The Use of Writing Personal Letter in Teaching Recount Text for the Eighth

 The Use of Writing Personal Letter in Teaching Recount Text for the Eighth Choirun Nisaa English Education, Languages and Arts Faculty, State Unuversity of Surabaya Choirerunni@ymail.com   Dosen pembimbing Him’mawan Adi Nugroho, S.Pd., M.Pd                                      English Education, Languages and Arts Faculty, State University of Surabaya   Abstrak Penelitian ini mengkaji tentang penggunaan menulis surat pribadi dalam pengajaran teks recount untuk siswa kelas delapan. Guru EFL sering menempatkan pengajaran menulis pada urutan terbawah prioritas mengajar. Bagaimanapun juga, belajar menulis itu penting bagi siswa. Masalah utama yang dihadapi siswa dalam menulis adalah kebosanan. Guru EFL harus meninggalkan cara yang biasa dalam pengajaran menulis dan mencoba untuk memberikan cara kreatif untuk hal ini. Penelitian ini memiliki dua pertanyaan penelitian; (1) bagaimana penerapan menulis surat pribadi dalam pengajaran teks recount untuk siswa kelas delapan? Dan (2) bagaimana tanggapan siswa pada penerapan menulis surat pribadi dalam pengajaran teks recount? Penelitian ini adalah penelitian deskriptif kualitatif. Subyek dalam penelitian ini adalah guru dan siswa kelas VIII D SMP Bahrul Ulum Suranbaya. Instrumen yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah lembar observasi, catatan lapangan, karya siswa, dan kuesioner. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa pengajaran menulis teks recount mengunakan menulis surat pribadi bisa menarik memunculkan keinginan siswa untuk belajar teks recount. Hal ini di buktikan oleh kondisi dimana siswa aktif selama proses belajar mengajar. Hasil penelitian ini juga menunjukkan bahwa pengajaran menulis teks recount menggunakan menulis surat pribadi mendapat tangapan positif dari siswa. Kebosana dalam menulis yang sering dirasakan oleh para siswa dapat dikurangi. Selain itu, tanggapan positif ditunjukkan oleh hasil karya siswa. Siswa dapat menuangkan ide dalam tulisan mereka. Namun, siswa masih mengalami kesulitan berkaitan dengan tata bahasa. Sebagai kesimpulan, penerapan menulis surat pribadi dalam pengajaran teks recount berhasil diterapkan oleh guru. Hal ini dikarenkaan guru memilih materi yang sesuai dengan tingkatan siswa dan latar belakang pengetahuan siswa. Hal ini juga mendapat tanggapan positif dari siswa. Mereka setuju bahwa penerapan menulis surat pribadi dalam pengajaran teks recount dapat mengurangi kebosanan mereka dalam menulis. Tanggapan positif lainnya ditunjukkan pada hasil karya siswa. Siswa telah mampu menuangkan ide-ide mereka dalam tulisan mereka. Kata Kunci: menulis, teks recount, surat pribadi   Abstract This study investigates on the use of writing personal letter in teaching recount text for the eighth graders. EFL teachers often put writing in the bottom list of priorities in teaching. However, writing is essential for teacher. The main problem that students faced in writing is boredom. EFL teachers should leave a conventional way of teaching writing and try to provide a creative way for teaching writing. This study has two research questions; (1) how does the application of writing personal letter in teaching recount text for the eighth graders? And (2) how are the students’ responses on the application of writing personal letter in teaching recount text? This study is a descriptive qualitative. The subjects are the teacher and the students of VIII D SMP Bahrul Ulum Surabaya. The instruments which are used in this research are observation checklist, field note, students’ work, and questionnaires. The finding of the study shows that teaching writing of recount text involving writing personal letter could attract students willing in learning recount text. It proved by the condition where students are active during the teaching and learning process. The finding also showed that teaching writing of recount text involving writing personal letter gets a positive response from the students. The boredom in writing that commonly felt by the students could be reduced. Moreover, the positive response is showed by the result of the students’ works. Students can deliver idea in their writing. However, students still have difficulty dealing with grammar. In conclusion, the application of writing personal letter in teaching recount text was successfully applied by the teacher. It was because the teacher chose an appropriate level of material and students’ input. It also gets positives responses from the students. They agree that it can reduce their boredom in writing. Another positive response is showed in the result of students’ works. Students have been able to deliver their ideas in their writing. Keywords: Writing, Recount Text, Personal Letter           INTRODUCTION           In Indonesia, English is taught as a Foreign Language (EFL). One of the purposes of teaching English at school in Indonesia is to develop students’ ability in communicating using English. Talking about communication ability, there are four skills that have been widely known, they are; listening, speaking, reading, and writing. In order to achieve the goal of EFL learning in Indonesia, These skills should be taught in an integrated way.           Many studies on English Language Teaching in Indonesia show that the aim of learning English has never been satisfactorily achieved (Gunarwan, 2000). EFL teachers in Indonesia seem to have a misunderstanding on how English should be taught regarding to the goal of building the learners’ communication skills. They emphasize more on the oral skill, which is actually true in a sense. However, EFL teachers should not put aside the other three skills that are reading, writing, and listening.           Listening and reading are categorized as a receptive skill. Receptive skills are the ways in which people extract meaning from the discourse they see or hear (Al-Jawi, 2010). On the other hand, speaking and writing are categorized as a productive skill. In productive skill students use the language that they have acquired and produce a message through speech or written text.  It can be said that in productive skill students will be more active than in the receptive skill. It is the reason why people often say that productive skill is more difficult than receptive skill.           Writing is a productive skill in a written form while speaking is a productive skill in a spoken form. Writing is a system for thinking process and interpersonal communication put on paper using visible signs or graphic symbols on a flat surface such as paper, cloth or even stone slab (Al-Jawi, 2011). Writing is also called as the ‘forgotten skill,’ it is because it receives the least attention of the teacher. Moreover teachers often put writing at the bottom list of teaching priorities. Some people are more comfortable to communicate in a written form but some others are good in communicating in a form of spoken. People often communicate through writing. This makes it necessary for the EFL learners to learn how to write (Al-Jawi, 2011).           The majority of language learners consider the writing skill as one of the most challenging linguistic abilities to foster; indeed, teachers of writing often hear their students complain of uncertainty about how to express themselves in writing (Luchini, 2003). Writing as one of the four language skills is often considered as a difficult skill because the writer should pay attention to their content, organization, purpose, vocabulary, punctuation, and spelling. In writing, students often get difficulty dealing with grammar. As the result, they get serious difficulty in writing. It is also the reason why students get bored in writing. Teacher’s monotonous way of teaching writing also causes in students’ unwilling in writing.           In teaching writing, teachers should be familiar with what writing is all about, why people write, what kind of things they write and for what purposes, what a writer of different kinds of writing needs in order to write successfully (Al-Jawi, 2011). Moreover, teachers should know the various stages in the development of writing skills, that is they need to know the main issues that concern teachers of writing so that they can make informed choices in their own practice as a teacher of writing.           Helmi (2012) defines several problems that are mostly faced by students in writing, they are; (1) Limited vocabulary, (2) Difficulty in organizing to write about something, (3) No motivation to write, and (4) Lack of confidence in grammar.  All of those problems brings the students become lazy in writing. It simply because they are afraid of have a bad writing even they do not have any idea to be written. As a nature, it is important for the teacher to help the students with the problem that students faced.           As stated before, students’ boredom is one of the problems of teaching writing in the classroom. It is commonly happened when the teacher teach them in conventional way. Several efforts should be done to solve the problems in teaching writing. Teachers should be creative in designing their way of teaching. The purpose is to make writing becomes easier and more interesting for the students. When it is successfully done, it can attract students’ interest in learning writing.           According to Ahlsen and Lundh (2007), many teachers use a rather monotonous way of working with writing. Students are often left on their own with a blank piece of paper and a pencil without many guidelines, inspiration or a defined purpose. From this poit, it is showed that EFL teachers still use conventional way in teaching writing. The thing that should be done by the teacher in teaching writing is that using some approaches, methodes, techniques, strategy, or even providing a classroom activity in the teaching and learning process. When the teacher is successful in doing it, the teacher can make writing become easier and more interesting to be learned by the students.           There was a previous study that investigates on the implementation of writing personal letter in teaching recount text. That study observed EFL teacher that implemented writing personal letter in teaching writing. That study focused on the analyzing students’ ability in producing recount text as the result of the implementation of writing personal letter. Another study investigated on the use writing personal letter for teaching narrative text. It was the same with the study that stated before. The deference appears on the text that was taught.           This study focuses on the teaching writing of recount text for the eighth graders as stated in Standar Isi (2006), ‘Mengungkapkan makna dan langkah retorika dalam esei pendek sederhana dengan menggunakan ragam bahasa tulis secara akurat, lancar dan berterima untuk berinteraksi dengan lingkungan sekitar berbentuk recount.’ Recount text is a kind of text that tells a story of certain experience. The communicative purpose of the text is to retell events as information or entertainment. The generic structures of recount text are; (1) Orientation, (2) Series of Events, and (3) Reorientation (Standar Isi, 2006). Past tense is used in writing a recount text because it tells a story of a certain experience, which means that the events happened in the past.           According to Hyland (2004) cited from Helmi, Recount is a kind of genre that has social function to retell event for the purpose of informing or entertaining. Social purpose of recount is to reconstruct past experiences by retelling events in original sequence. The researcher has conducted a pre-observation to decide the subjects of the study. From the pre-observation, the researcher found EFL teacher who uses writing personal letter in teaching recount text. This teacher teaches the eighth graders. The teacher argued that by providing an interesting writing activity which is writing personal letter activity in teaching writing of recount text, students will be more interested in learning it.           Personal letter is a missive communication in writing, addressed to a person or body of person (Bodomo, 2003). According to Stockwell (1981) cited from Suryowati , a personal letter consists of private information about people and things to a certain people in the written form. A personal letter is also called as a private letter. It contains of private information about personal experience in the written form to be sent in a certain people.           Another Kompetensi Dasar of Standar Isi (2006) stated ‘Mengungkapkan makna dalam bentuk teks tulis fungsional pendek sederhana dengan menggunakan ragam bahasa tulis secara akurat, lancar dan berterima untuk berinteraksi dengan lingkungan sekitar.’ ‘Teks fungsional pendek’ includes Personal letter. This Kompetensi dasar is in the same Standar Kompetensi with Kompetensi Dasar of recount text. In conclusion, it is the evidence that personal letter id taught for the eighth graders.           Personal letter is one of the examples of writing product that can be used as media to interact, sharing experiences and to communicate each other in written form personally (Helmi, 2012). Bodomo (2003) defines the structure of personal letter, they are; (1) Date, (2) Salutation and name of recipient, (3) Introduction, (4) Body, (5) Closure, (6) Complimentary Close, and (7) Signature.           From the explanation before, it is known that recount text and personal letter; (1) telling about past events, (2) telling sequence of events, and (3) telling about someone’s experience. The orientation part of recount text is called as salutation in personal letter, the events part of recount text is called as body in personal letter, and reorientataion of recount text is called as closing in personal letter. From this point, the teacher argued that recount text could be written in a form of personal letter. In conducting the teaching and learning process of recount text involving writing personal letter, firstly the teacher explains about recount text. The explanation about recount text includes the generic structures, the tense that is used, also the language features of it. The next step is he explains about personal letter. He shows that recount text and personal letter have similarities. Therefore, recount text could be written in a form of personal letter.           In the end of the explanation, the teacher conducts a classroom writing activity involving writing personal letter that tells about students’ personal experience. Students are put in a condition where they are supposed to send some personal letters for their close friend, family, etc. the teacher believes that by doing this, students will be more interested in the classroom writing activities.           The investigation on how the use of writing personal letter in teaching recount text is developed by the researcher into research questions: How does the application of writing personal letter in teaching recount text for the eighth graders? How are the students’ responses on the application of writing personal letter in teaching recount text?           Related to the research questions, the objectives of the study can be presented as follows: To describe the result of the application of writing personal letter in teaching recount text for the eighth graders. To describe the students’ responses on the application of writing personal     letter in teaching recount text.           By doing this study, which is the use of writing personal letter in teaching recount text, the finding will show that the theory used in this study can be applied in the teaching of EFL in Indonesia. Moreover, it is also expected that the finding of this study can inspire teachers in designing and improving their teaching activities related to the theory in this study. It is also expected that writing personal letter activity can attract the students’ interest in composing their own recount text and thus can increase the students’ ability in writing recount text.     METODE           This study focused on the use of writing personal letter in teaching recount text that was done by EFL teacher. Students’ work of recount text was analyzed, and also students’ responses toward the application in the teaching learning process were collected. This study relied mostly on the teacher’s performance in using writing personal letter in teaching recount text in his EFL classroom. Thus, a descriptive qualitative research design was chosen for the researcher described how the process of the application itself.           Qualitative research has four purposes: exploration, explanation, description, and prediction (Marshall and Rosman, 1995, cited in Wilson). According to marshal and Rossman (1999), the purpose of a qualitative research is “to stress the unique strength of the genre for the research that is exploratory or descriptive, that assumes the value of context and setting, and that searches for a deeper understanding of the participant’s lives experiences of the phenomenon.” It was in line with the purpose of the researcher in conducting this study, which was to search for a deeper understanding on the application of using writing personal letter in teaching recount text in EFL classroom.           The subjects of the study were the teacher and the students of SMP Bahrul Ulum Surabaya. The students were the eighth graders of Junior High School exactly students of VIII D SMP Bahrul Ulum Surabaya. They were supposed to learn recount text for their writing material in the first semester. The teacher used writing personal letter in teaching recount text to attract students’ interest in learning it. It also used to encourage students’ willing in composing their own recount text. The teacher believed that this activity could reach the goal of his EFL classroom.           This study was conducted in SMP Bahrul Ulum Surabaya which was located in Putat Jaya Sekolahan 11-13 Surabaya. This school was chosen since the teacher used writing personal letter in teaching recount text in the EFL classroom. This school had implemented KTSP curriculum which gave the school authority in designing the syllabus based on the school visions and missions. The researcher was the key instrument of this study. The researcher used four instruments in collecting the data, they were; (1) Observation checklist, (2) Field-note, (3) student’s work, and (4) Questionnaire.           Basically, there are two types of observation, they are; participatory observation and non-participatory observation. In a participatory observation, the researcher would take a part and participate in the teaching learning process where the research is done. While in non-participatory observation, the researcher would not take a part and participate in the research or the teaching learning process. The researcher would only sit in the back of the class and observe the teaching and learning process. In this study, the researcher had non-participatory observation where researcher was not the one who did the teaching learning process.           In conducting an observation, the researcher absolutely needed two kinds of observation’s instrument, which were observation checklist and field-note. For field-note would be explained more in the next explanation. Observation checklist was a list of things which were observed by the researcher. It was noticeable that the list must contain points that were related to the problem of this study, so that the research questions of this study could be answered by the result of the observation itself. In line with the problem of this study, the researcher had several focuses to be included in the observation checklist; they were (1) Teacher’s role, (2) Students’ role, (3) Interaction, and (4) the application of writing personal letter in teaching recount text.           As explained in the previous explanation, another observation’s instrument which was helpful in conducting an observation was field-note. Field-note used to note everything which happened during the observation that was important for the study. It considered that