1 research outputs found
Using a Strategy Categorical Vocabulry yo Improve Descriptive Paragraph Writing Skill of the 10th Graders of Man Tambak Beras Jombang
No full textABSTRACT USING CATEGORICAL VOCABULRY STRATEGY TO IMPROVE DESCRIPTIVE PARAGRAPH WRITING SKILL OF THE 10TH GRADERS OF MAN TAMBAK BERAS JOMBANGNismatul Afroch, S. Nurul Muthmainah, and Sintha TresnadewiEmail: [email protected] university of MalangJalan SemarangEnglish is one of the languages in the world used by many people in a lot of countries. It is also recognized as the main language for communication with other people from different countries and cultures. Due to the importance of English as international language, many people try to learn and master it as soon as possible. In Indonesia itself, not only adult learners who want to study English, even the young learners also learn English. Nowdays, English becomes compulsory subject especially for primary and secondary students. There are four skills of English that should be mastered by the students, which are reading, listening, speaking, and writing. Writing which is considered as one of the communicative activities, has been neglected, compared with the other English activities (Hirano, 2010:31). In fact, writing is one of the most important skills in studying English because not only is writing an academic skill, but it is also an important skill that translates into any career fields (Thanh, 2015:53). Moreover, writing ability is judged as important to success in graduate training (Cooper, 1984:1).According to several findings, there are some factors that influence writing ability. One of them is about the important role of vocabulary. In fact, as stated by Ahmadi (2012:186) the role of vocabulary in learning English is one of the most important factors that foreign language learners encounter during the process of learning a foreign language. However, most of the students consider writing skill is commonly rated as the most demanding and the most difficult to master (Tayib, 2015:11). It happens because the students have very limited vocabulary. In fact, Based on the research that has been conducted by Farooq, M.S, Hassan, M.U. and Wahid (2012:189), it shows that the most frequent problems which students faced are that of vocabulary. In preliminary study conducted in MAN Tambak Beras Jombang, the researcher observed those problems by asking the students made a descriptive paragraph. It was found that most of the students had difficulty in the vocabulary. The students had lack vocabulary that made their writings were very limited ideas. It was also determined by the score of preliminary writing test administrated by the researcher which showed that the students’ mean score was 65,45 which meant the students’ mean score was not enough to achieve the minimum passing grade prescribed (KKM).The minimum passing grade prescribed (KKM) of the school was 75. Beside that, the interview to the English teacher and the results of students’ questionnaire also conducted to confirm the result of the observation.According to the preliminary study, the students had very limited vocabulary. Therefore, the students need an appropriate a strategy that can improve their vocabulary mastery. The improvement of students’ vocabulary mastery is expected to help the students to improve the students’ writing ability in descriptive paragraph. One of the most appropriate strategy to solve this problem is by implementing Categorical Vocabulary in the process teaching and learning. Categorical Vocabulary is a collection of vocabulary from semantically-related strategy which uses designing tool in the form of word list which covers some of vocabulary that can be used for describing people and places. The Categorical Vocabulary is implemented for intentional learning. Implementing intentional learning is considered to be an appropriate way because based on the previous study that has been conducted by Hoshino (2010) Vocabulary acquisition is stronger when it is attempted through intentional learning. That is why the researcher will conduct a study by implementing intentional learning because in the intentional learning the students only focus on certain words which has a relation with the materials. So the students will easily memorize some new vocabulary and the students also can implement those vocabulary that they have into paragraph writing.There are some studies which support the effectiveness of semantically-related strategy to improve students’ vocabulary mastery. However, further study tends to be done on its implementation in a different classroom setting. This study will analyze the implementation of the semantically-related strategy by using Categorical Vocabularyto improve the ability in descriptive texts based on the K-13 curriculum of tenth graders in MAN Tambak Beras Jombang. METHODThe design of the study is Classroom Action Research (CAR) to solve the students’ problem. This method involves four steps based on Kemmis and Mc Taggart (in Burns, 1999:32) which are planning, implementing, observing, and reflecting.Planning the ActionBefore implementing the startegy by using Categorical Vocabulary.the reseacher prepared all the things which dealing with the teaching writing by using Categorical Vocabulary. The preparation included; preparing the lesson plans, preparing the materials, preparing the research instruments, nd preparing the criteria of success.The researcher designed th teaching scenario or lesson plans that was prepared in the planning stage. The activities consist of some stsges. The stages of first meeting were opening, exploration, elaboration, confirmation, and closing. Then, the stages of second up to fourth meeting were opening, exploration, elaboration, production, confirmation, amd closing. In the first meeting did not consist of poduction stage because the activities is mainly about how to stimulate the students to understand the characteristic of descriptive text. The students was given the explanation related to descriptive texts including its structure and language feature in general. Moreover, the researcher was giving the explanation about the item’s classification (place and person). Finally, the researcher then introduced the implementation of a strategy by using Categorical Vocabulary. In the second up to fourth meeting, the students started to write a descriptive paragraph (production stage).The preparation of materials was also prepared before the implementation of strategy.The materials prepared based on the syllabus KD 4.10 “Menyusun teks deskriptif lisan dan tulis sederhana tentang orang, tempat wisata, dan bangunan bersejarah terkenal, dengan memperhatikan tujuan, struktur teks, dan unsur kebahasaan, secara benar dan sesuai dengan konteks.” The materials focused on two themes of descriptive text (describing people and places), and the materials for teaching descriptive paragraph including definition, purposes, generic structure, and language features of the descriptive text.The researcher also prepared some instruments. In this study, the researcher used six instruments. There were writing prompts, the scoring rubric of writing, interview guide, observation checklists, field notes, and questionnaire.The last preparation before the researcher started to implement the strategy is preparing the criteria of success. The criteria of success were created based on teaching and learning writing process and the results of students’ writing. The strategy was considered successful if the 75% of the students were able to get equal to or above 75 in terms of the total score. The minimum passing grade prescribed (KKM) by MAN Tambak Beras Jombang is 75. Therefore, 75 was decided as the minimum score that had to be obtained by at least 75% of the students to be considered successful in writing descriptive paragraph.Implementing the ActionIn the implementing stage, the researcher implemented the teaching scenario that had been designed in the planning. The researcher used the teaching scenario as the major guidelines to teach the students in the class. The researcher taught the students using the teaching scenario. There were 35 students who were taught in class. They were the second semester students of X MIPA 8 class in the first semester of 2015-2016 academic year.The implementation of the study was held in four meetings, which were on October 11th, 28th, 25th, and November 1st 2015.When the researcher started to implement the strategy, the researcher was helped an English teacher to observe the activities during class. The observer or the English teacher was given the observation checklists and field notes before each meeting. The task for the observer was taking some notes in the observation checklists and field notes given.Observing the ActionIn the observing stage, the researcher collected the data based on the implementation of the strategy using six instruments which were writing prompts, the scoring rubric of writing, interview guide, observation checklists, field notes, and questionnaire. The information of the type of the data, the source of the data and the instrument is presented in Table 1.1.Type of Data Data Sources InstrumentThe students’ topic in their paragraphStudents’ writing Writing promptsStudents’ writing scoreStudents’ final writing. Scoring RubricStudents’ involvement during the implementation of Categorical Vocabulary1.Observation sheets filled by the observers.2.Field notes filled by the researcher. 1.Observation Checklists2.Field NotesStudents responses and satisfaction toward a strategy by using Categorical VocabularyQuestionnaire filled by the students.QuestionnaireThe teacher responds towards the implementation of the strategyThe teacher’s interview resultsInterview guideTable 1.1 The research instrumentThe data were collected within four meetings. The students’ paragraph topic was chosen by the students from the writing prompts that were given by the teacher. There were some topics that could be chosen by the students whether the topic about people or places.Moreover, The students’ final writing score was analyzed using the scoring rubric which were consisted of five aspects of writing (content, generic structure, vocabulary, grammar, and mechanic). Those aspects were determined on how well the students’ write the content related to the topic, organize the ideas into paragraph, use effective choice of words that has been provided by Categorical Vocabulary, use grammar that relevant to the generic structure, and master the spelling, punctuation, capitalization. Furthermore, The students’ involvement during the implementation of Categorical Vocabulary was analyzed using observation checklists and field notes that filled by the observer. Before starting the implementation, the observer was given the observation checklists and field notes. Then, the observer was asked to monitor the classroom activities by writing the situation in the class in the observation checklists and fields notes. Afterwards, the students’ responses toward the implementation of strategy were analyzed using the questionnaire. In this case, the students had to write the check mark and also give a detail reason based on the option that they chose. Finally, the researcher interviewed the English teacher by asking some questions related the implementation of the strategy by using Categorical Vocabulary. The questions come from the interview guide that had been prepared by the researcher.ReflectionIn the reflection stage, the researcher compared the findings of the implementation with the criteria of success that had been set previously by researcher. It was done to know how successful the implementation of the strategy to solve the students’ problem of writing descriptive paragraph. In addition, the researcher also used the result of the questionnaire, the observation checklists, and field notes as the evidence of students’ responses, satisfaction and involvement during the implementation of the strategy by using Categorical Vocabulary.FINDINGSThe findings of the study cover the research findings including the students’ performance on writing a descriptive paragraph, the students improvement in vocabulary, and the students’ involvement and attitudes toward the strategy by using Categorical Vocabulary during the teaching and learning process.The Students’ Performance on Writing a Descriptive ParagraphThe results after the implementation of strategy by using Categorical Vocabulary showed the students had better skill in writing descriptive text. It was proven by the improvement of each aspect of descriptive text from the scores in the preliminary study to the final score. The results of students’ mean score in the preliminary study was 65,45. Then, after the implementation of strategy by using Categorical Vocabulary the students’ mean score improved to be 80,22. Related to the criterion of success, there were 32 students (91,42%) whose scores equal to or above 75. Meanwhile, the 3 other students (8,57%) got scores below 75. Since the researcher targeted 75% to pass the standard score, this study was considered successfully improved the students’ writing ability in descriptive texts.In content aspect, the student students had improvement in developing their ideas for their writings by using Categorical vocabulary. The mean of final score of students in content aspect was 24,65 which categorized as good to average. The results of students’ work showed that the students could develop their ideas by mentioning a lot of characteristics about the subject appropriately. Moreover, the students were able to write some detail infrmations related the subject or object that they described.In generic structure aspect. The students were able to make descriptive text by using correct genric structure of descriptive text. The mean of final score for generic structure of descriptive text was 16, 85 which categorized as good to average. In the four meetings of study the students not only knew how to make descriptive text correctly, but also the differences between recount and descriptive text. Moreover, in the result of final works almost all of the students were able to state their main ideas in their paragraph clearly.In vocabulary aspect, the students’ mean score score was 16,74, the researcher did not find a word which used bahasa Indonesia and only some of the students who made little mistakes in their writings. In fact, the Categorical vocabulary much helped the students to find appropriate vocabulary. The Categorical vocabulary could give optional vocabulary that the students wanted which used appropriate spelling. In the grammar aspect, the students’ mean score in the grammar aspect was 17, 48. All of the students used correct tense by using present tense. In the final test most of the students used effective and simple construction for their writings. However, in the post-test the students still made some grammatical errors, but the errors were not too much like in the preliminary study.In the mechanic aspect, after the implementation of strategy the students showed a lot of improvements in mechanic aspect. The students had already known how to put capital letter, dot, and comma correctly. Thus, students’ mechanic from fair to poor (3,34) became good to average (4,31).The Students’ Improvement in VocabularyThe Categorical Vocbulary is a media that is used to improve students’ vocabulary mastery. In this study, the Categorical Vocabulary succeed to help the students improving their vocabulary mastery because it could give much improvements in vocabulary aspect.In the preliminary study the mean score of the students was 13, 71. While, in the post-test result was 16, 74. It means the improvement of the students was 3.03. The categorization of the result preliminary study in the vocabulary aspect was fair to poor. In the first meeting of the study the researcher found that the students had very limited vocabulary knowledge. Most of students had different problems in their vocabulary. For example some of the students used to make errors in spelling and using inappropriate vocabulary. The examples of the students’ vocabulary errors were slim body, hight women, animals wild, spesial, faluable, funy, tourise, secniry and others. Moreover, some of the students also used Bahasa Indonesia in their paragraphs, because they did not know how to express their own words in English. The example of words using Bahasa Indonesia were pokoknya, mirip, turis, loket and others. Furthermore, the students also have difficulty to organize their ideas. In fact, the students did not know how to start to write their first idea. Moreover, they did not know which ideas that were appropriate for their closings too. The last problem of the student was the students had very limited information about the subject that they wanted to describe. In fact, the students only mentioned the general characteristics of the thing without giving any specific information about the subject. For the example, one of the students wrote about her friend. She wrote her friend is beautiful. However, she did not mention the specific informations, the reason on why she thought her friend is beautiful. She did not mention about the physical appearance or attitude of her friend. She just mention about her history and her friend’s address.In the last meeting of the study the students were better than before. In the preliminary the categorization was fair to poor. In the post-test result the categorization changed to be good to average. It proved that the problems had found in the preliminary study had decreased. The first problem of the students about errors in spelling and the inappropriate vocabulary did not find anymore, because the students used the vocabulary that they got from the Categorical vocabulary. Moreover, the students also did not use Bahasa Indonesia anymore in their paragraphs. Furthermore, the students could organize their ideas appropriately. They started their ideas by using general idea and continued by giving additional specific idea. The students also were not confused anymore in giving the last idea for their closings. The last problem that faced by the students was limited information about the subject. The strategy by Categorical vocabulary made them easily organize their ideas by making vocabulary mapping. So, it could make them easily identifying about the subject that they wanted to describe. The Students’ Involvement and Attitudes Toward the strategy by Using Categorical Vocabulary During the Teaching and Learning Process.During some meetings in the implementation of the Categorical vocabulary, the students’ response was considered positive. It is shown by the questionnaire that is given in the last meeting. Most of the students gave positive response about the strategy. Furthermore, the observation checklists that was given to the observer in every meeting during teaching and learning process was used to know the students’ attitude and involvement during the process of writing. The result obtained from the observation checklists indicated that there was an improvement in term of amount of students who were actively participated in the every meeting of learning process. In the last meeting, almost all of the students positively active and engage to the teaching and learning process.The result obtained from the questionnaire which was given in the last meeting indicated that the students really enjoy the use of Categorical vocabulary to teach writing in descriptive texts. It was proved from the result that 45,71% or 16 students answered highly felt happy to the implementation of Categorical vocabulary. Moreover, there were 57, 14% or 20 students who were highly agree that the use of Categorical vocabulary was very necessary to teach writing. especially descriptive texts. According to the data showed above implied that the strategy by using Categorical vocabulary was a good strategy. The strategy was not only can make the students to be active in the class, but also able to make the students enjoy the process of teaching and learning in writing descriptive texts.DISCUSSIONThe discussion covers the discussion of the result of this study; the students’ performance on writing a descriptive paragraph, the students improvement in vocabulary, and the students’ involvement and attitudes toward the strategy by using Categorical Vocabulary during the teaching and learning process.The Students’ Performance on Writing a Descriptive ParagraphBased on the findings, the students’ writing scores had improved since the strategy by using a Categorical vocabulary was implemented in the process of learning and teaching. The data related to the improvement students’ descriptive text writing could be seen from the result of post-test in the last meeting. There were 32 students (91,42%) out of 35 students who obtained score equal to75 or above. Although not all students could reach the minimal passing score 75, most of the students had made an improvement on writing a descriptive text in each aspect of writing. It proved that a Categorical vocabulary could solve the students’ problem in writing descriptive text. Furthermore, the students’ improvement could be seen not only in the vocabulary aspect but also in other aspects of writing too. It is in accordance with the previous study by Hoshino (2010:310) that semantic vocabulary strategy like a Categorical vocabulary can be as an effective media for teaching and learning process. Moreover, the other research conducted by Jasinta (2015:37) about vocabulary mapping also gave a conclusion that she supported the mplementation of Categorical vocabulary. In addition, the research conducted by Shahreza (2015:10) also supported the implementation of semantic vocabulary strategy.The comparison between preliminary and post-test could be as a proof that the s
