Using Blog As Supplementary Media To Improve The Eighth Graders’ Writing Skill

Using Blog as Supplementary Media to Improve the Eighth Graders’ Writing Skill. Thesis. Undergraduate Program. Universitas Mercu Buana Yogyakarta. Advisor: Elysa Hartati, S.Pd., M.Pd.
Keyword: Blog, Writing Skill, Eight Graders, Classroom Action Research
Students have to master writing skill, since it is one of the important skills in English. Based on the result of observation and questionnaire during the preliminary study in one of the middle school in Gunungkidul regency, there was a classroom which conducted in monotonous and lack of interesting activity. There were 100% of the respondent said that no media used during teaching and learning process. As a consequence, there 62.5% or 20 of 32 respondent stated that they had low ability in writing. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the implementation and to find out the impacts of using blog as supplementary media in improving the eighth graders’ writing skill.
This research applied Classroom Action Research (CAR). The English teacher was participated as a collaborator in the class. The CAR was done in two cycles that consisted of Planning, Action, Observation, and Reflection. The data were gathered to qualitative and quantitative data. Data collecting techniques were observation, interview, questionnaire, and writing test.
The result of this research showed that there was improvement of students’ writing skill, which could be seen from their mean score of pre-test, post-test 1, and post-test 2. Students’ average score on pre-test was 49.1, the mean score of post-test 1 was 74.6, while the average score of post-test 2 was 79.2. The students have passed the minimum mastery criterion on the post test. The data from the questionnaire showed that blog could help students in improving their writing skill. In addition the result of interview and observation indicated that the students were motivated and performed positive behavior in the class. In conclusion, students’ writing skill was improved by implementing blog as supplementary media during the teaching and learning process.