ISLLAC : Journal of Intensive Studies on Language, Literature,

Art, and Culture

Volume 3 Issue 2, 2019

Journal homepage : http://journal2.um.ac.id/index.php/jisllac

WRITING PROBLEM IN THE SECOND LANGUAGE: JOURNAL OF TAIWAN

BEGINNER BIPA STUDENT
Kasmia*, Anang Santoso, Nurchasanah
Universitas Negeri Makassar
Universitas Negeri Malang

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

This study aims to determine the ability to write BIPA
Article history: students from Taiwan at beginner level. Before attending BIPA
Received: 26 Sept 2019 learning, they experienced difficulties when writing. Based on
Accepted: 29 Oct 2019 the placement test, the results of their abilities are beginner
Published: 19 Des 2019 level. This research needs to be done because of the increasing
interest of Taiwanese students to learn Indonesian. By
Keyword: conducting research, it can provide reference materials in
BIPA, Beginner Student, making curriculum, teaching materials, and materials for BIPA
Writing Ability, Taiwan students from Taiwan for beginner level. In this study using a
type of descriptive qualitative research that examines
Taiwanese students who are studying BIPA at the Institute of
Mathematics and Natural Sciences, State University of Malang.
The results of this study have found data that shows the
writing ability of beginner-level BIPA students from Taiwan.
Data shows that BIPA students from Taiwan have been able to
write sentences using three structural variations, namely 1) S-
P, 2) S-P-O, and 3) S-P – OK. Based on the results of the study,
it can be concluded that BIPA students from Taiwan level
beginners have the ability to write basic sentences with three
different structures but the SP structure that is most
understood and can be used in writing well. In addition,
severalarise problem in the learning process, namely 1) the
influence of the first language and 2) minimal mastery of the
language structure.

INTRODUCTION
Writing is a difficult ability in learning Indonesian (Samosir, 2018). This is based
on the lack of understanding of students about good writing (Nurlina, 2015; Yarmi,

*Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: [email protected] (Kasmia)

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182 | ISLLAC : Journal of Intensive Studies on Language, Literature, Art, and Culture
2014). Although students know the language well, but students have difficulty when
conveying ideas in written form (Adas, D., & Bakir, 2013). Difficulties in writing learning
are also experienced by students from various languages, such as English (Meladina,
2019), German (Abrams, 2019), Japanese (Okuda, 2019), Korean (Kim, 2017), Chinese
(Cumming et al., 2018) and Dutch (Vandommele, Van den Branden, Van Gorp, & De
Maeyer, 2017).
Learning Indonesian in recent years has caught the world's attention (Bueraheng,
2017; Madlateh, 2018; Paduka, 2017; Wirawan, 2019). This can be seen from the
growing development of Indonesian language learning for foreigners or better known as
Indonesian for Foreign Speakers (BIPA). Until now, many BIPA programs have been
developed domestically and abroad by universities. high education and course
institutions. This is due to the increasing number of foreign nationals who are interested
in learning Indonesian.
One of the countries that helped show the interest of its citizens in Indonesian is
Taiwan. As reported on the official Language Agency website that in 2018 the
Indonesian Language Proficiency Test (UKBI) has been held nationally at the National
Taichung Campus Language Center University of Science & Technology (LC-NTUST),
Taiwan. This proves that BIPA has become increasingly favored by the people of Taiwan
and has been supported by the policies of President Tsai Ing-Wen who implemented the
policy of the South. With hope, Taiwanese people will increasingly recognize and learn
Indonesian as one of the foreign languages that is important for the business relations of
the two countries. Because it is a country that has recently shown interest in Indonesian,
it can be said that Taiwanese are mostly as beginner level.
The variety of written languages is one of the important components in
Indonesian A good and correct writing variety will make it easier for the recipient to
understand the intent of the writing delivered. If the writer does not really understand
the good and correct writing variety, there will be misunderstanding of meaning by the
reader. That is what causes the variety of writing to be important to be studied further
so as to facilitate language learners to produce writings that are in accordance with the
General Guidelines for Indonesian Spelling (PUEBI).
The structure in the Indonesian writing range consists of Subject (S), Predicate
(P), Object (O), and Complementary (Mop). Functions in the sentence are in the form of
subject, predicate, object, complement, and explanation (Sasangka, 2014). The structure
that must exist in one sentence is the Subject and Predicate. In a sentence not always the
five syntactic functions are filled, but at least there must be subject and predicate filler
constituents (Alwi, Dardjowidjojo, Lapoliwa, & Moeliono, 2010).
Second language Acqusition (SLA) is divided into two (1) first language
acquisition and (2) second language acquisition. First language acquisition is a language
that is obtained for the first time or a mother tongue that is acquired unconsciously.
Mother tongue is a linguistic system that is first learned naturally from a mother or
family who cares for a child (Chaer & Agustina, 2004). Most of the first languages of
Indonesian children are the local languages (Chaer and Agustina, 2004). Second
language acquisition is a language that is obtained consciously. Further explained by
Gass & Selinker (2008), SLA is the study of how students create a new language system.
The new system is intended as a new understanding of the second language or target
language.
Adults have two different ways of developing competence in a second language
(Krashen, 1981). First, language acquisition is a process that coincides with the way
children develop abilities in their first language. Second, in developing competencies in

183 | ISLLAC : Journal of Intensive Studies on Language, Literature, Art, and Culture
the second language can be done by learning languages. In acquiring a second language,
children use their understanding and produce speech in accordance with the results of
their thinking (Susanto, 2016).
Research on writing BIPA students has been conducted by several researchers
(Anjarsari, 2013; Meladina, 2019; Nurlina, 2015; Nursafitri, 2011; Siagian, 2017). The
results of the study show that the ability of BIPA students often occurs in errors in
spelling, morphology, semantics, and syntax. These studies focus on one level for writing
skills from two countries, namely Thailand and the USA while this study uses samples
from Taiwanese students. The new Taiwan country shows its interest in Indonesian.
That is why research on Taiwanese students is still lacking.
Based on the background described, the research on the problem of writing in the
Second Language: Beginner BIPA Journal of Taiwanese Beginners needs to be done. this
research can be a BIPA teacher's reference in making teaching materials that are in
accordance with the characteristics of errors that are often carried out by Taiwanese
students. This is a follow up to ideas that have been reviewed previously (Darsita, 2014;
Edelsky, 1982; Widawati, 2010).
This study examines the acquisition of the structure of Indonesian written
sentence BIPA students from Taiwan at the beginner level. The results of the study will
make it easier for BIPA teachers to form teaching materials for Taiwanese BIPA
students. The results of the research can also be used by the researcher then as
reference material.

METHODS
This research is a descriptive qualitative approach. This study was designed with
a type of text analysis research. The researcher collected data from two BIPA students
from Taiwan. They are students who are following the learning process at BIPA Malang
State University. Indirectly, this study also wants to see how many structures can be
mastered well by students at the beginner level stage. Before learning BIPA, the
institution manager first tests them through a placement test. The placement test aims
to determine the students' initial abilities before their placement class is decided. Based
on the results of the placement test they are in the beginner category. Students are
decided to take part in learning in the beginner class.
Data began to be collected from January to March. Data collected through
observation of student journals. The research data that has been obtained will be
processed and described based on the main problem of the research, namely the
acquisition of the structure of the Indonesian written sentence of BIPA students from
Taiwan at the beginner level. The researcher also interviewed the instructors in the
BIPA class to learn more about students' abilities from the teacher's perspective.
Data analysis in this study will be carried out with a structural approach. The
structural approach is generally carried out in the stages of reduction, presentation of
data, and conclusion. In particular, a structural approach is used to analyze sentences
based on their structure.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Data analysis produced several findings. From the results of the study it was found
that BIPA students from Taiwan at the beginner level were able to compile basic
sentences with the structure of S-P, S-P-O, and S-P-O-Ket.
Characteristics of Taiwanese Student Sentences
1. S-P

184 | ISLLAC : Journal of Intensive Studies on Language, Literature, Art, and Culture
 At the beginning of learning it is known that students have little knowledge of
Indonesian about oral variety. When writing practice, students have difficulty
conveying ideas in sentence form with the correct structure of basic Indonesian
sentences. They tend to use a variety of oral sentence structures. The thing that is
emphasized is the opposite of speech can understand student speech.
In the first week, the acquisition of a simple sentence structure in the form of S-
P went well. They understand the structure of the S-P without significant confusion.
The results of their writing began to be dominated by the S-P sentences that students
arranged briefly. Several times students often include point words. Sentences that
have S-P structure are so easily written by students. Subject constituents are
occupied by FN, while predicate constituents are occupied by FN, FV, FA, FNu, and
FPrep.

Table 1: Results of the acquisition of the basic sentence structure SP

No. Sentences
1 Today is my holiday.
2 I can write.
3 I am very happy.
4 I am 24 years old.
5 My campus is in Taiwan.

The data in table 1 explains that beginner-level BIPA students have the ability
to make SP-structured sentences. The majority of sentences written by students
meet the subject and predicate structure. Table 1 shows that the sentences have an
S-P structure. The constituents occupying the S function are FN. In the sentence (1) -
(5), the subject function is occupied by FN. The difference from the five sentences
with the SP structure lies in the constituents who occupy the predicate function.
Sentence (1) hasconstituents today's which are FNs as predicates. The sentence (2)
has aconstituent writing which is FV as a predicate. Sentence (3) has aconstituency
very happy which is an FA as a predicate. Sentence (4) has aconstituent 24-year
which is a FNu as a predicate. Sentence (5) has a constitution in Taiwan which is a
Fprep as a predicate.
2. S-P-O
sentence structure In addition to the minimum sentence structure in the form
of SP, the next sentence structure is an S-P-O. From the results of the analysis on the
data, the structure of the S-P-O sentence is found in the essays of BIPA students. The
presence of the O function is largely determined by the verb form that occupies the P
function. The transitive verb requires the presence of O, while the semitransitive
verbs are manasuka. The following is an example of a quote.

Table 2 The Results Acquisition S-P-O Basic Sentence Structure

No. Sentence
1 My friend really liked learning Indonesian.
2 I have a good teacher.
3 You take a cake.
4 Mother Teacher brings a book.
5 Mr. Mitra waits for us.

185 | ISLLAC : Journal of Intensive Studies on Language, Literature, Art, and Culture
 In table 2 shows that BIPA students have mastered the S-P-O structure. The
presence of the O function is mandatory because the verb form that occupies the P
function requires the presence of O to complete the sentence. All sentences in table 2
become incomplete and unacceptable if O is not present. Verbs that occupy the
predicate function in sentences 1 to 5 are transitive verbs so that sentences become
meaningful and can be understood when O is present. Sentence 1 has three
constituents, namely my friend as a subject, very fond of predicate, and Indonesian
language learning as an object. Sentence 2 has three constituents, namely me as a
subject, having a predicate, and a good teacher as an object. Sentence 3 has three
constituents, namely you as a subject, taking as a predicate, and a cake as an object.
Sentence 4 has three constituents, namely, Mother Teacher as a subject, carrying it as
a predicate, and book as an object. Sentence 5 has three constituents, namely Pak
Mitra as the subject, waiting as a predicate, and we as objects. These five sentences
are well understood by the students.
At the beginning of learning the S-P-O sentence structure, students experience
confusion. They are familiar with the structure of the sentence S-P at the previous
meeting. Students also experience confusion when meeting transitive verbs. In their
understanding, all predicates must be followed by objects to convey the meaning of
the sentence properly. They also experienced confusion about the use of transitive
verbs and intransitive verbs. Students sometimes swap between the two. After trying
several times with practice writing basic sentences with the S-P-O structure, they
have shown progress. Even though he still seemed hesitant when writing his verb.

3. S-P-O-Ket
Structure found in the basic sentence group is S-P-O-Ket. The structure
appears in essays written by BIPA students. Here is an example.

Table 3 Results of Acquiring Basic Sentence StructureSPO-Ket

No. Sentence
1 I keep the cat is happy.
2 I also have pets at home.
3 My classmates cook good food in cooking classes.
4 The teacher explained about Indonesian culture this morning.
5 Indonesian friends always smile beautifully every morning.

The data in table 3 shows that after students are able to meet the demands of
the presence of objects, students have also been able to add information to complete
the information in the sentence. Writing sentences by adding object structure makes
students more confused. They think without the information structure, the sentence
is well understood. In addition to the difficulty of writing information in basic
sentences. Students also often accidentally use their first language sentence patterns
(Mandarin) when writing sentences. The structure of the mandarin sentence which
has three position placement statements makes them often unconsciously write
sentences by adding information following the Chinese sentence structure.
The sentence 1 consists of four constituents, namely me who occupies the
function of the subject, maintains who occupies the predicate function, cat occupies
the function of the object, and happily occupies the information function. If in the
previous sentence structure the description of the method has not yet appeared, in
the S-P-O-Ket structure, the method description has been used by the student. The

186 | ISLLAC : Journal of Intensive Studies on Language, Literature, Art, and Culture
 sentence 2 consists of four constituents, namely me who occupies the function of the
subject, also has who occupies the predicate function, a pet that occupies the function
of the object, and in a house that occupies the information function. Sentence 3
consists of four constituents, namely my classmates as a subject, cooking as a
predicate, good food as an object, and cooking class as a statement. In sentence 3, the
position of the information written by the cooking class made them confused. The
word cooking wants them to add more objects to follow it. This is based on their
understanding that cooking is a predicate.
Sentence 4 consists of constituents, namely the teacher as a subject, explains as
a predicate, about Indonesian culture as an object, and this morning as a description
of time. The addition of several types of information gives a little confusion. They
asked if this morning could be replaced by writing a clock. Another question that
arises is whether time information can be omitted in this sentence. If when the time
statement is omitted, it will change the meaning of the sentence. Their questions on
learning the structure of the S-P-O-K sentence are so many. This makes the S-P-O-K
structure material more difficult for them to understand.
Sentence 5 consists of four constituents, namely Indonesian friends as subjects,
always smiling as a predicate, beautiful way of explanation, and every morning as a
description of time. In sentence 5, their confusion is increasingly visible. The
sentence becomes chaotic in its preparation. The examples they write are in
accordance with the written language so that they are confused when turning them
into written languages. The structure that is truly well-written is only S-P.

Problems in Learning Taiwan Student Writing Skills Taiwanese

Students who have studied Indonesian are written. There are several problems in
the learning process at the beginner level. these problems are divided into two points,
namely 1) the influence of the first language and 2) the lack of mastery of the second
language.
Indonesian language is the second language of Taiwanese students. The first
language is Chinese. Indonesian language skills are still very limited at the beginner
level. When learning Indonesian, the first language influences the preparation of oral
and written sentences. Written sentences unconsciously follow the pattern of the first
language sentence. This happens because the first language is embedded in their brain.
The following are some comparisons of Indonesian sentences as a second language and
Mandari as the first language quoted in student journals.
Table Comparison of Indonesian and Chinese Sentences
No. Indonesian Sentences Mandarin Sentences
1. My friend goes to campus by grab My friend every day is less than 20 minutes
at 7 minutes less every day. at 7 hours and the grab goes to campus.
2 I used to teach 1 year on campus. I used to be on campus teaching one year.
3 Next month my teacher wants to Next month the teacher wants to buy a book
buy a textbook. study.
Next month's teacher wants to buy a book
study.
4 Indonesian Tutors are my friends. That teaching English teacher is my father.

In sentence 1 the first language influence or interference occurs. Sentence 1

should follow the Indonesian sentence pattern. Based on journals, students write like
Chinese sentence patterns. The simple sentence pattern of the Mandari language is

187 | ISLLAC : Journal of Intensive Studies on Language, Literature, Art, and Culture
 where does the fairy go? So the sentence became a grab ride to the campus. In the
sentence the pattern of Indonesian sentences goes where to go up? So the sentence is to
go to campus on a grab.
In sentence 2, there is the influence of the Chinese sentence pattern. The
structure of the Indonesian sentence is Ket + S + P + O. The sentence structure in the
journal S + Ket + P + Ket + O. The sentence pattern in Chinese adds 'ket' between S and P.
Then 'ket' returns after P. The sentence patterns that are quite complex and very
different sometimes confuse students and are affected without their knowing it. This is
also due to the lack of mastery of the sentence structure of the Indonesian language. In
Indonesian grammar, the verb + in + place so that the sentence becomes teaching on
campus. In Chinese sentences, the pattern is in + place + verb so the sentence becomes on
campus teaches.

CLOSING
Conclusion
BIPA students from Taiwan at the beginning of their arrival have taken a
placement test before being decided on the student level. Understanding and
experience in writing is difficult for students. That causes the results of the placement
test to illustrate that students will be placed in the beginner's class according to their
ability rating. After participating in the learning process for three months, the data
obtained according to the ability of students. BIPA students from Taiwan at the
beginner level have the ability to write three sentence structure patterns in their daily
journals, namely 1) basic sentence structure SP, 2) S-P-O basic sentence structure,
and 3) S-P-O-Ket basic sentence structure. These three structures are well understood
but in writing activities, only the first structure is mastered very well. The second
structure starts to show confusion. The third structure makes them very confused.
Addition and subtraction make them longer when writing. This gives an illustration
that the ability of the beginner level - low still lies in the ability to write is limited to
daily needs. These three structures are well understood but only the first structure is
able to be used well in written language. Thus, this study provides an overview of the
general abilities of BIPA students from beginner-level Taiwan. In addition, there are
several problems experienced by students in following the learning process in the
classroom. The problems that arise are 1) the influence of the first language and 2)
the lack of mastery of the second language structure.

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