The Application of Derby Writing Technique to Promote Students’ Productivity in Writing EFL Compositions
| Main Author: | Febby Wulandari Aquaningsih; English Department, Faculty of Letters, State University of Malang. Advisors: (I) Prof. Drs. Bambang Yudi Cahyono M.Pd., M.A., Ph.D., (II) Niamika El Khoiri S.Pd., M.A. |
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| Format: | PeerReviewed |
| Bahasa: | eng |
| Terbitan: |
, 2009
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: |
http://karya-ilmiah.um.ac.id/index.php/sastra-inggris/article/view/609 |
Daftar Isi:
- Compared to the other three language skills (listening, speaking, and reading), writing has been considered as the most difficult skill for EFL students to learn and develop. Furthermore, a preliminary study on writing found that the students of Grade X Restaurant 3 SMK Negeri 3 Blitar showed resentment toward EFL writing task. The students were too preoccupied by fears of making mistakes due to limited language knowledge. The preoccupation troubled the students in generating ideas for writing and resulted in short and unattractive compositions. Correspondingly, the present study employed the action research design in promoting the students’ productivity in writing EFL compositions. A set of pretest and posttest on writing with predetermined time and topic was employed to measure the students’ productivity in EFL writing. The results of the paired sample t-test analysis, which was employed to measure the significance of the difference between the means of pretest and posttest, indicated that the application of Derby Writing has increased students’ productivity in writing EFL compositions. This study also employed questionnaire in order to find out the students’ responses toward the application on the Derby Writing technique. The tally results suggested the students’ positive responses on the application of Derby Writing in terms of generating ideas, increase in confidence as well as enthusiasm in writing EFL compositions, and the raise in the number of students who perceive writing as a fun activity. In addition, the students strongly recommended the application of Derby Writing technique as one of the prewriting activities. Generally, the students’ written comments in the given space of the questionnaire were quite various. The comments varied from the affirmation on the students’ positive responses toward the application of Derby Writing technique as stated in the questionnaire items, the recommendations on the application of Derby Writing as one of the prewriting activities in future writing tasks, to the expressions of boredom and insignificance of performing Derby Writing exercises in English language learning. From the field notes of both the researcher and the teacher, it was observed that students might face difficulties in the initial application of the technique. However, once the students were familiar with the rules and what to expect from the task, the students were quite interested and eager to perform Derby Writing. Furthermore, there was an increasing sense of confidence noticed from the students’ attitude during the drafting process. Based on the description of the samples of students’ compositions, there were indications of careful ideas selection and thoughtful editing from the Derby Writing product into the first draft. Even though the students’ first draft compositions have not met standards of the high qualified writing products, they were prospective to be developed into better final products through multiple drafts. However, there were indications that the students have inappropriately applied the rules of Derby Writing—particularly the use of Indonesian terms and the irrelevant sentence ‘I don’t know what to write’—to boost the word production in their EFL compositions. Based on the findings of the study, the researcher recommends the teacher to continue applying Derby Writing technique as one of the prewriting activities in future writing tasks and adjust the procedures according to the students’ level of proficiency and interest, classroom conditions, and curriculum demand. Furthermore, future research in relation to the present study is recommended on applying the Derby Writing technique with different setting and/or subjects, promoting different aspects of students’ compositions—particularly in terms of accuracy and quality—as well as modifying the procedures of Derby Writing and the succeeding activities to see how the results would differ from the present study. In addition, the study in Derby Writing technique is open to research issues, such as the speed and fluency in writing.