Professional Documents
Culture Documents
A THESIS PROPOSAL
submitted as a fulfillment of the requirements
for getting Master Degree
Department of English Education
By:
Abdul Syahid
S890908201
GRADUATE SCHOOL
SEBELAS MARET UNIVERSITY
SURAKARTA
2009
A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON TEACHING WRITING BY
PAPER BASED PORTFOLIO LEARNING AND ELECTRONIC
PORTFOLIO LEARNING VIEWED FROM WRITING INTEREST
(An Experimental Study at SMA Negeri 2 Sampit
in the 2009/2010 Academic Year)
A THESIS PROPOSAL
By:
Abdul Syahid
S890908201
Approved by Consultants
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TABLE OF CONTENT
TITLE ……………………………………………………………………….. i
APPROVAL …………………………………………………………………….. ii
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
A. Background of Study ……………………………………… 1
B. Identification of the Problems …………………………….. 10
C. Limitation of the Problems ………………………………….. 12
D. Statement of the Problems …………………………………. 12
E. The Objectives of the Study ……………………………….. 13
F. The Benefits of the Study ………………………………….. 13
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1. The Nature of Electronic Portfolio Learning …………… 68
2. Constructivist Learning …………………………………. 69
3. Implementation of Electronic Portfolio Learning ………. 71
4. Advantages of Electronic Portfolio Learning …………… 78
5. Disadvantages of Electronic Portfolio Learning ………… 81
6. Points of Difference from Paper Based Portfolio Learning 83
D. The Review of Writing Interest ……………………………. 84
1. The Definition …………………………………………. 84
2. Types of Interest ………………………………………… 86
3. Aspects of Interest ……………………………………… 89
4. Developing Sustained Interest …………………………. 89
5. Effects on the Teaching of Writing ……………………… 90
6. Raising Interest in Writing ……………………………… 92
E. Rationale …………………………………………………… 93
F. Hypothesis …………………………………………………. 94
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
A. The Aims of the Study …………………………………….. 95
B. Setting of the Research ……………………………………. 96
1. Time of the Research ……………………………………. 96
2. Place of the Research …………………………………… 97
C. The Method of the Research ………………………………. 97
D. The Subject of the Research ……………………………….. 101
1. Population ………………………………………………. 101
2. Sample …………………………………………………… 102
3. Sampling ………………………………………………… 102
E. The Techniques of Collecting Data ……………………….. 104
1. Questionnaire …………………………………………… 105
2. Test ……………………………………………………… 109
F. The Technique of Analyzing the Data ……………………… 111
BIBLIOGRAPHY …………………………………………………………… 119
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1
2
The global spread of English through the three concentric circles has taken
place in different ways. Its spread in the Inner Circle has involved migrations of
native speakers from the British Isles to Australia, New Zealand, the United States of
America, and Canada. The spread of English in the Outer Circle occurred in colonial
contexts of Asia and Africa, where English was used in new sociocultural contexts.
The spread of English in the Expanding Circle has occurred because of the impact of
advancement of science and technology, commerce and various forms of knowledge
and information.
English has become a lingua franca – a common language widely adopted for
communication between speakers whose native languages are different from each
other. Warschauer (2002: 64) puts it:
“The intersection of language with international networks and globalisation is
perhaps most evident. Put simply, global trade, distribution, marketing, media
and communications could not take place without a lingua franca. These
processes of globalisation over the last thirty years have propelled English
from being an international language…to becoming a truly global one, spoken
and used more broadly than probably any other language in world history.”
English is thus used for many purposes and by a wide range of speakers.
First, English is used as a language for international business communication. In this
age of globalization, the market has become a global one where people conduct
business with other people worldwide. Second, English is a dominant official
language used as a means for contact among governmental institutions and agencies
such as the United Nations, the European Union, the World Bank, the International
Monetary Fund (IMF), and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD). Crystal also points out that although languages other than
English are used for communication at meetings of the European Union, English is
used as an intermediary language or ‘interlingua’ to facilitate controversial
communications in which translating between languages is difficult or confusing
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(2003: 81). Notably, English is the official working language of the Association of
South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) of which Indonesia is a member. Third, English
is used globally in education; as a vehicle in academic conferences and contacts; in
international tourism and air traffic control; and in entertainment, advertising, media
and popular culture (Harmer, 2001: 3). In addition, a great number of textbooks and
educational materials used worldwide are published in English.
The global nature of English has both enhanced and been stimulated by the
growth of the Internet. Because most Internet hosts are based in English-speaking
countries, particularly the United States, most web sites and communication through
the Internet are based in English. In 1997, Graddol (2000: 50) notes that English was
the medium for 80% of the information stored in the world’s computers, and
suggests that “English appears to have extended its domain of use to become the
preferred lingua franca for the many new kinds of user who have come online in the
1990s”.
Because of the significance of English as a global language, Indonesia has
had a long commitment to teaching English at all levels of education and there are
many reasons why Indonesia needs to develop effective programs for the teaching of
English. Increasing the general levels of performance in English is now seen as an
important part of building a much more critical and independent community of
people in Indonesia. The development of a critical capacity in the workforce at all
levels is now seen as of great national importance, and the teaching of writing in both
English and Indonesian assumes a new significance as a means by which critical
capacities can be promoted.
The importance and the need for English and the teaching of English in
Indonesia have been explicitly stated in several official documents released by the
government, especially those related to education. The first document is the
Competence-Based English Curriculum, released by the Department of National
Education of Indonesia. In the rationale of this curriculum, it is stated that:
“As a language which is used by more than half of the world’s population,
English is ready to carry out the role as the global language. Apart from being
the language for science, technology and arts, this language can become a
tool to achieve the goals of economy and trade, relationship among countries,
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consideration that he takes into account, the writes compares the English writing
achievement of the students taught using two different portfolio based learning in a
study entitled “A Comparative Study on Teaching Writing by Paper Based
Portfolio Learning and Electronic Portfolio Learning (An Experimental Study
at SMA Negeri 2 Sampit in the 2009/2010 Academic Year).”
Based on the prior section, the writer identifies some problems, such as:
1. Why do many students still get difficulties in writing?
2. What make writing difficult?
3. What are the difficulties encountered by the students in writing?
4. What are the implementations of portfolio based learning?
5. What are the differences between the implement tation of electronic portfolio
and paper based portfolio learning?
6. What are the strengths and weaknesses of those portfolio based learning?
7. Is portfolio based learning effective to teach reading?
8. Which portfolio is best applied to get better achievement?
9. Are the students interested in learning English?
10. Are the students interested in learning writing?
11. Are students interested in writing?
12. Does the students’ interest influence their writing competence?
13. Does portfolio based learning make the students interested in learning reading?
14. Which one are better, students who have high writing interest or those having
low writing interest in their English writing competence?
15. What kind of topic will be used in English instructional activity by using those
methods?
16. Is there any interaction between writing interest and English instructional
activity by using those portfolio based learning in student’s English writing
skill?
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Since there are several problems that emerge on the identification of the
problems above, the research problems are limited to the comparison between the
implementation of electronic portfolio learning and that of paper based portfolio
learning in teaching writing viewed from students’ writing interest. In other words,
the research is focused on the problems which are supposed to influence the
students’ writing competence namely: the portfolio learning employed by the teacher
and the students’ interest.
On the basis of the previous sections, the problems of the study are
formulated as follows:
1. Is there any significant difference in students’ writing competence between the
students who taught by electronic portfolio learning and those who are taught by
paper based portfolio learning?
2. Is there any significant difference in students’ writing competence between the
students who taught by electronic portfolio learning and those who are taught by
paper based portfolio learning for those who have high writing interest?
3. Is there any significant difference in students’ writing competence between the
students who taught by electronic portfolio learning and those who are taught by
paper based portfolio learning for those who have low writing interest?
4. Is there any interaction between those portfolio-based learning and students’
writing interest?
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This research is aimed to know the influence of portfolio based learning and
the students’ interest on the students’ writing competence. In particular, this research
is proposed to know whether or not:
1. There is any significant difference in English writing competence between
students taught by electronic portfolio learning and those taught by paper based
portfolio learning.
2. There is any significant difference in English writing competence between
students taught by electronic portfolio learning and those taught by paper based
portfolio learning for those who have high writing interest.
3. There is any significant difference in English writing competence between
students taught by electronic portfolio learning and those taught by paper based
portfolio learning for those who have low writing interest.
4. There is any interaction between the two portfolio-based learning and writing
interest in terms of students’ English writing competence.
After conducting the research, the writer expects that the portfolio based
learning utilized in this research can improve the students’ writing competence. If
interest also plays important role for the students’ writing competence, it becomes
crucial thing and it cannot be neglected during the teaching learning process to
support the students’ competence, especially in their writing competence. The result
of the research can also inform the interaction between teaching model and students’
interest in terms of writing competence. If there is an interaction, it is necessary to
consider the use of a better portfolio based learning type, which is suitable for the
students who have high learning interest or those who have low learning interest.
This study will prove beneficial to the process of English language teaching
learning, especially in the teaching of writing, for the following parties.
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1. Introduction
15
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perform in another language is measured (Nunan, 1999: 225), just as reading and
writing go hand in hand and demonstrate that the leaner is part of a literate society.
However, not all four skills are regarded as equal. While speaking and listening are
the starting points in the acquisition of a language and are learned naturally, writing
and reading are ‘culturally specific, learned behaviors’ (Brown, 2001: 334) which are
acquired only if someone is taught, much like the ability to swim. Because all of the
questions on writing and the teaching of writing are based on it, Brown’s prologue of
Chapter 19: Teaching Writing (2001: 334 – 360) is interesting to quote:
“How is writing like swimming? Give up? Answer: The psycholinguist Erie
Lenneberg (1967) once noted, in a discussion of “species specific" human
behavior; that human beings universally learn to walk and to talk, but that
swimming and writing are culturally specific learned behaviors. We learn to
swim if there is a body of water available and usually only if someone
teaches us. We learn to write if we are members of a literate society, and
usually only if someone teaches us. Just as there are non-swimmers, poor
swimmers, and excellent swimmers, so it is for writers. Why isn’t everyone
an excellent writer? What is it about writing that blocks so many people, even
in their own native language? Why don’t people learn to write "naturally,” as
they learn to talk? How can we best teach second language learners of
English how to write? What should we be trying to teach?”
linguistic and pragmatic features but also the context in which it will be interpreted
(Nunan, 1999). Writing is a ‘complex, cognitive process that requires sustained
intellectual effort over a considerable period of time’ (Nunan, 1999:273) as,
according to Hedge (2005), there is a need to organize the development of ideas or
information; ambiguity in meaning must be avoided through accuracy; the writer
must choose from complex grammatical devices for emphasis or focus; and finally,
they must pay attention to the choice of vocabulary, grammatical patterns and
sentence structures to create a feasible meaning and an appropriate style to the
subject matter and reader.
This section provides some definitions of writing competence, a brief
overview of process writing and how the various stages involved in process writing
may be used to address some of the previously mentioned features to help develop
students’ writing skills. Subsequently five examples of writing will be analysed to
assess difficulties and how the process of generating ideas, drafting and revising are
suggested to provide some possible solutions to the highlighted difficulties. The five
examples include different text types and patterns such as an informal letter, a
comparative and contrast essay, a descriptive essay, an opinion essay and a formal
letter. Some of these texts are exam specific tasks and they have all been tailored into
tenth graders as they belong to a level in which students are expected to express
themselves effectively in writing (Depdiknas, 2006: 5).
Gnanadesikan (2009: 1) opens her book by reminding the readers of the fact
that writing is a miracle. In the first paragraph, she emphasized:
“This sentence is a time machine. I wrote it a long time before you opened
this book and read it. Yet here are my words after all this time, pristinely
preserved, as good as new. The marvelous technology that allows the past to
speak directly to the future in this way is by now so pervasive that we take it
for granted: it is writing.”
The big question that lies and underpins the research is how to conceptualize
or define the miracle if writing is not merely writing?
Generally, writing can be interpreted as the act of forming or tracing a
character on paper or other suitable materials with a pen or pencil. Rivers (1968:
242) distinguishes writing from other skills according to the forms ranging from the
simplest to the most highly developed one. From its simplest one, writing can be
conceived as the act of putting down in conventional graphic from something that
had been spoken.
Another definition is given by Michael (1981: 10) who says that writing can
be a systematical visible and permanent representation of the auditory and transient
phenomena of speech. Byrne (1993: 24) defines that writing is a primary means of
recording speech, even though it must be acknowledged as a secondary medium of
communication.
It is more elaborately defined by Flower (1989: 54) that:
“Writing is a social act that can only occur within a specific situation. It is
therefore influenced both by the personal attitudes and social experiences that
the writer brings to writing and the impacts of the particular political and
institutional context in which it interviews, analyses of surrounding practices
and other techniques, researchers seek to develop more complete accounts to
local writing contexts.”
In line with Flower, Nystrand (1989: 75) also states that writing is a matter of
elaborating text in accordance with what the writer can reasonably assume that the
reader knows and expects, and the process of reading is a matter of predicting text in
accord with what the reader assumes about the writer’s purpose.
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Harmer (2004: 86) states that writing is a process and what is written is often
heavily influenced by the constraints of genres as elements that have to be present in
learning activities.
After quoting Plato who utters that written language addresses the reader
when its author is absent and has no capacity to respond (2004: 154), Holme defines
philosophically that writing is an ability to make a form of words that in general it
may have a higher truth value than the fact that it has set it down (2004: 160).
According to Gelb and Whiting (2008) writing is a way of recording
language in visible form and giving it relative permanence. Byrne (1993: 1)
emphasizes:
“But writing is clearly much more than the production of graphic symbols,
just as speech is more than the production of sounds. The symbols have to be
arranged according to certain conventions to form words, and words have to be
arranged to form sentences, although again we can be said to be 'writing' if we are
merely making lists of words, as in inventories of items such as shopping lists.”
He further (1993: 1) concludes that writing is a sequence of sentence
arranged in a particular order and linked together in certain ways.
Writing, more particularly, refers to two things: writing as a noun, the thing
that is written; and writing as a verb, which designates the activity of writing. It
refers to the inscription of characters on a medium, thereby forming words, and
larger units of language, known as texts. It also refers to the creation of meaning and
the information thereby generated (“Writing,” 2009).
According to Petty and Jensen (l980: 362), writing is the mental and physical
act of forming letters and words. But it is much more than that, it is putting words
into sentences, sentences into paragraphs, spelling word correctly, punctuating and
capitalizing in customary ways, and observing conventions in written forms and
more. Writing is a process of expressing thoughts and feelings of thinking and
shaping experiences.
The last definition refers to a process taking place in human’s brains. That is
why the definition becomes a starting point in defining the term of writing. Writing,
thus, can be defined as a mental and physical process of expressing thought and
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3. Writing Skills
2009). According to Richards and Schmidt (2002: 293), in language teaching, skill is
defined as the mode or manner in which language is used. Thus, writing skills are the
trained or experienced manner in which English written language is used.
Brown (2004: 220) derives a checklist of writing skills, which are what a
writer must employ in the process of writing. So they represent the specific skills
called for in smooth writing process. The comprehensive taxonomy of writing skill is
also developed from a variety of sources, including needs analysis, discourse
analysis, and related research. The following is the taxonomy of writing skills as
postulated by Brown (2003: 343).
1. Produce grapheme and orthographic patterns of English;
2. Produce writing at an efficient rate of speed to suit the purpose;
3. Produce an acceptable core of words and use appropriate word order patterns;
4. Use acceptable grammatical systems (e.g. tense, agreement, pluralization patterns
and rules);
5. Express a particular meaning in different grammatical forms;
6. Use cohesive devices in written discourse.
7. Use the rhetorical forms and conventions of written discourse;
8. Appropriately accomplish the communicative function of written texts according
to form and purpose;
9. Convey links and connection between events, and communicate such relation as
main idea, supporting idea, new information, given information, generalization,
and exemplification;
10. Distinguish between literal and implied meanings when writing;
11. Correctly convey culturally specific references in the context of the written text;
12. Develop and use of writing strategies, such accurately assessing the audience’s
interpretation, using pre-writing devices, writing the fluency in the first drafts,
using paraphrases and synonyms, soliciting peer and instuctor feedback, and
using feedback for revising and editing.
It can be seen that the checklist can be very helpful in planning a specific
technique or writing module, focusing on clearly conceptualized objectives, and
putting testing criteria.
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5. Process Writing
If the teaching of writing is divided into separate stages to reflect the various
moments involved in the process of writing then perhaps many of the obstacles
experienced by both students and teachers can be addressed. Writing practice in the
classroom however, is often taken up for display purposes, to assess if students have
learned language structures taught in class and for examination purposes. Here, the
teacher is concerned with the final product of writing: an essay, a report, an article or
story, based on standard models; that these meet the standard English rhetorical
style; and are grammatically correct and organized in a conventional manner (Brown,
2001: 335). Thus writing is apparently used to promote language learning, through
models, rather than to encourage creativity and communication and language
acquisition. To an extent, students simply have to follow a structure that has been
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provided, ‘copy’ the main structures and ‘fill in’ the rest depending on the context or
writing task. An example might be a commercial letter,
I’m writing to inform you that…,
or report which are made up of pre-set expressions and sentences. Good writers will
manage without any real difficulty and will know how to include more detailed
information, whereas weak writers will limit themselves to the pre-set structures and
will not learn nor practice how to develop ideas and put these into words.
Process writing may be a more effective method of teaching writing as it
helps students to focus on the process of creating text through the various stages of
generating ideas, drafting, revising and editing, a number of activities which can be
represented as in the figure below.
until they are satisfied with the end result. Thus, writing is a ‘process through which
meaning is created’ (Zamel, 1982: 195).
a. Generating Ideas
Many reading activities or lessons include pre-reading tasks with the aim of
activating learners’ background knowledge (schema). This is a top-down approach
which aids students to predict the type of information they will encounter and will
help them interpret the text, as readers will only have to concentrate on what they do
not know. The same concept should be used in writing. Lessons should try to take an
organic and experiential approach, in other words, allow students to put into practice
what was taught, or discussed in class, with authentic or semi-authentic tasks. One
activity naturally flows into the next. The first part of the lesson may almost be
considered the pre-writing stage to develop ideas. An example might be a descriptive
essay which follows a lesson or section on adjectives. An opinion essay could follow
a class discussion about a specific topic. Another good pre-writing activity is the use
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White and Arndt (1991: 18) suggest that brainstorming should be unhindered
and non-critical to promote productivity and creativity. Brainstorming should be
used to identify purpose and audience (if these are not pre-set), to develop the topic
and the organization of ideas. One of the reasons why this student is unable to
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perform to set standards may have been the lack of purpose or audience in his
writing. He does not know who he was writing to nor why. If the set task states
something similar to: ‘the school is planning a trip to Paris. Despite many requests to
fly we would prefer to travel by train. Please provide a list of advantages and
disadvantages of travelling by train on holiday to present to the student council.’ the
task can be facilitated and the writer can compare and contrast the train with other
means of transportation. The statement can motivate the writer to ponder more on
his/her development of ideas.
Any type of writing done in real life is for a purpose with a reader in mind,
thus the interactive nature of written texts is implicit. For this reason any type of
writing task should stipulate why the student is writing to fulfill some kind of
communicative purpose, whether stimulated or real, and who for, to provide a sense
of audience, hence providing a context. Hedge point outs that when the context is
explicit, students write more effectively and appropriately (2005: 11). The sense of
audience and purpose will influence the writer with his/her choice of content,
style/genre and will determine other lower-end choices such as vocabulary and
grammatical forms or how information will be ‘packaged within a sentence’ (Nunan,
1999:272) thus taking a top-down approach to writing. A visual display of how lower
order choices determined by higher order one is shown in the figure 2.3 below.
Dear Syahid,
I live in the centre of a town called Solo. My house is near a fantastic
bowling club and I love playing bowling!
Usually, I play bowling in the evening, after school, and in the weekends,
with my friends. Sometimes, I also play bowling with my family but, of
course, I always win!
I have joined a club too, called “Super Bowling Club”. There I can play with
many good bowling players and learn many things. Someday, if you want,
you can come and play with us! You will see that it’s great!
If Syahid is a friend then clearly he will know where the writer lives. In
addition to not mentioning the letter that is received in the opening of the letter, the
student is providing information which is shared (common knowledge) and thus
unnecessary. As the student does not take the audience or purpose into consideration,
this influences the structuring of the letter – the paragraph ‘I have joined a …’ should
really be in the first or second paragraph. It also influences the choice of vocabulary:
this is an informal letter between friends, it should ‘sound’ chatty as if Gatot Kaca is
talking to Syahid.
This can be accomplished with discourse markers and fillers such as ‘well’,
‘by the way’, ‘you know’ instead of the ‘usually’ and ‘sometimes’ which make the
letter sound more like a description of a daily routine exercise. This demonstrates
how choices from the top-end affect lower-end consequences.
Another equally important outcome of brainstorming is that it encourages
interaction among students and teachers. Communication takes place within the
classroom for a real purpose – to solve a problem, gather information, whether the
brainstorming is executed with the whole class or in groups. Willis (1990: 59) argues
in favor of ‘language for real communication’ as students present their ideas with no
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predetermined language, they choose what to say and how to say it - choice is the
essence of communication. Thornsbury (1996: 282) also states that communication
initiated by students to negotiate meaning promotes learner involvement. It seems to
lead to more learning as students are paying attention to and are more responsible for
the activity, transforming the activity into a student-centered task which according to
White and Arndt (1991:20), promotes a cooperative approach to learning.
A simple method to prompt the process of brainstorming, to be used
individually or in group, is the use of simple questions such as ‘Who’ ‘What’
‘Where’ ‘When’ ‘Why’ and ‘How’ along with other more complex ones. The use of
a “Why?” and “How?” can prompt more detailed information for “In the city we
have so many opportunities to study, to work, to have a better and maybe brilliant
future.”
b. Focusing, Structuring and Writing the First Draft
After the initial stage of brainstorming, student gather their ideas and
subsequently select and outline them to write the first draft. As a follow-up of
brainstorming White and Arndt (1991) and Hedge (2005) suggest the technique of
fast-writing (free-writing) and loop writing. The purpose of free-writing is to write
without any inhibition concentrating more on content rather than on form. With loop
writing the student writes about one idea, and then summarizes that stretch of text in
one sentence. This sentence then leads to another loop. This technique could help
students avoid vague statements, the repetition of ideas and help to produce natural
flowing text. An example is given below
problems organizing their thoughts is to make a visual plan for the text. Most of the
problems due to structuring can be avoided during a drafting stage with explicit
reference to patterns of discourse organization in class and adequate feedback from
classmates. The prior choice of a discourse pattern might have also influenced the
choice of vocabulary items, as particular words have a tendency to occur with
particular text-patterns (top-down choices) (McCarthy,1991:82).
Possible structures may include:
− Problem – solution
− General – specific
− Claim – counterclaim
− Question – answer
− Cause and effect
− Chronological order
The text is usually divided into introduction, body paragraph(s) and
conclusion. In addition to being aware of the possible text structures, students should
be aware that effective paragraphs contain good topic sentences which introduce
what the topic is about as well as the purpose of the paragraph, and these should be
written in such a way as to attract the reader’s attention. These are then followed by
supporting sentences which develop the topic.
Revising is part of the writing process which entails assessing what has
already been written and is an important source of learning (Hedge, 2005). Sommers
(1982: 154 in Zamel, 1985: 96) states:
We need to sabotage our students' conviction that the drafts they have written
are completed and coherent. Our comments need to offer students revision
tasks ... by forcing students back into chaos, back to the point where they are
shaping and restructuring their meaning.
This is one of the most crucial and beneficial stages in the writing process,
when the most meaningful learning will take place that will aid students in future
31
writing as they will have the opportunity to receive feedback while the experience is
still ‘fresh in the mind’ (Hedge, 2005: 121). In general, students receive feedback
from teachers the day after the writing task has been completed, mistakes are
highlighted and corrected, and suggestions for improvement are provided. In certain
occasions students may be ‘spoon-fed’ and this may account for why there is no real
improvement in subsequent drafts or writing tasks. The teacher has done all the
work; consequently learners do not mentally correct their mistakes as meaningful
learning may not have taken place.
Once again there is an opportunity to transform this task into a student-
centered activity thus promoting real communication amongst students. Students
may work in pairs or groups and correct, provide feedback on each other’s text. This
collaborative work generates discussion and activities which may increase students’
awareness of problems they may have in their own writing when they have to clarify
ideas or expressions used in the text (Hedge, 2005:122). By providing students with
the opportunity to correct and provide feedback on their classmates’ texts, they are
learning by doing and as Hedge points out (2005:18), ‘accuracy work which is
comparatively spontaneous’ is ‘certainly more meaningful and motivating’. Through
peer-correcting, there is also less of a chance of the teacher misinterpreting and
dictating students’ intentions by correcting with what the teacher thinks is best and
which may not necessarily be what the student originally intended.
During the peer-correcting stage teachers have the opportunity to work face
to face with individual students, as everyone is busy doing something. This is an
excellent opportunity for teachers to take on the role of ‘facilitator’, to provide
guidance in the thinking process without imposing their own thoughts and beliefs on
student’s writing (Brown, 2001:340) and an opportunity to diagnose and address
specific problem areas.
This revising not only addresses such features as form, discourse
organization, paragraph structure, and cohesive devices but encourages students to be
more than just mere language learners but rather developing writers (Zamel, 1985).
It is an excellent opportunity for learners to acquire less frequent core
vocabulary, which is needed if one takes into consideration that written texts have
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more lexical density than that of an oral text. Teachers may address such issues as
collocations, raise student awareness of the feasible partnership between words and
thus help them to make better use of the language they already know and build on it.
In addition to collocations, there are idioms, fixed and institutionalised expression
and synonyms for the interchangeable use of words used to enrich the development
of ideas, raise awareness on the syntagmatic and paradigmatic relationship between
words, the referential, metaphorical and connotational meaning of words and how
the choice of words and structures may influence the message, and how to
incorporate stylistic resources - a long list of teaching resources which goes beyond
the scope of this paper. Linguistic resources which in other teaching situations may
not have such a meaningful opportunity to be taught as students will be learning ‘by
doing’.
To attain a good balance between all the components involved, the amount of
planning and revising varies according to the kind of writing that is required. Thus a
holiday postcard may be written spontaneously, while the process of writing a letter
of complaint to a service provider will resemble figure 3.4. It includes all the
interactive stages of process writing. Thus this process may be shorter or much
longer depending on the purpose and the audience of the text.
d. Quality in Writing
All these issues are quite uncomplicated matters, but nonetheless crucial
features in effective writing which must be taught and will require plenty of time and
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practice to develop. Hedge (2005: 119) divides the quality of writing into two
different groups: ‘authoring’ made up of skills involved in the process of writing and
‘crafting’ – skills involved in the appropriate and accurate choice of language .
Figure 2.5 lists the different components included in each group.
opportunity to revise, improve and correct before being evaluated. It is through time
and practice and through well planned stages that we may change students’ negative
views and attitudes towards writing. To sum up, the result of process writing
activities in the classroom is more than just the mere written text. Through integrated
teaching, learners’ language competence is comprehensively fostered from different
sides so as to develop both receptive and productive skills resulting in an overall
improvement of students' language competence.
1) Process vs Product
The process vs. product discussion cited by Brown (1994: 320) and others is
one area where fundamental differences on what the objectives of a writing task
should be are illustrated. Are student writing compositions supposed to meet certain
standards of prescribed English rhetorical style, grammar, and audience
expectations? Or, conversely, should writing be seen more as a ‘process’ where
learners are “allowed to focus on content and message” and where “their own
individual intrinsic motives” become the focus of their learning rather than the
mastery of certain structures or models? Nunan (1991: 87) comments that in the
process approach the focus is on:
“quantity rather than quality, and beginning writers are encouraged to get
their ideas on paper in any shape or form without worrying too much about
formal correctness. The approach also encourages collaborative group work
between learners … and more controversially, attention to grammar is played
down.”
Brown quotes Peter Elbow (1973: 14-16) when attempting to highlight the
different approaches in the process vs. product debate. He states that instead of
focusing on the written ‘product’ we should think of writing as an “organic,
developmental process in which you start writing at the very beginning – before you
know your meaning at all –and encourage your words to gradually change and
evolve.” However, as Brown himself admits, the real emphasis of process writing
must be seen as “a balance between process and product” since “product is, after all,
the ultimate goal.” Swan (1997: 81) too, makes the point that we should teach ‘use’
as well as ‘meaning’ and not neglect the structural elements (for instance, lexis)
through which meaning is ultimately conveyed.
36
A third factor when discussing writing in the classroom is the notion of the
writer’s ‘audience.’ Callow and John (1992: 8-12) states that a communicator must
be constantly aware of the addressee as they attempt to convey their message. The
need to be understood “prompts the communicator to be aware of the addressee’s
initial state of knowledge,” and their “continued comprehension.” It is these factors,
for Callow, which produce the true orientational elements in a written composition.
McDonough and Shaw cite Byrne (1988: 183) as one of several authors on writing
skills who stress that: “writing is a process of encoding (putting your message into
words) carried out with the reader in mind.” The overall organization of a piece of
writing is “best considered in relation to audience and purpose,” while stylistic
choices “depend on why and for whom we are writing.”
37
1) Assessment Criteria
McDonough and Shaw (1993: 190) suggest that when assessing students’
writing we need to take into account the “appropriacy of the writing to its purpose
and its intended audience as well as topic and content criteria.” Brown (2001: 342)
talks of six general categories often used as the basis for evaluating student writing:
content, organization, discourse, syntax, vocabulary, and mechanics (adapted from J.
D. Brown, 1991). Brown’s list above - where the order emphasizes the importance of
content, organization, and discourse over syntax, vocabulary, and mechanics - will
serve as a useful framework for assessment criteria.
Another important overall consideration involves the degree to which the
student writing succeeded or failed to effectively convey its message to the reader.
Bozek (1991: 29) states that difficulties of this sort arise when writers misperceive
their readers and assume that they will: “read every word of the document and will
know what action to take as a result of the information presented in the document.”
With these assumptions, he says, writers often produce documents which are too
long, do not clearly specify action requests, or must be read in their entirety for
readers to find key points.
2) Content
The term ‘content’ for Brown (2001) includes how effectively a writer relates
ideas in their writing and develops those ideas through personal experience,
illustration, facts and opinions. Use of description and consistent focus in the writing
is also important.
It is apparent that lack of content negatively affects the writer’s ability to
convey their message.
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3) Organization
The term ‘organization’ for Brown (1994) includes such things as effective
introductions, logical sequence of ideas, and appropriate length.
4) Discourse
For Brown (1994), ‘discourse’ refers to such things as the student’s effective
use of topic sentences, paragraph unity, transitions, cohesion, and rhetorical
conventions.
5) Syntax/Vocabulary/Mechanics
Syntax, vocabulary, and mechanics were all sources of writing difficulty for
the students. Even short sections of writing had a tendency to demonstrate a
combination of such difficulties. Richards and Schmidt (2002: 535) define that
‘syntax’ is concerned with the ways in which words combine to form sentences and
the rules which govern the formation of sentences, making some sentences possible
and others not possible within a particular language.
‘Vocabulary’ is defined as a set of lexical items, “including single words,
compound words, and idioms” (Richards and Schmidt, 2002: 580).
Spelling and punctuation are the most prominent of the mechanical
difficulties in the student writing. Most are minor, but others occasionally lead to a
breakdown in fluency, or even meaning, for the reader.
c. Suggesting Strategies
the development of ideas, organization, and overall focus (higher order concerns, or
HOC). Keh promotes the notion of focusing on HOCs and states that: “the rationale
here is that LOCs may disappear in a later draft as the writer changes content.” She
states, for example, that students may eliminate paragraphs or rewrite sentences
where surface problems existed.
2) Conferencing
3) Planning
4) Pair Work
A further suggested strategy for helping students with their writing is the
inclusion of pair work in the curriculum. Students are required to comment on what
they consider difficulties in their partner’s written composition. This can be through
employing their own schematic knowledge of written English, or by utilizing a
similar list of criteria as mentioned above (for peer/group feedback). Richards and
Lockhart (1996: 152-65) suggest that students interacting in groups or pairs are given
“the opportunity to draw on their linguistic resources in a nonthreatening situation
and use them to complete different tasks.” For example, in a writing class: students
may work in pairs to read each others assignments and provide suggestions for
improvement. This feedback may address content, organization, or clarity of
expression, and serves to provide information that may be useful to the student when
revising the piece of writing.
Chaudron (1988: 134) comments as well on the nature of feedback and how it
can affect student attitudes to learning: “…the function of feedback is not only to
provide reinforcement, but to provide information which learners can use actively in
modifying their behaviors.” He later goes on to state that: “information available in
feedback allows learners to confirm, disconfirm and possibly modify the
hypothetical, “transitional” rules of their developing grammars” but that these things
depend on the writer’s willingness to accept feedback given to them.
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1) Overall Targets
2) Tasks
bring whatever schematic knowledge they have to the writing task at hand. Pairs or
small groups of students can assist each other when evaluating one another’s writing.
A written composition read aloud can be checked by both the writer and others for
appropriate syntax, cadence, stress, and logical sequencing, among other things. As a
consequence, pair work and peer correction can facilitate a range of other skills.
Reading, listening and speaking skills are all utilized and therefore have the potential
to improve along with the writing skills being practiced.
4) Rewrite/Redrafts
Barrett and Knezek (2003) make the argument that electronic portfolios
should be electronic versions of paper portfolios. The same thinking about purpose,
pedagogy and assessment lies behind both kinds of portfolio. With this in mind, the
discussion will begin with paper based portfolios learning: the different types of
portfolio; their uses; their benefits; problems, issues and tensions that arise relating to
their use; and the essential elements that need to be present in their design to ensure
their success as learning, development and assessment tools. This section also covers
their uses in a variety of disciplines. Following this, electronic portfolios will be
discussed in depth: how they differ from traditional portfolios, their benefits, and
issues relating to their use. In adopting electronic portfolios as a medium for student
learning, certain criteria ensure success and several barriers to implementation exist.
In addition, several educational and technical considerations are inherent when
adopting an electronic portfolio system.
A simple search of the Internet using the key words "language portfolios" and
"portfolio assessment" shows how popular these concepts are in educational circles:
the former produced about 150,000 mostly European-based hits and the latter about
250,000 mostly US-based hits. Many of these articles naturally link portfolios with
personal skills like reflection.
The concept of portfolio has long existed in many fields outside the
classroom. For example, artists, architects, and photographers use portfolios to
illustrate their work to potential clients; financial advisers speak of a client`s
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Lyons, 1991: 262) and the collection may consist of “selected but not necessarily
polished or finished pieces” (Privette, 1993: 60).
Based on the definitions above and the teaching of English writing as the
topic in this research, it can be concluded that portfolio is a purposeful learning
record of students’ works collected through a collaborative effort between the
student and the teachers as a reflection of the student’s efforts, progress and
achievements in English writing competence.
The next term modified by the term ‘portfolio based’ is learning. It is stressed
by Hohn (2005: 283) that dictionaries typically define learning as the act of acquiring
knowledge and skills through observation, study, or instruction. Mazur (2008) states
that learning is acquiring knowledge or developing the ability to perform new
behaviors. He further underlines, “It is common to think of learning as something
that takes place in school, but much of human learning occurs outside the classroom,
and people continue to learn throughout their lives.”
According to Wildman (2008: 573 – 579), based on the framework that looks
at learning in terms of observable behavior learning is defined as any relatively
permanent change in behavior that is not the result of normal growth or maturation.
On the basis of the second framework that views learning as a cognitive activity,
learning is defined as the acquisition of knowledge and the ability to use knowledge
to solve problems. Lastly, in the point of view on how people work and learn in
cultural settings, learning is defined not as the acquisition of knowledge but as
participation in meaningful social practices.
As can be concluded from the above definitions, learning is the process by
which change in behavior, knowledge, skills, etc., comes about through practice,
instruction or experience and the result of such a process.
As a term, portfolio based learning applied in this research is a concept that
views portfolio as an educational concept, while a more popular term, portfolio
assessment, looks at portfolio as a concept of assessment (Dasim Budimansyah,
2003: 7). The noun phrase of portfolio based learning is also stated by Pitts (2009) in
his article entitled How to Understand Portfolio Based Learning and van Wesel and
Prop (2008: 1) in their paper by saying that portfolio-based learning finds increasing
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Thus, portfolio based learning in this research can be defined as the process
of change in English writing competence as a result of the teaching of English
writing based on purposeful record of students’ works collected through a
collaborative effort between the student and the teachers as a reflection of the
student’s efforts, progress and achievements.
The traditional storage format for portfolios in education is paper-based,
usually in manila folders, three-ring notebooks or larger containers. Most often, the
artifacts are comprised of text and images on paper, although the use of video or
audio tape has been emerging (Barret: 2001). To conclude with, paper based learning
portfolio as the title of this research can be concluded as the process of change in
English writing competence as a result of the teaching of English writing based on
purposeful printed/ handwritten record of students’ works collected through a
collaborative effort between the student and the teachers as a reflection of the
student’s efforts, progress and achievements.
The topic of the next section is on the bedrock of portfolio based learning and
the answers for a question of “what is it the paper based portfolio learning for?”
2. Constructivist Learning
way any problems the student may be encountering in figuring out how to construe a
new experience, to bring to the fore the most important aspects of that experience,
and so forth. The type of pedagogy that best fits this view of learning is portfolio
based learning.
Dewey believes that learning requires some outside guidance from ‘‘the
guide on the side’’ such as teachers, parents, or social institutions. For Dewey, since
not all experiences are educative, in order to help children to have educative
experiences, guidance from the teacher is still necessary. Dewey also advocated that
learning should meet students’ needs. He suggested child-centered learning and
using the child’s impulses, needs and experiences as the starting point of learning.
Piaget developed Dewey’s idea in creating a meaningful learning
environment for students. According to Piaget, in a constructivist classroom, students
must be given opportunities to construct knowledge through their own experiences.
Less emphasis is put on directly teaching specific skills and more is put on learning
in a meaningful context.
Exploring interesting things within a classroom encourages students to
become active constructors of their own knowledge through experiences that
encourage assimilation and accommodation. Assimilation occurs when students try
to compare old information to new information they come across to see if new
information fits with older information already learned. Accommodation occurs
when students take the new information and then either save it in their mind since it
is similar to older information or try to discard the information if it doesn’t fit with
the existing information or develop new categories to accommodate the new
information. Creating portfolios offers a vast array of such opportunities. In this
learning environment, students’ conceptual and experiential background can be
expanded.
In addition, Pitts (2009: 1) points out:
“Educational programs most likely to be effective include interactivity,
reflection and relate to personal professional experiences. Through this,
learners are given more autonomy and responsibility for their learning.
Portfolios are an ideal vehicle for capturing such learning experiences
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through the recording of reflective purposes and can contain a wide range of
materials and media.”
select pieces to be submitted for the institutional assessment that fully determines the
grade.
After doing analytical reading, to emphasize the fundamentally
developmental character of a valid portfolio system, the writer set forth the following
principles and features:
1. A portfolio is a printed/ handwritten collection of work, but it is a collection that is
a subset of a larger archive. Theoretically, the archive is the whole of a student’s
work, but more practically and more frequently, it is a subset of writing completed
in a class, a program, and a school.
2. The process by which the subset is created is one of selection, which is the second
principle of portfolios. How entries are selected varies according to the rhetorical
situation contextualizing the portfolio.
3. A third principle is reflection, the process by which a student explains his or her
learning.
4. A fourth principle is communication, in the sense that the writing portfolio, like
any portfolio, will communicate something about the writer, about what he or she
values, about the context in which the writer has worked, and so on.
Based on the characteristics above, it is necessary to indicate essential
elements of the paper based portfolio. Kemp and Toperoff (1998: 3) identify such
elements as:
1. Cover Letter “About the author” and “What my portfolio shows about my
progress as a learner” (written at the end, but put at the beginning).
The cover letter summarizes the evidence of a student’s learning and progress.
2. Table of Contents with numbered pages.
3. Entries - both core (items students have to include) and optional (items of
student’s choice).
The core elements will be required for each student and will provide a common
base from which to make decisions on assessment. The optional items will allow
the folder to represent the uniqueness of each student. Students can choose to
include “best” pieces of work, but also a piece of work which gave trouble or one
that was less successful, and give reasons why.
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a. Implementation Stages
It is even better if they do this fixing of goals together with the students, asking
them, for example, what they need and want to achieve in the different language
domains and skills. They will usually show good understanding of goals “We
should be able to correct our written mistakes.”) and hopefully these will then
become common goals for teacher and class. Or they can give a list of goals for
the students to rank, and use the results for establishing the criteria for
assessment.
2. Introducing the idea of portfolios to the class.
Teachers of English will need to present the idea of a portfolio to their classes.
They can start by explaining the wor- from portare (carry) and foglio (sheet of
paper). If possible, they may ask an artist or a student of art, architecture or
design to bring in their portfolio; this will help convey the principle of a portfolio
as a selection of a student’s work, showing progress in different areas or skills. It
is also a good idea to show the students examples of English portfolios prepared
by other classes, and, ideally, even a portfolio of their own (showing, for
example, the development of their work with the class).
It is worth directing students’ attention at this stage to the main aspect of
portfolios, which is their use as a learning tool.
3. Specifying portfolio content.
Specify what, and how much, has to be included in the portfolio - both core and
options (it is important to include options as these enable self-expression and
independence). Specify for each entry how it will be assessed. The students
should be acquainted with the scoring guides/rating scales that will be used
before performing the task. Portfolio entries can take many forms - written, audio
and video-recorded items, artifacts (e.g., a T-shirt, an annotated drawing, a
model), dialogue journals, etc.
3. Give clear and detailed guidelines for portfolio presentation.
Explain the need for: clear and attractive presentation dated drafts attached
reflections or comment cards.
Explain how the portfolio will be graded and when it needs to be ready (final and
mid-way dates).
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time several portfolio-ready items (i.e. with drafts and reflections) will be handed
in, so that students know whether they are on the right track. Alternatively, the
teacher can have a portfolio project on a single unit of material so that both
teacher and students will acquire experience in this kind of learning over a
shorter period of time. Ownership: To ensure that the portfolio represents the
student’s own work, some items can be done completely in class. The teacher
might also decide to have a test (preferably with corrected version) included as a
core item together with reflection on what the student learned from doing the test
and revising it. Furthermore, the teacher may ask the students to explain in their
reflections who helped them to improve their work (a peer, a parent, a spell-
checker) and what they learned from revising their work.
6. Assessing the portfolios and giving feedback.
Each portfolio entry needs to be assessed with reference to its specific goal(s).
Since the goals and weighting of the various portfolio components have been
clearly fixed in advance, assessing the portfolios is not difficult.
Self and peer-assessment can be used too as a tool for formative evaluation, with
the students having to justify their grade with reference to the goals and to
specific pages in the portfolio. This actually makes the teacher’s job of assessing
the portfolio much simpler, because the pupil has done the groundwork of
proving how far each goal is met in the portfolio. It takes some of the burden off
the teacher and helps students to internalize criteria for quality work. Students
can even generate their own report cards based on their portfolios.
After all the efforts that the students have invested in their portfolios, it is
recommended that the teacher provides feedback on the portfolios that is more
than just a grade. One possibility is to write a letter about the portfolio, which
details strengths and weaknesses and generates a profile of a student’s ability,
which is then added to the portfolio. Another option is to prepare certificates
which comment on the portfolio strengths and suggest future goals.
7. Student-teacher conferences.
An important element of the portfolio philosophy of shared and active
assessment is that the teacher should have short individual meetings with each
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pupil, in which progress is discussed and goals are set for a future meeting.
Students and teachers should document these meetings and keep the goals in
mind when choosing topics for future meetings. In this way student-teacher
conferences play an important role in the formative evaluation of a student’s
progress. They can also be used for summative evaluation purposes when the
student presents his final portfolio product and together with the teacher decides
on a final grade. This is a student’s chance to negotiate the portfolio grade using
evidence of achievement according to the agreed goals. Notes from these
conferences can be included in the portfolio as they contain joint decisions about
the individual’s strengths and weaknesses. These conferences can be prepared for
in pairs, where students practice presenting their portfolios.
8. Follow-up.
After the portfolios are complete, it is a good idea to have an exhibition of
portfolios and/or student-led parent-teacher conferences, in which students
present their portfolios to their parents.
Portfolio assessment and process writing are natural partners, since both
show effort and development very clearly. This supplement will introduce the way
how to apply some principles and techniques of process writing. Process writing is
an approach to teaching writing which tries to simulate the process that many writers
go through in their native language. In this way it does not only focus on the final
product but also on the stages along the way, such as gathering ideas, noting them
down, reorganizing and rephrasing them and preparing a final, accurate version. In
other words, process writing marks a shift from exclusive emphasis on the products
of writing to emphasis on the process of writing and on interactive learning between
teachers and students and among students themselves. The five stages of the writing
process can be referred to as:
1. Prewriting
Before students start on their writing task, it is important to define the three
corner stones of any piece of writing: the audience, the purpose and the form.
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In real life, every piece of writing is influenced by who it is written for (its audience)
and why it is being written (its purpose). It is helpful to reproduce this procedure in
the classroom. For example, instead of telling the students "Write a composition
about your holiday", the instructions could be "Write a postcard to a friend about
how you are spending your holiday". Some examples:
Table 2.2 - Prewriting
Audience Purpose Form
a firm to complain about a faulty a letter
item purchased
your mother to inform about your a note
absence
the general public to report an accident a newspaper article
Prewriting helps to stimulate student interest, develops concepts and ideas,
and gives students confidence. Some prewriting activities are brainstorming,
mapping, listing and outlining. Samples of pre-writing tools:
Figure 2.6 - Outline
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The tree outline can help prepare pupils in writing a description (e.g., My cat
Icha), where the different branches represent the different paragraphs (e.g., his
physical description, how I look after him, why I love him so much)
2. Drafting
Writing the first draft enables the student to write freely and without frustration. It
is important that the student puts the message down as soon as possible after the
prewriting stage without worrying about grammar, spelling or punctuation.
Some guidelines for students:
1. Write the draft immediately after the prewriting stage.
2. Write on every other line.
3. Don't worry about mistakes at this stage.
4. Complete the draft in class.
3. Revising/ Editing
Revision gives the student the opportunity to:
1. Improve the content
2. Improve the organization
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5. Publishing/ Sharing
Some suggestions:
1. a class/school magazine
2. thank you letters
3. letters to authors of books read
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4. letters to celebrities
5. e-mail projects with other schools
6. bulletin boards
7. booklets for others to enjoy
Portfolios have great value for the student. Because the collection of artifacts
should be driven mainly by the student; it is bottom-up, reflective, intrinsic and
meaningful, thus, self-motivational. Engel (1996: 25) states, “Portfolios allow
children to express themselves. Even if students are told what artifacts that are to be
used, in the reflection portion the students can tell why they did the artifact as they
did”.
Portfolios also allow for individualization; the brightest and best students
will still be allowed to express themselves fully, but portfolios will allow the more
reserved students to come to the front of the class, as well. Engel (1996: 25) notes:
“Many children are inexpressive in schools; portfolios allow them to be
expressive. Characteristics and habits of mind, although not always acquired
in school, can, nonetheless, be sustained there. Curiosity, confidence, and
imagination must be recognized, valued, and given opportunity for
expression. These are the sources of energy, not only for school learning, but
for lifelong learning. . . . Portfolios can capture and reveal significant aspects
of personal meaning. When reviewing portfolios with children, teachers find
that they are indeed using ‘new instruments and looking in new places’. The
new instruments are the portfolios themselves. The new places are the
products of the active, creative, energetic, imaginative, constructive, and
meaning-making minds of children.”
Granting school rankings, transition issues, logistics, and other concerns their
fair measure, the availability of time appears to stand alone as the most often cited
disadvantage for the use of portfolios in the classroom. Glazer, Rooman and Luberto
(1996: 78) state: “A major concern was the amount of time and effort required to
implement the use of portfolios in the daily classroom”.
Melograno (1996: 154), when looking at the use of portfolios, adds “teachers
may say, ‘I have too many students and not enough time.’ The reality for most
teachers is to manage students first and deliver some kind of instruction second”.
Danielson and Abrutyn (1997: 43) classify time, perhaps the most often cited
disadvantage, as nothing more than a challenge. They state:
“Many educators think that their days are already full and they cannot
possibly add another major initiative to their work with students. Practitioners
most apprehensive about the time demands of portfolios tend to regard the
processes of instruction, testing, and portfolio development as three discrete
tasks. They point out that they are already pressed for sufficient time to cover
all the content of the curriculum and doubt that they could add another
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element to the instructional process curriculum and doubt that they could add
another element to the instructional process.”
2. Constructivist Learning
Acosta and Liu (2006: 21) envisage electronic portfolios as a way of shifting
the locus of control from teacher to student, which entails changes in curriculum
design and leads to the development of social capital. They define social capital as
“using collective power and resources to improve and benefit society and the
individual through strong relationships and active interactions” (Acosta & Liu, 2006:
21). Electronic portfolios can help students to make connections between different
aspects of their lives and help them to form their social identities, and their identity
within their discipline of study.
a. Guidelines of Implementation
Barret (2001: 5), after combining both the Multimedia Development Process
and the Portfolio Development Process, purposes five stages of electronic portfolio
development process. The stages are:
1. Defining the Portfolio Context & Goals:
2. The Working Portfolio:
3. The Reflective Portfolio:
4. The Connected Portfolio:
5. The Presentation Portfolio.
The above stages are then developed by Ali (2005) who states there are the
nine steps in developing electronic portfolios.
1. Define aim of the portfolio.
The first step is to decide whether the portfolio will be used for formative
evaluation or summative evaluation. The content and organization of the
portfolio will depend on its aim. Needs analysis should be carried out before
beginning the portfolio development process.
2. Take into account the type and extent of technology available to your
students.
Do not expect your students to develop an electronic portfolio if they do not have
access to the required hardware and software. Again, needs analysis would help
in identifying students’ technological needs and availability.
3. Take students’ consent for portfolio development.
If portfolio development is not part of the curriculum and you want to initiate it
into your own individual teaching methodology, you will have to first take
students’ consent. It should be remembered that it is essentially learner centered
and the students have to be ‘involved’ right from the planning to the assessment.
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You will also need to take permission from parents to use their child's work,
name, and perhaps a photo.
4. Define an audience for the portfolio.
This would motivate and boost students to work harder on their portfolios.
Audience may range from parents, teachers, and administrators to relatives and
other students. In case of webfolios the students have to be very cautious with
their work since it can be accessed by anyone.
5. Empower students.
The main aim of portfolio development is to get students to work on their Math,
Science, English composition, or art etc. Students should select work that best
shows their achievement of the curriculum goals. They should include the first
draft and the final draft to show progress or they may choose to include multiple
drafts.
6. Involve students in peer correction or review.
It is amazing how much students can learn through their peers’ comments on
their work and through their own comments on some one else’s work. Peer
review on students’ portfolio work should become an essential part of the process
of portfolio development.
7. Incorporate feedback mechanism into student portfolios.
About midway through the portfolio development process brief feedback must be
given to the students so that they know if they are going in the right direction.
Feedback could also be posted onto the electronic portfolios if students do not
mind and find it encouraging.
8. Encourage reflective practice.
An essential inclusion in the portfolios is the reflective notes. Documentation of
thoughts makes the portfolios more personal and provides a view into the
student’s performance and abilities. They exhibit the thought processes and
critical thinking capabilities of the students, which may not be evident from a
mere collection of their work. Reflective notes tell us how the learners feel about
the learning process.
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This section outlines the equipment, and planning required for creating and
saving an electronic portfolio.
1) Equipment
According to Barrett (2000), to begin with, students would require at least the
following equipment:
Computer – IBM or Macintosh. It should have audio and video display hardware.
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2) Planning
It is suggested to create a flowchart on paper to plan what to put in each link
of the portfolio. Students should choose the appearance of the portfolio webpage and
links. This is also the stage when the students should decide and work on the content
of the portfolio. If the portfolio is to be hosted on the WWW then a free or cheap
web hosting site should be contacted at this point.
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Here are the basic steps for using WordPress to construct an interactive electronic
portfolio. Note that WordPress is primarily a blog, so the first page is organized in
reverse chronological order. However, the latest version of WordPress also allows
pages to be set up and show as tabs at the top of the page. In this example, “home” is
the blog; “welcome!” is a page that the teacher set up explaining the focus of this
site; “my portfolio” is a set of pages and sub-pages that contain my portfolio; and
“how to” is this page.
1. Purpose.
Decide on the purpose for the portfolio. What are you trying to show with this
portfolio? Are there outcomes, goals, or standards that are being demonstrated
with this portfolio? In this example, we will use an electronic portfolio to provide
formative feedback on student work.
• Identify how you are going to organize the portfolio. Will it be around the
outcomes, goals or standards that you identified in this first step?
• Set up a “parent” page that will serve as the opening page/Introduction to the
portfolio
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The portfolio developer should be given the option of updating the work, based
on the feedback and the rubric.
4. Presentation/Publishing.
The portfolio developer decides what parts of the portfolio are to be made public.
However, the decision on which blog provider the subjects of this research
publish their portfolios will depend on discussion between the researcher and the
participants. It is assumed that the most familiar blog providers for the students
(blogger and wordpress) are easier to master.
Blogs are easy-to-create and easy-to-maintain websites. Blogs have been
around for over 10 years, but have become more popular since hosting websites such
as Blogger.com introduced itself in 1999. Blogs function mostly as online journals
and their content is traditionally personal. Blogs can be updated at any time using
software that allows users with little or no technical background to create, design and
maintain the blog.
a. First Benefit
b. Second Benefit
c. Third Benefit
d. Fourth Benefit
e. Fifth Benefit
as a leaning strategy. In this capacity, Porter and Cleland think that portfolios
become vehicles for reflection in which learners examine where they have been,
where they are now, how they got there, and where they need to go next. They stress,
“A portfolio is comprised of a collection of artifacts accompanied by a reflective
narrative that not only helps the learner to understand and extend learning, but invites
the reader of the portfolio to gain insights about learning and the learner” (p. 23).
Crafton (1991: 314) states, “When learners have a chance to reflect on their reading,
writing, language experiences, they can assume an altered stance on their learning
and see it in a new way. They also become aware of and learn to value the strategies
they are developing” (p. 314).
The literature review showed that electronic portfolios not only have many
benefits but also have problems to be considered.
a. First Disadvantage
The first problem deals with deficient hardware and software. Bartlett (2002:
93) finds equipment problems in her study. Her students complain, “All the
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equipment (video camera, computer with movie making capabilities) isn’t available
to everyone.”
b. Second Disadvantage
c. Third Disadvantage
portfolios not only force students to examine their learning process, determine
learning strategies, but also allow them to set goals for future learning. Through this
process, students effectively use technology to construct knowledge.
Likewise, too great an emphasis on students meeting standards for
competency will endanger the reflective and learning potential of electronic
portfolios. To be successful users of electronic portfolios, students need to
understand the reasons for constructing a portfolio, be given clear guidelines, and
have access to an electronic portfolio system that is easy to use and gives them as
much flexibility or as much structure as they require. They also need the support of
their teachers. The teachers need to be committed to the portfolio process, and
willing to give students regular and useful feedback on their work and reflections.
Institutions need to be aware of the impact that an electronic portfolio
development will have. Electronic portfolios need to be an integral part of a program
of study, not an ‘added-on’ assessment, which may necessitate the review and
restructuring of courses. The type of portfolio required, its purpose and its audience
need to be clearly articulated. Students and the teachers using an electronic portfolio
system need the time, skills and resources to do so successfully. Institutions need to
provide strong leadership to encourage their staff to participate in an electronic
portfolio development, whilst also enabling collaboration and staff input into
decision-making. Institutions also need to recognize that the process of implementing
an electronic portfolio system is a long-term one, and it may take several years
before the full benefits will be seen.
1. The Definition
Five minutes of work on a writing task may feel like hours to a student who
does not know what the next steps need to be, or even what the longer- range goals
for the work are—especially if the student does not have a developed interest for the
writing task. Similarly, a student with a well-developed individual interest for
English may be able to briefly glance at the differences between recount text and
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narrative text and decide he knows them, while another, equally able student with a
less-developed interest for English, has to work after school to learn these text types.
This illustration informs that interest factor in the teaching of writing is of
importance.
The first definition of interest in this section is by Hurlock (1978: 420) that
defines interests as sources of motivation which drive people to do what they want to
do when they are free to choose. It is also stated by Getzels in Smith and Dechant
(1961: 273) that interest is a characteristic disposition, organized through experience,
which impels an individual to seek out particular objects, activities, understanding,
skills, or goals for attention or acquisition. Interest is also defined as one’s
consciousness that an object, person, problem or situation has relation to him
(Witherington in Buchori (2000: 122)). Lastly, interest describes the cognitive and
affective relationship between a student and particular classes of subject matter
(Renninger, no year: 705).
Based on the definitions above, it can be concluded that interest is one’s
cognitive and affective consciousness, organized through experience, which impels
someone to seek out particular objects and motivates him to do the activities he likes
in order to strive a particular goal.
According to Gelb and Whiting (2008) writing is a way of recording
language in visible form and giving it relative permanence. Byrne (1993: 1)
emphasizes:
“But writing is clearly much more than the production of graphic symbols,
just as speech is more than the production of sounds. The symbols have to be
arranged according to certain conventions to form words, and words have to
be arranged to form sentences, although again we can be said to be 'writing' if
we are merely making lists of words, as in inventories of items such as
shopping lists.”
larger units of language, known as texts. It also refers to the creation of meaning and
the information thereby generated (“Writing,” 2009).
According to Petty and Jensen (l980: 362), writing is the mental and physical
act of forming letters and words. But it is much more than that, it is putting words
into sentences, sentences into paragraphs, spelling word correctly, punctuating and
capitalizing in customary ways, and observing conventions in written forms and
more. Writing is a process of expressing thoughts and feelings of thinking and
shaping experiences.
The last definition refers to a process taking place in human’s brains. That is
why the definition becomes a starting point in defining the term of writing. Writing,
thus, can be defined as a mental and physical process of expressing thought and
feelings by forming words into a sequence of arranged sentences leading to the
creation of meaning and the information.
The writing interest, therefore, can be defined as one’s cognitive and
affective consciousness, organized through experience, which impels someone
mentally and physically to express thoughts and feelings by a sequence of arranged
sentences leading to the creation of meaning and the information.
The importance of writing interest is supported by the fact that one of the foci
of the actions to improve the writing curriculum is to raise students’ interest in
writing, assuming that increased interest leads to more involvement in learning
(Rijlaarsdam and Van Den Bergh, 2005: 9).
2. Types of Interest
It can be seen that the third type in the second classification is a more
developed type of the second one. Another conclusion is that all types of interest
require conditions that allow the interest to be maintained, to continue to deepen, and
to merge with other content.
In the teaching of writing, it is important for the teachers of English to
provide students with meaningful choices, well organized tasks that promote interest,
and the background knowledge necessary to fully understand a topic. Even students
with a well-developed interest for a particular subject need to be supported to
continue challenging what they know and assume in order for their interest to be
sustained.
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3. Aspects of Interest
interest, which leads to higher learning. Schraw and Lehman (2009: 510 - 511) then
put forward a more sophisticated model proposed by Hidi and Renninger (2006).
In the model, interest develops through four continuous stages, including
triggered situational interest, maintained situational interest, emerging personal
interest, and well-developed individual interest. Triggered situational interest refers
to a change in interest that is related directly to a temporary change in the stimuli,
environment, or to-be-learned information. These changes may be evoked by a wide
variety of factors, including highly relevant information, surprising or unexpected
information, information that is incongruous with the task, a change in environment,
or the enthusiasm of a teacher or mentor. Maintained situational interest refers to a
state of focused attention and greater personal investment with the to-be-learned
information.
These changes usually are supported externally by a stimulating text, task, or
teacher. In addition, maintained interest is sustained through meaningful tasks and
personal involvement. Emerging individual interest refers to a state in which interest
does not need to be sustained externally and one in which the interest becomes an
enduring disposition. These changes are supported by increased curiosity, greater
domain knowledge, and a perceived sense of pleasure and usefulness in the activity.
Well-developed individual interest refers to an enduring change in disposition
for the information or activity. These changes are characterized by positive affect,
greater intrinsic motivation, extensive knowledge about the domain, a high level of
procedural expertise, and an ability to monitor and self-regulate one’s future
development in the domain.
Definitive evidence indicates that situational and personal interests are related
to learning in three important ways (Schraw and Lehman, 2009: 511). Based on their
explanation, the writer draws a relationship between writing interest and the teaching
of writing in three ways. The first way is that interest increases motivation,
engagement, and persistence. Situational interest has a positive effect on extrinsic
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E. Rationale
The main goal of English instruction in Indonesia is that at the end of the
study, students master language skills involving listening, speaking, reading, and
writing. In relation to writing competence, the goal is to enable the students to
express the meanings in written interpersonal and transactional discourses formally
and informally in the forms of recount, narrative, procedure, descriptive, news item,
report, analytical exposition, hortatory exposition, spoof, explanation, discussion,
and review in a context of daily lives. To achieve this goal, some innovations have
been applied, in this case paper based portfolio learning and electronic portfolio
learning. Those types of portfolio based learning have strengths as well as
weaknesses. Nevertheless, students’ writing interest also plays an important role in
achieving the goal. It is the essential for learning process.
Seeing the characteristics that the electronic portfolio learning possesses, it is
suitable for the teacher to put this kind of portfolio based learning into practice to
students who have high writing interest. High-interested students will generate full
interest and participation during the learning with technology. Another factor is that
they get involved in the process of construction and through collaboration with and
feedback from the teachers. That their works are published on-line with unlimited
audience in the virtual world is an added value that increases their writing interest.
Meanwhile, the paper based portfolio learning possesses characteristics that
are nearly similar to the usual in-class writing instruction. The students, particularly
low-interested students, cannot meet the media to share their writings except those
who are their teachers/ classmates. They are also not challenged to learn with
technology. Most of peer reviewing and teacher’s feedback take place in a classroom
setting only. From such reason as this, the students not only can take teacher’s
feedback and peer reviews anytime and anywhere but also update and revise their
works.
Considering the explanation above, the writer assumes that electronic
portfolio learning is better applied for high-interested students while paper based
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F. Hypothesis
The word methodology is derived from the word ‘method’ that means ‘the
way of doing something’ (Hornby, 1995: 671). The aim of methodology is,
according to Cohen, Manion and Morrison (2000: 44) citing Kaplan’s words (1973):
“to describe and analyze these methods, throwing light on their limitations
and resources, clarifying their presuppositions and consequences, relating
their potentialities to the twilight zone at the frontiers of knowledge. It is to
venture generalizations from the success of particular techniques, suggesting
new applications, and to unfold the specific bearings of logical and
metaphysical principles on concrete problems, suggesting new formulations”.
95
96
This comparative study is planned to carry out in seven months from July
2009 to January 2010. The following is the schedule of this comparative research:
SEPT
NOV
OCT
DEC
JAN
No. Activities
1 Pre Research
2 Proposal
3 Literature Review
4 Instrument Development
5 Data Collection & Analysis
6 Report Writing
7 Document Submission
97
The requirements are certainly hard to meet by the writer. In addition to this,
Muijs (2004: 25 – 26) also point outs, “In everyday settings, any causal effect found
in an experimental setting is likely to be influenced by a whole load of contextual
factors and influences which will tend to make the relationship far less predictable
than in a laboratory setting.” He also says that another problem with experimental
research is that it can be difficult to put into practice in educational settings. In
implementing an intervention that is specifically designed to take place in a
classroom, he thinks that there would be problems in trying to randomly allocate
pupils to teachers who did and did not implement the intervention. Finally, the lack
of control over the environment is another thing he worries about. He further
maintains, “In a classroom situation, there is a whole variety of other influences that
may affect outcomes, making it difficult to ascribe effects to the intervention.”
Due to the discussion above, the writer conducts a quasi-experimental design.
As suggested by its name, it is the design that comprises quasi experimental research
approximate experimental method (Pion and Cordray, no year: 2024). Pioneered by
Thomas Campbell and Julian Stanley in the 1960s by publishing a handbook chapter
titled “Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Designs for Research” (Donmoyer,
2008: 715), a quasi experimental is characterized by several things, i.e. it has both
pre- and posttest; it has experimental and control group; it has no random assignment
of subjects (Nunan, 1992: 41). Kraska (2008: 836) characterizes such an
experimental research as follows: Nonrandomized Control Group, Pretest-Posttest
Design, Time Series, Single-Subject Designs, and Factorial Designs.
Therefore, there are two groups in the study, i.e. an experimental group
and a control one. The experimental group is the class that is taught by electronic
portfolio learning and the control group is the class taught by paper based portfolio
learning. Moreover, the experimental one attends a class equipped with Internet-
accessed computers whereas the latter one receives instruction in a class with no
Internet-accessed computers. It also implies that, if needed, the control group is
allowed to use computer in a computer equipped classroom to build and print out
their portfolios such as for editing, reviewing, etc. Each student in the experimental
one is asked to build their own blogs guided by the writer. To sum up, the main
100
difference between the two groups is that the experimental one builds a collection of
electronic evidence assembled and managed on the Web while the control one builds
a collection of paper based work that provides information about the students’
efforts.
Instruction or treatment will be delivered in eight, ninety-minute periods,
typical of secondary school in Indonesia. The control and experimental groups are
given the same teaching learning material and assignments as regular practices.
In addition, at the end of the treatment, the writer gives a questionnaire about
students’ writing interest. The students’ writing interest is classified into two
categories, namely high writing interest and low writing interest. By so-doing, the
writer can find out what type of portfolio based learning can be used to teach
students having high motivation and those having low writing interest.
Prior to the treatment, the groups are given post test which is the same as the
pre test. The writer then compares the improvement of English wiring competence
from pre test to post test between the two groups to find out whether there is a
different influence between electronic portfolio learning and paper based learning.
As one of the characteristics of quasi experimental research is factorial design
and the researcher wants to assess both independent variables, factorial design is
used to analyze the main effects for both experimental variables as well as an
analysis of the interaction between the treatments. The factorial design, founded by a
British statistician Ronald Fisher, allows the researcher to simultaneously study the
impact of multiple variables (Sheskin, 2008: 374). He further asserts:
“An example of a more complex design commonly employed in
psychological research is the factorial design, which is able to simultaneously
evaluate the impact of two or more independent variables on one or more
dependent variables. A major advantage of the factorial design is it allows the
researcher to identify an interaction between variables. An interaction is
present when subjects’ performance on one independent variable is not
consistent across all the levels of another independent variable.” (2008: 378).
1. Population
2. Sample
Sample (in statistics and testing) is any group of individuals that is selected to
represent a population (Richards and Schmidt, 2002: 465). According to Bloor and
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3. Sampling
Schmidt (2002: 465), is the procedure of selecting a sample. Thus, sampling can be
said as a technique used for getting samples.
According to Sridhar (2008: 18), based on representation basis the types of
sample designs can be classified into probability sampling and non-probability one.
Cohen and Holliday (1979, 1982, 1996) and Schofield (1996) in Cohen, Manion and
Morrison (2000: 99) also state there are two main methods of sampling. They are
probability sample and non-probability sample. Therefore, it can be concluded that
there are two types of samples, i.e. probability sample and non-probability sample.
In this study, the writer applies two types of sample. Firstly, he utilizes a non-
probability sample, namely purposive sampling. Cohen, Manion and Morrison
(2000: 99) put out, “In this way, they build up a sample that is satisfactory to their
specific needs”. In addition, it involves the selection of cases on the basis of the
researcher’s own judgment about which will be the most useful (Bloor and Wood,
2006: 134). From the statements above, it can be said that in applying a purposive
sample a researcher selects a sample according to a specific criteria. In this case, the
writer selects the tenth graders as the sample because they are still homogenous in
term of having the same courses while in the second or third year they will major
either at Natural or Social Science Programs. Another reason is that they have an
internet course in the first half of the 2009/2010 academic year. SMA Negeri 2
Sampit has included the course in its School Based Curriculum since the 2006/2007
academic year.
Secondly, the researcher makes use of probability sample because he draws
the sample randomly from the wider population (Cohen, Manion and Morrison,
2000: 99). In line with the explanation above, Sridhar (2008: 24) points out that in
probability sampling each unit of the population is assigned equal probability. In
other words, every element has equal chance of being selected.
There are several types of probability samples: simple random samples;
systematic samples; stratified samples; cluster samples; stage samples, and multi-
phase samples. For the purpose of this research, the writer uses cluster random
sampling, a probability sample in which the elements are all the members of
randomly selected sampling units, each of which is a collection or cluster of elements
104
from the population sampled (Schofield, 2006: 34 – 35). Likewise, Sridhar (2008:
33) asserts that in a cluster sampling a large area of in interest is divided into a
number of smaller non overlapping areas/ clusters. In his research, the writer picks
up two classes (sub groups) from a larger group of six classes (tenth graders) then
uses the two classes (subgroups) as a basis for making judgments about the larger
group. All in all, he selects groups or clusters of subjects rather than individuals. This
sampling strategy is applied because administrative problems will be posed by the
writer if he gathers a simple random sample. Another reason is that it is completely
impractical to select students as individuals.
The method involves selecting at random from a list of the population (a
sampling frame) the required number of subjects for the sample. To do this, the
writer operates MS Excel 2007 through Adds-ins of Data Analysis (Sampling). It
intends to determine classes. The procedures of randomizing sample by Sampling of
Data Analysis in MS Excel 2007 are as follows:
1. Defining the population;
2. Numbering each class from 1 to 6 (referring to XR1, XR2, XR3, XR4, XR5, and
XR6) by typing 1 to 6 in an Excel document;
3. Inputting the range and number of samples, namely 2 samples;
4. Inputting the cells in which the sample out will be displayed;
5. Clicking OK.
The first sample displayed is the experimental group taught by electronic
portfolio learning whereas the second one is taken as the control group taught by
paper based portfolio learning.
1. Questionnaire
uses the Likert scale, one of scaling techniques. In this research, “the most
commonly used scaling technique” (Dornye, 2003: 5) consist of a series of forty
statements all of which are related to the writing interest. The tenth graders of SMA
Negeri 2 Sampit as respondents are asked to indicate the extent to which they agree
or disagree with these items by marking (e. g., circling) one of the responses ranging
from 'strongly agree' to 'strongly disagree.' Each response option is assigned a
number for scoring purposes (e. g., 'strongly agree' = 4, 'strongly disagree' = 1). The
following is an example of the questionnaire’s response item.
The number of response options each scale contains four responses options.
The researcher prefers using an even number of response options because of the
concern that certain respondents might use the middle category ('neither agree nor
disagree, ' 'not sure, ' or 'neutral') to avoid making a real choice, that is, to take the
easy way out.
To provide a total score that reflects writing interest, the scoring of negative
items is reversed. A student having high writing interest agrees with positive items
and disagrees with negative ones. A student having low writing interest, on the
contrary, disagrees with positive items and agrees with negative ones (Tuckman,
1978: 179 – 181).
Table 3.3 - Scores of Writing Interest Questionnaire
In fact, validity and reliability are two key concepts in measurement theory,
referring to the psychometric properties of the measurement techniques and the data
107
obtained by them. Therefore, the items of the questionnaire are tried out to know the
validity and the reliability. The try out of questionnaire is performed before treatment
and it is carried out to the other classes (XR2, XR3, XR5, and XR6 = 4 classes),
which are not the experimental group and the control one. For this reason, the next
two sub section is concerned with the two significant concepts.
a. Validity
b. Reliability
Prior to the explanations above, Nunan (1992: 231) defines the reliability as
(a) the extent to which an independent researcher, on analyzing one’s data, would
reach the same conclusion, (b) a replication of one’s study yield similar result. The
reliability, in this context, refers to the accuracy (consistency and stability) of
measurement by a test. From the explanations above, it can be sum up that reliability
refers it refers to the consistency of the test score.
In the research, the writer uses one main form of reliability, namely internal
consistency. It is stated by Muijs (2004: 73) that internal consistency reliability refers
to how homogeneous the items of a test are or how well they measure a single
construct. Considering the practically and efficiency, the way the writer calculates
internal consistency reliability is by Cronbach’s alpha to test internal reliability and
correlate performance on each item with an overall score. It is stated by Duwi
Priyatno (2008: 25) that the alpha method is suitable for scale scores (e.g. 1-4, 1-5)
109
or interval scores (e.g. 0-20, 0-50). The Cronbach’s alpha test of internal reliability
calculates the average of all possible split-half reliability coefficients and a computed
alpha coefficient varies between 1, denoting perfect internal reliability, and 0,
denoting no internal reliabilit y. The formula of the Cronbach’s alpha test of internal
reliability is shown below:
Definitions
If rkk is higher than rt, the items of the instrument under analysis is reliable.
The valid and reliable items are managed to get the data of the experimental
and control class. Afterward, the instruments are administered to 27% of upper group
(group of high writing interest) and 27% of lower group (group of high writing
interest) from both classes. Hence, there are eighteen students from the experimental
class and eighteen students from the control one (27% x 32 students = 9 students of
upper group, 27% x 32 = 9 for lower group) (Sudjana, 1991: 398-400).
2. Test
To get the data of students’ writing competence, the writer uses a test. It is
defined by Boyle and Fisher (2007: 11) that a test is a form of systematic assessment,
with standardized procedures, from which numerical scores are taken. In simple
term, Brown (2003: 3) points out that a test a method of measuring a person's ability,
knowledge, or performance in a given domain. In brief, a test is a systematic
procedure to measure an individual’s competence in a given domain.
Brown (2003: 43) lists five types of language tests. They are language
aptitude test, proficiency test, placement test, diagnostic test, and achievement test.
110
Reviewing the purpose of the research, the writer designs an achievement test. The
primary role of the test in this research is to determine whether the treatment given
gains a significant effect and appropriate competence writing is acquired by the end
of a period of research. In short, the test is designed for purposes of comparison of
two groups taught by portfolio based learning, i.e. electronic portfolio and paper
based portfolio.
Tests are the most effective instrument to reveal one’s proficiency in a certain
subject. In this study, the writer uses an essay test. The test given is in accordance
with Standar Isi Bahasa Inggris SMA, a guideline of English Language Teaching for
senior high schools on the standard of competencies and basic competencies. It is
stated that in term of writing skill in the first half of the academic year the tenth
graders are able to
“Mengungkapkan makna dalam bentuk teks tulis fungsional pendek
(misalnya pengumuman, iklan, undangan dll.) resmi dan tak resmi dengan
menggunakan ragam bahasa tulis secara akurat, lancar dan berterima dalam
konteks kehidupan sehari-hari. Mengungkapkan makna dan langkah-langkah
retorika secara akurat, lancar dan berterima dengan menggunakan ragam
bahasa tulis dalam konteks kehidupan sehari-hari dalam teks berbentuk:
recount, narrative, dan procedure.” (Departemen Pendidikan Nasional, 2006).
Therefore, before and after the treatment the students are asked to perform
their writing competence through free writing. The criteria that underlie rating the
writing test are content, organization, language use or grammar, vocabulary, and
mechanics (Genesse and Upshur, 1996: 207).
The writing test is rated by two raters on a score scale of 0 – 100 according to
the standards (rubric) below. If the two ratings differ by more than 20 point, a third
rater evaluates the response and resolves the score.
As a replacement of validity and reliability issue, in writing test it is known
as “readability”. It is stated by Wolfe (no year: 1972) that the term has also been
used to describe the legibility of writing or the interest value of texts. In this case,
before administering the test, the writer asks for his colleague’s opinion and some
students at same level whether the writing test provided is readable or not.
111
more independent variables is called a factorial design and the results are analyzed
by means of multifactor analysis of variance (Ary, 1985: 169).
In the preceding part of this section, it is maintained that there are four groups
of students and the data to analyze are arranged into 4 groups as shown below.
Table 3.5 - Groups of Data
The scores of students having high writing interest who are taught
Data A
by electronic portfolio learning;
The scores of students having low writing interest who are taught
Data B
by electronic based portfolio learning;
The scores of students having high writing interest who are taught
data C
by paper based portfolio learning;
The scores of students having low writing interest who are taught
D are
by paper based portfolio learning.
Definitions:
A1B1 = the mean score of writing test of students having high writing
interest who are taught using electronic portfolio learning.
A1B2 = the mean score of writing test of students having low writing
interest who are taught using electronic portfolio learning.
113
A2B1 = the mean score of writing test of students having high writing
interest who are taught using paper based portfolio learning.
A2B2 = the mean score of writing test of students having low writing
interest who are taught using paper based portfolio learning.
A1 = the mean score of writing test of experimental class taught by
using electronic portfolio learning.
A2 = the mean score of writing test of experimental class taught by
using electronic portfolio learning.
B1 = the mean score of writing test of students having high writing
interest.
B2 = the mean score of writing test of student having low interest.
8. Between column q =
11. The test statistic is obtained by dividing the difference between the means by
square root of the ratio of the within group variation and the sample size.
TS: q =
12. Tukey test is used to know which teaching model is more effective or better
to teach writing.
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Test Criteria:
H0 is accepted if –F table ≤ F observation ≤ F table
H0 is rejected if –F observation < - F table or F observation > F table.
c. If Fo interaction is higher than Ft(.05), there is the interaction effect between the
two variables, portfolio based learning and writing interest level. H03 is rejected
and it can be concluded that the effect of portfolio based learning on writing
competence depends on the writing interest level of the students.
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