A Reflection and Review of Teaching Writing in Bilingual Classes:

A Case in Indonesian Public Schools

Fenna Adriawati

and Indah Nuraeni

State University of Jakarta, Faculty of Language and Art

Keywords: Reflection, Review of Teaching Writing and Bilingual Education

Abstract: The aim of this research is to reflect and review the process of teaching writing in bilingual classes at a Public

Islamic school in South Tangerang, Indonesia. The method used in this research is narrative inquiry which is

framed by dominant values and ideals. This is to challenge what the current landscape of teaching is. The

data were collected from the observation sheets, description of interview and theories of teaching writing.

The data sources in this research were six teachers of bilingual classes at the school. The findings of research

reveal that there are some difficulties of teaching writing felt by the teachers in higher classes that is in the

, 5

and 6

grade. It is recommended that teachers in bilingual classes need ELT training to develop and

to enhance their skills in teaching writing.

1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY

Reflection is an activity to rethink what has been

done, in this case, after teaching. The teacher needs to

reflect so that he can assess his strengths and

weaknesses for further improvement.

Reflection has been defined as an active process

of reviewing, analysing and evaluating experiences,

drawing upon theoretical concepts or previous

learning, in order to inform future actions (Reid,

1993). Reflection is a process which can be done by

teachers after teaching in their class. In the process of

reflection, teachers can review what has been done in

teaching process, thus review is a part of reflection.

While reviewing, teachers can seek for the benefits

and the lack of an approach or technique which have

been used in the teaching process before. Teachers

can find out some information to solve their problems

after they discover the lack of an approach or

technique by using theories of English language

teaching (ELT). Jarvinen (1999) has described

teachers’ professional development as dynamic and

multidimensional and emphasized the important role

of reflection in managing the process. By reflecting

on their activity, teachers can gain a deeper

understanding of themselves and their work

(Barkhuizen, 2011). By doing a reflection and review

after teaching activities, teachers can develop and

enhance their performances in teaching because the

process of reflection and review can give more

information to increase their professionalism and

knowledge which are very important for them to

teach, especially in ELT.

Bilingual Education refers to the use of a second

language or foreign language in school for teaching

or curriculum subjects (Cohen, 2000). Romaine

(1995) in Warsi (2008) claims that the use of the two

languages packed in bilingual education program

strengthens the concept of meaning of the subjects

learned and establishes automatic translating

systems in the learners’ brain.

In Indonesia, the implementation of bilingual

program refers to the Acts of the Indonesian

Republic Number 20 Year 2003 Article 50 Verse 3

which advocates that the Indonesian government and

the local government have to organise at least a unit

of education at all levels of education to be

developed further as a unit having international

standards of education. It is also mentioned on the

Acts that the National Education System should

perform the capability to guarantee the Indonesian

citizens to get the even distribution of opportunity in

Adriawati, F. and Nuraeni, I.

A Reﬂection and Review of Teaching Writing in Bilingual Classes: A Case in Indonesian Public Schools.

DOI: 10.5220/0008216800002284

In Proceedings of the 1st Bandung English Language Teaching International Conference (BELTIC 2018) - Developing ELT in the 21st Century, pages 273-279

ISBN: 978-989-758-416-9

273

education practices, the quality improvement, and

the relevance and the efficiency of education

management to face challenges of the local, national,

and global lives. Such a program is aimed at

facilitating graduates of secondary school to face

global demands and at establishing students to

become elite bi- or multi- linguals who are

competent in dealing with use of the target language

in different contexts on the grounds that being

competent bilinguals, graduates of secondary school

levels are expected to survive in some globalisation

strands which require high English proficiency to

make contacts with other people from different

countries who come from social-cultural and

linguistic backgrounds (Margana, 2013).

Regarding to the implementation of bilingual

program, a public Islamic

elementary

school in South

Tangerang opens bilingual classes. In the intended

school’s bilingual classes, there are two class

teachers. The first one is the guardian teachers who

teach thematic subjects and the second one is assistant

teacher who teaches some subjects in foreign

language. Math, Science, Grammar and English are

the subjects in foreign language. Writing is one of

language skills of English subjects. Based on the

interview to six teachers in bilingual classes, the most

difficult one of ELT is teaching writing. The ability

to write must be supported by students’ good

grammar and sufficient vocabulary. In fact, teachers

encounter some problems to build pupils’ grammar

and vocabulary in bilingual classes. The problem

solving expected by the bilingual teachers is the

solution from other teachers to use some English

vocabulary in their teaching activities. So that pupils’

can remember new words in their minds. Then

teachers wish for ELT training to develop and to

enhance their skills in teaching writing.

In the future, documented teachers’ experiences

will be advantageous when they face problems in

teaching writing for taking appropriate action to

handle them. These actions mentioned as reflection

and review are worth it to do by teachers in order to

improve the quality of teaching, especially in

teaching writing.

The researchers expect that this research can give

some significances, such as to add some perspective

in the world of education, especially about teaching

writing in bilingual classes at primary schools and to

be able as a reference for any teachers in reflecting

and reviewing teaching writing based on the theories

from the experts.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

Researchers use some scholars' theories in order to

get the proper basis of reasoning to elaborate their

reflection precisely and clearly.

2.1 The Terms of Reflection

Reflection has a purpose to develop teachers’ mind in

conducting their teaching . Reflection is important for

teachers conducted after they finish teaching. To have

the insight of the signification of reflection and the

characteristics of the one who conduct reflection,

some scholars’ notions are presented as follows:

In the view of Jay (2003), reflection means:

1) Thinking about what one is doing. It entails a

process of contemplation with an openness

to being changed, a willingness to learn,

and a sense of responsibility for doing one’s

best.

2) A process of honest and deep thought

undertaken by a person with the purpose of

self-evaluation, changes oneself to be

better because of responsibility or

professionalism.

3) Some consciousness that arises from

someone to dedicate him/herself for the

task in occupation.

4) Needed for the development of self-

qualities through joining some trainings,

seeking for information and knowledges

from books or journals and soon practices

it to get better self-qualities.

Meanwhile, there are some matters which are

supporting one’s reflection process. Fade (2005)

stated that reflection involves describing, analysing

and evaluating our thoughts, assumptions, beliefs,

theory base and actions. It includes:

1) Looking forward (prospective reflection)

Reflecting by looking forward is like

looking at a holiday brochure before we go

away. We get ideas about what the location

might be like, what we might do and

whom we might meet.

2) Looking at what we are doing now

(spective reflection)

Reflecting by looking at what we are doing

now is like looking at ourselves in a pool

of water or a mirror; it shows us as we are at

that point in time.

3) Looking back (retrospective reflection)

Reflecting by looking back is like looking

at a photograph or video when we return

from our holiday. It tells us about where

BELTIC 2018 - 1st Bandung English Language Teaching International Conference

274

we went and what we did and whom we

met.

The process of reflection consists of three stages.

They are looking ahead, seeing what is happening and

looking backward. The first stage, looking ahead

process is to think of ideas to realize the activities to

be undertaken and for whom the activities are carried

out and to adjust the achievement of targets. The

second stage is to reflect on self what is being done.

In this stage, people can take notes if they find a

problem in carrying out the planned activities. By

making notes about the problem that arise, then

people can think the solution needed in the future. In

the last stage, people can review the notes of

problems which have been made to determine the

solution or anticipation to be shared with other people

who might need information from their experience.

The process of reflection has several indication

and characteristics. Rodgers (2002) indicated that

these are criteria of reflection:

1) Reflection is a meaning-making process

that moves a learner from one experience

into the next with deeper understanding of

its relationships with and connections to

other experiences and ideas.

2) Reflection is systematic, rigorous,

disciplined way of thinking, with its

roots in scientific inquiry.

3) Reflection needs to happen in community,

in interaction with others.

4) Reflection requires attitudes that value

the personal and intellectual growth of

oneself and of others.

5) Reflection is the process of giving

meaning from one experience to the next

with a deeper, systematic, precise,

organized and factual understanding.

Reflection is also acceptable from the

standpoint of self and others to develop

personality and self-ability and other

people.

Based on the theories above, it can be explained

that reflection is a deep thought towards what will be

done, what is being done and what have been done in

teaching process. Reflection has a purpose to develop

self-qualities. Criteria of reflection are based on

experiences, systematic and factual report for

institution and organization or to be shared for other

teachers.

2.2 The Review of Teaching Writing

Nunan (2003) divides some principles of teaching

writing that should be considered by the teacher into

some part. The first principle of teaching writing is

making the students understand the reasons for

writing. The teacher explain what will they write and

what they write for. It makes the students the aim of

their writing. The second principle of teaching

writing is providing many opportunities for the

students to write. The students are provided with

enough time and leisure to write because writing is

not easy process. The third principle of teaching

writing is making feedback helpful and meaningful.

According to Harmer (2001), there are two

approaches in teaching writing. They are focusing on

the product of writing process and focusing on the

writing process itself. He states that focusing on the

writing process leads those who advocate a process

approach in writing. However, teachers have to pay

attention to the various stages of any piece of writing

process.

2.2.1 Teaching Writing in Content Area

Teaching writing in content area has five sections

below (Urquhart & McIver, 2005):

1) The Role of Time

Time in classrooms breaks down into four essential

types: allocated time, instructional time, engaged

time, and academic learning time (Marzano,

2001). Allocated time is the time in the school day

specifically set aside for instruction, such as classes,

as opposed to non-instructional activities, such as

recess, lunch, passing time, and the like. Meanwhile,

instructional time, the in-class time that a teacher

devotes to instruction (as opposed to management-

oriented activities. Engaged time, the portion of

instructional time during which students are actually

paying attention to the content being presented.

Moreover, academic learning time, the proportion of

engaged time during which students are successful at

the tasks they are engaged in.

2) The Role of Assessment

A teacher can uses the rubric as assessment tools to

asses writing skills. The steps to design a rubric is:

a. Re-examine the learning objectives to be

addressed by the task.

This allows you to match your scoring guide

with your objectives and actual instruction.

A Reﬂection and Review of Teaching Writing in Bilingual Classes: A Case in Indonesian Public Schools

275

b. Identify specific observable attributes that

you want to see (as well as those you don’t

want to see) your students demonstrate in

their product, process, or performance.

Specify the characteristics, skills, or

behaviours that you will be looking for, as

well as common mistakes you do not want to

see.

c. Brainstorm characteristics that describe each

attribute. Identify ways to describe above

average, average, and below average

performance for each observable attribute

identified in Step 2.

d. For holistic rubrics (where the teacher scores

the overall process), write thorough narrative

descriptions for excellent work and poor

work incorporating each attribute into the

description. Describe the highest and

lowest levels of performance combining the

descriptors for all attributes. For analytic

rubrics (where the teacher scores the

component parts to obtain a total score),

write thorough narrative descriptions for

excellent work and poor work for each

individual attribute. Describe the highest and

lowest levels of performance using the

descriptors for each attribute separately.

e. For holistic rubrics, complete the rubric by

describing other levels on the continuum

that ranges from excellent to poor work for

the collective attributes. Write descriptions

for all intermediate levels of performance.

For analytic rubrics, complete the rubric by

describing other levels on the continuum

that ranges from excellent to poor work for

each attribute. Write descriptions for all

intermediate levels of performance for each

attribute separately.

f. Collect samples of student work that

exemplify each level. These will help you

score in the future by serving as benchmarks.

g. Revise the rubric, as necessary. Be prepared

to reflect on the effectiveness of the rubric

and revise it prior to its next implementation.

3) The Role of Technology

Regarding the use technology, teachers should

consider the aspects: identifying the elements of good

software programs, evaluating and using technology

in any content area, combining research-based

classroom strategies with supporting technologies,

and integrating technology into the writing process.

4) The Role of Teacher

In teaching writing, teacher should pay attention two

factors: creating an environment conducive to

effective writing, and recognizing how your own

writing practices affect the writing in your classroom.

5) Strategies for Teaching Writing in the Content

Areas: prewriting guide, prewriting think sheet,

semantic feature analysis, the journalist’ question,

and consulting prewriting protocol.

2.3 The Terms of Bilingual Eduation

Based on Lin & Man (2009), to understand the great

variety of bilingual education programmes in the

world, one useful perspective is to consider the

different sociohistorical contexts that have given rise

to the different aims of bilingual education and its

diverse programme types. Meanwhile, Baker (2011)

stated that bilingual education does not necessarily

concern the balanced use and development of two

languages in the classroom. Behind bilingual

education is varying and conflicting philosophies of

what education is for. Sociocultural, political and

economic issues are ever present in the debate over

the provision of bilingual education. The bilingual

education program in the world has differences in

every country due to social and historical

considerations. Therefore, some bilingual education

programs set specific goals. Bilingual education has a

characteristic use of a foreign language but does not

specify the use of two balanced languages in the class.

Bilingual education becomes the pros and cons in

various countries.

2.3.1 Types of Bilingual Education

Baker (2007) gathers various types of bilingual

education in ten different categories, which are

divided in three major groups, depending on the

linguistic goals of each type of bilingual education.

1) Mainstreaming/Submersion

This is the assimilation of minority language pupils

within the major schools, who are taught throughout

the curriculum in the language of the majority,

without paying attention to their mother tongue.

2) Mainstreaming With Pull-out Classes

This type of education consists in withdrawing

minority language children from mainstream classes

for compensatory lessons in the majority language.

3) Segregationist Education

It occurs where minority language speakers and

majority language speakers are completely divided:

to minority children the access to majority schools is

BELTIC 2018 - 1st Bandung English Language Teaching International Conference

276

denied, they attend different schools where the

program is taught in their own language.

2.3.2 Teachers’ Characteristic in Bilingual

Education

Based on Feinberg (2002),

characteristics

of teachers

in bilingual education are:

1) The availability of appropriately trained and

credentialed teachers.

2) The availability of teachers with schooled levels

of competence in the program languages.

3) The subject areas in which bilingual teachers

hold teaching credentials.

4) The extent to which teachers have access to

instructional materials in program languages.

5) The extent to which the faculty is familiar with

the language and culture of the students

participating in the program.

6) The extent to which native speakers of the

language are represented in the program’s

faculty.

3 METHODS

3.1 Designs

Narrative inquiry is a methodology that takes stories,

as they appear or are constructed from a variety of

experiences and artefacts, as the unit of analysis for

understanding relational aspects of human

experience (Sisk-Hilton & Meier, 2016). Narrative

Inquiry used in this research to portrait teachers’

experience about approaches, techniques and

activities conducted in teaching writing from 1st

grade to 6th grade at elementary school in Indonesia.

3.2 Data Sources

The data collection in this research is gotten from

observation sheet, description of interviews and

theories of teaching writing.

Table 3.1: Data Sources

Teacher’s

Name

Age

Teaching

Experience

Class Teachers

Miss A

6 years

Alexandria Class

grade)

Miss U

2 years

Cordova Class

grade)

Miss D

6 years

Andalusia Class

grade)

Miss W

3 years

Anatolia Class

grade)

Miss L

2 years

Sarajevo Class

grade)

Miss V

5 years

Azerbaijan Class

grade)

3.3 Research Instruments

Instruments are tools or devices to get the data for this

research. Instruments used in this research are

observation to discover some problems in teaching

writing and solutions, interviews to observe the

procedures and process of reflection and review in

teaching writing, and theories of teaching writing to

find out information based on the experts’ opinion

about the appropriate techniques, approaches,

activities and assessment in teaching writing.

3.4 Data Collection Procedures

The researchers collect the data by using ﬁeld texts

that document the individual’s story in his or her own

words.

3.5 Data Analysis Procedures

The procedures to analysis the data in this research

are as follows:

Figure 3.5: Data Analysis procedures

A Reﬂection and Review of Teaching Writing in Bilingual Classes: A Case in Indonesian Public Schools

277

4 FINDINGS

The interview was conducted to six teachers in

bilingual classes at the intended school to discover

some information about the real situation in school.

Interviewer: Good morning, teachers.

All teachers: morning, too.

Interviewers: In your opinion, which is the

lowest skill in teaching

English?

Miss A: Well, I think writing is a little

difficult because students in

lower classes, especially, first

graders, still cannot

distinguish between utterance

and writing form

Miss U: My students (the second

graders) don’t have any

meaningful difficulties

because they still learn to

write one correct sentence in

every session. Therefore, they

enjoy learning writing.

Miss D: Well, actually the

thirdgrade students are not

interested in learning writing

without games. They have low

interest in writing because

they say it is boring for them.

Miss L: The fourth graders have low

skill in writing. Therefore, it is

difficult for them.

Miss W: My students also find

difficulties in writing because

they have low vocabulary

mastery.

Miss V: Yeah, my students find

some difficulties in developing

the topic.

Interviewers: So, what kinds of activities

are usually used in writing

class?

Miss A: Dictation

Miss U: Choose interesting topics.

Miss D: I give some exercises for

my students to make

sentences.

Miss L: They usually make a story based

on provided topics.

Miss W: I encourage them to

make invitation or greetings

cards.

Miss V: Make comics or something

like that, for example

animated story.

Interviewers: Is there any specific methods

or approaches that you use in

writing class?

Miss A: No, there isn’t. Only

dictation to examine the

spelling of a word.

Miss U: I focus on vocabulary to help

them practice

writing.

Miss D: I manage some games to

attract students’ attention in

doing their writing task.

Miss L: Not yet. So far I just ask the

students to develop one topic.

Miss W: None of any specific method.

Miss V: Yeah, the same I didn’t use

any specific

method.

Interviewers: How do you assess writing in

your class?

Teachers: By scoring directly

Interviewer: Do you think you need some

kind of English language

teaching (ELT) trainings?

Teachers: Yes, we need. Because so far,

we only get trainings about

curriculum of 2013 and

should be self- developed in

teaching English materials.

Interviewers: Have you ever conducted

self- reflection after teaching?

or noted in personal journal?

Teachers: Instinctively, we know the

ability of our students without

taking any notes though but

we have a little time to do

self-reflection after teaching.

Based on the results of interviews that have been

through the process of triangulation it can be

described that Miss A feels that students still do not

know the difference of writing and pronunciation.

Therefore Miss A teaches writing with dictation.

Meanwhile, Miss U does not find it difficult to

teach writing because she only focuses on getting

students to know one word. Therefore Miss U taught

more by writing new vocabulary. While Miss D more

explore the game to make students want to write and

prevent boredom of students.

According to Miss L fourth graders write based

on predetermined topics to create stories. While Miss

W stated that she did not know a particular method in

teaching writing. Therefore he often asks students to

make a greeting card. Just like Miss W, Miss V also

does not use the method of writing a definite writing.

Since sixth graders have difficulty in developing

essays, he often asks students to make comics.

BELTIC 2018 - 1st Bandung English Language Teaching International Conference

278

Besides conducting some interview, the

researchers also do some observation to monitor the

real situation in classrooms. The results of

observation are:

Table 4.1: Components of Teaching Writing in Content

Area

Grade

Role of Time

Role of Assessement

Role of Technology

Role of Teachers

Strategies for

Teaching Writing in

the Cintent Area

Alexandria Class

grade)

√

Cordova Class

grade)

√

Andalusia Class

grade)

√

Anatolia Class

grade)

√

Sarajevo Class

grade)

√

Azerbaijan Class

grade)

√

Based on the interviews to all teacher, they said

that the development of writing skill in mostly use

content area. Therefore, the researchers choose to

analyse the teaching writing activities by using

components of content area. The results show that

teachers in bilingual classes have been done in role of

time, role of teachers and strategies in content area.

The kinds of Bilingual education the school refer

to mainstreaming with pull-out classes. The school

uses Indonesian, English and Arabic in its learning

activities. The goal for students is to have perfect

ability in all fields.

5 CONCLUSIONS

Based on the findings, teachers at the public Islamic

elementary school have limited time for self-

reflection after teaching. Therefore, they need ELT

training to add their insights into language teaching.

Teachers at the school are not well acquainted with

the approaches, methods and activities which should

be used in teaching writing in content areas.

REFERENCES

Baker, C 2011, 'Foundations of bilingual education and

bilingualism, multilingual matters'.

Barkhuizen, G 2011, 'Narrative knowledging in tesol,

Tesol Q. 45, pp. 391–414.

Cohen, A.D 2000, 'Strategies in learning and using a

second language foreign language teaching and

research press'.

Fade, S 2005, Learning and assessing through reflection.

Feinberg, R.C 2002, Bilingual education: a reference

handbook. ABC-CLIO.

Harmer, J 2001, The practice of english language

teaching, London, New York.

Järvinen, H 1999, Second language acquisition through

clil at primary school level, marsh j learn, foreign

lang, models methods outcomes lond, cilt.

Jay, J.K 2003, Quality teaching: reflection as the heart of

practice, Scarecrow Press Lanham, MD.

Lin, A, Man, EY, 2009, Bilingual education: southeast

asian perspectives, Hong Kong University Press.

Margana, 2013, Theoretical justification of billingual

education program in indonesia, Educ. Linguist. J.

Forum vol. 1, pp. 29–40.

Marzano, RJ 2001, A new era of school reform: going

where the research takes us.

Nunan, D 2003, 'The impact of English as a global

language on educational policies and practices

in the asia-pacific region’, TESOL Q. 37, pp. 589-613.

Reid, B 1993, ‘But we’re doing it already!’ exploring a

response to the concept of reflective practice in order

to improve its facilitation, Nurse educ, pp. 305–309,

available from: https://doi.org/10.1016/0260-

6917(93)90058-A

Rodgers, C 2002, 'Defining reflection: another look at john

dewey and reflective thinking', Teach. Coll. Rec. 104,

pp. 842–866.

Sisk-Hilton, S, Meier, DR 2016, Narrative inquiry in early

childhood and elementary school: learning to teach,

teaching well, Routledge.

Urquhart, V, McIver, M 2005, Teaching writing in the

content areas, ASCD.

Warsi, MJ 2008, Linguistic dynamism in south asia, Gyan

Publishing House.

A Reﬂection and Review of Teaching Writing in Bilingual Classes: A Case in Indonesian Public Schools

279