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TEACHING ENGLISH WRITING THROUGH JUMBLED WORDS TECHNIQUE

(At the Fourth Grade Students of SDN I Cisomang Cikalongwetan Bandung Barat)
Nurhayani
E-mail: [email protected]
English Education Study Pogaram Language and Art Departement
Sekolah Tinggi Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan
(STKIP) SILIWANGI BANDUNG
ABSTRACT
The objective of this research paper entitled Teaching English Writing Through Jumbled Words
Technique was to find out how the effectiveness of using jumbled words in teaching writing English. The
research method was quantitative method. The design of this study: nonequivalent pretest-posttest control
design. The instrument of this study was the test. The population in this research was the students of
Elementary School I Cisomang, and the sample of this research was fourth grade students of Elementary
School I Cisomang, it consisted of two classes (4A as experimental class and 4B as control class). Each of
them consisted of 35 Students. The data were gained through giving pretest and posttest to the students
sample, and then the collected data were analyzed by using t test formula. The results of the data analysis
showed that the means score posttest of experimental class was 7.2, the means score posttest of control class
was 5.54, the t
obs
was 2.77, the t
crit
value with df 68 and significance level at 0.05 was 1.67. Based on data
analysis above, the alternative hypothesis of this research was accepted, because t
obs
was higher than t
-crit
(2.77>1.67). It also meant that teaching English writing through jumbled words technique was effective
than the teaching English writing without jumbled words technique.
Key words: Teaching, English Writing, Jumbled Words
A. BACKGROUND
English is a very important tool for Indonesian
students, because English is an international language
and the most widely used language in the world.
According to McArthur (1992:571), in Kaswan
(2010:8) Language is a human system of
communication which uses structured vocal sounds
and can be embodied in other media such as writing,
print and physical signs.
Through language, we can communicate, send or
get a lot of information, either in oral and written. In
language teaching, there are four integrated language
skills, namely: Listening, speaking, reading, and
writing.
Writing is a method of representing language in
visual or form. Writing systems use sets of symbols
to represent the sounds of speech, and may also have
symbols for such things as punctuation and numerals.
Many students consider that writing is the most
difficult subject among the other language skills.
Writing is complicated, confusing and need more
thought and concept.
English as a foreign language is taught from
elementary school to university level. In this study,
the writer is interested in teaching English writing
through jumbled words. Writing is one of the four
basic skills. Writing involves some language
component, namely: Spelling, Grammar, Vocabulary,
and Punctuations. Braine and May (1992:60),
commented that writing needs clear sentence, good
grammar, correct spellings, punctuation etc.
One of the aims of teaching English in
Elementary School is to enhance students to be able
to understand English words which they might find in
their environment. In fact, students often find
problems in learning the words. So it needs more
teachers attention to make the transfer of the
vocabulary process easier to grasp and more fun to
learn.
Based on the background of the problems above,
the writer has conducted a research entitled
Teaching English Writing Through Jumbled Words
Technique.
The writer would like to state the problem as
follows:
1. How is the effectiveness of teaching writing by
using jumbled words for the fourth year of SDN I
Cisomang Cikalongwetan Bandung Barat?
There are several aims of writing this paper,
among other things could be put forwards as follows:
1. To reveal the effectiveness of teaching English
writing through jumbled words.
B. THEORETICAL FOUNDATION
1. Teaching English Writing
a. Definition of Teaching
According to Brown,(1980:7-8) said that:
Teaching is showing or helping someone to learn
how to do something, giving instruction guiding of
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study of something, providing with knowledge,
coursing no know understand.
b. Definition of Writing
Writing is one of the four basic skills in language
learning. It is very important in teaching and learning
English. This skill would increase if the learners keep
practicing it. Writing is the ability to express, to
converts ideas, thought and feeling to someone else.
Writing is very important in written communication.
Harmer (2004: 86) states Writing is a process
that what we write is often heavily influenced by the
constraints of genres, then these elements have to be
present in learning activities.
Nunan (1991:84) affirmed that, Writing is clearly a
complex process and competent writing is frequently
accepted as being the last language skill to be
acquired.
According to Halliday (1985 b) writing has involved
in societies as a result of cultural changes creating
communicative needs which cannot be readily met by
the spoken language. In the modern word written
language serves as arrange of function in everyday
life including the following:
1. Primary for action
Publics signs e.g. on roads and stations
2. Primary for information
Newspaper (news, editorial) and currents affairs
3. Primary for entertainment
Light magazine, comic strips.
Writing is the most difficult skills. We get a
massage formulated by someone else. We are
receiving some things therefore our role is receptive.
In writing, the aspects include the use of vocabulary,
structure of the sentence, composition of the
sentence, spelling, and punctuation. These aspects are
important to master in order to be able to produce
good writing.
In developing the writing skills, therefore several
stages and allowed at the early stage. Communication
consists of messages and short paragraphs. Later on
us longer compositions, therefore the test should
measure the various aspects of the students progress
toward the mastery of the skills.
2. Principles of Teaching English at Elementary
School Students
According to Alwasilah (1991:1) there are five
principle of language learning that should be
considered in develoving curriculum, materials, and
learning teaching activities.
The principles are based on the summary. The five
principles are:
1.Children are learning by doing and use the
object around them, 2.Children learn through social
interaction and teacher as the facilitator, 3.The
quality of materials should be one step higher than
the accumulation of the existing comprehension, 4.
Children should be given opportunities in using the
language they learn naturally, 5.Language learner
should communicate one to another in the small
community.
So, learning English for the elementary students
would be successful, if the learner in the atmosphere
of social interaction.
3. Importance of Writing
According to Rivers, (1968:242) Writing, as one
of the language skills, has given an important
contribution to humans work. There are so many
records of recent activities that we can read today,
which can also be read in the future. Some important
features of writing activities that are usually done by
people are as follows:
a.Teachers write some important things on the
black board, or students may write some notes that
are dictated by the teacher, b.Lots of people who
are going to apply for job in offices write
application letters. Today, many companies ask
applicants to write their forms in English. An
applicant must be fluent both in spoken and
written English, c.Many organizations or
foundations get offers from foster parents from
foreign countries for some students who have
good achievement in their study. The student who
is going to be selected is asked first to write an
essay in English about their country (in this case
Indonesian students), d.For those who get the
opportunity to win the selection are asked to write
in English to their foster parents at least once a
month; therefore, they need to have ability to
write in an acceptable English.
4. Jumbled Words in Writing Activity
Kaswan (2010:169-174) said that: At the
beginning of learning English, students will write a
little. Those most involved copying the word or
sentences. It is a good idea to use copying activity by
encouraging children to think. Its means using
activities of puzzles, match, sort, or categorize. Copy
at the level of word or phrasescan be uses of assistive
devices, such as drawing, writing models, flowchart,
etc.
There are some writing activities:
a.Word Games, this activity designed for given
exercise, especially for the set of words, such as
colour, states, cloting, etc. And then used for
activities other writing. Bingo, Crossword
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Puzzles, Acrostic Crosswords, Letter Boxes,
Making Words from the Given Letters, Jumbled
Words, (write on the blackboard the words just
learned by students, or the difficult words spelling
with the scrambled letters. Its good to have words
related to one theme. For example, you can give
the students following words: Gdo, Sumoe, Owc,
Knymoe, Ibdr (Dog, mouse, cow, monkey, bird)),
b.Dialogue, c.Communication Activities,
d.Writing for Fun.
C. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
1. Research Design
The research used quasi experimental with non
equivalent pretest-posttest control design. McMillan
and Schumer, (2001:342) explained that:
This design is very prevalent and useful in
education, since it is often impossible to
randomly assign subject. The researcher uses
intact, already established groups of subjects,
given a pretest administers the treatment condition
to one group, and gives the posttest. The only
difference between gives this design, then and the
pretest-posttest control group design is in lack of
random assignment of subjects.
The folowing shows the formula of quasi
experimental non-equivalent pretest posttest control
design (McMillan and Schummer, 1989:323).
Nonequivalent Group Pretest-Posttest Design
Group Pretest Treatment Posttest
A O X O
B O O
Time
2. Research Method
The main purpose of the research was to find out
how effectively audio lingual method in teaching
speaking.
This research used quantitative method.
Quantitative study is an experiment design that test
hypothesis through the use of objective instrument
and statistic analysis (Larsen-Freeman and Long,
1991: 11).
3. Research Instruments
The writer teaches writing and making pretest
and posttest. However, relating to the design which is
used in this research, the writer takes pre-test and
post-test as the instrument in collecting the data. The
goal is to find out the students ability in arranging the
words into good sentences. The tests are given to
measure if there is an increasing on their
understanding about jumbled after getting their
posttest.
4. Research Population
According to Burns (1995: 65) population is an
entire group of people or object or eventsThe
population of the research was the fourth grade
students of SDN I Cisomang Cikalongwetan
Bandung Barat, which consist of two classes, is class
A and class B, they are 70 students.
5. Research Sample
According to Burn (1995: 63) a sample is any
part of population regardless of whether it is
representative or not.
Sample of the research were two classes. For
example, they were 4A and 4B. Each class consisted
of 35 students. Class 4A was experimental class and
class 4B was control class. In this research, the
research taught writing in 4A through jumbled words,
whereas in class 4B taught writing without using
jumbled words.
6. Research Data Collection
The writer obtained the data from the pretest and
the posttest. The pretest and posttest were given to
both classes, either experiment and control class.
7. Research Data Analyzing
For analyzing the data, the researcher used the
formula as follow:
-The Mean
To calculate the average score of the pretest and
posttest result given to the experimental and the
control group using the following formula:
X =

(Hatch and Farhady, 1982: 108)
- Standard Deviation
To calculate the Standard Deviation of scores of
the two groups using the following formula:
SD =
( )
- Standard Error
To calculate the Standard Error using the
following formula:
S ( Xc ) = +
- T-Observed
To calculate t-observed using the following
formula:
T
obs
=
( )
(Hatch and Hossein, 1982: 115)
8. Research Procedure
The writer first completed the requirements for
the research included permit from the institution
STKIP Siliwangi Bandung and the school where she
would do the research SDN I Cisomang
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Cikalongwetan which was located on Cikalongwetan
Kab.Bandung Barat. Next, the writer prepared
everything related to the implementation of the
research in the field such as: made a lesson plan
which was based on the school based curriculum
(KTSP) and prepared the pre-test and post-test as the
instrument of the research.
D. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
1. Data Description of the Pretest and Posttest
Result
The researcher obtained data in form of pretest
and posttest scores for the experimental class and the
control class, those scores displayed in tables below.
Table I
Pretest and Posttest scores of the Experimental Class
No Name Pretest Posttest
1
Acep Fahri 6 8
2
Acep Permana 4 6
3
Alwi Rizki B 10 10
4
Anisa Septiani 3 6
5
Anisatul Puadah 2 4
6
Asri Sayyidah A 8 10
7
Dede Anisah 2 6
8
Elma Angelina S 10 10
9
Elma Sapitri 6 7
10
Eneng Komariah 5 7
11
Hasan Sadeli 6 8
12
Hasna Lailatul 7 8
13
Hilwa Kamila K 2 5
14
Hisni Nisa A 4 6
15 Ihsan Nulaziz 4 5
16
Imas Masitoh 8 10
17
Imas Sopiati 4 6
18
Lilis Safitri 3 6
19
Mila 4 7
20
Mila Siti Jamila 3 5
21
Muma Maulana 2 4
22
Nabila Rahma 8 9
23
Nurani 7 8
24
Pajah Fitriah 7 9
25
Putri Suci E 5 7
26
Pebrian Erdiana 7 8
27
Rani Haryadi 4 8
28 Salma Nurul A 4 4
29
Salsabila Sopia 8 10
30
Santi Santika 4 6
31
Sanusi 7 8
32
Susi Susilawati 3 6
33
Ulfah Febrianti 4 6
34
Wina Nurasiah 7 9
35
Yogi Ahmad 8 10
186 252
Table II
Pretest and Posttest scores of the Control Class
No Name Pretest Posttest
1
Ulfa Fitria 3 7
2
Fika Widia 4 5
3
Agung Gustian 1 3
4
Alfan Fauzan 5 5
5 Haifa Nabila 1 3
6
Hendi W 8 10
7
Iis Komariah 8 10
8
Irfan Hilmi 3 3
9
Muh. Hilman 0 3
10
Muh. Ihsan F 2 3
11
Muh. Rizal H 5 5
12
Muh. Sidqi M 0 3
13
Nabil Zihan 8 8
14
Nada Mariah P 6 8
15
Neng Resa 2 4
16
Nisrina Sifatus 7 8
17
Nurazizah 5 6
18
Putri Aqilah 3 4
19
Putri Mardiah 1 2
20
Reza Satya N 3 7
21
Risma Apipah 4 7
22
Sansan Ripaldi 4 8
23
Sidiq Ahmad S 2 4
24
Sinta 2 2
25
Sinta Oktia 4 4
26
Siti Rohimah 6 7
27
Siti Sajaah 3 6
28
Sobali Rohman 5 5
29
Syifa Septia 4 5
30
Tasya Lestari 5 6
31
Tedi M. 6 8
32
Sidik A 7 8
33
Samsul Maarif 5 6
34
Sulastri 3 6
35
Dimas Angga 5 5
140 194
2. Data Analyzing of the pretest and Posttest
a. Data Analyzing of the Pretest
A pretest was carried out in order to gain the data
of students entire behavior, especially English
writing on the two groups.
a) The distribution of scores and calculation
the pretest data analysis
- Experimental Class.
1. To calculate the mean = 5.3
2. To calculate standard deviation = 2.3
3. To calculate degree of freedom= 68
- Control Class
1. To calculate the mean = 4
5
2. To calculate standard deviation = 2
3. To calculate degree of freedom = 68
- To calculate standard error = 0.51
- To calculate t-observed = 2.55
Based on the pretest data analyzing of
experimental class and control class, result was a
follow:
Table III
The Pretest Data Analyzing of Experimental and
Control class
Group
N X S
(

)
df
Experi
mental
35 5.3 2.3 0.51 68 1.67 2.55
Control
35 4 2 0.51 68 1.67 2.55
The table shows that there was a different in
means (X) on SD (S). The T-test however describes
that the two groups were similar in the term of
subject of knowledge background. Moreover, T-
observe pre-test was lower than the T-critical value,
the null hypothesis was accepted, therefore it
indicated that both group had similarly in writing
level.
b. Data Analyzing of the Posttest
The posttest was administered to both groups at
the end of the program to find out whether there were
any difference between the experimental group and
control group achievement.
b) The distribution of the scores and calculation
of the Posttest data analysis.
- Experimental Class
1. To calculate the mean = 7.2
2. To calculate standard deviation = 2.68
3. To calculate degree of freedom = 68
- Control Class
1. To calculate the mean = 5.54
2. To calculate standard deviation = 2.35
3. To calculate degree of freedom = 68
- To calculate standard error = 0.60
- To calculate t-observed = 2.77
Based on the posttest data analyzing of
experimental class and control class, the result was as
follow:
Table IV
The Posttest Data analyzing of Experimental and
Control class
Group N X S (

)
df
Experi
mental
35 7.2 2.68 0.60 68 1.67 2.77
Control 35 5.54 2.35 0.60 68 1.67 2.77
The table shows that the writer took 35 students
for the samples in both groups, so that degree of
freedom (df) was 68. Standard Deviation for
experimental class was 2.68 and 2.35 for control
class.
The T-critical value needed for the selected
significance level of 0.05 with df 68 was 1.67.
Fortunately T-observed was higher than T-critical
(2.77>1.67) that we were quite safe in rejecting the
null hypothesis. Our two groups have scored
differently on the final test of speaking ability. The
different was statistically significance.
There was a difference of score between X for
experimental class is 7.2 and X for control class is
5.54. This supports our claim that teaching English
writing through jumbled words technique was better
and more effective.
Table V
The Improvement of the Mean scores
Experimental
Class
Control
Class
Mean of Pre-Test 5.3 4
Mean of Post-Test 7.2 5.54
Improvement of the Mean 1.9 1.54
The table above shows that the experimental class
was higher than the control class. It indicated that
teaching English writing through jumbled words
technique was able to improve students speaking
ability.
3. Testing Hypothesis
As the researcher proposed in chapter 1 the
hypothesis was a follow: teaching English writing
through jumbled words technique was more effective
than teaching English writing without jumbled
words. Based on the hypothesis, the mean of the
experimental class should be higher than control
class, the calculation of the data showed that:
T-crit = 1.67
T-obs = 2.77
T-obs > T-crit
T-obs was higher than T-crit and there was a
difference between Xe and Xc. This means that the
hypothesis was accepted. The result was significance.
The research proves jumbled words was effective in
teaching English writing.
E. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
1. Conclusions
a. The mean of the experimental class was bigger
than the mean of control class (7.2>5.54). The
difference was 1.66.
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b. The standard deviation of the experimental class
was better than the standard deviation of control
class (2.68>2.35). The difference was 0.33.
c. The t-observed was higher than the t-critical value
(2.77>1.67) at the significance level at 0.05 with
df of 68. The difference was 1.1.
d. The result of the research showed that T-observed
was 2.77; the T-critical value at the significance
level at 0.05 with the df 68 was 1.67.
Based on the data above the alternative
hypothesis was accepted. Therefore, there was
significant difference between students writing
scores who taught by using jumbled words technique
and the students writing scores who taught without
jumbled words technique.
It also means that teaching English writing
through jumbled words technique was effective than
the teaching English writing without jumbled words
technique.
2. Suggestions
At the end of this writing the writer wants to
cover several suggestions as follows:
Teacher of English would be better if they use
jumbled words technique in improving English
writing skill. The method is one of the strategies in
teaching English writing, especially for the students
of SDN I Cisomang Cikalongwetan Bandung Barat.
The writer realizes that this paper is far from
being perfect. Hopely, there will be another
researcher to make it perfect. Comments and
criticism would be welcome warmly.
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