1 The Effect of Blogging as a Tool in Writing Ability as Writing Explanation
Text at 11th Grade Students in Pondok Pesantren Madrasah Tarbiyah Islamiyah (MTI) Koto Tinggi Pandai Sikek
A Thesis
Submitted as a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain Strata One (S1) Degree on English Education Department
By : Abdul Ghani
2314.123
Advisor I
Dr. Melyann Melani, SS. M.Pd
NIP.198101312003122003
ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF TARBIYAH AND TEACHER TRAINING STATE ISLAMIC INSTITUE (IAIN)
BUKITTINGGI
i ABSTRAK
Abdul Ghani, 2314.123. EFEK PENGGUNAAN BLOG SEBAGAI ALAT BELAJAR TERHADAP KEMAMPUAN MENULIS SISWA KELAS 11 PONDOK PESANTREN MTI KOTO TINGGI PANDAI SIKEK, TAHUN AJARAN 2019/2020. Skripsi, Institut Agama Islam Negeri (IAIN) Bukittinggi, 2019.
Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menemukan pengaruh penggunaan metode Using Blog as a Tool terhadap kemampuan menulis siswa .Penelitian ini telah dilakukan di Pondok Pesantren MTI Koto Tinggi Pandai Sikek karena tidak bisa di pungkiri bahwa masih banyak siswa di Sekolah Menengah keatas di Pondok Pesantren MTI Koto Tinggi Pandai Sikekmenghadapi masalah-masalah dalam menguasai pelajaran bahasa Inggris terutama writing. Kebanyakan dari siswa sulit untuk menulis terutama menulis generic structure pada teks dan strategi yang digunakan guru kurang menarik minat belajar siswa.
Jenis penelitian yang digunakan adalah penelitian eksperimen. Peneliti menggunakan penelitian quasi eksperimen dengan menggunakan model pre-test dan post-test.
Populasi dari penelitian ini adalah siswa kelas XI di Pondok Pesantren MTI Koto Tinggi Pandai Sikek. Untuk kelas XI IPA diperlakukan sebagai kelas eksperimen yang di ajar dengan menggunakan Metode Using Blog as a Tool. Sedangkan kelas XI IPS diperlakukan sebagai kelas kontrol yang di ajarkan dengan menggunakan teknik yang biasa. Peneliti menggunakan teknik total sample dikarenakan kurangnya jumlah populasi dari 100 orang. Untuk menganalisis data, peneliti menggunakan tes normality dan homogenity dengan menggunakan aplikasi SPSS 22. Sedangkan untuk menguji hypothesis, peneliti menggunakan uji-t dan mengkonsultasikan hasilnya dengan tabel t untuk hipotesis pertama kedua, dan ketiga
Berdasarkan temuan penelitian, ditemukan bahwa penggunaan blog berpengaruh signifikan terhadap tulisan siswa. Pernyataan ini juga didukung oleh t-test, dimana t- obtained lebih besar dari t-table ((9,922>2,064). skor kelas eksperimen sebelum mengikutinya (46,8 hingga 74,5)
Kata Kunci : Kemampuan Menulis, Metode Using Blog as a Tool, descriptive teks.
ii ABSTRACT
Abdul Ghani, 2314.123. THE EFFECT OF USING BLOG AS A TOOL TOWARDS STUDENT WRITING ABILITY AT 11thGRADE OF PONDOK PESANTREN MTI KOTO TINGGI PANDAI SIKEK IN ACADEMIC YEAR 2019/2020. A Thesis, State Islamic Institute (IAIN) Bukittinggi, 2019.
This research was discover the effect of using Using Blog as a Tool towards students’
writing ability at the 11th grade of Pondok Pesantren MTI Koto Tinggi Pandai Sikek.
It has been done at Pondok Pesantren MTI Koto Tinggi Pandai Sikek because most of the students of Senior High School at Pondok Pesantren MTI Koto Tinggi Pandai Sikek still encounter problems in mastering English especially writing. Most of student got difficulties to organize the generic structure of text. The teacher still did not use a proper method in teaching writing.
This research used experimental research. The researcher used a quasi- experimental design by using the pre-test pos-test control group deisgn. The population of this research was eleventh grade of in Pondok Pesantren MTI Koto Tinggi Pandai Sikek.
The sample was XI IPA which was treated as experimental class and taught by using Using Blog as a Tool and XI IPS was treated as control class and taught by using conventional technique. The researcher used total sampling technique because the population less than a hundred. The data was got through pretest and posttest to experimental and control classes. To analyze the data, the researcher used the normality and homogeneity by using SPSS 22. To test the hypothesis, the researcher used t-test formula and consulted the result into t-table for the first, second and third hypothesis.
Based on the finding of the research, it was found that using blogging has significant effect toward the students’ writing. This statements was also supported by the t-test, where the t-obtained was bigger than the t-table ((9,922>2,064). Second, The mean score of the experiment after taking the blogging as the treatment was bigger than the mean score of the experiment class before taking it (46,8 to 74,5)
Keywords : Writing ability, Using Blog as a Tool, descriptive text.
iii TABLE OF CONTENT
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTON
A. Background of the Problem ... 1
B. Identification of Problem ... 5
C. Limitation of Problem ... 5
D. Formulation of The Problem ... 6
E. Purpose of the Research ... 6
F. Significance of the Research ... 7
G. Definition of the Key Terms ... 7
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURE A. Review of Related Theories ... 9
1. The Nature of Writing ... 9
a. The Definition of Writing ... b. The Writing Process ... 10
Prewriting ... 11
Planning ... 12
Writing ... 13
Revising ... 13
c. Characteristic of Good Writing ... 14
d. Purpose of Writing ... 16
1) Writing to Inform ... 17
2) Writing to explain means Writing ... 17
3) Writing to Persuade ... 18
4) Writing to Amuse Other ... 18
2. Descriptive Text ... 19
a. The definition of Descriptive Text ... 19
b. The Generic Structure of Descriptive Text ... 20
c. The Languge Feature of Description Text ... 20
d. Types of Descriotive Text ... 21
iv e. The Assesment of Writing Descriptive Text
3. Blogs... 22
a. The advantages of using blog to improve writing ... 23
b. Procedure of using Blog to improve Writing ... 24
B. Review of Related Studies ... 26
C. Conceptual Framework ... D. Hypothesis ... CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD A. Design of the Research ... 29
B. Population and Sample ... 32
1. Population... 32
2. Sample ... 33
C. Instrumentation ... 37
1. Validity ... 39
2. Reliability ... 40
D. Technique of the Data Collection ... 41
E. Technique of the Data Analyisis ... 41
1 CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the problem
Writing is an important skill in learning language. It is an activity that involves the students’ English abilities such as mastering grammar, vocabulary, spelling, and punctuation. As stated by Brown that a good deal of writing is display writing as opposed to real writing: students produce language to display their competence in grammar, vocabulary, or sentence formation.1 It means to be able to write well, a student should learn grammar, vocabulary, and sentence formation
In addition, writing is a skill that is required in written communication.
A good writing is not always easy and may be a challenge even for the best students. Mastering vocabularies and tenses become the main key to get a good writing. Bell and Burnaby point out that writing is an extremely complex cognitive activity in which the writer is required to demonstrate and control of a number of variables simultaneously.2
However, writing is the most difficult language skills. It requires complex thinking. In writing process, people always involve thinking skill and
1 H. Douglas Brown, 2001. Language Assessment Principles and Classroom Practice (New York : Longman) p. 225
2 David Nunan, 1999. Designing ask for the Communicative Classrooms, (Cambridge : University Press) p.36
2 creative skill that also supported by right rules. It is also considered as the most complicated language skill to be learned, compared to other language skills
There are four main stages in the writing process: prewriting, planning, writing and revising drafts, and writing the final copy to hand in.3 Pre-writing is deciding the idea of the writing, panning is making the outline, and then writing the draft, after that revising the draft, and finally writing the final copy.
Although there are only four stages in writing, there are still many difficulties that student face
According to the syllabus, in Senior High School there are several texts that should be learned. They are Personal letter, explanation text, or invitation text. The three of them always show up in the final exam of senior high school.
However, there are many problems related to them, not only reading them, but also writing them.
Explanation text is a text that explain about the process of something.
It is similar with procedure text, but instead of explain how to do or make things, explanation text explains about how things are happen. For example,
“How does rain happen”, “ The butterfly Metamorphosis”. Basically, in explantion text there are 3 main paragraphs. They are general statement, explanation text, and clossing. General statement contain general information
3 Alice Oshima and Ann Hogue, 1999, Writing Academic English Third Edition (New York:
Longman) p.3
3 about the text, explanation contain the sequence of events,closing contain additional inforamtion or writer opinion.
The learning tool contributes to teaching and learning process. It can stimulate students’ idea to develop their writing. The learning tool can be visual, audio visual, and multimedia. According to Jennifer Moon refer learning tools is any program, app, or technology that can be accessed via mobile and computer to enhance a teachers ability to present information and a students ability to access that information’s.4 Therefore, learning tool is any application whether it is mobile or computer application that helps teacher in delivering material.
One of the computer applications that help teacher in delivering material is blog. A blog is discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries.
Blogging is often seen as an online tool that promotes authentic and interactive communication that could realize the collaborative demands of a task-based classroom.5 Therefore, blog is an internet based learning which focused on communication such as writing, and reading.
Based on the preliminary research by conducting observation and interview at 11th grade of Pondok Pesantren Madrasah Tarbiyah Islamiyah
4 Jennifer Moon, What are Learning Tools? - Definition, Types & Examples.
www.study.com, (22/03/2018)
5 Rozina Abdul Ghani, at al. 2017, (Blogging as a Tool in Developing Writing Skills : Lesson From the Experience of the Students and Class Teacher) p.63
4 (MTI) Koto Tinggi Pandai Sikek on 11 January 2021, the researcher found some problem. First students’ writing ability is below Standard Minimum Criteria6, this statement also supported by the students writing test. The students were not able to put a good structure of grammar, lack of vocabulary, and the poor choice of word.
The next problem is the students seem demotivated while learning English. Some of the students were struggling to keep their eyes open while some of them make various excuses to go out of the class such as, going to toilet, stomachache, or thirsty. The researcher seemed is the students are bored during class.
The next problem is the teacher only uses whiteboard as tool and use conventional strategy in teaching. It is not bad using conventional and whiteboard in teaching, but if all of the teacher from the start until the end of the class using the same tool and the same strategy it will make the students bored. Even tough the teachers can use the computer for blogs. However, the English teacher is available to use the Computer Laboratory in order to make the learning more effective but the teacher choose not to use them. The computers in Laboratory are enough for the whole students in the classroom.
In order to overcome these problems the researcher assume that using blog as the media can help students improve the students writing ability, because internet has become the main needs in this era. In line Lutfian, he said
6 Sendu Ardila S.Pd, English Teacher of MTI Koto tinggi Pandai Sikek
5 that blog is effective to improve students’ writing skill.7 By writing in blog, the students will write carefully since what they write will go online and everyone might be able to read it, such as their friends, parent, and teacher.
Fortunately, the internet connection is available in that school and they have enough computer for the whole students in a classroom. Based on this fact, it might be good to use combination between computer and blog as learning tool for the students. Considering the issues, the researcher tried to use blog to find out the effect of it towards students writing ability especially in writing explanation text at the second grade students of Pondok Pesantren Madrasah Tarbiyah Islamiyah Koto Tinggi Pandai Sikek. The researcher wants to conduct research under the title “THE EFFECT OF BLOGGING AS A TOOL IN STUDENTS WRITING ABILITY AS WRITING EXPLANATION TEXT AT 11th GRADE STUDENTS IN PONDOK PESANTREN MADRASAH TARBIYAH ISLAMIYAH (MTI) KOTO TINGGI PANDAI SIKEK”
B. Identification of the problem
Based on the background above, the researcher identifies that there are several problem founds by the researcher. The problem are as follow:
1. Students lack of writing ability
7Akhid Lutfian, Improving Students’Writing Skill Through English Web Blog. (Yogyakarta:
UNY, 2011), p.i
6 2. Students seems bored in the classroom
3. The use of computer laboratory is rare
C. Limitation of Problem
Based on identification of the problems above, this research focused on the lack students writing ability. In order to know the effect of using Blog as a Tool toward students writing ability in writing explanation text, this limitation is done to avoid misunderstanding of the research effectively.
D. Formulation of The Problem
Based on the limitation of the problem above, the problems formulated in the following questions:
1. Is there any significant effect of using Blog as a Tool towards students writing ability in writing explanation text at 11th grade of Pondok Pesantren MTI Koto Tinggi Pandai Sikek?
2. Is there any significant difference of students who are taught by using Blog as a Tool and students who are not taught by using Blog as a Tool on Writing ability in Explanation text?
3. Is student writing ability in writing explanation text taught by using Blog as a Tool better than students who are not taught by it?
E. Purpose of The Research
Based on the limitation of the problem above, the problem above, the problem formulated in the following questions:
7 1. To find out whether there is any significant effect of using blog as a Tools towards students writing ability is writing explanation text at 11th grade of Pondok Pesantren MTI Koto Tinggi Pandai Sikek
2. To find out whether there is any significant difference of students who are taught by using Blog as a Tool and students who are not taught by using Blog as a Tool on Writing ability in writing explanation text?
3. To find out whether students Writing Ability in Writing explanation text taught by using Blog as a Tool is better than students who are not by it.
F. Significance of The Research
This research hopefully can give valuable contributions to some elements, they are:
1. The teachers
The result of this study can give solution to the teachers, especially the English teachers at 11th grade of Pondok Pesantren MTI Koto Tinggi Pandai Sikek to improve their students writing ability
2. The Students
This research is expected to make the students active using blog as a tool in writing and their ability will be improved
3. The researcher
This research also give contribution to the researcher in getting experience in teaching writing by conducting the research, and it can be applied by the researcher later in the field.
8 G. Definition of The Key Terms
1. Blogging
A Blog is an Online journal that user can continuously update using their own words, blogs are sometimes refers to as electronic journals and can be used to support teachers in developing a reflective approach to practice within their peer-support network.8
2. Writing
Writing is one of the most significant cultural accomplishments of human being. It allows us to record and convey information and stories beyond the immediate moment.9
3. Explanation Text
Explanation text is a text that explain about the process of something. It is similar with procedure text, but instead of explain how to do or make things, explanation text explains about how things are happen.
For example, “How does rain happen”
8 Ismail Hussein Amzat and Nena Padilla-Valdez, 2017 Teacher professional knowledge and development for reflective and inclusive practice. Routledge London and New York. p.40
9 Henry Rogers. Writing Systems : A Linguistics Approach. (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing:
2005), p.1
9 CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURES
A. Review of Related Theories 1. The Nature of writing
In this section the researcher want to give explanation about definition of writing, the process of writing, the component of writing, and the purpose of writing.
a. The Definition of Writing
In learning English, there are four skills that should be mastered;
those are listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Among the four skills, writing is the most difficult skill to be learnt. This opinion is supported by Richards and Renandya, “Writing is the most difficult skill for second language learners to master”.10 The difficulty is not only in generating and organizing ideas, but also in translating idea into readable text. There are many different definitions about writing given by experts from many resources. According to Axelrod and Coopers’
said, “writing is a complex process and as such contains element of mystery and surprise. But we know and believe that writing is a skill
10Jack C. Richards and Willy A. Renandya, Methodology in Language Teaching: An Anthology of Current Practice, (Cambridge University Press, 2002), p. 303
10 that anyone can learn to manage”.11 Murcia said, writing is “the ability to express one’s ideas in written form is a second or foreign language”.12 It means that writing is an activity to express our ideas in written form.
On the other side, barnet and Stubb’s said that writing as a physical act, it requires material and energy, and like most physical acts, to be performed fully, to bring pleasure, to both performer and audience, it requires practice”.13 From definition above, it can be said that writing can be distinguished from other skills as the most difficult one. There are many factors influencing writing to be a good one such as grammatical, vocabularies, punctuation, and spelling knowledge which must be integrated to be a paragraph.
From the idea previously, the writer concludes that writing is more than a medium communication. It is a way of remembering and a way of thinking. Because of that, writing is not easy. It needs a hard work. In writing we have to produce words, phrase, sentence, and paragraph at the same time. It is a way of learning. None of us can write much of interest without first thinking, probing, observing, asking question, experimenting, and reading.
11Rise B. Axelrod and Charles R. Chooper, The St. Martin’s Guide to Writing, (New York:
St Martin’s Press, Inc, 1985), p.3
12Marianne C. Murcia, Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language, (Boston: Heinle Publishers, 1991), p. 233
13Barnet and Stubbs’s, Practical Guide to Writing, (Canada:Brown Company, 4th edition 1983), p.3
11 b. The Writing Process
Writing is a process that involves several steps. At least, there are three steps in the writing process mentioned by Blanchard and Root in their book: Ready to Write: a First Composition Text. Step one : prewriting Thinking about your topic and organizing your ideas. Step Two: writing using your ideas to write a first draft. Step Three : revising Improving what you have written.14 If the writers follow the steps, and practice by writing often, they will find it easier to write paragraphs and to improve their writing.
a) Prewriting
Prewriting is the thinking, talking, reading and writing we do about our topic before we write a first draft. Prewriting is a way of warming up our brain before we write, just as we warm up our body before we exercise. There are several ways to warm up before start writing :
1) Brainstorming
Brainstorming is a quick way to generate a lot of ideas on a subject. The purpose is to make a list of as many ideas as possible without worrying about how you will use them. To brainstorm, follow these step :
14Karen Blanchaard, and Christine Root, Ready to Write; A First Composition Text 3ed, (Longman: Pearson Education,Inc., 2003), p. 41
12 a) Begin with a broad topic.
b) Write down as many ideas about the topic as you can in five minutes
c) Add more items to your list by answering the questions what, how, when, why, and who.
d) Group similar items on the list together e) Cross out items that do not belong.
2) Clustering
Clustering is another prewriting technique. It is a visual way of showing your ideas are connected using circles and lines.
When you cluster, you draw a diagram of your ideas. This term will be explained in the next section. On the other hand said that pre-writing is any activity in the classroom that encourages students to write. It stimulates thoughts for getting started. In fact, it moves students away from having to face blank page toward generating tentative ideas and gathering information for writing. The following activities provide the learning by experiences for students at this stage:15
a) Group brainstorming b) Clustering
c) Rapid Free Writing
15Jack C. Richards and Willy A. Renandya, Methodology in Language teaching: An Anthology of Current Practice, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002), p. 316
13 d) WH-Question
b) Planning
The second stage is planning or also know as outlining. The first is making sub lists, it means we need to any related kind ideas then cross out unrelated items. Next steps is writing the topic sentence that is the most general sentence in paragraph.
c) Writing
After we have spent some time thinking about our topic and doing the necessary prewriting, we are ready for the next step in the writing process: writing our paragraph. When we write the first draft of our paragraph, use the ideas we generated from prewriting as a guide.
As you write, remember to:
1) Begin with a topic sentence that states the main idea 2) Include seceral sentences that support the main idea.
3) Stick to the topic
4) Arrange the sentences so that the order od ideas make sense.
5) Use signal words to help the reader understand how the ideas in your paragraph are connected.16
16Jack C. Richards and Willy A. Renandya, Methodology in Language teaching: An Anthology of Current Practice……… ….317
14 d) Revising
It is almost impossible to write a perfect paragraph on the first day. The first try is called the first draft. After you complete the first draft, you must look for ways to improve it. This step is called revising. When students revise, they review their text on the basic of the feedback given in the previous stage. They reexamine what was written to see how effectively they have communicated their meaning to the reader. In another source stated that writing is a process that involves the following steps.17
1) Discovering a point often through prewriting.
2) Developing solid support for the point often through more prewriting
3) Organizing the supporting material and writing it out in a first draft.
4) Revising and then editing carefully to ensure an effective error-free paper.
As conclusion, the first step of writing process is prewriting which is a way of warming up the brain before writing, the second is planning which are making the sub list and topic sentence, the
17Karen Blanchard and Christine Root, Ready to Write; A First Composition Text 3ed, (Longman: Pearson Education,Inc., 2003), p. 43
15 third is writing, and the last one is revising which is look for ways to improve the first draft.
c. Characteristic of Good Writing
Writing is an uneasy activity. Students often find difficulties especially when they want to write a good paragraph. In every sentence of paragraph. It should be related to the unit of organization, the parallelism and others.
According to harmer, there are two characteristic of an effective paragraph. Those are coherence and cohesion.18
1) Coherence
Coherence means that the paragraph is easy to read and easy to understand, then the sentence in the paragraph must be logically arranged and the movement from one sentence, the reader can understand at least two things.
a) The writers purpose a coherent text can make the reader understand what the writers purpose. Is it for giving information, expressing, or entertaining to reader.
b) The writers line of thought the reader should be able to follow the story and should not get confused with the content of the story.
18JeremyHarmer,The Practice of English Language Teaching, (England: Pearson Education Limited, 2001), 3rd Ed. P. 22-24
16 2) Cohesion
A paragraph is called cohesion if all supporting sentences can support the topic sentence.
According to McCloud In order for a paragraph to be effective it must have three characteristic. Unity, development and coherence19
a) Unity
The first characteristic of an effective paragraph is unity, which means that all sentences in the paragraph explained, develop, and support a central idea in some way.
In other words, every paragraph must have a purpose within your paper, and all the sentences must somehow advance that purpose
b) Development
Effective paragraph are not only unified, they are fully developed, which means that they don’t leave any significant questions in readers minds.
c) Coherence
A paragraph that is a coherence flows because it is arranged according to a definite plan, and as a result, all the
19Linda McCloud-Bondoc “Writing Effective Paragraphs” Witesite; Athabasca university.
N.p., Web. 24 oct 2013. ,http://write-site.athabascau.ca/documentation/writing-effective- paragraphs.pdf
17 sentence are not just about the same main topic, but they also
“stick together” and lead readers smoothly from the topic sentence to the concluding one.
The conclusion from the theory above is the good paragraph should be clear and don’t leave any questions in readers minds, should only have one main idea that supported with other sentences.
d. Purpose of Writing
According to Penny Ur “The Purpose of Writing, in Principle, is the expression of ideas, the conveying of messages to the reader. So the ideas themselves should arguably be seen as the most important aspect in the writing”.20 It means that when the writers do their writing, of course they have some purposes. They have to consider the purpose of their writing since this will influence, not only the type of text they wish to produce, but including the language which they use, and the information that they choose. In addition, there are four common purpose in writing they are: to inform, to persuade, and to amuse other.
1) Writing to Inform
In much of the writing that the writers will do, they will intend simply to inform their readers about a subject. To informis
20Penny Ur, A Course in Language Teaching : Practice and theory, (London : Cambridge University Press, 1996), p.163
18 to transmit necessary information about the subject to the readers what the facts asre or what happened. Although informative writing is the simplest kind of writing, it is also one of the most important, because information lays a foundation for other writing purposes. As the writers write to inform, they will want to keep two large concern in mind; selecting the right information and arranging it effectively.
2) Writing to explain means writing
Writing to explain means writing to take what is unclear and make it clear. In explanatory writing, a writer who understands a complex topic must take sure that his readers understand it as well. All of us use several common methods of explaining something to another person in our everyday conversation, and these same techniques can provides basic strategies for organizing an explanation in writing.
3) Writing to persuade
The most important writing we ever do in our personal life, our work life, and may be our school life will probably persuasion. Complaints for jobs, essay on examinations are all likely to involve writing persuasively. Your task in persuasion
19 is to convince your readers to accept the main idea, even though it may be controversial.21
4) Writing to Amuse Other
Writing to amuse requires that you focus on readers other than yourself. You may enjoy the experience and take pride in what you accomplish, but you cannot settle for amusing yourself alone. Writing to amuse gives you an opportunity to bring pleasure to others. Seize the opportunity and make the most of it. If you find pleasure in writing to amuse, it will come from knowing that you succeed in bringing pleasure to other.
When write to amuse, your primary object is to make readers enjoy themselves. You can be funny, but you should also be good humored. This means having sympathy for human frailty rather than a concept for anyone or anything that seems different from what you are accustomed to. 22
As the conclusion, there are four common purposes in writing they are: to inform which is to inform their readers about a subject, to explain which is to take what is unclear and make it clear,
21Daniel Brown and Bill Brunette, Connection ‘A Rhetoric/Short prose reader, (New Jersey : Houghton Mifflin Company, 1984), p. 129
22Robert Keith Miller, Motives for Writing, (New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc., 2006),p.569 - 570
20 to persuade which is to convince readers to accept the main idea, and to amuse others which is.
2. Explanation Text a. Definition
Basically, explanation text is a text to explain about how something happens or why things occurs. It is similar with the procedure text; a procedure text brings the instruction on how to make something happen completely while explanation text often use technical terms related to the thing which is being explained.
According to Department of Education and Child Development of Australia, “Explanation texts are factual genres used across all curriculum areas to explain the sequence, cause or theoretical understanding of a phenomenon or event.” 23It means that, explanation text is a text that explain sequences, cause, or theoretical understanding.
In addition, according Anderson and Anderson in Desitawardhani, the explaining text type tells how or why something occurs. It looks at the steps rather than the things.24 this means that explanation text focus on the process rather than the product.
23 Government of South Australia, Engaging and Exploring Explanation in Writing, (South Australia: Department of Education and Child Development of Australia, 2012), p.1
24 Nurika Desitawardhani, IMPROVING STUDENTS’ SKILLS OF WRITING EXPLANATION TEXTS THROUGH PICTURE SERIES, (Yogyakarta: UNY, 2014), p. 36
21 Based on the experts above, the explanation text is a text that tells how or why something occurs or explain the sequence, cause or theoretical understanding of a phenomenon or event. The purpose of this text is to explain the process of how or why things happen rather than the product itself. For example, The Metamorphosis of a frog”
“How the rain happens”
.
b. Generic structure of the Explanation Text
There are there main paragraphs in explanation text, they are as follows25
1) General Statement
The first paragraph has a general statement that introduces or identifies the scientific or technical phenomenon.
2) Sequenced statements
25 Primary Framework for Literacy and Mathematics, Progression in Explanation Text, (Primary National Strategy , 2006), p.1
22 The explanation sequence should be made up of a series of happenings or actions that are the focus of the explanation text type. This chain of actions or events creates the phenomenon about which the explanation is written.
Generally, there is no human involved in the process of events in an explanation. It is important that in addition to researching the facts, students understand the reasons behind the facts. Attention should be focused on writing these reasons in their explanations.
The logically sequenced paragraphs explain why or how something happens rather than focusing on an object. It is important that students realize that they will need to make thoughtful decisions about what to write and the order in which the information should be presented. Sequences often develop by explaining how the events happen over a period of time. First this happens and then this is followed by the next event. Events may be related according to time, cause or through both. The events should be detailed and accurate and ensure that all elements have been included in the sequence.
3) Concluding statement
An optional concluding statement can tie up the explanation
23 c. Language Features of Explanation Text
Usually the language features of an explanation text are:26 1) Written in simple present tense, for example, many
birds fly south
2) Use connectives that signal time, for example, then, next, several months later
3) Use causal connectives, for example because, so, this causes
As conclusion, First, the explanation text uses simple present tense. Second, it uses connectives that signal time or example, then, next, several months later. Third, it uses causal connectives, for example because, so, this causes..
a. The Assessment of Writing Descriptive Text
The goal of classroom assessment is to enhance student learning result. Instructors use variety of method in the classroom to get feedback about students learning in terms. There are nine categories of writing descriptive text assessment taken from Brown. Each categories is rated on five point scale. The highest score possibly acquire is 100 if students gets the highest point in each category.
3. Blogs
26 Ibid, p.1
24 Blogs are easy to create and easy to maintain websites blogs have been around for over 10 years, but have become more popular since hosting websites such as blogger.com, blogspot.com or wordpress,com. Blog has function mostly as online journals and their content is variative such as education, news, entertainment, personal journal, diary, etc. blogs can be update at any time using only internet and a personal computer. According to Little in Pinkman, blogs are the most widespread application of computers in language learning has involved student interaction with information system.27 In other word, in order to let the students know information all over the world, blogs are one of the media that can lead them to it.
In addition, blogs may provide a practice environment where students can think, reflect, and create language slowly for a real life audience. Its value as pedagogical tool appears to be in its authentic, interesting and communicative. Furthermore the popularity of blogs can be a motivation for students to have their own blog. By having a blog, a student has opened the international communication with real life audience which can be really helpful for their development especially in English.
In this section, the researcher would like to give explanation about the advantages of using blog and procedure of using blog.
27Kathleen Pinkman, Using Blogs in the Foreign Language Classroom. (Japan : Kwansai Gakuin University.2005), p.3
25 a. The advantages of using blog to improve writing
The interactive feature of blogging nominates it not only as a textually social milieu, but also a practice inducing a writing orientation embedded in a social network orientation28 in a fashion that “radically transform composition pedagogies—changing the roles of teachers and students, changing the content of our curriculums, and changing our processes of composing and collaborating.29
Students writing on blogs are writing for a real, live, authentic audience. This has several implications. What and how they write becomes a key consideration for the author because they will receive feedback from their readers. Not receiving any comments is as much feedback as receiving detailed comments. Blogs support higher order and critical thinking skills not only because of the immediate audience but also the availability of online linking and connecting.30
From an academic literacies perspective, writing for an authentic audience in a particular situated context means that the writing is embedded in a social practice. The writer will need to choose language, engage in concepts, negotiate the discourse appropriate to the audience and immerse themselves in the literacies required of that context. The
28 Jean Burgess, Blogging To Learn, Learning to Blog, (New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2007), p.105
29 Joseph Moxley, Datagogies, Writing Spaces, and the Age of Peer Production, (Tampa:
Department of English, University of South Florida, 2008), p.182
30 Cecile M. Badenhorst. "Academic Literacies and Blog Writing in University Classrooms"
In Increasing Student Engagement and Retention Using Online Learning Activities. Published online: 08 Mar 2015; 227-254
26 added benefit is that all readers on a blog can see the whole conversation, so writers can adapt, develop and adjust in relation to others.31
b. Procedure of using Blog to improve Writing
According to Alsubaie there are several steps of using blogs to improve writing. These steps help students have successful writing experiences:32
1) Blogspot Website (https://www.blogspot.com) was chosen to create the web blog.
2) The web blog was created for the data collection of this research;
it was used for experimental purposes only.
3) Every meeting, the participants from the experimental group received an entry with materials including videos, images and other interactive content related to the topic processed in the class and were asked to write a small piece of text using the new words.
4) They were asked to write at least five lines in the entries that contain writing tasks.
According to Emrah in his research, the procedures of using blog in an experimental research are as follow:
31Cecile M. Badenhorst. "Academic Literacies and Blog Writing in University Classrooms"
In Increasing Student Engagement and Retention Using Online Learning Activities. Published online: 08 Mar 2015; 227-254
32AlsubaieAmal, The Effect of Using Blog to Enchance The Writing Skill of English Language Lerners at a Saudi University
27
“In the practice process, the participants were given four- week detailed process-based writing instruction. During the process, participants in the control group completed their tasks in a traditional pen-paper writing process, while the subjects in the experimental group used blogs to complete their tasks. Finally, the post-test, having the same content with the pre-test, were administered in order to compare two groups at the end of the semester”
According to Hashem, the procedures that he used to apply blogging in his research are as follow:33
“the participants were asked to write their topics before and after utilizing blogs to examine how blogging can affect their writing skills in terms of writing ideas, style, mechanics of writing, socializing, discussion and other writing practices. In the pre-test, some of the participants used the traditional pen-and-paper method, while in the post-test; they used blogs to write their topics. Next, the pre-test and post-test of individual and group writing results were compared, analyzed, and assessed to examine the effect of blogging on the participants’ writing performance”
33 Hashem A. Alsamadani. The Effectiveness of Using Online Blogging for Students’
Individual and Group Writing. (Makkah: Umm Al-Qura University)( International Education Studies; Vol. 11, No. 1; 2018 ISSN 1913-9020 E-ISSN 1913-9039)
28 Based on the procedures above the researcher adjust the procedures to the procedures can be applied in this research. The procedures are as follows;
1) Choose descriptive text as the focus material
2) Ask the students to practice to make descriptive text
3) Ask the students to revise it after they make the descriptive text 4) Ask the students to make their own blog
5) The students should post their descriptive text in the blog 6) Ask the students to comment their descriptive text through blog B. Review of Related Studies
The First study was conducted by Amal Alsubaie in 2018 with the tittle “The Effect of Using Blogs to Enhance the Writing Skill of English Language Learners at a Saudi University” this research focuses on studying the effectiveness of using blog enhancing the Sauadi female university students English Writing, especially the vocabulary usage. The participants of the current study were thirty-seven Saudi female preparatory year students from the English Language Institute (ELI) at King Abdul Aziz University (KAU) Their ages ranged between 18-20 years of age. All participants were studying level 103 of the Oxford headways Plus curriculum, at the third quarter of the academic year 2015-2016. This research reports on an experimental design study using a quantitative approach. The study also used blog entries and pre/post-tests as primary data collection methods. The pre-test and post-test
29 consisted of 50 vocabulary scale test items. They were taken to measure the differences in participants’ writing performance after 7 weeks of intervention.
A paired-sample test was utilized for statistical analysis to determine if there were any improvements in the students’ writing performance after using the blog entries. In addition, the research experiment contributed to the extension of their vocabulary knowledge.
The second study was conducted by Akhid Luthfian in 2011 at SMA Negeri 7 Porworejo with the tittle ”Improving Students Writing Skill through English weblog among year x students of SMA NEGERI 7 Purworejo in academic year of 2010/2011” the research used qualitative and quantitative as the design of the research. This is a class room research with sample of 32 students. The result of this study show that the use of the web blog is effective to improve students writing skill based on the qualitative and quantitative data analysis.
The learning process became more interesting and the students enjoyed the writing process. The students problem in writing can be reduced by using web blog in the teaching-learning process and applying writing stages through web blog. The mean difference between the pretest score and the posttest score in Cycle 1 was significant with t= -6,428 (p, 0.05). The mean difference between the posttest score in Cycle 1 and the posttest score in Cycle 2 was significant with t= -4,982 (p,0.005). The Result show that students writing skill improves significantly through blogging activity. It can be concluded that the students are more enthusiastic and more interested in writing English.
30 The third study was conducted by Susan Blackmore-Squires in 2010 with the tittle “An Investigation into the Use of a Blog as a Tool to Improve Writing in the Second Language Classroom” This dissertation presents the results of a small scale action research project which was undertaken in order to investigate the impact the use of a blog could have as a tool for improving writing in the second language classroom. It was carried out at a further education college in the north west of England with Level Two ESOL learners.
The data which was obtained from questionnaires and interviews completed with the students throughout the academic year 2009 2010, and also from comments made on the bog that was used in the classroom, reveal that the students responded positively to the use of the blog. It was found that the blog helped them to improve their writing through the collaborative learning environment that was established and through the process approach to writing that was adopted. There was general agreement that writing for n audience and peer review contributed to the development learning environment and this was conducive to developing writing skills. This has clear and significant implication for teaching and learning strategies in the second language classroom and opens up interesting opportunities for second language teachers to explore when planning the development of their students writing skills.
From those studies. It can be seen that there were many ways that have been applied in order to improve students’ writing. In this research. The researcher will do research with the tittle: “The Effect of Blogging as a Tool in Writing Skills as Writing Explanation Text at 11th Grade Students in Pondok Pesantren
31 Madrasah Tarbiyah Islamiyah (MTI) Koto Tinggi Pandai Sikek”. The differences between this research and the other researchers had done above were this research conducted to know the impact of blogging as a tool in developing writing skills.
32 C. Conceptual Framework
Researcher chooses mapping as conceptual framework to organize the idea of the research.
CHAPTER III ExplanationText
A kind of text to to explain how or why things are happen
Blog
One of the learning tool that help students in writing By writing in a blog the students are able to show their writing to their friends
online
Experimental Class
1) Choose explanation text as the focused material
2) Ask the students to practice to make explanation text
3) Ask the students to revise it after they make the descriptive text
4) Ask the students to make their own blog 5) The students should post their descriptive
text in the blog
6) Ask the students to comment their friends descriptive text through blog
Control Class
1) Choose explanation text as the focus material
2) Ask the students to practice to make explanation text
3) Ask the students to revise it after they make the explanation text
4) Ask the students to comment their friends explanation text
Writing
One of the skills in laage that is used to express idea in the written form
Hypothesis
33 Hypothesis
Based on the background, formulation and purposes of the problem above, the hypotheses of this research are:
Ha: There is a significant effect of using Concept Attainment Model toward students grammar mastery in simple past tense.
Ho: There is no significant effect of using Concept Attainment Model toward students grammar mastery simple past tense.
Ha: There is any difference between Concept Attainment Model and without Concept Attainment Model toward students grammar mastery simple past tense.
Ho : There is no difference between using Concept Attainment Model and without Concept Attainment Model toward students grammar mastery in simple past tense.
Ha : Concept Attainment Model is better than the students who are not taught by using Concept Attainment Model in learning grammar especially in simple past tense.
Ho: Concept Attainment Model is not better than the students who are not taught by using Concept Attainment Model in learning grammar especially in simple past tense.
34 CHAPTER III
RESEARH METHOD
This part is focused on the method of research used. In this research included the design of the research, population and sample, instrumentation, technique of the data collection, and technique of the data analysis.
A. Design of the Research
The researcher will use the quantitative research. The quantitative research is a kind of research that collects the data in the form of number.
According to Sugiono, a research is called as quantitative because of the data of the research is use numeric and using statistical analysis.34 There are many types of quantitative research; they are survey research, correlational research, causal-comparative research and experimental research.
The design of this research is experimental research because it has the purpose to know the effect of using blogging on students’ writing explantion text. Gay statesin Emzirs’ book that experimental research is the one of research method that can truly test the hypothesis concerning cause and effect relationship.35There are two major classes of experimental designs, single- variable designs, which involve one independent variable, and factorial designs, which involve two or more independent variables. Factorial designs are classified as pre-experimental, true experimental and quasi experimental.
34Sugiono, Metode Penelitian Pendidikan (Pendekatan, Kuantitatif, Kualitatif, dan R&D), (Bandung: Alfabete, 2009). P. 13
35Emzir, Metodologipenelitianpendidikan: kuantitatifdankualitatif, (Jakarta:RajawaliPers, 2012). P. 63
35 In this case, the researcher will choose the quasi-experimental research is research that resembles experimental research but is not true experimental research. Although the independent variable is manipulated, participants are not randomly assigned to conditions or orders of conditions.
However in this research, researcher chooses the Pretest Posttest Control Design, which in this design there are two groups in this research.
Experimental group is treated by using blogging and the control group which is treated without using blogging between pretest and posttest. Related to experimental and control, Gay states,” The experimental group usually gets new treatment or treatment under investigation, while the control group gets different treatment or treated like usual”.36The control group is needed to know whether the new treatment under investigation is more effective than the use the unusual one. These two groups will be given the same length of the time and the same materials in teaching. This research will use the pretest to determine a student's baseline knowledge or preparedness for an educational experience or course of study and posttest to know whether there will be differences of the students’ writing skill.
Table1. The Designing of The Effect of Blogging as a Tool in Writing Skills as Writing Explanation Text at 11th Grade Students in Pondok Pesantren Madrasah Tarbiyah Islamiyah (MTI) Koto Tinggi Pandai Sikek
36 L. R. Gay, Educational Research, (Republic of Singapore: Merrill Publishing Company, 1990), p.261
36
Class Pretest Treatment Posttest
Experimental class T1 Treatment using Blogging
activities (x)
T2
Control class T1 Treatment using usual activities
T2
Where:
T1 = The pretest for both experimental class and control class
X = The treatment that is given to the experimental group by using blogging
T2 = The posttest for the experimental class and control class
Based on the research design above, special treatment is only given to the experimental class. The post-test will be administrated after the implementation of blogging as the special treatment for the students in the experimental class. It will be given in order to observe students’ writing skill in both classes.
B. Population and Sample 1. Population
37 Population and sample are two important elements in doing a research. Margono states that the population is the whole data which become our focus in the certain place and time.37 The population is all students at the second grade of Pondok Pesantren Madrasah Tarbiyah Islamiyah (MTI) Koto Tinggi Pandai Sikek.
Class Students’ totally
X1 IA 13
XI IPS 11
Total 24
Source: 2nd grade of English teachers
From this table, the population from this research is 24 students that are the total of the students in the second grade in Pondok Pesantren MTI Koto Tinggi Pandai Sikek 2020/2021
2. Sample
The sample of this research will be determined by using total sampling. According to Margono, the total sampling is taking the whole population as the sample.38 The samples of this research are two class of second grade in Pondok Pesantren MTI Koto Tinggi Pandai Sikek.
The XI IA will be the experiment class and XI IPS will be the control class in this experiment research.
37Margono.Metodologi Penelitian Pendidikan.(Jakarta:PT. Rineka Cipta.2007).p.118
38Ibid ..p.128
38 Before doing the research, the researcher must ensure that the sample is homogenous and normal. The steps are as follows:
a. Test the normality of the data.
The purpose of testing the normality of the data is to know whether the data spreads out normally or not. There are two ways to test normality of the data; by using SPSS 22 and tested by using Liliefors test. It can be done in these steps below:
1) Arrange the data from the lower to the higher
2) Find the mean score ( ) and the standard deviation (SD) (𝑋)̅̅̅ = ∑ 𝑋
𝑁
SD =
3) Find the score of Zi by using this formula : Zi = 𝑋𝑖−𝑋̅
𝑆
4) Find the score of P (Zi) by consult the score of Zi with Ztable
5) Find S (Zi)
6) Find the absolute score of P (Zi) – S(Zi)
7) Determine the higher score of obsulute mark F(Zi) – S (Zi). It is named with Lo (Liliefors)
8) Test the Lo score with Liliefors table with the certain degree of freedom (α): 0,05.
39 9) Take the conclusion, if Lo<Ltab or if Ltab>Lo it can be concluded that the data is distributed normally with the degree of freedom in (α) 5%.39
However there is another way in analyzing the data which is using an application called SPPS. SPSS is statistic program that can run in any windows. According to Dan Flynn SPSS is a powerful program which provides many ways to rapidly examine data and test scientific hunches.
SPSS can produce basic descriptive statistics, such as averages and frequencies, as well as advanced tests such as time-seriesanalysis and multivariate analysis. The program also is capable of producinghigh- quality graphs and tables.40.
Below is the output of Normality test by using SPSS 22
Tests of Normality
Kolmogorov-Smirnova Shapiro-Wilk
Statistic df Sig. Statistic df Sig.
IPA ,326 11 ,052 ,654 11 ,080
IPS ,277 11 ,078 ,812 11 ,214
a. Lilliefors Significance Correction
39Sudjana, MetodaStatistika, (Bandung PT. Tarsito, 2001),p.239
40 Dan Flynn. Student Guide to SPSS. (Barnard : Barnard College ), p. 2
40 Since the three sig values are bigger than 0,05 it means that the data were distributed normally.
b. Test the homogeneity of the data
The purpose of homogeneity test is to know whether the population is homogeneous or not. This test is done by using SPSS 22, however it also can be done by using F test. The homogeneity test by using F test was done by following step:
1) Find the mean score ( ) (𝑋)̅̅̅ = ∑ 𝑋
𝑁
2) Find the Standard Deviation (SD)
SD =
3) Find the Variant (S2) S2 =∑(𝑓𝑋)
𝑛−1
4) Find the F- obtained = 𝑡ℎ𝑒 ℎ𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑣𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝑣𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛𝑡
5) Find the score F–table with the certain of level significance (α) 0,05
6) Take the conclusion, if the F- obtained <F –table, the data is homogeny.41
41 L.R. Gay, Educatinal Research, Competencies for analysis and Application,…p.102
41 Table of Homogeneity test by using SPSS 22
Levene's Test for Equality of Variances
F Sig.
Class Equal variances assumed
6,133 0,71
Equal variances not assumed
Since the sig value is bigger than 0.05, then the data is homogenous
C. Instrumentation
The instrument use in this research is test that will be given as pretest and posttest. The test is writing narrative text which the students are given several topic and they have to make a a narrative text in a blog and post it. In order to make that test become valid and reliable; the researcher will do the validity and reliability of the test. According to Sugiono, a valid research result is if there are similarities between the data collected with the data actually
42 happened on the object under study.42 The students’ writing scores in pre-test and post-test were assessed by using writing rubric that proposed by Brown.43
Aspect Score Performance Descriptive Content
(C) 30 %
- topic - detail
4 The topic is complete and clear and the details are relating to the topic
3 the topic is complete and clear but the details are almost relating to the topic
2 the topic is complete and clear but the details are not relating to the topic
1 the topic is not clear and the details are not relating to the topic
Organization (O)
20 % -
identification - description
4 Identification is complete and descriptions are arranged with proper connectives
3 Identification is almost complete and descriptions are arranged with almost proper connectives
2 Identification is not complete and descriptions are arranged with few misuse of connective 1 Identification is not complete and descriptions
are arranged with misuse of connectives
Grammar (G) 4 Very few grammatical or agreement inaccuracies 3 Few grammatical or agreement inaccuracies but
42Sugiono, Metode Penelitian Pendidikan (Pendekatan, Kuantitatif, Kualitatif, dan R&D……… p.172
43 Brown, H. G.. Language Assessment : Principles and Classroom Pratices.( New York : Longman, 2004).
43
20 % not effect on meaning
2 Numerous grammatical or agreement inaccuracies
1 Frequent grammatical or agreement inaccuracies Vocabulary
(V)
15 %
4 Effective choice of words and word forms 3 Few grammatical or agreement inaccuracies but
not effect on meaning
2 Limited range confusing words and word forms 1 Very poor knowledge or words, word forms, and
not understandable Mechanics
(M)
15 % - Spelling - Punctuation - Capitalizati
on
4 It uses correct spelling, punctuation and capitalization
3 It has occasional errors of spelling, punctuation and capitalization
2 It has frequent errors of spelling, punctuation and capitalization
1 It is dominated by errors spelling, punctuation and capitalization
Furthermore, research is reliable, if there is equality of data in a different time. As explained below:
1. Validity
Test is true if it measures accurately what is intended to be measured. As Gay stated validity is the most important quality of any test. Validity is concerned with what a test measures and for whom it is
44 appropriate.44 He also stated, for any test it is important to seek appropriate type of validity. It means the teacher should consider the purpose of test and choose the appropriate validity that will be used in order the test can be evaluated based on lesson objective.
a. Expert Validity
Brown stated that if a test actually samples the subject matter about which conclusions are to be drawn, if it requires the test taker to perform the behavior that is being measured, it can claim content validity.45 A test must measure what is supposed to be measured. To know whether the test is good or not, the researcher consulted it with the lectures and the English teacher. By consulting it to the expert, the researcher would get more information about how to make good test.
2. Reliability
Test is reliable if it gives the constant result if the test is given to the some individual in another time. According to gay, reliability is the degree to which a test consistently measure whatever it measures.
In other hand, if a test can give the current result as same as the previous test that had been conducted, that means that the test has a high reliability. This research is reliable because the test was scored by the researcher directly.
44 L.R. Gay, Educatinal Research, Competencies for analysis and Application,…p.161
45H. Douglas Brown, Language Assessment:Principle and Classroom Practces, New York:
Longman, 2004, p. 23
45 Reliability test will be done by using SPSS 22. By correlating the score that the students get each item with the total score of each item. If the croanbrach alpa value is bigger than 0.6 the item will be considered has a good reliability.
The reliability of items using K-R 20 Suggested by Arikunto as follows:
rii= [ ]
Where:
rii = Reliability s2 n = Number of items
p =Proportions of the number of students answer correctly
q =Proportions of the number of students answer incorrectly (q=1-p)
Ʃpq = Total number of p items to q S = Standard – deviation
General description of coefficient correlation as follows:
0.80 <rii1.00 : Very high 0.60 <rii0.80 : High 0.40 <rii0.60 : Moderate 0.20 <rii0.40 : Low 0.0 rii0.20 : Very low
