CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL REVIEW
A. Writing
1. Definition of Writing
There are many definitions of writing. Nugriyantoro (2010:422)states that writing is an activity representing a form of ability manifestation and the most recently skill which is mastered by students after listening, speaking, reading ability. Writing is an act of expressing feeling by combining word by word into a paragraph or text. Through writing people can express his or her ideas, thoughts, and experiences for specific purpose. According to Tarigan (1994), writing is an activity of expressing an idea, opinion, or thinking and feeling. Furthermore, writing is also the process and what the writers write is often heavily influenced by constraints of genre (Harmer, 2004:86).From the definitions above, it can be concluded that writing is an activity of expressing ideas into paragraph or text in written form and a means of communication in written form that is used to express the writer purpose.
2. Importance of Writing
Academically, writing is important for students. Harmer (2004:31-33) states that there are some importance of learning writing. They are:
a. Writing encourages students to focus on accurate language use and because they think as they write, it may provoke well development as they resolve problem which writing puts in their mind.
b. Writing is often used as a means of rein forcing language that has been thought. They use writing skill to make a note about what they have learnt while learning process happens.
c. Writing is frequently useful as preparation for some other activities. d. Writing can also, of course be used as an integral part of larger activity
where the focus is in something else such as language practice, acting out, or speaking.
e. Writing is also used in questionnaire test, in the examination, students have to answer in the form of written.
3. Elements in Writing Process
Learning is a process and writing is part of learning; therefore there is process of writing. When the writer wants to make a draft, they should do some steps in, so that they will reach the goal to produce the final draft.
According to Harmer, (2004:4-6) in his book entitled “How to Teach Writing” writing has four steps as follow:
a. Planning
1) The purpose of their writing skill since this will influence not only the type of the text they wish to produce, but also the language they use, and the information they choose.
2) The writer may not only think about the shape of the writing, but also the choice of language.
3) The writers have to consider the content structure of the piece that how is best to sequence the facts, idea, or arguments which have been decided to include.
b. Drafting
The first version of a piece of writing is a draft. This first „go‟ at the text is often done in on the assumption that it will be amanded later. As the writer proceeds into editing, a number of drafts may be produced on the way to the final version.
c. Editing
After the writer has produced the draft, they usually read the result of the draft in order to see where it works and to find out something which is ambiguous and confusing. Editing is also a process where the writer looks for some errors in the writing.
Reflecting and revising are often helped by the readers for editors who give comment and make suggestions. The reader‟s reaction to a piece of writing will help the writer to make appropriate revisions. d. Final version
original plan and the first draft, because things have changed in the editing process. The process wheel below clearly shows the directions that the writer can take.
4. Aspect of Writing
Writing skill is an essential part of communication. Good writing skills allow people to communicate their messages with clarity and ease to a far larger audience that through face-to-face or telephone conversations. According to Hughes (1982: 91-93), writing skill is complex and difficult to teach since in this case writing does not only mean putting down graphic form on a piece of paper. It involves at least five elements, they are:
1) Grammar
Grammar means how sentences are written appropriately,so they can work properly.
2) Vocabulary
Vocabulary means the writer should choose appropriate words and arrange the words into paragraph. Appropriateness in choosing and using vocabulary in each sentence is an important thing in writing. It will give clear meaning for the readers if the vocabulary which is used and chosen is appropriate.
3) Mechanic
Mechanic is how students write. Teacher has to consider the way the students write related to some rules of writing. Whether they have to be correct in punctuation,and the words are correctly spelled. For instance: the use of capital letter in the beginning of name of the city, month, person, etc.
4) Fluency
Fluency of writing deals with the students‟ ability in writing the
content. A good writing should be clear and relevant. 5) Form
Form means how the paragraphs are arranged well to be a good text and they have to be coherent.
In this research, those aspects are used to evaluate students‟
writing. In addition, the students‟ writing is evaluated through portfolio assessment.
5. Writing Assessment
writing. The most common method is to use some sort rubric. Items on the rubric range from statemandated writing standards to individual item specific to an assignment.Otherforms of writing assignment use checklist or rating scales.
A rubric is a rating system which teachers can determine the level of proficiency. The student is able to perform a task or displays knowledge of a concept (Bryant and Timmins, 2002:47). With rubrics, an individual can define the different levels of proficiency for each criterion.When grading papers, writing teachers sometimes assign points for each writing skill. They often use rubrics to assess the students‟ achievement.
B. Assessment
1. The Definition of Assessment
Bachman (2004) in Ketabi (2014) defined assessment as a process of collecting information about something interesting, according to procedures that are systematic and substantially grounded. Assessment is an integral part of the school curriculum. The feedback of assessment should be effectively used to improve teaching and learning. (Bryan, L. Sharon&Timmins, A.A, 2002: pp.5). It can be concluded that assessment is the process of gathering and discussing information about educational programs for the purpose of improving students learning and development.
2. The Importance of Assessment
Assessment can promote students autonomy by encouraging students‟ self
evaluation of their progress (Brown:2004 ). Ewell and Boyer (1989, in Walker 1999) find that assessment in higher education is important because it can provide institutions with feedback to improve and develop, termed “formative,” a student, a program, or a department. Assessment also helps
institutions with accountability, termed “summative,” to stake holders, student placement, or faculty promotion. As Davis (1989) note “... institutions
undertake assessments to improve what they are doing (formative) or to make decisions about resources, institutions programs, faculty, or students (summative)”.
C. Portfolio Assessment
1. Definition of Portfolio Assessment
The concept of portfolio assessment has been common as an alternative option the traditional assessment methods. A portfolio assessment is a collection for students work gathered for a particular purpose that exhibits to the students and others the student‟s efforts, progress or
achievement in one or more areas (Burke, 2005:56). Moreover, Yang (2003) in Nezakatgoo (2010) defined portfolio as a complication of students‟ work, which documents their effort, progress and achievement in their learning, and their reflection on the materials negotiated for the portfolio. While, Popham(1995) states that a portfolio assessment is systematic collection of students‟ work. Winsor and Ellefson (1995) in Karadeniz(2007), who stress in the learning process and learning product, define that “portfolio is a fusion
Nezakatgoo (2010) defines portfolio as a cumulative collection of work that students have done. In other words portfolios show students‟ work
from the beginning of the term to the end. They give both teacher and student a chance to evaluate how much thestudents‟ writing has progressed. In general students benefit the most when they receive feedback while they are still working on a paper rather than the grade has been given. In line with the definition above, it can be concluded that portfolio assessment isa systematic collection of students‟ work which documents their effort, progress and
achievement in their learning through feedback and evaluation.
2. The Advantages of Portfolio Assessment
There are some advantages in applying portfolio assessment suggested by Barnhardt, kevorkian and Delett (1998) (as cited in Raksasataya, 2006, p.25); Karadeniz (2007). They are presented as follows: a. Portfolio assessment provides ongoing rather than one-shot data to inform
instruction.
b. It reduces „examination stress‟ c. It enhances students motivation
d. It provides authentic materials as a basis for diagnosis and for reflection e. It gives some control of assessment to the students
f. It gives teachers an increased ability to identify special needs.
g. It allows students to express themselves in a compofortable way and to assess their own learning and growth as learners.
3. The Kinds of Portfolio
There is no absolute description and content for portfolios. The kinds of portfolios are varied depending on their purpose and collected item. Therefore, many researchers define different kinds of portfolio.
According to Haladyn (1997) in Karadeniz (2007), there are five kinds of portfolios, ideal, showcase, documentation, evaluation and class portfolio.
a. Ideal Portfolio
Ideal portfolio contains all the students‟ work. It is not given to students a
grade. Thus, it is important for the students to assess their own portfolio. b. Showcase Portfolio
Showcase portfolio includes only the students‟ best works. It is important for students to select their own works and evaluate theirs works.
c. Documentation Portfolio
It deals with a collection of work over time showing growth and improvement reflecting students‟ learning of idential outcomes.
d. Evaluation Portfolio
It is a standardized collection students‟ work and could be determined by
the teacher or, in some cases by the student. e. Class Portfolio
Classroom portfolio relates to the students grade, teacher‟s view and
4. Principle Uderpinning Portfolio Use
According to Bryant, Sharon.L& Timmins, A.A , 2002 : 10, there are 10 powerful principles that the teacher should know before implementing portfolio assessment. The 10 powerful principles are follows:
1) Teacher and administrators must plan for and be trained in the portfolio approach to assessment.
2) Sufficient resources of time and energy must to be allocated to support portfolio assessment
3) Teacher must work as a team to plan for the implementation of portfolio assessment.
4) Parents and the public need to understand portfolio assessment. 5) The teachers‟ role is vital as a facilitator of the portfolio assessment. 6) Documentation of the processes and students achievements, as well as of
the analyses of teaching and learning experiences is critical.
7) Portfolio assessment is a developmental process for both teacher and students.
8) Portfolio assessment provides a new perspective on learning for both teacher and students.
9) Self- evaluation of learning is an integral part of the portfolio process. 10)Collecting, selecting and reflecting on work is central to be portfolio
process.
5. Implementing Portfolio Assessment in Writing
to combine several purposes to meet the needs of the students or school. In this research, portfolio assessment is used to assess students writing.Portfolio assessment can include materials such as tests, test scores, and written exercises from the students. Writing essay and writing text can be used to improve student in writing, students can understand about generic structure essay writing and writing text, and then assess by applying portfolio.
Portfolio is used as an alternative assessment in essay writing and writing text. Teacher can begin the lesson by telling the students about how to make good paragraphs and make it in essay and then the teacher gives examples of the text. After the teacher gives the example to the students, she/he discusses the material. For the students‟ work, the teacher asks
D. Basic Assumption
Writing is the process to get ideas and to think the way to express the words into good sentences or paragraph, so the readers understand the purpose of the writing. To be able to produce good writing the students have to get good ideas, the teacher needs suitable media to motivate them in learning English. Not only using media, the teacher can also use portfolio assessment to improve students writing. By assessing students‟ writing, they will get feedback so they
can evaluate theirwork. Focusing on writing as a process and using portfolio as a assessment method in writing gives the students the confidence to continue to write and continue to develop their skills and overcome their problem in writing.
E. Hypothesis
Based on the basic assumption above the writer assumes that portfolio assessment is effective to assess students‟ writing. This consideration comes from
