of 12, 2 attention spans are lengthening as a result of intellectual maturation, 3 varieties of sensory input are still important, 4 factor
surrounding ego, self-image, and self-esteem are at their pinnacle, and 5 becoming increasingly adult-like in their ability to make those
occasional diversions from ‘here and now’ nature of immediate communicative contexts to dwell on grammar point or vocabulary item.
In conclusion, adolescents are an age of transition from children to adults. They have different characteristics whether physical, intellectual, or
developmental, those need special attentions. However, that if they are engaged, they have a great capacity to learn, a great potential for
creativity, and a passionate commitment to things which interest them.
d. Teaching writing in Junior High School
Teaching writing in English as a second language is not surprisingly coincided with those of the teaching of other skills, especially
listening and speaking. In teaching communicative language, the teachers learn more and more about how to teach fluency, not just accuracy,
how to use authentic texts and contexts in the classroom, how to focus on the purposes of linguistic communication, and how to
capitalize on learners intrinsic motives to learn Brown, 2007: 390. Hyland 2002: 76 states that writing is learned rather than taught,
and the teacher’s best methods are flexibility and support. This means
responding to the specific instructional context, particularly the age,
first language and experience of the students, their writing purposes, and the target writing communities,
and providing
extensive encouragement in the form of meaningful contexts, peer involvement,
prior texts, useful feedback and guidance in the writing process. In this case, the teachers have some roles to support the
students in the writing process. According to Harmer 2007: 330-331, there are some important roles of the teacher such a motivator, a resource,
and a feedback provider. As a motivator, the teacher motivates the students by creating the right conditions for the generation of ideas,
persuading them of the usefulness of the activity, and encouraging them to make efforts for maximum benefits. As a resource, the teacher
should be ready to supply information and language where necessary. Then, the teacher should give responses positively and encouragingly to
the content of what the students have written, as a feedback provider. In Indonesia, English in Junior High School is targeted to make the
students reach the functional level which is to communicate in oral or written language to solve the daily problem. In addition, based on the
standard of competence of English lesson in KTSP 2006, teaching writing in junior high school is focused on expressing meanings interpersonal,
ideational textual in many kinds of interactional written texts and monolog especially in the form of descriptive, narrative, spoofrecount,
procedure, report, and anecdote to interact with the surrounding. Whereas, according to the basic competency of writing, the grade VIII students
of junior high school are expected to be able to express meanings by using steps of right rhetoric development in written texts especially in the form
of narrative, descriptive, recount, and anecdote. In particular, the standard of competence of writing skills for the grade VIII students of Junior High
School is to express the meaning of written functional texts and simple short essays in the form of descriptive, narrative, and recount to interact
with the surroundings. The description of the standard competence and the basic competency is presented in the following table.
Table 1: The standard of competence and basic competency of writing for grade VIII in the second semester.
Standard of competence Basic competency
Menulis 12. Mengungkapkan makna dalam
teks tulis fungsional dan esei pendek sederhana berbentuk recount dan
narrative untuk berinteraksi dengan lingkungan sekitar
12. Expressing the meaning of written functional texts and simple
short essays in the form of recount and
narrative to
interact with
surroundings Mengungkapkan makna dalam bentuk teks
tulis fungsional pendek sederhana dengan menggunakan ragam bahasa tulis secara
akurat, lancar dan berterima untuk berinteraksi dengan lingkungan sekitar
Expressing meaning in the form of simple short functional text using various
written language accurately, fluently, and acceptable to interact with
surroundings
Mengungkapkan makna dan langkah
retorika dalam esei pendek sederhana
dengan menggunakan ragam bahasa tulis secara akurat, lancar dan berterima untuk
berinteraksi dengan lingkungan sekitar berbentuk recount dan narrative
Expressing the meaning and rhetorical steps of simple short essays using
various written
language accurately,
fluently and acceptable to interact with surroundings in the form of recount and
narrative texts
In conclusion, the students of Junior High School are expected to be able to communicate in English well in both oral and written language.
They are expected to be able to comprehend and express the meaning of simple transactional and interpersonal conversations, short functional
and monolog texts, simple functional texts and short essays in the form of descriptive, procedure, narrative, recount and report. Meanwhile the
second year students are expected to be able to comprehend and express the meaning of simple transactional and interpersonal
conversations, short functional and monolog texts, simple functional texts and short essays in the form of descriptive, narrative and recount.
3. Peer Response
