THE CORRELATION BETWEEN STUDENTS’ PRIOR KNOWLEDGE AND THEIR ABILITY IN WRITING RECOUNT TEXT AT THE EIGHTH GRADE OF STATE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 1 KAMPA

ABSTRACT Sisca Novianti, (2019): The Correlation between Students’ Prior Knowledge and Their Ability in Writing Recount Text at the Eighth Grade of State Junior High School 1 Kampa This research was correlational research, which was aimed to find out the correlation between students’ prior knowledge and their ability in writing recount text. There were two variables used in this research. The first was X variable (students’ prior knowledge) and Y variable (students’ ability in writing recount text). The subject of this research was the eighth grade students of State Junior High School 1 Kampa, whereas the object of this research was the correlation between students prior knowledge and their ability in writing recount text. The population of this research was 200 students. The population of this research was large enough to be taken all as the sample. Hence, the researcher only took 15% of the population as the sample was 30 students. To choose the sample, the researcher used simple random sampling technique. In collecting the data, the researcher used gap filling test for students prior knowledge and writing test for writing ability in recount text, and analyzed the data by using Peorson product moment calculated by SPSS program 23 version. After analyzing the data, the result of score sig. (2-tailed) is 0.000 < 0.05. It means that the null hypothesis (Ho) was rejected, while the alternative hypothesis (Ha) was accepted. In other words, there is significant correlation between students’ prior knowledge and their ability in writing recount text at the eighth grade of State Junior High School 1 Kampa. Key words: Correlation, Prior Knowledge, Writing Ability, Recount Text