IMPROVING STUDENTS’ WRITING ABILITY USING TASK – BASED LANGUAGE TEACHING (TBLT) (A Classroom Action Research at the Students of Class X TKJ 1 SMK Negeri 2 Sragen in the 2010/2011 Academic Year)

UMI SHOLIHAH. Improving Students’ Writing Ability Using Task – Based Language Teaching (TBLT): A Classroom Action Research at the Students of Class X TKJ 1 SMK Negeri 2 Sragen in the 2010/2011 Academic Year. A thesis. Surakarta: English Education Department of Graduate School, Sebelas Maret University of Surakarta. 2011. The first Consultant: Dr. Sujoko, M. A. The second consultant: Drs. Heribertus Tarjana, M.A. The objective of the research is to find out whether the uses of TBLT can improve students’ writing ability. Besides that, the research is also designed to identify the strengths and the weaknesses of the implementation of TBLT in improving students’ writing ability. The research was carried out at SMK Negeri 2 Sragen, from July to October 2010. The subject of the research was the students of Class X TKJ 1 SMKN 2 Sragen. It was an action research. It covered three cycles. Each of which consisted of planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. The data of this research were obtained from several techniques including observation, interview, questionnaires, and test. To analyze the data the researcher applied two types of data analysis in the research. The first is numerical data or quantitative data. The quantitative data are in the form of the writing scores. The writing scores as the result of the pre – test and post – test in this research were analyzed by comparing the means of each test to find out the improvement of the students’ achievement in writing. The second types of data are in the form of non – numerical data or qualitative data. In analyzing qualitative data, the researcher made use of interactive model; they are data reduction, data display, and data verification. The findings reveal that the action of improving the students’ writing ability using TBLT is successful viewed from some dimensions. First, TBLT can improve writing ability of the students of Class X TKJ 1 SMKN 2 Sragen in the 2010/2011 Academic year. Second, this research can identify the strengths and the weaknesses of the implementation of TBLT in improving writing ability of the students of Class X TKJ 1 SMKN 2 Sragen in the 2010 / 2011 Academic year. It could raise the students’ participation in writing class and could enhance the students’ writing ability. The research findings of this research imply that TBLT is very effective. The implementation of TBLT improved the students’ writing ability. It gives the chance to the students to explore their ideas and to choose their own words, and encourages students to be active learners. In TBLT, the teacher has a lot of opportunities to develop various activities. TBLT also made the students able to make a composition using appropriate vocabulary, correct grammar, mechanics, content, and organization. Finally, this research is expected to be useful for other researchers more particularly those who are interested in conducting a similar research