Cover Dalam JELLT Vol 1 No 1 Nov 16

VOL 1, NO 1 NOVEMBER 2016 ISSN: 2548-7728 1
JELLT
(Journal of English Language and Literature Teaching)
Table of Content
From The Editors
Dari Redaksi
A Discourse Analysis Of Figurative Language In Barrack H. Obama’s Speech

Lestary Sudarsono, Nurmin Samola, Mister Gidion Maru....................................... 7 - 15
Watching Movie Clips As A Strategy To Improve Students’ Listening Skill

Maniku, Jein,Mister Gidion Maru, Nihta V.F. Liando.............................................. 17 - 25
English Teachers’ Perception Toward Character Assesment In 2013 Curriculum:

A Study On Junior High Schools In Manado And Tomohon, North Sulawesi
Ervita Carolina Tania, Nihta V. F. Liando, Mister Gidion Maru.............................. 27 - 39
The Impact Of Colors On Sma Negeri 1 Tomohon Student’s Immediate And

Delayed Retention Of Vocabulary
Louna Anastasia Rogahang, Nihta V.F Liando, Mister Gidion Maru...................... 41 - 55
Improving Students’ Speaking Ability Through Communicative Language

Teaching Of The Second Level Students At ‘Mec’ Megalia English Course
Emelia Panambunan, Golda J. Tulung, Mister Gidion Maru................................... 57 - 67
Learning Poetry With Quantum Learning Method

Fiola Kuhon.............................................................................................................. 69 - 77
Improving Students’ Descriptive Paragraph Writing Ability Through Raft

Technique At English Education Department Of Manado State University
Fadhlan Saini . ......................................................................................................... 79 - 90
English Education Department

Faculty Of Language And Arts
Universitas Negeri Manado
JELLT, Vol 1, No 1, pp 1-92 , November 2016

JELLT
(Journal of English Language and Literature Teaching) is biannually published in Juni
and November(ISSN: ) presenst articles on culture, language, literature, education which are
aimed at assisting the English language learning . The articles are in the forms of analysis,
studies, application of theories, researh reports, teaching material development.
Penanggung Jawab: Donald M Ratu (Dekan FBS)
Ketua Penyunting: Mister Gidion Maru
Penyunting :
Sanerita T Olii, Nitha V Liando, Clara Mamentu,
Imelda Lolowang, Tirza Kumajas
Penyunting Ahli/Mitra Bestari

Johannes A Prayogo (UM Malang)
Ekawati M. Dukut (Unika Soegijapranata Semarang)
Sudiran (UMM Malang)
Nuriadi (Unram NTB)
Agus G Senduk (Unima Manado)
Elisabeth Z Oroh (Unima Manado)

Web operator:
Herdy Liow

Sekertariat
Livianni Lambe, Fivy Andries, Sarah Kamagi
Paula Rombepajung, Deasy Batunan
JELLT
Is published by English Department, UNIMA and supported by Rector, Dean of Faculty of Language and
Arts, Chairperson of English Department, Manado, Indonesia.
Correspondence: English Department Office d/h Faculty of Language and Arts, Tonsaru Campus,Tondano.
Phone: 081340075651.
Email: jellt_fbsunima@unima.ac.id, jellt_fbsunima@gmail.com
JELLT
(Jurnal Pengajaran Bahasa dan Sastra Inggris) yang diterbitkan secara berkala
dua kali dalam setahun yaitu tiap Juni dan November menyajikan artikel-artikel seputar
budaya,bahasa,kesusastraan, dan pendidikan yang ditujukan untuk pengajaran Bahasa
Inggris. Artikel-artikel tersebut dapat dalam bentuk analisis, penelitian, aplikasi teori, laporan
penelitian, pengembangan materi pengajaran atau makalah
Penanggung Jawab: Donald M Ratu (Dekan FBS)

Ketua Penyunting: Mister Gidion Maru
Penyunting :
Sanerita T Olii, Nitha V Liando, Clara Mamentu,
Imelda Lolowang, Tirza Kumajas
Penyunting Ahli/Mitra Bestari

Johannes A Prayogo (UM Malang)
Ekawati M. Dukut (Unika Soegijapranata Semarang)
Sudiran (UMM Malang)
Nuriadi (Unram NTB)
Agus G Senduk (Unima Manado)
Elisabeth Z Oroh (Unima Manado)

Pemelihara web
Herdy Liow
Sekertariat
Livianni Lambe, Fivy Andries, Sarah Kamagi
Paula Rombepajung, Deasy Batunan
JELLT
Diterbitkan oleh Jurusan Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Negri Manado dan didukung oleh Rektor, Dekan
Fakultas Bahasa dan Seni, Ketua Jurusan Bahasa Inggris,Indonesia. Alamat:Kantor Jurusan Bahasa
Inggris d/h Fakultas Bahasa dan Seni, UNIMA, Kampus Tonsea, Tondano, Sulut. Indonesia.
Phone : 081340076551. Email : jellt_fbsunima@unima.ac.id, jellt_fbsunima@gmail.com
From The Editors

Greetings
The editors gladly express their sincere and warm greetings to dear readers
and subscribers of JELLT. It has been always proud to present the best articles
to meet readers’ interest and expectation for the purpose of enriching theoretical
and practical knowledge in terms of linguistics and literature learning and English
teaching.
This edition devotes a number of articles discussing topics related to the
attempt to enhance the knowledge of English educators and learners through
the presentations of rhetorical aspects as a part of lingusitics studies, the role
of movie clips for improving listening skill, the experience of implementing
character assessment in curriculum 2013, the impact of using color for increasing
vocabulary, the use of CLT in teaching speaking, quantum learning method and
the application of RAFT for English teaching. Such knowledge sharing make this
edition interesting to be digested.
Therefore, it is worth to assume that this edition is as fascinating and useful
as the previous edition and of course, significant to be read for the intention to
improve the quality of English language and literature teaching and learning.
A DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE IN

BARRACK H. OBAMA’S SPEECH
Lestary Sudarsono, Nurmin Samola, Mister Gidion Maru
Abstract
Language is fundamental to all social processes, and human do need language to communicate
to each other. In social process, there are people who communicate more than they say, they use
language that indicate meanings more than the language does. This term is called figurative language.
By conducting the study about language in use, we undertake a discourse analysis. In this research, a
discourse analysis is conducted in Barrack Obama’s first inaugural address with point of view of four
types figurative language, they are metaphor, personification, paradox, and hyperbole. The purpose
of this research are to find out four types of figurative language and interpret the meanings indicate
in that figurative expressions. In conducting this research, descriptive qualitative method was
used. The results of this research were described qualitatively from the stage categorization of the
figurative language until explanation and interpretation of the figurative expressions. The analyzing
of this research was supported by the related references to this research. By analyzing the data based
on the related theory, the result of this research showed that there are 52 figurative expressions,
where metaphor had the highest frequency as 24 expressions or 46.15%, followed by hyperbole
as 14 expressions or 26.92%, expressions of personification as 9 expressions or 17.30%, and the
least frequency is paradox as 5 expressions or 9.61%. From those result could be concluded that
in Obama’s speech contained huge number of figurative expressions. This fact showed that figurative
language is important and could influence the language to become more powerful and more artistic.
Keyword: Figurative Language, Discourse Analysis, Speech, Obama
INTRODUCTION
In order to use language to communicate to each other, people include a meaning in

their language, although sometimes there are language that have no meanings or meaningless.
It occurs when their words are representing nothing. In other hand, there are also words that
not representing the real meaning of the words. It is like when we say something beside the
ordinary way of saying it. In linguistics, this term is called figurative language.
Figurative language is language using figures of speech – is language that cannot be
taken literally (or should not be taken literally only) (Laurence Perrine, 1963). Figurative
A Discourse Analysis Of Figurative Language ... Lestary Sudarsono, Nurmin Samola, Mister Gidion Maru 8
language has several types that have been used in literary works, but this research only
focused on four types of figurative language, which are metaphor, personification, paradox
and hyperbole. To analyze those types of figurative language, speech has been chosen as the
object of this research.
In conducting a good speech, people usually use figurative languages to persuade and
influence the audience. By using figurative language, the statement in the speech would be
more powerful, interesting and attractive. At this point, it is clear that language has a power
in society.
Inaugural Addresses of American’s President is a kind of speech chosen as the object
of this research, particularly the first inaugural address of Barrack H. Obama. This discourse
analysis research was conducted of the analyzing the inaugural address of Obama seen from
the figurative language used in the speech. Based on the previous explanations, in literary
works for instance speech, consists of language that not consider on grammatical rules only,
but also the good diction and figurative language that contain the huge influence and deep
meaning as the specification. From that point, this research intended to study about the
language used in Obama’s speech, with the point of view of figurative language. This study
is grounded on the attempt to anwer the following question; What are the types of figurative
language used in the inaugural address of Barrack H. Obama?, and What do the figurative
languages used in the address indicate?
Perrine (1963) defined figures of speech as a way of saying one thing and meaning
another. She also stated that figurative language is language using figures of speech – language
that cannot be taken literally (or should not be taken literally only). In this research, the kinds
of figurative language that divided by Perrine is used, but the kinds have been eliminated
only into four types of figurative languages, they are metaphor, personification, paradox and
hyperbole.
• Metaphor
Metaphor is a variety of analog which compare two things directly, but in short
pattern (Gorys Keraf, 1984). Perrine (2012) also state that metaphor is the comparison is
not expressed but it created when a figurative term is substituted or identified with the literal
term.
• Personification
According to Perrine (2012, 76), personification consists of giving the attribute of a
human being to an animal, an object, or a concept. This statement is supported by Laurie
Rozakis (1995) that personification is the attribution of human characteristics and/or feelings
to non – human organisms, inanimate objects, or abstract ideas.
• Paradox
Kennedy (1983) defined paradox is apparent self-contradiction or deliberate
inconsistency. A statement or situation containing apparently contradictory or incompatible
elements, but on closer inspection may be true. Furthermore, paradox is an apparent
contradiction that is nevertheless somehow true. It may be either situation or statement. As
a figure of speech, paradox is a statement. (Laurence Perrine, 2012). She also stated “when
we understand all the condition and circumstances involved in a paradox, we find that what
at first seemed impossible is actually entirely plausible and not strange at all.”
• Hyperbole
Hyperbole is simply exaggeration, but exaggeration in the service of truth (Laurence
Perrine, 2012). Leech (1969, 168) assumed hyperbole is frequently concerned with personal
values and sentiments; that is, with making subjective claims which, however exaggerated.
This research is a qualitative in method. The term qualitative research refers to research
that is based on descriptive data that does not make (regular) use of statistics procedures
(Mackey and Gass, 2005: 162). Furthermore, qualitative research entails collecting primarily
textual data and examining it using interpretive analysis (Heigham and Croker, 2009). The
results of the analysis will be presented explained descriptively.
In conducting this research, documentation was chosen as the method of collecting
data. Document is one of another data sources in qualitative research. This source have
several advantages than the other. Document is a data naturalistic and easy to obtain (Setiadi,
2006). Furthermore, John Scott (2006) stated that documentary research involves the use of
text and documents as source materials: governments publications, newspapers, certificates,
census publications, novels, film and video, paintings, personal photographs, diaries and
innumerable other written, visual and pictorial source in paper, electronic, or other ‘hard
copy’ form. In this research, the formal document from governments publication, for instance
the script of Barrack H. Obama’s Inaugural addresses have been chosen.
In this research, discourse analysis was used as the method of analyzing data. Yule
and Brown (1983) in Discourse Analysis defined the analysis of discourse is, necessarily, the
analysis of language in use. The discourse analysis is committed to an investigation of what
that language is used for. Moreover from Yule (2006), he said:
We were, in effect, asking how it is that language-users successfully interpret what
other language-users intend to convey. When we carry this investigation further and
ask how we make sense of what we read, how we can recognize well-constructed
texts as opposed to those that are jumbled or incoherent, how we understand
speakers who communicate more than they say, and how we successfully take part
in that complex activity called conversation, we are undertaking what is known as
Discourse Analysis.
The data collected were analyzed and categorized by referring to Perrine’s namely
personification, metaphor, hyperbole, and paradox. The types of figurative language that
have been founded in the first and second address will be explained.
The result of analyzing the data as the answers of those questions was presented
descriptively. The data categorized were presented and explained based on the types of the
figurative language found.
There are 52 (fifty-two) expressions of figurative language were found in Obama’s
first inaugural address, but in this article there are only the brief of the result that were
presented and explained.
• Expressions of Metaphor
1. Rising tides of prosperity (Line 5)
Explanation and meaning:
Rising tides in this expression refers to the up and down situation and prosperity
refers to the economic state in America. The expression above substitute the
description of the current economy of United State. Thus, this becomes metaphor
since “the rising tides”, which characterize the activity of up and down is directly
compered to “prosperity”, which is the economic rise. This figurative speech serves
as vehicle to express the rise of people’s welfare.
2. The still waters of peace (Line 5)
The still waters from the expression above describe the quiet moment in peace.
This statement becomes a metaphor based on the comparison between the “still
water” which is the quiet moment and “peace” which is the state of tranquility.
This figure of speech is intend to express the peacefulness in American life.
3. Amidst gathering clouds and raging storms (Line 6)
This statement becomes the expression of metaphor since the “Gathering clouds
and raging storms” compare to the crises and problems that America should face.
This figurative statement is used to describe to the bad situations and bad times of
America.
4. These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics (Line 17)
“These” in this sentence refers to the lines before which are “our economy is badly
weakened, homes have been lost, jobs shed, businesses shuttered, our health care is
too costly and our schools fail too many”. The indicators of crisis in this sentence
refers to the standard when the state of crisis occur. This statement becomes the
expression of metaphor since the phenomenon of “these” which is the down stage
of economy, business, health care and education is compared to “the indicators
of crisis” which is the standard of warning status of American welfare. Thus, this
figurative expression is a tool to express the crisis or warning stage of America
could be observe based on those phenomenon.
5. Their memories are short (Line 59)
Short in this expression refers forgetfulness. This expression becomes a metaphor
based on the comparison of “Their memories” and “short”. This expression of
figurative language describes that the enemies of America forget or cannot
remember that America is a powerful country since the beginning. It could be seen
from the history that have been carried by the early generation of America.
• Expressions of Personification
1. Each day brings further evidence (Line 16)
This statement becomes personification since “Brings” in this statement which is
the human attribute that been used by the noun phrase “each day”. This figurative
speech describes that everyday shows the prove to the world.
2. The way we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet
(Line 16)
The way we use energy is a concept that been given an attribute of human being
which is strengthen and threaten. Thus, this statement becomes personification by
the using of the human attribute above. This figurative statement means that the
way of how American using their energy made their enemies stronger because it
gave a disadvantage to America themselves in damaging their own country and
this world.
3. The challenges we face are real, they are serious and they are many (Line 19
and 20)
This expression becomes the expression of personification since the challenges in
this statement is given the attribute of human which is serious. This figure of speech
intends to describe that the challengers are surely want to damage the country.
4. The state of the economy calls for action (Line 51)
The economic situation of America was been giving the human attribute “calls”,
therefore this statement becomes the expression of personification. This figurative
statement is indicated to express that the economic situation of America needs a
help or we have to do something to improve it.
5. Hungry minds (Line 98)
“Hungry” is the concept that have been given the attribute of human, therefore this
statement becomes the expression of personification. This figurative expression
indicates that the minds need something fresh or something worth to think about.
• Expressions of Paradox
1. Our health care is too costly (Line 14)
America have a good health service and it really helps the citizen of America, but
they cannot deny that there are still the poor people that cannot get the treatment
because somehow they is not capable to pay for it, although it quiet reachable for
the others. From the contradiction above, this statement becomes the expression
of paradox. This figurative statement is a tool to express that the cost of the health
service of America still cannot be reached by all the citizens.
2. Our schools fail too many (Line 15)
America education system is one of the best in the world, but it cannot be disproved
that some of the school in America do not fulfilled the rights standards because of
many aspects, such as the facilities, the students, and the teachers. Based on the
contradiction that reveal above, this sentence becomes one of the expression of
paradox. This figurative language is a tool to express the down of the education in
America.
3. We will begin to responsibility leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-
earned peace in Afghanistan (Line 82)
“Responsibility” in this statement, brings the contradiction of this statement.
Therefore, this statement becomes paradox. Literally, America do not have the
obligation to give the freedom for another country’s citizens. But, as a huge and
super power country, America is capable to deal the certain concern, therefore
America assumed that they have the responsibility of that. This figure of speech
is a vehicle to express the responsibilities of America as a huge country to expand
peace to the world.
4. World grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself (Line 92)
The expression of paradox in this statement comes from the contradiction which
is the world is getting smaller, it is impossible, but in the other side, when the
technologies improve so many, the world becomes easily, and people can access
anything without many difficulties. This figure of speech intend to describe the
effect of globalization.
5. Just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages (Line
103)
“The fallen heroes” in this statement are the people who have passed away for
forcing in sake of America. As the death people, they have been assumed cannot
do anything anymore but in this statement they whisper through the ages, it is
impossible but somehow it is true. From that contradiction above this statement
becomes paradox expression. This figure of speech intends to describe that sacrifice
of the death heroes of America will always give a history to be learned.
• Expressions of Hyperbole
1. A nagging fear that America’s decline is inevitable (Line 18)
A nagging fear in this statement has been exaggerated to emphasize the fear of
the bad situation of America. Therefore, this statement becomes a hyperbole. This
expression of figurative speech describes that America cannot deny the fear of the
current state in America.
2. Reaffirm our enduring spirit (Line 26)

Enduring in this expression, exaggerated the spirit of America that is big and
never end. Thus, this expression is one of the hyperbole. This figurative expression
declare to keep the big and strong sprit of American citizen.
3. Endured the lash of the whip (Line 37)
“The lash of the whip” is the exaggeration of the hard work and hard time of the
people of America who want to faith for their country. Thus, this statement becomes
hyperbole, based on the exaggeration above. This figure of speech describes that
those people no matter what keep receiving all of the grief for America.
4. Struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw (Line 40)
Struggled, sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw is the exaggeration, from
that, this statement includes as a hyperbole. This figurative statement is indicated
to the people who faith with free willingness to do everything for America, even
work hard although it is harmful for them.
5. Without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control, and that a nation
cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous (Line 68)
This statement becomes a hyperbole based on the exaggeration of “the market can
spin out of control”. This figurative statement is intended to describe that without
the awareness, the market can go practice the wrong way of business and America
only help the prosperous people become richer.
Conclusion
After analyzing and presenting the figurative languages that could be found in Barack
H. Obama First Inaugural Speech, in this chapter the conclusion of the results will be
present. By analyzing the first inaugural address of Barack Obama, could be found that
there are entirely 52 (fifty-two) expressions of figurative language in four types, which are
metaphor, personification, paradox, and hyperbole. The first inaugural address of Barack
Obama consists of 133 (one hundred and thirty-three) lines in eight pages, and contains many
expressions of figurative languages. This fact shows that the use of figurative language in
speech is important. Figurative languages influence the language to become more powerful
and stronger the meanings. Therefore, figurative language brings a prove that language has
the power to change people and even the world.
REFERENCES
Heigham, J., & Croker, R. A. (2009). Qualitative Research in Applied Linguistics: A Practical
Introduction. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Kennedy, X. J. (1983). Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry and Drama. NewYork:
Longman Publishers, 1983
Keraf, G. (1984). Linguistik Bandingan Historis. Jakarta: Indonesia.
Leech, G. N. (1969). A Linguistic Guide to English Poetry. London and New York: Longman
Group UK Limited.
Mackey, A., & Gass, S. M. (2005). Second Language Research: Methodology and
Design. London: Laurence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.
Perrine, L. (1963). Sound & Sense: An Introduction to Poetry (2ndedition).
New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc.
Rozakis, L. (1995). How to Interpret Poetry. New York: A Simon & Schuster Macmillan
Company.
Scott, J. (2006). Documentary Research. United Kingdom: Sage Publishing, Ltd.
Setiadi, B. Ag. (2006). Metode Penelitian untuk Pengajaran Bahasa Asing:
Pendekatan Kuantitatif dan Kualitative. Yogyakarta: Graha Ilmu.
Yule, G. (2006). The Study of Language (3rdedition). United States of America:
Cambridge University Press.
Yule, G., & Brown, G. (1983). Discourse Analysis. United States of America:
Cambridge University Press.
http://obamaspeeches.com/. Accessed on October 24th 2015.
WATCHING MOVIE CLIPS AS A STRATEGY

TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ LISTENING SKILL
Maniku, Jein,Mister Gidion Maru,Nihta V.F. Liando
Abstract
The aim of this study is to (1) reveal how the process of using watch movie clips as a
strategy in improving students’ listening skill in teaching and learning activity. (2) find out
whether the use of watch movie clips as a strategy can improve students’ listening skill or
not.Classroom action research is used in research design. The research was conducted from
February 10th 2016 until February 24th 2016 at the grade twelve students of SMA Negeri
1 Pineleng. The research was conducted in two cycles inclusive of two meetings in every
cycle. Every cycle consisted of four steps: plan, action, observation, and reflection. The
research data were collected by observation and test. The qualitative data were analyzed
through Miles and Huberman’s Three-Part Analysis, meanwhile the quantitative data were
analyzed through mean score formula. The result of the data analysis using mean score
formula indicates that the post-test score in cycle two 83.75 is higher than the pre-test
64.75 The research findings show that watching movie clips as a strategy could improve
students’ listening skill, related to the improvement of: the students’ ability in answering
teacher’s question correctly, the students’ ability in determining the general idea and specific
information, the students’ ability in making a summary and retelling the story, and the
students’ score in listening test. Based on the findings, it can be concluded that watching
movie clips as a strategy can improve students’ listening skill.The research is expected to
give input for English teacher in improving students’ listening skill, and to use watching
movie clips as a strategy in teaching and learning English activity. In addition, to solve
students’ problem in improving their listening skill.
Keywords : Watching; movie clips; improve; listening skill.

Watching Movie Clips As A Strategy ... Maniku, Jein,Mister Gidion Maru,Nihta V.F. Liando 18
Introduction
Sapir (1921 : 8) defines language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of

communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of voluntarily produced symbols.
Language is a base of communication, without language a communication cannot be built
and without communication people cannot make interaction with others.
That is why people need to build a good communication in their life so that they can
interact with others in social context. If they have a good communication it will help them
in their social activity such as in school, office, hospital, or another place. When they can
make a good communication, they will be able to give their opinion, suggestion, or advice.
If people want to have a good communication, they should improve their ability in language
because language is a foundation of communication. It is a first thing that they should have
if they want to make a successful communication.
Talking about the goal of communication, it does not depend on one skill. In language,
there are four skills that people should have in their life. They are listening skill, speaking skill,
reading skill, and writing skill. The four skills are important to make a good communication.
Without listening skill as the first step in language skill, people cannot hear and produce the
word or sentence. A baby has to listen first then he/she can speak with their parents or others
with his/her language. After listening and speaking, a baby will grow to be a child. In this
phase, he/she can read a book or something else after that he/she can try to write something
to give their opinion in written text.
According to Downs (2008 : 1) listening as making an effort to hear something; to pay
attention or heed. In her book, she explains that listening is different from hearing because
listening is the physiological process of the ear absorbing sound waves and transferring
them along neutral path ways to parts of the brain. She explains that hearing is necessary for
listening, but listening is much more than processing sound. From this, it can be concluded
that listening is important and it is a first skill that people have to pass. In other words, listening
is needed to continue another skill such as speaking, reading and writing skill. Because in
listening, people have to give their attention and try to get meaning from something that they
hear. If they get the meaning means that they can give their opinion through oral or written. It
can be said, listening is a first input for communication. As Rost (1994 : 141 – 142) explains
that, listening is vital in the language classroom because it provides input for the learner.
Without understanding input at the right level, any learning simply cannot begin. Listening
is thus fundamental to speaking. That is why people should have a good base or input in their
language skill.
Nicholson (2015 : 11 - 13) suggests there are five most effective ways to improve
listening skill, they are: watch movies without subtitles, listen to music, watch videos on
YouTube, listen to Podcasts, and the last listen to the radio. It can be suggested for teachers
that want to teach listening skill.
The problems was happened in SMA Negeri 1 Pineleng. Based on the observation, the
researcher got the data of the students’ problem in listening class. The students are bored with
a teacher’s voice of teaching listening. They just sit and then discuss about the assignment.
In doing the assigment they just listen their teacher’s voice to complete the sentence or a
dialogue. And it makes a boredom of the students. Based on the pre-research conducted
in grade twelve students of SMA Negeri 1 Pineleng, the problem can be identified that in
learning listening, students have low listening skill.
The twelve grade students of SMA Negeri 1 Pineleng should have at least 70.00 as
their minimum score for listening, speaking, reading, and writing skill. But the result of
pre-test conducted on February 10th 2016 is very different. Based on the data, the mean
score is only 64, 75. The problem is divided into two main factors, they are: the situation in
listening class and students’ listening competency. These main factors influenced students’
achievement in listening. First in the listening class situation, they sometimes made a noise
and grumbled when listen the story, it makes another students can not concentrate on what
they listen. In the end, they can not answer the question, they refuse to retell what they
have listened, become passive and bored in the listening class. They prefer to do another
thing likes drawing, rather playing or doing homework than listen to the lesson. Second in
students’ listening competency, students had some difficulties to express their idea or opinion
in answering teacher’s questions based on what they have listened. It happened because they
could not catch what the speaker tells. And also the students had difficulties in determining
the general idea and the specific information. They are difficult to determine the situation,
character, or settings in the story that they have listened. The situation is the first factor
which determined the second factor. The situation in listening class very influenced students’
listening competency and students’ achievement; it made students have low listening skill.
This challenge makes the researcher chose movie clip in listening section. Listening
by watching movie clips is an interesting activity in the class. In addition to listen the sound,
students can watch the movie and enjoy in the class. This strategy is expected to make
students can answer the question, retell what they have learned, be more active in the class
then to improve students’ listening skill in expressing idea or opinion and determining the
general idea and speific information.
Methodology
A method here was applied for a systematic analysis in this study. The research was
conducted from February 10th 2016 until 24th 2016. It was applied in grade twelve of students
SMA Negeri 1 Pineleng.
Classroom Action Research (CAR) was applied in doing the research. According to
Levin (2001 : 108), Classroom Action Research (CAR) is the systematic investigation of
what works in the classroom, with the goal of improving student learning. She explained that
in Classroom Action Research (CAR) that teacher or researcher gather both quantitative and
qualitative data from several sources and share their results with those direct affect, so that
others may take action based on the findings.
Levin (2001 : 109) explained that teachers conduct Classroom Action Research (CAR)
follows the same general steps common to any research study: carefully formulate a question;
seek information (qualitative and quantitative); analyze data to answer the question; draw
conclusions from analyses; and take action based on the conclusion. According to Kemmis
and McTaggart (1988 : 14), Classroom Action Research activities involve repeated cycles,
each consisting of planning, action, observing, and reflecting. Here, it is explained that the
result of one cycle is used to determine the need for the following cycle; the researcher can
stop the cycle according to the result in reflection.
The research was conducted in SMA Negeri 1 Pineleng, it was started on February,
16th 2016 until its end on February, 24th 2016
According to Gay (1981 : 86), population is the group of interest to the researcher,
the group to which she or he would like the results of the study to be generalizable. The
population of this research is students of SMA Negeri 1 Pineleng. Meanwhilen, the sample
of this research is grade twelve students of SMA Negeri 1 Pineleng.
The procedure of the research classroom action research started from researcher
tried to identify a problem. Then, identify a plan of action. These were some activities was
done before doing the cycle one and two: 1. observing the teaching and learning process, 2.
finding the problem, 3. proposing the solution, 4. designing the lesson plan. After designing
the lesson plan, the research was started cycle one on February, 16th 2016 to 17th 2016. Then,
the result of cycle one showed that the research needs cycle two. So, cycle two was done on
February, 23rd 2016 to 24th 2016. These are the description of the research:
1. Plan
In the planning phase, the researcher prepared the instructional material, lesson plan,
observation checklist, observation sheet report, students’ worksheet, and everything related
to the action is prepared for two meetings in every cycle.
2. Action
In the action phase, implementation of the plan or intervention that has been carefully
developed to address a particular problem or sets of problem (Huang 2012 : 16). So, here the
researcher implemented the plan and tried to collect the result. Actually, there are three main
activities is done in this phase,
a. Pre-activities
Pre-activities started by giving greeting, telling the aim of the learning activity, the
standard competency, and basic competency.
b. Whilst activities
Whilst activities started by explaining the students about the rules in learning
activity, telling them about the planning of watch movie clip in listening section then
implementing the strategy in listening section.
c. Post activities
In post activities, the discussion between students and the teacher was done. And also
the conclusion about their experience in the class like what they feel.
Every activity in the action phase depends on the planning in every cycle. Every cycle
has its own plan and it depended on the result in reflection phase. So, if cycle one has two
meetings; in the first meeting, the action phase has its own action. It would be different with
the second meeting in cycle one or first and second meeting in cycle two.
3. Observation
In the observation phase, systematic observations of particular, relevant aspects
of classroom practice are made to determine what is happening (Huang 2012 : 16). The
observation phase in Classroom Action Research was gotten a data from quantitative and
qualitative, here in this phase the data was collected from the students’ score as a quantitative
data and the observation of learning and teaching activity in the class as a qualitative data.
The students’ score was gotten by calculating the percentage of students’ score after giving
the strategy and assignment. Meanwhile, in observation of learning and teaching activity
in the class, the teacher who teaches at the school became an observer; he observed the
teaching and learning process from the beginning until the end of the research. Here, the
content of observation sheet was different because it is depended on the situation in every
meeting of cycle.
4. Reflection
In the reflection phase, reflect on what is happening and then develop revised action
plans based upon new understanding or questions that arose during the previous phases
(Huang 2012 : 15). Here the result of the implementation watch movie clip as a strategy in
listening section showed in the reflection phase. The result which was found in students’
assessment would be used to measure students’ competency and also it would be base to
revise the next cycle.
In collecting the data, The qualitative data was taken from the observation checklist,
observation sheet, teacher rubric, and final score worksheet. Meanwhile the quantitative data
was taken by scoring students’ achievement test.
Qualitative data were analyzed by using Miles and Huberman’s Three-Parts Analysis.
The model consists of data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing or verification.
In data reduction, the researcher began the process with observation the learning and
teaching process which was done by the teacher in SMA Negeri 1 Pineleng. The researcher
filled the data in observation cheklist, the data filled toward the situation before the research.
And then after the problem can be identified, the researcher found the solution and made the
lesson plan. In addition, during the carrying out of the research, the researcher collected the
observation sheet which was filled by observer and made a revision for the next meeting. All
of the observations which were gotten in the research would be used in collecting data.
So after the data is reduced, the next step is display the data. Through displaying the
data, it will be easier to understand what is happening and to do something further analysis.
Last, conclusion drawing or verification. This activity is the third element of qualitative
analysis according to Miles and Huberman in Berliner and Calfee (2009 : 983) Here the
researcher made a conclusion and verfication. It can be said in conclusion drawing or
verification which has done be clear.
Meanwhile, in quantitative data the researcher made a score from students’ achievement
test. After that, a statistical technique was used to find the students’ mean score. The data from
the test were analyzed in order to prove whether or not teaching listening using watching
movie clips as a strategy can improve students’ listening skill.
In the research, the students’ mean score of the pre-test was compared to the students’
mean score of the post-test in cycle 1 to know whether there is an improvement of the
students’ listening skill. After that, because the score in cycle one was not enough, the
researcher decided to do a cycle 2. The score in cycle 1 was compared to the students’ mean
score of the post-test in cycle 2. In the research, the score is presented in the table of mean
score, raw data, polygon and histogram diagram.
According to Shavelson (1981 : 55), mean is most commonly used measure of central
tendency because it takes all scores into account. It is an arithmetic concept. So, the score of
data was computed by mean formula pointed out by Shavelson (1981 : 55) :
Σx
X =
N
X : Mean Score
N : The total number of the students
Σx : Total Score
Finding and Discussion
The research was started on February 16th 2016 and finished on February 24th 2016.
But before doing the cycle one and two, there were observation and pre-test. The aim of
the observation and pre-test are to find out the problem of students’ listening skill in SMA
Negeri 1 Pineleng and to know the condition of teaching and learning before the action
research would be done. By doing the pre-research, the researcher found the problem of the
students was about low listening skill. It was caused by two things, they are: the students’
listening competency and situation in the listening class. These are supported by the result
of the pre-test conducted by the researcher on February 10th 2016. The pre-test was done
by giving some questions based on the story they listened by the audio. And this was the
result, the mean score of the students’ listening is only 64.75 whereas the minimum score for
English is 75.00.
Cycle One
Cycle one consisted two meetings. The first meeting was conducted on February, 16th
2016 the researcher gave a narrative story by watching movie clip. After the students watch
the movie clips, they are divided into four groups, then discuss about the movie clips. The
discussion was started, every leader in discussion group explained about the movie clips
that they had watched. Here, the researcher observed the discussion. In first meeting, the
data was analyzed by qualitative. The qualitative data was taken from observation sheet
and teacher rubric. The observation sheet was filled up by the observer, here the researcher
observe the situation in teaching and learning activity, meanwhile teacher rubric was filled
up by the researcher to observe students in discussion group.
Second meeting was conducted on February 17th 2016, the researcher asked to students
to asnwer the question from the movie clips after they watched. They have 15 minutes to
answer the question. if in the first meeting the data was collected by qualitative, in the second
meeting the data was collected by qualitative ad quantitative. Observation sheet was used
in qualitative data and as usual it was filled up by the observer, meanwhile the test was used
in quantitative data and it was done by the researcher. Here the mean score of the second
meeting in cylce one is 78.5. In the pre test, the meanscore only 64.75. The test increased
mean score from 64.75 to 78.5, but actually in this cycle, there are some weakness of the
teaching and learning listening process. The students were still difficult in catching the words
said by the speakers and determining details information. In answering the questions, the
students still made a mistake in writing down the answer or answering the questions because
only few of them who brought a dictionary. Most of them did not bring a dictionary to help
in finding the answer or meaning of the vocabulary related to the movie clips. And not all of
the students asked question when they did not still understand.
In scoring of the test, there were still 4 students who get score under the minimum
score of English. The minimum score of English is 75.00 whereas in the post-test score,
there were four students who get 70.00 score. Based on the result in reflection, the researcher
determined that there would be a cycle two. The cycle two focused on give an introduce
more new words, determine information in making a summary of the movie clips, and also
give an equal chance for students to ask something when they did not still understand. It had
to do in improving students’ achievement.
Cycle Two
Cycle two has two meetings too, in first meeting the students watching movie clips
individually without teacher’s guidance, then they tried to retell what they had listened.
Every students has three minutes to retell. Here, the observation was done by collecting
qualitative data. The observation was divided into two parts, observation sheet which filled
up by the observer and final score worksheet which filled up by the researcher.
Meanwhile in second meeting, the students still continue to retell the story and then
answer the test. Here, the researcher guided the students to determine information in making
a summary of the movie clips, because in the second meeting the students were asked to
make a summary.
After doing cycle one and cycle two, there are some reflections was gotten. It showed
that there are improvements in listening skill by watching movie clips. First, improvement
is the students had a motivation in learning listening because all of the students took a part
in listening class, usually they did not want join in listening class because it made they
were bored. They understood too fast about the story, comfortable with the new strategy in
listening class. Then, the students had progress in determining details information about the
movie clips, and the last they could retell the story and make the summary.
Second, these improvements were supported by the result of the mean score of the test
in the second cycle. The mean score showed that the students got 83.75 . It had meaning that
the score in the cycle two is better than the mean score in the first cycle that was only 78.5
So, the findings of the research were gotten by several sources of data, whether
qualitative or quantitative. Qualitative data can be included by lesson plan, observation
checklist, observation sheet report, teacher rubric, final score worksheet, and the score of
pre–test and post–test. The finding of the research answered the research question. The
research findings were as follows: The use of watching movie clips as a strategy can improve
students’ listening skill. In addition, the researcher can reveal the process of using movie
clips in teaching and learning activity.
Conclusion
Based on the data which are found the research, it can be concluded that : 1. The
students are able to answer teacher’s question correctly; 2. The students are able to determine
the general idea and specific information; 3. The students are able to make a summary and
retell the story; 4. The progress on the students’ achievement score from 64.75 mean score
to 83.75 mean score.
The process of using watch movie clips in teaching and learning activity was revealed
by observing the situation during the research. And it had revealed by looking the observation
cheklist and observation sheet report. Meanwhile, the mean score strengthens all about the
findings’ statement. The mean score got a progress from the pre-test to the post-test in cycle
two. It was gotten by calculating the mean score from the pre-test to the post-test.
References
Downs, Lisa. J. (2008). Listening Skills Training. United States of America : ASTD Press.
Rost, M. (1994). Introducing Listening. London : Penguin.
Sapir, Edward. (1921). Language : An Introduction to The Study of Speech.United States of
America : Harcourt, Brace and Company.
Nicholson, Nate. (2015). How to Learn Any Language in a Few Months while Enjoying
Yourself: 45 Proven Tips for Language Learners. London : Blue Sky Publishing.
Levin, B. Barbara. (2001). Energizing Teacher Education and Professional Development
with Problem-Based Learning. United States of America : ASCD Press.
Kemmis, Stephen. and McTaggart, Robin. (1988) The Action Research Planner.
Victoria, Australia : Deakin University Press.
Gay, L. R. (1981). Educational Research. Colombus : Charles E. Merrill Publishing Co.
Huang, Li-Shih. (2012). Key Concepts & Theories in Teal. Action Research. Colombia : BC
TEAL Spring.
Berliner, David. C. and Calfee, Robert. C. (2009). Handbook of Educational
Shavelson, R. J. (1981). Statistical Reasoning for the Behavioral Sciences. Boston : Allywand
Bacon Inc.
ENGLISH TEACHERS’ PERCEPTION TOWARD

CHARACTER ASSESMENT IN 2013 CURRICULUM: A
STUDY ON JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOLS IN MANADO AND
TOMOHON, NORTH SULAWESI
Ervita Carolina Tania, Nihta V. F. Liando, Mister Gidion Maru
Abstract
This research aims at finding out the perceptions of English teachers on character aspects
which are not directly taugh. Yet it becomes a priority to asses basic competence. This study attempts
to identify the obstacles for implementing curriculum 2013 particularly student character assessment.
As a qualitative research, data are obtained through interviews. The data are taken from the schools
that implement the curriculum especially six teachers who are randomly selected out of twenty
teachers from each school.
The results reveal that most of the teachers perceived that aspects of the should be taught
indirectly. Such perception was based upon the notion that character is not to be taught but to be
practiced. Those teachers were also of the opinion that character assessment does not guarantee the
positive character building. They believed that school must involve the parents and society for the
success of the character education. The teachers met the problems in implementing the assessment
such as time consuming, complicated assessment process, incompatiblity with big class and the lack
of facility.
Keywords: perception, character assesment, english teacher, curriculum 2013
INTRODUCTION
Throughout time, societies have recognized the need to educate the coming generation
of adults to pass on knowledge and skills. Recorded history from long before the present
era emphasizes that education must also develop character. In school, character education
must be approached comprehensively to include emotional, intellectual and moral qualities
of a person or group. It must offer multiple opportunities for students to learn about, discuss
and enact positive social behaviors. Student leadership and involvement are essential for
character education to become a part of a student’s beliefs and actions.
In Indonesia, an upraise issue nowaday in education field is Curriculum 2013, or known
as K13. K13 is considered as a revision of the previous curriculum, KTSP 2004 and KTSP
English Teachers’ Perception On Character .... Ervita Carolina Tania, Nihta V. F. Liando, Mister 28
Gidion Maru
2006, which integrates competence of attitude, knowledge, and skill in comprehension.

Curriculum 2013 was developed based on competences that highly necessary in conducting
students to become: (1) manusia berkualitas yang mampu dan proaktif menjawab tantangan
zaman yang selalu berubah; (2) manusia terdidik yang beriman dan bertakwa kepada Tuhan
Yang Maha Esa, berakhlak mulia, sehat, berilmu, cakap, kreatif, mandiri; dan (3) warga
negara yang demokratis dan bertanggung jawab, as stated in “Modul Pelatihan Implementasi
Kurikulum 2013” (2014).
K13 has been widely applied all over the province in Academic Year 2014/2015,
although some schools have started to apply it in Academic Year 2013/2014, because they
are considered as model schools. However, most schools have to stop the implementation
after applying it for one semester, due to some problems occurred. The models schools keep
implementing the curriculum until now. One of the problems is assessment. Assessment in
education is to determine importance, size, or value of it. Assessment aspects in K13 involve
attitude, knowledge, and skill. Attitude refers to students’ character. When knowledge and
skill are directly taught, characters aspects are indirectly taught, but have to be assessed.
In Curriculum 2013, the character aspects that should be assessed are; menghargai
dan menghayati ajaran agama, (spiritual aspect), jujur, disiplin, tanggung jawab, toleransi,
gotong-royong, santun, percaya diri (social aspect). In Curriculum 2013, character is included
as priority in Basic Competence (KD), but not directly taught. In implementing Curriculum
2013, especially dealing with character values implementation in real class, teachers must
include character aspects in delivering their material, as stated in “Modul Implementasi
Kurikulum 2013” (2014). That is not impossible to do, but when we look at the indicators of
each aspect in character value that should be assessed with such less time allocated to teach
the character aspects, assessing students’ character will be another problem.
Another issue with character education in school is, is it effective in preparing our next
generation to perform noble character in the future? Following Kohlberg (1978) argument,
moral development is the product of an interaction between child’s cognitive structures and
structural features of social environment, thus, if schools really want to develop character
education, they must cooperate with students’ social environment, because not every student
lives in a supporting environment or society where good characters are practiced. Otherwise,
the good character education schools have programmed will be meaningless once the student
go back to his or her society, which does not support good character development.
Teachers all over the provinces in Indonesia were prepared for this curriculum in a
very short time, while they have to deal with fundamental changes in Curriculum 2013
comparing with the previous ones they have been accustomed. Absolutely there will be
some gaps in how teachers are positioned them-selves between the obligation to follow
the rules set by Government, and to run something new for them when they were not well
prepared. Teachers are the applicator of this curriculum. It would be better to consider the
teachers’ obstacles they come across in implementing the curriculum, especially dealing
with character assessment, due to number of character aspects they must assess. We must
not forget that numbers of students in every school are different. One teacher may be dealing
with hundreds of students every day, while another may be dealing with fewer students. It
can be imagined how hard it is for the teachers who deal with many students every day, and
they must assess each of the character aspects provided by the curriculum.
The purposes of this study are, first, to find out teachers’ perception about character
aspects that are not directly taught while they are put as priority in Basic Competence.
Second, to reveal the effectiveness of assessing character aspects to guarantee students’
noble character in the future. Third, is to reveal the obstacles teachers must face everyday in
assessing students’ character in Curriculum 2013.
In conducting the study, the writer delimits her study to English teachers at SMP Negeri
1 Tomohon, SMP Negeri 7 Manado, SMP Negeri 8 Manado, in which the schools are still
practising Curriculum 2013 because they are model schools, and they have been practicing
this curriculum for two (2) years. The research is mainly discuss about their perspective
toward students’ character assessment in Curriculum 2013 context, in relation to the character
aspects that are not directly taught, the effectiveness of assessing students’ character aspects
to guarantee students’ noble character in the future, and the obstacles teachers are facing in
assessing students’ character.
THEORETICAL BASES
Perception
Perception leads to decision-making and action taking. At the most basic level, the
decision is to act or not to act and this depends on how you develop motivation. With
every action, there is always a set of alternatives from which to choose. Walgito (1981)
described perception as an impression that someone gets through stimulation, organisation,
and intrepretation of an object that become integrated activities. Robbins (2003) argued that
perception is an impression someone gets through his or her senses, and be organized, be
interpreted, and then be evaluated, in order to reveal a meaning.
The definitions above enrich each other, and it can be concluded that perception is an
impression that gets from a stimolous, and has been through an integrated process in order
to become a meaning.
According to Comb (2003), perception happens in one of five ways; see something
with eyes, smell something with nose, hear something with ears, feel something with skin,
Gidion Maru
taste something on tongue. According to Walgito (1981), perception happens within stages
as follow:
a. Physical stage, when a stimulus received by senses.
b. Physiological stage, when the stimolus is received by senses such as seeing, hearing,
tasting, sensing, smelling, and then transfered to the brain.
c. Physicological stage, is when an information received that make someone understand,
realise, and evaluate an object.
d. Result stage, is when an object has been going through previous stages above, and
response or impression is formed.
This research talks about perception through sense of seeing. The informations from
the handout of Curriculum 2013 about the students’ character aspects are read and then
transferred and filtered in the brain. Those stages bring teachers into consciously aware of
the stimuli, before they begin to analyze and interpret the perceived objects in order to make
impressions.
The teachers’ perception will be greatly influenced by many factors including their
experiences, feelings, imagination, values, memories, beliefs and cultural setting. Content
and degree of those influence factors will be different for everyone. Different people could
perceive a same object or event very differently. The meaning they give to a stimulus will
shape the choices and actions in response to it.
Every individual may produce different perception than another individual toward
a single object. Every individual must also have different experiences that influence the
process of perception. Therefore, perception is subjective, eventhough people are facing
a same object. According to Comb (2003), there are characteristics that come within the
process of perception. They are:
a. Constance: An individual perceived an object in constant, even though an object might
change its characteristic.
b. Selective: Not every object that is received at the same time will be percepted. Normally,
the most interesting or usefull will be perceived first.
c. The object can be perceived, organized, or evaluated differ from another individual.
According to Saks and Johns (2005), there are three components to perception:
1. The Perceiver, the person who becomes aware about something and comes to a final
understanding. There are three factors that could influence his or her perceptions:
experience, motivational state and finally emotional state. In different motivational or
emotional states, the perceiver will react to or perceive something in different ways.
Also in different situations, he or she might employ a “perceptual defense” where they
tend to “see what they want to see”.
2. The Target, is the person who is being perceived or judged. “Ambiguity or lack of
information about a target leads to a greater need for interpretation and addition.”
3. The Situation, which also greatly influences perceptions because different situations
may call for additional information about a target.

Walgito (1990) also provided some indicators of perception, which are adapted by the
researcher in this research:
1. Absorpting, in this case, a stimulation is absorbed or received through seeing, listening,
sensing, smelling, and tasting. The result of absoption is impression.
2. Understanding or comprehensing, in this case, after someone gets an impression, it
then be organized, be classified, be compared, and then be interpreted before it comes
to an understanding or comprehension. The process of understanding is unique and
fast, and sometimes influences by old impression or apperception.
3. Evaluating, in this case, after an understanding or comprehensing, comes an evaluation.
Someone comparing an understanding within criteria or norms subjectively.
Character Assessment in Curriculum 2013

Developing Indonesian National Character has become the realization of “Pancasila
and Pembukaan UUD 1945”, based on current national issues nowadays, such as ethical
values shifting, weakness in practising moral and national cultural values, and other minor
behavior traits. Based on the issue mentioned above, character education is not merely to
teach which is right and which is wrong, but more than that, is to invest good habit that
enable students to understand (dealing with cognitive) which is right and which is wrong,
to sense (dealing with affective) good virtue, and to do (dealing with psychomotor) good
character traits. In other words, good character must involve moral knowing, moral sensing,
and moral action. The competences above should underlie character assessment.
Sutarno (2004) described character as a view that comes with tendency to respond
certain objects like things in surrounding, people, event, action, opinion, norms, and others,
whether the response is in positive or in negative way. It can be concluded that character as
response of one’s surrounding.
In general, assessment is giving value of an object, which is seen, sensed, or observed.
Sudjana (2012) explained that to state whether right or wrong, a criterion or measurement
is needed. From his explanation, it can be seen that assessment is a process of giving value
toward an object based on certain criteria. Furthermore, he stated that the process started with
Gidion Maru
interpretation, and ended with judgment, in order to compare the criteria and the realization
within certain context.
Curriculum sees character as tendency to respond something or object. It is also seen as
expression of values that one has. However, character can be directed into desirable behavior
or action. Therefore, character competencies within curriculum try to manifest the values
someone believes into action in his or her daily life.
Character assessment in Curriculum 2013 is a set of activities that designed to measure
students’ character as a result of a learning program. It is also an application of a standard
or decision toward character. The function of character assessment is as part of reflection of
comprehension and progression that student make individually.
In relation to character assessment, the main goal is to train students to act good
character. It is not an easy thing to do, therefore, Curriculum 2013 involves authentic
assessment to create some learning activities that contain characters, and in the same way
measure students’ character.
Authentic assessment is a process of evaluation uses to measure achievement,
motivation, and students’ character in its relevance to teaching and learning process, as stated
in “Modul Implementasi Kurikulum 2013” (2014). Wiggins (1989) described authentic
assessment as task given to students that reflects priority and challenge that are discovered
within learning activities such as researching, writing, revising, discussing an article and
giving oral analysis toward an object, a collaborating with other students through debate and
so on.
Applying authentic assessment for character in Curriculum 2013 is done by observing
students’ activities in school during teaching and learning process, of how they behave during
lesson, of how they treat their friends, and of how they act. However, we must not forget
that character education is also highly influenced by school vision to create good character
to students. Teachers’ role to build, to lead, and to develop students’ character is necessary
too.
To optimize students’ character development, three aspects that play vital role are family,
school, and society. Each of these aspects contributes in educating and forming students’
character. Therefore, school and family must choose and create conducive atmosphere.
Based on Andersen (1981), character covers three skills at once, Cognitive, affective,
and psychomotor. Cognitive deals with students’ understanding about concept and indicator
of character. For example, when talking about honesty, students must understand the definition
and classification of honesty.
Affective skill deals with students’ emotional relationship toward character. This
skill covers three aspects, which are accepting, supporting, and commitment in doing good
character. Accepting refers to whether a student agrees or not toward good character. For
example, does a student agree if honesty is a good character? Supporting deals with students’
response toward character that others show. For example, does a student like if someone
treats him or her honesty? Commitment in doing good character deals with students’ will to
have and to perform good character in every occasion. For example, once a student accept
and support honesty as a good character trait, he or she will commit to act honesty.
Therefore, the method given to students in order to lead them to a characterized people
must consider rationally touching cognitive skill, intuitively to touch affective skill, and
motorist to touch psychomotor skill.
Character assessment must cover those three skills mentioned above. Teacher
must prepare indicator and assessment instrument to measure cognitive, affective, and
psychomotor. Assessing cognitive skill can be done as assessing knowledge skill, such as
multiple choice or essay. Assessing students’ affective skill can be done by using character
scale, self-assessment, pier assessment, journal, and observation. Assessing psychomotor
skill can be done by have students to act out a character trait, role-play, stimulation, or other
techniques.
Based on the three skills of character mentioned above, and character aspects that
are provided by Curriculum 2013, before conducting character assessment, teachers need
to consider some indicators, and the indicators can be seen in “Modul Pelatihan Kurikulum
2013” (2014), as stated below:
a. Cognitive skill:
1. Understand the definitions of appreciating and practicing religious doctrine,
respect, honesty, discipline, being responsible, tolerance, cooperation, being
polite, and self-confidence.
2. Understand the spessification of appreciating and practicing religious doctrine,
respect, and honesty, discipline, being responsible, tolerance, cooperation, being
polite, and self-confidence.
b. Affective skill
1. Agree if appreciating and practicing religious doctrine, respect, honesty, discipline,
being responsible, tolerance, cooperation, being polite, and self-confidence are
good character traits.
2. Agree when someone show them how to appreciate and practice religious doctrine,
and treat them with respect, honesty, discipline, being responsible, tolerance,
cooperation, being polite, and self-confidence.
3. Agree to perform appreciating and practicing religious doctrine, respect, honesty,
discipline, being responsible, tolerance, cooperation, being polite, and self-
confidence in every occasion.
Gidion Maru
4. Commit to perform appreciating and practicing religious doctrine, respect,

honesty, discipline, being responsible, tolerance, cooperation, being polite, and
self-confidence in every occasion.
c. Psychomotor skill
1. Have the students commit to perform appreciating and practicing religious
doctrine, respect, honesty, discipline, being responsible, tolerance, cooperation,
being polite, and self-confidence in every occasion.
2. Have the students perform appreciating and practicing religious doctrine, respect,
honesty, discipline, being responsible, tolerance, cooperation, being polite, and
self-confidence in every occasion.
As stated in “Modul Pelatihan Implementasi Kurikulum 2013” (2014), educators

assess character through observation, self assessment, peer assessment and journal. Every
subject teacher should do assessment process, and the report is given to homeroom teacher,
who will present it as student’s report. In the beginning of each subject, teacher informs
students about the character competencies that are going to be assessed, which are spiritual
competence and social competence.
After that, teacher develops assessment instruments in relates to the subject he or
she is teaching. Teacher explains the assessment criteria for each character aspects that are
going to be assessed. Teacher processes the result of assessment refers to scoring guidance
and assessment criteria that have been set. At the end of each semester, every score from
the beginning to the end of semester must be described in graphic, and the final score is set
from the average score. After all the stages above are done, the score is given to homeroom
teacher as student’s final report.
By the end of each semester, each subject teacher must report the result of character
assessment whether it is spiritual or social in integrative. The report written in qualitative
form, and must be described. The criteria of the written form for score are; sangat baik
(SB), baik (B), cukup (C), kurang (K). However, teachers cannot give C score for students’
character, because C is considered that the student is immoral. The score must contain
description of students’ character competence achievement from every subject course.
Methodology
Descriptive design occupies in this research to obtain general overview of the subject
discussed. Descriptive design is a scientific method, which involves observing and describing
the behavior of a subject without influencing it in any way. Many scientific disciplines,
especially social science and psychology, use this method to obtain a general overview of the
subject.
The population is Junior High Schools in Tomohon and Manado city that are still
practicing Curriculum 2013. Six English teachers taken as representative, two teachers from
every school, that selected randomly. The researcher focuses on English teachers in Junior
High Schools, which the schools are still practicing Curriculum 2013, such as SMP Negeri
1 Tomohon, SMP Negeri 7 Manado, SMP Negeri 8 Manado.
This research uses structured interview to collect the data. An interview is a conversation
between two or more people where questions asked by the interviewer to elicit facts or
statements from the interviewee. An interview is a standard part of qualitative research.
In the process of making sense of qualitative data, the writer adopts the framework
developed by Miles and Huberman (1994) to describe the major phases of data analysis,
which are data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing and verification.
Finding and Discussion
Finding
This study is conducted during April and March 2016 at three Junior High Schools
in Tomohon and Manado city. The schools are chosen because they are still going on with
Curriculum 2013 implementation. Six English teachers agree to be participants in the study.
Two samples are taken from every school randomly. The participants are coded as sample 1
(S1), sample 2 (S2), sample 3 (S3), sample 4 (S4), sample 5 (S5), and sample 6 (S6).
All samples are female teachers, with age range above thirty (30) years old. They
have various teaching experience, from nine to twenty eight years. The samples are teaching
various grades, from seventh to ninth grade. Five samples were graduated from English
Education Department of Manado State University, and one sample was graduated from Post
Graduate Program of English Education Program, Manado State University.
From the interview, the researcher finds that most participants perceived that character
aspects can be taught indirectly. The character aspects can be integrated within subject course,
with no need to add certain subject. However, most of them are sure that assessing character
aspects would not guarantee students’ noble character in the future. When the question goes
into the obstacles they are facing in assessing students’ character aspects, most participants
found that assessing students’ character aspects are time consuming, complicated process,
not suitable for big class, and lack of facilities.
Discussion
Integrating character aspects within subject course is indeed in compliance to
Curriculum 2013 context. However, if we look back to the theory of character education by
Kohlberg (1978), the researcher argues that cognitive structures cannot be merely given by
integrating them within subject course. In this case, the cognitive structures of nine character
aspects that the curriculum provides.
Gidion Maru
Indeed, “Modul Implementasi Kurikulum 2013” says that teacher may choose which
character aspects that are going to be introduced, in relation to the topic currently discussed.
Yet, for English subject, Curriculum 2013 provides four times forty (4 x 40) minutes each
week, which are distributed into two meetings each week. The question arise is, is the time
allocation enough for the students to know the character aspect, to understand the definition
of the aspect, and to be given example of the character aspect. After that, teachers have to
teach course material.
For example, an English teacher has to deliver a topic about self-introduction, and
the given time allocation is 4 x 40 minutes, which are distributed within two meetings.
The character aspects that relate to the topic are politeness and self-confidence. The teacher
has to inform the students about the topic at hand first, and then inform the students about
politeness and self-confidence related to the topic. After that, the teacher has to explain
the definition of politeness and self-confidence before checking the students’ understanding
about the definition, and show example of politeness and self-confidence. As the final step,
the teacher must encourage students to practice the example given in their daily lives. After
all of the requirements above are done, then the teacher teaches about the topic.
From the illustration above, the writer perceives that character aspects must be
introduced directly within certain subject. Character assessment in Curriculum 2013 involves
authentic assessment, which is used to measure students’ cognitive, affective, and psychomotor
aspects. When it deals with cognitive aspect, the instruments to measure students’ ability is
conducted based on students’ knowledge. Therefore, character aspects should be directly
taught to students. However, when it comes to affective, it can be integrated within teacher’s
subject course.
All of the steps above have to be done in order to the success of character education,
as stated by Rest (1986), that learners must have direct input in the setting agenda. From
Rest’s theory, the researcher concludes that students must be exposed to the input, in this
case aspects of character, so students would know exactly about the character, whether it is
good or bad, and finally build their own will to act the character.
Dealing with the effectiveness of assessing students’ character aspects, in agreement
with the theories involved by the researcher, most of the participants are sure that assessing
students’character is not effective to guarantee students’noble character in the future. Matthews
and Riley (1995) determined that effective ethics education is grounded in community. They
ensure failure if ethics taught without using a community context to illustrate, nurture, and
support ethical development. Without grounding ethics within particular community and
cultural context of a learner, ethics remain abstract, outside the scope of experiences of the
learner, and ultimately irrelevant.
Therefore, parents’ role is important in supporting school program of character
education. School must have enough information about students’ background before they
register to the school, in order to give appropriate treatment to student. Schools also need
parents’ cooperation to follow up students’ activities outside the school.
Environment also contributes in forming students’ character, especially neighborhood.
We cannot deny that students are also social individual, who need to know other people, and
to interact with them. Often, when children grow in a neighborhood in which there are many
mischievous youngsters, the children show tendency to follow the attitude. On the contrary,
students cannot choose which neighborhood to live in, because of their parents’ economical
state. However, children may choose which attitude to be followed, when family realize the
importance of character building, and plant good character earlier.
Furthermore, Lockwood (1993) argued that this character assessment only well
performed on assignments such as worksheet or activities booklets. When students know
that their character comprehensions are going to be assessed, they give positive responses as
they are expected to, and do the otherwise when teachers do not notice. Whether we realize
it or not, this habit only directs students into hypocrite demeanor. Therefore, in developing
character education, schools must involve families and societies to support the program.
Dealing with the the obstacles teachers are facing in assessing students’ character in
Curriculum 2013 context, in accordance to the theories involves by the researcher, most
samples found some obstacles with the character evaluation process, such as time consuming,
complicated process, not suitable for big class, and lack of facilities that school provide.
Lickona (2007) stated that character values must be elaborated into representative
indicators, so the achievement can be measured. Talking about character means talking about
values someone possesses. Definitely, the values assessed are good values. In assessing
character value that someone has, often the assessor perception is influenced by subjective
perception. Therefore, to avoid subjective perception, indicators of assessment are needed.
Thus, indicators must be provided to determine whether a character trait is good or not.
For instance, if a teacher wants to assess students’ politeness, he or she would not ask the
students to act politely without some standard of measurement. When a character aspect
elaborated into representative indicators, some possible standards must be measured. Surely,
teacher must allocate more times in measuring one character aspect.
In this research, most samples were also found that the process of assessing character
assessment is complicated. Sudjana (2012) argued that the process of assessment started from
interpretation, and ended with judgment. The researcher would say that making representative
indicators is part of interpretation, in which teacher makes objective interpretation toward a
student based on the indicators. After interprets a student’s character, then the judgment is
made, in which teacher determine the score, based on the score range. All of the steps above
must be followed to gain valid score.
Gidion Maru
In Indonesia, many schools accommodate more than thirty-five students in one class.
With such number of students in one class, teachers are definitely experience difficulty to
control the class, and to evaluate each student’s character. Furthermore, when the schools do
not provide adequate facilities to facilitate teachers in assessing students, such as assessment
instruments and suitable application to make students’ report, the teachers certainly need
extra times to assess students’ character.
The researcher is aware that assessing students’ character is time consuming and
complicating process, but the writer understands that every process of assessment must be
followed to gain valid scores.
Conclusion
Most English teachers perceived that teaching character aspects could be done through
indirect teaching. The reasons underlying the perception mostly because the character
aspects can be shown instead of taught. Their perceptions are against the theories the writer
adapts, that introducing character aspects to students involved cognitive structure of the
students. Basically, when dealing with cognitive structure, students need to be introduced to
each definition of character aspects by delivering the material in direct teaching. But when
dealing with students’ affective structure, the character aspects can be shown to students in
integrative subject course.
Most English teachers perceived that assessing students’ character aspects is not
effective to guarantee students’ noble character in the future. The reason underlying the
perception is because the school’s efforts in forming students’ character must involved
families’ and societies’ role. Basically, one’s character is highly influences by his or her
environment. So, environment, in this case family and society must also work together to
support the curriculum’s goal to improve students’ noble character.
Most samples found some obstacles relate to character assessment process. According
to them, they need more times to do it, the process is complicated, not suitable for big class,
and lack of facilities provided. Basically, when assessing students’ character, there are number
of considerations dealing with assessment indicators and criteria. In doing the assessment,
some processes must be followed as well. That is why assessing students’ character takes
more time. Surely if a school accommodates more students than it should be in one class,
assessing each character aspects will be harder for teachers. When talking about facilities, in
reality there are many schools especially at suburbs that could not provide adequate facilities
to support teaching and learning process.
REFERENCES
Andersen, Lorin. W. (1981). Assessing Affective Characteristic in the Schools. Boston: Allyn
and Bacon.
Combs DR1. (2003). The Role of Subclinical Paranoia on Social Perception and Behavior,
Schizophrenic Res. Jul 1;69(1):93-104.
Kohlberg, L. (1978). Revisions in the Theory and Practice of Moral Development. In W.
Damon (1981) (Ed.). New Directions for Child Development: Moral Development.
New York: Wiley.
Lickona, Schaps and Lewis. (2007). Journal of Research in Character Education, p.33.
http://books.google.co.id/books?id.
Lockwood, A. L. (1993). A Letter to Character Educators. Educational Leadership, 51, 72-
75.
Matthews, B. E. & Riley, C. K. (1995). Teaching and Evaluating Outdoor Ethics Programs.
Vienna, VA: National Wildlife Federation. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service
No. ED 401 097).
Miles, Matthew B. and Huberman, A. Michael. (1994). An Expanded Sourcebook Qualitative
Data Analysis, SAGE Publications.
MODUL PELATIHAN IMPLEMENTASI KURIKULUM 2013, Kementrian Pendidikan dan
Kebudayaan 2014.
Rest, J. R. (1986). Moral development: Advances in Research and Theory. New York:
Praeger.
Robbins. (2003). Organizational Behavior: Perception and IndividualDecisionMaking. 13th
Edition Chapter 5.
Saks, Alan & Gary Johns. (2005). Perception, Attribution, and Judgment of Others.
Organizational Behaviour: Understanding and Managing Life at Work. Vol. 7.
Toronto: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Sudjana, Nana. (2012). Penilaian Hasil Proses Belajar Mengajar. Cetakan XVII. Bandung:
PT Remaja Rosdakarya.
(2004). Di Dalam Dunia, Tetapi Tidak Dari Dunia: Pemikiran
Sutarno, Daniel Nuhamara.
Teologis Tentang Pergumulan Gereja Dalam Masyarakat Indonesia Yang Majemuk.
BPK Gunung Mulia.
Walgito, Bimo. (1981). Pengantar Psikologi Umum.Yogyakarta: Penerbit ANDI.
Wiggins, G. (1989). “A True Test: Toward More Authentic and Equitable Assessment.” Phi
Delta Kappan, 70.
THE IMPACT OF COLORS ON SMA NEGERI 1 TOMOHON

STUDENT’S IMMEDIATE AND DELAYED RETENTION OF
VOCABULARY
Louna Anastasia Rogahang, Nihta V.F Liando, Mister Gidion Maru
Abstract
This study intends to describe a cause effect relationship between independent variables, words
printed in cool color and words printed in warm color on the dependent variable, word retention. This
study was conducted at second graders of MIPA at SMA Negeri 1 Tomohon in the academic year
2015/2016 and the sample were 60 students randomly chosen from 179 students in all of 5 parallel
classes to represent the population that using random sampling technique. The second grade of MIPA
department consisted of 5 parallel classes with 179 students in all and 36 per class on the average.
It is a quantitative research, the data are in form of test scores, and analyzed using the statistical
technique (t-test), the results of statistical testing or analysis confirm that both the hypotheses dealing
immediate is rejected which means that the alternative hypothesis is accepted, because at p (or α)
=.05 and df = 62, the t (observed) is larger than the t (critical) or 3.023 ≥ 2.000. Similarly, the null hypothesis
dealing with delayed retention was also rejected, because at p (or α) =.05 and df = 62, the t (observed)
is larger than the t (critical) or 4.062 ≥ 2.000. In both immediate and delayed retentions, the subjects in
cool color group outperformed those in warm color group. Based on this result, it can be concluded
that words printed in cool color with white background more significantly affect students’ immediate
retention than words printed in warm color with the same color background also similarly with
immediate retention, it can be concluded that words printed in cool color with white background
more significantly affect students’ delayed retention than words printed in warm color with the same
color background. Based on the conclusion, it is suggested for English teachers to make maximal
use of colors to help their students memorize new words in English. In addition, the information
provided by this study is also important for textbook writers and teaching aid providers. Therefore,
it is necessary that they make their textbooks and teaching aids colorful in order the students are
interested in reading their textbooks and looking at the teaching aids used.
Keywords: impact, color, student, immediate, delayed, retention, vocabulary
The Impact Of Colors On Sma Negeri 1 Tomohon ... Louna Anastasia Rogahang, Nihta V.F Liando, 42
Mister Gidion Maru
INTRODUCTION
Vocabulary acquisition in foreign language learning is crucial. The crucial role that
vocabulary plays is admitted by experts in second/foreign language teaching. All these experts
implicitly admit that vocabulary should be the focus of foreign language teaching if learning
a foreign language is to be successful. Theoretically, foreign language vocabulary can be
taught explicitly or implicitly. Vocabulary can be taught or introduced to students through
explicit teaching or direct instruction. This can be done by explicitly introducing a group
of new words to students, explaining their meanings and contexts of use and having them
practice using them in similar contexts. In the 2013 curriculum, for example, the teaching
of vocabulary is integrated in the teaching of the four language skills. In such an indirect
instruction, students are required to pay attention to the new words introduced during the
teaching learning process and learn them by themselves.
In both direct and indirect instruction, in addition to textbooks, teaching aids such
as pictures and flashcards are often used to enrich students’ vocabulary. With the advances
in communication technology, various kinds of textbooks and teaching aids can be easily
produced. As can be observed, the textbooks and teaching aid used at schools are colorful
and make them more interesting for the students.
In the textbooks for SMP, new vocabularies, if carefully observed, are introduced to
the students in various presentation formats. Some vocabulary tasks, for example, a number
of new words are presented in single pictures; some others are presented separately with one
picture or image each. Almost all of the pictures particularly static ones are colorful. The
use of various kinds of colors is primarily intended to make not only the teaching of English
more interesting, but also help students easily remember the materials being learned. Due to
the diverse findings concerning color effect and nature of experimental research in which not
all extraneous variables can be strictly controlled, the researcher finds it necessary to address
the following research problems:
1. Which group of words more significantly affects immediate retention, those printed in
cool color or in warm color?
2. Which group of words more significantly affects delayed retention, those printed in
cool color or in warm color?
The purposes of this study are:

As with all experimental research, the present study was conducted to describe a cause
effect relationship between independent variables, words printed in cool color and words
printed in warm color on the dependent variable, word retention. Put it another way, the
study tried to find out which type of color, cool or warm, more significantly affected word
retention of second graders of MIPA at SMA Negeri 1 Tomohon.
It is hypothesized that words printed in cool color with white background more
significantly affect students’ immediate retention than words printed in warm with the same
color background and words printed in cool color with white background more significantly
affects delayed retention than those printed in warm color with the same color background.
In conducting this research, due to her limitations in time and financial support, the
writer found it necessary to delimit her study. The delimitation was closely related to the
words and colors selected to be experimented, length of the experimentation, subjects to be
involved, and test to be used to assess the subjects’ word retention.
Concerning words and colors selected, this study dealt only with words denoting parts
of a jet plane. These words were selected, because the students are familiar with jet plane,
but not with various parts of it. Concerning colors, research finding indicated that warm
colors generated more arousal and attention than cool colors (see 1.1). That was why warm
and cool colors, specifically red and blue were selected.
Concerning length of the experimentation, the experiment was conducted in two
phases: in the first phase, the subjects were to read and memorize a twenty-wordlist in
twenty minutes; and in the second phase they were to write down all the words they could
remember in ten minutes. The same procedure was repeated when assessing the subjects’
delayed retention.
Concerning the subjects of the experimentation, the subjects involved were second
graders of MIPA at SMA Negeri 1 Tomohon. The subjects and school were selected because
they were accessible.
Concerning test, the test used to assess the subjects’ word retention was memory test
in which the subjects were required to immediately write down as many words they had
memorized as possible. There was no guessing in such a test.
THEORETICAL BASIS
Description of Colors
Color has been found to increase a person’s arousal. It is proposed by Faber Birren
(1950) that warm colors, such as red and yellow, increase arousal more than cool colors,
such as green and blue. Warm colors are vivid in nature. Artistically speaking, they are said
to advance in space, opposed to cool colors that are soothing and tend to recede in space.
Birren’s finding was supported by further research done by Greene, et.al (1983). They found
that warm colors increase arousal compare to the cool colors.
Mister Gidion Maru
Color is very important to make a concept in developing learning vocabulary in a

teaching and learning process. It can help both teacher and students to share each ideas or
opinion. In addition, they also concluded that while the children use the colors as a way to
remember, it helps the retention of information. If color can increase arousal, and arousal can
increase memory, then it is possible that we could find that color can increase the memory
(Spence, Wong, Rusan and Rastegar, 2006).
Memorization
Memorization using working memory can last as little as a few seconds, and its capacity
is very limited, playing a central role in individual differences in cognitive abilities (Myers,
2004). On average, a person’s mind can hold up between five to nine items at one moment;
any effort to try to hold more than that more than likely will result in forgetting the “middle”
items (Cowan, 2008). Memorization skills vary in techniques and what aspects the individual
chooses to use it for. A student may use a certain method to aid in memorizing vocabularies,
whereas an employee may have a completely different method to try to memorize procedural
steps in completing a task. Rehearsal and practice can increase the strength of responses,
regardless of age, if it is done enough (Baddeley, 2003).
Word length has been shown to effect one’s working memory pertaining to the
memorization of words in recall tests. As the number of long words to memorize in a list
increase, the proportion of correct responses decreases, if there is no suppression of the
phonologic loop. If other components of working memory are suppressed, correct responses
for long and short words also decrease (Cowan, Baddeley, Elliot, & Norris, 2003).
Within word length, the number of sounds when a word is spoken in a language
(phonemes) and the number of syllables have also been shown to effect the memorization of
words during recall tasks. Based on Finnish phonotactics, three-syllable items were recalled
less than short pseudo words structured as consonant-vowel-consonant-vowel and two-
syllable items. Researchers contrasted the difference between the numbers of syllables with
the number of phonemes. Two-syllable items with six different phonemes were as difficult
to recall as three- syllable items (Service, 1998).
Experiments on environmental context effects have shown a relationship to recall of
items. The environmental context of background color for to-be-remembered items, in free
recall, has shown mixed results. Background color always exists behind any item although
it may not always be noticed. When background color is the same or repeatedly changed
for each to-be-remembered item, no significant context effects are found and recall is not
significantly affected. However, to-be-remembered items were recalled more frequently
when against the same background color during study and test times (Isarida, Takeo and
Isarida, Toshiko, 2007).
Researchers have studied the use of a highlighting marker as a tool to emphasizing text
material to determine if retention scores increase. Participants were divided into four groups,
actively highlighting, passive highlighting, experimenter highlighting, and no highlighting.
Although there were no significances in total scores for all four groups, the experimenter
highlighting group scores were significantly better than the no highlighting group scores
on 18 test questions pre-highlighted for the experimenter group. Overall, this test qualified
highlighting as a means to increase retention for long-term memory. Whether it was the use
of a highlighting pen or that the participant chooses to emphasize a specific part of the article
to remember, has yet to be studied (Fowler & Barker 1974).
An experiment involving colored letters and color names in a modified memory recall
test have also been conducted. Color names and Xs printing in colored ink were recalled
equally, whereas color names printed in incongruent colored ink were recalled significantly
less. Participants choose the actual printed word rather than the color printed on the word in
this experiment (Sagi, 1980).
The literature review search yielded no published research on the interaction of both
word length and color on working memory for memorizing words or word recall. As suggested
in prior research, continuous different color backgrounds or the same color background for
memorizing long words with multiple syllables will be more difficult to recall than two
separate colored backgrounds for the same list of words. The interaction of both factors of
word length and color, and how they affect word memorization, would be affected by the
different variations of long words selected and in which way color was used in conjunction
with those words.
Effects of Color on Attention and Memory
Colors are often used as an effective tool to display information, deliver a certain
message, and decorate for art purposes (Dzulkifli & Mustafar 2013). Many researchers
have conducted studies to understand this wide use of colors and particularly explore the
relationship between color and memory (Pan 2010). Based on the argument that attention is an
important process of memory that is necessary to transfer information from sensory to short-
term memory (Atkinson & Shiffrin 1986), these studies have investigated whether colors can
contribute to increasing people’s attention level and thereby lead to better performance on
memory tasks. This question was explored by measuring participants’ ability to match colors
to objects and comparing obtained reminiscence of colored and non-colored materials. It
was expected that if colors capture more attention from people and high level of attention
promotes memory retention, colored materials should lead to better recall and retention.
Overall, this hypothesis was born out in empirical studies. Farley and Grant (1976)
randomly assigned 52 undergraduate nursing students to either color or black-and-white
Mister Gidion Maru
presentation condition and compared their performances on immediate and seven-day

memory retention tasks. Their results demonstrate that color presentation has greater effect
than non-color presentation on attention and memory. Spence et al. (2006) also investigated
the recognition of colored natural scene images and gray-scale natural scene images by 120
participants.
The two types of presentation resulted in significant differences, with the participants’
recognition of colored images approximately 5% higher than that of gray-scaled images.
Smilek et al. (2001) further found that congruent colors are more effective than incongruent
colors in memorizing numbers. When digit numbers were presented in three different
conditions, that is, black and white, congruent color, and incongruent color, the participants
performed better in recalling numbers presented in congruent colors.
Another interesting study was conducted by Pan (2009), who compared the effect of
color with that of shape on recognition by asking participants to identify whether the color
or shape of two previously presented objects was the same or not. The result showed that
color captured more attention than shape of objects, as evidenced in shorter response time
to determine color differences than shape differences. The study by Miyakoda et al. (2013)
was different from the previous studies in that it investigated the effect of color in relation
to vocabulary retention. Yet, it again confirmed the color effect by showing that learners
obtained higher memory retention rates for vocabulary presented in colored letters. Overall,
previous studies have demonstrated that colors cause a higher level of attention and arousal
and thereby lead to better memory performance. The present study attempted to replicate
this finding in the context of L2 vocabulary learning and also compared color effect with
serial-position effect.
Related Studies
A number of studies have been previously done on the effect of color on memory. The
studies are experimental, action research, and surveys in nature.
Martinez, et al., (2010) investigated whether retrieval would be best when study
materials and tests are printed on the same colored paper, consistent with the encoding
specificity principle. Undergraduates read a passage printed on red or green paper (Experiment
1) or white paper (Experiment 2), and took a test printed on red or green paper (Experiment 1)
or white, blue, green, yellow, or pink paper (Experiment 2). ANOVAs revealed no significant
interaction and no significant effect of the test’s paper color (p > .05), but a small effect of the
passage’s paper color did very closely approach statistical significance (p = .052). Participants
who studied material on green paper outperformed those who studied material on red paper.
These findings suggest that educators using different colors to distinguish test versions will
not negatively impact students’ performance, but that the color of study materials will affect
the amount retained.
Huchendorf (2007) examined whether color has an effect on memory. Participants
were 115 college undergraduates enrolled in an introductory psychology course. They were
each given a packet consisting of a list of 20 words, a mathematical task, a blank recall sheet,
and a demographic questionnaire. All sheets within each packet were the same color, but
different participants received warm colored (red and yellow), cool colored (green and blue),
or white packets. The participants were given one minute to memorize the list of words. They
then completed the mathematical task. Lastly, they tried to recall as many words as possible
on the blank recall sheet. The percentage of words recalled correctly was the dependent
variable. A one-way ANOVA was conducted and the results indicated that there was not a
statistically significant difference in percentage of words recalled based on packet color.
Dae (2010) explores the role that color can influence people’s visual attention and
working memory through a computer-based experiment. With the assumption that there
are trade-offs between attention/ memory, and loading tasks which create distractions (e.g.,
tasking/working people cannot afford to pay attention to other objects, and no tasking
people would more pay attention to the objects), the study examines the effects of colors on
people’s visual attention and the relevance of attention to retention of working memory by
performing a dual-task experiment called the box shooting test. The results show that the
color effect shows significant differences on working memory indicating that color would
more significantly play a role for forming people’s memory rather than holding attention.
Cabal (2005) studied color-association in memory prompted the question about color
and its effects on memory. The primary purpose of this experiment is to find differences in
memory retention between a list enumerated in black ink and another enumerated in various
colored ink. His hypothesis states that there will be no profound difference between retention
of words in black ink and retention of words in different-colored inks. The data collected will
be analyzed to find out if either gender is more efficient in remembering words from either
black or colored lists. By listing and comparing the data collected, it should be evident which
gender remembers more words, assuming one gender remembers more than the other. Words
from the list in black ink are more likely to be remembered than words from the colored list.
Men retained more words from either list than women had.
Stitt and Pula (2013) conducted a 14-day short-term, classroom action-research study
examined the differences between using traditional black-and-white flash cards and those
with colored text in relation to vocabulary acquisition and low-level information recall
with middle school students. Specifically, two comparable language arts classes of on-level
seventh graders with mixed abilities participated in the study. Students in one section made
flash cards with black letters; students in the other section made flash cards of the same
Mister Gidion Maru
words using self-selected colors. Students took a pretest and a posttest designed to show
understanding gained of a subset of the definitions of the words studied. Statistical analysis
using two-tailed t-tests assuming equal variances showed students remembered definitions
better when they studied incolor. A major conclusion of the study is that students may be
more likely to retain information with the aid of sensory recall through color.
Kimura et al., (2013), in Experiment 1, measured the memory color effects of logos
which varied in terms of their familiarity (high, middle, or low). Results demonstrate that
the memory color effect occurs only in the high-familiarity condition, but not in the middle-
and low-familiarity conditions. Furthermore, there is a positive correlation between the
memory color effect and the actual number of domestic stores of the brand. In Experiment
2, they assessed the semantic association between logos and food/beverage names by using
a semantic priming task to elucidate whether the memory color effect of logos relates to
consumer brand cognition, and found that the semantic associations between logos and food/
beverage names in the high-familiarity brands were stronger than those in the low-familiarity
brands only when the logos were colored correctly, but not when they were appropriately or
inappropriately colored, or achromatic.
Parker, Nitse, and Tay (2009) conducted a survey on consumer satisfaction in relation
to consumer retention of color inaccuracy in consumer products. Results indicate that
consumers are aware of color inaccuracies and that their reactions will negatively impact
the marketer. Over 55% of the consumers surveyed indicate that they will not make future
purchases from an online merchant that delivered an item in a color that did not match
their expectations. Color inaccuracy has many negative consequences, the most important
of which is customer defections. This indicates that colors play important role is our daily
life.
METHODOLOGY
This study aims at describing cause-effect relationships between independent, words

printed in warm color with white background and words printed in cool color with the same
color background, and dependent variable, word retention. The independent variable is the
variable intentionally selected in order to see its effect; the dependent is the one that is
observed in order to know the effect of the dependent.
There are two kinds of variables in this research. They are independent and dependent
variables. Independent variable or the major variable is the variable which is selected
manipulated and measured by the researcher (Walliman, 2011:10). In this study, words
printed in warm color with white background, and those printed in cool color with the same
background are the independent variables. Word Retention (Immediate and Delayed) is the
dependent variable. The dependent variable is a variable which one observes and measures
to determine the effect of the independent variable (Walliman, 2011:10).
Since this study is experimental, the experimental design should be used. The design
used is the one called posttest-only controlled group design. The design is selected because
the design which is good in controlling most of other variables which may possibly affect
results of the experimental treatment. Experimental treatment itself refers to any condition
intentionally selected for observation of its effect on the dependent variable. The design can
be visualized as this:
In terms of the nature of data and how they were analyzed, the present research fell
into the category of quantitative research. It was quantitative in that the data were in the
form of test scores, and analyzed statistically.
The population of this study was second graders of MIPA at SMA Negeri 1 Tomohon in
the academic year 2015/2016. The second grade of MIPA department consisted of 5 parallel
classes with 179 students in all and 36 per class on the average.
The data representing the second graders of MIPA at SMA Negeri 1 Tomohon students’
immediate and delayed retention of vocabulary were collected using a memory recall test
in which the subjects in the two treatment groups were to memorize the words printed in
warm and cool colors with the same background color in twenty minutes and soon after that
they immediately wrote down as many words they could remember as possible (immediate
retention) and a week later (delayed retention) in ten minutes each.
The words selected to be memorized were words denoting parts of the body of a jet
plane. These words were selected for this experimentation because although all the subjects
had once seen at least a jet plane directly or indirectly, the technical terms related to parts of
the plane were unfamiliar to them.
The data in this in the form of test scores representing the second graders of MIPA
at SMA Negeri 1 Tomohon students’ immediate and delayed retention of vocabulary were
statistically analyzed. Since this study was a true experimental research, the data were
analyzed statistically using t-test.
This statistical technique is usually used if the assumptions of normality, homogeneity
of variance, etc are met. However, these assumptions can be ignored if the number of sample
in the two groups are equal and that the minimal sample size is thirty per group. According
to Hays (1973 cited in Moore, 1983:281), assumption of normality do not greatly affect the
results with sample sizes of 30 or more. Violations of the assumption of homogeneity of
variances also have little effect on the t-test value when sample sizes are equal.
Mister Gidion Maru
This research was conducted in SMA Negeri 1 Tomohon. This school is located on Jln.
Siswa No. 129, Kelurahan Walian Kecamatan Tomohon Selatan, Kota Tomohon. The details
of the school are as follows:
1. The Teaching Staff
There are 58 teachers who handle 1195 students. They were assigned to teach certain
subjects according to their field of studies. The distribution of teachers, part timers and
administrative staff is as follows:
Table I. Teaching, part timer and Administrative Staff

No. Status Number Qualification
1 Principal 1 S-2
2 Vice Principal 5 S-1/S-2
3 Full time teacher 44 S-1/S-2
4 Part time Teacher 8 S-1
5 Administrative 7 S-1/D-3
2. The Students
SMA Negeri 1 Tomohon consisted of three grades. Each grade consisted of several
parallel classes. There were 1195 students studying there with the specification:
Table II. Number of classes and students

Average Number Total Number of
Grade Department Number of Classes
students/class students/grade
X BB 2 36 71
MIPA 5 43 213
IPS 5 36 180
XI BB 2 35 69
MIPA 5 36 179
IPS 4 34 135
XII BB 2 26 53
MIPA 6 30 179
IPS 4 29 116
Total 3 35 305 1195
3. Facilities
There were several kinds of facilities at SMA Negeri 1 Tomohon. The facilities were
as follows:
Table III. School Facilities

No Status Total
1 Principal room 1
2 Administrative 1
3 Teaching staffs room 1
4 Library 1
5 IPA Laboratory 3
6 Language Laboratory 1
7 Computer Laboratory 1
8 Multimedia room 1
9 Room for counseling and career development 1
10 Room for OSIS 1
11 Room for UKS 1
12 Classrooms 35
13 Koperasi 1
14 Toilet 20
15 Hall 1
16 Art Room 1
17 Storage 1
18 House of Security for School 1
FINDING AND DISCUSSION
As the hypothesis, H0 means there is no significant correlation between the variables;

H1 means there is a significant correlation between the variables. If the probability (sig) >
0.05 means that H0 is accepted; if the probability (sig) < 0.05 means that H0 is rejected.
Experimental Treatment α level t (observed t (critical)
Immediate Retention 0.05 3.023 2.000
Delayed Retention 0.05 4.062 2.000
Result of the data analysis indicates that at p (or α) =.05 and df = 62, the t (observed) is
larger than the t (critical) or 3.023 ≥ 2.000. This, in other words means that the null hypothesis,
Words printed in cool color with white background do not more significantly affect students’
immediate retention than words printed in warm color with the same color background, is
rejected. This, in turn, means that the alternative hypothesis, words printed in cool color
Mister Gidion Maru
with white background more significantly affect students’ immediate retention than words
printed in warm color with the same color background, is accepted.
Result of the data analysis indicates that at p (or α) =.05 and df = 62, again the t (observed)
is larger than the t (critical) or 4.062 ≥ 2.000. This, in other words means that the null hypothesis,
words printed in cool color with white background do not more significantly affect delayed
retention than those printed in warm color with the same color background, is rejected.
This, in turn, means that the alternative hypothesis, words printed in cool color with white
background more significantly affect delayed retention than those printed in warm color
with the same color background is accepted. In both immediate and delayed retentions, the
subjects in cool color group outperformed those in warm color group.
Conclusion
Based on the result and discussion, this study can be concluded as follows:
The data analysis using t-test concerning with the first research question, result of the
analysis indicates that at p (or α) =.05 and df = 62, the t (observed) is larger than the t (critical) or
3.023 ≥ 2.000. Based on this result, it can be concluded that words printed in cool color with
white background more significantly affect students’ immediate retention than words printed
in warm color with the same color background.
Concerning with the second research question, the result of the statistical analysis
indicates that at p (or α) =.05 and df = 62, again the t (observed) is larger than the t (critical) or 4.062
≥ 2.000. Based on this result, it can be concluded that words printed in cool color with white
background more significantly affect students’ delayed retention than words printed in warm
color with the same color background.
REFERENCES
Atkinson, Richard C. and Shiffrin, Richard M. 1986. Human memory: A Proposed System
and its Control Processes. In Kenneth Spence and Janet Spence, eds., The Psychology
of Learning and Motivation 2. New York: Academic Press.
Baddely, Alan. Memory, Science and Technology, Vol. 10, pg. 674-675
Baddely, Alan. 1993. Your Memory: a User’s Guide. United Kingdom: Prion
Baddeley, A., Cowan, N., Elliott, E., & Norris, J. 2003. List Composition and the Word Length
Effect in the Immediate Recall: A comparison of Localist and Globalist Assumptions.
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 10, 74-79.
Benbasat, I. Dexter, A. S. 1986. An Investigation of the effectiveness of color and Graphical
Information Presentation under Varying Time Constraints. MIS Quarterly March 59-
83.
Birren, F. 1950. Color psychology and color therapy. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Birren, F. 1978. Color & Human Response. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold
Cabal, Abigail L. 2005. The Effects of Color on Short-Term Memory between Males and
Females. Kennesaw State University. October 13.
Coady, James. 1997. L2 vocabulary acquisition: A synthesis of research. In James Coady
and Thomas Huckin, eds., Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition, 225-237. New
York: Cambridge University Press.
Cowan, N., Horton, N., Towse, J., & Whytock, S., 2008. Task Experience and Children’s
Working Memory Performance: A Perspective From Recall Timing. Developmental
Psychology. 44(3), 695-706.
Dae, Young Kim. 2010. The Interactive Effects of Colors on Visual Attention and Working
Memory: In Case of Images of Tourist Attractions. International CHRIE Conference-
Refereed Track.
http://scholarworks.umass.edu/refereed/CHRIE_2010/Saturday/
Debiase, Marc. 2009. Effects of Color and Animation on Visual Short-Term Memory in
Computer-Environment Learning Tasks. A Dissertation. http://udini.proquest.com/
view/effects-of-color-and-animation-on-pqid:1898612411/
Dzulkifli, M. A., Mustafar, M. F. 2013. The Influence of Color on Memory Performance: A
Review. Malays J Med Sci. 20(2): 3–9.
Farley, F H., & Grant AP. 1976. Arousal and cognition: Memory for color versus black and
white multimedia presentation. J Psychol. 1976; 94(1):147–150.
Fernandez, Karen V. and Dennis L Rosen. 2000. The Effectiveness of Information and Colour
in Yellow Pages Advertising. Journal of Advertising, Vol 29 (2), 61-73.
Fowler, R. & Barker, A., 1974. Effectiveness of Highlighting for Retention of Text Material.
Journal of Applied Psychology, 59, 358-364.
Greene, T.C., Bell, P. A., & Boyer, W. N. 1983. Coloring the Environment: Hue, Arousal,
and Boredom. Bull Psych Society, 21(4):253–254.
Hayes, D. P., and M. G. Ahrens. 1988. Vocabulary Simplification for Children: A Special
Case of “Motherese”? Journal of Child Language, 15:395–410.
Hays, William Lee. 1973. Statistics for the Social Sciences. New York: Holt, Rinehart and
Winston.
Huchendorf, Lynnay. 2007. The Effects of Color on Memory. UW-L Journal of Undergraduate
Research X.
Hunt, A., & Beglar, D. 2005. A Framework for Developing EFL Reading Vocabulary. Reading
in a Foreign Language, 17(1), 23-59.
Isarida, Takeo & Isarida, Toshiko. 2007. Environmental Context Effects of Background Color
in Fee Recall. Memory and Cognition, 35, 1620-1629
Mister Gidion Maru
Jacobs, K. W. & Suess, J. F. 1975. Effects of Four Psychological Primary Colors on Anxiety
State. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 41,207-210. University of Southern Mississippi.
Jennifer L. & Pula, Judith J. 2013. The Impact of Color on Vocabulary Attainment with
Multi-Ability Seventh Graders. Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin, Vol. 79, No. 4.
Klauer, Karl Christoph & Zhao, Zengmei. 2004. Double Dissociations in Visual and Spatial
Short-Term Memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, Vol 133(3), pp.
355-381. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0096-3445.133.3.355
Kimura, Atsushi., Mail, Yuji Wada., Masuda, Tomohiro., Goto, Sho-ichi., Suzuki,Daisuke.,
Hibino, Haruo., Cai, Dongsheng., & Dan, Ippeita. 2013. Memory Color Effect Induced
by Familiarity of Brand Logos. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0068474
Lewis, M. (Ed.). 2000. Teaching Collocation: Further Developments in the Lexical Approach.
Hove: Language Teaching Publications.
Martinez, Jennifer V., Oberle, Crystal D., & Thompson, Jon G. Jr. 2010. Effects of Color on
Memory Encoding and Retrieval in the Classroom. American Journal of Psychology
Research, Volume 6, Number 1.
McConnohie, B. V. 1999. A study of the Effect of Color in Memory Retention When Used in
Presentation Software. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Johnson Bible College.
Miyakoda, Haruko, Kaneko, Kei-ichi, and Sasaki, Aya. 2013. Effective Way of Learning
Abstract Lexical Items: Focusing on Color in Vocabulary Learning. International
Journal of Information Technology & Computer Science 7, 39-45.
Moore, Gary W. 1983. Developing and Evaluating Educational Research. Boston: Little,
Brown and Company.
Myers, J. 2004. The Color of Learning. Fundamentals, Training and Development, 19-20.
Pan, Yi. 2009. Research on the Content-based Working Memory-Driven Capture of Visual
Attention and its Automaticity. Doctoral dissertation. Zhejiang University.
Pan, Yi. 2010. Attentional Capture by Working Memory Contents. Canadian Journal of
Experimental Psychology 64.2, 124-128
Parker, Kevin R., Nitse, Philip S. & Tay, Albert S.M. 2009. The Impact of Inaccurate
Color on Customer Retention and CRM. The International Journal of an Emerging
Transdiscipline, Volume 12.
Richards, J. C., & Schmidt, R. 2002. Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied
Linguistics (3 rd Ed.). London: Pearson Education.
Sagi, A. 1980. Color-word Interference in Recall Test. The Journal of General Psychology,
103, 149-154.
Service, E. 1998. The Effect of Word Length on Immediate Serial Recall Depends on
Phonological Complexity, not Articulatory Duration. The Quarterly Journal of
Experimental Psychology, 51A, 283-304.
Schaie, K.W. & Heiss, R. 1064. Color and Personality. New York: Huber and Grune &
Stratton.
Singleton, D. 1999. Exploring the Second Language Mental Lexicon. Cambridge: Cambridge
University.
Smilek, Daniel, Dixon, Mike J., and Merikle, Philip M. 2001. Synesthetic Color Experiences
Influence Memory. Psychological Science Bulletin 13.6, 548-552
Spence, Ian., Wong, Patrick., Rusan, Maria., & Rastegar, Naghmeh. 2006. How Color
Enhances Visual Memory for Natural Scenes. A Research Report. Association
Psychological Science, Volume 17—Number 1
Tuckman, Bruce W. 1999. Conducting Educational Research. New York: Harcourt Brace
College Publishers.
Walliman, Nicholas. 2011. Research Methods: the Basics. London and New York: Routledge
Taylor and Francis Group.
Wilson, G. D. 1966. Arousal Properties of Red versus Green. Perceptual and Motor Skill,
23, 947-949.
IMPROVING STUDENTS’ SPEAKING ABILITY THROUGH

COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING OF THE
SECOND LEVEL STUDENTS AT ‘MEC’ MEGALIA
ENGLISH COURSE.
Emelia Panambunan, Golda J. Tulung, Mister Gidion Maru
ABSTRACT
This study is a collaborative action research investigation to improve the speaking ability
of the students at Megalia English course especially class X-B. Opportunities to teach English are
provided in many different ways and it is based on each teacher who teaches. One of the teaching
methods is Communicative Language Teaching that would provide more opportunities for children to
develop their speaking skill in English because the classroom procedure in CLT gives students more
activity in class. The subject of this research was taken from class X-B of second level students at
Megalia English Course. This class consisted of 15 students. The researcher concluded this research
during Febuary-March 2015. The improvement of students’ speaking ability could happen by using
the Communicative Language Teaching type of activities as follow: (a) Presentation of a brief dialog
or several mini dialogs, roles setting topic and the informality or formality of the language with the
function and the situation demand. (b) Questions and answers based on the dialog. (c) Questions and
answers related to students personal experience but centered on the dialog theme. (d) Individual work.
(e) Pair works. (f) Evaluation of learning. (g) Sampling of the written homework assignment. (h)
Games related to the topic. (i) Oral pratice. Based on the conclusion, it is recommended that: (1) The
English teachers have to be sure that the method of teaching is effective to improve the students’ skill
or not. Communicative Language teaching method is recommended to apply to increase the students
speaking ability. (2) A well-prepared planning is also important to the teacher before teaching so the
class will be running well without wasting time to the unimportant things. (3) The English teachers
have to be able to make a creative class so the students will not be bored in the class.
Keywords: Communicative Language Teaching, Speaking Ability, Second Level Students of

Megalia English Course.
Improving Students’ Speaking Ability Through ... Emelia Panambunan, Golda J. Tulung, 58
Mister Gidion Maru
INTRODUCTION
The ever-growing need for good communication skills in English has created a huge
demand for English teaching around the world. Millions of people today want to improve their
command of English or to ensure that their children achieve a good command of English.
“Language is a system of arbitrary, vocal symbol which permit all people in a given
culture, or other people who have learned the system of that culture, to communicate or to
interact“(Widdowson, 1987, p.3). People use language to express inner thoughts and emotions,
to make sense of complex and abstract thought, to learn to communicate with other to fulfill
our wants or needs, as well as to establish rules and maintain our culture. So, language is the
most important aspect in the life of all human beings. As an International language English
is important to be learned by people in the world. Being able to speak English allows people
to communicate effectively in numerous countries. Almost all international conferences use
English to communicate with each. .
Due to the rapid development of the modern era with modern pedagogical method
that come to existence, the KTSP (Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan) curriculum may
have been judged to be less practical especially that it includes too many school subjects
for the students. Therefore primary school curriculum has been set for ‘dropping’ English
in the reason that students in primary school have not learned to understand the Indonesian
language yet.
To face this situation many parents decided to have their children take an English
courses outside school to ensure that their children achieve a good command of English.
MEC ‘Megalia English Course’ that has started its operation since the 25th of July in 2014 is
one of many institutions in Manado that offers English learning to improve the English skill
of everyone who needs English for their necessity. This English course is chosen because the
researcher is one of the instructors there and she has observed that all students do not have an
English class at school. Such condition may be the reason why the students are not familiar
with English so it makes them hard to speak. When students entered the English Course at
Megalia English Course the researcher found that at the same time their span of attention or
concentration was less than an adult because chidren will usually not sit and listen especially
when they get borring then they will start speaking with their friends or drawing something
on their book.
“Children are curious, and this in itself is motivating” (Harmer, 1991). It has already
established that children who learn a language when they are very young have much better
chance of not having a foreign accent when speaking another language. It is harder to pick
up additional languages with native-like pronunciation. Thus one very compelling reason
to start children off with another language at young age is to give them a gift of a native
accent. The wonderful thing about young children is that they will give things a try without
necessarily worrying.
Opportunities to teach English are provided in many different ways and it is based
on each teacher who teaches. One of the teaching methods is Communicative Language
Teaching that would provide more opportunities for children to develop their speaking skill
in English because the classroom procedure in CLT gives students more activity in class
so the researcher carried out a Classroom Action Research entitled “Improving Students
Speaking Ability through Communicative Language Teaching of the Second Level Students
at Megalia English Course” in order to develop the English skill of the students especially
children.
METHODOLOGY
A classroom action research was used in doing this research as the method. According
to Harmer (1991), action research is the name given to a series of procedures teachers can
engage in, either because they wish to improve aspects of their teaching, or because they
wish to evaluate the success and or appropriacy of certain activities and procedures.
Kemmis and Mc. Taggart (1988) explain that action research is a group of activity
and a piece of descriptive research carried out by the teacher in his or her own classroom,
without the involvement of others, which is aimed at interesting our understanding rather
than changing the phenomenon under the investigation that would not be considered by these
commentators to be ‘action research’, the essential impetus for carrying out action research is
to change the system. Action research is regularly done to improve a learning process. With
this research, the teacher will know his or her weakness in teaching their students. They will
know the effective methods in teaching speaking. There are three defining characteristic of
action research, they are: a. It is carried out by practitioners rather than outside researchers,
b. It is collaborative, c. It is aimed at changing things (Kemmis and Mc. Taggart, 1988).
Based on the definitions above the researcher concludes that classroom action research
is a classroom action in a research, which can be carried out by teacher, researcher, and
teacher with his or her colleague with involves a group of students to improve teaching and
learning process or to enhance the understanding of the students to the lesson.
The research was conducted by the researcher at Megalia English course at
Malendeng Welong Abadi Residence and Tomohon Talete 1. This English Course institution
was established on 25th July 2014 by Emelia J.C Panambunan, S.S and has been running
consistently until now.
Mister Gidion Maru
A collaborator in this classroom action research was the person who helped the
researcher. She took the part as the observer to collect the data. The collaborator was one of
Megalia English Course’s instructors, Collin Coraag, SS.
Population and Sample.
Population
The population of this research was the English students of Megalia English Course.
There were eleven classes of MEC at Tomohon and the total number of students at Megalia
English Course is 141 students which are taught by three instructors that came from the
graduated of STIBA, UNIMA and UKIT. Two classes of MEC Tomohon came from SD
Gmim 5 Tomohon class X-A consist of 3rd and 4th grade students and X-B consist of 5th and
6th grade students and the procces of teaching and learning are conducted at that school and
nine classes at MEC Tomohon Talete 1 that came from various schools around Tomohon.
Sample
In this study the researcher was using the total sampling. Class X-B was taken as the
sample and the class consist of 5th and 6th grade students which came from SD GMIM 5
Tomohon and were 15 students in the class consist of 13 females and 2 males. The researcher
chose class X-B of Megalia English Course Tomohon because MEC was first opened at SD
GMIM 5 Tomohon and the number of students at class X-B was larger than the other classes
at that time so that was why the researcher chose class X-B MEC Tomohon as the subject of
this research.
Data Collection
Instrument
Research instrument is a device used by researcher while collecting data to make the
work becomes easier and to get better result, complete, and systematic in order to make the
data easy to be processed (Arikunto, 2003). The researcher was carried out some actions on
English teaching process at Megalia English course in collecting the data. Techniques of data
collection in this research include;
o Pre-test, in this case the researcher was using an oral test which is given toward students
before implementing the classroom action research in order to diagnose the students
ability in speaking because at first cycle in doing the classroom action research is
planning. Planning was effective after doing the pre-test. The researcher was prepared
questions to be asked, to make the pre-test valid and reliable the reseacher recorded the
pre-test activity by using the video recording.
o Observation checklist, The researcher noted the obtained data based on the activity
during the English teaching process. How the researcher help the students to make
them understand the lesson, how the researcher lead them to communicate each other
and how the researcher solve the problems during English teaching process in the class
through Communicative Language Teaching.
o Post-test, In this case the researcher used an oral test to measure the improvement of
students’ speaking skill and the researcher also used the video recording to make the
post-test valid and reliable.
The technique of Communicative Language Teaching is the focus that was applied in
the proccess of English Teaching in this study.
Classroom Action Research Design Procedure
The researcher organized her teaching and learning condition from her own experience.
The researcher tried an idea as reparation in their teaching learning process and look the real
effect of those efforts. There are four components in one cycle for doing classroom action
research. It consists of planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. This classroom action
research was arranged into two cycles. The activities that were be done in each cycle is as
follows:
(Kemmis, S., and McTaggart, 1988)

Mister Gidion Maru
a. Planning
The plan was arranged based on the pre observation by the researcher. At first the
students was given several questions about daily activities that must be answered orally as
their pre-test as bellow;
1. Tell me about yourself.
2. What do you usually do in morning?
3. What do you usually do after school?
4. What do you usually do in evening?
5. How do you spend your weekend?
The researcher planned the action based on the problem and the material to apply at
the class by using the Communicative Language Teaching. After determining the material
the researcher prepared a lesson plan in order to guide the researcher in implementing the
strategy. The researcher also provided the other preparation such as an instrument to be used
in class. In this case students are supposed to be able to build their confidence to practie and
to express their thought. Observation sheet was also be prepared by the teacher to be filled
by the collabolator.
b. Acting
After planning the actions, in this stage the researcher implemented the strategy by
using those preparations and the lesson plan as the guidance.
For instance the teacher applied the procedure and the method of Communicative
Language Teaching in explaining the material to students by using the own material of
Megalia English Course.
c. Observing
In this case the researcher needed a collaborator to help the researcher in doing the
observation because the next step to monitor and to watch closely the teaching learning
process and to collect the data from the result of action.
The researcher prepared the observation sheet to collect the data besed on the situation
of the class and the observation was be done by the collaborator by noted the all things which
are needed during the teaching-learning process.
d. Reflecting
Reflecting means to analyze the result based on the data that have been collected to
determine the next action in the next cycle. The teacher analyzed the whole action that has
been done based on the data that was be collected by the collabolator and the researcher.
In this case, the researcher observed the activity that results any process, the progress
happened, and also about the positives and negatives sides during the teaching and learning
procces.
Data Analysis
In this step, the researcher analyzed the data through reflecting stage and the observation
checklist of the Classroom Action Research in the teaching learning process. The researcher
also analyzed the data by using a simple statistic by collating the data from the pre-test and
the post test. This means that the researcher used qualitative and quantitative technique in
analyzing the data.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIOS
Pre-Test
The researcher used an oral test which was given toward students before implementing
the classroom action research in order to diagnose the students’ ability in speaking before
using the Communicative Language Teaching method. It was the result of pre-test became
the source of planning further action. Its results were also taken to compare with the result
after the cycle.
First Cycle
First Meeting
The class was very noisy when the teacher entered the class but one student as the
chairman of the class asked her friends to be silent. Based on the result of the pre-test, there
were just several students in the class who did not know how to introduce their self so the
teacher moved the seat of the students and paired the more proficient students with the less
proficient students.
This meeting students were expected to know how to tell their activities in English
and to make a conversation about their daily activities. The teacher used Communicative
Language Teaching types of activities such as, an oral practice, a brief dialog, using pictures
and game related to the topic. First, the teacher asked the daily activities of students by using
Indonesian and they could answered the question well but when the teacher asked them in
English, they just answered the questions with some simple activities such as “Go to school,
lunch, dinner and sleep”. So, the teacher presented some kinds of daily activities by using
picture to the students that was prepared by the teacher in the lesson plan (see appendix 3)
and discussed it together with questions and answers about the pictures and connected the
picture with students’ own experience.
After that the teacher asked students to write down their own daily activities so the
teacher could know that students understood the lesson or not. The teacher also asked students
to read the dialog in pair in front of the class to improve the students’ confidence in speaking
and also it can provide opportunities for learners to experiment and try out what they know.
Mister Gidion Maru
The teacher paired the more proficient students with the less proficient students so the more
proficient students could help the teacher easier to reach the less proficient one.
Next, the students were asked by the teacher about their daily activities they were very
excited and answered it louder. Next, the teacher gave them a game that related to the topic
‘BINGO’, the teacher distributed pictures of BINGO (See appendix 3) about daily activities
and the students have to decide which one of the activities that must come first, second, etc.
By the end of the meeting, the students were given a review about the subject they have
learned during 90 minutes and the teacher also asked students to make a descriptive text
about their daily activities at home.
Second meeting
The class began as usual at 15.00 pm and the teacher planned to continue the using
of Communicative Language Teaching Method in the second meeting. In this meeting the
teacher distributed a brief dialog about daily activities and she read the dialog and asked
students to imitate her. Next, the teacher asked students the difficult words that the students
did not know. When the dialog was clear the teacher asked students to read the dialog after
her and they were doing the same things about four times. Next the teacher asked to read in
pair a dialog in front of class.
Reflecting
In this step the teacher analyzed the whole action that has been done in the first
meeting and the second meeting based on the data that was collected by the collaborator
and the teacher. In this case, the teacher observed the activity that results any process, the
progress happened, and also about the positives and negatives sides during the teaching and
learning process. Based on the reflection, the students met a difficulty in answering the pre-
test because they did not know anything about the questions except the question number one
so they did not know how to answer it. In the classroom the students gave their attention to
the lesson not more than fifteen minutes so they often need changes of focus to keep their
interested in the English class after fifteen minutes. A brief dialog, oral practice and games
related to the lesson could help the teacher to keep their attention in learning English to meet
the goal.
When the teacher asked the students to come in front to read their work in pair, they
still felt afraid but the method was good enough because the students were active in speaking
during the English learning process in the class. When the teacher saw that the students were
getting bored, she gave them a song to sing and she gave them a game related to the lesson
and also related with the method to take the students attention. There were two students that
needed a special technique because they need more time to understand the lesson, they were
active but they made mistakes many times so the teacher asked them more often to make
them understand well so they could adjust with the other students.
The method of Communicative Language Teaching was effective to the students.
Based on the result of the post-test in the first cycle, some students could pass the test very
well but there were still several students could not pass the test so the teacher carried the
second cycle on the research.
Second Cycle
First Meeting
At first, the teacher gave a table of daily activities and explained how to fill the table
that they have to interview their firiends by asking the questions above. The students looked
very enthusiastic to fulfil the table by asking the other students’ daily activities even were
very clumsy to speak but they tried so hard because the teacher promised to give them a high
score for those who could fulfil the table.
Next, the teacher let the students to play games that related to the topic which called
“The wind is blowing”. At first the teacher arranged the seat of the students so when the
teacher said “The wind is blowing” the students should respond the statement with “where
is the wind blowing” and the teacher for example will answer “The wind is blowing to the
students who get up at 5 o’clock in the morning”. So the students who usually get up at 5
o’clock in the morning should stand up and find another seat to be sat but they just allowed
to choose the seats of their friend who want to move to another seat. The student who did not
find a seat must stand up and say “the wind is blowing”. His friend must respond him with
“where is the wind blowing” and the student who stand has to answer with the statement
related to the daily activity. In this game the students were expected to practice their speaking
skill so the students were not allowed to use Indonesian.
After playing games the students were given a review about the subject and next the
teacher gave them an assignment to make a dialog of daily activities at home.
Second Meeting
In the second meeting at the second cycle the teacher gave the students several attractive
games which called “What am I doing?” and “Lying Game”. The teacher divided the students
into 9 groups so each group consisted of two students. One students said “what am I doing”
and the other students guess by saying “you are...(Eating, sleeping, going to school etc).
After doing ten activities the teacher asked the students to exchange the position.
For the second activity the teacher was still using game that related to the topic to help
the students practice their speaking skill “Lying Game”. At first the teacher asked students
to write their own daily activities on a sheet of paper based on the five questions that have
been written by the teacher. 10 minutes later the teacher collected the paper and divided the
Mister Gidion Maru
students in two groups after that shared the paper and she had to be sure that the students
did not get their own paper. The teacher asked one student “what time do you usually get
up in the morning” and the students answered “I usually get up at 5 o’clock” and another
student who got the paper should check if the first student told the truth or not and if the first
student was lying so the students that got the paper should tell “You are lying, you said that
you usually get up at 5 o’clock but actually you usually get up at 6 o’clock”. After playing
this game the teacher review all of the material by asking the students about their activities
in English and almost all students could answered it well.
Reflecting
Finally, the researcher as the teacher evaluated that there were improvements at the
class X-B after implementing the Communicative Language Teaching types of activities in
the class. The level of students’ concentration increased so the students could understand the
lesson well. Most of them could minimize their fears and shy to speak so they could speak
without any worries although sometimes they made mistakes. The use of Communicative
Language Teaching types of activities also makes the process of the teaching and learning
activities enjoyable and interesting so the students could pass the standard average score (70)
that have been decided by the researcher as the teacher .
Conclusion
Based on what has been collected and analyzed by the researcher in teaching English
at the first level students of Megalia English Course the researcher concluded that Students
work more cooperatively from the first steep till the last steep in the cycles and it could be
seen from the result of the test. There were improvements of the students’ score in the first
cycle to the second cycle because of the implementing of Communicative Language Teaching
type of activities as follow: (a) Presentation of a brief dialog or several mini dialogs and a
discussion of the function and situation-people, roles setting topic (b) Questions and answers
based on the dialog. (c) Questions and answers related to students personal experience but
centered on the dialog theme. (d) Individual work. (e) Pair works. (f) Evaluation of learning.
(g) Sampling of the written homework assignment. (h) Games related to the topic. (g) Oral
pratice.
References
Brumfit, Christopher. (1984). Communicative Methodology in Language Teaching.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Harmer, Jeremy. (1991) The Practice of English language teaching. New York: Longman
Group UK
Hymes , D. H. (1972). The communicative approach to language teaching (2nd ed). Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Jeremy Harmer. (2003). The Practice of English Language Teaching, England: Longman.
Kayi, Hayriye. (2006). Teaching Speaking: Activities to Promote Speaking in a Second
Language. The Internet TESL Journal.
Kemmis, S., M and McTaggard, R. (Eds.) 1988. The action research planner (3rd ed.,
substantially revised), Geelong: Deakin University press.
Li. (2011). Communicative Language Teaching in Current Chinese Colleges and Universities.
Thesis
Nasution, S. (1995) Metode Research (Penelitian Ilmiah). Jakarta: Bumi Akrasa. Ed. Cet.
5.
Nation and Macalister. (2010). Language Curriculum Design. New York: Routledge.
Nunan, (1993). Research Method In Language Learning (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Nunan, D. (2003). The impact of English as a global language on educational policies and
practices in the Asian-Pacific region. TESOL quarterly
Richard J, (2006). Communicative Language Teaching Today. United Stated of America:
Cambridge University Press. Cambridge University Press.
Widdowson. H. (1987). Aspects of syllabus design. In M. Tickoo (ed). Language Syllabuses:
State of the Art. Singapore: Regional Language Centre.
LEARNING POETRY WITH QUANTUM

LEARNING METHOD
Fiola Kuhon
Abstract
The aims of this research were to find whether Quantum Learning Method is effective in
increasing students’ understanding in learning poetry and how Quantum Learning Method affects the
students’ understanding in learning poetry during the teaching and learning process. This research
applied Classroom Action Research model, thus it used both quantitative and qualitative data. The
quantitative data were taken from the results of final test and the qualitative data were taken from
field notes and observation sheet. Meanwhile, this study was conducted in one cycle only since
the results from cycle one was successful. Therefore this study did not continue to the next cycle.
The result from the final test showed that 100% of the students passed the test with the average
points of 15,05 (75,25). Thus, the use of instrumental music as one of the techniques of Quantum
Learning Method helped the students to feel comfortable and relaxed during the activities in the
classroom. The selective instrumental music provided a supportive atmosphere for the students to
feel relaxed and comfortable while doing the learning activities; both reading and analyzing.Based
on the findings, it can be concluded that the use of Quantum Learning Method in learning poetry was
effective. Thus, because of its effectiveness in helping students to learn poetry, it is suggested to be
used in the classroom.
Keywords: Quantum Learning, Poetry, Classroom Action Research, music, instrumental
music.
INTRODUCTION
Reading a literary work is found by many people as an entertaining activity. Some

tend to read as a daily need while the others make it as a hobby. However, a literary work was
actually made not only to entertain but it was also created purposely to educate the readers
in some ways. Most of the literary works were created by being inserted with many moral
values that the author wanted it to be read and grasped by the readers. Among those literary
works, there is poetry.
Poetry, as one of the genres of literature, is described by Matthew Arnold as “simply
the most beautiful, impressive and widely effective mode of saying things, and hence its
Learning Poetry With Quantum Learning Method Fiola Kuhon 70
importance (1917:20).” According to the definition above, it is concluded that poetry is

deeper and wider than a group of words. It also has emotional value that comes to represent
and to express the feeling that is felt and experienced by the author in aesthetic way. As a
matter of fact, through the words by words, the readers can find that every poem is unique in
its way. By reading a poem, readers can dig out many things from its lines. By considering
these advantages, it is assumed that a poem clearly can be a good media for teaching.
Besides the fact that a poem can provide readers with moral values, the reading process
itself can increase students’ reading skill since reading a poem is difference with reading
novel or short stories. As we know, commonly a poem uses differ diction from others literary
works. That is why reading poem needs deeper understanding. As a matter of fact, reading
and learning poetry are found difficult and boring by the majority of the students. They
usually fail during the process of analyzing and catching the meaning of poetry. One of the
factors is that poetry has its own language style with flowery diction and figurative language.
However, another important factor which determines the successful in learning poetry is
the unaffordable situation in class. Some students happen to be uninterested during the
teaching and learning process because teachers or lecturers are failed in creating a suitable
and supporting atmosphere in classroom. Moreover, poetry has more to offer. Beside the
linguistic aspects which can be analyzed, there are also message and moral value that can
enrich the students’ awareness and understanding towards the reality. Thus, creating and
providing the students an enjoyable and supporting atmosphere is not an easy job, especially
for lecturers. The appropriate method must be used. Therefore, these days the teachers and
lecturers are interested in using Quantum Learning Method.
Quantum Learning Model was formerly introduced in 1982 by Bobbie DePorter
who was the student of Lazanov. Lazanov was an educator from Bulgaria and developed
suggestopedia or suggestology or known as accelerated learning. He developed it by seeing
the physical surroundings and atmosphere of the classroom as the important part. By
ensuring that the students are comfortable, confident and relax, it will enhance the teaching
and learning process. In its relation to writing, this model can be applied in order to support
the students in learning writing and to help the teacher transfer the material that engages
and energizes the students. Because teaching a certain topic, not only needs good material
delivery but also needs good atmosphere in the classroom. This model is the combination
of suggestology, accelerated learning and neurolinguistics with the learning theory, where
in neurolinguistics is about how the brain controls the achieved information while learning.
It means that in learning the students and the teacher can increase motivation, increase the
score in the learning, and strengthen confidence and positive attitude (Sagala 2005: 105).
Other principle in quantum learning approach is learning with orchestral accompaniment.
The utilization of music could be the power of catalyzing students’ interest and motivation
(Degeng, 2005, De Potter, 1992; Lozanov, 1978). Music also stimulates the brain’s prefrontal
lobes that coordinate thinking patterns. This stimulation, in turn, energizes the emotional
centers of the brain. When all of these brain functions are stimulated and synchronized,
information is rapidly processed and readily retained. (http://wvm.dnamusic.com/articles/
quantumlearning.html/)
A careful choice of the kind of music such as harmony with the literary work and
language learning will arouse the students’ interest and motivation. Those activities can
lead students out of their thoughts that learning poetry is boring. It will also motivate them
to learn many things from poetry in an enjoyable and more various ways. If the students
become interested and motivated in the class, it will be easier for them to learn and grasp the
information which will be taught by the lecturer.
Meanwhile, analyzing a poem, it means that we need an approach. From many kinds
of approach, the writer chooses expressive approach which is assumed as the most proper
approach that can stimulates students’ creativity and sensitivity.
“Expressive approach judged the work by its sincerity or genuine or adequacy to the
poet’s individual vision or state mind; and it often looks in the work for evidence of the
author who consciously has revealed in it.” (Abrams.1979; 22). Analyzing poem by using
expressive approach is seen promisingly advantageous. It emphasizes students’ reading skill
automatically because they need to read the background of the poetry. It also stimulates
students’ creativity in exploring the story portrayed in the poem itself by adjusting word
by word, line per line of the poetry with the story behind the process of making that poetry.
Moreover, by applying an expressive approach, students’ will be trained to be critical in
thinking yet sensitive at the same time. This activity also provides moral values that will
be found in every poem. Therefore, both cognitive and affective of the students will be
stimulated increasingly.
Poetry is one of the obligatory subjects in Language Literature Department program.
However, in reality, some students found it difficult to learn and analyze poetry, in spite of
their necessity to learn it. Although college students are expected to be more independent as
individual learning, but the writer thought that lecturers also need to persuade and support
them in all way possible during the teaching and learning process. Quantum Learning was
chosen because it was considered suitable in helping the students to be more attracted and
enthusiastic during the analysis process in teaching and learning activities.
1. To find out the effectiveness of Quantum Learning in increasing students’ understanding
in learning poetry.
2. To explain how Quantum Learning can affect the students’ understanding in learning
poetry during teaching and learning process.
METHODOLOGY
The research had been carried out at Manado State University in the academic year of
2015-2016. This university is located in Tataaran, South Tondano, North Sulawesi province.
The research had been conducted from February 17th until March 16th with the total of 5
meetings. The action research subject or participant of this study is class A English Literature
program, 8th semester which consists of 20 students.
The research design which had been used was a Classroom Action Research (CAR),
which is based on the writer’s assumption was proper in finding out the effectiveness of
Quantum Learning Method in teaching poetry. The procedure of this classroom action
research referred to the following model: the process of using two or more processes of
research, known as the first, second, third and so on cycle. Meanwhile the system uses the
sequence of activities in a process that starts from planning, implementation, observation,
and reflection.
Research Instruments
1. Test (Quantitative)
Written tests were used in this study to measure the students’ after learning poetry
using quantum learning method. The result of the test can indicate whether there is any
improvement within the students after studying poetry using quantum learning method.
2. Observation and Field Note (Qualitative)
The Observation used in this research in order to collect the required data towards the
implementation of quantum learning method in teaching poetry. The researcher collected
the data by closely watching and noticing class events, or the interaction happened among
the participant. The teacher observed the students activity while the teaching and learning
process. Field note were used in order to record the data which cannot be contained in the
observation sheet.
The qualitative data was analyzed by following Huberman’s approach to data analysis
(2014).
Meanwhile, the quantitative was analyzed by using the formula:

N
Where:
M = Mean score
= The Sum of Total Score
N = The Total Number of the Students
The formula which had been used in analyzing the percentage students’
achievement is as follows; (Arikunto; 2002)
P= ∑ total nilai siswa x 100%
∑ siswa

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
On the last meeting, the students were administered with the final test. While they
were doing the test, the music was still played to make them feel familiar with the feelings
and the atmosphere. The data from the written test are shown in the table below;
Table 1.1 Students’ Final Test Result

Students’ Numbers Points Grades
1 15 B
2 15 B
3 16 B
4 16 B
5 15 B
6 16 B
7 12 C
8 15 B
9 17 A
10 14 B
11 16 B
12 15 B
13 9 C
14 17 A
15 12 C
16 16 B
17 15 B
18 15 B
19 16 B
20 19 A
∑ = 301
The table below is to show the result of the written test. The written test was given at
the end of cycle one. As stated above, the test had 4 questions with 4 points for each correct
answer and 4 points for overall grammar.
Table 1.2 The Percentage of Final Test Result

A B C D E
20-17 16-13 12-9 points 8-5 points 4-1 points
3 students 14 students 3 students - -
30% 70% 30% - -
Based on the data shown in the table 1.1 and 1.2, the results depict that from the total
amount of students which are 20 students; 3 students got A, 14 students got B, and 3 students
got C.
P = ∑ total poin x 100%
∑ siswa
= 301 x 100%
20
= 15, 05 (75,25 in scale 100 scores)
The average score of the written test is 15,05 points (75,25). Those numbers are
categorized B in grades, which means that cycle 1 was successful. Therefore, this study did
not continue with cycle 2.
Discussion
In analyzing a poem, reading process plays an important role to get the information
needed by the readers, especially students. A supportive and positive atmosphere is needed to
help them feel comfortable in doing it. One of the techniques in quantum learning approach
is learning with orchestral accompaniment. The utilization of music could be the power
of catalyzing students’ interest and motivation (Degeng, 2005, De Potter, 1992; Lozanov,
1978). A careful choice of the kind of music such as harmony with the literary work and
language learning will arouse the students’ interest and motivation. The power of volume has
to be controlled as not to overcome speech.
Research on psycholinguistics reveals that songs can activate language acquisition

and learning in both hemispheres of the human brain (Carroll, 2000; Larsen-Freeman and
Long, 2000; Williams and Burden, 1997).
By involving music as one of the strategies in Quantum Learning Method, the writer
tried to provide that atmosphere for students to experience a new situation in learning poetry.
Music was chosen because it seemed promising and beneficial for learning. Many teachers
had used music as a media for teaching and it showed positive results. It was proven to
have a positive impact in learning activities. In general, the foremost function of songs is
to provide relaxation and recreation. Gaston (1968) has pointed out that music has several
therapeutic functions, such as promoting self-esteem through increased self-satisfaction in
musical performance and using the unique potential of rhythm to energize and bring order.
Based on the field notes taken from the second meeting, when the students were assigned
to work in groups and start to read the materials, some groups seemed to be unfocused and
talked out of topic. However, when the instrumental music was played, it grasped their
attention and it kind of reminding them about their task. Thus, they started to be calmer,
quiet and read the materials given quietly. The materials given consisted of the poem and
some supporting information about Edgar Allan Poe’s biography. Most students started with
reading the poem first. It could be seen that they found difficulties in understanding the
poem. Therefore, they began to discuss with their friends. The discussion was in fact out of
expectation. The writer thought that it would be quite noisy. However, they tried to speak
modestly so that their voices did not overlap the background music.
Moreover, according to the observation sheet and the field notes, the researcher found
that the use of the instrumental music was really helpful for the students to gain an enjoyable
and relax atmosphere while they were reading material or analyzing a poem. An open
questioned was asked to them after they were given the treatment for the first time and most
of the students gave a positive feedback about the music. Besides the fact that it helped them
with their mood, feeling and emotion, it also happened that instrumental music helped them
to be more focused because it isolated them from the surroundings. According to Brewer
and Campbell (1991), Music has the unique quality of integrating emotional, cognitive and
psychomotor elements that activate and synchronize brain activity. Therefore, instrumental
music as the background had a positive influence towards the students’ emotion while they
were reading and analyzing a poem. Moreover, music indeed influenced the cognitive process
in the brain and synchronized brain activity. It means that it activated both hemispheres
in the brain. Meanwhile, the cognitive process is left hemisphere’s responsibility. It is
where language, analytic thought, reason, logic and writing are being processed. The right
hemisphere on the other hand, engages in synthesizing several different parts to create a
cohesive whole when processing new information (Williams, 1997). It is also responsible in
music recognition. Therefore, listening to instrumental music is a positive activity in learning

poetry, especially in poem analysis. As a matter of fact, this activity optimizes the students’
critical thinking as one of cognitive process. Hence, the result shown was positive.
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
a. Conclusion
Based on the findings, the writer had concluded some points as follows;
The use of Quantum Learning Method in learning and understanding poetry at Manado
State University was effective. It was seen from the results data which shown that 100%
of the students were successful with the test where 15% students (3 students) got A, 70%
students (14) got B and the remaining 15% students (3 students) got C. Meanwhile, the
average score of the written test is 15,05 from the total 20 points (75,25). Those numbers
are categorized B in grades, which means that cycle 1 was successful. It can be concluded
that the implementation of Quantum Learning Method in learning and analyze poetry is
effective.
The use of Quantum Learning Method and expressive approach was effective in
increasing students’ understanding in learning poetry. With the use of the expressive
approach, the students learnt how relate a literary work with the person who created it.
In this case, with the material of Poe’s background which consisted of his life story, the
students were successful to analyze his two poems “To Helen” and “The Haunted Palace”
and relate the story with Poe’s background. Meanwhile, the use of music as one of the
techniques of Quantum Learning Method has helped the students to feel comfortable and
relaxed during the activities in the classroom. The selective instrumental music provides
a supportive atmosphere for the students to feel relaxed and comfortable while doing the
learning activities; both reading and analyzing.
b. Suggestion
It is suggested to use the Quantum Learning Method in learning poetry. This method
is seemed suitable and effective to help increasing the students’ understanding in learning
poetry. It was caused by a fact that with music companion, the students were having an
enjoyable, relaxing and comfortable experience in learning, especially in reading poem and
analyzing it.
REFFERENCES
Abrams, M.H. The Mirror and The Lamp : Romantic Theory and The
Critical Tradition. New York: Oxford University Press.1979.
Arikunto, S. Prosedur Penelitian : Suatu Pendekatan Praktek. Edisi Revisi V. Jakarta : PT.
Rineka Cipta. 2002.
Brewer, Chris. Campbell, Don. Rhythms of Learning. Tucson: Zephyr Press. 1991.
Bruwer, C. Music and Learning. 2005.
Carroll, D.W. Psychology of Language. Beijing: Brooks/Cole/Thomson
Learning Asia. 2000.
Degeng S. N. Teori Pembelajaran 2: Terapan. Universitas Kanjuruhan. 2005.
DePorter, B. Quantum Learning. Great Britain: Judy Piatkus Publishers Ltd.1992.
Douglas. C. N. Forty Thousand Quotations: Prose and Poetical. New York:
Halcyon House. 1917.
Gaston, E.T. Music in Therapy. New York: Macmillan. 1968.
Hudson, W.H. An introduction to the study of the Literature. London. 1965.
Lozanov, G. Suggestology and Outlines of Suggestopedy. New York. 1978.
McGovern, T.V & Hogshead, D.L. Learning about writing, thinking about teaching.
Teaching of psychology, 17, 5-10. 1990.
Miles, B.M, Huberman, A.M, Saldana J. Qualitative Data Analysis. A Methods
Sourcebook. 3rd Edition. Sage Publication. Los Angeles: 2014.
Patel, A. (2003). Language, music, syntax and the brain. Nature Neuroscience, 6(7),
674-681. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nn1082
Sagala, S. Konsep dan Makna Pembelajaran. Bandung: Rineka Cipta. 2005.
Williams, M., & Burden, R. L. Psychology for Language Teaching.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1997.
(http://wvm.dnamusic.com/articles/quantumlearning.html/)
IMPROVING STUDENTS’ DESCRIPTIVE PARAGRAPH

WRITING ABILITY THROUGH RAFT TECHNIQUE AT
ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF MANADO
STATE UNIVERSITY
Fadhlan Saini
Abstract
This research was conducted to find out whether RAFT technique can improve students’ writing
ability and to explain how RAFT technique can improve students’ writing ability. This research used
Classroom Action Research with the combination of Quantitative data (scores of pre-test and post-
test ) and Qualitative data in the form of observation, field notes, journal and documentations. The
number of students involved in this research was 20 students. The implementation of this research
was conducted in two cycles, every cycle consisted of three meetings with the steps of planning,
acting, observing and reflecting. The findings through quantitative data of this research displayed an
improvement with the percentage of the mean scores from pre-test and post-test. The mean score of
pre-test was 50.75 and the mean score of post-test in cycle 2 was 81.9. The percentage of the students
who could pass the standard score was 10 % and 100 % from pre-test to post-test cycle 2. It means
that there was 31.5 increased from pre-test to post-test and 90 % students could reach the standard
score (minimum criterion) since pre-test to post-test cycle 2. While in qualitative data, the results
through observation checklist, field notes, the researcher’s journal, and documentations showed that
the use of the RAFT technique could improve students’ ability in writing descriptive paragraph. The
students became active, initiative, and responsible to their writing. Additionally, the students were
interested in the use of RAFT technique due to the RAFT aspects in helping them to write descriptive
paragraph orderly. Based on the findings, it could be concluded that RAFT technique was effective
to be used in improving university students’ ability in writing descriptive paragraph. Regarding on
the conclusion, this research is recommended to English Lecturers or Teachers in teaching writing to
improve students’ ability.
Keywords: Writing, Writing ability, University Student, Descriptive Paragraph, RAFT (Role,
Action, Format, Topic), Classroom Action Research
Improving Students’ Descriptive Paragraph ... Fadhlan Saini 80
INTRODUCTION
The need of writing ability constitutes as a compulsory subject taught from elementary
up to university. In Indonesia as well, students are insisted in mastering skills which are
covered listening, speaking, reading and writing. Sudarningsih & Wardana (2011) give an
opinion that writing is a skill to express the language although by the written form. In a
word, writing synthesizes as a tool that can be used to interact.
Consequently, writing can be classified as an interaction among others. Because
of the reasons, mastering writing is not easy. Oshima and Hogue (1999) also agree that
mastering writing, particularly academic writing is not easy. It allows students to express
something about themselves, explore and explain an ideas. In English language teaching, a
few researchers had used statement markings that skill of writing in the classroom can be
productive skill. Pollard (2008) further believes that writing is a productive skill and it can
be such a similar way to treat it in class with the teaching and learning of speaking. This
statement declares that writing skill in classroom can be considered as one of the powerful
skill.
Interestingly, Clanchy and Ballard (1987) put forward that writing means as a process
of transferring thoughts into written words and connecting those thoughts systematically
one upon another in a coherent manner. From the statement, transferring is virtually meant
necessary to deliver. However, the process of transferring is sometime found difficult by
many students. From the words, writing has determined as the uneasy subject to learn.
Based on the background, teaching writing is important. Raimes (1983) states that
there are three reasons why teaching writing is considered important. The first is that writing
reinforces the grammatical form, idioms, and vocabulary that the teachers have been doing
within the class. The second is when the students write, they have chance to be familiar with
a language for themselves and readers. The last is the students involve with the language with
himself / herself and with his/her readers. This might be one of the reasons of all the English
teachers to cope the difficulties in teaching writing. Due to such an important aspect, the
need of writing is widely known in universities and institutions. That is why the constitution
of this subject is suggested to be mastered.
Despite being the importance one, there are many university students who do not rely
on that subject. In English Education Department of Manado State University, however, it was
found that the writing skill of the third semester students of English Education Department
especially in writing descriptive paragraph is still low. Descriptive paragraph is considered
as a kind of paragraph which gives information to tell the description of something we can
sense. Mostly, that description explains about visual sense as related with Fine Clouse’s
opinions in 2004. Fine (2004) elaborates that description adds an important dimension to our
lives because it moves our emotion and expands our experience. The following sentences
reveal that the description in descriptive paragraph is characterized as the primary functions.
The functions may spread the writer’s ability in expanding sentences to deliver something
and also controlling the emotions of the writer.
According to Zemach and Rumisek (2005), descriptive paragraph explains about how
someone or something looks or feels and a process to explain how something is done. The
indication of the words can be clarified that descriptive paragraph exhibits to the things
which are going to be described. Oshima and Hogue (2007) state in line that descriptive
paragraph is the ability to describe people, places, or objects accurately. From the statement,
it can be summarized that descriptive paragraph contains the explanation descriptively and
accurately.
From the observation and experience in teaching writing at English Education
Department collaborated with the lecturer, it was found that the students were difficult to write
descriptive paragraph very well. It was defined also that many students confused and did not
have any better instruction to understand how to write the descriptive paragraph properly.
The students did not know to focus on what they were writing during writing activity. They
confused with writing problems in organizing, structuring, spelling, punctuating, using proper
diction and monitoring their writing (Sudarningsih and Wardana, 2011). Some of the students
were also getting bored during the process of the writing. On the other hand, the students did
not only face problems like they usually get such as vocabulary, grammar, coherence, and
organization, they also faced some factors which influence their ability especially in writing.
These components require and challenge the researcher to offer solutions for this problem.
Indeed, to overcome the problem, the appropriate technique can be used. Ransdell
and Laure Barbier (2002) maintain that a good writing technique can be trained, it can
improve writing performance. In terms of concerning the definition, the current researcher is
interested to apply RAFT technique in teaching writing. This technique can be said to help
the students understand their role as writer, the audience they are addressed to, the varied
formats for writing, and the topic they were writing about (Santa, 1988). Santa reveals that
RAFT technique is the acronym of R (Role of the writer,) A (Audience to whom the product
is being directed), F (Format of the product is being created) and T (Topic of the product),
(Parilasanti, Suarnajaya, Marjohan, 2014).
The contribution of the aspects can strengthen and direct the students to have a good
result in writing. Moreover, RAFT technique is believed as a potential writing technique
which is to help the students to understand effectively and to be able to communicate their
ideas and their role as writer so that the readers can understand the writing. Allen Simon
(2012) adds that RAFT technique helps the students more focus on the audience they will
address, the varied formats for writing, and the topic they will be writing about. In the other
meaning, the opinion emphasizes on the role of a teacher in encouraging the students to write
effectively, to help the students in determining topics, and to see the ability of the students.
The procedures and organizations of RAFT allow the improvement of students’ skill
and their awareness as well as to think critically. The following illustrations are suggested
from Buehl (2009), analyzing the important ideas or information that the teacher wants the
students to learn from a story, a textbook passage, or other classroom material, brainstorming
possible roles that students could assume by deciding who the audience will be for this
communication and determine the format for the writing. Then, after the students complete
the reading assignment, the teacher writes RAFT on the chalkboard and list the role, audience,
format, and topic for their writing. The teacher can assign the same roles for the writing or
offer several different roles from which students can choose. Finally is doing an authentic
examples for a specific RAFT project for students to consult as they plan their writing.
Within this context, the research questions formulated in this research are : Can the use
of RAFT technique improve students’ writing ability? How can RAFT technique improve
students’ writing ability?
METHODOLOGY
This study was employed through quantitative and qualitative analysis by using
RAFT as a technique to improve students’ ability in writing descriptive paragraph. The
research design in this study was classroom action research. The major characteristics of
action research can be done through the following patterns listed by Kember (2000). The
patterns are concerned with social practice, aimed towards improvement, a cyclical process,
pursued by systematic enquiry, a reflective process, a participative, and determined by the
practitioners.
Somekh (2006) emphasizes that the classroom action research gives a benefit as they
learn from their own practice, then the teachers become more aware of what is going on in
their classroom.
In handling through this research, the researcher conducted two cycles in which consisted
of four interconnected activities, namely Planning, Acting, Observing and Reflecting. As the
main required data, the researcher embodied university students as the subject and Manado
State University as its location. The researcher took class A (writing class) in the level
of writing III of the fourth semester students in English Education Department. The total
students in the class were 20 students with 17 girls and 3 boys.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
Findings
The objective of this research was to find out whether RAFT technique was effective
or not and to explain how was the RAFT technique improve students’ writing ability. The
required data were collected from pre-test, post-test and observation in each cycle. In
accordance with the improvement of the students, the researcher had done with two cycles.
Every cycle was done in three meetings within two months. In cycle 1, the researcher
held the meetings on Thursday morning per week. As the first stage of cycle such as planning,
the researcher designed the instructional activities and observation checklist to look forward
the students’ achievement through cycle 1. The researcher implemented this research through
descriptive paragraph writing in line with the use of RAFT technique by presenting, pairing,
and a game as its method of learning in classroom.
The observation indicated that the students were not applicable enough in doing the
paragraph through RAFT technique. The indication of the reflected moments showed that
the implementation of cycle 1 did not effective enough. The results of cycle 1 displayed
that RAFT technique could not reach all of students’ ability to write descriptive paragraph
properly. Hence, cycle 2 was required to implement.
The stages in cycle 2 were significantly arised instead of cycle 1. The planning, acting,
observing and reflecting declared that the researcher satisfied and stopped continuing to find
out in the next cycle. The researcher provided a clear instruction in order to have a better plan
rather than cycle 2. It was managed by revising the instructional teaching requirements such
as lesson plan, teaching methodologies and new topics to enhance students’ comprehension
to write.
The findings drawn that the students could perform a good attitude while doing the
process of writing with RAFT technique. Likewise, the three meetings in cycle 2 drawn an
effective learning throughout the lesson. It can be said that the implementation of RAFT
technique in cycle 2 was offered to solve the students’ problem in writing descriptive
paragraph.
Discussion
Quantitatively, the discussion was administered from the data in pre-teaching and
after post-teaching. The researcher conducted a pre-test in order to know students’ ability
in writing. Otherwise, a post-test was conducted to measure and conclude the students’
achievement toward a cycle. The data was calculated with the following formula by by
Hatch and Hossein (1981) :
discussion
discussion
discussion
Quantitatively,
Quantitatively, the
the discussion
discussion was
was administered
administered from
from the
the data
data in
in pre-teaching
pre-teaching and
and
Quantitatively, the discussion was administered from the data in pre-teaching and
after
after
Improving post-teaching.
post-teaching.
Students’ The
The
Descriptive researcher
... conducted
researcher
Paragraph conducted aa pre-test
pre-test in
in order
order to
to know students’
know Fadhlan
students’ ability
84 in
ability
Saini in
after post-teaching. The researcher conducted a pre-test in order to know students’ ability in
writing.
writing. Otherwise,
Otherwise, aa post-test
post-test was
was conducted
conducted toto measure
measure and and conclude
conclude the
the students’
students’
writing. Otherwise, a post-test was conducted to measure and conclude the students’
achievement
achievement toward
toward aa cycle.
cycle. The
The data
data was
was calculated
calculated with
with the
the following
following formula
formula byby by
by Hatch
Hatch
achievement toward a cycle. The data was calculated with the following formula by by Hatch
and
and Hossein
Hossein (1981)
(1981) ::
and Hossein (1981) :
X
X= =
X=
X
X==
X=
X
X= = 50,75
50,75
X = 50,75
From
From the the following
following formula,
formula, X X represented
represented as as aa mean
mean score
score ofof pre-test.
pre-test. The
The result
result of
of
From the From the following
following formula, formula, X represented
X represented as a mean
as a mean scorescore of pre-test.
of pre-test. The The result
result of of
mean
mean inscore
score in
in pre-test
pre-test was
was 50,75.
50,75. In
In short,
short, the
the data
data summarized
summarized that the
the students’ ability
mean score
mean score pre-test was 50,75.
in pre-test In short,
was 50,75. the data
In short, the summarized
data summarized that that
the students’
that students’
ability
ability
the students’ ability
before
before cycle
cycle 11 was
was very
very low.
low. Similarly,
Similarly, the
the minimum
minimum criterion
criterion was
was found
found only
only 10
10 %.
%. This
This
before cycle
before1cycle
was very 1 waslow. Similarly,
very the minimum
low. Similarly, criterioncriterion
the minimum was found wasonlyfound10 only
%. This10 was
%. This
was
wasthefar from
from thethe researcher’s
farresearcher’s researcher’s expectation since
since the
the researcher known that that they already
far fromwas far expectation expectation
from the researcher’s since the researcher
expectation
researcher
since theknown that known
researcher they
known already they already
became
that they already
became
four semester four
became students. semester
four semester students.
students. The
The percentage The percentage
can percentage
be calculated can be calculated
canthrough
be calculated through the
throughformula
the following following
the following
by
became four semester students. The percentage can be calculated through the following
formula
Anas Sudijono
formula by by Anas
(2008) Sudijono (2008)
Anas :Sudijono (2008) : :
formula by Anas Sudijono (2008) :
P
P= =
P=
P
P= =
P=
P
P= = 10
10 % %
P = 10 %
The
The explanation
explanation of
of the
the percentage
percentage brought
brought the
the reasons
reasons that
that the
the students
students should
should learn
learn aa
The explanation
The explanation of the percentage
of the percentage brought
brought the reasons
the reasons thatstudents
that the the students
shouldshould
learnlearn
a a
lot
lot in
in cycle
cycle 11 with
with RAFT
RAFT technique.
technique. However,
However, the
the calculation
calculation ofof mean
mean score
score in
in cycle
cycle II and
and its
its
lot in 1cycle
lot in cycle with1RAFT
with RAFT technique.
technique. However,
However, the calculation
the calculation of mean
of mean score
score inincycle
cycleI Iand
and its
improvement
improvement displayed
displayed that
that only
only 13
13 students
students could
could get
get through
through the
the standard
standard score.
score.
its improvement
improvement displayed
displayedthat only
that 1313students
only studentscould
couldget
getthrough
through the standard
standardscore.
score.
X
X= =
X=
X
=
X =
X=
X = 75,7
95
95
and
95

P=
P=
P=
P=
The mean scores in post-test and the percentage clarified that there was an
The mean scores
improvement in post-test
in cycle and the
1. In other percentage
words, clarified
there was thatscore
a quarrel there 24.95
was anbetween
improvement
pre-test to
in cycle 1. In other words, there was a quarrel score 24.95 between pre-test to post-test cycle
post-test cycle 1. The percentage of students who could pass the standard score at the end of
1. The percentage of students who could pass the standard score at the end of cycle 1 was
cycle 1 was counted with the same formula with pre-test,
counted with the same formula with pre-test,
P=
P=
P = 65 %
PP ==
PP ==
VOL 1, NO 1 The
The mean
mean scores
NOVEMBER 2016 in
scores in post-test
post-test and
and the
the percentage
percentage clarified
clarified that
ISSN: 2548-7728 that there
there was
85 an
was an
improvement
improvement in
in cycle
cycle 1.
1. In
In other
other words,
words, there
there was
was aa quarrel
quarrel score
score 24.95
24.95 between
between pre-test
pre-test to
to
post-test
post-test cycle
cycle 1.
1. The
The percentage
percentage of
of students
students who
who could
could pass
pass the
the standard
standard score
score at
at the
the end
end of
of
cycle
cycle 11 was
was counted
counted with
with the
the same
same formula
formula with
with pre-test,
pre-test,
PP ==
PP ==
PP == 65
65 %
%
Based on the data, the percentage gave 65 % > 10 %. It can be explained that the
Based Based
on the on the data, the percentage gave 65 % > 10 %. It can be explained that the
data, the percentage gave 65 % > 10 %. It can be explained that the
students
students could have presented their ability in
in achieving the
the score of
of cycle 1.
1. Yet, all of
of the
students could could have presented
have presented their their ability
ability achieving
in achieving the scorescore cycle
of cycle 1. Yet,Yet, all the
all of the
students
students
students did notdid not
not achieve
didachieve
achieve the
the standard
scorescore
standard
the standard score as
as expected.
expected.
as expected. Then,
Then,Then, cycle
cycle
cycle 2 was22 was
was needed.
needed.
needed. TheThe
The
development
development
development of
of cycle
of cycle 2 was22carried
cycle was
was carried
carried out
out extensively
extensively
out extensively rather
thanthan
rather
rather than
cyclecycle
cycle 1.
1. The
1. The The results
results
results indicated
indicated
indicated
that
that cycle
that cycle was22better
2cycle was
was better
than than
better cyclecycle
than 1. 1.
cycle 1.
X
X ==
X
X ==
X
X == 81,9
81,9
and
and
PP ==
PP ==
PP ==
PP == 3,203
3,203 %
%
At a finalAtcomputation in cyclein1cycle
a final computation and cycle
1 and 2.cycle
The2.students showed
The students that they
showed that could
they could
achieve achieve
the standard score through
the standard the computation
score through of mean
the computation score.score.
of mean The mean scorescore
The mean at theat96
the
96
previous cycle before
previous implementing RAFT technique to the students’ writing was 50,57,
cycle before implementing RAFT technique to the students’ writing was 50,57, in in
post-testpost-test
cycle 1 cycle
was 75,7 and the last post-test in cycle 2 was 81,9. It means that there was
1 was 75,7 and the last post-test in cycle 2 was 81,9. It means that there was
1.62 or 3.203 % of mean score improvement. Based on the data, the number of students who
1.62 or 3.203 % of mean score improvement. Based on the data, the number of students who
passed the standard score can be counted by the following formula and performed on the
passed the standard score can be counted by the following formula and performed on the
following scores at table 7,
following scores at table 7,
P=
P=
P = 100 %
The table below summarized all the scores from pre-test to the last post-test
Table 7. The performance of all the students’ scores
NO NAME STANDARD PRE-TEST POST-TEST POST-TEST

SCORE CYCLE 1 CYCLE 2
The table below summarized all the scores from pre-test to the last post-test
Table 7. The performance of all the students’ scores

STANDARD POST-TEST POST-TEST
NO NAME PRE-TEST
SCORE CYCLE 1 CYCLE 2
1. NS 75 59 91 77
2. JH 75 55 69 85
3. AM 75 75 91 90
4. MT 75 38 53 82
5. TS 75 88 78 75
6. IB 75 67 86 75
7. SB 75 47 76 76
8. AP 75 25 53 78
9. IT 75 72 76 78
10. SK 75 69 64 90
11. LS 75 64 78 85
12. CP 75 30 64 80
13. JY 75 74 98 95
14. MS 75 79 93 95
15. YK 75 25 76 85
16. NM 75 28 75 79
17. JT 75 30 81 80
18. ET 75 25 71 77
19. SS 75 25 89 81
20 FD 75 40 52 75
Total 1015 1514 1638
Mean 50.75 75.7 81.9
Percentage of improvement 49,2 % 3,203 %
Percentage of passing the standard score 10 % 65 % 100 %
Based on the calculation through the mean scores and the related percentages on table
7. It can be concluded that the students could get through the lesson quantitatively.
While in qualitatively, the discussion of the data appeared through the observation
checklist, field notes, journal, and documents with the application of RAFT technique in this
research. In cycle I, the observation was clarified that the students did not understand and
pay fully attention during the process of teaching and learning. The researcher had to make
sure and did a kind of repetition to explain every single point to the students. Besides that,
the students revealed some difficulties and undertook some mistakes due to unknown things.
This was happened in the process of teaching and learning through cycle I. The students
faced some difficulties such as using generic structures or format of the text, enhancing
vocabularies, avoiding grammatical errors and identifying neither topic sentences nor support
sentences. The process could describe that students’ attitude to start writing and conclude the
conclusion were inappropriate. Similarly with the researcher’s journal, it was addressed that
the students occasionally complained to finish their writing through
RAFT technique. The researcher found those limitations until the last meeting. In
addition, about the results of documents from the first meeting, the investigation of all
the tasks notified that the students could not reach maximally about the ability to write a
paragraph coherently.
On the contrary, cycle 2 intensively got through than cycle 1. The findings from the
observation checklist and field notes were drawn an improvement from the first to the last
meeting. The students, of approximately 5 students who had less attention and enthusiasm
changed dramatically in the cycle 2. The activities can be seen in the process of teaching
and learning during cycle 2. The students showed a better attitude toward the teaching and
learning process. For instance, the students could solve the problem without asking and
consulting to the researcher. Additionally from the journal activities, the students performed
with their enthusiasm during the meetings. The implementation was pictured that the students
sense easier to receive the lesson in the form of group. In short, the students could make
connection with a new knowledge and context in writing. The explanation can be related
with Groenke (2006) that RAFT technique can help students make connection between prior
and new knowledge and among interconnected concepts and provides a context for thinking
deeply about a topic. The reflection of this technique was seen useful throughout cycle 2. As
a result, the contribution of the students through their documentations was notified that the
students could prove their ability to have good paragraph writings and appropriate setting
with RAFT technique.
In accordance with the findings, RAFT technique can be promoted as an appropriate
technique in writing. R.L.Sejnost & S. Thiese (2010) supports that RAFT promotes the
students to raise their ability in thinking critically and reflecting while they synthesize what
they have learned. On the other hand, the indication toward the findings could also help the
students to identify the main aspects in writing. This is linked with the theory of Allen Simon
(2012) that RAFT is a writing technique that helps students to understand their role as a
writer and learn how to communicate their ideas effectively and clearly in order to make the
readers understand about what have been written.
In sum, Fisher and Frey (2007) and Allen Simon (2012) summarized that RAFT
provides a scaffold for students as they explore their writing based on various roles, audiences,
formats and topics.
In addition, the changes of learning method in cycle 2 indicated that the students could
perceive a new atmosphere to master the content together. Santa, C.M and Holston (1988)
was right that RAFT technique could guide students to a meaningful way to incorporate
writing into content-area instruction. The students were finally being able to write effectively
as they were aware of their role, their audience, their writing format and their writing topic
(Lindawaty Januarnita , Sudarsono, Clarry Sada, 2014).
Based on the findings and discussions, it is concluded that the two cycles in this
classroom action research could be able to make students be more active, initiative and
responsible to their writing
CONCLUSIONS
The implementation of cycle 1 and 2, with applying RAFT (role, audience, format,
and topic) to improve the students’ ability in descriptive paragraph writing was considered
effective. The reasons are written based on quantitative and qualitative sides.
a. Quantitatively, the interpretation of the data since pre-test indicated only 2 students
could pass the standard score (the minimum criterion). The percentage was 10 %, and
the mean score was 50.75. While in the cycle 1 post-test, the mean score increased to
75.7 with the percentage of its improvement 65 %. From the percentage, 13 students
of the total students in classroom could pass the standard score in cycle 1. It means that
N2 > N1 or 75.7 > 50.75 with the percentage 65 % > 10 %. However, in cycle 2 post-
test, the total of the students who could pass the standard score increased to 100 %
with the mean score 81.9 or 3.203 %. The comparison score between pre-test and post-
test cycle 2 can be counted as 31.15. This quantitative explanation can be proved with
the theory of Santa and Holston (1988) that RAFT technique could empower students
with an easy, meaningful way to incorporate writing into content-area instruction.
In other words, it can be concluded that applying RAFT technique could improve
students’ ability in writing descriptive paragraph.
b. Qualitatively, there were some aspects which supported the improvement of students’
ability in writing descriptive paragraph. It could be seen through the observation
checklist, field notes, journal notes and documentations toward the application of
RAFT technique. The students performed their activities by giving their participations
and attentions to the researcher during teaching and learning process. The researcher
considered that the students were being controlled, well-motivated and comfortable
through the activities in the cycles. This could be shown through the process of
learning. The students were finally being able to write effectively as they were aware
of their role, their audience, their writing format and their writing. From the qualitative
descriptions, it could be concluded that RAFT technique in the process of writing
could be able to make students be more active, initiative, and responsible.
REFERENCES
Anas, Sudjiono. (2008). Pengantar Statistis Pendidikan. Jakarta : PT.Raja Grafindo

Persada,P.43
Buehl, Doug. (2009). Classroom Strategies for Interactive Learning. Chicago : The
International Reading Association, Inc.
Clanchy and Ballard. (1987). Writing skill. Available at http://www /lingualink.edu, Accessed
on June 2013.
Clouse,Barbara Fine. (2004). The Students Writer: Editor and Critic (6th edition). New York:
McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
David Kember. (2000). Action Learning & Action Research: Improving the Quality of
Teaching and Learning, New York: Routledge, p. 24.
Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey. (2007). Checking for Understanding: Formative Assessment
Techniques for Your Classroom. Alexandria: Association for Supervision and
Curriculum Development. p, 67
Evelyn Hatch and Hosein Farhady. (1981). Research Design and Statistics for Applied
Linguistics. Ro2wley, Massachusetts: Newburry House Publishers.
Groenke, Susan L. (2006). Becoming Environmentally Literate Citizen.
Lindawaty Januarnita , Sudarsono, Clarry Sada. (2014). Implementing Raft Strategy
To Enhance Students’ Skill In Writing Formal Letter. Masters Study Program of
English Language Education, Teacher Training and Education Faculty, Tanjungpura
University. Vol 3, No 9 (2014).
Oshima, A., & Hogue. (1999). Writing Academic English (3rd ed.). United State of America:
Addison Wesley Publishing Company.
Oshima, A. and Houge, A. (2007). Introduction to Academic Writing (Third Edition). New
York: Pearson Education, Inc.
Parilasanti Made Elis, Suarnajaya Wayan, Marjohan Asril. (2014). The effect of R.A.F.T
strategy and anxiety upon writing competency of the seventh grade students of SMP
Negeri 3 Mengwi in Academic Year 2013/2014. E-journal P.Pascasarjana Universitas
Pendidikan Ganesha.
Pollard, L. (2008). Guide to Teaching English.London: Oxford University Press.
Raimes, Ann. (1983). Techniques in Teaching Writing. New York : Oxford University
Press.
Ransdell, Sarah & Marie-Laure, B. (2002). New Direction for Research in L2 Writing:
Studies in Writing. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publisher.
Santa,C.M et al. (1988). Content reading including study systems : Reading, writing, and
studying across the curriculum. Dubuque, IA : Kendall/Hunt.
Sejnost, R. L & Thiese, S. M. (2010). Building Content Literacy Strategies for the Adolescent
Learner. California: Corwin.
Simon,Cathy Allen (2012). Using the RAFT Writing Strategy. Urbana, Illionis : NOTE
(National Council of Teachers of English).
Sudarningsih, N. Wayan, & Wardana, I. K. (2011). Improving Recount Writing Skill through
RAFT Technique of the Tenth Grade Students of SMAN 1 Abiansemal in Academic
Year 2010/2011. Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia: Mahasaraswati Denpasar University.
Somekh, B. (2006). Action Research: A Methodology for Change and Development. Glasgow:
Open University Press.
Zemach, D. E. and Rumisek, L. A. (2005). Academic Writing: from Paragraph to Essay.
New York: Oxford: Macmillan Publisher Ltd.
Panduan Penulisan bagi kontributor
1. Naskah atau artikel merupakan naskah asli yang belum pernah dipublikasikan baik berupa
ringkasan hasil penelitian, makalah atau paparan teori atau makalah pengembangan yang
relevan dengan pengembangan kebahasaan.
2. Naskah dapat ditulis dalam bahasa Indonesia atau bahasa Inggris dengan huruf Time New
Roman font 12. Panjang naskah sekitar 8–15 halaman dan diketik 1,5 spasi.
3. Halaman pertama diawali dengan penyebutan secara berurut: Judul, Identitas Penulis, dan
Abstract/Intisari
4. Ukuran kertas adalah A4 dengan margin adalah 3,5 cm untuk batas atas, bawah dan kiri,
sedang kanan adalah 2,0 cm.
5. Sistimatika penulisan meliputi
a. Bagian awal : judul, nama penulis, abstraksi. Judul dicetak dengan huruf besar/kapital,
dicetak tebal (bold) dengan jenis huruf Times New Roman font 12, spasi tunggal
dengan jumlah kata maksimum 15. Nama penulis ditulis di bawah judul tanpa gelar,
tidak boleh disingkat dan diawali dengan huruf capital serta tanpa diawali dengan
kata ”oleh”, urutan penulis adalah penulis pertama diikuti oleh penulis kedua, ketiga
dan seterusnya sesuai perannya. Nama perguruan tinggi dan alamat surel (email)
semua penulis ditulis di bawah nama penulis
b. Bagian utama : berisi pendahuluan, kajian pustaka dan pengembangan hipotesis (bila
diperlukan), cara/metode penelitian, hasil penelitian dan pembahasan, dan kesimpulan
dan saran (bila diperlukan).
c. Bagian akhir : ucapan terima kasih (jika ada), keterangan simbol (jika ada), dan daftar
pustaka.
6. Intisari ditulis dalam bahasa Indonesia jika artikelnya berbahasa Inggris dan Abstract
ditulis dalam Bahasa Inggris jika artikelnya berbahasa Indonesia dengan berisi tentang
inti permasalahan/latar belakang penelitian, cara penelitian/pemecahan masalah, dan hasil
yang diperoleh. Intisari/Abstract ditulis dengan Times New Roman font 11 dan tidak lebih
dari 250 kata dengan 1 spasi. Intisari/Abstract dilengkapi dengan Keywords yang terdiri
atas 3-5 kata yang menjadi inti dari uraian
7. Setiap kata atau istilah yang tidak ada padanannya dalam bahasa Indonesia atau Bahasa
Inggris ditulis dengan huruf miring.
8. Penulisan pustaka mengikuti panduan SIMLITABNAS DIKTI yang menggunakan sistem
Harvard Referencing Standard yakni semua yang tertera dalam daftar pustaka harus dirujuk
di dalam naskah dengan mengutamakan Kemutakhiran referensi sangat diutamakan.
A. Buku
[1] Penulis 1, Penulis 2 dst. (Nama belakang, nama depan disingkat). Tahun publikasi.
Judul
Buku cetak miring. Edisi, Penerbit. Tempat Publikasi.
Contoh:
Maru, M G. 2011. Kumpulan Sampere Siau Tagulandang Biaro. Edisi 1. Lembah
Mannah, Yogyakarta-Indonesia.
B. Artikel Jurnal
[2] Penulis 1, Penulis 2 dan seterusnya, (Nama belakang, nama depan disingkat). Tahun
publikasi. Judul artikel. Nama Jurnal Cetak Miring. Vol. Nomor. Rentang Halaman.
Contoh:
Maru, M G. 2013. Jeremiad Frames in Reagan’s Inaugural Addresses. Jurnal
Humaniora. 25 (1): 25-37.
C. Prosiding Seminar/Konferensi
[3] Penulis 1, Penulis 2 dst, (Nama belakang, nama depan disingkat). Tahun
publikasi.
Judul artikel. Nama Konferensi. Tanggal, Bulan dan Tahun, Kota, Negara. Halaman.
Contoh:
Maru, M G. 2011. The Perspective of Contemporary U.S Presidents on Puritanism:
A Cultural Revitalization. Proceeding on 3rd CELT International Conference. 19-20
January 2011, Semarang, Indonesia. Hal. 58-72.
D. Tesis atau Disertasi
[4] Penulis (Nama belakang, nama depan disingkat). Tahun publikasi. Judul. Skripsi,
Tesis,
atau Disertasi. Universitas.
Contoh:
Maru, M G. 2013.Puritanism in American Presidents’ Mark of Power: A Study on
the Inaugural Addresses From Reagan to Obama. Disertasi.Fakultas Ilmu Budaya.
Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta.
E. Sumber Rujukan dari Website
[5] Penulis. Tahun. Judul. Alamat Uniform Resources Locator (URL). Tanggal
Diakses.
Contoh:
Maru, M G . Engaging Literary Text to Language Exposure for Foreign English
Learners. http://cotefl.blogspot.com/2009/05/engaging-literary-textmister-gidion.
html. Diakses tanggal 18 Februari 2014.

Cover Dalam JELLT Vol 1 No 1 Nov 16

Încărcat de

Informații document

Drepturi de autor

Formate disponibile

Partajați acest document

Partajați sau inserați document

Opțiuni de partajare

Vi se pare util acest document?

Este necorespunzător acest conținut?

Drepturi de autor:

Formate disponibile

Cover Dalam JELLT Vol 1 No 1 Nov 16

Încărcat de

Drepturi de autor:

Formate disponibile

VOL 1, NO 1 NOVEMBER 2016 ISSN: 2548-7728 1

A Discourse Analysis Of Figurative Language In Barrack H. Obama’s Speech

Watching Movie Clips As A Strategy To Improve Students’ Listening Skill

English Teachers’ Perception Toward Character Assesment In 2013 Curriculum:

The Impact Of Colors On Sma Negeri 1 Tomohon Student’s Immediate And

Improving Students’ Speaking Ability Through Communicative Language

Learning Poetry With Quantum Learning Method

Improving Students’ Descriptive Paragraph Writing Ability Through Raft

English Education Department

JELLT, Vol 1, No 1, pp 1-92 , November 2016

Penanggung Jawab: Donald M Ratu (Dekan FBS)

Ketua Penyunting: Mister Gidion Maru

Penyunting Ahli/Mitra Bestari

Penanggung Jawab: Donald M Ratu (Dekan FBS)

Penyunting Ahli/Mitra Bestari

From The Editors

A DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE IN

Lestary Sudarsono, Nurmin Samola, Mister Gidion Maru

Keyword: Figurative Language, Discourse Analysis, Speech, Obama

In order to use language to communicate to each other, people include a meaning in

2. Reaffirm our enduring spirit (Line 26)

WATCHING MOVIE CLIPS AS A STRATEGY

Maniku, Jein,Mister Gidion Maru,Nihta V.F. Liando

Keywords : Watching; movie clips; improve; listening skill.

Sapir (1921 : 8) defines language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of

Finding and Discussion

ENGLISH TEACHERS’ PERCEPTION TOWARD

Ervita Carolina Tania, Nihta V. F. Liando, Mister Gidion Maru

2006, which integrates competence of attitude, knowledge, and skill in comprehension.

Character Assessment in Curriculum 2013

4. Commit to perform appreciating and practicing religious doctrine, respect,

As stated in “Modul Pelatihan Implementasi Kurikulum 2013” (2014), educators

THE IMPACT OF COLORS ON SMA NEGERI 1 TOMOHON

Louna Anastasia Rogahang, Nihta V.F Liando, Mister Gidion Maru

The purposes of this study are:

Color is very important to make a concept in developing learning vocabulary in a

presentation condition and compared their performances on immediate and seven-day

This study aims at describing cause-effect relationships between independent, words

Table I. Teaching, part timer and Administrative Staff

Table II. Number of classes and students

Table III. School Facilities

FINDING AND DISCUSSION

As the hypothesis, H0 means there is no significant correlation between the variables;

Experimental Treatment α level t (observed t (critical)

Immediate Retention 0.05 3.023 2.000

Delayed Retention 0.05 4.062 2.000

IMPROVING STUDENTS’ SPEAKING ABILITY THROUGH

Emelia Panambunan, Golda J. Tulung, Mister Gidion Maru

Keywords: Communicative Language Teaching, Speaking Ability, Second Level Students of

(Kemmis, S., and McTaggart, 1988)

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIOS

Brumfit, Christopher. (1984). Communicative Methodology in Language Teaching.

LEARNING POETRY WITH QUANTUM

Reading a literary work is found by many people as an entertaining activity. Some

importance (1917:20).” According to the definition above, it is concluded that poetry is

Meanwhile, the quantitative was analyzed by using the formula:

Table 1.1 Students’ Final Test Result

Table 1.2 The Percentage of Final Test Result

Research on psycholinguistics reveals that songs can activate language acquisition

music recognition. Therefore, listening to instrumental music is a positive activity in learning

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

IMPROVING STUDENTS’ DESCRIPTIVE PARAGRAPH

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

NO NAME STANDARD PRE-TEST POST-TEST POST-TEST