THE EFFECT OF APPLYING OUTLINING TECHNIQUE ON STUDENTS ACHIEVEMENT IN WRITING DESCRIPTIVE PARAGRAPH.
THE EFFECT OF APPLYING OUTLINING TECHNIQUE ON
STUDENTS’ ACHIEVEMENT IN WRITING DESCRIPTIVE
PARAGRAPH
A THESIS
Submitted to the English Department Faculty of Language and Arts, State
University of Medan in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the
Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan
By:
APRILZA ASWANI
Registration Number: 2101321002
ENGLISH AND LITERATURE DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS
STATE UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN
2014
DECLARATION
I have familiarized myself with the University’s Policy on Academic integrity.
Except where appropriately acknowledged, this thesis is my own work, has been
expressed in my own words, and has not been previously been submitted for
assessment.
I understand that this paper may be screened electronically or otherwise for
plagiarism.
Medan,
August 2014
Aprilza Aswani
NIM. 2101321002
ABSTRACT
Aswani, Aprilza. 2101321002. The Effect of Applying Outlining Technique on
Students’ Achievement in Writing Descriptive Paragraph. A Thesis. English
Department. Faculty of Languages and Arts. State University of Medan. 2014.
This study aims to discover the effect of applying outlining technique on the students’
achievement in writing descriptive paragraph. It was conducted by using
experimental research design. The population of this research was the seventh (VII)
grade students of SMP Negeri 2 Tanjungbalai which has eight parallel classes. The
samples of the research were taken by random sampling technique through lottery.
The result was class VII-1 became the experimental group and class VII-2 became the
control group. The experimental group was taught by using Outlining Technique,
while the control group was taught without using Outlining Technique. The
instrument for collecting the data was writing test. It was found that the value of to
was 2.870 with the degree of freedom (df)=58 at the level of significance p(0,05) =
1.673. It means that to is higher than tt (2.870 > 1.673). Therefore, the using Outlining
Technique has significant effect on students’ achievement in writing descriptive
paragraph.
i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Firstly, praise and great gratitude to the Almighty God Allah SWT for his
blessing, mercy, opportunity and helping the researcher to complete this Thesis
entitled “ The Effect of Applying Outlining Technique on Students’ Achievement
in Writing Descriptive Paragraph”.
This Thesis is arranged to fulfill the requirement for the degree of Sarjana
Pendidikan (S1) at English Department, Faculty of Language and Arts, State
University of Medan.
This Thesis could have been accomplished because of guidance,
encouragement, suggestion and comment from people for whom the researcher
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 Language and Arts Faculty,
Vice Dean I, II, III, and all the administrative staff.
Prof. Dr. Hj. Sumarsih, M.Pd., the Head of English and Literature
Department and as her Thesis Consultant. Rika, S.Pd, M.Hum as the
Secretary of English and Literature Department and Dra. Masitowarni
Siregar, M.Ed as the Head of English Education Study Program and her
Thesis Examiner.
Dra. Meisuri, M.A and Dra. Rahmah, M.Hum., as her Thesis
Examiners. Thanks are given to them, for their valuable inputs, comments
and suggestions enrich the quality of this Thesis.
Sunar, S.Pd., the Headmaster of SMP Negeri 2 Tanjungbalai, for giving
her permission to do the research and Yoanna Novita, S.Pd., thanks for
her help that allowed the researcher to conduct her research in the class.
Special thanks to her beloved parents, her father, Aswan, and her mother,
Asnidar Lubis, for their great love, prayers, motivation, guidance,
support, spirit. And also her beloved young sister and brother, Ade Novira
Aswani and Anugrah Putra Aswanda. Big thanks for them, without
them, the researcher could not be accomplished to do this Thesis.
Her appreciation to her closed friend Mia Adilla Panjaitan and also all of
her best friends Rabiah Al Adawiyah, Sartika Dewi Panjaitan, Hendrik
Hasibuan, Suryani, Yetti Lestari, PPL Mates (Rahmi Erwita.D, Dede
Suriyani, Febri Tiffany, Jiwa Dash.P). Thank you for every laugh,
smile, tear, support, spirit, help for every moments that always we do
together.
ii
All of her classmates in Regular A 2010 who can not be mentioned one by
one, thank you for sharing knowledge, helping, friendship, kindness
during spending time in campus.
Muhammad Yusuf, for giving support, great love, special care, kindness,
help, attention, motivation in accompanying the researcher every time.
Overall, the researcher hopes this Thesis can give a bit contribution to the
English Education students and further pedagogical research. And also it can be
useful for us.
Medan,
August 2014
The researcher,
Aprilza Aswani
NIM. 2101321002
iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
ABSTRACT
······················································· i
ACKNOWLEDGMENT ······················································· ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ······················································· iv
LIST OF TABLES ······························································ v
LIST OF FIGURES ····························································· vi
LIST OF APPENDICES ························································· vii
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ···········································
A. The Background of The Study ···························
B. The Problem of The Study ································
C. The Objective of The Study ······························
D. The Scope of The Study ···································
E. The Significance of The Study ···························
1
1
5
5
6
6
CHAPTERII: REVIEW OF LITERATURE ·····························
A. Theoretical Framework ···································
1. Students’ achievement ··································
2. Writing ····················································
3. Process of Writing ·······································
4. Paragraph ·················································
5. Descriptive Paragraph ··································
6. The Assessment of Writing Skill in
Descriptive paragraph ··································
7. Technique ·················································
8. Outlining Technique ····································
9. Teaching Descriptive Paragraph through Outlining
Technique ………………………………………….
10. The Advantages and Disadvantages of
Outlining Technique ···································
11. The Procedure of Outlining Technique ·············
B. Conceptual Framework ··································
C. Hypothesis ····················································
7
7
7
8
9
10
12
CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHOD ···································
A. Research Design ··········································
B. Population and Sample ··································
1. Population ···············································
2. Sample ···················································
C. Instrument for Collecting The Data ····················
D. The Procedure of Research ·····························
1. Pre-Test ··················································
2. Treatment ………………………………………….
3. Post-Test ················································
22
22
23
23
23
24
26
27
27
29
iv
15
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
E. The Validity and Reliability of the Test ···············
F. The Technique for Analyzing the Data ················
29
30
CHAPTER VI: THE DATA AND RESEARCH FINDINGS ············
A. The Data ················································
B. Data Analysis ··········································
1. Analyzing the Data Using T-test ·················
2. Testing Hypotheses ·································
C. Discussion ……………………………………….
D. Research Findings ·····································
32
32
35
35
36
37
39
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION ····················
A. Conclusion ……………………………………….
B. Suggestion ……………………………………….
41
41
41
REFERENCES ………………………………………………………….
APPENDICES …………………………………………………………..
42
44
v
LIST OF TABLES
Page
Table 1.1
Table 1.2
Table 3.1
Table 3.2
Table 3.3
Table 3.4
Table 4.1
Table 4.2
The mean of the Class VII-1 Students’ Score In writing ·········
The mean of the Class VII-2 Students’ Score In writing ·········
Research Design ·······················································
Jacob et al.’s Scoring Profile on Writing Test ·····················
Experimental Group Activity ·········································
Control Group Activity ················································
The Result Score of Experimental Group ··························
The Result Score of Control Group ·································
vi
3
3
22
25
27
28
32
33
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 2.1 Example of Outline Format in a Paragraph ························
vii
Page
17
LIST OF APPENDICES
Page
APPENDIX 1 The Calculation of Pre-test and Post-test of
Experimental Group …………………………………………… 44
APPENDIX 2 The Calculation of Pre-test and Post-test of
Control Group ………………………………………………… 45
APPENDIX 3 The Calculation of t-test…………………………..……………. 46
APPENDIX 4 Values of the Correlation Coefficient for Different Levels of
Significance …………………………………………………….. 48
APPENDIX 5 Writing Test …………………………………………………….. 49
APPENDIX 6 The Media of Teaching Descriptive Paragraph in
Experimental and Control Group ………………………………. 50
APPENDIX 7 The English Lesson Plan ……………………………………….. 51
APPENDIX 8 Example of Students’ Writing Result of Experimental and
Control Group ………………………...………………………. 79
viii
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. The Background of the Study
Language is the important part of human existence and social process that
has so many functions to perform the life activities of human beings. One of the
functions of a language is as a tool of communication. There are several forms of
communication namely spoken and written. The purpose of communication is to
send a message or information from a writer or speaker to reader or listener. The
fact that human beings are social mankind; they certainly realize that they cannot
survive without interacting with other people. Because of that, people start to
make their own way to interact, and then a language is being used.
In Indonesia, English has become the first foreign language which is
taught from elementary level up to university. English is also intensively used in
international communication, in written as well as in spoken communication. In
addition, many books of science and technology, art, and other published issues
are written in English.
In English language, there are four skills to be mastered. They are
listening, speaking, reading and writing. Speaking and writing are grouped into
productive skills while listening and reading are included into receptive skills.
Writing is one of the four language skills which is very important to be learnt. In
fact, writing is not easy. Among those skills, writing is the most difficult skill to
1
2
be mastered, because it needs hard thinking in producing words, sentences, and
paragraph. Especially in this study, the writer focuses on the writing skill.
Writing is one of the language skills that should be taught besides the
other three skills. It is regarded as a productive skill which assists students in
expressing their ideas in
written form. Schoen. et al (1982) as quoted by
Harmenita and Tiarina (2013) defines that the concept of writing as a “ processes“
that remain our primary concern. It is not easy to translate concept in our brain to
be a written language, and we must be clever to choose and to combine the
vocabulary to create meaningful sentences. We also must pay our attention to the
grammar, so it is normal if the students think that writing is a difficult subject
because of their paying to many attentions such as idea, concept, vocabulary and
grammar. In addition, writing in English is considered as the most important part
to be learnt by every students, especially in high school. It is stated that in
Educational Unit Curriculum (KTSP or Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pembelajaran)
of Junior High School at grade seventh in writing, students must have ability to
develop and their idea in writing, there are descriptive and procedure.
So, based on the statements in advance, Purwanti (2013:44) claims that
descriptive contains description or explanation about person, animal, place, or
thing specifically. It means that the students use their imagination and knowledge
in their writing. A paragraph is a distinct unit of thought which may contain a
topic sentence (Chitravelu, et.al 2005:165). In conclusion, descriptive paragraph is
a paragraph that describe about person, animal, place, or thing specifically.
3
Based on the preliminary observation of Grade VII of SMP Negeri 2
Tanjungbalai on Juny 27th 2013 that was by asking the English teacher about the
students’ achievement in writing especially descriptive paragraph, she said that
most of the students thought that writing is difficult. She found that the students
still did not understand clearly what a descriptive paragraph is. They do not know
how to transfer their ideas, even how to arrange a sentence. So, the teacher should
teach by other methods or techniques which can intimate the students to write.
When the researcher asked the teacher about the students’ score list for
writing test in two semesters, it was found out that, the minimum criteria mastery
(KKM or Kriteria Ketuntasan Minimum ) was applied 70 meanwhile the scores of
the students are lower. Many students couldn’t exceed the minimum criteria
mastery (KKM) which was applied by school for English lesson. And the data of
two semester are follows :
Table 1.1
The mean of the Class VII-1 Students’ Score in Writing
Session
st
1 Session 2012/2013
2nd Session 2012/2013
Score
< 70
≥ 70
< 70
≥ 70
Students
27 Students
8 Students
26 Students
9 Students
Percentage
77.2%
22.8 %
74.3 %
25.7%
Mean
52.7
56.8
Source : Students’ accumulated score of SMP Negeri 2 Tanjungbalai academic
year 2012-2013
Table 1.2
The mean of the Class VII-2 Students’ Score in Writing
Session
st
1 Session 2012/2013
2nd Session 2012/2013
Score
< 70
≥ 70
< 70
≥ 70
Students
24 Students
11 Students
28 Students
7 Students
Percentage
68.6%
31.4%
80%
20%
Mean
54.3
51.8
Source : Students’ accumulated score of SMP Negeri 2 Tanjungbalai academic
year 2012-2013
4
From the previous data, it can be concluded that the students’ ability in
writing in that class is still low. It can be seen from the mean of students’ score
where the mean is still under the KKM.
The researcher also found some problems in the teaching and learning
processes. First, students felt bored when they learnt because of unchangable
method from the teacher. In this case, teacher used lecturing method. Next,
students were only asked to write without any clear instruction and guidance.
Those were the problems facing by students in writing.
The teacher said that most of students had difficulties in writing
descriptive paragraph because they didn’t understand what their teacher had
explained. So, the students thought that English is not fun and do not want to be
serious in learning English.
Based on the problem, according to previous studies, Harmer (2007) as
quoted by Harmenita and Tiarina (2013:30) explains that writing can be defined
as writing- for- learning and writing- for- writing. Writing- for- learning means
writing as a tool to practice the language they have learned, and in writing- forwriting, it is a tool to develop the students’ ability as writer. The previous
researcher, Sianipar and Sabrina (2014) found that the students can increase their
knowledge and achievement to write and develop their idea into writing by using
outlining technique, because an outline is a tool to make the writing easier,
because the main point is listed as the topic to be discussed. Muirhead (2005)
found that writing an outlines provide opportunities for students to refine their
outlining skills and increase their understanding of critical thinking. Teachers can
5
develop instructional plans that assist the student’s cognitive information
processing skills. The researcher offers the teacher to apply Outlining Technique
to solve the problem. Tardy (2010) found that the teacher can use the outlining as
the teaching writing technique and the students can be easier and more focus on
the topic. Coffin. et al (2003:37) explains that outlines may be drawn up to match
the expectations set by certain text types, such as an argument essay in social
science, for example. For inexperienced researchers such plans can help identify
gaps in the development of ideas, arguments, and sources of evidence. After
seeing the explanation in advance, the researcher offers outlining technique to
repair the student’s writing especially in descriptive paragraph. As an expectation,
it can help students in writing descriptive paragraph and students are able to focus
more in writing easily and well by applying this technique.
From the previous explanation, the research was conducted to see how the
application of outlining technique affects students’ achievement in writing,
particularly writing descriptive paragraph.
B. The Problem of the Study
The problem of the study is formulated as follows :
“Is there any significant effect of using outlining technique on the
students’ achievement in writing descriptive paragraph”?
C. The Objectives of the Study
In line with the problem, the objective is to investigate if there is a
significant effect of applying outlining technique on the students’ achievement of
grade seventh of SMP Negeri 2 Tanjungbalai in writing descriptive paragraph.
6
D. The Scope of the Study
This study is just focused on students’ achievement in writing descriptive
paragraph specifically on describing object (animal) by applying one technique
that is, outlining technique.
E. The Significance of the Study
Results of this study are expected to be giving out the theoretical and
practical significance. Theoretically, the expected of this research is to enrich the
learning of science writing especially in writing descriptive paragraph by using
outlining technique.
Practically, the result of the study is important and useful for those :
1. Teacher, to increase their own professionalism in teaching writing by
using Outlining Technique and the result of the study would be very
useful for teachers of English and others who are concerning wtih
assessment of teaching English.
2. Students, giving information to increase their writing ability and to
motivate the students to be better in writing descriptive paragraph.
3. The readers, to have interest research to enlarge their understanding
about writing descriptive paragraph.
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS
A. Conclusion
After analyzing the data, it can be concluded that using outlining technique
significantly affect on students’ achievement in writing descriptive paragraph.
Because it was found that the value of tobserve was 2.870 with the degree of
freedom (df) = 58 at the level of significance p (0,05) = 1.673. It means that tobserve
is higher than ttable (2.870 > 1.673), null hypothesis is rejected and alternative
hypothesis is accepted. So, outlining technique is better to increase students’
achievement in writing descriptive paragraph.
B. Suggestions
The researcher point out some suggestions as following:
1. To the English teacher, applying outlining technique because this
technique helps the students in understanding the descriptive paragraph.
2. To the students, with this technique they can make an outline before
writing a paragraph, so that the students can be more creative and easier to
share their ideas into writing by applying outlining technique.
3. To the readers, to know outlining technique because they can enlarge their
knowledge and understanding about writing with this technique.
41
42
REFERENCES
Arikunto, S. 2006. Prosedur Penelitian: Suatu Pendekatan Praktik. Jakarta:
Rineka Cipta
Ary, Donald. 2002. Introduction to Research in Education. Singapore:
Wardswirth
Best, J. W. & Khan, J. V. 2002. Research in Education 7th. New Delhi : Prentice
Hall
Bloom, B.S. 1996 Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: the Classification of
educational Goals. New York: Longman
Brown, H. Douglas. 2001 Teaching By Principle: An Interactive Approach to
Language Pedagogy. (2nd ed). San Francisco: Addison Wesley Longman.
Coffin, C. et al. 2003. Teaching Academic Writing. London : Routledge
Harmenita, R.Y. and Tiarina, Yuli. 2012. Teaching Writing a Descriptive Text by
Using Environmental Observation Strategy. Journal of English Language
Teaching, Vol.1 No.2, September 2012, Serie A.
Harmer, J. 2001. The Practice of English Language Teaching (Third Edition:
Completely Revised and Updated). San Fransisco : Longman.
Kalandadze, M. 2007. English Academic Writing. Budapest: Tbilisi
Marpaung, M.R. 2012. Improving Students’ Writing Recount Text Achievement
through Mind Mapping Technique in Junior High School. Medan:
Unpublished
Muirhead, B. 2005. Using Outlines to improve Student Writing Skillss. i
manager’s journal on School Educational Technology. Vol. 1, No. 3. ISSN0973-2217, 17-23
Muschla, G.R. 2011. Exploring Writing. New York : McGraw-Hill
Naegle, P. 2002. The New Teachers’ Complete Sourcebook. New York: Scholastic
Oshima, A., and Hogue. 1999. Writing Academic English; Third Edition. New
York: Addison Wesley Publishing Company
Pardiyono. 2007. Teaching Genre Based Writing. Yogyakarta : Andi
43
Purwanti. 2013. Let’s Write English Text. Klaten : PT.Intan Sejati.
Richards, J. C. and Willy A. R. 2002. Methodology in Language Teaching
(An Anthology of Current Practice), Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press
Sianipar, Y.A and Sabrina, M. 2014. Improving Students’ Achievement in writing
descriptive paragraph using outlining technique. REGISTER Journal of
English Language Teaching of FBS-Unimed. Vol. 3 No.1
Sagala, H. 2012. Improving Students’ Achievement in Writing Analytical
Exposition Text Through Guided Writing Technique. Medan: Unpublished
Sanjaya, D. 2011. Improving The Students’ Achievement in Writing Descriptive
Paragraph through The Application of Team Pair Solo. Medan:
Unpublished
Saragih, A., Sumarsih., & Gurning, B. 2012. Bahasa dalam Budaya
Pembelajaran. Medan: Bartong Jaya
Siburian, T.A. 2013. Improving Students’ Achievement on Writing Descriptive
Text through Think Pair Share. International Journal of Language Learning
and Applied Linguistic world (IJJLALW). 3 (3) 30-43
Tardy. 2010. Writing for The World : Wikipedia as an Introduction to Academic
Writing. English Teaching Forum, No. 1, 1-17.
Tompkins, G.E. 2000. Teaching Writing: Balancing Process and Product. New
York : Scholastic
Viel-Ruma, K. et al. 2010. Direct Instruction in Written Expression : The Effect
on English Speakers and English Language Learners with Disabilities.
Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 25 (2), 997-108
Weigle, S.C. 2002. Assessing Writing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
About Descriptive Paragraph in (http://www.ask.com/question). Accessed on
January, 13th 2014
About
Technique in Teaching Writing ((http://voices.yahoo.com/ideastechniques-teaching-english- language). Accessed on January, 23rd 2014
STUDENTS’ ACHIEVEMENT IN WRITING DESCRIPTIVE
PARAGRAPH
A THESIS
Submitted to the English Department Faculty of Language and Arts, State
University of Medan in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the
Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan
By:
APRILZA ASWANI
Registration Number: 2101321002
ENGLISH AND LITERATURE DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS
STATE UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN
2014
DECLARATION
I have familiarized myself with the University’s Policy on Academic integrity.
Except where appropriately acknowledged, this thesis is my own work, has been
expressed in my own words, and has not been previously been submitted for
assessment.
I understand that this paper may be screened electronically or otherwise for
plagiarism.
Medan,
August 2014
Aprilza Aswani
NIM. 2101321002
ABSTRACT
Aswani, Aprilza. 2101321002. The Effect of Applying Outlining Technique on
Students’ Achievement in Writing Descriptive Paragraph. A Thesis. English
Department. Faculty of Languages and Arts. State University of Medan. 2014.
This study aims to discover the effect of applying outlining technique on the students’
achievement in writing descriptive paragraph. It was conducted by using
experimental research design. The population of this research was the seventh (VII)
grade students of SMP Negeri 2 Tanjungbalai which has eight parallel classes. The
samples of the research were taken by random sampling technique through lottery.
The result was class VII-1 became the experimental group and class VII-2 became the
control group. The experimental group was taught by using Outlining Technique,
while the control group was taught without using Outlining Technique. The
instrument for collecting the data was writing test. It was found that the value of to
was 2.870 with the degree of freedom (df)=58 at the level of significance p(0,05) =
1.673. It means that to is higher than tt (2.870 > 1.673). Therefore, the using Outlining
Technique has significant effect on students’ achievement in writing descriptive
paragraph.
i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Firstly, praise and great gratitude to the Almighty God Allah SWT for his
blessing, mercy, opportunity and helping the researcher to complete this Thesis
entitled “ The Effect of Applying Outlining Technique on Students’ Achievement
in Writing Descriptive Paragraph”.
This Thesis is arranged to fulfill the requirement for the degree of Sarjana
Pendidikan (S1) at English Department, Faculty of Language and Arts, State
University of Medan.
This Thesis could have been accomplished because of guidance,
encouragement, suggestion and comment from people for whom the researcher
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 Language and Arts Faculty,
Vice Dean I, II, III, and all the administrative staff.
Prof. Dr. Hj. Sumarsih, M.Pd., the Head of English and Literature
Department and as her Thesis Consultant. Rika, S.Pd, M.Hum as the
Secretary of English and Literature Department and Dra. Masitowarni
Siregar, M.Ed as the Head of English Education Study Program and her
Thesis Examiner.
Dra. Meisuri, M.A and Dra. Rahmah, M.Hum., as her Thesis
Examiners. Thanks are given to them, for their valuable inputs, comments
and suggestions enrich the quality of this Thesis.
Sunar, S.Pd., the Headmaster of SMP Negeri 2 Tanjungbalai, for giving
her permission to do the research and Yoanna Novita, S.Pd., thanks for
her help that allowed the researcher to conduct her research in the class.
Special thanks to her beloved parents, her father, Aswan, and her mother,
Asnidar Lubis, for their great love, prayers, motivation, guidance,
support, spirit. And also her beloved young sister and brother, Ade Novira
Aswani and Anugrah Putra Aswanda. Big thanks for them, without
them, the researcher could not be accomplished to do this Thesis.
Her appreciation to her closed friend Mia Adilla Panjaitan and also all of
her best friends Rabiah Al Adawiyah, Sartika Dewi Panjaitan, Hendrik
Hasibuan, Suryani, Yetti Lestari, PPL Mates (Rahmi Erwita.D, Dede
Suriyani, Febri Tiffany, Jiwa Dash.P). Thank you for every laugh,
smile, tear, support, spirit, help for every moments that always we do
together.
ii
All of her classmates in Regular A 2010 who can not be mentioned one by
one, thank you for sharing knowledge, helping, friendship, kindness
during spending time in campus.
Muhammad Yusuf, for giving support, great love, special care, kindness,
help, attention, motivation in accompanying the researcher every time.
Overall, the researcher hopes this Thesis can give a bit contribution to the
English Education students and further pedagogical research. And also it can be
useful for us.
Medan,
August 2014
The researcher,
Aprilza Aswani
NIM. 2101321002
iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
ABSTRACT
······················································· i
ACKNOWLEDGMENT ······················································· ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ······················································· iv
LIST OF TABLES ······························································ v
LIST OF FIGURES ····························································· vi
LIST OF APPENDICES ························································· vii
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ···········································
A. The Background of The Study ···························
B. The Problem of The Study ································
C. The Objective of The Study ······························
D. The Scope of The Study ···································
E. The Significance of The Study ···························
1
1
5
5
6
6
CHAPTERII: REVIEW OF LITERATURE ·····························
A. Theoretical Framework ···································
1. Students’ achievement ··································
2. Writing ····················································
3. Process of Writing ·······································
4. Paragraph ·················································
5. Descriptive Paragraph ··································
6. The Assessment of Writing Skill in
Descriptive paragraph ··································
7. Technique ·················································
8. Outlining Technique ····································
9. Teaching Descriptive Paragraph through Outlining
Technique ………………………………………….
10. The Advantages and Disadvantages of
Outlining Technique ···································
11. The Procedure of Outlining Technique ·············
B. Conceptual Framework ··································
C. Hypothesis ····················································
7
7
7
8
9
10
12
CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHOD ···································
A. Research Design ··········································
B. Population and Sample ··································
1. Population ···············································
2. Sample ···················································
C. Instrument for Collecting The Data ····················
D. The Procedure of Research ·····························
1. Pre-Test ··················································
2. Treatment ………………………………………….
3. Post-Test ················································
22
22
23
23
23
24
26
27
27
29
iv
15
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
E. The Validity and Reliability of the Test ···············
F. The Technique for Analyzing the Data ················
29
30
CHAPTER VI: THE DATA AND RESEARCH FINDINGS ············
A. The Data ················································
B. Data Analysis ··········································
1. Analyzing the Data Using T-test ·················
2. Testing Hypotheses ·································
C. Discussion ……………………………………….
D. Research Findings ·····································
32
32
35
35
36
37
39
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION ····················
A. Conclusion ……………………………………….
B. Suggestion ……………………………………….
41
41
41
REFERENCES ………………………………………………………….
APPENDICES …………………………………………………………..
42
44
v
LIST OF TABLES
Page
Table 1.1
Table 1.2
Table 3.1
Table 3.2
Table 3.3
Table 3.4
Table 4.1
Table 4.2
The mean of the Class VII-1 Students’ Score In writing ·········
The mean of the Class VII-2 Students’ Score In writing ·········
Research Design ·······················································
Jacob et al.’s Scoring Profile on Writing Test ·····················
Experimental Group Activity ·········································
Control Group Activity ················································
The Result Score of Experimental Group ··························
The Result Score of Control Group ·································
vi
3
3
22
25
27
28
32
33
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 2.1 Example of Outline Format in a Paragraph ························
vii
Page
17
LIST OF APPENDICES
Page
APPENDIX 1 The Calculation of Pre-test and Post-test of
Experimental Group …………………………………………… 44
APPENDIX 2 The Calculation of Pre-test and Post-test of
Control Group ………………………………………………… 45
APPENDIX 3 The Calculation of t-test…………………………..……………. 46
APPENDIX 4 Values of the Correlation Coefficient for Different Levels of
Significance …………………………………………………….. 48
APPENDIX 5 Writing Test …………………………………………………….. 49
APPENDIX 6 The Media of Teaching Descriptive Paragraph in
Experimental and Control Group ………………………………. 50
APPENDIX 7 The English Lesson Plan ……………………………………….. 51
APPENDIX 8 Example of Students’ Writing Result of Experimental and
Control Group ………………………...………………………. 79
viii
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. The Background of the Study
Language is the important part of human existence and social process that
has so many functions to perform the life activities of human beings. One of the
functions of a language is as a tool of communication. There are several forms of
communication namely spoken and written. The purpose of communication is to
send a message or information from a writer or speaker to reader or listener. The
fact that human beings are social mankind; they certainly realize that they cannot
survive without interacting with other people. Because of that, people start to
make their own way to interact, and then a language is being used.
In Indonesia, English has become the first foreign language which is
taught from elementary level up to university. English is also intensively used in
international communication, in written as well as in spoken communication. In
addition, many books of science and technology, art, and other published issues
are written in English.
In English language, there are four skills to be mastered. They are
listening, speaking, reading and writing. Speaking and writing are grouped into
productive skills while listening and reading are included into receptive skills.
Writing is one of the four language skills which is very important to be learnt. In
fact, writing is not easy. Among those skills, writing is the most difficult skill to
1
2
be mastered, because it needs hard thinking in producing words, sentences, and
paragraph. Especially in this study, the writer focuses on the writing skill.
Writing is one of the language skills that should be taught besides the
other three skills. It is regarded as a productive skill which assists students in
expressing their ideas in
written form. Schoen. et al (1982) as quoted by
Harmenita and Tiarina (2013) defines that the concept of writing as a “ processes“
that remain our primary concern. It is not easy to translate concept in our brain to
be a written language, and we must be clever to choose and to combine the
vocabulary to create meaningful sentences. We also must pay our attention to the
grammar, so it is normal if the students think that writing is a difficult subject
because of their paying to many attentions such as idea, concept, vocabulary and
grammar. In addition, writing in English is considered as the most important part
to be learnt by every students, especially in high school. It is stated that in
Educational Unit Curriculum (KTSP or Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pembelajaran)
of Junior High School at grade seventh in writing, students must have ability to
develop and their idea in writing, there are descriptive and procedure.
So, based on the statements in advance, Purwanti (2013:44) claims that
descriptive contains description or explanation about person, animal, place, or
thing specifically. It means that the students use their imagination and knowledge
in their writing. A paragraph is a distinct unit of thought which may contain a
topic sentence (Chitravelu, et.al 2005:165). In conclusion, descriptive paragraph is
a paragraph that describe about person, animal, place, or thing specifically.
3
Based on the preliminary observation of Grade VII of SMP Negeri 2
Tanjungbalai on Juny 27th 2013 that was by asking the English teacher about the
students’ achievement in writing especially descriptive paragraph, she said that
most of the students thought that writing is difficult. She found that the students
still did not understand clearly what a descriptive paragraph is. They do not know
how to transfer their ideas, even how to arrange a sentence. So, the teacher should
teach by other methods or techniques which can intimate the students to write.
When the researcher asked the teacher about the students’ score list for
writing test in two semesters, it was found out that, the minimum criteria mastery
(KKM or Kriteria Ketuntasan Minimum ) was applied 70 meanwhile the scores of
the students are lower. Many students couldn’t exceed the minimum criteria
mastery (KKM) which was applied by school for English lesson. And the data of
two semester are follows :
Table 1.1
The mean of the Class VII-1 Students’ Score in Writing
Session
st
1 Session 2012/2013
2nd Session 2012/2013
Score
< 70
≥ 70
< 70
≥ 70
Students
27 Students
8 Students
26 Students
9 Students
Percentage
77.2%
22.8 %
74.3 %
25.7%
Mean
52.7
56.8
Source : Students’ accumulated score of SMP Negeri 2 Tanjungbalai academic
year 2012-2013
Table 1.2
The mean of the Class VII-2 Students’ Score in Writing
Session
st
1 Session 2012/2013
2nd Session 2012/2013
Score
< 70
≥ 70
< 70
≥ 70
Students
24 Students
11 Students
28 Students
7 Students
Percentage
68.6%
31.4%
80%
20%
Mean
54.3
51.8
Source : Students’ accumulated score of SMP Negeri 2 Tanjungbalai academic
year 2012-2013
4
From the previous data, it can be concluded that the students’ ability in
writing in that class is still low. It can be seen from the mean of students’ score
where the mean is still under the KKM.
The researcher also found some problems in the teaching and learning
processes. First, students felt bored when they learnt because of unchangable
method from the teacher. In this case, teacher used lecturing method. Next,
students were only asked to write without any clear instruction and guidance.
Those were the problems facing by students in writing.
The teacher said that most of students had difficulties in writing
descriptive paragraph because they didn’t understand what their teacher had
explained. So, the students thought that English is not fun and do not want to be
serious in learning English.
Based on the problem, according to previous studies, Harmer (2007) as
quoted by Harmenita and Tiarina (2013:30) explains that writing can be defined
as writing- for- learning and writing- for- writing. Writing- for- learning means
writing as a tool to practice the language they have learned, and in writing- forwriting, it is a tool to develop the students’ ability as writer. The previous
researcher, Sianipar and Sabrina (2014) found that the students can increase their
knowledge and achievement to write and develop their idea into writing by using
outlining technique, because an outline is a tool to make the writing easier,
because the main point is listed as the topic to be discussed. Muirhead (2005)
found that writing an outlines provide opportunities for students to refine their
outlining skills and increase their understanding of critical thinking. Teachers can
5
develop instructional plans that assist the student’s cognitive information
processing skills. The researcher offers the teacher to apply Outlining Technique
to solve the problem. Tardy (2010) found that the teacher can use the outlining as
the teaching writing technique and the students can be easier and more focus on
the topic. Coffin. et al (2003:37) explains that outlines may be drawn up to match
the expectations set by certain text types, such as an argument essay in social
science, for example. For inexperienced researchers such plans can help identify
gaps in the development of ideas, arguments, and sources of evidence. After
seeing the explanation in advance, the researcher offers outlining technique to
repair the student’s writing especially in descriptive paragraph. As an expectation,
it can help students in writing descriptive paragraph and students are able to focus
more in writing easily and well by applying this technique.
From the previous explanation, the research was conducted to see how the
application of outlining technique affects students’ achievement in writing,
particularly writing descriptive paragraph.
B. The Problem of the Study
The problem of the study is formulated as follows :
“Is there any significant effect of using outlining technique on the
students’ achievement in writing descriptive paragraph”?
C. The Objectives of the Study
In line with the problem, the objective is to investigate if there is a
significant effect of applying outlining technique on the students’ achievement of
grade seventh of SMP Negeri 2 Tanjungbalai in writing descriptive paragraph.
6
D. The Scope of the Study
This study is just focused on students’ achievement in writing descriptive
paragraph specifically on describing object (animal) by applying one technique
that is, outlining technique.
E. The Significance of the Study
Results of this study are expected to be giving out the theoretical and
practical significance. Theoretically, the expected of this research is to enrich the
learning of science writing especially in writing descriptive paragraph by using
outlining technique.
Practically, the result of the study is important and useful for those :
1. Teacher, to increase their own professionalism in teaching writing by
using Outlining Technique and the result of the study would be very
useful for teachers of English and others who are concerning wtih
assessment of teaching English.
2. Students, giving information to increase their writing ability and to
motivate the students to be better in writing descriptive paragraph.
3. The readers, to have interest research to enlarge their understanding
about writing descriptive paragraph.
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS
A. Conclusion
After analyzing the data, it can be concluded that using outlining technique
significantly affect on students’ achievement in writing descriptive paragraph.
Because it was found that the value of tobserve was 2.870 with the degree of
freedom (df) = 58 at the level of significance p (0,05) = 1.673. It means that tobserve
is higher than ttable (2.870 > 1.673), null hypothesis is rejected and alternative
hypothesis is accepted. So, outlining technique is better to increase students’
achievement in writing descriptive paragraph.
B. Suggestions
The researcher point out some suggestions as following:
1. To the English teacher, applying outlining technique because this
technique helps the students in understanding the descriptive paragraph.
2. To the students, with this technique they can make an outline before
writing a paragraph, so that the students can be more creative and easier to
share their ideas into writing by applying outlining technique.
3. To the readers, to know outlining technique because they can enlarge their
knowledge and understanding about writing with this technique.
41
42
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