Artikel Mahasiswa

A Response of an Article Entitled “Exploring Writing Practices in EFL Classroom: A Case Study at IAIN Syekh Nurjati Cirebon”
Indah Meli Mulyani (1415103061), Lona Fatekha (1415103076), Maslikha (1415103079)
English Language Teaching Department/B
IAIN Syekh Nurjati Cirebon

The article entitled “Exploring Writing Practices in EFL Classroom: A Case Study at IAIN Syekh Nurjati Cirebon” that written by Astri Rahayu tells about the type of literacy writing practices especially in making descriptive text and the teacher’ strategies that used in the writing process. The study aims to improve the students’ ability in academic writing practices especially in descriptive text, to examine the variety of case studies in learning process especially foreign language teaching, and to make the teaching program and the process of planning study coherently by using qualitative method.
The study is conducted in descriptive qualitative. Besides, this article uses three techniques in collecting the data, such as observation, interview and study of document. Result of this study is found in observation. There are three observations in learning process between students and teacher. In the first observation, students have the ability to express their own expression creatively and imaginatively. And the teacher used many approached (student center, process oriented), method (mind mapping), strategies (guiding writing), and technique (clustering, free writing, and scaffolding). The second observation, the student can write the ideas about the topic how to create text descriptive, and broaden their horizon about the content. And the teacher used mind mapping and scaffolding to guide the students in making descriptive text. In third observation, the students can transform (change the form, function, and properties) their knowledge in the descriptive text and the teacher used mind mapping method, clustering, free writing, and scaffolding technique.
It is stated in the article that writing is unnatural act. Writing is skill that should be learned and also it can not be gotten easily. Unlike speaking, writing is unnatural activity (John, 1997) (Shuman, 1992). Although writing and speaking are productive skills, but children can learn how to speak on their own in the process of growing up. Whereas writing can also be done by everyone through practices and guided (Djuharie, 2005). Children should learn writing by guidance from the other people such as teacher or their parents in order to make effective writing. Having someone who helps and guides them in writing, can be minimize their mistake and make their writing skill be better and enhance.
Writing is regarded as a difficult skill by EFL learners (Slamet, 2008). So that is why people should learn writing seriously. Children need a process and an effort to get writing ability. In short, writing needs to be taught and requires the use of tools (John, 1997). They will get writing ability properly with their efforts. So, how far someone’s ability in writing is depend on their effort to learn it.
There are many factors that may influence students’ writing skill; Students’ psychology is one of them. It includes self doubt and anxiety. Both of doubt and anxiety reflect the students’ feelings about themselves as writer which can influence their writing skill (Thomas, 1993 cited in Cole and Feng, 2007). In addition, Students’ experiences have also influenced their writings to be effective and accurate when they composing, planning, and revising their work (Joseph Defazio, Josette Jones, Felisa Tennant and Sara Anne Hook: 2010).
There are some ways to develop writing skill. The first way is through collaborative effort (Shuman, 1992). In the school context, the teacher can help the students in collaborative effort by giving individual assignment in writing. In addition, writing skill can also be enhanced when someone have opportunities to practices in writing (Ismail, 2007 cited in Cole and Feng, 2007). Hence, to improve students’ writing skill is by practicing. Someone’ opportunities to write is not only in the classroom, writing outside the classroom also can be a useful tool to develop writing skill. (Segaran, 2002 cited in Tuan, 2010). When someone does practice in writing, they can find their problem in writing and they can solve it. Writing practices isn’t only in academic subjects, it can be done in another context, such as in social media, write in diary, and etc. Because in this modern era everyone can be a teacher and students can get the guidance not only from teacher in the school but also in the outside of the school.
To sum up, writing is not skill that gotten naturally. Writing should be learned and taught by everyone. There are some ways to improve students writing ability, one of them is by collaborative learning. Writing also need guidance, in the school context teacher can help the students to guide and enhance the students’ writing skill. The Second is by practices, the students should do many practices and Students also can do practices not only in the classroom but also can be done in the outside of the classroom. Meanwhile, the ability in writing also can be influenced by many factors. Psychology is one of the factors that may influence in student writing skill. It includes self doubt and anxiety. In addition, students’ experiences also have an influence for the students to improve their writing ability.

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