IMPROVING STUDENTS ACHIEVEMENT IN WRITING HORTATORY EXPOSITION TEXT BY APPLYING CLUSTERING TECHNIQUE.

IMPROVING

STUDENTS’

ACHIEVEMENT IN WRITING

HORTATORY EXPOSITION TEXT BY APPLYING

CLUSTERING TECHNIQUE

A THESIS

Submitted to the English Department, in Partial Fulfillment of Requirement for the Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan

By:

EFRIYANTI SIREGAR

Registration Number: 209421011

ENGLISH AND LITERATURE DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS

STATE UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN

2014

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The writing of this thesis is aimed to fulfill one of the academic requirements for the degree of Sarjana Pendidikan at the English and Literature Department, Faculty of Languages and Arts, State University of Medan.

The writer would like to express the greatest gratitude to Allah Subhanahu wata’ala, the most gracious, the most merciful for blessing to complete this thesis.

The writer would like to express a special gratitude to:

- Prof. Dr. Ibnu Hajar Damanik, M.Si., The Rector of State University of Medan.

- Dr. Isda Pramuniati, M.Hum., The Dean Faculty of Language and Arts, State University of Medan.

- Prof. Dr. Hj. Sumarsih, M.Pd., as the Head of English Department, Faculty of Languages and Arts.

- Rika, S.Pd.,M.Hum, as the Secretary of English and Literature Department. - Dra. Masitowarni Siregar, M.Ed., as the Head of English Education Study

Program.

- Dr. Anni Holila Pulungan, M.Hum., her Thesis Advisor for her great care, patience, comments and suggestions in guiding her in the process of preparing this thesis until it appears as it should be.

- Drs. Johan Sinulingga, M.Pd., her Academic Advisor, for his suggestion, advice and his time spent supervising for this thesis.

- Drs. Willem Saragih, Dipp. Appl., M.Pd., her Examiner in proposal and thesis seminar, for his suggestion, comments and his time for this thesis.

- Drs. Sularno, M.P., The headmaster of SMA An-Nizam Medan, M. Guntar, S.Pd., the English teacher, and all the students in class XI-IPA.

- H. Maksum Siregar and Hj. Samaria Harahap, her parents for their never ending support, care, love and everything they have given to the writer.

- Leliani Siregar, S.Kep, Ns Imran P Siregar, S.Kep, M.Rasyid, M. Pd, her sisters and brothers for their everlasting love, care and support.

- Ahmad Mukhtar Hrp, Siti Hamida, Nurhayani, Azrina Manja, Ika, Purnama, Eva Saskia Rahma, Sri Ernita, Ibu Eis, for their greatest support, care, suggestion, and love and all students of Reg B 09.

- Lastly, the writer offers her regards and blessing to all of those who supported her in any aspects during the completion of this thesis. May Allah Subhanahuwata’ala bless and guide you all.

Medan, Maret 2014 The writer,

Efriyanti Siregar NIM. 209421011

ABSTRACT

Siregar, Efriyanti. Improving Students’ Achievement in Writing Hortatory Exposition Text by Applying Clustering Technique. A thesis. English Department. Faculty of Language and Arts. State University of Medan. 2014.

This study attempted to improve students’ achievement in writing hortatory exposition text by applying clustering technique. It was conducted by applying classroom action research which consisted of two cycles in six meetings. Every meeting consisted of four phases. The subject of this study was class XI IPA of SMA An-Nizam Medan. The number of students was 29 students. The instruments for collecting data were writing test for quantitative data and observation sheet, questionnaire sheet and interview sheet for qualitative data. Based on the students’ test, the students’ score was improved in every test. In Test I, the mean score was 59,41. In the Test II, the mean score was 69, 65. In the test III, the mean score of the students was 78, 17. After applying clustering technique in each treatment, the mean of each test improves and gets better. The use of clustering technique tends to be more effective and to make students interest in studying English especially in writing hortatory exposition text.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Pages

ABSTRACT ... i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ... ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS ... iv

LIST OF TABLES ... vii

LIST OF FIGURE ... viii

LIST OF SCHEMAS ... ix

LIST OF APPENDICES ... x

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION A. The Background of the Study... 1

B. The Problem of the Study... 4

C. The Purpose of the Study ... 4

D. The Scope of the Study ... 4

E. The Significance of the Study ... 5

CHAPTER II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE A. Theoretical Framework ... 6

1. Achievement ... 6

2. Writing ... 7

3. The Assessment of Writing ... 8

4. Genre ... 9

5. Hortatory Exposition ... 11

a. Communicative Purpose of Hortatory Exposition Text ... 12

b. Rhetorical Structure of Hortatory Exposition Text ... 12

c. Grammatical Pattern of Hortatory Exposition Text ... 13

6. Technique ... 15

7. Clustering ... 15

a. The Work of Clustering ... 17

b. The Advantages and Disadvantages of Clustering ... 18

c. The Example of Clustering in Hortatory Exposition Text ... 19

B. Relevant Studies ... 21

C. Conceptual Framework ... 22

CHAPTER III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY A. Research Design ... 24

B. The Subject of Research... 25

C. The Instrument of Data Collection ... 25

1. Source of Data ... 25

2. Data ... 26

D. The Procedure of Research ... 27

1. Cycle I ... 27

a. Planning ... 27

b. Action ... 28

c. Observation ... 29

d. Reflection ... 29

2. Cycle II ... 29

a. Planning ... 30

b. Action ... 30

c. Observation ... 32

d. Reflection ... 32

E. The Scoring of Writing Test ... 32

CHAPTER IV. DATA AND DATA ANALYSIS

A. The Data ... 34

1. The Quantitative Data ... 34

2. The Qualitative Data ... 35

B. The Data Analysis ... 36

1. Analysis of Quantitative Data ... 36

2. Analysis of Qualitative Data ... 42

a. Observation Sheet ... 42

b. Questionnaire Sheet ... 42

c. Interview Sheet... 42

C. Research Finding ... 43

D. Discussion ... 44

CHAPTER V. CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION A. Conclusion ... 46

B. Suggestion ... 46

REFERENCES ... 48

LIST OF TABLES

Pages Table 1.1 The Means of Students’ Ability in Writing Taken from SMA

Negeri 1 Kotarih ... 2

Table 2.1 Assessment of Writing ... 9

Table 3.1 Teachers’ and Students’ Activities in Cycle I ... 28

Table 3.2 The Activities During Cycle II... 30

Table 3.3 Weigle’s Scoring Test for Writing ... 32

Table 4.2 The Range of Score Improvement ... 37

Table 4.3 The Percentage of Students Passing the Standard Test ... 39

LIST OF FIGURE

Page Figure 2.1 Example of Clustering ... 19

LIST OF APPENDICES

Pages

Appendix A. Lesson Plan ... 50

Appendix B. The Students’ Test Score from Test I, Test II, Test III... 74

Appendix C. The Range of Score Improvement ... 75

Appendix D. Observation Sheet ... 76

Appendix E. Questionnaire Sheet ... 78

Appendix F. Interview Sheet ... 79

Appendix G. The Students’ Test Score Improvement ... 82

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. The Background of the Study

Writing is a basic language skill that becomes the complex skill to master for the learners. As we know that writing is a productive skill that involves the way to generate and organize the ideas in written form. People need to learn English writing because it is a process of transforming thought and ideas into written language. Harmenita and Yuli (2013) also stated that writing is one of the language skills that must be mastered by English learners. They have to able to express their thoughts in writing to develop their ideas, and make readers interest when their writing read. Through writing, they can also transfer information and knowledge to others. In other words, writing can be said as a mean of communication between the writer and the reader.

In fact, in Indonesia students’ writing skill in English language is very low. It is found that most of Indonesian students are still difficult in comprehending the text. The results of research Program for International Student Assessment (2010) shows that Indonesian students just got the 39th rank from 42 surveyed countries in Asia, slightly above Albania and Peru. It shows us that writing skill is still a problem for Indonesian students.

SMA An-Nizam Medan has Minimum Mastery Criteria (MMC) of English subject is 70. From the KKM above, the score is very high for many schools.

2

Because we found that student has difficult to write a text well based on the genre.

It can be shown from the mean of student’s writing ability in the table below.

Table 1.1 The mean of students’ ability in writing taken from second grade of SMA An-Nizam Medan

Semester

Means of students’ ability in language skill

Reading Speaking Listening Writing I 65 64 63 65 II 68 68 65 69

From the fact above, it supported the researcher to do an interview and observation at SMA An-Nizam Medan.

According to Salam (2011), many problems faced by the teachers and the students in learning writing. The problem is limited vocabularies, diffilculty in organizing ideas, no ideas to write about, no motivation to write and lack of confidence in grammar. Students might take much time to write down their ideas. Teachers also need to give full attention to their students to show them how to plan a piece of writing through prewriting, drafting, and revising activities. Then, some teachers still use thetraditional method or technique and just give explanation and exercises to their students. So it makes students less comprehended, less interest in writing, and makes students bored. The effect can be seen in English writing score, it is regarded as a main problem in many school.

During teaching practice (PPL),the researcher also found that the students face the same problem in writing proficiency as the factors mentioned above. In this study the researcher choose hortatory exposition text as the students’ genre problem in writing activity. This argumentative essay requires the students to have

3

a critical thinking, scientific ideas, and argumentative expression. By interviewing some English teachers during teaching practice (PPL), a lot of students think that it is a difficult writing assignment they have. They spend a lot of time focusing only on how to start writing. This factor may come from the students’ experience about hortatory exposition text is still low and it is a new thing for them. From that case, both the teachers and the students need a significant way of teaching and learning in order to improve student achievement in writing.

In the teaching-learning process, there are many ways that can help the

teacher to solve the students’ difficulties in writing by using technique and

strategy. Considering the facts above, the researcher chooses to conduct this study by using clustering. Dietsch (2003:26) state that clustering is kind of prewriting activity that enrich idea before students startwriting. Clustering produces an overview of a subject, suggests specific topics, and yields related details. At the beginning of writing activity, students have to find out the idea what they want to write about. According to Rico (2000: 38) Clustering, the basic technique of natural writing, can be used to generate ideas for writing of any form : essays, poems, short stories, business reports, song lyrics, even novels.

Based on definition above, the researcher summarizes that clustering is making visual map to produce a topic related to each other. Clustering technique will stimulus students’ ideas and also they can make a good paragraph in every types of writing. In addition, the use of appropriate technique can solve the problems occurring in writing class and clustering technique gives a contribution for both teachers and students in improving the ability.

4

In line with the explanation above, the researcher isinterested in conducting a research on “Improving Students’ Achievement in Writing Hortatory Exposition Text by Applying Clustering Technique”.

B. The Problem of the Study

In the relation to the background of the study, the research addresses the following problem:

“Is there any improvement of student’s achievement in writing a hortatory text by

applying clustering technique?” C. The Objective of the Study

Clustering is kind of prewriting activity that enrich idea before students start writing. Its helps the students to produce an overview of a subject, suggests specific topics, and yields related details. Based on the question formulated in the problem of this study, the objective of the study is aimed to find out the improvement of student’s achievement in writing hortatory exposition text by applying clustering technique.

D. The Scope of the Study

The scope of this study is limited to investigate the student’s writing ability of IX IPA students of SMA An-Nizam Medan in writing hortatory exposition text by applying clustering technique.

5

E. Significance of the Study

The result of the study is expected to give some benefits theoretically and practically:

1. Theoretically, the result of this study is expected to enrich the literature of the teaching learning process and to give a better understanding. In addition, the result can be used as a references for further study.

2. Practically, the result of this study are expected to give benefit for the teachers, researchers, students, and institution.

a) For teachers, the result of this study will be directly intended to provide them with more understanding of the effectiveness of teaching writing by applying clustering.

b) For researchers, the result of this study is used as a reference in conducting further research/study for obtaining better result.

c) For students, the result of this study can be used to encourage and stimulate them in improving their writing ability.

d) For institution, it can be used to develop the teaching learning technique for increasing motivation in further.

CHAPTER V

CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

A. Conclusion

After analyzing the data there was an improvement on students’ writing hortatory exposition text by using clustering. The score of the students improved from cycle I to cycle II. The improvement can be seen from the mean of students’ namely: the mean of test I (59,41 ), the mean of test II ( 69,65 ) and the mean of test III( 78,17 ). Beside the mean of the score, there was percentage of the students who got the score above 75. In test I there was 6,89% (2 students), in test II there was 34,48% (10 students) and in test III there was 68,96% (20 students).

From the data can be concluded that teaching writing hortatory exposition text by applying clustering technique can help the students to improve their ability in writing. And the students were more enjoyable and interested in learning hortatory exposition text by applying clustering technique.

B. Suggestion

Based on the result of this study, the use of clustering technique could improve the students’ achievement on writing hortatory exposition text. The following suggestions are offered:

1. To the students, they are suggested to use clustering technique while writing in the class so they can write hortatory exposition text easily.

47

2. To the teachers, they are suggested to apply clustering technique so that they can improve their students’ achievement in writing hortatory exposition text.

3. To all the readers, may this research bring them into good understanding how to improve the students’ writing ability by using clustering technique.

REFERENCES

Algarabel, S., and Carmen D. 2001. The Definition of Achievement and the Construction of Tests for Its Measurement: A Review of the Main Trend.

Seccion De Metodologia 22, 43-66.

Brown, Douglas H. 2000. Teaching by Principle: An Interaction Approach to

Language Pedagogy. California: Longman.

Burns, Anne. 2010. Doing Action Research in English Language Teaching: A

Guide for Practitioner. New York: Rouledge Taylor and Prancis Group.

Dietsch, Betty Mattix. 2003. Reasoning of Writing Well. New York: McGraw-Hill

Fajriyani, Tita Nurul. 2011. Improving Students’ Writing Ability through

Clustering Technique. Unpublished Thesis. Jakarta: Faculty of Tarbiyah

and Teachers’ Training, Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University.

Grenville, Kate. 2001. Writing from Start to Finish : A Six – Step Guide. South

Australia : Allen & Unwin.

Harmenita, R.Y., and Yuli T. 2013. Teaching Writing a Descriptive Text by Using Environmental Observation Strategy. Journal of English Teaching, vol 1 (2).

Harmer , Jeremy. 2004. How to Teach Writing. Harlow : Longman

Hermansyah. 2012. Teaching Descriptive Writing Using Clustering Technique at

the Second Grade Students of MAN Cimahi. Unpublished Thesis. Bandung:

English Education Program Language and Art Department, STKIP Siliwangi Bandung.

Hoover, Katylee. 2008. Writing: An Essential Component of Literacy. Research Alignment for MM-H California Treasures, June: 1-2.

Hyland, K. 2003. Genre-Based Pedagogies: A Social Response to Process.

Journal of Second Language Writing 12 (1): 17–29.

Kalandadze, Maya. 2007. English Academic Writing. Europe: CSS

Kember, David. 2000. Action Learning and Action Research. London: Kogan Page Limited.

Knapp, P., and Megan. 2005. Genre, Text, Grammar : Technologies for Teaching

49

Mandal, M. 2009. Cooperative Learning Strategies to Enchance Writing skill. Academic Journal, 1(2), 94-102.

Miller, Cristine A. 2007. Action Research: Making Sense of Data. Academic Journal, 1(1), 9-28.

Pardiyono. 2007. Pasti Bisa! Teaching Genre-Based Writing.Yogyakarta: ANDI. PISA. 2010. Highlight from PISA 2009-National Center for Education Statistic.

Journal of Second Language Writing 12 (2): 16-24.

Purnama, Ika. 2013. Improving Students’ Achievement on writing Narrative Text

by Using Clustering Technique. Unpublished Thesis. Medan: Faculty of

Language and Art, State University of Medan.

Rico, Gabriele. 2000. Writing The Natural Way. New York: J.P. Tarcher, Inc. Sagor, Richard. 2000. Guiding School Improvement with Action Research.

Virginia, USA: ASCD

Salam, Abdul. 2011. Using Clustering to Improve Students’ Writing of Recount

Text. Unpublished Thesis. Jakarta: Faculty of Tarbiyah and Teachers’

Training, Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University.

Siahaan, S., and Shinoda, K. 2008: Generic Text Structure 1st Ed. Yogyakarta:

Graha Ilmu.

Weigle, S.C. 2009. Assessing Writing. London: Cambridge University Press. Yan, Gua. 2005. A Process Genre Model for Teaching Writing. English Teaching

In line with the explanation above, the researcher isinterested in conducting a research on “Improving Students’ Achievement in Writing Hortatory Exposition Text by Applying Clustering Technique”.

B. The Problem of the Study

In the relation to the background of the study, the research addresses the following problem:

“Is there any improvement of student’s achievement in writing a hortatory text by applying clustering technique?”

C. The Objective of the Study

Clustering is kind of prewriting activity that enrich idea before students start writing. Its helps the students to produce an overview of a subject, suggests specific topics, and yields related details. Based on the question formulated in the problem of this study, the objective of the study is aimed to find out the improvement of student’s achievement in writing hortatory exposition text by applying clustering technique.

D. The Scope of the Study

The scope of this study is limited to investigate the student’s writing ability of IX IPA students of SMA An-Nizam Medan in writing hortatory exposition text by applying clustering technique.

5

E. Significance of the Study

The result of the study is expected to give some benefits theoretically and practically:

1. Theoretically, the result of this study is expected to enrich the literature of the teaching learning process and to give a better understanding. In addition, the result can be used as a references for further study.

2. Practically, the result of this study are expected to give benefit for the teachers, researchers, students, and institution.

a) For teachers, the result of this study will be directly intended to provide them with more understanding of the effectiveness of teaching writing by applying clustering.

b) For researchers, the result of this study is used as a reference in conducting further research/study for obtaining better result.

c) For students, the result of this study can be used to encourage and stimulate them in improving their writing ability.

d) For institution, it can be used to develop the teaching learning technique for increasing motivation in further.

46

CHAPTER V

CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

A. Conclusion

After analyzing the data there was an improvement on students’ writing hortatory exposition text by using clustering. The score of the students improved from cycle I to cycle II. The improvement can be seen from the mean of students’ namely: the mean of test I (59,41 ), the mean of test II ( 69,65 ) and the mean of test III( 78,17 ). Beside the mean of the score, there was percentage of the students who got the score above 75. In test I there was 6,89% (2 students), in test II there was 34,48% (10 students) and in test III there was 68,96% (20 students).

From the data can be concluded that teaching writing hortatory exposition text by applying clustering technique can help the students to improve their ability in writing. And the students were more enjoyable and interested in learning hortatory exposition text by applying clustering technique.

B. Suggestion

Based on the result of this study, the use of clustering technique could improve the students’ achievement on writing hortatory exposition text. The following suggestions are offered:

1. To the students, they are suggested to use clustering technique while writing in the class so they can write hortatory exposition text easily.

47

2. To the teachers, they are suggested to apply clustering technique so that they can improve their students’ achievement in writing hortatory exposition text.

3. To all the readers, may this research bring them into good understanding how to improve the students’ writing ability by using clustering technique.

48

REFERENCES

Algarabel, S., and Carmen D. 2001. The Definition of Achievement and the Construction of Tests for Its Measurement: A Review of the Main Trend. Seccion De Metodologia 22, 43-66.

Brown, Douglas H. 2000. Teaching by Principle: An Interaction Approach to Language Pedagogy. California: Longman.

Burns, Anne. 2010. Doing Action Research in English Language Teaching: A Guide for Practitioner. New York: Rouledge Taylor and Prancis Group. Dietsch, Betty Mattix. 2003. Reasoning of Writing Well. New York: McGraw-Hill Fajriyani, Tita Nurul. 2011. Improving Students’ Writing Ability through Clustering Technique. Unpublished Thesis. Jakarta: Faculty of Tarbiyah and Teachers’ Training, Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University. Grenville, Kate. 2001. Writing from Start to Finish : A Six – Step Guide. South

Australia : Allen & Unwin.

Harmenita, R.Y., and Yuli T. 2013. Teaching Writing a Descriptive Text by Using Environmental Observation Strategy. Journal of English Teaching, vol 1 (2).

Harmer , Jeremy. 2004. How to Teach Writing. Harlow : Longman

Hermansyah. 2012. Teaching Descriptive Writing Using Clustering Technique at the Second Grade Students of MAN Cimahi. Unpublished Thesis. Bandung: English Education Program Language and Art Department, STKIP Siliwangi Bandung.

Hoover, Katylee. 2008. Writing: An Essential Component of Literacy. Research Alignment for MM-H California Treasures, June: 1-2.

Hyland, K. 2003. Genre-Based Pedagogies: A Social Response to Process. Journal of Second Language Writing 12 (1): 17–29.

Kalandadze, Maya. 2007. English Academic Writing. Europe: CSS

Kember, David. 2000. Action Learning and Action Research. London: Kogan Page Limited.

Knapp, P., and Megan. 2005. Genre, Text, Grammar : Technologies for Teaching and Assesing writing. Australia: University of New South Wales Press LTd.

49

Mandal, M. 2009. Cooperative Learning Strategies to Enchance Writing skill. Academic Journal, 1(2), 94-102.

Miller, Cristine A. 2007. Action Research: Making Sense of Data. Academic Journal, 1(1), 9-28.

Pardiyono. 2007. Pasti Bisa! Teaching Genre-Based Writing.Yogyakarta: ANDI. PISA. 2010. Highlight from PISA 2009-National Center for Education Statistic.

Journal of Second Language Writing 12 (2): 16-24.

Purnama, Ika. 2013. Improving Students’ Achievement on writing Narrative Text by Using Clustering Technique. Unpublished Thesis. Medan: Faculty of Language and Art, State University of Medan.

Rico, Gabriele. 2000. Writing The Natural Way. New York: J.P. Tarcher, Inc. Sagor, Richard. 2000. Guiding School Improvement with Action Research.

Virginia, USA: ASCD

Salam, Abdul. 2011. Using Clustering to Improve Students’ Writing of Recount Text. Unpublished Thesis. Jakarta: Faculty of Tarbiyah and Teachers’ Training, Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University.

Siahaan, S., and Shinoda, K. 2008: Generic Text Structure 1st Ed. Yogyakarta: Graha Ilmu.

Weigle, S.C. 2009. Assessing Writing. London: Cambridge University Press. Yan, Gua. 2005. A Process Genre Model for Teaching Writing. English Teaching