Table of Contents
APPROVAL PAGE ………...……….…...i
DECLARATION ………...………...……….ii
ABSTRACT ………..………...……iii
PREFACE………..………...iv
ACKOWLEDGMENT ………...………..vi
CHAPTER I 1. INTRODUCTION ……….……….………….. 1
1.1 Background of the Study……….……….... 1
1.2 Research Questions ..…..……….……….………... 4
1.3 Purpose of the Study ………...………..………... 4
1.4 Significance of the Study………...………….…………. 4
1.5 Scope of the Study ……….……….……….. 5
1.6 Organization of the Thesis ………..……… 5
CHAPTER II 2. REVIEW OF LITERATURE ….……….…… 7
2.1 Introduction………..….…….. 7
2.2 Academic Writing ………..……….……….. 7
2.2.1 Definition of Academic Writing ……… 7
2.2.2 Characteristics and Types of Academic Writing.…… 8
2.3 Teaching and Learning Academic Writing……….……. 17
2.4 Teacher’s and Learner’s Roles ……….…. 22
2.5 The Process of Writing ……….… 24
2.6 The Aspects of Writing ……….… 28
2.7 Teaching Writing Strategy …………..………...… 30
2.8 Writing Assessment ……….….. 31
CHAPTER III 3. METHODOLOGY ……….34
3.1 Introduction ……….34
3.2 Research Questions ………34
3.3 Site and Participants ……….………... 34
3.4 Methods………. 36
3.4.1 Research Design…...……….…. 36
3.4.2 Data Collection Techniques ……….………. 38
3.4.2.1 Observation………... 38
3.4.2.2 Texts Produced By Students………... 39
3.4.2.3 Questionnaire………... 39
3.4.2.4 Interview………... 40
3.4.3 Data Analysis Method…..………..……… 40
CHAPTER IV 4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS ……..………... 46
4.2 Results from Observation ………... 46
4.3 Results of Texts Produced by Students ………. 53
4.3.1 The Prewriting Texts Produced Analysis (PW) ……… 54
4.3.2 The 1st Essay Texts Produced Analysis ……… 59
4.3.3 The 2nd Essay Texts Produced Analysis ……… 66
4.4 Results of Teacher’s Questioner ……..……… 75
4.5 Results of Interviews……….... 75
4.6 Results of Students’ Questionnaire……….…… 76
4.7 Teacher’s Assessment……….…… 77
4.8 Conclusion ……….………. 79
CHAPTER V 5. CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION………... 81
5.1 Introduction………...……….…. 81
5.2 Conclusion………...…..………... 81
5.3 Recommendation of the Study… ………. 85
REFERENCES ……….……….……….…. 88
Appendix 1………...……….……….. 91
Appendix 2………...……….……….. 93
Appendix 3………...……….……….. 97
Appendix 4………...……….………..101
Appendix 5………...……….………..106
Appendix 6………...……….………..113
Appendix 8………...…….………..124 Appendix 9………...………….………..128
1
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
Academic writing plays an important role in the success of students’ learning in university (Urquhart, 2005). In addition, it is not only used by college and university communities as written communication or as one of its programs but also as an intellectual activity, as a method of learning and as an instruction (Weigle 2002). The common setting that characterizes college writing is educational and academic that is influenced by the specific disciplinary expectations of college, course even grade level (Crème & Lea, 2008:3).
2 academic assignments emphasize developing an objective tone, responding to already published material, and incorporating the ideas of other writers into academic assignment. This statement has relevancy with the goal of the study, that is, focused on the essay assignment consisting argumentation in the written form or written argument that is claimed as the core of academic writing (Bjork, 2003) and its dominant purposes is to convince and persuade which commonly academic people do in order to ensure that what they have written or conveyed are accepted by the readers.
3 In terms of academic context, Cremea & Lea (2008:3) state that academic writing is conveyed in formal written language and it is often characterized as hierarchically organized, goal directed and problem-solving process ( Hartley, 2008:10) that can drive students to think critically, and analytically during knowledge transforming stage. Therefore, in order to be able to do it, student writers should not only learn the rules, strategies and how the language works but also the organization, mechanics and the process of writing itself. Moreover, the ability to transform knowledge through writing must be consciously and continuously trained, it cannot be taken for granted, not even the students of university (Bjork, et.al,.2003:13).
4 academic writing class activities in the college mentioned and try to obtain some documents supporting as data related to existing theories.
1.2 Research Questions
1. How is the teaching learning process of academic essays conducted in one of Business and Management schools in Bandung?
2. What aspects of academic writing does the lecturer assess in order to get to know the students’ achievements?
1.3 The Purpose of the Study
Based on the background discussed above, the research aims to: 1. investigate how the teaching learning process (TLP) of academic essays is conducted in one of Schools of Business and Management in the 1st semester of an undergraduate program,
2. investigate the students’ achievement in writing academic essays in particular.
1.4 Significance of the Study
Knowing that academic writing is very crucial to be given as a single subject in university or college, the results of the study are expected to provide contributions at the university levels especially at undergraduate.
5 academic essay to those who teach English academic writing in the
undergraduate level particularly in the first year,
2. practically, the result of the study can contribute to the development of teaching practice in academic writing in Indonesia.
3. theoretically, it provides literature about the teaching learning process of academic writing, which is important for the development of theory of academic writing research in Indonesia.
1.5 Scope of the Study
This study focuses on the teaching-learning academic essay and the students’ argumentative essay in one of Schools of Business and Management as a matter of fact, there are 5 writing classes (CRW- Critical Reading and Writing) but this study has observed the students’ performance and achievement in one of the CRW classes.
1.6 Organization of the Thesis
This thesis will be structured as follows:
Chapter 1 contains introduction that covers the background, the purpose, the significance, scope of the study and the organization of the thesis.
6 Chapter 3 describes essential aspects supporting the research methodology that covers Research Questions, Location, Participants and Respondents, Methods including Research Design, Data Collection and Data Analysis.
Chapter 4 conveys the results of the research done and followed by the discussions in order to get a clear description of the study.
Chapter 5 describes conclusion of the whole findings including the texts produced by students as representative of the students’ assignment that had been investigated and recommendations for improving the TLP of writing.
34
CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
3.1 Introduction
This chapter explains some important aspects supporting the research methodology. The detail methodology of the study described consists of: Research Questions; Location, Participants and Respondents; Methods including Research Design, Data Collection and Data Analysis.
3.2 Research Questions
The research problems were limited to the teaching strategies, materials and the activities applied by the lecturer in order to improve the students’ quality and critical thinking skill either in their own field or their social environment. The research focuses primarily on:
1. How is the teaching-learning process of academic essay conducted in one of Business and Management Schools?
2. What aspects of academic essay does the lecturer assess in order to get to know the students’ achievement?
3.3 Site and Participants.
35 this School of Business and Management mostly uses English in teaching-learning program and academic writing is given as a single subject of the course program. To improve the students’ quality and their capability in using English language, this school has broadened its syllabus by making ELT more relevant to the needs and interests of its students. In order to cover this issue, ELT in this school has been classified into writing - presentation and writing -reading classes.
The reason why writing is given mostly because in the first two (2) years, the students should report a final project and it must be written in English. Furthermore, in teaching-learning process all instructions are delivered in English except for Indonesian subject.
Unlike the other writing classes which have normally two-credit hour courses meaning that each period of teaching program has 16 class meetings with two hours class meeting including one mid test and one final test, this college has
3 hours per class meeting for two-credit semester system.
36 Knowing the fact that the students admitted at this school have high qualification in English for undergraduate level particularly for non-native speakers, the writer is interested to get to know on 1) how the teaching –learning process of academic essay is conducted in one of School of Business and Management, 2) what aspects of writing in the students’ assignments are assessed in order to get to know the students’ achievement.
In addition, the researcher is familiar with location, where she can find the data easily. Besides, based on the objective of the study, she can also find the data how the teaching-learning process of academic essay is applied, what text types used, and the assessment used in order to get to know the student capability in writing task given.
3.4 Methods
In this section, the detail methodology of the study is described. The description consists of: Research Design, Data Collection and Data Analysis.
3.4.1 Research Design
37 information needed, the classroom observation was held in the real process where the direct source of data including documents supporting the research could be obtained by the researcher who is as the key instrument. This follows the suggestion from Fraenkel and Wallen (1990). In this study, the researcher has used the qualitative case study as a particular approach because it has features that only characterize the real process. The chosen approach is related to the issues being investigated. That is how academic essays given in limited time by focusing on the activities running at the time of observation and analyzing the texts produced by students (enclosed in the appendix) would identify some characteristics in qualitative approach.
In addition, in order to get more accurate information towards the teaching learning process, the researcher also conducted interview with the lecturer and gave questionnaires for both lecturer and students. Then, the data obtained from observation were integrated to the data gained from interview and questionnaires. By doing so, there would not be data manipulated by the researcher.
38 qualitative study rather than the product, and the last, the meaning is the most important issue in qualitative study.
3.4.2 Data Collection Techniques
In qualitative research, the process of collecting data involves both the selection of the instruments and the conditions where they are administered (Fraenkel and Wallen, 1990:89). For the study, the researcher has collected the data through observation, document analysis (texts produced by students), interview, and questionnaire.
3.4.2.1 Observation
The observation has been done in seven (7) times of class meetings which lasted for seven (7) weeks to find out the information of process of teaching & learning. The first observation began on August 26th 2009 and finished on 21st October 2009. This observation focused on how the lecturer introduced the academic writing to students, how the lecturer taught the elements of writing, and how the students were able to apply the writing process guided by the lecturer.
39 chance to practice analyzing towards the problem shown in the film but also to get to know the difficulties the students have (Russell, 2003).
Unlike the other writing program that was held in two credit semester system with two (2) hours per class meeting this class meeting was held for three (3) hours per class meeting and conducted 16 times per semester.
3.4.2.2 Text Produced by Students
The texts produced by students were classified into three groups of writing practices. First texts were in the form of pre- writing exercises given at the first class meeting; the second was the exercise of writing essay with 500 words and the last was the exercise of writing essay with 700 words. However, there were some sessions missed and there might be some writing practices missed as well. It means that there might be some more texts produced by students with better writing achievements.
3.4.2.3. Questionnaire
40
3.4.2.4 Interview
In order to get clear and more accurate information of the data obtained, the interview with the lecturer as main participant was conducted in more or less for 20 minutes. This duration was given due to the lecturer’s teaching schedule. The interview was done in order to find some new facts emerged relating to the teaching learning process. In addition, the data were also used as the source to cross check the validity of all data obtained in the research.
This study conducted an open –ended interview in which the fact of matter and opinions about events can be asked as suggested by Yin (2003). The questions given in the interview were taken from the questionnaire as guidance to get clearer information related to the teaching learning process of academic writing.
However, the interview with students could not be conducted because of the limitation of time the students had.
3.4.3 Data Analysis Method
41 the problem shown in the film but also to get to know the difficulties the students have (Russell, 2003). Each class meeting was held for three (3) hours and conducted 16 times per semester.
Videotaping was not allowed to be used during teaching learning process so the authentic data related to the group discussions and lecturer’s consultations couldn’t be shown visually. In this session, the researcher only relied on the field notes to observe the teaching learning process. However, the researcher was still able to engage with the students’ class activities during observation. Then, the researcher noted how the lecturer did the introduction before giving the lecture and how he used electronic media provided in the class room for lecturing. In addition, the researcher noticed whether the lecturer well prepared or not.
In addition, in terms of teaching writing process, the researcher watched how the lecturer explained the theory related to aspects of academic essays and applied the stages of writing process and noticed whether he considered time left for students to finish the task before the time ended. Then, noted how he got his students have more theory and practices about academic writing and what handbook contains teaching material given during writing course. Furthermore, I noted what optional supplementary at the first class meeting he suggested to the students to gain more information about academic writing, and what facilities that the students can access to complete their assignments and what strategy used to enable the students to learn to write.
42 namely, prewriting (warming up activity=PW), mid writing task (500 words essay=E5) and last writing task (700 words essay=E7) during observation.
The texts produced by students were then selected on the basis of the scores or comments given by the lecturer and randomly chosen. The texts classified into three categories, namely, high, average, and low achievers.
The texts were then analyzed and interpreted which focused on the text
function including the structure of organization, content, mechanic and linguistic features, the proper name used in texts. These texts then were analyzed in the ways suggested by Hyland (2003), Feez and Joyce (2000) namely, the orientation of the aspects of writing given:
- focused on the text function. This means that the criteria of ‘good writing’ is on the basis of the performance of language use specifically in communicative functions that most relevant to students’ needs.
- focused on the creative expression and writing process particularly when students doing writing practice in the first class meeting.
43 The aspects that have been analyzed are actually as the ones that what Zemah, et. al., claim as aspects of essay writing that should be evaluated in academic writing including content and organization of text. The analysis of the texts produced by the students are firstly focused on the content that involves introduction with a thesis statement that directly answers the test question, a body that contains clear related ideas that support the thesis statement, and conclusion;
secondly, be focused on the organization that involves logical organization of
supporting ideas. According to Eggins (2002:5), in higher education content and
organization are as primary matters and need more attention than convention of
language including voice, tone, style, accuracy and mechanic. What has mentioned above in fact is in line with Hyland and Cooper who suggest that analyzing argumentative writing is by identifying the claim and the supports in which Eggins and Zemah, et al,. consider them as part of the content.
In terms of assessment, the researcher noted what aspects of writing that the lecturer primarily assessed through comment and score given to texts produced by students collected.
44 Briefly, the steps of analyzing data were firstly observing the TLP, making notes, analyzing texts produced by students and distributing the questionnaires and the last was interview the lecturer. Then, the researcher coded and categorized the data. The coding and the categorized are as follows:
Coding
* RL (Respondent Lecturer)
* RS (Respondent Student)
* Pre Writing (PW): PWH < PWM<PWL. * Essay 500 (E5): E5H<E5M<E5L. * Essay 700 (E7): E7H<E7M<E7L.
Categorization
The data were categorized into three categories as follows:
Prewriting categorized into high achiever (PWH), Mid-achiever (PWM), Low achiever (PWL). Then, assignments with 500 and 700 words were categorized also into high achiever (E5H), mid-achiever (E5M), low achiever (E5L) and E7H, E7M, E7L.
3.5 Concluding Remark
45 collected. In order to answer the research question, the data obtained from the instruments will be presented and analyzed in the next chapter.
81
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
5.1 Introduction
This chapter presents two parts, namely, the conclusion which is written on the basis of the results of the research and the suggestion that might be useful and considerable for the lecturers of writing class in particular and other lecturers in general.
5.2 Conclusions
Based on the main objective of the research, that is, to portray:
(1) Teaching and Learning Activities in EFL Writing Class; (2) What aspects of writing assessed by the lecturer, and the results of observation, questionnaire
and interview, it is concluded that:
Basically, the teaching –learning process observed indicates that it has been fulfilled the requirement of teaching academic writing such as stages of writing process done, including the process and aspects of writing and the approach & strategies used . However, there are some issues that still need improvement.
82 introduce the writing course by using invention strategy or pre-writing activity as the earliest stage of writing process. In this stage students were encouraged to explore and discover ideas through useful strategy given by lecturer.
In addition, the importance of the audience, the purpose and the form to be reached and how to make drafting, revising, editing and sharing in the process of writing were not only explained but also practiced as suggested by Brown (2001). Although each stage has been done in the limited time due to the time allocation given, he still managed to follow the process of writing.
Furthermore, the students were never influenced by the lecturer’s ideas when doing writing exercises. They were even guided to think critically through
questions related to their topics and diagram that can be used to identify topic
sentence, major and minor supporting details as suggested by Brown (2001). Besides, the students were engaged in thinking process of writing through “peers’
discussion” which would give benefits as well as disadvantages. The benefits
are primarily for creative students which had tendency to work independently but not for students who are not creative.
83 In contrast, uncreative students would be demotivated and more consuming time to have readiness to work independently. This means that they wouldn’t perform their writing skill optimally.
In terms of approach, the process-product approach was applied in this teaching learning process. It means that the teaching and learning activities were framed following the process of writing stages completed with the submission of the tasks given as suggested by Brown (2001).
Meanwhile, in terms of teaching methodology, it has been in line with the current approach of integrating various skills as advocated in teaching academic writing as suggested by Hillock (1995) and Roseshine and Meister (cited in Gage, 1998:474).
However, the ‘free writing’ given did not really make the students have freedom to choose the topic by themselves but the themes related to the students’ experience entitled ‘living far from parents’ were determined by the lecturer. As a matter of fact, free writing itself has a meaning “writing freely” without any restriction. This restriction is contradiction with the freedom of expressing ideas in pre-writing suggested by Brown (2001).
84 Furthermore, the prescribed patterns of structure of organization which are considered as standard ones should be followed by the students. This is understandable if the standard patterns were used because by using the same patterns, it would easily check the students’ assignments. Besides, checking the writing assignments would be time consuming so that the lecturer tried to get the most efficient way as possible.
In terms of language wise, it is still far from being rich because some students still used the same vocabularies and sentence structure taken from the article given. This might be caused by the limitation of vocabularies they had and the lack of the sources related to the issue being written. This is not in line with Hyland (2003) and Brown (2001) suggestion of being ‘good writing’.
In terms of assessment, the lecturer used score ranked from 65 to 85-up. The students who get 85-up considered as the ones who have fulfilled 85 percent the requirement of doing ‘good writing’ as suggested by Hyland (2003), while the students who get 75-up need to improve certain skills to do ‘good writing’ and the students who get 65-up have to learn all skill needed to do ‘a good writing’. The scores given are used to give students feedback about their progress, their strengths and weaknesses as suggested by American Federation Teachers (1990, cited in Gage, 1998:509).
85 the students’ tasks submitted to his blogger and gave marks to the elements of writing which needed to be revised by students and sent back to them. This contribution is worth to be appreciated since he did not only teach in one writing class but 5 classes as the least number of classes to be handled in his institution.
Briefly, it can be concluded that based on the results of observation, analysis of texts produced by students, questionnaires and interview obtained, the TLP conducted has followed the process of writing required. However, the time given for running writing program is not sufficient. It can be seen from the way the lecturer managed time when conveying the teaching material and allocating time for doing assignments. In addition, there are too many students in the writing class that raises difficulty for the lecturer to monitor each of them.
Nevertheless, the lecturer was creative enough to manage the precise time given as efficient as possible. He gave students a lot of chance to express their own ideas in very limited time so that he gets his students used to work hard and appreciate every time used. In addition, it is worthy to appreciate his contribution to check the students’ tasks through his blogger and the way he gave rewards and feedback has instilled his students to write better and get much progress.
5.3 Recommendation of the Study
86 difficulty in finding synonymous words or expression which have the same general meaning.
Furthermore, it is better if the students would be given guidance how to give comments related to the use of peer-reviewing for content by involving classmate’s comments.
In terms teaching materials, the lecturer should decide which aspects of writing would be the main organizing principle for the course related to the time allocated. To solve the problem dealing with the time, the lecturer can adjust the time will be given to writing as opposed to discussion, feedback and language work.
Dealing with the lecturer’s role, particularly in giving written feedback, he should give more clearly comments showing a kind of appraisal for students’ strength and weaknesses. These will not only enable the students to write better and get self discovery towards the elements of writing needed but also increase the students’ self efficacy and motivation.
87 In addition to what have been described above, it is necessary to extend time allocation for writing class in order to get the maximum outcome.
88
REFERENCES
Alwasilah, A. C. 2002. Pokoknya kualitatif: Dasar-dasar Merancang dan
Melakukan Penelitian Kualitatif. Jakarta: PT Dunia Pustaka jaya.
Alwasilah, A.C. and Alwasilah, S. S. 2005. Pokoknya Menulis: Cara Baru
Menulis dengan Metode Kolaborasi. Bandung: PT Kiblat Buku Utama.
Arnaudet, Martin. L. and Barret, Mary Ellen. 1984. Approaches to Academic
Reading & Writing. Prentice Hall Regent, Englewood Cliffs, Nj07632
Axelrod, R.B. & Cooper, C.R. 1988. The St. Martin’s Guide to Writing. USA: St. Martin’s Press, Inc
Bjork, Lennart et al,. 2003. Teaching Academic Writing in European Higher
Education. Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Brown, H.D. 2001. Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy. New York: Longman
Carson, D. 1985. The Lexical Bar. Oxford: Pergamom Press.
Cohen, A.D. 1994. Assessing Language Ability in the Classroom. Massachusetts: Heinle & Heinle Publisher.
Carson, D. 1985. The Lexical Bar. Oxford: Pergamom Press.
Cope, B. and kalantzis, M. 1993. The Power of Literacy: A Genre Approach to
Teaching Writing. Washington, DC.: The Falmer Press
Crème, Phillis and Lea, Mary R. 2008. Writing at University. Open University Press.
De Carlo, J.E. 1995. Perspectives in Whole Language. Boston: A Simon & Schuster Company.
Emilia, E. 2006. Pengajaran Keterampilan Berpikir Kritis. Presented in Form Ilmiah II: Pemikiran-pemikiran Inovatif dalam Kajian Bahasa, Sastra, Seni dan Pembelajarannya. Bandung: Fakultas Pendidikan Bahasa dan Seni. Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Bandung.
Emilia, E. 2005. A Critical Genre-based Approach to Teaching Academic Writing
in a Tertiary EFL Context in Indonesia. Unpublished Dissertation. The
89 Feez, Susan & Joyce, Helen. 2000.Writing Skills. Phoenic Education Pty Ltd. Ferris, Dana. 2003. Purposes to Student Writing. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates,
Inc., Publishers
Fulwiler, Toby. 2002. College Writing: A Personal Approach to Academic
Writing. Boynton/Cook Publishers
Fairclough, N. 2003. Analysing Discourse: Textual Analysis for Social Research. London: Routledge.
Fox, R. 1088. Teacher’s Talking About Writing at Key Stage 2. Reading Journal Ed. July 1993. School of Education University of Exeter. Ex 1
Fraenkel, J.R. & Wallen, N.E. 1990 How to Design and Evaluate Research in
Education. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc.
Gardener, S. 1995. “Learning to Write as an Adult”. In Deaking University for ELL626. Literacies and Education: Writing. Australia: Deakin University. Gerot and Wignell. 1994. Making Sense of Functional Grammar. Australia:
Gewrd Stabler, AEE.
Harmer, J. 1991. The Practice of English Language Teaching. London: Longman. Hilton, C. & Hyder, M. 1992. Getting Grips with Writing. London: Aldine House. Hyland, Ken 2003, Second Language Writing. Cambridge University Press. Jacobs, H.L. et al. 1981. Testing ESL Composition Principles and Techniques.
Massachusetts: New burry House Publishers, Inc.
Kroll, B. 1990. Second Language Writing: Research Insights for the Classroom. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Langan, J. 1986. College Writing with Reading. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Maxwell, J.A. 1996. Qualitative Research Design: An Interactive Approach California: SAGE Publication, Inc.
Moleong, L.J. 1996 Metodologi Penelitian Kualitatif. Bandung: Rosda Karya. Moll, L.C. 1990. Vygotsky and Educational Instructional Implication and
Application of Sociohistorical Psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge
90 Murray, Rowena and Moore, Sarah 2006 The Hand book of Academic Writing.
Open University Press
Nunan, D. 1999. Second Language Teaching & Learning. Massachusetts: Heinle & Heinle Publisher.
Parrot, M. 1993. Tasks for Language Teachers: A Resource Book for Training
and Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Richards, J.C. 1986. Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Urquhart, Vicky & Mclver, Monette. 2005. Teaching Writing in the Content
