IMPROVING WRITING SKILL BY OBSERVING REAL OBJECTS (A CLASSROOM ACTION RESEARCH AT THE 8TH YEAR STUDENTS OF SMP NEGERI 2 PRACIMANTORO .....

AGUSTIWI, Hepy Tri (2009)
Abstract
This study aims to describe the implementation of teaching writing by observing real objects to the 8th year of SMP N 2 Pracimantoro, to explain the improvement of the students’ writing skill by observing real objects, and to describe the students’ response to the implementation of teaching writing using real objects. This writer applies a classroom action research as the type of research. The data of this research are field note, questionnaires, interview script, and the scores of pre- test and post- test. She uses observation, interview, test, and questioner for collecting the data. The techniques of analyzing data are reducing the data, presenting the data and verifying the data. The results of the study show that: 1). The implementation of teaching writing by using strategy of observing real objects at the 8th year of SMP N 2 Pracimantoro was by showing the real objects directly and giving example related to the real objects. 2). Teaching writing by observing real objects improves the students’ writing ability in SMP N 2 Pracimantoro. There were 35 students increased their writing achievement, 3 students had static achievement and 2 students decreased their writing achievement. The research result of pre- test is 55, 5 and post- test is 68, which means that the students’ writing ability increase after they were taught by observing real objects. 3). The students’ responses after being taught by observing real objects are good. It is indicated by the students’ answer in questionnaire.

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Studying English is very complex. It covers four language skills that
must be mastered if someone wants to be successful in English; those are
speaking, listening, reading and writing. Writing is one of the important skills
in teaching English. It has always occupied a place in most English language
course. To write well, people must have good capabilities in writing. Nunan
(1993: 8) states that writing emerged in societies as a result of cultural change
which creates new communicative need. Writing skill is very complex activity
because it needs many aspects to be mastered, for example vocabulary,
grammar and idea.
Because of the complexity in writing, the teacher may vary the strategies
in teaching the students, in order that they are motivated to learn it. However,
teachers teach student passively, they ask the students to read the task, open
the book exercise and then do the exercise. The teacher asks the students to
write the words without giving the example to use it in communication. Some
students do not know the function of this language exercise. So, the students
are not interested in English learning process. They become passive and feel
bored in learning English. Therefore, the English teaching learning process is
not effective. So, the researcher will use the other method that can improve the
student’s ability in English writing skill. Here, the researcher uses real object
method to teach English writing. The reason of using this method because by
seeing real object, the students can express their ideas and less afraid to make
errors.
To make students able to write English well, teacher can be creative to
manage the class so that the students are active and interested in involving in
the teaching learning process. Otherwise, there were many problems appear
in the teaching learning process, such as the problem that students face in the
writing class. First, it relates to the condition of the student who is lack of
vocabulary that will make them unable to write English during writing class.
Second, the teacher only gives materials, like reading dialog, text from hand
book and completing. It makes the students bored. Third, there is no high
motivation to learn since the students have little opportunity to express their
idea. Because of these problems, the students’ score in English writing is very
low. These problems are found by the researcher at SMP N 2 Pracimantoro.
From the problem mentioned, the researcher tries to give solutions for
the teacher to teach or implement one of the teaching materials. There is a
teaching material which becomes the interest of the students to learn, namely
real object material. This material is designed to stimulate the student’s
interest to learn.
Real object is everything around us and which we will find it easily. It is
one kind of teaching materials. Real world objects have two characteristics.
They all have state and behavior. For example, dogs have state (name, color,
breed, etc) and behavior (barking, fetching, wagging tail). Bicycles also have
state (current gear, current speed, etc) and behavior (changing gear, changing
pedal cadence, applying brakes). Identifying the state and behavior for real
world object is great ways to began thinking in terms of object-oriented.
(http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/java/concepts/object.html.accessed on
10 July 2008).
The objective of learning writing is producing written text. In teaching
English, the teacher should choose writing task which is useful and interesting
for the students. Using real objects is a way to make the students interested
and fun. The students can express their ideas by seeing the object directly.
They can describe what they see. Besides, real objects are things which can
help create the student’s ideas. Therefore, teaching writing using real objects
can improve the student’s writing ability. This method is hoped can be
relevant method to give solution from the problem of writing lesson.
Based on the background above, the researcher is interested in
conducting IMPROVING WRITING SKILL BY OBSERVING REAL
OBJECTS TO THE 8TH YEAR OF SMP NEGERI 2 PRACIMANTORO IN
2008/ 2009 ACADEMIC YEAR.
B. Previous Study
In accomplishing this research, the researcher uses the previous research
dealing with the topic. Fitri Wulansari (2007) conducted a research entitled “A
Descriptive Study on the Method of Teaching Writing applied by Teacher at
SMA N Kebakramat in 2006/ 2007 Academic Year”. She focuses on to
analyze the method of teaching writing applied the teacher at SMA Negeri
Kebakramat.
Another researcher has been done by Rini Solihah (2007). In her
research “Learning Strategies used by the Students of SMP N 1 Kartasura at
The 8th to Develop Writing Skill (A Case Study)”. She focuses on to the
students’ ability in developing writing skill with a good grammar and
punctuation.
Furthermore, the researcher applied the different method and purpose in
this research. The researcher focuses on her research of improving writing
skill by observing real objects and the subject is the 8th year student of SMP N
2 Pracimantoro in 2008/ 2009 Academic Year.
C. Problem Statements
Based on the background, the researcher formulates the problem as
follows: “Does observing real objects improve the students’ writing ability?”
D. Limitations of the Study
The researcher makes limitations of the study as follows:
1. The study is only on the implementation of teaching writing by observing
real objects to improve students’ writing skill to the 8th year students of
SMP Negeri 2 Pracimantoro in 2008/ 2009 academic year, particularly
descriptive writing suggested by the curriculum.
2. The source of data is limited to the 8th year students of SMP Negeri 2
Pracimantoro in 2008/ 2009 academic year.
E. Objectives of the Study
In relation to the research statements mentioned above, the general
objective of this study is to describe the improvement of the students writing
skill. Specifically, it aims:
1. To describe the teaching learning process of writing skill by using
strategy of observing real objects to the 8th year student of SMP Negeri 2
Pracimantoro in 2008/ 2009 academic year.
2. To explain whether or not teaching writing by observing real objects can
improve the students’ writing skill.
3. To describe the response of second year students of the implementation of
observing real objects.
F. Benefit of the Study
The researcher hopes this research will have some benefits in the study
of teaching writing. The following benefits are:
1. Theoretical Benefits
This research hopes to improve teaching learning process in general and
learning the English as a foreign language in particular and to improve the
method used by English teacher in selecting effective technique and
appropriate condition especially in teaching writing.
2. Practical Benefits
a. The result of the research can be used as input of teaching learning
process in Junior High School especially in teaching writing skill.
b. The result of the research also can be used as one of the references for
those who want to conduct a research in English teaching learning process.
G. Research Paper Organization
The researcher makes an organization of this paper in order to make an
easy understanding. There are six chapters in this research paper.
Chapter one is introduction. It includes the background of the study,
previous study, problem statements, limitations of the study, objectives of the
study, benefit of the study, and research paper organization.
Chapter two is underlying theory which is consisted of the notion of
teaching, the notion of writing, the notion of writing skill, strategy in writing,
method in teaching writing, type of writing, principles of teaching writing, the
roles of teacher in teaching writing, the notion of real objects, real objects in
teaching writing, theoretical framework, action hypothesis, and performance
indicator.
Chapter three is research method. This chapter deals with type of research,
procedure of classroom action research, subject of the research, object of the
study, data and source of data, method of collecting data and technique for
analyzing data.
Chapter four is research finding and discussion.
Chapter five consists of conclusion and suggestion.