IMPROVING THE STUDENTS' ABILITY IN WRITING ...

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ISSN: 2527-8037

Proceedings of the First Reciprocal Graduate Research Symposium between University Pendidikan Sultan Idris and Syiah Kuala University, February 26-28,

2016, Tanjong Malim, Perak, Malaysia

IMPROVING THE STUDENTS’ ABILITY IN WRITING DESCRIPTIVE PARAGRAPHS BY USING QUESTIONING TECHNIQUE

Taufiq Hidayah

*1, Sofyan A. Gani

2, and Syamsul Bahri

2

1STAIN Malikussaleh, Lhokseumawe, Indonesia

2University of Syiah Kuala, Banda Aceh, Indonesia

[email protected], [email protected], and [email protected] Abstract This Classroom Action Research was carried out to describe the implementation of Questioning Technique in improving the first researcher’s teaching strategy and the students’ ability in writing descriptive paragraph. The research was conducted in 2 cycles, and each cycle comprised of 3 meetings. Based on the research result, it was obviously concluded that the Questioning Technique was effectively applied at prewriting activity in writing descriptive paragraph. The students’ achievement in writing descriptive paragraph was gradually improved at the test of each cycle. The result showed that the average score of the final test of cycle II was 79.13 and met success indicator. In addition, the first researcher’s and the students’ performance were successful during the implementation of Questioning Technique. Based on the observation checklist in cycle II, the average score of the first researchers’ performance was 3.94, and the students’ performance was 3.26. Both of results were categorized in the criteria of “good” and met the success indicator. Moreover, the students responded positively toward the implementation of Questioning Technique where the average score of questionnaire given was 3.26 or in the criteria “agree”. Therefore, it could be concluded that the questioning technique could improve the first researcher’s teaching strategy and the students’ ability in writing descriptive paragraph. Keywords: writing, descriptive paragraph, Questioning Technique.

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Improving the students’ ability in writing descriptive paragraphs by using Questioning Technique by Taufiq Hidayah, Sofyan A. Gani & Syamsul Bahri

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INTRODUCTION Background of the Study Writing is one of four language skills, which has been taught as a subject in either second or foreign language curriculum. For students which English as a foreign language, learning the subject of writing will make them have the ability to write in various genre of writing such as descriptive, narrative, expository, and persuasive. English Department at Sekolah Tinggi Agama Islam Negeri (STAIN) Malikussaleh Lhokseumawe has 6 credits (SKS) for Writing Subject. It is divided in 3 semesters from Writing I in the third semester to Writing III in the fifth semester. Since the first researcher teaches Writing II subject in this institution, he chose the Writing II subject as his research. As the continuation of Writing I which stressed on introducing and applying some techniques of prewriting activity to find out the ideas of a topic, the syllabus of Writing II directed the lecturer to make the students be familiar with writing descriptive, narrative, and process paragraph by applying a technique that they had learned in Writing I subject as their prewriting activity. However, based on the preliminary study and first researcher’s experience in teaching writing to the students of English education study program of STAIN Malikussaleh, he found that the students’ writing skill was still poor or unsatisfactory. In overall, the students only could obtain the average score of writing a paragraph at their individual assignment around 50 to 60 or in scale D and C. It is very different with the passing grade expected by institution at all subjects, namely 71 above or greater than B- scale. In relation to this, the first researcher as the lecturer of this subject also hoped the students can get such minimum score in Writing II Subject. In particular, the researchers of this study found some obstacles from students in teaching learning process of Writing Subject. First of all, the students could not get many ideas relevant to the topic in writing a paragraph. In particular, the students felt difficult to write a description of person, place and thing in a unified and coherent paragraph. Second, the students preferred to write the assigned paragraph with one-step action. In this case, they were reluctant to follow all steps of writing process including using a technique in prewriting activity whereas the lecturer always reminded the students to do those activities in writing a paragraph. Another problem was on the first researcher’s strategy in teaching Writing subject. He frequently assigned his students to write a paragraph by giving them a topic first or discussing the topic to be written, and then the students write and develop it on their notebooks. Moreover, he used to encourage his students to apply and choose one of some techniques as prewriting activity that they had learned in Writing I subject like free writing, listing, clustering and brainstorming. Those merely techniques made the students bored to apply one of them as technique in prewriting activity which can stimulate the students’ thinking in finding many ideas related to the topic they want to write. Consequently, the lecturer’s teaching strategy was not effective to enhance students’ ability in writing a paragraph, especially a descriptive paragraph. Based on the fact of problems above, the researchers felt that the students should be proposed by one of interesting techniques in their prewriting activity, so

Proceedings of the First Reciprocal Graduate Research Symposium between University Pendidikan Sultan Idris and Syiah Kuala University, February 26-28, 2016, Tanjong Malim, Perak, Malaysia

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that the students would have been easier to discover ideas related to the topic or subject that they want to write. According to Langan (2009, p. 17), there are many techniques can be applied by the students as prewriting activity to help them think about, develop a topic and get words on the paper. Those techniques are free writing, brainstorming, making a list, clustering, scratch outline, and questioning. However, in this research, the researchers only chose questioning as a technique in prewriting activity. Questioning technique is a technique which often be applied by most of writers and journalists in their prewriting activity. Most journalists and writers always attempt to get the answers of some formed questions before writing their articles or news. Those questions are started with who, what, when, where, why and how. Accordingly, Boardman and Frydenberg (2008, p. 32) emphasize that once students understand the assignment of writing, they should ask themselves the questions: what, why, where, how long, when and how and then get the answer of questions as the springboard to write a paragraph. Meanwhile, in relation to writing a descriptive paragraph, Zemach (2003, p. 25) accentuates that questioning technique is very helpful for the students to describe person, place or thing through written text in a descriptive paragraph. Related to the statements above, it is clear that questioning technique is applied at prewriting activity to make the students easier in getting ideas related to the topic. The problems to be studied in this research were: 1. How is questioning technique implemented to improve students’ ability in writing

descriptive paragraph? 2. Is there any improvement of students’ achievement in writing descriptive

paragraph after implementing questioning technique? 3. How do the students respond toward the implementation of questioning

technique in teaching writing on descriptive paragraph? This study is expected to give meaningful results either for theoretical and practical concerns. Theoretically, the study should contribute to the teaching of writing at English Department of STAIN Malikussaleh Lhokseumawe. Practically, the findings from this research are expected to be meaningful for the first researcher himself as a lecturer to enrich his technique for teaching writing. In addition, the results from the research are expected to be an example for other researchers who want to improve the writing abilities of their students. Finally, this research is expected to be a model for other researchers to use further research dealing with the questioning technique as prewriting activity for improving writing skill on descriptive paragraph. REVIEW OF LITERATURE Writing Writing is one of skills in English which can be used as a means of expressing ideas, thoughts and opinions through written form. Based on Cambridge Learner’s Dictionary (2004), writing is the skill or activity of producing words on a surface. According to Brown (2001, p. 291), writing is a process of generating ideas, organizing them coherently, using discourse markers and rhetorical conventions to


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put them cohesively into a written text, revising text for clearer meaning, editing text for appropriate grammar and producing a final product. Besides, writing is an amazing complex activity. The writer or someone who wants to write something is simultaneously involved with thinking of what to write, coherence and cohesion of text, formation and legibility of individual letter, spelling, grammar, including punctuation, layout, tone, and register, organization and selection of appropriate content for an intended audience (Education Department of Western Australia, 1997, p. 4). In addition, writing is a progress Activity. This means that when one writes something down, he has been thinking about what you are going to say and how you are going to say it. Once he finished writing, he should read over what he has written and then makes change and corrections. Therefore, writing is never a one-step action; it is a process that has several steps (Oshima & Hogue, 1997, p. 2). For some students especially who subjected English as a foreign language felt writing as a difficult skill to master. It is not only affected by their first language, but also by the educational context where they learn to write (Rinnert & Kobayashi, 2011, p. 23). According to Christenson (2002, p. 1), there are many frustrations and obstacles that come with learning to write. Writing is not an easy task, and finding the right words for ideas can be difficult and time consuming. Moreover, Raimes (1983, p. 12) noted that writing is a process of struggling with language to get ideas down on paper. So, struggling with this complex process is an important part of learning to write for everyone. As well, Murray in Christenson (2002, p. 1) describes that the process of writing as one of the most complicated human activities. Therefore, writing needs many practice and practice. To have a good writing, according to Savage and Shafiei (2007, p. 9), academic writer must follows some steps to make sure that their writing is both clear and accurate. They gather, organize and develop ideas. They write drafts, and when they revise, they look for unity, coherence and grammatical problems. In addition, according to Brown (2001, p. 335), when students learn to write, actually they focused on how to generate ideas, how to organize them coherently, how to use discourse markers and rhetorical conventions to put them cohesively into a written text, how to revise text for clearer meaning, how to edit text for appropriate grammar, and how to produce a final product. Related to writing mechanical components, Harmer (2001, p. 44) states that writing has its mechanical components. These include handwriting, spelling, punctuation, and the construction of well-formed sentences, paragraphs, and texts. Such things are the nuts and bolts of the writing skill and they need to be focused on at certain stages of learning to write in English. Based on some definitions above, it can be summarized that writing is the activity of communicating the ideas effectively by producing correct words and sentences. Besides, it is necessary for students to improve language acquisition in the process of communicating ideas and critical thinking as writing needs focused thought and intellectual capacities. In addition, regarding the purpose of writing, Lindsay and Knight (2006, p. 987) contend that in the process of learning writing, the students should have some


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purposes in writing: 1) to practice the language, 2) to reinforce the language they have learnt, 3) to help their memorization about vocabulary or pattern in grammar, 4) and to make it as a way of recording language. Since writing is used for variety of purposes and produced in many different forms (Harmer, 2001, p. 4), therefore the purpose of writing is a significant factor to be considered in writing a text. It determines the type of texts that the writers wish to produce the language they use, and the information they choose to include. The consideration of the audience is able to determine the shape of the writing and the choice of language; formal or informal. While in the content structure will sequence the facts, ideas, or arguments which the writers have decided to take in. Based on preceded statements, it can be brought to a close that writing is an activity which has to be considered much on grammar, spelling, mechanics, vocabulary, and also organization. Moreover, the purpose of writing is very important to determine by the writers before they begin to write. It is simply to achieve their goals in writing like to inform, to entertain, to persuade, to narrate, to describe and to convince. Descriptive Paragraph Descriptive paragraph, one of paragraph kinds, is usually taught in Writing Subject to the students of English as Foreign Language. Descriptive paragraph is very important to learn because the ability to describe people, places, or objects accurately is a useful life skill for the students who learned it. There are some definitions of descriptive paragraph. In Cambridge Advance Dictionary (2003, p. 330), descriptive is describing something especially in detailed, interesting way. According to Zemach and Rumisek (2003, p. 25), descriptive paragraph describes how a person/thing looks, or feels. In descriptive paragraph, the writer can describe people, places, objects, or events through written text. The main purpose of descriptive paragraph is to create an image in reader’s minds. In short, it is like painting with the words. In a descriptive paragraph, the writer uses sensory details of sense. Oshima and Hogue (2007, p. 72) argue that writing descriptive paragraph appeals to sense like to tell how something looks, feels, smells, tastes, and/or sounds. A good description is like a word picture; the reader can imagine the object, place, or person in his mind. In addition, Zemach and Islam (2006, p. 21) contend that when the writer describes a place in a paragraph, he/she can develop it by adding descriptive details, information that tells how a place looks, sounds, smells, or feels. In relation to using five sense in writing descriptive paragraph, Folse (2009, p. 136) emphasizes that good writer use words that appeals to some or all the five senses; sight, taste, touch, hearing, and smell to help them depicting a topic clearly. Moreover, Folse (2009, p. 135) also illustrates that a descriptive paragraph describes how something or someone looks or feels. It gives an impression of something. If, for example, you only wanted to explain to someone what a samovar is, you could write a definition paragraph because a definition paragraph does not include how the writer feels. However, if you wanted to tell about the feelings you had when you


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drank a cup of Russian tea that was made in a samovar, you would write a descriptive paragraph. Furthermore, Barras (2005, p. 33) emphasizes that in writing a description, the purpose is to produce in the mind of the reader a picture of the scene, object or event observed (using five senses). Here, the writer should proceed from its general characteristics to details: from the general to the particular or perhaps beginning with things perceived from the outside (for example, of a building, or of a piece of equipment). Accordingly, in writing descriptive paragraph, the way of describing and writing about an object should be depended on whom the writer writes for and why. Based on Cory (1996, p. 38), there are some important points to make the description interesting; they are specific, descriptive details, precise words, variation, surprising the reader, and always thinking how to interest them. Still according to Cory (1996, p. 39), the first crucial point that should be attention in writing a description is using five senses of the writer, and the second important point is using adjectives and adverbs. It aimed at making the reader easy to imagine what is in paragraph. The writer can “paint a picture” by adding one and more adjectives to a noun. Similarly, he/she can describe a verb by adding adverb or adverbial phrases. However, writing becomes tiresome and predictable unless there is a variety of structures, and often a more concrete image can be achieved with a precise noun or verb. Adjectives are also very beneficial when a writer describes a character of people. There are some common adjectives for describing a person (Zemach & Rumisek, 2003, p. 27); they are personality and physical characteristics. Moreover, to connect with readers in descriptive paragraph, Folse, et al (2009, p. 143) remind that excellent writers constantly consider their audience as they write. Using adjective will help audience (reader) imagine and relate to the person or thing that they are describing. Besides that, using denotation and connotation can convey the writer’s specific meaning. Denotation is the dictionary definition of a word, and the connotation is its emotional or associated meaning. Juzwiak (2012, p. 234) states “As human beings, we like to describe things, and we use a lot of descriptive words to do this. Descriptive words are adjective and adverbs”. Also, by descriptive words, they can add length to the sentences. Thus, in writing descriptive paragraph, the writer also needs to include or suggest time order because a person, place, or object usually appears in a situation, or an incident usually occurs or suggests a scene. Descriptive transition words signal that the details follow a logical order based on one or more of the following elements: 1) the arrangement in space of a person, place, object, or scene, 2) the starting point from which the writer chooses to begin the description, 3) and the time frame as relevant to the description. Besides time order, based on Zemach and Rumisek (2003, p. 26), preposition is also very useful in describing the place since it tells the reader how a space is organized. There are some common and useful preposition and phrasal preposition; in front of/ in back of, behind, on top of / on the bottom of, next to, above / below, underneath, to the right of, to the left of, in the middle of, around, between, and etc.


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In line to the statements above, it is clear for us that writing descriptive paragraph is used when someone wants to imagine people, place or things by describing them through written words. For many students, they initially write a topic sentence as the identification then they write the description of the subject in some supporting sentences. Keys in Writing Descriptive Paragraph In order to achieve a good result in writing descriptive paragraph, the students as the writers should consider applying the keys of good description when they write a descriptive paragraph. Hogue (1996, p. 72) states that there are two keys in achieving good writing description, first is by using space order paragraph, and second is by using specific details. To make space order paragraph, the writer should describe something from top to bottom or from left to right, and vice versa. For example, when a paragraph is described about a person’s performance, the writer can use pattern “from top to bottom”, or they can describe a person starting from the person’s head and ends with the person’s feet. As well, when a paragraph is written about a place descriptively, the writer can describe the place from left to right, near to far, outside to inside and vice versa. Another key is by using specific details. Actually, when a writer wants to describe something, he paints a picture with words. His goal is to make the readers as if “see” what he described. One way is by using a lot of specific details. Specific means exact, precise, and the opposite of it is vague. So, the more specific one can be, the better the readers can see what is being described. Moreover, Juzwiak (2012, p. 104) contends that the importance of writing a specific detail is to bring the example to life and avoid the examples given be not seem bland and unconvincing. The writers generally write related examples as short phrases. However, as they present examples in their paragraph, they try to develop the paragraph with specific details that bring the examples to life and give them personality. Above all, to be precise in description, writers often need to indicate where something or someone is, particularly in relation to something or someone else. The writers also can use prepositions of location to help themselves put people and things in description (Folse, 2009, p. 151). Using precise word is very significant since it communicates exact meaning. Words chosen for a specific emotional or visual impact create strong mental image in the reader’s mind and carry out the writer’s purpose. As one moves through the writing process, he thinks about the impact he want to have on his reader. For the greatest impact, he chooses concrete and precise words and phrases instead of general or vague expressions. Thus he chooses words that show instead of tell. From some explanations above, it can be summarized that in writing descriptive paragraph the writer should consider much on using two important points to make the description better; they are using spatial order and specific details.


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Questioning Technique Questioning technique is one of techniques that can be applied in prewriting activity of writing process. This technique can lead the writers to produce some ideas when they start writing a topic. In writing newspaper, magazine or book, writers and journalist often use this technique before writing their article or news. Journalists always write something based on the answers of questions that they formed earlier before writing. Those questions are beginning with what, who, where, when, why and how. According to Ryoo (2011, p. 159), the questioning technique is an effective way of teaching English writing for English as Foreign Language (EFL) college students. This technique helps students generate ideas to write down with a sense of direction or organization in their writing. Moreover, based on Barras (2005, p. 33), whatever students are writing, they should ask themselves the six questions that reader would ask them – what, why, when, how, where, and who. Here, Barras does not limit on simply a genre of writing like descriptive, though he suggests using those questions in writing all kinds of writing including report, recount, narrative, procedural, and so on. Another definition is from Langan (2009, p. 20); he confirms that if students start writing by using questioning technique, they can generate ideas and details by asking as many questions as they can think of about the topic or subject. So, here Langan convinces all writers that if they use questioning technique, they should use the formed questions to produce more ideas from each answer of the questions. In addition, Boardman and Frydenberg (2008, p. 32) elucidate that once students understand the assignment of writing, they should ask themselves the questions: what, why, where, how long, when and how. Thus, one who got the assignment to write something, he or she had better to stimulate their thinking first by asking themselves the 5WH questions. As well, Clouse (2005, p. 7) contends that when someone writes something and the inspiration does not arrive on time, the writers can use a technique to help them come up with ideas like answering the questions that relate most to the topic. In this case, Clouse states in general that forming questions then answering them is very useful to get more ideas related to the topic. There are some other terms used which also can be referred to the questioning technique. Ryoo (2011, p. 159) named questioning technique by question and answer technique. Meanwhile, Hutchinson (2005, p. 6) called the questioning technique by 5Ws + H formula. 5W stands for what, where, who, why, when and H stands for how. Sometime, it is also called by WH question technique. As the statement of Brown & Hood (1993:9), students should use WH question before writing a longer pieces of writing. Here clear that W stands for what, where, who, why, when and H stands for how. Above all, in relation to the application of questioning technique in writing a description, Zemach (2003, p. 25) points out that questioning technique is very helpful for students to describe person, place or thing. According to him, writing a description of person and place should involve some of these questions, they are where, how, why, what, when, and who. Moreover, Juzwiak (2012, p. 32)


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emphasizes that by using questioning technique, the writer uses the five Ws of critical thinking: who? Where? When? What? What? Why? These questions can help the writer gets below the surfaces of his/her topic and look at it from different viewpoints. The questioning technique can be applied in writing class in two ways. Firstly, the students should think of the questions as a reporter writing an article and give details, information, ideas, etc., that will answer the questions effectively. They should not limit responses and should make associations completely. Secondly, the students can ask their own questions about the topic or subject, and they should not limit responses. Those two ways should be done in prewriting activity of writing process. Based on Juzwiak (2012, p. 45), there are some steps of implementing the questioning technique in writing process: (1) determining a topic, (2) stimulating students to create questions related to the topic, (3) encouraging the students to find the answers, (4) inviting students to write the first draft, (5) editing the first draft, (6) writing the final draft, (7) submitting the final draft. All the steps above are clearly asserted that after the questions have been answered by the students, the teacher instructs students to write a paragraph using the answers as writing frames or main ideas of paragraph. The answer of the question can be the main idea of the paragraph. In other words, the answers of the questions become the guidelines for the students to construct a paragraph. As the students use the questions as a guideline to compose a paragraph, the idea in the paragraph will be automatically well organized. RESEARCH METHOD Research Design This study was designed as a Classroom Action Research (CAR) which was aimed at improving the first researcher’s teaching strategy that would finally improve the students’ ability in writing descriptive paragraph. Tomal (2010, p. 14) stated that in conducting action research, the researcher is concerned with using a systematic process in solving educational problems and making improvements. Moreover, this classroom action research is done cooperatively. It was done because the researcher would ask help to another lecturer to be his collaborator/observer in conducting this research. This policy was adopted in reference to Koshy (2005, p. 40) who states that one of important features of action research is when it offers opportunities for collaborative work. Research Setting and Subject of Study This research was conducted at English Department of Sekolah Tinggi Agama Islam Negeri (STAIN) Malikussaleh. It is located in Lhokseumawe, Aceh Province, Indonesia. This setting was chosen for three reasons. First, the first researcher is one of lecturer in this institution. Second, according to the curriculum of English Department, there is the subject of writing, namely Writing II subject at fourth semester. Finally, the first researcher teaches the Writing II subject for fourth semester students of English Department in this institution.


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The subject of this study is the fourth semester students of unit 1 which consisted of 30 persons. They were chosen since more than 75% of the students in this unit have the problems in writing a descriptive paragraph. Research Instruments In implementing this collaborative classroom action research, the researchers used some research instruments. They were observation sheets for the first researcher and students, a writing test, and a questionnaire for the students. The test was given before implementing the action of each cycle and after implementing the action at the end of each cycle. Meanwhile, the questionnaire was distributed after the first researcher successfully finishing the implementation of the action in cycle II. It was used to find out the students’ responses toward the implementation of questioning technique in learning Writing II subject especially on descriptive paragraph. Besides, observation checklist was applied to see the first researcher’s performance during the implementation of the action and to monitor the students’ activity and behavior during the process of implementing the action. Research Procedure This study was conducted in two cycles. Each cycle consisted of three meetings. In implementing the plan, the concern was on carrying out the teaching and learning process as designed in planning phases. Later on, in the observation stage, the focus was on the first researcher’s performance and the activities of the students which were done based on a checklist on the observation sheets used during the implementation of the program. While on reflection, the concentration was on making a judgment whether or not the action should be stopped or continued to a following cycle when the criteria set before had not yet been achieved. Moreover, the process of implementing this research uses the procedures proposed by Kemmis and McTaggart in Koshy (2005, p. 4). It consists of four steps: (1) planning the action, (2) implementing the action, (3) observing the action, (4) analyzing the data obtained during the actions and finally making reflections. The activities started from preliminary study which was intended to find out the real conditions of the students and to find out the problems faced by the lecturer in teaching writing class. RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION In this part of discussion, the researchers discusses the structural flow of the implementation process of this action research starting from the implementation of questioning technique for teaching writing, and the improvement in performance by the first researcher as the lecturer and the improvement in the writing skills of the students in the teaching learning process. The Implementation of Questioning Technique At the first meeting of the first cycle, the first researcher used the lecture and discussion method. Therefore, he enlightened the students about paragraph writing, writing process and the general concept of descriptive paragraph. The descriptive


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paragraph in this meeting was focused on describing the person. Therefore, once showing the example of descriptive paragraph of person, he also assigned the students to practice writing a paragraph under the topic “My Classmate” in form of descriptive paragraph of person. The topic was chosen because he thought that the students would be easy to start writing a description under the topic that had close relation to the students. The task was regarded as the practice to the students to make them familiar with writing a paragraph in form of writing process. In the second meeting, the first researcher taught and showed the examples to the students about descriptive paragraph of place under the topic “My House”. Besides, he also began introducing the questioning technique that could be used by the students in prewriting step/activity of writing process. Here, he also showed students the example of how to produce ideas by using questioning technique. In the third meeting, the researcher emphasized the students’ knowledge on writing descriptive paragraph by using the questioning technique through sharing the experiences and obstacles of some materials learned before. In particular, he and the students discussed and tried to implement the questioning technique as prewriting activity in form of writing process. From the results, it can be seen that in the first and second meeting, the first researcher was not able to deliver the material in clear and understandable. In details, he did not explain about descriptive paragraph of place as clear as he explained about person in previous meeting. Besides, the examples of descriptive paragraph of place and person that he showed were not attracted the students’ attention to discuss more about the paragraph shown. In addition, he did not elaborate about questioning technique in the second meeting well. Meanwhile, his explanation looked clearer in the third meeting by showing the students examples of questions that could be created related to the topic. Meanwhile, the results of the students’ performance have some important points. First, the students did not fully pay attention to the first researcher’s explanation during teaching and learning process. It happened most of the time in the first meeting; some students who sat at the back were talking each other when he explained the materials from his seat. However, in the second and the third meeting, the students looked more focus and paid attention much to his explanation as he presented the material standing at front. Next, the students seemed bored to notify to the examples of descriptive paragraph which he showed. It might happen since the topic was common to them. Moreover, the students felt difficult to find out the topic through questioning technique when he encouraged them to do so. Most of students were still confused to apply the questioning technique at prewriting activity, and they appeared hesitant to write the questions about the topic. As the effect, they were failed to use the guided time for prewriting activity to find out many ideas through questioning technique. Most of them only could generate the questions around 3-5 questions. Based on reflection made for the first cycle, the first researcher together with the collaborator decided to improve the teaching strategy by conducting the second cycle because in this cycle both researcher and students did not achieve the criteria of success set yet. It was found that the average score of the first researcher’s and


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students’ performances in all meetings were categorized in the criteria of “Fair”. Therefore, he and the collaborator then had concluded to conduct the second cycle. In cycle II, the first researcher starting the first meeting by explaining clearly about the general concept of descriptive paragraph including the keys to write a description like space order and descriptive details, unity and coherence. Then he explained in details about those keys and tried to connect those keys to be applied in questioning technique. Different from previous meeting, the time for prewriting activity in this meeting was allocated a little bit longer than before. Consequently, he found that the students applied questioning technique quite better due to they could write many questions steadily about the topic they chose. They could create 10 to 15 questions about the topic. Afterward, he guided and monitored the students when they checked their paragraph in more intense and efficient than before. He even read point by point in order the students could check their paragraph individually. It was done to help the students be familiar with editing their paragraph and sharing directly about the errors found in their paragraphs. In the second meeting, the first researcher applied again the writing process. In prewriting activity, he allocated the students much longer time for applying the questioning technique to find the ideas namely about 20 minutes. He also determined that the students should write at least 10 questions. Fortunately, most of the students could write the questions around 12-18 questions. Afterward, he commanded the students to organize the ideas orderly before writing the first draft. Then in the editing process, he provided the paragraph checklist for every student in order they could freely check the paragraph. In addition, the editing step in this meeting was done by the mate next to them. Then he walked around to see all students who were busy and careful at editing their mate’s paragraph. He also coped with the students’ obstacles in this activity. Finally, he invited the students to write the final draft. Up to the end of the meeting, he found that the students looked more familiar, relax and serious to edit their classmates’ paragraphs. In the third meeting, the first researcher emphasized that during implementing the questioning technique in prewriting activity, the students should attempted to write the questions orderly based on space and logical. It was aimed to make the students did not spend longer time to organized the paragraph from the answers of the questions when they are writing the first draft. Then he invited the students to begin writing from prewriting activity in 15 minutes, writing the first draft in 10 minutes, editing the first draft by themselves in 15 minutes and writing a final draft in a neat writing in 10 minutes. Then he asked the students to reanalyze the written paragraph in order to find out some difficulties or obstacles in writing descriptive paragraph being discussed. Based on the record of observation sheet of the first researcher’s and students’ performance of cycle II, it found that both of them reached better the average score than before which was equal to the criteria of good. The Improvements of Researcher’s and Students’ Performance Based on the observation sheets from the performance of the first researcher, there were some improvements in his teaching from the first to the second cycle.


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In general, it the first researcher could manage the time and class effectively and efficiently. He could finish each phase of the action on time and made the students more focus on the material delivered and instructions commanded. Besides, he had actualized his performance role in writing class and had briefly emphasized the enlightenment to the students related to writing process, questioning technique and descriptive paragraph. Next, he showed better performance in implementing questioning technique. To make the students easier to find out the best ideas for their descriptions, the keys of writing a description like space order and descriptive details were given by him to the students. The keys were really helped them to manage their questions to be well organized. This situation made the questioning technique which the students applied at prewriting activity was effective to direct them to have a good first draft. Thus, during writing the first draft process, the students only managed the ideas to be good at mechanics, content, language use, vocabulary and organization. Finally, he had been able to increase the students’ activeness in the second cycle. He gave clear information during teaching and learning process that made the responses of students was better than previous cycle. Based on the average score in observation sheet, the improvement of his performance increased from 2.20 (55%) or in the criteria of fair in the first cycle to 3.94 (98.5%) or in the criteria of good in the second cycle. Meanwhile, related to the performance of the students, there were some improvements in their learning from the first to the second cycle. The first point was on the process of teaching and learning aspect. They were able to understand more about the material delivered by researcher. This fact happened since they had familiar with the questioning technique as prewriting activity. The second improvement was from the students’ activities in editing each other’s paragraph. This condition was a good indication that all students showed good interaction among them to solve their problems in editing process. Thus, the students who were looked confused and calmed down in cycle I had started actively in cycle II when they edited their mates’ paragraph and responded well to the paragraph checklist given. The third improvement was revealed from the students’ performance while they revised their friends’ paragraph as a peer editor. It was very different from the first cycle which shows that they were reluctant to check their friends’ paragraph because they felt that they have lack of confident, poor writing knowledge and afraid of making mistake in editing. However, this condition had quite changed in the second cycle. All students gave a great interest in editing their friends’ paragraph since the strategy was shifted by the first researcher by giving them an editing checklist to help them during editing process. Moreover, they also could ask their mates and the first researcher if they got some problems during editing the first draft step. The fourth improvement, the students could be a good peer in editing their mates’ paragraph. Besides, almost all students looked very serious when they checked their friends’ paragraph. In this cycle, they looked more confident to check or edit their friends’ paragraph. Moreover, some of them asked solutions to the


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researcher related to what they were not sure of errors found in their mates’ paragraph. Based on the average score in observation sheet, the improvement increased from 2.29 (57.25%) or in the criteria of fair in the first cycle to 3.94 (98.5%) or in the criteria of good in the second cycle. The Improvements of Students’ Achievement in Writing Before going to discuss about the students’ achievement of cycle I and cycle, the first researcher initially would like to present the students’ achievement of the initial test before implementing the action of cycle I. It had been proved through the initial test that the level of the students’ ability in writing descriptive paragraph was in the level of “Poor” or it has the equivalent with the score scale of “D”. The average score of the students’ initial test was 54.37. The first researcher implemented the cycle I afterward. Once finishing cycle I, he conduct the final test. In this final test, the students’ achievement reached the average score of 68.30, which also has the equivalent with the scale of “C+”. However, there were some points of improvements of the average score if they are compared with the initial test before cycle I. The improving point was 13.93. Since the result of the final test of the cycle I did not reach the success indicator set, therefore the first researcher continued to the second cycle. After implementing the actions in three meetings of cycle II, the first researcher conducted the final test for cycle II. Here, he found that the students’ average score of the second cycle was 79.13. It meant that there were some improvements of the students’ average score in the cycle II. If it is compared with the result of the students’ average score in the first cycle which was 68.30, the improving point was 10.83. The achievement of the students’ average score of the second cycle can be categorized in the score range level of “B+” which had come into the level of qualification “good”. Then if it is referred to the criteria of the success indicators of the students’ achievement set namely above 75%, it could be concluded that the students’ achievement already met the criteria set in the success indicators. In other words, it indicated that the implementation of the questioning technique was effective to improve the students’ ability in writing descriptive paragraph and the questioning technique could be applied as a solution for the first researcher to help the students to create many ideas based on the topic chosen. The Students’ Responses toward the Implementation of Questioning Technique This is the final discussion of this sub topic, namely the discussion on the students’ response toward the implementation of questioning technique. This data was collected from the questionnaire given to the students at the last meeting of the cycle II. The questionnaire consisted of 20 questions. The questions had been classified into 4 variables. The variables are about the motivation, the method or the strategy applied, academic achievement, and the students’ attitude toward the implementation of questioning technique applied. Each of the variables had the following number of questions; the questions on the students’ motivation were 4 questions, the questions on the method or strategy applied were 4 questions, the


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questions on the students’ achievement were 6 questions, the questions on the students’ attitude toward the implementation of questioning technique were 6 questions. The questionnaire analysis had shown that the 4 variables measured achieved the average score of 3.26 or in the category of “Agree”. In addition, the total score of the students’ response in the questionnaire was 1956. The total average score of the students’ response of the questionnaire in the percentage was 81.5%. It meant that the students had given a good response to the implementation of the questioning technique applied in the action of the cycles. Therefore, it already met the criteria set in the success indicators namely above 75% the students responded positively toward the implementation of questioning technique. Based on the result of the questionnaire, the researcher scan conclude that in general the students felt happy and had positive responses toward the implementation of questioning technique in writing descriptive paragraph. Referring to the whole process of the implementation of the questioning technique starting from the first to the second cycle, the researchers thought that the first researcher could end up the second cycle of the last cycle in this action research since all of the criteria set in the success indicators had been achieved. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS First, the questioning technique which was applied in prewriting activity of writing process, made the first researcher’s performances improved in teaching writing especially on descriptive paragraph. Besides, by implementing questioning technique, the students’ involvement and participation gradually increased. The students seemed easy to find out many ideas relevant to the topic, focused on writing descriptive paragraph and looked serious to follow the teaching learning process. Second, the students’ achievement in writing descriptive paragraph was progressively improved after implementing the questioning technique. This could be proved by the students’ result of the test given to the students where there was improvement of their achievement in each cycle. Third, the students felt happy and responded positively toward the implementation of questioning technique in writing descriptive paragraph. It could be seen from the students’ answers in the questionnaires provided by the researchers which consist of four general points; motivation, method/strategy applied, academic achievement and attitude. The overall mean score was 3.26 or in the criteria “agree”. It meant that they had positive responses toward the implementation of questioning technique in writing descriptive paragraph. Based on the conclusions above, the researchers recommended some suggestions as the following. First, it is suggested for writing lecturer at university or English teacher at schools that to overcome their problems and students’ obstacles especially in writing descriptive paragraph, the questioning technique can be considered to be applied as prewriting activity. It can help them to improve and modify the teaching strategy


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particularly in improving students’ ability in finding out the ideas when they start writing a topic. Second, it is recommended to the other researchers to conduct further research related to the questioning technique in order to try to get better implementation and overcome any problems using questioning technique. Third, it is suggested for all institutions that have English Department and especially for STAIN Malikussaleh, this research could be used as a considerable reference to make a compatible curriculum in teaching the Writing subject for the students of English Department. REFERENCES Barras, R. (2005). Scientist Must Write. London: Routledge. Boardman, A. & Frydenberg, J. (2008). Writing to Communicate: Paragraphs and

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