The Purpose Of Study English Language Essay

Functional Grammar was introduced by Halliday (1994) based on the assumption that language is a set of meanings. Language which is a means of communication is used to negotiate and exchange meanmgs. He states that a language is interpreted as a system of meanings accompanied by forms through which the meanings can be realized. Halliday (1994) adds Functional Grammar lean towards text, which is a semantic unit, rather that sentence. So, Functional Grammar which was developed based on meanings uses text as the unit of analysis.

Functional Grammar has been adopted to become one of the subj ects

in the English Department of UNJ since 2002. Statements related to Functional Grammar as subjects can be quoted as follows:

– “Mata kuliah mi bertujuan mengembangkan wawasan eksplisit tentang teori bahasa dan segi fungsinya (tekstual, interpersonal, experiential) untuk menunjang pengembangan kemampuan dan ketrampilan berkomunikasi lisan dan tulisan dalam bahasa Inggnis secara benar dan baik.” (Pedoman Akadeniik 2004/2005:100)

Functional Grammar 1 aims at developing the explicit knowledge of the theory of language based on the thnction (textual, interpersonal, and experiential) to support the development of ability and skills to communicate both written and spoken well and correctly. (Own translation).

– “Mata kuliah mi bertujuan mengembangkan kemampuan dan ketrampilan menganalisa teks dalam bahasa Inggris dilihat dan segi fungsinya (tekstual, interpersonal, experiential) untuk menunjang pengembangan kemampuan dan ketrampilan berkomunikasi lisan dan tulisan dalam bahasa Inggris secara baik dan benar.” (Pedoman Akademik

2004/2005:100)

–

– Functional Grammar 2 aims at developing ability and skills to analyze text in English

based the function (textual, interpersonal, and experiential) to support the development of ability and skills to communicate both ritten and spoken well and correctly. (Own translation)

In keeping with the description, both Functional Grammar 1 and 2 have the basic purpose that is to support the development of ability and skills to communicate, both written and spoken, well and correctly.

As a matter of fact, a number of students complain about the subjects. They have difficulties about the subjects. No study was conducted relevant to the condition. Realizing the need of improvement, the researcher is interested to conduct a study about English Department students’ perception towards their knowledge, comprehension, and ability to apply Functional Grammar in analyzing text and writing.

B. Focus of Study

The research is initiated by the fact that some students have problems in understanding Functional Grammar concepts. Learning the condition, the researcher is interested to conduct a study related to English Department students’ perception towards their knowledge, comprehension, and ability to apply Functional Grammar in analyzing text and writing.

C. Research Questions

Based on the background above, the research questions that are identified in this study are:

– What is English Department students’ perception towards their knowledge of Functional Grammar concepts. 1

– What is English Department students’ perception towards their comprehension of Functional Grammar concepts.

– What is English Department students’ perception towards their ability to apply Functional Grammar concepts in analyzing text.

– What is English Department students’ perception towards their ability to apply Functional Grammar concepts in writing.

I). Purpose of Study

The purpose of the study is to identifi English Department students’ perception towards their ability to apply Functional Grammar in analyzing text and writing. Using Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational goals, students’ knowledge and comprehension of Functional Grammar are included in this research.

E. Benefit of Study

The result of this study is expected to give input related to English

Department students’ perception towards their knowledge, comprehension and

ability to apply Functional Grammar in analyzing text and writing.

3 CHAPTER II

LiTERATURE REVIEW

To provide the basic theory of the research related to English Department students’ perception towards their knowledge, comprehension, and ability to apply Functional Grammar in analyzing text and writing, this chapter discusses Traditional Grammar, Functional Grammar, Functional Grammar as a subject in the English Department, Ability to apply, Writing, and Perception.

1. Traditional Granmiar

A number of experts such as Harmer (2001), Thombury (1999), and Gerot and Wignell (1994) have defined traditional grammar as a set of rules of a language. Harmer (2001) describes the grammar of a language as the description of the ways in which words can change their forms and can be combined into sentences in that language. Thombury (1999) explains grammar as a description of the rules for forming sentences. While Gerot and Wignell (1994) point out Traditional Grammar is focused on the rules for producing coffect sentences. They add sentence becomes the unit of analysis. So, based on the discussion, Traditional Grammar is focused on rules and sentence becomes the unit of analysis.

Further, Gerot and Wignell (1994) explain that Traditional Grammar labels elements of the clause in terms of the word class that are nouns, verbs, prepositions, adverbs, and adjectives. Criticizing towards the weaknesses of Traditional Grammar, Thombury (2002) argues that there is

no one-to-one correspondence between grammatical form and communication function such as making a request, offering something, etc.

2. Functional Grammar

Functional Grammar was introduced by Halliday (1994) based on the assumption that language is a set of meanings. Language which is a means of communication is used to negotiate and exchange meanings. Halliday (1994) believes that when one communicates, he exchanges the meanings with other people. He further states that ‘a language is interpreted as a system of meanings accompanied by forms through which the meanings can be realized.’ To be different from Traditional Grammar that is focused on rules and sentence as the unit of analysis, Functional Grammar is focused on meanings and text as a whole becomes the object of analysis.

Further, Halliday (1994) explains that Functional Grammar discusses the notion of a clause as a unit in which meanings of three different kinds are combined. The three aspects of meaning of the clause are clause as representation, clause as exchange, and clause as message.

1). Clause as Representation

The first aspect of the meaning of the clause is Clause as

Representation. Based on Halliday’s assumption, Gerot and Wignell

(1994) note it concerns with human beings’ experiences. Clause as

representation is related to human beings’ experiences. As human

beings’ experiences vary, it is possible to identify the types of those experiences. Halliday (1994) describes the most powerful impression of experience is that it consists of ‘goings-on’happening, doing, sensing, meaning, being, and becoming. Halliday (1994) then proposes there are three semantic categories that are processes, participants, and circumstances.

Ã¢â‚¬Â¢ Processes

Based on Halliday’s assumption, Gerot and Wignell (1994) notice

processes are realized by verbs.

Ã¢â‚¬Â¢ Participants

Halliday (1994) writes participants are realized by nouns.

Ã¢â‚¬Â¢ Circumstances

Halliday (1994) describes circumstance is realized by adverbial group or prepositional phrase. Based on Halliday’s assumption, Gerot and Wignell (1994) note circumstances answer such

questions as when, where, why, how, many, and as what.

Halliday (1994) further explains the different types of processes that are built into the granmiar of English are material process, mental process, relational process, behavioral process, verbal process, and existential process.

A. Material Process: processes of doing

Based on Halliday, Gerot and Wignell (1994) state material processes are processes of material doing. Halliday (1994) notes they express the notion that entity ‘does’ something which may be

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done ‘to’ other entity. This process consists of these particular participants-an obligatory actor, and optionally also a goal. Based on Halliday, Gerot and Wignell (1994) explain the entity who or which does something is the Actor. The entity which may be done to is the Goal.

B. Mental Process: processes of sensing

Halliday (1994) explains mental processes are processes of feeling, thinking, and seeing. The two participants in mental process are ‘senser’ and ‘phenomenon’. The senser is conscious being that is feeling, thinking, or seeing. The phenomenon is that which is ‘sensed’, felt, thought, or seen.

C. Relational Process: processes of being

There are two different modes that are attributive and identifying. a. Intensive processes: attributive

Based on Halliday, Gerot and Wignell (1994) refer attributive processes as processes which assign a quality. Halliday (1994) notes the quality is labeled the ‘attribute’, an entity to which it is ascribed is the ‘carrier’.

b.Intensive processes: identifying

Based on Halliday, Gerot and Wignell (1994) refer identifying processes as processes which establish an identity. Halliday (1994) adds the process has an identity assigned to it. The terms are given the x-element and the a-element, that which is to be

identified, as ‘identified’, and the a-element, to which serves as identity, as ‘identifier’.

D. Behavioral processes

Halliday (1994) explains these are processes of physiological and psychological behavior like breathing, coughing, smiling, dreaming, and staring. The participant who is ‘behaving’ is labeled ‘behaver’.

E. Verbal processes

Halliday (1994) refers to these are processes of saying. The term ‘sayer’can be interpreted as a subject (it may be someone or something) that says something. There are three participant functions that are the receiver, verbiage, and target.

a. The receiver is the one to whom the saying is directed at.

b. The verbiage is the function that corresponds to what is said.

c. The target is the entity that is targeted by the process of saying.

F. Existential processes

Halliday (1994) notes these represent that something exists or happens. That object or event which is being said to exist is labeled, simply, ‘existent’.

2). Clause as exchange

The second aspect of the meaning of the clause is clause as exchange. Halliday (1994) explains clause as exchange has two components that are Mood and Residue.

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a. Mood Element

Halliday (1994) proposes it consist of two parts: (1) the subject, which is a nominal group, and (2) the finite operator, which is a part of verbal group. Based on Halliday, Gerot and Wignell (1994) add the finite element is one of the small numbers of verbal operators expressing primary tense, modality and polarity. Halliday (1994) explains primary tense means past, present, or future at the moment of speaking.

Finite verbal operators

Temporal

Past present future

Did, was does, is will, shall

Had, used to has would, should

Modal:

Low median high

Can, may will, would must, ought to Could, might is to, was to need

(dare) has to, had to (Halliday 1994:74)

Halliday (1994) refers to modality as the speakers’ judgement of the probabilities, or the obligations, involved in what he is saying such as may, will, can etc. He adds polarity is the choice between positive and negative, as in is/isn’t, do/don’t.

b. Residue

Halliday (1994) explains the Residue consists of functional elements of three kinds, that are, predicator, complement, and adjunct.

a Predicator. It is realized by a verbal group minus the temporal or modal operator.

b. Complement. A complement is an element within the Residue that has the potential of being subject but is not. It is typically realized by a nominal group.

c. Adjunct. An adjunct is an element that has not got the potential of being subject. It is typically realized by an adverbial group or prepositional phrase.

3). Clause as message

The third aspect of the meaning of the clause is clause as message. Halliday (1994) states a message consists of a Theme combined with a Rheme. As general guide, the theme can be identified as that element which comes in first position in the structure.

The analysis of the Theme of the clause is rather complex. Halliday (1994) explains in this case, complex clause is called a ‘multiple’ Theme. In a multiple theme, there are certain complements which have their orders. Halliday (1994) points out the typical ordering is textuaY’interpersonaV’experiential. The textual theme is any combination of continuative, a structural theme, and a conjunctive theme.

(i) Continuative is one of small set of discourse signalers, yes, no, well, oh, now.

(ii) A structural Theme is any of the obligatory thematic elements such as conjunctions and W-H relative.

(iii)A conjunctive Theme is one of the conjunctive adjuncts. He refers conjunctive adjuncts are those which relate the clause to the preceding text such as also, meanwhile, soon, finally, etc.

Halliday (1994) further describes the interpersonal theme that is any combination of (i) A vocative is any item, typically (but not necessarily) a personal name, used to address; it may come more or less anywhere in the clause and is thematic if preceding the topical Theme. (ii) A modal theme is any of the modal adjuncts. He describes that modal adjuncts are those which express the speakers’ judgment regarding the relevance of the message such as maybe, usually, occasionally, surely, honestly, etc. (iii) A mood marking theme is a Finite verbal operator, if preceding the topical Theme; or a WHinterrogative (or imperative let’s) when not preceded by another experiential element (i.e. when functioning simultaneously as topical Theme).

The last order is experiential. Halliday (1994) explains the experiential element is referred as ‘topical theme’. This means that the Theme of a clause ends with the first constituent that is either participant, circumstance, or process.

3. Functional Grammar as a subject in the English Department, State University of Jakarta

Functional Grammar has been adopted as a subject in the English Department since 2002. The subject must be taken by the students when they are in the fourth semester for Functional Grammar 1 and in the fifth semester for Functional Grammar 2. Both Functional Grammar 1 and 2 consist of three semester credit units. Referring to Academic Guidelines 2004/2005 of Faculty of Languages and Arts, it is stated that the three semester credits unit have 24 meetings. Each meeting takes 100 minutes. It has two kinds of tests that are mid semester test and final semester test.

As stated in the Academic Guidelines 2004/2005 of Faculty of Languages and Arts, Functional Grammar as a subject is described as follows:

“Mata kuliah mi bertujuan mengembangkan wawasan eksplisit tentang teori bahasa dan segi fungsinya (tekstual, interpersonal, experiential) imtuk menunj ang pengembangan kemampuan dan ketrampilan berkomunikasi lisan dan tulisan dalam bahasa Inggris secara benar dan baik.”

Functional Grammar I aims at developing the explicit knowledge of the theory of language based on the function (textual, interpersonal, and experiential) to support the development of ability and skills to communicate both written and spoken well and correctly. (Own translation)

“Mata kuliah mi bertujuan mengembangkan kemampuan dan ketrampilan menganalisa teks dalam bahasa Inggris dilihat dan segi fiingsinya ( tekstual, interpersonal, experiential) untuk menunjang pengembangan kemampuan dan ketrampilan berkomunikasi lisan dan tulisan dalam bahasa Inggris secara baik dan benar.”

Functional Grammar 2 aims at developing ability and skills to analyze text in English based the function (textual, interpersonal, and experiential) to support the development of ability and skills to communicate both written and spoken well and correctly. (Own Translation)

4. Ability to Apply

In discussion about ability to Apply, Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (2001) describes ability is something that one is able to do, because one has particular mental or physical skill. Longman Dictionary of English Language and Culture (1998) notes ability is the fact of having the skill, power, or other quality that are needed in order to do something. Webster’s New World Dictionary of American English (1998) adds ability is skills, expertness, or talent..

Bloom (1956), cited in Elliot et a!. (2000) proposes classification

of educational goals. There are six major classes in the cognitive

taxonomy of educational objectives:

1. Knowledge is the recalling specific facts.

2. Comprehension is understanding what is communicated.

3. Application is generalizing and using abstract information in concrete situation.

4. Analysis is breaking a problem into subparts and detecting relationship among the parts.

5. Synthesis is putting together parts to form a whole.

6. Evaluation is using criteria to make judgments.

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In accordance with the development, the three classes of

educational goals that were analysis, synthesis, and evaluation were then

revised to become analyze, evaluate, and create. Arend (2004) describes

six classification of the cognitive process dimension:

1. Remember is retrieving relevant knowledge from long-term memory.

2. Understand is constructing meaning from instructional messages, including oral, written, and graphic communication.

3. Apply is carrying out or using a procedure in a given situation.

4. Analyze is breaking material into constituent parts and determining how parts relate to one another and to overall structure or purpose.

5. Evaluate is making judgments based on criteria and standards.

6. Create is reorganizing elements into a new pattern or structure. In keeping with Bloom’s theory and the purpose of this study that

is to identify English Department students’ perception towards their knowledge, comprehension, and ability to apply Functional Grammar in analyzing text and writing, ability to apply should be developed after the steps of knowing and understanding. Referring to the explanation above, ability to apply Functional Grammar is to be developed through the steps of knowing and understanding. The questionnaire will also include identifying not only the knowledge and understanding but also ability to apply Functional Grammar in analyzing text and writing.

5. Writing

Writing as described by Leki (1998) is communicating. Meyers (2003) notes writing is a process of discovering and assembling ideas, putting them on paper, reshaping, and revising them.

To be acceptable, Windshuttle and Windshuttle (1998) state good writing should have correct grammar and precise and clear content. Diyanni (2001) adds good writing is coherent. Readers can follow and understand it easily. Hughes (2001) describes underlying writing ability is a number of sub abilities such as control of punctuation. Considering the important points above, it can be concluded that good writing covers the aspects of grammar and coherence.

6. Perception

Perception is defined by Elliot, et all (2000) as the giving of meaning to the discrete, meaningless stimuli that initially arouse awareness. Barkhuizen (1998) notes perception refers to feelings and views of the students.

Students’ perception is important in language learning as Barkhuizen (1998) claims that it is important for teachers to discover their learners’ feelings and beliefs about their language learning process. He believes it can give input and consequently review and possibly change their teaching process.

Referring to the purpose of this study that is to identify students’ perception towards their knowledge, comprehension, and ability to apply Functional Grammar in analyzing text and writing, questionnaire will be used to identify students’ views and feelings of their levels of cognitive domaim

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CHAPTER ifi

METHODOLOGY

This chapter discusses the methods used to conduct the study which is related to identifying English Department students’ perception towards their

knowledge, comprehension, and ability to apply Functional Grammar in analyzing text and writing. The first part discusses the issue of the study which is then

followed by Study Design and continued by the Implementation of the study.

A. Issue of Study

This study is related to identifying English Department students’ perception towards their knowledge, comprehension, and ability to apply

Functional Grammar in analyzing text and writing. The researcher is interested to conduct this study because of the fact that some students express their difficulties while attending Functional Grammar classes. It is expected that findings of this

study can be used as input concerning with students’ perception towards their knowledge, comprehension, and ability to apply Functional Grammar.

B. Study Design

This study was designed to employ survey The instruments employed were questionnaire and interview. The questionnaire was used to identify English Department students’ perception towards their knowledge, comprehension, and ability to apply Functional Grammar in analyzing text and writing, whereas the interview was used to gather more detail data. This was to anticipate the possible weaknesses of questionnaire. This study employed stratified sampling as the

selection of respondents planned was based on their academic entrance. The data then were analyzed by clustering educational goals from Bloom (1956) and the aspects of Functional Grammar from Halliday (1994). It was designed that the respondents of questionnaire were 100 students and the respondents of the interview were 10 students.

1. Method of Study

It was planned that survey was chosen to conduct this study. Brown and Rodgers (2002) state surveys are any procedures used to gather and describe the characteristics, attitudes, views, and opinion. The purpose of a survey as described by Nunan (1992) is generally to obtain snapshot of conditions, attitudes, and / or events at a single point in time. Based on the discussion above and the purpose of this study that is to identify English Department students’ perception towards their knowledge, comprehension, and ability to apply Functional Grammar in analyzing text and writing, survey can be seen as the appropriate method.

2. Respondents

it was planned that the respondents of this study were 100 students. They were English Department students of State University of Jakarta. The students were both from Educational and Non- Educational Programs who had completed Functional Grammar 1 and 2.

The sampling procedure that was planned to be used in this study was stratified sampling. Bums (2000) describes stratified sampling is sampling in which groups or strata within the population are each sampled randomly. He adds that a population can be divided on the basis of social class membership, sex, level of intelligence or level of anxiety. The researcher planned to conduct this technique of sampling as Burns (2000) notes that sampling error is reduced by stratification for the sample can not differ from the population with respect to the stratifying factors. The respondents of this study were planned to be divided based on the Academic Entrance that is 2002,2003, and 2004.

3. Site and time

This study was planned to be conducted in the English Department of State University of Jakarta in the second semester of Academic Year of 2005/2006. It was between 6 March 2006 and 13 March 2006.

Referring to the purpose of study that is to identify English Department students’ perception towards their knowledge, comprehension, and ability to apply Functional Grammar in analyzing text and writing, the researcher chose English Department of UNJ as the site of the study.

It was designed that this study was conducted in between 6 March 2006 and 13 March 2006. This choice was made by considering the availability of time that the researcher had. It was also the time in which students were effective in the process of attending teaching-learning activities.

4. Instruments

As mentioned in the previous section, this study was designed to employ survey. Questionnaire and interview were chosen to become the instruments of collecting data. In keeping with Blooms’ Taxonomy, both instruments were designed to include knowledge, comprehension, and ability to apply Functional Grammar. Detail description about the instruments is given in the following section.

a. Questionnaire

Questionnaire was chosen as one of the means to collect data used in this study. Questionnaire as discussed by Nunan (1992), is relatively popular means of collecting data. The questionnaire used for this study was designed to gather information and to identify English Department students’ perception towards their knowledge, comprehension, and ability to apply Functional Grammar in analyzing text and writing. The total number of questionnaires is 36 items which represent students’ perception towards their knowledge, comprehension, and ability to apply. Each number of questionnaires consists of five different choices of answers that represent the scale of excellent, good, average, poor, and very poor.

The questionnaire was designed to use ‘Bahasa Indonesia’ in order to avoid misunderstanding of the respondents to answer each statement. To answer the questionnaire, the respondents were asked to choose only one answer of each number that represents knowledge, comprehension, and ability to apply Functional Grammar.

There were 7 questions prepared before conducting the interview. The questions covered the identifying students’ perception towards their knowledge, comprehension, and ability to apply Functional Grammar. The interview is to anticipate the possible weaknesses of questionnaire as described by Burns (2000) who proposes there is no opportunity to acquire supplementary observational data. Also, the respondents’ motivation for answering the questionnaire is unknown.

C. Implementation of Study

The research was uutiated by the fact that some students express their difficulties while attending Functional Grammar classes. Following such problems, the researcher was interested to conduct the study. It covered questionnaire and interview. This study was implemented by following the steps of the research procedures.

1. Data Collection Process

Questionnaire and interview were used as means to collect the data. The data collection process lasted for 1 week that was between 4 May and 12 May 2006. The implementation of data collection was not as it was planned. This was because the process of making the questionnaire took longer time. At the same time, the researcher had to follow PPL program In addition, as the result of data of interview did not clearly present the specific area of writing that can be developed by applying Functional Grammar, the additional interview was again conducted that was between 14 July 2006 and 16 July 2006.

a. Collecting Data by Means of Questionnaire

The set of questionnaire was given to 54 students who had completed Functional Grammar 1 and Functional Grammar 2. Before conducting the study, the researcher introduced herself to the respondents. The researcher also gave information about the purpose of the study to respondents.

The distribution of questionnaire was done after classes that were on 4 May and 12 May 2006. The completion of the questionnaire took between 3 and 4 minutes. The questionnaire consists of 36 items which represent students’ perception towards their knowledge, comprehension, ability to apply Functional Grammar in analyzing text and writing ability. Items number I until 6 represent knowledge of clause as representation. Items number 7 until 12 represent comprehension of clause as representation. Items number 13 until 24 represent applicability of clause as representation. Items number 25 until 26 represent knowledge of clause as exchange. Items number 27 until 28 represent comprehension of clause as exchange. Items number 29 until 32 represent applicability of clause as exchange. Item number 33 represents knowledge of clause as message. Item number 34 represents comprehension of clause as message. Items number 34 until 36 represent applicability of Functional Grammar. To rank their ability, this study employed “Likert scale”. There were 5 scales used in this questionnaire namely excellent, good, average, poor, and very poor. The respondents were asked to choose one scale of each item.

b. Collecting Data by Means of Interview

The interview was held between 11 May and 12 May 2006. Since some students felt reluctant to express ideas of such problems and due to considering the limitation of time, the researcher decided to interview 6 students.

The additional interview was conducted between 14 July 2006 and 16 July 2006. The researcher conducted the additional interview because the result of the previous interview did not cover the specific aspects of writing such as language and/or content aspects that can be improved by applying the concepts of Functional Grammar. There were three additional respondents interviewed.

The previous and additional interview was conducted face-to-face discussion individually. The respondents for this interview were selected based on their various scores of Functional Grammar I and Functional Grammar 2. Respondent 4 and 7 who had completed Functional Grammar 1 and respondent 5 and 8 who had completed Functional 2 got A. Respondent 1, 2, 3, 5, and 8 who had completed Functional Grammar I and respondent 2, 3, 4, 7, and 8 who had completed Functional Grammar 2 got B. Respondent 6 and 9 who had completed Functional Grammar 1 and respondent 1 and 9 who had completed Functional Grammar 2 got C. The interview used ‘Bahasa Indonesia’. The reason was to avoid the possibility of different perception in understanding the questions. The use of Bahasa Indonesia for the interview was also to make the respondents understand and answer the questions easily. The questions of interview were related to identifying English Department students’ perception towards their knowledge, comprehension, and ability to apply Functional Grammar in analyzing text and writing. The specific areas of writing ability that could be improved by

applying Functional Grammar concepts identified in this study included language and/or content aspects. The interview was tape-recorded and then transcribed. It lasted between 5 and 7 minutes for each respondent.

2. Data Analysis

Two types of data were used in this study. The two data were gained from questionnaire and interview. Both data were analyzed and clustered in reference to Bloom’s iaxonomy (1956) and the aspects of Functional Grammar. The data collected were calculated. Result of the analysis is presented in the next chapter (chapter IV).

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