IMPROVING STUDENTS ACHIEVEMENT IN WRITING DESCRIPTIVE TEXT THROUGH BRAINSTORMING TECHNIQUE.

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ii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First of all, the writer would like to express her greatest thanks to Allah SWT, the Almighty and Most Beneficial for Her Grace, Guidance, Praise, Honor and Mercy that has been given to her especially health and luck until this thesis could be completed. This thesis is aimed to fulfill one of the requirements of obtain the Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan (S1) at the English Department, Faculty of language and arts, State University of Medan.

This thesis could have been completed also because of guidance, encouragement, suggestions, and comments from some people for whom the writer would like to extend her sincere and special thanks to:

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

Dr.Isda Pramuniati, M.Hum., the Dean of Faculty of Language and Arts, Vice Dean I, II, III, and all the administrative staff.

Prof. Dr. Hj. Sumarsih, M.Pd., the Head of English and Literature Department, Rika, S.Pd., M.Hum, the Secretary of English Department, and Dra. Masitowarni Siregar, M.Ed., the Head of English Education Department.

Dra. Tjut Ernidawati, M.Pd., her Thesis Consultant.

Dra. Masitowarni Siregar, M.Ed., her academic Consultant and also one of her reviewers and examiners.

Drs. Johan Sinulingga, M.Pd. and Drs. Willem Saragih, Dipl.Appl., M.Pd., the reviewers and examiners.

All the Lectures who have given very valuable knowledge through academic years.

Arifuddin Tasmin, S.Pd., the Headmaster of SMP Negeri 6 Medan, and the English Teacher, Cikiyah S.Pd.

Her greatest parents, (Alm) Asril and Wahidannur, her beloved family, Marlina Susi, Uci Hj. Maria, Ayah tuo Riswan Chadrin, S.E., Merijah S.E., and the all of her beloved brothers, Dio, Kevin, Alfati, and Amira


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Nahdatus Sifa. Thank for their endless love, prayers, motivation, understanding and support in finishing this thesis.

Regular C 2009 class, (Lia Susanti Sinulingga S.Pd., Suweni Gulo, S.Pd., Jenita Simbolon S.Pd., Dila, Sukri) for their spirit and friendship. Also for the all A, B, C of English Education ’09 classmates, thanks for helping, friendship, kindness during spending the time in State University of Medan.

 And also to all people whose names cannot be mentioned one by one, she would like to say thanks a lot.

The writer hopes this thesis will be useful for those who read, especially for the students of English Educational Department.

Medan, Juli 2014 The Writer,

Asrida Handayani Nim 209421005


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ABSTRACT

Handayani, Asrida. 209421005. Improving Students Achievement in Writing Descriptive Text through Brainstorming technique. A thesis. English Department, Faculty of Language and Arts, State University of Medan. 2014.

This study aims to improve students’ achievement in writing descriptive text through Brainstorming technique. This study was conducted by using classroom action research. The subject of the research was class VIII-1 SMP Negeri 6Medan which consisted of 30 students. The research was conducted in two cycles and every cycle consisted of three meetings. The instruments of collecting data were quantitative (writing test) and qualitative data (diary notes, observation sheet, and interview sheet). Based on the writing test scores, students’ score kept improving in every test. In the orientation test the mean score was 50.83, in the first cycle, the mean score of the competence score was 68.3, in the second cycle, the mean of the competence score was 78.83. Based on the diary notes, observation sheet, and interview sheet, it was found that teaching-learning process ran well. Students were active, enthusiastic, and interested in writing. The result of the research showed that Brainstorming Technique could improve students’ achievement in writing descriptive text.


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

ABSTRACT

……….

i

ACKNOWLEDGMENT ………..

ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

………..

iv

LIST OF TABLES

……….

vi

LIST OF FIGURE

………

vii

LIST OF APPENDIX

……….………

viii

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

………

1

A. The Background of the Study ………. 1

B. The Problem of the Study ……… 3

C. The Object of the Study ……… 3

D. The Scope of the Study ……….. 4

E.

The Significance of the Study

………

4

CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE

………

5

A. Theoretical Framework ……… 5

1. Students ’Achievement in Writing Descriptive Text ……… 5

2. Writing ……….. 6

a. Process of Writing ……… 10

b. The Assessment of Writing ……… 10

3. Genre of Writing ……… 12

4. Descriptive Writing ……….. 15

a. Parts of A Descriptive Text ……….. 16

b. Types of Descriptive Text ………. 17

c. Example of Descriptive Text ……….. 18

5. Cooperative Learning ……… 19

a. Types of Cooperative Learning ………. 19

b. Brainstorming ……….. 22

1) The Steps of Brainstorming Technique ……… 23

2) Teaching Descriptive Writing Through Brainstorming ……. 24

3) Advantages of Brainstorming Technique ……… 25

4) Disadvantages of Brainstorming Technique ………. 26

B. Conceptual Framework ………. 26

CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD

………

28

A. Research Design ……… 28

B. The Subject of Research ……… 28

C. The Instrument of Collecting Data ……… 29

D. The Procedure of Data Collection ……….. 30

1. The First Cycle ………. 30

a. Planning ……… 30

b. Action ………. 30

c. Observation ……….. 31

d. Reflection ……… 31


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v

a. Planning ……… 32

b. Action ………. 32

c. Observation ……….. 33

d. Reflection ……… 33

E. Scoring Of Descriptive Writing ………. 34

F. Technique Of Data Analysis ………. 34

CHAPTER IV DATA AND DATA ANALYSIS

………..…….

36

A. The Data ………. 36

1. The Quantitative Data ……….. 36

B. The Data Analysis ……….. 37

1. The Quantitative Data ……….. 37

2. The Qualitative Data ……….. 39

a. Diary Notes ……….. 39

b. Observation Sheet ……… 39

c. Interview Sheet ……….. 39

C. The Research Finding ……… 40

D. Discussion ……….. 40

CHAPTER V CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

………

.. 41

A. Conclusion ……… 41

B. Suggestion ……….. 41


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LIST OF TABLES

Table Page

2.1 The Example of Descriptive Text ………... 18 2.2 The Application of Brainstorming in the Teaching-Learning Process …. 24 3.1 The Scoring Rubric ………….………... 34 4.1 Test Result of the Students’ Score …….………. 36


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vii

LIST OF FIGURES

Page


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LIST OF APPENDIX

APPENDIX A Lesson Plan ………. 45

APPENDIX B The Result of the Students’ Score ………. 74

APPENDIX C The improvement of Students’ Mean Score …... 75

APPENDIX D Observation Sheet ………..… 76

APPENDIX E Questionnaire Sheet ………..…. 80


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1

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. The Background of the Study

Language learning is important for human’s social development. As a

language which is used by more than a half of population in the world, English holds the key as international language. English is a tool of communication among people of the world to get trade, social- cultural, science, and technology goals. More over, English competence is important in career development, therefore, it is needed to understand and use English to improve people’s confidence in facing global competition. English as a formal subject is given to junior high school until university, which the goals are translated as follow: “The goals of teaching and learning English for this level are improving the four English skills. They are the mastery of the productive skills (speaking and writing) and comprehensive skills (listening and reading).

The fact shows that the result of teaching-learning English is still low. While having practical teaching program (PPL) at SMP 3 Perbaungan, the writer found that most of the students were not able to write an English text successfully although they had already learned English since they were in elementary school. The students still had problems when using English in daily communication. These problems are influenced by many factors. It happens because of the educational system at school is just transfers the theoretical knowledge, while the application of the knowledge transferred to students is still ignored. As a result, students do not understand the teaching materials well.


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2 So far, students were taught some vocabularies about animals, fruits, etc. Unfortunately, when they were asked to write an English text by using familiar vocabularies, they were still unconfident. This fact shows that the process of teaching and learning English does not support the improvement of life skills. Students can get high score when having final test, but in the real fact, they cannot use English in real communication.

Expressing the ideas is the goal of writing. On the other hand, the students should be able to express their ideas or opinion in writing form. Writing is a mental work of investing ideas, thinking about how to express them, and organizing the ideas into statements, Based on the writer’s experience in teaching practice; most of the students were not able to write some kinds of texts. They did not give much attention and enthusiasm on writing task. They spent much time to get the ideas or topic to write something or they might have some ideas in their mind, but they were not interested in learning writing because they did not know how to start the writing process.

Furthermore, writing is a skill to expose fact and ideas in an effective and organized way. It means that writing considered as a means of training for students to be logical in English. The rationale behind the activities is to find out the effective way in teaching writing English.

In this case, it is very important for the teacher to make the process of writing easier, by encouraging and supporting the student in doing it. Writing is a skill that can be acquired through practice. The more students practice, the better score they will achieve in writing. To help the students building their positive attitudes in


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3 writing, brainstorming technique can be applied as a valuable tool in developing students’ writing achievement.

Writing is about the ideas and how to express it. Brainstorming is one of the ways to develop the ideas (Richard 1990). Rao (2007) found that students who had been trained in brainstorming techniques and use them regularly produced measurably higher result in writing tasks. In addition to this, an attitudinal survey showed that students who participated in this research project felt positive about the effectiveness of brainstorming techniques.

Since writing need thinking process, Brown (2001:336) suggests to use brainstorming technique in order to help the thinking process. It gets students creative, focusing on specific problem or decision. Brainstorming is often to discuss a complex issue or to write a topic. It also encourages student’s creativity in expressing their idea among their team work. Hopefully by applying this technique, the students can develop their thinking process related to what they have thought and what topic that the teacher has announced.

Based on the background above, the writer is interested in conducting a research of which title is: improving student’s achievement in writing descriptive text through brainstorming technique.

B. The Problem of the Study

The problem of the study is as follow: “Is students’ achievement in writing descriptive text improved if they are taught by using brainstorming technique?” C. The Objective of the Study


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4

student’s achievement in writing descriptive text by using brainstorming technique.

D. The scope of the study

The scope of the study is focused on the use of brainstorming technique to give some idea in order to improve students’ ability in writing. In this case, the students will be asked to write descriptive text.

E. The Significance of the study This study is expected useful for:

1) Writer, to improve and develop her ability as a researcher

2) English teacher, to improve the quality of English teaching learning process.

3) The students, to improve their ability in writing descriptive text, and the students have good product of writing after using brainstorming technique


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43

CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

A. Conclusion

Based on the research analysis, it is concluded that:

1) Brainstorming technique can improve students' achievement in writing descriptive text.

2) Brainstorming technique is a method that is applicable to be taught in the teaching writing because this method makes teaching and learning process become interesting and enjoyable.

B. Suggestion

The result of this study shows that the use of Brainstorming technique could improve students' in descriptive writing. The following suggestions are offered:

1) To English teachers, by using Brainstorming technique to make teaching and learning process more interesting and enjoyable, especially in teaching descriptive text.

2) To students, it is suggested that they are able to write descriptive text. 3) Other researcher as the reference to conduct further research.


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REFERENCES

Baumgartner, Jeffrey. 2000. The complete Guide to managing Traditional

Brainstorming Events. Belgium : Bwiti.

Bear, Gane. 2000. Prewriting. Available on http:www.uky.edu\’kmkram 1\CCITL Transfer\1 Prewraiting. Pdf Accesed on may 29th,2012.

Brassard, M. 1988. The Memory jogger, A pocket Guide of Tools for Continuous

Improvement, p.69. Methuen, MA : GOAL\QPc

Brown, H Douglas. 2001. The Principle of language Learning and Teaching. San Francisco :Longman.

Harmer. Jeremy. 2004. How to teach Writing. Malaysia: Longman

Heaton, J. B 1975. Writing English Language Test. London : Longmon Group. Hyland,K.2002. Teaching and Researching Writing. Great Britain

Kagan, Spencer. Cooperative Learning. San Clemente, CA : kagan

Publishing,1994.www.kaganonline.com. Accessed June 25 th, 2013. Langan, Johnn. 2001. Collage writing skills with Reading.5 th Ed. New York : Mc

Graw-Hill.

Pardiono. 2006. Teaching Genre-Based Writing. Yogyakarta : ANDI.

Rao S. 2007. Training in Brainstorming and developing Writing Skills, in ELT Journal

Richards J. 1990. New Trends in the Teaching of writing in ESL in Wang S. (ed). Siahaan, Sanggam, Shinado Kisno. 2008. Generic Text Structure. Yogyakarta:

Graha Ilmu.

Wallace, Michael. J. 1998. Action Research for Language Teachers. United Kingdom : Cambridge University press.

Five Element of cooperative Learning http://www.Clcrc.com\pages\ overviewpaper.html). Accessed June 25 th, 2013.


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1

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. The Background of the Study

Language learning is important for human’s social development. As a language which is used by more than a half of population in the world, English holds the key as international language. English is a tool of communication among people of the world to get trade, social- cultural, science, and technology goals. More over, English competence is important in career development, therefore, it is needed to understand and use English to improve people’s confidence in facing global competition. English as a formal subject is given to junior high school until university, which the goals are translated as follow: “The goals of teaching and learning English for this level are improving the four English skills. They are the mastery of the productive skills (speaking and writing) and comprehensive skills (listening and reading).

The fact shows that the result of teaching-learning English is still low. While having practical teaching program (PPL) at SMP 3 Perbaungan, the writer found that most of the students were not able to write an English text successfully although they had already learned English since they were in elementary school. The students still had problems when using English in daily communication. These problems are influenced by many factors. It happens because of the educational system at school is just transfers the theoretical knowledge, while the application of the knowledge transferred to students is still ignored. As a result, students do not understand the teaching materials well.


(2)

2 So far, students were taught some vocabularies about animals, fruits, etc. Unfortunately, when they were asked to write an English text by using familiar vocabularies, they were still unconfident. This fact shows that the process of teaching and learning English does not support the improvement of life skills. Students can get high score when having final test, but in the real fact, they cannot use English in real communication.

Expressing the ideas is the goal of writing. On the other hand, the students should be able to express their ideas or opinion in writing form. Writing is a mental work of investing ideas, thinking about how to express them, and organizing the ideas into statements, Based on the writer’s experience in teaching practice; most of the students were not able to write some kinds of texts. They did not give much attention and enthusiasm on writing task. They spent much time to get the ideas or topic to write something or they might have some ideas in their mind, but they were not interested in learning writing because they did not know how to start the writing process.

Furthermore, writing is a skill to expose fact and ideas in an effective and organized way. It means that writing considered as a means of training for students to be logical in English. The rationale behind the activities is to find out the effective way in teaching writing English.

In this case, it is very important for the teacher to make the process of writing easier, by encouraging and supporting the student in doing it. Writing is a skill that can be acquired through practice. The more students practice, the better score they will achieve in writing. To help the students building their positive attitudes in


(3)

writing, brainstorming technique can be applied as a valuable tool in developing

students’ writing achievement.

Writing is about the ideas and how to express it. Brainstorming is one of the ways to develop the ideas (Richard 1990). Rao (2007) found that students who had been trained in brainstorming techniques and use them regularly produced measurably higher result in writing tasks. In addition to this, an attitudinal survey showed that students who participated in this research project felt positive about the effectiveness of brainstorming techniques.

Since writing need thinking process, Brown (2001:336) suggests to use brainstorming technique in order to help the thinking process. It gets students creative, focusing on specific problem or decision. Brainstorming is often to

discuss a complex issue or to write a topic. It also encourages student’s creativity in

expressing their idea among their team work. Hopefully by applying this technique, the students can develop their thinking process related to what they have thought and what topic that the teacher has announced.

Based on the background above, the writer is interested in conducting a

research of which title is: improving student’s achievement in writing descriptive

text through brainstorming technique. B. The Problem of the Study

The problem of the study is as follow: “Is students’ achievement in writing

descriptive text improved if they are taught by using brainstorming technique?”

C. The Objective of the Study


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4

student’s achievement in writing descriptive text by using brainstorming technique. D. The scope of the study

The scope of the study is focused on the use of brainstorming technique to

give some idea in order to improve students’ ability in writing. In this case, the

students will be asked to write descriptive text. E. The Significance of the study

This study is expected useful for:

1) Writer, to improve and develop her ability as a researcher

2) English teacher, to improve the quality of English teaching learning process.

3) The students, to improve their ability in writing descriptive text, and the students have good product of writing after using brainstorming technique


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43

CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

A. Conclusion

Based on the research analysis, it is concluded that:

1) Brainstorming technique can improve students' achievement in writing descriptive text.

2) Brainstorming technique is a method that is applicable to be taught in the teaching writing because this method makes teaching and learning process become interesting and enjoyable.

B. Suggestion

The result of this study shows that the use of Brainstorming technique could improve students' in descriptive writing. The following suggestions are offered:

1) To English teachers, by using Brainstorming technique to make teaching and learning process more interesting and enjoyable, especially in teaching descriptive text.

2) To students, it is suggested that they are able to write descriptive text. 3) Other researcher as the reference to conduct further research.


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44

REFERENCES

Baumgartner, Jeffrey. 2000. The complete Guide to managing Traditional Brainstorming Events. Belgium : Bwiti.

Bear, Gane. 2000. Prewriting. Available on http:www.uky.edu\’kmkram 1\CCITL Transfer\1 Prewraiting. Pdf Accesed on may 29th,2012.

Brassard, M. 1988. The Memory jogger, A pocket Guide of Tools for Continuous Improvement, p.69. Methuen, MA : GOAL\QPc

Brown, H Douglas. 2001. The Principle of language Learning and Teaching. San Francisco :Longman.

Harmer. Jeremy. 2004. How to teach Writing. Malaysia: Longman

Heaton, J. B 1975. Writing English Language Test. London : Longmon Group. Hyland,K.2002. Teaching and Researching Writing. Great Britain

Kagan, Spencer. Cooperative Learning. San Clemente, CA : kagan

Publishing,1994.www.kaganonline.com. Accessed June 25 th, 2013. Langan, Johnn. 2001. Collage writing skills with Reading.5 th Ed. New York : Mc

Graw-Hill.

Pardiono. 2006. Teaching Genre-Based Writing. Yogyakarta : ANDI.

Rao S. 2007. Training in Brainstorming and developing Writing Skills, in ELT Journal

Richards J. 1990. New Trends in the Teaching of writing in ESL in Wang S. (ed). Siahaan, Sanggam, Shinado Kisno. 2008. Generic Text Structure. Yogyakarta:

Graha Ilmu.

Wallace, Michael. J. 1998. Action Research for Language Teachers. United Kingdom : Cambridge University press.

Five Element of cooperative Learning http://www.Clcrc.com\pages\ overviewpaper.html). Accessed June 25 th, 2013.