IEEE Paper Template in A4 (V1) Atikasari Husna LET: Linguistics, Literature and Language Teaching Journal Vol. 9 No. 1 2019 LET: Linguistics, Literature and English Teaching Journal ||Volume|| 9 ||Issue|| 1 ||Pages|| 52-76 || 2019 || |P-ISSN: 20869606 ; E-ISSN: 25492454| STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES IN WRITING RECOUNT TEXT AT INCLUSION CLASSES Atikasari Husna atikasari.husna@gmail.com Akhmad Multazim jaymultazim@gmail.com Department of English Education University of Ahmad Dahlan Yogyakarta Article History: Received: 4 th April 2019 Accepted: 30 th April 2019 Abstract Writing skill is already taught in school and colleges. The students of Junior High School should retells something that already happened (Recount text). The objective of the study is to identify the students‟ difficulties in writing recount text in inclusion classes. The study belongs to a mixed- method research involving 30 students of 8th grade inclusion class. The data collecting techniques was testing. There were several steps to analyze the data: analyzing the students‟ work, calculating the average score by using descriptive statistic and the last step is descriptive analysis. The result of the study shows that the students‟ difficulties in writing recount text are related to content aspect, organization aspect, grammar aspect, mechanic aspect and generic structure of recount text aspect especially in orientation and reorientation. Corresponding Author: Tel.: ...................... Keywords Writing ; Recount text ; Students‟ Difficulties INTRODUCTION Write is a way to produce language and express idea, feeling, and opinion. It means writing is a skill that focuses on producing language and the writing skill needs intellectual level or the level of expression (Harmer, 2004). Writing process Available online at: http://jurnal.uin-antasari.ac.id/index.php mailto:atikasari.husna@gmail.com mailto:jaymultazim@gmail.com P a g e | 53 Atikasari Husna LET: Linguistics, Literature and Language Teaching Journal Vol. 9 No. 1 2019 is already taught in school and colleges. Writing has an important role and most difficult for students in the language learning process and this skill needs to be mastered. This opinion supported by Brown (2001) that writing is a thinking process. Writing could be planned and given with an unlimited number of revisions before it is release. The students are expected to be able to communicate in English both orally and written form. Writing in academic setting has been considered more difficult than other skills and the students feels that this skill needs more concentration, thinking skill and learning in a long time. Therefore, Leo (2007) states that writing as a process of expressing ideas or thoughts in words could be done at leisure time. It means, writing learning requires in long training time. In Indonesia, students of Junior High School learn several short functional texts, such as: description, recount, narrative, procedural and report. The types of those texts would introduce to students about the social functions, the generic structures of each text and the language features of the types. By introducing them, the students will know and understand the differences between one to another text. Thus, they are able to write the texts by themselves in the right order of generic structures and the correct use of the language features of genres. This study focuses on a writing skill because this skill is last skill that must be mastered by learners. However, the students faced difficulties to generate their idea in writing skill. Among the types of texts, a recount text and a narrative text are taught in eighth grade, but a recount text is first text which is taught in eighth grade. Recount text is a text that retells something that already happened and narrative text is imaginative story to amuse and give moral value to the readers. This study focuses on recount text. According to Anderson & Anderson (2003), a recount text is a text that retells past events and usually in order that happened. The social function of this text is to tell the past experiences by retelling events in sequence. The samples of recount are experiences, diaries, personal letters and incident reports. This study presents the students‟ difficulties in writing recount text. The observation has been conducted in schools and several teachers of English have P a g e | 54 Atikasari Husna LET: Linguistics, Literature and Language Teaching Journal Vol. 9 No. 1 2019 been interviewed to get the real condition of the research site. This preliminary study aims to illustrate the problems to be studied more clearly. The process of the preliminary study was based on the concept of study that is students‟ difficulties in writing a recount text at inclusion classes. The study was conducted in one of inclusion schools in Yogyakarta. Inclusion school is a school that carries out education where children who have mild or moderate disorders and normal children could study together in public school. In education system, they called children with special educational need. LITERATURE REVIEW Concept of Writing There are four skills that must be mastered by the students in learning English, they are listening, reading, speaking and writing. Each of the skill has its own characteristic. Among the four skills, writing is the most difficult skill to be learned. This opinion supported by Brown (2001) that writing is a thinking process. Writing can be planned and given with an unlimited number of revisions before its release. Moreover, Harmer (2007) states that writing encourages students to focus on accurate language use. It is because students consider the language when they engage in the writing process. Process of Writing According to Harmer (2004), the process of writing has four main elements: a. Planning The writers have to think the three main issues. Firstly, they have to consider the purposes of writing product since this influence (among other things), not only the type of the texts that would produce, but also the language they would be used and the information that already chosen. Secondly, they have to think of the audiences who would read, and the choice of language. Thirdly, writers have to consider the content structure of the piece, the best way to sequence the facts, ideas or arguments which they already have decided to include (Harmer, 2004). b. Drafting Draft is the first version of a piece of writing, this step „go‟ at a text which often done on the assumption that it would be amended later. As the P a g e | 55 Atikasari Husna LET: Linguistics, Literature and Language Teaching Journal Vol. 9 No. 1 2019 writing process proceeds into editing, a number of drafts may be produced on the way to the final version (Harmer, 2004). c. Editing ( Reflecting and Revising) Once after writers have produced their draft, then, usually they were read it through what they have written to see where it works and where it doesn‟t. Reflecting and revising are often step which helped by the other readers or editors who comment and make suggestions (Harmer, 2004). d. Final Version The writers have edited their draft, making the changes which they consider to be necessary, produce their final version. This might look considerably different from both the original plan and the first draft because it has changed in editing process. (Harmer, 2004) The Concepts of Recount Text Recount text is a text that retells past events. According to Anderson & Anderson (2003), a recount text is a piece of text which retells past events, it is usually in the order which something that happened. “In a recount text, the students must retell the sequence of events or experiences which they already got in the past” (Nafisah & Kurniawan, 2007). While, Knapp & Watkins (2005) says that recount texts are the simplest type of texts, formally, recounts are sequential texts which focus more than sequence a series of events. In every story, no matter how simple, need an orientation. Indeed, it is impossible to tell a story unless that there are characters set up in a particular time and place, although many postmodern narratives play with these conventions. Generic Structure of Recount Texts According to Lancashire Council (2008), a recount text has several generic structure consists of orientation, events and reorientation. Each generic structure has social functions. The explanations of them are explained below: a. Orientation Recount begins with telling the reader who was involved, what happened, the location took place and the time of event. Orientation gives the reader the background information needed to understand the text and they would recognize about the scene setting and the context of the text. P a g e | 56 Atikasari Husna LET: Linguistics, Literature and Language Teaching Journal Vol. 9 No. 1 2019 b. Events Event is the main activities that occurred in the story of the text. In writing a recount text, events are ordered in a chronological sequence. Sometimes, additional details are added to give information for the reader. c. Reorientation Reorientation is a closing step of statement that includes elaboration. Several recount texts also have a concluding paragraph. In this concluding paragraph, the writer could give the personal comment or statement. Language Features of Recount Texts A recount text has linguistic characteristics or in English terms is language features. This statement supported by Saragih, Silalahi & Pardede (2014), they states that the language features in a recount text is use of nouns and pronouns to identify such as animals, people and something, use of past action verbs refers to the events, use of simple past tense to located events in relation to experience‟s time, use conjunctions and time connectives to make sequential the event, use of adverb and adverbial phrases to indicate place and time, and use of adjective to describe nouns. Gerot and Wignell (1994), the language features of a recount text that should be fulfilled are specific participants, using material process, a circumstance of time and place, using past tense and temporal sentence. The Concept of Students’ Difficulties in Writing Recount Text A language is used for many purposes. It has many functions as well. Furthermore, there are two macro skills of language; they are receptive and productive skills. Productive skills consist of two skills, those are speaking and writing. Those skills affect in the process of communication. Ideally, students are familiar with the rules of how to communicate with others and how to get information. A writing ability is one of the productive skills that should be mastered in using language. Harmer (2007) explains that the key factor in the success of productive skill tasks is the way teachers organize them and how they respond to the students‟ work. In addition, Bachman (1990) states that organization competence is the ability to comprehend and form correct sentences, understanding meaning of sentences and pour these sentences into a text. Based P a g e | 57 Atikasari Husna LET: Linguistics, Literature and Language Teaching Journal Vol. 9 No. 1 2019 on this statement, it can be concluded that writing is a one of productive skills which affects in written communication and it needs good organization to result meaningful sentences. Then, Browne (1999) defines that children need to learn about writing as well as learning how to write. Children learn the steps of writing when they build new skills upon the old. Writing develops from the first simple sentences to elaborate stories and essays. Spelling, vocabulary, grammartical, and organization will be learnt together and grow together to help the student demonstrate more advanced writing skill based on their step level. But, there are several statements stating that writing is a bit more difficult than other language skills. First, Ericson (1999) mentions that writing words in corrected spelling when discussing the term writing difficulties. Besides, Asmervik, Ogden and Rygvold (1999) they describe the writing difficulties as a difficulty for the student within writing. Then, Koutsoftas and Gray (2012) the students have difficulties in dealing with the areas of productivity, complexity and grammar. It can be concluded that writing English is not an easy task. Al Mekhlafi (2011) reveals that this skill requires a lot of practice and training because students have to produce a well-accepted written form that is readable and understandable. While, students‟ writing ability can be improved by fostering their interest, motivation and enjoyment for writing through technology (Graham and Perlin, 2007). The difficulties in writing as non-native speaker, students should remember many rules in structure which are different from their own language. This study focuses on students‟ difficulties in writing a recount text. In learning writing recount texts, many students make some mistakes and face difficulties in building and developing their imagination (Lorch, 1984). Most of students hate to learn writing because learning writing is boring and difficult (Sugiyono, 2010). It means, in writing a recount text, students feel it difficult to organize their ideas. P a g e | 58 Atikasari Husna LET: Linguistics, Literature and Language Teaching Journal Vol. 9 No. 1 2019 METHOD This study employs a mixed-method research. This study was conducted in the eighth grade of inclusion school in academic year of 2017/2018. The time of the research is in second semester during learning process. The achievement test is given by the researcher in the last meeting of the recount text material. The sampling technique that is used in this study is a Proportional Random Sampling. The sampling is done proportionally by taking the subject of each class based on the students‟ number in each class. Then, the random sampling technique is by a lottery technique. According to Cresswell, 2012 who states that “the intent of simple random sampling is to choose individuals to be sampled who will be representative.” There are 5 classes in eighth grade, each class has 30 students, so that the amount of population of the eighth class in SMP Muhammadiyah 9 Yogyakarta is 150 students. Arikunto (2006) states if the subject is less than 100 people suggested to take all of subject. But if the subject more than 100 people, it can be 10-15% and 20-25 % or more. Based on Arikunto‟s statement, the samples must be 20% from the population, so the amount of the sample is 20% x 150 students = 30 students. The formula is: Where : n : The desired number of samples in each class X : Number of students in each class N : The total students in eighth grade : Sample Table 1 List of sample in each eighth grade of an inclusion school No Class Amount Percentage Sample 1 VIII A 28 20% 5 2 VIII B 30 20% 6 3 VIII C 30 20% 6 4 VIII D 32 20% 7 5 VIII E 30 20% 6 Total 150 20% 30 (Source: the result of the calculation of sampling data) P a g e | 59 Atikasari Husna LET: Linguistics, Literature and Language Teaching Journal Vol. 9 No. 1 2019 This study uses a test as the instrument. The instruments are made based on the syllabus and the standard of competencies and the basic competencies of English lesson in writing skills of the eighth grade of Junior High School. The test was focused on a free writing recount text about students‟ experience. The purpose of this test was to find students‟ difficulties in writing recount text. In the teaching writing, an evaluation should be done to measure the students‟ skill in writing. The effectiveness of learning process of writing could be measured through an evaluation process. According to Oshima and Hogue (2007) states in giving scoring of students writing paragraph should use rubric to score the format, punctuation and mechanic, content, organization and grammar. It could be shown descriptively with scoring rubric of Jacob. The scoring profile below based on Jacob et al‟s (1981) in Weigle (2002). Table 2 Scoring Rubric of Writing Evaluation Aspect of Scoring Writing Ability Score Level Criteria Content 30 – 27 Excellent To very good Through development of paragraph unity Relevant to topic, topic sentence, concluding sentence 26 – 22 Good To average Limited development of paragraph unity Mostly relevant to topic but lacks detail 21 – 17 Fair to poor Limited knowledge of paragraph Inadequate development of topic 16 – 13 Very poor Does not show knowledge of paragraph Not enough to evaluate Organization 20 – 18 Excellent to very good Well organized Clearly stated Cohesive 17 – 14 Good to average Limited supported idea Logical but incomplete sequencing P a g e | 60 Atikasari Husna LET: Linguistics, Literature and Language Teaching Journal Vol. 9 No. 1 2019 13 – 10 Fair to poor Non fluent Ideas confused Lack logical developing 9 – 7 Very poor Does not communicative Not enough to evaluate Vocabulary 20 – 18 Excellent to very good Effective word usage Word form mastery 17 – 14 Good to average Adequate range Error of word form 13 – 10 Fair to poor Limited range Frequent errors of word form 9 – 7 Very poor Essentially translation Little knowledge of English vocabulary Errors word form Grammar 25 – 22 Excellent to very good Effective complex construction Word offer function Articles pronouns Prepositions 21 – 18 Good to average Effective but simple construction Several errors of agreement Tense, articles pronouns, and prepositions but meaning seldom obscured 17 – 11 Fair to poor Simple Frequent errors of tense, word function Articles pronouns and preposition Meaning confused 10 – 5 Very poor No mastery of constructions Dominated by errors Does not communicate Not enough to evaluate Mechanics 5 Excellent to very good Mastery of conventions Few errors of spelling, punctuation and also capitalization 4 Good to average Occasional errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization Meaning not obscured P a g e | 61 Atikasari Husna LET: Linguistics, Literature and Language Teaching Journal Vol. 9 No. 1 2019 3 Fair to poor Frequent errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization and paragraphing Meaning confused 2 Very poor No mastery of conventions Dominated by errors Not enough to evaluate (Source: Jacob et al‟s (1981) in Weigle (2002)) Even though a recount text has been studied since Junior High School, sometimes students have difficulties in writing it. According to Anderson and Anderson (2003), one of the difficulties is the students should be aware in using the generic structure of recount text including orientation, sequence of events and reorientation. The structure of the text is analyzed based on the generic structure of the recount text. The study is expected to solve students‟ difficulties in writing so that they can write recount text well. Table 3 Scoring Rubric of Students‟ Writing Ability of the Recount Text Generic Structure Aspect of Scoring Generic Structure of Recount Text Score Level Criteria Orientation 24 – 28 Excellent Relevant orientation in detail Simple past tense mastery 19 – 23 Good Rather less relevant detail of orientation Simple past tense mastery 14 – 18 Average Less relevant detail of orientation Frequent error simple past tense 9 – 13 Poor Unrelated orientation Error simple past tense P a g e | 62 Atikasari Husna LET: Linguistics, Literature and Language Teaching Journal Vol. 9 No. 1 2019 Event 56 – 60 Excellent Relevant event in detail Clearly ideas Simple past tense mastery 51 – 55 Good Rather less relevant detail of event Logical idea but incomplete sequence Simple past tense mastery 46 – 50 Average Less relevant detail of event Ideas confused Frequent error simple past tense 41 – 45 Poor Unrelated event Lack of idea Error simple past tense Reorientation 10 – 12 Excellent Relevant reorientation in detail Simple past tense mastery 7 – 9 Good Rather less detail of reorientation Simple past tense mastery 4 – 6 Average Less relevant detail of reorientation Frequent error simple past tense 1 – 3 Poor Unrelated reorientation Error simple past tense (Source: the document of SMP Muhammdiyah 9 Yogyakarta) Based on the syllabus in the School Based Curriculum, the indicator of writing skill is students are expected to be able to write various short texts in the form of recount, with the generic structure and language features correctly. On the last material, the activity in writing skill is the students must write a short recount text based on their experience or their holiday activity freely in one meeting of English material. P a g e | 63 Atikasari Husna LET: Linguistics, Literature and Language Teaching Journal Vol. 9 No. 1 2019 The Validity of Test In this study, content validity involves to instrument test in learning material. Content validity is the extent to measuring test that presents sample of the subject matter. Beside of that, the items or tasks in the test match what the test as a whole is supposed to asses, for example is a syllabus that skills or functions, then the content validity can be assessed by comparing the kind of language generated in the test against the syllabus (Underhill, 2006). In getting the valid data, the test was done to measure students‟ recount texts toward indicator on syllabus. Table 4. Standard Competence and Basic Competence in School Based Curriculum Standar Kompetensi Kompetensi Dasar Indikator Teknik Bentuk Jmlh soal No. soal Menulis 6. Mengungkapkan makna dalam teks tulis fungsional dan esai pendek sederhana berbentuk descriptive dan recount untuk berinteraksi dengan lingkungan sekitar 6.2. Mengungkapkan makna dan langkah retorika dalam esai pendek sederhana dengan menggunakan ragam bahasa tulis secara akurat, lancar dan berterima untuk berinteraksi dengan lingkungan sekitar dalam teks berbentuk descriptive dan recount Siswa dapat menulis teks pendek sederhana berbentuk recount Tes tertulis Essay 1 1 (Source: the document of SMP Muhammadiyah 9 Yogyakarta) Reliability Fraenkel and Wallen (2006) states that the reliability refers to consistency of the scores obtained in how consistent they are for each individual from one administration of an instrument to another and one set items to another. If P a g e | 64 Atikasari Husna LET: Linguistics, Literature and Language Teaching Journal Vol. 9 No. 1 2019 qualitative study is discussed with reliability as a criterion, the consequences are rather that the study is no good. Reliability testing in this study involves a rater or expert is called inter-rater reliability. In an inter-rater reliability outside the context of the study should be established. There are two main ways to actually estimate inter-assessor reliability (Abiri. 2006). This study involves three experts as assessor in giving score students‟ performance assessment that is free writing recount text, they are teachers of English from different Junior High School of Yogyakarta. This study uses certain techniques in collecting data,that is testing. According to Seliger and Shohamy (1989) “A test is a procedure used to collect data on subjects‟ ability or knowledge”. A test is used to measure the ability of the students‟ recount text. The test in this study aims to find out the students‟ difficulties about recount text material that has already given in learning process. The achievement test that has already conducted was written test in recount text. One of the examples of recount texts is diary. This study was focused on the students‟ diary about their experience or their holiday activity in their spare time. In analyzing the data, the researcher did several steps to achieve the aims of the research: a. Analyzing the students‟ recount texts in that are analyzed one by one. This study focuses on their ideas, organizing ideas, grammar, mechanics, simple past tense and generic structure of recount text appropriately. This study focuses on determines and analyze of students‟ difficulties in writing a recount text. Then, it calculates to be the students‟ performance assessment. b. Calculating the average score of students‟ result in composing a recount text by using descriptive statistic. The statistic is used based on the Mean score, Standard Deviation score, Ideal Mean score and Ideal Standard Deviation score. 1. Mean The term average means to divide the sum of the scores by the number of scores. To a statistician, the average can be known as mean. The mean is probably the single most important indicator of central P a g e | 65 Atikasari Husna LET: Linguistics, Literature and Language Teaching Journal Vol. 9 No. 1 2019 tendency. The mean is virtually the same as average. The formula to calculate mean is: ∑ Where: x : mean N : number of score X : scores 2. Standard Deviation The standard deviation is a short of average of differences of all score from the mean (Brown, 2014: 107). The formula is: √ ∑ ̅̅̅̅̅ Where: S : Standard Deviation x : the score ̅ : the mean N : the number of scores 3. Categorization To find out the criteria of the students‟ difficulties in writing a recount text, this study uses the Mean (M) and Standard Deviation (SD). This study also uses the Ideal Mean (Mi) and Ideal Standard Deviation (SDi). The calculation of Ideal Mean (Mi) will be compared with Ideal Standard Deviation (SDi) to find out the Ideal Mean (Mi) and Ideal Standard Deviation (SDi), the formula is: Mi = 60% of the Possible Maximum Score SDi = ¼ of the Ideal Mean Table 5. The Conversion Criterion of the Students‟ Difficulties Writing Recount Text No. Scale Number Category Score 1 X > M + 1.5 SD Very Good 2 M + 0.5 SD < X ≤ M + 1.5 SD Good 3 M − 0.5 SD < X ≤ M + 0.5 SD Fair P a g e | 66 Atikasari Husna LET: Linguistics, Literature and Language Teaching Journal Vol. 9 No. 1 2019 4 M − 1.5 SD < X ≤ M − 0.5 SD Poor 5 M − 1.5 SD < X Very Poor c. Descriptive analysis According to Prasetyo (2008), a descriptive method is aimed at describe systematically or describe a characteristic of population factually and accurately. The steps of analyzing the interview are: identification, description and drawing conclusion. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS Findings The data of students‟ writing were obtained by scoring students‟ writing product about student‟s experience or student‟s holiday story and analysing that measured based on some aspects, those are content, organization, vocabulary, grammar, and mechanic. To measure, this study of scoring rubric used from Jacob (1981) and also giving score in generic structure, those are orientation, event and reorientation. After scoring the result of students‟ writing recount text, then this study analysed the results of the writing product, from the results of the analysis found the most difficulties in the students‟ writing recount text are grammatical error, content in composing writing, mechanic aspect and in the generic structure of recount text, students still had difficulty in making orientation, event and reorientation, but the most difficulties which faced by the students are orientation and reorientation. The result of the analysis can be seen in the tables below: Table 6. The Difficulties of Students‟ Writing Ability in Recount Text Aspect of scoring writing ability frequency Percentage Category Content 1 10 14 5 3% 33% 47% 17% Excellent to very good Good to average Fair to poor Very Poor P a g e | 67 Atikasari Husna LET: Linguistics, Literature and Language Teaching Journal Vol. 9 No. 1 2019 Organization 0 13 11 6 0% 43% 37% 20% Excellent to very good Good to average Fair to poor Very Poor Vocabulary 4 18 8 0 13% 60% 27% 0% Excellent to very good Good to average Fair to poor Very Poor Grammar 1 8 10 13 3% 27% 33% 43% Excellent to very good Good to average Fair to poor Very Poor Mechanics 1 5 15 9 3% 17% 50% 30% Excellent to very good Good to average Fair to poor Very Poor (Source: the calculation of students‟ writing uses scoring rubric Jacob 1981) The table above is the result of analysing students‟ recount texts based on scoring rubric of Jacob 1981. In the content aspect, the highest percentage of students‟ ability is fair to poor which is 47%. In organization the highest percentage of students‟ ability is good to average, 43%. For students‟ mastering vocabulary, the result is quite good; the highest percentage is 60% good to average. In grammar aspect, the highest percentage is students‟ ability is very poor that is 43% and the highest percentage of mechanic aspect is fair to poor, it is 50%. This study found that the students‟ difficulties in writing recount texts are mechanics aspect, grammar aspect, content aspect and organization aspect, in the generic structure of a recount text, students still had difficulty in making reorientation, orientation and event, but the most difficulties which are faced by the students are orientation and reorientation, they are lack of idea to compose it. P a g e | 68 Atikasari Husna LET: Linguistics, Literature and Language Teaching Journal Vol. 9 No. 1 2019 The table below is the result of analysing students‟ difficulties in a recount text by scoring generic structure of a recount text: Table 7. The Difficulties of Students‟ Writing Generic Structure of Recount Text Aspect of scoring generic structure frequency Percentage Category Orientation 3 6 5 16 10% 20% 17% 53% Excellent Good Average Poor Event 1 10 9 10 3% 33% 30% 33% Excellent Good Average Poor Reorientation 0 5 8 17 0% 17% 27% 57% Excellent Good Average Poor (Source: the calculation of students‟ writing in generic structure of recount text) The table above showed that the result of students‟ writing recount text in orientation aspect, the highest percentage in poor category that is 53%. In event aspect, the highest percentage in 33% Good category and 33% poor category and reorientation the highest percentage in poor category that is 57%. From the result above, it can be concluded that reorientation and orientation are the most difficulties which are faced by the students because they got poor category. But in event aspect, the students‟ skill in writing recount texts is fair, because in good category and poor category have the same percentage. It means that in events there were two categories which have the same percentage. In other words, there were several students who already understood about recount text, but there were also students who did not understand about recount text. After analysing students‟ score, then, the result arrange the frequency distribution to classify the students‟ scores. The frequency distribution of the P a g e | 69 Atikasari Husna LET: Linguistics, Literature and Language Teaching Journal Vol. 9 No. 1 2019 scores is classified into five categories: very good, good, fair, poor and very poor. The categorization is based on the ideal mean and ideal standard deviation. The ideal means is measured from 60% of the ideal maximum score while the ideal standard deviation is obtained from one fourth of the ideal mean. As a result of conversion categorization, the ideal maximum score was 100, therefore, the ideal mean (Mi) = 60% x 100 = 60, and the ideal standard deviation (SDi) = ¼ x 60 = 15. The categorization can be completely seen in the following table: Table 8 The Conversion Criterion of the Students‟ Difficulties in Writing Recount Text Sigma Scale Scale Number Class Interval Category Score + 1.5 X > 60 + (1.5 x 15) X > 82.5 Very Good + 0.5 60 + (0.5 x 15) < X ≤ 60 + (1.5 x 15) 67.5 – 82.5 Good − 0.5 60 – (0.5 x 15) < X ≤ 60 + (0.5 x 15) 52.5 – 67.5 Fair − 1.5 60 – (1.5 x 15) < X ≤ 60 – (0.5 x 15) 37.5 – 52.5 Poor < − 1.5 X < 60 – (1.5 x 15) X < 37.5 Very Poor The table indicates that a very good category can be achieved by the students who get scores more than 82.5, a good category is for students who get scores 67.5 – 82.5, a fair score is for students who get score 52.5 – 67.5, a poor category is for students who get score 37.5 – 52.5 and a very poor category is for students who get score less than 37.5. Those categories are applied in each student‟s writing assignment in recount texts. In this study, there are 30 students as the samples to find out the students‟ difficulties in writing recount texts. Based on the scoring data, thus the students‟ mean score is 65, the category is fair. The highest score of the students‟ writing performance assessment is 82.5, and the lowest score is 45.5. 15 students get fair category. 12 students categorized as good category and 3 students as poor category. It can be concluded that the most of students‟ writing ability in recount texts is fair category. P a g e | 70 Atikasari Husna LET: Linguistics, Literature and Language Teaching Journal Vol. 9 No. 1 2019 Table 9 The Criterion of Students‟ Writing Recount Text Class interval frequency Percentage Category > 82.5 0 0% Very Good 67.5 - 82.5 12 40% Good 52.5 - 67.5 15 50% Fair 37.5 - 52.5 3 10% Poor < 37.5 0 0% Very Poor (Source: the calculation average of scoring students‟ writing recount text) The highest percentage is 50% in fair category, it means that 15 students‟ the category of writing skill in recount texts is fair. But, the students who get good category are more than students who get poor category, the percentage is 40%. There are 12 students with good category and there are only 10%, 3 students who get poor category. This study classifies dominant errors made by students are: the mechanic aspects, grammar aspect, content, organization and the generic structure of recount text. Mechanic Aspect The highest percentage in mechanic aspect is 50% that is fair to poor category. Most of the texts are in fair to poor score in mechanic because of their incorrect application of spelling, punctuation, capitalizations and paragraphing. This can be caused by students‟ writing habits that are not considered. Grammar Aspect The highest percentage in grammar aspect is 43% that is very poor category. The result of students‟ writing recount texts showed that most of them used present tense. Students got good score in vocabulary but in making sentences in past tense, they are still confused, such a difficulty is also faced by students in making a paragraph. Content Aspect In the content aspect, the highest percentage is 47% that is fair to poor category, there are 14 students are still confused about the content what should to write. They were lack of getting ideas to write the story and only wrote in one paragraph which includes orientation, events and reorientation. There were also P a g e | 71 Atikasari Husna LET: Linguistics, Literature and Language Teaching Journal Vol. 9 No. 1 2019 students who are confused about recount texts, so that they wrote inappropriate content of a recount text. Organization aspect The highest percentage in organization aspect is 43% in good to average category, there are 13 students who got good score, 11 students got fair to poor category and the percentage is 37%, six students got very poor category and the percentage is 20%. It could be seen, although the students who get good score are more than students in fair score, the total percentage of students which get fair to poor and very poor score are more than students who get good score. Generic Structure of Recount Text a. Reorientation The highest percentage in reorientation is in poor category, it is 57%. In many of students‟ assignment, they forgot to give impressions or personal opinion about the stories that have been told. b. Orientation In orientation aspect, the highest percentage is 53% in poor category. Several students are still faced difficulty in determining who, what, when and where in the introduction of the story. As a result, they are only writing the time and with whom they go on vacation. c. Event The teacher gives a high score to events because they are the body of a recount text, there are 10 students or 33% in good category and there are 10 students or 33% in poor category. It means that there are several students who have been able to build storyline in a recount text and several have not been able. DISCUSSION Students’ Difficulties in Writing Recount Texts Based on the result of the data of students‟ assignments, there are several aspects of students‟ difficulties in writing recount texts, those are: Mechanic aspect, grammar aspect, Content aspect, organization aspect and generic structure of recount text aspect. Mechanic Aspect P a g e | 72 Atikasari Husna LET: Linguistics, Literature and Language Teaching Journal Vol. 9 No. 1 2019 Many parts of mechanic aspect made confusing meaning to understand. The reason of this difficulty is the incorrect application of spelling, punctuation, capitalization and paragraphing which were made by the students‟ recount texts. The students also faced difficulties in sentence patterns. There was no coherence between one to another sentence. They are still confused to compose several words to become a sentence. Grammar Aspect In grammatical errors, the students faced difficulties in simple past tense. Because a recount text retells about something that already happened in the past, it means the action verb is past tense. It is supported by Boardman in Saragih, Silalahi & Pardede (2014) that the language features usually found use of past action verbs refer the events, use of past tense to located events in relation to speaker‟s or researcher‟s time. Similarly, Gerot and Wignell (1994) the language features of recount text that should be fulfilled: specific participants, use material process, circumstance of time and place, use past tense and temporal sentence. Content Aspect The students were still confused to explore their idea in writing a recount text, so the content of their writing product was less. Based on the discussion, Lorch‟s idea (1984), many students make some mistakes and face difficulties to build and develop their imagination. Because of the content of event is less, it makes the results of the score of several students‟ scores is fair. Students get difficulties in generating idea and have limited time in practicing writing a recount text that makes students have lack of time in exploring their ideas, so it can be concluded that time allocation for practice is less than theory. Organization Aspect Based on the result of this study, most students got fair to poor score. According to scoring rubric of Jacob 1981, organization aspect criteria is the development of logical sequence of event, it means this aspect has related with the generic structure of recount text. Generic Structure of Recount Text Aspect P a g e | 73 Atikasari Husna LET: Linguistics, Literature and Language Teaching Journal Vol. 9 No. 1 2019 The students faced difficulties in composing recount texts, their each generic structure were incomplete, especially orientation and reorientation, they only focused on the events. a. Orientation Based on the result of students‟ assignments, most of their orientation aspect is less and it is categorized poor because they only wrote the time. For example, in the introduction, the students wrote; In Sunday, Sunday morning, On holiday. It would be better if they wrote additional information with whom, the location, how to go and what things will be told. b. Events A sequence of event is the main activity, after conducting the finding of the study, the result of event aspect is better than other aspect. Most of students could explore their idea about their experience or their holiday story correctly and they could tell the story in a good organization. It makes the correctors understand the story better. c. Reorientation This aspect is a closing statement, for example, the personal comment about the events. Nearly all students got poor category in this aspect because they forgot to write their personal comment about their experience or story. This difficulty makes the score of students‟ assignment fair. In this study, many students forgot to write orientation and reorientation, they focus on the event or content of the story. In fact, a recount text consist of three generic structures. That is why the ability of most students to write a recount text is classified in fair category. But, based on the result of this study, the students got good to average category in vocabulary aspect. The highest score percentage in vocabulary aspect is 60%, it is in good to average category, there are 18 students mastering vocabulary correctly. They could find all English words that they used to write. Looking over the students‟ assignment, the students could find the English of each word, but when they should compose several words to become sentence, paragraph or even a text, they still faced the difficulty. One of teachers‟ strategies to apply in vocabulary aspect is a mini dictionary. According to the third interviewee, since students were in seventh grade, they got assignment P a g e | 74 Atikasari Husna LET: Linguistics, Literature and Language Teaching Journal Vol. 9 No. 1 2019 to make a mini dictionary about things around. When students made the mini dictionary, they would get new vocabulary. In conclusion, based on the students‟ product, the factors causing students‟ difficulties are mechanics of the text such as spelling error, punctuation error, capitalization error and paragraphing error, grammar, they have lack of getting ideas to write in content, compose sentences, and their difficulties to get idea in reorientation and orientation. But, they could organize their writing product correctly and master vocabulary well. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS Students find difficulties in some aspects. A mechanic aspect is an aspect which gets less attention in writing practice. The students applied incorrect spelling, punctuation, capitalization and paragraphing. This can be the causes of meaning confused. In grammar aspect, most students uses present tense verbs, meanwhile, recount text is a text that uses simple past tense verbs. They are still confused in changing from present tense to past tense. The students are lack of getting idea, they were still confused about what would write, they could only wrote one paragraph and they only focused on the event. The students who got fair to very poor category are more than students who got good category in organizing their recount text. This aspect is related to generic structure of recount text. The students faced difficulties in writing recount text in each generic structure especially orientation and reorientation.They only focused on the event. In orientation, many students only wrote the time, they forgot introducing the story before they started writing the events include who, what, when and where. In event, many students got good score because they could build the storyline but the content is still less because they composed three generic structures in one paragraph. The lowest score is in reorientation, most of students forgot to write their personal comment or opinion on their writing assignment. 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