Sebuah Kajian Pustaka: Kareviati, Yugafiati & Resmini: Need Analysis of English Department … 1 NEED ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH DEPARTMENT STUDENTS AS THE BASIC OF MATERIAL DEVELOPMENT OF WRITING FOR GENERAL COMMUNICATION Evie Kareviati1, Rasi Yugafiati2, Setya Resmini3 akhmadjaelani91@yahoo.co.id, tanya.rasiyugafiati@gmail.com, setyaresmini@gmail.com IKIP SILIWANGI ABSTRACT Writing is one out of four skills that should be mastered, but Writing is the most difficult one because of its complexity in making sentence. This research is intended to identify the students’ needs related to Writing for General Communication as a subject in the second semester. The research method was qualitative. The data were obtained from test, questionnaire and interview as a triangulation. The respondents were 33 students of second semester of English Department in IKIP Siliwangi Bandung. The data from test showed that students’ difficulties in writing dealing with linguistic problem. In addition, the data from questionnaire revealed that respondents have various educatioal experiences, their first language, their interests, their cultural background and different purposes for learning English. The result showed that almost 100% of students want to learn tenses, kinds of text, generic structure and punctuation. It indicates that there is a need to design a coursebook in Writing General Communication based on the students’ need. It is used as the basic for designing a textbook in Writing for General Communication subject. Keywords: Need analysis, Material development, Writing for General Communication A. INTRODUCTION There are four skills that should be mastered by the learner of language; listening, speaking, reading and writing. These four skills were taught integrally since in the junior high school. As one of the four language skills, writing has always occupied place in most English language course. One of the reasons is that more and more people need to learn to write in English for occupational or academic purposes, especially for English department students, they need to learn writing and prepare themselves for the final academic assignment (Apsari, 2018). In English Department at IKIP Siliwangi, there are many subjects such as Reading, Listening, Speaking and Writing subject. In this case, writing is given in three semesters, they are Writing for General Communication (in the second semester), Writing in Pofessional Context (in the third semester) and Writing for Academic Purposes (in the forth mailto:akhmadjaelani91@yahoo.co.id mailto:tanya.rasiyugafiati@gmail.com mailto:setyaresmini@gmail.com ELTIN Journal, Volume 8/I, April 2020 2 semester). Writing for General Communication is a subject given to the students of the second semester of English Department in IKIP Siliwangi. This indicates that academic writing is regarded as the most important language skill to English tertiary students. However, writing subject is still regarded as the most difficult subject. There are many factors contributed as the students’ barrier in improving students’ writing skills. Students’ characteristic become one of the factors. Students of IKIP Siliwangi have different background. They also have different abilities and have different difficulties. It means that it is important to know what kinds of material that should be given to them in order that they can write well, in line with the aims of the subject. As stated by O’Neill (1990) that materials that are suitable for learners’ needs, they make students possible review and prepare their lessons. Need analysis can provide a means of obtaining wider input into the content, design, an implementation of a language programme( Richard,1984 cited in Nunan, 1992 : 43). There is a related previous study by Al-Adi and Samuel (2013). They analyzed Oman’s students and they found that there is a gap between the content of the grade 11 curriculum and the perceived needs of the students. Their curriculum only gave little space for students to increase writing competence. The findings related to language innovation/reform were then discussed and implication were made for the grade 11 program aim, pinciples, teaching methodology, content and teacher training in Oman. From the research we can see that the gap between content and the needs of students is usually happened. Based on the description above, it can be concluded that conductng need analysis in teaching and learning process is a must.Therefore, the purpose of the study is to identify the students’need related to the subject of Writing for General Communication. B. LITERATURE REVIEW 1. Need Analysis Need analysis is the most characteristic feature of English for Specific Purposes course design (Hutchinson and Walters, 1987). It is also a starting point for a syllabus/course design. It is a part of curriculum development, and is required before developing a syllabus. Need analysis according to Hutchinson &Waters (1991) in Fatimah (2018) includes target needs and learning needs. Target needs focus on the needs of students in certain situations including needs (necessities), wants (wants) and weaknesses (lacks) while learning needs focus on what they need to be able to learn. Why students need, Johnson (2008) in www.ukessays.com points out that ‘in order to plan a foreign language teaching we need to find a way of analyzing learners’ needs. What is going to tell is just how much, and for what purposes our learners will need which foreign languages, it is the process of needs analysis. Needs Analysis in language teaching and language program design, can be defined as a systematic process which helps teachers to collect information and get accurate and complete picture of their students’ needs and preferences. Then they interpret the information and decided what program should be included, based on the interpretations in order to meet the students’ needs. This step can be used in response to the academic needs of all students to develop the students abilities and find academic standards. Some probable resources for gathering information are quetionnaires, surveys, tests, observations and individual interviews. Generally a need analysis tries to get information on the situations in which that language is needed, the types of communications that are going to be used in the http://www.ukessays.com/ Kareviati, Yugafiati & Resmini: Need Analysis of English Department … 3 course and the level of proficiency that is required to develop a syllabus. Thus, designing curriculum and syllabus--which is often ignored in English language teaching and teacher training (Irfani, 2014), is very important. Hutchinson and Waters (1987:80) in Rabbani & Gakuen (2002) mention that syllabus is a statement ehich shows language and linguistic performance that should be learnt. This is a rather traditional interpretation of syllabus focusing as it does on outcomes rather than process. However, Yalden (1987:87) states that a syllabus as a summary of the content to will be taken by the learners. 2. Writing Writing is a method of representing language in visual form. Writing systems use sets of symbols to represent the sounds of speech, and may also have symbols for such things as punctuation and numerals. According to Lado (1964) in Pratiwi (2015) Writing is a partial representation of units of language expression. In academic work, students are often expected to give definitions of key words and phrases in order to demonstrate to their tutors that they understand these terms clearly. Academic writers generally, however, define terms so that their readers understand exactly what is meant when certain key terms are used. When important words are not clearly understood misinterpretation may result. Writing is a process of transferring ideas into written form that is understandable. According to Sapkota (2012:70) “writing is an activity of putting down the graphic symbols which has a function to present a language in order to convey some meaning so that the reader can grasp the information which the writer has tried to convey”. In addition, Brown (2001:336) states “writing is a process of thinking”. This idea is supported by Nunan (2003:88) in Harris, Ansyar and Radjab (2014) which also explains that “writing is the process of thinking to find ideas, thinking about how to express ideas into good writing, and arranging the ideas into sentences and paragraph clearly”. It is because writing is a process of putting ideas in their mind on a paper to transform them in words and become sentences by using structure and coherent organization. It indicates that writers are expected to explore their ideas and arrange them into good sentences and paragraph that have meaning. Because of that writing is not only the activity of producing symbols of language in written form, but also a mean to deliver ideas. When people start writing, they do not only write all their ideas. They need to convey and organize their ideas into a readable text that has some meanings. They have to think how to make their ideas can be understood easily. 3. Writing Difficulties Mukminatien (2003) claims that many problems arise with regard to the development of English as Foreign Language (EFL) productive skills, especially in the area of writing. Writing involves several components which have to be considered including word choice, use of appropriate grammar, syntax, mechanics, and organization of ideas into coherent and cohesive form (Gebhard, 1996) and writing mechanics such as punctuation and capitalization (Hartfiel, et al., 1985: 102, cited in Cahyono, 2001: 44). It is supported by Cohen (1994: 328-329, cited in Saehu, 2008: 26), many writers do not have good control on structure.This indicates that having good writing skills is a major challenge at the cognitive level, because it simultaneously tests language memory, and thinking skills. However, in the context of foreign languages learning, many studies have shown that writing is relatively difficult to be acquired. One of the factors of this difficulty is the difference in the system of ELTIN Journal, Volume 8/I, April 2020 4 mother tongue language (L1) or other languages (L2/L3) that has ben mastered before (Albiladi, 2019). Writing makes the student more ’thinking time’ than they get when they do spontaneous conversation. This allows them opportunity for language processing thinking about the language (Harmer, 2007:112). It means that when the students are involved in the process of writing, they are also involved in the process of learning spelling, grammar, punctuation, and vocabulary. In the reality, most of students have difficulties in writing. Nation (2009:119) in Rizkiah, Kaswan and Orilina (2015) argues that some learners are able to say what they want to write but have difficulty in putting into written form. In addition, writing is considered to be a complex skill because when start writing we need to know vocabularies, diction, punctuation, and grammar. The students may have lack self confident and lazy to write. While some fluent adult writers think of writing as a difficult process, L2 learners should not initially have the same attitude and the teacher should try to ensure that writing is not seen as a frustrating and unrewarding skill. On the contrary, the learners should be encouraged to realize that writing is an important and effective means of self-expression, communication and information gathering. Grabe and Kaplan (1996) mention that L2 learners are often overwhelmed when asked to do a writing assignment. Writing task should be given in less threatening and make learners struggle, interest and motivated (Al-Gharabally, 2015) because Humphrys (2005) also mentions that learning to write in L1 or L2 is extremely difficult. Even educated native speakers have difficulty, hence the abundance of books on the subject. Furthermore, Richards (1990) describes that “Learning to write well is a difficult, lengthy process, one that induces anxiety and frustration in many learners”. From those explanation it make us sure that writing is difficult enough thus it is a must to find the solution. C. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The method used in this research is qualitative research method. The respondents of this research were second semester students who were taking the subject of writing for general communication. This study was conducted in IKIP Siliwangi. Furthermore, since this study aims to identify students’ need related to Writing for General Communication subject, the data were gathered through test, questionnaire and interview. The test was used to know their errors in writing recount text. Questionnaire was distributed to the students in order to find out the students’ background, their reason of choosing the major and what kinds of material that the students need related to their writing skill. Then, the interview was conducted to support the data from questionnaire. The interview involved nine students consisting of high, average and low score students. D. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION This study was conducted in the class of writing for general communication. There were several instruments used in this study such as test, questionnaire and interview. Based on the data of the writing test, it was revealed that there are several kinds of error such as in grammar, capitalization, singular/plural, preposition, unclear sentence, punctuation and spelling. It can be seen in the following table. Kareviati, Yugafiati & Resmini: Need Analysis of English Department … 5 Table 1. Classification of Students’ Error No. Kinds of error Example 1. Grammar ….like we must climbing must climb I loved to enjoyed loved to enjoy We could waited  could wait One years ago last year 2. Capitalization during holidays…During 3. Singular/plural We took some picture pictures 4. Preposition Very confused forconfused to 5. Unclear sentence We will holiday at my uncle home but which made it special is because we gather together 6. Punctuation I find something special special. 7. Spelling A go ago The table above shows that most of students error in writing dealing with linguistic problem. It is in line with the statement of Cohen (1994: 328-329, cited in Saehu, 2008: 26) that many writers do not have good control on structure. This indicates that that grammar plays a significant role in communication since it shows how language is used (Ismail, 2010, cited in Apsari, 2018). Therefore, mastering English grammar is crucial because different patterns impact the meaning of the sentences. In addition, the questionnaire was also distributed to th students in order to support the data from the test. The data from the questionnaire can be seen in the following table. Table 2. Need analysis of students in Writing No. Statements Strongly Agree & Agree Netral Disagree & Strongly DIsagree A. When I was in SMA 1. I did not like English 12% 52% 36% 2. My teacher did not explain the lesson clearly 24% 46% 30% 3. I did not understand English 15% 52% 33% 4. I did not have English book 3% 31% 66% B. The Reasons of Choosing English Major 5. My parents asked me to do 45% 19% 36% 6. My friends asked me to do 18% 13% 69% 7. My own choice 51% 25% 24% C. When I study at the College 8. English is important 33% 64% 3% 9. I should learn English seriously 88% 9% 3% 10. I read English book once a week 12% 64% 24% 11. I have a diary 39% 28% 33% 12. I write my diary in English 6% 22% 72% 13. I think English is easy 6% 68% 36% ELTIN Journal, Volume 8/I, April 2020 6 14. My writing ability is good enough 6% 61% 33% 15. I’m confident in writing English 18% 34% 48% 16. I don’t like writing English 15% 46% 39% 17. Writing English is difficult 24% 70% 6% 18. My vocabulary is so limited 63% 31% 3% 19. My grammar is bad. 66% 22% 12% 20. I want to learn more about tenses 97% 3% 0% 21. I want to learn more about kind of text 100% 0% 0% 22. I want to learn more about generic structure 97% 3% 0% 23. I want to learn more about punctuation 97% 3% 0% 24. I do not know part of speech 12% 55% 33% 25. Writing as a single sentence is difficult 21% 58% 21% 26. When I write, I still use Bahasa and then translate it into English 51% 40% 9% 27. I still need a dictionary in writing English 81% 16% 3% 28. The most difficult part of speech is verb 12% 31% 57% 29. The most difficult part of speech is noun 15% 7% 78% 30 The most difficult part of speech is adjective 30% 19% 51% 31 The most difficult part of speech is adverb 39% 40% 21% 32 The most difficult part of text is recount 48% 37% 15% 33 The most difficult part of text is descriptive 33% 37% 30% 34 The most difficult part of text is narrative 33% 37% 30% 35 The most difficult part of text is argumentative 33% 37% 30% 36 The most difficult part of text is procedure 21% 37% 42% 37 The most difficult part of text is newsitem 39% 37% 24% 38 I want to improve my English writing 78% 19% 3% The result from the test show that the students made error in grammar, capitalization, singular/plural, preposition, unclear sentence, punctuation and spelling. It is supported by the result from questionnaire that more than 60% the students think that their grammar is bad and their vocabulary is so limited so why about 50% of them are not confident in writing. In addition, the data from questionnaire showed students’ various educatioal experiences, their first language, their interests, their cultural background and their different for learning English. It was found that although they are students of English department, there are four students who did not like English when they were in senior high school. 24% respondents said that their English teacher could not explain the material clearly so why five respondents say that they did not understand English. In addition, the students are from many schools who have different abilities and difficulties in writing. They also have different reasons why they choose Engish Department as their major. It is because of their parents, friend and more Kareviati, Yugafiati & Resmini: Need Analysis of English Department … 7 than 50% their own decision. This means that the teachers need to design the coursebook based on the students’ need. In addition, almost 100% of students want to learn tenses, kinds of text, generic structure and punctuation. It is supported by the data from interview that the respondents want to improve writing English from the basic things. They want to learn grammar, kinds of text and hope that the lectures can teach clearly. They also think that adverb, adjective, noun and verb are difficult. Recount text and newsitem are kinds of item that should be learned more. Although there are also many ‘neutral’ choice, but it can be concluded that most respondents want to improve their English writing. Thus, designing a coursebook of Writing General Communication based on their need is needed to do. Moreover, the data from questionaire showed most respondents think that learning English is very important although 46% of respondents said that they don’t like writing. Only 12% of students read English book once a week, but 39% of them have an Indonesian diary. Two of them write it in English. This means that they are not interested in writing. This unwillingness may derive from lack of motivation, anxieties and lack of self confidence they have about their writing (Gebhard, 1996: 235). Thus, it can be concluded that the students need a coursebook that can motivate students to write. E. CONCLUSION The purpose of the research is to identify students’ need in Writing for General Communication. From the data, the researcher found that the students had problem with linguistic problem. It can be seen from the students’ writing. The respondents still made mistakes in grammar, punctuation, spelling, capitalization, singular/plural, unclear sentence and preposition. It means that they still need a lot of improvement. This indicates that grammar becomes main material that need to be emphasized in subject of writing for general communication. In addition, the data from questionnaire revealed that respondents have various educatioal experiences, their first language, their interests, their cultural background and different purposes for learning English. It indicates that in order to improve students’ writing skill the teachers need to design the coursebook that is in line with the students’ need. F. REFERENCES Al-Adi, Said Hamed and Samues, Samuel. (2013). An Analysys of the writing needs of Omani EFL students for the development of grade 11 English program. The Asian EFL Journal, 15 (1). Albiladi, Waheeb S. (2019). Blended Learning in English Teaching and Learning: A Review of the Current Literature. University of Arkansas. Journal of Language Teaching and Research 10(2), 232. Al-Gharabally, May. (2015). The Writing Difficulties Faced by L2 Learners and How to Minimize them. 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