CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. The Background of the Problem Writing is one of the core skills for success in education. The ability to write has become an indispensable skill in students life. Almost every aspect of everyday life of students is carried out in writing forms such as doing exercises, homework, project papers, reports, and even final exams. To support students ability in writing, students must enable to construct ideas, to share information, to describe, to explain, to restate texts, to enquire, to express attitudes, to persuade, to entertain, to argue, and to offer a more complex analysis in their writings. Besides, students must understand what components involve in writing such as content, organization, vocabulary, language use and mechanics and how to use these components in correct form of writing. In order to accomplish students needs toward writing, School Based Curriculum (KTSP) provides writing as one of the skills in English mastery that must be taught and learned in senior high school. Based on KTSP1, the purposes of teaching English are as follows: 1. Developing communicative competence in oral and written form to

achieve informational level 2. Having awareness about the sense and the significance of English in

order to increase national competence in global society

Depdiknas. 2006. Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan (KTSP) 2006. (Jakarta: Unpublished, 2006), pp. 307
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3.

Developing understanding of students about the relationship

between language and culture SMAN 4 Pekanbaru is one of schools that also implies School Based Curriculum (KTSP) as its guidance in teaching and learning process. In SMAN 4 Pekanbaru, English has been taught since the first year of English teaching period. English is taught twice a week with time duration about 45 minutes2. According to syllabus 2009/20103 at the second grade, for the first semester, the basic competence of writing English refers to capability of students in expressing the meaning in monologue texts or essays which use various written language accurately, fluently and contextually in the forms of texts such as report, narration, and analytical exposition. Based on preliminary observation on 17th January 2010, in SMAN 4 Pekanbaru, writing has been taught by using some techniques. Generally, teacher reviewed the characteristic of the texts based on genre given including the kinds of the texts, the purpose of the texts, the text organizations, and the language features. Then, teacher asked students to write a simple essay individually based on the time given. After writing a simple essay, the teacher would give feedback toward students writing. In order to increase students writing ability, teachers also support it by providing other programs such as writing English articles and poems published on the bulletin board, and English day on every Saturday. Based on the description above, students have been taught writing maximally. Ideally, students in SMAN 4
Tim Penyusun. Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan SMAN 4 Pekanbaru. (Pekanbaru: Unpublished, 2009), pp.15 3 Tim Penyusun. Silabus SMAN 4 Pekanbaru 2009/2010. (Pekanbaru: Unpublished, 2009), pp. 6-13.
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Pekanbaru are able to write essay text. In short, students in SMAN 4 Pekanbaru have no problem with their abilities in writing essay text. However, based on the teachers experience to the second year students of SMAN 4 Pekanbaru, she found that most of the students are not able to write essay text. It can be seen from the following phenomena:
1. Most of the students are not able to write a good thesis statement in writing

essay text.
2. Most of the students are not able to write their ideas without digressions in

writing essay text.

3. Most of the students are not able to construct the relationship of ideas within

and between paragraphs clearly in writing essay text.

4. Most of the students are not able to use good grammatical order in writing

essay text.
5. Most of the students are not able to choose vocabulary appropriately in

writing essay text. To improve the students ability in writing essay text needs an appropriate strategy and technique helping them as solution for their problems. There is actually a technique that can help students in writing an essay, called dictogloss technique. The basic idea of this technique is that the teacher reads out a text several times, the students listen and make notes between readings and then reconstruct the text in pairs or small group, aiming to be as close as possible to the original and as accurate

as possible. According to Lynne Cameron4, dictogloss technique helps teacher providing a generic activity that offers many possibilities for students classroom activity when reading and writing are established. Through this technique, students will learn how to do collaborative reconstruction text. They also learn how to make their internal decisions involve the content, the grammar, vocabulary, the language styles, the spellings, and composition in arranging an essay based on genre. Based on the explanation and the problems experienced by the students above, the researcher is interested in conducting a research entitled: The Effect of Using Dictogloss Technique toward Ability in Writing Essay Text at the Second Year Students of SMAN 4 Pekanbaru. B. The Problem 1. The Identification of the Problem Based on the explanation above, the researcher identifies the problem as follows:
a. Why are most of the students not able to write a good thesis statement in

writing essay text?

b. Why are most of the students not able to write their ideas without

digressions in writing essay text?

c. Why are most of the students not able to construct the relationship of ideas

within and between paragraphs clearly in writing essay text?

Lynne Cameron. Teaching Languages to Young Lerners. (Cambridge: Cambride University Press, 2001), pp.119
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d. Why are most of the students not able to use good grammatical order in

writing essay text?

e. Why are most of the students not able to choose vocabulary appropriately in

writing essay text? f. How is students ability in writing essay text before being taught by using dictogloss technique? g. How is students ability in writing essay text after being taught by using dictogloss technique?
h. Is there any significant effect of using dictogloss technique toward ability in

writing essay text at the second year students of SMAN 4 Pekanbaru? 2. The Limitation of the Problem The problem of this research only focuses on the effect of using dictogloss technique toward ability in writing essay text at the second year students of SMAN 4 Pekanbaru. In order to avoid misunderstanding in this research, the essay text used by the researcher is narrative essay. 3. The Formulation of the Research The problems of this research can be formulated in the following questions: a. How is students ability in writing essay text before being taught by using dictogloss technique?

b. How is students ability in writing essay text after being taught by using dictogloss technique?
c. Is there any significant effect of using dictogloss technique toward ability in

writing essay text at the second year students of SMAN 4 Pekanbaru? C. The Reasons for Choosing the Title The reasons why the researcher is very interested in carrying out a research on the topic above are based on several considerations:
1.

The researcher is very interested in carrying out this research in

order to know the effect of using dictogloss technique toward ability in writing essay text at the second year students of SMAN 4 Pekanbaru.
2.

This research is very important to be discussed and it will be

valuable contributions for the researcher particularly and for the English teachers generally to be recognized and applied to the students in teaching writing.
3.

This research is relevant to her status as an English student of

English Education Department of State Islamic University Sultan Syarif Kasim Riau. D. The Objectives and the Significance of the Research 1. The Objectives of the Research a. To find out students ability in writing essay text before being taught

by using dictogloss technique

b.

To find out students ability in writing essay text after being taught

by using dictogloss technique

c.

To find out whether there is any significant effect of using

dictogloss technique toward ability inwriting essay text 2. The Significance of the Research Related to the objectives of the research above, the significance of the research are as follows: 1. The research findings are to give the valuable input to the

teachers of English at SMAN 4 Pekanbaru especially and all English teachers generally as an attempt to improve the students ability in writing essay text. 2. The research findings are expected to provide both

theoretical and practical benefits for teaching English as foreign language, especially for those who have great concerns in teaching writing. 3. Motivating students to improve their proficiency in writing

essay text, in order to give chance for students to be master of English. E. The Definition of the Term 1. Dictogloss Technique

Dictogloss technique is an integrated skill technique for language learning in which students work together to create a reconstructed version of a text read to them by their teacher.5 Dictogloss technique meant in this research is a technique used by researcher to know its effect toward ability in writing essay text at the second year students of SMAN 4 Pekanbaru. 2. Essay

Essay is a group of paragraphs about one subject.6 In this research, it refers to narrative text. 3. Writing Ability

Writing ability is specific ability which helps writers to put their ideas into words in meaningful form and interact with the message.7 In this research, it refers to ability in writing essay text at the second year students of SMAN 4 Pekanbaru, particularly in the form of narrative text by giving full consideration toward the types of the text, the purpose of the text, the text organization, the language features used and the mechanics of the text.
George Jacob. 2003. Combining Dictogloss and Cooperative Learning to Promote Language Learning. The 7 Reading Matrix, vol. 3, pp.1 (Retrieved on January 16, 2010) www.readingmatrix.com/articles/jacobs_small/article.pdf Susan Fawcett and Alvin Sandberg. Evergreen with Readings: A Guide to Writing Fifth Ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1996), pp. 136 7 SIL International. What are writing skills? Version 4. 1999. pp.1 (Retrieved on Mei 20, 2010) www.sil.org/lingualinks/literacy/.../whatarewritingskills.htm
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4.

Text

Text is a segment of spoken or written language that has the following characteristics:8
a. It is normally made up of several sentences that together create a

structure or unit, such as a letter, a report, or an essay (however one word texts also occur, such as DANGER on a warning sign) b. It has distinctive structural and discourse characteristics c. It has a particular communicative function or purpose. d. It can often only be fully understood in relation to the context in which it occurs. In this research, the text meant is a kind of passages used for delivering material about narrative essay to the students. F. The Research Paper Organization The result of this research is presented in a report which consists of five chapters as follows: Chapter I Introduction: The Background of the Problem, The Problem, The Reason for Choosing the Title, The Objectives and Significance of the Research, The Definition of the Term and The Research Paper Organization Chapter II Literature Review: The Theoretical Framework, The Relevant Research, The Operational Concept, The Assumption and The Hypotheses
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Jack C. Richards, et al. Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics. (London: Pearson Education Limited, 2002), pp. 549

Chapter III Research Method: The Research Design, The Time and the Location of the Research, The Subject and The Object of the Research, The Population and The Sample of the Research, The Technique of Collecting Data, The Technique of Data Analysis and The Reliability and The Validity of the Test Chapter IV Presentation and Data Analysis: The Description of the Data, The Data Presentation (Test) and Data Analysis Chapter V Conclusion and Suggestion: Conclusion and Suggestion

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