IMPROVING THE EIGHTH GRADE STUDENTS’ WRITING ACHIEVEMENT BY USING PICTURES IN SERIES AT SMP NEGERI I RANDUAGUNG - LUMAJANG

Abstract

This research was intended to improve the students’ achievement in writing paragraph at SMPN 1 Randuagung - Lumajang. Before doing this research, the researcher did observation and interview the English teacher in SMPN 1 Randuagung - Lumajang. Based on teacher information, students’ have difficulties in writing a paragraph. Students faced difficulties in generating and developing ideas. This finding was also supported with the result of the writing test which showed that the eighth year students had a problem in generating and developing ideas in writing. To overcome such problem above, the researcher and the teacher agreed on using pictures in series as media as were believed to be able to attract students, to motivate them, and to contribute to the context in which the language is being used. The research design was Classroom Action Research (CAR) with cycle model. Each cycle consists of four stages of activities; the preparation of the action, the implementation of the action, classroom observation and evaluation, reflection of the action. The data in this research were gathered by administrating a writing test and by having observation in the class in each cycle. The subjects were 27 students of class VIII C. They were taken by using purposive method. Based on the results of the data analysis and discussion, it was revealed that teaching writing through pictures in series could improve the eighth grade students’ achievement in writing paragraph at SMP Negeri 1 Randuagung - Lumajang. The improvement of the students’ writing could be seen from the percentage of the students who got score 70 or more increased from 50% in the first cycle to 92,59% in the second cycle. It was also shown that the use of pictures in series could motivate the students and make them want to pay attention to the lesson.It proved that the students’ participation during the teaching learning writing process increased from 26.9% of the students in Cycle 1 to 77.78% in the second cycle. Considering the results of the writing test by using pictures in series, it was concluded that pictures in series were effective to overcome the problems in writing. So, it is suggested to the English teachers to use pictures n series to teach English to the students, especially to teach writing.