CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the study
Language is a system of communication consisting of sounds, words and grammar. In other words, language is a system of communication used by the people of a particular country or profession. Through language, people can express feeling, idea, and attitude, so that they can cooperate and get along with others.
English is the first foreign language in our country which is taught from Elementary level to University. English is also intensively used in international communication, in written as well as in spoken communication. In addition, many books of science, technology, art, and other published issues are written in English. Therefore, English plays a crucial part of life. Since English is important, English should be learnt through appropriate ways. Considering correct pronunciation of English words, mastering English Grammar and covering a wide range of English vocabulary become the basic points in learning it.
Specifically, English is also a part of our national education. It has important roles in encouraging students‟ intellectual, social, and emotional. And
Curriculum (CBC). Both of them have the same purpose of developing skills of understanding and producing various short functional and monologue texts and essay in the genre of narrative, descriptive, recount, procedure, news item, report, analytical exposition, spoof, and hortatory exposition text.
Among nine types of text, descriptive is considered as the simplest text type by both the teacher and students. However, it is still difficult for the students to describe thing, people and place, particularly in written form. One of the problems faced by the students when they write descriptive text is that they can not formulate their ideas through an easy way. Based on an observation conducted on April 2nd 2012, there are at least three problems faced by the students in composing descriptive writing. First, the students often getting stuck in formulating their ideas. Second, the students‟ limited vocabulary and low grammatical comprehension make them difficult to arrange good sentences with appropriate diction. Lastly, they are not facilitated by interesting media even appropriate approaches and strategies in the process of learning.
Based on the problems above, the teacher should give a strategy to help the students. Brown (2000: 113) states that strategies are specific methods of approaching a problem or task, modes of operation for achieving a particular ends, planned design for controlling and manipulating certain information. Chamot in Masdari (2005: 5) added that learning strategies are techniques, approaches, or deliberate the learning and recall of both linguistic and content information.
is demanded the students to be able to write descriptive text throught authentic condition. Through this strategy, students will work outside of the class to observe situation around them, so they can fell free in writing. The writer assumes that experiential learning strategy can help the students to get idea from a real situation which consequently will make them able to write their decriptive text. The implementation of LEA will be covered in a research entitled, “The Effectiveness
of Using Experiential Learning Strategy to Enhance Students‟ Writing Descriptive Text”,
B. Reasons for Choosing the Research Topic
In language, writing is an activity to express the idea or to produce the language itself. It takes time to think and discuss about the subject. In education, students need more practices to write and apply the stages of the writing process. Knowing the complex process of writing, the teachers should use the proper teaching technique to motivate the students to learn and pay attention to the material. One of the teaching strategy that can be used is experiential learning strategy.
Teaching strategy is one of the components involved in teaching and learning process. The teacher makes the use of teaching media to support the material in classroom. One of the functions of teaching media is to engage the students„ motivation.
strategy to improve the students„ descriptive writing. The reasons for choosing the
topic are:
1. The writer would like to make students interested in learning English, especially interested in writing descriptive text.
2. Writing is considered as a difficult language skill for junior high school students.
3. The experiential learning strategy can help students associate what they see with their real life experience, so it can help teachers to get optimal results in teaching writing.
4. The writer can also guide students to create words and to arrange words in their minds into good paragraphs that they get from their real experience. 5. Experiential learning is learning through reflection on doing. It can
motivate students how to write descriptive text because they can feel free to write and get fresh idea when they do writing activity outside of the class.
C. Problem of the Research
In order to make a systematic approach of the study, the writer limits the problem as the following: “ Is experiential learning strategy effective to teach writing descriptive text to students at grade VIII of Junior High School?”
D. Aim of the Research
strategy is effective for teaching writing descriptive text.
E. Clarification of the Terms 1. Writing
Meyers (2005: 2) states that “The word writing comes from a verb. Which means an activity or process. Writing is a way to produce language, which you do naturally when you speak. Writing is much different, except that you take more time to think about your subject, the person or people. You will be discussing and the goal you hope to achieve in that discussion.”
2. Descriptive Text
Descriptive is a kind of genre which describes a particular place/thing/person. There are three major things that can be described (Houghton, 1984: 446) : describing an object, describing a place, and describing a person.
3. Experiential Learning
David Kolb (1984: 21-22) developed the most established model of experiential learning. In his model the process begins with an experience
("concrete experience"), followed by reflection ("reflective observation"). The
reflection is then assimilated into a theory ("abstract conceptualization") and
finally these new (or reformulated) hypotheses are tested in new situations
("active experimentation"). The model is a recurring cycle within which the
learner tests new concepts and modifies them as a result of the reflection and
F. Contribution of the Research
The result of this study hopefully will be useful for English teachers, for the students, for the school, and for the readers.
1. For Teacher
English teacher can apply a new strategy in teaching writing descriptive text by using experiential learning strategy. English teacher can use this strategy in teaching writing descriptive text in order to make classes more active and attractive. English teacher can use the result of this study as a feedback in learning activities and so, the goal of teaching and learning English can be achieved well.
2. For Student
The students will understand better on how to construct a good descriptive text and know about social function, generic structures, and lexicogrammatical features of descriptive text clearly. Moreover, they can enjoy their learning process because it is an outdoor activity. Therefore, it can minimize the students‟
poor writing of descriptive text because by using experiential learning strategy they can get description what they are going to write from the real situation. The most important point is that the students will also feel free and comfortable in their learning process.
3. For School
4. For the Readers
