Using Roundtable Technique to Improve Eighth Grade Students Recount Text Writing Achievement at SMPN 2 Mumbulsari Jember

Abstract

This research was intended to enhance the eighth grade students' writing achievement by using roundtable technique at SMPN 2 Mumbulsari Jember. Based on the preliminary study done by the researcher by interviewing the English teacher, most of the eighth grade students in this school had difficulties in learning English especially in writing skills. There were so many difficulties from the students to write such as lack of ideas, not using correct grammatical structure and the content or the story of their writings still did not match with what should be written.For these reasons, the researcher wanted to overcome the students' problems in learning writing, especially recount text writing by using roundtable technique. The objectives of this research were: (1) to enhance the eighth grade students' recount text writing achievement at SMPN 2 Mumbulsari Jember and (2) to describe how the teaching and learning process by using roundtable technique can assist the eighth grade students to write a recount text at SMPN 2 Mumbulsari Jember. The design of this research was Classroom Action Research which covered four stages of activities namely: (1) preliminary study or fact finding, (2) planning of the action, (3) implementation, and (4) evaluation. SMPN 2 Mumbulsari Jember was chosen purposively as the research area because the students on this school still had difficulties in learning and mastering writing. Among the eighth grade students in this school, VIII C students were chosen as the subjects of the research since they had the almost problems in learning writing and had the lowest percentage of the students who pass the standard minimum score for the previous English score. There were 30 students as the respondents of this research. The data collection method used in this research was recount text writing achievement test, observation, and students' artifact. The recount text writing achievement test was conducted at the end of the cycle (after implementing the action) to get the students' score. Meanwhile, the observation was conducted during the implementation of the action to get the detail description of the students' recount text writing learning process through roundtable technique. And the last students' artifact was the result of the student's discussion while doing the tasks by using roundtable technique This classroom action research was conducted only in one cycle since the result of the first cycle had achieved the research target. This research was considered to be successful if at least 75% of the VIII C students achieved the standard minimum score of the school, 75. The result of the recount text writing achievement test showed that there was an improvement of the percentage of the students who got > 75. It was increased from 33,33% in the preliminary study (the students' previous score) to 76,65% in the first cycle of the research (the students' score of writing achievement test). For this reason, the second or the next cycle of the research was not necessary to be conducted. Moreover, the result of the observation by using field notes showed that the teaching and learning process by using roundtable technique could give some contributions to the students in learning recount text writing. It could be concluded that the students were helped to do the tasks by using roundtable technique taught by the teacher. It did not only help the students to brainstorm the ideas, roundtable technique also helped students to build contribution among group members, they helped each other in order to complete the tasks given. Based on the research results above, it could be concluded that the use of roundtable technique could enhance the eighth grade students'recount text writing achievement at SMPN 2 Mumbulsari Jember.