THE IMPORTANCE OF MANUAL WRITING IN DEVELOPING STUDENTS’ ENGLISH LITERACY SKILLS AT SMP KATOLIK ST. MARIA ASSUMPTA

Abstrak

This study investigates the importance of manual writing in developing English literacy skills among Grade 7 students at SMP Katolik St. Maria Assumpta. The research involved 24 students, equally divided between male and female participants, and was conducted using Classroom Action Research (CAR) to identify and address challenges in handwriting and reading comprehension. A pre-test revealed that students faced significant difficulties, including slow writing speed, poor legibility, motor coordination problems, and weak reading comprehension, particularly in making inferences and identifying main ideas. Structured manual writing activities, such as guided copying, vocabulary journaling, sentence construction, and short descriptive writing, were implemented as interventions. Classroom observations confirmed active student engagement and effective teacher guidance throughout the instructional process. Post-test results demonstrated significant improvements in handwriting speed, legibility, motor control, and reading comprehension, with most students achieving passing levels and showing better ability to extract details, make inferences, and identify main ideas. The findings indicate that manual writing serves as both a cognitive and physical tool, enhancing students’ ability to organize thoughts, clarify ideas, and improve literacy skills. This study highlights the effectiveness of integrating manual writing into English instruction as a strategy to foster holistic literacy development in middle school students.