Improving Students’ Writing Skill through Marking System Feedback

Writing is one of the four language skills that the learners should master. The 2013 curriculum also says that one of the English language competencies specified in high school level is that students must be able to compose short written texts using coherent text structures and linguistic elements fluently and accurately. In line with that this study aims to find out whether the marking system feedback can improve students' writing skill. This is a two-cycle classroom action research at SMA Negeri 1 Sewon. The subjects were 26 tenth grade students of class X MIPA 1. The data were collected from observation, written documents, writing scores, and questionnaire. The study results showed that by applying the marking system feedback, students' writing skills improved. The mean scores of the students' writing ability in the pre-cycle was 63.65 at the poor category, the first cycle was 73.65 at the fair category, and the second cycle was 81.35 at the good category. In addition, students tend to give positive responses to the implementation of the marking system feedback. As many as 88.46% think that the feedback is useful in writing activities and can help them in correcting their mistakes, 73.08% think that the technique makes them understand the grammar better, and 80.77% say this technique leads them to be more careful in their writing and also motivates them to improve their composition.

Investigasi Faktor-Faktor yang Mempengaruhi Kualitas Tulisan Ilmiah Mahasiswa

Penelitian ini didasari dengan adanya kebutuhan untuk mengevaluasi capaian pembelajaran mata kuliah yang berada dalam kategori Writing Skill, seperti: Paragraph Writing, Composition and Essay Writing, Argumentative Writing, dan Thesis Writing. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi kualitas tulisan ilmiah mahasiswa. Desain penelitian yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah rancangan penelitian deskriptif. Data penelitian dikumpulkan dengan menggunakan angket dan panduan wawancara. Yang menjadi partisipan dalam penelitian ini adalah alumni (lulusan) Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Fakultas Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan (FKIP) Universitas Lancang Kuning (UNILAK) pada Tahun Akademik 2020/2021. Jumlah alumni tersebut adalah sebanyak 36 orang. Data yang telah dikumpulkan melalui angket dan wawancara dianalisis secara deskriptif. Hasil penelitian ini menujukkan bahwa, terdapat faktor eksternal dan internal yang menghambat keterampilan menulis mahasiswa. Hal ini didukung oleh data dari wawancara bahwa kesulitan mahasiswa dalam menulis tulisan ilmiah itu, secara umumnya memang dipengaruhi oleh faktor eksternal dan internal tadi, seperti kurangnya rasa percaya diri, kurangnya pengetahuan dalam menemukan referensi bacaan, kurangnya pengetahuan dalam hal penggunaan tata bahasa, kosakata, dan mekanisme penulisan yang benar, serta minimnya waktu untuk latihan menulis. Berdasarkan temuan ini, dapat disimpulkan bahwa faktor eksternal dan internal menjadi faktor penentu dan yang paling berpengaruh terhadap kualitas tulisan ilmiah mahasiswa.

The Use of YouTube As A Medium for Teaching English Writing Skill During Covid-19 Pandemic

A popular video sharing site, YouTube, could be used as an alternative teaching medium in online learning activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is useful to help students to keep on learning and get materials well in the difficult circumstance caused by the pandemic. This study aims to describe how Youtube is used as a learning medium in English teaching, especially the writing skill at MTs Ma'aarif NU 01 Kemranjen during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study uses a qualitative approach. Data are collected through the triangulation of interview, observation, and documentation. The data are then analysed by applying Miles and Huberman’s (1994) model of data reduction, data display, and verification. The results of this study reveal that Youtube is seen to be a good learning medium to cope with the learning difficulties in the unprecedented Covid-19 crisis. The asynchronous nature of the Youtube videos enabled students to repeat the video as much as they want to. The implementation of Youtube in online learning was done in three stages: 1) preparation, the teacher makes and uploads the videos; 2) implementation, the teacher shares the link and provides brief explanation on WhatsApp; and 3) evaluation, the teacher gives quizzes to ensure that the materials are well-received. Meanwhile, the obstacles in the implementation are poor Intenet network, insufficient facilities, and unmotivated students. The pedagogical implication from this study is that Youtube is a good fit for online learning, it is highly recommended for teaching during the pandemic.

THE INFLUENCE OF SKYPE TOWARDS STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILL

One of the main skill in learning English as second language is writing. Learning writing is necessarily important nowadays, not only for education purposes but also for occupation purposes as well. However, most of the students feel bored in writing; one of the reasons is because the teaching learning process still uses conventional method. Thereby, it seems that writing is difficult and boring because the students score in writing is low. Therefore, the researcher uses Skype as the media in teaching writing as an alternative solution for this problem. The study aim is to find if there is any significant influence of using Skype towards students’ writing skill especially in writing descriptive text. The result of this study showed that there is a significant influence of using Skype towards students’ writing skill.

Strategi Multitalenta untuk Mengaktifkan Siswa dalam Pembelajaran Menulis Naskah Drama

Language skills that are important and used in everyday life, one of which is writing skills. This writing skill is a form of active productive skill because the writer actively produces or expresses his ideas. This research is a descriptive qualitative research that aims to describe a multitalented strategy to activate students in learning to write drama scripts. Innovative strategies are needed in learning to write drama scripts so that students are encouraged to be active, critical, and creative students. Multitalented Strategy is a strategy in which each student mobilizes all his talents in writing drama scripts.

ACADEMIC WRITING CHALLENGES OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNERS IN PAKISTAN

This descriptive qualitative research sought to explore as what would be the best writing approach adopted to teach academic writing skill to the undergraduate university students to identify and minimize the identified problems. The aim of the study was to strengthen the academic writing skill of university students. For this purpose, thirty undergraduate students were selected and involved in focus group discussions to highlight the problematic area in the field of academic writing. Thematic analysis helped to understand the problems faced by the students and suggestions were made on the basis of the study’s findings. The study revealed the students’ inability to use appropriate vocabulary. These students lacked the skill to express themselves in their own words, and often their written work would look patchy. English being the foreign language to the students hampered their ability to think in the target language. The present study contributed to understand the problems and suggested process approach of writing to be adopted by the faculty to overcome the academic writing related problems. Key Words: Process Approach, Product Approach, Genre Approach, Academic Writing

IMPROVING STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILL OF RECOUNT TEXT THROUGH DIARY WRITING AT EIGHTH GRADE STUDENTS OF MTS NEGERI 2 PALU

This research with a quantitative approach aims to determine whether the use of diary writing strategy is effective to improve writing skill in recount text of eighth grade students at MTS Negeri 2 Palu. The population in this research were students at MTS Negeri 2 Palu and the sample was students in grades VIII A and B with a total sample of 70 students. However, due to the pandemic ccovid-19with all the limitation, the researcher only obtained 24 students as the samples who took the test in this research. In this research the researcher used a purposive sampling technique. The data collection technique using test, namely pre-test and post- test. The technique of data analys is that the researcher used is the t-test. The results of the data analysis showed that t-count is and t-table (t-count10,632 > t-table1,796). It means the results of the research showed that there is improvement in the eighth grade students’ writing skill in recount text after the implementation of Diary writing strategy at MTS Negeri 2 Palu.