Senin, 04 September 2017

Upgrading the Student Writing Skill by Using Quipper School Application at MA Al-Badar DDI Parepare

(Peningkatan Keterampilan Menulis Siswa Melalui Penggunaan Aplikasi Quipper School di MA Al-Badar DDI Parepare ) 
 Ibrahim (MA DDI AL-BADAR DDI PAREPARE) 
ibrahimdamis4553@gmail.com 

This research studies about usings the Quipper School application to improve the writing skill of students at MA Al-Badar DDI Parepare and the attitude of students at MA Al-Badar DDI Parepare toward the Quipper School application. This research used pre experimental design that applied a pre-test and post-test design. The data were analyzed by using t-test. The population of this research was the eleven-year students of MA Al-Badar DDI Parepare in academic year 2016/2017. It utilized
random sampling technique. The number of samples was 19 students. The instruments used in this research are writing test and questioners. The research reveals that there was an increase significantly of the students writing ability. This indicates the mean score of the post-test is 78.18 while that of the pretest is 72,11. Moreover, the t-test denotes that t-test value (4.543) is greater than t-table (2.1009) proven that H1 was accepted. It is concluded that using quipper school application in writing class increased the students’ ability in writing and the result of the data analysis of the questionnaires showed that most of the students have interest in the implementation of Quipper school application. 

Keywords: students, quipper school, writing ability

Penelitian ini membahas tentang penggunaan aplikasi quipper school untuk meningkatkan kemampuan menulis siswa MA Al-Badar DDI Parepare dan sikap siswa MA Al-Badar DDI Parepare terhadap penggunaan aplikasi quipper school. Penelitian ini menggunakan desain pre-eksperimen yang mengaplikasikan pola pre-test dan post-test. Data dianalisa dengan menggunakan t-test. Subjek penelitian ini adalah siswa kelas XI MA Al-Badar DDI Parepare tahun ajaran 206/2017. Penelitian ini menggunakan teknik random sampling. Jumlah sampel adalah 19 siswa. Instrumen yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah tes menulis dan angket. Penelitian ini mengungkapkan bahwa ada peningkatan yang signifikan terhadap kemampuan menulis siswa. Hal ini ditunjukkan nilai rata-rata post-test adalah 78.18 sedangkan pre-test adalah 72,11. Selain itu, uji-t menunjukkan bahwa t-test (4.543) lebih besar dari t-tabel (2.1009) maka H1 dibenarkan. Dengan deikian disimpulkan bahwa menggunakan aplikasi quipper school di kelas dapat meningkatkan kemampuan siswa dalam menulis.

Kata kunci: siswa, quipper school, dan kemampuan menulis

 I. INTRODUCTION
 In globalization era, the rule of language is essential as a tool of communication. Someone is able to express ideas to other people in written or oral language. Language is a mean of conveying someone’s message to someone else; from a speaker to a listener or from a writer to a reader. English as an international language occupies the first position in the communication today. It plays an important role in all aspect of life, such as education, economic, social, and culture. In educational especially in Indonesia, English subject represent the important Iesson even as an obligatory subject because the lesson is as national test category. In English, there are four skills that students must be learned. They are speaking, listening, writing and reading. The writer focuses the attention on one skill is writing. Writing is a very important skill to be taught to the students because it will help them to use their English to communicate by letter and to understand English learning material in their school. Some ways and strategy can be used to learn the four skills in English. It perhaps adapted for existing skill. For example, when students wish to master the writing skill, they have to comprehend more about structure and grammar; they have some vocabularies; comprehending language culture and always practice write a text. One of the ways for easily comprehend the writing material is using media. English as a foreign language involves four language skills, such as listening, speaking, reading and writing. Donald (2010:06) said that there is more than ample evidence to suggest that, although the four aspects of communicative ability are highly related, they are nonetheless logically and empirically distinct. Logically, the four skills are related in complementary ways. Both listening and reading are receptive skills modes of understanding. Speaking and writing are productive skills. Thus, the four basic skills are related to each other by virtue of both the mode of communication (oral or written) and the direction of communication (either receiving or producing messages). In this research, the researcher’s attention focused on the English writing competence. There are many students interested in studying English, in the elementary school, junior high school and senior high school. Although English has taught from elementary school until senior high school, there are many students still have the problem in learning English. The students may be able to express their means but their ability in English is not good and very difficult to be understood by their teacher, but it doesn’t mean that the students must stop studying English, but the teacher must help them to increase their ability. From early observation, the researcher found that the student writing ability is needed to be improved. It is proved that from 16 students, 62% them are in fair qualification. And the other side based on the survey that has been done by the researcher, it showed that student express that media have the influence to the process of writing learning in MA Al-Badar DDI Parepare. This Matter is supporting by result observation was found that from 16 students there are 2 (12,5%) students expressing that writing ability of students is influenced by teaching way of the teacher. There are 11 (68,75) students expressing that writing ability write of students is influenced by using media in teaching writing. There are 3 (18,75) students expressing that writing ability of students is influenced by lesson items. The survey above also showed that most learners encounter difficulty in writing, especially in writing a narrative essay. They don’t know about the characteristics of writing a good narrative essays, such as unity, chronological order, and plot development. According to Mc. Crimmon (1967:28), the usefulness of writing helps students organize their ideas and clarify concepts. By writing down ideas, students can arrange them into a coherent form. In this case, the writers attempt to train the students to write a good narrative essay. In addition, Schwagler (1985:126) states that writing is one of the hardest things that people do. Among other reasons, writing is hard because it requires thinking and skills. A writer should have ideas, which will be expressed in words, sentences, paragraphs, and compositions. In arranging and choosing words to be a sentence, paragraph, and essay writers must have skill. Writing process refers to everything a writer does, from the moment he or she starts thinking what to write until the final copy is completed. According to Richards and Renandya (2002:315), writing has four processes, namely: (1) prewriting (planning), (2) drafting, (3) revising, and (4) editing. On the other hand, to reach efficacy in course of study needs hard work and certain efforts. One of the efforts conducted to reach a result of maximal in a study is by using learning media. One of learning media which most used at this time that is learning media by using computerization, in this case, it is Quipper School. Nowadays, the use of learning media based on the internet is not only among lecturer, but this media has been used at senior high school. The use of this learning media is not only by the teacher in common course, but teaching languages study area also have used it especially learning English. In Parepare one of the schools which have used Quipper School application as learning media is MA Al-Badar DDI Parepare. Quipper School is a good learning media to be applying as media because Quipper School is a free online platform for teachers and students. It consists of much material that easy to use by the teacher in a learning process. In this application, teachers can to manage their classes online and check students' progress. It also makes the students enjoyable in the learning process because this media included test and evaluation. In addition, this media contains materials that are accessible to be developed by the teacher. Based on the description above, the researcher interested to do research with a title: “Upgrading the Student Writing Skill by Applying Quipper School at MA Al-Badar DDI Parepare”.

 II. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
The mean score of the students’ pre-test is 72.11 and the standard deviation is 8.64, it is categorized as good classification. It means that most of the student’s ability before treatment is good classification. The mean score of the students’ posttest is 78.18 and standard deviation 7.39 which is categorized as good classification. It means that the mean score increases about 6.08 points. The significant difference between the result of students’ score of pre-test and post-test, the researcher used t-test (test of significant). Mean score of the students’ attitude toward the use of Quipper School application is 75.326. It is categorized as a positive statement. The researcher found that there were 5 students (26.3 percents) chose the strongly positive category, 11 students (57.9 percents) chose the positive category, 2 students (10.5 percents) chose the neutral category and only 1 student (5.3 percents) chose the negative category and no student chose the strongly negative category. From those findings, it can be concluded that the majority of the students were interested in learning writing through using quipper school application. Based on the research findings, the researcher found that The use of this application can improve the students’ score. In other words, the result of the research proved that teaching writing through using quipper school application is effective to develop the students’ writing ability. It was proved by the result of the mean score rate of pretest was 72.11 and the mean score of post-test 78.18 or increase 6.08 points. Moreover, it shows in the application of t-test, where t - test value is higher than t - table value, namely 4.543 > 2.1009. The result of hypothesis testing showed the students’ ability in writing narrative text was better after students were taught by use quipper school application. There is a significant difference of the writing achievement both of the test. Based on the students’ score gained in post-test, it showed that 3 students (5.3%) were classified very good, 14 students (52.6%) were classified good. It was caused by the students conducted some steps or sequences in writing activity. The sequences are; the students were given a chance to choose the topic then, they wrote some possibilities of ideas concerning the topic. in this case, they expressed their ideas into word, phrase, or piece of information. After that, they classified their ideas. At the same time, they left out ideas that were not suitable for the topic. The last, they rearranged their ideas into a good order. Therefore, they have a good content and organization in writing essays. Moreover, they also paid attention to vocabulary, language used and mechanic. The sequences of Quipper School application mentioned above are argued by Ryan Guerrero (2015). In addition, 14 students (51.96%) classified good because one of their writing aspects was not enough to arrange their writing chronologically. Although, their essays were logical but incomplete sequencing. According to Weigle (2002;116), he/she got 17-14 with good to average category. In other words, they were the lack of the organization aspect. However, students’ score in other writing aspects, such as; content, language use, vocabulary, and mechanic were classified good. Among 19 students, there was 2 students (10.5%) was classified fair and no student classified poor and very poor. The student was limited development of the topic so that he/she was not enough to express an idea and did not show knowledge of the subject. Additionally, lacks logical sequencing and development, errors of word and structure and also poor handwriting. If it is related to a scoring system for student criteria of Weigle (2002:116), it is categorized fair to poor category. The researcher also found any contribution of the steps in teaching writing narrative essay through using quipper school application. It was related to some aspects, such as; the lesson objectives, the writing materials, the media, the methods and the evaluation or assessment. This contribution is explained more detail in the following:
1. Concerning to the lesson objectives which in this case the students were expected to be able to write a narrative essay well and effectively through using Quipper School application. Consequently, if the students want to create a good writing, so they have to focus and pay attention five components of writing. Not only writing components, we also focus on the writing process. In this case, it is a classroom activity incorporates six writing stages, namely; planning, drafting, responding, revising, editing and evaluating. This activity is necessary and highly structured because it can support the teaching and learning process orderly. Those are argued by Richards and Renandya (2001:315).
2. Concerning to the evaluation or assessment. The aspects of writing become the target of assessment of this research are: a. Content concerns with the subject or theme of the essay. This aspect trains the students to express a knowledgeable idea, substantive and relevant to assigned topic. b. The Organization focuses on coherence between one idea to another idea of the essay. This aspect trains the students to arrange ideas into well organized, logical sequencing, cohesive and clear supported ideas. c. Language use focuses on structures of the sentences. This aspect trains the students to improves complex construction and reduce errors of tense, word order, word function, articles, pronouns, and preposition. d. Vocabulary concerns with the words choice and range. This aspect improve the students’ mastery of vocabulary and word form. Moreover, improve the students’ knowledge in using effective word and idiom. e. Mechanics concerns with punctuation, spelling, and capitalization. This aspect trains the students to write with few errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing and create good handwriting.
3. Concerning with media in the teaching process. The students bring their laptop and handphone. They use the media to access the application. They also bring a dictionary. It uses translating some words and sentences that they do not know the meanings. From this point of view, they study to write while they study through the internet in computer or laptop. Using software as media is appropriate with the suggestion by Becta in David Hall (2010) that educational software should be based on accepted educational philosophy and valid educational objectives Additionally, based on the results of data analysis. It could be described that there were many preferences in writing narrative through using quipper school application. Their preferences were: 1. The students’ activities in learning writing were high because they want to get a high score. 2. The process of studying was active because most of the students competed for each other to be the best one. 3. The students can choose the topic and arrange their ideas by themselves into good composition. 4. The teacher can be effective to give an explanation about the subjects because the explanation based on the topics chosen. However, there were any preferences that it is difficult for the teacher to give feedback to students individually who passive. 5. The process of assessment can be done objectively by the teacher, due to the teacher controlled the students’ activities directly. 6. The students can comprehend deeply the concepts because the substance of the materials can be found by them selves. 7. These approaches suit for the students who have low ability can’t write like the others. 8. The students’ achievement in writing narrative was improved. Their preferences above related with Quipper school. Ltd (2015) summarized that Quipper School is a free online platform for teachers and students. Quipper School Link is where teachers manage their classes online and check students' progress. Quipper School Learn is where students study. It's packed with features that make learning safe and fun. Meanwhile, the researcher also found some problems during this research. Not only the contributions of Quipper School application in improving the students’ writing competence, but also some problems that the researcher faced during the treatment. The problems dealing with students, time management, and assessment and media. Then, the problems become the weaknesses of Quipper School application are: 1. The students who have low achievement in mastering vocabulary sometimes open dictionary, using the calculator of English-Indonesian, using their own handphone and applying translation google to find out the English of words and sentences that they are looking for. Although, the researcher doesn’t permit. 2. It needs more time to construct ideas and then arrange into a good paragraph. 3. The low achievement students are careless in classifying their ideas. Sometimes they don’t leave out the important ideas. So that, their essays are not coherence and cohesive. Therefore, there are some ways to overcome the problems mentioned above are; by adding the time management in applying this application. When the students are told to come up with as many as ideas possible on a given topic until they construct ideas into an essay. In addition, the students have to reduce to open a dictionary and using their handphone to look for the English of words and sentences. It is better if they ask friends who have good achievement in the usage of vocabulary and language use. While they also share with friends. The last thing, using quipper school application is better in improving the students’ writing skill is showed in the result of data analysis of questionnaires. The data shows that majority of the students were in interested in learning writing narrative through using quipper school application. Out of 19 students, 5 students (26.3%) felt strongly positive. It indicated that the students’ interest getting an improvement if using quipper school application applied in writing class. Moreover, their attention is more focused and improve their self-confidence and braveness in constructing an essay. They also express ideas in writing form easily. In brief, they agree if using these media become one way to improve the students’ writing competence. While 11 students (57.9%) felt positive, it indicated that these media make them seriously in writing class because it helps them to express ideas and open their thought. Even though, there are 2 students (10.5%) felt neutral to the use of Quipper School application in the study of the writing process, one student felt negative and none students felt strongly negative. If we look out back the data in findings, so between the data in pretest and posttest and the data from questionnaires have a strong connection. It is proved by the students’ score is getting improvement after they got treatment through using Quipper School application, and the improvements were supported by the improvement of their interest in constructing ideas. It related with Brown (1987:115) who reported that attitudinal and motivational factors affect language learning process. Motivation was examined as a factor of a number of different kinds of attitudes. The result of this research was the students learning competence in writing narrative essay could be improved through using quipper school application. The use of quipper school as interactive media in teaching writing was also supported by previous researcher finding Nurul Yaqin (2013) and Muhaimin (2014). Nurul Yaqin in his research assumed that the use of graphic media in English Instruction significantly improves the writing ability. The other researcher, Muhaimin (2014) in his research about Quipper School proved that 90% of the students give positive response using Quipper School as e-learning. They think that Quipper-School can help them improve their comprehension of some materials. Furthermore, they feel more comfortable of studying because they can do it at any times, any situations and places they want that can suit their interests and styles. So Quipper School could be applied to the MA Al-Badar DDI Parepare.

 IV. CONCLUSION
Based on the findings and discussion of the research, it can be concluded that:
1. This research shows that there is significant difference ability between before and after the students was taught through using quipper school application. Therefore, this research proved that quipper school application in writing class for students of MA Al-Badar DDI Parepare has a significant influence in improving the students’ skill in writing a narrative. In short, the use of Quipper School application in writing narrative improved the students’ skill in writing narrative specially folktale.
2. Most of the students interest to using quipper school application, so they are motivated to write a narrative. This led to the conclusion that quipper school application adds the students’ interest to study English. Therefore, it indicates that it improves the students’ self-confidence and braveness in creating a narrative specially folktale.

 REFERENCES
 Appel, R. & P. Muyshen, 1987, Language Contact and Bilingualism. London Edward Arnold. Benjamin,
R., & Chun, M. 2003. A new field of dreams: The collegiate learning assessment project. Peer review. 5, 26-29.
Branstetter R. 2011, Strategies for Improving Student Writing, http://teaching.monster.com/benefits/articles/9470-8-strategies-for-improving-student-writing
Brown. H.D., 2001. Teaching by Principles an Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy. Third Edition, San Francisco State University: Longman.
Bull V., 2008. Oxford Learner’s Pocket Dictionary. fourth edition, oxford New York: Oxford University press.
Collins.J.L. 1999-2008, Teaching Writing Strategies http://gse.buffalo.edu /org/writingstrategies/steps.htm. Crimmon, James M.c. 1967. Writing with a Purpose. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company
Gay. L, R, 1992. Educational Research. Competence for Analysis and Application. (4th ed). Florida International University: Macmillan Publishing Company.
Guerro R., 2015. Qupper School Teacher’s Guide. Costumer Service Qupper School.
Hall. D. 2010. The ICT Handbook for Primary Teachers A guide for Students and Professionals. Madison Avenue, New York: Routledge.
Hornby AS. 1995. Oxford Advanced Learner’s of Current English. New York: Oxford Universities Press. Som N 2006. E-Learning, A Guidebook of Principles, Procedures and Practices. The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria 3010: Australia
Nickerson, R. S., Perkins, D. N., & Smith, E. E. 1985. The teaching of thinking. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Qoni’ Z. M., 2014 Quipper-School e-Learning: A Strategic Investment of Accommodating Different Learners’ Styles and Encouraging Students’ Motivation. Unpublished Thesis, Graduate Program of English Department The State University of Surabaya
Quipper School. 2015. What is Quipper School, https://help.quipper.com /en/ articles/what-is-quipper-school.
Richards. C. Jack and Renandya. A. Willy. 2002. Methodology in Language Teaching, An Anthology of Current Practice. Cambridge University Press: United State of America.
Schwagler, Robert A. 1985. Patterns in Action. Boston: Little, Brown Company.
Technology, Inc. 2012, Types of writing in The Art and Science of Teaching with Technology. http://www.teach-nology.com/themes/lang_arts/typesofwriting/
Weigle, Cushing Sara. 2002. Assessing Writing. New York: Cambridge University Press. Widdoowson, HG. 1985. Teaching Language as Communication. Oxford University

Tidak ada komentar:

Posting Komentar

Komentarnya disini