Review of Previous Studies

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CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter presents review of previous studies; review of the theoretical studies which covers the general concept of writing, recount text, motivation, Facebook as learning media, and general concepts of action research; and framework of the present study.

2.1 Review of Previous Studies

In this part, I will review some previous studies related to my research entitled “The Use of Facebook to Increase Students‟ Skill and Motivation in Writing Recount Texts”. I will review the studies about recount text first, followed by the ones about Facebook utilization in writing class. The first study was conducted by Faiza 2010 entitled The Use of Semantic Map to Improve Students’ Ability in Making Recount Text. This experimental study aimed to find out if semantic map could improve students‟ ability in making recount text and to find out the effectiveness of using semantic map compared with conventional method. The population was the eight grade students of SMP Islam Tegowanu, Grobogan. The students of VIIIA and VIIB were chosen as the sample of the study. The result showed that semantic map was effective to improve students‟ ability in making recount text in the aspects of content, organization, grammar, word choice, and mechanic. The second study is a quasi-experimental research conducted by Kusumamandasari 2012. Her study was entitled Teaching Recount Text Using Learning Journals and Students’ Perception . It was done to investigate whether writing journals could improve students‟ ability in writing recount texts and to reveal the students‟ perceptions of writing journals in their learning. The population of the study was 389 second grade students of a junior high school in Bandung. 70 students were chosen as the sample of the study. The findings showed that learning journal technique could improve students‟ writing ability in recount texts and was positively responded by the students. The third study is The Use of Series of Pictures to Improve Students’ Ability in Writing Recount Text. This study was conducted by Purnamasari 2012. This quasi-experimental study aimed to find out the effectiveness of using series of pictures in improving students‟ ability in writing recount texts and to find out students‟ responses to it. The population was the tenth grade students of SMA N 19 Bandung. The students of X 1 and X 2 were taken as the sample. The results concluded that the use of picture series was effective to improve students‟ ability in writing recount text and was positively responded by the students. The fourth study was conducted by Amnesti 2012. It was entitled The Use of Movie Maker Digistory in Writing Recount. The study was an action research conducted on VIII A grade students of SMP Negeri 1 Ayah, Kebumen. The purposes of the research were to describe the students‟ difficulties in writing recount text and to describe the extent of the improvement of the students‟ writing competence after taught with Movie Maker Digistory. The result of the research showed that Movie Maker Digistory was able to motivate students to write and improve their ability in writing recount texts. The fifth study is The Use of Blog to Teach Recount Text to Improve Students’ Writing Skill, conducted by Afra 2012. This study was an action research on the use of blog as media to teach recount text to the VIII D students of SMPN 5 Semarang, in the academic year of 20112012. The study aimed to describe how blog was used as a medium to teach writing recount text and to examine whether there was any improvement of students‟ ability in writing recount text after being taught using blog. The result of the research showed a significant improvement of students‟ ability of writing recount text after being taught using blog. The students also responded positively to the use of blog in learning writing recount text. It can be concluded that the use of blog is very helpful to teach writing recount text. According to the studies mentioned above, it can be seen that there are some researches which have been done by investigating new ways in improving the quality of teaching recount texts. The researchers successfully used interesting media as a strategy to motivate students to improve their writing ability. The media varied from paper-based media such as semantic map, journals, and pictures; computer software like Movie Maker Digistory; yet online media like blog. The utilization of online media in teaching English has not been optimized yet, whereas this field has good potential to gain the better result of teaching. Thus, I am willing to use an online media named Facebook as an alternative medium to teach recount text to increase students‟ skill and motivation in writing recount texts. Facebook is one of popular social networking sites which is mostly used nowadays. Many researchers believe that Facebook has good potentiality to be utilized in a writing class so that they tried to examine it by doing research. Saikaew, et al 2011 conducted a study entitled “Using Facebook as a Supplementary Tool for Teaching and Learning ”. This study presents the approach and the experience in using Facebook for both undergraduate and graduate courses as well as for both informal and formal learning. The participants of the study were 73 undergraduates and graduates of Khon Kaen University, Thailand. The findings show that Facebook has an excellent potential to serve as a lifelong learning channel for teachers and students. A study entitled “The Effectiveness of Facebook Groups on Teaching and Improving Writing: Students‟ Perceptions” was conducted by Yunus and Salehi 2012 to investigate the students‟ perceptions on the effectiveness of Facebook groups for teaching and improving writing. The research design for this study is mixed method survey. 43 Year 3 students from the Faculty of Education, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia who were completing their Bachelor‟s degree in Teaching of English as a Second Language TESL were selected as the participants.The findings show that „Facebook groups‟ is an effective tool to improve students‟ writing skills, especially in the brainstorming stage. Yunus and Salehi together with Chenzi 2012 conducted a qualitative study entitled “Integrating Social Networking Tools into ESL Writing Classroom: Strengths and Weaknesses ”. This research aimed to investigate the advantages and disadvantages of integrating social networking tools into ESL writing classroom and discuss the ways to plan activities by integrating social networking services into the classroom. The participants were fifteen third-year TESL students in a state university in Malaysia. The findings show that integrating social networking services in ESL writing classroom can help to broaden students‟ knowledge, increase their motivation and build confidence in learning ESL writing. Those advantages come together with the disadvantages such as the students‟ difficulties for concentrating on the materials when they use computer, lack of enough equipment as well as access to Internet, and teachers‟ insufficient time to interact with the students. Another study was done by Eren 2012 entitled “Students‟ Attitudes towards Using Social Networking in Foreign Language Classes: A Facebook Example ”. The study aimed to investigate students‟ attitudes towards the use of social networking sites, Facebook in particular, in language classroom. This study was carried out at a university in Gaziantep, Turkey with 48 undergraduate students who were enrolled in one year compulsory English preparatory class. The data were collected through a 5 point Likert-type questionnaire and semi- structured interviews. It was found out that students have a very positive attitude towards the use of Facebook activity as a supplement to language classroom. However, traditional classroom based language learning still remains a backbone for language education. According to those previous studies about integrating Facebook in formal language learning, I assume that Facebook is potential to be benefitted in recount writing classroom, too.

2.2 Review of the Theoretical Studies