THE EFFECT OF PERSONAL JOURNAL WRITING PRACTICE ON THE TENTH GRADE STUDENTS’ RECOUNT TEXT WRITING ACHIEVEMENT AT SMAN 4 JEMBER IN THE 2011/2012 ACADEMIC YEAR

Abstract

Writing usually considered as a difficult work by many students, mostly they find it difficult to transfer thoughts from their mind onto pieces of writing. Moreover, teacher in Senior High School commonly do not give enough time to teach writing, they usually more concern in teaching reading and grammar. according to the teachers, they do not teach writing very often because writing is not examined in National Examination, besides according to the teacher, teaching writing is time consuming because usually students need much time in composing a piece of writing. An expert says that writing is a skill that can be learned by everyone, so the more they practice writing, the better they will write. Based on that reason, the researcher conducted a research that gave the students a chance to have more practice in writing by asking them to practice writing personal journal. This research was intended to know whether or not personal journal writing practice has a significant effect on the tenth grade students‟ recount text writing achievement at SMAN 4 Jember in the 2011/2012 Academic Year.

The research design that was used was quasi experimental with nonequivalent-groups post-test only design. This research took two classes of eight classes that are used as the experimental group and the control group. In the selection process the researcher held a homogeneity test. After the homogeneity test was held, then it was analyzed statistically by using ANOVA. After the experimental class had gotten, then the researcher gave the treatment to the experimental class, and after that the researcher gave post-test to both of the class. The population of this research was the tenth grade students of SMAN 4 Jember in the 2011/2012 academic year that consists of eight classes. While, the samples of this research were two classes that are taken from eight classes of grade X of SMAN 4 Jember in the 2011/2012 academic year that taken randomly using lottery because the population were homogenous. The experimental class was class X.3 that consists of 35 students, while control class was X.7 that consists of 37 students. The experimental class was taught how to practice writing by using personal journal and asked to practice writing using personal journal, while the control class was taught by conventional technique that used by the teacher that was rearrange jumbled sentences in paragraphs. The primary data of this research were students‟ scores that were gotten from the students‟ scores of writing post test. The primary data were collected to compare the achievement of the two different groups after treatment. The data were analyzed by using t-test formula. Based on the results, the statistical value of t-test was 2.48 while the critical value of t-test with significant level 5% and the degree of freedom 70 is 1.671. It means the statistical value of t-test is higher than the critical value of t-test (2.48>1.671). Consequently, the null hypothesis ( H ) formulated: “there is no significant effect of using personal journal writing practice on the tenth grade students‟ recount text writing achievement at SMAN 4 Jember in the 2011/2012 academic year” is rejected. On the other hand, the formulated alternative hypothesis: “there is a significant effect of personal journal writing practice on the tenth grade students‟ recount text writing achievement at SMAN 4 Jember in the 2011/2012 academic year” is accepted. Based on the result of this research, it was shown that there was a significant effect of personal journal writing practice on the tenth grade students‟ writing achievement.