IMPROVING STUDENTS' DESCRIPTIVE WRITING ABILITY THROUGH TEACHER'S INDIRECT FEEDBACK AT THE FIRST YEAR OF MA AL-HIKMAH BANDAR LAMPUNG

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ABSTRACT

IMPROVING STUDENTS’ DESCRIPTIVE WRITING ABILITY THROUGH TEACHER’S INDIRECT FEEDBACK AT THE FIRST YEAR

OF MA AL-HIKMAH BANDAR LAMPUNG By

Gilang Jaka Pramana

Writing is a productive skill which is very important for student to learn. In fact, writing is still considered a complicated skill for students to master. There are several problems why this skill is difficult. One of the problem is because the teacher teaches them without using a good approach and treatment, especially in corecting students’writing. As one of the steps that can be used to correct

students’ writing, Teacher’s indirect feedback is believed to contribute in

improving students’ writing skill.

This research was a quantitative research. The aim of this research was to find out

the improvement of students’descriptive writing ability after the implementation of teacher’s indirect feedback in teaching descriptive writing. The researcher used pretest and posttest design in this research. The research was conducted at the first year of MA Al-Hikmah Bandar Lampung. The research took place in class XB which consisted of 27 students. The instrument used to collect the data were writing test (pretest and posttest). The test was given to see how far the students improve their descriptive writing ability after the treatment.

The result of the research showed that the t-value (21.506) was higher than t-table (2.052) and the value of two tail significance was 0.000 < 0.05. It means that there is a significant increase of students ability in descriptive writing after the

implementation of teacher’s indirect feedback. Therefore the hypothesis of the research was accepted. The mean score of pretest was 57.96 and the mean of posttest was 72.41. It means that the students’ mean score was improved about 14.45.

Based on the finding, it can be concluded that teacher’s indirect feedback gives a

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IMPROVING STUDENTS’ DESCRIPTIVE WRITING ABILITY

THROUGH TEACHER’S INDIRECT FEEDBACK AT THE FIRST YEAR

OF MA AL-HIKMAH BANDAR LAMPUNG

GILANG JAKA PRAMANA

A Script

Submitted in a Partial Fulfillment of The Requirements for S-1 Degree

The Language and Arts Department of Teacher Training and Education Faculty

UNIVERSITY OF LAMPUNG BANDAR LAMPUNG

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CURRICULUM VITAE

The writer’s name is Gilang Jaka Pramana. He was born in Padangratu, Central Lampung, on May 7th 1991. He is the second child in his family of harmonious couple, Mr. Mansur Safari and Mrs. Siti Fatimah. He has one elder sister named Kinanti Andra Pratama and one younger brother named Rangga Dewa Triana. His educational background started at SDN 1 Linggapura in 1996. After graduating from elementary school in 2002, he continued his study at SLTP PGRI 3 Padangratu and graduated in 2005. Then, he moved to Bandar Lampung to continue his sudy at MA Al-Hikmah, Bandar Lampung. After graduating from senior high school, he was accepted at English Department in Teacher Training anda Education Faculty of Lampung University.

In 2012, precisely from July to September he conducted his Teaching Practice Program (PPL) as one of the requirements for FKIP students at SD N 1 Bandar Agung, East Lampung.

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DEDICATION

By offering my praise and gratitude to Allah SWT for His abundant blessing to me, I would proudly dedicate this piece of work to:

My beloved parents, Mansur Safari and Hj. Siti Fatimah My lovely siblings; Kinanti Andra Pratama and Rangga Dewa Triana

My big family My fabulous friends

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MOTTO

They always say time changes things, But you actually have to change them yourself.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Alhamdulillahirabbil ‘alamin, the writer expresses his highest gratitude to Allah SWT for blessing, love, opportunity, health, and mercy to complete this paper.Shalawat is also sent to Prophet Muhammad SAW who had delivered the truth to human beings in general and Moslem in particular.

In arranging this paper, a lot of people have provided motivation, advice, support, and even remark who had helped the writer. In this valuable chance, the writer aims to express his gratitude and appreciation to all of them.

First, the writer’s deepest appreciation goes to his beloved parents, his mother Hj.

Siti Fatimah for the endless love, pray, and support, and his father Mansur Safari (the late) who has become the writer’s inspiration to keep learning especially in academic level as he desired before. His thankfulness is also due his beloved siblings; Kinanti Andra Pratama and Rangga Dewa Triana who have supported the writer.

The writer presents his sincere appreciation goes to Dra. Ari Nurweni M.A. as the head of English Department study program of Lampung University, also to his first advisor Prof. Dr. Patuan Raja, M.Pd., who has given advice and motivation and taught the writer about discipline. Then to his second advisor Dr. Muhammad Sukirlan, M.A., who has helped the writer patiently in finishing this paper by giving suggestion, guidance, and correction since the preliminary of manuscript until the completion of this paper.

The writer greatest thanks go to all of his lecturers in English Department for advice, motivation, and useful knowledge. His deepest thanks also go to his examiners Dra. Rosita Simbolon, M.A. and Prof. Ag. Bambang Setiyadi for their valuable corrections and suggestions, also for all staffs either in department or in faculty who have helped the writer in managing all formal needs during this paper arrangement.

His sincere thanks go to Abdul Aziz, S.H., as the headmaster and Siti Munasih, S.Pd., as the English Teacher of MA Al-Hikmah Bandar Lampung who helped the writer in giving motivation, guidance, and suggestion during the research process. Then to all students of X (B) MA Al-Hikmah Bandar Lampung that have given their participation to his research.

The greatest honor and indebtedness would be dedicated to his beloved foster parents, Hj. Rahmawati, S.Pd.I and Eddy Purwanto; and their children: Mbak Erma, Kak Arief, Ali, Agung, and Pipit for their immeasurable kindness and

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His thankfulness also goes to all his friends in English Department who cannot be

mentioned here one by one, particularly to his companions in “Rumah Blogger

Pelangi” they are Ahmad Wibawa, Amir Sarifuddin, Arya Yoga, Asep Saepul Waton, Mardi Aven, Ida Bagus, M. Bima, Destoprani, M. Fikri, Ikhwan Mukhlisi, Ilham Sanjaya, Ketut Budi, Panjitam Pratama, M. Rozi, M. Reza, and I Wayan Suwatana for cheerful days and togetherness, also to his comrades Ayu Pratami, Realita Siwi, Hana Laila Alviumita, Ferdiansyah, Abdul Haris, Fangky, Dani Erfan, Luki Nugroho, and also Anggun Kemala Sari for their pray, motivation, and for being places to share.

Last but not least, his appreciation to his KKN (Community Service Program) friends; Andri, Debora, Devi, Grace, Ine, Persie, Rani, Roni, Septi,Titi, Tya, and Uswatun, his beloved juniors Rangga, Adit, Dio, Denny, Aldo, Aca, Rissa, Sahaja, Iren, Rani, Adys, Anin, Rinoy, Kiki, Icha, Hatika, and all of the seniors and juniors in UKM Fotografi ZOOM and English Department of Lampung University.

Hopefully, this paper would be a positive contribution for the readers and those who want to conduct further research. The writer believes that this paper is still far from perfect, there may be shortcomings in this research. Therefore, comments, critics, and suggestions are always opened for a better research.

Bandar Lampung, April 2015

The writer,

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MOTTO

They always say time changes things, But you actually have to change them yourself.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First, the writer’s deepest appreciation goes to his beloved parents, his mother Hj.

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His thankfulness also goes to all his friends in English Department who cannot be

mentioned here one by one, particularly to his companions in “Rumah Blogger

Bandar Lampung, April 2015

The writer,

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First, the writer’s deepest appreciation goes to his beloved parents, his mother Hj.

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His thankfulness also goes to all his friends in English Department who cannot be

mentioned here one by one, particularly to his companions in “Rumah Blogger

Bandar Lampung, April 2015

The writer,

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TABLES

2.1 Correction codes used to indicate error types in indirect feedback ... 21

2.2 Modified correction codes used to indicate error types in indirect feedback ... 22

3.1 The scoring criteria ... 34

4.1 Distribution of students’ score of content aspect in pre-test ... 45

4.2 Distribution of students’ score of organization aspect in pre-test ... 46

4.3 Distribution of students’ score of vocabulary aspect in pre-test ... 47

4.4 Distribution of students’ score of grammar aspect in pre-test ... 48

4.5 Distribution of students’ score of mechanics aspect in pre-test ... 49

4.6 Distribution of students’ pre-test score ... 50

4.7 Distribution of students’ score of content aspect in post-test ... 51

4.8 Distribution of students’ score of organization aspect in post-test ... 52

4.9 Distribution of students’ score of vocabulary aspect in post-test ... 53

4.10 Distribution of students’ score of grammar aspect in post-test ... 54

4.11 Distribution of students’ score of mechanics aspect in post-test ... 55

4.12 Distribution of students’ post-test score ... 56

4.13 T-test result of pre-test and post-test ... 57

4.14 The Increase of students’ ability in writing descriptive text ... 58

4.15 T-test result of content ... 60

4.16 T-test result of organization ... 60

4.17 T-test result of vocabulary ... 61

4.18 T-test result of grammar ... 62

4.19 T-test result of mechanics ... 62

4.20 Result of normality test in pre-test ... 68

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FIGURES

4.1 The average score of pre-test ... 51 4.2 The average score of post-test ... . 57 4.3 Improvement of students’ writing ability ... . 73

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CONTENTS

TITLE ... i

ABSTRACT ... ii

APPROVAL ... iii

ADMISSION ... iv

CURRICULUM VITAE ... v

DEDICATION ... vi

MOTTO ... vii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ... viii

CONTENTS ... ix

TABLES ... x

FIGURES ... xi

I. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background ... 1

1.2 Problem ... 5

1.3 Objective ... 6

1.4 Uses... 6

1.5 Scope... 6

1.6 Definition of Terms ... 7

II. LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Review of Previous Research ... 9

2.2 Writing ... 11

2.3 Teaching Writing ... 13

2.4 Text ... 16

2.5 Descriptive Text... 17

2.6 Feedback ... 19

2.7 Indirect Feedback... 20

2.8 Teaching Descriptive Text Writing Through Teacher’s Indirect Feedback ... 23

2.9 Procedures of Teaching Descriptive Text Writing Through Teacher’s Indirect Feedback... 24

2.10 Advantages and Disadvantages of Indirect Feedback ... 26

2.11 Theoretical Assumption ... 27

2.12 Hypothesis ... 28

III. RESEARCH METHODS 3.1 Design ... 29

3.2 Population and Sample ... 30

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3.4 Procedures of Data Collecting Technique ... 32

3.5 Scoring Criteria ... 33

3.6 Instruments ... 35

3.7 Validity ... 36

3.8 Reliability ... 37

3.9 Data Analysis ... 39

3.10 Data Treatment ... 40

3.11 Hypothesis Testing ... 41

IV. RESULT AND DISCUSSION 4.1 Result of The Research ... 43

4.2 Discussion ... 70

V. CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION 5.1 Conclusion ... 78

5.2 Suggestion ... 79

REFERENCES APPENDICES

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I. INTRODUCTION

This chapter reveals several points explaining the reasons for conducting this study. It consists of the background of the problem, formulation of the problem, the objective, uses, and scope of the research. In order to avoid misunderstanding, definitions of terms are provided in the last part of this chapter.

1.1 Background of the Problem

Since English is selected as the international language, its role as a tool of communication becomes more important in modern society. Consequently, people need to learn English at school, from elementary school to senior high school and even in university. Teaching English means teaching students not only about how to speak, how to read, and how to listen, but also how to write. It follows that the students are not only expected to speak English fluently but they also expected to be able to master the four language skills; listening, speaking, reading, and writing. These four skills are interconnected and associated each other. If the students need to master English, they must develop the four skills.

Learning English implies learning how to communicate. Communication can be done not only in spoken but also in written form. Writing is a productive skill which is very important for student to learn. Writing will help students master the other language skills. Students sometimes feel afraid and shy to speak what they

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want to say but they can tell it into a draft or writing before speaking. Thus, if students are having problem in expressing the idea, they can write it down.

In fact, writing is still considered a complicated skill for students to master because it involves a complex activity requiring a variety of skills. Students must have the ability to generate ideas, determine the purposes, develop arguments, organize and manage the text effectively, and revise. Byrne (1988:4) says that writing is difficult for most people both in mother tongue and in foreign language. It was noticed that students did know what they were going to write but they did not know how to put them into words. When their teacher asked the students to make a composition, they were confused about expressing their ideas in written form (Wahyudin, 2012:2).

Furthermore, Idrus (2003:3) states that although English has been learnt for many years, we still find that senior high school graduates cannot understand and use English well both in spoken and written form. Many students complain that they have the ideas what they are going to write but they do not know how to put them into a paragraph coherently. They cannot link several sentences into one coherent idea.

Rianto (2010: 51) has found that most students didn’t compose in a well-organized composition and also they made it in a poor language use. Actually the students already had good content but they got problem about how to organize and

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develop the idea in the composition. Below is the example of paragraph produced by a student:

“hai my name is Adnin Aderiska And uSP_{can call me Adnin. I live in Haeba Street} Pengadilan tinggi agama No.1(PUNC.)_{I have one sister. She is}_collegeWC_{in universitas} Hasanuddin Makassar my sister old 20 years old VT_{I love my sister.And next time I want} to college WC_{in Makassar too.}

I am a man, my school is SMA 9 Kendari)(PUNC)_{my class in X1}VT_{. I like my class.}(PUNC) because they want to real friendship(unclear meaning)_{to me and nice wit}SP_{all. Every in class} we play and study together GR”

Rianto (2010: 51)

Based on the paragraph cited above, there are two major mistakes the students made, i.e., Language use and organization. In language use, the mistakes were underlined. It can be seen that the student did many mistakes from the beginning until the end of the sentences. For the organization aspect, this student did not write the composition based on the generic structure of descriptive text, i.e. introduction, description or even conclusion.

In addition, based on researcher’s pre observation in MA Al-Hikmah Bandar Lampung, the researcher found that the students had problem in writing a text they have difficulty to express their idea smoothly. It is because the teacher teach them without using a good approach and treatment. The students were only asked to write a text based on the topic or picture in the text book without checking their ability in mastery aspects of writing first. Teacher did not give a guidance to the students when they are asked to make a composition. Because of that, the students

couldn’t understand about certain instruction of text for example the generic structure of the text, purposes and the language feature of the text. The researcher also found that the students could not make a good composition of writing

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because they did not know how to make a good composition step by step. It is strenghtened by their daily score of writing. The score of their writing is mostly below 70 as the minimum Standard of Mastery Learning (KKM).

Therefore, the researcher is encouraged to take a close look these facts by doing a research on this matter. The researcher assumes that if teachers want to help the students to be a good writer in English, they must be able to teach writing effectively to the students in the classroom. Teaching writing is always related to how to give feedback directly or indirectly on writing in a good way, especially by the teacher.

Alghazo (2009:146) states that teaching writing is an important skill and a helpful activity to students if it is done in a way to give the students error feedback to improve their writings. Feedback sessions can be a beneficial experience for the student if the teacher shows strong points as well. This statement is also strengthened by Ferris (2002) who has found that students who were given error feedback from the teacher had greater self-correction abilities than those who were not given error feedback. Through feedback, teacher can help students to compare their own performance with the ideal and to diagnose their own strength and weaknesses.

There are two types of feedback that can be given to the students to improve their writing ability namely direct and indirect feedback. In this case, the researcher thinks indirect feedback is one of positive support that can be given by an English

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teacher to their students in order to improve students’ writing and minimize their

errors. According to Rianto (2010:2) there are several reasons why indirect feedback is so helpful for the students’ writing. Actually, direct feedback can be durable, but it will keep only in mind of receiver and will be lost in certain time. In contrast, indirect feedback, the thought and comment will be saved for a very long time in the memories; and it is more helpful on student’s long term writing development than direct feedback (Ferris, 2002).

Based on the background of the problem above, the researcher is interested in

improving students’ descriptive writing ability through teacher’s indirect feedback.

1.2Problem

In reference to the background of the problem stated above, the researcher formulates the research problem as follows:

“Is there any improvement of students’ ability in descriptive writing after the implementation of teacher’s indirect feedback at the first year of MA Al-Hikmah Bandar lampung?”

1.3Objective

In relation to the formulation of the problem, the objective of the research is to find out whether there is improvement of the student’s descriptive writing ability after the implementation of teacher’s indirect feedback or not.

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1.4Uses

1. Theoretically, it can support theory that teacher’s indirect feedback can be

applied to improve students’ descriptive writing ability.

2. Practically, it can inform English teachers about teaching writing using

teacher’s indirect feedback as one of alternative steps in teaching writing.

1.5Scope

The subject of the study is limited to the first year of MA Al-Hikmah Bandar Lampung. A class will be chosen randomly to be the sample . Specifically, this study investigates whether students’ descriptive writing ability improve or not

under teacher‘s feedback. The type of feedback provided is indirect feedback that will be given on students’ writing. In this research, the learning materials will be focused in writing descriptive text. The treatment will be conducted in three times.

All students’ compositions will be assessed in terms of content, organization, language use, vocabulary, and mechanics. The scoring criteria will be adopted from Jacobs et al (1981:9). The materials are adopted from the School Based Curriculum/Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan (KTSP) for Senior High School 2006. The topics wil be discussed by the students in writing desriptive text are best friend and family member.

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1.6Definition of Terms

In relation to the use of this study, there are some definitions clarified in order to have similar understanding. The terms can be described as follows:

Writing

It reffers to a process of communication that uses conventional graphic system to convey a message to the readers. This also means that writing is used for

communicating one’s idea in written form to readers, so that the readers can

understand the information.

Students’ descriptive writing ability

It refers to the students’ competence in applying the components of writing were content, organization, vocabulary, language use (grammar) and mechanics.

Descriptive text

In this research, it refers to an essay which purpose is to describe a particular person, place or thing in detail. It consits of three parts : Identification, description, and reorientation.

Feedback

In general, it refers to information that is given to the learner about his or her performance of the learning task, usually with the objective of improving their performance.

Teacher’s feedback

It refers to a feedback that is provided by teacher on student writing to support

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feedback often takes the form of written comments on their final graded compositions.

Indirect feedback

It refers to a feedback that is given to the students writing to indicates the location of the error by underlining, highlighting, circling, or giving a code without providing the correct form in order to give an opportunity to the students to realize their mistakes and fix it themselves. The code will be given based on five aspects of writing (content, organization, language use, vocabulary, and mechanics).

Teacher’s indirect feedback

It refers to a feedback that is given by the teacher to the students writing to alert students to error by using general comments, and give students the opportunity to fix errors themselves.

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II. LITERATURE REVIEW

In relation to this study, there are several points of theories and previous studies which should be reviewed. Some concepts are described in order to give similar understanding. Thus, this chapter discusses the review of previous research, the concept of writing, teaching writing, concept of text, descriptive text, feedback,

indirect feedback, teaching writing descriptive text using teacher’s indirect

feedback,the procedures, and also advantages and disadvantages of teacher’s indirect feedback. By referring to those concepts theoretical assumption and hypothesis can be concluded.

2.1Review of Previous Research

Writing is considered as a complex skill to learn. Concerning this case, an English teacher should be able to implement and improve a good technique for teaching the students well, in order to make the students are able to write a text. One of additional

way that can be used by the teacher to improve students’ ability in writing is indirect feedback. In the recent time, many researchers conduct the research to find out the

benefits of teacher’s indirect feedback in the process of teaching writing. One of them is Lalande (1982) in Turkish University of pre-intermediate learners with regards to

what strategy to use in responding to students’ writing in the English Preparatory Program compared two groups: one with direct feedback and the other with indirect

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feedback using correction codes. It is found that the group which received indirect coded error feedback had more accuracy than direct feedback in writing.

The other similar research has conducted by Dewi Santi (2007) that has conducted the research in Haluoleo University to investigate the effect of teacher’s feedback on

students’ writing and found that teacher’s feedback was effective. Moreover, Dewi

Santi (2007) exposed teacher’s feedback under correction and assessment (comment and grade), also suggestion and praise. He focused on giving feedback to students’ writing that would be assessed based on five aspect of composition; content, organization, vocabulary, language use, and mechanics (Jacobs, 1981). In the end the

result showed an improvement of students’ writing.

Finally the recent study of indirect feedback is conducted by Alghazo (2009). His research is aimed at investigating the effect of teacher error feedback on Al-Hussein Bin Talal University students' self-correction ability. The total of participants in the three sessions was (102) divided as the control group session with (25) the experimental groups were one which is the non-coded (44) and the other which is the coded was (33). The results of the study showed that students who were given coded feedback did better on all then both the control group and the non-coded feedback group.

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Based on the result of those researches, it can be seen that direct and indirect feedback has its own benefit to improve students' writing ability. But, some research proves that indirect feedback is better than direct feedback. Meanwhile, most of the studies were focused on the benefits of direct or indirect feedback in advanced level students. Therefore, the writer of the current study is interested to findout whether indirect feedback can be implemented and improve students’ writing ability in intermediate level or not. Further, this study serves a different design from previous

study because those studies mostly focused on giving direct feedback to students’

writing or comparing direct and indirect feedback. While this study only uses indirect feedback that is used to solve the problem in five aspects of writing, those are organization, language use, vocabulary, and mechanics.

2.2 Writing

Writing is one of the human’s ways to communicate. Communication is not only

achieved through speaking, but it can also be obtained through writing. Someone can express their idea that they want to share in the written form. According toTarigan (1987:7), writing is the language skill that is used in the indirect communication. It implies that the students can communicate their ideas to the others through written form such as letter, message, or invitation for communication.

In addition, Fatoni (2012:8) states that writing is an active process of expressing ideas, thought, and feeling of the writer. It means that if someone is able to share his/her message in right order to the reader, there will be a communication between

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them. In writing we are expected to be able to write about the information that we want to share to the reader effectively, so that the communication will be meaningful and understandable. In order to make a good writing, There are five aspects that should be considered in the process of making a composition. Below are the five aspects of writing according to Jacobs et al (1981:90).

1. Content

It refers to the substance of writing, the experience of the main idea (unity). It is identified by seeing the topic sentence. The topic sentence should express the main idea and reflect the entire paragraph.

2. Organization

It refers to the logical organization of content (coherence). It is related to the ideas that stick together so that ideas run smoothly within paragraph.

3. Grammar/Language use

It refers to the use of he correct grammatical forms and syntactical pattern. It is identified from the construction of well-formed sentence.

4. Vocabulary

It refers to the selection of words those are suitable the content. It can be identified by seeing the words choice or diction in order to convey ideas to the reader.

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5. Mechanics

It refers to the use of graphic conventional of the language. It is identified by seeing the usage of spelling, punctuation, and capitalization within the paragraph.

So, we have to know and understand about how to implement each aspects of writing well in order to make a good composition.

2.3Teaching Writing

Teaching writing is to teach the students how to express the idea or imagination in written form. In order to be successful in writing, the material presented should be relevant to their needs, interest, capacities, and ages until they are able to make composition with view or even no errors (Finnochiaro, 1964: 129). In other words, it is clear that the teacher should guide the students to write or how to express the ideas in written form.

In relation to teaching writing, Harmer (1984: 40) points out that there is certain particular consideration that needs to be taken into account, such as sentence organization, paragraph arrangement, and coherence. Teaching writing requires the elements of writing including grammar, sentence organization, vocabulary, and mechanics (Madsen, 1989: 120) quoted by Idrus (2003). It can be said that teaching writing should guide the students not only to write sentence but also to organize their ideas into written form. Then, the teacher must give the appropriate guidance in which the students are able to express their ideas in written form properly. In

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practicing their writing, the students have to follow the steps to make their writing more effective.

Appelebe in Mappe (2000) suggests that “there are different views on the stages that the writers go through in producing a piece of writing, but a typically through model identifies four stages: pre-writing, drafting, revising and editing”. The description of each stage is shown as follows:

1. Pre-writing

In this stage, students involve the activities, such as reading, brainstorming, mind mapping, discussing, fast writing, questioning, interviewing, encourage them before they write their sentences in the first draft. A typical pre-writing activity in the process approach would be for learners to brainstorm on the topic being provided. By this way, students would get motivation to write because they feel that they have something matter to say.

2. Drafting

In this stage, students would select among ideas during pre-writing and structure. The result of brainstorming session provides a plan of description of topic. The content might be written without considering the grammatical aspect first.

3. Revising

In this stage, the students review a draft to check content and organization based on the feedback from him or herself and teacher or peers. Revision is a process in which

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writers not only polish their style, but also develop their ideas. In this stage, the teacher help the students through the revision to shape and reshape the text into final

form, and it’s focused more on audience, mood, voice, length, clarity, completeness and consciousness.

4. Editing

In this stage, the students check their final text for some mistakes they have made based on the feedback given, such as spelling, punctuation, grammar, and all presentation.

Referring to the process of writing above, teacher’s feedback plays the important roles in the four stages of writing in this study. As stated by Lee (2005), in improving the effectiveness of writing, the teaching should engage students in peer /self-evaluation. When they apply the criteria, they become better informed about the requirements of good writing (for specific genres) and provide students with a language for discussing their writing. In assessing writing, teacher should respond to writing based on criteria that have been communicated and taught to students and responses to errors. To respond the error teacher can use a feedback that contains specific criteria for the writing task and criteria that have been taught and communicated to the learners. Therefore, this study used the four steps above with

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2.4 Text

Derewianka (1990: 17) defines a text as meaningful stretch of language – oral or written. Even it only consists of one word but it is meaningful. For example,

“STOP!”.It consists of single word but the meaning is complete. Therefore, even the utterance is only single word; it can be called a text due to the complete meaning.

On the other hand, Hyland (2004:6) states that text is autonomous object which can be analyzed and described independently of particular context, writer or reader. Text has structure. It is an orderly arrangement of words, clauses, and sentences by following the principles which guide the correct arrangement of element.

There are two main categories of text namely literary and factual. Literary texts are texts constructed to appeal emotions and imagination. For example: stories, movies, scripts, fairy tales, plays, novels, song lyrics, mimes, and soap operas. There are three main text types in this category: narrative, poetic, and dramatic. Factual texts present information or ideas and aim to show, tell or persuade the audience. The main text types in this category are recount, report, procedure, exposition, explanation, and discussion.

Not all the texts are the same. Each text has its function and generic structure. Each kind of text is structured in different ways to achieve its purposes. It is important to understand each type of text. (Gunawan, 2011:12).

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2.5 Descriptive Text

Knapp and Watkins cited in Lopa (2012:10) define descriptive text as a kind of text whose purpose is to describe a particular person, place, or thing in detail. Descriptive text commonly used in personal descriptions, commonsense description, technical descriptions, information reports, and scientific reports. Descriptive can occur as a text and it also can be a part of a text in different genre.

According to Medina (2003) quoted by Rianto (2010:20), the generic structure of descriptive text are identification; identifying the phenomenon to be described in general and Description; describing the phenomenon in parts, qualities, or/and characteristics. They may choose vivid, fresh language, they may use examples, they might take something ordinary and by comparing it with something extraordinary, make it interesting, or they may use their senses.

The language uses of this text should rely on precisely chosen vocabulary with carefully chosen adjectives and adverbs; it is focused and concentrated only on the aspects that add something to the main purpose of the description. Sensory description - what is heard, seen, smelt, felt, tasted. Precise use of adjectives, similes, metaphors to create images/pictures in the mind, strong development of the experience that "puts the reader there" focuses on key details, powerful verbs and precise nouns, Using attributive and identifying process, Using adjective and classifiers in nominal group, and using simple present tense.

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Here is one example of personal descriptive text:

MY BEST PAL

Close friendships are hard to come by these days. In an ever-changing world with people striving to achieve their interpretation of preordained success, it is hard to know who your true friends are. Fortunately, I found my best pal early at the tender age of seven. We were both enrolled at the same school and were at wits’ ends as we searched tirelessly for our designated classes.

Samantha and I got acquainted as both of us were in the same class and sat next to each other. Samantha was a happy-go-lucky girl who always managed to breathe fresh air into the sometimes arid classroom. She always knew what to say and would voice them at the best possible moments. Both pupils and teachers alike enjoyed her company and liveliness. There was hardly ever a dull moment when she was around with her funny quips and expressions.

Samantha was born with a silver spoon. Her father was a businessman and her mother owned and ran a boutique. Both her parents were very caring towards her as she, just like I, was the only child of the family. Samantha came to school each day with a perpetual smile. She was a very nice person to be around with. She and I used to go everywhere together and both of us were rarely seen apart. We used to talk about so many things as we walked, thoroughly enjoying our time together.

One day, I went to school and forgot to ask my parents for lunch money. At first, I was not hungry and thought I could bear going without a meal but soon, my stomach began to growl. Without asking, Samantha generously paid for my meal and drinks during recess. The incident revealed to me how lucky I was to have such a caring and compassionate friend.

As time went on, people started teasing us as we were spending more and more time together. We seemed to know what each other thought and we cared for each other deeply. Was I in love with her? I did not know then and we both knew we were too young for all that emotional roller coaster.

Currently, Samantha and I are studying at different schools. It was hard to be apart at first, but technology in the form of instant messaging and e-mails have helped to bridge the gap in our friendship. I sincerely wish our friendship will never end as it would be equivalent to waking up from a beautiful dream.

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Another example of descriptive text:

MY FAMILY

My family has four members: those are I, my sister, and parents of course. My mother is 47 years old. Her name's Anisa. She's thin-faced and she's got long, blond hair and beautiful green eyes. She is still slim because she always tries to stay in shape. She is very good-looking, always well-dressed and elegant.

My father, Lukman, is 5 years older than my mother. He is 52. In spite of his age he's still black-haired, with several grey hairs. He has bright blue eyes. He is quite tall, but a bit shorter than me. He's very hard-working. Besides that he is working in a travel company. He can even make a dinner when my mother is outside. His cooking and his meals are always very tasty as well as my mothers'.

Finally, my sister Nadina. She is 22. She is also red-haired and green-eyed. She has long wavy hair and freckles. She is definitely shorter than me. She is rather introverted. But she is very sensible, smart and co-operative. Right now she is studying English and also knows Arabic and Mandarin. I want to be so smart as she is.

They all, except me, speak Sundanese very well, because we were living in Bandung for 5 years. My sister has been going to primary school there. Unfortunately I was only 3 when we were leaving to Jakarta, so I can't speak Sundanese. Now we are happily living in Jakarta.

(http://www.englishindo.com/2012/03/simple-descriptive-text-examples.html)

2.6 Feedback

One of the ways to make students able to create good writing is that the teacher must be able to provide good feedback with the aim of providing guidance for students’ mistakes in compiling a writing. Feedback is a kind of assessment that concerns to the giving of information about students’ writing performance. Ur (1996: 242) says that in the context of teaching general, feedback is information that is given to the learner about his or her performance of the learning task, usually with the objective of improving their performance.

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In addition, Roger (2001) says that feedback is not just about weaknesses. Students will respond if teachers are encouraging as well as allowing mistakes, emerging capabilities, and give ideas for directing further learning. From these definitions, it can be concluded that feedback plays an important role in the learning process, besides students will learn how to evaluate themselves, feedback also helps students to have a greater confidence, so that their performance can be improved in terms of writing.

In providing feedback, teacher should encourage students to continue writing, in order students feel good with their writing and carry the activity through completion (Grabe and Kaplan, 1996: 275). So, in process of writing teacher must motivate students to do more towards their writing.

2.7 Indirect Feedback

There are two kinds of teacher’s feedback; they are direct and indirect feedback.

direct feedback is a technique of correcting students’ error by giving explicit written feedback. While, indirect feedback is a technique of correcting students’ error by using general comments, and giving students the opportunity to fix errors themselves (Ferris, 2002: 19). Lee (2005) states that direct feedback is provided when the correct

form is written on student’s paper whereas indirect feedback is provided if the teacher indicates the location of the error indirectly on the paper by underlining, highlighting or circling, or indirectly by indicating in the margins that there is an error on that line but without providing the correct form.

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To make indirect feedback more effective, Lee (2005) states that indirect feedback can be done by a symbol representing a specific kind of error (T=verb tense,

Sp=spelling) and to reduce student confusion, teachers can consistently use a standard set of symbols or markings to indicate place and type of error and train the students in what kinds of corrections to make based on each symbol. Furthermore, teachers should familiarize students with the system so they will not be surprised when new symbols are occurred.

According to Finocchiaro (1987) the symbols or codes that can be used to indicate error in indirect feedback can be seen as follows:

Table 2.1 Correction codes used to indicate error types in indirect feedback

No Code Meaning Kinds of errors

1 WC Word choice

The words are inapplicable with the sentences/ meaning

2 PREP Preposition Wrong preposition

3 VT Verb tense or GR = more

general grammar problems Wrong tense/ use another tense

4 S/V A Subject verb agreement subject and verb don’t agree

5 SP Spelling error Wrong spelling/punctuation your

spelling

6 ART Article Use article a, an, or the for singular

noun

7 N.P New paragraph Unorganized paragraph

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9 ? (question mark) unclear

meaning

I can’t understand this. The meaning is

not clear. Write in another way to make the meaning clearer.

10 good Good idea, good detail You have something good here: a good word, idea, detail, etc

11 WO Word order the words in this sentence are in the wrong order

(Finocchiaro, 1987)

In this research, the symbols or codes that will be used to indicate error in indirect feedback has been modified as can be seen below:

Table 2.2Modified Correction codes used to indicate error types in indirect feedback

No Code Meaning Kinds of errors

1 WC Word Choice

The words are inapplicable with the sentences/ meaning

2 WF Word Form Wrong word form

3 ^ Missing Word There is a missing word in the

sentence/ you should add a word here.

4 ? Unclear Meaning

I can’t understand this. The meaning is

not clear. Write in another way to make the meaning clearer.

5 S/V A Subject verb agreement Subject and verb don’t agree

6 ᴓ Not Neccesary The word is not necessary in this

sentence.

7 Prep. Preposition Wrong preposition

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noun

9 WO Word Order Wrong word order

10 SP Spelling Error You have to check and correct the

spelling of the word.

11 Capt. Capitalization The word should be started by capital letter/not capital.

12 Punct. Punctuation

There is something wrong with he punctuation/ you have to add

punctuation here (coma, fullstops, etc.)

13 VT Verb tense or GR = more

general grammar problems Wrong tense/ use another tense

14 DNS Does Not Support The developing sentence does not

support the main idea.

15 More Need More Need more developing sentence.

2.8 Teaching Descriptive Text Writing Using Teacher’s Indirect Feedback

Writing is not only a single step but a process. To pass the process from the first draft to the final draft, students need guidance, supporter and counselor/advisor to make their writing better. Therefore, they need someone to check the mistake that they made. It can be from teacher or peer, because writing usually involves one person for another to help them in expressing their ideas in writing form. Even though peers

feedback is more advantageous, the teacher’s feedback is eventually needed to provide a whole class impression before they are engaged in an individual writing as practice. Here, teacher can function as describer when he/she gives feedback. But before that, teacher should be a reader and as advisor for them.

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The patterns of feedback and responses given by the teacher depend very much on the

teacher’s conception of the composing process and his/her understanding of learner’s

errors. Teachers may, on the one hand, present themselves as helpful facilitators offering support and guidance; on the other hand, they may act as an authority imposing critical judgment on writing products (Ferris, 2002).

Teachers can offer self–correction opportunity for their students by providing indirect

feedback on student’s errors. The assistance and feedback given by the teacher should not be confined to the last stage of the writing process. The marking of products should always open more opportunities in which students can redraft their work. In addition, students are able to express their ideas more clearly in writing and to get clarification on any comments indirectly that teachers have made to their writing.

2.9 Procedures of Teaching Descriptive Text Writing Using Teacher’s Indirect Feedback

Based on the notion proposed by Appelebe in Mappe (2000), it is concluded that this study uses four steps in teaching descriptive text by using teacher’s indirect feedback. Those steps can be described as follows:

1. Pre- writing

a. Teacher explains the activities and the material to the students after distributing the copy of material, symbol of indirect feedback and marking scheme of writing.

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b. Teacher explains about the organization of the text, language use, and descriptive text to the students.

c. Students pay attention when teacher explains the material.

d. Teacher explains what kind of symbols they will get in their writing.

2. Drafting

a. Teacher asks the students to write 1st draft about descriptive text. b. Students write composition based on teacher’s instruction.

3. Revising

a. Teacher asks the students to submit their writing. b. Students submit their writing.

c. Teacher explains that he/she will put indirect feedback in every error of students writing.

d. Teacher gives indirect feedback to every students’ writing error.

4. Editing

a. Teacher tells to the student about their major mistakes and give brief explanation about how to fix it.

b. Teacher distributes students’ first draft.

c. Teacher asks the students to revise their draft based on the indirect feedback that has been given on it.

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That was the procedure of teaching descriptive text writing using teacher’s indirect feedback but in this research the researcher could not give the feedback in the teaching learning process because it will takes much times considering the large number of the students and the time is limited to only 90 minutes in each meeting. So the researcher decided to modify the lesson plan as can be seen on appendix 1 to make the process of giving indirect feedback more efficient.

2.10 Advantages and Disadvantages of Indirect Feedback

As a matter of fact, every strategy, technique, or step bears some advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, it is important to determine each of advantages and disadvantages in order to make the implementation of the strategy in teaching process more effective. Below are the advantages and disadvantages of teacher’s indirect feedback.

a. The Advantages of Indirect Feedback

Teacher’s indirect feedback is considered as an alternative strategy to teach

writing because it has many advantages. The advantages of using it can be described as follows:

1. Frodesen (2001) notes that indirect feedback is more useful than direct feedback. Students are able to express their ideas more clearly in writing and to get clarification on any comments that teachers have made.

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2. Indirect feedback is more helpful on students’ long-term writing development than direct feedback (Ferris, 2002).

3. Indirect feedback may be more beneficial to students than direct feedback in editing, because indirect feedback can guide learning and help the students solve problem by themselves (Lalande, 1982).

b. The disadvantages of Indirect Feedback

Beside of the advantages, indirect feedback has disadvantages that should be considered as follows:

1. The process of giving feedback to each student’s writing can consume much time if the number of the student in the class is large.

2. Students may feel confused because of the symbol given is not familiar to them.

Therefore, the teacher should consider the time allocation for giving the feedback and to reduce student confusion, teachers can consistently use a standard set of symbols or markings to indicate place and type of error and train the students in what kinds of corrections to make based on each symbol.

2.11 Theoretical Assumption

In teaching writing, there are many steps that can be used by teachers to reach the goal of teaching learning process. Based on the literature review above, teacher’s indirect feedback is one of the ways that can be used to improve students’ writing ability. Based on the previous description, writing is counted as the most difficult

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skill. Students need to consider five aspects of writing; they are content, organization, grammar, vocabulary, and mechanics. Obviously, some cases show that it is difficult to students to express their ideas coherently into writing form. Some mistakes have been made in every aspects of writing. Therefore, indirect feedback can be used to alert the student’s about their error and give them opportunity to fix the errors themselves. It also can be used in order to minimize grammar errors and inaccuracy of selection of word. Finally, it is assumed that teacher’s indirect feedback can

improve student’s descriptive writing ability in terms of content, organization, grammar, vocabulary, and mechanics.

2.12 Hypothesis

Based on the theoretical assumption, the researcher formulates hypothesis as follows:

“There is an improvement of students’ ability in writing descriptive text after the

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III. RESEARCH METHODS

The design of this research was organized in a manner that allows composition between pretest and posttest result. To do this, analytical data measuring the caliber of students’ writing was collected using pretest and posttest. Using a controlled analysis of the result as channeled through the research design, the transformation of the subjects’ writing skills could be adequately revealed and composed across the two- test period.

3.1Design

This research was a quantitative study which was intended to see the students’ descriptive writing improvement after the implementation of the teacher’s indirect feedback. The research design was one group pretest-posttest design. The design was used to compare the sudents’ ability in pre test and postest after the treatment was given. This design used pretest to find out the students’ initial ability before the treatment (Hatch and Farhady, 1982: 21-22). It could be illustrated as follows:

T1 X T2

T1 : Pretest T2 : Posttest

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3.2Population and Sample

The population of this research was the first year of MA Al-Hikmah Bandar Lampung in the academic year of 2013/2014. There were three classes of the first year students. A class was taken as the sample of this research to be the experimental class. The chosen class was XB which consisted 27 students. In determining the experimental class, this study used simple probability sampling by using lottery; so that those all the first year classes in the school got the same chance to be the sample.

3.3Data Collecting Technique

The aim of this research was to gain the data on the students' descriptive writing ability score before the treatment (pre test) and after the treatment (post test).The text used was descriptive text concerning five aspects of writing: content, organization, language use, vocabulary, and mechanics. Pre test and post test were conducted to see whether there was a significant improvement on sudents' score after the implementation of teacher's indirect feedback. The data was gained from:

1. Pre test

The pretest was conducted before the treatment was administered. It was administered to the experimental class. It was to see the basic quality of students’ descriptive writing performances before receiving the treatment. The pretest was a writing test. The pretest was conducted in 90 minutes. Instructions used by the researcher for the pretest were:

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a. Make a descriptive text about one of your family member (father, mother, sister, or brother)

b. Make it in three or more paragraphs. Each paragraph consists of four or more sentences.

c. Becareful in choosing the words, especially adjective.

d. Pay attention to your grammatical structure. Check them carefully before you submit it.

2. Post test

The post test was conducted after the treatment was administered. It was used to know the improvement of student’s ability in writing simple descriptive text. It was conducted in 90 minutes. The post test was administered once.Instructions used by the researcher for the posttest were:

a. Make a descriptive text about an important person in your life (friend, teacher, etc.)

b. Make it in three or more paragraphs. Each paragraph consists of four or more sentences.

c. Becareful in choosing the words, especially adjective.

d. Pay attention to your grammatical structure. Check them carefully before you submit it.

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3.4Procedures of Data Collecting Technique

In collecting the data, this study usedthe following steps:

1. Selecting materials for treatment

In selecting materials for treatment, the researcher selected some samples of descriptive text from English books and the internet.

2. Determining the population and selecting sample

The population of this research was the first year of MA Al-Hikmah Bandar Lampung. There were three classes, the researcher chose one class as the experimental class randomly by using lottery, since every class has the same opportunity to be chosen.

3. Administering the pretest

The pretestwas conducted to measure students’ preliminary ability before treatment. Here, students in experimental class were assigned to write a descriptive text. The topic was about family member and the time allocation was 90 minutes.

4. Conducting the treatment

After giving the pretest to the students, the experimental class was given treatment by using teacher’s indirect feedback.The treatment was conducted in 90 minutes, based on the time allocation in the syllabus of the first grade of

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SMA. The treatment was conducted in three meetings. In those three meetings the students was guided to write a descriptive text. Indirect feedback was given to the errors on every students’ composition until the student make a good composition from the first to the final draft.After the treatment was given, the posttest was given to the students to evaluate their ability in writing descriptive text after the implementation of teacher’s indirect feedback.

5. Administering the posttest

In order to see the improvement of student’s writing ability, the posttest was conducted in the experimental class after they were being given the treatment. The test was in form of writing. The students were asked to develop their descriptive text writing based on the topic of important person in my life. The posttest was conducted in 90 minutes.

6. Analyzing the test result (pretest and posttest)

After scoring pretest and posttest, the data was analyzed by using SPSS version 17.0 software program. It was used to find out the means of pretest and posttest and how significant the improvement was.

3.5Scoring Criteria

The students could succeed in writing if their writing includes five aspects of writing. Therefore, the aspects of writing were evaluated in the students’ paragraph writing in the form of simple descriptive text. They were content, organization, grammar,

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mechanics, and vocabulary. The scoring criteria was modified from ESL composition profile designed by Jacobs et al (1981) as can be seen below:

Table 3.1. The Scoring Criteria ASPECTS OF

WRITING

SCORE CRITERIA

Content

EXCELLENT TO VERY GOOD: knowledgeable. substantive. thorough development of thesis. relevant to assigned topic.

GOOD TO AVERAGE: some knowledge of subject. adequate range. limited development of thesis. mostly relevant to topic, but lacks in detail.

FAIR TO POOR: limited knowledge of subject. little substance. inadequate development of topic.

VERY POOR: limited knowledge of subject. non-substantive. not pertinent. or not enough to evaluate.

Organization

EXCELLENT TO VERY GOOD: fluent expression. ideas clearly stated/supported. succint. well-organized. logical sequencing. cohesive.

GOOD TO AVERAGE: somewhat choppy. loosely organized but main ideas stand out. limited support. logical but incomplete sequencing.

FAIR TO POOR: non-fluent. ideas confused or disconnected. lacks logical sequencing and development.

VERY POOR: does not communicate. no organization. Or not enough to evaluate.

Vocabulary

EXCELLENT TO VERY GOOD: sophisticated range. effective word/idiom choice and usage. word form mastery. appropriate register

GOOD TO AVERAGE: adequate range. occasional errors of word/idiom form, choice, and usage but meaning not obscured.

FAIR TO POOR: limited range. frequent errors of word/idiom form, choice, and usage. meaning confused or obscured.

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English vocabulary, idioms, word form. or not enough to evaluate. Language use (grammar) 20 15 10 5

EXCELLENT TO VERY GOOD: effective complex constructions. few errors of agreement, tense, number, word order/function, articles, pronouns, prepositions.

GOOD TO AVERAGE: effective but simple constructions. minor problems in complex constructions. several errors of agreement, tense, number, word order/function, articles, pronouns, prepositions. but meaning seldom obscured.

FAIR TO POOR: major problems in simple/complex constructions. frequent errors of negation, agreement, tense, number, word order/function, articles, pronouns, prepositions and/or fragments, run-ons, deletions. meaning confused or obscured

VERY POOR: virtually no mastery of sentence construction rules. dominated by errors. does not communicate. or not enough to evaluate.

Mechanics

EXCELLENT TO VERY GOOD: demonstrates mastery of conventions. few errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and paragraphing.

GOOD TO AVERAGE: occasional errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and paragraphing but meaning not obscured.

FAIR TO POOR: frequent errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and paragraphing. poor handwriting. meaning confused or obscured.

VERY POOR: no mastery of conventions. dominated by errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and paragraphing. handwriting illegible or not enough to evaluate. Jacobs et al (1981)

3.6Instruments

Writing test was a device which requires the students to compose their own idea, and extends responses to problem set by the teacher. The instrument of this research was descriptive text writing. The researcher administered writing test to find out whether there was any improvement of students’ descriptive text writing ability after the

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implementation of teacher’s indirect feedback or not. That was why the students were asked to write a descriptive text. The students were given a chance to make writing composition for about 90 minutes.

3.7 Validity

A test could be considered valid if the test measures the objectives to be measured and suitable with the criteria (Hatch and Farhady, 1982: 250). According to Hatch and Farhady (1982: 281) there are two basic types of validity; content validity and construct validity. In order to measure whether the test has a good validity, those two types of validity were analyzed.

Content validity is concerned with whether the test is sufficiently representative and comprehensive for the test. In the content validity, the material given is suitable with the curriculum. Content validity is the extent to which a test measures a representative sample of the subject meter content, the focus of content validity is adequacy of the sample and simply on the appearance of the test (Hatch and Farhady, 1982: 251). This study used descriptive writing test that was supposed to be comprehended by the first year of senior high school students. The test was considered as valid in content validity since the test of writing constitutes a representatives sample of the language skill and structure and also the material used was chosen based on 2006 English Curriculum of KTSP for first year of senior high school.

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Construct Validity is concerned with whether the test is actually in line with the theory of what it means to know the language that is being measured, it was examined whether the test given actually reflect what it means to know a language. In this research, scoring criteria was based on the five aspects of writing; content, organization, language use, vocabulary, and mechanics that were suggested by Jacobs et al (1981: 90).

3.8 Reliability

Hatch and Farhady (1982:243) established that the reliability of a test could be defined as the extent to which a test produces consistent result when it administered under similar conditions. A test could be considered reliable if the tests has a consistent result. In order to ensure the reliability of scores and to avoid the subjectivity of the research, there was inter-rater reliability. Inter-rater reliability was used when score on the test is independently estimated by two or more judges or raters. In this case, the first rater was researcher and the secondwas English teacher in MA Al-Hikmah Bandar Lampung. Before scoring the students’ descriptive text writing, it was important to make sure that both raters use the same criteria of scoring. Hereby, the first and the second rater used scoring criteria devised from Jacobs et al (1981: 90). To measure how reliable the scoring was, this study used Rank – order Correlation with the formula:

p= 1 -

) 1 ( . . 6 2 2 



N N d

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p : Coefficient of rank order d : Difference of rank correlation N : Number of students

1-6 : Constant number

(Hatch and Farhady, 1982: 206) In this case, the coefficient of rank correlation was analyzed with the standard of reliability as follows:

1. 0.80000 - 1.0000 : very high reliability 2. 0.60000 - 0.7900 : high reliability 3. 0.40000 - 0.5900 : medium reliability 4. 0.20000 - 0.3900 : low reliability

5. 0.0000 – 0.1900 : very low reliability

Based on the standard of reliability above, it could be concluded that the writing tests would be considered reliable if the tests reached the range of 0.60-0.79 (high reliability).

The reliability of this research could be seen on the explanation below:

1. Result of Reliability of the Score in Pretest p = 1 –6.Σd2_

N(N2-1)

p = 1 – 6. (646.5)_

27(729-1)

p = 1 – 4200

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p = 1 – 0.19734432

p = 0.80265568 (Very high reliability)

2. Result of Reliability of the Score in Posttest p = 1 –6.Σd2_

N(N2_-1) p = 1 – 6. (543.49)_

27(729-1)

p = 1 – 3260.94

19656

p = 1 – 0.16590049

p = 0.83409951 (Very High Reliability)

3.9 Data Analysis

The result of student’s descriptive writing ability in each test was evaluated based on content, language use, organization, vocabulary, and mechanics. The results of students’ performance in pretest then werecompared with the result of their performance in posttest to the impact of the instruction in their writing performance. To analyze the data gained from writing test, the researcher treated the data through the following steps:

1. Sorting the data

Each rater scored the students’ writing of pretest and posttest. Then, the average scores between two raters were taken to be the final score that was

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analyzed statistically using Repeated Measured T-test (Paired sample T-test)

that was to show the differences between pretest and posttest of experimental class for answering the hypothesis. The data was computed through SPSS version 17.0.

2. Drawing conclusion

The score of the pretest and posttest of two groups were statistically analyzed using Repeated Measured T-test (Paired Sample T-test) to draw a conclusion. It was computed through the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 17.0.

3.10. Data Treatment

According to Setiyadi (2006:168-169), using T-Test for hypothesis testing has three basic assumptions that can be described as follows:

a. The data is an interval.

b. The data is taken from random sample in population.

c. The data is distributed normally.

Therefore before testing the hypothesis using T-test, it is necessary to find out whether the data in experimental class was normally distributed or not. Since the objective of this study was only to find out the improvement of students’ writing ability,the data was treated by only using normality test.

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This test was used to measure whether the data is normally distributed or not. The data was tested by One-sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov Formula (SPSS 17.0). The criteria of normal distribution were:

H0 : the distribution of the data is normal

H1 : the distribution of the data is not normal

The hypothesis would be accepted if the result of the normality test is higher than 0.05 (sign > α). In this case, the researcher used the level of significance of 0.05.

3.11 Hypothesis Testing

The hypotheses were stated as below:

H0: “There is no positive effect of teacher’s indirect feedback in improving students’

ability in terms of: content, organization, vocabulary, language use, and mechanics”.

H0: X1 = X2

H1: “There is positive effect of teacher’s indirect feedback in improving students’ ability in terms of: content, organization, vocabulary, language use, and mechanics”.

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2. Teacher’s indirect feedback is very useful to improve students’ descriptive writing ability especially in mechanical aspect since the mean score was improved from 7,78 (pretest) to 13.33 (posttest). It is because indirect feedback can encourage the students to improve their performance in writing by solving the problem themselves and mechanical errors are among the most correctable.

B. Suggestions

In reference with the conclusions above, the writer gives some suggestions as follow:

1. Suggestions for English Teachers

a. English teachers are suggested to use teacher’s indirect feedback as a technique that can be used to improve students descriptive writing ability. Since through teacher’s indirect feedback students become more active and autonomous in the learning process.

b. To make students familiar with teacher’s indirect feedback, the teachers should use consistent and standardized methods to indicate to their students the type and place of errors. Lists of symbols has proven useful if the teacher first trains the students on their meaning and what is expected from the students when a certain symbol is used.

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c. English teachers may start using teacher’s indirect feedback by focusing on certain aspect of writing to increase. It is done in order to ease students to improve their self-correction ability step by step.

d. In applying teacher’s indirect feedback, English teachers have to consider students’ need and in what aspects of writing their weaknesses is. It should be done in order to make the given feedback more useful and accurate in improving students’ writing ability.

2. Suggestions for Further Research

a. This study was conducted in the Senior High School level. Therefore, the further research can try to find out the effect of using teacher’s indirect feedback in different level.

b. In this study, descriptive text was employed as the media to measure the improvement of students’ writing ability after the implementation of teacher’s indirect feedback. Further research can try to apply teacher’s indirect feedback with another kind of text, recount and report text for instances.

c. Since in this study the researcher only used 15 codes of indirect feedback, the further researcher are suggested to add and use more codes as much as possible.

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d. Obviously, the students’ score were still low in organization and vocabulary aspect. Thus, the further research is suggested to find out another alternative strategy to improve students’ writing ability particularly in term of organization and vocabulary.

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