OPTIMIZING THE USE OF YOUTUBE VIDEOS TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILL (A Classroom Action Research at the Second Grade of SMP Negeri 1 Juwiring, Klaten in the Academic Year of 2009/2010)

This research has two objectives, namely; 1) to identify whether or not and to what extent the implementation of YouTube videos improve the students‟ writing skill and 2) to describe the situation when YouTube Videos are implemented in the writing class. The research was conducted at SMP Negeri 1 Juwiring, Klaten. It was done on February 2010 until June 2010. This study is a classroom action research which was done in two cycles, and each cycle consists of four stages: planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. The subject of the research is 36 students of class VIII-D SMP Negeri 1 Juwiring. The data were gained from several techniques including observation, interview, and document analysis. To analyze the quantitative data, the researcher applied descriptive analysis, while to analyze the qualitative data, the researcher applied constant comparative method. The findings through the implementation of YouTube videos show improvement both in students‟ writing skill and classroom situation. Regarding the students writing skill, the improvements include: 1) the students are able to explore the main idea correctly. 2) They are able to arrange words into sentences, sentences into paragraphs. 3) They are able to select appropriate words and expressions. 4) They are able to compose cohesiveness and coherence in writing. 5) They are able to use grammatically correct sentences. In addition, the improvements in the class situation comprise: 1) students give more attention to the lesson; 2) students become more confident to present in front of the class; 3) students have more courage to ask about the lesson; 4) students are braver in giving opinion; 5) students are able to finish the writing on time. The research findings of this study imply that YouTube videos are very useful and important to improve students‟ writing skill. Therefore, it is recommended that (1) The English teachers apply YouTube videos in teaching and learning activity; (2) the students are easier to practice writing using videos; (3) the school should provide media such as YouTube videos; (4) other researchers can make use of YouTube videos in conducting research in other skills