to share ideas one another Tithecott Tang, 1999. Besides, the essential point found in peer feedback is that developing self-autonomy is important to make
them active in the writing process. In addition, One of the reasons why this technique is used in the study is because it provides the learners a strong sense of
group unity and also develops values of caring and sharing among the students. Moreover, they will feel free and comfortable when they do something
with their peer group. That is why the researcher believes that using the peer response technique
can improve students’ writing ability. It is because there are some benefits that are offered by the peer response technique in the English teaching learning process,
especially in writing. Based on the reasons above the researcher will use peer response to improve the writing ability of the students of SMP 3 Berbah.
B. Identification of the Problem
As stated in the background of the study, the students of SMP 3 Berbah have many difficulties in writing. Below are the descriptions of the problems
which were found in the field. The first problem was related to the students. The students, in fact, had
first thought that learning English especially English writing was difficult. They were unmotivated to join the lesson. In writing, students are supposed to be not
only the object of learning but also the subject of learning. It means that besides receiving what is given by their teacher, they have to learn and to develop
themselves by themselves. However, the students just did what the teacher asked.
They did not have initiative to learn writing and to produce a text by themselves. They also rarely practiced writing outside the school. They did not give
themselves more time to practice of writing while the teacher did not have much time to focus on their writing
In relation to students’ ability in writing, the students of SMP 3 Berbah had limited vocabulary. The more limited vocabulary the students have, the poorer
writing they produce. The limited vocabulary affects the competence of the students in choosing the adequate words when they do the process of writing. The
students often asked to their classmate about the English word to write. The next problem was grammar. They got difficulty in setting up their writing tasks
correctly. In their writings, from the observation, the researcher found so many grammatical mistakes such as mistakes in verb agreement. It seemed that their
mastery of grammar was relatively low. It affected on their difficulty in composing their writings. Ideas and writing mechanic was the other problem. The
students actually had many creative ideas to write. However they have difficulties in organizing ideas. They often asked their friend how to start their writing. When
they started writing, they did not use the appropriate organization of the text. They also had problem in writing mechanic including the punctuation, the coherence,
the cohesion, capitalization and the organization. Then the second problem was related to the teacher. The problem is related
to the teacher’s media and technique to teach writing. The teacher often only followed the material from the text book and LKS. The teacher only explained the
topic based on the book. The feedback, students learning needs in writing, was not
given sufficiently to the students. Sometimes the teacher only gave some codes and correcting marks on students
’ writing, but the mark was not understandable to the students. The media used by the teacher was only the book and the LCD
projector. The students sometimes feel bored of it and lost their motivation to learn. The students need more task or exercise in writing to support them
mastering the skill. However, the students said, in the interview, that the tasks or exercises from the teacher were not enough. The teacher often only tested them,
following the material in the course book, many written expression tasks. Based on those problems, a new formula as a solution of the problems to improve the
students’ comprehension in English, especially in writing is needed.
C. Problem Limitation
