Using word cluster to improve students’ writing ability in writing texts (a classroom action research in the eighth grade of smp al huda kediri in the academic year 2008/2009)

Oleh :
Waluyo SugiHarto - - Fak. Sastra dan Seni Rupa

This research was conducted in the second year students of SMP Al Huda Kediri in the academic year 2008/2009. The objective of this research was find out whether and how the use of word cluster could improve the students’ writing ability. There were some problems encountered which were caused by both sides: the students and the teacher. They were as follows: (1) the students were less interested in writing: (2) the students lacked of interest in writing: (3) they lacked of vocabulary: (4) they lacked of a model on how to start to write: 4) they lacked of grammar mastery: (5) they had limited time to practice their writing: and (6) they also got difficulty in arranging the sentences into a good text. The causes from the teacher were: (1) the teacher carried out the lesson conventionally: (2) the teacher only focused more on how to finish the students’ worksheet published by a certain publisher rather than how to give various teaching materials: (3) the teacher never gave a model of writing: and (4) the teacher did not use any teaching aids in carrying out the lesson. To overcome those problems, the researcher designed an action research using word cluster. The action research was conducted in two cycles. The procedure of the research consisted of planning, action, observation, and reflection. In collecting data, the researcher used observation, interview, questionnaire, and test. The observation was done during the teaching-learning process in progress. The questionnaire and interview were given to the students before and after the teaching-learning process done. The tests were in the form of pre-test and post-test. The researcher used rubric score and inter-rater to obtain valid scores. The result of the research shows that word cluster could improve the students’ writing ability. Being taught using word cluster, the students’ interest in writing improved. They were also actively involved in the teaching-learning process. Most of them were able to organize the words through cluster into a text of procedure. Their group work also improved since the researcher gave them pair work project and group work project to finish their works. The students’ writing ability improvement was reflected in the tests’ scores. The mean scores improved from 53,38 (pre-test of cycle 1) to 53,38 (post-test of cycle 1). It improved again in the post-test of cycle 2, which was 61,78. From the analysis of inter-rater scores between the pre-test and post-test scores of cycle 2, it can be seen that it is higher than the pre-test. Therefore, it is obviously clear that there is a significant improvement of the students’ writing ability before and after the research was conducted. Based on the result of the study, he concluded that students’ writing ability could be improved through word cluster. Therefore, it is recommended that the teacher should apply word cluster in teaching writing.