Towards Teachers’ Communicative Competence Enhancement: A Study on School Preparation for Bilingual Programs

This research is a preliminary study of an empirical research aimed to develop an English training model to enhance teachers’ communicative competence in bilingual schools. This preliminary study aims to give a description of the schools’ background and preparation to run bilingual programs, teachers’ background and experience in teaching using English, and the challenges related to communicative competence which are faced by teachers inside and outside the classrooms. This study was a qualitative study and the data were collected using semi-structured interview, open-ended questionnaire, and focus group discussion. This study involved 54 teachers and 5 school principals. The results of the study revealed that the schools under this study were under the category of additive bilingual education; the teachers in the bilingual programs were English and non-English Department graduates; and the challenges faced by the teachers were mostly related with their teaching experience and educational background. The findings of this study will be useful to recommend teacher trainings as a part of teachers’ professional development

STUDENTS‘ PERCEPTION ON THE USE OF REFLECTIVE LEARNING PORTFOLIO IN TEACHING WRITING

This study aimed at investigating students’ perception on the use of Reflective Learning Portfolio (RLP) in teaching writing. This study, which followed the case study design, was conducted in a class of 31 students at a university in Indramayu, Indonesia. During one semester, the reflective learning portfolio (RLP) was used as the treatment to teach writing. Questionnaire and interview were given to students to express their perception to the use of reflective learning portfolio in their classroom. The result of the study  shows that most students believed reflective learning portfolio give positive impact on their writing. The reflective learning portfolio involves learners in a process of continues reflection on their work and collaboration with their peers and lecturer which has focus on selective evidence of learning that makes students become involved in self-evaluation and begin to monitor their own progress over time

The effectiveness of writing techniques in improving students’ writing ability with different self-esteem

Identifying appropriate writing techniques to help students with different self-esteem improve their writing ability needs to be considered by educators. This study attempted to examine the effectiveness of two writing techniques, Reflective Learning Portfolio (RLP) and Dialogue Journal Writing (DJW) in improving the writing ability of undergraduate students with different self-esteem. A quasi-experimental design was employed in this study. The participants of the study were 62 undergraduate students from a private university in West Java, Indonesia, which were divided into two groups that received different treatments, RLP and DJW techniques. A set of questionnaires to measure students’ self-esteem and writing tests were utilized to collect the data. Data from questionnaires were analyzed by using Likert Scales. Data from pre-test and post-test, to know the effectiveness of RLP and DJW was administered by using a paired t-test. The finding revealed that the writing performance in RLP class was significantly better than in DJW class. In other words, RLP is more effective in teaching writing to students with different self-esteem. The use of explicit teaching, peer feedback, and teacher feedback in RLP class could have caused the RLP technique to be more effective in improving the students’ writing ability compared to the DJW technique.

Investigating the Effects of Reader Response Journals on the Quality of Teacher Trainees’ Responses to Literary Works

The present study investigated the effects of writing reader response journals (RRJ) on the quality of responses to literary works assigned. The study is underpinned by Rosenblatt’s Reader Response Theory, literacy principles, and sociocultural views. The study assumes that readers’ responses to literature involve critical and aesthetic reading-writing (literacy) events that are collaboratively constructed.  The study involved an intact group (N=22) comprising EFL teacher trainees of a private education college in Ciamis, Indonesia, taking Literature Criticism subject. This time series pre-experimental study entailed repeated measurements of critical reading and assessments of aesthetic responses before and after the treatment. Before the treatment, New Critics’ conventional text-based teaching strategies were given. Findings of the study suggest that, quantitatively, as ANOVA proved, the use of reader response journal gave effects on the constantly better achievements, and, as the Paired t-Test indicated, the treatment resulted in better quality. Additionally, qualitative evidences revealed from observation, interviews, and document analysis showed better quality of the trainees’ aesthetic experiences reflecting varied reader response strategies. The study recommends further studies develop reader response-based literature teaching model across contexts in reference to gender issues

Pre-service EFL Teachers' Conceptions of Assessment During Their Teaching Practicum

Teacher education programs across the globe include a practicum as a required part of their curriculum. The practicum is also viewed as a gateway between theoretical and practical aspects of teaching, enabling prospective teachers to acquire the specific skills and approaches they will need in the classroom. Teaching practicum also provides pre-service EFL teachers with the opportunity to put their assessment knowledge into practice. During the teaching practicum, pre-service EFL teachers may encounter extraordinary changes. This study reports on their conceptions of assessment during the teaching practicum. Some contextual factors shaping their conceptions are also observed. By utilizing a mixed-method study, this study adopted a model of participant selection. In this case, the quantitative method is carried out before the qualitative method. The quantitative data was used to identify participants for the qualitative portion of this mixed-methods study. The results showed that the participants agreed that the main objective of an assessment is to enhance the process of teaching and learning and to validate the students’ and schools’ accountability. Some factors, such as school assessment culture, national assessment policy, and classroom reality, are revealed as contextual factors influencing their conceptions of assessment during their teaching practicum. The findings imply that governments, policymakers, and curriculum developers must collaborate with educators to achieve common goals. The national and school assessment policy must be created in a manner that avoids conflict between pre-service EFL teachers’ beliefs and practices. Keywords: conceptions of assessment; teaching practicum, pre-service EFL teacher

Ideational Meanings of Teachers' Utterances in Reading and Writing Classes

This study is aimed at describing the ideational meanings of teachers’ utterances  in Reading and Writing classes. It reveals what processes, participants and circumstances are found in the teachers’ utterances. The data were taken from the Reading and Writing classes conducted at a university in Semarang city. The data were collected by video recording the teaching and learning processes in Reading and Writing classes, then they were analyzed by segmenting the utterances into clauses; identifying the process, participants, and circumstances; classifying the processes, participants and circumstances based on their type; and interpreting the data. The results showed that the processes mostly found in the teachers’ utterances in  Reading class are relational ones  with carrier and attribute as participants, the second are mental processes with senser and phenomenon as the participants,   while in those of Writing class are material with actor and goal as participants and the second are  relational with carrier and attribute as participants. Relational processes are dominant in Reading class because the teacher explained many terms or vocabularies found in the text to make the students really understand them. That material processes are dominant in Writing class is caused by the fact that in Writing class the teacher often asks the students to do some actions like writing or doing something

The Effect of Hybrid Task-Based Language Teaching and Critical Thinking on Writing Performance in Indonesia

This study aims to describe the effect of hybrid task-based language teaching and critical thinking skills on writing performance among Indonesian learners. This study employed experimental research with a factorial design. The participants were Indonesian undergraduate learners majoring in an English program. The instruments used were critical thinking questionnaires and writing tests in the genre-based writing course. The results of the study showed that hybridtask-based language teaching was effective for improving EFL learners’ writing performance. Also, it revealed that learners with high critical thinking achieved better writing performance than learners with low critical thinking after being taught by hybrid task-based language teaching. The results indicate that hybrid task-based language teaching and critical thinking have a significant effect on EFL writing performance