1
This chapter focuses on the area of the study that involves the background of the study, research question, the objective of the study, the significance of the study, scope and limitation, and definition of key terms.
A. Background of the Study
Writing is a way of expressing ideas without talking to others by using text to provide a note or information that can be interpreted and read. Writing is considered the last English skill that is difficult for second language learners to master after listening, speaking, and reading. Writing skills are the most complex because writing needs to apply several language components, such as speaking, grammar, vocabulary, and punctuation (Vera & Satriani, 2018).
Moreover, writing has characteristics that include many things such as stages, sentence construction, mechanics, diction, punctuation, paragraph coherence, etc. So, writing skills are beneficial for students, but these characteristics seem to make it difficult for students to master them.
In implementing the 2013 Curriculum, learning to write is equivalent to four other language skills. In junior high school students are taught various types of texts, one of which is descriptive text. Widayanto (2021) stated descriptive text is a text that retells things, people, places, things, and events by describing them in detail and detail. Therefore, the purpose of descriptive text is to describe an object that emphasizes its expression through a series of
words so that the reader seems to feel and see the visualization of the object expressed in the text directly.
Most Indonesian students have difficulty in making criteria for good writing. This is because the writing ability of students at the junior high school level is generally still relatively low. After all, writing requires creative thinking so students often experience difficulties in writing, especially in descriptive texts. There are several obstacles, such as students are still confused about how to start writing descriptive text paragraphs, have difficulty translating sentences, and have not been able to find and organize data and facts to make a good text paragraph. In addition, this problem arises because of the lack of students' awareness to improve writing skills and lack of vocabulary, grammar, and ideas. Because writing is important, but difficult to learn, so the teacher must have an interesting teaching method. Improving writing skills in junior high school is not easy. Based on the results of an interview with an English teacher at MTs Nurul Islam Kediri, she said that students had difficulty when asked to write. They think that writing is scary because they have to master all about grammar and it makes them confused.
So, they could not arrange the text, especially descriptive text well because the students had difficulty understanding it. They lack knowledge about the elements of writing descriptive text.
At the junior high school level, especially in learning English, teachers need to provide a good learning model. Vera & Satriani (2018) stated that the 2013 Curriculum provides opportunities for the teacher to develop teaching
materials based on the skills, needs, and abilities of students. Teachers must be able to grow and develop the activeness and creativity of students' imaginations in learning to write English. Therefore, teachers need to provide learning methods that can make students interested in writing. It is believed that choosing the right learning model will help improve writing skills, especially in descriptive texts. One of the learning models that can improve students' skills in writing descriptive texts is discovery learning which invites students to think critically to describe objects interestingly.
One of the learning models presented by the 2013 curriculum is discovery learning. Discovery learning is considered a suitable learning model, this is because it supports the application of a scientific approach and can encourage students to think higher-order (Higher Order Thinking Skills / HOTS) which is expected to develop an independent learning framework for students (Cahyani & Yulindaria, 2018). In discovery learning, students are encouraged to be actively involved in problem-solving and are based on their knowledge or experience which will produce interesting solutions for students which in the end will be easily reconstructed. Discovery learning encourages students to question and solve problems that allow students to find principles and belief in students self-efficacy.
After conducting a literature review, the researcher found three studies on English learning that have been held previously that can support this research.
The first research states that the discovery learning model can enhance the quality of descriptive writing learning for students. In addition, the use of
discovery learning can improve aspects and criteria in descriptive writing written by Ariyana et al (2020). The second relevant research is the result of research from Feriyanti (2014) which uses discovery learning during the learning process to teach descriptive texts by building students' character.
Overall, the students' learning scores in writing descriptive texts taught using the discovery learning method are classified as increasing and have good character. The last research revealed that it revealed that students were more confident in writing descriptive texts and knew what to write so the results tended to be satisfactory. In addition, during the teaching and learning process, students tend to be active participants (Sobari & Husnussalam, 2019).
Discovery learning is one of the learning methods that build students to be more active and independent in language learning, especially writing learning.
Discovery can be interpreted to find information and investigate to get something they have never known before. Because discovery learning plays an important role in teaching English it allows students to be able to think, analyze, and try to solve their problems, especially to teach writing skills. By innovating the learning approach or model, it is expected to have a positive impact on improving students' learning abilities in writing descriptive texts by writing down their creative ideas (Syafar, 2020).
The discovery learning model is expected to be an alternative to improve the ability to write descriptive texts and minimize the level of difficulty in writing. This is in line with the opinion of Cahyani & Yulindaria (2018) that the discovery learning model is formed from ideas in the form of a mind map
that can be adapted to the structure of a descriptive text. In addition, the discovery learning model is expected to bring out students' creativity and imagination and allow students to be able to write descriptive texts better, especially in detail, and describe an event so that readers can see, hear, and experience what is described.
Therefore, the researcher intends to overcome the problems faced by the students in MTs Nurul Islam Kediri by using Discovery Learning with all its advantages to improve students' descriptive text writing skills. The Discovery Learning model emphasizes the learning process, not learning outcomes. So, in this case students are problem solvers because the model will be student- centered. Based on the students' difficulties in writing descriptive texts, the research aims to improve the ability to write descriptive texts using the discovery learning model. The researcher took the title "Improving Students’
Writing Descriptive Text by Using Discovery Learning Model”.
B. Research Problem
Based on the research background above, the research problem can be formulated as follows:
How can discovery learning improve students writing descriptive text ability?
C. Research Objective
The objective of the research is to find out how to improve the students’
ability at writing descriptive text by using the discovery learning model at grade VII in MTs Nurul Islam Kediri.
D. Significances of the Study 1. Theoretical Benefits
Theoretically, the result of this research is to develop and improve concepts and knowledge about teaching writing descriptive texts with the discovery learning model.
2. Practical Benefits
Students can improve their descriptive text writing skills by using the discovery learning model and students can be creative by developing their knowledge of genres, especially descriptive texts.
For English teachers, they can use the discovery learning model to improve their descriptive text writing skills and get new, innovative models to improve their teaching model so that students achieve the best results.
For further researchers to develop knowledge about teaching writing descriptive text by applying the discovery learning model.
E. Scope and Limitation of the Study
This research was conducted at MTs Nurul Islam Kediri. This study focuses on the use of the discovery learning model to improve the ability to write descriptive texts. The scope of research is limited to the subject and object under study. The subjects of this study were seventh grade junior high school students. The object of research uses the discovery learning model to improve students' writing skills in descriptive texts.
F. Definition of Key Terms 1. Teaching Writing
One part of the syllabus in teaching English is writing. Teaching writing is an activity to teach students how to communicate by expressing their experiences on paper or in writing. Writing is one type of expression in the language that can create ideas, opinions, and feelings for others through a certain set of symbols, which have conventional values to represent words from a particular language that are arranged visually. It can be interpreted that the purpose of writing is to inform, explain, persuade, and entertain others as well as to establish relationships with others, solve problems in written form.
2. Discovery Learning Model
Discovery learning is a learning method that builds students to be more active in language learning, especially writing learning. In the application of discovery learning, the teacher acts as a guide in the learning process and the teacher provides opportunities for students to be able to organize their own material with the stimulus provided by the teacher. Discovery learning is expected to make students independent to think about something. Discovery learning plays an important role in teaching English which can improve vocabulary and grammar because they will learn by experiencing together. There are many types of English texts, one of the texts that students learn is descriptive text.
3. Descriptive Text
Descriptive text is a text that contains illustrations or descriptions of a particular object that is presented in detail. The descriptive text has the main idea that describes an object, person, animal, place, and event that is the topic to the reader. In conclusion, descriptive text is a form of writing that retells what someone or something looks like so that the reader can make a visual appearance and seem to feel clear from the object being described.
