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evidence that symbol feedback had positive impact to the improvement of the students‟ skills in writing because it seemed impossible for the students to expect their teachers to use symbol
feedback if there was no advantage that they could take.
c. Symbols feedback helped the students find their weaknesses in writing
Symbol feedback could help the students find their weaknesses in writing meant that the students could see what areas that they needed to improve. When the teacher used symbol
feedback, the students could identify the kind of symbols that appeared in their papers. Therefore, the students needed to improve their skills in order to deal with their weaknesses.
Based on the interview, 12 students 66 said that symbol feedback could help them identify their weaknesses.
Students admitted that they could find their weaknesses by identifying what kind of
symbol that often occurred in their writing :
Extract 5 Windi
“I often see many circles on my paper, especially on the use of conjunctions and prepositions like in, on, or at. I realize
that I can’t use those preposition correctly. I am always confused to
use that, so I should learn to solve that.”
Extract 6 Ema
“When I read my writing, I look for the mistakes, so I can find my weaknesses by identifying the symbol that often occurs on my writing. For example, there are many circles on my writing, so
it means that I need to be more careful in word choice. So, that is my weakness.”
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Extract 7 Mela
“If the teacher gives me many symbols, it can help me find my weaknesses, so I should try harder to make my writing better.”
From these statements, I could see that symbol feedback helped the student recognize their weaknesses. It was very important for the students to know their weaknesses because it
could make them know the areas of writing skills that they needed to improve. Therefore, the students could learn from their own mistakes.
According to Chen 2009, “The purpose of providing feedback to the students is to help students identify their strengths and weaknesses, so that they can learn and improve those
areas ”p.162. It showed that helping students to identify their own weaknesses was very
important as it allowed the students to cover their weaknesses. Furlgor 2006 as cited in Hany 2009 found that indirect feedback was very useful in encouraging the students to reflect on
aspect of their writing and to improve their performances by solving the problem themselves p.70. Hence, Hany 2009 also found that feedback was very useful in teaching and learning
process, besides students would learn how to do self-evaluation, it also helped students to take greater confidence of their learning and increasing the students
‟ performances p.10. When the students knew what areas that they needed to improve, then the students could be more focus
on certain areas that they needed to make it better so they could cover their weaknesses.
d. Symbols feedback helped the students achieve their expectations
In writing, every student wanted to get good result. It was the most important thing that they had to achieve. In order to get this result, the students needed a kind of feedback that
could help them improve their skills in writing. This study found that symbol feedback could help the students achieve their expectations. By using symbol feedback, the students could
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learn from their mistakes to get better result. Since there was progress in their writing, the students deserved to get good marks as what they were expected. Based on the data, 90
students said that symbol feedback could help them get good grades. Students felt that symbol feedback helped them get better grade and it was very
important for them because they could achieve their expectations :
Extract 8 Ema
“Symbol feedback has an impact to my grades, it helps me get better and better grades, because
when I write something I try to be more careful to avoid the mistake. ”
Extract 9 Mela
“Symbol feedback can make my writing better, so I can get better grades. Yes, I think that’s the important point.”
These statements showed that the students understood the impact of symbol feedback to their grades. They felt that they could get better grades because they could improve their
writing. Based on the participants‟ experiences, symbol feedback was not only focus on grammar, but also on the idea and how to use the words and language appropriately. One of the
participants said that, “I received symbol feedback that identify wrong punctuation, idea, organization, and also word choice”. Therefore, there were many aspects that the students
needed to pay attention on in order to achieve their expectations. This result was supported by Nicole 2006 as cited in Wingate 2010 who thought that feedback which encouraged the
students do self-corrections enabled students ‟ goals and device action to achieve these
goals”p.529. If there were more efforts from the students, as it was experienced by the participants that they needed to pay attention on their writing liked grammar, word choice and
etc, it was believed that the students could minimize the errors and reach their expectations.
