The Effectiveness of Using Daily Activity to Improve Students’ Writing

Ability in Recount Text

1. Research Background

In this era of globalization, English has important role in our lives. This language
is used around the globe in sciences, knowledge, and technology as well as education,
business, and other activities. In Indonesia, students start learning English at elementary
school and the process continued until senior high school. In fact, English is also taught in
the university.

As a language, English is learned and used as a tool of communication.

Indonesian learn English to communicate either in the form of spoken or written. To be
able to use the language well, four skills have to be mastered. The skills are listening,
speaking, reading, and writing. These four skills are interconnected and associated each
other. If the student need to master English, they must develop the four skills. Besides, the
learners also need to possess the knowledge of its components, such as: grammar,
vocabulary, and pronounciation to support those important skills.

According to Tomlinson (2005: 181), writing is one of the language skills that
should be acquired in learning a language. It also means a process of communication that
conveys ideas and opinion in a written form which suggests that the writer and readers
should have similar understanding of what is written. The writing process is intended to
provide a step by step model for writing so that the finished piece is the best it can be.
Learning English implies learning how to communicate. Communication can be done not
only in spoken but also in written form. He also adds that writing is a productive skill
which is very important for students to learn. It will help students master the other
language skills.

However, Wahyudin (2012:2) says that students sometimes feel afraid and shy to
speak what they want to say but they can tell something through a draft or writing before
speaking. If students are having problem in expressing the idea, they can write it done.
Byrne (2002:4) states that writing is difficult for most people both in mother tongue and in
foreign language. It was notices that students did know what they were going to write but
they did not know how to put them into words.

Moreover based on Wenny Sasmita’s observation on Teaching Practice Program

(PPL), has found that most of the students got bored and lost their interest in writing,
especially writing recount. They told that writing recount was very difficult for them to be
mastered. Students also have limited vocabulary. So that they find it difficult to write well.
And also why the students told that writing recount was very difficult, because the students
cannot know about generic structure and language feature in writing recount. So that, the
students do not understand to arrange the simple text. The method that the teacher used in
teaching writing was too complex and monotonous. The teacher just explains without
asking the students what they do not know. Students need an easy way to make them able
to understand the explanation. If the method of the teacher monotonous and uninteresting,
the students will be lazy to study the subject. If the conditions happen, it means that the
teaching and learning process uninteresting and be less effective. To change it, teacher
needs a suitable method, a technique, or a strategy. The purpose of using them is to solve
the problem and to increase the students’ achievement in writing skill.

Therefore focus students writing their daily activity in recount text can help
students to improve students’ achievement in writing particularly writing recount in
order that the students can write recount well. The students should be tough how to plan
and organize the ideas or supporting information before doing the composition so that
they are able to improve their writing ability. Langan (2003:13) stated that writing is a
skill, so it can be learn by using many kinds of technique. Students writing their daily
activities, especially in recount text, suggest imaginative tasks to the students which
may increase their enthusiasm toward developing their writing skill. It means that this
process can afford students the enjoyment of writing a creative task as a form of writing
that relates to their personal experiences. Therefore, in this study, the writer intends to
conduct the research with the title “The Effectiveness of Using Dairy Activity to
Improve Students’ Writing Ability in Recount Text”
2. Research Questions

On the basis of the background, the research question is formulated as follows:

 How is the effectiveness of using dairy activity to improve students’ writing ability
in recount text

3. Research Objectives

By relating to the research question, the objective of the research is formulated as

Follows:
 To find out the improvement of students’ writing skill of recount text by using diary
activity

4. Scope of the Research

This study will be focusing on students writing their daily activity to improve
their writing ability of recount text. Recount text is simple because it just retells the
experience in the past into paragraph. The researcher focus on the process of teaching
writing that is enjoyable and interesting for the students. As stated by Hamp and
Heasley (2006), diary writing helps learners write better and better day by day since it
provides learners with more opportunities to freely write about what they wish and what
they feel. Diary can help the students clarify their thoughts. It gives students an
opportunity to discover what they think and how they feel. If the student keep a diary
during all course, they do not have to worry about finding a topic for writing
assignments. It is because the student have a collection of ideas in it. This research will
be conducting at Junior High School.
5. Research Benefit

 Theoretical, the research finding will give some contribution to English teachers and
other subject matter teachers in the field of the study to solve problems related to
students’ writing skill. The research finding can be a basis for the next researchers
to conduct the advanced research.

 Practically : The researcher hopes that this research will be useful for ;
The students, the students can improve their writing skill in recount text by using
diary writing
The teachers, the finding of the research can be applied in the English teaching and
learning process to make the students more interesting to understand and to write
recount text by using Diary Writing

6. Definition of Terms

There are the key terms of this research:

 Diary Writing

(Zahiroh, 2010:18). Diary is a note which is written by a person to tell his

life experience, felling, or something important happening in his life. Diary could
be one’s best friend that he could believe in will never complain to him for
everything that he has written on it. He could notice that diary is a private book
which saves his private story (Wisdhawan, 2014:3).One benefit of diary is being
able to look on specific days or time periods in an attempt to sort out personal
feelings. It means that this media appropriate to teach recount text in Junior High
School because recount texts also retell the past experience and the benefit of
diary is to show the personal feeling.
 Writing
(Wafaet. al., 2010:2). Writing is important one in teaching and learning
English language. Writing is important to support other skill from English
language. Although students can speak well but they not well in writing. Writing
is much needed to fulfill four skill of English language. Writing skill is more
complex and difficult to teach, requiring the mastery not only the grammatical and
theoretically devices but also the conceptual and judgment.

 Recount Text
Writing is one of English skills that should be taught integrated. Recount text
is one of the types of the text that retell the past event or experience. This text has
purpose to retell the past event or experiences. This text has purpose to retell the
events that have been done as information or entertainment for the reader. Thus,
writing recount text is the activity that write the past events.