English Ideas: Journal of English Language Education Vol.
January 2021
Copyright A 2021 English Ideas EXPLORING EFL STUDENTSAo CRITICAL THINKING IN WRITING
ANALYTICAL EXPOSITION TEXT: AN SFG- BASED ANALYSIS
Indah Nopita indahnopitaaja@gmail.
University of Singaperbangsa Karawang Abstract This study was conducted to explore studentsAo critical thinking skills in writing analytical exposition text.
The aim of this study is to describe the element of critical thinking reflected in students writing analytical exposition text.
The research design used content analysis case study.
The data were obtained from five studentsAo text in Class XI.
The instruments used in this research were the studentsAo writing artifacts which main instrument.
The data were analyzed with transitivity system of systemic functional grammar and critical thinking indicators from Watson Glaser II .
The study found that: First, studentsAo ability in writing the argument is still weak and irrelevant with the topic and thesis.
Second, the studentsAo texts are not in line with the language feature of analytical exposition text that is relational process.
Based on the results is teacher can more concern to help students in producing a good text by using critical thinking.
Keywords: Critical Thinking.
Writing Analytical Exposition.
Transitivity System
INTRODUCTION
Critical thinking is a crucial issue that it needs to be further reviewed (Appleby, 2006.
Halpern, 2.
In Indonesian education context, critical thinking becomes one of the aspects of competence included in the Curriculum 2013.
This latest Curriculum of Indonesian education attempts to balance soft skills and hard skills in the forms of attitudes, knowledge and skills (Transcripts Attachment of Education and Culture Minister Regulation No 21 of 2016 about Education Content Standards of Primary and Secondary Education in Chapter II about Level of Competenc.
These features will be created with a scientific approach that includes doing, observing, asking, reasoning, trying, and forming a network for all The scientific approach has been described as the process of critical thinking, as already defined by Scriven & Paul .
3, p.
that critical thinking process includes conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating gathered from or generated by observation, experience, reflection, reasoning or communication as a rubric to believe and action.
Thus, the teacher that is English Foreign Language (EFL) teacher should pay attention to aid their students to achieve critical thinking skills during learning English (Alwasilah.
According to Brown .
1: .
stated that Auwriting is a thinking process.
Ay because writing practice involves analyzing about a phenomenon, building the English Ideas: Journal of English Language Education Vol.
January 2021 Copyright A 2021 English Ideas arguments, and reinforcing the arguments, as can be found on writing analytical exposition text.
Therefore, it can be drawn the critical thinking activity such as.
conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating information gathered from or generated by observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication as rubric to belief and action (Scrieven and Paul 2003, p.
Based on those statement it shows that critical thinking activity can be drawn in writing analytical exposition texts.
A research study by Rohayati .
in Indonesian about critical thinking in writing found that Indonesian EFL students still need guidance in expressing effective and voicing arguments.
They also lack of critical thinking knowledge.
Pramono .
also found out that "the Indonesian EFL studentsAo skill in writing analytical exposition text based on the content and meaning is still poor.
" Driven by Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) as a tool for analyzing the studentsAo text, the aim of this study is to investigate what problems are encountered by Indonesian EFL students in writing exposition text.
Based on the previous studies, it can be seen that critical thinking and writing the analytical exposition text is Writing analytical exposition text requires expertise in sorting information carefully to produce strong arguments and evidence, and it requires a higher-level thinking and ability to synthesize information (Chaffee et al, 2002, p.
However, research studies on critical thinking in studentsAo writings of analytical exposition text through SFG-based analysis are still limited.
It needs to be further discussed and explored to find the students' critical thinking in their writings of analytical exposition text based on the critical thinking elements of Watson Glaser Critical Thinking II .
This present research tries to explore students' critical thinking in writing analytical exposition text uses Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) based Analysis.
This research focuses on the investigation of ideational meaning and critical thinking indicators or element in analytical exposition text by using Watson Glaser critical thinking II .
theory includes Recognize Assumptions.
Evaluate Arguments, and Draw Conclusions (RED).
These will be some indicators to address the students' critical thinking.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Critical Thinking in Analytical Exposition Text Critical thinking skill becomes one of the aims in Curriculum 2013 in Indonesia.
As stated in Transcripts Attachment of Education and Culture Minister Regulation No.
21 of 2016 about Education Content Standards of Primary and Secondary Education in Chapter II about Level of Competence that core competency are divided into three parts namely attitude .
piritual attitude, social attitud.
, knowledge and skills.
The core competency of skills is students are able to demonstrate the skills of reasoning, processing, and serves as: Aucreative, productive, critical, independent, collaborative, communicativeAAy Thus, the skill of critical is listed in the graduation standard competencies.
Many experts have defined the critical thinking.
Ennis .
stated that, critical thinking is reasonable and reflective thinking focused on deciding what to English Ideas: Journal of English Language Education Vol.
January 2021 Copyright A 2021 English Ideas believe or do.
Scrieven and Paul .
3, p.
further define about critical thinking AuCritical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating information gathered from or generated by observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication as rubric to belief and action.
Ay The other researcher also emphasized the importance of having critical Paul .
said AuCritical thinking is an essential foundation for adoption to everyday personal, social, and professional demands of the 21 st Century and thereafter.
Ay Supported by Nold .
said that Aucritical thinking skills help students to achieve academic success such as.
be productive people, creative, and reflective in society.
StudentsAo critical thinking can be traced in their writing.
Ong .
argued that writing is solitary activity because writing involves planning, transcribing, and revising, and the effective management of these process.
Condon &Riley .
stated that Auwriting is a tool of thinking skills which support children and Ay Writing is a social activity (Prior, 2.
It is because the final results of writing are formed by social and cultural construct.
Thus, people can catch the meaning of the text in social and cultural context.
Writing analytical exposition text was included in Curriculum 2013, besed on the (Attachment of Education and Culture Minister Regulation Republic of Indonesia No.
37 of 2018 about Amendment of Education and Culture Minister Regulation No 24 of 2016 about Core Competence and Basic Study Competenc.
An analytical exposition text is the text that contains an opinion of the writer about an issue or phenomenon.
Derewianka .
explained that the main function of expository text is to take a position or some issues and justify it.
Also the goal is to persuade the reader about the fact of information which the writer telling in the text.
This text has grammatical structure namely thesis statement, arguments, and reiteration (Gerot.
, and P Wignell, 1.
First, thesis statement is about the writerAos point of view.
In this part, the background of the topic is Second, argument is about several of opinions that can support the main idea in a text in which the writer can give the evidence and explanation to support the argument.
Third, reiteration or conclusion is about strengthening the thesis or main idea.
The writer can reiterate the point of view of a text.
Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) and Critical Thinking Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) is an approach in studying language.
Language is generally used for people communication in society to deliver Genre is typically as AostagedAo and Aogoal oriented social processesAo (Christie, 1998.
Derewianka, 1996.
Martin, 1989.
Painter 2.
Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) is also used in teaching and learning method, technique to build students in communicative competency and critical thinking (Baraceros, 2.
, as a tool in literary analysis.
Halliday and Mathiessen .
English Ideas: Journal of English Language Education Vol.
January 2021 Copyright A 2021 English Ideas argued that AuSystemic Functional Linguistic is a theoretical approach that analyses the relationship between social context and linguistics aspects.
Ay It is for analyzing language about how language is used in various contexts in verbal or non-verbal Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) advocates three concepts of language structure that realize meaning.
textual meaning, interpersonal meaning, and ideational meaning.
First.
Autextual meaning uses language to organize as a piece of writing (Eggins, 2.
Ay.
Second, interpersonal meaning uses language as a dialogue, it also concerns the use of language to set up and sustain interaction among speakers using the language and realized through the system of Mood and Modality.
The last is, ideational meaning refers to meaning about how people represent experience.
This also concerns how language is used to organize, understand and express our perceptions of the world and our consciousness (Eggins, 2.
The meaning of people experience that traced in their text is classified into two sub-categories.
experiential meaning and logical meaning.
The first is realized in Transitivity system while the latter is realized in Conjunction In analyzing text in ideational meaning, it represents the grammatical system of AutransitivityAy such.
process type, participant type, circumstance type.
Those can point the process to involve an action or material, mental, behavior, relational, and existence process.
It is shows meaning inside from the text.
Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) is also used in criticizing or evaluating intellectual and emotional traits of people in society.
Thereby.
Baraceros .
reported the linked of SFG and critical thinking that in some pointed are .
SFG as a Multi-Functionality of Clauses and Critical Thinking as Consistency of though itAos mean that SFG versus critical thinking that the success of critical thinking depends on the unity of coherence of the arguments, interconnectedness or words, clauses, or sentences is necessary for clear expression of peopleAos reasons or arguments.
SFG as language structure such as ideational, interpersonal and textual functions of language and critical thinking as evaluation based on morally and professionally determined views or ideas of a person and other people, it results that SFG deals with varied language features to express the multiple functions of language and true for critical thinking which requires the thinker to listen analyze, and evaluate diverse view on the basis of some criteria before giving a final judgement.
SFG as use of contextualized language exercise and critical thinking embedded in society, thus, language exercises stimulating social events open the mind of communicators to realities in life.
Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking (WGCT) II The Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Skill is a theory of critical thinking which combines the attitude, knowledge, and skill shaped from critical thinking.
The Watson- Glaser Critical Thinking Skill has some activity for the reader and researcher to assess the students and thinking about.
According to (Glaser, 1937.
Watson & Glaser, 1.
believed that.
Aucritical thinking includes.
attitudes of inquiry that involve an ability to recognize the existence of problems and an acceptance of the English Ideas: Journal of English Language Education Vol.
January 2021 Copyright A 2021 English Ideas general need for evidence in support of what is asserted to be true, knowledge of the nature of valid inferences, abstractions, and generalizations in which the weight or accuracy of different kinds of evidence are logically determined, and skills in employing and applying the above attitudes and knowledge.
Ay It develops the structures of the critical thinking step and change the name from Watson-Glaser Critical Appraisal become Watson-Glaser Critical (WGCT) II.
According to the Watson- Glaser Critical Thinking (WGCT) II book guide .
the newest name and content to assess critical thinking is a model of WGCT II namely RED Model or (Recognize Assumptions.
Evaluate Arguments, and Draw Conclusions.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This study used qualitative approach in the form of content analysis case The content analysis case study was chosen since the study analyzes the studentsAo writing artefacts of analytical exposition text based on ideational meaning process.
The texts were analyzed through Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) and the critical thinking elements from Watson Glaser Critical Thinking II .
This research was conducted at a Senior High School located in Karawang.
West Java.
The students who were recruited voluntarily to join this study were five female students in class XI IPS 1, based on the recommendation from English teacher, who said that this class has the most active students in English learning.
The students were asked to write the text according to the topic, grammatical structure, and language feature of analytical exposition text.
The data collection was from students' writing artifacts.
Researcher used purposive sampling that is the researcher takes the data source according to the research needs.
The data were collected through several steps.
First, researcher collected the studentsAo writing artifacts of analytical exposition text, as many five texts.
Then, studentsAo texts were analyzed by using the SFG-Based Analysis.
Focusing in ideational meaning, that intends to find meaning or language experienceAo that contained in studentsAo analytical exposition text.
The process types analyzed in the artifacts are Material process.
Mental process.
Behavioral process.
Verbal process.
Existential process, and Relational process.
The last is each clause from the text as many 141 clauses were identified with critical thinking indicators by Watson Glaser Critical Thinking (WGCT) II .
or called RED Model.
It is to explore the elements of critical thinking of students perform in writing analytical exposition text.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
Based on the research study question 'what elements of critical thinking do students perform in writing analytical exposition text?.
Ao The analyzed using the Systemic Function Grammar (SFG) transitivity system and the RED Model as indicators of critical thinking.
The following are the results of each analysis process presented:
English Ideas: Journal of English Language Education Vol.
January 2021 Copyright A 2021 English Ideas The Transitivity Analysis of Five StudentsAo Text The results of Transitivity analysis present the experiences or ideational In this case is student's experience which shown in the student's analytical exposition text.
The finding is the studentsAo text is not in line with the language feature of analytical exposition text that is small occurrence relational The frequency of occurrence of relational process appears 38 times from 141 clauses was analyzed.
It means the total occurrence of relational process in five studentsAo text is low, or students did not use the relational process maximally in writing analytical exposition text.
Garot and Wignel, .
4: .
argued that the language feature of analytical exposition text is emotive words, simple present tense, and relational process, internal conjunction, and casual It means that in writing analytical exposition text is used the relational process for connecting the main idea and content.
The following table 1 is the results of transitivity analysis of five studentsAo text.
Causative Process Verbal Process Process of Existential Circumstansial Possessive Possessive Intensive Inclination Cognitive Identifying Process of Behavioural Process of Relational Attributive Perspective Text 1 Text 2 Text 3 Text 4 Text 5 Total Total Process Process of Mental Affective Process Type Process of Material Table 1.
The Critical Thinking IndicatorsAo (RED Mode.
Analysis in StudentsAo Writing Analytical Exposition Text The result of critical thinking analysis of studentsAo text through RED Model by Watson Glaser .
that is students lack in writing argument and still irrelevance argument with topic and thesis of the text.
It is based on the frequency occurrence in analysis argument section of five students text appears the higher occurrence in the descriptions of critical indictors of evaluative argument such as in the section.
Identifying each argument is weak and the identifying irrelevance.
This indicates the student lack of making the strong argument by giving the inaccurate evidence and student also lack of developing the relevant argument in the text.
The frequency occurrence of critical thinking indicators in section, i.
English Ideas: Journal of English Language Education Vol.
January 2021 Copyright A 2021 English Ideas analyzing of arguments to evaluate, analyze information objectively and accurately as many 3 times.
It is also indicates that sstudents did not use their critical thinking maximally in writing analytical exposition text.
In addition, the critical thinking indicators show that students are limited in making strong and relevance of argument in the text.
Table 1.
Critical Thinking Skill Evaluati Objectiv evArgum SubCritical Thinking Description Analyzing Argument Analyzing of arguments to evaluate, analyze information objectively and accurately Questioning the quality of supporting evidence Being objectively to sort through the validity in drawing more accurate conclusions Identifying each argument is strong or weak Identifying relevance and Looking for similarities and Identifying conclusions Text Giving information through a list of decision-making Whether the certain conclusions should follow the information in the given report Defining the problem Selecting criteria to create a Formulating the possible Deciding what to do Reviewing Monitoring the Toxscdfregdcxbgerfvttal Percentage Text Text 3 Text Text Deduction The finding of this study has shown that the studentsAo experience can influence the content of the text and how they are pouring their ideas into text.
can be seen when the studentsAo experience can influence the content of the text English Ideas: Journal of English Language Education Vol.
January 2021 Copyright A 2021 English Ideas which implies the meaning of the text.
The thing suit with the statement by (Glaser, 1937.
Watson & Glaser, 1.
believed that:
Aucritical thinking includes.
attitudes of inquiry that involve an ability to recognize the existence of problems and an acceptance of the general need for evidence in support of what is asserted to be true, knowledge of the nature of valid inferences, abstractions, and generalizations in which the weight or accuracy of different kinds of evidence are logically determined, and skills in employing and applying the above attitudes and knowledge.
Ay It means that critical thinking skill is needed to use in writing that is in ability of studentsAo in developing the idea of the text.
However, the finding of element of critical thinking in studentsAo text shows the students are still limited in making strong and relevance argument in the text.
Therefore, teachers need more concern about how they can help the students in producing the text well and in understanding a text by using the critical thinking skill.
CONCLUSION
This qualitative content analysis case study examined the studentsAo critical thinking in writing analytical exposition text.
The finding is that students have followed the generic structure of writing analytical exposition text appropriately e in writing the thesis, students have organized the assumptions of the problem by giving comment with the correct information or making the thesis with interrogative sentence.
It indicates that the students writing process is suitable with the critical thinking indicator namely recognize assumptions.
However, the study also looked the relationship between the experience and the ability of studentsAo critical thinking in writing analytical exposition text, through transitivity analysis and RED Model critical thinking analysis.
It shows that students need stimulation of critical thinking for writing the argument and giving the strong evidence in analytical exposition text.
Based on these finding, this study supports the previous research concerning studentsAo writing analytical exposition and critical thinking ability by Rohayati .
that EFL Students still need guidance in expressing effectively and voicing They also lack of critical thinking knowledge.
Pramono .
also found out that the Indonesian EFL studentsAo skill in writing analytical exposition text based on the content and meaning is still poor.
This research is also having limitation in answering the research question.
The studies only focus in ideational meaning.
The other researcher can further review about textual and interpersonal meaning to find in depth about the cohesive and coherent of the text, and to know how the text creates the social relationship between writer and reader.
Therefore, this researcher limited to studentsAo text as a source of data still not suitable with the studentsAo achievement level in the class.
REFERENCES