a fluent descriptive text easily. Students can also enrich their
vocabulary when they developing their ideas. Faisal & Suwandita also added that
the students’ competence in writing a descriptive paragraph will increase by
applying FRESH technique.
The fourth strategy can be used to write a descriptive text is Guided
Questions. According to Nawawi (2011), Guided Questions is a method for
teaching English in which the teacher gives some questions to the students applied
to a topic in teaching writing. Guided Questions is one of strategies for writing
that uses 5W+1H (What, Where, When, Why, Who, and How). Nawawi
conducted a research dealing with the impacts of using Guided Questions in
writing descriptive texts. The result of his research showed that the used of guided
questions in writing descriptive texts bring a good impact. It was proven by
Nawawi (2011) by saying students think that guided questions make them more
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creative in creating descriptive texts. It means that by using guided questions,
students can improve their creativity in writing descriptive texts. It also means that
guided questions can be a strategy to write descriptive texts.
The fifth strategy is Think, Talk, and Write (TTW). Think-Talk-write
Strategy was introduced by Huinker and Laughlin. According to Maulidah,
Musyarofah, & Aulia (2013), Think-Talk-Write (TTW) is a strategy that
facilitating the exercise of language both oral and written fluently. This strategy
based on the interpretation that learning is a social action. The word “Think”
means the students think about what they get after reading something. After that,
the word Talk means they share to the other students, they can make a group
discussion when they share their ideas. The last word, “Write” means the students
write their ideas after sharing session is done in a paper. Related to the use of
TTW in writing descriptive texts, Maulidah, Musyarofah, & Aulia (2013) added
that the use of TTW can minimize the students’ difficulties in creating descriptive
text and can help the teachers in teaching writing.
The last strategy is the use of Media Audio, especially the use of songs in
writing descriptive texts. According to Saricoban & Metin (2000), music contains
authentic, informal language that is natural to the ear. Songs offer precious
resources that develop students’ abilities in listening, speaking, reading and
writing. Students can use song lyrics as a strategy to improve their skill in writing
descriptive texts. They can apply what they have learned when listening or sing a
song. The use of song in writing descriptive texts has been used by Ramdani
(2015) in her research. The result of her research showed that the used of English
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song can help students’ ability in writing descriptive text, in term of generating
idea, gaining vocabulary, and also motivate students
Mind Mapping, TPS, FRESH, Guided Questions, TTW, and Media Audio
are the examples of strategies can be used by students to reinforce their skill in
writing descriptive texts. Actually, the using of strategy depends on students’
interest. They can use one of them if they think that strategy can increase their
skill in writing descriptive text. Moreover, they may use another strategy if those
strategies above are not suitable with them or uncomfortable to use. Teachers as a
facilitator can introduce the other strategies and help their students to use it.
Review of Related Research
The researcher found three studies related to students’ strategies to
reinforce their skill in writing descriptive texts.
The first study is from Nawawi (2011). The title of his study is “Improving
Student's Writing Skill of Descriptive Text through Guided Questions”. This
study took 43 (100%) students of VIII-8 grade class of SMP PGRI 1 Ciputat-Kota
Tangerang Selatan as the sample. This research is aim to find out whether
teaching writing of descriptive texts using guided questions is effective to
improve students writing skill, to collect students’ perception and impression of
guided questions process, and to collect the progressive result of students’
participation in learning writing of descriptive texts. Moreover, this study used
quantitative research and qualitative research. The instruments used in this study
were the English test sheet, observation sheets, questionnaire sheets and interview.
Based on the result of this study, students’ learning dealing with writing skill
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using guided questions had improved. The result of posttest showed that there
were 43 students (100%) who passed the KKM, there were also 100% of students
understand the material. They thought that guided questions made them easily in
making descriptive paragraph. Besides, 88.37% of students thought that guided
questions made them more creative in creating descriptive text. Based on these
findings, the researcher concludes that the application of guided questions can
improve students’ writing ability of grade VIII-8 of SMP PGRI 1 Ciputat-Kota
Tangerang Selatan.
The second study is from (Ali, 2014). The title of his study is “Improving
the Student Writing Skill on Descriptive Text by Using Think, Talk, Write (TTW)
at MTs N Tunggangri”. The subject of the research was the VII-I students of MTs
N Tunggangri kalidawir in the period 2014/2015 by 40 students with 18 boys and
22 girls. The aim of this research is for improving students’ skill in writing
specifically in writing descriptive text. So researcher was hope this research can
truthful for improving students’ skill. The instruments of this research were
questionnaires, interview Guideline, Observation sheet, Test, and field Note.
Based on the observation sheet from the analysis of the teaching and learning
process in writing descriptive text by using think talk write strategy, in cycle 1, it
was found that most of the students still have low in writing descriptive text.
Although, some of them could get improvement in their score, but the criteria of
success was not achieved yet. In conclusion, the implementation of the strategy in
cycle 1 is still need to be revised. Based on the observation sheet from the analysis
of the teaching and learning process in writing descriptive text by using think talk
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write in cycle 2, it was found most of the student got improvement in writing
descriptive, the students more active during teaching and learning process. The
differences between cycle one and cycle two was in dividing the groups. On the
first cycle, the researcher used the group work that arranged from five until six
students. Whereas, on the second cycle the researcher used pairs work arranged
from two students.
The third study is from Yeyen (2014). Her title is “Teaching Descriptive
Text Writing to Students by Using Clustering Technique”. The students involved
in the research were 70 students who were divided into two classes. The subjects
of the research were class XA-6 with 35 students as experimental class and XA-7
with 35 students as control class. This research aims to find out the effect of using
clustering technique in writing descriptive texts. This research was using quasi
experimental method. The technique of collecting the data was by using tests (pretest and post-test). The result of this study showed that there was a positive impact
of teaching writing of descriptive text using clustering technique. It can be seen
from the mean score result of experimental class had impact or increased 14.40
point from the pre-test 59.60 to the post-test 74.00. Moreover, the mean score in
the control class had increased 8.73 point from pretest was 57.26 to post-test was
65.96
Although, there are some differences between the method, strategy used,
and the results of those studies, all of them are helpful to be a guideline and
consideration to help the researcher in conducting this research. Actually, this
study aims to find out the difficulties of students in writing descriptive texts and
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find out the strategies used by students to overcome their difficulties. This study
used qualitative research design to answer those research questions and used
interview to gain the data. The participants of this study are six students of
English Education Department of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta batch
2015. Next, the data from interviews were analyzed using three steps of Coding
those are Open Coding, Axial Coding and Selective Coding.
Conceptual Framework
This study aimed at investigating the students’ strategies to reinforce their
writing skill in descriptive texts at EED UMY. It focused on the difficulties faced
by students and the strategies used to improve their writing skill, especially in
writing descriptive texts which become the references to investigate the data in
this study.
Firstly, this study tried to investigate the difficulties by students in writing
descriptive texts. Based on the literature review, developing the ideas, the problem
in organizing the ideas, grammar, lack of vocabulary, spelling, punctuation and
capitalization, main idea and supporting sentences and arranging sentences are the
difficulties that faced by students in writing descriptive texts. Those difficulties
are affecting the result of their writing, especially writing descriptive texts.
Students who faced one or more difficulties may get a lower grade.
Secondly, this study also tried to find out the strategies used by students in
writing descriptive texts. Actually, students of EED UMY have learned
descriptive texts in writing class. It has been mentioned previously that Mind
Mapping, TPS, FRESH, Guided Questions, TTW, and Media Audio are the
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example of strategy that can be used by students in writing descriptive texts.
However, the way of using one strategy is different from the others. Students may
use the strategy given by the teachers or they can find another strategy that is
suitable with them.
However, the discussions are not limited to those explanations above.
Others evidences emerged from the interview sessions also will be discuss.
Writing Descriptive
Texts
Difficulties:
1. Developing the ideas
Strategies:
2. Organizing the ideas
3. Grammar
4. Lack of vocabulary
5. Spelling
6. Punctuation and capitalization
7. Main idea and supporting sentences
8. Arranging sentences
1. Mind Mapping
2. TPS
3. FRESH
4. Guided Questions
5. TTW
6. Media Audio
Students’ Strategies
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Chapter Three
Methodology
This chapter discusses the method used to gather data that complete this
research included the description of the research design, research participants,
research setting, research instrument, data collection method, and data analysis.
Research Design
This study aims to find out the difficulties and the strategies used by
students to overcome their difficulties in writing descriptive text at English
Education Department UMY. It also investigates the experience of the students
when they learned to write descriptive texts. Based on those objectives above, the
researcher used qualitative research design in this study since it encouraged
participants to explain their experience. The used of qualitative research design is
supported by Maxwell (2005) by saying that qualitative research questions are
suitable for answering questions dealing with: (a) the meaning attributed by
participants to situations, events, behaviors and activities; (b) the influence of
context on participants’ views, action and behaviors; and (c) the processes by
which actions, behaviors, situations and outcomes emerge.
Actually, this study used descriptive qualitative as a method. The
researcher used this method to get the detail data related to the difficulties of
students in writing descriptive texts and the strategies used by students to
overcome their difficulties in writing descriptive texts. The researcher needed to
show the data in a description, it means that the use of descriptive qualitative is a
suitable method. The goal of qualitative descriptive studies is a comprehensive
24
summarization, in everyday terms, of specific events experienced by individuals
or groups of individuals (Lambert, 2012).
Research Participants
The participants of this research were students of English Education
Department UMY batch 2015. The reason why the researcher chose batch 2015
was because they were the newest students at English Education Department of
UMY. It means that batch 2015 had just learned descriptive texts in Academic
Reading and Writing subject compared to the previous batch who might have
forgotten because the previous batch was not learn descriptive texts anymore. It
also made batch 2015 have bigger chance to remember what they have learned in
writing descriptive texts.
The researcher took six respondents as the sample. In determining the
number of participants, the researcher used the opinion from Creswell (2012) who
stated that one of the characteristics in qualitative research is small sample size
and there is no definite sample size. The researcher might study few individuals
even single individual, because it was better to have few individuals to be studied,
and it allowed the researcher to explore the information deeply. Based on the
explanation above, the researcher chooses six participants to be interviewed.
The samples were taken using purposive sampling. The use of purposive
sampling technique was to determine the participants of this study. The
consideration in selection of purposive sampling for this study was based on
Creswell (2012) who stated that in purposive sampling, the researchers
intentionally select individuals and sites to learn or understand the central
25
phenomenon. Cohen, Manion, & Morrison (2011) also stated that in purposive
sampling, researcher is hand-pick the cases to be included in the sample. In this
way, they build up a sample that is satisfactory to their specific needs. The
selection of six students of EED UMY as the participant was because they have
experience in joining writing class. Creswell (2012) stated that in qualitative
research, the researcher can identify the participants and sites on purposive
sampling based on people which can best help the researcher to understand the
central phenomenon.
There was one criterion in determining the participants. The criterion for
the participants was students who had a good grade in writing class. The
researcher used this criterion to get much information from participants’
experiences in writing class. So, by having those participants who met the criteria,
the researcher got information which was adequate enough to obtain the data. In
choosing the participants, the researcher asked one teacher who taught descriptive
texts about which students who had a good grade in Academic Reaching and
Writing. Then, the teacher showed the grade of all students at EED of UMY batch
2015. After that, the teacher told the researcher to choose ten students in every
class; it means that the researcher had 40 name of students since batch 2015 have
four class. After that, the researcher chooses one participant started from class A
until D and asked them to be participant; it means that the researcher already had
four participants. The last, the researcher chooses again from class A & B to get
the rest two participants.
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Research Setting
There were two kinds of research setting. The first kind was setting of
place which explained the place where the researcher conducted the study. The
second kind was setting of time which explained when the researcher conducted
the study.