The Influence of Using List Group Lable Strategy Toward the Students’ Descriptive Text in Writing Ability at the Tenth Grade of SMA

 The Influence of Using List Group Lable Strategy Toward the Students’ Descriptive Text in Writing Ability at the Tenth Grade of SMA 

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A.    Background

A language is a systematic means of communication by the use of sounds or conventional symbols. It is the code we all use to express ourselves and communicate to others.  It  is  a  system  for  communicating  ideas  and feelings  using  sounds,  gestures,  signs  or  marks.  Language  is  written  and spoken  words  combined  to  create  meaning  used  by  a  particular  group  of people

Learning English is very important, because English has become an international language, which is used by most communities in the world. Many countries use English as their second language. In spite of the difficulties in studying English, it is worthwhile to study the language because it plays a very important role in almost all fields of life such as: communication, commerce, economy, politics, education, science, technology and so on.

Writing is one of the most important skills in teaching English as a foreign language. It reflects the power of students in  mastering  writing  techniques,  so  the  students  need  to  be  aware  of  writing  as  a  process  and  as  a  product  as  well. Learning writing also includes the learning of writing skills, rules and conventions. As a result, students should not only know these tactics but also know how to manage and control them. The main purpose of strategic writing instruction is that  learning  to  write  includes  the  learning  of  mental  procedures  to  produce  writing  and  to  control  the  production  of writing[1]

Teaching academic or creative writing is quite challenging for multiple reasons. Some students feel blank and unable to handle the assigned topics. They may “lack confidence” or “think” it is boring or believe they have nothing to say. They may not be also able to expand or develop their ideas. The distinction between general and specific details is sometimes opaque to them, which reduces the quality of their output. Low language proficiency is another factor that hampers the flow of their thoughts[2].

Writing has always been seen as an important skill in English language acquisition. This importance is due to the fact that it reinforces grammatical structures and vocabulary that educators strive to teach their students. It is the area in which learners need to be offered adequate time to develop their writing skill, therefore more time should be devoted to it in classrooms so that they will be prepared to effectively communicate in real life as well as academic situations. Exposing them to the writing process itself through various venues is an excellent way to reach this goal.

Additionally, writing skills can be developed when the learners' interests are acknowledged and when they are given frequent opportunities to actually practice writing. Because one of the main goals of students is to learn to produce a well thought out piece of writing, a specific writing program must be in place in order to meet the needs of these learners. After careful evaluation of the literature, it was found that numerous researchers discovered the need for students to be exposed to a variety of genres, strategies, and methods in order to succeed in the writing of English[3].

Actually, the students of Junior High School get difficulties to make good writing. They must choose suitable words, pay attention when they use right punctuations, arrange a paragraph, and get the idea to write, etc. Based on the students of senior high school must master genre. The specialists believe that the concept of genre is suitable for students in teaching writing. A genre can be defined as a culturally specific text-type  which  results  from  using  language  (written  or  spoken)  to  (help) accomplish  something.  It  associated  with  particular  purposes,  particular stages and particular linguistic features[4].

Descriptive text is one of text included in genre. It is taught for students at junior high school. There are many students who get difficulties to understand descriptive text on how they describe person, place, or thing, what its purpose involve the generic structure and language features, and how to apply those descriptive features in the text. Genre resembles more to the social function but a very boring part of any students. There are many alternative ways to teach genre. One of the ways is list group label

List group label The rationale behind this strategy is based on the notion that categorizing words can help children organize new words and experiences in relation to previously learned words. LGL attempts to improve upon the way in which children learn and remember new words. LGL was originally used in science and social studies classes; however, the strategy seems appropriate across the curriculum.

Based on the explanation above the researcher will apply the list group label strategy to improving the students writing ability at the tenth grade of SMA  especially in descriptive text

B.     Identification of the Problem

Teaching academic or creative writing is quite challenging for multiple reasons. Some students feel blank and unable to handle the assigned topics.

1.      The students may “lack confidence” or “think” it is boring or believe they have nothing to say

2.      The students may not be also able to expand or develop their ideas.

3.      Low language proficiency is another factor that hampers the flow of their thoughts.

C.    Limitation of the Problem

In compliance with the problems that have been formulated above, the study is limited to find out the effectiveness of List Group Lable Strategy which given by the other students in student’s writing work. This study also tries to reveals the students’ responses toward the use of List Group Lable Strategy in teaching descriptive text. Nevertheless, the context of the study was limited on teaching writing using the List Group Lable Strategy in tenth grade of SMA 

D.    Research Problem

It is important to state the problem of this research in order to clarify and to precise direction on how to deal with the subject matters related to this research. Based on the background of the research, the problems of this research are as follows:

1.      How is the implementation of teaching writing ability using List Group Lable Strategy to the tenth grade of SMA Assalam?

2.      How is the effect of teaching writing ability using List Group Lable Strategy to the tenth grade of SMA Assalam?

E.     Research Objective

Based on research problem, the objectives are as follows:

1.      To find out the improvement of the students writing ability using List Group Lable Strategy to the tenth grade of SMA ?

2.      To find out the effect of teaching writing ability using List Group Lable Strategy to the tenth grade of SMA ?

F.     Significance of the Research

The result of the research is expected to be able to give some advantages for the students, the teacher, the school, and other researchers.  

1.      For the students

The using of List Group Lable Strategy, the students get an enjoyable situation, they won’t feel bored. The students will get a better learning system,  they  will  be  able  to  improve  their  ability  to  memorize  the learning  by  using List Group Lable Strategy.  At last, they can learn English particularly writing easily.

2.      For the Teacher

The teacher can be careful in selecting teaching strategy in their class.  It is hoped that the result of this study helps teachers to teach reading properly by using List Group Lable Strategy. The  teachers  can  improve  their  ability  to  make  innovation,  effective  strategies,  and scenario of teaching writing skill. It also enriches teacher’s strategy to teach writing so that their problems that faced in classroom can be solved.

3.      For the School

The school can compare the advantages of List Group Lable Strategy to other method in learning English. So the school will be more selective in determining the technique of teaching English. Using List Group Lable Strategy will be used for the school to increase the quality of out put learning.  Therefore, the school will get good reputation from government or society.   

4.      For researcher

This research is very important because it will give some knowledge to the  researcher  and  to  know  the  benefits  of  using  List Group Lable Strategy in  teaching writing and understand about the topic that the effect of List Group Lable Strategy in learning process especially in writing skill and also in generally the context of all skill. So the research have a new concept in apply and increasing the students ability in teaching and learning process

5.      For other Researcher 

This research expected that this finding can be a reference for them to conduct the similar research study about writing ability and its testing.  It  is  hoped  that  the  data  can open  other  researchers’  mind  in  completing  reading  field  research.  Therefore, for other research will be got a good result related to teaching writing.  The data can use to improve other research, particularly the difficulties in mastering writing

G.      Scope of the Research

1.      Subject of the Research

The subjects of this research are the students at the tenth grade of SMA Assalam.

2.      The object of this research     

The object of the research is use of List Group Lable Strategy and Students’ Writing descriptive Text.

3.      Place of the Research

The research will be conducted at the tenth grade of SMA Assalam.

4.      Time of  the Research

                The research will be conducted at the first semester in the academic year of the