The Effect of RAFT Strategy Assisted by Graphic Images on t he Students’ Achievement in Writing

The objective of this research was to find out the significant effect of RAFT strategy assisted by graphic images on the students’ achievement in writing. The Research used in this study was an experimental research. This research design was conducted at SMA Al-ULUM Medan, located on Jalan Tuasan No.35, Kecamatan Medan Tembung. The population of this research was the classes at eleven grade in academic year 2016/2017, which consisted of 2 classes, 51 students. The researcher took two classes by using total random sampling, XI-IPS was as the control class that consisted of 22 students and XI IPA was as the experimental class which involved 29 students. Each class was given a pre-test, treatment, and post-test. The control class was taught by using lecture method, while the experimental class was treated by using RAFT strategy. The instrument of this research was written test. The data were analyzed by using t-test formula. Then, the result showed that the students taught using by using RAFT Strategy got the higher score than those taught by using lecture method. In conclusion, there was the significant effect on the students’ achievement in writing by using RAFT Strategy Assisted by Graphic Images


INTRODUCTION
Writing is one of basic skills in English and also as a mean of communication that is used to convey idea, expression, thought and feeling to other. Making a writing requires a process as it is written communication which contains organized idea, grammar and so on. Spratt, Pulvernes, and Williams (2005) defines that writing is one of the productive language skills which deal with conveying messages with the use of graphic symbols. Moreover, writing is an activity to deliver an idea by using letters, words, phrases, and clauses to from a series of related sentences. This definition shows that writing is conveying a message through a written text. In other words, writing is a communication between a writer and a reader with the use of printed language.
In global era, writing is very important competence. It is because nowadays people who use technology as a mean of communication seem to be impossible separated from the activity of writing, such as sending short message through mobile phone and the more complex like making via mail. Furthermore the importance of writing is also seen from the fact that the skill of writing is necessary for people in modern era like job acceptance. Therefore students are expected to be capable of making a good writing.
In Senior High School, there are many kinds of texts that should be learnt by students, one of them is Monologue text. it is like report text, descriptive text, expository text and etc. All of kinds of text should be comprehended by students, especially report text, because this is one of texts which is very important and need to be mastered by students. In curriculum of KTSP, it states that students are expected to be capable of revealing a meaning in essay text in form of report, narrative, and analytical exposition in context of daily life and also short functional text such as (banner, poster, pamphlet etc) officially and unofficially by using variety of writing-language accurately, fluently in daily life.
However, in reality most of the students had problems in writing report text based on the interview to the teacher in AL-ULUM school. For instance, in class B-XI IPA-3, there are 30 students learning report text with lecture method, however when teacher got them to write report text, only 8 students who got score which is suitable to KKM score. It indicates that students" writing skill there was still low in report text. After examined by teacher, seemingly students didn"t know how to differentiate generic structure between descriptive text and report text, because both of them told description an object, but descriptive was for specific object meanwhile report was for general object, students had less motivation in learning report text and students were difficult to express their ideas in writing report text, example, when teacher asked them to write a report text, they lost ideas.
Actually some reasons why writing is more difficult for some student are viewed from two sides namely internal and external factor. If seen from internal factor: (a) students were hesitant to write because in writing they must use their own language style even though they had had the source of book, newspaper, internet and so on, but they are still confused to come up idea and arrange it. (b) they were afraid that they did not know what to write. Supported by harmer (2004), he says that students are reluctant to write because they rarely writing even in their own language and so the activity of writing seems like alien. (c) some students thought that writing was difficult because they are lack of vocabulary, grammar, cohesion, coherence in writing paragraph or essay. Harmer (2004:) said that for writing truly accessible needs to be both cohesive, coherence and also the use of grammar and vocabulary in writing. Students who did not know about vocabulary, grammar, cohesion and coherence in writing paragraph felt difficulty in writing. It happened because they were lazy to read any books about English, so that they are lack of vocabulary and grammar. Therefore they did not understand about using the pattern of grammar in writing sentence, paragraph, essay, and vocabulary. If seen from external side: (a) teacher still used conventional method in teaching report text and (b) the teacher did not use any media in teaching students. Therefore, the researcher had new strategy in teaching writing namely RAFT strategy to help students" obstacle in writing report text. Singleton and Newman (2009) classifies that RAFT stands for Role (what is the writer's role), Audience (who will be reading the writing), Format (what form will the writer use), and Topic + strong verb (who or what is the subject of this writing). This strategy allows the students to express the topic from several different perspectives. It also could be done when the writer wants to write something to someone. it meant that students was able to write effectively and clearly if students passed RAFT strategy in writing because RAFT strategy made students communicate in written and simply come up ideas. In RAFT strategy, a few of advantages of RAFT was students know what their role in wring whom they wrote, what format used in writing report text, and what topic discussed in learning process, so it made them not confused anymore in writing. Furthermore, The power of RAFT had been proved previously from the data of the research was taken from the result of pre-test and post-test in academic year at STKIP PGRI West Sumatera about writing skill. In pre-test, control group got higher score than experimental, but after passing treatment of RAFT strategy. Both showed that the highest score obtained by experimental group was 23 and in control

Muhammad Ikhsan Ahmadi Tanjung
-377-group was 21.5. it indicated that there was effect of RAFT strategy for students" writing skill if implemented. Unfortunately, RAFT strategy still had yet to be introduced in many schools. Therefore the researcher wants to apply RAFT strategy to increase students" writing skill especially writing report text.
The researcher also offered a media in teaching writing report text namely graphic images. Aiex (2008) defines "media as a device used by teacher in teaching-learning process that makes learners understand the material given". Media provides an excellent source for discovering a new way in teaching process and makes students competent more culturally, in other side, (Clark and Lyons 2004) states that the graphical representations are effective because their processing require fewer cognitive transformations. It meant that graphic image was important to increase cognitive skill of students in learning process. For that reasons, the researcher conducted a research entitle "The Effect of RAFT Strategy Assisted by Graphic Images on the Students" Achievement in Writing.

LITERATURE REVIEW RAFT
RAFT is role, audience, format and topic. This is a writing strategy which simplifies students to write by coming up idea and forming it into organized paragraph. According to Syrja (2011) RAFT is an acronym which is used to describe the four critical ingredients of writing, namely R for Role of the writer, A for Audience for the writing, F for Format the writing will take, and T for Topic which covered in the writing. This strategy helps the students to think critically and creatively about the content that they are studying. They can make connection to the events, people, times, and places they are reading about, and then they can combine all of the information into a creative piece of writing. Moreover Buehl (2009) states that a RAFT strategy involves writing from a point of view. It infuses a writing assignment with full of imagination, creativity and motivation. Students" writing goes to the audience not only for the teacher, they write their writing in a form not in a standard assignment. It means that the students will develop their ability in writing by expressing their idea clearly and effectively in a certain form and for the audience that they choose as their target. Based on those definitions above, it was concluded that RAFT was effective strategy which should be implemented to solve students" problem in writing because RAFT helped by providing what content need writing, what format used, what topic was it and so on. Therefore RAFT deserved to be chosen as learning strategy in writing skill.

Graphic Images
Graphic images are a teaching media that function to stimulate students" interest in studying. Graphics can stimulate interest and motivation to improve understanding ability of language, and offer especial reference object and topic. Graphics played a very important role in language teaching process. Graphics refer to images and pictures, such as chart, diagram, and photograph, which contain no movement.
Moreover, according to Canning-Wilson (2001), Graphic images also help students to create relations amongst the words, "bringing out more detailed, knowledgeable, responsive, awareness to the object, situation or text being communicated" Canning-Wilson (2001). Canning also points that the graphic can help the student to work with more abstract thoughts and organizing skills through the use of logical structure.
Graphics have played key roles in scientific textbooks for centuries. Graphics were used to stimulate interest in students and increase their involvement for instructional purposes. Based on the explanation above, it was concluded that graphic images were very important

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-378-media in language teaching class. Not only giving understanding ability of language, but also making students more responsive and also aware toward text being communicated. Furthermore, students were easier doing their work with logical structure because media helped them to write systematically from abstract thought into organized communicated writing. However, the researcher focuses on chart as well as diagram only in this research.

Writing
Writing is language skill in producing organized word, sentence and paragraph into one idea in a paper. This is called as written communication. As Meyers (2005) states that writing is an action-a process of discovering and organizing ideas, putting them on paper, reshaping, and revising them and He also states that writing is a way to produce language when you do and when you speak. It means that writing is a process of producing language from our thought into a paper and done with a purpose to convey a message in written form to others. A writing itself is always influenced by genre of writer in writing. Moreover the students have to be creative in generating and organizing their ideas into meaningful written text. As Hamp, Lynons, Heasley, (2006) classifies that Writing is as a form of problem solving in which the writer is faced with two main tasks: a) generating ideas, and b) composing these ideas into a written text that meets the needs of a reader and efficiently communicates the authors" message. In addition, Peha (2010) defines that writing is the communication of content for a purpose to an audience. It means that writing is communication should have content such as organized idea or message with a certain purpose which is formed in written language and given to audience or called as other people. Based on those definitions above, it could be concluded that writing was a result of thought process and formed to be a written language. To make a good writing should know how to come up idea, form organization text, and so on. However, in doing so was not easy because most students were still low in writing. Therefore they needed to learn some writing methods, strategy, and technique to form a good writing.

Report Text
According to Rusman (2010), report text is text which presents information about something, as it is as a result of systematic observation and analysis. It means that report text is a text which presents information of one object either creature living or a thing after several procedure of research, observation, analysis. Moreover, the purposes of report text are derived from the views of some expert: (a) to write report text to oral form (b) to provide about natural and natural phenomena (c)"to document, organize, and store factual information on a topic classify and describe the phenomena of our world about a whole class of things not about specific thing about living things like plants and animals and nonliving things like phones, bike, or oceans (Derewiank, 2000). (d) "to describe the way things are with reference to a range of natural, man-made and social phenomenon in our environment to describe the way things are, with reference to whole range of phenomena, natural, synthetic and social in our environment" (Gerot and wignell,1994). They also divide that the generic Structure of report text are two parts, (a) General Classification, and (b) Description. a. General classification It introduces the topic of the report such as: the class or sub-class. It is starting classification of general aspect of thing; animals, plant and etc. which will be discussed in general. b. Description

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-379-It is describing the things which will be discussed more detail or specific; part per parts, customs or deed for living creature and usage material. Moreover Pardiyono (2009) divides, there are four dominant grammatical aspects of the report text (a) The use of general nouns (e.g.: whales, some species. (b) The use of relating verbs (e.g: are, has, is). (c) The use of present tense (e.g. whales are sea-living mammals). (c)The use of behavioral verbs (e.g : snake often sunbathe). (d) The use of technical terms (e.g: whales breathe oxygen but cannot survive on the land). Based on those explanations above, it was concluded that report text is a text which explains information about something or object in general. It also followed with research, observation and analysis. Report text has two generic structures such as: General Classification, and Description.

RESEARCH METHODS
This research was conducted at SMA Al-ULUM Medan, which is located Jalan Tuasan No.35, Kecamatan Medan Tembung. It was conducted during 3 months (February-April 2017) of academic year 2016/2017. The reason of choosing this school was because the researcher obtained information from the teacher there that most of the students were low in writing. It was seen from their achievement in English learning, especially in writing report text.
The samples in this research were class XI-IPA that amounted to 29 students and XI-IPS that amounted to 22 students which were taken by using Total Random Sampling Technique. It means that whole population of students was involved to be sample in this research and one of both classes was chosen as control group and another as experimental one. The researcher chose XI IPA as experimental class and XI IPS as control class. The table of population and sample of the research were displayed in table below.

Research Design
This research was conducted by using an experimental quantitative research which consisted of pre-test and post-test in order to know the effect of RAFT strategy assisted by graphic images on the students" Achievement in Writing. In conducting the experimental research, the sample was divided into two groups, there were experimental and control group. The experimental was treated by using RAFT Strategy Assisted by Graphic Images and the control group was taught by using Lecture method. The design of this research was illustrated as follow. In this research, there were three procedures used to collect the data. Those were Pretest, Treatment and Post-test given to the experimental and control groups.
The instrument of this research was collected by using written test. In the test, the students wrote their own report text based on graphic images given. The material of the test

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-380-was taken from LKS English Senior High School. Therefore to collect the data, (a) the researcher gave the same pre-test to both of the groups, (b) applied the treatment by using RAFT Strategy was given to the experimental group and lecture method was given to the control group, (c) gave same post-test to both of the groups, and (d) collected the students" work sheet. Continuously, the students" work sheets were scored based on the criteria of scoring writing proposed by Hughes (2003).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The following sample in this research was 51. Both experimental and control groups got pre-test and post-test. The scores of pre-test and post-test in each group were presented in the table below. As shown in the Table 3, it showed that the total score of pre-test was 850, with the lowest (10) and the highest one (60). Meanwhile, the total score of post-test was 1210 with the lowest score was 30 and the highest score was 85.