Background of the Problems
explanation. Some of them were afraid of making mistakes and did not bring dictionary. It made them often asked the teacher about the meaning of some English
words. When the teacher asked them to make a recount text using mind-mapping method, a few students said that they forgot the story. Moreover, based on the result
of pre-test, the students had some difficulties related to grammar and vocabulary mastery. Besides, they also had difficulties in bringing out the ideas and translating
the sentences. Few of them just copied the book or their friend’s work. The teacher said that she was not satisfied enough with the result of students’ work.
The second problem comes from teaching method. Based on the observations, the teacher used lecturing method to deliver the materials. Lecturing method is good
for some aspects, but if it is too much, the students will feel bored and ignore the explanation. It happened to the students of class VIII E. Besides, in teaching writing,
the teacher used mind-map to teach recount text. Unfortunately, this method could not successfully make the students work. Most of the students still did not do the task
well. The third problem comes from class management. It is one of the important
aspects in teaching and learning process. If teacher can manage his or her class well, the teaching and learning process will run well. Based on the observations and
interviews, the class management should be improved. The teacher, with lecturing method, stood up in front of the class to deliver the materials. It made some students
uncontrolled. They made noise in the class when the teacher explained the materials. Sometimes, the teacher warned the students. One of the students said that he liked to
sit in the back row because he could easily chats with his friends. Besides, the researcher found that there were some students using smart phone to play games
during the class. Moreover, the students finished the writing tasks individually. Meanwhile, they could do it with their friends to share their knowledge.
The next problem comes from learning activity. When writing, students frequently have more time to think than they do in oral activities. They can go
through what they know in their minds, and even consult dictionaries, grammar books, or other reference material to help them Harmer 2004: 31. It means that
writing is a process. During the process, it is important for teacher to make students interested. To get the students interested, the teacher should create good learning
activities. Based on the observations, the students lacked writing activities. There are some kinds of writing activities. For example, arranging jumbled words and jumbled
sentences and brainstorming of idea by writing sentences based on pictures. It is good for students to have various activities to keep them interested in the lesson because if
the activity is monotonous, they will get bored and have less motivation. Moreover, the students also got less chance to practice writing in the class. The teacher said that
it was because of the limited time. The teacher asked students to make a mind-map of an event or their own experiences. Then, they had to make a short paragraph.
Unfortunately, the result of students’ work was not satisfied the teacher. Willingness and motivation from the students are important to create good
atmosphere in the class. Based on the observations, there was a gap between teacher and students. Some students did not actively participate in the learning process, for
example by asking questions. They only focused on the final product of writing asked by the teacher. It can be seen from their work of the last assignment. The teacher
showed the students’ book to the researcher. Most of the students did not finish their work. Moreover, the atmosphere can also come from the condition of the class. When
the researcher observed the class, the condition was quite good, but the space of each class was too close. It made the students can hear the noise from the other class.
The learning process will be more interesting if the teachers use media to help them deliver the material. The media can be Power Point slides, cue cards, songs,
videos, stories, games, and films. Based on the observations, the researcher saw that the facilities in the class were quite complete. There were LCD, speakers,
whiteboards, desks, and the other things that support the learning process but the teacher in that time did not use it. She just used the whiteboard. From the interviews
with some students, they said that the teacher seldom gave them games. Meanwhile, students liked games very much.
Based on the problems above, the researcher thought that it was necessary to find the solution of the problems in the teaching and learning process so the writing
ability of the students could be improved.