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A Case Study at English Education Department of
Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta
A Skripsi
Submitted to the Faculty of Language Education as a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan
Dalliya Khodzirotul Qudsi
2012 054 0034
English Education Department
Faculty of Language Education
Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta
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Acknowledgement
In the name of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala, the most beneficent, the most merciful. Firstly and primarily, the countless thanks and all praises are merely to Allah SWT who gives gracious mercy and tremendous blessing for me to
accomplish this skripsi. Secondly, I would like to express my sincere gratitude and respect to my inspiring advisor, Ms.Sri Rejeki Murtiningsih S.Pd, M.Ed, Ph.D (Ms. Jackie) who have contributed and given the valuable evaluations, feedbacks, and suggestions during the completion of this study. I deeply thank for her
guidance, motivation, patience and encouragement which enormously support me in finishing this skripsi. It’s such a great experience to be assisted by her during accomplishing this study.
Thirdly, I also would like to address my deepest gratitude and respect to Ms.Noor Qomaria S.Pd, M.Hum and Mr.Andi Wirantaka S.Pd, M.Hum as my examiners in defense seminar who have generously provided suggestions and feedbacks constructively for this skripsi’s enhancement. I do appreciate their kindness during assisting me. I also sincerely thank to the participants of this study in which they are some EED lectures of UMY. Thanks for kindly discussing, reflecting, and sharing the fruitful knowledge and experiences. It means a lot for me and this skripsi’s completion.
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Most essentially, I would like to tremendously thank to all members of my family for encouraging me through ups and downs in accomplishing this skripsi. My deepest gratitude, love, and respect are intended to my dearest father, Ahmad Yazid Abshari (Alm), even he cannot see his lovely daughter graduate from her study, I deeply thank for his unconditional love, kindness, wise advices, and sweet memories. I also must say thank to my other half, my dearest mother and siblings, Juwariyah, Atho’illah Akbar, and Mellyna Zam Zammia. Thank you for
endlessness loves, cares, encouragement, motivation, as well as both warm smiles and hugs to me up till now. This skripsi is dedicated for those kindhearted people.
As well, I sincerely thank to my dearest ladies and boys, Ekna, Qonia, Kawai (Erlin, Anisa, Dewi, Tivani, Nur, Reni, Erni, and Lina), Opuliri (Oka, Putri, and Rini), KKN mates (Zelin, Dewi, Edi, Gigih, Rangga, and Ijul), ME (Aris, Ghofar, Nuh, and Teguh), and to my kindhearted buddy, Sulis. Thank you for staying by my side in whatever condition I am. I couldn’t ask anymore, Allah SWT has given me the sweetest life for having all of them throughout studying at UMY. Anyone who has helped me in the completion of this skripsi but not be directly mentioned yet here, I truly apologize for it, but I do appreciate any opinion, assistance, and suggestion for the improvement of this skripsi.
I consider that this skripsi has not perfect yet. For this reason, anyone is welcome to give constructive thoughts, comments, and critics tactfully in response to the enhancement of this skripsi. Finally, may Allah SWT gives rewards for their kindheartedness. Amen.
vi Abstract
Academic writing, as one of writing genres in writing skill that is considered defining language learners’ success in both learning and career promotion, is being paid close attention to teachers and students. As a result, it remains a challenging task for teachers to employ some strategies regarding how to achieve enhanced results in teaching academic writing. Besides, many obstacles commonly hinder the teaching process. This study aims to investigate teachers’ strategies and the obstacles that were faced together with the solutions in teaching academic writing. The discussion is limited to focus on text and focus on process strategies. Focus on text strategies are teaching strategies which pay close
attention to students’ knowledge on some linguistic features including text type, rhetorical convention, academic register, and linguistic accuracy. While focus on process strategies are teaching strategies which tend to emphasize on some stages in students’ writing process including pre-writing, planning, drafting, reviewing, and refinement.
This study was conducted at English Education Department (EED) of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY). The research design was
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was done to prove the data validity. The gathered data was analyzed using open, axial, and selective coding.
The finding revealed that the strategies that were used by some EED teachers of UMY were teaching strategies that tend to focus on students’ awareness and understanding on some linguistic features (including text type, rhetorical convention, academic register, and linguistic accuracy) and students’ writing process (including pre-writing, planning, drafting, reviewing, and refinement). So, it indicates that the strategies used by some EED teachers of UMY refer to focus on text and focus on process strategies since they paid close attention on students’ knowledge on some linguistic features and students’ writing process during teaching academic writing. Another finding exposed that the obstacles that were faced by some EED teachers of UMY encompass five major problems. First, it was on students’ linguistic development which can be coped with giving feedback, involving brainstorming, and motivating students. Second, it was on students’ linguistic needs’ diversity which can be handled by giving feedback. Third, it was on the physical setting of classroom which can be deal with involving quiz and discussion. Fourth, it came from teachers’ time
availability which can be coped with managing time better by teachers. Fifth, it came from the teaching focus division which also can be handled by managing time better by teachers.
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Table of Contents
Title Page... i
Approval Page ... ii
Statement of the Authenticity ... iii
Acknowledgement ...iv
Abstract ... vi
Table of Contents ... viii
List of Figures ... x
List of Appendices ...xi
Chapter One: Introduction ... 1
Background ... 1
Problem Statement ... 6
Problem Limitation ... 7
Research Questions ... 8
Research Objectives ... 8
Research Significance ... 8
Research Outline ... 10
Chapter Two: Literature Review ... 11
The Concept of Writing ... 11
Process of Writing ... 12
The Concept of Academic Writing ... 13
Teachers’ Role in Teaching Writing ... 16
Teaching Strategy ... 17
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Common Obstacles in Teaching Academic Writing ... 23
How to Overcome the Confronted Obstacles ... 25
Review of Related Studies ... 26
Conceptual Framework ... 28
Chapter Three: Methodology... 32
Research Design ... 32
Research Setting and Participants ... 33
Research Instrument ... 35
Data Collection Procedures ... 37
Data Analysis ... 38
Chapter Four: Finding and Discussion ... 40
The Concept of Academic Writing….... ... 40
Teachers’ Strategies in Teaching Academic Writing.. ... 42
The Confronted Obstacles in Teaching Academic Writing ... 59
How to Overcome the Confronted Obstacles ... 64
Chapter Five: Conclusion and Recommendation ... 71
Conclusion ... 71
Recommendation ... 73
References ... 76
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List of Figures
xi
List of Appendices
Chapter One
Introduction
This introduction chapter presents some points regarding the main issues of this study. This chapter comprises research background, problem statement, problem limitation, research questions, research objectives, research significance, and research outline.
Background
Academic writing is one of special writing genres in writing skill since it has its own a set of conventions and it is commonly used in high school grades to post-secondary education. This is clarified by Bailey (2006) who defined that academic writing is a writing genre that is commonly produced by students who are studying in schools and universities, and it is often found by students as a challenging course since it requires them to adopt its conventions, its referencing rules, and its layout. Also, Messaouda (2014) explained that academic writing as a part of writing genres in productive skill demands on higher order of thinking and energy since it relies on some linguistic features such as vocabulary, grammar, sentence structure, paragraph coherence and cohesion, and semantics. Moreover, as declared by Badan Standar Nasional Pendidikan (BSNP) Indonesia (2006), writing skill in English subject continuously have been becoming one of four major language skills that have to be learned and mastered by language learners in higher education level, and academic writing has been becoming the essential feature of the school curricula regarding writing skill itself.
language teaching and learning. This is in line with Brown (2004) who declared that academic writing is one of the most common genres of writing which students might produce. Besides, academic writing is defined to have the
significant role in English language teaching and learning since all fields of study in higher education level require students to be able to compose written text academically, properly, and in line with academic requirements such as an essay and a thesis.
Then, the ability to write academically well is crucial for students to have since it can be the key for achieving academic success, especially on English subject. As clarified by Alber-Morgan, Hessler, and Konrad (2007), students’ proficiency in written expression is strongly essential in determining their academic achievement. Besides, Kelley (2008) as cited in Giridharan (2012) pointed out that post-secondary students’ academic success depends on their academic writing. It reiterates that the capability to write academically well can be considered as the predictor and the determinant in students’ academic success.
In addition to the fact that academic writing is important in English language teaching and learning, Yuliana (2014) affirmed that having ability to write well in English is essential since it can express thought and can be a
Although having ability to write academic writing well is intensely important in some fields as explained above, unfortunately, some students frequently still face some difficulties on the process of writing that appropriate with academic writing requirements. As clarified by Xiao (2007), “most EFL
learners are frequently frustrated by such problems as lacking appropriate English lexical expression and struggling with mechanics, grammar, sentence structure, paragraph coherence, rhetorical patterns, and academic writing requirements” (p. 20). It indicates that most students including EFL students commonly confront some difficulties to write that in line with academic writing conventions.
Due to the fact, based on the researcher’s observation and experiences at EED of UMY, the students’ proficiency at EED of UMY in academic writing still need a lot of improvements. In the other words, similar case was found at this department. It was seen from some students’ works which still need a lot of revisions in some linguistic features such as on grammar accuracy, sentence structure, paragraph coherence and cohesion, citation, and logical reasoning. As Harmer (2004) emphasized, students’ writing can be used to measure the students’
achievement in the process of learning the language. Thus, it can be highlighted that some EED students of UMY still face some difficulties in the ability to write academically that in line with academic writing requirements.
In line with the difficulties which were faced by some EED students of UMY regarding academic writing, based on the researcher’s observation and experiences at EED of UMY, the researcher found and argued that students’
happened as a result of there was only a little assistance from some of their teachers during teaching and learning process. They told that some teachers did not explain clearly and give either feedback or suggestions throughout teaching and learning process. As a consequence, students did not get the clear explanation and did not know their mistakes and weaknesses, and how to write properly, and ultimately, some of their academic writing quality was poor. This means that in addition to students’ writing competency level diversity, strategies that were used
by teachers also closely relate to students’ proficiency and learning outcomes. As Armstrong (2013) highlighted, teaching strategies refer to techniques and
activities that were used by teachers in order to help students in learning the course contents and enhancing the learning outcomes. It shows that teachers need to consider using strategies that could be useful to teaching and learning process so they can help their students to perform better in academic writing.
Learning English means learning in two aspects, there are skill and components (Heaton, 1991) as cited in Yuliana (2014). The skill comprises four major skills through language including listening, speaking, reading and writing; while components encompass phonology, vocabulary, and grammar. In response to Heaton’s belief, Coffin, Curry, Goodman, Hewings, Lillis, and Swann (2003)
process comprising pre-writing, planning, drafting, reviewing, and refinement. Thus, the researcher believes that a study which discusses teachers’ strategies in
teaching academic writing is imperative to be conducted. It is intended to fill the need in relation with the importance of using some strategies that could be helpful to address EED students of UMY weaknesses and needs in academic writing.
Moreover, many obstacles usually impede the teaching and learning process. The common obstacles that are faced by teachers can be on two major problems; those are on students’ linguistic development and the physical context
of classroom (Bilal, Tariq, Din, Latif, and Anjum, 2013) and (Xiao, 2007). Problems on students’ linguistic development relate to students’ lack of linguistic
competences such as on spelling and grammar accuracy, creativity, and sentence structure. While problem on the physical context of ELT class refers to the physical situation of classroom such as the big-sized class and overcrowded situation either inside or outside the classroom. Again, based on the researcher’s
Problem Statement
Since the ability to write academically well are perceived as difficult skill to be mastered, actually teachers need to assist students in writing process because it will give positive impacts on students’ academic writing performance. This is
supported by Fowler, Aaron, and Okoomian (2007) who clarified that teachers are responsible for students’ academic writing such as an essay, a report, or other pieces of academic writing. So, teachers need to facilitate students in writing process such as providing explanations and opportunities, and giving feedback and freedom in expressing ideas because it potentially can help them to perform better in academic writing (Fowler, Aaron, and Okoomian, 2007).
Unfortunately, in fact, based on the researcher’s observation and
experiences at EED of UMY, some teachers have not given yet opportunities to students to get the precise treatment in addressing students’ weaknesses and needs
regarding academic writing. This is similar with Ariningsih (2010) who stated that some teachers have not given yet the appropriate treatment to students in relation to catching students’ writing problems, and they also have not found yet
appropriate strategies to teach writing effectively. The researcher found that most subjects including listening and speaking subjects require students to write academic writing. Nevertheless, there are only a few and even no adequate
assistance from some teachers. For instance, some teachers did not explain clearly and provide feedback and suggestions to students’ academic writing. As a
some EED students of UMY need to be assisted and facilitated during teaching and learning process.
As a result of problems stated above, teachers need to facilitate students during teaching and learning process. As Harmer (2001) highlighted, in teaching writing, teachers are required to act not solely as a language instructor, but also as a motivator, a resource, and a feedback provider. Moreover, Jose and Galang (2015) confirmed that to address students’ weaknesses in academic writing,
teachers also need to learn, adopt, and use strategies to teaching and learning process. Strategies in teaching academic writing have broad area to be discussed, and there are a lot of studies which have talked over this topic. This study may present some findings on the strategies used by some EED teachers of UMY and the obstacles faced together with the solutions in teaching academic writing which could be useful to be applied at EED of UMY.
Problem Limitation
This study focuses on finding out some EED teachers of UMY strategies in teaching academic writing. The discussion of strategies is limited to focus on text and focus on process strategies, so, it will be more specific on the discussion later. To complete the discussion, this study also aims at investigating the
Research Questions
Many problems emerge from the research background. Thus, the research questions of this study are set as follow:
1. What are strategies used by EED teachers of UMY in teaching academic writing?
2. What are obstacles confronted by EED teachers of UMY in teaching academic writing and how do these teachers overcome those obstacles?
Research Objectives
Due to the research questions addressed above, this research encloses two research objectives in which set as follow:
1. To identify strategies used by some EED teachers of UMY in teaching academic writing.
2. To investigate obstacles faced by EED teachers of UMY together with how they overcome those obstacles in teaching academic writing.
Research Significance
This study is expected to benefit both teachers and students in English language teaching and learning. This study is intended to benefit not solely professional and experienced teachers, but also novice and prospective teachers. Afterwards, this study is also addressed to benefit the researcher herself and further researchers.
Professional, novice, and prospective English teachers. This study is
strategies used by some EED teachers of UMY in teaching academic writing. It is also followed by the description of the obstacles faced together with the solutions in dealing with those obstacles. So, it might broaden insight of strategies and obstacles together with the solutions in teaching academic writing. Second, this study can be a reference for evaluating strategies used during their teaching career, especially on teaching writing. So, they may adopt and integrate some strategies that are perceived can help them to improve teaching progress. Third, this study can be a reference for involving some techniques in response to dealing with the obstacles that hinder the process of teaching academic writing.
Students. This study is expected to benefit students. First, this study can
provide additional knowledge, information, and references on some fruitful strategies regarding academic writing. Second, this study may provide useful insight on techniques to deal with some common obstacles faced during learning academic writing. Third, this study can be a reference for integrating those
strategies and techniques independently without waiting their teachers ask them in response to improving their academic writing competences.
The researcher. This study benefits the researcher herself. First, this
Further researchers. This study is expected to benefit further researchers.
First, this study can encourage other researchers to conduct a further research regarding strategies in teaching academic writing with different research focus and methodology. Second, this study might become a reference of theoretical framework for further researchers who conduct similar study. Third, this study can provide the findings that can be the additional information for further researchers who conduct a study in the context of teaching academic writing.
Research Outline
This skripsi comprises five chapters. Firstly, it is introduction chapter which presents the research background, problem statement, problem limitation, research questions, research objectives, research significance, and research outline. Secondly, it is literature review chapter which describes some definitions of the terminology used and elaborations of the theories and references used. Then, it reviews some previous studies and presents the conceptual framework of this study. Thirdly, it is methodology chapter which discusses research
methodology; it consists of the research design, research setting and participants, research instruments, data collection procedures, and data analysis. Fourthly, this is the chapter which reports the finding and discussion of this study; it reports the study findings that relate to the literature used. Then, the fifth chapter presents conclusion and recommendation of this study. This chapter summarizes the
Chapter Two
Literature Review
To acquire the framework of the issues, this literature review chapter discusses some terminologies used and related discussions of this study. Then, this chapter reviews theories and related studies which are relevant to this study. Afterwards, the conceptual framework is elaborated at the end of this chapter.
The Concept of Writing
Writing. Byrne (1988) stated that writing is producing a sequence of
sentences that are arranged in a particular order and linked together in certain ways. After a sequence of sentences is being put in order and linked together, it will form a coherent whole in which it is called as a text. Besides, Elbow (1973) as cited in Brown (2001) clarified that writing is figuring out the meaning and then putting the meaning into a language. The meaning represents what people think, it is because a writing process reflects things in the people’s mind. Another
Process of Writing
Process of writing. Harmer (2004) proposed several steps that called as
process of writing. He explained that students need to include those steps since it can benefit students in producing a good written text. Those steps encompass planning, drafting, editing, and final version. Process of writing is illustrated as a wheel because there might be recursive process in writing process such as re-planning, re-drafting, and re-editing before getting the final version of work.
Figure 1. The process of writing by Harmer (2004)
The first step is planning. Planning is one of important parts in writing process. Writers need to think and make a plan on what they are going to write through making notes or illustration. In this stage, writers have to consider the purpose of writing, audience or whom writers write to, and content structure or what writers write about. The second step is drafting. Drafting means starting point of writing, and it consists of brainstorming. In this stage, writes need to try starting to write what have planned before. There might be a number of drafts before getting the final version of work. The third step is editing. Editing is essentially needed to be done in writing process. Self-correcting, peer and tutor
Drafting
Editing Final
reviewing are certainly good to be included in writing process. Reviewing the information included, ideas written, language and vocabulary used will strongly fruitful for writers to reflect and revise what they have written so that they can produce a good written text. The fourth step is final version. Writers will get the final version of their writing after doing planning, drafting, and also editing before. Writes will see the significant differences on their first to final edited work.
The Concept of Academic Writing
Academic writing. Oshima and Hogue (2007) defined academic writing
as a kind of writing which is used in high school and college classes, and it is totally different with creative writing since it has its own requirements. Moreover, Bowker (2007) also defined academic writing as a special genre of writing which has its own set of conventions. As well, Weigle (2002) as cited in Linda (2008) explained that “academic writing is used to test students’ ability to plan and write
an essay or other extended text without the use of outside assistance or resources. Therefore, he affirmed that the main goal of academic writing, especially at the university level, is to train students to produce writing under timed conditions in their academic courses, and thus it is essential for them to be able to organize, write, and edit a composition in a relatively short amount of time” (p.16).
writing genre that is commonly produced by students who are studying in schools and universities, and it is often found by students as a challenging course since it requires them to adopt its conventions, its referencing rules, and its layout. This is in line with Whitaker (2009) who clarified that in essence, academic writing is the writing which language learners have to do for higher education courses. Some teachers possibly have different names for its assignments (essay, paper, term paper, argumentative paper/essay, analysis paper/essay, informative essay), but all of these assignments have the same objectives and principles.
Additionally, Whitaker (2009) proposed two main principles of academic writing. First, it comprises the context of how the content of academic writing should be like. The first main principles encompass six linguistic ethics including clear purpose, clear point of view, single focus, logical organization, strong support, and clear and complete explanation. Second, it includes the context of some important ethics that also define academic writing quality. The second main principles encompass four supporting ethics including audience engagement, effective use of research, correct APA style, and effective writing style. Those principles will be described in the following paragraph.
that each sentence in academic writing should support the thesis statement. There is no need irrelevant, unnecessary, unimportant, and also contradictory
information. Writers only need to strengthen and reinforce their own ideas in line with the thesis statement. Fourth, academic writing should encompass logical organization. This means that academic writing have to follow a standard organizational pattern. For instance, for academic essays and papers, there is an introduction, body paragraph, and conclusion. To be noted, each paragraph in academic writing principally leads to the next one. Fifth, it has to be supported strongly. In academic writing, each body paragraph has to have both reasonable and adequate reasons and evidences in order to support the thesis statement and topic sentence powerfully. This supports can be a list of facts, examples,
descriptions, and quotations. Sixth, it should have clear and complete explanation. In academic writing, writers have to consider readers’ understanding. Therefore, writers need to explain their own thoughts and ideas evidently and completely.
The second main principles of academic writing which focus on the context of some important ethics that also define academic writing quality include four supportive ethics. First, academic writing needs to engage the audience. This means that writers need to consider gaining audiences’ attention to what truly
All academic writings should follow the guidelines of the American Psychological Association (APA) style. It is regarding in-text citations, references list, and format. Fourth, in academic writing, writers have to pay attention on writing style. This means that they need to use their own words whenever possible, try using natural conversational style and avoid writing overly formal.
Hence, academic writing can be described as the most common genre of writing which language learners might produce in higher education level in which it entails them to be able to compose a written language academically, correctly, and in line with its own requirements such as some specific linguistic principles and supportive ethics as explained early. It is also associated with some language features and knowledge such as vocabulary, spelling, and grammar.
Teachers’ Role in Teaching Writing
Teachers’ roles in teaching writing. In teaching writing, teachers need to
consider performing not solely as a language instructor, but also as a motivator, a resource, and a feedback provider (Harmer, 2001). Firstly, Motivating students is essentially needed to be done by teachers in order to make students feel supported and encouraged in their learning process. Motivating students can be done by helping them to generate ideas through creating comfortable and right conditions, persuading them to do some helpful activities to their learning process, and encouraging them to make efforts as much as possible in order to reach the full benefit of their study. Secondly, students certainly need a lot of information and knowledge supply to their writing process. Therefore, teachers need to act as a resource by telling students that they are available and ready to see students’ work
Thirdly, teachers need to act as a feedback provider. It means that teachers are required to give feedback on students work in a positive and encouraging way. To be paid attention, they have to focus on students’ needs while giving feedback.
Teaching Strategy
Teaching strategy. To assist teachers in helping students on writing
process, creating an effective writing class through implementing some helpful strategies are needed to be done by teachers in teaching process. This is in line with Jose and Galang (2015) who argued that to create an effective class, teachers need to learn, adopt, and use strategies to their teaching process. Besides,
Kusuma, Yudana, and Marhaeni (2013) pointed out that teachers’ ability in
organizing the learning process has significant and positive contributions on students’ learning achievement in English subject. It shows that teachers need to
organize and implement some strategies that could be helpful to teaching process in order to get more leading progress and result.
Strategies in Teaching Academic Writing
Strategies in teaching academic writing. Due to the significance of using
teaching strategies, teaching academic writing also need to be integrated with some strategies that could be fruitful in achieving the learning objectives. Skilled teacher, including teachers who implement some helpful strategies in their
teaching process will facilitate students in improving learning strategies awareness and enable them to use a broader variety of some supportive learning strategies (Messaouda, 2014). Therefore, teachers need to use some supportive strategies in order to foster students’ learning progress and achieving the learning goals. In this
study, the researcher accentuates on focus on text and focus on process strategies in teaching academic writing.
Focus on text strategies. Coffin et al. (2003) suggested that in teaching
academic writing, teachers need to pay close attention to students’ knowledge on some linguistic features comprising text type, rhetorical convention, academic register, and linguistic accuracy.
Text type. This means that teachers are expected to give clear explanation on each text type basic structure and conventions since it will give clarity to students so they can truly understand on text type which they are going to write. This can be done by demonstrating text examples and asking students to practice writing whole texts or sections of texts.
using some logical reasoning, evidences since academic writing closely related to summarizing and synthesizing work of others. It means that teachers are required to make students become aware on how to reference others’ works properly.
Academic register. This means that teachers have to consider assisting students to become aware on academic register which includes a range of
linguistic aspects such as formality, sentence structure, specialist terminology, and the personal voice. Formality refers to the use of technical such as capitalization, punctuation, and formal language. Sentence structure relates to complex sentence structure which oftentimes unconsciously written by students and it has no good coherence and cohesion. Specialist terminology refers to preeminent vocabulary. The personal voice refers to the avoidance of using of personal voice such as I, we, you, me, my, our, and us. Also, it entails teachers to consider assisting students to be aware on using the appropriate transitional words or phrases and conjunctions since it closely relates to the movement of their writing structure.
Linguistic accuracy. Students whose first language (L1) background is not English frequently have difficulties in second language (L2) writing, especially on linguistic aspects such as grammar and spelling accuracy. Alternatively, in
teaching academic writing, teachers need to consider assisting students on both of them. Spelling and grammar accuracy are linguistic aspects which primarily important to be mastered by students to support their academic writing quality.
teachers to explain, discuss, demonstrate, and practice to and with students on some linguistic aspects such as text-type, rhetorical convention, academic register, and linguistic accuracy in order to catch students’ understanding and knowledge
on those linguistic aspects.
Focus on process strategies. Coffin et al. (2003) emphasized that focus on process strategies primarily point out on either what students do or the stages that are involved to students’ writing process. Those stages enclose prewriting,
planning, drafting, reflection, peer or tutor review, revision, editing and
proofreading. The fundamental principle of this strategy is an iterative process. As figure 2 shows, there might be recursive process in writing process before getting the final version of work such as planning, drafting, reviewing, and re-editing.
First, the stage is prewriting. Prewriting encompasses some activities such as generating ideas, understanding the ideas of others, and collecting information. Teachers can ask students to do note-taking, brainstorming and free writing which can help them to find ideas, collect information, and activate tacit knowledge.
Second, it is planning. This stage primarily focuses on organizing and focusing ideas. It comprises some techniques such as mind-mapping, clustering, listing, and outlining which are helpful to see a visual representation of ideas at the early stage of organizing. In this stage, teachers need to ask students to review the ideas resulting from prewriting then fitting it into the development of writing.
Third, it is drafting. In this stage, teachers need to ask students to develop a topic using ideas gathered in prewriting and planning stages. Topic development may involve narrowing down a broad focus, removing unnecessary information, or adding appropriate and supportive information. Students who write and re-draft their work tend to have less opportunity to do plagiarism since teachers have seen earlier versions of their work.
Fourth, the stage is reflection. This stage requires teachers to ask students to let their work sits after drafting before coming back to it with a fresh pair of eyes, and possibly with feedback from peers or teachers. Even without input from others, reflection time can allow students to analyze errors and mistakes
accurately on some academic writing conventions.
performance, but also to foster students’ critical thinking development and
awareness to L2 writing.
Sixth, the stage is revision. In response to peer or tutor review, teachers definitely need to ask students to refine their work based on feedback and suggestions given. It also enables students to develop and clarify the ideas, text structure, references, and others. This means that students can re-work for it so there will be less of errors and mistakes on their writing.
Seventh, the final stage of writing process includes editing, proofreading, and polishing a piece of work. In this stage, teachers need to remind students to fulfill the mechanics of writing including formatting, referencing, and issues of linguistic accuracy. Editing can be done in response to including research findings and re-building the ideas after getting feedback from peer or teacher. While proofreading and polishing a piece of work need to be done in order to check carefully for errors which may change the meaning or make the ideas difficult to be understood.
Another view that examine the importance of writing process instead the product comes from Nation (2009), he stated that one way of focusing on different aspects of writing is to look at writing as a process. As well, Nunan (1981)
routinely with effective activities also a better input to help students’ perform well in academic writing. To conclude, focus on process strategies require teachers to pay more attention on students’ writing process by involving some stages as mentioned early and those stages might be recursive depends on students’ needs.
Common Obstacles in Teaching Writing
Obstacles. Based on Oxford Dictionary (2008), obstacle is defined as
“something that stops progress or makes it difficult” (p. 301). Obstacles are
described as something that hinders progress or achievement (Merriam-Webster English Dictionary). Obstacles are also defined as something that blocks so it is difficult to getting movement, going forward, or increasing actions (Cambridge English Dictionary). Thus, it can be summarized that obstacles are things that impede in achieving the better progress, movement, or achievement.
Common obstacles in teaching academic writing. In line with the
definitions of obstacles in general as described above, common obstacles in teaching academic writing can be stated as common things that frequently
happened and it impedes to get better progress during teaching academic writing. Some experts pointed out some common faced obstacles namely obstacles on students’ linguistic development, the physical setting of English Language Teaching (ELT) class, and students’ linguistic needs’ diversity.
Students’ linguistic development. Bilal et al. (2013), Xiao (2007), Lai
(2010), Gilchrist and Brown (2011), and Fadda (2012) described that teachers commonly face some difficulties on students’ lack of linguistic competences
Second, Xiao (2007) highlighted some obstacles on students’ lack of using appropriate lexical expression and students’ ability in mechanics, grammar,
sentence structure, paragraph coherence, rhetorical patterns, revision, and academic writing requirements. Third, Lai (2010) defined some obstacles on students’ failure in delivering a clear focus of a paragraph, students’ ability to use
the language rules properly, and students’ limitation in expressing ideas and thought so they frequently write down their academic writing without giving attention on academic conventions. Fourth, Fadda (2012) highlighted some obstacles on students’ grammar mastery including on subject-verb agreement,
pronoun-antecedent agreement, and students’ skills in using appropriate vocabulary and phrases. Fifth, Gilchrist and Brown (2011) declared some
obstacles on students’ low writing skill, students’ limited skill in critical thinking,
and inadequate reading input and comprehension skills.
Big-sized class also tends to make teachers seem ignoring individual needs’
differences.
Students’ linguistic needs’ diversity. Another common obstacle which is
frequently faced by teachers in teaching academic writing is students’ linguistic
needs’ diversity (Olson and Land, 2007). Students’ linguistic needs’ diversity become a serious challenge for teachers since they need to deal with individual linguistic needs’ diversity. This challenge is certainly not an easy thing to do; teachers need to consider that each individual has her/his own capability and needs.
How to overcome the confronted obstacles
In response to some common obstacles that are commonly faced by teachers during teaching academic writing, some expert proposed some techniques such as giving feedback and involving brainstorming, free writing practice, quiz, and discussion to deal with those faced obstacles.
Giving feedback. There are some experts who argued that giving
feedback is one of promising techniques to deal with students’ lack of linguistic
competences. First, Bilal et al. (2013) explained that giving feedback can be one of techniques to do in order to deal with students’ lack of linguistic competences. Second, Xiao (2007) affirmed that facilitating students both inside and outside the classroom through providing feedback can help teachers to address students’
both of students’ weaknesses and students’ linguistic needs’ diversity in academic writing. Fifth, Giridharan (2012) also claimed that students essentially need teachers’ feedback since it is crucial for enhancing better content, structure, and
overall language proficiency.
Involving brainstorming, free writing practice, quiz, and discussion.
Bilal et al. (2013) proposed brainstorming, free writing practice, and either test or quiz as techniques that can be done to overcome students’ lack of linguistic
development. As well, they proposed discussion as a technique to engage classroom audience so an obstacle on overcrowded and noisy classrooms as a result of big-sized class can be handled. Besides, Fadda (2012) explained that asking students to do planning including brainstorming before writing an academic writing can help teachers in addressing both of students’ weaknesses
and students’ linguistic needs’ diversity in academic writing.
Review of Related Studies
Strategies in teaching academic writing have studied by a number of researchers. Therefore, the researcher reviews some related studies since it can support the discussions of this study. The summary of those studies are presented in order to highlight the findings and main points of it concisely.
Firstly, it discusses a review on a study entitled “The Effect of Using the Process Approach to Writing on Developing University Students’ Essay Writing
Skills” which conducted by Alodwan and Ibnian (2014). This study aims at
Islamic Sciences and Education University in Amman, Jordan. This study employed an experimental research method which involved an experimental group as a given treatment group and a control group which did not get any treatment. The experimental group was taught by process approach, while the control group was taught using conventional method. The instruments of this research were a checklist (to identify the essay writing skills needs) and a pre-post essay writing test and its scoring scale. Then, the score of the experimental and control group were compared in order to address the research issues. This research revealed that the use of process approach has positively influenced EFL university students’ essay writing skills.
Second, it discusses a review on a research entitled “Integrated Approaches to Improve Students Writing Skills for English Major Students”
which studied by Tangpermpoon (2008). This research aims at investigating the effectiveness of integrating product, genre, and process approaches to writing instructions on improving students’ writing competence. This research was
conducted at Department of English at Assumption University, Bangkok, Thailand. To answer the research problems, it adopted an experimental research method. The results of this research indicated that integrating more than one approach showed the superior impacts on students’ academic writing competence.
In summary, the researcher used those two previous related studies as the core knowledge in conducting this study. Those previous studies provided deeper information regarding their research focus and method. They focused on
examining the effect of using product, genre, and process approach to students’
study since the focus of strategies used is equal, there are genre and process approach. Focus on process strategies which mean in this study have the same concept and principles with process approach that is used in those two previous studies. While focus on text strategies which mean in this study not solely includes genre as the focused aspect like Tangpermpoon’s study, but it also focuses on the
rhetorical convention, academic register, and linguistic accuracy. This means, this study provides varying findings and broaden discussions.
Conceptual Framework
It has been mentioned previously that teaching academic writing
principally needs to be supported by some helpful strategies. This study aims at identifying some EED teachers of UMY strategies used and the obstacles faced together with the solutions in teaching academic writing. It emphasizes on focus on text and focus on process strategies that become the main references at obtaining and investigating the data of this study.
First, this study focuses on the concept of academic writing for teachers because it has close relation to the way they teach and deliver it to their students. Academic writing term in this study is defined as one of genres of writing which requires language learners to be able to compose a written language academically, correctly, and in line with its own requirements comprising some specific
Second, this study attempts to identify some EED teachers of UMY strategies in teaching academic writing. This study accentuates on focus on text and focus on process strategies. Focus on text strategies means that teachers need to pay close attention to students’ knowledge on some linguistic features
including text type, rhetorical convention, academic register, and linguistic accuracy. While focus on process strategies require teachers to focus on some stages in students’ writing process such as pre-writing, planning, drafting,
reviewing, and refinement. Either implementing one strategy or integrating those two strategies is perceived can help teachers to catch students’ weaknesses and meet students’ needs in academic writing.
Third, this study intends at investigating the obstacles faced by some EED teachers of UMY in teaching academic writing. The most common obstacles faced enclose three major problems namely on students’ linguistic development, students’ linguistic needs’ diversity, and the physical setting of ELT class. First, obstacles on students’ linguistic development refer to students’ lack of linguistic
competences. Second, an obstacle on students’ linguistic needs’ diversity refers to challenges that should be faced by teachers in order to deal with individual needs’ diversity. Third, an obstacle on the physical setting of ELT class refers to big-sized class that results an overcrowded and noisy classroom situation.
students’ lack of linguistic competences andstudents’ linguistic needs’ diversity,
while discussions benefit teachers to engage big-sized classroom audiences that are frequently too overcrowded and noisy.
Students’ knowledge
Focus on Text Strategies Focus on Process Strategies
Confronted Obstacles?
How to overcome those confronted obstacles Learning
Chapter Three
Methodology
This chapter discusses the description of methodology used to this study; which is presented in six parts namely research design, research setting and participant, research instruments, data collection procedures, data validity, and data analysis.
Research Design
This study employed qualitative research design. This study investigated the problems and phenomenon through exploring the participants’ experiences
and thoughts in in-depth interview. This is in line with Merriam (1998) who declared that qualitative research focuses on how participants interpret their experiences in order to address research issues and understand the phenomenon. Besides, Creswell (2012) stated that qualitative research method is best matched to address the research problems of the phenomenon. Creswell (2012) also identified that to address the research problems; it is actually needed to explore more detailed information from participants. This is in line with the nature of this study which investigated specific information on strategies in teaching academic writing such as opinions, behaviors, and social contexts of particular populations.
This study enclosed the participants’ perceptions, thoughts, and
Morrison (2007) who clarified that case study is appropriate to understand what is really happened in a particular situation since it can obtain the close up reality and thick description of participants’ lived experiences, thoughts, ideas, and feelings
for a particular situation. As well, Cohen, Manion, and Morrison (2007) stated that case study can provide a unique example of real people’ experiences and
thoughts in real situations so it enables readers to understand ideas more clearly.
This qualitative study focused on process, meaning, and understanding the phenomenon. Consequently, this case study was reported in a descriptive way in order to give clear explanation and understanding to readers on findings of the study. This is in line with Merriam (1998) which stated that most of the report of a qualitative study is elaborated totally in a description.
Research Setting and Participants
Setting. This study was conducted at English Education Department
(EED) of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY) in October of 2015 to June of 2016. There are three main reasons of choosing this department as the research setting of place. First, the problems encountered in the problem statement were found in this department. The researcher has been a student of this
discussions of this study. Third, both the researcher and participants is member of this department, therefore, this setting of place is accessible.
Participants. The participants of this study were thee EED teachers of
UMY. In determining the participants, the researcher believes that qualitative research does not depend on the quantity of the participants, but it tends to the quality of the participants which are chosen by purposive sampling technique. This sampling technique allows the researcher to gain the participants who have similar characteristics and compatible with the study in order to gather useful information (Creswell, 2012). Besides, Patton and Cochran (2002) confirmed that samples in qualitative research are usually purposive; this means that participants are selected because they are considered can generate useful data for the study.
In purposive sampling, the researcher needs to determine the selection criteria that indicate participants are truly proper to be studied (Merriam, 1998). The researcher has set up three main selection criteria of choosing participants. Firstly, the participants should be English teachers who had been teaching a writing-focused subject and had career experiences within not less than two years; it is considering that EED of UMY is the new department that established since 2010. Hence, by having varying participants with sufficient career experiences, the data gained become highly varied and suitable to this study. Secondly, the participants should be teachers who require their students to write academic writings such as essay and paper as the assignment of their writing class. Third, the participants should be teachers who are accessible and willing to talk, discuss, express and reflect their ideas, knowledge, experiences, and thoughts.
academic writing subject for 12 years and 5 years at EED of UMY. The first participant required students to produce an essay and some kinds of text such as argumentative, compare-contrast, and cause-effect. The second participant is female and she had been teaching academic writing subject for 3 years at EED of UMY. She required students to write an essay and some kinds of text such as argumentative, descriptive, and report. The third participant is male and he had the lowest experience, which are 2 years experiences in teaching academic writing subject at EED of UMY. He asked students to produce an essay. Therefore, those three teachers were taken as participants of this study since they firmly fulfilled the selection criteria.
To certify anonymity, the researcher changed the participants’ names into
pseudonym. The pseudonym was Ms.Kate for the first participant, Ms.Jane for the second participant, and Mr.George for the third participant. It was done to protect the participants’ privacy so they can give the information honestly. This is
clarified by Cohen, Manion, and Morrison (2007) who explained that in case study the researcher may include the anonymity to protect the participants.
Research Instrument
since it can present narrowing of events, feeling, persons, organizations, activities, motivations, concerns and claim. Also, the researcher used some helpful tools such as an interview guideline, a recorder (the researcher used a voice recorder in her mobile phone), a pen, and a notebook. Those are fruitful for the researcher since it can guide and record in-depth interview process, so the process of data analysis was easier and more accurate.
Since this study aims at identifying EED teachers of UMY strategies in teaching academic writing, data were collected via semi-structured in-depth interview. The researcher used open-ended questions in which the researcher determined and arranged the questions that are asked first in the interview
guideline. Additionally, during in-depth interview process, the researcher recorded it and asked some follow-up questions based on the participants’ answer and
responses. This was done to obtain and explore the deeper information, explanation, and description so that the research issues were addressed. As clarified by Creswell (2012), a qualitative interview arises when researchers interview one or more participants, use open-ended questions, and record participants’ answers.
Data Collection Procedures
The procedures in gathering data in this study are described in several steps. The first procedure was preparing the instruments. The second procedure was contacting the participants to get in touch. It was done by sending message via WhatsApp messenger to have a meeting with the participants directly in order to ask their permission and willingness. Afterwards, in the beginning of meeting, the researcher gave a description and an explanation about this study concept, so that the participants had sufficient information and description to decide whether to participate in this study or not. It is clarified by Cohen, Manion, and Morrison (2007) who declared that the interviewer needs to give a viewpoint of the
discussion before conducting the interview. Besides, it was done because the researcher needed to recruit the participants and have an agreement so both of them can make an appointment to conduct an interview based on each
participant’s availability.
Dealing with the appointment of the interview schedule, the following step was conducting one-on-one interview. One-on-one interview was employed as a type of interview as Creswell (2012) clarified that it is appropriate for
Data Analysis
After collecting data by conducting the in-depth interview, the following steps were transcribing the interview result, proving the data validity, and
analyzing the data. This stage aims to record, understand and interpret the data in order to address the research questions. This study employed those three steps in interpreting and concluding the gained data.
Transcribing the interview result. The first step was transcribing each
depth interview result from each participant. The researcher transcribed the in-depth interview result based on the interview recording. Words, phrases, and sentences spoken by participants were fully transcribed. Cohen, Manion, and Morrison (2011) stated that in order to present the interview result in detailed way, transcription is the ideal way since it can present essential word by word truthfully.
Proving data validity. After transcribing, the researcher came in to do
member checking. Member checking was employed in response to getting validity of the data gathered. Member checking is taking tentative interpretations of the collected data back to the participants who have interviewed in order to ask and assure them that the interview results are reasonable (Merriam, 1998). This means that member checking is used to clarify the interview result to the interviewee in order to ensure that there is no data manipulation and fabrication in this study. This is confirmed by Cresswell (2012) who explained that member checking is process to check the accuracy of the data in which the researcher asks and clarifies it to
the participants. Therefore, this process was done in order to prove the validity of
Analyzing the data. This study employed thematic analysis to examine
the data. Thematic analysis comprises three steps of coding. Coding is a process of interpreting, highlighting, and relating data and it includes the naming of concepts and also explaining and discussing them in more detailed way (Bhom, 2004). There are three types of coding that are partially considered as phases in analyzing data, namely open, axial, and selective coding (Corbin and Strauss, 1990). Firstly, the researcher used open coding to describe and interpret the pieces of text from the data in the interview transcripts. Secondly, to categorize the data, the researcher used axial coding. Categorizing data was to highlight and relate every point from open coding. Thirdly, the researcher identified the core
Chapter Four
Finding and Discussion
This fourth chapter describes the findings which are intended to answer the research questions of this study. The findings are presented based on data gathered from the in-depth interviews. This chapter also provides further discussions which relate the findings to some references which have elaborated in the literature review chapter. There are four major findings revealed from this study based on the research problems addressed. First, it provides the concept of academic writing which was proposed by some EED teachers of UMY. Second, it describes the strategies used by some EED teachers of UMY in teaching academic writing. Third, it reports the obstacles faced by some EED teachers of UMY. Fourth, it reports the solutions in overcoming the confronted obstacles in teaching academic writing. Those four major findings are reported elaborately in response to
answering the research problems.
The Concept of Academic Writing
To begin with, the researcher presents the concept of academic writing which was proposed by all of participants, in which they are Ms.Kate, Ms.Jane, and Mr.George. It was presented in the beginning of this finding chapter since it has close relation to the way they teach and deliver it to their students. Also, it was used to confirm that the concept proposed by both the researcher and
Ms.Kate, Ms.Jane, and Mr.George argued that academic writing is a genre of writing which has its own a set of requirements such as some specific linguistic principles, and it is also associated with some language features and knowledge such as vocabulary, spelling, and grammar. This finding is clarified by Oshima and Hogue (2007) and Bowker (2007) who defined academic writing as a special writing genre which has its own set of conventions. Here are the statements emerging from Ms.Kate, Ms.Jane, and Mr.George:
“Indeed, the focus [of the subject] is on writing skill, then, there is
academic term. So, I try to make the writings that will be produced by my students are academic, and academic itself implies that there are certain points that should be correct, that are in the grammar, structure, and meaning. So, the focus is on writing, which is how to make students be able to write academically, correctly, and appropriately” (Mr.George). “Indeed, academic writing is always lined by a lot of rules” (Ms.Kate).
“Moreover, this is academic writing, and it’s not a free writing. So, it
indicates that it has to have a clear topic sentence and has to be supported by supporting sentences” (Ms.Jane).
This finding is also supported by Whitaker (2009) who confirmed that academic writing has two main principles. First, it comprises the context of how the content of academic writing should be like. The first main principles
writing quality. The second main principles encompass four supporting ethics including audience engagement, effective use of research, correct APA style, and effective writing style.
To sum up, this finding showed that the concept of academic writing which was proposed by both the researcher and participants is same since it has deep relation with the concept that has reviewed in the second chapter. This means that the information on strategies in teaching academic writing that had gathered in the in-depth interviews is sufficient and appropriate to answer the research questions of this study.
Teachers’ Strategies in Teaching Academic Writing
The main issue that the researcher explored in this study is dealing with the discussion on strategies in teaching academic writing and it is limited to focus on text and focus on process strategies as proposed by Coffin et al. (2003).
Therefore, these second findings are divided into those two parts.
Focus on text strategies. This part explains the findings and discussions
that refer to teaching strategies used by some EED teachers of UMY in which it tends focusing on students’ awareness and understanding on some linguistic features including text type, rhetorical convention, academic register, and linguistic accuracy. Each linguistic feature is described as follow:
Text type. The interview result indicated that Ms.Kate and Ms.Jane focused on students’ knowledge on text type during teaching academic writing.
“So, in this class, the genres [text type] which are learned by students are
genres that require them to synthesize and analyze such as compare-contrast, cause-effect, and argumentative” (Ms.Kate).
“There is an argumentative writing, a descriptive writing, recount, report, and some kinds of that” (Ms.Jane).
Besides, Ms.Kate explained the benefit of introducing and discussing those kinds of text to their students. Here are her statements samples:
“I think those genres [compare-contrast, cause-effect, and argumentative]
can be used as a guide and basic knowledge when they [the students] write a skripsi later. Later, compare-contrast will be very fruitful even until they write a skripsi such as how they can compare theories. Then, cause-effect is for explaining cause-effect and identifying problems emerged from a case happened. Lastly, argumentative relates to how they can ensure that their idea is supported by theories; it closely refers to how they can express arguments properly and deal with pro and contra” (Ms.Kate).
understanding on text type basic structure, characteristics, as well as how to write it correctly. Here are the statements coming from them that refer to this finding:
“The process [of teaching text types] will be same [with teaching an
essay], which is starting from brainstorming, outlining, drafting, then, self-editing, peer-review, teacher-review, refinement, and then I will give score to their [the students] final draft” (Ms.Kate).
“There is group presentation, and after they present, there will be a
discussion such as asking and answering questions session. Then, from what have presented, they already knew the kind, structure and function of the text, because genre has its own structure and it is the important one. Afterwards, I will give the real example of the text and explain these sentences are part of bla bla bla, so these sentences are about bla bla bla [the structure and characteristics]. At the end, it is compared on the differences between the text and the text that had discussed before”
(Ms.Jane).
and suggestions constructively and tactfully. Here are the statements samples emerging from them that refer to this finding:
“Then, I will ask them to post [the text type writing] in Padlet so I can save their work and monitor their writing progress” (Ms.Kate).
“I have an online class, I give them link execute, link about text. For
instance, we [the teacher and the students] are learning a descriptive text, and then I’ll give them link, so that they can see the real example of the descriptive text” (Ms.Jane).
This finding showed that Ms.Kate and Ms.Jane used teaching strategies that tend to focus on students’ awareness and understanding on text type during
teaching academic writing since they assisted and facilitated their students to understand the structure, characteristics, as well as how to write the text type target correctly. Thus, it can be concluded that some EED teachers of UMY who had been teaching academic writing focused on text type.
Rhetorical convention. The interview result showed that Ms.Kate and
Ms.Jane used teaching strategies that tend focusing on rhetorical convention during teaching academic writing. This means that teachers consider assisting students to avoid plagiarism and supporting their ideas using some evidences and logical reasoning. The following statements indicate this finding:
“I always accentuate to students that you are not allowed to do plagiarism,
referencing. So, later, when they [the students] write an individual essay, I will ask them to include references” (Ms.Kate).
“Then, in relation to academic writing, about plagiarism, I also explain to them, at least they have to cite and include references” (Ms.Jane).
This finding is clarified by Coffin et al. (2003) who described that during teaching writing, teachers are required to guide students on referencing rules and supporting arguments. Those statements indicated that Ms.Kate and Ms.Jane used teaching strategies that tend focusing on students’ awareness and knowledge on
rhetorical convention since they asked their students to include references and avoid plagiarism. Hence, it clearly shows that some EED teachers of UMY who had been teaching academic writing focused on rhetorical convention.
Academic register and linguistic accuracy. The data gained indicated that
Ms.Kate, Ms.Jane, and Mr.George used teaching strategies that tend focusing on academic register and linguistic accuracy during teaching academic writing. This finding is supported by Coffin et al. (2003) who confirmed that teachers need to focus on academic register and linguistic accuracy while teaching academic writing. This means that they are required to focus on a range of linguistic aspects such as formality, sentence structure, specialist terminology, spelling and
“[Focusing on linguistic aspects] it’s something like ideas that have to be
mutually linked, and it closely relates to the appropriateness of the
conjunction used. Then, there is essay structure, the students have to aware on it, in which they have to begin with introduction which includes
introduction, attention driver, and thesis statement. Then, it also comprises how they develop idea to be in line with the topic sentence. It deals with how we [the teachers] make them [the students] aware on those rules”
(Ms.Kate).
“I see [the students’ writing] from the most basic ones of the academic
writing [requirements], those are capitalization, punctuation, and spelling, then, the coherence and cohesion of the content, I usually see the
conjunction and transition mark, for example, when they wanted to oppose but they used in addition, and it doesn’t match. I also see do the aspects in a paragraph is fulfilled? So, a paragraph should contain of a topic
sentence, supporting sentences, and conclusion. And I also see the grammar” (Ms.Jane).
“Those three points are the main problems. First, the appropriateness of
vocabulary used like it should be take medicine and not drink medicine. Second, the accuracy of grammar and the last one is the coherence and cohesion of the paragraph. So I cope to two different things, the first is grammar, and the second is how a paragraph is developed such as the structure, the meaning, as well as the coherence and cohesion”
