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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
A. The Background of the Study
The recent national standard of education in Indonesia is decided on the Government Regulation No. 192005. It has the purpose of ensuring the
development of education in Indonesia by stating the minimum standard for every level of education. The content is about the standard of content, process,
graduated competence, teacher, and materials for education, cost, and evaluation. This curriculum has a function as a basis of planning, action, and controlling the
education to reach a good quality of education. It is stated in the curriculum that the students are supposed to master
English for communication. The purposes of English learning in Junior High School level are 1 to develop communicative competence either written or
spoken in the functional level; 2 to raise learners’ awareness about the importance of English in the global society; and 3 to develop students’
understanding about the relationship between language and culture. In short, the students should master both spoken and written discourse of English in order to
communicate and to use the language actively in the social environment. The curriculum in Indonesia is adapted from the genre-based approach.
This approach focuses on the text as the main resources in language learning. The goal is “to enable students to develop the knowledge and skill to deal with spoken
and written texts in social contexts” Nugroho and Hafrizon, 2009: 4. This approach is developed based on three basic assumptions: language learning is a
social activity; learning occurs more effectively if teachers are explicit about what is expected of students; and the process of learning language is a series of scaffold
developmental steps which address different aspects of language. The genre-based approach relies on the principle that learning is conducted through collaboration
of the students-teacher and among students. In line with the curriculum and genre-based approach, being able to
communicate is integrated as being able to create discourses in a certain level of
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literacy. The literacy level, in the term of Junior High School students, is the functional level. It means that the students should be able to communicate in
spoken or written discourse to have the daily activities done, for instance reading newspapers, manuals, or instructions. In addition, there are two skills which
naturally belong to the literacy skill; one of those is writing. It is one of the skills to be mastered by the students in learning English other than listening, speaking,
and reading. In some schools, most of the English classes are dominated by writing activities. Nevertheless, students rarely implement their skills in the real
life situation and cannot communicate well using their text. Written language is not the only way of communication using a
language. To communicate, people also produce the spoken form of a language. In comparison, writing is not merely about transcribing the spoken language into the
written form. Writing is considered as a complex skill since “people need to be able to form letters and words, and join these together to make words, sentences,
or a series of sentences that link together to communicate a message” Spratt, Pulverness, and Williams, 2010: 26. Palmer in Matthews, Spratt, and Dangerfield
1989: 71 says “ writing is a special skill that does not spring naturally from an ability to speak a language“ since errors are commonly found in students writing
not only in English L
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, but also in their first language L
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. The standard of curriculum is applied to every school in Indonesia,
including RSBI Rintisan Sekolah Berbasis Internasional which is expected to be internationally standardized. Faridi 2009: 3 states:
Menurut buku panduan yang dikeluarkan oleh Diknas Propinsi jawa Tengah th.20072008, pengertian sekolah bertaraf internasional adalah
suatu sekolah yang telah memenuhi Standar Nasional Pendidikan pada tiap aspeknya, meliputi: kompetensi lulusan, isi, prosess, pendidik, dan
tenaga kependidikan, sarana dan prasarana, pembiayaan, pengelolaan, penilaian dan telah menyelenggarakan serta menghasilkan lulusan
dengan ciri keinternasionalan.
In other words, that type of school should adapt andor adopt an education standard in the country or abroad which has a high quality and has been
approved internationally. SMP Negeri 1 Wonogiri is one of the RSBI schools that applies higher standard of the students, especially in English lesson. The passing
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grade for English lesson in this school is stated at 78.00. Although the students belong to RSBI school, their writing skills arent good enough and need to be
improved. They have a good interest in English but not in writing. The main problem faced by the students in writing a text is the difficulty
of sharing ideas in the written form. The indicators of this problem are clearly indicated in their works. The students rarely consult to dictionary and mostly use
their own interpretation about the spelling in writing, so that they write the words incorrectly. They also tend to use the literal translation of word and use it
improperly within a sentence. Furthermore, the students are not aware of the use of some grammatical aspects tense, article, preposition, pronoun, phrasal verb,
etc. . They frequently make mistakes in writing grammatically correct sentences. Once they make it, some details are forgotten, for example the articles. It is also
found that the students write the sentence in wrong word order and carelessly punctuate the text that may lead to misinterpretation. Besides, their writing texts
are sometimes incoherent. The ideas of the story are not well developed and the use of conjunction are ambiguous in some cases.
In addition, the classroom situation shows that the students did not directly do the task given. They keep on maintaining their activity which has no
relation with the lesson. Some of them are indicated not too interested in the
lesson. It seems that they get bored when they have to wait and see the model of the lesson. As a consequence, they prefer having a talk with the next friends to
paying full attention to the teacher. In SMP Negeri 1 Wonogiri, the students are allowed to bring personal
laptop with them. The students who bring their own laptop will operate it during the lesson. It may help them in learning, but it may also bring disadvantages when
uncontrolled. The students access the internet and forget about the lesson they sit in. It distracts their focuses, hence they work slowly. Another indicator of the
problem faced by the students is that they do not have enough self-confidence in their writing. They prefer not to show and not to share their writing to others.
The problems found are related to the material and teaching techniques, school facilities, and the students’ attitudes during the lesson. From the material
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and the technique point of view, the current sources of material are not communicative and it has a higher level than the students’ general ability. The
teacher does not distribute the textbook because of this reason. Furthermore, the facilities served in the school are not used effectively. The teacher only uses the
whiteboard during the lesson instead of the LCD projector that is available in the classroom and the students do not access the internet under any task of English
lesson. The most causes are coming from the students themselves. They rarely
practice their writing skill to communicate broadly. It is true that the students like to access internet which is basically a very rich resources to learn English;
however, they do not use it to practice whether they are not motivated to utilize it or really not interested in it. Besides, most of them easily lose their focuses during
the lesson. They are still in the range of children who have short time of interest. They could not be forced to stay in a topic for any longer than they want. Another
cause of the problem in students’ writing is the literal translation. They translate their mother tongue in writing which may lead to misunderstanding in
communication. It is mentioned in the syllabus that the standard competence of writing
skill for the eighth grade student is “expressing meaning in short written functional text and essay in descriptive, recount and exposition to communicate
with the closest environment andor in academic context to build good character”. This standard is then broken down into two basic competences:
1. Expressing the information in short written functional text accurately,
systematically, and acceptably to communicate with the closest environment andor in academic context to build good character.
2. Expressing meaning in short essay in descriptive, recount and exposition
accurately, systematically, and acceptably to communicate with the closest
environment andor in academic context to build good character.
Nevertheless, the students in SMP Negeri 1 Wonogiri could not reach the standard of competence which is drawn from the curriculum and the syllabus.
They need some improvements in their writing skills as indicated by the average
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score 74.45 that lies under the school minimum target 78.00 and the teaching- learning process.
The situation and condition that distract the learning process in reaching the target can be solved by optimizing the facilities in the school and the use of
internet in the classroom. Since 1990s, there is a new term TELL Technology Enhanced Language Learning that focuses on the utilization of internet use and
communication technology. There are many reasons to bring internet and technology into classroom, some of them are:
- Internet access is becoming increasingly available to learners
- Young learners are growing up with technologies, and it is a natural and
integrated part of their lives—it is a way of bringing the outside world into the classroom.
- English as an international language, is being used in technologically
mediated context. -
Technology, especially the Internet, presents new opportunities for authentic tasks and materials, as well as access to a wealth of ready-made ELT
materials. -
The Internet offers excellent opportunities for collaboration and communication among learners who are geographically dispersed.
- Technology is offered with published materials such as coursebook and
resource books for teachers. -
Learners increasingly expect language schools to integrate technology into teaching.
- Technology offers new ways for practicing language and assessing
performance. -
Technology can not only be used in the classroom, but also at home and even public area.
- Using a range of ICT tools can give learners exposure to and practice in all
of the four main language skills – speaking, listening, writing, and reading. adapted from Dudeney and Hockly, 2007: 7-8
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The internet huge range of materials and methods of communication can allow the students to discover language for themselves in a more immediate way
than by reading a textbook. Teeler 2000: 82 states ”the internet has advantages of providing up-to-date, authentic material in English, and opportunities for real
communication with native and non-native speakers”. In the term of writing, the students can grab many advantages of using internet as a learning resource. One
of the activities that can help the students in improving their writing skill is writing on blogs, since it can be done anytime and it is publicly available on the
internet. Campbell 2004 says: Because of the relative quickness and ease of publishing this type of
software affords, the number of users has grown tremendously since then, and we can now observe blogs being used for personal, educational,
journalistic, and commercial purposes.
Blogs also provide a real-world tool for learners with which to practice their written English, for example when it is used as a means for contacting learners
from other parts of the world in an international exchange Dudeney and Hockly, 2007: 90.
Blog is an online journal which is usually used to share ones thoughts, ideas, photos, or videos. It was first sprung from the idea of compiling a list of
interesting websites on the internet in 1999. In her article, Blood 2000 shares her note about blog as follows:
The original weblogs were link-driven sites. Each was a mixture in unique proportions of links, commentary, and personal thoughts and essays.
Weblogs could only be created by people who already knew how to make a website. A weblog editor had either taught herself to code HTML for fun,
or, after working all day creating commercial websites, spent several off- work hours every day surfing the web and posting to her site. These were
web enthusiasts.
The later weblogs more focus on a sort of short-form journal that are usually more about “something noticed on the way to work, notes about the weekend, a quick
reflection on some subject or another“ than about someone’s thoughts Blood, 2000. Furthermore, the rapid development of ICT has allowed the owner of
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weblog to maintain it with a basic knowledge of HTML code. There are also various services on web that provide free blogging.
The owners of blogs can continuously update it easily anytime they want. They do not need any special knowledge of HTML or FTP File Transfer
Protocol, thus “anyone who can type, copy, or paste can create and maintain a weblog” Campbell, 2003. For blogs are accessible and widely used nowadays,
the students may have been familiar with it, although they never have it before. In the classroom, blog can be utilized to teach writing. Students can post their
assignments on it and write any other things they want. Moreover, the applications on the blog allow students to customise its appearance and it will motivate them to
write on it. Campbell 2003 states: However, with a very basic knowledge of HTML, users can extend their
ability to customize the layout of their blog and even add pictures to enhance its attractiveness. Similar to an open journal, the accumulation of
writings and other content creates both a record of learning and a resource for others. Furthermore, a weblog is interactive, in the sense that readers can
respond to any given entry with a comment and even threaded discussions can take place depending on the software chosen.
Based on the considerations above, the title of this research is
UTILIZING STUDENT BLOGS TO IMPROVE WRITING SKILL An Action Research at 8th Grade of SMP Negeri 1 Wonogiri in the Academic
Year of 20102011. This research focuses on how to implement student blogs in
teaching writing. It also involves the teaching learning processes that happen in the classroom.
B. Problem Statement
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