Name : Richard Ray

NIM : 321810118
Subject : Intro to Thesis Writing
Indiviual Task

IMPROVING STUDENTS’ WRITING ABILITY

THROUGH CLUSTERING TECHNIQUE

INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Language is an important tool to communicate. To communicate means to
understand, to express many ideas, and also to develop culture between speakers and
listeners or writers and readers. Language is more than just communication tool; it is the
primary method by which we do things together by share meaning of common ground.
People need to communicate in doing daily activities and making an interaction to other
people in their life. One of the popular languages used is English.
English is an international language that is used to communicate among people all
over the world. English is so widely spoken; it has often referred to as a world language,
the lingua franca of modern era, and while is not an official language in most countries, it
is currently the language most often taught as a foreign language.
Studying English as a foreign language is gradually getting more important. In
Indonesia government, English is considered as a first foreign language and compulsory
subject to be taught in secondary schools. Based on the decision above, it considers as
optional subject or local content materials to be taught in elementary schools and as a
requirement subject to pass National Examination.
English is one of a compulsory subject in Indonesia. One of the aims of teaching
English is developing the ability to communicate. The ability involves the four skills:
listening, speaking, reading and writing. The writer is mainly focused on writing skill,
because writing is considered the most difficult and complicated language skill to be
learned. Writing needs hard thinking to produce idea, words, sentences, paragraph, and
composition.
 Writing is one of the important skills to be mastered by the students. They use it
to communicate to each other, as means of ideas and emotional expression, because when
they write their ideas and emotion creatively, they are communicating on paper in their
very best way and purposes.

B. Formulation of the Problem

In line with the background of the study, the writer formulates the research
question as follows: “Can clustering technique improve student’s writing ability?”.

C. Research Purpose
The results of this study are expected to provide useful information for: First, for
students, will give an input to the students, so they can improve their writing ability.
Second, for English Teachers, it gives the alternative solution in teaching writing skill.

References:
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Burns, Anne.(1999). Collaborative Action Research for English Language Teachers. New York:
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Harmer, Jeremy. (2007). The Practice of English Language Teaching Fourth edition. London:
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Heaton, J. B. (1998). Writing English Language Test. Edinburg Gate: London and New York.
Langan, John. (2008). College Writing Skill with Reading. : English Skill. Seventh Edition. New
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Megawati, M. (2017). THE IMPROVING STUDENTS’READING COMPREHENSION
THROUGH GRAMMAR TRANSLATION METHOD. ENGLISH EDUCATION:
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doi:10.29407/jetar.v2i2.833 Date accessed: 02 apr. 2019
http://ojs.unpkediri.ac.id/index.php/inggris/article/view/833
Pharr, Donald and Santi V, Buscemi. (2005). Writing Today. New York: McGraw Hill