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The last aspect is the process of teaching and learning English. The teacher, as it was said before, usually used the conventional method. The teacher usually gave
material by lecturing and giving exercise which sometimes were incapable of involving the students in the learning process and activities. The learning process was
usually teacher-centered one. Besides, based on the observation done by the researcher, the teaching-learning process was not quite encouraging the students to
learn writing since the media or the materials did not attract their interest. Moreover, the teacher rarely used group or pair work which can help the students to get chances
to improve themselves. Actually, group or pair work can facilitate the students to improve their learning. Besides that, group or pair work can give the students the
opportunity to share their ideas, and also get ideas from their peer.
C. Limitation of the problem
Based on further observation done by the researcher, it showed that the students in class VII D were quite heterogenic. Their intelligence and ability in
learning were various. Some of the students were dominant in the class, some of them were average in their level, and few of them were slow learners. However, most of
the students of class VII D were very active, cheerful, having good excitement in learning. Besides that, the students of class VII D showed some interest when they
are learning in group or pair. They liked to do the exercises with their peer in the group.
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Therefore, considering the situation and character of the students, the researcher intended to use peer-feedback technique as the way to improve the
students’ writing ability. Peer-feedback technique could be a good option for them in the learning process since peer-feedback technique used the
students’ friendship. Hence, they would not only get feedback by their peer but also get assistance in their
learning process later on. Besides that, peer-feedback could be a good treatment to give the students chances to develop their ideas on how to write English correctly
since they would get various responses from different readers.
D. Formulation of the problem
From the explanation above, the researcher formulated the problem. The formulation of the problem is: How can peer feedback activities be used to improve
writing abilities of the class VII D students of SMP Negeri 1 Mlati?
E. The objectives of the study
The objective of the study is to improve the students’ writing abilities using
peer feedback technique at class VII D of SMP Negeri 1 Mlati.
F. The significance of the study
Theoretical significance
This study is expected to give relevant resource to the English Department of Yogyakarta State University. This study can be taken into account as the resource in
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making thesis and enriching the students’ knowledge regarding the teaching writing
as well. In addition, this study can give beneficial reference for the other researchers
who also have interest in conducting a research on teaching writing.
Practical significance
This research can give assistance to the English teachers especially in SMP N 1 Mlati to help them improve the students’ writing ability. Besides that, the students
of class VII D in SMP N 1 Mlati are expected to be able to benefit from this study and get improvement on their writing ability through this study. Furthermore, this
study can help the researcher himself to be aware to the appropriate method in teaching English especially writing.
