THE EFFECTIVENESS OF USING PICTURE SERIES AS TEACHING MEDIA TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ WRITING ABILITY IN NARRATIVE TEXT AT SMAN 1 SUMBERPUCUNG

This research aims to investigate and explore the use of picture series as teaching media towards tenth grade students’ writing ability in narrative text at SMA 1 Sumberpucung in Malang. The teaching of writing in high school level is never been easy. Many problems occur both from teacher and students. Mostly English teachers in Indonesia rarely use interesting media that can attract students’ attention. Instead, most teachers only use handbook to teach writing skill. Of course, with limited and boring media students do not feel motivated to learn in class. This result in the low score of students’ writing test. It is found that students face many difficulties in writing narrative text. They tend to get difficulty in generating idea and write a story in a correct sequence. Thus, the researcher eagers to conducts a research regarding the use of picture series to improve students’ ability in writing narrative text. The researcher uses mixed method to gather and analyzed the data. The population of the research is all students at tenth grade level at SMAN 1 Sumberpcucung Malang. The samples 60 students from X-IPS 3 (Experimental Group) and X-IPS 4 (Control Group). The researcher mixes quasi-experimental with qualitative research design. The experiment last for 4 meetings. The researcher teaches both classes. The quantitative data are in the form of scores from pretest and posttest. While, the qualitative data are in the form of pictures and transliterated interviews/interaction. From the data findings, the researcher finds that the score of posttest in experimental group higher than control group. The score of posttest in experimental group is 77.77 and the control group is 72.53. The independent T-test also shows a score of Sig. (2tailed) 0.025. This indicate that the treatment given in the experimental group can improve students’ writing ability in narrative text. Since, the Sig, (2-tailed) score is less than 0.025 the alternative hypothesis is accepted. Those quantitative data are also supported by the qualitative data. According to the observation and interviews, most students show a positive response. After treatment is given students become more focus and motivated to learn. They also active in participating in class activities like responding to the question asked by the researcher and share their idea in class. In conclusion, the use of picture series is proven to be able to improve students’ writing ability and score in narrative text. Additionally, picture series also keep students stay motivated and focus on the assignment. It also makes students more active in class