SEMI-CONTROLLED COMPOSITION TECHNIQUE TO INCREASE

STUDENTS’ ABILITY IN WRITING NARRATIVE TEXT AT THE FIRST

YEAR OF SMAN 3 KAMPAR

A. Background

Writing skill is a basic necessity in an academic environment and nonacademic one.

There are some reasons for teaching writing to students English as a foreign language,1

they are: (1) Reinforcement: some students are able to speak, listen to, reading but they

cannot write. So they have to be taught how to write first and then what to write to make

them acquire a language completely. (2) Language development: the process in writing

will help us to learn by using the experiences. (3) Learning style: students have different

learning style each other. Some students are quick in learning a language by looking and

listening but others will need to write something in the process of acquiring the language.

(4) Writing as a skill: writing is as important as other language skills (speaking, listening

and reading). Students need to know how to write a letter, note, reply a letter and etc.

Writing is not as easy as we think to be done by all of students. Writing is viewed

as the result of complex processes of planning, drafting, reviewing and revising and some

approaches to the teaching of first and second language writing teach students to use these

processes. Writing is clearly a complex process.2 According to Arlov there are some steps

in a process of writing such as; prewriting, planning, drafting, revising, and proofreading.3

These five steps are provided by Arlov to help students’ writer in the writing process. So
1 Harmer, Jeremy. How to Teach English.(England; Pearson Education, 1998), p. 79.
2 Nunan, David. Language Teaching and Methodology a Textbook for Teachers. (New York: Prentice
Hall, 1991), p. 91.
3 Arlov, Pamela. Wordsmith: A Guide of College Writing. (Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson
Education, 2004), p. 4-6.

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 that students are able to write by following the steps easily.

Narrative is one of types of text that provide narration or story telling whether it is

true or fictions. Hornby in Syafi’i says that narrative refers to story or orderly account of

event.4 Narrative can be inspired by the writer’s own experience, another experience or

fiction. Writing narratives can be conducted is not as difficult as we think.

SMA N 3 Kampar is one of school that applies School Base Curriculum (KTSP).

Based on the curriculum, the students are taught English twice a week. According to the

syllabus the first year students are taught writing for 13 hours. The students are inquired to

be able to write narrative, report, and analytical exposition text.5

Based on the writer’s preliminary study, he found some problems that are being

faced by the first year students at SMA N 3 Kampar in English especially in writing

course. The students have learned writing skills in English at least about for eight years:

four years at elementary school, three years at Junior High School, and one year at Senior

High School. Based on the facts, normally they will not have any troubles in English. But

the reality, their writing ability in English is so worried.

The problems that are faced by the students can be stated in the phenomenon

below:

1. Most of students do not have attention in English.

2. Most of students cannot construct an English sentence correctly.

4 Syafi’i, et al. The effective Paragraph Development: The Process of Writing for Classroom Settings.
(Pekanbaru: LBSI, 2007), p. 58
5 SMA N 3 Kampar. Kurikulum. (Kampar: SMA 3 Kampar, 2010), p. 17-18
 3. Most of students cannot develop a topic sentence so that their paragraphs

are difficult to be understood.

4. Most of students cannot develop their ideas effectively

5. Students are taught without a good approach

6. Most of students do not know how to correct their own writing

7. Some students cannot write in English

The problems above can be caused by internal and external factors. Because of the

important of acquiring or mastering writing skills, writer interested in doing research entitled

SEMI-CONTROLLED COMPOSITION TECHNIQUE TO INCREASE STUDENTS’

ABILITY IN WRITING NARRATIVE TEXT AT THE FIRST YEAR OF SMAN 2

KAMPAR.

The writer assumes that semi-controlled composition technique will help students to

increase their ability in writing narrative text. Semi controlled composition technique here

means that the students are not only controlled in their writing but they are also given chance

to write free composition.6

B. Formulation of the Problem

The problem in this research will be formulated in the following research question. Is

there any significant effect of semi-controlled composition technique in increasing their

ability in writing narrative text?

6 Paulston, Cristina Bratt and Marry Newton Bruder. Teaching English as a Second Language: Teaching
and Procedures. (Cambridge: Winthrop Publishers, Inc, 1976), p. 223

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C. Method of Research

The design of this research is a quasi-experimental research which intended to find

out the effectiveness of teacher’s response in improving students’ writing narrative text

ability. Dealing with the background that has been explained before, this problem occurs at

SMA N 3 Kampar. The writer will conduct this research for eight meetings of instruction

starting from January until February 2011. Subject of this research is the first year students

of SMA N 3 Kampar. The object of this research is the effectiveness of teacher’s response in

improving students’ writing narrative text ability in English. The population of the research

is all the first year students of SMA N 3 Kampar that consists of 187 students, and the

sample of this research is two classes where each class consists of 38 students. One class as

experimental group and another is as control group.

THE POPULATION OF THE FIRST YEAR STUDENTS AT SMAN 3 KAMPAR

POPULATION
NO CLASSES TOTAL
MALE FEMALE
1 X. A 19 18 37
2 X. B 26 14 40

3 X. C 20 14 34

4 X. D 20 18 38

5 X. E 23 15 38

TOTAL 187

THE SAMPLE OF THIS RESEARCH

SAMPLE
NO CLASSES TOTAL
MALE FEMALE
1 X. D 20 18 38
 2 X. E 23 15 38

TOTAL 76

In collecting data the writer will use tests, they are pre-test; is used to determine the

students’ writing ability before getting the treatment and post-test that used to determine

students’ writing ability after getting the treatment. In scoring student’s writing ability the

writer of this paper will use ESL Composition Profile and in analyzing the data the writer

will use t-test by using SPSS.

D. References

Arlov, Pamela. (2004). Wordsmith: A Guide to College Writing. Upper Saddle River, New
Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc
Harmer, Jeremy. (1998).How to Teach English. England: Pearson Education

Nunan, David. (1991). Language Teaching and Methodology a Textbook for Teachers. New
York: Prentice Hall
Paulston, Cristina Bratt and Marry Newton Bruder. (1976). Teaching English as a Second
Language: Teaching and Procedures. Cambridge: Winthrop Publishers, Inc
Syafi’i, et al. (2007). The effective Paragraph Development: The Process of Writing for
Classroom Settings. Pekanbaru: LBSI