the ISFC39 Proceedings - International Systemic-Functional ...

Papers from the 39th ISFCTable 1 shows an example of a text written by a student identified as a middle achiever. Thetext follows the stages of the schematic structure required by a narrative text, namelyorientation, complication and evaluation, resolution and coda (Anderson & Anderson, 1997;Feez & Joyce, 1998; Gerot and Wignell, 1994). The text also uses the linguistic features of anarrative text including a focus on specific and usually individualized participants and theuse of material, behavioral and verbal processes, relational processes and mental processes,temporal conjunctions and temporal circumstances, and past tense (Gerot and Wignell,1994:204).6. InterviewInterview data indicate that the teacher has good understanding of the GBA as reflected bythe implementation of the steps in teaching and learning steps based on the GBA. Using thisapproach, the teacher was able to lead the students’ development in writing a narrative text.In addition, the teacher used a scaffolding approach to ensure the students had enough skillsin writing a narrative text and thus lead to their development in using the narrative genre.Most students said that through the activities implemented by the teacher in writing class,they could produce better texts.7. ConclusionThe teacher applied the GBA appropriately in teaching narrative writing as suggested bygenre theorists. The teacher implemented the following stages of the GBA: buildingknowledge of the field to give background knowledge to the students and introducing variousactivities to enhance students’ understanding on the content, including reading, analyzing,retelling and role playing. In the modeling text stage the teacher guided the students toidentify and build knowledge of the social function, the schematic structure and the linguisticfeatures of narrative texts. The teacher also succeeded in guiding the students to develop theirskills in writing a narrative text through the joint construction of a narrative text and finallythe students could produce their own narrative texts in the independent construction stage.The students’ development in writing narrative texts through the framework of the genrebasedapproach indicates that the GBA can help students enhance their narrative writingskills. This suggests that the implementation of the GBA is applicable and appropriate to theteaching of writing in junior high school and that it will enhance the students’ writing skills.The success of the program was supported by the teacher’s scaffolding and explicit teachingduring all stages.The study suggests, therefore, that scaffolding and explicit teaching should be used in allstages of the GBA to help students to link old information or familiar situations with newknowledge through verbal and nonverbal communication and modeling behaviors. Theteacher should facilitate the students’ learning process in writing by building theirunderstanding of content through various activities, giving them a good model of the texttype and allowing the students to talk about their text with others so they can formulate theirthoughts, generate ideas, and focus attention on the topics. Following peer critique andconferencing with the teacher, students should edit and revise their text to be ready for thepublication.ReferencesAnderson, M & Anderson, K.(1997). Text Types in English 2. Australia: MacMillan Education AustraliaChristie, F. & Derewianka, B.(2008). School Discourse. New York: ContinuumCope, B., and Kalantzis, M. (1993). The power of literacy and the literacy of power. In B. Cope, B., and M.Kalantzis (Eds.), The powers of literacy. A genre approach to teaching writing. London: The Falmer Press.61