The Effect of Using Process Approach on Students' Achievement in Writing Argumentative Paragraph

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The Effect of Using Process Approach on Students' Achievement in Writing Argumentative Paragraph (INTRODUCTION)


Written by Ari Julianto


A. Background of the Study
In Indonesia, English is regarded as a foreign language. Students in primary school to university level have to learn this language. In one’s process of thinking, language plays an important thing, because some kinds of ideas, concepts, views, and desires are manifested through language.

There are four language skills that must be simultaneously achieved by the students in learning a language, namely speaking, listening, reading and writing. Writing is the most complicated skill which is really needed for written communication.

Writing is one of the English skills in school. In teaching and learning a foreign language, writing is very helpful for the students to learn a language because it provides many advantages, such as: writing reinforce, grammar, structure, idiom, and vocabulary. Therefore, the students have chances to be adventurous with the language to express ideas and constant use of eyes and brain in a unique way to reinforce a new language.

Brown (2001: 335) explains that “Writing was concerned with the final product of writing”. Like essay, the report, the story and what the product which should look like, but now the students as the creator of language are allowed to focus on the content and the message and their own individual intrinsic motivates were put at the center of the learning that is the process approach helps the students to build up repertoires of strategy for prewriting, drafting and rewriting. Nunan (2003: 88) states “Writing is the mental work of inventing ideas, thinking about how to express them and organizing them into statement and paragraph that will be clear to a reader”.         

The researcher chose the topic of writing by considering that based on the experience in teaching English in teaching practice in ........ that some of the students have several problems in writing paragraph. The problems are they do not have any approach as an inspiration for their writing. Besides, they still have no idea what kind of writing they must chose in writing a paragraph. 

According to Harmer (2007: 257) there are a number of different approaches to the practice of writing skills both in and outside the classroom. We need to choose between them, declining whether we want student to focus more on the process of writing than its product, whether we want them to study different written genres, whether we want to encourage creative writing-either individually or cooperatively and how the computer can be a useful writing tool. We need to be aware of the different roles we can and should assume for writing activities.

In this research, the researcher chose process approach by considering that, first, the students a certain approach to support their writing skill. Second, they need a process in which they must understand the step by step process in writing.  Tribble (2006: 118) states that the process approach helps students write better by aiding them in the actual process of writing.  To elaborate, the process approach is unlike traditional writing approaches that present a writing model and suggest repetition; in the process approach, teaching occurs during the writing process, not only before and after like traditional approaches.

The process approaches focus on how a text is written instead of the final outcome. As noted in Hyland (2009: 15), the process approaches have a major impact on understanding the nature of writing and the way writing is taught. Research on writing processes has led to viewing writing as complex and recursive – not linear. The process approach therefore emphasises the importance of a recursive procedure of prewriting, drafting, evaluating and revising. Tribble (2006: 160) defines process approach as a process that emerged with a different focus than the product approach; the process approach is 'an approach to the teaching of writing which stresses the creativity of the individual writer, and which pays attention to the development of good writing practices rather than the imitation of models.

There are some types of writing; they are descriptive, argumentative, expository and narrative. In this research, the researcher chose argumentative paragraph for students’ skill in writing. Smalley and Ruetten (1997: 24) state that the purpose of this writing is to convince and to persuade readers to do what the writer wants in his/her writing by giving them logical reason and proof. There are some facts must be provided in this type to persuade reader’s attention.

Belinda (2006: 23) describes that in the approach, students are taught in five steps, and they are: planning, drafting, revising, editing and publishing strategies. At each stage of the writing process might help students to write freely and arrive at a product of good quality. In other words, the process approach treats all writing as a creative act which requires time and positive feedback to be done well. In process writing, the teacher moves away from being someone who sets students a writing topic and receives the finished product for correction without any intervention in the writing process itself.

Based on the previous explanation, the researcher would like to analyze the effect of using process approach on students' achievement in writing argumentative paragraph. The reasons for choosing this topic are as follows
1. Writing paragraph needs a process and the approach to support the students’ ability in writing might help and increase the students’ achievement in writing,
2. In the approach, students are taught planning, drafting, revising, editing and publishing strategies at each stage of the writing process to help them to write freely and arrive at a product of good quality.
3. Students can explore what they argue and through process approach, they might understand what they argue about in argumentative paragraph.

B. Identification of the Study
The problem of this study focuses on
1.  the students’ achievement in writing argumentative paragraph by using process approach,
2. the effect of process approach on students’ achievement in writing argumentative paragraph.

C. Scope and Limitation
Acquiring a second language involves different areas such as motivation, learners’ needs, learning environment, learning strategies and language awareness. Many learning approaches can be conducted through teaching English writing. But it is impossible to conduct them all. In this research, the researcher applied the process approach in ........... of ..........class in academic year.....2012/2013.

D. Formulation of the Problem
The problems of this research was formulated as follows
1. How is the students’ achievement in writing argumentative paragraph by using process approach?
2. Is there any significance effect of using process approach on students’ achievement in writing argumentative paragraph?

E. Objectives of the Study
The objectives of the study is aimed 
1. to describe the students’ achievement in writing argumentative paragraph by using process approach,
2. to find out the effect of using process approach on students’ achievement in writing argumentative paragraph.

F. Significance
The significance of this study stems from the following factors:
1. It attempts to examine the process approach in developing the students’ writing achievement in argumentative paragraph. In addition, the findings may lead to a change in the students’ attitudes towards English,
2. This study may provide teachers or lecturer with a specific language teaching approach which they can use in their classroom to enhance their students’ achievement in English writing,
3. The findings of this research hopefully will be useful for other researchers in writing argumentative paragraph,


REFERENCE

Belinda Ho. 2006. Effectiveness of using the process approach to teach writing in six Hong Kong primary classrooms. Perspectives: Working Papers in English and Communication, 17(1).

Brown, H. D. 2001. Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy (2nd ed.). New York: Addison Wesley Longman.

Harmer, Jeremy. 2007. How to Teach English. London: Pearson Education Limited.

Hyland, Ken. 2009. Teaching and Researching Writing. London: Pearson.

Nunan, David. 2003. Practical English Language Teaching Teacher's Text Book. London: McGraw-Hill Publishing Co.

Smalley, Regina. L. and Mary K.Ruetten, K, 1997, Refining Composition Skill Rhetoric and Grammar For ESOL Student. Canada: Canada University College.

Tribble, C. 2006. Writing. New York, Oxford University Press.