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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Problem
It is believed that English plays an important role in the world nowadays since it has widely been used to communicate among people around
the world. English as the international language has proven its necessity in connecting people all around the world. Meanwhile, to be able to
communicate using English well, for example asking questions, sharing thoughts, ideas and feeling, people need to have good ability not only in oral
but also in written forms. Moreover, related to the development of technology, the use of English in written and electronic media strongly influence in
spreading news, issues, and the like. Due to the importance of English as a means of communication, one
that can master English well both in oral and written will be easier to gain a job, to study abroad and to be friends with foreigners. Furthermore, he can
also access any information for every field. Therefore, English is taught in all level of education including tenth grade students of senior high school. In fact,
the results of the students‟ learning of English were still far from satisfaction.
This phenomenon could not be separated from its surroundings including the teacher, the students themselves and the teaching-learning process happened
in the classroom. To master the four language skills of English - listening, speaking,
structure and writing- is not an easy thing to do. We believe that second
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language L2 learners find it difficult to master the productive skills especially in writing performance. Writing is considered as one indicator
towards students‟ achievement in learning English, and they need a good ability in writing in order to produce very good writing products. As stated by
Heaton 1974:138, the writing skill is more complex and difficult to teach, requiring mastery not only grammatical devices but also concept and
judgement. The writing process involves thinking skills, creative skills and some tight rules, such as the use of correct grammar, vocabulary, punctuation,
connectors, and cohesive devices. The tenth grade students of senior high school have less knowledge
and understanding in English, in oral and written forms. It is due to the reason that they are just graduates of junior high school. The lesson of English that
they got when they were in junior high school is not enough to make them confident in English. Moreover, most of the instructional materials of English
taught in junior high school are still being taught in senior high school, such as tenses, narrative, descriptive, recount texts. Although they have experienced
those lessons, many of them still get confused when taught the same topics. Whereas, the students need to have better understanding in English especially
for writing skills. Furthermore, they were not junior high school students anymore. Indeed, they are teenage learners. As they get older, they will learn
more and need to understand the lesson especially English better than that when they were in junior high school. For these reasons, the researcher
decided to do research in senior high school.
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Based on the limited preliminary observation and interviews held by the researcher and the teacher of English, the most complicated things faced
by the X-C students of SMA N 5 Magelang in writing texts were related to vocabulary, the use of tenses, and writing mechanics. They still found it
difficult to deal with word choice, grammatical rules, and punctuation. They did not get the words for what they wanted to express because of their low
vocabulary mastery; they were confused about when to use whether simple past tense or simple present tense; and they did not really pay attention to
capital letter and punctuation. Besides, the teacher did not provide the students with enough activities in writing; the activities done in the classroom mostly
dealt with reading comprehension. When conducting writing activities, students needed an opportunity to
express their feelings and opinions freely and without hesitation. Otherwise, they had no much life experience to be put into writing texts and they lacked
knowledge related to writing mechanics. We could see that many teachers considered correcting students‟ grammatical and mechanical errors as part of
their obligation which resulted in the students become demotivated and discouraged to write. From this situation, the role of teachers needed to be
changed from the miserable human being into the one who facilitated the students to write in a relaxed atmosphere and promoted their English writing
fluency. When the teacher‟s role was like partner for the students in daily life, it is possible to build the situation where the students could connect their
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thoughts, feelings, and experiences to the learning activities implemented at school comfortably and were able to write as fluently as possible.
Considering the benefits of being fluent in writing, the researcher proposed a new way to improve the students‟ writing fluency by doing regular
practices. The dialogue journal is believed as one way to improve the students‟ writing fluency. According to Tompkins 2003: 235, dialogue
journal is an authentic writing activity and provide the opportunity for real communication between students or between a student and a teacher. Students
write as much as they need and the teacher writes back regularly, responding to students‟ questions and comments, introducing new topics, or asking
questions. The teacher is a participant in an ongoing, written conversation with the students, rather than an evaluator who corrects the students‟ writing.
The technique is very appropriate to be applied in the teaching and learning process of writing because it helps students naturally develop an
awareness of the communicative purpose of reading and writing as they participate in a written conversations with the teacher over an extended period
of time. Therefore, the dialogue journal technique is regarded as a technique that could be used to overcome the problems and to help the students improve
their writing fluency. Therefore, the research is needed to solve the problems and to improve the students‟ writing fluency.
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B. Identification of the Problem
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