CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION
This chapter consists of seven sub-chapters. They are (1)

Background of the Research, Research Problems, Objective of the Research,

Research Hypothesis, Significance of the Research, Scope and Limitation of

the Research and Definitions of Key Terms.

A. Background of the Research

Nowdays, it is very important to learn English. English as one of

the subjects in school that has very important role as foreign language and

it is used to communication by people in most countries in the world.

English taught in Indonesian school from Senior High School until

University, so it is very important for students to master English in all

skills. The skills are Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing. Those

skills are related to each other. In this case, the researcher is going to focus

on writing skill.

By writing, you can express something in your mind to the others

through the organized words and communicative sentences. This is

supported by Brown (2001: 336) writing is a thinking process of ideas,

experiences and feeling in the written form. In line with Brown, Murcia &

Olshtain (2000:142) stated that writing is the production of written words

that results in a text, and the text must be read and comprehended in order

for communication to take place.

Through a text the writer could communicate his or her ideas in the

written form and the reader would try to catch the core, the point of the

1
 2

ideas and the meaning of ideas. Hence, the readers are able to understand

what the writers want to convey. This statement is supported by Isnawati

(2016) state that writing skill is the ability to express ideas in acceptable

written English form.

However, it has been realized that productive skills might be more

difficult to be mastered than receptive skills. Furthermore, many English

language learners, especially second language learners, agree that writing

is a difficult skill to be mastered. Thomkins (2000) quoted by Eramona

and Hafizh (2014: 74), he stated that the emphasis of writing is shifted

from what the writers think and do as they write to the product of writing.

As Richards (2002) quoted by Eramona and Hafizh (2014: 74) state that

writing is the most difficult skill for foreign language learners to be

master. He also stated that they have to put together string of

grammatically correct sentences. In addition, Taylor (2009:4) stated that

for most people writing is an extremely difficult task if they are trying to

grab in their language with new ideas and new ways of looking at them.

This is in line with Harmer (2007:278) who states that mastering

productive skill especially writing can be very stressful if they do not

know the appropriate words or grammar to express the idea. It is clear that

to be able to write correctly, language learner must have a good mastery on

grammar, content, organization, vocabulary, and mechanics.

There are many ways to express writing and one of them is through

a text. One of the text taught for the tenth grade students of Senior High

School is Narrative Text.

Narrative text is the text that has sequel events in telling story, and

it has components to relate one each other such as theme, plot, setting,

characters and events. Narrative text has purpose to amuse or entertain the

readers. This is supported by Rebecca (2003: 11), Narrative Text is a text,

which relates a series of logically, and chronologically related events that

are caused or experienced by factors. Furthermore, she states that a key to

comprehending a narrative is a sense of plot, of theme, of characters, and

of events, and of how they relate. In addition, according to Pardiyono

(2007) quoted by Andayani (2015), he stated that writing narrative is a

kind of text to tell the activities or events in the past, which give priority to

the problematic experience and resolution with the purpose to amuse and

often be intended to give moral lesson for the reader.

In creating their ideas, students need a media to help them to

express their imagination in writing narrative story, make their writing

cohesive or systematic and also make series of events which is constructed

in a chronological order. According to Oshima & Hogue (2007:24),

narration is story writing, when we write a narrative text, we write about

events in the order that they happen. He also state that in other words, we

use time order to organize our sentences.

One of media that effective is picture series. Picture series is some

relevant picture that shows events of story. Maurer (2006) as quoted by

Orianda and Rosa (2013:449) has stated that picture series is a series of

picture that explains about the events in the story. He also states that in

writing, picture series is an important media and very useful.

There is preceding research that are related and proven to use

picture series end up in good and success story, they are: Puspitasari

(2014) entitled The Use Of Picture Series To Improve The Writing Skills

Of Tenth Grade Students Of SMA N 1 Srandakan In Writing Narrative

Texts In The Academic Year Of 2013/2014 (Classrom Action Research

study), and Yusnita (2012) entitled Improving Students’ Recount Text

Writing by Using Picture Series (Classroom Action Research to the Tenth

Grade Students’ of SMK Panca Bhakti Kubu Raya in Academic Year

2011/2012). All of those study proved that the use of picture series

effective and successful to improve students’ writing skill on Narrative

Text.

From the explanation above, the writer concludes that using picture

series as media on narrative text is effective to improve students’ writing

skill on narrative text. Picture series can be used as media to present new

language through writing narrative text. It is good for students because

they like to learn using visual aid. By using pictures as a mean for writing

skill on narrative text, students will be more interested in the process of

teaching learning and more active in learning. They will feel that they are

just not an object of teaching learning process but also a subject of it. By

picture series they will be active as a participant and they are given a

chance for expressing their minds, emotions, feeling and attitudes.

Hopefully, by doing this the students will also improve their writing skill

on narrative text.
 5

From the description above, the writer conduct picture series as

media to improve students’ writing skill in developing narrative text (pre-

experimental research) at the tenth grade of MAN Trenggalek in the

Academic Year 2016/2017).

B. Research Problems

According to background of study, research questions are:

1. How is the students’ writing achievement before being taught by

picture series as media?

2. How is the students’ writing achievement after being taught by picture

series as media?

3. Is there any significant differences on the students’ writing

achievement taught before and after being using picture series as

media?

C. Objectives of the Research

Based on the problem of the research question above, the

objectives in this research are:

1. To find out the students’ writing achievement before being taught by

picture series media.

2. To find out the students’ writing achievement after being taught by

picture series media.

3. To find out whether there is any significant difference on students’

writing achievement taught before and after being taught by using

picture series media.

D. Research Hypothesis

The hypothesis of this study can be mastered alternative and null

hypothesis.

1. H0 (Null Hypothesis)

There is no significant difference of students’ writing achievement by

using picture series as media and before using picture series as media

of the tenth grade students at MAN Trenggalek.

2. Ha (Alternative Hypothesis)

There is significant difference of students’ writing achievement by

using picture series as media and before using picture series as media

of the tenth grade students at MAN Trenggalek.

E. The Sinificance of the Research

The researcher hopes that the results of this study can be used by

the teacher, students, educational institution, readers and the researcher for

the following purposes:

1. For the teacher

The researcher expects this research may show the teacher that give

knowledge about picture series as a teaching media to teach writing

skill on narrative texts for their students. This research can motivate

the teacher to make other teaching media to improve students’ score.

2. For the students

The result of this study may give motivate the students to improve

their interest in writing and students get significant result, so if the

result is good they can use this method to improve their score to face

their final practice examination. In addition, the result of using this

method will be better than the students that use traditional method to

improve their writing skill on narrative texts and support their final

practice examination.

3. For educational institution

The school will make a right decision to use some techniques or media

for supporting teaching and learning process, especially to use picture

series in writing class.

4. For the readers

The readers can get more information and knowledge from this

research.

5. For the researcher

She expects that it will be useful knowledge when the researcher start

her profession as a real teacher in the future and improves teaching

technique of writing skill.

F. Scope and Limitation of the Research

This study is conducted in tenth grade of MAN Trenggalek in the

academic year 2016/2017, because the researcher thinks this media is

suitable for them and do not want to disturb teaching and learning process.

As mentioned on the background of the study above, pictures series is one

of the alternative solutions that can be used by the teachers in writing

narrative text in the classroom. The research is limited on the effectiveness

of using pictures series to improve students’ writing skill in developing

narrative text. In addition, the writer focuses on narrative text, it is

expected on the use of picture series in other types of text to improve

students’ writing skill.

G. Definition of Key Terms

1. Writing Skill : the ability to express ideas in acceptable written

English form. (Isnawati : 2015: 4)

2. Narrative Text : a text, which relates a series of logically, and

chronologically related events that are caused or experienced by

factors. (Rebecca, 2003: 11)

3. Picture Series: a series of picture that explains about the events in the

story. (Maurer, 2006)