The Use Of Picture Series As Teaching Media To Improve Student's Descriptive Text Writing Skill

ABSTRACT

 

The research paper is entitled "The Use of Picture Series as Teaching Media to Improve Student's Descriptive Text Writing Skill (A quasi-experimental study done at The First Grade Students of Electrical and Motorcycle Engineering of Vocational School)". There were two aims of the research, those were to find out whether or not the use of Picture Series as an alternative media has better result to improve students' Descriptive Text writing skill than the conventional method and to find out the students' responses toward the use of Picture Series as an alternative media to improve students' Descriptive Text writing skill. The population of the research were the first grade students of Pelita Bunga Bangsa Arjasari Vocational School. The sample of the research were Electrical Engineering as experimental group and Motorcycle Engineering as control group. In obtaining the data, the writer used pre-test, post-test, treatment and questionnaire. From the computation of the pre-test and post-test scores, the result showed that with df = N1+N2 = 22+22- 2 = 42, at p = ,05 of two-tailed, the critical value of t is 2.021. The result of t-test on the pre-test was  lower than t-table ( < 2.021). It means that there was no significant difference between experimental group and control group before treatment. After the experimental group was given a treatment, the t-observed value was , so t-observed was higher than that t-table ( > 2.021). It means that Picture Series is significantly better than the conventional method. The questionnaire was only distributed to the experimental group. The result showed that most of them motivated and encouraged by the use of Picture Series and it helped them to improve their Descriptive Text writing skill. It means that almost all of the students gave positive responses towards the use of Picture Series.

 

Keywords: Picture Series, Descriptive Text

ABSTRAKSI

 

Penelitian ini berjudul "Penggunaan Gambar Berseri sebagai Media Pengajaran untuk Meningkatkan Keterampilan Menulis Teks Deskriptif Siswa (Sebuah studi kuasi-eksperimental yang dilakukan pada Siswa Kelas Pertama Teknik Listrik dan Sepeda Motor dari Sekolah Kejuruan)". Ada dua tujuan dari penelitian ini, yaitu untuk mengetahui apakah penggunaan Gambar Berseri sebagai media alternatif memiliki hasil yang lebih baik untuk meningkatkan keterampilan menulis teks deskriptif siswa daripada metode konvensional dan untuk mengetahui tanggapan siswa terhadap penggunaan Gambar Berseri sebagai media alternatif untuk meningkatkan keterampilan menulis Teks Deskriptif siswa. Populasi dalam penelitian ini adalah siswa kelas V SMK Pelita Bunga Bangsa Arjasari. Sampel penelitian adalah Teknik Instalasi Tenaga Listrik sebagai kelompok eksperimen dan Teknik Sepeda Motor sebagai kelompok kontrol. Dalam memperoleh data, penulis menggunakan pre-test, post-test, perlakuan dan kuesioner. Dari perhitungan skor pre-test dan post-test, hasilnya menunjukkan bahwa dengan df = N1 + N2 = 22 + 22-2 = 42, pada p =, 05 dari dua-ekor, nilai kritis t adalah 2.021 . Hasil t-test pada pre-test adalah -0,662 lebih rendah dari t-tabel (-0,662 <2,021). Ini berarti bahwa tidak ada perbedaan yang signifikan antara kelompok eksperimen dan kelompok kontrol sebelum perawatan. Setelah kelompok eksperimen diberi perlakuan, nilai t-diamati adalah 7,390, sehingga t-diamati lebih tinggi daripada t-tabel (7,390> 2,021). Ini berarti Gambar Berseri secara signifikan lebih baik daripada metode konvensional. Kuesioner hanya didistribusikan kepada kelompok eksperimen. Hasilnya menunjukkan bahwa sebagian besar dari mereka termotivasi dan didorong oleh penggunaan Gambar Berseri dan itu membantu mereka untuk meningkatkan keterampilan menulis Teks Deskriptif mereka. Ini berarti bahwa hampir semua siswa memberikan tanggapan positif terhadap penggunaan Picture Series.

Kata kunci: Gambar Berseri, Teks Deskriptif

THE BACKGROUND OF THE RESEARCH

 

Listening, speaking, reading and writing are four language skills in English. Students need to master all of the four skills, so that they can be considered capable to use English actively or passively. Writing is one of the English language skills that also need to be taught maximally by the teachers to their students besides listening, speaking and reading.

Writing is an important part of language that supports learning in various ways. According to Raimes (1983:3) : Writing helps our students learn. How? First, writing reinforces the grammatical structures, idioms, and vocabulary that have been teaching our students. Second, when our students write, they also have a chance adventurous with the language, to go beyond what they have just learned to say, to take a risk. When they write, they necessarily become very involved with the new language; the effort to express ideas and the constant use of eye, hand, and brain is a unique way to reinforce learning.

The result of writing is generally called text. Based on the curriculum 2013 of vocational school, there are some texts that have to be mastered by the first grade of vocational school students. These texts are recount text, narrative text and descriptive text. Teachers of vocational school often find students difficult to write English spontaneously or easily in writing classes. Students of vocational school have difficulty arranging sentences. Whereas, the students should be able to write in many kind of text as mention above.

According to curriculum 2013, descriptive text is one of text that have to be taught in the first grade of vocational school students. It is stated in the core competence (KI) and basic competence (KD) 3.4 of the 2013 curriculum "menganalisis fungsi sosial, struktur  teks, dan unsur kebahasaan pada teks deskriptif sederhana tentang orang, tempat wisata, dan bangunan bersejarah terkenal, sesuai dengan konteks penggunaannya.", ("Analyzing social functions, text structures, and linguistic elements from simple descriptive texts about famous people, sights and historical buildings, in the context of their use."). It means that students should be able to write descriptive text.

Descriptive Text is a text which says what a person or a thing is like. Its purpose is to describe and reveal a particular person, place, or thing. In a broad sense, description, as explained by Kane (2000: 352), description is about sensory experience---how something looks, sounds, tastes. Mostly it is about visual experience, but description also deals with other kinds of perception.

Some students have difficulties in writing descriptive text. The difficulties  occurred because of the internal and external factors. The internal factors that can affect students' writing are motivation, cognitive ability and talent. The students had lazy to practice writing and they had difficult to express idea. The grammatical problem, the organization of writing, the content of the text, vocabulary and spelling either are internal factor either. Meanwhile, the external factors that can affect students' writing are curriculum, material, strategy and technique. The writer believes that the use of some pictures as media is one of ways in creating the fun and enjoyable learning. Wright (1989:2) states that Pictures are very important in helping students to retell experiences or understand something since they can represent place, object, people, etc.

Pictures help the students understand a more general context, which may be made of pictures, the teacher's actions, the student's action, sound effect and words. This overall context of new language will have meaning to the students. Wright (1989:16) also states that pictures have been used for centuries to help students understand various aspects of foreign language. The pictures have motivated the students, made the subjects they are dealing with clearer, illustrated the general idea and forms an object or action particular to a culture.

There are many kind of pictures that can be used as teaching media. Picture Series is one kind of picture that also can be a teaching media in helping students to write a descriptive text. Picture series can be an alternative for teacher to be used as media in teaching learning process. The writer tries to use the picture series as media in descriptive text to improve student's writing ability. Through the picture series students can select the words that are chosen to arrange a sentence. Picture series also can assist students in preparing events in a descriptive text. It means that writing ability, descriptive text and picture series can be teaching elements that support among each other in learning process.

LITERARY REVIEW

 

Writing

Writing is a great way to share ideas and feelings through words. By writing the writer can balance emotions and logic, making the text not too emotional but still rational. The writer can sort out which ones are worth to be writing and which ones should be removed.

There are a lot of definitions come from the expert about writing : According to Williams (2001:21) Writing is one of the principal modes of communication in any organization. Meanwhile According to Tillema (2012:1) Writing is one of the most important skills for educational success, but also one of the most complex skills to be mastered. It means that writing is one of complex skill that is useful for communication in any organization.

Another linguist, Kendall and Khuon (2006:37) said "Writing is all about making meaning" meanwhile according to Hyland (2004:9) "Writing is a way of sharing personal meanings".

Based on experts' statement above it is clear that writing is a toll for individuals to build his or her own views on a topic and through this view a new meaning is created.

Descriptive Text

There are many kinds of text. Text types are diverse, which depend on the purpose of the writing itself. Since this study involves vocational students, the type of text will be referred to the type of text in the 2013 English Language Curriculum for Vocational Schools. According to the 2013 English Language Curriculum, there are three types of text that must be taught to tenth grade vocational school students in the first and second semester. Those are descriptive text, narrative text and recount text.

Here, the researcher only focus on the descriptive text. There are several definition of descriptive text according to some experts. According to the tenth grade vocational students' handbook of the 2013 curriculum (revised edition 2017), Descriptive text is a text that describe a particular object like a place, thing or person. In other words, descriptive text is text that aims to provide information about how the places, things and people that will be described looks like.

Furthermore, Keith Folse, et al. (2009:135) stated that A descriptive paragraph describe how something or someone looks or feels.  It means, descriptive text is not only used to describe the form but also describes how the writer feels to the reader.

It is clear that descriptive text is a text about the description of places, objects and people that can be conveyed by students through words. Through descriptive text, students can also attract their readers' senses, such as hearing, smelling, touching and tasting.

Picture Series

Students can construct their knowledge during learning descriptive text easily by using media. One of the media is picture series which draws a story. Picture series is the row of picture that has relationship. This medium fulfils the principles of using media issued by I Nyoman Sudana Degeng (1993; 26-27) . Media which can be used to make the students learn more easily and the teacher teaches easily is the main part of the learning process. The media must be used in integrated way in teaching and learning and not only as ice breaker of teaching and learning.

To understand how the picture series works, students need to look at it abstractly. Similarly, when they express ideas to build a solid stories  based on the pictures, they must think about it abstractly too. Both of these will be easier to do if the teacher can use the picture series. The picture series not only can help students to get realistic ideas in understanding descriptive texts but also in building ideas to make them.

In line with the explanation above, picture series is a good learning medium for the activity of writing descriptive texts. The use of picture series in learning can make students learn more easily and teachers teach easily which is the main part of the learning process.

The picture series is not only an interesting learning media for students, but also the right media that can make it easier for students to develop ideas through the pictures they see. This will be good for students in the process of learning to write descriptive texts.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

 

Research Design

This research deals with the design of Quasi-experimental research to investigate whether the use of picture series as a teaching media can improve students' descriptive text writing skills or not.

Quasi experimental based on Ary et al (2010:316) Quasi-experimental designs is a research design  that involve manipulation of an independent variable but differ in that subjects are not randomly assigned to treatment groups. While, White and Sabarwal (2014:1) stated:

"Quasi-experimental designs identify a comparison group that is as similar as possible to the treatment group in terms of baseline (pre-intervention) characteristics. The comparison group captures what would have been the outcomes if the programme/policy had not been implemented (i.e., the counterfactual). Hence, the programme or policy can be said to have caused any difference in outcomes between the treatment and comparison groups."

The Quasi-experimental design focuses on treatment and results, therefore data is taken from the pre-test and post-test to find out whether the picture series as teaching media is significantly more effective than conventional methods in improving students' descriptive text writing skills.

In this research design, there are two classes used. One class is an experimental class which is treated with picture series in improving students' descriptive text writing skills. Another class is the control class which got the conventional method. The quasi-experimental design formula based on Ary et al (2010: 316) is explained as follows:

Quasi-experimental Design Formula

Group

Pre-test

Independent Variable

Post-test

E

Y1

X

Y2

C

Y1

-

Y2

Based on the table above, two classes were selected as the experimental group and the control group. E is the experimental group that was given X (treatment) and C is the control group that is not given treatment. the pre-test (Y1) was given to the control group and the experimental group, but in the experimental group treatment would be given after the pre-test. Post-tests (Y2) is held to assess students' writing descriptive text ability.

Population and Sample

Population as defined by Ary et al (2010:148) is all members of any well-defi ned class of people, events, or objects. It means that a population  consists of various kinds of differences that come together in a class or scope.

In this research, the population is the first grade students of Pelita Bunga Bangsa Vocational School. There are 3 classes of first grade that consists of Electrical Engineering class = 22 students, Motorcycle Engineering class = 25 students, and Banking and Microfinance class = 33 students. So the population are 80 students in three classes.

Research sample is a part of the population that become the object of study. Sample according to Ary et al (2010:148) is a portion of a population. The sample of this research is only two classes of first grade students. The writer uses randomly sampling to determine sample. This is based on assumption that random selection will give fairer chance for the respondents to be chosen as the sample of this research. The result of cluster random sampling is Electrical Engineering and Motorcycle Engineering class = 22 students. The writer determines Electrical Engineering class as experimental group and Motorcycle Engineering class as control group. Electrical Engineering consist of 22 students and Motorcycle Engineering consist of 25 students. The writer took 22 students for each class. So the total of sample is 44 students.

Research Instrument

In collecting the data, several instrument are employed in this research, those are tests (pre-test and post-test) and questionnaire which are administered to both groups (experimental and control groups), differentiated by their administering time as pre-test is given before the treatment and post-testis given after the treatment. While questionnaire is given in the end of the research and only administered to the experimental group.

In this research, pre-test and post-test are the instruments to answer the research question about the use of Picture Series as Teaching Media to improve students' Descriptive Text Writing Skill. While questionnaire is used to investigate the responses of the students toward the use of Picture Series as Teaching Media to improve students' Descriptive Text Writing Skill.

Pre-test is defined as an activity to test the level of students' knowledge of the material to be delivered, pre-test activities carried out before teaching activities are given. Pre-test is given to all students, both Electrical Engineering as experimental group and Motorcycle Engineering as control group. Pre-test is given to know whether the experimental and control groups are in the same level at beginning or not. The form of pre-test is a completion, a random short paragraph and a description text writing test. So, the total of pre-test is 3 items.

Post-test is the final evaluation when the material being taught has been given which is intended to find out whether the student has understood the material that has been taught and learned. The post-test items are same with pre-test items. This test will compare the result scores between post-test of experimental group and post-test of control group in order to determine whether or not there is significant difference in students' scores after the treatment by using Picture Series for the experimental group and conventional  method for the control group.

Questionnaire is a technique of collecting data by asking written questions to be answered in writing by the respondent. "A questionnaire is not just a list of questions or a form to be filled in. It is essentially a measurement tool, an instrument for the collection of particular kinds of data. Like all such instruments, the aims and specifications of a questionnaire stem directly from the overall research design." (Oppenheim,1992:10). Questionnaire is given to students who get the treatments. The questionnaire gives information about the students' responses of the use Picture Series as Teaching Media to improve students' Descriptive Text Writing Skill. The questionnaire consists of 15 questions relating to the topic and research questions.

FINDING and DISCUSSION

 

The writer did the research at the First Grade students of Pelita Bunga Bangsa Arjasari Vocational School and took two classes which consisted of 22 students in each class. The research was held for a week from 29th July to 3rd August 2019. At the first meeting the writer gave pre-test to both experimental group and control group. The treatment was given at the second up to the fourth meeting to both experimental group and control group. The experimental was given the treatment by using Picture Series, while the control group was given the treatment by using the conventional method. At the last day the writer gave post-test to both of groups, and gave the questionnaire only to the experimental group.

The pre-test was held on 29th July 2019 both for the experimental and control group. The experimental and control group were given the same pre-test. The form of pre-test was written test which covered completion, re-order paragraph and writing test. From the pretest result of both experimental group and control group, it can be seen from 22 students of experimental group, three students got 23 as the lowest score, one student got 75 as the highest score, and 17 students got score from 27 up to 70 as the middle score. While from 22 students of control group, one student got 34 as the lowest score, three students got 58 as the highest score, and 17 students got score from 35 up to 57 as the middle score.

With the df = N1+N2 = 22+22- 2 = 42, at p = ,05 of two-tailed, the critical value of t is 2.021. As the value of the derived t (to) is lower than that of the critical t (t-table)  < 2.021, the Null Hypothesis (Ho) is retained. It means that there is no significant difference in the result of the students' understanding on Writing Descriptive Text between experimental group and control group at the beginning of the research. In other words, the experimental group and the control group had similar ability on understanding the writing of descriptive text. Therefore, they are safe to be included into the sample of this research. Thus treatments were given to the experimental group.

The same procedure was used for the post-test. From the post-test result of both experimental group and control group, it can be seen from 22 students of experimental group, three students got 61 as the lowest score, one student got 97 as the highest score, and 17 students got score from 64 up to 94 as the middle score. While from 22 students of control group, one student got 41 as the lowest score, one student got 77 as the highest score, and 20 students got score from 42 up to 74 as the middle score.

With the df = N1+N2 = 22+22- 2 = 42, at p = ,05 of two-tailed, the critical value of t is 2.021. As the value of the derived t (to) is higher than that of the critical t (t-table)  > 2.021, the Null Hypothesis (Ho) is rejected, and the Alternative Hypothesis (Ha) is accepted. It means that there is significant difference between the use of Picture Series and conventional method in teaching Writing Descriptive text to the first grade students of Pelita Bunga Bangsa Arjasari Vocational School and it also means that Picture Series is effective to be implemented in teaching writing descriptive text to the first grade students of Pelita Bunga Bangsa Arjasari Vocational School.

Meanwhile from 15 questions, the result of questionnaire showed that the first grade of students in Pelita Bunga Bangsa Arjasari Vocational School like being taught writing descriptive text using Picture Series. The result showed that most of the students (91%) like Picture Series to be used in writing descriptive text, almost all of the students (86%) feel helped in writing descriptive text using Picture Series. It means that students gave the positive responses towards Picture Series.

CONCLUSIONS

 

This research aims to answer the research questions that cover, whether there is any significant difference in result between the use of Picture Series as a media to improve students' Descriptive Text writing skill and the conventional method, whether Picture Series is effective to teach writing Descriptive Text, and how students' response toward Picture Series in improving their Descriptive Text writing skill.

After the data of post-test was obtained and computed, it is found that Picture Series has significantly better result to teach writing Descriptive Text than the conventional method at the first grade students of Pelita Bunga Bangsa Vocational School. It can be seen from the result of t-test. That is the value of t-test higher than that critical of t (t-table). It also means that Picture Series is effective to teach writing Descriptive Text to the first grade students of Pelita Bunga Bangsa Vocational School. In addition from the result of questionnaire, it is found that the students like being taught writing Descriptive Text using Picture Series and the students feel happy because Picture Series is fun.

The students' good responses toward the use of picture series as an alternative media to improve their Descriptive Text writing skill above corroborate the opinion stated by Raimes (1983:27) that "Pictures bring the outside world into the classroom in a vividly concrete way." The results of this research prove that Raimes's opinion above is true.

Therefore the use of Picture Series as a means of teach writing Descriptive Text has significantly better result than the conventional method, it is effective to be used to teach writing Descriptive Text, and the students give the positive response toward the use of Picture Series as an alternative media to improve students' Descriptive Text writing skill.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

Raimes, Ann. 1983. Techniques in Teaching Writing. New York: Oxford

University Press

Teaching English 4 All. (2010, June 28). Descriptive Text in Teaching English.

Retrieved November 9, 2018, from

https://teachingenglish4all.wordpress.com/2010/06/28/descriptive-text/

British Course. (2017, December 12). Descriptive Text ; Definition, Generic

Structures, Purposes, Language Features. Retrieved November 9, 2018, from

http://britishcourse.com/descriptive-text-definition-generic-structures

purposes-language-features.php

Wright, Andrew. 1989. Picture for Language Learning. New York: Cambridge

University Press

Byrne. 1993. Teaching Writing Skill. Singapore: Longman Singapore Publisher

McCarthy. 1998. Descriptive Writing. New York: 555 Broadway

Ary et al. 2010. 2006. Introduction to Research in Education. Wadsworth: Cengage

Learning

Williams, Diana. 2001. Writing Skills in Practice : A Practical Guide for Health

Professionals. London: Jessica Kingsley

Tillema, Marion. 2012. Writing in first and second language : Empirical studies on

text quality and writing processes. The Netherlands : LOT

Kendall and Khuon. 2006. Writing Sense. USA: Stenhouse

Cahyono, 1997. Effectiveness of 'Joumal Writing in Supporting Skills. IKIP

Malang

Degeng, I. Nyoman Sudana. 1993. Media Pendidikan. Malang: FIP IKIP Malang.

Keith Forse, et al. 2009. Great Writing 2 : Great Paragraph. Boston: Heinle

Cengage Learning

Widiati, Rohmah and Furaidah .2017. Bahasa Inggris.Jakarta: Pusat Kurikulum dan

Pembukuan, Balitbang, Kemendikbud

Alves, Anabela Reis (2008). Process Writing. The University of Birmingham

Hammond, Jenny (1992). English for Social Purposes. National Centre for

English Language Teaching and Reseach, Macquarie University Sydney.

Richmond, Lydia. (2016, June 15). Three Purposes of Writing. Retrieved May 4,

2019, from http://www.clutteredgenius.com/three-purposes-writing/

Meer, Syed Hunbbel .(2016, May 10). Four Different Types of Writing Styles:

Expository, Descriptive, Persuasive, and Narrative. Retrieved May 4, 2019,

from https://owlcation.com/humanities/Four-Types-of-Writing

Rahmi, Regina. 2014. The Implementation of Media in English Language

Teaching. STKIP Bina Bangsa

W.J.T, Mitchell. 2005. There Are No Visual Media. London: Sage Publication

White, H., & S. Sabarwal. 2014. Quasi-experimental Design and Methods,

Methodological Briefs: Impact Evaluation 8, UNICEF Office of Research,

Florence.

Wilson, N., & McLean, S. (1994). Questionnaire Design: A Practical

Introduction. Newtown Abbey: University of Ulster Press.

Oppenheim, A.N. 1992. Questionnaire Design, Interviewing And Attitude

Measurement. London: Continuum