A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY ON THE TENTH YEAR STUDENTS’ RECOUNT TEXT WRITING ABILITY AT MAN 2 SITUBONDO IN THE 2012/2013 ACADEMIC YEAR

Abstract

SUMMARY

A Descriptive Study on the Tenth Year Students’ Recount Text Writing Ability at MAN 2 Situbondo in the 2012/2013 Academic Year; Lisyulianti, 050210491059, 2013: 38 pages; English Language Education Study Program, Language and Arts Education Department, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Jember University.

Most Indonesian students who learn English as a foreign language face difficulties in writing English. In fact, Indonesian and English are very different and the students’ mother tongue always influences them when they are writing English. One of the differences can be seen on the structure of English such as tenses in which Indonesian does not have tenses. Thus, the students commonly have anxiety in writing English because they are unsure of structure, words’ spelling and so on. This research was conducted to know how is the tenth grade students’ recount text writing ability at MAN 2 Situbondo in the 2012/2013 academic year. The population of this research was the tenth year students of MAN 2 Situbondo in the 2012/2013 academic year. The research respondents were determined by using Proportional Random Sampling. The number of the respondents were 31 students, consisting of 3-4 students take from each class since the tenth grade has eight classes. The mean score of students’ ability in writing a recount text was classified as poor category or 50.19. It was in the range score of 40-59. The average score of each indicator in grammar was 46.45 or poor category, mechanics was 51.93 or poor category, content was 62.58 or fair category, vocabulary was 50 or poor category, and organization was 49.35 or poor category. The indicator of grammar was the most difficult writing aspect for the students in writing a recount text. Grammar score was the lowest among the indicators in the students’ writing test. This happened because the students had difficulties in making sentences which grammatically correct and they had not mastered the uses of the tenses especially in a recount text. While content was the viii

highest average score from all of the indicators in the students’ recount writing test. This happened because the students had experienced the worst or the best events by themselves.