IMPROVING THE VII F STUDENTS’ ACHIEVEMENT IN WRITING DESCRIPTIVE TEXT BY USING SPIDERGRAMS AT SMP NEGERI 2 PURWOHARJO IN THE 2012/2013 ACADEMIC YEAR

Abstract

Language plays an important role in the world since language becomes a means of communication. There are so many languages in the world and every country has its own language. They use an international language to communicate to each other. English is one of the main international languages that plays an important function in communication in the world. In Indonesia, English has become one of the most important foreign languages that has been taught as a compulsory subject from junior high schools to universities. There are four language skills that must be studied by the students who are learning English. Writing is one of the four skills in English that must be mastered by the students. Sometimes, the students get difficulties in writing because they sometimes did not know how to begin the first sentence of the paragraph. However, the teacher usually combine this writing skill into other skills, for example, when the teacher taught English to the students, the teacher gave all materials about reading, vocabulary, writing etc at one time. When the students arranged the jumbled sentences, it was concluded as writing score. So, it could not be separated clearly and specifically which one is writing, reading, vocabulary etc when the teacher gave exercises or test to the students. In this case, Spidergrams was used to improve the students’ writing achievement. This research was a classroom action research. It was intended to improve the seventh grade students’ writing achievement and the students’ active xii participation in descriptive text by using Spidergrams. This research subjects were the students of class VII F of SMPN 2 Purwoharjo in the 2012/2013 academic year. It was chosen purposively because the writing previous score was the lowest among the six classes. The improvement of the students’ writing achievement and the students’ active participation of class VII F were analyzed quantitatively. In this research, the observation and writing test were used to get the primary data. Interview guide was used to get the supporting data. This research was carried out in two cycles and each cycle covered three meetings including the test. Each cycle covered the four stages that include planning of the action, the implementation of the action, classroom observation and evaluation, and data analysis and reflection. Based on the writing descriptive test, the results of this research showed that the improvement of the students writing achievement test that got scores 75 was 50% or 15 students in Cycle 1. It had not achieved the target of success in this research yet that was 75%, so the actions were continued to the second cycle. In Cycle 2, the percentage of the students’ writing test in descriptive text increased from 50% in Cycle 1 to 90.32% or 28 students in Cycle 2. It means that the criteria of success of this research that was 75% had been achieved and the use of Spidergrams in teaching writing was useful to improve the students’ writing achievement in descriptive text. Based on the observation, the average result of the students’ active participation was 63.85% in Cycle 1. It means that the target of success in this research had not achieved yet. The observations were continued to the second cycle. In the second cycle, the average result of the students’ active participation increased from 63.85% in Cycle 1 to 75.81% in Cycle 2. It means that the use of Spidergrams could arouse the students’ active participation in the teaching learning process of writing descriptive text. Then, it is suggested to the English teacher and the students to apply Spidergrams as an alternative technique in teaching and practicing writing.