Appropriating Grammar as a Tool in Writing Activities: Student's Perception

Journal of English Language and Education ISSN 2597- 6850 (Online), 2502-4132 (Print) Journal Homepage: https://jele.or.id/index.php/jele/index Article Appropriating Grammar as a Tool in Writing Activities: Student's Perception https://doi.org/10.31004/jele.v7i2.232  Elya Kristian Fernando 1, Maman Suryaman2 abcde Universitas Singaperbangsa Karawang ABSTRACT This study explores the motivations and perspectives of 2 university students in Indonesia. In this research, author employed qualitative design with the research method "Interview Study". The author collects data using Semi-structured Interviews, meanwhile, the author uses Thematic Analysis by Braun and Clarke for data analysis. It was found that the use of Grammarly independently by the participants was motivated by feedback from the teacher, belief in learning, feedback preference and English proficiency. In addition, their abilities also shape their perspective on the features provided by Grammarly. Students’ AWE appropriation is influenced by their belief about learning, preference on feedback and language proficiency. Keywords: automated writing evaluation, EFL, grammarly, perspective Article History: Received 12th April 2022 Accepted 22th September 2022 Published 4th October 2022 INTRODUCTION In learning English, we will learn many skills, such as writing, speaking, reading, listening, and vocabulary, and one of them is grammar (grammar). In general, grammar or grammar is a science that studies the rules that govern the use of language. In line with Yarrow (2007), who gave his opinion on Grammar, according to him, the word "Grammar" refers to all features of the structure or use of languages, such as spelling, punctuation, and pronunciation. It is often associated with the notion of truth. Not only Yarrow, Cushing & Helks (2021) also explain the meaning of Grammar; according to them, Grammar is associated with labelling grammatical constructions at the clause level, "accuracy" of usage in writing, and identifying "rules" in artificial examples. While Lindawati & Sengkey (2017) define Grammar as a collection of systems that language users must obey, they further explain that grammar is the basis for giving birth to a good and beautiful language and ensuring the stability of a language. Like other sciences, Grammar also has its function, namely arranging sentences into a complete and transparent arrangement. Lailika (2019) also explains the function of Grammar; according to him, Grammar can make us understand clearly the information contained in his writing. Grammar serves to separate grammatical forms of language from non-grammatical ones (Lindawati & Sengkey, 2017). *Corresponding Author: Elya Kristian Fernando, e-mail: Authors’Contribution: a-Study design; b-Data collection; c-Statistical analysis; d-Manuscript preparation; eFunds collection. © 2022 The Author.This article is licensed CC BY SA 4.0. visit Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Journal of English Langaugeand Education volume 7 Number 2 2022 1 Copyright (c) 2022 Elya Kristian Fernando, Maman Suryaman. Appropriating Grammar as a Tool in Writing Activities: Student's Perception Based on the definitions and functions described previously, we understand that Grammar is essential to be taught and must be taught from an early age to children. However, behind the length of teaching Grammar that already exists in various schools, the results are arguably unsatisfactory. This statement is supported by Puspitasari (2013) research; he found that some students sometimes made grammatical mistakes, such as using "Article" in a sentence. In Puspitasari's research, some students did not add “Article” in a word that should be included in articles. In addition to Puspitasari's research, Noviabahari (2010) also researched Grammar errors made by students; in his research, many students made mistakes in using verbs. He found that students often did not change the verbal form even though the adverb of time changed; in addition, students also sometimes could not understand how to use the past tense correctly. Judging from the two researchers, it is not surprising that Grammar is complicated to learn and has always been a frightening spectre for students, even though they have studied it for a long time. In today's instant-paced era, there are always technologies that help people in the various fields they live in. In education itself, many technologies or innovations make it easier for teachers in the teaching process and make it easier for students to do assignments; technology-based methods are a development of non-technologybased methods because they provide a more significant amount of feedback and present more individual material, making it easier for users to process learning (AbuSeileek, 2009). In language learning, one technology helps students master a language, namely Automatic Grammar Checker/Online Grammar Checker. Grammar checker tool is handy for students because it can facilitate Grammar correction by highlighting words and phrases in student writing that are suspiciously rare in English (Harvey-Scholes, 2018). Not only Harvey, Lawley (2015) also reported some of the conveniences obtained by using the Grammar checking tool; he said that students could quickly identify Grammar errors by looking at phrases that have been marked automatically by the tool. McAlexander (2000) argues that the program's feature is to mark style, grammar, or problems in the text by highlighting them and providing suggestions for any grammatical errors. The same thing was also conveyed by Cavaleri, M., & Dianati, (2016) that the Automatic Grammar Checker/Online Grammar Checker program provides feedback on grammatical writing errors/errors. Until now, there are lots of Automatic Grammar Checker applications, and one of them is an application called Grammarly, Grammarly is one of the most popular Automatic Grammar Checker applications today, founded in 2009 by two Ukrainian developers, Maz Lytvyn and Alex Shevchenko. Several studies have been carried out related to Grammarly, and from these studies, Grammarly reaped some positive responses from researchers, Grammarly is an Automatic Grammar Checker application that provides very accurate feedback on grammatical errors (Cavaleri, M., & Dianati, 2016); moreover, research conducted by ONeill & Russell (2019) at an Australian university proves that Grammarly is the favourite application in terms of checking grammar mistakes. Grammarly has received positive statements from several experts who researched Grammarly because it provides various benefits to its users; as said by Qassemzadeh & Soleimani (2016) that Grammarly has main features such as: checking grammar and checking word pronouns, moreover, the Grammarly application can also perform other services such as proofreading and detection of plagiarism. Qassemzadeh & Soleimani (2016) also said that Grammarly has features © 2022 The Author.Thi (...truncated)