THE EFFECT OF USING STAD TECHNIQUE TO IMPROVE

STUDENTS’ WRITING ABILITY AT SMP NEGERI 2 RUMBIO JAYA

A PROPOSAL

YONDRA SLAMAT
SIN. 11810413518

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH EDUCATION

FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND TEACHER TRAINING
STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY OF SULTAN SYARIF KASIM RIAU
PEKANBARU
1444 H/2023 M
 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Problem

Language is a communication system. It is basically a means of both

oral and written system. It is important for us to learn language especially

English since it is used as a means of communication among nations in the

world, so English becomes the most important language in the world.

Although English is not the language with the largest number or native of

‘first’ language speakers, it is widely used by many people all over the world

as their ‘second’ language (Harmer, 2001). It is not surprising that the

teaching of English is carried out in many parts of the world. In Indonesia, for

example, English is the first foreign language that is taught as a compulsory

subject at Elementary School (SD), Junior high School (SMP), Senior High

School (SMA), and some semesters at the university. The teaching of English

has a significant influence on the development of education and society since

the great importance of English today is undeniable. The main task of a

teacher is arranging program, implementing the program, carrying out an

evaluation, analyzing the result of the evaluation, and arranging remedial and

enrichment programs for the students. A teacher, in carrying out the task has

to refer to the curriculum. A curriculum is arranged to realize the aim of the

national education by considering the students’ development phase, the

environment, the national education need, the development of science and

technology as well as art. As a result, the Indonesian government always

makes effort to improve the quality of English education. The process of

teaching learning English is very complex, the success and the failure are

dependent upon many factors. In order to make English teaching successful

there are some factors which should be taken into consideration, such as the

quality of the teachers, books, teaching technique and classroom interaction.

Communication is a verbal and non-verbal dialogue between people.

As social being, man needs to cooperate with others in his life and he will

have difficulties in getting along with one another without language. On the

other hand, language is viewed as a vehicle for communicating meaning and

messages. It can be said that language as a vehicle through the world that can

be understood and appreciated. Communication is recognizing and expressing

information, thought, feelings, and also developing knowledge, technology

and culture by using knowledge. Knowledge is the ability to understand and

produce text in spoken and written forms involving four skills; there are

listening, speaking, reading, and writing. So, it becomes important to master

English. As we know, writing becomes an alternative way to share our mind,

feelings and so on. Sometimes, people do not have the ability to speak well

but they can share their thought and feelings by writing.

According to the statement in the Introduction of English Syllabus

Model of School Based Curriculum 2013, communicating orally and in the

written form in the communication is the goal of learning a language. So, it is

clear that language is not only an abstract object to learn but also a tool of

communication and a tool of changing or influencing the environment in a

person’s everyday life. In learning language as a tool of communication, one

needs to be aware that learning language is not only mastering the

vocabularies, pronunciations, and grammar of the language but also how to

use it to communicate with others both spoken and written forms.

This leads the government to try to apply the best system of English

education in Indonesia that is suitable in the teaching learning process

condition in Indonesia. The teaching technique is one of the important things

in teaching learning process. It is supported by Finnochiaro (1974) who says

that a teacher needs methods and techniques of teaching English as a second

language to develop certain skills and insight. She also says that language

learners should be given insight to the place and function of various language

items and skills in listening, speaking, reading, and writing activities. In the

2013 curriculum, genre is one of the most important and influential concept in

language education. One of the standard competencies is to communicate in

spoken and written forms using appropriate terms fluently and accurately in

instructional discourse and/or monologue especially in description and

recount referring to variation and interpersonal meaning.

SMP Negeri 2 Rumbi Jaya is a formal institution in Rumbio Jaya,

Kampar. English is one of the subjects taught at this school. This school

follows the Curriculum 2013 (K13), and English is taught twice a week for 90
minutes each time. Based on the preliminary study, there are some problems

of students’ writing ability in SMP Negeri 2 Rumbio Jaya. This is because the

students are difficulty getting started on writing assignments. Then, there are

many careless errors and poorly planned papers and reports.

Based According to Heaton (1974) writing is complex and difficult to

teach requiring mastery not only of grammatical and rhetorical devices but

also concept and judgment. Because of the difficulties of writing, some efforts

have been made to solve the problem. To bring out the effort, the curriculum

has to prepare the students to achieve the competence. It also prepares the

students to communicate using language to participate in the society. The

main objective is to make the writing become easier to learn for the students,

especially descriptive writing. An understanding of the concept allows writing

teachers to identify the kinds of texts that students will have to write. In

writing, we should follow the generic structures of the text including the use

of grammar.

Based on the 2013 curriculum, there are many texts type that should be

mastered by the students. One of them is descriptive text. Descriptive text is

taught to the second year students because it is considered as the important

text that should be taught not only in junior high school but also in senior high

school. Descriptive text is a text that has a function to describe a person, a

place or thing. Sometimes, the students get difficulties in writing descriptive

text because they still lack competence in lexico-grammatical features and

generic structures of descriptive text.

Regarding the problems faced by students in writing descriptive texts

above, the writer proposed that teaching writing using cooperative learning is

one of the appropriate techniques. Every school, classroom or instructional

group has its own climate. Johnson (1970) said that the climate patterns of

interaction in the classroom will have large impact upon the behavior of the

students and the amount of learning that takes place. The classroom climate

consists of interaction in the ways in which people in the classroom interact

with each other. Borman (1975) states that group work methods are the

strategies and tactics of dealing with team interpersonal relation and task

function through the application of language about team process and

dynamics. So, it is clear that team work in learning English provides students

or members of the team opportunity to express and to communicate with each

other. One of the ways to make the students express and communicate with

each other is by dividing the class into several team works. This condition

may result in more interaction, more negotiation for meaning than do the same

task in the teacher fronted condition.

In team work learning format, the students’ achievement is facilitated

by cooperative learning. One kind of cooperative learning is Student Teams

Achievement Division (STAD). This method was devised by Slavin and his

associates at John Hopkins University. This system uses group heterogeneity

 and divides class into several team works. This condition is to make more

interaction, more negotiation for meaning than if the teaching phase begins

with the presentation of material. After that during team study, group

members work cooperatively with the teacher providing worksheet and

answer sheets. In Student Teams Achievement Division (STAD) the students’

interest can be stimulated by the classroom ‘give and take’ process. In STAD

method there will be interaction between students – students and students -

teacher. Thus the boarder context of communicative, meaning seeking and

information processing will occur.

Based on explanation above, the researcher is interested in carrying

out a research entitled: “The Effect of Using STAD Technique to Improve

Students’ Writing Ability at SMP Negeri 2 Rumbio Jaya”

B. Identification of the Problem

The researcher found some of the students are difficulty getting started

on writing assignments. Also, some of the students are easy distractibility

during writing task. Then, there are many careless errors and poorly planned

papers and repots.

C. Limitation of the Problem

Based on the identification above, the researcher limited the problem

in using STAD technique in teaching writing ability especially in descriptive

text in order to know the significant difference on students’ writing ability in

descriptive text between taught without and by using the STAD technique,
 and also to know the effect of using the STAD technique at the second year

students of SMP Negeri 2 Rumbio Jaya.

D. Formulation of the Problem

Based on the limitation of the problem above, the researcher formulated

the problem of this research into the following research question:

1. How is the students’ writing ability of descriptive text taught without

using STAD technique of the second year students at SMP Negeri 2

Rumbio Jaya?

2. How is the students’ writing ability of descriptive text taught by using

STAD technique of the second year students at SMP Negeri 2

Rumbio Jaya?

3. Is there any significant difference on students’ writing ability between

descriptive text taught without and by using the STAD technique of

the second year students at SMP Negeri 2 Rumbio Jaya?

4. How is the effect of using the STAD technique on students’ writing

ability of descriptive text of the second year students at SMP Negeri 2

Rumbio Jaya?

E. Objective of the Research

1. To investigate the students’ writing ability of descriptive text taught

without using STAD technique of the second year students at SMP

Negeri 2 Rumbio Jaya.

 2. To investigate the students’ writing ability of descriptive text taught

by using STAD technique of the second year students at SMP Negeri

2 Rumbio Jaya.

3. To investigate whether there is significant difference on students’

writing ability between descriptive text taught without and by using

the STAD technique of the second year students at SMP Negeri 2

Rumbio Jaya.

4. To investigate how is the effect of using STAD technique on students’

writing ability of descriptive text of the second year students at SMP

Negeri 2 Rumbio Jaya.

F. Significance of the Research

This study was expected to give positive impact to give accurate

information about benefits in improving students’ writing ability by using

STAD technique. Theoretically, this research can make students more

effective for developing understanding, role-taking and compassion.

Practically, this study can provide better strategies for teaching writing

in the class. This research can improve teaching writing ability at Junior High

School. The findings can develop the application of the STAD technique for

teaching writing to Junior High School Students.

G. The Definition of the Key Term

1. STAD Technique
 STAD (Student Teams-Achievement Division) is a one of the

oldest and most extensively researched form of cooperative learning.

Robert Slavin and his colleagues in John Hopkins University

developed STAD teaching. Slavin (1995) states that cooperative

learning of STAD technique consists of five major components. They

are: class presentation, teams, quizzes, individual scores, and team

recognitions

2. Writing

Harmer (2007) states that writing is used as an aide-memoire

or practice tool to help students practice and work with language they

have been studying. Writing is a way to produce language and express

idea, feeling and opinion. Writing encourages the students to focus on

accurate language use and because they think as they write, it may

well provoke language development as they resolve problem when the

writing is put into their mind.

3. Descriptive text

Wishon and Burks (1980) said that descriptive writing

reproduce the way things look, smell, taste, feel or sound. It may also

evoke moods, such as happiness, loneliness or fear. Callaghan (1988)

also said that a descriptive writing creates a clear and vivid impression

of person, place or thing.

H. Research Design
 This research was experimental research. It is commonly categorized

into three designs: pre-experimental, true-experimental, and quasi-

experimental designs. In this research, the researcher used a quasi-

experimental design with a pretest-posttest design. According to Creswell

(2012), quasi experiment includes participants who are assigned to groups, but

not at random. This is because the experimenter cannot construct groups for

the experiment

According to Creswell (2012), there were two groups that are required

to carry out quasi-experimental research. This research used two classes with

different treatments between experimental and controlled classes. In the

experimental class, the researcher will apply with the treatment of STAD

technique. Another class is the control class, the researcher taught without

using the STAD technique.

 CHAPTER II
LITERATURE REVIEW
A. Theoretical Framework
1. Nature of STAD
2. Nature of Writing
Writing is as productive skill also needs to be improved. When the students‟
writing skill gets improvement, it can support the student‟s English
competency. Patel and Jain (2008) states that writing skill must be taught
and practiced. This idea also supported by Nunan (2003). Nunan States that
writing almost always improves with practice. It means that the students
must be taught what the writing skill is and gives some opportunities to
have practices in writing so they will get improvement in their writing skill.
Or in otherword, the students will get improvement in writing when they
have more practices in writing and it can be taught also at the class. In
addition, Habibullah (2017) said that writing is a process of communication
where the students express ideas on paper. Writing is a thinking process
where ideas are generated and focused on more relevant ideas.
a. Purpose of Writing
Pertaining to Ur (1996) “the purpose of writing, in principle, is the
expression of ideas, the conveying of a message to the reader; so
the ideas themselves should arguable be seen as the most
important aspect of the writing”. It means that, if the writers do
 their writing of course they have the purpose. They have to consider
the purpose of their writing before they write the writing.
In addition, according to Grenville (2001) the purpose of writing can
be classified, the first is to entertain, writing to entertain generally
takes the form of so called „imaginative writing‟ or „creative
writing‟ (of course, all writing requires some imagination and
creativity). Second, to inform, the kinds of writing can also be
entertaining in the sense that they are a good read. And the third is
to persuade, this includes advertisement, some newspaper and
magazine articles, and some types of essay. From the explanation
about the purpose of writing above, the researcher concluded that
there are some purposes of writing, they are to entertain, to
persuade, and to give information to the reader. Besides that, the
purpose of writing also to conveying or express the students‟
imagination or ideas in their mind

B. Relevant Research
C. Operational Concept
D. Assumption and Hypothesis

CHAPTER III
METHOD OF THE RESEARCH
A. The Research Design

This research is experimental research. It is commonly categorized into three

designs: pre-experimental, true-experimental, and quasi-experimental designs. In this

research, the researcher used a quasi-experimental design with a pretest-posttest

design. According to Creswell (2012), quasi experiment includes participants who

are assigned to groups, but not at random.

 This research used two classes with different treatments between

experimental and controlled classes. In the experimental class, the researcher will

apply with the treatment of STAD. Another class is the control class, the researcher

will teach without using STAD. Briefly, the research design that will be applied in

this research could be illustrated as below:

Table III.1
The Research Design

Pre- and Posttest Design Time

Select Control Group
Pretest No Treatment Posttest
(X.G)
Select Experimental Treatment
Pretest Posttest
Group (X.I) (Using STAD)
Adopted from Creswell (2012)

The Location and Time of the Research

This research was conducted at SMA Negeri (State Senior High School) 1

Rambah regency Rokan Hulu, Riau which located at Diponegoro street No. 129,

Rambah, Rokan Hulu regency, Riau. This research was conducted from July until

August 2022, where the researcher focused on the tenth-grade students of SMA

Negeri 1 Rambah regency Rokan Hulu. This research was conducted in five

meetings for each class: pre-test, treatment three times, and post-test.

B. The Subject and Object of the Research

 The subject of this research was the first year students of State Senior High

School 1 Rambah Rokan Hulu regency or SMA Negeri 1 Rambah Rokan Hulu

regency, academic year 2022/2023.

1. Subject of the Research

The subject of this research was the first year students of State Senior High

School 1 Rambah Rokan Hulu regency or SMA Negeri 1 Rambah Rokan Hulu

regency, academic year 2022/2023.

2. Object of the Research

The object of this research is using Webtoon application to improve

students’ reading comprehension of narrative text.

C. The Population and Sample of the Research

1. Population

The researcher choose tenth grade of SMAN 1 Rambah as the population of

this research. According to Creswell (2012), “Population is a group of individuals

who have the same characteristic”. Specifically, the tenth-grade students of SMA

Negeri 1 Rambah is chosen because they are learning about narrative text. There are

310 students of eleventh grade at SMA Negeri 1 Rambah consisting of male and

female students from eight classes. The population of the research can be seen as

follows:
Table III.2
The Total Population of Eleventh Grade Students at SMA Negeri 1 Rambah
No Classes Male Female Total
1 XA 24 11 35
2 XB 24 11 35
3 XC 22 12 34
4 XD 24 11 35
5 XE 20 14 34
6 XF 21 13 34
7 XG 21 13 34
8 XH 20 15 35
9 XI 20 12 34
Total Population 310

2. Sample

This research was Quasi-Experiments design which carried out two groups.

So in this research, the researcher took two classes to be the sample by using

purposive sampling or also known as judgmental sampling. According to Neuman

(2014), purposive sampling or judgment sampling is focused on the assessment of

researchers to select samples with a specific purpose in conducting research.

Purposive sampling was used to select samples according to the purpose or the needs

of researcher in conducting research.

To deciding the sample, the researcher had criteria such as interest in learning

English, the score obtained in learning English are same, their ability in English

language, and knowing the Webtoon application. Based on the criteria, X.G was
 chosen as the experimental class and X.I as a control class. The researcher was

chosen based on their score and ability, especially in English language and interview

with the teacher of English language.

Table III.3
The sample of SMAN 1 Rambah
No Classes Male Female Total
X.G (Experimental
1 21 13 34
Class)
2 X. I (Control Class) 22 12 34
Total Sample 68

D. The Technique of Collecting Data

Collecting data is the most significant one in the research in order to support

the research. Arikunto (2013) defined instrument of the research as a tool or facility

that the researcher uses to collect data in order to make the research process easier

and get a better result, accurate, complete, methodical, and easy to evaluate. There

are many types of technique for collecting the data such as questionnaire, interview,

observation, test and documentation.

1. Test

In this research, the researcher used test. According to Brown (2003), test is

a method of determining a persons’ ability, knowledge, or performance in a

specific topic. The test in this research is reading comprehension test, it is divided
 into two categories, pre-test and post-test. This technique used to measure students’

reading comprehension of narrative text. The researcher applied several techniques

of data collection, they are as follows:

a. Pre-test

Pre-test used to collect the data about students’ reading comprehension in

narrative text. The results of the reading test tryout will delivered by the

administrator in order to determine the quality of the test as a research

instrument. The students are given a multiple choice in which they are required

to choose one correct answer from the options a, b, c, d or e.

b. Post-test

Post-test is given after teaching several times. After the experimental class has

received treatment, a post-test is used to collect final data on students’ reading

comprehension.

The researcher give Pre-test and Post-test to the students, the type of the test is

multiple choice, the number of each pre-test and post-test consist of 40 questions.

This technique can assess the students’ reading comprehension. Every multiple

choice item consist of four answers (a, b, c, d and e). The test is intended to obtain

reading comprehension at the tenth grade students of Senior High School 1 Rambah.

The scores of narrative text were classify in the table below:

Table III.4
The Classification of Students’ Score
 The Score Level Category
80-100 Very Good
66-79 Good
56-65 Enough
40-55 Less
30-39 Fail
(Arikunto, 2009)

For further information about the instruction of texts, the writer showed the

blueprint of both tests as follows:

Table III.5
The Blueprint of Reading Comprehension Test

No Question in Indicator Number Question

Students are able to identify the main idea 1, 13, 21, 24, 25, 27,
1
of narrative text 30, 36
Students are able to find out the detail
2 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 15, 16,
information of narrative text
Students are able to find out meaning of 10, 19, 26, 28, 32, 33,
3
certain words of narrative text 34, 39
Students are able to make reference of 8, 23, 29, 31, 35, 37,
4
narrative text 38, 40
Students are able to make inference of 9, 11, 12, 14, 17, 18,
5
narrative text 20, 22

2. Validity

Before carrying out a test, it is necessary to know the validity of the

instruments. Validity is a criterion for measuring what an instrument is designed

to measure. It is about a test or an instrument that accurately measures what it is

supposed to measure. In order to know the validity of the reading comprehension

 test, the researcher used content validity to know the validity of the reading

comprehension. According to Muijs (2004), content validity is refers to whether

or not the content of the manifest variables (e.g. items of a test or questions of a

questionnaire) is right to measure the latent concept (self-esteem, achievement,

attitudes, etc) that what we are trying to measure.

To find out the validity of test, the researcher calculated it by using SPSS 23

Version. The standard value of validity is r item>r table. Based on the try out

result, it was determined that all of the items were valid. The result of try out is

as follows:

1. Reliability

A test must be reliable as measuring instrument. After having tested the

validity of the instrument, the next step is to examine the reliability. Reliability

is a necessary characteristic of any good test. A test is considered reliable if the

same test is given to the same subject or matched subjects in two different

occasions, instrument reliability was estimate by using Test-Retest reliability.

According to Cohen et.al,(2007) the guidelines for reliability is as follows:

Table III.7
Category of Reliability
N Reliability Category
o
1 >0.90 Very highly reliable
2 0.80-0.90 Highly reliable
 3 0.70-0.79 Reliable
4 0.60-0.69 Minimally reliable
5 <0.60 Unacceptably low
reliability
Cohen et.al,(2007)

In this research, the researcher used software SPSS.23 version to calculate the

reliability of the test. The result of multiple choice test reliability is as follows:

E. The Technique of Analyzing Data

To evaluate the pre-test and post-test scores of both student classes, the data

was analyzed and calculated using the T-test formula in IBM SPSS version 23. It

consists of some procedures in the process, such as normality, homogeneity, and

hypothesis testing. The step to conducting the test will be explained below:

1. Normality Test

Before analyzing the data by using t-test formula, the researcher had to

find out the normality test of the data. According to Priyatno (2012, p.33) the

normality of the data test can be analyzed by using lilliefors and One Sample

Kolmogorov Smirnov.

In this research, the researcher used liliefors through SPSS.25 version.

Analysis:

If the probability > 0.05 Ho was accepted

If the probability < 0.05 Ho was rejected

2. Analysis Data
 In analyzing the data, the researcher used students’ post-test score in

experimental and control classes. This score was analyzed statistically. In this

research the researcher used these formulas:

a. Independent sample t-test

Hartono (2009) said that to find out whether or not there is a

significant difference between two or more variables that can be analyzed by

using independent sample t-test. Gay (2000) added that the t-test for

independent sample is used to determine whether or not there is probably a

significant difference between the means of two independent samples.

Independent sample t-test was used to know whether there is a significant

effect on students’ comprehension in reading report text taught by using and

without using Herringbone Technique.

In this research, the data were analyzed by using SPSS 25 Version.

The significant value was employed to see whether or not there is a

significant effect among the mean scores of both experimental and control

classes.

Statistical hypothesis:

a) H0 = sig. (2 tailed)>0.05

b) Ha = sig. (2 tailed)<0.05

3. Effect size

According to Pallant (2005) effect size is the strength of the difference

between groups or the influence of independent variable. There are a number of

 different effect size statistics, the most commonly used being eta squared. Eta

squared can range from 0 to 1 and represents the proportion of variance in the

dependent variable that is explained by the independent (group) variable. The

formula for eta squared is as follows:

Where :

2= eta squared

2= t obtained

N1 = Number of students

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