Analyzing Students' Problems in Writing Narrative Text through

SFL Perspectives

Rozi Setiawan

Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia

rozisetiawan@student.upi.edu

Keywords: Narrative Text, Writing Skill, SFL, Discovery Learning, Cooperative Learning.

Abstract: Among four basic skills of English, writing is considered as one of the most challenging skills since it demands

writer’s complex ability from word to text level. In Indonesian classrooms, classical problems regarding

writing English text such as the lack of vocabulary and grammar mastery and inability to develop the main

idea still appear. Based on previous research, these problems are caused by monotonous teaching strategy, the

absence of instructional media, and teachers’ lack of creativity. Thus, this study aimed to identify the recurring

problems found in a student narrative text of grade eleven in Central Java and proposing ideal pedagogical

plan to solve the problems. This study employed qualitative research and the data were analysed by using

three metafunctions in Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) perspectives in order to identify whether the

sample has met the ideal criteria of narrative text. The results show that the recurring problems found were

the misuse of past participle, the word choice, the use of modality, the absence of relational process, and the

employment of proper conjunctions. Moreover, these problems might be solved by employing a set of

pedagogical plans which adopts the principle of discovery learning combined with cooperative learning.

1 INTRODUCTION

Texts hold a very essential role when talking about

teaching and learning English in Indonesian schools,

especially in secondary level. Text has become major

attention since the main approach used in 2006

Curriculum (KTSP) and Curriculum 2013 is Genre-

Based Approach (GBA). Furthermore, in regards to

genre and text, Knapp and Watkins (2005) describe

genre as language processes entangled in doing things

with language. These processes are later revealed to

be different each other, processes such as narrating

and describing obviously bring different structure and

grammatical features. Moreover, Knapp and Watkins

(2005) define text as the cohesive organization of

language as a system of communication. In short,

they state that text contains acts of communication.

GBA was firstly introduced in Indonesia in 2004

when Competence-Based Curriculum (KBK)

implemented (Ningsih, 2016). This curriculum

adopted a model of genre pedagogy. Although there

have been two curriculum changings from 2004 to

2013, but they still adapt the concept of GBA. It is

proved by the 4 steps used in GBA: Building

Knowledge of the Field (BKOF), Modelling of The

Text (MOT), Joint Construction of the Text (JCOT),

and Independent Construction of the Text (ICOT) can

either be accommodated in Scientific Approach

which becomes the core of English subject in 2013

curriculum (Ningsih, 2015).

As cited in Kemendikbud (2016) about

Permendikbud No. 24 Tahun 2016 which is related to

Kompetensi Inti (Core Competence) and Kompetensi

Dasar (Basic Competence) in K-13, there are various

kinds of genres which are provided for students in

Senior High School. Furthermore, there is a kind of

text which is firstly given to students in grade ten,

narrative text. Anderson (1997) defines narrative is a

piece of texts which tells a story and also entertains

the readers at the same time. Moreover, Derewianka

(1990) also states that the purpose of narrative text is

not merely to entertain, but also to deliver the writer’s

reflection on an experience and the most important

one is to attract readers’ imagination. In Indonesian

schools, narrative texts are recognized by students in

forms of fable, legend, and myth. This genre of text is

one of the most familiar genres among many types

since Indonesian children have been introduced to

this genre as their bed time stories.

However, students might have some problems in

writing especially in relation to English as Foreign

Setiawan, R.

Analyzing Students’ Problems in Writing Narrative Text through SFL Perspectives.

DOI: 10.5220/0007166803250330

In Proceedings of the Tenth Conference on Applied Linguistics and the Second English Language Teaching and Technology Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference

on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education (CONAPLIN and ICOLLITE 2017) - Literacy, Culture, and Technology in Language Pedagogy and Use, pages 325-330

ISBN: 978-989-758-332-2

325

Language. Megawati and Anugerahwati (2012) break

down major problems faced by students in writing

such as students’ low interest in English which is

caused by teachers’ monotonous teaching strategy,

students’ limited vocabulary and grammar mastery,

and the absence of instructional media. Another

research conducted by Eliya (2015) shows that

although students ever read the stories in Bahasa

Indonesia, they still have some difficulties such as in

developing the main idea, their limited ability to

organize a good text, and the last is teacher’s

creativity in delivering the materials. To summarize,

all of the problems might come from two sides,

students or teachers. Based on the elaboration, this

research attempted to identify students’ narrative text

from SFL perspectives and also to propose a set of

pedagogical plan to solve the problems found in the

student’s text.

There have been some related researches

conducted on analysing students’ writing by using

SFL perspective. The first research was conducted by

Correa and Dominguez (2014) about using SFL as a

tool for analysing students’ narratives. This research

employed qualitative research in which it analysed

one of the EFL instructors of a Teacher Education

Program in Madellin about his knowledge on

narrative text. The result of his writing suggested that

it is important to select appropriate approach to teach

university students, especially the EFL pre-service

teachers. It is based on assumption that when EFL

instructors have sufficient knowledge about SFL

theories and approaches, it will be beneficial for

university students as they can improve their writing

skill. The last suggestion is the importance of creating

study groups for EFL instructors. It can be actualized

through providing professional development

programs provided by the institution.

The second research was conducted by Arancon

(2013) focused on the use of SFL genre theory for the

analysis of students’ writing skills in ESP. This

research analysed a corpus of Universidad Nacional

de Educacion a Distancia (UNED) students who were

taking Business course. There were 30 texts which

were analysed in this research. The results revealed

that there were some lexico-grammatical errors found

in their writing. Those errors corresponded with the

three metafunctions in SFL. It claimed that a genre-

based approach (GBA) could help highlight the

difficulties that students faced. Furthermore, explicit

modelling of the text genre with scaffolding of

generic structure could help the writers to produce

more accurate texts in the future.

This research employed qualitative study as its

main approach which aims to identify the recurring

problems found in the student’s writing and

proposing appropriate pedagogical plan to solve the

problems. The object of this study was a student’s

narrative writing which was taken from 8 available

samples in grade eleven of a Private Islamic High

School in Central Java. The consideration of choosing

the writing sample was due to the portrayal of

common problems that the class might encounter. So,

the data which was used in this study was clauses

composed the narrative text. The data was analysed

from Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL)

perspectives by employing three metafunctions to

identify whether the student’s writing has met the

criteria of ideal narrative text.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

SFL views language as semiotic system which

includes phonological, lexicogrammatical, discourse,

semantic, situation, culture, and ideology (Halliday in

Sipayung et al., 2016). Furthermore, based on SFL

point of view, the realization of meaning also deals

with metafunction. Metafunction operates in three

levels named clause, sentence, and phrase. Moreover,

Thompson (2014) mentions that metafunction

includes three types of meaning which can be found

inside grammatical structure of the clause. Thus,

narrative text in the following sections will be

analyzed by using three perspectives; those are

Interpersonal (Tenor), Experiential (Field), and

Textual (Mode). These three metafunctions are

described as follows.

Interpersonal metafunction deals with how we

interact or do the communication or to exchange

information with other people. Furthermore, there are

3 ways to gain information: through questioning

(interrogative), through stating (declarative), and

through demanding (imperative). Furthermore, in

narrative texts, interrogative form is the most found

clause. Basedon Interpersonal metafunction,

declarative clause consists of Subject, Finite,

Predicator, Adjunct, Complement, and Residue.

Meanwhile, experiential metafunction is related

to transitivity analysis which involves processes,

participants, and circumstances. The term processes

is typically marked by the presence of a verb, while

the term participants relates to nominal group in a

clause and one clause might have more than one

participant. The third term is circumstance which is

marked by the presence of adverbial phrases or

prepositional phrases. Furthermore, in Transitivity

there are some kinds of processes happen named

material processes, mental processes, relational

CONAPLIN and ICOLLITE 2017 - Tenth Conference on Applied Linguistics and the Second English Language Teaching and Technology

Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education

326

processes, verbal processes, behavioural processes,

and existential processes. Furthermore, related to

narrative texts, there are three processes that usually

happen: material, mental, verbal, and relational.

The last is textual metafunction relates to how the

composer or the writer of the texts organizes the text.

When one wants to have deep understanding about

the text, he/she needs to see the clauses from its

context and language around it. Furthermore,

Halliday and Matthiessen (2014) describe the theme

has role as the point of departure of the message. It

means that theme determines the location of the

clause in its context. Meanwhile, the rest of the

message where Theme is evolved is called as Rhyme.

In relation with narrative text, Actors and

Circumstances are the two most used Theme. The

reason behind this is related to the use of Personal

pronoun such as They, She, He, It, Clarabelle, Bob,

Mr. and Mrs. Smith, etc. Moreover, the use of

Temporal Circumstances such as a few minutes later,

first, then, etc. also becomes the reason of the use of

Circumstances as Theme.

2.1 Discovery Learning and

Cooperative Learning

In the real teaching and learning of English, it is

extremely essential for teachers to employ proper

teaching methodology, strategy, technique, or

learning model in order to create positive atmosphere

so that both teacher and students can maximize their

roles in the classroom. As Kemendikbud (2014)

describes that in 2013 curriculum the teachers make

use of scientific approach in teaching and learning

activities in the classroom. Mulyana further (2016)

employs 3 learning models that might be used by the

teachers: discovery learning, problem-based learning,

and project-based learning. These models promote

scientific approach which demands students to be

more active in the classroom.

The 21

century education demands students to be

independent. However, the classical problems that

students face in writing aforementioned might be

caused by the teaching and learning process which is

so teacher-centered (Trianto, 2007). This will result

on students who tend to be passive. Therefore, one of

learning models which promote students’

independence might be properly employed in the

classroom. The learning model is called discovery

learning. Discovery learning focuses on students to

gain idea in order to acquire meaning. Budiningsih in

Mulyana (2016) further defines discovery learning as

the way to understand the concept, meaning, and

relation through intuitive process to reach the

conclusion. Furthermore, Mulyana (2016) proposes

five components of discovery learning namely

stimulating and problem identification, collecting

information, information processing, verification of

the results, and generalization. If teachers are able to

instil these components into teaching and learning

process, they will make better outcome later on.

Teachers also have to consider learners’

characteristics whether they are categorized as high

achiever or low achiever learners. Suprijono (2009)

proposes that cooperative learning might create

interdependence among students with various

abilities. This effort might decrease the dependency

of the use of the book as the only resources of

knowledge. In fact, students’ insight can be resources

for the other students. Killen (1998) further states that

cooperative learning might encourage students to

gain their maximum learning either individually or

cooperatively. In cooperative learning, some teachers

consider it is effective when three to four students are

put in one group.

In short, combining discovery learning and

cooperative learning model might be beneficial as

both of them promote chance for students especially

when they face difficulties. Setiyadi (2006) also

proposes that when students are working in group,

they will feel more secure. Working individually

might cause students to be worried that may lead to

inability to produce good writing.

3 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 Students’ Problems based on SFL

Perspectives

The text consists of 56 clauses in which 33 (59%) of

them are in form of declarative clause. Meanwhile,

the rest of them are in form of indirect speech. It

means that this sample has met the ideal criteria of

narrative text which employs more declarative clause

because narrative tends to tell the story. Furthermore,

the two main characters employ in the text, the lion

and the mouse dominate all the parts of the text. Thus,

it indicates that the most use pronoun found in the text

such as the lion, the mouse, and he. This means that

the text has met the ideal model in interpersonal

metafunction. There is no significant problem found

here except the grammatical mistakes as stated in the

previous section. Related to modulation or the way

the author express ability and probability (Thompson,

2014), it is important to note that if the clause is in

form of declarative, then the verb that follows the

Analyzing Students’ Problems in Writing Narrative Text through SFL Perspectives

327

modal must be in form of bare infinitive (base),

Unfortunately, there is an error appears in the text as

follows:

Table 1: analysis of interpersonal metafunction.

At first

he can’t

climbed

the tree

Adjunct

Participant

Modulation

Adjunct

Furthermore, when it is analyzed from

experiential metafunction, it is found that material,

mental, and verbal processes are employed as well.

Moreover, verbal processes are dominantly employed

due to the indirect speeches found in the text. For

example:

Table 2: analysis of experiential metafunction.

“You are

hungry? I am

hungry too”,

said

The Lion

Process: verbal

Sayer

Projected

Projecting

After analysing the text, it is found that the

processes that are dominantly employed are material,

mental and verbal in which the amount of each is 30

(54%), 11 (20%), and 15 (26%) respectively. It is

indicated that the casts or characters involved in

narrative text mostly do the action as the material

process employed. It is proved by the use of verbs

such as took, climbed, made, smiled, answered, etc.

Meanwhile the percentage of the use of mental is 20%

which are indicated by the employing of stative verbs

such as wanted, felt, heard, etc. For verbal, it is higher

than which in mental. It is caused by the employment

of addressing the saying (indirect speeches).

Unfortunately, the employment of relational process

could not be found. However, it should have been

written in orientation where the characters or setting

are introduced.

Meanwhile, from the textual metafunction, it can

be said that the employment of proper tenses,

thematic progression, and clauses complexes are the

ideal things that should be involved in the text.

However, there are some errors, although they are not

major errors, but it might give such interference that

will lead to the cohesion and coherence matters. The

two matters related to tenses and complex clauses can

be seen in the following sentence:

“Second, when he found the rambutan that fellen,

some elephants passed and made the rambutans rolled

around and crushed , and even wanna crushed him

too if a lion didn’t pull him.”

After seeing this sentence, it can be concluded

that if the writer separates these too complex clauses

by employing proper grammar and also conjunctions

or temporal connectors, it will ease the readers to

understand it.

In regards to theme in textual metafunction, Gerot

and Wignell (1995) state that theme can be divided

into three major categories namely ideational, textual,

and interpersonal. Moreover, when seeing the text

from the most frequent kind of themes used, the most

employed theme found in the text sample is Ideational

or Topical theme. Topical employs not only the first

nominal group appears as the theme, but also noun

phrase, adverbial groups, or prepositional phrases.

Moreover, the theme is divided into two namely

unmarked and marked. It is called unmarked if the

topical theme becomes the subject, however, it is

called as marked if the subject is not the theme. In

addition, the most employed themes found in the text

are Marked Topical themes. It is caused by the use of

temporal connectors, prepositional phrases and

adverbial as the theme. It can be seen in the following

paragraph:

One day in the jungle, a Mouse took a walk and

felt so hungry. After a few times, he saw a rambutan’s

tree. He wanted to eat the rambutan. But he faced any

problems. At first, he can’t climbed the tree. Second,

when he found the rambutan that fellen, some

elephants passed and made the rambutans rolled

around and crushed, and even wanna crushed him too

if a lion didn’t pull him.

Dealing with cohesion and coherence, it is also

important to talk about thematic progression.

According to Thompson (2004), he divides thematic

progression into three namely constant, linear, and

derived progressions. After analysing the text, it is

found that there are two kinds of progressions applied

here, but the most applied is the linear progression. In

constant progression, the theme in the following

clause relates to the theme in the preceding clause.

Meanwhile in the linear progression, the theme in the

following clause relates to the rheme in the previous

clause. As the example above shows that it happens

because of the use of connectors, prepositional

phrases, and adverbial as the theme, so the following

clause will relates its theme to the rheme in the

previous clause.

Moreover, there are some problems found in the

use of proper conjunction and temporal connectors. It

seems that she has not understood yet the way to use

either conjunction such as but, and, or temporal

connectors such as however, therefore, meanwhile. It

is proved by the presence of both in some clauses

below:

CONAPLIN and ICOLLITE 2017 - Tenth Conference on Applied Linguistics and the Second English Language Teaching and Technology

Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education

328

Table 3: example of the misuse of connector.

And

the Lion

can free from the

trap

Textual

Experiential

Theme

Rheme

Table 4: example of the misuse of connector

But

Faced any

problems

Textual

Experiential

Theme

Rheme

The employment of conjunctions such as “and”

and “but” at the beginning of the clause has intention

to indicate how important the content around it

(Thompson, 2004). When seeing if there is another

element appears preceding the theme, then it also

becomes the part of the theme. In short, Thompson

stated this in terms of multiple themes. So, this

writing sample employs multiple themes in which it

is not properly applied in the real context. It is better

if the writer employs temporal connectors that give

effect to the following clauses. These matters should

be the concern of the writer in order to create a good

text which is meaningful and understandable.

3.2 Pedagogical Plan

Teachers have to seek appropriate learning model to

be used in the classroom. Regarding to today’s

phenomenon, most teachers still demand the teacher-

centered approach which is different from today’s

education demand, student-centered. This approach

provides chances for students to explore knowledge

by themselves. As Trianto (2007) explains that

cooperative learning model gives human beings

chance to search knowledge independently.

However, regarding the patterned problems that

students still encounter such as the lack of grammar

and vocabulary, it might be beneficial if students also

learn to write cooperatively. Working in group can

create interdependence among students which may

lead to the feeling of secure (Setiyadi, 2006). When

students are not feeling secure, it might affect the

quality of their writing product.

Based on the elaboration, pedagogical plan on

how to teach narrative text writing is proposed in the

following table:

Table 5: Pedagogical plan for students.

Step and Activities

Observing (BKOF)

 Reading the text displayed on the projector

 Observing the text (this activity aims to make

students recalling their prior knowledge

about the text).

Questioning (BKOF)

 Addressing questions related to common

features of the text to students

 Grouping students into small group

consisting 4 to 5 students.

 Filling the blank mind map of common

features of the text.

 Asking questions related to the text while

students doing the task.

 Making use of dictionary.

Experimenting (MOT)

 Writing narrative text (first draft).

 Providing picture series to help students

create well-structured text.

 Taking role as observer and help when it is

necessary.

Associating (JCOT)

 Comparing and contrasting their first draft

with the ideal text provided by teacher.

 Emphasizing the importance of creating

coherent and cohesive paragraphs.

Communicating (ICOT)

 Writing the final draft.

 Sharing problems found during writing.

 Presenting the text in front of the class.

 Discussing the problems together and

planning on what should be done in the

following session.

Based on the recurring problems aforementioned,

it is essential for teachers to propose pedagogical plan

to solve them. According to Kemendikbud (2014), it

is said that the main approach used in the current

curriculum is scientific approach. Furthermore,

Kemendikbud (2014) states that scientific approach is

based on the process of gaining knowledge.

Moreover, the process is identified into five steps

namely (1) observing, (2) questioning, (3)

experimenting, (4) associating, and (5)

communicating. Furthermore, these steps have

similarity to which in genre-based approach which

consists of four steps: building knowledge of the field

(BKOF), modelling of the text (MOT), joint

construction of the text (JCOT), and independent

construction of the text (ICOT). This similarity might

become benefit for teachers who had been using GBA

as the main approach in teaching English for years.

It can be seen from a series of activities in the

pedagogical plan that students are given chance to

Analyzing Students’ Problems in Writing Narrative Text through SFL Perspectives

329

work by themselves (independent). They are also

encouraged by the teacher to search the common

features of narrative text indirectly. This activity

promotes the discovery learning. Meanwhile,

students’ activity working in group during

questioning portrays the principle of cooperative

learning. It might promote their interdependence

among one another (Suprijono, 2009). Students may

take this chance to clear their doubt about few vague

things in their mind. Moreover, the use of picture

series by the teacher aims to provide guidance so that

students might have chance to create coherent text.

4 CONCLUSIONS

To summarize, the common problems found in the

student’s writing are the misuse of past participle as

influenced by the regular verb, the word choice

related to word formation, issues of modality related

to bare infinitive, the absence of relational process,

and the employment of proper conjunctions to create

meaningful and connected sentences of paragraph.

Moreover, these problems might be solved by

employing a set of pedagogical plan which adopts the

principle of one of the learning models in the 2013

curriculum namely discovery learning. Discovery

learning is combined with cooperative learning since

a class consists of students with different level of

proficiency. It might help the low achievers when

they are working together with the high achiever in a

group. It is expected that the combination of

discovery learning and cooperative learning can solve

the problems.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This research is supported by Indonesia Endowment

Fund for Education (LPDP) Scholarship.

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Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education

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