Makalah Grammar Translation Method

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A.    Background

Nowadays, English is getting more and more of its importance as an international language. English is widely used not only in the countries of which native language is English, but also in other countries where English becomes the second or even foreign language, including Indonesia. Teaching English is mainly to prepare the students to have the language skills, which include four skills that are listening, speaking, reading and writing. One of the language components that must be known by English learners is grammar. Grammar plays an important role in understanding English. By mastering grammar, the students will be able to develop their listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. Moreover, grammar has an important role in daily conversation.[1]

Writing is one of the four basic skills that is learnt in English subject. There are some meanings of writing. Many experts have proposed the definition and explanation of writing.

Brown (2001: 336) identifies writing as the process of putting ideas down on paper to transform thought into words, to sharpen your main ideas, to give them structure and coherent organization. Oshima & Hogue (2007: 15) stated that writing is a never a one-step action; it is an ongoing creative act. Writing is a process repeated, namely process of revising and rewriting.[2]

Heaton (1975: 127) writing is a task which involves studentsto make grammatically correct sentences by manipulating words in the form of apiece of continuous writing with successfully communicates the writers' ideas on a certain topic. The statement shows that the main purpose writing is to expressideas, thoughts, and writing clearly in a written language.

Nunan (2003: 88) writing is an intellectual activity of finding the ideas and thinking about the way to express and arrange them into statetment and paragraph that is clear to understod by the people.[3]

B.     Identification of the Problem

Based on the background above, the reasercher found some problem that make the students so difficult in writing. The problems are:

1.      The most serious problem that students often have is lacking of vocabulary.

2.      Students have not focused on learning grammar.

3.      The correction limitation of students’ written works.

4.      Students lack material sources to improve their writing skill.

5.      Students lack time for learning writing skill.

6.      The students are often not confident to write in English because they do not know how to use grammar effectively in writing. [4]

C.    Limitation of the Problem

In this research was limited on the problem to implementation of using Grammar Translation Method (GTM) approach to improve the students’ writing recount text ability and to improve the student’s motivation in writing learning that develope their idea in writing then they can combine each of sentences to write a good paragraph especially for students in senior high school 03 Bengkulu.

D.    Research Question

In line with the background of the study, the writer formulates the research question as follows: “Can Grammar Translation Method (GTM) approach improve student’s writing ability in eleventh grade of SMAN 03 Pagar Dewa- Bengkulu?”

E.     Objective of the Research

The primary objectives of the study are:

1.      To find out how Grammar Translation Method used to improve the mastery of writing recount text for the student at eleventh grade of SMAN 03 Bengkulu.

2.      To find out whether the Grammar Translation Method can be used as a method

in improving the students’ writing recount text ability.[5]

F.     Significance of the Research

The study about the use of Grammar Translation Method to improve students’ mastery of writing hopefully can be useful to give some contribution of English language teaching and learning. The results of this study are expected to provide useful information for: First, for students, will give an input to the students, so they can improve their writing ability. Second, for English Teachers, it gives the alternative solution in teaching writing skill. Third, for institution of SMAN 03 Bengkulu, it can be beneficial regarding to improve the education quality.

G.    Definition of Key Term

1.      Grammar Translation Method (GTM)

According to Larsen-Freeman (2000: 11): GTM is a language teaching method built learners to be able to read literature written in the Target Language, this purpose can be reached by learning about the grammar rules and vocabulary of the Target Language.

2.      Writing Ability

According to Davinder, writing ability is the skill of putting together what you think or want to say using word, which a person reading it is able to know your thoughts, ideas, and feelings are near to what you want to convey.[6]

3.      Recount Text

Recount is a text which retells events or experiences in the past.Its purpose is either to inform or to entertain the audience. There is no complication among the participants and that differentiates from narrative.

CHAPTER II

LITERATURE REVIEW

A.    Writing

1.      Definition of Writing

Brown (2001: 336) identifies writing as the process of putting ideas down on paper to transform thought into words, to sharpen your main ideas, to give them structure and coherent organization. Oshima & Hogue (2007: 15) stated that writing is a never a one-step action; it is an ongoing creative act. Writing is a process repeated, namely process of revising and rewriting.[7]

Heaton (1975: 127) writing is a task which involves studentsto make grammatically correct sentences by manipulating words in the form of apiece of continuous writing with successfully communicates the writers' ideas on a certain topic. The statement shows that the main purpose writing is to expressideas, thoughts, and writing clearly in a written language.

Nunan (2003: 88) writing is an intellectual activity of finding the ideas and thinking about the way to express and arrange them into statetment and paragraph that is clear to understod by the people.

Tarigon (1985) writing is productive skills for writing an indirect communication and the nature of the character is very different from that expressed by speaking directly.

Suparno, Jona (2006) argues that’s writing is a series of activities going on and involve several phases, the preparatory phase, the content development and review, as well as revisions or improvements posts.

Based on the explanations above, it can be concluded that writing is an effort to express the writer’s thinking, feeling, or ideas in written form by considering writing aspects and writing stages to be clears understood by the readers.

2.      The Purpose / Important of Writing

Writing is one of important skills which have to be mastered by the students because writing can help them to think critically and deeply to build a good writing. By learning writing the student will get knowledge how to write effectivelly, how to develope and express ideas, and how to share their thoughts with anyone else through writing.[8]

3.      Aspect of Writing

Writing consisted of several elements such as content, organization, vocabulary, language use, and the mechanics as well. Each element of writing has the qualifications and it will be explained in the next discussion.

B.     Grammar Translation Method (GTM)

1.      Definition of Grammar Translation Method

According to Larsen-Freeman (2000: 11): GTM is a language teaching method built learners to be able to read literature written in the Target Language, this purpose can be reached by learning about the grammar rules and vocabulary of the Target Language. It is also believed that studying foreign language provides students with good mental exercise which helps develop the students’ mind.

2.      The Principal of Grammar Translation Method

The principle of Grammar Translation Method focuses on translating grammatical forms, memorizing vocabulary, learning rules, and studying conjunctions and other parts of speech. Grammar rules are presented and studied explicitly. Grammar is taught deductively and then practiced through translation exercises and the primary skills to be developed are reading and writing.[9]

3.      Procedure of Grammar Translation Method

Even though many new method nowadays, Grammar Translation Method remains a standard methodology for teaching English for some teachers. Prator and Murcia (cited in Brown, 2001: 18) list the major characteristics of the Grammar Translation Method, as follows: (1) classes are taught in the mother tongue, which little active use of the target language; (2) much vocabulary is taught in the form of lists of isolated words; (3) long elaborate explanations of the intricacies of grammar are given; (4) grammar provides the rules for putting words together, and instruction often focuses on the form and inflection of words; (5) reading of difficulties classical texts s begun early; (6) little attention is paid to the content of texts, which are treated as exercises in grammatical analysis; (7) often the only drills are exercises in translating disconnected sentences from the target language into the mother tongue; (8) little or no attention is given to pronunciation.[10]

4.      An Advantages and Disadvantages of using Grammar Translation Method

1.      An Advantages of Grammar Translation Method

a)      In Grammar-Translation Method, the first language is maintained as the reference system in the learning of the second language.

b)       Systematic study of grammatical rules plays an important role in fostering students’ ability of reading comprehension and producing grammatically correct sentences.

c)      The focus on understanding literary texts provides the situation in which reading and writing abilities are well trained.

d)     The Grammar-Translation makes few demands on teachers although it often creates frustration for students.

2.      Disadvantages of Grammar Translation Method

a)      Overemphasis on translation can never emancipate the learners from dependence on the first language.

b)      The Grammar-Translation puts too much emphasis on reading and writing and neglects listening and speaking.

c)      In the Grammar-Translation Method, the texts are mostly taken form literary works. The language learned often doesn’t meet the practical needs of the learners.

d)     Memorizing grammar rules and bilingual word lists does not motivate students to actively communicate in the target language.[11]

C.    Previous Studies

This research is the development of the previous study conducted by Resa Dewangga Putra. In his research, he did a survey research. He studied about the students’ mastery of the structure “get and have” of the XII grade students of SMA 7 Semarang in the academic year of 2006/2007. In collecting the data, he gave a test to the twelfth graders of SMA 7 Semarang. The result showed that two students got an A (very good quality), three students got B (good quality), ten students got C (sufficient quality), five students got D (bad quality), and no one got E. From the result, he concluded that the twelfth grade students of SMA 7 Semarang have mastered the structure “get and have” sufficiently. [12]

Then, I will use a method conducted by Bambang Setiyadi as described on his book (2006: 37-40). The steps are:

(1) The teacher introduces the formula of English structure.

(2) The teacher points out differences to Indonesian language.

(3) The teacher provides the example and their translation as well.

(4) The teacher calls randomly to have students translate their sentences or give      them time to work quietly writing out translation.

(5) The teacher has to make sure that the students’ answers are correct.

(6) The teacher explains again in Indonesian language to students if there are

changes to the part of the sentences.

(7) The teacher gives an exercise that is related to the changes of it.

(8) The teacher lets students work individually or in pairs to complete the exercise first.

(9) The teacher walks around the class and observes the students.

(10) The teacher answers questions and provides corrections where needed.

(12) The discussion is conducted in the mother tongue.

(13) The teacher introduces a list of vocabulary and the equivalent translation in order that the students can practice making sentences to the structure of English the teacher given. This may be done by introducing a matrix as foll

CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHOD

A.    Research Design

The method of this research is classroom action research. Every teaching methods and techniques has their own characteristics. They have different objectives, syllabus, types of teaching learning activities, learner role, teacher role, and the role of the student’s native language. The elaborations of the Grammar Translation Method as follows:

1.      The objectives

Setiyadi (2006: 33) explains “the general objectives of the Grammar Translation Method are learners be able to read literature that is written in the target language. This purpose can be reached by learning about the grammar rules and vocabulary of the target language. It is also believed that studying a foreign language provides students with good mental exercise which helps develop students’ minds”.

2.      The Syllabus

According to Reily (cited in Bambang, 2006: 16) “the choice of a syllabus is a major decision. The syllabus used in Grammar Translation Method teaching learning language is a structural syllabus. The content of the teaching is a collection of the forms and structures of the language being taught. Here, grammar is taught deductively and then practiced through translation exercises. Vocabulary is learnt from bilingual words lists, in this case English and Indonesian language”.

3.      Types of Learning and Teaching Activities

Setiyadi (2006: 34) defines that “in this technique, teachers make the students learn the grammar rules deductively by translating the target language into the students’ native language. Here, students are also need to learn about the target language vocabulary”.

4.      Learner Roles

The role of the students in this Grammar Translation Method is that they do as the teacher’s says so they can learn what their teacher knows.

5.      Teacher Roles

The teacher is authority in the classroom. S/he asks the students to translate the target language into their native language and asks the students in their native language if they have any questions, students ask questions and the teacher answers the questions in their native language.

6.      The Role of the students’ native language

The meaning of the target language is made clear by translating it into the students’ native language. The language that is used in class is mostly the students’ native language.[13]

B.     Research Setting or Subject of the Research

This research will be conducted in the eleventh grade students of SMAN 03 Bengkulu academic year 2018-2019, which is located in Pagar Dewa Regency. The researcher chose this class because the students in this classroom have low ability to speak English both inside and outside classroom among their friends and teacher because of some problems that they encountered in classroom. It means that they had problems with their writing ability and English teaching and learning in classroom.

Figure 1. Eleventh Grade students of SMAN 03 Bengkulu:

Eleventh Grade students of SMAN 03 Bengkulu	Male	Female	Total
XI A XI B	10 students 11 students	19 students 18 students	29 students 29 students

            In conducting this research, the researcher was ask for help to English teacher of SMAN 03 Bengkulu especially during in classroom where the researcher will do this research. In this research, the researcher becomes an Englsh teacher in teaching and learning English in classroom and English teacher as a collaborator.[14]

C.    Instrument

In order to support this research, the researcher used some instruments and   those instruments are writing assessment, field note, observation sheet, and documentation. [15]

1.      Writing Assessment

Test is a process to measure students’ ability and knowledge about material that is given, competence, intelligence and talent that can belong to individual or group.

2.      Try-Out

The quality of the data, whether it is good or bad, is based on the instrument used. A good instrument fulfills two important qualifications i.e. reliability and validity. So, before the test was used as the instrument, it had been tried out first to the students in another class. The purpose of it was to collect the data. After the result of the try-out is gained, the analysis was made to find out the validity and reliability of the items of the test. Some items remained to be used (because they were valid) while some others were left out because they were invalid. [16]

3.      Field Note

Filed note is taken when the researcher conducted the research in classroom. The source of data is from students’ activities during teaching and learning process in classroom.

4.      Observation Sheet

In this research, the observation sheet is used by the collaborator to observe the learning progress in classroom both in students’ improvement of writing ability and the effectiveness of Grammar Translation Method in solving students’ writing and grammar problems.

5.      Documentation

The documentation will be in form of photos. The purpose of this is to show the activities that done by the students during English teaching and learning process of Grammar Translation Method to improve students’ writing ability.

D.    Technique of Collecting Data

In this research, the researcher has some technique of collecting the data such as:

1.      Enquette (Kuesioner)

Enquette represent list assess question written used to obtain;get certain boldness of responder. Enquette which is writer use an enquette which is structure with question which comprising conducive answer alternative of responder become what them correct assume. Enquette ( Kuesioner) represent conducted of the data collecting technique by giving a set statement or question written into responder to replying. This enquette is addressed to responder that is Student class of XI SMAN 03 Bengkulu.

2.      Documentation

According to Arikunto Method documentation is to look for data concerning variable or things which in the form of note, transcript, book, magazine, newspaper, inscription, menutes of meeting, lengger, agenda etcetera. This Documentation technique is used to equip data in frame analyse the problem of accurate, researcher need documents and information which in the form of data of headmaster, like school profile, note, transcript, book, photo etcetera.[17]

E.     Research Procedure

In gathering the data, the writer modified the steps by Ferrance and McNiff et al with the following steps:

(1)   Making General Plan

In this step, the writer planned some activities from the previous, during, and after the research.

(2)   First Action Step (Giving Pre-Test)

In order to measure the signal achievement of causative verb of the students, the writer gave them pre-test. It was conducted on Saturday, 19 February 19, 2011. In this pre-test, the students were given a set of multiple choice test items which consisted of 40 items.

(3)   Giving Treatment (Including Monitoring, Reflecting, and Rethinking)

On this activity, the students began to learn causative verb using Grammar Translation Method as the treatment. Here, the three treatments began on Monday, 21 February 21, 2011 and ended on Saturday, February 26, 2011. Here, the writer asked the students to discuss the usages of causative verb and applied it in some simple sentences and short dialogs. These activities were continuously for three meetings. The writer gave the right answers of mistakes made by the students’ in doing the exercise.[18]

F.     Technique of Analysis Data

After getting the data, the researcher analyzed the data by evaluating and comparing the result from each cycles to know whether Grammar Translation Method improves the students’ writing ability or not. Besides that, to support the data analysis to find students’ percentages, the researcher used the following formula:

Note

P : Percentage of the students’ writing ability

F : Total number of the students in a certain categories

N : Total number of students

The percentage of the students’ score from the calculation will be consulted to interval of five scale percentages as below:

Interval	Qualification	Indicator
85-100	Excellent	Students’ writing performance consists of good understanding about what they were write about, accurate and fluent in performing English writing.
75-84	Good	Students’ writing performance consists of good understanding about what they were write about, few error about the correctness and fluentness in performing English writing
60-74	Average	Students’ writing performance consists of good understanding about what they were write about, some errors about correctness and fluentness in performing English writing
40-59	Low	Students’ writing performance consists of poor understanding about what they were talking about, lot of error about accurateness and correctness in performing English writing
0-39	Very low	Unclear meaning

REFERENCE

Abdullah, Muhammad Al-abri. The Difficulties of Secondary Students in Written English.        Dakhiliya.

Anabela, Reis Alves. 2008. Process Writing. Birmingham: The University of Birmingham.

Antoine, Meillet. Writing System: Cambridge University.

Anukibaesa. Academic Writing Problems Faced by Nowadays Student.

Cagri, Tugrul Mart. 2013. The Grammar Translation Method and The Use of Translation to Facilitate Learning in ESL Classes. Iraq: Ishik University. (Journal of Advances in English Language Teaching)

Cagri, Tugrul Mart. 2013. The Grammar Translation Method. Erbil, Iraq: Ishik University. (Journal of Advances in English Language Teaching)www.eropean-science.com/jaelt.

Dalia, Cecilia and Friends. 2013. An Analysis of Writing Skills Difficulties of The English Composition 1. Salvador: University of Salvador.

Dwi, Supatmi. 2013. Student Difficulties in Writing. Surakarta: Publication Journal.

Fawzia, El Seyabi and Victoria Tuzlukova. 2014. Writing Problems and Strategies. (Asean Journal of Social Science and Humanities)

Ibrahim, Mohammed Al-Faki. 2015. English Writing Problems. Atbara, Sudan: European Centre for Research Training and Development UK. (International Journal of English Language Teaching)

Marzana, Rahman. 2012. GTM (An Effective and Feasible Method in Bangladesh Context). Dhaka, Bangladesh: BRAC University.

Muhammad, Natsir. 2013. Grammar Translation Method versus Communicative Language Teaching a Review of Literature. Medan: University of Medan. (International Journal of Education and Literacy Studies) ISSN 2202-9478

Nguyen, Thanh Huy. 2015. Problems Affecting Learning Writing Skills. Vietnam. (Asean Journal of Education Research) ISSN 2311-6080

Shagia, Afrin. 2016. Writing Problems on Non-english Major Undergraduate Student (An Observation). Dhaka, Bangladesh: Stamford University of Bangladesh. (Open Journal of Social Science)

Tita, Nurul Fajriyani. 2011. Improving Students Writing Ability Through Clustering Technique. Jakarta: Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University.

Widianto. 2011. The Use of Grammar Translation Method to Improve Students Mastery of Causative Form. Semarang: Semarang State University.

 

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[1] Antoine, Meillet. Writing System: Cambridge University.

[2] Shagia, Afrin. 2016. Writing Problems on Non-english Major Undergraduate Student (An Observation). Dhaka, Bangladesh: Stamford University of Bangladesh. (Open Journal of Social Science)

[3] Tita, Nurul Fajriyani. 2011. Improving Students Writing Ability Through Clustering Technique. Jakarta: Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University.

[4] Ibrahim, Mohammed Al-Faki. 2015. English Writing Problems. Atbara, Sudan: European Centre for Research Training and Development UK. (International Journal of English Language Teaching)

[5] Dalia, Cecilia and Friends. 2013. An Analysis of Writing Skills Difficulties of The English Composition 1. Salvador: University of Salvador.

[6] Abdullah, Muhammad Al-abri. The Difficulties of Secondary Students in Written English. Dakhiliya.

[7] Anabela, Reis Alves. 2008. Process Writing. Birmingham: The University of Birmingham.

[8] Nguyen, Thanh Huy. 2015. Problems Affecting Learning Writing Skills. Vietnam. (Asean Journal of Education Research) ISSN 2311-6080

[9] Dwi, Supatmi. 2013. Student Difficulties in Writing. Surakarta: Publication Journal.

[10] Cagri, Tugrul Mart. 2013. The Grammar Translation Method and The Use of Translation to Facilitate Learning in ESL Classes. Iraq: Ishik University. (Journal of Advances in English Language Teaching)

[11] Marzana, Rahman. 2012. GTM (An Effective and Feasible Method in Bangladesh Context). Dhaka, Bangladesh: BRAC University.

[12] Widianto. 2011. The Use of Grammar Translation Method to Improve Students Mastery of Causative Form. Semarang: Semarang State University.

[13] Fawzia, El Seyabi and Victoria Tuzlukova. 2014. Writing Problems and Strategies. (Asean Journal of Social Science and Humanities)

[14] Nguyen, Thanh Huy. 2015. Problems Affecting Learning Writing Skills. Vietnam. (Asean Journal of Education Research) ISSN 2311-6080

[15] Cagri, Tugrul Mart. 2013. The Grammar Translation Method. Erbil, Iraq: Ishik University. (Journal of Advances in English Language Teaching) www.eropean-science.com/jaelt.

[16] Anukibaesa. Academic Writing Problems Faced by Nowadays Student.

[17] Dalia, Cecilia and Friends. 2013. An Analysis of Writing Skills Difficulties of The English Composition 1. Salvador: University of Salvador.

[18] Muhammad, Natsir. 2013. Grammar Translation Method versus Communicative Language Teaching a Review of Literature. Medan: University of Medan. (International Journal of Education and Literacy Studies) ISSN 2202-9478