THE DIFFICULTIES FACED BY THE FIRST GRADE OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN WRITING DESCRIPTIVE TEXT AT SMP MUHAMMADIYAH 8 BATU

(1)

1

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1Background of the Study

English is one of the international languages in the world. In Indonesia, it is not the second language but it is the foreign language.

English has been an important part of education system in most countries includes Indonesia. English is taught from elementary until

university in Indonesia.The ministry of National Education has adopted English as the foreign language in Indonesia. It means English become a compulsory subject in the national curriculum. It is taught from

elementary school up to university level. The final goal of the teaching English as a foreign language in Indonesia is that learners can use

English to master and develop science, technology and arts, and contribute to strengthening the international relations which will help promote the national development. Huhta (2007) said that English is,

fortunately, used as a lingua franca in business and industry and many other fields. This means that the English produced by a non-native

cannot be expected to reach the level of a native speaker.

In learning English, the learners should master the four language skills.Learning English in the class includes the language

(2)

2

Therefore, the productive skills are speaking and writing.Besides that, as both productive skills, the language speech is different from the

written language. Writing is not easy to learn because the students need hard thinking and some knowledge if they want to write something

because writing is a specific skill. It needs practices to make it good and

students have to get interested in reading because both writing and reading

are related to each other. Writing is a more complicated skill than reading,

listening and speaking. In speaking they can ignore the grammatical aspects, but not in writing, they must select the appropriate grammar

and vocabulary to arrange the words. According to Bailey (2004;12) “Understanding a text is not just a matter of vocabulary; to find out the writer’s intentions are the reader needs”. It means that when we write

something we can make or give some adives or message for the reader in order to our writing is usefull for other people.

Meyers (2005: 2) stated that writing is a way to produce language you do naturally when you speak. Writing is speaking to other on paper – or on a computer screen. Writing is also an action – a process of

discovering and organizing your ideas, putting them on a paper and reshaping and revising them. Writing skill is one of the important

(3)

3

and grammar, but also focus on the idea of each paragraph in the text contextually.

Palmer (1994: 5) states that writing is recursive. It goes back and forth we plan a little, put words on paper, stop to plan when we want to say

next, go back and change a sentence, or change our minds altogether. Process writing is a way of looking at what people do when they compose written text. Teaching of writing should focus on writing process that is the students’ attention was directed to the how of the text construction

“Descriptive text is a text which is intended to describe a particular

person, lace or thing in detail (Kane, 2003 : 7)”. It means that in descriptive text, we have to describe people or things in deeply. Most commonly in visual perceptions. Besides schematic structure, descriptive text also has its

own linguistic features.Linguistic features of descriptive text are: use specific participant, written in present tense, use linking verbs, use

adjectives, use relational and material processes. Some of the problems faced by the students are that they are still confused in using the grammar because there is less systematic rule in Indonesian Language writing. For example, “She is name Eriza Humairo and I have twin sister” it should be

“Her name is Eriza Humairo and I have twin sisters”. It happened because

they did not understand the grammar well and Indonesian language does not have the structure.

Many students assume that writing is the most difficult subject

(4)

4

writes what they fell but also convey a message to the readers. Therefore, the students have problems or some difficulties to make a good writing.

Based on the previous reseach about problems faced by students in writing essay,Masyhud (2010), he found that there were six problems faced by

students in writing (1) the limited ideas (70%), (2) the students difficulty to choose the appropriate ideas (7%), (3) no one to check the students writing (4%), (4) the students low motivation to write (2%) (5), inability to share

ideas with the others (2%) (6), the students difficulty to understand the materials (2%). In this research, the researcher found that the first factor that

can make the difficulty when the students write descriptive text is the students have the limited ideas. Meanwhile, Kurniastuti (2008), in her research about the problems faced by the teachers in teaching writing II of

English Department of University of Muhammadiyah Malang, found five problems : (1) the teachers had a problems with students difficulties in

writing or narrowing their ideas, (2) the teachers faced students problems with the difficulty to make concluding sentence, (3) the teachers faced the students who did not focus on one unity when they wrote a paragraph, (4)

the teachers faced students who often used transition signals monotonously in writing paragraph cohence and (5) the teachers faced students who were

not able to write good types of paragraph.

In addition, when the writer in teaching practice II, in the writing class was described in several condition. The student’s attitude and

(5)

5

active and enthusiatic to ask questions about writing to the teacher. They were shy and afraid to present their writings in front of the class. It means

that they did not want their writings being read or known by other friends at the class. Then the students did not pay attention to the teacher’s

explanation: they loked bored or sometimes made noise. When the teacher gave the task to evaluate their understanding, many students got the low score. So, the writer interest to find out the difficulties of the students when

they write the descriptive text that caused they got low score.

In this research, the writer concerns with discussing about the

difficulties of writing descriptive text. The writer is interested in analyzing the difficulties of writing descriptive text faced by the first grade of junior high school students at SMP Muhammadiyah 8 Batu.

1.2Statement of the Problem

1. What are the difficulties faced by the first grade of junior high school

students in writing descriptive text at Smp Muhammadiyah 8 Batu ? 2. What factors that cause the student’s difficulties in writing descriptive text?

1.3Purpose of the Study

1. To describe the difficulties faced by the first grade of junior high school

students in writing descriptive text at SMP Muhammadiyah 8 Batu ?

2. To know the factors causing the difficulties faced by the first grade of junior high school students in writing descriptive text at SMP

(6)

6 1.4Scope and Limitation

This study focus on identifying the difficulties are faced by students in writing descriptive text. Moreover, this research is limited at first grade students of

junior high school at Smp Muhammadiyah 8 Batu.

1.5Significance of the Study

1. Theoretically

This research can give contribution toward the increasing of people’s understanding related to writing and descriptive text.

2. Practically

It is expected that the result of this study will be usefull for the

English teachers to know the problems or the difficulties that faced by the students in writing descriptive text. The teacher will be able to choose

and determine the best strategy how to teach writing to their students in order that the goal of teaching will be reached. Second, the result of this study is expected to give contribution to the students in order that they

know their problem or difficulty in their process of learning writing and encourage them to improve their competence. Third, for furhter

(7)

7 1.6Definition of Key Terms

1. Difficulty : a situation in which a person is motivated to reach a goal, but some obstacle or obstacles blocks the attainment of the goal (Klein, 2002 :354).

2. Writing : a complex sociocognitive process involving the construction of recorded messages on paper or on some other material, and, more recently, on a computer screen (Emilia,2010).

3. Descriptive text : 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

(8)

i

THE DIFFICULTIES FACED BY THE FIRST GRADE OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN WRITING DESCRIPTIVE TEXT AT

SMP MUHAMMADIYAH 8 BATU

THESIS

By:

IKA ROSALINA

201110100311013

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION UNIVERSITY OF MUHAMMADIYAH MALANG

(9)

ii

THESIS

By:

IKA ROSALINA

(10)

iii

THESIS

This thesis is submitted to meet one of the requirements to achieve Sarjana Degree in English Education

By:

IKA ROSALINA 201110100311013

(11)

iv

This thesis written by Ika Rosalina was approved onOctober29, 2015

(12)

v

This thesis was defended in front of the examiners of the Faculty of Teacher

Training and Education of University of Muhammadiyah Malang and accepted as one of the requirements to achieve

(13)

vi

ORIGINALITY DECLARATION

The undersigned:

Name : Ika Rosalina

Student ID number : 201110100311013 Program of Study : English Department

Faculty : Faculty of Teacher Training and Education

I declare that the work presented in this thesis was carried out by myself and does not incorporate without acknowledgement any material previously submitted for a

degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my knowledge this thesis does not contain any materials previously publish or written by another person except

(14)

vii

MOTTO AND DEDICATION

“In every difficulty, there is an easiness” (Q.S. 94:5)

“Allah SWT would not change the one’s condition unless they change themselves” (Q.S. 13: 11)

“Science without religion is blind, religion without science is lame”

(Albert Einstein)

(15)

viii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Alhamdulillahirobbil’ alamin. First of all, I would like to express gratitude

to the Almighty Allah S.W.T for the great wonderful blessing and so many chances

in my whole life. Because of Allah’s permission, I can finish the thesis well. Shalawat and salam are always for our prophetMuhammad S.A.W.

I would like to express blissfulness to Dra. Erly Wahyuni, M. Si asmy first advisor

and Rahmawati Khadijah. Maro, M.Pedasmy second advisor, for their invaluable

advice, suggestions, patience, and guidance during the consulting period

.

My

special gratitude goes to all of English Department lectures who had given a lot of knowledge, both knowledge related to education and social life. Without their guidance, I could not finish this thesis because the knowledge given is very

beneficial.

The great regard and gratitude are given to my fatherM. Saleh, my

motherRokhana, my beloved sister Suci Cahyati, my beloved brother Imam Setiawan, Muhajirin as boyfriend and my big family in Bima. They always give support, love, affection, attention, guidance, prayer. Without love, advice and

motivation from them, I would not finish this thesis successfully.

Finally, a special thank goes to my friends Nurhayati Nufus, Ana Mulyana,

Ismar Dian Arini, Setiawati Rahayu, for love, care, pray and help in finishing this thesis. May Allah Swt always bless them all and write their kindness as worship. Never been in this present form. May Allah S.W.T bless us.

(16)

ix

TABLE OF CONTENTS

APPROVAL ... i

LEGALIZATION ... ii

ORIGINALITY DECLARATION ... iii

MOTTO AND DEDICATION ... iv

ABSTRACT ... v

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ... vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS ... vii

2.2.2 Descriptive Writing ... 8

2.2.3 Process Analysis Writing ... 9

2.2.4 Causes and Effect Analysis ... 9

2.2.5 Classification ... 11

2.2.6 Comparison and Contrast ... 11

2.3 Descriptive Text ... 11

2.3.1 Description of Person ... 12

(17)

x

CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ... 14

3.1 Research Design ... 14

3.2 Population and Sample ... 14

3.3 Research Instrument ... 15

3.3.1 Test ... 15

3.3.2 Questionnaire ... 15

3.4 Data Collection ... 16

3.5 Data Analysis ... 17

CHAPTER IV RESEARCH FINDING AND DISCUSSION ... 19

4.1 Findings ... 16

4.1.1 The difficulties faced by the first grade of junior high school students in writing descriptive text ... 19

4.1.1.1 Using of tenses ... 20

4.1.2 Arranging the sentence into a paragraph descriptive text ... 21

4.1.3 The factor that causes the students’ difficulties faced by the first grade of junior high school students in writing descriptive text 23 4.2 Discussion ... 24

CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS ... 27

(18)

xi

REFERENCES

Alice Oshima, Ann Hogue. 2007. Introduction to Academic English. Pearson Longman.

Arikunto, S. 2010. Prosedur penelitian suatu pendekatan praktek. Rineka Cipta. Jakarta.

Ary, Donald. 2002. Introduction to Research in Education. 6th Edition.

Ary, Donald. 2010. Introduction to Research in Education. 8th_{Edition.Wadsworth.} USA

Ary,Donald.2002. Introduction to Research in Education.USA: Wadsworth Group A Division Of Thompson Learning Inc, 2002)

Brown, H. Douglas. 2003. Principles of Language Learning and Teaching Fourth Edition. New York: San Francisco state university.

Emilia, Emi. (2010). Teaching Writing, Developing Critical Learners. Bandung: Rizqi Press

Gillet, J. W and Temple, Charles. 1990. Understanding Reading Problems: Assesment and Instruction 3rd ed. Virginia: HarperCollins Publishers. Glass, Kathy Tuchman.2005.Curriculum Design for Writing Instruction.

California: Corwin Press.

Gunning, Thomas G. 1992. Creating Reading Instruction for All Children. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Jeremy Harmer. 2004. How to Teach Writing. Longman

Jeremy Harmer. The Practice of English Language Teaching. 270

John langan. 1990. The MacMillan reader. New york: MacMillan Publisher John Langan. 2009. Exploring Writing Sentence and Paragraph. Connect learn

succed.

Kane Thomas. 2003. The Oxford Essential Guide to writing. Berlkey Boks. New York

Kementrian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Republik Indonesia .2014.When English Rings a Bell.

(19)

xii

Wixson, Karen K. 1991. Assessment and Instruction of Reading Disability: An Interactive approach. 1991. New York: HaperColllins Publisher. MacMillan, Janes H. 1992. Educational research fundamental for the costumer.

New york : Harper Collins Publishers.

Marjatta Huhta. 2007. Challenges of writing these in English at UNIVERSITIES OF APPLIED SCIENCES. (2)

Masyhud. 2010. The problem faced by students in writing essay both in individual work and in group work.

Meyers, Allan. 2005. Gateways to Academic Writing: Effective Sentences Paragraph and Essay. New York: Longman.

Mia Husnudin. 2012. The difficulties faced by the second grade of junior students in comprehending recount texts at SMPN 1 Prambon-Sidoarjo.

Norman E. Gronlund. 1977. Constructing achievement test.

Palmer, Barbara. C. 1994. Developing Cultural Literacy through the Writing Process.USA: Longwood Professional Book.

R.R Jordan. 1999. Academic Writing Course-Student Skill in English. Longman. Sandra Scarry, John Scarry. 2010. The Writer’s Workplace with Readings-Building

College Writing Skill. Cengage Learning.

Stephen Bailey. 2004. Academic Writing-A Practical Guide for the Students. Routledge.