IMPROVING STUDENTS’ COMPETENCE IN WRITING DESCRIPTIVE TEXT THROUGH “FRESH” TECHNIQUE (A Classroom Action Research in the Eighth Grade of SMP N 2 Karanglewas, Banyumas in Academic Year 2012 / 2013) - repository perpustakaan
CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW A. Writing 1. Definition of Writing Writing is a productive and expressive activity. According to Tarigan (1994: 3), writing is a language skill which is used to
communicate indirectly to other people. Since this is used to communicate indirectly, there must be processes which have to be fulfilled. Moreover, Lyons (1987: 2) mentions writing is clearly a complex process, and competent writing is frequently accepted as being the last language skill to be acquired (for native speakers of the language as well as the foreign/second language learners). Those means that to master writing, students need to have ability in arranging ideas to written form as the expression of what they think about.
When the students want to get a good writing, they have to fulfil some processes in it.
Tarigan (1994: 21) also states that writing is an activity to produce or draw graphic symbols which describe a language which is understood by people, so that other people can read the graphic symbols if they understand the language and graphic itself. This means that writing is a process of expressing thought or ideas in a written
6 form which is used for comunicating the ideas to other people. Since the ideas or thoughts are delivered indirectly, the writer should use the exact diction, and moreover, understandable form to get the readers catch the meaning of the writing.
In addition, Lyons (1987: 1) states that writing is a form of problem solving in which the writer faces two main tasks. Those are generating ideas in language and composing these ideas into a written structure adapted to the needs of the reader and the goals of the writer.
Based on some descriptions above, it can be concluded that writing is an activity of expressing ideas into a form of written symbols, which this writing activity needs a good consideration in using vocabulary, grammar and other writing’s elements.
2. The Purposes of Writing There are some arguments about the purpose of writing.
Harmer (2004: 39) states there are two purposes of writing that are generally taken to apply to students who are studying general English at schools and institutes in their own country or as transitory visitors in a target language country.
a. Real Purpose Real purpose writing tasks are precisely the one teacher can predict the students will probably need to perform at some stages. This means that in the real purpose of writing, students are taught to apply the practical English, for example, writing for such application letter that might be useful for the students’ needs in the future.
b. Invented Purpose Here, students are unlikely to be directly relevant to their future needs. A popular activity in many classrooms is to have students write letters or passages in media such as magazines, advertisements, or newspaper. The statement above means that this kind of writing activity seems not really directly useful for their real lives, but these activities can be used as the development of genre that they have learned at school. For example, when the students learn about a descriptive text, it is hoped that, some day, the students can describe what they see and send it to mass media such as magazines, news paper and other written media.
3. Writing Competence
Laksmi (2006: 144) states writing does not merely mean applying grammatical rules; it is more abo ut the students’ learning to communicate their ideas in written forms. This means if the students are able to present their ideas into a written form well, their writing competence will improve too. For the beginners, they may have some mistakes in writing because they are still learning basic grammar. However, the point in writing here is students attempt to construct ideas in mind into a proper writing arrangement.
Moreover, Krashen and Lee (2004: 10) mention writing can make people smarter. When people write something down on a page, they make a representation of their thoughts, of their “cognitive structures.” It can be concluded that writing shows students’ competence in mastering English skill. Here, students exploit their cognitive skills in representing thoughts in a written form.
4. Teaching Writing
Before a teacher teaches writing to students, she or he has to know the process in writing itself. Adapted from Tompkins in Laksmi (2006: 146-147), writing process consists of prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing.
a. Prewriting 1) Students choose a topic.
2) Students gather and organize idea. 3) Students define a topic sentence.
b. Drafting 1) Students write a rough draft.
2) Students emphasize on the content rather than mechanics.
c. Revising 1) Students share their writing with teacher or in writing groups.
2) Students participate constructively in discussions about classmates’ writing.
3) Students make changes in their writings to reflect the reactions and comments of both teacher and classmates. Between the first and final drafts, students make substantive rather than only minor changes.
d. Editing 1) Students proofread their own and or classmates writings.
2) Students increasingly identify and correct their own mechanical errors.
e. Publishing 1) Students publish their writing in appropriate form.
2) Students share their finished writing with teacher.
As the things that should be considered when a teacher wants to teach writing in order to get them know the process of writing, Harmer (2004: 11) mentions a number of strategies which a teacher needs to consider.
a. The way a teacher gets the students to plan.
Before getting the students to write, a teacher can encourage them to think about what they are going to write, by planning the content and the sequence of what they will put down on paper. There are various ways to do this; one of the examples is brainstorming, where the students can be in pairs or groups discussing the ideas they have. A teacher can give the students guided task as well, which consists of some activities which lead students to plan the further task.
b. The way a teacher encourages the students to draft, reflect, and revise.
Students who unused to process writing lessons will need to be encouraged to reflect on what they have written and learned on how to treat first drafts as first attempts, not as finished products.
c.
The way a teacher responds to the students’ writing. In order for a process writing approach to work well, some teachers may need to rethink the way in which they react to their students’ work. In place of making corrections to a finished version, they will need, at times, to respond to a work in progress.
B. Descriptive Text 1. The Nature of Descriptive Text
Based on the syllabus and the semester program on junior high school at the eighth grade, descriptive text is one of the text types which is taught in the beginning of the semester. Descriptive text is one of the easier text types since it is usually used in daily activities.
A descriptive text is a text that describes the features of someone, something, or a certain place. The generic structures of descriptive text are identification and description. The identification of a descriptive text identifies phenomenon which will be described.
While, the description describes parts, qualities and characteristics (Wardiman, 2008: 46)
Further, description is about sensory experience
- – how something looks, sounds, tastes. Mostly is about visual experience, but description also deals with other kinds of perception (Kane, 2000: 352) 2.
The Language Features of Descriptive Text
There are some main language features of descriptive text:
a. Specific Participant Descriptive test describes about specific object, not in general, and unique.
b. The Use of Adjectives to Clarify Noun When people want to describe a thing, they may use certain adjectives to clarify the appearance of the thing. They may add the look, perceptions, smell, colours, etc. to make the things described clearer.
Examples: beautiful beach, handsome man, famous place, etc. c. The Use of Simple Present Tense Pattern: Subject + Verb1+…. Subject + Verb s/es + ….
For subject: They / We For subject: He / She I / You It
d. The Possession of Certain Functions 1) To talk about things in general.
Examples: Nurses look after patients in hospitals.
Students bring books to study at school. People take a bath twice a day. 2) To say something happens all the time or repeatedly.
Examples: I usually go to school by bicycle.
Mother goes to market every morning. She always brings her coat to her office. 3) To explain general truth.
Examples: The moon goes around the earth.
Sun rises in the east and sets in the west. e. The Use of Common Adverbs 1) Every morning/day/week/month/year 2) Once, twice, three times, four times, etc.
3) Always, usually, sometimes, often, never, seldom.
Murphy (1994: 4)
f. The Use of Action Verbs Action verbs are verbs which show the performance of an action, the activity can be seen.
Examples: run, sleep, cut, walk, etc.
g. The Use of Determiners There are determiners which are usually used: articles (the, a, an), demonstratives (this, that), numerals (two, three, etc.), possessives (my, their, her, etc.), quantifiers (some, many, etc.) (Rozi, 2012: 1) 3.
Evaluating Descriptive Text
The type of test to evaluate writing descriptive text is subjective test. The subjective test which will be used is essay question. From the question given, students make descriptive text by using its generic structure; identification and description. They also use the language feature of descriptive text such as simple present tense, action verbs, noun phrase, and adverbial phrase.
There are some aspects of writing that can be evaluated. According to Nurgiyantoro (2001: 307), the aspects that can be evaluated in writing are: a. Content (The Agreement with the Title Chosen)
This means that a good writing is when the title represents the content of it. The content of a text should be relevant or equivalent and describe the title in complete. Brown (2004: 73) states the writing section measures the ability to write English, including the ability to generate, organize, and develop ideas, to support those ideas with examples or evidence, and to compose a response to one assigned topic in standard written English. So, it can be concluded that the more students can develop their ideas which also loads some good supporting ideas to be a good content, the better their writing will be.
b. Organization (Paragraph Unity, Coherence, and Cohesion) The way students organize their paragraph is important if a teacher wants to evaluate their writing. However, a good text consists of paragraphs which are arranged well with some connecting words which can make the paragraphs coherent.
c. Vocabulary (The Precision of Using Vocabulary) Vocabulary is the most important thing that forms a phrase, sentence, and, further, paragraph. Rivers in Nunan (1992: 11) writes that vocabulary is essential for successful study on the second language. In writing, a writer should use the appropriate vocabulary to express what they want to write. The diction chosen will determine the level of students’ vocabulary mastery.
d. Language (Tenses and Structure) However, tenses and structure mastery is really necessary to have paragraphs constructed. It is difficult for students to arrange a good paragraph if they lack of tenses and stucture mastery.
e. Mechanics (Spelling and Punctuation) Paragraph is a combination of some sentences which needs good spelling and punctuation. If the use of punctuation is not appropriate, the paragraphs will be unreadable.
In this research, the writer will evaluate the students’ writing on their content, organization, language, vocabulary and mechanics. Fluency is also important to be considered. The flow of students’ thoughts is important since it is the basic thing that the students must have in writing any kinds of text especially descriptive text.
C. “FRESH” Technique 1. Definition of “FRESH” Technique
Writing is the last skill which should be mastered after the English learners master listening, speaking and reading. Even the native still have difficulties in doing writing activities. Lyons (1987: 2) states few people write spontaneously and few feel comfortable with a formal writing task intended for the eyes of someone else. As the problems above, the teacher should find the effective way to teach writing to the students.
Gaffield-Vile in Harmer (2003: 259) states that creative writing is a journey of self-discovery, and self-discovery promotes effective learning. If the students find something they are learning by themselves, they will be easy to understand and apply it. They will be more interested on the thing they understand well. Moreover, Badley in Hudson (2011: 34) states that creative writing as a new or alternative form of writing in higher education, which is perceived as developmental, therapeutic and self-expressive rather than academic.
From the both quotations above, it can be concluded that creative writing can be used as the expressive writing which more supports the learners to find what they should write especially in writing. Learners can find their ideas through the surrounnding that they see or think.
This underlied the “FRESH” technique.
“FRESH” is an acronym which each letter has meaning. “F” stands for “Fact”, “R” stands for “Reason”, “E” stands for “Elaboration”, and “SH” stands for “Shift”, it also can mean decision or conclusion (Faisal, 2010: 8). It is a technique of an application of creative writing.
“FRESH” technique itself can be seen as the way of developing descriptive text’s generic structure. There are two main parts of descriptive text; those are general identification and descriptions. Students are more likely confused on what they have to write as the general identification and what they have to write as the descriptions.
While in “FRESH” technique, students will get easy to construct a descriptive text because the two parts before are developed specifically. There will be four parts provided.
“F” is FACT which means the facts that are related to the topic which will be developed in writing descriptive text. Here, students are required to think about the general facts which can be found easily on their minds. Wishon and Burks (1980: 65) mention that another method of paragraph development is to begin with a general statment and support the statement with a number of sentences giving particular details or additional information. This supports the writer that the first thing students must do is write the general things of subject which the students want to describe.
“R” is REASON which consists of some reasons which can support the facts they have written before. The reason which will be mentioned can be sense impressions. Description gives sense impressions
- – the feel, sound, taste, smell, and look of things (Wishon and Burks, 1980: 128). This will really help the students since they can enclose their personal feelings in describing the subject.
(ELABORATION). Wishon and Burks (1980: 129) say that the writer may begin with a dominant impression and proceed to specific details.
This means that after establishing generals statements which have mentioned before, students must develop it into the detail one so that they will get the paragraphs which are creative, complete, and coherent.
The last part is SHIFT. This part is in the form of conclusion of all things the students have written before.
2. Teaching Writing Descriptive Text Using “FRESH” Technique
Based on the previous research (Faisal 2010: 9), here are the procedures of teaching descriptive text using “FRESH” technique:
a. Dealing with FACT, the students are asked to think and draft the general facts of subject they want to describe. Example “Bunny, My Rabbit”: “I have a rabbit. Its name is Bunny.”
b. Coming to the second part, REASON, the teacher invites the students to write the reasons or impressions of the subject . “I like Bunny because it is cute and funny.
”
c. Teacher encourages the students to elaborate the draft they have made before as the development. The teacher guides the students to make description why Bunny is cute and funny.
“It has a white and soft fur. Its body is fat. It likes eating
carrots very much. It likes to enter the house, especially my parents’ room.”
d. The last step is making conclusion of all ideas which have been described.
“Those are the reason why Bunny is cute and funny. My family
and I love it very much
.” From those sentences, it will form a descriptive paragraph:
I have a rabbit. Its name is Bunny. I like Bunny because it is cute and funny. It has a white and soft fur. Its body is fat. It likes eating carrots very much. It likes to enter the house, especially my parents’ room. Those are the reason why Bunny is cute and funny. My family and I love it very much.
3. The Advantages of “FRESH” Technique
There are some advantages which can be gained from “FRESH” technique:
a. It gives more details on what should be written in constructing descriptive text.
b. It is a kind of creative writing which help teachers and students to get the effective way to learn how to write descriptive text.
c. It is easy to apply by the students because “FRESH” technique is easy to remember, so they can use it easily.
D. Basic Assumption
Writing skill becomes the most difficult skill which should be mastered by English learners. In writing text especially, students need to combine what they want to write with how they organize their ideas into written form.
English teachers are required to teach how to write, even though it is rather difficult to be done. Therefore, they are asked to find an efficient and appropriate ways to teach writing to their students. Considering that making a good writing needs process, the use of an effective technique is suggested.
“FRESH” technique becomes a new technique which will help students to practice their writing skill. Through its details and clearness of descriptive text parts, students are provided by an easy way to write descriptive text, without leaving the process of writing itself. Its details will help students to find ideas to write, so they will develop their descriptive text easier.
There is a research which shows that the use of such technique is effective to improve students’ competence in writing descriptive text.
Styati (2010: 49) conducted a research toward the effectiveness of clustering technique to teach writing especially in writing descriptive text.
Hogue in Styati (2010: 30) says that clustering technique is a technique of listing-like activity to get ideas to write about something and write them in circles or bubbles around the topic. The result showed that the use of clustering technique effective for teaching writing descriptive text.
From this, it could be concluded that through “FRESH” technique, students would be able to write descriptive text better. It is because they will be able to organize their ideas in developing their descriptive text easier.
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY A. Method of Research The research which was done was a classroom action research. Arikunto (2010: 132) states that classroom action research is an observation of
activities which are intentionally given and happen in a class. The activities which will be done is usually as a pressure or process improvement learning process. This means that classroom action research is usually used for teaching learning process betterment to get the students better in mastering the materials given.
B. Place and Time of the Research
1. Place of the Research The research was conducted in SMP N 2 Karanglewas at the class VIII E academic year 2012/2013.
2. Time of the Research This research was done from August until December 2012. The complete schedule is represented as the table follows:
23