ASIA TEFL CONFERENCE

BANGKOK 7-9 AUGUST 2009

STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION ON
ABSTRACT SELF ASSESSMENT USING
SYSTEMIC AND FUNCTIONAL
GRAMMAR

By
Didi Sukyadi (Indonesia Education
University)
Fiftinova (University of Sriwijaya)
 Introduction
• This study explored students’ perception on the use of
Systemic Functional Grammar for students’ self assessment.
Specifically, this study seeks what aspect of functional
grammar which becomes their primary concern when
evaluating their writing.

• Rationale:
• The major contribution of systemic functional grammar
(SFG) to the teaching writing skill (Halliday: 1994).
• The Importance of Self Assessment
• There are still limited studies on SFG framework for self
assessment.
 Objectives

1) To identify students’ perception on the

function of functional grammar for self-
assessment (Is there any difference before and
after students learn SFG? Does the way they
see their writing change?

2)To identify aspects of functional grammar

which is used by students as self-review
checklist. (How do students of higher level
education assess their writing by using SFG
approach)
 Significance
• This study will give information how students of
higher level education choose and produce meaning.

• Another significant aspect of this study is that

students of English education program could use it
as a reflection or reflective thinking.

• Through this study, teachers will be aware of the

importance of functional grammar in many aspects
of language learning. They can apply it to the
teaching of language skills, assessment, and to the
selection of teaching materials.
 Literary Review

• Self assessment (Brown ( 2004: 270),

Dickinson, 1987; Richard and Frye 1992;
Vygotsky 1962 as cited in Wray 1994 as
cited in Srimavin and Darasawang, 2004)
• Self assessment as part of adults learners
learning (Brown, 2004)
• Self assessment in writing (Brown, 2004)
• Previous Research
 Literary Review

• Systemic Functional Linguistics:

1) Definition
2) Context of situation
3) Context of culture
• Systemic Functional Grammar
1) Transitivity
2) Mood
3) Theme- Rheme system
 Methodology

• Setting and Participants

• Survey
1. Questionnaire: Adapted Amadeus Self-
Review from Aluisio, Sandra Maria &
Gantenbein
2. Interview
• Documentation of students’ texts
 Result
• Through the analysis, it is found that all
participants had positive attitudes towards the use
of SFG for their self-evaluation.

• They said that their abstract writing before

learning SFG is bad, but after that they considered
their writing as a better one.

• One participant claims that before learning SFG,

she did not know what to evaluate. This indicates
that SFG provides an effective analysis-tool for
self-assessment.
 Conclusion
• Students of high level education feel satisfied with the existence
of Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG). Most of them believe
that SFG is helpful for self-assessment. So far, they evaluate
their writing by seeing the macro level or the schematic structure
of their writing. Also, they review the cohesiveness and the
coherence of their text.

• The result above also indicates that by using SFG, students are
able to have self-assessment even though the lecturer does not
invite them to do so. Naturally, they become aware what is right
for their writing. However, in the future, it is suggested that
lecturers or teachers asks their students to have self-assessment
to their writing by using systemic functional grammar approach.
They can analyze their writing by using transitivity, modality and
theme-rheme system as well as schematic structure of a text in
order to evaluate their writing product.
Appendices-Interview Guidelines
QuestionNo. 1 to 8 deal with respondent perception
on their abstracts before being introduced to
Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG):

1) How did you assess your abstract before studying

SFG?
2) Do you thing your abstract was good?
3) Why do you think that your abstract was good?
4) Or why do think that your abstract was poor?
5)What information did you include in your abstract?
6)What were the procedures and stages that you went
through when writing your abstract?
7) What did you look at when writing an abstract? Did
you pay your attention on lexical choice, grammatical
feature, or punctuation?
8) How did you organize information in your abstract?
 Interview Guidelines
Question No. 9 to No. 14 deal with the respondents’
perception on their abstract after being introduced to
SFG:
9)In what semester did you study functional grammar?
10) Did you consider that the abstract you wrote was good?
11) What are the contribution of SFG on how you wrote your
abstract?
12)How did you develop your ideas in your abstract?
13)How did you discuss those topics?
14)How did you express you ideas or your assessment
towards the abstract?
15)Hoe did you develop the coherence and unity of your
abstract?
16)How did you use logical connection?
Questionnaire: Adapted Amadeus Self-Review from Aluisio,
Sandra Maria & Gantenbein

1. Structure : Components and Strategies Student A Student B Student C

Introduction research topic from the research area * * *
Familiarizing terms or objects or processes *
Argumenting about the topic prominence * * *
2. Review Strategies
Historical reviews * * *
Current Trends * * *
General to Particular ordering for citations * * *
Progress in the area
Requirements for the progress in the area
State of the art
Compounding review of the literature and their gaps * * *
Citations grouped by approaches
3. Gap Strategies
Unresolved conflict or problem among previous studies * * *
Restrictions in previous approaches * * *
Raising Questions * * *
4. Purpose Strategies
Indicating the main purpose * * *
Solving a conflict among the authors
Presenting a novel approach or methodology or technique * * *
Presenting an improvement of a research topic *
Presenting an extension of a previous author’s work *
Presenting an alternative approach *
Presenting a comparative approach *
Specifying the purpose * * *
Introducing more purposes *
5. Methodology Strategies
Listing Criteria or Conditions * * *
Describing materials and methods * * *
Justifying choices for materials and methods * * *
6. Result Strategies
Presenting results * * *
Commenting on the results * * *
7. Value Strategies
Stating the value of the work * * *