Course paper on the theme: contents of teaching writing in secondary schools

3. Effectiveness of using games in teaching writing.
Games are one of the most important components in EFL classrooms. They include activities which have goals and rules at the same time fun. Hadfield⁹ describes games as “an activity with rules, a goal and an element of fun.” Some authors suggest that language games should be placed at the center of the foreign language teaching program rather being accepted as a peripheral part of the program, since, besides being fun, additionally they include goals and controlled by rules. S. M. Silvers, the author of the book Games for the Classroom and English Speaking Club, claims that games are often agreed by many teachers as tools which stop monotonous repetitions in the lesson are used to fill in time. He claims that many teachers often miss the fact that in a relaxed environment it is mostly possible that real learning take place, furthermore learners are able to use the target language that have been exposed to and have been practiced earlier by the learners. Following definition given by Greenall, it can be said that games create a competition positively among students who are involved in a language activity. The approval for using games in a foreign language classroom can be seen in the fact that learners provide a lot of benefits through games. It was ensured by many experienced writers that games are educationally valuable. Some reasons are mentioned by Lee as in the following: games give a chance to escape from unusual routine, but they are very important in terms of motivation and challenges. Moreover, games provide encouragement to interact and communicate successfully for learners and permanence to carry on the effort of learning and create a context to use the language meaningfully, decreases anxiety, and allow learners to study in a relaxed and enjoyable atmosphere.
Games have many advantages for both language teachers and its learners. They support learning the target language when learners are involved in the games and have fun without noticing that they are learning the target language, and furthermore it is a pleasure for the teacher that he presents the
language in an enjoyable atmosphere which makes the job powerful.
McCallum emphasizes this point by saying that “games automatically stimulate student interest, a properly introduced game can be one of the highest motivating techniques.” Another advantage of using games in a foreign language setting is to make stressful moments clear. In a language learning atmosphere, stress-free environment should be provided.
At this point games are very advantageous since learners do not feel any anxiety and their positive feelings increase and their self-confidence improve because they are not afraid of being punished or criticized while they are practicing the language freely. Writing is one part of four language skills or aspect of teaching and learning; listening, speaking, reading, and writing¹⁰. It is one part of four skills that have to be mastered by the students. Listening and Reading comprehension are examined through National Final Examination while Speaking and Writing skill are tested trough practical examination. It is said in Peraturan Pemerintah that the national educational purpose for Senior High School is focused on increasing students competency in reading and writing. It is meant that the purpose of language teaching in Senior High School is expected to achieve informational level because the students are prepared to continue their education in University levels.
Writing as a productive skill has big relation to the mind activities. Through writing we can not only communicate our ideas but also improve our writing skill. Writing is different from speaking. Although both writing and speaking are productive skills, writing is more complex than speaking. Writing is a complex activity since it requires students’ comprehensive abilities such as mastering grammar, vocabulary, and punctuation. Besides, to write well, the students are expected to be able to present their ideas in the written form as writing is a means of communication. However, some think that writing is not only delivering ideas to others but also using a sheer energy to complete the writing process itself: thinking the ideas, preparing the outline, transferring the outline into draft, revising the draft, and finally proofreading the draft to prepare for the final outcome. Based on Standar Kompetensi Lulusan, students should master the competency of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The basic competence of writing that should be mastered by students in senior high school is expressing meanings in written texts in the form of narrative, descriptive, and argumentative accurately, fluently, and appropriately. Beside that there are a review text, a procedure text and short functional texts such as poster, banner, pamphlet, invitation, announcement, memo, and message. For the first semester of tenth grade, students should master recount, narrative, and procedure texts and short functional texts of banner, poster, announcement, and handouts. The result of mastering writing skills is the students are able to write about their activity in school and their environment. School Based Curriculum gives a chance to the teacher to arrange syllabus based on their own students and school characteristics but there is still a standard of writing skills that should be mastered¹¹.
There are several causes of the problems above namely; the students’ lack
of vocabulary; the teacher did not give outlines to her students to guide them in
writing a sentence or paragraph, no media or game to support or guide, the
students are lazy to bring dictionary at class and the student’s low mastering
sentence pattern. In addition, based on the interview, the researcher asked her students “what makes you difficult to write text?” Most students answered, “I do not have enough vocabulary and I do not know the meaning.” The writer found out the students difficulties were in recalling vocabulary, in making grammatical
sentences, and in outlining. Furthermore, the students of class X F come from the different schools before. However, they also have various backgrounds. Beside pre test and questionnaire, the researcher also held an interview in order to check the validity of the data. Lack of vocabulary is the most problem he met when doing
writing assignment.
They actually have the high motivation to learn to write, but less familiar and less accustomed to doing it before. Finally, it made them a bit lazy to think and gave a stimulation initiate in writing. The researcher tried to find a solution by using game of bouncing stories to solve those kinds of problems. By applying game techniques, the teacher could encourage the students to participate in the classroom activities. The teacher should be able to encourage the students to express their ideas into good writing. The teacher gave opportunities to the students to write their ideas without being afraid of making mistake. It could be done by introducing topics and a good writing process. Game is one of the solutions to overcome the problems. The works of Janienne ¹² and Morris have added more literature in the area of teaching creative writing and essay writing skills through games. In addition, game will be an appropriate instructional media. It also will be useful; to motivate students’ interest in teaching learning process of
writing material. Based on the statements above, the researcher assumed that game is suitable method to solve the problem in her class. As Janienne and Morris claimed that games can be used for problem solving, making creative in writing skills. Game helped and encouraged many learners to sustain their interest and work. Game also helped the teacher to create contexts in which the language is useful and meaningful.

4. Approaches of teaching writing

Writing is a key skill. The ability to put words down on paper is a critical skill for success in college and career, but few students graduate high school as proficient writers. 

1. Building on What They Already Know

Instead of having your students jump into the vast seas of writing all at once, teach them to strengthen their writing bit by bit. Teach them the skill of building their writing around what they already know.
Their vocabulary doesn’t need to be anything special. You can start them off small and teach them how to build as they go. Encourage a little writing in every class, whether it be note taking, dictation of a few sentences or a short paragraph about their weekend. Let them try it out. You may be surprised at what they create.
Building confidence in note taking will create ample opportunities for your students to practice writing. They can copy what you’ve written on the board or any important information you’ve presented. Clue your students in to the importance of using writing as a tool and explain how much easier it will be for them later on if they take a few notes from time to time.

2. Forming Sentences

Forming sentences is quite possibly the most important writing skill. It’s the foundation to all that is writing. Without properly formed sentences, there are no topic sentences, no supporting sentences and no paragraphs. Structure isn’t even approachable. The sentence is the glue that keeps all other aspects of writing together. So what is a sentence? Essentially, it’s a noun and verb with a bunch of other additives. Think of a sentence like an entrée on a menu. The main ingredients are listed, but the rest are in the background, unseen. These unseen details are important, but showing your students the meat and potatoes first will help them look at sentences with a better trained eye. With the verb and noun in plain view, you can gradually introduce those unseen, often overlooked spices and herbs that make the sentence a real sentence, the final product. Eventually introducing the importance and usage of capital letters, punctuation, periods, question marks, quotations and other sentence spices will allow them to see how it all works.
Presenting all this new sentence structure information to your students can be a simple and fun process. Using examples in your presentation, along with practice, will allow your students to start seeing and developing sentences.
Here’s one exercise you can do: Start writing a sentence on the board. Let them yell out a verb and noun to help construct the sentence as you’re going. Once constructed and in view, deconstruct it, together. Analyze the reasons behind, for example, the adjective being placed in front of the noun or the verb behind.
Dive deep into the punctuation and let them see the ins and outs before having them practice forming sentences on their own.Implement communication within sentence lessons so they can get some speaking practice while learning to write. No student, young or old, wants to hear the material and then sit in silence writing. They want to communicate about the new material they’re learning.
After they get the hang of creating sentences, you can mix things up by presenting them with challenging questions or asking for longer sentences with more detail and depth. Keep them enthused about forming sentences and they’ll continue to build confidence and comprehension in this skill area.

3. Building Coherent Paragraphs

Once your students have a solid understanding of how to create proper sentences, you can move them into paragraphs. Showing your students how to construct paragraphs will give them a lifelong skill they’ll use in everyday life as well as professional ventures. It may be a good idea to separate sentence construction and paragraph building into two or three separate lessons. Make sure they have a very good handle on sentences before moving forward. Otherwise, you’ll spend half the class time backtracking. In most paragraphs, the topic sentence is at the beginning, summing up what the paragraph will cover. Following that are the supporting sentences, covering the thoughts and ideas that hold the topic sentence in place, giving it validity and weight. Explain the structure of a paragraph to your students and let them see a visual of this structure on the board or in a handout.
You can then give them examples of a topic sentence and a few supporting sentences before letting them give their own paragraph-building a shot. Good visuals and easy-to-understand directions will go a long way in this crucial area of ESL writing lessons. You can also touch on some key linking words we use to combine two sentences together. Here are some examples your students will be able to easily learn and understand:

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