PROJECT PROPOSAL

“IMPROVING STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILLS OF DESCRIPTIVE TEXT

THROUGH ROUNDTABLE TECHNIQUE AT 8th D GRADE OF MTS
DARUL ULUM SURUH IN ACADEMIC YEAR 2018/2019”

Submitted to fulfill the Requirement of the Classroom Action Research’s

Lecturer In English Department of Education Faculty Institute For Islamic
Studies ( IAIN ) Salatiga

DEWI WULAN SUCI

23030-15-0017

ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

INSTITUTE FOR ISLAMIC STUDIES ( IAIN ) SALATIGA

2018
 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents the background of the study, statement of the problem,

objective of the study, benefit of the study, and scope and limitation of the study,

A. Background of the Study

Language is very important in human life. Language is a system that connects
thoughts, which can’t be heard, seen, or touched, with sounds, letters, manual
signs, or tactile symbols (e.g., Braille) which can. According to Larsen (2003: 2)
language is a means of interaction between and among people. In line with it,
Wardaugh (1972:3) explained that language is a system of arbitrary vocal signs
used for human communication. Pei (1966: 141) also state that language is a
system of communication by sound, operating through the organs of speech and
hearing among members of a given community, and using vocal codes possessing
arbitrary conventional meaning. As cited by Webster’s Third New International
Dictionary of the English Language (1934: 1390), language is a systematic means
of communicating thoughts or feelings by the use of conventionalized symbols,
sounds, gestures, or marks having understood meanings. So, by using language
people can make communication with each other in order to tell about their needs
and share their experiences or their feelings with others. Language becomes a
bridge to connect one another that live in different places and cultures”. It means
that we have to understand and be the master of the language which is used to
communication in international level.
One of the most important languages in the international level is English.
English is an international language which certainly has a major role for humans
to interact with the international world. According to Budiharso (2004: 4) English
is the major language which is used by people in some sectors. In Indonesia,
English is the first foreign language that studied by Indonesian people especially
for Indonesian’s student. Learning English is expanded from elementary school
until university level. Even today, children who are learning in kindergarten also
get simple English language learning to prepare their ability in the elementary
school. In Indonesia, English also become a subject that has been tested nationally
in junior high school and senior high school. It is appropriate with Educational
Unit Curriculum (K13) that says “English is one of language skills that should be
mastered by students”.
English has 4 skills, and as stated by Jim (1994: 20) the four skill are reading,
listening, speaking and writing. As Haycraft states (1978; 8) that there are various
skills in mastering language: respective skills (listening and reading), and
productive skills (speaking and writing). Writing is one of the English’s skill
component that must be mastered by students which includes the complexity of
syntax, grammar, ideas, and vocabularies. According to Reid (1994), writing is
one of the most self-conscious of human activities and it is the most complex skill
than others because the learner has to learn all the components and expresses their
ideas clearly and efficiently. Chaffee (1999: 10) also state that writing represents
our thoughts, feelings and experiences; and there is a purpose in every act of
writing. Having a good writing skills helps students achieve their purpose in the
future; apply for jobs, write academic writings, and formal letters.
If students want to be able to write well, students should understand all of the
writing’s components to support their writing product. But, based on the results of
interview with Mr. Arwan as the English Teacher of MTs Darul Ulum Suruh,
students may have possibilities to find out several difficulties when they are
writes something. It is appropriate with Hall et al(1999) and Harris et al. (1998)
in Waldron et al. (2005:25) who say that writing is perhaps the most complex of
all the language skills that students must learn because there are many
components to produce a piece of a good writing. As cited by Heaton (1989: 135)
in the book with title “How to Write Autonomously”, writing is complex and
difficult to teach and also to learn, requiring mastery not only of grammatical and
rhetorical but also conceptual and judgmental elements. In line with it, (Harmer,
2001:251) said that productive skills are found more difficult to be achieved by
the students, that there are a number of reasons why students find language
production difficult. In the fact, student in the 8th grade of MTs Darul Ulum Suruh
also find some difficulties in writing especially in descriptive text such as how to
write descriptive text, what are the generic structure of descriptive text, stating the
main ideas and controlling ideas, lack of vocabulary and lack of mastering the
grammar. So that, when the students want to make a descriptive text, they will
tend to keep opening dictionaries or asking English teachers to get the right and
correct vocabulary or sentence patterns. Tompkins (1994) and Stanley (1988)
argue that descriptive text is as painting pictures with words. By reading a
descriptive text, readers feel that they see the description just like they see
pictures. Descriptive text has the purpose to describe an object or a person that the
writer is interested in.
In addition, the other problems experienced that find in the English classroom
are students that feels bored when learning activities are taking place because
learning activities felt very monotonous, then students also passive when learning
activities are taking place, students lack of understanding with the material
delivered by the teacher because the teacher only uses the traditional method, and
lack of interest students in learning English because the background of them are
mostly cottage children. Thus, the teachers must give interesting writing’s lesson
to the students that will not make the students’ getting bored. So, the teachers
should be able to encourage the students’ interest to express their ideas in a good
writing by using a good and interesting technique.
Referring to the phenomenon above, the teacher should improve the teaching
of writing comprehension especially in teaching descriptive text. One way to
improve it, teacher can use an interesting and successful technique. The technique
that the researcher will take to overcome this problem is by applying the round
table technique. According to Olsen and Kagan in Richard and Rogers (2001:198)
 Roundtable technique is a technique in which there is a piece of paper and a pen
or pencil for each group. This technique asks students to take turns responding to
directors (commands) by writing one or two phrases before submitting the paper
to other students who do the same thing. The advantages of this activity are that it
helps students focus their attention on commands, gives more time for students to
write down their ideas calmly, and gives cumulative notes on the ideas they have
written. This technique also guarantees identical participation among group
members and exposes students to various points of view and ideas. If this
technique is applied to the practice of preparing descriptive text, the first thing to
do is create a title from the descriptive text. The title must be written in the middle
of a paper, and leave the other parts blank. Make a few sheets to share with other
groups, because in this section students will be divided into groups with 4 people
in each group. In general, this technique asks students to complete the descriptive
text simultaneously by alternating in filling phrases or sentences on a piece of
paper.
Considering the issue above, the writer finds the topic that quiet interesting to
do a research paper based on the description above. The writer will conduct in to
the English Educational Faculty of IAIN Salatiga entitle “IMPROVING
STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILLS OF DESCRIPTIVE TEXT THROUGH
ROUNDTABLE TECHNIQUE AT 8th D GRADE OF MTS DARUL ULUM
SURUH IN ACADEMIC YEAR 2018/2019”
B. Statement of the Problem
Based on the explanation in the background of study, the writer formulates the
following problems:
1. What is the condition of the 8th D Grade of MTs Darul Ulum Suruh in
Academic Year 2018/2019 when the teacher teaches the English classroom
using the roundtable technique?
 2. How are the influences of roundtable technique on students' ability to write
descriptive texts for the 8th D Grade of MTs Darul Ulum Suruh in Academic
Year 2018/2019?
C. Objective of The Study
Based on the statement of the problem above, the objective of the study are as
follows:
1. To know what is the condition of the 8th D Grade of MTs Darul Ulum Suruh
in Academic Year 2018/2019 when the teacher teaches the English classroom
using the roundtable technique.
2. To see how far the influences of roundtable technique on students' ability to
write descriptive texts for the 8th D Grade of MTs Darul Ulum Suruh in
Academic Year 2018/2019.
D. Benefit of The Study
The writer expects from the result of the research gives many benefits to the
other as a theoretically, practically and methodologically, they are going to be
explained as follows:
1. Theoretically
a. For the students
The result of the research help the students in 8th grade of MTs Darul
Ulum Suruh in Academic Year 2018/2019 to learn English with
interesting situation and help them easily to understand about how to
writes a good descriptive text. So the students can improve their ability to
write descriptive text, get the best score in the final, and don’t feels bored
when teaching learning process took place.
b. For the English Teacher
The result of the research help the teacher to find a new technique in
teaching writing or how to write a good descriptive text in the funny
situation.
 c. For the Future Researcher
The result of the research is expected to give a new knowledge of the
future researcher to do better research of the same cases. It can be one of
references to conduct a study about the same topic, so the future
researcher can make their studies more complete.
2. Practically
To applying the different technique in teaching writing, in order to
improving students writing skills especially in descriptive text.
3. Methodologically
The finding of the research can be used as one of the references in
conducting a research on English language teaching especially in writing skill
in descriptive text for the 8th grade of MTs Darul Ulum Suruh in Academic
Year 2018/2019.
E. Scope and Limitation of the Study
The writer would like to limit the scope of the study to the problems. The
scope of this research is teaching writing and round table method. The researcher
focused on how the teacher taught using round table method in teaching writing.
This research is limited only on the influences of using round table method to
improve students writing descriptive text and the new situation during the writing
teaching and learning process.
 CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter presents the review of the literature. It covers the definition of
improving, skills, writing, descriptive text, roundtable technique and the previous
study.

A. Theoretical Framework
1. Improving
According to Oxford Dictionary, Improving is something that becomes
better than before. In line with it, Collins English Dictionary also stated that
improving is an adjective’s word that has meaning becoming better tending to
educate or edify making things better. As cited by Oxford University Press
(2008: 222) improving is the process of becoming or making to the better. So,
it can be conclude that improving is an effort to make something better than
before.
2. Skills
Skills are the ability to do something well, a certain competence or
proficiency. Skills are typically acquired or developed through direct
experiences and training, and they can require sustained effort. Skills are the
ability to do something well: having enough ability, experiences to be able to
do something well; needing special abilities or training (Oxford Learner’s
Pocket Dictionary, 2011: 414). Another definition, skills are proficiency,
facility or dexterity that is acquired or developed through training or
experience (The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language,
2006: 1630). So, the conclusion is that skills are the ability that makes
someone easily to finish some project in their life.
3. Writing
According to Brown (2003:218), “Writing skills, at least at rudimentary
levels, is a necessary condition for achieving employment in various walks of
life and is simply taken for granted in literate cultures”. For a view people,
writing is so difficult because when someone want to write something, they
must understand about many components of writing itself. It is strengthened
by Byrne (1988:4) who says that writing is difficult for most people both in
mother tongue and in foreign language and as cited by Nunan (2000: 91),
writing is clearly a complex process. It can be conclude that writing is a
difficult and complex process.
According to Chaffee (1999:10) Writing represents our thoughts, feelings
and experiences; and there is a purpose in every act of writing. While Meyers
(2005:2) states that “writing is an action, a process of discovering and
organizing our ideas, putting them on the paper and reshaping also revising
them”. Moreover, Oshima and Hogue (2006:2) have the opinion “writing is a
progressive activity; it means that when we first writing something down, we
have already been thinking about what we are going to say and how we are
going to say it”.
Based on the definition above, it can be said that writing is process
transferring idea into paper; it is a progressive activity; it is an important skill
to be learnt and should be mastered by students because as cited by Harmer
(2004: 31) "Writing (as one of the four skills of listening, speaking, reading
and writing) always forms part of the inner syllabus teaching English ".
According Hamp lyons (1987-135) states that there are three stage in the
process of writing, there are:
a. Pre-writing
: Pre-writing generally involves the writer in choosing a topic’s writing
b. Writing
 : writing is the stage where actually the writer makes a draft of their
writing based on the pre-writing stage that they have done before
c. Rewriting
: Rewriting is the final stage and essential to successful writing. Rewriting
draft includes editing and proofreading. The editing proses is really an
extension of the writing stage, involving the students in taking a critical
look at their writing in order to be sure that the writer product, the
outcomes of the writing process is as they intended it to be. In this stage,
the students review a draft to check content and organization based on the
feedback from him or herself and teacher or peers.
4. Descriptive Text
a. Definition of Descriptive Text
According to Artono (DEPDIKNAS, 2008:122) Descriptive text is a
part of factual genres, it is social function is to describe a particular
person, place and things. In line with it, Linda G and Wignel (1995: 1992-
222) explained that descriptive Text is a text which the function is to
describe particular person, place or thing. On the other hand, Littell (1981:
82) defines that a descriptive text is a word picture. Descriptive paragraph
describes people, place and object. Through descriptive the writers are
able to reveal a person, a scene, or an object either real or imaginary.
Writing descriptive text is a process of creating a form of text that
describing part of thing structurally using fact. In other hand, (bab2)
D’Angelo, (1980) define writing a descriptive text is “a way of picturing
images verbally in writing and of arranging those images in some kind of
logical or association pattern”.
From the definition above, it can be conclude that descriptive text is a
text that describes something and to write descriptive text, it must be
imagine that object then express the idea into a word or sentence.
b. Type of Descriptive Text
 There are some types of descriptive text. According to Jolly in Sumarsih
and Sanjaya (2013:108) there are five types of descriptive writing
paragraph. They are:
1) Describing Process
Describing a process not only explains how something is done,
but also explains why it is done and what is needed to complete the
process.
2) Describing an event
To describe an event, a writer should be able to memorize and
remember what happened in the event.
3) Describing Personality
In describing a person, the first thing that we do is recognizing
his/her individual characteristic. We need to describe people occurs
fairly areas of physical attribute (hair, eyes), emotional (warm,
nervous), moral attributes (greedy, honest, worthy, trust), and
intellectual (cleverness, perception).
4) Describing a Place
Presenting something concrete is the way to describe place, for
example: a home, a hospital, and school.
5) Describing an Object
To describe an object accurately is done by providing the
physical characteristic of the object such as the color, form, shape, and
etc.
c. The Generic Structure of Descriptive Text
Based on Sumarsih and Sanjaya (P:6), the generic structure of
descriptive text is divided into two part they are description is to describe
the qualities, characteristics., condition, and part of an object in detail. In
addition, Fauziati also gives an explanation of the generic structure of
descriptive text in the table below:
 Text Elements Content
Identification An Introduction to the
objects/things described which
includes who or what, when, where.
Description A description of an object. For
example, the color, the size, the
smell, the taste, etc. For person:
what they look like, what they do,
how they act, what they like or
dislike, what makes them special.

d. The Purpose of Descriptive Text

Writing is used for many purposes. Verghese (1990: 78) states that the
purposes of writing have to do with goals or aims of writing. According to
Clouse (2006:45), the purposes of writing are:
1) To express feelings or ideas to the reader and/or to relate experiences
2) To inform the reader of something. It means that the reader will know
what they do not know before they read the text.
3) To persuade the reader to think or act a certain way. It means that the
aim of writing to convince the readers.
4) To entertain the reader. It means that writing can entertain the reader
from the written text. Short stories, romance novels, and humorous
newspaper columns are the examples of written to entertain.
5. Roundtable Technique
a. Definition of Round Table Technique
Round Table Technique is one of cooperative learning technique
which leads the students to work together in a small group by taking turns
in a round table. According to Jack C. Richard (2001: 192), cooperative
 learning is an approach to teaching that makes maximum use of
cooperative activities involving pairs and small groups of learners in the
classroom. Smith (1996: 7) also stated that cooperative learning is the
formation of small groups that make students can work together to
maximize their individual learning processes and learn from each other.
As a team work, cooperative learning can be used and applied in any types
of assignment.
According to Olsen and Kagan in Richard and Rogers (2001:198)
Roundtable technique is a technique in which there is a piece of paper and
a pen or pencil for each group. Kagan and Kagan as cited in Jacobs (2006:
42) mentioned that in this activity, each group member has one piece of
paper.
b. Procedure of Round Table Technique
According to Elizabert E.Barkley; K. Patricia Cross; Claire Howell
Major (2005: 358) the procedure of round table technique are:
1) Make a group consist of 4 stusents and submit the referrer to the group
or share it in the form of leaflets
2) Determine (or have students determine) group’s members who will
start first and tell students that they must circulate the paper clockwise
3) Ask the first student to write words, phrases, or sentences as quickly as
possible then read the response loudly, so that the other students have
another chance to think about and prepare a response
4) Ask the student to include the paper in the next student, who follows
the same steps
5) Tell students when the deadline is, or mention in your instructions that
the process will be completed if all members have participated and all
ideas have been written on paper
Based on the explanation above, it can be conclude that round
table technique refers to the technique that is used in a relay way and
 the contribution and cooperation of each member is the point of this
technique.
B. Previous Study
There are some previous studies about using round table technique in teaching
writing especially in teaching writing descriptive text.
The first previous study is “The Implementation of Roundtable Technique in
Improving Student’s Writing of Descriptive Text” conducted by Hasti Putri Utami
from English Education Study Program, Teacher Training and Education Faculty,
Lampung University. This research conducted in quantitative research. The
design was one group pre-test and post-test design. The population of the research
was students of the first grade of SMA Negeri 9 Bandar Lampung and the sample
of the research was class X1 consisting of 29 students. The activities were started
from administering pre-test, doing treatment, and administering post-test. The
results of the research are (1) Roundtable technique can significantly improve
students’ writing ability in all aspects of writing. It is proved from the statistical
result, it can be seen that t-value (11.611) was higher than t-table (2.045) and the
significant value (0.00) lower than 0.05. (2) Roundtable technique is very useful
to improve students’ writing of descriptive text especially in content aspect. It is
proved by the mean score was improved from 19.14 (pretest) to 22.97 (posttest).
So, it can be concluded that there is significant difference before and after
teaching speaking using Round Table or it can be said that Round Table
Technique is effective to improve students’ speaking skill in the first grade
students of SMA Negeri 9 Bandar Lampung.
The second previous study is written by Yudhi Pratama Tarigan and Yunita
Agnes Sianipar with the title “Improving Students Achievement in Writing
Descriptive Paragraph through Simultaneous Roundtable Strategy”. This study
was conducted by using classroom action research. The subject of the research
was class VIII-5 of SMP N 2 Berastagi that consisting of 30 students (15 are male
and 15 are female). This research involved quantitative and qualitative data. The
quantitative data was obtained from writing test, and the qualitative data was
obtained from the diary notes, questionnaire sheet, and observation sheet. The
result of this research is that Simultaneous Roundtable Strategy was able to
improve the students’ achievement on writing descriptive paragraph. The data
proved that the average of the students’ score improved in every test. In the last
competence test, the average was 75.13. It was higher than the second
competence test, 61.43 and the first competence test, 48.06. So, it can be conclude
that by using roundtable the student’s score of writing can increase to the better
score through several steps or cycles.
The third previous study is written by Risti Wulandari from English
Education Department of FKIP Slamet Riyadi University, with the title
“Improving Students’ Writing Ability by Using Roundtable Technique” (A
Classroom Action Research at the Eleventh Grade of SMA Negeri 1 Ngemplak in
2014/2015 Academic Year). In this research, the researcher using action research
which is consist of two cycles (each cycle consist of two meetings). The analysis
of the data in this research has shown that round table technique significantly
improved the students’ ability in writing. Based on the calculation of the test
result in pre-test, post-test 1, and post-test 2, the researcher found out the
increasing in the students’ mean score. In pre-test, it was only 46.24, then in post-
test 1 increased to 64.45, and in post-test 2 incredibly arose to 79.27. There is an
improvement in each step of the learning.
The fourth previous study is written by Sri Sepianita from English Education
Department of Tarbiyah and Teaching Science Faculty of UIN Alauddin
Makassar, with the title “Increasing the Student’s Writing Skills through
Roundtable Technique at the Second Year Students od SMPN 1 Sinjai Tengah”.
This Research design employed a pre-experimental design with one pretest and
post-test design. The design involved one group that was given a pre-test and then
exposed to a treatment and post-test. The success of the treatment was determined
by comparing the pre-test and post-test scores. The result of this research are (1)
roundtable technique is effective and significant in increasing students’ writing
skill in term of students’ writing content and organization. (2) The
implementation of roundtable technique is effective in increasing the students’
writing skill in the second year student of SMPN 1 Sinjai. It is abdicated by the
research findings show that the students skill to write descriptive paragraph is
significantly increased through the application of roundtable technique. The
students’ mean score increase from 5,3 which classified as poor score to 7,6.
Where categorized as good score, it can be calculated that the students’
improvement is 43,40 %. (3) There is significant difference between the students’
skill before and after teaching writing through roundtable technique it is proved t-
Test (11,25) is higher than t –Table (2,045).
The fifth previous study is written by Astrianto Setiadi from English
Education Department, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education
Muhammadiyah University of Makassar with the title “Improving the students;
writing skill through roundtable technique”. This research conducted in the eight
students of SMP Muhammadiyah 5 Mariso. This research used 2 cycle which is
used observation and test. This Research find that, the use of Roundtable
Technique in presenting the writing material at the eighth grade of SMP
Muhammadiyah 5 Mariso, improves the students’ achievement significantly. The
findings indicate that the mean score of test for cycle II is greater than the mean
score of test for cycle I. in other hand, the use of Roundtable Technique can
improve the students’ Writing in terms of content dealing in unity , vocabulary,
and completeness at the students’ of SMP Muhammadiyah 5 Mariso. So, it can be
conclude that using roundtable technique can improve students’ score, improving
unity and vocabulary.
The sixth previous study is written by Binti Nurul Barokah from Universitas
Nusantara PGRI Kediri with the title The Use of Roundtable Technique in
Teaching Writing Descriptive Text for The Tenth Grade Students of SMA Negeri 1
Pace Nganjuk in Academic Year 2016/2017. The result of this research is there
was significant difference before and after implementing roundtable technique in
teaching writing descriptive text. It means that using roundtable technique as
technique to help the students can share their idea in group, they can help the
other friends to make a good paragraph, and the students understand the material
better, and students can give response, command or suggestion in order that
learning will be better.
The seventh previous study is written by Sri Handayani from Sebelas Mret
Universiti Surakarta with the title The Influence of Round Table Technique and
Students’ Intelligence of Students’ Writing Skills. The result of this research is
round table technique is effective for teaching students’ writing skills at the tenth
grade students’ of SMAN 01 Ngaglik, Sleman in the academic year of 2011/2012.
The eight previous study is written by Verawati Fajrin Siregar and Syafri.K,
Hadriana from English Study Program of FKIP Riau University. This research
used title The Use of Cooperative Learning Type Roundtable Technique to
Improve the Ability of The Second Year Student of SMAN 10 Pekanbaru in
Writing Hortatory Expository Text. The result of this research shown that the use
of Roundtable technique significantly improved the ability of the students in
writing hortatory exposition text The improvement occurred because of some
factors such as the motivation that always given by the researcher in every
meeting to the students, students’ attention that which were increasing meeting by
meeting, and also the classroom situation that helped the researcher and the
students to conduct a creative, effective, and cooperative learning process.
The ninth previous study is written by Auliana Fitri, Fadly Azhar, Eliwarti
from Universitas Riau with the title The Effect of Round Table Technique on The
Writing Ability in Recount Text of The Second Year Students of SMPN Kubu. The
result of this research are the use of Round Table Technique can help the teaching
and learning process run well and it make the students are able to gain the ideas
since all of the students must give their ideas on a given topic.
 The tenth previous study is written by Rezki Adelina from UIN Alauddin
Makassar with the title The Use of Round Table Technique to Improve Students’
Writing Skills of Narrative Text at Eleventh Grade in Senior High School 1 South
Polongbangkeng. The result of this research are the use of roundtable technique is
effective to increase the student ability that we can see from the increase of the
score from the first cycle into second cycle and he use of this technique make the
students easier to make a narrative text.
The previous research above is difference from this research because this
research concern on how the teachers conduct of round table technique considered
as an interesting alternative technique in writing descriptive text which can
increase student’s activeness and cooperate with other friends during teaching and
learning process and also make the situation on the class become interesting. So
the students in 8th grade of MTs Darul Ulum Suruh in Academic Year 2018/2019
can’t feel bored when teaching learning process are taking place and also the
student’s ability on writing descriptive text will be better.
 CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter contains the description of the method employed in this research.

A. The Research Design

The method that the researcher uses in this research is Classroom Action
research (CAR). Classroom action research is a research that used by teacher in
herself / himself class with planning, acting, and reflecting in collaborative and
participant in order to increase from in work as teacher, so the result of study by
learner can improve (Wijaya Kusuma and Dedi Dwitagama, 2010: 9). The
purpose of action research supports practitioners to seek ways in which they can
provide good quality education by transforming the quality of teaching-related
activities, thereby enhancing students’ learning (Khosy, 2010:1). This research
also conducted to acquire the information in order to solve the problems that
faced in particular situation and condition. This research uses to improve the
quality of learning practice that focus on the process of teaching and learning
writing in the classroom.
This action research was carried out through two cycles. Each cycle consisted
of two meetings. This research involves 2 variables namely:
a. Independent variable of the research was the use of Roundtable Technique. It
was the important process to which allows the students to share and develop
ideas/opinion to improve the writing skills.
b. The dependent variables of the research consisted of improving students
writing skills of descriptive text. The instruments used were observation sheet
and test. Observation sheet aimed at find out the students’ data about their
presence and activeness in teaching learning process, while test aimed to get
information about students’ improvement after teaching learning process ends.
B. The Setting of the Study
The researcher conducted the classroom action research at MTs Darul Ulum
Suruh. It is a Junior High School which is 90% of the students is Islamic
Boarding School’s students.
C. Subject of the Study
The subject of this study is the students in 8th D grade of MTs Darul Ulum
Suruh in academic year 2018/2019. The number of the students is consists of 29
students which is 11 students are male and 18 students are female. That class is
chosen by the researcher because in that class, many students are passive but they
always make a noisy in the class if the teaching learning is taken, getting bored,
and some of them are unsuccessful to pass the exam. So, they needs appropriate
technique that can help them to improve their writing skills and also to improve
the class situation become funny and interesting.
D. The Procedure of Research
According to Arikunto et.al., (2006:16) steps of action research are planning,
acting, observing, and reflecting.
1. Planning
The activities in the planning were as follow:
a. Preparing the materials, making lesson plan, and designing the steps in
doing the action.
b. Preparing the list of the students’ name and scoring.
c. Preparing the teaching aids (example: Camera, worksheet, round table
technique)
d. Preparing the sheets for class observation (to know the situations of
teaching learning process when the technique is applied)
e. Preparing a test (pre-test and post-test to know whether students’ writing
skill improve or not)
2. Action
The activities in the actions were as follow:
 a. Giving pre-test
b. Teaching writing descriptive text by using round table technique
c. Giving opportunity to the students to ask about difficulties or problems.
d. Asking the students to make a descriptive text using round table
technique in a group
e. Giving post-test
3. Observing
: The researcher analyzed the result of pre-test and post-test to know wether
the students’ writing improve or not
4. Reflecting
: The research appeared reflection has an evaluating aspect. It asked the
researcher to expand the experience, to judge whether effects were desirable,
and suggest ways of processing. Then the next cycle could be designed to be
better
E. Types of Collecting data
In this research, the researcher used qualitative and quantitative research
method. Qualitative research is emphasis on discovering and understanding the
experiences, perspective, and thoughts of participants (Hiatt, 1986). In other
words, Denzin & Lincoln, 2005, p.3 explained that:
“Qualitative research is a condition’s activity that locates the observer in
the world. It consist of a set of interpretative, material practices that make the
world visible. These practices transform the world. They turn the world into a
series of representations, including field notes, interview, conversation,
photographs, recordings, memos to the self. At this level, qualitative research
involves an interpretive, naturalistic approach to the world. This means that
qualitative research study things I their natural settings, attempting to make
sense of, or interpret, phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to
them”
 In other hand, Aliaga and Gunderson (2002) describe that quantitative
research is explaining phenomena by collecting numerical data that are analyzed
using mathematically based methods(in particular statistic).

F. Technique of Data Collection

Technique of data collection is defined as the technique or the way how the
researcher gets valid data, analyze them, and finally find out the best answers of
the research problems. In gathering the data, the researcher used some ways. Here
are the techniques of data collection:
1. Observation sheet
According to Miles and Huberman in Sugiyono (2011: 211)
observation is activity to obtain information of the research. Observation sheet
is used by the researcher to monitoring the class conditions, such as the
students’ activeness, students’ attention in the learning process and etc. Brown
(2004: 266) states that “all teachers, whether they are aware of it or not,
observe their students in the classroom almost constantly.
2. Writing Test
The researcher used writing test in order to measuring the students’
writing ability. In this research, the writing test focused on the descriptive text
material. This test designed based on the curriculum and the syllabus of MTs
Darul Ulum Suruh in Eight grade about descriptive text This technique is used
to find out the improvement of students’ ability in writing descriptive text
after the teacher used roundtable technique in learning activity
G. Techniques of Analyzing Data
In process analyzing the data, the researcher categorized the data into two
kinds of data. There are qualitative data and quantitative data.
1. Qualitative data
 Qualitative data is use to analyze the data of observation. According to
Miles and Huberman in Sugiyono (2011: 246-253), there are three steps of
analyzing data:
a. Data Reducing
: Reduce the data is summarizing, choosing and focusing at the main data.
The researcher do data reducing to make her / his analyze more easier
because the data that needed by the researcher have been available.
b. Data Display
: After the reducing the data, the next step is displaying the data.
Displaying the data helps the researcher to understand what is happening
and what to do some things further analysis on that understanding.
2. Quantitative Data
In analyzing the quantitative data, the researcher used writing
descriptive text test to know the increase of score or ability of the student in
writing skills (especially in writing descriptive text). According Burns (2010:
124) the formula of the mean of the test can be calculate as follow:
∑X ∑Y
X= Y=
N N
Which is:
X : Mean of post-test 1 scores
Y : Mean of post-test 2 scores
N : The number of sample
∑X : The sum of pre-test score
∑Y : The sum of post-test score
 CHAPTER III
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
A. FINDINGS
In this chapter, the researcher would like to analyze the data gathered from the
action research activities. The data was obtained from teaching learning process
and evaluation. The data analysis is function to measure the students’ descriptive
writing skill improvement by applying round table technique through planning,
action, observing, and also reflecting during 2 cycles (2 meetings of each cycle).
From the analyze data, the finding of this research are:
1. The used of roundtable technique successful to improve the conditions of the
class or student during the learning process are taken place. The students of 8th
D grade students at MTs Darul Ulum Suruh become enjoy and interest with
the learning process after the teacher used the roundtable technique. The
learning process was improved from passive into active, from boring into
interesting, from scary into funny class and all of the students become pay
their attention to the teacher completed. It is happen because the teacher who
was successful to improve the teaching technique (from the used of traditional
technique into roundtable technique).
2. The students’ of 8th D grade at MTs Darul Ulum Suruh success to improve
their writing ability especially in writing descriptive text after they used
roundtable technique to write a good descriptive text in a group of discussion.
Their understandings were increase from the first cycle into the second cycle
in this research. It is means that the use round table technique is successful to
improve the students writing ability and successful to influence the students
understanding about writing’s component to make a good writing’s paragraph.
B. DISCUSSIONS
The research findings prove that roundtable technique successfully increased
the students’ writing skills to write descriptive text. The interpretation of findings
above is presented as follows:
1. Before the teacher using roundtable method to solve the problem, the students
in the class always passive, sleepy, do not understand about the materials
well, and do not interest with the English lesson. But, after the teacher used
roundtable technique, the class becomes funny, active, interest and makes the
students enjoy follow the English lesson.
2. Before the teacher using roundtable method to solve the knowledge problem,
the students do not understand about the materials well. They always ask to
the teacher about the grammar, the vocabulary or anything if they have an
assignment. But, after the use of this technique, the students become active,
have the solidity in team work, can understand about the materials that
delivered by the teacher and can write descriptive text well.
 CHAPTER III

CLOSURE

A. Conclusion
From the explanation above, it can be concluded that the analysis of
quantitative data shows the students’ writing ability that was improved from the
first cycle until the second cycle. It is proven by the increase of students’ score
from the first cycle in to second cycle (also through pre-test and post-test) of
writing descriptive text. It means that there was an improvement on the students’
achievement on writing descriptive text by applying roundtable technique.
In other hand, the analysis of qualitative data shows that there are also many
improvements of classroom situation after the teacher used the roundtable
technique such as the learning process in the class becomes enjoy, interest, active
and do not monotonous. So that the students will be enjoying the learning process
and the materials will be understand by the students clearly.
B. Suggestion
After conducting the research and analyzing the data, the writer gives some
suggestions of this research, they are as follows:
1. For the Teacher
The teacher may use this technique (round table technique) to teaching
writing of descriptive text in the classroom to make the learning process that
interest by the students.
2. For the Students
Hopefully, if the teacher use round table technique to teaching writing
of descriptive text, the students become active in the class, do not feel boring,
can give their attention to the teacher and can improve their ability and score
in writing descriptive text.
3. For the Institution
 The researcher hopes that the institution can provide more facilities for
teaching and learning process in order to make the teaching learning process
more easily and can get the best score for the students.
4. For the researcher
The researcher hopes that the other researcher can use this paper as a
resource to do further research. It aims to make the research process easier
and have better result.
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