Novi Suryani
e-mail: [email protected]
Abstract: The aim of the research is to find and analyze empirically 1) the effect of grammar mastery and students’ learning motivation on students’ writing skill at Private Senior High School in Depok, 2) the effect of grammar mastery on students’ writing skill at Private Senior High School in Depok, 3) the effect of students’ learning motivation on students’ writing skill at Private Senior High School in Depok. This research used quantitative approach and the method was survey. The research population was 551 students and 85 samples were taken randomly. The technique of the data collection was conducted by administering multiple choice test for grammar mastery, Likert scale questionnaire for students’ learning motivation and writing analytical exposition text for students’ writing skill. The hypotheses were tested using multi linear regression analysis. The research findings are: 1) There are significant effects of grammar mastery and students’ learning motivation on students’ writing skill at Private Senior High Schools in Depok. This is proved by looking at Sig. value 0.000 < 0.05 and Fo = 40.511, 2) There is a significant effect of grammar mastery on students’ writing skill at Private Senior High Schools in Depok. That is proved by looking at Sig. 0.000 < 0.05 and to = 8.994, 2) There is a significant effect of students’ learning motivation on students’ writing skill at Private Senior High Schools in Depok. That is proved by looking at Sig. 0.015 < 0.05 and to = 2.491. Key Words: Grammar Mastery, Students’ Learning Motivation, Students’ Writing Skill
Background
In the era of globalization, English is used widely to communicate with other people from other countries in many fields such as information and technology, economic and trade, social and culture, education, etc. English becomes an international language, and it means that it is necessary for people to be competent for their effective international communication and competition purposes. Moreover, as an international language, it is not only for communication with people from different countries, but also for getting new ideas, sharing some sources of knowledge and culture, getting a job, or anything in order to face the world’s progress. In addition, English has also been included in the national curriculum, at least for communication purposes.
In learning English, students have to learn it through its skills – listening, speaking, reading and writing. These four language skills are interrelated and facilitate one another in language learning and communication (Nan, 2018).
Writing is an important productive skill that supports students to communicate in written language. Writing is a thinking process which involves generating ideas, composing ideas in sentences or paragraph, and finally revising the ideas (Javed, 2012). Writing skill is more complex and difficult than the other skills which not only require the mastery of linguistic competence such as grammar, vocabulary, punctuation, etc. but also it requires judgmental elements. The researcher assumes that grammar is one of language component which take a role in writing ability. There are many factors which affect students’s writing mastery. One of them is having lack of grammar knowledge. It is stated by Novianti (2013:40) that there are four types grammar error which students usually do based on surface taxonomy categories.
Learning English cannot be separated from learning grammar. Grammar of a language is the foundation for communication. Without grammar, language does not exist because it is important to use or put words properly in order to get the meaning. The main reason for this circumstance is grammar make the meaning of a sentence or text clearer and understanding the message’s intent and meaning (Kamilasari, 2016). That is what communication is all about. According to Richards and Schmidt (2011) grammar is a description of the language structure and how language units such as words and phrases are formed into sentences. Based on Nurhayati (2015), grammar is the set of logical and structural rules that govern the composition of sentences, phrases, and words in any given natural language. As followed by Priya (2015) who defines grammar as the rules that show how words are combined, arranged or changed to show certain kinds of meaning. So, the researcher concludes that having good sentence-structure knowledge helps students to write a good text while consider relationships between main ideas and details, include relations among each part of the components of a sentence in order to have a better text and sentences, and hence a better understanding of them.
Language learning is not an easy process, especially learning foreign language. It requires time and effort. However, it is not just a cognitive process. It leads us to bringing some affective factors to this process. Affective factors, which are related with the state of our emotions, play a big role in language learning, and they can even determine the level of success in learning because of the fact that when we develop positive feelings during the language learning process, the possibility of achievement will directly increase. One of these affective factors is motivation in language learning. Motivation provides students with a purpose and direction to follow. For this reason, it has a great significance in learning.
Based on the background above, a research is conducted with the title: ―The effect of Grammar Mastery and Students’ Learning Motivation on Students‘ Writing Skill.
Method
This research used quantitative approach and the method was survey. This
approach is kind of research that creates meaning through objectivity uncovered in the collected data, it is conducted by collecting data on predetermined instruments that yield statistical for responding research questions requiring numerical data. Survey method means gather information about the characteristics, actions, or opinions of a group of people. In this research, data were obtained by using two kinds of instruments: tests and questionnaire.
The data of grammar mastery was obtained through multiple choice items test given to students and the data of students’ learning motivation was taken by
questionnaires. The data of writing skill was obtained by writing an analytical exposition text. The research was conducted at three Private Senior High Schools in Depok with population 551 students in the academic year of 2020/2021. The researcher took 10% of the population as Arikunto (2006: 134) also said that ―if the research subject more than 100, the researcher can takes 10-15% or 20-25% from the population. Therefore, the writer took the sample 85 students of grade XI selected randomly of the existing classes from schools.
A variable is measurable characteristic that may change over time. This research studied two independent variables: students’ grammar mastery, obtained from grammar test through multiple choice test that consists of 43 questions and students’ learning motivation obtained from 20 items questionnaire. One dependent variable: students’ writing skill, obtained from writing test, writing an analytical exposition text.
Before conducting the data collection from 85 students, the instruments validity and reliability were tested towards 30 students. Furthermore, multi regression analysis, prerequisites test or classical assumption test must be done first. Then, there are normality test by Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, multicollinearity test by looking at the Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) and Tolerance value, heteroscedasticity test by looking at the pattern of dots in the regression scatterplots, residual normality test by looking at the Kolmogorov-Smirnov z value, if it is more than significance level (typically 0.005), the data are normally distributed, and linearity test (each variables X1, X2 towards Y) by looking at level of deviation from linearity Sig. value, if it more than 0.05, the model is linear (Mutakin et al, 2019). The hypotheses were tested using multiple regression analysis by SPSS 20.0 program.
Result and Discussion
Result
- Data Description
This research studied two independent variables: students’ grammar mastery (X1) and students’ learning motivation (X2) and one dependent variable: students’ writing skill (Y). Data description analysis was conducted to determine, mean, median, mode, standard deviation, minimum and maximum score.
Table 1 shows that the score of grammar mastery, students’ learning motivation and students’ writing skill are classified as good, while the scores that are above the average are more than those who are below the average.
Discussion
- The Effect of Grammar Mastery and Students’ Learning Motivation on Students’ Writing Skill
Based on Table 8 above, it can be concluded that there are significant effect of grammar mastery and students’ learning motivation on students’ writing skill. This is proved by looking at Sig. value 0.000 < 0.05 and Fobserved = 40.511. It means that H0 is rejected and H1 is accepted. Whereas, from table 4.14, multiple regression equation can be stated with Ŷ 17.323 + 0.713X1 + 0.271X2 It means that the increase of one score of independent variable (X) will increase 0.713 for grammar mastery (X1) and will increase 0.271 for students’ learning motivation (X2). The research findings show that grammar mastery and students’ learning motivation give positive contribution on students’ writing skill. In other words, grammar mastery and students’ learning motivation have significant effects on students’ writing skill at private senior high schools in Depok, specifically at eleventh grade students. The result of this research presents that the contribution of grammar mastery is 49.7%. It is clear that those ability in understanding grammar and apply them into a text gives positive effect on the result of students’ writing skill. In addition, contribution of students’ learning motivation is 15.31% for students’ writing skill. The research findings are in line with theories. The conceptual definition of grammar mastery is the ability of understanding and using the correct rules of English by changing the form of words correctly then, joining them into sentence, and apply them to interact, communicate with others effectively both spoken and written. According to Azar (2004), there are three points as indicators of mastering grammar, they are: (1) the ability to choose accurate word (word meaning); (2) the ability to match the number (singular or plural) and tense; and (3) the ability to arrange. Afterward, this research showed that 49.7% contribution on students’ writing skill. It means that those ability in understanding grammar and apply them into a text gives positive effect on the result of students’ writing skill. Thus, it can be concluded that grammar mastery and students’ learning motivation contribute on students’ writing performance of private senior high school in Depok. It is confirmed the last related research that there are significant effects of grammar mastery and learning motivation together towards English writing skill (Lestari, 2018).
2) The Effect of Grammar Mastery on Students’ Writing Skill
Table 9 presents Sig. 0.000 < 0.05 and tobserved = 8.994. It can be interpreted that there is a significant effect of grammar mastery on students’ writing skill. It means that H0 is rejected and H1 is accepted. According to the result of this research, grammar mastery contributes 49.7% contributes positively in improving students’ writing skill at Private Senior High Schools in Depok. It means that grammar mastery gives significant effect on students’ writing skill.
Grammar has many patterns that depend on situation and condition, generally called tenses. Based on the research, students got 72 for mean score. It means that students have medium ability in using simple present and conjunctions. In fact, grammar mastery affects students’ writing analytical exposition performance. As stated by Adas & Bakir (2013) and Nurhayati (2015) showed also that students got difficulties in writing text because of facing with many confusing grammar structure.
Actually, grammar is not only study about rules and joining word into sentence but also supported to consider all of the components of language work well. The sentences should be correlated. The researcher concludes that having good sentence[1]structure knowledge helps students to write a good text while consider relationships between main ideas and details, include relations among each part of the components of a sentence in order to have a better text and sentences, and hence a better understanding of them.
From the explanation above, it is obvious that grammar mastery is one of important factors that must be developed to improve writing skill of private senior high school in Depok.
3) The Effect of Students’ Learning Motivation on Students’ Writing Skill
Table 9 presents Sig. 0.015 < 0.05 and tobserved = 2.491. It can be interpreted that there is a significant effect of students’ learning motivation on students’ writing skill. It means that H0 is rejected and H1 is accepted. The last research findings also prove that students’ learning motivation 15.31% contributes positively on students’ writing skill at Private Senior High Schools in Depok. It means that students’ learning motivation gives significant effect on students’ writing.
Motivation is the key to all learning. According to Brown (2007: 68) that the most powerful rewards are those that are intrinsically motivated within the learner. In addition, Brown stated that extrinsically motivated behaviour are carried out in anticipation of a reward from outside and beyond the self. According to result of this research, the writer found that the level of the students’ motivation, in the fair category. It is showed by mode score is 69 from 92 as maximum score. It is obvious that the efforts and the learning achievement depend on the level of the students’ motivation. Highly motivated students will have better results of their learning than the low motivated students. As stated by Aryanika (2016); Mutiatun & Cahyono (2017) who found significant correlation between motivation and writing achievement. From the explanation above, it can be conclude that students’ learning motivation gives significant effect on students’ writing at private senior high school in Depok.
Conclusion
This research aims to determine the effects of grammar mastery and students’ learning motivation on students’ writing skill at Private Senior High Schools in Depok. The conclusion is presented as follows:
(1) There are significant effects of grammar mastery and students’ learning motivation on students’ writing skill at Private Senior High Schools in Depok. This is proved by looking at Sig. value 0.000 < 0.05 and Fobserved = 40.511.
(2) There is a significant effect of grammar mastery on students’ writing skill at Private Senior High Schools in Depok. That is proved by looking at Sig. 0.000 < 0.05 and tobserved = 8.994.
(3) There is a significant effect of students’ learning motivation on students’ writing skill at Private Senior High Schools in Depok. That is proved by looking at Sig. 0.015 < 0.05 and tobserved = 2.491.
References
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