Elstic-IJ Volume 2 Number 1 (2022)

P-ISSN 2807-7954; E-ISSN 2807-7350

THE EFFECT OF USING CLUSTERING TECHNIQUE ON THE

STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILL IN DESCRIPTIVE TEXT AT SENIOR HIGH
SCHOOL 10 MAKASSAR

Nurul Afika
Universitas Islam Negeri Alauddin Makassar
[email protected]

Kaharuddin
Universitas Islam Negeri Alauddin Makassar
[email protected]

Multazam Abubakar
Universitas Islam Negeri Alauddin Makassar
[email protected]

Muhammad Syahruddin Nawir

Universitas Islam Negeri Alauddin Makassar
[email protected]

ABSTRACT
This research focuses on the students’ writing skill in writing descriptive text. The
purposes of this research were (1) To find out whether or not the clustering technique is
able to improve the students’ skill in writing descriptive text. (2) To find out to what extent
clustering technique affects the development of the students’ skill in writing descriptive
text. In this research, the population was the first-grade of Senior High School 10 Makassar
consisting of 15 students from X IIS 1. The method of this study was a mixed method, the
design of this study was The Explanatory-Sequential (QUAN-qual) design where
quantitative data were collected first. Pre-experimental method was applied in this research
with a group pre-test and post-test design. The instruments used to collect data were
writing test and questionnaire. The result of the research presented that the mean score of
the pre- test was 40.33. After the treatment, the mean score was increased to 71.00. The
outcome of the data analysis revealed that there was a significant improvement of the
students’ skill in writing descriptive text after being taught using clustering technique. It
can also be affected by the strength of clustering technique, which allows the students to
generate their ideas in writing descriptive text. Subsequently, the result of one sample t-test
where Sig. (2-tailed) = 0,000 < 0.05. Therefore, the null (Ho) is rejected and the alternative
hypothesis (H1) is accepted. In addition, the qualitative result from the questionnaire
showed that there were 4 factors affecting the development of students’ writing skill in
descriptive text, those are: content of teaching materials, method in the teaching process,
activities in the teaching materials, task given in teaching materials. Based on the result
analysis, the researcher concludes that using Clustering Technique was effective to
improve the students’ skill in writing descriptive text because the learning objective was
achieved, that was the students were able to write English descriptive text appropriately in
English by following the generic structure and language features.
Keywords: Clustering technique, English writing descriptive text

INTRODUCTION

I
n Indonesia, the government has made English as a compulsory subject as states in K13 which
requires students to learn English at Junior and Senior High School. Learning English has a
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purpose to develop the students’ English skills. The skills that meant to be learnt are listening,
speaking, reading and writing which support each other.
Writing is one of the important skills in a daily life. Through writing, people can express feeling,
thoughts, and idea. Moreover, writing can maintain our memory. Brown, (2001) claimed that writing
is a thinking process. Process of putting the ideas down on paper to transform thoughts into words, to
sharpen your main ideas, to give them structure and coherent organization.
In Senior High School, the skill of writing is taught by using genre-based approach. There are
twelve genres that are taught to senior high school students, those are: narrative, descriptive, recount,
report, procedure, news item, anecdote, explanation, discussion, exposition, information, and review
(Husna, 2013). One of the genres is descriptive text. Descriptive text is a part of factual genres. Its
social function is to describe a particular person, place or thing (Wadirman, Jahur and Djusman,
2008). Descriptive text is a text that has to be learnt by first grade students of Senior High School. It is
stated in basic competence (KD) 3.7 of the 2013 curriculum syllabus English for First Grade in Senior
High School 10 Makassar.
However, many students still find several problems in writing descriptive. According to Husna
(2013), there are some difficulties that students face during writing the descriptive paragraph. First,
the problem in developing the ideas. Second, the problem in organizing the ideas to write a descriptive
text. Third, the students found difficulties in grammar. Fourth, some students are lack of vocabularies
and they also have difficulties in developing their ideas related to their topic. Richards and Renandya
(2002) state that writing is the most difficult skill for L2 learners to master. The difficulty lies not only
in generating and organizing ideas, but also in translating these ideas into readable text.
Based on the researcher’s preliminary observation at the first grade of Senior High School 10
Makassar, the researcher found that many students could not write an English descriptive paragraph
well, the students were having difficulty in writing descriptive text, could not develop their ideas, had
lack of vocabularies, and could not use grammar correctly, especially simple present tense which is
one of the language features of descriptive text.
On the other hand, the students have studied English for three years in Junior High School and it
is hoped that students have good English skills. However, the reality of the students’ English skills is
still low, especially writing skills. According to Kaharudddin and Ismail (2019), there are some
factors cause students' low English proficiency, those are: (1) the quality of curriculum and teaching
materials (how curricula and teaching materials are designed), (2) teachers’ competencies (level of
knowledge, expertise and experiences), (3) learning situations (number of students, room size, and
learning facilities), (4) learners’ attitudes (motivation, strategy, and learning styles and preferences).
From all of the factors above, the researcher focused on the first point, that is curriculum and teaching
material. Since there were many students having difficulty in writing English text, the researcher
proposed a technique that can be used in teaching writing. The technique itself, is part of curriculum.
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Based on the problem above, there are some techniques to solve of the teaching English writing.
One of them is using clustering technique. Clustering is another prewriting technique. It is a visual
way of showing how your ideas are connected using circles and lines (Blanchard and Root in Fitriany,
2018). Susilo (2018) adds that clustering technique is used in the prewriting stage of the writing
process. In the pre writing process, students develop their ideas before they start to make paragraph.
Sinaga (2017) stated that the advantages of clustering teaching technique are: (1) helps the writers to
see and to make a connection of ideas, to develop those ideas and to trace through the writer’s mind
until in some points arrive in certain concept, (2) helps students in gathering and developing ideas,
and writing down in a certain concept.
Therefore, the researcher concluded that by applying this technique, it is hoped to be a reference
for English teacher to be applied in the classroom to improve the students’ writing skill. So that, the
students can develop their ideas in writing.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Writing Descriptive Text
Wishon and Burks in Rinawati (2018) stated that description helps the reader, through his or her
imagination, to visualize a scene or a person, or to understand a sensation or an emotion. Perhaps
some learners prefer to describe their ideas of what they have seen while others from what they have
heard (Rahim, 2019).
Descriptive text is a text to describe something, such as persons, places, or things. It uses simple
present tense. The structure of descriptive text is:
a. Identification: identifies the phenomenon to be described
b. Description: describe parts, qualities, and characteristics
Clustering Technique
Clustering technique is developed by Gabrielle Lusser Rico. According to him in Ghufron (2014)
clustering is a technique to divide some related ideas and write down in a blank of paper without
evaluating the truth or value of ideas themselves. Albraigt and Langan (2019) stated that Clustering is
a strategy that can be used to generate material for a paper. This technique is helpful for people who
like to do their thinking in a visual way. In clustering, the writers can use lines, boxes, arrows, and
circles to show relationships among the ideas and details that occur to them.
Using Clustering Technique in Teaching Writing Descriptive Text
Adopted from Fitriani (2018), here are the following steps in teaching writing descriptive text
using clustering technique:
a. Teacher explains about descriptive text include the kinds of descriptive text, generic structure and
language features.
b. Teacher introduces the concept of clustering technique to the students. The teacher can explain
how clustering technique will help them to develop the ideas to write recount text.
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c. Teacher gives student a topic and asks them to discuss about the topic. The teacher can try to
write down the example of developing ideas on the whiteboard as a model. Put the main topic in
the middle of the whiteboard, circle it, and followed by related idea around the main topic.
Connecting them by line or arrow.
d. Teacher asks student to write the first draft on design of clustering technique samples that have
been made on the whiteboard.
e. After students already understand about clustering technique, teacher asks them to make their
own clustering of the topic to make a descriptive text.

METHOD
The study employs mixed method research design. According to Mills & Gay (2016), Mixed
methods research designs involve the collection, analysis, and “mixing” of quantitative and qualitative
research designs to understand a research problem. The design of this study was the Explanatory-
Sequential (QUAN-qual) design. In the explanatory sequential mixed methods design, quantitative
data are collected first and are more heavily weighted than the qualitative data (Mills & Gay, 2016).
They add that there are three advanced mix-method designs to further strengthen the previous design.
Those are experimental study, social justice, multi stage evaluation. In this case, the researcher used
experimental design. the researcher applied pre-Experimental research design in the form of one
group pre-test and post-test design. Pre-test is a test administered to recognize the students’ mastery
before giving the treatment. The treatment is applied after pre-test given to the student. Post-test is a
test administered to recognize the students’ mastery after giving the treatment. The purpose of this
method is comparing the pre-test and post-test. If the score of post-test is higher than pre-test, it means
that this treatment is effective.
Instruments
The research instruments of this research were writing test and questionnaire. Writing test was
used to know how far the students’ skill in writing before and after applying clustering technique. The
form of the test was essay test. In this test the teacher gave some grade based on some aspects. These
aspects are, content, mechanic, vocabulary, grammar, organization, and descriptive text.
Questionnaire was used to know the opinion of the respondents about the technique used by the
researcher. Foddy in Sari (2020) state that there are two types of questionnaires, they are open-ended
and close-ended questionnaire. Close-ended questions limit the respondents to the set of alternatives
being offered, while open-ended questions allow the respondents to express an opinion without being
influenced by the researcher. In this research, the researcher used close-ended questions.
Procedures
This research conducted by using group of WhatsApp application, Zoom application and Google
Form due to online learning system in this pandemic era.
Pre-test
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The Pre-test conducted at the first meeting. This pre-test was to measure the students’ skill in
writing descriptive before treatment.
Treatment
Treatment was a way to know the effect of the clustering technique on teaching writing English
descriptive text for students. After pre-test, the students were taught by using clustering technique.
The treatment was carried out in three meetings. Each meeting spent 90 minutes.
Post-test
The Post-test was conducted at the last meeting. This post-test was applied to measure students’
ability in writing descriptive text after treatment.
Questionnaire Distribution
There were several questions in the questionnaire of this research. The questionnaire used close-
ended question that contained several types of questions which consists of several items that provided
limited number of choices, it contains the aspects of the materials, such as content, the language focus,
the students’ activities, and the supplementary materials.
Data Analysis
Writing Test
a. Scoring and Classifying students’ descriptive text score by writing score rubric
According to Jacob, et al. (1981) there are several components presented in the analytical scoring
rubric for writing, are: content, mechanic, vocabulary, grammar and organization. The researcher uses
analytical scoring rubric to analyze the data related to the students’ paragraph writing test of writing
ability. The analytical rubric as follow:
Table 1. Writing Score Rubric
Aspect Score Criteria Weighting
Excellent: Knowledgable and relevant to assigned topic.
4
Good: Some knowledge of subject, mostly relevant to topic but
Content 3 lacks detail. ×30
Fair: Limited knowledge of subject, inadequate development of
2 topic.
Poor: Does not show knowledge of subject, non substantive.
1
Excellent: few errors spelling, punctuation, capitalization,
4 paragraphing
Good: occasional errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization,
3 paragraphing, but meaning not obscured.

Fair: frequent errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization,

2 paragraphing poor hand writing, meaning confused or obscured.
Poor: no mastery of conventions, dominated by errors of spelling,
Mechanic punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing, hand writing illegible, ×5
1
or not enough to evaluate.
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Excellent: sophisticated range, effective word or idiom choice
4 and usage word from mastery, appropriate register.

Good: adequate range, occasional error of word or idiom choice

3 and usage, meaning confused or obscured.
Vocabulary Fair: limited range, frequent error of word or idiom choice and ×15
2 usage, meaning confused or obscured.
Poor: essentially translation, little knowledge of vocabulary,
1 idioms, word form or not enough to evaluate.

Excellent: effective complex construction, few errors of

4 agreement, tense number, word order/function, articles,
pronoun, preposition.
Good: effective but simple construction, minor problem in a
3 simple construction, several errors of agreement, tense number,
word order/function, articles, pronoun, preposition but meaning
seldom obscure

Grammar Fair: major problem in complex/ simple construction, frequent

×20
2 error of negation, agreement, tense number, word
order/function, articles, pronoun, preposition, and/ or
fragments, run-ons, deletions, meaning confused, or
obscured.

Poor: virtually not mastery of sentences construction rules,

1 domination by errors, does not communicate, or not enough
to evaluate.

Excellent: fluent expression, ideas clearly stated / support, well

4 organized, logical sequencing, cohesive and correct.
Organization
Good: Fluent expression, ideas clearly stated or supported.
3
×20

Fair: not fluent, ideas confused or disconnect, lacks logical,

2 sequencing and development.
Poor: : doesn't to communicate, no organization or not enough
1 to evaluate.

Excellent: Identification is complete and description are arranged

4 with proper connectives; it uses correct simple present tense.
3 Good: Identification is complete and description are
arranged with proper connectives; It has occasional errors of
simple present tense.
Descriptive 2 Fair: Identification is complete and description are arranged with ×10
Text proper connectives; It has frequent errors of simple present
tense.
1 Poor: Identification is complete and description are arranged
with proper connectives; It dominated by errors of simple
present tense.
Adopted From Jacob, et al. (1981)
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Score = 30.C + 5.M + 15.V+ 20.G + 20.O + 10.DT x 100

400

C: Content O: organization

M: Mechanic DT: Descriptive Text

G: Grammar

The scores results gathered from the students’ writing English descriptive text should finally be
analyzed by using a scale system of writing classification rubric from a score range one (1) to one
hundred (100). A scale system of writing classification rubric as shown in the following table:
Table 2. Writing Classification Rubric
Scale Classification
75-100 Excellent to Very Good
50-74 Good to Average
25-49 Fair to Poor
1-24 Very Poor

b. SPSS
In the data analysis technique, the researcher used SPSS application to make the data is easy to
analysis, SPSS standing for Statistical Package for the Social Sciences.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

Using Clustering Technique in Improving Students’ Skill to Write Descriptive Text at Senior
High School 10 Makassar
English language teaching can be interpreted as the process of imparting skills and knowledge of
English to a group of students whose first language is not English through the implementation of three
main stages i.e. pre-teaching (planning), while teaching (giving instruction) as well as, post-teaching
(measure learning outcomes) (Kaharuddin, 2018).
Planning
a. Lesson Plan
According to Kaharuddin and Yassi Hakim (2018) in Syllabus Design for English Language
Teaching stated that a lesson plan in a language program has functions to identify the learning
destination (objective of a lesson) and to mark out the route (activities for each stage of the lesson). It
is an aid for a teacher to plan his teaching strategies effectively. Therefore, a well-prepared teacher
should write down the details of each activity in the form of lesson plans which will guide the
interactions between the teacher and students in implementing how detailed a lesson plan needs to be.
b. Teaching material of the research
The materials were employed to ensure that activities can be carried out as effective as possible
to attain the planned objective in each lesson. There are several elements in teaching materials, they
are:
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 Pre-Teaching
In the pre-teaching, the researcher explained about the topic. In this case, the topic is about
descriptive text. So, the researcher explained about the definition, generic structure and language
features of descriptive text. Because of the pandemic era, this activity hold by using zoom application.
 While-Teaching
In the While-Teaching, the researcher explained about the technique which was used in the
teaching and learning process. In this case, the technique is clustering technique.
 Post-Teaching
In the post-teaching, the researcher gave a task for the students to write descriptive text by using
clustering technique. In this step, the students did their task through google form.
The Result of Students’ Writing Score in Writing Descriptive Text
a. The Result of Pre-test
The Pre-Test was given to fifteen (15) students before teaching the students using clustering
technique that is on December 17, 2020 in the X IIS 1 class by using google form. The scores range
from 1-100 given to the students’ writing skills covered several writing components i.e. content,
mechanics, vocabulary, grammar, organization, and descriptive text. The resulted in the information
shown in the following table:
Table 3. The Result of Pre-Test

b. The result of Post-test

The Post-Test was given to fifteen (15) students after teaching the students using clustering
technique that is on January 21, 2021 in the X IIS 1 class by using google form. The resulted in the
information shown in the following table:
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Table 4. The Result of Post-Test

c. The Overall Results

The comparison of the gain scores between pre-test and post-test can be illustrated as follows:
Table 5. The classification of the results in pre-test and post test
SCALE CLASSIFICATION PRE-TEST POST-TEST
(Frequency) (Frequency)
76-100 Excellent to Very Good 0 6

51-75 Good to Average 1 6

26-50 Fair to Poor 10 3

1-25 Very Poor 4 0

The pre-test was also processed and analyzed by using SPSS which had eventually resulted in the
following description:
Table 6. Descriptive Statistics
N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation
Pre-Test 15 25.00 75.00 40.3333 13.94718
Post-Test 15 40.00 95.00 71.0000 17.13393

Valid N (listwise) 15

The overall results of the students from the pre-test achieved 40.33 as the average score and from
the post-test achieved 71.00 as the average score for their writing skills which means that the quality
of the students in post-test is better after getting treatment using clustering technique than the students
in pre-test.
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d. Assumption Test
According to Sari (2018), the normality tests are aimed at testing all hypothesis tests which test a
null against alternative hypothesis. The result of normality tests deals with the statements of
hypothesis test namely:
 Ho = the null hypothesis. The sample has normal distribution when significant value is greater
than 0.05 (sig > 0.05).
 H1 = the alternative hypothesis. The sample is not normally distributed when significant value is
less than 0.05 (sig < 0.05).
In this research, the data normality test post-test can be seen as follows:
Table 7: Test of Normality

Kolmogorov-Smirnova Shapiro-Wilk

Statistic Df Sig. Statistic Df Sig.

Post-Test .163 15 .200* .927 15 .244

*. This is a lower bound of the true significance.

a. Lilliefors Significance Correction

On the results of the normality test of the post-test data it is known that the significance value is
0.200 using a significance level of 0.05. Means sign value. greater than α (0.200> 0.05) so it can be
concluded that the post-test data is normally distributed.
e. T-Test
T-Test After finding out that the samples of the pre-test and post-test are normally distributed,
the implication of the clustering technique on the students’ writing skills are tested through the
following hypothesis namely: If Sig. (2-tailed) < 0.05, Ho (null hypothesis) is rejected and H1
(alternative hypothesis) is accepted. If Sig. (2-tailed) > 0.05, Ho (the null hypothesis) is accepted and
H1 (alternative hypothesis) is rejected.
In order to test the hypothesis, the one sample t-test is then used to tell us whether we should
accept or reject the null hypothesis.
Table 8: One Samples T-Test
Test Value = 0
T Df Sig. (2- Mean 95% Confidence Interval of
tailed) Difference the Difference
Lower Upper
Post- 16.04 14 .000 71.00000 61.5115 80.4885
Test 9

With regard to the table above, it is found out that SPSS output for one sample t-test, Sig. (2-
tailed)
= 0.000 < 0.05. This implies that the treatment has significant main effect on the students’ writing skills
achievement. The null (Ho) is therefore rejected and the alternative hypothesis (H1) is accepted.
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Therefore, it can be concluded that there is significant difference between pre-test and post-test
learning outcomes from the experimental class after the treatment, which means that there is an
influence on the use of clustering technique on students’ writing skill in descriptive text.
Factors Affecting the Students’ Skills in Writing Descriptive Text
The questionnaires is adopted from Yassi and Kaharuddin (2018) who explain that the main
purpose of giving the questionnaires is to review the advantages of implementing the instructional
materials. The questionnaires used close-ended questions containing a series of questions to assess
several aspects of the materials, such as content, the language focus, the activities, the supplementary
materials. To evaluate those things, the students are required to fill in the given questionnaires by
selecting one of seven optional categories i.e.:
1 = strongly disagree
2 = disagree
3 = slightly disagree
4 = neutral
5 = slightly agree
6 = agree
7 = strongly agree
Those parts can be described in the following tables:
Table 9: The Students’ Response to The Teaching Materials’ Content

Source: Primary Data Processing

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As shown at table 9, students were mostly interested in the teaching material’s content because it
can help them expand their vocabulary. It can be seen that at point 5 the students 67% strongly agree
think that the material can add the students' vocabulary. The student 006 said,“Materi yang
disampaikan, secara tidak langsung menambah kosa kata saya. Kosa kata sangat penting, baik dalam
menulis ataupun berbicara dalam bahasa Inggris” (“The material presented, indirectly adds to my
vocabulary. Vocabulary is very important, both in writing and speaking in English”)
It is the same opinion as Genoveva et al (2016) who said that vocabulary is fundamental to the
mastery of all language skills because words are the smallest element of a sentence.
Table 10: The Students’ Response to The Method in the Teaching Materials After Treatment

Source: Primary Data Processing

As shown at table 10, 73% of the students strongly agree that the clustering technique is simple

to
use in generating ideas for writing English descriptive text. The student 005 said, “Sebelum
menuliskan sebuah teks descriptive, clustering technique memudahkan saya untuk memikirkan
terlebih dahulu ide- ide apa saja yang harus saya tuliskan berdasarkan objek yang telah ditentukan”
(“Before writing a descriptive text, the clustering technique makes it easier for me to think about what
ideas I should write based on a predetermined object”).
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Similarly, Fitriani (2016) stated that this technique will help the students to organize their ideas
before they develop in paragraph of descriptive writing.
The next is to see the students’ responses to the activities in the teaching materials. Detailed
information about it can be found in the following table:
Table 11: The Students’ Response to The Activities in The Teaching Materials After Treatment

Source: Primary Data Processing

As shown at table 11, 53% of the students strongly agree that the activities were interesting and
73% strongly agree that the activities, exercises, tasks were aimed at developing their skill in writing
English descriptive text. The student 008 said, “aktivitas pembelajaran sangat menarik karena kita
sebagai siswa juga dituntut untuk berperan aktif. Berperan aktif dalam proses belajar mengajar
dapat meningkatkan motivasi belajar saya.” (“Learning activities are very interesting because we as
students are also required to play an active role. Taking an active role in the teaching and learning
process can increase my learning motivation”).
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According to Sriyono in Syahputri (2018), activities are all activities that are carried out well
physically or spiritually. Student activities during the teaching and learning process is one indicator of
the student's desire to learn.
The next discussion is to find out the students’ response to the task given in teaching materials
after treatment. Detailed information about their responses can be seen in the following table:

Table 12: The Students’ Response to The Task Given in Teaching Materials After Treatment

Source: Primary Data Processing

From the data presented in the table above, 67% of the students could finish their task (write
English descriptive text by using clustering technique) in short time. The student 002 said, “Dalam
menuliskan paragraph deskriptif dengan menggunakan technique clustering diperlukan banyak
waktu. Di sis lain, dalam menuliskan suatu paragraph descriptive pun khususnya dalam bahasa
Inggris diperlukan banyak kosa kata, dan kosa kata yang saya ketahui masih cukup terbatas”
(“Writing a descriptive paragraph using the clustering technique takes a lot of time. On the other hand,
even writing a descriptive paragraph, especially in English, requires a lot of vocabulary, and the
vocabulary I know is still limited.”). It is in line with Adriati (2013) who suggested that using
clustering technique can take longer time for the students to finish their writing, compared to their
usual writing routine.
Based on the data obtained from the implementation of clustering technique in the writing class,
it could be concluded that the clustering technique could help focus, organize, and sequence writing
for the students so that they can think a topic and write what relate with the topic easily. Then they are
helped to make writing text. Suheni (2011) states that Clustering technique is one effective way in
pre- writing for the students to generate their ideas.
All in all, the result of analysis showed that clustering technique could be applied to improve the
students’ writing skill. This technique also stimulated the students’ awareness on their own writing, so
that they could produce the better writing product. During the implementation, the students showed
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great enthusiastic and paid attention. Therefore, based on the improvement of students’ writing score,
the clustering technique effectively helps students of the first-grade at Senior High School 10
Makassar to improve their writing skill.

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