THE USE OF THEME-BASED TEACHING IN DEVELOPING STUDENTS' WRITING SKILL IN DESCRIPTIVE PARAGRAPH OF THE TENTH GRADE OF SMA KATOLIK ST. ANDREAS PALU

The objective of the research is to investigate the use of theme-based teaching on developing descriptive paragraph of the tenth grade student of SMA Katolik ST.Andreas Palu. The researcher applied quasi experimental research design. He used purposive sampling technique. The research populations were Tenth Grade students of SMA Katolik ST.Andreas Palu. The researcher chose the first year students of SMA Katolik ST.Andreas Palu as the population of this research. It consisted of two parallel classes; X MEA1 and X MEA2. Its samples were 41 students. The instruments of data collection were pretest and posttest. The pretest was used to measure prior knowledge of the students where the posttest was used to measure the development of the students’ ability after the treatment. The t-test was analyzed to compare the mean scores of both classes. There is a significant difference score of the experimental class (75) and the control class (61.90). The level of significance was set up at 0.05 with 30 degree of freedom (df= 20+21-2= 39). The result of data analysis indicates that t-counted (7.24) was greater than the t-table (1.942). It means that the hypothesis was accepted. In other words, using theme-based teaching impact on developing students’ descriptive paragraph at the tenth grade students at SMA Katolik ST.Andreas Palu.