THESIS

IMPROVING STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILL OF NARRATIVE TEXTS

BY USING SHORT VIDEOS

(A Classroom Action Research at the Eighth Grade Students of SMP

Negeri 2 Temanggung in the Academic Year of 2009/2010)

By:

NUNUN INDRASARI

NIM K2206027

This thesis is submitted to fulfill the requirement for Undergraduate Degree in

English Department Teacher Training and Education Faculty

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION FACULTY

SEBELAS MARET UNIVERSITY

SURAKARTA

2010

i
 ABSTRACT

Nunun Indrasari. K2206027. IMPROVING STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILL

OF NARRATIVE TEXTS BY USING SHORT VIDEOS (A CLASSROOM
ACTION RESEARCH AT THE EIGHTH GRADE STUDENTS OF SMP
NEGERI 2 TEMANGGUNG IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR OF 2009/2010).
Thesis, Surakarta: Teacher Training and Education Faculty of Sebelas Maret
University, May 2010.

This research aims to find out whether short videos can improve students’
writing skill and how far the short videos can improve students’ writing skill at
the eighth grade students of SMP Negeri 2 Temanggung. It is also aimed to find
out the strengths and weakness of using short videos in the writing class.
The approach used in this research is a classroom action research. The
action research was conducted in two cycles, in which in the first cycle there were
4 meetings and in the second cycle there were 3 meetings. Every cycle consisted
of four steps; planning, implementing, evaluation, and reflection. In collecting the
data, the researcher used observation, questionnaires, interviews, field notes,
photographs, and tests. The tests were conducted before the action (pre-test) and
after the action (post-test). The researcher analyzed the mean score of each test to
find out the improvements of students’ writing skill after the action was
conducted.
The result of the research shows that there are positive improvements in
either students’ writing skill or the class situation during the teaching learning
process. It can be seen from the result of the test which is improved, from the
comparison between the pre-test conducted before the action and the post-test
conducted after the action. The mean scores of the test result are 68.22 for the pre-
test, 75.58 for the post-test in cycle 1, and 78.31 for the post-test in cycle 2. By
watching the videos, the students get the stimulus about certain topics so that they
can easily construct and generate the ideas into a narrative story based on the
video given. They can also arrange better paragraphs based on the generic
structure of narrative text. From the t-test computation in the students’ test score,
it is showed that the improvement of the students writing skill by using short
videos is significant. The t-test computation between the pre-test and the post-test
2 was 8.77. Meanwhile, the t table (tt) for 34 students is 2.04. Since (to)2 is higher
than tt, it means that there is a significant difference between the score in the pre-
test and post-test 2.
Some strengths of using short videos in teaching writing which could
improve the students’ attitude towards writing in the writing class situation during
the teaching learning process were: the students were more motivated in joining
the writing class, the videos present the attractive moving pictures and sounds so
that they got feeling of relax before they wrote their story, they paid much
attention when the videos were played, they were also more confident when they
were asked to write individually. However, a weakness of using short videos in
writing class was a few students still got difficulties in finding appropriate words
with the correct spelling.

ii
 This thesis has been approved to be examined by the board of the Thesis

Examiners of the Teacher Training and Education Faculty of Sebelas Maret

University as a partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Undergraduate

Degree of Education in English.

On :

By :

Consultant I Consultant II

Dr. Abdul Asib, M.Pd Teguh Sarosa, S.S., M.Hum

NIP 19520307 198003 1 005 NIP 19730205 200604 1 001

iii
 This thesis has been examined by the board of the Thesis Examiners

of the Teacher Training and Education Faculty of Sebelas Maret University

of Surakarta and has been accepted to be one of the Requirements

for the Completion of Undergraduate Degree of Education in English

on 2010

Board of Examiners:
1. Chairman : Drs. Muh. Asrori, M.Pd.
NIP. 19601015 198702 1 001

2. Secretary : Endang Setyaningsih, S.Pd, M.Hum

NIP. 19800513 200312 2 002

3. Examiner 1 : Dr. Abdul Asib, M.Pd

NIP. 19520307 198003 1 005

4. Examiner 2 : Teguh Sarosa, S.S, M.Hum

NIP. 19730205 200604 1 001

Teacher Training and Education Faculty

Sebelas Maret University
The Dean,

Prof. Dr. M. Furqon Hidayatullah, M.Pd

NIP. 19600727 198503 1 002

iv
 MOTTO

And then a hero comes along

With the strength to carry on

And you cast your fears aside

And you know you can survive

So when you feel like hope is gone

Look inside you and be strong

And you'll finally see the truth

That a hero lies in you

(picked up from “Hero” by Mariah Carey)

v
 DEDICATION

This thesis is dedicated to:

1. My beloved Mom and Dad, thanks for your

care and prayer for me every where and every

time.

2. My elder sister and my little brother who give

me cheers in my life.

3. My luphie who always motivate me to be a

better person.

4. All my best friends in English Department,

Marching Band UNS, and B-One House.

vi
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Praise be to Allah the Almighty who has given His blessing so that the

writer can finally finish this thesis as a partial fulfillment in achieving the

Undergraduate Degree of English Education.

The writer realizes that this thesis could not be achieved without the help

and assistance from others. Therefore, in this occasion the writer would give her

appreciation to the individuals and institutions who have given their help during

the process of writing so that this thesis is finally finished. She would like to

express her deepest gratitude to the following:

1. Prof. Dr. M. Furqon Hidayatullah, M.Pd, the Dean of Teacher Training

and Education Faculty.

2. Drs. Suparno, M.Pd, the Head of the Art and Language Education

Department.

3. Drs. Martono, M.A, the Head of the English Department of Teacher

Training and Education Faculty.

4. Dr. Abdul Asib, M.Pd, as the writer’s first consultant for his guidance

and advice.

5. Teguh Sarosa, S.S., M.Hum, as the writer’s second consultant for his

guidance and advice.

6. Indrotomo, M.Pd, the Headmaster of SMP Negeri 2 Temanggung for

facilitating the writer in doing the research.

vii
7. Bening Angga Dita, SS, the English Teacher of class VIII F for his

collaboration in doing this research.

8. All of the students in class VIII F SMP Negeri 2 Temanggung for

participating well in this research.

9. Her beloved Mom and Dad for their caring, love, and sincerity; her

elder sister and younger brother for this cheers and beautiful life; her

special person for accompanying her to understand the real life and

who always gives her spirit when she was down.

10. Her lovely friends in the English Dept’06. Thanks for accompanying

her with this beautiful moment in this last four year.

11. Her dearest friends in Marching Band UNS who have given fun

memories in her life and made her stronger. Thank you very much for

this wonderful challenge. This would never be forgotten. UNS JAYA!!!

12. Her beloved friends in kost Barokah 1 who always accompany her in

fun and sadness. Thanks for this friendship.

13. The last, thank you very much for every one who has ever played role

in her story of life.

Surakarta, May 2010

Nunun Indrasari

viii
 TABLE OF CONTENT

TITLE..................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

ABSTRACT ..........................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.i

APPROVAL.........................................................iiError! Bookmark not defined.

LEGALIZATION .................................................................................................. iv

MOTTO ...................................................................................................................v

DEDICATION ..................................................... vError! Bookmark not defined.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ..................................viError! Bookmark not defined.

TABLE OF CONTENT ......................................................................................... ix

LIST OF APPENDICES .....................................xiError! Bookmark not defined.

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ............................ Error! Bookmark not defined.

A. Background of the Study............................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

B. Limitation of the Problem ...............................................................................7

C. Problems Statement .........................................................................................7

D. Objective of the Research ...............................................................................8

E. Benefits of the Study .......................................................................................8

CHAPTER II REVIEW TO THE RELATED STUDY.........................................10

A. Review on Writing ........................................................................................10

1. Writing Skill...............................................................................................10

2. The Stages in Writing ................................................................................11

3. Techniques for Generating Ideas ............... Error! Bookmark not defined.

ix
 4. The Purpose of Writing .............................. Error! Bookmark not defined.

5. The Aspects and Micro Skills of Writing .. Error! Bookmark not defined.

6. Criteria for Good Writing .......................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

7. The Problems of Writing............................ Error! Bookmark not defined.

8. Teaching Writing .......................................................................................19

9. Overview of Narrative Writing .................. Error! Bookmark not defined.

10. Construct of Writing Skill ........................ Error! Bookmark not defined.

B. Review on Video ...........................................................................................29

1. The Nature of Media ..................................................................................29

2. Videos as Teaching Media .........................................................................32

C. Teaching Writing by Using Videos ............... Error! Bookmark not defined.

1. Techniques in Teaching Writing by Using Videos ....................................36

2. The Importance of Improving Writing Skill by Using Video ....................38

D. Rationale .......................................................................................................38

E. Hypothesis .....................................................................................................40

CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ..................................................41

A. The Method of the Research .........................................................................41

B. Setting of the Study .......................................................................................43

C. The Subject of the Study ............................. 4Error! Bookmark not defined.

D. Models of the Research .................................................................................45

E. Procedures of the Research............................ Error! Bookmark not defined.

F. Technique of Collecting Data ........................................................................49

G. Instruments ....................................................................................................50

x
 H. Technique of Analyzing Data .......................................................................52

CHAPTER IV RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ............................55

A. Introduction ...................................................................................................55

B. Research Findings .........................................................................................56

C. Discussion .....................................................................................................75

CHAPTER V CONCLUSION, IMPLICATION, SUGGESTION ........................80

A. Conclusion.....................................................................................................80

B. Implication.....................................................................................................82

C. Suggestion .....................................................................................................83

BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................85

APPENDICES .......................................................................................................88

xi
 LIST OF APPENDICES

Appendix 1. Syllabus .............................................................................................88

Appendix 2. Lesson Plans ....................................................................................101

Appendix 3. List of Students’ Name ....................................................................123

Appendix 4. Researcher’s Field Note ..................................................................124

Appendix 5. Observer’s Field Note .....................................................................144

Appendix 6. Students’s Pre-test and Post-test Scores ..........................................150

Appendix 7. T-test Computation ..........................................................................168

Appendix 8. Samples of Students’ Questionnaires ..............................................175

Appendix 9. Data Analysis of Students’ Questionnaire ......................................185

Appendix 10. Photographs ...................................................................................186

Appendix 11. Drafts of Students’ Interview ........................................................190

Appendix 12. Research Diaries ............................................................................202

Appendix 13. Samples of Students’ Worksheets .................................................205

Appendix 14. Letters of Permission.....................................................................233

xii
 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

Nowadays, in modern society, English becomes more important as a

means of communication. Thus, it has been taught to the students since they were

in elementary school. Students have been introduced to English language in the

earlier stages because it is considered that English is an important language in

society as a part of knowledge and skills which can help in attaining of

satisfactory professional life later on.

Teaching English in early stage of schooling is very important. Brewster

(1992: 23-24) states the reasons of starting to learn a foreign language earlier.

First, teaching English for children is aimed to increase the total number of years

spent learning the language. Second, the indisputable fact that young child has a

greater facility for understanding and imitating what they hear than adolescent.

Third, the aim of early foreign language learning is to prepare children

linguistically, psychologically, and culturally for language learning.

Based on ‘Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan’ (KTSP) that is declined

in 2006, teaching and learning English in high school should be based on the

stress of four language skills, those are listening, speaking, reading and writing. It

is expected that students can use these skills to prepare them in the higher

xiii
education level and even in the field of work that demands them to understand

English in communication.

In teaching learning English at school there should be language practice in

each language skill, including writing skill. Writing will help students master the

other skills and of course in mastering English completely. Sometimes students

are afraid and shy to express their ideas in speaking but they can tell what they

want to say by writing it down on a paper before speaking. Then, the students

themselves or possibly the reader will understand it. While, there are still some

English teachers who haven’t given attention to this case completely. However,

English writing, as a basic language skill for students, should get close attention.

According to Elite Olshtain in Celce (2001:207), writing as a

communicative activity needs to be encouraged and nurtured during the language

learner’s course of study. This opinion is strengthened by Raimes who gave the

reasons for teaching writing: “We frequently have to communicate with each

other in writing” and “Writing reinforces grammatical structures, idioms, and

vocabulary.” Teaching writing is “a unique way to reinforce learning” (1983:3).

Reid also states that writing itself is a form of learning, and that writing processes

and rhetorical context for writing are crucial (1993:49). So, it is obvious that

writing is an essential language reinforcing skill and a crucial ability because it

becomes a means of learning, discovering, developing, and refining language

ability. Through writing, the students become involved with the new language,

trying to express their ideas and use eyes, hand, brain constantly as a unique way

to reinforce learning.

xiv
 In fact, in some cases, writing tends to be a neglected area in English

language teaching at school. It seems that competent writing was frequently

accepted as being the last language skill to be acquired both for native speaker of

the language and for foreign/second language learners at school. Teaching

learning process held in a classroom is more concerned at acquiring the other

skills.

The researcher did preliminary class observation to find the problem in

class VIII F SMP N 2 Temanggung. Based on the observation, the researcher got

the data of the students’ problem. The students had a problem in writing a text

because they learnt writing without using a good approach and treatment. They

were just asked to write a composition based on the topic that had been prepared

in the text book. Sometimes, the students didn’t understand a certain instruction of

a text for example the generic structure of the text, purposes and the language

feature of the text. Organization of the text, generating ideas, language use,

content of writing, and vocabulary still become the difficulties faced by the

students.

Some factors that cause the students to have low proficiency in writing are

the students themselves rarely write in English and the teachers don’t facilitate

them well to develop their writing skill in classroom activities.

The teachers tend to give the students tasks of making composition as

homework to measure the students’ ability since writing is considered a learning

activity which spends much time when it is conducted in a classroom. Teachers

spent little or no time teaching the students how to write. They expected their

xv
students to plan and compose their assignments outside of class. It means the

students have a little practice in writing at school. However, the students tend to

do writing only if they have been asked by their teachers. Even, when the teachers

have asked their students to make a composition outside of class, they don’t do

any corrections or evaluation on students’ assignment in classroom. Sometimes

the students only got a certain mark of their writing without knowing the strengths

and the weaknesses of their compositions so that they don’t know how to improve

their writing to be a better one.

Another factor that causes the problem in students’ writing is the

motivation and interest of the students. Writing seems to be a boring activity,

indicated by the responses of the students when they have been asked to write a

composition.

Based on the questionnaires which had been filled in by the eighth grade

students of SMP Negeri 2 Temanggung, the researcher finds out some problems

dealing with writing skill:

1. There were 23.5% students disliked English writing class, 3% students

greatly disliked English writing, 64% said neutral, and only 8.8% students

liked English writing.

2. There were 55.6% students who still found it difficult to generate ideas into

composition. Only 8.8% students agreed that generating ideas was easy. The

rest students said neutral.

xvi
3. No student agreed that making a composition needs a short time. 76.47%

students still needed very long time in composing paragraphs. The rest

students said neutral.

Based on the questionnaires, it can be seen that the low motivation in

English class, especially English writing, still occurred in the eighth grade

students in SMP Negeri 2 Temanggung. They also feel that English writing is a

difficult lesson.

The varieties of teaching learning English writing accomplished by the

teachers also influence the students’ achievements of writing. When the teachers

use inappropriate or monotonous techniques in teaching writing, the students can

be bored and unmotivated to learn. It directly influences the product of students’

achievement of writing. Somehow, teachers play an important role in teaching

learning process and responsible on the students’ achievements in English. To

motivate the students to think critically and creatively in facing the learning

problem is also the duty of teachers.

Considering that writing is an important role in language learning, it

should be given primary attention in the instructional process. In this case, it is

very beneficial for English teachers to develop their teaching learning process in

such a way by helping students improve their writing skill. Here, the teachers are

demanded to find an appropriate technique which is capable to meet the learner’s

need to improve their writing skill. In KTSP, the teachers are recommended to use

the teaching methods in which the students can use the language skills in

communication actively and oblige the teachers to be facilitators. The roles of

xvii
being facilitators are guiding and assisting the students to take a part in teaching

learning process.

There are many various techniques that can be used by the teachers to help

the students in organizing the ideas and lessen their boredom in writing. The

teaching learning process can be facilitated by some teaching media. Media are

very important in teaching learning process. They help the teacher as a means of

communication to convey the message more concretely and also motivate the

students in learning English. One of the media that can be used in teaching

English writing is video. The use of video in a classroom can guide the students’

activities in an interesting way. Video provides information to eyes and ears, so

students can see communication in action (Edge, Julian.1993:58). Video can

present language in a lively way. Thus, it can increase the interest and motivation

of the students. Video can also be used as a means of communication. A video

sequence used in class makes students more ready to communicate in the target

language.

Starting from the problems arising in teaching English writing and the

students’ achievements of writing which are unsatisfactory, the researcher wants

to conduct a research entitled “Improving Students’ Writing Skill of Narrative

Texts by Using Short Videos”. This teaching learning uses integrated teaching

with focuses on teaching writing. The researcher wants to investigate whether the

teaching model by using video can achieve the goal of teaching writing better.

The researcher in conducting the action put the target on the eighth grade students

xviii
in SMP N 2 Temanggung with students’ purpose of writing to be able to make a

composition better than before.

B. Limitation of the Problem

In avoiding deviation from the topic, the researcher focuses the study on

improving writing skill of the eighth grade students of SMP Negeri 2

Temanggung by using short videos. The writing skill that is observed in this

research is limited in generating ideas and organization of the text. The text type

used is narrative text.

C. Problems Statement

Based on the background above, the problems that come up in this study

are formulated as follows:

1. Can short videos improve writing skill of narrative texts at the eighth

grade students of SMP Negeri 2 Temanggung?

2. To what extent do short videos improve writing skill of narrative texts

at the eighth grade students of SMP Negeri 2 Temanggung?

3. What are the strengths and the weaknesses of using short videos in

teaching writing?

xix
 D. Objective of the Research

The objectives of the research are:

1. To find out whether or not short videos can improve students’ writing

skill.

2. To find out how far videos can improve students’ writing skill.

3. To find out the strengths and the weaknesses of using short videos in

teaching writing.

E. Benefits of the Study

The result of the study is expected to be able to give some contributions

for the teachers, the students, and the researcher. The following are the significant

contributions of the study:

1. For the Teachers

Through this study, it is expected that the teacher will get more

information about writing and its problems during teaching and

learning process in writing. Besides, this study is expected to give an

alternative technique in teaching writing.

2. For the Students

This study is expected to make the students aware about the

importance of writing, both in the study at school and in the real life. It

xx
 also gives the students an effective technique in learning writing.

Finally, it is expected that the students can improve their writing skill.

3. For the Researcher

This study is expected to become a starting point to develop the

teaching techniques in the future in order to create a better teaching

learning process.

xxi
 CHAPTER II

REVIEW TO THE RELATED STUDY

A. Review on Writing

1. Writing Skill

Writing is one of important skills that language learners need to learn

as an essential component not only for their academic practice but also later in

their professional life. Writing can be defined in various ways. There are some

definitions of writing proposed by experts.

Byrne (1997:1) says that on one level, writing can be said to be the act

of forming symbols; making marks on a flat surface of some kind. Graphic

symbols here include letters or combinations of letters that relate to the sound

people make when they speak. The symbols have to be arranged, according to

certain conventions, to form words, sentences, and/or paragraph. But actually

writing is more than the production of graphic symbols. He also states that

writing involves the encoding of a message of some kind; that is translating

thoughts into language.

In addition, Hadfield (1990:v) says that writing is an artificial activity

in a way that speech is not. While Enre (1988:13) defines that writing is a

process of thinking systematically, so that what is being written can be easily

understood.

xxii
 Olshtain in Celce-Murcia (2001:207) defines writing as an act of

communication which takes place between the writer and the reader via the

text in an interactive process.

According to Olson (1982:4), someone is writing when she puts her

thoughts and feeling into words and puts those words onto paper. Olson also

states that writing is more than that; however, those thoughts on paper must

make sense to someone else, in this case, the reader.

From the definitions of writing above, it can be concluded that writing

is an act of putting the thoughts and feeling into a set of signs or symbols and

putting them onto paper which can be understood by the reader.

Meanwhile, skill is defined by Hornby (1995:1109) as the ability to do

something well. According to Webster (1981:2133) skill means technical

competence without insight or understanding or the ability for further

elaboration or development.

To conclude, writing skill is the ability to put the thoughts and feeling

into a set of signs or symbols and put them onto paper which can be

understood by the reader.

2. The Stages in Writing

Hamp-Lyons (1987:135) states that there are three stages in the

process of writing, those are pre-writing, writing, and rewriting.

a. Pre-writing

Pre-writing stage generally involves the writer in choosing a topic,

or, if the topic has been assigned, in thinking about the topic and deciding

xxiii
 on a way to respond to it, and selecting the appropriate ideas and

information to use in a response. The pre-writing stage should be very

active, with discussion of the topic area to make sure everyone has

something to write about.

In planning, students involve the activities, such as reading,

viewing the video, mind mapping, discussing, fast writing, questioning,

encourage them before they write their sentences in the first draft. In this

stage the teacher can use some media to brainstorm the learners about a

topic in order to integrate the ideas which will be drafted to their writing.

By this way, students would get motivation to write because they feel that

they have something matter to say.

b. Writing

Writing is the stage where actually the writer makes a draft of their

writing based on the pre-writing stage that they have done before. S/he

finds the right words and concentrates more on what they want to say

through paper. S/he also needs to arrange the draft in such way that the

reader can follow his/her thought easily. The content might be written

without considering the grammatical aspect first.

c. Rewriting

Rewriting is the final stage and essential to successful writing.

Rewrite draft includes editing and proofreading. The editing process is

really an extension of the writing stage, involving the students in taking a

xxiv
 critical look at their writing in order to be sure that the written product, the

outcomes of the writing process, is as they intended it to be.

In this stage, the students review a draft to check content and

organization based on the feedback from him or herself and teacher or

peers. The teacher helps the students through the revision to shape and

reshape the text into final form, and it’s focused more on organization,

content of writing, sentence structures.

Proofreading simply means re-reading the text and correcting

minor errors such as miss-spelling, verb tense consistently and

punctuations. The students check their final text for some mistakes they

have made.

3. Techniques for Generating Ideas

It is necessary for the students to know the techniques for generating

ideas before they start writing. In pre writing stage, the students are required to

find out what topic that they would write down so that they have something to

say through paper. Ruggiero (1981:24-28) states about three techniques for

generating ideas. Those are as follows:

a. The Brainstorming Approach

Brainstorming was developed by an American industrialist, Alex

Osborn. The theory was that one idea would stimulate another, and those

two ideas a third, and so on, eventually producing a valuable insight or

solution to a problem that might not otherwise have been expressed.

xxv
 b. Imaginary-Dialogue Approach

The imaginary-dialogue approach requires that one see the subject

through someone else’s eyes. Naturally, it is impossible to enter other

people’s perspectives totally.

c. The Background-Reading Approach

The background reading approach consists of getting factual

information to stimulate and direct the writer’s thinking. This is what

actually the students do in generating ideas in this research. The students

would get the stimulus from what they watch in the video. They get a

matter to think and then put their thinking into writing.

4. The Purpose of Writing

McMahan, et al. (1996: 8) mentions the purposes of writing as

follows:

a. To express the writer’s feeling

The writer wants to express his feeling and thought through the written

form, as in a diary or a love letter. It is what is so called as expressive

writing.

b. To entertain the readers

The writer intends to entertain the reader through written form, and he

usually uses authentic materials. It is called as literary writing.

c. To inform the readers

It is used to give information or explain something to the readers. It is a

kind of informative writing.

xxvi
 d. To persuade the readers

The writer wants to persuade or convince the readers about his opinion or

concept or idea. It is called as persuasive writing.

In addition, Byrne (1997:2) in his book “Teaching Writing Skill” said

about the purpose of writing: “it is helpful to keep in mind some of the many

uses we are likely to make of writing”. On a personal level, people use writing

to make a note of something, for example shopping list, diaries, etc., and used

to keep records of things to be remembered. Writing is also used to send

messages in the forms of letters, memos, and many kinds of writing to deliver

the messages from one to others.

5. The Aspects and Micro Skills of Writing

Writing involves many different aspects. According to Gower (1995),

the aspects of writing are as follows:

a. Handwriting

The writing should be easily read by the readers. The neatness and

legibility is important in writing.

b. Spelling

Spelling means the writing of a word accepted in standard order. In second

language learning, errors spelling are often found.

c. Punctuation

A certain mark to clarify meaning by grouping grammatical units the

written material.

xxvii
d. Sentence construction

The construction of sentences that is grammatically correct, using the

correct word order.

e. Organizing a text and paragraphing

It involves dividing the information into paragraphs, starting a new

paragraph, and ordering the paragraphs to present a logical order.

f. Text cohesion

The appropriate use of linking words and phrases so that the organization

of the text is clear to the reader.

g. Register / style

Using language (structures and vocabulary) appropriate to the formality

and style of the text.

In addition, there are some micro skills involved in writing. The writer

needs to:

a. Follow conventions of spelling, punctuation and capitalization.

b. Use an acceptable core vocabulary and appropriate word order.

c. Use acceptable grammatical systems (i.e. tense, agreement), patterns and

rules.

d. Express a particular meaning in different grammatical forms, with a

variety of sentence structures.

e. Use cohesive devices in written discourse.

f. Use the rhetorical forms and conventions of written discourse.

xxviii
 g. Appropriately accomplish the communicative functions of written texts

according to form and purpose.

h. Convey links and connections between events. Communicate such

relations as main ideas, supporting ideas, new information, given

information, generalization and exemplification.

i. Correctly convey culturally specific references in the context of the written

text.

j. Develop and use a battery of writing strategies, such as accurately

assessing the audience’s interpretation, using pre-writing devices, using

paraphrases and synonyms, soliciting peer and instructor feedback and

using feedback, for revising and editing (http://newterra.chemeketa.edu).

6. Criteria for Good Writing

Fachruddin Ambo (1988:8) in his book “Dasar-Dasar Ketrampilan

Menulis” states about the good writing: “tulisan yang baik ialah tulisan yang

dapat berkomunikasi secara efektif dengan pembaca kepada siapa tulisan itu

ditujukan.”

Enre (1988:9-11) also states the criteria for good writing as follow:

a. Meaningful

Good writing must be able to convey something in which it is meaningful

to someone and can give the evidences about what it’s said.

xxix
 b. Clear

It can be said as a clear writing if the intended reader can read in constant

speed and catch the meaning. Clear writing shouldn’t have been simple,

but mustn’t be more difficult than the situation as it ought to be.

c. Coherent

Other characteristic of good writing is coherent, it means that the

information is clearly connected and arranged. It has been organized

systematically so the reader can follow the composition easily.

d. Economic

If the main purpose of the writer is giving information, s/he should avoid

pleonasm. In a good writing, the words used are appropriate, and the

sentences are clear, concise, emphatic, and correct. So, it doesn't waste the

reader's time by veering away from focus without reason.

e. Cohesive

It means that the writing doesn't contain tons of grammar or spelling

errors. It uses appropriate grammatical patterns, substitution, elliptical

construction, preposition, conjunctions to relate among the clauses within

paragraphs.

7. The Problems of Writing

For most people, writing is considered as a difficult activity, both in

the mother tongue and in a foreign language. There are three heading

problems which are caused by writing according to Byrne (1997:4-5):

xxx
 a. Psychological Problems

Writing is essentially a solitary activity and the fact that people

are required to write on their own draft, without the possibility of

interaction or the benefit of feedback, in itself makes the act of writing

difficult. Writers have no immediate feedback to let them know how

they are doing and whether they should change their approach. There

is no immediate interaction between the producer and the receiver.

b. Linguistics Problems

Different from oral communication, the language used in

written language is either simplified (list, telegram, note, etc.) or more

elaborate, more formal. In a foreign language this process is all the

more difficult as there may be interference on a cultural level, not just

the linguistics, between mother tongue and the foreign language.

c. Cognitive Problems

Writing is learned through process of instruction. The written

form of the language and certain structures, which are less used in

speech, should be mastered and learned. The way to organize the ideas

is also important for effective communication which has to be learned

in writing.

8. Teaching Writing

Writing is considered as the language skill which is least to be

acquired. However, the teaching learning of writing skill in classroom has a

xxxi
little portion and even tends to be slighted. In fact, writing has some important

roles in human life; either in academic purposes or in other aspect of life.

a. Reason for Teaching Writing

The most important reason for teaching writing is that it is a

basic language skill. Byrne (1997:6-7) gave the reasons of teaching

writing in the early stages. Writing serves a variety of pedagogical

purposes as follows:

1) The introduction and practice of some forms of writing enables

the learners to provide for different learning styles and needs.

Some learners, especially those who do not learn easily through

oral practice alone, feel more secure if they are allowed to read

and write in the language. For such students, writing is likely to be

an aid to retention, if only because they feel more at ease and

relaxed.

2) Written work serves to provide the learners with some tangible

evidences that they are making progress in the language. It is not

likely to be a true index of their attainment, but it satisfied a

psychological need.

3) Exposure to the foreign language through more than one medium

appears to be more effective than relying on a single medium

alone.

xxxii
 4) Writing provides variety in classroom activities. It increases the

amount of language contact through work that can be set out of

class.

5) Writing is often needed for formal and informal testing.

b. Approaches in Teaching Writing

There are some varieties of approaches in teaching writing

which can be conducted by the teacher in classroom.

1) The Controlled-to-Free Approach

This approach stresses three features of grammar, syntax,

and mechanics. It emphasizes accuracy rather than fluency or

originality. The controlled-to-free approach in writing is

sequential: students are first given sentence exercises, then

paragraphs to copy or manipulate grammatically by, for instant,

changing questions to statements, present to past, or plural to

singular. They might also change words or clauses or combine

sentences. They work on given material and perform strictly

prescribed operations on it.

2) The Free-Writing Approach

The emphasis in this approach is that intermediate-level

students should put content and fluency first and no worry about

form. Teachers begin by asking students to write freely on any

topics without worrying about grammar and spelling. There is only

minimal correction of error. Teachers just simply read the pieces of

xxxiii
 free writing and perhaps comment on the ideas the writer

expressed, or ask students to read aloud to the class. Concern for

“audience” and “content” are seen as important in this approach,

especially since the free writings often revolve around subjects that

the students are interested in, and those subjects then become the

basis for other more focused writing task.

3) The Paragraph-Pattern Approach

The paragraph-pattern approach stresses feature of

organization. This approach is based on the principle that in

different cultures people construct and organize their

communication with each other in different ways. So even if

students organize their ideas well in their first language, they still

need to see, analyze, and practice the particularly “English”

features of a piece of writing.

4) The Grammar-Syntax-Organization Approach

This approach links the purpose of a piece of writing to the

forms that are needed to convey the message. Writing task is

devised in order to lead the students to pay attention to

organization while they also work on the necessary grammar and

syntax.

5) The Communicative Approach

The communicative approach stresses the purpose of a

piece of writing and the audience for it. Student writers are

xxxiv
 encouraged to behave like writers in real life and to ask themselves

the crucial questions about purpose and audience: “Why I am

writing this?” and “Who will read it?”

Teachers using the communicative approach, therefore,

have extended the readership. They extend it to other students in

the class, who not only read the piece but actually do something

with it, such as respond, rewrite in another form, summarize, or

make comments.

6) The Process Approach

In the process approach, the students do not write on a

given topic in a restricted time and hand in the composition for the

teacher to “correct” which usually means to find the error. Rather,

they explore a topic through writing, showing the teacher and each

other their drafts, and using what they write to read over, think

about, and move them on to new ideas. Teachers who use the

process approach give their students two crucial supports time for

the students to try out ideas and feedback on the content of what

they write in their drafts. They find that then the writing process

becomes a process of discovery for the students: discovery of new

ideas and new language forms to express those ideas.

The teaching writing approach which is conducted in this

research is based on teaching free writing approach. The students’

writing was emphasized in content of the story, and only little

xxxv
 correction in grammar. The students were expected to be able to

express their ideas, generate the ideas fluently and organize them into

good composition.

c. Teaching Writing in SMP

Based on the Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan 2006 for

SMP and MTs, the program of teaching learning English as a foreign

language focuses on the aims to develop students’ skill in four

language skills. The students are expected to achieve competencies to

communicate orally and written by using suitable language variation,

fluently, and accurately in interaction or monologue in the form of

descriptive, recount, narrative, procedure, and report.

The teaching purpose conducted by the teacher should be based

on syllabus of Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan 2006 for SMP

and MTs. The expected learning outcomes outlined for the students of

the seventh, eighth, and ninth grade on the writing skill are as follows:

1) Seventh grade: the students are able to (1) write simple functional

sentences, (2) write simple message, short and simple

announcement, and card, (3) produce text in the form of a

procedure and descriptive.

2) Eighth grade: the students are able to (1) write among others texts

in the forms of a narrative, descriptive, and recount. (2) write

personal letter, post card, invitation card, leaflet, and

announcement.

xxxvi
 3) Ninth grade: students are able to (1) write texts in the form of

narrative, procedure, and report, (2) write short message, letter,

advertisement, and announcement.

9. Overview of Narrative Writing

There are some approaches in teaching writing; one of them is genre

based approach. The use of genre approach in solving the problem in students’

writing, particularly in generating ideas and organization is very effective

way. According to Hartono (2005:4) the term “genre” is used to refer to

particular text-types, not to traditional varieties of literature. It is a type or kind

of text, defined in terms of its social purposes; also the level of context dealing

with social purposes.

Based on the communicative purpose, Pardiyono (2007:93-98)

classifies the text into eleven types, they are; description, recount, narration,

procedure, explanation, discussion, exposition, news item, report, anecdote,

and review. However in this study, the text will be focused on the narrative

text.

Narrative text is a text which says the past activities or event which

concerns on the problematic experience and resolution in order to amuse and

even give the moral messages to the reader.

The generic structure of narrative text are orientation; stating the topic

of an activity or event which will be told, sequence of events; presenting the

story about the past activities or events which has the chronological of

xxxvii
conflicts and resolutions; resolution; stating the problem solving, and coda;

concluding in order to give the moral values.

According to Hartono (2005:7), the language features used in narrative

text are:

a. Focus on specific participants.

Narrative text focuses on the story of certain participant or

character.

b. Use of past tense.

Tenses used in narrative text is past tense, because it tells

about a story happened in the past. The formula of past tense is

S + V2 … or S + to be (was/were)...

c. Use of temporal conjunction.

The examples of temporal conjunction are: first, finally,

then, when, next, last, before, etc.

d. Use of material (or action) processes.

Material process relates to the physical action done by the

participants. The examples of materials process are:

The water flows.

Participant process

e. Use of mental process.

Mental process relates to the verbs which indicate the

participants’ feeling, thinking, and perceiving, for example:

Mr. Setiawan is satisfied with his new car.

Senser mental phenomenon

xxxviii
10. Construct of Writing Skill

Based on the explanation above, it can be concluded that writing is an

act of putting the thoughts and feeling into a set of signs or symbols and

putting them onto paper which can be understood by the reader.

Writing skill is the ability to put the thoughts and feeling into a set of

signs or symbols and put them onto paper which can be understood by the

reader.

Writing has some micro skills that should be comprehended by the

students in learning writing. These are some of them:

a. Reasoning

In their writing, the students should communicate such relations as main

ideas, supporting ideas, new information, given information,

generalization and exemplification.

b. Communication

The students should appropriately accomplish the communicative

functions of written texts according to form and purpose. They should also

use an acceptable core vocabulary and appropriate word order.

c. Organization

The students should convey links and connections between events. They

should write a composition in logical order (beginning, middle, and

ending) according to a certain function of text.

xxxix
 d. Convention

In writing a composition, the students should follow conventions of

spelling, punctuation and capitalization and use acceptable grammatical

systems (i.e. tense, agreement), patterns and rules.

The following are the criteria of scoring writing:

Table 1. The Scoring Writing Narrative Rubric

Aspects 6-10 11-15 16-20 21-25

Reasoning Only a few Use simple Developed ideas well developed,

simple ideas ideas interesting ideas

very few some sufficient many descriptive

supporting supporting supporting details details

details details

Communi- Unclear The purpose is Clear purpose Clear purpose

cation purpose somewhat clear and engaged the

reader

Limited some a wide variety of extensive

vocabulary vocabulary vocabulary vocabulary

Simple a limited a variety of a wide variety of

sentences variety of sentences sentences

sentences

Organization Has no clear Shows some has a clear flows smoothly,

beginning, evidence of a beginning, progressing

middle, or beginning, middle, and logically from the

ending middle, and ending beginning to the

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 ending middle to the

ending

unconnected includes ideas has sentences that has sentences that

ideas and and details that are linked are clearly

details and are somewhat together in organized in

have no connected with paragraphs paragraphs

paragraph paragraphs

structure

Convention Several several minor Only a few practically no

grammar, grammar, grammar, grammar,

spelling and spelling or spelling spelling or

punctuation punctuation or punctuation punctuation

errors or errors errors or errors

omissions and omissions omissions or omissions

unsatisfactory satisfactory good visual excellent visual

visual visual presentation presentation

presentation presentation

(www.durham.edu.on.ca)

B. Review on Video

1. The Nature of Media

a. The Definition of Media

xli
 According to Sumantri (2001:153), “Media Pengajaran atau

Pembelajaran adalah segala alat pengajaran yang digunakan oleh guru

sebagai perantara untuk menyampaikan bahan – bahan instruksional dalam

proses belajar mengajar sehingga memudahkan mencapai tujuan

pengajaran tersebut.” So, media is used in teaching learning as a means to

convey the instructional materials to reach the objectives more easily.

Furthermore, Sadiman (2002:6) says his opinion about media:

“Media berarti perantara atau pengantar pesan dari pengirim pesan kepada

penerima pesan.” Media can be regarded as a mean to deliver the message

from the giver to the receiver.

From the definition above, media can be defined as a means of

communication used to convey the information from the giver to the

receiver. Related to teaching and learning, media is meant by a means of

communication used in the teaching learning process to convey the

information such as teaching materials from the teacher to the students so

that the students will be more interested in taking part in the lesson.

b. Kinds of Media

So many kinds of media have been invented in this modern life.

They can be used for helping the teacher convey the materials easier to the

students in teaching learning process.

xlii
 Arsyad (2004:29) says that media is instructional component

including message, person, and tool. In its development, teaching media

have been influenced by the development of technology. Arsyad differs

the teaching media based on technology development into some kinds.

“Berdasarkan perkembangan teknologi tersebut, media

pembelajaran dapat dikelompokkan ke dalam empat kelompok,
yaitu (1) media hasil teknologi cetak, (2) media hasil teknologi
audio-visual, (3) media hasil teknologi yang berdasarkan
komputer,(4) dan media hasil gabungan teknologi cetak dan
komputer” (Arsyad, 2004:29)

According to Arsyad, it can be concluded that teaching media can

be classified into four kinds; those are printed media, audio-visual media,

computer media, and printed-computer media.

In addition, Seels and Glasgow in Arsyad (2004:33-34) classified

media into two categories:

1) Traditional Media

a.) Projected Visual (OHP, slides, filmstrips)

b.) Un projected Visual (picture, poster, photograph, chart,graphic,

diagram)

c.) Audio

d.) Multimedia presentation (slide with audio, multi-image)

e.) Dynamic Projected Visual (film, television, video)

f.) Printed media (text book, module, workbook, magazine, hand-

out)

g.) Games (crossword, board)

xliii
 h.) Real thing (model, specimen, manipulative-mannequin)

2) Technology Media

a.) Telecommunication-Based Media

b.) Microprocessor-Based Media

c. The Advantages of Media

Media is very helpful in teaching language learning. It helps the

teachers motivate the students by bringing a slice of real life into the

classroom and by presenting language in its more complete

communicative context. Media also provides information such as cultural

input which is impossible to be brought its real things in classroom. Celce-

Murcia (2001:461) states about the advantages of using media in language

learning:

a. Media serves as an important motivator in the language teaching

process.

b. Audiovisual materials provide students with content, meaning, and

guidance. They thus create contextualized situation within which

language items are presented and practiced.

c. Media materials can lend authenticity to the classroom situation,

reinforcing for students the direct relation between the language

classroom and the outside world.

d. Media provides a way of addressing the needs of both visual and

auditory learners.

xliv
 e. By bringing media into the classroom, teachers can expose their

students to multiple input sources.

f. Media helps students call up existing schemata and therefore

maximize their use of prior background knowledge in the language

learning process.

g. Media provides a means of presenting material in a time-efficient

and compact manner, and of stimulating students’ senses, thereby

helping them to process information more readily.

2. Videos as Teaching Media

a. The Definition of Video

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video, video is defined as the

technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing,

transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing

scenes in motion.

Furthermore, Cooper (1991:11) defines video as a supercharged

medium of communication and powerful vehicle of information that is

packed with messages, images, and ambiguity, and so represents a rich

terrain to be worked and reworked in the language learning classroom. In

other words, video is the combination of electronic pictures and audio.

Those electronic combinations cannot be seen as it is in a CD cassette, but

must be played with equipment called video cassette recorder or video

player. This video player is connected with TV monitor, so that the content

of CD can be heard and seen.

xlv
 In the case of video as a teaching media in language classroom, it

can be concluded that video is a medium of communication containing

messages, images, and sounds used in teaching learning process.

b. Characteristics of Video

The characteristics of video in language learning are as follow:

1) Video displays the pictures and sounds (verbal symbols)

2) The sequence of pictures is constant, cannot be changed.

3) The program of video shows the three dimensions color and

movement.

4) The advantages of video:

a.) Can be used immediately

b.) Can be used repeatedly

c.) Can display the materials which are impossible to be brought

physically in class.

d.) Can display danger object

e.) Can display detailed object

f.) Doesn’t need dark place

g.) The speed can be adjusted (fast or slow)

h.) Can be used in classical and individual

i.) Display the colored pictures and sound

j.) Can display the animation with sound which shows an event or

process.

5) The disadvantages of video:

xlvi
 a.) Difficult to be revised

b.) Relatively expensive

c.) Need a specific skill

c. The Importance of Video in Language Learning

Video can be used at every level, both as supplementary materials

for language reinforcement and skill practice and as the main component

of an intensive course or course module provided that suitable material is

available (Stemplesky, 1990:4).

The use of video in teaching learning process has some advantages

as follow:

1) increasing the students’ motivation in learning

2) reviewing the past lesson

3) providing learning stimulus

4) activating students’ respond

5) giving feedback

6) accomplishing good practice

In addition, Stemplesky (1990:3-4) states about the importance of a

moving picture component as a language teaching aid. First of all, video

can increase motivation of the students. Children and adults feel their

interest quicken when language is experienced in a lively way through

television and video. Video can present language more comprehensively

than any other teaching medium. Second, video can be used as a mean of

communication. A video sequence used in class makes students more

xlvii
 ready to communicate in the target language. Third, non-verbal aspect of

communication can be presented by video. Video allows the viewer to see

the non-verbal communication, such as gestures, expression, posture, etc.

Finally, by using video, cross-cultural comparison can be done in

language teaching. Video is a reach resource for communication in the

language classroom including the cultural behavior.

d. Categories of Video in Language Learning

Stemplesky (1990:7) suggests the categories of video which is

usually used in language learning classroom:

1) Drama: this broad category embraces most video, TV, and film

material with scripted dialogue and/or dramatic elements, such as

TV soap operas, drama series, plays, situation comedies, etc. it also

includes feature films as a subcategory.

2) Documentaries: any material which is non-fictional and/or

unscripted (e.g. a TV current affairs investigation of an issue as

opposed to a scripted drama about the same issue). Subcategories

include TV news programs, interviews and sport programs, and

also the kind of TV talk shows.

3) TV Commercials: all kinds of TV or cinema advertising material or

short promotional video.

4) Music Video: generally used to refer to pop music videos of all

kinds, but could include song and musical numbers from TV light

entertainment shows or cinema musicals.

xlviii
 The category of video used in this research is drama. The researcher

uses cartoon film materials with scripted dialogue as the teaching aid. Cartoon

film is suitable for the young learners in junior high school. It contains simple

complication or problems which is easy to be followed by the students. The

visualization of this video is also interesting for the young learners so that they

are expected to have high motivation in taking part in teaching learning

process.

C. Teaching Writing by Using Videos

1. Techniques in Teaching Writing by Using Videos

Video has been used in two main ways in EFL: as an alternative to

written or audio text, and as a tool for analyzing learners’ error (Cooper,

1991:3). There are some techniques to be conducted in teaching writing with

videos.

a. Sound off/vision on (silent viewing): this techniques can be used either

to stimulate language activity about what is seen on the screen (rather

what is being said) or to focus on what is being said, by a variety of

guessing or prediction task.

b. Sound on/vision off: students guess the setting, actions, characters, etc.

this can be done by varieties of ways.

c. Pause/freeze-frame control: (to utilize with sound on/off and vision

on/off controls as above)

xlix
 1.) With sound on, pausing at strategic points in the plot or action,

teacher asks students question about the situation (what was

happened/what is going to happen).

2.) Pause at suitable moments of characters’ facial expression for

students to suggest thoughts, feeling, etc.

d. Sound and vision on (viewing comprehension).

1.) Students are given a cloze passage of the dialogue or of a

description of the scene and have to complete gaps while/after

viewing.

2.) Students view and listen to the sequence then have to list the things

they expect to hear, see, etc.

e. Jumbling sequences: students view each section of a sequence,

presented to them out of sequence. The students have to determine

what has happened or what will happen in each case and then fit the

section into a correct or plausible sequence.

f. Split viewing: some students see a sequence but do not hear it; others

hear but do not see. A variety of activities can then follow based on

usual information-gap procedures.

The techniques will be used in this research are pause/freeze frame

control and viewing comprehension. The students are expected to get the main

idea and understand the whole story by active viewing and listening to the

video.

2. The Importance of Improving Writing Skill by Using Video

l
 In the writing activity, video can be used in building the creativity of

the students in composing or summarizing the sequence. It can be formed as

cartoon, short films, TV commercials, et cetera. Advantages of using video in

language learning are that they are relatively short to be understood easily by

the students, and most contain a wealth of cultural material which can be

exploited with little preparation. They also make the class livelier.

D. Rationale

Writing is one of the language skills which should be mastered by the

students. But in fact, writing competence is considered the last language skill

taught at school. In some cases, teaching learning process held in a classroom is

more concerned at acquiring the other skills. The teachers tend to give the

students tasks of making composition as homework to measure the students’

ability since writing is considered as a learning activity which spends much time

when it is conducted in a classroom. Teachers spent little or no time teaching the

students how to write. It means the students have a little practice in writing at

school. That is why the students at school have the difficulties in acquiring this

language skill. They have some problems when they are asked to write a

composition. The problems which the researcher found in her research were the

students have difficulties in generating ideas and organizing it into paragraphs.

The students spend too long time in writing a story because they still confused

li
how they should start their writing. Sometimes the students stuck in a point and

couldn’t continue their writing. They also seemed to be bored in writing lesson.

To solve the problem teachers can use some media in teaching English

writing to help them in delivering the materials more easily. One of the media that

can be used in teaching English writing is video. The teachers can find a valuable

resource in video. Video has some advantages to be used in language learning in

classroom. In writing class, video can give a stimulus for the students about

something, so that they have a matter to say in their writing. Video provides a

shared experience for students in the class, a common base that leads to a variety

of language activities. The use of video can create the amusing, fun, and relaxing

atmosphere in the classroom. Students are more motivated in learning because the

learners, especially young learners, are usually interested more in watching

animation or moving pictures than reading the text. Therefore, when they enter the

class they will not feel any pressure and will enjoy in writing learning process.

So, it is assumed that using videos as teaching aids on students’ writing is

effective for developing and promoting students' English writing skill. By

watching the videos, the learners are guided in selecting the topic, so the learners

get the ideas about what they are going to write. The main achievement is that the

learners are expected to be able to generate ideas into a composition.

E. Hypothesis

lii
 Based on theories previously discussed in the rationale, the hypothesis is:

the use of videos in language teaching can improve writing skill of the eighth

grade students of SMP N 2 Temanggung in the academic year of 2009/2010.

CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

A. The Method of the Research

liii
 The method used in this study is classroom action research. There are

some definitions of action research proposed by experts. Carr and Kemmis (1982)

in Burns (1999:30) states that action research is simply a form of self-reflective

enquiry undertaken by participants in social situation in order to improve the

rationality and justice of their own practices, their understanding of this practices

and the situations in which the practices are carried out.

While Mills (2000:6) defines action research as:

Any systematic inquiry conducted by teachers, researchers,

principals, school counselors, or other stakeholders in teaching or learning
environment, to gather information about the ways that their particular
schools operate, how they teach, and how well their students learn. This
information is gathered with the goals of gaining insight, developing
reflective practice, effecting positive changes in the school environment
(and on educational practices in general), and improving students
outcomes and the lives of those involved.

Zuber-Skerritt (1996:14) says that action research is ways of investigating

professional experience which link practice and the analysis of practice into a

single productive and continuously developing sequence, and which link

researchers and research participants into a single community of interested

colleagues. Furthermore, Wallace (1999:4) states action research is basically a

way of reflecting on a teacher’s teaching (or teacher-training, or management of

an English department, or whatever it is the teacher does in ELT). It is done

systematically by collecting data on teacher’s everyday practice and analyzing it

in order to come to some decisions about what the teacher’s future practice should

be.

liv
 In addition, Hopkins (1983:1) says that classroom research is an act

undertaken by teachers either to improve their own or a colleague’s teaching or to

test the assumptions of educational theory in practice.

Anne Burns (1999:30) suggests the characteristics of action research:

1. Action research is contextual, small scale and localized. It identifies and

investigates problems within a specific situation.

2. It is evaluative and reflective as it aims to bring about change and

improvement in practice.

3. It is participatory as it provides for collaborative investigation by teams of

colleagues, practitioners and researcher.

4. Changes in practice are based on the collection of information or data

which provides the impetus for changes.

While Kemmis and McTaggart (1988) in Nunan (1992:17) argue that the

three defining characteristics of action research are that it is carried out by

practitioners (for our purposes, classroom teachers) rather than outside

researchers; secondly, that it is collaborative; and thirdly, that it is aimed at

changing things.

From the above definitions, it can be summarized that action research is a

systematic research done by teachers, researchers, principals, school counselors,

administrator or other educational professionals to solve problems in order to get

better improvement.

In this research, the researcher aims to overcome the students’ problem in

improving their writing skill. The researcher collaborates with the teacher in

lv
implementing the action research. The researcher teaches writing in the

implementation of the action research. She discusses with the teacher about the

topic, the homework, exercises and the test items. The teacher watches and

observes the teaching learning process. The practical action the researcher used is

the technique using video.

B. Setting of the Study

This classroom action research is carried out in SMP Negeri 2

Temanggung which is located at Jl. Jend. Sudirman 21 Temanggung. SMP Negeri

2 Temanggung is one of the favorite schools and one of the International Standard

Schools in Temanggung. This school is located in the main street of Temanggung.

The strategic location of SMP Negeri 2 Temanggung makes it easy to reach. It is

also near some public areas, such as bank, police station, and any other offices.

This school consists of three grades in which each grade consists of six

classes. There are 18 classrooms, teacher office, headmaster office, administration

room, multimedia room, library, laboratories, mosque, canteens, basketball yard,

and also parking area. Each classroom is completed with some facilities which are

set to support teaching learning process, such as whiteboard, blackboard, tables

and chairs which are fit with the number of the students, a teacher’s desk and

chair, a clock, LCD and screen, sound system, and good air circulation and

lighting.

lvi
 There are so many two-storey buildings which are built to overcome the

needs of classrooms and any other rooms to remember that the width of school

area is narrow.

The research is conducted through teaching learning process in the

classroom at the eighth grade students in the academic year of 2009/2010. This

research is held by implementing the use of videos to improve students’ writing

skill in generating and organizing ideas. Therefore, this research is based on

KTSP of SMP which is aimed to help the students able to communicate in written

a text correctly. The study is started from the beginning of February 2010.

C. The Subject of the Study

The subjects of this study are the eighth grade students of SMP Negeri 2

Temanggung in the academic year of 2009/2010. The classroom of VIII F is

located in the back yard of SMP Negeri 2 Temanggung, precisely in the north side

of yard. There are 34 students consisting 14 boys and 20 girls in class of 8-F.

This classroom is wide enough for 34 students.

The situation of VIII F is comfortable enough to study. It has good

lighting and complete facilities. In this classroom there are LCD and sound

system which is set permanently. There is also LCD screen to present the picture

from the LCD. The facilities are set as well as possible so it can be used easily.

Besides that, there are white board and blackboard in front of the class.

lvii
 But, because this classroom looks out upon the yard, sometimes the

situation in classroom during teaching learning process is disturbed by the noise

of the students who do the sport out of classroom.

D. Models of the Research

The model of action research used in this research is the model developed

by Kemmis and Mc Taggart in Burns (1999:32). According to them, classroom

action research is composed of cycles consisting of four steps namely: planning,

action, observation and reflections.

Visually, the steps in action research by Kemmis and Mc Taggart

(Hopkins, 1993:48) can be illustrated as follows:

lviii
 Figure 3.1. Steps in Action Research

E. Procedures of the Research

In this classroom action research, each procedure takes some steps that

form one cycle. The procedures of action research in this research are as follows:

1. Identifying the problem

The problems are identified first before planning the action. In this

step, the researcher identifies the problems occurring in the class. The

problems refer to the factors causing the students difficult to improve their

writing skill. To identify the problem, the researcher observes the teaching

lix
 learning process, interviews, gives the pre-test and open-ended

questionnaires to the students.

2. Implementing the action research

This research is conducted in two cycles. Each cycle uses video as

teaching media in writing activity.

According to Kemmis and Mc Taggart, action research occurs

through a dynamic and complementary process, which consists of four

essentials ‘moments’: planning, action, observation and reflection (Burns,

1999:32). These moments are the fundamental steps in a spiraling process

through which participants in an action research group undertake to:

a. Planning

It includes the following activities:

1) Preparing material, making lesson plan, and designing the steps in

doing the action.

2) Preparing list of students’ name and scoring.

3) Preparing teaching aids (video).

4) Preparing sheets of classroom observation (to know the situation of

teaching-learning process when the method or technique or mode is

applied).

5) Preparing a test.

lx
 b. Action

The included activities were:

1) Giving pretest

2) Teaching in the classroom

3) Giving occasion to the students to ask any difficulties or problems

4) Asking the students some questions

5) Guiding students to do the task

6) Giving post test

c. Observation

Observation is one of the instruments used in collecting data.

The researcher observes the students’ activities while teaching-learning

process occurs. The results of the observation are recorded on

observation sheets as useful data. The researcher is helped by the

teacher to observe students’ activities and give inputs and suggestions.

d. Reflection

The results of the observation are analyzed to remember what

have happened and have been recorded. Meanwhile, the researcher

evaluates the teaching learning process during the implementation

phase. From this, self reflection can be done. And from the tests, the

students’ improvement can be known.

3. Doing Evaluation

The researcher makes an evaluation on the observation result to

find out the positive result and weaknesses during the action. To ensure

lxi
 whether or not there is an improvement of the students’ writing skill, the

researcher gives the students pre-test and post-test. Pre-test is held at the

beginning of the first cycle to measure students’ writing skills before

implementing the action and post-test is held at the end of every cycle to

measure the improvement of students’ writing skills after the action. After

giving the test, the researcher analyzes the result of the test by scoring it.

In scoring the data of writing skill, the researcher uses rubric evaluation of

writing. The researcher also needs help from one who is regarded to have

enough capability in scoring writing. The researcher asks the English

teacher in SMP N 2 Temanggung to be the second corrector. It is done to

minimize subjectivity of scoring.

F. Technique of Collecting Data

In this study, the researcher uses observational and non-observational

techniques for collecting action research data (Burns, 1999:79). Observational

techniques is used to find out the situation of the teaching learning process when

the techniques is applied and the students’ responses and feeling toward learning

using the technique. Observational techniques used in this research are research

diaries or journals, notes or field notes and photographs. While non-observational

techniques used in this research are in the form of writing tests, interviews, and

open-ended questionnaires. Non-observational tools result in data that are

lxii
essentially introspective, that is, they invite personal and individual accounts of

events, attitudes, and beliefs.

Burns adds there are two roles of observation, namely non-participant and

participant observation. Non-participant observation means watching and

recording without personal involvement in the research context. On the other

hand, participant observation involves entering the research context and observing

oneself as well as others in that context. The researcher became a member of the

context and participates in its culture and activities. In this research, the researcher

uses participant observation to get the data. The researcher enters the class as

teacher.

G. Instruments

There are five instruments used in this research to collect the data: notes

or field notes, researcher’s diaries or journals, open-ended questionnaires,

photographs and writing tests.

1. Notes or field notes

Notes or field notes are descriptions and accounts of events in the

research context which are written in a relatively factual and objective

style. They generally include reports of non verbal information, physical

setting, group structures and records of conversations and interactions

between participants. In this research, notes or field notes are used to

observe students’ writing skill improvement from their behavior side.

lxiii
 Collaborative observer’s notes or field notes are used to take notes on

important activities related with students’ writing skill.

2. Researcher’s diaries or journals

Diaries or journals are an alternative to field notes, or a

supplement, if time permits. They provide continuing accounts of

perceptions and thought processes, as well as critical events or issues

which have surfaced in the classroom. Diaries and journals contain more

subjective and personal reflections and interpretations than the relatively

formulized recordings of notes. In this research, diaries or journals are

written by the researcher as the teacher to record her analysis,

interpretation, and reflection. They are used to observe the students’

behavior and development, materials, lesson plans, and everything related

with teaching activities.

3. Open-ended questionnaires

Open-ended questionnaires are several questions expected to be

answered by the participants in order to collect the data. The participants

are quite free to answer the question. In this research, they are used to

know the students’ felling, perception and opinions to the English teaching

activities happen in the class.

4. Photographs

Photographs are way of greatly enhancing classroom analysis and

providing visual stimuli which can be integrated into reporting and

presenting the research to others. The use of photographs is also a

lxiv
 language classroom task and activities where visual aids are an invaluable

support in learning. In this research, photographs are used to record

activities happen in the class as it can give real description about the

teaching learning process.

5. Writing tests

Test is a set of questions or exercises or other instruments to

measure knowledge, intelligence, ability or aptitude of groups or

individuals. The researcher conducts tests consisting of post test 1 and post

test 2. Post test 1 is done after the first cycle ends and the post test 2 is

held in the end of the second cycle. The tests are used to measure students’

writing skill from the achievement side.

H. Technique of Analyzing Data

After collecting the data, the next step of the study is analyzing the data.

The data are analyzed by qualitative and quantitative data analysis.

1. Qualitative

The data of pre-research observation report, research diaries, field

notes, and the photographs of teaching learning process are analyzed by

constant comparative method. There are four stages of analyzing

classroom research data according to Becker in Hopkins (1985:107), those

are:

a. selection and definition of concepts;

lxv
 b. frequency and distribution of concept;

c. incorporation of findings into models;

d. presentation of evidence and proof.

2. Quantitative

In analyzing the test score of the written test, a statistical technique

is used to find the students’ mean score. The data from the test are

analyzed in order to prove whether or not teaching writing using video can

improve students’ writing skill.

In this research, the students’ mean score of the post test 1 is

compared to the students’ mean score of the post test 2 to know whether

there is an improvement of the students’ writing skill.

The formulas used to compute the mean scores are:

x=
åx
N

y=
åy
N

In which:

X = mean of post test 1 scores

Y = mean of post test 2 scores

N = the number of sample

The hypothesis of this research is tested using non-independent t-test.

The t-value can be calculated with the formula as follows:

lxvi
t : the t-value for non-independent (correlated) means

D : the differences between the paired scores

D : the mean of the differences

SD 2 : the sum of the squared differences scores

n : the number of pairs

(Furchan, 2007: 226)

lxvii
 CHAPTER IV

RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

A. Introduction

The research was conducted with the collaboration of the English teacher

of SMP Negeri 2 Temanggung. In this research, the researcher became a

practitioner who implemented the action in teaching learning process in the

classroom and the English teacher was the observer and facilitator who observed

the teaching learning process from the beginning until the end of the research. The

schedule of the research can be seen in the table 2.

Table 2. The Schedule of the Research

Activities Date Purpose

Interview January, 8th 2010 Identifying teacher’s problems in
teaching writing.
Observation January, 8th 2010 Identifying the problems during
teaching learning process
th
Giving the first January, 9 2010 Identifying students’ problems in
Questionnaire writing.
Pre-test February, 11th 2010 Identifying students’ writing skill.
Cycle 1:
1st meeting February, 17th 2010 Implementing the action plan
nd th
2 meeting February, 18 2010 Implementing the action plan
3rd meeting February, 19th 2010 Implementing the action plan
4th meeting February, 24th 2010 Implementing the action plan
th
post-test 1 February, 25 2010 Measuring the students’ writing skill
after the action.
Cycle 2:
1st meeting March, 12th 2010 Implementing the action plan

lxviii
 2nd meeting March,17th 2010 Implementing the action plan
3rd meeting March, 18th 2010 Implementing the action plan
post-test 1 March, 19th 2010 Measuring the students’ writing skill
after the action
th
Giving the last April, 14 2010 Knowing the students’ opinion about
Questionnaires the action.
Interview after April, 14th 2010 Knowing the students’ opinion about
the action the action.

B. Research Findings

1. Identifying the Problem

To know the condition of English teaching learning, the researcher

conducted pre-observation in class VIII F of SMP Negeri 2 Temanggung

before the action was done. In this pre-observation she found some problems

of writing skill. The students had the problems in writing a text because they

learnt writing without using a good approach and treatment. They were just

asked to write a composition based on the topic that had been prepared in the

text book. Sometimes, the students didn’t understand about a certain

instruction of a text for example the generic structure of the text, purposes and

the language features of the text.

The researcher also gave the open-ended questionnaires to the students

about English writing in their class. Based on the questionnaires which had

been filled in by the eighth grade students of SMP Negeri 2 Temanggung, the

researcher found out some problems dealing with writing skill:

lxix
4. There were 23.5% students who disliked English writing class, 3%

students much disliked English writing, 64% said neutral, and only 8.8%

students liked English writing.

5. There were 55.6% students who still found it difficult to generate ideas

into composition. Only 8.8% students agreed that generating ideas was

easy. The rest students said neutral.

6. There was no student who agreed that writing a composition needs a short

time. 76.47% students still needed very long time in composing

paragraphs. The rest students said neutral.

After finding the problems faced by the students in English class, the

researcher conducted a pre-test. The pre-test was done before doing the

teaching learning process. The test was done in order to know the writing skill

of the students. The mean of the students’ scores in the pre-test was 68.22.

Based on the pre-observation and pre-test conducted by the researcher,

it can be identified that the writing skill of the eighth grade students in SMP

Negeri 2 Temanggung was still low. It should be improved by implementing a

teaching technique which can overcome the problems. In implementing the

teaching learning process, the researcher used videos to improve students’

writing skill. The target of this research was the improvement of students’

writing skill which concerns more on the generating ideas and organization of

text.

lxx
2. Implementing the Action Research

a. Cycle 1

1.) Planning

After finding the problems by the pre-observation, pre-test, and

using questionnaires, the researcher made a plan to teach writing class in

cycle 1. She prepared materials from internet and relevant books. She

planned four meetings in cycle 1. She prepared a lesson plan for four

meetings at once. The researcher chose materials which are suitable for the

students. She chose a video cartoon which can be easily understood by the

students. The title of the video used in the cycle 1 was “The Postman Pat

and Surprise Present”. The duration of this video was about 12 minutes.

2.) Action

In this cycle the researcher implemented the teaching technique

using videos. There were four meetings in this cycle. She prepared a

lesson plan for four meetings at once.

a.) The First Meeting

The researcher conducted the first meeting on Wednesday,

February 17th 2010. She entered the class of VIII F. As soon as the

researcher entered the class, she greeted the students and checked the

students’ attendance list. She didn’t introduce herself because she had

done it in the pre-test. She started the teaching with some pre-

activities. She gave some guided questions about some famous

narrative stories, such as Malin Kundang, Kancil Nyolong Timun,

lxxi
Cinderella, etc. She asked orally to the students about the characters,

setting, and what happened in that stories. Some students participated

actively in this brainstorming section. Then she asked about cartoon

films. She introduced the cartoon film which would be played in the

next activities. Most of them didn’t know yet about the film. Not so

long, she prepared everything to play the video using laptop connected

with LCD and sound system. All of the students paid attention to the

video when it was being played. After that, the researcher asked to the

students about the video. Some students didn’t comprehend the whole

part of the story. It was caused by the noise out of the class so they

couldn’t listen clearly. So, the researcher played it once again by the

play-pause technique. The students still paid attention to the video.

From the second playing, the students could get the message of the

video. Next, the researcher guided the students about the generic

structure of the story in the video (orientation, complication, and

resolution) by giving some guiding questions. Some students actively

answered the researcher’s questions. After that, the researcher asked

them to make a group of 4 and write some declarative sentences using

past tense related to the story in the video as much as possible. The

researcher taught about past tense then asked the students to start their

task with their own group. The researcher went around the class to

guide the students and help them solve the difficulties they faced. In

lxxii
 the end of the class, the researcher asked the students to submit their

work and closed the meeting.

b.) The Second Meeting

On Thursday, February 18th 2010, the researcher came for the

second meeting. In this meeting, the lesson begins with reviewing the

last meeting. The researcher also explained about past tense because in

the last lesson most of the students still made some mistakes in writing

sentences with past tense. She pointed some students to make

examples of past tense sentences. There were some students who made

wrong sentences. The researcher gave some examples of past tense in

white board. She also explained about passive voice in brief. The

students paid attention to the researcher when she was explaining the

grammar. Then, she told the students about the same video. She played

that video from the beginning until the end. The students were still

interested in the same materials. After watching the video, the

researcher repeated the last lesson about the characters of the story and

the generic structure of the story. Then, she explained about the time

conjunctions which are usually used in narrative text. Some students

seemed that they had already understood about examples of time

conjunctions. Next, the researcher asked the students to sit with their

own groups. In this meeting, she asked the students to make a short

paragraph based on the video using temporal or time conjunctions. As

usual, she went around the class to guide the students in making their

lxxiii
 task. Most of the students asked her about the vocabularies and

sometimes about the way of the story. Since the time was up, the

researcher asked the students to submit their work and said goodbye.

c.) The Third Meeting

The third meeting was conducted on Friday, February 19th

2010. The researcher entered to the class and opened her teaching by

greeting the students. The researcher played the same video to the

students. Then, the researcher reviewed about the generic structure of

story in the video. The researcher concerned more on the parts of

narrative text. Some students followed actively but the others were

passive. Next, the researcher asked the students to work in their own

group as what they had done in last meeting. At this time, the

researcher asked them to do exercise in making paragraph based on

generic structure of narrative text. Each group made one of generic

structure. 1st group wrote the orientation, 2nd group wrote the

complication, 3rd group wrote the resolution, et cetera. After the bell

rang, the researcher asked them to submit their work and ended the

teaching learning.

d.) The Fourth Meeting

The researcher came to the class on Wednesday, February 24th

2010 for the fourth meeting. The researcher told that at this time they

would use the same video. They wanted to watch the other video. But

the researcher ensured them to watch the same video for having the

lxxiv
 different exercise from the last meeting. Then, she played the video for

the students and asked them to pay attention to it. They still paid

attention to the video from the beginning until the end. After they

watched the video, the researcher asked them to make a full narrative

text from orientation until resolution. They did their own work in their

own paper. Some students still asked about vocabulary to the

researcher. As usual, the researcher went around the class and helped

the students who faced the difficulties in making their story. When the

bell rang, the researcher asked the students to submit their work.

Finally, she closed her teaching and announced that next week there

would be a post-test.

3.) Observation

a.) The First Meeting

In the first meeting, there were two students who didn’t attend

the class because they had to practice scout for a competition. The

students of VIII F participated actively in the researcher’s class. When

the video was played, all of them paid close attention to the video. It

showed that the students had an interest to the video. But, when the

researcher divided them into groups, the students were very noisy. It

took much time to get them in groups.

They still had difficulties in constructing sentences in past

form. It was proved by their assignments which had several errors of

past form. They also still lack of vocabularies. It was indicated by their

lxxv
 questions to the researcher. Almost all of them were about

vocabularies.

b.) The Second Meeting

The students were actively involved in teaching learning. Their

responses were good. In this meeting, the students were more active.

They still paid attention to the video though it was already played in

the previous meeting. All of them seriously watched the video. When

the researcher guided the students about time conjunction, the

condition was noisy. It seemed that they had already understood about

that term. Some of them mention the examples of time conjunction

correctly. After the researcher divided them into groups, the class was

so noisy. Some of the students went here and there to find dictionary

and everything they needed. There were still some students who asked

about vocabularies and phrases.

c.) The Third Meeting

In the third meeting the researcher still played the same video

for the students. Some of the students watched it lazily especially the

students who sat at the back. But no one made a noise in class.

When the researcher divided them into groups as usual, there

were still noisy. Most of them worked in groups well. They discussed

seriously to make a paragraph of a narrative although they still had

difficulties in vocabulary. But there were still some students who

didn’t take part actively and talked something else with the other

lxxvi
 friends. Because of the limited time, most of groups could not finish

their work, so the researcher asked them to submit after the break time

in teacher office.

d.) The Fourth Meeting

In this meeting, the students seemed to be lazy when they

watch the video. When the researcher asked them to make a full

narrative story based on the video individually, almost all of them

complained about that. They seemed to be unconfident when they were

asked to write not in their group anymore. But then they did their

exercise after the researcher asked them repeatedly. The students were

very noisy. They asked each other about their writing. Some students

still asked about the vocabulary to the researcher. When the bell rang,

most of the students hadn’t finished their story.

4.) Reflection

After analyzing the observation result in the cycle one, the

researcher did reflection in order to evaluate the teaching and learning

process she did so far. She found the students’ progress in writing ability.

Observation result showed that there were some improvements achieved

by the students after doing the action.

In cycle one, the mean score of the students was increasing. It

could be seen by comparing the result of the pre-test and post-test during

the implementation of the action. The mean score of the post-test result

lxxvii
done at the end of the cycle one was 75.58. It was better than the mean

score of the pre-test which was done before the action, 68.22.

Besides the improvement in their products of writing, there were

also some improvements in the students’ attitude toward writing. In

teaching learning process conducted in cycle 1, the students were more

motivated in writing. They were motivated because in every beginning of

the class, they watched the video which can give them stimulus which

makes them relax and gives them topics to be discussed. By the teaching

learning process, there is also improvement of students’ writing skill in

generating the ideas. The students could write the longer story than before

in a more organized text.

But, in this cycle, the researcher still found some weaknesses of the

students in writing a story. They had difficulties in vocabulary mastery. It

was indicated by the fact that almost all of their questions were about

vocabulary. They sometimes used inappropriate words in their writing.

They also still found it difficult to change the past forms of certain verbs,

especially the irregular verbs. Besides, some of them still got difficulties in

using the correct past form when they wrote sentences. The improvements

of the students’ achievements and learning process at the end of cycle 1

can be seen in table 3.

lxxviii
 Table 3. The Improvement of Students’ Achievement and Learning
Process at the End of Cycle 1
Data sources Before the action
Observations 1. Teaching Learning Process 1. Teaching Learning Process
Interviews · The students seemed
uninterested when they
Questionnaires were asked to write.
· Some students paid less
attention to the teacher’s
explanation.
· They spent so much time
in starting their task
when they were asked to
write.
· Some students made
noise in teaching
learning process.
2. Writing Skill
2. Writing Skill
· The students got
difficulties in generating
ideas into the words.
· The students only made
few supporting details
when they made
paragraphs.
· The students got
difficulties in organizing
the story.
· The students got stuck in
a point when writing.
· The students were
lxxix
After the action of cycle 1
· The students were more
enthusiastic in joining
writing class but still
afraid when they were
asked to write
individually.
· When the videos were
played, the students paid
attention to them.
· Most students could start
their task better and
involved in their group
actively.
· Some students still
talked each other and
made noise when they
were asked to work in
group and moved here
and there in the session
of joint construction.
· The students could write
a story in more
generated ideas.
· The students could make
longer paragraph with
sufficient supporting
details.
· The students could
organize their story
better.
· The students could finish
their story until the end.
· The students could start
their writing with some
opening sentences.
· The students were still
careless about grammar.
 confused in starting their
writing.
· The students got · The students were still
difficulties in lack of vocabulary, also
constructing the past in the past terms of
sentences. irregular verbs.
· The students were lack
of vocabulary, especially
the past terms of
irregular verbs.
Test The mean score of the pre-test: The mean score of the post-

68.22 test1: 75.58

The problems would be solved:

· The students’ difficulties in generating ideas.

· The students’ difficulties in organizing texts.
· The student’s difficulties in constructing past sentences.
· The low vocabulary mastery
The weaknesses which still happened:

· The students’ difficulties in constructing past sentences.

· The difficulties in using appropriate words (the low vocabulary mastery).

b. Cycle 2

1.) Revised Plan

To solve the weaknesses emerged in cycle 1, the researcher made a

revised plan to teach writing in cycle 2 based on the observation and

reflection from teaching learning process in cycle 1. The researcher gave

some materials of vocabulary in this cycle because in the previous cycle

the students were still lack of vocabulary. The researcher also gave more

exercises about writing sentences with the correct grammar. In this cycle,

the researcher planned to conduct three meetings which still focused on

writing by using video. The narrative video chosen in this cycle was fable.

The title of the video was ‘Ant and the Dove’ with the duration was about

lxxx
 4 minutes. She also prepared students’ worksheet. The materials used in

this cycle were almost the same with the previous cycle. The difference of

both was only in vocabulary. In the materials of cycle 2, the researcher

added some vocabulary exercises because in the result of cycle 1 the

students were still lack of vocabularies. A lesson plan was made by the

researcher for three meetings at once.

2.) Action

In the second cycle, the researcher used the same technique in

teaching writing using video, but with different theme. This cycle was

conducted in three meetings.

a.) The Fifth Meeting

The fifth meeting was done on Friday, March 12th 2010. The

researcher came to class 8 F with the English teacher. As usual, the

researcher opened her teaching learning process by greeting the

students and checking students’ attendance list. At the first time, the

researcher did some flashback about the narrative materials which have

been discussed in the previous meeting. The researcher made a review

about narrative text by guiding the students to answer her questions.

After that, the researcher focused on one of narrative types, which is

fable. The students were guided to mention some examples of fable.

Then, the researcher introduced a video cartoon fable to the students.

The title of the video was “Ant and the Dove”. Its duration was about

4 minutes. The researcher played that video with her laptop. The

lxxxi
 students paid attention to the film when the video was played. The

researcher played the video twice. After the video ended, the students

made some noise and discussed about the video each other. Then the

researcher guided the students to mention the characters of the story,

and some vocabularies related with the video. After that, the researcher

asked them to make a group of 4 or 5 as usual and gave each group

pieces of students’ worksheet. The students were asked to do the

exercises within their group. The exercises in this meeting were about

the vocabulary. They were asked to find out the meaning of certain

vocabulary and also the past form of that vocabulary. After that, each

group should makes some sentences use the vocabulary mentioned

before. When the bell was ringing, the researcher asked them to submit

their worksheet.

b.) The Sixth Meeting

On Wednesday March 17th 2010, the researcher conducted the

sixth meeting. First of all, the researcher greeted the students and

checked the students’ attendance list as the opening activities. As soon

as possible she reviewed the last meeting about the story in the video.

The researcher invited the students to watch the video again. The video

was still the same with the video played in the fifth meetings. The

researcher prepared everything to play that video by being helped by

some students. The students were interested in that video and paid

attention to it. Having finished, the researcher reviewed the generic

lxxxii
 structure of the story and some of students participated actively. Then,

the researcher asked the students to be in their own group and gave

them their worksheet. In this meeting, each group were asked to make

a story of fable based on the video they watched. The researcher asked

the students to submit worksheet when the time was over.

c.) The Seventh Meeting

The researcher conducted the seventh meeting on Thursday,

March 18th 2010. As soon as she entered the class, the researcher

opened the class and reviewed the previous lesson. In this meeting, the

researcher still played the same video. The students still paid attention

to the video which was played. In this last meeting, the researcher

asked the students to write a story of fable based on the video they just

have watched individually, not in group anymore. The students seemed

confident when they were asked to write individually. They did the

exercise without being asked by the researcher many times. They

asked each other, open the Alfa link, and even asked to the researcher

and their English teacher. The researcher guided them in constructing a

story. After the time was over, the students submit their work and the

researcher and announced that in the next meeting there would be post

test. Finally, she said good bye to them.

3.) Observation

a.) The Fifth Meeting

lxxxiii
 The students seemed that they were more interested in the

video of fable. They paid close attention to the video and sometimes

discussed with their friends beside them. The situation was conducive

because there was no noisy outside the class so that the students could

hear clearly. To solve the weaknesses of cycle 1, the researcher gave

some guidance about vocabulary mastery. She gave some vocabulary

to the students related to the story. In fact, the students were

enthusiastic in joining and responding the lesson during teaching

learning process. They were also enthusiastic to do the exercises in

group because in this meeting the researcher gave more variation in

their exercises, not merely in writing a story but also the vocabulary.

b.) The Sixth Meeting

In the sixth meeting, the students still paid attention to the

video. They were asked to do exercise in making a fable based on the

video they watch. They looked enthusiastic when discussing with their

friends within their group. But, sometimes they told each other about

something else. So, the researcher went around the class to guide and

monitor them whether they were active in their own group or not. Most

of them were active when they were asked to do the exercises. But

some students looked lazy and passive working in group.

c.) The Seventh Meeting

When the researcher asked them some questions about the

story, most of them answered that they had understood the content of

lxxxiv
 the video. In this last meeting, the students seemed confident when the

researcher asked them to write individually. After the researcher

played the video in the beginning of the class, they did write a fable

about “Ant and the Dove” based on the video they watch. The

condition in the class was very noisy by the voice of students’

discussion. In this meeting many students asked questions.

4.) Reflection and Evaluation

In the cycle 2, the researcher found some improvements. The

students were motivated and interested in teaching learning process. The

students were more enthusiastic in joining the class with the videos of

fables. The videos stimulated the students to make narrative easier because

they can imagine about the way of the story in video, then write it down in

a paper. They also had more confidence in writing individually after they

watched the videos. Without being asked many times by the researcher,

they did their task.

There were also some improvements in students’ ability of writing.

The students were more able to use past sentences correctly. It was shown

by the students’ exercises in their worksheet which had only fewer

mistakes.

Moreover, the test scores in cycle 2 showed the improvement

result. The mean score of the pre-test was 68.22, while the mean score of

the post-test in cycle 1 was 75.58 and the mean score of the post-test in

lxxxv
 cycle 2 was 78.31. The improvements of the students’ achievements and

learning process at the end of cycle 2 can be seen in table 4.

Table 4. The Improvement of the Students’ Achievement and Learning

Process at the End of Cycle 2

Data sources After the action of cycle 1 After the action of cycle 2

Observations Teaching Learning Process 1. Teaching Learning Process

Interviews · The students were more · The students were more

enthusiastic in joining motivated and confident
Questionnaires writing class but still to write individually after
afraid when they were watching the videos.
asked to write
individually.
· When the videos were
played, the students paid
attention to them. · Some students discussed
· Most students could start actively about the video in
their task better and their own group.
involved in their group · Most students could start
actively. their task better without
wasting the time and
involved in their group
· Some students still actively.
talked each other and · Some students focused on
made noise when they their task and sometimes
were asked to work in asked questions to the
group and moved here researcher and their
and there in the session teacher in joint
of joint construction. construction session.

2. Writing Skill

· The students could write 2. Writing Skill

a story in more generated
ideas. · The students could write a
· The students could make story with more detailed
longer paragraph with information.
sufficient supporting · The students could make
details. longer paragraph with
· The students could sufficient supporting
organize their story details.
better. · The students could
organize their story better
from the beginning,

lxxxvi
 · The students could finish
their story until the end.
· The students could start
their writing with some
opening sentences.
· The students were still
careless about grammar.
· The students were still
lack of vocabulary, also
in the past terms of
irregular verbs.
Test The mean score of the post-
middle, and ending.
· The students could finish
their story until the end on
time.
· The students could make
some opening sentences
in various ways better
· . The students could make
past sentences better and
were more careful in
constructing past
sentences.
· The students could change
the verb1 into verb2 in
correct forms and were
able to use appropriate
vocabulary better.
The mean score of the post-

test1: 75.58 test2: 78.31

The problems would be solved:

· The students’ difficulties in constructing past sentences.

· The difficulties in using appropriate words (the low vocabulary mastery).
The weakness which still happened:

· There were still few students who made some errors in using appropriate
words.

From the observation done in this action, the findings can be concluded as
follows:
1. The positive improvement of students’ attitude towards writing during the

teaching learning process, indicated by the students were more motivated

and confident to write individually after watching the videos; some students

discussed actively about the video in their own group; most students could

start their task better without wasting the time and involved in their group

actively; some students focused on their task and sometimes asked questions

lxxxvii
 to the researcher and their teacher in joint construction session. Meanwhile,

few students still made errors in using appropriate words.

2. The improvement in students’ writing skill, such as; the students could write

a story with more detailed information; the students could make longer

paragraph with sufficient supporting details; the students could organize

their story better from the beginning, middle, and ending; the students could

finish their story until the end on time; the students could make some

opening sentences in various ways better; the students could make past

sentences better and were more careful in constructing past sentences; the

students could change the verb1 into verb2 in correct forms and were able to

use appropriate vocabulary better. In short, the students could write a

narrative text well. Then, the computation of the level of significance of the

score (t-test) also showed that there was a significant improvement in

students’ writing skill. It was proved by the result of the t-test computation

which was higher than the t-table

C. Discussion

Overall, the result of the research showed that there were some

improvements. The findings of the results show the positive improvements in

students’ writing skill and students’ attitude towards writing in class.

By doing more practices in writing using videos, the students’ writing skill

has improved. They could write a story with more detailed information based on

lxxxviii
the video; they produced longer paragraph with sufficient supporting details. The

students could get the ideas and inspirations to write a narrative text after they had

watched a video. The videos give them a stimulus so that they could have

something to write in their paper.

They could also make a story in a good organization and paragraphing

according to the generic structure of a narrative text. The students could produce

writing in well-organized texts consist of orientation, complication, and

resolution. They start their writing with opening sentences in various ways in the

beginning of the story, such as; “One day in the morning, Pat went to the post

office.”; “A long time ago in the jungle, lived a monkey and crocodile.”, etc.

They could use the word transition (time conjunction) to make their writing

systematic from beginning until the end of the story. The short videos could guide

the students to write the story in good order because they present the

systematically story line from the beginning, middle, and ending. The short videos

contain simple story so that they can be easily understood by the junior high

school students. By watching the short videos which contain simple stories, the

students can easily write a story until the end.

Besides, the students could apply the appropriate tense in their writing. In

this action researcher gave enough opportunity to write, the teaching learning

focused more on writing skill. Through this action, the students could have more

practices in writing narrative texts using videos. They could create a better writing

than before including in constructing the past sentences by using simple past

tense. Some videos present the narrator in past tense, so that it can help the

lxxxix
students to use the appropriate tenses in their writing by actively viewing and

listening to the videos. By the action, the students could also be able to use

appropriate vocabulary. The students wrote correct spelling of the meant word in

their writing. The students could also change the verb1 into verb2 in correct

forms. It could be seen in the students’ worksheets in which the mistakes were

fewer than before.

The class situation in learning activities before the action research was

described as some students were busy with themselves, especially the students at

the back. They did some other activities when starting their writing such as talking

with other students, day dreaming, and drawing.

The improvement of the class situation was the students were more

motivated and confident when they were asked to write individually by watching

the videos first. They did their writing without being asked many times and did

not complain anymore. By watching the videos, the students could spend shorter

time when they were asked to write and most of the students could finish their

writing on time. It is because the videos could help them by presenting certain

topic which can be written down. Besides, the positive improvement can be seen

in the activeness of the students during the teaching learning process. Some

students discussed actively about the video in their own group after they watched

the video. The students also asked questions to the researcher and their teacher in

joint construction session. In other words, the students’ attitude towards writing

during teaching learning in the class was improved.

xc
 The results of the test also support the positive improvements; the mean

score of the post-test done in the end of cycle 1 was 75.58. It increased 7.36 points

from the mean score of pre-test which was conducted before the action. It could

be said that there was an improvement in students’ writing skill. The researcher

also conducted the post-test 2 at the end of the cycle 2. The result of the post-test

2 showed the improvement in students’ writing skill. The mean score of the post-

test 2 was 78.31. It was better than the result of the post-test 1, 75.58.

Practically, the use of short videos is an appropriate teaching technique

which can be implemented in classroom. It is also implied that during the

implementation of using short videos in the teaching learning process, there are

some benefits for the students, which are:

1. Short videos can improve students’ writing skill. Students learn about

narrative text easily and enjoyably. By using the narrative short videos, they

can easily know about social function and generic structure of narrative text.

Videos give them stimulus about certain topics so that they can easily

construct and generate the ideas into a narrative story based on the video

given. They can also arrange the better paragraphs based on the generic

structure of narrative text.

2. Short videos can improve the students’ motivation. The videos provide

various materials that attract the students’ interest to join the lesson from the

beginning until the end of the lesson. Therefore, during teaching learning

process, they follow all of activities conducted in the class well.

xci
3. Short videos can improve the students’ self confidence in English class.

Especially in writing, the students are more confident when they are asked to

make a story after watching the videos because they can get some stimulus

about certain topics from the video they watched.

4. Videos provide various materials which can attract the students’ interest.

There are so many videos with an attractive pictures and sounds. By playing

the attractive videos, the students will get interest and motivation in

involving actively to the teaching learning process.

Based on the discussion of the findings, the researcher constructs some

theories related to the findings. The theories are presented as follows:

1. Video is able to improve student’ writing skill in the aspect of generating

ideas and organizing the story.

According to Katchen (1995) in http://mx.nthu.edu.tw/~katchen/profes

sional/cartoons.htm, short video, especially cartoon films usually tell a simple

story that is easy to follow. Cartoon story usually has a simple plot that can be

exploited for classroom use. By following the videos with this simple story

line from the beginning into the end, the students can get easily understand

about the organization of the text. On the other words, the use of short videos

in classroom can stimulate the students about simple story that can be

generated by them onto a paper in order to make a well-structured writing.

2. Video is able to improve students’ motivation and interest towards English

lesson.

xcii
 As what has been said by Stemplesky (1990:3), children and adults

feel their interest quicken when language is experienced in a lively way

through television and video. This combination of moving pictures and sound

can present language more comprehensively and realistically than any other

teaching medium. Using video in a class can become the best thing to

experience the sequence in real life.

CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION, IMPLICATION, AND SUGGESTION

A. Conclusion

xciii
 Based on the discussion in the previous chapter, the findings of the results

show the positive improvements in students’ writing skill and class situation. The

findings are as follows:

3. The positive improvement of students’ attitude towards writing during the

teaching learning process, indicated by the students were more motivated

and confident to write individually after watching the videos; some students

discussed actively about the video in their own group; most students could

start their task better without wasting the time and involved in their group

actively; some students focused on their task and sometimes asked questions

to the researcher and their teacher in joint construction session. Meanwhile,

few students still made errors in using appropriate words.

4. The improvement in students’ writing skill, such as; the students could write

a story with more detailed information; the students could make longer

paragraph with sufficient supporting details; the students could organize

their story better from the beginning, middle, and ending; the students could

finish their story until the end on time; the students could make some

opening sentences in various ways better; the students could make past

sentences better and were more careful in constructing past sentences; the

students could change the verb1 into verb2 in correct forms and were able to

use appropriate vocabulary better. In short, the students could write a

narrative text well. Then, the computation of the level of significance of the

score (t-test) also showed that there was a significant improvement in

xciv
 students’ writing skill. It was proved by the result of the t-test computation

which was higher than the t-table.

Based on the research findings above, the researcher concludes that

teaching writing by using short videos can improve students’ writing skill. They

got easier in generating and organizing the ideas when they write. The videos that

they watched could give the students certain topics. They could write scene by

scene on the videos so that they would produce systematic writing from beginning

until the end. From the computation of level of significance in the students’ test

score, it can be concluded that the improvement of the students writing skill by

using short videos is significant. The result of the t-test shows that the value of the

t-test between the pre-test and the post-test 2 was 8.77. Meanwhile, the t table (tt)

for 34 students is 2.04. Since (to)2 is higher than tt, it means that there is a

significant difference between the score in the pre-test and post-test 2.

The second point to be concluded is there are some strengths of using

short videos in teaching writing which can improve the students’ attitude towards

writing in the writing class situation during the teaching learning process. By

using the short videos in the writing class, the students were more motivated in

joining the writing class. The videos present attractive moving pictures and

sounds so that they got feeling of relax before they write their story. They paid

much attention when the videos were played. They were also more confident

when they were asked to write individually. However, there is still a weakness of

using short videos in writing class. Few students still got difficulties in finding

appropriate words with the correct spelling.

xcv
 Generally, using short videos in writing class can improve students’

writing skill and students’ attitude towards writing. Somehow, this teaching

writing technique is not the only thing that can improve the students’ writing skill.

It should be supported by the other things, such as the teacher’s role in the class,

the student’s activeness, etc. in order to achieve the maximum result of the

student’s writing skill.

B. Implication

Based on the result’s observation which is aimed to improve the students’

writing skill by using short videos, the researcher concludes that teaching writing

by using short videos can improves the students’ writing skill. Practically, the use

of short video is an appropriate teaching technique which enables the students to

share their feeling and opinion about a certain topic. Especially in writing, videos

help the students in generating ideas and organizing paragraphs more easily. They

can get something to say in their paper by watching the video. The videos give

them stimulus about certain topics to brainstorm the students so that they can

write with detailed information as what is presented in the video. By using this

media, the students can easily imagine about a story which will be written down

in a paper. The students can also learn more by the guidance of their teacher.

Using short videos in teaching writing can also improves the students’

interest toward the lesson. Videos provide interesting moving pictures and sound

which is presented in harmony. The choosing of video is very important, suited by

xcvi
the subject of the viewer. With the suitable videos, the students will be interested

in joining the lesson. In the classroom, the students were eager to join activities

and actively involved in teaching learning process. So, by using short videos in

teaching writing, the students’ writing skill can be improved.

C. Suggestion

The writer would like to give some suggestions related to this research for

teachers, students, institution of education, and other researchers. The suggestions

can be put forward as follows:

1. To the Teachers

The English teacher, especially the teachers who teach in Junior High School,

should create an enjoyable situation in teaching learning process so that the

students can involve actively in class. They can use various techniques in

teaching writing in order to maintain the students’ interest toward the lesson.

Teaching writing using video can be a good choice as a technique which can

be implemented in the writing class. By doing this, the students are motivated

in joining the class and are not easy to feel bored in teaching learning process.

2. To the Students

The students should have a will and high motivation from themselves first if

they want to learn English. The motivation and will which come from them

will lead them to be successful in studying English. Beside that, the students

xcvii
 should also involve actively in English class and practice the English

frequently. If it is done, studying English will be easy and enjoyable.

3. To the Institution of Education

The Education Institution should provide facilities and media which can

support the teaching learning process. By using appropriate facilities and

media in class, teaching learning process can run more effectively. It can also

gain the students’ interest and motivation in studying a subject at school.

4. To the Other Researcher

This research studies the implementation of the use of videos in improving

students’ writing skill. It is expected for the other researcher that the result of

this study can be used as additional reference for further research conducted in

the future in order to create a better teaching learning process. They should

also do the research further to find out the weakness which still happened.

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