The particular dialect or language that a person chooses to use on any occasion is called a code 266 Copyright © 2023 The Author IDEAS is licensed under CC-BY-SA 4.0 License Issued by English study program of IAIN Palopo IDEAS Journal of Language Teaching and Learning, Linguistics and Literature ISSN 2338-4778 (Print) ISSN 2548-4192 (Online) Volume 11, Number 1, June 2023 pp. 266 - 274 The Efficacy of Using Guided Questions in Teaching Writing Descriptive Text to Indonesian English as Foreign Language (EFL) Students Soleman Dapa Taka sdapataka@gmail.com Universitas Nusa Cendana, Kupang, NTT, Indonesia Received: 2023-02-10 Accepted: 2023-06-30 DOI: 10.24256/ideas.v11i1.3989 Abstract This research aims at finding out the efficacy of using Guided Questions in teaching writing especially descriptive text to Indonesian English as Foreign Language (EFL) students. The main question of this research: Is the use of Guided Questions effective in teaching writing to Indonesian EFL students? The research can be an addition to the persisting teaching writing in English particularly the descriptive text through the use of guided questions. This research was conducted at the tenth-grade students at SMA Kristen Mercusuar Kupang, an Indonesian High School. The total number of samples was 25 students. The research used a pre-experimental method with a pre-test and post-test design. The pre-test was given to find out the basic ability of the students in mastering writing descriptive text and the post-test given to find out the students’ improvement in mastering writing descriptive text after giving the treatment by using guided questions. The findings show that using guided questions is effective in teaching writing descriptive text to Indonesian EFL students. It is supported by the result of the significance test through SPSS 20 program that the P was 0.00. Therefore, it is recommended to use the guided questions in developing students’ writing descriptive of Indonesian EFL students. Keywords: Indonesia EFL students; guided questions; teaching writing descriptive text Introduction Writing is one of materials which are difficult for the students. Included the tenth- grade students at SMA Kristen Mercusuar Kupang. In writing descriptive text, students need to have some special skills such grammar, vocabulary etc. When the writer did observation in the tenth-grade students at SMA Kristen Mercusuar Kupang, he found that some of the students do not know how write a correct descriptive text and she http://u.lipi.go.id/1457703302 IDEAS, Vol. 11, No. 1, June 2023 ISSN 2338-4778 (Print) ISSN 2548-4192 (Online) 267 found that the students still didn’t understand about the material. Even though the students always learn it before the writer did observation there, they still confused about it. To solve these problems, the English teacher try to apply various teaching techniques, or the teacher has to create class atmosphere of how to encourage student’s writing ability. A teacher plays an important role in teaching and learning process in classroom activities. He or she is responsible to determine the aim of teaching and has to create favorable situation in motivation the students to study. To teach successfully, an English teacher has to use certain strategies to make the students understand the lesson.one of the techniques that can be used by a teacher in teaching writing namely guided question. In agreement with Traver (1998, p.1), “a guiding questions is the fundamental query that directs the search for understanding”. It means that guiding questions technique is believed as a technique that can guide the students’ ideas in writing process and also can help in finding out the ideas in writing. Meyers (2005, p. 2) said that questions can be one way to explore ideas in writing process. Therefore, guiding questions can help the students to generate the ideas in learning writing. Guiding questions technique has its own characteristic of question that differs from other types of question, because not all types of questions are kind of the questions in guiding questions technique (Traver, 1998, p.2). There are some characteristics of guiding questions technique that differs from the usual questions. Traver (1998, p.2) classified four characteristics of question that is used in guiding questions technique, they are: (1) Open- ended yet focus inquiry on a specific topic. In line with Traver’s statement (1998, p.2) we can conclude that good guiding questions should be open ended to give opportunity for the students to describe what they are understand to the questions given. (2) Guiding questions are non-judgmental but answering them requires high-level cognitive work, such as the development of a rich description, model, evaluation, or judgment. According to Traver (1998, p. 2) the questions given should be able to direct the students’ thinking in organizing their ideas in writing process. (3) Good guiding questions contain emotive force and intellectual bite. According to Traver (1998, p. 2) we can conclude that guiding questions should be able to encourage students’ thinking. (4) Guiding questions are succinct. In Oxford Dictionary (2008, p. 444), succinct defined as “briefly and clearly”. It means the questions that given by the teacher should not be in long sentence and the questions should be clear and does not make students confused in interpreting the questions. According to Harmer (1998, p. 79) “the reason for teaching writing to students of English as a foreign language include reinforcement, language development, learning style and most importantly, writing as a skill in its own right”. It means that in teaching writing, the teacher should guide their students to compose a good writing. As people know, writing is not an easy activity to do (Younes & Albalawi, 2015, p.7). Its means that it needs a lot of time to practice. In this case, the teacher should teach writing with Soleman Dapa Taka The Efficacy of Using Guided Question Technique in Writing Descriptive Text to Indonesian English as Foreign Language (EFL) Students 268 appropriate technique in order to let students explore their ideas (Leki, 1998, p.20). Dealing with this, the easier technique that will help the students is guiding questions technique. This technique may stimulate the students in generating ideas in writing (Traver, 1998, p. 1). According to Sundem (2006, p. 41), “the writing process comprises the mechanics by which writers create publishable product. It is the method all writers use to generate ideas, choose and organize these ideas, write and revise their pieces, and format them for publication.” From the statement, we can conclude that writing needs some processes and steps to construct a text; it is not an instant process to create a text. There three processes of writing described as follows. (1) Free writing: Guiding questions technique. Sundem (2006, p.41) stated that free writing is the first step of the writing process. In this step, the writer can generate their ideas before starting to write and put their thoughts in correct formation. In addition, writer uses guiding questions technique to generate students’ ideas by preparing questions related to the topic and ask the students to answer the questions given. (2) Drafting. Drafting is the next step in writing process. According to Sundem (2006, p.53) in this step the students expand their previous ideas, then they write it down on a paper. Donohue (2009, p.12) also stated that “during drafting stage, the students are able to craft their own writing”. It means that the students can pour their ideas that they had thought before writing. (3) Revising. Revising is the final step in writing process. According to Sundem (2006, p. 55) revising is often forgotten in writing process. He also adds that sometimes the students think they write enough without revising again. While Western Australian Minister for Education (2013, p. 223) stated that revising mean make changes to the text and the goal of revising is to make the writing better and clear. Based on the situation the researcher is interested in conducting a research under the topic “the efficacy of using guided question in teaching writing descriptive text. to Indonesian English as Foreign Language (EFL) students”, as a result in real situation he does not find an adequate and appropriate strategy teaching conditional sentences in SMA Kristen Mercusuar Kupang, an Indonesian High School it may be caused by most English teachers still teach by using conventional method in teaching grammar. Therefore, it is very important to provide an alternative technique to improve student; it is assumed that using pair work technique might for improve the students’ ability in mastering grammar especially conditional sentences. From the background of the study, the researcher formulated the research questions such as below: Does the use guided question improve the ability in writing descriptive text of SMA Kristen Mercusuar Kupang. Then, the researcher formulates the objective of the research as follows: To find out the effectiveness of using guided question in improving the ability in writing descriptive text. of First semester students of SMA Kristen Mercusuar Kupang. This research is expected to be useful information for teacher and the students about teaching writing descriptive text by the students through guided question. Also it expected to be a reference for the next researcher who wants to do a research about writing descriptive text. The scope of the research is to know what teaching IDEAS, Vol. 11, No. 1, June 2023 ISSN 2338-4778 (Print) ISSN 2548-4192 (Online) 269 descriptive text of SMA Kristen Mercusuar Kupang. Method In this research, the researcher applied a pre-experimental method. Pre- experimental design used pre-test and post-test where pre-test was held before treatment and post-test after treatment. The design of the research is as follow: O1 X O2 Where: O1 = pre-test X = treatment O2 = post-test (Best 1997:103) The population of this research was the tenth-grade students at First semester students of SMA Kristen Mercusuar Kupang. In determining the sample of this research. The researcher took 24 students as sample of this research. The writer used writing test to measure the students’ ability in mastering descriptive text. Before and after giving treatment, writing involves The data was collected by using the procedure below: 1. Giving Pre-test Firstly, the researcher introduced himself to the students and explained purpose of her coming in their class. The researcher gave pre-test to the students to measure the skill of the students before giving treatment. 2. Giving Treatment The researcher conducted the treatment to the students for sixth meetings by using guided question in teaching writing. the steps as follows: Free writing: Guiding questions technique Sundem (2006, p.41) stated that free writing is the first step of the writing process. In this step, the writer can generate their ideas before starting to write and put their thoughts in correct formation. In addition, writer uses guiding questions technique to generate students’ ideas by preparing questions related to the topic and ask the students to answer the questions given. Drafting Drafting is the next step in writing process. According to Sundem (2006, p.53) in this step the students expand their previous ideas, then they write it down on a paper. Donohue (2009, p.12) also stated that “during drafting stage, the students are able to craft their own writing”. It means that the students can pour their ideas that they had thought before writing. Soleman Dapa Taka The Efficacy of Using Guided Question Technique in Writing Descriptive Text to Indonesian English as Foreign Language (EFL) Students 270 Revising Revising is the final step in writing process. According to Sundem (2006, p. 55) revising is often forgotten in writing process. He also adds that sometimes the students think they write enough without revising again. While Western Australian Minister for Education (2013, p. 223) stated that revising mean make changes to the text and the goal of revising is to make the writing better and clear. 3. Giving Post-test The students were given the same activity in the pre-test after the treatment. The researcher gave writing test and asked the students to answer. It aimed at finding out the students’ability in writing skill after giving treatment. In analyzing data, the researcher giving score to the students based on the result of their writing test in pretest and posttest. The last step of the data analysis was the hypothesis testing. The hypothesis was tested by using inferential statistics. In this case, the researcher used t-test (testing of significance) for paired sample t- test, that is, a test to know the significance difference between the result of students’ mean score in pretest and posttest. Results From the result data analysis, shows that the mean score of the student’s pretest was 40 and the mean score of posttests was 75 It means that using reciprocal teaching technique in teaching reading can enhance the students’ achievement especially for the students’ writing skill. From the statistical analysis, the researcher concludes that there is a significant difference between pretest and posttest in enhancing the students’ writing ability through guided question as a way to deliver learning material. guided teaching technique is effective in enhancing the students’ writing ability. Based on the describing above, the researcher concludes that one of important point that teacher should accommodate he/she should give full the attention especially in writing skill. Therefore, in teaching writing one of technique that the teacher may use this technique in teaching, especially in writing or constructing ideas is greatly expected to make the students easier in generating and expressing their idea in different mode and sense. After calculating the result of the students’ pretest, the mean score and standard deviation of both groups are presented in following table: Pretest Posttest Mean 30 68 Standard dev. 8.30 10.49 Max 43 64 Min 21 37 The data shows the mean score of the student’s pretest was 40 and the mean score of posttests was 75. Standard deviation of pretest was 8.22 and the standard IDEAS, Vol. 11, No. 1, June 2023 ISSN 2338-4778 (Print) ISSN 2548-4192 (Online) 271 deviation of posttest was 11.27. It means that using guided question teaching technique in teaching writing can enhance the students’ achievement in writing descriptive text. The hypothesis was tested by using inferential statistics. In this case, the researcher used t-test (testing of significance) for paired sample t-test, that is, a test to know the significance difference between the result of students’ mean score in pretest and posttest. Assuming that the level of significance (𝛼) = 0.05, the only thing which is needed; the degree of freedom (df ) = N – 1, where N = 25, then the t-test is 10.81 P is 0.00 From the analysis, the researcher concluded that there was a significant difference between pretest and posttest in enhancing the students’ writing ability through guided question technique as a way to deliver learning process. The result of statistical analysis for level of significance (p=0.05) with degree of freedom (df )= N-1, where (N) = 25, df = 24. The probability value was smaller than α (0.00<0.05). it indicated that the alternative hypothesis (H1) was accepted and the null hypothesis (H0) was rejected. It means that guided question is effective in enhancing the students’ writing ability especially descriptive text. Discussion Based on the result of data analysis, the researcher found out that the use of guided question technique is effective in developing students’ competence in writing skill at SMA Kristen Mercusuar Kupang. Actually, there are some techniques that we can use to teach writing but the researcher using guided question technique, moreover the application of guided question gave good effect in enhancing the students’ skill in writing. Based on the data collected, using guided question technique in teaching writing can enhance the students’ achievement. It was proved by students’ score on the writing test. All students’ score was improved after conducting the treatment through guided question technique. The result of this research is supported by Harmer (2001:207) as cited in Mulya (2016:79) defines guided question as a way of increasing students’ participation and language use. This technique can be used in enormous number activities whether speaking, reading, or writing. The results of this hypothesis are consistent with the previous researches. According to Harmer (1998, p. 79) “the reason for teaching writing to students of English as a foreign language include reinforcement, language development, learning style and most importantly, writing as a skill in its own right”. It means that in teaching writing, the teacher should guide their students to compose a good writing. As people know, writing is not an easy activity to do (Younes & Albalawi, 2015, p.7). Its means that it needs a lot of time to practice. In this case, the teacher should teach writing with appropriate technique in order to let students explore their ideas (Leki, 1998, p.20). Dealing with this, the easier technique that will help the students is guiding questions technique. This technique may stimulate the students in generating ideas in writing (Traver, 1998, p. 1). This research has shown that guided question can increase the students’ ability in mastering writing skills. So, in teaching writing, the students should be in CLT that Soleman Dapa Taka The Efficacy of Using Guided Question Technique in Writing Descriptive Text to Indonesian English as Foreign Language (EFL) Students 272 will be a useful situation where the students can share their knowledge and support their pair in mastering writing in English. Conclusion The researcher concludes that the use of guided question is effective in developing students’ competence in mastering writing skill at SMA Kristen Mercusuar Kupang. It was proven by there was a significant difference between the students’ mean score of pretest and posttest. 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