RESEARCH PROPOSAL

IMPROVING STUDENTS ABILITY IN WRITING DESCRIPTIVE TEXT USING

SHORT VIDEO CLIPS FOR THE EIGHTH GRADE STUDENTS OF SMPN 7

DENPASAR ACADEMIC YEAR 2017/2018

BY :

NI WAYAN MANUGANDI

NPM. 1401882030174

ENGLISH EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM

FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION
MAHASARASWATI DENPASAR UNIVERSITY
DENPASAR
2017
 RESEARCH PROPOSAL

IMPROVING STUDENTS ABILITY IN WRITING DESCRIPTIVE TEXT USING

SHORT VIDEO CLIPS FOR THE EIGHTH GRADE STUDENTS OF SMPN 7

DENPASAR ACADEMIC YEAR 2017/2018

BY :

NI WAYAN MANUGANDI

NPM. 1401882030174

ENGLISH EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM

FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION
MAHASARASWATI DENPASAR UNIVERSITY
DENPASAR
2017
 TABLE OF CONTENT

COVER ............................................................................................................................... i

INSIDE COVER.................................................................................................................. ii

APPROVAL SHEET........................................................................................................... iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................... iv

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION................................................................................... 1

1.1 Background of the Study .............................................................. 1

1.2 Research Problem ......................................................................... 3

1.3 Objective of the Study .................................................................. 3

1.4 Limitation of the Study ................................................................. 3

1.5 Significant of the Study ................................................................ 4

1.6 Definition of Key Term ................................................................. 4

CHAPTER II THEORITICAL AND EMPERICAL REVIEW..................................... 6

2.1 Theoretical Review........................................................................ 6

2.1.1 Reading Comprehension.................................................... 6

2.1.2 Strategy of Reading Comprehension................................. 7

2.1.3 Conception of Multiple Choice Test Items........................ 8

2.1.4 Assessment of Reading Comprehension............................... 8

2.2 Empirical Review ......................................................................... 10

CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD ......................................................................... 12

3.1 Research Design ............................................................................... 12

3.2 Population and Sample ..................................................................... 12

3.3 Research Instrument ......................................................................... 14

3.4 Data Collection ................................................................................. 15

 3.5 Data analysis .................................................................................... 16

REFERENCES ................................................................................................................... 17
 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of Study

Language is an important part of human life to express their idea, thought, feeling to

others. Even though in thinking activity, people can not do it wihout language as a mean of

communication. English is widely used both in spoken and writen form and known as global

language; since it is used by more than half of world population as a communication tool to

help them to deal with trading, social cultural, science, and technology purposes. English has

influenced our daily life in almost all sectors and it makes English becomeS the first second

language which is taught in each educational level. Therefore, English is also taught in junior

high school level as a compulsory lesson and its teaching and learning process in this level is

regarded as a mean for students to develop their ability in knowledge, technology, and arts.

As stated before, the students should learn the four skills in English lesson. One of the

two productive skills in learning English is writing. By mastering English writing ability,

students can carry out communication with other people in the world; give ideas, share

information with interlocutor and mastering technological equipments, so they are easy to

know information or news from the world.

As Geoffrey and others (2003:116) explain that when we write, unlike when we talk, we

are engaged in an activity which is usually at the same time both private and public. It is private

because the act of composition is by its nature solitary, but it is public in that most writing is

intended for an audience, often one which is extremely difficult to define. The act of writing

differs from that of talking in that it is less spontaneous and more permanent, and the resources

which are available for communication are fewer because we can not do as we do in conversation

like interaction with the listeners and adapt as we go along. From those explanations, it can be

said that writing is less flexible and more permanent than those conversation. So it is not
uncommon if teachers want to enable their students to produce fluent, accurate, and appropriate

written English; moreover, the language used tends to be standardized.

In teaching English, teachers try to apply various methods and techniques in order to make

English subject more attractive and fun in the classroom. Besides, they may use various kind of

media either audio visual to create a good atmosphere in the classroom activity. Roger et al

(2003:175) state the teachers duty is to make sure that their teaching is appropriate to their class,

that is organized systematically, and that is exciting. Appropriate means teacher can produce the

appropriate teaching through preparation and selection of materials such as course book,

exercises, and visuals. Teachers must organize the classroom systematically, it means teacher

should know for every moment of the classroom exactly what they are expecting each student to

be doing. On the other hand, teacher should know exactly what kind of behaviour they are

expecting from class, or group activity, or free group activity. This is also connected to the

methods, approaches, and techniques chosen in making atmosphere of the classroom exciting.

Harmer (2003:257) says that in the teaching of writing we can focus on the product of that

writing or on the writing process itself. Writing is one of the productive skills which comes into

many types such as: descriptive, narrative, argumentative, etc. Meanwhile, in the process of

writing, students need to put their attention on ideas, imagination, information, creativity and

feeling in order to make a very attractive writing; however the things that must be really

concerned are the spelling, punctuation, and the language use such as grammar, vocabularies,

linkers, etc. Therefore, good concentration of the students is really necessary in this stage.

Grammar, vocabulary, accuracy, spelling, organization, and content are important elements

in writing skill. Kane (2000:13) states that grammar means the rules which structure our

language. It is one of the most important parts in writing skill that shows whether the writing is

right or wrong especially in using tenses. Vocabulary used by the students will influence the

writing. If the use of vocabulary is suitable, their writing will be better but if the students do not

use the vocabulary suitably, the writing may not comprehensible. In this case, to make the writing

comprehensible, accuracy of the writing is really concerned here. Students can make the idea
elaborate well. Besides, it consists of compound and complex sentence, so it will be a good

writing. When they write down the words, so if they spell incorrectly, it will influence the

meaning of the writing.

As Harmer (2003:256) state that although incorrect spelling does not often prevent the

understanding of a written message, it can adversely affect the readers judgment. Punctuation

which can not be separated with writing is important, too. It is used for disambiguating the

meaning of sentences. Punctuation replaces the pause, gestures, and changing tones of the voice

that people use to make their spoken message clear. While, organization is about the structure of

the text and content is about supporting sentence and creativity in generating the idea.

The fact shows that in the process of writing, one of disadvantages of having students to

concentrate is that they take much time to brainstorm ideas, to collect them in some other way, or

generate more ideas in writing. Indeed, those problems also happen to the students of SMP

Negeri 7 Denpasar. Based on the interview given to them, they state that they often get difficulty

in finding ideas while their teacher is having them compose their writing. After knowing it, the

writer can conclude that those problems become factors that make the students failed composing

their writing; besides, the worst thing happens is it perhaps makes them gradually feel bored in

their writing class. In this case, a teacher needs to use media. One of media that can be used is

short video clip.

In using short video clip technique, the teacher is the one who chooses a short video to be

watched by the students. The short video shows something descriptively. Then, they have to write

a text based on what they watch and understand from the video. From this technique, the students

are introduced to the technology and be very interesting for the students as a motivation in

writing a text. Besides, the use of short video clip does not only support the students to study but

it can entertain them, too. So, it can be said that short video clip is an exciting technique.

After knowing that writing is one of the skills which can not be mastered easily and many

students are still finding difficulties while composing their writings, teachers become challenged

to find the best technique and media to assist their students over this problem. Therefore, the
writer is truly motivated to do this study to help the eighth grade student in SMPN 3 Gianyar to

improve their descriptive text writing by using short video clip.

Based on all the explanations above, those give inspiration to the writer to make a

classroom action research with the title Improving Students Ability in Writing Descriptive

Text Using Short Video Clips for The Eighth Grade Students of SMPN 7 Denpasar Academic

Year 2017/2018.

1.2 Research Problem

Based on background of the study, writing is a difficult skill to be mastered. In addition, the

eighth grade students of SMP Negeri 7 Denpasar still have low writing ability in English so a

good technique is really needed to help them to improve their ability in writing. Therefore, the

researcher can formulate the question as follow: can the descriptive text writing ability of eighth

grade students of SMP Negeri 7 Denpasar in academic year 2017/2018 be improved by using

short video clips?

1.3 Objective of the Study

In line with the problem formulated before, the objective of the study is to improve

descriptive text writing using short video clips for eighth grade students of SMP Negeri 7

Denpasar in academic year 2017/2018.

1.4 Limitation of The Study

The discussion of writing is definitely too broad and complex in single coverage of the

study. This study is narrowed down of the use of short video clips in improving descriptive
text writing of the eighth grade students of SMP Negeri 7 Denpasar in academic year

2017/2018. Certainly, the researcher will only discuss the role of using short video clips in

helping the students learn descriptive text writing.

1.5 Significance of the Study

The findings of the present study are expected to give the following importance:

Theoretically, short video clip can be used to help the students, to inspire and motivate

students in writing and also to draw on students imagination, so then they can generate more

ideas on their writings. The findings of the present investigation gives more empirical evidences

in investigating the use of short video clips in improving descriptive text writing ability of the

eighth grade students of SMP Negeri 7 Denpasar in academic year 2017/2018. Moreover, it can

be considered as reference by the other researchers who are interested in conducting this

investigation.

Practically, the findings of the present study are expected to give a contribution

especially the use of short video clips to the English teachers of SMP Negeri 3 Denpasar in order

to improve the students ability in writing descriptive text. The researcher hopes to the teacher to

be able to apply this technique in the classroom especially in writing descriptive text.
1.6 Definition of Key Terms

To avoid misunderstanding and misinterpretation among the readers, it is necessary to

clarify some of the terms used in this study as follows.

a. Writing Ability

Writing ability is the ability to express thought and ideas through words in written form.

All the ideas and thought are put on written form and they will find and get the meaning of

content. So, writing ability itself should be mastered by the students as they learn about

language.

b. Descriptive Text

Descriptive text is kind of text learned by the students and has a purpose to make the

students be able to describe a person, place, or thing. A good descriptive text has generic

structure such as identification, descriptions, and conclusion.

c. Short Video Clip

Short video clip is kind of teaching media which can be a technique for teaching writing

in the classroom. The duration of short video clip is about 3 until 6 minutes which can be

documentary, trailer, endorsement, music video, etc. It can also be supported by narration and

music. The video can be stored on videotapes, CD-Rom, DVD, or computer drives. In this

case, the video must be educative and give message to the viewer. The teacher can make the

video as attractive as possible because the goal is to make the students interested and enjoy in

learning English, especially in writing.

d. SMP Negeri 7 Denpasar refers to Junior High School which is located at Pemecutan Village,

Denpasar regency where the present study is conducted

CHAPTER II
 THEORETICAL AND EMPIRICAL REVIEW

2.1 Theoretical Review

Theoretical review is to simplify the research to be demonstrated by the researcher over the

research problem which is being investigated. The study is according to the following theoretical

review which discusses about: (1) definition of writing; (2) the writing process; (3) definition of

descriptive text; (4) the structure of descriptive text; (5) the use of short video clip in writing; and

(6) assessment of writing.

2.1.1 Definition of Writing

In English, there are four basic skills that will be learnt by students in junior high school,

senior high school and University. They are listening, speaking, reading and writing. Writing is

the most difficult skill to be learnt among the four skills. To support this opinion, Richards

(2002:303) states that writing is the most difficult skill for second language learners to master.

The difficulty is as someone starts to write on a piece of paper, the do not only generate and

organize their ideas but they also need to translate their ideas into readable text.

Many different definitions about writing are given by experts from many resources.

According to Kane (1995:5), he states that when we choose a subject, it ought to interest us, and

interest others as well, at least potentially. It should be within the range of our experience and

skill, though it is best if it stretches us. It is not about what thing we want to about, but how we

understand it. Good writing has personality. Readers enjoy sensing a mind at work, hearing a

clear voice, responding to an unusual sensibility. If we have chosen a topic that is of general

concern and if genuine feeling and intelligence come through, it will be interesting. It is also

supported by Taylor (2009:2). He states that if we are to write well we need to know (as well as

we can) what we are talking about. Writer, subject matter, reader, and the forms of language are

elements of the writing situation. All those elements must be handled together in the act of

writing.
 Meyers (2005:2) says that writing is a way to produce language which we do naturally when

we speak. Writing is communication with other in a verbal way. Writing is also an action and a

process of discovering and organizing our idea, putting them on paper, reshaping and then

revising them. On the other side, Urquhart and Mclver (2005:6) state that writing is a complex

process which is about expressing knowledge. Teachers want their students to express their

knowledge as thoughtfully and clearly as they can.

Teachers also have to make time for their students to engage in the writing process to get a

pleasant result. From the definitions above, it can be said that writing can be distinguished as the

most difficult skill from other ones. Many things must be considered in writing. Grammar,

vocabularies, punctuation, and spelling knowledge are the factors that influence writing to be the

good one. However, based on the ideas given writing is a way of remembering and a way of

thinking. That is why, it makes writing difficult and complex. It needs a hard work because as we

write we have to produce words, phrases, sentences, and paragraphs to be a text. None of us can

write much of interest without first thinking, probing, observing, asking question, experimenting,

and reading.

2.1.2 The Writing Process

As Sorenson (2010:3) states that good writing starts with process. According to him, there

are four basic steps in writing anything: prewriting, writing, revising, and proofreading.

1. Pre-writing

The prewriting process refers to the kinds of activity that students do to get ready to

write something. The activities of prewriting usually help students to find a good topic,

narrow topics that are too broad, and look at purpose. This is a warm-up activity in writing.

The students are stimulated to gather thoughts and information in order to get ready in

choosing the topic. Sorenson (2010:4) tells that one of the ways to find the topic is daily

experiences of what you see and hear. Sometimes students may be stimulated to write as a

result of something they have seen like a film, an art exhibit, an animal in distress, a rare

flower, a tornado, or a champion swimmer.

 After gathering thought and information, they choose a topic that is right for them. If the

topic is too general, they can narrow a subject to suit the length of the paper they plan to

write. As the students are writing, they must have a purpose of their writing. Penny Ur in

Fauzi (2011:12) states that there are four common purposes in writing. They are to inform, to

persuade, and to amuse others. So as the students start to write something, they must decide

the purpose of their writing.

Next is analyzing the reader. The readers determine dozens of details about the students

writing such as vocabulary, sentence structure, formality, and organization. If the writings

are presented for children, so it must use simple vocabulary and sentence structure. After

knowing the purpose and understanding the reader, students write topic sentence or thesis

sentences. Topic sentence is for a paragraph while thesis sentences are for a multi paragraph

paper. Finally, the last stage in prewriting activity is organizing the material. Organization is

the plan for presenting the main ideas. It is generally about the chronological order which is

arrangement in time and spatial order which is arrangement in space.

2. Writing

In writing activity, students should write their ideas smoothly. They should feel free to

express their ideas without worrying about mechanical details, sentence structure and other

formal writing techniques. Because they want to express their ideas smoothly, they must

situate themselves in a comfortable spot and be free from distractions. In this stage, they

write a rough draft and ignore technical details like mechanics, grammar, and structure in

order not to lose their ideas.

3. Revising

Revising is an activity which needs a hard work to polish the writing such as improving

the content, structure, emphasis, and continuity. When students revise, they review their text

on the basis of the feedback given in the previous stage. They re-examine what was written

to see how effectively they have communicated their meanings to the reader. Revision adds

variety, emphasis, coherence, transition, and detail. It eliminates wordiness, irrelevancies,

and inconsistencies. It polishes, hones, and perfects. Hence, revising is a tough part in

writing.

4. Proofreading

After revising, students should do proofreading. Proofreading is an activity which

focuses on getting rid of the mechanical errors, like spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

Students need to read their writing several times and pay attention on each sentence.

Students may ask someone else to proofread.

2.1.3 Definition of Descriptive Text

Kane (2000:351) states that description is about sensory experience, how something looks,

sounds, tastes. Mostly it is about visual experience but description also deals with other kinds of

perception. Whatever sense it appeals to, descriptive writing is of two broad kinds: objective and

subjective. In objective description, the writers record details without making any personal

evaluation or reaction. In subjective description, the writers are free to interpret the details for

their reader; their reaction and description can be emotional and value-loaded.

Objective description says, This is how the thing is; subjective, This is how the thing

seems to one particular consciousness. In addition, George and Julia in Fauzi (2011:9) say that

emotion may be described too in descriptive writing, feelings such as happiness, fear, loneliness,

gloom, and joy. Description helps the readers, through their imagination, to visualize a scene or a

person, or to understand a sensation or an emotion.

Descriptive text is a part of factual genres (Wardiman et al, 2008:122). It has social function

which is to describe a particular person, place, or thing. Descriptive gives sense impression like
the feel, sound, taste, and look of things through words. Its aim is also to inform the readers about

how something or someone looks like. The characteristic features of a person, an animal or a

particular thing become the focus of descriptive text. The point is that descriptive text gives a

description of something in particular in order to help the people perceive it through words.

From the explanation above, the researcher concludes that descriptive text simply describes

about person, place or thing. If the writer wants to write a descriptive text, they only need to go to

the object and take a note by using five senses. It also can be done by looking at a picture or

watching a video. In writing descriptive text, the writer must concern on the generic structure in

order to make a good text.

2.1.4 The Structure of Descriptive Text

In writing descriptive text, it should consist of generic structure, such as: identification,

description, and conclusion. Anderson and Anderson in Nadia (2013:9) state that features of a

factual description have regarded as following generic structure of descriptive text.

1. Identification

Identification (introduction) is a general opening statement in the first paragraph or the

first sentence that introduces the subject of the description to the audience. Besides, it can

give the audience brief details about the when, where, who, or what of the subject described.

2. Description

Description is a series of paragraphs about the subject where each paragraph usually

begins with a topic sentence. The topic sentence previews the details that will be contained

in the remainder of the paragraph. Moreover, each paragraph should describe one feature of

the subject and all paragraphs build the description of the subject. The description can be

physical appearance of the subject, the qualities of the subject like degree of beauty,

excellence or value, and other characteristics of the subject which is like the unique of the

special aspects that the subject has.

3. Conclusion
 The last part of the descriptive text is optional. In this part, the writer concludes the

text or restates the identification or description. A conclusion is not absolutely necessary;

however, it is often very helpful to the reader because it usually concludes signals the end of

the text. In addition, it reminds the reader of the important point or in other word it is to

emphasize the reader to imagine the subject.

Mark and Kathy in Fauzi (2011:25) also tell that the generic features of description

usually use verbs which are in the present tense or the verbs which are infinitive. Moreover,

to describe the features of the subject, the use of adjectives is very necessary because it

explains how the subject is described. Adjectives usually give sensory details about how

something feels, tastes, smells, and looks like.

2.1.5 The Use of Short Video Clips in Writing Descriptive Text

Education today are well aware that digital technologies are an integral part of America

society and these technologies belong todays children and youth (Moss et al, 2005:151).

However, in Indonesia, the use of technology is still less effective because of the facilities to

access it is not enough yet. Almost of the school have used technology in teaching learning

process, but some still do not know technology at all.

Moore and Filling (2012:11) state video is an innovative way for writing instructors to utilize

technology to provide personalized feedback to students. Video can bring the thing become

interesting in the classroom. It can attract students attention and motivate the students in learning

process. Hence, short video clip is a tool or media in teaching writing in the classroom in order to

facilitate the students and also to gain students interest in learning process. The duration of short

video clip is about 3-6 minutes which can be a documentary, trailer, endorsement, music video,

etc.

The use of media technologies such as video offers new experience to the students. They can

get a new model of learning that can make them interested. Short video clip can help them to

write descriptive text because when they see the object directly, they will be able to form

sentences easier. Actually, teaching is not only about transferring knowledge, but also how to
convert the knowledge become more interesting and easier for the students to absorb. That is why

short video clip can help the teacher in teaching descriptive text writing because it will be a very

interesting experience for the students.

Brookfield (2006:191) explains that nowadays no college teacher can avoid teaching in

hybrid manner, combining electronic and face-to-face communication. The only question

remaining is the degree to which electronic communication is integrated into course activities.

The electronic communication can be in form of video clips. In teaching descriptive text writing,

short video clip is a good way to be the visual aid. By using short video clip, the students are able

to write descriptive text easier because they can directly see the person, place, or thing that want

to be described. They sometimes feel difficult to describe by words because they need to imagine

something which is far from them. So, using short video clip can give new experience in writing

descriptive text to the students through technology.

2.1.6 Assessment of Writing

Schools measure the effectiveness of writing in many different ways. In order to do this, it is

crucial that we gather and analyze information before we begin writing, so that on conclusion we

can repeat a similar assessment in order to measure the success of the writing. Assessment is the

process of generating, gathering, recording, interpreting, using and and reporting evidence of

learning individuals, groups or systems, which relies upon a number of instruments, one of

which may be a test.

Educational assessment provides information about progress in learning. According to

Bachman (2004:7), assessment is the process of collecting information about a given object of

interest according to procedure that is systematic substantively grounded. A product or an

outcome of this process such as test score or a verbal description is also referred to as an

assessment. Every subject in teaching learning process needs to assess; it includes English

subject.

Johnson and Johnson in Nadia (2013:18) state that assessment is collecting information

about the quality and quantity of the change in a student, group, teacher, or administrator.
Performance assessment is collecting information about demonstration of achievement involving

actually performing a task or a set of task, such as connducting an experiment, giving a speech,

writing a story, or operating a machine. After the intended outcomes of instruction are defined,

the procedures used to determine whether they were achieved must be selected. In order to

achieve purpose that match with the students performances; it can assess with the appropriate

assessment method. The purposes for assessing may be to (a) diagnose students present level of

knowledge and skills, (b) monitor progress toward learning goals to help from the instructional

program, and (c) provide judge the final level of students learning.

There are two ways in which students may be involved in the assessment process are helping

create the criteria and rubrics used to assess students work and communicating to their interested

stakeholders the result of their efforts to learn. A criterion is predetermined standard used to

assess a performance. Involving students in creating the criteria and rubrics for assessing

students effort does not mean turning over total control to students. A rubric is a list of indicators

of different levels of a criterion being used to assess a performance. A rubric is usually a scale

rank from poor to good (Johnson and Johnson in Nadia, 2013:19).

As quoted from May (2002:88) writes that the assessment is complex and personalized, it is

difficult to assess the efficacy of an investigation or of an investigator because like complex

human task. Since the assessment is complex, it must be effective to measure and reflect the

students ability. To support the statement above, Brown (2004:218) asserts that writing is a skill

that is the exclusive domain of scribes and scholars in educational or religious institution. The

ability to write has become an indispensable skill in our global literate community. Writing skill

at least at rudimentary levels, is a necessary condition for achieving employment in many walks

of life and is simply taken for granted in literate cultures. In the field of second language

teaching, only a half-century ago experts were saying that writing was primarily a convention for

recording speech and for reinforcing grammatical and lexical features of language.

In relation to this study, the researcher focuses on assessing students ability in composing a

good descriptive text. The students are asked to write a descriptive text based on the video given
and they have to submit their works, then the researcher analyzes and gives score for students

works by using rubric which includes some components, such as: format, punctuation and

mechanics, content, organization, grammar and sentence structure. The rubric is taken from

Oshima and Hogue (2007:196).

2.2 Empirical Review

In this study, the writer focuses on the use of video in teaching English, especially

descriptive text writing. Beforehand, using video in teaching and learning English in general has

ever been done by Ronald A. Berk from The Johns Hopkins University with the topic

Multimedia Teaching with Video Clips: TV, Movies, YouTube and mtvU in the College

Classroom in 2009. In this research, the study indeed focused on teaching in general and its

result was successful.

Other research is by Tan, Magdalene, Pakiam and Ruth with topic The Impact of Video on

Writing Skills in the Foundation Years. They state in their study that the use of video on writing

skill has given a great improvement to the pupils. One more research done also used video in

teaching writing, but it is about procedure text that is one of kinds of writing. This research was

done by Rianti Mei Linda from UNNES (Universitas Negeri Semarang) with the topic The Use

of Video as an Audio-Visual Aid in Teaching Writing Procedure Text of Seventh Grade Students

of SMPN 3 Semarang in Academic Year 2011/2012 and the result shows 80% success to assist

the students on procedure text writing. Hence, from the three researches above, the writer also

wants to help and find a new score for students writing whether video clip can improve their

ability in writing descriptive text.

 CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHOD

3.1 Subject of the Study

The study will be conducted to the eighth grade students of SMP Negeri 7 Denpasar. There

are nine classes of eighth grade students of SMP Negeri 7 Denpasar with the total of the students

were 360 students. The students of class VIII 5 will be selected as the subject of the study which

consisted of 40 students, 22 males and 18 females will be considered representative enough for

the purpose of this study. The students of VIII 5 will be selected as the subject of the study because

based on the preliminary in which the researcher interviewed the English teacher to know the

students ability in writing. The result showed their ability in writing is low; it will be supported

with the result of the pre-test.

3.2 Research Design

The research design which is used in the study was classroom action research. Classroom

action research is one of design study which focuses on a particular problem and a particular

group of students in a certain classroom. Cohen et al (2005:226) state that action research is a

powerful tool for change and improvement at the local level. It was concerned on teaching

descriptive text to improve writing ability by using two kinds of tests, initial reflection or pre-test

and reflection or post-test.

Initial reflection (IR) was used to evaluate the ability of the students in writing descriptive

text before doing the implementation. Reflection (R) was used to administer the students

achievement in writing descriptive text after doing the treatment that was done at the end of each

cycle. There were two cycles where each cycle consisted of planning, action, observation and

reflection.
 The action research spiral could be figurative as follows:

Cycle 1: Initial Reflection (Pre-test) Planning Action Observation Reflection

Cycle 2: Revised Planning Action Observation Reflection

3.3 Research Procedure

In this Classroom Action Research (CAR), the writer did two cycles to collect the data and

each cycle consisted of four elements.

3.3.1 Planning

Planning is a process of determining the subjects, steps of action, and instruments that are

used for collecting data. Based on the problem that faced by the students, the researcher will

focus on improving the skill of the students in writing descriptive text. First, the researcher will

give a pre-test to the students to know that the existing problem. The students will be asked to

write descriptive text based on the topic given. The next activities that will be planned by the

researcher are as following:

1. Preparing Initial Reflection (IR). The Initial Reflection will be used to measure whether the

students ability in writing descriptive text improving or not after the pre-test and

implementation.

2. Designing the teaching scenarios of the present classroom action study. The researcher will

design and plan four lesson plans. Two lesson plans are for cycle I and the other two lesson

plans for cycle II, so there are four sessions in two cycles.

4. Making questionnaire for the subjects under the study. The researcher will give the

questionnaire at the end of the second cycle. It is used to measure the qualitative data.

3.3.2 Action

Action is the activity of doing the planning that is explained above. It refers to how the

researcher manages the class based on the lesson plan. After the researcher finish making the

plans, it is the time for researcher to do the plans in the classroom. The researcher will try to

manage the class as what has been planned in teaching scenario. So, it will be effective for each
session. Short video clip will be used in each session. Pre-activities, whilst-activities, and post

activities are the action.

1. Pre-activities

The researcher will greet the students, check the students present list, prepare the

teaching media, and explain about the topic that will be discussed. The researcher will also

try to make the students focus and be ready to study. For example, making a joke or asking

about students day, etc. It is for making the students become relax and feel secure to follow

the teaching and learning process in the classroom.

2. Whilst-activities

The researcher willexplain and give an example of descriptive text. She will show a short

video clip on the LCD and asks the students to watch it. The researcher and the students will

also do a discussion session about the generic structure of the descriptive text given.

3. Post-activities

In this stage, the researcher will give the post-test to the students by showing a short video

clip again. The post-test, however, will be administered by the end of each cycle.

3.3.3 Observation

Observation is the activity of the researcher to find out whether the skill of the students in

writing descriptive text improving or not. It was seen from the students behaviour during the

teaching learning process. It is also used to know the change of the students such as their

attitudes, behaviour, or motivation in learning English, especially in writing descriptive text.

3.3.4 Reflection

Reflection is the activity to reflect teaching and learning process in order to know the

problem of the students. In this case, the researcher will try to understand the process, the

strength, and the weakness of the action. From the reflection, the researcher can decide whether

the research will be continued or not. Reflection will be also done after administering the post-

test, so the researcher can know whether the plan needed to be revised or not.

3.3.5 Point of Reflection

In order to make a better result of the students improvement in descriptive text writing, the

researcher also conducted some revisions in cycle II. The revision will be specially done over the

materials. It is necessary, so the researcher will know whether the students ability in writing

descriptive is really improving or not.

3.4 Research Instruments

The selections and constructions of appropriate valid and reliable research instruments are

very essential step of a scientific investigation. They are used in accounting of the fact merely

valid and reliable research instruments that will be used to collect the valid and reliable required

data for the study being undertaken.

There were three kinds of instruments that are used in classroom action study such as: pre-

test, post-test and questionnaire. Those instruments are used to obtain the quantitative and

qualitative data.

1. Pre-test

Pre-test will be used to measure the students skill in writing descriptive text before the

implementation. The test is in the form of essay and the students write a descriptive text based

on the topic given. There will be three topics and they could choose only one topic to be

described. There will be also the rubric used to evaluate the students work.

2. Post-test
 Post-test will be administered at the end of each cycle. After they are taught descriptive

text, they will be given a short video clip to be described. They will only need to watch the

video, listen to the guided questions given by the researcher, and then write a descriptive text

based on the video. To evaluate the students work, she will use rubric.

3. Questionnaire

The questionnaire is used to get the qualitative data of the students. It can be the students

behaviour, interest, motivation, or creativity. The questionnaire will be constructed in form of

checklist and consists of ten questions. It will be given in the end of the cycle II.

3.5 Data Collection

Pre-test (IR) and post-test (R) were the primary data that are used to answer the research

question. The supporting data will be collected from questionnaire. So there will be three kinds of

score of this study; score from pre-test, score from post-test, and score from questionnaire.

3.6 Data Analysis

As previously mentioned, the data will be collected from initial reflection (IR) and reflection

(R). The supporting data will be collected from questionnaire. Those will be analyzed

descriptively.

a. The score of each student

The rubric will be used to score the students writing. It is proposed by Oshima and Hogue

(2007:196). There are five aspects that were used; format, punctuation and mechanics, content,

organization, grammar and sentence structure. The rubric was as follows.

 Table 3.1
Rubric to Measure the Students Ability in Writing Descriptive Text
Through Short Video Clips
Criteria Maximu Actual
m Score Score
Format (5 points)
There is a title 1 ....
There is centered 1 ....
The first line is intended 1 ....
The writing is tidy and clean 2 ....
Total 5
Punctuation and Mechanic (5 points)
There is a period 1 ....
Capital letters are used correctly 1 ....
The spelling is correct 1 ....
Commas are use correctly 2 ....
Total 5
Content (20 points)
The text fits the assignments. 5 ....
The text is interesting to read 5 ....
The text uses the writers care and thoutght 10 ....
Total 20
Organization (35 points)
The text begins with identification. 10 ....
The text contains several description 20 ....
supporting sentences that explain or prove
identification. 5 ....
The text ends with an appropriate
conclusion.
Total 35
Grammar and Sentence Structure (35 points)
Estimate a grammar and sentence structure 35
Total 35
Grand Score

b. The average score of the whole students will be obtained by using the following pattern:

M=

X
N

Where :

M = Mean

N = the sum up the score of all students in turn

N = numbers of test taker
c. While the data resulted from the questionnaire will be analyzed descriptively the following

percentage of an item:

X =

Number of students choosing theitem

100
Numbersof whole students

d. Through the triangulation of data analysis, the data will be obtained from the teachers diary,

the achievement test, and questionnaire were checklist to find out whether each of them was

supported or not by the others.

3.7 Success Indicators

Based on the curriculum obtained at SMP Negeri 7 Denpasar, the success indicator of

this study could be said as successful if the final grand total of cycle II could achieve

standard score 76. According to the standard score of SMP Negeri 7 Denpasar if the final

grand total of cycle II less than 76, so this study had been fail in using short video clips in

improving descriptive text ability.

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