can possibly make students boring.
9
Actually, these writing instructions explained above show that the teacher rarely present an interesting learning aid or media
which can motivate students to learn writing, particularly narrative writing instead of English textbooks in writing instruction.
Responding to the problems students often face in writing which are influenced by teacher‟s attitude towards writing instruction, using learning aid or
media as supplement to English textbooks in writing instruction can be an alternative choice to overcome those writing problems. In this term, teaching aids
include pictures, flashcards, video playback machines, sets of books, etc. Due to
the need of providing learning aid or media in writing instruction, the researcher proposes picture book as an available learning aid or media to teach and learn
narrative writing because it has a lot of colorful pictures and expressive language. Mary Renck Jalongo states that picture books provide colorful and beautiful
images which catch readers‟ attention to read and almost people from various ages still enjoy reading the picture books due to the vivid illustrations, interesting
topics, and expressive language.
10
Additionally, Mary Jo Fresch and Peggy Harkins assert that picture books can be approachable models for students who experience difficulty in writing skill
and students who still search particular topic for their own writing can use picture books as a reference and a place of finding new vocabulary.
11
This means that picture books can be selected as stimulus and supplementary material for students
who struggle with writing because they provide not only pleasurable texts but also colorful and vivid illustrations that can help students to think of imaginative ideas
creatively and find topic for their own writing.
9
Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching, New York: Longman, 1991, p. 257
10
Mary Renck Jalongo, Young Children and Picture Books, Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children, 2004, p. 7
11
Mary Jo Fresch and Peggy Harkins, The Power of Picture Books Using Content Area Literature in Middle School, Urbana: National council of Teachers of English, 2011, p. 11
In the same way, providing picture books as a learning aid or media to support students before they start to write is also useful to be applied during
writing instruction. Miles Tendy and Joe Howell state that they used one of Ted Hughes‟s creation stories during writing instruction to search and discover the
structural patterns and the level of sentence to see how a particular writer construct his or her own ideas and gather sentences to achieve a special effect.
12
It means that through reading picture books or other story books first before
beginning to write, the students will have background knowledge about what kind of story they should write and what kind of language they should arrange to
describe each events of their own stories. Likewise, reading can
influence students‟ writing quality. Charlotte S. Huck and Barbara Z. Keifer affirm that reading and being read to are able to
develop children‟s writing skill because reading author‟s written language enable children to notice and understand the convention and organization of ideas.
13
The argument can be judged that to make teaching writing meaningful to students, it
should be integrated with reading skill. Teachers may not be aware if students often collect words, phrases, or structure of text from books they have read when
they write. This can also be understood that the role of reading also helps the development of writing.
Based on the explanation above, the researcher thinks that using picture book as a learning aid or authentic media in writing instruction can enhance
students‟ narrative writing skill. Vividly colorful illustrations and expressively accessible language in picture books can facilitate students to imagine or visualize
what kind of story they are going to write and improve their linguistic abilities including having good understanding or knowledge in vocabulary or grammatical
structure. Through using picture books in teaching narrative writing as a model
12
Miles Tendy and Jow Howell, Creating Writers in the Primary Classroom, New York: Routledge, 2008, p. 35
13
Barbara Z. Keifer, C harlotte Huck’s Children’s Literature, New York: The Mc Graw Hill,
2004, p. 12
for students to write their own writing, the researcher expects that picture books can help students to identify and model components of narrative writing such as
character development, story ending, dialogue, emotions, and relevant descriptions. As shown above, the focus of this research is to see whether picture
books can af fect students‟ skill in writing narrative text at the eight grade students
of SMP PGRI Ciputat.
B. Identification of the Problem
Based on the background of the study above, there are several problems that can be identified in this research:
1. Students face difficulty in beginning to write. 2. Students face difficulty meeting the requirements of writing.
3. An interesting learning aid or media which can motivate students to write a narrative text is rarely used by teachers in writing instruction.
C. Limitation of the Problem
The study is limited to address the problem found by the researcher through interviewing the English teacher of the eighth grade students at SMP PGRI
Ciputat which indicated that the teacher rarely use learning aid or media in writing instruction, particularly narrative writing instruction to motivate students
to write a narrative text. In this study, the effectiveness of picture books in improving students‟ skill in writing narrative text at the eighth grade students of
SMP PGRI Ciputat is investigated.
D. Formulation and Problem
Based on the limitation of the problem above, the problem can be formulated as “Do picture books affect students‟ skill in writing narrative text at
the eighth grade students of SMP PGRI Ciputat?”
E. Objective of the Study
The study is aimed to discover the empirical evidence of the effectiveness of picture books in improving student
s‟ skill in writing narrative texts at the eighth grade students of SMP PGRI Ciputat.
F. Significance of the Study
The result of the study not only can give valuable knowledge and experience for the researcher herself but also give benefits for many people
particularly in academic institution, for instance, the students, the teachers, and the other researchers. Firstly, the researcher expects that the study can give her a
description of using picture books in narrative writing instruction at the eighth grade students. Secondly, the study is expected to be able to help students who
face difficulty in starting to write since picture books can provide them with inspiring story ideas. Thirdly, the study can give benefit for English teachers
especially writing teachers to use interesting learning aid such as another story book in teaching writing narrative text and lastly, the study can be a reference to
other researchers who intend to conduct a research in similar field and try to find other motivating learning aids in writing instruction.
8
CHAPTER II THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK
This chapter contains some important points. The first point is theoretical description about narrative text, consisting of the definition and aim of narrative text,
the general structure and language feature of narrative text, and the sample of narrative text. The second one is the definition of picture books. The third one is
about picture books as a model to teach writing narrative text. The fourth one explains about stages of implementing picture books in writing narrative text
instruction. Those important points are also continued by previous relevant studies, conceptual framework, and research hypothesis.
A. Narrative Text
1. The Definition and Aim of Narrative Text
A narrative text is a text which tells a story in series of event. As Tara McCarthy points out, narration is the act of telling a story in an organized way
and a written narration has to include main idea, plot, character, satisfactory description, and ending.
1
This means that narration or narrative text must have a vivid description of specific point, characters, plotline, and story ending
which is arranged in chronology of events. Similarly, John Langan adds that narration is about a story illustrating a particular time which often relates to
what an individual felt.
2
Likewise, Alan Meyers also asserts that narration is a well written story which gives readers freedom to respond and understand to
some events in the story and feel like they are in their own story.
3
Those theorists above agree that narration, particularly written narration aims to tell
a story chronologically whether the story is about one‟s feeling or not and it
1
Tara McCarthy, Narrative Writing, New York: Scholastic Inc., 1998, p. 5
2
John Langan, Exploring Writing, New York: New York, 2008 p. 221
3
Alan Meyers, Gateways to Academic Writing, New York: Pearson Education, Inc., 2005, p. 52
always impress one who reads it due to its interesting content, like description of characters, plot, setting, or ending. To put it more simply, a narrative text
can be defined as a text which tells series of connected past events chronologically and has interesting characters, plot, setting, and story ending
to make readers satisfied with it. Moreover, narration has to accomplish some purposes such as the
followings:
4
1 Series of events in narration should develop a main idea. 2 Plot in narration should give readers good impression, for instance, they
feel like listening and seeing all connected events in the story. 3 Narration should vividly describe who characters are, what story is about,
where story takes place, and when story begins and ends. 4 Narration should have clear transitions which shows changes in place,
time, and characters. 5 Narration should tell series of events which starts and ends
chronologically. 6 Narration should have climax which indicates that a story ends.
2. The General Structure and Language Feature of Narrative Text
A narrative text must have general structure which consists of orientation, sequence of events, resolution, and coda which is explained as
follow:
5
1 Orientation should include an introduction of when a story took place, where and when a story began, and who characters are.
2 Sequence of events should give clear description of series of past events which indicates beginning of problem and the most important or exciting
4
Ibid
5
Drs. Pardiyono, Pasti Bisa Teaching Genre-Based Writing, Yogyakarta: Penerbit Andi, 2007, p. 94
