USING PICTURE SERIES TO IMPROVE THE EIGHTH GRADERS' ABILITY IN WRITING NARRATIVE TEXT AT SMPK SANG TIMUR MALANG

ABSTRAK Barends, Paramitha Shintia. 2014. Using Picture Series to Improve the Eighth Graders’Ability in Writing Narrative Text at SMPK Sang Timur Malang. Thesis, English Departement, Faculty of Letters, State University of Malang. Advisor: Dr.Johannes A. Prayogo, M.Pd., M.Ed. Key words: Picture Series, students’ writing ability, narrative texts. This study was aimed at using picture series in helping students to write better narrative texts. The result of preliminary study showed that only 25 students out of 34 students (73.52%) who could reach score above 70. The picture series consisted of nine to ten picture series arranged chronologically. They were selected on the basis of clarity, size, color, and sequence of the pictures, so that the students could catch the story easily. This study was collaborative action research conducted in one cycle in which the cycle consisted of four meetings. The cycle included three steps: pre-activity, main-activity, and post-activity. Furthermore, there were four steps that the researcher did in action research such as plans (designing lesson plan, preparing research the materials and media, choosing research instruments, and determining the criteria of success), action (the researcher start to implement her plan as stated in the lesson plan that she had made), observation (the researcher collected the data about some events which happened during the implementation of the action and observed the instructional process and record whether every activities planned in the lessson plans was performed), and reflection (the data were analyzed using a systematic proccess of analysis and interpretation according to criteria of success, the researcher reflected what had been done in the previous action if the result of cycle one under the criteria of success that the researcher have to the next cycle). The subjectS of the study were all students in class VIII-A at SMPK Sang Timur Malang in academic years 2013/2014. The research instruments used in this study were writing scoring rubric, questionnaires, observation checklist, field notes, interview guide, writing test, and survey of writing interest and awareness. The data obtained from the questionnaires, observation checklist, and survey of writing interest and awareness were presented in tables. While the data gained from the field notes, interview guide, and the students’ writings were analyzed and reported descriptively to describe the condition of the class during the teaching and learning process to take notes of the interaction between the teacher and the students and among the students as well. Besides, the results were used to see the students’ improvement on the results in terms of their writings especially in writing narrative texts. The findings showed that the picture series as the instructional media made the teacher and the students find that they were attractive , effective, and easy to understand. Furthermore, the most important thing was that they helped the students to understand the pictures easily in telling the stories and obtaining better achievement in writing narrative texts. This medium effectively improved the students’ ability in writing narrative texts. All of the students had reached the criteria of success that had been determined, 34 students (100%) reached score above 70. Futhermore, there were 18 (eighteen) out of 34 (thirty four) of the students (52.94%) showed that anxiety toward picture series as instructional media, there were 14 (fourteen) out of 34 (thirty four) of the students (41.17%) felt that picture series can help them in writing narrative texts, and there were 17 (seventeen) out of 34 (thirty four) of the students (50%) showed their interest toward picture series. Based on the research findings, it could be concluded that this research could give beneficial contributions to English teachers, and other reseachers. For English teachers, they can use picture series as the alternative media in teaching writing skill, especially in improving the students’ ability in writing narrative tetxs and for other researcher, they can obtain practical knowledge in conducting another research dealing with appropriate media such as picture series in teching narrative texts