LITERATURE REVIEW: THEORIES RELATED TO LEARNING WRITING

There are many theories about the teaching and learning English Lang as a second language (L2) as well as theories of teaching and learning writing. Some of these theories are Second Language Acquisition Theory by Kreshen (1982), Chomsky Universal Grammar Theory, Chomsky SLA Theory (Ren Hulin & Xu Na, 2014), Writing Theory (Homstad & Thorson (1994), Situated Cognition Theory, Construction Theory of Writing, and others. The researcher intends to highlight the Situated Cognition Theory to help in understanding the study.

Situated cognition theory

This theory is specifically discussing about writing practices. The Situated Theory (Wilson, 2002; Greeno, 1998; Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989) is very useful in explaining about two important matters to affect students’ performance and ability to write. One, writing instruction. Two, an assessment that is sensitive to the conflicting demands of the act of writing.

According to Situated Theory, the cultural background, societal context, and individual situations that pass through teaching (D’Andrade, 1981) are counted in reviewing the writing of the students. Moreover, the theory also believe that learning to write is achieved in the periodic process, situated in the genuine and dynamic learning environments as the act of learning itself (Duguid et al., 1989). This theory recognizes the dynamic nature of learning based on the view of learning in which “cognitive activity is circulated across individuals and situations” (Robbins & Aydede, 2009).

Situated Cognition Theory also focuses on the time, purposes, and needs of the learners in their writing session. In the modern classroom, the theory has recognized that the relationship between the students and teachers is different compare to a traditional, transmission of knowledge-centred classroom. In this view, teachers are not the distributors of knowledge but they are the facilitators pedagogically. To note, this notion of the relationship between students and teachers is in attempt to explain that writing lesson is not just to learn in the classroom, but it needs a kind of the instruction that emphasizes the side-by-side learning, repeated practice, modelling and scaffolding in which all the processes looks more like apprenticing (Lave, 1997; Rogoff, 1991).

One model that looks suitable to use in teaching a writing process is the Six+1 Trait Writing Model by Bellamy (2005). The Analytic Writing Continuum (Bellamy, 2005), which includes refined and clarified definitions of the constructs measured, assesses the following elements of writing:

• Content

The content category describes how effectively the writing establishes and maintains a focus, selects and integrates ideas related to the content or body of the composition (i.e., information, events, emotions, opinions, and perspectives). In addition, put some evidences, details, reasons, anecdotes, examples, descriptions, and characteristics in the explanation of the ideas.

• Structure

The structure category describes how effectively the writing establishes logical arrangement, coherence, and unity within the writing processes of a composition. It can be called as the organization of the composition writing.

• Stance

The stance category describes how effectively the writing converses a perspective by using a certain level of formality, elements of style, and tone suitable for the audience and purpose of writing. It may be suit to be known as a style of writing.

• Sentence Fluency

The sentence fluency category describes how effectively the sentences are constructed to fulfil the purpose of the writing, in terms of rhetorical purpose, rhythm, and flow.

• Diction (Language)

The diction category describes the accuracy and suitability of the words and vocabularies for the writing task and how effectively they create imagery, provide mental pictures, or convey feelings and ideas to be written in the composition.

• Conventions

The conventions category describes how effectively the writing demonstrates age-appropriate control of usage, punctuation, spelling, capitalization, and paragraphing. 

Peach & Campos (2008) have reported that the national panel of experts on student writing and the senior NWP researchers determined that even the Six +1 Trait Model necessarily complete, it still required certain modifications to make it more appropriate for the use in research studies. And, the following modifications were implemented in the NWP Analytic Writing Continuum (Peach & Campos, 2008) prior to the scoring conference:

• The scale of the rubric was extended from four to six points in order to ensure sufficient discrimination and therefore to allow increased sensitivity to any changes that might be observed.

• The language defining the traits was clarified to improve the consistency of the assessment of the writing.

• The assessment was modified to focus entirely upon the student writing (where, on occasion, the rubric previously included references to the reader’s responses or to the writer’s personality as the basis for the assessment).

Most of these studies have examined the use of the respective traits in one school in a neighborhood, one grade, or one classroom. All the studies have shown the positive change in student writing performance (Jarmer et al., 2000; Bellamy, 2000). In the fall, for example, in the first test administered, only 14 second graders showed an exceptional brainstorm of ideas, in which by spring that number had risen up to 262 students. Next, in a yearlong intensive traits writing program with Dr. Ruth Culham where the children or kids even primary students have proven a significant writing growth across the six traits of writing (Bridges, 2011). All these examples show that the writing practices using the Six+1 Trait Writing Model may help students to improve their writing performance in English Lang subject.

To compare, this Six+1 Trait Writing Model in the process of composition writing seems to have nearly a similar concept to the latest writing research by Mukundan et al., (2013). They have elaborated that the writing skills of students are taught and assessed based on five different domains of writing (Mukundan et al., 2013) which are;

• Content

The content has to be entirely relevant to the topic of a composition.

• Organization

The structure of the composition writing which includes the logical sequence, clearly stated, and the cohesive presentation of the ideas.

• Language Use

The writing which emphasizes a correct grammatical rules in the entire content of the composition.

• Vocabulary

The sentences built and arranged with an appropriate words choice, using bombastic words, proverbs and idioms etc.

• Mechanisms

The writing which emphasizes on the appropriate flows of paragraphing, punctuation, spelling etc.

Hence, the researcher knows that these two comparison can be blended to suit the situation of the students in the classroom in teaching them how to write effectively, so students can have a better performance in writing as well as in English Lang subject.