IMPROVING WRITING ACHIEVEMENT OF GRADE X-9 STUDENTS AND THEIR ACTIVE PARTICIPATION THROUGH CONTROLLED WRITING TECHNIQUE AT SMA MUHAMMADIYAH 3 JEMBER

Abstract

Writing is considered to be one of the important language skills in learning English. However, many students still experience difficulties in writing simple paragraphs. The difficulties are about the linguistic and rhetorical problem entailed in writing. This research focused on the aspects of grammar, vocabulary, organization, and content. One of the way that could be done to solve these problem was by applying controlled writing technique in teaching learning process of writing. The problem of the research was how can the use of controlled writing technique improve the students’ writing achievement and participation in writing class. This research was undertaken to improve grade X-9 students’ writing achievement in writing a descriptive paragraph by using the controlled writing technique at SMA Muhammadiyah 3 Jember in the 2010/2011 academic year. This research was done because of the finding that grade X-9 students at SMA Muhammadiyah 3 Jember still had difficulties in writing a paragraph. To achieve the purposes of the research, a collaborative classroom action research was implemented. The research consisted of four general steps, that were the planning of the action, the implementation of the actions, classroom observation, evaluation and reflection of the actions. The research was applied in two cycles with three meetings in each cycle. The number of the research subjects was 42 students. The data collection methods used were writing test and observation. Writing test was used to measure the students’ writing achievement, while observation was used to monitor the students’ active participation in the teaching learning process of writing by using controlled writing technique. In the first cycle, the result of the action could not reach the target requirement of the research which was only 66% of the research subjects achieved the targeted score requirement that was 70. Moreover, the students showed improvement on their active participation in the teaching learning process of writing using controlled writing technique. It could be seen from the results of observation which showed that the students’ participation in the teaching and learning process of writing increased from 66.7% (meeting one) and 71.4% (meeting two) in the first cycle to 71.4% (meeting one) and 78.5% (meeting two) in the second cycle. Then, the new version of teaching writing by using controlled writing technique was implemented in the second cycle to improve the students’ writing achievement. The result showed improvement that was 76% of the research subjects achieved the targeted score 70 or higher. Moreover, the result of observation showed the improvement of the students’ active participation in joining writing class. It was found that 71.4% of the students in meeting one and 78.5% in meeting two were actively involved in the teaching learning process of writing by using controlled writing technique. Based on the above results, it could be concluded that the use of controlled writing technique could improve the students’ active participation in the teaching learning process of writing and it could also improve the students’ writing achievement at SMA Muhammadiyah 3 Jember in the 2010/2011 academic year. Therefore, it is suggested to the English teacher to apply controlled writing technique in the teaching learning process of writing in order to help students who still have difficulties in writing.