IMPROVING THE TENTH YEAR STUDENTS’ DESCRIPTIVE WRITING ABILITY THROUGH GENRE- BASED APPROACH AT SMA NEGERI 4 JEMBER IN THE 2009/2010 ACADEMIC YEAR

Abstract

This study was undertaken in order to improve the tenth year students’ descriptive writing ability at SMAN 4 Jember. Specifically, it was intended to improve the students’ ability in producing the descriptive text through genre-based approach. This research involved the students of class X3 who were chosen as the research subjects based on the result of informal interview with the English teacher and the result of the observation showed that these students still experienced difficulties in producing a good descriptive text. To achieve the purpose of this study, a collaborative classroom action research was implemented. It was implemented in two cycles which each of them consisted of four stages. 1) Preparation of the action, 2) Implementation of the action, 3) Monitoring and evaluation of the action, 4) Data Analysis and Reflection of the Action. The data collection method was observation and test. Some field notes were used as the means of recording during the observation, meanwhile the essay writing test was used as the means to measure the students’ ability in producing descriptive text which covered content; organization of ideas; language in use; mechanics; and style. In the first cycle, the target for product evaluation has not been achieved yet instead of good result in process evaluation. Especially in product evaluation, there were 25 of 38 students (65.79%) had achieved the standard score requirement (70). The field notes result as the process evaluation in the first cycle showed the good cooperation and participation from the class during teaching learning process. Therefore, the result of the first cycle aimed that the second cycle was needed to be conducted. The second cycle was conducted by revising some materials and deepening the materials. Both of the teacher and observer collaboratively maximized the joint construction phase to aid the students who got low score. The result of both product and process evaluation has been achieved. In product evaluation, there were 35 of 39 students (89.74%) had achieved the standard score requirement (70). Afterwards, the field notes result as the process evaluation in the second cycle still showed the good cooperation and participation from the class during teaching learning process. Since the result of the essay-writing test in the second cycle had achieved the criteria of requirement (70), the action was stopped. The research result prove that genre based approach could improve the students’ descriptive writing ability. Therefore, it is highly recommended for the English teacher to apply genre-based approach since it could improve the students’ writing ability, especially in descriptive writing.