1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the Problem
Writing is part of a program whose specific goal is to learn language so that the message the writer wants to convey is conveyed to the reader through the writing itself properly. Writing is an english skill that students need to learn because writing activities improve thinking skills and help develop other language skills (Lia et al,2021). As an important language skill, writing involves several aspects of language, such as verbal and written communication.
According to Lincoln (1986) in Sa'adah (2020), writing is a complete process requires a variety of skills with developing writing skills that should follow certain strategies and practicing various patterns. Through writing, students can convey and express ideas, feelings, or opinions about people or objects in written form.
However, to communicate ideas, feelings, or opinions in written form properly, instead of being obtained naturally, students are required to follow several learning processes. With various processes of learning English, students' critical thinking skills as described above are considered to have several effects and play an important role as they can specifically influence the way they write well.
Writing is a necessary skill, especially for students who need instruction in senior high school (Darman, 2014). This is the fact that writing is a medium of long- distance communication. It is also an index to show the development of other people's skills. There are several types of text when communicating ideas in the form of written text, such as descriptive text, narrative text, report text, recount text, analytical Exposition text, etc. In this case, the researcher uses a text related to
critical thinking, namely analytical exposition text. This type of text is a type of text that must be studied by 11th grade senior high school students, where students are asked to learn how to think about arguments and put them into writing. This text prescribes the writer to provide evidence in the form of an argument under a critical thinking framework.
Critical thinking is an important topic in modern education. According to Kuleksi,G., & Kumlu,E.(2015), critical thinking means the ability of a thinker to control his thoughts and improve appropriate criteria for analyzing and evaluating his thoughts. The aim of having critical thinking itself is to improve students thinking skills and thus be able to prepare them to process in the world of education.
According to Hallatu (2017), in achieving optimal learning outcomes, it is necessary to be equipped with insight in logical and critical thinking to achieve learning goals. This was also stated by Kazempour (2013), education has a goal, one of which is to develop critical thinking.
Critical thinking means thinking correctly and wisely according to educational principles and acquiring relevant knowledge. Another way to describe this is rational, wise, responsible, and competent thinking that focuses on deciding what to believe and what to do. Someone who thinks critically can ask to analyze the information obtained so that they can collect relevant information, efficiently and logically creatively.
Kuleksi,G., & Kumlu,E.(2015) in Their International Journal Language Academy state that, EFL students need to develop critical thinking skills so that they can broaden their horizons and become creative, and competent individuals.
This is also because EFL students who are unable to practice their critical thinking
skills may miss opportunities to adapt to workplaces around the world. Critical thinking can train students’ mentality to be stronger in analyzing the learning given by the teacher. Having this ability makes it easier for students to deal with every learning process. With critical thinking students have many ideas, arguments in their minds and they will try to convey one of them in a piece of writing. The reason why researcher need to analyze students’ critical thingking is because everyone needs to analyze and evaluate their living conditions to make important decisions.In this case, after knowing the data of the analysis and evaluating the level of students crtical thingking, the teacher can of course teach english by adjusting the level of student abilty so that the teacher can also emphasize the importance of learning english and can improve students critical thingking, specifically in writing analytical exposition text.
Thus, this research focuses on analyzing students critical thinking skill based on the 2013 curriculum used, where students are required to be more proactive, creative and innovative in solving all the problems they face in school. At SMA Negeri 4 Tanjungpinang, to be precise, class XI MIPA 4, some students have problems where they do not master vocabulary and do not understand the generic structure of analytical exposition text, which makes it difficult for them to write English texts. Therefore, students understanding of each material in learning needs to be considered by the teacher to improve students critical thinking in learning. In this case the researcher will examine and analyze the students critical thinking of SMA Negeri 4 Tanjungpinang class XI MIPA 4 based on existing problems.
To find out students' critical thinking, researcher used written test, namely writing analytical exposition text. In this case the assessment of the students own
writing is assessed based on the 5 indicator of critical thinking that the researcher has included by looking at the aspects that students use based on the generic structures and language featured in the text.
1.2 Identification of The Problem
Some students do not master vocabulary and don't understand the generic structure of text so it is difficult to think critically in writing analytical exposition text.
1.3 Limitation of the Study
Based on the identification of the problems, this research problem will focus on analyzing students critical thingking in writing analytical exposition text.
1.4 Research Question
How is students critical thinking in 11th grade of SMAN 4 Tanjungpinang in writing analytical exposition text?
1.5 Objective of the Study
To find out the students critical thinking in 11th grade of SMAN 4 Tanjungpinang in writing analytical exposition text.
1.6 Significance of Study
1.6.1 Theoretically
This research can be used to reference for further development by other researcher to analyze students ritical thinking in writing.
1.6.2 Practically 1. Students
From this research, students can find out how their critical thinking skill are in writing analytical exosition text and improve their critical thinking.
2. Teachers
From this research, teachers can find out how is students critical thinking in writing analytical exposition text and can make references to improve students critical thinking skills in writing analytical exposition text.
3. Other Researcher
For the future researcher, this research can be useful as a reference for those interest.
1.7 Definition of Key Term 1.7.1 Writing
Writing can be defined as any system of signs or conventional signs that represent the speech of a language. Writing makes language visible which means language is communicated in written form.
1.7.2 Critical Thinking
Critical thinking is think rationally, connecting ideas with logical thinking to produce the best decisions.
1.7.3 Analytical Exposition Text
Analytical Exposition Text is a type of text that is used to explain the author's view of a subject in the form of arguments.
