CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

2.1 Theoretical Background

2.1.1 Writing

2.1.1.1 Definition of Writing

Writing is considered as one of the four language skills besides

listening, speaking, and reading. They are many definitions of

writing.

According to Bowker (2007), writing is a skill that is

required in many contexts. Olson (2009) states that writing is more

than considered and organized thought on a paper but also expressed

ideas in clear and correct grammatical. The writer can communicate

his ideas in the form of written text from which the reader would try

to catch the ideas and meaning. Besides, Ontario (2005) states that

writing is a powerful instrument for students to express their

thoughts, feelings, and judgments about what they have read, seen,

or experienced.

Therefore, the writer concludes that writing is not only an

activity to express one’s ideas in written form or a media of

communication, but also writing is one of the difficult skills that the

students should master. There are some factors influencing writing to

be a good one such as content, organization, vocabulary, language

use, and mechanics knowledge.

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Based on the explanation above, the writer summarizes that

writing is a system of communication that expressing ideas or

representing and exploring experience, thoughts or even feelings in

written symbols to understand what is conveyed.

2.1.1.2 Teaching Writing

Teaching different language skills has to use different ways to make

the students understand the material easily. Hillocks (2005) states

that teaching writing focuses almost exclusively and to the point of

obsession on teaching the forms of writing, the arts of paragraphs,

the parts of essays, the structures of sentences, the elements of style,

and so forth.

Harmer (1998) states the teacher not only needs to deploy

some or all of the usual roles when they ask students to write, but

they should have one of these important roles when they are teaching

writing, the roles are a motivator, resource, and feedback provider.

Teachers are expected to act as a) Motivator: teacher should

motivate the students, create the right conditions for the generation

of ideas, persuade them of the usefulness of the activity, and

encourage them to make as much effort as possible for maximum

benefit, b) Resource: teacher should provide information and

language where necessary, offer advice and suggestions

constructively and tactfully, c) Feedback provider: teachers should

respond positively and encouragingly to the students’ work.

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2.1.2 Text

2.1.2.1 The Definition of Text

There are some definitions of text. According to Feez and Joyce

(2002), a text is any of languages which is held together cohesively

through meaning. It means that when we use language to write, we

are creating and constructing a text. When we read, we are

interpreting the text. Moreover, when we talk and listen, we are

also creating and interpreting texts.

Based on the above definitions, it can be said that text is a

stretch of language which have a structure and correct arrangement

of elements. A text can range from just one word to a sequence of

utterances or sentences in a speech, a letter, a novel, etc.

2.1.2.2 Genre of Text

According to Gerot and Wignell (1994:17), there are

several kinds of texts:

1. Report: to describe the way things are related to natural,

man-made, and social phenomena in the environment

2. Recount: to retell events for informing or entertaining

3. News story: to inform the readers about events of the day

which are newsworthy or important

4. Exemplum: to point to some general value in the cultural

context.
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5. Discussion: to present (at least) to point of view about an

issue.

6. Explanation: to explain the process involved in natural or

cultural phenomena

7. Exposition (Analytic): to persuade the readers or listeners

that something is related to the case

8. Exposition (Hortatory): to persuade the readers or listeners

that something should or should not be the case.

9. News Item: to inform the readers about events of the day

which are considered newsworthy.

10. Anecdote: to share with others an account of an unusual or

amusing incident.

11. Narrative: to amuse, entertain, and deal with the actual

vicarious experience in different ways. Narrative deals with

problematic events which lead to a crisis or turning point of

some kind, which in turn finds a resolution.

12. Description: to describe a particular person, place or thing.

13. Procedure: to describe how something is accomplished

through a sequence of actions or steps.

14. Review: to critique an art work, event for a public audience

such works of art include movies, TV shows, books, plays,

operas, recording, exhibitions, concerts, and ballets.

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15. Commentary: to explain the process involved in the

formation of a socio-cultural phenomenon, as though a

natural phenomenon.

2.1.3 Descriptive Text

2.1.3.1 The Definition of Descriptive Text

Gerot and Wignell (1995:208) define that descriptive text is a text

which describes something such as a person, places, or thing. The

purpose of this text is to describe something that looks like. It has

two parts of the generic structure; they are identification and

description. There must be participants and must use present tense,

action verbs, and adjectives.

Based on the above definitions, it can be stated that the

social function of a descriptive text is one type to describe

something or which says what a person or a thing like. In

describing something; someone must be specific to make the

information clearer. For example, to create a particular mood,

atmosphere or description of place so that the reader can create

vivid characters, places, objects, etc.

2.1.3.2 The Social Function of Descriptive Text

Based on Masitoh & Suprijadi (2015) the social function of

descriptive text is to describe a particular person, place or thing.

While, Gerot and Wignell (1994) state that the social function of

descriptive text is to describe a particular person, place, or thing.

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Based on the above explanation the writer concludes that the

social function of descriptive text is to describe a particular person,

place, thing, or animal in a specific way.

2.1.3.3 Generic Structure of Descriptive Text

According to Pardiyono (2007:34), “Descriptive text has a

generic structure as follow:

1) Identification: a part of the paragraph that tells a topic and

characters that would be described.

2) Description: a part of the paragraph that tells the content of

describing the particular persons, places, and things.

2.1.3.4 Language Features of Descriptive Text

Gerot and Wignell (1994:197) state that the language

features of descriptive text are:

1) Focus on specific participants

A specific participant means an individual

participant. The text shifts away from individual people

to generic artifacts and focusing on event or activity.

2) Use of attributive and identifying processes

Attributive and identifying processes are the branch of

the relational process. Relation processes involve states

of being (including having). Attributive processes are

which assign a quality, and processes that establish and

identify are called identifying processes. Each has its

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characteristic participant roles. In attributive, these are

Carrier and Attributive. Carrier is normally mapped into

the complement.

3) Frequents use of the epithet, classifier, and nominal group

An epithet is following the enumerative in the

structure. This indicates some quality of the subset, which

may be either objective or maybe an expression of the

speaker’s attitude. A function of classifiers is to tell us

“what types” or “what kind” of thing.

4) Use of simple present tense

A simple present tense is used to explain the

participant.

2.1.4 Running Dictation Game

2.1.4.1 The Definition of Running Dictation

Running dictation is a kind of dictation. It is different from the old

dictation. According to Hess (2001:73), running dictation is the

technique where the students work in a group to dictate the sentence,

there are the runner and the writer in each group. The students as the

16 runners must run to some places where the discrete sentences

have been prepared by the teacher and back to his/her group to

dictate the sentence to the writer, then the writer must be write down

what they heard. While according to English Language Education

Section (2011:58), running dictation is an activity for pupils who

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enjoy moving around and working in teams. They have to read and

memorize a short text, tell the phrases/sentences to the group

member who will write down the text. On the other hand, dictation is

the activity of writing down what is orally said or read. Running

dictation is one of the greatest activities to encompass all four

language skills; students listen to the words, students speak for

clarification, students write the words, students read to self-check.

And also students will run to get their vocabulary or sentences.

Running in the classroom is the activity that makes the students will

be enthusiastic. Besides, running dictation can be used as a quick

check on student progress. In this research, the writer focuses on

running dictation for writing skills, especially in writing descriptive

text. Based on English Language Education Section (2011:56),

“Running dictation is an activity that can develop writing skills.

Teachers can make running dictation to guide pupils to write

keywords, short phrases, and sentences. In running dictation, pupils

write down sentences and short texts through group work and

games.”

2.1.4.2 The Procedure for Running Dictation

Running dictation can be done in various ways. However, in general,

it can be done by the following steps (Andrew et al,2006) :

1. Divide the student into some groups. Each group decides who will

be the runner and writer alternately.

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2. Prepare some papers that contain several topics, each topic will

have 10-15 related keywords

3. Put the papers on the classroom wall

4. Explain the procedures of the game: runner must run to the text,

read and memorize the keywords. The runner should then dictate

what they remember to the writer.

5. The writer should write the keywords they get and divide them

based on the member of the group.

6. Each group member has to make paragraphs based on the

keywords.

7. The paragraphs they make will be 1 descriptive text.

8. Do correction of their work (content, organization, grammar,

vocabulary, spelling, punctuation, and capitalization)

9. Repeat the same steps for the next topic with a different runner.

Make sure all the group members will get their turn to be a runner.

2.1.4.3 The Advantages of Running Dictation

There are some benefits of Running Dictation that adapted from

Ewing & Huguelet (2009) “It can be very motivating if used

correctly and not very often. Besides, according to Amy (2005) the

advantages of Running Dictation are as follows:

a. Positive interdependence. The students can learn from each

other since they must work together to ensure there is one product to
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their learning. They must check that everyone can understand and

answer the question.

b. It can be a very motivating and fun lesson for the students.

c. Dictation can also be used to promote the skill of inferring

from context.

d. Equal participation. Each student within the group has an

equal opportunity to share. There is a possibility that one student

may try to dominate. The teacher can check this does not happen.

According to Montalvan (1990), there are “at least 20

advantages of dictation, and the most important are: 1) dictation can

help develop all four language skills in an integrated way; 2) it can

help learn grammar; 3) it helps to develop short-term memory; 4)

practice in careful listening to a speaker will be useful to learners in

the future in the note-taking activities, for instance, listening to

lectures; 5) dictation fosters unconscious thinking in the new

language; 6) correction can be done by the students - peer correction

of written dictation leads to oral communication”.

2.1.4.4 The Disadvantages of Running Dictation

Running dictation also has disadvantages, they are:

1. In the learning process, the class can be noisy because the

students run very fast.

2. The teacher can be busy to manage the students.

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2.2 Previous Study

The writer is interested to develop descriptive text material since the

existing material is considered too limited so it cannot support the students

to improve their writing skills especially in writing descriptive text. There

are many similar studies inspire the writer to conduct the same topic, they

are:

1. Karimah, Andi, et al (2018) conduct research entitled “Developing

Authentic-based Instructional Materials for Writing Skill.” They are

from Universitas Negeri Makassar, Sulawesi Selatan, Indonesia. The

overall aim of their research is to develop authentic-based instructional

material for writing skills. Therefore, the research applied Research

and Development design and used ADDIE model which consists of

five stages namely Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation,

and Evaluation. A Questionnaire was given to the third-semester

students in the Education Department of UIN Alauddin Makassar as

the instrument to find out the students’ need analysis. After designing

the product, the material was validated by two experts and then

implemented to the students. The implementation process of the

authentic-based instructional materials was done twice in a small

number of students consisted 10 students as the first tryout and in a

large number of students consisted of 30 students as the second tryout.

Then, the evaluation of the materials was given by the experts, the

lecturers, and the students. Data were analyzed using percentages and
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charts. Besides, the analysis of the data shows that most students,

lecturers, and experts gave positive responses to the developed

materials. The material was revised three times by considering the

comments and suggestions by the experts, lecturers, and the students.

The model of the developed materials consisted of some aspects

namely goal, topic, activities, approach, media, genres, content, and

testing strategy. Moreover, the learning process consisted of four parts

namely discussion, pre-writing, writing, and post-writing.

It is almost the same as the writer’s. While the difference is the

writer is going to develop descriptive text material by using the

Running Dictation Game.

2. Riyanti, Eka Windi (2017) also conduct research entitled “The Use of

Running Dictation Game and Rapid Writing Strategies to Improve the

Students’ Writing Skill of the Eighth Grade Students of MTS N

Susukan in the Academic Year of 2017/2018.” This research was

aimed to improve students writing skills using Running Dictation

Game and Rapid Writing strategy at the Second Grade Students of

MTs N Susukan in the Academic Year of 2017//2018. The purposes of

the research are: (1) to find out the implementation of students’ writing

skills using Running Dictation Game and Rapid Writing Strategies. (2)

to find out the significant influence of students writing skills using

Running Dictation Game and Rapid Writing Strategy. The

methodology of research is classroom action research by giving two

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pre-test, two treatments and two post-test. The writer implements two

cycles; each cycle consists of two meetings. The meetings consist of

planning, action, observation, and reflection. The results of this

research in every cycle show that the score of students writing skills

are improved. The students writing skills are improved by using

Running dictation Game and Rapid Writing Strategy in the teaching-

learning process.

It has similarities with the writer’s that is the use of Running

Dictation Game to improve writing skills while the difference is

related to the research design. The writer uses Research and

Development while Riyanti, Eka Windi (2017) uses Classroom Action

Research.

2.3 Conceptual Framework

English has an important role for students in this modern era. It can

be used to communicate with others all over the world since English plays

the role as one of the international languages or we usually call it Lingua

Franca. One of the English skills that should be mastered well is writing

skills. It can be a major criterion for a better academic position and greater

educational success. Writing skills are important for communicating

knowledge, especially in educational settings. Besides, the ability to write

well can have a good impact on the learners’ lives especially for senior

high school students who will pursue higher education or looking for a job

where English skills will be a must for most companies.

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Unfortunately, most students find independent writing difficult.

Somehow, they do not know how to start writing the topic that they should

choose. Besides, they also lack vocabulary so they cannot develop their

paragraphs. It is proven by the tenth graders of MA AL-Iman Kota

Magelang whose writing ability is less than the standard minimum score

which is 75, especially in writing descriptive text. They only get 67.25.

Aragón (2013) concludes that students generally come to write English

composition without any idea about organizing their ideas, even in their

mother tongue.

In writing a text, the students have to understand the social function,

generic structure, and linguistic features. They have been written in the

textbook and explained by the teacher. However, they still get difficulties

to produce a good written text. It can be considered that the problem

comes from the limited material and activity so the students cannot explore

their creativity in writing.

The writer has taken the data from the textbook of the tenth graders

senior high school entitled Bahasa Inggris which is released by The

Ministry of Education and Culture in 2016. The writer focuses on chapter

5 “Let’s Visit Niagara Falls.” It has provided the social function, generic

structure, and language feature.

In the textbook, there are two examples of descriptive text and the

analysis of the structure. However, the exercise is only for reading skills.

The students are asked to answer the questions based on the text.
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Therefore, the students will only know the vocabulary that is used in those

two texts and understand Tanjung Putting National Park and Taj Mahal.

The writer considers that the material is too limited in order to

improve students’ writing skills. Therefore, the writer will conduct

Research and Development study related to this problem. The descriptive

text material will be developed here by using the Running Dictation Game.

There will be various text and vocabulary which is used. Besides, the use

of Running Dictation Game is hoped can help the students in learning

writing since they will learn with fun and all students will be involved

there.

The developed material is hoped that it can help the students

improve their writing skills. Besides, it also can help the teacher has

various materials so it won’t be limited to the provided textbook only.