The Relationship Between Reading For Pleasure and Students Ability in Writing

Descriptive Text at The Second Year of SMPN 1 Siak Hulu

A. Background of the Problem

Writing is one of skills that English students should have. Some students may find
that writing is a difficult task to do, because the students should know how to express
their idea and how to convey their message in their writing. Nunan (P.88.2003) says that
writing is both a physical and a mental act. At the most basic level, writing is the physical
act of commiting words or ideas to some medium. Whether it is written on the paper or
typed into a computer. In line with the statement above Byrne (P.4.1988) states that there
are problems which are caused by writing under three headings, they are psychological,
linguistics, and cognitive. She also says writing is clearly much more than the production
of graphic symbols, just as speech is more than the production of sounds.
There are some kinds of text that the students can write, one of them is descriptive
text. According to McCarty (P.5.1998), she says that descriptive writing is that domain of
writing that develops images through the use of precise sensory words and phrases, and
through devices such as metaphor and the sound of words. In line with the statement
above Syafii (P.42.2014) says that descriptive paragraph is used to tell what subject
looks, sound, feels, tastes, and/or smells like. A descriptive paragraph describes idea
and examples focused on a particular subject. It attempts neither to argue nor persuade.
Rather, it presents an impression- your impression- of something.
Reading is vital for the students to expand their language skills. It is generally
agreedthat the development of good reading habits can improve students ability in
writing. For some students in Indonesia, they most likely read books or passage in their
mother tongue, but the skills that they develop in their first language are generally
transferable. According to Byrne (P.5.1988) most of students will already be familiar with
the process of writing, unless they are very young. They are also likely to had a fairly
wide experience of written language throught reading in their mother tongue.
According to Nell (1988) in Clark and Rumbold (P.6.2006), Reading for pleasure is a
form of play that allows us to experience other worlds and roles in our imagination.
Reading for pleasure such as reading novel, short story, etc. In line with this statement
Clark and Rumbold (P.9.2006) states that students are accumulating that emphasise the
importance of reading for pleasure for both aducational as well as personal development.
Promoting reading can have a major impact on children/young people and adults and
their future. It is also stated in Clark and Rumbold (P.9.2006) that reading for pleasure is
positively linked with reading attainment and writing ability.
When children or less literate adults start reading for pleasure good things will
happen. Their reading comprehension will improve and they will find difficult, academic-
style text easier to read. Their writing style will improve, and they will be better able to
write prose in a style that is acceptable to schools, including writing descriptive text.
Their vocabulary will improve. In other words, those who do pleasure reading have a
chance, however those who do not develop the pleasure reading habit simply do not have
a chance. They will have a very difficult time reading and writing at a level high enough
to deal with the demands of todays world. In addition to improve reading skill, pleasure
reading has been found to be associated with improved writing skill.
SMPN 1 Siak Hulu is one of formal school in Pekanbaru. As a formal educational
institution this junior high school is also offering the english subject to the students,
especially in term of writing skills. Based on school based curriculum of english for
junior high school 2006, the students are required to be able to write many kinds of
genres, such as narrative, descriptive, and procedure text. Which are usefull for
communicative purpose.
However based on the writers observation in SMPN 1 Siak Hulu, many students still
have difficulties in writing descriptive text, as follow:

1. The students find it difficult to develop their idea in descriptive writing.

2. The students spend a lot of time to write a descriptive text.
3. The students make mistakes in grammatical devices, such as the use of present
tense, punctuation, conjunction, etc.
4. Most of the students still have lack vocabulary knowledge that they can use in
writing.
Based on the theories above, reading for pleasure is essential for the students to
overcome those problems in writing. Students reading for pleasure habit has correlation
to their writing ability. Therefore the writer feels interest in investigaing whether reading
for pleasure has positive correlation to writing skill of the Indonesian students of english,
especially in SMPN 1 Siak Hulu into a reseach project entitled: The Relationship
Between Reading For Pleasure and Students Ability in Writing Descriptive Text at
The Second Year of SMPN 1 Siak Hulu

B. Problem

1. Formulation of the problem

a. How is students reading for pleasure activities at the second year of SMPN 1
Siak Hulu?
b. How is students ability in writing descriptive text at the second year of
SMPN 1 Siak Hulu?
c. Is there any significant correlation between reading for pleasure and students
ability in writing descriptive text at the second year of SMPN 1 Siak Hulu?

C. Methodology of the Research

1. Design of the Research

The design of this research is a correlational research. According to (P. )

correlational research is.