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ABSTRACT
Lestari, Yetti. 209421051. Improving Students’ Achievement in Writing Descriptive Text Through Group Investigation Technique. A thesis. English Department. Faculty of Language and Arts. State University of Medan. 2014.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT
First of all, the writer would like to thank the Almighty Allah Subhannahu Wata’ala, the most merciful, for his blessing and kindness, so the witer had finally accomplished his thesis on the title “Improving Students’ Achievement in Writing Descriptive Text Through Group Investigation Technique” at Yayasan Pendidikan El Hidayah Madrasah Tsanawiyah Desa Lalang Sunggal as one of fulfillments of the requirements for the degree of Sarjana Pendidikan at English and Literature Department, Faculty of Languages and Arts, State University of Medan.
In writing this thesis, the writer accepted many constructive suggestions as well as comments from many great people surronding her life for the sake of betterment. Accordingly, she would like to hereby express her deepest gratitude for them who significantly contributed many things during the completion of this thesis. Program as well as her Academic Supervisor.
Dra. Sri Juriati Ownie, M.A., her Thesis Supervisor.
The Headmaster of Yayasan Pendidikan El Hidayah Madrasah Tsanawiyah Desa Lalang Sunggal, Khairul Anwar, M.A., and the English Teacher Nursiah S.Pd.,.
Her parents Soman and Paini for abundant nature, never ending support, care, love, guidance, advices, and everything they have given to the writer in her entire life.
Her lovely brother Ferry Herdiansyah for their everlasting love, care and support. And special thanks to Rizky Muammar Berutu for his care, attention, support, suggestion, love and encouragement.
Her best and beloved friends in her academic years; Aini Mardhiah, Rizky Bitha Ghaliah Sgr S.Pd., Sara Frimaulia S.Pd., Sukma Septyan Nst S.Pd., Eliye Yuli Yenti S.Pd., Nurmaulida Rahmi S.Pd., Sri Wahyuni Hsb S.Pd., Novri Surya N S.Pd., Budi Yanto S.Pd., Aini Melbebahwati Saragi, Ismul Azzam S.Pd., Eka Ratna Sari S.Pd., Putri Febrini Sianturi S.Pd., Adelina Irma, Aprilza Aswani, Try Nurhayati, for the greatest support and all friends in Regular A, B and C 2009 who had stuffed her academic period to be more colorful.
Lastly, the writer offers her regards and blessing to all of those who supported her in any aspects during the completion of this thesis. May Allah
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Finally, the writer confesses that this thesis needs improving. Accordingly, she welcomes the readers to critize, suggest, and advice her to improve the quality of this thesis. She expects that the reader find this thesis useful.
Medan, March 2014 The writer,
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CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION... 1
A. The Background of the Study... 1
B. The Problem of the Study ... 3
C. The Objectives of the Study... 4
D. The Scope of the Study ... 4
E. The Significant of the Study... 4
CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE... 5
A. Theoretical Framework... 5
1. Students’ Achievement in Writing Descriptive Text ... 5
2. Writing ... 6
a. The Definition of Writing... 6
b. The process of writing... 7
1) Planning... 7
2) Drafting... 8
3) Editing (Reflecting and Revising)... 8
4) Final Version... 8
c. Genres of Writing... 9
3. Descriptive Text... 10
a. The Definition of Descriptive Text... 10
b. Types of Descriptive Text... 10
c. Parts of Descriptive Text... 11
d. Example of Descriptive Text... 12
e. Assessment of Descriptive Writing... 13
4. Cooperative Learning... 14
5. Group Investigation... 15
a. Steps of Group Investigation... 16
b. The Advantages of Group Investigation Technique... 21
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B. Conceptual Framework... 22
CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHOD... 25
A. Research Design... 25
B. The Subject of the Research... 26
C. The Instrument of Collecting Data ... 26
D. The Procedure of Collecting Data... 27
CHAPTHER IV: DATA AND DATA ANALYSIS... 37
A. Data... 37
1. Quantitative Data... 37
2. Qualitative Data... 39
B. Data Analysis... 41
1. Analysis of Quantitative Data... 41
2. Analysis of Qualitative Data... 47
C. The Research Phases... 49
1. Cycle I... 49
D. The Research Finding... 53
E. Discussion ... 55
CHAPTER V: CONCLUTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS... 57
A. Conclutions... 57
B. Suggestions... 57
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LIST OF TABLES
Page
Table 1.1 Students’ Average Score in Two Semester... 2
Table 2.1 Example of Descriptive Text... 12
Table 3.1 Observation Sheet... 31
Table 3.2 The Scoring of Writing Data... 34
Table 4.1 The Students’ Test Score from Test I, Test II, and Test II.... 39
Table 4.2 The Improvement of Mean Scores of Students’ Writing... 42
Table 4.3 The Range of Score Improvement... 43
Table 4.4 The Percentage of Students’ Passing the Standart Test... 45
Table 4.5 The Improvement of Students’ Score of the Test I, Test II, and Test III... 47
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LIST OF FIGURES
Page
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LIST OF APPENDICES
Page
Appendix A. Lesson Plan... 61
Appendix B. The Students’ Test Score from Test I, Test II, and Test III.... 100
Appendix C. The Students’ Test Score Improvement... 101
Appendix D. Observation Sheet... 102
Appendix E. Questionnaire Sheet ... 105
Appendix F. The Result of Questionnaire Sheet... 107
Appendix G. Diary Notes... 109
Appendix H. Students’ Score Test I... 113
Appendix I. Students’ Score Test II... 114
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REFERENCES
Algarabel, S., and Carmen D. 2001. The Definition of Achievement and the Construction of Tests for Its Measurement: A Review of the Main Trend Section De Metodologia 22, 43-66
Arikunto, S. 2006. Prosedur Penelitian : Suatu Pendekatan Praktik. Jakarta : Rineka Cipta
Achievement Divwasion. Medan: State University of Medan CV. Andi Offset. 2011
Bloom, B.S. 1982. Taxonomy of Education objectives, Handbook I: Cognitive Domain. New York : David Mckay.
Bloom, B.S.1956. Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning Domains. New York :David Mckay.
Brown, H. Douglas. 2000. The Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. San Fransisco: Longman.
Brown, H. Douglas. 2004. Language Assessment Principles and Classroom Practice. New York: Longman.
Byrne, Donn. 1993. Teaching Writing Skills. England : Longman
Doymus, Kemal. 2012. International Journal, JESR: The Effect of Group Investigation and Cooperative Learning Techniques Applied in Teaching Force and Motion Subjects on Students’ Academic Achievement. Vol.2.no.1
Drever, E. 1997. Using Semi-Structured Interviews in Small-Scale Research Edinburgh. Scotland: The Scottish Council For Research in Education.
Evawina S., Ervina. 2010. Theswas of Improving Students’ Achievement on Writing
Fauzi, Erfan Muhammad. 2012. Apple3l Journal: Fostering Students’ Skill of Writing Recount Text Aided by Photograph Vol.1, No.1.
Gerot, Linda and Peter Wignell.1994. Making Sense of Functional Grammar: an Introductory Workbook. Gerd Stabler. Antipodean Educational Enterprise.
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Jacobs et al.1983. English Composition Program. Teaching ESL Composition Program. USA:NewBury House Publisher
Kemmis, Stephen and Robin Mc Taggart (eds). 1988. The Action Research Planner. Victoria, Australia: Deakin University Press.
Pardiyono.2007. Pasti Bisa! Teaching Genre-Based Writing. Yogyakarta : Andi Offset
Panggabean, Heny Diana.2011. A Thesis: Improving Students’ Achievement in Writing Descriptive Paragraph Through Mindscaping Technique. Medan: Universitas Negeri Medan (Unpublished)
Richard, et.all. 2005. Academic Success for English Language Learners. USA: Pearson Education
Sagor, Richard. 2000. Guiding School Improvement with Action Research. Virginia, USA: ASCD
Saragih, A. 2008. Discourse Analysis. Medan: State University of Medan. (unpublished).
Sitinjak, Benget R. Sardi. 2012. A Thesis: Improving Stuents’ Achievement in Writing Descriptive Text Through Pairs Check Technique Medan: Universitas Negeri Medan (Unpublished)
Slavin, E.,Robert. 1995. Cooperative Learning : Theory, Research, and Practice. Boston : Allyn and Bacon
Slavin, E. Robert. 1990. Cooperative Learning. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. Sproull, N.L. 1988. Handbook of Research Methods. London: The Scarecrow Press
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. The Background of the Study
Writing is one of the four language skills that the students should know when learning a language, it is very useful because it lets students express their personality and organize their thought but the reality shows that the students who have learned it from primary up to the intermediate level are not succesful as the goverment has expected from them.
Writing as one of the four language skills is a part of Junior High School in which the student is expected to be able to write descriptive text. According to Fauzi (2012:34) of the curriculum based on government regulation in English language teaching curriculum through standard competence (Ministry of Education regulation No. 23 year 2006), students of Junior High School are recommended to be able to write descriptive text.
Based on the standard competences in the syllabus of the second year students of Junior High School called Educational Unit-oriented Curriculum (Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan / KTSP) students are expected to be able to write simple paragraph of recount, descriptive and narrative. The curriculum highlights that the students have to be able to write various types of the text genres, one of them is descriptive text.
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achievement in writing Descriptive Text is still low. It can be seen from the table below:
Table 1.1 Students’ Average Score in Two Semesters
Semester Students’ Number (n) Average
I 25 58,44
II 25 64,96
From table 1.1, it can be seen that the students’ average score did not reach the minimum score which is stipulated by the school, which is 70. In semester 1, the students’ average is 58,44. It did not reach the minimum score. While in the
second semester, there is an improvement which is unfortunately not really significant. They got 64,96. From the above, students’ achievement to write descriptive text was very less because they get the material poorly, the way of the material given by the teacher is unclear for them, limited vocabulary, and grammar of them, and lack of confidence in expressing their ideas. Based on the average, It can be concluded that there must be something done toward the teaching method. The researcher offered the technique that was the implementation at the students centered learning and the development of cooperative learning that is Group Investigation Technique.
Group Investigation Technique is a general classroom organization plan in which students work in small groups using cooperative inquiry, group discussion, and cooperative planning and project (Sharan and Sharan, in Slavin, 1995). In this technique, students are actively involved during the class. The topic are divided
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into individual tasks. Then they are to make report based on their given activity such as doing observation about the topic, environment investigation, etc. Later, each group is to present or display its findings to the entire class. One remarkable study by Sharan and Sharan, in Slavin, (1995 ) found large positive effects on students’ achivement.
The effectiveness of Group Investigation Technique has been tested by Benget R. Sardi Sitinjak (2012) resulted that teaching writing Group Investigation Technique is more effective than teaching writing Four Square Technique. The use of Group Investigation Technique improved the students’ achievement in writing
narrative text.
Since Sitinjak (2012) has successful in doing his research the writer tries to investigate the effectiveness of using Group Investigation technique in different genre that is descriptive text. So, this research will use Group Investigation as a technique to improve students’ achievement in writing descriptive text to solve the
problem that was found in grade VIII of Yayasan Pendidikan El Hidayah Madrasah Tsanawiyah Desa Lalang Sunggal.
B. The Problem of the Study
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C. The Objective of the Study
The objective of the study is to find out whether Group Investigation Technique significantly improve students’ writing achievement in descriptive text.
D. The Scope of the Study
The scope of the study is limited on investigating of second year students of Junior High School focused on improving students’ achievement in writing descriptive text especially the description of person through group investigation technique.
E. The Significance of the Study
The finding of this study is important and useful for:
1) The teachers to improve his knowledge on teaching technique for then implementing this study to improve the students’ writing competence.
2) The students to improve their achievement in writing descriptive text and to work in group actively and improve their leadership in group discussion and group presentation.
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CHAPTER V
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
A. Conclusions
The elaboration of the data analysis showed clearly that implementing Group Investigation Technique improved the students’ achievement in writing descriptive
text in sharing their experience. The quantitative data showed their achievement’s improvement as a whole. In the test 1, the mean of the students’ score was still in
the same cycle, test 2 showed that their mean score was though there was an improvement, it was still not enough. It was then deliberately decided that the second cycle needed conducting to improve their score. Their mean score in cycle II improved significantly.
Observation result showed that the students showed that the students behavior was good in the process of through Group Investigation Technique. It helped them score higher. Questionnaire report showed that the students agreed that the application of Group Investigation Technique helped them in sharring their experience confidently. It also raised their motivation as well. It can be concluded that the application of Group Investigation Technique significantly improved the students’ achievement in writing descriptive text in sharing their experience.
B. Suggestions
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following suggestions are offered:
1. To the students, they are suggested to use Group Investigation Technique while writing in the class so they can write descriptive text easily.
2. To the teachers, they are suggested to apply Group Investigation Technique so that they can improve their students’ achievement in writing descriptive text.
3. To all the readers, may this research bring them into good understanding how to improve the students’ writing ability through Group Investigation
