Analysis of validity and reliability of English formative tests

This study was conducted in order to analyze the English formative tests made by the English teacher of grade VIII of SMPN-4 Mentaya Hulu based on the characteristics of a good test. The indicators to be analyzed were validity and reliability of the test. The validity covered the content and construct validity. The writer applied descriptive method in conducting this study. The population and sample of this study was the English teacher-made tests for the grade VIII of SMPN-4 Mentaya Hulu in the first semester of academic year 2008/2009. The writer analyzed 2 English formative tests as the representative of all English formative tests in the first semester of academic year 2008/2009. Based on the result of the data analysis, the writer found that the English formative test conducted on October 2008 belongs to high validity in its content validity and excellent validity in its construct validity. The English formative test conducted on November 2008 belongs to low validity in its content validity and high validity in its construct validity. While the English formative test both conducted on October 2008 and November 2008 are unreliable

Improving writing ability through cooperative learning strategy

The objective of the study was to improve the students’ writing ability in writing English class using Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition (CIRC) model of Cooperative learning strategy. The study employed Classroom Action Research (CAR) design. The subjects of the study were the fifth semester students of the English Department of Malang Muhammadiyah University. The numbers of the subjects were 5 students. The study was conducted in two cycles with 4 steps of classroom action research procedure: planning, implementing, observing and reflection. Each cycle had two meetings. The result of the study showed that Cooperative learning strategy with Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition (CIRC) model was effective to improve the students’ writing ability that could be seen from the improvement of the students’ writing achievement

Improving reading comprehension through directed reading-thinking activity (DRTA) strategy

This paper highlights the findings of a study which was undertaken at Islamic State College of Palangka Raya. The aim of the study was to describe how the Directed Reading Thinking Activity (henceforth DR-TA) strategy can improve reading comprehension. The data were taken from observation, field notes, questionnaire, and achievement test. The result reveals that the DR-TA not only improves students’ comprehension but also increases their motivation in learning.

The effects of contextual meaning aspects on reading comprehension

The study is aimed at investigating the effects of contextual meaning aspects on reading comprehension, and finding out whether or not there is effect of reading proficiency, consists of low and high, on reading comprehension and effect of contextual meaning aspects together with reading proficiency on reading comprehension. It was used experimental design in this study. The data were processed and analyzed according to these steps: giving the treatment, checking and scoring, tabulating, analyzing the data by using statistic technique of ANOVA, and making the conclusion based on the analysis. The number of the sample was 34 students of the students of English education study program of Palangka Raya University. The findings show that example clues considered as the easiest and appositive clues as the most difficult of three context clues in this study. Based on the result, it can be concluded that there is significant effect for contextual meaning aspects and reading proficiency on reading comprehension; however, there is no significant effect of contextual meaning aspects together with reading proficiency on reading comprehension

Appropriate writing assessment, how do we do it properly?

This paper describes the assessment upon the 3rd semester Business Administration students’ writing work of State Polytechnics Samarinda. Results show that there are weaknesses done by the English lecturer of this Polytechnics in evaluating his students’ work: 1) Instructions given to his students were not clear for examples: how many pages or how many words they had to write, resulting in a very short paragraphs, a very long paragraph written by students, 2) criteria of assessment were not clear, reflected by his own judgment and interpretation in form of words like: good, fair, excellent; 3) Students were not given a feedback on what they had written in form of the first draft and neither were they told to rewrite the first draft for final product.

The effectiveness of picture chart media on students’ English vocabulary

The study is aimed at investigating the effectiveness of using picture chart media on students’ English vocabulary. The study belonged to pre-experimental study by applying counterbalance procedure to collect the data. The study was conducted at the class VII-5 at the SMPN 1 Palangka Raya. The number of the sample was 40 students. This study was restricted to focus on teaching vocabulary especially in classification of vocabulary. To answer the research problem, the t test for correlated was applied. The research findings showed that teaching vocabulary by using picture chart media gives effect toward the seventh grade students’ English vocabulary. The mean score of posttest reached higher score than the mean score of pretest (X=57.105 Y=84.79). Meanwhile, t test formula using manual calculation showed that the t observed was 15.036. By comparing the t observedwith the t table, it was found that the t observed was higher than t tableat 5% level significance or t observed =15.036 t table =2.021