THE EFFECT OF PEER RESPONSE TECHNIQUE ON STUDENTS’ ACHIEVEMENT IN WRITING DESCRIPTIVE TEX.

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THE EFFECT OF PEER RESPONSE TECHNIQUE ON STUDENTS’ ACHIEVEMENT IN WRITING DESCRIPTIVE TEXT

A THESIS

Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan

By:

TUTWURI SITUMEANG Registration Number: 2113321055

ENGLISH AND LITERATURE DEPARTMENT FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS

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ABSTRACT

Situmeang, Tutwuri. 2113321055. The Effect of Peer Response Technique on Students’ Achievement in Writing Descriptive Text. A Thesis. English Department. Faculty of Language and Arts. State University of Medan. 2015

This study deals with the effect of Peer Response Technique on students’ achievement in writing descriptive text. The objective of the study is to find out whether Peer Response Technique significantly affects the students’ achievement in writing descriptive text or not. This study was conducted by using experimental design. The population of the study was the student of grade X of SMA NEGERI 1 Siborongborong in the academic year of 2014/2015, there were 12 parallel classes of grade X. As the sample, two classes were selected by random sampling. The experimental group (X-7) was taught by applying peer response technique, while the control group (X-8) by applying lecturing method. The data of the study was obtained from the students’ score of writing text. To determine the reliability of the test, the writer use inter-rater reliability. The data calculation showed that the coefficient of reliability of the test was 0.91. It shows that the test was reliable and the reliability was very high. There were two sets of data used in this study, they were pre-test and post-test. The data were analyzed by applying t-test formula. After analyzing the data, the result of the study showed that t-observed

(3.66) was higher than t-table (2.024) (t-observed > t-table) at the level of significance of

α = 0.05 and at the degree of freedom (df) = 38. It can be concluded that applying peer response technique significantly affects the students’ achievement in writing descriptive text or in other words the alternative hypothesis is accepted.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT

All praises and the greatest thankfulness to almighty God who has blessed, given time, opportunity, health, and mercy to the writer in finishing this thesis writer would like to express her thankful and her sincere appreciation that directed to:

1. Prof. Dr. Syawal Gultom, M.Pd., the Rector of State University of Medan.

2. Dr. Isda Pramuniati, M.Hum., the Dean of Languages and Arts Faculty. 3. Prof. Dr. Hj. Sumarsih, M.Pd., the Head of English and Literature

Department and as her Reviewers and Examiners who have given suggestion and comments in completing the Thesis.

4. Dra. Meisuri, M.A., the Secretary of English Department and as her First Thesis Advisor, who has given her precious time to give valuable advice and guidance in the process of writing this Thesis.

5. Nora Ronita Dewi, S.S., S.Pd., M.Hum., the Head of English Education Study Program.

6. Drs. Willem Saragih, Dip.Appl.,M.Pd., as her Second Thesis Advisor, who has given many suggestion and guidance in the process of writing this Thesis.

7. Prof. Dr. Berlin Sibarani, M.Pd., as her Academic Advisor, Reviewer and Examiner who have given suggestion and comments in completing the Thesis.

8. Dra. Masitowarni Siregar, M.Ed., her Reviewers and Examiners who have given suggestion and comments in completing the Thesis.

9. All the Lecturers of English Department who have taught and adviced her during the academic years.

10.Eis Sri Wahyuningsih, S.Pd., M.Pd., and Mr. Pantes the administration staffs of English and Literature Department who always helped the writer during her academic year.

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12.Drs. Alpa Simanjuntak M.Pd., the Headmaster of SMA N 1 Siborongborong who has given the permission to conduct the research in the school.

13.Jojor Tampubolon S.Pd., the English Teacher of SMA N 1 Siborongborong, for the supports, guidance, suggestions and motivation in the process of completing this thesis. And all the teachers and students at the school for the good cooperation.

14.Her beloved Sisters from her beloved second mother, Hesti Florawati Siregar Amd. and Nurmiani Rapmahita Pakpahan Amd., thanks a lot for always supporting and giving the great motivation to her during the process of completing this Thesis.

15.All her beloved friends and also the part of her family in Medan (NHKBP Pardamean Medan and Filadelfia Choir Unimed) for their love, help, and prayers.

16.All her beloved friends in her boarding mate (Astri Panjaitan, Maria Veronika Simanjuntak, Dian Lestari Pratiwi Purba, Kasih Butar-butar) for their motivation, help, and prayers. And also for the three boys (Hermanto, Jentri, Roubin) who always give motivation and prayers. 17.Her friends of struggling for thesis, (Dyan Yosephin Hutagalung, Harni,

Okta, Shilvi, Putri, Mitha) and all her class members (2011), her friends in PPLT 2014 SMP 4 Balige for the togetherness and experiences shared. And also for those who cannot be mentioned one by one.

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LIST OF TABLES

Pages

Table 2.1 An example of descriptive text ... 11

Table 2.2 Peer Response Sheet ... 18

Table 3.1 Research Design ... 24

Table 3.2 Treatment for Experimental and Control Group ... 27

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LIST OF APPENDICES

Pages

Appendix A.The Pre-test and Post-test in Experimental and Control Groups ... 43

Appendix B Students’ score of Pre-test and Post-test of Experimental and control groups ... 44

Appendix C The Calculation of Reliability of the Test ... 48

Appendix D Testing Normality in Experimental Group ... 50

Appendix E Testing Normality in Control Group... 54

Appendix F Test for Homogeneity of Variance of Pre-test in Experimental and Control Groups ... 58

Appendix G The calculation of t-test ... 60

Appendix H Percentage Points of the t Distribution ... 64

Appendix I Table of Normality from 0 to Z ... 66

Appendix J Table List of testing Liliefors ... 67

Appendix K Lesson Plan ... 68

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. The Background of the Study

English as a global language in all over the world seems to be priority for people to learn. It is because as social creatures, people absolutely need to communicate in their daily life in order to socialize or to express their thought,

feeling, understanding, opinion, critic, and everything they want to share to others. Nowadays, we live in era of globalization; full of challenges and

competition among other people either in or out of our country. Because of that, a global language connecting all people around the world is needed. English is one of the most common languages used by people having different native language.

The presence of English as a universal language makes everybody realize that this language is needed to be learnt. Therefore, Indonesian government sets English as one of the compulsory subjects at schools.

In learning English, there are four basic language skills that must be well mastered by the students, namely speaking, reading, listening, and writing.

The researcher chose SMAN 1 Siborongborong because the researcher has got the data from interview with the English teacher there. The researcher found that the students’ writing achievement is still low. It happened because of

some factors, namely lack of knowledge, lack of vocabulary, lack of grammar, and lack of motivation to write. They were not confident to use their own

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Based on syllabus of Curriculum in the Curriculum of Educational Stratified Level or Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan (KTSP 2006) for Grade

X of Senior High School, there are some kinds of text genre. The students are expected to be able to understand and write narrative, descriptive, recount, report,

and procedure text. In this study, the researcher only deals with writing descriptive text. Descriptive text is the important genre. It can help students clarify their understanding of new subject matter material, this genre not only

about how to put words in written but also how to describe something to the other people. A descriptive text is structured with general identification and followed by

clear description.

There were many reasons that cause the students’ achievement low in

writing, and did not pay attention to the writing task. They do not know how to recognize their ideas in writing. They are frequently being confused of what to write and how to start writing. For students, writing is difficult because it is

complex subject that involves the organization of thought, the usage of English language, and imagination. This condition affects the students’ achievement in

writing descriptive text.

Sriwiyanti (2013) showed that many students had difficulties in writing report text, for example in finding ideas. They had difficulties to find and organize their ideas, and this research found out that the students’ ability in writing report

text was improved by using peer response technique. Peer response technique is

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students about how to revise and edit their writing by using their peer’s eyes in

order to get deeper insight and improvements about what they have written.

Guntar (2013) showed that the students still got confused how to deliver their ideas. They were lack of idea and confuse to use their own language. Al-Jamal

(2009) found out that the problem of their writing such as their grammar is not good, they also do not have enough vocabulary.

In order to solve this problem, it needs some creative techniques to make

the writing class more effective and interesting. It means that the teachers must be creative in applying various techniques to solve the problem. In fact, there are

some ways which can help students to increase their achievement in writing descriptive text, such as Peer Response Technique, Clustering, Group Mentoring Technique and so on. From those techniques, the writer proposes “Peer Response

Technique”. Peer response technique can be used either in the forms or pairs or

small groups. In peer response activity students are assigned to write a

composition or essay when they finish their writing work; and exchange their writing with their peers. Peers read and make comments on the writing first draft

so that those students can improve their own written work (Nelson & Murphy, 1993).

Peer response shows that readership does not belong exclusively to the

teacher, since in this type of response, students are enjoined to share their writings with each other (Richards 2002). Elbow (1992) believes that when students write

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simply to just “get it right” or “give teachers what they want”. When students

write for their peers, they become very concerned about what they say and how

they say it.

Based on the explanation above, the writer focused on conducting a

research in order to investigate the effect of peer response technique on the students’ achievement in writing descriptive text.

B. The Problem of the Study

Based on the previous explanation, the problem is formulated as follows: “Is there a significant effect of peer response technique on students’ achievement in writing descriptive text?”

C. The Objective of the Study

In relation to the problem above, the objective of the study was to found

out the significant effect of peer response technique on students’ descriptive writing achievement in SMA Negeri 1 Siborongborong, Tapanuli Utara.

D. The Scope of Study

Based on syllabus of Curriculum for Grade X of Senior High School, the

student are expected to be able to understand and write narrative, descriptive, recount, report, and procedure text. In this research, the writer focuses on the

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E. The significance of the Study

The findings of this research are expected to be useful for:

1. Theoretically, the result of this study can be the reference for other teacher so it can enlarge and develop their knowledge about peer response

technique for teaching writing, especially writing descriptive text.

2. Practically, for the teachers as an reference to use peer response technique in teaching writing descriptive text, for other researchers who are

interested in this study to give them information about strategy in teaching writing, and for the students to increase their ability in writing descriptive

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CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

A. Conclusion

The result of calculation t-test showed that the score of t-observed (3.662) > the score of t-table (2.024). It means that peer response technique significantly affects

the students’ achievement in writing descriptive text. Thus, it can be concluded that

the null hypothesis (Ho) is rejected and the alternative hypothesis (Ha) is accepted.

B. Suggestion

As the result of the study, it is suggested that:

1. The English teachers are suggested to apply peer response technique in

teaching learning process, especially in teaching writing because it can help student become easier in understanding the material as their friend can help them and also improve their self-confidence in writing a good text.

2. Since this research is limited to the investigation of Peer Response Technique on writing and how the Peer Response Technique can be developed is not

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