1. Research Background
In this era of globalization, English has important role in our lives. This language
is used around the globe in sciences, knowledge, and technology as well as education,
business, and other activities. In Indonesia, students start learning English at elementary
school and the process continued until senior high school. In fact, English is also taught in
the university.
According to Tomlinson (2005: 181), writing is one of the language skills that
should be acquired in learning a language. It also means a process of communication that
conveys ideas and opinion in a written form which suggests that the writer and readers
should have similar understanding of what is written. The writing process is intended to
provide a step by step model for writing so that the finished piece is the best it can be.
Learning English implies learning how to communicate. Communication can be done not
only in spoken but also in written form. He also adds that writing is a productive skill
which is very important for students to learn. It will help students master the other
language skills.
However, Wahyudin (2012:2) says that students sometimes feel afraid and shy to
speak what they want to say but they can tell something through a draft or writing before
speaking. If students are having problem in expressing the idea, they can write it done.
Byrne (2002:4) states that writing is difficult for most people both in mother tongue and in
foreign language. It was notices that students did know what they were going to write but
they did not know how to put them into words.
Therefore focus students writing their daily activity in recount text can help
students to improve students’ achievement in writing particularly writing recount in
order that the students can write recount well. The students should be tough how to plan
and organize the ideas or supporting information before doing the composition so that
they are able to improve their writing ability. Langan (2003:13) stated that writing is a
skill, so it can be learn by using many kinds of technique. Students writing their daily
activities, especially in recount text, suggest imaginative tasks to the students which
may increase their enthusiasm toward developing their writing skill. It means that this
process can afford students the enjoyment of writing a creative task as a form of writing
that relates to their personal experiences. Therefore, in this study, the writer intends to
conduct the research with the title “The Effectiveness of Using Dairy Activity to
Improve Students’ Writing Ability in Recount Text”
2. Research Questions
3. Research Objectives
This study will be focusing on students writing their daily activity to improve
their writing ability of recount text. Recount text is simple because it just retells the
experience in the past into paragraph. The researcher focus on the process of teaching
writing that is enjoyable and interesting for the students. As stated by Hamp and
Heasley (2006), diary writing helps learners write better and better day by day since it
provides learners with more opportunities to freely write about what they wish and what
they feel. Diary can help the students clarify their thoughts. It gives students an
opportunity to discover what they think and how they feel. If the student keep a diary
during all course, they do not have to worry about finding a topic for writing
assignments. It is because the student have a collection of ideas in it. This research will
be conducting at Junior High School.
5. Research Benefit
Theoretical, the research finding will give some contribution to English teachers and
other subject matter teachers in the field of the study to solve problems related to
students’ writing skill. The research finding can be a basis for the next researchers
to conduct the advanced research.
Practically : The researcher hopes that this research will be useful for ;
The students, the students can improve their writing skill in recount text by using
diary writing
The teachers, the finding of the research can be applied in the English teaching and
learning process to make the students more interesting to understand and to write
recount text by using Diary Writing
6. Definition of Terms
Diary Writing
Recount Text
Writing is one of English skills that should be taught integrated. Recount text
is one of the types of the text that retell the past event or experience. This text has
purpose to retell the past event or experiences. This text has purpose to retell the
events that have been done as information or entertainment for the reader. Thus,
writing recount text is the activity that write the past events.