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ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT GRADUATE SCHOOL

SEBELAS MARET UNIVERSITY SURAKARTA

2010

Summary of the Research

USING TASK-BASED ACTIVITIES

TO IMPROVE STUDENT’S WRITING ABILITY

(A Classroom Action Research at Class X-5 Students

of SMA Negeri I Bojonegoro in the Academic Year of 2008/2009)

Thesis

By:

Ana Rochanah

NIM. S890208119

Submitted to Graduate School of Sebelas Maret University in Partial Fulfillment for Magister Degree in English Department


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I. Background of the Study We all know the importance of English as an International Language and

majority used by people all over the world. English is also used in many activities either orally or in written form. There are many fields which can be seen dealing with the role of English, such as: technology, health, tourism, correspondence, etc.

Indonesian Government through the 2004 curriculum of Senior High School states that the students are able to communicate in oral and written and are able to achieve the literacy level. The English Foreign Language students are also expected to have not only receptive skills (listening and reading) but also productive skills (speaking and writing). The students have to understand kinds of the text: descriptive, narrative, procedure, and recount.

All students who learn English at SMA Negeri 1 Bojonegoro, are required to understand both simple written text of English and spoken English. This is stated clearly in the curriculum of SMA Negeri 1 Bojonegoro in the Academic year 2008/2009 that “the competency standard for students to be achieved is the students are able to understand either written or spoken language.

Based on the preliminary research done by me in the X-5 Class of SMAN I Bojonegoro, it can be concluded that the difficulties are derived from two indicators such as: first which is viewed from writing competence and second which is viewed from the situation of the class. The students do not know everything about the mechanical aspects of writing so that is why they consider writing is difficult. I argue that all those difficulties are caused by some factors. One of them is from extrinsic influence which does not support their talents and competence and mostly derived from the teacher, environment, the students themselves. Some internal factors are as follows: (1) the students also do not have strong motivation to write; (2) Students will lose their interest if every time the teacher teaches them just by giving the same material for writing; (3) The teachers have the students create a passage with the same topic and make it as their daily routine activity.

. Dealing with these conditions, the teacher should change and develop their teaching strategy in writing such as by giving them a series of tasks which can challenge them so that it can make student’s motivation increase. As stated by Stringer (2004: 37) that “good teaching provides learning experience that excites students and provides knowledge and skill to enhance their lives”. It is important to give an alternative technique to improve students’ competence in writing. The technique is named Task- Based Activities.

Task-Based Technique here is a technique of writing adopted from the model proposed by Shavelson and Stern (1981: 478) which including some components, namely: (1) Content is the subject matter to be taught; (2) Materials are all the things that the learners can observe / manipulate; (3) Activities are the things the learners and teacher will be doing during the lesson; (4) Goal is the teachers general aim for the task (these are much more general and vogue than objectives); (5) Students abilities, needs and interest are important; and (6) Social communities in a whole and its sense of grouping.

I have strong belief that using Task-Based will be successful in improving students writing ability legibly due to the following reasons: (1) Teacher has a lot


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of opportunities to develop various activities; (2) The familiarity of the topic and the enjoyment in conducting the task is the solution of students’ low participation in writing class; (3) Task-based activity will give bigger chances to write in the target language; (4) It will solution to the problem of limited time in writing practice.

A. Problem Formulation Based on the background above, the problems of this research are: 1. Does and to what extent Task-Based Learning improve the students’ writing

ability? 2. How is the teaching and learning situation when Task-Based Learning is

implemented in the writing class? B. The Objectives of the Study

Based on the problem formulation, the objectives of this research are: 1. To identify whether and to what extent Task- Based can improve students

writing ability 2. To describe the teaching and learning situation when Task Based Learning

implement in writing C. The Benefits of the study Hopefully, the result of the study can give some benefits. 1. For the teacher

The research result is expected to be able to give some benefits forthe teacher who teaches English at SMA Negeri 1 Bojonegoro because they will get description how to use teaching technique in teaching writing effectively and how to conduct teaching learning activities properly so it can run well.

2. For the students

The result of the study will help them to write better. Their writing will be much better because they write according the stages suggested.

3. For other researcher The result of the study can be used as references for those who want to

conduct a research in English teaching process. At least, it can provide empirical evidence about the use of Task-Based.


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II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURES

A. Description of Related Literature 1. The Nature of Writing

It has been argued that learning to write fluently and expressively is the most difficult because in writing must involve many language elements such as: diction, grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc.

Brown (in Waluyo, 1991: 134) states that writing skill is a combination between linguistic competence and communicative competence. All children, except those with physiological disabilities, learn to write fluently and legibly.

Heaton (1975: 127-138) states that the writing of a composition is a task, which involves the student in manipulating words in grammatically correct sentences and in linking those sentences to form piece of continuous writing which successfully communicates the teachers’ thoughts and ideas on a certain topic. Heaton also states that the writing skill is a complex and difficult to teach, requiring mastery not only of grammatical and rhetorical devices but also of conceptual and judgment elements.

In short, it can be concluded that writing is a skill of using a language in a written form, which involved five dimensions, namely: organization, content, grammar, diction, and mechanic. a. Teaching Writing According to the 2004 Competence Based English Curriculum of Senior High School, the program of teaching and learning English as a foreign language aims to develop students’ skills in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The students are expected to achieve competencies in understanding oral and written texts and to be able to express their thoughts and ideas whether in oral or written form, especially in the form of descriptive text. That is why, during the teaching and learning process, a teacher should give more help, practices and chances to EFL students to explore and express their ideas. Types of Scoring Thornburry (2005: 127) proposes two main ways of scoring in written test, holistic scoring and analytic scoring. Holistic scoring uses a variety of criteria to produce a single score. Analytic scoring focuses on the principal function of the text and therefore offers some feedback potential, but no wash back for any of the written production that enhance the ultimate accomplishment of the purpose. In holistic score, writing is viewed as an integrated whole (O’Malley, in Waluyo, 1996: 142). Brown (2001: 78) also states that each point on a holistic scale is given a systematic set of descriptors, and the reader-evaluator matches an overall impression with the descriptor to arrive at a score. Descriptors usually follow a prescribed pattern. The content of the holistic scoring involved four dimensions as stated by O’Malley (1996: 142) namely: (1) Idea development/organization: focuses on central idea with appropriate

elaboration and conclusion. (2) Fluency/structure: appropriate verb tense used with variety of grammatical

and syntactic structures. (3) Word choice: uses varied and precise diction appropriate for purposes.


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(4) Mechanics: absence of errors in spelling, capitalization, and punctuation. The rater selects a score on a 1 – 6 holistic scale that best describes the writing sample. 2. Task-based Activity a. The Nature of Task-based Language Teaching

Task-based Language Teaching (TBLT) refers to an approach based on the use of tasks as the core unit of planning and instruction in Language teaching. (Richard-Roger, 2001: 223), TBLT is a logical development of teaching writing because it builds on several principles that became part of language teaching. b. The Advantage of TBA TBA has strong advantages, namely: 1) TBA provides natural context for language use 2) TBA is students-centered 3) TBA is familiar to the students 4) TBA involves activation process c. Teaching writing using Task-Based Activities In teaching writing, doing pre-writing activities takes an important role since it is one of pre-writing activities done to generate thoughts and ideas. Task-based activities can also be used as a natural context for using target language in the classroom. It also encourages the students to be more active in learning , students are given a series worksheet about describing people, thing, and place after the teacher explain them. d. Related Research This research will be done in SMA Negeri I Bojonegoro is related to the previous researchers done by Sulistyo (1993). His study which was aimed at promoting the students’ functional skills in paragraph writing conducted, revealed that task-based had been practically effective in working on the problems lacking unity in students’ writing. Arni Ferra S (2009) her research at SMK Cokroaminoto 2 Surakarta. Her succes study which was aimed to improve student speaking ability through task-based inspired me to implement this research in my school.


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III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY A. Setting and Subject of the Research This research was carried out from July to November, 2009 to the class X-5 of SMAN I Bojonegoro.in the academic year of 2008/2009. The reason why I choose class X-5 as the subject of the study is they still have problem in writing. . It is proved from the result of a pre-test given. B. Research Design

This research used Collaborative Classroom Action Research. It means that in conducting the research, I was helped by my collaborative teacher. The concept used in this classroom action research is cyclical process adapted from Lewin (2003: 4). According to him the core concepts of classroom action research consists of four components: (1) Planning the action; (2) implementing the action; (3) observing the action; and (4) reflecting. Then it is clarified by Kemmis and Taggart (1998: 11) that the four components are not statically interference one another. The decision that is carried out in a cycle is the following up of the previous cycle. The effects of holding the policy in a cycle rationalize the activities for the next cycle. It will occur again and again for the next cycles till the problems can be solved. C. Procedure of the research The research was started by making an observation. . I also interviewed students to find out the causes of the problems. Based on the problem above, I will use task-based as a technique on making descriptive text. Task-based will be carried out in some stages. I will use it in some cycles till the students’ progress is achieved. I will use test, observation, and interview to know the effect of using task-based in teaching writing. I will examine the strengths and weaknesses of implementing task-based activities. Then, reflection will be done by I and the collaborator D. Data Collection Technique

The techniques of collecting data in this research can be seen in the following table:

Table 3.2 Technique of Collecting Data

No

Stag

es

Aims Who/What Involved

Technique of Collecting

Data Kinds of Data

Technique of Analyzing

Data

1

Pre-

rese

arch

a. Collecting quantitative data

Students Pre-test Score in daily test

Scoring and rubric scale

b. Collecting qualitative data

- Students - Class - Teacher

Interview Observation Questionnaire

Interview data Descriptive statistic

2 st

Re se

a. Collecting quantitative

Students Test Test score Scoring and rubric scale


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XM å=

data b. Collecting

qualitative data

Researcher, collaborator

Observation Field note - Descriptive - Elaboration

c. Collecting qualitative data

Students Questionnaire - Questionnaire - Field note

Score percentage criteria

d. Collecting qualitative data

- Research - Teacher - Students

Interview Diary

Recorded from interview Reflective notes

Descriptive Elaboration CCM (Constant Comparative Method)

E. Data Analysis Technique

This study will be successful if there is an improvement of students’ ability in writing. One of indicator of the improvement is the increase of writing scores. The data will be analyzed by using the Constant Comparative Method as suggested by Strauss and Glasser in Lincoln and Guba (1985: 339). The process includes the following steps:

1. Comparing incidents applicable to each category

It is a process in which the researcher classifies the nature and the dimensions of the various concepts arising from the data.

2. Integrating categories and their properties The researcher starts to write down the relation of the various concepts and pay attention to all concepts emerged to the relationships

3. Delimiting the theory When the patterns of the concept relationship get clearer, the researcher ignores all concepts which are irrelevant to the inquiry. As the numbers of categories are reduced, the story will become simple. 4. Writing the theory It is the last step of Constant Comparative Method. Here the researcher notes theories resulted from the analysis in the previous three steps.

In scoring the students’ work, there are five elements to be scored; they are organization, content, grammar, diction, and mechanics. The value of each element ranged from 1 to 5. The maximum score of organization is six, the maximum score of content is five, the maximum score of grammar is four, the maximum score of diction is three, and the maximum score of mechanic is two. So the total score of each element is twenty, thus, the final score is one hundred derived from the maximum of range score times the total score of each element is one hundred. After analyzing the scores of the written text, I use statistical technique to find the mean score. The formula to find the mean as stated by Ngadiso (2007: 5-7) is follows:


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M = Mean score

åX = Total scores N = Total students

IV. RESULT OF THE STUDY


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The aim of this research is to prove whether the implementation of task-base can improve students’ writing ability and to identify to what extent the improvement is.

Table 4.1 Summary of the Research

I. Pre – research : Gaining base-line data · Observing teaching and learning process · Interviewing students · Questionnaire · Conducting pre-test

II. Research Implementation Cycle Task Activity

ONE : Describing Things M1 : Shape and location M2 : Object M3 : Places

1. Describe and Draw 2. Guess my object 3. How is your living

room?

1. Describing a geometric picture from a set of verbal instruction

2. Guessing an object from a series of clue

3. Describing room after an interview

TWO : Describing People

1. Who is who? 2. Tell me your picture

1. Guessing a person in picture 2. Cutting a picture and describing

it THREE : Describing Event

1. What are they doing? 2. What are the

differences?

1. Describing an event by a clue 2. Finding the differences between

two similar pictures

Table 4.2 Result of Pre-research

Issues Indicators 1. Students’ ability in 1. Low achievement in writing : Mean = 55,79 writing 2. Difficulty to choose topic sentence

3. Difficulty to express ideas using appropriate vocabulary and grammatical form 4. Does not know writing elements 5. using mother tongue in writing class

2. Classroom situation 1. Not alive atmosphere 2. Low participation of students 3. Teacher domination 4. Limited writing practice 5. Written form activities 6. Low exploration of students’ potentials

Table 4.3 Feature of Students’ writing


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Number of students

Percentage Level Writing features

21 52,5% Above average

The text could be understood Having sufficient vocabulary Using the right grammatical from Self confident to share the ideas Not using mother tongue in writing

9 22,5% Average

The text could be understood Having enough vocabulary Making some mistakes in grammatical form Sometimes doubtful in arranging words Sometimes using mother tongue in writing

10 25% Under average

The text could not be understood Having limited vocabulary Making many mistakes in grammatical form Lack of self confident to share the ideas Often using mother tongue in writing

Table 4.6 Overall Implementation of the Research

Problem Students had low writing ability Solution Teaching writing through TBA Students Tenth Grade No. of Cycle 3 Cycle 1 : Describing Things Planning Giving a task in each meeting (pre-task, task, and language focus), Using

picture and real object Action M1 : Describe and Draw; M2 :Guess my hidden object, M3 : How is your

living room?, M4 : Post test Observation SS : active, interest, is achieved, T : worksheet, too many tasks, lack of

modeling, grammar discussion, and monitoring, CS : alive, enjoyable, but crowded

Reflection (+) Raise SS ability through various activities; success in group work (-) Lack of monitoring, modeling, grammar and vocabulary building, too

many tasks Cycle 2 : Describing People Planning Using M1 for vocabulary building; M2 for main tasks, M3 for language

focus. Using picture Action M1 : Pre-task; M2 Task: Tell me your picture; M3: Language focus; M4:

Post test Observation SS : more active, confident enough, some still confused

T : write slowly, enough task, modeling, grammar and vocabulary discussion,

CS : more alive, more fun and enjoyable; group work was more effective Reflection (+) Raise students’ interest, enjoyable task, interesting situation

(-) Difficulty in choosing the words Cycle 3 : Describing event Planning Using M1 for vocabulary building; M2 for main tasks, M3 for language

focus. Using picture Action M1 : Pre-task; M2 Task: Tell me the differences!; M3: Language focus;

M4 : Post test Observation SS : improving students’ ability especially in learning writing and self-

confidence,


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T : guiding the students conduct activities CS : more alive, enjoyment in doing the tasks was increased

Reflection (+) Improve writing ability, effective group work, more alive class (-) Lack of self-confidence in writing, mother tongue use, need more

challenge Final reflection Writing ability raised, fluency in writing was achieved, mother tongue

pattern use decreased CS : alive, SS writing ability increased, bigger chances for writing. T : more innovative, T explored students’ potentials

Table 4.7 The Implementation of Cycle 1

Pla

nnin

g

Topic : Describing Things Giving a task in each meeting Each meeting consists of pre-task, task, and language focus Using picture and real object

Act

ion

First meeting – fourth meeting · Exploring vocabulary and phrases · Doing various tasks about the topic · Discussing the form in Language Focus Fourth meeting · Having a test of describing things using real objects and picture

obse

rvat

ion

Students · Active in doing the task, brave to tell the ideas in group · Could perform the text (topic sentence is achieved) but they made mistakes in

vocabulary and grammar (accuracy is less achieved) · Lack of confidence Teacher · Preparing the work sheets · Giving too much tasks so the time was not enough · She did not give written model and grammar discussion, · Lack of monitoring in group work · Never gave any explanation Classroom situation · Alive, crowded in conducting the group work · Enjoyable for various types of activities

Ref

lect

ion

Strength · Using TBA can increase students’ participation in writing class · There was an improvement of students’ writing ability · TBA can accommodate various types of activities which are motivating the students

to write, including games · Group work in TBA is beneficial for eliminating psychological barriers in writing

such as the fear of making mistakes, lack of self-confident and shyness. Weaknesses · Less control of the teacher in group work · Lack of discussion about grammar · Lack of activity in vocabulary exploration · Lack of modeling from teacher

Table 4.12


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Post-test average score of Cycle 1 from the two correctors No Explanation Scores 1 The highest score 77 2 The lowest score 53 3 Average score 64%

Table 4.13

Post-average score of writing elements of Cycle 1

No Writing element Average score 1 Organization 64,00 2 Content 66,00 3 Grammar 67,50 4 Diction 67,00 5 Mechanics 55,50 Average score 64,00

1. Positive side ( The strengths )

· Using TBA can increase students’ interest in writing class · The students’ writing skill improved · The students showed positive response in teaching learning activities,

which entails the implication that the second criterion of success was also achieved.

2. Negative side (The weaknesses) · Lack of control from the teacher in group work · Not all the students got the chance to consult and performed their writing

to the teacher due to the time limit in the class sessions.

Table 4.8. The Implementation of Cycle 2

Pla

nnin

g Topic : Describing People Using M1 for vocabulary building : M2 for main tasks, M3 for language focus Using pictures

Act

ion

M1 : Pre-test : Exploring vocabulary, modeling M2 : Task : doing various tasks in individual, pair and group works M3 : Language focus : discussing and practicing grammatical forms M4 : Post test : having writing test about the topic

obse

rvat

ion

Students · More active in doing the task, · Could perform the text with fewer mistakes in vocabulary, grammar, and punctuation

Teacher · Explain clearer · Used material in tasks · Gave sufficient model in spoken and written forms; sufficient vocabulary building and

grammatical practice · Gave reasonable number of task in the available time


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Classroom situation · More alive, fun and enjoyable for students · Group work was more effective to increase the chances to practice writing

Ref

lect

ion

Strength · The SS participation was increased · The coherent was increased exploration and modeling · Choosing the words was achieved by sufficient portion of grammatical practice · The use of pictorial material could attract SS’ attention · The enjoyment of conducting the activity could reduce the tension in writing class

weaknesses · The pictorial material was too crowded so that the students had difficulty in catching the

information · The students were still had difficulty in expanding the content

Post-test average score of Cycle II from the two correctors No Explanation Scores 1 The highest score 77 2 The lowest score 61 3 Average score 69

Table 4.9 the Implementation of Cycle 3

Pla

nnin


Act

ion

First meeting · Pre-test : Exploring vocabulary and related phrases, giving model for writing tasks Second meeting · Task : doing various tasks in individual, pair and group works Third meeting · Language focus : discussing and practicing grammatical forms Fourth meeting · Post test : having writing test about the topic

Obs

erva

tion

Students · Students showed improvement in writing ability · They could write a text with little mistakes in vocabulary, grammatical form, and

pronunciation · Students’ self-confidence was increased · Students were not afraid of making mistakes · Ability in describing text was increased Teacher · Used clear worksheet · Gave balanced theory about writing elements Classroom situation · More alive · The enjoyment in doing the tasks was increased


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Ref

lect

ion

Strength · TBA can improve students’ writing ability · Working in group increased students’ participation in writing class · TBA made the classroom situation more alive · TBA could encourage students to choose the topic sentence · The accuracy in writing could be achieved by giving more portions to Vocabulary

building and Language Focus · There were some students who still lack of self-confident in writing · The discussion in group work used mother tongue · The challenge of task needs to be increased

Post-test average score of Cycle III from the two correctors No Explanation Scores 1 The highest score 87 2 The lowest score 71 3 Average score 79,00

Table 4.24 Summary of the Research Findings

Pre-research finding Before action Research After Action Research

1. Improving in students’ writing ability a. Achievement b. Ability to broaden

ideas

c. Ability to express ideas

d. Mother tongue use e. Level of writing

2. Improvement in

classroom situation

a. Atmosphere b. Participation in

writing class c. Domination in class

Mean of pre test : 55.93 SS have no idea SS could not express idea, many problems in vocabulary, using ungrammatical form SS used mother tongue in writing a). 52,5% above average; b) 22,5% average; c) 25% under average Not alive, uninteresting writing activities Low, did not give attention to the lesson, ignores and SS were passive,

Cycle 1 : 64,28 Cycle 2 : 70,40 Cycle 3 : 78,05 SS idea easily got SS could express ideas using appropriate vocabulary and grammatical form The use of mother tongue reduced a). 22,5% above average; b) 70% average; c) 5% under average Live, interesting activities High, gave attention to the lesson, used the chances to write SS were active, SS dominated the


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d. Writing practice e.

f. Form of activities

g. Teacher

3. Other finding: Students’ perception about TBA

T dominated the activeties Small chances Written form Not innovative Did not recognize students problem, not explore students potentials Did not familiar with TBA

activities Bigger chances with pair and group work Spoken form Innovative, created worksheet and pictures Recognized students’ problem and potential is writing Agree with : 100% Improve ability : 100% Motivated : 100% Feel burden : 0% Future application : 100%


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V. CONCLUSION, IMPLICATION, AND SUGGESTION 1. Conclusion 1. Task based Activity can improve students’ writing ability. The improvement of students’ writing ability can be identified from the improvement of writing achievement. 2. Task based Activity can improve writing classroom into a better situation. They were motivated in joining writing class. 3. The strength of the implementation of Task-based Activity in writing classroom is that can rise student’s participation in writing class and it can enhance students’ writing ability. 2. Implication

The result of the research shows that the teaching writing using task based activity can improve the students’ writing ability, especially for the tenth grade students of SMAN 1 BOJONEGORO. This study can be used as a reference for the teacher in improving the teaching quality by applying the suitable technique toward improving the students’ writing ability. 3. Suggestion 1. For teachers a. Before conducting the teaching and learning process, it is recommended to

implement the plan for other rhetoric modes like cause-effect, logical division, classification, and others.

b. Teacher should be able to recognize the students’ potential and problem to choose the right technique to apply in writing class

c. Teacher should be creative to use various techniques in teaching writing. d. The writing activity should be enjoyable because the enjoyment will increase

students’ participation in writing class. 2. For students a. Students should realize that writing is not as difficult as they think. There are

many ways to be able to write, as long as they want work hard. b. Students should realize that they have potentials to be good writer. They

should open themselves to any chances of self-development in writing. c. Students should not feel confuse in writing. Besides, they do not have to be

afraid of making mistakes because making mistakes is a part of learning.

3. For school The school can improve the teaching and learning quality by giving the

teacher the bigger chance to develop writing activities, considering that writing is a productive skill that needs to be nurtured carefully so more time for effective learning of writing is needed. It is hoped that the school’s orientation was not only the good mark of test but the school should give bigger attention to the achievement of the writing skill.


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4. For Sebelas Maret University

As a institution of education, it is hoped that Sebelas Maret University can arrange a program of teacher improvement dealing with the teaching and learning writing and the use of Task-based activity. Therefore, the management of English Department of Sebelas Maret University could consider the realization of this procedure in the upcoming semesters. This may be realized either by adding the hours for classroom sessions while maintaining or by allocating more credit hours for the course.

5. For other researcher Considering the fact that this research has been successful to be

implemented in a class with a relatively small number of students, there seems to be a need to explore the applicability of the TBA strategies in a class with a large number as students as well as of students of different motivation. Besides, further researcher need to explore other aspects of writing that contribute to the quality of writing. For instance, they may be investigated the use of styles, the management of information prior to draft writing, and others.

Good Luck


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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

We all know the importance of English as an International Language and

majority used by people all over the world. English is also used in many activities

either orally or in written form. There are many fields which can be seen dealing

with the role of English, such as: technology, health, tourism, correspondence,

etc. In Indonesia, English is taught from Elementary School up to University

Level. Even nowadays, English has been taught in Pre-Elementary School or

Kindergarten.

Indonesian Government through the 2004 curriculum of Senior High

School states that the students have to able to communicate in oral and written and

are able to achieve the literacy level. The English Foreign Language students are

also expected to have not only receptive skills (listening and reading) but also

productive skills (speaking and writing). The students have to understand kinds of

the text: descriptive, narrative, procedure, and recount.

The students have to able to use the four language skills: listening,

speaking, reading, and writing the functional skill which is aimed at improving

survival communication, for example they are able to write report, write a

newspaper headlines, write an article or maybe do dictation, etc. By having good

writing ability the students will be able to make any written text easily. By doing

so, hopefully all of the form of handwriting can be easily done, too In short,

having good writing ability is very important for one’s daily life.

1


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2

All students who learn English at SMA Negeri 1 Bojonegoro, are required

to understand both simple written text of English and spoken English. This is

stated clearly in the curriculum of SMA Negeri 1 Bojonegoro in the Academic

year 2008/2009 that “the competency standard for students to be achieved is the

students are able to understand either written or spoken language. Furthermore, it

is also written in the syllabus of Rintisan Sekolah Berstandard International that

the teaching learning activities recommended in the classroom, the students have

to be able to write any report, newspaper headlines, and an article, etc

In teaching writing, English teacher uses some techniques such as, have

the students write a letter of application for a job, describe their favorite room,

and send e-mail message (real or simulated) to other English speaker around the

world. During the process students get difficulties and problems in creating

sentence.

Based on the preliminary research done by me in the X-5 Class of SMAN

I Bojonegoro, it can be concluded that the difficulties are derived from two

indicators such as: first which is viewed from writing competence and second

which is viewed from the situation of the class. The first indicators are: (a) The

students have difficulties in deciding topic paragraph; (b) It is difficult for

students to make good paragraph; (c) The students often get stuck during writing;

(d) The students cannot write legibly, and some students get writing score below

Kriteria Ketuntasan Minimal (KKM). The second problem indicators are: (a)

Students get bored if they cannot do writing; (b) Students often consult with their

dictionary; (c) Students are often talk to their friend; (d) The students get sleepy if

they do not concentrate; and (e) The students have low sense of involvement in


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3 writing. The incorrect form of their writing is caused by several problems as

follows: (1) They do not know how to make a good paragraph which is coherent

and gives unity in their writing so it lacks of focus; (2) They do not arrange detail

information; (3) They now and again touch on different things and therefore

wonder of the point. In the wider scope there is no connection between

paragraphs in the text they produce.

The students do not know everything about the mechanical aspects of

writing so that is why they consider writing is difficult. As they comment: “We

have got many difficulties in making a good paragraph because we do not know

how to make good paragraph, and their friend’s response: “Yes, so do we, we also

find many difficulties in creating coherent paragraph. I argue that all those

difficulties are caused by some factors. One of them is from extrinsic influence

which does not support their talents and competence and mostly derived from the

teacher, environment, the students themselves. The causes from the teacher are as

follows: (1) There was no variation of writing method just conventional; (2) She

only gave fewer portion for writing though writing is a complex skill; (3) She did

not give sufficient attention to teach them to write well. The causes from the

students were as follows: (1) Student’s motivation to get involved in studying was

not high; (2) the students’ writing mastery was low. Consequently, their writing

was incoherent; (3) Students are lack of vocabulary. Consequently, they

sometimes lost their ideas and stuck; (4) the time of teaching writing is not

enough to the students to practice; and (5) the passiveness of the students to make

English writing. During writing class, some students show low participation. This

was caused by internal and external factors.


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4

Some external factors that causing the difficulties in achieving writing

competence are from the informal preliminary interview, the causes are as

follows: (1) In teaching writing, teacher does not have various kinds of writing

techniques, is always monotonous and conventional; (2) They do not give helpful

guidelines for writing.

Some internal factors are as follows: (1) the students also do not have

strong motivation to write; (2) Students will lose their interest if every time the

teacher teaches them just by giving the same material for writing; (3) The teachers

have the students create a passage with the same topic and make it as their daily

routine activity. As a result the students feel bored as stated by Douglas in

Suharno (2008: 6) that routine activities in learning can make the students bored.

Based on my experience in teaching writing, there is no slight

improvement. During learning process, I tend to use inappropriate strategy, so

that why the writing English assignment is not as good as other English Language

skills results. This is caused by the using of a conventional technique of teaching

that is a translation technique. This technique can not increase the student’s

motivation for learning so that is why they do not have any spirit to join the

learning activity. Dealing with these conditions, the teacher should change and

develop their teaching strategy in writing such as by giving them a series of tasks

which can challenge them so that it can make student’s motivation increase. As

stated by Stringer (2004: 37) that “good teaching provides learning experience

that excites students and provides knowledge and skill to enhance their lives”.

In this research, the teacher will focus on the technique of teaching and

learning writing. It is important to give an alternative technique to improve


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5 students’ competence in writing. The technique is named Task- Based Activities.

Task-Based Technique here is a technique of writing adopted from the model

proposed by Shavelson and Stern (1981: 478) which including some components,

namely: (1) Content is the subject matter to be taught; (2) Materials are all the

things that the learners can observe / manipulate; (3) Activities are the things the

learners and teacher will be doing during the lesson; (4) Goal is the teachers

general aim for the task (these are much more general and vogue than objectives);

(5) Students abilities, needs and interest are important; and (6) Social

communities in a whole and its sense of grouping. By considering these

elements, some problems which often appear in writing will be solved. This

technique will be implemented in this research for the following consideration:

(1) Task therefore refers to a range of work plans which have the overall purpose

of facilitating language learning from the simple and brief exercise type, to more

complex and lengthy activities such a group problem-solving or simulation and

decision making; (2) Task will involve students in producing and/or interacting in

the target language; (3) It can be used as building blocks in developing data and

units of work; (4) It can be analyzed in terms of their good, input data, activities,

setting and roles; (5) It can improve students writing skill to write fluently and

legibly in any situation and help their writing readable; (6) It can improve

students’ confidence when they are writing and sharing their mind; (7) It can

make them an effective and professional author; and (8) It can overcome student’s

difficulties in writing. From the explanation about Task- Based Activities and the

problem faced by class X-5 SMA Negeri 1 Bojonegoro, I will carry out this

technique to improve the students writing ability.


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6

I have strong belief that using Task-Based will be successful in improving

students writing ability legibly due to the following reasons: (1) Teacher has a lot

of opportunities to develop various activities; (2) The familiarity of the topic and

the enjoyment in conducting the task is the solution of students’ low participation

in writing class; (3) Task-based activity will give bigger chances to write in the

target language; (4) It will solution to the problem of limited time in writing

practice.

The need to create a good writing will give many advantages for the

students to provide them with language practice in writing competence. In short,

Task-Based Activities motivate students to express their idea in making a

meaningful context so the students’ interest in having lessons will be improved.

In Task-Based Learning every student has responsibility in his or her own

projects. It is expected by applying this technique, the problems facing in writing

will be overcome because: (1) Task Based will create the optimum condition for

language learning, Willis (1998: 3); (2) Task-based sees the learning process as

one of learning through doing, Skehan,1962: 52); (3) Task-based will expose to

the target language; (4) It will give a chance to use the target language for

expressing meaning; and (5) It will motivate to engage and use what they know.

B. Problem Formulation

Based on the background above, the problems of this research are:

1. Does and to what extent Task-Based Activities improve the students’ writing

ability?


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7 2. How is the teaching and learning situation when Task-Based Activity

implemented in the writing class?

C. The Objectives of the Study

Based on the problem formulation, the objectives of this research are:

1. To identify whether and to what extent Task- Based can improve students

writing ability

2. To describe the teaching and learning situation when Task Based Activities

implemented in writing

D. The Benefits of the study

Hopefully, the result of the study can give some benefits.

1. For the teacher

The research result is expected to be able to give some benefits for the

teacher who teaches English at SMA Negeri 1 Bojonegoro because they will

get description how to use teaching technique in teaching writing effectively

and how to conduct teaching learning activities properly so it can run well.

2. For the students

The result of the study will help them to write better. Their writing will be

much better because they write according the stages suggested. It means that

this activity will improve the students’ writing ability. It is also expected that

the result of study will make the students interested and motivated in learning

writing.


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8 3. For other researcher

The result of the study can be used as references for those who want to

conduct a research in English teaching process. At least, it can provide

empirical evidence about the use of Task-Based.


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9

CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURES

A. Description of Related Literature

1. The Nature of Writing

It has been argued that learning to write fluently and expressively is the

most difficult because in writing must involve many language elements such as:

diction, grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc. Murcia (in Waluyo, 2000: 161) states

that the writing skill is often perceived as the most difficult skill since it requires a

higher level of productive language control than other skills. It is no wonder that

EFL students think that writing is a difficult skill to be mastered because it

requires many aspects of language in its production such as: language use,

mechanics, organization, and English Rhetoric. As a communication acts, writing

involves physical and mental processes.

Brown (in Waluyo, 1991: 134) states that writing skill is a combination

between linguistic competence and communicative competence. All children,

except those with physiological disabilities, learn to write fluently and legibly.

Write (1981: 2) states:

“Writing is not natural activity. All physically and mentally normal people learn to speak a language. Yet all people have to be taught how to write. This is a crucial difference between the spoken and written form of language. There are other important differences as well. Writing, unlike speech, is displayed in time. Indeed, this must be reason why writing originally evolved since it makes possible of transmission of a message from one place to another. Written massages can be received, stored, and referred back to at anytime.”


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10

Based on the definition of writing above, it is obvious that writing is

a communicative act and a way of sharing observation, information, thoughts, and

ideas with others through written language. Cohen et al, (1989: 3-4) state further

that as a physical process, writing means producing graphemes and orthographic

symbols in the form of letters or combination of letters that relate to the sounds in

spoken language using hands while the eye movements follow over the words of

sentences. The mental processes cannot be captured visually. It is the processes of

writer’s mind that include making connection between ideas and processing

thought to be expressed in a meaningful written text by employing linguistic

organization.

More specifically to the point, Troyka (1987: 3-4) characterizes writing

from its elements. Writing is seen as “a way of communicating a message to a

reader for a purpose”. In that case, writing entails four key elements, namely: (1)

communicating which means the act of sending a message from the writer to

readers; (2) message, which refers to the content, ideas or information carried in

the piece of writing; (3) reader, that is the receiver of the message; and (4)

purpose that is the intention of writing. All of the elements attain a way of

transferring information from the writer.

The text produced in writing process has to carry all the meaning since the

writer is not always around to provide feedback for the readers. Consequently, in

order to be able to communicative effectively and successfully, a writer must

have a communicative competence, which includes grammatical, discourse,

sociolinguistics, and strategic competence. The grammatical competence focuses

on sentence-level grammar and requires knowledge of lexical items and rules of


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11 morphology, syntax, sentence grammar semantics and phonology. Discourse

competence means the capability to connect sentences in the stretches of

discourse and a meaningful whole out of a series of utterances. In order words, it

is concerned with inter sentence relationships. Sociolinguistic competence is the

knowledge of socio cultural rules of language and discourse. It requires an

understanding of social context in which the language is used. Finally, strategic

competence means the way of manipulating language in order to meet

communicative goals.

Heaton (1975: 127-138) states that the writing of a composition is a task,

which involves the student in manipulating words in grammatically correct

sentences and in linking those sentences to form piece of continuous writing

which successfully communicates the teachers’ thoughts and ideas on a certain

topic. Heaton also states that the writing skill is a complex and difficult to teach,

requiring mastery not only of grammatical and rhetorical devices but also of

conceptual and judgment elements.

Byrne (1984: 1) states that:

“Writing can be said to be the act forming these symbols: making marks on a flat surface of some kind. But writing is clearly much more than production of graphic symbols, just as speech is more than the production of sounds. The symbols have to be arranged, according to certain conventions, to form words, and words have to be arranged to form sentences, although again we can be said to be “writing” if we are merely making lists of words, as inventories of items such as shopping list”.

Based on the definition of writing above, it is obvious that producing a

qualified a text needs a deep understanding since it involves a number of

complicated rhetoric and linguistic problems. That is why the teacher has to be

able to make writing as an interesting classroom or outdoor activity by using


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12 many kinds of task-based in conveying teaching material during the teaching and

learning process. Of course, having a lot of exercises also takes an important role

in this case.

Brown (1987: 281) also states that composition is often defined as the

skill of arranging words to form sentences and paragraph, which a teacher further

organizes them into composition. It means that EFL students have to own a

grammatical ability to produce grammatical sentences and arrange them into

paragraphs meaningfully in order that they will be able to communicate with

others using their thought or ideas.

Shaw (1986: 3) states that writing is relatively new art form, or process, or

means of communication about which little is known. Consequently, it is all more

important that the opinion we hold about writing should be accurate and helpful. It

means that in writing a text it is very important for EFL students to pay attention

not only the accuracy but also the existence of their writing in conveying their

thought or ideas to others. Of course, it depends on how well they are able to

organize into a text.

In short, it can be concluded that writing is a skill of using a language in a

written form, which involved five dimensions, namely: organization, content,

grammar, diction, and mechanic. It is very important to be considered by the

teacher that writing is a complex process will requires the writer or EFL students

need more time to explore their thought and ideas in the forms of text that enable

them to have a better writing and give them opportunities to see their own

progress, that is whether their writings are able to communicate their ideas and

can be easily understood by the readers or not.


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13 a. Teaching Writing

According to the 2004 Competence Based English Curriculum of Senior

High School, the program of teaching and learning English as a foreign language

aims to develop students’ skills in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The

students are expected to achieve competencies in understanding oral and written

texts and to be able to express their thoughts and ideas whether in oral or written

form, especially in the form of descriptive text.

Teaching of writing skills officially has been given to the students from

the fourth of Elementary Schools. Yet they still have a lot of difficulties in

expressing ideas through a written language. That is why, during the teaching and

learning process, a teacher should give more help, practices and chances to EFL

students to explore and express their ideas. Formally, teaching writing course is

focused on grammar or on an elaborate discussion of the theory of writing only.

This condition makes the EFL students get sleepy and boring during the class.

According to Byrne (1984: 4) that there are three factors which influence

writing process, they are: (1) psychology problem: in this case, a teacher is

expected to be able to write her own, without the possibility of interaction or feed

back, and itself makes the act of writing difficult: (2) linguistics problem: a

teacher has to keep the channel of communication open through her own efforts

and to ensure, both through her choice of sentences structure and by the way her

sentences are linked together and sequenced, that the text she writes or produces

can be interpreted on its own: (3) cognitive problem: a teacher has to master the

written form of the language and to learn certain structures which are important

for effective communication in writing. A teacher has to learn how to organize her

ideas and thoughts in such a way that they can be understood by a reader who is


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14

not present and perhaps by a reader who is not known to us. In short, it can be

concluded that writing is a task which is often imposed on the teacher, perhaps by

circumstances.

To overcome those problems mentioned above, the English teachers need

to be aware that writing should be taught in various ways and manners so that the

students are interested in studying. The teacher should also phase the writing tasks

from the simplest stages to the more complex one, so that the students are not

frustrated with writing.

Rivers (in Waluyo, 1991: 130) states that writing in language

classroom can be classified into four types: (1) Writing down or notation that

means imitating or copying, in which students are asked to copy words, phrases,

sentences, or paragraphs: (2) Writing in the language or writing practice. The

writing activity can be in the form of writing simple dialogues, uncomplicated

translation, dictation, and clone procedure: (3) Translation that refers to

transferring passages and sentences from the native to the target language: and (4)

Expressive writing is the expression of original ideas in the new (target)

language. It refers to the conveying of information or the expression of original

ideas in a consecutive way in the new language. The example of expressive

writing or composition for practical purposes are writing instruction, repots,

resume, concrete description, or essentials correspondence connected with

everyday affairs. The ultimate goal in creative expression is to encourage

someone to be more active in developing mastery and improving her grammar

ability.

b. Writing Assessment

1) Types of Scoring

Thornburry (2005: 127) proposes two main ways of scoring in written test,

holistic scoring and analytic scoring. Holistic scoring uses a variety of criteria to


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15

produce a single score. Analytic scoring focuses on the principal function of the

text and therefore offers some feedback potential, but no wash back for any of the

written production that enhance the ultimate accomplishment of the purpose.In

holistic score, writing is viewed as an integrated whole (O’Malley, in Waluyo,

1996: 142). Brown (2001: 78) also states that each point on a holistic scale is

given a systematic set of descriptors, and the reader-evaluator matches an overall

impression with the descriptor to arrive at a score. Descriptors usually follow a

prescribed pattern. The content of the holistic scoring involved four dimensions as

stated by O’Malley (1996: 142) namely:

(1) Idea development/organization: focuses on central idea with appropriate

elaboration and conclusion.

(2) Fluency/structure: appropriate verb tense used with variety of grammatical

and syntactic structures.

(3) Word choice: uses varied and precise diction appropriate for purposes.

(4) Mechanics: absence of errors in spelling, capitalization, and punctuation. The

rater selects a score on a 1 – 6 holistic scale that best describes the writing

sample. According to Brown (2004: 242), there are some advantages of using

holistic scoring:

(1) fast evaluation

(2) relatively high inter-rater reliability

(3) the score represent “standards” that are easily interpreted by lay person

(4) the score tends to emphasize the teacher strength (5) applicability to writing across many different disciplines.

While the disadvantages that must be taken into consideration on whether to

use holistic scoring

(1) Raters need to be extensively trained to use the scale accurately

(2) One score makes differences across the sub skills within each score

(3) The scale of descriptive text may not apply equally to all kinds of text


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16 (4) No wash back potential for classroom instructional purposes, holistic scores

may provide very little information and wash back for further stages learning.

Based on the theories above the scoring rubric applied in this thesis as

follows:


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17

ORGANIZATION CONTENT DICTION

WORD CHOICE/ GRAMMAR USAGE

MECHANICS

Score Of 6

Example Organization · Clear and logical progression

of ideas · Strong Introductory paragraph,

supporting paragraph and concluding paragraph.

· Sophisticated transition conveys relationships among Ideas and paragraphs.

Exemplary Development · Clear focus maintained for Intended

audience · Strong development of the topic for

narrative and descriptive writing · Strong thesis statement for development of

Informative and persuasive writing · Strong use of examples, evidence, or

relevant details · Strong use of analogies, illustrations or

anecdotes.

Exemplary Sentence Structure : · Sophisticated sentence structure;

Complete and correct sentences · Sentence variation Ø Simple Ø Adjective

Exemplary Word Choice/Grammar Usage · Vivid, specific, economical,

connotative · Consistent grammar usage Ø Subject/verb agreement Ø Singular/plural nouns Ø Verb (tense and usage) Ø Pronoun usage Ø Adjective/Adverb

Exemplary Mechanics · May have minor

errors Ø Punctuation Ø Capitalization Ø Spelling

Score Of 5

Effective Organization · Logical progression of ideas. · Introduction paragraph,

supporting paragraph · Purposeful transition conveys

relationships among Ideas and paragraphs.

Effective development · Effective focus maintained for intended

audience. · Appropriate development of the topic for

descriptive writing. · Clear use of examples, evidence or relevant

details · Use of analogies, illustration.

Effective Sentence Structure · Complete and correct sentences · Sentences variation Ø Simple Ø Adjectives

Effective Word Choice/Grammar Usage · Economical, specific, clear meaning,

connotative · Mostly consistent grammar usage Ø Subject/verb agreement Ø Singular/plural nouns Ø Verb (tense and usage) Ø Pronoun usage Ø Adjective/Adverb

Effective Mechanics · Few errors Ø Punctuation Ø Capitalization Ø Spelling

Score Of4

Adequate Organization · Some evidence of a logical

progress of Ideas · Introductory paragraph,

supporting paragraph and concluding paragraph

· Appropriate use of transition; transition between paragraph.

Adequate Development · Adequate focus maintained for intended

audience · Adequate development of the topic for

descriptive writing. · Sufficient use of examples, evidence of

relevant details. · Use of analogies, illustrations or anecdotes

Adequate Sentence Structure · Minor errors in Sentence structure · Some sentence variation Ø Simple Ø Adjectives

Adequate Word Choice/Grammar Usage · Appropriate, specific, somewhat

simplistic · Somewhat consistent grammar

usage Ø Subject/verb agreement Ø Singular/plural nouns Ø Verb (tense and usage) Ø Pronoun usage Ø Adjective/Adverb

Adequate Mechanics · Some errors Ø Punctuation Ø Capitalization Ø Spelling

Score Of 3

Limited Organization · Limited evidence of a logical

progression of Ideas · Introductory paragraph and

concluding paragraph with limited supporting paragraph

Limited Organization : · Some evidence of focus for intended

audience · Limited development of the topic

description writing · Some use of examples, evidence of

supporting details.

Limited Sentences Structure · Some errors in sentences structure · Limited sentence variation Ø Simple Ø Adjectives

Limited Word Choice/grammar Usage · Vague, redundant, simplistic · Several Inconsistencies In grammar


Limited Mechanics · Frequent errors Ø Punctuation Ø Capitalization Ø Spelling


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18 Scoring Rubric of Writing Elements

· Repetitive use of transition

· Some use of analogies, illustrations or anecdotes

Score 0f 2

Minimal Organization · Lacks evidence of a

logical progression of ideas

· Lacks Introductory paragraph, supporting paragraphs and/or concluding paragraph.

· Ineffective or overused transition

Minimal Development · Lacks focus on Intended audience · Lacks development of the topic for

narrative and descriptive writing · Lacks thesis statement for development of

informative and persuasive writing · Lacks sufficient examples, evidence or

other supporting details · Lacks sufficient analogies, illustrations or

anecdotes

Minimal Sentence Structure · Contains fragments and /or run-ons · Minimal sentence variation Ø Simple Ø Compound Ø Complex

(errors in more complex sentences detract)

Minimal word choice/ grammar usage · Inadequate, imprecise, repetitive · Frequent Inconsistencies in grammar

usage Ø Subject/verb agreement Ø Singular /plural nouns Ø Verb (tense and usage) Ø Pronoun usage Ø Adjective / adverb

Minimal Mechanics · Consistent errors Ø Punctuation Ø Capitalization Ø Spelling

Score Of 1

Inadequate Organization · Little or no progression of

Ideas; difficult to follow · Inadequate paragraphing · Little or no transition

Inadequate Development · Unclear or no focus · Little or no development or narrative or

descriptive writing · Little or no development of Informative or

persuasive writing · Few or no examples, evidence or other

supporting details. · Few or no analogies, illustrations or

anecdotes.

Inadequate Sentence Structure · Contain numerous fragments and/or

run-ons · Inadequate sentence variation Ø Simple Ø Compound Ø Complex


Inadequate Word Choice/Grammar usage · Rambling, Inappropriate, incorrect · Distracting Inconsistencies in

grammar usage. Ø Subject/verb agreement Ø Singular /plural nouns Ø Verb (tense and usage) Ø Pronoun usage Ø Adjective / adverb

Inadequate Mechanics · Serious and consistent



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19 2 Task-based Activity

a. The Nature of Task-based Language Teaching

Task-based Language Teaching (TBLT) refers to an approach based on the

use of tasks as the core unit of planning and instruction in Language teaching.

(Richard-Roger, 2001: 223), TBLT is a logical development of teaching writing

because it builds on several principles that became part of language teaching.

There are various definitions of tasks. Breen (in Nunan, 1989: 10) defines

tasks as follows:

Any structured language learning endeavor which has objective and a range of outcomes for those who undertake the task. Tasks refers to a range of work-plans which have the overall purpose of facilitating language learning – from the simple and brief exercise type, to more complex and lengthy activities. Skehan in Richard and Rodger (2001: 224) gives the following definition: Tasks are activities which have meaning as their primary focus. Success in tasks is evaluated in terms of achievement of an outcome, and tasks generally bear some resemblance to real-life language use. Therefore, task-based instruction takes a fairly strong view of teaching writing. Lee (2000: 29) states his argument that: a task is a classroom activity or exercise that has: a) an objective obtainable only by the interaction among participants, b) a mechanism for structuring and sequencing, interaction and c) a focus on meaning exchange, etc.

Based on the theory above, in this research a task is defined as follows: A task is a

piece of classroom work which involves learners in creating or producing,

mastering the target language in the form of simple and brief exercise type to the

more complex one, and it is usually resemble to the real-life language us

Underlying concepts from theory of learning are:

1) Task provide both the input and output processing necessary for language

acquisition, Tasks enable full opportunities for both input and output


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20

requirements, as believed to be the key processes in language learning. Task

becomes the point for stimulation of input-output practice, and negotiation of

meaning.

2) Task activity and achievement are motivational. Tasks are said to improve

learner motivation and therefore promote learning. This is because tasks require

learners to use authentic language, they have well-defined dimensions and

closure, they are varied in format and operation, and they typically include

physical activity.

3) Learning difficulty can be negotiated and fine-tuned for particular pedagogical

purposes. Specific tasks can be designed to facilitate the use and the learning of

particular aspects of language.

b. Task Components

The definition of a language learning task requires specification of four

components: 1). the goals, 2). the input (linguistics or otherwise), 3). The

activities derived from this input, 4). The roles implied for teacher and learners.

Candlin (1987) suggest that tasks should contain input, roles, settings, actions,

monitoring, outcomes, and feedback (Nunan, 1989: 47) Input refers to the data

presented for the learners to work on. Roles specify the relationship between

participants in a task. Setting refers to the classroom and out-of class arrangement

entailed in the task action is produced and sub tasks to be performed by the

learners. Monitoring refers to the supervision of the task in progress. Outcomes

are the goals of the task and feedback refers to the evaluation of the task.

Shaveleson and Stern (Nunan, 1989: 47) introduces another type of task

components, as follows: (1) Content is the subject matter to be taught, (2)


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21 materials is the things that learners can observe, (3) Activities are the things the

learners and teacher will be doing during the lesson, ( 4) Goal is the teacher’s

general aim for the task, (5) Students require their ability, needs and interest, and

( 6) Social community as a whole and its senses of group ness.

Nunan (1989: 48) states that there are three major components in task

namely goals, input, and activities. The three components in turn imply certain

roles. The component of a task is represented in the following diagram:

Diagram2.1 Components of Task

c. Task Components according to Nunan (1980: 48)

1) Goals

Goals may refer to a range of general outcomes (cognitive, psychomotor,

and affective). Goals are not always explicitly stated, they can be implied in a

task. A task does not always have a single goal. There may be tasks which cover

more than one goal. A complex task may involve a range of activities that move

the learners toward several goals (Nunan, 1948: 49)

2) Input

Input refers to the data that form the point of departure for the task (Nunan,

1989: 53) Communication tasks can be derived from a wide range of sources

TASKS

Goals

Input

Activities

Teacher role

Learner role

Settings


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22 3) Activities

Activities specify what learners will actually do with the input which forms

the point of departure for learning task (Nunan, 1989:59). Nunan proposed three

general ways of characterizing activities; rewrite for the real world, skills use and

authenticity. Tasks could be analyzed according to the extent to which they

require learners to rewrite the language.

4) Learner role

Nunan (1989: 81) states that in task-based instruction, learners are required

to be adaptable, creative, inventive, and most all independent.

A range of roles that should be adopted by learners are: finding their own

way of learning, organizing information about language, being creative, making

their own opportunities, learning to live with uncertainty, making errors work,

using their linguistic knowledge, letting the context help them, learning to make

intelligent guesses, learning production techniques, and using different styles of

writing and speech.

5) Teacher role

Teacher role in a task is developed from full authority such as in presenting

and drilling the language model to the less authority such as in pair-work or

group-work.

Richard-Rodger (2001: 236) states that in task-based learning teacher plays

important role in selecting and sequencing tasks, preparing students for task, and

raising students’ consciousness of the language features in tasks.


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23 d. Task Types

There are various type of tasks. In general, there are two types of tasks,

namely: (1) Real-world task, and (2) pedagogical task (Richard-Rodger, 2003:

231). Real-world tasks refer to tasks designed to practice and rehearse tasks that

are important and useful in real world. Pedagogical tasks refer to the tasks which

have a psychological basis in second language acquisition theory and research but

do not necessarily reflect real-world tasks.

e. Classroom Procedure

Willis (1996: 52) structured A Framework for Task Based Learning in her

paper, such as :

According to him, each lesson is divided into several stages. Some stages

can be removed or others can be added if the teacher wants to fit it:

1) Pre-task

In the pre-task, the teacher will present what will be expected of the

students in the task-phase. Additionally, the teacher may prime the students with

key vocabulary or grammatical construct, although, in “pure” task-based learning

PRE-TASK Introduction to topic and task instructions

TASK CYCLE

Task>Planning>Report (Writing activities)

LAGUAGE FOCUS Analysis and Practice


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24 lesson. Pre-task served as an introduction to the topic and task. It may involve

brainstorming, a pre-task, introduction to the topic and useful words and phrase or

preparation time.

2) Task Cycle

This cycle has three essential phases and one further optional phase.

a) Task

Learner begins carrying out a writing task, using whatever language they

already have, in pairs or groups. A task is a goal-oriented activity in which

learners achieve a real outcome. And unless the teacher plays a particular role in

the task, then the teachers’ role is typically limited to one of observer or

counselor- thus the reason for it being a more student-centered methodology.

b) Planning

Having completed the task, the students prepare either written or oral repot

to present to the class. The instructor takes commands and otherwise simply

monitors the students. Now the emphasis is on organization and accuracy. The

teacher advises students on language and helps them correct any errors they make

during this phase.

c) Report

The students then present this information to the rest of the class, here the

teacher may provide written or oral feedback, as appropriate, and the students

observing may do the same. Some or all of the groups report briefly to the whole

class. The others are listening to compare findings or conduct a survey. The

teacher may rephrase but not correct the language.


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25 3) Language focus

Language focus consists of the following steps:

a) Analysis

Here the focus returns to the teacher who reviews what happened in the

task, in regards to language. It may include language forms that the students were

using, problems that the students had, and perhaps forms that need to be covered

more or were not used enough.

b) Practice

The practice stage may be used to cover material mentioned by the

teacher in the analysis stage. It is an opportunity for the teacher to emphasize key

language.

4) Optional post task writing

This phase allows students to write the same task and to compare the

language.

f. The Advantage of TBA

TBA has strong advantages, namely:

1) TBA provides natural context for language use

Task-based learning provides students with a natural context for

language use. When students work to complete a task, they have abundant

opportunities to interact. The interaction is believed to facilitate language

acquisition as students have to work to understand each other and to express their

own words (Larsen, 2000: 144).


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26 2) TBA is students-centered

Task-based learning is more student-centered. Although teacher may

present language in pre-task, but later students are free to use they want. This

allows them to use all the language they know and learn them. They are not only

used a single construct (Willis, 2006).

3) TBA is familiar to the students

Tasks are supposed to be familiar to the students so they are more likely to

be engaged which is further motivate them in learning the target language

4) TBA involves activation process

Engaging students in task work provides a better context for the activation

of learning process than form-focused activities, and hence better opportunities for

language learning to take place (Richard-Rodger, 2001: 223)

3. Understanding of the Good Organization of English Text.

a. The Structure of Paragraph

The term paragraph can be perceived in two ways, physically and

conceptually Gere (1992: 72). Further explanation explained that physically a

paragraph refers to a group of sentences. That is marked at the beginning of

sentence. Conceptually, paragraph is perceived as one single idea, which is

developed in the form of one topic sentence and some supporting sentences. The

sentences in such paragraph are connected to each other and present information.

Oshima and Hogue (1999: 131) specify that a paragraph is a basic unit of

organization in composition. The length is relative as long as it is sufficient to

develop a main idea clearly. A paragraph is considered good if it can convey

thoughts effectively to the readers. Generally, a paragraph comprises a topic


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27 sentence, a concluding sentence, supporting sentence, unity, and coherence. Each

of those elements of paragraph will be elaborated below based on the explanation

provided by Oshima and Hogue (1999), Troyka (1987) and Oshima and Hogue

(1984).

1) Topic Sentence and Concluding Sentence

A topic sentence presents the main idea of the paragraph. It comprises two

elements, namely topic, that is the point or the thing being discussed, and

controlling idea, a specific comment, which limits the topic to one or two areas

that will be discussed in detail through the discussion in the whole paragraph. The

topic sentence functions as a guide for the writer to decide what information to

include and for the reader to predict the content of the paragraph. Topic sentence

may appear at the beginning (the first sentence) or the end (the last sentence) of a

paragraph. A topic sentence located in the end of the paragraph also functions as a

concluding sentence. A concluding sentence points toward the end of the

paragraph and summarizes the important points in the paragraph briefly. A

concluding sentence is not obligatory in a paragraph but its existence becomes a

good way in reminding the reader of the points in the paragraph.

2) Supporting Sentence

Supporting sentences are the sentences that develop the topic sentence.

They explain and clarify the topic sentence by providing either of the following

choices of development: (1) detail, that is a kind of support which present a

particular characteristic of the topic under discussion; (2) process, a kind of

support that tells how something is made or done; (3) cause and effect, a kind of

support that presents a list of causes and/or effects; (4) comparison and contrast, a


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28 kind of support, which deals with similarities and differences of two aspects or

more; (5) definition, a kind of support that explains what a term means; (6)

examples, a kind of support that provides series of things with similar

characteristics; or (7) figures and statistics.

3) Unity

Another aspect that a good and effective paragraph possesses is unity. It

refers to the condition in which a paragraph discusses only one main idea. The

principle of unity requires that all of the details presented be related to one another

in order to form a whole. A paragraph goes off the topic by including sentences

unrelated to the main idea. Therefore, sentences that cause digression should be

avoided. However, sometimes it is all right to discuss two or even three aspects of

the same idea in one paragraph if those aspects are closely related to one another.

4) Coherence

Coherence is also an important element, which governs the relationships

of sentences in a paragraph. By coherence, it means the smooth and logical

movement between sentences in the paragraph. Coherence is the principle that

ensures the connected flow of the sentences in the paragraphs and governs the

logic and the order of the ideas. There are two main ways to achieve coherence:

using appropriate transition signals and arranging the sentences in logical order.

Transition signals function to show how an idea is connected to the next. Besides

using transition signals, coherence can be achieved through the application of

logical order. The logical orders in English rhetoric are two folds: chronological

order and order of importance.


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29

Organizing ideas founded on chronological order means ordering ideas

based on their occurrence in time, while ideas organization based on the order of

importance means arranging them based on the importance. It can start with either

mentioning the most important point first or going down to the least one, or from

the least to the most important point.

On the whole, as Irmsher (1986: 78) and Langan (1986: 96) put it, a

paragraph should not leave confusion on readers mind about what is intended to

say and should make the readers feel at ease to go through it. To achieve that,

meanings should be clearly interrelated and logically presented.

b. The Structure of Essay

Writing essay resembles writing a paragraph for two reasons: (1) it is

written to discuss and develop one topic, and (2) the emphasis of unity and

coherence of necessary quality Oshima and Hogue (1999: 133). However, the

topic developed in an essay is normally too broad and too complex to be

discussed in just a single paragraph. Therefore, the topic then, needs to be divided

into several major points, with each discussed in one paragraph or more. Oshima

and Hogue (1999: 133); Gardner (2005: 104); and Irmsher (1986) mention that

generally an essay should contain three main components, namely introductory

paragraph, body paragraphs, and concluding paragraph. Each component will

be briefly explained in the sections that follow.

1)The Introduction

Oshima and Hogue (1999: 135) and Irmsher (1986: 79) point out that,

principally, introductory paragraph introduces the topic and the aspects of the

topic that will be covered in the discussion. An effective introduction captures the


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30 readers’ interest and gives them a sense of the topic and purpose (Gardner, 2005:

104). It contains two parts, namely: general statements, which is elaborated into

several sentences with the aim of drawing the readers’ attention to the topic, and a

thesis statement, which names the specific topic and the controlling idea. The

thesis statement should meet the following criteria: (1) it should be expressed in a

complete sentence; (2) it should express an opinion, attitude or an idea, and (3) it

should not simply announce the topic to the readers. As the introduction moves

from general to specific, the sentence become increasingly focused on the topic.

Each subsequent sentence in the introductory paragraph should become more

specific than the previous one and lead to the thesis statement. Such an

introduction can be pictured like a funnel or an inverted triangle.

An introductory paragraph entails the aims of introducing the topic, giving

the general background of the topic, indicating the overall plan of the essay, and

arousing the readers’ interest in the topic. An introductory paragraph leads to the

discussion of each aspects of the main idea in the body paragraph.

2) Body Paragraph

Body paragraph is the second component in the essay. They comprise all

the paragraphs in the essay with the exception of introductory and concluding

paragraphs. Each of the body paragraphs develops a subdivision of an essay topic.

The number of body paragraphs varies according to the number of the subdivision

of the main idea. The paragraphs in the body of the essay are linked logically by

expressions or transition signals. The details explanation presented in each body

paragraph serves to explain the writer’s points. They provide the

evidence/information needed by the readers to understand the general idea.


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31 3) Concluding Paragraph

The last component of an essay is the concluding paragraph. It conveys the

summary of the main points discussed in the body of the body of the essay and/or

the restatement of the thesis statement. This paragraph shows the readers the

ending of the discussion and brings the composing into a conclusion.

4) Rhetorical Organization in Writing

Under this subheading the review of some rhetorical organizations are

presented. The text under the discussion is about descriptive text. Descriptive

writing permits the writer to share his/her sensual impression of a person, a place,

or an object, which appeals to readers’ senses – sight, sound, smell, taste, and

touch (Troyka, 1987). Describe about writing to the readers by means of words

(Tompkins, 1994: 111; Brown, et al, 1984). By carefully capturing what he/she

sees, feels, and thinks about, a writer invites the readers to share his/her

experience. Different from narration, description would require the details of the

physical appearance of the object. Therefore, it is not time, but space that is

important (Smalley, et al., 2001). Description can take form of describing places,

people, and processes.

In describing a place, a writer in his/her writing should portray the

important characteristics of the place (McKay, 1983; Stanley, 1988). In doing so,

the writer arranges the sentences according to spatial organization, which includes

the location of the objects being described in the place. The writer can begin from

either left to right, from right to left, from top bottom to top, here and there, there

and here.


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32

Describing people is another branch of description. In describing people, a

writer describes a person’s appearance, among others, by telling about the person

styles of clothing, manner of walking, body shape, and facial expressions. In

describing people, the writer is not always demanded to provide every single

detail of the person under discussion. Instead, he/she may focus on one or two

outstanding features that covey something about the person’s character.

Describing a process necessitates a writer to employ chronology, the

sequence of ideas in time. Unlike narration, however, process is being repeatable

and resulting in a product. This type of writing is widely used in scientific as well

as technical writing to explain is commonly included in exposition. However, in

the book used as the source of material in this study, namely, Composition

Practice: Book 4. Second Edition written by Linda Lonon Blanton (1993), it is

identified as a branch of description. To make the students’ descriptive text can be

read and understood easily and even can be used as a means communication is not

easy. Of course, a teacher has to consider not only the content of the written text

and the way how to express the message in written text but also the readers

reading the text.

B. Teaching writing using Task-Based Activities

In teaching writing, doing pre-writing activities takes an important role

since it is one of pre-writing activities done to generate thoughts and ideas. It is

also very useful and helpful for the EFL students to start writing. One of the

activities which can be done by the EFL students is task-based because it enables

the EFL students to generate diction or words they need to write .


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33 Task-based activities can also be used as a natural context for using target

language in the classroom. It also encourages the students to be more active in

learning. Besides, it is motivated and familiar to the students for the choice of

material can be adapted to students’ interest as well as the real world need. The

procedure of teaching writing using TBA that is students are given a series

worksheet about describing people, thing, and place after the teacher explain

them. From the characteristics of task-based activity above, it is believed that

task-based activity can improve students’ writing ability at class X-5 SMAN I

bojonegoro in the academic year 2008/2009

C. Related Research

This research will be done in SMA Negeri I Bojonegoro is related to the

previous researchers done by Sulistyo (1993). His study which was aimed at

promoting the students’ functional skills in paragraph writing revealed that task-

based had been practically effective in working on the problems lacking unity in

students’ writing. The result of the study motivates the researcher to develop a

similar model to solve the problem confronted by the class X-5 students of SMA

Negeri I Bojonegoro.

However, there is a difference between the model develop in the present

study and the study conducted by Sulistyo (1993) and Hariyani (1990). In the

previously conducted study, the approach was focused on developing students’

ability in paragraph writing while the present study employs it with the purpose to

find a teaching method that is able to train the students to have adequate skill in

writing.

Another study was done by Erni (2009) from SMK Cokroaminoto 2

Surakarta. She optimized that Task-Based Activities was very suitable for

students to improve their speaking skill. It inspired me to use such kind of the

method in students’ writing skill.


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34

CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

A. Setting and Subject of the Research

This research was carried out from July to November, 2009 to the class X-

5 of SMAN I Bojonegoro.in the academic year of 2008/2009. The school is

located at Jl. Panglima Sudirman 28, Bojonegoro, phoned number: 0353 889503.

Geographically, SMAN I Bojonegoro, located in a very strategic place. It is in the

heart of Bojonegoro city. It is not difficult to get the school by all means of

transportation. This school has been equipped with complete facilities which

facilitate the teaching and learning process, such as language laboratory, physics

and biology laboratory, library, multi media room, LCD, computer laboratory,

and hot-spot area of internet. It has 21 classes which consist of 7 tenth grade

classes, 7 eleventh grade classes, and 7 twelveth grade classes. Because of the

limited time and finance, I only conducted the classroom action research from

April 2009 on one of the ten grade classes, as the subject of the study that was

class X-5.

The reason why I choose class X-5 as the subject of the study is they still

have problem in writing. The problem that students have are in: (1) generating

ideas; (2) arranging sentences; (3) organizing sentences; (4) having lack of diction

and (5) making coherence. It is proved from the result of a pre-test given. From

the result of the pre-test, students class X-5 can be classified into three categories:

high, average, and low students. That is why I conducted a classroom action

34


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35 research in order to overcome the problems. I was not only as a teacher but also as

an observer. In conducting the study, I was assisted by one collaborator. The

schedule to carry out the research is as follows:

Table 3.1 Research Schedule

No Activities Apr May June July August Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan 1. Preliminary

observation v

2. Writing proposal

v v v

3. Conducting research

v v v

4. Writing report

v v v v v v v

B. Research Design

This research used Collaborative Classroom Action Research. It means

that in conducting the research, I was helped by my collaborative teacher. My

collaborative teacher is an English teacher of the 10th grade SMA Negeri 1

Bojonegoro where the research is carried out. So, the collaborative teacher

belongs to my colleague. Here, my collaborator and I directly conducted the

research.

The concept used in this classroom action research is cyclical process

adapted from Lewin (2003: 4). According to him the core concepts of classroom

action research consists of four components: (1) Planning the action; (2)

implementing the action; (3) observing the action; and (4) reflecting. Then it is

clarified by Kemmis and Taggart (1998: 11) that the four components are not

statically interference one another. The decision that is carried out in a cycle is the

following up of the previous cycle. The effects of holding the policy in a cycle


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36 rationalize the activities for the next cycle. It will occur again and again for the

next cycles till the problems can be solved.

As this research is aimed at improving the quality of the teaching and

learning process in a classroom, choosing classroom action research is very

suitable. It is due to the fact that the characteristic of classroom action research in

which it is carried out in repeated cycles, gives enough chance for coping teaching

problems in the classroom. Here, the classroom action research is intended to

improve the students’ writing ability by providing the task-based activities for

writing.

In this research, I acted as the practitioner who helped the students

improving their writing ability. Meanwhile, my collaborator acted as the observer

who observes the teacher and the students’ activities when the teaching and

learning process of writing takes place.

Other researcher, Hopkins (1997: 4) defines that action research: “is a way of reflecting on your teaching of an English Department, or whatever it is you do in ELT. It is done by systematically collecting data on your everyday practice and analyzing it in order to come to some decisions about what your future practice should be.

Rapoport (in Wallace, 1970: 21) says that an action research aims to

contribute both to the practical concerns of people in an immediate problematic

situation and to the goals of social science by joint collaboration within mutually

acceptable ethical framework.

Kemmis (in Burns, 1983: 31) writes:

“Action research is a form of self-reflective enquiry undertaken by participants in social situation in order to improve the rationality and justice (a) their social and education practice, (b) their understanding of these practice, and (c) the situation in which the practices are carry out. It is most rationally empowering when undertaken by participants collaboratively, though it is often undertaken by individuals, and sometimes in cooperation with outsiders”


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37

From the explanations above, it can be concluded that an action research in

this study means the systematic study of attempts to improve the teaching and

learning process in order that the English Learners’ achievement is satisfactory.

As a matter of fact, the students’ ability in writing descriptive text is not

satisfactory and needs improving.

In order to be able to achieve the objectives of the teaching and learning

process, I used some steps, as stated by Kemmis (1982: 11) that there are some

steps in carrying out a classroom action research and each step has its own

procedures and activities as follows:

1. Planning

In this stage, I firstly identified the problems referring to teaching and

learning process in my classroom. In this case, the problems were related to the

writing ability.

After identifying the problems, I made a plan about what kind of action

that will be carried out. Next, I prepared everything dealing with the planning

such as interview with the collaborator, interviewing the students, sharing ideas

with collaborator, pre-test, making lesson plan, preparing teaching aids and

instrument for testing, and designing treatment.

I prepared three cycles that are expected to overcome the students’

problem in writing. At the end of first cycle, I analyzed and evaluated the

students’ improvement and made a decision of the importance of applying the

second cycle. The process was repeated in the second cycle to decide the

importance of conducting the third cycle.


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38

2. Action

I carried out the lesson plan in the classroom. I conducted the teaching

activities step by step based on the lesson plan. I applied task-based activity in

teaching writing to the tenth grade students.

3. Observation

The activity is observing the students during the action and making notes

in observation sheet such as: the student-student interaction, the student-teacher

interaction and anything they do during the teaching and learning process. I was

helped by the collaborator who will be asked to observe the activities, give her

ideas, opinions, and also note the strength and weaknesses of lesson plan

implementation using task-based activity in teaching writing.

4. Reflection

After carrying out teaching and learning activity during task-based

activity, I recited the occurrences in the classroom as the effect of the action. I and

her collaborator evaluated the process and the result of the implementation of

task-based activities in teaching writing. The evaluation gave advantages in

deciding what I had to do in next cycle.

5. Revising

The revision was aimed to improve the condition that had not been

successful in the previous cycle. By revising the plan, it is hoped that the rest of

problems could be handled in the following cycle.


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39 C. Procedure of the research

The research was started by making an observation. This was done in

March 2009. During the observation, I found that the students faced serious

problems in writing. They can not fulfill the prerequisite of a written form. There

are some indications which show their poor ability in writing. For example: the

students do not organize their writing well, their ideas are not coherence, they had

lack of vocabularies, they lack of diction and their understanding of mechanic is

low. I also interviewed students to find out the causes of the problems. The result

of the interview show that: (1) They also get confused with what they are going

to write, as a result, they can not proceed with their writing; (2) They also get

confused with how to use appropriate adjective in their descriptive text; (3) They

lack of diction and get difficulties in how to use appropriate dictions. As a result,

their writing is often coherent. They also said that the teaching -learning process is

mostly dominated by grammatical materials for speaking and reading, writing is

only given in a few portions. That is why the students feel lazy, bored even

unmotivated when the teacher gives them writing material.

Based on the problem above, I will use task-based as a technique on

making descriptive text. Task-based will be carried out in some stages. I will use

it in some cycles till the students’ progress is achieved.

According to the 2006 curriculum, the students of class tenth are expected

to able to create many kinds of texts in the form of descriptive, procedure, report,

and narrative. In this occasion, I will focus on a descriptive text.

I will use test, observation, and interview to know the effect of using task-

based in teaching writing. I will examine the strengths and weaknesses of


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40 implementing task-based activities. Then, reflection will be done by me and the

collaborator

D. Data Collection Technique

The techniques of collecting data in this research can be seen in the

following table:

Table 3.2 Technique of Collecting Data

No

Stag

es

Aims Who/What Involved

Technique of Collecting

Data Kinds of Data

Technique of Analyzing

Data

1

Pre-

rese

arch


Students Pre-test Score in daily test

Scoring and rubric scale


- Students - Class - Teacher

Interview Observation Questionnaire

Interview data Descriptive statistic

2

Whi

lst R

esea

rch


Students Test Test score Scoring and rubric scale


Researcher, collaborator

Observation Field note - Descriptive - Elaboration

c. Collecting qualitative data

Students Questionnaire - Questionnaire - Field note

Score percentage criteria

d. Collecting qualitative data

- Research - Teacher - Students

Interview Diary

Recorded from interview Reflective notes

Descriptive Elaboration CCM (Constant Comparative Method)

The description of data collection process is presented in the following

section:

Observation is an activity of watching and recording action and behavior

of research participants. My collaborator and I observed the activities of my


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41 students and the progress of teaching and learning in writing class. The data

gained in the observation is in the form of descriptive text from field note.

Interview is an activity to ask questions in face to face interaction. Burns

(1999: 118) states that a research interview is a structured social interaction

between me and a subject who is identified as a potential source of information. In

this research, the interview is to gain information from the students and

collaborator. The information covers their idea, opinion, and impression of the use

of task-based in writing a descriptive text.

Questionnaire is a technique of asking question of someone’s feeling,

opinion, or idea but in non face to face interaction. I applied questionnaire to gain

students’ responses of certain issues, such as the students’ perception about the

implementation of TBA.

E. Data Analysis Technique

This study will be successful if there is an improvement of students’

ability in writing. One of indicator of the improvement is the increase of writing

scores. In this case, before applying the action, I will give pre-test to my students.

In the end of the action, the students will be given post-test in order to know the

improvement of writing ability.

There are two types of data in the research. First is quantitative data that is

in the form of writing score which is gained from the result of pre-test or post-test

in this research. The score will be analyzed with comparing the mean of each test

to find out the improvement of students’ achievement in writing.


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42

Another type of data is in the form of qualitative data. The data will be

analyzed by using the Constant Comparative Method as suggested by Strauss and

Glasser in Lincoln and Guba (1985: 339). The process includes the following

steps:

1. Comparing incidents applicable to each chategory

It is a process in which the researcher classifies the nature and the dimensions

of the various concepts arising from the data.

2. Integrating categories and their properties

The researcher starts to write down the relation of the various concepts and to

pay attention to all concepts emerged to the relationships

3. Delimiting the theory

When the patterns of the concept relationship get clearer, the researcher ignores

all concepts which are irrelevant to the inquiry. As the numbers of categories

are reduced, the story will become simple.

4. Writing the theory

It is the last step of Constant Comparative Method. Here the researcher notes

theories resulted from the analysis in the previous threee steps.

In scoring the students’ work, there are five elements to be scored, they are

organization, content, grammar, diction, and mechanics. The value of each

element ranged from 1 to 5. The maximum score of organization is six, the

maximum score of content is five, the maximum score of grammar is four, the

maximum score of diction is three, and the maximum score of mechanic is two.

So the total score of each element is twenty, thus, the final score is one hundred

derived from the maximum of range score times the total score of each element is


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43

N

XM å=

one hundred. The distribution score of the writing elements is illustrated in the

table below:

Table I The Average scores of each writing element

No Writing Elements Average Score 1. Organization 50,50 2. Content 59,00 3. Grammar 52,00 4. Vocabulary 58,00 5 Mechanics 58,00

The average score of writing elements 55,79

Furthermore, to obtain more valid score, the students’ works were scored using

inter-rater. It means that the students’ works are scored by both me and the

collaborator. So there are two sets of score results from me and the collaborator

which are used to state the significance of task-based in writing a descriptive text

whether the students’ improvement occurs or not. The score from five elements

will help to call the teachers’ attention to areas of needed improvement. It means

that it provides information about the difficulties that the students encountered.

After analyzing the scores of the written text, I use statistical technique to

find the mean score. The formula to find the mean as stated by Ngadiso (2007: 5-

7) is follows

M = Mean score

åX = Total scores

N = Total students


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44

If the mean score increases, the students’ writing ability is considered

improving. It means that task-based activities can be used to overcome the

students’ problems to write a descriptive


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45

CHAPTER IV

RESULT OF THE STUDY

In this chapter, I would like to present research findings to answer the

initial problem which has been mentioned in the first chapter. The aim of this

research is to prove whether the implementation of task-base can improve

students’ writing ability and to identify to what extent the improvement is.

There are two sections in this research. Section A relates to the research

which includes the condition before the research, the implementation of the

research, and the final reflection. Section B relates to the findings and discussion.

The summary of the research is provided in Table 4.1.

Table 4.1 Summary of the Research

I. Pre – research : Gaining base-line data · Observing teaching and learning process · Interviewing students · Questionnaire · Conducting pre-test

II. Research Implementation Cycle Task Activity

ONE : Describing Things M1 : Shape and location M2 : Object M3 : Places

1. Describe and Draw 2. Guess my object 3. How is your living

room?

1. Describing a geometric picture from a set of verbal instruction

2. Guessing an object from a series of clue

3. Describing room after an interview

TWO : Describing People

1. Who is who? 2. Tell me your picture

1. Guessing a person in picture 2. Cutting a picture and describing

it THREE : Describing Event

1. What are they doing? 2. What are the

differences?

1. Describing an event by a clue 2. Finding the differences between

two similar pictures

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46 In more detail, Table 4.1 is described in the following section.

A. The Process of the Research

There are three parts in this section, namely the condition before the

research, the implementation of the research consisting of Cycle I, Cycle 2, Cycle

3, final reflection, and the research findings.

1. The Condition before the Research

The condition before the research was identified in preliminary stage. It

was held to gain base-line data of the research. The result of the preliminary stage

can be seen in Table 4.2.

Table 4.2 Result of Pre-research

Issues Indicators 1. Students’ ability in 1. Low achievement in writing : Mean = 55,79 writing 2. Difficulty to choose topic sentence

3. Difficulty to express ideas using appropriate vocabulary and grammatical form 4. Does not know writing elements 5. using mother tongue in writing class

2. Classroom situation 1. Not alive atmosphere 2. Low participation of students 3. Teacher domination 4. Limited writing practice 5. Written form activities 6. Low exploration of students’ potentials

In more details, Table 4.2 the condition before the research is described in

the following sections:

a. Students’ ability in Writing

This study began when I realized that the students had problem in English

especially in writing. It was based on the preliminary interview to the students that

most of them reacted that writing is regarded difficult. Then, I conducted

preliminary observation. The preliminary observation was conducted in order to


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47

find out the problem faced by the students and the teaching-learning situation

done by the previous teacher. To find out the teaching-learning situation, I

observed the previous teacher in the teaching and learning process.

The low ability in writing test could also be caused the previous teacher is

still uses product approach in teaching writing. It means that she just explains the

pattern of the sentences. Then, she asked them to write on a certain topic in

limited time. She hardly gave suggestion to their students’ writing. She just gave

score for the students’ writing. The time allocation in teaching writing was also

insufficient. It was only given fewer portions than other language skills.

In line with statement above, I found that the teachers’ way of teaching

was very conventional. The indicators were as follows: (1) She never used

teaching aids to carry out the material; (2) She dominated the classroom activity;

(3) She rarely walked around the class to make sure what her students were doing

or whether they were paying attention on what she explained or not; (4) She often

sat in her chair; and (5) She only focused more on how to finish the students’

worksheet published by a certain publisher than how to give various teaching

materials.

I also conducted interview and questionnaire to the students in order to

find out the students’ perception toward writing skill. From the result of interview

and questionnaire to the students, it could be concluded that writing is regarded

difficult. Most of them found difficulties in organizing the ideas to become

paragraph, making grammatical sentences and finding appropriate vocabulary.

They also did not know the correct spelling of some certain words. They did not

revise what they had written. Furthermore, the teacher gave limited time to


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48

accomplish their writing and the teacher did not guide them in the process of

writing.

As a result, they could not continue their writing and their writing was

often incoherent. Moreover, they seldom read their writing after they finished

writing. Consequently, the result of their writing was under average and still far

from what was expected. The average score of each writing element could be seen

in Table 4.3. Table 4.3 The Average scores of each writing element

No. Writing Elements Average score

1. Organization 50.50

2. Content 59,00

3. Grammar 52,00

4. Vocabulary 58,00

5. Mechanics 65,00

Average score of writing elements 55,79

The result showed that the students had low ability in writing. The low

ability in writing could be seen from the low achievement of writing test. The

mean of writing scores in preliminary test was low, namely 55,79.

The scores of the students showed that the worst element of writing was

on organization. Then, it was followed by grammar, mechanic, and content. It can

be concluded that their writing ability was under average.

In line with the score above, the result of questionnaire showed that the

students had more difficulties in writing than the three other language skills:

listening, speaking and reading as shown in the Table 4.4


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49

Table 4.4 Rank of English Skill Difficulties Class X-5 SMA Negeri 1 Bojonegoro in the Academic Year of 2008/2009

No. English Language Skill Number of Students Percentage (%) 1. Writing 19 48,7% 2. Listening 11 28,2% 3. Speaking 6 15,3% 4. Reading 3 0,7%

From the table, we know that writing is regarded as the most difficult

language skills. It is 48, 7%. The students’ writing ability problems were shown

by some indicators as follows: (1) The students were not able to organize the

words or phrase to become a good sentence or sentences; (2) The students were

not able to construct a text chronologically; (3) The students got difficulty to

choose the appropriate diction; (4) The students were not able to make sentences

grammatically correct

From the result of preliminary test, I could categorize the students’ writing

ability to three levels, above average, average, and under average. Twenty one

percent of students have above average ability, nine students have average ability

and ten students have under average ability. In more detail, the result of the test

can be seen in Table 4.3

Table 4.3 Feature of Students’ writing

Number of students

Percentage Level Writing features

21 52,5% Above average

The text could be understood Having sufficient vocabulary Using the right grammatical from Self confident to share the ideas Not using mother tongue in writing

9 22,5% Average

The text could be understood Having enough vocabulary Making some mistakes in grammatical form Sometimes doubtful in arranging words Sometimes using mother tongue in writing

10 25% Under average The text could not be understood


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50

Having limited vocabulary Making many mistakes in grammatical form Lack of self confident to share the ideas Often using mother tongue in writing

b. Classroom situation

Based on the preliminary research through observation, I could describe

that the teaching and learning process before the research was not alive. The

condition mostly caused by both teacher and students.

The causes from the teacher were as follows: (1) I still used traditional

technique in which I only demanded the students’ writing product: (2) I only gave

fewer portions for writing though writing is a complex skill: and (3) I made the

students write a text that must fulfill the written language rules. On the other hand,

I did not give sufficient attention to teach them how to write a text in English

correctly: (4) the students were seldom taught to make a better writing by using

various techniques. The techniques used were monotonous: (5) I did not consider

that writing is a complex skill in which it needs time for revising the content,

grammar, and mechanics.

Some problems that may lead students’ difficulties in writing were as

follows: (1) The students’ writing mastery was still low: (2) The students’ ability

how to organize sentences was low. Consequently, their writing was incoherent:

(3) they sometimes lost their ideas and stuck; (4) they got difficulty how to start to

write so they could not continue their writing: (5) they were lack of vocabulary. It

could be seen that the students did not organize their writing well. Their ideas

were constructed incoherently. They often lost their ideas and got stuck. As a

result, they could not continue their writing. Consequently, the result of their


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51 writing was under average and still far from was expected. This finding was

supported by the result of the students’ writing, the average of students’ writing

score was 55,79

Due to the fact above, it is necessary to make an attempt to improve

students’ writing ability by applying other teaching technique. English teacher

should be able to improve students’ interest and motivation to study English better

by creating an interesting atmospheres that makes them enjoy the teaching and

learning process and gives a bit fun. One of the teaching techniques which cover

such kinds of those activities is Task-Based.

Dawson and Essid (2008: 1) state that Task-based is type of prewriting

that allows one to explore many ideas as soon as they occur to him. Task-based

has many advantages when it is implemented in writing text: a descriptive text.

The advantages of Task-based are as follows:

1) It enables the students to generate the words needed in writing

descriptive text.

2) It was a way for the students to express their ideas on (they put their

ideas in task-based).

I choose this technique and this text type because they were easy to be

carried out in teaching writing text and the students have been familiar with them

so it was easy for me to carry out the teaching and learning process.

Task-based is useful and meaningful techniques for the students to give

not only generate the dictions needed but also one of the ways how to classify

and embody the words needed in writing descriptive text. Thus, it enables the

students to explore their dictions.


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52 c. Students’ perception about writing

After conducting pre-test, I then conducted interview with the students.

The purpose of the interview was exploring the students’ perception about

writing. The interview had more concerns on their difficulties in writing text and

how they solved their problems. I also interviewed them about their responses

toward the teaching and learning process activities they joined. The answers

helped me plan the treatment to solve the problem. The result of the interview can

be seen in Table 4.4.

Table 4.4 Result of Interview

No. Questions Students response

Yes No 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Do you like English? Is English important? Are you able to write English? Is writing difficult? Do you like writing?

84% 100% 84% 84% 37%

16% 0% 16% 16% 63%

The result of the interview about likes and dislikes of English showed that

there are two groups of students who likes and dislikes of English. Student AT

stated that he likes English because English is fun. It is in line with IS who

claimed that she likes English because the way of English learning is exciting.

Student PP stated that she likes English to master English. She believes that she

can master the language well if she likes it. On the contrary, the second group of

students. Student NP thought that the language is difficult to learn, while student

WD claimed that she does not like English because there is writing activity. She

was really afraid of given a turn to read her writing, so she hates English very

much.


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53 The next question in the interview was about the importance of English.

All students (100%) realize that English is necessary in their life, especially for

getting a job in the future, as stated by Student DI. Student RN stated that

someone having English skill is considered of having plus quality in getting job.

Other reason of the importance of English are that English is one of subject of

final exam (UAN), as stated by student IS. And other opinion came from Student

CA who claimed that English is important to create a text appropriately.

Dealing with the question about the ability of writing, only sixteen percent

of the students claimed that they have no problem in their writing, they stated that

writing is not difficult. The rest of the students about eighty four percent stated

that they are not able to write in English, for them, writing is considered to be

difficult.

The last point of the interview was about participation in writing activity.

Some of the students sixty three percent claimed that they did not like the writing

activity. On the contrary only thirty seven of the students stated that they liked

writing activity.

The interview revealed the cause of students’ hateness of writing. Most of

them said that they did not know how to start writing, they have poor vocabulary,

creating sentences, and also the grammar. Student ZM said ‘ terus terang bu, saya

kesulitan kalau nulis, bagaimana memulainya. In line with this statement, Student

JO stated ‘Bu, saya agak bleng kalau ngarang, kosakata saya parah bu, terus

ngrangkaikan kalimatnya juga susah.


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54 Apart from the interview, I asked the students to identify the causes of the

writing difficulty. I asked them to choose the most crucial cause of their writing

difficulty. The result of the identification can be seen in Table 4.5.

Table 4.5 Cause of Writing Difficulty

Causes of writing difficulty Percentage 1. 2. 3. 4.

Psychological barriers : problems on preparing topics, developing ideas, lack of self confidence Grammar Vocabulary Pronunciation

58%

31% 21% 16%

The data revealed in the following statement. Student JO stated ‘ Writing

itu sulit bu. Kata-katanya tidak tahu artinya.’ Student RN stated that beside

vocabulary, grammar became her problem in writing. She stated ‘ Writing itu

agak sulit. Sebab saya ndak tahu susunan kalimatnya

Based on the students’ perception towards writing, I, then, motivates to

overcome the students’ ability in writing descriptive text through task-based. The

implementation of the research can be seen in Table 4.6

Table 4.6 Overall Implementation of the Research

Problem Students had low writing ability Solution Teaching writing through TBA Students Tenth Grade No. of Cycle 3 Cycle 1 : Describing Things Planning Giving a task in each meeting (pre-task, task, and language focus), Using

picture and real object Action M1 : Describe and Draw; M2 :Guess my hidden object, M3 : How is your

living room?, M4 : Post test Observation SS : active, interest, is achieved, T : worksheet, too many tasks, lack of

modeling, grammar discussion, and monitoring, CS : alive, enjoyable, but crowded

Reflection (+) Raise SS ability through various activities; success in group work (-) Lack of monitoring, modeling, grammar and vocabulary building, too

many tasks Cycle 2 : Describing People Planning Using M1 for vocabulary building; M2 for main tasks, M3 for language

focus. Using picture


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Action M1 : Pre-task; M2 Task: Tell me your picture; M3: Language focus; M4: Post test

Observation SS : more active, confident enough, some still confused T : write slowly, enough task, modeling, grammar and vocabulary

discussion, CS : more alive, more fun and enjoyable; group work was more effective

Reflection (+) Raise students’ interest, enjoyable task, interesting situation (-) Difficulty in choosing the words

Cycle 3 : Describing event Planning Using M1 for vocabulary building; M2 for main tasks, M3 for language

focus. Using picture Action M1 : Pre-task; M2 Task: Tell me the differences!; M3: Language focus;

M4 : Post test Observation SS : improving students’ ability especially in learning writing and self-

confidence, T : guiding the students conduct activities CS : more alive, enjoyment in doing the tasks was increased

Reflection (+) Improve writing ability, effective group work, more alive class (-) Lack of self-confidence in writing, mother tongue use, need more

challenge Final reflection Writing ability raised, fluency in writing was achieved, mother tongue

pattern use decreased CS : alive, SS writing ability increased, bigger chances for writing. T : more innovative, T explored students’ potentials

The implementation of the research in its cycle is described on the following

section

a. Cycle 1

The overall description of Cycle 1 can be seen in the table 4.7


Pla

nnin

g

Topic : Describing Things Giving a task in each meeting Each meeting consists of pre-task, task, and language focus Using picture and real object

Act

ion

First meeting – fourth meeting · Exploring vocabulary and phrases · Doing various tasks about the topic · Discussing the form in Language Focus Fourth meeting · Having a test of describing things using real objects and picture

obse

rvat

ion

Students · Active in doing the task, brave to tell the ideas in group · Could perform the text (topic sentence is achieved) but they made mistakes in

vocabulary and grammar (accuracy is less achieved) · Lack of confidence


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Teacher · Preparing the work sheets · Giving too much tasks so the time was not enough · She did not give written model and grammar discussion, · Lack of monitoring in group work · Never gave any explanation Classroom situation · Alive, crowded in conducting the group work · Enjoyable for various types of activities

Ref

lect

ion

Strength · Using TBA can increase students’ participation in writing class · There was an improvement of students’ writing ability · TBA can accommodate various types of activities which are motivating the students

to write, including games · Group work in TBA is beneficial for eliminating psychological barriers in writing

such as the fear of making mistakes, lack of self-confident . Weaknesses · Less control of the teacher in group work · Lack of discussion about grammar · Lack of activity in vocabulary exploration · Lack of modeling from teacher

1. Planning

Before implementing the action, I gave the students the pre-writing test

The test is aimed to know how the students’ writing ability was. Having

identified students’ problem, the indicator, and the causes of the problem, I choose

a teaching technique that could be a solution for the problem. In this case, I

applied Task-Based Activity (TBA) in the writing class.

In the first cycle I planned to teach writing using TBA. The topic for the

first cycle was Describing Things. I planned four meetings for the first cycle, three

meetings for classroom discussions and activities using TBA and one meeting for

post test. Each meeting consists of four parts namely: (1) Opening the class, (2)

Pre-task, (3)Main-task and (4) Closing the class.

In Pre-task phase, I tried to build students’ vocabulary and developed

related phrases. In the task phase, I gave various activities for the students to


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57 conduct using English. The students could optimize the use of vocabulary and

related phrases that they learned in Pre-task. During the task, the students were

hoped to write a lot either in individual, pair, or group work. The activity followed

by Language Focus. In this phase, I under lined the sentence pattern dealing the

language that had been used by the students in task phase. The Language focus

was mainly dealing with form in written exercises.

2. Implementing the action

a) First meeting

1) Opening the class

It was a bright morning. After the bell rang, I entered the class with my

collaborator. I greeted the students “Good morning students!” and they replied

eagerly. The activity was followed by checking the students’ attendance.

2) Pre-task

I introduced the topic of discussion. I said that that day we would learn

about describing object, in that case, we would discuss about describing shapes

and position. I delivered the work sheets to the students and started the activity. I

referred to the pictures in activity and explored various shapes in the picture by

asking such as ‘ What shapes it is?’ Or ‘ What is the shape of B? The students

could answer the question well. They had known about various kinds of two

dimensional and three dimensional shapes. The students made some mistakes in

writing, I, then, conducted writing practice. Students re-write one by one again.

We continued to activity 2. In the activity, students did a pair work activity

of asking and answering questions about the shapes of 10 objects, namely an ice

cream, a classroom, a can, coin, a pencil, a pencil box, a pencil, a computer and


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58 a hand phone . We started to discuss the meaning of the words. Some students did

not know the meaning of can. When there was no more problem with meaning,

the students started asking and answering questions. I monitored the whole class

and corrected some mistakes in writing.

In activity 3 we explored vocabulary about position. By looking at the

picture, I asked the students about the position of various shapes in the worksheet.

The students had no problem in describing position. I asked the students if there

was a question, but no problem, therefore I continued to the task phase.

3) Task (Main Activity)

In the task phase, students worked in group, after dividing the class into

five groups, I explained the way of conducting the task. There were two tasks in

this phase. The first task is describing task. In the first task, students had to

describe a picture composed of various objects in various positions. The second

task is information-gap activity using a picture. One member of the group had to

draw the shape composition on the whiteboard by the help of the rests of the

group members. She would be able to draw correctly if she got good description

from the group members.

We started with the first task. To give a clear understanding I gave a model

to the students. I draw a picture on the whiteboard. I asked one of the students to

describe a picture. I helped the students who had a problem. When the students

had understood the way to do the task, they started working in group. The students

were working with the group. I monitored from one group to another. There was

no problem with the students conducting the task. Each group had to describe the

pictures. After the students had finished working, I checked the result.


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59 I asked a member of first group to present picture1. All the members of the

groups were eagerly to create the description about the picture, then, I choose one

of them to write it on the board. I just needed one person from each group. I told

that there would be more opportunities for them to perform their description. The

turns continued to the second, third, fourth, and fifth groups. The common

mistakes that the students made were about the topic sentence that have clear

subject and predicate. For the kind of mistake I usually corrected it at once.

After conducting the first task, we came to the second task. In the second

task, each group was given an information gap activity using picture. One member

of the group had to make a short description about the picture on the whiteboard.

She would be able to draw a picture if the rests of the group gave the correct

description about the picture. I delivered the cards for the groups and asked one

member of each group to sit aside. Then we started with the first group.

The representative of the first group came to the front of the class, ready to

draw. The rests of the members tried hard to write the description about the

picture and then based on the description given by the member of the group, the

representative could draw the picture well. The activity was really fun, because

there was a characteristic of game in it. All the members of the group were trying

hard to write the description to be understood by the representative. The result

was wonderful. I compared the real picture and the students’ picture on the wall. I

asked the opinion of the rests of the class. It was nearly the same, but there was a

wrong position of the shape. It had to be in diagonal position, but the student drew

it horizontal position.


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60 The second group could do better. They could draw exactly the same

shape. It was great because the students loved the activity very much. However,

because of the limited time, I had to stop the activities. The other groups seemed

to be very disappointed because they did not get the turn to conduct the task. It

was time for me to go to the last part of the lesson, the Language Focus. In this

phase, I conducted the review and how to ask and answer questions about the

shapes of objects.

5) Closing the class

When the bell rang, I closed the class by saying good bye. Before the class

over, I asked them to bring an object to use in the second meeting.

b) Second Meeting


I started the class by greeting students “Good morning class!” and they

responded in enthusiast way. After checking the attendance, I said to the students

that that day we would discuss further about Describing Things. I went on with

reviewing material in the previous meeting, dealing with shape and position.

2) Pre-task

That day’s meeting is aimed to explore various adjectives that would be

used in describing things. I took my book and asked the students about the

characteristics of my book. They said that my book is rectangle and brown, then

after I asked question they concluded that the book is thin.

I went on with the vocabulary exploration. I stated that in describing

things, we needed several adjectives. I made some notes on the whiteboard while

discussing the words. First is about shape. They mentioned some adjectives of


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61 shapes such as rectangle, circle, triangle, and square. Second, is about color. They

could mention some colors such as brown, blue, white, pink, and yellow. Third is

size. The students said that my book is big; they mentioned some adjectives of

size namely small, long and short. I asked question about the quality of the book;

and they said that my book is bad. Then we explored some adjectives of quality

such as good, bad, beautiful. So far, we have learned about adjectives of shape,

color, size, and quality. I stated that I have another type of adjective, dealing with

age. We listed about new, old, and modern. I nearly missed another type of

adjective; the adjective of material. Students could identify the words such as

paper, wood, and plastic.

I went to Activity 1 in the worksheet. I supplied various adjectives and the

students had to put the adjectives into their category of shape, color, size, quality,

age, and material. The students had a discussion with their partners. I monitored

the students’ activity. It took a long time for the students to make a categorization

of the adjectives. Considering the length of time, I took the control of the activity

by having a class discussion. I choose one word and discussed the meaning and

the students put it into the proper category. When students had no problems, we

went on the second activity. I wrote some object on the worksheet and asked the

students to find the characteristics about the object. I wrote the object on the

whiteboard, as follows: table. Then, the students explored the characteristic such

as triangle, brown, hard, wood. I asked about the quality of the object, “Is it a

good table?” The students replied “No!” They said that it was bad. I asked my

students to use the words to describe the object. I referred to activity 3 in the

worksheet where I had given them the form of describing object.


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62 3) Main-Task

In this stage, I divided the students into groups. They had to work in group

to describe some object that I had prepared for them. The students worked in the

group; I monitored the groups and helped if there was a problem. Most of the

problems were about vocabulary. Many students did not know the English words

for describing the objects. In this case, I told them the words directly.

I delivered four objects to each group. After five minutes the students

exchanged the object with other groups. It was exciting activity. Students worked

hard to describe the objects. While the students working in the group, I monitored

them. To check their understanding, I asked the students in the group to describe

the objects. Having finished with the group work I asked them to get back to their

seats. I checked the whole class to describe the objects and they had no problem.

The activity was followed by Guessing Game. Guess my hidden object. I

had asked the students to bring a mysterious object. They brought the objects and

put them into plastic bags so that their friends could not recognize the objects.

First, I asked DI to come to the front of the class. I motivated the students to ask

questions using Yes-No questions about the object. Only a few students wanted to

make questions. I encouraged them to ask questions by giving example of how to

ask questions.

I was glad that finally the students could ask questions. I asked some

students to come to the front of the classroom and their classmates tried to guess

the mysterious objects. The activity was fun for the students. They were eager to

participate in the activity.After this activity I went to language focus discussion. I


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63 made a review of how to describe an object. I also underlined the way to ask

questions using Yes-No questions. I gave an exercise for the students.


Before closing the class, I gave the students a home work to describe

everything in their own house. I closed the class with thanking the students of

their participation and saying goodbye. We gave a big applause together.

c) Third meeting


It was sunny afternoon. I entered the class and started the lesson. I greeted

the students “Good afternoon class!” and they responded properly. I checked the

presence and found that there were two students absent from the class. After

asking the students’ condition, I started the lesson.

2) Pre-task

I told the students that that day we would learn about describing the house.

I delivered the worksheets and asked the students to pay attention to the picture in

activity 1. First, we would learn about parts of the house. By identifying the parts

of the house in the picture, the students learn about door, window, fence, roof,

chimney, wall, stairs, garage, park, and then the students identified first floor,

second floor, and third floor.

Next we went to Activity 2. In this part, the students had to identify the

rooms in a house. I asked the students with a question “What kind of rooms are

there in your house?” From the answer, we listed six rooms namely living room,

bedroom, dining room, bathroom, kitchen and garage. After identifying the rooms

in the house, the students had to find the objects that were commonly found in


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64 each room. Students had a discussion with their partners and completed the table.

3) Main-Task

In the task phase, I gave a picture to the students. In Activity 3 of the

worksheet, there was a picture of living room. First, I asked the students “What

kind of room is it? “ Students could identify it as a living room. Next, I asked the

students to describe the objects in the picture. I listed the words on the

whiteboard. They are television, table, chair, radio, lamp, curtain, newspaper.

When all the objects had been listed, we conducted the writing practice.

Next step, I asked the students about how to describe a room. I gave them

a written model. I used the classroom to be an example, as follows:

“We can start describing the room. How is the room? Is it big or small? Yes, the room is big. Is the room clean? What color is the wall? Then, you can mention the objects in the room and their positions. Like this way. There is a teacher table in front of the classroom. There is a whiteboard in front of the table. Is there a clock in the room? Yes, there is. Where is the clock? It is on the wall, above the white board

After giving a written model about how to describe a room, I asked the

students to describe Activity 3. They worked in group. Having divided the

students into groups, I asked them to start working. When I asked the students to

work with the group, they looked excited. They said that they liked working in

group.

I asked one of the students from group to describe the room. The result

was as follows:

“It is big room. There is a table in the middle of the room. There are two newspapers on the table. There is a book on the television. There is a carpet on the table. There is a book on the radio. There is a lamp on the floor. There is a chair on the floor. There is a window outside the curtain.


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65

The description was acceptable although she made some mistakes as in

mentioning the number of books. Instead of saying four books she mentioned

“There is a book on the radio. “ She also made mistake in telling the position of

the table. She said “There is a carpet on the table. “ She made a familiar sentence

like “There is a window outside the curtain “ She also made mistakes in writing

floor and lamp.

I went to monitor another group. I asked the group to describe the picture,

and the description was as follows:

‘It is a big room. There is a table in the middle of the room. There are two newspapers. There is a picture on the wall. There is a radio on the table. There is a lamp beside the chair. There are four books on the radio. There is a plant before the window. There is a television on the table. There is a carpet under the table and chair’

. The second group could perform better than the first group. The

description is more complete than the previous one. The vocabulary used is more

complete and the sentences are more grammatically precise.

I went to the third group to check the result of the work. The third group

produced the following description about the picture

It is a big room. There is a table in the room. There are two newspapers on the table. There are four books on the radio. There is a table on the carpet. There is a picture on the wall. There is a television on the floor. There are two chairs on the carpet. There is a radio on the table. There is a radio on the right side wall. There is a television on the left side of wall. There is a plant on the window. There is a lamp on the left side of chair. There are two chairs beside the table.

The description of the third group was more complete than the previous

group. The group tried to describe the position of the object in the picture using

the left and right side. As I had done for other groups I asked several questions

about the picture. The group could answer the questions well although I had to

repeat question twice or three times to make the students understand


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66

I went to the last group to check the work. The last group, the fourth group

produced the following description:

There is a table in the middle of room. There are two newspapers on the table. There are two chairs on the floor. There are two pictures on the wall. There is a newspaper on the television. There are two curtains on the wall. There is a plant back the window. There is a lamp on the chair. There is a carpet under the table. There is a book on the radio. There are two tables in the room.

The fourth group could describe it well. However, they made unnecessary

repetition about the number of the table in the room. I gave the students several

questions to answer. I did not have to repeat the questions as in the previous

group. They could answer them correctly.

The result of the activity was satisfying. The students were working seriously with

their partners. The choice of the theme of the students’ house was suitable for the

students. There were spirit of imagining the condition of their house and there was

a good effort of the students to make a good description of their house so that the

people could understand it. Students were motivated in conducting the task. There

was no student trying to imitate the answer of her partners. Each student tried to

describe her own house as clear as possible. Considering that the time available

for the activities, I decided to end the task phase and went on the activity to the

Language focus. I just had ten minutes left for language focus, so I tried to

underline some key points only


When there was no question to ask by the students I closed the class by

saying goodbye. Before doing so, I gave the students homework to make a short

writing about their living rooms.


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67 d) Fourth meeting


The day’s program was having a writing test on the topic of describing

objects. I greeted my students and asked their condition. They answered eagerly. I

explained about the day’s program that we would have a writing test like I had

announced before.

2) Conducting the test

I designed a post-test for the students to construct a descriptive text. The

students had to put some ideas in describing an object in the previous meeting and

then elaborate them into a descriptive text at least 100 words. I gave the students

post-test in order to know the students’ achievement and progress in constructing

a descriptive text. There were 40 students who took a post-test. I told them to do

the test individually based on the instruction given. They were asked to write

descriptive text of an object in their own room or house. They were given eighty

minutes to finish it. They were also asked to pay attention to the writing elements

to score. They were organization, content, grammar, diction, and mechanics


Having finished the test, I closed the class. Before closing the class I gave

general review about the test. Most of them could do the test well. I motivated my

students to be more active in writing so that they could be better author in the

future.

3. Observation

This part was very important since it was used as the indicators to know

the students’ achievement progress. It was also aimed to know how far the


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68 effectiveness of task-based activities in writing descriptive text. In this phase, both

I and her collaborator acted as the classroom observers and they observed the

teaching-learning process during the implementation the action occurred. The

observation was concentrated on: (1) the teaching-learning process; and (2)

students’ learning progress during the teaching-learning process.

a. The teaching-learning process

The result of collaborators’ observation that I was able to manage the class

well: the class situation was absolutely under my controlled. The students joined

the lesson actively and they always gave responses to the given questions. I also

tried to arouse the students’ attention and participation by giving series of tasks. It

was a very effective way.

b. students’ Learning Progress

In the phase of main-task in the first meeting, the students had started to

take part in doing tasks as well as the fourth meeting. The students’ learning

progress in the third meeting could be seen clearly from the result of their

individual writing. I had them construct a descriptive text about thing in their

room or house individually. They could do the individual project much better than

the previous project in the pre-task since they understood about the rules. There

were 40 descriptive texts written by the students in the third meeting of the first

cycle, I could report that 30 texts had shown about a good descriptive text, seven

texts missed the elaboration of the object, another texts lack of organization, and

the other one missed the goal of the text. In short, it could be said that they

succeeded to construct a descriptive text.


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69 The last activity in the first cycle was post test. It seemed that they had

enough confidence to have post-test since they had understood and experience

from the previous activities in meeting 1, meeting 2, and meeting 3. The result of

the post-test could be reported as follows:

The scores from the first corrector could be reported that the highest score

was 79, the lowest score was 49, and the average score was 64.80. The complete

data can be seen on the Table 4.8 below.

Table 4.8

Post-test average score of cycle 1 from the first corrector

No Explanations Scores

1. The highest score 79

2 The lowest score 49

3 The average score 64,80

There were five writing elements that were analyzed: organization,

content, grammar, diction, and mechanics. The result of the analysis can be seen

on the Table 4.9 below.

Table 4.9

Post-test scores of writing elements of Cycle 1 from the first corrector

No Writing element Average score

1 Organization 62,00

2 Content 68,00

3 Grammar 62,00

4 Diction 70,00

5 Mechanics 65,00

Average score 64,80

The score from the second corrector could be reported that the highest

score was 76 the lowest score was 45, and the average score was 66,25. The

complete data can be seen on the Table 4.10 below.


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70

Table 4.10

Post-test average score of cycle 1 from second corrector

No Explanation Scores

1 The highest score 76


3 Average score 66,25

There were five writing elements that were analyzed: organization,


on the Table 4.11 below.

Table 4.11

Post-test average scores of writing elements of Cycle 1 from second corrector



2 Content 64,00

3 Grammar 73,00

4 Diction 64,00

5 Mechanics 66,00

Average score 66,25

The average score from two correctors could be reported that the highest

score was 77 the lowest score was 53 and the average score was 64% The

complete data can be seen on the Table 4.12 below.

Table 4.12

Post-test average score of Cycle 1 from the two correctors




3 Average score 64%


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71 There were five writing elements that were analyzed: organization,


on the Table 4.13

Table 4.13

Post-average score of writing elements of Cycle 1



2 Content 66,00

3 Grammar 67,50

4 Diction 67,00

5 Mechanics 55,50

Average score 64,00

Based on the table above, it could be concluded that the students had a

problem on organization and grammar since the average score of them were lower

than other writing element despite the fact there was a bit increase on the students’

achievement.

The students’ achievement in the first cycle had shown a better progress.

Then, she was eager to find out the effectiveness and consistency of task-based

activities to improve the students’ writing ability to construct a descriptive text.

After implementing the action in the first cycle, I would like to know whether

there was a better progress or not, there was a consistency or not. The result of the

evaluation and the implementation of task-based in the first cycle were used: to

find the strength and the weaknesses of the implementation of task-based during

in first cycle in the teaching-learning process.

1. Positive side ( The strengths )

· Using TBA can increase students’ interest in writing class


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72

· The students’ writing skill improved

· The students showed positive response in teaching learning activities,

which entails the implication that the second criterion of success was also

achieved.

2. Negative side (The weaknesses)

· Lack of control from the teacher in group work

· Not all the students got the chance to consult and performed their writing

to the teacher due to the time limit in the class sessions.

By analyzing the observation results as the reflection, I and my collaborator

concluded that using Task-based Activity brought a positive result in learning.

The weaknesses had to be solved to get a better result. As a conclusion, I

considered the need of revising the action plan for the next cycle.

2. Cycle 2

The overall description of cycle 2 can be seen in the table 4.8. The process

of conducting cycle 2 was of two folds. First, it was conducted with the purpose

of working on the weak points observed in the first cycle. Second, cycle 2 was

aimed at observing the effects of TBA when it was applied to practice the

descriptive.

Obtaining the better result, I made a plan for cycle 2 as follows: The first

meeting would be used for Pre-task. The pre-task would be used for Vocabulary

exploration and modeling. The task will be conducted in meeting 2. The third

meeting would be used for language focus, discussing grammatical form and

conducting written exercises. The purpose of this arrangement was for optimizing

the tasks by providing sufficient time for vocabulary building, writing practice,

and language practice for the students.


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73

Table 4.8. The Implementation of Cycle 2

Pla

nnin


Act

ion

M1 : Pre-test : Exploring vocabulary, modeling M2 : Task : doing various tasks in individual, pair and group works M3 : Language focus : discussing and practicing grammatical forms M4 : Post test : having writing test about the topic

obse

rvat

ion

Students · More active in doing the task, · Could perform the text with fewer mistakes in vocabulary, grammar, and punctuation

Teacher · Explain clearer · Used material in tasks · Gave sufficient model in spoken and written forms; sufficient vocabulary building and

grammatical practice · Gave reasonable number of task in the available time Classroom situation · More alive, fun and enjoyable for students · Group work was more effective to increase the chances to practice writing

Ref

lect

ion

Strength · The SS participation was increased · The coherent was increased exploration and modeling · Choosing the words was achieved by sufficient portion of grammatical practice · The use of pictorial material could attract SS’ attention · The enjoyment of conducting the activity could reduce the tension in writing class

weaknesses · The pictorial material was too crowded so that the students had difficulty in catching the

information · The students were still had difficulty in expanding the content


a) First meeting


I started teaching eager at the first period. I entered the class and greeted

my students “Good morning class” and they answered in high spirit” Good

morning Mom!” As usual I asked their condition, and they did the same thing to

me. I checked the students’ presence and started the lesson.

2) Pre-task (Vocabulary Exploration )


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74 I explained that the day we would discuss about Describing people. Delivering the

worksheets, I started the discussion. I said that in the previous meeting we had

learned about describing things. I reminded the students that in describing things

we could describe the characteristics of the things. It was so in describing people,

we could describe the characteristics owned by the people.

I asked the students to look at the picture in the worksheets. In Activity 1 I

had provided them with some pictures illustrating different features of people in

age, height, and hair. I explored some words such as young, old, about twenty, in

her thirties, and his fifties. For height we discuss about some words such as short,

fairy short, medium height, pretty tall, about one hundred and fifty centimeters,

and about two meters height. For hair we discussed about the color of hair such as

black, brown, red, and blonde; the shape of hair such as straight, curly, and wavy;

and also the length of hair such as long and short. We also discussed about bald,

beard and moustache.

I asked the students to fill the table in Activity 2 with some features that

we had discussed. I continue the activities with writing practice. The students tried

to make simple sentence of using those adjectives.

I gave more dimensions in describing people such as by describing the

skin, face, special characteristics (nose, eyes, and spot) and cloth. We discussed

every point and tried to find as many as words possible dealing with the features.

The activity was fun from the laugh that appeared during the discussion. The

discussion of peoples’ appearance was exciting for the students. In the following

activity, I provided the students with a picture consisting of eight persons with

their special appearances. Under the picture, I wrote two short texts about two


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75 different people in the picture. I asked the students to identify the people under the

description in picture. I read the text aloud. I asked the students to read after me.

After discussing the text, I asked the students to recognize the people in the

picture. They could find the people easily.

The activity was followed by describing the rests of the people in the

picture. I gave them time to do the task and write the description. Having finished,

I checked the description by asking them to read aloud. I thought the students

could do the activity well. They could make a clear description of each person

well.


Feeling sure that the students had no problem with the material, I closed

the meeting. I gave an assignment to the students to the next meeting’s activity.

They had to cut a picture from magazine or newspaper dealing with people’s

appearance to describe. I closed the class by saying goodbye to my students.

b) Second meeting


I entered the class with my collaborator. She took a seat at the back of the

class. Then I greeted my students, “Good morning students!” They answer in high

spirit. Later, I checked students’ attendance and started the lesson. I explained that

the day’s activity was still describing people and we would do some writing task

on it.

2) Task (Main Activity)

I started the activity by reviewing previous meeting about describing

people. I asked the students some characteristics that could be described from


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76 someone. We reviewed about age, height, weight, hair, skin, face, special

characteristics, and cloth. From the activity I was convinced that the students had

already mastered the vocabulary key phrases for describing people. Hopefully,

they would not find any difficulties in writing task that I would give to them.

The situation was enjoy as I created the situation that was not stressful for

the students. I hoped it would be a good starting point to do writing .

In the following activity, I gave pictures for the students. They would

identify the person in the picture by listening to the characteristics of each people

that I read. The students get difficulties in finding information. Then I repeated

twice, the students could understand it. Finally, they could identify the seven

persons in the picture one by one

I went to Activity 3. I read about people’s physical descriptions while the

students had to write the important points of information dealing with someone’s

physical description. The information then was completed by the result of their

observation toward the picture. The information would be used for describing the

persons. I gave time to the students to prepare the description. While the students

working, I reminded them the way of describing people.

I asked one of the students to describe Sandra

Sandra. She is young. She is slim. She is wearing dress. She has short

curly hair. I asked the rests of the class about the description. They agreed that it

was the right description for Sandra. We did the same thing with other person in

the picture. When there was no problem, I went on to the next activity.

I asked the students worked in group. The students had cut a picture from

a magazine. She would describe the picture in group. I monitored from one group


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77 to another. I helped the students in their trouble. Most of the students’ problem

was about vocabulary. I encouraged them not to focus on the text, but they could

produce the description directly. One of my students (DP) produced the written

draft:

He is a boy. He is tall. He is wearing yellow jacket. He is wearing jeans. He is thin. He has white skin. He is cute.

When I said it was good work she was happy. She laughter for the word “He is

cute” The description was clear and acceptable. Just one point to note, she did not

give the description in a good order. She jumped from physical appearance to the

cloth and she came back to the physical appearance.

I monitored the groups. The students work busily in group. It was a fun

activity. I heard a lot of laugh of the students in conducting the task. They had fun

when comparing their pictures. I encouraged the students to write more. I helped

the students with vocabulary. The students had equal opportunities in group. Each

of them describe about their own picture. The rests of the group had paid attention

and made correction when one of group members made a mistake. There was a

self-correction process in each group. There was also peer-teaching in the group.

The most outstanding students helped the members who had lower abilities. The

group work was really alive.

One of the students (IS) produced the following description:

She is medium. She has round face. She is wearing blouse and skirt. She is

seven years old. She is wearing shoes. The shoes are black. She is wearing

accessories.

The classroom was crowded because the students were discussing their

picture with their friends. It was a little bit disturbing but I let the situation


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78 because it was a part of their process in group work. As a final activity, I had a

picture for the whole class. The picture was Obama’s picture. The students could

recognize on his appearance on the newspaper. I asked the students to describe

Obama’s picture and we did it together .


It was a great day. The students were enjoyable conducting the task.

Having finished the activities, I ended the lesson and we gave applause together

for us. I ended the class by saying goodbye

c) Third meeting


It is a bright morning. I taught in first and second period. At 6.45 I entered

the class and greeted my students,”Good morning class!” and they answered in

high spirit, “Good morning Mom!” I asked their condition and checked the

students’ attendance. No one absence. I explained that the day we would continue

the discussion about describing people.

2) Language focus

The day’s program was language focus. In this phase, I tried to give a

more accurate discussion about the form, such as grammar that the students had

applied in the task phase. After delivering the worksheets, I started the activity 1.

It is an activity of writing some dialogue missing. The dialogue was about

completing questions about someone’s physical appearance. Students could do the

activities well. Having the students finished the activity; I checked the students’

answer in class discussion.


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79 It was followed by the students’ activity of writing such kind of dialog

model that they had completed in Activity. They could do it well. There was no

problem with the students. Then I continued the activity by reviewing the way to

describe people. The students had no problem since the way of describing people

had been applied in the task in the previous meeting.

In Activity 2, I provided the students with information about someone’s

appearance. There were two persons to describe, a man and woman. I gave some

information about the person’s age, skin, body, special characteristics, face, hair,

and the cloth that he and she is wearing. The students had to make a complete

sentence or a text about the person using available information. I asked the

students to write the description. The purpose of this activity was to achieve the

accuracy of the language form that is used in describing people.

Having finished the text, I asked some students to read the answer. It is

done for checking the accuracy. Students did not make any mistakes in producing

the text. Having checked the result of the rests of the class, I went to Activity 3

In Activity 3, the students would describe about her brother or sister. I had

provided the students with a number of questions to be asked dealing with the

description of her brother or sister. CA could describe her sister well. At first, she

could not answer the sister’s height but when I asked her more detailed about it,

she could estimate that her sister is as tall as the class’s table. She was about 70

centimeters height.

I asked the students conduct the questions and answer activity with their

partners. I monitored the class. I tried to correct some mistakes and helped the

students with vocabulary. In this activity, the students used their time to have a


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80 class discussion on their feeling joining the class. The students’ responses were

positive to the sense that they like it. They said that through such a process they

could learn to write in a good way even though there were some mistakes in

arranging some adjectives correctly.


After all, when the bell rang, I ended the class. I announced that the

following meeting would be the writing test about describing people. I asked the

students to prepare themselves for the test. I closed the class by saying goodbye.

d) Fourth meeting

1). Opening the class

I entered the class with my collaborators. I greeted my students and asked

their condition. They answered eagerly. I explain about the days’ program that we

would have a writing test like that I had announced before.

The students’ writing was scored by my collaborator. After the scoring

phase completed, it was found that the average score of students’ writing showed

that there was a better improvement that is 70,40% while in the cycle 1 the

average of students’ score was 64,28%.

The students’ writing showed that the students had gained some more

improvements in writing skills. The students’ writing showed that all of the

students were able to write focused on clear topic sentence, and to maintain unity

and coherence in their writing.


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81 3). Closing the class

Having finished the test, I closed the class. Before closing the class I gave general

review about the test. Most of them could do the writing test well. I suggested

them to write and always write.

2. Observing

During the implementation of Cycle 2, the observation was conducted by me and

my collaborator. The focus of the observation was the students, the teacher, and

the teaching learning situation during the action. The result of the observation is

described in the following paragraphs. In general, the students’response on the

application of the teaching learning activities in Cycle 2 was positive and

encouraging. This can be seen firstly from their high motivation in joining the

teaching learning activities. They always paid attention to my instruction, they

always came on time to the class session and they rarely absent. The students’

activities were full of laugh in the class discussion. It showed the enjoyment in

conducting the tasks laughing could reduce the tension of writing test. As a result,

students were eager to write. The class room situation more alive. The students

could concentrate to the activities better. The group work was very useful in

increasing students’ participation in writing activity. In Cycle 2, the students work

in group more effectively than in the cycle 1. The students were willing to work

independently although the teacher did not monitor them. In conclution, I

concerned on: (1) the teaching-learning process, and (2) studernts’ learning

progress during the teaching-learning process. The complete data can be seen on

the table 4.14.


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82

Table 4.14

Post-test average score of cycle II from the first corrector




3 The average score 70

Table 4.15

Post-test average scores of writing elements of Cycle II first corrector



2 Content 69,00

3 Grammar 70,00

4 Diction 72,00

5 Mechanics 73,00

Average score 70,20

Table 4.16

Post-test average score of cycle II from the second corrector




3 The average score 72

Table 4.17

Post-test average scores of writing elements of Cycle II second corrector



2 Content 72,00

3 Grammar 75,00

4 Diction 72,00

5 Mechanics 72,00

Average score 71,40


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83

Table 4.18

Post-test average score of Cycle II from the two correctors




3 Average score 69

3. Reflecting

Based on the observation results which were collected in the field notes,

and teachers’ diary, I made a reflection about the strength and the weaknesses of

cycle 2 as follows:

a) Strength

· The students’ participation was increased

· The students’ writing skills were encouragingly improved

· Generally the lesson plans were followed in a perfect manner

· The students’ responses toward the teaching-learning activities were upheld

positive

· The teaching-learning activities ran efficiently.

b) Weaknesses

· The students were still had difficulties in creating paragraphs using some

adjectives correctly

c. Cycle 3

The overall descriptions of Cycle 3 can be seen in the table 4.9


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84


Pla

nnin


Act

ion

First meeting · Pre-test : Exploring vocabulary and related phrases, giving model for writing tasks Second meeting · Task : doing various tasks in individual, pair and group works Third meeting · Language focus : discussing and practicing grammatical forms Fourth meeting · Post test : having writing test about the topic

Obs

erva

tion

Students · Students showed improvement in writing ability · They could write a text with little mistakes in vocabulary, grammatical form, and

pronunciation · Students’ self-confidence was increased · Students were not afraid of making mistakes · Ability in describing text was increased Teacher · Used clear worksheet · Gave balanced theory about writing elements Classroom situation · More alive · The enjoyment in doing the tasks was increased

Ref

lect

ion

Strength · TBA can improve students’ writing ability · Working in group increased students’ participation in writing class · TBA made the classroom situation more alive · TBA could encourage students to choose the topic sentence · The accuracy in writing could be achieved by giving more portions to Vocabulary

building and Language Focus · There were some students who still lack of self-confident in writing · The discussion in group work used mother tongue · The challenge of task needs to be increased

The process of Cycle 3 is described in the following parts.

1. Planning

The result of Cycle 2 showed that the students showed better participation in

classroom through group work. Based of the result of the reflection of Cycle 2 and

the result of discussion with the collaborator the plan for Cycle 3 was revised. The

portion of vocabulary exploration and grammar discussion were needed to

maintain; therefore the arrangements of the meetings was as follows. The first


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85 meeting would be used as pre-task stage for vocabulary exploration. The second

meeting was used for task phase, used for conducting the main task, and the third

meeting would be used for language focus. The teaching and learning process

would apply teaching media in the form of picture. The teaching and learning

writing would give bigger portion to the activity of making longer paragraphs;

therefore the students’ writing skill could be improved.


a) First meeting


It was a bright morning. I started the lesson by greeting my students and

asking their condition. Having checked the students’ presence, I started the lesson.

The days’ program was task phase for vocabulary and phrases exploration dealing

with the topic about describing people.

2) Pre-task

I started the activity with delivering the worksheets to the students. In

Activity 1, I provided the students with a picture. We started exploring the things

in the picture. The students saw some objects that they found in the picture. I

wrote the objects on the white board. We conducted pronunciation practice. The

students repeated the words after me.

Being confined that the students had understood the meaning of words, I

explored the picture by asking questions such as: Where are the people? What are

they doing? What are on the river? What are on the sky? And How is the

weather? The students could answer the question well.


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86 The activity was followed by reading a text about the description of the

event. The purpose of the activity was giving a written model about describing

event to the students. I read the text and the students repeated after me. We

discussed about the text, and some students asked questions about the meaning of

the words. When they had understood the text, I asked the students to describe

about the text.

The students gave the answers in full sentences. When they had finished, I

asked them reading the answers, in that way, the students had tried to write the

event in the picture in different versions. One of the students gave the following

description:

Today is fine. There are some clouds on the sky. The sun is shining. The Jones is on the bridge. They were taking a walk. There are boats and ship on the river. There are two boats. Mr. Jones and his wife are looking at the boats. Sally is looking at the ship. The ship is under the bridge. Tom is looking at an aero plane. The aero plane is on the sky. The Activity was followed by exploring the words and phrases in

describing Event. Referring back to the text, I asked to the students to find out

what they could describe in an event. I provided a table for the students. In the

table, I wrote some points to describe in an event such as location, activity,

number, weather, and feeling.

The students could identify the words in the text that refer to the five

categories above. Then I asked the students some other words to describe in each

category. For describing location, the students mentioned some words such as in

the classroom, in the field, outside the room, in the beach, and many others. For

activity they mentioned some words such as studying, eating, playing, standing,

and looking at. For number they mentioned some words such as two, five, ten,

some, a, and one. For weather we listed some words such as sunny, cloudy, windy,


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87 foggy, hot, cold, and cool. For feeling, we listed some words such as happy, sad,

excited, hopeful, hope less .

Having discussed the meaning of the words, I asked some questions to the

students dealing with the event that happening in the classroom. Some questions

are: Where are we? How is the weather? How many people are there in the living

room? What are we doing? How is your feeling? The students could answer the

questions easily. They had been able to apply the words and phrases that we had

discussed before.

For the last activity, I asked the students to look at the picture. We

explored some words dealing with the event in the picture. I listed some words on

the white board, namely: beach, happy, sunny, five, people, standing, sitting,

playing a ball, and eating. Then, I gave some questions dealing with the event

such as: Where are the people? How many people are there on the picture? What

are they doing? How many people are sitting? How many people are standing? I

was surprised that the students had already been able to describe an event


After reviewing the day’s lesson, I closed the class by saying goodbye. I

announced that the following meeting would discuss the same topic of describing

event.

b) Second meeting


It was a sunny day. I entered the class with my collaborator. I started the

class by greeting the students, “Good morning students!” They answered eagerly.


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88 I went on with asking the students’ condition. Then I explained the day’s program

that we would do several tasks dealing with describing event.

2) Task (Main activity)

I made a review about last meeting discussion in describing event. In

describing event we can describe some points. First, we could explain about the

weather, Students mentioned some words dealing with the weather such as sunny,

cloudy, windy, hot, and cold. I asked them about the weather “How is the weather

today?” and they answered, “Today is sunny” I asked several questions about the

weather and they could answer well. Second, they describe about people in the

picture. We can describe about a number of people. I asked them the way to

explain the number of people in the event. They could differentiate the difference

between there is and there are. Third, we described about activity. I asked a

question “What are we doing? We are studying. Next, we describe the feeling.

And they remembered some words dealing with the feeling. I asked them “How is

your feeling today? Are you happy? And they said “Yes, Mom!” I reminded the

students some words about feeling. They could mentioned the meaning easily.

In Activity 2, I had prepared the table for the students. The key points

dealt with weather, location, and each person’s activity. I asked them to write just

the key points after listening to some activities I delivered, not a sentence. To

check the student’s answer I asked them several questions, such as “Where is

Jack? What is he doing?” I asked one of students to answer my questions orally. I

repeated the questions to the whole class, and the students answered the questions

in chorus.


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89 In the following activity, I asked the students to describe the pictures using

the clues that I had written. One of my students (JS) produced the following

speech:

Today is sunny. There are four people in the picture. Jack is in the kitchen. He is looking out the window. Jean is in the kitchen. She is cooking. Tim is in the garden. He is climbing the tree. Sally is in the garden. She is sitting under the tree. They were very happy.

I asked her some questions to help her in producing a paragraph. Such as

How are their feeling? And she said that they were happy.

In Activity 3, students asked the questions about the event in the picture

then their partner write the answers. I had prepared the worksheet with some

questions to answer. The purpose of the activity was practicing the coherency of

writing between the students. I monitored to the whole class and asked some pairs

of students to read their writing

In the last activity, I provided the students with two similar pictures. They

had to find the differences from the two pictures. I asked the students to work in

pair. Some pairs of students would describe the event in picture A, while some

others working with picture B. After they had done their description, we would

compare the two pictures. I gave time to the students to describe the events. I

monitored the class. I asked some questions such as Where are they? What kind of

the room is it? How many people are they in the room? And many more. When

they had done the tasks, I asked a student from group A and a student from group

B to come to the front of the class. BR would describe picture A whether LA

would describe picture B. I asked to the whole class to check the description.

Their description was as follows:


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90

Picture A They are in the living room. There are six people in the room. There are two people standing. There are three people sitting on sofa and one people sitting on the chair. Ann is smoking, Nick and Kevin are talking together. Fay and Kate are talking too. They are happy. They are enjoying themselves. Picture B They are in the living room. There are six people in the room. There are two people standing. There are four people sitting on the sofa. Dave is standing. Ann is smoking. Nick and Kevin are talking. Fay is sitting. Kate is standing. The activity was followed by comparing the two pictures. I made a table

on whiteboard to find some points of differences. I made a discussion with the

students about the pictures by giving them some questions. The activity was alive.

Students were interested in finding the differences between the two pictures. The

result of the discussion was on the table below:

Table 4.10 Result of Discussion in Comparing Pictures

Filling out the table, I asked questions to the students “What are the

differences of the two pictures?” I asked them about the differences of each

person, being helped by the table; the students could also describe the description

well. I was satisfied with the result because they could construct the sentences

without mistakes.

I asked the students to read about their differences of the two pictures. It

was challenge for the students. Some of them were eager to perform the

description in the front of the class room. I asked one of them (CP) to come to the

front of the classroom. Here is her description:

Name Picture A Picture B Dave Wearing black T-shirt Wearing white T-shirt Ann Standing Sitting Kevin Sitting on the right side Sitting on the left side Nick Not holding a glass Holding glass Fay Wearing white blouse Wearing black blouse Kate Sitting Standing


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91

In picture A Dave is wearing black T-shirt. In picture B Dave is wearing white T-shirt. In picture A Ann is standing. In picture B Ann is sitting. In picture A Kevin is sitting on the right side, in picture B Kevin is sitting on the left side. In picture A Nick is not holding a glass, in picture B Nick is holding a glass. In picture A Fay is wearing white blouse, in picture B Fay is wearing black blouse. In picture A Kate is sitting, In picture B Kate is standing. CP smile after finishing the description and the whole class gave a big

applause to her because she could do it well.

I offered the rests of the class to read their writing in the front of the

classroom. Then DO came to the front of the class. She read so fast at the

beginning because she was too excited. I asked her to read slow down and she did

so. She could do the performance well, although there were some slips of the

tongue because of her excitants. Everybody in the room gave her big applause. I

offered the chance again and RN came to read. She spoke softly with high self-

confident. The whole class gave her applause after she had finished reading.

The bell rang and it meant that I had to finish the exciting activity with my

students. I asked them some question “Do you like our activity?” They were very

enthusiasts in answering “Yes!!!”. I asked another question “Do you want to write

again?” They answered together “Yes!” and the last question “Can you do

writing? And they were sure to say “Yes!’


Finally I had to stop my wonderful sessions with my students at that

moment by saying good bye. After giving applause to the students I said goodbye

to them and motivated them to practice writing more

c) Third meeting



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92 It was hot afternoon. When the bell rang, I entered the class and greeted

my students. “Good afternoon class!” They answered in high enthusiast. “Good

afternoon, Mom!” I was surprised. I was the last sessions of the day but the

students were still in high spirit. I asked their condition and checked the presence

list. Then I started the discussion about language focus.

The focus of the day’s meeting was to discuss language form that had been

used by the students in conducting various tasks in Describing event. I delivered

the worksheets to the students.

I started the activity by making general review about Describing event. I

discussed with my students the related vocabulary dealing with weather, places,

number of people, people’s activity, and feeling. In Activity 1 I explored about the

words describing weather. When the students did not find difficulties in meaning,

I continued the discussion about how to describe the weather. I gave an example

to the students, Today is sunny and It is sunny. Next, I went on by asking the day’s

weather, “How is the weather today?” Some students gave the answers; “It is

sunny.” ”It is hot”. I asked if they had any problems. The students did not have

any question.

In Activity 2, students practiced to determine the number of people in a

certain event. I started by giving an example about the use of there is and there

are, as follows: There is a man in the room and There are two boys in the room.

After discussing the use of there is and there are, I asked the students to do

exercise. I checked the work by asking the students to read the answers. They

could do it well.


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93 Activity 3 was dealing with the activity that the people do in a certain

event. We discussed the use of Present Continues Tense to describe the current

event. After reviewing the use of to be to certain Subject, I asked students to do

written exercise. The activity was ended by discussing the meaning of the verbs

that commonly used by the students in their daily life.

In Activity 4, I discussed about describing feeling. I started with writing

practice of the words to express feeling. It is followed by discussing the meaning

of the words and the way to describe feeling by using to be such as: I am tired. He

looks sad, etc. I gave students some questions such as: How is your feeling? Are

you happy? Who is sad today? Who is hungry? Who is tired? Students could

answer the questions well.

In the following activity, we explored a picture that telling an event. I

explored the picture by asking several questions, such as asking location and the

peoples’ activities in the picture. Students write some questions dealing with

certain verbs such as typing, and learning. I asked the students to do written

exercise for answering the questions. After checking their work, I gave them

further various questions using Wh-Word questions and Yes/No questions. The

students responded well together and individually. Later, I asked some students to

describe the picture by their own words. One of the students gave the following

description:

There are two people in the room, a boy and a man. They are studying. They are happy. The man is wearing blue shirt and tie. The boy is wearing white T-shirt. There are some books on the table.


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94 I was convinced that the students had already mastered the way of describing

event. By giving the last phase of TBA namely the Language Focus, I could

discuss the linguistics points including grammar.


I closed the class by saying goodbye. Before closing the class, I announced

that the following meeting would be the writing test dealing with describing an

event.

d) Fourth meeting


The day’s program was having a writing test. I entered the class with my

collaborator. After greeting the students and asking their condition, I started the

activity.

2) Conducting the test

I explained the rule of the test. Students had to write the event in the

picture. To make each students are sure with their writing, later on I would call

their names randomly to read their sentence.

I called the students one by one to the front of the class and asked them to

read the event in the picture. I and my collaborator gave the score to each student.

The test ran well.


Having finished the test, I closed the class. Before closing the class I gave

general review about the whole activities that we had done during the research. I

hoped that they could maintain their participation in writing class.


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95 3. Observing

The observation was conducted during the cycle by me and my

collaborator. The focus of attention was the students, the teacher, and the

classroom situation in teaching and learning writing. The result is reported as

follows:

The students’ writings were scored. After the scoring phase completed, It

was found that the average of students’ writing was getting higher compared with

the previous cycle that was from 70,40% became 78,05%. The students’ writing

showed that they had maintained the improvements in writing skills. The students’

writing demonstrated that the majority of the students were able to write focused

on clear topic sentence, and to maintain unity and coherence in their writing.

The classroom situation during the teaching and learning process was very

conductive. The students’ responses on the application of the teaching and

learning activities in Cycle 3 were the same as in the previous cycles, positive and

encouraging. This can be seen firstly from their high motivation in joining the

teaching and learning activities. They always paid attention to my instruction, they

always came on time to the class session and they rarely absent. Secondly, in the

class discussion that was intended to elicit their opinion on the teaching and

learning activities, the students confirmed that they like it even though it was

more complex than the previous cycle, they could manage to write it with the help

of some tasks being done. They said by having the tasks, they had chances to

explore the topic sentences. Thirdly, their positive response can be seen from their

eagerness in doing the tasks. On the whole, the students’response to teaching and

learning process were positive.


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96 4. Reflecting

Based on the observation result which were collected in the field notes,

and the teachers’ diary, I made a reflection about the strength and weaknesses of

cycle 3 as follows:

a) Strength

· TBA can improve students’ writing ability

· TBA made the classroom more alive

· TBA could encourage students to write better

· The accuracy in writing could be achieved by giving more portions to

vocabulary building and language focus.

b) Weaknesses

· There were some students who still failed to achieve the better result

· The challenge of tasks needs to be increased.

5. Final Reflection

Having implemented the research in three cycles, I had a discussion with

my collaborator to make a final reflection of the research. Based on the result of

observation and tests, there is an improvement in students’ writing ability. The

improvement can be recognized from the improved achievement from cycle to

cycle.

The classroom situation was improved at the final stage. It was indicated

by the live of classroom situation with the increased students’ participation during

the writing session. Students were active in conducting the task. Another fact was

that students’ centered applied well. In short, it could be concluded that the third


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97 cycle had given much improvement toward students’ ability in constructing a

descriptive text using task-based.

B. Findings and Discussion

1. Findings

Analyzing the data of this study, I found several findings to answer the

problems of the research, which are 1) Can and to what extend task-based activity

improve students’ writing ability?; 2) How is the classroom situation when task-

based activity is applied in writing class? Besides focusing on answering the

problems of the research as stated in Chapter I, the section also provides other

findings during the implementation of action research in this study. The findings

are summarized on Table 4.11. The discussion of the research findings is

presented in the following section.

a. Improvement of students’ writing ability

The students’ ability in writing descriptive text improved using task-based

activity. It can be said that task-based is one of good ways to improve students’

writing ability since it can help them to organize the words into descriptive text,

give a bit fun, make them more relaxed and help them to generate the needed

words to construct a descriptive text.

The improvement of the students’ ability can also be seen from the results

of the students’ pre-test and post-test which were done in every cycle. The

average score of the pre-test was 55,93, the average score of the Cycle 1 was

64,28, the average score of the Cycle2 was 70,40, the average score of the Cycle 3

was 78,05. All the data showed that the improvement of writing achievement from


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98 cycle to cycle was significant. It can be concluded that there was a significant

improvement of students’ ability in constructing descriptive text using task-based.

Task-based is a writing technique which enables the students to understand

some language features of the descriptive text easily. Task-based also helps them

to construct and organize a descriptive text step by step based on the task given. In

conclution, I concern on: (1) the teaching-learning process, and (2) students’

learning progress during the teaching-learning process. The complete data can be

seen on the table 4.19.

Table 4.19

Post-test average score of cycle III from the firs corrector

No Explanations Scores 1. The highest score 87 2 The lowest score 71 3 The average score 79

Table 4.20

Post-test average scores of writing elements of Cycle III first corrector


Table 4.21

Post-test average score of cycle III from the second corrector

No Explanations Scores 1. The highest score 88 2 The lowest score 72 3 The average score 79


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99

Table 4.22

Post-test average scores of writing elements of Cycle III second corrector


Table 4.23

Post-test average score of Cycle III from the two correctors

No Explanation Scores 1 The highest score 87 2 The lowest score 71 3 Average score 79,00

Table 4.24 Summary of the Research Findings

Pre-research finding Before action Research After Action Research 1. Improving in students’

writing ability a. Achievement b. Ability to broaden

ideas

c. Ability to express ideas

d. Mother tongue use e. Level of writing

2. Improvement in

classroom situation

a. Atmosphere b. Participation in

writing class

Mean of pre test : 55.93 SS have no idea SS could not express idea, many problems in vocabulary, using ungrammatical form SS used mother tongue in writing a). 52,5% above average; b) 22,5% average; c) 25% under average Not alive, uninteresting writing activities Low, did not give attention to the lesson, ignores and

Cycle 1 : 64,28 Cycle 2 : 70,40 Cycle 3 : 78,05 SS idea easily got SS could express ideas using appropriate vocabulary and grammatical form The use of mother tongue reduced a). 22,5% above average; b) 70% average; c) 5% under average Live, interesting activities High, gave attention to the lesson, used the chances to write


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100

c. Domination in class d. Writing practice e.

f. Form of activities

g. Teacher

3. Other finding: Students’ perception about TBA

SS were passive, T dominated the activeties Small chances Written form Not innovative Did not recognize students problem, not explore students potentials Did not familiar with TBA

SS were active, SS dominated the activities Bigger chances with pair and group work Spoken form Innovative, created worksheet and pictures Recognized students’ problem and potential is writing Agree with : 100% Improve ability : 100% Motivated : 100% Feel burden : 0% Future application : 100%

In more detail, the summary of the research findings is described in the following

section:

a. Improving in students’ writing ability

From the result of pre-test, I found that the result of students’ writing was

under average and still far from what was expected. The finding was supported by

the result of students’ writing scores. The average score was 55,93.. The score of

the students indicated that the students faced many problems in writing. They

have many problems in making a piece of English writing, because their writing

mastery was low. This condition can be seen during the writing process, they

could not express their idea, how to start writing, and the students always lost

their ideas and stuck so they could not continue their writing, they lack of

vocabulary so their ideas were constructed incoherently and the students’ writing

mostly influenced by their mother tongue . Due to the fact, it is necessarily needed

to make an attempt to improve students writing ability by applying a teaching


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101 technique that makes the students understand what everything related to make a

good writing, make them interest in teaching and learning English by creating an

interesting atmosphere in the classroom, and giving a bit fun. The teaching

technique that covers such kinds of those activities is task-based.

After the implementation of task-based activities in every cycle, the

students’ writing score were getting better. It can be seen from the result of

students’ average score Cycle 1 was 64,28, Cycle 2 was 70,40, and Cycle 3 was

78,05. It also influenced the students’ interest during the lesson, the reducing of

the rule of their mother tongue in their writing.

b. Improvement in Classroom situation

Before conducting the research, the teaching-learning process was not

alive as the teacher used to apply the conventional technique. I taught the students

using the material printed on students’ handbook. The students show low

participation on writing class as they were seldom taught to make a better writing

by using various technique because the teacher monotonous in teaching writing.

She does not have a collection of teaching methods and ability to select the

appropriate method suitable for curriculum and the students’ need. She dominated

the class and gave small chances to the students to do writing practice. She also

did not recognize the students’ potential in writing. The condition after the

implementation of the research was showing improvement. The atmosphere of the

class more was more live as there are many interesting activities. The student gave

attention to the lessons they were very active to conduct the activities and

dominated the activities. No more teachers’ domination. The teacher started to

recognize the students’ problem and potential in writing.


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102 c. Other finding: Students’ perception about TBA

From the questionnaire, I could know that before the action the students

did not know anything about task-based, even they were not familiar what task-

based was. And after conducting the task-based activities, one hundred students

agree with learning writing through TBA as TBA is fun, interesting, and exciting.

TBA is also motivates students to write and they always feel curious about the

following activities.

The improvement of the students’ writing score from cycle to cycle can be seen

from graphic 4.1.

Graph 4.1 Writing Scores

Besides referring to the writing achievement, the improvement of students’

writing ability can be recognized from the ability of answering teachers’ questions

actively. Before the research the students often gave improper answer to the

teachers’ questions. They seemed doubtful to give response to the teacher. It was

caused by either the students did not understand the questions or the students did

not know how to answers for their lack of vocabulary. After the implementation

of TBA, the situation was changed. They were very active to take part in

constructing a descriptive text because they had listened to the teachers’

explanation attentively and curiously, the students had enough bravery to tell

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Pre-test Cycle 1 Cycle 2 Cycle 3

n=40 students


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103 openly what their problem was and the students could express their ideas clearly

using appropriate vocabulary.

Basically, task-based helped to arise not only the students’ motivation but also the

students’ interest. The improvement of writing level can be seen in Graph 4.2

Graph 4.2 Improvement of Writing Level N = 40 students

b. Improvement of classroom situation

The findings of teaching and learning process showed that there was a

change of classroom situation before and after TBA was implemented in writing

class. The teaching and learning process using TBA was more alive. Most of the

activities were student-centered. Teacher applied various interesting activities.

The activities were conducted individually, in pairs and in groups. Students

showed high participation in writing class. They were eager to conduct the tasks

with high spirit. The writing class was full of enjoyment sometimes was colored

with students’ laugh. It showed the eagerness of the students in learning writing

with relax situation. The improvement of students’ participation in writing class

from cycle to cycle can be seen in Graph 4.3.

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

Pre-test

Cycle1

Cycle2

Cycle3

under average

average

aboveaverage


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104

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

Cycle 1 Cycle 2 Cycle 3

Active

Sufficient

Passive

Graph 4.3 Improvement of Students’ Participation N = 40 students

Another finding in this research is dealing with the teacher. Teacher takes many

kinds of roles during the teaching and learning process: a leader, manager,

counselor, director, friend, facilitator, motivator, creator or parent. As a teacher I

should be hand in hand with the students to achieve the objective of the teaching

and learning process in order to achieve improvement in every single activity

done. If the teacher is more creative and innovative to carry out the teaching and

learning process so the students will be more interested in joining the lesson.

c. Other finding: Students’ response toward the action

At the end of Cycle 3, I delivered questionnaires to the students to find out

the students’ responses toward the implementation of TBA. The result of the

questionnaire can be seen in Table 4.12.

Table 4.12 Students’ Responses toward the Action

Questions Students responses

Yes No 1. Do you agree with learning writing trough TBA? 2. Is there improvement in your writing ability? 3. Are you motivated to learn writing with TBA? 4. Do you feel any burden in learning writing through

TBA? 5. Should we continue applying TBA in the future?

100% 100% 100%

0%

100%

0% 0% 0%

100%

0%

The description of the table above can be seen in the following section:


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105

One hundred percent of students agree with learning writing through TBA.

The reasons are because TBA is fun, interesting, and exciting TBA makes the

lesson easier to understand, and TBA can facilitate them in learning writing. TBA

is also motivating. The activities encourage the students to write. The students are

curious about the following activities so they want to learn and learn. TBA also

improves their vocabularies and grammar.

Dealing with the improvement of writing ability, all students feel that the

implementation of TBA improved their writing ability. Before the implementation

of TBA students think that they could not write and had no idea to write. After the

implementation of TBA they think that they can write well. Some of them say that

writing is getting easier. All of students feel that they are motivated to learn

writing with TBA. The reasons are because TBA is very exciting and fun. The

activities are enjoyable.

For all of the students learning writing through TBA is not burden. Before

the implementation of TBA, writing activity was a big burden for the students.

Now, they do not feel it anymore. The enjoyment of the activities makes the

students do the tasks eagerly.

Dealing with the necessities to continue applying TBA in writing class,

one hundred percent of students gave their supports. They want to have more

activities using TBA in the future. Now, they realize that writing is not difficult as

they think. They want to improve their writing ability; therefore TBA must be

applied in the future. One of the students said “ Pelajaran seperti ini adalah

pelajaran yang diinginkan oleh siswa dan perlu ditingkatkan lagi. I love bahasa

Inggris.


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106 The data shows that there is a positive response from the students toward

the implementation of TBA.

2. Discussion

The research which is applying action research to use task-based activities

in improving students’ writing ability brought satisfying result both in term of the

improvement of students’ writing ability and classroom situation. The findings

then can be theorized in two major points as follows: ( 1) Task-based activity can

improve students’ writing ability; and (2) Task-based activity can improve

classroom situation. The discussion of the theories is presented in the following

section.

a. Task-based activity can improve students’ writing ability

1) Task-based activity can improve students’ writing achievement

The findings of the research showed that TBA can improve students’

writing ability. The improvement can be seen from the improvement of writing

achievement. The improvement can be achieved because TBA provided better

opportunities for language learning to take place. It is supported by Richard –

Roger (2001:223) who states that task-base activity involves the activation of the

learning process. Swain underlines this concept by stating that task provides full

of opportunities for both input and output requirements which are believe to be the

key of concept of language learning.

Willis (1996: 10) states that TBA is beneficial to develop learning

strategies. Learning strategies in TBA consist of the process of : (1) meta

cognitive, such as organizing one’s learning, monitoring and evaluating one’s

text; (2) cognitive, such as advance preparing for the class, using dictionary,


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107 making comparison with other; and (3) social such as asking for help. The

teachers’role as partner in solving the students’ problem. Having strong

underlying education theories, it is not surprisingly that TBA is beneficial in

improving students’ achievement.

2) Task-based activities develop students’ ability to express their ideas using

appropriate vocabulary and grammatical form in.

There are three major phases of task-based activity, namely the pre-task,

task, and language focus. Pre-task phase is used for introducing the topic and the

task; and also for activating topic-related words and phrases. The task phase is

applied for offering the students the chances to write whatever language they had

already known to carry out the task. The language focus phase is used for

conducting closer study to some linguistics features that occurring in the language

use during the task phase.

(Willis, 1996: 41) states that Task-based activity provides sufficient

portion either for vocabulary building or grammatical discussion. From the three

phase of a task, we can see that vocabulary building becomes the crucial part of a

task, and it is placed at the very beginning step; whereas grammatical form is also

given sufficient portion, but it is placed at the end phase, after the task phase.

This is done for considering the vital role of vocabulary in writing to make

the correct connection between the form and meaning of words. Besides, it

enabling the students to use the correct form of words for the meaning intended.

We can note that vocabulary is the vital weapon for the students to convey


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108 meaning in the task phase, therefore the step of vocabulary building is placed

before the task phase.

Task-based activity does not stop at the task phase. Task only is not

enough. Language focus is done after the task phase; it is applied in the activity of

examining and discussing specific features of the task; including grammatical

pattern used in the task (Willis, 1996: 54). In language focus, teacher conducts

practices of new words, phrases, and grammatical pattern and they can be done in

written form.

3) Task-based activity helps the students to develop their writing skill

The students could adapt the TBA activities appropriately in the process

of writing their text. This might be due to the good connection between the

teacher and the students, and also due to the step by step guidance given by a

teacher in showing the students some tasks. The classroom inquiry requires a

good partnership between I and the subject involved. The teacher played a role as

a counselor rather than ‘spoon feeder’. In general task-based activities were

encouraging. The students were very active and attentive in joining the teaching

learning activities. They were also willing to do my instruction actively. This

might be due to the different learning activities applied in the class. Task-base

could provide chances for the students to discover ideas, to develop, and to

organize them in such a way they could produce adequate descriptive text. It

seemed that the students’ confident in writing was improved, this is in line with

Gardner’s (2005) judgment that the task-based activity would indeed gradually

make novice writers gain confident in processing their text.


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109 b. The improvement of classroom situation

1) Task-based activity makes the classroom situation more alive

TBA makes the classroom situation more alive by the application of

various activities during the teaching and learning process. Activities such as

drawing shapes, describing, guessing object, interviewing friends, cutting a

picture from magazines, describing event, and finding the differences are

interesting and therefore motivating for the students to use the language.

To support the teaching and learning process, the students’ activities were

guided by worksheet applying the use of visual media. The visual media applied

in the research were in the form of picture and real objects. The use of visual

media is beneficial because they can provide concrete referent for ideas, serving

as a more easily remembered to the original ideas; and they can motivate learners

by attracting their attention, generating emotional expression, and simplifying

information (Heinich, 1996: 114).


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110

CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION, IMPLICATION, AND SUGGESTION

A. Conclusion

Having conducted the research in using task-based activity to improve

students’ writing ability it can be drawn some conclusions as follows:

1. Task based Activity can improve students’ writing ability. The improvement of

students’ writing ability can be identified from the improvement of writing

achievement. It shows that there is a comparison between the students’ writing

performance during the intervention and the performance criteria of success.

The improvement was also observed from several aspects of the composition

they produced. First, the students were able to define the topic they choose into

concrete ideas. Secondly, they could generate suitable supporting sentences to

the topic sentences they wrote. Third, they could write acceptable introductory

paragraph by providing general statement. Fourth, the students could write

concluding paragraphs that reviewed the main points of the ideas. Finally, they

could tolerably maintain the unity and the coherence in their essay.

2. Task based Activity can improve writing classroom into a better situation.

They were motivated in joining writing class. This could be seen from several

aspects, two of which are worth mentioning. First, their motivation is reflected

in their efforts in providing sources – the information materials – to support

their writing. Second, the students’ positive motivation is also reflected from

their willingness in doing the individual conference with I outside the class.

Students felt that they need more time other than that provided in the class

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111

session to have discussion on their writing with me. They wanted to make sure

that their writing was correct. Finally, the students’ evidence of improved

motivation is seen from their enthusiasm in joining the class discussion and

from their regular attendance to the class .

3. The strength of the implementation of Task-based Activity in writing

classroom is that can rise student’s participation in writing class and it can

enhance students’ writing ability. However, there were several limitations in

conducting the research which seem to be obvious. First, the time for

implementing the approach was not adequate that the teacher had to focus only

on overcoming the students’ writing problems that deals with the organization

of idea, Second, the problems related with language aspects, in particular those

of grammatical features. Nevertheless, onsite attempts to address the challenges

had been made. To cope with the language problems, I recommended the

students to have more than one drafts and many conference sessions before

they produce final draft. Yet these attempts were felt to be still insufficient.

B. Implication

The result of the research shows that the teaching writing using task based

activity can improve the students’ writing ability, especially for the tenth grade

students of SMAN 1 BOJONEGORO.

Based on the result of the study, teaching writing through task based

activity is a suitable technique to improve students’ writing ability. This study can

be used as a reference for the teacher in improving the teaching quality by

applying the suitable technique toward improving the students’ writing ability.


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112 Besides, teacher can apply TBA in the class of listening, speaking, reading and

writing. Considering the potential of TBA in enhancing students’ skill in English,

it is necessary for the teacher to learn about TBA. The school can facilitate this by

conducting workshop on task-based learning

C. Suggestion

1. For teachers

a. Before conducting the teaching and learning process, it is recommended to

implement the plan for other rhetoric modes like cause-effect, logical division,

classification, and others.

b. Teacher should be able to recognize the students’ potential and problem to

choose the right technique to apply in writing class

c. Teacher should be creative to use various techniques in teaching writing.

d. The writing activity should be enjoyable because the enjoyment will increase

students’ participation in writing class.

2. For students

a. Students should realize that writing is not as difficult as they think. There are

many ways to be able to write, as long as they want work hard.

b. Students should realize that they have potentials to be good writer. They

should open themselves to any chances of self-development in writing.

c. Students should not feel confuse in writing. Besides, they do not have to be

afraid of making mistakes because making mistakes is a part of learning.


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113 3. For school

The school can improve the teaching and learning quality by giving the

teacher the bigger chance to develop writing activities, considering that

writing is a productive skill that needs to be nurtured carefully so more time

for effective learning of writing is needed. It is hoped that the school’s

orientation was not only the good mark of test but the school should give

bigger attention to the achievement of the writing skill.

4. .For Sebelas Maret University

As a institution of education, it is hoped that Sebelas Maret University can

arrange a program of teacher improvement dealing with the teaching and

learning writing and the use of Task-based activity. Therefore, the

management of English Department of Sebelas Maret University could

consider the realization of this procedure in the upcoming semesters. This may

be realized either by adding the hours for classroom sessions while

maintaining or by allocating more credit hours for the course.

5. For other researcher

Considering the fact that this research has been successful to be implemented

in a class with a relatively small number of students, there seems to be a need

to explore the applicability of the TBA strategies in a class with a large

number as students as well as of students of different motivation. Besides,

further researcher need to explore other aspects of writing that contribute to

the quality of writing. For instance, they may be investigated the use of styles,

the management of information prior to draft writing, and others.


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114

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Ellis, Rod. 2003. Task Based Language Learning and Teaching. Oxford. Fera, A. 2008. Unpublished Mastery Thesis. UNS, Surakarta Gerhard, Jerry G.2000. Teaching English as a Foreign or Second Language.

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Composition. Unpublished Undergraduate Thesis, IKIP Malang.


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115 Harmer, Jeremi. (1991). The Practice of English Language Teaching. New York:

Longman. Hayland,Ken.2002. Teaching and Researching Writing. London: Pearson

Education Limited Jenkins, M.1986. A Content Approach in Writing. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Larsen, Diane and Freeman. (2000) Technique and Principles In Language

Teaching. New York: Oxford University Press. Morella, M.N 1991. Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language.

New York, Cambridge University Press. Second Editions 233 – 241. McNiff, Jean (1992). Action Research: Principles and Practice. New York:

Routledge. Nunan, David. 1986. Designing Tasks for the Communicative Classroom.

Cambridge.Cambridge University Press, 1986. Ngadiso. (2007). Statistics. Surakarta: English Education Department Teacher

Training and Education Faculty. Oshima, Alice Ann Hogue. 1999. Writing Academic English. New York: Addison

Wesley Longman. Sulistyo. 1993. Promoting students’ functional Skill in paragraph Writing. IKIP

Malang, Malang Parrot, Martin. 1993. Task for Language Teacher. Cambridge, Cambridge

University Press, 1993. Raimes, A. 1983. Techniques in Teaching Writing. New York: Oxford University

Press. Sugiharto, W. 2009. Unpublished Mastery Thesis. Surakarta, UNS. Skehan, P. 1996. Second Language Acquisition research Task Based Instruction,

Oxford University Press. Stringer, Erni.2004 Action Research in Education. New Jersey: Pearson Education Troyka, L. Q .1987. Handbook for Writers. New Jersey: Prentice Hall Inc. Ur, Penny (1999). A course in Language Teaching: Practice and

Theory,Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.


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116 Wallace, M.J. 2002.An Action Research for Language Teacher. Cambridge: The

Pres Syndicate of the University of Cambridge. Widdowson, H.G. 1978. Teaching Language as Communication. Oxford. Univ.

Press. 110-117 Willis J.&D. (Ed) Challenge and change in Language Teaching, Oxford:

Macmillan Heinemann. ELT. 1996. Willis, J. 1996. A Flexible Framework for Task Based Learning in Willis J.&D

(Ed) Challenge and Change in Language Teaching Macmillan Heinemann, Birmingham, University Centre for English Language Studies.


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117 Appendix 1

Blue Print of Pre-test

A. Type of test: Written text about describing the bedroom

.B Scoring

No Aspect of scoring Maximum score

1 Coherence, unity 25

2 Vocabulary 25

3 Grammar 25

4 Punctuation 25

Total 100


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118 Appendix 2

LISTS OF QUESTIONS FOR INTERVIEW

IN PRE-RESEARCH STAGE

1. Apakah Anda suka Bahasa Inggris?

2. Apa alasannya?

3. Apakah Bahasa Inggris itu penting bagi Anda?

4. Mengapa Bahasa Inggris penting bagi Anda?

5. Apakah Anda bisa Writing?

6. Mengapa Anda mengatakan demikian?

7. Apakah writing itu sulit?

8. Apa alasannya?

9. Apa yang membuat writing itu sulit? Urutkan dari yang paling besar

pengaruhnya dalam kesulitan writing Anda?

a. Perbendaharaan kata (Vocabulary)

b. Susunan kalimat (Grammar)

c. Tidak punya konsep tentang ..... dalam proses menulisnya

d. Sebab lain (kurang percaya diri sebagai penulis, kurang latihan

menulis)

10. Apakah Anda suka bila diberi tugas mengarang oleh Guru?

11. Mengapa?


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119 Appendix 3

Pedoman Wawancara Dengan Guru

Hal-hal yang ditanyakan dalam wawancara adalah sebagai berikut:

1. Pembelajaran Bahasa Inggris dikelas X-5 pada umumnya

2. Metode pengajaran yang digunakan untuk mengajar menulis text

3. Respon siswa ketika menulis teks

4. Kemampuan siswa dalam menulis teks

5. Kesulitan siswa dalam menulis teks

6. Siswa yang menonjol khususnya untuk mata pelajaran bahasa Inggris

7. Siswa yang perlu perhatian khusus

8. Pemahaman tentang Task-Based Activities


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120 Appendix 4

Pedoman Wawancara Dengan Siswa

Hal-hal yang akan ditanyakan dalam wawancara adalah sebagai berikut:

1. Sikap siswa terhadap pelajaran bahasa Inggris

2. Perasaan siswa ketika diminta menulis teks

3. Kesulitan siswa dalam menulis teks

4. Pengajaran yang diinginkan siswa khususnya untuk menulis teks

5. Respon siswa terhadap pembelajaran bahasa Inggris yang diikuti

6. Pemahaman siswa terhadap materi yang disampaikan


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121 Appendix 5

Transkrip Hasil Wawancara Dengan Guru Sebelum Treatment

Hari/Tanggal : Selasa, 24 Juni 2009

Interviewer (X) : Ana Rochanah

Interviewee (Y) : Oktha Ika Rahmawati, S.Pd

X : Good morning, bu Oktha.

Y : Good morning, bu Ana. Ada yang bisa saya Bantu, bu

X : Ma’af bu bisa mengganggu sebentar

Y : Oh silahkan, as long as I can

X : Gimana kesan bu Oktha mengajar di kelas X-5

Y : Biasa-biasa saja, bu Ana. Bu Ana kan tahu, anak-anak X-5 kan agak

susah belajarnya, ya saya sabar aja

X : Sudah pernah ngasih materi Writing pada mereka Bu Oktha

Y : Pernah tapi jarang bu Ana

X : Jarang! Kok bisa begitu bu Oktha

Y : Ya gimana lagi bu Ana, materinya kan banyak nanti ndak keburu

X : Gimana tanggapan mereka ketika bu Okyha ngasih pelajaran menulis

Y : Dingin responnya, terutama pada saat saya meminta mereka untuk

menulis teks

X : Gimana hasil writing mereka

Y : Ya gitulah, sangat kurang, bu Ana

X : Bu, untuk pengajaran writing, tehnik apa yang bu Oktha berikan

Y : Ya saya berikan contoh, kemudian saya jelaskan dan kemudian latihan


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122 X : Cara penilaiannya gimana, bu?

Y : Saya hanya memfokuskan pada isi dan grammarnya saja, bu

X : Kesulitan yang mereka rasakan dalam menulis apa bu Oktha?

Y : Cara memulai menulis, kosa kata terbatas, cara merangkai kata-kata

menjadi paragraph, kesulitan mengembangkan ide

X : Untuk grammarnya bu?

Y : Ya masih payah bu Ana

X : Bu Oktha, ingat nggak siswa yang bagus bahasa Inggrisnya

Y : Taufiq bu

X : Kalau yang agak bagus siapa bu

Y : Lilin

X : Terus yang perlu perhatian lebih siapa bu

Y : Saya kira Johan, bu Ana

X : Ma’af bu, gimana cara bu Oktha menyampaikan materi bahasa Inggris?

Y : Saya masih memakai cara konvensional, kok bu

X : Bu, sudah pernah menyampaikan materi dengan pakai aktivitas Task-

based, bu

Y : Saya malas, bu terlalu ruwet

X : Oke bu, terima kasih atas waktunya untuk berbagi


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123 Appendix 6

Transkrip Hasil Wawancara Dengan Siswa Sebelum Treatment

Hari/Tanggal : Rabo, 25 Juni 2009

Interviewer (Guru) : Ana Rochanah

Interviewee (Siswa) : 1. Ahmad Taufiq Nasrul Huda

2. Lilin Ika Nur Indahsari

3. Johan Pangestu

1. Guru dengan Johan Pangestu

Guru : Pagi Johan, bisa ngobrol sebentar

Siswa : Ada apa ya bu

Guru : Jo, suka ndak pelajaran bahasa Inggris

Siswa : Suka bu

Guru : Materi pelajaran bahasa Inggris itu kan banyak, ada listening,

speaking, writing, reading, grammar, dan masih ada yang lainnya

Siswa : Writing, bu

Guru : Kesulitanmu diapanya

Siswa : Terus terang bu, saya itu ndak suka nulis,bu dan kesulitan saya

ketika nulis adalah cara memulai nulis bu, kosa kata saya Cuma

sedikit dan cara merangkai kata-kata saya juga bingung, grammar

saya amburadul

Guru : Kalau untuk menemukan ide sulit ndak


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124

Siswa : Wah itu malah yang lebih sulit lagi, karena saya betul-betul tidak

bisa nulis

Guru : Lha terus gimana caranya supaya menulis itu jadi mudah

menurutmu

Siswa : Ya dikasih contoh dulu, dikasih tahu caranya, lalu dikasih latihan

yang cukup .

Guru : Ya sudah besok kita coba saranmu, terima kasih waktunya ya Jo

Siswa : Sama-sama

2. Guru dengan Lilin Ika

Guru : Pagi Lin, bisa ngobrol bentar

Siswa : Bisa, bu. Tentang apa ya bu

Guru : Tentang bahasa Inggris. Ngomomg-ngomong suka ndak pelajaran

bahasa Inggris

Siswa : Suka banget. Bahkan salah satu pelajaran favorit saya, bu

Guru : Materi pelajaran bahasa Inggris itu kan banyak, ada listening,

speaking, writing, reading, grammar dan masih banyak. Yang

mana yang tersulit

Siswa : Listening, bu Lha saya ndak dong sama sekali, soalnya saya

bukan orang Inggris tho bu

Guru : Kalau menulis teks, sulit ndak

Siswa : Ya sulit juga sih, tapi saya suka nulis meskipun bukan dalam

bahasa Inggria

Guru : Yang masih kamu rasa sulit yang mana dalam menulis


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125

Siswa : Kosa kata dan cara merangkainya,bu

Guru : Kalau untuk menemukan ide, sulit ndak

Siswa : Ndhak seberapa, bu

Guru : Dulu sudah pernah disuruh nulis teks apa untuk menulis

Siswa : Teks deskripsi, bu

Guru : Gimana perasaanmu ketika kamu disuruh membuat teks itu

Siswa : Biasa-biasa, buy a saya coba semampu saya

Guru : Kamu tahu ndak manfaat teks deskripsi

Siswa : Ya tahu bu, untuk menggambarkan tentang benda, orang atau

tempat

Guru : Kamu masih ingat teks organizernya

Siswa : Apa itu bu, saya kok lupa

Guru : Itu lho tata cara membuat suatu teks

Siswa : O ….nanti nulis bisa cepat ya bu dengan itu

Guru : Ya sudah tentu. Ya sudah kalau begitu kita coba saja besuk.

Terimakasih ya

Siswa : Sama-sama, bu Ana


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126 Appendix 7

RENCANA PELAKSANAAN PEMBELAJARAN (RPP)

CYCLE 1

Nama sekolah : SMA NEGERI 1 BOJONEGORO Mata pelajaran : Bahasa Inggris Kelas/semester : X/1 Standar Kompetensi : Menulis dengan bahasa Inggris Kompetensi Dasar : Menghasilkan tulisan sederhana yang cukup

untuk fungsi-fungsi dasar Indikator : Kata-kata dirangkai dengan tepat untuk

mendeskripsikan benda berdasarkan warna, bentuk, ukuran, bahan, jumlah, dan kualitas

Alokasi waktu : 4 X 2 X 45 menit Tujuan : Siswa dapat

1. Mengidentifikasi benda-benda yang ada di sekolah dan di rumah

2. Mengelompokkan ciri-ciri suatu benda berdasarkan warna, bahan, bentuk, ukuran, jumlah, dan kualitas

3. Mendeskripsikan benda berdasarkan ciri-cirinya

4. Menjawab pertanyaan guru tentang deskripsi suatu benda secara tertulis

5. Mengerjakan tugas-tugas (tasks) tentang mendeskripsikan benda

Materi Pokok : Describing Things Pertemuan 1 : Describing shapes and location Pertemuan 2 : Describing object Pertemuan 3 : Describing house and room Metode pembelajaran : Task-based Activities Langkah-langkah pembelajaran

PERTEMUAN 1-3 Kegiatan awal : 1. Guru memberi salam dan menanyakan kabar 2. Guru menjelaskan topik dan kegiatan yang akan dilakukan 3. Guru mengeksplorasi perbendaharaan kata dan frase yang akan digunakan

dalam task Kegiatan inti 1. Guru memberi beragam tasks sehubungan dengan sub topik 2. Siswa melaksanakan berbagai tasks secara individu, berpasangan, maupun

berkelompok 3. Siswa melakukan tentang tasks yang telah diberikan 4. Guru membahas bentuk-bentuk grammar yang digunakan 5. Guru memberikan latihan tertulis


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127 Kegiatan akhir

1. Guru memberi tugas untuk pekerjaan rumah

2. Guru menutup pelajaran

PERTEMUAN 4

Kegiatan awal

1. Guru memberi salam dan menanyakan kabar

2. Guru menjelaskan tata cara tes tulis yang akan dilakukan

Kegiatan inti

1. Guru mempersiapkan benda gambar yang akan digunakan untuk menilai

siswa

2. Siswa melakukan tes tulis satu per satu dalam bentuk mendeskripsikan benda

nyata dan gambar suatu ruangan

3. Guru menilai penampilan siswa

Kegiatan akhir

1. Guru mengumumkan tugas untuk pertemuan berikutnya

2. Guru menutup pelajaran

Alat/bahan sumber belajar

1. Berbagai macam benda

2. Gambar ruangan

Materi pembelajaran

1. Describing shapes and location

2. Describing object

3. Describing room

Penilaian

1. Bentuk tes : tes tulis

2. Soal :

a. Please write the description of the following objects!

b. Please write the description of the following room!

Mengetahui Guru matpel Drs. Tri udi P, M.Pd Ana Rochanah NIP. 19561024 198303 1 010


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128 Appendix 8

WORKSHEET FOR CYCLE 1 MEETING 1

DESCRIBE AND DRAW!

ACTIVITY 1 Mention the names of the following shapes!

ACTIVITY 2 Pair work: Ask and answer the shapes of the following objects!

1. an ice cream 6. a pencil

2. a classroom 7. a book

3. a can 8. a pencil box

4. a ball 9. a computer

5. a coin 10. a hand phone

ACTIVITY 3 Look at the following picture! Tell the position of the shapes!


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129 ACTIVITY 4 Group work : Describe the following shapes!

1. 2.

ACTIVITY 5 Your teacher will deliver a picture to your group! Choose one of your friend to draw the picture! Give your friends some clues about the shapes and positions! Example: There is a big circle There is a rectangle in the middle of the circle There is a triangle above the rectangle ………………………………………. ACTIVITY 6 Describe the picture in activity 5 to your class! ACTIVITY 7 Language Focus : Asking shape. Make a question about the shapes of the following objects! Example: coin A : What is the shape of a coin? B : It is circle


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130 1. refrigerator

A : ……………………………………….. B : ………………………………………..

2. kite A : ……………………………………….. B : ……………………………………….. 3. globe A : ……………………………………….. B : ……………………………………….. 4. helmet A : ……………………………………….. B : ……………………………………….. 5. eraser A : ………………………………………. B : ………………………………………. ACTIVITY 8 Ask and answer the following position! Example : A : Where is the circle? B : It is under the rectange 1. circle A : ………………………………… B : ………………………………… 2. triangle A : ………………………………… B : ………………………………… 3. rectangle A : ………………………………… B : ………………………………… 4. triangle A : ………………………………... B : ………………………………... 5. heart A : ………………………………... B : ………………………………...


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131 Appendix 9


GUESS MY HIDDEN OBJECT!

ACTIVITY 1 Put the following adjectives into their categories!

- Big - thick - good - new - Iron - hard - soft - purple - Modern - paper - narrow - bad - Wood - red - gold - beautiful - Brown - thin - silver - neat - Yellow - long - old - nice - Plastic - white - short - pink - Leather - wide - copper - grey

COLOR MATERIAL SIZE AGE QUALITY

……………

……………

……………

……………

……………

……………

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……………

………………

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……………

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ACTIVITY 2 Imagine the following objects! Find as many adjectives as possible

to the following objects!

BOOK DOOL TABLE

TELEVISION BAG


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132 ACTIVITY 3 Use the adjectives above to describe the objects in Activity 2! Use the following form! It is a book It is ……….. It is ……….. It is ……….. It is made of ……………………. ACTIVITY 4 Work with your group! Describe the objects on the teacher’s table! ACTIVITY 5 Guess the hidden objects of your friends. Ask questions to guess the objects! Example: Is it big? Is it brown? Is it hard? Is it thick? Is it made of wood? ACTIVITY 6 Ask and answer questions about an object! Study the questions below!

Questions Responses 1. What is it? 2. What colour is it? 3. How long is it? 4. How big is it? 5. What is it made of?

1. It is a book 2. it is blue 3. it is 25 centimetre long 4. it is not so big 5. it is made of paper

Write the questions for the following responses! 1. ………………………………. ? It is a desk 2. ………………………………. ? it is orange 3. ………………………………. ? it is made of plastic 4. ………………………………. ? it is 65 centimetre high 5. ………………………………. ? it is small


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133 Appendix 10

WORKSHEET FOR CYCLE 1 MEETING 3 HOW IS YOUR LIVINGROOM?

ACTIVITY 1 Identify the parts of the house below!

a. Door d.Roof g. stairs j. first floor b. Window e. Chimney h. garage k. second floor c. Fence f.Wall i. park l. third floor

ACTIVITY 2 What kinds of room are there in your house? Mention some objects in each room!

Living room Sofa,table, ……………………………...

Bedroom Bed, pillow, …………………………… Dining room Dining table, chairs, …………………… Bathroom Bucket, ………………………………… Kitchen Stove, pan, …………………………….. Garage Bicycle, ………………………………...

ACTIVITY 3 Look at the following picture! Identify the object in the picture! Work in pair to describe the room! ACTIVITY 4 Make an interview to your partner about her livingroom! Use the following questions in your interview!

Questions Responses 1. How is your house?

How many rooms are there in your house?

2. What are they?

3. How is your living room?

4. What are in your living room?

5. Describe your living room!

ACTIVITY 5 Make a report about your partner’s livingroom! ACTIVITY 6 Language Focus : Describing room

1. Describing room 2. Describing the things in the room


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134 Appendix 11

Transkrip Hasil Wawancara Dengan Siswa Setelah Treatment I

Hari/Tanggal : Rabo/ 22 Oktober 2009

Interviewer(Guru) : Ana Rochanah

Interviewee (Siswa) : 1. Ahmad Taufik Nasrul Huda

2. Lilin Ika Nur Indahsari

3. Johan Pangestu

1. Guru dengan Ahmad Taufik NH.

Guru : Fik, saya mau ngobrol sama kamu sebentar, bisa kan

Siswa : Iya bu, ada apa bu

Guru : Saya mau Tanya tentang bahasa Inggris yang baru kamu dapat tadi,

gimana pendapatmu

Siswa : Menyenangkan, terutama saat bu Ana memberikan serangkaian task-

task deskripsi tentang benda dan gambar-gambar betul-betul

membantu dan mempermudah dalam menulis, bu. Kan kita tinggal

memperluas kalimat dengan keadaan benda yang sebenarnya dirumah

kita

Guru : Apa kamu masih mempunyai kesulitan yang lainnya

Siswa : Ada bu

Guru : Apa kesulitanmu?

Siswa : Mengembangkan ide dan kosa katamya


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135 Guru : Oh… itu tho, kamu bisa mengatasinya dengan cara banyak latihan dan

banyak membaca. Ya sudah kita coba pecahkan masalahmu di

pertemuan depan

Siswa : Ya bu

Guru : Terima kasih ya sudah bisa ngobrol dengan kamu

Siswa : Ya, sama-sama bu

2. Guru dengan Lilin

Guru : Lin, bu Ana mau ngobrol dengan kamu sebentar

Siswa : Ada apa bu

Guru : Apa kesan kamu tentang bahasa Inggris hari ini

Siswa : Menyenangkan bu

Guru : Apa lembar kerja tadi bisa kamu kerjakan

Siswa : Bisa, bu. Meskipun sebagian ada yang kurang mengerti, tapi bu Ana

sudah memberikan task-task yang bisa membuat kita ngerti apa yang

dimaksud

Guru : Kamu masih punya kesulitan yang lain ndak, Lin

Siswa : Masih ada, bu

Guru : Apa kesulitanmu

Siswa : Mengembangkan ide dan kosa kata, bu

Guru : Oh….itu tho, kamu bisa mengembangkannya dengan cara banyak

latihan, banyak membaca, dan menghafalkan. Kalau gitu pertemuan

mendatang kita pecahkan persoalan itu. Ya sudah makasih ya

Siswa : Ya bu sama-sama


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136 3. Guru dengan Johan Pangestu

Guru : Jo, bisa kita ngobrol sebentar

Siswa : Ada apa bu Ana

Guru : Gimana kesanmu tentang pelajaran bahasa Inggris hari ini

Siswa : Sebetulnya menyenangkan tapi saya masih belum mudheng bu

Guru : Apanya yang belum mudheng

Siswa : Sebenarnya task-tasknya mengasikkan bu tapi dasar saya masih suka

bingung

Guru : Ya sudah besok lusa kita ulang keterangan yang baru tadi saya

berikan. Kalau belum bisa ya ndak usah malu bertanya ya Jo besok

Siswa : Lha saya takut tho bu

Guru : Jangan takut, malu bertanya sesat dikuburan,eh bukan dijalan. Ya

sudah terimakasih sudah mau berbagi.


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137 Appendix 12


CYCLE 2

Nama sekolah : SMA NEGERI 1 BOJONEGORO Mata pelajaran : Bahasa Inggris Kelas/semester : X/1 Standar Kompetensi : Menulis dengan bahasa Inggris Kompetensi Dasar : Menghasilkan tuturan sederhana yang cukup untuk

fungsi- fungsi dasar Indikator : Kata-kata dirangkai dengan tepat untuk mendeskripsikan

Orang yang terkait dengan ciri fisik, kualitas, dan aktivitasnya

Alokasi waktu : 4 X 2 X 45 menit

Tujuan : Siswa dapat 1. Menuliskan ciri-ciri fisik orang berdasarkan warna kulit, tinggi badan, bentuk

dan warna rambut, pakaian yang dikenakan dan ciri lainnya. 2. Mendeskripsikan orang berdasarkan ciri-cirinya 3. Menjawab pertanyaan guru tentang deskripsi seseorang 4. Mengerjakan tugas-tugas (tasks) tentang mendeskripsikan orang Materi pokok : Describing People Metode Pembelajaran : Task-based Activities

Langkah-langkah pembelajaran

PERTEMUAN 1-3 Kegiatan awal: 1. Guru memberi salam dan menanyakan kabar 2. Guru menjelaskan topik dan kegiatan yang akan dilakukan 3. Guru mengeksplorasi perbendaharaan kata dan frase yang akan digunakan


berkelompok 3. Siswa melakukan tentang tasks yang telah diberikan 4. Guru membahas bentuk-bentuk grammar yang digunakan 5. Guru memberikan latihan tertulis Kegiatan akhir

1. Guru memberi tugas untuk pekerjaan rumah 2. Guru menutup pelajaran


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138 PERTEMUAN 4 Kegiatan awal 1. Guru memberi salam dan menanyakan kabar 2. Guru menjelaskan tata cara tes tulis yang akan dilakukan Kegiatan inti 1. Guru mempersiapkan benda gambar yang akan digunakan untuk menilai

siswa 2. Siswa melakukan tes tulis dalam bentuk mendeskripsikan benda nyata dan

gambar suatu ruangan 3. Guru menilai tulisan siswa Kegiatan akhir 1. Guru mengumumkan tugas untuk pertemuan berikutnya 2. Guru menutup pelajaran Alat/bahan sumber belajar 1. Berbagai macam gambar orang 2. Rekaman tentang penampilan seseorang 3. Tape recorder

Materi pembelajaran: Describing people Penilaian 1. Bentuk tes : tes tulis 2. Soal : Please write the description the people in the picture!

Mengetahui Guru matpel Drs. Tri udi P, M.Pd Ana Rochanah NIP. 19561024 198303 1 010


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139 Appendix 13


HOW DOES SHE LOOK LIKE? ACTIVITY 1 Look at the picture! Identify the physical characteristics of the people! ACTIVITY 2 Make a list of the words that you learn in Activity 1!

Age

Height

Weight

Hair

Skin

Face

Special characteristics

Cloth

ACTIVITY 3 Look at the picture! Identify the persons with the following description! She is in her sixties he is tall She is fat and short He has dark skin She is wearing glasses He has curly hair She is holding a handbag He is wearing T-shirt and jeans She is wearing dress He is wearing glasses She is wearing black shoes He is wearing shoes ACTIVITY 4 Describe the rest of the people in the picture! ACTIVITY 5 Write sentence about your physical appearance! 1. …………………………. 2. …………………………. 3. …………………………. 4. …………………………. 5. ………………………….


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140 Appendix 14


WHO IS WHO?

ACTIVITY 1 Identify the person in the picture!

ACTIVITY 2 Write the person’s characteristics in the table below!

No Name Characteristics

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

ACTIVITY 3 Read the description of each person using the notes that you have

made in Activity 2!

ACTIVITY 4 Cut up a picture from magazine or newspaper! Describe the people

in your group!


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141 Appendix 15


DESCRIBING PEOPLE

Activity 1 Fill in the blanks with the correct words! Dialog 1 Dina : How ........................... (1) he look like?

Lisa : He ......................... (2) tall and thin

Dina : How is his .......................... (3)?

Lisa : His hair is short and curly

Dina : What is he ……………..? (4)

Lisa : He is wearing T-shirt and shorts

Dialog 2

Joko : Do you know my friend Sita?

Edwin : Which one is she?

Joko : She is the …………. (5) wearing glasses

Edwin : …………. (6) she tall?

Joko : Yes, she is

Edwin : Is she fat?

Joko : No, she …………….. (7) She is slim

Edwin : …………… (8) is her hair?

Joko : Her hair ………….. (9) black and wavy

Edwin : Does she have a spot on her nose?

Joko : Yes, she …………….. (10)

Edwin : I think I know her


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142 Activity 2 Look at the example and write!

Sofyan Jalil

Age : 65 Skin : light Body : tall, big Special characteristic : Pointed nose, spot on the forehead Face : round Hair : straight black wavy Cloth : blue shirt, black trosers

Winda

Fitriyah

Age : 25 Skin : light Body : tall, slim Special characteristic : flat nose, chubby cheeks Face : oval Hair : short curly black Cloth : yellow blouse, jeans

.......................................................................................................................... .......................................................................................................................... .......................................................................................................................... .......................................................................................................................... .......................................................................................................................... .......................................................................................................................... .......................................................................................................................... .......................................................................................................................... .......................................................................................................................... ..........................................................................................................................

Activity 3 Talk about your brother or sister! Ask and answer question!

A : What is your sister’s/brother’s name?

B : …………………………………………

A : How old is she/he?

B : …………………………………………

A : How tall is she/he?

B : …………………………………………

A : Is she/he fat?

B : ………………………………………...

A : How is her/his face?

B : ………………………………………...

A : How is her/his skin?

B : ………………………………………..


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143 A : How is her/his hair?

B : ………………………………………..

A : What is her/his special characteristics?

B : ………………………………………..

Activity 4 Make a report about the person you are talking about! Write in the

space below and present it in the front of the class!

……………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………............ ……………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………............ ……………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………................................................


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144 Appendix 16


CYCLE 3

Nama sekolah : SMA NEGERI 1 BOJONEGORO Mata pelajaran : Bahasa Inggris Kelas/semester : X/1 Standar Kompetensi : Menulis dengan bahasa Inggris Kompetensi Dasar : Menghasilkan tuturan sederhana yang cukup untuk

fungsi - fungsi dasar Indikator : Kata-kata dirangkai dengan tepat untuk mendeskripsikan

Orang yang terkait dengan ciri fisik, kualitas, dan aktivitasnya

Alokasi waktu : 4 X 2 X 45 menit

Tujuan : Siswa dapat 1. Menyebutkan sifat-sifat suatu event (kejadian) berdasarkan keadaan cuaca,

jumlah orang dalam event, kegiatan seseorang, dan perasaan. 2. Mendeskripsikan event atau kejadian 3. Menjawab pertanyaan guru tentang deskripsi suatu event (kejadian) 4. Mengerjakan tugas-tugas (tasks) tentang mendeskripsikan event (kejadian) Materi pokok : Describing Event Metode Pembelajaran : Task-based Activities

Langkah-langkah pembelajaran

PERTEMUAN 1-3 Kegiatan awal: 1. Guru memberi salam dan menanyakan kabar 2. Guru menjelaskan topik dan kegiatan yang akan dilakukan 3. Guru mengeksplorasi perbendaharaan kata dan frase yang akan digunakan


berkelompok 3. Siswa mengerjakan tentang tasks yang telah diberikan 4. Guru membahas bentuk-bentuk grammar yang digunakan 5. Guru memberikan latihan tertulis Kegiatan akhir

1. Guru memberi tugas untuk pekerjaan rumah 2. Guru menutup pelajaran


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145 PERTEMUAN 4 Kegiatan awal 1. Guru memberi salam dan menanyakan kabar 2. Guru menjelaskan tata cara tes lisan yang akan dilakukan

Kegiatan inti 1. Guru mempersiapkan benda gambar yang akan digunakan untuk menilai

siswa 2. Siswa melakukan tes tulis dalam bentuk mendeskripsikan event dalam gambar 3. Guru menilai tulisan siswa

Kegiatan akhir 1. Guru mengumumkan tugas untuk pertemuan berikutnya 2. Guru menutup pelajaran Alat/bahan sumber belajar 1. Berbagai macam gambar tentang peristiwa 2. Kaset rekaman tentang suatu peristiwa 3. Tape recorder

Materi pembelajaran: Describing event Penilaian 1. Bentuk tes : tes tulis 2. Soal : Please describe the event in the picture Mengetahui Guru matpel Drs. Tri udi P, M.Pd Ana Rochanah NIP. 19561024 198303 1 010


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146 Appendix 17


WHAT ARE THEY DOING?

ACTIVITY 1 Look at the picture and read the text carefully!

It is a fine day today.

There are some clouds in the sky but the sun is shining

Mr. Jones is with his family.

They are walking over the bridge.

There are some boats on the river.

Mr. Jones and his wife are looking at them.

Sally is looking at a big ship.

The ship is going under the bridge.

Tim is looking at an aeroplane.

The aeroplane is flying over the river.

ACTIVITY 2 Answer the following questions!

1. How is the weather today?

2. What are on the sky?

3. How is the sun?

4. Where are the Jones families?

5. What are they doing?

6. What are on the river?

7. How many boats are there?

8. What are Mr. Jones and his wife doing?

9. What is Sally doing?

10. Where is the ship?


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147 ACTIVITY 3 Fill in the table with suitable words in describing an event!

Showing location

Showing activity

Showing number of people

Showing weather

Showing feeling

ACTIVITY 4. Put the correct punctuation and capitalization for the following

short text.

it is a fine day today there are some clouds in the sky but the sun is shining i and my family go to the townsquare to see the bike race.the situation of the surroumding is very crowded and alive because of there is a finish line the final destination for the competitors was leaving the finish line theparticipant number thirty four is in the first position and then the participant number eighty is on the second position there are many spectators attend there they cheer and clap together to encourage the competitors some of the spectator bring their equipments such as trumphet flag ribbon and so on some of them also take a picture with their camera maybe they are journalist who look for the news unfortunately I can not see the race all the time since my younger daughter persuade to go home oh how poor i am


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148 Appendix 18


FIND THE DIFFERENCES

ACTIVITY 1 Look at the picture and identify the person in the picture!

ACTIVITY 2 Write the important information in the table below!

Weather

Names Location Activity

1. Jean

2. Jack

3. Tim

4. Sally

Feeling

ACTIVITY 3 Use the information in ACTIVITY 2 to describe the event !

ACTIVITY 4 Ask and answer questions with your partner! Answer the questions!

1. A: How is the weather?

B: …………………………………

2. A: Where is Jean?

B: …………………………………

3. A: What is she doing?

B: …………………………………

4. A: Where is Jack?

B: …………………………………

5. A: What is he doing?

B: …………………………………

6. A: Where is Tim?

B: …………………………………

7. A: What is he doing?

B: …………………………………

8. A: Where is Sally?

B: …………………………………


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149

9. A: What is she doing?

B: …………………………………

10. A: How are their feeling?

B: …………………………………

ACTIVITY 5 Work with your partner to describe the event in these picture!

ACTIVITY 6 Find the differences between the two pictures!


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150 Appendix 19


DESCRIBING EVENT

ACTIVITY 1 Describing Weather. Do as the example!

Today – sunny : Today is sunny 1. today – windy = ……………………………….. 2. today – cloudy = ……………………………….. 3. today – foggy = ……………………………….. 4. it – hot = ……………………………….. 5. it – cold = ………………………………..

ACTIVITY 2 Study the use of there is and there are in the example below! There is a man in the room. There are two boys in the room.

1. 5 children – yard = …………………………………… 2. 2 cats – under the table = …………………………………… 3. a girl – the street = …………………………………… 4. a teacher – the teacher’s office = …………………………………… 5. a doctor – the hospital = …………………………………… 6. 2 farmers – rice field = …………………………………… 7. 4 boys – swimming pool = …………………………………… 8. a dog – house = ……………………………………. 9. 3 drivers – station =

…………………………………….. 10. a dancer – on the stage =

…………………………………….. ACTIVITY 3 Do as the example! She – dance = She is dancing They – swim = They are swimming

1. You – teach 2. he – drive 3. we – listen the radio 4. you – eat 5. I read 6. Ira and Maya – talk 7. Bimo – jump 8. They – chat 9. The cat – sleep 10. My mother – travel


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151 ACTIVITY 4 Do as the example!

He – happy = He is happy

1. They – sad = ………………………………………….

2. She – excited = ………………………………………….

3. I – bored = ………………………………………….

4. We – disappointed= ………………………………………….

5. I – pleased = ………………………………………….

6. He – tired = ………………………………………….

7. We – hungry = ………………………………………….

8. She – hopeless = ………………………………………….

9. They – hopeful = ………………………………………….

10. You – worried = ………………………………………….

ACTIVITY 5 Look at the picture and answer the questions!

1. Where are the people?

2. How many people are there?

3. How many people are standing?

4. How many people are sitting?

5. What is drinking?

6. Who is drinking?

7. What is Mr. Kosaja doing?

8. Who is telephoning?

9. What is Miss Sutomo doing?

10. Are they busy?


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152 Appendix 20

Transkrip Wawancara Dengan Siswa Setelah Treatment 3

Hari/tanggal : Rabo/ 12 Agustus 2009

Interviewer (guru) : Ana Rochanah

Interviewee (siswa) : 1. Ahmad Taufik NH

2. Lilin

3. Juhan Pangestu

1. Guru dengan Taufik, Lilin, dan Johan

Guru : Sebelumnya saya minta maaf sudah menyita waktu istirahat kalian

Siswa : Ndak apa-apa kok bu Ana, mau nanyai kita lagi tho bu

Guru : Iya, saya mau tanya, apa penjelasan dan kegiatan yang kita lakukan

selama ini sudah dapat memecahkan kesulitan kalian, jawab dengan jujur

lho

Siswa : Alhamdulilah sudah sangat membantu untuk memeahami apa itu

descriptive teks.(Lilin) Apalagi Bu Ana kan membuat banyak lembar-

lembar tugas yang dibutuhkan kedalam kelas, ya baru bu Ana guru yang

langsung memberikan banyak cara untuk menggambarkan tentang

benda. (Taufiq) Wah itu sangat membantu untuk mengenali benda yang

sesungguhnya dan tahu apa bahasa Inggrisnya secara langsung

Guru : Gimana dengan kesulitan kamu yang lain

Siswa : Yang mana, bu

Guru : Mengembangkan ide, kosa kata, cara mulai menulis, itu kan yang kamu

keluhkan


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153 Siswa : Iya, Bu. Tapi kita sudah banyak kemajuan karena Bu Ana sudah

memberikan banyak contoh dan latihan, jadi kita merasa sudah lebih

banyak kemajuan dibandingkan dengan sebelumnya

Guru : Ya sudah kalau begitu, terima kasih sudah meluangkan waktu, rasanya

saya ingin ngajar kamu dikelas XI nanti

Siswa : Kami harap ya begitu, Bu


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154 Appendix 21

FIELD NOTE OF CLASSROOM OBSERVATION

OF CYCLE 1

DAY/DATE : Tuesday, 21 Juni 2009 CLASS : X TEACHER : Ana Rochanah COLLABORATOR : Oktha

Time (menit)

Teacher activity Students activity

5 T memberi salam pembuka T mengecek kehadiran Ss T menulis topic pembahasan dan membagikan worksheet

SS menjawab salam

10 T melakukan tanya jawab untuk mereview pelajaran lalu

SS menjawab pertanyaan guru

5 T menerangkan deskripsi benda SS memperhatikan 15 T menyuruh siswa melihat gambar dan

meyebutkan bentuk gambar SS melihat gambar dan menyebutkan bentuk yang ada di gambar

10 T menjelaskan preposisi dengan membuat gambar di papan tulis

SS memperhatikan penjelasan guru

15 T membagi siswa dalam kelompok yang terdiri dari 4 orang dan mendeskripsikan gambar

Perwakilan kelompok menggambar di papan tulis dengan petunjuk temannya

15 T meminta perwakilan kelompok untuk menggambar di papan tulis dengan instruksi dari temannya

Perwakilan kelompok menggambar di papan tulis dengan petunjuk temannya

10 T mengulas cara bertanya dan menjelaskan bentuk dan posisi benda

SS memperhatikan

5 T menutup pelajaran dengan memberi salam

S menjawab salam penutup

COMMENTARY:

1. STREGHT

· Guru menerangkan dengan sangat jelas

· Suara guru keras sehingga siswa tidak mengantuk

· Siswa antusias

· Cara guru memotivasi siswa bagus

· Kegiatannya bervariasi

2. WEAKNESSES

· Guru terkadang terlalu cepat dalam berbicara

· Kurang memantau siswa secara menyeluruh

· Penjelasan tentang grammar / tata kalimat sangat sedikit


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155 3. SUGGESTION

· Perlu ditambah porsi untuk membahas grammar dan vocabulary yang

digunakan dalam writing (sesuai toik)

· Cara berbicara guru diperlambat agar siswa lebih paham

· Monitoring perlu ditingkatkan agar siswa tidak banyak ngobrol


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156 Appendix 22


OF CYCLE 2

DAY/DATE : Tuesday, 11 Juli 2009 CLASS : X TEACHER : Ana Rochanah COLLABORATOR : Oktha

Time (menit)


5 T memberi salam pembuka T mengecek kehadiran Ss T mereview pelajran lalu

SS menjawab salam Ss menjawab panggilan saat dipanggil namanya Ss mengikuti review dari guru

15 T menyuruh Ss melihat gambar dan mencocokan dengan ilustrasi yang dibacakan T

Ss melihat gambar dan mencocokkannya

15 T meminta Ss menebak gambar dengan ciri khas yang didengarkan dari guru

Ss menebak gambar orang dengan menggunakan cirri-ciri yang disampaikan dari guru

15 T meminta Ss menulis ciri-ciri orang yang diperoleh dari gambar

Ss menulis ciri-ciri orang dalam gambar

5 T meminta Ss mendeskripsikan orang dalam gambar

Ss mendeskripsikan gambar

10 T membentuk kelompok dan menyuruh siswa mendeskripsikan gambar dari potongan Koran/majalah

Ss bekerja dan berdiskusi dalam kelompok

10 T memonitor kelompok, memberikan bantuan jika ada kelompok yang mengalami kesulitan

Ss bekerja dan berdiskusi dalam kelompok

5 T meminta Ss mendeskripsikan gambar masing-masing

Ss mendeskripsikan gambar dari Koran/majalah

5 T menunjukkan gambar Obama dari Koran dan menyuruh ss mendeskripsikan gambar tersebut

Ss mendeskripsikan gambar bersama-sama

5 T menutup pelajaran dengan memberi salam

Ss menjawab salam


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157 COMMENTARY:

1. STREGHT

· Penjelasan sangat jelas

· Suasana kelas sangat kondusif

· Partisipasi siswa bagus

2. WEAKNESSES

· Persiapan agak kurang

· Guru memberikan instruksi kurang jelas

· Dalam kegiatan ini siswa kurang memahami

3. SUGGESTION

· Persiapan lebih ditingkatkan

· Perlu dicari kegiatan yang lebih menantang


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158 Appendix 23


OF CYCLE 3

DAY/DATE : Tuesday, 25 Agustus 2009 CLASS : X TEACHER : Ana Rochanah COLLABORATOR : Oktha

Time (menit)


5 T memberi salam pembuka T mengecek kehadiran Ss T mereview pelajran lalu

SS menjawab salam Ss menjawab namanya Ss mengikuti review dari guru

5 T mereview pelajaran lalu Ss mengikuti review pelajaran lalu 5 T membacakan script dan menyuruh

SS menyimak kejadian. Ss menuliskan kejadian

10 T memainkan kembali dan menyuruh siswa mencatat poin-poin penting dari rekaman

SS mencatat poin-poin penting dari rekaman

10 T memberi pertanyaan tentang kejadian dalam ilustrasi

SS menjawab pertanyaan secara lisan tentang kejadian dalam ilustrasi

10 T meminta SS melihat gambar dan menuliskan peristiwa yang terjadi

SS melihat gambardan menuliskan peristiwa yang terjadi

10 T meminta SS bertanya jawab tentang peristiwa yang telah dipelajari

SS bertanya jawab tentang peristiwa yang telah dipelajari

15 T menunjukkan 2 gambar seruap dan meminta SS bekerja berpasangan untuk mendeskripsikan peristiwa dalam gambar

SS bekerja berpasangan untuk mendeskripsikan peristiwa dalam gambar

10 T meminta SS mencari perbedaan dalam gambar dengan membandingkan hasil deskripsi dalam gambar

SS mencari perbedaan dalam gambar dengan membandingkan hasil deskripsi dalam gambar

5 T melakukan Tanya jawab dengan SS SS menjawab pertanyaan T 5 T menutup pelajaran dengan memberi

salam Ss menjawab salam

COMMENTARY:

1. STREGHT

· Suasana kelas sangat hidup, siswa mau berpartisipasi aktif dalam setiap

kegiatan

· Persiapan bagus

· Materi (task) menarik

· Siswa sangat percaya diri dalam menulis

· Kerja kelompok lebih efektif


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159 2. WEAKNESSES

· Waktu untuk presentasi secara individu di depan kelas masih kurang

3. SUGGESTION

· Perlu disusun task yang jauh lebih menantang dan bervariasi

· Perlu task yang bersifat lebih individual


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160 Appendix 24

Post test of Cycle 1

A. Instruction: Put all your ideas in some task-based activity then describe

the object in the picture below!


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161 Appendix 25


Instruction: Put all your ideas in some task-based activity, then describe the

people in the picture below!


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162 Appendix 26


Instruction: Put all your ideas in some tasks activity, then describe the event

in the picture below!


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163 Appendix 27

RESULT OF PRE-TEST FROM INTER-RATER

NO NAME SCORE 1 SCORE 2 FINAL SCORE 1 A1 53 57 55 2 A2 63 57 60 3 A3 48 50 49 4 A4 64 64 64 5 A5 56 51 54 6 A6 55 54 55 7 A7 56 56 56 8 A8 50 56 53 9 A9 54 50 52 10 A10 65 75 70 11 A11 58 47 53 12 A12 49 49 49 13 A13 60 60 60 14 A14 50 59 55 15 A15 63 61 62 16 A16 56 56 56 17 A17 50 42 46 18 A18 50 50 50 19 A19 62 75 69 20 A20 58 54 56 21 A21 74 67 71 22 A22 60 51 56 23 A23 55 56 56 24 A24 47 47 47 25 A25 65 61 63 26 A26 57 51 54 27 A27 55 51 53 28 A28 56 66 61 29 A29 57 51 54 30 A30 50 48 49 31 A31 52 52 52 32 A32 56 56 56 33 A33 51 56 54


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164

34 A34 55 51 53 35 A35 53 57 55 36 A36 45 54 50 37 A37 62 54 58 38 A38 60 56 58 39 A39 58 58 58 40 A40 55 54 55

TOTAL 2243 2220 2231.5

Average Score 56.08 55.50 55.79 Percentage of organization 51% 50% 50.5

Percentage of content 59% 59% 59

Percentage of grammar 52% 52% 52 Percentage of vocabulary 59% 57% 58

Percentage of mechanic 67% 64% 65.5


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165 Appendix 28

SCORES POST-TEST CYCLE I FROM FIRST CORRECTOR

No Name Scores

Final Scores 1 2 3 4 5

1 A1 3 5 4 4 4 79 2 A2 3 4 3 5 5 75 3 A3 3 4 4 4 4 74 4 A4 2 3 3 3 5 58 5 A5 2 3 2 3 4 52 6 A6 2 4 3 4 3 62 7 A7 2 3 3 3 2 52 8 A8 3 4 3 3 2 63 9 A9 3 4 3 2 4 64 10 A10 2 2 4 4 4 58 11 A11 4 3 4 4 3 73 12 A12 2 2 3 3 3 49 13 A13 3 2 4 5 3 65 14 A14 3 2 4 3 3 59 15 A15 3 4 3 2 3 62 16 A16 3 4 3 4 4 70 17 A17 5 3 3 3 3 72 18 A18 5 3 3 2 2 67 19 A19 4 3 4 3 3 70 20 A20 4 4 3 2 5 72 21 A21 3 2 3 4 3 58 22 A22 3 3 4 3 3 64 23 A23 3 4 2 4 3 64 24 A24 3 4 3 3 3 65 25 A25 2 4 2 2 4 54 26 A26 2 3 3 3 4 56 27 A27 2 2 2 5 4 53 28 A28 3 3 4 3 3 64 29 A29 2 3 4 4 3 61 30 A30 3 4 3 5 3 71 31 A31 4 4 2 5 3 73 32 A32 2 4 2 4 3 58 33 A33 3 4 4 3 3 69 34 A34 4 3 3 4 2 67 35 A35 4 3 2 5 2 66


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166 36 A36 5 4 2 4 3 76 37 A37 4 4 3 3 3 71 38 A38 3 4 3 4 2 66 39 A39 3 5 3 2 3 67 40 A40 4 3 4 4 3 73

Total 123 136 124 140 129 2592 Final Scores 738 680 496 420 258 2592 Maximal Scores 1190 1000 800 600 397 3987 Average Scores 64.80 Percentage 62% 68% 62% 70% 65% 65%


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167 Appendix 29

SCORES POST-TEST CYCLE I FROM SECOND CORRECTOR

No Name Scores


1 A1 4 3 3 5 4 74 2 A2 4 3 4 5 3 76 3 A3 3 3 4 5 2 68 4 A4 2 2 3 4 3 52 5 A5 3 2 3 4 5 62 6 A6 3 4 5 2 5 74 7 A7 5 3 4 2 3 73 8 A8 3 5 4 3 3 74 9 A9 4 3 4 3 2 68 10 A10 3 4 5 4 2 74 11 A11 3 2 3 4 4 60 12 A12 2 3 3 3 4 56 13 A13 2 2 2 3 3 45 14 A14 2 3 3 2 5 55 15 A15 3 2 4 2 3 56 16 A16 5 3 3 4 3 75 17 A17 4 5 3 3 3 76 18 A18 4 3 4 3 2 68 19 A19 3 3 2 2 3 53 20 A20 3 3 3 3 4 62 21 A21 2 3 4 2 3 55 22 A22 2 3 3 4 4 59 23 A23 5 4 4 3 2 79 24 A24 4 3 3 5 2 70 25 A25 4 4 4 2 5 76 26 A26 3 2 5 3 4 65 27 A27 2 3 4 4 3 61 28 A28 3 5 3 3 2 68 29 A29 4 3 5 3 4 76 30 A30 4 3 3 2 3 63 31 A31 5 4 3 2 3 74 32 A32 3 3 4 3 3 64 33 A33 3 2 5 4 3 66 34 A34 4 2 4 3 2 63 35 A35 2 4 3 4 3 62 36 A36 2 3 4 3 3 58


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168 37 A37 5 4 3 2 4 76 38 A38 3 4 5 3 4 75 39 A39 4 4 3 3 5 75 40 A40 3 3 4 3 3 64



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169 Appendix 30

SCORES POST-TEST CYCLE II FROM FIRST CORRECTOR

No Name Scores




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170 36 A36 3 4 4 4 4 74 37 A37 3 3 4 4 3 67 38 A38 3 4 5 3 3 73 39 A39 3 3 4 4 3 67 40 A40 3 3 3 4 4 65



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171 Appendix 31

SCORES POST-TEST CYCLE II FROM SECOND CORRECTOR

No Name Scores




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172 36 A36 4 3 3 4 5 73 37 A37 3 3 5 3 4 70 38 A38 4 4 3 4 3 74 39 A39 5 3 3 3 3 72 40 A40 3 3 3 5 3 66



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173 Appendix 32

SCORES POST-TEST CYCLE III FROM FIRST CORRECTOR

No Name Scores




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174 36 A36 3 4 5 3 5 77 37 A37 4 4 4 4 4 80 38 A38 4 4 4 4 3 78 39 A39 4 3 4 4 4 75 40 A40 3 3 5 4 4 73



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175 Appendix 33

SCORES POST-TEST CYCLE III FROM SECOND CORRECTOR

No Name Scores




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176 36 A36 4 4 3 4 4 76 37 A37 4 4 4 3 3 75 38 A38 3 4 4 4 4 74 39 A39 3 4 3 5 4 73 40 A40 4 4 3 5 5 81



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177 Appendix 34

RESULT OF ALL SCORES

NO NAME PRE-TEST CYCLE I CYCLE 2 CYCLE 3

1 A1 55 77 76 84 2 A2 60 76 76 87 3 A3 49 71 70 83 4 A4 64 55 77 75 5 A5 54 57 70 79 6 A6 55 68 75 78 7 A7 56 63 64 77 8 A8 53 69 61 80 9 A9 52 66 77 86 10 A10 70 66 71 78 11 A11 53 67 73 76 12 A12 49 53 74 80 13 A13 60 55 73 79 14 A14 55 57 64 75 15 A15 62 59 69 74 16 A16 56 73 75 74 17 A17 46 74 70 76 18 A18 50 68 70 78 19 A19 69 62 72 76 20 A20 56 67 72 73 21 A21 71 57 73 82 22 A22 56 69 72 77 23 A23 56 72 68 77 24 A24 47 68 68 84 25 A25 63 65 66 81 26 A26 54 61 72 74 27 A27 53 57 71 86 28 A28 61 66 63 78 29 A29 54 69 66 71 30 A30 49 67 71 73 31 A31 52 74 66 75 32 A32 56 61 66 80 33 A33 54 68 69 75 34 A34 53 65 71 80


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178

35 A35 55 64 71 79 36 A36 50 67 74 77 37 A37 58 74 69 78 38 A38 58 71 74 76 39 A39 58 72 71 74 40 A40 55 69 66 77

Average 55.93 64.28 70.40 78.05


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179 Appendix 35

RESULT OF POST-TEST CYCLE I FROM INTER-RATER

NO RESPONDENT SCORE 1 SCORE 2 FINAL SCORE

1 A1 79 74 77 2 A2 75 76 76 3 A3 74 68 71 4 A4 58 52 55 5 A5 52 62 57 6 A6 62 74 68 7 A7 52 73 63 8 A8 63 74 69 9 A9 64 68 66 10 A10 58 74 66 11 A11 73 60 67 12 A12 49 56 53 13 A13 65 45 55 14 A14 59 55 57 15 A15 62 56 59 16 A16 70 75 73 17 A17 72 76 74 18 A18 67 68 68 19 A19 70 53 62 20 A20 72 62 67 21 A21 58 55 57 22 A22 64 59 62 23 A23 64 79 72 24 A24 65 70 68 25 A25 54 76 65 26 A26 56 65 61 27 A27 53 61 57 28 A28 64 68 66 29 A29 61 76 69 30 A30 71 63 67 31 A31 73 74 74 32 A32 58 64 61 33 A33 69 66 68


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180

34 A34 67 63 65 35 A35 66 62 64 36 A36 76 58 67 37 A37 71 76 74 38 A38 66 75 71 39 A39 67 76 72 40 A40 73 64 69

TOTAL 2525 2651 2588

Average Score 63.125 66.275 64.7 Percentage of organization 62% 66% 64%

Percentage of content 68% 64% 66%

Percentage of grammar 62% 73% 67.50%

Percentage of vocabulary 70% 64% 67%

Percentage of mechanic 65% 66% 55.50%


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181 Appendix 36

RESULT OF POST-TEST CYCLE II FROM INTER-RATER

NO RESPONDENT SCORE 1 SCORE 2 FINAL SCORE

1 A1 73 78 76 2 A2 78 74 76 3 A3 67 72 70 4 A4 75 78 77 5 A5 75 64 70 6 A6 78 72 75 7 A7 60 68 64 8 A8 60 62 61 9 A9 71 82 77 10 A10 66 76 71 11 A11 78 67 73 12 A12 78 69 74 13 A13 77 68 73 14 A14 67 60 64 15 A15 72 65 69 16 A16 71 78 75 17 A17 62 77 70 18 A18 70 70 70 19 A19 70 74 72 20 A20 71 73 72 21 A21 71 74 73 22 A22 69 75 72 23 A23 66 69 68 24 A24 68 68 68 25 A25 62 70 66 26 A26 75 68 72 27 A27 68 73 71 28 A28 62 64 63 29 A29 63 68 66 30 A30 69 72 71 31 A31 64 67 66 32 A32 65 66 66 33 A33 63 75 69


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34 A34 72 69 71 35 A35 72 70 71 36 A36 74 73 74 37 A37 67 70 69 38 A38 73 74 74 39 A39 69 72 71 40 A40 65 66 66

TOTAL 2706 2830 2768

Average Score 67.65 70.75 69.2

Percentage of organization 67% 66% 66.50%

Percentage of content 69% 72% 70.50%

Percentage of grammar 70% 75% 72.50%

Percentage of vocabulary 72% 72% 72%

Percentage of mechanic 73% 72% 72.50%


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RESULT OF POST-TEST CYCLE III FROM INTER-RATER

NO NAME SCORE 1 SCORE 2 FINAL SCORE

1 A1 79 88 84 2 A2 87 86 87 3 A3 78 88 83 4 A4 72 77 75 5 A5 71 87 79 6 A6 72 83 78 7 A7 80 73 77 8 A8 80 80 80 9 A9 87 84 86 10 A10 72 84 78 11 A11 71 80 76 12 A12 75 85 80 13 A13 78 80 79 14 A14 76 74 75 15 A15 73 74 74 16 A16 73 75 74 17 A17 79 73 76 18 A18 74 81 78 19 A19 71 81 76 20 A20 71 74 73 21 A21 78 85 82 22 A22 72 81 77 23 A23 76 77 77 24 A24 87 80 84 25 A25 80 82 81 26 A26 76 72 74 27 A27 89 83 86 28 A28 73 83 78 29 A29 70 72 71 30 A30 73 72 73 31 A31 76 74 75 32 A32 81 78 80 33 A33 77 73 75 34 A34 82 78 80


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35 A35 76 81 79 36 A36 77 76 77 37 A37 80 75 78 38 A38 78 74 76 39 A39 75 73 74 40 A40 73 81 77

TOTAL 2994 3157 3075.5

Average Score 74.85 78.925 76.89

Percentage of organization 73% 79% 76%

Percentage of content 77% 78% 77.50%

Percentage of grammar 78% 82% 80%

Percentage of vocabulary 83% 78% 80.50%

Percentage of mechanic 79% 79% 79%


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185 Appendix 38

RECAPITULATION OF THE QUESTINNAIRE RESULT

Questions Students’ responses

Yes No

1. Do you agree with learning writing trough TBA? 100% 0%

Reason TBA is fun and exciting TBA makes the lesson easier to understand TBA can facilitate the students in learning writing TBA is motivating. The activities encourage the students to write. The students are curious about the following activities so they want to learn

and learn. TBA improves their vocabularies and grammar. 2. Is there improvement in your writing ability? 100% 0% Reason: Before the implementation of TBA the students think that they could not

write, they just kept silent in writing sessions. After the implementation of TBA they think that they can write English. For some students say that writing is very easy. They used to be very afraid when they got the turn to write, but now, they are

brave to take the turn to write. 3. Are you motivated to learn writing with TBA? 100% 0% Reason : TBA is very exciting and fun. The activities are enjoyable. The students find that writingg is not something difficukt, therefore they are

eager to do the activity. The students find that group work is very enjoyable. They can share

knowledge and learn from the outstanding students in the group. The relax atmosphere of TBA really motivates the students to write 4. Do you feel any burden in learning writing 0% 100%

through TBA? Reason: Before the implementation of TBA, writing activity was a big burden for the

students. Now they don’t feel it anymore. They enjoyment of the activities makes the students do the tasks eagerly. 5. Should we continue applying TBA in the future? 100% 0% Reason : Students want to have more activities using TBA in the future. Now, they

realize that writing is not as difficult as they think. They want to improve their writing ability; therefore TBA must be applied in the future.


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ORGANIZATION CONTENT DICTION

WORD CHOICE/ GRAMMAR USAGE

MECHANICS

Score Of 6

Example Organization · Clear and logical progression

of ideas · Strong Introductory paragraph,

supporting paragraph and concluding paragraph.

· Sophisticated transition conveys relationships among Ideas and paragraphs.

Exemplary Development · Clear focus maintained for Intended

audience · Strong development of the topic for

narrative and descriptive writing · Strong thesis statement for development of

Informative and persuasive writing · Strong use of examples, evidence, or

relevant details · Strong use of analogies, illustrations or

anecdotes.

Exemplary Sentence Structure : · Sophisticated sentence structure;

Complete and correct sentences · Sentence variation Ø Simple Ø Compound Ø Complex

Exemplary Word Choice/Grammar Usage · Vivid, specific, economical,

connotative · Consistent grammar usage Ø Subject/verb agreement Ø Singular/plural nouns Ø Verb (tense and usage) Ø Pronoun usage Ø Adjective/Adverb

Exemplary Mechanics · May have minor


Score Of 5

Effective Organization · Logical progression of ideas. · Introduction paragraph,

supporting paragraph · Purposeful transition conveys

relationships among Ideas and paragraphs.

Effective development · Effective focus maintained for intended

audience. · Appropriate development of the topic for

descriptive writing. · Clear use of examples, evidence or relevant

details · Use of analogies, illustration.

Effective Sentence Structure · Complete and correct sentences · Sentences variation Ø Simple Ø Compound Ø Complex

Effective Word Choice/Grammar Usage · Economical, specific, clear meaning,

connotative · Mostly consistent grammar usage Ø Subject/verb agreement Ø Singular/plural nouns Ø Verb (tense and usage) Ø Pronoun usage Ø Adjective/Adverb

Effective Mechanics · Few errors Ø Punctuation Ø Capitalization Ø Spelling

Score Of4

Adequate Organization · Some evidence of a logical

progress of Ideas · Introductory paragraph,

supporting paragraph and concluding paragraph

· Appropriate use of transition; transition between paragraph.

Adequate Development · Adequate focus maintained for intended

audience · Adequate development of the topic for

descriptive writing. · Sufficient use of examples, evidence of

relevant details. · Use of analogies, illustrations or anecdotes

Adequate Sentence Structure · Minor errors in Sentence structure · Some sentence variation Ø Simple Ø Compound Ø Complex

(errors in more complex sentences do not detract)

Adequate Word Choice/Grammar Usage · Appropriate, specific, somewhat

simplistic · Somewhat consistent grammar


Adequate Mechanics · Some errors Ø Punctuation Ø Capitalization Ø Spelling

Score Of 3

Limited Organization · Limited evidence of a logical

progression of Ideas · Introductory paragraph and

concluding paragraph with limited supporting paragraph

Limited Organization : · Some evidence of focus for intended

audience · Limited development of the topic

description writing · Some use of examples, evidence of

supporting details.

Limited Sentences Structure · Some errors in sentences structure · Limited sentence variation Ø Simple Ø Compound Ø Complex


Limited Word Choice/grammar Usage · Vague, redundant, simplistic · Several Inconsistencies In grammar

usage Ø Subject/verb agreement Ø Singular/plural nouns Ø Verb (tense and usage) Ø Pronoun usage

Limited Mechanics · Frequent errors Ø Punctuation Ø Capitalization Ø Spelling


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Ø Adjective/Adverb


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· Repetitive use of transition

· Some use of analogies, illustrations or anecdotes

Score 0f 2

Minimal Organization · Lacks evidence of a

logical progression of ideas

· Lacks Introductory paragraph, supporting paragraphs and/or concluding paragraph.

· Ineffective or overused transition

Minimal Development · Lacks focus on Intended audience · Lacks development of the topic for

narrative and descriptive writing · Lacks thesis statement for development of

informative and persuasive writing · Lacks sufficient examples, evidence or

other supporting details · Lacks sufficient analogies, illustrations or

anecdotes

Minimal Sentence Structure · Contains fragments and /or run-ons · Minimal sentence variation Ø Simple Ø Compound Ø Complex


Minimal word choice/ grammar usage · Inadequate, imprecise, repetitive · Frequent Inconsistencies in grammar

usage Ø Subject/verb agreement Ø Singular /plural nouns Ø Verb (tense and usage) Ø Pronoun usage Ø Adjective / adverb

Minimal Mechanics · Consistent errors Ø Punctuation Ø Capitalization Ø Spelling

Score Of 1

Inadequate Organization · Little or no progression of

Ideas; difficult to follow · Inadequate paragraphing · Little or no transition

Inadequate Development · Unclear or no focus · Little or no development or narrative or

descriptive writing · Little or no development of Informative or

persuasive writing · Few or no examples, evidence or other

supporting details. · Few or no analogies, illustrations or

anecdotes.

Inadequate Sentence Structure · Contain numerous fragments and/or

run-ons · Inadequate sentence variation Ø Simple Ø Compound Ø Complex


Inadequate Word Choice/Grammar usage · Rambling, Inappropriate, incorrect · Distracting Inconsistencies in

grammar usage. Ø Subject/verb agreement Ø Singular /plural nouns Ø Verb (tense and usage) Ø Pronoun usage Ø Adjective / adverb

Inadequate Mechanics · Serious and consistent



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PICTURES OF TEACHING AND LEARNING PROCESS

The teacher is observing the students’ discussion

The students are presenting the group work

The teacher is explaining the teaching material

Appendix 40


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The students are doing the assignment with the teacher’s guidance.

The teacher is explaning the lesson during the class discussion.

The class situation during the group work.


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The students are discussing the material given at the class.

The teacher is describing the events.

The students are doing the post-test.


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193 Appendix 41

TEACHER’S DIARY

Selasa, 21 Oktober 2009

Hari itu saya mulai Cycle 1. Agak deg-degan juga. Saya berangkat pagi untuk prepare semuanya. Saya menunggu kolaborator dengan resah, takut beliau tidak dating. Akhirnya jam 10 persis Bu Oktha datang

Jam 10.15 kita masuk kelas untuk memulai pelajaran. Saya masuk kelas dan memberi salam. Mereka tampak semangat. Setelah menanyakan kabar, saya mengecek kehadiran siswa. Terus saya bagikan worksheet. Ngomong-ngomong, cuacanya puanaas banget. Tapi anak-anak nggak berisik kok. Silent. Mungkin karena ada orang asing di kelas, kolaborator saya dan pak Taufik yang mau nyooting.

OK. Saya mulai dengan mengingat nama-nama bentuk benda. Semuanya bias, tapi Putri bilang croissant itu half circle. Saya bikin gambar di papan tulis dan akhirnya dia bias membedakan croissant dan half circle.

Fine. Terus tanya jawab tentang bentuk-bentuk benda. Anak-anak aktif tanya jawab dengan pasangannya. Beberapa pasang saya suruh memperagakan. Tidak ada masalah. Terus saya bagi kelompok untuk Group work masing-masing kelompok harus mendeskripsikan komposisi bentuk-bentuk yang sudah saya buat. Monitoring ternyata susah juga. Ada lima kelompok yang harus diawasi. Saya coba berkeliling ke masing-masing kelompok.

Ternyata mereka bisa lho! Dan anggota kelompok saling mengoreksi kalau ada teman yang salah. Mereka saya minta mempresentasikan hasil diskusi mereka. Ternyata bagus lho! No big problem. Memang kurang grammatical tapi cukup tersampaikan maksudnya.

Lega juga. Rasanya saya belum pernah sesiap ini dalam mengajar. Worksheet yang saya siapkan anyak sekali membantu. Menjadi panduan aktifitas di kelas. Worksheet juga membuat perhatian siswa lebih focus. Tapi sebaik-baik persiapan tetap ada yang lupa. Board markernya tidak saya cek jadi isinya hampir habis dan tidak jelas buat nulis di papan tulis.

Tiba di tugas puncak. Maksudnya tugas yang saya rencanakan paling bias menunjukkan kemampuan siswa. Masing-masing kelompok saya minta milih temannya untuk jadi penggambar di papan tulis. Mereka saya minta duduk terpisah. Anak-anak agak tegang karena tidak tahu apa yang akan di lakukan Tapi mereka kelihatan excited juga lho. Terus rulenya saya jelaskan.

Masing-masing kelompok saya beri gambar. Gambar itu harus dibuat di papan tulis dengan memberikan deskripsi yang tepat tentang gambar. Anak kelompok 1 mulai melakukan tugasnya. Anak-anak suka dan bergairah, syang waktu itu tidak cukup. Ternyata tinggal tersisa 15 menit padahal saya belum ke Language Focus. Kelompok 3,4 dan 5 agak kecewa. Ta[I tidak ada jalan lain. Saya hnetikan presentasi kelompoknya.

Sesudah mereview grammar saya menutup pertemuan. Saya tanya anak-anak “Do you like the activity?” mereka menjawab “Sukaa….!!! Sunggu, respon siswa di luar perkiraan saya. Mereka aktif sampai detik-detik akhir. Ini luar biasa. Mungkin karena beragam aktifitas yang saya lakukan, dari berpasangan,


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194 kelompok, dan tantangan individual. Pokoknya Sip! Tinggal menyiapkan Meeting 2 dan seterusnya…………..

Selasa, 28 Oktober 2009 Hari ini Hari Sumpah Pemuda. Jadi upacara bendera dulu. Mudah-mudahan anak-anak tidak lesu karena capek. Jam 08.30 mulai masuk kelas. Dimulai dengan salam terus saya absent satu-satu. Ada satu yang tidak masuk, Rokhfianti. Anak-anak agak diam, cenderung murung. Tapi saya beri semangat biar semua hidup. Cuaca memang sedikit mendung. Saya umumkan hari ini kita akan mendeskripsikan benda. Saya bawa Realia ke kelas. Ketika ditata di meja, anak-anak mulai tertarik. Ada topi,boneka, mangkok, gelas, kipas, serbet, korek api, dan lainnya. Waktu saya keluarkan boneka anak-anak suka, “Wah, bagus Bu! Buat saya saja Bu!” saya bilang nggak boleh karena itu boneka saya. Yang jelas anak-anak sudah ada minat dulu. Lumayan. Modal awa bagus. Kita awali dengan membahas kata-kata sifat dan mengelompokkannya ke dalam kategori shape, material, quality, color, age. Anak-anak tidak ada masalah. Bagus. Itu modal untuk mendeskripsikan benda. Terus saja ajak anak-ank untuk mencari ciri-ciri benda-benda. Pertama, buku. Buku itu bagaimana? Saya ambil satu buku saya dan mereka menyebutnya rectangle, thin, square. Saya tanya kualitasnya, Good or bad? Dengan malu-malu mereka menyebut Bad. Yes, buku bu Guru memang jelek. Dan semua tertawa. Ada satu kata yang tidak tahu artinya yaitu NEAT. Saya tunjuk buku-buku di meja yang tidak rapi. My books are neat. Mereka akhirnya tahu bahwa neat adalah rapi. Sesudah book kita mengeksplorasi table. Saya tulis table di papan dan anak-anak menyebutkan sifatnya. Rectangle, brown wood bad. Saya coba satu siswa untuk mendeskripsikan. Ternyata dia sudah tidak merangkaikan. It is a table. It is rectangle. It is bad. It is brown. It is made of wood. Sekilas saya bahas caranya dan untuk material kita pakai It is made of ………………………………… Saya bergeser ke meja tempat benda-benda. Anak sudah bisa menyebutkan sebagian besar benda kecuali match, material fun, dan hat. Saya lanjutkan dengan tugas kelompok. Saya membagi benda yang ada. Masing-masing kelompok mendapat empat benda. Anak-anak mulai bekerja, mereka antusia untuk mendeskripsikan benda. Saya monitor grup. Untuk mengecek saya minta mereka mendeskripsikan benda satu persatu. Kebanyakan anak-anak menuliskan dulu deskripsinya, tapi saya motivasi untuk mendeskripsikan langsung secara lisan. Dan ternyata bisa. Jadi tambah semangat saya. Setelah 5 menit saya beri tanda untuk saling menukar benda antar kelompok. Begitu seterusnya sampai semua benda telah dideskripsikan.

Kerja kelompok berjalan baik, namun bahasa Jawa masih sering terdengar. Saya motivasi untuk bisa bicara bahasa Inggris Please Speak English student! Dan mereka tersenyum. Anak –anak cukup aktif dalam mendeskripsikan benda dalam kelompok. Setelah selesai anak-anak saya minta kembali ke tempat duduk semula. Saya cek ulang dengan meminta anak mendeskripsikan benda yang saya pilih secara acak. Tak ada masalah. Realia memang sangat membantu dalam mempelajari ‘deskribing object”


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Ini kegiatan terakhir. Tebak-tebakan benda. Satu siswa saya minta ke depan dan siswa lain harus menebak dengan mengajukan pertanyaan untuk mengumpulkan informasi tentang benda yang tersembunyi. Yang pertama adalah Dina. Temannya bertanya. Hanya sedikit sedikit siswa yang mengajukan pertanyaan. Saya agak kecewa tapi terus saya motivasi untuk membuat Yes- No question. Caranya dengan Is it …………………… di isi dengan cirri dan sifat benda. Saya senang karena akhirnya anak-anak mulai banyak yang mengajukan pertanyaan. Kita coba dengan beberapa benda lain. Saya senang karena anak-anak mau terlibat dengan cara bertanya dan menebak.

Masuk ke bagian akhir yaitu Language Focus. Saya mereview cara mendeskripsikan benda dan cara membuat pertanyaan. Saya beri latihan. Setelah memberi PR untuk latihan di rumah, saya tutup pelajaran. Satu session telah terlampaui ………………………………………..

Selasa, 30 Oktober 2009 It is hot afternoon. But it is windy. I have prepared the material and worksheet well. I eager to know when and how it is applied to my students. It is a pity that there are two students absent from the class. They are Ferdian and Syech. It’s silent class. Saya masuk jam 12.15 sesudah sholat. Agak aneh tanpa kicauan anak-anak yang ramai. I start the lesson. Saya bilang bahwa hari ini kita akan membahas soal rumah. Saya bagikan worksheet dan Manda bilang “Bu, kok bagi-bagiab kopian terus to Bu? Saya bilang ke dia “Saya kan guru yang baik” dan semua tertawa. Lumayan, bisa mencairkan suasana. Saya mulai dengan mengidentifikasi bagian-bagian rumah . No Problem. Terus berlanjut dengan nama-nama ruangan di rumah. Kegiatan berlanjut dengan menyebutkan nama-nama benda yang biasa didapati di masing-masing ruangan. Kelihatannya tidak ada masalah serius. Beberapa anak tanya tentang vocabulary, “Bahasa Inggrisnya…….................apa Bu?” Saya beri jawaban dan melanjutkan pelajaran. Kegiatan saya lanjutkan dengan mendeskripsikan gambar ruang tamu yang ada dalam worksheet. Sabtu, 8 November 2009 Pagi yang cerah. Hari ini saya mulai Cycle 3 dengan topic Describing Event. Porsi hari ini untuk Vocabulary exploration. Saya bagi worksheet dan mulai mengeksplorasi kata dari gambar dengan meminta siswa menyebutkan benday yang ada. Setelah itu saya lanjutkan denagn discussing meaning . Setelah mereka siswa menjawab dalam kalimat lengkap sehingga menghasilkan deskripsi tentang peristiwa. Setelah selesai, saya mengeksplorasi kata yang berkaitan dengan Describing Event seperti tempat, keadaan cuaca, sejumlah orang yangada dalam peristiwa dan perasaan orang dalam suatu peristiwa. Setelah cukup, saya mengeksplorasi kejadian di kelas waktu itu dengan mengajukan berbagai pertanyaan sehubungan dengan peristiwa. Great! Anak-anak mulai paham. Setelah yakin, saya beri latihan dengan gambar. Anak-anak menceritakan kejadian yang ada dalam gambar. Tidak ada banyak masalah.


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The improvement of students’ achievement (representatives)

criteria organization content grammar diction mechanic mean

c1 c2 c3 c1 c2 c3 c1 c2 c3 c1 c2 c3 c1 c2 c3 C1 c2 c3 high (1) 3 4 4 5 3 3 4 4 5 4 4 4 4 3 4 79 73 79 middle (13) 3 4 4 2 4 4 4 4 4 5 3 4 3 4 3 65 77 78 low (12) 2 2 5 2 3 3 3 4 3 3 3 4 3 4 3 49 60 75

C1 = cycle 1

C2 = cycle 2

C3 = cycle 3


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