THE PROBLEMS OF EAR LEARNERS AND EYE LEARNERS IN WRITING ACTIVITIES

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background In learning English, there are four skills that should be mastered. They are listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Writing class is a productive skill in learning English. For students, it is a difficult skill for learn and it also different from spoken language. There are some roles that the student have to pay attentions on it. On website www.language123.blogspot.com (2008) the writer states that writing is more difficult than any other skills. For these statements, he states the three reasons to answer the questions. First, writing requires good grammar. Second, people are often known to spend less time to write than to listen, to speak and even to listen. The last is, when students of English as a foreign language write something, they have a big question in mind whether what they write is correct or incorrect. It means that writing is a complex activity. It needs more concentration and analysis to create a good writing. Writing is a kind of academic activity. In academic purposes, writing plays important role, in this case, the writers read some articles about writing for academic purposes and ear ad eye learners and their error in writing. As we know, in the world there are three types of English learner; Firs Language, Second Language, and Foreign Language that learner acquire the language in diversity of teaching learning process. Some English as the Second Language (ESL) students learns English primarily with their eyes and also with their ear. Ear

learners mean learners who learn English by their auditory. Whereas eye learners mean the learner who learn English by course.

B. The Reason Choosing the Topic As we know that writing is a difficult skill for students to learn. For Ear and Eye Learner of course they also have the difficulty in writing. We know that Ear learner learn English by following course, and usually this kind of learners are the learner who study abroad and learn the language by hearing. And the Eye learner, they learn English by their auditory. Thats why the writer wants to discuss what are the problems that Ear Learners and Eye Learners face in writing activities.

C. Theory As one of the fourth skills, writing became one of the difficulty skill that be draded by the students. In writing the learner should master the grammar in order to make their writing good. Besides that, in writing the learner have to have more knowledge about the topics that they want to write. Then, the learner who are foreign language learner, doubt in writing wether their written is correct or incorrect. Writing is useful to make sure that learners are involved in meaning focused used, languagefocused learning, and fluency development ( Nation,I.S.P, 2009). In writing activities, the learner actually can develop their knowledge. The learner can tell anything through their experience. There are some activities in writing according to Nation, I.S.P, (2009); experience tasks, shared tasks, guided tasks, and independent tasks. The fourth tasks activities in writing, can help the students to develop their knowledge in writing.

Bruthiaux, et al ( 2005 ) notes, that Ear learners are the students who typically second-generation US residents, whose first language is not English but who aspire to attend college. Then, Eye learners, are the learners who learn by reading the texts, graphs, instructions, and others are typically international students who are well-educated in their first language and have learn English in foreign language class that focused on grammar, vocabulary, and language rules.

D. Problems According to the background and theory above, the writer formulate the problem in this paper as The problems of Ear learner and Eye learner in writing activities.

CHAPTER II DISCUSSIONS

From the background of knowledge above, it can be derived that writing is a problem that faced by the ear and eye learners in their activities. Joy Reid ( 2006) called generaton 1.5 students ear students, more familiar with speaking and listening. They may have learned English primarily orally/aurally, and may have fossilized errors. Theresa Jinling Tseng (2004) noted a student who thought the phrase first of all was actually first able because the student had never written nor read the phrase. International students might have been educated primarily with written texts in which case Reid called them eye students. These eye students might be well versed in grammar rules and reading, but without experience in naturally occurring oral grammar and vocabulary, they may transfer words and grammar from their first

language. For both kinds of learners, teachers need to point out that there is a gap between what the student produces and what is normally accepted in English. It should be noted that Reid stressed her categories are generalizations and there are many variations of them. Some English as a Second Language ( ESL) Students learn English primarily with their eyes. That is, they study English in textbooks and learn the grammar and vocabulary of English before they speak the language. There eye learners may understand the rules of English grammar well, but they may have some difficulty speaking the language fluently. Many other students are ear learners. That is, they have learned English primarily through their ears, by listening to the language-with friends, on television, or even at school. However, this spoken English is not exactly the same as written English, especially formal academic written English. Because of that, in writing process there are several criteria that should be filled by students to master grammar as well, students must also have a lot of knowledge in any case so it can be poured through writing. In the learning, students should be able to understand and use formal writing in English writing. For the " ear " learners , they will find difficulty in writing, because what they hear is not necessarily in written correctly and completely. For examples such as writing the following sentence: " I want to go to campus " this sentence would sound like " I wanna go ta the campus, not only that, the use of the verb can be "ear" learner also wrong in writing it when he heard. In writing, the suffix of the verb that determines the timing of the activity is also very important. It could be that they hear an example of the irregular verbs that also have time to form different words, of course, will also make it difficult for them to write back. And even harder when someone is talking and not

using a good emphasis on every word spoken, and the listener does not hear well what was said, it would also affect the writin. In contras, the " eye " learner, because they learn by seeing the grammatical, of course they are very good in writing. But the problem here is when they are asked to pronounce it, just the possibility of errors in pronunciation . We can see the difference from the " eye " learner is referred to here as the International English Language Learner and " ear " learner said as Resident Home Language Learner. The difference can be seen from several factors: First , the Language Learner. International English Language Learner often called eye learners because their knowledge of English has come primarily through textbook study may never been fully immersed in English-speaking environment may be overwhelmed byy the cognitive, psychological, and emotional demands of immersion. Wehreas the Resident English Language Learner, often called ear learners because much of their language is learned through immersion in English-speaking envirinments may only speak first language at home with family, may be fully bilingual. Second, Writing and Reading. Third, Grammar Knowledge. Here, eye learners may know many formal grammar rules, may be skilled at taking language test, may not be able to apply rules consistently, will probably make frequent mistakes. And ear learners may have knowledge of formal rules of grammar, they have more intuitive sense of what sounds right, they may be better able to generate alternative phrasings than their international counterparts. Fourth, Listening and Speaking. For eye learners, Listening comprehension may be limited at first, and for ear learners may occasionally have trouble understanding or producing spoken language but able to quickly overcome the barrier. The last is, Educational Culture, eye learners may come from a culture in which students critical contributions are unusual or even

frowned upon and ear learners more familiar and comfortable with the bahaviors and expextations of U.S educational culture. CHAPTER III CONCLUSSION

Actually, for many English learners learning to write fluently in English is much more challenging than learning to speak fluently. But for some, writing is seems difficult. To write, learners have to know much about the grammar and the rules. They should master it first. Also, the students have to have much knowledge about what are they want to write. There are some reason why the learners think that writing is very difficult. First, grammar is the important things that will be required in writing. Second, usually someone spend a lot of time to write because of the lack of vocabulary and grammar rules. The last is, there is a doubt in writing process correct or incorrect in the written. We know that learner who are study abroad will categorized into eye learners and ear learners. Here the different between eye and ear learner is significant. Eye learner is the learner who are called International English Language Learner. They know English by textbook study. While ear learners are called as Resident English Language Learner because they know much their language through immersion in English-speaking environments like family environments where the learners use their first language. The problems rise for the two of learners when they have writing activity in the classroom. Eye learner can write perfectly because they learn English by using textbook, but if they try to pronunce the words, the mistakes will be happened in sounds.

In contrast, ear learners are more difficult in writing activities. They learn English by hearing, and when they write something, they may be have some mistakes in their writing such as the spelling, the ending of verb, then the writing of tense. So, in short, eye learners and also ear learners always have the problems in writing activity if the way of learning does not change.

REFERENCES

2008.

Writing

is

the

most

difficult

skills.

http://language123.blogspot.com/2008/04/writing-is-most-difficultskills.html Eye Learners versus Ear Learners: Understanding the English Language Learners in your College Classroom.

https://www.lakeforest.edu/live/files/1918-ellcharteyevsearlearners101413pdf Bruthiaux, et al. 2005. Directions in Applied Linguistics: Essay in honor of Robert B. Kaplan. Great Britain: Crowell Press Ltd. Nation, I.S.P,. 2009. Teaching ESL/EFL Reading and Writing. Routledge : New York Reid, J. (2006). Eye learners and ear learners: Identifying the language needs of international student and U.S. resident writers. In P. K. Matsuda, M. Cox, J. Jordan, and C. Ortmeier-Hooper (Eds.) Second-Language Writing in the Composition Classroom. New York: Bedford/St. Martins. Tseng, T. J. (2004). Theoretical Perspectives on Learning a Second Language. In S. Bruce & B. Rafoth (Eds.) ESL Writers: A Guide for Writing Center Tutors. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook Publisher. http://maree704.blogspot.com/2012/03/ear-learners-versus-eye-learners-in.html