USING SCAFFOLDING STRATEGY TO IMPROVE TENTH GRADERS’ DESCRIPTIVE WRITING

ABSTRACTIkhramsyah, Aam Arrahman. 2018. Using Scaffolding Strategy to Improve Tenth Graders’ Descriptive Writing. Thesis, English Department, Faculty of Letters, State University of Malang.  Advisors: (1) Prof. Dr. M. Adnan Latief, M.A (2) Nur Hayati, S.Pd, M.Ed.Keywords: Scaffolding strategy, writing, descriptive essayThis study is directed to improve students’ ability in writing descriptive essay using scaffolding strategy. Based on the observation done in one senior high school in Mojokerto the students had problems in writing such as grammar, lack of vocabularies, and low motivation in learning writing.  Based on the problems, an appropriate teaching strategy was required in order to improve students’ writing descriptive texts. As a result, the use of Scaffolding strategy was applied in teaching writing. The research design used in this study is Classroom Action Research (CAR). The research was conducted in one cycle that contains four stages: planning, action, observing, and reflecting. The study was conducted in four meetings. The subject of the study was 34 students of XI IPA I MAN Mojosari. There were four instrument used to collect the data: the scoring rubric was used to assess the students’ writing product, while the questionnaire, observation sheet, and field notes were used to gain data on the students’ responses toward the use of the  scaffolding strategy. The findings of this study showed that: (1) 79% of the students achieved above the minimum score of 75 with the average score of 80; It indicated that the use of scaffolding was successful in improving the students’ ability in writing descriptive text; (2) more than 80% of the students responded positively toward the implementation of scaffolding strategy in teaching writing; it indicated that the students enjoyed the teaching and learning process; (3) more than 80% of the students involved and participated in teaching and learning process which indicated that students were active during lesson. The procedure of the implementation of the technique as follows: (1) examining writing difficulties faced by the students, (2) making students understand the scaffolding strategy, (3) providing the students with a good model of descriptive text, (4) explaining descriptive text in terms of the functions, language features, and text structure, (5) giving the students guiding questions and graphic organizer to generate ideas and make it easier for the students to write descriptive text, and (6) giving the students opportunity to revise their writing based on the feedback and comment from the researcher to make it a good writing product.Based on the students’ achievement in the findings of this study, it is recommended that the English teacher can apply scaffolding strategy for teaching writing to improve student’s ability in writing descriptive text.  For other researchers this study can be used as reference for further research