The Effectiveness of Activating Students’ Peripheral Learning Strategy on Teaching Descriptive Text Writing for the Tenth Graders in SMA Negeri 1 Nganjuk 1 THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ACTIVATING STUDENTS’ PERIPHERAL LEARNING STRATEGY ON TEACHING DESCRIPTIVE TEXT WRITING FOR THE TENTH GRADERS IN SMA NEGERI 1 NGANJUK Mei Ardaning Tyas English Education, Languages and Arts Faculty, The State University of Surabaya meiardaningtyas@gmail.com Kusumarasdyati, Ph.D English Education, Languages and Arts Faculty, The State University of Surabaya Abstrak Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui efektifitas dari pengaktifan peripheral learning strategy pada kemampuan menulis teks deskriptif siswa. Dua kelas telah dipilih dan secara acak dibagi menjadi dua kelompok, yaitu kelompok kontrol dan eksperimental. Mereka berada pada tingkat yang sama yaitu pada kelas sepuluh di SMA Negeri 1 Nganjuk. Sebelum memberikan perlakuan khusus, tes menulis telah diberikan pada kedua kelompok sebagai pre-tes. Lalu, peripheral learning dari kelompok eksperimental diaktifkan sebagai perlakuan khusus, sedangkan kelompok kontrol diajar dengan menggunakan metode tradisional. Setelah pemberian perlakuan khusus, post-tes diberikan pada kedua kelompok. Sebuah analisis t-test pada SPSS 16.00 digunakan untuk menganalisa hasil pre-tes dan post-tes dari kelompok kontrol dan eksperimental. Hasil dari penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa pengaktifan dari peripheral learning strategy memiliki efek yang signifikan untuk meningkatkan kemampuan menulis teks deskriptif siswa, (P<.05). Kata Kunci: Menulis, Teks Deskriptif, Peripheral Learning Strategy Abstract This study is an effort to know the effectiveness of activating students’ peripheral learning strategy on students’ descriptive text ability. Two classes were selected and randomly divided into two groups, namely experimental and control groups. They were on the same level that is on the tenth grade of SMA Negeri 1 Nganjuk. Before giving the treatment, a writing test was administered to both groups as pre-test. Then, the peripheral learning of experimental group was activated as a treatment, while the control group was taught by traditional way. After giving treatment, a post-test was administered to both groups. A t-test on SPSS 16.00 was used to analyze the result of pre-test and post-test from experimental and control groups. The results showed that the activation of peripheral learning strategy had a significant effect to improve the students’ descriptive writing ability, (P<.05). Keywords: Writing, Descriptive Text, Peripheral Learning Strategy INTRODUCTION Writing is a means of communication that enables the writers to synthesize the knowledge they have into an acceptable text which is appropriate with the English writing conventions. It considered as one of the productive skills along with speaking as they engage producing language rather than receiving it (Harmer, 2001). Even if those two skills belong to the same category as productive skill, Bachani (2003) says that writing requires clearer and more comprehensive message than speaking since it is always used by writers to state and communicate their ideas to the readers who are separated by both time and space distances. In English, writing is an important skill to be mastered in order to communicate effectively, but it becomes the most difficult skill to be mastered since it is an activity that must be learnt by practicing. The difficulties in writing a text are not only in generating and organizing ideas but also in translating these ideas into readable text (Richard and Renandy in Wardhani, 2010). Besides must be able to generate and organize ideas in writing, the students have to manage the content, format, sentence structure, vocabulary, spelling, and letter formation at the same time (Nunan, 2003). Those requirements make student’s work to develop their writing ability becomes harder. Moreover, the time allocated for English subject based on the curriculum is very limited, as Sadtono cited by Lestari (1999) states that that one of the causes of the failure in teaching English is the limited number of hours for English classes. Consequently, mastering all of the writing components will be very frustrating for students. Thus, an