Teacher’s Approaches to Teaching Writing and its Portrayal in Students’ Written Texts : A Case Study at a Junior High School in Kabupaten Bekasi.

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Lutfah Sari Wulan, 2014

Teacher’s Approaches to Teaching Writingand its Portrayal in Students’ Written Texts

Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu

Teacher’

s Approaches to Teaching Writing

and its Portrayal i

n Students’ Written Texts

(A Case Study at a Junior High School in Kabupaten Bekasi)

A Thesis

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Master‘s Degree in English Education

Lutfah Sari Wulan 1204673

ENGLISH EDUCATION PROGRAM

SCHOOL OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES

INDONESIA UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION

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Teacher’

s Approaches to Teaching Writing

and its Portrayal i

n Students’ Written Texts

(A Case Study at a Junior High School in Kabupaten Bekasi)

Oleh Lutfah Sari Wulan

S.S UPI Bandung, 2006

Sebuah Tesis yang diajukan untuk memenuhi salah satu syarat memperoleh gelar Magister Pendidikan (M. Pd.) pada Sekolah Pasca Sarjana

Juni 2014

Hak Cipta dilindungi undang-undang

Tesis ini tidak boleh diperbanyak seluruhnya atau sebagian,

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Page of Approval

TEACHER’S APPROACHES TO TEACHING WRITING AND ITS PORTRAYAL IN STUDENTS’ WRITTEN TEXTS

(A Case Study at a Junior High School in Kabupaten Bekasi)

By:

Lutfah Sari Wulan 1204673

Approved by: Main Supervisor

Iwa Lukmana, M.A., Ph.D. NIP: 19661127 199303 1 002

Co-Supervisor

Prof. Emi Emilia, M.Ed., Ph.D. NIP: 19660916 199001 2 001

The Head of English Education Program School of Postgraduate Studies Indonesia University of Education

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STATEMENT

I hereby certify this research paper entitled Teacher’s Approaches to

Teaching Writing and its Portrayal in Students’ Written Texts (A Case Study at a

Junior High School in Kabupaten Bekasi) comprises only my original works. It

contains no materials, which has been submitted for the award of any other

master’s degree at any university except where due reference or acknowledgement

is made in the text.

……….………

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ABSTRACT

This paper reports on a teacher’s implementation of approaches to teaching writing and its portrayal in students’ written texts at a Junior High School in Kabupaten Bekasi. The issue was selected as up to now writing is still considered the most difficult skill to be acquired and to be taught compared to other language skills (Byrne, 1988: 3). This study was distinctive in that it sought to specifically discuss the portrayal of the approaches to teaching writing in the students’ written texts in Junior High School level. This study was also distinctive as it considered the possibility of the emergence of more than one approaches’ characteristics in the classroom practices. The study employed a qualitative research design, embracing characteristics of a case study. The data were obtained from six classroom observations in three different classes, interview with the English teacher, and collection of students’ written texts, which were then analyzed using systemic functional grammar (SFG) developed by Halliday (1994). The findings revealed that the teacher’s teaching of writing is relevant to the characteristics of two approaches, i.e. product approach and genre-based approach (GBA). Characteristics of product approach can be traced from classroom activities in one class considered low by the teacher. On the other hand, characteristics of GBA can be traced from classroom activities in two other classes considered mid and high by the teacher. However, the findings also show that there are some points in the stages of teaching which are not implemented appropriately due to her lack of information about those approaches. These appeared in a variety of weaknesses found in the students’ texts. The texts produced in classroom activities indicating product approach tend to be more similar to the model text and shorter or the ideas are underdeveloped indicating that the students’ critical thinking are not developed. The texts produced in classroom activities indicating GBA, on the other hand, tend to be more developed though some inappropriate grammar and expressions can still be found. Thus, it can be inferred that the students’ texts produced in classroom activities indicating GBA are better than those produced in the product approach in terms of idea or critical thinking development, lexico-grammar of the texts, and the fulfillment of the purpose of the texts. In other words, GBA has better potential to help students in writing better texts. Based on these findings, it is recommended that GBA be implemented in the teaching and learning process. Thus, appropriate workshop or training about this approach should be conducted more intensively to provide English teachers with a proper understanding of the basic concepts of GBA and its practical concerns which will lead to the improvement of their students’ writing skill.

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ABSTRAK

Karya tulis ini melaporkan implementasi pendekatan-pendekatan dalam pengajaran menulis dan penggambarannya dalam hasil tulisan siswa di sebuah Sekolah Menengah Pertama di Kabupaten Bekasi. Isu ini dipilih karena hingga saat ini menulis masih dianggap keahlian yang paling sulit dipelajari dan diajarkan dibandingkan keahlian bahasa lainnya (Byrne, 1988: 3). Penelitian ini berbeda karena secara khusus membahas penggambaran pendekatan-pendekatan dalam pengajaran menulis terhadap hasil tulisan siswa di tingkat SMP. Selain itu, penelitian ini juga mempertimbangkan adanya kemungkinan akan munculnya ciri-ciri pendekatan yang berbeda dalam praktek di kelas. Penelitian ini menggunakan desain penelitian kualitatif yang mencakup karakteristik suatu studi kasus. Data yang digunakan diperoleh dari observasi kelas sebanyak enam kali di tiga kelas berbeda, interview dengan guru Bahasa Inggris, dan koleksi hasil tulisan siswa, yang kemudian dianalisis menggunakan systemic functional grammar (SFG) yang dikembangkan oleh Halliday (1994). Hasil penelitian mengungkapkan bahwa pengajaran menulis yang dilakukan oleh guru yang diteliti relevan dengan ciri-ciri dari dua pendekatan yang berbeda, yaitu pendekatan produk dan pendekatan berbasis genre (GBA). Ciri-ciri dari pendekatan produk muncul dalam kegiatan belajar mengajar (KBM) di satu kelas yang kemampuan siswanya dianggap kurang oleh gurunya. Sedangkan ciri-ciri GBA muncul dalam KBM di dua kelas lainnya yang kemampuan siswanya dianggap cukup baik. Akan tetapi, hasil penelitian juga menunjukkan bahwa ada beberapa poin dalam tahapan-tahapan pengajaran yang tidak sesuai dengan yang seharusnya diakibatkan kurangnya pengetahuan guru tersebut tentang pendekatan-pendekatan yang ada. Ketidaksesuaian ini tergambar dalam berbagai kesalahan yang terdapat dalam hasil tulisan siswa. Hasil tulisan siswa yang dibuat dalam KBM yang mengindikasikan pendekatan produk cenderung lebih menyerupai contoh teks dan lebih pendek atau idenya tidak berkembang yang juga mengindikasikan cara berpikir kritis siswanya pun tidak berkembang. Sebaliknya, hasil tulisan siswa yang dibuat dalam KBM yang mengindikasikan GBA cenderung lebih berkembang meskipun masih terdapat kesalahan

grammar dan ungkapan. Oleh karena itu, dapat diambil kesimpulan bahwa hasil tulisan siswa yang dibuat dalam KBM yang mengindikasikan GBA lebih baik dibandingkan yang dibuat dalam KBM yang mengindikasikan pendekatan produk dalam hal idea atau perkembangan berpikir kritisnya, lexico-grammarnya, dan pemenuhan fungsi sosialnya. Dengan kata lain, GBA lebih berpotensi untuk mempermudah siswa dalam menghasilkan tulisan yang lebih baik pula. Berdasarkan hasil penelitian tersebut, disarankan agar GBA diterapkan dalam KBM. Oleh karena itu, workshop atau pelatihan yang sesuai tentang pendekatan ini sebaiknya diadakan lebih intensif untuk memberikan pemahaman yang baik terhadap guru tentang konsep dasar GBA dan prakteknya di kelas yang akan mengarah pada peningkatan keahlian menulis siswa.

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Teacher’s Approaches to Teaching Writing and its Portrayal in Students’ Written Texts Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY

This chapter elaborates the way or the procedure of carrying out the study. The

chapter will also give a brief elaboration about the procedure of analyzing and

interpreting the data into meaningful findings. The chapter will also give a brief

explanation of Functional Grammar as the tool used to analyze the data from

students’ text collection.

3.1 Research Design

This study is qualitative in nature as it tries to provide a systematic description or

information of a situation or condition of a phenomenon as factual and accurate as

possible without manipulating or interfering with the phenomenon observed. As

Silverman (2005: 6) suggests, “when we are concerned with exploring people’s life

histories or everyday behavior, a qualitative design should be used”. This is relevant

to the study which is also concerned with exploring people’s everyday behavior

concerning the implementation of approaches to teaching writing in classroom

practices and how it is portrayed in students’ written texts.

Case study was chosen as this study focuses on “one particular instance of

educational experience or practice” (Freebody, 2003 in Emilia, 2005: 74) and it “seeks to understand and interpret the world in terms of its actors and consequently may be described as interpretative and subjective” (Cohen et al., 2007: 181). Besides,

this study also provides a unique example of real people in real situations, penetrate

situations that are not always susceptible to numerical analysis, and establish cause

and effect in real situations (Cohen et al., 2007: 182).

3.2 Setting

The research was undertaken at a Junior High School in Kabupaten Bekasi from

October to December 2013. The school has nine classes for each grade in which six

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three classes of grade nine. However, it was only the three classes of grade eight

being observed in this study as there was different teaching program for grade nine

during the research was being conducted.

This research site was chosen for several reasons. First of all, having been a

teaching member in the school for about three years, it is hoped the research site can

be accessed easily so the feasibility of the study can be increased too. Besides, the

familiar situation in the research site is expected to lead to a more natural conduct of

research, in the context that normally occurs. Thus, this aimed at avoiding the

teacher’s and the students’ unnatural behavior performance, despite their awareness of the study.

The second reason is related to the school’s status as an ex-RSBI school in that area. As an ex-RSBI school, the research site is still considered as a favorite school in

that area. Having this expectation, the teachers teaching in this school, including the

English teachers, are also expected to have better knowledge and proficiency,

especially those relate to current practices in teaching English including approaches

to teaching writing, compared to other state schools.

3.3 Participants

The participants of this study were one of the English teachers in the research site

and students from three classes of grade eight taught by the teacher. The teacher was

chosen as she was the only one who voluntarily participated in the study after being

given information on the nature of the study and what was expected of her. However,

this becomes one of the limitations of the study as first, there is no comparison of her

teaching of writing with other English teachers in the school and second, the data

from students’ written texts in particular do not cover all students of grade 8 in the

school.

3.4 Data Collection

This study employed three data collection techniques: observation, interview, and

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3.4.1 Observation

Observation was aimed at getting to know firsthand information about social

processes in a naturally occurring context (see Silverman, 2005; Cresswell, 2008:

221). Thus, the observation in this study was carried out to get direct and actual

information about the teacher’s use of approaches to teaching writing.

The observation in this study was a non-participant observation. This kind of

observation has vast opportunity to record information as it occurs in a research site

though it has limited access to a research site and situations taking place there

(Cresswell, 2008: 218). Besides, “unusual aspects will be able to be noticed during

observations” (Cohen et al., 2007: 234).

The observations were conducted six times and, as already mentioned earlier,

there were only three classes of grade 8 being observed due to the limitation of

teaching learning activities in the research site. Most of the classroom sessions were

video-taped in case some supportive features gone unnoticed by the observation. One

of them was failed to be video-taped due to the misused of the device. These

videotaped lessons were then labeled to make it easier to find them in the future when

the data are analyzed (see Appendices 1.1 and 1.2 for the samples of the transcription

data from the videotaped lessons).

In the observation, some notes were taken focusing on what are said and done by

both the English teacher and the students (see Appendices 1.3 and 1.4). This taking

note activity was used to identify the stages of teaching writing done by the teacher

and characteristics of her teaching of writing in classroom practices.

3.4.2 Interview

Another source of data is interview with the participant, in this case the teacher.

An interview has been defined as “an interaction between two people, with the

interviewer and the subject acting in relation to each other and reciprocally

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teacher to bring to consciousness her implementation of approaches to teaching

writing during the observation sessions and what considerations she made in

assessing the students’ work. Through this activity, the accuracy of the impressions

gained through observations and text analyses can be checked – verified or refuted

(Fraenkel & Wallen, 2000, in Emilia, 2005: 244). Besides, this interview was

conducted to gain further and in-depth information about the teacher’s

implementation of approaches to teaching writing which could not be attained by

observation.

Only one stage of interview was conducted. It was a semi structured one and was

held about three days after the whole observation sessions finished. There were ten

questions proposed, as can be seen respectively in Appendix 2.1, which were

categorized into two main themes, i.e. teacher’s general idea about the nature of

writing and the approaches to teaching writing claimed to be implemented in

classroom practices. The interview aimed at finding out more about the teacher’s

ways in teaching writing, why she did this and that during the observation sessions

and also her knowledge of approaches to teaching writing, her consideration in

implementing one or two or three of them, and how she assessed the students’ work.

Before the interview, the interviewee was informed about (i) what is going to be

discussed; (ii) the release of pseudonyms in the research report; and (iii) the fact that

the conversation will be video-taped to avoid the loss of data, and to ease the

transcribing activity later. The interview was conducted in a quiet classroom, to allow

the interviewee to concentrate on the questions asked and to enable the researcher to

obtain clear recordings. The interview was conducted in Bahasa Indonesia to avoid

the interviewee’s difficulty in expressing ideas.

3.4.3 Collection of Students’ Written Texts

The students’ texts were collected one or two times during the observation sessions, depending on the teacher’s approaches to teaching writing. These

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three classes being observed, i.e. personal letter and recount text. All of them were

collected and then classified into three categories regarding the students’ skill level,

namely lower, middle, and high achievers. However, in the interest of space and time,

there were only 12 texts representing each kind of texts and each category of the

students’ skill level (see Appendix 3) analyzed by using Functional Grammar in this

study which can be seen respectively in Appendices 4 and 5 and will be further

discussed in section 3.5.

3.5 Data Analysis

Data analyses in this study were conducted during the observation and after the

whole observation and interview finished. Ongoing data analyses and interpretations

were based on data mainly from the observation notes. On the other hand, data which

were analyzed after the research program were mainly students’ written texts and

interview data.

Data from observation were analyzed descriptively to describe the approaches to

teaching writing implemented in classroom practices (see Section 4.1 for further

discussion). It is in line with what Cresswell (1994) suggests that “data emerge from

qualitative study are descriptive and should therefore be reported in words (primarily

the participants’ words)”. The data transcribed from the field notes were read

repeatedly. During the reading process, some notes were taken in the margins or

highlight key passages. The next step was coding the data or identifying themes

within the field notes that relate to the research questions, namely the stages of

teaching writing done by the teacher, the classroom situation, and the assessment

used by the teacher. This coding process was aimed at “fracturing the data and

rearranging them into categories that facilitate the comparison of data within and

between these categories” (Maxwell, 1996: 78). Then, the data were interpreted by attaching significance to the themes and patterns that had been observed. Last, the

data were synthesized and summarized.

All interview data were analyzed in steps. The first one was to put the interview

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categorized into themes that had become the focus of the study to develop a thematic

analysis (Kvale, 1996; Merriam, 1998 in Emilia, 2005: 86). After that the data were

presented in a condensed body of information as can be seen respectively in

Appendix 2.2. In the discussion of these data, as can be seen respectively in Section

4.2, the teacher’s responses in the interview will also be related to her students’

developments in writing skills.

To follow Emilia (2005: 85), the data from samples of students’ written texts

were analyzed by using functional grammar (see Section 4.3 for further discussion).

The steps are as follow:

(i) The texts were analyzed in terms of schematic structure (text organization) and

how well each element in the text performed its function.

(ii) Each element was analyzed in terms of linguistic features. Somehow, different

from Emilia (2005: 85), the samples of students’ written texts in this study were

analyzed dealing with only two of the three meaning in functional grammar, i.e.

the textual and ideational meaning. The interpersonal meaning was not used for

several reasons. First, most – if not all – of the texts were telling about the

students’ activities. Therefore, most of the clauses were declarative or in other

words the mood structures of those clauses were less varied. Second, the use of

modality in the texts was less varied as well. This phenomenon indicated that the

texts did not need to be further analyzed in terms of interpersonal meaning.

Functional Grammar, which focuses on the purposes and uses of language, has

been developed by Halliday (1994). Functional Grammar derives from examination

of spoken and written language and the contexts of their use. Functional Grammar

investigates how language is used, and its effect. Functional Grammar’s aims include:

 Revealing many of the choices language users have in interaction.  Showing how meaning is made.

Functional Grammar can be used to explore language use. Besides, Functional

Grammar can be used to examine linguistic elements and specific language events.

In short, Functional Grammar examines a language as a meaning making system. It

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other words, it “sees grammar as shaped by, and as playing a significant role in

shaping, in the way we get on with our lives” (Martin et al., 1997: 1).

In Functional Grammar, all languages have three major functions, namely

textual, ideational, and interpersonal meta functions (see Halliday & Matthiessen,

2004; Eggins, 2004; Gerrot & Wignell, 1994; Emilia, 2005). Each function is realized

in different system as follow:

(i) The textual function is realized in the Theme system, it is what clause is about.

It was discussed within the organization or schematic structure of the students’

texts.

(ii) The ideational function is realized in the Transitivity system. It was discussed

within how the text organized experience, the logical aspect, and the logical

semantic relation to the clause which was realized in the conjunction system.

(iii) The interpersonal function is realized in the Mood system. It covers aspects of

modality, including mood.

This chapter has widely discussed a detailed research procedure applied in the

study, including the research design, the setting and participant, the data collection

techniques, and the data analysis. A brief explanation of functional grammar as a tool

for text analyses has also been provided. Therefore, the next chapter will elaborate the

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CHAPTER 5

CONCLUSION, LIMITATIONS, AND SUGGESTION

The following chapter provides the conclusion of this study, the limitations of

the study, and also the suggestion for the improvement of the next research.

5.1 Conclusion

This research was conducted to investigate teacher’s implementation of

approaches to teaching writing and its portrayal on students’ written texts. The analysis shows that the way that the teacher’s approaches to teaching writing are generally portrayed on the students’ written texts.

According to what has been analyzed and discussed in the previous chapter,

there are three main conclusion of the study. First, based on the phases of teaching

learning activities in the three classes observed, the teacher’s teaching of writing

is relevant to the characteristics of two approaches, i.e. product approach and

genre approach. Characteristics of product approach (mimic model text,

individual, one-draft, and focused on end product) can be traced from classroom

activities in one class considered low by the teacher. On the other hand,

characteristics of genre approach (emphasis on reader expectations and product,

more than one draft, individual and collaborative) can be traced from classroom

activities in two other classes considered mid and high by the teacher.

Second, basically, the teacher shows good understanding about the nature of

writing. She is aware of the necessity of teaching writing appropriately as it will

lead to the quality of the students’ writing skill. However, different from what the

data from observation have shown, the teacher claims to implement only genre

approach in her teaching of writing. Somehow, there are some points in the phases

of teaching, especially in BKOF and Modeling, which are not implemented

appropriately due to her lack of information about this approach.

Third, in the classroom activities indicating product approach, though the texts

show some grasp of their respective schematic structures, they are reasonably

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Teacher’s Approaches to Teaching Writing and its Portrayal in Students’ Written Texts

of students’ texts with the model text given by the teacher. This phenomenon

seems to happen because the students tend to imitate the model text as the teacher

tells them to do so. In the classroom activities indicating genre approach, on the

other hand, the schematic structures of the texts suggest that the students generally

understand the demands of the generic form of the genre to achieve its purpose.

Somehow, the inappropriateness in the implementation of the approach leads to

the less optimum students’ written texts. Some mistakes found in the students’

written texts have something to do with grammar and certain expressions which

should have been discussed in BKOF phase of the approach (see Chapter 2

Section 2.2.3.2). Besides, the content of the students’ texts are not improved

optimally as the teacher just ask them to produce simple texts though the reason

for it is the limited time allocation or doctrine.

5.2 Limitations of the Study

There are some limitations in this study. The first limitation has something to

do with the participant and the length of data used in this study. A complete

analysis of the implementation of certain approaches to teaching writing should

involve an analysis of teacher(s) who teach(es) all classes in the same grade.

However, in the interest of space and time, this study only focused on one English

teacher and three classes of grade eight. As a consequence, it would lead to

incomplete analysis of the teaching of writing and the students’ written texts. The

second limitation is concerned with the fact that it was only the writer alone who

observed, conducted the interview, and analyzed the text. Therefore, there would

also be a bias in interpreting the data which involved personal prejudice.

However, some attempts had been made to minimize these limitations.

Among of these attempts is the use of multiple sources of evidence through

multiple data collection techniques, which allowed for a triangulation of different

sources of information. Another attempt is the use of Functional Grammar as the

tool to analyze the students’ written texts. In this case, Halliday assumes that a

discourse analysis that is not based on grammar is not analysis at all, but simply a

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Teacher’s Approaches to Teaching Writing and its Portrayal in Students’ Written Texts

most direct move in the analysis of a text is to give its structural interpretation, … all the structural analyses could be reinterpreted in terms of the features selected”

(1994: xvii).

5.3Suggestions For The Next Study

Based on the findings of this study, which may not be generalized to other

settings, it is recommended that appropriate workshop or training about

approaches to teaching writing should be conducted more intensively to provide

English teachers with a proper understanding of the background and practical

guidance on the application of the approaches in their classes which will lead to

the improvement of their students’ writing skill. Thus, no matter which approach

to teaching writing that the teacher uses, as long as it suits the students’ needs, it

should be implemented appropriately so that the portrayal of the approach in the

students’ written texts will be optimum.

Moreover, regarding the limitations of the study above, it is suggested to

investigate at least two teachers teaching in different classes but the same grade

and all students from that grade for a better and complete result. Besides, it is

suggested to ask for any input from other persons who analyze a similar study or

the persons who master the theory that informs the study as a single person’s