Using Scaffolding Strategy to Improve the Writing Ability of the 8th Graders of SMPN 4 Malang

ABSTRACT Permatasari, Dilla. 2017. Using Scaffolding Strategy to Improve the Writing Ability of the 8th Graders of SMPN 4 Malang. Sarjana’s Thesis, Department of English, Faculty of Letters, Universitas Negeri Malang. Advisors: (1) Dra. Sri Andreani, M.Ed., (2) Francisca Maria Ivone, M.A., Ph.D. Keywords: writing, writing ability, scaffolding strategy This study aimed to overcome the problem faced by the VIII grade students at SMPN 4 Malang. In the preliminary study that was conducted in class VIII G of SMPN 4 Malang. It was found that 80.6% of the students had low writing scores because they rarely practiced writing in class. To them, writing was very boring. They were confused about how they would put their ideas into words and develop them further into paragraph. They thought that writing a paragraph was very difficult because they had limited vocabulary and problems with grammar. So, it took them very long to think about what they wanted to write. In response to the problem, the researcher proposed using the Scaffolding strategy to improve students’ ability in writing a text. The objective of this study was to know how Scaffolding strategy can improve the writing ability of the 8th grade students’ of SMPN 4 Malang. This strategy followed five stages of writing, namely prewriting, drafting, revising, editing and publishing. The study used Classroom Action Research where the researcher took the role of the teacher who implemented the Scaffolding strategy. This study was conducted in two cycles, each consisting of two meetings. The subjects were 36 students in VIII G class of SMPN 4 Malang. The instruments used in this study was questionnaire, writing test, observation checklist, field notes, and interview guide. There were two criteria of success in this study: (1) 75% of the students gain 10 points in their final writing test and (2) 75% of them participate actively during the implementation of the scaffolding strategy. In the end of the second cycle, all of the students gained 10 up to 38 points and 84.03% of them participated actively in the class. The criteria of success were achieved after the researcher guided the students step by step, gave more explanation on the use of the simple past tense and discussed more about the grammar errors with the students. In conclusion, the implementation of the Scaffolding strategy improved the writing ability of VIII grade students in SMPN 4 Malang. The new concept of scaffolding strategy can bring new atmosphere and motivate the students in writing a good paragraph. Therefore, teacher in general should think of using the strategy in teaching writing as it can be used to improve the students’ writing ability. Besides, the strategy could help the students to be more active in the teaching and learning process. Future researchers who are interested in conducting a similar study are recommended to modify the Scaffolding strategy and implement the strategy to the different levels of the learners and in teaching different skills