Definition of Perception Theory of Perception

12 Furthermore, it is also possible to return to activities from earlier stages of the cycle at any point. For instance, the students may face difficulties in the independent construction stage, thus the joint construction stage may be reentered. Feez and Helen 2002, p. 28 st at e t hat in t he st age of building t he cont ext , t he st udent s are int roduced t o t he social cont ext of an aut hent i c model of t he t ext -t ype, t he st udent s discover f eat ures of t he general cult ural cont ext where t he t ext -t ype is used and t he social purposes t he t ext -t ype achieves, and t he last , t he st udent s have t o explore t he immediat e sit uat ional cont ext by examining t he regist er of a model t ext on t he basis of t he course obj ect ives. In the modelling and deconstructing the text stage, students explore the structural pattern and language features of the model Feez Helen, 2002, p. 29. The explanation of text modelling will be presented in the next sub-topic. Feez and Helen 2002, p. 30 note that in joint construction of the text stage, the students begin to contribute to the structure of whole examples of the text-type, as the teacher gradually decreases the contribution to the text construction, while the students move closer to being able to manage the text-type independently. Joint construction activities consist of teacher questioning and discussing. In the independent construction of the text stage, students work independently with the text. Independent construction activities include writing tasks which demand that students draft and present whole texts Feez Helen, 2002, p. 31. According to Feez and Helen 2002, p. 31 in linking to related texts stage students study how this teaching-learning cycle can be connected to other texts in the 13 same contexts and future or past cycles of teaching and learning. Activities which connect the text-type to related texts consist of evaluating the use of the text-type in different fields, investigating other text-types in the same field. Since this study discussed about students’ perceptions on the use of text modelling in teaching writing, the stage of the teaching and learning cycle which is discussed is only the text modelling stage.

3. Modelling and Deconstructing the Text

Feez and Helen 2002, p. 29 reveal that text modelling is a stage of the teaching and learning cycle which helps the teacher to decide how much time to apply to particular language features. There are two major activities in the text modelling stage. First, the teacher gives information about the concept and types of literary text. This activity is the students explore the structural pattern and language features of the model. Then, the teacher distributes the models to the students and they discuss the purpose of the model, its generic structures and linguistic or generic features of the text type together. Second, the students compare the model with other examples of the text type. Sofyanda et al. 2006, p. 6 also suggest that there are three teaching learning activities in the modelling of the text stage, namely the teacher presents exercises which ask students to identify particular information in the text factual and ideational meanings, the teacher presents exercises which direct students to the awareness of features and text structures and also asks students to identify language elements conjunctions, substitutions, etc which direct students to the knowledge of