THE EFFECT OF DISCUSSION STRATEGY
ON STUDENTS’ ACHIEVEMENT IN
WRITING DESCRIPTIVE TEXT
A THESIS
Submitted to English Department, Faculty of Language and Arts State University of Medan, in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the
Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan
By:
SAIDATUL HANIM
Reg. No. 2101121042
ENGLISH AND LITERATURE DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, the writer would like to thank to the almighty God Allah SWT for his blessing, mercy, opportunity and helping the researcher to complete this Thesis entitled “The Effect of Applying Discussion Strategy on Students’ Achievement in Writing Descriptive Text” as one of requirement for the degree of Sarjana Pendidikan (S1) at English Department, Faculty of Languages and Arts, State University of Medan.
During the process of writing and conducting the research, the writer was assisted and supported by many people. This thesis could have not been accomplished without guidance, suggestion, and comment from them, for which the writer would like to express her sincere appreciation which directed to :
Prof. Dr. Ibnu Hajar Damanik, M.Si., the Rector of State Education Study Program and as her Academic Advisor.
Dr. Rahmah, M.Hum., her Thesis Consultant. Drs. Elia Masa Ginting, M.Hum., her Reviewers. Prof. Dr. Lince Sihombing, M.Pd., her Reviewers. Rita Suswati, S.Pd, M.Hum., her Reviewers.
All the Lectures of English Education and Literature Department, who have given knowledge the academic years. Mam Euis, Mam Ola, Pak Hendra and Pak Pantas, the
Administrative Staff who had helped the researcher in finishing the administration of conducting this research.
Nila Hevy Zulianty, SP., the Headmaster of SMA Abdi Negara Binjai, for giving her permission to do the research. Erna Lasmaida Panggabean, S.Pd., the English Teacher for
her help that allowed the researcher to conduct her research in the class.
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Alfin Muzahid Nasution., her Beloved Young Brother and all her Family members, for their support.
Siti Hajar, Rahmad Husein Nasution, Mahfuzi Alfarisha Harahap, Astria Is A’anwi Siregar, Khairunnisa, Lheilamora Astaman Harahap, Nursyaputri Lubis, Yuni Khairina, Mardia Pitaloka Saragih and Riri Anggreini Pane her bestfriends and most supportive friends who always support and help her, and for Regular C 2010 and for those whose name cannot be mentioned yet, who had inspired, encouraged and gave her support, helping, and laughs during her study years and the process of writing this thesis.
Overall, the researcher hopes this thesis can give contribution to the English Education students and further pedagogical research. And also it can be useful for the readers.
Medan, September 2014 The Writer,
SAIDATUL HANIM Reg. No. 2101121042
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CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ... 1
A. The Background of The Study ... 1
B. The Problem of The Study ... 5
C. The Scope of The Study ... 5
D. The Objective of The Study ... 5
E. The Significance of The Study ... 5
CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF LITERATURE... 7
A. Theoritical Framework ... 7
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6. Parts of Descriptive Text ... 13
7. Writing Assessment ... 15
8. Strategy ... 16
9. Discussion Strategy ... 16
10.Steps of Discussion Strategy ... 18
11.The Advantages and Disadvantages of Discussion Strategy... 20
12.Conventional Strategy ... 22
13.Steps of Conventional Strategy ... 23
14.The Advantages and Disadvantages of Conventional Strategy ... 23
B. Conceptual Framework ... 25
C. Hypothesis ... 26
CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHOD ... 27
A. Research Design ... 27
B. Population and Sample ... 28
1. Population ... 28
2. Sample ... 28
C. Instrument for Collecting Data ... 28
D. The Procedure of Collecting Data ... 29
1. Pre-test ... 29
2. Treatment ... 29
3. Post-test ... 32
E. Assessment and Scoring of Writing Test ... 32
1. Scoring the Test ... 34
F. The Validity and Reliability of the Test ... 37
1. Validity of the Test ... 37
2. Reliability of The Test ... 37
G. The Technique for Analyzing Data ... 38
H. The Statistical Hypothesis ... 39
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A. Data ... 40
B. Data Analysis ... 41
C. Testing Hypothesis ... 43
D. Research Findings ... 43
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS ... 45
A. Conclusions ... 45
B. Suggestions ... 45
REFERENCES ... 47
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LIST OF TABLE
Table 3.1 Research Design ... 27
Table 3.2 Treatment for Experimental Group ... 30
Table 3.3 Treatment for Control Group ... 31
Table 3.4 Test for Assessment and Scoring of Writing ... 32
Table 3.5 Scoring the Test for Content ... 34
Table 3.6 Scoring the Test for Organization ... 35
Table 3.7 Scoring the Test for Vocabulary ... 35
Table 3.8 Scoring the Test for Language Used ... 36
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LIST OF FIGURE
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LIST OF APPENDIX
APPENDIX A Pre-Test and Post-Test for Control Group... 48
APPENDIX B Pre-Test and Post-Test for Experimental Group ... 49
APPENDIX C The Scores of Pre-Test and Post-Test for Experimental Group ... 50
APPENDIX D The Scores of Pre-Test and Post-Test for Control Group ... 51
APPENDIX E The Calculation of T-test in Experimental Group ... 52
APPENDIX F The Calculation of T-test in Control Group ... 54
APPENDIX G The T Distribution ... 56
APPENDIX H Lesson Plan for Control Group ... 57
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REFERENCES
Arikunto, S. 2003. Prosedur Penelitian: Suatu Pendekatan Praktek. Jakarta: Rineka Cipta
Bloom, B,S. 1996. Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: the Classification of educational Goals. New York; Longman.
Brown, H. Douglas. 2001 Teaching By Principle: An Interactive Approach to
Language Pedagogy. (2nd ed). San Francisco: Addison Wesley Longman.
Chitravelu, et all. 2005. ELT Methodology: Principles and Practice 2nd Edition. Malaysia: Fajar Bekti
Clark and Clark. 1997. Physicology and Language. USA. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Harmer, J. 1998. How to Teach Writing. London: Longman
Heaton, J. 1989. Writing English Test. London: Longman Group
Hyland, K. 2002. Teaching and Researching Writing. England: Longman
Killen, R. 1998. Effective Teaching Strategies: Lessons From Research and Practice 2nd Edition . Riverwood NSW: Social Science Press
Pardiyono. 2007. Pasti Bisa! Teaching Genre-Based Writing. Yogyakarta: Andi
Http://www.ksbe.edu/spi/pdfs/reports/writingprocessreport.pdf. Accessed on Mei 7th 2014. Medan
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. The Background of the Study
The aim of teaching-learning English as a foreign language commonly
define in term of four language skill namely listening, speaking, reading, and
writing. English is one of the International languages that is used by many people
in the world and in many areas of daily life. Therefore, using English is the easiest
way to communicate with people from other countries about many aspect in
human life such as technology, economy, social and politics. It has been
introduced to the educational institutions, from elementary school to university
level as a compulsory subject to learn. So, English is very important in teaching
and learning process.
In English teaching and learning process, students are expected to master
four English skills namely listening, speaking, reading and writing. Writing is one
of the four basic skills in learning English as a foreign language. Writing is an
important communication tool. Writing is a way of us to convey ideas, opinion
and thought and expressing them as a series of words and writing them down in a
piece of paper. Actually writing is an opportunity, it allows students to express
something out themselves, explore and explains ideas. Students can convey their
ideas in their mind by organizing them into a good text so that the others know
them and they can think critically. By writing the students easier to express what
they want to write. In addition, writing can also be an alternative to practice their
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Unfortunately, most students are not able to write English well, they don’t use
appropriate words and grammar in writing.
Based on the Curiculllum 2013, one of the indicators of this curriculum
that is a student must be able to write well in English. The students are expected
to be able to comprehend the writing skills well. It is stated by Allan and Vallet
(1981;5) that writing is considered as the most of difficult language skills. Hornby
(1974;1016) says that writing is “to put down by means of word on paper”.
Expessing the ideas and thought should be known by the students since it
becomes the goal of writing. On the other hand the students should be able to
express their ideas or opinions in paragraph form.
This study will be focused on writing skill. Because based on data during
interviewing the English teacher at SMA Abdi Negara Binjai, that most of the
students are not able to write successfully. It can be seen in the list of students’
scores of English subjects. The writer attaches the student’s writing score in two
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Table 1.1 : The Percentage of Grade X Students’ score in Writing
Semester and Academic Year
KKM Score Students Percentage
1
st Semester 2013/2014Source : Students’ accumulated score of Grade X students at SMA Swasta Abdi
Negara Binjai academic year 2013/2014
In general, the students are able to tell stories and describe what they want,
but most students don’t know how to describe something, someone, or a certain
place correctly. By studying the descriptive text will increase their knowledge of
how the steps to describe something, someone, or a certian place correctly. But
most students are not confident to use their own English, because of their limited
mastery on grammar and vocabulary, and they are not able to organize their ideas
into a good text. Moreover, in writing process the students have to master the
knowledge not only about the material but also about grammar and vocabulary.
So based on the situation above, it is needed to know some Strategy for
helping students in writing ability. The appropriate and comprehensive strategy
for teaching writing is Discussion Strategy. Because this strategy the discuss
material within the group. If there able to the saw the beatle can share their
knowledge, opinions or thought to their lower friend. So, everybody will get
benefit of Discussion Strategy. By applying Discussion Strategy the students are
accustomed to interacting with his or her friends. Discussion Strategy will
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class, the lesson will have some of characteristics of direct instuction and some of
characteristic of student-centered learning. It will resemble direct instruction
because the teacher will determine the lesson objective, control the student
activities, and maintain the focus of lesson on some form of academic outcome.”
Killen (1998;26). It will help the students in the writing descriptive text.
Killen (1998;29) states that Discussion Strategy is a versatile teaching and
learning strategy that can adapted to suit any subject at any level form
kindergarten to post-graduate study at univesity.
In Discussion Strategy, students are divided into several teams from the
different writing groups. A teams consist of four students. For example, the teams
consist of two students from high writing group and two students from the low
writing group. Students work in teams on a series of cognitively engaging
activities, including partner reading, making predictions, identification of
characters, settings, problem solutions, summarization, vocabulary, story related
writing. Therefore, the writer interest to conduct a research about “The Effect of
Applying Discussion Strategy on Students’ Achievement in Writing Descriptive
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B. The Problem of the Study
Based on the background of the study, the problem is formulated as
follows :
“Is there any significant effect of applying Discussion Strategy on
students’ achievement in writing descriptivetext ?”
C. The Scope of the Study
The scope of study is limited to the study of the effect of applying
Discussion Strategy on students’ achievement in writing Descriptive Text.
D. The Objective of the Study
The objective of the study is to find out whether Discussion Strategy
Significantly effect on Students’ Writing Descriptive Text.
E. The Significance of the Study
Results of this study are expected to be giving out the theoretical and
practical significance. The significance can be described as follows :
1. Theoretical
The expected of this research is to enrich the learning of science writing
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2. Practical
a. For student
1) The students can produce a good descriptive text through applying
Discussion Strategy.
b. For teacher
1) To increase their own professionalism in teaching writing by applying
Discussion Strategy.
c. For other researcher, the result of this study can be used as a basic
information in doing further Discussion Strategy to improve students’
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CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS
A. Conclusion
The result of calculation of t-test showed that t-test value 3,561 with
the degree of freedom (df) = 58 is higher than t-table 2,004 at the level
significance (p=0,05) which implies that the alternative hypothesis is
accepted. It can be concluded that there is a significant effect of applying
Discussion Strategy on the students’ achievement in writing descriptive text.
There is a significant effect of applying Discussion Strategy on the
students’ achievement in writing descriptive text. The students’ achievement
through applying Discussion Strategy is higher than the students’ achievement
through applying Conventional Strategy in writing descriptive text.
B. Suggestions
Based on the result of the study, the suggestion can be stated the
following :
1. It is suggested to the teachers to apply Discussion Strategy in
teaching descriptive text because it is an interesting strategy
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2. It is suggested to the students to use the importance of
applying Discussion Strategy to improve they are the writing
