TEACHING DESCRIPTIVE WRITING USING CLUSTERING TECHNIQUE AT THE SECOND GRADE STUDENTS OF MAN CIMAHI Hermansyah e-mail: hermanaza66@yahoocom English Education Program Language and Art Department Sekolah Tinggi Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan (STKIP) Siliwangi Bandung ABSTRACT The objectives of this study entitled Teaching Descriptive using Clustering Technique at the second grade students of MAN Cimahi was to find out how effective using clustering technique in teaching writing This research used one group pretest-posttest design and quantitative method The populations of this study was 20 of the second grade students of MAN and the sample was entire population The instrument used in this research was pretes and posttest The data of the research was collected by giving the students pretest and posttest The collected data was analyzed by using t-test formula The results of the data analysis showed that: the mean scores of pretest was 481, the mean scores of posttest was 802, the t obs was 1146, the t table with degree of freedom (df) 19 and level of significance at 005 was 1,73 Based on the data analysis, the alternative hypothesis of this research was accepted because t obs was higher than t table (11,46 > 1,73), It also meant that teaching descriptive writing using clustering technique was significantly improve the students ability in writing descriptive text Key Words:teaching, descriptive writing, clustering technique A Background English is an important language and it is used by people allover the world as a means of communication and it becomes International language Nowadays, English is regarded as essential language in globalization era and English grows rapidly, for instance a lot of available material resources are written in English and English becomes a means of communication in business as well as social interaction in internet In learning English, there arefour main skills that consist of listening, speaking, reading, and writing Writing is an essential skill that becomes complex skill to master for the learners because writing is a productive skill that deals with the way to generate arid organize the ideas Hoover (2008: 1) emphasizes that writing is vital component of comprehensive sinergy of literacy It is rather difficult for the students to generate the ideas to start writing and the teachers have not found the proper method in teaching, descriptive writing to encourage the students to write by exploring the ideas that they have There is the way to develop the ideas in teaching writing, namely clustering technique Rico (2001:1) explained that Clustering technique is a technique for quickly making explicit the idea and associations we have about the topic So teaching descriptive using clustering technique is appropriate to use B Theoretical Foundation 1Writing Theories Writing is basic language skill that becomes the complex skill to master for the learners As we know that writing is a productive skill that involves the way to generate and organize the ideas in written form Hoover (2008:1) also emphasizes that writing is vital component of comprehensive sinergy of literacy Writing deals with three skills, those are reading, listening, and speaking It means that writing is the way to express the ideas in written form 1
2 The Stages of Writing Process Oshima and Hogue (1999:3-13) state that there are four stages in writing The stages are pre-writing, planning, writing and revising draft, and writing the final copy to hand in (final draft) 3 Kinds of Writing Cohen (1994:304) says that there are five kinds of writing that consist of expository writing, persusive writing, narrative writing, descriptive writingand literary writing a Expository writing has a function to explain or inform the readers b Persuasive writing has a function to convince the readers c Narrative writing has a function to relate series or events d Literary writing has a function to create exemplary text e Descriptive writing has a function to offer a sensory impression of an object or feeling 4 Clustering Technique Oshima and Hogue (1999:8) say that clustering is brainstorming activity that can be used to generate the ideas In adition, DePorter and Hernacki (1999:181) emphasize thatclustering is the way to classify the ideas and share into a piece of paper bv making the connection with the core of the idea Clustering is powerful tool in freewriting to generate the ideas from mind The purpose of clustering is to find out the ideas as many as possible Clustering can stimulate the ideas to connect right and left brain hemispheres 5 The Work of Clustering The clustering process represents a way to involve the talent of the mute right brain in the complex symbolic activity that we call writing In making clustering, we begin with a nucleus word in the middle of paper and then write the other words and circle around the nucleus word Figure1 clustering diagram: = nucleus word (Mind) = associations words (Minds) Nucleus word becomes the center of the ideas that becomes the core to make the connection with association words The way to make clustering: a Write a word in the middle of a sheet of paper! b Circle it! c Write down the first word or phrase that comes to mind and circle it! d Draw a line connecting the second circle to the first! e Repeat! As you write and circle new words and phrases, draw lines back to the last word, the central word, or other words that seem connected C Research Methodology A Research Design In this research, the writer used preexperimental design in one group pre-test post test design as her research design because in this research only the comparator group did not exist McMillan and Schumacher, (2001:331) explained that: One Group Pretest-Posttest Design Group Pretest Treatment Posttest A O X O Time Figure1 One Group Pretest-Posttest Design 2
In the one group pretest posttest design a single group of subjects is given a pretest (O), then the treatment (X), and then the posttest (O) The pretest and posttest are the same, just given at different times The result that is examined is a change from pretest to posttest B Research Method In this research, the writer used quantitative research method Quantitative research methods are used to examine questions that can best be answered by collecting and statistically analyzing data that are in numerical form (Crowl, 1996:10) This research means to find the effect of something given to the subject of the research to know how effective this technique Based on the statement above, the researcher did not attempt to answer the question by providing a verbal description of students interpretations of their academic performance C Research Instrument To find out the research of the investigation, the writer used a standardized test which means the test has been designed so that the procedures for administering the test, the materials used in the test, and the way in which the test is scored are constant (Crowl, 1996:114) In this research the writer will use test as instrument The test given to the students is essay D Research Population and Sample 1 Population In this research, the writer has a population in her research, populations are groups consisting of all people to whom a researcher wishes to apply the findings of a study Crowl (1996:15) The population of this research is the second grade students of MAN Cimahi especially the second grade in Academic Years 2011/2012 In this case the researcher tried to use one class consists of 20 students one class they were 20 students and given pretest and post test E Place and Time of the Research 1 Place of the Research In research activity, a place is needed as a location of research to get the data To examine the teaching descriptive writing using clustering technique at the second grade students of MAN cimahi, the writer conducted the study at MAN cimahi of second grade students in academic year 2011/2012 on Jl Kihapit Barat No 319, Lewigajah kota cimahi 2 Time of the Research The writer started the research on July 09-13 July 2012 The duration for each meeting and test are 45 minutes In this case the researcher tried to use one class consists of 20 students at the second grade of MAN cimahi F Data Collection Technique For collecting data, the writer used test The test was divided into two steps, they were pretest and post test The writer carried out pre-test before treatment and post test after treatment Those activities were done to get students score in writing before and after treatment In this research the writer used two kinds of test They are pretest and posttest D Findings and Discussions 1 Research Data Collection For collecting data, the writer used test The test was divided into two steps, they were pretest and posttest The writer carried out pretest before treatment and posttest after treatment Those activities were done to get students score in writing before and after treatment 2 Sample The sample in this research described by Crowl (1996:15) that samples are subsets of people used to represent population The sample of this research is the second grade from 3
Table 41 Grade chart of pretest (before a treatment) and posttest (after treatment) No Name SCORES Pretest Posttest 1 Student 1 35 60 2 Student 2 40 80 3 Student 3 60 90 4 Student 4 50 80 5 Student 5 60 93 6 Student 6 46 60 7 Student 7 50 80 8 Student 8 60 95 9 Student 9 35 60 10 Student 10 60 90 11 Student 11 50 85 12 Student 12 50 80 13 Student 13 40 80 14 Student 14 45 85 15 Student 15 50 88 16 Student 16 45 83 17 Student 17 46 85 18 Student 18 60 90 19 Student 19 45 80 20 Student 20 35 60 TOTAL 962 1604 Based on the system of the school, the maximal score is 100 Every score is the topic sentences are: score = x 100 1 Pretest Scores TABLE 42 Pretest No Name X X 2 1 Student 1 35 1225 2 Student 2 40 1600 3 Student 3 60 3600 4 Student 4 50 2500 5 Student 5 60 3600 6 Student 6 46 2116 7 Student 7 50 2500 8 Student 8 60 3600 9 Student 9 35 1225 10 Student 10 60 3600 11 Student 11 50 2500 12 Student 12 50 2500 13 Student 13 40 1600 14 Student 14 45 2025 15 Student 15 50 2500 16 Student 16 45 2025 17 Student 17 46 2116 18 Student 18 60 3600 19 Student 19 45 2025 20 Student 20 35 1225 TOTAL x = 962 x 2 = 47682 a) Mean = = = 481 b) Standar deviation ( ) 7436 86 ( ) 2 Posttest Scores TABLE 43 Posttest No Name X X 2 1 Student 1 60 3600 2 Student 2 80 6400 3 Student 3 90 8100 4 Student 4 80 6400 5 Student 5 93 6849 6 Student 6 60 3600 7 Student 7 80 6400 8 Student 8 95 9025 9 Student 9 60 3600 10 Student 10 90 8100 11 Student 11 85 7225 4
12 Student 12 80 6400 13 Student 13 80 6400 14 Student 14 85 7225 15 Student 15 88 7744 16 Student 16 83 6889 17 Student 17 85 7225 18 Student 18 90 8100 19 Student 19 80 6400 20 Student 20 60 3600 TOTAL x= x 2 = 129282 a) Mean = = = 802 b) Standar deviation ( ) 3375 58 ( ) The degree of freedom is: df = n-1 n = the number of the students df = 20-1 df = 19 The critical value of t-table with df (degree of freedom) 19 and the level of significance at 005 was 173 The last calculation is the t-test: = t t = ³ ³ = t t = 1146 The data analysis shows that: M 1 = 481 M 2 = 802 T obs = 1146 The t-critical value with degree of freedom (df) df = 20-1 df = 19 And the level of significance 005 = 1,73 5 Hypothesis Testing The result of data processing could be shown after the writer compare between the result of pretest and posttest Then the writer interpreted the result of data processing, as follows: 1 The Alternative Hypothesis (H 1 ) There is a good significant to the students teaching descriptive writing using clustering technique 2 The Null Hypothesis (H 0 ) There is not good significant to the students teaching descriptive writing using clustering technique 3 The t-observed (t 0 ) is 1146 and the table t- critical value (tc) was 173 It means that, the null hypothesis (H 0 ) was rejected or the alternative hypothesis (H 1 ) was accepted, because the t-observed (t 0 ) was bigger than the t-critical value (tc), 1146 > 173 Based on the hypothesis above, the hypothesis showed that There is a good significant to the students teaching descriptive writing using clustering technique B Discussion From the computation mentioned above, t- observed is higher than t-table (1146>173) at the level of significant p= 05 of two-tailed with the degree of freedom (df)=19 It means that the null hypothesis (Ho) is rejected and the alternative hypothesis (Ha) is accepted 5
E Conclusion and suggestion 1 Conclusion As a matter of fact, teaching writing becomes a great obstacle for the teachers of English We cannot deny that writing is complex skill to master for the students because writing involves thinking process and the way to generate and organize the ideas in written form So that teachers must find out the proper method in teaching writing Considering the problem above, the teachers could apply the interesting method in teaching writing Clustering technique is the way to generate the ideas to activate the work of right and left brain hemispheres Clustering technique can be applied in teaching descriptive writing as prewriting to find out the ideas as many as possible After conducting the research in MAN Cimahi, the writer found that t-observed is higher than t-table (1146>173) at the level of significant p= 005 of two-tailed with the degree of freedom (df)=19 It means that the null hypothesis (Ho) is rejected and the alternative hypothesis (Ha) is accepted It also means that teaching descriptive writing using clustering has significantly better result than using conventional method This also means that clustering technique is effective in teaching descriptive writing to the students of MAN Cimahi B Suggestion F BIBLIOGRAPHY Best, John W 1981 Research in Education (4 th ed) New Jersey: Prentice Hall Burns, Robert B 1995 Introductioto Researc Method Melbourne: Longman Cohen, Andrew D 1994 AssessingLanguage Ability in the Classroom Boston: Heinle andheinle publisher Crowl, Thomas K (1996) Fundamentals of Education research City University of New York: Brown and Benchmark Publisher DePorter, Bobbi and Mike Hemacki 1999 Quamum Learning Bandung: Kaifa Hoover, Katylee 2008 Writing: An Essential Component of Literacy Research Alignment for MM-H California Treasures, June: 1-2 McMillan, James H and Sally Schumacher 2001 Research in Education: A Conceptual Introduction New York: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc Oshima, Alice and Ann Hogue 1999 Writing Academic English New York: Adisson WesleyLongman Rico, Gabriele 2001 Writing the natural way New York: Longman After conducting the research, the writer would like to bring forward the suggestions, as below: The teachers could apply the proper teaching method that will influence the students interest in studying The essential thing in teaching writing is motivating the students to write Clustering technique in teaching descriptive writing is able to achieve the better result for students because clustering can helf the students stimulate the ideas, clustering can be a tool to develop the ideas, and clustering can improve the power of creativity 6