THE EFFECT OF USING COMIC STRIPS ON STUDENTS ACHIEVEMENT IN WRITING NARRATIVE TEXT.

THE EFFECT OF USING COMIC STRIPS ON STUDENTS’
ACHIEVEMENT IN WRITING NARRATIVE TEXT

A THESIS
Submitted to English Department, Faculty of Languages and Arts
State University of Medan, in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the
Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan

By:

RABIATUL ADAWIYAH MULTI NASUTION
Registration Number: 2103121037

ENGLISH AND LITERATURE DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS
STATE UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN
2015

DECLARATION
I have familiarized myself with the University’s Policy on Academic integrity.
Except where appropriately acknowledged, this thesis is my own work, has been

expressed in my own words, and has not been previously been submitted for
assessment.
I understand that this paper may be screened electronically or otherwise for
plagiarism.

Medan,

December 2014

Rabiatul Adawiyah Multi Nst
Reg. No. 2103121037

ABSTRACT
Nasution, Rabiatul Adawiyah Multi. 2103121037. The Effect of Using Comic
Strips on Students’ Achievement in writing Narrative Text. A Thesis. English
Department. Faculty of Languages and Arts, State University of Medan.
2014.
This study is focused on the investigation of the effect of using comic strips on
students’ achievement in writing narrative text. This study aims at findings
whether using comic strips affect the students’ writing achievement or not. The

data which were needed in this study were obtained by conducting a written test.
The population was the 2014/2015 second year students (grade XI) of SMA N 1
Berastagi and 60 students were taken as the sample by using random sampling.
The sample was divided into two groups, experimental group and control group.
The experimental group was taught by using comic strips while the control group
was taught without using comic strips (conventional method). The data were taken
by administering the pre-test and post-test to both control and experimental
groups. These data were analyzed by using t-test. The result of computing the ttest obviously showed that t-observed is higher than t-table (3,08 > 1,67) with the
degree of freedom 58 (df = N-2) at the level significance 0,05 one tail test. It
showed that the using of science comic strips affects the students’ achievement in
writing narrative text.
Keywords: Comic Strips, Writing Narrative Text

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
All praise to Allah SWT who always gives me blessing, power, strength
and love in my entire life and in terms of my study, especially in completing this
thesis entitled “The Effect of Using Comic Strips on Students’ Achievement in
Writing Narrative Text” as one of the requirements for the degree of Sarjana

Pendidikan (S1) at English Department, Faculty of Language and Arts, State
University of Medan.
During the process of writing and conducting the research, the writer was
assisted and supported by many people. This Thesis could have not been
accomplished without guidance, suggestion, and comment from them, for which
the writer would like to express her sincere appreciation which directed to:









Prof. Dr. Ibnu Hajar Damanik, M.Si., the Rector of State University of
Medan.
Dr. Isda Pramuniati, M.Hum., the Dean of Language and Arts Faculty.
Prof. Dr. Hj. Sumarsih, M.Pd., the Head of English and Literature
Department.

Dra. Meisuri, M.A., the Secretary of English Department, her Academic
Consultant, and her Reviewer.
Dra. Masitowarni, M.Ed., the Head of English Education Study
Program.
Dr. Sri Minda Murni, M.S., her Thesis Consultant
Drs. Bachtiar, M.Pd., Dr. Anni H. Pulungan, M.Hum., her Thesis
Reviewers.



Mam Euis, the academic staff and administrative staff.



Alberto Colia, M.Pd., the Headmaster of SMA Negeri 1 Berastagi.



Julianus A. Sinurat, S.Pd., the English teacher of SMA Negeri 1
Berastagi.


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Her beloved daddy, Drs. M.Syarif, S.Ag., and her beloved mommy, Dra.
Khoiroh.
Her beloved brothers and sister, Jamil Adaby and Neina Indriani, Salwa
Rezeqi, M.Pd. and Sertu Amad Sholeh, M.Abduh Saf, M.Hi and
Arsyidny Ina Baroroh, S.Hi, M. Fadli Saf and Sry Widiarti S.Pd.
Her beloved nephews and niece, Gibril Khair, Syafiq Fa’iz, And
Rumaisa Syifa.
Her beloved friends Ayu Febriana, S.Pd., Desika Rinanda, S.Pd., M
Rizky Ridha, S.Pd., M. Akhyar Rasyidi, S.Pd., Widi Ayuningtyas,
S.Pd., Yusrumaida, S.Pd.
Overall, the writer hopes she can give a bit contribution to language

education, especially major of English.

Medan,
December 2014
The Researcher

Rabiatul Adawiyah Multi Nst
Reg. No. 2103121037

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Pages
ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................i
ACKNOWLEDGMENT ...................................................................................... ii
TABLE OF CONTENT………………………………………………………....iv
LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................vi
LIST OF APPENDICES .................................................................................... vii
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ....................................................................
A. The Background of The Study ...............................................................

B. The Problem of The Study .....................................................................
C. The Objective of The Study ...................................................................
D. The Scope of The Study .........................................................................
E. The Significance of The Study ...............................................................

1
1
4
4
4
5

CHAPTER II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE ............................ 6
A. Theoretical Framework .......................................................................... 6
1. Students’ achievement in Writing ..................................................... 6
2. Writing ............................................................................................ 7
a. Process of writing ...................................................................... 9
3. Genre Based Writing ........................................................................ 10
a. Narrative text ............................................................................. 12
b. Types of Narrative .................................................................... 15

4. The Assessment of Writing Narrative .............................................. 16
5. Comic as Media for Teaching Writing ............................................ 17
a. Visual Media .............................................................................. 18
b. Comic ......................................................................................... 19
c. Comic Strip ................................................................................ 22
d. Advantages of Using Comic in Teaching .................................. 23
e. Comic Strips in Teaching Writing Narrative ............................. 24
B. Relevant Studies...................................................................................... 26
C. Conceptual Framework ........................................................................... 28
D. Hypothesis ............................................................................................... 29
CHAPTER III. RESEARCH METHOD ........................................................ 30
A. Research Design ...................................................................................... 30
B. Population and Sample ........................................................................... 30
C. The Technique for Collecting Data ......................................................... 31
D. The Score of The Test ............................................................................. 31
E. The Procedure of The Test ...................................................................... 31
1. Pre-test .............................................................................................. 31
2. Treatment .......................................................................................... 32
3. Post-test ............................................................................................. 33
F. The Validity of The Test ......................................................................... 33


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1. Validity of The Test .......................................................................... 33
2. Reliability of The Test ...................................................................... 34
G. The Technique of Analyzing Data……………………………………... 35
CHAPTER IV. THE DATA AND DATA ANALYSIS.............................. ….36
A. The Data .............................................................................................. ….36
B. The Data Analysis ............................................................................... ….37
C. Testing Hypothesis .............................................................................. ….38
D. Research Findings ............................................................................... ….38
E. Discussion ........................................................................................... ….39
CHAPTER V. CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION ............................... ….41
A. Conclusions ......................................................................................... ….41
B. Suggestions ......................................................................................... ….41
References ............................................................................................... ….43
Appendix .................................................................................................. ….46

v


LIST OF TABLES
Pages
Table 3.1. Research Design ....................................................................................30
Table 3.2. Scoring of the Test ................................................................................31
Table 3.3. Procedure of Research ..........................................................................32

vi

LIST OF APPENDICES
Pages
APPENDIX A. The Calculation of Experimental Group .....................................46
APPENDIX B. The Calculation of Control Group ................................................47
APPENDIX C. Lesson Plan ..................................................................................48
APPENDIX D. Instrument of the Test ...................................................................81
APPENDIX E. Answer Sheets of Experimental Group.........................................82
APPENDIX F. Answer Sheets Pre-Test and Post-Test .........................................88
APPENDIX G. Percentage Points Distribution . ...................................................96

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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. The Background of the Study
Writing is an important skill in foreign language learning. Writing as a
part of the language skills beside listening, speaking and reading, must be taught
maximally by the teacher to the student. Students are expected to be competent
and to develop writing skill, it means they have to be able to convey their feelings,
ideas, and announcements to others. Sharples (2003:8) actually, writing is an
opportunity; it allows students can convey their ideas in their mind by organizing
them into a good text so that the others know them and they can think critically.
Oshima and Hogue (2007) states that writing particularly academic is not
easy. It is important to note that writing is a process, not a “product”. It takes
study and practice to develop this skill. Writing is never a one stop action, it is an
ongoing creative act. That is, it is always possible to review and revise, and
review and revise again.
Syllabus of senior high schools curriculum require students to be able to
write some kind of genre in writing, they are narrative, spoof, exposition, recount,
procedure, descriptive, news item, report, explanation, discussion and review.
Based on the explanation above, the narrative text is one genre that must be
mastered by student learning English.
In fact not all students were able to write narrative text properly and in
accordance with the exiting elements in the narrative text.
Based on the observation which had been conducted in grade XI of SMA
N 1 Berastagi, it was found that students’ ability in writing narrative text was low.
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Based on the data that found by asking English teacher about Students’
achievement in writing narrative text, it was found that their English score was
still low. Most of students got low score 65.00 and 70.00. the KKM of the school
was 75 for all the lesson. He said that the students understand about the text in
teachers’ explanation.

When He asked them to create a text, they found

difficulties on students’ achievement because they don’t understand clearly about
the text and how to make a text especially in narrative text. There were some
problems found by the teacher. First, the students still confused and did not know
how to begin and what to write. Second, some students were difficult to convey
their ideas in writing because they were lacks of vocabularies, tenses and difficult
to make sentences. They also thought that writing narrative was boring activity.
Teaching English especially writing skill should be distributed to the students by
using many creative techniques. Through that way, the students will be interested
in studying English. Language teacher all over the world give their students
materials providing visuals accompanied with the text. Also, most course books to
teach English contain visual materials to help students connect their attention to
reading passages (Merc, 2013)
The students need a new and a creative media to increase their motivation
and grades. The teachers should also be able to use some media of teaching.
Media is a tool for teaching and learning process. Picture is really useful ways to
prompt students into writing stories. Because picture can attract people to focus,
especially students, if they are showed picture they will give more attention in
seeing picture than read text. Picture can tell everything; hence in writing stories

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can help people imagine something told in the story. One of the reasons is that
condition will make students understand the dialogue easier which it is one of
basic competence that must be mastered by students (Harmer; 2003).
Comic is one of the many media to teach writing. It combined pictures and
sentence, so it will help the students to understand content and context that teacher
had taught easily. By using English comics students will be more interested and
more active in learning. They will feel something new and different from what
they usually get in their class. In this case, comic is a kind of media that can solve
the problem. So it can be a solution to solve this problem.
Reading comic is commonly preferred by most teenager learners.
Teaching English by using comic leads the students to understand the dialogue
taught by the teacher, the picture in the comic will help the students to
comprehend the meaning of words and the topic in the comic.
Some researchers have conducted studies about teaching through comic.
Megawati and Anugerahwati (2012) conducted a study and the result showed that
the using of comic strips gives contribution to the aspect of mechanics in writing
narrative, especially spelling and punctuation. The using of comic is also
considered good in assisting the students in understanding vocabulary since the
picture and the dialog cooperate with each other meaning that most of the
expressions shown by the characters reflect the content of the dialog. Versaci
(2001) also conducted a study about the use of comic and the result showed that
comic help students to develop much needed analytical and critical thinking skills.

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Comic invite students to participate meaningfully in a classroom discussion
precisely.
Espada (2003) conducted a study and the result showed that effective
cartoons and comic strips are amazingly simple, usually with a single message
and organized display that is easy to read and remember. For students, they might
be more understandable than newspaper article or a book. he wants to familiarize
teachers with use of cartoons and comic strips as a pedagogical resource.
Based on the explanation above, the using of comic especially comic strips
can be applied as interesting and effective media in teaching English, especially in
teaching writing. This research tries to find out whether the use of comic strips
can improve students’ narrative writing ability.
B. The Problem of the Study
The problem of the study was:
“Does the use of comics significantly effect the students’ achievement in writing
narrative text ?”
C. The Objective of the Study
The objective of the study was to find out the effect of using comic strips
on students’ achievement in writing narative text.
D. The Scope of the study
There are many kinds of genres in writing namely narrative,
argumentative, descriptive, exposition, recount, report, procedure etc, this study is
focused only on the writing of narrative texts specially in imaginary or fiction

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narrative. It is on the using of comic strips to writing narrative text to the eleventh
grade of SMA N 1 Berastagi to describe their competence.
E. The Significance of the Study
The study was useful for:
1) Theoretically, to help teacher/researcher find out the way of teaching
writing, especially narrative text.
2) Practically, it can be used comic strips as a media in teaching to increase
students’ ability in writing narrative text.
3) Other researcher can develop the related study to improve learning media.

CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

A. Conclusion
The main objective of this study was to determine whether there is any
difference in improvement of students’ ability in narrative text between the group
using comic strips and without using comic strips.
Based on the result of this study, the researcher found that the students’
achievement taught by using comic strips is higher than the students’ achievement
taught by without comic strips. It is indicated from analyzing the data statistically that
the result of calculation of t-test that t-observed value 3,08 is higher than t-table value
1.67 at the level of significant of 0.05, which implies that the alternative Hypothesis
(Ha) is accepted.

B. Suggestions
The study showed that the using comic strips could improve the students’
motivation and their ability in writing narrative text. Based on the conclusion given,
the writer suggests that:
1) The teacher to use media in teaching narrative text specially comic strips
because students feel new atmosphere in learning and they more motivated
and interested in learning narrative text.

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2) Those who are interested in carrying out further research related to this
study providing them with some valuable information needed.