Revitalization of Writing Competence through Cooperative
Integrated Reading and Composition
Rahman Rahman
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Bandung, Indonesia
Keywords: Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition, Writing, Development.
Abstract: Writing is a complex activity that involves various components, such as content, form, and language used.
As to this, it is a challenge to teach writing, particularly to elementary school students. This study aims to
investigate the development of Bahasa Indonesia sentence writing skill among elementary school students in
a remote area of south coast in West Java-Banten border by using Cooperative Integrated Reading and
Composition model. This study used qualitative approach with action research design. The data were
collected from 4th grade students, and the data collection techniques were tests, observation and interview.
The data were analysed using a thematic analysis whereas data validity used a triangulation technique. The
results showed that the development of Bahasa Indonesia sentence writing skill among the students using
Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition model was enhanced. The development was demonstrated
in writing quality and scope of content dimension, organization and appearance of content dimension, style
and accuracy dimension, grammatical and spelling dimension.
1 INTRODUCTION
Research on primary education has been a burning
issue among scholars in Indonesia. There were 27
research themes that investigated the study of
Bahasa Indonesia for elementary schools (SPs UPI,
2012). These studies were all aimed to strengthen
the study program and the discipline of language
education. One of the themes among the studies was
the investigation of developing writing skills among
elementary students, and the present study focuses
on examining the writing development among
elementary school students.
Olson and Oathley (2014) argued that writing
has an important role to enhance students’ quality in
integrating the words based on the knowledge
possessed and can enhance critical thinking skills.
Thus, writing lesson needs to be introduced since
elementary school level in order that students are
trained to integrate the words so it form an
interesting writing (Cloutier, 2016).
Academic community admit that writing is
highly vital particularly for research publication.
Sword (2012) and Dane (2011) highlight that an
academic must be competent in teaching and sharing
knowledge and writing knowledge in various kinds
of writings. Someone who makes a piece of writing
is the one that possesses broader knowledge, and it
is essential that an academic as a writer needs to
present a neat and pleasant writing for readers. As
to this, writing skills still need to be sharpened and
enhanced to improve the quality. It is a necessity
that since elementary school until higher education,
writing lesson become one language skill which has
important and complex role, because writing should
fulfil the criteria of various dimensions.
On one hand, Rahman (2004) argued that only
talented people possess writing. That statement is
also in line with Olthouse (2013) who stated that
public view writing as difficult and writing is a skill
which is only possessed by talented people. On the
other hand, writing often viewed excessively as an
art because besides has rule in its elements, writing
also demands a talent which make a writing not
merely as system body containing meaning and
intention, but also that meaning delivery becomes
unique, interesting and pleasant.
In addition to the new theory mentioned above,
the old theory still defended as content of
Curriculum 2013, in which the writer is part of
language skill which needs to be taught. National
Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) (2008) cited
Rahman, R.
Revitalization of Writing Competence through Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition.
DOI: 10.5220/0007176008290833
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 829-833
ISBN: 978-989-758-332-2
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
829

by Olson (2009) that listening, speaking, reading and
writing are language skill aspects.
Even though the position of writing is included
in an important language skill, learning process and
writing result had not been satisfying. This condition
is inevitable because writing is sometimes difficult
to be taught as writing should have various elements
(Canagarajah, 2016). Cavazos (2016) explained that
writing is complex activity because it should involve
various components whether content, form and
language used.
According to Lyons (1971), “traditional
linguistic theory operates with two fundamental unit
of grammatical description: the word and sentence”.
Sentence is language unit which is relatively can
stand alone and has end intonation pattern and
consist of clause (Cook, 1971; Elson and Pickett,
1969).
Based on literature review above, in this research
the sentence defined as a language unit which
relatively can stand alone, has end intonation, and
consist of clauses. End intonation pattern is
described by punctuation. Full stop (.) show
affirmative sentence intonation, exclamation mark
(!) show command sentence intonation, and question
mark show WH question intonation.
Based on data of research result, writing lesson
in elementary school had not showed the satisfying
results. It is because the teacher still uses traditional
teaching method using the use of memorizing theory
of writing, not practice of writing. Therefore, as one
alternative to overcome the lack of learning outcome
in writing, this study used a modern teaching model,
namely cooperative integrated reading and
composition model (Rahman, 2017). The rational in
using this model is that this model condition student
to use skills by watching the film Syukur dan Kufur,
listening the conversation among the actors, reading
text and writing intrinsic element; the actors, the
characters, the place and time setting, plot, theme,
and intention integrally.
As the research on writing skill development in
elementary school level had not been done, the
researcher finds it difficult in searching information
of research result. Some studies which had been
done were only in the form of thesis and
dissertation. This study investigated the
development of Bahasa Indonesia sentence writing
skill among 4th grade students of Elementary School
in remote area of south coast of West Java-Banten
Border by applying cooperative integrated reading
and composition model. The aim of this research is
to describe the quality and scope of content,
organization and appearance of content, style and
accuracy, grammatical form, spelling, handwriting
and neatness in the writing made by the students.
2 METHODS
This study used qualitative approach with action
research design. Action research is research used by
educators such as supervisor and teacher to enhance
the quality of a variable (Parsons et al., 2013). The
aim of action research to describe, explain, and
elaborate simply without statistical calculation about
the research result of writing dimension. The
participants of this study are 4th grade students of
Elementary School in remote area of south coast in
West Java-Banten border who are given the
treatment of Cooperative Integrated Reading and
Composition model.
Data collection technique in this study use test,
observation and interview techniques. The test is
essay test for summary composition of Syukur dan
Kufur story. The sentence writing dimension was
used according to the result of international
consensus among writing teachers and assessors
(International Study of Achievement in Written
Composition, 1983). The sentences in this
composition should fulfil six dimensions of sentence
writing, namely (1) quality and scope of content; (2)
organization and appearance of content, (3) style and
accuracy, (4) grammatical form, and (5) spelling.
The dimension of quality and scope of content
was examined from the number of ideas in writing
composed by students. The dimension of
organization and appearance content relates to the
number of content outlines of composition (idea
outline) in written composition. In this study, what
means by organization and appearance of content is
idea outline (writing body) contained in subsequent
sentences based on the sentence provided whereas
introduction and conclusion are ignored because
introduction sentence which had been provided in
item and conclusion is not categorized in a
subsequent sentence.
The dimension of style and accuracy of writing is
the application of phrase variation in writing. In this
research, what is meant by the choice of style and
accuracy is application at least one phrase, unvaried
phrase, varied phrase, long varied phrase, and all
standard languages and varied phrase. The
dimension of grammatical form of writing comprises
sentences made by student in writing subject. The
derivation of sentence form relates to the functions
of sentence including S (Subject), P (Predicate), O
(Object), D (Doer) and Adv. (Adverb) as
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
830

compulsory elements, and the elements of O
(Object), D (Doer), and Adv. (Adverb).
The dimension of spelling is needed in sentence
writing. The spelling criteria in this study were
official Indonesian language spelling system. The
study of spelling is focused on the application of
capital, preposition, prefix, syllable hyphenation,
and punctuation. The dimension of handwriting and
writing neatness is an indicator of physical
appearance. Handwriting is writing made by
students by using stringed Latin character, while the
writing neatness is clarity (letter identifiable) of
writing.
Meanwhile, data were also collected using
interview to dig information in depth about teachers
and students concerning the application of CIRC
model (Putra and Dwilestari, 2012). The interview
is done informally through open-ended questions
and the responses were recorded and transcribed.
Data analysis is the process to search and arrange
systematically the data obtained from interview
result, field note and documentation by organizing
data into category, outlining into units, doing
synthesis, arranging into pattern, choosing which is
important and which will be learnt, and making
conclusion so it is easily understood by ourselves
and other persons.
In this study, qualitative approach with thematic
analysis technique was used as data analysis
technique. Thematic analysis is done by seeing and
finding the themes and categories obtained in data
which had been coded before. The stages of data
analysis are: (1) preparing raw data; (2) data coding;
(3) code classification; (4) data interpretation; (5)
data presentation (Creswell, 2013).
Neuman (2014) stated that this validity is based
on certainty whether the research result had been
accurate from researcher, participants or readers
perspective. Stringer (2013) also assert that one way
to know the validation of action research is by
seeing to what extent the cycle and critical reflection
in this research is done. Concerning reliability, Efron
and Ravid (2013) said that the approach used by
researcher is consistent if applied by another
researcher and for different objects. As for validity
and reliability process in this research is done by
triangulation. Triangulation refers to information
collection as much as possible from various sources
through various methods (Pine, 2013). This study
uses triangulation of data types obtained from field
note, interview result, and document analysis.
Besides, researcher also obtain data from various
sources namely classroom teacher and students of
4th grade.
3 THE RESULTS OF STUDY
The application of cooperative integrated reading
and composition model in sentence writing lesson
among 4th grade students of elementary school can
develop writing skill in some dimensions. The
results of the study found that some dimensions have
developed, such as (1) quality and scope of content
from good category in average (pre-test) become
very good category (post-test), 2) organization and
appearance of content from lack category in average
(pre-test) become very good category in average
(post-test), 3) style and accuracy from category of
very lack category (pre-test) become very good
(post-test), 4) grammatical from very lack category
(pre-test) become very good category (post-test), and
(5) spelling from lack category (pre-test) become
very good category (post-test). Whereas in the
ability in handwriting and neatness dimension is not
developed from pre-test and post-test and still in
adequate category in average (pre-test).
The result of data processing below shows that
cooperative integrated reading and composition
model condition students in a group to search idea
from learning material in this case film “Syukur dan
Kufur”, discussed intrinsic element in the plot and
rewrote the plot. The description of development of
sentence writing skill is explained as follow:
3.1 Quality and Scope of Content
In quality and scope of writing content from pre-test,
there are 2 students (13.3%) who are in very lack
category, 1 student (6.6%) in lack category, 1
student (6.6%) in adequate category, 8 students
(53.3%) in good category and 3 students (20%) in
very good category. The good category in average
developed to become very good category in a whole
(100%) in post-test. Therefore, the application of
cooperative integrated reading and composition
model generally can develop writing skill in
dimension of quality and scope of content (pre-test)
become good category in average (post-test). The
numbers of idea in this writing composed by
students increased more than five ideas.
3.2 Organization and Appearance of
Content
In organization and appearance of content from pre-
test, there are 11 students (73.33%) included in very
lack category, 3 students (20%) in lack category, 1
student (6.6%) in adequate category, 0 (0.0%) in
good category, and 0 (00%) in very good category.
The very lack category is developed to become very
Revitalization of Writing Competence through Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition
831

inadequate category in post-test is 0 (0%), lack is 0
(0%), adequate 2 (1.33%), 1 (0.66%) in good
category, and 12 (800%) in very good category.
Therefore, the application of cooperative integrated
reading and composition model can develop writing
ability in dimension of style and accuracy from very
inadequate category (pre-test) become very good
category (post-test). Style and accuracy in phrase
variation is enhanced and reach five phrases in
average.
3.3 Style and Accuracy
Style and accuracy from pre-test with 11 (73.33%)
in very lack category, 3 (20%) in lack category, 1
(6.6%) in adequate category, 0 (0.0%) in good
category, and 0 (00%) in very good category in
average is very lack to be develop into post-test with
0 (0%) in very lack category, 0 (0%) in lack
category, 2 (1,33%) in adequate category, 1 (0.66%)
in good category, and 12 (800%) in very good
category in average is in very good category.
Therefore, the application of cooperative integrated
reading and composition model in general can
develop writing skill in style and accuracy
dimension from very lack category in average (pre-
test) become very good category in average (post-
test). Style and accuracy in phrase variation is
enhanced to reach five phrases in average.
3.4 Grammatical
Grammatical from pre-test, with 7 students (46.66%)
in very lack category, 2 students (13.33%) lack
category, 2 students (13.3%) in adequate category, 0
student in very good category (00%) in average very
lack to be developed into post-test with 0 (0%) in
very lack category, 0 (0%) in lack category, 2
(1.33%) in adequate category, 1 (0.66%) in good
category, and 12 (800%) in very good category.
Therefore, the application of cooperative integrated
reading and composition model in general can
develop writing skill in grammatical dimension from
very lack category in average (pre-test) become very
good category in average (post-test). In this part, the
function of S (Subject), P (Predicate), O (Object), D
(Doer) and Adv, (Adverb). The element of function
of S (Subject) and P (predicate) as compulsory
elements, and the elements of O (Object), D (Doer),
and Adv. (Adverb) is enhanced to reach five
completed sentences in average.
3.5 Spelling
Spelling from pre-test with 13 students (86.66%) in
very lack category, 0 (0%) in lack category, 2
(113.33%) in adequate category, and 0 (00%) in
very good category in average very lack to
developed into post-test with 0 (0%) in very lack
category, 0(0%) in lack category, 4 (26.66%) in
adequate category, 11 (73.33%) in good category,
and 0 (0%) in very good category. Therefore, the
application of cooperative integrated reading and
composition model in general can develop writing
skill in spelling dimension from very lack category
(pre-test) become very good category in average
(post-test). The physical appearance of handwriting
is enhanced until identified level.
3.6 Handwriting and Neatness
Handwriting and neatness from pre-test, with 3
students (20%) who in very ack category, 5
(33.33%), in lack category 7 (46.66%) in adequate
category, 0 (0%) in good category, and 0 (00%) very
good category in average is developed adequately
into post-test with 3 (20%) in very lack category, 5
(33.33%) in lack category, 7 (46.66) in adequate
category, 0 (0%) in good category, and 0 (00%) in
very good category. Therefore, the application of
cooperative integrated reading and composition
model in general can develop writing ability in
handwriting and neatness from enough category in
average (pre-test) become enough category (post-
test). In this case, students’ handwriting and
neatness is not developed, still in adequate category.
4 CONCLUSIONS
The research result showed that Cooperative
Integrated Reading Composition (CIRC) can
develop writing skill of 4th grade students. This
give evidence that cooperative learning can support
students learning enhancement. To continually
enhance the quality of students’ writing, writing
activity should be done routinely. It aims that
students can integrate the words fluently so it can
have affected on the quality of students’ writing.
Based on the research result, the recommendation
need to be given that CIRC (Cooperative Integrated
Reading and Composition) model cannot enhance
sentence writing skill. Therefore, to enhance
handwriting and neatness skill, another model need
to be found. The researcher also suggests that CIRC
(Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition)
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
832

model can be made to become alternative in
enhancing sentence writing skill in the dimensions
of quality and scope of content, organization and
appearance of content, style and accuracy,
grammatical form and spelling.
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