34 According to Wright 1989: 188-192 pictures have three functions that
can be used by the teacher. First, pictures can be used to get students’ personal response. Pictures can encourage students to have questions in their mind about
the pictures which are displayed. Second, pictures can be used to illustrate an object, action, quality, and etc. Third, pictures can be used by the students to
imply an idea. Another benefit of using picture series in teaching and learning writing states by Raimes and Moss. Raimes 1983: 36 says that picture series
provides a variety of guided and non-guided free writing exercises. Moss in Davison and Dowson 2003: 150 says that picture series can be used in teaching
retrospective writing such as diary and journal writing. Pictures series is one of the media that can be used in teaching and
learning to improve students’ writing ability. For the students, Picture series is very helpful. It can be used to generate their ideas and lead the students to write
in correct sequences. Moreover, picture series is one of interesting media that can raise students’ motivation in learning. For the teacher, picture series is very
useful in teaching writing particularly in teaching recount text, because picture series contains a sequence of events. By using picture series the teacher can make
and develop various tasks, for example, drill, communicative game, discussion, free-writing, etc. In conclusion, picture series is a suitable media that can be used
in teaching and learning process to improv e students’ writing ability.
35
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD
A. Type of the Research
This research was an action research study. This research tried to improve the
students’ writing ability of grade VIII of SMP Pembangunan Piyungan in the academic year of 20142015. This research adopted cyclical action research model
proposed by Kemmis and McTaggart 1998 in Burns 2010: 8. The researcher and another research team member collaboratively found the obstacles and
weaknesses of the writing learning process, identified the problems, planned and implemented the action. After that, the researcher and the collaborator made
evaluation, reflection and discussion related to the action implemented. B.
Setting of the Research
SMP Pembangunan Piyungan is one of the private junior high schools in Srimartani village, Piyungan, Bantul, Yogyakarta. This school is under Lembaga
Pendidikan Ma’arif NU foundation. SMP Pembangunan Piyungan was established on 1
st
July 1981. This school has been using 2013 Curriculum since 2014. SMP Pembangunan Piyungan has twelve classrooms that divided for three
grades. There are four classrooms for grade VII, four classrooms for grade VIII, and four classrooms for grade IX. The total of all students in SMP Pembangunan
are 416 students. There are 27 teachers, one headmaster, and 15 staff in SMP Pembangunan
Piyungan. Three of the teachers are English teachers. One teacher is responsible for each grade which consists of several classes in this school. Based on the
36 observation, all of the three English teachers often used LKS Lembar Kerja
Siswa and rarely used other material sources in the teaching and learning process. SMP Pembangunan Piyungan also has several facilities such as two computer
rooms and five LCD projectors. But those facilities cannot support the teaching and learning process yet. The teachers have to take turn in using those facilities
especially in using the LCD projectors.
C. Participant of the Research
The participants of the research were the students of VIII A class of SMP Pembangunan Piyungan. The class consists of 35 students. The headmaster
suggested the researcher to choose VIII A class as the subject research because VIII A class was the easiest class to manage than the other classes. The researcher
collaborated with the English teacher of VIII A class in conducting the research.
D. Time of the Research
The research was conducted in the second semester of the academic year 2014 2015. The observations were conducted in two phase. The first phase of the
observation was conducted in March 2014 before the researcher conducted Practicum of TEFL program in SMP Pembangunan Piyungan. The second phase
was conducted in October 2014 to get up-to-date problems of the class. Then, the action was conducted from January to March 2015. The researcher carried out the
action based on the school schedule and curriculum.
