Improvement of paragraph writing skills through direct object techniques for level 1 students D3 study program nutrition science Poltekkes Kemenkes Padang

INTRODUCTION

Language skills can be seen from 4 aspects of skills, namely, listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Writing skills are acquired through the learning process, in contrast to listening and speaking skills. The importance of writing skills can be seen in the large number of writing materials contained in the curriculum, be it junior high school curriculum, high school curriculum, college curriculum. One type of writing material taught by lecturers in tertiary institutions is about writing narrative, positive, descriptive, persuasive, and argumentative paragraphs.

Based on this fact, a renewal and refresher is needed in learning to write in order to arouse the enthusiasm of students in writing, especially in improving the ability to write descriptions. In realizing this, the authors are interested in conducting classroom action research with the aim of improving the ability to write paragraphs for level 1 students of the D3 Nutrition Study Program at the Health Polytechnic of the Ministry of Health, Padang. The alternative that the writer takes in improving the ability to write this description is to use direct object writing techniques. The choice of this technique is considered capable of dealing with student problems because this technique uses objects that can be seen, felt, and smelled if the object being observed has a smell and smell. In addition, this direct object technique is considered very appropriate in improving students' ability to write paragraph descriptions because this technique uses several objects that can be observed in detail. Through this observation, students will be more focused in writing descriptive paragraphs.

This study aims to describe the increase in the ability to write descriptive paragraphs of level 1 students of the D3 Nutrition Science Study Program at the Health Polytechnic of the Ministry of Health in Padang by using direct object techniques. Semi, states that “writing is nothing but an attempt to transfer spoken language into written form. By using a grapheme symbol.² According to Kerafsaid Writing is a language skill to communicate indirectly and not face to face. face the other person.³ In line with that Wahyuni said that writing activities must be carried out regularly and periodically so that students can be guided, because basically every individual has the potential to write, including students.⁴

Furthermore, Keraf says that a description or description is a form of writing related to the author's efforts to provide details about the object being discussed.⁵ Semi states that a description is writing that aims to provide sensitivity to readers or listeners as if they are seeing, hearing, feeling or experiencing an object directly.⁶ The direct object writing technique aims so that students can write quickly based on the object being seen. The lecturer shows objects to students in front of the class, for example dolls, flower vases, toy cars, and others. From these objects students can write coherently and logically based on the objects they see, Suyatno.

METHODS

The type of research used is classroom action research which is included in qualitative research. Kunandar explained that classroom action research is action research carried out by a lecturer who is also a researcher in his class or together with others (collaboration), by designing, implementing, and reflecting on collaborative and participatory actions that aim to improve or improve quality (quality) the learning process in the classroom through certain actions (treatment) in one cycle. All of this will be carried out by researchers and members.⁸

Based on Arikunto's opinion, in general, the implementation of classroom action research proposed by many experts consists of (1) planning, (2) implementation, (3) observation, and (4) reflection. The steps for action research (classroom action research) are as follows.⁹

The study was conducted from March 30 to April 17 2020. The exclusion criteria for this study were students who did not attend Indonesian language lectures at level 1 in the Nutrition Science Study Program at the Health Polytechnic of the Ministry of Health, Padang. The inclusion criteria of this study were all level 1 students of the nutrition science study program who took the Indonesian language course at the Nutrition Science study program at the Health Polytechnic of the Ministry of Health, Padang.

The research procedure can be seen in the classroom action research steps in Figure 1. To convert the score into a value use the percentage formula as follows.

SM

N = xSMaxSI

Where, N= level of mastery, SM= score obtained, SI = score that must be achieved in one test, SMax = scale used, (Abdurrahman and Elya Ratna, 2003: 262).

RESULTS

The results of the students' preliminary (pre-cycle) proficiency test were only (35%), this indicates that students who scored more than 81 or were able to achieve the minimum completeness criteria were less than students who were unable to achieve the KKM. (65%) students have not reached the minimum completeness criteria. This shows that, more than 50% of students have not been able to achieve the minimum completeness criteria.

In the first cycle, the classical student description paragraph writing skill was 81.15, with a 62.5% presentation of completeness, while in the pre-cycle data, the classical student score was 75.9 with a 35% completeness percentage. This illustrates that there has been an increase in students' descriptive paragraph writing skills. In the pre-cycle data, only fourteen students have reached the KKM, while in the first cycle there are 25 students who have reached the KKM, and only fifteen students have not reached the KKM, less than the pre-cycle data, where there are 26 students who have not reached the KKM. The class average score and the number of students reaching the KKM increased.

Based on the table above, it can be seen that the results of the action in cycle II reached (90%). Almost all students scored more than 81 or had reached the minimum completeness criteria. This result occurs because the lecturer (researcher) affirms that the direct object technique is able to help students when writing paragraphs of student descriptions. This happened because previously students were used to writing descriptive paragraphs without directly observing the object. In addition, lecturers (researchers) change the learning strategy by using objects provided by students. Because almost all students are able to achieve the KKM, only 10% of students have not reached the minimum completeness criteria.

From the table above, it can be seen that the average score of descriptive writing skills is 85.83. This means that almost all students have reached the specified minimum completeness criteria.

Based on the data above, it can be concluded that the actions given in cycle II were able to significantly improve the writing skills of descriptive paragraphs, namely from (62.5%) in cycle I increased to (90%) in cycle II. In other words, all students have reached the KKM. The achievement of the learning completeness criteria was 85.83 and this score was in the excellent category.

After the second cycle ended, an evaluation was held to see to what extent the planning could be implemented. In general, the implementation of actions in cycle II through direct object techniques can improve descriptive paragraph writing skills and student activities in learning. The learning outcome data obtained through the performance test in cycle I and cycle II are shown in the figure below.

The results of the questionnaire given about students' perceptions of learning to write descriptive paragraphs through direct object techniques are shown in the Table 5.

Based on the table above, it can be seen that there is an increase in students' descriptive paragraph writing skills. The results of the initial ability test showed that mastery learning (35%) increased to (62.5%) in cycle I, and increased again to (90%) in cycle II. Given the Minimum Completion Criteria (KKM) expected by the lecturer and in accordance with the campus requirements to get an A grade is 81. Classical learning completeness is 80%, the results of the action in cycle II can be said to have exceeded the set target. In other words, the direct object technique has succeeded in improving the skills of writing descriptive paragraphs of level 1 students of the D3 Study Program of Nutrition Science at the Health Polytechnic of the Ministry of Health, Padang.

From the table above, it can be seen that after being given action in cycle I with direct object techniques (4.5%) respondents have the perception that direct object techniques can improve writing skills in descriptive paragraphs and (9.3%) respondents have the perception that they do not agree that the technique direct object can improve writing skills paragraph description. The highest perception of respondents (34.8%) quite agreed that the use of direct object techniques can improve student description writing skills. Respondents agree that the direct object technique can improve the writing skills of descriptive paragraphs by (33.6%) and only (18.6%) of all respondents strongly agree that direct object techniques can improve student description writing skills. This result is most likely because students are not familiar with learning activities that require students to be skilled at writing descriptive paragraphs and a little about theory. Thus, from Table 5, it can be seen that the accumulated results in each category stated "Disagree" (4.5%), "Disagree" (9.3%), "Enough Agree" (34.8%), "Agree" (33.6%), and "Strongly Agree" (18.6%). These results indicate that the effort to improve descriptive paragraph writing skills with direct object techniques is seen by students as quite effective in improving descriptive paragraph writing skills.

Based on the data above, it can be concluded that the result of the action in cycle I, direct object technique is seen as a fairly effective technique in learning to write descriptive paragraphs, (34.8%) of the respondents have a sufficiently agreeable perception of direct object techniques to improve writing skills. paragraph description.

DISCUSSION

The data obtained from the non-test results in the form of observations have shown changes in student activity in learning. The increase in changes in this activity is a separate motivation for teachers to always innovate learning as a measure of learning success. The direct object technique applied to learning to write descriptive paragraphs can be implied by Indonesian language lecturers in every learning to write descriptive paragraphs. Indonesian language lecturers can further develop variations in this direct object technique in learning according to school conditions in educational units. Indonesian lecturers can teach students through direct object techniques. Learning to write descriptive paragraphs can help lecturers in creating an active, creative and fun learning atmosphere. Learning to write descriptive paragraphs using direct object techniques which covers a series of learning process activities that require students to write descriptive paragraphs by paying attention to the five indicators of descriptive paragraph writing skills, namely, content, organization, vocabulary, language use, and mechanics (Nurgiyantoro, 2001: 306).¹⁰

The limitation of this research is specifically to discuss how to improve the skill of writing paragraph descriptions by using direct object techniques for level 1 students of the nutrition science study program at the Poltekkes Kemenkes Padang. This research limitation is carried out by considering the feasibility of the research by the researcher. Focus more on data collection or data processing, so that research results become more qualified.

Students' descriptive paragraph writing skills can be improved through direct object techniques. In the preliminary test, the data on students' descriptive paragraph writing skills were not good. After being given action in the form of direct object techniques and stabilization in the learning process in two cycles, it turns out that the application of direct object techniques in learning can improve the process of writing descriptive paragraph skills and student attitudes so that learning outcomes are better.

CONCLUSION

Thus, it can be concluded that the use of direct object techniques in learning to write descriptive paragraphs can improve students' writing skills, especially in describing objects being observed. The significance can be seen from the unfavorable initial test result data, after giving the action, the test results in cycle I increased and so on also increased in cycle II. In addition, the use of direct object techniques can also improve students' positive attitudes and behavior in the learning process of writing descriptive paragraphs, namely: students work on assignments enthusiastically, students carry out learning activities seriously, students are active in asking questions, students are active in answering questions, students punctual in collecting assignments, students enjoy participating in PBM, and students are active in discussions.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We would like to thank Ministry of Research and Technology/National Agency for Research and Technology for giving the confidence to carry out this research and become the sole funder. In addition, thanks to the PoltekkesKemenkes Padang for giving permission to the author so that this research can be carried out well. Special thanks to the 1st level students of the D3 Nutrition Science Study Program, because they have helped by attending lectures well.

Funding: Ministry of Research and Technology / National Research and Innovation Agency of the Republic of Indonesia

Conflict of interest: None declared

Ethical approval: The study was approved by the Health Polytechnic of the Ministry of Health in Padang. Approval given by research and community service institutions of the Health Polytechnic of the Ministry of Health in Padang

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