ISSN 2337-6384 JP3, Volume 1, No.

13, Agustus 2013

IMPROVING THE STUDENTS’ ABILITY IN WRITING NARRATIVE

USING PICTURE SERIES

Hermanto
(Mahasiswa Jurusan Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris FKIP Unisma)

Abstract: This research is designed to improve the students’ writing narrative text in
English through Picture Series. The objective of the research is to develop Picture Series
to improve the students’ writing narrative text. The method applied in this research was
a classroom action research. The finding showed that Picture Series activity was
successful in improving students’ writing narrative text. The improvement could be seen
from the increase of students’ average writing score from 56 in the preliminary study,
and 65 in the first cycle, to 70.2 in the second cycle. Based on the findings, it is
suggested that the English teachers apply the Picture series activity since it is beneficial
not only in improving the writing narrative text but also in motivating students to write
and work together to describe the event in the picture. Besides, the technique is also
helpful in encouraging students to actively participate in writing narrative text.

Key words: Picture Series, Improve, Narrative Text

INTRODUCTION grammatical structures, idioms, and

The purpose of writing instruction in
senior high school is not merely to have
students do well in terms of grammar and
mechanic of writing. Writing instruction should
facilitate students to have the communication of
ideas and the organization of thoughts. As
stated in the 2006 Ministry Regulation no 22,
English is taught at school as a means of
communication to access and send information
and, in daily life context, as means of fostering
interpersonal relationship and of enjoying
language aesthetics of English culture. It aims
at improving communicative competence
covering the four language skills and increasing
awareness about the importance of English as
one of foreign language used as the main
medium of learning.
According to Raimes (1983), writing is
considered as a tool in learning because of
some reasons. First, while students are
writing, they are applying their knowledge of
vocabulary. Second, they also have an
opportunity to be exploratory with the
language. Last, the students become very
involved with the new language.
In addition, Hughes (1989) emphasizes
that writing is taught for many purposes. First,
writing is one of the major vehicles used to
communicate ideas. It helps students organize
their thinking effectively. Next, learning to
write also makes students better readers. It
means that competency in reading and writing
is highly correlated. Ultimately, students are
taught to write so they are successful in life.
It is supported by Gebhard (2000:235)
that the problems encountered by the students
in learning writing are that some students use
ineffective writing strategies. They tend to
jump right into the writing task without
following the stages in writing process from
prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing.
Another problem is that some students have

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negative attitudes about writing is terrible that
is why they do not like to write. The other
problem is that students do not always
understand or pay attention to the content of
the teacher’s comments and responses on their
written work. Considering the complexity and
its importance of teaching writing, the writing
skill of the students of SMAN 1 Gapura
Sumenep needs to be improved.
Some studies related to the problems of
the teaching of writing have done by many
practitioners. Lenjanu (2005:70) stated that
the high school students’ performance to
communicate in English though writing is
insufficient; their performance in writing
seemed to be unsatisfactory. One of the
reasons of such a problem were the student’s
low motivation or lack of interest in writing
activities. This problem was also sustained by
the finding drawn by Jafaruddin (2006:65)
that the students’ writing was not
comprehensible in terms of its content and its
organization; the students had low capability
in vocabulary grammar, and spelling. In
addition, there was an interference of mother
tongue which became of the factors of the
students’ failure in writing (Sumidi, 2008:80).
Those problems of the unsatisfactory
achievement will still colure in the teaching
writing if the English teachers do not have
curiosity in improving his or her teaching
strategy.
Based on the observation during the
session the students produced a piece of paper
relating to writing narrative texts, it was
noticed that students had varying degrees of
confidence and independence as language
learners, varied speed in writing and that
some were becoming frustrated when they
were given writing task and did not seem
interested in completing them. They were
very slow to get started, and did not seem to
have any ideas about what to do. They took a
very long time to produce anything and they
felt frustrated that writing was tiresome
activity.
In response to those problems, some
effort in the form of classroom activities
should be made to improve the students’ skill
of writing. Since generating ideas is a
JP3, Volume 1, No. 1, Pebruari 2013
common problem encountered by the majority
of the students, providing them with a strategy
which triggers them to explore their ideas is
worth doing, for example, by using a strategy
which helps students experience to produce
spoken and written texts, step by step in
producing a piece of writing. The
opportunities to experience the writing
process become the main consideration for
students to develop their writing skill.
Consequently, the teacher should develop
interesting and challenging authentic activities
in the classroom that encourage the students
to precede the writing in real action.
Taking into account the importance of
strategy in teaching writing, it is considered
necessary to find out an appropriate strategy
that can lessen the students’ difficulty in
writing, improve their writing ability, and
help the teachers plan and teach writing more
easily than before. Among some strategies
available, Picture Series Strategy is one of the
effective strategies in teaching writing
because the implementation of this strategy is
combined with writing process approach and
the four teaching and learning stages.
According to Heaton (1990:107),
students may sometimes, in everyday life, be
required to describe people, objects, places,
and even processes. There will also be times
when they will have to write about sequences
of events, incidents, etc. and give directions.
Pictures provide students with ideas for such
tasks, enabling them to give their full
attention to using written language. Brown
(1983) states that When we talk about
pictures, they include flash cards. Flash cards
can be in the form of photographs, drawings,
or pictures cut from magazines, and
newspapers. For a language instruction,
drawings or pictures are necessary to use.
However, picture series have some
advateges in teaching writing. One of them
stated by Latuheru (1988: 41) that pictures
have several functions in the teaching and
learning processes. First, pictures can translate
abstract ideas into more realistic forms.
Second, pictures are easily obtained, for
examples, from schoolbooks, newspapers, and
magazines. Third, pictures are usable in
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different kinds of academic levels. Fourth, year.

pictures can save the teachers time and
energy.
METHOD
In supporting the above statement,
The design of this research was
Wright (1992:86) states that pictures are very
Classroom Action Research (CAR) since this
important in helping students to retell
research was focused on the teaching and
experiences or understand something since
learning activities in the classroom. This
they can represent place, object, people, etc.
action was designed to improve the students’
Pictures help students to understand a more
writing skill through picture series strategy of
general context, which may be made of
SMAN 1 Gapura Sumenep in 2012/2013
pictures, the teachers’ actions, the students’
academic year. The classroom action research
actions, sound effect and words. This overall
design of this study was a collaborative
context of new language will have meaning to
classroom action research in which the
the students.
researcher was assisted by one of the English
Some studies on the teaching of writing
teachers of SMAN 1 Gapura Sumenep.
with surprising achievement were shown by
In conducting the research, the
Mochtar (2004), Eksan (2004), Suryadi
researcher followed a number of steps. The
(2006). Mochtar in his study found that the
steps included preliminary study prior to
appropriate model of the strategy of using
analyzing and identifying problems as the
pictures in the teaching of writing narrative
preparation, followed by Kemmis’ cyclical
paragraph could improve the students’ writing
process – action planning, plan implementing,
skill in generating ideas (pre-writing stage).
observing, and reflecting (Burn, 2010).
The students followed the lesson
In the planning stage, the researcher
enthusiastically, and constructed their
makes some preparations before
paragraph easily. They needed the media to
implementing the Picture Series strategy in
enable them to apply their writing skill in
teaching of writing narrative texts. The
expressing their thoughts in written forms.
researcher plans and devises a scenario of
Another study was done by Eksan (2004)
learning which provides students with the
which aimed at improving writing ability of
opportunities to meaningful experience and
second year students of SLTP Negeri 18
challenging learning activities, a lesson plan
Malang through process writing strategy. In
based on the scenario, instructional materials
his study, the appropriate model of the
and media, research instruments. The criteria
process writing strategy encompassed four
of success encompassed (1) the degree of the
major stages: prewriting, drafting, revising,
subjects’ involvement during the teaching and
and editing. By applying this strategy, the
learning process achieved 80% of the students
process and the result showed the
are expected to be active and (2) the action is
improvement. Another study done by Suryadi
considered successful if the students’ average
(2006) tried to improve the quality of the
score of their writing products (final drafts)
teaching of writing, especially pre-writing and
achieve 70, which is determined by English
drafting through segment-chain activities and
teacher and collaborator. This average score is
outlining strategy. The findings were that in
determined by calculating the scores of the
teaching writing, the teacher should
students’ writing products after one cycle is
encourage the students to practice writing and
finished.
give them the most opportunities to interact
In the implementation stage, the
and write recursively.
researcher is the practitioner carrying out the
Based on the above-mentioned benefits
strategy in teaching writing while the
for English learning, the researcher is
collaborative teacher will observe the
interested in implementing Picture Series
students’ progress during the process of
strategy to improve the writing skill of SMAN
teaching and learning through the
1 Gapura Sumenep in 2012/2013 academic
implementation of the Picture Series. Before

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implementing the plan, the researcher
socializes the plan to the students. It is aimed
at making the learning process of writing
narrative text well prepared before the action
is undertaken in the real class.
In the observation stage, the process of
recording and gathering all relevant data about
any aspects or events referring to the criteria
of success take place in the teaching and
learning process. Observation on the
implementation of the Picture Series strategy
deals with two important aspects: data and
data sources and the instruments and the
technique for data collection.
In the reflection stage, the researcher made
two kinds of conclusion, the each cycle-based
conclusion and the final conclusion. The
conclusion of each cycle was made to
determine whether or not another cycle was
needed while the final conclusion was made
to describe the model of teaching writing
using Picture Series strategy that had been
improved.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
This section presents the data found in
the first cycle. It covers (1) the result of
observation toward the number of students
who were increased during the teaching and
learning process of writing narrative in three
meetings of the first cycle and (2) the results
of the students’ writing products which were
scored by the researcher himself and his class
peer using analytic scoring rubric. And
presents the data gained in the second cycle. It
included the number of students who were
motivated during the teaching and learning
process of writing narrative text in three
meetings of the second cycle and the result of
the students’ writing products.
Based on the result of the students’
writing product, there was little improvement
of students’ average score from the students’
writing on the preliminary study to the
students’ writing on the first cycle. The
average score for the first one was 56 (fifty
six) and the average score of the students’
writing on the first cycle was 65. That means
that there was 19.0% of average score
improvement.
JP3, Volume 1, No. 1, Pebruari 2013
Additionally, the data obtained from the
students’ writing products showed that 17
students (40.5%) achieved the minimum
adequacy criteria (70.0), while 23 students
(59.5%) 0 out of 40 students who took part
the teaching and learning process in the third
meeting achieved bellow 70.0 (see Table 4.1).
Although the students’ achievement improved
28.6%, it was still below the stated criteria of
success, which required 70 % of the students
got at the same as or above the minimum
adequacy criteria.
Based on the result of tudents score that
the reseacher did not find the creteria of
succes. So, the reseacher need to continue the
next cycle because related to the studens’
score was 65. It meant the stuedents’ score
was not improve, the reseacher wanted to
improve students score up to 70. And Based
on the analysis of the students’ writing in the
first cycle, the implementation of picture
series strategy did not yet give satisfactory
result on the improvement of students’ writing
ability. Therefore, it needed to be revised
before the implementation of the next cycle so
that it could achieve the criteria of success of
this study.
The revision was focused on the
teaching procedure and wordless picture
sequence. In the first cycle, the students had to
move from home group to the expert group.
Having discussed and mastered their part of a
story, the students had to move again to their
home group. These activities were time-
consuming and made some students feel
bored. Thus, modifying the teacher’s
procedure by organizing the students to expert
group directly was a good way to eliminate
students’ boredom and timesaving so that the
students could discuss and present their part
of a story within their group longer.
Another revision as above mentioned
was wordless picture sequence. Previously in
the first meeting of the first cycle, each
student was given a part of wordless picture
sequence. This aimed to involve the students
in discussing and describing the event in the
picture freely and encourage them to speak
English, but then again, the students were
unaccustomed to doing such an activity. The
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students were not able to decide the events
and they were not confident to speak English
because of limited number of vocabulary and
bad pronunciation. In the second cycle, some
key words were added on the picture
sequence. Therefore, the students could
develop their ideas based on the key words
and the picture sequence. Besides, the
students were permitted to speak both English
and Indonesian in discussing and presenting
their part of a story. This was done to help
lower and moderate achievers to participate in
discussing within their group.
Based on the result of reflection of the
first cycle, the average scores of students did
not meet the critria of suceess, 23 students of
40 did not reach the target. The results of thier
writing were still diffiult to understand in
terms of the generict structure of narrative
texts. As a result, it was important to change
the scenario of planning relating to the picture
series strategy that was not provided
vocabulary to help the students easy in
making the dratf. Thus, the providing and
relating words or vocabulary are needed in the
next cycle. However, the students’ writing
product, there was better improvement of
students’ average score from the students’
writing in the preliminary study to the
students’ writing in the second cycle. The
average score for the first one was 56 and the
average score of the students’ writing on the
second cycle was 70.2. That means that there
was 40.7% of average score improvement.
Besides, the data obtained from the
students’ writing products showed that 32 out
of 40 students (81.0%) achieved the minimum
adequacy criteria (70.0), while 8 out of 40
students (19.0%) achieved bellow 70 of
40(see Table 4.2). The students’ achievement
improved 69.1%. This indicated that the result
of students’ achievement of their writing in
the second cycle had fulfilled the intended
criteria of success, which required 65% of the
students who got at the same as or above the
minimum adequacy criteria.
The second cycle was improved the
students’ writing achievent that showed by the
score from 65 rise up to 70. So based on the
students score the reeacher woul not continue
JP3, Volume 1, No. 1, Pebruari 2013
the next cycle because the second cycle had
met the creteria of success.
In line with the number of students who
was increase to write narrative text in the
post-writing activity, the following figure
recapped the percentage of students’
participation in both the first meeting up to
sixt meeeting.
Based on the result of students’ writing
product, it was found out that the students’
writing in a narrative text was gradually
improve. It meant that there was a positive
impact of picture series strategy toward the
increase of students’ ability in writing a
narrative text based on the picture sequence.
In other words, the use of picture series
strategy could increasingly help them to learn
for better writing a narrative text. Thus, most
of them gradually gained good scores at the
end of each cycle. The students’ average score
in preliminary study was 56; in the first cycle
the average score was 65 and the average
score in the second cycle was 70.2.
In addition, the research finding
yielded the final procedures of picture series
strategy in teaching writing a narrative text.
The procedure used in the second cycle was
indeed successful in helping students improve
their writing a narrative text that included the
following steps. First, the teacher gave the
students a model of a narrative text and
provided with the picture series related to the
text as a reading text to build the students’
knowledge of the story and language input in
vocabulary, grammatical usage, and the
generic structure of narrative text. Second, the
teacher asked everyone to read the story and
paying attention in vocabulary and sentence
structure or language feature of a narrative
text in the story. Third, the teacher asked
students some questions to ensure that the
students had understood about the story and
generic structure of a narrative text. Fourth,
the teacher organized the students into groups
of four called expert group. Fifth, the teacher
distributed the different several copies of the
picture series with some key words to
stimulate and help students to describe the
events. The picture series should be cut into a
specific picture of series for distribution to the
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expert groups. Sixth, the teacher asked each
student to write a description of a picture or
part of the story. Seventh, the teacher
collected the pictures. Eighth, the teacher
reorganized the class into home groups and
asked each student to present and share her or
his part of the story to the group, in order to
get the whole story. Ninth, the teacher floated
from group to group, observed the process. If
any group was having trouble (e.g., a member
is dominating or disruptive), the teacher made
an appropriate intervention. Tenth, the teacher
asked students to write the complete story
individually so that students quickly came to
realize that these sessions were not just fun
and games but really counted. Eleventh, the
teacher asked students to revise their draft on
content and organization using the revising
guide. Twelfth, the teacher gave students a
chance to edit their writing in terms of
grammar, spelling, capitalization, and
punctuation using editing guide.
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS
After implementing the picture series
strategy, the students had already made
improvement in writing narrative paragraphs.
The paragraphs made by the student had been
relevant to the topic and easy to understand.
The ideas are also clearly stated and the
sentences are organized well. The paragraphs
they made contain only few mistakes in using
the words choice. Besides, they know how to
write narrative paragraph because they have
involved in the process of writing.
Additionally, they felt easier to get ideas to
writing using picture series strategy. In
addition, the students were also more active
and motivated in joining writing activities.
Picture series strategy constitutes the
natural and authentic way to encourage
students to experience how to produce good
writing products through generating ideas,
draft, revise, and edit. This activities occur in
all four stages of teaching English suggested
by the curriculum. Picture series strategy has
been proven to improve the students’ writing
ability especially low achievers in addition to
enhancing students’ participation, particularly
in building his/her knowledge. However, this
JP3, Volume 1, No. 1, Pebruari 2013
success will not be reached if teachers have
no willingness to bother themselves preparing
the media and materials in using the
technique. Therefore, it is first suggested to
the English teachers to change their mindset
about teaching. Teaching does not only mean
coming to class and teaching the students the
way it is, but teaching also means that
teachers should prepare all the right things i.e.
strategy, media, material to teach their
students. By having willingness to teach and
trouble their teaching preparation, even a
simple technique, such as Picture series
strategy can prove to yield benefits. In
relation to the effectiveness of the
implementation of the Picture series strategy
in teaching reading comprehension, it is
suggested that the English teachers,
particularly those who have similar situation
where the students fall into low achievers
category, to apply the Picture series strategy.
Besides being effective in improving students’
writing skill, the Picture series strategy is also
essential in encouraging and motivating
students to work together in groups.
Furthermore, the teachers should consider the
principles of Picture series strategy so as to
reach the expected outcome.
To the future researcher teachers,
particularly those who are interested in
applying Picture series strategy in their
researches, it is suggested that they conduct a
classroom action research on the use of this
strategy in the teaching of writing in higher
grades, for example in the university level.
Besides, it is suggested that they carry out a
classroom action research on other language
skills, for instance listening and speaking.
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