The Purpose Of Study English Language Essay

The Purpose Of Study side of meat Language Essay avail subject Grammar was introduced by Halliday (1994) found on the hypothesis that language is a flock of meanings. Language which is a elbow room of communication is use to negotiate and exchange meanmgs. He bows that a language is understand as a system of meanings accompanied by forms through which the meanings fag end be established. Halliday (1994) adds operating(a) Grammar lean towards schoolbookual matter, which is a semantic unit, rather that sentence. So, utilitarian Grammar which was developed based on meanings uses text edition as the unit of analysis. in operation(p) Grammar has been adopted to become one of the subj ectsin the position segment of UNJ since 2002. Statements related to Functional Grammar as subjects quite a little be quoted as follows Mata kuliah mi bertujuan mengembangkan wawasan eksplisit tentang teori bahasa dan segi fungsinya (tekstual, interpersonal, experiential) untuk menunjang peng embangan kemampuan dan ketrampilan berkomunikasi lisan dan tulisan dalam bahasa Inggnis secara benar dan baik. (Pedoman Akadeniik 2004/2005100)Functional Grammar 1 aims at developing the explicit knowledge of the opening of language based on the thnction (textual, interpersonal, and experiential) to support the development of efficacy and skills to communicate some(prenominal) indite 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 Akademik2004/2005100)1 Functional Grammar 2 aims at developing susceptibility and skills to analyze text in Englishbased the mapping (textual, interpersonal, and experiential) to support the development of ability and skills to communicate bot h ritten and spoken well and correctly. (Own translation)In keeping with the description, both Functional Grammar 1 and 2 slang the basic persona 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 physical body of students complain somewhat the subjects. They have difficulties about the subjects. No require was conducted relevant to the condition. Realizing the need of improvement, the researcher is interested to conduct a study about English part students learning towards their knowledge, comprehension, and ability to nurse Functional Grammar in analyzing text and writing.B. Focus of StudyThe 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 segment students experience towards their knowledge, comprehension, and ability to view as Functional Grammar in analyzing text and writing.C. Research QuestionsBased on the background above, the research questions that ar identified in this study be What is English Department students perception towards their knowledge of Functional Grammar concepts. 12 What is English Department students perception towards their comprehension of Functional Grammar concepts. What is English Department students perception towards their ability to cod Functional Grammar concepts in analyzing text. What is English Department students perception towards their ability to guard Functional Grammar concepts in writing.I). Purpose of StudyThe purpose of the study is to identifi English Department students perception towards their ability to follow through Functional Grammar in analyzing text and writing. Using Blooms Taxonomy of Educational goals, students knowledge and comprehension of Functional Grammar be included in this research.E. acquire of StudyThe result of this study is expected to give input related to EnglishDepartment students perception towards their knowledge, comprehension andability to apply Functional Grammar in analyzing text and writing.3CHAPTER IILiTERATURE REVIEWTo 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 GranmiarA count of experts such(prenominal) 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 center on the rules for producing coffect sentences. They add sentence becomes the unit of analysis. So, based on the discussion, Traditional Grammar is focuse on rules and sentence becomes the unit of analysis.Further, Gerot and Wignell (1994) explain that Traditional Grammar labels pieces of the article in terms of the word class that atomic moment 18 nouns, verbs, prepositions, adverbs, and adjectives. Criticizing towards the weaknesses of Traditional Grammar, Thombury (2002) argues that there is4no one-to-one correspondence between grammatical form and communication function such as making a request, offering something, etc.2. Functional GrammarFunctional 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 contrasting 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 nonion 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 RepresentationThe low gear aspect of the meaning of the clause is Clause asRepresentation. Based on Hallidays assumption, Gerot and Wignell(1994) note it concerns with human beings experiences. Clause asrepresentation is related to human beings experiences. As human5beings experiences vary, it is assertable to lay the ty pes of those experiences. Halliday (1994) describes the most powerful impression of experience is that it comprises of goings-onhappening, doing, sensing, meaning, being, and becoming. Halliday (1994) then proposes there are three semantic categories that are soures, participants, and circumstances. do workesBased on Hallidays assumption, Gerot and Wignell (1994) noticeprocesses are realized by verbs. ParticipantsHalliday (1994) writes participants are realized by nouns. CircumstancesHalliday (1994) describes circumstance is realized by adverbial group or prepositional phrase. Based on Hallidays assumption, Gerot and Wignell (1994) note circumstances answer suchquestions as when, where, why, how, m both, 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 doingBa sed 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 be6done to other entity. This process consists of these particular participants-an incumbent on(predicate) actor, and optionally alike 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 sensingHalliday (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 beingThere are two different modes that are attributive and identifying. a. Intensive processes attributiveBased on Halliday, Gerot and Wignell (1994) interes t 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 identifyingBased 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 be7identified, as identified, and the a-element, to which serves as identity, as identifier.D. Behavioral processesHalliday (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 processesHalliday (1994) refers to these are processes of saying. The term sayercan be interpreted as a subject (it may be someone or something) that says something. There are three participant functions that are the recei ver, verbiage, and bulls eye.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 processesHalliday (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 exchangeThe minute 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.8a. Mood ElementHalliday (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 blue numbers of verbal operators expressing primary tense, modal auxiliary verbity and polarity. Halliday (1994) explains primary tense means past, present, or fu ture at the moment of speaking.Finite verbal operatorsTemporal former(prenominal) present futureDid, was does, is will, shallHad, used to has would, shouldModalLow median highCan, may will, would must, ought to Could, might is to, was to need(dare) has to, had to (Halliday 199474)Halliday (1994) refers to modality as the speakers judgement of the probabilities, or the obligations, tortuous in what he is saying such as may, will, can etc. He adds polarity is the choice between positive and negative, as in is/isnt, do/dont.9b. ResidueHalliday (1994) explains the Residue consists of functional elements of three kinds, that are, predicator, complement, and assistant.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 subjec t. It is typically realized by an adverbial group or prepositional phrase.3). Clause as messageThe ordinal 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 stalk 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 textuaYinterpersonaVexperiential. The textual theme is any combination of continuative, a structural theme, and a conjunctive theme.10(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 adj uncts. 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 mark theme is a Finite verbal operator, if preceding the topical Theme or a WHinterrogative (or imperative lets) 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 t hat the Theme of a clause ends with the first constituent that is either participant, circumstance, or process.113. Functional Grammar as a subject in the English Department, State University of capital of IndonesiaFunctional 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 donnish Guidelines 2004/2005 of Faculty of Languages and Arts, it is stated that the three semester credit 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 describe as followsMata kuliah mi bertujuan mengembangkan wawasan eksplisit tentang teori bahasa d an 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 an d spoken well and correctly. (Own Translation)12In 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.4. Ability to ApplyIn 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. Websters New World Dictionary of American English (1998) adds ability is skills, expertness, or talent..Bloom (1956), cited in Elliot et a. (2000) proposes smorgasbordof educational goals. There are six major classes in the cognitivetaxonomy of educational objectives1. Knowledge is the recalling specific facts.2. Comprehension is understanding what is comm unicated.3. Application is generalizing and using tweet 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.13In accordance with the development, the three classes ofeducational goals that were analysis, synthesis, and evaluation were thenrevised to become analyze, evaluate, and create. Arend (2004) describessix classification of the cognitive process dimension1. 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 Blooms theory and the purpose of this study thatis 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 subsequently 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.145. WritingWriting 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 on t he button 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 affirm of punctuation. Considering the important points above, it can be concluded that good writing covers the aspects of grammar and coherence.6. PerceptionPerception is defined by Elliot, et all (2000) as the giving of meaning to the discrete, unimportant 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 t to each oneers 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.15Referring to the purpose of this study that is to identify students perception towards their know ledge, 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 domaimlbCHAPTER ifiMETHODOLOGYThis chapter discusses the methods used to conduct the study which is related to identifying English Department students perception towards theirknowledge, comprehension, and ability to apply Functional Grammar in analyzing text and writing. The first part discusses the issue of the study which is thenfollowed by Study intention and continued by the Implementation of the study.A. Issue of StudyThis study is related to identifying English Department students perception towards their knowledge, comprehension, and ability to applyFunctional 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 t hisstudy can be used as input concerning with students perception towards their knowledge, comprehension, and ability to apply Functional Grammar.B. Study DesignThis 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 the17selection 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 StudyIt was planned that su rvey 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 stab 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. Respondentsit 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 complete Functional Grammar 1 and 2.The sampling procedure that was planned to be used in this study was stratified sampling. Bums (2000) describes stratified samp ling 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 timeThis 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.194. InstrumentsAs 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. QuestionnaireQuestionnaire 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 informatio n 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.20There were 7 questions prepared to begin with conducting the interview. The questions covered the identifying students perception towards their knowledge, comprehension, and ability to apply Functional Grammar. The in terview is to anticipate the possible weaknesses of questionnaire as described by Burns (2000) who proposes there is no probability to acquire supplementary observational data. Also, the respondents motivation for answering the questionnaire is unknown.C. Implementation of StudyThe 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 ProcessQuestionnaire 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 additive interview was again conducted that was between 14 July 2006 and 16 July 2006.22a. Collecting Data by Means of QuestionnaireThe 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 unt il 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.23Ib. Collecting Data by Means of InterviewThe interview was held between 11 May and 12 May 2006. Since some students felt loth to express ideas of such problems and due to considering the limitation of time, the researcher decided to i nterview 6 students.The spare 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 mixed 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 by24