THE EFFECT OF ESTAFET WRITING METHOD ON THE EIGHTH

GRADE STUDENTS’ DESCRIPTIVE WRITING SKILL AT SMPN 8 KOTA

TANGERANG ACADEMIC YEAR 2017-2018

By:

NOVIA RIZKY FARHANI

1488203196

ENGLISH EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM

TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION FACULTY

MUHAMMADIYAH UNIVERSITY OF TANGERANG

2018
 CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

A. The Background of the Study

English is the universal language that takes the important role in

communication among people around the world. Therefore, English language can

become a bridge to connect and interact people one to another that lived in different

places or countries. As the universal language, English is not only used to

communicate but also it can be used to get information, knowledge and compete in

business. Currently, some people aware the importance of English language.

Therefore, they compete to master English language in their life, because learning

English provides many benefits for people around the world. In mastering English

language, people should learn four language skills. And writing is one of language

skill that have to be learn by foreign language learner beside speaking, listening and

reading skill.

According to Oshima And Hoque (2007) writing is never a one – step action ;

it is an ongoing creative act. That means the students need to develop their own

ideas on the topic or the text at the same time and it needs creativity on writing.

Therefore, writing is one of the language skills that is not easy to learn because it

needs cognitive effort, training and practice. Mastery writing skill, the students can’t

master automatically and naturally because it will take time and process. Therefore,

in Indonesia English language has been taught from Elementary School level to
University level in order the students can easily to master those four English skill,

especially writing. Through writing, the students can express their experience,

thought and imagination into paragraph and it can be develop to become histories

or stories. Writing is not just about the process to construct the word into meaningful

sentence based on someone thought, but it is complicated skill that involves many

elements to learn.

Writing is one of the important and complex skill in teaching and learning

English because it involves some language elements such as spelling, grammar,

punctuation, and vocabulary. In writing English subject, students have to know and

understand about those elements. The writing lesson usually begins with making a

sentence, then develop it into paragraph and finally making an essay or paper. To

support the learning process of writing the students have to improve their vocabulary

and grammar structure because these can help the student develop their idea, easily

write their own thought, and improving their writing skill. In order to master those

elements, students should expand their own abilities by their own ways.

Depdiknas, Indonesian Educational Department (2013) based on Curriculum

2013, current educational Curriculum in Indonesia, there are three genres of

monolog text that have to be taught in teaching writing for eighth grade students of

Junior High School. Three genres of the text are descriptive, recount, and procedure

text (Annisa & Merlina, 2014, p.171). Each genres of text have different function

and features that may caused the students face the difficulties in their learning
process. This research is only discussed about descriptive text and the solution to

solve it.

After pre-observation at eighth grade in SMPN 8 Kota Tangerang, the

researcher found some problems in learning descriptive text. The students face many

difficulties in learning it. And also the students feel confused of grammatical pattern

in making descriptive text. In addition, the students may have lack of vocabulary

that caused they feel difficult in writing their own ideas in writing descriptive text.

In this case, the teacher takes the important role to solve students’ problem in

improving their writing skill. Therefore, the teacher should be able to create or find

the appropriate method in teaching of descriptive text to improve students’ writing

skill. The teaching method that applied must be able to give opportunity for the

students how to write and produce a text.

In this term, the researcher would like to use the estafet writing method to solve

the teachers and students’ problem in learning writing descriptive text. Estafet

writing is one of collaborative learning and also active learning that hoped can

improve students’ ability in writing skill. Using estafet writing method is hoped can

encourage the student to learn more and improve their writing skill. And this method

has not been done before in SMPN 8 Kota Tangerang. The expectation from the

used of this method can motivate the students’ learning in English especially in

writing skill.
 The researcher used estafet writing to make easier in developing the students’

skill in writing. Syatariah (2011) believes that estafet writing is one of the strategies

of active learning or is called learning by doing which aims to enable students to

associate learning as a fun activity. The researcher hoped the students can enjoy the

learning activity and improve their own skill in writing through this method.

Based on the description above, the writer would like to conduct the research

entitled: The Effect of Estafet Writing Method on The Eighth Grade Students’

Descriptive Writing Skill at SMPN 8 Kota Tangerang Academic Year 2017-2018.

B. The Identification of Problem

Based on the background above, the research identifies the problem as follow:

1. The students easily bored in learning writing by conventional way.

2. The students have lack of vocabulary.

3. The students are difficult to explore their ideas.

4. The students feel confused and difficult about grammatical pattern.

5. The writer finds that the teacher has lack of teaching method in teaching

writing.

C. Limitation of the Problem

Based on the identification of the problems above, it is impossible for the

researcher to study all that stated problem because of the limited time. Therefore,

the researcher limits her study on the effect of estafet writing method on the eight
 grade students’ descriptive writing skill at SMPN 8 Kota Tangerang Academic

Year 2017-2018.

D. The Formulation of the Study

To support the discussion, the writer formulates the problems as follows:

1. How is the effectiveness of using estafet writing method to teach writing

descriptive text in eighth grade?

2. How is the improvement of students’ writing skill after being taught through

estafet writing method?

E. Objective of the Study

The objective of this study is one of the important things in order the study

would reach the target what the writer hopes. The objectives are:

1. To describe and know the effectiveness of using estafet writing method to teach

writing descriptive text in eighth grade.

2. To find out the improvement of students’ writing skill after being taught through

estafet writing method.

F. The Significance of the Research

Principally, the result of this research is intended to give the contribution

theoretically and practically:

1. Theoretically

This research is expected to support the theory about improving descriptive

writing skill.
2. Practically

a) For the teachers, this research is expected to give the solution in creating a

method of teaching writing skill more interest and attractive.

b) For the students, this research can help the students to improve their’ writing

skill by collaborative learning through estafet writing.

c) For the other researchers, this research is hoped to provide benefits to the

users of this research information to add knowledge and ability in study of

research.