Transformatika, Volume 12 , Nomer 2, September 2016 ISSN 0854-8412

IMPROVING STUDENTS’ WRITING ABILITY THROUGH THE USE OF

DICTOGLOSS TECHNIQUE

Endah Ratnaningsih

FKIP Universitas Tidar

[email protected]

ABSTRAK

Dalam proses belajar-mengajar bahasa Inggris terdapat empat

keterampilan yang harus dikuasai oleh pembelajar, yaitu listening, speaking,
reading, dan writing. Salah satu keterampilan yang dianggap sebagian
pembelajar bahasa Inggris sebagai keterampilan tersulit untuk dikuasai adalah
writing. Salah satu teknik yang dapat digunakan untuk pengajaran writing
adalah teknik dictogloss. Tahap reconstruction pada teknik dictogloss
memfasilitasi pembelajar untuk merekonstruksi teks yang telah disampaikan
dengan mempergunakan bahasa mereka sendiri. Selanjutnya, tahap correction-
analysis menyediakan feedback yang memfasilitasi pembelajar untuk
mengoreksi kesalahan-kesalahan pada aspek-aspek writing, seperti content,
organization, language use, dan mechanics.

Kata kunci: assessing writing, dictogloss technique, writing

1. BACKGROUND

Richards and Renandya (2002: 303) state that writing is the most difficult skill for
second or foreign language learners to master. The difficulties are not only in generating and
organizing ideas, but also in translating these ideas into a readable text. The difficulty becomes
more noticeable if their language proficiency is weak.
Teaching writing for students who learn English is one of the important things that has
to be done well because it will influence the students’ ability in developing their writing ability.
It is commonly believed that an appropriate teaching technique will have a contribution to the

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success of students’ writing ability. Furthermore, it will be true that teaching writing will be
influenced by the teaching technique which is used by the teacher.
Dictogloss is one of the teaching techniques that can be used to teach writing. It is
because dictogloss has some stages that facilitate the students to improve their writing ability.
The reconstruction stage of dictogloss facilitates the students to be able to reconstruct a
dictated-text by using their own language. Then the correction-analysis stage provides
feedbacks that facilitate them to correct their mistakes in the writing aspects, namely content,
organization, language use and mechanics.

2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

A. The Nature of Writing

Language learners already know that there are two skills that are included in productive
skills, i.e. speaking and writing. Emig (McDonald & McDonald, 2002: 47) differentiates that
writing is originating and creating a unique verbal construct that is graphically recorded; while
speaking is creating and originating a verbal construct that is not graphically recorded.
The other differences between speaking and writing are also proposed by Brown
(Weigle, 2002: 15). Brown provides the characteristics that differentiate written language from
spoken language in terms of the permanency, production time, distance, orthography,
complexity, formality and vocabulary. However, in this paper the writer only presents some of
them.
The first term is permanency. In this term, oral language is transitory and must be
processed in real time, while written language is permanent and can be read and reread as often
as one likes. The second term is production time in which writers generally have more time to
plan, review and revise their words before they are finalized, while speakers must plan,
formulate, and deliver their utterances in a few moments if they want to do a conversation. The
next term is distance which explains that distance between the writer and the reader in both
time and space, which eliminates much of the shared context that is present between the speaker
and the listener in an ordinary face-to-face contact. The last is formality in which writing tends
to be more formal than speaking.
Writing is one of the productive skills which need to be learned by language learners.
They learn writing as an essential component not only for their academic practice but also later
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in their professional life. Later on, they will have appropriate background knowledge about
writing.
Writing is not an easy skill to be mastered. Many learners think that writing is the most
difficult skill to be mastered. Richards and Renandya (2002: 303) state that writing is the most
difficult skill for second language learners. The difficulty lies not only in generating and
organizing ideas but also in translating these ideas into a readable text. The skills that are
involved in writing are highly complex. Second language writers have to pay attention to their
skill of planning and organizing as well as their skill of spelling and giving punctuation.
Learners realize that writing is not a simple activity. It is an activity that should be done
continuously. Means and Lindner (1998: 108) state that learning to write is like learning to
drive in that one is learning to do several things simultaneously.
It is important to view writing not only as the product of an individual, but also as a
social act. Writing is not only writing a sentence but it is an activity of producing a text in a
context. This idea also supported by Lyons and Kroll (Weigle, 2002: 19) who define writing
as an act that takes place within a context, that accomplishes a particular purpose, and that is
appropriately shaped for its intended audience.

B. Teaching

According to Brown (2007: 8), teaching may be defined as showing or helping someone
to learn how to do something, giving someone instructions, guiding someone in the study of
something, providing someone with knowledge, and causing someone to know or understand.
He also adds that teaching is guiding and facilitating learning, enabling the learner to learn, and
setting the conditions for learning. Furthermore, according to Gazarian (2002), teaching is a
skill and an art. Teaching is always creating because there is no class which has the same
criteria.
Teaching cannot be defined apart from learning. Dewey (1933) as quoted by Jackson
(1986: 81) in Labaree (2000) asserts that teaching may be compared to selling commodities:
no one can sell unless someone buys. There is the same exact equation between teaching and
learning as there is between selling and buying. According to Brown (2007: 8), breaking down
the components of the definition of learning, it can be extracted the domains of research and
inquiry as follows.

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1) Learning is acquisition or ‘getting’.

2) Learning is retention of information or skill.
3) Retention implies storage systems, memory, and cognitive organization.
4) Learning involves active, conscious focus on and acting upon events outside or inside the
organism.
5) Learning is relatively permanent, but subject to forgetting.
6) Learning involves some form of practice, perhaps reinforced practice.
7) Learning is a change in behavior.
In conclusion, teaching and learning cannot be defined apart from each other. Teaching
may be defined as a skill and art in showing or helping someone to learn how to do something,
giving someone instructions, guiding someone in the study of something, providing someone
with knowledge and causing someone to know or understand. What is learned is not only about
information or knowledge, but also an expression of values and attitudes.
C. Teaching Writing

There is no doubt that writing is the most difficult skill for language learners to master.
Teachers should know and understand the appropriate approach that can be used in teaching
writing so that the learners are easily able to produce a good writing.
At the beginning of a lesson, the teacher should make sure that the students know about
the purpose of the activity in the lesson. He or she should give a clear explanation about what
they will learn, so the students will get an advantage in the teaching and learning process.
Harmer (2004: 31) argues that writing should encourage students to focus on accurate language
use and, because they think as they write, it may well provoke language development as they
resolve problems which the writing puts into their minds.
The essence of teaching writing is guiding and facilitating students to work. This is
supported by Brown (2007: 8) who proposes that “teaching is guiding and facilitating learning,
enabling the learner to learn, and setting the conditions for learning”. It implies that teaching
cannot be separated from learning. When teachers teach writing to the students, they do not
only teach how to develop ideas in writing, but they also need a serious attention of how to
write

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English sentences grammatically and systematically. Hence, teaching writing depends

on the teachers’ ability of how to teach writing effectively which can make students’ ability
improved.
Kimble and Garmezy in Brown (2000: 7) state that learning is a relatively permanent
change in behavioral tendency and learning is the result of reinforced practice. It means that in
teaching writing, the teacher has to show and help students to learn how to write, give
instructions, guide students in writing, provide students with knowledge of writing, and make
students understand how to write effectively.

D. Assessing Writing

Teachers who recognize the importance of writing as a tool for learning understand that
writing helps students connect their thoughts and communicate with others. Regarding to that
point, the researcher realizes that the most important part to know the students’ writing ability
is from their product, i.e. their writings. It can be assumed that if the students have a good
writing ability, their writing also will be good and vice versa. Therefore, teachers have to be
able to assess students’ writing in an appropriate way. However, to assess students’ writing
product is not a simple thing to do. Urquhart & McIver (2005: 26) argue that the most time-
intensive part of teaching writing is assessment. Miller (Urquhart & McIver, 2005: 27) defines
that assessment as gathering information to meet the particular needs of a student.

1. How to assess

A teacher has some responsibilities to the success of the students’ writing. The first
responsibility is to provide opportunities for writing and encouragement for students who
attempt to writing. The second responsibility is to promote students’ success in writing.
The teacher does this by carefully monitoring students’ writing to assess strengths and
weaknesses, teaching specific skills and strategies in response to students’ needs, and
giving careful feedback that will correct students’ mistakes in writing.
2. Rubrics

Teachers need to use an appropriate tool which helps them in assessing students’ writing
performance. Rubric is an important tool to be prepared by the teachers in order to give an

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objective score. Urquhart & McIver (2005: 31) argue that rubrics are very effective
assessment tools because they describe specific levels of performance. Besides, rubrics
also explain the students’ performance clearly. Research also supports using rubrics
because they clearly communicate expectations for both teaching and learning.
There are four main types of rubrics, i.e. holistic rubrics, analytic rubrics, primary trait
rubrics, and multi-trait rubrics. However, in this study the researcher only presents two of
them, i.e. holistic rubrics and analytic rubrics.
a. Holistic rubrics

It assigns a level of performance by assessing performance across multiple criteria as

a whole. The emphasis in holistic rubrics is on what a student does well. Weigle (2002:
112) argue that holistic scoring has an advantage to focus on the students’ attention on
the strengths of their writing, not on their deficiencies.
However, holistic scoring also has several disadvantages. It is less useful for classroom
purposes because it provides little information to students about their performance
because holistic scoring assesses students’ performance of several criteria as a whole
or in a single score. Weigle (2002: 114) says that “a single score does not provide
useful diagnostic information about a person’s writing ability.”
Another disadvantage of holistic rubrics is in the way of interpreting the scores. It is
because in holistic scoring, raters do not use the same criteria to arrive at the same
score. This idea is supported by Weigle’s explanation. According to Weigle (2002:
114), holistic scoring also has a disadvantage in which it is not always easy to interpret,
as raters do not necessarily use the same criteria to arrive at the same scores.
b. Analytic rubrics

Analytic scales are divided into separate categories representing different aspects or
dimensions of performance. For example, dimensions for writing performance might
include content, organization, vocabulary, grammar, and mechanics. Each dimension
is scored separately, and then dimension scores are added to determine an overall
score. Weigle (2002: 114) states that “in analytic scoring, scripts are rated on several
aspects of writing or criteria rather than given a single score depending on the purpose
of the assessment.”

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Analytic rubrics provide more detailed information about students’ ability. It is

because when using analytic scoring, teachers use different aspects of writing such as
content, organization, mechanics, or grammar that can give more information about
students’ writing ability.
Assessment rubric used in this paper is based on Ratnaningsih (2011: 18-20) that was adapted
based on ESL Composition profile proposed by Jacobs et al. (1981) from Weigle (2002: 116).
The writing assessment rubric is shown below.
Aspects of Writing Level Score Criteria

Content Excellent to very good 20-18  Relevant to the points of the dictated-
text
 Match the purpose of a narrative text
Good to average 17-14  Mostly relevant to the points of dictated-
text but lacks detail of information
 Match the purpose of a narrative text

Fair to Poor 13-10  Inadequate development of the points

of the dictated-text
 Almost match the purpose of a
narrative text
Very Poor 9-7  Does not relate to the points of the
dictated-text or not enough to evaluate
 Does not match the purpose of a
narrative text
Organization Excellent to very good 20-18  Well-organized of a narrative text

Good to average 17-14  Loosely organized of a narrative text

but main ideas stand out
Fair to Poor 13-10  Ideas confused or disconnected

Very Poor 9-7  No organization or not enough to

evaluate
Language use Excellent to very good 20-18  Few errors of agreement, tense, articles

Good to average 17-14  Several errors of agreement, tense,

articles, pronouns and prepositions
 Meaning seldom obscured
Fair to Poor 13-10  Frequent errors of agreement, tense,
articles, pronouns and prepositions
 Meaning obscured or confused
Very Poor 9-7  Dominated by errors
 Does not communicate or not enough
to evaluate.
Mechanics Excellent to very good 20-18  Demonstrates mastery of conventions
 Few errors of spelling, punctuation,
capitalization
Good to average 17-14  Occasional errors of spelling,
punctuation, capitalization
Fair to Poor 13-10  Frequent errors of spelling,
punctuation, capitalization
 Poor handwriting
Very Poor 9-7  Dominated by errors of spelling,
punctuation, capitalization
 Handwriting illegible or not enough to
evaluate

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In relation to the participation aspect in dictogloss technique, an assessment rubric of

participation aspect based on Ratnaningsih (2011: 20) is shown below.
Aspects Level Score Criteria

Participation Excellent to very good 10-9  Gives a high contribution to the

teaching-learning process
Good to average 8-6  Gives a standard contribution

Fair to Poor 5-4  Sometimes gives a contribution to the

teaching-learning process
Very Poor 3-2  Does not give any contribution to the
teaching-learning process

There are some aspects which were assessed in this study. Those aspects are the writing aspects
and the participation aspect. The writing aspects include content, organization, language use
and mechanics. In the content aspect, the students’ writing should relevant to the points of the
dictated-text. It also should match the purpose of a narrative text. Then in term of the
organization aspect, it should be well-organized. While in term of the language use, it should
show few errors of agreement, tense, articles, pronouns, and prepositions. Then in the
mechanics aspect, it should demonstrate mastery of conventions which shows few errors of
spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. Finally in term of the participation aspect, the students
should give their contribution to the success of the group work. They should participate in the
dictogloss activity.
E. Narrative Text

In this paper, the writer presents information about a narrative text because this paper
used a narrative text as the material in the dictogloss activity. Narrative is a text that tells a
story and has functions to entertain or educate the reader or listener. According to Anderson
and Anderson (2003: 8) a narrative is a piece of text which tells a story and, in doing so,
entertains or informs the reader or listener. The same idea is also stated by Lipson and Cooper
(2002) who define a narrative as a text that is read by people for entertainment.
A narrative text has some parts, i.e. orientation, complication, sequence of events,
resolution, and coda. Anderson and Anderson (2003: 12) says that a narrative text can have
five main parts: orientation, complication, sequence of events, resolution, and coda. Moreover,
Stein and Glenn (Lipson & Cooper, 2002) add that narrative texts have a setting, characters, a
problem or initiating event, the important events, and an outcome or resolution.

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In the orientation part, the narrator introduces the characters and informs the time and
the place. Then the complication part is the part when the crises arise. Moreover, in the
sequence of events the narrator tells how the characters react to the complication. Furthermore,
the narrator tells the ending of the story in the resolution part. It can be a happy ending or sad
ending. While the coda part is an optional part because the narrator includes this part if there
is a moral value from the story.
In a narrative text, learners can do several things. They can learn about the generic
structure or the parts of a narrative text. They also learn about the purpose of a narrative text
and the language features which are used in a narrative text.

3. DICTOGLOSS

A. Definition of Dictogloss

Anderson and Anderson (2003:46) defines that the word ‘dictogloss’ comes from two
words, i.e. ‘dictation’ and ‘glossary.’ Dictation is an activity of a person who reads a passage
aloud and the audience writes what is said (dictated). A glossary is a list of words with their
meanings written beside them. Wajnryb (1995: 12) defines the word ‘gloss’ as a paraphrase in
the learners’ own words. Jacobs (2003) describes that dictogloss is an integrated skill technique
for language learning in which students work together to create a reconstructed version of a
text read to them by their teacher. Furthermore, Wajnryb (1995:5) says dictogloss as, “a
relatively recent procedure in language teaching.” It is because there are still few teachers who
use dictogloss in conducting their teaching and learning process. They might not know this
technique yet.
From the explanation above, it can be concluded that dictogloss is a technique for
language learning in which students work together to reconstruct a dictated-text. They
reconstruct the dictated-text by using their own words or in other words they do not write
exactly what the teacher read.
1. Stages of Dictogloss

Dictation has a long history in literacy education. In the standard dictation procedure,
the teacher reads a passage slowly and repeatedly. Students write exactly what the teacher says.

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Dictation in this traditional form has been criticized as a rote learning technique in which
students merely make a copy of the text the teacher reads without doing any thinking.
Jacobs (2003) states that a new way to do dictation, known as dictogloss, developed by
Wajnryb. Furthermore, Wajnryb writes the basic stages of dictogloss in her book. These stages
are presented below.
a. Preparation

At this stage, teachers should:

a) prepare learners for the text;
b) prepare learners for the vocabulary of the text;
c) ensure that learners know what they are expected to do at each stage of the technique;
d) organize learners into groups.
b. Dictation

As a standard procedure, learners should hear the dictation twice. The first time, they
should not write. They get a global feeling for the whole passage. The second time,
they should take down notes. When the students take notes during the dictation, they
should be encouraged to write down the word that will help them to piece together the
text in the later reconstruction stage.
The text should be dictated at a normal spoken speed. The general pace is comparable
to that of a news broadcast on radio or TV. The dictating should not be conducted in
the traditional way where the sentence is broken up into word units. Between
sentences, the pauses should be slightly longer than usual.
c. Reconstruction

As soon as the dictation is finished, the learners, working in groups, proceed to pool
their notes and work on their version of the text. The teacher’s role during
reconstruction is to monitor the activity. In this stage, a group of learners should
maintain as much information as possible from the original text. However, they are
not allowed to copy all words in the original text.
d. Analysis and Correction

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The last stage of the dictogloss technique is the analysis and correction of the learners’
texts. Wajnryb (1995) also adds in the analysis and correction stage, “Ideally, the
original text should not be seen by learners until after their own versions have been
analyzed.” There are various ways of conducting this, such as using the blackboard
and using an overhead projector. However, the teacher may use whiteboard or other
media. Using the whiteboard, the students’ texts are written up for all to see and
discuss.
To sum up, the dictogloss technique has four stages i.e. preparation, dictation,
reconstruction and analysis-correction stages. In the preparation stage, the teacher
should prepare the text and organize the groups. Then in the dictation stage, the
dictated-text read more than once. The next stage is the reconstruction stage in which
the students work in group to reconstruct the dictated-text by using their own words.
Finally, the last stage is the analysis-correction stage in which discussion and
feedbacks are occurred.
2. Aims of Dictogloss

Wajnryb (1995: 6) argues that dictogloss has a number of aims. The following are a
number of aims of dictogloss:
1) It provides an opportunity for learners to use their grammatical knowledge to reconstruct the
dictated-text;
2) It also encourages learners to find out what they do and do not know about English which is
realized in the attempts to reconstruct the text and in the subsequent analysis of those
attempts.
4. DISCUSSION

There are many ways that teachers can do in teaching writing. In this study, the
technique which is used to teach writing is the dictogloss. Furthermore, the way in teaching
writing of this study is based on the steps of the dictogloss such as preparation, dictation,
reconstruction, and analysis-correction stages.
In relation to that, the key to dictogloss is interaction. This technique requires learners
in the classroom to interact with each other in small groups to reconstruct the text as a co-
operative endeavour. Working in this way, learners are actively engaged in the learning

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process. Students find out what they do not know, and then they find out what they need to
know. It is through this process that they improve their language skills.
Wajnryb (1995: 10) argues that through active learner involvement students come to
confront their own strengths and weaknesses in English language use. In teaching with
dictogloss, teachers should remember that the aim is to improve learners’ grammatical
competence in using the language. With experience, students become familiar with the
procedure and the phases become predictable parts of a familiar process. The students’
confidence in both learning and using the language increases after students realize that they are
learning and their English is improving.
Furthermore, the other point related to the dictogloss technique to teaching writing is
the term grammar in context. One of the best methods of teaching grammar is to use passages
or texts that illustrate grammatical functions within their context. Teaching the students
grammar in context shows them how to apply various grammatical concepts. This is commonly
believed to improve the students' ability to communicate through written language.
The issue of grammar in context is found in the dictogloss technique. In both the
reconstruction stage and the analysis stage of dictogloss, the issue of grammar is approached
contextually. In the reconstruction stage, learners are required to perform a context-based task.
Using their notes and their knowledge of the language, they reconstruct a text whose topic,
points of view are already known.
In the final stage, the analysis and correction stage, this technique also shows the issue
of grammar in context. The various text versions that the groups of learners produce are treated
in terms of the given context.
Finally, another important point that can be discussed in the dictogloss technique is
motivation. Wajnryb (1995: 15) states that the integration of the functions of testing and
teaching in dictogloss helps to stimulate the learners’ motivation. It is because when the
learners offer their contribution to the group in the context of the reconstruction stage, they are
making commitment to the group, to the task, and to the learning process. Moreover, the
students will have confidence to contribute to the success of the group work and they will be
motivated in the teaching and learning process because the task is done in groups.
Another effect of dictogloss to the students’ motivation is showed in the final stage.
The final stage of analysis and correction is something that should be conducted to maximize

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learning and encourage risk-taking in which students are motivated to give a response to their
friends’ work.
5. CONCLUSION

Dictogloss technique can be used to improve students’ writing ability. This technique
can be maximized to teach writing not only in term of grammar in context but also can be used
to maximize interaction (students’ involvement) because this technique requires the interaction
of the learners to interact each other to reconstruct the text as cooperative endeavour. Moreover,
the analysis-correction stage of dictogloss technique contributes to the occurrence of feedback
in relation to the mistakes that are found in the students’ writing so that learners get the right
application of grammar and English use.

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