UTILIZING E-MAIL TO IMPROVE STUDENTS' WRITING SKILL (Tri Yul · perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id commit to user UTILIZING E-MAIL TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILL (A Classroom

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UTILIZING E-MAIL

TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILL

(A Classroom Action Research at the Eleventh Grade of SMK PGRI 6, Ngawi

in the Academic Year of 2010/2011)

By :

TRI YULIWATI

NIM : S890809214

Thesis

Written to fulfill one of the Requirements for getting the Graduate Degree

in English Education

ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

GRADUATE SCHOOL

SEBELAS MARET UNIVERSITY

SURAKARTA

2011


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PRONOUNCEMENT

This is to certify that I myself write this thesis, entitled “Utilizing E-Mail

to Improve Students’ Writing Skill” (A Classroom Action Research at the

Eleventh Grade of SMK PGRI 6, Ngawi in the Academic Year of 2010/2011)”. It

is not plagiarism or written by others. Anything related to others’ work is written

in quotation, the source of which is listed on the bibliography.

If then this pronouncement proves wrong, I will welcome any academic

punishment, including the withdrawal or cancelation of my academic degree.

Surakarta, July 2011

Tri Yuliwati

S 890809214


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ABSTRACT

TRI YULIWATI S 890809214, 2009. Utilizing E-Mail to Improve Students’ Writing Skill” (A Classroom Action Research at the Eleventh Grade of SMK PGRI 6, Ngawi in the Academic Year of 2010/2011). A thesis: English Education Department, Graduate School, Sebelas Maret University, 2011.

The objectives of this research are to: (1) identify whether or not and to what extent utilizing e-mail is able to improve the students’ writing skill: and (2) describe the situation when e-mail is applied in the writing class. In this research, the problem refers to the teaching and learning English, especially their writing skill which is still low.

The research methodology applied in this research is action research with two cycles in which each cycle consists of planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. The data collected are the qualitative data and quantitative data. The qualitative data are collected from observation, interview, questionnaire, and document. The quantitative data are collected from pre-test in pre-research, test in Cycle 1, and post test in Cycle 2. The qualitative data are analyzed by Constant Comparative Method and the quantitative data are analyzed by descriptive statistics.

The finding of the research shows that utilizing e-mail in teaching and learning process can improve: (1) students’ writing skill. The improvement of writing skill could be seen from these indicators, students were able to: (a) use punctuation and capital letter; (b) select appropriate vocabulary; (c) make sentences grammatically; (d) make supporting details; and (e) organize writing. It could be seen from the collected data, the students had obtained better score from Cycle 1 to Cycle 2. The mean score increased from 45.73 in the pre-test to 66.04 in the test of Cycle 1 and to 74.27 in the post test of Cycle 2. The minimum score of English lesson was 65.00: (2) class situation: (a) the students paid full attention to the teacher’s explanation; (b) the students are able to do the homework actively; (c) the students talk each other when they had to discuss in their group dealing with the material given by the teacher; (d) nobody asks for permission to the teacher to go to the bathroom as the reason just to get out of the class; and (e) the students take a part in teaching and learning actively.

Utilizing e-mail has succeeded in improving the students’ writing skill; the researcher would like to propose some suggestions for the English teachers, especially those who teach in vocational school to: (1) utilize e-mail as one of the techniques to improve students’ writing skill; (2) learn how to enhance their ability in teaching; and (3) facilitate the students to practice English writing in order that the students are accustomed to make English writing text


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MOTTO

Fa’ inna ma’al ‘usri yusra

Inna ma’al ‘usri yusra

(QS. Alam Nasrah 5-6)

Verily, along with every hardship is relief

Verily, along with every hardship is relief


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DEDICATION

This thesis is especially dedicated to:

Ø God the great and almighty, Allah SWT, for everything which has

been blessed to me.

Ø Bagus, my beloved son for his valuable motivation

Ø My beloved parents, my father and mother who always support me

to get more success in education and life.

Ø My beloved sisters and brothers who always encourage me to get

better life.

Ø My best motivation, Mas Bambang who always motivates me to

finish this study on time.


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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First of all, I would like to thank to Allah SWT, the Almighty, for His

blessing, that I can finish my thesis as an essential requirement to obtain the

Graduate Degree in English Education. I realize that the accomplishment of this

thesis would not run well without any help, contribution, suggestion, and advices

from others. I want to give my sincerest gratitude and appreciation to:

1. The Director of Graduate School of Sebelas Maret University who requires

me to write this thesis.

2. Dr. Ngadiso, M.Pd, the Head of English Education Department of Graduate

School who has suggested and guided me to write this thesis.

3. Dra. Dewi Rochsantiningsih, M.Ed, PhD, the first consultant and Dr. Abdul

Asib, M.Pd, the second consultant who have patiently provided valuable

information, guidance, and invaluable ideas for the completion of this thesis.

4. The Headmaster of SMK PGRI 6 Ngawi who has supported me to conduct

the research at that school.

5. My collaborator, Ary Widyawati, SS, for her help in doing the research.

6. The students of eleventh grade of TKJ-2 who have participated and joined in

carrying out the research.

7. My beloved husband, son, parents, sisters, and brothers for their valuable

motivation and support.

8. My best friend, Bu Wahju and Bu Sri who always support and encourage

each other in completing this thesis.

I realize that this thesis is still far from being perfect. However, I do hope

that this thesis will be useful for other writers, teachers, and students to improve

the English teaching and learning process.

Surakarta, July 2011

Tri Yuliwati


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TABLE OF CONTENT

Page

PAGE OF TITLE ............................................................................................. i

PAGE OF APPROVAL ................................................................................... ii

PAGE OF LEGALIZATION ........................................................................... iii

PRONOUNCEMENT ...................................................................................... iv

ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................... v

MOTTO ........................................................................................................... vi

DEDICATION ................................................................................................. vii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ............................................................................... viii

TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................. ix

LIST OF TABLE ............................................................................................. xiv

LIST OF CHART............................................................................................. xv

LIST OF FIGURE ............................................................................................ xvi

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION

A. The Background of the Study .............................................. 1

B. Problem Statements ............................................................. 6

C. The Objectives of the Study ................................................ 6

D. The Benefits of the Study .................................................... 6

CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

A. Writing ................................................................................ 8

1. The Nature of Writing ..................................................... 8

2. Writing Skill .................................................................... 9

3. Teaching Writing ............................................................ 11

4. Type of Writing Texts ..................................................... 14

5. Writing Assessment ...................................................... 16

6. Scoring Rubric of Writing Skill ...................................... 18


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B. Electronic Mail .................................................................... 23

1. What is Electronic Mail ................................................ 23

2. Electronic Mail in Teaching Writing ............................ 24

3. The Advantages of Using Electronic Mail .................... 28

C. Review of Related Researches ............................................ 30

D. Rationale .............................................................................. 32

CHAPTER III: THE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

A. Context of the Research ....................................................... 35

B. Research Design .................................................................. 37

1. Planning ........................................................................ 38

2. Acting ........................................................................... 39

3. Observation ................................................................... 40

4. Reflection...................................................................... 41

C. Data and Data Collecting Technique ................................... 41

1. Data ............................................................................... 41

2. Data Collecting Technique ........................................... 42

D. Data Analyzing Technique .................................................. 43

CHAPTER IV: RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

A. Prior Situation of the Research ............................................ 47

1. The Pre-Research .......................................................... 47

a. The Students’ Writing Skill ................................... 49

b. Class Situation ....................................................... 53

c. Planning Activities Using E-mail in

Teaching Writing ................................................... 56

d. Designing Lesson Plan .......................................... 60

2. Research Implementation .............................................. 62

a. Cycle 1 ................................................................... 64

1) Planning the Action .......................................... 66

2) Implementing the Action .................................. 66


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a) First Meeting ............................................. 67

b) Second Meeting......................................... 70

c) Third Meeting ........................................... 72

d) Fourth Meeting .......................................... 75

3) Observation ...................................................... 78

4) Reflection ......................................................... 80

a) The Strengths .............................................. 81

b) The Weaknesses .......................................... 84

b. Cycle 2 ................................................................... 87

1) Planning the Action .......................................... 89

2) Implementing the Action .................................. 91

a) First Meeting ............................................... 92

b) Second Meeting .......................................... 94

c) Third Meeting ............................................. 96

d) Fourth Meeting ........................................... 98

3) Observation ..................................................... 101

4) Reflection ....................................................... 102

c) The Strengths ............................................ 104

d) The Weaknesses ........................................ 106

B. Research Findings ............................................................... 109

1. Summary of Cycle 1 ...................................................... 110

2. Summary of Cycle 2 ...................................................... 113

3. The Result of Teaching and Learning Process .............. 115

a. Comparison between the Score of Pre-Test and

Score of Post-Test in Cycle 1 ............................... 116

b. Comparison between Cycle 1 and Cycle 2 ............ 118

C. Discussion and Justification ................................................ 120

1. E-mail can Improve Students’ Writing Skill ................. 121

2. E-mail can Improve Class Situation .............................. 124


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CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION, IMPLICATION, AND SUGGESTIONS

A. Conclusion ............................................................................ 128

B. Implication ............................................................................ 129

C. Suggestions ........................................................................... 129

BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................ 130

APPENDICES ................................................................................................. 133


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LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1 Analytical of scoring rubric for writing product .............................. 20

Table 2.2 Scoring Rubrics for Writing............................................................. 22

Table 4.1 The Schedule of the Research .......................................................... 46

Table 4.2 Base-Line Data Prior to Action Research Implementation .............. 48

Table 4.3 Students’ Writing Skill Base-Line Pre Test Scores ......................... 52

Table 4.4 The Overall Description of the Activities in Teaching Writing

Using E-Mail .................................................................................................... 58

Table 4.5 Preparation of the Lesson Plan in Cycle 1 ....................................... 61

Table 4.6 The Overall Implementation of the Action Research ...................... 62

Table 4.7 The Summary of the Implementation of Cycle 1 ............................. 65

Table 4.8 Students’ Assignments ..................................................................... 73

Table 4.9 The Project for Each Group ............................................................. 74

Table 4.10. The Comparison of the Average Score in Pre-test and

test in Cycle 1 ................................................................................................... 83

Table 4.11. The Improvement of Students’ Writing Skill and Classroom

Situation Cycle 1 .............................................................................................. 86

Table 4.12 The Summary of the Implementation in Cycle 2 ........................... 88

Table 4.13 The Preparation of the of the Lesson Plan in Cycle 2 .................... 91

Table 4.14 The Titles of the Procedure Text ................................................... 100

Table 4.15 The Comparison of the Highest, Lowest, and Average Score ....... 104

Table 4.16 The Comparison of the Average Score in Pre-test, Test in Cycle 1,

and Post-test ..................................................................................................... 104

Table 4.17 The Improvement of Students’ Writing Skill and Class

Situation Cycle 2 .............................................................................................. 107

Table 4.18 The comparison between the Students’ scores of Pre-Test and

the Scores of Test in Cycle 1 ........................................................................... 117

Table 4.19 The Comparison between the Students’ scores of Pre-Test and

the Scores of Test in Cycle 1 ........................................................................... 117


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Table 4.20 The Comparison between the Writing Scores in Cycle 1

and Cycle 2....................................................................................................... 117

Table 4.21. The Comparison of the Average Scores in Writing Aspects

between Cycle 1 and Cycle 2 ........................................................................... 119


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LIST OF CHART

Chart 4.1 The Average Score in the Pre-test and Post-test Cycle .................... 81

Chart 4.2 The Average Score in the Pre-test, Post-test 1 and Post-test 2 ........ 103


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LIST OF FIGURE

Figure 1: Students in group are discussing the task given by the teacher in second

meeting

Figure 2: Students in group are discussing the assignment given by the teacher in

second meeting

Figure 3: The students in group are discussing the assignment in third meeting

Figure 4: The students’ activities in writing class

Figure 5: The class situation when e-mail is implemented


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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

Students should acquire four language skills in English learning activities

namely: listening, speaking, reading and writing skills, which presented

cohesively. Writing is one of the most important language skills which students

are expected to be able to understand and create some kind of writing texts to

improve their writing skill. As stated in basic competence for students of

vocational high school that some kind of writing text which students should

master are short functional text, monolog, descriptive, recount, report, procedure,

and narrative. (BNSP, 2006: 385).

Writing is an ability to express ideas and convey the message through

written symbols. In writing, students should comprehend the basic elements of

language such as vocabulary, grammar, punctuation, and capital letter. Besides,

the students also have to be able to arrange ideas in appropriate sentences in

making a good writing as stated by Hyland (2003: 3) that one way to look at

writing is to see it as marks on a page or a screen, a coherent arrangement of

words, clauses, and sentences, structured according to a system of rules.

Writing skill is often considered the most difficult one, especially in

English language. Nunan (1989: 35) states that learning to write fluently and

expressively is most difficulty of the macro skills of all language users regardless


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of whether the language in question in a first, second, or foreign language. It

means to write fluently and expressively is not easy for the students who study

either first language, second or foreign language. They need attention, carefulness,

and guidance to learn it and get the purpose of writing.

Teaching writing is not easy; there are some difficulties as stated by Penny

Ur (1991: 163) that one of the problems in teaching writing is to maintain a fair

balance between content and form when defining the requirement and assessing.

Heaton also states (1988: 138) that writing skill are complex and sometimes

difficult to teach, requiring mastery not only of grammatical and rhetorical

devices but also of conceptual and judgmental elements.

The eleventh class students of SMK PGRI 6 Ngawi also face some

problems above. Based on the survey in field, it is found out that the students’

writing skills still far from the expectation. The students’ writing achievement still

can be considered unsatisfying.

There are some indicators of the problems, the students have difficulties

in: (1) the use of punctuation and capital letter; (2) selecting appropriate

vocabulary; (3) writing sentences grammatically; (4) making supporting details;

(5) organizing the writing well. It could be seen from the students’ score of the pre

test that the mean score of: (1) punctuation and capital letter was 43.25; (2)

vocabulary was 48.75; (3) grammar was 31.75; (4) supporting detail was 57.25;

and (5) organizing writing was 47.50. Whereas the minimum score of English

lesson was 65.


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In addition, unfavorable situation is also obvious in teaching and learning

process such as: (1) some students do not pay full attention to the teacher’s

explanation. They especially who sit down in the back row enjoy typing message

by their phone cellular; (2) many students do not do the homework when the

teacher ask them to do the task at home. They often copy to their friends’

homework in the class; (3) some students enjoy talking each other during the

lesson. Their topics discussion do not relate to the material given by the teacher. It

makes the class quite noisy; (4) at the same time, some of them often ask for

permission to the teacher to go to the bathroom; and (5) students just keep silent

when the teacher ask them to make questions related to lesson given, but when

they are asked to do exercise, they cannot do it well.

From the preliminary observation, the students’ failure in writing is

caused by many things, as (1) the students’ motivation is low due to monotonous

teaching and the traditional method used by the teachers in teaching writing; (2)

limited time given by the teacher at school. There are only five times forty five

minutes in a week to study English at vocational school; (3) their lack of

knowledge in grammar and vocabulary; (4) they ignore the rules of mechanical

writing; and (5) lack of practices in writing.

Based on the identified problems that students have, it is understandable

that students’ writing skill is still low. Therefore, it needs to find out a solution to

improve students’ writing skill. Nowadays, the use of technology is becoming

increasingly important in teaching learning process. Accessing to Information and

Communication Technology (ICT) has become more widespread. Electronic Mail


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or e-mail is one of the most used and useful tools around today. Many students do

their task by accessing the information through the internet. E-mail, a form of

asynchronous computer-mediated communication, has been called "the mother of

all Internet applications" (Warschauer, Shetzer, and Meloni, 2000: 3). Since the

evolution of networks, computers can offer the students more than drills; they can

be a medium of real communication in the target language, including composing

and exchanging messages with their teachers and other students in the classroom

or around the world.

Based on the facts above, the researcher plans to improve the students`

writing skill by using e-mail to practice writing. E-Mail is electronic

communication that allows people to send and receive a message via a computer

to other user. This strategy is selected for some reasons as; the English writing

activity through e-mail is something new for the students of SMK PGRI 6.

Teachers at SMK PGRI 6 Ngawi seldom or even never use email before.

Therefore, the students will be more interested when the teacher use email in

teaching and learning process.

E-mail is also challenging. This is due to the fact that generally the

computer language is English. Most of the students do not understand the

meaning of the words so they try to look up the meaning, synonym, and antonym

to their dictionaries. It can be done electronically when they type the text before

sending it via e-mail. This can solve their difficulties in vocabulary. Besides, they

also can check the grammar, punctuation, and capital letter on line on the

computer which is connected to the internet when they operate their e-mail.


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The use of e-mail in teaching writing can overcome the problem dealing

with the limited time for classroom teaching writing because students can do

writing outside the class and the teacher can monitor their writing as well. They

can send and receive message on e-mail at in a lab, a campus network, or across

the Internet.

E-mail allows the students to keep in touch with their teachers and other

students around the world via mailing list and discussing groups. Unconsciously,

they have practiced writing. The more frequent they send and receive an e-mail,

the more practices they undergo.

By using this media, the researcher attempt to make the learning and

teaching process an interesting one in which the students are expected to be

motivated in writing and can improve their writing skills as well. Furthermore,

besides using e-mail to practice English writing, the researcher uses four steps of

Genre Based Approach to teach writing. The researcher gives the learning

materials which are essential for the next part of the writing teaching process such

as to organize ideas logically and coherently, appropriate vocabularies, grammar,

sentence patterns, word order and word choice. The models of the texts are given

to the students so that they get more examples of how to construct the text with

their partners and individually in practicing the writing.

Considering the benefits of e-mail, the researcher has strong belief that

utilizing e-mail for teaching writing, there is a significant improvement towards

the students’ writing skill.


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B. Problem Statements

Based on the background of the study above, the researcher wants to know

whether the use of e-mail can improve the students’ writing ability. The problem

can be formulated as follows.

1. Does and to what extent e-mail improve the students’ writing skill?

2. What is the class situation when e-mail is implemented in writing activity?

C. The Objectives of the Study

This research focuses on the use of e-mail to improve the students’ writing

skill. The objectives are as follows.

1. Identifying whether or not and to what extent e-mail improves the

students’ writing skill at SMK PGRI 6 Ngawi.

2. Identifying the situation of the class when e-mail is implemented in

teaching writing class.

D. The Benefits of the Study

The result of this study is expected to give some benefits to the students,

English teachers and institution.

1. For the students

a. The students are motivated to write English.

b. The students’ writing skill increases.

c. The students have opportunity to practice English writing more.


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d. The students’ knowledge in grammar, vocabularies, and organizing the

idea in writing increase.

e. The students can write correct long paragraphs or text by many

supporting sentences.

2. For the researcher

a. The result of this research can be used as starting point of improving

the teaching learning activity in writing class.

b. It encourage her as a researcher as well as a teacher to conduct action

research in improving teaching learning activities or getting better

solution of teaching learning problems.

3. For the teachers

c. It encourages the teachers to develop their creativity to improve

teaching learning process.

d. It stimulates the teachers to motivate their students especially in

writing English.

e. It improves the teachers’ capability to conduct teaching learning

activity appropriately.

f. It stimulates the teacher to do action research to solve the problem of

English teaching learning at the classroom.

4. For the Institution

a. It increases students’ achievement.

b. It gives opinion to decide policy in developing the better process of

teaching and learning.


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CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

A. Writing

1. The Nature of Writing

Many linguists state various definitions of writing. According to White

and Arndt (1991: 3), writing is far from being a simple matter of transcribing

language into written symbols; it is a thinking process in its own right. It

demands conscious intellectual effort, which usually has to be sustained over a

considerable period of time. It means that writing is an activity of recording

thoughts, ideas and feelings in written forms, and it demands the mastery of

language systems and the strength of the mind to make reasons over period of

time.

Another linguist, Friedrich as quoted by Coulmas (1989: 35) states that

writing may be characterized as a medium of communication which people

use in order to bridge spatial and temporal distance by means of readily

understandable or agreed upon signs. It can be said that writing is way of

expressing ideas, feeling or giving people information to bridge them who far

away in space or time so that can be known what someone says about.

Related to both definitions above, the researcher sees the similarity of

writing definition that is to express ideas and feeling. Friedrich emphasized


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the definition on the distance of space and time, meanwhile White and Arndt

just emphasize on the process of writing.

Based on the definitions of writing above, the researcher concludes

that writing can be defined as an activity of expressing thought, ideas,

feelings, or giving information in written form which demand the mastery of

language systems and the strength of the mind to make reasons over period of

time.

2. Writing Skill

Skill refers to the ability to perform a task or activity consistently over

period time (Hornby, 2000: 1255). Skill cannot be acquired instantly. It is

acquired through training a lot. Writing skill is an ability to express ideas,

opinions, or feeling in written form which demand the mastery of language

systems and the strength of the mind to make reasons over period of time. It is

one of language skills which is considered important for communication with

other people in addition to listening, speaking, and reading.

According to Brown (2004: 220) there are two categories of writing

skill. They are micro skills and macro skills. The descriptions are as follows:

a. Micro skills

o Produce graphemes and orthographic patterns of English.

o Produce writing at an efficient rate of speed to suit the purpose.


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o Produce an acceptable grammatical system (e.g. tense, agreement,

pluralization), patterns, and rules.

o Express a particular meaning in different grammatical form.

o Use cohesive device in writing discourse.

b. Macro skills

o Use the rhetorical forms and conventions of written discourse.

o Appropriately accomplish the communicative functions of written

texts according to form and purpose.

o Convey links and connection between events and communicate such

relations as main idea, new information, given information,

generalization, and exemplification.

o Distinguish between literal and implied meaning when writing.

o Correctly convey specific references in the context of the written text.

o Develop and use the battery of writing strategies, such as accurately

assessing the audience’s interpretation, using prewriting, writing the

fluency in the first drafts, using paraphrases and synonyms, soliciting

peer and instructor feedback, and using feedback for revising and

editing.

Micro skills are appropriately applied to imitative and intensive types

of writing task, whereas macro skills are essential for the successful mastery

of responsive and extensive writing.

In order to be able to produce a good written text, a writer should

require the range of knowledge, besides the writer also focuses on macro and


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micro skill of writing. Nunan (1998: 37) states that successful writing

involves: (1) mastering the mechanics of letter formation; (2) mastering and

obeying conventions of spelling and punctuation; (3) using the grammatical

system to convey one’s intended meaning; (4) organizing content at the level

of paragraph and the complete text to reflect given/ new information and

topic/ comment structures; (5) polishing and revising one’s initial efforts; and

(6) selecting an appropriate style for one’s audience.

Based on some theories above, it can be inferred that writing skill is

an ability to express thought, ideas, feelings, or giving information in written

form which involves the knowledge of: (1) using punctuation and capital

letter; (2) selecting appropriate vocabulary; (3) grammatical language system;

(4) supporting details; and (5) organizing the writing.

3. Teaching Writing

Mcgillick (1987:2) states that writing is a step by step process which

needs sufficient practice and time. In teaching writing, teacher should help

students to express ideas, thoughts and feelings on papers. Then the teacher

also helps the students to organize those ideas, thoughts, and feelings in

sentences to compose meaningful paragraphs or texts on learning to write.

Because students need assembling ideas, drafting and revising in writing as

stated by Haris (1993: 11) that when writing, students are able to work

through a process of assembling ideas, drafting and revising. Then they should


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do reflection to make their next writing better by discussing with their friends

and teacher.

Byrne explains there are roles of the teacher in teaching writing (1998:

32-34). They are:

a. Deciding how to present the activity to the class

In early stage, begin to demonstrate the writing activities. It will help

students to do a certain amount of writing.

b. Preparing the students orally

By giving a number of examples orally, it will help students know exactly

what they have to do.

c. Deciding how the writing task should be carried out

An activity can be done in pair, small group or individually.

d. Deciding on correction procedures

Students can be asked to exchange their completed work to evaluate one

another’s efforts. This helps to train them to look at written work critically

as readers. Then writing work can also be discussed in a classroom to get

necessary correction.

In addition, Richards and Renandya (2000: 317) state that process

writing as a classroom activity incorporates the four basic writing stages;

planning (pre-writing), drafting, revising, and editing. There are three other


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stages externally imposed on students by the teacher, namely; responding

(sharing), evaluating, and post-writing. Detail explanations are:

a. Planning (pre-writing)

Encourage students to write, stimulate thought for getting started through

following activities: brainstorming, clustering, free writing, and generating

WH- question.

b. Drafting

Composing text

c. Responding

Responding to students’ writing done by the teacher or by peers.

d. Revising

Reviewing and reexamine the whole text by improving global content and

the organization of ideas.

e. Editing

Students are engaged in tidying up their texts. They change grammar,

spelling, punctuation, dictation, sentences structure and accuracy of

supportive textual material.

f. Evaluation

Teachers pleading lack of time have composed responding, editing, and

evaluating all into one.


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g. Post-writing

Publishing, sharing, reading aloud, and transforming texts for stages

performance.

4. Types of Writing Texts

The term of type is sometimes stated as genre. There are a number of

types of texts which are exposed in the literatures. Even each expert cluster

texts not exactly the same as the other expert does. Langan states (2008: 176-

359) that, traditionally, writing has been divided into the patterns of

development. They are description, narration, exposition, exemplification

(giving example), process (detailing a process of doing or making something),

cause and effect, comparison or contrast, definition (defining a term or

concept), division-classification (dividing something), and argument.

Anderson and Anderson (1998: 12-31) list there are two main kinds of

text; literary text and factual text. Literary text is created to attract emotion

and imagination. There are three types in this category: narrative, poetic, and

dramatic. Factual text is created to present information or ideas and to tell or

persuade the audience, namely; recount, response, explanation, discussion,

information report, exposition, and procedure.

In accordance with the syllabus for SMK, types of writing texts that

are taught are descriptive, narrative, report, procedure, monologue


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(announcement, advertisement), and functional text (memo, letter, and

business letter). Types of texts will be used in this research are descriptive,

report, and procedure text.

In general, the calcifications of types of writing are based on: (1) the

purpose of the text, why is the text made? (2) the generic structure of the text,

analyzing structure used in composing the text, in what way is the text

constructed by its teacher; (3) the language feature, taking a look at the

linguistic characterizations of the text. What kind of language feature is used

to build the text by its teacher? In this case, the discussion will be focused on

some types of text used in this research.

a. Descriptive

1) The purpose of descriptive text : to describe a particular person,

places, or things

2) Generic Structure:

- Identification: identifies the phenomenon to be described

- Description: describes parts, qualities, characteristics

3) Language features: focus on specific participants, use simple present

tense

b. Report

1) The purpose of text: to describe the way things are with reference to a

range of natural, manmade, and social phenomenon in our

environment.


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- General classification: tells what phenomena under the discussion

- Description: tells what the phenomenon under the discussion is

like in terms of parts, qualities, habits or behaviour.

3) Language features: focus on generic participants, use relational

processes to state what is and it uses simple present tense.

c. Procedure

1) The purpose of text: to describe how something is accomplished

through a sequences of actions or steps.


- Goal

- Material

- Steps 1-n

3) Language features: use simple present tense, often imperative. use

mainly material processes.

5. Writing Assessment

Assessment plays an important role in determining each student’s

learning problems, progress, and end outcomes after period of learning time.

According to Brown (2004: 4), assessment is an ongoing process that includes

a much wider aspect, whereas test is a subset of assessment which measures a

person’s ability, knowledge, or performance in a given aspect. Assessment of


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writing is not easy. The teacher should have rule to determine it in order to

appropriate with the students’ ability in writing. There are six categories or

aspect of writing assessment as follows (Brown, 2001: 357).

a. Content: thesis statement, related ideas, development of ideas through

personal experience, illustration, fact, opinions, use of description,

cause/effect, comparison/contrast, and consistent focus.

b. Organization: effectiveness of introduction, logical sequence of ideas,

conclusion, and appropriate length.

c. Discourse/cohesion: topic sentences, paragraph unity, transitions,

discourse markers, cohesion, rhetorical conventions, reference,

fluency, and variation.

d. Syntax

e. Vocabulary: using meaningful words or phrases.

f. Mechanics: spelling, punctuation, citation of references (if applicable),

and neatness and appearance.

Then Brown (2001: 358) states that if the teachers still need to assign a

single grade or score to each paper, then consider weighting the first few

categories more heavily. Teacher can thereby emphasize the content-based

flavor of their evaluation. The researcher will adapt some aspects to assess the

students’ writing as; content, organization, discourse/cohesion (grammar),

mechanics, and vocabulary dealing with the student.


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6. Scoring Rubric of Writing Skill

A scoring rubric is a set of guidelines for the application performance

criteria to evaluate the students’ responses and performance which consists of

verbal descriptions of the students’ responses and performance (Linn and

Gronlund, 2000: 270). There are three types of rating scales used in scoring

writing. They are holistic scoring, primary trait, and analytic scoring.

Holistic scoring uses a variety of criteria to produce a single score.

The rationale for using a holistic scoring system is that the totals qualify of

written text is more than the sum of its components. O’Malley (1996: 142)

sates that writing is viewed as an integrated whole involves four components

as follows: (1) ideas development organization: focus on central idea with

appropriate elaboration and conclusion; (2) fluency/ structure: appropriate

verb tense used with variety of grammatical and syntactic structure; (3) word

choice: uses varied and precise diction appropriate for purpose; (4) mechanics:

absence of error in spelling capitalization, and punctuation.

Primary trait focuses on “how well students can write within a

narrowly defined range of discourse” (Weigle in Brown, 2004: 242). This type

of scoring emphasizes the task at hand and assigns a score based on the

effectiveness of the text’s achieving that one goal. A primary trait score would

assess: (1) the accuracy of the account of the original (summary); (2) the

clarity of the steps of the procedure and the final result (lab report); (3) the


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description of the main features of the graph (graph description); (4) the

expression of the writer’s opinion (respond to an article).

Analytic scoring focuses on the principle function of the text and

therefore offers some feedback potential, but no wash back for any of the

written production that enhance the ultimate accomplishment of the purpose.

Classroom evaluation of learning is best served through analytic scoring, in

which as many as six major elements of writing are scored, thus enabling

learners in home in on weaknesses and to capitalize.

According to Brown (2001: 244-245) analytical of scoring rubric for

writing product covers five writing aspects namely; organization, Logical

development of ideas (content), grammar, punctuation and spelling

mechanics, and style or qualify of expressing (vocabulary). The detail

descriptions for each aspect can be seen in Table 2.1.


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Table 2.1

Analytical of scoring rubric for writing product

Writing Elements

Scores 5 4 3 2 1

1.Organization Appropriate title, effective introductory paragraph, topic is stated, leads to body, transitional expression used, arrangement of material shows, plant (could be outlined by reader), supporting evidence given for generalization, conclusion, logical, and complete.

Adequate title, introduction and conclusion, body of essay is acceptable, but some ideas are not fully developed, sequence is logical but transactional expressions may be absent or misused.

Mediocre or scant introduction or conclusion, problems with the order of ideas in body; the generalization may not be fully supported by the evidence given; problems of generalization interfere.

Shaky or minimally recognizable introduction, organization can barely be seen, severe problems with ordering of ideas, lack of supporting evidence, conclusion weak or illogical, inadequate effort at organization.

Absence of introduction or conclusion, no apparent organization of body, severe lack of supporting evidence, writer has not made any effort to organize the composition (could not be outlined by reader).

2. Logical development of ideas (Content)

Essay addresses the assigned topic, the ideas are concrete and thoroughly developed, no extraneous material, essay reflects thought.

Essay addresses the issues but misses some points, ideas could be more fully developed, some extraneous material present.

Development of ideas not complete or essay is somewhat off the topic, paragraphs are not divided exactly right.

Ideas incomplete, essay does not reflect careful thinking or was hurriedly written, inadequate effort in area of content.

Essay is completely inadequate and does not reflect college-level work, no apparent effort to consider the topic carefully.

3. Grammar Native-like fluency in English grammar, correct use of relative clauses, prepositions modals, articles, verb forms, and tense sequencing, no fragments or run-on sentences.

Advanced proficiency in English grammar, some grammar problems do not influence communication, although the reader is aware of them, no fragments or run-on sentences.

Ideas are getting through to the reader but grammar problems are apparent and have a negative effect on communication, run-on sentences or fragment present.

Numerous serious grammar problems interfere with communication of the writer’s ideas, grammar review of some areas clearly needed, difficult to read sentences.

Severe grammar problems interfere greatly with the message reader cannot understand what the writer was trying to say, unintelligible sentence structure.

4.Punctuation, spelling and

Correct use of English

Some problems with writing

Uses general writing

Serious problems with

Complete disregard for


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mechanics writing conventions left and right margins, all needed capitals, paragraphs intended, punctuation and spelling, very neat.

conventions or punctuation, occasional spelling errors left margin correct, paper is neat and legible.

conventions but has errors, spelling problems, distract reader punctuation errors interfere with ideas.

formal of paper; parts of essay not legible, errors in sentence punctuation and final punctuation, unacceptable to educated readers.

English writing conventions paper illegible, obvious capitals missing, no margins, severe spelling problems.

5. Style and qualify of expression (Vocabulary)

Precise vocabulary usage, use of parallel structure, concise register good.

Attempts variety, good vocabulary, not wordy, register OK, style fairly concise.

Some vocabulary misused; lacks awareness of register, may be too wordy.

Poor expression of ideas; problems in vocabulary lacks variety of structure.

Inappropriate use of vocabulary, no concept of register or sentence variety.

To assess the students’ writing, the researcher uses the scoring rubrics

according to Brown which is adjusted to the students’ skill at SMK PGRI 6

Ngawi. For more detail the scoring rubrics for writing used in this research can be

seen in Table 2.2.


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Table 2.2 Scoring Rubrics for Writing

Scoring criteria

Point

1 2 3 4

Punctuation, capital letters

and mechanics

Sentences have more than six errors in spelling, capital letter, punctuation and marks.

Sentences have fewer than five errors in spelling, capital letter, punctuation and marks.

Sentences have fewer than three errors in spelling, capital letter, punctuation and marks.

All sentences use correct spelling, capital letter, punctuation and marks.

Vocabulary There are five or more inappropriate use of vocabulary in sentences.

There are fewer than five inappropriate use of vocabulary in sentences.

There are fewer than three inappropriate use of vocabulary in sentences, style fairly concise.

Precise vocabulary usage and style concise.

Grammar There are five or more grammar errors

There are fewer than five grammar errors

There are fewer than three grammar errors

There is no serious grammar error.

Supporting details

There are no obvious supporting detail sentences to back up the main ideas.

Te main idea has only one supporting detail.

The main idea is supported by 2 or 3 sentences that give details about it.

The main idea is supported by four or more sentences that give details about it.

Organization Main idea or topic sentence is unclear and in wrong place. The idea is not brought up again

Main idea or topic sentence is unclear and in wrong place.

Main idea or topic sentence is either unclear or not in the right place. No reference to topic in last sentence.

Main idea or topic sentence is clear, in right place, and mentioned again in the last sentence.

The descriptions of scores are as follows:

Punctuation and capital letters : 4

Vocabulary : 4

Grammar : 4

Supporting details : 4

Organization : 4

The total of maximum score is 20.


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B. Electronic Mail

1. What is Electronic Mail

Klesin (2008: 1) says that electronic mail, commonly called e-mail or

e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages across the Internet or other

computer networks. Originally, e-mail was transmitted directly from one user

to another computer. This required both computers to be online at the same

time. Today's e-mail systems are based on a store-and-forward model. E-mail

servers accept, forward, deliver and store messages. Users no longer need be

online simultaneously and need only connect briefly, typically to an e-mail

server, for as long as it takes to send or receive messages.

An e-mail message consists of two components, the message header,

and the message body, which is the e-mail's content (Kelsin, 2008: 1). The

message header contains control information, including, minimally, an

originator's e-mail address and one or more recipient addresses. Usually

additional information is added, such as a subject header field. The message

header should include at least the following fields:

· From: The e-mail address, and optionally the name of the author. In many

e-mail clients are not changeable except through changing account

settings.

· To: The e-mail address, and optionally name of the message's recipient.

· Subject: A brief summary of the topic of the message. Certain

abbreviations are commonly used in the subject.


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· Date: The local time and date when the message was written. Like the

From: field, many e-mail clients fill this in automatically when sending.

The recipient's client may then display the time in the format and time

zone local to him/her.

· Message-ID: Also an automatically generated field; used to prevent

multiple delivery and for reference in In-Reply-To.

2. Electronic Mail in Teaching Writing

Technology is rapidly changing the way people communicate. Internet

has been used by some language instructors in creative ways. One of

creativity is the use of e-mail, as a specific feature of the Internet. E-mail is

one of the most powerful and often used new communication tools because it

is easy to use, even teachers those are not familiar with computers can quickly

become adapt in using e-mail with their students. As stated by Dudeney and

Hockly (2007: 5) that students’ activities where they depend much on the use

of technology. The most popular technology used by the students is computer.

Facts show that teachers tend to ignore ICT, and teachers are often far less

skilled than the students.

E-mail allows student to send a message via a computer to other user

that will then be available for reading at that person’s convenience. The

students receiving the message can respond easily by typing in a reply and

pressing a key or clicking the mouse. The entire message or a part of the

message can be included in the reply to remind the sender of the original post.


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E-mail allows the students to keep in touch with their teachers and other

students around the world via mailing list and discussing groups.

In general, e-mail can encourage students to use computers in realistic,

authentic situations in order to develop communicative and thinking skills.

Although the Internet has been available to most people, only small amount of

educators understand the potential of internet can provide in second and

foreign language classrooms.

E-mail can improve students’ writing skill including the aspects of

writing namely; the use of punctuation and capital letter, vocabulary,

grammar, supporting details, and organizing writing. E-mail provides the

opportunity for students to improve their knowledge of the use of punctuation,

capital letter, and mechanical writing. E-mail cannot be separated from

computer because e-mail is one of the programs provided in internet soft ware

application. When they type the assignment or message on the computer

before sending it via e-mail, they can check the use of punctuation, capital

letter, and mechanical writing correctly. They can also check the synonym,

antonym, and even the meaning of the words electronically. It means that they

save their valuable time in writing text. Eileen (2002: 4) said that by writing

sentences and creating an illustration, the students find an appropriately

descriptive word for themselves. Students elaborate on the word in the

process; they make extensive use of the dictionary and thesaurus.


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E-mail also provides the opportunity for students and teachers to

communicate outside the classroom, for example sending, receiving, marking,

and returning the students’ written assignments. When the students access to

computers outside the class, they can write a text freely without being engaged

in the limited time. It means that students are accustomed to expressing

thoughts, feeling, and ideas better in written form.

Moreover, Lee (1998: 3) underlines that by using e-mail; it enables

the teacher to monitor the process of the students' writings to save class time

for the teacher's assignments and comments. E-mail offers students

opportunities for much more valuable communicative interaction in the target

language. Occasionally, some students who do not like to express themselves

in a group tend to do better with writing. Since students usually generate more

content electronically than with hand writing methods, some students who are

shy tend to express their opinions through e-mail freely without fear. This can

give students self-confidence and improve their writing skill.

The teaching and learning process used is based on Genre-Based

Approach (GBA). It is divided into two cycles. Each cycle contains four main

stages such as building knowledge of the field, modeling of text, joint

construction text, and independent construction of text (Depdiknas, 2004: 46).

Each of the stages can be shown as follows:


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a. Building Knowledge of Text (BKOF)

First of all in pre-meeting, the students (in group) are asked to find out the

examples of descriptive text on the internet, and then send it to the

teacher’s e-mail address. The students are introduced to the learning

materials which are essential for the next part of the writing teaching

process such as organizing ideas logically and coherently, supporting

details, selecting appropriate vocabulary, grammar, punctuation, and

capital letter. Besides, they are also introduced the instructions of e-mail,

various vocabularies related to e-mail, and how e-mail is operated. The

aim of this stage is to make sure that the students have enough background

of the topic or field to be able to write about it.

b. Modeling of Text (MOT)

The teacher provides the examples of descriptive text taken from the

students’ assignments in the pre-meeting which are sent via e-mail. The

aim of this stage is to make the students familiar with the purpose or social

function, language features and generic structure of the text they are going

to write by giving the example of text models.

c. Joint Construction of Text (JCOT)

The students make a kind of writing in pair, and then they send and share

their tasks to others via e-mail. It is used to know the students’ cooperation

and motivation. The task and activities in this stage are designed to enable

students to: explore further the purpose of the genre and its relation to the


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topic or field; contribute knowledge of the field in the shared construction

of a text; and negotiate with the teacher and other students to construct a

written text.

d. Independent Construction of Text (ICOT)

This is the final stage of the cycle when the students write their own text.

The teacher provides a project to be accomplished by the students via e-

mail individually. The project is making descriptive writing by paying

attention to some writing aspects namely; the use of punctuation and

capital letter, vocabulary, grammar, supporting detail, and organizing

writing well. The teacher’s main role is to provide constructive comment

to the students on what further development if it is necessary.

3. The Advantages of Using Electronic Mail

Using e-mail in a writing class can be conducted at any kind of

network as long as workstations with e-mail software are readily available to

the students. This could be in a language laboratory, a campus network, or

across the Internet. There are many reasons why using e-mail is advantageous

for the students and teachers in the writing class.

Dudeney and Hockly (2007: 62) state that the advantages of using e-

mail for teaching writing as follows. E-mail allows the students and teacher to

communicate outside the classroom, for example sending, receiving, marking,

and returning the students’ written assignments. When the students access to


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computers outside the class, they can write a text freely without engaged the

limited time. Using e-mail simple to use and most of students are familiar with

e-mail.

According to Lee (1998: 3), using e-mail enables the teacher to

monitor the process of the students' writings to save class time for the

teacher's assignments and comments. E-mail can furnish teacher-student,

student-student communications including formal and informal consultations.

E-mail offers students opportunities for much more valuable communicative

interaction in the target language. Occasionally, some students who do not

like to express themselves in a group tend to do better with writing. Since

students usually generate more content electronically than with traditional

pen-and-pencil methods, shy students often tend to express their opinions

more openly without fear. This can give students self-confidence and improve

their writing ability.

Subekti (2010: 1) says that by using e-mail, teacher is able to

electronically monitor individual or group writing process from early phase to

the final one. Usually, teachers often receive dozens of papers, assignments,

and pieces of correspondence from their students each term. These pieces of

paper often get organized on desk, in brief case, in filing cabinet, at home, in

the office, in the classroom, and so on. E-mail can also save class time for

some assignments. Teachers can send assignments and announcements

electronically to the students. For example, if a teacher has to remind the

students of a certain assignment due or a particular procedure, the teacher can


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send one message to entire class members. This can save valuable class time.

Moreover, with the return receipt capabilities of e-mail the teacher is able to

know whether each individual student has opened and read the message. This

is an important feature to help monitor the progress of the student or the

group.

It can be concluded by using e-mail, students and teachers become

better problem solvers and better communicators. By using e-mail, students

can begin to realize their full potential when they are trigged to deal such

feature as a tool in completing their writing tasks more effectively. Students

have the chance to collaborate and work together with others and teachers. On

the other hand, by working electronically, teachers can help learners create,

analyze, and produce information and ideas more easily and efficiently. In this

case, teachers directly make their works easier in teaching and learning

process.

C. Review of Related Researches

There are some researchers giving evidences about the use of e-mail in

teaching learning. First, Huitt (1997: 3) concludes that students in most college-

level courses would benefit from the use of e-mail. E-mail relates to the

educational needs of students and provides students with experiences throughout

their programs that will expose them to the benefits of e-mail without its use

becoming overwhelming.


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Second, Lee (1998: 3) confesses that e-mail is a very useful vehicle for

teaching English. It enables the teacher to monitor the process of the students'

writings to save class time for the teacher's assignments and comments. E-mail

can furnish teacher-student, student-student communications including formal and

informal consultations, exchange of dialogue journals and writing conferencing.

Speed, power, and flexibility of the computer and e-mail can effectively facilitate

second language writing.

Third, Murar and Ware (1998: 2) discovered students were scheduled to

read the August Wilson play Fences at the same time, they set up e-mail

communication between students to allow some "teacherless talk" about the text.

Though teachers were not involved in student online dialogues, the conversations

evidenced the same reading strategies promoted in teacher-led discussion,

including predication, clarification, interpretation, and others.

Forth, Ramsey (in Kristina Torres, 2006: 2) acknowledges teaching

writing using e-mail is more innovative. She describes how she stepped away

from traditional "skill and drill" writing exercises and started teaching students to

write clear, concise e-mails, reports, and other texts. But she acknowledged that

one of the challenges has been refining the curriculum for teachers with fewer

resources.

Fifth, Gonglewski, Meloni and Brant (2000: 10) state while e-mail is now

already considered a relatively "low-tech" medium; it can bring effective benefits

to the process of learning a foreign language. The most important benefit is its


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potential to offer learners opportunities for much more valuable communicative

interaction in the target language than was ever possible in the traditional foreign

language classroom.

By considering the concept of the nature of writing, the use of e-mail, and

review of related research, it can be assumed that by using e-mail in this research,

the students can improve their writing skill.

D. Rationale

In teaching learning process especially for writing, the students have some

problems. They are: (1) the students have difficulties in punctuation and capital

letter; (2) they have difficulties to select appropriate words; (3) they have

difficulties to write sentences grammatically; (4) their difficulties to develop ideas

logically; (5) their difficulties in organizing the writing well.

Unfavorable situation is obvious in teaching and learning process such as:

(1) some students pay little attention to the teacher’s explanation; (2) many

students do not do the homework when the teacher ask them to do the task at

home; (3) some students enjoy talking with other during the lesson; (4) at the

same time, some of them often ask for permission to go to the bathroom; (5)

students just keep silent when the teacher ask them to make questions related to

lesson given.

The students’ failure in writing is caused by many things namely: (1) the

students’ motivation is low due to monotonous teaching and the traditional


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method used by the teachers in teaching writing; (2) lack of practices in writing;

(3) their lack of knowledge in grammar and vocabulary and; (4) they ignore the

rules of mechanical writing; (5) limited time given by the teacher at school.

To overcome the students’ problems and to improve their writing skill, the

researcher is interested in using e-mail to practice writing in teaching learning

process. Utilizing e-mail in teaching and learning process has some advantages.

Those are; e-mail is considered as one of the newly communication tools for

writing activity at SMK PGRI 6. By using e-mail, students do not study in

monotonous teaching. The atmosphere of teaching learning process will be more

inspiring and enjoyable. Therefore, the students will be more interested and

enthusiastic when the teacher use email in teaching and learning process. In

general, e-mail can encourage students to use computers in realistic, authentic

situations in order to develop communicative and thinking skills. It can help the

students to organize and develop the ideas.

Students’ vocabulary mastery is gradually improved. This is due to the fact

that generally the computer language is English. They can look up the meaning,

synonym, even antonym of the words electronically. While typing on the

computer, they learn spelling of the words and punctuation by correcting ones

which is red underlined. Besides, the use of e-mail in teaching writing can cope

the problem dealing with the limited time for classroom teaching writing. The

students can do writing outside the class e.g. in a lab, a campus network, or across

the Internet, and the teacher can monitor their writing as well.


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E-mail allows student to send a message via a computer to other user that

will then be available for reading at that person’s convenience. The students

receiving the message can respond easily by typing in a reply and pressing a key

or clicking the mouse. E-mail allows the students to keep in touch with their

teachers and other students around the world via mailing list and discussing

groups. Unconsciously, they have practiced writing frequently.

It can be said that by utilizing e-mail, students and teachers become better

problem solvers and better communicators. Students can begin to realize their full

potential when they are trigged to deal such feature as a tool in completing their

writing tasks more effectively. Students have the chance to collaborate and work

together with other classmates and teachers. On the other hand, by working

electronically, teachers can help learners create, analyze, and produce information

and ideas more easily and efficiently. In this case, teachers directly make their

works easier in teaching and learning process.

Based on the strengths of e-mail, it is assumed that utilizing e-mail for

teaching writing is able to improve the students’ writing skill.


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CHAPTER III

THE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

A. Context of the Research

This classroom action research was conducted at SMK PGRI 6 Ngawi for

six months from September 2010 to February 2011. It is located on Jl. Raya

Klitik, KM. 05 Ngawi, East Java. Students can get to the school easily because it

is located on the main road connecting east Java and Central Java. They usually

ride motor cycle or public transportation which can exactly stop in front of the

school to reach there. There are many schools and a government institution

surrounding there. Behind and across the school there are rice fields.

The students usually choose the school because they are not accepted by

the state school because of their low scores of final examination in the previous

Junior High School. Most of them come from surrounding villages. Their parents

are farmers and labors who do not have much education, so they often should help

their parents to work in getting money. Many students do not continue their study

after graduating from this school. They tend to look for a job to earn money.

SMK PGRI 6 Ngawi has many facilities to support the teaching and

learning activities. Almost each class has been equipped with a unit of laptop and

LCD. However, the facilities are not sufficient for all students. For example in the

computer laboratory only has 30 units, whereas each class consists of about 45

students. So a computer sometimes is used by two students. There are a lot of


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extracurricular activities provided such as swimming, volley ball, basket ball, soft

ball, dance, music, English zone, scout, broadcasting. Each extracurricular is

guided by an advisor.

SMK PGRI 6 Ngawi consists of three grade classes. The tenth grade has 9

classes, the eleventh grade consists of 7 classes, and the twelfth grade there are

only 4 classes. Each class consists of 40-45 students. There are four kinds of

competence field provided namely; business and management, marketing,

network computer technique, and broadcasting department.

The subject of this classroom action research is the eleventh year network

computer technique class one of SMK PGRI 6 Ngawi, 2010/2011 academic year.

The number of students is 45. It consists of 42 female and 3 male students. The

researcher purposely takes that class to be researched due to its competency

program related to the way of teaching writing by using e-mail and the students

have some problems such as: (1) difficulties in the use of punctuation and capital

letter; (2) difficulties to select appropriate vocabulary; (3) difficulties to write

sentences grammatically; (4) difficulties to make supporting details; (5)

difficulties to organize writing well.

The classroom action research is conducted to overcome the students’

problems in the teaching and learning process of writing. The researcher is

assisted by one of English teachers at SMK PGRI 6 Ngawi as a collaborator in

conducting the research.


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B. Research Design

This study employs classroom action research. Some definitions of the

action research proposed by the experts are as follows. Burns (1999: 30) states

that action research is the application of fact finding to practical problem solving

in a social situation with a view to improve the quality of an action within it,

involving the collaboration and cooperation of researcher, practitioner, and

laymen.

Ebbut (in Rochiati, 2005: 12) says that action research is a systematic

study to improve a teaching and learning activity carried out by a group of

teachers by doing particular treatment based on the result of their teaching and

learning activity.

Kemmis (in Hopkins 1975: 44) writes:

“Action research is a form of self-reflective enquiry undertaken by participants in social (including educational) situations in order to improve the rationality and justice of: (a) their own social or educational practices, (b) their understanding of these practices; and (c) the situations in which the practices are carried out. It is most rationally empowering when undertaken by participants collaboratively, though it is often undertaken by individuals, and sometimes in cooperation with outsiders.”

From the definitions above, it can be concluded that action research is a

systematic study to improve a teaching and learning process by involving the

collaboration and cooperation of the researcher, practitioner, and laymen. In this


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research, action research is carried out in order to improve the students’ writing

skill.

This action research is conducted into two cycles. Each cycle consists of

four steps. They are planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. The followings

are the short explanations of the steps:

1. Planning

There are a set of activities as follows:

a. Interview the collaborator

This is done to obtain the detailed information concerning to the students’

condition and the description of the teaching and learning process, the

researcher interviews the collaborator before conducting the research.

b. Interview the students

The researcher interviews the students to get enough information about

their problems and difficulties in the writing skill.

c. Share ideas with the collaborator

The researcher share ideas with the collaborator to discuss the lesson plan,

teaching media, and students` worksheet. It is also directed to obtain the

data and the teaching learning process runs well.

d. Pre-test

The researcher designs a pre-test for the students before treatment to find

out the students’ prior knowledge.


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e. Questionnaire

The aim of the questionnaire is to know the students’ opinion about the

speaking learning teaching process. Furthermore, to know the students’

needs interest, and problems in writing.

f. Design treatment

To improve the students’ writing skill, the researcher designs a treatment

which is going to be implemented in the teaching learning process of

writing.

2. Acting

There are a set of activities that will be done during the implementation

process as follows:

a. Building Knowledge of Text (BKOF)

First of all in pre-meeting, the students (in group) are asked to find out the

examples of descriptive text on the internet, and then send it to the

teacher’s e-mail address. The students are introduced to the learning

materials which are essential for the next part of the writing teaching

process such as organizing ideas logically and coherently, supporting

details, using punctuation and capital letter, selecting appropriate

vocabulary, and grammar. Besides, they are also introduced the

instructions of e-mail, various vocabularies related to e-mail, and how e-

mail is operated. The aim of this stage is to make sure that the students

have enough background of the topic or field to be able to write about it.


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b. Modeling of Text (MOT)

The teacher provides the examples of descriptive text taken from the

students’ assignments in the pre-meeting which are sent via e-mail. The

aim of this stage is to make the students familiar with the purpose or social

function, language features and generic structure of the text they are going

to write by giving the example of text models.

c. Joint Construction of Text (JCOT)

The students should make a kind of writing in pair, and then they send and

share their tasks to others via e-mail. It is used to know the students’

cooperation and motivation. The task and activities in this stage are

designed to enable students to: explore further the purpose of the genre

and its relation to the topic or field; contribute knowledge of the field in

the shared construction of a text; and negotiate with the teacher and other

students to construct a written text.

d. Independent Construction of Text (ICOT)

This is the final stage of the cycle when the students write their own text.

The teacher provides a project to be accomplished by the students via e-

mail individually. The project is making descriptive writing by paying

attention to some writing aspects namely; the use of punctuation and

capital letter, vocabulary, grammar, supporting detail, and organizing

writing well. The teacher’s main role is to provide constructive comment

to the students on what further development if it is necessary.


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3. Observation

The researcher and the collaborator observe the students during the action

and making notes on the students’ activities especially when they are constructing

the text.

4. Reflection

In this stage, the researcher will evaluate the teaching and learning process

to see the result of the implementation of the e-mail in practicing of writing and to

find out the problems and weaknesses. Then the researcher and the collaborator

discuss the result of the reflection to design and plan the next cycle.

C. Data and Data Collecting Technique

1. Data

The data in the classroom action research includes:

a. Quantitative data

The students’ scores are taken from:

· The students’ test scores before being given the treatment

· The students’ test scores after being given the treatment in cycle 1

· The students’ test scores after being given the treatment in cycle 2

b. Qualitative data

· Result of questionnaire

· Result of the interview


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· Field notes

· Documentary evidences

· Researcher diary

2. Data Collecting Technique

a. Test

Pretest and posttest are used to find out the students’ achievement in

writing before and after the teaching of writing using e-mail. The purpose

of the test is to see whether or not the students’ achievement in speaking

improves.

b. Interview

The interview is used to get information from the students and the

collaborator. The information covers their idea about the use of e-mail, the

strengths and weaknesses of the e-mail. The interview also covers their

personal perception, experiences, opinion and ideas related to the action

research.

c. Observation

The observation is done to cover the process of implementation of e-mail

in the teaching of writing. The observation notices the classroom activities

of the students and researcher who becomes the teacher in the teaching

learning process. The researcher also asks the collaborator to observe and

make notes about the learning and teaching process. The function of the

collaborator here is to observe, evaluate, and offer suggestions.


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d. Documentation

The documents in the research are the sheets of observation, lesson plans,

and list of students’ scores in writing task.

e. Questionnaire

The questionnaire is carried out to get information from the students about

their idea about the use of e-mail in the teaching learning process of

writing, to know the strengths and weaknesses of the implementation of e-

mail.

f. Researcher diary.

Hughes (2000: 1) states that a researcher diary is a record of the

researcher's involvement in a project. The researcher diary contains

information about the researcher, what the researcher does, and the process

of research. It complements the data yielded by the research methodology.

The main reasons for keeping the researcher’s diary are: (1) to generate a

history of the project, the researcher’s thinking and the research process;

(2) to provide material for reflection; (3) to provide data on the research

process; and (4) to record the development of the research skill.

D. Data Analyzing Techniques

In this classroom action research, the researcher uses:

1. Quantitative data analysis is used to calculate the score of each student.

The students’ scores are calculated using the formula below (Arikunto,

1998: 38).


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xSMNR

S =

Where:

S = the students’ score

R = the students’ score / right answer

N = the maximum number of the whole answer

SM= standard score (100)

After analyzing the scores of writing test, a statistical technique is used to

find out the mean score of the students. The result of the research is

obtained by comparing the mean score of the pre-test and the post-test

(Arikunto, 1998: 38). The formula is as follows:

N

XM å=

Where:

M = mean score

∑X = the total score

N = number of students

If the mean scores of post test is higher than that of the pre-test, it is

considered that there is an improvement in the students’ writing skill. It


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means that E-Mail can be used to overcome the students’ problems in

learning writing.

2. Qualitative data is to draw the conclusion from the available data. It will

be analyzed by using the Constant Comparative Method. Strauss and

Glaser in Lincoln and Guba (1985: 339-344) state that there are four

stages in process of analyzing data. They are: (1) comparing incidents

applicable to each category; (2) integrating categories and their properties;

(3) delimiting the theory, and (4) writing the theory. Although the method

of generating theory is a continuously growing process, each stage a time

is transformed into the next, earlier stages do remain in operation

simultaneously throughout the analysis and each provides continuous

development to its successive stage until the analysis is determined.


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CHAPTER IV

RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

This research is aimed at identifying whether utilizing of e-mail improves

the students’ writing skill and to what extend the improvement is. Besides, the

researcher also aims to describe the teaching and learning situation when utilizing

e-mail is applied in writing class. The research was conducted at SMK PGRI 6

Ngawi, East Java.

This chapter consists of prior situation of the research, implementation of

the research, research findings, and discussion and justification. The research

schedule can be seen in Table 4.1.

Table 4.1 The Schedule of the Research

1. Pre-research : Gaining base-line data

a. Observation : on August to September 2010 b. Questionnaire : October 19th 2010 c. Interview : October 21st 2010 d. Pre-test : October 26th 2010

2. Research implementation

a. Cycle 1: Utilizing e-mail in writing descriptive text “My Family” 1) Meeting 1: December 14th, 2010 presenting the material 2) Meeting 2: December 18th, 2010 discussing the task 3) Meeting 3: December 21st, 2010 writing descriptive text in group 4) Meeting 4: December 25st, 2010 writing descriptive text individually

b. Cycle 2 : Utilizing e-mail in writing procedure text

1) Meeting 1: February 8th, 2011 presenting the material 2) Meeting 2: February 12th, 2011 discussing the task 3) Meeting 3: February 15th, 2011 writing procedure text in group 4) Meeting 4: February 19th, 2011 writing procedure text individually

In more detail, table 4.1 can be described in the following section.


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A. Prior Situation of the Research

The process of the research was carried out in two major stages, namely

pre-research; consisting of observation, questionnaire, interview, pre-test and

implementation of the research; implementation of the research consisting of

cycle 1 and cycle 2.

1. The pre-research

Before conducting the research, I conducted pre-research to gain base-line

data on the condition before the research was implemented. Besides, it was to

identify the problems on teaching and learning English, especially on writing

class; what the students’ problems on writing and how the situation of the writing

class was. The pre-research consisted of four activities, namely observing the

teaching and learning process on writing class, conducting questionnaire to

students, interviewing the students and the teacher, and conducting pre-test. The

pre-research was conducted on September to October 2010.

Through pre-research, I collected data as the basic to do this action research. The

data were about the students’ problems especially on English writing and the class

situation on writing class including the indicators of the problems. The result of

pre-research activities can be seen in Table 4.2.


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Table 4.2 Base-Line Data Prior to Action Research Implementation

A. Students’ Writing Skill No The Indicators of the problem Situation Prior to the Action Research 1 The students have difficulties in

the use of punctuation and capital letter

- Most students made mistakes in giving punctuation - Most students made mistakes in the use of capital letters

2 The students have difficulties in selecting appropriate words

- Most students write sentences inappropriate vocabulary. - Most students do not understand word class/ category such

noun, verb, adjective, and adverb.

3 The students have difficulties to write sentences grammatically

Most students write sentences in wrong verb forms, be, and singular-plural, e.g. They cannot differenciate the use of verb1, verbs/es, verb2, verb3, and verb ing. Besides they apply the rules of L1 while writing in L2. For instance they write “girl beautiful” instead of “ a beatiful girl”

4 The students have difficulties to develop ideas logically

Most students are confused since they do not know what to do when the teacher asks them to write a text. Therefore, they tend to imitate the texts given

5 The students have difficulties in organizing the writing well.

When they are asked to write a text, most of them write a text with uncomplete and even inappropriate generic structure. For instance: they write a descriptive text which describes a thing in general instead of a specific one. B. Classroom Situation

No The Indicators of the Problem Situation prior to the Action Research 1 Some students do not pay full

attention to the teacher’s explanation

They especially who sit down in the back row enjoy typing message by their phone cellular

2 Many students do not do the homework when the teacher ask them to do the task at home

They often copy to their friends’ homework in the class when the teacher asked it to submit.

3 Some students enjoy talking each other during the lesson.

Some students talk each other, their topics discussion do not relate to the material given by the teacher. It makes the class quite noisy

4 Some of them often ask for permission to the teacher to go to the bathroom

Some students who asked for permission to go to the bathroom make the other ones split their concentration to join the lesson

5 Students just keep silent when the teacher ask them to make questions related to lesson given

The students do not understand when the teacher give them a question related to the material given and when they are asked to do exercise, they are not able to do it well.

Base-line data related to the condition before the research could be described as

follows.


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a. The Students’ Writing Skill

1) Base-line questionnaire data

To find out the students’ responses toward the planning of

conducting the classroom action research in writing class, I delivered

questionnaire to the students of class XII TKJ 2. The result of the

questionnaire is as follow:

a) There are 36 students (87.80%) who said that writing is difficult,

because they have difficulty to convey their ideas (89.74%), they do

not know what they are going to write (94.87%), and the time given to

make writing is not enough (71.79%).

b) There are 27 students (64.10%) who do not like when the teacher asks

them to make writing but 14 students (35.90%) like to make writing.

The students who do not like writing tend to cheat or just copy from

their friends’ work.

c) There are 21 students (48.72%) who seldom and 17 students (17.43%)

never pay attention to the mechanic of writing correctly. There are also

28 students (66.67%) who seldom, 6 students (15.38%) often, 5

students (12.82%) never, and only 2 students always pay attention to

the use of punctuation and capital letter. Generally, they ignore the

mechanic, punctuation, and the use of capital letter in writing.


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d) There are 23 students (53.85%) who seldom, 16 students (41.03%)

never, and 2 students (5.13%) often pay attention to the use of

vocabulary properly in writing.

e) There are 22 students (51.28%) always, 15 students (38.46%) often,

and 2 students (5.13%) seldom get stuck in exploring idea when they

start writing.

f) There are 25 students (58.97%) never, 15 students (38.46%) seldom,

and only a student (2.56%) always communicate by using e-mail.

The students’ difficulties above can be caused by these factors: the

students’ motivation is low due to monotonous teaching and the traditional

method used by the teachers in teaching writing; lack of practices in

writing; the students relatively poor in vocabularies acquisition; the

students mastery in grammar is low; they ignore the rules of mechanical

writing, punctuation, and the use of capital letter; limited time given by the

teacher at school. There are only five times forty five minutes in a week to

study English at vocational school.

2) Base-line interview data

To prove whether what has been stated before is true or not, I

interviewed some students directly, and the teacher who taught them.

Besides, I gave a pre-test to know their prior English writing skill. It was

conducted to reinforce the above problems. As for result of the above

activity, it would be described as follows.


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In the preliminary observation, I came closer to the students and

then asked, “How often do you practice writing in your class?” Most of

them replied ‘never’, ‘very seldom’. Most of them just smiled at me. Then

I conducted in depth interview with some students and their answers were

as follows.

The students did not like English writing because they had

difficulties in grammar and vocabulary as stated by (AL,02.01)

“Saya nggak suka mengarang Bu, apalagi mengarang bahasa Inggris. Saya nggak bisa grammar dan kosakatanya Bu. Kalau lihat di kamus kan katanya nggak selalu cocok, jadi ya saya bingung banget kalau disuruh mengarang”.

Meanwhile, another student gave the following explanation;

“Sebetulnya saya suka mengarang Bu, tapi saya bingung mulai dari mana, apalagi kalau pakai bahasa Inggris, saya nggak ngerti tenses dan artinya Bu. Saya bingung, untung kita nggak pernah disuruh mengarang dalam bahasa Inggris” (NBS:02,13).

And I asked SD why he did not like English writing, he argued as follows;

“Bu, saya nggak bisa mengarang, dalam bahasa Indonesia saja bingung, apalagi bahasa Inggris. Terus terang ni Bu, kosakata saya sangat kurang, saya juga nggak ngerti tentang tenses. Pokoknya kalau disuruh mengarang, saya nyerah dech.”

From some students I asked, it found that they have the same

problems like what have been stated by three students above, they are; (a)

the students have difficulties in punctuation and the use of capital letter;


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(b) they have difficulties to select appropriate words; (c) they have

difficulties to write sentences grammatically; (d) their difficulties to

develop ideas logically; (e) their difficulties in organizing the writing well.

3) Base-line pre-test data

To know the students’ writing skill before action, I held pre-test.

The students wrote a descriptive text about ‘their idol’ at least three

paragraphs. They could choose freely about their idol, it could be their

teacher, friend, an actress, an actor and so on. I hoped they might write

their own words and sentences.

I encouraged the students to write correct sentences by paying

more attention to punctuation, and the use of capital letter, selecting

appropriate words, supporting detail logically, and organizing ideas

clearly. The students’ writing skill is assessed from five aspects: (a)

mechanical writing; (b) vocabulary; (c) grammar; (d) supporting detail;

and (e) organizing the ideas or content. In this case, I asked my colleague,

AW to evaluate the students’ writing along with me to obtain objective

scores. It indicates that the scores would be calculated as objectively as

possible.

Based on the previous data on pre test presented the summary that

there was no student who got more than or the same as 75, those who got

60 to 75 were only 3 students (7.32%), while those who got lower than 60

were 38 students (92.68%). The highest score was 62.5, the average score


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was 45.73, and the lowest score was 25. The result of the pre test is also

provided in Table 4.3.

Table 4.3 Students’ Writing Skill Base-Line Pre Test Scores

Number of students

Percentages Level of writing skill Writing score

0 0% High level writing skill Above 75

3 7.32% Enough level writing skill

60 to 75

38 92.68% Low level writing skill

Under 60

From the Table above it could be concluded that most students of

XI TKJ 2 class had low skill on English writing. In addition, the minimum

score of the English lesson (KKM) is 65. The students’ score in writing

was under that of the minimum score.

b. Class Situation

The inputs of SMK PGRI 6 Ngawi based on the selected students when

they were accepted at SMK PGRI 6 Ngawi were low scores. Their scores of

final examination at Junior High School were low especially on English

subject.

I took the XI TKJ 2 class to be researched due to the fact that I have

found the students’ English writing problem in the class. They had low level in

English writing skill. There were some indicators of the problems which could

be explained such follows.

The students had difficulties to write sentences correctly because they

ignore the mechanical writing, punctuation, and the use of capital letter. They

were unconscious that they are very important in writing.


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Most students had limited vocabulary and less understanding on English

sentence patterns and tenses. In fact they were not used to expressing their

ideas and feeling in English. They could not select the appropriate words in

making sentences. They were not able to identify the class word such as noun,

verb, adjective, and adverb. They also had difficulties to write sentences in

correct English sentence patterns. There were many students wrote English

sentences by translating Indonesian sentences to English sentences directly

without understanding the correct English sentence patterns.

The students have been studying English since they were at Elementary

School but they did not understand about English grammar well. So they wrote

in wrong sentences. Most of them also did not have English grammar books.

They studied English grammar by reading their English worksheet books.

The students also had difficulties in organizing the ideas clearly and

supporting details because they very seldom practiced writing text. As a result,

they did not know what they are going to write when the teacher asked them to

write a text. They could not express their ideas and elaborate the main ideas

well. When they are asked to write a text, most of them write a text with

uncomplete and even inappropriate generic structure. For instance: they write a

descriptive text which describes a thing in general instead of a specific one.

The student were not able to organize ideas clearly, they write text

Next, I observed the teaching learning process at XI TKJ 2 class was not

alive. The description of the teaching and learning English is as follows:

· In teaching and learning English for the students of XI TKJ 2 class at SMK

PGRI 6 Ngawi, most of the teachers including me were used to applying


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monotonous technique. We usually taught our students using the material

printed on the students’ handbooks, even though we also presented it

through LCD and laptop in the class.

· Listening lesson was usually taught using tape recorder because SMK

PGRI 6 Ngawi has not had a language laboratory yet. By using tape

recorded, the students could not listen to the topic perfectly.

· The speaking lesson was usually started by reading the dialog or monolog

presented in LKS and then followed by translation activity. The dialog or

monolog was translated into Indonesian. Then, the teacher asked the

students to practice similar monolog or dialog in front of class.

· The reading lesson was usually started by reading a text presented in LKS

and followed by translation activity. The teacher asked the students to

answer the questions based on the text. Then the teacher together with the

students discussed the correct answers.

· The writing lesson was usually started by reading the example of the texts

presented in LKS, and then discussed the generic structure of the text. the

teacher also asked the students to arrange the jumble words or sentences

into good order presented in LKS. The teacher very seldom asked the

students to write a text so that the students were not accustomed to

expressing their ideas.

· Besides, the inputs of SMK PGRI 6 Ngawi based on the selected students

when they were accepted at SMK PGRI 6 Ngawi were low scores. Their


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scores of final examination at Junior High School were low especially on

English subject.

Viewing the situation prior to the research, I concluded and believed that

the students mostly had difficulties in mastering English writing skill.

Therefore, I would like to help them by giving a solution. The solution I am

going to conduct an action research by using e-mail to improve students’

writing skill.

c. Planning Activities Using E-Mail in Teaching Writing

In planning activities of the research, I and my collaborator planned the

preliminary observation. There were some activities included in the

preliminary observation such as observing the teaching and learning process by

interviewing the teacher, interviewing the students, and distributing

questionnaire to the students. In interviewing the teacher, the researcher asked

the English teacher about her activities in the teaching and learning process to

see the weaknesses that appeared along the process. The researcher also

interviewed some students in order to get information about: (1) their opinion

about the teaching and learning process, (2) their interests in writing skill, and

(3) their problems in writing skill.

Then, I and my collaborator prepared and designed pre-test. The pre-

test was conducted on October 26th 2010. The topic for pre-test was writing a

descriptive text which entitled “My Idol”. Students were scored for their

writing skill including writing aspects such as punctuation and capital letters,

vocabularies, grammar, supporting details, and organizing ideas. Both the


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researcher and collaborator would score students together by using the same

scoring rubric consisting of the five writing aspects above. The maximum

score for each aspect was 4 and the minimum of score was 1. The total score

was 20. The student’ writing score was got by dividing the achieved score

(students’ score) with the maximum score and multiplied by 100 percent.

The researcher and collaborator prepared and designed the treatment

consisting of two cycles with 4 meetings in each. The preparation covered the

teaching materials, lesson plans, devises in providing e-mail such as modem,

Wi-Fi or hot spot area, and scoring rubric for post-test. The topic of Cycle 1

was descriptive text. To observe the treatment of Cycle 1, I and my

collaborator wrote the students’ activities and the teacher’s activities in the

field note and researcher’s diary to find the strengths and weaknesses to plan

and design Cycle 2. The observation was also to see the improvement in

students’ writing skill and in class situation due to the use of e-mail in

teaching writing.

I also prepared a list of activities dealing with utilizing e-mail in

teaching and learning of writing. The activities carried out by using e-mail

covered those belonging to the writing aspects and the indicators of

implementing the activities in Cycle 1. The overall description of the activities

in teaching writing using e-mail can be summarized in Table 4.4.


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Table 4.4 The Overall Description of the Activities in Teaching Writing Using

E-Mail

No Activities Objectives Indicators Cycle/ Meeting

1 Students (in group) are asked to find the example of descriptive text taken from internet and send it to the researcher’s e-mail

To involve students in teaching-learning process more actively

B1, B2, B3, B4, B5

Pre-meeting

2 Students are presented the learning materials by using e-mail trough computer and LCD about the generic structure, language feature, and the purpose of descriptive texts, how to organize ideas logically, coherently and sentence pattern of present tense.

- To attract students’ attention

- to enable them to understand the material given well

A3, A4, A5, B1, B3, B4

Cycle I/ Meeting 1

3 Students are explained about the writing mechanic, how to select appropriate words, and how to find the meaning, synonym or antonym of the words on computer especially when they do their task through e-mail

To improve students’ vocabulary mastery and their understanding of writing mechanic

A1, A2, B1, B3, B4

Cycle I/ Meeting 1

4 Provide students the examples of descriptive texts taken from their tasks which are sent via e-mail.

To make students are familiar with some models of descriptive texts

B1, B2, B3, B4, B5

Cycle I/ Meeting 2

5 After reading the example of the texts from her e-mail, students are asked to discuss the difficult words, and find out the meaning of the words

To improve their vocabularies

A2, B1, B2, B3, B4, B5

Cycle I/ Meeting 2

6 Based on the descriptive texts from her e-mail, students are asked to discuss the content of the texts, find the main ideas and supporting details of each paragraph

Students are able to identify the content of texts

A3, A4, B1, B3, B4, B5

Cycle I/ Meeting 2

7 Divide the students into group of four to do the project using e-mail

To involve students in teaching-learning process more actively

B1, B2, B3, B4, B5

Cycle I/ Meeting 2

8 Give students projects using e-mail and tell them the rule ones

To attract students’ attention and involvement to have practices

B1, B2, B3, B4, B5

Cycle I/ Meeting 3

9 Provides some examples of descriptive texts and exercises to their e-mails (in group)

Students are able to do their tasks via e-mail

B1, B2, B3, B4, B5

Cycle I/ Meeting 3


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10 Based on their projects on their e-mails, students find the difficult words and their meaning

To improve students’ vocabularies mastery

A2, B1, B2, B3, B4, B5

Cycle I/ Meeting 3

11 Based on their projects on their e-mails, students identify the main idea and supporting details of each paragraph

To enable students to identify the generic structure, language feature, and the purpose of kinds of texts

A4, B1, B2, B3, B4, B5

Cycle I/ Meeting 3

12 Provide students jumble words and ask them to arrange a sentence correctly on their e-mails

To enable students to make sentences correctly

A3, B1, B2, B3, B4, B5

Cycle I/ Meeting 3

13 Provide students jumble sentences and ask them to arrange a paragraph logically on their e-mails

To enable students to develop ideas logically

A4, B1, B2, B3, B4, B5

Cycle I/ Meeting 3

14 After finishing the project, students (in group) send theirs to another group and the researcher via e-mail

To enable students to share and learn the tasks

B1, B2, B3, B4, B5

Cycle I/ Meeting 4

15 Each group discuss another group’s tasks and give marks or comments on their tasks and send it back on their e-mail in order to be revised

Students learn and share their ideas with their friends

A3, A4, B1, B2, B3, B4, B5

Cycle I/ Meeting 4

16 The researcher also gives marks or comment to their tasks and send them back on their e-mail

Students know their texts which should be revised

B1, B2, B3, B4, B5

Cycle I/ Meeting 4

17 Each group should revise the task and send it back to another group and the researcher through e-mail

To improve their knowledge in developing ideas

A3, A4, B1, B2, B3, B4, B5

Cycle I/ Meeting 4

18 The researcher examines their task on her e-mail and publishes the best task in the classroom.

To motivate students to write text better

B1, B2, B3, B4, B5

Cycle I/ Meeting 4

19 Students are provided some topics and requirements which should be paid during writing a descriptive text sent trough their e-mails.

To enable students to work individually

A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, B1, B2, B3, B4, B5

Cycle I/ Meeting 4

20 Students are asked to make a descriptive text by choosing one of the topics and let them browse other examples of descriptive texts as references on internet while they open their e-mail, then submit them to the researcher via e-mail

- Enable students to express their ideas and improve their knowledge of developing ideas individually

- To inspire students to write texts better

A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, B1, B2, B3, B4, B5

Cycle I/ Meeting 4

21 The researcher examines their writing texts and publishes the best ones

Students are motivated to write texts better

B1, B2, B3, B4, B5

Cycle I/ Meeting 4

22 Students are presented the learning materials by using e-mail trough computer and LCD about the

To involve students in teaching-learning

A1, A3, A4, A5, B1, B3, B4

Cycle II/ Meeting 1


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generic structure, language feature, and the purpose of procedure texts, and how to organize ideas logically, coherently

process more actively

23 The researcher repeats steps 4-6 (using procedure text)

To make students are familiar with some models of procedure texts and improve their vocabularies

A2, B1, B2, B3, B4, B5

Cycle II/ Meeting 1

24 Students (in group) are provided jumble sentences to arrange into good paragraph on their e-mails

To enable students to develop ideas logically

A3, A4, B1, B2, B3, B4, B5

Cycle II/ Meeting 2

25 The researcher repeats steps 14, 15, 17, 18

Enable students to improve their knowledge in developing ideas and share their ideas

A3, A4, A5, B1, B2, B3, B4, B5

Cycle II/ Meeting 3

26 The researcher repeats steps 19, 20, 21 (using procedure text)

- Enable students to express their ideas and improve their knowledge of developing ideas individually

- To inspire and motivate students to write texts better

A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, B1, B2, B3, B4, B5

Cycle II/ Meeting 4

d. Designing Lesson Plan

A lesson plan is teacher’s detailed description of the course of instruction

for one class. A daily lesson plan is developed by a teacher to guide class

instruction. The main function of the lesson plan is to ensure that teachers are

following the correct curriculum and that each class will be exposed to the data a

timely and efficient manner. When the lesson plan is prepare properly, it provides

the teacher with the opportunity to plan learning modules and strategies in

advance, so that the material in question will be covered effectively.

According to Hammer (2004: 308-309), there are four main elements to

consider such as: (1) activities that will be carried out by a teacher and the

students in class; (2) skills of language that the teacher intends to develop upon his


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students; (3) the language that the teacher introduces to the students to learn, to

practice and to use; (4) content that will attract learners to get involved in the

teaching and learning process. In addition, Brown (2001: 149-151) states that a

lesson plan consists of six essential elements such as goal, objectives, materials

and equipment, procedures, evaluation, and extra-class work.

Both the researcher and collaborator shared ideas and discussed the

lesson plan of Cycle 1 which contained the important elements of the teaching of

writing. The teacher and collaborator focused their attention on how they could

design, manage, and apply the important elements in the lesson plan in the

teaching of writing in order to increase the students’ writing skill. Both the

researcher and collaborator planned to work together to implement the plans in the

teaching of writing. The teacher and collaborator’s preparation of the lesson plan

can be summarized in Table 4.5.


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Table 4.5. Preparation of the Lesson Plan in Cycle 1

No

Points Description

1. Goal or competence standard

- mproving students’ writing skill

- Writing short message, instructions, and list using appropriate vocabulary, punctuation, spelling, and capital letter correctly. 2. Indicato

rs -

dentify the language feature of the descriptive text correctly. -

dentify the generic structure of the descriptive text correctly. -

dentify the simple present tense in descriptive text correctly. -

se the simple present tense in a sentence correctly. -

se appropriate vocabulary in making sentence. -

3. Learning

Materials

- Definition and purpose of descriptive text - Language feature, generic structure of descriptive text - Vocabularies related to the descriptive text - The simple present tense

4. Method/ technique

- Genre based approach

5. Teaching and Learning Scenario

- Opening the class - Main activities - Closing the class

6. Media

- E-mail - Computer and LCD

7. Source

of the teaching of writing

- Understanding and using English Grammar by Betty Schrampfer Azar - Students’ worksheet entitled “LKS Bahasa Inggris’ by Pustaka publisher - Authentic material of descriptive text taken from internet


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2. Research Implementation

The overall implementation of the research can be summarized in the Table 4.6.

Table 4.6. The overall Implementation of the Action Research

Pre-Research

Activity Participant Purpose

Observation

- Students - Teaching and learning

activities - Teacher

To watch and record the activity

Interview - Students - Collaborator

To identify thought of the participants in face to face interaction

Questionnaire - Students - Collaborator

To explore the reason why writing is difficult To explore the techniques of teaching writing

Test - Students To get information about the achievement before action

Cycle 1

Planning Design a plan about what kind of action will be carried out and prepare everything dealing with the action research requirements such as the material that is going to be taught, make lesson plans, prepare some device (Wi-Fi or hot spot and modem) to connect the computer to the internet access, prepare teaching aid and test instruments, etc.

Action

Meeting 1 - Carrying out the lesson plan in the classroom consists of three stages, namely;

opening the class, main activity (which consists of building knowledge of text, modeling of text, joint construction of text, and independent construction of text) , and closing the class.

Meeting 2 - Giving the example of descriptive text through LCD - Explaining the mechanical writing, punctuation and the use of

capital letter - Asking the students to analyze the difficult words and find the

meaning of the words based on the text given - Discussing the main ideas, supporting details, and vocabularies

based on the text given - Dividing the student into a group of four - Sending a project to each group via e-mail Meeting 3 - Discussing the project sent by e-mail - Pointing a group to perform their project in front of class. - Discussing their project to find the correct answers - Giving other project to each group via e-mail

Meeting 4 - Pointing a group to perform their project in front of class - Discussing the project to find out the correct answers - Giving a project to write a descriptive text individually and asking them to send it

via e-mail


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Observation

Observing the change and improvement on the followings Indicator A: The students’ writing skill Indicator B: Class situation

Reflection

Reflecting the result of the observation which covers what have or have not changed and improved as the follows. (+) Strengths: (-) Weaknesses:

Cycle 2

Planning

Optimizing the plan about what kind of action will be carried out and prepare everything dealing with the action research requirements such as the material that is going to be taught, make lesson plans, prepare some device (Wi-Fi or hot spot and modem) to connect the computer to the internet access, prepare teaching aid and test instruments, etc.

Action


opening the class, main activity (which consists of building knowledge of text, modeling of text, joint construction of text, and independent construction of text) , and closing the class.

Meeting 2 - Giving the example of procedure text through LCD - Asking the students to analyze the difficult words and find the

meaning of the words based on the text given - Discussing and practicing the task given in group Meeting 3 - Discussing the project sent by e-mail - Pointing a group to perform their project in front of class. - Discussing their project to find the correct answers - Giving other project to each group via e-mail

Meeting 4 - Pointing a group to perform their project in front of class - Discussing the project to find out the correct answers - Giving a project to write a procedure text individually and asking them to send it

via e-mail Observation

Observing the change and improvement on the followings Indicator A: The students’ writing skill Indicator B: Class situation

Reflection

Reflecting the result of the observation which covers what have or have not changed and improved as the follows. (+) Strengths (-) Weaknesses

Summary of the research


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a. Cycle 1

First of all, it is necessary to inform important activities that were

done before implementing Cycle 1. A week before the research, I had divided

the class which consists of 41 students into ten groups. Each group consisted

of four students, only a group which consisted of five students. The

researcher appointed a student as a leader for each group.

I explained the task to the students. Each group had to find out at

least an example of descriptive text on internet and send it to the researcher

via e-mail within three days. Each group also had to print out their

assignment and submit it to the researcher.

In Cycle 1, I did a set of activities which consisted of namely

planning the action, implementing the action which included four meetings in

which each meeting consisted of opening the class, main activities (which

included building of knowledge, giving example of text, joint constructions

and independent construction), and the last closing the class. The summary of

the implementation of Cycle 1 could be seen in Table

The overall implementation of the research Cycle 1 can be summarized in

Table 4.7.


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Table 4.7. The Summary of the Implementation of Cycle 1

Cycle 1

Planning

Design a plan about what kind of action will be carried out and prepare everything dealing with the action research requirements such as the material that is going to be taught, make lesson plans, prepare some device (Wi-Fi or hot spot and modem) to connect the computer to the internet access, prepare teaching aid and test instruments, etc.

Action


opening the class (which consists of building knowledge of text, modeling of text, joint construction of text, and independent construction of text), and closing the class

- Presenting the material about the definition and purpose, the generic structure, the language feature of descriptive text, and pattern of simple present tense

- Giving some examples of the descriptive text - Analyzing and discussing the generic structure and the language feature of

descriptive text

Meeting 2 - Giving the example of descriptive text through LCD - Explaining the mechanical writing, punctuation and the use of

capital letter - Asking the students to analyze the difficult words and find the

meaning of the words based on the text given - Discussing the main ideas, supporting details, and vocabularies

based on the text given - Dividing the student into a group of four - Sending a project to each group via e-mail Meeting 3 - Discussing the project sent by e-mail (Find the difficult words and look up the

meaning of the words, identify the main ideas, and supporting details for each paragraph).

- Pointing a group to perform their project in front of class. - Discussing their project to find the correct answers - Giving other project to each group via e-mail

Meeting 4 - Pointing a group to perform their project in front of class - Discussing the project to find out the correct answers - Giving a project to write a descriptive text individually and asking them to send it

via e-mail (Instruction: Write a descriptive text telling about your family. Tell in detail about everything in your family)

Observation

Observing the change and improvement on the followings Indicator A: The students’ writing skill

1. Students paid more attention to the use of punctuation, capital letter, and the mechanical writing.

2. Some of students can choose appropriate words in making sentences 3. Some students understood in making sentences grammatically


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4. Most of students can elaborate the main ideas detail 5. Most of students can organize the ideas clearly

Indicator B: Class situation 1. Students’ participation were improved, alive, and enjoyable 2. Few students asked for permission to go to the bathroom 3. Teacher could handle class well.

Reflection

Reflecting the result of the observation which covers what have or have not changed and improved as the follows. (+) Strengths: - E-mail improves students’ writing skill - Students’ writings are better grammatically - Students’ writings are better on selecting the words in sentences - Students’ writings are better on supporting details and organizing the main ideas - E-mail encourages the students to do their project - Students who were active can express their ideas freely

(-) Weaknesses: - Students spend their money to go the internet café - E-mail cannot share together with others - The teacher sometimes is late to open students’ e-mail

1) Planning the Action

Based on the problem and the causes mentioned above, I decided to

arrange general planning. I implemented utilizing e-mail to improve students’

writing skill, because it is a teaching technique which is able to develop writing

skill, promote interaction among the students and teacher either inside or

outside the class, and increase the students’ learning motivation in improving

their writing achievement.

For the first cycle, the topic was descriptive text. I and my collaborator

prepared the material, instrument, and the lesson plan dealing with the topic as

well as possible. I planned four meetings in Cycle 1. The planning of students’

activities and the purposes in Cycle 1 could be seen in Table 4.4.


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2) Implementing the Action

In implementing the action, I divided the action into three terms,

namely; opening the class, main activity, and closing the class. These three

terms conducted in 400 minutes which was divided into four meetings, all of

the meetings for action, test in Cycle 1 was conducted outside the class as a

project. It was sent by e-mail. The meetings were carried out twice a week, 120

minutes on Tuesday and 80 minutes on Saturday.

In this case, I, the researcher asked my friend as my collaborator to

observe my teaching to the students using e-mail. The lesson plan and the

material dealing with the topic had been discussed and comprehended by both

of us before implementing the action.

a) First Meeting was held on Tuesday, December 14th, 2010

In this part the teacher did a set of activities dealing with the teaching

learning process as mentioned before. Among of them were as the following,

opening the class (warming up); main activities (presenting the material, giving

example of the text, discussing and practicing the task given); closing the class.

For the detail information will be explained in the following parts.

(1) Opening the Class (Warming up)

It was a nice day to start the research activities in the class. The

English lesson started at 07.00 a.m. That was the best time to conduct the

teaching and learning process because either the teacher or the students

was in fresh condition.


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I and my collaborator teacher entered the classroom. The

collaborator teacher went directly to take a seat in middle back row behind

the students. She would like to observe every activity going on in the class.

I swept my eyes to all of them, while I took a seat on the teacher’s desk.

After praying together, I greeted the students friendly and they

replied eagerly. I checked the attendance one by one by calling their

names. Fortunately, in the first meeting, all of the students were present.

They were 41 students, consisting of 36 female students and 5 male ones.

They knew that I would begin the research activities in the class

that day. I informed them after doing writing pre-test previously. My

collaborator teacher greeted and told her role in the research. Happily, they

gave good response toward the research activities. It could be seen from

the way they welcome her. They behaved politely and nicely when the

teacher greeted them. Then I said, “Thank you very much for your good

response toward this research. I hope we can join to hold this research so

that it will run out well. Do you agree to join with us in this research?”

The students answered, “Yes, I agree.” Thanks, it encouraged me to

conduct the research in XI TKJ 2 class successfully.

(2) Main Activities

In this part, I told the students the topic they were going to learn

that day using e-mail as the teaching and learning technique. It was

“Descriptive Text”. I presented the learning materials by using e-mail


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through computer and LCD about the generic structure, language feature,

and the purpose of descriptive texts, how to organize ideas logically, and

sentence pattern of present tense. Most of them listened and paid attention

to my presentation well.

Furthermore, I provided the students the examples of descriptive

text taken from their assignments before and read it clearly. I appointed

one of student randomly to read the text loudly. Then I asked them to

analyze it about the generic structure, the main idea and supporting

sentences of each paragraph. We discussed them to find out the correct

answers.

Based on the examples of the description text given, I explained

the mechanical writing, the use of punctuation, and capital letter. To make

it clearly, I gave some sentences from the descriptive text. In this case, I

provided two examples of descriptive text to know kinds of mechanical

writing. I also told them how to select appropriate words, and how to find

the meaning, synonym or antonym of the words electronically on

computer especially when they do their assignments through e-mail.

Next further, I asked the students to underline the difficult words

from the descriptive text which I mentioned. I assigned them individually

to find out the meaning of the words and discuss them for the next

meeting.


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(3) Closing the Class

Having finished all the activities on that day, I ended the class by

making conclusion of that meeting and saying tanks to the students for

joining the class actively. I hoped so much that the students could apply

their English writing skill properly. I also reminded them to do their task

for discussing the next meeting. Finally, I said, “Good bye, see you next

meeting and good luck.” And all the students answered enthusiastically,

“Good bye, see you, thank you.”

b) Second Meeting was held on Saturday, December 18th, 2010

In this section, I hoped all the students have done their assignments.


What I did in this part was little bit different from the first

meeting, because in second meeting there was only 80 minutes and the

English lesson began on fifth period at 10.00 a.m.

I greeted the students friendly and they replied eagerly. I checked

the attendance by asking who was absent. Fortunately, in the second

meeting, all of the students were present. To refresh their mind, I asked

them what activities have been done before. Then I said, “Are you ready to

study English? Have you done your homework?” They replied, “Ready

Mom. Sudah Bu!”


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(2) Main Activities

We discussed the assignments by asking the students to write the

meaning of the words on the white board in each turn. Having finished

writing all the words, we discussed to find out the best answers

contextually. The words were as follows.


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- temple

- build

- century

- dynasty

- ancient

- kingdom

- well-known

- its construction

- influenced

- architecture

- constructed

- a hill

- consist of

- stone terrace

- square

- surrounded

- adorned

- sculpture

- bas-relief

- circular each

- bell shape-stupa

- entire

- edifice

- crowned by

- centre

- summit

- extends

- through

- passage

- stairways

- symbolizes

- universe

- rededicated

- valuable

- treasure

The best answers were found out by asking the students whether the

answers written on the white board were appropriate on the sentences. If the

students’ answers were not appropriate, the teacher offered the other answers.

After all the words written on the white board, we discussed to find out the best

answers, the students made correction to theirs.


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The teacher explained the instruction for the next assignment which

would be sent via e-mail to each group. Their assignment was making a

descriptive text in group which entitled “My House”. The result of their

assignments had to send via e-mail to the teacher’s e-mail address in 4 days and

they would be discussed for the next meeting.



making conclusion of that meeting and saying tanks to the students for joining

the class actively. I really hoped that the students understood what they had

learnt that day so they could make a descriptive text well. I also reminded them

to send their task to the teacher’s e-mail address soon. As usual, before leaving

the class, I said, “Good bye, see you next meeting and good luck.” And all the

students answered enthusiastically, “Good bye, see you, thank you.”

c) Third Meeting was held on Tuesday, December 21st, 2010

In this section, I had prepared their assignments which were sent to my e-

mail. I saved their writing descriptive texts on my laptop and I would present one of

their assignments through LDC to be discussed together.


It was a nice day to start the teaching and learning activities in the class.

The English lesson started at 07.00 a.m. That was the best time to conduct the


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teaching and learning process because either the teacher or the students was in

fresh condition.

What I did in this section was not quite different from the activities in

the second meeting. I greeted the students friendly and they replied eagerly.

“Good morning class? How are you today?” They answered, “Good morning, I

am fine and you?” I replied, “Pretty good. Who is absent now?” I checked the

students’ attendance. Fortunately, in the third meeting, all of the students were

present. I said to the students thank to send their assignments to my e-mail. It

encouraged me to teach them as well as possible.

(2) Main Activities

I presented one of their writing descriptive texts on a slide through

LCD. It was Nanda’s group. I asked Nanda to read it loudly. Then, we discussed

it by analyzing the main ideas and supporting details of each paragraph, the

generic structure, grammar, vocabularies, and the mechanical writing. In

general, it was quite good but most of the sentences were simple. There were

ungrammatical sentences. The teacher made correction to the descriptive text.

Nanda’s assignment could be seen in Table 4.8 bellow.

Table 4.8 Students’ Assignments

Nanda’s

group

Our House

Our house is a wooden house. There is a small garden around it. There is a brick wall around the garden and there is a gate in the wall.

We like our house very much. There is a living-room and there are three bedroom. There is also a kitchen and a bathroom.

At one end of the living-room there is a table and six chairs. At the other end of the room there are some big chairs. There is also a television set.

My bedroom is small. There is a bed, a desk and a chair next to the window. There are a few books on top of the desk. The walls are white and the curtains are orange. There is a mat on the floor and there


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are some pictures and photographs on the. There is a mirror on the door.

Next step was the teacher provided some jumble words on the

slide, and asked each group to arrange into good sentences. The teacher

appointed some students to show their work on the white board and

discussed them to get the correct answers. To know their understanding in

building a paragraph, the teacher also provided some jumble sentences on

the slide and asked them to arrange into good paragraph. Each group

discussed it then some students presented the result by writing on the

white board. The teacher and all of the students discussed the result to find

out the correct answer.

For enrichment about the material given in this part, the teacher

gave the students project which would be sent to each group via e-mail.

The project given was provided in Table 4.9 bellow.

Table 4.9 The Project for Each Group

Arrange the jumble

words into good

sentence

1. the famous - is - Bandengan Beach - Jepara – or - Tirta Samudra Beach - in

- beach 2. very - The place - beautiful - is – romantic - and 3. place -Jepara - People - Kudus – knows - around – this – Demak 4. Jepara - 7 kilometers - center - This place - city - is - north - of - located 5. very - The way - there - to is - easy - get 6. it - traffic - you - Just - sign - follow - the - will - and - find 7. follow - From - Bangsri - the town - when - the road - square,- turn - to then

- reached - left - Kuwasen village. 8. transportation - You - take - own vehicle - can - public - or - by your 9. good - The white – sandy – which – beach – is - has – water – pure -

swimming for 10. beautiful – or - see - friends – We – can – with - the sunset - our family

Arrange the

jumble sentences into good

a. Each of them is with a circle of bell shape-stupa. b. The design of Borobudur which symbolizes the structure of universe

influences temples at Angkor, Cambodia.


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paragraph c. The temple is constructed on a hill 46 m high and consists of eight steps like stone terrace.

d. The entire edifice is crowned by a large stupa at the centre at the centre of the top circle.

e. The way to the summit extends through some 4.8 km of passage and stairways.

f. The first five terraces are square and surrounded by walls adorned with Buddhist sculpture in bas-relief.

g. The upper three are circular. Borobudur is well-known all over the world.

h. Its construction is influenced by the Gupta architecture of India.


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Having finished all the activities on that day, I closed the class by

making conclusion of that meeting and saying thank to the students for

joining the class actively. I really hoped that the students understood what

they had learnt that day so they could apply it in writing descriptive text

well. I also reminded them to send their task to the teacher’s e-mail

address soon. As usual, before leaving the class, I said, “Good bye, see you

next meeting and good luck.” And all the students answered

enthusiastically, “Good bye, see you, thank you.”

d) Fourth meeting was held on Saturday, December 25th, 2010

Continuing the previous meeting, in this part, I had prepared their

assignments which were sent to my e-mail. I saved their writing descriptive

texts on my laptop and I would present one of their assignments through LDC

to be discussed together.


It was a nice day to continue the teaching and learning activities

in the class. The English lesson started on fifth period at 10.00 a.m and

finished at11.30 a.m. The students were still eager to join teaching and

learning process because it was Saturday.

What I did in this part was not quite different from the activities

in the previous meeting. I greeted the students friendly and they replied


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eagerly. “Good morning class? How are you today?” They answered,

“Good morning, I am fine and you?” I replied, “Very well. Who is absent

now?” I checked the students’ attendance. Luckily, in the last meeting for

Cycle 1, all of the students were present. Suddenly, some students asked

me in Indonesian,”Bu, e-mail saya sudah nyampe?” “Sudah,” I replied. I

said to them really thank to send their assignments to my e-mail. It


(2) Main Activities

I presented one of their assignments on a slide through LCD. It

was Hesti’s group. There were still some sentences incorrect orders. I

offered the students to make it correction by writing down on the white

board. Nanda as a first volunteer came forward and did a correction to a

sentence. Then I stimulated others to follow Nanda’s action by saying,

“It’s Okay, just come forward, don’t be afraid making a mistake. It will be

useful for your experience in getting the valuable knowledge.”

I was successful; PA came forward to correct a sentence. I

appreciated her, and said, “Very good, any else? Okay, let’s discuss it.”

Fortunately, all the sentences had been good order.

I continued to the jumble paragraph, I asked one of student to

read it loudly. I asked all the students whether it was good order. Some

students said, “Betul, Bu.” Then I said, “Okay, let’s discuss together.” We

checked one by one sentence, and it was indeed in good paragraph. Many


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students asked me time to make a note based on the correct answers on the

slide, while I went around them

After having finished, I told the students a project done

individually. It was writing a descriptive text which entitled “My Family”.

I explained the points which were required in doing it. The writing had to

be sent to the teacher’s e-mail address within a week. Then the teacher

made correction theirs by marking improper sentences with the red colour,

then sent back them.

In doing the project, the students should pay attention to the

following terms; (1) the use of punctuation, capital letter, and mechanical

writing; (2) vocabularies; (3) grammar; (4) supporting details; and (5)

organizing the content.




joining the class actively. I really hoped that all the students understood

what they had learnt that day so they could apply it in writing a descriptive

text well. I also reminded them to send their project to the teacher’s e-mail





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3) Observation

Observation is very important to be done because it can be used as one

of the indicators to know students’ progress of the implementation. It was done

by the researcher during the implementation of the action while students were

doing their activities.

By observing the teaching and learning process in the first cycle, I can

see how far the effectiveness of teaching related to the approach and technique

I am using. In this part I would like to describe what I have observed for the

teaching and learning process which was on going at every meeting.

In the first meeting observation, I observed my activities in teaching

and learning process was on going in the class. It was focused on presenting

the material about the definition and purpose, the generic structure, the

language feature of descriptive text, and pattern of simple present tense. After

that I provided some examples of the descriptive text taken from the students’

assignment which were sent via e-mail in pre-meeting to analyze and discuss

the generic structure and the language feature of descriptive text.

When I presented the materials, most of the students seemed to pay

attention seriously. I sometimes involved them interact the material I presented.

When explaining the materials, I did not stay in front of the class but I often he

material moved on from one place to another. My voice was quite loud and

clear to be caught up by the students. It enabled them to understand my

explanation.


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The students joined my presentation of the material well. They were

quiet, although there were still some students who made a little conversation. I

sometimes reminded them by calling their name that did not pay attention to

my presentation. Meanwhile, when I offered a chance to ask any difficulties

dealing with the materials given, there was not student who asked me.

The second meeting was giving the example of descriptive text

through LCD. Based on the example, I explained the mechanical writing,

punctuation and the use of capital letter. The students were also asked to

analyze the difficult words and found the meaning of the words, discuss the

main ideas, and supporting details based on the text given. In the previous, I

divided the students into a group of four then I sent a project to each group via

e-mail.

When the teacher gave the example of the descriptive text and asked

them to discuss it, the students did it enthusiastically, but there were still few

students who talked each other. Besides, there were also few students who

asked me for permission to go to the bath room. Meanwhile, there were some

students who were active and enthusiastic to discuss the descriptive text. They

talked to each other but the topic they were talking about related to the

materials given. So the class situation was under control well.

In the third meeting, the students were asked to discuss the project

sent by e-mail. I pointed a group to perform their project in front of class. After

that I and the students discussed their project to find the correct answers. At the


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end of meeting I gave other project to each group via e-mail to write a

descriptive text in group and asked them to send it via e-mail within three days.

The fourth meeting was pointing a group to perform their project in

front of class, and then discussing the project to analyze their writing

descriptive whether or not it has been correct. After analyzing the text, I gave a

project to write a descriptive text individually and asking them to send it via e-

mail. The instruction was “Write a descriptive text telling about your family.

Tell in detail about everything in your family.”

As the result when the teacher gave them the project sent via e-mail,

most of the students asked me eagerly, “Bu e-mail saya sudah sampe?”

Whereas I have not checked my e-mail yet, and it meant that the students’

motivation to write a descriptive text improved. One thing that made me so

excited was some student brought their own notebooks or laptops in the

classroom and when the teacher asked them to discuss, they did it by using their

own notebooks.

4) Reflection

From the pre-test and test in Cycle 1 given to the students showed the

improvement of students’ writing skill. The result of the action can be seen in

appendix (Transcript of Each Element in Pre-test and Test in Cycle 1) the

general result of the change and improvement of the students’ writing skill

could be seen in Chart 4.1.


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Chart 4.1. The Average Score in the Pre-test and Post-test of Cycle I.

a) The Strengths

Based on the result of the pre-test and test in cycle 1, it could be

concluded that the students have made improvement in their writing skill,

especially in (1) the use of punctuation, capital letter; (2) vocabularies; (3)

grammar; (4) supporting details; and (5) organizing ideas. These

improvements were influenced by utilizing e-mail in teaching and learning

of writing process.

By using e-mail, the students are motivated and encouraged to do

their assignments. In doing the task they had to type on the computer first

before sending it via e-mail. While they were typing a text, they could

check the punctuation and capital letter on it. It could improve their

knowledge in the use in punctuation and capital letter gradually. It was


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proven by the result of the test in Cycle 1 that the average score of the use

of punctuation and capital letter improved from 43.29 became 62.50.

In improving vocabulary, the teacher could present some new

words from the authentic material of descriptive text taken from internet

which sent via e-mail by the students as their assignment in the previous

meeting. Then, the students were asked to find the meaning of the

unknown words by themselves. More descriptive text they found, more

vocabularies they got. As the result, the average score of vocabulary

improved from 48.78 in pre-test became 64.63 in test Cycle 1.

In improving the knowledge of grammar, it was done by paying

attention to the teacher explanation and doing more practices in making

sentences. By sending message via e-mail even it was just simple sentence

in English, it meant that students had practiced to improve their grammar

gradually. That is why the researcher sent and received the project just

through e-mail; it was intended to encourage students to express their

ideas.

Through e-mail, students could express their feeling and ideas

freely with better atmosphere. In other word, they could elaborate the

ideas clearly by practicing writing a text more and more. In fact, the

average score of all writing aspects were improved. For more detail the

comparison of the average score in pre-test and test in Cycle 1 could be

seen in Table 4.10.


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Table 4.10. The Comparison of the Average Score in Pre-test and test in

Cycle 1

Description Punctuation Vocabulary Grammar Supporting Detail Organization Final Score

Pre-test 43.29 48.78 31.71 57.32 47.56 45.73

Post-test I 62.50 64.63 49.09 76.83 77.13 66.04

In addition, the students were encouraged to do their assignments

in writing a descriptive text sent via e-mail. They finished their project

freely and enjoyably outside the class not as usual, they did their task in

the class with the limited time given by the teacher. Besides, the students

who did not pay full attention to the teacher’s explanation had changed not

to do the same thing.

The students who often talked with others during the lesson

became less. They talked with others but the topic discussed related to the

topic given when they had to discuss their task in group. Students who

often asked for permission to go to the bathroom had been decreased.

There were indeed students who asked for permission really to go to the

bathroom.

The other improvement in class situations was the student who

just kept silent when the teacher asked to make questions related to the

material given, they began to have courage and willingness to ask and

respond to the teacher’s explanation though not as hoped. Based on the


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result of the research findings in the end of Cycle 1, it could be

summarized the change and improvement in Table 4.11.

b) The Weaknesses


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Although e-mail had improved the students’ writing skill in Cycle

1, the researcher and the collaborator still found some weaknesses in

implementing the action. From the observation, the collaborator found that

not all of the students took a part of the action actively. Some of them were

not active like the other ones. It was proven by their assignments sent via

e-mail; there were four students who were late to send their assignments,

so the researcher had to remind them to send them soon. In this case, the

researcher gave them the time to make descriptive text within three days.

Some of the students complained that they spent extra money to

go to internet café. It was reasonable for them who did not have enough

money to pay the rent of the computer. Moreover, when some users

operated the computer which connected to the internet in the same time, it

took much time to loading the process. It meant the user had to pay much

money for renting it. Therefore, the researcher and collaborator gave

courage and motivation to them that the education needs money. Besides,

the researcher also facilitated them by lending the modem to be used

together in the class.

As further information I informed that students who were active

in teaching and learning activities using e-mail got better improvement on

their writing skill. On the contrary, students who were not active in

teaching and learning activities got little improvement on writing skill like

AS and ADW. Both of them did not get improvement on punctuation,

vocabularies, and grammar.


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In writing aspect based on the result, it showed there was

improvement in punctuation, vocabulary, and grammar, but it was not so

high. In Cycle 1, the average scores of punctuation was 62.50, vocabulary

was 64.63, and grammar was 49.09. It was still under the minimum score

of the English lesson was 65. Some of the total students were still not able

to use the punctuation and capital letter correctly, choose the appropriate

words in making sentences, and make sentence grammatically.

Based on the observation, the students were so keen to pay much

attention to developing and organizing the ideas. As the result the students

ignored the use of punctuation and capital letter, the students also did not

choose appropriate words in making sentences. For mastering grammar,

they were still low. Most of the students were not able to make correct

sentences for example in the use of ‘be’ such as ‘is’ ‘are’ and singular-

plural. It needed more time for them to understand the grammar well, so

that the researcher had to repeat the explanation more.

Based on the findings and weaknesses, found in the previous

section, it could be concluded that the students still had problem in writing

skill, especially in punctuation and capital letter, vocabulary, and

grammar. The researcher and the collaborator decided to continue the

research to overcome those problems. The research would be continued to

Cycle 2.

Table 4.11. The Improvement of Students’ Writing Skill and Classroom

Situation Cycle 1


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No.

Writing Skill /

Class Situation

CYCLE 1

Meeting 1 Meeting 2 Meeting 3 Meeting 4

A.1 Punctuation and capital

letter

Many students ignore the use of punctuation and capital letter in writing

Some students pay more attention to the use of punctuation and capital letter and they began to understand the mechanic of writing

More students can apply the use of punctuation and capital letter correctly.

More than 60% students apply the use of capital letter and punctuation correctly

A.2 Vocabulary

Most of students cannot choose the appropriate words contextually and identify word class such as noun, verb, adjective, and adverb

Only some of the high students can identify and select appropriate words in making sentences

Some students can identify and choose appropriate words by looking up the electronic dictionary on the internet

More than 60% students can select appropriate words in writing a descriptive text

A.3 Grammar

Most of students make errors in making a correct sentence

Some of students can arrange the jumble words into good sentence correctly

More students can make correct sentences. Some students still used incorrect tense and auxiliaries in making sentences such as ‘is’ ‘are’ and modal

More than 45% students can make sentences correctly in writing descriptive text

A.4 Supporting details

Most of students cannot make sentences to support the main ideas

Most of students can identify the main idea and the supporting details based on the descriptive text given

Some of students can develop the main ideas by making supporting details in writing descriptive text (in group of four)

More than 75% students can develop the main ideas by making more than three sentences in each paragraph

A.5

Organization

Most of students make errors in organizing their writing

Most of students can identify the generic structure of the descriptive text correctly

Some of students can make a descriptive text by using generic structure systematically (in a group of four)

More than 75% students can write descriptive text by using generic structure systematically

B.1

Students pay little attention to the teacher’s explanation

Students are eager to pay attention to the teacher’s explanation,

Most of students pay more attention to the teacher’s explanation and

Most of students pay full attention to the teacher’s explanation and they are eager to

Only a few students who pay less attention to the teacher’s explanation


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especially the high ones

they do the teacher’s instructions

do the assignments given in a group of four

B.2

Students do not do the homework

Most of students are eager to submit the assignment (in group) which was given before the meeting

Most of students are eager to do the tasks given (in a group of four)

There are two students who bring their own note books to join the lesson and do the tasks given but there are a few students who complain that it need some money to rent a computer in an internet café

More than 90% students do their assignments in writing a descriptive text individually and send them via e-mail

B.3

Students enjoy talking each other

More than 80% students do not talk each other as usual

Students are noisy but under control because they discuss their tasks given

Only a few students are still talk to others

More 90% students do not talk each other during the lesson given

B.4

Students ask for permission to the toilet

There are a few students who ask for permission to the toilet

Only two students who ask for permission to the toilet and it does not take a long time

The students who have finished to do the assignments ask for permission to go to the toilet

If there are students who ask for permission to the toilet, it does not take a long time

B.5

Students are passive

The high students are active to give respond, the middle and low students are passive

Many students are active to give respond and show their tasks to the teacher

More than 50% students are active to answer the questions given

More than 50% students are active and eager to join the lesson


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b. Cycle 2

Based on the reflection in the Cycle 1, the students still encountered

some problem in punctuation, vocabulary, and grammar. The researcher and

the collaborator decided to continue the research to Cycle 2 which covers: (1)

planning; (2) action; (3) observation; and (4) reflection. The summary of the

implementation in Cycle 2 could be seen in Table 4.12.

Table 4.12. The Summary of the Implementation in Cycle 2

CYCLE 2

Planning

Optimizing the plan about what kind of action will be carried out and prepare everything dealing with the action research requirements such as the material that is going to be taught, revise lesson plans, prepare some device (Wi-Fi or hot spot and modem) to connect the computer to the internet access, prepare teaching aid and test instruments, etc.

Action


opening the class, main activities (which consisted of building knowledge of text, modeling of text, joint construction of text, and independent construction of text), and closing the class

- Presenting the material about the definition and purpose, the generic structure, the language feature of procedure text, and pattern of imperative sentence

- Giving some examples of the procedure text - Analyzing and discussing the generic structure and the language feature of

procedure text

Meeting 2 - Giving the example of procedure text through LCD - Re-explaining the students about the mechanical writing,

punctuation and the use of capital letter - Asking the students to analyze the difficult words and find the

meaning of the words based on the text given - Discussing the pattern of the sentence and vocabularies based

on the text given - Sending a project to each group via e-mail Meeting 3 - Discussing the project sent by e-mail (Find the difficult words and look up the

meaning of the words, identify the goal, materials, and steps. - Pointing a group to perform their project in front of class. - Discussing their project to find the correct answers - Giving other project to each group via e-mail


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Meeting 4 - Pointing a group to perform their project in front of class - Discussing the project to find out the correct answers - Giving a project to write a procedure text individually and asking them to send it

via e-mail

Observation

Observing the change and improvement on the followings Indicator A: The students’ writing skill

1. Students paid more attention to the use of punctuation, capital letter, and the mechanical writing

2. Most of students can choose appropriate words in making sentences 3. Fewer students still did not understand in making sentences grammatically 4. Most of students can make supporting detail clearly 5. Most of students can organize writing clearly

Indicator B: Class situation 1. Students’ participation were improved, alive, and enjoyable 2. Researcher was sometimes late to monitor students’ work on her e-mail

Reflection

Reflecting the result of the observation which covers what have or have not changed and improved as the follows. (+) Strengths: E-mail improved students’ writing skill - Most of students used punctuation and capital letter correctly - Few students still selected inappropriate words in making sentence - Some students still made sentences ungrammatically - Most of students can elaborate the main ideas detail - Most of students can organize the main ideas clearly E-mail improved class situation - E-mail encourages the students to do their project - Students who were active can express their ideas freely

(-) Weaknesses: - Students spend their money to go the internet café - E-mail cannot share together with others

1) Planning the Action

The students’ problems in making sentences grammatically were:

using ‘are’, ‘is’, and modals; singular and plural; the problems in selecting

appropriate words in making sentences; and the problems in using punctuation

and capital letter. Based on the problems mentioned above, the researcher and

collaborator decided to plan activities in Cycle 2 which is hoped to be able to

overcome those problems.


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For the second cycle, the topic was procedure text. The researcher and

the collaborator prepared the material, instrument, and the lesson plan dealing

with the topic as well as possible. I planned four meetings in Cycle 2. The

planning of students’ activities and the purposes in Cycle 2 could be seen in

Table 4.4.

To observe the treatment of cycle 2, the researcher and collaborator

wrote the students’ activities and the teacher’s activities in the field note and

researcher’s diary to record the activities, strengths and weaknesses. The

researcher and collaborator also observed the improvement of students’ writing

skill especially in the writing aspects and in the classroom situation due to

utilizing e-mail in the teaching of writing process. The observation was

important to see the students’ progress compared with their achievement in

cycle 1.

Related to the preparation of carrying out Cycle 2, the researcher

and collaborator designed a lesson plan which contained some important

elements which become the base of the researcher to do the whole activities.

The lesson plan was important to direct the teacher and collaborator to do the

research. It contained all preparation and activities that would be implemented

in the research. The important elements of the lesson plan can be seen in Table

4.13.


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Table 4.13. The Preparation of the of the Lesson Plan in Cycle 2

No

Points Description

1. Goal or competence standar

- mproving students’ writing skill

- Writing short message, instructions, and list using appropriate vocabulary, punctuation, spelling, and capital letter 2. Indicat

ors -

dentify the language feature of the procedure text correctly. -

dentify the generic structure of the procedure text correctly. -

dentify the simple present tense and imperative sentences in procedure text correctly.

- se the simple present tense and imperative sentence in making sentence correctly.

- se appropriate vocabulary in making sentence.

- se mechanical writing, punctuation, and capital letter correctly.

-3. Learning

Materials

- Definition and purpose of proceduretext - Language feature, generic structure of procedure text - The use of punctuation and capital letter - Vocabularies related to the procedure text - The simple present tense

4. Method/ technique

- Genre based approach

5. Teaching and Learning Scenario

- Opening the class - Main activities - Closing the class

6. Media

- E-mail - Computer and LCD - Modem or Wi-Fi

7. Source of the teaching of writing

- Understanding and using English Grammar by Betty Schrampfer Azar - Students’ worksheet entitled “LKS Bahasa Inggris’ by Pustaka publisher - Authentic material of procedure text taken from internet

2) Implementing the Action

Based on the planning above, this second cycle was principally not

quite different from the first cycle. I also divided the action into three terms,


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namely; opening the class, main activities, and closing the class. These three

terms conducted in 400 minutes which was divided into four meetings, all of

the meetings for action, post test was conducted outside the class. It was sent

by e-mail. The meetings were carried out twice a week, 120 minutes on

Tuesday and 80 minutes on Saturday. The topic for the second cycle was

“Procedure Text”.

In this case, I, the researcher also asked my friend as my collaborator

to observe my teaching to the students using e-mail. The lesson plan and the

material dealing with the topic had been discussed and comprehended by both

of us before implementing the action.

a) First Meeting was held on Tuesday, February 8th, 2011

In this part the teacher did a set of activities dealing with the teaching

learning process as mentioned before. Among of them were as the following,

opening the class (warming up); main activities (presenting the material, giving

example of the text, discussing and practicing the task given); closing the class.

For the detail information will be explained in the following parts.


It was a nice day to start the research activities of Cycle 2 in the

class. The English lesson started at 07.00 a.m. That was the best time to

conduct the teaching and learning process because either the teacher or the

students was in fresh condition.


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I and my collaborator teacher entered the classroom. I took a seat

on the teacher’s desk while my collaborator teacher took a seat in the back

row. I led the students to pray then, I greeted them friendly and they

replied eagerly. I checked the attendance one by one by calling their

names. Fortunately, in that meeting, all of the students were present. They

were 41 students, consisting of 36 female students and 5 male ones.

(2) Main Activities

In this part, I told the students the topic they were going to learn

that day using e-mail as the teaching and learning technique. It was

“Procedure Text”. I presented the learning materials by using e-mail

through computer and LCD about the generic structure, language feature,

and the purpose of procedure text, how to organize ideas logically, and

sentence pattern of present tense and imperative sentence. Most of them

listened and paid more attention to my presentation.

Furthermore, I provided the students the examples of procedure

text taken from their assignments before and read it clearly. I appointed

one of student randomly to read the text loudly. Then I asked the students

to analyze it about the generic structure and the sentence pattern. We

discussed them to find out the correct answers.

Based on the examples of the procedure text given, I explained

the use of punctuation, and capital letter. To make it clearly, I gave some

sentences from the procedure text. In this case, I provided two examples of


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procedure text. I also told them how to select appropriate words, and how

to find the meaning, synonym or antonym of the words electronically on

computer especially when they do their assignments through e-mail.

Next further, I asked the students to underline the difficult words

from the procedure text which I mentioned. I assigned them individually to

find out the meaning of the words and discuss them for the next meeting.




joining the class actively. I hoped so much that the students could apply

their English writing skill properly. I also reminded them to do their task

for discussing the next meeting. Finally, I said, “Good bye, see you next

meeting and good luck.” And all the students answered enthusiastically,

“Good bye, see you, thank you.”

b) Second Meeting was held on Saturday, February 12th, 2011

In this section, I hoped all the students have done their assignments.


What I did in this part was little bit different from the first

meeting, because in second meeting there was only 80 minutes and the

English lesson began on fifth period at 10.00 a.m.


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I greeted the students friendly and they replied eagerly. I checked

the attendance by asking who was absent. Fortunately, in the second

meeting, all of the students were present. To refresh their mind, I asked

them what activities have been done before. Then I said, “Are you ready to

study English? Have you done your homework?” They replied, “Ready

Mom”.

(2) Main Activities

We discussed the assignments by asking the students to write the

meaning of the words on the white board in each turn. Having finished

writing all the words, we discussed to find out the best answers

contextually. The best answers were found out by asking the students

whether the answers written on the white board were appropriate on the

sentences. If the students’ answers were not appropriate, the teacher

offered the other answers. After all the words written on the white board,

we discussed to find out the best answers, the students made correction to

theirs.

The teacher explained the instruction for the next assignment

which would be sent via e-mail to each group. Their assignment was

making a procedure text in group. The result of their assignments had to be

sent via e-mail to the teacher’s e-mail address within 4 days and the

assignments would be discussed for the next meeting.


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they had learnt that day so they could make a procedure text well. I also

reminded them to send their task to the teacher’s e-mail address soon. As

usual, before leaving the class, I said, “Good bye, see you next meeting

and good luck.” And all the students answered enthusiastically, “Good

bye, see you, thank you.”

c) Third Meeting was held on Tuesday, February 15st, 2011

In this section, I had prepared their assignments which were sent to

my e-mail. I saved their writing procedure texts on my laptop and I would

present one of their assignments through LDC to be discussed together.


It was a nice day to start the teaching and learning activities in the

class. The English lesson started at 07.00 a.m. That was the best time to

conduct the teaching and learning process because either the teacher or the

students was in fresh condition.

What I did in this section was not quite different from the

activities in the second meeting. I greeted the students friendly and they

replied eagerly. “Good morning class? How are you today?” They


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answered, “Good morning, I am fine and you?” I replied, “Pretty good.

Who is absent now?” I checked the students’ attendance. Unfortunately, in

the third meeting, there was a student who was absent because she was

sick. I said to the students thank to send their assignments to my e-mail. It


(2) Main Activities

I presented one of their writing procedure texts on a slide through

LCD. I asked one of student to read it loudly. Then, we discussed it by

analyzing the generic structure, grammar, vocabularies, and the

mechanical writing. In general, it was quite good but there were some

words in Indonesia language. When I asked them whether they translated

the texts from Indonesian to English through Google translate. They

answered “Yes”. I told them, “It is okay if you translate the words from

Indonesian to English, but you have to check first before you submit it”.

Then, we discussed the text to find out the correct answer.

Next step was the teacher provided some jumble words on the

slide, and asked each group to arrange into good sentences. The pattern of

the sentence was imperative sentence. The teacher appointed some

students to show their work on the white board and discussed them to get

the correct answers. To know their understanding in building a paragraph,

the teacher also provided some jumble sentences on the slide and asked

them to arrange into good paragraph. Each group discussed it then some


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students presented the result by writing on the white board. The teacher

and all of the students discussed the result to find out the correct answer.

For enrichment about the material given in this part, the teacher

gave the students project which would be sent to each group via e-mail.



making conclusion of that meeting and saying thank to the students for


they had learnt that day so they could apply it in writing descriptive text

well. I also reminded them to send their task to the teacher’s e-mail




d) Fourth meeting was held on Saturday, February 19th, 2011

Continuing the previous meeting, in this part, I had prepared their

assignments which were sent to my e-mail. I saved their writing descriptive

texts on my laptop and I would present one of their assignments through LDC

to be discussed together.


It was a nice day to continue the teaching and learning activities

in the class. The English lesson started on fifth period at 10.00 a.m and


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finished at11.30 a.m. The students were still eager to join teaching and

learning process because it was Saturday.

What I did in this part was not quite different from the activities

in the previous meeting. I greeted the students friendly and they replied

eagerly. “Good morning class? How are you today?” They answered,

“Good morning, I am fine and you?” I replied, “Very well. Who is absent

now?” I checked the students’ attendance. Luckily, in the last meeting for

Cycle 2, all of the students were present. Suddenly, some students asked

me in Indonesian, ”Bu, e-mail saya sudah nyampe?” “Sudah,” I replied. I

said to them really thank to send their assignments to my e-mail. It


(2) Main Activities

I presented one of their assignments on a slide through LCD.

There were still some sentences incorrect orders. I offered the students to

make it correction by writing down on the white board. One of student

came forward and did a correction to a sentence. Then I stimulated others

to follow one’s action. None came forward. We discussed the corrections,

and the sentences had been good order.

I continued to the jumble paragraph, I asked one of student to read

it loudly. I asked all the students whether it was good order. Some students

said, “Betul, Bu.” Then I said, “Okay, let’s discuss together.” We checked

one by one sentence, and it was indeed in good paragraph. Many students


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asked me time to make a note based on the correct answers on the slide,

while I went around them

After having finished, I told the students a project done

individually. It was writing a procedure text. The titles of the procedure

text had been available and the students could choose one of them. The

titles could be seen in Table 4. 14. I explained the points which were

required in doing it. The writing had to be sent to the teacher’s e-mail

address within a week. In doing the project, the students should pay

attention to the following terms; (1) the use of punctuation and capital

letter; (2) vocabularies; (3) grammar; (4) supporting details; and (5)

organizing the content.

Table 4.14 The Titles of the Procedure Text

Choose one of the following titles:

1. How to manage your time related to your activities

2. How to make ‘Lethok Sauce’or ‘Sambel Tumpang’

3. How does the spot of Campus Ijo work?

4. How to make e-mail account in Yahoo

5. How to make e-mail account in Gmail

6. How to make twitter account

7. How to make Koprol account

8. How to recruit a new student of SMK PGRI 6 Ngawi




joining the class actively. I really hoped that all the students understood


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what they had learnt that day so they could apply it in writing a descriptive

text well. I also reminded them to send their project to the teacher’s e-mail




3) Observation

In this cycle, the observation was carried out during the implementation

of the action. In general, the teaching learning process had been going on better

than the first cycle. By applying e-mail in teaching writing the students would

acquire a habit to write, although it had to be started from simple sentences.

They began to have a habit to express their ideas in writing and share with

others. It really supported and motivated them to achieve English writing skill.

It could be seen from their paying attention and participation toward the

teaching and learning activities. They joined the teaching and learning

activities actively, they were eager to do and submit their home works soon via

e-mail because most of them had done it early.

Their vocabularies also improved to be better than before because they

could find the difficult words electronically. Meanwhile their grammar had

improved although not so high. Although it was still under the minimum score

of the English lesson anyhow, the students’ score of the grammar had already

increased. Their knowledge in the use of punctuation and capital letter had

increased because if they wrote incorrectly on computer, it would be


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underlined automatically, so they made correction to the incorrect punctuation

and capital letters.

The students’ writing skill had been improved; it could be seen from

the result of their writings. There were a few mistakes in the use of punctuation

and capital letter, supporting details, and organizing ideas. Especially in

vocabularies, there were some students who still use inappropriate words in

making sentences. There were also some students who still made incorrect

sentences. In this sense, the teacher had repeated explanation and gave more

examples of the sentences related to this aspect.

The quality of teaching and learning process in Cycle 2 had improved.

Some students who usually were not active in the previous cycle began to be

more active and responsive in this cycle. They became active in paying

attention to the teacher’s explanation and answering the teacher’s questions.

The students also were eager to join the English lesson.

By observing the students’ activities in every action, it could be stated

that by utilizing e-mail in teaching and learning activities, the students’ writing

skill was improved. The obvious evidence could be seen from their

achievement which was reflected by their scores.

4) Reflection

The post-test given to the students would show the improvement of

the students’ writing skill. The result of the action can be seen in chart 4.2.


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Chart 4.2. The Average Score in the Pre-test, Post-test 1 and Post-test 2

It can be seen in the chart that students’ writing skill was also

improved in Cycle 2. The improvement happened in every aspect of

assessment; (1) the use of punctuation and capital letter; (2) selecting

appropriate vocabulary; (3) grammar; (4) supporting detail; and (5)

organizing ideas clearly or content.

The result of post-test in Cycle 2 showed the students’

improvement in writing skill. The highest score was 90, the lowest score

was 65, and the average score was 74.27. In addition, the scores of writing

aspects also improved. The average score of punctuation was 76.75,

vocabulary was 72.00, grammar was 62.00, supporting detail was 79.25,


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and organizing ideas was 81.75. Based on the scores, it could be stated that

the students’ writing skill improved.

The comparison of the highest, lowest, and average score of pre-

test, test in Cycle 1, and post-test could be seen in Table 4.14. To see the

students’ improvement in aspects writing skill, the researcher compared

the scores pre-test in the previous condition, the post-test score in Cycle 1

and the post-test score in Cycle 2. The result of comparison can be seen in

Table 4.15.

Table 4.15. The Comparison of the Highest, Lowest, and Average Score

No Description Pre-test Post-test 1 Post-test 2

1 The highest score 62.50 87.50 90

2 The lowest score 25 35 60

3 The average score 45.73 66.04 74.27

Table 4.16. The Comparison of the Average Score in Pre-test, Test in

Cycle 1, and Post-test

Description Punctuation Vocabulary Grammar Supporting Detail Organization

Pre-test 43.25 48.75 31.75 57.25 47.5 Post-test 1 62.5 64.75 49 76.75 77.25 Post-test 2 76.75 72 62 79.25 81.75

a) The Strengths

The improvement of the students’ writing skill could be reached

because of the strengths of utilizing e-mail in teaching and learning

activities of writing. The improvement of: (1) The use of punctuation and


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capital letter could be reached by checking the sentences when they typed

on the computer. By typing the text before sending via e-mail, the students

could analyze the sentences which were underlined and made correction

from the sentences. Most of students made sentences correctly in

punctuation and capital letter; (2) Using appropriate vocabularies could be

reached by developing their vocabularies. Most of the students found the

meaning, synonym, and antonym of words on their dictionaries. It was

done electronically on their computers before sending their assignment via

e-mail, so they did it easier than they had to look up the words on their

dictionary books which spent more time. Some students began to

understand word class such as noun, verb, adjective, and adverb in

sentences; (3) Making sentences correctly could be done by paying

attention to the teacher’s explanation. In this case, most of them asked

their problem to the teacher or the collaborator and did more exercises in

making sentences. Besides, the students also can check the sentences

whether or not it was correct on the computer when they are typing before

sending it via e-mail. Many students used tense, singular-plural, and

auxiliaries correctly; (4) Supporting details could be reached by reading

more examples of the texts and sending and receiving the e-mail

frequently. They looked for the examples of the text by browsing to the

internet when they did their assignments and sent via e-mail so that they

were inspired to build up the paragraph; (5) Organizing the ideas clearly

could be reached by sending and receiving the e-mail. More often they


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sent and received the e-mail, they would be accustomed to express their

ideas clearly.

Furthermore, by utilizing e-mail in teaching and learning

activities of writing, the students studied enjoyably. They are also

encouraged finishing their tasks freely outside the class. It could be done

in the internet café or hot spotted places. They could also share their

works to their friends or teachers by sending them via e-mail. Meanwhile

the teachers monitored whether or not they had finished their homework

through e-mail.

b) The Weaknesses

Besides the strengths, utilizing e-mail also had the weaknesses.

They are; (1) The students needed to spend their money to go to the

internet café. There was no problem for the students who were accustomed

to going there, but it was the problem for them who were not accustomed

to going there, especially for them who had low economic background; (2)

e-mail could not share together with others, because it was kept its

personally, so the students had to send their task only that they wanted. To

give a clear description of the students’ writing skill and the class situation,

the researcher summarized it in Table 4.17


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Table 4.17. The Improvement of Students’ Writing Skill and Class Situation

Cycle 2


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No. Writing Skill / Class Situation

CYCLE 2 Meeting 1 Meeting 2 Meeting 3 Meeting 4

A.1 Punctuation and capital letter

More than 60% students can apply the use of capital letter, punctuation, and mechanic of writing correctly.

The students’ mastering in the use of punctuation and capital letter increase; they make fewer mistakes in punctuation and capital letter.

Many students are able to use punctuation and capital letter correctly in writing text

More than 75% students apply the use of capital letter and punctuation correctly

A.2 Vocabulary

The students can use words in expressing ideas and they make fewer mistakes

The students’ vocabularies increase. Some students are able to identify word class such as noun, verb, adjective, and adverb

Most of the students can identify and choose appropriate words; they make fewer mistakes in making sentences

More than 70% students can select appropriate words contextually in writing a procedure text

A.3 Grammar

More students can make sentences grammatically

Most of the students can arrange the jumble words into good sentence correctly

More students can arrange the jumble sentence into good paragraph.

More than 60% students can make sentences correctly in tense, auxiliaries, and singular-plural

A.4 Supporting details

Most of the students can develop the main ideas by making more than three sentences in a paragraph

Most of students can identify the main idea and the supporting details based on the text given

Many students can develop the main ideas by making supporting details in writing procedure text (in group of four)

More than 75% of students can write procedure text by developing the main ideas detail

A.5

Organization

Most of students are able to identify the generic structure in organizing procedure text

Many students are able to make procedure text correctly by paying attention to the content (in group of four)

Most of the students are able to make procedure text by using generic structure systematically

More than 80% students can write procedure text individually

B.1

Students pay little attention to

the teacher’s explanation

Few students pay less attention to the teacher’s explanation

Most of students pay more attention to the teacher’s explanation and they do the teacher’s instruction in teaching learning activities

Most of students pay full attention to the teacher’s explanation and they are eager to do the teacher’s instructions. They do every single activity Academically during the lesson

All of the students pay full attention to the teacher’s explanation and take a part in teaching and learning activities actively


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B.2

Students do not

do the homework

Most of students are eager to do the assignment given by the teacher (in group)

Some students bring their own note books to join the lesson and do the tasks given but there are still a few students who complain that it need some money to rent a computer in an internet café

Some student are active in checking their e-mail to know whether or not their assignments had been responded by their friend and teacher

Almost all the students do their assignments in writing a procedure text individually and send them via e-mail early

B.3

Students enjoy

talking each other

Most of the students do not talk each other,

Students are noisy but under control, they discuss the topic related to the lesson given

Only a few students are reminded not to talk with other during the teaching and learning process

More 95% students do not talk each other during the lesson given

B.4

Students ask for permission to the

bathroom

There are a few students who ask for permission to the bathroom

Only two students who ask for permission to the bathroom and it does not take a long time

Only the students who have finished to do the assignments ask for permission to go to the bathroom

If there are students who ask for permission to the bathroom, it does not take a long time

B.5 Students are passive

Some students take a part actively and responsive during the teaching and learning activities

Many students are active to give respond during the lesson

Some student are active to ask the questions to the teacher

Most of the students are active and eager to join the lesson by answering and responding the topic given


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B. Research Findings

Analyzing the data of this study, I found out several findings to answer the

research questions, namely; (1) Does and to what extent e-mail improve the

students’ writing skill; and (2) What is the classroom situation when e-mail

implemented in writing activity. The data were collected through several sources

as follows: pre research observation reports, interview, questionnaires, the score

of pre-test, photographs, lessons plan, field notes, and writing materials. Besides,

focusing on answering the research questions as mentioned in Chapter I, the

section also provides other findings during the implementation of the action

research in this study. Issues which arise from the research questions are presented

in the following section.

The researcher compared between the previous condition of students’

writing skill and class situation and the condition after the research.

The findings of this study showed that utilizing e-mail in writing class

could improve the students’ writing skill including all aspects of writing such as

punctuation and capital letter, vocabulary, grammar, supporting detail, and content

or organizing ideas. In fact, they wrote with one or two short paragraph with little

supporting sentences in pre-test. Besides, their knowledge in the use of

punctuation and capital letter, selecting appropriate words, and grammar were

very low in the previous.

The previous condition of classroom situation was also very poor. The

students’ participation in the teaching and learning process was very low. They


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tended to ignore the classroom activities held by the teacher. It could be seen in

their passive involvement in doing homework given by the teacher. They also

tended to talk with other during the lesson and paid little attention to the teachers’

explanation. In addition, some of them often asked for permission to go to the

bathroom. They were also passive in answering and responding the teacher’s

questions.

After the implementation of the research, generally there were changes and

improvements in class situation during the teaching and learning process. The

changes were the positive ones such as they paid much attention to the lesson,

took a part actively in the lesson, and the more serious intention to do the

assignment.

1. Summary of Cycle 1

The implementation of cycle 1 was divided into four meetings and

conducted in three main teaching activities namely opening the class, main

activities, and closing the class. All of the meetings were focused on the

teaching of writing covering punctuation and capital letter, vocabulary,

grammar, supporting detail, and organizing ideas. The topic given in Cycle 1

was descriptive text. Post test in Cycle 1 was done outside the class. The

implementation of cycle 1 used e-mail in sending, marking, revising, and

receiving the assignments to the students.

The result of reflection showed that utilizing e-mail in teaching and

learning activities was effective to improve the students’ mechanical writing


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mastery. The teacher presented the use of punctuation and capital letter,

giving examples of the sentences to make the student understand it well. The

teacher also informed them how to identify the use of punctuation and capital

letter in a sentence correctly on the computer when they are typing the task

before sending it via e-mail. This way was effective to improve their

knowledge in punctuation and capital letter gradually.

In teaching vocabulary, the teacher could present some new words

from the authentic material of descriptive text taken from internet which sent

via e-mail by the students as their assignment in the previous meeting. Then,

the students were asked to find the meaning of the unknown words by

themselves. More descriptive text they found, more vocabularies they got.

The teacher also explained about word class such as noun, verb, adjective,

and adverb. The students were suggested to find out the meaning, synonym,

and antonym electronically when they are typing the task before sending

through e-mail, because it could save the time. As the result, the students’

vocabulary mastery was improved gradually in test Cycle 1.

In teaching grammar, the teacher presented the material about simple

present tense. It covered verb 1, verb s/es, be ‘is’, ‘am’, ‘are’, and singular-

plural. The teacher provided jumble sentences to be arranged into good order

by the students as their assignment. The students were also suggested to

practice more in making sentence. As the result, the students’ grammar

mastery was improved gradually.


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By sending message via e-mail even it was just simple sentence in

English, it meant that students had practiced to improve their writing skill in

elaborating ideas. That is why the researcher sent and received the project just

through e-mail; it was intended to encourage students to express their ideas.

Through e-mail, students could express their feeling and ideas freely

with better atmosphere. In other word, they elaborated the ideas clearly by

practicing writing a text more and more. In fact, the average score of all

writing aspects were improved.

In post test Cycle 1, every student was asked to write descriptive text.

It was evaluated by two examiners, the researcher and collaborator by using a

scoring rubric of writing.

The result of post-test in cycle 1 showed the students’ writing skill

improved. The highest score was 90, the lowest score was 35, and the average

score was 66.04. The scores indicated that the students’ writing skill

improved. The scores of writing aspects also showed improvement. The

average score of punctuation was 62.50, vocabulary was 64.63, grammar

49.09, supporting detail was 76.83, and organizing writing was 77.13. In

general, all writing aspects improved but the teacher and collaborator decided

to improve the aspects of punctuation, vocabulary, and grammar since they

were still lower than the other aspects.

Although utilizing e-mail in teaching and learning activities was

advantageous, the researcher note some weaknesses related to the teacher and

students appeared during the implementation of Cycle 1.


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Especially in grammar, the students were still limited in practising so

that the students did not really understand especially about verb 1, verb s/es,

be ‘is’’are’, modal, and singular-plural. In other words, the students were lack

of grammar practice. Due to the poor grammar mastery, most of the students’

grammar scores were low and needed improvement in the following cycle.

Some students also complained that they spent extra money to rent the

computer.

2. Summary of Cycle 2

The implementation of cycle 2 was carried out in four meetings in

which all of the meetings were for the teaching of writing whereas post test in

Cycle 2 was conducted outside the class as the students’ project which was

sent and received via e-mail. In this cycle, the researcher emphasized to the

aspects of writing which still less improvements namely; the use of

punctuation and capital letter, vocabulary, and grammar.

The teacher presented the material about the use of punctuation and

capital letter. The students are suggested to pay more attention to this aspect

due to the fact that some students ignored punctuation and capital letter in

writing. The teacher provided incorrect sentences in mechanic writing

through LCD, and then asked the students to make correction on these

sentences. Some students came forward to make correction on the white

board one by one. From ten sentences given, there were two sentences which

still incorrect in mechanic writing. The teacher asked them to discuss it,

finally some students could make correct sentences in punctuation and capital


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letter. This section was important to remind them that this aspect was

acquired in writing text. As a result, their mechanic writing mastery was

improved compare with the previous cycle. It could be seen from the score of

post test.

The activity of vocabulary identification was time for students to find

the difficult words from the text given which they got from internet and sent

via e-mail to the teacher’s e-mail address. The aim of this activity was to

improve and increase students’ vocabulary mastery. They could find the

meaning of the difficult words easier on the computer or electronic dictionary.

Just like what they did in cycle 1, then the students presented their works by

writing the words on the white board one by one. By this activity, student

became active to improve their vocabulary.

In improving the students’ grammar mastery, the teacher re-explained

in the term of simple present tense to make the students really understand of

this tense. The teacher emphasized to the use of verb 1, verb s/es, be; ís’’are’

modal, and singular-plural. The teacher provided jumble sentences to be

revised into good order. The students also were asked to make sentence in

simple present tense. In this section imperative sentence was also presented to

the students related to the topic given in Cycle 2 was procedure text.

The post test given to each student was writing a procedure text by

providing some titles and the students might choose one of them. As the

previous cycle, the project had to be sent via e-mail within four days.


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The result of post-test in Cycle 2 showed the students’ improvement in

writing skill. The highest score was 90, the lowest score was 60, and the

average score was 74.27. In addition, the scores of writing aspects also

improved. The average score of punctuation was 76.75, vocabulary was 72,

grammar was 62, supporting detail was 79.25, and organizing writing was

81.75. Based on the scores, it could be stated that the students’ speaking

competence improved. They could use punctuation, vocabulary and grammar

better and also they could elaborate ideas more detail and organize the ideas

more clearly.

3. T

he Result of Teaching and Learning Process

The result of teaching and learning process showed that utilizing e-

mail could improve class situation when e-mail is implemented. The

improvements in the class situation are as follows; (1) Most of the students

pay more attention to the teacher’s explanation. They do not look bored or

make noise; (2) The students are able to do their homework when the teacher

asks them to do the task at home; (3) The students do not talk each other

during the lesson. If they are little bit noisy because they have to discuss the

topic given by the teacher; (4) Most of students enjoy joining the lesson in the

class, so they did not often ask for permission to the teacher to go to the

bathroom; and (5) The students become active and enthusiastic to asked and

answer the question.


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The result of teaching and learning process also showed that utilizing

e-mail could improve students’ writing skill namely; the use of punctuation

and capital letter, vocabulary, grammar, supporting details, and organizing

writing. The increase of the students’ writing skill could be seen from the

improvement of; (1) The mean of the punctuation and capital letter score

increased from 62.50 in the test of Cycle 1 to 76.75 in the post-test of Cycle

2; (2) The mean score of vocabulary increased from 64.63 in the test of Cycle

1 to 72.00 in the post-test of Cycle 2; (3) The mean score of grammar

increased from 49.09 in the test in Cycle 1 to 62.00 in the post-test of Cycle 2;

(4) The mean score of supporting details increased from 76.83 in the test in

Cycle 1 to 79.25 in the post-test of Cycle 2; and (5) The mean score of

organizing writing increased from 77.13 in the test in Cycle 1 to 81.75 in the

post-test of Cycle 2.

To see the students’ improvement in writing skill, the researcher also

compared the scores pre-test in the previous condition, the test score in Cycle

1 and the post-test score in Cycle 2. The result of comparison can be seen in

Table 4.15.

Based on the the result of comparison between pre-test, test in Cycle

1, and post-test Cycle 2, it can be concluded that the highest score improved

from 65 in pre-test to 90 in cycle 1 and still 90 in Cycle 2. The lowest score

improved from 25 in pre-test to 35 in post-test Cycle 1 and 60 in post-test

Cycle 2. The average score improved from 45.73 in pre-test to 66.04 in post-

test Cycle 1and 74.27 in post-test Cycle 2.


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a. Comparison between the Score of Pre-Test and the Score Post-

Test in Cycle 1

The researcher compared the students’ writing skill and the

teaching and learning process in the previous condition with their writing

achievement and the condition after the implementation of Cycle 1. The

comparison can be seen in Table 4.18.

Table 4.18. The comparison between the Students’ scores of Pre-Test and

the Scores of Test in Cycle 1

No Description Pre-test Score

Test Cycle 1

Score

1 The highest score 62.50 87.50

2 The lowest score 25 35

3 The average score 45.73 66.04

Based on the scores, it could be stated that there was improvement

between the pre-test scores and test score in Cycle 1. The highest score

increased from 62.50 to 87.50. The lowest score increased from 25 to 35.

The average score increased from 45.73 to 66.04. Furthermore, the

researcher also noted the improvement of the score of speaking aspects in

Cycle 1 compared with that of the pre-test. The comparison can be seen

in Table 4.19.

Table 4.19. The Comparison between the Students’ scores of Pre-

Test and the Scores of Test in Cycle 1


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Description Punctuation Vocabulary Grammar Supporting

Detail Content

Pre-test 43.25 48.75 31.75 57.25 47.50

Cycle 1 62.50 64.75 49 76.75 77.25

Based on table 4.20, it could be concluded that all scores of

writing aspects increased. The average score of punctuation increased

from 43.25 to 62.50. The average score of vocabulary increased from

48.75 to 64.75. The average score of grammar increased from 31.75 to

49. The average score of supporting detail increased from 57.25 to 76.75.

The average score of organizing ideas increased from 47.50 to 77.25.

The improvement happened not only in the students’ writing

scores but also in the classroom situation. Most of the students paid full

attention to the teacher’s explanation more seriously. Many of them did

not speak and chat one another during the lesson as they did in the

previous time. Only a few students who asked for permission to go to the

bathroom and it did not take long time. When the teacher checked them,

they really went out there.

The students’ activeness to do the assignment increased. Many

of them sent the assignment via e-mail earlier than the time given. In

other word, their eagerness to do the homework improved. They did the

homework more actively. When the teacher asked them questions, they

tended to respond more actively. Many of the students took a part

actively during the teaching and learning process.


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b. Comparison between Cycle 1 and Cycle 2

The researcher compared the students’ writing skill and the

teaching and learning process in cycle 1 with those in cycle 2. The result

of comparison could be shown in Table 4.20.

Table 4.20.The Comparison between the Writing Scores in Cycle 1 and Cycle 2

No Description Post-test 1 Post-test 2

1 The highest score 87.50 90

2 The lowest score 35 60

3 The average score 66.04 74.27

Based on the comparison of the scores between Cycle 1 and

Cycle 2, it could be concluded that the students’ writing skill improved.

The highest score increased from 87.50 to 90. The lowest score increased

from 35 to 60. The average score increased from 66.04 to 74.27.

The improvement also happened in the classroom situation.

Most students took part in the lesson more actively. They paid full

attention to the teacher’s explanation more seriously. They did not make

noise by not talking with other during the lesson so that the teaching and

learning process could run well. The students’ involvement to do the

assignment increased. The students did the homework more diligently.

They sent their homework earlier through e-mail. When the teacher asked

them questions, they tended to respond more actively. The improvement

of scores also happened in the aspects of writing that could be seen in

Table 4.21.


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Table 4.21. The Comparison of the Average Scores in Writing Aspects

between Cycle 1 and Cycle 2

Description Punctuation Vocabulary Grammar Supporting Detail Content

Post-test 1 62.50 64.75 49 76.75 77.25 Post-test 2 76.75 72 62 79.25 81.75

The comparison of scores between Cycle 1 and Cycle 2 showed

that there was improvement in all writing aspects. The punctuation

increased from 62.50 to 76.75. The vocabulary increased from 64.75 to

72. The grammar increased from 49 to 62. The supporting detail

increased from 76.75 to 79.25, and the organizing ideas increased from

77.25 to 81.75. The average scores of writing aspects showed that the

students’ ability improved in those aspects. It was noted that the grammar

aspect did not increase significantly. Compared with other aspects, its

increase was lower.

C. Discussion and Justification

The action research which utilized e-mail to improve students’ writing

skill showed satisfying result both in terms of improving students’ writing skill

and class situation. Based on the result of the research, the researcher can propose

at least two major points of theories. Firstly, e-mail can improve students’ writing

skill including the aspects of writing namely; the use of punctuation and capital

letter, vocabulary, grammar, supporting details, and organizing ideas or content.


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Secondly, e-mail can improve class situation in which the students’ participation

classroom activities during the teaching and learning process improved.

1. E-mail can Improve Students’ Writing Skill

The research findings showed that e-mail can improve students’

writing skill including the aspects of writing namely; the use of punctuation

and capital letter, vocabulary, grammar, supporting details, and organizing

writing. The improvement can be seen in the chart 4.1 and 4.2.

The proofs of this action research are as follows.

a. The students’ punctuation and capital letter improved. The mean of the

punctuation and capital letter score increased from 43.25 in the pre-test to

76.75 in the post-test of cycle 2.

b. The students’ vocabulary improved. The mean score of vocabulary

increased from 48.75 in the pre-test to 72.00 in the post-test of cycle 2.

c. The students’ grammar improved. The mean score of grammar increased

from 31.75 in the pre-test to 62.00 in the post-test of cycle 2.

d. The students’ supporting details improved. The mean score of supporting

details increased from 57.25 in the pre-test to 79.25 in the post-test of

cycle 2.

e. The students’ organizing writing improved. The mean score of organizing

writing increased from 47.50 in the pre-test to 81.75 in the post-test of

Cycle 2.


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The students’ writing skill improved because by e-mail provides the

opportunity for students to improve their knowledge of the use of punctuation,

capital letter, and mechanical writing. E-mail cannot be separated from

computer because e-mail is one of program provided in internet soft ware

application. When they type the assignment or message on the computer

before sending it via e-mail, they can check and proofread the use of

punctuation, capital letter, and mechanical writing correctly. They can also

check the synonym, antonym, and even the meaning of the words

electronically. It means that they save their valuable time in writing text. Gil

Lavitov (2008: 1) said that by writing text on the e-mail, the students could

utilize the E-mail Grammar Correction Software which helps on checking,

correcting, and constructing their English sentences so they become accurate,

clean, and fluent. He also said that by using e-mail grammar checker, the

students can easily find several advantages namely: (1) automatically identify

sentences construction problems that may have been missed during a manual

proofreading; (2) Assisting students assimilating English grammar rules; (3)

Improving students’ self confidence with their writing.

Dudeney and Hockly (2007: 62) stated that one the advantages of

using e-mail for teaching writing is e-mail allows the students and teacher to

communicate outside the classroom. E-mail provides the opportunity for

students and teachers to communicate outside the classroom, for example

sending, receiving, marking, and returning the students’ written assignments.

When the students access to computers outside the class, they can write a text


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freely without engaged the limited time. It means that students are accustomed

to expressing thoughts, feeling, and ideas better in written form.

Moreover, Lee (1998: 3) underlines that by using e-mail; it enables

the teacher to monitor the process of the students' writings to save class time

for the teacher's assignments and comments. E-mail offers students

opportunities for much more valuable communicative interaction in the target

language. Occasionally, some students who do not like to express themselves

in a group tend to do better with writing. Since students usually generate more

content electronically than with hand writing methods, some students who are

shy tend to express their opinions through e-mail freely without fear. This can

give students self-confidence and improve their writing skill.

In addition, Subekti (2010: 1) says that by using e-mail, teacher will

be able to electronically monitor individual or group writing process from

early phase to the final one. E-mail can also save class time for some

assignments. Teachers can send assignments and announcements

electronically to the students. For example, if a teacher has to remind the

students of a certain assignment due or a particular procedure, the teacher can

send one message to entire class members. This can save valuable class time.

Moreover, with the return receipt capabilities of e-mail the teacher is able to

know whether each individual student has opened and read the message. This

is an important feature to help monitor the progress of the student or the

group.


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Having strong underlying education theories, it is understandable that

e-mail can improve students’ writing skill. By utilizing e-mail, the students

were active to do their assignments in writing text.

2. E-mail can Improve Class Situation

The second theory being proposed says that utilizing e-mail in

teaching and learning activities can improve class situation. By utilizing e-

mail in teaching and learning of writing activities, it is able to create a better

atmosphere in the classroom in which the students become more active in the

process of teaching and learning process and do the assignment given by the

teacher eagerly. It means that students’ motivation to learn increase due to

utilizing e-mail in their learning activities. As stated by Morrison et al (2001:

50), learner’s motivation is a very important and determinant aspect which

will affect students’ behavior in the learning activity.

Furthermore, Nagel (1999) noted in his research which showed the

effectiveness of using e-mail compared to academic writing by investigating

how e-mail functions as an instructional tool that email exchange strongly

motivates participation in classroom activities.

In addition, Warschauer (cited in Lee, 1998) presents three benefits of

e-mail. He states that e-mail can promote real and natural communication.

Through e-mail, students are able to communicate with native speakers or

other English learners worldwide. This provides authentic context for

communication.


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Besides that, e-mail also facilitates independent learning which is

essential for L2 writing. Furthermore, e-mail stimulates students’ interest in

communicating as they feel they have an authentic audience who will respond

to their writing. It can provide information, contact, and stimulation,

supplying the teacher with more effective and enjoyable teaching situations.

In short, e-mail promotes opportunities for communication, collaboration and

information.

Based on the theory, we can say that utilizing e-mail in the teaching

and learning activities can increase and grow students’ motivation. The

students’ better motivation can be seen in their paying attention to the teacher

explanation more seriously and their activeness in joining the teaching and

learning activities. The researcher can conclude that the class situation

improved from the previous condition. The improvements in the class

situation are as follows.

a. Most of the students pay full attention to the teacher’s explanation. They

especially who sit down in the back row did not enjoy typing message by

their phone cellular anymore.

b. All of the students do their homework when the teacher asks them to do

the task at home.

c. The students did not talk each other during the lesson. If they are little bit

noisy because they have to discuss the topic given by the teacher.


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d. Most of students enjoy joining the lesson in the class, so they did not often

ask for permission to the teacher to go to the bathroom

e. The students become active and enthusiastic to asked and answer the

question.

The teaching and learning technique by utilizing e-mail made the

students enjoyable and active to join the writing class. Connecting to the

internet access make them to be enthusiastic to do the exercises given via e-

mail, moreover there has been available for Wi-Fi or hot spot area at the

school environment. Some students who have their own notebook tend to

bring it when they study at school. That is why it is justified utilizing e-mail

as one of technique which is suitable in teaching and learning writing. It is

proved by the students’ average score of the pre-test, post test 1, and post-test

2.


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CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION, IMPLICATION, AND SUGGESTIONS

A. Conclusion

The researcher was successful to conduct an action research by utilizing

e-mail to improve the students’ writing skill at SMK PRGI 6 Ngawi. It could be

proved by increasing of the writing aspects namely; the use of punctuation and

capital letter, vocabulary, grammar, supporting details, and organizing ideas or

content. The improvement of the students’ writing skill could be seen in the scores

of writing and those of the writing aspects. The mean score increased from 45.73

in the pre-test to 66.04 in the test of Cycle 1 and to 74.27 in the post test of Cycle

2. The minimum score of English lesson was 65.00. The comparison of writing

scores between the pre-test, post-test of Cycle 1, and post-test of Cycle 2 showed

the success of utilizing e-mail to improve students’ writing skill.

Utilizing e-mail in teaching and learning activities also brought positive

changes in the classroom situation. It can be seen from their participation not only

in paying more attention to the lesson but also becoming more active to join the

writing activities. The students encouraged to do their assignments given by the

researcher soon. Besides, by using e-mail in teaching and learning of writing

activities could create an enjoyable atmosphere for the students because they

could study and do the exercises freely outside the class. Furthermore, by using e-

mail, they could share their assignments with others by sending it via e-mail. They


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could communicate among their friends or teachers outside the class via e-mail.

They could reveal their thoughts, feeling, and ideas through e-mail that they could

not simply do in the classroom.

B. Implication

By considering the success and benefits of utilizing e-mail, it implied that

e-mail should be used in the teaching and learning of writing at SMK PGRI 6

Ngawi.

Other English teachers are hoped to use e-mail in teaching other skills of

English such as speaking, listening, reading, and others. They may develop their

own creativity to utilize e-mail in the teaching and learning process.

In addition, the result of this study can be a reference for the English

teachers to improve and increase the quality of their teaching and learning

activities in order to improve the students’ achievement in English.

C. Suggestions

Based on the advantages of e-mail in improving the students’ writing

skill, the researcher would like to propose some suggestions for English teachers,

students, and school or other institutions to achieve the more qualified teaching

and learning process especially in the teaching of writing as follows.

1. For English Teachers

a. Before conducting English teaching and learning process, the teachers

should learn how to enhance their ability in teaching. They should be


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creative to design the strategy of teaching English. Besides, they should

establish a comfortable atmosphere in the classroom, so that the students

feel enjoyable with their English class.

b. The teachers should utilize e-mail as one of the techniques to improve

students’ writing skill.

c. The teachers should facilitate the students to practices English writing in

order that they accustom to make English writing text.

2. For the Students

a. The students should realize that writing is one of language skill that they

must master. They should acquire it and not to think that it is difficult.

There are many ways to learn writing as long as they want to study hard.

b. The students should more practise writing English. They can do from the

simple sentence to the complex sentence to make it as habit to express

their thoughts, feelings, and ideas.

c. The students should to have e-mail account to communicate among

others by sending short or even long message in English.

d. The students are suggested to consult with their teachers or other

competent person to solve their English problems.

3. For School or other Institution


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a. The School should provide the teaching and learning program with

sufficient facilitation and media to achieve the more qualified teaching

and learning process.

b. The school should send the English teachers to any workshop and

training on English teaching to increase their ability.

Documents

UTILIZING E-MAIL TO IMPROVE STUDENTS' WRITING SKILL (Tri Yul · perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id commit to user UTILIZING E-MAIL TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILL (A Classroom