the effect of dialogue journal toward students’ writing ability

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A.  Background of the Study

According to (Depdiknas, 2006), the Junior High School students are expected to be able to create many kinds of functional text and monolog in the form of procedure, descriptive, recount, narrative, and report. There are four language skills including listening, speaking, reading, and writing which should be mastered by the learners.

Writing is the act or art of forming letters and characters on paper, wood, stone, or other material, for the purpose of recording the ideas which characters and words express, or of communicating them to others by visible signs. In other words, in writing, a writer communicates his/her ideas by considering a known or unknown reader who will get their ideas and their meanings in the form of correct written text but also the reader who will read the text (Byrne, 1990, p.4).

Oshima (1998, p.2) notes that whenever a writer writes, he/she has to consider the people who will read what she/he has written. By knowing the reader, it will help the writer to communicate clearly and effectively. According to Byrne (1990, p.3), there are some difficulties related to writing. Firstly, there is psychological difficulty in which the writer has to decide what information the reader needs and how best to express this. It means that there is no immediate interaction between the writer and the reader. Secondly, there is linguistic difficulty in that the language used in written language is different from that used in speech. In this case, the writer has to know the conventions of written language. Thirdly, there is cognitive difficulty in which that the students have to organize their thought on paper. Sometimes, they lose ideas when they are obliged to write and they do not know what to say.

            From the preliminarily observation at SMP Negeri 2 Sikur, the reality shows that the majority of students dislike writing. When faced with a writing task, most students will react with negative comments. A teacher who does not try to see the real message behind these comments can easily become discouraged. The students will hate writing and to prevent it, the teacher should consider what students actually mean boring, and the possibility that students are actually expressing their insecurity and lack of confidence in completing the task.

            The present researcher concludes that there are two main causes: from teacher and students. Firstly, the teacher still uses traditional strategy in which she only demands the students’ is writing language rules. The students are seldom trained to make a better writing by using various techniques. The techniques used are monotonous. The teacher asks the students to write in a certain topic. The time given is limited. They sometimes lost their ideas, so they can not continue their writing. They also think that time for writing is limited. Because of these they get difficulties in writing and the result of their writing are still far from what are expected. To solve it, the present researcher tries to apply dialogue journal in teaching and it is expected to be useful both of teacher and students.

            Dialogue journal writing is one of the activities in writing that can provide students with the opportunity to explore and experiment with language. By using dialogue journals, the teacher can engage in multifaceted interactions with her students. Ideas, feelings and concerns can be shared in a private way. A dialogue journal is a written conversation between the teacher and the student. The topic is random and the role of the teacher is not to directly correct students’ writing, but to communicate and stimulate the student to write further on (Peyton, 1993, p.2).     By using dialogue journal, the students can write freely to the teacher as in a letter. While, the teacher can answer questions and makes comments about the students’ entry, making sure the answers provide correct structures, grammar and spelling. Related to this statement, Harmer (2004, p.126) notes that advantage of writing a journal is that the writer can decide freely which form to employ in writing. The writer is not bounded to any particular genre and moreover, the writer knows that his or hers freedom of expression is not to be corrected or graded by the teacher. It is very important thing, and probably the most important, about the dialogue journal is that it gives teachers more information about their students. It is an absolutely private written conversation between the teacher and the student dealing with interests, fears, needs and happy events, relevant to students. Students write spontaneously about themselves because they do not experience the stress or fear of not knowing how to express something correctly.    There is time to deal with the new structures and the teacher is there to clarify any situation. The dialogue journal expands the time each student has to communicate with the teacher, giving the teacher a wider view to approach and tackle individual needs. Students can write things they are shy to say out loud or they do not want to present in front of schoolmates (Harmer, 2004, p.126).

            Referring to the above phenomenon, the present researcher intended to investigate about “The Effect of Dialogue Journal toward Students’ Writing Ability for the Eighth Graders of SMPN 2 Sikur in the School Year 2011/2012”.

B. Focus of the Study

In this part, the present researcher described the object and the subject of the study as follows:

1.    The object of the study is the effect of dialogue journal toward students’ writing ability.

2.    The subject of this study is the eighth graders of SMPN 2 Sikur in the school year 2011/2012.

C. Statement of the Problems

Based on the background of the study above, the present researcher formulated the problems of this investigation as follows:

1.    Is there any effect of dialogue journal toward students’ writing ability for the eighth graders of SMPN 2 Sikur in the school year 2011/2012?

2.    To what extent is the effect of dialogue journal toward students’ writing ability for the eighth graders of SMPN 2 Sikur in the school year 2011/2012?

D. Purpose of the Study

The purposes of the study could be stated based on the statement of the problems as follows:

1.    To know the effect of dialogue journal toward students’ writing ability for the eighth graders of SMPN 2 Sikur in the school year 2011/2012.

2.    To know the extent effect of dialogue journal toward students’ writing ability for the eighth graders of SMPN 2 Sikur in the school year 2011/2012.

E. Significance of the Study

The result of this study was intended to give contribution in teaching English both theoretically and practically.

1.    Theoretically

a.    The results of this study are expected as reference to the other researcher who wants to study more about teaching writing by using dialogue journal.

b.    The results of this study are able to add some concept of dialogue journal in teaching writing.

2.    Practically

a.    The results of this study are expected as an instrument of measuring the teacher’s approach, and can develop our knowledge on language teaching and learning through the real investigation.

b.    The finding out of this study can be applied in teaching English especially in teaching writing, in order to increase the students’ achievement and motivate them in learning English better.

F. Assumption of the Study

This study was conducted based on the following assumptions.

1.    The students of SMPN 2 Sikur have been taught about dialogue journal.

2.    All of the eighth graders of SMPN 2 Sikur have some background knowledge in learning English.

 

CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND HYPOTHESIS

A. Concepts of Writing

McCrimon (1986, p.221) noted that writing requires comprehensible notions of the writer himself, the rules of a good writing as well as the elements of writing, who is the reader, appropriate sentence pattern, be fitting word choice (diction) and also clear and proper mechanics of writing such as spellings and punctuation.

According to Gere (1985, p.4), writing is communication, writing is self-expression, writing is public, writing is rule-governed, behavior, and away to learning. Writing communication; it’s ask the writers to express themselves. When it is shared with audience, writing becomes course. It follows rules and foster to learning, of course, the amount of emphasizes of each of these function vary according to the writing task.

Hubbard, et. al. (1982, p.62) stated that writing is the skill most neglected. A lot of modern English Language Teaching (ELT) method under the influence of Audio Lingual Method stresses the importance of speech, with writing becoming a very poor. Second, it is no wonder that, frequently writing is taught very sketchily, it at all. All too often, when written work is set, it is assumed that the students can say something they should be able to write it. Thus little preparation is done form written work in class assignments which are far too difficult is set. One of those preparations is to know the sequence of sentence. This follows grammatical rules. A qualified and efficient written work is any writing that avoids using illogical or awkward construction.

Furthermore, well-constructed sentences are one of the major conditions to create qualified description writing, for instance the use of “pronoun reference”. The paragraph, which is lack of pronoun reference, will cause ambiguity. For example in the sentence, “Because Kyle is more interested in literature than in Biology, he sometimes slights it”. The pronoun it has no clear antecedent and might refer to either literature or biology. So the sentence must be: “Kyle is interested in literature sometimes makes him slight biology” (McCrimon, 1986, p.47).

To similar extant, the sentence “I lost front tooth, which embarrassed me”. The relative pronoun, “which” refers to the whole main clause. In the revision the sentence is recast in order to avoid the vague reference. So the revision of sentence must be “losing a front of tooth embarrassed me” (McCrimon, 1986, p.50).

1. Aspects of Writing

Writing is one language skill which must be taught to the students. It is the same importance as the other language skills. It is an indirectly way of communication but it is very important in human life in expressing thoughts and feelings in the form of writing especially for the students.

Heaton (1974, p.138) said that there are three skills involved in writing; competence, grammatical skill, stylizes skill and mechanical skill’. Grammatical skill is the ability in arranging sentence by following the rules of grammar, bought I a cake is not grammatical, while I bought a cake is. Stylistic skill is the ability in manipulating sentence in effective language, For example: Ratna goes to mini market every day, Ratna goes to mini market on foot, is not effective, and while Ratna goes to mini market on foot everyday is.

Mechanical skill is the ability to apply the graph convention such as; spelling and punctuation, while McCrimon (1986, p.70) reported that the writing competence has four aspects; a) Orthography is language sound description which is in the form of writing or a symbol and language spelling system. b) Structure is the arrangement of rule in a language becoming meaningful language units. c) Vocabulary is the total number of word in a language. d) Fluency in the writing ability implemented with a properly speed.

Based on the explanation above, it can be concluded that aspect of writing is very important to make the writing is written understandable based on the rule of English language and avoid the misunderstanding of messages that writer wants to deliver in his/her writing.

2. Function of Writing Purpose

     According to Tarigan (1993, p.24), there are some purposes of writing as follows:  a) As assignment of purpose; it means the writer will not only write something because of her / his wiling but he/she writes something of assignment purpose. For example: the students have assignment from his / her teacher at school. b) As altruistic purpose; it means the writer wants to make the readers happy: enjoy and pay attention to the writing in the others words writing consist of to parts: a few general statements about the subject attention and a those statement to state the specific subdivisions of the topics and or the plan on your pope. The example of altruistic purpose is comic writing short story- novel an etcetera. c) As persuasive purpose; it means writing which purpose to convince the reader about the clear the idea of the writer. It is usually in writing article and arguments composition. d) As informational purpose; it means the purpose of writing is to give and an in information or explanation to the reader. e) As self-expressive purpose; it means the writer is something which purpose to introduce himself to reader. The writing of bibliography is talking about some ones identity and his life. f) As creative purpose; it means that the writer, write something which purpose to extend the artistic valets. g) as problem solving purpose; it means the writer tries to explain to the readers about how to solve a problem.

3. The Writing Process

Petty and Jensen (1980, p.36) stated the writing process consists of:

a.    Pre - Writing

            Pre-writing is the first stage in writing process, begins long before the writer puts thoughts into writing the experiences, observations and interactions that students have an impact upon when they will write and how they will write it.

b.    Planning

            After students have generated some ideas, they must decide what they will say about their chose topic. Students develop an initial plan for the product they will compose. As they do so, they must consider the purpose, audience, point of view and format because these elements have implications for both the planning and the drafting of the written product.

c.    Drafting

            At this point in the process, the emphasis is on content and meaning rather than on mechanics and conventions this is the time for written to get down their ideas and thoughts, composing rough drafts based upon pre-writing and planning activities and considerations.

d.      Post Writing

            When students have an authentic audience and purpose, they want to rework their writhen drafts, polishing them for presentations or publications. Teachers may encourage students to share certain pieces or determine the number of pieces that the students a required to share or publish within a set time period, but ultimately the decision about which pieces to share, and with whom should be left up to the writer.

4. Concept of Good Writing

A good writing should pay serious attention to the use of writing mechanics. Those mechanics according to McCrimon (1986, p.95) consisted of:

a.    Punctuations

There are tense of marks or punctuation that are used in writing. Those marks are: period [.], comma [,], semicolon [;], question mark [?], exclamation mark [!], quotation mark [“…”], apostrophe [‘], dash [-], parentheses [/], square brackets [[]], and brackets [{} or ()]. Most of those marks have highly specialized function, and once these functions are understood, it is easy enough to use the specialized punctuation marks correctly. The chief exception, perhaps, is the comma, which is at once the most common marks of punctuation and the one with the most complex uses.

b.    Spelling

McCrimon (1986, p.68) said that a good writer can be seen from his/her ability in checking false or ambiguous spelling. Related to this statement, the students should be precisely to avoid making errors in writing such as:

1)        Word containing a “colorless” vowel. A vowel in a unstressed position (for example, ago, agent, awkward, maintenance, incredible, bachelor) is likely to be pronounced as very weak “uh”. This sound is called this colorless, or neutral.

2)        Words with ie and ei (for example: studies, properties, experiences and seize, perceive, receive, receipt, etc).

3)        Word with similar sound but different meanings, (for example: ship/sheep, bear/beer, hour/our, etc).

4)        Word with irregular plural forms (for example: child/children, radius/radii, mouse/mice, cactus/cacti, basis/bases, man/men, tooth/teeth, person/people, foot/feet, ox/oxen, penny/pence, etc).

5)        Word with similar consonant (for example, access/excess, advice/advise, suit/suite, moral/morale, council/counsel, etc).

c.    Capitalization

Capital letters are also the most important aspects of writing mechanics. The following parts will describe the rules of capitalizations (the use of capital letters) (McCrimon, 1986, 69).

1)   Capitalize the first word of every sentence and of every line of regular poetry.

For example:

Ask for Mr. Salim. He is in charge of service

Too bad! Better luck next time!

Earth has not anything to show fairer;

Dull would he be of soul who could pass

A sight so touching in its majesty

2)   Capitalize the first word of a direct quotation

For example:

Who said, “We have met the enemy, and they are ours?”

She looked puzzled and asked, “For example”

3)   Capitalize proper nouns

For example:

She works for the Lombok TV broad casting Company

I find Senggigi easier than Batubolong

However, words that were originally proper nouns but have taken on more general meanings are regarded common nouns and are not capitalized: boycott, calico, chine or dishes, port or wine, and tweed.

4)   Capitalize adjectives formed from proper nouns

For examples are follows:

They see to be ignorant of the American point of view.

There is a Miltonic quality in this verse.

The indicative method has been the Baconian method.

Therefore, words originally derived from the proper nouns cease to be capitalized when they are used as allusions rather than as direct references to the original noun. For examples: colossus, draconian, Herculean, meandering, and panic do not take capitals. Philippic is capitalized when it refers directly to the orations made by Demosthenes but now when it is used to describe some other denunciatory speech, the word is capitalized.

5)   Capitalize nouns or pronouns referring it the deity. Bible and biblical are also capitalized when they refers to scripture.

For example:

Allah, Muhammad the messenger, God, Lord or Father, Savior, Messiah, Trinity, Holy Ghost, He, His, Him.

6)   Capitalize names of offices only when they are used as tittles.

Capitalized:

District Attorney Johnson

Prime Minister Thatcher

Not Capitalized:

Tell it to the district attorney

Heath is a former prime minister

7)   Capitalize north, south, east and west and their derivatives only when they refer to geographical areas.

Capitalized:

We found the south charming

Her parents live in the east

Not Capitalized:

Next year we are going south

Lombok is east of Bali

8)   Capitalize tittles of books, name of magazines, titles of pays, and the headings of chapters or section of a work. The general practice is to capitalize all significant words in a title, including the first word.

For example:

A Child’s History of the United States

The Return of the native

9)   Capitalized the names of days of the week, months, and holidays.

For example:

New Year’s Day with fall on Tuesday

The favorite vocation months are July and August.

d. Abbreviations

In general, abbreviations should satisfy two conditions, namely: they must be standard form recognized by dictionaries and they must be appropriate to the context. The following are the summary of the most common standards abbreviations. The correct form of abbreviations, which is not included in this list, you should consult your dictionary.

1.    It is used for bibliographical terms: ef., vol., pp.

2.    Names of days in the dates only: Sun., Mon., Tues., Wed., Thurs., Fri., Sat.

3.    Names of month in dates only: Jan., Feb., Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec.

4.    Names of organization: IBM, UNESCO, IMF, AFD, etc.

5.    Names of government agencies. Abbreviations of government agencies generally do not require periods: CIA, FBI, NASA.

6.    Names of states in address only and sign. When the context permits the sign; States: USA, UK, NSW. Sign: $ (dollar), £ (pound sterling), ¥ (yen), etc.

5. Macro and Micro Skill of Writing

          Macro skills are parts of academic writing that focus on working at the section and whole text level (e.g. structure/ organization). According to Douglas (2003, p.221), macro skill as follows: (1) Selecting and order information; (2) Writing explanation; (3) Summarizing academic texts; (4) Writing in an impersonal style; (5) Understanding the difference between an abstract and a summary; (6) Learning how to approach exam questions; (7) Analyzing assignment titles; (8) Using cohesive devices to link paragraphs/ideas throughout a piece of writing; (9) Producing a discursive/argumentative essay; (10) Using appropriate tense; and (11) Others are identified the students or teacher.

   Writing is the productive skill in the written mode. It, too, is more complicated than it seems at first, and often seems to be the hardest of the skills, even for native speakers of a language, since it involves not just a graphic representation of speech, but the development and presentation of thoughts in a structured way. Here are some of the micro-skills involved in writing:

1.    Use the orthography correctly, including the script, and spelling and punctuation conventions.

2.    Use the correct forms of words. This may mean using forms that express the right tense, or case or gender.

3.    Put words together in correct word order.

4.    Use vocabulary correctly.

5.    Use the style appropriate to the genre and audience.

6.    Make the main sentence constituents, such as subject, verb, and object, clear to the reader.

7.    Make the main ideas distinct from supporting ideas or information.

8.    Make the text coherent, so that other people can follow the development of the ideas.

9.    Judge how much background knowledge the audience has on the subject and make clear what it is assumed they don't know.

B. The Teaching Writing

1. The Teaching Writing for Junior High School

Based on the interview of English teacher in SMPN 2 Sikur (Mr. Mahsuruddin, S.Pd.), teaching writing is based on the English Syllabus of School Unit Level Curriculum (KTSP) for SMP students that involves the teaching of paragraphs or text. The texts advocated are: recount, narrative, descriptive, procedure and report.

In teaching writing students given writing tasks after explaining the materials in order his students understand what they are going to do. But, before teaching writing begins, he usually gives explanations to his students as follows:

a.    Phase pre writing. Usually at this stage, the students are invited to discuss the topic of writing related to genre of the text is going to discuses in teaching learning process.

b.    Giving the students comprehension related to topic is talking about that consist of genre of text, generic structure of text, language features of text.

c.    Students are ordered to answer the questions in their (Lembar Kerja siswa) LKS.

d.   Strengthening the process, after the LKS submitted and are checked teacher usually provides reinforcement. If mistakes can be corrected by the students, teachers do not need to fix it. Teachers just give the circle mark on the shape or word which is considered wrong.

2. The Problems in Teaching Writing

Reber (as cited in Setiawan, 2006) stated some problems in teaching and learning writing, they are:

a. Intelligence 

Intelligence is the ability of psychosis of human for receiving the stimulation by certain ways. So, the intelligence is very important to the fine the success of students in learning the something or the program of education or not. The students will be able to learn if they have high intelligence. The intelligence of the students can be measured by using a certain thing and the result of measurement. In other hand, intelligence always stated with statistic to show the comparison of intelligence, it is called intelligence Quotient (IQ).

b. Talent  

Talents is an aptitude is defined as persons capacity, or hypothetical potential for acquisition of a certain more or less well defined pattern of behavior involved in the performance of task respect to which individual has had little or no previous training and has characteristic such as:

1)   The ability to work independently. 

2)   The ability to focus for long time.

3)   The selection of difficulty answering and solving the problem.

4)   The ability to study the problem critically.

5)   The ability to do sensitivity about good and bad.

6)   Sensitivity to another person.  

7)   Having great ideas.

c. Interest

Interest is the high ambition to the something and it is not the popular term in psychology that is influenced by thought, willing, motivation and need. Thus, interest is so influential in the process in the result of English learning as well.

d. Teacher

In the process of teaching and learning of English, if the teacher cannot do the following ways, namely: 

1)        The teacher is not qualified for taking methods in transferring the material, this can creates difficulty of problems of the students in mastering what they given, especially for English language.

2)        The hard of the teacher can make the relation of teacher and students are not good. So the learning process of English cannot take place well. The teacher is not

3)        The teacher is not able to give explain to help of the subject it can hinder the development of students in learning process, particularly in learning English.

e. Mother Tongue

The sentences of target language shows interference of the mother tongue, and the analysis of interference of the other sentences will come back to mother tongue.

3. The Curricular Objectives of Teaching Writing Skill

According to competency base school level curriculum based on national standard of education (content and competence standards in particular/KTSP 2006). The objectives of this curriculum are:

a.    Emphasizing the attainment of the students’ competence individually and classically.

b.    Orienting toward learning outcomes, and diversity.

c.    Using genre approaches in the learning process and greatly is influenced with systematic functional grammar.

d.   Accepting any other educative learning sources besides teachers.

e.    Emphasizing its evaluation on the learning process and outcomes in acquiring or attaining a certain competence.

f.     Using special terms such as standar kompetensi (Standard of Competence) refers to a minimum statement covering know ledges, skills, attitudes, and values which are reflected in the way of thinking and acting after students learned and finished writing); Kompetensi Dasar (Basic Competence) refers to a minimum statement covering know ledges, skills, attitudes, and values which are reflected in the way of thinking and acting after students learned and finished writing).; indicator (Achievement Indicators) refers to a specific basic competence that can taken as a standard to assess the attainment of a learning process.

g.    Materi Pokok (Core Materials) refers to core materials or lessons that students have to learn in a learning process.

C. Assessing of Writing

Assessment of learning to write often focused only on writing essays free. Students are asked to write an essay with a few titles that can be chosen. Students who are one with the other titles may vary. It will cause difficulty in determining the assessment criteria. The result of the assessment is too subjective. To overcome this, teachers can create appropriate evaluation tools and efficient (Hartono 2003, p.11).

In implementing a test or assess of learning, teachers can see how far the success rate of teaching and the ability of child development students. Ardiana, et al. (as cited in, Hartono 2003) revealed that the method can be used in evaluating/assessing essays; they are impression methods, analytical methods, and mechanical methods. Impression method is a method that bases its assessment on an impression or an impression of the essay as a whole, and the assessor should not be entered into the analysis essay. This assessment is more reliable if the results are based on several things (norms) Ardiana, et al. (as cited in, Hartono 2003). This method works are two or three people judge each essay. Result is summed and then taken the average. If you find it too obvious value differences should be a re-examination. For that we need a discussion, in order to reach a consensus about the essay is assessed. This method of valuation is determined by the assessor-appraiser. Rating scale can range between 0-5, 0-10, 0-20, or 000-100. So the appraiser is given special time to assess a number of specific articles, the teacher usually gives time one-hour for 20 essay.

The weakness of this assessment method is very tiring Assessor impressive. Therefore, if the appraiser is feeling tired assessment should be stopped for a while. The advantage of this method achieved a score that is more credible because it is seen by some appraisers. Analytic method is the essay assessment methods that are based on a norm or a specific aspect to be assessed. This method is usually used by teachers who have difficulty assessing essay. This method works, such as aspects of the essay will be judged is the aspect of work, aspects of grammar, fluency aspects, and aspects of relevance, each essay can be assessed using the range of 1 to 5. Order to obtain good results, then there needs to be weighted in every aspect. Mechanical method is a method of writing assessment that is done by calculating the overall student errors. This method is not recommended its use because it is considered less valid. In this study, the present researcher uses writing assessment that is noted by Jacobs et al. (as cited in Weigle, 2002, p. 115-116) as shown on table 1 bellow.

Table 1

Assessing of Writing

Aspect	Score	Level/Criteria
Content	30-27	Excellent to vey good	Knowledgeable, substantive, through development of thesis, relevant to assigned topic
	26-22	Good to average	some knowledge of subject , adequate range ·limited development of thesis, mostly relevant to the topic, but lacks detail
	21-17	Fair to poor	limited knowledge of subject, little substance, inadequate development of topic
	16-13	Very poor	does not show knowledge of subject, non-substantive, not pertinent or not enough to evaluate
Organization	20-18	Excellent to vey good	fluent expression, ideas clearly stated/ supported, succinct, well-organized, logical sequencing, cohesive
	17-14	Good to average	somewhat choppy, loosely organized but main ideas stand out, limited support, logical but incomplete sequencing
	13-10	Fair to poor	non-fluent, ideas confused or disconnected, lacks logical sequencing and development
	9-7	Very poor	does not communicate, no organization or not enough to evaluate
Vocabulary	20-18	Excellent to vey good	sophisticated range, effective word/ idiom choice and usage, word form mastery, appropriate register
	17-14	Good to average	adequate range, occasional errors of word/idiom form, choice, usage but meaning not obscured
	13-10	Fair to poor	limited range, frequent errors of word/ idiom form, choice, usage, meaning confused or obscured
	9-7	Very poor	essential translation, little knowledge of English vocabulary, idioms, word form or not enough to evaluate
Language usage	25-22	Excellent to vey good	effective complex constructions, few errors of agreement, tense, number, word order/ function, articles, pronouns, prepositions
	21-18	Good to average	effective but simple constructions, minor problems in complex constructions, several errors of agreement, tense, number, word order/ function, articles, pronouns, prepositions but meaning seldom obscured
	17-14	Fair to poor	major problems in simple/complex constructions, frequent errors of negation, agreement, tense, number, word order/function, articles, pronouns, prepositions and/ or fragments, run-ons, deletions, meaning confused or obscured
	10-5	Very poor	virtually no mastery of sentence construction rules, dominated by errors, does not communicate or not enough to evaluate
Mechanics	5	Excellent to vey good	demonstrates mastery of conventions, few errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing
	4	Good to average	occasional errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing but meaning not 3obscured
	3	Fair to poor	frequent errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing, poor handwriting, meaning confused or obscured
	2	Very poor	no mastery of conventions, dominated by errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing, handwriting illegible or not enough to evaluate

Based on the assessing of writing above and concerns with this study, the present researcher uses all aspect; content, organization, grammar, vocabulary and mechanics as the guidance to give the subjects score based on their results of writing.

D. Dialogue Journal

1. The Nature of Dialogue Journal

Staton (as cited in Tierney, 1990) stated that dialogue journals are intended to the students an opportunity to share privately in writing their reactions, questions, and concerns about school experiences (and sometimes personal matters) without any threat of reprisal or evaluation.

According to Posner (as cited in Taggart and Wilson, 1996) stated that a general format for dialogue journals would include: date and time of the entry, brief sequencing of the events of the day, elaboration on details of one or two episodes based on level of excitement, puzzlement, or confirmation, and analysis of the episode; possible explanations for event, significance of the event, what was learned, questions raised, relevance.

Aurbech (as cited in Peyton, 2000) said that dialogue journal is writing is consistent with a learner-centered curriculum orientation, in which learners write to express themselves, to make sense of their own and others’ experiences, and also to develop their abilities. Urbech (as cited in Peyton, 2000) also said that dialogue journals are written conversations in which a learner and teacher (or other writing partner) communicate regularly (daily, weekly, or on a schedule that fits the educational setting) over a semester, school year or course.

The dialogue journal is a widely used method of recording events and personal vignettes. The dialogue journals may describe the episode, analyze cause and effect, and attempt to determine roles and beliefs stemming from the event. A dialogue journal is a written conversation between the teacher and the student. The topic is random and the role of the teacher is not to directly correct students’ writing, but to communicate and stimulate the student to write further on (Taggart & Wilson, 2005, p.78).

         According to Oxbrow (in http://www.iatefl.org.pl/tdal/n4w2learn.htm), dialogue journals provide a welcomed and personalized, unthreatening arena to try out language and ideas in a supportive, encouraging environment as well as evolving into a rich source of information for teachers about language learning and classroom strategies. A dialogue journal is an informal written conversation between two or more people (student-student or student-teacher) about topics of mutual interest. Dialogue journals provide students with a meaningful writing activity that is engaging because it involves other students. These written conversations reinforce learning while forming bonds between students that can provide a foundation for later cooperative learning activities.

2. Benefit of Using Dialogue Journal

           Jones (in http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/Home.portal), said that the benefits of using dialogue journal writings are:

a.         The dialogue journal helps both students and the teacher to feel more confident and deal with each other’s needs. This relationship results in a type of classroom balance that solves a basic problem. All the resources a teacher uses in the classroom are intended to produce a positive environment of understanding and trust, but that does not necessarily bring mutual understanding automatically.

b.        By dialoguing, the student - teacher relationship develops in a totally new dimension because there is enough time and space for sharing ideas. During the process of dialoguing the teacher and the student have a chance to get to know each other better and therefore mutual understanding becomes more profound.

c.         Dialogue journals enable the teacher to establish an intimate relationship with the student through writing. The teacher has a wider view of the needs of the students and can more effectively look for resources that will motivate more directly the students.

d.        The most immediate effect of dialoguing in students is the sense of freedom. This leads to intrinsic motivation, expands their will to communicate and elevates their self-esteem.

e.         Dialogue journal can have a different impact on every student, but Paul Jones insists on some general consistent advantages dialogue journals might have for students. The dialogue, because of its immediate feedback, generates a change in the student's attitude towards the second language. It also generates a change in the attitude toward the school, because the communication involved makes the student feel more integrated eager to participate and to assume responsibilities. As a result, the students tend to feel the change toward them, with a general improvement in self-esteem.

In addition, Grabe et al. (1998, p.27) emphasized the benefit of dialogue journals writing as follows:

a.       It is an opportunity for students to provide feedback about their learning experiences.

b.      It is personal writing, individualized, private, and instructional.

c.       Interactive journal can be used to collect different kinds of assessment informational: about writing itself, about learning, and about students’ reactions to school in general or to instruction in specific subject areas.

d.      Most obviously, it can be used to assess students’ writing skill and the strategies they use when writing if it is done routinely, so that it provides a continuous record of writing development.

e.       It is an opportunity for students to provide feedback about their learning experiences, and it allows students opportunities to express themselves in writing in personal ways and at length through the second language.

According to Harmer (2004, p.127), there some benefits of using dialogue journal writings such as: first; reflecting upon learning, second; the opportunities for freedom of expression, three; the impact of journal writing on  writing  ability  in  general,  and  the  last;  the  opportunity t hey  provide  for teachers  and  their  students  to  enter into  a  new  and  different kind  of dialogue.

3. The Steps of Making Dialogue Journals

There are three phases that should be explained before making dialogue journal as stated by Peyton (in http://www.sil.11 rg.lingulinks/literacy/implementliteracyprogram/usingdialoguejournal.html).

a.  Introduction

1.  There are many ways to use dialogue journal. Be creative and adapt the activity to the situation and the learner’s needs to help learners:

a)    Develop reading and writing fluency

b)   Improve spelling and handwriting

c)    Understand that writing is a means of communicating, and

d)   Make reading and writing part of everyday life.

2.      Using dialogue journals gives teachers an opportunity to interact with learners on a personal level, if appropriate, or on an academic level. Teachers can:

a)    Answer questions asked by the learner

b)   Ask questions that help clarify learners' thinking or stimulate ideas

c)    Get to know more about the learners, their language, and their culture, and

d)   Use the journal as a record of a learner's progress.

b.  Guidelines

Here are some guidelines to follow when students use dialogue journals:

1      Be aware that oral societies may resist the use of dialogue journals. It may not make much sense to them to write to someone who is present and can easily be engaged in conversation.

2      Be careful that subjects that students write about are culturally acceptable.

3      Decide whether or not to correct the journal entries of learners after accomplishing it.

a)        Some people believe that journals should be corrected and are a good place to work on spelling and grammar. Adult learners especially often want their work corrected.

b)        Other people believe the teacher should not correct spelling, grammar, or handwriting mistakes, but should model correct spelling or usage in the return entry as part of the reply to the learner and use problem words more than once to reinforce their correct usage.

4      Use journals outside of classroom situations on a more personal level.

c.   Steps

              Here are the steps to follow to use dialogue journals with learners:

1      Write a personal message in the journal that is designed to get a response from the learner.

Examples: Start with a question such as

1)   "Have you planted your garden? What do you usually plant?"

2)   "What is the next event to celebrate? How will you celebrate it?"

2      Have the learner write a response and return the journal to the teacher to continue the dialogue.

d.  Variations

1        Have the class discuss and agree upon a question for the next entry in the journals.

2        Have learners exchange journals and read each other's thoughts and ideas.

3        Instruct learners to make specific kinds of entries in the journals:

a.    Questions about classroom material that is unclear.

b.   Reactions to specific classroom material or activities.

c.    Feelings about the training or other common experiences.

d.   A summary of the training or a day's class.

4        Continue to exchange the journal in this way to keep the dialogue going.

       4. The Affective of Dialogue Journals

Dialogue journal writing is a simple activity, but there are some affective of dialogue journal that must be considered when it is used as a means of developing students’ in writing skill.

a.    Materials

Most people use bound, easily transportable notebook, it can be a small notebook so that it is easy to be carried.

b.    Frequency of writing

The writing must be done regularly, but it does not have to be daily routine. It will be consistent one if it is to be seen as genuine means of expression and communication. So there must be an agreement between students and teachers about when they have to write and collect their dialogue  journals  in  order  to  get  feedback  or  response  from  the teachers.

c.    Length of writing

The teacher should set a minimum (e. g three sentences) that the students must write. Later on, the amount of writing should be up to each student.

d.   Journal partners

Dialogue journal writing need not be only between teacher and students can be paired with (or they can choose) students dialogue partners in the class (Reed, 1989, p.164).

E. Relevant Study

In this part, the present researcher presented the relevant studies which were similar to this study. The firs study was taken from Kamran (2007) who conducted a study with the title ”The influence of using dialogue journal in teaching writing text for the second year students of Ma Assunnah Nw Jurang Jaler  in academic year 2007/2008’.

In his study attempted there were two research questions formulated: (1). Is there any influence of using dialogue journal in teaching writing text for the second year students of Ma Assunnah Nw Jurang Jaler  in academic year 2007/2008? (2) To what extent is the influence of using dialogue journal in teaching writing text for the second year students of Ma Assunnah Nw Jurang Jaler  in academic year 2007/2008? The objective of his study were: (1). To find out the influence of using dialogue journal in teaching writing text for the second year students of Ma Assunnah Nw Jurang Jaler in academic year 2007/2008 (2) To find out the extent influence of using dialogue journal in teaching writing text for the second year students of Ma Assunnah Nw Jurang Jaler in academic year 2007/2008.

His research design was quasi experimental design in which he divided the sample into two groups, namely experimental and control group. The instrument used in collecting data was test. His sample was 30 students taken from 119 population for the second year students of Ma Assunnah Nw Jurang Jaler in academic year 2007/2008.

Based on the result, she found that there was influence of using dialogue journal in teaching writing text for the second year students of Ma Assunnah Nw Jurang Jaler in academic year 2007/2008. It proved with the mean score of the students in the pre- test from the experimental group 60.35 had been improved in the post-test, in which the students mean score is 71.07. In applying the t-test formula for the students post- test for both groups, it found that t-test value was much higher than the value of the t- table (9.11>2.45).

The second relevant study is taken from the research of Khairul Anwar (2006) entitled “Students’ Ability in Writing English Paragraph for the Second Year Students of SMAN 2 Selong in the School Year 2005/2006.

In his research there were two statements of the problems formulated; (1) To what extent is students’ ability in writing English paragraph for the second year students of SMAN 2 Selong in the school year 2005/2006? And (2) To what extent is the achievement level of the second year students of SMAN 2 Selong in the school year 2005/2006 in writing English paragraph? The objective of his study were: (1). To know the extent is the achievement level of the second year students of SMAN 2 Selong in the school year 2005/2006 in writing English paragraph. (2) To know the extent is the achievement level of the second year students of SMAN 2 Selong in the school year 2005/2006 in writing English paragraph.

His research design was descriptive research. The instrument used in collecting data was test. His sample was 40 students taken from 245 populations by using cluster random sampling for the second year students of SMAN 2 Selong in the school year 2005/2006.

Based on the result, he found that the second year students of SMAN 2 Selong were able to write English paragraph. It is proved by the calculation of mean score of the test result. The mean score was 62.80. It means that the second year students of SMAN 2 Selong in the school year 2005/2006 have capability in writing English paragraph and based on the categorization of the students’ achievement level, the second year students of SMAN 2 Selong in the school year 2005/2006 were categorized into average level in writing English paragraph. This is proved by the fact that their level of ability range from good to fair consisted of 27 students (67.5%). On the other hand, the data show that the number of students who achieved poor was 8 students (20%) and the students who achieved good to excellent were 5 students (12.5). The mean score were 62.8 and standard deviation (SD) 12.52. It means that, the second year students of SMAN 2 Selong in the school year 2005/2006 considered average level in writing English paragraph.

Based on the relevant studies above, the similarity of those researches could be seen on the variable of the research; Kamran and Khairul’s research investigated the same variable that was writing. It was the same variable that was the present researcher wad investigated. Besides the similarity, there were differences related to two relevant studies above, it could be seen on different of level investigation. Kamran and Khairul’s research took level Senior High School meanwhile the present researcher took Junior High School level as the place to investigate.

F. Theoretical Framework

English in Indonesia is still become foreign language. English consists of four skills; listening, speaking, reading, and writing. So, unavoidable students in teaching English get difficulties moreover in teaching writing because writing is the complex process that involves generating and developing ideas, analyzing meaning and making and decision about contents, forms, organizations and styles (Oshima and Hogue, 1983, p.77).

Based on the statement above, the difficulties in teaching writing should be solved by teacher to develop the students’ interest in studying English especially in writing. Because, writing is the act of forming letters or combination of letters: making signs on flat surface on some kind. So writing is a skill of conveying or communicating meaning to people through the combination of letters set down on paper or other materials which is gained by learning and practicing. The word ‘meaning’ here can be related to ideas, feelings, thoughts, opinions, and information (Byrne, 1990, p.11).

Based on the explanation above, the indicators of this study consist of five aspects. They are; content, organization, grammar, vocabulary, and mechanics as stated by (Heaton, 1989, p.100).

Related to reality above, the present researcher expected that by using dialogue journal in teaching and learning process, the students’ writing ability will be better than before. A dialogue journal is a written conversation between the teacher and the student. The topic is random and the role of the teacher is not to directly correct students’ writing, but to communicate and stimulate the student to write further on (Peyton, 1993, p.2).

By using dialogue journal, the teacher can get more information about their students. The teacher can answer questions and makes comments about the students’ entry, making sure the answers provide correct structures, grammar and spelling. From the teacher's reaction and not from any particular corrections students discover in the “dialogue” how the correct form of the entry should be more correct structures in further entries.

G. Hypothesis

In this part, the present researcher presents the hypothesis of the study as follows: there was positive effect of dialogue journal toward students’ writing ability for the eighth graders of SMPN 2 Sikur in the school year 2011/2012.

 

 CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

A. Research Design

 Concerning to the research design, firstly, it is important to know what the research design is. The research design determines the success of a research. According to Djunaidi (1990, p.47) research design is defined as a planning, an outline, on how the researcher will comprehend the interrelation form among the variables which are investigated. So, he/she has to choose a suitable design for his/her research in order that he/she can be easier in doing his/her study.

According to Sugiyono (2009, p.73), experimental method divided into four, namely true-experimental, pre-experimental, factorial design, and quasi experimental design. In line with this statement, the present researcher used true-experimental design with pre-test and post-test control group design. In this research design there were two groups namely experimental group and control group.

B. Setting of the Study

 This study was done at the first semester for the eighth graders of SMPN 2 Sikur in the school year 2011/2012 in Paok Motong-Kotaraja of East Lombok was built in 1982.

C.  Population and Sample of the Study

  In this part, the present researcher discussed about population and sample of the study.

1.  Population of the Study

     Suharsimi (2006, p.130) noted that population is a group of people as the subject of the research. While, Gay (1992, p.125) argued that population is the group of interest to the present researcher, the group to which she or he would like the results of the study is generalized.

     Referring to the theories above, the target population of the study was all the eighth graders of SMPN 2 Sikur in the school year 2011/2012. The description of the population of the study could be seen in table 1 bellow.

Table 2

Population of the Study

No.	Class	Sum of Population
1	VIII A	31
2	VIII B	32
3	VIII C	30
4	VIII D	32
5	VIII E	32
6	VIII F	32
	TOTAL	189

2.  Sample of the Study

Suharsimi (2006, p.131) stated that sample is part of population which become the subjects of research.

Related to the theory above, in taking the sample, the present researcher used the theory was stated by Sugiyono (2009, p.65), he stated that if the subjects that will be researched are great enough, it is suggested to take the sample by using cluster sampling. It was technique of taking part of population or sample randomly. It meant that all individuals in the population get the same change to be selected to become the member of sampling.

In taking the sample by using cluster random sampling, the present researcher used lottery to random the five classes as the sample of the study, as the result, VIII^D and VIII^E are chosen as the sample of the study. Where VIII^D as the experiment group and VIII^E as the control group.

D. Data Collection

      This part discussed about identifying the variable, defining operationally the variables, instrument of the study, and technique of data collection.

1.    Identifying of the Variable

The independent variable is the variable that is controlled and manipulated by the experimenter and the dependent variable is the variable that is measured by the experimenter (Hatch and Frahady, 1982, p.15).

   Based on the theory above, the independent variable of this study was dialogue journal while the dependent variable was writing skill.

2.    Defining Operationally the Variables

a.    Dialogue journal is writing is consistent with a learner-centered curriculum orientation, in which learners write to express themselves, to make sense of their own and others’ experiences, and also to develop their abilities (Aurbech, as cited in Peyton, 2000).

b.    Writing is communication, writing is self-expression, writing is public, writing is rule-governed, behavior, and away to learning. Writing communication; it’s ask the writers to express themselves. When it is shared with audience, writing becomes course. It follows rules and foster to learning, of course, the amount of emphasizes of each of these function vary according to the writing task (Gere, 1985, p.4).

3. Instrument of the Study

According to Suharsimi (2006, p.149), instrument is a tool to collect the data of the study. Data were needed to solve the problems and to prove the hypothesis. So instrument denote as the main key in research activity, at the same time it determines the quality of research. To know the effectives of dialogue journal in teaching writing, the present researcher administrated test to the students. In this case, the present researcher divided the score into five criteria; they were the score of content, organization, grammar, vocabulary, and mechanics. An instrument was used in a research must be valid and reliable. To know the instrument was valid or not, the present researcher conducted try-out of instrument.

a.    Try  Out of Instrument

Before applying the test to the number of sample, the present researcher conducted try-out of instrument to determine the validity and reliability of test. In this case, the present researcher conducted the try-out of the instrument to the other students who were not included to the sample of the study and had similar characteristics.

Therefore, try-out of the instrument was conducted to the eighth graders of SMPN 2 Sikur in the school year 2011/2012.

b.    Validity of Instrument         

A test must be valid and reliable. An instrument is called valid if it is able measure what should be measured (Suharsimi, 2006, p.168). She also stated that the level validity is shown with the quality of instrument. To know whether the instrument was valid or not, the present researcher used content validity and the instrument was consulted to the English teacher and course books were being used for Junior High School level.

c.    Reliability of Instrument

   A test is called reliable if it is obtained the stable data or consistent and it can be used to measure in the degree of consistency with it measure whatever it is measuring (Suharsimi, 2006, p.178). While, Gay (1987, p.135) said that reliability is the degree to which a test consistently measures whatever it measures.

Related to theories above, the present researcher used scorer rater reliability as stated by Gay (1987, p.141), scorer rater reliability refers to the situations for which reliability must be investigated. It meant that the present researcher did not analyze the reliability by using quantitatively. 

4.   Technique of Data Collection

The technique of data collection in this study, the present researcher used test. The present researcher did some steps to collect data as follow:

a.    Pre-Test

The present researcher gave a pre-test to both of the groups (control group and experiment group) to know the students’ writing skill before conducting the research. The scores were based on the five criteria; they were the score of content, organization, grammar, vocabulary, and mechanics.

b.    Treatment

To obtain the data, the present researcher asked students to write dialogue journal. In this case, the present researcher gave the students two topics; they were about ‘Travelling or Holiday’.

c.    Post-Test

The present researcher gave the post-test to the student. The test was similar with the pre-test. However, the post-test was given after the treatment by using dialogue journal. The scores were taken in five criteria; they were the score of content, organization, grammar, vocabulary, and mechanics where the each criteria had 20 score where each item from five indicators had score from zero (0) to four (4). So, if all scores from those criteria were calculated, the scores were 100. To be clear, the whole indicators of writing assessment and each score was noted by (Weigle, 2002, p.115-116) as shown on table 3 bellow.

Table 3

Writing Assessment

Aspect	Score	Level/Criteria
Content	30-27	Excellent to vey good	Knowledgeable, substantive, through development of thesis, relevant to assigned topic
	26-22	Good to average	some knowledge of subject , adequate range ·limited development of thesis, mostly relevant to the topic, but lacks detail
	21-17	Fair to poor	limited knowledge of subject, little substance, inadequate development of topic
	16-13	Very poor	does not show knowledge of subject, non-substantive, not pertinent or not enough to evaluate

Organization	20-18	Excellent to vey good	fluent expression, ideas clearly stated/ supported, succinct, well-organized, logical sequencing, cohesive
	17-14	Good to average	somewhat choppy, loosely organized but main ideas stand out, limited support, logical but incomplete sequencing
	13-10	Fair to poor	non-fluent, ideas confused or disconnected, lacks logical sequencing and development
	9-7	Very poor	does not communicate, no organization or not enough to evaluate
Vocabulary	20-18	Excellent to vey good	sophisticated range, effective word/ idiom choice and usage, word form mastery, appropriate register
	17-14	Good to average	adequate range, occasional errors of word/idiom form, choice, usage but meaning not obscured
	13-10	Fair to poor	limited range, frequent errors of word/ idiom form, choice, usage, meaning confused or obscured
	9-7	Very poor	essential translation, little knowledge of English vocabulary, idioms, word form or not enough to evaluate
Language usage	25-22	Excellent to vey good	effective complex constructions, few errors of agreement, tense, number, word order/ function, articles, pronouns, prepositions
	21-18	Good to average	effective but simple constructions, minor problems in complex constructions, several errors of agreement, tense, number, word order/ function, articles, pronouns, prepositions but meaning seldom obscured
	17-14	Fair to poor	major problems in simple/complex constructions, frequent errors of negation, agreement, tense, number, word order/function, articles, pronouns, prepositions and/ or fragments, run-ons, deletions, meaning confused or obscured
	10-5	Very poor	virtually no mastery of sentence construction rules, dominated by errors, does not communicate or not enough to evaluate
Mechanics	5	Excellent to vey good	demonstrates mastery of conventions, few errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing
	4	Good to average	occasional errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing but meaning not 3obscured
	3	Fair to poor	frequent errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing, poor handwriting, meaning confused or obscured
	2	Very poor	no mastery of conventions, dominated by errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing, handwriting illegible or not enough to evaluate

E.  Data Analysis

             In this part, the present researcher described the technique of data analysis in which consist of description of the data and hypothesis testing.  

1.      Descriptive Statistics

In this part, the present researcher used descriptive statistic to describe the result of the study. It was used to determine the data into high, average, and low categories in which Mi was ideal mean score and SDi was ideal standard deviation for the purpose the following formula:

Mi + SDi up to Mi + 3SDi        = High

Mi – SDi up to < Mi + 1SDi     = Average

Mi – 3SDi up to < Mi – 1SDi   = Low

Mi   =  1/2 x (Maximum score + Minimum score)

SDi = 1/6 x (Maximum score + Minimum score)

                                                        Nurkencana and Sumartana (1990, p.89)

2. Testing Hypothesis

To analyze the hypothesis testing which was aimed at knowing the hypothesis was accepted or not, the present researcher used the following formula:

  Where:

Mx  =   mean score of control group

My  =   mean score of experimental group

N    =   number of subject

x     =   the deviation of control group  

y     =  the deviation of experimental group

                                                             Suharsimi (2006, p.280)

The hypothesis criteria, if:

1.      If t-test > t-table in significant rank of 0,05 Ho (Null hypothesis) is rejected.

2.      If t-test < t-table in significant rank of 0,05 Ho(Null hypothesis) is accepted.

 

CHAPTER IV

RESEARCH FINGDING AND DISCUSSION

A.    Description of Data Analysis

The result of data analysis was concerned with descriptive analysis that was related to the research questions.

In this descriptive analysis, the present researcher presented two variables of this research; they were students’ pre-test and students’ post test of dialogue journal toward students’ writing ability for the eighth graders of SMPN 2 Sikur in the school year 2011/2012.

In this research, both variables of this research were presented to students before and after doing the treatment which consisted of student’s pre-test and students’ post-test; where the present researcher presented the students’ pre-test before doing the treatment and for the students’ post-test; it was done after doing the treatment of dialogue journal toward students’ writing ability toward students’ writing ability. Statistical calculation covers Mean, Standard Deviation, the highest score and the lowest score.

1.    Students’ Pre-test

In this research, the present researcher gave written test to the sample which consisted of 20 items as mentioned in chapter III. Data of students’ pre-test were taken from the students’ result before treating glossary vocabulary. The result of the students’ pre-test was shown in appendix 4.

The result of the analysis showed that the Mean score was 6.78, the lowest score was 5 and the highest score was 9 with standard deviation 5.8 for the control group and for control experimental group; mean score was 12.47, the lowest score was 5 and the highest score was 13 with standard deviation 7.2. The result of the students’ pre-test was shown in appendix 6.

Based on the explanation above, the category of students’ attainment in pre-test formulated as follows:

Mi        =   (Maximum score + minimum score)

=   (20 + 0)

=          

= 10

            SDi      =   (maximum score – minimum score)

            =  (20 – 0)

=

= 3.33

MI + 1 SDi up to MI + 3 SDi             = high

10 + 1 (3.33) up to 10 + 3 (3.33)

13.33 to 19.33

MI – 1 SDi up to    < MI + 1 SDi = average

10 – 1 (3.33) up to < 10  + 1 (3.33)

6.67 to < 13.33

MI– 3 SDi up to    < MI – 1 SDi = low

10 – 3 (3.33) up to <  10 – 1 (3.33)

0.01 to < 6.67

Based on the computations above, the present researcher could conclude that the suitable category of the students’ pre-test was “average” category rank. It meant that the students’ pre-test was good enough.

In brief, the figure of students’ pre-test of the eighth graders of Mts. Al Ijtihad Danger in the school year 2011/2012 can be seen on the following table.

Table 3

Students’ Pre-test of the Eighth Graders of Mts. Al Ijtihad Danger by the Highest Score, the Lowest Score, Mean, and Standard Deviation

Test	Highest	Lowest	Mean	Standard Deviation
Experimental group	13	5	12.47	5.8
Control group	9	5	6.78	7.2

2.    Students’ Post-test

Data of students’ post-test were taken from the students’ test result after treating by glossary vocabulary in answering the questions. The result of the students’ post-test was shown in appendix 5.

The result of the analysis showed that the Mean score was 14.66, the lowest score was 12 and the highest score was 17 with standard deviation 14.72 for the experimental group and for control group mean score was 7.66, the lowest score was 10 and the highest score was 16 with standard deviation 12.7. The result of the students’ pre-test was shown in appendix 6.

Based on the computations above, the present researcher could conclude that the suitable category of the students’ post-test was “high” category rank. It meant that the students’ post-test was better than students’ pre-test.

In brief, the figure of students’ post-test of the eighth graders of Mts. Al Ijtihad Danger in the school year 2011/2012 can be seen on the following table.

Table 3

Students’ Post-test of the Eighth Graders of Mts. Al Ijtihad Danger by the Highest Score, the Lowest Score, Mean, and Standard Deviation

Test	Highest	Lowest	Mean	Standard Deviation
Experimental group	17	12	14.66	14.72
Control group	16	10	7.66	12.7

3.    Students’ Pre-test and Students’ Post-test

In this research, the present researcher presented two variables; students’ pre-test and students’ post-test. Where, the students’ post-test was given after doing the treatment. In this case, the present researcher gave test to the students which enclosed by glossary vocabulary in the test to find out the effect of glossary vocabulary in translating descriptive text based on the test was given. In answering the test, the present researcher allocated the time for 60 minutes.

Based on the result of students’ pre-test, the present researcher found that the mean score was 6.78, the lowest score was 5 and the highest score was 9 with standard deviation 5.8 for the control group and for control experimental group; mean score was 12.47, the lowest score was 5 and the highest score was 13 with standard deviation 7.2.

While for the students’ post-test, the present researcher found that the mean score was 14.66, the lowest score was 12 and the highest score was 17 with standard deviation 14.72 for the experimental group and for control group mean score was 7.66, the lowest score was 10 and the highest score was 16 with standard deviation 12.7.

                                                                                     

4.    The Result of Hypothesis Testing

To know the hypothesis testing in this study, the present researcher used t-_test method to answer the hypothesis. The hypothesis criteria, if: t_table ≤ t_test, it meant that Ho was rejected and t_table ≥ t_test, it meant that Ho was accepted. The result of t­-_test was to know whether the hypothesis was accepted or rejected. The hypothesis in this study was “there is any effect of glossary vocabulary in translating descriptive text for the eighth graders of MTs. Al Ijtihad Danger in the school year of 2011/2012”.

After the score of two groups; experimental and control group computed by using t-test and t-table. Where; if the t-test is higher than t-table, the hypothesis was accepted. While, if t-table is higher than t-test, hypothesis was rejected. Related to this statement, the result of the calculating t-test was showed that the t-test was 2.62 and t-table was 1.67 (see appendix 8). While, in significant level was 5% with degree of freedom (df) was 62. It was indicated that t-test was higher than t-table. So, the null hypothesis of this research was rejected and the alternative hypothesis was accepted. The conclusion of this analysis stated that there was effect of the glossary vocabulary in translating descriptive text for the eighth graders of Mts. Al Ijtihad Danger in the school year 2011/2012.

B.     Discussion

The research questions, which had been subjected to statistical answer was interpreted based on the result of data analysis.

1.    Students’ Pre-test

In this part, the present researcher had measured the students’ test based on the questions given which consisted of 20 items and found that the mean score was 6.78, the lowest score was 5 and the highest score was 9 with standard deviation 5.8 for the control group and for control experimental group; mean score was 12.47, the lowest score was 5 and the highest score was 13 with standard deviation 7.2. This result found before the present researcher gave the treatment to the students.

According to the explanation above, if the result classified based on the test which presented by present researcher at the pre-test such as stated in chapter III, it could be concluded if the result was categorized “average” and it could be indicated if the students Mts. Al Ijtihad Danger in the school year 2011/2012 was considered good enough in translating descriptive text before they given treatment by the present researcher.

2.    Students’ Post-test

From the data collected, the present researcher found that the mean score was 14.66, the lowest score was 12 and the highest score was 17 with standard deviation 14.72 for the experimental group and for control group mean score was 7.66, the lowest score was 10 and the highest score was 16 with standard deviation 12.7. This result found after the present researcher gave the treatment to the students.

According to the explanation above, it could be concluded if the result was categorized “high”. So, it can be said if the students Mts. Al Ijtihad Danger in the school year 2011/2012 in translating descriptive text after they given treatment by the present researcher by using glossary vocabulary was better than pre-test.

3.    Students’ Pre-test and Post-test

From the data collection which was done by present researcher toward students’ pre-test and post-test, it showed that the mean score was 6.78, the lowest score was 5 and the highest score was 9 with standard deviation 5.8 for the control group and for control experimental group; mean score was 12.47, the lowest score was 5 and the highest score was 13 with standard deviation 7.2 and for the students’ post-test showed that the mean score was 14.66, the lowest score was 12 and the highest score was 17 with standard deviation 14.72 for the experimental group and for control group mean score was 7.66, the lowest score was 10 and the highest score was 16 with standard deviation 12.7.

Based on the data above, it could be said that there was a difference between score of students’ pre-test before doing the treatment and score of students’ post-test after doing the treatment in translating descriptive text. It means that the result of the students’ post-test was better then the students’ pre-test and the difference was so far if it seen from their achievement and the result they got before and after giving the treatment.

Based on the explanation above, the present researcher could conclude that there was effect of the glossary vocabulary in translating descriptive text for the eighth graders of Mts. Al Ijtihad Danger in the school year 2011/2012.

CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS

A.  Conclusion

Based on the data analysis in the previous chapter, the researcher finally comes forward to the conclusion.

1. The effect of glossary vocabulary in translating descriptive text for the eighth graders of Mts. Al Ijtihad Danger in the school year 2011/2012 had different. It could be seen from the result of the data analysis that indicated that the figure of the mean score on post-test was 14,66 for the experimental group and 7,66 for the control group while on the pre-test, the experimental group was 12,47 and 6,78 for the control group where for the experimental group on pre-test, the minimum score was 5 and the maximum score was 13, while in the post-test, the minimum score was 12 and the maximum score was 17. For the control group in the pre-test obtained the minimum score was 5 and the maximum score was 9, while in the post-test, the minimum score was 11 and the maximum score was 16.
2. There was significant effect of glossary vocabulary in translating descriptive text for the eighth graders of Mts. Al Ijtihad Danger in the school year 2011/2012 for the experimental group and the control group after treatment implemented. It is indicated with the result of the hypothesis testing, the present researcher found that value of t-test was 2,62 was higher than t-table that was 1,67 in degree of freedom 62 at significant rank 5%. The result also indicated from the standard categories.

The mean score of students’ in translating descriptive text between experimental group and control group were different. The Students’ ability of the experimental group on pre-test was categorized average rank and high rank for post-test, while mean score control group was categorized was average on pre-test and post-test.

B.  Suggestion

Based on the result of the study, the present researcher would like to offer some suggestions are as follows:

1.      The English teachers should learn the characteristics of the students in order to know exactly what they need and what problems they faced on their development. By understanding those points, the teacher can choose the most suitable method, techniques, and materials in improving the students’ motivation in learning English based on certain condition. Besides, the English teachers should create an interesting and enjoyable situation of teaching learning process. So, students will be easy in learning when the situation is interesting for them and the students will more enthusiastic. It also will avoid the boredom.

2.      An instructional process will not be successful if students are not maximally involved in it. So, the students have to be more active and motivated to learn English. The students not only can study English in the class but also can study everywhere and every time. They can practice English in their daily life.

3.      This study is just one of efforts in improving students’ vocabulary. It is expected that the finding of this study will be used as a starting point of the future research on similar problems. There are many other method, techniques, and materials of teaching English of Junior High School students that can be taken as objects of research to find out the effect of teaching.

4.      The institution (school/headmaster) should state a policy in improving the quality of the teaching English. It should encourage the English teacher to be creative to use various methods, techniques or materials. It should also be facilitated with various media supporting the teaching activity.