Course paper

5. METHODS IMPLIED IN CLASSES.
a. The Subject of the Study The study included ten (10) Indonesian EFL teachers who taught in either public or private junior and senior high schools in various parts of East Java, Indonesia (Appendix A).They taught in five selected Senior High Schools and five selected Junior High Schools, both male and female. They were chosen at random taking into account the schools' urban and rural locations. They teach English for anywhere from three (3) to seven (7) years. They were consulted independently with respect to their encounters (esp. difficulties) in writing instruction.
b. Method of Data Collection and Analysis Structured interviews were used to gather information from Indonesian EFL teachers. They each had a separate interview about their experiences (especially difficulties) in writing instruction. Throughout the interview, they were asked the same main questions. The researcher was the interviewer. In fact, Krippendorf (1987, p. 85) suggests that the researcher was a key instrument for data collection in qualitative research.
c. Interviews with Teachers Ten (10) Indonesian English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers from ten (10) distinct Senior and Junior High Schools were questioned; The discussion of their teaching writing challenges was the aspect of the interview relevant to this study. The interviewer asked the teachers to think about the class's writing activities, teaching methods, and what they learned in the lesson; utilizing the notes. The educators were likewise welcomed to consider what challenges their understudies face recorded as a hard copy.
More importantly, they were asked to think about what problems they might be having teaching English writing skills and what solutions they might have tried. The data were analyzed descriptively after they were collected.
The experiences of the English teachers in teaching writing and the difficulties they face are discussed in detail in the findings.
a. English Educators' Encounters in Instructing Composing
Towards the topic of what composing exercises students for the most part act in the study hall, the instructors generally request that the students perform shift, which are all connected with classifications of text like report, relate, account, etc. A big part of the subjects who for the most part show in Senior Secondary School request that they make a text in a type of controlled composing exercises toward the finish of the composing class. Another half, on the other hand, tend to follow the LKS and ask students to practice writing by filling in the blanks, making grammatically correct sentences, etc. In addition, among the ten (10) teachers, 30 percent allot between 25 and 30 minutes per day for writing practice in order to improve students' English writing skills, while only 20 percent allot only 15 minutes; to engage in simple practice, brainstorming, etc. Only 10% allot 40 minutes for writing practice, and 40% allot no time at all.
Additionally, teachers use a variety of teaching methods and strategies to teach writing .A clear mention of the GTM (Grammar Translation Method) is made by 30% of the subjects as the method they frequently employ to teach writing.40% use both the DM (Direct Method) and the GTM. The other subjects use methods like conceptualizing, mind-planning, and so on. In addition, some teachers mentioned writing teaching aids. In each classroom, they have audio or video aids available. However, only half of those who have access to such A/V aids make use of them. Another half of them rarely or never use them in writing instruction. However, because there are only white boards and books available, the remainder of the subjects do not use any other aids; The majority of them teach in rural areas.
When asked about whether teaching writing is hard, 90% of subjects say that teaching writing is hard because of things like how the class is set up, the tools teachers can use, and how much time students have to practice. They also mention a few things about the students themselves, like their lack of motivation, linguistic proficiency, and reading habit. Another 10% assert that teaching writing is neither simple nor difficult in comparison to writing instruction. She discovered that teaching writing is easier than teaching speaking. The performance of the students was also discussed in relation to the difficulties. The answer to every subject is the same: students' writing abilities are generally poor. The people who are showing in provincial region outstandingly saw that as somewhere around 80% of their students in a class experience issues in phonetic skill like absence of sentence structure furthermore, jargon authority. In the meantime, urban residents acknowledge that some students, particularly Senior High School students, are quite proficient in writing. Some urban junior high school students have very good linguistic competence but very poor sentence structure skills, according to the findings.
b. Obstacles to Writing Instruction for English Teachers The study identified two obstacles to writing instruction for English teachers. The first factor is internal, and it plays a significant role in the difficulties. The learners themselves are the internal factors. They are like their local language impedance (for example Indonesian language), their English ability (for example phonetic skill like punctuation information, jargon authority), inspiration, and understanding propensity. In the meantime, there are challenges brought on by external factors as well. The conditions of the class, the teaching aids that are available, and the availability of time are examples of the external factors.
The internal factors that contribute to teachers' difficulties in teaching writing are depicted in the following chart:
Figure A demonstrates that, in addition to other factors, students' low English proficiency is seen as the most significant contributor to teachers' difficulties in teaching writing. The fact that their native language, Indonesian, influences their learning of English as a foreign language (EFL) is the second most significant factor (33 percent).At long last, another 30% of the elements adding to the educators' difficulties in showing composing are the students' inspiration and their low understanding propensity. According to the ten (10) EFL teachers who participated in this study, teaching writing is a very difficult task for those who teach in either a rural or urban setting. To talk about what variables add to the difficulties, this study has figured out that there are a few variables which can be partitioned into inside and outside factors. The ones that appear to be the learners' are known as internal factors. There will be four internal considerations :native language interference (such as the Indonesian language), English proficiency (such as linguistic competence such as knowledge of grammar and mastery of vocabulary), motivation, and the habit of reading In this study, in addition to the internal factors, there are also external factors like the condition of the class, the teaching aids available, and time availability.
a. English proficiency English proficiency appears to be the most significant factor in teachers' difficulties with writing instruction. It is shown by the 37 percent, which is the most when compared to the other three factors that are a part of that. In fact, the ten teachers in their writing class found this to be the most challenging aspect of teaching writing to students. Each competence—grammar, vocabulary, etc.—will be addressed in the discussion of how students' English competence may contribute to one of the challenges facing educators.
According to Brown (2004), p. 233, English competence is a broad term that includes learners' grammatical competence, vocabulary mastery, and ability to organize an effective paragraph in English. Words, or vocabulary, are, in fact, the fundamental tool for writing because they carry meaning and enable a writer to convey the message. Furthermore, according to Farbrain & Which (1996), p. 108, grammar competence helps students construct sentences that are understandable and acceptable in English.
Learning how to write a good paragraph also helps students write a text in English that is acceptable. Students struggle to write not only a paragraph but also a sentence due to a lack of vocabulary or grammar skills. When students simply do not have the words or the proper grammar to express themselves, they can become extremely frustrated while engaged in a productive activity (Harmer, 2001, p. 252).
When teachers are unable to be "sensitive" to their students' competence, this factor of learners' English competence makes it harder for teachers to teach writing. They first fail to recognize the language proficiency of their students and then assign them tasks that they found challenging. Teachers are expected to adapt to the level of their students' vocabulary mastery by allowing students to choose any topic they are interested in, allowing them to locate the topic whose vocabulary they are familiar with. With respect to, likewise, the educators should make the students acquainted with such syntactic highlights expected to make a specific classification of the text
the understudies will make. By along these lines, the instructors' difficulties will be settled since they can change the assignment with the understudies' level.
The influence that a learner's native language has on their ability to write English is closely linked to their English proficiency. Therefore, native language is also regarded as a significant factor in the success of a student's writing in EFL (Harmer, 2001, p. 250).The learners' native tongue is Indonesian in this setting.
"Transfer" occurs when Indonesian has positive effects on a particular aspect of the writing of students.
Both Indonesian and English have morphological similarities and differences. These differences are what make writing in English difficult for Indonesian students. For example, Menard (2010) states that "Indonesian verbs are not marked for person, tense, or number...there is no distinction between simple past and present perfect, meaning there is no equivalent in the Indonesian language."
"He eat right now," for example. or He is eating right now .Additionally, there is no past tense verb form in Indonesian, making it difficult; The Indonesian might say, "I wrote a letter yesterday or I finished writing it. "According to Menard (2010), future time is more of a syntactical and morphological error combined. For instance, "We will buy this book. "The Indonesian word for "future time" is "akan."The sentence has the same structure as the Indonesian "bukuinikitaakanbeli" (word-for-word translation).
Additionally, "spelling" is frequently found to be a problem; According to Harmer (2001, p. 256), "the correspondence between the sound of a word and the way it is spelt is not always obvious"—one of the reasons why students of English find spelling challenging.
Because every word in Indonesian is spelled that way, students may therefore spell words phonetically. In point of fact, teachers in Junior High School find this spelling issue to be more difficult than other morphological issues in either Junior High School or Senior High School. In terms of semantics, Indonesian students have trouble distinguishing pairs of English words that are equivalent to a single word.
a) "take," "send," or "pick up," for example, "She takes her son after school." b) "hear," for example, "I listened to a sound in the dark."
Another test the instructors defy with respect to their students is the punctuation issues. These are:
a) Indonesian students are typically used to speaking in the S-V-O order, even when asking questions; kamu sukanasigoreng?" (spoken in Indonesian).As a result, they'd ask, "Do you like fried rice?" rather than asking, "Do you like fried rice?" There is no equivalent word for "do" in Indonesian.
b) Issues with relative pronouns In contrast to our numerous words, Indonesia uses only one (yang)."The letter that I haven't received it yet," for instance.(duplicated personal pronouns) c) Similar to reflexive pronouns, Indonesian learners of English only have one word for "self," which is "diri." As a result, phrases like "Ali hurt himself" and "They cook for theimselves" are frequently used. etc. could be very prevalent.
d) In Indonesian, the word for "got," "has," or "be" is "ada," so an example of an error would be "Was an exam last week."
e) Because Indonesian does not have articles, students frequently forget to use them when learning English. For example, "How was the exam?" The thought came across better without the addition of the word "the."
b. Motivation and Reading Habit The teachers' struggles with students' lack of motivation and reading habits are discussed together because they are intertwined. A few students, truth be told are not especially worried about their composition, while others are. Reading habits will also be influenced by the extent to which students' intrinsic motivation motivates them to improve. Attention should also be paid to a person's reading habit, which is known to be closely linked to their writing skills. Therefore, teachers can help students perceive or develop their motivation to write and read in English by demonstrating, among other things, how writing in English is important in shaping students' self-image and ultimately achieving some of their higher goals in the future (such as getting a scholarship or a good job).
c. External factors the difficulties that teachers face when teaching writing stem not only from internal aspects of the students but also from external factors. According to the interview, the class situation, the available aids, and the availability of time when teaching writing are the most influential external factors. The term "class condition" refers to the large number of students in the majority of Indonesian classes. Teaching students in large classes is always controversial, especially in countries where English is taught as a second language (EFL).
The issue of space presents a problem for both the teacher and the students in a large class, resulting in physical discomfort, an intimidating atmosphere, difficulty in providing individual attention, inadequate feedback, and teacher guilt. The teacher must concentrate on the needs of the students in order to overcome the challenges posed by a large class. To help students succeed in writing, teachers need to be creative and have an open mind. The availability of teaching aids and time appears to be another issue that teachers face. Ten teachers say that they rarely use teaching aids with their students. The majority of them only use a piece of paper for the students to write on, while they only use a blackboard and a board marker to explain everything. They admit that the school has audiovisual resources, but they never use them to teach writing. More importantly, teachers cannot deny another external factor—time availability. They explained that the school doesn't give the students enough time to practice. This is because they need to first tell the students what to write, then ask them to practice writing, and finally evaluate their writing.
d. Solutions As was mentioned in the previous discussion, there are a few reasons teachers, especially Indonesian teachers, find teaching writing difficult. Teachers, on the other hand, have some options for overcoming the obstacles. First and foremost, teachers must assign tasks that are appropriate for their students' language proficiency. This means ensuring that they speak the bare minimum required to complete such a task. Second, it's up to teachers to make sure that the work has a purpose and that students are aware of it. The last yet not least, the instructors ought to recollect that students should be helped or directed during the method involved with figuring out how to compose.