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THE IMPLEMENTATION OF FRESH TECHNIQUE IN TEACHING WRITING A DESCRIPTIVE TEXT Diana Achmad1, Siti Sarah Fitriani*1, Dini Zulva Rusli1 & Astri Yulia2
1Department of English Education, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Universitas Syiah Kuala, Banda Aceh, Indonesia
2Faculty of Education and Social Science, University Selangor, Bestari Jaya Campus, Selangor, Malaysia
*Corresponding author: ssfitriani@unsyiah.ac.id
Abstract
The objective of conducting this research was to find out whether the use of FRESH technique can improve the students’ writing ability. This experimental research involved one group pretest-posttest design. The participants of the study were first year students of a high school in Banda Aceh. One class was randomly selected from the year one students. To collect the data, the students were asked to take a written test, one before the experiment (pretest) and one after (posttest). The data analysis result showed that the students’
mean score was 24.5 in the pretest and was 71.3 in the posttest. Moreover, the analysis of t-test showed that tscore > ttable or 20.95 > 1.72 at the level of significance 0.05 with the degree of freedom (df) 19 indicating significant increase in the posttest performance. The most improvement of writing aspect was in organization and content. For other aspects, such as grammar, vocabulary and mechanic were also improved, but not as much as those two aspects. It means that the use of FRESH technique can improve students’ writing ability in descriptive text especially in organization and content aspects. In brief, the application of FRESH technique can be used to improve the students’ writing ability, especially in writing a descriptive text.
Keywords: FRESH technique, writing, descriptive text, writing in ESL.
INTRODUCTION
Learning English as a foreign language is a demand for modern people in Indonesia. In learning English, students need to master all skills namely speaking, listening, reading and writing. Writing is one of the skills that should be mastered, but many students believe that writing is a difficult skill to learn (Hadfield &
Hadfield, 2008). According to Shamsuzzaman (2019), the difficulty of writing lies in the fact that it is artificial in which the skill needs to be cultivated rather than a gift. Hence, the teaching of writing is very crucial to ensure the learners accomplish the writing tasks.
According to Curriculum 2013 for SMA/MA, teaching writing at the level of senior high schools begins by introducing various kinds of text (e.g., recount, descriptive, narrative) and its generic structure as well as linguistic features. By learning various kinds of text, students are expected to be able to express their ideas in the form of writing. Although the curriculum had targeted all students to be able to write a descriptive text, but the reality shows that students still face some difficulties.
The difficulties are in the aspects of organization, content, grammar, mechanics and vocabulary. In the organization aspect, the paragraphs written by the students are not organized. They often write the paragraphs without introduction. They are also confused what they have to write in the first and in the next line of the paragraph. Moreover, in the content aspect, students have difficulty in expressing ideas.
Students often repeat the same sentences that had been written in a different sentence. It was proved that they were limited in generating ideas. In addition, students’ grammar mastery was still low. They were still incorrect in using tense when writing different kinds of text. For example, in writing descriptive text, students use simple past tense where they need to write simple present tense sentences. The punctuation errors and misuse of capital letters are also commonly found in the students’ writing. Besides, their word choices are inappropriate; they used out of context words to explain a concept.
To solve this problem, it is important for teachers to find a good technique in writing in order to improve students’ writing ability, especially writing a descriptive text. One of the techniques that can be used in writing descriptive text is FRESH technique that was invented by Faisal in 2010 (Faisal & Suwandita, 2013, p. 243). Therefore, the writers intend to investigate the implementation of using FRESH technique in
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teaching writing especially a descriptive text and want to find out whether the use of the technique can improve the students’ writing ability.
LITERATURE REVIEW Writing and Its Purpose
Writing is a process of transferring ideas into a written form such as paragraph. Nunan (2003, p. 88) defines writing as the process of thinking to invent ideas, thinking about how to express into a good writing, and arranging them into statement and paragraph clearly. Writing is a productive skill or an action skill, which is used to communicate and to convey the message to other people in the form of writing or permanent form. As Raimes (as cited in Rauza, 2017) defines that writing is an integral part of communication when the other person is not right there in front of us, listening to our words and looking at our gestures and facial expression.
Generally, writing has several main purposes. Reinking (1996) states that there are four common general writing purposes, those are to give and present the information to other people, to attract the reader to agree with the writers’ point of view, to express the writer’s feeling (in the form of diaries, poem, fiction, etc.), and to entertain the reader such as novel, funny story, etc.
Aspects of Writing
Brown (2004) mentions five aspects of writing, namely organization, content, vocabulary, grammar and mechanics. First, content is the most important aspect in writing because the main point of a writing is in the content. Onukwugha (2006) explains that content is the substance and the essence of writing. It is the heart-beat of any great writing. Content contains some information to support the topic that is talked about. Second, Vocabulary is an important aspect to compose a good writing. The more vocabulary students have the easier they compose a piece of writing because they can express all the ideas and thought with vocabulary that they have. Vocabulary is a set of words or phrases for communication to each other (Webster, 2003). Third, grammar is a crucial aspect in writing an essay because it effects on meaning.
Grammar is the structure of language use to give meaning and function to the word (Brown, 2000). Good understanding of grammar can help students easily develop their thought into writing form. Fourth, organization is needed in writing an essay because it consists of introduction, body and concluding paragraph. Baker (2014) said that in organization the students learn about the paragraph arrangement and construction. Finally, mechanics means how the students write. According to Brown (2000), mechanics deals with spelling, punctuation, citation of reference, neatness and appearance.
Descriptive Text
One of the texts that are introduced in senior high schools in Indonesia is descriptive text. It is in line with the syllabus of senior high school for the first-grade students. Descriptive text is a text which explains a particular object such as place, people, or things. In this text, the object is described in detail so the reader can imagine what object is described.
In writing a good descriptive text, the students need to explain the object clearly. Gaith (2002) asserts that descriptive text is a portrayal of people, places, things, moments and theories with enough vivid detail to help the writer create a mental picture of what is being written about. Descriptive text is a text in which the writer describes the features of someone, something, or a certain place (Trianingsih, 2010). She also adds that there are two characteristics of descriptive text, namely identification and description.
Identification is the introducing of the subject described (Djuharie, 2010). It contains objects’ name, place, or general information about the topic. It can be called general description of the subject. Whereas description is the part where details information about the subject such as the characteristic, attitude, etc.
of the subject that is explained (Djuharie, 2010). It contains objects’ specific description such as size, color, type and etc.
Furthermore, Jaya et al. (2008) mention the language features of the descriptive text, such as:
• Specific Nouns (e.g., my car, my mother, my new bike).
• The use of simple present tense (e.g., I live in a simple house, the house is very beautiful, it has a wonderful park).
• Detailed noun phrases to give information about the subject (e.g., I have a white skinned friend).
• Adjectives (e.g., two strong legs, sharp white fangs).
• Relating verbs to give information about the subject (e.g., my mom is really cool, it has very thick fur).
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• Thinking verb or feeling verb to express personal writer view about subject (e.g., I think it is a clever animal).
• Action verbs (e.g., my cat eats mouse, our new puppy bites our shoes).
• Adverbials to give addition information about its behavior (e.g., fast, at the tree house).
• Figurative language, like simile, metaphor (e.g., John is white like chalk, her hair is black as ebony).
FRESH (Fact, Reason, Elaboration, Shift) Technique
FRESH technique is a new technique to develop ideas to write a descriptive text in which each letters of the word has meaning. There are four parts that will be developed in this technique. FRESH is an abbreviation in which each letter represents a technique.
“F” is FACT. It means fact about the topic that will be described. Students are required to think about the general fact about the topic. Opening paragraph starts with a general statement of the main idea in a topic sentence (Nordquist, 2017). It can be concluded that the first thing the students should do is to write the general things of subject that they want to describe.
“R” is REASON. It consists of some reasons to support the fact they have written before. The reason can be sense of impression. Description translates the experience of a person, place or thing into words, often by appealing to the physical senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch (Anker, 1998). The basic objective of descriptive writing is the depiction of the appearance of people, places, and things.
Then, students should develop their reason into “E” which means ELABORATION. General-to-specific order is a method of developing a paragraph, essay, or speech by moving from a broad observation about a topic to specific details (Nordquist, 2017). After writing the general statement before, students must develop it into the detail one. So, they will get creative, complete and coherence paragraph. The last part is “SH” (SHIFT). It is the last part or conclusion part from the text they have written before (Faisal &
Wulandari, 2013, p. 61).
FRESH technique is a way of developing descriptive text’s generic structure (Faisal & Wulandari, 2013, p. 61). There are two main parts of descriptive text: those are identification and description. Students are more likely confused on what they have to write as identification and what they have to write as the description. While in FRESH technique, students will get easy to develop a descriptive text because the two parts before are developed specifically.
Procedure of FRESH Technique
Based on the previous research done by Faisal and Suwandita (2013, p. 62), the procedure of FRESH technique is:
1. The first one is FACT; the teacher asks the students to write the general facts of subject they want to describe. Example: Bunny, My Rabbit”: “I have a rabbit. Its name is Bunny.”
2. Second part is REASON, the teacher asks the students to write the reasons or impressions of the subject to support the fact before. ” I like the Bunny because it is cute and funny.”
3. The next part is ELABORATE. In this part, teacher will ask the students to elaborate the draft they have made before as the development. Teacher guides the students to make description why Bunny is cute and funny. “It has a white and soft fur. Its body is fat. It likes eating carrots very much. It likes to enter the house, especially my parents’ room.”
4. The last step is making conclusion (SHIFT) of all ideas which have been described. “Those are the reasons why Bunny is cute and funny. My family and I love it very much.”
From the sentences above, it will form a descriptive paragraph:
I have a rabbit. Its name is Bunny. I like Bunny because it is cute and funny. It has a white and soft fur. Its body is fat. It likes eating carrots very much. It likes to enter the house, especially my parents’ room. Those are the reasons why Bunny is cute and funny. My family and I love it very much.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Using FRESH
Every technique which is used in teaching and learning process has advantages and also disadvantages, as well as FRESH technique. According to Faisal and Wulandari (2013, p. 60), there are several advantages of using FRESH technique, such as to help students organize their ideas step by step to get a clear, detail, and fluent organization of a descriptive text. The element of FRESH can support the learners to find what should be written first and next to get a fluent descriptive text so the students are able to master the rule of how to write a good descriptive text. Moreover, the imagination that is given by this technique can
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strengthen the students’ creativity because they can participate or interact actively. In addition, FRESH technique can make the students easy to understand the material.
Although FRESH technique has several advantages as mentioned before, this technique also has some disadvantages. FRESH technique is not suitable for students who are new in writing especially in English because this technique does not emphasize on grammar but it more emphasizes on how to write a descriptive text or organization of the text.
METHODS
This is a quantitative research using pre-experimental method. In this experiment, the writers used one group pretest-posttest design. In addition, according to Gay, et al. (2006, p. 251) this research involved a pretest (Oı), treatment (X), and a post test (O2).
The population of this study is the first-grade students of SMAN 12 Banda Aceh which were divided into seven classes. According to Cohen, et al (2000, p. 92), sample is a smaller group of the total population in such a way that the knowledge gained is representative of the total population understudy. The writers defined the experimental class by using random sampling and XMIA2 was selected as the experimental class.
In collecting the data, the writers used a set of written tests as the instrument. Both the pre-test and the post-test in this study used written test. For the pre-test, the students had to write a descriptive text with the topic “Baiturrahman Mosque” (a place and famous historical building). In the post-test, that was the test given after the treatments, the students were also asked to write a descriptive text with the topic
“Tsunami Museum”. They will be scored by using an analytical scale for rating composition task developed by Brown (2004). To prove the hypotheses, the writers used mean score and T-Test.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The research was conducted at the first-grade students of SMA Negeri 12 Banda Aceh. There are five meetings including the pre-test and the post-test. The aim of pre-test was to know their ability in writing descriptive text before the treatment implemented. While the post-test was to know the improvement of students’ writing ability especially in writing a descriptive text after they were taught by using FRESH technique. The result data of the pre-test and the post-test mean score can be seen below.
Figure 1. The result data of the pre-test and the post-test mean scores.
Based on the figure above, the writers assumed that the mean scores between the pretest and the posttest increased in all aspects of writing. The highest improvement was in the aspect of organization and content. The mean score of organization aspect was 16.1 and content was 15.7. Then, the lowest improvement was in the aspect of vocabulary and grammar. The mean score of vocabulary aspect was 12.4 and grammar was 12.8. Meanwhile, the average improvement was in the aspect of mechanic. The mean score of mechanic aspect was 14.4. The writer explains the difference mean score between pretest and posttest as follows:
• Organization increased from 5.0 to 16.1. The improvement of organization aspect is about 11.1 point.
0,0 5,0 10,0 15,0 20,0
5,0 5,25 5,0
4,6 4,6
16,1 15,7
12,8 14,4
12,4
Pretest Post-test
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• Content increased from 5.25 to 15.7. The improvement of content aspect is about 10.4 point.
• Grammar increased from 5.0 to 12.8. The improvement of grammar aspect is about 7.8 point.
• Mechanic increased from 4.6 to 14.4. The improvement of mechanic aspect is about 9.8 point.
• Vocabulary increased from 4.6 to 12.4. The improvement of vocabulary aspect is about 7.8 point.
To test the hypothesis, the writers used t-test. The writers found that t-score in this research was higher than the score in the t-table (ts > tt), (ts = 20.95 > tt = 1.72). This means that Ha (alternative hypothesis)
“The use of FRESH technique can improve the students’ writing skill in writing a descriptive text” was accepted and Ho (null hypothesis) “The use of FRESH technique cannot improve the students’ writing skill in writing a descriptive text” was rejected. As the conclusion of data analysis, it indicates that the implementation of FRESH technique gives positive impact for the students’ writing skill in writing a descriptive text.
After collecting and analyzing all the data, it is necessary to discuss the result of the research. The aim of this research is to find out whether FRESH can improve the students’ descriptive writing ability or not.
Based on the result of the students’ post test scores, their performances in writing descriptive text improve by using FRESH technique. Besides, from five aspects of writing, the writers found that the students’ scores increase in all aspects: they are organization, content, grammar, mechanic and vocabulary. The highest improvement is in organization and content aspect while the lowest improvement is in vocabulary and grammar aspect. As the result, students are able to organize and generate the ideas well than before. Then, in vocabulary and grammar aspects only improve slightly while in mechanic aspect was improve a little higher than vocabulary and grammar aspects. In addition, based on hypothesis testing result, the scores between pretest and posttest are significantly different.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, since t-score is higher than t-table, the alternative hypothesis in which FRESH technique improves students’ descriptive writing ability was accepted. It can be concluded that the use of FRESH technique in teaching descriptive text is effective and successfully improves the writing ability of XMIA2 students at SMA Negeri 12 Banda Aceh. Besides, the writers found that the highest improvement came from organization and content aspect. It seems that FRESH technique emphasizes on these two aspects.
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