THE USE OF FACEBOOK NOTES TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ SKILL IN RECOUNT TEXT WRITING

Facebook is a social networking sites founded in 2004 which has quickly become one of the leading social networking sites in the world.  This  article describes a classroom action research held in writing class through the use of Facebook notes to improve students’ skill in recount text writing.  The subject  of this research was the eighth grade students  in SMP Negeri 4 Suarakarta. This  research was conducted in two cycles. Each of the cycle had four steps; they are  planning, implementing, observing and reflecting the action. There are two kinds of  data  in this research namely  qualitative data and quantitative data.  Qualitative data was analyzed by using four steps in  Descriptive Qualitative  Method. Quantitative data was analyzed by using descriptive statistic.  Based on the data analysis, it  showed that the use of Facebook notes could improve both students’ writing skill and the classroom climate.Keywords: classroom action research, writing skill, Facebook and social networking site

IMPROVING VOCABULARY MASTERY BY FIELD TRIP & DRILLING

This research aims are: (1) identifying whether and to what extent, Field trip improves the  vocabulary mastery of fourth grade students of SD N Singopuran 1, and (2) describing the classroom situation when Field trip is implemented in the vocabulary class of the fourth grade of SD N Singopuran 1 Kartasura. The method used in this research is a collaborative action research. The research was conducted in two cycles. The problems faced by the students include students get difficulties in finding the meaning of words, memorizing the words, pronouncing the words, spelling the words, and using of words on the simple sentence. The research data were collected by using techniques of observation, interview, field note, photographs, and test (pre-test and post-test). The quantitative and qualitative results show that Field Trip can improve both the students’ vocabulary mastery and class situation

IMPROVING STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILL BY USING FOUR SQUARE WRITING METHOD (FSWM)

The objectives of the research are to find out whether or not Four Square Writing Method (FSWM) improves the students’ writing skill in narrative text and to describe what happens when Four Square Writing Method is implemented in writing class. The method that was used in the research is action research which is focused on the process. The research was done 4 months. The data were used is qualitative which were analyzed with assembling the data, coding the data, Comparing the data, building interpretation and reporting the outcomes and quantitative which were analyzed with descriptive statistic ( find the mean score only). From the analysis data shown that FSWM can be used to improve students’ writing skill in narrative text and the situation of English class more active and condusive

THE IMPLEMENTATION OF TEACHING ENGLISH FOR STUDENTS WITH HEARING IMPAIRMENT

 This article is aimed at (1) describing the process of teaching and learning English for students with hearing impairment in the second grade of SMALB-B YRTRW Surakarta, (2) identifying the problems faced in the teaching and learning process and (3) the teacher’s solutions for those problems. The method used in the research was descriptive qualitative. The data were collected through the use of interview, questionnaire, observation, and document analysis. Based on the result of the research, it can be concluded that: (1) there was a good interaction between the English teacher and the students although there were some problems inthe teaching learning process; (2) there were 9 problems that can be identified from the teaching learning process and the students’ hearing impairment problem was one among them, (3) the English teacher has found and stated the solutions or strategies to solve those problems

IMPROVING STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION USING GROUP WORK

The aim of this research is to improve students’ reading comprehension and students’ motivation using group work.  Based on pre-research,  the  eighth  grade  students  of  SMP N 4 Magetan in the academic year 2011/2012 had problems in reading comprehension. To overcome the problems, the researcher designed a classroom action research to teach reading comprehension  using group work.  There  were  two cycles of action, each of which consisted of planning, action, observation, and reflection. In collecting the data,  the researcher  used qualitative and quantitative methods.  The research results revealed that  the students  made improvement in  reading  comprehension.  When group work  was  used, students  were  active and enthusiastic in joining learning activity. The test  results show improvement of the students’ achievement. The students’ mean score in the pre-test  is  55.71,  in  post-test 1  in  70,  and  in  post-test 2  is  83.58. It can be concluded that teaching  reading comprehension  using  group work improves the students’ reading comprehension.Keywords: reading comprehension, motivation, group wor

IMPROVING STUDENTS’ SPEAKING ABILITY THROUGH TALKING CHIPS

The objectives of the research are to identify whether and to what extent Talking Chips can improve the students’ speaking ability, and to describe the classroom situation when talking chips are implemented in the speaking class. The research method used in this research is a classroom action research. In collecting the data, the researcher used questionnaire, observation, interview, document analysis and tests. The researcher conducted the test before research (pre-test) and after implementing talking chips (post test 1 and 2). The mean scores of each test were compared to know the students improvements in speaking ability. The improvement can be seen from the improvement of the mean score of pre-test (49), post test of cycle 1 (69.3) and the cycle 2 (77.8). Besides, the improvement of the classroom situation includes: 1) the class was more alive because the students participate actively; 2) there was an equal participation during the speaking class; 3) the students were motivated to speak English than Indonesian; 4) the students’ interaction improved significantly