Improving Students’ Skills in Writing Descriptive Texts by Using Digital Photographs

Abstract

In English Learning Teaching (ELT), digital photographs are considered a
compelling visual medium to help students write English texts. A writing skill
is a capacity to convert ideas into complete, comprehensive and understandable
sentences that may be used to convey those ideas to the reader effectively. The
purpose of this research is to find out whether using digital photographs can
improve students’ skills in writing descriptive texts or not. The researchers used
a descriptive quantitative pre-experimental method by applying digital pictures
to teach writing descriptive text. The sample of this research consists of thirty
students at SMP Negeri 1 Pangsid, South Sulawesi. The result shows that
students’ writing skills increased by using digital photographs. The results are
indicated by the mean value of the pretest (44,73) and the posttest (82,93). After
calculating the t-test, the researchers found that the null hypothesis (H0) was
rejected, and the alternative hypothesis (H1) was accepted. Using digital
photographs as a teaching and learning medium can improve students’ skills n
writing descriptive texts. In other words, this medium eases the students in
constructing their ideas through descriptive essays.