1

USING TWITTER AS MEDIA IN TEACHING WRITTEN RECOUNT

TEXT: A CASE OF THE EIGHTH GRADE STUDENTS OF SMP N 39
SEMARANG IN THE 2014/2015 ACADEMIC YEAR

a Final Project
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements
For the degree of Sarjana Pendidikan
In English

by
Reza Adi Nugraha
09420279

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH EDUCATION

FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION
UNIVERSITAS PGRI SEMARANG
2015

ABSTRACT

Nugraha, Reza Adi. 09420279. 2014. Using Twitter as Media in Teaching Written
Recount Text: a Case of the Eighth Grade Students of SMP N 39 Semarang in
academic year 2013- 2014. Final Project, English Department.Faculty of
Language and Arts Education, UNIVERSITAS PGRI Semarang. Advisor I: Sri
Wahyuni S.Pd., M.Pd. Advisor II: Ririn Ambarini S.Pd., M.Hum.
The objectives of this research are: (1) to find out the students ability in writing
skill among the eighth grade students of SMP N 39 Semarang taught with using
Twitter. (2) to find out the students ability in writing skill among the eighth grade
students of SMP N 39 Semarang taught without using Twitter. (3) to know
whether there is any significant difference of the students ability in writing skill
among the eighth grade students of SMP N 39 Semarang taught with and without
using Twitter.
This research involved two classes of the eighth grade students of SMP N 39
Semarang. The instrument to collect the data is writing test and questionnaire. In
this research, the writer analyzes the data base on the analysis grammatical error,
punctuation, organization of text, style and logical development that are found in
students recount text. In collecting data, the writer gives a writing test; the
writing test held in two steps, there are pre-test and post-test. The writer asks the
students to write a recount text by being their twitter account for post-test. The
writer uses (t) test to analyze the data. The result of analysis shows (1) that the
most difficulties found in students work sheet are a grammatical error and logical
development. Most of students cannot arrange their word into a logical
development paragraph and write into a correct grammatical structure, especially
in control class taught without using twitter. (2) The students in experimental
class got improvement in their writing skill after being taught using twitter, the
students ability in writing a recount text got better than before they taught
without using twitter.
In conclusion, using twitter is very helpful, enjoyable, interesting and it can avoid
the boredom of the students in learning English. The students can write a recount
text in a good organization of text. Moreover, using twitter to teach a recount text
can help students to express their ideas briefly and build students knowledge for a
new experience they got from twitter. It is suggested for the teachers and
education practition to apply the use of twitter to improve the students ability in
writing a recount text.
Keywords: writing, recount text, and twitter.

INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
As the important language, English has been taught early. English is
taught in kindergarten, elementary school, junior high school (SMP), senior
high school (SMA), and university level. Even in certain regions, English has
been taught in elementary school as a local subject. English must be taught in
order to make the students to be able to show their skills in listening, speaking,
reading, and writing. (Kepmendiknas, 2006 number 22 and 23).
Therefore, the writer will focus on Using Twitter as Media in Teaching
Written Recount Text: a Case of the Eighth Grade Students of SMP N 39
Semarang in the 2013/2014 Academic Year.
B. Reason for Choosing the Topic
1. Writing is one of the important of language skills, so writing must be taught
in Junior High School.
2. Twitter can give the motivation for the students, and it can make the student
easy to write.
3. The researcher chooses the eighth grade students of SMP N 39 Semarang
because the writer wants to know the students ability in writing recount
text using twitter.
C. Statements of the Problem
1. To what extent is the students ability in writing recount text with using
Twitter.
2. To what extent is the students ability in writing skill without using Twitter.
3. Is there any significant difference of the students ability in writing skill
with and without using Twitter.
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
A. General Concept of Writing
1. Definition of Writing
Writing is one of linguistic competences that is expressed in written
(Pardiyono, 2006: 1).

Most of students find that writing is boring because the process of

writing takes time. As it is stated by Harmer (2004, p.12)
Process of writing is a way of looking at what people do when
they composed written text. It may involve many changes of
direction while the writer chops and changes between the four
main elements. Nevertheless, process writing may not be the
answer in every learning situation. Over emphasis on process
elements may lead us into the process trap.
1. The Types of Writing
Four categories of writing that capture the range of written production
are considered. Each category resembles the categories defined for the
other three skills, but these categories, as always, reflect the uniqueness of
the skill area.
Based on Brown (2004: 220) there are four types of writing
performance:
Based on Brown (2004: 220) there are four types of writing
performance:
b. Imitative
To produce written language, the learners must attain skills in the
fundamental, basic tasks of writing letters, words, punctuation, and very
brief sentence. This category includes the ability to spell correctly and
to perceive phoneme-grapheme correspondences in the English spelling
system. It is a level at which learners are trying to master the mechanics
of writing. At this stage, form is the primary if not exclusive focus,
while context and meaning are of secondary concern.
c. Intensive (controlled)
Beyond the fundamental of imitative writing are skills in producing
appropriate vocabulary within a context, collocations and idioms, and
correct grammatical features up to the length of the sentence. Meaning
and context are of some important of determining correctness and
appropriateness, but most assessment tasks are more concerned whit a

focus on form, and are rather strictly controlled by the design.

d. Responsive
Here, assessment tasks require learners to perform at a limited
discourse level, connecting sentences into a paragraph and creating
logically connected sequence of two or three paragraphs. Tasks respond
to pedagogical directives, lists of criteria, outlines, and other guidelines.
Genre of writing include brief narratives and descriptions, short reports,
lab reports, summaries, brief responses to reading and interpretations of
chart or graphs.
e. Extensive
Extensive writing implies successful management of all the processes
and strategies of writing for all purposes, up to the length of an essay, a
term paper, a major research project report, or even thesis. Writers focus
on achieving a purpose, organizing and developing ideas logically, using
details to support illustrate ideas, demonstrating syntactic and lexical
variety, and in many cases, engaging in the process of multiple drafts to
achieve a final product. Focus on grammatical forms is limited to
occasional editing or proofreading of a draft.
2. The Importance of Writing
Writing has given an important contribution to human life.
According to Harmer (2004):
In the context of education, writing encourages
students to focus on accurate language use and,
because they think as they write, it may well provoke
language development as they resolve problems which
the writing puts into their minds. (p.31)
It is supported by Harmers opinion Being able to write is a vital
skill for speaker of foreign language as much as for everyone using their
own first language. (2004, p.3)
3. Teaching Writing

Harmer (2004:41) stated that there are five tasks which teachers have
to perform before, during, and after students writing:
a.

Demonstrating

b.

Motivating and provoking

c.

Supporting

d.

Responding

e.

Evaluating

4. General Concept of Media

According to Romiszowski quoted by Kasihani K.E Suyanto as (2008:100)
media are any extension of man which allows him to affect other people who
are not in face to face with him. Thus, communication media include letters,
television, film, radio, printed matter and telephone.
Heinich quoted by Kasihani K.E Suyanto as (2008: 101) media are carries of
the messages, messages from teacher to students.
5. General Concept of Twitter
Twitter is used to share the idea, thought, feeling and opinion in the
social media. Twitter is the seventh most-visited website on the internet
(http://www.Twitter.com/about.php).
6. Genre/ Text Type
Genre is a term of grouping text together, representing how to write
the text typically that uses language to respond to recurring situation.
7. Recount Text
Recount text is a text which retells events or experiences in the past to
inform and entertain the reader. This text also has social function, generic
structure, and language features.
METHOD OF THE RESEARCH
A. Research Design
There are two kinds of research methods; they are quantitative
research and qualitative research. The writer had used quantitative research in
which the research design is the statistic group comparison design. This
research had used two groups of subjects in which each of them had been

treated with different treatment. Next both of the groups had been measured
with the test and the results will be compared. The design of the research is as
follows:
Group A

O1 X O2

Group B

O3 O4

Where:
O1

: Pre test of the experimental group

O2

: Post test of the experimental group

O3

: Pre test of control group

O4

: Post test of control group

: Treatment
(Sugiyono, 2008: 159)

B. Subject of the Research

1. Population
Population is a group of individuals (or a group of organizations)
with some common defining characteristic that the writer can identify and
study.
So the total of population is 259 students.
2. Sample
Sample is a subgroup of the target population that the writer plans to
study for generalizing about the target population (Sugiyono, 2008: 81).
So the researcher took the data of 70 students for the research.
3. Sampling
In this research, the writer chose two groups as the experimental
group and control group.
C. Variable of The Research
Variable is the object of the study or focus of the research (Arikunto,
2006:118). Independent variable in this study is Twitter (
variable is writing achievement (

) and dependent

) of the eighth grade students of SMP N 39

Semarang in the 2012/2013 Academic Year.

D. Instrument of The Research

a. Observation
As Parrot (2007:19) said that, observation is considered to be
framework for directing the attention of an observer of a lesson, and for
recording the result of the result of this observation in a systematic way.
b. Test
1. Pre-test
Pre-test had been given before the treatment.
2. Post-Test
Post-test had been given after doing the pretest and the
treatments.
E. Method of Data Collection
1. The writer came to SMPN 39 Semarang and chose two classes which have
the same characters for each class of the population as the sample of the
experimental group.;
2. The writer gave questionnaire to the students and observation sheet to the
teacher
3. The writer gave pre-test for both of the groups, to score the result and
analyze them;
4. The writer gave the treatment to the experimental group treatment.
5. The writer gave the post-test to both groups, to score the result and analyze
them
6. After the two groups were given the pre-test, treatment and post-test, two
means of those groups are compared.
7. Finally, the writer draws a conclusion.
F. Technique of Data Analysis
Data analysis is the activity after all data are collected from all
respondents.
RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
The use of twitter in teaching written recount text

In collecting the data relating to the students ability in writing recount text, the
researcher gave a test to the eight grade students of SMP N 39 Semarang who
became the subject of this research. The researcher used twiter as the treatment for
the students.
1. The significant difference of students ability in writing recount
text with twitter and without twitter.
a. Overall Analysis
In conducting this research, the researcher has conducted two
teststo measure students improvements. They are pre- test and posttest. The result below shows the students improvements on post test.
Based on the post test both experimental and control class in
table 4.1 and 4.2, it can be concluded that the score of both classes
show significant differences. It can be seen that the maximum score in
the experimental class is 86 while the control class is 80. The
minimum score in experimental class is 56 while the minimum score
in control class is 20. The mean score in experimental class is 70, 49
while the mean score in control class is 53, 60. It means that the
students score in the experimental class is higher than the control
class.
b. The computation of t-test
To make the analysis more reliable, the scores was analyzed by
using t-test formula. t-test measures the significance of the result for
this research. The effectiveness of the treatment can be calculated
using the following formula:

Before applying t-test formula, the mean of the deviation value of pre-test
and post-test should be found first and then the researcher calculated the number
of deviation quadrate.
DISCUSSION

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Using Twitter can improve the students ability in writing recount text. This
research is conducted in a limited time (2 meetings) in the classroom atmosphere
that was enjoyable for the students to have discussion in class. Twitter can make
the students to be active in studying recount text. There were some steps to use
Twitter in teaching learning process. The first, teacher asked the students to
follow teachers Twitter account. Next, the teacher invited the students to join the
group of class on Twitter. After that, they can share their recount text to the group
of their class on Twitter and then their friends can give comments or opinion
about recount text. In conclusion, the result of this study confirms that Twitter is a
good media in teaching written recount text.
It can be seen by the result of the mean score in experimental class (VIII A) and
control class (VIII B). If it is compared, the mean score of the experimental class
is increasing higher than control class. The mean score of the control class is 53,
6and the mean score of the experimental class is 70, 49. It is clear that the
improvement of the mean score of the experimental class is higher than the
control class.In this research used of Twitter to improve the students ability in
writing recount text. In this activity, most of the students were active, enjoyable,
and comfortable in studying recount text by using Twitter.
To check the significant difference between the students ability after being taught
by using Twitter and without using Twitter, it was analyzed by using t-test
formula. The result of the t-test was8, 66. It should be consulted on critical value
on the t-table using 5% (0,05) alpha level of significance. The result of t-test was
higher than the critical value on the table (8,66>2,0315). It means that there was a
significant difference between teaching written recount text by using Twitter and
without using Twitter.
From the data above, it is obvious that Twitter is able to give contribution for
improving the students ability in writing recount text
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
A.

Conclusions
1 The use of Twitter in the class. By using Twitter, the students could
discuss about the text by giving comments or opinion about the text. The

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last step is the material was concluded by the teacher and students
together.
2

From the data analysis, the students who were taught by using Twitter got
the mean score higher than the students who taught without using Twitter.
The experimental group has mean score 70,49 whereas, the control group
has 53,60. So there is significant difference between teaching written
recount text by using Twitter and without using Twitter.

There is significant difference of students ability in writing recount text

after being taught by using Twitter and without using Twitter. It is proved
by the data analysis which is got from post-test result.

B.

Suggestions
1.

For The Teacher

a. Twitter is effective for students learning outcomes.
b. The teacher shouldapply the model better in teaching-learning
activity.
c. The teacher should create the comfortable and enjoyable situation.

2.

For The Students

a.

The students have to pay full attention in order to achieve a better

achievement in writing recount text.

b.

Students should improve their students learning outcomes in

writing by practicing in their daily activities by using Twitter.

3.

For The Readers

The readers can improve knowledge after reading this final
project and get experiences as the way to decrease their limitation.

4.

For The Writer

The writer can improve knowledge and experience in teaching
writing then he can motivate the students. So the students are more
interested in learning recount text.

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