Improving students’ writing skill by using think pair share (tps) (an action research at the eight grade of smp negeri 1 jaten in academic year 2011/2012)

Oleh :
Merchelina Lucy Astheri - X2207015 - Fak. KIP

The objectives of the research are: (1) to find out whether or not Think Pair Share improve the students’ writing skill and (2) to describe what happens when Think Pair Share is implemented in the writing classes. The subject of the research was the students of the eighth grade of SMP N 1 Jaten in the academic year of 2011/ 2012. This research was conducted in two cycles. Cycle 1 was conducted in four meetings and cycle 2 was done in three meetings. The procedure of the action research consisted of planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. The qualitative data were collected through observation, questionnaire, and interview; while the quantitative ones were collected through test. The qualitative data were analyzed by using five stages suggested by Burns (1999: 156), namely: assembling the data, coding the data, comparing the data, building interpretation, and reporting the outcomes. To analyze the quantitative data, the researcher applied descriptive statistic technique. It was used to compare the scores and means of pre-test and post-test. The pre-test was conducted in the preliminary research while the post-test was conducted in the end of Cycle 1 and 2. The result of the test was used to know how good the students’ writing skill was. The research findings show that the use of Think pair Share can improve students’ writing skill and the situation of English class. The improvement of students’ writing skill includes: (1) Students were able to state main idea for their writings; (2) Students’ word choices improved; (3) Students were able to produce grammatically correct sentences; (4) Students’ word order got better; and (5) Students’ writing were cohesive and coherent. The improvement of the students’ writing skill could be proved by the increasing mean scores of pre-test it was 54.25, the post test of Cycle 1 it 73.75, and post-test of Cycle 2 80.50. The class situation also improved, which includes: 1) Students paid attention to the teacher; (2) Students focused on the lesson; (3) Students answered when teacher asked questions and they asked questions to the teacher; (4) Students became confident to present their writings in front of the class; (5) Students spent their time by discussing and doing their assignments. Based on the result of the research, it can be concluded that Think Pair Share improves students’ writing skill. The researcher hopes that what the researcher has done will inspire the English teachers to use Think Pair Share as one of the good techniques in teaching and learning writing.