IMPROVING STUDENT’S GRAMMAR MASTERY BY USING
TEACHER’S FEEDBACK
(A Classroom Action Research in SMA Negeri 8 Surakarta in Academic
Year 2009/2010)
Written by
Written by:
ARIF NUR SIDIK
K2203002
A THESIS
Submitted to Teacher Training and Education Faculty of Sebelas Maret
University as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement
for the Undergraduate Degree of Education
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION FACULTY
SEBELAS MARET UNIVERSITY
SURAKARTA
commit to user ABSTRAK
Arif Nur Sidik. K2203002. MENINGKATKAN PENGUASAAN TATA BAHASA SISWA MENGGUNAKAN UMPAN BALIK GURU (Sebuah Penelitian Tindakan Kelas di SMA Negeri 8 Surakarta Tahun Ajaran 2009/2010). Skripsi, Surakarta: Fakultas Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan Universitas Sebelas Maret , Januari 2010.
Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menemukan sejauh mana umpan balik guru meningkatkan penguasaan tata bahasa siswa dan kelebihan dan kekurangan umpan balik guru yang diterapkan dalam kelas di SMA Negeri 8 Surakarta.
Pendekatan yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah penelitian tindakan kelas. Penelitian tindakan dilaksanakan dalam dua siklus. Tiap siklus terdiri dari empat langkah: perencanaan, tindakan, pengamatan dan refleksi. Untuk mengumpulkan data, peneliti menggunakan pengamatan, catatan lapangan, gambar, percakapan, daftar percakapan, dan tes. Tes yang diberikan merupakan pre-test and post-test. Kemudian, peneliti menganalisa skor rata-rata tes. Tes nya digunakan untuk menemukan peningkatan pengusaan tata bahasa siswa setelah penelitian dilaksanakan.
Hasil dari penelitian menunjukkan bahwa umpan balik guru dapat meningkatkan penguasaan tata bahasa siswa dan umpan balik guru memiliki kelebihan dan kekurangan. Peningkatan penguasaan tatabahasa siswa direfleksikan dalam skor tes. Skor rata-rata dari hasil pre-tes adalah 53,9, untuk post-test 1 adalah 58,78 dan 68,48 untuk post-test 2. Kelebihan umpan balik guru diantara nya adalah (1) umpan balik guru membuat siswa lebih akurat dalam menulis. (2) umpan balik guru membuat siswa lebih memperhatikan tata bahasa pada tugas menulis. Sementara, beberapa kekurangn nya adalah (1) penerapan umpan balik guru membutuhkan banyak waktu, (2) siswa mendapat kesulitan dalam menghafal semua kode umpan balik kesalahan.
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MOTTO
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DEDICATION
With deep profound love, this thesis is dedicated to:
My beloved Father and Mother, no words can represent how grateful I am to be your son!
My beloved brothers, thank you for your support and prayer,
My Best of the Best Friends in Damai Hijau, Mafia Kost and Ganesha Operation Surakarta,
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Alhamdulillahirabbil’alamin. Praise be to Allah SWT who has given His blessing to the writer so that he can complete the writing of this thesis. In this
occasion, the writer would like to express his deepest gratitude and appreciation to
the following.
1. Prof. Dr. H. M. Furqon Hidayatullah, M. Pd., the dean of Teacher Training
and Education Faculty, for his advice and his approval of this thesis.
2. Drs. Suparno, M. Pd., the head of the Art and Language Education, and
Drs. Martono M.A., the head of English Department of Teacher Training
and Education Faculty, for their advice and their approval of this thesis.
3. Prof.Dr. Joko Nurkamto, MPd., the first consultant, and Kristiandi, S.S.,
the second consultant, for their priceless guidance, advice, suggestion,
encouragement and patience.
4. Drs. H. Sudadi Mulyono, M.Si., the headmaster of SMA Negeri 8
Surakarta for facilitating the writer in collecting the data.
5. Muh Haris,SPd., the English teacher of SMA Negeri 8 Surakarta, who has
helped the writer to do the research.
6. The eleventh grade students of IPA 4 SMA Negeri 8 Surakarta who have
participated well during the research.
7. His beloved family, for their supports, caring, prayer, and helps.
8. His friends in English Department of year 2003, for their everlasting
friendship. His friends in Damai Hijau Kost (Pakdhe, Fajar, Rintis,
Achmad, Bayu, Pondra, Arif BC, Handis,Radit, Ari) and in Mafia Kost
(Omen, Arin, Amin,Adit, Fajar, Bayu, Wajid)
The writer realizes that this thesis is still far from being perfect. He hopes
and accepts every comment and suggestion. Hopefully, this thesis will be useful
for the readers.
Surakarta, 31 Januari 2011
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C. The Objectives of the Study ... 8
D. The Benefits of the Study ... 8
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF THE RELATED THEORIES ... 9
A. Grammar... 9
1. The Meaning of Grammar ... 9
2. The Scope of Grammar... 10
3. The Teaching Grammar in English Language Teaching 16 4. Grammar Mastery ... 18
B. Error Correction Feedback……… 19
1. Meaning of Error Correction Feedback ... 19
2. Types of Feedback: Direct and Indirect Feedback ... 23
3. Strategies for Feedback……….. 26
4. Teacher’s Feedback……… 27
C. Writing... 30
1. Definition of Writing ... 30
2. The process of Writing... 31
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4. Micro skill of writing………. 39
D. Review on The Related Study ... 40
E. Rationale ... 40
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ... 43
A. Research Setting ... 43
1. The Place of the Research ... 43
2. The Time of The Research... 44
B. Subject of The Research... 44
C .Method of the Research ... 45
D. The Model of Action Research ... 47
E. The Procedures of Action Research ... 48
F. The Technique of Collecting the Data……… 52
G.The Technique of Analyzing the Data……… 54
CHAPTER IV RESEARCH FINDING AND DISCUSSION ... 56
A. Research Findings ... 56
1. Introduction ... 56
2. Research Implementation ... 57
3. Findings……….. 76
B. Discussions and Justification of Research Findings ... 77
CHAPTER V CONCLUSION, IMPLICATION AND SUGGESTION ... 82
A. Conclusion ... 82
B. Implication... 84
C. Suggestion... 85
BIBLIOGRAPHY ... 87
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LIST OF APPENDICES
Appendix 1: Pre Research Observation ... 91
Appendix 2: Field Notes... 98
Appendix 3: Interview Notes... 126
Appendix 4: Lesson Plan... 129
Appendix 5: List of Students’ Names... 137
Appendix 6: The Result of the Study ... 138
Appendix 7: The Sample of the Teaching Learning Process ... 140
Appendix 8: Questionnaire... 145
Appendix 9: Data of analysis of students’ survey questionnaire... 146
Appendix 10: Students’ Worksheet... 149
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
English teaching has the goal to help students to acquire the four language skills namely
listening, speaking, reading and writing. To gain four skills, it is very important for students to
have an experience in practicing and applying English grammar. Students can not master the
language well which is being studied without mastering its grammar. Grammar is guideline for
language learner in using the language, involving how to put words in order in the sentences.
Therefore, it is important for the learners to study grammar. People or the learners who
decide to study grammar because they want to be better writers or because they want to speak a
more standard dialect. By studying grammar, we will learn the makeup of the language and so be
able to apply what we learned as better listener, readers, speaker, and writers. Penny Ur, a
teacher trainer and author of Grammar Practice Activities says there is no doubt that
knowledge-implicit or explicit- of grammatical rules is essential for the mastery of language. In the
curriculum 2006 (p:308), it is stated that on e of the ultimate objective of English instruction for
Senior High School or MA students is to develop the English communicative competence to
reach the informal level in order that students are able to access many information and
knowledge with language. The communicative competence covers four competences namely
grammatical, sociolinguistic, discourse and strategic (Savignon, 1997:40).
Then the scope of English instruction for Senior High School or MA students is
supporting competence in which one of the aspects is linguistic or grammatical competence. This
competence deals with knowing how to use the grammar and vocabulary of the language to
achieve communicative goals, knowing how to do this in socially appropriate way (Thornbury,
Canale and Swain ( in Lock, 1996:266), is as one of the four types of competence that should be
included in any definition of proficiency.
A proper understanding of the concept of communicative competence would have
revealed if it gives no endorsement for the neglect grammar (Widowson in Lock, 1996:266).
There is no doubt that to be able to use English in real communication, students should master its
grammar. Also this is in line with curriculum 2004 (p:19) stating that curriculum emphasizes on
the need of mastering English grammar because the purpose of teaching and learning English at
senior high school level is to prepare the graduates to attend the university. Learning at this level
is to study in the context of the language use. Its target gives students the ability to use English
that satisfies the need of English for the international level.
For the 2nd language learner, English is the foreign language that is difficult to learn.
Brown (1994:193) stated that a principal barrier for 2ndlanguage acquisition is the interference of
the first language system. Language system includes form and meaning. The form of language
involves the grammatical structures of language. It is obvious that English grammar is quite
different from the grammar of the Indonesian language. In mastering the English grammar, there
are many different and complicated rules of the language that must be mastered by the students.
They cannot gain the English grammar just by memorizing the rules and trying to understand the
explanation from the teacher. The important thing which must be given a special attention is that
in learning a foreign language, we must study the rules of language, practice the rules mush and
apply them often in the communication. Terrel in Khalid (2003) states;
“Language consists of set of rules with an associated lexicon. It follows logically from
the model that foreign language students must learn rules of grammar. The suggested sequence
is study the rule, practice the rules and then apply the rules in meaningful interactions in the
target language”.
Considering the explanation above, grammar will be learnt effectively if it is practiced by
the student actively. Teaching English grammar to students is they point to study English. In
Therefore, grammar is important part in studying a certain language. So, it becomes the English
teacher’s duty to teach grammar as good as possible.
Learning a language is complicated activity. A lot of researches have been done in to how
to make learning effective but, as yet, it remains surprisingly difficult to say with certainty what
methods are truly more effective, but it is largely inconclusive. One certain way to raise a group
of language teacher to heated discussion is to question their attitude to correction. The question
of teacher’s attitude to error and correction is probably the single most important issue in
language teacher’s professional development. The kind of activities the teacher encourages in the
classroom, and the kind of which the teacher avoids or minimizes, will be strongly influenced by
the teacher’s views of the role of error correction in learning.
In high school, students may not have received comments on language problems, or they
may have received only global remarks such as "you need to keep working on your grammar."
In order to help students continue to acquire academic English and to correct patterns of error
that may persist in their writing, they need structure help.Reid (1982:xi) says that naturally ESL
students even at advanced level continue to have grammatical weaknesses. Further he said that
grammatical problems that are usually found in writing are; punctuations, and sentence structure,
a subject-verb agreement tenses, prepositions and so forth. Another supportive statement comes
from Ferris and Leki in Hong (2004) who say that ESL students whose interlanguage are still
developing, probably need and expect grammar feedback on error from their teacher.
In teaching learning process of English as a foreign language, errors made by students
have always been a significant concern to almost all language teachers. Errors refers to those
features of learner’s utterances which differ form those of any native speakers (Corder,
1973:260). Error made by the foreign learner is natural. It means that error in learning foreign
language is usually found. Student always make errors in their foreign language use. This
problem makes the teacher have to think what he has to do to solve the problem in his foreign
language teaching. Teacher becomes confused whether he has to continue the next material or to
correct their error and make the remedial course. Most people agree that making mistakes is
in speaking as well as in writing. The correction of spoken language is also for the correction of
written language. If teacher looks carefully at the mistakes the student makes, he will find that
the errors cover many different things that happen in language use, and the errors will lead to a
misunderstanding. The linguistic mistakes our students make are an important and necessary part
of their language learning.
Teacher often finds mistakes or errors in their written task for example; the use of
grammar and vocabulary. The absence of teacher’s feedback that is expected by the students on
their composition may result in ignorance whether the grammar they use in correct form or not.
By investigating the students’ error in their writing task, teacher can understand the quantity and
the quality of error in their writing task. Those errors of course can be taken as supportive
feedback to their students in order to reduce errors made by the students in their coming writing
task. Any correction will help them become more accurate in their use of the language.
In giving feedback to his students, the teacher may use different kinds of correction
techniques. Firstly, the teachers put the certain marks or symbol on the free margin that can be
understood clearly by the students. Secondly, the students are given oral explanation and they are
asked to study the error they make. So, by putting certain marks or symbol and by giving the oral
explanation or some information on their errors, the teacher can help students identify and
correct hem in their composition.
Edge (1997:50) states that correction should mean helping people to become more
accurate, not insisting completely standard English. Involving learning in judgement about
correctness also helps them become more accurate in their use of the language. As English
teachers at school, they need to provide the students with the information dealing with students’
language learning development, or by giving help to correct the error they create in composition.
According to ideas presented by the writer, students can master well the English language
if they understand the rules or grammar of its language. When they make errors or mistakes,
are many errors and mistakes the students make and factors that cause this problem, so teacher
should pay attention to it.
To support these ideas, the writer had conducted a pre-observation for two weeks on
February 6th -13th 2010 in the XI IPA 4 students of SMA N 8 Surakarta. He got the results that
the students get many problems in learning grammar. For example, they are difficult to
understand the pattern of English sentence. Even, the students can not remember it for a long
time. This case causes them to make a lot of mistakes in doing the assignments. It can be shown
in the result of their pre-observation test score. The mean of the score is 3, 47 which indicates
that their grammar mastery is still low.
The condition of students’ grammar mastery is supported by the teacher statement, he
says “Secara umum untuk grammar saat ini, terus terang, tidak mendapatkan perhatian yang
khusus sehingga belum mendapatkan hasil yang memuaskan, karena memang kita belum
menemukan teknik yang sesuai untuk bagaimana anak agar dapat mengingat terus dan paham
tentang grammar.”
Meanwhile, from the students themselves, they have problems with the grammar. They
said that they are still confused in some grammar points like the use of modal, the use of
pronoun, and the use of past tense. As what has been said by some students “Saya masih
bingung mas untuk menggunakan tenses past sehingga masih salah dalam menuliskan kata kerja
nya”. The other students say; “Apalagi kalau disuruh menulis, kita pasti kesulitan dan banyak
salah nya di grammar”.
Based on the finding, the writer concludes that the students’ grammar mastery needs to
be improved. Teacher should solve the problem students have and some factors that cause it.
This must be one of the teacher’s considerations in maintaining good English teaching process,
According to the facts above, the writer is interested in conducting a classroom action
research by using teacher’s feedback in order to improve the student’s grammar mastery of the
eleventh grade of IPA 4 students of SMA Negeri 8 Surakarta.
B. Problem Statement.
Based on the description in the background of the study and the fact in the 11th grade of
IPA 4 students of SMA Negeri 8 Surakarta in 2009-2010 academic year. The writer finds some
problems arising which are identified as in the following.
1. Does and to what extent teacher’s feedback improve the students’ grammar mastery of
the eleventh grade of IPA 4 of SMA Negeri 8 Surakarta?
2. What are the strengths and the weaknesses of teacher’s feedback?
C. The Objective of the Research
Based on the formulation of the problem, the general objective of this research is to
improve students’ grammar mastery by using teacher’s feedback. Particularly, this research is
aimed to find out:
1. Whether teacher’s feedback can effectively improve the grammar mastery of the
eleventh grade of IPA 4 students of SMA Negeri 8 Surakarta.
2. The strengths and weaknesses of teacher’ feedback.
D. The Benefit of The Study
This research hopefully will give some contributions to the process of English teaching.
There are some expected benefits of the study for the English teacher and students.
1. For the English teacher
It will hopefully make teacher
a. know the contribution of feedback to the students’ error so that the teacher realizes
2. For the students
It may enable students to
a. identify kinds of errors in their composition.
b. correct their errors in their composition.
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CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF THE RELATED THEORIES
A. Grammar
1. The Meaning of Grammar
According to Richards, Platt, Heidi (1987:161), grammar is defined as a set of rules and
lexicon that describes a knowledge (competence) of which a speaker has of his or her language.
In other point of view, they also defined grammar as follows: Grammar is description of the
structure of the language and the way in which linguistics units such as words and phrases are
combined to produce sentences in the language. It may not include the description of the sounds
of a language.
Brown (1994:347) has the same idea about grammar. He states that grammar is a system
of rules governing the conventional arrangement and relationship of words in a sentence.
Widdowson (1990: 84) says grammar is the name we gave to the knowledge of how words are
adopted and arranged to form sentences. Another linguist, Ur (1984:4) defines grammar is the
way words are put together to make correct sentences. The need of language learner to learn
grammar is essential, since the grammar is the central part of language. Each language has a
highly complex system that differs from language to language, that is why language is different.
Therefore, grammar is very important for one who wants to study language.
Another definition comes from Oxford Advanced Learner Dictionary that defines
grammar as the study or the science of rules of the combination of words into sentences (syntax)
and the forms of words (morphology). This definition is supported by Lock (1997:4) who states
that grammar is viewed as the study of the syntax-how the words are combined to form a
While, Penny Ur in another book (1998:4) tells that grammar may be roughly defined as the way
a language manipulates and combines words in order to form larger units of meaning.
Those definitions view grammar not only on the forms of the rules of language, but also
on the meaning. Based on the definitions above, the writer can conclude that grammar is a study
of language rules as the way how language constructs and combines words and how words are
arranged to form larger unit of meaning. In conclusion, grammar is defined as the description of
language rules dealing with the forms and the structure of words (morphology) and arrangement
of phrases and sentences (syntax) and includes how to the larger meaning is formed.
2. The Scope of Grammar
In this chapter, the writer tries to present the scope of grammar proposed by some
linguists. Chomsky (in Crystal, 1997: 88) divides grammar into three aspects namely phonology
and semantics, and syntax as the more specific notion.
Grammar
Phonology syntax semantics
A diagram of grammar’s aspects by Chomsky
Meanwhile, Joseph and Droste (1991: 6) point out that grammar covers three distinctive
aspects. They are syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. Based on Lock idea, grammar is a set of
rules, which specify all the possible grammatical structures of the language. It includes two
aspects: (1) the arrangement of words and (2) the internal structures of word (1997:1). It is
In his study, the writer prefers to discuss the scope of grammar involving morphology
and syntax.
A. Morphology
Radford (1997: 1) states that morphology is the branch of grammar that studies how words are
formed out of smaller units. In addition, Crystal (1997:90) gives the examples below;
Unhappiness un-happi-ness
Horses horse-s
Talking talk-ing
Yes yes
Crystal explain that ‘Yes’ has no internal grammatical structure. One could analyze its
constituent sounds, /j/, /e/, /s/, but none of these has a meaning in isolation. By contrast, horse,
talk, and happy plainly have meanings, as do the element attached to them (the ‘affixes’) : un
-carries a negative meaning, -ness expresses a state or quality; -sexpresses plural; and–inghelps
to convey a sense of duration. The smallest meaningful elements into which words can be
analyzed are known as morphemes, and the way morphemes operate in language provides the
subject matter ofmorphology.
From the four examples above, we can make a broad distinction between two types of
morphemes. They are free and bound morpheme. Yule (1996: 75) explains that free morpheme is
morphemes, which can stand by themselves as single words, e.g. happy, horse, talk, and yes.
Bound morpheme is morphemes, which cannot normally stand alone but, which are typically
attached to another form e.g. un-, -ness, -s, and –ing. It is an easy matter to analyze those
example words into morphemes, because a clear sequence of elements is involved. But not all
analyze irregular nouns and verbs: miceis the plural ofmouse,but it is not obvious (vague) how
to identify a plural morpheme in the word, analogues to the –s ending of horse (Crystal,
1997:90).
Generally, there are two main fields that are recognized within morphology, namely, inflectional
and derivational morphology (Crystal, 1997: 90). Inflectional morphology studies the way in
which words vary (or ‘inflect’) in order to express grammatical contrast in sentences, such as
singular/plural or past/present tense. Boy and boys, for example, are two forms of the ‘same’; the
choice between them, singular vs. plural is a matter of grammar, and thus the business of
inflectional morphology. Derivational morphology, however, studies the principles governing the
construction of new words, without reference to the specific grammatical role a word might play
in a sentence. In the formation of drinkable from drink, or disinfect from infect, for example, one
can see the formation of different words, with their own grammatical properties.
B) Syntax
Crystal (1997: 94) infers that syntax is the way in which words are arranged to show
relationship of meaning within (and sometimes between) sentences. According to him most
syntactic studies have focused on sentence structure, for this is where the most important
grammatical relationships are expressed. A sentence itself is defined as the largest unit to which
syntactic rules apply. Then, he suggests three aspects of sentence syntax including clauses,
a) Clauses
The various units that make up the structure given functional labels, such as Subject (S), verb
(V), complement (C), Object (O), and Adverbial (A). A number of clauses types can be
identified in this ways, such as:
S + V The dog is running.
S + V + O The man + saw + a cow
S + V + C The car + is + ready
S + V + A A picture + lies + on the ground
S + V + O + O I + gave + John + a book
S + V + O + C He + called + John + a fool
S + V + O + A Mary + saw + John + yesterday
Several approaches to grammatical analysis make use of elements of this kind, though
there is considerable variation in definition and terminology. Languages are also very greatly in
the way in which these elements are identified. In English, word order is the main factor, with
only occasional use being made of morphology e.g.he(subject)saw(verb)him(object).
b) Phrases
A phrase is group of related words that does not contain a predication (Funk. 1991: 120). Most
phrases can be seen as expansions of a central element (the head), and these are often referred to
as ‘endocentric’phrases:
cars
the cars
all the big cars
all the big cars in the garage
Phrases, which can not be analyzed in this way, are then called ‘exocentric’: inside/the cars. On
the other hand, the internal structure of an endocentric phrase is commonly described in a
three-part manner:
All the big cars in the garage
Pre-modification Head Post Modification
c) Coordination vs. Subordination
Coordination is one of two main ways of making sentences more complex; the other is
known as subordination, or ‘embedding’. The essential difference is that in the former the
clauses that are linked are of equal grammatical status, whereas in the later, one clause functions
as part of another (the ‘main’ clause). For example:
Coordinate clause:
The boy left on Monday and the girl left on Tuesday.
Subordinate clause:
The boy left on Monday when John rang.
The phrase on Monday is part of the clause, giving the time when the action took place.
Similarly, the unit when John rang is also part of the clause, for the same reason. But when John
3. The Teaching Grammar in English Language Teaching
It is helpful for the students to be aware of grammatical information about language
included in it is the role of grammar. In general terms, Harmer (1997: 3) divides the role of
grammar into two concepts.
A) Covert
Coverts grammar teaching is where grammatical facts are hidden from the students –
even though they are learning the language. In other words, the students may be asked to do an
information gap activity or read an English text where new grammar practiced or introduced, but
their attention will be drawn to the activity or to the text and not to the grammar. With covert
grammar, teachers help the students to acquire and/or practice English, but they do not draw
conscious attention to any of the grammatical facts of the language.
B) Overt
Overt grammar teaching means that the teacher actually provides the students with
grammatical rules and explanations. The information is openly presented. Some techniques for
the presentation of new language, for example where the teacher explains how present simple
questions needdoordoes, are extremely overt.
With the overt teaching, the teacher explains explicitly and openly about the grammar of the
language, but with covert teaching he simply get students to work with new language in this case
English and hope that they will more or less subconsciously absorbs grammatical information
which will help them to acquire the language as a whole.
Hormer (1997: 7) adds that at the beginner level, the students do quite a lot of structure
this stage is likely to be fairly covert since the main aim is to get students to practice and use the
language as much as possible. At the intermediate levels the students would be involved in more
communicative activities and would have less and would have less grammar teaching. The
teaching of grammar of this stage would be more overt and as students get more advanced they
can actively study grammar in more overt ways.
In other case, there is no doubt that knowledge–implicit or explicit- of grammatical rules
is essential for the mastery of a language: you cannot use words unless you know how they
should put together (Ur, 1998: 4). The learning of grammar should be seen in the long term as
one of the means of acquiring a thorough mastery of the language as a whole. As stated
previously in curriculum 2006 (KTSP) that the objective of English language teaching is to
develop communicative competence, and for Hymes supported by Canale and Swain (in Lock,
1996: 266), the grammatical competence is one of the four types of competence they should be
included in any definition of proficiency (the other three being sociolinguistics competence,
discourse competence, and strategic competence). A proper understanding of the concept of
communicative competence would have revealed that it gives no endorsement for the neglect of
grammar (Widdowson in Lock, 1996: 266).
Lock (1996: 267) explains more about the importance of grammar in English language teaching.
He states in order to communicate, the teacher needs to be able to (1) represent what it is he
wants to talk about and to locate it in time, which means selecting appropriate process types,
participants, circumstances, and tenses; (2) make the content interpersonally relevant and
appropriate; which means selecting appropriate moods, modalities, and polarities; and (3) make
from this perspective, grammar is not an optional add-on in language teaching but it lies at the
very heart in communication that should be taught effectively.
4. Grammar Mastery
Competence consists of the mental representations of linguistics rules that constitute the speaker-hearers’ internal grammar. It is evident in the intuitions which speaker-hearer has about the grammaticality of sentences (1996:8).
Sandra J Savignon (1997:40) says that person demonstrates grammatical competence not
by stating the rules, but by using rules. According to her, grammatical competence is mastery of
linguistics codes, the ability to recognize the lexical, morphological, syntactic and phonological
features of a language and to manipulate these features to form words and sentences. It involves
the ability to apply the grammatical rules in order to form grammatically correct sentences.
Further explanation is stated by Richard who writes:
Grammatical competence was the knowledge underlying our ability to produce and understand sentences in a language. We call upon our grammatical competence to express meaning in ways that are native-like in target language (1985:144).
Thus, grammar mastery can be defined as great skill or knowledge that makes one masters a
system of language rules to produce, understand, and apply the grammatical rules in order to
B. Error Correction Feedback
1. Meaning of Error Correction Feedback
Teacher’s treatment of learner’s error is an important aspect of second and foreign
language acquisition. Every teacher will have different views on this because this treatment can
be used as an input from readers to writer that provides information for revision (Reid, 1993:
218) and an effective means to communicate to the students about their writing (Chaudron,
1984:2) and different ways of correcting their students’ error and it is a case of finding out what
teacher and students feel comfortable with. The skill of writing in a first (L1) or second language
(L2) is a complex issue, as becoming a proficient writer entails mastering elements of content,
style, and organization in addition to surface elements such as grammar, vocabulary, and the
actual mechanics of writing. While surface errors are generally of secondary interest in L1
writing, they have been a focus of L2 writing research for sometime. One important area of
research in L2 writing is that of error/grammar correction, specifically, whether learners actually
benefit from the feedback that they receive from instructors and which type of feedback is most
important.
Harwood (2002) states that feedback is the part of writing program which is either
underused or misunderstood. Feedback is limited to the overt correction of errors and the
provision of comments and/or grades by the teacher. Feedback can (and should) be a learning
experience, which provides the link between the consecutive writing lessons. During feedback,
learners are invited to identify the merits and shortcomings of their writing performance,
understand the reasons for these shortcomings and the discussion of possible improvement.
When learners become familiar with feedback procedures, feedback activities can also be set as
Then, Lummeta (2005) stated that feedback is a process by which the teacher provides
learners with information about their performance for the purpose of improving their
performance.
According to Heidi (1982:62), feedback generally refers to the listeners’ or readers’
response given to learners’ speech or writing. One type of feedback is correction. Edge (1997:59)
says that correction means helping people to express themselves more accurately. Correction
should not mean insisting on everything being absolutely corrected. It helps the students to
become more accurate in their use of language. Hendrickson (1979:5) states that he gives
correction to ESL student’s composition by giving marks to the errors in order that they would
be able to identify many of their errors and recognize the deviant form and structures in their
written work and finally reconsider their errors into correct sentences. Also, Wingfield, as quoted
by Byrne (1998) has pointed out that the teacher should choose correcting techniques that are
most appropriate and most effective for individual students. He lists five techniques for
correcting written errors.
1. Teacher gives sufficient clues to enable self-correction to be made.
2. The teacher corrects the scripts.
3. The teacher deals with errors through marginal comments and footnotes.
4. The teacher explains orally to individual students.
5. The teacher uses the error correction as an illustration for a class explanation.
In short, it can be stated that error correction feedback is the teacher’s act to deal with the
students’ performance on writing by marking the errors on their composition by giving certain
structures of the target language learned. It helps the students to become more accurate in their
use of language.
In association with the error correction, error analysis is needed. Hendrickson (1979:3)
stated that errors are always produced by language learners and these errors can provide
significant insights into how languages are learned if they are studied systematically. In other
words, students frequently make grammatical error in their communication and by studying the
grammatical error made by students, teachers are able to infer the nature of students’ knowledge
of grammar (Corder, 1985:257).
Dealing with the correction feedback by teacher, Vengadesamy (2002) wrote that when
responding to form in students’ essays, teachers normally make one of three types of correction.
1. Firstly, they might indicate only location of an error in the students’ essays.
2. Secondly, they may choose to indicate both the location of the error and the type of error
that the students has made (for example, by writing ‘tense’ to indicate that the wrong
tense had been used, or ‘SVA’ to indicate a subject verb agreement error)
3. Thirdly, the teacher’s response gets even more salient in the third type of response, where
they opt to indicate not only the location and type of error, but also provide a model of
assignment, however, feedback will strictly refer to the written feedback given teachers as a
response to their student’s error in writing. Form feedback which is also be known as grammar
feedback and surface-level feedback is the type of feedback that looks into issues like grammar,
spelling…etc. to ensure whether grammar feedback is necessary. Grami (2005) states that some
of the studies (form feedback) give practical evidence that grammar correction in fact does help
students to improve their accuracy.
Kepner ( 1991:305) believes that error correction in second language teaching is
perennial concern to L2 teachers. He notes that many L2 teachers fear the fossilization of error
and that teachers feel normally obliged to correct all mistakes in their L2 student’s work. While
Ferris (1999) noted that L2 students are very much concerned on accuracy and they will ask for
their errors to be corrected by the teacher.
Hyland and Hyland (2001) also note that providing written feedback to students is one of
the ESL writing teachers’ most important tasks. In the same manner, ESL students were also
reported to overwhelmingly desire their linguistic errors to be corrected and they strongly believe
that it is teacher’s responsibility to provide such feedback. In short, ESL teachers have to correct
surface-level errors and students want their teachers to do so. As Ferris (2002) stated for such an
attitude by ESL students is that L2 writers are aware of their linguistic limitation and thus more
likely to focus on word or sentence level accuracy.
2. Types of Feedback : Direct and Indirect Feedback
Giving feedback to students’ grammatical errors is the teacher’s responsibility in order
that students will not make same mistakes and errors they ever made. In this study, there are two
types of feedback dealing with the treatment of grammatical error, namely, direct and indirect
the presence or the specific location of errors. Direct feedback means not only to indicate the
presence or location of errors, but also to suggest correct forms. If the students are only provided
with direct feedback on their final draft, they do not have an opportunity to reflect and correct the
errors for themselves; they only note the errors marked by the teacher. This is one reason why
indirect feedback has received more support among researchers ( Ferris, 2002; Hendrickson,
1984; Lalande, 1982; Robb et al., 1986). Roob et al. (1986) suggested that teachers should not
waste time giving direct feedback to students if both direct and indirect methods are more
equally effective.
Frodesen (2001) also suggested that indirect feedback is generally more useful than direct
correction in correcting. He advised L2 writing teachers not to provide correction on all errors
because it makes students feel overwhelmed and reduces their motivation for learning. Others
have reported that indirect feedback may be more beneficial to students than direct feedback in
editing because indirect feedback can guide learning and help the students to solve problems by
themselves (Lalande, 1982). In the case of Hendrickson (1984), the combined method of indirect
and direct feedback was considered most beneficial for the students in the revision process,
because some types of errors could be more readily corrected by students and others could not.
For example, if the students make an error concerning a noun ending, they can correct their own
error by using the cues that the teacher gives, or by referring to a grammar book. However, they
have more trouble choosing appropriate words in context and using acceptable sentence
structures if only the location of errors are indicated without any guidance as how to correct the
forms as shown in the study of Ferris et al. (2001). Depending on their linguistic competence and
exposure to language use, students have differing levels of difficulty when asked to correct errors
Supposing indirect feedback is superior to direct feedback for pedagogical reasons, the
next issue may be the level of explicitness or salience of indirect feedback (Ferris et al., 2001).
Robb et al. (1986) explored whether the salience of indirect feedback influenced student’s
accuracy, fluency, and grammar. They classified indirect feedback into three subcategories;
coded, non-coded and marginal feedback. Firstly, coded feedback is a a method in which
teachers provide a coding scheme that indicates the types of students errors, such as noun ending
and tense, etc. and students are supposed to correct the errors themselves. Secondly, non-coded
feedback only marks the location of the errors by underlining or circling them; teachers do not
specify the error types or correct forms. Thirdly, marginal feedback signals the number of errors
per line by writing in the margin. The students have to both discover and correct their errors. It is
reasonable to consider that the marginal feedback is the most challenging method for ESL
writers.
In conclusion, both types of feedback, direct and indirect feedback are necessary to help
students learn and solve the problem on their linguistics’ competence.
3. Strategies for Feedback
A. Teacher-Editing
For beginner student who starts writing essays toward the end of the first term, it may be
difficult to do the self and peer editing. The teacher may provide guidance during editing or she
may do the editing and proof-reading with the student to set an example.
B. Peer-Editing
Here, the texts are interchanged and the evaluation is done by other students. In the real
world, it is common for the writers to ask friends and colleagues to check texts for spelling, etc.
in the classroom environment, the students can exchange their papers and comment on each
other’s paper.
Students exchange their first drafts of a text and point out changes which are needed to
help the reader (e.g. better organization, paragraph divisions, sentence variety, vocabulary
choice). They can also act as each other's editors spotting vocabulary repetitions, grammatical
errors, spelling mistakes, etc.
Peer editing is a useful tool for any level of learner, although its specific application can
vary from level to level. For example, at lower level teacher would generally use this to highlight
the grammatical problems, whereas for higher levels this would be used to assess how
effectively an essay question has been answered. Rollinson. 2008. Strategies For Feedback.
(http://www.temple.edu/gradmag/fall98/loewen.htm)
C. Self-Editing
Generally, it is very common for the writers to miss their own mistakes. This is why it is
recommended to sleep on it for a night. After putting the paper aside for some time, emptying the
mind dealing with some other work, the writer is able to approach her paper with a clear mind. In
the classroom environment, teachers can have the students write their essays one day, collect the
4. Teacher’s Feedback
Teacher’s feedback is a kind of information the teachers can say to their students
about the drafts essays they have produced; this information is much more helpful if it is
provided on preliminary and intermediate stage, rather than the final one, and cooperation
between teacher and students is very necessary for the successful implementation of feedback.
The most prominently used feedback methods fall into two common categories:
feedback on form and feedback on content. The most common methods of feedback on form are
outright teacher correction of surface errors, teacher markings that indicate the place and type of
error but without correction, and underlining to indicate only the presence of errors. The first
requires students to copy the corrections and the latter two require students to correct the errors
on their own. Feedback on content consists mainly of comments written by teachers on drafts
that usually point out problems and offer suggestions for improvements on future rewrites.
Students are usually expected to incorporate information from the comments into other versions
of their papers. Here are some types of teacher’s feedback on form and content:
A) Marginal Feedback versus End Feedback
Marginal feedback is a kind of feedback that is written in the margin or between
sentence lines of the students’ paper. It refers to the teacher’s immediate intervention in discrete
parts of the students’ draft. By contrast, summary feedback at the end of the paper is normally an
overview of more consideration in an essay. According to Ferris and Hedgcock (1998) there is no
conclusive evidence that either marginal or end comments are preferable or more effective.
number of papers and severe time constraints, a comprehensive and clear end note is strongly
recommended. When time permits, writing teacher should try to make a combination of both to
give the students more chance to revise their writing.
B) Negative Feedback versus Positive Feedback
Much research has been done into the effect of positive and negative comments on
the students’ revision. In these studies, the researchers found outthat the students remember and
appreciate encouraging remarks made by their teachers. The students would have better attitudes
towards writing if they receive positive feedback. However, some researchers some described
critical comments as being positive since they all helped them improve their papers. It is clear
that, although the students appear to enjoy and appreciate praises, they expect to receive
constructive criticisms and are not necessarily offended by this.
The question is a good teacher must know how to keep a balance between these two
kinds of feedback. Too many praises, especially at the early stage of the responding process, may
actually discourage the students from revising (e.g., “My teacher liked this part, so I shouldn’t
change it) or may lead the students to resent receiving low marks (e.g.,” My teacher said that
there are a lot of good things about my essay, so why I get such a low grad?). Being excessively
negative to the students’ writing is also a disincentive to the student writers. Therefore, the wisest
course of action is the teachers should strive for a balance, providing some praise for the students’
efforts, but not forgetting their crucial instructional role of helping the students to revise, to
C) Text-specific Feedback versus General Feedback
Text-specific feedback is a kind of comment that directly relates to the text at hand;
whereas, general feedback can be attached to any paper. Many experts in that field argued that
teacher feedback is more helpful if it is text-specific. According to Reid, feedback should be
informative and detailed enough to help the student writers return to the task of writing but not so
overwhelming that they cannot form a revision plan. As they write, receive response, and revise,
students should be able to feel good about what they have done well and realize that they can
improve on what they have not done effectively (1993: 225). There is a role in teacher
commentary for general responses. A general response of encouragement is no doubt better than
none.
C. Writing
1. Definition of Writing
Peter Elbow as quoted by Brown (1994:4) says ‘Writing as two-steps process. First you
figure out your meaning, and then you put it into language. Second, you figure out what you
want to say; don’t start writing till you do; make a plan, use an outline, begin writing only
afterward.
In another case, Done Byrne (1997:1) defines writing as the act of forming letters or
combination of letter: making sign of flat surface of some kind.
Furtermore, Nurgiantoro in Rahayu (1998:7) writing activity is the manifestation of
language competence and skills, which are required by students after three other skills; reading,
Basically, writing is means of communication between reader and writer. For this reason,
writing may be said to represent an attempt to communicate with the readers (Raimes, 1983:4)
From the ideas above, the writer concludes that writing is a complex process for
conveying or delivering ideas, thoughts, opinions and feeling using combination of letter in
written language that other people can understand.
It is complex because we have to consider about grammar, spelling accurately,
punctuating meaningfully, linking ideas and information across sentences to develop a topic, etc.
Writer means that we have to organize our sentences into a coherent text whole which is possible
and complete in it, so that we are able to communicate successfully with our reader through the
medium of writing
2.The Process of Writing
Writing is a process of expressing thoughts and feelings, of thinking, and of shaping
experiences. It requires putting words and larger units into pattern or arrangement for the
purpose of expression.
Some experts have identified that writing is commonly seen as a three stage process. Petty and
Jensen (1980: 363), for example, note that writing consists of three phases: prewriting, writing,
and rewriting. Similarly, Tricia Hedge nominates that the process of writing is often described as
consisting of three major activities or group of activities: prewriting, writing, and post writing or
revising (Hedge, 1998: 21).
A. Prewriting
The prewriting phase helps writers gathering information and ideas. It includes discussion
of proposed writing, namely the theme or topic, ideas and related words, and feelings and
thoughts.
In this phase, the writer should consider two important points. The first one is the purpose
persuasive and stimulate action? Is it an explanation of how something works, which has to be
careful, detailed, and clear? Is it a letter of invitation or a letter applying for a job?
The second important point is the target reader. The reader may be an individual, one you know
well, or a group of colleagues, an institution, and so on. Considering the target reader helps the
writer to select the most appropriate style and word choices- formal, friendly, serious, or
tentative.
B. Writing
The writing phase includes pausing and rereading as the writing occurring, interaction
with others (further discussion), consulting resources (looking up word meaning or spelling, for
example), and reformulating the ideas and organization of composition.
Good writers tend to concentrate on getting the content right first and leave the details
like correcting, spelling, punctuation, and grammar structures, until later the writing phase
focuses primarily on what the writer wants to say, while rewriting progressively focuses on how
to say it most effectively.
C. Post writing or Revising
Post writing phase means rewriting, rewriting, and then rewriting some more. This phase
consists of reading through and trying to apply a reader’s perspective in order to access how
clearly readers might flow the ideas. It means that this phase guides the writer to make final
readjustment and checks accuracy so that the text written is maximally accessible to the readers.
3. Type of Text
According to Tri Wiratno (2003) in his book Kiat Menulis Karya Ilmiah dalam Bahasa
a. Narrative Text.
Generally speaking, narrative text (i.e., fiction) is easier to comprehend and remember
than expository text (i.e., factual and informational material). The narrative text uses story to
inform and persuade, For one thing, the content of a narrative is usually more familiar than the
content of an exposition. Most research on narrative text has focused on teaching students to
utilize story structure as an organizing framework for understanding critical aspects of the stories
they read. Even preschool children use story structure to aid their comprehension. As they get
older, children improve in their ability to use it. The most familiar and most studied text structure
is narrative text or stories. Although there is no prevailing consensus on the definition of
narrative text and some debate over the features of a story, narrative text depicts events, actions,
emotions, or situations that people in a culture experience. A story is written to excite, inform, or
entertain readers and may report actual or fictitious experiences.
While there are no clear boundaries between categories, narratives include myths, epics,
fables, folktales, short stories, novels, tragedy, and comedy. The depictions of events are
organized so that the audience can eventually anticipate them. That is, readers must be able to
infer motives of characters and the causal relations among events. Most research on narrative
text has focused on teaching students to utilize story structure as an organizing framework for
understanding critical aspects of the stories they read. Even preschool children use story structure
to aid their comprehension. As they get older, children improve in their ability to use it.
However, students with learning disabilities are slower to develop this ability. They may not be
Captions Journal entry, Personal letters Dialogues / monologues.
1) The Characteristics
This technique has been applied by using story maps and by asking generic questions
based on story grammar. It has also been used to move beyond the plot level of stories to teach
students with disabilities to identify story themes, a more abstract comprehension level than is
typically taught to students with learning disabilities. Narratives normally involve
a) Animate beings as characters with goals and motives
b) Temporal and spatial placements usually presented at the beginning of the story.
c) A problem or goal faced by the main character that imitates a major goal.
d) Plots or a series of episodes that eventually resolve the complication
e) Impacts upon the reader's emotions and arousal levels
f) Points (e.g., justice, honesty, loyalty), morals, or themes. In particular, narrativeis such
a fundamental and ubiquitous form that it may be especially problematic to treat it as a genre.
b. Description Text
Description is also often called elaboration. It aims to elaborate what things are as they
are or what things do as they do. In other words, description is an elaboration of what real
something is. What are elaborated are the form, size, element, and the characteristics. If only it
deals with living being then the elaboration can complement with its habitual life. In addition, if
it covers something gone or missing, description such is identical to narration. A description
from the evaporation, dew or from the fall of rain itself. The process like that is tending to be
cycle rather than the procedure that cannot be placed randomly as in the procedure of how to
make a paper. Occasionally for describing something needs
definition and classification. What is defined usually as technical term, particular term contains
definition or certain concept in certain specialized science. Whereas the classification is the
group of something into its class, it is suitable with certain criteria. In context of science,
description text holds a prominent role. It is able to give illustration in table, figure, graphic,
diagram, object or area of study.
1) The Characteristics
Linguistically, description text has features as follows:
a) It is dominated by simple present tense. This is caused by a factual of description text itself.
Exemplified if the temperature in the desert in the day is hot then every people will say it hot.
b) It does not exploit human kind so that the more important is the main what is described not the
man who describing.
c) Conjunction such as firstly, secondly is used merely for setting the idea not for stating the
sequence.
it will be a relation between the tree and the parts of tree like root, trunk, leaves, and branch. It
much more makes use of relational and material verbs. Besides for stating identification in
description, relational verb is also used for making a definition. e.g. Deserts are very dry and hot
regions where only few animals and plants can live.
c.Exposition Text.
There are two kinds of this text, namely analytical and hortatory. First is hortatory which
has the communicative purpose to persuade the readers by presenting arguments. The
characteristic of this kind is the use of:
1. Emotive words such as alarmed, worried.
2. Words that qualify statement such as usual and probably.
3. Words that link arguments such as: firstly, however, on the other hand, therefore
4. Usually present tense
5. Compound and complex sentence.
Another text is hortatory which has communicative purpose to persuade the readers or
listener that something should or should not be the case. The characteristic of this text is the use
of:
1. Emotive words such as alarmed, worried.
2. Words that qualify statement such as usual and probably.
6. Modal verbs: can, may, certainly, get, stop.
7. Subjective opinion using pronouns: I and we.
d. Spoof text
Spoof is a text which tells factual story, happened in the past time with unpredictable and
funny ending. Its social function is to entertain and share the story. Spoof has generic structure,
namely orientation in which the characters, setting and time of the story are established, events
which tell what happened, twist which is unexpected thing or funny thing. The characteristic of
spoof is the use of:
1. Focusing on people, animals or certain things.
2. Using action verbs; ate, run.
3. Using adverb of time and place
4. Using pst tense
5. Told in chronological order.
4. Micro skill of Writing
1. Follow conventions of spelling, punctuation and capitalization.
2. Use an acceptable core vocabulary and appropriate word order.
3. Use acceptable grammatical systems (i.e. tense, agreement), patterns and rules.
4. Express a particular meaning in different grammatical forms, with a variety of
7. Appropriately accomplish the communicative functions of written texts according
to form and purpose.
8. Convey links and connections between events. Communicate such relations as
main ideas, supporting ideas, new information, given information, generalization
and exemplification.
9. Distinguish between literal and implied meanings when writing.
10. Correctly convey culturally specific references in the context of the written text.
11. Develop and use a battery of writing strategies, such as accurately assessing the
audience’s interpretation, using pre-writing devices, using paraphrases and
synonyms, soliciting peer and instructor feedback and using feedback, for revising
and editing.
D. Review on the Related Study
According to the study by Hong (2004) “The Effect of Teacher’s Error Feedback on
International Student’s Self-Correction Ability”, teacher’s feedback was the most significant
factors influencing student’s self-correction, compared to proficiency level and performance on
the grammar test. It helps ESL learners’ self correct grammatical error.
E. Rationale
In learning a foreign language, students may think that writing is the most difficult
language skill to be learned since it tends to attach more importance to correctness of every kind
particularly if we take into account the sometimes extended periods of thinking that precede
creating an initial draft. The result of these difficulties is that students try to avoid writing and
they do not try their best whenever they are asked to write. They always complained whenever
they were asked to write. They seemed to be discouraged to have writing lesson. In short, they
tried to avoid it because they were afraid of making many errors in writing and got a bad score.
According to the teacher, the problem faced by the students was actually resulted from the lack
of grammar mastery.
The condition of students’ grammar mastery is supported by the teacher statement, he
says “Secara umum untuk grammar saat ini, terus terang, tidak mendapatkan perhatian yang
khusus sehingga belum mendapatkan hasil yang memuaskan, karena memang kita belum
menemukan teknik yang sesuai untuk bagaimana anak agar dapat mengingat terus dan paham
tentang grammar.”
Meanwhile, from the students themselves, they have problems with the grammar. They
said that they are still confused in some grammar points like the use of modal, the use of
pronoun, and the use of past tense. As what has been said by some students “Saya masih
bingung mas untuk menggunakan tenses past sehingga masih salah dalam menuliskan kata kerja
nya”. The other students say; “ Apalagi kalau disuruh menulis, kita pasti kesulitan dan banyak
salah nya di grammar”.
However, writing is a basic language skill that must be learned by students. Therefore,
English teachers should find and use the ways that make writing lesson effective. It is very
difficult for students to produce a good piece of writing since English is very difficult from
done wrong or right.
There is no doubt that writing is the most difficult skill for second language learners to
master. The difficulty lies not only in generating and organizing ideas, but also translating these
ideas into readable text. In many cases, the students would need intervention from the teachers
in terms of not only their writing instructions but also their comments on their submitted drafts
in order to identify their own strength and weaknesses, which, in the case of the latter, will make
the students know how to go about improving themselves and become effective writers. Thus
feedback can be considered a pedagogical tool for the students’ writing improvement.
Feedback is an essential aspect of any English language writing course. This is especially
true now with the predominance of the process approach to writing that requires some kind of
second party feedback, usually the instructor, on student drafts. Kroll (2001) describes feedback
as one of the two components most central to any writing course with the other being the
assignments the students are given. The goal of feedback is to teach skills that help students
improve their writing proficiency to the point where they are cognizant of what is expected of
them as writers and are able to produce it with minimal errors and maximum clarity.
By considering the reason above, it can be concluded that teacher’s feedback can improve the
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
A. Research Setting
1. The Place of the Research
This classroom action research was carried out in SMA Negeri 8 Surakarta. It is located
at Jln. Sumbing VI / 49, Mojosongo, Jebres Surakarta. SMA Negeri 8 Surakarta has three grades
of class, namely the tenth grade, the eleventh grade and the twelfth grade. Each grade consists of
five classes and each class consists of 39 up to 40 students. Beside fifteen classrooms, the other
buildings are library, teacher office, headmaster office, administration office, computer room,
language room and mosque.
SMA Negeri 8 Surakarta uses KTSP (Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pelajaran) curriculum as
the basis of teaching and learning processes. Instructional processes are done in six days from
Monday up to Saturday. The students start to learn at 07.00 a.m. They finish the lesson at 01.30
p.m on Monday to Friday, except on Friday they learn from 7 a.m to 10.15 a.m. The students of
this school come from different social background but most of their parents work as merchant
This research is conducted in 5 months from February 2010 to June 2010. It includes the
pre research, action and activities after the action. It can be arranged as follow:
No. Activity Time of research
Pre research (interview, and observe
English teaching)
SMA Negeri 8 Surakarta. The eleventh grades are divided into four classes. They are class IPA 1
up to IPA 4. In this research, the writer chooses IPA 4. This class consists of 33 students, 17
