IMPROVING THE STDUENTS WRITING SKILL BY THE USE OF WRITE-PAIR- SHARE TECHNIQUE

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1 ISSN JP3, Volume 1, No. 13, Agustus 2013 IMPROVING THE STDUENTS WRITING SKILL BY THE USE OF WRITE-PAIR- SHARE TECHNIQUE Ismy Nia Mazda (Mahasiswa Jurusan Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris FKIP Unisma) Abstract: Writing among students takes less attention in the process of its activities. They were difficult to explore ideas, taking a long process and unorganized result. Write-pair-share technique is designed to overcome students difficulties in writing. The aims of this study is to find out the improvement on the ability of the second year students of MA Al Maarif Singosari Malang in composing hortatory exposition text by the use of write-pair-share technique. The subjects were 37 students of the second grade of language class. The study was done only in one cycle that consists of five meetings. CAR was used in order to attempt to solve her personal practical problems faced in the classroom. The analysis found that the treatment could reach the improvement of the students writing ability. It was reflected of the result of the test. There were 27 students (73%) out of 37 students got the score 75could obtain the school minimum standard (KKM) of English subject in writing hortatory exposition text. In addition, the percentage of the students activeness was also improved from the first to the last meetings. Key words: Write-Pair-Share Technique, Writing Hortatory Exposition Text, Improve INTRODUCTION English is an international language. There are four language skills that must be mastered by the students: they are reading, speaking, listening, and writing. In teaching and learning process, teaching writing is one of the important skills that must be mastered by the students, because the success of the students in learning process is influence by writing ability. While, writing is often considered as the most difficult and boring activity among the four language skills in English. Acquiring writing skill needs a lot of practice, and to produce a piece of essay needs long process hence the appropriate method of teaching and learning is very important to help students to be skillful in writing. This is because the process of writing requires a set of competencies (Brown, 2007: 391). People express themselves, think deeply and get many ideas to write. Students have to master a lot of aspects related to the aspect of writing e.g. spelling, capitalization, word-choice, and grammar, and the ability to connect the sentences to become the unified through in a written discourse. Therefore, hortatory exposition text appertains into academic writing. This argumentative essay requires the students to have a critical thinking, scientific ideas, and argumentative expression. Those characteristics cause a lot of students getting frustrated in composing this text. Besides, referring to the syllabus of school - based on Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan (KTSP) this kind of text is only taught at the second grade of senior high school on the second term. Differ from other kinds of 167

2 genres; Narrative, Report, Spoof, Description text, etc. however, they had been introduced and learned since junior high school level. So, many students regard that this text is still a new thing for them. This factor may come from the students experienced about hortatory exposition text which is still low ability. Lacking of scientific ideas and pre-writing activities are two causes that students get depressed in composing this text. From that case, both the teachers and the students need a significant way of teaching and learning in order to improve student achievement in writing. It is the appropriate condition to do a research in order to solve students problem in writing. However, the researcher interviewed the English teacher of the second grade of MA Al Marif Singosari exactly the language class at April 08, 2013, the researcher found some problems in the teaching and learning process. Based on the result of the interview, the researcher found the following problem: This factor may come from the students experience about hortatory exposition text which is still low ability. Lacking of scientific ideas and pre-writing activities are two causes that students get depressed in composing this text. From that case, both the teachers and the students need a significant way of teaching and learning in order to improve student achievement in writing Based on the difficulties of the students in writing hortatory exposition above, it can be seen from their result of the test in hortatory exposition that the students score is not reach KKM that decided from the school. The KKM is 75, and the average of the students score in MA Al Maarif Singosari Malang is From the problems occurred above, the writer believed that the use of an appropriate technique is the significant way to increase the writing skill. One of the effective ways to encourage students to enhance their writing skill is through Write-Pair-Share technique as their pair assessment. In this technique, students first individually write down their ideas on the task. Next, they discuss their ideas with their pair of their group. Finally, students share their pair s ideas with the rest of the class. Write-Pair-Share (George M. Jacobs, Gan Siowck lee & Jessica Ball, 1997: 13). The researcher interested to use writepair-share technique as their pair assessment as an alternative strategy to improve the students writing skill. There are some advantages of Write- Pair-Share Technique 1). Instructors find they can have a format change during the study that only takes a small amount of class time. Preparation is generally easy and takes a short amount of time. 2). the personal interaction motivates students who might not generally be interested in the discipline 3). You can ask different kinds and level of questions 4). It engages the entire class and almost quite students to answer questions without having stood out from their classmate 5). You can assess students understanding by listening in on several groups during the activity, and by collecting responses at the end 6). The fluid nature of group formations makes this technique very effective and popular for the use by instructors of large classes 7). Full class discussion is generally more fruitful after a write-pair-share technique and throughout the semester as the frequent use of such activities generally improves students comfort levels and willingness to participate throughout a class period. (Stating point teaching entry level geoscience; think-pairshare: 2012) In line with Brown (2002). Writing is a way to express what we are feeling to. In order to pass the course, students should have some ability to express themselves in writing. Across the age levels from elementary school trough university graduate courses, students write in order to succeed in mastering the subject matter. Teaching writing is not as easy as teaching other skill, teaching writing involves listening first, to be followed by speaking and, then, reading and writing. This means that writing is mastered after mastering the other skills. From all the explanation above, it can be summarized that there are many steps in doing the proses writing approach that will help the students easier to write. Oshima A & 169

3 Houge A (2007: 15) said writing is never a one-step actions; it is ongoing creative act. When you first write something, you have already been thinking about what to say and how to say it. Then, after you have finished writing, you read over what you have written and make changes and correction. You write and revise and write and revise again until you are satisfied that your writing expresses exactly what you want to say. Write-Pair-Share technique is one of the cooperative learning technique wrote by George M. Jacobs, at. all. (1997: 13). The advantage of this strategy is as Think-Pair- Share, but the student must develop a written. In other words, techniques include all task and activities. Hence, selecting technique is very important in teaching and learning process. It has very essential role in supporting the success of teaching and learning process. A Hortatory exposition is a text which is intended to persuade readers or the listeners that something should or should not happen or be done. The writer needs some arguments to support his thesis. Hortatory exposition text seems very similar to analytical exposition since both of them state thesis as the introduction and present arguments to support the thesis. Yet hortatory exposition builds the arguments in a higher level. It is ended by recommendation; while analytical exposition is ended with a reiteration. Hortatory exposition can be found in numerous functional texts such as sales letter, advertising slogan, speech, a letter to editor, etc.(english indo:2012) Then, the researcher had search for some literature and studies conducted prior to support the strategy used. It is taken from previous studies researchers. The first previous study was held by Zubdatul Ifadah (2012). The title is the effect of Write-Pair- Share technique on the students writing achievement of the second grade of SMA Wahid Hasyim Tersono Batang. Her study has purpose to analyze whether there is significance difference on the students English achievement between those who are though by using WPS (Write-Pair-Share) strategy and those who are taught by using conventional teaching strategy. METHOD In this study the researcher used classroom action research (CAR). Car is simple research to solve the problem in classroom activity usually done by a teacher. This is based upon the reason that the researcher attempted to solve her personal practical problems faced in the classroom. According to Latief (2012:144) Classroom action research (CAR) is a research that conducted by the teacher to save the problem of the student that is done by himself, as teacher and researcher, or collaborate with another. It means that classroom action research is a process through which the teacher studies their own teaching in order to solve their personal practical problems. It is a way designed to improve the quality of the teaching and learning process in order to change their educational work to be better. Therefore, the procedure of classroom action research applied in this study was a cyclical process adapted from the model proposed by Kemis and McTeggart in Latief (2012). It covers four steps first, Planning was made before the teaching and learning process was conducted. In this stage, the researcher planned the research focusing on the use of Write-Pair-Share technique to improve the students writing skill. The researcher prepared the teaching strategy, lesson plan, preparing the material, and preparing the criteria of success. Indeed, the procedure of teaching writing by using write pair share technique was designed by the researcher in order that the implementation of the strategy in teaching and learning process can run well. The students improvement of writing ability using write-pair-share can direct by the following activity: a) the students got the leading question from the teacher b) students were divided into six groups that every group consists of six students. c) Students got some topics then they have to choose one of them. d) Students made an outline from the topic chosen. e) Students write down their first draft based on their outline individually (writing 170

4 stage) f) students did Pair correction (pair stage) g) students write down their second draft based on the result of their pair correction. h) Students edited and revised their work in a pair after they got a feedback from their pair (final draft) i) students share their final draft in front of the classes (sharing stage). Next, the researcher made a lesson plan for each meeting in order to make the teaching and learning process can be performed effectively and efficiently. The main components in the lesson plan should cover the objectives of the teaching and learning process, materials, techniques of teaching, the steps of the classroom activities, learning sources, assessment and score rubric. After preparing the lesson plan, the researcher was preparing instructional media before doing teacning and learning. The researcher uses a hand book from the teacher. This is Bahasa Inggris by Priharini, Bachtiar, dkk. The researcher taught the students based on the material in the handbook which the topic is Hortatory Exposition text. Some text found from another resources beside the handbook such as from internet and magazines. With the regard to the procedure of assessment, the researcher used process and product. The process assessment focused on the students response toward writing recount text activities during the teaching learning process by using an observation checklist. Meanwhile, the product assessment focused on the students final writing test. In this case the researcher used score rubric that adapted from brown Moreover, the researcher includes five aspects in order to get a valid data. They were content, organization, grammar, vocabulary and mechanics. First In the content, the percentage was 30%. The students got the score 4 if their performance; the topic is complete and clear and the detail are relating to the topic. The students got the score 3 if their performance; the topic is complete and clear but the details are almost relating to the topic. The students got the score 2 if their performance; the topic is complete and clear but the details are not relating to the topic. The students got the score1 if their performance; the topic is not clear and the details are not relating to the topic. Second In the aspect of organization the percentage was 20%, the students got the score 4 if their performance; thesis, arguments, recommendation are complete, the order of sentences within the paragraph is logical, the order of paragraph is logical, good transition are used to make the writing flow well. The students got the score 3 if their performance; thesis, arguments, recommendation are almost complete, the order of sentences and paragraph is somewhat logical, some transition are used. The students got the score 2 if their performance; thesis, arguments, recommendation are almost complete, ideas within the paragraph my not be organized logically, transition may be lacking. The students got the score 1 of their performance; thesis, arguments, recommendation are out of context, ideas arranged randomly and ineffectively. Third in the grammar aspect, the percentage was 20%. The students got the score 4 if their performance; very few grammatical or use of action and saying verb inaccurately. The students got the score 3 if their performance; few grammatical or use of action and saying verbs inaccuracies but not effect in meaning. The students got the score 2 if their performance; numerous grammatical or use of action and saying verbs inaccuracies. The students got the score 1 if their performance; frequent grammatical or use of action and saying verb in accuracies. Fourth, in the vocabulary aspect the percentage was 15%. The students got the score 4 if their performance; effective choice of word and word form. The students got the score 3 if their performance; few misuse of vocabularies, word form but not change the meaning. The students got the score 2 if their performance; limited range, confusing word and word form. The students got the score 1 if their performance; very poor knowledge of words, words form and not understandable. Fifth in the mechanics aspect the percentage was 15%. The students got score 4 if their performance; it uses correct spelling, 171

5 punctuation, and capitalization. Students got score 3 if their performance; it has occasionally errors of spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. The students got score 2 if their performance; it has frequent errors of spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. The students got the score 1 if their performance; it is dominated by errors of spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. For assessing the final writing test, each component was scaled 1-4. The component of writing assessment modified with two considerations; first, the students was categorize as beginner, and second, the researcher assessed only the students acceptable in sentences. Second, the researcher implements the actions in the class, which was teaching writing through Write-Pair-Share technique. The implementation of the action in the first cycle was based on the lesson plan 1, lesson plan 2, lesson plan 3 and lesson plan 4. The researcher taught writing through Write-Pair- Share technique as the students pair assessment. In the teaching of writing, the researcher explained the technique of Write- Pair-Share technique, including the procedures of doing Write-Pair-Share technique. She also gave an example of writepair-share technique related to the topic. Then, she asked the students to do exercises of writing through Write-Pair-Share technique. Afterward, they required doing the stage of finishing writing the first draft of their composition. The students asked to underline the topic sentence and also the supporting sentences, they proof reading each other s work pairs peer editing. Furthermore, the students assigned to share their final draft to the whole of the class. The criteria which expected in this strategy are if there are students get the score 75 in their writing test. Then, the activeness of the students in the teaching and learning process by using Write-Pair-Share Technique accomplishes 70%. Third, the researcher and observer observed all the reactions that students made to this action. In this stage, the researcher used some instruments to collect the data related to the events in the teaching and learning process that consisted of observation sheet and test. The researcher used observation sheet to collect the data during the instructional process. This checklist used during learning English through write-pair-share technique. The observation sheet focused on students activities. The aims of this instrument are to know the activeness of the students writing skill especially in writing hortatory exposition text trough write-pair-share technique. This instrument used by the collaborator. Observation sheet focus on the student s activities during in the classroom and used to observe the process of teaching and learning English through Write-Pair-Share technique and record the activities or something may occur in the teaching and learning process Then, the researcher used test to measure the students writing ability and to get the score. Test is used to measure the students ability in reach competence. The analytic method is a method of the scoring which requires a separate score of a number of aspects of tasks Brown (2007). Analytic score was used in this research because it was appropriate scoring method which was intended to know in what strengths of the students; writing skill was and in what weaknesses of the students writing was. There were three aspects that scored analytically; they were grammar, vocabulary, and organization. Fourth, reflection is related to evaluate whether the implementation of the strategy in this research is successful or not based on the observation. If it is not, it is continued to the next cycle until meet the criteria of success. The criteria which expected in this strategy are if there are students get the score 75 in their writing test. Then, the activeness of the students in the teaching and learning process by using Write-Pair-Share Technique accomplishes 70% based on the observation sheet. The result of the analysis is consult with the criteria of success. Meanwhile, the weakness in the cycle one is improved to the next cycle. This cycle is stop when the criteria of success are reached. 172

6 However, this research was conducted at MA Al Maarif Singosari Malang. The subject of this study was the second grade of the students at language class who are in the second semester of the academic year There are 37 students in this class. This class is chosen since the teacher s recommendation and this class has lowest ability in hortatory exposition text. At this level, the students were able to work with others and learn from others. The classroom action research begins on April until 04 May Actually, there are two meetings in a week for English subject but because of limited time the head master gave me four meetings in a week. It was taken from the other subjects. The lesson was given on Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday. The length of each meeting was 2 x 40 minutes. By conducting this research, it was expected that the researcher could solve the problems of the students writing skill. While, the criteria of success were set up in advance as a basis to determine whether the action conducted was successful or not. The indicator of Setting up the Criteria of the Success in this strategy during the teaching and learning process is the students means score is 75. Then, 70% students got score 75 on the school basis of the minimum mastery learning standard. Students activeness in the teaching and learning process accomplishes 70% based on the observation sheet. If in the first cycle the strategy has not solved the problem yet or the criteria of the success have not been achieved, the strategy is revised and continued to the second cycle. The cycle will continue to the next cycle with the same steps until the criteria of the success are achieved. In line with Borgia S. in Latief (2012) stated that classroom action research is an effective media in improving the quality of English teachers performance in instruction as well as students achievement in learning English in the classroom. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION The Observation sheet result showed that the students participant is classified was good. The percentage of their involvement in the meeting one that was conducted on April 29 th 2013 was only %, and the meeting two that did on April 30 th 2013 was 71.42%. In the next meeting, the result of observation sheet showed that the students involvement during teaching and learning process was increased. The percentage of their involvement in the meeting three that was conducted on May, 3 rd 2013 was 85.71%, and in the meeting four that was conducted on May, 4 th 2013was 100 %. However, the students were serious on teacher s explanation about writing hortatory exposition text, so they were not confused in making the topic and writing hortatory exposition text. Only few students still found the difficulties in writing hortatory exposition text. On discussing the material, each group worked independently and finished the task on time. In addition, the result of observation sheet of the implementation the action in the cycle one was satisfying because the criteria of the success were reached. Based on the result of observation sheet, the implementation of Write-Pair-Share Technique in the cycle one was successful. The students were more interested and could write a hortatory exposition text. While, the indicators of successful implementation that the researcher had determined in advance stated that (a) the students writing skill is improved if the mean score of the students writing test result fulfills the target mean score at least 75. (b) 70% of the research subject (27 of 37 students) is active in the teaching and learning process of writing hortatory exposition. In addition, the indicators mentioned above were also applied to judge whether the cycle proceeded to the next or needed to be quitted. Moreover, in the cycle one that consists of five meetings was undoubtedly matched with that of mentioned above. Firstly, it was reflected trough the score of the students achievement after being treated With Write- Pair-Share Technique as the students pair assessment. The average of converted scores on the writing skill in one cycle which was 173

7 administered during the implementation of one cycle, it was found out that 27 (73%) out of 37 students (10 Students could not pass the test) reached the minimum mastery learning score 75. Therefore, the indicators of successful of one cycle were also seen through the students activity during the teaching and learning process. In general, they were active; it was proved by the class observation conducted during the teaching and learning process. The students were respond actively toward the teacher s instruction accordingly, students express (discuss) actively with their friend beside his/her and write down their ideas, asking the question when they got some difficulties in the teaching and learning process. Based on the reflection above, the next cycle did not need proceeding. The researcher quitted the cycle since it had already met the criteria of success of the cycle one. Write-Pair-Share Technique is one of the cooperative learning technique wrote by (George M. Jacobs, Gan Siowck Lee & Jessica Ball, 1997: 13).The improvement of students writing skill of hortatory exposition text by write-pair-share technique was effective and it was a good technique in teaching and learning English. In implementing write-pair-share technique in teaching hortatory exposition text, the researcher designed the lesson plan, conducting the writing activity, and provides a hortatory exposition text. In this research, there are two focuses being improved in this research. The first is the students ability in writing a hortatory exposition text. The second is the students activeness in the teaching and learning process by asking the questions when they got some difficulties in the teaching and learning process. The use of Write-Pair-Share Technique as the strategy to improve students writing skill had gave new atmosphere and made students more interest in studying English. The students quality in learning activity was more active. It was showed by teacher observation checklist and field note during the implementation of the action. Finally, the use of Write-Pair-Share Technique has successfully improved students writing skill of hortatory exposition text. The improvement could be examined from the result of students writing skill in the end of the action. Based on the improvement of the students writing score, Write-Pair-Share Technique has been successful to help the students writing skill especially the second grade of MA Al Maarif Singosari Malang. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS In this research, the students improvement of writing ability using writepair-share can direct by the following activity: a) the students got the leading question from the teacher b) students were divided into six groups that every group consists of six students. c) Students got some topics then they have to choose one of them. d) Students made an outline from the topic chosen. e) Students write down their first draft based on their outline individually (writing stage) f) students did Pair correction (pair stage) g) students write down their second draft based on the result of their pair correction. h) Students edited and revised their work in a pair after they got a feedback from their pair (final draft) i) students share their final draft in front of the classes (sharing stage). Based on the indicators of successful implementation above, the researcher concluded that in one cycle was satisfying. It was proved that the result of the learners writing skill in the test was good. There were 27 students (73%) out of 37 students got the score 75. There were 10 students (27%) could not pass the writing test. In the test of cycle one, the students average score was The students achievement of writing performance had increased compared to the result of the score in preliminary study. In the preliminary study, before the implementation of the write-pair-share technique implemented only 9 or (24 %) who got the score reach the standard minimum score (KKM). Indeed, there were only 9 students passed the test and there were 28 students did 174

8 not pass the test. In the other hand, after the technique was implemented there were 27 or (73%) of the students passed the KKM, and there were 10 students did not pass KKM. We can conclude that the students writing score after the implementation of Write-Pair-Share Technique meets the criteria of success because more than 73 % students got score so the researcher didn t need to continue to the next cycle or cycle two. For the additional, the data from observation sheet stated that students could increase their activeness during the teaching and learning process by using Write-Pair- Share Technique. Especially, they were able to build interaction among others and asking question when they got some difficulties. Finally, Write-Pair-Share Technique was proved in helping students who got difficulty in exploring their ideas on the written form. Overall, the implementation of the use of Write-Pair-Share Technique improved the students writing skill of the second grade of MA Al Maarif Singosari Malang. Suggestion for English Teacher: Writepair-share technique had been very useful for teaching writing of hortatory exposition text. Therefore, the teacher can implement the technique to help the students easier to explore their ideas in the written form. The students also have many chances to interact with others during teaching and learning process. Next suggestion for future researcher who has the same problem in teaching writing skill, they can use this write-pair-share technique to improve the students writing skill. The researcher realized that this study is far from the expectation because of the limited time. In teaching writing by using Write-Pair-Share Technique, they can add one meeting more in order to get a good result rather than four meetings. Because this technique need many steps they are: writing the first draft (writing stage), writing the second draft (pair-correcting), writing the final draft (revising from the pair correction), and share to the whole of the class. So, for future researcher a good lesson plans must be prepared as well to get a good result. Also for future researcher, the result of the test should be scored more than one rater in order to get valid score. REFERENCES Brown, H. Douglas Teaching by principles an interactive approach to language pedagogy, second edition. England: Addison Wesley Longman Cantiqa, D Hortatory Exposition Text in /online-english-course/hortatoryexposition-text/, Accessed on April, Cahyono, B. Yudi & Utami W The teaching of English as a foreign language in Indonesia. Malang: state university of Malang press. English Education Department Faculty of Teacher Training and Education Pedoman penulisan skripsi. Malang: FKIP UNISMA. Harmer, Jeremy The practice of English language teaching. UK: Ashford Colour press. Ifadah Zubdatul The effect of writepair-share technique on the students writing achievement of the second grade of SMA Wahid Hasyim Tersono Batang. Unpublished Thesis. FKIP UNISMA. Jacobs, George M. dkk Kagan Cooperative learning. Singapore. SEAMEO regional language center. Oshima, Alice, Ann Hogue Introduction to Academic English, third edition. United States: Addison Wesley Longman. Latief, M. Adnan Metode Penelitian Pembelajaran Bahasa, second edition. Malang: State University of Malang Press. Mistar. J Hand out statistic for language teaching studies. Malang. Islamic University of Malang. Nunan, D Research method in language learning. Cambridge: Cambridge university press. Nunan, David Second language 175

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