Using Dialogue Journals to Improve English Writing Skill of the Second-Year Students at MTsN Tinambung Polewali Mandar, West Sulawesi. (Thesis)
| Main Author: | Nurdin Nurdin |
|---|---|
| Format: | PeerReviewed |
| Bahasa: | ind |
| Terbitan: |
, 2009
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: |
http://karya-ilmiah.um.ac.id/index.php/disertasi/article/view/1144 |
Daftar Isi:
- Based on preliminary study conducted in MTsN Tinambung West Sulawesi, it was found out that the students of the school had some problems in learning writing. The problems were low motivation to learn, inability to make sentences in English and difficulty to begin writing. The possible causes of the problems were uninteresting strategy in teaching, limited vocabulary and having no idea to write. This study was designed to improve the students' writing skill in English through dialogue journal strategy. The strategy was selected for some reasons. First of all, dialogue journal strategy provides the students an interesting activity in which the students can freely write anything they like such as ideas, thought, or feelings. The students can also communicate with the teacher through writing because the teacher gives responses to the students' writing. In addition, by writing journals the students have a lot of practices. So, they are expected to write well because of the regular writing activities. The research problem was formulated as follows: "How can dialogue journals improve English writing skill of the second-year students at MTsN Tinambung Polewali Mandar, West Sulawesi?" This study employed a classroom action research design in which the researcher and the collaborative teacher worked together in designing the lesson plans, implementing the action, observing and making reflection. The subjects of the study were the second-year students of MTsN Tinambung Polewali Mandar, West Sulawesi of the 2008-2009 academic year. This study was conducted in two cycles by following the procedures of the action research i.e. planning, implementing, observing, and reflecting. The procedures of implementing dialogue journal strategy in the teaching and learning process in this study were: (1) leading the students to the topics by asking some questions; (2) asking the students to tell about something. For example, their daily activity or their experience; (3) asking the students to write down what they have told about; (4) showing the students models of sentences and paragraphs; (5) asking the students to compare between their sentences and paragraphs and the models; (6) asking the students to rewrite their sentences and paragraphs; (7) showing the students models of dialogue journals; (8) giving explanation about dialogue journal to the students; (9) showing the students list of topics to write in journals; (10) asking the students to write journals based on the topic they choose; and (11) asking the students to write their own journals at home. The findings of the study show that the strategy can improve the students' writing ability. The improvement can be seen from the students' products both in quantity and quality. It can also be seen from the students' final scores. In terms of quantity, the students can write various topics with increasing number of sentences and paragraphs in each entry. In terms of quality, the students show significant improvement in four aspects of writing: content, organization, vocabulary, and grammar. Regarding final scores, the number of students whose scores are 60 or higher is increasing from pre-test to post-tests. Based on the findings, the following suggestions are proposed: (1) the English teachers are suggested to apply dialogue journals when teaching writing to the students; (2) in applying dialogue journals, the teachers should be sure that the students have mastered basic vocabulary items and basic concept of sentences and paragraphs; (3) the teachers have to show to the students some models of journals. Models of sentences and paragraphs are also important to be given to the students, and (4) for beginning activities in dialogue journal writing, it is necessary for the teachers to provide the students with a list of topics.