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TEACHING WRITING DESCRIPTIVE PARAGRAPHS THROUGH OPINION STUDENTS FINDER’S OF TRI TECHNIQUE TO THE DHARMA JUNIOR EIGHTH HIGH PALEMBANG A Journal By: AYIS SUSANTO Student Registration Number 2013111021 English Education Study Program Language and Arts Education Department FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION PGRI UNIVERSITY OF PALEMBANG 2017 GRADE SCHOOL OF Page | 1 TEACHING WRITING DESCRIPTIVE PARAGRAPHS THROUGH OPINION FINDER’S TECHNIQUE TO THE EIGHTH GRADE STUDENTS OF TRI DHARMA JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL OF PALEMBANG AYIS SUSANTO 2013111021 Advisor 1 (Dr. Tahrun, M.Pd) Advisor 2 (Hj. Noviati, M.Pd) Abstract The main problem of this study was “Is it effective to teach writing descriptive paragraph through opinion finder’s technique to the eighth grade students of Tri Dharma Junior High School of Palembang?” The objective of this study is to find out whether or not it is effective to Teach Writing Descriptive Paragraph through Opinion Finder’s Technique to the Eighth Grade Students of Tri Dharma Junior High School of Palembang. The population of this study was all of the Eighth Grade Students of Tri Dharma Junior High School of Palembang. The total number of the population was 166 students from five classes. The sample was 32 students taken from VIII.E class by using cluster random sampling. Pre-experimental method was used in this study. In collecting the data the writer used written test and then the data was analyzed by using Matched ttest. Based on the data analysis from the test, it was found that teaching writing writing descriptive paragraph through opinion finder’s technique to the eighth grade students of Tri Dharma Junior High School of Palembang was effective. The average score in the pre-test was 67 and the average score in the post-test was 73 the result of calculation of method t-test was 7.5. Therefore, teaching writing descriptive paragraphs through opinion finders technique to the eighth grade students of Tri Dharma Junior High School of Palembang was effective in increasing students ability especially in writing descriptive paragraph. Keywords: teaching writing, descriptive paragraphs and opinion finder’s technique. Page | 2 1. INTRODUCTION BACKGROUND There are many ways to improve the students’ ability to learn English to be better. Therefore, there are four language skills that consist of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. In this research, the writer only focused on writing skill. Writing is the most important aspect that should be owned by the students in order to write down what they want to express to others. According to Oshima and Ann Hogue (1978:23), there are some components in writing. They are: It is consists of structure, vocabulary, grammar, conjunction word. Those components make their difficult and not interest especially in writing subject. For example, they are often get confused in expressing the ideas, they cannot making sentences that they want to write, and they don’t know how to begin to write down their ideas. Consequently, the teacher should to find out a way to make the students easy and interesting in learning process. In addition, Heaton J.B (1988:135) state that “The writing skills are complex and sometimes difficult to teach, requiring mastery not only of grammatical and vocabulary but also conceptual and judge mental elements”. It means that, the students must be able to understand and master the elements to be considered in writing process. Based on the experience of the writer that was found in PPL 2 at Tri Dharma Junior High School of Palembang, the writer found a wide range of difficulties faced by the students, especially in the subjects of English. When the writer tries to explain the material related to writing, there are still many students confused where they want to begin to write. One of the factors that cause is the lack of vocabulary, so they can not write down the ideas. While, the objectives of teaching are to transferring of knowledge and skills by a teacher to students so that students can understand the material and get the main points of the material that has been taught by the teacher itself. However, as a candidate of English teacher, the writer attempted to find out an effective way for students so they can write down their ideas more easily. Page | 3 Therefore, the writer interested to use Opinion Finder’s as a technique to increase the students ability in writing and it can be made the students more active because in this process, the students were made a descriptive text based on their own word. They may provide comments to each of their friends who had written the text based on their own ideas. This activity made students more interest and engaging in teaching and learning process in the classroom. Based on the explanation above, the writer was chosen the title “Teaching Writing Descriptive paragraphs Through Opinion Finder’s Technique to the Eighth Grade Students of Tri Dharma Junior High School of Palembang”. 2. LITERATURE REVIEW TEACHING According to Brown (2000:7), teaching is showing or helping someone to learn how to do something, giving instructions, guiding in the study of something, providing with knowledge, causing to know or understand. Beside that, Hyland (2003:100) state that “teaching is largely a process of transforming content knowledge into pedagogically effective forms, and this is most in evidence when teachers are considering both their learners and their profession in modifying and creating materials”. Gage (2009:3) state that “teaching is the term used more in formal educational settings, namely, in elementary schools, secondary schools, colleges, and graduate schools”. In addition, Richards (1990:12) state that “ teaching is usually regarded as something that teachers do in order to bring about changes in learners”. Based on the explanation above, the writer concludes that teaching means an activity carried out by the teacher and students that aims to provide knowledge and information to students about the material that they were learned, so the students can understand the content of the material presented by the teacher. Hopefully, knowledge that was given by the teacher will increase the Page | 4 students’ ability. In conclusion, teaching and learning process could be happen if there is an interaction between teacher and students. WRITING Harmer (2007:112) state that “writing gives the students more ‘thinking time’ than they get when they attempt spontaneous conversation”. Harmer also point out that writing is used as an aid memory or practice tool to help students practice and work with language they have been studying. Furthemore, Cook .V and Benedetta Bassetti (2005:3) state that “writing is referring to the set of rules employed in a particular language for spelling, punctuation etc”. Moreover, Harmer (2004:3) state that “writing is a vital skill for speakers of a foreign language as much as for everyone using their own first language”. Carol J.A and Edward E.Wilson (1993:12) also argue that “ writing as a process means giving students time to pre write, write, post write, proofread, and edit their papers. It means teaching writing, not just assigning it. It means teaching the various forms of writing so students think through their meaning, their purpose, and the needs of their audience to determine the most appropriate genre. Based on explanation above, it can be concluded that writing is a very powerful learning. Students benefit greatly from exploring their thinking through writing. They clarify their ideas, identify confusing points, integrate new information with their background knowledge, and depends of their understanding and memory of their reading. In writing paragraph, effectively the writer should know the writing process first. According to Harmer (2004: 4-6), there are four process of writing. They are: a. Planning Planning is the first step of writing process. People plan what they are going to write. The topic they will be write in various manner. Such as: writing details idea in note, purpose of the writing, or saving idea in their mind. In this research, the writer encourage students through opinion finders by their own idea. They write a word then express their idea about the topic. Page | 5 b. Drafting Drafting is the first version of a piece of writing. It is including of a paragraph. In this research, the students were write down a sentence by their own opinion based on the topic. c. Editing Editing is a process to correct the paragraph. Editing is one of the important part to see, making clear information, and correcting some ambiguous word. In this context, the students can make a good paragraph. d. Final Version In this process, it can be called as a final step. The writer is ready to explain how to make a good paragraph for the students. The writer gave more details including the topic that was studied. DESCRIPTIVE PARAGRAPHS According to Pardiyono (2007:34), descriptive is a type of written text which has the specific function to give description about an object (human or non human). In addition, Oshima and Hogue (2007:60) state that “descriptive writing appeals to the sense, so it tells how something look, feels, smells, tastes, and or sounds”. Furthemore, Oshima and Ann Hogue (2007:60), emphasize that, A description is a word picture. It tells the reader how something can looks, smelt and others. It means that if we want to make a good description, we have to describe the object more details so that the reader will be able to imagine our descriptions. According to Pardiyono (2007:36), The generic structure of descriptive paragraph consist of: Identification: “Consist of the statement that describe about an object that will be describing, the statement should be interesting, capable of provoking readers to become interested to read the full description, use of adjectives (adjective) or degree of comparison is helpful, for example : “Yogyakarta, well known as Kota Pelajar, is one of the most interesting cities in Indonesia”. Description: “Given picture about condition of an object that can be viewed from several aspects: location, means of transport, people, weather, size, etc. Grammatical Page | 6 Patterns: present tense, present perfect tense, verb ;be (am, is, are), have, linking verbs (seems, looks, sounds, like).Using adjective as function to describing or illustrating condition an object”. OPINION FINDER’S According to CCEA Curriculum (2007:54), opinion finder’s is an information gathering activity in which pupils seek and give opinions on a number of statements relevant to a particular topic. Pupils must then in small groups tally their results and look for connections between opinions. Otherwise, according to Wilson (2005:1), Opinion finder is a system that performs subjectivity analysis, automatically identifying when opinions, sentiments, speculation and other private states are present in the text. Opinion finder aims to identify subjective sentences and to mark various aspects of the subjectivity in the sentence. Based on the explanation above, it can be concluded that opinion finder is one of technique that can be used by the teacher to increase the students’ ability in writing process. The students could make their writing ability by using an object, piece of text, and etc. By this technique, hopefully the students were develop their ability and easy to understand in writing paragraph because they were write down on piece of paper about topics, object, and sentence based on their ideas by observing the rules of writing. PROCEDURES OF OPINION FINDER’S TECHNIQUE According to CCEA Curriculum (2007:54), there are several procedures in teaching writing descriptive paragraph by using opinion finder’s technique. The procedures of opinion finder’s technique was explain as follows: a). Students receive a piece of paper with a particular statement at the top. A different colour of paper is used for each statement. A grid below the statements might be used for recording peoples’ opinions. Example categories might include: agree strongly, agree, no fixed opinion, disagree, Page | 7 disagree strongly. An open space for comments might be included after these categories. b). Students read their statement to ensure that they understand it. c). Students move around, giving and collecting opinions simultaneously. d). Students keep a tally of other peoples’ opinions on their particular statement in the category grid. They also write down peoples’ comments in the open space. e). Every Students should give an opinion on every statement. f). After the allocated time students could come together as a group with others who have the same statement as themselves (the same colour paper). They could tally their own results for the statement individually and then as a group. g).They could give an account of the comments on their sheet to others in the group and then, as a group, try to classify them. h). A debrief afterwards is beneficial. Results could be noted and classified on a flip chart. By using this technique, hopefully students activities in the classroom more interest, effective and active to follow in teaching and learning process. It was make the students can be develop their ability in writing paragraph. 3. RESEARCH PROCEDURE VARIABLES OF THE RESEARCH According to Hatch and Lazaraton (1991:51), a variable can be defined as an attribute of a person, a piece of text, or an object. In this research, to fnd out how the variables relate to one another, we need to be able to identify their functions. In other words, there are two kinds of variable of this research. There are independent variable and dependent variable. Hatch and Lazaraton (1991:6364) state that “the dependent variable is the major variable that will be measured in the research while an independent variable is a variable that the researcher suspects may related or influence the dependent variable. It means that dependent variable depends on the independent variable. The independent variable of this research is the use of opinion finder’s technique to the eighth grade students of Tri Dharma Junior High School of Page | 8 Palembang and the dependent variable is the students’ achievement in writing descriptive paragraph that is measured by written test essay. OPERATIONAL DEFINITIONS The title of this research is “Teaching Writing Descriptive Paragraph through Opinion Finder’s Technique to the Eighth Grade Students of Tri Dharma Junior High School of Palembang. Moreover, to avoid misunderstanding about the terms was used in this research, it is necessary for the writer to define them one by one. They are teaching, writing, descriptive paragraph, and opinion finders technique. It is consists of: 1) Teaching Teaching is a process of transferring, guiding, and deliver the knowledge of the teacher to the students in order to help the students increase their ability, skills, and undesrtanding of the materials to be delivered. 2) Writing Writing is a process of transferring ideas, thoughts, and feelings experienced by the writer and presented to the readers. 3) Descriptive Paragraph Descriptive paragraph is a paragraph that describe about someting. This research, it refers to the paragrapht which describe about a person. 4) Opinion Finder Technique Opinion finder’s is an information gathering activity in which students seek and give opinions on a number of statements relevant to a particular topic. LOCATION AND TIME OF THE RESEARCH In this research, the data was collected at Tri Dharma Junior High School of Palembang with the time approximately one month. Page | 9 METHOD OF THE RESEARCH In this research, pre- experimental design was used as a method of the research. The pre-test and post-test were used in one group. A single group is measured or observed not only being exposed to a treatment but also before some sorts of the treatment too. The Pre-experimental was used because the writer try to investigate the score achievement in writing through opinion finder’s by comparing the students score before the treatment and after the treatment. The formula (Fraenkel and Wallen 2012:269) is as follows: O1 Pre-test X Treatment O2 Post-test Where: O1 : The test before experimental (Pre-test) X : The treatment through Opinion Finder O2 : The test after experiment (Post-test) POPULATION AND SAMPLE POPULATION According to Fraenkel and Wallen (2012:91), population is the larger group to which one hopes to apply the results. It means that population is not only the person or living creature, but also objects that can be used as a population. The population is not only a number that exist at the object or subject being studied, but includes all the characteristics, properties owned by the object or subject. Based on the statement above, the writer concludes that population is the group to whom generalized the result of the research. The population of this research was all of the Eighth Grade Students of Tri Dharma Junior High School of Palembang. It could be seen in the table: Page | 10 TABLE 1 POPULATION OF THE RESEARCH No Classes Students 1 VIII.A 34 2 VIII.B 32 3 VIII.C 36 4 VIII.D 32 5 VIII.E 32 Total Number 166 (Source : Staff Administration of Tri Dharma Junior High School of Palembang 2016/2017) SAMPLE According to Fraenkel, et al., (2012:106), a sample is any part of a population of individuals on whom information is obtained. It may, for a variety of reasons, be different from the sample originally selected. It is selected in such a way that it represents, the large group (population) from which it is obtained. In other words, sample is part to be extracted from the entire object under study and considered to represent the entire population. According to Fraenkel and Wallen (2012: 96), cluster random sampling is similar to simple random sampling except that groups rather than individuals are randomly selected (that is, the sampling unit is a group rather than an individual). In this research, the writer was used cluster random sampling, because the writer was choose randomly. For choosing the class, the writer wrote the name of four classes in four pieces of paper, rolled them, put them in the glass, and took one of them randomly to be taken as sample of this research. Page | 11 TABLE 2 SAMPLE OF THE RESEARCH No Class Students 1. VIII.E 32 Total 32 (Source : Staff Administration of Tri Dharma Junior High School of Palembang 2016/2017) TECHNIQUES FOR COLLECTING THE DATA In collecting the data, the writer was used a written test. According to Brown (2000:3), test is a method of measuring a person’s ability, knowledge, or performance in a given domain. By doing of the test, the writer would know that opinion finder’s technique whether it is effective or not in teaching writing descriptive paragraph. In the process of the test, the writer used two tests that was consist of pre-test and post-test. The pre-test was given before the writer doing in teaching writing descriptive test through opinion finder’s. While, the post-test was used after doing the treatment. In this test, the teacher asks students to write descriptive paragraph which consists of two paragraphs at least 150 words for the two paragraphs to be made. It is includes of identification, description, and the topic of this paragraph is about my father. The students should write such as name, profession, physical, personality, and works. The allocated time is 2 x 40 minutes. TABLE 3 THE CRITERION FOR SCORING STUDENTS’ WRITING Aspect Content (C) Score Description 30 Exellent to very good : knowledgeble, substantive, etc. Good to average : some knowledge of subject,adequate range etc. Fair to poor : limited knowledge of subject, little substance etc. Very poor : does not show knowledge of subject, non 25 20 15 Page | 12 20 Organization (O) 15 10 5 25 Grammar (G) 20 15 10 20 Vocabulary(V ) 15 10 5 5 Mechanics (M) 4 3 2 subtantive etc. Exellent to very good : fluent expression, ideas clearly stated etc. Good to average : somewhat choppy, loosely organization but main ideas stand out, etc. Fair to poor : non fluent, ideas confused or disconnected, etc. Very poor : does not communicate, etc. Exellent to very good : effective complex constructions, etc. Good to average : effective but simple constructions, etc. Fair to poor : major problems in simple or complex constructions, etc. Very poor : virtually no mastery of sentence constructions, etc. Exellent to very good : sophisticated range, effective word or idiom choice and usage, etc. Good to average : adequate range, occasional errors of words or idiom form, choice, usage but meaning not obscured Fair to poor : limited range, frequent errors of word or idiom form, choice, usage, etc. Very poor : essentially translation, little knowledge of English. Exellent to very good : demonstrates of conventions, etc. Good to average : occasional errors of spelling, punctuation, etc. Fair to poor : frequent errors of spelling, punctuation, , capitalization, etc. Very poor : no mastery of convensons, dominated by errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing, etc. 4. FINDINGS AND INTERPRETATION FINDINGS Based on the research that has been done, it was found that teaching writing descriptive paragraph through opinion finder’s technique was effective. From the results of research conducted, it was found that after the treatment given Page | 13 by the researchers, the students who were taught writing descriptive paragraphs through opinion finder’s technique was better than before. It was found that the students’ average score in the pre-test was 67 and the students average score in post-test was 73. Next, the result of matched t-test was 0.79 So, the value of t-obtained was 7.5 and the value of t-table was 1.697 in one tailed test at the significance level 0.05 with degree of freedom (df) is 32(321). Consequently, the null hypothesis (Ho) was rejected and the alternative hypothesis (Ha) was accepted because t-obtained was higher than t-table. Next, more information about those findings was explain. INTERPRETATION Based on the finding above, the writer interprets that teaching writing descriptive paragraph through opinion finders technique to the eighth grade students of Tri Dharma Junior High School of Palembang was significantly effective. It can be seen from the differences of the students score in the pre-test and post-test. The students got low score in the pre-test, then after the treatment was given of teaching writing descriptive paragraph through opinion finder technique, the students score in the post-test were increase. It means that, teaching writing descriptive paragraphs through opinion finders technique is one of effective way to increase the students ability especially in writing skills. 5. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS CONCLUSIONS Based on the findings and interpretations in the previous chapter, it can be concluded that teaching writing descriptive paragraphs through opinion finders technique to the eighth grade students of Tri Dharma Junior High School of Palembang was effective in increasing students ability, especially in writing descriptive paragraph. It can be seen from the students score in the pre-test and post-test. The students’ average scores in the pre-test was 67. It means that the students’ ability in writing descriptive paragraphs was in the moderate range. Page | 14 Then, the students’ average scores in the post-test was 73. It means that the student scores ability was in good range. The student scores in the post-test was higher than in pre-test. The alternative hypothesis (Ha) was accepted and consequently the null hypothesis (Ho) was rejected. Therefore, teaching writing descriptive paragraphs through opinion finders technique to the eighth grade students of Tri Dharma Junior High School of Palembang was effective in increasing students ability especially in writing descriptive paragraph. SUGGESTIONS Based on the conclusions of the research, the suggestions are given follows: For Teachers of English Teachers of English are expected to use opinion finder in teaching writing descriptive paragraph, because: 1. Opinion finders technique is one of effective technique to used in teaching writing descriptive paragraph. 2. Opinion finders technique can help the teacher in delivering writing materials easily and can be understood by students. 3. Opinion finders technique gives students freedom to express what they feel based on their own opinions in writing descriptive paragraph. 4. Sometimes opinion finders technique makes the students feel bored, but it will be more interesting when the teacher knows their problems and limitations in writing. So, the approaches between students and teachers is needed in the learning process. For Students The students are expected to: 1. Give more attention and appreciate for the teacher explanation. 2. Always follow what the teacher has instructed. 3. Improve memorization of vocabulary and often read in the library, because it is one way to increase knowledge. Page | 15 4. Do more practice at home. For Institution Staff For institution staff are expected to: 1. Expanded reference books about writing in the library. 2. Provide facilities for teachers to prepare them for lesson plans. For Other Researcher The writer was expected that this thesis could be used as reference material for other researchers to improve their skills and knowledge, especially in science of teacher and linguistics as soon as an additional material to make them more understand in the same topic. Page | 16 REFERENCES Brown, H. D. (2007). Teaching by Principles. New York: Longman. Pearson Education Company. Brown, H. D. (2000). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching (4th Ed). New York : Longman. Pearson Education Company. Carol, J.A & Edward E. W. (1993). How to Teach Writing. United States: Libraries Unlimited Inc. Englewood, Colorado. Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA). (2007). Active Learning and Teaching Method. For key Stages 1&2. Ireland: Nothern. Clarck, L. (2003). Theory and Practice in the Teaching of Writing. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. California State University. Cook, J. & Benedetta. B. (2005). Second Language Writing Systems. 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