USING PICTURES TO IMPROVE WRITING A DESCRIPTIVE TEXT A RESEARCH ARTICLE By: HERKULANUS AKIM NIM F1021131095

USING PICTURES TO IMPROVE WRITING
A DESCRIPTIVE TEXT

A RESEARCH ARTICLE

By:
HERKULANUS AKIM
NIM F1021131095

ENGLISH EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM
LANGUAGES AND ARTS EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION FACULTY
TANJUNGPURA UNIVERSITY
PONTIANAK
2017

2

USING PICTURES TO IMPROVE WRITING
A DESCRIPTIVE TEXT

Herkulanus Akim, Albert Rufinus, Yanti Sri Rezeki
English Education Study Program FKIP Untan Pontianak
Email: Herkulanus.hh@gmail.com

Abstract
The purpose of this thesis was to improve students’ descriptive text writing by using
pictures of grade 10A of SMAN 1 Kayan Hulu in the academic year 2016/ 2017. From the
pre-observation interview, the writer found that the students had problems in using present
tense and in differentiating the generic structure of descriptive text. Then, most of them
lacked imagination and felt difficult to transfer their thoughts onto writing. This research
was conducted through Classroom Action Research in two cycles. The participants of this
research were 32 students in class 10A. The writer used measurement and observation
technique to collect the data. He found that the students still had some problems of their
writing in the first cycle, including generic structure, simple present tense, and the media
used. To solve the students’ problem, the teacher decided to give more explanation about
the use of simple present tense and generic structure of descriptive text, the teacher also
asked the students to bring a dictionary in order to help the students in constructing a
sentence. As a result in the second cycle,the students could write a descriptive text with
good grammar and organization. In the first cycle, the students’ mean score was 59.68, it
increased to 73.59 in the second cycle. In conclusion, the use of pictures improved the

students’ writing of descriptive text.
Keywords: Descriptive Text Writing, Pictures, Classroom Action Research

Writing is one of English language skills
to express or to transfer thoughts and feelings.
As Harmer (2004) stated, writing is a form of
communication to deliver thought or to
express feeling through written form.
Therefore, it is important for students who
study a language to learn writing in order to
help them communicate in the written form.
In senior high school, writing is learning
the types of texts including descriptive text.
Based on Competency Standard – Standar
Kompetensi (SK) and Basic Competency Kompetensi Dasar (KD) Depdiknas (2006)
the first grade students in high school are
expected to be able to express meaningful
ideas in terms of functional text and create
short story in the form of descriptive text to
interact each other or people in their nearest

environment. Based on the observation on the
tenth grade students of SMAN 1 Kayan Hulu,

an English teacher stated that many students
have problems and difficulties in writing a
descriptive text. The teacher said that the
students often made mistakes in using present
tense and in differentiating the generic
structure of descriptive text Then most of
them lacked imagination and felt difficult to
transfer their thoughts onto writing.
Consequently, the students often made
mistakes when they write a descriptive text.
As stated by Bachani (2003) writing is
slightly different from speaking in term of
communication context. Speaking is always
intended for face-to-face communication
among the audience present, while writing is
always used by the writers to express and
communicate their ideas to the readers who

are actually separated by both time and space
distances. Therefore it requires clearer and
more comprehensive message. In addition as
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Brown (2001, p. 335) “ Written products as
the result of thinking, drafting, and revising
procedures that require specialized skills,
skills that not every speaker develops
naturally.” That statement shows that writing
is not a simple and instant process. Therefore,
to be able to write something good, students
must do a lot of practices. It is done to get
them used to write anything in the wellordered steps. There are six steps of creating
written work. There are drafting, structuring,
reviewing, focusing, generating ideas and
evaluation. As a conclusion, writing is a
productive skill that must be mastered by the
students who learning English as a foreign
language that involved the process of

thinking, drafting, and revising.
Descriptive text is one of writing skills
that should be learned by senior high school
students. Based on Competency Standard –
Standar Kompetensi (SK) and Basic
Competency - Kompetensi Dasar (KD)
(Depdiknas, 2006) the first grade students in
high school are expected to be able to express
meaningful ideas in terms of functional text
and create short story in the form of

descriptive text to interact each other or
people in their nearest environment.
Descriptive text is one of the ways to tell about
something by giving more details so we can
visualize what it actually looks, what its taste,
and etc through our senses.
According
to
Mukarto

(2007),
descriptive text is a kind of text to describe
something, someone or place. Descriptive text
has two main parts, they are identification and
description. The structure of a text is called the
generic structure.
It can be assumed that each kind of
descriptive text writing has different purposes
and a suitable descriptive detail can strengthen
the main idea. Dietsh (2003, p. 139) states “A
successful description has a purpose: giving
details to the thesis or the point of the
description so the reader will catch the
message”.
The purpose of descriptive text is to
describe and reveal a particular person, place,
or thing. Then Dietsh (2003, p. 143) mentions
that, however, another source divides several
purposes of description, and it can be seen as
follows:

Table 1. The Purposes of Descriptive Text
Purpose
To entertain
To express feelings

Description
An amusing description of a Teenager’s bedroom
A description of your favorite outdoor retreat so your
reader understands why you enjoy it so much
To relate experience
A description of your childhood home to convey a
sense of the poverty you grew up in
To inform (for the reader unfamiliar with A description of a newborn calf for a reader who has
the subject)
never seen one
To inform (to create a fresh appreciation A description of an apple to help the reader rediscover
for the familiar)
the joys of this simple fruit
To persuade (to convince the reader that A description of a degrading music video

some music videos degrade women)
Descriptive text often uses 'be' and 'have'.
Tense which is often used is Simple Present
Tense. However, sometimes it uses Past tense
if the thing to be described does not exist
anymore. According to Hammond (1992)
Significant
grammatical
features
of
descriptive text, they are: 1.Focus on specific
participant (My English teacher, Andini’s cat,

My favorite place); 2. Use of Simple Present
Tense; 3. Verbs of being and having
'Relational Processes'. (My mum is really
cool, She has long black hair); 4. Use of
descriptive adjectives (strong legs, white
fangs); 5. Use of detailed Noun Phrase to give
information about the subject. (a very

beautiful scenery, a sweet young lady, very
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thick fur); 6. Use of action verbs 'Material
Processes' (It eats grass, It runs fast); 7. Use of
adverbials to give additional information
about behavior (fast, at tree house); 8. Use of
Figurative language (John is as white as
chalk.)
In teaching English, the teacher’s
creativity is very important. A verbal
presentation all the time in the classroom will
not be effective. Monotonous activities in
teaching make students feel bored and their
attention will decrease. Therefore, any media
is very helpful to support the teachinglearning process. It can be used to enhance
student interest and it will help to improve the
retention of material given. Media is a
communication channel, which refers to
anything that carries information from the

source of information to the receiver of
information, for instance text, images, video,
television, and books Sutrisno (2011).
Giles and Baggett (2008, p. 45) view,
“Using computer presentation programs, such
as Microsoft PowerPoint, allows teachers to
include charts, clip art, photographs, sounds or
video segments to demonstrate concepts”. In
addition, Asyhar (2011, p. 45) “PowerPoint
Presentation is a kind of multimedia
presentation that consists of text, graphics,
pictures, sound and video which can be used
to convey the material in teaching and
learning process.” It means that PowerPoint
presentation is the use of some media types
into an integrated application or presentation
to deliver the material in teaching and learning
process.
According to Sriyanto (2009) there are
some advantages of the use of PowerPoint

Presentation, they are: 1) Presentation will be
more interesting because there are colors,
fonts and animations, both animated text and
animated images. 2) Stimulate students to
learn more information about the teaching
materials presented. 3) The students
comprehend the information better visually.4)
Teachers do not need to talk a lot in explaining
the teaching materials that are being
presented. 5) The materials can be printed as
needed. 6) Data can be stored in the form CD
or flash, so it can be taken everywhere. The

writer believes that PowerPoint Presentation
can make the process of teaching and learning
in the classroom more enjoyable and
interesting.
Media is an object that can be touched
and seen by the teacher and students. In this
case, the writer discussed the media in
teaching and learning process. Since it can
support the memory and can accelerate the
students’ comprehension. Media are means of
communication and source of information that
can be in various forms. Arsyad (2009) stated
that media is a learning source component
which contains instructional subject in
student’ environment that can stimulate them
to the study. There are many types of media in
teaching and learning, one of them is a picture.
Pictures are a sketch of object(s)
visualized in a surface of paper, board, wall,
etc. In teaching media, it belongs to visual aid.
Wright (1989) stated that picture as media is
able to motivate students, to make the subject
they are dealing with clearer, and to illustrate
the general idea and forms of an object or
action which are particular to a culture.
Pictures are a photographic or a hand-drawing
object. Pictures are most often used by
teachers for some reason, for instance, easy to
get; simple to use and interesting Wright
(1989). Then the characteristic of pictures
itself is raising the students’ motivation and
focusing their attention on the materials. It can
be used as an educational media and it has a
value which enables students to study
effectively. Pictures contribute to teaching
language. Emphasizing in teaching writing,
pictures can be stimulation for gaining the
idea. Some things in the picture can build
students’ vocabulary mastery by mentioning
some objects. The vocabularies can help
students to construct the paragraph to write.
There are variety of activities that can be
created by using pictures.
Wright (1989) explained that in language
learning pictures can contribute to interest and
motivation, a sense of context, and a specific
stimulus. By using pictures, the students can
be more motivated because pictures provide
the real material which can be observed and
identified by the students. This is in line with

3

the statement of Akbari (2008) that picture can
motivate students and nowadays, motivation
is found to be an important factor in learning
everything. Pictures are also contextual in
which a teacher can draw certain situation on
them. Pictures bring the outside world into the
classroom in a concrete way. They can
improve students’ stimulus because after
observing the picture, the students will
immediately need the vocabularies, idiom,
and sentence structures to discuss or to explain
what they see. In addition, Wright (1989, p.
17) stated that there are some roles of pictures
in writing, as follows: 1) Pictures motivate the
students and make them want to pay attention.
2) Pictures contribute to the context in which
the language is being used. They bring the
world into the classroom. 3) Pictures can be
described in an objective way or interpreted or
responded to subjectively. 4) Pictures can cue
responses to question or cue substitutions
through controlled practice. 5) Pictures can
stimulate and provide information to be
referred to in conversation, discussion, and
storytelling.
From the explanation above, it can be
assumed that the role of pictures is really
essential in teaching English. It concludes that
the role of using picture is quite appropriate in
teaching writing. The consideration of the use
of picture media is because the students are
interested in new things which can encourage
their motivation to learn about it. They also
can enrich their imagination by seeing picture
on the slide. Therefore, they can get many
ideas in starting to write by imagining the
pictures that have been given by the teacher.
Hopefully, they might easily to write down
their ideas onto a paper.
Teaching writing is necessary for
teachers to prepare interesting strategy
because in writing there are complex skills
that students must be learned. Teaching
writing by using picture media that showed in
PowerPoint slide is a good strategy to
encourage student motivation to learn. It is
effective to prevent students’ bored while
teaching and learning process. It is creating a
new various activity than a monotonous
strategy such as using textbook all the time. In

this case the writer will teach the students
through picture media in PowerPoint
presentation. The writer believes by using
pictures as the media, students’ problems in
writing a descriptive text will be solved.
Reiser and Walter (1996) stated that media are
often used to help to present this instruction
activity. Therefore, the students’ imagination
will be improved and they can explore their
idea to put them in form of writing.
Media or visual aids also play an
important role in teaching and learning
process. The use of media facilities the teacher
and students to reach the goal of the study.
According to Wright (1976) there are many
media and styles of visual presentation which
are useful to the language learner. There is no
general rule to indicate which medium and
which visual styles are appropriate to choose
at any one time. The choice is divided by three
things as follows: a) The age, interest, type of
intelligence and experience of the learner b)
The physical circumstances of the classroom
c) The cost and convenience of the materials
available.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This study was conducted through
Classroom Action Research. Technically, an
action research should be taken in the class
during the teaching and learning process.
Pelton (2010, p. 5) stated that “Action
research is best seen as a way you approach
your work in the classroom and school
setting”. Think of it as a mindset for teaching,
it is a powerful mindset for teaching because
it emphasizes the role as a reflective
practitioner who is continually observant,
thoughtful, and willing to examine personal
actions in the light of the best possible
practices for the students. So that an action
research is well known as the way how the
writers do the best action in form of playing a
teacher model as creative as well.
There are two cycles of procedures that
had been conducted in this research. In each
cycle involves four steps, they are planning,
acting, observing, and reflecting Burns
(2010).

4

Furthermore, in the process of writing
descriptive text through pictures in
PowerPoint presentation, the writer designed
procedures in implementing it as following:
Planning
The writer and the tenth grade English
teacher of SMA Negeri 1 Kayan Hulu
collaborated in preparing the lesson plan, in
selecting and preparing the media and
materials that were used in teaching writing,
in constructing observation checklist, field
note, and speaking assessment rubric, and also
in trying out the teacher to use pictures as the
media in teaching descriptive text.
Acting
The teacher followed the lesson plan to
teach descriptive text writing by using pictures
as the media. Firstly, the teacher explained to
the students about a descriptive text including
definition, social function, generic structure,
and grammatical features. Secondly, the
teacher gave an explanation how to use
present tense in writing descriptive text.
Thirdly, the teacher presented the students an
example of descriptive text with its pictures.
The teacher gave brief explanation.Then, the
students learned how to construct a descriptive
text by using pictures had prepared by the
teacher. Finally, the teacher showed the
students pictures followed by list of
vocabularies and asked the students to write a
descriptive text of the pictures that had been
displayed on LCD projector. Students
followed the instruction that stated above the
pictures.
Observing
The writer worked together with the
teacher to collect the data. The writer wrote
the classroom situation while teachinglearning processed, pre-activity, whilstactivity, and post-activity in the field note,
then the writer gave the comment on the
teaching-learning process that had been done.
Afterwards, the teacher and the writer
discussed the final result of the observation
together as a consideration to prepare a better
plan in teaching for the next cycle.

Reflecting
The writer and the teacher had discussed
the result of the observation phrase, therefore
the writer got important feedback because it
was needed to re-planning the next action. It
also helped the writer to revise the planning
such as changing or adding certain action to
create a better process of teaching and
learning.
Technique of Data Collection
In collecting the data, it is important to
choose an appropriate technique. In this case,
the writer used measurement technique and
observation technique. The measurement
technique aimed to collect the data by
administrating a written task to measure the
students’ ability in descriptive text writing.
While the observation technique was applied
to record and collect the data from the subject
research. It measured the students’ feedback
toward the teacher’ action in writing.
Tools of Data Collection
Tools of data collection of this study are:
Observation checklist table
It aimed to observe what is happening in
the classroom during teaching learning
process including the students, the role of
teacher and media in teaching, and
environment (see Appendix A on pages 5657).
Field note
It was a note that constructed by the
writer, it took during the teaching and learning
process while the treatment is applied. It
aimed to know the progress and to find out the
weaknesses of the action in every single
meeting (see Appendix B-1 and B-2 on pages
58-61).
Students’ Task
It included a written test that related to
the students’ writing in descriptive text. It
aimed to check the students’ improvement in
writing descriptive text by using pictures in
power point presentation. (pages 75 and 84)
Photograph
The writer took the pictures in each
cycle (see on pages 85-86) related to the
activities of teaching and learning of

5

descriptive text writing using pictures. In line
with that, this could be kept as the evidence
that this research was truly conducted.
Data Analysis
To analyze the students’ descriptive text
writing during the teaching-learning process,
the writer did a data analysis. In order to
investigate the improvement the students’
descriptive text writing in the classroom, the
writer described the result of the data from the
observation checklist and field note. In other
words, to know the result of the students’
writing after the writer used pictures in power
point presentation by asking the students to
write a descriptive text based on the pictures
that displayed on LCD Projector. The writer
used the ESL composition scoring guide to
assess the students’ writing (see pages 39 and
46).

Students’ individual score

X= TI+T2+T3+T4+T5

...........(1)

Note:
X: Students’ individual score
TI: Content
T4: Vocabulary
T2: Organization
T5: Mechanics
T3: Grammar
To compute the class performances, the
writer used the formula of mean score. All
students score summed and divided by a
number of the students in the class. The
formula is taken from Heaton (1988, p. 169)
𝐌

∑𝒙
𝑵

.........................(2)

Notes:
M = the students’ average score
Ʃx = the sum of students score
N = the number of students

To classify the data, the writer provides
the table as follows:

Table 2. Data Classification (adopted from
J.B Heaton, 1988)
Mean Score
80 – 100
60 – 79
50 – 59
0 - 49

Qualification
good to excellent
Average to good
poor to average
poor

RESEARCH FINDINGS AND
DISCUSSION
Research Findings
The first cycle of this research was
conducted on May 29th, 2017. It has four
stages. They are planning, acting, observing
and reflecting.
Planning Stage
In this stage, the writer collaborated with
the teacher to prepare the lesson plan, media,
observation checklist, field notes and hand out
for the students. The pictures were about
describing a person. He planned to use an
LCD projector in teaching descriptive text
writing.
Acting Stage
In acting stage, the writer conducted a
research of teaching writing of descriptive text
through pictures. The teacher applied the
lesson plan and media which were prepared by
the writer in the planning stage. In this stage,
the teacher taught descriptive text writing
through pictures, while the writer recorded all
activities which happened in teaching and
learning process by using observation
checklist table and field note, and camera
which were prepared in the planning stage.
There were some steps of teaching and
learning activity during apply pictures as the
learning media. Firstly, the teacher started the
class by greeting the students and then asked
one of them to lead the class to pray. After
that, the teacher invited the students to do
brainstorming by showing them some pictures
of famous people by using LCD projector.
Then, the teacher asked the student to mention
the name of the person who was displayed on
LCD projector. Those pictures brought the
students’ attention to the specific topic of a
6

descriptive text.
Secondly, the teacher
showed an example of an actor picture. Then
the teacher asked the students to guess who the
picture is. Then, after one of them mentioned
the name of the actor, the teacher invited the
students to describe the actor who had been
displayed on LCD projector. Then, the teacher
explained the definition, social function,
generic structures and language features
(simple present tense) of descriptive text. The
students paid attention to teacher’s
explanation, they also took notes of those
explanations. Afterwards, the teacher
presented an example of descriptive text with
its pictures.
After that, the teacher explained the
correlation among the pictures and the text.
The teacher mentioned that those pictures
were prepared to help them to build their ideas
in writing descriptive text. Then the teacher
pointed that the first paragraph referred to the
identification and the second and the third
paragraph referred to the description. The
teacher also explained what aspects which are
contained in identification and description.
Most of the students paid attention to those
explanations. Some of them asked some
questions related to teacher’s explanations:
how to differentiate the generic structure of
descriptive text? ; what the character of
descriptive text?; then, the teacher answered
their question clearly. After explaining the
material, the teacher asked the students to
write a descriptive text based on the pictures
with helpful vocabularies given. It can be seen
in appendix C-1 (p.76). After the students did
the exercise, the teacher asked their
difficulties in writing and understanding the
pictures. Some students told their difficulties
that they still felt confuse in differentiating the
generic structure and many of them lacked
vocabulary, then the teacher gave them

feedback by giving more explanation and
asked the students to bring dictionary next
meeting.
Observing Stage
In this cycle, the teacher and the writer
observed the result of planning and acting
stages. They also observed the whole
activities which happened in teaching and
learning including the lesson plan, teaching
material, teaching media, the teacher’s
performance and students’ responds. The
teacher and the writer found that some
students gave positive responses during
teaching and learning process. For example,
the students paid their attention to the teacher
explanation. Some of them participated
actively but most of them still did not follow
the activities well; consequently, their writing
were unsatisfactory. The students’ score could
not reach the KKM of English subject. They
had low score because they did not understand
how to differentiate the generic structure of
descriptive text. Most of them were still
confused in using present tense and lacked
vocabulary in writing descriptive text. Then,
time allocation was not organized well in
Modelling and Deconstructing the text and in
joint construction of the text. The teacher took
much time in explaining the material of
vocabulary and present tense because the LCD
Projector did not work properly. Many
students still felt confused in understanding
the teaching materials.
Furthermore, the teacher and the writer
assessed students’ writing based on some
criteria. They are organization (the generic
structures), grammar (simple present tense),
vocabulary and
mechanics (spelling,
punctuation, and spelling) of descriptive text.
The result of the students’ writing can be seen
on the following table:

Table 3. The Result of Students’ Writing in Cycle 1

No
1
2

Students’
Code
AD
AGN

Criteria
Score
Content

Organization

Grammar

Vocabulary

Mechanics

15
18

10
15

10
10

15
17

10
15

60
70
7

3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
Total
Mean

AGP
AGT
BS
DK
GN
IL
JH
JL
JLK
LD
LI
MMA
MMI
MNZ
MRA
NA
ND
NI
NL
OA
ODS
PT
RM
RS
SP
VDK
WJ
YA
YIB
YP

12
15
18
15
10
15
14
18
13
12
14
12
14
16
18
15
15
8
10
14
12
10
18
15
14
15
10
10
16
10

8
10
15
15
8
13
12
12
8
10
10
12
10
14
17
10
10
5
10
12
10
8
16
15
16
15
15
10
15
15

∑𝐱
𝐌=
𝐍
𝟏𝟗𝟏𝟎
𝐌=
𝟑𝟐

𝐌 = 𝟓𝟗. 𝟔𝟖

The result of individual students’ score
showed that from 32 students averagely
6.25% students (whose scores were 80-100)
were qualified as good to excellent. 53.12%
students (whose scores 60-79) were qualified
as average to good. 18.75% students (whose
score 50-59) were qualified as poor to average

6
6
12
10
5
10
8
14
4
8
8
6
10
12
15
8
15
2
8
10
8
4
16
10
8
6
10
10
10
4

Note:

10
11
15
15
10
16
16
14
10
16
12
10
13
15
18
12
15
8
12
16
15
10
16
12
15
14
15
10
17
8

9
8
15
15
7
16
15
12
10
14
11
10
13
13
17
10
10
7
10
18
15
8
14
13
12
10
15
10
12
8

45
50
75
70
40
70
65
70
45
60
55
50
60
70
85
55
65
30
50
70
60
40
80
65
65
60
65
50
70
45
1910
59.68

M = The students average score
∑𝐱 = The sum of students score

N = the number of students

and 15.62% students (whose scores were
under 50) were qualified as poor. Then the
sum of students’ score was divided by the
number of students to obtain the mean score.
It was 59.68 and this was qualified as average
to good.
More than 50% of the 32 students whose
score were under the minimum level of 70 had
difficulties in working with their writing tasks,
It was difficult for them to start writing with
8

identification and developing their ideas into
clear description. They could not describe real
details of an object. Then, the main problem
was that the students still confuse in using
simple present tense in writing a descriptive
text. Some of them were good in divide
identification and description, but they could
not write a sentence grammatically. Therefore
most students were making some mistakes in
building a sentence. Besides, some students
could not describe the pictures properly
because they were lack of vocabulary
consequently they often made mistakes in
vocabulary and mechanics of descriptive text.
Reflecting Stage
This step began after finding the result of
previous stages (planning, acting, and
observing) that were conducted by the teacher
and the writer. The reflection covered the
entire process of the first cycle. At this stage,
the teacher was helped by the writer to explore
what she had done and what the effects of the
actions were used to decide what actions were
conducted in the next cycle, after knowing the
result of action stage was not unsatisfying to
fulfill the indicators of success. Both the
teacher and the writer decided to continue the
action to the next cycle. Moreover, after doing
the reflection, the teacher had some ideas for
the next cycle. 1) The teacher should make the
class ready to start the learning process. Then,
it is necessary to check the teaching media
such as LCD projector, to make sure all stuff
work properly. 2) The teacher should consider
about the time to teach the material of
descriptive. Avoid taking much time to
translate the meaning words by words.
Teaching vocabulary should be by asking the
students to predict the vocabulary through
pictures. 3) The students still made many
mistakes in using present tense. 4) The teacher
should manage time well in giving the
instructions to the students while showing
pictures as the media in writing descriptive
text. 5) All students should bring dictionary in
the next meeting in order to help them find
some difficult words.
Referring to the reflection of the first
cycle, the teacher and the writer discussed new

plans for cycle 2. The second cycle of this
research was conducted on May 29th, 2017.
This cycle also has four stages, they are:
Planning Stage
In this stage, the writer also collaborated
with the teacher prepared the lesson plan,
media, observation checklist, field notes and
hand out for the students. The pictures were
about describing an animal. The teacher
planned to use LCD projector in teaching
descriptive text writing. Besides the soft file,
the teacher and the writer also prepared the
printout of the material. Referring to the
reflection of the first cycle, the teacher and the
writer discussed new plans for cycle 2. The
teacher and the writer planned to apply a new
strategy
to
increase
the
students’
understanding in writing descriptive text
because the first cycle there were many
students that cannot write well.
Acting Stage
In this stage, the writer conducted a
research of teaching writing of descriptive text
through pictures. The teacher applied the
lesson plan and media which were prepared by
the writer in the planning stage. In this stage,
the teacher taught descriptive text about
describing an animal. Materials of descriptive
text were displayed on LCD projector, the
teacher also gave each the students a paper of
the material. While the writer recorded all
activities which happened in teaching and
learning process by using observation
checklist table and field note, and camera
which prepared in the planning stage.
There were some steps of teaching and
learning activity during applying pictures.
Firstly, the teacher started the class by
greeting the students and then asked one of
them to lead the class pray, after that the
teacher invited the students to do
brainstorming by showing them some pictures
of animal people by using LCD projector. And
then, the teacher asked some students to
mention which animal they like. Those
pictures brought the students’ attention to the
specific topic of descriptive text. Secondly,
the teacher showed the example an animal

9

(pet). Then the teacher asked the students to
mention how the picture looks like. Then the
teacher asked the students “do you have any
pet in your house?” the students answered
enthusiastically. After that the teacher asked
some students about kind of pet they have.
Afterwards, the teacher explained the
definition, social function, generic structures
and language features (simple present tense)
of descriptive text. In this cycle the teacher
explained more about the generic structure of
descriptive text and she also gave more
explanation about present tense, because in
the first cycle still many students could not
differentiate the generic structure of
descriptive text. Then, they were difficult to
build a sentence in present tense form. While
the teacher explained the material, the
students paid attention to teacher’s
explanation, they also took notes of those
explanations. Furthermore, the teacher
presented an example of descriptive text about
describing an animal.
The teacher asked the student to read the
text together, after that she let the student to
ask referring to the text had been displayed.
Then, some students asked several questions
related to teacher’s explanations after that, the
teacher answered their question clearly. After
explaining the material, the teacher asked the
students to write a descriptive text based on
pictures with helpful vocabularies given. It
can be seen in appendix C-2 (p.85). After the
students did the exercise, the teacher asked

their difficulties in writing and understanding
the pictures. Some students told their
difficulties and then the teacher gave them
feedback by giving more explanation.
Observing Stage
In this cycle, the teacher and the
writer observed the result of planning and
acting stages. They also observed whole
activities which happened in teaching and
learning including the lesson plan, teaching
material, teaching media, the teacher’s
performance and students’ responds. The
teacher and the writer found that some
students gave positive responses during
teaching and learning process. Most of them
participated actively, therefore there was an
improvement in this cycle. The students
writing was satisfactory. The students’ score
could reach the standard of success point.
Many students got high scores, they were able
to evaluate the generic structure of descriptive
text in term of differentiating identification
and description, but, the teacher and the writer
also found that some students were still weak
in using simple present tense.
Furthermore, the teacher and the writer
assessed students’ writing based on some
criteria. They are organization (the generic
structures), grammar (simple present tense
and agreement), vocabulary and mechanics
(spelling, punctuation, and spelling) of
descriptive text. The result of the students’
writing can be seen on the following table:

Table 4.The Result of Students’ Writing in Cycle 2

No
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

Students’
Code
AD
AGN
AGP
AGT
BS
DK
GN
IL
JH

Criteria
Score
Content

Organization

Grammar

Vocabulary

Mechanics

18
20
16
16
20
20
14
20
16

16
18
15
14
18
14
12
14
16

14
16
10
10
17
12
10
10
14

16
18
14
15
20
20
14
16
16

16
18
10
15
20
14
10
20
13

80
90
65
70
95
85
60
80
75

10

10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
Total
Mean

JL
JLK
LD
LI
MMA
MMI
MNZ
MRA
NA
ND
NI
NL
OA
ODS
PT
RM
RS
SP
VDK
WJ
YA
YIB
YP

18
15
18
14
16
20
20
20
15
18
15
16
18
10
8
20
20
14
10
13
10
18
15

𝐌=

∑𝐱
𝐍

15
13
15
14
14
12
15
20
15
20
15
19
18
20
10
20
20
20
15
18
15
18
20

Note:

𝟐𝟑𝟓𝟓
𝐌=
𝟑𝟐

𝐌 = 𝟕𝟑. 𝟓𝟗

The result of individual students’ score
showed that from 32 students averagely
40.62% students (whose scores were 80-100)
were qualified as good to excellent. Then, just
the same as the first cycle, 50% students
(whose scores 60-79) were qualified as
average to good. 9.37% students (whose score
50-59) were qualified as poor to average and
0% students (whose scores were under 50)
were qualified as poor. Then the sum of
students’ score was divided by the number of
students to obtain the mean score. It was 73.59
and this was qualified as average to good.
There were 20 students of the 32 students who
reached the standard score of English subject.

14
10
12
12
10
10
15
17
10
12
10
10
10
10
6
15
12
8
6
12
6
14
10

15
12
12
16
15
18
15
20
15
15
10
10
18
10
17
20
15
14
14
12
12
14
10

18
15
18
14
15
15
15
18
10
20
15
10
16
10
14
20
13
9
10
20
12
16
10

80
65
75
70
70
75
85
95
65
85
60
65
80
60
55
95
80
65
55
75
55
80
65
2355
73.59

M = The students average score
∑𝐱 = The sum of students score

N = the number of students

Reflecting Stage
This step began after finding the result of
previous stages (planning, acting, and
observing) that were conducted by the teacher
and the writer. The reflection covered the
entire process of the second cycle. At this
stage, the teacher was helped by the writer to
explore what she had done and what the
effects of the actions. After combining the
results of observation checklist, field notes
and students’ score of writing, the writer
found that the students’ descriptive text
writing in second cycle was better than the
first cycle. Students’ mean score in the first
cycle was 59.68 but in the second cycle the
11

students’ mean score was 73.59. It meant that
their writing was improved. All of their
problems in writing recount text were solved.
As a result, the writer concluded that the
second cycle of this research was successful.
Discussions
This classroom action research was
conducted in two cycles. Each cycle consist of
planning stage, acting stage, observing stage,
and reflecting stage. The acting stage was
conducted in one meeting (2 x 45 minutes)
that was performed during the teachinglearning process.
In the first cycle of this research, the
writer found the students’ writing of recount
text were still poor. It was because of some
problems. Firstly, the teaching media to teach
descriptive text did not work properly such as
LCD projector and the energy sources.
Consequently, the material was not delivered
as well. Secondly, in explaining the material,
the teacher did not focus on the students’
problems such as, the generic structure of
descriptive text and the use of present tense.
Then, the pictures given in the students’ task
were not appropriate, because the teacher and
the writer did not prepare the printout too.
Therefore, the students could not work
effectively in doing the task. Afterwards, the
students could not understand the instruction
well. Consequently, the students got confused
in understanding the pictures and expressing
their ideas. It showed by their writing mean
scores. Their mean score was 59.68 which is
categorized as poor. The last problem was the
students never used pictures that displayed on
LCD projector before. Therefore, some of
them were still confused in understanding the
material. It showed by their respond during
teaching and learning process. Most of them
did not participate actively. Based on the
research findings in the first cycle, the teacher
and collaborator decided to continue the
action in the second cycle. To solve the
students’ problem in the first cycle, they
decided to give more explanation in the
student problems, they are generic structure,
simple present tense and the media itself. Then
the teacher told the students to bring a

dictionary in order to help the students in
building a sentence.
In the second cycle, the writer found the
students’ writing of recount text were
improved. It proved by their mean score which
was 73.59. It was a good category. There was
an explicit improvement in the second cycle.
It meant, their problems in writing generic
structures (identification and description) and
the use of grammar (simple present) of
descriptive text were solved. Their
improvement also showed by their response in
teaching and learning activity. Most of them
participated actively. When the teacher gave
the questions, most of them rose their hands to
answer those questions. The research findings
of this cycle were supported by the previous
study conducted by Chairena (2007). Her
research was an action research which is
entitled The Use of Pictures to Teach
Descriptive Text. As the result, she concluded
that (1) in general, pictures can contribute
greatly in student writing especially
descriptive text writing; (2) using pictures in
teaching writing is a good innovation since it
stimulates the students’ interest in writing (3)
the data shows that there is a significant
improvement of the students’ writing ability
after being taught by using pictures
In conclusion, the writing problems of
the tenth grade students class A of SMAN 1
Kayan Hulu were solved by implementing
pictures as the media to teach writing of
descriptive text. As the result, the predictions
of the action hypothesis of this research were
accepted.
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
Conclusion
Referring to the findings of this research,
the writer concluded: 1) This classroom action
research was conducted in two cycles. The
research findings of the first cycle showed the
students still had problems in writing the
generic structure of descriptive text and the
use of simple present tense. Therefore,
referring to the reflecting stage it was
necessary to conduct the second cycle. Then,
in the second cycle, the writer found the
students’ descriptive text writing improved.

12

All their problems were solved. 2) Pictures
improved students’ descriptive text writing
which is showed by the comparison of their
mean score among the first and second cycle
of this research. The students’ mean score in
the first cycle was 59.68 which was poor
categories; then, their mean score in the
second cycle was 73.59 which qualifies as a
good category 3) Students problems in writing
generic structures (identification and
description) and language features (simple
present tense) of descriptive text were totally
solved in the second cycle. It showed on the
result of students’ writing in the second cycle
which was good category. 4) Giving some
helpful vocabularies below the pictures made
the students easy in describing the pictures
and building a sentence, therefore they could
express their ideas in writing form by
translating their imagination of that picture.
Suggestions
Based on the results of this research, the
writer would like to provide some
suggestions, they are: 1) The writer
recommends that the teacher should use an
interesting media to teach descriptive text
writing such as picture. 2) The writer
recommends that the teacher should use
pictures with some helpful vocabularies as the
media to teach descriptive text writing. 3) The
writer recommends that pictures which were
implemented in teaching writing of recount
text should be about describing a person, an
animal and thing that familiar for the students.
4) The writer recommends that pictures which
are used in teaching descriptive text writing
should give clear information to the students,
therefore they can transfer their imagination in
writing form correctly.
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