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TEACHING WRITING SKILLS THROUGH
TELECOLLABORATION
By Safiatur Rokhmah, M. Pd.
Abstract
Writing is neither a simple nor a joyful activity. Most of the students find that
writing is difficult and confuse to do. To make the students interested and love to write,
this study use telecollaboration through social media especially Facebook and whatsapp
to motivate students to write.
This study investigated how writing through collaboration can develop students’
writing skills, to investigate how students telecollaborate and respond to writing through
social media, facebook and whatsapp group. The researcher focused on observing,
identifying potential problems, modifying teaching practices, evaluating the results,
reflecting and analysing the teaching writing skills through telecollaboration. The
participants of the research were the students of MA Al Jauharotun Naqiyyah Cibeber
grade XII with the total number of 15 students. The students were selected based on the
pre-observation writing result which was conducted at the beginning of new term. The
selected participants were being taught writing through telecollaboration then observed
their progress in learning English especially writing.
The results of the study found that the use of ICT and digital media such as
Facebook and whatsapp application help students telecollaborate in making learning
outside school hours because the students could communicate using social media. ICT
applications used in learning English could help students to increase vocabulary and
improve English. It also motivate students to use English to chat, give comments and
make status on social media. Tellecollaboration activity is beneficial for students under
certain condition such as good internet connection, computer facilities at school and good
knowledge of ICT for the teacher.
Introduction
Based on the national curriculum, the English language teaching in Senior High
School in Indonesia is given to the students in order to get communication in reading,
listening, speaking and writing. English is used as a tool of communication to improve
the knowledge, science technology, information and art. So, it is hoped that students can
improve the knowledge and use the language as a communication.
From the above four skills, writing is the skill which students mostly do not get
impressed and interested in. Likewise, most of the students’ writing focus is on grammar,
spelling and structure, but not on meaning, significance and pleasure. Writing ‘correct’
sentences make students forget what they are writing about. Otherwise the students
become less motivated and not interested in writing activities because the students find
the activities are difficult to do.
Moreover, it is very important for students who learn second language to be able
to write effectively for education, business and personal reasons. And the main goal for
most students in learning to write is to be able to participate in many aspects of society
beyond school such as writing a blog, an email, a journal, a narrative report or a letter for
job application.
Looking at many aspects of society beyond school to the real world, writing
activity in class needs an activity which is more ‘natural’ and ‘authentic’. Activities
which encourage and motivate the students to write since it relates to the real world.
As the English teacher of grade XII of MA Aljauharotun Naqiyyah, researcher
found that there are many problems that students face in learning English at school. MA
Al jauharotun naqiyyah is an Islamic Senior High School which is based on Islamic
traditional education background ( pesantren ). Concerning about the students’ problems
and since most of the students in MA Al jauharotun Naqiyyah are reluctant to write in
English, the researcher assigned students to write a narrative essay to figure out the
particular problems in the class. As a result, the researcher finds most of the students can
express better idea through writing but poor in vocabulary, sentences and paragragraph
construction. Therefore, the researcher is trying to give motivation to students by
creating an activity which motivate students to learn English especially in writing.
Students feel unmotivated and hesitated to write a long paragraph or essay, especially if
students’ writing sheets are given feedback with many remarks. It can be seen from the
average score of students’ achievements at the end of semester is only 55.60. This score
is very poor and less than the minimum criteria of standard score ( KKM ). The
minimum criteria of standard score ( KKM ) of the students of grade XII of MA Al
jauharotun Naqiyyah at academic year 2015/ 2016 is 7.50. Based on the data, the
researcher summarizes that there are problems on the students’s achievements.
Some research revealed that one of the activities which motivates students to
write is through telecollaboration. The reason why researcher choose writing skill
through telecollaboration because for some students, especially students of MA Al
jauharotun Naqiyyah, need some time to think to understand the lesson being discussed,
to learn and produce language slower than others. And writing is suitable to students for
such learners. The main reasons of why the researcher chooses telecollaboration are
because based on some previous research, telecollaboration can increase students
motivation and be meaningful to students’ future real life. In addition, writing needs a
careful thought, mental and process activity which students have to go through in order
to produce written texts as part of the continuing learning experience. Above all, in
producing a text, students need to know how to write letters, write using electronic
media, write some of writing’s special agreement as students need to know how to
pronounce spoken English properly.
Based on the information above, the researcher is trying to choose common
writing daily activities which are useful and interesting to do by students. Information
and Communication Technology (ICT) reported by many researchers have the
advantages to motivate students to write, such as attracting students’ attention,
facilitating students’ language learning process, increasing students’ vocabulary and
facilitating meaningful learning.1 The research reported2 that ICT gives motivation and
positive impacts on students’ work and attitudes in class. Because the students’ writings
are edited more neatly and profesionally by the teacher. In short, the behaviour is better
when ICT is used. ICT promotes the quality of students’ work.
In short, from the above discussion, the researcher concludes that using
telecollaboration can increase students’ motivation to write and come up with new ideas.
And this research investigated, how teaching writing through telecollaboration in
Islamic Senior High School in Cilegon can motivate the students and improve student’s
writing skills. Although there are many research projects overseas, (Yunus et al: 2013,
Grönlund: 2013, Ling and Goh: 2004, Ozuruoke, et. al, and Alonso: 2012 ),
investigating about teaching writing through telecollaboration, researcher could hardly
find this kind of research in Indonesia especially in English Education. Researcher would
1Melor Md Yunus1, Norazah Nordin1, Hadi Salehi1, 2, Mohamed Amin Embi1 & Zeinab Salehi2,
2013, The Use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Teaching ESL Writing Skills, English
Language Teaching; Vol. 6, No. 7, p. 1 2 Don Passey, Colin Rogers, Joan Machell, Gilly McHugh and Dave Allaway, 2003, The Motivational
Effect of ICT on Pupils, Department of Educational Research Lancaster University. P.1
like to prove that writing through telecollaboration can motivate students, and the use of
the internet enable students to do something that students could not do before. Therefore,
researcher is interested in investigating on how telecollaboration can motivate and
promote students’ learning through writing.
This research is expected to give more insight on telecollaboration as an activity
which is not only a meaningful activity but also applicable in teaching writing for
English second language classroom. This research findings also hopefully will be
beneficial to support the previous theory in teaching writing through telecollaboration,
will be useful for the teacher to enrich the strategy in teaching writing through
telecollaboration, will also be beneficial to increase the student’s motivation and
awareness in writing through telecollaboration. In addition, the reseach findings will be
beneficial for other teachers to implement teaching writing through telecollaboration as a
more effective teaching and learning activity.
A. Review of the previous studies
There are several studies that have been conducted in relation to the topic under
discussion on teaching writing through telecollaboration; (Yunus et al: 2013, Grönlund:
2013, Ling and Goh: 2004, Ozuruoke, et. al, and Alonso: 2012 )
Firstly, the study related to the teaching writing through ICT conducted by Yunus
et. al., in the Faculty of Education, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), 43600
Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia, and Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Najafabad
Branch, Islamic Azad University, Najafabad, Isfahan, Iran.
In the study, The Ministry of Education in Malaysia developed three major plans
for using ICT in education (Ministry of Education Malaysia, 2003). The first plan
emphasized that ICT should be for all students. This meant that ICT was used to close
the existing digital gap between the schools. The second plan referred to the function of
ICT in education as a teaching and learning tool. This plan also emphasized on the use of
ICT as an educational tool for accomplishing communication information. The third
plan stressed on the ICT utility to increase productivity, effectiveness and efficiency of
the management system. In this plan, ICT could be greatly utilized to equip and update
work processes such as financial management, lesson planning and management of
information systems. The main goal of this study was to investigate the perceptions of
Malaysian secondary school English teachers about the use of ICT in teaching English as
a Second Language (ESL) writing skill.
From the study, it was found that the use of ICT in the teaching of ESL writing
was very low. The study reported that the use of ICT was attracting students’ attention,
facilitating students’ learning process, helping to improve students’ vocabulary and
promoting meaningful learning. However, some disadvantages were also found in the
study such as the difficulty of the teacher in controlling class, the students’ tendency of
distraction to use short forms in students’ writing, and the teachers’ lack in managing
problems and planning activities while involving the use of ICT in the teaching of ESL
writing.
From the above description, the researcher summarizes that the minimum use of
ICT because of some problems. First is the teachers’ weaknesses in planning the
activities. Second, the teacher’s lack of knowledge in managing problems related with
ICT causes the class difficult to be controlled although the students are interested in
using the ICT.
Secondly, the study investigated by Grönlund 3 who emphasized on the use of
ICT in literacy development in Primary School. This study was about to promote better
methods for learning to read and write in early years.
The study shown that the social process also improved students’ motivation and
understanding of how other people received their text. In the study, students had not just
been assigned a task which the teacher would be checked and corrected later but all the
text had been used to communicate with peers. The study applied the class website in
which texts could be accesed, commented upon writing, revised and improved. And this
was made writing more practical. In addition, this activity gave students opportunity to
read their peer’s comments as feedback so that students could gain self-confidence.
In line with the second study, the researcher finds that the study is suitable with
the research that the researcher is going to be conducted. This study engages the students
with social process to give feedback in the web that can be accessed by all students. It
means that the students telecollaborate their writing to each other through ICT so that
their text is revised and improved.
Another study was carried by Ling and Goh 4 from Educational Technology
Division Ministry of Education, Singapore. The Educational Technology Division of
Ministry of education Singapore did a research on “Telecollaboration in the Singapore
Language Classroom: Its Effect on Pupils’ Writing”. The study was conducted under the
Masterplan for IT in Education, an initiative launched by the Singapore Ministry of
Education, the Educational Technology Division’s (ETD) English Cluster which had
been working with teachers to explore new ways to involve students in language
learning and promote students to be fluent speakers and competent writers of English.
The objective of the study was to examine the impact of telecollaboration on students’
language learning. In the study, the researcher focused on how telecollaboration,
specifically sequential creation, could gives influence on students’ writing.
In the study, the researcher gathered the data through a survey and students’
writing. Extra additional data was collected from teachers’ and students’ reflection
journals and interviews. After gathering the data, the first step in the project study was
meeting to determine the roles of each participant in the team of the project. In this study,
the roles of the ETD officer conducted training workshops on telecollaborative activities
and observation, source for the email platform, handhold teachers in the activity design
and project implementation and facilitated the process. Meanwhile, the teachers would
design the telecollaborative activities after examining their classroom practices,
implementing the telecollaborative activities and documenting their learning experiences
using the research process. Both parties shared the role of defining the research questions,
designing the instruments to collect data, and analysing the data.
The researchers in the study designed two telecollaborative activities using the
activity structure, Sequential Creation. For each activity, students worked together to
create a piece of writing. The first person in each group would write at least a paragraph
introducing the story and then sent the story to the next person. Each successive person
would be responsible for correcting any mistakes in the text and adding at least one more
paragraph before sending the text. Each person in the group would try to come up with
creative ideas based on the preceding paragraphs.
3Annika Agélii Genlottand Åke Grönlund,2013, the ICT-based Write to Read method: learning to read
by writing. in 'Computers & Eductaion', Published in Computers & Education, Volume 67, September 2013,
Pages 98-104
4 Ban Pei Ling and Belinda Goh, 2004, Telecollaboration in the Singapore Language Classroom: Its
Effect on Pupils’ Writing, Educational Technology Division Ministry of Education, Singapore, P. 1
In the study, students wrote their reflections on journals after each
telecollaborative activity. Meanwhile, the teacher participants and ETD researchers
reflected throughout the whole project, beginning with the identification of problem to
the report writing. Learning points from the project and the impact of the whole
processes on the teachers’ classroom practice, belief system and teaching methodology
were also recorded.
The findings of the research shown that there were benefits of students using
telecollaboration in their writing , these benefits divided into into 3 main themes:5 (1)
Idea Exchange /Discussion, (2) Motivation, (3) Different Perspectives: Learning from
others.
It can be seen in the findings that telecollaboration not only can increase ideas but
also the kinds and quality of the ideas. The students’ reflection on the journal revealed
that telecollaborative activity with students from another class during the writing process
helped the students develop more creative ideas.
In addition, the students also saw telecollaboration as a mean of improving their
work. The students felt peer-editing, as the other students reviewed their paragraphs,
improved the quality of their writing. Telecollaboration connected the classroom to the
real world in a new and exciting way. The students felt that they not only had the
opportunity to have a real audience but at the same time, learning and writing became an
interesting experience. This fun interaction was important as a base foundation for the
co-operative processes of negotiation that occurred during collaboration. Groups that
communicated well with one another tended to perform better. It can be proved in the
study that one of students liked the chatting part where the students worked as a team
even though faced some problems.
In the study, it was also found that working telecollaboratively offered the
students an opportunity to learn from others. Students were also quick to recognize the
value of alternative view and evaluated ideas against of each other. It was admitted by
one of the students who wrote that other students’ ideas were better than his. As group
members contributed to the interaction, students were able to get assisstance on the
weaknesses and provided help to the strength parts. It was admitted by one of the
students who wrote whenever the student was in doubt, the other students helped to think
up some ideas.
From the above discussion, the researcher summarizes that there are benefits for
students in using telecollaboration in writing such as developing more creative ideas,
improving the quality of students’ writing, and having opportunity to have real
communication / audience and interesting learning and writing experience.
Next study was conducted by Ozuruoke, et. al6. The study emphasized the idea
of the educational objective accomplishment with certain skill such as ‘Technical and
Scientific writing for all students in Colleges of Education.’ The study was about
technical and scientific writing as a compulsory course to all students of teachers
training programmes especially in Colleges of education in Nigeria. Generally, it was
important to see an essential component for a successful ICT skill application across
societal technological acquisition. Based on the study, it could be suggested that
Keyboarding for ICT was a tool for improving education and training of students,
5 Ibid, P. 12 6 Ozuruoke, A.A et. al. Fitting ICT and Technical Writing Skill into Teachers’ Production Program for
Quality Achievement of the Millenium Goal. School of Bussiness Education. Federal College of Education
( Technical ) Omoku, River State. Nigeria. Department of Vocational Education. University of Uyo. Uyo. Akwa
Ibom State. Nigeria. www.hrmars.com/admin/pics/281.pdf. P. 726
teachers and others as well as a tool that teachers could use to improve teachers
development and job at hand.7
The study mentioned that technical writing was also providing the technical
knowledge and vocational skills necessary for individuals improvement. In addition,
technical and scientific writing also gave training and quality on the necessary skills to
self reliant individual economically. So, the technical writing consisted of highly
maintained of ideas, audience intelligence levels of expression and explanation of new
concepts used which had the quality of clarity, logically, accuracy and brevity. 8
To sum up the fourth study, the researcher sees technical and scientific writing
skill in ICT as a compulsory task for any professional teacher in individual development.
ICT keyboarding also can be seen as skills which students must prepare in order to face
the future career requirements.
The final study was done by Alonso 9 who highlighted “ Promoting Basic
Competences in EFL Instruction by Means of E-mail Tandem”. This study focused on
the way communication in the mother tongue, communication in a foreign language,
intercultural, learning to learn, and digital competences which were integrated in the
English curriculum within a Diversificación Curricular Programme.A Diversificación
Curricular Programme is a project programm for 3rd and 4th Grade of Secondary
Education based on e-mail-tandem and adjusted to the context of Principado de Asturias,
an area located in the north of Spain..The study objectives were making students with
different kind of mother tongues collaborated using different tasks by promoting basic
competences in EFL and E-mail tandem.
By promoting basic competences in EFL and E-mail tandem and also
implementing different kind of tasks, the study expected the students could improved
linguistics competence in the foreign language, get to know each partner better, and
benefit from partner’s knowledge and experience. The study elaborated that key
competence communication in a foreign language was a communication competence
which was based on the ability to understand, express and interpret thoughts, feelings
and facts in written form in the contexts of education and leisure. Meanwhile, E-mail
tandem was an activity which was based on two main principles of reciprocity and
autonomy. Reciprocity referred to each partner brought certain skills and abilities as each
partner tried to get. And this meant that both partners supported each other in learning so
that both could be benefitted from cooperating together .
The study mentioned that partner’s model implemented learning method from a
partner’s clarification, explanation and information including dialog. Partner’s model
also learnt forms of utterances, behaviour and feedback from each partner. So, this type
of leraning required self-reflection and mutual collaboration between tandem partners
which were related to the principle of autonomous learning. This meant that both
partners had responsibility for their own learning. And the study pointed out that both
partners who decided what to learn, how, when and what sort of help needed from each.
The findings of the study proved that the e-mail tandem was a useful method to
promote the development of the digital competence, develop and acquire key
competences, and promote communication in the mother and foreign language. And
7 Ibid., P. 730 8 Ibid., P. 722 9 Andres Canga Alonso. 2012. Promoting Basic Competences in EFL Instruction by Means of E-mail
Tandem. Journal of Language Teaching and Research. Vol. 3, No. 2, P. 232-238.
despite of all learning difficulties, most of the students involved in the study were able to
learn digital competences in the EFL classroom.
However, the implementation of this approach to language learning with this
group of students did not seem to imply that intercultural competence could be acquired.
Therefore, further research should be carried out with a larger group of students with and
without learning difficulties with a double-fold objective: to test if the development of
intercultural competence had to do with learning abilities, and to determine if students
performance was similar on the rest of the key competences analysed in the study or
whether students without learning difficulties outperform belong to Diversificación
Curricular. 10
Based on the study discussed above, the researcher considers that
telecollaborative technique can be used to motivate students to learn English. Through
ICT – emails tandem, students are connected to the real world so that the students can
share and develop their ideas, communicate to each other through peer-feedback to
improve their work, and get opportunity to learn from others. Hence, telecollaborative
activity let students become autonomous learner.
Related with the discussion of the previous studies, the researcher iinterested in
carrying out a project to explore how the use of an activity structure together with
communication technology could impact language learning. And this study investigated
how telecollaborative activities through email can be used to motivate and promote
students’ learning through writing for English second language learner in Indonesia,
especially for the students of Senior Islamic high School of Al jauharotun Naqiyyah
Cibeber. How the use of telecollaborative activities through email help student develop
writing?. What are the problems of teaching writing skills through telecollaboration?.
And what are the benefits of students using telecollaboration through email in their
writing (E.g., motivate my students to write more?)
Discussion
1. Writing skill
According to Power and Hubbard 11 writing is used by people as a tool for
communicating among themselves and others at certain places and times, and for this
occasion whether a permanent or semipermanent, record is required. In the former of
language teaching, writing is used primarily to support and reinforce patterns of oral
language use, grammar and vocabulary. It also has a function as practice tools to help
students practise and work with the language they have been studying.12
However, as the role of writing raised in the second language teaching, there is a
great demand for valid and reliable ways to test writing ability both for classroom use
and academic purpose.13 The ability to write effectively is becoming expand in our
global community. And as the growth of transportation and technology extended, allow
people to communicate across country and cultures throughout the world to get in touch
to each other. Although most People in different countries or cities communicate with
each other by telephone, there are certain types of communication that would be suitable
in written form, such as postcard greetings or family invitation and so on. And today,
communication through writing is broadly used. The advancement of technology and
globalization especially internet use, have made written communication accross
languages and cultures is important in business transaction, pursue academic degree or
10 Ibid., P. 237 11 Brenda Miller Power and Ruth Hubbard. 1991. Literacy in Proces. New Hampshire. Heinamann
Educational Books. P. 68 12 Jeremy Harmer. 2013. How to Teach English. Essex. Pearson Education Limited. p. 112 13 Sara Cushing Weigle. 2002. Assessing Writing. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. p. 1
education, and social- networking interaction, and many other fields 14 . Newspaper,
websites, emails, text messages and social media exchange information without voice,
expression or body language. It means that writing as speaking considers feelings,
thought and ideas as written communication.
Writing according to Richards and Renandya15 are highly complicated skills. L2
writer have to give special care to higher level skills of spelling, punctuation, word
choice and so on. The difficulty becomes more obvious if the learners are lack of
language proficency.
Another supporting evidence also explain by Nunan that in terms of skills,
producing a coherent, fluent, extended piece of writing is probably the most difficult
thing there is to do in language. It is something most native speakers never master. For
second language learners the challenges are very large, especially for students who study
in a university in which English is not language at their own.16
In addition, White 17 claims that writing requires thought, discipline, and
concentration.It also involves commitment to a relative permanent form and recorded by
which written texts are judged by the readers.
However, Silvia18 and Langan19 confirm that writing is a skill which is not an
innante gift or a special talent. Writing is like any skill which must be developed through
a systematic instruction and practice. Writing can be learned trough strong determination
and extensive practices to improve writing skills20. Likewise, White 21supports the idea
that writing is not a natural activity. Normal people have to be taught how to write as
learn to speak a language all physically and mentally. Langan 22also adds that writing is
not an automatic process. Similarly with the above theories, the spalding method23 argues
that to become competent writers of English language, children need a series of clear,
detailed, and progress teaching of structure of language (grammar) and daily
opportunities to practice what they learned by writing sentences and composition. In
conclusion, competent writing comes from ordinary hard work and firmness of purpose.
Writing skills can be mastered through a process of continuous learning, as the more one
practice, the better one will write.
Based on the theories above, it can be summarized that writing is a medium of
communication accross country and cultures for business, education and social
networking interaction. Although it is not easy to express something clearly and
accurately in written communication especially in L2 because of the difficulty to find
appropriate language of different language and culture. Writing is an important skill
which can be acquired by students who have strong determination to learn and practice to
write in a systematic instuction through the implication of teaching writing for L2
14 Sara Cushing Weigle. 2014. Considerations for Teaching Second Language writing. Teaching
English as a Second or Foreign Language. Boston. National Geographic Learning. P. 223 15 Jack C. Richards And Willy A. Renandya Loc.Cit., 16David Nunan, 1999, Second Language Teaching & Learning, USA, Heinle Cengange Learning ., P.
271 17Ronald, V. White,1987, Approaches to Writing, Methodology in TESOL: A book of Readings,Boston,
Heinle Cengange Learning, P. 260 18Paul J. Silvia, PhD, 2008, How to Write a Lot: A practical Guide to Productive Academic
Writing,,Washington D.C., APA Life Tools, P.5-6 19 John Langan, 2001, College Writing Skills with Readings, New York, McGraw-Hill Companies, p.
12-13 20 Ibid., P.13 21Ronald, V. White,. Ibid 22 John Langan ., Op.Cit., P.14 23Romalda Bishop Spalding, 2003, The Writing Road to Reading: The Spalding Method for Teaching
Speech, Spelling, Writing and Reading,New York,Harper Collins Publisher, P. 73
students that students need more practice in writing, more opportunity to explore and
develop writing strategies, get more exposure to different types of writing, more practice
in vocabulary and grammar, and also get more feedback from the teacher.
2. The nature of writing process
There are two major terms of the nature of writing process which is discussed by
Nunan ( 1999 ) and Harmer ( 2007 ).
According to Nunan24, there are two aspects of writing pedagogy in the teaching
of writing: the first is product –oriented approaches which focuses on the final product,
the coherent, error-free text. And the second is process approaches which focuses on the
steps involved in drafting and redrafting a piece of work. Product Oriented approaches
emphasize writing on tasks in which learner imitates, copies, and transform models
provided by teacher or textbook. The focus was also very much on the sentence level
grammar, the belief being that sentences were the building blocks of discourse, and the
discourse was created by fitting one building blocks on to the next. Such an approach
was consistent with sentence-level structuralist linguistics and bottom- up processing.
In contrast to process approaches which proponents of process writing recognize
and accept the reality that there will never be the perfect text, but that one can get closer
to perfection through producing, reflecting on, discussing, and reworking successive
draft of a text. The focus of such approaches is on quantity rather than quality, and
writers are encouraged to get their ideas onto paper without worrying too much about
formal correctnes in the initial stages. Then they share their work with others, getting
feedback on their ideas and how they are expressed, before revising.25
Another term also suggest by Harmer 26 that there are two types of writing; the
first is writing- for- learning and writing- for- writing. Writing for learning is writing
used as practice tool to help students practice and work with language they have been
studying.Writing activities are designed to give reinforcement to students and the
language itself is the main focus of attention. On the other hands, Writing –for- writing
is directed at developing the students’ skills as writers. The main purpose for activities
of this type is that students should become better at writing, whatever kind of writing
that might be. There are good ‘real-life’ reasons for getting students to write such things
as emails, letters and reports.this type of activities give attention to the whole text, not
only just appropriate language use, but also construction, layout, style and effectiveness.
Furthermore, Nunan 27believes that in the process approach a major impetus to
writing pedagogy has come in recent years with the rapid growth of word processors, as
well as the use of the internet as a means of communication 28 . Writing also need
structure, models to practice and need to improve mechanical skills and time to think of
ideas, to revise them, and to write to real purpose and audiences29. This relates with the
authenticity in writing which is not only what kinds of texts learners are exposed to as
models of writing but also types of the texts that learners are required to produce. One
reason for using authentic material according to Day30 that authentic texts are considered
24 David Nunan, Op. Cit., P. 272 25 Ibid 26 Jeremy harmer. Loc. Cit., 27David Nunan Loc.cit. 28Ibid 29David Nunan. Op.cit., p. 273 30 Richard R. Day, 2003, Authenticity in the Design and Development of Materials, Methodology and
materials Design in Language Teaching: Current Perceptions and Practices and their Implications, SEAMEO
regional language Centre, P. 2-3
interesting, engaging, culturally enlighting, relevant, motivating and above all is
genuine discourse.
Harmer31 also argues that most students think that they cannot and do not want
to write because of lack of confidence, boring and have ‘nothing to say’. However,
Harmer elaborates that teachers need to involve the students with activities which are
easy and enjoyable to take part in, so that writing activities not only become a normal
part of classroom life but also present opportunities for students to accomplish almost
instant success. It is when students have acquired this writing habit that they are able to
look at written types and involve themselves in the writing process with enthusiasm.32
Furthermore, Tinse33 adds that process writing helps native English Speaking children
as well as EFL or ESL young learners develop English language writing skills.
In relation with the theories above, the researcher thinks about a systematic
approach that can be applied in the study. How to create an activity for writing which
has a combination of the product oriented and the process approach. An authentic
writing activity which can be used as a tool of practice to give reinforment and focus on
the sentence level or discourse too. Likewise, a writing activity which can develop
students skill as writers through a process of producing, drafting, sharing and revising
ideas. And one of the real life activity is that one has reason and purpose to write such
as writing such as emails, texts and so on.
3. Types of Writing
White34 explains that text types can be classified into two main groups; personal
and institusional. White35 also illustrates personal text types such as notes, telegrams,
postcards, personal message, diaries and letters. Likewise, institutional text types
includes advertisements, instructions, public notices, business letters, catalogues, forms,
abstracts and summaries, report, and essays. As a result, the teaching writing will
involve students to get familiar with the convention of those texts types which are
appropriate to their needs.
In addition, Langan36 says that an excellent way to learn how to write clearly
and logically is to practice the traditional college essay. Essay is a paper of about five
hundred words that typically consists of an introductory paragraph, two to four
supporting paragraph and a concluding paragraph.37 Moreover, Langan 38confirms that
writing traditional essay have three advantages; help someone become a better writer;
the discipline of writing essay will strengthen skills as a reader and listener; and essay
writing will make someone a stronger thinker since it requires mental discipline and
close attention to a set of logical rules.
4. The Goals of Writing As discussed above that a piece of writing has the goal of interaction to a
meaningful communication. A person can communicate a variety of messages to
audience reader via writing. And within a discourse-based approach to language
teaching, view writing as an act of communication which takes place between the
31 Ibid 32 Ibid 33 Caroline T. Linse, 2006, Practical English Language Teaching : Young Learners Series Editor :
David Nunan, Mc Graw Hill ESL/ELT. New York, p. 101 34Ronald, V. White., Ibid., p. 261 35 Ibid. 36 John Langan ., Op.Cit., P.6 37 Ibid. 38 Ibid., P. 12
writer and reader via text interaction process39. According to Nunan40 to produce
coherent discourse, writers must exploit what they already know about the subject at
hand and integrate it with information from other sources; they must draw on
knowledge of the way that grammar and discourse function together; they are required
to use cohesion appropriately they must; sort out form / function; and they have to
decide on the topic to form the point of departure of each succeeding sentence in the
text. Nunan 41also says that sentences which make up a text need to be grammatical,
but grammatical sentences alone will not ensure that the text itself makes sense
otherwise the sentences have relation to one another. Again Harmer42 confirms that in
order for communication to be successful we have to structure our discourse in such a
way that it will be understood by our listeners or readers. Therefore, writing in
particular has to be both coherent and cohesive. Coherent writing makes sense
because you can follow the sequence of ideas and points. Cohesion is a more technical
matter since it is here that we concentrate on the various linguistics ways of
connecting ideas accros phrases and sentences.43
In conclusion Nunan44 elaborates that user’s knowledge of language and also
of content are needed for the interpretation of discourse. Most of all, discourse
comprehension not only requires more than a knowledge of the words and
grammatical structures used by the writer or speaker, but also the reader and listener
to relate the content of the text to their knowledge of the world, that is, to entities,
states of affairs, and so on that exist in the world outside the text. Thus interaction
between the world within the text and the world outside the text is exploited by
writers in many different ways; such as humorist and satirist often create fictional
world that parallel the real world, and they get their humorous or satirical effect by
put things side by side the real and imaginary worlds.
5. Writing Scoring
In relation with the discussion in chapter one that the goal of learning to write is
to be able to participate fully in many aspects of society beyond school such as to
pursue careers that involve extensive writing. It is also a fact that writing is an
important part of the curriculum in schools from the earliest grades onward and that
most students have a formal education system will learn to write, at least at a basic
level.45
And one reason why writing have the qualification to get a place in the language
curriculum because students’ ability to write may be associated with evidence of
having learned the language. Writing can be used as a testing device not only to score
the students, but also to provide a feedback on what the students have learned. It
provides useful evidence of successes and failures in learning, of confusions and errors,
and the teacher can diagnose individual as well as general problems on the basis of
some aspects of writing work.46
Weigle47 offers five aspects of writing which was created by Jacobs et al. that
best known and widely used as analytic scales in ESL; content, organization,
39 Elite Olshtain. 2014. Practical Tasks for Mastering The Mechanics of Writing and Going Just
Beyond. Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language. Boston. National Geograhic Learning. P. 208-209 40David Nunan.,Op.Cit., P. 290 41 Ibid, P.115 42Jeremy Harmer, Op.Cit., P. 246 43 Ibid. 44David Nunan, Op.Cit., P.131-132 45Sara Cushing Weigle., Op.Cit., p.4-5 46 Ronald, V. White., Op.Cit., p. 259 47Sara Cushing Weigle., Op.Cit., p .115 - 116
vocabulary, language use and mechanics. The five aspects illustrates by jacobs et al
(1981) as in Table 2.
Table 2.1. ESL Composition Profile
Student: ______________ Date: _____________ Topic : _____________
Score
Level
Criteria
Comments
Content 30 – 37 EXCELLENT
TO VERY
GOOD
Knowledgeable
Substantive
Thorough development of
thesis
Relevant to assigned topic
26 – 22 GOOD TO
AVERAGE Some knowledge of subjects
Adequate range
Limited development of
thesis
Mostly relevant to topic, but
lack detail
21 – 17 FAIR TO
POOR Limited knowledge of
subject
Little substance
Inadequate development of
topic
16 – 13 VERY POOR Does not show knowledge
of subject
Non substantive
Not pertinent
Not enough to evaluate
Organization
20 – 18 EXCELLENT
TO VERY
GOOD
Fluent Expression
Ideas clearly stated /
supported
Succinct
Well organized
Logical sequencing
Cohesive
17 – 14 GOOD TO
AVERAGE Somewhat choppy
Loosely organized but main
ideas stand out
Limited support
Logical but incomplete
sequencing
13 – 10 FAIR TO
POOR Non-fluent
Ideas confused or disconnect
Lacks logical sequencing
and development
9 -7 VERY POOR Does not communicate
No organization
Or not enough to evaluate
Vocabulary 20 – 18 EXCELLENT
TO VERY
GOOD
Sophisticated range
Effective word / idiom
choice and usage
Word form mastery
Appropriate register
17 – 14 GOOD TO
AVERAGE
Adequate range
Occasional errors of word /
idiom form, choice, usage
but meaning not obscured
13 – 10 FAIR TO
POOR Limited range
Frequent errors of word /
idiom form, choice, usage,
Meaning confused /
obscured
9 – 7 VERY POOR Essentially translation
Liitle knowledge of
vocabulary, idiom word
form
Or not enough to evaluate
Language
Use
25 – 22 EXCELLENT
TO GOOD Effective complex
constructions
Few errors of agreement,
tense, number, word order /
function, articles, promouns,
prepositions
21 – 18 GOOD TO
AVERAGE Effective but simple
constructions
Minor problems in complex
constructions
Several errors of agreement,
tense, number, word order /
function, articles, pronouns,
preposition but meaning
seldom obscured
17 – 11
FAIR TO
POOR
Major problems in simple /
complex constructions
Frequent errors of negation,
agreement, tense, number,
word order / function
articles, pronouns,
prepositions, and / or
fragments, run- ons,
deletion.
Meaning confused or
obscured
10 – 5 VERY POOR Virtually no mastery of
sentence construction rules
Dominated by errors
Does not communicate
Or not enough to evaluate
Mechanics 5 EXCELLENT
TO GOOD Demonstrates mastery of
conventions
Few errors of spelling,
punctuation, capitalization,
paragraphing,
4 GOOD TO
AVERAGE Occasional errors of
spelling, punctuation,
capitalization, paragraphing
but meaning not obscured
3 FAIR TO
POOR Frequent errors of spelling,
punctuation, capitalization,
paragraphing
Poor handwriting
Meaning confused or
obscured
2 VERY POOR No mastery of convention
Dominated by errors of
spelling, punctuation,
capitalization, paragraphing
Handwriting illegible
Or not enough to evaluate
Total Score: Reader: Comments:
Jacobs et al.’s (1981) scoring profile48
The Jacob’s et al. ESL composition profile above will be used as a writing
rubric in this study. The reasons why the researcher using Jacob’s et al analytic score as
an explicit and detailed scoring rubric because it provides reliability, more useful
diagnostic information about students’ writing ability, more useful in rater training as
easily can be understood and applied the criteria in separate scales, and particularly, it is
useful for second-language learner who are likely to show a marked or uneven profile
accros different aspect of writing49
6. ICT Connected to the discussion before that writing through ICT and peer feedback
or group work can be implemented to create a learning activity which motivates and
real life to do. Hartoyo50 defines ICT in education perspectives as Information and
Communication Technology ( ICT) such as computers, communications facilities, and
features that support teaching, learning and different kinds of activities in education.
48Ibid. 49Ibid. p. 120 50 Hartoyo. 2012. ICT Information & Communication Technology in Language Learning. Semarang.
Pelita Insani . P.3
Hartoyo51 defines ICT as media or technology to store, regain, control, send or
accept digital data or information. It is also concerned with the way these different uses
can collaborate each other. In addition, the use of ICT is to support education especially
in language learning for individualized computer-based drill and practice activities to
help learners in mastering grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation52.
Ware, et. al 53 explain that computer-based activities have the purpose to trigger
authentic communication and support a newer approach of technology in education, but
once in a while, the computer was still seen as a tool of global intercation and literacy to
foster learning rather than as an integrated medium of language and literacy.
In addition, Merril, et. al. 54 argue that technology, especially computer world
processing, can help teachers increase students’ capabilities in writing skills. The use of
computer word processing as a tool to enhance students learning, give personal benefits
and motivate students to develop writing skills. Furthermore, Ware, et. al 55 confirm that
mastery of language, new technologies, and the ability to blend language and
technology to read and write the world, become integrated goals of the international
English language classroom. Students utilize a variety of autonomous learning tools,
such as agreement and automated scoring engines, and even vast variety of
communication tools, from skype and podcast to blogging and microblogging, to
sharpen their language and literacy skills as they use English to interact with others,
publish their work, and leave their mark on society56
From the above theories the researcher sees that ICT from education of view is
the technology such as computer which has function to support teaching learning in
education. It has the purpose to stimulate authentic communication tool of global
interaction. It also can be used to save, search, control, send and accept information in
education. In addition, it stimulates autonomous learning since the students has the
ability to combine language and technology to read and write as an integrated goals in
education. Therefore, the researcher is going to implement ICT in teaching writing as a
written communication through technology media such emails with peer work or
telecollaborative activities. Hopefully, this kind of activity will motivate the students
since it is meaningful and has a purpose to communicate.
7. ICT and writing
Related with the theories about ICT and writing before, it is a fact that
numerous changes in writing have been developed by the vast expansion of
technology.57 The use of social media network such as facebook and online discussion
boards, blogs and wikis provide opportunities for genuine interaction with the real
audience reader which can be explored in the writing classroom. Ware, et. al 58 believe
that for encouraging writing, digital media provide various alternatives to help
writing when the focus is mainly on formal features of written language in traditiponal
classrooms. More over, the researchers in this study explain that the use of digital
media can replace the purposes of classroom direction to point not at mastery of a
51 Ibid. p. 3-4 52 Paige Ware, Meei- Ling Liaw, and Mark Warschauer edited by Lubna Alsagoff, Sandra Lee McKay,
Guangwei Hu, Willy A. Renandya., 2012, The use of Digital Media in Teaching English as an International
Languager in Principles and Practices for Teaching English as an International Language, New York,
Routledge, P. 67 53 Ibid. 54 Paul F. Merril et. al. 1996. Computers in Education. Boston. Allyn & Bacon. P. 278- 279 55 Paige Ware. Loc.Cit. 56Ibid. 57 Sara Cushing Weigle., Op.Cit.,p. 234 58 Paige Ware. Loc.Cit.
separate set of English-language skills, due to the use of those skills within more
meaningful, enhancing contexts by presenting local control of materials, separated
feedback, and personalization of learning. In addition, Weigle 59confirms that electronic
media can be a big asset to writing courses since it provides more acces to authentic
communication and big opportunity to understand and use a wider range of language
use and structure than direct interaction. The classroom then becomes a place in which
students are exposed to a various set of autonomous learning instruments for English
progress indoor and outdoor of the class60. Again, the researchers expose that digital
media are assisting formation the position of English as an international language, so
the reseachers rearrange EIL classrooms from a focus on mastery skills to highlight on
using English to communicate and involve with speakers of differences of English
utilizing a vast media.61
It is reported that English learners are now seen as global communicators, a
jointly of local cultures, arbiters of misunderstandings, and good contributors to
expanding a global community. In 2010, an approximated 2.7 % of global total Internet
usage was in English. Internet provides a social environment that students enter with
expand frequency outside the classroom.62 Writers involved in an email correspondence
adjust future communications on the basis of the response of the people they are
communicating with.
On the one hand, the curiculum at schools requires teacher to teach students to
produce various types of written work such as narrative essay, expository and so on.
One computer program which support teachers teaching composition through process
writing is composing system. This types of software supports teachers as revision tools
as spell-checkers and grammar-checkers. In short, by using composing system, students
can develop writing skills and become autonomous learner with computer assistance.63
Similarly, Ware, et. al 64 say that automated writing evaluation software
programs suggest alternatives for individualized, prompt feedback to students as they
learn to edit their essays; such programs are created to stimulate formal writing within a
type of text and organizing structures, which may be more or less suitable in different
context and will noticeable depending on the extent of combination into instruction.
After all, Kamra et al (2000) as cited in Ware, et. al 65 explain that digital media are
used to support integration of language skills within a larger communicative purpose,
then other aspects of language use come to fore : agency, identity, authenticity and
authorship.
8. Telecollaboration In the discussion below, the researcher divides the topic of telecollaboration into
three parts; definition of telecollaboration, advantages of telecollaboration, and the
procedures of telecollaborative activities in teaching writing.
9. Definition of Telecollaboration As explained by William, telecollaboration is the uses of internet tools such as
email, chat, web conferencing, web page building as well as audio and web
conferencing in an educational scheme which usually conducted by a classroom
59 Sara Cushing Weigle., Loc. Cit. p. 234 60Paige Ware.Op.Cit. P. 70-71
61Ibid., P. 72 62 Ibid. 63 Paul F. Merril. Op. Cit. P. 280 64 Ibid.P. 69 65 Ibid.P. 72
teacher and bring together language learners of different locations to meet and interact
with each other66. And these interaction take place through class to class, teacher to
teacher, teacher or expert to class, and students to students partnerships among distally
located students, are commonly referred as types of telecollaboration.67
As well as William, O’ dowd and Ritter68 argue that telecollaboration refers to
the use of online communication tools to bring together language learners in different
countries for the development of collaborative project work and intercultural exchange.
This type of network-based language teaching (NBLT) covers a wide range of activities
and exploits a variety of online communication tools, including email, web-based
message boards, and videoconferencing
Meanwhile Dooly69 demonstrates Collaborative learning objectives are getting
the students to take almost full responsibility for working together, building knowledge
together, changing and evolving together and of course, improving together.
Incorporating network-based learning into the process of collaborative learning can also
be very beneficial in terms of knowledge and experience.
In line with the explanation about the definition of telecollaboration and
consider the activity involves in writing through ICT, the researcher choose
telecollaboration as peer work to the students.
10. Advantages of Telecollaboration
Williams70 elaborates that there are many advantages of telecollaboration. It
offers students opportunity to go together to “ visit” many places around the world and
get real life activity through internet, allows students to interact and correspond to the
learners from other cultures or countries to practice language, provide feedback, and
share personal and cultural information. Furthermore, telecollaboration model followed
together with learning principles that depend on learner autonomy and help and
motivate reluctant students to participate, share personal ideas and increase intercultural
proficience, may be more significant in such exchanges than improve second language
accuracy. In addition, telecollaborative also gives opportunity for students to
correspond with learners from other cultures and countries and expanding their global
awareness. Telecollaborative broaden the thinking of both students and teachers by
exposing them to different perspectives. It provides an opportunity for teachers to
“ piggy-back” on the rich online opportunities that have been created by colleagues
from all over the world. It helps link students and teachers to various resources that
normally wouldn’t be available to them in the classroom.
Another evidence was reported about positive results of telecollaboration which
was found at the elementary and secondary levels in a project called Interantional
Virtual Elementary Classroom Activities (IVECA). The study showed that the students,
especially the more problematic ones, increased their intercultural competence, their
66 Lynn Williams., http://www.briarcrest.com/teleprojects.asp 67 Ibid. 68 Robert O. Dowd and Markus Ritter. 2006. Understanding and Working with ‘Failed Communication’
in Telecollaborative Exchanges CALICO Journal, Vol. 23, No. 3 P. 623-624 69 Melinda Dooly, 2008, Constructing Knowledge together, Extract from Telecollaborative Language
Learning; A guidebook to moderating Intercultural collaboration online,
http;//pagines.uat.cat/melindadooly/sites/pagines.uat.cat.melindadooly/files/chpt1.pdf. retrieved on April 26 at
21:45
70 Lynn Williams., Op.Cit
motivation to learn at school, and their writing skills.71 In short, telecollaboration can
support EIL learner engagement, intercultural learning, and communicative fluency.72
Dooly73 adds some advantages in telecollaboration activity such as students are
actively getting involve in exchanging, debating and negotiating ideas within their
groups. As a result, telecollaboration activity increases students’ interest in learning. So,
by engaging in discussion and taking responsibility for their learning, students are
encouraged to become critical thinkers. Dooly 74 also explains that a collaborative
learning task would allow for each member to be responsible for some concept
necessary to complete the task. This implies that every group member will learn their
assigned concept and will be responsible for explaining the concept to other members of
the group. Through online collaboration, students may come to see the importance of
taking responsibility for their own learning and feel empowered to do so while learning
to respect the opinions and work of their online partners. In addition, through online
collaboration, students also has a feeling of confidence to participate and contribute in
online interaction.
In contrast to the findings above, the evidence also recognize the huge effort
made by instructor to create and maintain collaboration, due to various levels of their
students in language proficiency and computer skills as well as frequent barriers in
accessing computer and internet. The nature of collaboration has been less than
satisfactory since it has two dimension; time and place75
From the discussion above, it can be summarized that telecollaboration
techniques through internet can be used as a tool for communication within the schools
around the world. And it is recommended for a teacher as an education leader to be
familiar with information and communication technology or digital media to be used in
teaching learning process which cover the school’s curriculum.
The Procedures of Telecollaborative activities in Teaching Writing
Dooly divides 76 the procedures of telecollaboration in teaching learning
activities into three stages; Preliminary stage, implementation stage, and final stage.
At the preliminary stage, a teacher plans each stage carefully. Whenever a
teacher is interested in implementing cooperative learning, the first step is to consider
each stage involved in the group work so that the teacher is ready to give support
whenever needed. This means keeping in mind the topics, activities or projects which
are part of the regular curriculum and deciding which ones would best adapt to the
collaborative work the teacher would like to implement. This also means considering
how the students will be organised in groups during the collaboration, Let your students
know what you are doing, Train the students to work together, Have an alternative plan,
Double-check the objectives, Be self-critical, Match tasks with skills and abilities.
At the implementation stage, a teacher should Clarify what everyone is going to
do, set up the groups different ways, aware of group size as well, Making changes to the
groups should be avoided, Get the students to set up/understand their plan of action,
Don’t expect students to be outgoing and friendly on cue, Make sure the students
71 Ibid 72 Ibid., P.76 73 Melinda Dooly, Op. cit 74 Ibid. 75Stephen Heppell. 1995. Teacher Education and Communication and Information Technologies: A
Reflection on Emerging Possibilities for Collaborative Projects. Information Technologies in teacher Education.
Paris. UNESCO. P. 106 76 Ibid.
understand their responsibilities and possible consequences, and Groups should
regularly report on their progress.
At the final stage, One of the aspects of closure is, of course, assessment. How
to assess collaborative learning can be challenging because the teachers are assessing
the learning process and not just the end product. Involving the students in the process,
through group evaluation, peer evaluation and self-assessment, is one alternative. The
teachers involved in the online collaborative project can ask their students to assess
their group’s work, for instance, but the students should give reasons for their
evaluation, not simply “give marks”. This can be done as a team report (written
collaboratively) and/or an individual report. Different ICT formats can be incorporated
into the assessment process: e-portfolios, online voting systems, news articles, etc. The
teachers involved should also self-assess the project and ask for student feedback. So,
Have the students collect examples of their own work such as Journal entries, Emails,
Chat transcriptions, Interview transcriptions, Reflective texts, WebPage, Collaborative
WikiPages. Provide guidelines for students to self and peer assess such as Participation
(quality and quantity), Preparation (collaboration) , Punctuality (interpersonal skills),
Respect (interpersonal skills), Contribution of ideas (collaboration), Creativity
(problem-solving), Commitment (collaboration). Consider using rubrics for measuring
achievement. Allow yourself and your partner time to reflect on the experience. Plan a
“Wrap-up”. A “wrap-up” allows them the chance to review and reflect upon the things
they learnt, what they enjoyed, what they would change for improvements and to savour
the personal aspect of having made contact with partners outside their usual circle of
acquaintances. A “wrap-up” is good for the teachers involved as well as it can be a
means of celebrating a positive experience or can help diminish negative aspects of the
experience if things did not go as well as expected.
Effective online collabotaive learning activity will vary in the way in which the
students concentrate on, process and retain information as well as cultural differences
which exist between online partners. However, this study will implement online
collaboration between classroom which focus on the students.
The following are the Salmon’s Model of Online Learning 77 which can be
implemented in telecollaborative dynamics classroom activity;
77Gilly Salmon, 2005, http://www.gillysalmon.com/five-stage-model.html
Figure 2.1 The Salmon’s Model of Online Learning
Stage one is access and motivation. Students have to start become familiar with
the online tools that are going to be used and explore possiblity of problems and
solutions.
The second stage is online socialization. At this stage the member of group work
should get o know to each other to make them feel comfortable. This step is a good
mooment to build group dynamics and emphaty.
The next stage is information exchage. In this stage students start collaboration
by negotiating tasks, sharing information and designing how to deal with the online
collaboration such as agenda, deadlines and so forth. It is important for studentsto
understand how to use the learning materials and the online tools as constructively as
possible.
After information exchange is knowledge construction. This time students
should be challenged to construct knowledge together. Not only exchange information
but also share personal knowledge and opinion in order to contribute to more
knowledge. This tasks could be in the form of summaries, debates and discussions.
The final stage is construction. In this part students feel responsible to complete
the tasks and the roles in the work group. The students have learnt about online
collaboration and can be reflected on the targeted knowledge.
Pedagogical implications : Instructors and Learners Using Digital Media
(ICT) Above all the discussion about the theories and previous research on teaching
writing through ICT and telecollaboration. The researcher also focuses on the
pedagogical implication of ICT in teaching and learning .
As discussed in the research by Ware, et. al, 78 that in using digital media,
whether use one and only within the classroom context or as part of a collaborative
project, teachers can promote all three of these goals as they show learners how to
involve with, evaluate, and self-sufficient use new technologies to support autonomous
learning, and as they help learners interpret, analyze, and maintain interaction across
linguistic, cultural, geographic, and technological lines.
On the other hand, Cornu 79highlights the effect of ICT not only on teacher
education but also on society, on the disciplines, on content and curricula education, on
teaching and learning as a pedagogical tools which has fundamental knowledge. Ware,
et. al 80 elaborate that the instructor plays a key role in deciding how digital media are
used. When using any of the new technologies discussed above, instructors must
sometimes dedicate time to learn to use the new technologies involved. Materials
development of any kind takes time, and weaving in new content or activities into
existing syllabi requires creativity and conviction. In addition, Cornu 81supports Ware et.
al. that the role of a teacher is changing, more diverse and a influenced by technologies.
Teachers must use different pedagogical styles and evolve to combine both the new
technology and knowledge about teaching and learning in order to be competent
teachers.
78 Ibid. P.77 79 Bernard Cornu. 1995. Teacher Education and Communication and Information Technologies: A
Reflection on Emerging Possibilities for Collaborative Projects. Information Technologies in teacher Education.
Paris. UNESCO. P. 94 80Paige Ware.Op.Cit. P. 70-71 81 Bernard Cornu. Op. Cit. P. 94-95
Inspite of that, Helm ( 2009 ) in Ware, et. al 82 suggests when designing online
interaction projects, intensive coordination is often required, including the allignment of
partner class syllabi around shared information and the choice of media to support
collaborative interpretive and investigative activities
In addition, it is recommended to have an expert knowledge of culturally
specific discourse patterns for the successful negotiation of learning in telecollaboration,
instructors may also need to overcome shortages in media resources and to ensure
student readiness for online learning.83
Moreover, the power of digital media in the classroom stems in part from its
potential to bridge in-class activities with out-of-class use, to blur the lines between
formal instruction and informal learning, and to validate the wide range of registers and
uses of English on the global.
Here are several challenges and barriers the option of digital media in teaching
English as International Language;84
1. Access to technological tools and support differs accross contexts in terms of ratio of
computers to students, access to technology outside the classroom, and availability of
broadband Internet Connectivity.
2. There si a continuum of professional development that influences how teachers can
integrate digital media, including the allocation of time for instructors to gain
exposure to and expertise with particularvtools through in-service training, the
avalability of technologial and pedagogical support, and existence of collegial support
for sharing ideas and for eveloping collective expertise.
3. The degree to which instructors have control over their curriculum and their
classroom logistics influences how and why digital media might become part of the
classroom; some instructors, for example, might be assigned a focus on supporting the
development of one or more discrete skills with an emphasis on preparation for high-
stakes formal assessment, whereas others might teach an elective, integrated skills
course focused on intercultural communication.
4. The needs and the backgrounds of students differ widely both accross and within
contexts, so instructors must situate their choices with an understanding of how much
differentiation might be required.
Discussion
The researcher conducts the research using qualitative case study since researcher
observes and describes characteristics of a class in MA al jauharotun Naqiyyah. The
researcher observes students with particular problems. The observation has the purpose
to look for a systematic connection among the behaviours being observed, its
characteristics, problems and treatments.
In line with research design, Nunan85 Supports that the case study is a method of
research in which a case can be seen as a single class of objects that can be investigated
in the context in which it occurs.
Nunan86 identifies that single case research represent a special type of case study.
In regard to the research design, the researcher will do something to the subject being
investigated and evaluate what will happen as a result.
82Paige Ware.Loc. Cit. 83 Ibid 84Ibid., P.78-79
85 David Nunan. 1992. Research Method in Language Learning. Cambridge. Cambridge University
press. P. 79
Based on the ideas of Nunan,87 there are four stages in the basic single study
which are known as ABAB designs as can be seen in figure 3.1
No of observation
100 -
50 -
0 -
Baseline ( A) Intervention (B) Base (A) Intervention (B)
Figure 3.1 88The four Stages in an ABAB single case research design
Figure 3.1 describes four steps of single case study, The A steps starts the
research with observation which is conducted to establish a baseline against which
behaviour can be evaluated. The second steps the researcher will intervene some kind of
treatment to the subject being investigated. In the third steps the researcher withdrawns
treatment to know wether the behaviour still remains at the lower level predicted by the
second steps. And in the final steps, the intervention is evaluated, and the individual
behaviour as observed once more.
So based on the reason above, this study emphasizes on the look for a systematic
connection among the behaviours being observed, its characteristics, problems and
treatments in the process of teaching writing through telecollaboration in Islamic Senior
High School in Cilegon and is going to investigate students’ motivation in writing
through telecollaboration, to investigate the process on how writing through
collaboration can develop students’ writing skills, to investigate how students
telecollaborate and respond to writing through ICT ( digital media ). The researcher
focuses on observing, identifying potential problems, modify teaching practices,
evaluating the results, reflecting and analysing the teaching writing skills through
telecollaboration.
The participants of the research are the students of MA Al Jauharotun Naqiyyah
Cibeber grade XII with the total number of 15 students. The students are selected based
on the pre-observation writing result which are conducted at the beginning of new term.
The research implements purposeful sampling data collection which represents an
important decision point in qualitative research.89 The selected participants are being
taught writing through telecollaboration then observed their progress in learning
English especially writing.
86 Ibid. P. 82 87 Ibid. 88 Ibid.
89Ujang suparman, 2009, Qualitative Research for Language Teaching and Learning; Qualitative
Inquiry and Research Design, Bandung, Arfino Raya. P. 67
This study uses observation in collecting the data since the study is to see the
process of teaching learning activities on writing through telecollaboration in one
school and a group of students. The researcher explores the problem under
investigation and determine a number of possibilities and rational to choose an
approach that should be presented90 to find the solution for the research question how
the use of telecollaboration activities can improve and develop students’ writing skills.
The researcher also took part in the study as participant observation. The
researcher observed the students of grade XII and implement the teaching writing
through telecollaboration during out of class time. The researcher saw the process of the
activity and used field notes as one type of data collection. The researcher wanted to
know whether the students have motivation and enhance the progress in English by
implementing writing through telecollaboration.
The researcher did some observation in order to gain authentic information on
writing activities on the field. The study was conducted on December to February for
several meetings.The study was divided into two parts, the first part is pre-observation,
and the second part is main observation. Pre-observation conducted on the first week of
December in order to gain some factual information in the field, to find out the situation
and condition of teaching learning activities in the class. It was conducted in the form of
giving questionnaires to students to gain some real information of the problem students
have in learning English. The main observation conducted from the middle of
December to the end of January. At this stage, the researcher jotts down any kind of
information related with the study which occured and found in the field.
In the study, the researcher used students writing tassk since the students writing
is easy to be analyzed to what extent the changes have been implemented91. And the
developpment of students writing tasks can be seen in the proforma92 as the stages of
the action research process to see the impact of the teaching writing through
telecollaboration by involving the students in the learning process through group
evaluation and peer feedback and self assessment. Threre are various proforma to track
the task which are developed and reflect to the results.
The following proforma is taken by Carew in Burns which can be used as a
quick way of tracking the questions or issues to deal with on a daily basis and so as
reflection, some of the stages of the action research to identify the day to day daily
issues that arouse, the action taken by teachers and the teacher’s reflection and
evaluation of the issues or actions93.
Table 3.3
Proformas data94
Date Issues / Question Action Reflection /
comment
90Ibid 91 Anne Burns. Op. Cit. P. 140 92Ibid. P. 90-92 93 Ibid. P. 90 94 Ibid. P. 91
Proforma also can be used to track the students’ writing tasks development 95 so
that can answer the research question on how teaching writing through telecollaboration
can be used to motivate and develop English as communication especially writing skills.
The researcher asks students to work in group and sets up online partnership to
telecollaborate to do some tasks in writing. And it is important to assign them different
roles in the group so that they can work together and help each other to construct
knowledge.96
The final stage in the collecting data was interview. Interview is used to support
the document and the finding of observation. The purpose of the interview in this
research is to gain accurate data and information to find the answer for the research
question on how the use of telecollaborative activities improve and develop students’
writing skills and how the students’ respond to telecollaboration. As a result, the data
collected is reliable and the biases in the research can be solved. By implementing
interview to the participants, the researcher can get authentic information and the
partipants do not feel hesitate to speak and share ideas on the teaching learning process.
The Instruments of the Research in this study were Observation Guide , Students’
Writing Tasks and Interview Guide. The purpose of the observation guide is to see real
situation and condition in English teaching learning process especially writing. students
writing tasks are used at the first stage of the research to see the students’ writing
abilities. The researcher asks the students to write a narrative writing tasks of 200 - 500
words in order to analyze the content and the construction of paragraph whether the
students writing tasks have a good construction of sentences, a central idea, two to four
supporting details and a conclusion.97
The next stages in the study, the researcher asks the students to work in group
of 3 to collaborate use internet as a network-based learning to the process of learning in
writing through telecollaborative activities. The research describes that network-based
collaboration may provide opportunity for students who shy to speak their opinion so
that they can equal in the field and express themselves as expected98. It is also important
that activities and tasks are adapted to the students’ skills and abilities beginning from
the easy tasks to the increase of difficult level as students progress in their knowledge in
both the topic and ability to collaborate so that the activities could be scaled.
95 Ibid. P. 92 96Melinda Dooly., 2008.,Constructing Knowledge Together in Telellecollaborative Language Learning;
A guidedbook to Moderating Intercultural Collaboration
Online.,pagines.uat.cat/melindadooly/sites/pagines.uat.cat.melindadooly/files/chpt1.pdf,.retrieved on April 26th,
2015 at 21:45 pm. 97John Langan ., Op.Cit., P.6 98Melinda Dooly., 2008.,Op.Cit.
The following is the example of student’s Pre- test writing ( student 2)
I have a pet, my pet is a cat. My cat is very cute and handsome. I
named is Jacky. Jacky a cat obedient. Every morning he’s always eat
rice with kinds side dish, like fish, noodle, meatballs, etc. He’s a smart
cat. Every night he’s always sleep in the cardboard.
One night, he’s sleeping outside. I’m looking for him, I Feel worried. I
continue to look For him. Finally, I Found him in bushes. He’s very
cooled. I bring him to home. Since. I Very Fearful iF he’s getting out
from house. My mother always says “ let him go! iF he’s always in the
house, he will to be figt with other cat.” But, I Feelings him. Thats all
story about My cat.
Based bon Jacobs ESL composing profile score the result for students 2 are:
The content is good to average. It is mostly relevant to topic but lack in detail which
score is 22.The organization is good to average. Limited support which score is 15. The
vocabulary is fair to poor.freaquent errors of word with 13 score. The language use is
fair to poor. Frequent errors of negation and pronouns. The mechanics are fair to poor,
and poor handwriting with 3 score. And the total number of score is70.
The following is the example of Post-test writing (student 2)
Rushayati, born July 25, 1997 in Cilegon she often called Ati for taking the name of
her last name. she is the only child. She lived in Cibeber. She lived with her mother
because her father was dead. Her father’s named Rusydi and her mother’s named
Ratu Faizatul Ma’azah. Her mother’s a housewife.
She is a student in Islamic Senior High School. She started her education from the
age of 7 years. 6 years of primary school SDN CIBEBER 1 and in the Madrasah
Diniyah Cibeber. 3 years in MTs Cibeber. She likes match from elementary school,
because their teaching is easy to understand, clear, nice, and she’s pretty.
She loved cleaning the house, washing clothes, making the bed and sweep. She liked
watch to show stand up comedy, cause’ funny and making laugh. Her favourite drink
is Orange Juice. She doesn’t have a pet. She is vacationing with her family. After she
graduated from Islamic high school, she wanted to study in UNTIRTA majored in
mathematics or worked in order to her parent proud and happy. She loved to travel
with her family to the Villa Sambolo. She want to have a tea plantation and worked
together with her mother.
Based bon Jacobs ESL composing profile score the result for students 2 are:
The content is fair to poor, inadequate development of topic which score is 21.
The organization is good to average. It is logical but incomplete sequencing which
score is 17. The vocabulary is fair to poor. The meaning is confusing and has score 13.
The language use is good to average with several errors of number, word order,
pronouns and preposition and has score 20. The mechanics are fair to poor, frequent
errors of punctuation with 3 score. The total number of score is 74.
And here is the result finding for Pre- test and post-test writing scoring for all
the number of students:
And below is the sample of students’ interaction on facebook and what’s app
group:
No of
students Pre test Post test
1 70 74
2 70 74
3 68 75
4 70 80
5 67 75
6 70 71
7 69 71
8 68 71
9 67 71
10 70 74
11 68 79
12 68 71
13 67 81
14 67 82
15 70 79
16 67 77
Conclusion
From the study above rhe researcher could say that The use of telecollaboration
activities can improve students’ writing skills as can be seen in the pre-test and post-test
writing scoring result. The students were motivated in writing through telecollaboration
since the students could post the writing texts on facebook and got some feedback or
comments. The use of ICT and digital media such as Facebook and whatsapp application
help students telecollaborate in making learning outside school hours because the
students could communicate using social media. ICT applications used in learning
English can help students to increase vocabulary and improve English. It also motivate
students to use English to chat, give comments and make status on social media.
Tellecollaboration activity is beneficial for students under certain condition such as good
internet connection, computer facilities at school and good knowledge of ICT for the teacher.
Unfortunately there were some problems such as bad internet connection and computer
facilities at school so that students use laptop and gadget for the learning activity. Teacher
should be someone who has a good skill in ICT since there will be hackers who will
hijack the group account in social media and posting some inappropriate content
materials as the researcher experienced during the research.
Suggestions
Tellecollaboration should be implemented carefully and well-planned since some
students can surf another subject on the internet. Since ICT is a major supporter for English
study, so the teacher should be someone who has good skill in ICT in order students can
browse, surf the internet without any constraints with the existing resources on the
internet indefinitely. Teacher should give more assisstance since many students do not
focus on learning and sometimes use the opportunity to surf the other subject. Beside there
are some postings that are not related or appropriate with the lessons. The school should
have a good internet connection and the computer laboratory should be available so that
students do not face any constrains in using the facility study.
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