THE EFFECT OF PADLET ON STUDENTS' SKILLS IN WRITING DESCRIPTIVE TEXT OF A PERSON IN THE NINTH GRADE OF SMP KRISTEN PALANGKA RAYA

Writing in English in the 21st century is an essential skill that must be mastered for effective communication. Therefore, students are required to use supporting technology, such as Padlet, to enhance their writing abilities. This research aimed to investigate the significant effect of the Padlet application on students’ skills in writing descriptive texts in the ninth grade of SMP Kristen Palangka Raya during the 2025/2026 academic year.
This research employed a quantitative method with a pre-experimental design using a one-group pre-test and post-test design. The research instruments included a pre-test, post-test, and questionnaire. The sample consisted of 20 students selected using a purposive sampling technique.
The normality test of the pre-test and post-test data, conducted using the Shapiro-Wilk method, showed that the significance value (p-value) of the pre-test was 0.068 > 0.05 and the post-test was 0.545 > 0.05. This means that both sets of data were normally distributed and met the assumptions for parametric analysis. The paired-samples t-test indicated that the absolute value of t-count (3.310) was greater than the t-table value (2.093), or (3.310 > 2.093). Therefore, H0 was rejected and Hα was accepted. Additionally, the p-value (0.004) was lower than the alpha value (α = 0.05), or (0.004 < 0.05), which further confirmed the rejection of H0. These results demonstrate that the use of Padlet had a significant effect on students’ ability to write descriptive texts of a person.
The questionnaire results also showed that students had positive perceptions toward the use of Padlet in learning English writing. The indicator “using Padlet as a digital tool for writing” obtained 74.69%, categorized as High, while the indicator “Using Padlet is beneficial for English writing skills” obtained 76.46%, categorized as Very High. Furthermore, the indicator “Challenges in Using Padlet” showed high disagreement responses, indicating that most students did not experience significant difficulties in using Padlet. In conclusion, Padlet is an effective and beneficial digital tool for improving students’ descriptive writing skills and supporting a more engaging learning experience in English writing classes.