68 IMPLEMENTATION OF COURSE SYLLABUS The Implementation of the Academic Writing Course Syllabus Grace S. Bastian gesilv_bast@yahoo.com AUG Student Service Surabaya, Indonesia Abstract Curriculum change required to meet the stakeholders’ needs, whether it occurs in regular bases or in responding towards some dissatisfaction of students’ learning outcomes. This study was trig- gered by the second reason. To be more specific, it focused on how the syllabus was implemented in terms of teaching materials, classroom exercises, home assignments, and final projects. Document analyses were conducted and were validated using instrument triangulation. A semi structured inter- view was given to 18 first semester graduate students of 2013-2014 academic year. The findings were intended as a contribution and feedback towards the teaching-learning process of Academic Writing course at the English Education Department, Graduate School, Widya Mandala Catholic University Surabaya. From the analyses, it showed that the course syllabus was implemented in accordance with the learning objectives. However, there were some items evaluated in the students’ result which had not met the objectives as written in the syllabus. The gap was ultimately noted as the consequence that students were not accustomed to use the academic writing manual, and they were short of academic writing practice. Hence, some suggestions were proposed to give them more sustainable tasks to use the format, read and analyze more journal articles, as the model of writing. The result of this study was supposed to give contribution not only to the improvement of the institution’s curriculum, but also to wider pedagogical content knowledge, mainly on English as Foreign Language (EFL) teach- ing. Keywords: implementation, syllabus, Academic Writing Introduction To fulfill the changing needs of both students and society, reviews and revisions of curricula are held on a regular basis. This process could be either as a part of a normal cycle organized by educational authorities or as a responsive action toward “triggering events” such as poor students’ performanc- es. The results provide substantial infor- mation about the institution to make change and improvements on its curriculum and also to be useful for broader academic community. Typically, the related studies on re- viewing and revising curricula are done by comparing the intended curriculum and what actually takes place in the classrooms and schools. Therefore, the procedure in- volved the official documents such as cur- riculum frameworks, syllabi (subject- specific curricula), and other written docu- ments used in teaching and learning activi- ties. (Tibbitts, 2015). Each evaluation of the course syllabus’ implementation could con- tribute to the whole review of an institu- tion’s curriculum. Thus, the present study captured an image of the course syllabus implementation aiming at the integral course and institution development. The research of course syllabus imple- mentation basically investigated on how the written syllabus was carried out in the real teaching and learning activities. In the syl- Beyond Words Vol.4. No. 1. May 2016 Graduate School, Widya Mandala Catholic University Surabaya, Indonesia mailto:gesilv_bast@yahoo.com IMPLEMENTATION OF COURSE SYLLABUS 69 labus, learning objectives act as a main goal to achieve. Teaching materials and activities are designed and used to help students meet the expected learning objectives. And the final assessment is an ultimate reflection of students’ achievement to the learning objec- tives. All of the stated information in the syllabus is generally acknowledged as a contract or a permanent record between teacher and students during the course (Parkes & Harris, 2002). In other words, a study of syllabus implementation generally aims at crosschecking whether what was promised in the syllabus was well executed during the course. The role of students is essential in eval- uating the syllabus implementation. The students can be a living proof of how well a course syllabus is being implemented. To indicate the success of a course syllabus im- plementation, the students should be able to understand and benefit the teaching materi- als in ease. The tasks and activities should be designed to help students practicing what had been taught. And the assessment should be done to prove whether the learning ob- jectives have been achieved by the targeted students or not. Moreover, students can be a source of how the course syllabus will be improved. El-Sakran (2014) suggested that students’ feedback was the evidence of students’ ac- tual need to build course contents. His in- vestigations towards the details of partici- pants’ backgrounds and aspirations, course objectives, course contents, the students’ perceptions of the whole course, the text- book used, the assigned tasks and activities, and the staging and administration of the course earned some pedagogical implica- tions for respective ESP teachers and course designers. He found out that all the participants in an ESP Course in the United Arab Emirates, he studied, perceived the overall course con- tents as interesting, relevant, and eye open- ing. The course textbook was quite appro- priate to the course since it met the course objectives and enriched students’ knowledge of ESP. The language used in the book was clear and easy to understand. The book provided clear and reader-friendly explanations. And the assignment sequence was designed based on a scaffolding ap- proach. However, based on students’ per- ceptions, they demanded more examples of the studies. Despite of those findings, this study had not delved into students’ final projects. The present study investigated the im- plementation of the Academic Writing course syllabus in Widya Mandala graduate school. The course was taught by a team of two, and it was investigating the 2nd part of the semester. It was held in the first semes- ter started from October 2, 2013 to Novem- ber 20, 2013, with three hours per meeting from 6 pm until 9 pm. The participants of this study were 18 students of the Academic Writing course batch 19, excluding the re- searcher. Most of them were not full-time students. They teach in the morning. The syllabus aimed at preparing the students writing their research thesis proposal. As a result, the main parts taken into considera- tion were format, introduction, and literature review. It was stated in the learning objectives that: firstly, in the format of a paper students were able to (a) write a running head, (b) make a suitable short title, (c) formulate a good title, and (d) write in a proper level of heading. The second point was about the content of the introduction, where students were supposed to able to (a) state a clear research problem, (b) show the importance of the study, (c) state a clear purpose of the study, (d) cite the sources of the previous IMPLEMENTATION OF COURSE SYLLABUS 70 research to support the arguments, (e) write transitional devices between paragraphs, and (f) write a brief summary of the re- search design. Thirdly, in literature review of essays, students were able to (a) identify the research variables used and the relation- ship between them, (b) cite sources to sup- port the arguments, not a list of definition, (c) discuss and comment summaries of pre- vious research/theoretical background, (d) write transitional devices between para- graphs. In fact, the results of students’ final projects showed that the students scored very low especially in formatting the level of heading, writing the introduction and lit- erature review section. Consequently, seven students batch 19 joining that Academic Writing course got minimum score B- and they were given an opportunity to learn more and revise their paper. Only one stu- dent got A and another one got A-. Other six students got B+. The other four students got B. The result of that preliminary research showed that the students still did not ac- complish the final project as what had been taught in the teaching materials. Therefore, a deep analysis on the syllabus implementa- tion was conducted accordingly. Hence, the present study was an evalua- tive study aiming at investigating the implementation of the Academic Writing course syllabus in terms of teaching materi- als, classroom exercises, home assignments, and also final project. The document re- views were conducted to analyze the content of the collected data. To describe a deep analysis on that implementation of academic writing course syllabus, the graduate stu- dents’ perspectives were elicited through semi-structure interviews. Methods Participants The participants in this research were eighteen students of the English Education Department Batch 19, Graduate School, Widya Mandala Catholic University Sura- baya. They took Academic Writing course in the first semester. And all of them hardly got experience in academic writing before taking that course. Data Analysis The data of this study were (1) the con- tent of the teaching materials, (2) the in- struction and students’ results from class- room exercises, home assignments, and fi- nal projects, and then (3) the students’ re- sponses toward interviews. At first, the researcher analyzed the teaching materials, classroom exercises, home assignments, and final projects in ac- cordance with the learning objectives. Doc- ument analyses of teaching materials fo- cused on evaluating the content and the teaching aids. And, document analyses of students’ classroom exercises, students’ home assignments, and students’ final pro- jects emphasized on evaluating the instruc- tion and the students’ results. To triangulate the results of the docu- ment analyses, the researcher elicited stu- dents’ perception on the implementation of academic writing course syllabus by con- ducting interviews. The interview questions encompassed (1) what teaching materials were remembered (by students), (2) how their feelings were, (3) how they solved problems dealing with teaching materials, classroom exercises, home assignments, and final projects. The interview results were transcribed and analyzed carefully to find common difficulties and strategies to solve them. IMPLEMENTATION OF COURSE SYLLABUS 71 Based on the result of document anal- yses and interview, the consistent patterns and the possible gap in the implementation of the Academic Writing course syllabus were highlighted. Those findings were cross-checked by pedagogical theories and previous studies. Moreover, those findings were discussed and linked to the existing problems (see, the background of the study). Findings The Teaching Materials The document analyses showed that the chosen content of the teaching materials covered almost all the learning objectives in format, introduction, and literature review section, except the explanation on how-to- identify the research variables used and the relationship between them (learning objec- tive point 3.a). There were several supple- mentary materials to be read at home, such as materials on page numbering, writing ab- stract, building academic words, and devel- oping rationale. All of those additional ma- terials were given to support the students’ independent learning process after the class. The teaching materials were clearly presented with some real examples to deep- en students’ understanding on the concepts. The examples--especially on introduction and literature review--were directly quoted and cited from reliable journal articles. Stu- dents then could use the examples as a mod- el in their writing. However, there were some learning objectives still needed vivid examples, such as how-to-formulate the short title (learning objective point 1.b), how-to-state the research problems (learning objective point 2.a), how-to-show the im- portance of the study (learning objective point 2.b), and how-to-write a brief sum- mary of the research design (learning objec- tive point 2.f). Further, the document analyses showed that the teaching aids supported the content of the teaching materials. The course book Publication Manual of the American Psy- chological Association, 6th edition was a source of teaching materials on introduction section. The book Becoming an Academic Writer was quoted as supplementary materi- als such as building academic words, devel- oping rationale, and writing summary of research design. The downloaded journals were used as examples in introduction sec- tion and literature review section. Beside the Publication Manual, the reference menu of MS Word was also presented and in-class practiced to help students do the referencing section. The result of students’ interview showed that all students gave positive re- sponses in getting downloaded journals and practicing through MS Word, except partic- ipants were reluctant to the course books, i.e., the APA Publication Manual 6th edition. They preferred having the real model of the content from the journals and practicing the format directly through MS Word. The document analyses and interview result also showed that there were classroom exercises on writing running head, short ti- tle, title, and level of headings after the ex- planation of the teaching materials. There were more exercises on how-to-write level of headings based on APA 6th Edition for- mat. The result of the classroom exercises showed that students could accomplish as what had been explained in the teaching ma- terials. However, there were some mistakes noted. For example, students often neglect- ed the details of mechanics and grammar, such as font style, font size, punctuations, and word formation. It turned out to the fact that all participants actually did not realize IMPLEMENTATION OF COURSE SYLLABUS 72 their mistakes as stated in the interview that they got no problems in doing the exercises. On the other hand, the home assign- ments emphasized more on writing the con- tent of manuscript, such as introduction and literature review. There were more assign- ments on how-to-write introduction. Based on the result of the home assignments, stu- dents could not accomplish as what had been taught in the teaching materials. For example, several students were not able to (1) state the research problem clearly (2) show the importance of the study in terms of authenticity, new insight, and relevance, and (3) write a brief summary of the research design in introduction part. Furthermore, students could not (1) identify variables used and the relationships between them (2) cite sources to support their arguments, and (3) discuss and comment summaries of previous research/ theoretical background in literature review section. However, students could write a clear purpose of the study as what had been explained in the teaching ma- terials. And that result was confirmed by the result of interview. When doing home as- signments, all participants found difficulties in meeting the learning objectives, except in writing the purpose of the study. The partic- ipants stated it was easy to write the purpose of the study since the materials clearly ex- plained with the examples. And the partici- pants could simply write the purpose of the study as the answer of their research ques- tions. However, to meet other learning ob- jectives, the participants realized that they needed more writing experience to state a clear research problem in introduction and needed critical thinking to discuss and comment summaries of previous research/ theoretical background in literature review. Moreover, the participants also felt hard to write a brief summary of the research design in introduction; and to identify re- search variables used and show the relationships between them in literature re- view since those were not explained explic- itly in the teaching materials. And there were no vivid examples supporting the ex- planations of the teaching materials on how- to-write the importance of the study. Conse- quently, the participants faced difficulties in accomplishing the home assignments. They tried to solve it by reading the book and re- search journals a lot, but they still could not tackle the problems. In fact, the students’ final projects also showed that there were no improvements on some item evaluated such as (1) stating the research problem clearly (2) showing the importance of the study in terms of authenticity, new insight, and relevance, and (3) writing a brief summary of the research design in introduction part. Furthermore, students still could not (1) identify variables used and the relationships between them and (2) discuss and comment summaries of previous research/ theoretical background in literature review section. The well accomplished part of the final project was in the format section. Even though, students still struggled in writing the level of headings. They did not show the consistency in writing the subheadings based on standardized format. And the worst was there was no subheadings at all, especially for the literature review. They just wrote down several blocks of paragraphs without categorizing it under certain subheadings. However, they did not realize it as shown by the result of inter- view. IMPLEMENTATION OF COURSE SYLLABUS 73 Discussions Based on the findings in the document analyses and interviews, the Academic Writing course syllabus was implemented in accordance with the learning objectives.It could be seen from the teaching materials, classroom exercises, home assignments, and final projects given to the students. The con- tent of the teaching materials supported by the appropriate teaching aids covered the learning objectives. The classroom exercises and the home assignments were given right after the explanation of the teaching materi- als. The classroom exercises emphasized on practicing standardized format, while the home assignments emphasized on writing the content of manuscript. According to the students’ result, students were more able to do the technical task such as setting format than to do the writing task such as writing the content of the manuscript. The highest accomplish- ments were in writing the format of running head, short title, and title. On the other hand, the poorest score of students was in writing the literature review section. Despite the satisfying fulfillment in the format section, it was noted that some stu- dents still has troubles in writing the format of the levels of headings. The document analyses showed that students often neglected the detail of mechanics such as font style, font size, and punctuation. And based on interview result, all participants did not realized their mistakes. They stated that they got no problems on those exercises since they got sufficient concepts and prac- tices about writing format. They did not write the format correctly, not because they did not know how to write it, but they did not know how essential to write it. Their unconsciousness to use the systematic format could be strongly caused by their previous or inadequate writing ex- perience. Possibly, students might not have the sense of ‘getting accustomed to’ in using a rigid writing format. Consequently, they were not aware of its importance to write properly such as using standardized font style, font size, and correct punctuations. Further, the results of students’ final projects also showed that there were some items evaluated without improvements from classroom exercises, home assignments, un- til final projects such as (1) stating the research problem clearly (2) showing the importance of the study in terms of authenticity, new insight, and relevance, and (3) writing a brief summary of the research design in introduction part. Based on the interview result, most participants stated that they felt difficult to organize the ideas. Consequently, they read more other research journals related to the topic. These attempts showed positive impacts, afterwards. From that fact, it could be concluded that students actually needed reading expo- sure more. Krashen (1989) stated that reading exposure could improve grammatic- al development and writing style. Moreover, it could also ignite students’ critical thinking especially in their writing. Then the sense of writing would be built by the time. That sense enables students to show their ideas in the appropriate words and organize their ideas in coherent paragraphing. In addition, the document analyses showed that students still could not (1) identify variables used and the relationships between them and (2) discuss and comment summaries of previous research/ theoretical background in literature review section. Based on the interview result, participants got less examples and its explanation in the literature review section. And they stated IMPLEMENTATION OF COURSE SYLLABUS 74 that some given journal examples were not read thoroughly since the topic was uninter- esting or unrelated to their topic. It showed that students needed more authentic examples from research journals. The examples should be used to give students real good writing models. That is very useful in the first stage of product- based writing. Initially, “Familiarization writing” makes learners aware of certain features of a text” (Badger & White, 2002). Then, the process will continue to the controlled writing, guided writing, and free writing which allows students to use the writing skill as a part of a genuine activity. It should be emphasized that students should experience in analyzing the writing model to get deeper understandings on the writing structure, not the content. Students should be directed to collect texts, work with texts by analyzing wider context of use and meaning, analyzing organization and structure of the text, and analyzing its lexico-grammatical choices (Friedrich, 2008). As a result, students will not reject it due to uninteresting topic or unrelated topic, but they would accept it due to the useful writing outline. Conclusions and Suggestions The Academic Writing course syllabus was implemented in accordance with the learning objectives, in terms of the teaching materials, classroom exercises, home as- signments, and final projects given to the students. However, the students’ result in exercises, assignments, and final projects showed that some items evaluated were still not accomplished as what had been taught in the teaching materials. And it was trig- gered by the fact that students had lack of the sense of ‘accustomed to’ in learning the format of writing. And they also had lack of the sense of ideas for writing, such as intro- duction and literature review. Thus, to acquire both senses, it was suggested that students immersed in sus- tainable tasks demanding standardized for- mat and reading exposure not only in the Academic Writing course, but also in other courses. Furthermore, the teaching materials should also be supported with the authentic models of good writings. Students should be required to read and analyze the model so that they get familiar to writing in terms of using the standardized format, and also de- veloping ideas. Those issues should also be supported by the role of both the lecturer and the stu- dents. The intervention of the lecturer is still essential in preparing the teaching materials before the class and in carrying them out during the class. The lecturer should provide sufficient examples, feedback, and support in order to help student accomplish the ex- pected learning objectives. And the stu- dents’ preparation before the class is also required so that they had adequate back- ground knowledge which was ready to be enriched during the class. Hence, the implementation of the Aca- demic Writing course syllabus was de- scribed on how the teaching materials, classroom exercises, and final paper were actualized in accordance with the learning objectives. And also, it was specifically per- ceived on how the teaching materials, class- room exercises, and home assignments were interrelated one to another. Suggestions for the teaching learning process goes both to the lecturer as the facilitator and students. IMPLEMENTATION OF COURSE SYLLABUS 75 Besides concepts, exercises and home as- signments, authentic hands-on materials are very much needed. Active interactions must also come from students. Classroom experi- ence only is limited. In the case of academic writing, it is also suggested that the format be compulsory in writing essays and as- signments of other courses. This ex post facto study did not observe the learning and teaching process. It is sug- gested that a further research be done also to both the lecturer and the students teaching and learning activities as a main aspect of learning. References Badger, R., & White, G. (2002). A Process Genre Approach to Teaching Writing. ELT Journal, 2, 54. El-Sakran, T. M. (2014). MATESOL Students’ Reflections and Perceptions of an ESP Course in the United Arab Emirates. Journal of Teaching and Teacher Education, II(1), 13-26. Friedrich, P. (Ed.). (2008). Teaching Academic Writing. East Sussex: Continuum. Krashen, S. D. (1989). Language Acquisition and Language Education. New York: Prentice Hall International. Parkes, J., & Harris, M. B. (2002). The Purposes of a Syllabus. College Teaching, 50(2), 55-61. Tibbitts, F. (2015). Curriculum Development and Review for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights Education. Paris: UNESCO Publishing.