The contribution of students` reading habits of english texts towards writing cohesion - USD Repository
THE CONTRIBUTION OF STUDENTS’ READING HABITS
OF ENGLISH TEXTS TOWARDS WRITING COHESION
A THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree in English Language Education
By Lucyana Dorothya
Student Number: 031214095
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM
DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION
FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2008
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS
Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma : Nama : Lucyana Dorothya Nomor Mahasiswa : 031214095
Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas
Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul :
THE CONTRIBUTION OF STUDENTS' READING HABITS OF ENGLISH
TEXTS TOWARDS WRITING COHESIONbeserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan kepada
Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam
bentuk media lain, mengelolanya di Internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis
tanpa perlu meminta ijin dari saya maupaun memberikan royalty kepada saya selama tetap
mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis. Demikian pernyatan ini yang saya buat dengan sebenarnya. Dibuat di Yogyakarta Pada tanggal : 11 March 2008Yang menyatakan (Lucyana Dorothya) iv
STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY
I honestly declare that the thesis, which I wrote does not contain the works or part of the works of other people, except those cited in the quotations and the bibliography, as a scientific paper should.
Yogyakarta, 20 February 2008 The writer
Lucyana Dorothya 031214095
W hatever you do in word or deed, D o all in the name of Jesus C hrist (Colossians 3:17) ...when the oceans rise and thunders roar, I will soar with You above the storm. Father You are King over the world, I will be still and know You are God... (Still, Hillsong)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, I would like to thank Jesus Christ for His blessing, grace, love, and guidance throughout the accomplishment of this thesis. I believe that this thesis come to its completion only by the mighty power of Him.
I would like to express sincere gratitude and appreciation to my major sponsor, F.X. Ouda Teda Ena, S.Pd., M.Pd., who willingly spent his time reviewing this thesis and giving suggestions for the revision. My sincere gratitude and appreciation also goes to my co-sponsor, Made Frida Yulia, S.Pd., M.Pd., who helped me to correct this thesis for further improvement.
Special thanks go to all the lecturers in the English Language Education Study Program who taught me knowledge and shared me guidance and experiences during my study.
My deepest love and appreciation go to my beloved ‘Siahaan’ family for never ending love and prayer for every single step I take. I present this thesis, especially, for Papa and Mama.
I also thank all of my colleagues in Language Institute of Sanata Dharma University. I thank them for great support and care. My special thanks go to my ‘angel’ Tika, who brought me to this ‘kingdom’.
My thankfulness also goes to all of my friends of ‘03ers, Mira, Vina, and Jane, thanks for coloring my days. I thank Dwi, Ais, Adi, Piko, and Ricky for cheering me up and teaching me how to work with SPSS 13.0. I thank my brother Ioes for showing me an inspirational film of “Facing the Giant” when I am down. My special thanks also go to my dear Felix for being such a nice friend for life.
From the bottom of my heart, I would like to thank all of the people who have supported and loved me. I pray that God will bless them with the multiplication of love they have given me.
Lucyana Dorothya
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page PAGE OF TITLE ...................................................................................... i APPROVAL PAGES ................................................................................. ii STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY .......................................... iv PAGE OF DEDICATION .......................................................................... v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................... vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................... viii LIST OF TABLES ..................................................................................... xii LIST OF APPENDICES ............................................................................ xiii ABSTRACT ............................................................................................... xiv
ABSTRAK ................................................................................................... xv
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study ............................................. 1 B. Problem Formulation ................................................... 4 C. Problem Limitation ...................................................... 4 D. Research Objectives .................................................... 5 E. Research Benefits ........................................................ 5 F. Definition of Terms ..................................................... 6 CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE A. Theoretical Description ................................................ 8
1. Reading ………………………………………….. 8
a. Definition of Reading ………………………... 8
b. Roles of Reading …………………………….. 9
c. Types of Reading Text ………………………. 11
2. Writing …………………………………………... 13
a. The Process of Writing ……………………… 14
b. Writing Criteria ……………………………… 16
c. Coherence and Cohesion in Writing ………… 17 1). Coherence ……………………………….
18 2). Ties ……………………………………… 18 3). Cohesion ………………………………… 20
a). Grammatical Cohesion ………………
20 (1). Reference ………………………. 20 (2). Ellipsis/ Substitution …………… 21 (3). Conjunction ………………….....
22 b). Lexical Cohesion …………………....
23 (1). Reiteration ……………………...
23 (2). Collocation ……………………..
23 B. Theoretical Framework ............................................ 23
CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY A. Method ..................................................................... 27 B. Research Setting and Participants ............................ 28
C. Research Instruments ............................................... 29
1. Validity of the Research Instrument ...................... 29
2. Reliability of the Research Instrument .................. 30
D. Data Gathering Technique ....................................... 31
E. Data Analysis Technique ......................................... 32 F. Research Procedure .................................................
35 CHAPTER IV: RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
A. Students’ Reading Habits .......................................... 36
1. Motivation to Read .............................................. 36
2. Types of Reading Text ........................................ 38
3. Reading Strategies ............................................... 40
B. Students’ Writing Cohesion ...................................... 40
C. The Contribution of Students’ Reading Habits towards Writing Cohesion ....................................... 46
1. The Contribution of Motivation to Read towards Writing Cohesion ................................ 46
2. The Contribution of Types of Reading Texts towards Writing Cohesion ................................. 48
3. The Contribution of Reading Strategies towards Writing Cohesion ................................. 49
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS A. Conclusions ................................................................... 51 B. Suggestions .................................................................... 52
BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................... 54
APPENDICES ........................................................................................... 57
LIST OF TABLES
Table 4.1 Total Percentage of Students’ Motivation to Read ...................... 37Table 4.2 The Frequency of Students’ Motivation to ReadBased on the Types of Motivation ............................................... 38
Table 4.3 Total Percentage of the Types of Reading Text ........................... 39Table 4.4 The Students’ Writing Cohesion Level ........................................ 42Table 4.5 The Students’ Motivation to Read and the Level of Cohesion .... 47LIST OF APPENDICES
Appendix 1 The Questionnaire ................................................................... 57 Appendix 2 The Questionnaire Results ...................................................... 59 Appendix 3 Cohesion Scores ...................................................................... 63 Appendix 4 Recapitulation Data of Students’ Reading Habits and Writing Cohesion Scores .................................................. 64 Appendix 5 The Result of Reliability Test .................................................. 66 Appendix 6 The Results of Regression Analysis.......................................... 67
ABSTRACT
Dorothya, Lucyana. (2008). The Contribution of Students’ Reading Habits of Yogyakarta: English Language English Texts towards Writing Cohesion. Education Study Program Sanata Dharma University.
This thesis analyzed the students’ reading habits of English texts and their writing cohesion. It studied the extent to which students reading habits of English texts indicated by motivation to read, types of reading texts, and reading strategies contribute to writing cohesion. There were two problems in this research. 1) What are the students’ reading habits of English texts, indicated by motivation to read, types of reading texts, and reading strategies? 2) To what extent do students’ reading activities contribute to writing cohesion?
The method used in the research was correlational research method. There were two instruments in the research. They were a questionnaire and the students’ final papers. The participants of the research were Writing VI students of the English Language Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University of the 2004/2005 academic year. There were thirty-two students selected as the subjects of the research.
The research findings revealed that the students had good integrative motivation to read non- fiction texts with different reading strategies applied to different types of reading texts. It also revealed that motivation to read and types of reading non- fiction texts gave positive and significant contribution towards writing cohesion. However, reading strategies did not give positive and significant contribution towards writing cohesion.
It was concluded that the higher the students’ integrative motivation to read non- fiction texts, the better their writing cohesion would be. Some suggestions are addressed to Writing lecturers, students, and other researchers. The lecturers may provide a great exposure to reading experience for the students to increase their reading habits. The writer suggests that the students pay more attention to non- fiction texts for their academic writing.
ABSTRAK
Dorothya, Lucyana. (2008). The Contribution of Students’ Reading Habits of Yogyakarta: Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris English Texts towards Writing Cohesion. Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Skripsi ini menganalisa kebiasaan mahasiswa dalam membaca teks berbahasa Inggris dan penggunaan kohesi dalam tulisan mereka. Skripsi ini mengkaji tentang sejauh mana kebiasaan membaca, yang diindikasikan oleh motivasi membaca, jenis teks yang dibaca, dan cara membaca berkontribusi terhadap kohesi dalam tulisan mereka. Ada dua rumusan masalah yang diajukan dalam skripsi ini. 1) Apa saja yang menjadi kebiasaan membaca mahasiswa yang diindikasikan oleh motivasi membaca, jenis teks yang dibaca, dan cara membaca? 2) Sejauh mana kebiasaan-kebiasaan membaca tersebut berkontribusi terhadap kohesi dalam tulisan mereka?
Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah metode penelitian korelasional. Ada dua jenis instrumen yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini, yaitu kuisioner dan tugas akhir mahasiswa. Partisipan dalam penelitian ini adalah para mahasiswa universitas Sanata Dharma tahun ajaran 2004/2005 program studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris semester enam kelas Writing VI. Ada tiga puluh dua mahasiswa yang menjadi subyek penelitian ini.
Temuan-temuan dalam penelitian ini menyatakan bahwa para mahasiswa memiliki motivasi integrative yang baik dalam membaca teks non- fiksi dengan menerapkan cara-cara membaca yang berbeda-beda terhadap jenis teks yang berbeda pula. Dalam penelitian ini juga ditemukan bahwa motivasi membaca teks non- fiksi memberikan kontribusi yang positif dan signifikan terhadap kohesi dalam tulisan mereka. Tetapi, cara membaca mereka tidak berkontribusi terhadap kohesi dalam tulisan mereka.
Dengan demikian disimpulkan bahwa semakin besar motivasi membaca teks non- fiksi mahasis wa, maka akan semakin baik pula kohesi dalam tulisan mereka. Beberapa saran ditujukan kepada para dosen Writing, mahasiwa, dan peneliti lainnya. Para dosen Writing dapat memberikan pendekatan terhadap para mahasiswa akan pengalaman membaca untuk meningkatkan kebiasaan membaca mereka. Penulis juga menyarankan kepada para mahasiswa untuk memberi perhatian terhadap teks-teks non- fiksi untuk menunjang penulisan akademik mereka.
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION This study attempts to investigate the students’ reading habits of English
texts and the contribution of such reading habits towards writing cohesion. This chapter covers the background of conducting this research, problem identification, problem limitation, problem formulation, research objectives, research benefits, and the definition of terms.
A. Background
Reading is a process in which the readers combine information from a text they read and their own background knowledge about the text to build meaning (Nunan, 2003: 68). In other words, it is declared that the main objective of reading is comprehension. However, reading many English texts can also build other positive cognitive and linguistic elements such as vocabulary knowledge, English grammar skills, and also organization in writing (Camacho, 2005: 29).
Intentionally, reading ability itself also influences other language skills.
One of the skills which are closely related to reading is writing. Tierney and Shanahan as cited by Camacho (2005: 29) argue that “reading and writing share similar underlying cognitive processes.” Their study justifies that writing improves reading achievement, reading results in better writing performance, and a combination of reading-writing instruction leads to the improvements in both areas. These evidences shows that when people read many kinds of text, they also
2 enrich their ability in writing. Moreover, it is also stated by Campbell (1998: 21) that reading can provide authentic examples of texts and also the usage of vocabulary and sentence structure. In addition, she points out that any background of reading texts will bring certain effects to writing process. Based on the result of her study, Campbell (1998: 16) declares that “the ideas of the reading were to have the writers stimulate thought and generate ideas, not for a single kind of paper but to allow them to make choices.”
Writing is not merely a set of physical activity of texts production. Nunan (2003: 88) points out that writing is a physical and mental act. As a physical act, people write to perform their ideas through a medium. Nevertheless, before performing their ideas, they need to accomplish a mental act. In this case, they think about their ideas they are going to write, formulate how to express the ir ideas, and organize the ideas into a good and readable writing. Furthermore, Yan (2005: 29) elaborates that writing is a more challenging process of producing a coherent, fluent, and extended piece of writing in one’s second language. It should be noted that writing production in a second language is different from the one in the first language, especially in terms of structure, style, and organization.
One of the crucial issues in writing is that a writer should be able to perform his ideas to the reader well, so that the reader is able to absorb the message as it is intended by the writer. Ambruster and Osborn (2002: 122) point out that in order to produce a well-organized writing, a writer should be able to: 1) write a clear introductory, body, and concluding paragraph, 2) maintain the unity and the coherence of his writing, and 3) provide transitions that move the reader
3 from one key point to others. The connections and relationships among ideas can support a coherent writing. It is indicated by the use of transitional words and phrases or commonly known as cohesive devices. One should be able to keep his writing in orderly ideas from the beginning until the end. Therefore, the writing can be smooth and understandable.
Lee (2002: 33) mentions some writers who describe coherence in three ways. They are connection between sentences (McCrimon, 1980), the usage of explicit cohesive devices in the paragraphs (Bander, Dodds, and Laurel, 1985), and the usage of connective devices (Hodges and Whitten, 1982). Neverthele ss, in reality, there is a tendency that the students, sometimes, do not realize the importance of unity. The students might have many ideas in their mind but they do not know how to combine them into a united idea in writing. Some of them only put their ideas into sequences without combining them into a continuous writing. As a result, the lacks of cohesion are still found in students’ writings.
From the previous elaboration, it is assumed that reading experiences have a great influence on writing activities. Knowing the relation between reading and writing in terms of strengthening one another, the writer is encouraged to investigate the contribution of reading towards writing, especially in producing a cohesive writing. It is expected that the finding of the contribution of reading habits to writing activity can help the students in fulfilling the urgency of a cohesive writing.
4
B. Problem Formulation
There are two problems to be discussed in this research. They are formulated as follows:
1. What are the students’ reading habits, indicated by their motivation to read, types of reading texts, and reading strategies?
2. To what extent do students’ reading habits contribute to writing cohesion?
C. Problem Limitation
This research is limited to students’ reading habits in terms of motivation to read, the types of reading texts, and reading strategies. The students’ motivation to read identified in this research is categorized into two. Firstly, instrumental motivation in which the students read for their academic purposes. Secondly, integrative motivation in which the students read for their own interest. The type of reading text is classified into two main types of reading. The first type is English non-fiction text, which is categorized into news, essays or some articles on magazines, biographies/autobiographies, narratives, journalisms, histories, science writing, websites, true stories using scenes, and some others. The second one is an English fiction text, which is divided into drama, fable, fairy tale, fantasies, fiction in verse, folklore, historical fiction, horror, short stories, and tall tale. Meanwhile, strategies utilized in reading are prediction, skimming, scanning, and note-taking.
This study is aimed to analyze the contribution of students’ reading habits of English texts towards writing cohesion. The subjects are taken from Writing
5 classes. Since there are six Writing classes available in the research setting, the research is limited to the sixth semester students of the English Language Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University considering the fact that they have already taken Reading and Writing classes. In addition, they are required to produce academic writing at the end of the semester. Their writings are identified through the presence of cohesive devices in their final papers.
D. Research Objectives
Based on the research problems, there are two objectives stated in this research. The first is to investigate the students’ reading habits of English texts in terms of their motivation to read, the types of reading texts, and reading strategies. The second is to analyze the extent to which the students’ reading habits of English texts contribute towards writing cohesion.
E. Research Benefits
The results of this research will be fruitful for teachers and students where the research was conducted. For the teachers, it hopefully gives benefits by adding more information in providing or modifying teaching methods and media, especially in Reading and Writing classes. Considering the students’ weaknesses in writing cohesion, this research might contribute a way to overcome their problems in writing their papers. In addition, it is beneficial in encouraging them to pay more attention to reading activity. Hence, they will be able to improve their reading and writing achievement. Finally, the study will also hopefully contribute
6 benefits for other researchers who are willing to conduct further research about writing cohesion.
F. Definition of Terms
In understanding the research, there are several related terms to be defined in order to avoid misunderstanding.
1. Contribution
In English Dictionary for Advanced Learners (2001: 329), it is stated that “if you make a contribution to something, you do something to help make it successful or to produce it.” The term “contribution” being used in this research means the influence of reading habits of English texts in helping the students to produce a good writing assignment.
2. Reading Habit
According to Hornby (1974: 699), to read means to “gain the knowledge from book as the source.” However, reading activity does not only support comprehension of the texts, but also facilitates writing process preparation. In relation to writing, Lopes, 1991: 42 clarifies that reading is “the one that involves both the extraction and the supplying of information.” Therefore, reading is used more frequent ly to provide the students with information in Writing classes.
Habit (Hornby, 1974: 385) is “one’s settled practice.” Activities which are done frequently will finally create a habit. In this way, reading activity which is conducted frequently will also create a habit of reading. Durrell (1940: 10-13) argues that good reading habits can be achieved by some supporting approaches.
7 Reading habit to be discussed through this research is reading activity which is repeatedly accomplished by the students in terms of motivation to read, the types of reading texts, and reading strategies.
3. Cohesion
Cohesive devices hold an important role of understanding the texts by a reader. As the basic meaning, “cohesion means a tendency to stick together” (Hornby, 1974: 161). On this basis, it can be inferred that a cohesive writing is characterized by the usage of cohesive devices which relate one sentence to others in order to produce a good paragraph. Mei- yun (1993: 12) says that cohesion makes links between one part of the text and another. The links are necessary for the readers to interpret the text. Such a study refers to the term of cohesion to textual markers of the continuous ideas in sentences in creating a readable writing.
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE This chapter presents theories related to the research. It deals with
references and citations which help the writer solve the research problems. This
chapter includes two sections. They are theoretical description and theoretical framework related to the study. A. Theoretical Description This section describes the theories used in accomplishing such research. It discusses theories of reading, writing, and cohesion in English.
1. Reading
a. Definition of Reading
In the past, reading used to be regarded as a passive process since the reader just received information without giving converse information. Nowadays, reading is not merely noticed as a passive process because it requires others skills, activity, and also knowledge. As quoted from Harris (1947: 9), a simple definition of reading is defined as “the act of responding appropriately to printed symbols.” Besides, he also explains that the definition changes according to the readers’ proficiency level. For the beginner, reading is concerned with learning to recognize the symbols only. As the reading proficiency increases, the reader learns to adapt his or her reading strategies according to the reading purposes.
9 Thus, Harris (1947: 9) concludes that “reading is not one skill, but a large number of interrelated skills which develop gradually over a period of many years.”
In a second language learning theory by Spolsky in Elyidirim and Ashton (2006: 3), the students perform their attitudes towards language learning in which those attitudes contribute to the students’ motivation. There are various types of motivation. According to Ellis (1997: 75-76), there are four kinds of motivation. The first one is instrumental motiva tion in which the students learn for some functional reasons, for instance to pass an examination, to obtain a better job, or to attain a place at university. The second one is integrative motivation in which the students learn because of their own interest in the people and culture represented by the target language group. The third motivation is resultative motivation in which the motivation is the cause of second language achievement. In such motivation, the students will be more motivated if they obtain good achievement in the language learning. The last one is intrinsic motivation which involves encouragement and maintenance of curiosity which flows as a result of some factors as the students’ particular interest to which they feel personally involved in learning activities.
b. Roles of Reading
In a language learning activity, the process of reading plays several important roles. Bell (1998), as cited in http://iteslj.org/articles/Bell- Reading.html., compiles ten roles of an extensive reading in the language learning process. One of them is closely related to the subject to be observed by the writer
10 in this research that is writing activity. Generally, an extensive reading activity provides knowledge in language competence, for example in practicing word recognition. The width of word recognition can help students in other language skills performance. For instance, it can lead to improvement in writing activity.
Reading can provide insight in language learning in terms of models of lexical items and structural patterns as well. On the other hand, in writing and reading relationships as a constructive task theory by Langer and Flihan as quoted in Indrisano and Squire (2000: 119), it is noted that writers and readers use similar kinds of knowledge in making their meanings. They are knowledge about the language, knowledge about content, knowledge about genre convention, knowledge about organization and structure, knowledge about pragmatics, and knowledge about interaction.
In addition, a research conducted on L2 learners in Japan shows that reading contributes more improvement in the students’ writing than in other language skills. Tierney and Leys in Roswell and Natches (1989: 232) explain that “students will compare their own writing with the plot or character development present in what they are reading (and) the quality of writing produced is related to the quality of reading during writing”. Therefore, they draw a conclusion that selected reading experience can give contribution to students’ writing performance.
Basically, students always read for many different purposes. In general, they read for achieving pleasure or for accomplishing a particular purpose or for both of them. Grabe and Stoller (2002: 13-14) view seven purposes for reading.
11 They are 1) reading to search for simple information, 2) reading to skim quickly, 3) reading to learn from text, 4) reading to integrate information, 5) reading to write or search information needed for writing, 6) reading to criticize texts, and 7) reading for general comprehension.
Commonly, college students read for simple information. It mostly happens for the sake of academic purposes. In such reading, the students will focus on the subject content of what they read and the language in which it is expressed. On this situation they read books and journals, take notes, summarize, paraphrase, and then writ e essays. This condition leads to the other purposes of reading which are to integrate information and to write. In this case, the readers have to decide what information to be integrated and how to integrate it for the readers’ goal. This purpose represents common academic tasks that call upon the reading abilities which are needed in order to integrate information. For the purpose of reading to write, White (1995: 40) states that reading can provide content, ideas, guidelines, and models.
c. Types of Reading Text
In order to achieve their reading purposes, people read many different types of reading texts. In general, genres of reading are divided into two. They are fiction and non-fiction genre as it is cited in http://orangeusd.k12.ca.us.html by Hiscar (2004). Fiction genres consist of drama, fables, fairy tales, folklores, horrors, humors, legends, mysteries, mythology, poetry, short stories, and tall tales. In contrast, non- fiction genres concern with real things, people, events, and
12 places. The form of non-fiction includes essays, journals, text books/references, diaries, autobiographies, biographies, magazine writings, travel writings, nature writings, science writings, histories, journalism, true stories using scenes, and dialogues.
According to Moore (1955), there are six characteristics of non- fiction text. The first one is significance. It is about the importance of the book and its contribution to the knowledge of its specialized readers. The second is the newness of the material. The third is the accuracy of the facts and the reasonableness of the inferences based upon them. The fourth is the scope of the book in which it completely covers the topic. The fifth is clarity in which it will be easy to understand the book in organization and in phrasing. The last one is readability.
There are six general component skills and knowledge areas which can be identified in reading activity, (Grabe, 1991: 379). They are 1) automatic recognition skills in which a reader requires little mental processing in recognizing text since it happens almost unconsciously, 2) vocabulary and structural knowledge in which they require readers’ understanding of la nguage structure and vocabulary, 3) formal discourse structure knowledge that is the understanding of how information is put together into various genres of type, for example narration, exposition, and persuasion, 4) content background knowledge is prior knowledge of text related to the cultural information in the text, 5) synthesis and evaluation skills/strategies are the ability to read and compare information from many sources and then to decide which information is relevant
13 to one’s purpose, 6) metacognitive knowledge and skills monitoring are the ability to reflect on what is being read. Writing is considered as a product in which these skills and knowledge are reflected.
Grabe and Stoller (2002: 20) identify reading processes that are activated when people read. It is called lower- level and higher-level processes. The lower- level processes refer to the automatic linguistic processes such as lexical access, syntactic parsing, semantic proposition formation, and working memory activation. On the other hand, the higher-level processes refer to comprehension processes which need more attention of readers’ background knowledge and inference skills. The lower- level processes are considered to be the basic requirement of reading activity. However, it does not mean that one of the processes is easier or more important than the other one.
2. Writing
According to Nunan (2003: 88), writing can be a physical and a mental act. He says that writing is a physical act in which a writer sets his/her ideas into some media. On the other hand, writing is the mental work of inventing ideas, thinking of how to exp ress the ideas, and organizing them into a comprehensible reading. Accordingly, it can also be defined as a process and a product.
People write for many purposes. Some of them write in order to solve problems or to develop critical thinking. They show the ir ideas through written words. Some others also argue that to write is to communicate with other people. In this research, the writer elaborates writing as a means of communication in
14 which it plays as a kind of social interaction. People can interact with the reader through a text. However, this is a kind of interaction in which the writer cannot respond directly and immediately to the reader and vice versa. Thus, a writer should make the writing as clear as possible for the reader.
a. The Process of Writing
Generally, writing in a second language involves a process of constructing the writer’s linguistic and vocabulary knowledge, syntactic patterns, and cohesive devices. Hyland (2003: 3) says that writing results from a process of imitating and manipulating models. First of all, the writers should be familiar with grammar and vocabulary through their experiences. Then, when they are required to write something, they recall what they have in their linguistic storage to be performed in their writing. Roswell and Natchez (1989: 226) sum up that “a whole piece of writing results from the selection, combination, arrangement, and development of ideas in effective sentences, paragraphs, and often, longer units of discourse.”
There are four stages of writing process according to Hugley et al. (1983: 11). The first stage is searching on what a writer is going to write about, which can be called as deciding the topic of writing. The next stage is discovering meaning, ideas, and linking them into coherent thoughts. The next stage is generating. This stage is almost the same as the second one in which the writer starts to expand the discovered ideas. The last stage is shaping the ideas into a well-organized writing.
Concerning the last stage, shaping, there are three types of shaping (Hugley, 1983: 23). They are 1) rhetorical shaping which concerns the
15 formulation of concepts, proposition, and theme. Here, the writer states the purpose of his writing, the audience (reader), and the context for the message. In other words, Hugley (1983: 25) says that this step is the deep structuring of writing, 2) linguistic shaping in which a writer uses his ability to compose and correct appropriate words and sentences. In this case, a writer should be able to consider the cohesion and coherence of his writing, and 3) mechanical shaping which is also known as editing.
By reviewing the writing and reading relationships in a constructive task theory by Langer and Flihan as quoted in Indrisano and Squire (2000: 119), it can be concluded that the students are able to improve their writing by developing their reading strategies as well. This notion is based on the assumption of Lopes (1991: 42) that in reading process people extract information according to their interest and motivation. Later on, this reading experience will help them identify and understand cohesion, coherence, rhetorical organization, and conventions of written language.
It is commonly known that writing in the second language is different from that in the first language. Writing in the second language is more complicated. Therefore, the students need to employ strategies as they use other skills of second language learning strategies. From the ten strategies that the students use in writing English as a second language, Leki (1995: 247-253) concludes that the students’ writings are influenced by the clarity of the instructional task, first language culture, and their past experiences in writing. The
16 students’ past experiences in their writing activity also supports bottom- up and top-down reading process.
b. Writing Criteria
In order to produce a good writing, a writer has to notice the criteria of writing itself. There are seven criteria of writing proposed by John Shiffert (2005) as cited in http://adminservices.clayton.edu. The first one is the knowledge of subject which consists of appropriateness, accuracy, extens iveness, and perspective. The second one is awareness of reader which consists of development, purpose, readers’ needs and attitudes, responsible argumentation, and also diction. The third one is organization which consists of introductory paragraph, where the thesis statement is stated, body paragraph, and concluding paragraph. The body paragraph provides the topic sentence, unity, coherence, and development. The fourth criterion of writing is format. It consists of manuscript form, spelling, abbreviations, numbers and symbols, capitalization, and document format as well. The fifth is punctuation. The sixth is sentence structures which consist of sentence patterns, grammar and usage, and sentence completeness. The last one is style which consists of appropriate tone, conciseness, and precision.
Legget (1965: 192) proposes briefly that a good paragraph should have several elements such as unity, coherence, and adequate development. A paragraph has unity if all sentences contribute directly to a single purpose. In order to gain a coherent paragraph, it should contain not only the inter-related sentences in a subject matter but also sentences which are specifically tied
17 together by logic and grammatical structure. A coherent paragraph can be supported by the presence of adequate cohesive devices among the sentences.
c. Coherence and Cohesion in Writing
Wales in Asher (1994: 603) argues that coherence is a semantic cohesion whereas cohesion is a textual coherence. Coherence can be identified from the idea or content of the text which is put logically in sentences. Indeed, cohesive devices can answer how sentences of a text hang together but it cannot explain the whole story of the text continuously. Crystal (1987: 119) adds that it is possible to write a sentence sequence that is highly cohesive but nonetheless incoherent.
Cohesion concerns with the ways in which the first components, for example the words and the sentences, are mutually connected within a sequence by formal means such as grammatical patterns, lexical items, and also phonological rules in oral texts (Togeby in Asher, 1994: 4580). Hence, while coherence has to do with the deep structure of a text, cohesion has to do with the surface structure. Cohesive devices are useful in explaining how the words or sentences hang together.
To clarify this notion, the following example of a coherent and cohesive text is beneficial.
A week has seven days. Everyday I feed my cat. The cat is eating now. It seems that she loves the meals today. From the example above, it can be identified that it is coherent from the idea in which the sentence is actually talking about a cat that is fed daily. This sentence can also be said as a cohesive text by identifying the cohesive devices used in the
18 sentence. The word everyday presupposes the seven days and the word she to presuppose the cat.
1). Coherence
Kies (1995) on http://papyr.com/hypertextbooks/comp1/coherent.html states that coherence is a product which is combined to produce the meaning of every phrase, sentence, and paragraph as a whole piece of information. Accordingly, writers have to provide an explicit and well-planned pattern of coherence. Kies states that coherence itself is the product of two factors. Those are paragraph unity and sentence cohesion. Lee (2002: 33) views coherence in three ways. They are 1) connectedness between sentences, 2) use of explicit cohesive devices at the paragraph level, and 3) use of connective devices such as pronouns, repetitive structure, and transitional markers. However, He also admits that even though coherence is important in writing, it is sometimes not easy to be taught and to be learned since it is considered an abstract, hard to be defined, and controversial concept. The connection of ideas from sentence to sentences can be obtained by the use of cohesive devices.
2). Ties
According to Halliday and Hasan (1976: 329), a tie is a relation between the cohesive element and what is presupposed by it. The existence of a tie can be used in analyzing a text in terms of its cohesive properties. Here is one of the examples of the existence of tie in sentence.
19 A little provoked, she drew back and, after looking everywhere for the queen, she thought she would try the plan, this time, of walking in the opposite direction. It succeeded beautifully. Example above contains two ties. The first is the reference it in which it presupposes the plan. Secondly, the word succeeded which presupposes try.
There are two types of tie. They are immediate tie in which the presupposition relates the sentence that is immediately precedes it and non- immediate tie in verse. There are two types of non-immediate tie, namely mediated and remote ties. Here is the example of these terms.
The last word ended in a long bleat, so like a sheep that Alice quite started (1). She looked at the queen, who seemed to have suddenly wrapped herself up in wool (2). Alice rubbed her eyes, and looked again (3). She couldn’t make out what had happened at all (4). Was she in a shop (5)? And was that really- was it really a sheep that was sitting on the other side of the counter (6)? Rub as she would, she could make nothing more of it (7).
In sentence (2), the word she refers to Alice in sentence (1). It is the same as she in sentence (4) which refers to Alice in sentence (3). This phenomenon is called immediate tie. Whereas, the presupposition of she in sentence (5) is the she in sentence (4) and in order to find the presupposition of she in sentence (4), one should follow through the sentence (3) then it will be found that she in sentence (5) refers to Alice. This kind of phenomenon is called mediated tie.
Then, rub as she would in sentence (7), has to cohere with Alice rubbed her eyes in sentence (3). This case is called remote tie in which the distance between the two sentences can be long. Nevertheless, there can be a mediated and remote tie in one case. For example, the word she in sentence (7) do not presuppose something on sentence (6) but it refers to she in sentence (5) hence the tie is called mediated. At the same time the word she in sentence (5) presupposes
20 she in sentence (4) and it should be followed through sentence (3) to find Alice as the presupposition, hence it is also called remote.
3). Cohesion
Cohesion is textual markers that make links between one part of text and another (Mei- yun, 1993: 12). The types of cohesion are classified under two general terms. They are grammatical cohesion and lexical cohesion.