| dc.description.abstract | This classroom action research was intended to enhance the X IPS 2
students' writing skills of descriptive text by using Instagram-based writing
exercises. Based on the interview conducted with the English teacher, X IPS 2
was chosen as the participant of this research because this class had the lowest
score in writing skills. Based on the interviews, we suspected the traditional media
(worksheets) the teacher used was less interesting so that the students did not
participate more in the teaching and learning process. Thus, they missed some
exercises aimed to help them improve their writing skill.
Instagram was chosen to assist students in enhancing their writing skill since
it became a popular social media especially for teenagers. Besides, it also provides
some interesting features. They can post a picture on Instagram and use the
caption feature to practice their writing. Through Instagram, students can practice
their writing and enhance their writing skills everytime and everywhere.
Moreover, hashtag feature helped them to find some good writings of other
Instagram users so that they can learn to write a better writing.
This research was done in one cycle. It consisted of three meetings where
the first and second meetings were used for the implementation of the action.
Then, the last meeting was used for the writing test. There were criteria of success
determined in this research. It was at least 75% of the students achieved the
standard minimum score and at least 75% of the students actively participated in
the teaching and learning process. The result showed that the percentage of the
students’ writing achievement test improved from 34.2% in pre-action to 81.5% in
post-action. The use of Instagram really affected the improvement of the students’
writing achievement. This significant improvement was done since Instagram has strength in making an enjoyable learning activity where the students found new
learning environment. They were actively participated during teaching and
learning activities. They also listened to the explanation about descriptive text on
Instagram very well. It helped them easily understand the material so that they
were able to write a good descriptive text. Furthermore, the result of the
students’active participation improved from 73.6% in meeting 1 and 89.4% in
meeting 2. Thus, it can be concluded that Cycle 1 was successful in enhancing the
students’writing achievement and students’ active participation because the
percentage of both criteria for success was more than 75%. The action was
stopped because the results of the writing test and the observation achieved the
minimum scored required.
Based on the results above, it can be concluded that the use of Instagram
could enhance the tenth-grade students’ writing achievement and their active
participation. Therefore, it is suggested for the English teachers to use Instagram
as an alternative media in teaching writing to involve students to actively
participate in the lesson. Besides, it is expected that the result of this research can
give further information for future researchers who want to conduct similar
research with different language skills, such as to enhance the students’ reading
comprehension achievement. Furthermore, future researchers are suggested to
conduct similar research with different levels of students, different schools, and
also different types of text. | en_US |
