ABSTRACT
This final project is an action research which was aimed at improving teaching narrative at Senior High School (SMA) students through writing narrative. The study was conducted at SMA 16 Semarang and the subjects were XIth IPS 1 students in the academic year of 2005/2006 The research procedures were as follows:
1. Planning ( the on-the job educational problem was identified, the most probable cause of the problem was determined, and the feasible solution was finally developed)
2. Teaching or acting (the selected feasible solution (writing narrative based on generic structures and language features of narrative genre) was implemented in two cycles; these are spoken and written language).
3. Observing (a variety of data was collected to justify the extent to which the research objective was attained.
4. Reflecting (the data was analyzed to justify the significant improvement) The classroom action research was done in three stages (pre-test, test, and post-test). Every stage consisted of two cycles (spoken and written cycles) in different kinds of treatment. Both cycles which consisted of four stages, namely; (1). Building knowledge of the field / BKOF; (2) Modelling of text; (3) Joint construction of text; and (4) Independent construction of text.
The first classroom stage, it treated the writing by giving a kind of Barbie film titled Rapunzel as a Barbie. This treatment was given to identify the students’ weaknesses in their learning, there were lack of vocabulary; ungrammatical sentences; incorrect word choice; using wrong tenses and the rhetorical of the students’ writing story did not suitable the generic structures and the lexicogrammatical features of narrative writing based on curriculum. After seeing the film, the students asked for rewriting about the story. Moreover, the writer intended for getting the students’ participation on equal basis in written by sharing and discussing about the topic by discussing the generic structures and the lexicogrammatical features of narrative genre, and making the first draft of writing narrative.
The second, it treated as the same as the first stage but in reflecting activities or for the joint construction of the class, the teacher let the students to review and revise their first into the second draft. After discussing the topic and getting suggestion from the teacher and friends, at the last, the students discussed to edit and revise the second draft for determining the final writing of narrative story.
From the first stage, the writer found that the students were not aware of how to solve their difficulties for writing the story. Surprising phenomena occurred in this second planning of the action research. Almost all of the students wrote their first draft by using present tenses, so by the fact that the students still had problem for their writing process. Finally, in the last stage, the writer tried to reduce their problem because this problem would impede the students’ comprehension in their learning process. By asking the students for making discussion about the topic and the writer also gave explanation as clear as possible to overcome the students’ weaknesses in their learning process. It needed longer time to handle that problem because their progress depends on their own ability because every student has different level of comprehension. So the students’ writing ability improved although it did not so drastically.
For analyzing all the data had been obtained, the writer used Brown an analytical scale for writing composition. Pearson moment product as quoted by Arikunto is used for calculating the data. After eight meetings, which were divided into two cycles, there was an increase for the students’ writing ability. Based on the pre-test or before giving the treatment there were only 44,05% of the students mastered the narrative topic. The students’ improvement for writing narrrative went up slightly, it was proven by the precentage of the test 66,05 was higher than pretest. Finally, by the fact that precentage of post-test 80,05% was higher than test so it can be said that they were able to improve their writing ability. From this action research it can be concluded that the students improve their writing ability using effective and efficient way of writing. An effective way related to the rhetorical of writing narrative (the generic structures and the lexicogrammatical features of narrative) based on CBC of 2004.
For improving the students’ writing skill, hopefully the similar action research should be applied on teaching learning process as well as conducted in SMA 16 Semarang or even in classes of other schools. The writer also hopes other English teachers would like to practice a similar action research for their classes to enable the students to write effectively to comprehend texts or genre besides reading and speaking.
