A picture is a general language which is able to be understood and can be enjoyed everywhere. Picture provides for most people critical contacts with the real world. Finocchiaro (1981: 275) mentions that media can help the learning process simpler and make it perfect. The media will allow students to understand better the content of what being taught. Media can also help to shape the learning process as well as interest in the language program and thus provide motivational impulse. Beside that according to Yuswontomo (1991:14) there are two kinds of picture illustration and original pictures. Illustration is including in the from of stick figure and drawing. Original pictures is including in the form of photographer.
Picture is a valuable instructional media. Everybody likes to look at pictures. The use of picture in the classroom provides a stimulating focus for students’ interest. Pictures can make interesting for the students to write descriptive text. The students can describe about something with easily after they see some interest pictures. Xing and Jin ( 1985: 35) in Sholeh (2009) states that, “We often ask our students to exchange pictures and photos and write about them”. By using a picture, the attention of students will be more focused, so picture can create their inspiration, their wishes to know the content of the message of that picture and they can write it in a composition. By seeing the clear pictures or interest pictures, the students understand more about the topic being taught.
Heaton (1990:107) states that, in everyday life, students may sometimes be required to describe people, objects, places, and even processes. There will also be times when they will have to write about sequences of events, incidents, etc. and give directions. Pictures provide students with ideas for such tasks, enabling them to give their full attention to using written language.
Picture also brings the outside world into the classroom in a vividly concrete ways (Raimes, 1983). Latuheru (1988) states that there are many advantages in using pictures in the teaching and learning process. Pictures can attract students’ interest and translate abstract ideas into more realistic forms. In addition, pictures can be obtained easily. Pictures offer a wealth of possibilities. We can ask students to write descriptions of one a group of pictures; their classmate then have to guess which one it is. They can write based on pictures given.
A picture is including flash cards. Flash cards can be in the form of photographs, drawings, or pictures cut from magazines, and newspapers. For a language instruction, drawings or pictures are necessary to use (Brown, et, al: 1983). The picture or drawing will be effective if they are used in the flash card. The pictures in the flash should be big enough, interesting, and clear for students to see. If the pictures are not big enough, not interesting, and not clear, the students will get confused to describe them. The pictures can make students’ imagination deviate from what they are expected to produce. To avoid this, a teacher must follow the above criteria.
In the process of the teaching and learning of English, the teachers, particularly the inexperienced teachers, should be creative to find out a technique of teaching so that the materials of the subject matter they can be easily understood by the students. One of the techinques that should be considered is pictures that are used as language teaching media. The picture media have proved to be effective to motivate and encourage the students in learning the four skills of English as recommended by the Competence-Based Curriculum and the KTSP.
Writing is the most complex skill compare to other there skills reading, listening, and speaking, it is necessary for teachers to apply various strategies which can be interesting activity if the teacher is creative enough in selecting the strategies suitable with the students’ interest. Pictures as one of instructional media combined with the principles of the CLT can be the answer of the problem to write because pictures can attract students’ attention and enable them to produce descriptive texts.
For writing a descriptive text, for instance, teachers can utilize media like pictures through which the students can see what to describe. Pictures can also active prior knowledge about the object or people shown in the pictures. As Raimes (1983) states, some resources of pictures are worth learning in teaching EFL writing. The pictures may may be drawings, photographs, posters, slides, cartoon, strips, magazine advertisement, diagrams, graphs, tables, charts, and maps. Picture provide a shared experience for the student in the class and lead to a variety of language activities.
One of the effective ways to teach writing is by using instructional media. Teachers can employ pictures as their instructional aids in the teaching of writing, especially writing in descriptive text. This is because pictures can translate an abstract idea into a more realistic form and they can be easily obtained (Latuheru, 1988: 41). Latuheru (1988) states that the teachers might create a condusive classroom situation where the students enjoy learning, get motivation and get feeling of being non-treathened. The use of media in the learning of writing help the students learn to write well. Pictures in teaching has some advantages. Pictures can translate absract ideas into a more realistic form, can be easily obtained, can attract students’ interest. Raimes (1983: 27) states that the use of pictures in the classroom, “ provides a stimulating focus for students’ attentions”. In short, students will be motivated if the teachers use pictures as instructional media.
Here the researcher using picture about nature and traffic (original picture) from internet. By using picture can to motivate students to be active, to create a context within his / her written text will have meaning, and to provide the students with information to refers to including object, action, events, and relation.