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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Problem

Language is an important part of human life because language is a means of

communication. In sharing opinion or feeling language is needed. One of the

languages that commonly used in the world is English. English is considered as a

medium for international communication in many fields, such as economy, politics,

culture, trade and education1. English serves for many people as a bridge into the

world of higher education, science, international trade, politics, tourism and any

other venture which interest them2. Consequently, for those who want to expand

their knowledge should be able to understand English since many books and other

resources are written in English.

Department of National Education declares to teach English starting at the fourth

grade of elementary school, in forms of improving English comprehension and

skills for the student since early age.Teaching English means that teach the

students not only how to speak, how to read, how to listen, but also how to write

talking about English mean talking about how to communicate in English.

Communication not only can be done in spoken but also in written. In teaching

English there are four basic skills, they are listening, speaking, reading,and writing.

If the students need to master English, they must develop the four skills whichone
Julian Edge, Essentials of English Language Teaching, New
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York, 2Longman Publishing, 1993, page p. 25.

Ibid
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of it is writing. English has four language skills and one of them is writing skill. It

is useful in life, such as an application letter, it needs special skill in writing, in

order that the writing will be good.3

The writing skills become most important to learn in education field, students need

to be exercised and trained in order to have a good writing skill. Writing is also

crucial because the success of their study depends on their ability to write. If their

writing ability is poor they are very likely to fail in their study or at least they have

difficulty in making progress. On the other hand, if they have a good ability in

writing, they would have a better chance to succeed in their study.

According to Tribble, writing is a language skill which is difficult to acquire. 4 It is

the skill of a writer to communicate information to a reader or group of readers.

Furthermore, Raimes states that writing is a skill in which we express ideas,

feelings and thoughts that are arranged in words, sentences and paragraphs by

using eyes, brain and hand.5 Writing is not an easy subject because it is not only

transcribing language into written symbol, but also as thinking process. If the

students have mastered these skills, they will be able to write, not only reading

what they write, but also other reader can comprehend it.

3
Martina Susanti, The Influence Of Using Mind Mapping
Concept Technique Towards The Students’ Recount Paragraph
Writing Ability, Iain RadenIntan Lampung,2010/2011, p2
4
Christopher Tribble. 1996. Writing. Oxford: University
Press. 5p.3
Ann Raimes. 1983. Technique in teaching writing. New York :
Oxford University press. p.2
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As a teacher, teaching English is not an easy job but it is one that is needed and can

be very useful when we look at the development of students and knowing that we

have helped. Based on the concepts and functions of English language as stated in

the 2006 School Based Curriculum for SMA/MA, the teaching learning of English

has the objective to develop the four skills. Many teacher are also very committed

to getting students to participate effectively in writing situation, the teacher have

some paragraph to assist them in teaching writing. Paragraph are directed and

patterned to serve the writer’s purpose. Each paragraph type has a different social

fuction, general structure, and language features. There are four different types of

paragraphs such as narrative, descriptive, expository, persuasive.6

According to Hyland, recount is a kind of genre that has social function to retell

event for the purpose of informing or entertaining. The tense that used in recount

text is past tense. Social purpose of recount is to reconstruct past experiences by

retelling events in original sequence. We can look at the sample of recount in

personal letters, police report, insurance claims, and incident reports 7. Recounts are

used to relate experiences or retell events for the purpose of informing, entertaining

or reflecting. Recounts can be personal, factual or imaginative.How the language

features are used in recount writing to achieve thepurpose.Students also need to

6
Holt, Rinehart and Winston, online at
http://agurney.blogs.sd73.bc.ca/files/2013/08/Types-of-Paragraphs.pdf
7
Ken Hyland, genre and Second Language Writing, (The United State of America:
TheUniversity of Michigan Press, 2004), p.29
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develop an understanding of how differentaudiences and purposes of recount texts

determine the language choices they make

Based on the preliminary research conducted at SMA 1 KebunTebu West

Lampung.The students felt difficult when they wanted to express their idea in

writing form by using good English. The writer also found that the student had

difficulties in grammar and vocabulary. 8 The writer conducted a preliminary

research in SMA 1 KebunTebu West Lampung on September4th2017, in order to

know the students’ writing ability the writer interviewed Viska as English teacher

in the Tenth Grade. Based on the preliminary research, most of the student in

teaching writing is still confused and have lack of motivation.It means that some of

students find the difficulties in their writing. The students’ writing score can also

be catagorized as low. It can be seen from the following table.

Table 1
The Students’ Writing Score

No Class Score Total of Students Percentage

1 >70 21 34.42%
X 1, X 2, X 3
2 <70 40 65.58%
Total 61 100%
Source: English teacher’s documentation at SMA 1 KebunTebu West Lampung

Adib Fatoni, Nita Soraya, Maria Ulfa, Students ofSMA 1

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KebunTebu West Lampung.September4th2017 (An interviewed).

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Some students admitted that they always showed negative attitude and

unmotivated regarding to the approaches and methods they used. 9 However

teaching method is important in teaching learning process because it can

affect students’ motivation in teaching learning process. Having a good

teaching method is one of criteria of good teacher. One criterion of good

teachers was they supposed to have variety of instructional methods to help

learners understand the lesson better.

One of the suitable methods in teaching writing is small group discussion.

According to Ernest, group discussion allows presenters to announce a

topic or idea for group discussion among participants. 10 Discussion allows

for an interchange of ideas within the context of a group under the direction

of a presenter. Small group discussion carried out by dividing the students

into groups. The number of members of a group is between 3-5 people.11

Group discussion refers to interacting in a face-to-face situation so they do

the dialog, not only with teacher but also with other learners. Interaction is

the collaborative exchange of thoughts, feelings, or ideas between two or

more people, resulting in a reciprocal effect on each other. 12 Students can

share conversation discussion in group and exchange of their ideas.In

9
Ibid.
10
Ernest W. Brewer, 13 Proven Ways to Get Your Message Across. The Essential
Reference for Teachers, Trainers, Presenters, and Speakers (California: Corwin Press, Inc., 1997),
p. 22.
11
WinaSanjaya, Op. Cit. p. 157.
12
H. Douglas Brown, Teaching by Principles An Interactive Approach to Language
Pedagogy (2nd ed) (Longman, 2000), p. 165.
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addition, the small group discussion method students can share information

and experiences in solving a problem. Small group discussion is a method

to make teaching writing especially descriptive text more effective and it

makes the students active in teaching learning process.

Based on the background above, the writer has assumption that group

discussion influences the students’ ability in writing recount text. Finally,

the writer entitles this research as follows: “The Influence of Group

Discussion towards Student’s Ability in Writing Recount Text at Tenth

Graders of SMAN1 KebunTebu West Lampung.

1.2 Identification of the Problem

Based on the background of problem above, the writer identifies the

problems as follows:

1) The students’ writing is not comprehensible, because the content of

thecomposition is not relevant to the topic, the ideas are not clearly

stated, the ideas and sentences are not well organized.

2) The students have low motivation and are not interested in doing the

task

3) The teacher have problem to make subject matter interesting.

1.3 Limitation of the Problem

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Based on the background and identification of the problem, the writer

focuses this research on The Influence of Using Group Discussion Toward

Students Ability in Writing Recount Text at the Second Semester Of SMA

1 KebunTebu West Lampung

1.4 Formulation of the problem

From the identification and the limitation of problem above the problem is

formulated as follow: Is there any influence of using group discussion

toward students ability in writing recount text at the second semester of

SMA 1 KebunTebu West Lampung ?

1.5 Objective of the Research

Based on the formulation of the problem above, the aim of this study is to

know whether there is any influence of group discussion towards students’

ability in writing recount text.

1.6 Scope of Research

1. The subject of this research will be the students of Tenth Grade at

SMA 1 kebuntebu West Lampung of 2017/2018 academic year.

2. The object of the research will be the influence of group discussion

toward students ability in writing recount text.

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3. The research will be conducted at SMA 1 KebunTebu West

Lampung.

4. The time of the research will be in Tenth Grade at the second

semester of 2017/2018 academic year.