AN ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES IN WRITING RECOUNT TEXT BY USING SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR
A Research Paper
Submitted to the English Education Department of FPBS UPI in a Partial
Fulfillment of the Requirements for Sarjana Sastra Degree
Iin Nurohmah
0704469
ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION
INDONESIA UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION
An Analysis of Students’ Recount
Text by Using Systemic Functional
Grammar
Oleh
Iin Nurohmah
Sebuah skripsi yang diajukan untuk memenuhi salah satu syarat memperoleh gelar Sarjana pada Fakultas Pendidikan Bahasa dan Seni
© Iin Nurohmah 2013
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia
Februari 2013
Hak Cipta dilindungi undang-undang.
Skripsi ini tidak boleh diperbanyak seluruhya atau sebagian,
PAGE OF APPROVAL
AN ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS’ RECOUNT TEXT BY USING SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR
By:
Iin Nurohmah
Approved by:
Main Supervisor Co-Supevisor
Dra. Sri Setyarini, M.A Sri Harto, M.Pd
NIP 19631229 199002 2 001 NIP 19720501 200604 1 004
The Head of English Education Department
Faculty of Language and Arts Education
Indonesia University of Education
Prof. Dr. Didi Suherdi, M.ed
ABSTRACT
The present study entitled An Analysis of Students’ Recount Text by Using
Systemic Functional Grammar aims at investigating students’ writing Recount text by identifying schematic structure and linguistic features of the text. The data resources were six pieces of Recount text written by the eighth semester students of English Department who were treated as respondents. To analyze the texts,
transitivity of functional grammar developed by Halliday (1994) was applied to
identify the linguistic features of the texts. Meanwhile, the schematic structure of Recount is adopted from Anderson and Anderson (2003) which was used to analyze the schematic structure of the text. The findings show that most students seemed to be able to apply the schematic structure of Recount because they put the schematic structure correctly in different paragraphs. However there was still one student (the writer of text 6) who put the schematic structure in one paragraph only. Dealing with the linguistic features, most students likely found problems in differentiating between the use of simple present tense, past tense, prepositional
phrases, regular and irregular verbs. Therefore, it is recommended for the
ABSTRAK
Penelitian ini berjudul An Analisis of Students 'Recount Text by Using Systemic
Functiona Grammar bertujuan menyelidiki teks Recount yang ditulis oleh siswa
TABLE OF CONTENTS
STATEMENT OF AUTHORIZATION ... ii
ABSTRACT ... iii
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ……….….…………...1
1.1 Background of the Study ... 1
1.2 Research Questions ... 2
1.3 Purpose of the Study ... 2
1.4 Scope of the Study ... 3
1.5 Significance of the Study ... 3
1.5.1 Theoretical Benefits ... 3
1.5.2 Practical Benefits ... 3
1.6 Clarification of Terms ... 4
1.7 Paper Organization ... 4
CHAPTER II THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK …………...……….……...6
2.1 Value of Writing ... 6
2.2 Recount ... 7
2.2.1 Definition of Recount ... 7
2.2.3 Types of Recount ... 8
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ………....…………..27
3.1 Research Questions ... 27
3.2 Research Method ... 27
3.3 Research Site ... 28
3.5 Data Collection... 29
3.6. Data Analysis ... 29
CHAPTER IV FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ……….………...… 31
4.1 Schematic Structure of Students’ Texts ... 31
4.2 Linguistic Features of Recount Texts ... 32
4.3 Analysis of Students’ Text ... 36
4.4 Interview with the Students ... 44
CHAPTER VCONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS ………...49
5.1 Conclusions ... 49
5.2 Suggestions ... 50
1
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
This chapter presents the background of the study. A brief explanation of
the issues and the aspects related to the discussion are also included.
1.1 Background of the Study
Writing is one of the basic skills which must be mastered by students of
English Department in Indonesia University of Education. One of writing texts
which must be produced by students is Recount.
In a Recount text, the students must retell the sequence of events or
experiences which they have ever got in the past (Nafisah and Kurniawan,
2007:65). Similarly, Derewianka (2004:8) defines “Recount is the unfolding
sequence of events over time”. Retelling past event intends to entertain or inform
others what happened and when it happened (Gerot and Wignell 1995:194). It
means that the students are expected to be able to write their past experience by
learning Recount. It can be their personal diaries, letters, and biographies.
Even though Recount texts had been studied since junior high school,
sometimes the students had problems in writing the Recount texts. It can be seen
from Jaelani’s research which showed that many students faced problems in
writing Recount text. They often created ungrammatical structure in their text.
Therefore, the researcher investigates students’ writing by analyzing
2
by doing this research can identify what influences the students’ problems in
writing.
The research is focused on analyzing Recount texts written by the eighth
semester students of English Department. Students’ Recount texts were
investigated by analyzing the schematic structures and the linguistic features of
the Recount texts. In this case, the linguistic features of Recount texts were
analyzed by using transitivity of Functional Grammar developed by Halliday
(1994). Meanwhile, the structure of the texts was analyzed based on the schematic
structures of the Recount texts as suggested by Anderson and Anderson
(2003:50). The research is expected to increase and enrich students’ knowledge in
writing so that they can write English well.
1.2 Research Questions
The problems to be investigated are formulated in the following questions:
1. How are the students’ Recount texts structured?
2. What are the linguistic features found in the students’ Recount texts?
1.3 Purpose of the Study
The purpose of the research is to investigate students’ writing by analyzing
3
1.4 Scope of the Study
The research is focused on the students’ texts by analyzing the schematic
structures and the linguistic features of the texts. In analyzing the texts, the
researcher employs transitivity of Systematic Functional Grammar which is
developed by Halliday (1994). The reason for selecting transitivity is that
transitivity can discover the linguistic features of a certain text. In this case, the
transitivity system is used to uncover the linguistic features of the Recount texts.
The structure of the texts is analyzed by using the schematic structure of Recount
as suggested by Anderson and Anderson (2003:50), and Emilia (2008:17).
1.5 Significance of the Study
The research is expected to have some contributions both in theory and in
practice.
1.5.1 Theoretical Benefits
The research is valuable for the next researchers who are interested in
analyzing Recount by applying Systemic Functional Grammar. The research is
expected to be an additional source for the next researchers.
1.5.2 Practical Benefits
First, hopefully the research can improve researcher’s knowledge in
mastering English. Second, the findings of the research are expected to be
references for the students of English Department to improve their writing skill
4
1.6 Clarification of Terms
The following terms are provided in order to avoid misunderstanding of the
terms presented in the research.
1. Writing : Written works of an author (oxford dictionary,
2008:516)
2. Recount : “A piece of text that retells past events, usually in the
order in which they happened” (Anderson and
Anderson 2003:48).
3. Functional Grammar : Functional Grammar is Halliday’s theory which sees
language as resource for making meaning (Gerot and
Wignell, 1995:6).
1.7 Paper Organization
The research consists of five chapters. Chapter I is introduction which
consists of the background, research questions, the purpose of the study, scope of
the study, significance of the study, clarification of terms, and organization of the
paper.
Chapter II is theoretical foundation. It consists of theories which relate to
the topics that are investigated by the researcher, such as values of writing,
definition of Recount, the purpose of Recount, types of Recount, linguistic
features and schematic structure of Recount. This chapter also consists of a brief
5
Chapter III explains about research methodology. This chapter explains
how the data are collected. It consists of research questions, research method,
research site, participants, data collection and data analysis.
Chapter IV discusses how the data is obtained and related to the findings. It
is also provided how the data are analyzed.
Chapter V is conclusions and suggestions. The last chapter summarizes
what has been discussed from previous chapters. This chapter is provided with
27
CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This chapter presents and discusses some aspects of the research
methodology. This chapter consists of the ways in carrying out the research, such
as research questions, research method, research site, participants, data collection,
and data analysis.
3.1 Research Questions
The problems to be investigated are formulated in the following questions:
1 How are the students’ Recount texts structured?
2 What are the linguistic features found in the students’ Recount texts?
3.2 Research Method
In collecting the data, a descriptive qualitative method was used by the
researcher. The reasons to use this method were as follow: First, the data
resources of the research is in the form of written texts rather than number
Rudestam & Newton (Emilia 2008:253), Bogdan and Biklen (Sugiyono, 2008:20).
It means that the data which were collected from the students were in the form of
students’ texts.
The last reason was that the researcher reported the data in a detailed
description. This type o data were usually analyzed qualitatively as suggested by
28
3.3 Research Site
The research was conducted in English Department. There were several
reasons for choosing this university to be the research site. Firstly, the location is
close to the researcher’s place. Therefore it can be reached easily by the
researcher. Secondly, the researcher is one of English Department students at the
university. Thus, the researcher has been familiar with the respondents. For those
reasons, it is expected that the research can be done in this setting.
3.4 Respondents
The respondents of the research were the eighth semester students of
English Department at the Indonesia University of Education. The reason of
choosing eight semester students was that they had done all of writing courses,
such as Writing for General Communication, Writing in Professional Context, and
Writing for Academic Purposes. Therefore, the researcher assumed that the
students could write the Recount text easily. Another reason is the researcher has
been familiar with the students.
The populations of the research were 37 students. However, the researcher
took six students to be samples.
The technique of sampling that was used in the research was purposive
sampling. According to Sugiyono (2008:226) purposive sampling is usually used
by qualitative research.
Based on a brief explanation above, the researcher chose six participants
29
with high grade point average, 2 students with middle grade point average, and 2
students with low Grade Point Average (GPA) in the class.
3.5 Data Collection
As explained briefly before, the data of the research were collected by
collecting the students’ Recount texts. The data were collected in June 2011.
3.6. Data Analysis
This step describes characters who involved in, what, why, where, and when it
happened.
2. Record of Events
In the second stage, the writer retells the sequence of events. Events were
described in series by using temporal and additive conjunction to connect it.
3. Re-orientation
The writer gives comments on the whole of events. All the stages were
described in the following table below.
The second step, the linguistic features that were found in students’ texts were
30
and Wignell (1995:194). It includes specific participants, circumstance of time
and place, use of first person, additive conjunction, material process, and past
49
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
After conducting the research, doing analysis of the texts and discussing
the results, this chapter presents the conclusions of the research and offers some
suggestions.
This chapter is divided into two parts. The first part, the research draws the
conclusions about some schematic structures and linguistic features that were
found in students’ Recount text. The second part contains suggestions for the
students and future researchers in the same area.
5.1 Conclusions
Based on the data analysis in the previous chapter, it reveals that most of
the students (the writer of text 1-5) used the schematic structure of Recount in
their texts correctly. It consists of orientation, sequence of events, and
reorientation written in different paragraphs as suggested by Anderson and
Anderson (2003:50). However, one student (the writer of text 6) still put the
schematic structure of Recount in one paragraph only.
Dealing with the linguistic features, all students applied the linguistic
features in their texts including the use of specific participants, circumstance of
time and place, first person, additive conjunction, material process, and past
tense. Unfortunately, there were ungrammatical structures (errors) found in
students’ texts. They cannot differentiate between the use of simple present, past
50
structures that were found in students’ Recount text are caused by knowledge
deficiency (Richard, 1971:174). It was found because they may have lack of
practice and knowledge about English grammar which is different from grammar
of their first (native) language. Therefore, they are confused about to use grammar
correctly.
5.2 Suggestions
Based on the conclusions of the research, the writer has some suggestions
as follow: firstly, the lecturer who teaches writing subject should give feedback to
the students to revise their writing. Secondly, the students should be given more
time to practice their writing both inside and outside the class. The third, the
students should improve their grammatical knowledge in order to write the texts
51
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