THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ERROR CORRECTION FEEDBACK IN IMPROVING THE WRITING SKILL OF THE SECOND YEAR STUDENTS OF MTsN SLA WIKAB. TEGAL IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR OF 2005/2006 - Test Repository

  

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ERROR CORRECTION FEEDBACK IN

  

IMPROVING THE WRITING SKILL OF THE SECOND YEAR

STUDENTS OF MTsN SLA WIKAB. TEGAL IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR

OF 2005/2006

THESIS

  

Submitted to the Board of Examiners in Partial Fulfillment of the

Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan Islam (S.Pd.I)

In the English Department

  

LAILA FITRIYANI

NIM. 11302053

ENGLISH AND EDUCATION DEPARTEMENT

STATE ISLAMIC STUDIES INSTITUTE (STAIN)

SALATIGA

  

2006

DEPARTEMEN AGAMA SEKOLAH TINGGI AGAMA ISLAM (STAIN) SALATIGA

  JI. Tentara Pelajar 02 Telp. (0298) 323706, 323433 fax 323433 Salatiga 50721 Web Site: WWW. Stain Salatiga.ac.id E-mail: Administrasi @Stain Salatiga.ac.id

DEKLARASI

  Bismillahirrahmanirahim Dengan penuh kejujuran dan tanggung jawab, peneliti menyatakan bahwa skripsi ini tidak berisi materi yang pernah ditulis oleh orang lain atau pernah diterbitkan. Demikian juga skripsi ini tidak berisi satupun pikiran-pikiran orang lain, kecuali informasi yang terdapat dalam referensi yang dijadikan bahan rujukan.

  Apabila dikemudian hari ternyata terdapat materi atau pikiran-pikiran orang lain di luar referensi yang peneliti cantumkan, maka peneliti sanggup mempertanggungjawabkan kembali keaslian skripsi ini di hadapan sidang munaqosah skripsi.

  Demikian deklarasi ini dibuat oleh peneliti untuk dapat dimaklumi.

  Salatiga, 22 Agustus 2006 Peneliti

  Laila Fitriyani NIM: 113 02 053

PEPARTMENT OF RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS

  ST A T E ISLA M IC STU DIES IN ST IT U T E SA L A T IG A Jt. Stadion 3 Phone (0298) 323706 Salatiga 50721

STATEMENT OF CLARIFICATION

  THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ERROR CORRECTION FEEDBACK IN IMPROVING , - THE WRITING SKILL OF THE SECOND YEAR STUDENTS OF MTsN SLA WI

  KAB. TEGAL

  IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR OF 2005/2006 LAILA FITRIYANI NIM. 11302053

  Has been brought to the board of examiners on Wednesday, September 6, 2006, and hereby considered to completely fulfil the requirements of the Degree o f Sarjana

  Pendidikan Islam (S.Pd.I.) in the English and Education Department.

  Salatiga, 9 September 2006 M

  13 Sya'ban 1427 H Board Examiners

  Secretary Dr. Muh. Saerozi. M.Ag.

  )rs. Imam Sutomo. M.Ag NIP 150247014 NIP 150216814

  2nd Examiner l s< Examiner

  i/fron/ftk Haminam, M Pd.

  Woro Retnoningsing. M, Pd NIP. 150. 301. 298 NIP 150. 262. 646

  ^Counselor

  DEPARTMENT OF RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS STA TE ISLA M IC STU DIES IN ST IT U T E SALATIG A Jl. l PU * (02M) 1211 Oi $0121

  

ATTENTIVE COUNSELOR NOTES Salatiga, August 16th 2006

  Case : Laila Fitriyani's Thesis Dear,

  The Head of State Islamic Studies Institute of Salatiga Assa/am u 'alaikum , Wr. Wb.

  After reading and correcting Laila Fitriyani's thesis entitled

  T H E E FF E C T IV E N E SS O F E R R O R C O R R E C T IO N FEED BA C K

  I N IM P R O V IN G THE W R IT IN G SK ILL O F THE S E C O N D Y EAR S T U D E N T S O F M T sN S L A W I K AB. TEGAL I N THE A C A D E M IC Y E A R OF 2 0 0 5 / 2 0 0 6 " ,

  I have decided and would like to propose that if it could be accepted by educational faculty, I hope it would be examined as soon as possible.

  W assalamu 'alaikum , Wr. Wb.

  MOTTO _o t —J b *$ y lJl) Cr — C——T U U *5/1 l

  4Jll "On no soul doth Cjodplace a burden greater than it can 6ear" (J$;-4iaqarah: 286)

  

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

  Bismillahirrahmanirrahim First of all, the writer would to say Alhamdulillah for A llah's mercy and the blessing that the writer could complete the thesis as one of the requirements for getting Saijana Pendidikan Islam in English Department Students of State Islamic Studies Institute.

  The writer realizes that she would not be able to finish her work without the helt) of other. Therefore, she would like to express thanks and gratitude of those who have heiped her. She expresses her thanks and gratitude to:

  1. Drs. Imam Sutomo, M.Ag, as the head of the State Islamic Studies Islamic Studies Institute of Salatiga.

  2. Hanung Triyoko, SS, M.Hum, as Head of English Department of State Islamic Studies Institute of Salatiga.

  3. Ruwandi, S.Pd, M.A, as the guidance of this thesis who is so kinds in completing this thesis.

  4. All of lecturers of English Department who educate and give their knowledge during her study.

  5. My beloved family, mom, dad, my brother, my sister, who have given a true love, care, prayer, support, and wonderful family. I really love you all, and thanks for give me strength to face the world.

  6. Jessin who gives spirit to the writer thanks for everything.

  

vi

  7. My friends at UNS; Doni and Bira, thanks for your support.

  8. My best friends at Az - Zahra’s Boarding house; Catur, Endang, Nurul, Iin, Mira, Fitri, Romah, Rina for your support and kindness.

  9. My KKN’s Team; Mba Rina, Risma, Endang, Irsa, Dien, M.sef, Mas Jadi, Rofik, Harun, for their support, care, and happiness.

  10. All my friends who always give support and cooperation in giving some information related to this thesis.

  Finally the writer greatly hopes this thesis could give a useful contribution for the next researcher.

  Salatiga, August 16th, 2006 The Writer

  Laila Fitriyani

  

TABLE OF CONTENT

\

  

  

  CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

viii

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  CHAPTER IV. THE RESULT OF THE STUDY

  

  

IX

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study In the teaching learning process of English, errors made by students are

  always to be a significant concern to almost language teachers. The students always make the errors in their foreign language use. This problem makes the teachers have to think what they have to do to solve the problem in their foreign language teaching. Teachers become confused whether they have to continue the next material or to correct the students’ errors and make remedial course. However, teachers should realize that making mistake is a part of learning and correction is a part of teaching.

  To be literate in foreign language, students imply the ability to read and write. Writing exercises make students busy and out of mischief. With so many writing in foreign language, one would expect to find highly effective methods

  

in w ritin g

for teaching this skill and success learning.

  It may be well to recall two facts often ignored by language teachers, who traditionally have expected students to write something as a demonstration of learning: first, that many highly articulate persons express themselves very inadequately in writing in their native language, and, second, that only a minority of the speakers of any languages acquire the skill of writing with any degree of finesse, and then only after years of training in school and practice out of school.1

  1 Wilge M. River. Teaching Foreign-Language Skill. Chicago & London: The University of Chicago press. 1986. p 291 2

  J B. Identification of the Problem

  Based on the background of the study, there are several possible problems:

  1. Many students get difficulties to write in English

  2. Teaching methods are unacceptable

  3. Learning is a relatively permanent change in a behavioral tendency and is the result of reinforced practice

  4. Poor of deviant form and structure of English.

  C. Limitation of the Problem

  The writer needs to limit the problem areas to have a distinct focus. The writer wants to find out the effectiveness of the error correction feedback in improving the writing skill of the second year students of MTsN Slawi Kab.

  Tegal in 2005/2006 academic year.

  The writer limits the problem as follows:

  1. The error correction feedback is especially focused on simple sentence forms and it is directed to provide a treatment in reducing errors in students rewritten task

  2. The error correction feedback will be limited on some selected points of grammar and vocabulary.

D. Statement of the Problem

  1. How far is grammatical errors made by the second year students of MTsN

  Slawi Kab. Tegal

  ?

  4

  2. How far is vocabulary errors made by the second year students of MTsN

  Slawi Kab. Tegall

  3. How far is the contribution of error correction feedback to the improvement of writing skill of the second year students of MTsN Slawi Kab. Tegall

E. Objective and Benefit of the Study

  The objectives of the study are as follows:

  1. To investigate and find out that the error correction feedback on grammar contributes the improvement of the writing skill

  2. To investigate and find out that the error correction feedback on vocabulary contributes the improvements of the writing skill

  3. To investigate and find out experimentally that the error correction feedback contributes the improvement of the writing skill.

  The writer hopes that this study will give some contributions to the process of teaching English. There are some expected benefits of the study:

  1. For the English teachers

  a. Teachers realize the importance of error correction feedback for the improvement of students’ writing skill b. Teachers apply of error correction feedback to the improvement of students’ writing skill, then they also realize to find out the way of overcoming the problems in writing.

  2. For the students

  a. Recognize the deviant forms and structure in their written task

  b. Write good composition

  5

  c. More willing to risk producing errors because they have come to realize that they learn by doing.

F. Clarification of the Key Terms

  There are some terms included in this thesis which need to be defined for the operational term.

  1. Effectiveness According to Hornby, the effectiveness is having an effect, able to bring about the result intend.3 Effectiveness is to the degree to which educational means processes result in the attainment of educational goals.4 5

  2. Error Correction Feedback It means the technique used to correct the errors by means of certain marks and symbols or by giving the oral explanation or some information which are easily understood by the students. It helps the students to become more accurate in their use of the language.3

  3. Writing Skill Expressed by the scores obtained by the students in their rewritten composition.6

  3 Hornby, AS. Oxford Advances learners Dictionary o f Current English. Great Britain. 1974. p 277

  4 Jaap Scheerens. Effective Schooling: Research, Theory and Practice. London: British Library. 1992. p 11

  5 Julian, Edge. Mistakes and Correction. New York: Longman Group UK Limited. 1989

  6 William Grabe and Robert B. Kaplan. Theory & Practice o f Writing: An Applied Linguistic Perspective.

  New York: Wesley Longman Limited. 1998

  6

G. Thesis Outline

  This research consists of five chapters as the following: Chapter one is introduction, consists of background of the problem, identification of the problem, limitation of the problem, statement of the problem, objective and benefit of the study, clarification of the key term.

  Chapter two is the Review of Related Literature consists of the Definition of Error Correction Feedback, The Writing Skill, The Effectiveness of Error Correction Feedback, and Conceptual Framework.

  Chapter three discusses reports; it consists of the research report and data presentation.

  Chapter four discusses the result of the research; it consists of first analysis, second analysis, and third analysis.

  Chapter five is closure that consists of Conclusion and Suggestion. The last part is bibliography and appendix

CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE In this chapter, the writer will present review of related literature. It deals

  with error correction feedback, writing skill, effectiveness of error correction feedback on writing, conceptual framework and hypothesis.

A. Error Correction Feedback

  Edge says that correction means helping people to express themselves more accurately. Correction should not mean insisting on everything being absolutely correct. It helps the students to become more accurate in their use of language.1 If a student cannot correct a mistake his English by himself while the teacher thinks that the class is familiar with the correct form, the writer calls that sort of mistake an error. Edge also states that think of correction as a way of giving information or feedback to your students, just when it will support their learning.

  The principal method of avoiding error in language learning is to observe and practice the right model a sufficient number of times. The principle way of overcoming it is to shorten the time lapse between the incorrect response and the presentation once more of the correct model.

  Whenever a mistake is made, the teacher should correct it at once and then repeat the correct pattern or question for the benefit of the entire class.

1 Julian, Edge. M istakes and Correction. New York: Longman Group UK Limited.

  1989. p. 59

  Hendrickson states that he himself finds that correcting only communicates errors in one group and all errors in another do not make a difference in students’ writing ability and making errors in language learning is humans, and humans learn from their mistakes when they

• _{• •}

  2 1 receive supportive feedback.

  According to Wingfield in Walt’s book “Error Correction Technique for the Foreign Language Classroom” states that there are five ways for the teacher to approach the correction of written compositions. They are as follows: (1) providing clues for self-correction; (2) correcting the text; (3) making marginal notes; (4) explaining errors orally to students; (5) using errors as an illustration for class discussion. He prefers self- correction of the students.

  Douglas Corder in the book of “Principle of Language Learning and Teaching” notes: “learners’ errors are so significant that they provide the researcher evidence of how language is learned or acquired, what strategies or procedures the learner are employing in the discovery of the language.” Furthermore, errors act as signals when actual learning is taking place and those errors have value. The learners can give insight, and correct mistakes in their own writing. The students can correct these mistakes when they 2

  3 2 Joel C. Walt. Error Correction Technique f o r the Foreign Language Classroom.

  USA: The Center for Applied Linguistic. 1982. p. 3 3 ibid. p. 27

  10

  a certain percentage for syntactic choice and accuracy; for lexical choice, for expression of time sequences; for general idiomatically or feeling for _\ authentic expression; and for arrangement of ideas.6 From above statements, it is learned that there is no current standard dealing with error correction. However, based on the common errors made by learners, the situation and condition of teaching-learning process are different in the different places, so it is quite possible that the existing criteria on error correction can be used effectively.

  According to Hendrickson in Walt’s book “Error Correction Technique for the Foreign Language Classroom” states that the errors should be corrected because when the students read over their composition, they are generally unable to identify many of their written errors. Error correction will help students discover the functions and the limitations of the syntactical and lexical forms of the target language. Teacher probably provides some means of correcting of spoken and written errors in order to help students reconsider their incorrect sentences.7

  According to Byrne, do we want an emphasis on fluency in the early stages which will probably result in accuracy but which will provide the learner with a useful command of the language relatively quickly, or do we

  6 Wilga M. Rivers. Teaching Foreign Language Skill. Chicago & London: The University o f Chicago press. 1964. p. 308

7 Joel C. Walt, opcit. p. 27

  11

  want slower progress with stress laids on accurate performance of new

• ^•

  f i

  points as they turn up in the course? The accuracy criterion is almost bound to find favour with the majority of teachers. In fact, the problem goes deeper than this. Fluency in the early stage of learning is very difficult to recognize.

  In gaining the accuracy performance, of course, effective error, correction is needed. Over correction in the written compositions may cause students to feel discouragement or lack of self confidence.

  According to George, over correction in the student errors is not only over times, but also the students do not learn their errors. The students know how much they have learned as well as how much they have remain to be learned.8

  9 It is important to understand learners’ position as learners. We are trying to make correction a part of the teaching and learning process, not something for learning to fight against.

  In the book of “Error Correction Techniques for the Foreign Language Classroom” written by Walt, Burt and Kiparsky have classified students’ foreign language errors into two distinct categories. Those are global and local errors. Global errors are those that block communication; local errors are those that appear in isolated sentence element (inflections, articles, auxiliaries, etc.). They stress overall sentence organization and the relationship among clauses, in particular, as potential areas for global

  8 Donn Byrne. Teaching Writing Skills. Singapore: Longman Group Ltd. 1979. p. 86-88

  9 J. P. Rombepajung. op.cit. p. 58

  12

  mistakes. Those for look for are: using the correct connector; maintaining the distinction between coordinate and relative clauses; keeping a parallel structure in reduced coordinate clauses; and tense continuity.10

  From above information, it can be concluded that teacher must select the errors to be corrected. In the relation of the investigation of the effective contribution of the error correction treatment on students’ writing ability', the writer uses global and local errors distinction in grammar and vocabulary.

  Hendrickson states that teacher should be aware of how she corrects students’ errors and should avoid using correction strategies that could affect students adversely or that might cause them embarrass. He has conducted an experiment to foreign students’ communicative and linguistic proficiency in English. He has suggested that it may be more useful for the students, if their teacher uses direct types of correction for infrequently written errors, and more indirect discovery-types of corrective techniques (such as underlining the location). After all, he quotes Cohen and Robin's statement that they have found a major reason for the correction of students’ composition to have no significant effect on reducing errors; that teacher corrects compositions inconsistently.

  Beside those alternatives, there are still other ways to make error correction. In the book of “Pengajaran dan Pembelajaran Bahasa Asing" written by Rombepajung, Burt and Kiparsky’s suggest: when correcting

10 Joel C. Walt, opcit. p. 8

  13

  composition errors, teacher might use different colour inks for distinguishing more important errors from the less important ones.11 Finally, according to Wingfield in Rombepajung’s book “Pengajaran

  dan Pembelajaran Bahasa Asing

  ” has pointed out that the teacher should choose correcting techniques that are most appropriate and most effective for individual students. He lists five techniques for correcting written errors:12 1

  3

  a. The teacher gives sufficient clues to enable self-correction to be made

  b. The teacher corrects the scripts

  c. The teacher deals with errors through marginal comments and footnotes

  d. The teacher explains orally to individual students e. The teacher uses the error as an illustration for a class explanation.

  There is no standard to choose the most effective way of correction feedback so the writer tries one-way error correction, that is, the error correction which is done by teacher.

B. Writing Skill

  Skill is a developed proficiency or dexterity in some art, craft, or the like; deftness in execution or performance; a trade or craft requiring special

  IT • training for competences or expertness in its practice.

  William Grabe states that writing is a technology, a set of skills which must be practiced and learned through experience.14

  11 J.P. Rombepajung. op.cit. p. 64 - 65

  12 Ibid. p. 63 13 Pei, Mario. Grolier Webster International Dictionary o f the English Language. USA: The English-Language Institute o f America, Inc. 1974. p.

  14

  Writing is not a natural activity. All physically and mentally normal people learn to speak a language, yet all people have to be taught how to write. This is a crucial difference between the spoken and written forms of language. There are other important differences as well. Writing, unlike speech, is displaced in time. Indeed, this must be one reason why writing originally evolves since it makes possible the transmission of a message from one place to another.1

  4 Writing skill refers to students’ ability to communicate their ideas through practice and knowledge. It is divided into two categories, the linguistics and communicative abilities.

  15

  Furthermore, it is useful to distinguish between the terms composition and essay. According to Heaton, a composition is a task which involves the students in manipulating words in grammatically correct sentences and in linking those sentences to form a piece of continuous writing which successfully communicates the writer’s thought and ideas on a certain topic. Essay writing, on the other hand, involves for more than the production of grammatically correct sentences. It demands creativity and originality, since it is generally intended not only to inform but also to entertain. Further, he writes that it is reasonable to expect the learner to

  14 William Grabe and Robert B. Kaplan. Theory and Practice o f Writing. New York: Wesley Longman Limited. 1996. p. 6

  15 David Nunan. Designing Tasks f o r the Communicative Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University press. 1984. p. 36

  15

  write accurate English for a meaningful purpose, but it is generally neither reasonable nor form of an essay.16 If stands to reason that the composition writing skill may deal with linguistics ability. This research deals mainly with linguistic writing skill of the students, as the assistances is given that is the error correction feedback. The writer here judges the language accuracy through the writing composition which is created by the students. The composition writing focuses on the production of grammatically correct sentences and the appropriate vocabulary.

  Further discussion on composition concerning the composition writing skill of the students is needed. In the book of “Theory and Practice of Writing” written by Grabe and Kaplan,Raimes states:

  “... we have stressed the ESL part of ESL, composition at the expense of the composition part, and we have done so because we have thought that students need mastery over the sentence before proceeding to the paragraph, and mastery over the paragraph before proceeding to the essay. So, we have provided controls and limits which make the task easier for us... many of our students... cry out for rules for something concrete to monitor them writing performance with. So, we give them grammatical Band-Aids and doses of paragraph models. We must then realize that we are teaching editing and imitation.”17 Writing practice moves from the more guided types of exercises, where elements of structure and vocabulary are manipulated, developed, transformed, and repeated in various ways. In its most highly developed form, writing refers to the conveying of information or the expression of

  16 J.B. Heaten. Writing English Language Test. New York: Longman Group UK Limited. 1975. p. 127

17 William Grabe & Robert B. Kaplan, op.cit. p. 31

  16

  original ideas in a consecutive way in the new language. Composition may be for practical purposes or may be more creative. The ultimate goal in creative expression will be to express one self in a polished form which requires a nuanced vocabulary and certain refinements of structure.

  Writing practice will at the first be a service activity, consolidating work in the other areas. While the students are using it to reinforce other learning, they will be mastering the technical details of the art of writing. The simple rule of one problem at a time will decrease the possibility of error and make for more effective learning.

  More composition curricula are adopting instructional approaches which emphasize relevant topics, class discussion, brainstorming, revision, peer feedback, and realistic tasks. Many writing text books have been rewritten to stress a process approach, though how successful such text books are in developing students’ writing practices is till an open question. According to Bartholomew & Petrosky in Grabe and Kaplan’s book “Theory and Practice of Writing”, composition programs have been moving towards content-centeredness, maintaining a consistent and coherent theme or set of themes about which students have personal knowledge and in which they can invest their time meaningfully.18

  Composition involves individual selection of vocabulary and structure for the expression of personal meaning. If asked to write on subject which are too general, too philosophical, or too literary, students

  18 ibid. p. 32

  17

  will be frustrated by their desire to write at the standard they have reached in native language composition. For students in this dilemma are to simplify. They must clothe their thoughts in simple, lucid language which is well within their command.

  Heaton states that an attempt should be made to determine the type of writing tasks with which the students are confronted everyday. Such tasks will probably be associated with the requirements imposed by the other subject being studied at school if the medium of the instruction is English.

  Shorts articles, instructions and accounts of experiments will probably form the main body of writing. If the medium of the instructions is not English, the students’ written work will often take the form of consolidation or extension of the work done in the classroom.19

  Shortly, it can be restated that in the case of choosing the appropriate writing tasks for the students, the teacher must consider the topics that interest the students, for example, the topic can be what concerns with their daily activities or what they have done during their holiday. Besides, the vocabulary used in their tasks must be the one that has been previously given in their grammar or reading text. The reason is because they are learning English. So, any writing tasks given to them must be associated with the syllabus that will support the writing requirements. Of course, it will enable them to improve their ability in writing composition in English.

19 J.B. Heaton, op.cit. p. 127

  18

  After the writer learns the way to make a concrete writing lesson, now she is thinking about how to test the composition writing skill. In the construction of class test, it is important for the writer to find out how composition is tested in the first language. Although the emphasis in the teaching and testing of the skills in English will necessity be quite different from that in the development of the skills in the firs language, perhaps Heaton’s words help the teacher understand this idea. He explains that in the past, test writers have been too ambitious and unrealistic in then- expectation of tests performance in composition writing, hence the constant complaint that relatively few foreign language learners of English attain a satisfactory level in English composition.

  Furthermore, the backwash effect of examination involving composition writing has been unfortunate. Teacher has anticipated examination requirements by beginning free composition works far too early in the course. They have progressed from controlled composition too early before the basis writing still has been acquired.

  It is clear that the teacher cannot just give the students a composition writing task as a tool of testing their ability in writing. They must adjust with students’ competence in English. They must first know when they can ask students to do free composition writing or when to give them a test. Of course in the early stages, the task given must be guided composition, and then it is more difficult and subtler ones. Heaton writes that once the student is ready to write free composition on carefully chosen realistic

  19

  topics, then composition writing can be useful testing tool. It provides the test with an opportunity to demonstrate his ability to organize language material, using his own words and ideas, and to communicate. In this way, a composition test provides a degree of motivation which any objectives type test fail to provide.

  In other words, in the composition test, the students should be presented with clearly defined problems which motivate them to write. The writing task should be such that it ensures. They have something to say and a purpose for saying it. They also have an audience in mind when they write. How often in real life situation does a person begin to write when she has nothing to write, no purpose in writing and no audience in mind? Further, Heaton states that whenever possible, meaningful situations should be given in composition test. For example, a brief description of real life situation might be given when requiring the students to write free composition.20

  Additionally, in the book of “Teaching of English as a Foreign Language” written by Endang Fauziati, Brown has mentioned some traditional criteria of good writing. Composition, he states, are supposed to: (1) meet certain standards of prescribed English rhetorical style, (2) reflect accurate grammar, and

  20 ibid. p. 128

  20

  (3) be organized in conformity with what the audience would consider to

  21 be conventional.

  A great deal of attention, then, is placed on model composition, thai students would emulate and how well a student’s final product is measured against a list of criteria which include content, organization, vocabulary use, grammatical use, and mechanical considerations such as spelling and punctuation.

  According to Leki in Fauziati’s book “Teaching of English as a Foreign Language (TEFL)” states that the main purpose of the learners' writing activity is to “catch grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors.”-

  The five themes addressed under this principle reflect the more challenging demands placed on intermediate writers as well as the more complex set of factors influencing writing activities and writing development. These themes include: (1) strategy instruction. (2) poor response groups, (3) the writing process, (4) movement from controlled to free writing, and (5) awareness of language and genre structure. These themes extend the notion that effective writing requires attention to both the process of working with text and the output which conveys the intentions and ideas of the writer. Together, these themes make students more aware of the options they have while writing.

  Knowing the main features of writing, the writer can accept the idea since the aim of learning English is to be able to use the language in the

  21 Endang Fauziati. Teaching o f English as a Foreign Language (TEFL). Surakarta: Muhammadiyah University press. 2005. p. 148 - 149 22 ibid. p. 148

  21

  correct situation with correct structure, vocabulary and idioms. It is not a matter of knowing the rules and the vocabulary as learned by using them creatively given, that is the error correction feedback. The writer here judges the language accuracy through the writing composition which is created by the students. The composition writing focuses on the production of grammatically correct sentences and the appropriate vocabularies.

  According to Homby, grammar means study or science of rules for the combination of words into sentences (syntax) and the forms of words (morphology).23

  The grammatical skill has a close relation with the ability to write correct sentences. It concerns the mastery of a structure/The students’ knowledge about sentence parts such as nouns, verbs, auxiliaries, and prepositional phrases, etc is required. The knowledge in organizing these parts of speech into a good and meaningful orders is also needed so that the sentences are clear and understandable.

  Vocabulary refers to the choice of words. The ability to choose the words correctly; and the use of the words which are appropriate to the context are very probable so that the writing is not misinterpreted.

  Beside those techniques, the explanation is done in front of the class for the general errors made for benefit of the entire class. While the students are given the oral explanation, they are asked to study their error 23 A.S. Hornby. Oxford A dvanced Learner’s Dictionary o f Current English.

  22

  correction. As each student has completed the task, the corrected compositions are collected.

C. Effectiveness of Error Correction Feedback on Writing

  According to Cohen and Robin’s idea of recent empirical research in Rombepajung’s book “Pengajaran dan Pembelajaran Bahasa Asing”, indicates that when students written compositions of foreign language are corrected inconsistently, error produced on their subsequent composition will not be reduced significantly. It has been hypothesized. Therefore, that systematic approach to correct student’s written work will improve then- linguistics and communicate competence more than an imprecise corrective approach.24

  Dulay and Burt in the book of “Pengajaran dan Pembelajaran

  Bahasa Asing

  ” written by Rombepajung, see that there is no reason to expect significantly different results with systematic correction techniques.

  They propose that selective feedback tailored to the learners’ interval level of linguistic development may be more effective than systematic feedback.25

  According to Burt and Kiparsky in Walt’s book “Error Correction Techniques for the Foreign Language Classroom” who concern of the terms global and local errors, say global errors are those that block

  24 J.P. Rombepajung. op.cit. p. 56 & 61 25 ibid. p. 61

  23

  communication; local errors are those that appear in isolated sentence _{'y f t} elements (inflections, articles, auxiliaries, etc.).

  The writer’s finding above shows that inconsistent language error correction in the composition written by students of a foreign language produces no improvement in the students’ linguistic and communicative abilities. On the other hand, a selective feedback is proposed as the opposed to the systematic one. Then, the writer finds that written composition being based on global and local error categories still show statistically insignificant effect on the students’ writing production.

  Hendrickson has written currently, the writer uses a combined indirect-direct approach when correcting intermediate students’ compositions. Several indirect corrections: underlining of incorrect spelling, a circle around inappropriate words, an arrow for a missing element, and a question mark for a confusing phrase. More direct correction strategies include underlining a word in order to call attention.

  A misplaced word can be bracketed and placed in its proper order with an arrow. Superfluous words are simply crossed out. Semantic errors must often be corrected in the most direct manner possibly: by providing the exact word such as use past tense. Thus far, using these combined

  27 techniques has considerably improved students’ writing skill.

  Based on this finding, the writer gets convinced that there are still other ways to cope with the students’ errors. Beside using the combined

26 Joel C. Walz. op.cit. p. 8 21 ibid.

  p. 31

  24

  direct-indirect technique, she also uses the selective error correction techniques suggested by Burt and Kiparsky, i.e. correcting only global and local errors on vocabulary and grammar.

D. Conceptual Framework

  In teaching writing composition, teachers may expect that their students will make good progress in their writing skill. They expect progress in writing skill when the teachers give a certain feedback at error correction by means of certain marks on the free margin that can be understood clearly by their students or by giving some information about the errors they make.

  Error correction feedback that is considered as a technique of correcting errors should be given periodically on students’ composition task. Thus, the students can recognize their errors made, and when teacher still finds a lot of mistakes on students’ rewritten composition, the following writing tasks as well as the error correction feedback are administered. In this way, students are expected to be able to improve their skills in writing composition. The improvement of their writing skill is directed to the decrease of mistakes produced in their rewriting composition.

  In correcting students’ composition the writer used the indirect techniques are underlining incorrect spelling circling around inappropriate words and writing a number of symbols which indicates on the margin what the nature of errors is i.e.: SP = spelling, T = tense, W = wrong word, WO =

  25

  word order, P = punctuation, A = articles. More direct correction strategies provide the exact words as: “Use the past tense,” cross out extraneous word, and apply the correct form of structures.

E. Hypothesis

  Based on the explanations above the writer, proposes hypothesis as follows: “Error correction feedback applied to students’ written composition can decrease the numbe: of mistakes produced on students* rewritten composition. Error correction feedback contributes the improvement of the writing skill.”

CHAPTER III R EPO RT O F T H E RESEARCH In this chapter the writer wants to discuss about type of research, Population, Sample and Technique of Sampling, General Description of MTsN Slawi Kab. Tegal. Technique of Collecting Data, Technique of Data Analysis and Data Presentation. A. T ype o f Research There are some kinds of methods which can be used in research. The

  choice of the methods depends on the aim of the research. The research methods can be classified into historical method, developmental method, experimental method and descriptive method.1 2

  In this research, the writer uses descriptive method. In general terms, descriptive method is aimed at solving the correct problem; this includes many _a kinds of descriptive techniques. One of them is used to describe or analyze research data taken by survey. He also says that generally the descriptive method is not only limited to collect and arrange data, but also to analyze and interpret the meaning of the data. In this descriptive method, the writer will describe the grammatical and vocabulary errors made by the second year students of MTsN

  Slawi Kab. Tegal

  and the contribution of error correction R edback to the improvement of their writing skills.

  In this descriptive method of the research, the writer will describe:

  1. How far are grammatical errors made by the second year students of MTsS

  Slawi Kab. Tegal

  ?

  1 Surachmad W. Pengantar Penelitian Ilmiah. Bandung: Tarsito. 1982. p. 77 2 ibid. p. 83

  27

  2. How far are vocabulary errors made by the second year students of MTsN

  Slawi Kab. Tegal

  ?

  3. How far is the contribution of error correction feedback to the improvement of writing skill of the second year students of MTsN Slawi Kab. Tegal?

B. Population, Sam ple and Technique o f Sam pling

  1. Population According to Suharsimi Arikunto, the population is all members of the research subject.3 The population of this study is the second year students of

  MTsN Slawi Kab. Tegal

  in the academic year of 2005/2006. There are seven classrooms and each class consists of 45 students. Thus, there are 315 students in this population.