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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, I present the background of the research, statement of the

problem, objective of the research, and significance of the research. Each part will

be discussed in different section orderly.

A. Background of the Research

English, stated as an international language used by the majority of the

people of all over the world plays an important role in many aspects of life. The

importance of English can be seen not only in how many people speak it but also

in what it is used for. The role of English is not only found in scientific field as a

means of expanding science and technology but also serves people as a bridge

into the world of science, international trade, technology, tourism, politics, health,

correspondence, and other venture. It cannot be denied that at present most of

scientific books and information in media are still written in English. Therefore,

English should be learnt by all people in all fields who want to be able to

communicate with other people in the world, to study abroad, to get a job, or to

scrutinize various branches of modern science.

English, the first foreign language which has been taught and learnt by all

level students in Indonesia is still considered as one of the most important school

subjects. E

important role to develop intellectual, social, emotional aspect, and determine

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success in studying all subject matters. It makes possible to keep of records and

the creation of a store of knowledge. It is also the basis of all creative thinking. It

expectedly helps the students to reflect their experiences, to show their ideas and

feeling, and to understand any kind of meaning. Therefore, teachers should find

the responsibility of teaching it both exciting and challenging.

Due to the importance of English, by Indonesian Government it is stated

as the compulsory subject that should be communicatively mastered by Senior

High School students both in oral and written form to achieve the literacy level.

Students are expected to have not only receptive skill such as listening and

reading but also productive skill such as speaking and writing to improve survival

communication.

To acquire writing skill, students should have cognitive skill required to

demonstrate control of a number of variables simultaneously. The controls of

variable as stated by Bell and Burnby (1984) include control of content, format,

sentence structure, vocabulary, punctuation, spelling, and letter formation beyond

the sentence. Writer must be able to structure and integrate information in

cohesive and coherent paragraphs and text.

In the Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan (Educational Unit

Curriculum) for Senior High School, English teaching has a purpose to develop

communicative competency in the form of oral and written language. It means

that teacher must teach students to learn to use language. Therefore, it is expected

that students should learn to use language to communicate. Competence standard

of English in KTSP shows that writing is one of the language skills taught to
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express the meaning of a short functional written text and simple essay in the form

of recount, narrative, procedure, descriptive, and news item text in a daily life.

The indicators of the competence are using accurate sentence structure, letter

formation, vocabulary, punctuation, and spelling; writing and elaborating the main

idea; developing the information/ ideas appropriate with the topic provided;

organizing a text in terms of paragraph unity, coherence, and cohesion.

The theory and indicators in KTSP implies that the ideal condition of

writing skill of the tenth graders is the skill of the students in expressing the

meaning of simple essay or creating simple text especially in writing paragraph, in

which they write accurately and acceptably to control the content of writing

involving the appropriateness with the title; organization of the writing related to

the paragraph unity, cohesion and coherence; vocabulary mastery; grammar or

language use related to the sentence structure; and mechanics involving spelling

and punctuation.

Compared to other three language skills, writing is considered as the most

difficult task a learner encounters and one that few people can be said to fully

master. The difficulty in writing is encountered by not only a learner of a second

language but also a learner of first language as stated by Richards (1990: 100) as

follows:

Learning to write in either a first or second language is one of the most

difficult task a learner encounters and one that few people can be said to
fully master. Many native speakers leave school with a poor command of
writing. Even at university level, students require further instruction in
writing, providing employments for the teams of instructors in college
English departments who teach courses in freshman composition.
Learning to write well is a difficult and lengthy process, one that induces
anxiety and frustration in many learners.
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In addition, Richards (2005: 303) says that there is no doubt that writing is

the most difficult skill for L2 learners to master. The difficulty lies not only in

generating and organizing ideas, but also in translating these ideas into readable

text. The difficulty becomes even more pronounced if their language proficiency

is weak.

What the linguists said was in line with the results of the questionnaire

conducted in the tenth year students of SMA Negeri I Sumberlawang as shown in

the Table 1.1.

Table 1.1. Rank of English Skill Difficulties of

Class X3 of SMA Negeri I Sumberlawang in the 2011/ 2012 Academic Year
No English Language Number of Percentage
Skill Students (%)
1. Writing 12 38%
2. Listening 9 28%
3. Speaking 7 22%
4. Reading 4 13%

Table 1.1 showed that writing was considered as the most difficult

language skill among the three other language skills learners encountered.

Writing is not a simple activity of transcribing language into written

symbols, but it is a very complex activity that one cannot acquire this ability

automatically and easily. Writing a text, whether in the form of a letter, a

message, a memo, a short story or a report needs requirements that have to be

fulfilled by the writer. The writer has to know about the reader to be, the main

idea, the language being used, and the culture or even the beliefs of the reader.

The failure to understand the reader or the failure to understand the language or to

use the language itself will lead to the failure of the text to be understood by the
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reader. It means that the reader misunderstand the text or the main idea expressed

by the writer.

The preliminary research conducted in the X3 of SMA Negeri I

Sumberlawang showed that the problems were mostly derived from two aspects:

writing skill were focused on five elements of writing. The average of each

writing element could be seen in Table 1. 2.

Table 1.2. Pre-Test Score. The Average Scores of Each Writing Element
No Writing Elements Average Score
1. Content 63.85
2. Organization 61.88
3. Vocabulary 57.50
4. Grammar 44.50
5. Mechanics 58.75
Average Score of Writing 57.09
Elements

Table 1.2 showed that the result of their pre-test of writing was under

average and still far from what was expected. The mean score of their test was

only 57.09. It means that most of the students could not fulfill the minimum

standard of the competence (KKM) which is 68. The scores of the students

showed that the score of all elements of writing were still low and under average.

The worst element of writing was on grammar. Then, it was followed by

vocabulary, mechanics, organization, and content.

The writing score of pre-test gave information that most of the students

were in low level of writing skill. The problems of writing skills can be

summarized as follows: (1) the students had difficulty in developing the

information/ ideas appropriate with the topic provided; (2) the students had
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difficulty in organizing a text in terms of paragraph unity, coherence, and

cohesion; (3) the students had difficulty in using vocabularies precisely

appropriate with the topic provided; (4) the students had difficulty in using

grammatical patterns and sentence pattern appropriate with a text; and (5) the

students had difficulty in spelling the words appropriately and using suitable

punctuation in their texts.

The problems derived from the writing class situation were: (1) the class

was not inspiring, the students tended to be passive in the class; (2) the class was

crowded, many students talked about unrelated topic; (3) the class was noisy,

students were busy with their own activities; and (4) the classroom cooperation

was low, students tended to work individually. Those problems always arose and

the result of this condition was that they often got low scores in writing task.

To evaluate the problems, it can be seen from the main causes consisting

had low motivation in learning English, especially writing; (2) they had low

writing mastery including the limitation of their vocabulary mastery. Most of

them did not know how to write well. They did not understand the elements of

writing and got limited model of good writing. The impact of this condition was

that they depended too much on their dictionary; (3) they got difficulty how to

start to write. They never got any stimulus from the teacher that triggered their

creative ideas of writing and development of ideas in the form of words or phrases
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that can describe the title found; and (4) they did not have enough time to practice

writing.

teaching technique implemented caused the students bored. There was no

variation in teaching learning process; (3) sufficient attention and helpful

writings were expected; and (4) only fewer portion for writing than other language

skills were applied.

The third cause was from the class situation. The large number of students

made the teacher difficult to control and give attention to each student. Having not

much attention from teacher, the students showed no interest to the subject. Some

of the students were passive during the lesson and gave no response when they

were asked question.

After learning the problems and causes above, I intend to make a better

applying a certain teaching technique which is suitable with the conditions.

cher

should provide a clearly defined problem, appropriate and good model of teaching

writing which motivate them to write because it provides an opportunity to

demonstrate their ability to organize language material, to use their words and

ideas.
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In line

temporary framework which generally applies essential aspect of instruction as

follows: (1) modeling of desired behaviors; (2) offering explanations; (3) inviting

student participation; (4) verifying and clarifying student understandings; and (5)

inviting students to contribute clues (Hogan and Pressley, 1997: 17-36). There are

actually some different opinions from many linguists about the phase of

instructional scaffolding, but those can be concluded whether the phase of

instructional scaffolding should apply essential aspects of instructions as follows:

(1) Intentionality. It is a step where teachers classify complex task that will be

mastered by students into specific and clear sections. Those sections are the unity

to achieve the whole competence. In short it is sorting complex aspects to the

stages. (2) Appropriateness. It is a step where the teachers focus on assistance and

determine the focus of aid students need on those aspects that cannot be mastered

by students. (3) Structure. It is a step where the teachers provide the model so that

students can learn from models shown. The modeling is related to behavior

expected. (4) Invitation. It is a step where the teachers invite students to explain

the important aspects of modeling. (5) Collaboration. It is a step where teachers

and students give response and feedback to the students' works. In this step,

teacher can have the students collaboratively check and give response to the

Internalization. It is a step where the teachers internalize the

ownership of knowledge that students actually mastered well. It is done in order to

standing.
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Scaffolding as defined by Wood, Bruner, and Ross is a teaching strategy

form of tutoring or assistance provided by the teachers or peers in a learning

setting to assist students with attaining levels of understanding that is impossible

for them

scaffolding provided by the more knowledgeable other is progressively

withdrawn. Finally the learner is able to complete the task or master the concepts

independently (Chang, Sung, & Chen, 2002: 7). Therefore, the goal of the

educator when using the scaffolding teaching strategy is for the student to become

an independent and self-regulating learner and problem solver (Hartman, 2002:

23-69).

In the process of scaffolding, the teacher helps in mastering tasks or

concepts that are difficult to be understood by the students. Teachers only help the

students by giving guidance or the media in doing difficult tasks that students

have to master, but the responsibility in accomplishing tasks is on students

themselves. In doing the task, the students possibly make some mistakes, but with

the mediation or assistance in the form of feedback, guidance or instructions given

by the teachers, students can complete these tasks and achieve goals. In this case,

scaffolding is a bridge used to connect what is already known by the students with

something new that will be known by the students.

In giving assistance, soft and hard scaffolds are provided by teacher or

peer in the learning process. According to Saye and Brush, soft scaffolds are

dynamic, situation-specific aid provided by a teacher or peer to help with the

learning process. It requires teachers to continuously diagnose the understandings

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of learners and provide timely support based on student responses. This type of

-the-

progress, students are making while engaged in a learning activity and intervenes

when support or guidance is needed. Hard scaffolds are static supports that can be

anticipated and planned in advance based upon typical student difficulties with a

task. These support structures can be embedded within multimedia and

hypermedia software to provide students (Kao, Lehman, & Cennamo, 1996;

Krajcik, et al., 1998).

I, in this study, apply both soft and hard scaffolds in scaffolding teaching

technique to improve writing skill of the students of SMA Negeri I

Sumberlawang. Teacher provides soft scaffold in a form of guidance from the

teachers and peers and hard scaffold in a form of slide as presentation program of

the computer. A deeper understanding and interest of the students toward the

instructional content when it was provided is really expected.

There are some reasons of why the scaffolding teaching technique is

suitable for improving writing skill of the students. Scaffolding as stated by Stuyf

(2002: 2-13) can improve writing skill of the students because it has some

advantages as follows: (1) scaffolding teaching technique can motivate the

students to learn. In working with students who have low self-esteem and

learning disabilities, it provides an opportunity to give positive feedback to the

students, so they are motivated to keep trying to write and learn how to write.

Instantly, the indicators of writing will be learned and the difficulties of writing

will be solved; (2) scaffolding teaching technique engages the learner to be active
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to build on prior knowledge and form new knowledge. Scaffolding provides

stimulus to get the idea so students are helped to develop ideas appropriate with

the topic provided; (3) scaffolding in writing helps the learners organizing a text.

By providing structure of the text, the scaffolded writing lesson or writing project

provides pathways for the learners to write, to organize a text by focusing on

paragraph unity, coherence, and cohesion. In this case, the students can make

decisions about which path to choose or what things to explore along the path

which is designated but they cannot wander of the path; (4) scaffolding minimizes

the level of frustration of the students in writing a text. By anticipating writing

problems that students might encounter, developing step by step instructions,

explaining what students must do to meet expectations, and giving model of

writing, the confusion of the students will be reduced. So, frustration caused by

the difficulties of writing can be minimized; (5) scaffolding increases the

expectations of what the students are able to do in writing. Scaffolding helps

students understand why they are doing the work of writing and why it is

important, so expectations are clear from the beginning of the writing activity

until the end of writing; (6) scaffolding supports the students to be independent in

doing the task. An important aspect of scaffolding instruction is that the scaffolds

by the more knowledgeable other is progressively withdrawn. Finally the learners

are able to complete the task or master the concepts independently. Therefore, the

goal of the educator when using the scaffolding teaching strategy is for the student
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to become an independent and self-regulating learner and problem solver (Chang,

Sung, & Chen, 2002: 7).

Referring to the explanation above, I was interested to conduct a research

writing skill by using a Classroom Action Research at the tenth grade students of

SMA Negeri I Sumberlawang in the 2011/ 2012 academic year.

B. Statement of the Problem

The problems of the research can be formulated as follows:

1. Does Scaffolding Teaching Technique improve writing skill of the tenth

grade students of SMA Negeri I Sumberlawang? If it does, to what extent it

2. What happens with the class situation when Scaffolding Teaching Technique

is administered in the class?

C. Objective of the Research

The objectives of the research are intended to describe: (1) whether

describe how far does the technique work; and (2) to find out what happens with

the class situation during the technique is administered.

D. Significance of the Research

It is expected that the result of the research will provide some contribution

to improve the English language teaching and learning quality. The benefits are
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not only for me myself but also for the students, the teachers, the school, and other

researchers.

For me myself as the researcher, it is expected that by conducting the

research, it can improve my professionalism in teaching English as well as enrich

my knowledge about education field. It also gives me valuable experience in

managing heterogeneous class consists of students with various cultural

background, competence, and also personality. Last but not least, by doing this

research the researcher has sharpened her intuition to be more aware with the

education problem.

For the students, as the subject of the research, it is expected that the result

of the research can make the students realize that writing is an important thing and

can encourage them to be active in learning. By applying Scaffolding Teaching

Technique, it is also expected that it can motivate the students to learn, engage the

learner to be active to build on prior knowledge and form new knowledge,

minimize the level of frustration of the students in writing a text, increase the

expectations of what the students are able to do in writing, and support them to be

independent in doing the task. Finally it can improve their writing skill.

For the teachers, it can be a reference in developing learning quality and

improving the method of teaching and learning which is appropriate to the

condition in the classroom. It is also expected that this research will give valuable

information as the consideration for choosing the suitable classroom technique in

teaching English especially in teaching writing for Senior High School students. It
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also can be used as a starting point to improve the teaching learning activity in the

class so that the English competence of the students will be better.

For the school, it is expected that the result of the research can beneficial

contribution of the improvement of the English language teaching in a Senior

High School especially in teaching writing. It can develop the quality of teaching

learning with a fun learning system in writ

The school can have the benefit of

one of the scientific researches in education which support the University as an

academic institution.

Other researchers can have the benefit from the research too. It is

expected that the result of the research can give useful information to conduct

further research. The results of this research can be used as a starting point to

conduct further research about teaching and learning of English, especially in the

issue of teaching writing and Scaffolding Teaching Technique.