Exploring Teachers’ Beliefs and the Teaching Profession in Aceh

Formal teaching is an intentional activity that requires teachers to have beliefs and experiences. Teachers’ beliefs are defined by Johnson (1994) as something that is formed early in life as a result of a person’s education and experience. Strong beliefs about learning and teaching are well established by the time a student completes schooling. This study intends to find out the beliefs of teachers of English at junior and senior high schools in Aceh. The study surveyed three qualified teachers as participants (in which one is also a vice-principal of his school) and used 15 questions to ascertain their techniques, beliefs and career paths. The results show that teachers’ beliefs are related to the teaching methodologies that they use. According to the teachers’ beliefs, the teaching methodologies should be varied from time by time according to the situation and the curriculum. Besides, each participant has committed to a career in the teaching profession persistently despite facing many obstacles and challenges during teaching and learning. The participants dreamt of being teachers since they were children. The authors suggest other researchers might see applications of this research for studying the benefits and weaknesses of different teaching methodologies based on teachers’ beliefs.

The types and functions of code switching in a thesis defense examination

This study investigated the acts of code switching by lecturers and student in thesis defence examination at a university in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. The study involved five participants (four lectures and one student) of the English Language Department. Data from recordings were used to analyse the types and functions of code switching that occurred during the defence. The types of code switching were analysed based on Poplack, and the functions of code switching were analysed based on the theories by Gumperz, Hoffman and Holmes. The result showed that there were three types of code switching found in 109 examples during the interactions between the lecturers and the student, they were: intra-sentential switching (77.06%), inter-sentential switching (15.59%), and tag switching (7.33%). In term of the functions of code switching, 10 functions were identified from 68 switches, they were: addressee specification at 22.05%, followed by interjections (16.17%), loanwords (16.17%), message qualifications (11.76%), transfer of the subconscious markers (8.82%), proper names (8.82%), quotations (5.88%), message reiteration (4.41%), personalization versus objectification (2.94%) and specific features of Islamic terms (2.94%) as the least. It can be concluded that in this case, code switching allowed the participants achieve a wide range of important and interesting ends in their discourse during the thesis defence examination

STUDENTS' DIFFICULTIES IN UNDERSTANDING ENGLISH VOCABULARY DERIVATIONRN(A CASE STUDY AT PRIMAGAMA EDUCATION CENTRE BANDA ACEH)

This thesis is entitled "Student Difficulty in Understanding English Derivation" (a case study at Lembaga Pendidikan PRJMAGAMA Banda Aceh). It is aimed at identifying the students' vocabulary mastery based on kinds of affix in the derivation words in enriching vocabulary that is prefix and suffix. The population of the research is the senior high school students at Lembaga Pendidikan PRIMAGAMA Banda Aceh. The writer uses random sampling in choosing her sample. Method applied in this research is descriptive quantitative method .She takes 30 students out of the 227 students from IP A1 and IPA 2. In collecting the data, the writer uses a test as the research instrument. Theresult of study showed that the students get low score in mastering derivation words. There is no student who gets 100, while the highest score only 75. Generally, they got only 47.83 in mastering English derivation about prefix and suffix. in mastering the prefix, they only get 14 and suffix 33, 83. It shows that the prefix is the most difficult and the suffix is the easiest one

Students' difficulties in understanding englisl vocabulary derivation (A case Study at PRIMAGAMA education centre Banda Aceh)

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