Network Technology, Marketing And Independent Schools In Educaton Experience

Pada masa sekarang, banyak organisasi dan perusahaan terus menerus mencari cara yang inovatif untuk memasarkan produk mereka serta mencari target market baru. Dalam hal ini, siswa merupakan bagian dari masyarakat yang ternyata masih juga belum seluruhnya dimanfaatkan sebagai target market. Berikut empat cara sederhana yang umum dilakukan dalam memasarkan sebuah produk secara efektif kepada mereka antara lain menawarkan mereka secara langsung sebuah produk, membujuk mereka untuk membeli sebuah produk, menentukan target yang tepat sampai kepada memberikan pendekantan yang tepat pada grup tersebut. Bagaimana informasi disampaikan sangatlah cepat berubah dari industrial production model menjadi decentralized production model yang difasilitasi oleh munculnya teknologi network yang murah. Komponen-komponen yang menyertai dari model baru ini meliputi sarana publikasi seperti blog atau twitter, sarana media social seperti Facebook dan masih banyak lagi yang memungkinkan individu untuk menciptakan, berbagi, memanfaatkan serta mengevaluasi sebuah informasi dengan lebih cepat dan dapat diakses dengan cepat juga. Dalam paper ini, penulis akan membahas tiga perubahan utamadalam mnsyarakat sebagai dampak dari production model, serta bagaimana tiap perubahan tersebut berdampak pada paradigma pemasaran di dunia modern ini. Kedua, penulis juga akan menghubungkan perubahan-perubahan tersebut pada lingkungan sekolah sebagai communication environment yang berakhir pada pemberian rekomendasi kepada sekolah yang tidak hanya untuk direspon, akan tetapi juga mengambil manfaat akan keberadaan teknologi sebagai bentuk pendidikan kepada siswa. Kedua, penulis akan menghubungkan perubahan terhadap lingkungan komunikasi pada sekolah yang tidak terkait, dengan memberikan beberapa masukan nyata bagi sekolah untuk tidak hanya menjawab, tetapi juga untuk mengambil keuntungan dari teknologi dan memimpin dalam bidang pendidikan

Using Students’ Authentic Writings to Teach an Apprenticeship Report

An Apprenticeship Report as one of the obligatory products that students of Business English of Politeknik Ubaya have to produce becomes an important requirement since, during the writing process, it also involves the company where the students undergo the apprenticeship in their last semester. Having examined their writings, I found quite troublesome linguistic accuracy in their writings. Due to these most frequently occurring errors, I was finally triggered to make use their authentic writings as my teaching sources. Then, to follow up, I intentionally collected their works to be selected to be the teaching sources as I believed that bringing authenticity in the classroom produce positive feedback and substantial language learning (Reid, 1993: 177). Therefore, in this paper, I discussed further about the use of authentic materials and approaches in teaching writing using authentic materials. To obtain information whether authentic materials gave positive responses from the students or not, a set of questionnaire was distributed to them in all stages; pre-, whilst-, and post-writing. Overall results have shown positive responses from the students as they were exposed to their seniors’ authentic writings and experienced authentic-materials-based activities which I designed purposely for them

ENGLISH PROFICIENCY OF HOTEL FRONT-LINERS: WHAT AND WHY?

English proficiency for hotel front-liners is paramount in giving excellent service for the guests. 60 seconds in the beginning of interaction leave the first impression for them. Therefore, oral communication skills play a significant role as a part of a must have competence for front-liners. This study was triggered by initial findings at some hotels in Surabaya where there was a discrepancy between hotel leaders’ perception and real English proficiency of their front-liners. The hotel leaders perceived lower than the passing grade of the hotel and urgency of upgrading   their competence emerged. Two research questions should be answered: (1) WHAT level of the front liners’ English proficiency was, and (2) WHY they experienced difficulty when facing foreign guests. To answer the questions, a descriptive qualitative research employing a case study approach was conducted. The 3-star hotel consisting 20 participants was involved. Test of Business English Communication Competence Version 2.0 (TBECCv.2.0) was given to participants. TBECCv.20 was an ESP test created and developed for front-liners. After running the test, an online questionnaire was disseminated and interviews were also conducted for triangulation. Results revealed that the score range of 50-59 received the highest percentage; 40% which showed their English proficiency needed to be upgraded. Reasons of difficulty handling the foreign guests were due to (1) L1 interference, (2) educational background, (3) less English exposure, (4) the absence of ESP test at recruitment process. The study recommended further study for other categories of hotel and the staff professional development was recommended as well

ESP TEST FOR HOTEL FRONT OFFICE: IS IT A NEED?

Expatriates staying in hotels in Surabaya have indicated vast growing in number. Critical question is “how is the staff’s language competence to cope with this?” To make it sure, approach to hotel leaders and staff should be done for further investigation. Thus, this study examines (1) hotel leaders’ perception towards the hotel front officers’ English proficiency, (2) the need of English for Specific Purpose (ESP) test for hotel front office staff and (3) effort done to ensure good command of English of front office staff. For the purpose, a qualitative study employing a case study was conducted involving ten hotels and hotel leaders as well as front office staff. Source of data was derived from results of questionnaire, Focus Group Discussion (FGD), and interviews. Actual needs on front officers’ English proficiency information were obtained from three ways; job-search websites, institutional e-mails and interview with hotel leaders. Results showed that specific English test to measure English proficiency for front office tasks did not actually exist since hotel leaders merely counted on the general interview during their recruitment process. Perceptions on their front office staff’s English proficiency were still below the passing grade for all type of hotels. To establish an ESP test for front office staff, Target Language Use (TLU) for Speaking and Writing can be broken-down into the followings:  18 were extracted as TLUs for speaking and 7 items were extracted to serve as TLUs for writing. Finally, based on the obtained TLUs, 14 questions for speaking and 5 questions for writing were constructed for suggested ESP test for hotel front office staff

THE DESIGN OF TBECC (TEST OF BUSINESS ENGLISH COMMUNICATION COMPETENCE) FOR FRONT OFFICE STAFF IN HOTEL INDUSTRY: A CASE STUDY OF HOTELS IN SURABAYA, INDONESIA

Competition among hospitality industries in Indonesia has come to inevitable battle and, therefore, they must strengthen their front-liner staff for exemplary service due to the fact of the increasing numbers of hotels every year particularly in Surabaya, the capital of East Java Province and its role both for tourism and business. The role resulted in wave of expatriates coming to Surabaya and therefore strong English communication is considered important. Initial survey showed that specific English test for Front Office (FO) staff recruitment in hotels did not exactly exist. For this purpose, a qualitative research employing a case study approach was conducted. The research involved 8 hotels in Surabaya and 40 participants comprising hotel leaders and FO staff. The important stages were conducted such as conducting Focus Group Discussion (FGD) with hotel leaders, distributing a set of questionnaire to Front Office leaders and staff, as well as enhancing clarity and confirmation through interviews. From those stages, the writer formulated the Target Language Use (TLU) of Front Office Division as basis to construct the Test of Business English Communication Competence (TBECC). Results showed that at least 18 of 26 items were extracted as TLUs for speaking and 7 of 10 items were extracted to serve as TLUs for writing. Finally, based on the obtained TLUs, 14 questions for speaking were constructed and for writing test, 5 questions measured competencies such as filling a guest detailed form, writing a confirmation letter, welcome letter and email of coordination, as well as replying a complaint and writing a thank you email to guests. Finally, recommendation to involve more hotels that receive a huge number of foreigners as their guests was also given

Pronunciation errors produced by preschool x teachers

Preschool teachers have a very significant role and great influence towards their students’ second language acquisition. They put the basic foundation of English and sounds are firstly introduced during the period. Due to the fact that the students are in their golden period, pronunciation accuracy must be emphasized. This ought to be the main concern for the teachers to prevent them from fossilization and errors which can hinder communication in the future. Therefore, being a good model of English pronunciation is the key. Unfortunately, facts on pronunciation errors produced by preschool teachers were found in the initial observation of this study. The errors eventually triggered the writer to seek much deeper information in regard with those preschool teachers’ pronunciation errors. This study aimed to investigate: (1) features of errors the teachers were prone to, (2) sources of errors, and (3) efforts the teachers did to overcome the errors. Employing a case study design, the participants involved were 50 preschool teachers from three different branches in Surabaya, Sidoarjo and Malang, East Java. They all work for the same foundation with different of working experience and native language. 40 individual words drawn from their syllabus were prepared. The teachers were asked to pronounce those prepared words and their voices were recorded. Contrastive analysis and phonological analysis were applied to analyze the data. To triangulate, this study provided a 29-item questionnaire and an interview. This study also referred to two models of pronunciation namely Standard Southern British (SSB) and General American (GA) and both models employ the International Phonetic Alphabets (IPA) for phonetic transcriptions. Results of the study revealed that participants were prone to errors to six types of consonants, three long vowels, two diphthongs, and two types of word stress. Those errors were mainly caused by interlingual and intralingual transfers. Further, the study also revealed efforts the participants did to overcome pronunciation difficulties: consulting friends, looking up on printed dictionary, and checking from online dictionary on internet. Finally, on the basis of the findings, some suggestions were provided in this study. The suggestions consisted of building more awareness on their roles as pronunciation model for students, improving knowledge and skills on English pronunciation and options for teacher professional development

Using Students' Authentic Writings to Teach an Apprenticeship Report

An Apprenticeship Report as one of the obligatory products that students of Business English of Politeknik Ubaya have to produce becomes an important requirement since, during the writing process, it also involves the company where the students undergo the apprenticeship in their last semester. Having examined their writings, I found quite troublesome linguistic accuracy in their writings. Due to these most frequently occurring errors, I was finally triggered to make use their authentic writings as my teaching sources. Then, to follow up, I intentionally collected their works to be selected to be the teaching sources as I believed that bringing authenticity in the classroom produce positive feedback and substantial language learning (Reid, 1993: 177). Therefore, in this paper, I discussed further about the use of authentic materials and approaches in teaching writing using authentic materials. To obtain information whether authentic materials gave positive responses from the students or not, a set of questionnaire was distributed to them in all stages; pre-, whilst-, and post-writing. Overall results have shown positive responses from the students as they were exposed to their seniors' authentic writings and experienced authentic-materials-based activities which I designed purposely for them