spelling, punctuation, vocabulary, and capitalization. The process of editing may be taken from oral or written comments by peers or teachers.
2. Teaching Writing a. Teacher Roles in Teaching Writing
Teachers play an important role in the teaching and learning process of writing. Teachers are expected to realize their importance roles toward
students’ development in learning, particularly in writing. Teachers are required to have
various strategies and great interest when they are teaching writing to the students. Moreover, the success of students in learning writing is also determined by the
teacher’s performance in helping them learn writing. Harmer 2007:261-262 also mentions information about teacher’s roles in the teaching and learning process of
writing. They will be explained as follows. a Motivator
One of the teacher principle roles in writing task will be to motivate the students, create the right condition for the generation of ideas, persuade them of
the usefulness of the activity, and encourage them to make as much as effort as possible for maximum benefit. This may require special and prolonged effort on
the teacher part for longer process-writing sequences. b Resource
When the students are doing more extended writing tasks, the teacher must be ready to supply information and language needed by the students. Teachers
need to tell students that they are available and be prepared to look at their work as it progresses, offering advice and suggestions in a constructive and tactful way.
For example, in the process approach, the teacher facilitates the students’ writing
by providing input or stimulus. Because writing takes longer than conversation, for example, there is usually time for discussion with individual students, or
students working in pairs or groups. c Feedback provider
As a provider, a teacher should respond positively and encouragingly to the content of what the students have written. When offering correction, teacher
should choose what and how much to focus on based on what students need at this particular stage of their studies, and or the tasks the have undertaken.
b. Feedback
According to Nation 2009: 115, feedback is an important way of encouraging students to keep their goals in mind. It means that it is important to
provide them with feedback about the effectiveness of their writing so that they can carry on their idea of their writing. Feedback can be used as a way to respond
to students’ writing to help them enhance their written skills. The feedback has various functions.
Harmer 2007: 148 mentions some techniques that are used in giving feedback to students’ writing. The techniques are as follows.
1 Responding Responding to the students’ work can be considered as an attempt to give
feedback on their writings. The response on the students’ work can be used to motivate them rather than assessing or evaluating.
2 Correcting According to Harmer 1998, correction helps students to clarify their
understanding on the meaning and construction of the language. Some teachers use codes and put them in the body of the writing itself, or in a corresponding
margin. This makes the correction much neater, less threatening, and considerably more helpful than random marks or comments. Frequently, the uses of symbols as
indirect feedback on students’ writing refer to the students’ errors, such as word order, spelling, or verb tense.
3 Involving students Feedback on the writer
’s work does not only come from teachers. The teachers can also encourage students to give feedback to each other. It has positive
effect on group cohesion. Muncie in Harmer 2007: 150 states that students are much more likely to be provoked into thinking about what they are writing if the
feedback comes from one of their peers.
c. Approaches in Teaching Writing
In teaching writing, teachers should apply the appropriate approaches so that the students are able to produce a good writing easily. Teachers need a
number of different approaches to the practice of writing skills both in and outside classroom in teaching writing. There are two main approaches which are product-
oriented approach and process-oriented approach. The product-oriented approach is emphasized mostly
on students’ final products of writing. When concentrating on the product, teachers are only
interested in the aims of a task and in the end of product. If teachers focus on
