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THE APPLICATION OF SCRAMBLED SENTENCES IN

IMPROVING WRITING SKILL OF THE EIGHTH


GRADE STUDENTS OF SMPN 3 AMLAPURA
IN ACADEMIC YEAR 2013/2014
Eva Nofia Krisna Kamadeni
Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris
Fakultas Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan
Universitas Mahasaraswati Denpasar
ABSTRACT
This study aimed to improve the writing skill of the eighth
grade students of SMPN 3 Amlapura in academic year 2013/2014. A
Scrambed sentence was assumed to be able to enhance students
writing skill. The present study used classroom action research
design that was started by administered Initial Reflection before
teaching learning was began, and then continued by reflection at
the end of each cycle. Initial reflection is given to the subjects in
order to know the pre-existing writing skill of subjects under study.
The score of the initial reflection was 51.07; it clearly showed that
the recount paragraph writing skill of subjects under study was still
low. The findings showed that there were improvements after being
taught through scrambled sentences. The result of the data
analysis of the reflection scores for the cycle I and cycle II figured
out the increasing mean figures of 71.00 and 76.53 for cycle I and
cycle II respectively. These findings clearly showed that the writing
skill of the eighth grade students of SMPN 3 Amlapura improved
significantly through scrambled sentences. In addition, the result
analysis of questionnaire scores showed the comparative
percentage figure of 68.05% for item A, 28.99% for item B, 2.95%
for item C, and 0% for item D. The result comparative percentages
figure clearly showed the subjects attitude and motivation in
learning and exercising recount paragraph writing through
scrambled sentences changed positively.

Keywords: Writing, Scrambled Sentences

INTRODUCTION
Writing is a complex activity and

Amlapura

still

have

problem

in

it is very important for our life. By

writing such as the students do not

writing skill, students can present their

know how to start the writing, they

ideas and also express their feelings.

could

Islam and Zemach (2000:5) state that

probably they understood what they

writing is an important form of

should do but they could not generate

communication in day to day life,

it into written form, they could not

students can find challenges to find

make a good sentence, they are still

ideas to include in their writing. Also,

confused when they are asked to

writing

students

organize words into a good sentence

communicate with each other in their

or organize sentences into a good

daily life indirectly.


Writing
is

the

paragraph.
The problem occurred because

communication tools, so mastering the

of some factors, they were less

writing skill is very important to

students

motivation

enable the learners communicate their

English

writing

ideas with the reader in written form.

environment was noisy so students

So, it is needed in school environment

concentration was disturbed when they

not only as tool for transferring the

were

knowledge

the

professionalism was not too high in

students and students to one another

handling lazy students and they were

but also as one of English skills that

lack in mastering grammar. When

should be learned by students, besides

teacher asked the students to write a

other skills like reading, speaking and

sentence, some students could not

listening.
Everyone admits that writing is a

make a sentence correctly.


Also, students were lack in

difficult subject, especially for the

mastering vocabulary. The lack of

eighth grade students of SMPN 3

vocabularies could be seen when the

helps

from

the

one

teacher

of

to

not

generate

learning

their

ideas,

in

learning

and

school

writing,

teacher

teacher asked them to make a sentence


or

paragraph

and

they

dont

Based

on

LarsenFreeman

(2000:133) scrambled sentences are

understand the meaning of their

part

sentence or paragraph. The last, in

teaching activity and it is usually used

teaching learning process teacher still

by the teacher in classroom. Teacher

used teacher centre method so it made

asks the students to unscramble the

students lazy to concentrate and write

lines of mixed-up dialogue or asks the

their ideas based on the material so the

students to put the pictures of a picture

teacher would be more active than the

strip story in right order and write

students.
Based on the difficulties that

lines to accompany the pictures.


Also, scrambled sentences

were faced by the eighth grade

were one of other activities that were

students of SMPN 3 Amlapura. The

used to improve students writing skill

researcher would solve it and find the

where students were given some

best

the

sentences with scrambled order and

students writing skill. One of the

they organize the sentences into a

ways to make the teaching writing

good order and they make a good

more effective is making the students

paragraph based on the sentences. It

active and creative in classroom. The

makes students enjoyable in the

researcher used scrambled sentences

classroom.

technique

to

improve

to improve the students writing skill.


Rogers
(2005:2)
defines
writing is not language, language is a
comlpex system residing in our brain
which allows us to produce and
interpret

utterances

but

writing

involves making an utterances visible.


Furthermore, Morley (2007:28) states
that writing is not painting, neither is it
a system atised knowledge. It is no
empirical science and learning writing
is not like teaching and learning
medicine.

of

communicative

language

Therefore, the present study is


intended to figure out the answer of
the research as follows: how can
writing skill of the eighth grade
students of SMPN 3 Amlapura in
academic year 2013/2014 be improved
through scrambled sentences?
As what has been discussed,
the present study is intended to figure
out whether or not writing skill of the
eighth grade students of SMPN 3
Amlapura in academic year 2013/2014

can be improved through scrambled

E class. This class consisted of 30

sentences. The present study is also

students with 16 females and 14

conducted to know the students

males. This class was chosen as the

motivation during the technique is

subject of the study because most of

applied.

them still have problem in writing

The
paragraph

discussion
is

of

too

writing

especially

and

paragraph.

broad

in

writing

recount

complicated in single coverage of the

This subject has difficulties

study. To avoid understanding among

when they wrote recount paragraph.

the readers so the discussion of study

This could be identified from the

only limited on the improving recount

result of the interview with the English

paragraph writing skill.

teacher of eighth grade students of


class E. She said that the students were

RESEARCH METHOD

still confused when the teacher asked

The present study made use of

them to write a story. As a result most

a Classroom Action Research (CAR)

of them obtained bad score or in other

design and this classroom action study

words, they were still low in mastering

concerned

with

writing

writing skill. This also supported by

through

scrambled

sentences.

the result of the pre-test which was

Classroom action research was divided

done by the students. This indicated

into two cycles; they were cycle I and

that the students ability was still poor.

cycle II and each cycle consisted of

In this study, the researcher used

four interconnected activities, namely:

two instruments in collecting data,

Planning, Action, Observation, and

they were test and questionnaire. Test

Reflection. In the present study, the

means of paragraph construction test

researcher

and it was score by scoring rubric.

scrambles

teaching

would

implement

sentences

in

teaching

writing in classroom.
carried out in of the eighth grade
classes

questionnaire

means

students response on the technique

The present study would be


students

Whereas,

in

SMPN

applied during the teaching learning


process.

In this research, the researcher

Amlapura, that is, the eighth grade of

had four meetings; it was started by

administering the Initial Reflection.

and the students discussed it in pairs.

Furthermore, the researcher applied

Furthermore

scrambled Sentences and administered

researcher asked the students to write

Reflection at the end of each cycle.

a recount paragraph based on the

Questionnaire was administered at the

topic. In addition, the researcher gave

end of cycle I.

a questionnaire in this cycle. The

in

session

II,

the

result of data analysis of the reflection


FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
The

findings

investigated

the

of

the

in this cycle was 71. The additional

study

effectiveness

of

data collected through administering a


ten-item

questionnaire

which

has

Scrambled Sentences in improving the

constructed in Bahasa Indonesia, it

writing skill of the eighth grade

was found that there were 68.05 for

students of SMPN 3 Amlapura. In the

item A, 28.99 for item B, 2.95 for

pretest, the subjects wrote a paragraph

item C and 0 for item D.

based on the topic and the mean score


of pretest was 51.07. This result
showed that the eighth grade students
writing skill was still low so their
writing

skill

urgently

needs

improvement and the researcher tried


to improve their writing skill through
Scrambled Sentences.
Cycle I
Based on the results of pretest,
cycle I was carried out. It was started
with planning and continued by action,
observation and reflection. In cycle I
session I, the researcher just taught
about recount paragraph and explained
the rule of Scrambled Sentences. Also,
the researcher gave them an exercise

These findings showed that the


mean score of cycle I higher than the
initial reflection (pretest) but it was
still under the standard completeness
that has been stated of SMPN 3
Amlapura

and

the

result

of

questionnaire also showed that there


were

fairly

concerning
though

positive
the

there

responses

technique.
was

Even
positive

improvement, the researcher decided


to continue to the next cycle that was
cycle II to get a better improvement.
Cycle II
Cycle

II

was

started

with

planning which had already been


revised from the previous cycle. This

revision was made based on the results

The result of the data analysis of

of post-test and questionnaire in cycle

the reflection or post-test scores in

I. in cycle II session I, the researcher

cycle I showed the increasing mean

explained about recount paragraph

figures of 71.00. The mean figure

briefly and gave the students an

obtained by the subject under study in

exercise and they discussed it in group

cycle I was clearly much higher than

work. In session II, the researcher

the mean figure of IR or pre-test score.

asked the students to write a recount

This mean figure revealed that the

paragraph about their past experience.

teaching writing to the eighth grade

Their recount paragraphs were scored

students

by using analytical scoring rubric and

through scrambled sentences could be

the mean score of this cycle was

improved.

of

SMPN

Amlapura

76.53. This result was categorized as

The result of the data analysis of

good because it higher than the

the reflection or post-test scores

standard completeness.

obtained by the subjects under study in


cycle II turned out to show the

DISCUSSION

progressing mean figures of 76.53.

The data analysis guided to the

Comparing with the mean figure of IR

establishment of the findings of the

or pre-test scores, the mean figure

present

obtained by the subjects for each cycle

classroom

investigated

study
of

was convincingly much higher. The

scrambled sentences in improving

grand mean figure of the reflection or

writing skill of the eighth grade

post-test

students of SMPN 3 Amlapura. The

subjects under study in cycle I was

mean of IR or pre-test scores obtained

71.00 and in cycle II was 76.53. There

by the subjects under study in writing

was the different mean figure between

recount paragraph through scrambled

cycle I and cycle II.

sentences pointed out the mean figure

This

51.07.

This

the

action

effectiveness

mean

figure

clearly

mean

scores

figure

obtained

significant
suggested

by the

difference
that

the

showed that pre-existing writing skill

teaching writing in cycle II (S3 and

of the students was relatively low.

S4) by using scrambled sentences


could be remarked to be more

effective than cycle I. This was due to

as reliability. This was due to the fact

the fact that cycle II was revised the

that during the undertaking of this

version of cycle I, in that the teaching

study, there were some compounding

scenario in cycle II were accordingly

variables which were applicable only

revised

account

to the subjects under study, and the

weaknesses found out in cycle I. It

English teacher of other classes should

was logical if the mean of the

carefully adopt and use of these

reflection score in cycle II was higher

findings.

by

taking

into

than cycle I.

The researcher fully realized that

The proportional percentage

the established findings had some

figures of the total response of the

weak versions. There were many

questionnaire for item A, B, C, and D

aspects that could be weaken the

were 68.05, 28.99, 2.95 and 0

validity

for item A, B, C, and D respectively.

established findings of the classroom

The questionnaire which was actually

action study should be only used as

intended to measure the changing

one of the optional techniques. So, the

learning behavior of the subjects under

writing skill of the eighth grade

study in learning writing through

students of SMPN 3 Amlapura in

scrambled sentences was administered

academic year 2013/2014 can be

by the end of the cycle I.

improved

The result of the comparative

and

reliability

of

significantly

the

through

scrambled sentences.

percentage figures obtained for the


present class proved that the subjects

CONCLUSION

learning behavior changed positively,

This

present

study

used

that was, their attitude and motivation

classroom action research designed

heightened significantly. It showed

and it consisted of four interconnected

that the subject learning behavior

activities namely planning, action,

especially their attitude and motivation

observation, and reflection. And the

changed positively.

writing skill of the eighth grade

The findings of the present

students

of

SMPN

Amlapura

classroom action study were believed

improved significantly. This could be

to have rather limited validity as well

seen from the increasing mean score

of the subjects. In addition, the

sentence

subjects also responded positively

Macmillan.

to

paragraph:

toward the implementation of the

Rogers, H. (2005). Writing System a

technique. This result in line with the

Linguistic Approach. Blackwell

results of the questionnaire at the end

Publishing

of cycle I. in short, the researcher

Congress

define that Scrambled Sentences is an

Publication Data.

effective

technique

to

improve

students writing skill.

Library

Cataloging-in-

and Principles in Language

REFERENCES

(Second

Edition).

Oxford University Press.

Islam, C and Zemach, E. D. (2000).


writing

of

Larsen-Freeman, D. (2000). Techiques


Teaching.

Paragraph

Ltd:

from

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