Using a Narrative Scaffold to Improve Students’ EFL Writing Ability in SMA Negeri 1 Gambiran-Banyuwangi
| Main Author: | Nada Yangrifqi; English Language Department, Faculty of Letters, State University of Malang. Advisor: Prof. Drs. Bambang Yudi Cahyono, M.Pd, M.A., Ph.D. |
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| Format: | PeerReviewed |
| Bahasa: | eng |
| Terbitan: |
, 2009
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: |
http://karya-ilmiah.um.ac.id/index.php/sastra-inggris/article/view/661 |
Daftar Isi:
- significantly different at 0.01 level. Furthermore, after weighting was done, it was found that the students’ writing ability increased from 45.7 points to 74 points. In conclusion, a narrative scaffold could be used to improve the students writing ability. Since the criteria of success of this study could be reached within a single cycle, this only cycle became the answer of the research problem. The planning and implementation of the teaching writing narrative texts by using a narrative scaffold is as follows. Planning the action consists of planning the teaching schedule, preparing research instrument, designing lesson plan, and preparing the criteria of success. After that, the implementation of action is conducted. The teaching and learning process is conducted by using genre based approach that consisted of four stages. The first stage is building knowledge of the field, in which the students are introduced to the social context and features of the narrative text by using a model text. The next stage is modeling of the text stage in which the teacher assigns the students to investigate the structural pattern and language features of the model text and compare it with other model texts. Joint construction of the text stage is the third stage of this genre. In this stage, after the teacher introduces a narrative scaffold and gives model to the students on how to write a narrative text by using a narrative scaffold, the students, in group of four, are assigned to write a narrative text by using a narrative scaffold and modeling the texts. Then, in the independent construction of the text stage, the students, independently, are assigned to compose narrative texts by using a narrative scaffold. It is recommended for the teachers to use a narrative scaffold and genre based approach in teaching writing narrative texts. For further researchers, it is recommended to apply a scaffold and genre based approach in investigating other text types.Writing is one of the English language skills that should be mastered by senior high school (SMA) students. However, many students considered that writing is the most difficult skill to master. Moreover, teachers also provide less time for teaching writing compared with the other language skills. On the contrary to this facts, SMAN 1 Gambiran curriculum, the curriculum of the school where this present study was conducted, is oriented to the production of various text types. One of the text types introduced in this curriculum is narrative texts. This text type requires the writer to be able to tell a story, the purpose of which is to entertain or inform the audience. In writing this genre, the students often feel confused in developing their stories in a good order. In the preliminary study, the researcher found that XI IPS 1 students of SMAN 1 Gambiran had difficulty in writing narrative texts, particularly in terms of content and organization. They had difficulty to organize their stories in a good order. Moreover, the students also had difficulty in distinguishing narrative texts from other text types like recount and spoof. These facts encouraged the researcher to help the students to improve their ability in writing. The present study focused on using a narrative scaffold to help the students to improve their ability in writing narrative texts, particularly in improving the content and organization of the students’ narrative texts. Therefore, the research problem was formulated as follows: “How can a narrative scaffold improve the ability of SMAN 1 GAMBIRAN students in writing narrative texts?” This study used a collaborative action research with one cycle that consisted of five meetings. The cycle consisted of planning the action, implementing the action, observing and analyzing the action, and reflecting the action. The instruments used to collect the data were the observation checklist, field notes and the students’ final writing. In all the steps of this study, the researcher worked collaboratively with the English teacher who also acted as the observer. The results of the study showed that in most of the stages, the students’ attention to the teacher’s explanation and instruction was always in the high level or 81% up to 100% of the students always paid attention to the teacher’s attention and instruction while the students’ participation increased. Moreover, the students’ performance also increased. It can be seen from the increase of the students’ mean scores. The mean in terms of content improved from 1.86 to 2.92 and in terms of organization improved from 1.78 to 3.02. Based on the t-test formulation, it was found that the differences between the mean scores were.