Writing Technique

by Mr. Bimo Samasta Buana

Background

             Students sometimes just join or come to the English class to focus on the topic written on the book. They may ignore what actually the objective of the unit is.For example, the topic is about the interesting places or places to visit.While learning about them, most of the students’s focus may be on the description and the beauty of the topic. They may be unaware if, actually, the objective of the lesson, for example,is students are able to give  a talk on places to visit, and learn grammar on correlative conjuction and vocabulary needed to support the talk or presentation. Therefore, the purpose of applying communication book is to keep the students’s awareness on the course outline, to check how far it upgrade the students’ performance, and to stimulate their writing habits.

             Creating reading  activities

            Reading is one the language skills and it  belongs to the receptive skills beside listening. As it is a receptive skill, therefore, teaching  reading needs teachers’ creativities to modify and to “cook” the reading materials to be communicative, interesting, and even challenging to learn. In other words, when teaching reading, teachers must be able to create the atmosphere of teaching- learning process alive, for example, by giving games, grouping the students, and asking them to compete.To support the idea above, the writer wants to share two activities ( so far ) on creating mass media information or articles to be useful activities relate to the materials of IN 2, especially unit 1 and 2. i.e., sport. Thus, creating activities from the passages can benefit both teachers and students in some aspects such as familiarizing the diction used to them, upgrading the students’ cognitive, critical, and comprehensive skills, and sharpening teachers’skill in creating additional exercises or materials.

Firstly, familiarizing the diction used on a certain field to both teachers and students for example, is able to enrich their store of words.The unfamiliar words and phrases such as  burst, thump, trounce; tilt the nose of

the board down, do loops and helicopter spins, keep the legs straight, are rarely used in daily activities.However, they are familiar in football and sky surfing terms respectively. In addition to this, moreover, it also minimizes  misleading caused by the use of the words in certain context.

Secondly, creating reading activities  from other sources can upgrade the students’s cognitive, critical, and comprehension skill. Like the formats of the TOIEC TEST in reading section, for example,they aren’t dominated by passages or paragraphs. In fact, the items can be in the forms of letters, invitations, announcements, brochures, and others.Thus, it can not only give benefit to the students on the advantages mentioned above but also prepare them to encounter any forms of reding text.

Thirdly, cooking and creating materials to be reading activities can stimulate and push the teachers to sharpen or internalize their ideas and apply them in the suitable context needed in the teaching-learning process. In other words, the teachers know well their students’ need, proficiency, and nature.Thus, they can create the suitable activities ( in terms of level difficulty). Moreover, it can trigger teachers’s enthusiasm as they will be highly motivated to keep on creating reading activities if “their innovation” works well in the class.

The followings are examples of how to create reading activities. They can be used not only as supplementary materials but also as the main materials to teach reading.

II. Complete the following table score based on  the results of the quadraqular tournament below.The participants were Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, and Manchester United.

1. A draw 1-1 took between Chelsea vs Manchester United.

2.A two-goal burst in the last five minutes gave Arsenal win over Liverpool in the second match.

3. Chelsea was beaten by Liverpool. The only goal was made by Luiz Suarez.

4. MU thumped Arsenal 3-2. In the fifth match, Chelsea was trounced by Arsenal. Van Persie made the late goal in the injury-time.

5. In the last match, MU beat Liverpool.

TEAMS	PLAY	WIN	DRAW	LOST	GA	POINTS
1.
2.
3.
4.

NOTES :

GA = Goal Average

Win, draw, and lost get 3. 1, and 0 points respectively.

II.Complete the following knock-out competition below based on the information given. The information is based on the results of the world cup quartel final in Mexico.The participants are Belgium, France, Argentina,Spain,Mexico, Brazil, West Germany, England.

In conclusion, it is a very good idea to keep on creating reading activities as they can be used  as both supplementary and main materials to teach reading. Moreover, it is also proven to have some advantages such as increasing teachers and students’ store of words in the diction used on a certain field, upgrading the students’ cognitive, critical, and comprehension skills, and pushing teachers’ creativitiy.