AN ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS’ ABILITY IN WRITING AN ANALYTICAL EXPOSITION TEXT BASED ON A PICTURE AT SMA N 1 KECAMATAN MUNGKA KABUPATEN LIMA PULUH KOTA

Abstrak

English is one of the subjects that should be learned by the students at schools and also one of languages that belong to final examination. English is an international language mostly used by people in the world to communicate each other. English becomes the subject at senior high school up to university level in Indonesia. There are four skills in English, they are listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. Writing is one of skills that should be mastered by students. By mastering it, the students will be able to share their ideas through text. And writing is not only a skill for future success, but also a measure of the progress of learning a language. Writing has a role of delivering the message in communication between the writers and the readers. In writing, someone has to know to express his or her experience, ideas, feeling, and thought to the readers. According to Brown (2000 :337), writing is transaction with words where you free yourself from what you presently think, feel, and understand [1]. The second year students of senior high school learn some kinds of text. They are report text, narrative text, analytical exposition text and spoof. Analytical exposition text is different from other texts. This text opens our mind to take part in social lives. An analytical exposition text is a piece of text which presents one side of argument and it is a text that makes students think more deeply about something they want to write. Its social function is to persuade the reader that the idea is an important matter. In writing analytical exposition text the students must pay more attention to the generic structures and the language features of analytical exposition text. Generic structures and language features are important things to guide the students in composing a good analytical exposition text. There are several previous studies that examined the students’ ability to write the text. Rambe (2019) found that the students’ ability in writing descriptive text through picture was very good; he said that pictures can improve students writing descriptive text because pictures can help students reflect and evaluate their knowledge and concept about the pictured object as the object itself [2]. Another study was done by Kurniati (2015), she stated that after reviewing theories about teaching writing by using picture, especially writing recount text, she could see that students were more interested in writing if they had clue such as picture as a visual aid [3]. It made them easier in organizing paragraphs for their writing. So, she was interested in conducting research to know the effectiveness of using pictures. And Richia (2017) found in her research that the second grade students’ ability in writing analytical exposition text at SMAN 1 Padang Sago was low. It was indicated by the fact that there were 36 students (70.6%) who had low ability and 15 students (29.4%) who had high ability. This study did not apply a picture as a reference for students [4]. In fact, based on informal interview on 20 February 2022 with some students and one of English teachers in class XI SMA N 1 Kecamatan Mungka Kabupaten Lima Puluh Kota, it was found that some students had problems in writing analytical exposition text, especially in writing generic structure of analytical exposition text. They also had many problems in using language features. This fact inspired the researcher to know their ability in writing an analytical exposition text when they are provided with a picture. Based on the background above, the researcher was interested in doing research on the second-grade students’ ability in writing analytical exposition text based on a picture at SMA N 1 Kecamatan Mungka Kabupaten Lima Puluh Kota. METHOD This research used a descriptive design. According to Refnita (2018:17) descriptive research involves collecting data in order to test hypotheses or to answer questions concerning the current status of the subjects of the study [5]. The objective of the research is to describe the information that is collected without changing the data. The researcher used this design because this research described the students’ ability in writing an analytical exposition text based on a picture. The students in class XI at SMA N 1 Kecamatan Mungka Kabupaten Lima Puluh Kota were chosen as population because they had studied about analytical exposition text. The total number of the population was 42 students and they were distributed into two strata (IPA and IPS). The population of this research was relatively small and the researcher took all of the population. In other words, the researcher used total sampling technique in choosing a sample. The instrument that was used is writing test because the researcher wanted to know the students’ ability in writing an analytical exposition text based on a picture. To collect the data, the researcher did the following steps: the researcher gave the students some pictures to be observed. Next the researcher asked the students to write their own analytical exposition text after choosing the picture. The test was administered in 60 minutes. Then, the researcher copied the students’ writing sheets and gave them to the second scorer. After the data were collected, the researcher analyzed the data by following these steps; the researcher summed up the score of each student and counted the average score from two scorers. The researcher classified the students’ ability based on minimum mastery level (KKM) of SMA N 1 Kecamatan Mungka Kabupaten Lima Puluh Kota. Then the researcher counted the number of students who got high ability and low ability. Then the researcher calculated the percentage of students who got high ability and low ability. Finally, the researcher described the second grade students’ ability in writing an analytical exposition text based on the picture. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION Based on analysis result, the researcher found the students’ lowest score was 50 and the highest score was 93. More than 50% of the students had low ability in writing an analytical exposition text based on a picture. It was proved by the fact that 18 (43%) students had high ability and 24 (57%) had low ability in writing analytical exposition text based on a picture. To make it clear see Table below : Categories Members Percentage High 18 43% Low 24 52% Total 42 100% This finding is in line with the previous study that was conducted by Richia in 2017 who analyzed the second-grade students’ ability in writing analytical exposition text at SMAN 1 Padang Sago. She found that there were 36 (70.6%) students had low ability [4]. 1. The Students’ Ability in Writing the Thesis of an Analytical Exposition Text Based on a Picture Based on the data analysis, the students had high ability in writing the thesis of analytical exposition text based on a picture. It was supported by the fact that 12 students (28, 58 %) had low ability and 30 students (71, 42%) had high ability in writing the thesis of an analytical exposition text based on a picture. To make it clearl see the Table 1 below : Table 1. Percentage of the Students’ Ability in Writing the Thesis of Analytical Exposition Text at SMAN 1 Kecamatan Mungka Categories Members Percentage High 30 71.42% Low 12 28.58% Total 42 100% It is not in line with the previous study that was conducted by Engladesta (2019) who analyzed the second-grade students’ ability in writing analytical exposition text at SMAN 2 Sungai Limau. He found that there were 29 (63.04%) students who had moderate ability. 2. The Students’ Ability in Writing Arguments of an Analytical Exposition Text Based on a Picture Based on the result data analysis, the students had low ability in writing arguments of analytical exposition text based on a picture. It was supported by the fact that 28 students (66,67%) had low ability and 14 students (33,33 %) had high ability in writing arguments of analytical exposition text based on a picture. To make it clearl see Table 2 below. Table 2. Percentage of the Students’ Ability in Writing Arguments of an Analytical Exposition Text at SMAN 1 Kecamatan Mungka Categories Members Percentage High 14 33.33 % Low 28 66. 67 % Total 42 100% It is in line with the previous study that was conducted by Richia in 2017 who analyzed the second-grade students’ ability in writing arguments of analytical exposition text at SMAN 1 Padang Sago. She found that there were 35 (68.6%) students had low ability. In fact, the researcher and Richia (2017) had the same finding that the students had low ability in writing the arguments of an analytical exposition text. Th research findings emphasize that students’ ability had problem on writing the arguments. 3. The Students’ Ability in Writing Reiteration of an Analytical Exposition Text Based on a Picture As already discussed previously, the students had low ability in writing reiteration of analytical exposition text based on a picture. It was supported by the fact that 24 students (57,14 %) had low ability and 18 students (42,86 %) had high ability in writing reiteration of analytical exposition text. To make it clearl see the Table 3 below. Table 3. Percentage of the Students’ Ability in Writing Reiteration of an an Analytical Exposition Text at SMAN 1 Kecamatan Mungka Categories Members Percentage High 18 42.86 % Low 24 57.14 % Total 42 100% The findings of this research supported the previous research conducted by Zaldi (2015) entitled “An analysis of students’ ability in writing reiteration of analytical exposition text was low. He found that 38 students (70.37 %) had low ability in writing reiteration. Based on the result of this research finding and previous study it can analyzed that student had problem in writing reiteration. 4. The Students’ Ability in Using Language Features of an Analytical Exposition Text Based on a Picture Based on the data analysis, it was found that the students had low ability in using language features of analytical exposition text based on a picture. It was supported by the fact that 23 students (54,77 %) had low ability in using language features of analytical exposition text based on a picture and 19 students (45,23 %) had high ability in using language features of analytical exposition text. To make it clearl see the Table 4 below. Table 4. Percentage of the Students’ Ability in Using Language Features of Analytical Exposition Text at SMAN 1 Kecamatan Mungka Categories Members Percentage High 19 45.23% Low 23 54.77% Total 42 100% This study is in line with previous study by Hayrunnisa (2019) in “Students’ Grammatical Errors in Using Simple Tense in Analytical Exposition Text at the First Semester of The Eleventh Grade of SMAN 4 Bandar Lampung in the Academic Year 2018. She also found that students had problem in using simple present tense. These two research findings emphasize that simple present tense is still a problem for students of senior high school. CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION In general, the finding of this study showed that the student’s ability in writing analytical exposition text at SMAN 1 Kecamatan Mungka Kabupaten Lima Puluh Kota was low. This conclusion was indicated by the fact that there were 24 students (57%) who had low ability. Related to the study, the writer would like to give several suggestions. The researcher suggested English teachers to improve their teaching and give more exercises to students in writing an analytical exposition text. Besides that, the students are expected to learn more about an analytical exposition text and do some exercises to improve their ability. The researcher suggested the next researchers to find out the causes of students’ low ability in writing an analytical exposition text. Besides, it is also suggested to find out the appropriate technique in teaching an analytical exposition text.