Improving Students’ Writing Skill Through Web Blog (A classroom Action Research in the Eleventh Grade Students of IPS 1 SMA N 2 Selong in Academic Year of 2010/2011)

Oleh :
Sri Wahyuni - S890809118 -

The objectives of the research are: (1) to investigate whether and to what extent web blog can improve the students’ writing skill; and (2) to describe the situation of classroom when web blog is applied in the writing class. The action research was conducted due to her existence of being a teacher and as a researcher to find a solution to the problems of teaching English in the classroom. The Classroom Action Research which was carried out at SMAN 2 Selong for the students of class XI IPS 1 at SMAN 2 Selong in the academic year of 2010/2011 was conducted from September 2010 up to February 2011. In collecting the data, she used interviews, observations, questionnaire, diaries, documents and tests. The qualitative data were analyzed through Constant Comparative Method which included the following processes: comparing incident applicable to each category; integrating categories and their properties; delimiting the theory; and writing the theory. The quantitative data were analyzed through descriptive statistics to identify the scores of all tests conducted in this research. The research findings showed that web blog can improve: (1) the students’ writing skill: (a) the students were able to write the sentences of the text by using correct spelling and punctuation; (b) the sentences that the students wrote were correct grammatically; (c) in writing sentences, the students were able to use appropriate vocabularies;(d) there were more supporting sentences the student wrote to develop main ideas or topic sentences in every paragraph; and (e) the students were able to write the text in correct organization; and (2) classroom situation: (a) the time needed to write a text was shorter than before the research was conducted; (b) students’ attention to the teaching and learning process was getting better; (c) the activities during the classical and group discussion were alive, many students asked the questions; (d) the situation of teaching and learning process were attractive and chalanging since every student enjoyed writing in their blog. In addition, there were also improvements for the students’ writing achievement which is shown through the mean score of pretest: 57.4, formative test of Cycle 1: 68 and formative test of Cycle 2: 73.68. Thirty four students or 89.48.% from 38 students have fulfilled the criteria of minimum learning achievement (KKM) which is 67. Based on the findings, it is recommended that the English teachers are able to use this research for: (1) guiding the students to explore the learning material through web blog ; (2) being creative to make the situation of the classroom become interesting by using web blog in writing; and (3) using web blog not only to encourage the students to learn and practice writing, but also in learning English as a foreign language. Key Words: Web Blog, Improvement, Writing Skill