University students’ self-efficacy: A contributing factor in TOEFL performance

Self-efficacy is one of the often-underestimated factors, which in fact, has an influence in determining human action. This study aims to find out the correlation between self-efficacy and the TOEFL performance of the students in two universities in Banda Aceh, namely Syiah Kuala University and Serambi Mekkah University. This study employed the correlational design to find out the correlation between the two main variables (self-efficacy and TOEFL performance). The sampling technique used in this study was the stratified sampling method with a total sample of 200 university students, both English, and Non-English majors. Furthermore, to collect the data, two instruments were used, namely the self-efficacy questionnaire and the TOEFL test. In analyzing the data, Pearson’s Correlation was used to find out the correlation. The result shows that there is a positive and low correlation between university students’ self-efficacy and their TOEFL performance (r=.249). Despite the correlation is low, self-efficacy is still considered to contribute to the TOEFL score. Therefore, it is suggested that TOEFL instructors consider the variable of self-efficacy in their teaching. Furthermore, it is expected that future research continues this study by enlarging the sample size in different levels of education and in different areas

The Importance of English in The Development of The Tourism Sector in Banda Aceh

This study aims to find out how important the use of English is in developing the tourism sector in Banda Aceh and to find out how English is currently used in the development of the tourism sector in Banda Aceh. The research method used a mixed-method design. The research participants were the leaders and staff at the Banda Aceh City Tourism Office, Kana Tour and Travel, MU Wisata Tour and Travel Company, and Awa Tour and Travel which consists of 30 people, they are 4 leaders and 26 staff. This study used questionnaires and interviews as the instruments. The formula used to analyze the questionnaire data was the percentage formula from the Likert scale, and the interviews results were done through data transcription. After collecting data, it was found that based on the questionnaire answers of the staffs (at Banda Aceh City Tourism Office and Travel Agencies), the results of using English in the development of the tourism sector in Banda Aceh reached 93% which were considered important, and only 7% were not important. Meanwhile, currently in the tourism sector in Banda Aceh, English was also very important to use. These results are based on the interview answers of the leaders (at the Banda Aceh City Tourism Office and Travel Agencies). But the reasons for using it were different, such as making tour packages, providing tourism information, managing travel documents, interacting with international customers, carrying out activities in their respective fields, and working with other relevant agencies

Using The Group Investigation Technique in Teaching Reading Comprehension

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of Group Investigation Technique (GIT) for teaching reading to second grade students of private high school in Pidie Jaya. An experimental design was used and the data were collected through a test as the instrument. Two sets of tests (pre-test and post-test) in the form of multiple choice items were administrated. The population of this study was all the second grade students of the school, and two classes were taken as samples, one for the experimental class (EC) and one for the control class (CC), with 36 students in EC and 32 students in CC. The findings showed that the GIT used for teaching reading improved the reading comprehension scores of the students concerned. The EC students had higher reading scores (=77) than those from the CC (=64). The reading abilities of the students in the different classes were different as indicated by the z-score. The z-score showed that the result of the z-count was 4.29, while the result of z-table at the level of significance 5% (α=0.05) was around -2.04+2.04. This means that the z-count was higher than the z-table (4.29-2.04+2.04). Therefore, the alternate hypothesis was accepted and the null hypothesis was rejected. In other words, it was concluded that the students taught with GIT got better results in reading than those who were taught using the standard individual reading activity method. English teachers are suggested to apply this technique in teaching reading

PODCAST: An alternative way to improve EFL students’ listening and speaking performance

This article aims to view the impacts of using podcast in improving listening and speaking performance. As there is a trend of using ICT in language teaching growths, the authors intend to discuss about the media that can be used in enhancing students’ ability in listening skill and speaking performance. The authors collected the information related to the topic of this article from several sources such as, books, journal articels, and previous studies. From these sources, it can be concluded that podcast can bring many benefits in teaching listening and speaking for EFL learners

Pre-Service English Teachers’ Perception towards Online Assessment Method

This study aims to figure out pre-service English teachers’ perception towards online testing system. In this study, the writers employed questionnaire to collect the data, and it was distributed to a total of 82 English Department students in Banda Aceh and Langsa City, Aceh. The questionnaire was developed based on a relevant previous study’s questionnaire, and in this study, the questionnaire itself was conducted in Google form consisted of 13 questions that asked about the university students’ perception about online test. Then all obtained data were analyzed by using percentage formula. The findings indicate that63% or 55 respondents have positive perception toward online assessment. On the other hand, the negative perception goes to the other 37% or 27 respondents.     

WHITEBOARDS IN PEDAGOGICAL SETTINGS: LEAVE IT OR USE IT?

Purpose of the study: This study aimed at finding out the efficiency of traditional whiteboard use in classroom settings. It is known that there are a lot of advancements in teaching and learning tools, including the means of whiteboards which can be altered by using projectors. Methodology: This study was mainly under the qualitative design where the authors mainly weighed the data reliability on the quality of the respondents’ responses through the open-ended questionnaire set. There were 177 senior college students involved as the respondents, who volunteered to fill out the questionnaire set about the effectiveness and efficiency of whiteboard use in classroom settings. The data gathered from the questionnaire were then analyzed using percentages to see the students’ agreement on the statements in the questionnaire set. Main findings: The results indicate that students still perceive that whiteboards—despite its traditionalism—help assist their learning process. Applications of this study: However, there are several points that teachers need to justify concerning the whiteboard skills namely general writing ability including handwriting legibility, setting-up ability, making optimum use of whiteboards, and cleaning up compliance. Novelty/Originality of this study: This study takes into account the efficiency of conventional whiteboard uses in the globalized era. Although a lot of kinds of digital whiteboards and projectors are in use, students still consider that the use of conventional whiteboard is still necessary

SELF-EFFICACY AND MOTIVATION CONSTRUCT: AN INSTRUMENT DEVELOPMENT

This study aims to develop a questionnaire as the valid and reliable instrument to measure the students’ self-efficacy and motivation in learning English. The development process in this study was based on the theory of the two main constructs (self-efficacy and motivation). The writers employ cognitive interview to create some adjustment and/or adaptation to fit the Indonesian learning and process context, and pilot tested to a group of students. The product of this study is a ready-to-use questionnaire that is considered appropriate in Indonesian context. Further research is suggested to check the validity and reliability of thisinstrument in other contexts

POMODORO TECHNIQUE ANALYSIS IN ZOOM-BASED CLASSROOMS

This study aimed at finding out students’ state of motivation, engagement, and time management when Pomodoro teaching technique is implemented in ZOOM-based synchronous classroom. This study is naturally qualitative as it investigates the data from students’ during online learning as individual experiences. There were 53 freshman students from various majors involved in this study who had to attend ZOOM classroom for General English Course from August to December 2021. Ten meetings with the implementation of Pomodoro were carried out. In carrying out Pomodoro technique, the students were given break-time for 5 minutes in every 25-minute learning session. Afterwards, the students should answer the questionnaire consisting of 30 statements asking about motivation, engagement, and time management. Once the data collected, they were analyzed using Interactive Analysis (data reduction, data display, and data verification). The results uncover that, regarding motivation, 33 students had positively-oriented motivation; then in term of learning engagement, 40 students were actively engaged with online learning activities given; and concerning time management, 32 students had good time management. This result apparently implies thatnon-physical meeting—which lecturers probably presume that less stress is employed—demands regular break as well. Thence students can still learn efficiently and effectively

Self-Efficacy of the University Students’ TOEFL Performance: Differences in the Test Skill and English Skills in TOEFL

This study aimed at reporting differences in terms of the university students’ TOEFL self-efficacy in the test skill and the English skills tested in TOEFL namely listening, structure, and reading. In conducting the study, the explanatory sequential mixed method was used as the study design, where the quantitative data from the survey was conducted first followed by the follow-up interview as the qualitative data. To collect the data in this study, a specifically designed self-efficacy questionnaire of TOEFL was distributed to the total sample of 200 university students across different disciplines from Syiah Kuala University and the University of Serambi Mekkah. The interview was then conducted with 3 selected students to have a deeper understanding of the study result. In terms of the data analysis, one-way ANOVA and t-test were used to describe the quantitative data, while the qualitative data was described and elaborated in words with detailed explanations. The result showed that there was a significant difference among the test skill and the English skills in TOEFL, where F= 13.61 (3, 796), p<0.05. The result also revealed that within the gender, only reading skill had a significant difference, where t198= -2.003, p <. 005, and within the language course participation, all the test skills and TOEFL skills were significantly different as the p-value of each skill was smaller than .005 (p< .005)