Enhancing students’ insights in constructing report texts with Islamic values by scaffolding

Abstract

This study aims at presenting the effect of scaffolding on EFL students’ writing ability in constructing a report text by integrating Islamic values through the writing process and class presentations and capturing the students’ perceptions after the teaching-learning instruction process whenscaffolding was implemented in the EFL class. In this study, 26 students from the Islamic students major in an English IV class at the State Islamic Institute (IAIN) in Kendari, South-East Sulawesi,followed awriting process in portfolio and filledout a questionnaire. The writing process approach consisted of prewriting, revising, editing and publishing by presentation a final draft of the report text. The learning strategies were adopted from cycles and stages of learning proposed by Hammond, et al. (1992). Using experimental design, the data was analyzed quantitatively. Pre-tests and post-tests were conducted for assessing the outcomes achieved by the students from what they had been taught. The students’ perceptions were gained from analysis of a questionnaireusing a Likert scale. Students were provided with writing guidelines and assessed on five aspects such as content, organization, vocabulary, language use and mechanics. The resultsshowedthat the students’ achievements in the post-test compared to the pre-test revealed significant improvement, meanwhile most of them had difficulties with the basic elements of writing, e.g. lack of structure, poor grammar and limited use of language. However, afterwards, these learners could more confidently express their ideas in their writing and report presentations. Besides, there was a positive improvement in the students’ attitudes and perceptions towards the teaching-learning process.