STUDENTS ABILITY AND DIFFICULTIES IN WRITING A NARRATIVE TEXT
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
The chapter presents general points of the study including background of the study, research questions, aims of the study, scope of the study, significance of the study, method, and organization of the paper.
A. Background
Writing is very important in learning language. Writing also plays a very significant role in the success of learning Thomson (1978) in Emilia (1996 : 5). Therefore, it is not surprising in Indonesia that writing has been paid more attention to by the government. This can be seen from the last two curricula of English for secondary school (Kurikulum berbasis kompetensi (KBK/Curriculum Based Competence) and kurikulum tingkat satuan pendidikan (KTSP/ Curriculum of Educational Unit)). These two curricula put a strong emphasis in writing. The students are told to write different text types including, recount, descriptive, procedure, exposition, discussion, report, Narrative, news item, etc.
The current curriculum for senior high school released by BSNP (Badan Standar Nasional Pendidikan) states that one of the main purposes of English in this stage of education is comprehending and creating various short functional text types and monolog and also essays of procedures, descriptive, recount, Narrative, report, news item, analytical exposition, hortatory exposition, spoof, explanation, discussion, review, and public speaking. From the BSNP, it can be seen that the curriculum gives emphasis in writing various text types, unexceptionally Narrative.
However, research on the students' ability and difficulties in writing has not been well documented by expert in Indonesia. Thus, this research tried to investigate the students' ability and difficulties in writing those texts, particularly Narrative.
Narrative is one of the two modes of our thinking (Bruner 1986, cited in Abdulmanan 2008 : 2). While communicating with others, we may describe an incident as a way of explaining his/her thought or a part of his/her argument. As much, (cited in Abdulmanan 2008 : 2) Narrative is usually an essential text type required to practice in writing class for learners of English as a foreign language. However, when it comes to the first graders' composition in X, some students who are lacking in practice and having limited vocabularies to tell their imagination often do not have much to say.
In this research, the writer focuses on analysis of a Narrative text written by first graders of one SMAN in X. Based on the writer's observation the students still found it difficult to make a Narrative text, moreover there was limited research that revealed about the reason why they have difficulties in writing a Narrative text.
Regarding the above phenomenon, it is thus necessary to conduct research which focuses on the students' ability and difficulties in writing a Narrative text. This research is also expected to investigate ability and what difficulties that the students encountered. Knowing what difficulties that the students usually found, teachers are expected to know what to do to their students.
In the end, this study will show the ability of the first graders of senior high school who write a Narrative text.
B. Research Questions
In line with the purposes of the study above, this study will attempt to address the following questions :
1. How is the ability of students in writing a Narrative text ?
2. What difficulties did the students find in writing a Narrative text ?
C. Aims of The Study
The aims of this study are :
1. To identify students' ability in writing a Narrative text
2. To identify students' difficulties in writing a Narrative text
D. Significance of the Study
The writer expects this research can enrich the literature on research dealing with ability and difficulties of students in writing a Narrative text. The result of this can also give valuable information to teachers of teaching writing and to the students on the need of realizing the weaknesses in order to improve their ability in writing a Narrative text.
Moreover, for the teacher professionalism, it requires teachers to find teaching approach to develop students' ability in writing a Narrative text.
E. Organization of the Paper
Chapter One : This chapter presents general points of the study including background of the study, research questions, aims of the study, significance of the study, and organization of the paper.
Chapter Two : This chapter elaborates theoretical overview that supports this study.
Chapter Three : This chapter provides details on method that will be applied on this study.
Chapter Four : This chapter presents, analyzes and discusses the finding.
Chapter Five : This chapter explores the summary of the study and also some suggestions for further better study.
