IMPROVING THE FIFTH GRADE STUDENTS’ SIMPLE SENTENCE WRITING ABILITY BY USING PICTURE CARDS IN THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH AT SDN KALISAT 01 IN THE 2010 / 2011 ACADEMIC YEAR

Abstract

This Classroom action research was intended to improve the fifth grade students‟ simple sentences writing ability by using Picture Cards. Students of class V SDN Kalisat 01 were chosen as the respondents of the research due to their problems in writing simple sentences. The students still experienced difficulties in writing sentences because they could not express their ideas into the written form. The students also lack motivation and concentration in writing because the teacher never uses any teaching media to stimulate students‟ ideas and attract the students‟ motivation in the teaching learning process. Therefore, Picture Cards were chosen as the media to overcome the students‟ problem in writing because they might help the students to be more active in the teaching learning process. This classroom action research was conducted in two cycles, in which each cycle covered the stages including: the stage of planning, implementation, observation, and reflection. Each cycle was conducted in three meetings. The data about the students‟ simple sentence writing ability were collected through the test of writing simple sentences. Observation was used to control the process of teaching simple sentence writing by using Picture Cards, and students‟ participation in teaching learning process. The mean score of writing simple sentences test in cycle I was 59,48 and the percentage of the students‟ who got ≥65 as the standard score was 42,10%. The cycle of this research was considered to be successful if at least 75% of the students got 12 ≥65 (the standard score) in writing test. This means that the targeted score requirement of the students could not be achieved. Besides, based on the classroom observations that were done in the first cycle, it was found that the students‟ participation in the teaching learning process of writing by using Picture Cards was 59,08%. Since the result had not fulfilled the targeted score requirement, the action continued to the next cycle. The second cycle was done by revising the way of teaching learning process. The students were given more examples than they were in the first cycle. The teacher also gave feedback to the students‟ exercise to help the students know their mistakes. The mean score of writing test in cycle II was better (M=72,04) than cycle I (M=59,48). Besides, the students‟ participation in the teaching learning process was improved from 59,08% in the first cycle up to 81,81% in the second cycle. They gave the positive responses during the teaching learning process of English by using Picture Cards. It means that they had fulfilled the criteria of being active during the teaching learning process and achieved the target; 75% students were actively involved in English teaching learning process by using Picture Cards. This means that both the students‟ writing ability and their participation in teaching learning process by using Picture Cards were improved in the second cycle and thus they fulfilled the target of this research. Based on the results, it can be concluded that the use of Picture Cards can improve the students‟ simple sentences writing ability. This means that the English teachers should use Picture Cards as the alternative media in teaching writing.