THE EFFECT OF SWELL METHOD ON STUDENTS’ ACHIEVEMENT IN WRITING A NARRATIVE PARAGRAPH.

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THE

EFFECT OF SWELL METHOD ON STUDENTS’

ACHIEVEMENT IN WRITING A NARRATIVE PARAGRAPH

A THESIS

Submitted to the English Department Faculty of Language and Arts of State University of Medan in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement of the Degree of

Sarjana Pendidikan

By:

ROIDA SINURAT

Reg. No : 2103121041

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS

STATE UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN

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i ABSTRACT

Sinurat, Roida. 2103121041. The Effect of SWELL Method on Students’ Achievement in Writing a Narrative Paragraph. A Thesis: English Department. Faculty of Languages and Arts, State University of Medan. 2015.

The purpose of this research was to know and to find out the effect of swell

method on the students’ achievement in writing narrative paragraph. This study was conducted by experimental research. The population of this study was the students of the XI IPA of SMA N.1 SIBORONGBORONG. The total number of the population was 280 in 7 classes. There were eighty students chosen as the sample. The sample was divided into two groups, namely experimental group and control group. The experimental group was taught by using SWELL Method and control group was taught without SWELL method. The instrument for collecting the data was writing test. The data was analyzed by using t-test formula. The result of the analysis shows that t-observed value is higher than t-table ( > 1.990) at level of significance 0.05 with the degree of freedom 78. It means that the alternative hypothesis (Ha) is accepted and null hypothesis (Ho) is rejected. Based on the findings of this study, it was found that there is a significant effect of

SWELL Method on students’ achievement in writing narrative paragraph. Hence, the writer suggested that the English teacher might consider using SWELL Method as an alternative method in teaching writing.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Praise to the Lord for His wonderful love to the writer, He is Savior who always guides the writer in everything, in sadness and happiness. The writer

would have never thought Lord’s plans would bring the writer here, finishing this

thesis.

This thesis is aimed to fulfill one of the requirements for the degree of Sarjana Pendidikan (S-1) at the English Department, Faculty of Languages and Arts, State University of Medan.

In the process of completing the thesis, the writer has been directly assisted by some people, so at this moment, the writer would like to express her sincere gratitude to:

 Prof. Dr. Ibnu Hajar Damanik, M.Si., the Rector of State University of

Medan.

 Dr. Isda Pramuniati, M.Hum., the Dean of Faculty of Languages and

Arts, State University of Medan.

 Prof. Dr. Hj. Sumarsih, M.Pd., the Head of English Department. Dra. Meisuri, M.A., the Secretary of English Department and Dra. Masitowarni Siregar, M.Ed., the Head of English Education Program,

who took the role of being her reviewer and examiner.

 Prof. Dr. Lince Sihombing, M.Pd., as her first Thesis Supervisor, and Tiarnita Maria Sarjani Siregar, M.Hum., as her second Thesis Advisor.

 Drs. Lidiman Sahat Martua Sinaga, M.Hum., her Academic Advisor.

 Dra. Tjut Ernidawati M.Pd as her Reviewer and Examiner.

 All the Lecturers of English department who have taught, guided, and

advised her throughout the academic years.

 Mam Euis, as the administration staff of English Department, for her

attention, assistance, and information in completing it.

 The writer sincerely thanks to her Dad, Besrun Sinurat and her Mom Uli

Basa Pakpahan, thank you for wonderful love, financial support, prayer

and being irreplaceable. The writer’s special gratitude also goes to her dearest sisters, Ira Veranita Sinurat, Sri Rejeki Sinurat, Ruth Yolanda

Sinurat, Alya Fortona Sinurat and also her dearest brother Benri Saves Sinurat. And also for all family members who supported her.

 The Headmaster of SMA Negeri I Siborongborong, Drs.Alpa

Simanjuntak,M.Pd his permission and opportunities in allowing the

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 Her best friends, (Elsa Ernawati Nainggolan, Erna Wati Gultom, Helti

Margaretha Tarigan and Oktavia Rayani Saragih). Thank you for everything that we have shared. Her Small Group “MACARIOS” (Elsa Ernawati Nainggolan,Helti Margaretha Tarigan, K’Moryana Gultom, and K’Ivana Sibuea) thank you for being my family almost 4 years.

 Her friends in Reguler Dik. A’ 2010, as her great class for the love and

togetherness throughout four years; her friends in PPLT SMP N.4 Balige

2013 for many experiencies and togetherness.

The writer realizes that this thesis still has the weakness, The writer conveniently welcomes any suggestions, comments critics, and advices that will improve the quality of this thesis. The writer hopes that this thesis would be useful for those who read and interested in the field of this study.

Medan, March 2015

The Writer

Roida Sinurat NIM. 2103121041

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGES

Abstract ... i

Acknowledgement ...ii

Table of Content ...iv

List of Table ...vii

List of Appendix. ...viii

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ...1

A. The Background of the Study ...1

B. The Problem of the Study ... 5

C. The Objective of the Study ... 5

D. The Scope of the Study ... 6

E. The Significance of the Study ... 6

CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE ... 7

A. Theoretical Framework ... 7

1. Students’ Achievement ...7

2. Writing ... 8

3. Writing Process ... 10

4. Criteria of good writing ... 11

5. Writing Assessment ... 13

6. Kinds of Paragraph ... 14

7. Narrative Paragraph ... 15

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a. Purpose of Narrative ... 17

b. Generic Structure of Narrative ... 17

c. Typical Linguistic Feature of Narrative ... 17

d. The example of narrative ... 18

9. SWELL Method ... 19

a. The Procedures of SWELL Method ... 20

B. Conceptual Framework ... 25

C. Hypothesis ... 25

CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ... 27

A. Research Design ... 27

B. Population and Sample ... 28

1. Population ... 28

2. Sample ... 28

C. Instrument of Collecting Data ... 28

D. Scoring the Test ... 29

E. Rubrics of scoring or narrative paragraph ...29

F. Procedure of Collecting the Data ...30

1. Pre – Test ... 30

2. Treatment ... 30

3. Post Test ... 35

G. Technique of Analyzing Data ... 35

CHAPTER IV DATA AND DATA ANALYSIS ... 36

A.THE DATA ... 36

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C. Research Finding ... 38

D. Discussion ... 38

CHAPTER V CONCUSION AND SUGGESTION ... 40

A. Conclusion ... 40

B. Suggestion ...40

REFERENCES ... 42

APPENDIX ... 44

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LIST OF TABLE

PAGES

Table 1.1 The Average of mid-semester 1 ... 3

Table 3.1 Research Design ... 27

Table 3.2 Scoring Rubrics ... 29

Table 3.3 Experimental Group Treatment ... 33

Table 4.1 Students’ score of pre-test and post test of experimental group . 44 Table 4.2 Students’ score of pre-test and post test of control group ... 45

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LIST OF APPENDIX

PAGES

APPENDIX A ... 44

APPENDIX B ... 45

APPENDIX C ... 46

APPENDIX D ... 47

APPENDIX E ... 48

APPENDIX F ... 49

APPENDIX G ... 50

APPENDIX H ... 51

APPENDIX I ... 55

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1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. The Background of the Study

English is very important in this globalization era as the international language. English as the global communication makes each country exchange the information on various issues and people can communicate with others from different country. In Indonesia English has important position for several aspects of life, such as in economy, politics, technology, tourism, etc. This is the reason why the government of Indonesia considers English is important to be taught in the school as the foreign language.

In accordance with the curriculum unit level language education, language learning goals at school is students are able to use language. Language skills are taught to the students to be able to listen, speak, read and write well.

There are four language skills should be mastered by the learners in their effort to study a language well namely listening, speaking, reading, writing. Writing, a way of making communication in written is a special skill because people can communicate with other people, share ideas, information, or experiences without seeing each other.

Writing is one of the most important skills in learning language besides listening, reading, and speaking. As one of the basic language skills, writing has a very complex process.

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Oshima and Hogue (1981:5) state that writing is the most difficult of the language skill in language learning. Therefore writing is not as easy as some people think. Before writing, the writer needs to determine what to write, have to think the idea about the topic that want to write. A writer should have something meaningful, clear, precise, and unambiguous words.

There are 5 component scales that should be measured in writing, namely content, organization, vocabulary, language use and mechanics (Jacob1983:39). The content concerns the invention of writing having something to say. The organization component addresses disposition or rhetoric principles of arrangement. Vocabulary, language use and mechanics together deal with elocution of the linguistic and mechanical principles for effective delivery of discourse.

Writing skills are taught in school has a goal that students are able to write well and truly of writing words, phrases, clauses, sentences, paragraphs, essays, overviews and discourse. Therefore, writing is referred to as a productive and expressive activity.

Since English is the foreign language in school, students have problem in writing and still many students find difficulties in writing and also difficult to reach the 5 component scales above. Writing is not as easy as people think as Nunan (1999) states that writing is the most difficult skill among four language skills, Mc Crimmon (1988) also states that writing is the most difficult skill in learning process. Realizing that writing paragraph is not easy the teacher should try to find some ways to make it interesting, enjoyable, and fun. The teacher

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should be using some approaches, methods, strategies, or techniques to teach writing then make writing be easier and also to improve the students’ achievement in writing.

There are some kinds of paragraph namely, narrative, descriptive, expository, and argumentative. Narrative is one kind of paragraph that students need to learn about, because narrative is near to human life activity including students’ activities. The narrative can be found in many kinds of writing such as short stories, diaries, personal experiences, journals, articles, novels, and many more.

Based on the writer’s observation at school in teaching practice program, it was found that students had less ability in writing. The students have difficulty in developing ideas. The most common problem is that the students cannot create self-expression in writing. Sometimes the students have some ideas in mind, but the students do not know how to express it in writing.

Based on the observation done by the writer in the grade XI of SMA Negeri 1 Siborongborong, it was found that the average grade of mid – semester test in semester 1 for each class before getting remedial teaching test is different. This is the average of both classes.

Table.1.1

The Average of mid-semester 1

Semester Average

Class

XI IPA 1 XI IPA 2

1 60.2 59.75

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It is found that 50% students of XI IPA 1 and 55% students of XI IPA 2 have to get remedial teaching to add their scores since their scores were under 65 which based on Kriteria Ketuntasan Minimal (KKM). It shows that most students of XI IPA 1 got remedial test than XI IPA 2. It means that students’ writing achievement of XI IPA 1 is still low.

In this study, the writer suggests SWELL method in teaching narrative. SWELL is the acronym of Social – interactive Writing for English Language Learners; this is a method that is applied to improve students’ ability in writing,

including narrative paragraph. This method was introduced by Teo (2007). By using SWELL method, it is expected that students’ ability in writing can be improved, because SWELL method provide “wh” questions as the guidance for the students to get ideas, in which a student will ask this question to her or his friend and her or his friend will give the answer and they will discuss it together interactively. This way will give more joyful learning to the students since the student can share their ideas freely without afraid make some mistakes.

SWELL has six steps, namely pouring ideas, making draft, reading, editing, making the best copy, and teacher’s evaluation. By using these six steps the writer believe that writing narrative paragraph will be an easier and an enjoyable task to do because every step of SWELL method is easy to do and students do not need a long time that can make students feel bored.

In pouring ideas either the writer or the helper can explore their ideas. Both of them discuss together and make some notes which are related to the idea that they have. In step two, drafting, they can use the notes and begin writing

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without worry about spelling. In reading step, the writer will read draft out load and make it sound good and the helper corrects words read wrong if he helper can. In editing step the helper and the writer will discuss the draft, they can make some changes and also can use dictionary when necessary. After made some changes the writer will make the best copy of writing and collect it to teacher. In the last step the helper and the writer read teacher’s evaluation and then discuss to make corrections.

After going through these six steps either the helper, the writer, or the teacher will get a better writing by discussing together, and the student as the writer will feel enjoy in writing.

Because the students have difficulty in write their ideas especially in writing a narrative paragraph. The writer is inspired to make a study about the effect of SWELL method in students’ achievement in writing narrative paragraph.

B. The Problem of the Study

Based on the background of the study, the research problem is formulated as follows: “Does the use of SWELL method significantly affect the students’ achievement in writing narrative paragraph?”

C. The Objective of the Study

The objective of the study is to find out the effect of SWELL method on the students’ achievement in writing narrative.

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D. The Scope of the Study

The scope of the study is to apply a teaching method namely, SWELL method in teaching narrative writing.

E. The Significance of the Study

This study is expected to be useful for:

1. The students to improve their writing, especially in writing narrative.

2. To give a better solution for the teachers in applying a better way in teaching especially teaching narrative writing.

3. To increase the readers’ knowledge who want to know about SWELL method and narrative writing, especially for English Education’s students.

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40 CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

A. Conclusion

Based on the result of the data analysis, it is found that the students’

achievement in writing a narrative paragraph taught by SWELL Method is higher than those taught without using SWELL Method. Appendix J shows the students’ writing from experimental group and control group. It shows that there are different means between experimental and control group, in post test. They are 5.4 and 1.4. It means that the mean of experimental group is higher than the mean of control group. Besides, the calculation of t-test shows that t-observed is higher than t-table. It means that the proposed hypothesis is accepted. It shows that the use of SWELL Method significantly affects on students’ achievement in writing a narrative paragraph.

B. Suggestion

Based on the conclusion drawn, the results of the findings contribute valuable suggestions for those who are interested in teaching writing narrative paragraph.

1) a. English teachers are suggested to apply SWELL method in teaching writing paragraph especially narrative paragraph because this method makes the students easy to exchange their ideas with their friend.

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b. The teacher has to improve their method in teaching writing as a subject matter to make their students understand about narrative paragraph.

2) To the readers who are interested about this study are suggested to use SWELL method in another writing genre, such as descriptive, expository, and argumentative.

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REFERENCES

Allen and Vallette. 1981. Teaching Students in Writing. Boston: Houghton Mifflin

Arikunto,S. 1988. Prosedur Penelitian: Suatu Pendekatan Praktis. Jakarta: Rhineka Cipta

Aruan, D.M. 2007. Penafsiran Skor Test. Medan : Universitas Negeri Medan Ary, D., Jacobs, L. C & Sorensen, C. 2005. Introduction to research in Education.

New York: Wadsworth.

Brown,H.Doughlas.2001.Teaching by Principles,an Interactive Approach to

Language Pedagogy (2nded).New York:Longman

Brown, H.D.1994.Principle of Language Learning and Teaching. New York: Chiff.

Byrne, D. (1991). Teaching writing skill. Longman Publisher

Carol, J.A. 2001. Writing and Grammar, New Jersey: Prentice hall Inc.

Fitzpatrick.2005.Engaging Writing paragraphs and Essays. New York : Longman.

Foresman, Scott. 1997. Literature and Integrated Studies. Illinois Hammer,Jeremy.2004. How to Teach English. London Press.

Heaton,J.B. 1998. Writing English Language Testing.London:Longman.

Hyland, Ken.2002. Teaching and Researching Writing. Malaysia: Pearson Education.

Hyland, Ken. 2002. Teaching and Researching Writing. London: Longman Jacobs, R. 1983. English Transformational Grammar.Singapore : Toppan Klein, 1991. Second Language Acquisition.London:Cambridge University press. Langan,J.2003.College Writing Skills. Fifth Edition. New York: Mc. Graw Hill. Mc.Crimmon.1988.Writing with Purpose.Boston: Houghton Mifflin

Nunan,D.1999.Second Language Teaching and Learning:Heinleand Heinle Publisher

Oshima, A and Hogue, A. 1988. Introduction to Academic Writing. NewYork: Addison Wesley Company.

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Oshima,Alice & Hogue Ann.1987.Writing Academic English.London:Wesley Publishing Co

Pardiyono. 2007. Pasti Bisa!Teaching Genre-Based Writing.Yogyakarta : ANDI Patel, MF and Jain. 2008. English Language Teaching (methods, tools, and

techniques). Jaipur: Sunrise.

Procter,Paul.1978.Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English.London: Longman Group Ltd

Teo,A.2007.SWELL: A Writing Method to Help English Language Learners. Forum

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After going through these six steps either the helper, the writer, or the teacher will get a better writing by discussing together, and the student as the writer will feel enjoy in writing.

B. The Problem of the Study

C. The Objective of the Study

The objective of the study is to find out the effect of SWELL method on the students’ achievement in writing narrative.

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D. The Scope of the Study

The scope of the study is to apply a teaching method namely, SWELL method in teaching narrative writing.

E. The Significance of the Study

This study is expected to be useful for:

1. The students to improve their writing, especially in writing narrative.

2. To give a better solution for the teachers in applying a better way in teaching especially teaching narrative writing.

3. To increase the readers’ knowledge who want to know about SWELL method and narrative writing, especially for English Education’s students.

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CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

A. Conclusion

Based on the result of the data analysis, it is found that the students’ achievement in writing a narrative paragraph taught by SWELL Method is higher than those taught without using SWELL Method. Appendix J shows the students’ writing from experimental group and control group. It shows that there are different means between experimental and control group, in post test. They are 5.4 and 1.4. It means that the mean of experimental group is higher than the mean of control group. Besides, the calculation of t-test shows that t-observed is higher than t-table. It means that the proposed hypothesis is accepted. It shows that the use of SWELL Method significantly affects on students’ achievement in writing a narrative paragraph.