Using Instagram to Improve Students’ Ability and Interest in Writing Descriptive Paragraph

This research aimed at finding out the improvement of the students’ writing ability and interest by using Instagram as media. To find out the improvements, the writer used pre-experimental design with one group pre-test and post-test design and questionnaire. The population of this research was the eleventh-grade students’ at SMA Muhammadiyah 1 Unismuh Makassar, academic year 2017/2018. The sample was class XI IPA taken by purposive sampling technique which consisted of 10 students. It employed five meetings (one meeting for pre-test, three meetings for treatment, and one meeting for post-test and questionnaire). It employed writing test as instrument. The research findings indicated that the application of using Instagram was effective in improving the students’ writing skill in term of content and organization. It was proved by the value of the total t-test was 6.30, which was higher than the value of t-table (1.833). This indicated that (H1) was accepted, and (H0) was rejected. It means that there was a significant difference of the students’ writing skill before and after using Instagram in classroom. The students’ interest in writing also improved after the treatment. It was shown by students’ answers in the questionnaire. Most students gave positive respons toward the use of instagram to improve their interst in writing, even they think that this method can be applied in classroom to attract their attention and interest. Therefore, this research is very useful for learning process as a reference for teachers to teach in classroom.


Introduction
Basically, one of the targets of teaching and learning English at school is to make the students able to communicate in English both in spoken and in written language. To achieve this, there are four language skills have to be taught; they are listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Listening and reading are passive or receptive skills, while speaking and writing are active or productive skills (Harmer, 2001). All of the skills are important. However, one of language skills that encourages students to be more productive and creative is writing skill.
To write is not merely about write something on blank paper; it is more complex yet meticulous. Writing is a combination of process and product. We need a quite long process starting from planning, drafting, editing, and final A writing ability must be focused on the understanding of the students on how to make good writing. In this case, to make writing in social media it should be based on the right words to use according to the object or picture about it. This study observed what social media improved students writing skill in writing subject. Students' interest should be proved here whether social media raised their interest to learning writing subject in order to gain writing skill or was it just a place for showing out their emotions.
Based on the observation the writer did to the writing classroom students of the Eleventh Grade of SMA Muhammadiyah 1 Unismuh Makassar, most of the students had less interest in writing. It was because they considered writing as a difficult thing to do. Most of the students stated that it was difficult to start writing. The students found it hard to start writing because they had no idea about what to write. This was in line with Harmer's statement (2004): "a common response of many students when they are asked to write is that they have nothing to say. On the other hand, there were also students who had million thoughts and feelings to be written; however, they cannot write it because they do not know how to start it.
Dealing with those problems, the teacher should more motivate the students to write as motivation could push them to achieve more. Moreover, it was one of teacher's roles to motivate the students. As stated by Harmer (2001), "One of teachers in writing tasks will be to motivate the students, creating the right conditions for the generation of ideas, persuading them to the usefulness of the activity, and encouraging them to make as much effort as possible for maximum benefit." One of the ways to motivate the students was by creating enjoyable and comfortable learning atmosphere so that students felt fun to write. The feeling of fun in writing could motivate students to write more and more so that their writing skill improved. Moreover, practice writing regularly would build the student's writing habit. This writing habit was very important because when it had been built, students would get used to write without spending many efforts either thinking writing as a burdensome activity. Considering those conditions, The writer was interested in conducting an experimental study at Eleventh Grade students of SMA Muhammadiyah 1 Unismuh Makassar Entittled "Using Instagram to Improve Students' Ability and Interest in Writing" to help the students improving their writing skill and interest.

Methods
This research was classified into pre-experimental research that used one group pre-test and post-test design. In one group pre-test and post-test design, that was a single group was measured or observed not only after being exposed to a treatment of some sort, but also before a treatment. A pre-test provided a measure on some attribute or characteristic that was assessed in an experiment before the group gets a treatment, while a post-test measured on some attribute or characteristics that was assessed for participants in an experiment after a treatment.
In addition, Creswell (2002) states as "A quantitative approach is one in which the investigator primarily uses post positivist claims for developing knowledge (i.e., cause and effect thinking, reduction to specific variables and hypotheses and question, use of measurement and  (Creswell, 2003:18) Where: Y1 is Students' achievement in writing descriptive text before teaching by using Instagram pictures. X is Instagram pictures treatment. Y2 is students' achievement in writing descriptive text after teaching by using Instagram pictures.
The procedures of pre-experimental research that used one group pre-test and post-test design in this study were described; Administering pre-test (Y1) with the purpose of measuring students' writing descriptive text-ability before applying treatment. Applying experimental treatment teaching writing descriptive text by using Instagram pictures (X). Administering post-test (Y2) with the purpose of measuring students' writing descriptive text-ability after applying a treatment.
In this study, the population was all third-grade students of SMA Muhammadiyah 1 Unismuh Makassar in academic year 2017-2018, which consists of two classes. The quantity of students in each class of the population as follow: Since the barriers that often appeared in term of time, capability and cost to take all members of population, so the writer could take a portion of population which is known as sample. According to Gay (1992) sample is the process of selecting a number individual for a study in such a way that the individual represents the larger group from which they were. Meanwhile, Ary et al (2006) sampling is the small group that is observed. Sampling is also as a way the writer select number of individuals as a sample that presents the population. The sample of this study is XI IPA class that consists of 32 students.
As an experimental research, the instrument that was used in this research were tests and questionairre (Norton, 2018). According to Ary et al (2010) test is a set of stimuli presented to individual in order to elicit responses on the basis of which a numerical score can be assigned. There were two kinds of test in this study, those were pre-test and post-test. Pre-test was intended to measure the students ability in writing ability before the treatment given, while post-test was to measure students' writing ability after the treatment given.
In managing and analyzing the data collected, this study used quantitative data analysis.The analysis was used to find the significant difference of the students' writing descriptive text ability before and after the use of using Instagram as a media. O' Malley and Pierce (1996) state that writing, assessment should evaluate more aspects of writing than just mechanic and grammar, and should capture some of the processes and complexity involved in writing so that the teacher can know in which aspects of the writing process students are having different. Two important components in the assessment of writing are the nature of task, or prompt and the scoring criteria or rubric. O' Malley and Pierce (1996) state that a writing prompt defines the task for the students' writing assessment.
The following is the example of rubric in assessing the students' writing. It focus on the students' ability in writing descriptive text.
Adopted from Brown (2007) In giving score the students' ability in writing some categories the writer used the formula follows: Calculate the students' scoring test Students' correct Score = The total item x 100 Students' correct Score = The total item x 100 Calculating the mean score of the students' writing test by using the following formula: Note: = Mean Score (symbol for the population mean) = The sum of all score N = Total number of students Gay (2006)  Finding the improvement percentage of students' writing achievement after using social media. The formula as follows: Where: P : The percentage of the students' improvement X1 : The mean score of pre-test X2 : The mean score of post-test (Arikunto, 2006) Finding the rate percentage of the frequency of the pre-test and post-test The formula as follows: To know the significant difference between the score of the pre-test and post-test. The writer calculates the value of the test by using the following formula: Where: T = test of significance D = the mean score of difference (X1-X2) ∑D = the sum of the total score ∑D2 = the square of the sum score of difference N = the total sample.
Gay (2006) The formula explained about the significance difference between pre-test and post-test were found by calculation the value of the t-test. The aim of the formula wass to know the social media effective or not in improving students' interest in learning writing at eleventh Grade students of SMA Muhammadiyah 1 Unismuh Makassar.

Testing hypothesis
After get the students' significance scores (value of t) it is compare with the value of t-table.
When it is find that the value of t-test is equal or greater than the value of t-table, it means that Null Hypothesis (H0) is reject and Alternative Hypothesis (H1) is accept because there is significance difference between pre-test and post-test and after teach writing by using social media. The criteria for the hypothesis testing as follows:  (Gay, 2006) To find out the social media effective or not in improving students' interest in learning writing at eleventh Grade students of SMA Muhammadiyah 1 Unismuh Makassar This study answered the following research questions; (1) Does the students' writing ability improve in term of content and organization by using Instagram?; (2) Are the students interested in learning writing by using Instagram?

The Improvement of Students' Writing Ability in Writing
This part presents the result of data analysis about students' writing skills in descriptive text of SMA Muhammadiyah 1 Unismuh Makassar. This research indicates positive improvement of students ability which is shown by the following explanation.  Table 4. shows that the mean score of the pre-test was 47.3 (X1) while the mean score of the post-test increased 78.6 (X2). The improvement of the students' mean score of writing in pretest and post-test was 66.17%. In the other words we can say that, the improvement was significantly different and the students' ability progressed, as the result at this item is the mean score of the post-test was greater than the mean score in pre-test. It means that the students' writing skills has improved after doing the learning process that used Instagram.

%
The data in the Table 4.2 indicated that the rate percentage of the pre-test one (10%) student got good score, two (20%) students got fair score, three (30%) students got poor score and four (40%) students got very poor score while the rate percentage of the post-test, five (50%) students got very good score, two (20%) students got good score and three (30%) students got fair score. The percentage in post-test that students got very good score was higher than percentage in pre-test. It shows that students were able to improve their writing skills after treatment that using Instagram.

The Value of T-test
This part presents the result of data analysis about impact of Instagram which is able to improve the students' writing skills in descriptive text at the Eleventh Grade of SMA Muhammadiyah 1 UNISMUH Makassar.
The following is the table to find out the difference of the mean score between pre-test and post-test.

Hypothesis Testing
To find out the degree of freedom (df) the writer used the following formula: For the level, significant (p) 5% and df = 9, and the value of the table is 1.833, while the value of t-test is 6.30. It means that the t-test value is greater than t-table (6.30 ≥ 1.833). thus, it can be concluded that the students' writing skills in descriptive text is significant better after getting the treatment. So, the null hypothesis (H0) is rejected and the alternative hypothesis (H1) is accepted. It has been found that there is an impact of using Instagram in students' writing skills in descriptive text.
The Using of Instagram has impact in improving the students' writing skill. As a fact, based on the finding, most students have a good score in post-test. It meant that, the treatment succeeded in improving the students' writing skill. Even, this method actually able to make the learning process became more interesting in learning process in the class. In this case, the writer used this Instagram by combining with practiced writing descriptive text in classroom. In practice writing, the students used writing activity based on the organization of the text as well as final version.
In connection with the finding in every meeting on treatment, the writer concluded that the students enjoyed the class and they felt at ease to write their experience because they have known their errors before that. They could be writing well because they write a descriptive text by their own knowledge. Regular verbs and irregular verbs helped the students easy to write and the correction of the writer helped the students did not do the same errors they have made.
Writing activity made the learning process in practice writing descriptive text became interesting, because the writer directly also used the direct classroom correction in correcting the students' error in writing they have made at the time. The writer also showed some good instagram posts with suitable and good caption to help students to get deeper understanding on how to write a good descriptive paragraphs.
There were three meetings for doing the treatment of this research. At the first, before giving the treatment, the students did the pre-test. It aimed to know students' skills before getting the treatment. The step of this test was the writer start to do brainstorming to take the students attention and it made the students interest to do the next instruction of the writer. The writer after that, the writer asked the students to write a descriptive paragraphs by their own knowledge based on the topic they given then they collected their paper to the writer. It aimed to know the students' ability in writing descriptive text before got the treatment. In this case, the writer checked the students' work at home. The writer gave some correction on the students' paper by insert a missing word, phrase and sentences as well crossing the errors word, phrase, and sentence, especially in grammar. The writer gave some correction based on the aspect of writing.
In the first meeting on Monday, October 23rd, 2017, first the writer gave motivation about the easy to study English then the writer gave back the students' paper that have been corrected in it. The writer had conclusion after checked the students' paper then the writer explained to the students' what was wrong in students' writing descriptive text. Most students got error in using a grammar. They also had some error in organization, mechanic and vocabulary. In this method, the writer explained to the students' the correct of their errors they have made so that the students were not doing the same error in next writing. The students have a chance to give some question based on their writing.
On Friday, October 27th, 2017 was the second meeting, the writer showed a text of descriptive text as an example of a good descriptive writing to students. It made the students easy to write for next writing, because it will motivate them to write better. While before meeting, the most errors of students had made, it was in grammar, they did not know how to use present tense in writing descriptive text. In the next step, the students practiced to write descriptive text again by doing the writing activity.
On Sunday, October 31st, the writer finally showed instagram posts of people in describing things or place. The posts shown were in good content and organization based on the assessment in this research. In this step, students realised that their writing will be seen by many people on Instagram. This exactly drove them to write better on instagram.
In the last, the writer gave a post-test on Monday, November 6th, 2017. Before that, the writer did brainstorming first to take the students' focusing and their attention. The students wrote a descriptive text by their knowledge about Pantai Losari after treatment. In this, the writer did not give back the students' paper again. It aimed to know whether this treatment has an impact or not.
From the first meeting until the last meeting, the students write a different thing to practice their writing. It was hoped to attract the students' ideas and inspiration when writing a new story. Writing activity was able to help the students to make a good writing in practice and Using Instagram is able to improve the students writing. As conclusion, the use of Instagram has an impact in improving the students' writing skill in descriptive text.
To know the improvement of students' writing skill in descriptive text by using Instagram, the writer calculated the mean score of the students' writing skill was indicated from two tests namely pre-test and post-test. The mean score in pre-test before treatment was 47.3 and the mean score of post-test was 78.6 after treatment.
The writer used Instagram as media to improve students' ability in writing descriptive text. The writer corrected the students' error of writing by focusing on the aspect of writing which are content and organization. Based on the aspects of writing, the writer corrected the students' error by guiding of them. These aspects also were a guideline of writer in scoring the students' writing test. The students' writing skill increased after the treatment. Because from the students' score in the pre-test before that was 47.3 and categorized as very poor classification and after giving treatment that was 78.6 and categorized as very good classification.
By looking at the test finding, from the data provided in classification table based on the aspects of writing, clearly to see that one (10%) student got good score, two (20%) students got fair score, three (30%) students got poor score and four (40%) students got very poor score while the rate percentage of the post-test, five (50%) students got very good score, two (20%) students got good score and three (30%) students got fair score. From the result, the writer concluded that the students' writing skills improved from very poor to very good classification.
It means that, the using of Instagram in students' writing skill in descriptive text has an impact in improving the students' writing skill. It showed that from students' score which very poor classification to very good classification.
In addition, to know what was the hypothesis receipt between null hypothesis (H0) and alternative hypothesis (H1), the writer used t-test to calculating result showed that on the t-test value 6,30 was greater than t-table value 1.833 table (6.30 ≥ 1.833) with degree of freedom (df) 9. It means alternative hypothesis (H1) was concluded that the using of Instagram was able to improve the students writing skill in descriptive text at the eleventh grade of SMA Muhammadiyah 1 Unismuh Makassar. This hypothesis was accepted while the null hypothesis (H0) was rejected.

Student' Interest in Learning Writing through Instagram
The second objective of this research is to find out whether Instagram can improve students' interest in writing descriptive paragraphs. The result showed that Instagram improved students' interest in writing descriptive paragraphs. It is shown by the questionairre that was addressed to the students to answer.
The result of the questionairre shows how instagram can positively make students become more interested in learning descriptive writing. It has been already mentioned in Bakar (2013) reports that Instagram use has been credited with developing student communication and interaction with their peers and the wider community, raised language awareness and development and also encouraged the use of different language patterns. He further indicates Instagram is individual and had been used to provide students with a personal writing space, Instagram was able to increase student motivation and engagement, which in effect, expanded their critical thinking ability. The explanation above obviously supports the finding of this research which has shown positive impact of students' interest in learning descriptive writing.
The type of questionnaire was close-ended which was consisted on 11 questions. The following explanation shows in table:  Table 7. is the first question in questionairre which asked social media that students mostly use. The result shows that 90% students mostly use Instagram as social media to connect with people. While only 10% student chose facebook and the rest was none. The following table shows more detail about students' interest in english writing.  Bikowski and Kissler (2002) reports using computer saves time and work and that saved time can be used for more creative aspects of language teaching. This finding implies that students prefer Instagram writing because it saves time and also the teacher uses the time to make the lesson more exciting using other creative aspects of teaching. This shows that most students like having interraction directly than by social media. Question number seven (appendix 3) shows 40% student often use dictionary before writing caption in english on Instagram. This shows that their vocabulary is quiet better, it is shown by how they answer question number eight (appendix 3) which shows 90% student think that their writing has been improved over years using Instagram. The second objective of this research is answered by question number 10 (appendix 3) which 100% student think that aftert treatment their interest in English writing has been improved. And also 100% student think that this method can be a platform for teacher in learning english writing. The result above, shows that all students participated in this questionairre session. From all questions, it can be concluded that students' interest in learning writing in descriptive paragraphs had been improved. Students also think that this kind of method in learning writing in english can be a platform in learning process.
In another part of the aims of this research which observed the improvement of using Instagram as media to improve students interest in writing showing a positive improvement. It was shown by how writer managed the questions in questionairre. Students mostly think that their interest in learning writing improved since the treatment applied in the classroom.the way of teaching method that applied in classroom took big opportunity in attracting students attention and interest in learning descriptive writing. The writer caught students attention by explaining the materialls by Instagram. The students were shown some pictures with caption on Instagram to increase the way they think in writing that writing is not hard as what they think, but it can be something joyful for them to be easier to do, and after three times treatment meeting, they become interested in learning descriptive paragraph. This showed that instagram brought positive impact for students writing skill or even their interest.

Conclusion
The result in shows that students' writing ability has been improved after the treatment, it can be proved by looking at the mean score of the students' writing test in pre-test and post-test. The mean score of pre-test (47.3) is lower than the mean score of post-test (78.6). The score above indicates that this method has worked well and very useful to apply in classroom. Based on the result of questionnaire that had been answered by students, shows that students' interest in learning english writing in the form of descriptive paragraph has positively given a good impact for students either. It is shown by 100% students answered question number 10 (appendix 3) which indeed shows that their interest in learning writing improved after the treatment. Also, 100% students aggree that this kind of method is applied in learning process to attract students attention in classroom.