Deductive or Inductive Technique: An Experimental Study on the Academic Writing of the Sixth Semester Students of Semarang State University

Most scholars tend to say that teaching is an art meaning that there is artistry in the way lecturers associate with students in order to foster their understanding. However, teaching is also considered to be science since based on certain research, there are some strategies or techniques to be effective in enhancing learning. In this paper, the writer investigated the superiority of the teaching technique whether it is deductive technique or inductive technique for the teaching of academic writing. Two classes of the sixth semester students of the English department of State University of Semarang (Unnes) were taken as samples each of which consisting of 30 students was given different treatment, inductive and deductive technique. The result shows that the t-value of inductive is 1.390 and the t-table is 0.683 and the tvalue of deductive is 8.092 and the t-table is 0.683. From the result of the t-test, it shows that the t-value of deductive is higher than the t-value of inductive and compared to the t-table, the t-value of deductive is more significant than it is in inductive strategy. Thus, it can be concluded that deductive technique is more effective than inductive technique applied in the teaching of academic writing. Therefore, it is recommended that in teaching academic writing lecturers may elaborate more in using deductive technique than in using inductive technique. The lecturers may start from giving the concept or rules and explain them in detail then gives the students examples and then ask them to practice by following the rules.