Effect of Using Picture Series on the Indonesian EFL Students’ Writing Ability across Learning Styles

Abstract

Picture series are visual media which are potential to help EFL students learn to write. Therefore, we intended to investigate the effect of using picture series on Indonesian EFL students' writing ability across learning styles. The effect of using picture series on students' ability in writing recount texts was verified first and the effect of picture series across the students' learning styles was examined consecutively. To achieve the goals, a quasi-experimental design was implemented. The subjects of this study were 2 classes of students of the Junior High School 2 at Kawunganten, Cilacap, Central Java. We administered writing tests, distributed a learning style questionnaire, and asked the students to complete an opinion questionnaire. The findings revealed that the students who were taught using picture series had better writing ability than those who were taught without using picture series. The findings also showed that by using picture series the visual students had better writing ability than the auditory students. Furthermore, the students had positive opinion towards the use of picture series. It is suggested that EFL teachers use picture series as one strategy in teaching writing and future researchers conduct further research dealing with the use of picture series.