IMPROVING GRADE X STUDENTS ACHIEVEMENT IN WRITING NARRATIVE PARAGRAPH THROUGH ANIMATION MOVIE

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1 IMPROVING GRADE X STUDENTS ACHIEVEMENT IN WRITING NARRATIVE PARAGRAPH THROUGH ANIMATION MOVIE Andy Zulfadlan* Tina Mariany Arifin** ABSTRACT The objectives of this Classroom Action Research (CAR) was to discover the application of animation movie in writing a narrative paragraph of Grade X students State Islamic Senior High School (Madrasah Aliyah Negeri: MAN), Pematangsiantar. The study was conducted in two cycles, i.e. cycle I and II, following the four steps of CAR, are: (1) Planning, (2) Action, (3) Observation, and (4) Reflection. The Instruments used for qualitative data were: observations, diary notes, and interview. The writing test was used as quantitative data. The results of the data analysis showed that the teaching-learning process was satisfactory the mean of the orientation test score was while the mean of students score in cycle I was and cycle II in conclusion, it can be said that animation movie has shown the students interest and Thus English teachers are suggested to apply media in the teaching-learning process. Keywords: Writing, Narrative Paragraph, Animation Movie. INTRODUCTION The Background of the Study Language has a very important role in human activities. It is used as a means of communication with other people to express feelings, thoughts, and ideas in spoken as well as in written forms. At present, learning English is becoming more and more important. This era of globalization is an era full of challenges and competitions where the proficiency in spoken and written English is compulsory. With this competence, it enables one communicate with other people from different countries in many activities. English has been taught from the Elementary School level up to the University and even now, it has been taught in the Kindergarten level. Learning English in Senior High School is based on The Educational Unit Level Curriculum (Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan: KTSP). It focuses on the mastery of the content of the text, so that the students can understand how the language is being used. In learning English as a foreign language, the four skills that must be well-mastered by students are listening, speaking, reading, and writing (Brown 2001: 232). 1

2 Writing as one of the most important skills in English, is a productive skill that should be achieved by students in order to be able to communicative in written form. In developing the writing skill, students are encouraged to read a lot and understand the formation of sentences, paragraphs, vocabularies, and tenses (Byrne, 2002). Writing skill is considered as one of the aspects of a language that is difficult to master by students. There are many problems faced, and one of them is the organization of thoughts and ideas. This is one of the many reasons why a teacher should teach the right way in order that students can organize their ideas into written form. Based on the writer s observation at the State Islamic Senior High School (Madrasah Aliyah Negeri: MAN) Pematangsiantar and through interview the English teacher, it was revealed that the students of Grade X faced difficulties in writing. Most of them said that they were confused and lazy in English class. Therefore, this might be that the teacher did not teach well and the students did not know the strategy to write well. It was difficult for them to write, especially to generate the ideas on their mind into written language. Moreover, sometimes the students opened the dictionary and thus wasting some of the time and also decreased the students interest to continue writing. Another factor that made writing as the most difficult subject is that there are many kinds of writing in English among others: narrative, descriptive, expository, argumentative and persuasive. Every kind of writing has different characteristics, namely: genre, social function, structure and grammatical features. This failure of the students in writing was likely to happen because of the media used by the teacher during the teaching-learning process. Teachers were not able to use an interesting media in instructional process so they could not enjoy their lessons. The teacher should not just explain the subject or the materials and force the students to memorize or do their activities because it can make the students not interested in their lessons. To solve the problem above, a teacher can try to use an interesting media which can generate the students motivation and stimulation in the learning activities. There are many examples of media such as, song, picture, photograph, animation movie, cards, etc. In this case, the writer used animation movie as a media which could be used to solve the students interest in writing. 2

3 Movie is an audiovisual version of storytelling. It is a form of entertainment that presents a story by sound and a sequence of images giving the illusion of continuous movement. It is more effective in transmitting persuasive messages and eliciting a high degree of recall than the other media because of its ability in delivering information through both visual and sound. One kind of movie is an animation movie. This media can make students to have more fun in the class because it provides interesting things which are loved are by students, such as it contains the interesting story, interesting actors, wonderful actions, beautiful scenery, and a nice song. Based on the reasons above, the writer would like to discover whether the application of animation movie can improve the student s achievement in writing narrative paragraph. Research Question Based on the background of the study, the problem is formulated as the following: Does the use of animation movie significantly improve Grade X students achievement in writing narrative paragraph? The Objective of the Study In connection with the problem of the study, the objective of this study is to discover whether the use of animation movie improve Grade X students achievement in writing narrative paragraph. The Scope of the Study In line with the application of media in teaching English, this study is focused on the use of animation movie in teaching writing narrative paragraph to Grade X students. The Significance of the Study Findings of the study are expected to be useful and relevant both theoretically and practically. Theoretically, the findings are expected: (1) to broaden the horizons on theories of language learning, (2) to apply theories on language learning, and (3) to be used as a reference for those who want to conduct a further in depth research in English the teaching of writing. Practically, the findings are relevant and useful for: (1) English teachers to provide the information in their attempt to decide the use of animation movie in teaching writing a narrative paragraph, and (2) the improvement of students competence in writing narrative paragraph and to motivate them to be active in writing. 3

4 Conceptual Framework Writing Writing is the process of arranging letters, words, sentences, and paragraph on the bases of structure and some others related knowledge. According to Way (2000: 18) writing is a communication skill. Writing should contain relatively complete information and details. Writing helps to consolidate the grasp of vocabulary and structure, and complements the other language skills. It is a process that allows the writer to explore thoughts and ideas and make them visible and concrete. According to Brown (2001: 335) writing is the nature of composing a piece of writing. The compositional nature of writing has produced writing pedagogy that focuses students on how to: 1) generate ideas, 2) organize them coherently, 3) use discourse markers and rhetorical conventions to put them cohesively into a written text, 4) revise text for clearer meaning, 5) edit text for appropriate grammar, and 6) produce a final product. Siahaan (2008:215) states that writing is a psychological activity of the language users, which is the ability to put the information in the written text. It means that the writers record all their thoughts and ideas on a written text so that they can share their thoughts and ideas to other readers or people who read the written text. (Harmer, 2004:37) states that the purpose of learning writing is to have the students write particular kinds of letters, text types and many more. In order to achieve that, students should acquire some languages competence. Based on the explanation above, it can be summarized that learning writing is assumed to be difficult and the students should develop a full understanding of the writing process so they are able to express themselves more confidently, effectively, and efficiently in order to create a piece of writing. Writing Process Harmer (2004:4) claims that in producing a piece of writing, there is a process or processes involved and the process can be affected by the content of the writing, the types of writing, and the medium. There are four elements of the writing process, they are: planning, drafting, editing, and final version. 1. Planning is the arrangement conducted to do something. The planning stage is important because at this stage lies the ideas of the process of writing. This may involve making detailed notes. 4

5 2. Drafting is the process of putting all ideas and thoughts in a piece of paper which will be in the very rough form. It is assumed as the first version of a piece of writing as a draft. 3. Editing, the many drafts prepared that have been written to be edited or revised. Once a writer has produced a draft, s/he then usually reads through what s/he has been written, whether it is ambiguous or confusing. 4. Final Version is the end product of a piece of writing. Once the writer has been edited their draft(s), making the changes if any necessary, and in other to produces the final version. This may look considerably different from both of the original plan and the first draft, because many things perhaps have been changed in the editing process. Narrative The function of a narrative is to amuse, enter and to deal with actual or various experience in different way. It deals with the problematic events which lead to a crisis or turning point of some kind, which in turn find a resolution (Pardiyono 2007:93). A narrative paragraph is a group of paragraphs about a story or series of events. Narrative paragraph is the most distinctively used in fiction. When a writer writes a narrative paragraph, it means that the writer writes a story. A narrative paragraph tells about one main incident or happening. The writer brings the incident to life so the reader shares. It should be written in logical order. Writing a narrative paragraph should consider the coherence and unity of the paragraph besides it should tell a series of events or actions. In writing a narrative paragraph, the writer has a chance to make his or her mark on the world by relating a story that only he or she can tell. It comes from a personal experience or is one that the writer has imagined. Therefore, a good narrative paragraph will make the readers clearly catch what is trying to be described. Generic Structure of Narrative The generic structures of a narrative are: 1) Orientation: the setting of the scene, where and when the story happened, introduce the participants of the story, and what is involved in the story. 2) Evaluation: a stepping back to evaluate. 5

6 3) Complication Climax: telling the beginning of the problem which leads to the crisis of the main participants. 4) Resolution: the problem (the crisis) resolved, either in a happy or sad ending. 5) Re-orientation: a closing remark to the story and it is optional. It is consisted of a moral lesson, advice or teaching from the writer. Language Features of Narrative According to Gerot (1994:204) the grammatical features of narrative are: (1) Focus on specific and usually individualized participants, (2) Use of past tense, (3) Use of material verbs, (4) Use of relational process, (5) Use temporal conjunction, and (6) Use temporal circumstance. Sanggam & Shinoda (2008:34) also state that there are some typical linguistics features common to narrative, namely: a. they are sequenced in time and this is often signaled by the conjunctions or connectives that are used. b. they usually use the past tense c. they use many "action" verbs that describe what people do. d. they often contain dialogue and they also contain "saying" verbs Based on the explanations above, it can be summarized that linguistic features in narrative are:1) focus on specific and usually individualized participants, 2) use the past tense, and 3) use of material verbs. Media Media is a means for communicating information or news to the public. When media refers to the mass media, it is sometimes treated as a singular form, but media should always be treated as plural. Kariman (2010) states the availability of a variety of media (teaching aids) in the market is not an issue. Media, when used appropriately and correctly based on the curriculum, can assist and enlighten the teacher's burden to explain language meaning and construction, engage students in a topic or as the basis of whole activity for practical (creativity) and for motivational reasons. The high number of sales of self-instruction English language learning media or the multimedia (Kariman, 2002), is one indicator which shows that learning and teaching English should be conducted with the introduction of varieties of media (Kariman, 2005). In 6

7 teaching English, media is very important thing. It is because media can give the learning experiences more concrete and relates to daily life. Animation Movie Animation movie is distinguished from live action ones by the unusual kind of work that are done at production stage. It is not do continuously filming outdoor action in the real time, but they create a series of images by shooting one frame at a time. Animation movie uses the picture and other things, such as doll, chair, etc and they are revived with the animation technique. Besides, the living subject such as human, and plants can be animated too. The principle of animation is the same as how to make film with the living subject which needs more less 24 pictures per second to create motion illusion. William (2007:8) states that animation movie is a process to picture a character using the ability to draw and imagine. Based on the definition above, it can be concluded that animation movie is one of the kind of movies which uses the technique by creating the illusion of inanimate things. The Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Animation Movie in Teaching Writing Narrative paragraph Since movie or film can be heard and seen, animation movie has many contributions in teaching writing narrative paragraph. Firstly, since the story in the movie is conveyed through expression, gesture, language, sounds, and other visual clues, the students would be easier to understand the story in the movie. Secondly, by using animation movie, the students would find it easier to get an idea because they should dramatize or change the idea of story of the movie in audiovisual form became a story into written form by their own words. Thirdly, the students would have a lot of words based on the movie, so they only arrange the words into a good story. Fourthly, for all the reasons so far mentioned, most students would show an increased level of interest when they have a change to see language in use as well as hear it, and when this is coupled with interesting tasks. There are also the disadvantages of using animation movie as a material in teaching writing narrative paragraph. First, teaching by using animation movie needed 7

8 more facilities like laptop, LCD projector where not all schools have them. Second, duration of animation movie is long enough, about 60 minutes. Methodology Research Design Classroom Action Research (CAR) is a reflective process of progressive problem solving led by individuals working with others in teams or as part of a community practice to improve the way they address issues and solve problems. Action research is different from other more conventional or traditional types of research in that it is very focused on individual or small group professional practice (Wallace, 1981). Stringer (2007:4) asserts that CAR is a careful management of research activities so that stakeholders can jointly construct definitions of the situation that are meaningful to them and provide the basic for formulating effective solutions to the research problem. A Simple Action Research Model Subject of the Research The subjects of this research were the students of Grade X-7 Islamic Senior High School (Madrasah Aliyah Negeri: MAN) at Jalan Singosari, Pematangsiantar. There were 35 students in the class, 10 males and 25 females. The Instruments of Data Collection In collecting the data, the researcher used the writing test as the instrument. The students were tested by asking them to write a narrative paragraph. The researcher also 8

9 used interview, questionnaire, observation, and diary note. Questionnaire and interview were used when the researcher identified the problem of the study. Observation focused on what was happened in the classroom and diary notes were used to record events in every activity. Action Research Procedures The procedures of collecting the data of the study were conducted by administrating, Cycle I & II. These included the four steps, namely, planning, action, observation and reflection. Kemmis (1995) has developed a simple model of the cyclical nature of the typical action research process. Each cycle has four steps: plan, action, observe, and reflect. Scoring System The scoring writing test in this research was based on the generic structure and grammatical features of narrative paragraph. The Scoring of Writing Narrative Paragraph ASSESSMENT CRITERIA SCORE Orientation 10 Complication 20 Generic Structure Resolution 10 Re-orientation 5 Focus on specific and usually individualized participants 5 Uses the past tense 15 Uses the material verbs 10 Uses mental verbs 10 Linguistic Features Uses temporal conjunction 10 Often contain dialogue and they also saying verbs that 5 explain how people speak Total 100 The Technique of Data Analysis The techniques of data analysis were qualitative and quantitative. The qualitative data were analyzed based on the interview, questionnaire, and diary notes while the quantitative was analyzed from the score of the students that they got from the writing test. By applying both, it was expected that Animation Movie could improve the students score, the formula used is: 9

10 Where X = The mean of the students Σx = The total score N = The number of the students X = x N x100 Next, to categorize the total number of the students who had mastered the writing narrative paragraph, In this case, the writer applied the following formula: P = R x 100% T Where P = the percentage of the students who get the point 75 R = the number of the students who get the point above 75 T = the total number of students who do test. DATA ANALYSIS AND RESEARCH FINDINGS Data Analysis The data of this research were obtained from the observation sheet, interview, questionnaire, and diary notes, and the test result. The data were divided into qualitative data (observation sheet, interview, questionnaire, and diary notes) and quantitative data (test result). The data of this research were obtained from the students test result carried out in two cycles. The qualitative data were taken from diary notes which indicated students respect and response in learning narrative paragraph by using animation movie, interview, questionnaire sheet, and observation sheet. There was interview conducted, the interview sheet used to analyze the students difficulty in writing narrative paragraph. The observation sheet indicated that most student were active during the teaching process through the application of animation movie. Observation was done while the classroom activities were going on. Analysis of Quantitative Data The quantitative data were taken from the students test result carried out in two Cycles. The increasing of the students score in writing narrative paragraph can be seen from the mean of the students score from Cycle I test until Cycle II test. The mean of the Cycle II test (80.28) was higher than the mean of the Cycle I test. In Cycle II test, the mean of the students score was It showed that the mean of the Cycle II test 10

11 was higher than Cycle I test (74.31). It was caused the students were active and they pay attention well to the teacher s instruction. From the result, it can be concluded that the students score kept improving from meeting to meeting. Comparison of the Students Writing Test Score Type of Score Orientation Test Cycle I Test Cycle II Test The lowest score The highest score X N The mean of the Cycle II test was the highest. Thus, it can be concluded that the students writing score improved from (Orientation test) to (Cycle II test). The percentage of the students who got the point up to 75 showed the improvement of the students writing score from the Orientation test to Cycle II test (the students were said mastering the lesson if they got score up 75). The Percentage of the Students Achievement Test Number of students score 75 points Percentage Orientation test % Cycle I % Cycle II % The improvement of the students score from the Orientation test to Cycle II test. The Orientation test only 11.42% (4 students) who got 75 points. In Test II was 34.28% (12 students). In Cycle II test was 65.71% (23 students) that got 75 points, the improvement The students score increased from the Orientation test to Cycle II test. During the research, it was found out that the students score kept improving from the meetings. The improvement of the students score can be seen from the Orientation test until Cycle II test. Table 4.3 shows that there are 9 students who got from 21-30, 22 students who got from 11-20, 3 students who got from 1-10, and there was 1 student who got from It can be concluded that all of the students got improvement and while others got low. 11

12 The Range of Score Improvement No Range of score Students initial Total improvement NU, SC, ZS DA, DYS, FF, IM, IA, MRFR, MFFH, MFA, NTS, 22 KK, LIS, PA, REP, RI, SP, SU, ST, SS WD, WS, YT, ZU, ADT, AHS, AGS, AFP, CI, GSN, RS, SPU, SOF, FKS 1 There were some differences between the lowest and the highest of the students writing score with each test. In the Orientation test, the lowest was 50 and the highest was 80. In the test II, the lowest score was 62 and the highest was 85. In the test III, the lowest score was 68 and the highest score was 90. The mean of the students score in Cycle II test was the highest, so it could seen that the students writing by using animation movie increased from 61% to 80%. The Improvement of Students Writing Orientation Post test cycle 1 Post test cycle II Meeting 1 Meeting 4 Meeting 6 Total Score Mean R % R 11.42% 34.28% 65.71% The improvement of the students score from the orientation test to Cycle II test. In the orientation test only 11.42% (4 students) who got 75. In the Cycle I test was 34.28% (12 students). In Cycle II, test was 65.71% (23 students) that got 75 points, the improvement was 31.43%. Analysis of Qualitative Data Interview Sheet The interview was conducted in two sessions. In the first session, the students were interviewed about their comment on writing and their understanding about writing narrative paragraph. They were also asked about their difficulties in writing. They were interviewed weather they knew about animation movie. And they said that they did not know that and their teacher never told and taught them about that. In the second session, the students were interviewed to get their comment on the implementation of animation 12

13 movie. From the interviewed, it was concluded that the students felt that using Animation Movie was fun and enjoyable in improving their writing achievement. Observation Sheet The result of Cycle I showed many students were still confused to participate the teaching-learning process because it was still the first time for them to study using animation movie. The writer did not emphasize the aims of the teaching-learning process clearly so the students focus was not directed. Some of the students made noise during teaching-learning process and some students were still unable to complete their writing based on the animation movie. But in Cycle II the writer found that the teaching-learning process, which was conducted by applying animation movie, ran well. The atmosphere of the teaching learning process was comfort and enjoyable. They gave their good attention to the teacher s explanation and instruction. They also asked questions about what they did not understand well while the writer was explaining the material. They gave good responses to the activities in the classroom although some of them were still lazy and sometimes made noise in the classroom. Diary Notes From the diary notes, it was found that at beginning of the meeting the students were still not interested in writing narrative paragraph. Most of them were not able to write a paragraph. But after the writer applied Animation movie, the students became enthusiastic to learn and to try to write narrative paragraph. They were also able to write based on the generic structure and the language features of the text. Therefore, in every test administrated after applying real objects, they could answer the question and do writing as instructed by the writer well. The students score kept improving from Orientation test to Cycle II test. Questionnaire The questionnaire was done in the last meeting. It was found that most of the students agreed that Animation Movie could improve their writing achievement. Questionnaire was used to know students opinion, perception and respond about the implementation of Animation Movie. The questionnaire was made based on scales, Agree (score 1) and Disagree (score 2). There were some 12 statement in the questionnaire. So, the maximum score was

14 Research Findings The results indicated that there were improvements on the students writing by using Animation Movie. It was supported by the fact that the mean of the score in every Cycle was increased, and also could be seen from the mean of the score and from the percentage of the students writing improvement that the tests got the highest gradually, the mean in the orientation test was 61.85, the mean in the Cycle I test was 74.31, and the mean in the Cycle II test was 80.28, and the percentages as follows the orientation test was 11.42%, Cycle 1 was 34,28%, and Cycle II was 65.71%. The qualitative data were taken from the interview, diary notes, questionnaire, and from observation sheet showed that students participation increased from the meetings. This data described that the students attention, response, enthusiastic, and participation were good during the research process. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS Conclusions After analyzing the data, it was found that the students score increased from Cycle I namely from the first meeting until the fourth meeting and Cycle II namely from the fifth meeting until the sixth meeting. In all the meetings, it showed that the students got improvement in writing narrative paragraph by using Animation Movie. The mean of the students score in Cycle II was which was higher than the mean of students score in Cycle I was 74.31, and then the mean of the orientation test was it was also from result of observation sheet, interview, questionnaire, and diary notes results indicated the improvement in the teachinglearning process from Cycle I to Cycle II. Based on the data, the conclusion was that the teaching by using animation movie could improve students writing. Suggestions Based on the conclusions drawn, the results of the findings show valuable contribution for those who are interested in the teaching of writing, especially: 1. To the English teachers: It is advisable to use Animation Movie in the teaching of writing so that the process of teaching can be fun and enjoyable. 2. To the students: Students are encouraged to watch programs and then write a narrative paragraph. 14

15 To the readers: It is expected them to get some valuable information on writing by using animation movie. It also becomes one inspiration get more information. 3. To other researcher to conduct a research more in-depth on the application of animation movie. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Ultimate gratitude is directed to the Almighty Allah SWT, the most Gracious and Mercy for His blessings in the process of completing this thesis. During the process of writing, the writer realizes that he cannot accomplish it without the support and encouragement from many people. He would like to express his sincere gratitude to: Prof. Dr. Ibnu Hajar, M.Si., Rector of State University of Medan Dr. Isda Pramuniati, M. Hum, Dean of Faculty of Languages and Arts, State University of Medan Prof. Dr. Hj. Sumarsih, M. Pd., Head of English Department, Dra. Rahmah, M. Hum., secretary of English Department, and Dra. Masitowarni Siregar, M.Ed., Head of English Education Study Program, for their full support and attention. And all lecturers for the valuable knowledge. Prof. Tina Mariany Arifin, M.A.,Ph.D, writer s Consultant who has been very patient in sparing her valuable time in the process correcting the draft of this thesis until finally it appears in its final form. Drs. Zulkarnaen., Headmaster of State Islamic Senior High School (Madrasah Aliyah Negeri: MAN) Pematangsiantar and English teacher who had assisted him during the conduction of the research. Dahmanur Siregar and Rosnelliati, as the writer s parents, who have given the full support, prayers, motivation, advice and financial during the completion of this thesis. Yohana and Unge for the togetherness and struggle in completing the thesis and all the classmates in English Education Classes A, B, and C for sharing knowledge, kindness, and friendship during the time spent studying. Medan, 2013 The writer REFERENCES Andy Zulfadlan Byrne, D Teaching Writing Skill. London: Longman. Burns, A Doing Action Research in English Language Teaching: A Guide for Practitioners. New York: Routledge. 15

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