Zain Attamim (2009) The implementation of cooperative learning to improve the students' proficiency in writing paragraphs at Muhammadiyah University of Ponorogo / Zain Attamim. Masters thesis, Universitas Negeri Malang.
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
This study is designed to improve the students writing proficiency through Cooperative Learning (CL) strategy. This strategy is selected because it is able to stimulate the students to be more actively involved and motivated in the writing process so that their writing ability improves. Writing is one of the four language skills that should be mastered by the students. Through writing the students could communicate their ideas and thoughts to others. So it is important for the teacher to teach the skill to the students by using any other modes of writing and strategy. This research aims at improving the teaching of a descriptive paragraph through CL strategy at Muhammadiyah University of Ponorogo. This is done by using the steps of planning implementation and evaluation. The result of the research shows that the teaching of writing as well as the result of the students writing could be improved by designing a careful lesson planning implementing the strategy appropriately and employing both process or product evaluation. Key Words cooperative learning writing proficiency Teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) involves four language skills they are listening reading speaking and writing. Writing belongs to a productive skill because the students are required to produce a piece of writing such as writing a letter a poem a story and so on. In order to produce these kinds of writings the students should be able to arrange words into sentences sentences into paragraphs paragraphs into essays and etc. Besides the students should consider the word choice the use of appropriate grammar (such as subject-verb agreement tense and article use) the syntax (word order) the mechanics (e.g. punctuation spelling and handwriting) and the organization of ideas into a coherent and cohesive form. Based on the syllabus provided by Muhammadiyah University of Ponorogo writing courses which are given in the four semesters have different purposes. Writing I emphasizes arranging the simple sentences into compound complex sentences and the simple paragraphs. Writing II teaches the students to develop paragraphs of various genres. Writing III provides the students with the opportunity to write essays and its organization that is requiring various techniques of development such as the cause and effect or the comparison and contrast essay. Writing IV focuses on the development of an argumentative type of writing included in this advanced writing courses that introduce the students to prepare their thesis. The paragraph is the basis of the composition so it is necessary for the writing teacher to enhance the students proficiency in mastering paragraph writing and its development. The paragraph is also the first stage for the advanced writing such as essays articles papers and thesis so it is taught in the early semester. Based on the researcher s experience the EFL students frequently face difficulties in writing paragraphs. Sometimes there are many errors in the students paragraphs. Some of them write fragments run-on sentences and misplaced modifiers. The students also have low motivation and are not interested in the writing class. They feel that writing is a boring activity. Moreover the learning process is still insufficient in terms of the activities selected. Another difficulty is that they cannot manipulate the language well and they lack confidence. Most of them do not know what to say but if they do they do not know how to say it. They are not able to organize their ideas accurately in a good paragraph. In this case they are confronted with two main problems. They are content and expression. It is a long process for students to fulfill the expectations above since there are many factual problems faced by EFL learners in writing classroom. 1. The first problem is when they start to write a paragraph they do not relate or stick their sentences together and they do not know how to use the appropriate words to relate their sentences. As the result their composition is lack of unity and coherence. They may write the outline that is difficult to develop and the outline rarely shows the focus of the topic. 2. They cannot organize the information of the text into a good order and cannot use the appropriate transition signal. Consequently their paragraphs are difficult to understand for the readers. 3. They usually have ideas in their mind but they do not know how to express them in their writing. As the result they are not motivated to finish their task. 4. The last is that the teacher dominates the activities in explaining the sentence pattern punctuation and series of errors therefore there is no the interaction in writing class. This situation does not give an opportunity for the students to discuss their task with their classmate to improve their writing. As a result the classroom activities are teacher centered. Dealing with the problems above the writing teacher as the key factor in the teaching-learning process should motivate the students to be active in the writing class. Here the teacher may offer guidance in helping students to engage in the thinking process (Brown 2001 340). The teacher should also be able to provide a model of teaching strategy which can encourage the students to be more active and have high motivation in writing class. Here writing class ideally should be filled with exciting and challenging ideas for discussion. Students can learn by talking listening explaining and thinking with others. Students are often able to explain ideas to one another using an informal language which is readily understood by the peers. In this learning environment all students have opportunities to take an active part in meaningful ways. Each student has a variety of skills to bring to group work. Therefore to have a good writing the language learners should be provided with an appropriate strategy to write the paragraph. There are many ways in teaching writing one of which is Cooperative Learning strategy. This strategy is expected to overcome boredom in writing activities in the classroom because it involves all people in the classroom activities. Both the teacher and the students can interact among others the students can interact among themselves and the teacher can guide them in the process of the writing activities in which there is no deadlock for students to continue their activities. Cooperative Learning (CL) offers particular ways to organize group work to increase learning and enhance academic achievement. Every learner interacts to each other and as a result their motivation in learning increase. Interaction can help the learners develop their understanding of the target language and provides the learners opportunities to practice themselves using the language being learned (Kessler 1992 1). He also states that CL system gives the students more opportunities to enhance their communication ability in English. Emphasizing those statements above the researcher agree that CL strategy is held considering of its important role to raise the student abilities to write. the researcher believe that CL is an appropriate strategy for university students like Muhammadiyah University of Ponorogo since it offers an opportunity for students to be independent in their way of thinking. The CL is applied by grouping the class into four students each. Less than four members in a group make them lack of idea to share while more than four members the group discussion will not be effective and the discussion will be coloured by unimportant talking. Considering the conditions it is necessary to implement a strategy that can involve both the teacher and the students and that invites them to participate in the learning activities. Some methods and strategies are developed to construct a meaningful teaching and learning in writing. One of the strategies that can be used in order to help the students in gathering and developing their ideas in writing paragraphs is Cooperative Learning (CL) strategy. In this case the researcher proposes Cooperative Learning strategy as a strategy of teaching in writing class. This strategy is the best method to solve the EFL classroom s problem on writing and give benefits to learning process such as in motivating the students improving social interaction in the classroom creating a positive learning environment and improving writing ability. They may cooperate and share their idea when they find the difficulties to explore what in their mind. Traditional teaching and learning process in the classroom is dominated by the teacher who establishes their way in teaching and learning process by lecturing but there are only a few students who pay attention as if they do not need it. As a result their achievements are not satisfactory. On the other hand teaching and learning using CL is more satisfactory and the students are more active then communication among them is well intake. The above phenomenon motivates the researcher to conduct an action research on The Implementation of Cooperative Learning to Improve the Students Proficiency in Writing Paragraphs at Muhammadiyah University of Ponorogo. There are a number of reasons to conduct action research on Cooperative Learning strategy. 1. The implementation of Cooperative Learning strategy is expected to be able to overcome the students problem in writing class. In other words Cooperative Learning strategy is expected to promote higher achievement. 2. Cooperative Learning is effective in improving academic achievement self-esteem and relationship between peers. In addition it gives a large opportunity for students to interact socially one to another within a group. It also provides opportunities equally to the whole class to learn. The bright and poor students can learn together and both are equally treated in learning process. In addition Cooperative Learning strategy is also considered suitable for any grade levels. 3. Cooperative Learning classes can create more relaxed and enjoyable classes. It provides chances for students to interact each other and it creates a positive learning environment. 4. By applying Cooperative Learning the students are familiar with various ways of solving the problem cooperatively. In this case Cooperative Learning teaches the value of working together. It teaches the students to help each other build community in the classroom and teach the basic life skills such as learning to listen to others utterances appreciating others opinion communicating intensively and working together to achieve the goal. In the Cooperative Learning strategy classroom students can socially share their ideas knowledge and strategies while learning process in-groups or pairs. 5. Cooperative Learning is potential to reduce the negative impact of competition in the classroom. As stated phenomena above the researcher considers that Cooperative Learning will be an appropriate strategy in improving students writing. METHOD The research design employed in this study was the Collaborative Classroom Action Research (CCAR). This was based on the reason that classroom action research was a kind of research which was intended to solve problems found by the teacher in his or her classroom teaching. The researcher and the Writing II teacher had the same position to apply this Collaborative Classroom Action Research. As a collaborator the Writing II teacher has to observe the implementation of action in the CCAR. Since it dealt with the classroom setting this study was directed to develop the teaching strategy in order to find out a solution to the classroom s problem in the teaching of writing. To cope with the classroom s problem in the teaching of writing the researcher applies Cooperative Learning strategy during the learning process. The design of Collaborative Classroom Action Research used in this study was a cyclical process continuing of four main steps namely planning action observation and reflection. The four main steps were preceded by preliminary study identification and analysis of problem. Based on the procedure as shown in the figure the first step that was done was preliminary study. It was carried out by conducting an observation on the teaching of writing in the classroom. The researcher also interviewed the Writing teacher in that university in order to capture the information about the current condition of the teaching writing especially that dealt with the students activity in writing paragraph. In this study the teacher was also the researcher who wanted to apply the strategy that was Cooperative Learning strategy. There were two models of Cooperative Learning strategy applied in this study namely Peer Response and Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition (CIRC). After that the collaborator observed the implementation of the plan and collected the data which was then analyzed by the researcher to decide whether the action had been successful of not. If the results showed that the action was not successful the researcher would revise the previous plan for the following cycle. To determine whether the cycle was successful or not the researcher refers to some criteria of success that had been decided. RESULTS Referring to the findings of this study the form of procedures developed to teach writing through CL strategy were (1) engaging students to express their ideas in brainstorming activities before they choose their topic (2) guiding students to make questions and answers in developing their topics (3) providing and discussing a model of text before writing rough draft (4) doing peer response (mini-conference) to give suggestions and comments focusing on the content organization and diction in order to revise the draft (5) conducting peer editing in which students exchanged their drafts in order to edit the mechanical aspects and (6) sharing the final writing by projecting on the OHP. The results of this research also showed that CL strategy could improve students writing skill. It could be seen from the mean score of the students writing before the action was 2.35 Only 2 students could reach score 2.58. This score increased in the first cycle in which 75% of the students (21 students out of 28) got the score greater than or equal to 2.5. Meanwhile in the second cycle the mean score of the students writing was 2.84. There were 26 students (92% of students) who could reach the criteria of success. DISCUSSION This part elaborates the discussion of the teaching and learning writing through Cooperative Learning strategy in each process writing stage i.e. prewriting drafting revising editing and publishing and the improvement of the students writing skill. 1. The Teaching and Learning of Writing through Cooperative Learning strategy on Prewriting Stage As presented in the previous part particularly in prewriting stage it was found that the students could choose and develop their topic based on their interest knowledge and experience. They also could arrange questions and answers which were used to develop the topic into draft. Those activities were the starting point for the students to write their draft. Since the students chose their topic based on their interest knowledge and experience it motivated students to pour their ideas freely and feel responsible for their own writing. Meanwhile the teacher s role was as a guide and facilitator. The teacher helped the students think and choose their topic or even give suggestions on how to develop a topic. The strategy developed in this stage was brainstorming and question and answer. As presented in the previous chapter the students were asked to brainstorm anything related to the topic in order to dig and activate their prior knowledge and ideas. It was in line with Tompkins (1994 29) that brainstorming helps students generate many ideas and words to use in their writing. It was also supported by Smalley et al. (2001 4) that brainstorming is a way to associate and stimulate thinking. By brainstorming students could develop their topic conforming their knowledge and experience. After choosing a topic it was important to motivate students to jot down their ideas since students should have enough knowledge about their topic. Some ways could be used to enhance students understanding and knowledge about the topic. One of them was arranging question and answer. In connection with the previous chapter in the first cycle the teacher only showed a picture then asked questions about the topic. He then asked the students to choose their topic without giving guidance and to direct students to make question and answer related to their topic. In addition he did not help the students to activate students prior knowledge about the chosen topic. Meanwhile in the second cycle the teacher asked the students to make a list of topics and to guide them how to choose the topic. He also gave a chance to the students to brainstorm anything related to the topic. Mc Donell in Kessler (1992) states that the teacher s roles in cooperative classroom are as inquirer creator observer facilitator and change agent. After the students got their topic the teacher directed them to make questions and answers. This strategy was used to dig the students understanding and knowledge about the topic in order to make it easier for them to develop it. Moore (in Khalik 1999 1873) stated that the process of arranging questions and answers before writing a draft gives a chance to the students to think what they should write. However the teacher gave his guidance so that the students questions and answers did not depart from the topic. 2. The Teaching and Learning of Writing through Cooperative Learning strategy on Drafting Stage Referring to the previous part on the presenting model text the students could understand the form of writing they were supposed to write. In this study they wrote a descriptive paragraph. That was in line with Temple (1988 48) that the best way to encourage children to explore writing-both the act of writing and the writing that is produced- is to have plenty of models around them . It is supported by Brown (2001 347) that by reading and studying a variety of relevant modes of text students can obtain important insights both about how they should write and about subject matter that may become the topic of their writing . Therefore presenting the model text become an effective strategy that could be given in the drafting stage in order to enable the students to write their ideas in accordance with the writing form that supposed to write. In addition the presenting model text was followed by a discussion. Through the discussion the students could comprehend the writing form the development and the organization of ideas into writing. However the teacher gave his guidance by asking questions so that the students had an understanding on the model text. Referring to the research findings in the first cycle and the second cycle the teacher gave a model of text then asked the students to read and to pay attention to the model. After that the teacher and the students had a discussion by asking and answering questions related to the model text. In the first cycle some students tended to write the drafts by copying the model. The students only changed some words from the model text which were sometimes not relevant to their topic. The cases above happened because of several factors. The first factor was that the teacher did not give his guidance to the students in writing their draft. In addition the teacher did not give examples of how to arrange their questions and answers into their drafts. Furthermore the time allotment for writing their drafts was not enough since the students had to think and find some appropriate words. Therefore the teacher gave enough time to the students to expand their comprehension on the topic before they write. In this stage the students were given a chance to write their ideas freely with guidance from the teacher. Hence the teacher s role is as a facilitator in order to help the students to explore and pour their ideas into the rough draft. 3. The Teaching and Learning of Writing through Cooperative Learning strategy on Revising Stage The teaching and learning of writing in this stage applied peer response (mini-conference) strategy. The peer response (mini-conference) was done by the students in a small group discussion. After that the conference was done between the teacher and students one by one. The students formed a small group discussion then worked together with friends by reading and discussing their draft. This element is achieved when group members are linked with each other in a way that one cannot succeed unless everyone succeeds (Jacob 1999). Each of them could give suggestions comments to revise the draft. Tompkins (1994 16) stated students meet in writing groups to share their composition with small groups of classmates where feedback is crucial. There are four functions of writing groups as Mohr (in Tompkins and Hoskisson 1991 238) state 1) to offer the writer choices 2) to give responses feelings and thoughts to the writer 3) to show different probability in revising and 4) to speed up revising. In terms of conference between the teacher and the students Brown (2001 418) wrote .through conferences a teacher can assume the role of a facilitator and guide rather than a master controller and deliverer of final grades.... students can feel that the teacher is a partner who is encouraging self-reflection . The findings of this study showed that peer response (mini-conference) gave positive results on the students drafts. At first some students were reluctant to show their drafts to their friends and tried to revise their own drafts. They were also still concerned with mechanical aspects instead of looking at the content and organization of the draft. This happened in the first cycle. However in the second cycle all students could work cooperatively by giving suggestions comments or questions even in simple way. The students tried to add or rearrange their friends draft. The fourth element of CL is social skills which include ways students interact with each other to achieve activity or task objectives and ways students interact as teammates (Olsen and Kagan in Kessler 1992). The findings also showed that group forming by asking the students to choose their own group members was not effective. It was found that in the first cycle the students who had low achievement or disruptive behavior sat in one group. As a consequence they could not work together in giving suggestions or comments to their friends drafts. Therefore in the second cycle the teacher grouped the students in such a way so that the students who had low achievement and disruptive behavior sat in different groups. 4. The Teaching and Learning of Writing through Cooperative Learning strategy on Editing Stage As presented in the previous part the strategy used this stage was peer editing. Brown (2001 353) stated that peer editing is a true sharing process. Not only you do get feedback from your classmates but you also give feedback to them . Since the focus of this stage was the mechanical aspects the students were asked to exchange their drafts with their partner and to edit their friends draft or even their draft in terms of punctuation spelling capitalization and grammar. Nevertheless the teacher should explain give examples of what and how to edit and even guide the students in editing. Through peer editing strategy the students were motivated to learn the mechanical aspects in a good way. By having an understanding about it the students could find or show the mechanical errors on their friend s draft or even their draft. Moreover by holding peer editing in order to edit the draft the students could have a positive attitude. They could work together and tolerate each other when they had different opinions. They also had more self-confidence. The findings of this study showed the importance of explanation and example in editing stage. If the teacher only asks the students to edit without guiding them by giving explanation and example of what and how to edit they cannot do anything with their friends drafts. This happened in the first cycle. The teacher only gave explanation on what to edit without giving model of how to edit their friends drafts. As a consequence some of the students writing still contained some mechanical errors. Therefore in the second cycle the teacher added his activities by giving explanation and some examples on the way of doing editing. Those activities could minimize the mechanical errors in the students writing. Besides giving explanation and modeling of what and how to edit the findings also showed that the teacher monitored and guided the students in editing. He went around the students table checked the students work whether what they edit was correct or not. He also gave his suggestions. 5. The Teaching and Learning of Writing through Cooperative Learning strategy on Publishing Stage The last stage was publishing. The strategy used was sharing writing. The students could share their writing by projecting it on the OHP. The findings of this study showed that the teacher asked the students to read aloud their writing in front of the class while the other students listened to and gave comments to their friends writing. The teacher also gave his comments. Tompkins (1994 26) stated .through this sharing students communicate with genuine audiences who respond to their writing in meaningful ways . Alwasilah s research (2004) shows that at instructional level collaboration seems to be an effective way to cope with big classes and to ease the teacher from the overwhelming burden to correct students writing. Collaboration has furnished the students with favorable mental disposition toward writing namely self-perception of improved ability to write increased enjoyment in writing and awareness of the complexity of writing process. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 1. Conclusions Based on the procedures of Cooperative Learning in which the writing process was the basis the implementation of the Cooperative Learning strategy in the teaching of writing was divided into three stages prewriting whilst writing and post writing. In the prewriting activities there were numerous prewriting techniques that the students do to generate ideas. Among other things were listing clustering brainstorming and free writing. In this stage the researcher applied Peer Response model of Cooperative Learning. Here the students were divided into small group discussions and prepared to choose topic based on their interest. The students discussed their ideas within their group. Following a group discussion the students shared each other. The Peer Response technique involved the prewriting stage. Meanwhile the next stage was whilst writing and post writing are covered by the Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition (CIRC) model of Cooperative Learning strategy. In this case the teacher s activity was to give suggestion or improvement on students composition to ask the students to report their writing products and to evaluate the students products in paragraph writing. In this stage the students edited one another s work using peer-editing forms emphasizing on grammatical and mechanical correctness. Finally students published their final product by projecting them on the OHP. Some strengths relating to Cooperative Learning strategy in improving the students proficiency in writing paragraphs at Muhammadiyah University are elaborated. First Cooperative Learning strategy can change the students strategy in learning. It can be shown that the teacher is not a centre in teaching-learning process. It can be called one-way and two-way interactions. The teacher is only a facilitator and a monitor to the students. The students have a sense of the trust one another sense of accountability in their groups and self-confidence in expressing their ideas in the classroom and groups in writing activities. Second Cooperative Learning strategy allowed for the atmosphere of the classroom for the students to learn. It can be shown that the students are free to share and confident to express their ideas. In addition the students are happy and motivated to study with the strategy. They can edit and revise their assignment in their groups cooperatively. They can help each other in accomplishing their assignment. Third Cooperative Learning strategy can build the students social skill. It can be shown that the students have an ability to respect the ideas of other peers an ability to trust others and an ability to listen to other s opinion attentively. These skills are very useful for them to interact with others more freely. Since their social skill makes them have opportunities to get some feet back from other peers they can improve their proficiency in writing paragraphs. Finally Cooperative Learning strategy enables teacher and students and between students themselves to have a close relationship so that the stress free atmosphere could be created in the teaching and learning process. Therefore this strategy is beneficial to be employed as a teaching writing strategy. 2 Suggestions As this study proved that Cooperative Learning strategy can improve the students writing proficiency it is suggested that the writing teachers whose students have the same characteristics and in the same/similar situation to apply this model as one of the alternatives that can be used in teaching the writing skill. In addition it is also suggested that writing teachers socialize this writing strategy by discussing it in the teacher s forum such as in-service training like workshop and seminar or write an article about it in a journal or a newspaper. However in conducting this strategy some consideration should be followed. First the teachers should give the students an opportunity to finish their assignments out of class. Second the teachers should clarify their instruction and explanation because it is still a hard work for the lower level students to understand. Next the teachers should arrange the students group in such a way in order to make them work cooperatively. Finally the teacher should be more patient since in this strategy the students need more guidance and time to perform each of the process writing stages namely prewriting drafting revising editing and publishing. For other writing teachers it is suggested that they conduct action research on the use of Cooperative Learning strategy in the teaching and learning writing for other writing modes such as narration and argumentation and in other level of students in order to see whether this strategy is also effective and applicable to be implemented to achieved different goals of teaching writing. Since the scope and limitation of this study are improving students writing proficiency only in writing descriptive paragraph on Writing II course furthermore Cooperative Learning strategy can be used on teaching learning process of Writing I up to Writing IV course.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Masters) |
|---|---|
| Subjects: | L Education > L Education (General) |
| Divisions: | Fakultas Sastra (FS) > Departemen Sastra Inggris (ING) > S2 Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris |
| Depositing User: | Users 2 not found. |
| Date Deposited: | 03 Mar 2009 04:29 |
| Last Modified: | 09 Sep 2009 03:00 |
| URI: | http://repository.um.ac.id/id/eprint/58339 |
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