TEACHING NARRATIVE TEXT WRITING

THROUGH TEACHERS INDIRECT FEEDBACK

Aulia Harmiyanti, Sudarsono, Albert Rufinus
English Education Study Program, and Languages and Arts Education
Department, Teacher Training Education Faculty of
Tanjungpura University in Pontianak
Email: aulia.harmiyanti@yahoo.com
Abstrak: Penelitian ini dilaksanakan untuk menyelidiki efektifitas
dari pengajaran menulis teks naratif dengan menggunakan strategi
Teachers Indirect Feedback. Penelitian ini adalah penelitian pre
experimental yaitu 1 grup pre-test post-test. Subjek dari penelitian
ini adalah Kelas XI IPA, yang berjumlah 37 siswa. Data penelitian
dikumpulkan melalui pre-test dan post-test dalam bentuk tes
tertulis. Data tersebut dianalisa dengan menggunakan rumus
tingkat efektifitas (effect size). Hasil penelitian menunjukkan
tingkat efektifitas penerapan strategi Teachers Indirect Feedback
untuk pengajaran menulis teks naratif sangat efektif.
Kata kunci: Menulis, Teachers Indirect Feedback, Naratif
Abstract: This research is held to investigate the effect size of
teaching narrative text writing through Teachers Indirect
Feedback. It is one group pre-test post-test design. The subject of
this research is Year-XI natural science students majoring in. This
class consists of 37 students. The data were collected by pre-test
and post-test in form of written test. The data was analyzed by
using formula of effect size. The results indicate that the
application of teachers indirect feedback strategy to teach
narrative text writing is very effective.
Key words: Writing, Teachers Indirect Feedback, Narrative

riting is a skill in delivering an idea, opinion or description to the readers

through written texts. It is a skill that language learners need to learn. It is
an essential component not only for their academic practice but also for their
future professional life. For students, writing is a tool to make records of teachers
explanation, to make notes, to do assignments, or any kinds of task equipped by
the teacher such as answering question, rearranging words into sentences or
sentences into paragraph, completing the unfinished sentence, using substitution,
etc. Shoemaker and Larson (1998, p. 3) state that writing is the way to
communicate the source ideas which come from the mind.
Learning writing is the process to pour and to communicate ideas into a
piece of paper which most ideas come from the mind. In this process, the writer
1

needs to pay attention to the language structure, the grammatical rule, the
punctuation, the spelling and the vocabulary to write a good and meaningful
sentence or paragraph. Heaton (1988, p. 144) claims, Students ability to
organize ideas and express them in their own words is an essential skill for reallife communication.
In doing a writing activity, the writer deals with his/her brilliant thoughts
which are expressed into the written form. This process helps them obtain the
useful source. Therefore through writing, the writer can express all of their
feelings, ideas, and opinions. Derrida (2005, p. 11) argues, Writing is an initial
and graceless resource for the writer, even if he is not an atheist but, rather, a
writer. It makes writing become an inspiration to their life. Through writing,
many people can express their feelings and creativities neither for their own life
nor for the others people life.
Based on the English syllabus of Year-XI in the second semester, students
are expected to be able to write a narrative text. Nevertheless, many students of
SMA Kemala Bhayangkari 1 Kubu Raya had problem in writing narrative texts.
The students got difficulty particularly in writing narrative texts. According to the
English teacher of SMA Kemala Bhayangkari 1 Kubu Raya, most of Year-XI
students did not pass the minimum adequacy criteria (SKM) applied at school in
writing the narrative text, that is 70.
Based on the pre-observation in SMA Kemala Bhayangkari 1 Kubu Raya,
most of students had problem in arranging the ideas to form the structured in the
text. It turned up because of their limited vocabulary and knowledge to decide the
appropriate tense.
In teaching writing, the teacher should engage students in self -evaluation
or self-correction. One way to make students able to create good writing is that
the teacher should provide constructive feedback to their writing. Feedback is a
kind of assessment that concerns the giving of information about students writing
performance. The forms of feedback are notes, general comments, and correction.
Kepner (1991, p. 141) defines feedback as any procedures used to inform a
learner whether an instructional is right or wrong.
Frodesen (2001) notes that indirect feedback is more useful than direct
feedback. Students are able to express their ideas more clearly in writing and to
get clarification on any comments that teachers have made. Besides, by indirect
feedback, students appreciated its beneficial effect on their learning and useful in
encouraging them to reflect on aspects of their writing and to develop
improvements.
Lee (2005) defines that indirect feedback is functional if the teacher shows
the location of the mistakes indirectly on the paper by underlining, highlighting or
circling, or indirectly by indicating in the margins that there is a mistake on the
concerned line but without providing the correct form. Indirect feedback may be
more beneficial for students than direct feedback in editing, because indirect
feedback can guide learning and help the students solve problem by themselves.

METHOD
In accordance with the problems, the appropriate method to be used in this
research is pre experimental, namely one group pre-test post-test design. Cohen,
Manion, & Morrison (2000, p. 213) represent the one group pre-test post-test
design as below:
O1

O2

The sample of the research is a cluster sampling. In cluster sampling, the

researcher randomly selected a number of clusters from the available clusters of
the entire population. The research sample was XI Natural Science Major which
consists of 37 students. It was randomly selected out of six classes of Year-XI of
SMA Kemala Bhayangkari 1 Kubu Raya.
The present research applied measurement technique to collect the data.
Weiner (2007, p. 4) defines measurement technique as a systematic, replicable
process by which objects or events are quantified and classified with respect to a
particular dimension and usually achieved by the assignment of numerical values.
Measurement technique is a technique to collect quantitative data. The tool of data
collection was a written test. It is designed to measure the students ability before
and after the treatment. To find out the effect size of teaching narrative text
writing by using Teachers Indirect Feedback strategy, the effect size formula was
applied.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

a. Findings
After the treatment, the subject showed a change in the writing skill. That
is from 65.57 in the pre-test to 83.43 in post-test as can be seen in the following
chart.
90
80
70
60
50
40

Post-test Mean Score

30

Pre-test Mean Score

20
10
0
Pre-test
Post-test
Mean Score Mean Score

Graphic 1: Comparison of pre-test and post-test result

Based on the statistical analysis, the effect size was 1.59. It indicates that
the effectiveness of teachers indirect feedback strategy to teach students ability
in narrative text writing is high.
b. Discussion
The finding shows that the application of using teachers indirect feedback
strategy increased students ability of narrative text writing. The effectiveness of
using teachers indirect feedback strategy was high. It was 1.59, higher than .80.
Teachers indirect feedback strategy is suitable for helping students to
improve their narrative text writing. Feedback is a kind of assessment that
concern to give information for students writing performance. The forms of
feedback are notes, general comment, and correction. Kepner (1991, p. 141)
defines feedback in general as any procedures used to inform a learner whether
an instructional is right or wrong. Through feedback, the teacher can help
students compare their own performance with the deal and to diagnose their own
strength and weaknesses.
Indirect feedback is a strategy when the teacher alert students mistake by
using general comments, but give students the opportunity to fix it themselves
(Ferris, 2002, p. 19). Indirect feedback may be more beneficial to students than
direct feedback in editing, because indirect feedback can guide learning and help
the students solve problem by themselves. Thus, indirect feedback will improve
the students ability in writing; the thought and comment will be saved for a long
time memories. Indirect feedback will be read and resistant.
In conclusion, based on the findings, theoretical, and related studies
proved that the use of teachers indirect feedback strategy was categorized as
very effective to teach students to write narrative texts.
CONCLUSION
Related to the explanation on the findings and discussion, it can be
concluded that teachers indirect feedback strategy is very effective to teach the
students narrative text writing. The improvement is related to both the activeness
of process in the classroom and the students achievement on the test. Hopefully,
the result of this research can be a reference for the English teacher to enhance
their strategy in teaching, in order to help their students writing, especially in
narrative text.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Cohen, Louis., Lawrence Manion., and Keith Morrison. (2005). Research Method
in Education. 5th Ed. London: RouledgeFalmer.
Derrida, Jacques. (2005). Writing and Difference. London and New York:
Rouledge Classics.
Ferris, D. R. (2002). Treatment of Error in Second Language Student Writing.
Ann Arbour: University of Michigan Press.

Frodesen, J. (2001). Grammar in Writing. In M. Celce- Murcia (Ed.), Teaching

English as a Second or Foreign Language (3rd Ed.) (pp.233-248). Boston,
MA: Heinle and Heinle.
Heaton, J.B. (1988). Writing English Language Test. New York: Longman
Cheshire.
Kepner, C.G. (1991). An Experiment in the Relationship of Types of Written
Feedback to the Development of Second-Language Writing Skills. Modern
Language Journal, 75(3), 305-313
Lee, Icy. (2005). Enhancing the Effectiveness of Teacher Feedback in the
Secondary Writing Classroom. Chinese University of Hongkong.
Retrieved
on
June
23rd,
2013,
from
http://sba.edu.hku.hk./new_sba/doc/conference_ppt/Dr%20Icy%20Lee.ppt
Shoemaker, Connie., & Doug Larson. (1998). Write in the Middle: A Guide
Writing for ESL Student. Boston: Heinle ELT.
Weiner, Jonathan. (2007). Measurement: Reliabilit and Validity Measures.
Retrieved from Johns Hopkins University Blackboard Online:
http://ocw.jhsph.edu/courses/hsre/PDFs/HSRE_lect7_weiner.pdf.