IMPROVING STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILLS BY USING PEER FEEDBACK FOR THE TENTH GRADE STUDENTS OF THE OFFICE ADMINISTRATION STUDY PROGRAM AT SMK MUHAMMADIYAH 1 TEMPEL

Abstract

The aim of this study is to improve the writing skills of the tenth grade students in SMK Muhammadiyah 1 Tempel through the use of peer feedback in the teaching-learning process.

The subjects of the study were 23 students of the Office Administration Class and an English teacher. The study was conducted in two cycles consisting of three meetings in each cycle. The researcher followed the steps in action research including planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. The instruments used to gather the data were observation checklists, interview guidelines and writing tasks. The data in this study were obtained from observation, interview and students’ writing tasks. The data collected were in the form of field notes, interview transcripts and students’ writing scores. The researcher used data analysis technique as suggested by Burns to analyze the qualitative data and descriptive statistics to analyze the quantitative the data.

The results showed that the application of peer feedback in the teaching-learning process could improve the students’ writing skills. The qualitative data showed that there were improvement in the aspects of grammar, organization, vocabulary, and mechanics. This finding was supported by the quantitative data, where the students’ mean score in writing improved. The mean score of the students’ writing in the post test was 21.09. It was higher than the students’ mean score in the pre-test which was 16.52. The mean value gained from the research process was 4.57. The achievement above proved that the use of peer feedback improved the writing skills of the students in the Office Administration Study Program at SMK Muhammadiyah 1 Tempel.

Key words: writing skills, peer feedback