A SOCIAL STRATEGY OF UNIVERSITY LEARNERS OF LOW-LEVEL SPEAKING PROFICIENCY

This study is to investigate the learning strategies applied by low-level leaners (LLLs), the results of which can be used as the basis for placing them in an English language speaking class. Specifically this study is to find an answer To what extent do low-level leaners use social strategies in learning to speak English?? Observation and an in-depth interview wereused to collect the data which were in the form of the subjects? spoken utterances (verbal behavior) and their accompanying actions (non-verbal behavior). The data were analyzed using the social language learning strategies (SLLS) proposed by Rebecca Oxford. Three universityleaners from the third semester who are of the same level of proficiency were selected as the subjects of the study. Results of the data analysis show that the LLLs do not use all social strategies in speaking activities. Based on what has been shown by this study, it is suggestedthat supportive teacher behaviors, i.e., building leaners? confident, giving motivation during the teaching, listening attentively to students while speaking, giving hints and encouragement, being responsive to student questions, creating natural setting and showing students empathy need to be provided in speaking class activities to explore leaners social strategies

Highly Proficiency Learners on Noticing Strategy towards Corrective Feedback

This study primarily aims at capturing the nature of how highly proficiency learners (HPLs) employ noticing strategies in processing the indirect corrective feedback. The results of this study can be adapted by others learners to apply the strategy used by HPLs in noticing corrective feedback so that they can improve their writing ability. To meet the goal, a study on the way highly proficiency learners notice indirect corrective feedback that focused on three language aspects, i.e., lexis, grammar, and content was conducted. Observation and in depth- interview were used as the instruments to collect the data. The subjects chosen were six students who have a good performance on their writing. This study revealed that the HPLs are able to employ various noticing strategies when they are processing the indirect corrective feedback. They seem more cognizant of the problems they encounter and more capable of taking an action to respond the feedback given. Some noticing strategies are identified to apply in processing the feedback that are suited on the nature of the problems, such as by making any comparison, connection, correlation, identification of error, recalling the past experience/ knowledge and self-inquiry. However, three aspects that often applied by HPLs are identification of error well, recalling the past knowledge and self-inquiry

LECTURERS’ STRATEGIES IN GIVING FEEDBACK TOWARDS STUDENTS’ THESIS WRITING: A CASE STUDY IN STATE ISLAMIC COLLEGE OF PONOROGO

The use of corrective feedback on students‟ writing is one of never endless issues to discuss and received huge attention from lecturers, thesis advisors and researchers. Various studies related to feedback have been conducted whether to find out its effectiveness, strength, and weaknesses or to improve the quality of students‟ writing. It cannot be denied that the way how advisors provide feedback plays an essential role to help students build their confidence to write and assist them to improve their writing. In accord to this, this research attempted to seek the light on how advisors make a use of feedback in writing and find out the factors the lecturers considered to provide feedback. To achieve these goals, this study employed qualitative case study as the research design involving three tenured lecturers in State Islamic College of Ponorogo as the research subjects. Data related to kinds of strategies used by the subjects in giving feedback and their underlying considerations were gotten by employing interview and document observation. The collected data were analyzed qualitatively to answer the research questions. This study revealed that the subjects‟ strategies in giving feedback varied and these were closely related to the targeted aims. Some strategies were identified, such as the use of corrective feedback using minimal marking and comment, reflective feedback by discussing some samples of students‟ errors and peer review. These strategies were occupied under certain condition regarding the students‟ need and proficiency level, types and amount of errors. Since the findings were beneficial to suggest how feedback was effective to apply, it is recommended for lecturers to adapt or adopt these feedback practices in order to help students improve the quality of their writing. Keywords: feedback, strategies, thesis writin

The Easy Way to Understand: BASIC ENGLISH GRAMMAR

This is the first edition book designed for those who want to understand Basic English Grammar easily. This book is also designed for them who want to learn grammar without being busy to memorize the patterns of grammar. The writer’s experience in teaching grammar concludes that the book used so far is so complicated, too broad and hard for the beginner students who focus on learning English in the first year in the college level. It is a reason for the writer to develop a simple grammar book that is easier to understand. The book does not require students to remember the pattern of grammar a lot, yet it is designed to ask students comprehend the grammar used in the context. As the purpose of learning grammar is not only to understand and memorize grammar, but also to help students able to write accurately using appropriate grammar, so this book provides some practices to develop students to write using correct grammar. Moreover, the writer also takes some theories, examples and exercises from the valuable books, so that the writer wants to say thank you for those books taken as the references. The writer is happy to finish this book as it is very beneficial and appropriate with the students’ needs and level. Moreover, The Easy Way To Understand Basic English Grammar becomes the writer’s first experience in writing an academic book

Establishing a WhatsApp Conversation: One of Innovations in English Language Teaching

This paper discusses the use of WhatsApp as one of current beneficial devices to assist students in communicative language learning. Based on the writer’s experience in teaching English for Specific Purposes at Information Technology Department, WhatsApp can increase students’ motivation in learning and it offers huge opportunities for them to share and take ideas in the target language to improve their knowledge. It allows them to engage actively in online conversation and create confidence to use English in daily communication through two forms of conversation such as independent and dependent conversation. The first type assists students to interact among themselves to discuss various interesting topics, whereas teachers are not involved in their online dialogues. The latter, however, requires teachers to guide the whole processes, and they are actively participating in the online discussion. This media can help students build their confidence and motivation to learn. Based on the questionnaire distributed to the subjects, it revealed that they felt confident, independency, enthusiasm, and having positive attitude to learn English using the application. Hence, WhatsApp is one of recent technologies that can be used in language teaching especially to motivate non-English major students to learn English. Keywords: whatsapp, conversation, English language teachin

Promoting EFL students’ critical thinking and self-voicing through CIRC technique in Academic Writing courses

Critical thinking and self-voicing are two demanding skills that facilitate students to produce concise, authorial academic texts. While most writing programs and research have paid much attention to improving students’ writing achievement, less attention is given to promote these two skills in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) writing classrooms. This article reports a classroom-based study investigating the use of the Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition (CIRC) technique to promote EFL students’ academic writing skills. It particularly examines how the CIRC technique helps to foster students’ critical and self-voicing stance in developing argumentative texts. A participatory qualitative study was employed, involving 64 undergraduate students majoring in English Education. Data were generated from the participants’ writing portfolios, observations, and the teacher’s reflections. The collected data were managed, classified, and analyzed using NVivo 12 to elicit the emerging themes. Drawing on the qualitative content analysis, the results showed that the CIRC technique helped to shape the participants’ critical thinking and self-voicing skills which were consistently demonstrated during the student-centered activities and their writing results. The participants could engage in productive writing processes, such as critical reading, note-taking, summarizing, drafting and revising composition, peer-reviewing, and other related collaborative skills. The findings indicated that the development of students’ critical thinking and self-voicing skills simultaneously affected the quality of their academic writing texts

WHAT UNIVERSITY-STUDENTS BELIEVE ABOUT PLAGIARISM

Plagiarism among academicians has been a popular issue in Indonesia for the last five years. Some people argue that plagiarism occurs due to pressure of work to get certain level of academic degree. Another opinion claims that it is due to incapability of writing an academic paper. Plagiarism is definitely unacceptable and not tolerated in any context. Writing an academic paper is about producing a masterpiece. An academic writing should be given a high appreciation to boost positive motivation for academicians to write and publish their research papers. A lot of efforts have been conducted by institutions to avoid plagiarism, such as giving academic writing lectures and citation training, and checking papers using plagiarism checker tools. However, plagiarism still has its popularity among academicians including students and lecturers. For this reason, it is interested to study how those academicians perceive plagiarism. We specify the study by subjecting the research for university student. We investigate students’ behavior towards plagiarism. Thirty-five students of a private university in Ponorogo, Indonesia are purposively taken as sample of the study and they are interviewed to gain the data. The results of data analysis are discussed with related literatures to draw the conclusions.&nbsp

Bridging the Gaps Between Students’ Prior Knowledge and Skills in Writing and the Expected Thesis Outcomes

This research aimed to seek the light on how the advisors made a use of feedback during supervisory panel and find out how different ways and types of feedback impacted on student-writers’ thesis outcomes. Qualitative study was applied by involving three tenured lecturers at College of Islamic Studies, in Java as the research subjects. Two data collection techniques were applied, such as interview and documentation, to trace evidence on what types of feedback used, how students noticed, and how they impacted on subsequent drafts. This study revealed that indirect feedback using error codes and commentary was the most frequent form used during the advisory session. However, the mere use of feedback could only serve a short-term impact on the development of writing, and even it seemed only to spoon-feed them which could create burdens in writing. It was quite evident that engaging them in such self-regulated and interdependence group works, through problem-solving discussion and peer review, was much worthier as compared to only ask them to process the feedback themselves