Background of the Study

3 language skill to be learned compared to other language skills. It can be seen that the students make some serious problems when they try to translate a native language sentence word by word into a good written foreign language. As it is known, writing is not easy. The difficulty lies not only in organizing and generating ideas, but also in translating these ideas into readable texts. The students have to pay attention on planning and organizing as well as spelling, punctuation, word choice, and so on. However, learning how to write is important. People who lives in toda y’s growth world need to learn how to write for every reasons. Newcomers to a country soon have to start communicating through writing. They have to take down telephone messages. They have to fill out job applications and applications for health insurance. Students in school at all stages need to express themselves in writing to do well in school. Therefore, it should be obvious that writing helps fulfill our need to communicate. Considering the importance of writ ing in people’s life especially in educational field, Indonesian government has included writing in the English syllabus stated in Competence Standard and Basic Competence. Ideally, according to Competence Standard –Standar Kompetensi SK and Basic Competence –Kompetensi Dasar KD of writing skill in the current School-Based Curriculum –Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan KTSP, the competence standard of writing of Junior High School level is to express meaning in functional written texts and simple short essays in the form of descriptive, procedure, narrative, recount, and report to interact with both the closer environment and the context of daily life. 5 It becomes the reason why the students have to master writing as their need. But, there were still some difficulties faced by the students in learning writing. Based on the informal interview and writer’s observation during Praktek Profesi Keguruan Terapadu PPKT activities at MTsN 5 Departemen Pendidikan Nasional, 2006, Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan School Based Curriculum 2006: Standar Isi SD, SMP dan SMA. Jakarta. 4 Tangerang II Pamulang, there were some difficulties faced by students especially in learning writing. First, they had problems to get started in writing. They took too much time to generate ideas and organize thoughts onto paper. Second, they were confused in using the right sentence structure, the use of appropriate grammar, vocabulary, punctuation, spelling, and so on. The last, they feel bored in writing class because the learning activities in writing are monotonous. Considering the complexity of writing, especially in narrative writing, an English teacher should be an effective teacher, who can use variety of teaching methods and strategies to improve the students’ writing ability. The writing class should be facilitated with activities which motivate students to learn, for example the jigsaw technique where the students are working together and sharing the ideas within the groups. There are a lot of methods and techniques to get the English teaching effectively. To make the teaching learning process effectively, the writer would like to propose an alternative technique which promotes cooperative and interesting activities, namely ―Jigsaw Technique”. Jigsaw is one of the cooperative learning strategies as one alternative strategy which engages students in learning to write. In Jigsaw technique, the students work in the same group of four to six members and each member in a team becomes an expert on a topic. 6 This technique not only helped the students in generating ideas but they also feel enjoyed during the teaching and learning writing process. Related to the benefits of Jigsaw technique, the writer involves the students in Jigsaw technique. The writer takes a title of this ―skripsi” “Using Jigsaw Technique to Impro ve Students’ Narrative Writing in the Second Year Students of MTs Negeri Tangerang II Pamulang”. 6 http:en.wikipedia.orgwikiJigsaw_teaching_technique 5

B. Problems of theStudy

Referring to the background of the study, the research question is formulated as follows: Can jigsaw technique improve the students’ writing ability of narrative text? How does jigsaw technique improve the students’ writing ability of narrative text?

C. Objective of the Study

In line with the research problem, the objectives of this study are to know how jigsaw technique improves writing ability of narrative text for second year students of MTsN Tangerang II Pamulang.

D. Significance of the Study

The findings of this study can be useful for the English teachers, impartial as students, and other researcher teachers. 1. The findings of this study are useful for the English teachers at junior high school level to get an alternative way or technique in teaching students to write narrative texts. 2. For the school principal as a decision maker of junior high school level, he or she observe to the teaching learning strategies which are used in the teaching learning activities directly. Also, they can send the English teachers to join up grading with the aim to improve the teachers’ competencies. 3. The findings of this study are also useful for the students. They will learn a strategy expected to increase their motivation and improve their writing ability in narrative texts by working together and sharing the ideas within the groups. 4. For other researchers especially for those who have the same problem and are interested in carrying out a research in a similar field, this study can be implemented. 6

E. Limitation of the Study

The research is focused on the teaching and learning process by involving the second year students of MTs Negeri Tangerang II Pamulang in Jigsaw technique to improve their writing ability in narrative texts. The improvement is focused on four components of writing namely content, organization, vocabulary, and grammar. To make a description of this ―Skripsi” deeper, the problems will be limited in: 1. The implementation of using jigsaw technique in teaching narrative text, and 2. The stud ents’ improvement in learning narrative text by using jigsaw technique.

F. Definition of Key Terms

In order to avoid possible misunderstanding, the writer defines several important terms which are used in the present study as follows: 1 Jigsaw Technique means the teacher’s strategy which is intended to improve students’ narrative writing in teaching learning process. In this study, Jigsaw refers to the one in writing conducted in a group in which each student is given a different specific picture sequencing to describe the events and share that description with hisher other members of group to make a whole story. 2 Narrative Text means part of the story genre which tells a story and, in doing so, entertains or informs the reader or listener. 7 3 MTs Negeri Tangerang II Pamulang refers to Islamic Junior High School which is under the supervision of the National Education Department of Indonesia and where the writer was conducting the study. 7 Mark Anderson and Kathy Anderson, Text Types in English 2, South Yarra: Mcmillan, 1997, p. 8 7

CHAPTER II THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

A. Writing

1. Nature of Writing

Writing, like speaking, is a way of communication, but writing makes its own special demands on the communicator. Hedge put it this way: Compared with speech, writing requires a number of things: a high degree of organization in the development of ideas and information; a high degree of accuracy so that there is no ambiguity of meaning; the use of complex grammatical devices for focus and emphasis; and a careful choice of vocabulary, grammatical patterns, and sentence structures to create a style which is appropriate to the subject matter and the eventual readers. 1 According to Hedge, it can be said that writing is a complex process that moves through a number of stages. On the other hand, speech is a spontaneous action which requires very little preparation. We open our mouths and out flow the words. 1 Tricia Hedge, Writing, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990, p. 5