Solving the Students’ Problems in Writing Argumentative Essay Through the Provision of Planning

Lestari Setyowati, Sony Sukmawa, Mohamad Anan Latief

Abstract


Most Indonesian students who are learning English often consider writing as not only the most difficult skill to master, but also a demanding activity. To help them cope these problems, the application of planning in the writing process seems to be a solution. This study attempts to find out howdifferent planning formats can improve EFL students’ writing performance in argumentative essays. The subjects of the studywere the fourth semester students taking essay writing class. The research was conducted from May to June 2015, consisting of three cycles in Classroom Action Research design by using different planning types, namely rough drafting and outlining strategy in which each cycle consisted of two meetings.The students’ compositions were measured by using primary trait scoring rubric for argumentative essay. The result of the study shows that the provision of planning is effective to improve the students’ performance in writing argumentative essay. The effectiveness of different types planningdepends on the students’ preference of which to use.

Keywords


planning, argumentative essay, writing performance.

Full Text:

PDF

References


Babbin, E. H & Harrison, K. (1999).Contemporary Composition Studies: A Guide to theorists and terms. London: Greenwood Publishing Group.

Ellis, R. (2005). Planning and task-based research: theory and research. In R. Ellis (Ed.), Planning and task performance in a second language, pp. 3-34. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Ellis, R & Yuan, F. (2003). The Effects of Pre‐Task Planning and On‐Line Planning on Fluency, Complexity and Accuracy in L2 Monologic Oral Production. Applied Linguistics , 24 (1): 1-27.

Flower, L &Hayes, RJohn,.(1981). A Cognitive Process Theory of Writing. College Composition and Communication, 32 (4): 365-387.

Galbraith, D., & Torrance, M. (2004). Revision in the context of different drafting strategies. In L. Allal, L. Chanquoy, and P. Largy (Eds.), Revision of written language: Cognitive and instructional approaches (pp. 63-86). Dordrecht, NL: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Ghavamnia, M., Tavakoli, M., & Esteki, M. (2013).The Effect of Pre-Task and Online Planning Conditions on Complexity, Accuracy, and Fluency on EFL Learners’ Written Production.Porta Linguarum 20:31-43

Kellog, R. T. (1988). Attentional overload and writing performance: Effects of rough draft and outline strategies. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 14 (2): 355-365.

Kellogg, R.T. (1990). Effectiveness of prewriting strategies as a function of task demands. American Journal of Psychology, 103 (3): 327-342.

Kellogg, R.T. (1996). A Model of Working Memory in Writing. In C.M. Levy & S. Ransdell (Eds.), The Science of writing: Theories, Methods, Individual Differences, and Applications (pp. 57-71). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Kellog, R. T. (1999). The Psychology of Writing. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Retrieved 24 December 2014, from https://books.google.co.id/books?id=SE1Z eQ16V9AC &pg= PA126&lpg=PA126&dq=mental+outline+in+writing&source.

Kemmis, Stephen & McTaggart, Robin. (2007). Participatory Action Research: Communicative Action And The Public Sphere. (Online). Retrieved 20 March 2013, fromhttp://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/21157_chapter_10.pdf

Kieft, M, Rijlaarsdam G, Galbraith D, & Van den Bergh H. (2007). The effects of adapting a writing course to students’ writing strategies. British Journal of Educational Psychology. 77, 565–578.

Koshy, V. (2005). Action Research for Improving Practice: A Practical Guide. Great Britain: TJ International Ltd.

Latief, M.A. (1990). Assesment of English Writing Skills for Students of English as aForeign Language at the Institute of Teachers Training and Education IKIP Malang Indonesia. Unpublished Ph.D. Disertation. Iowa: Graduate College of the University of Iowa.

Ojima, M. (2006). Concept mapping as pre-task planning: A Case Study of Three Japanese ESL Writers. System.34 (4): 566–585.

Ong, J. & Zhang, L.J. (2010). Effects of task complexity on the fluency and lexical complexity in EFL students’ argumentative writing. Journal of Second Language Writing (19): 218–233

Philp, J. Oliver, R., & Mackey,A. (2006). The impact of planning time on children’s task-based interactions. System 34: 547–565

Rahimpour , M & Jahan, R. N. (2010). The Influence of Self-Efficacy and Proficiency on EFL Learners’ Writing. Community College Journal of Research and Practice. 28: 663-675. Retrieved 20 June 2013 from www.itdl.org/Journal/Nov_ 10/article02.htm

Torrance, M & Galibraith, D. (2006). The Processing Demands of Writing. In Charles A. MacArthur,Steve Graham,Jill Fitzgerald (Eds). Handbook of Writing Research, pp. 67-82. New York: Guilford Press.




DOI: https://doi.org/10.24167/celt.v17i1.1140



Copyright (c) 2017 Celt (A Journal of Culture, English Language Teaching & Literature)



| pISSN (print): 1412-3320 | eISSN (online): 2502-4914 | web
analytics View My Stats