12 writing phases. Art offers the illustrations to the students as a way to develop the
ideas of the story. The researcher guided the students by providing the picture series as one of
teaching media. As stated by Raimes 1983 that a set of parallel pictures –
pictures that show a similar scene or tell a similar story –provides material that
offers guidance in vocabulary, sentence structure, and organization let the students write about the new subject matter; in this research it focuses on
narrative writing.
13
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
In this chapter, the researcher presents a discussion on some theories which constitute the foundation of this research. This chapter is divided into two
major parts: theoretical description and theoretical framework. In the theoretical description, the researcher discusses the writing skill,
picture series technique, and classroom action research. Meanwhile, the second part is about the theoretical framework. It will discuss the synthesis and the
summaries of the theories which will be used by the researcher to solve the problems.
A. Theoretical Description
In the theoretical description, the researcher discusses the theories which are related to the study. The theories are the writing skill, narrative text, picture
series, and classroom action research. The followings are the explanations of those theories employed in this research.
1. Writing Skill
Writing skills become the major point discussed in this research. This part will discuss the theories of writing skills. There are two sub-points related to the
theories, namely the nature of writing and the teaching of writing. The nature of writing discusses the definition and the process of writing, whereas the teaching
of writing will elaborate the reason why the teachers have to teach writing as one of skills and the approach of teaching writing
14 .
a. The Nature of Writing
Writing is one of the language skills which have to be learnt by students. Nunan
2003 defines writing as, “
physical
and
mental
act.” p. 88. Furthermore, Nunan 2003 states that as a physical act, writing is an action of expressing
words or ideas to some media whether it is hieroglyphics inked onto parchment or an e-mail message typed into a computer. As the mental act, Nunan 2003
states that writing is inventing ideas followed by thinking about how to express them and organizing them into statements and paragraphs. According to Elbow
1998, writing has two skills which deal with mental processes: creating and criticizing. In other words, writing engages the ability to create the words and the
ideas out and also engages the ability to criticize them in order to decide which one to be used. In addition, it is also supported by Brown 2007 that writing
“…requires learners to produce a correct written language” p.335. Brown 2007 also mentions,
“Written products are often the result of thinking, drafting and revising procedures that requ
ire specialized skills…” 2007, p.335. Here, it can be said that writing is an ability which is engaging with some steps as the
processes in order to be able to produce a good writing product. To produce a good writing product, the writers have to know the purpose of
writing. Nunan 2003 mentions, “Its purpose is both to
express
and to
impress
.” p. 88. “To express” here means that writing is the real work of delivering idea
or feeling to the reader, whereas “to impress” means the writing product can affect the level of the reader. Moreover, Nunan 2003 elaborates that writing
15 deals with
process
and
product
2003, p.88
.
As for how to make a good writing, we have to deal with the process of working on it so that we can produce a good
writing. Writing is a complex skill to be mastered by students. Therefore, writing
becomes a quite difficult skill. Tiedt 1989 even says, “…of all the language
skills, writing is the most diffi cult and it is a hard work.” p.6. It is also proved
by Elbow 1998, “ There is no hiding the fact that writing well is a complex, difficult, and time-
consuming process” p.3. Therefore, the teachers and the students have to deal with the efforts to deliver and master this skill.
In order to produce a good written product, writers or students employ some steps as the process of writing. It is agreed by Harmer 2004, who states that
“Writing process is the stages a writer goes through in order to produce something in its final written form
” p.4. Harmer 2004 adds the process is affected by the content subject matter of the writing, type of writing, and the
medium it is written in. It is also supported by Brown, “Written products are often the result of thinking, drafting and revising procedures that require
specialized skills…” 2007, p. 391. Harmer 2004 emphasizes the discussion writing process into four main
stages: planning, drafting, editing, and final revision. In the first stage, namely planning, students plan what they are going to write. Students may start to write
down the preliminary notes of their ideas. Harmer 2004 also suggests three main issues that are possibly thought by the students in the planning stage; the
16 purpose of the writing, the audience of the writing, and also the content structure
of the writing. After planning the ideas, the students go on the drafting stage. In this stage,
students may produce some or many pieces of texts since they try to compose sentences and paragraphs. Afterwards, the students move to the editing stage in
which they will read through what they have written. Harmer also adds that in this stage students may need some reflecting and revising which are often done
by the other readers, in this case teachers have an important role to help the students in making the appropriate revisions.
In the last stage, namely final revision, students may revise their work after getting the feedback from the teacher. Students may change their writing product
in order to produce the good product of writing.
b. Teaching Writing
Teaching is the main role of teachers to give the students guidance to reach goals.
1 The Background of Teaching Writing Skill
Teaching is a process in which the teachers deliver the guidance in order to help the students to reach the goals. According to Acero, Javier, and Castro
2007, teaching is a process of actions to produce and stimulate learning and eventually to succed in learning. Teaching is a deliberate process. Teachers have
the important role of setting the planning of the teaching, the process of the whole teaching, and also the achievement of the teaching. To do a teaching is not easy.
17 There are many things that should be prepared by teachers to present the whole
process of teaching. Raimes 1983 states the most important thing to be taught in writing is that
“writing helps our students learn” p. 3. Furthermore, Raimes rationalizes the statement by giving three reasons. First, writing strengthens the grammatical
structures, idioms, and vocabulary that have been taught by the teachers. Second, through writing students have the chance to be adventurous with the language, to
go beyond what they have just learned to say, to take risks. In the other words, students can build their confidence in writing through having the real experience
on it. Third, when the students write, they reinforce their learning through getting involved in the new language. It deals with the struggle of the students in
improving their writing skills. The teachers also must know that writing has the important role to be learnt
by students through the rationales which are stated by Venkateswaran 1995. According to Venkateswaran 1995, p. 104, they are three reasons for getting
students to write in the classroom all are direct quotes : a
Writing helps to solidify the students grasp of vocabulary and structure and complements the other skills.
b Appropriacy can be developed only through writing.
c The goal of writing is to develop the students ability to
write up to the point at which written homework can be given.
Venkateswaran 1995 also explains the goal of writing into two points: “Psychologically, students are more impressed by exercise that
are to be written and handed in than by those that are to be learned. Reallistically, the teacher knows that writing home
work exercises and other written activities help the students to
