ABSTRACT

The main objectives of the research are to identify whether: (1) Strategic Writing  Conference  is  more  effective  to  teach  writing;  (2)  the  eighth  grade students of the junior high school having high level of motivation have better writing skill than those having low level of motivation; and (3) there is an interaction between teaching methods and motivation to teach writing.
The research was administered in a junior high school in Klaten regency. The population of the research was the eighth grade students in the academic year of 2016/2017. The sampling technique was cluster random sampling. The sample of the research was 52 students where the 26 students of A1 as experimental class and the rest 26 students of A2  as the control class. The research instruments consist of motivation questionnaire and writing test about recount which was designed by the researcher. The researcher tried out the writing test instrument to find out its readability. After conducting the treatment, the researcher conducted a final writing test to get the research data. Having got the research data, the researcher analyzed the data in the terms of their frequency distribution, normality of the sample distribution and data homogeneity. The ANOVA test was used as well as TUKEY test to examine the hypotheses.
The results of the research shows that : (1) Teaching Writing using Strategic  Writing  Conference  to  the  eighth  grade  students  of  the  junior  high school is more effective than using Direct Instruction. (2) students who have high motivation have better writing skill than those who have low motivation level; and (3) There is no interaction between teaching methods and students’ motivation in teaching writing at the eighth grade students of the junior high school.
Based on the research findings, it can be concluded that Strategic Writing Conference is an effective method to teach writing viewed from the students’ motivation at the eighth grade students of the junior high school.

Keywords: Strategic Writing Conference, Direct Instruction, writing, motivation, experimental study