THE USE OF PICTURES TO IMPROVE
THE SECOND YEAR STUDENTS WRITING SKILL
AT MTsN TAMBAKBERAS JOMBANG
(Ni’matuz Zahroh / Program Pascasarjana Jurusan Bhs Inggris)
I.
INTRODUCTION
1.1.
Background of the Study
Realizing the importance of English mastery,
Indonesian government has decided that English is one of compulsory subjects
from Elementary school up to the University level. Based on School Based
Curriculum 2006 (KTSP), the objective of teaching English in SMP/MTs is that
the students must be able to develop their communicative competence both
written and orally to achieve functional literacy level (Depdiknas, 2006: 278).
Consequently, the teaching and learning activities in Junior High School are
oriented to the mastery of four skills. In this case, the teacher should apply
a method, strategy and technique that can encourage the students to be more
active in the teaching and learning process (Harmer, 1998).
Writing as one of the four basic language skills
which plays an important role in the context of English teaching as foreign
language in Indonesia. Ken (2003:9) viewed that writing is a way of sharing
personal meanings and it emphasizes the power of the personality to construct
someone’s view based on a certain topic. Writing comprises communicating a
particular message in the written form (Spratt, 2005: 26). However, writing is
regarded as the most difficult skill for foreign language learners to master
because it involves several components which need to be considered while the
learners are writing, such as contents, organization, vocabularies, language
use and punctuations (Brown, 2004:244–245; Hartfiel, et.al., 1985:102.) Writing
linked with several component of language such as choice of word, grammar,
syntax, mechanism, and generating of ideas (Gebhard, 1996: 211). Furthermore,
he said that the writer should pay attention both on the goal of writing itself
and the readers.
Comparing to speaking, writing is even more difficult
because the typical characteristics of
written language are more complex than those of spoken language (Nunan, 1991:
85). The complexities lie on the use of standard language and the degree
of formality. Moreover, in writing, we have to pay attention to higher level
skills of planning and organizing as well as lower levels skills of spelling,
punctuation and word choice (Richard, 2002: 303). In writing, the writer should also think
about the essential element such as the audience, the tone and the goal of
writing itself (Oshima, 1981: 2).
The most important reason for teaching writing is that
it is a basic language skill, just as important as listening, speaking and
reading. In the teaching of writing, the teacher usually encourages the
students to transfer what they think into text types. Generally, the most
common problem that confronts teachers of a writing class does not lie so much
on what to ask students to write about, the difficulty is more on how to
motivate the students to write interesting and effective materials.
In fact, generally, the students’ ability in writing
at High School is very low. It is
revealed by some research concerning the students’ writing ability. Sundari
(2002:24) did a study which intended to improve the students’ writing skill
through pictures. Her preliminary study revealed that the students face
difficulty in writing English especially in expressing their idea. Moreover,
Aquaningsih (2008) conducted a research which aimed at promoting the students’
productivity in writing EFL compositions. She found that the students have
problem in generating ideas for writing. From the finding described above, it
can be concluded that there are some problems found in the teaching of writing.
As a teacher, the researcher observed the teaching and
learning progress in her classroom at MTsN Tambakberas Jombang and found some
problem faced by the students. They are:
- The students have low motivation in doing task
especially on writing.
- The mean score for each skill is not quite
satisfied.
Skill
|
Mid-test
score
|
Final
Test score
|
Listening
|
62
|
65
|
Speaking
|
58
|
63
|
Reading
|
68
|
70
|
Writing
|
49
|
55
|
3. The
techniques that the teacher’s apply for teaching are not various and there is
no effort from the teacher to find and use effective and efficient media for
teaching.
Many
students are sometimes afraid to make mistakes and feel shy in speaking.
Some
students sometimes cannot identify some words from cassettes when they are
listening.
Most
of the students are not able to write good paragraphs or they produced
unattractive text.
The
students do not have confidence to read the text loudly.
Some
students have poor mastery of grammar.
Referring to the previous problem above, the most
crucial problem is that her students cannot write well when she gives a task to
write a composition. They do not have idea what to write first. As a result,
the students were unmotivated to complete the task. They do not have sufficient
vocabulary in developing their writing and they find difficulties to determine
the content in their text. Then, their writing achievement is still under the
Minimum Passing Standard (Standard Ketuntasan Minimal). On the average, the
students’ skill is less good and needs to be improved. The inadequate result might
happen due to several factors such as the techniques that the teacher used to
teach writing was not interesting. The teacher only assigns them to write
paragraph without giving a model of a good paragraph organization. The teacher also monotonously lets them write
the paragraph by themselves without giving any feasible example of paragraph
writing technique. Hence, the strategies applied by the English teacher seem
less effective since they do not give much contribution in developing the
students’ skill in paragraph writing. Still, a writing task should be actively
engaged students in the process of learning to write (Tribble, 1996: 68). There
should be an effort to make writing class become more interesting in order that
the students can produce attractive text. The next factor is the media for
presenting material is not various. As a result, the students’ ability in
constructing and composing their paragraphs is still low.
Based on the
explanation above, the researcher tries to find out the best technique to help
the students improve their writing skills and motivate them to participate
actively in the writing class. The teacher must be creative in selecting and
preparing instructional media. Instructional media can enhance learning and
support the teacher’s instruction in the teaching and learning process in the
classroom. However, the teacher should follow some consideration in applying
instructional media in order not to face many difficulties in their activities.
The instructional media should be easy to prepare and easy to organize. They
should be interesting and give enlargement to an adequate amount of language
(Wright, 1992).
The English teacher can employ pictures as their
instructional aids in the teaching of writing. Pictures can translate abstract
idea into more realistic form and they are inexpensive (Kasbolah, 1999: 21).
The pictures are appropriate for young learner because they are easy to
prepare, easy to organize and interesting to the students. The use of picture
in the teaching and learning progress is aimed to make the process of teaching
and learning more effective. Wright (1992) explained that pictures could play a
role in motivating the students. Pictures can also provide a stimulating focus
for students’ attention, a variety of task, and a shared experience (Raimes,
1983: 27). From those statements, it is obvious that pictures could be used as
media to teach writing especially in helping the students to express the ideas
in the written form.
Previous research on the teaching writing by using
pictures showed that the students gained good progress in writing. Sundari
(2002: 23) found that the use of pictures could facilitate the students to
communicate their ideas in the written form correctly in terms of forms and
content. Another researcher discovered that the students could minimize the
number of errors and mistakes in descriptive paragraph and their writing could
be understood easily by applying many models of pictures (Azhari, 2004).
Moreover, Mochtar (2004) conducted the development of picture series for the
teaching of writing in Junior High School. She concluded that the students are
more active and motivated since there is a brainstorming activity in pre
writing by using picture.
Based on School Based Curriculum (KTSP), Junior High
School students have to master a number of texts: narrative, descriptive,
recount, procedure and report (Depdiknas, 2006: 278). In addition, the second
year students have to master descriptive, recount and narrative text. It stated
further on the Competency Standard that the first semester of second year
students of Junior High School must be able to write simple functional texts
and short essays in the form of descriptive and recount. Therefore, short essay
or composition writing is one of writing activity that can be used by the
teachers to teach writing (Gebhard, 1996:226). In this activity, the teachers
teach students how to write short stories related to their past events and
description of people, places or object. Likewise, the teaching of writing in
Junior High School must be viewed as an ongoing process. It means that teaching
writing involves pre-writing, drafting, revising, editing (Hill, 1998:
68).
For those
reasons above, the researcher would apply pictures to improve students’ skill
in writing descriptive text. This text has functional objective to describe a
particular thing/object, place, or person (Depdiknas, 2006). Moreover, Stanley
(1998: 148) stated that descriptive text presents the appearance of things that
occupy space, whether they are objects, people, building or cities. It has
purpose to say to the readers something looks like. It attempts to paint a
picture with words. In this case, “Pictures” strategy which is adapted from
Linstromberg (2004: 132) is developed as prewriting activity. Prewriting, which
is typically characterized as planning, activities are very fundamental
in determining the students’ success in drafting the entire text. This stage
consists of three stages called generating ideas, focusing, and structuring
(White and Arndt, 1991 cited by Widiati & Cahyono, 2006:141) which enable
the students to identify any materials related to the topic they are going to
write. Hopefully, this strategy will help the students to solve the problems.
1.2.
Statement of the Problem
The research problem of this research is “How can the
use of pictures improve students’ writing skill?”
1.3.
Objective of the Research
Based on the above research problem, this research is
intended to apply pictures to improve writing skills of the second year
students of MTsN tambakberas Jombang.
1.4.
Significance of the Research
Theoretically, the result of this study is expected
to provide relevant knowledge about the teaching of English, especially on the
writing skill, at SLTP level by implementing particular strategy.
Practically, the finding of this research is expected
to help the teachers, as well as the students, in implementing pictures as an
alternative solution for the problems they face in the teaching of writing.
This research is also wished to be a reference for other researchers who wish
to conduct similar research.
1.5. Scope
and Limitation of the Research
This study is focused on the teaching and learning
process by using pictures through “Picture” strategy adapted from
Linstromberg (2004: 132) in order to improve the students’ writing skill. The
technique is implemented to the first semester of second year students of MTsN
Tambakberas Jombang in academic year 2010/2011. The students’ writing skill is
evaluated based on their individual writing of descriptive text. The
improvement being evaluated is emphasized on the aspects of writing components
(i.e. content, organization, vocabulary, grammar and mechanics) based on the
analytical scoring rubric proposed by Cohen (1994: 328-329).
1.6.
Definition of the Key Terms
1) Writing
skill: the ability of communicating a message (something to say), sharing
information or ideas in written form (Spratt, 2005: 26).
2) Descriptive
paragraph: The paragraph that presents the appearance of things that occupy
space, whether they are objects, people, building or cities (Stanley, 1998: 148)
3) Pictures:
as one of stimulus material that engages the students to use the language in
developing idea on the certain topic Ken (2003: 90). In addition, it also can
be as media to stimulate schemata and encourage the students’ creativity in
writing. The pictures used in the research are kind of places from students’
drawing.
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
This
research is intended to improve the students’ writing ability in recount text
using pictures. This chapter presents the review of the literature related to
the study. The review includes the teaching of English in Indonesian context,
the teaching of English in SMP/MTs level, the teaching of writing in EFL
context, the teaching of writing in SMP/MTs level, the process of writing, pictures
and related previous studies.
2.1. The
Teaching of English as a foreign language in Indonesian context
In this
globalization era, the competition among the nations in the world becomes very
strict. The nation which has high quality of manpower can only succeed in
international competition. Hence, human resources development becomes a central
issue in developing countries such as Indonesia . One of aspects toward
the improvement of human resources quality is the mastery of foreign languages
in order to compete at international level. The ability to communicate
internationally today is clearly ability to communicate in English (Huda, 1999:
156). As an international language, English has developed and has been
used by most countries in the world as first, second, or foreign language. It
is not only used for communication but also for
development of science and technology (Huda, 2004: 45)
In Indonesia, English has been decided
to be the first foreign language whish is taught in
secondary school both lower and upper secondary school level and starting at
1994 Curriculum, English should be include in elementary school as well. The
teaching of English in secondary school is clearly a compulsory subject as a
national content while English in Elementary school is not a required subject,
but a local content of the curriculum (Huda, 1999:134). As a foreign language,
English has not been used in social as well as official communication
but only as a subject instruction in school (Widiati & Cahyono, 2006: 142).
Gebhard (2000:3) also points out that the objective
of English teaching just lies more on making the students pass English entrance
exam whether entering high-quality school or university than preparing them to
communicate in English. Furthermore, in EFL setting the students lack of
exposure since they rarely have a chance to apply what they have studied in the
classroom to be used in their real life situation.
Basically, Saukah (2000) highlights that the
objective of teaching English in Indonesia is enabling the students
to use English for communication. Huda (2004:47) also states that English has
several functions in Indonesia .
English is a means of communication among the nations in all aspect of life,
English is also a mean of developing science and technology to help the
development of the nation, and English becomes an indicator of special quality
of human resources. The teaching of English in Indonesia seems to meet the need of
English mastery in order to participate in international forum, so, it is not
only directed to pass certain English examination but also to use English for
communication. In fact, a number of factors including the teachers’
competence, the number of students in a class, time allotment for English
teaching, and the learning facilities cause the failure of English teaching and
the result of its teaching is not satisfactory yet.
Realizing the fact
above, it is obvious that English is badly
needed in this era and it is our duty as a teacher to meet the learners’ need
and to reach the goal of ELT in Indonesia .
2.2. The
Teaching of English at Secondary School (SMP/MTs) in Indonesia
English is
one of the compulsory subjects to be taught in the secondary school particularly
in MTs/SMP level. Based on the 2006
Curriculum (School Based Curriculum), the objective of teaching English in
Indonesia especially in SMP / MTs are (1) to develop the
students’ communicative competence in the form of oral and written text to achieve functional literacy
level, (2) to develop the students’ awareness of the importance of
English as a mean of communication in this globalization era, and (3) to
enlarge the students’ understanding of the relationship between language and
culture (Depdiknas, 2006). Whereas, the teaching of English in this level
covers three scopes, including literacy competence (the ability to communicate
using English through an oral or written text which is actualized in the four
language skills, namely listening, speaking, reading, and writing),
communicative competence (the ability to understand and create short functional
text, monologue, and essays in the form of procedure, descriptive, recount,
narrative, and report), and supporting competence (linguistic competence, socio
cultural competence, strategic competence, and discourse competence).
As the objective above, it is apparent that the
teaching of English in MTs is directed to make students have communicative
competence that they are able to communicate in oral and written form in
expressing information, thought, feeling, and to develop science and
technology. Communicative Competence is
the ability to comprehend and to create oral and written texts that involves
four language skills: reading, listening, speaking and writing. Thus, the
mastery of the four language skills is very important in helping students to
use English for communication.
Generally, the time allotment for the teaching of English at the junior
high schools is 45 minutes for 1 meeting or 2 x 90 minutes for a week. This
time allotment is used for teaching all of language skills: reading, writing,
speaking, and listening, and its language components including vocabulary,
grammar, and spelling / pronunciation.
Based on the fact above, it is the teachers’ responsibility to use the
time provided in teaching and learning process so that the instructional
objectives of English teaching that is the mastery of the four language skills
can be achieved.
2.3. The
Teaching of Writing in EFL Context
Writing as one of the four language skills
plays a very important role in the teaching of English in Indonesia . Writing is communicating
a message between the writer and the reader (Spratt, M. 2005). In this case,
writing is used to communicate with other people using written form through
indirect communication. As a mean of communication, writing would be best and
more meaningful when it is taught integrated to the other skills because
the teacher can track students’ progress in multiple skills at the same time.
Writing is considered to be the learning
activity which is helpful for language learners (Widiati & Cahyono,
2006: 140), because in writing, the students are provided a chance to write as
well as to learn at the same time. Miller (1998) as cited by Widiati &
Cahyono, (2006 : 140) states that writing is an important skill to support
other learning activities since it can be a means of personal discovery, of
creativity, and of self- expression.
According to Raimes
(1983: 3) writing is a means of communication and writing can really help the students learn second language
for some beneficial reasons. First, writing reinforces the grammatical
structures, and vocabulary that we have been teaching to our students. Second,
writing provides students a chance to be adventurous with the language, to go
beyond what they have just learned to say. Furthermore, in writing students
becomes very involved with the new language especially in the effort to express
ideas and the constant involvement of eyes, hand, and brain
In fact, most EFL students are not interesting
in writing (Mukminatin, 1991:129). Writing is considered the most difficult
skill compared to the other three skills, listening, reading and speaking,
since it involves several components for example, contents, vocabularies,
organization, grammatical structures and mechanics such as punctuation and
capitalization (Hartfield, et al., 1985, as cited by Cahyono 2001). That is
why, Gebhard (1996: 223) points out that in the beginning level of EFL, the
students should learn the basic principle of writing at first. This
includes being able to identify and write down letters, words, and simple
sentences, as well as learning spelling and punctuation conventions. He also recommends
that there are many different types of activities teachers can use to teach
writing conventions.
To sum up, the teacher should be able to find a better technique used and
select the material wisely that the teaching of writing to EFL learner should
be taught from simple one to complex one. It is considered to avoid the
difficulties faced by the students and make the students easier to write and to
learn since writing is an important skill in supporting learning activities.
2.4. The
Teaching of Writing at Secondary School (SMP/MTs)
Writing as an integral part of the teaching English cannot be isolated
with the other three skills: reading, speaking, and listening. Based on the 2006
Curriculum, the objective of the teaching of writing for SMP/MTs level is to
make the students able to express ideas in various kinds of short functional
texts, monologues, and essays in the form of procedure, descriptive, narrative,
recount and report (Depdiknas, 2006).
The basic competence that should be achieved is different based on the
level of the students, so each level will have different kinds of text. In the
first year, the students are expected to be able to create short simple
functional texts and essay in the form of descriptive and procedure. In the
second year, the students are supposed to be capable in producing short
descriptive, recount, and narrative text. Then in the third year, it is
expected that the students will be able to express ideas in short functional
texts and essays in the form of procedure, report, and narrative (Depdiknas,
2006).
Descriptive is a paragraph that functions to describe a particular
person, place, or thing (CBC, 2004). It is a kind of paragraph in which the
writer draws their ideas and thought vividly based on their senses on the
objects they see. According to Tompkins (1994) descriptive is like painting a
picture with words. It has two parts, they are identification (identifies
phenomenon to be described) and description (describes parts, qualities, and
characteristics).
Procedure is a text that functions to give instruction on how to do
something through series of actions or steps (CBC, 2004). It tells the reader
or listener how to do something. Its purpose is to provide instruction for
making something, doing something or getting somewhere (Anderson, and Anderson,
1998). Procedure has three parts: goal, material (Optional) and the series of
steps.
Recount is a text
that functions to retell events for the purpose of informing and entertaining
(CBC, 2004). It is a kind of genre that retells past events in the order in
which they happened (Anderson, and Anderson, 1998). Recount consists of three parts:
Orientation that tells who was involved, where and when it happened, event(s)
that tell the readers the chronological events, and reorientation that
summarizes the events.
Narrative is a text that functions to entertain or to amuse the reader
(dealing with actual experience, fiction, or a complicated event turning into a
crisis, which finally has a solution) (CBC, 2004). It is a piece of text that
tells a story to entertain the audience. The purposes are not only for
entertainment but also making the audience think about an issue, teach them a
lesson, or excite their emotions (Anderson, and Anderson, 1998). Narrative has
four main parts: orientation, evaluation, complication, and resolution.
Report is a text that functions to describe (CBC, 2004).presents
information about a subject. The purpose is to classify or describe a subject
using fact about the subject’s part, behaviour and qualities. The subject is
general rather than particular (Anderson, and Anderson, 1998). Report has two
parts; General classification and descriptions.
However, the teaching of writing skill in Junior High School has not been
successful yet. Commonly, there are some problems dealing with the teaching of
writing skill in Junior High School. First, writing has a negligible section
since it is expelled in the national examination which has so far been a
pointer of the success of English teaching and learning. Second, teaching
writing and scoring the students’ writing consumes much time, while the allowed
time for the teaching of English is limited, so the students lack practice and
as a result, many students find difficulties in writing. It is in line what
Mukminatin (1991: 130) stated that very few teachers are interested in teaching
writing because it is time consuming in terms of teaching preparation and
evaluation.
As a conclusion, there are many text types which should be mastered by
the students in junior high school and this study will emphasize recount
paragraph as one of the text types that should be mastered by the second year
students of Junior High School.
2.5. The process of Writing
All writing involves a process, whether the
teachers focus on it or not because actually writing is not a single activity
but it is recursive activity (Widiati & Cahyono, 2006: 141). It
means that writing has several steps to be followed from the beginning to the
final product. This process of course will make the students enable to produce
kind of text since there is clear stage should be achieved before going on to
the next steps and they have opportunity to rewrite or revise their work before
finally submit their final writing. This Process approach is not merely gives
attention to the product but more emphasize on how a piece of writing is
constructed (Raimes, 2002).
However, there are several different conceptions of the process writing
approach based on the writer. According to Gebhard (2000: 226-230), there are
four stages involved in the process of text making. They are prewriting,
drafting, revising, and editing. Seow, (2002) says that process writing as a
classroom activity incorporate the four basic writing stages: planning,
drafting, revising, and editing. Another is proposed by Smalley, et al., (2001:
3) that all writers go through the process of writing
which consists of several stages namely prewriting, drafting and revising.
Spratt, et al., (2005) points out that writing often involves going through a
number of stages: brainstorming, writing a draft, editing, and proof reading.
Based on the several conceptions above, the
writer can summarized that generally, the process of writing consists of four
stages: prewriting (planning), drafting, revising, and editing. The detailed
explanation will be presented as follows:
2.5.1. Pre
Writing
According to Seow
(2002:316), pre writing is any activity in the classroom that encourages
students to write because it stimulates students for getting started. It can
change the students from having blank mind toward generating ideas and
gathering information for writing. Gebhard, (2000: 226) and Smalley, et al.,
(1986: 3) have similar ideas that this stage is dealing with the way for
getting started such as finding topics and generating ideas. There are several
techniques that can be used in pre writing such as brainstorming, clustering,
rapid free writing, and wh-questions. In general, prewriting stage is used to
enable the writer in generating ideas before coming to real draft for his/her
writing.
2.5.2. Drafting
After finishing the process of generating ideas, the
second stages will be drafting. Gebhard (2000: 228) states that drafting is a
process of writing down the ideas that they have got in the pre writing. In
this stage, the students are focused on the fluency of writing and are not too
concerned with grammatical accuracy (Seow, 2002:317). What the students should
keep in mind is that a central idea that that they want to communicate to the
audience of their writing. Smalley, et al., (2001: 8) says that in writing the
first draft, the writer may not overly concerned with the grammatical
correctness; rather the writer should focus more to get the ideas down on the
paper.
2.5.3. Revising
The
third stage is revising. In this stage, the writer reexamines what was
written to check how effectively they have communicated their ideas especially
dealing with the content and the organization of ideas (Seow , 2002: 317). The
revision made is on the basis of feedback given by someone else, it can be from
the teacher, their peers, and they themselves. Gebhard (2000: 226) states that
revising stages is closely related to the changing of the content and
organization of the ideas. It can be deleting, adding, reorganizing, or
modifying. Similar idea also proposes by Smalley, et al., (2001: 8) that
revising is really rethinking or reseeing what they have written. You may add
sentences to connect the ideas, to change the order of the sentences or
paragraphs, to substitute another way of saying something or even to throw away
the ideas that are not relevant to the topic.
2.5.4. Editing
This is the last stage
of the process of writing. After concerning with the content and organization
on the ideas, this is the time for the writer to turn his/her attention to the
form of writing. Editing deals with the problem in grammar, syntax, word
choice, and mechanics. In this case, the writer edit the sentences that are not
clear then check to make sure they are grammatically and mechanically correct
(Smalley, et al., 2001: 9, and Gebhard, 2000:230). Seow, (2002:318) says that
this stage requires the students to be engaged in tidying up their text as they
prepare the final draft in terms of grammar, spelling, punctuation, and
diction.
Indeed, when we write we do not write all at once but we need to read and
revise again and again until we consider that it is good enough. So, the
process of writing is really helpful for the writers to get the best of their
writing.
2.5.
Pictures
There are
many kinds of the instructional media that can be used to attract students’
attention and to deliver the information, but visuals seem to be appropriate
one for the learners. One of Visual media that commonly used in the teaching
and learning activities is pictures. Pictures are photographic representations
of people, places, and things (Suyanto, 1999: 21). In this case pictures can be
used by both teachers and students whatever the emphasis of the lesson. Wright
(1992: 3) suggests that there are some considerations in selecting whatever the
media is, including picture in the classroom activities. They should be easy to
prepare, they should be easy to organize, they should be interesting, and they
should rise to a sufficient amount of language.
2.5.1. Kinds
of Pictures
According
to Finocchiaro, (1975: 265) there are at least three kinds of picture that
should be an integral part of every classroom. First, pictures of persons and
single objects. Second, situational pictures that are pictures of people
engaged in activities presenting the relationship between individuals and objects.
Third, a series of pictures mounted on one chart. Wright (1992:193) proposes
that there are many types of pictures that can be used in the teaching and
learning process. There are twenty one types of pictures such as, picture of
single object, picture of one person, pictures of places, pictures of people in
action, pictures from history, pictures of fantasies, pair of pictures, etc. The
teachers can use valuable resource in pictures, such as drawings, photographs,
posters, slides, cartoons, magazine advertisements, diagrams, graphs, tables,
charts and maps for teaching writing (Raimes, 1983:27).
In conclusion, there are many kinds of pictures can be used in language
learning. In this case, the teacher can select whatever the pictures are, based
on the students’ interest and also the activities which are going to apply.
2.5.2. The
Advantages of Using Pictures
Everybody likes to
look at pictures and pictures can be a valuable resource as pictures provide a
shared experience in the classroom, a stimulating focus for students’ interest,
a variety of task, and. Picture also brings the outside world into the
classroom in a vividly concrete way (Raimes, 1983 : 27). This idea is in line
with what Suyanto, (1999 : 21-22) stated that pictures can translate abstract
ideas into more realistic forms or
concrete items, they are easy to
use because they do not require any equipment and they are inexpensive,
According to Wright
(1992:17), there are some roles of pictures in teaching speaking and writing.
Picture can (1) motivate the students and make them want to pay attention and
take part, (2) contribute to the context in which the language is being used,
(3) be described in an objective way or interpreted or responded to subjectivity,
(4) cue responses to questions or cue substitution through controlled practice,
and (5) stimulate and provide information to be referred to in conversation or
story telling. Furthermore, pictures can be suitable for any kind of students
from beginners to advanced and need little time for preparation.
From those
statements above, it can be summarized that pictures can be one of the valuable
instructional visual media in teaching learning process as pictures can offer
many advantages besides, it is suitable for any level of the learners and
whatever the emphasis of the lesson.
2.5.3. The Use of Picture in Teaching Writing
The
teacher of English can employ picture as their instructional visual aids in the
teaching of writing in order to achieve the teaching and learning process.
There are many activities can be done from the existence of pictures. According
to Wright, (1989), teaching writing covers many activities, such as spelling,
repetition, reproduction, manipulation, and composition and picture can be
applied as the visual aids in these activities. Moreover, Wright, (1992) states
that the teacher can use pictures since pictures provide many challenges:
challenge to describe, challenge to identify, challenge to match, challenge to
group, challenge to sequence, challenge to order, and challenge to memorize.
Pictures can also be the basis for many activities, ranging from quite
mechanical controlled composition, sentence combining exercises, or sequencing
of sentences to the writing of new dialogues, letters, report or essays
(Raimes, 1983:27). The teachers can use pictures to motivate the
students to use language in the level of reproduction and manipulation. This
means that by using pictures, students are given situation and context about
things, activities, and events so they will find themselves easier to convey
the message in written form (Yunus,1981, as cited by Sundari, 2002).
In
conclusion, the teachers can apply the existence of picture in the teaching of
writing since pictures provide various activities can be used as a trigger that
stimulate students motivation in writing and to guide students to write their
composition.
2.6. Some
Related Studies
The use of pictures
is believed to be useful and effective to improve the quality of the teaching
of writing and to develop the students’ writing skill. A number of
research studies have been conducted related to the use of pictures in
improving the students’ writing ability.
Sundari (2002) conducted a study on the use of pictures to improve writing
ability of the second year students of SLTP 3 Jember. She had done two cycle of
action research and the result showed that there is improvement in the students
writing ability in terms of forms and contents before and after the action. She
suggested then by using picture, students’ writing skill can be improved.
Azhari (2004) also conducted a study to the
third year students of SLTPN 18 Malang in teaching descriptive writing by using
pictures. The result of this study found that by applying pictures, students
could minimize errors and mistakes in descriptive paragraph and their writing
could be understood easily. Moreover, the use of pictures can stimulate
students to be more active in the teaching and learning activities.
Another research
conducted by Mochtar (2004) found that the use of pictures can really improve
students’ writing ability. This study uses picture series and the results have
shown that there are some strengths of picture series: first, pictures can
improve students’ writing ability, second, pictures can help the students state
their ideas and arrange their sentence in a good organization. The last, students
are more active and motivated in learning since there is brainstorming activity
in pre writing.
Based on the previous studies above, it is obvious that the use of
pictures can be valuable both as a strategy and instructional media which is
used in teaching and learning process since pictures can be used to encourage
students’ motivation and improve the students’ ability especially in writing.
Overall,
this chapter have discussed about review of the literature related to
the study. The review includes the teaching of English in Indonesian context,
the teaching of English in SMP/MTs level, the teaching of writing in EFL
context, the teaching of writing in SMP/MTs level, the process of writing, pictures
and related previous studies.
CHAPTER
III
RESEARCH
METHODOLOGY
3.1.
Research Setting and Subjects
The setting of the research is MTsN Tambakberas
Jombang. It is located at Jl. KH. Abd. Wahab Chasbullah Gg.III Tambakberas
Jombang, East Java. This school has 36 classes; every grade has 12 class. Each
of the class consists of 40 to 45 students on average.
The subjects of the research are 30 students of class VIII-A at MTsN
Taambakberas Jombang. The eight grade students are selected since they
have learned English at the first year and they are not occupied with loads of
UAN preparations like the ninth grade students.
3.2.
Research Procedure
This research is implemented by
using collaborative classroom action research design. The design of this action
research follows the cyclical process proposed by Kemmis and Taggert (1988:14),
which consists of four steps: planning, acting/implementing, observing, and
reflecting.
Before conducting the study, the
researcher tries to observe the learning situation in the classroom in which
most learners are not able to write a good descriptive text. Based on the
preliminary study on the learning situation (reconnaissance), it is found that
the problems faced by the grade–VIII students of MTsN Tambakberas Jombang in writing a descriptive text are as follows:
· They are confused to start their writing. The
do not have idea what to write first.
· They don’t have sufficient vocabulary in
developing their writing.
·
They have difficulties to determine the
content in their text
·
They can not organize their text well.
·
They have poor grammar in their writing.
The result of preliminary study was used to set up a
plan of action at the first cycle
3.2.1
Planning
In this part, the researcher will accomplished the
following activities (a) Preparing the strategy, in this case, Pictures (b)
Designing the lesson plan (c) Preparing instruments i.e. observation checklist,
questionnaires, interview and (d)
Preparing the criteria of success, i.e.:
·
The students are able to express their idea
quickly for planning the draft based on the picture.
·
The students can write a good descriptive text
in terms of the content, organization and grammar.
·
The students get pleasure from implementing the
strategy.
3.2.2
Implementing
The researcher will take the role as practitioner who
teaches writing descriptive text based on the lesson plan by implementing
“Picture” strategy, while the collaborator will act as the observer.
3.2.3 Observing
Observing is the process of recording and gathering
data about any aspects or events which is occurring during implementation. The
data are collected through the techniques of test (asking the students to write
a descriptive text ), observation (on the teaching and learning process in the
classroom, the situation during the teaching and learning process, and the possibility of modifying the technique),
and interview and questionnaire (on the students’ response).
3.2.4
Reflection
In doing reflection, the researcher analyzing the
collected data, and reviewing whether the action is success or not by matching
the result of the observing stage with the criteria of success. When necessary,
another cycle is probably provided.
References
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State University of Malang.
Azhari, Rishan. 2004. Teaching Descriptive
Writing by Using Pictures Among Third Year Grade Students of SLTP N 18 Malang.
Unpublished Thesis. Malang: Graduate Program of English, State University of
Malang:
Brown, H.
Douglas. 2004. Language Assessment: Principles and Language Classroom Practices.
White Plains, NY: Pearson Education, Inc.
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(KTSP). Jakarta: Depdiknas.
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English as a Foreign or Second Language: A Teacher Self-development and
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Appendix
7:
Analytic
Scoring Rubric for Writing Product
Grades
|
Excellent
5
|
Good
4
|
Average
3
|
Poor
2
|
Very Poor
1
|
Content
|
Main ideas stated clearly and accurately, change of
opinion very clear.
|
Main ideas stated fairly clearly and accurately, change of
opinion relatively clear.
|
Main ideas somewhat unclear or inaccurate, change of
opinion statement somewhat weak.
|
Main ideas not clear or accurate, change of opinion
statement somewhat very weak.
|
Main ideas not at all clear or accurate, change of opinion
statement somewhat very weak.
|
Organization
|
Well organized and perfectly coherent
|
Fairly well organized and generally coherent
|
Loosely organized but main ideas clear, logical but
incomplete sequencing
|
Ideas disconnected, lacks logical sequencing
|
No organization, incoherent
|
Vocabulary
|
Very effective choice of words and use of idioms and words
forms
|
Effective choice of words and use of idioms and words
forms
|
Adequate choice of words but some misuse of vocabulary,
idioms and words forms
|
Limited range, confused use of words, idioms, and word
forms
|
Very limited range, very poor knowledge of words, idioms,
and word forms
|
Grammar
|
No errors, full control of complex structure
|
Almost no errors, good control of structure
|
Some errors, fair control of structure
|
Many errors, poor control of structure
|
Dominated by errors, no control of structure
|
Mechanics
|
Mastery of spelling and punctuation
|
Few errors in spelling and punctuation
|
Fair numbers of spelling and punctuation errors
|
Frequent errors in spelling and punctuation
|
No control over spelling and punctuation
|
Adopted from Cohen,
1994: 328-329
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