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CHAPTER II THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
This chapter presents and discusses the concept of writing, the concept of recount text, Computer-Assisted Language Learning, Social Networking Site,
Facebook as Computer-Assisted Language Learning, teaching writing through Facebook, advantages and disadvantages of using Facebook in teaching writing, peer
assessment in writing, advantages and disadvantages of peer assessment, conceptual thinking, and relevant previous study.
A. The Concept of Writing
1. Definition of Writing
The definition of writing according to Langan is “Writing is a skill. People
who believe that writing is a „natural gift‟ rather than a learned skill may think they are the only ones for whom writing is unbearably difficult.”
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It means that people who think that writing is really hard judge that everyone else
‟s writing is easy. On the other words, that people imply that they simply do not have a talent for writing, while
others do. This attitude shows that they try to avoid writing and while they are writing, they do not try their best. So, writing is a learned skill that can be learned by
everyone without worrying whether they have talent to do this or not.
As Rosen points out in Hedge‟s book, writing is detached from the wide range of expressive possibilities in speech. Compared with speech, effective writing
requires a number of things: a high degree of organization in the development of ideas and information; a high degree of accuracy so that there is no ambiguity of
meaning; the use of complex grammatical devices for focus and emphasis; and a careful choice of vocabulary, grammatical patterns, and sentence structures to create a
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John Langan, College Writing Skills with Readings-6
th
Ed., New York: McGraw-Hill, 2005, p. 12.
style which is appropriate to the subject matter and the eventual readers.
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It can be said that writing is definitely different with speaking. A writer is unable to exploit all
the devices available to a speaker such as: gesture, body movement, facial expression, pitch tone of voice, stress, and hesitations. In contrast, a speaker can clarify and
revise ideas as listeners question or disagree directly while a writer cannot. From Tangpermpoon‟s opinion, writing is known as the most complicated
skill to master for language learners because they need to have several background knowledge of L2 about the rhetorical organizations, proper language use or specific
lexicon with which they want to deliver to their readers.
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When students write, they need to have some thoughts or ideas in their head to be expressed in their writing and
it takes some times. From that definition, it can be concluded that writing is a quite difficult skill to master for language learners.
From all definitions above, it shows that writing is a way for a person to show their personal thoughts about something, someone, or any other ideas. Not only that
but also it can be as a way to communicate with others if the writer shares their writing to someone else or public. By writing, someone can enhance their thinking
skill because writing needs well-organized ideas to make it interesting to read by the readers. Everyone can learn to write because writing is a skill not a natural gift.
2. Teaching Writing Approaches
There are three main approaches according to Tangpermpoon, they are:
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a. Product-Based Approaches
Basically, writing in product-based approaches has served to reinforce L2 writing in terms of grammatical and syntactical forms. Writing in the product-based
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Tricia Hedge, Resource Book for Teachers: Writing, New York: Oxford University Press, 1998, p. 5.
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Thanatkun Tangpermpoon, “Integrated Approaches to Improve Students Writing Skills for English Major Students”, ABAC Journal 28, No. 22008, p.1.
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Ibid, p. 6.
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