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CHAPTER IINTRODUCTION

A. Background of the ProblemLanguage is very important thing in human life. Language can help people transfer ideas or something which wants to show. Language is a symbol where someone comes from. Harmer states that language is used widely for communication between people who do not share the same first (or even second) language.[footnoteRef:2] It is the central instrument of all educations because the language is used to acquire of all knowledge and skills both in spoken and written form. [2: Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching, (4th Ed) (New York: Longman, 2007), p.13]

Brown says that language is acquired by all people in much the same way language and learning language both have universal characteristics.[footnoteRef:3] It means that language is important for human because without language, we cannot interact one to another perfectly. Therefore the language is important for humans daily lives. [3: H.Douglas Brown, Principle of Language Learning and Teaching, (4th Ed) (Sanfransisco, California: Longman, 2000) , p.5]

Learning a language means learning to use that language to communicate both in form (listening and speaking) and written form (reading and writing). In Indonesia English is as a foreign language. English is also intensively used in international communication. English as a foreign language is generally taken to apply to the

students who are studying general English at school and institute in their own country or as transitory visitor in target language country.[footnoteRef:4] It means that, although English is not used for communication in their daily live. There are many people learn English. Nowdays, they study English in formal or non formal, So, it can be concluded that English is important for our life. [4: Jeremy Harmer, How to Teach Writing (New York: Longman, 2009), p.39]

In the process of language learning, there are four basic skills that must be mastered they are listening, speaking, reading, and writing.[footnoteRef:5] Writing is the last basic language skill that considered to be the most difficult one and also writing is more complex than other skills because the writer must have the ability to express the ideas and it must use an appropriate vocabulary and accurate grammar. So the readers will be easy to understand the language used in written communication. [5: Sanggam Siahaan, Issues in Linguistics (Yogyakarta: Graha Ilmu, 2008), p.215]

Everyone needs language to communicate to anothers. People not only use spoken language in the form of conversation but also they use written language. It shows that the acquiring of writing skill plays an important role in our living, because we always use it for communication. That is the reason why there are many people need to learn to write in English for occupational or academic purposes that can support their carrier in the future. For the reasons, students should master writing skill.

Raimes says that writing is skill in which we express the ideas, feelings, and thoughts arranged in words, sentences and paragraphs using eyes, braind and hand[footnoteRef:6]. Thus, writing is basically the process of expressing ideas and thoughts of the researcher using knowledge of structure and vocabulary to combine the researchers ideas as means of communication because writing is also not an easy subject because it is not only transcribing language into written symbol, but also as thinking process. If the students have mastered these skills, they will be able to write, not only reading what they write, but also other readers can understand it. [6: Ann Raimes, Techniques in Teaching Writing (New York: Oxford University Press, 1983), p.76.]

Learning to write well is a difficult and lengthy process, because it induces anxiety and frustration for many learners. It causes many students less motivated to write in English. Most of students regard that writing is a difficult task. Not all students are ready to write their ideas when they were asked to write, even in the native language. The problem that they face when they are writing, such as grammatical mistakes, wrong choice of words, and lacking of vocabulary. Moreover, according to Knapp and watkins , in writing there are some text types of writing such as describing, explaining, instructing, arguing, and narrating.[footnoteRef:7] [7: Petter Knapp, Genre, Text, Grammar (Sydney:UNSW Press, 2005) , p.10]

This research is focus on writing a process, it is procedure text because it is appropriate based on the materials in English Curriculum for Senior High School. Procedure text is such as recipes and directions are concerned with telling someone how to do something.[footnoteRef:8] The text function is to describe how something can be done through a sequence of actions or steps.[footnoteRef:9] There are many example of procedure text such as how to make a sandwich, how to make a call, how to operate the computer, and how to make a cup of coffee. However for procedure text is the process can be based on the activity that usually used in daily life. [8: Ibid, p.158] [9: Mark Anderson, Kathy Anderson, Text Type in English (South Yarra:Macmillan Education PTY LTD, 1997), p.50]

In the fact, when the students make a procedure text they are not caring about the specific generic structure. Then, when the students write a procedure text there are many students are confused and difficult to start. although they have get idea on their mind and know what they will write. It is not surprised if a teacher found the students having difficulty in elaborate their ideas in written form. For example, the students find trouble in building a good sentence. The mistake is not only in grammar but also in choosing suitable vocabulary.

Based on the preliminary research on December, 2014, the researcher gained some data taken from the English teacher and some of the students there. The teacher, Hidayati, S.Pd said that the students desire to study English is low because they said that English is difficult, and also their lack of vocabulary and did not master grammar well.[footnoteRef:10] [10: Hidayati. Interview an English Teacher SMAN 16 Bandar lampung , December, 2014.]

The researcher also interviewed some of students there, one of them is Ariska, she said that she can not write well and feel confused to express her idea.[footnoteRef:11] It can be seen from table 1.1 that there are 194 students at the eleventh grade and it just 56 students have good writing score. [11: Nika, Interview student SMAN 16 Bandar lampung , December 2014.]

Table 1.1Preliminary Research Data of the Writing Score of the Second Semester of the Eleventh Grade of SMAN 16 Bandar LampungNoClassStudents ScoreNumber of Student