Statement of the Problems Objectives of the Study Significance of the Study Methodology

6 ANI SUSANA, 2012 Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu

1.2 Statement of the Problems

Based on background of the research above, the research problems were formulated in the following questions: 1. What problems do the students encounter in accomplishing Writing Task 1 of IELTS Academic Module, in terms of the assessment criteria for Writing Task 1 of IELTS Academic Module? 2. What do the teacher and students do to overcome the problems?

1.3 Objectives of the Study

The study was directed to: 1. find out the students’ problems in accomplishing Writing Task 1 of IELTS Academic Module, in terms of the assessment criteria of Writing Task 1 of IELTS Academic Module 2. find out the solutions to help the students overcome the problems

1.4 Significance of the Study

There are several significances of this study which will be beneficial for the students, teacher and the institution. For the students, the result of this study will increase their writing competence. Through regular feedback on the students’ texts, their competence of producing academic writing will improve. For the teacher, this study will provide some suggestions concerning the ways to improve students’ competence in composing English academic texts. Besides, knowing the students’ problems will enable teachers to both find suitable methods 7 ANI SUSANA, 2012 Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu and techniques and apply them in the process of teaching writing. Therefore, the students’ problems will be minimized. For the institution, this study will help achieve the objective of the EAP course, that is, to make the students get the required IELTS score needed for the admission of their future study. For further research, this study will give input to conduct research in similar field. There are many unexplored areas of students’ problems in writing that can be studied further.

1.5 Methodology

The study was qualitative research, which had a limitation in terms of time allotment and technical consideration that affects the choice of population and sample. The participants of the study were nine EAP course students representing above average, average, and below average achievers and one writing teacher at an EAP course in a language center of a state university in Bandung. In order to gain valid data the study employed triangulation method of data collection in terms of classroom observation, documentation of students’ texts, and interviews. The data from classroom observation were summarized, analyzed, and classified. The data from students’ texts were analyzed qualitatively to identify the students’ problems in writing based on the four criteria of assessment for Writing Task 1 of IELTS Academic Module. The texts were viewed from the assessment criteria of Writing Task 1 covering task achievement, coherence and cohesion, lexical resource and grammatical range and accuracy. Next, the data 8 ANI SUSANA, 2012 Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu from interview were transcribed and classified. Finally, all data gathered from the three sources were synthesized to answer the research questions.

1.6 Definition of the Terms