The effect of using picture series with oral questions on the narrative writing achievement of the English Department students of Widya Mandala University

Eventhough there are four important language skills taught in English Language Teaching, not all students can master them very well especially when it comes to writing skill. Many of them consider writing as a difficult skill to learn. During the writer’s study time as one of the English Department students of Widya Mandala university, she also observed that many students complained when they were asked to write a certain type of writing, eventhough the type of writing was the easiest type such as narrative writing. Mainly and commonly, they have difficulties in getting the ideas and how to put the ideas into the paragraphs which are linked to one another. To overcome those problems above, the writer tried to conduct a new technique in teaching writing through Picture-series presented with oral questions. Since the most easiest type of writing is Narration, then in this study, the writer only discussed the application of her new technique that is Picture-series to teach narrative writing. The population of this study was the first semester English Department students of the year 1997-1998. The samples were taken not randomized but the classes were used as they were. Here, the writer would use two classes or groups as the samples. Then, both of them were given different treatments. Group A would be the experimental group, the group who would receive Picture-series with oral questions as the treatment. Group D would be the control group, the group who would receive List of Vocabulary with headings as the treatment. These treatments were given three times before the writer conducted her real post-test to both of the groups. To analyze the results of the treatments and post-test of the two groups, the writer used t-test to find the answer to the question and simultaneously to test the hypothesis of the study whether the null hypothesis is accepted or rejected. The null hypothesis of this study was: there was no significant difference between picture-series technique and list of vocabulary technique on the students’ narrative writing achievement. While the alternative hypothesis of this study was: there was a significant difference between picture-series technique and list of vocabulary technique on the students’ narrative writing achievement. The results of this statistical calculation indicated that the students treated or taught with Picture-series and oral questions (group A) got higher or better scores than those who were taught with List of Vocabulary and headings. The mean of the experimental group was 83.75 while the mean of the control group was 76.575. The obtained-t value of the post test conducted was 2.2264552 and the t-table was 1.725. Since the obtained-t was higher than the t-table, hence, the writer could conclude that the null hypothesis (Ho) was rejected and te alternative hypothesis was accepted. In other words, there is a significant difference between the writing achievement of the students taught with Picture-series and oral questions than that of the students taught with List of Vocabulary and headings. Finally, the writer realizes that this thesis is far from being perfect. Thus, she really hopes there will be further researchers and related studies to be conducted so that the more generalize results can be attained