5 difficult words before listening activity, and many others, all of which belong to
scaffolding, an assistance given by an expert to students to accomplish a certain goal of learning Bruner, 1984. However, most of the tutors did not know that they
were actually using scaffolding when the researcher asked them. The use of scaffolding in the previous semesters were quite random and not well organized and
structured, although scaffolding is proved that it can reduce learning ambiguity and thereby increase growth opportunities Doyle, 1986 as cited by Hogan and Pressley,
1997. For this reason, in this research, the researcher would like to organize and implement a scaffolding learning to find out the extent to which scaffolding as an
instructional strategy can help PGSD students learn writing and the advantages of using scaffolding in learning writing. The result of the research, therefore, can be
new reference for teaching and learning activities in English Club PGSD, whether this strategy is worth applying in the following semesters.
B. RESEARCH PROBLEM
Based on the research background above, the problems are formulated as follows:
1. To what extent can scaffolding as an instructional strategy help students learn
writing? 2.
What are the advantages of using scaffolding in learning writing in English Club PGSD class 1D.1?
6
C. PROBLEM LIMITATION
This research is limited to the analysis of the extent to which scaffolding as an instructional strategy can help students learn writing and the advantages of using
scaffolding in learning writing. Scaffolding aims to be a new teaching and learning writing in mastering recount text. The writing itself was also limited to the mastery
of the use of past tense, vocabulary, idea organization, and minimum requirements of writing. This limita
tion was chosen to answer the respondents’ difficulties in constructing an English text, which are organizing ideas, choosing correct words in
writing, and using correct grammar, which can be completely seen in the result of pre-research questionnaire analysis in Appendix 4. These difficulties were then
covered in teaching the three writing elements: idea organization, vocabulary, and minimum requirements of writing. Further, the scaffolding itself was also limited.
This study made the focus of the use of scaffolding on the five types of scaffolding as a teaching writing technique proposed by Roehler and Cantlon as cited in Hogan
and Pressley 1997. Equally important, the researcher also made a limitation on the writing teaching approach. The process approach, an approach focusing on
process rather product, was chosen as a way to apply the scaffolding. This approach aimed to enable chunks of help called scaffolding to happen in the learning process.
Afterwards, the researcher also made a limitation to the research methodology. Due to the lack of resources and time, the researcher could not
involve another teacher as the scorer of students’ writing. However, the researcher employed a scoring rubric to keep the scoring process as reliable as possible. Last,
the researcher made a limitation to the research’ participants. The participants of
7 the research were the semester-one PGSD USD students taking English Club
course. The students who became the participants of the research were the ones belonging to Class 1D.1 in academic year 20152016. Semester-one students were
selected because they are still in the early year of studying in college. Besides, they also belong to the early year of learning English in university level. It is hoped that
the scaffolding organized by the researcher can help them to be independent English learner in the next semesters.
D. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
