Improving Students’ Writing Skill Using Animated Video

Abstract

The method of this research was action research. This research was conducted at a junior high school in Surakarta. The research subject was the students of class VIII B at semester 1. There are 28 students consisting 14 boys and 14 girls in class of VIII B. This classroom is wide enough for 28 students. The aims of this study are 1) to identify whether and to what extent the optimization of the use of animated video improve students’ writing skill and 2) to describe the classroom situation while animated video is implemented. The qualitative data were obtained by questionnaire, observation, interview, and photographs. The technique in analyzing the data based on the theory of Miles and Huberman (1992: 16) consisting of three stages namely data reduction, data display and conclusion drawing and verification. Meanwhile, the quantitative data were obtained by conducting tests. The research finding showed that: (1) Animated video could improve the students’ writing skill. The students can improve the content, organization, vocabulary, language usage, and mechanics. The students could write a descriptive text with more detailed information (explore their idea), they could produce a descriptive text grammatically, choose the right words, and students were able to use mechanics in writing sentences; (2) Animated video created positive atmosphere in the teaching and learning writing English process in the classroom. The students were motivated to and interested in the lesson.