The Use of Instructional Media in Improving Student's Skill in ..., Study notes of English Language

Download The Use of Instructional Media in Improving Student's Skill in ... and more Study notes English Language in PDF only on Docsity! The Use of Instructional Media in Improving Student’s Skill in Essay Writing Through Blended Learning Platform Handoko English Department Universitas Andalas Padang, Indonesia handoko@lptik.unand.ac.id Dwi Anggreini Waskito Putri English Department Universitas Negeri Padang Padang, Indonesia dwi2orchid@yahoo.co.id Rabbi Antaridha English Department Universitas Dharma Andalas Padang, Indonesia Abstract— Abstract— The research focuses on the use of instructional media in the blended learning platform that to improve students' ability in writing essays. The research is based on the blended learning framework that integrates face-to-face methods and online learning methods. The face-to-face method is given to see students' activeness in delivering ideas and brainstorming before writing essays. The online learning method is used to see students' ability in elaborating ideas in from drafting to become a complete essay. Thus students can be effective in learning in class to discuss their draft and essay and not spend much time writing. The implementation of the blended learning is carried out in three cycles: brainstorming, drafting, and final writing. At the end of each cycle, there is an evaluation to find out the progress of the learning. Feedback is given from the evaluation results to overcome problems that arise in the previous cycle. The subjects of the research are students of Universitas Andalas who di vided as control class and experimental class. The purpose of this study is (a) short-term; To help overcome student problems and improve their ability to write essays in English (b) long-term is to provide a basis for learning models of English writing essays at universities. The pretest indicates that the 59% participants from the control class have a low score (below 60) while in experimental class about 60% participants get a score below 60. It is expected after the implementing of blended learning, there will be a significant improvement of essay score. Keywords— essay writing, blended learning, instructional media I. INTRODUCTION Writing essays in English is very important for university students, both for academic purposes, such as continuing studies to higher levels, as well as for professional purposes [1]–[4]. Therefore, it is very important for the university to provides writing skill as one of the main competencies of the graduate profile. To develop competence in writing, it is necessary to design a well-developed curriculum for language learning. In general teaching writing for university students can be divided into three stage: paragraph writing as a core skill, essay writing, critical writing. The series of courses are provided to develop students' writing skills Many research indicates that writing skill is lower compared to other skills: speaking, reading, and listening. Moreover, many students also consider writing skill is more difficult than listening and speaking. This is because writing is not only dealing with grammar and vocabulary but also related to emotional and cognitive aspects [5]. There are several factors that contribute to the fact that writing is considered a difficult subject. Among others, writing skill requires formal language, error-free in grammar, complete and clear ideas, as well as logical order [4], [6]. Another aspect that also plays important role in writing is an emotional aspect. Emotional aspects can be seen from students' perceptions toward the difficulty of essay writing [3], [5], [7]. It is quite acceptable since that essay writing required a complex series of interconnected ideas. The limited time allocated for essay writing subject makes students unable to write essays well. In the traditional approach, students are asked to collect ideas, find references, and then write them into an essay. It is time- consuming and may not reach the optimal result. Therefore, students must be exposed to the learning environment which allows them to improve their writing experience by providing sufficient time [8]. Space limitations can also hinder the students thinking critically when they gather ideas about what will be written. In the classroom, students will difficu lt to observe and find relevant references to support ideas that will be elaborated into their essays. Time constraints also inhibit students in the evaluation process of the writing since the number of lecturers and students is not balanced. If the lecturer g ives feedback on the draft writing of each student, then it will take three to four face-to-face meetings [9]. Besides, many students are impatient with writing essays. They tend to ignore the stages in writing an essay because they think that it is useless and wasting time [10]. To be able to write a good essay, of course, students must follow the stages of writ ing essays. There are at least four main stages in writing a good essay, research and gathering idea (prewriting), planning, writing drafts, and revision [6], [11], [12]. In another word, writing an essay is not an instant process or a one-step process, students need to revise the essay several times based on the by feedback and evaluation from lecturers. Therefore, it is necessary to provide the students with an alternative strategy which allow them to more effective and efficient. With the advance of technology, lecturers can use sophisticated technology to provide a virtual environment which allows students to manage and elaborating ideas, as well as to revise the draft without spend time in the class . Among the approach that is quite effective is the application of a blended learning model. Blended learning is a combination of face-to-face learning methods with an online learning [9], [13]. With online methods, students can do the task anytime outside the class. Moreover, the method can also facilitate lecturers in examin ing essays with direct feedback through the online system. However, it must be highlighted that online learning cannot replace the face-to-face meeting totally. Face-to-face meetings still powerfu l to provide critical thinking, feedback, direct evaluations, and psychological support for the students [14]. Both traditional learning and online learning are the core concept of blended learning or hybrid learning. Blended learning can be defined as the integration of traditional learning (face-to-face) with an online-based approach with the aim of increasing the effectiveness, efficiency, and flexibility of learning [14]–[17]. From this definition, it can be seen that blended learning not only emphasizes face-to-face systems but also uses computational instruments to facilitate learning. There is a huge benefit in shaping students' knowledge and experience in integrating experience in the learning process. With this learning, students get knowledge that is internal and cognitive so as to produce in-depth and comprehensive knowledge [18], [19]. Blended learning has become a central issue for the last decade, including in the teaching English language. Many researchers report that blended learning has a positive impact on students perf4yormance [15], [18]–[22]. It provides easy access to learning material as well as assessment and evaluation for the student which will improve their skill in English. Most of the blended learning researches in teaching English focus on a general aspect of competence, such as grammar or vocabulary building. However, some other aspects, such as writing or speaking, are less discussed. This research is focusing on the implementation of a blended learning model to improve the writing skills. This research is limited to writ ing competence, especially writing essays. II. METHOD Participant The number of participants in the study is 90 students. They were undergraduate students of Universitas Andalas who enrolled in English Communication class 2017/2018. The students were grouped into experimental group and control group. The experimental group consists of 45 students who exposed to used blended learning platform for essay writ ing. Control group consists of 45 students who did not use blended learning. The object of this study is the effectiveness of the application of blended learning methods in the acceptance and understanding of learning material. The primary data obtained from the test conducted to measure students ability to write essays which included pre-test (post-test) and post-test (post- test). Secondary data comes from the track record of the assessment of students' work and lecturer records in both face- to-face and online learning activities. In this study, the subject will take the initial test to see the ability to write his essay, then after the implementation of blended learning is complete, it is estimated that the next three months, the subject will take the final test to involve the significance of improving his essay writing skills. Design and statistic analysis The research was conducted using single-factor. The independent variable was the use of blended learning or non- use blended learning in writing an essay while the dependent variable is essay score. The essay scores included the evaluation of introduction and thesis statement, main points for body and conclusion paragraph, structure transition, style and diction, and grammar and punctuation. The data are analyzed by using the t-Test. Rationale and hypothesis The research assumed that the use of blended learning will provide students more time to write a good essay. By using online media, including video, web page, and online assignment, students will be able to develop skill in writ ing, especially dealing with essay structure and logical order. It is expected that the use of blended learning will have a positive effect on the quality of essay writing. The null hypothesis of the research was: H0: The use of blended learning platform will not improve the performance of the experimental group in writing an essay. H1: The use of blended learning platform will improve the performance of the experimental group. Research question To test the hypothesis, the following questions will be examined. 1. Did the use of blended learning increase the organization of the essay used by the experimental group in any of the essays to match with a control group? 2. Did the use of blended learning increase the style and diction of the essay used by the experimental group in any of the essays to match with a control group? 3. Did the use of blended learning increase the grammar and punctuation of the essay used by the experimental group in any of the essays to match with a control group? III. RESULT AND ANALYSIS Pretest result The research is ongoing process which has been done for one semester. The main independent variable was the use of blended learning by the experimental group in the essay writing. The independent is the essay score which includes the introduction (Skill 1), the main points in body paragraphs and conclusion (Skill 2), the organization (Skill 3), style and diction (Skill 4), and spelling, grammar, and punctuation (Skill 5). The maximum value for each skill is 20.