Abstract: This study was intended to investigate the use of Jigsaw technique and the improvement of students’ skill in writing a recount text and their challenges in writing. It was conducted at a vocational high school in Bandung, involving students of eleventh grade as the participants using a quasi-experimental design. In this study, the data were obtained through questionnaires, pre- and post-tests. The data from the pre-test and the post-test were analyzed by using independent t-test. SPSS 20.0 program was used to do the statistical test. Based on the findings, it was revealed that the challenges faced by students in writing a recount text were the use of past tense, limited vocabulary, and the schematic structure of recount text. The quantitative finding of the study shows that significance value is lower than 0.05 (p = 0.000 0.05), which indicates that Jigsaw technique can improve students’ writing skill in the class investigated. Jigsaw helps students to deal with their inability of writing a recount text because each student supports each other member in the home group in order to gain their group’s achievement. In addition, Jigsaw helps students to gather more knowledge when sharing the information and knowledge of their part in the expert group. Keywords: jigsaw strategy, writing, recount text
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