the process of gaining the language.
3
Referring to the theory of gaining a target language mentioned above, the process of gaining English in Indonesia is regarded
more as learning English as foreign language while in Malaysia more as acquisition. Based on the explanation above, the writer concludes that in teaching English as a
foreign language, the teacher should assist and guide students in the mastery of the material. In other words the teacher as a facilitator must be able to provide a good
method or technique in teaching and learning so that at the end of teaching activities the students will understand the subject that is taught.
B. Concept of Writing
Writing is as one of four skills in English that must be mastered by students. Writing is part of the syllabus in teaching of English. Writing has been characterized as a
written thinking. The students should be encouraged to express their ideas, experiences, thoughts and feelings through writing.
Then, writing is clearly much more dependent on how effectively we use the linguistic resources of the language, it would be wrong to conclude that all the
advantages are on the side of speech. While it is true that in writing we have the task of organizing our sentences carefully so as to make our meaning as explicit as
possible without the help of feedback from the reader, in the other hand we do not normally have to write quickly: we can rewrite and revise our sentences until we are
3
Ibid, p. 22
satisfied that we have expressed our meaning. Equally, the reader is in a more privileged position than the listener to some extent: he can read at his own pace and
reread as often as likes.
4
It means that to write to good writing the writer need to organize the sentences correctly.
Moreover, writing is a kind of linguistic behavior; a picture is not. It presents the sounds of language through visual symbols. Writing may be very important for one
group of students but much less important for others. The decision on how much writing to include will be made independently according to the needs of each group
of students. Writing is a skill which must be taught and practiced. Writing is essential features of learning a language because it provides a very good means of fixing the
vocabulary, spelling, and sentences pattern.
5
It means that writing is a skill that can improve others components of the language such as vocabulary, spelling, and
grammar. In addition, writing is a complex process, and most of the research literature
recognizes the difficulty it poses for students. It seems reasonable to expect, then, that the teaching of writing is complex as well.
6
It means writing is a thinking process in which ideas are arranged and combine with complex knowledge of target language as
structure, vocabulary, organization, content and language use. It is one of the means
4
Donn Byrne, Teaching Writing Skills New Edition, New York: Longman, 1993, p. 3
5
Patel and Preveen M. Jain, English Language Teaching Methods, Tools and Technique, Jaipur: Sunrise, 2008, p. 125
6
Vicki Urquhat and Monette Molver, Teaching Writing in the Content Areas. Alexandria: ASDC. 2005, p. 6
of communication use between the writer and readers to express ideas, interests, and experience in written form.
Based on those explanations, it can be concluded that writing is an activity to express and put on the ideas or thought on written form. It can be said that when we are trying
to write something, we need some steps. Writing is a progressive activity. It means that when we first write something down, we have already been thinking about what
we are going to say and how we are going to say it. It can be concluded that writing is never a-one step action, or in other words it is a process that has several steps.
Harmer states that writing process will be divided into four stages. They are: 1. Planning
Experienced writers plan what they are going to write. Before starting to write or type, they try and decide what it is they are going to say. For some writers this may
involve making detail notes. When planning, writers have to think about three main issues. In the first, place, they have to consider the purpose of their writing, the
audience they are writing for, and the content structure of the piece. 2. Drafting
We can refer to the first version of a piece of writing as a draft. This first ‘go’ at a text is often done on assumption that it will be amended later. As the writing process
proceeds into editing, a number of drafts may be produced on the way the final version.
