CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background English is the first foreign language in our country, which is taught from Elementary level to University level. English is also intensively used in international communication, in written as well as in spoken communication. In addition, many books of science, technology and art are written in English. In English language, there are four skills that have to be mastered such as listening, speaking, reading, and writing. As Haycraf (1978:8) states that there are various skills in mastering a language: respective skill, listening (understanding the spoken language) and reading (understanding the written language), and productive skills-speaking and writing. These four basic skills are related to each other by two parameters: the mode of communication either oral or written and the direction of communication, receiving or producing the message. It is a productive skill in the written mode. It is as well a more complicated skill at first and would sometime seems to be the most difficult one since it involves not just a visual representation of speech but also the development and presentation of thoughts in a very structured manner. As one of the language skills, writing should be introduced and taught to the learner of English. In the daily social life, people normally use this means of communication to express their ideas, thoughts, feelings, needs, wishes, etc. The main reason for teaching writing is to help students express their thoughts in words. English as a foreign language is necessary taught to the students although

most of them just intend to be able to master how to speak, not write it. Teaching writing skill reinforces and enhances what students are trying to express because they have to write words down in print. However, it is an important aspect of learning English as students could be called upon to write in English for professional or formal reasons concerning to their career in the future. For Career and Technical Education (CTE) or in Indonesia called Sekolah Menengah Kejuruan (SMK) students, especially, the teaching of English focuses on developing the students ability in mastering English for communication. It is based on consideration that these students need English in facilitating them to get better job as well as to help them deal with their respective field of job where English is more needed to a get great extent. The students, who are good in English especially in writing skill, will have more opportunity to get high position in their work placement. Therefore, the SMK students need to learn and master how to write well in English. In SMK, the teaching of writing skill is aimed at providing the students with some basic competences such as students are able to describe some events based on the location and timing. To achieve the aim, the teaching of writing is frequently presented and integrated with other skills. The writer chooses narrative writing as a material with the assumption that the composition is the result of students product that can be known clearly. Sofyan (1999:86) defines that Narration is a story which is connected with events based on the plot. Then why the writer use narrative text, it is because the narrative as a story of human experience, so that the students can arrange the

composition easily. Almost every day, students narrate aloud many stories based on their personal experiences. Because telling about our own experiences orally is such a natural part of our everyday lives, writing about these experiences makes a comfortable introduction to write narration in general. As Keraf (1991:136) states: Narrative as a story tells or describes an action in the past time clearly, so narration is something that can answer the question: what had happened? Narration is a story, so it should have the element that can make story more interesting to the reader such as a conflict and conclusion of the story. However, for the twelfth grade students of SMK Muhammadiyah 1 Palu whose major is technique of computer and networking (TKJ), find it difficult to express their mind in form of writing, especially in narrative paragraph. As students continue through elementary school and move on to high school, their imagination skills and writing skills get worse. Why? They have been told to stop daydreaming, face reality and stop fantasizing. They have been so thoroughly disabused of creative imagination and so robotically trained to write about other peoples' works that they often cannot develop their own ideas on given topic. Very often the students feel hard to construct their idea to be a good writing in form of narrative paragraph. Some of them feel difficulties in writing narrative paragraph such as: stuck to get diction, getting idea, and ordering the words. Teaching writing skills can be difficult for any teacher, since the approach will be different for almost every student. Some will learn quickly, while others will need some encouragement and more attention to ensure they understand what they are being taught.

Based on the above problems, the students must use some techniques in writing narrative paragraph that will be useful to make them easier in composing their narration, such as: making outline, using dictionary, sharing with friends, using the tools (visual, audio, audio-visual) or learnings aids (a guide). In the case of struggling writers, any technique worth teaching is the ones which will help them overcome their writing difficulties. From the above explanation, its obvious that the teachers have to apply an appropriate technique for encouraging the students in order that they can enjoy in learning English especially in learning narrative paragraph. Thus, in this research, the writer will discuss about developing the ability of the students in composing narrative paragraph through serial pictures technique which will be conducted at SMK Muhammadiyah 1 Palu. Serial pictures as one of visual techniques is expected to be very useful in teaching and learning writing because it can help strengthening the comprehension and memorizing. Besides, it can also grow up the students interest and can give the relationship between the material of lesson and the real world. 1.2 Problem Statements Dealing with the above reference, the writer comes to a single problem that will become a core of discussion in this research, that is: Can the application of serial pictures develop the students ability in writing narrative paragraph?

1.3 The Objectives of Research The objectives of this research is to find out whether the ability of the twelfth grade students of SMK Muhammadiyah 1 Palu in writing narrative paragraph can be developed through serial pictures technique or not. 1.4 The Significances of Research Through this research, the writer expects that the result can provide a valuable contribution not only for the writer herself but also for the readers. Besides, it can give something beneficial in theoretically and practically aspects as follows: 1.4.1 Theoretically: 1. As the references for other researchers who are interested in investigating the writing ability by using serial pictures. 2. As the support for the theory which states the writing narrative paragraph. 1.4.2 Practically: 1. As the answer of the writers curiosity on the students ability in writing narrative paragraph. 2. As the information for all the teachers and the students to use serial pictures technique in composing narrative paragraph. 1.5 The Hypothesis of Research Regarding to the problem statement mentioned before, the hypothesis of this research can be formulated as follows as the application of serial pictures technique can develop the students ability in writing narrative paragraph.

1.6 The Scope of Research In this research, the writer will focus on investigating the effect of serial pictures technique in teaching narrative paragraph to the twelfth grade students whose major is TKJ at SMK Muhammadiyah 1 Palu. However in this research, the writer focuses only on teaching a short narrative paragraph. She wants to know whether there is a significant improvement of the students in writing a short narrative paragraph or not after applying serial pictures technique. There are five aspects that can be scored in calculating the students writing product or composition, although the writer will only measure grammar and vocabulary aspects.