CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, the researcher describes the background, the research question, research objective, significance of research, limitation of this problem, hypothesis and definition of key terms.

1.1. Background According to Briggs (in Arsyad, 2007:4) media is all the physical tools that can present the message and stimulate students to learn, it has been supported by Sadiman (2005:7) who stated that: Everything that can be used to deliver messages from the sender to the receiver so that it can stimulate the thoughts, feelings, concerns, and interests as well as students' attention in such a way that the learning process can occur. It can be seen that media has a role as a tool in increasing the interest and motivations of the study. Thats why, every teacher must have competences in using teaching media. A media which is suggested for helping the success of teaching-learning is picture (Wright, 1989: 2-4). Picture is an effective memory technique to put information into the human brain, because the brain saves picture and meaning, or words. It will make the students stimulate to cause vocabularies appear and combine the words from the picture that is seen (Gunawan, 2004:109). According to Raimes (1983: 27) a picture can be the basis for ranging form

controlled compositions, sentence combining exercises, or sequencing of sentences to writing of original dialogs, letters, reports, or essays. It can be seen that through picture, the students are able to make the connection between picture and print. By using a picture, the attention of students will be more focused, so pictures can create their inspirations, their wishes to know the content of the message of that picture and they can write it in acomposition. According to Sadiman (2007: 29) there are many advantages of using picture as teaching media. They are as follows: (1) it is concrete: picture is more realistic in showing the main problem compared to verbal media; (2) picture can overcome the boundary of space and time; (3) picture media can overcome the limitedness of word observation; (4) it can clarify a problem in every field and for every ages, so that it can prevent or make true misunderstanding; (5) it is cheap and easy to be gotten and used without needing special tools. It means that picture is one media that can be gotten easily and can give many advantages not only for teachers as the sender informations but also for students as receiver. Students will feel easier and more interested to understand the lesson that is being taught. Picture-cued story-telling considered as a picture or a series of pictures as stimulus for a longer story or description (Brown, 2004). According to Rafael Sabio (2008) picture-cued story-telling is to provide the students with examples of how chronology is used in discussions. Also it is used to illustrate the situations. It means that students can get stimulus in appearing their idea by looking pictures.

Stories do not only help in stimulating student's imagination and understanding of the world, but also in developing student's language ability and appreciating literature (Aiex, 1988; Cooper, 1989; Koki, 1998; Zobairi & Gulley, 1989). Colon-vila (1997) also commented that storytelling helps learners become more self-confident to express themselves spontaneously and creatively. So, stories have always played a significant role in students. Writing is a complex process that allows writers to explore thoughts and ideas, and make them visible and concrete (Gaith in Journal of Writing (2003:1). According to Ungan (2008:192) Writing is also a way of expressing communication; expressing our thoughts, feelings, plans, and experience. It is a basic language skill to be mastered in order to develop the language. Writing is determined by transforming thoughts into words, words into sentences and sentences into paragraphs. Words are symbols that express our feelings, thoughts, objects, and concepts that belong to our world. However, words are not sufficient on their own to express our feelings, thoughts, judgments and actions; we need sentences to make them meaningful. In this sense, a sentence is the basic unit of expression. Every sentence is built to convey a thought or a feeling. While building a sentence, we determine our thoughts, arrange them, choose the right words and put them into the right order.

It means that writing neeeds process and practice optimally. So that, the writer can produce a good writing. But, based on informal observation, the
students at the fourth semester of Muhammadiyah University of Bengkulu who

have to develop their writings ability to write good English paragraph and write paragraph in types of text usually get difficulties in starting their writing. That will
cause many students waste valuable time just for getting started. They said that it was

hard for them to appear a good idea in writing. Morever, the lecturer only gave them theory and a topic then asked the students to write. There was no a stimulus to create a good imagination in the brain. Beside that, the students have problems to develop the paragraph with a good structure and texture. Because they are less understanding about the notion of text, context and genre which have close relationship with writing activities. So, based on the previous explanation, its clear that picture-cued story-telling is a good media to be applied in students writing paragraph.

Curious about phenomenon above, the researcher wants to investigate The Effect Of Picture-Cued Story-Telling Towards Students Ability In Writing Paragraph At The Fourth Semester Of Muhammadiyah University Of Bengkulu.

1.2 The Research Question Based on the previous information, the question is formulated as Does picture-cued story-telling as writing technique give effect on students writing paragraph achievement?

1.3 Research Objective The objective of this research is to find out if there is effect difference effect between the students achievements that are taught using picture-cued

story-telling with the students achievements that are taught without using picturecued story-telling.

1.4 Significance of Research The research finding can be used by the students, the teacher, and the researcher herself and will be useful to the readers who are interested in analyzing teaching learning writing: 1. Students The finding of the research is expected to contribute the students of English Department Program of Muhammadiyah University of Bengkulu in learning writing. Motivate the students to write texts frequently. Picture gives chance to the students to get ideas and vocabularies that they will write. It makes the students feel enjoy in writing. The students will not feel stress or find difficulties in writing. 2. Lecturers The finding can be used to enrich the theory and the method in the teaching writing using picture-cued story-telling. It can be the source or an input to educator especially English teacher or lecturer so that they have a new technique in teaching writing. 3. The Researcher The study can give information about the students ability in writing paragraph by using picture-cued story-telling.

1.5 Limitation of This Problem

In this research, the researcher limits this research on the effect of picturecued story-telling technique toward students writing ability in writing paragraph at the fourth semester of Muhammadiyah University of Bengkulu in Academic Year 2011/2012.

1. 6 Hipotheses In order to answer the research questions, the following hypothesis is proposed: The null hypotheses (H0) and the alternative one (H1). If the null is rejected, the alternative one will be accepted. H0 = Theres no effect of picture cued toward students ability in writing paragraph. H1 = Theres effect of picture cued toward students ability in writing paragraph.

1.7 The Definition of Key Term 1. Effect is something like the reason and causes something happen. 2. Picture cued story telling is a single or series of pictures that implies meaning. 3. Student is a person who is studying. 4. Writing ability is an effort to express ideas and mind as many as possible in written form correctly.

REFERENCES Arsyad, Azhar. 2010. Media Pembelajaran. Jakarta: PT RajaGrafindo Persada. Brown, Douglas. 2004. Language Assessment: Principles and Classroom Practice. The United States of America: San Francisco State University. Jianing, Xu. 2007. Storytelling in the EFL Speaking Classroom. Available at: http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Jianing-Storytelling.html. Raimes, A. 1983. Techniques in Teaching Writing. New York: Oxford University Press. Sabio, Rafael (Ed.). 2008. Speaking & Listening Assessments. In TESOL from Shenandoah University. South Korea. Sadiman, A.S. Rahardjo, R. Haryono, A. dan Rahardjito. 2007. Media Pendidikan. Jakarta: PT RajaGrafindo Persada. Ungan, Suat. 2008. Analysis Of Expression Errors In The Writings Of Primary School Students In Terms Of Certain Variables. Available at http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mihb6516/is4/45/ain31327381/ Wright, A. 1989. Picture for Language Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.