Improving writing skill of EFL learners through picture series

The skill of recount paragraph writing of the fourth semester Mathematics students of Maulana Malik Ibrahim State Islamic University of Malang in writing paragraphs was still unsatisfactory. To overcome this problem, the researcher proposed one of the appropriate strategies in the teaching of English recount writing using picture series. The findings indicate that using picture series had improved students’ ability in writing recount paragraph. After the researcher conducted the first and second cycle, it was shown that the result of the second cycle improved. Only 6 of 34 students (17,15%) still received scores under the target score 60. The steps were: (1) the lecturer gave the picture series to groups of four students, (2) the lecturer explained Simple Past Tenses, vocabulary of irregular verbs, and plural nouns to the students to help them solve their problems in recount writing, and (3) the lecturer provided the vocabulary of irregular verbs and plural nouns on sheets of paper that made their writing better. It is suggested that lecturers socialize the strategy in the lecturer’s meeting, workshops, trainings, or to write articles about writing which uses picture series strategy in the students’ books, or journals. Second, it is recommended that the students use picture series as a learning strategy to practice their writing ability, which can be done in their extra-curricular activity. Third, future researchers are suggested to conduct a similar study using picture series for the improvement of the teaching of recount writing