communicative focus. In fact, corrective feedback is considered to be an effective means in conducting grammar teaching Ellis, 2006
Teaching grammar is effective if it is conducted in a learner-centered approach Long, 2000. It means that students are aware of the learning process
and they can control their learning and adjust it based on their own need in the learning process. Textual enhancement is believed to be able to draw students‟
attention to grammar Calkins 1980, DiStefanoKillon 1984. It relates to the use of texts or writings as the media to teach grammar. With this way, teaching
grammar can be less explicit and intrusive Doughty Varela 1998. Therefore, students will be able to learn grammar and writing at the same time. Grammar
rules support their writing ability, and their writings will support their grammatical competence as well.
2. Grammar in Writing
The problems of the students‟ inability to produce acceptable writing are due to the relative absence of direct and focused grammar instruction and the lack
of vocabulary progress Hinkel 2002. The role of grammar in writing is mutually synergistic. Frodsen and Erying 2000 propose that focusing on form grammar
can facilitate students to develop their linguistic resources that are needed to express their ideas in effective ways. Therefore, second language students need to
pay attention to the form or grammar to develop their writing proficiency. Writing proficiency is related to the lexical and syntactic complexity and
grammar accuracy Eouanzoui
et al.
2005. Weaver
et al.
2001 and Andrews 2006 suggest that teaching grammar for successful writing should consider the
aspects of grammar that should be taught and the techniques of the grammar PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
practices that should be delivered. Hinkel 2004 proposes that grammar practices are grammar-based tasks that focus on grammar rules and grammatical aspects in
sentences or paragraphs. Hinkel 2004 suggest some aspects of grammar that should be taught in second language writing, including sentences, phrases and text
construction, nouns and the noun phrase, pronouns, verb tenses and voice in text cohesion, lexical classes of verbs covering the meaning and the text functions, and
adjectives and adverbs on academic discourse. These aspects are in line with the micro and macro skills proposed by Brown 2004.
It has now been identified that grammar practices influence students‟ writing ability. Andrews
et al.
2006 suggest one of the grammar practices that are effective for the students, which is sentence combining. Therefore,
grammatical mastery and competence is in line with writing performance. Richards 2006 suggest that grammatical competence is the knowledge that
students possess about a language covering their ability to compose or construct sentences production. Grammatical competence includes the knowledge about
elements of sentences parts of speech, tenses, phrases, clauses, and sentence patterns and how sentences are formed. Writing skill belongs to the productive
skill. It means that the focus of writing is more on the production in order to communicate well Harmer 2007. In second language writing, grammatical
competence is the knowledge that students possess about the vocabulary and the grammar or the structure of the sentences. Some research has proved the influence
of grammatical competence to the production of writing Nik 2011, Cheng 2013. Therefore, students who have grammatical competence, or the knowledge of
grammar, will be able to produce grammatical sentences. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
The common problems of learning grammar are due to the lack of varieties in the teaching techniques Gardner 2008. Students who are excellent in doing
grammar exercises may not be able to use the grammar well when they want to say something about themselves. It is because the teaching of grammar is still
based on rules, not meaning. Therefore, teachers now have changed the techniques of traditional approach to a more communicative approach. It is an
approach that teaches how to use grammar meaningfully in context Gardner 2008. Fearn and Farnan 2007 assert that integrating grammar and writing
should be defined in terms of grammar in writing, not grammar for writing. It means that the teaching of grammar is conducted altogether with the teaching of
writing. Therefore, in integrating grammar and writing, grammar practices should be meaningful for the students so that they will be able to produce meaningful
writing as well. The recent development of technology has provided opportunity in
integrating grammar and writing in the teaching learning process. Hegelheimer and Fisher 2006 suggest that the use of World Wide Web can develop the
learning process that integrates and teaches grammar and writing at the same time. Technology can be helpful in creating an inventive online grammar resource
designed to enhance students‟ awareness of difficult grammatical features. In addition, students‟ writings can be transformed and integrated into an effective
online resource, in which students can make use of them by studying them more in terms of the grammatical mistakes that they can find.
C. Web-based Grammar Practice
