TEACHING WRITING A DESCRIPTIVE TEXT USING QUESTIONS

AND ANSWERS TECHNIQUE ABOUT PICTURE

TO JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

Paper

Submitted as a Partial Fulfillments of the Requirements to Obtain Strata One (SI) Degree

By

Rahmawati

72674/2006

Advisor:

Sitti Fatimah, S.S, M.Ed.

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS STATE UNIVERSITY OF PADANG

2011

ABSTRAK Rahmawati. 2011. Teaching Writing a Descriptive Text Using the Questions

and Answers Technique about Picture to Junior High School Students. Unpublished Paper. Padang: FBS UNP

Menulis karangan deskriptif merupakan salah satu keahlian yang harus diajarkan pada mata pelajaran bahasa Inggris. Pengajaran keterampilan menulis ini bertujuan agar para siswa mampu mengembangkan ide, pendapat, pemikiran dan perasaannya secara logis dan berstruktur dalam bahasa yang baik. Namun kenyataannya banyak siswa mengalami kesulitan dalam menulis sebuah teks deskriptif berbahasa Inggris. Hal ini disebabkan oleh beberapa faktor yaitu: siswa memiliki sedikit kosa kata, siswa kurang mampu mengembangkan ide dan pikiran mereka dalam bentuk tertulis, dan juga disebabkan oleh guru yang menggunakan teknik mengajar yang kurang menarik.

Makalah ini bertujuan untuk mengajarkan menulis teks deskriptif dengan menggunakan teknik question and answer mengenai pictures. Teknik ini digunakan sebagai langkah awal menulis (pre-writing activity). Dari teknik question and answer siswa akan diarahkan pada cara menulis kalimat sederhana, kemudian dilanjutkan pada penyusunan atau penulisan sebuah teks.

Teknik pengajaran dengan teknik question and answer mengenai pictures ini menggunakan tiga tahap pengajaran yaitu: pre activity, whilst activity, dan post activity. Pre activity merupakan tahap awal yang difokuskan pada pengenalan teknik yang akan digunakan. Whilst activity merupakan tahap dimana siswa bekerja dalam kelompok untuk mengaplikasikan teknik question and answer mengenai pictures untuk menulis teks deskriptif. Post activity merupakan tahap akhir bagi siswa dalam menghasilkan karangan deskriptif dan juga penilaian terhadap karangan yang dihasilkan siswa.

i 

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I would like to say Alhamdulillah to express my great thankfulness to

Allah SWT who has given a lot of encouragements to me in completing this

paper. Afterwards, Salawat and Salam are sent to the beloved prophet

Muhammad SAW who has struggled in making the world better.

This paper is sincerely dedicated to my beloved parents, Usman, Dt.

Sati and Asniar, for their motivations, encouragements, and affections along

the completion of my study and this paper. This is also dedicated to my

beloved brothers, Zulkifli, Irwan, and Efendi, and also my beloved sisters,

Desmawati and Leni Rahman, who always give me the affection and support

in completing my study. I love you and I will make you proud of me.

Then, I would like to dedicate my biggest gratitude and respect to my

advisor, Sitti Fatimah, S.S, M.Ed., for her remarkable patience, motivation,

suggestion, encouragement and a great time along the completion of this

paper. My gratitude also goes to the examiners: Mohd. Al-Hafizh, S.S., M.A.,

and Rusdi Noor Rosa, S.S., M.Hum., for the beneficial and valuable

suggestions in making this paper.

My gratitude is sent to Dr. Kusni, M.pd as the chairman, Dra. An

Fauzia Rozani Syafei, M.A as the secretary, the lecturers and all the staff in

English Department of State University Of Padang for their assist during my

academic years in this university.

ii 

I also would like to say thanks to my beloved friends T-Girls ( Menick,

Nanik, and Titi) for your friendship, affections, and supports that make my

days become more colorful and cheerful. All the time we had together is the

most precious moment and will always keep in my heart since my first years

in this university.

Last but not least, thanks to all my friends in English Department. Our

togetherness which full of laughter, spirits and ideas are always giving me

motivation in enduring my days in our department.

Padang, April 2011

Rahmawati

iii 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRAK .......................................................................................................... i

ACKNOWLEDGMENT .................................................................................... ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS ...................................................................................... iv

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Problem................................................... 1

1.2 Limitation of the Problem ..................................................... 4

1.3 Formulation of the Problem .................................................. 4

1.4 Purpose of the Paper .............................................................. 5

CHAPTER 2 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

2.1 The Concept of Writing ........................................................ 6

2.2 Teaching Writing at Junior High School............................... 8

2.3 The Concept of Descriptive Text .......................................... 9

2.4 Questions and Answers Technique ....................................... 11

2.5 Picture.................................................................................... 13

CHAPTER 3 TEACHING WRITING DESCRIPTIVE TEXT USING

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS TECHNIQUE ABOUT PICTURE AT JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOLS

3.1 Preparation ............................................................................ 15

3.1.1 Choosing a Topic ........................................................ 15

3.1.2 Choosing a Picture ..................................................... 15

3.1.3 Lesson Plan ................................................................. 16

3.2 Procedure ............................................................................... 16

3.2.1 Pre-Writing Activities ................................................. 16

3.2.2 Whilst-Writing Activities ............................................ 18

3.3.3 Post-Writing Activities ................................................ 23

3.3 The Advantages of Using Questions and Answers about

Picture in Teaching Descriptive Text .................................. 24

iv 

CHAPTER 4 CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION 4.1 Conclusion ............................................................................ 25

4.2 Suggestion ............................................................................ 25

REFERENCES

APPENDIX

v

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1. Background of Problem

Nowadays, writing skill becomes more important because of the

progress of knowledge, information and technology. In this information era,

people intensify their communication throughout the world for doing business,

politic, social relationship, and culture exchange. Those who can write well

will be able to build good relationship with others and pursue their goal.

Writing is one of the language skills used to express idea, thought,

feeling, and opinion in written form. In expressing all of these, a writer should

consider many things such as the grammatical sentences, the choice of words,

the flows of thought and rhetorical structure. This is important in order that

the writer can produce a cohesive and coherent text.

Writing is one of the important skills that should be taught to junior

high school students as stated in the curriculum of 2006. Based on the

curriculum the students should be able to communicate with others in spoken

and written form. There are several texts which are taught to the junior high

school students, namely; transactional texts, functional texts, and monolog

texts. At junior high school, the monolog texts that they have to master are

procedure, descriptive, narrative, recount, and report. The students should be

able to master and to write all kind of the texts.

However, writing is not an easy task. Writing is considered to be the

most difficult one because there are some rules that have to be mastered by the

students. Brown (2001) explained that among the language skills, writing is

the most complicated and the most difficult skill because in writing there are

several rules: First, a writer should pay attention to the choice of word used.

Second, a writer should be able to produce grammatical sentences with clear

ideas and concepts. If the sentences are not grammatical and not clear, the

reader will find problems in understanding the message. Third, a writer should

be able to arrange the ideas, thought and feeling in good order. These ideas are

presented in systematic arrangement. The last, writer should pay attention to

the punctuation and rhetorical structure of the text.

Based on the observation during the student-teaching program at

school before, it was found that there were many students who were lack

ability in writing. It was assumed that this problem is caused by some factors.

These factors are students’ knowledge about English, classroom atmosphere

in teaching writing, and the teacher’s teaching technique. It means that in

teaching and learning process of writing, the problems appear not only from

the students, but also from the teacher.

One of the texts that the students of junior high school must be able to

write is descriptive texts. A descriptive text is a kind of text that describes a

particular thing and person. The purpose of writing descriptive text is to make

the reader see, feel and hear what the writer seen, felt, and heard.

1 

Most of the junior high school students start writing a descriptive text

difficultly; this is because of some problems. First, they have low basic

knowledge about English; they still have problems with choices of words, the

use of appropriate tenses or text organization, and also with vocabulary. As a

result, the students sometimes get confused to express their ideas about what

should be written in the first sentence of paragraphs. Moreover, when the

students have had ideas to be written, they find difficulties to organize their

ideas into a good descriptive text which has communicative purposes, uses

simple present tense , uses appropriate adjectives and nouns, uses generic

structures (identification and description), and has a well arranged ideas of a

text.

Another problem that can influence teaching writing is classroom

atmosphere. A teacher should create a conductive, meaningful, and interesting

learning atmosphere. In fact, some teachers cannot create a meaningful and

interesting atmosphere. During the teaching writing process, the classes seem

to be more a teacher-centered rather than students-centered classroom activity.

The teachers tend to focus the lesson on theories not in practices. The teachers

sometimes spend much time to explain about writing, while the students only

listen to the teachers. As a result, the students have limited time to practice

writing, especially writing a descriptive text.

The other problem is related to techniques of learning. Here, the

teacher as a motivator and a facilitator of the students find difficulties in

choosing an appropriate technique in teaching writing. Due to the problem of

writing the descriptive text, the students are only given exercises and

assignments which do not enable them to write independently. The teacher

asks the students to copy a paragraph, for example, and then order jumbled

sentences or to complete a paragraph. Those exercises are not relevant with

practicing how to write the descriptive text. There is no discussion between

the teacher and the students to solve students’ problem in writing descriptive

text. The teacher just give exercises and the students do all of the exercises by

themselves.

After considering the problems above, teachers need to prepare

themselves with a meaningful activity that enables students to write a

descriptive text. The teachers should choose a technique that can involve the

students to write independently. In this paper, the technique that the writer

proposes is questions and answers techniques about pictures. This technique is

assumed to be able to help the students explore their ideas in writing the

descriptive texts. Furthermore, this technique will ease the students in

constructing and generating their ideas. Finally, teachers can easily build

students creativity and enthusiasm in writing a descriptive text. Questions and

answers technique may help both teachers and students in teaching and

learning a descriptive text.

1.2 Limitation of the Problem

The limitation of the problem is using question and answer technique

about pictures in teaching writing descriptive text for junior high school

students. This way of teaching would be able the students to write a

descriptive text independently as well.

1.3 Formulation of the Problem

Related to the limitation of the problem above, the problem is

formulated as follows “How does the teacher use questions and answers

technique about pictures in teaching writing a descriptive text to Junior High

School students?”

1.4 Purpose of the Paper

The purpose of this paper is to explain the process of teaching writing

a descriptive text by using questions and answers technique about pictures.

CHAPTER 2

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

2.1. The Concept of Writing

Writing is one way for communication. Writing can be used as a

medium for delivering ideas, feelings, thought and experiences of writers to

readers in written form. However, writing is often regarded as the complicated

skill to be taught. Writing is a skill which needs more than just physical

activity but also in mental proficiency in order to express good written ideas.

This complicated writing can be seen from its definitions.

There are several definitions of writing according to some experts.

Raimes (1983) says that writing is a cognitive learning experience that helps

someone to find out what he or she wants to say. Writing is not only the way

to express ideas but it is also used to get ideas. Ur (2000) defines that writing

is an expression of ideas that convey messages to the reader. In writing the

writer actually gives something that can be readers’ need. When someone

writes something and then others read to the writing, there will be a social

interaction.

Moreover, Ghaith (2008) states that writing is a complex process that

encourages someone to present his/her ideas in a noticeable and actual

message. It means that writing functions as media to show up someone’s

thinking and feeling in written form. Thus, writing stimulates someone to

think about something, and finally presents it in the written massage. The way

of writing, the ideas that are written, and the message in writing are the clues

for readers to know about the writer and through writing the readers may

know about the writer’s characteristic.

Harmer (2007) mentions that writing is a basic language skill, just as

important as speaking, listening, and reading. Besides, Brown (2001) says

writing is a convention for recording speech and for reinforcing grammatical

and lexical features of language. He also states that the ability to write has

become a very useful skill in global literate community today. From the

definition above, it can be concluded that writing paragraph is a process to

deliver someone thought and ideas through written form to be read by

someone else.

However, teachers usually face problems in teaching writing, so do the

students. Blanchard and Root (2004) state that many people face difficulties

to write well. Only few can express idea clearly because not everyone is

naturally gifted writer. Furthermore, they explain that although writing is

difficult, it is a skill that can be practiced and mastered.

As a process, writing has some procedures. Boardman and Frydenberg

(2002) explain that writing is a process that has some stages like; (a)

prewriting stages, (b) writing stages which include generating ideas,

organizing ideas and writing the first draft, (c) rewriting that consist of two

separate processes: revising and editing. This idea is supported by Rambo

(2006) who tells that it is necessary to see writing as a process because writing

passes some steps to make a good writing. He tells that there are four

activities in the writing process: drafting, revising, proofreading, and the final

draft. Thus, writing is not an easy skill. To produce a good writing, there are

some processes that have to be done systematically.

In addition, Oshima (1999) mentions that there are four ways to

achieve coherence in writing. Two ways involve repeating key nouns and

using pronouns. The third way is to use transition signals. The fourth way is to

arrange sentences in logical order. Although coherence is crucial to effective

writing, many students do not know what make a text coherent. Teacher must

help students to improve the coherence of their writing.

Beside coherence, writing also needs some elements. Blanchard and

Root (2004) mention the important elements of good writing are subject,

purpose and audience. They mention that subject is a topic that a writer

interests, knows and understands. Purpose is a writer’s reason for writing, for

example: to entertain, to inform, and to persuade. Then, to communicate ideas

more effectively a writer must consider audience or reader’s background.

From those opinions, it can be concluded that writing is a complex

process that delivers thought in written form and includes certain stages:

prewriting, writing, and rewriting stages. In writing, people have to think

about the unity and coherence of sentences to produce better final result of

writing which can be received and understood well by the readers.

2.2. Teaching Writing at Junior High School

The process of teaching learning of English at junior high school

focuses on the students’ ability to communicate in daily lives, the students

have to understand the text and use it in real situation. In addition, the school

based curriculum (KTSP 2006) states that the purpose of English subject at

the junior high school requires the students to develop their communicative

competence in English oral and written.

The teaching of writing at junior high school requires creative

teachers. The English teachers should be able to teach writing in different

genres. Scrivener (2005) mentions that a typical route for classroom work on

helping students to write might involve some steps namely; introduce the

topic, introduce and summarize the main writing task, brainstorm ideas, select

and reject ideas, decide specific requirement such as style, information and

layout.

Pardiyono (2007) adds that in producing an effective written text, there

are some steps that should be done by the English teachers, those are: (1) the

teachers decide the purpose or intention of the text that will be produced, (2)

the teachers pick up an appropriate genre, (3) make the text elements

rhetorically organized (generic structures of the text).

Based on the explanation above, it can be concluded that teaching

writing at junior high school must in form of an integrative process. As a

result, the teachers should be creative and active to motivate and encourage

the students to express their ideas, feelings, and thoughts in order to

communicate with other people through papers.

2.3 The Concept of a Descriptive Text

One of genre that is taught at junior high schools is descriptive text.

Descriptive text is kind of text that gives illustration or to represent person,

place or thing in detail, so the readers can visualize or imagine about the

object is being described. Gerrot and Wignell (1994) define that descriptive

text is the text to describe a particular person, place or thing. By reading a

descriptive text, the writer tries to bring up imagination side of the readers; for

example, when the readers read about a place that being described in the text,

it seems as if they are on that place. According to Abisamra (2001) descriptive

text is a text picturing the person, place, and thing with clear detail to help the

readers visualize an object that is being described. By reading a descriptive

text, the readers will create their sense of impression and get a clear picture of

the object which is described.

Besides, the social purpose of a descriptive text is to give information.

Department of education of Colorado (2006) emphasizes that the purpose of

the descriptive text is to create a clear picture of a person, place, thing, or idea

through the use of vivid and powerful words in order to help a reader see,

experience, or know an object, place, time, or person. According to Nordquist

(2008) the purpose of a descriptive text is to make the readers see, feel, and

hear what the writers have seen, felt, and heard.

Text organizations of descriptive are identification (mention the

special participant) and description (mention the part, quality, and

characteristics of subject being described). Gerrot and Wignell (1994) explain

about the generic structure of descriptive text. Those are (1) identification

which is to identify phenomenon or subject that is going to be described, (2)

description which is to describe specifically parts, qualities, and

characteristics of an object that is being described. Then, they also explain

about the grammatical or language features of descriptive text:

1. Focus on specific participant. It means that having one clear object

that is described.

2. Use of attributive and identifying process. Attributive process is

used to assign quality of object.

a. Attributive process is always in active clause form

b. Identifying process may be in passive form

3. Use adjective to explain noun

4. Use simple present tense, because the text tells about the fact of the

object that is described

Thus, it can be concluded that the descriptive text is one of text type

that aims to describe people, places, or things through the use of text

organization and language features communicatively. There are two generic

structures in descriptive found as the identification and description. The

communicative descriptive text also uses proper language features.

2.4. Question and Answer Technique

Question is one of teaching activities that takes important role in the

teaching learning process. According to Callahan and Clarke in Cotton (2001),

the use of questions is important among all teaching techniques. Teachers in

any subject matter and goal use questions quite frequently during the lessons.

Asking a good question will help the teachers to motivate students' curiosity

about the topic, and it will help the teachers to assess how well they

understand the material.

Questions and answers is a technique that can be used in teaching

writing. By using this technique, teachers can conduct the students to be more

active in learning process, especially in writing. The students are expected to

work in group or individually to produce their own ideas.

Raimes (1983) explains that using a question and answer technique

allows students a little more freedom in structuring sentences. It means that

students are provided an opportunity to express their ideas freely. By using

questions and answers technique, the students will make them respond and

interact with the teacher about what they are studying. Through this technique,

the teacher will able to know about the students’ knowledge, understanding

and their ability. Burnaby (2005) states that question and answer is a

technique interaction in classroom that useful by the students as an invitation

about material they are studying at a different level.

There are some purposes of asking questions during a course in

teaching learning process. A variety of purposes emerge from analysis of the

literature have been viewed by Cotton (2001), including:

a. Developing students’ interest and motivating them to become

actively involved in the lessons

b. Evaluating students’ preparation and checking homework.

c. Developing critical thinking skills and inquiring attitudes.

d. Reviewing and summering by exposing new relationships.

e. Encouraging insights by exposing new relationships.

f. Assessing achievement of instructional goals and objectives.

g. Stimulating students to pursue knowledge on their own.

According to Friend & Cook (2010) there are three primary intentions or

purposes of questions; (1) to seek information, (2) to provide information, (3)

to clarify or confirm information.

From explanation above, it can be concluded that the use of question

and answer technique is to make students involved in the material that they

are studying. Furthermore, by asking questions teachers can determine

whether the students understand well about the lesson or not, and can increase

the students’ learning level.

2.5. Picture

Picture is a media that can motivate students’ interest in learning a

language. Teachers can build questioning stages from the picture to arise

students’ interest and curiosity. Using a picture as a topic gives an opportunity

to develop a wide variety of tasks in teaching and learning process.

Honeyfield in Felma (2007) states the pictures are visual materials that

can be used to motivate the students in learning language. Using language and

picture are two ways of communicating the teaching and learning. By using

pictures, the students will write their composition based on the pictures that

interest them. Through pictures, students know about people, place, and

things. Picture can also represent images from ancient times or the future.

Wright (1986) emphasizes that the teacher must present pictures in

way which is relevant to the interest and age of her students. Furthermore, the

teacher should provide the pictures that the students like, so the students are

interested in the pictures and motivated to read.

Raimes (1983) states pictures provide a shared experience for students

in the class, a common base that leads to a variety of language activities. He

also adds that a picture is a valuable resource that provides: a share experience

in the classroom, a need for common language forms to use in the classroom,

a variety of task, and a focus of interest for students. Heaton (1985) explains

that to develop the students’ powers of observation, pictures can encourage

clear and precise thinking, help the pupil to talk and write freely upon a

definite subject. He also says that pictures have great help in teaching new

vocabulary and structure, and provides the students with the basic material for

his composition, and enable to give attention to the correct use of language.

In conclusion, pictures can encourage students in writing. The

selection of picture is important to keep the students’ motivation. Pictures that

are selected are not only relevant with the students’ interest and age but they

should also be fun a truly self motivating and have much visual information.

CHAPTER 3 TEACHING WRITING DESCRIPTIVE TEXT USING QUESTIONS

AND ANSWERS TECHNIQUE ABOUT PICTURE AT JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOLS

3.1. Preparation

In teaching and learning process, teacher may prepare and consider

some preparations before going through to the lesson. These preparations can

help the teacher in teaching process. The preparations that the teacher may

prepare as follows:

3.1.1. Choosing a topic

The teacher chooses a topic about the descriptive text. The teacher may

consider what kind of the material used firstly to teach about describing

person, place or things. It should be better to choose a topic that is interesting

to the students. In describing place, for example, the teacher chooses the topic

about my home, my bedroom, my favorite place, or my classroom.

3.1.2. Choosing a picture

The teacher chooses appropriate pictures based on a topic that has been

chosen (see appendix 2). Describing a bedroom, for example, the teacher

prepares a picture that describes a bedroom. For this purpose, the teacher does

not have to produce an inspired or interesting picture, the point is to use

simple picture that closed and known by students to generate interesting

activities by using the picture.

3.1.3. Lesson Plan

The teacher also has to prepare a lesson plan (see appendix 1). Lesson

plan helps teacher to control or manage the teaching and learning process

effectively. At this point, the teacher has to state what is expected from the

students at the end of the lesson. If the teacher teaches about writing

descriptive text, the teacher has to make the students able to identify and

comprehend the content of the text, master the tenses, and produce their own

writing. Then, the teacher has to consider how many times to spend for each

meeting and for each topic.

The teacher can take the material from a book that has been

recommended or any resources depending on level knowledge of the students

and situation. The teacher should use a strategy and some activities to support

the students’ understanding. Then, the teacher also has to prepare the exercise

or examination to evaluate students’ writing.

3.2. Procedure of Teaching Writing Descriptive Text Using Questions and

Answers about Picture Three Phase Techniques are used in teaching writing a descriptive text

using questions and answer about picture for junior high school students. The

Three Phase Techniques are; Pre-Writing Activities, Whilst-Writing Activities

and Post-Writing Activities. The procedures can be applied as follows:

3.2.1 Pre-Writing Activities

In this stage, there are some activities done by teacher and students;

1. The teacher reviews the previous lesson before going through the

next lesson.

2. The teacher stimulates the students’ background knowledge by

giving some preposition words before come to a topic about

describing place.

Figure 1 Preposition

Quoted from: http://www.google.com/picture/preposition.htm

3. Then the teacher asks the students to look around their classroom

because they are going to describe it. The teacher guide the

students make some sentences by using the preposition that has

given.

4. After that, the teacher asks some questions about their classroom to

the students and the students answer it, for example:

- Teacher: Is the classroom big or small?

- Students: The classroom is big

- Teacher: How many tables and chairs are there in the

classroom?

- Students: There are 20 tables and chairs

- Teacher: Where is the teacher’s desk?

- Students: The teacher’s desk is in front of the class

- etc

From these activities, the teacher explains what they are going to do,

that is describing a place. The teacher explains that these activities will

help and guide them in writing descriptive text as well. The students

should follow all the instruction that is given by the teacher to next

activity.

3.2.2 Whilst-Writing Activities

After giving some preposition and asking some questions to the

students, the teacher gives other instructions that have to be done by the

students.

1. The teacher asks the students to make the same form of questions

that can describe their classroom, for example:

- Where is the teacher’s chair?

- How many pictures are there in the classroom?

- Where is the white board?

- Is there any book shelf in the classroom?

- Is there any cupboard in the classroom?

- etc

2. The teacher writes down the students questions on the white board.

3. After collecting some questions from the students, the students

answer all the questions and the teacher leads by reading the

questions one by one.

Students’ answer: - There are two pictures in the classroom

- The teacher’s chair is in front of the class

- The white board is under the pictures

- There is no any book shelf in the classroom

- There is a cupboard in the classroom

- etc

4. From the students’ answers, the teacher leads the students to

combine and arrange the answers to be a good descriptive

paragraph. First, the teacher writes down what should be the first

sentence, for example: “My classroom is big”.

5. Then, teacher and students all together continue to arranges the

answers from the previous questions into a good descriptive

paragraph, for example:

My Classroom

My classroom is big. There are 20 tables and chairs in my

classroom. In front of the class there is a teacher’s desk and a teacher’s

chair. There are two pictures of the president and the vice president

hanging on the front wall. There is a whiteboard under the pictures. In

front of the class in the corner, there is a flag. In my classroom, there is

not any book shelf but there is a cupboard.

6. After arranging the answers to be a good descriptive paragraph, the

teacher asks the students to analyze the paragraph about the tense

used, the adjective words, social function, and so on. If the students

do not understand, the teacher explains it more.

If the students have understood what the teacher explained, they

could make their own writing. They can do it by following the ways

and instructions that the teacher gives.

7. In order to create their own writing, teacher asks the students to

work in group. One group consists of four or five members.

8. The teacher distributes a picture (e.g. Sakura’s bedroom) with the

difficult words to each student in each group.

Figure 2 Sakura’s bedroom

Quoted from: http://www.google.com/picture/design-kamar.htm

Difficult words: - Bed - Window

- Pillow - Curtain

- Sofa - Picture Frame

- Book shelf - Rug

- Desk - Drawers

9. The teacher gives each student of each group a different clue about

things in the picture. For example, a clue ‘bed’ is for student A,

‘desk’ is for student B, ‘book shelf’ is for student C, and so on.

10. The teacher asks the students to make some questions using the clue

in the picture individually, and then ask them to write the questions

onto Questions Card. The questions are based on the real

description or the student’s imagination beyond the picture.

Figure 3 Sample of Question Card

QUESTIONS CARD

Name: A Group: 1 No Question

1 Is the bed big or small?

2 How many pillows are on the bed?

3

4

This is an example of questions card that is made by one of

students in group 1, the student gets a clue ‘bed’, so he/she makes

questions about bed.

11. After that, the teacher collects the Questions Card containing

questions that the students have formulated. Then, redistribute the

questions to other students. For example, questions from students in

Group 1 are distributed to those in Group 2, from Group 2 to Group

3 and so on.

12. Then, these questions are to be answered by the students

individually based on the real description or imagination beyond the

picture. Each student in each group will get a different question, but

the question is about one picture. They answer the question onto the

Answer Card.

Figure 4 Sample of Answer Card

ANSWERS CARD

Name: B Group: 2 No Answer

1 The bed is small

2 There are 4 pillows on the bed

3

4

This is an example of answers card that is answered by one of

students from other group. One student gets one questions card

from other student in other group. The student only answers

questions in questions card that he/she gets.

13. Finally, the students discuss their own answer with their own group

about how to combine and arrange their answers to be a good

descriptive text. The students should consider about language

features and generic structure that has been explained by teacher in

previous activity.

14. The teacher monitors the progress of the work and gives assistance

during the activities. The teacher move from one group to other

groups to discuss their work.

3.2.3. Post-Writing Activities

Here are the last activities that are done by the teacher:

1. After the students have created their own descriptive text in

groups, now time to the teacher evaluates their tasks that have been

accomplished.

2. The teacher asks the students to submit all their work, from they

make the question, answer the question, and finishing a paragraph.

3. The teacher’s assessment for the tasks can be done by analyzing

the students’ worksheets individually and in groups. Therefore, the

students are asked to make and answer the questions well.

In order to make students more competent in doing this technique they

can be asked to do the same thing outside of the class. They can choose the

way of their learning style whether in group or independently.

3.3. The Advantages of Using Questions And Answers About Picture In

Teaching Descriptive Text

1. Many students think that writing is very difficult to learn and

boring. By using this technique, writing class becomes more

interesting and more active.

2. It is easier for the students to generate ideas and get details for the

descriptive paragraph by using questions and answer technique.

3. The use of this technique can help the students to express their

ideas easily.

4. This technique can increase students’ motivation, concentration,

and participation in learning process.

CHAPTER 4 CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS

4.1 Conclusion

In teaching writing, teachers should be able to attract the students’

attention, and the teachers also have to be creative. The teachers should

choose a technique that can involve the students to write independently,

especially writing descriptive text. This text has purpose to describe a person,

a place, and a thing in details. In teaching descriptive text, the teachers have to

consider about the technique that will be used.

Questions and answers about pictures is a technique that can be used

by teacher in teaching a descriptive text. Procedure of teaching writing by

using this technique is divided into three stages. They are pre-teaching

activity, whilst-teaching activity, and post-teaching activity. Questions and

answer technique will help the students to organize and generate their ideas

easily, especially in writing a descriptive text. This technique also makes

students active and feels motivated in writing.

4.2 Suggestion

There are some suggestions proposed dealing with the conclusion

above:

1. Teachers are suggested to give some pictures that suitable with a topic

of lesson. It is better for teachers to use the pictures that can attract

students’ interest.

2. It is better for teachers to explain the use of questions and answers

card to the students.

3. It is better for teachers to give examples of questions about picture to

ease the students make their own questions.

4. It is better for teachers to control and evaluate every student’s work in

order to see an improvement of the students in writing.

   

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Abisamra, Nada. 2001. Teaching Writing Approaches & Activities. Retrieved on December 4, 2010 at http://www.nadabs.tripod.com/teaching-writing.htm.

Barnet, Sylvan and Marcia Stubbs. 1990. Practical Guide to Write with

Additional Reading. New York: Harper Collins Publisher. Blanchard, K & Root. C. 2004. Ready to Write More: From Paragraph to

Essay. New York: Pearson Education, Inc. Boardman, Cynthia. A and Jia Frydenberg. 2002. Writing to communicate.

New York: Pearson Education, Inc. Brown, Doughlas H. 2001. Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach

to Language Pedagogy. New York: Longman. Burnaby. 2005. Using Classroom Question Effectively. Retrieved on

December 4, 2010 at http:helpdesk.bit.ca/far/teach/teaching/questioning.pdf.

Cahyono, Bambang Yudi. 2009. Techniques in Teaching EFL Writing.

Malang: State University of Malang Press. Colorado State Board of Education. 2006. Glossary of Terms for Reading and

Writing Standards and CSAP Frameworks. Colorado Department of Education.

Cotton, Kathleen. 2001. Classroom Questioning. Retrieved on December 4,

2010 at http://www.nwrel.org/scpd/classroom-questioning.html. Friend, Marilyn & Lynne Cook. 2010. Interactions Collaboration Skills for

School Professionals. New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc. Felma, Harpika. 2007. “Designing Instructional Material Elementary School

Student of EFL through Whole Language Approach”. Unpublished paper. Padang. FBSS UNP.

Gerrot and Wignell. 1994. Making Sense of Functional Grammar. Sydney:

Antipodean Educational Enterprises. Ghaith, Ghazi. 2008. Writing. Retrieved on November 30, 2010 at

http://www.nadaisland.com/ghaith-writing.html.

Harmer, Jeremy. 2007. How to Teach English. English: Longman. Heaton, J.B. 1985. Composition through Pictures. Hongkong: Peninsula

Press. Nordquist, Richard. 2008. Developing Paragraph. Retrieved on December 4,

2010 at http://www.about.com/od/developingparagraphs.htm. Oshima, Alice & Ann Hogue. 1999. Writing Academic English. New York:

Addison Wesley Longman. Pardiyono. 2007. Teaching Genre-Based Writing. Yogyakarta: CV Andi

Offset. Raimes, A. 1983. Techinque in Teaching Writing. New York: Oxford

University Press. Rambo, Randy. 2006. The Writing Process: Prewriting. Retrieved on

December 4, 2010 at http://www.ivcc.edu/rambo/eng1001/prewriting.htm.

Scrivener, Jim. 2005. Learning Teaching a Guidebook for English Language

Teachers. Macmillan Publisher. Sing, R.K & De Sarkar Mitali. 1994. Interactional Process Approach to

Teach Writing. English Teaching Forum. Syafei, An Fauzia R. 2006. “Kurikulum Bahasa Inggris (KTSP 2006)”.

Unpublished Curriculum. Padang: UNP. Ur, Penny. 2000. A Course in Language Teaching: Practice and Theory.

United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. Wright, Andrew. 1986. Picture for Language Learning. New York:

Cambridge University Press.

27

Appendix 1

LESSON PLAN Kelas/semester : VIII/1 Mata Pelajar : Bahasa Inggris Jenis Teks : Descriptive Text Aspek/Skill : Writing (Menulis) Alokasi Waktu : 2 x 45 menit Standar Kompetensi

12. Mengungkapkan makna dalam teks tulis fungsional dan esei pendek sederhana berbentuk descriptive dan recount untuk berinteraksi dengan lingkungan sekitar.

Kompetensi Dasar 12.2Mengungkapkan makna dan langkah retorika dalam esei pendek

sangat sederhana dengan menggunakan ragam bahasa tulis secara akurat, lancar, dan berterima untuk berinteraksi dengan lingkungan sekitar dalam teks berbentuk descriptive.

Indikator

• Membuat teks descriptive

A. Tujuan Pembelajaran Pada akhir pembelajaran, siswa dapat:

− Membuat teks descriptive

B. Materi Pembelajaran a. Materi

• Definition : A text that describes a particular person, a thing, or a certain place in detail

• Tense : Simple Present Tense • Personal pronoun : As subject (she, he, it, Sakura, I, we, you, they,),

as object (me, you, her, him, it, them, us), as possessive (my-, your-, her-, his-, its-, their-, our-), etc.

• Verb : V1 (-s/-es) → have – has, wear – wears, use – uses, etc.

• To be : is, am, are • Adjective : color (pink, white, etc), size (small, big, etc)

• Noun : bed, desk, chair, book shelf, window, curtain, etc. • Preposition : on, in, under, above, in front of, beside, behind,

etc. • Example:

- My classroom - My room - My house

b. Generic Structure: • Identification

Identifies or introduces the character in general • Description

Describes parts, qualities, characteristics of a particular person, a thing, or a certain place that is described

c. Examples: • A particular place

My Classroom

My classroom is big. There are 20 tables and chairs in my

classroom. In front of the class there is a teacher’s desk and a teacher’s

chair. There are two pictures of the president and the vice president

hanging on the front wall. There is a whiteboard under the pictures. In

front of the class in the corner, there is a flag. In my classroom, there is

not any book shelf but there is a cupboard.

C. Sumber dan Media Pembelajaran

− Benda-benda sekitar − Gambar-gambar yang relevan

D. Metode Pembelajaran : Three phase technique a. Pre-teaching Activity

− Greeting − Check students’ attendance − Check students’ readiness to study − Review previous lesson

− Teacher gives some prepositions − Teacher asks the students to look around the classroom − Teacher asks some questions about the classroom

b. Whilst-teaching Activity

− Teacher asks the students to make questions − The students answer the questions − Teacher and students arrange the answer into a paragraph − Teacher explains about tenses, social function, and generic

structure of the text. − Teacher asks the students to work in group − Teacher distributes a picture with difficult word in it. − Students in group make question about the picture − Students change the questions to other group − Students in group answer the questions − Students in group arrange the answer into a descriptive

paragraph − Teacher controls the students activity

c. Post-teaching activity

− Teacher evaluates all the students’ activities − Teacher submit the students works − Teacher assesses the students work, both individually and in

group.

E. Penilaian − Teknik : Tes tertulis − Bentuk : Membuat teks descriptive.

           

Appendix 2

Sakura’s bed room

Difficult words: - Bed - Window

- Pillow - Curtain

- Sofa - Picture Frame

- Book shelf - Rug

- Desk - Drawers

Prepositions

Appendix 3

QUESTION CARD

Name: Group: No Question

1

2

3

4

ANSWER CARD

Name: Group: No Answer

1

2

3

4