The implementation of weekly diary to improve students` writing abilities in writing a recount text at eigth grade students of SMPN 1 Wungu - USD Repository

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  THE IMPLEMENTATION OF WEEKLY DIARY TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ WRITING ABILITIES

   IN RECOUNT TEXT AT EIGHTH GRADE STUDENTS OF SMPN 1 WUNGU A SARJANA PENDIDIKAN THESIS Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree in English Language Education

  By Nur Sekar Arum Eka Purikhawati

  Student Number: 091214151

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION

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   THE IMPLEMENTATION OF WEEKLY DIARY TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ WRITING ABILITIES

   IN RECOUNT TEXT AT EIGHTH GRADE STUDENTS OF SMPN 1 WUNGU A SARJANA PENDIDIKAN THESIS Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree in English Language Education

  By Nur Sekar Arum Eka Purikhawati

  Student Number: 091214151

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION

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STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY

  I honestly declare that this thesis, which I have written, does not contain the work or parts of the work of other people, except those cited in the quotations and the references, as a scientific paper should.

  Yogyakarta, July 29, 2013 The Writer

  Nur Sekar Arum Eka Purikhawati 091214151

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LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN

PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS

  Yang bertanda tangan dibawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma Nama : Nur Sekar Arum Eka Purikhawati Nomor Mahasiswa : 091214151 Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:

  

THE IMPLEMENTATION OF WEEKLY DIARY TO IMPROVE

STUDENTS’ WRITING ABILITIES IN RECOUNT TEXT AT EIGHTH

GRADE STUDENTS OF SMPN 1 WUNGU

  beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Sanata Dharma baik untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikan di internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin dari saya maupun memberikan royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencamtumkan nama saya sebagai penulis. Demikian pernyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya. Dibuat di Yogyakarta Pada tanggal: 29 Juli 2013 Yang menyatakan

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ABSTRACT

  Purikhawati, Nur Sekar Arum. 2013. The implementation of weekly diary

  assignment to improve students’ writing abilities at eighth grade students of

SMPN 1 Wungu. Yogyakarta: English Language Education Study Program,

Sanata Dharma University.

  Students of junior high school and senior high school learn English as the foreign language by listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Writing is the most influential skill for the students because writing is the assessment to measure how far the students understand to learn English. Therefore, the students should have good writing abilities. Unfortunately, based on the preliminary study conducted by the researcher in SMPN 1 Wungu, the students of class VIII D had some difficulties in writing a recount text. Their writing abilites were very poor because they were not accustomed to writing in English properly.

  This research has an objective to overcome the students’ problems in writing a recount text. The researcher offered the weekly diary assignment followed by the teacher’s feedback to solve their problems. The result of this research was used to answer the research question which is formed as to what extend the weekly diary improves students’ writing abilities in writing a recount text.

  In this research, the reseacher used classroom action research which was based on t he model of Riel’s action research to help the students to improve their writing abilities through the weekly diary assignment. This research consisted of three cycles. The participants were 19 students of VIII D of SMPN 1 Wungu. The data was collected by using some instruments like observation, questionnaires, interviews, field notes, and the students’ writing in their diaries.

  The researcher conducted learning activities using the genre-based approach. During eight meetings of the class, the implementation of weekly diary assignment followed by the teacher’s feedback showed that it was successful to overcome students’ problem in writing a recount text. At the end of the research, the students could improve their writing abilities. They were accustomed to writing in English properly so that they were able to express their idea into English sentences properly. The weekly diary assignment which asked the students to write a recount text twice a week worked based on behaviorism theories. Moreover, in the third cycle, 16 students could pass the minimum passing grade of this school (70). The researcher suggested the other English teachers use the weekly diary assignment to help the students to improve their writing abilities in writing a recount text.

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ABSTRAK

  Purikhawati, Nur Sekar Arum. 2013. The implementation of weekly diary

  assignment to improve s tudents’ writing abilities at eighth grade students of

SMPN 1 Wungu. Yogyakarta: English Language Education Study Program,

Sanata Dharma University.

  Siswa SMP dan SMA mempelajari bahasa Inggris sebagai bahasa asing dengan menyimak, berbicara, membaca, dan menulis. Menulis adalah kemampuan yang paling berpengaruh pada siswa karena menulis merupakan sarana tolak ukur seberapa jauh pemahaman siswa dalam belajar bahasa Inggris. Oleh karena itu, siswa seharusnya memiliki kemampuan menulis dalam bahasa Inggris yang baik. Sayangnya, berdasarkan studi awal yang dilakukan oleh peneliti di SMPN 1 Wungu, siswa kelas VIII D mempunyai beberapa kesulitan dalam menulis teks

  

recount. Kemampuan menulis mereka sangat rendah dikarenakan mereka tidak

terbiasa menulis dalam bahasa Inggris dengan benar.

  Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengatasi masalah siswa dalam menulis teks

  

recount. Peneliti menawarkan latihan menulis buku harian mingguan diikuti

  dengan feedback dari guru. Hasil dari penelitian ini digunakan untuk menjawab rumusan masalah dengan formasi pertanyaan sebagai berikut: bagaimana buku harian mingguan meningkatkan kemampuan siswa dalam menulis teks recount.

  Pada penelitian ini, peneliti menggunakan riset tindakan kelas dari Riel untuk mengatasi masalah siswa tersebut. Penelitian ini terdiri dari tiga siklus. Peserta dari penelitian ini adalah semua siswa (19 anak) kelas VIIID SMPN 1 Wungu. Data-data yang diperoleh dikumpulkan melalui beberapa instrumen seperti pengamatan kelas, kuesioner, wawancara, catatan lapangan, dan tulisan para siswa pada buku harian mereka.

  Peneliti melakukan kegiatan belajar mengajar menggunakan genre-based

  

approach. Selama delapan kali tatap muka, penerapan buku harian mingguan

  yang diikuti dengan feedback dari guru menunjukkan kesuksesannya dalam mengatasi masalah siswa pada saat menulis teks recount. Di akhir penelitian, siswa mampu meningkatkan kemampuan menulis mereka. Mereka menjadi terbiasa menulis dalam bahasa Inggris dengan benar sehingga mereka dapat dengan mudah menuangkan ide mereka dalam bahasa Inggris yang baik dan benar. Latihan menulis buku harian mingguan yang meminta siswa untuk menulis teks recount dua kali seminggu ini, menggunakan teori behaviorism. Kemudian, pada siklus ketiga, 16 siswa mampu menuntaskan nilai di atas kriteria ketuntasan minimalnya, yaitu, 70. Peneliti menyarankan agar guru-guru bahasa Inggris menggunakan latihan menulis buku harian mingguan untuk membantu siswa meningkatakan kemampuan menulis menulis teks recount.

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  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  First of all, I would like to send my gratitude to ALLAH S.W.T, who has blessed me with everything in my life especially when I had finished this thesis. I believe that I could not have passed this process without the blessing from ALLAH S.W.T.

  I would also like to thank my surpervisor, Ag. Hardi Prasetyo, S.Pd.,

  

M.A. for all of his kindness to give me some help, motivation, guidance, and

  suggestions during the writing of this thesis. I would also like to present my thankfulness to the students of class VIII D of SMPN 1 Wungu 2012/2013 Academic Year who had been very welcoming and nice to me. I would also like to thank Drs. Heru Suprobo, the Principal of SMPN 1 Wungu for allowing me to conduct the research in SMPN 1 Wungu. My gratitude also goes to Dra. Dwi

  

Isnawati, who allowed me to use her class to conduct the research. I also address

  my thankfulness to Bapak Irfan (Director of Sibford English), who proofread my thesis.

  Then, I really thank Caecilia Tutyandari, S.Pd., M.Pd., Drs. Barli

  

Bram, M.Ed., Ph.D., Henny Herawati, S.Pd., M.Hum., and Laurentia

Sumarni, S.Pd., M. Trans., the lecturers of the English Language Education

  Study Program of Sanata Dharma University for the suggestions.

  My greatest gratitude goes to my beloved family, especially my parents,

  

Bapak Purwanto, Ibu Ririk, and my Grandmother for their great love,

  patience, support, lesson about life, and many other things that will never be enough to be written in this paper. I am so proud of being their daughter. I also thank my lovely little sister, Anisa, for always acting as my older sister, being more mature than me and giving me support when I was distressed. I present my

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  The thankfulness also goes to my lovely friends in PBI, especially Pipup,

  

Helen, Itak, Niken, Priska, Berta, Deny, Bruder Markus, and Leo, who have

  taught me about valued life and friendship, Mbak Si. who helped me to prepare the presentation,

  PBI’ 09, whose name I can not write one by one. I will be nothing without all of them. I am very lucky to meet them in my life.

  I will always remember all of the lecturers in PBI who have shared everything and make me ‘fall in love’ with English and teaching. Their great attention has strengthened me a lot. I also thank all of my teachers from TK, SD,

  SMP, and SMA for guiding me to become a ‘real human’. I am very proud of being one of their students. I also thank Bapak Jatmiko for helping me to conduct the research.

  I would like to thank PBI secretariat staff, Mbak Dhanniek and Mbak

  

Tari, who have helped me to manage all of the things related to administration. I

  also address my thankfulnes to the staff of Sanata Dharma Library for their friendly and warm services.

  Nur Sekar Arum Eka Purikhawati

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Page TITLE PAGE............................................................................................. i APPROVAL PAGES................................................................................. ii iv STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY.........................................

  

PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI.......................................... v

  ABSTRACT............................................................................................... vi

  

ABSTRAK ................................................................................................... vii

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS....................................................................... viii TABLE OF CONTENTS........................................................................... x LIST OF TABLES..................................................................................... xiii LIST OF PICTURES................................................................................. xiv LIST OF APPENDICES............................................................................ xv CHAPTER I.

  INTRODUCTION A.

  1 Research Background............................................

  B.

  6 Research Problem...................................................

  C.

  6 Problem Limitation................................................

  D.

  7 Research Objectives...............................................

  E.

  7 Research Benefits...................................................

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  CHAPTER II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE A. Theoretical Description.......................................... 13 1. Teaching Writing.................................................... 13 a. The Nature of Writing..................................... 13 b. Genre Based Approach................................... 16 2. Recount Text.......................................................... 19 3. Weekly Diary Assignment..................................... 19 4. Teacher’s Feedback................................................ 22 a. The Meaning of Feedback................................ 22 b. The Types of Feedback.................................... 22 5. Behaviorism Theories............................................ 25 6. Classroom Action Research................................... 26 a. The Definition of Classroom Action Research 27 b. Models of Action Research.............................. 28 B. Theoretical Framework.......................................... 29 CHAPTER III. METHODOLOGY A. Research Method.................................................... 31 B. Research Setting..................................................... 33 C. Research Participants............................................. 34 D. and Data Gathering Instruments Technique...............................................................

  34

  CHAPTER IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION A. The Results of the Implementation of Weekly Diary Assignment Followed by Teacher’s Feedback................................................................

  46 B. The Process of the Implementation of Weekly Diary Assignment...................................................

  59 CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS A.

  Conclusions........................................................... 86 B. Recommendations................................................. 88

  REFERENCES ............................................................................................ 89

  

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  LIST OF TABLES Table

  Page Table 3.1 The Sample of Questionnaire in Preliminary Study.........

  35 Table 3.2 The Sample of Questionnaire in the End of the Research

  36 Table 3.3 The Sample of Observation Checklist for Observing Students.............................................................................

  38 Table

  3.4 The Sample of Observation Checklist for Observing the Researcher.........................................................................

  39 Table 3.5 The Procedure of Weekly Diary Assignment...................

  44 Table

  4.1 The Students’ Score from the First Cyle – the Third Cycle.................................................................................

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  LIST OF PICTURES Picture

  Page Picture 2.1 The Genre Based Approach Scheme..............................

  17 Picture 2.2

  28 Margaret Riel’s Action Research....................................

  LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix

  Page Appendix 1 Covering Letter for the Head of SMP N 1 Wungu.....

  92 Appendix 2 Research Official Statement from SMP N 1 Wungu...........................................................................

  94 Appendix 3 Lesson Plans of Cycle I..................................................

  96 Appendix 4 Observation Sheets and Field Notes of Cycle I............ 115 Appendix 5 Lesson Plans of Cycle II................................................. 126 Apendix

  6 Observation Sheets and Field Notes of Cycle II........... 138 Appendix 7 Lesson Plans of Cycle III............................................... 146 Appendix 8 Observation Sheets and Field Notes of Cycle III......... 164 Appendix 9 Preliminary and Post Research Questionnaires............. 175 Appendix 10 The Raw Data of Questionnaires................................... 181 Appendix 11 Interview Guides and Transcripts in Preliminary and

  Post Research................................................................ 188 Appendix 12 Sample of Students’ Writing in Preliminary Study.......

  203 Appendix 13 Sample of Students’ Diaries..........................................

  205

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION In this chapter, the researcher will discuss the research background, the

  problem formulation, the limitation of the study, the objectives of the study, the benefits of the study, and the definition of terms.

A. Research Background

  Nowadays, Indonesian students start to learn English in the third grade of elementary school. When they learn English in junior high school and senior high school, they will learn it through some skills, namely listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Each skill is represented in the curriculum as written in the standard competence. All of the skills can help the students to face the competition and become one of the supporting factors to be successful in the global era where English is the lingua franca.

  In this global era, students should have good writing abilities because the ability to write effectively is something which is required most (Hyland, 2003, p.

  3). According to Hyland (2003), people communicate and share their ideas through the global digital network which depends on good writing skills (p. 3). It means that people who have good abilities in writing will be more successful in

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  Writing texts is the examples of writing activities for students in junior high school and senior high school. As stated in the curriculum of junior high school and senior high school, the students have to learn some kinds of texts like recount, narrative, descriptive, etc. Moreover, Raimes (1983) states it was very important to include writing as a part of second-language syllabus because writing can help the students to learn English by reinforcing the grammatical structures, idioms, and vocabulary (p. 4).

  Recount is an example of text which is taught in junior high school and senior high school. It belongs to factual genres. Butt et al., (2000) and Martin (1989) state the purpose of a recount text is to reconstruct past experiences by retelling events in original sequences (as cited in Hyland, 2003, p. 20). At the end of the texts, the students have to give their personal comments and share their ideas about the events.

  A good ability in writing a recount text is required as the representation of the standard compentence in both junior and senior high school curriculum for English subject. In junior high school curriculum, standard competence number 12 states that the students have to be able to express the meaning of written functional text and simple short essays in the form of recount and narrative to communicate in the students‟ daily life and the academic context. One of the activities is writing their personal experiences in the form of a recount text in 101-

  150 words.

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  female students. The school is located in the suburb area.When she observed the class, she found that the students had some difficulties in writing a recount text.

  At the first time, the researcher asked the English teacher of VIII D about the students‟ problems in class. The teacher said that the students had some difficulties in the writing activities because their writing abilities were very low. They were sometimes confused to write their ideas into English correctly.

  After conducting an observation, what the teacher had said was proved that the students had low abilities in writing a recount text. The teacher of the class asked the students to write their personal experiences in the form of a recount text. The results were not satisfying enough. The researcher was very surprised to see that they could not differenciate the tenses used in a recount text. Moreover, they did not know how to arrange words to be a good sentence in English. Their stories could not be understood. All of the students

  ‟ scores were under the minimum passing grade of this school, 70.

  Based on the observation, the students got writing exercise once during learning the materials of a recount text. Writing activity was getting harder for them because they did not get any feedback and they did not know what their mistakes were. As a result, they failed almost in all elements of writing text, such as the language feature, the content, or the ideas in writing a recount text. Then, their writing abilities never improved.

  The writing abilities are determined by some elements which have to be

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  the content and the language feature like the grammar, the vocabulary, the mechnics of a recount text as stated by Umiyatun (2011) Writing is a skill for the students to express their ideas in written form that involves the mastery of all elements in the target language: as grammar, content, organization, vocabulary, punctuation, spelling and mechanics (p. 18).

  Umiyatun writes that grammar, content, organization, vocabulary, punctuation, spelling, and mechanics belong to the elements in writing in the target language. Besides, Raimes (1983) states there are some elements which have to be dealt with in writing like content, syntax, grammar, mechanics, organization, and word choices (p. 6). Moreover, some of those elements above will be presented to analyze students‟ writing later on.

  The researcher used Brown and Bailey (1984, pp. 39-41) scoring profile in the form of rubric to analyze students‟ writing abilities (as cited in Brown, 2007, pp. 144-145). The elements which have to be analyzed are the organization, the content, grammar, mechanics, and vocabulary. It was aimed at helping the researcher to analyze the improvement of students‟ writing abilities in the recount text. The elements of writing stated in this rubric have the similar elements of writing stated by Raimes (1983, p. 6).

  The researcher distributed some questionnaires to check whether they had problems on writing a recount text. Then, the result showed that all of the students had problems on all elements of writing text such as the grammar, the organization, the content, the mechanics, and the vocabulary.

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  order, vocabulary, mechanics, and organization in writing a recount text. The teacher sometimes had to explain the sentence structure from the basic sentence pattern of simple present tense to make them understand how to make a good sentence in English. Besides, they were not accustomed to writing in English.

  They were too afraid of making some mistakes in writing a recount text. They should have written more in English, especially in writing a recount text.

  In the first recount text writing assignment given by the teacher, all of the students in VIII D could not pass the minimum passing grade of this school. The researcher had to help the students to improve their writing abilities. Then, the researcher was motivated to conduct classroom action research to overcome their problems. Classroom action research was suitable because the basic concept of action research is to improve something in teaching learning activities.

  The genre based approach is the approach to teach writing, especially writing text. The last stage of this approach is independent construction of the text. In this stage, students have to produce their own writing. The researcher offered a writing strategy to improve the students‟ writing abilities in writing a recount text. It was the weekly diary assignment. This assignment provided the students an exercise to write a recount text in the form of a diary. This activity belonged to independent construction of the text.

  This strategy helped the students to improve their writing abilities in writing a recount text by making them accustom to writing in English. This

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  Being accustomed to writing in English is not enough if the results are not satisfying enough, for example their sentences are not grammatical. This strategy improved the students‟ writing abilities followed by the teacher‟s feedback. According to Lewis (2002), “feedback is an ongoing form of assessment which is more focussed than marks or grades” (p. 1). It means that feedback can provide some information about students‟ mistakes in writing their past experiences in the form of a recount text. Giving feedback can give some enormous effects to the students‟ writing abilities. The weekly diary assignment which worked based on behaviorism theory is a solution offered by the researcher to improve the students‟ writing abilities of VIII D in writing a recount text.

  B. Problem formulation

  The researcher wanted to solve the problems faced by students of class

  VIII D of SMPN 1 Wungu in writing a recount text. This study would answer the major question. It is to what extent the weekly di ary followed by teacher‟s feedback improves students‟ writing abilities in writing a recount text.

  C. Problem limitation

  This study was conducted to solve the problems faced by the students of

  VIII D of SMPN 1 Wungu in Madiun which consists of ten female students and nine male students. The researcher limited this research on the participants and

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  organization. Therefore, the researcher worked in the writing activities, especially writing a recount text.

  D. Research objectives

  At the end of this study, the researcher hoped that the implementation of weekly diary fo llowed by teachers‟ feedback was able to improve the students‟ writing abilities including the grammar, the vocabulary, the mechanics, the content, and the organization in a recount text. The weekly diary followed by teachers‟ feedback is a solution for the students‟ problems in writing a recount text. The researcher wanted to improve the students‟ writing abilities in order to make the students were able to write their past experiences properly in writing a recount text.

  F. Research benefits

  This study gives some benefits towards some people. They are: 1.

   The Students of Class VIII D in SMPN 1 Wungu

  After following the implementation of weekly diary followed by teac hers‟ feedback, the students were able to write a recount text in the better grammar, vocabulary, content, mechanics, and organization. Then, their writing abilities would improve.

2. The Researcher

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  recount text. The researcher herself could identify some important things related to English learning activities, in the field of writing activities. The researcher could give some inspiration for the other researchers or teachers to teach writing a recount text.

  3. English Language Education Study Program

  The researcher hopes that this study will give an additional reference for English Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University. The students of this study program are qualified to be the future English teachers. They can take the benefit of this study which shows that there is a technique to improve students‟ writing abilities through the weekly diary assignment followed by the teacher‟s feedback.

  4. The English Teachers in SMPN 1 Wungu

  The teachers can use the weekly diary assignment followed by the teachers‟ feedback to teach writing, especially in a recount text. This assignment will help the teachers to know each student

  ‟s writing abilities through their diaries. The teachers will be closer to their students through this assignment.

  5. The Other Researchers

  This study can be a reference for the other researchers who want to work in teaching writing. Everyone can use this study to help them to find any sources related to this working field.

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  F Definition of terms .

  This research has the title as “the implementation of weekly diary to improve students‟ writing abilities of VIII D in SMPN 1 Wungu in a recount text” using classroom action research.

  1. Classroom Action Research

  Schmuck (1997) describes action research as “an attempt to study a real school situation with a view to improve the quality of actions and results within it” (as cited in Schmidt, 2002, p. 1). Parson & Brown (2002) add that “the clear strength of action research is that it is reflective and collaborative and that it can ultimately lead to improvements in educational practice

  ”. It means that this type of research was appropriate to help the researcher to find the answer of the problem formulation.

  There are some types of classroom action research. In this research, the researcher used Margaret Riel‟s (2007) action research to solve the problem of students of class VIII D of SMPN 1 Wungu. The cycles consisted of planning, taking action, collecting evidence, and reflecting.

  2. Writing

  According to Lingulinks (1999), writing is “specific abilities which help researchers to put their thoughts into words in a meaningful form and to mentally interact with the message

  ” (as cited in Khomariah, 2012, p. 20). Hampton (1989, p.1) also divides writing skills in three kinds. They are :

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• for writing include recognizing the linear sequence of sounds, mastering writing motions and letter shapes, recognizing the chunking of words, recognizing the need for space between words
• writing quickly
• Creativity skills for writing include the ability to write freely anything the learner wants to write.

  In this research, the researcher worked in writing text, especially the recount text. The students produced their writing in the form of a recount text through the weekly diary assignment.

3. Weekly Diary

  According to Tatum (2003), diary is A diary, or journal, is a permanent personal record that is kept of events, thoughts, and ideas associated with an individual. While some cultures think of diaries as being mainly a female pastime, the fact is that journaling or keeping a diary is an activity that people of both genders engage in regularly (p. 1). From the explanation above, the diary is the same as journal which can help people to keep their memories in a written form. That is an uncommon way to attract the students

  ‟ attention to write. Both male or female students can conduct this assignment. Besides, the form of diary assignment is appropriate to tell the students‟ past experiences in the form of a recount text. People usually use a diary as the media to write their past experiences.

  Th e students‟ diaries would be submitted twice a week followed by the teachers‟ feedback. According to Irons (2010), feedback is “information a student receives after they have completed a piece of work and can be provided in a range o f formats”(p. 1). This research would help the students of VIII D to improve their

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  The researcher hoped that this strategy could motivate them to have some good willingness to write better. The improvement would appear from their diaries week by week.

4. Recount Text

  Anderson (1997:48) explains that a recount is a writing about past events or text which retells past events, usually written orderly (as cited in Indah, 2010, p. 21). Recount text is a kind of text which is used to tell students‟ personal experiences in the past. Echols (1957:471) states that the recount text can tell oneself adventure or the day‟s activities (as cited in Indah, 2010, p. 21). The purposes of this text are to inform the readers and entertain the readers. According to Derewinka (1990: 15-17) there are three types of recount. They are personal recount, factual recount, and imaginative recount (as cited in Indah, 2010, p. 22).

  The curriculum of junior high school for English has stated that recount is one example of a short essay which should be taught through four skills, namely listening speaking, reading, and writing. There are some elements in a recount text which should be mastered by the students. If they had covered all of those elements, it means that they have had good writing skills. Then, it can be said that their writing abilities are good enough, as stated by Umiyatun (2011),

  Writing is a skill for the students to express their ideas in written form that involves the mastery of all elements in the target language: as grammar, content, organization, vocabulary, punctuation, spelling, and mechanics

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  According to Brown and Bailey (1984) scoring profile, the elements are grammar including the word order, vocabulary, mechanics, content, and organization (as cited in Brown, 2007, pp.144-145)

  . The students‟ writing abilities (grammar, vocabulary, mechanics, content, and organization) are very low. They needed to improve their writing abilities in order to make a good recount text so that they could overcome their problems in writing a recount text.

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CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE This chapter will discuss the theories which are used by the researcher to

  conduct this research. Moreover, this chapter helps the researcher to answer the research question. This second chapter consists of two parts. The first part is the theoretical description and the second one is the theoretical framework.

A. Theoretical Description

  There are several theories used by the researcher. The discussions of the theories will support the researcher to answer the research question. The researcher discusses teaching writing, recount text, weekly diary assignment, teacher‟s feedback, behaviorism theory, and classroom action research.

1. Teaching Writing a. The Nature of Writing Naturally, people communicate with others by speaking toward each other.

  Then, they have language as the instrument to communicate with others. Besides, human also communicates by writing. Therefore, students should be able to speak and write properly in learning English as the foreign language.

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  According to Hyland (2002), in teaching writing, the teacher should act as facilitator and give some freedom to the students to build some meanings by themselves.

  Learn t, not taught, and the teachers‟ role is to be non-directive and facilitating, providing writers with the space to make their own meanings through an encouraging, positive and cooperative environment with minimal interference (p. 1).

  Scholes and Comley (1985 ) write “writing is not simply frozen speech” (P. 3)

  . They stated that writing is more “thoughtful” activity than speaking. They gave an example about sending a message. When people receive a message written by a same person, they have to read it and each person who reads the message will speak it by their own voices. The result is that the message will be no longer the same as the writer writes it first because every person has their own thinking to analyze it. It makes writing as a “thoughtful” activity. Therefore, the students as learners in EFL have to learn writing properly. They hopefully can write in English properly. Raimes (1983) states that after being able to write in English properly, the students write to communicate with a reader, to express ideas without face to face, to explore a subject, to record experience, to become familiar with text in English (p. 4). In this study, the researcher wanted to improve the students‟ writing abilities in writing a recount text. It was related to those reasons as stated by Raimes (1983) that the students write to record experience and to become familiar with text in English. Then, this research helped the students to improve their writing abilities which were bad.

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  Bigs and Moore (1993) state Ability refers to a characteristic derived from narrower range of tests, such as verbal, spatial, or musical tests. Abilities are hypothetical characteristic that are invoked to explain why some individuals do better on specified kinds of performance (p. 151).

  Moreover, Bigs and Moore (1993) cite that writing abilities involves a large number of what are called rhetorical skills: handwriting, spelling, punctuation, word choice, syntax, textual connections, purpose, organisation, clarity and reader characteristics.

  Besides, Raimes (1983) also states the writers have to deal with certain things when they produce a piece of writing. They are including the content (relevance, clarity, originality, logic, etc.), the syntax( sentence structure, stylistic choices, etc.), the grammar (rules of verbs, agreement, articles, pronouns, etc.), the mechanics (handwriting, spelling, punctuation, etc.), the organization (paragraphs, topic and support, cohesion and unity), and the word choices (vocabulary, idiom, tune), the writer‟s process, the audience, and the purpose.

  Those things above can be the measurement of students‟ writing abilities.

  Moreover, the researcher analyzed the improvement of the students‟ writing abilities and gave the score based on

  Brown & Bailey‟s scoring rubric. It is one type of analytic scoring uses rubric. In this scoring rubric, the elements that should be analyzed in students‟ writing are the organization, the content, the grammar (including sentence structure), the mechanics, and the vocabulary. They are almost same with the the elements of writing written by Raimes (1983).

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b. The Genre-Based Approach

  In this study, the researcher used the genre-based approach to teach writing in the class. Hyland (2003) organized L2 writing teaching around a different focus (p. 22):

   Language structures  Text functions  Themes or topics  Creative expression  Composing processes  Content  Genre and contexts of writing

  From those approaches above, this research used the genre and the contexts of writing because the researcher had t o solve the students‟ problem in writing a recount text. In the genre based approach, the students write to achieve some purposes. The writers will follow certain social conventions for organizing messages to make the readers recognize the purpose of the writing. This is called by genre. In the classroom, the teachers will focus on text (Hyland, 2003, p.18).

  In writing a text, the students also have to know the language features of the text. Hyland (2003) states “grammar is important, but presented as a way of giving learners the language they need to construct central genres and to reflect on how language is used to accomplish this” (p. 22). Therefore, the researcher used Brown and Bailey

  ‟s scoring rubric to accomplish the teaching writing activity through the genre based approach.

  In the genre based approach, the teaching learning cycles are divided into

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  approach into building the context, modeling and deconstructing the text, joint construction of the text, independent construction of the text, linking related texts (as cited in Hyland, 2003, p. 21). This is the picture of the genre-based approach diagram :

  

Picture 2.1

Source: Feez, 1998: 28

  The researcher conducted the teaching activities using some cycles of genre based approach. They are building the context, modeling of the text, joint construction of the text, and independent construction of the text. The researcher used building the context because it could help the researcher to introduce the text as the materials to the students by asking their background knowledge of the text. The researcher did not use linking to other texts because the researcher only needed to analy ze students‟ improvement until independent construction of the text.

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  language feature (Hyland, 1993, p. 138). At this stage, the teacher can give some tasks related to the text.

  In joint construction of the text, the teacher and the students can compose a text together. The students are also able to work together with their friends. In this stage, the teacher should guide them to plan the draft together. Hyland (2003) states

  “the students are guided through all steps of the planning and drafting process, developing a text together through composition heuristic task and teacher questions which shape the text” (p. 138).

  In independent construction of the text, the students have to work by themselves. The teacher‟s scaffolding has to be removed. The teacher can monitor and evaluate their progress. The teacher also can provide some feedback for them. In the last stage, linking to other texts, the students have to compare the text to other text. In this research, the researcher did not need to do it because the students

  ‟ improvements were only analyzed until the stage of independent construction of the text.