Copyright © 2017, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

The Use of Genre-Based Approach to Teach StudentsWriting Skill of Hortatory Exposition Text in Bahasa

Indonesia

Asep Nurjamin, Lucky R. NurjaminSekolah Tinggi Keguruan dan Pendidikan (STKIP) Garut, Indonesia

Abstract - Nowadays, genre-based approach (GBA) has become apopular approach in teaching English, particularly in writing.The interest to use this approach in other languages emergesfollowing its success in English language teaching. However, infact, the use of this approach in teaching other languages, in thiscase Bahasa Indonesia, is still limited. Thus, a study to observethe use of genre-based approach in teaching Bahasa Indonesia isnecessary. This study aims to investigate the impacts of genrebased approach to teach writing hortatory exposition text inBahasa Indonesia. Both quantitative and qualitative in form ofcase study was employed to gain the data. The data were takenfrom observation, tests, and interview involving six students insenior high school level. As result, genre-based approach givessignificant impacts on the students’ writing of discussion text,particularly in the genre moves; schematic structure andlinguistic features of the text.

Keywords: Genre-based approach, Bahasa Indonesia, hortatoryexposition text, students’ writing skill

1. INTRODUCTIONGenre-based approach (GBA) is the latest suggested

approach applied in the newest Indonesian curriculum (Emilia,2011). It is in line with the focus of curriculum target whichemphasizes genre as the basic material for language teaching.Moreover, the goal of GBA is that students are able to docommunication based on particular purposes by consideringthe characteristic of linguistic features and the organisation ofthe text.

Moreover, in every quoted definition, GBA is known asan approach consisting of four steps. They are; BuildingKnowledge of Field, Modelling of The Text, JointConstruction of The Text, and Independent Construction ofThe Text (Martin, 2003; Emilia, 2011). First, in buildingknowledge of field, teachers scaffold students to have strongbackground knowledge of the topic (Gibbons, 2002). This stepaims at building students capacity in understanding the culturalcontext of culture and social purpose of the genre (Derewianka& Jones, 2012). Second, modelling of the text is a step whosefocus is on developing students’ knowledge of the languageand how it works (Derewianka & Jones, 2012). Moreover, thisstage also facilitates students to write genre by being familiarwith the purpose and the feature of the text (Dderewianka,1997). As the third stage, joint construction of the text providesstudents chance to firstly implement their understanding on thetext through constructing a particular text in group (Emilia,

2011). This step may be applied in two activities: scribing (thewhole class group) or by a small group (Derewianka, 2011;Emilia, 2011). The last stage, independent construction of thetext, is a phase when students attempt to construct the text bythemselves. This involves the process of drafting, writing,revising, and publishing (Derewianka & Jones, 2012).

Numerous studies related to the use of GBA have beenconducted. One of them was done by Fajriah (2015). Sheexamined the effectiveness of GBA in teaching exposisitiongenre to EFL second grade students in one of state senior highschools in Garut. This study shows that GBA is effective toteach spoken hortatory genre. Additionally, Syarifah (2016)also undertook similar study which investigated the use ofscaffolding in GBA to teach written discussion text in EFLtertiary level. The result shows that GBA is effective toaccomodate the use of scaffolding in teaching genre,particularly discussion text.

However, this approach has not been commonly appliedin teaching Bahasa Indonesia. Many teachers teach genrewithout systematic steps, which often lead students to getconfused in terms of the function of the genre itself in their realcommunication (Fajriah, 2015). Therefore, from theexplanation above, it is necessary to extend the study of GBAin other context especially in Bahasa Indonesia context eitheras the first language or second language for Indonesianstudents. This study is also needed to be taken into accountsince the study of GBA in teaching Bahasa Indonesia is stilllimited.

Therefore this present study aimed at examining theeffectiveness of GBA in teaching Bahasa Indonesia in thegenre of hortatory exposition in a state senior high school inGarut and investigating the extent this approach developsstudents’ capacity in writing hortatory exposition. This genrewas chosen since it is assumed as one of chalenging types oftext which requires students’ critical thinking. Moreover, thetopic discussed in this genre is about “the controversial issue ofthe increase of cigarette price in Indonesia”.

2. METHODSBoth quantitative and qualitative approaches in the form

of case study were employed to gain the data. Morespecifically, quasi-experimental design was used to examinewhether or not GBA is effective to teach hortatory expositionin Bahasa Indonesia. Additionally, a case study was chosen to

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Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research (ASSEHR), volume 82Ninth International Conference on Applied Linguistics (CONAPLIN 9)

investigate the improvement resulted from GBA in students’hortatory exposition. This study is categorized as a case studysince the study took place in natural setting (Creswell, 2010),the data were analyzed in descriptive approach (Grimes &Shchulz, 2002), and the study was conducted in a small case(Bogdan & Biklen, 1992).

In this study, there were 40 students who served as thesample. Moreover, there were six students serving as the focusparticipants which were purposively selected based on thelevel of achievement in the pre-test result.

To collect the data, observation, tests and semistructured interview were undertaken in this study. In theobservation, the data were collected through field-note andobservation checklist in which the researcher acted asparticipant-observer. Additionally, the tests were done twice;pre-test and post test. In the tests, students were asked toconstruct a written hortatory exposition essay in BahasaIndonesia with the theme of ‘the issue of the significantincrease of cigarrette price in Indonesia’. Semi-structuredinterview was undertaken to support the findings gained fromthe students’ text.

Moreover, the data in this study were analyzed usingdependent t-test (SPSS) and genre analysis as adapted fromButt, Fahey, Feez, Spinks, and Yallop (2000), and Emilia(2011). Dependent t-test functioned to examine theeffectivenesss of GBA statistically; meanwhile, genre analysisfunctioned to analyze the improvement of students in writing ahortatory exposition in three aspects; social function, textorganization, and lexicogrammatical features of the text.

3. FINDING AND DISCUSSIONa. The effectiveness of Genre Based Approach in Teaching

Students’ Writing of Hortatory Exposition in BahasaIndonesia

As the first findings, the data gained in this study showthat GBA is effective to be used in teaching students’ writtentext of hortatory esposition in Bahasa Indonesia. It is in linewith the result of the statistical calculation using t-test formula.Below is the visualization of the data showing that GBA iseffective to teach students’ writing of hortatory exposition inBahasa Indonesia.

Table I. Paired Samples Statistics

Mean NStd.Deviation Std. Error Mean

Pair1

Pretest 71.2375 40 4.88192 .77190Posttest 79.5875 40 5.33360 .84332

Table II. Paired Samples Test

Paired Differences

T df

Sig.(2-tailed)Mean

Std.Deviation

Std.ErrorMean

95% ConfidenceInterval of theDifferenceLower Upper

Pair 1

Pretest–Posttest

-8.350000

5.415088

.856200

-10.081833

-6.618177

-9.7522

399

.0000

From the tables above, it is shown that the values ofpre-test and post test are different. Specifically, the resultshows that = -9.752 is lower than the critical valuemeaning that it lies out of the accepted area of ; therefore,

is rejected and is accepted. By this, it can be concludedthat there is a difference in terms of the students’ witingperformance between the students’ pre-test and their post-testscore. Therefore, this hypothesis testing shows that genre-based approach is effective to be applied in teaching writtenhortatory exposition in Bahasa Indonesia.b. The Improvement of Students’ Written Text of Hortatory

Exposition in Bahasa IndonesiaThere are three major points of the improvement of the

genre moves as reflected in the students’ writing of hortatoryexposition in this study; they are, social function of the text,generic structure and linguistic features of the text.

i. Social FunctionIn this point, the data show that students generally

improve their abilities in achieving the social function of thetexts. As an example, one of low achievers (AD) was able toconsistently persuade readers to support the idea of theincrease of cigarrette price. It is very different from hisprevious text produced in the pre-test in which he still explainsthe dissadvantage of increasing the price of cigarrette leadinghim to get an inconsistency in delivering the ideas. Anotherimprovement is also reflected in TS (a middle achiever) inwhich she wrote some elaborations in strenghtening herarguments to make readers sure that the increase of cigarretteis not effective way to do. It is also different from her previoustext in which she only put very a short argument without anyelaboration; I think increasing the price of cigarette inIndonesia is not good because it may become a threat to thecountry’s economy. In other words, students are able toachieve the social function of hortatory exposition; that is, topersuade readers to do something (Knapp & Watkins, 2005;Gerot & Wignel (1994).

ii. Generic StructureIn terms of generic structure, all students were able to

organize their texts using appropriate structure of the text;thesis statement, arguments, and recommendation. Thisimprovement is obviously different from students’ textsproduced in the pre-test. For instance, BP (a low achiever) didnot write a thesis statement in his pre-test, he directly wrote ashort argument followed by short suggestion; In my opinion,the price of cigarette must be increased because smoking is

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very dangerous. So, let’s support the government to increasethe price of cigarette.. However, in his post-test, he couldorganize his text starting from giving a current issue of theincrease of cigarrette, a thesis statement, two strong argumentsand closed it by a recommendation. Another improvement isalso shown by YT (a middle achiever) who could write clearsuggestion at the end of her writing; thus, as a good citizen, weshould support the government’s effort in increasing the priceof cigarette.. This is different from her text in the pre-test inwhich she only concluded her arguments; thus, the idea ofincreasing the price of cigarette is positive. In conclusion, thestudents were succesful to organize the hortatory expositiontext in Bahasa Indonesia including thesis statement, arguments,and recommendation (Gerot & Wignel, 1994; Derewianka,1997; Emilia, 2011).

iii. Linguistic FeaturesIn terms of linguistic features, most students improve

their capacities in involving the role of linguistic features ofhortatory exposition into their texts in the post test. as anexample, AK (a high achiever) could write a passive voice inher final text which was absent in her first text. It shows thatshe understood that passive voice is one of characteristics ofhortatory exposition. In addition, YT (a middle achiever) putsome technical terms of ‘smoking’ in her final text (tembakau,nikotin, kanker). It is different from the text in the pretest inwhich she only used the words smoking and cigarrette as thetechnical terms. Another improvement is also reflected in thetext of KS (a high achiever) in which he put expert’s opinionsin his final text (it is in line with Soerojo (2015) in a workshopon effective control on cigarette consumption who argued thatin Jokowi’s era he is pessimistic about the president’scommitment in decreasing the number of smokers). KS also putsome evaluating statements in his final text (e.g. increasingcigarette price is not an effective solution), and impersonalstatements (e.g. due to their addiction, it would not preventsmoker to buy cigarette).

Those findings above reflect that students are able tofulfill the lexicogrammatical features of hortatory exposition:technical terms, passive voice, impersonal statement,evaluating statement, general nouns, connectives, mentalverbs, and expert opinions (see Butt, Fahey, Feez, Spinks &Yallop, 2000; Emilia, 2011).

As additional findings gained from the interview, studentsgenerally perceive the use of GBA positively in their writingprocess of hortatory exposition in Bahasa Indonesia. Forexample, BP said that “melalui pendekatan ini, saya menjadipaham mengenai apa saja yang harus saya tulis, sebelumnyasaya selalu stuck dalam menentukan ide penulisan”. Anotherresponse was expressed by a middle achiever (YT) stating thatJoint Construction of the Text helped her to share herunderstanding of the text with her peers as she said; “sayasangat terkesan ketika belajar menuliskan eksposisi hortatoridalam kelompok karena saya dapat saling tukar pikiran, danide dengan kelompok”. This statement is in line with theessence of JCoT in GBA as stated by Hyland (2004) and Feez(1998a).

4. CONCLUSIONIn conclusion, this study reveals that genre-based

approach is considered as an effective approach in teachingwriting, particularly hortatory exposisiton text in BahasaIndonesia. This has been proved by the improvement of thefocus-participant writing ability involving ability inunderstanding the social function, the generic structure, and thelinguistic features of the text.

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