for an interesting story. An e-story is producing longer stories which can be in print or online. Another similar to a PowerPoint book strategy, comic strips or
comic books help participants draw the pictures and write dialogue. Bulletin board showcase facilitates participants to write more. Placed the classroom
outside, story with pictures can be accessed by more participants. In addition, to display the participant
s’ writings, a website can be an interesting media. More people can read the writings.
2. Teaching Writing
a. Principles for Teaching Writing
There are some principles of teaching writing to make sure that the process of teaching and learning writing run well. Nation 2009: 93 believes that
trainer should follow the principles to evaluate the teaching and learning process so that it always runs on the right track. The principles are meaning-focused
input, meaning-focused output, language-focused learning, and fluency development.
1 Meaning-Focused Input
This principle tells us that learning should bring experience and knowledge to the participants. The experience and knowledge guide the
participants to be able to write well. When the input materials are well-prepared, participants are more easily constructing meaning to be delivered through their
writing.
2 Meaning-Focused Output
Participants should be aware that there are many kinds of genre in writing. Therefore, they should learn to write in different kinds of genre. Different genre
has different writing conventions which lead to different language feature that should be applied. This principle also helps the participants have some writing
practices in the range of genre. Each genre has also its purpose. There is certain message to be delivered by participants through their writing in certain genre. The
participants should be able to communicate with the target readers. In relation to the participants, this principle also tells us that writing
activity should be based on their interests. In this case, the writing instruction should be constructed based on the needs analysis which considers the
participant s’ interests, what they can write, and what they want to write. Thus, the
writing activity helps them increase their language knowledge, their quality of writing, and the speed in writing.
3 Language-Focused Learning
In this principle, there are some points for participants and trainers to pay attention to. There are some parts of writing process that participants should pass
during writing certain text. Participants, especially for those who are not literate in the target language, should pay more attention to clarity and fluency.
Participants should also be aware of ethical issues involved in writing. To get better writing, trainers should arrange for feedback and provide it for the
participants. 4
Fluency Development To increase the participant
s’ writing speed, repetitive activities should be provided by trainer for the participants to work on. Make sure that participants
have reasonable speed for a very simple set of material. The material should be familiar for them so that they are encouraged to have some activities and to write
more.
b. Constructing Writing Materials
English trainers, especially those who teach English for Specific Purpose, are demanded to develop their own materials. Trainers should understand the
context, the participants, the stakeholders, the physical setting, the environment, the time allocation, etc. Understanding them, trainers should develop materials
that meet the participant s’ needs.
As stated by Graves 2000: 150, materials development is creating, choosing or adapting, and organizing materials and activities to help the
participants reach the goals of the course. There are some points that the trainer should handle. They are what trainer uses
– textbook, text, pictures, worksheets, video, and so on - , what techniques that the trainer uses, and what kinds of
activities that the trainer uses.
The developed materials should be in line with the participant s’ needs as
the materials can support their enthusiasm in learning. The materials should be also authentic because they become the models of the target language. Trainers
can’t give a random material without considering who the participants are, what the learning objectives are, and what kinds of context are. Trainers should choose,
adapt, or develop materials based on some considerations. According to Graves 2000: 152-155, there are some bases that trainers should consider as the
following points. 1
activities should draw on what students know their experience, their current situation and be relevant to them
2 activities should focus on students’ outside of the class needs, if
appropriate 3
activities should build students’ confidence 4
activities should allow students to problem solve, discover, analyze 5
activities should help students develop specific skills and strategies 6
activities should help students develop specific language and skills they need for authentic communication
7 activities should integrate the four skills of listening, speaking, reading,
and writing 8
activities should enable students to understand how a text is constructed 9
activities should enable students to understand cultural context and cultural differences
10 activities should enable students to develop social awareness
11 activities should be as authentic as possible
12 activities should vary the roles and groupings
13 activities should be of various types and purposes
14 activities should use authentic texts or realia when possible
15 activities should employ a variety of materials
Graves 2000: 152-155
Developing materials in ongoing process is what trainers should do. To achieve the goals and objectives that are established by the stakeholder, trainers
should follow on what basis trainer constructs materials. Activities are factors that really influence the result of the participant
s’ learning. So, the activities should also meet the participant
s’ needs.
c. Assessing Writing
Scoring the participants activities is important to have a measurement of what they have already achieved. Weigle 2007: 182 proposes three advantages
of using scoring rubric to assess writing. First, scoring rubric can role as a teaching tool as well as a testing tool. The participants have their own rubrics to
measure themselves by comparing some of the criteria stated on the rubric. Second, the use of scoring rubric can also provide the trainer a standard of
consistent scoring. Then, the last is that scoring rubric can simplify the grading process. It is also easy for both trainer and participants to understand.
For this research, the grading scales by Brown and Bailey in Brown 2004: 244-245 were implemented. The criteria were managed into five
categories including organization 20, content 25, language use 25, vocabulary 20, and mechanics 10 which were scored in four ranges from
excellent to very poor.
