Students’ Response on Developing Writing Descriptive Text Material Using Genre Based Approach

International Journal of English Linguistics, Literature, and Education (IJELLE) Vol. 5, No. 1, June 2023, pp. 43-54 ISSN 2686-0120 (print), 2686-5106 (online) 43 http://journal.univetbantara.ac.id/index.php/ijelle/index Students’ Response on Writing Descriptive Text Material Using Genre Based Approach Mu’man a,1,*, Setya Resmini b,2 a Fakultas Pendidikan Bahasa, IKIP Siliwangi, Indonesia Fakultas Pendidikan Bahasa, IKIP Siliwangi, Indonesia 1 *; 2 * Corresponding Author b Received 5 June 2023; accepted 28 June 2023; published 30 June 2023 ABSTRACT The ability of writing narrative text is one of the skills that have to be mastered by students because writing is one of four basic skills in English. This research aims to identify students’ response on developing writing descriptive text material using genre-based approach. The method of this research used research and development with the instruments – questionnaire and interview. Then the subject of the research is seventh grade students in one of junior high school in Cimahi. The result of this research is students’ responses towards the material during a field test were categorized as very good with some notes to point out: the product assists students to learn to write descriptive text; the design and graphics of the product are visually appealing; and the product has met the students' own criteria for a good material. On the other hand, based on their own experience of using the product, they had obstacles in understanding the material. Thus, it was considered in revising the product to simplify the language and task instruction. KEYWORDS Students’ Response Writing Descriptive Text Gonre Based Approach This is an openaccess article under the CC–BY-SA license 1. Introduction Conducting an appropriate teaching and learning process can be assisted by a suitable teaching and learning material. Teaching materials and learning tools are considered as critical factors in determining curriculum implementation success (Andari et al., 2020). Teaching material facilitates students to understand better the knowledge and help them engage with the concept, so both teacher and students can achieve the learning goals. Moreover, implementing teaching materials in classroom activities promotes cognitive, emotional, and psychomotor improvement within students (Şentürk & Şimşek, 2021). It is every educator's duty to select or even create appropriate and curriculum-aligned material that boosts students' enthusiasm to learn in the classroom. However, based on researcher’s finding during pre-service teaching in one of junior high schools in Cimahi, the teacher uses a textbook and paper-based supplementary material without any illustrations or color. It consists of the main material and exercises without any interactive teaching approach. This leads to teachercentered classroom activity and has less-varied students’ learning activity. Furthermore, according to findings in Kodriyah et al. (2018), textbook is the most preferred material to be used in the classroom by teachers. However, Surtikanti (2020) evaluated an English textbook “When English Rings a Bell” for seventh grade students and the result shows that in the textbook, all the four English skills are not covered well, namely reading and writing so it is recommended to use supplementary material to get varied materials. Thus, it is necessary for the teacher to not rely on textbook and develop a suitable teaching material to motivate student in learning and help them engage with the subject. Teaching language, as much as any good teaching, needs to be accompanied by teaching material. In this global era, English language has the important role in the fast-paced development doi :10.32585/ijelle.v5i1.3726 44 International Journal of English Linguistics, Literature, and Education (IJELLE) ISSN 2686-0120 (print), 2686-5106 (online) Vol. 5., No. 1, June 2023, pp. 43-54 in many fields such as science, business, education, technology, politics, social science, etc. There are many people who are eager to learn English language as their second or foreign language. Basically, there are four basic skills in learning English: Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing (Aydoğan & Akbarov, 2014). Writing abilities offers systematic instructions to build fundamental skills that students will need to become successful writers, such as grammar, sentence structure, paragraph writing, mechanics and usage, and transcription (Juniati & Huda, 2020). In terms of foreign language, writing is considered as the most challenging yet important skill in to be learned. In the research finding conducted by Alisha et al. (2019), the majority of EFL students' writing problems are challenges in sharing and organizing ideas, forming a good sentence, and utilizing grammar. Based on the preliminary study in one of junior high schools in Cimahi, the teacher notices that students have a very limited vocabulary and constantly produce grammar mistakes in writing. Therefore, writing practice activity in the class should be focused on vocabulary empowerment, proper sentence formulation, and students’ ideas organization. In Indonesia’s school, there are numerous kinds of texts that should be learned as the material in junior high school. For the seventh graders, students do not only comprehend the text meaning but also language feature or grammar. Generally, there are twelve text genres in English – procedure, recount, narrative, description, news item, report, analytical exposition, spoof, hortatory exposition, explanation, discussion, and review. In this research, the researcher limits the study to descriptive text as the problem found in the school. Saraswati et al. (2018) stated that descriptive text is type of writing which deals with the senses; how something looks, feels smells, tastes, and/or sounds. Writing descriptive text requires students’ details in expressing their sense of something and presents it in a proper form of writing. According to problems that rise above, this research identifies students’ response on writing descriptive text materials using genre based approach. Hammond & Derewianka (2001) stated that genre pedagogy includes activity whereas students are assisted in identifying grammatical patterns that characterize the specific genre. Genre based approach primarily purposes to formulate language to be used in a certain setting so it focuses activity for students to compose a certain type of text in a proper language form while constructing ideas into a piece of writing. In the previous research conducted by Sinaga & Fitriyani (2019) aimed to develop appropriate English writing materials for narrative text using Genre-Based Approach by employed a Research and Development (R&D) design. The researchers designed the new materials that validated by experts. The results of validation showed 91.6% from English lecturer and 80% from English teacher. It indicates that developing writing materi (...truncated)