A Thesis
IMPROVING STUDENTS’ ABILITY IN WRITING NARRATIVE TEXT THROUGH ACCELERATED LEARNING APPROACH AT MADRASAH ALIYAH TAMAN PENDIDIKAN ISLAM MEDAN
By
ANWAR SALEH
Registration Number: 8106111003
Submitted to the English Applied Linguistic Program in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Magister Humaniora
ENGLISH APPLIED LINGUISTICS STUDY PROGRAM
POSTGRADUATE SCHOOLS
SCAATSBA
Anwar Saleh. 8106111003. Improving Students’ Ability in Writing Narrative Text Through Accelerated Learning Approach at Madrasah Aliyah Taman Pendidikan Islam Medan. A Thesis. English Applied Linguistic Study Program, State University of Medan 2015
ABSTRAK
Anwar Saleh. 8106111003. Improving Students’ Ability in Writing Narrative Text Through Accelerated Learning Approach at Madrasah Aliyah Taman Pendidikan Islam Medan. Tesis Program Studi Linguistik Terapan Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Negeri Medan 20015
Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk meningkatkan ketrampilan menulis teks narasi siswa dengan menggunakan pendekatan Acceleratif Learning serta mengetahui kemampuan menulis siswa sebelum dan setelah menerapkan pendekatan akseleratif learning. Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui bagaimana pendekatan Acceleratif Learning dapat digunakan untuk meningkatkan kemampuan menulis para siswa. Penelitian ini menggunakan rancangan penelitian tindakan kelas yang bersifat kolaboratif. Penelitian ini dilaksanakan dalam dua siklus yang mengacu pada prosedur penelitian tindakan yaitu, planning, implementing, observing, dan reflecting.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Bismillahirahmanirrahim.
First and foremost, praise and thank be to Allah SWT, the Almighty, who has granted countless blessing, knowledge, and opportunity to the writer so that she has been finally able to accomplish her thesis.
Praises are all also addressed to our prophet Muhammad SAW who has guided us to the better life of today.
This thesis could have been completed because of the guidance, encouragement, suggestions, and comments from several people, for which he would like to extend her sincere and special thanks.
He gratefully acknowledges her debt to Prof. Dr. Lince Sihombing, M.Pd., his first adviser, who has generously spent precious time in giving the guidance, encouragement, suggestions, and comments until this thesis comes to its present form. His deepest gratitude is also expressed to Dr. Didik Santoso, M.Pd., his second adviser, who has kindly assisted him for many hours as he tried to figure out what he really wanted to say in this thesis.
His enormous appreciation is addressed to Prof. Dr. Busmin Gurning, M.Pd., the head of English Applied Linguistics Study, and to Dr. Sri Minda Murni, M.S., the secretary of English Applied Linguistics Study for their administrative assistances.
Dr. Sri Minda Murni, M.S. for being his reviewers and examiners for the valuable inputs to be included in this thesis. He also is in enormous intellectual debt to all lecturers of English Applied Linguistics Study Program who have been my inspiration during the academic years and also during the completion of this thesis.
Special thank is extended to Rosmiani, S.Pd, the headmaster of MA Swata Taman Pendidikan Islam Medan for the permission to conduct the research.
Finally, he realizes that he is really sure that the care, attention support and good education are given by his beloved parents and wife. He has no suitable words word that can fully describe their everlasting love and express how much he loves them.
Last but not least, to his best friends Tumpak,Sulinda, Dini, and Sayuti for great help and encouragement during the academic years and the completion of his thesis and all friends in intake XVIII class for their friendship and cooperation.
It would be difficult to find adequate words to convey how much he owes the people. Thank you so much.
May Allah bless us
Medan, August 2015. The researcher,
3.3.1 Preliminary Study 42
CHAPTER IV RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 67
LIST OF TABLES
LIST OF FIGURES
Page
Figure 2.1 The Sample of a Narrative Text and Its Characteristics……... 19
Figure 2.5 The back of the brain that deals with visual data... 26
Figure 2.3 Accelerated Learning Model... ... 28
Figure 3.1 Classroom Action Research Design of Kemmis & Taggart Model... 39
Figure 3.2 The Classroom Action Research Procedures... 41
Figure 4.1 The Students’ Writing Product in the First Cycle... 63
1 CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1 The Background of the Study
English is taught as a foreign language in Indonesia and its aim is to enable
students to master the four English skills, i.e. listening, speaking, reading, and writing
(Depdiknas, 2006:287). Writing is one of the four language skills in which someone
can express his ideas, thoughts, and experiences through written language. Writing is
considered the most difficult and complicated language skill to be learned compared
to other language skills. Nunan (1989:35) states that learning to write fluently and
expressively is the most difficult of four language skills for all students whether it is
for first, second, or foreign language students. Furthermore, Nunan (1999:271)
highlights that the most difficult thing to do in learning a foreign language is probably
in producing a coherent, fluent, and extended piece of writing. In line with Nunan,
Richards and Renandya (2002:303) state that writing is the most difficult skill for
second language (L2) students to master. The difficulty lies not only in organizing
and generating ideas, but also translating these ideas into readable texts. The skills
involved in writing are highly complex. L2 students have to pay attention to higher
level skills of planning and organizing as well as lower level skills of spelling,
punctuation word choice and so on.
The Curriculum of Educational Stratified Level (Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan
Pendidikan: KTSP) of Senior High School states that students of senior high school
2 expository writing (Depdiknas: 2006). It becomes the reason why the teaching of
writing is important. Harmer (1998:79) states that some reasons for teaching writing
to the students of English as a foreign language include reinforcement, language
development, learning style, and writing as a basic language skill. In line with
Harmer, Raimes (1987) in Widiati and Cahyono (2006:140) highlights that there are
six purposes of teaching writing: writing for reinforcement, training, imitation,
communication, fluency, and learning. Furthermore, Raimes (1983:3) highlights that
teaching writing helps students learn to use language.
Considering the complexity and the importance of writing, an English teacher
should be an effective teacher, who can draw students’ talents and then use variety of
teaching methods and strategies to improve their talents. The writing class should be
facilitated with activities which motivate students to learn. Teaching writing is not
just opening the book, giving assignment, and grading paper. The students are not just
writing based on the topic given and collecting the product at the end of a lesson. The
students should be challenged and stimulated by interesting and fun activities during
the teaching and learning process. According to Brown (2001:340) one of the
challenges of becoming an effective writing teacher must offer guidance in helping
students to engage in the process of writing.
Narrative is one of genres which is taught in Senior High School level. It is
the most common and popular type of writing among students. The writer writes
3 student writes about his school experiences, he writes a narrative, or when he tells the
readers about his holiday, he also writes a narrative.
Many students of Madrasah Aliyah Taman Pendidikan Islam (MA TPI) find
some difficulties in learning writing narrative. The difficulties affect the students’
result of writing. A preliminary study which was conducted on August 13th 2014
showed that the students’ average score in writing a narrative text was 49.6
(forty-nine point six) (see Appendix H) , while the minimum passing grade criteria
(KKM/Kriteria Ketuntasan Minimal) is 60.0 (Sixty point zero).
Table 1.1
The Mean of Achievement in Writing Narrative of the Students of MA Swasta Taman Pendidikan Islam Medan
From Table 1.1 it is concluded that the students’ achievements do not meet
the minimum passing grade criteria (KKM/Kriteria Ketuntasan Minimal) determined
which is 60
The result indicates that the students’ writing achievement is not satisfactory
yet. They often made mistakes in grammar, spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and
their paragraph organization and poor content as well. Besides, it was supported by
the students’ result of questionnaires distributed in the preliminary study that many of
4 know how to begin writing especially when they have no idea what to write. Second,
they find it difficult to generate and translate the ideas into a readable text because of
lack of vocabulary. Third, they feel bored in writing class because the learning
activities in writing are monotonous. The teacher usually asks the students to
rearrange some words into a good sentence. The students are also asked to write a
simple paragraph using their own words without the teacher’s assistance.
Based on the facts above, the difficulties of students and the unsatisfactory
results in writing at MA TPI Medan might be due to the ineffective technique of
teaching writing and this causes the teaching and learning activities to be unlively. In
this case, firstly, the teacher does not make a good planning which includes general
and specific instructional objectives, instructional material and media for teaching
writing. Burden and Byrd (1999:137) state that the use of instructional media during
instruction can facilitate and enhance student’s learning. However, to help students to
be able to write, a teacher should be more creative to find out the authentic material
and appropriate media which help the students to engage in teaching writing.
Secondly, the teacher possibly assumes that writing is a product-oriented
which focuses on the end result of learning process. The students are expected to be
able to do as fluent and competent as user of the language does. Meanwhile, writing
is not a single activity, but one which is recursive, it means that writing has several
stages and these can be performed from the initial to the final stages, and can proceed
through again, until the final product is presented. Nunan (1991:87) states that writing
5 the students with various classroom activities which are believed to promote the
development of language skill.
Third is, potentially, the teacher dominates the classroom activities. The
activities in the teaching and learning of writing are likely to be teacher-centered.
Students rarely work cooperatively. They are often given difficult task individually
that make them give up. The students actually prefer to be more frequently engage in
cooperative learning. As a result, students find writing instruction dreary. These are
the factors that cause the low level of students’ motivation. However, the teacher has
to transform the teaching and learning process to be student-centered to increase the
students’ motivation. Brown (2001:82) states that learner centered, cooperative
teaching, helps the students to develop intrinsic motivation. In addition, Nunan
(1991:87) states that collaborative group work among students is a way of enhancing
motivation and developing positive attitudes toward writing.
Considering the problem in the teaching of writing at MA TPI Medan above,
there is a need to implement an approach or method that can solve the problems.
Accelerated learning (for further explanation the abbreviation A.L is used) is the most
advanced teaching and learning method in use today. It's a total system for speeding
and enhancing both the design process and the learning processes. Based on the latest
brain research, it has proven again and again to increase learning effectiveness while
saving time and money in the process. Many of today's leading organizations and
6 makes accelerated learning so effective is that it's based on the way the learners all
naturally learn. A.L. unlocks much of their potential for learning that has been left
largely untapped by most conventional learning methods. It does this by actively
involving the whole person, using physical activity, creativity, music, images, color,
and other methods designed to get people deeply involved in their own learning.
According to Meier (2000:XVII), here's what people need for an optimal
learning environment: (1) A positive learning environment. People learn best in a
positive physical, emotional, and social environment, one that is both relaxed and
stimulating. A sense of wholeness, safety, interest, and enjoyment is essential for
optimizing human learning. (2) Total learner involvement. People learn best when
they are totally and actively involved and take full responsibility for their own
learning. Learning is not a spectator sport but a participatory one. Knowledge is not
something a learner passively absorbs, but something a learner actively creates. Thus
A.L. tends to be more activity-based rather than materials-based or
presentations-based. (3) Collaboration among learners. People generally learn best in an
environment of collaboration. All good learning tends to be social. Whereas
traditional learning emphasizes competition between isolated individuals, A.L.
emphasizes collaboration between learners in a learning community. (4) Variety that
appeals to all learning styles. People learn best when they have a rich variety of
learning options that allows them to use all their senses and exercise their preferred
7 thinks of it as a results-driven, learner-centered smorgasbord. (5) Contextual
learning. People learn best in context. Facts and skills learned in isolation are hard to
absorb and quick to evaporate. The best learning comes from doing the work itself in
a continual process of "real-world" immersion, feedback, reflection, evaluation, and
reimmersion.
In this case the researcher feels challenged to create an innovative method of
teaching English material especially narrative text of writing material through
accelerated learning approach due the researcher’s teaching experiences in his school
with the title “ Improving Students’ Ability In Writing Narrative Text Through
Accelerated Learning Approach of Eleventh Grade Students at Madrasah Aliyah
Taman Pendidikan Islam Medan.
1.2The Problems of the Study
Referring to the background of the study, the research question is formulated
as follow:
1. How can the accelerated learning approach improve the students’ writing skills
at MA TPI Medan?
2. How is the students’ ability before implementing the accelerated learning ?
8 1.3The Objectives of the Study
In line with the research problem, this study is intended (1) to improve the eleventh
grade students’ writing skills of MA TPI Medan in the academic year of 2014/2015,
(2) to find out the students’ ability before implementing the accelerated learning ?, (3)
to find out the students’ ability after implementing the accelerated learning
1.4The Scope of the Study
There are many factors that can cause the low level of the students’ writing
ability. Those come from internal and external factors. The internal factors that can
influence the students’ writing ability are the students’ motivation, The students’
interest, IQ, students’ learning style and etc. The external factors that can affect
students’ writing ability are environment, facility, teacher performance including the
teaching method. In this case the researcher only limit on the accelerated learning.
1.5 The Significance of the Study
The findings of the study are expected to be useful theoretically and
practically, this study is useful for (1) the English teacher to improve the students’
writing ability (2) the students to increase their writing skill (3) the researchers who
81
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
5.1 Conclusion
Based on the research finding, it can be concluded that:
1. In the preliminary study, the students ability in writing narrative quantitatively
is still low namely the average score of the students is 49,60 and qualitatively,
the students still feel difficult in writing narrative test.
2. In the first cycle, the students ability in writing narrative quantitatively, there
was little improvement of the students’ average score namely the average score
of the students is 60.20 and qualitatively the implementation of accelerated
learning approach did not yet give satisfactory result on the improvement of
students’ writing ability even though there was a little improvement
3. In the third cycle the students’ ability in writing narrative quantitatively, is
high namely the average score of the students was 70.20 and qualitatively the
students feel easy in writing narrative test.
5.2 Suggestions
There are some suggestions to offer to the English teachers and the other
researchers based on the research findings and discussion.
Based on the effectiveness of the implementation of the accelerated
learning approach in the teaching and learning of writing narrative texts and
improving student’s motivation, particularly in sharing ideas and describing the
82 learning approach as an alternative strategy in English instruction. Yet, in
applying this technique, the teacher should be active in monitoring the students’
activities in group discussion and the teacher should be creative in making the
teaching and learning process alive so that students will never feel bored.
Besides, it is recommended that the English teacher use accelerated
learning approach as a learning strategy to enhance the students’ competence not
only in writing but also in the three other language skills.
Furthermore, it is recommended that the students use accelerated learning
approach as one of their learning strategies to practice and improve their writing
ability in narrative texts which can be done in their extracurricular activities.
To the future researchers, particularly those who have the same problem
and are interested in conducting research, it is suggested that they apply
accelerated learning activity in the same field in their research or on the teaching
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