CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of The Research

Writing is one of four skills that should be mastered by students, besides speaking, listening,

and reading skills in order to communicate in English well. For junior high school, students must

develop the competence to communicate in written form, besides speaking form. Writing is the

way of communication using written language. The students are supposed to be able interact in

English through writing.

In Junior High School KTSP curriculum (2006:124), students must master some functional

texts such as narrative, recount, and descriptive text. In syllabus, descriptive text is one of written

product which is taught from the first until the third grade of Junior high school. According to

Oshima and Hogue (2007:61), descriptive writing draws the sense, so it tells about how

something looks, feels, smell, tastes, and sounds.

In SMPN 5 Jambi city, because of the curriculum, they must learn about writing and some

kind of texts which is written in syllabus. In teaching and learning process, based on observation

which was done by the researcher during pre-service teacher, some teachers use textbooks to

teach descriptive text. The other would add some pictures as the media to prevent monotonous

learning activity. Eventhough it affects students, they still get some problems in writing. They

are still confused to express their though. They also feel enthusiastic only at the beginning of

lesson. In the end, they feel bored and they only remember a few the materials explained by

teachers.

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 Students still had many difficulties to convey their purposes, ideas, feelings and thoughts in

their written form. As a result the students did not produce many word sentences, paragraphs and

texts in English written forms and express their purpose, ideas, and feelings and thoughts. They

were still confused when they started to written and organized their ideas.

In teaching English, there are various methods which have been implanted by the teachers to

solve the problems which faced by students. One of them is teaching with media. Teaching with

media is practically interesting and enjoyable in teaching language. Media is able to create

students’ attention and focus the lesson. Teachers have already used media like pictures and

textbook. However, it was not really effective to improve students’ ability in writing. Teachers

need an alternative media to solve this problem. PowerPoint can be an alternative media in

teaching writing.

As technology enters the classroom, there are always new innovations which can help

teachers to get their points better and help students more efficiently. One of tool that has been

utilized in the classroom is Microsoft office PowerPoint program. It is a program that allows

teachers to present their lessons in a more dynamic way rather than simple lecturing and writing

on the whiteboard. According to Hammer (2007:187), PowerPoint can present all of visual

materials such as pictures, videos, words, and graphics in interesting way. This software has been

an alternative way in teaching and learning process in the classroom. PowerPoint can integrate

multisensory in one place. It means that teachers can give better stimulation and lesson that can

be understood by students which are have different style in study easily.

PowerPoint is technically a multimedia technology which combines visual and auditory. It

can improve learning, invoke audience interest, and aid explanations of complex illustrations.

PowerPoint has been examined in a number of setting differing in content, duration, and

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assessment tool. Results have been mixed regarding students’ performance but consistent with

respect to PowerPoint having positive impact on student attitude and self-efficacy. Students in

the larger multimedia class averaged higher examination cores than those in the traditional

classes. Students think that PowerPoint presentation is entertaining. It also enhances clarity and

aids recall of subject matter.

Based on the discussion above, the researcher is interested to conduct an experimental

research entitled “The Effect of Using PowerPoint in Teaching Descriptive Text on Students’

Achievement at Eight Grade of SMPN 5 Jambi City” to know whether PowerPoint is effective in

teaching writing descriptive text or not.

1.2 The Question of Research

Based on the background of research, the research question is formulated as follows:

“Is there any significant effect in students’ writing achievement in descriptive text by using

PowerPoint at the eighth grades of SMPN 5 Jambi City?”

1.3 Objective Study

The Objective of research is to find out whether PowerPoint has significant effect on students’

achievement in descriptive text of the eighth grades of SMPN 5 Jambi City.

1.4 The Limitation of Study

This study focuses on students’ achievement in learning descriptive text by using PowerPoint.

The sample is class VIII A and B of SMPN 5 Jambi City. The researcher will do experiment

there to get the result.

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1.5 Significance of Study

By conducting this research, the researcher hopes that the result of the study will give some

beneficial contribution in English teaching, especially for teachers and students in Junior High

School:

1. The researcher hopes that this study can provide an alternative media in teaching

writing descriptive text. It can be a new strategy for teachers to teach students about

descriptive text.

2. The researcher hopes that this research can be useful for students to solve their

problems in writing descriptive text such as grammar, vocabulary, mechanics, and so

on, when teachers apply this media in the classroom. It can also make students more

motivated and enthusiastic learn writing. It will give a good effect to their achievement

too.

1.6 Hypothesis

In this study, there are two hypotheses to be tested. They are null hypothesis (H0) and

alternative hypothesis (H1).

H0 = There is no significant effect in students’ writing achievement in teaching descriptive text

taught by PowerPoint at eighth grades of SMPN 5 Jambi city

H1 = There is a significant effect in students’ writing achievement in teaching descriptive text

taught by PowerPoint at eighth grades of SMPN 5 Jambi city

The Definition of Terms

1. Media: A medium, the singular form of media is any person, material or event that

establishes condition, which enables learners to acquire knowledge, skills, and attitudes.

(Gerlach and Elly in Asmiyatun.2014:9)

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2. Multimedia: Multimedia is about combining sights, sounds, and interactive elements to

create an experience unlike that which comes from simply reading text or idly viewing

video. (Robinnete in Marcovitz,2012:2)

3. PowerPoint: presentation graphic package (Moria, 2006:2)

4. Descriptive Text: Descriptive writing appeals to the senses, so it tells how something

looks, feels, smells, tastes, and/ or sounds (Oshima and Hogue.2007:61)

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 CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Concept of Media

Media are tools of study that has instructional content for students in learning process. Media

is not only as resource but also as their communication. It will help people to transfer

information. In classroom activity, it will help teachers transfer knowledge to their students and

it also will establish communication effectively. According to Halmar (2008) as quoted by

Asmiyatun (2014:9), “Media is a transformative means of the learning material toward the goal

of study”. This kind of tool will facilitate teachers to fulfill the objectives in curriculum.

Teachers will finish their duty easily by helping media.

Then, according to Gerlach and Elly (1980) as quoted by Asmiyatun (2014:9),” a medium,

the singular form of media is any person, material or event that establishes condition, which

enables learners to acquire knowledge, skills, and attitudes.”. Media is a tool that can make the

activities run well and improve the students’ ability. In other words, media is a tool or a material

which can help people to transfer knowledge, to increase the ability, and to facilitate teachers to

fulfill the objectives in teaching and learning process.

2.2 Concept of Multimedia

Multimedia is a term which is popular in at present. It is used almost in all of aspects of

human’s life. The application of multimedia has already been applied in all our activities, such as

business, public place, health, even in education as well.

At first, before technology is developed like nowadays, multimedia was seen as a media

with the combination of some media or hardware used together to deliver messages from the

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sender to the receiver. People would think multimedia as a group of hardware which is combined

between hardware for audio and visual. Then, these perceptions changes slowly because of

technological development. The concept of multimedia is slowly shifted aspect of system and

procedural communication in a certain ware. Multimedia is the combination of the following

elements like text, colour, graphic, animation, audio and video.

Robinnete in Marcovitz suggests “Multimedia is about combining sights, sounds, and

interactive elements to create an experience unlike that which comes from simply reading text or

idly viewing video” (Papert in Marcovitz,2012:2). Multimedia combines some media in one tool.

It can be simple but has some multifunction. In teaching process, multimedia has the power to

change the way of how teachers and learners access and express their understanding because

multimedia puts multisensory learning

In the context of learning, multimedia is seen as the use of computer which combine text,

graphic, audio, animation and video with combination link and tool that can help users to do

navigation, interaction, creation and communication. In computer system, those elements are

combined in software. The software can be just single software that contain all of those elements

or can be split to several-softwares. One of softwares that can combine all of those things is

PowerPoint.

2.3 PowerPoint

2.3.1 Concept of PowerPoint

PowerPoint was invented by Robert Gaskins in 1987. PowerPoint 1.0 version was designed

for Mac and it was a black and white presentation. Then, PowerPoint 2.0 was designed for Mac

and Microsoft. It started has colored slides. PowerPoint 3.0 has some new features. Users can

add videos, color slideshows with slide transitions, and audios. Those are the basic of

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presentation graphic presentation. Basically, PowerPoint is a package of some features which

helps in making a presentation. It is an application in computer that is used to explain and present

certain topic. PowerPoint is one of multimedia-based software which is developed by Microsoft.

PowerPoint is presentation graphic package (Moria,2006:2). All of aspect in presentation is

in one software, PowerPoint. Heni stated in Ravel Putri Haji (2013:2), Microsoft PowerPoint is a

Microsoft Office program that is used to make and design a presentation to attract the public.

Users can make a topic become more attractive if they make their presentation in PowerPoint.

PowerPoint focuses on how users can design content of topic to be more attractive.

PowerPoint is designed as a presentation tool. PowerPoint uses slide to present the point of

topic. At first, this package uses just for business matters. However, several years later,

PowerPoint can be used in the other fields, including education as well.

Picture 1. PowerPoint

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2.3.2 Characteristics of PowerPoint

PowerPoint is a useful software to produce multimedia presentation materials. It

combines text with picture, video, animation, link to web, and so on. It will increase students’

interest in teaching learning process. The presentation from PowerPoint is made up of a series of

slides. In addition, it can also provide visual outline of the content and help students’ focus their

attention on what is being said.

2.3.3 Advantages of PowerPoint

The main advantage of PowerPoint in learning process is to make material more interesting

for learners and to motivate them in learning process. Besides that advantage, there are some

advantages of using PowerPoint.

The first one, if teachers can use PowerPoint appropriately, it can improve experience in

teaching and learning for students and themselves. In PowerPoint, there are some features that

support teaching and learning process. If teachers know how to operate and use all of features

appropriately, they can create slides of PowerPoint that can give a new experience that they do

not find in common teaching method.

The second one, PowerPoint can support teachers by facilitating the structure of a

presentation in a professional manner. In PowerPoint, it has already had some templates that can

be chosen freely. That is designed to default to good presentation, criteria such as the number of

lines of information per slide and appropriate font sizes and types. It will help teachers to make

important point that should be delivered for their students. So, they will not waste their time to

give the material which is not related to the lesson.

The third one is PowerPoint can appeal to a number of different learning styles and give

more stimulation. Because of media as a tool that can stimulate students in learning process,

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PowerPoint gives some features that can accommodate all kinds of learning styles. It can help

students with different style of learning. So, students will catch the point easily because the

presentation is designed based on their learning character.

The fourth one because PowerPoint is an electronic file, it allows distribution and

modification for/by students who are unable attend the class and have impaired visual or auditory

difficulties. Teachers can give copy of file the material for their student. Students will get same

material with those who attend class. Teachers who have some students that have visual or

auditory difficulties, teachers can design slides of PowerPoint appropriately with students’

condition without to distract other student that has no difficulties.

The fifth one, PowerPoint is easy to edit and modify with minimal associated reprinting costs.

If teachers print the material for their students and then there are some mistakes in the content,

teachers must print those papers again. It will spend much money. If they use PowerPoint, they

just edit it directly in their computer during presentation. It will just take a few minutes.

The last one, PowerPoint has features to link and present other files. It can give opportunity

for teachers to present other resources or media that can support the lesson. They can link some

videos or audios to make lesson clear. They can also add website that has the same material in

the class. So, teachers can give their students all of supporting data just in one program.

2.3.4 Disadvantages of PowerPoint

Besides PowerPoint gives some advantages in teaching learning process, it also gives

some disadvantages. (1) is Some pictures and animation can distract the students from the actual

information. If a teacher is excessive to use pictures and animation, students focus only on those

thing. (2) too much text in slide can detract from its legibility. (3) file corruption caused by

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magnetic or physical damage so that the presentation will not run and incompatible media. It can

give trouble for teachers if they do not have alternative way.

2.4 Writing

2.4.1 Concept of Writing

Writing is one of the ways to express ideas. For those who can express their feeling, thought,

or idea through speaking. In writing, we can communicate each other. In learning process,

writing is one of the skills which needs a process.

According to Ghaith (2002) states in Utami(2014:11) writing is a complex process to make

writers explore the ideas and thought, and make them visible and concrete. Writers must get

through the process to produce a good writing that can be understood by readers. Oshima and

Hogue also stated (2007:15) that writing is never-ending process. Writers will do an ongoing act.

They write and revise for many times until their writing can express ideas exactly what they want.

Moreover, according to Hyland (2009:7) the concept of writing is as one of the products of

students in the second language learning. It focuses on elements and discourse structure. Then,

according to Murcia (2003) stated in Anggraini (2010:11) writing is as production of text that

can be read and comprehended by readers.

Based on theory above, it can be concluded that writing is a process in drafting to make a

written product something The writer must consider about linguistics competence, idea, and how

to organizes it.

2.4.2 Types of Writing Performance

Brown (2003:220) proposes that writing has four categories based on the written

performance and purposes. The types of writing skills area, namely:

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 The first category is imitative. In this category, the writer must achieve the fundamental

of writing. It includes writing letters, words, punctuations, and brief sentences. It will make

students simply “write down” English letters, words, possibly sentences. The writer has to know

how to spell the words correctly, especially in English spelling system. In this stage, the learners

are trying to use the mechanics of writing.

The next type of performance is intensive (controlled). This type of written performance,

it focuses on producing appropriate vocabulary within a context, collocations and idioms, and

correcting grammatical features. It is more intensive in written grammar exercises. The

assessment will strictly be controlled by the test design and it is also focuses on form.

The third type is responsive. This type of writing requires learners to perform a limited

discourse level, connect sentences into a paragraph and connecting the sequences of paragraph.

Genre of writing includes narrative, descriptive, short report, summary and so on. The writers are

free to choose among the alternative forms of expression of ideas. This step focuses mostly on

context and meaning. The learners have mastered fundamentals of sentence-level grammar.

The last type is extensive. The product of writing can be an essay or project report or

even a thesis. Writers focus on achieving a purpose, organizing and developing ideas logically,

using details to support the ideas. It requires a long process to get a final product.

2.4.3 The Process of Writing

According to Oshima (2007:16) writing requires four steps to make a final draft. The first

step is prewriting. Prewriting is process to get some ideas. In this step, students choose a topic

and collect data to explain it. They can use listing as technique to begin their writing. The listing

is to make outline what students want to write. It can be useful to explore ideas more detail.

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 The next step is to organize the ideas in good arrangement. It starts from writing the topic

and main ideas. Students will make the sequence of ideas. They will organize it from the general

to the specific details which is related to their topic.

After organizing and making a list of ideas, students begin to write. Writing is a process

to write down the ideas. It can be a rough draft or first draft in writing. It is better if students

write the draft as quickly as possible without thinking about grammar, spelling or punctuation. In

this step, students write the rough draft based on the outline that have already made.

The last step is revising and editing. It has two steps. The first one, revising the content

and organizing the rough draft. Process of revising is re-check the content. The writer may add

some information or delete them that have no correlation with the topic. The second is editing

grammar, punctuation, and mechanics. The writer will check and correct some errors such as

misspell, wrong grammar, and some punctuations.

Meanwhile, according to Harmer(2004:4), the steps of writing are planning, drafting, editing

(reflecting and revising) and final version. Before a writer start to write, he or she will think and

decide what to write. There are some points to consider before writing. The first one, a writer

must consider the purpose of writing. If a writer doesn’t know why he or she makes a writing,

the writing does not have any value to read. Then, a writer must consider about the audience. A

writer must know who will be his or her readers because the writing will influence readers. So,

the language he uses can be formal or informal. The last one, a writer must consider about the

content structure of the writing.

The next step is to do drafting. A draft refers to the very first draft. It is a raw version that has

not yet edited. In the draft, the writer writes everything in his or her minds. Then, he or she will

edit their first draft.

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 During editing process, a writer will do reflecting and revising. After finishing the draft, a

writer will reread to check whether there are some ambiguous or confusing sentences. The writer

also checks the general meaning and grammatical structure. After that, he or she will revise the

draft.

After do revising, there will be a final draft or the fixed one. This may look different or even

totally different from the first draft because there are a lot of changes from the previous one. The

final draft is ready to be published.

Although there is a different view about the process of writing, the first step is a writer must

organize his or her ideas before to make a first draft. He or she decides what topic should be

written. The next one, drafting. In this process, he or she will write everything that still has

correlation with the topic in his or her writing. The next step is to revise. The writer will revise

content, structure of texts and sentences. Then, the write will make the final draft. Those steps

are never ending process.

2.4.4 Scoring System in writing

Teachers need scoring system to measure the assessment. Teachers need a guidance to score

their students’ work. There are three scoring guidance. The first one is the holistic scoring. This

scoring is usually used for administrative purpose. It is given a systematic set of descriptor.

Descriptor usually follow prescribed pattern. For example, the first corrector deals with

organization, the second with grammatical and so on.

According to Brown (2002:242) holistic scoring has some advantages. A fast evaluation is

the first advantage. Holistic scoring takes much less time to do. Each rater can score the work

quickly because it offers overall assessment for the paper as whole. So, teachers also can read

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students’ writing quickly. The second advantage is reliability. This type of scoring is relatively

high-inter reliability. It is also considered by some to be the most consistent and reliable method

of scoring writing.

However, there are some disadvantages using this scoring. Brown (2002:242) stated that first

disadvantage is there is no diagnostic information. The students do not know the reason for his or

her grade on the writing. It makes teachers recheck and make some comments on his or her

writing. Another disadvantage of holistic scoring is raters need to be extensively trained to use

the scale accurately. Raters should have some experiences in holistic scoring.

The next type of scoring is primary trait scoring. This scoring focuses on how well students

can write within narrowly defined range of discourse (Weigle in Brown,2000:242). It means that

writer and evaluator focuses on function or purposes of text.

The last type is analytic Scoring. It is the traditional approach to grading writing. A

composition of analytical scoring offers writers a little more washback than a single holistic or

primary trait score. Scoring in some elements will make the writer’s attention to focuses on areas

needed improvement. Many teachers choose to use analytic scoring because of another its

strengths, some of which are as follows:

 It presents a good analysis of a problem and strongly states a position. It helps teachers

keep the full of range of writing features in mind as they score.

 It allows students to know their strengths and weakness in their writing. Its diagnostic

nature provides students with a road map of improvement. So, they can improve their

ability in writing quickly.

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2.5 Kinds of Text

According to Linda G and Wignel in Asmiyatun (2010:22-23) there are several kinds of text.

They are:

1) Narrative

Narrative text is a text that has complication or problematic events and it tries to

find the resolution. It can be used for fictional stories, plays or even a plot summary.

Besides that, narrative can entertain, to amuse, to deal with vicarious experience or actual

in different ways and to deal with problematic events.

Narrative text has its own generic structures. It consists of orientation,

complication and resolution. Orientation is set of the scene where and when the story

happened and introduces the participants of the story and what is involved in the story.

Then, complication is telling the beginning of the problems which leads to the climax of

the story. The last, resolution is problem which is solved, either in a happy ending or in a

sad ending.

2) Descriptive text

Descriptive text is describing particular thing, person, or place. It is like a painting

with words. It focuses on one subject and uses specific characteristics or details to

describe the thing that will be focused. This kind of writing has its own generic structures.

The first one is identification. Identification is part of descriptive text which introduces a

person, a thing or a place that will be described. The next structure is description. In this

part, it gives some details of the person, things or place described.

3) Procedure

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 Procedure text is a text that describes how something is achieved through a

sequence of steps or actions. It will guide people to make or to do something. It can be a

set of instructions or directions. Procedure text is dominantly structured with imperative

sentences.

Procedure text has generic structures. The first is goal. In this part, a writer will

tell the purpose of the text and it is often as title of the text. The next part is material or

ingredient. The writer tells the materials that will be used in the process. The last part is

the sequence of steps. It is the part where the writer explains the steps what should be

through in making or doing something. The steps will be organized orderly in order to not

make reader is confused.

4) Recount

Recount is kind of text retells events or experiences in the past. Its purpose is

either to entertain or to inform the audience. It has own generic structures. The first is

orientation. In this section, writer introduces the participant in the story. Then, he or she

tells about when the events happened and where the events take place. The next part is

events. This part describes or tells series of event that happened in the past. The last is re-

orientation. Re-orientation can be add in the end of story or not because it is optional. It is

just comment of the writer to the story.

5) Report

Report text is describing the way things are, with reference to a range of natural,

man-made and social phenomena in our environment. It presents some information about

something with real situation or based on the facts. It is as a result of systematic

observation and analysis. All of information in this text can as reference for research.

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 Report text has its own generic structures. It consists of two parts of structure. It

starts from general classification. In this section, writer states classification of general

aspect of thing that can be an animal, a public place, plant and so on which will be

discussed in general. Then, the writer writes description. This part describes the thing

which will be discussed in detail that contain some real data or based on the facts.

2.6 Concept of Descriptive Text

A descriptive text is to write about specific details of particular things. According to Oshima

and Hogue (2007:61), descriptive text appeals to the senses, it tells how something looks, feels,

smells, tastes, and sounds. It describes all of items in a particular thing from A to Z. A good

description is like a “word picture” which the reader can imagine the object, place, or person in

his or her mind.

This kind of text usually follows a spatial order. A spatial order is the arrangement in order

by space. Describing something like room, start from left side of the doorway and then move

clockwise around to the right side. For describing a person, starting could be from an overall

impression.

In descriptive text, the more detail you include, the more clearly your readers will imagine

what you are describing in their mind. The details in the paragraph not only prove the truth thing

that you are describing but also make your writing is rich and interested. The details should

accommodate all of our sense like the looks, smells, sounds, feels and tastes.

Social function of descriptive text is to describe particular person, thing, or place. Description

of people tells about what a person look like. Description of place tells about what a place look

like. Description of thing tells about its colour, texture, shape, size, and so on.

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 The generic structures of a descriptive text are identification and description. (1)

Identification is part where writers introduce the subject of description. It will give the overall

impression of the thing you are describing. (2) Description, describe the details from the subject

or characteristics of subject.

The language features of a descriptive text are using spatial order words and phrases.

There are words and phrases to show spatial organization. They are often propositional phrases

of location and position such as in front of, next to, on the left, and so on. The descriptive text

uses simple present tense. Descriptive text also uses some particular nouns, often uses ‘be’ and

‘have’, a variety of types of adjectives, action verb, adverbials, similes, metaphors, and other

types of figurative language, particularly in literary description.

2.7 Kinds of Descriptive Text

Descriptive text is a text to describe something such as people, places, or things. So, it

takes three forms normally in description. They are:

1) Description of People

Describing people, we look from “How they like?”. We often ask how their

appearance. For people description, we start from the identification. We identify from

their visible characteristics such as colour of hair, skin, and eyes. We recognize about

their recognizable marks like scars and birthmark. Also, we look at their statistical

information such as height, weight, and age (Blanchard and Root,1994:58).

2) Description of Places

Since there is no set pattern for arranging sentences in descriptive paragraph, it is

not necessary to begin with one are and then proceed to another one. Neverthless, the

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 sentences should not be randomly arranged. The description must be organized. So, the

reader can easily imagine the scene that being described.

3) Description of Things

To describe something, the writer must have a good imagination about the thing

that will be described. In order to make readers understand with our description, we must

put some detail that within the object. Besides that, we must use proper nouns and

effective verb. Those can make our description more interesting

2.8 The Example of Descriptive Text

My First Apartment

My first apartment was very small. It was a studio apartment, so it had only one main

room and a bathroom. The main room was divided into three areas. At one end of it was a

kitchenette, where I cooked and ate my meals. My living/sleeping area was at the opposite

end. I had just enough space for a bed, a coffee table, a floor lamp, and a small television.

My study area was against the back wall. My apartment was so small that I could never

invite more than three friends at the same time!

(Adapted from Oshima and Hogue, 2007:68)

From example above, this paragraph consist of identification and description. The underlined

sentence shows example of identification. The bold printed of words show the description. It is

explains about why a writer tell to reader that his/her house was small. The writer described his

or her own room in detail. Social function from the text is describing place. For language

features, the text above uses some adverbials and adjectives.

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2.9 Teaching Writing by Using Multimedia PowerPoint

Writing is one of skill which is difficult to do. In Indonesia, English is still as foreign

language. Teachers must consider about motivating the students to write. Providing a contextual

aspect for them and making a comfortable environment. One of the way to create those condition

is teachers can use multimedia in teaching writing. Multimedia can help teachers to provide the

material in one tool. Using multimedia can avoid students from boredom. Besides, they can be

motivated because the materials are interesting. Teachers motivate them to write indirectly . One

of multimedia tool that can be used in the classroom is PowerPoint.

Lwory (1999) stated that in de wet’s article (2006:30), students has good improvement

when they were taught by using PowerPoint rather than conventional media with the ratio 51.8%

versus 43.5%. Some researchers think that this media has a unique characteristic that affect

students’ interest in teaching and learning process. According to de wet (2006:31), there are

some reasons that make PowerPoint as a potential tool for teaching and learning process. The

first is PowerPoint can accommodate multimodal nature. It can accommodate multiple

intelligences or as an advanced organizer to present the content for students. Students can be

more understand about the lesson by using visual learning, pictures, which is provided in

PowerPoint.

Then, PowerPoint has flexibility. PowerPoint can be made based on the situation. It can

adapt and change to varying the need of user. Teachers can change the content of PowerPoint

based the objectives, grade, and level of students. It is supported by using the design and

template. The next reason is enhancibility. Since PowerPoint has animation, clip arts, and

transitions, it can be enhanced to raise student interest. So, students will focus on important point

in learning process.

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 The fourth reason is independent. The ability to set up a show to run independently

increases its utility. The user can make their content in PowerPoint independently. Then, it is a

multimedia tool. The hyperlinks in PowerPoint, it can make teachers add media files- pictures,

music, videos, and internet sites- to create a multimedia presentation. The last is publishing.

PowerPoint can be used to publish information on CD-ROM or on Web sites.

Because of those reason, PowerPoint can be used in teaching writing. Teachers can make

students stay focus on the material and follow along more easily because their teachers make

outline what should be learnt in PowerPoint. Students do not need to read the whole book.

Students also can understand and remember the materials.

In PowerPoint, teachers can show the example of writing that can be seen by the whole of

class. Not only example but also some graphs, figures, scanned photos and even videos that

support in teaching writing. Those things will stimulate students in one click. Students also feel

enthusiastic in learning writing.

2.10 Previous Study

In the research, it is necessary to reviews of previous studies to avoid replication. Some

similar studies have been conducted to find out the effectiveness of using media in teaching

writing. There are some previous studies about the use of teaching media in teaching English.

The first previous study is written by Desi Sri Lestari entitled “Pengaruh Penggunaan Media

PowerPoint terhadap Hasil Belajar Siswa Kelas X SMA N 1 Depok Tahun Ajaran 2010/2011

pada Pokok Bahasan Jamur”.Even though it is not about English language teaching, it still

discuss about usage of PowerPoint in teaching process and it has relation with the research’s

researcher. In her research, she used an action research design. This research finds out the most

22
effective technique to use PowerPoint. The result of research is there is no significant effect

using PowerPoint. However, students give positive feedback.

Another research is written by Ravel Putri Aji entitled “Microsoft PowerPoint as a Teaching

Media to Improve the Students’ Competence in Mastering English Vocabulary at SMP Bahrul

Ulum, Surabaya”.In her research, she uses pre-experimental research with one group pretest-

posttest design. This study is conducted on one class and doesn’t use control class. Observation,

pretest-posttest and documentation are used to collect the data. In this research, there are three

activities of teaching English vocabulary by using Microsoft PowerPoint. Pretest is given before

and posttest is given after treatment. The result from this research is there is significant effect in

using PowerPoint.

In journal of Ramon Cladellas (2013), he conducted a research about effect PowerPoint

methodology on content learning. It focused on whether the use of PowerPoint has an effect on

students’ achievement compared with students’ who did not teach y using this technology in

educational psychology. The result from this research is there is significant effect from using

PowerPoint. The score of group who learn by using this technology is 19% higher than who did

not. It shows that technology has good influence in learning process.

The last research is written Anggraini entitled “The Effect of Teaching Writing through

PowerPoint as Media on The Seventh Grade Students of SMP Muhammdiyah 1 Mlati in The

Academic Year of 2012/2013”. In this research, she involved 58 students which are divided in to

two classes, class VII A and B. Class A is as the experimental group and class B is as the control

group. She gave pre-test and post-test for both. The data were analyzed by means of descriptive

and inferential statistics. ANCOVA was used to test hypothesis. The result is the use of

PowerPoint has significant influence on the student’ writing skill. It showed from the level of

23
significance is 0.000. It means that it is lower than 0.05. Because of it, there is significance effect

and hypothesis was accepted.

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 CHAPTER 3

RESEARCH METHOD

3.1 Research Design

In this research, the researcher will use quantitative method. It will be an experimental

research. According to Cresswell (2014),” an experimental design is to test the impact of a

treatment on an outcome, controlling for all other factors that might influence that outcome”(p.

156). Here, PowerPoint is chosen as a treatment to teach descriptive text. Furthermore, kind of

experimental research that will be used is a quasi-experiment or semi experimental design.

According to Cresswell (2014), in quasi experiment, the researcher uses experimental and

control groups but does not randomly assign participant.

According to Mackey and M.Gass (2005:146)), “A typical experimental study usually uses

comparison or control groups to investigate research questions.”. The research design is shown

as follows:

Table.1

Research Design

Experimetal Group Group 1 Pre-test PowerPoint Post-test

Control Group Group 2 Pre-test Text Book Post-test

3.2 Variables

Since it is quasi experimental, there are two variables. The variables consist of independent

and dependent variable. The followings are the definition:

a. Independent variable

25
 “Independent variable is the factor that is measured, manipulated, or selected by

the experimenter to determine its relationship to an observed phenomenon” (Tuckman

was cited in Irma, 2014, p.53). The independent variable is introduced on both groups.

Independent variable is stimulus variable or input. The independent variable is the use of

PowerPoint in teaching Descriptive text.

b. Dependent variable

“Dependent variable is the factor that is observed and measured to determine the

effect of the independent variable, that is, the factor that appears, disappears, or varies as

the experimenter introduces, removes, or varies the independent variable” (Tuckman was

cited in Irma, 2014, p.54). Dependent variable is a response variable or output. The

dependent variable of this study is the students‟ ability in writing descriptive text.

3.3 Population and Sample

3.3.1 Population

Population is a potential group of participants whom that want generalize the results of a

study (Salkind, 2014:95). Population of this research is all of students in eighth grade students of

SMPN 5 Jambi City in academic year 2015-2016.

3.3.2 Sample

Sample is a subgroup of a potential group that will be used by researcher (Salkind,

2014:95). In this research, the researcher will use cluster sampling. Cluster sampling is deciding

sample based on which units of individuals rather than individual themselves (Salkind,

2014:102)

26
 In this research, since the researcher decides to use cluster sampling, the sample of the

research is VIII A and VIII B. Class A will be an experimental class while Class B will be a

control group. It decides based on alphabetical.

3.4 Technique of Data Collection

The researcher uses the data collection such as recording, interview, questioner, or test. In

this research, the test is used as the instrument for collecting the data. The researcher will

conduct pre-test for both groups to know their ability in writing descriptive text before doing

treatment

In conducting the research, before giving the treatment, the researcher will conduct a pre-

test. It is conducted on writing test. In this test, the researcher asked the students to write a

descriptive text about their favourite animal to know their skill in writing in order to make the

materials more appropriate with the need of students. On the treatment, the Experimental class is

taught by using PowerPoint that contains all materials related the topic; on the other hand, the

Control class is taught by using pictures and a textbook. Then, the post-test will be conduct to

measure the students’ abilities after the treatment. The test will contain the same criteria in

writing a descriptive text as in the pre-test.

3.4.1 Pre-Test

3.4.2 Post-Test

The procedure for pre-test and post-test is similar. In pre-test and post-test, students will

be asked by researcher to write down a descriptive text. The students will write a descriptive text

based on the topic which is given by the researcher. The tests will be available for experimental

class and control class. The students have 60 minutes to complete the test.

27
3.5 Treatment Procedure

The treatment will be taken in eight meetings. Before starting to the learning activity,

researcher will greet and motivate to the students. Then, researcher will give explanation about

the purpose and significant of learning. In experimental class, the researcher will give

explanation about material by using PowerPoint. After that, they will be asked to write a

descriptive text. In doing the activity, the researcher will control and remind them that when the

time is up they must collect their written. For control group, the researcher will use text book as

media in teaching and learning activities. The researcher will give explanation about the material

and then ask students to write a descriptive text. At the end, the researcher will ask each student

collect their text.

3.6 Instrumentation

The instruments of this research will use written test. The researcher tends to use essay

test. There will be a pre-test and post-test. The materials will be taken from the text book “Smart

Steps” written by Ali Akhmadi and Ida Safrida published by Ganexa Exact and “English

Activities” written by Nur Zaida published by Erlangga. There will be six topics. The topics are

describing my beloved things, my house, describe myself, pet, favorite person, and favorite place.

3.7 Test Validity and Reliability

3.7.1 Test Validity

In testing, the test should be as valid as possible, whether it is for informal classroom test

or public examination, even for this research. The test will be valid if it measures accurately what

should be measured (Hughes, 2003:26). For this research, it will use content in validity.

According to Hughes (2003:26) the test which has content validity must contain a representative

28
sample of the language skills, structures, etc. In other words, the content must be appropriate to

the materials that have been though

3.7.2 Reliability

Reliability in test must be considered. According to Ary (2006:239) reliability concerns

in consistent of what should be measured. Reliability focuses on consistency in testing. In this

research, the researcher will choose inter-rater reliability. This kind of reliability is to know

whether the data of the writing score given by two assessors are variable. The first rater will be

the researcher and the second rater will be the teacher who teaches English in those classes.

The Cronbach’s alpha procedure is a versatile method to calculate a reliability coefficient.

In inter-rater reliability, it will find out reliability coefficient between the raters who use rating

scale. Phakiti (2014:250) suggests that inter rater coefficient should be obtained at least 0.70.

Here is the formula inter-rater reliability: {Arikunto(2007) in Minarsih (2012:33)}

𝑁 ∑ 𝑥𝑦−(∑ 𝑥)(∑ 𝑦)
𝑟xy =
√{𝑁 ∑𝑥 2−(∑ 𝑥) }{𝑁 ∑𝑦 2−(∑ 𝑦) }

rxy = Reliability of the test

X = score given by the first rater

Y = score given by the second rater

XY = the result of multiplication between X and Y in each respondent

X2 = quadrate of the students’ score given by first rater

Y2 = quadrate of the students’ score given by second rater

N = the total amount of respondent

29
3.8 Data Analysis

3.8.1 Scoring System

The scoring system of test will be analytic score. Researcher will use analytic score

method that proposed by Heaton like in table 3.

No Component Score Definition

1 Form 3 Excellent : Flowing style – very easy to understand –
both complex sentences very effective.
2 Fair : Style reasonably smooth–not too hard to
understand and enjoy complex sentences–fairly
effective.
1 Unacceptable : Very jerky – hard to understand –
cannot enjoy reading – almost all simple sentences –
complex sentences – excessive use of “and.”
2 Grammar 3 Excellent : Mastery of grammar taught on course –
2 only 1 and 2 minor mistakes.
Fair : Only 1 major mistake but a few mistakes.
1 Unacceptable : Numerous serious mistakes – no
mastery of sentences construction – almost all
unintelligible.
3 Style 3 Excellent : Use of wide range of vocabulary taught
2 previously.
Fair : Attempts to use words
1 Unacceptable: Very restricted vocabulary –
inappropriate use of synonyms–seriously hinders
communication.
4 Content 3 Excellent : All sentences support the topic-highly
organized–clear progression of ideas-well linked-like
educated native speakers.
2 Fair : Some lacks of organization – re-reading
required for classification of ideas.
1 Unacceptable : Lack of organization so serve that
communication is seriously impaired.
5 Mechanic 3 Excellent : No errors.
2 Fair : Several errors – some interfere with
communication – not too hard to understand. .
1 Unacceptable: Numerous errors – hard to recognize
several words – communication made very difficult.

30
 Table 3

Adapted from Heaton in Habsari (2014:38)

There are five items and each is scored 3. The maximum score will be 15. The result is raw

scores so that it is necessary to multiply them by two then divided by three to get more

meaningful numerical data.

3.8.2 Descriptive analysis

The descriptive analysis employs the result of the mean and standard deviation.

According to Phakiti (2014:164) descriptive statistics provide the basic characteristics of

quantitative data such as frequencies, average scores, most frequent scores and so on. It will be

used as measures of quantitative data such as measures of central tendency, measures of

variability and measures of relative position. In this research, there will be two descriptive

analyses: mean and standard deviation. Mean is sum of scores divide by the number of scores.

Standard deviation indicates how much, on average, the individual values differ from mean.

To look for the number of M (mean), the formula that will be used as the following:

∑𝑋
𝑀= 𝑁

The standard deviation will be calculated by using the formula:

(∑ 𝑋)2
∑ 𝑋2 − [
√ 𝑁 ]
𝑆𝐷 =
𝑁

Legends:

R : The reliability of test

K : The number of the test items in test

31
M : The mean of the score

N : The number of student

SD : The standard deviation of the score

X : The score

3.8.3 Hypothesis Testing

This testing is to find out whether the hypothesis of this research can be accepted or not.

The analysis will be done by using t-test. The result of t-test will be compared to score to the

score in t-table. If there is a significant effect in using multimedia PowerPoint on students’

ability in writing descriptive text, hypothesis I is accepted. If there is no significant effect,

hypothesis 0 is accepted. Here is the formula of t-test (

𝑋̅1 − 𝑋̅2
𝑡=
𝑆𝑆1 + 𝑆𝑆2 1 1
√(
𝑛1 + 𝑛2 − 2) (𝑛1 + 𝑛2 )

Here is the formula to look for X1, X2, SS1, and SS2 as the following:

∑ 𝑋1
𝑋̅1 =
𝑛1

∑ 𝑋2
𝑋̅2 =
𝑛2

(∑ 𝑋1 )2
𝑠𝑠1 = ∑ 𝑋12 −
𝑛1

32
 (∑ 𝑋1 )2
𝑠𝑠2 = ∑ 𝑋22 −
𝑛2

Notes:

t : the value of t-calculated

n1 : the number of sample in experimental class

n2 : the number of sample in control class

X1 : the mean of experimental class

X2 : the mean of control class

SS1 : the variance of experimental class

SS2 : the variance of control class

33
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