USING A FACEBOOK CLOSED GROUP TO IMPROVE EFL STUDENTS’ WRITING

This study investigates how social media, in this case Facebook, can be incorporated in ELT through e-dialogue journal writing shared in a Facebook closed group. Fifteen EFL students participated in this case study. They were second, third, and fourth year students of English Education Department of a university in Bandung, who voluntarily joined a Facebook closed group for about four months and contributed their journal entries. The content of the students’ journals and responses in this closed group were analyzed to identify the nature of the students’ journals, the patterns of interaction, and their responses to e-journaling through Facebook. The findings indicate that the students responded positively to this activity and perceived improvement in their writing especially in vocabulary and grammar. The power of learning and sharing from others is also emphasized.Â

SFL analysis: An investigation of students’ use of cohesive devices in exposition text

The 2013 Indonesian Curriculum stipulates that one of the students’ basic competencies in the English subject is to produce an analytical exposition text. The students are required to write the text persuasively and cohesively. These requirements make them consider composing such a text as a challenging task. This study investigated students’ utilization of cohesive devices in writing analytical exposition texts and examined their inaccurate uses. It attempted to demonstrate the underlying issues that caused the inaccurate uses of cohesive devices and to seek the solutions. The study employed Qualitative Content Analysis (QCA) of six analytical exposition texts written by 11th grade students in Cimahi. They were collected using purposive sampling and were analyzed using Halliday and Hasan’s cohesion framework. This study revealed that lexical cohesion served as the most frequently used cohesive devices in the students’ texts followed by reference and conjunction. Inaccurate uses of cohesive devices were also found. Most of the reference and conjunction devices were misused, whilst repetition devices were redundantly utilized. These findings showed that although the students were skilful in presenting relevant supporting arguments and making their text personal, they still experienced confusion when utilizing cohesive devices. Therefore, teachers need to equip the students with adequate knowledge concerning text cohesiveness as well as to provide more practice and feedback to improve their skills in writing an analytical exposition text

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF MENTOR COACHING ON PREPARING TEXT-BASED LESSON PLAN BY STUDENT TEACHERS

This paper will present the result of the study aimed at investigating the impact of online mentor coaching strategy on the process of making Text-Based Lesson Plan by student teachers using Edmodo. The participants were students who are going to conduct field practice in the following year. The study was descriptive qualitative in nature and the data were obtained from the observation, documents (students’ lesson plan) and interview. The result showed that the student teachers responded positively on the use of Edmodo because of its flexibility. They prefer consulting through Edmodo because it enhances their confidence and their final Lesson Plan can be implemented well during the micro teaching

REFLECTIVE PRACTICE AS TOOLS TO EXPLORE IN-SERVICE TEACHERS’ BELIEFS AND CLASSROOM PRACTICES: INDONESIAN EFL TEACHERS’ VOICES

Reflective practice is widely acknowledged as the most effective means to create effective teacher who wants to have better understanding of their works. It has been explicitly stated in western academic teacher education curriculum due to its significant impact on constructing life-long learning for teachers. However, this beneficial contribution of teachers’ professional development is not growing within the context of English as a foreign Language (EFL) teaching. Accordingly, this descriptive qualitative research aimed at (1) investigating teachers’ beliefs in teaching and learning English by utilizing reflective tools, and (2) attempting to identify whether or not their beliefs are implemented in their practices in which the reasons will also be explored. The data were gathered through interviews and classroom observations as the main source. Three English teachers were investigated to elicit their beliefs about teaching and learning. The findings showed years of teaching experiences and past experiences as a learner are the most arisen theme in which the initial facet strongly affects the way they perceive teaching, and the latter occurrence theme indirectly shape the teachers’ beliefs. As regards to the relation of their practices and their stated belief, however, not all of their beliefs were implemented in the classroom due to several factors such as the students’ factors, time-constraint, and the school obligations

Digital literacy practices in tertiary education: A case of EFL postgraduate students

Over the past few decades, technologies grew rapidly, transforming traditional instructions to be more digitalized and stimulating many researchers to study digital literacy practices in a school-educational context. However, studies exploring digital literacy practices in the context of tertiary education are still scarce. Within the qualitative approach, this study investigated digital literacy practices by EFL (English as a Foreign Language) postgraduate students. Moreover, it intensively discusses the kinds of digital tools used by the participants and the purposes of using them. Additionally, the way the participants conceptualized digital literacy was also elaborated. Thirty-four EFL Master students of a public university in Bandung, Indonesia, participated in this study. An online open-ended questionnaire and semi-structured interviews were applied in data collection. Meanwhile, eight dimensions of digital literacy in the Hague and Payton’s frameworks were used as the basis of the thematical analysis of the interview data. Results showed that the participants conceptualized digital literacy as soft skills for managing digital information covering the acts of searching, comprehending, evaluating, creating, and sharing. The prominent result of this study relates to how the participants used digital tools for academic/research and general purposes. Subsequently, this study recommends that tertiary education institutions provide more training on maximizing digital tools for academic writing and broader access to prepaid journal articles. Further exploration of lecturers’ digital literacy practices is highly recommended.

INDONESIAN TERTIARY STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE USE OF LOCAL CULTURE VS TARGET CULTURE READING MATERIALS IN ENGLISH READING CLASS

This paper aims at portraying Indonesian tertiary students’ attitudes towards the use of local and target culture reading texts in English reading classes with regard to today’s role of English. It has been widely recognized that today’s role of English is as an international language (EIL) and as a lingua franca (ELF). Regarding this international role of English language, ideally teaching and learning English should be matched with appropriate pedagogical approach, in this case, EIL pedagogy approaches. In other words, teaching and learning EIL should be different from teaching and learning of any other second or foreign languages. Since Indonesia is categorized as an EFL country, it is interesting to find out whether this issue has an impact on ELT practices such as English reading class in this country. The subjects of the study are first year English Education Department students. The data were gained by delivering Likert scale questionnaire to the students on their attitude towards the reading materials given to them in one semester. In addition to this, an interview was conducted to verify the data and gain further information. The findings revealed that in general they show positive attitude to both local culture and target culture reading materials, with the majority of them prefer reading target culture reading materials. Furthermore, a considerable number of the students also acknowledge the importance of the use international culture along with English language teaching

Vocational school EFL teachers’ practices of integrating ICT into English lessons: Teachers’ voices

Despite numerous studies on ICT-ELT integration, little is known about how English teachers in vocational schools in Asia and particularly in Indonesia integrate ICT into their English lessons. To fill this gap, this study aims to investigate how vocational English teachers integrate ICT into their English teaching practices in vocational high school settings. It specifically examines vocational high school English teachers’ reasons for using ICT, the ways the English teachers integrate ICT into their English lessons, and their perceptions of benefits and challenges of incorporating ICT into English classrooms. Guided by a case study design, three EFL teachers teaching at vocational high schools where ICT tools were readily available were recruited to participate in the study. Empirical data were collected through interviews and classroom observations. It was found that the teachers were self-motivated to use ICT in their English lessons due to their interests and positive attitudes towards ICT. This study also showed that the English teachers integrated ICT into their English lessons for different reasons. All the teachers agreed on the benefits of ICT-ELT integration to facilitate their learning and teaching process. They also shared the same view on the challenges they encountered when using ICT tools in the classroom. They voiced the need for training on ICT in ELT. This study highlights the importance of school support so as to promote ICT-based language teaching by providing adequate technology access and facilities as well as professional training in ICT for language teachers

REFLECTIVE PRACTICE AS TOOLS TO EXPLORE IN-SERVICE TEACHERS’ BELIEFS AND CLASSROOM PRACTICES: INDONESIAN EFL TEACHERS’ VOICES

Reflective practice is widely acknowledged as the most effective means to create effective teacher who wants to have better understanding of their works. It has been explicitly stated in western academic teacher education curriculum due to its significant impact on constructing life-long learning for teachers. However, this beneficial contribution of teachers’ professional development is not growing within the context of English as a foreign Language (EFL) teaching. Accordingly, this descriptive qualitative research aimed at (1) investigating teachers’ beliefs in teaching and learning English by utilizing reflective tools, and (2) attempting to identify whether or not their beliefs are implemented in their practices in which the reasons will also be explored. The data were gathered through interviews and classroom observations as the main source. Three English teachers were investigated to elicit their beliefs about teaching and learning. The findings showed years of teaching experiences and past experiences as a learner are the most arisen theme in which the initial facet strongly affects the way they perceive teaching, and the latter occurrence theme indirectly shape the teachers’ beliefs. As regards to the relation of their practices and their stated belief, however, not all of their beliefs were implemented in the classroom due to several factors such as the students’ factors, time-constraint, and the school obligations

SELF-DIRECTED FEEDBACK: AN ATTEMPT TOWARDS LEARNER AUTONOMY IN WRITING

This paper aims to investigate the application of self-directed feedback in a writing classroom in terms of how it may affect their skills in writing and the students response to it. The study was conducted in one of public high schools in Bandung, taking nine students of a science class as the participants. It employs a case study which is using interview and document analysis as the data collection techniques. The findings show that after the inclusion of self-directed feedback in four drafts, the students managed to have a progress in terms of organization, vocabulary, mechanics, and grammar in the process of writing a report text. The awareness of their own progress also indicates a trait of an autonomous learner. Most of the students saw self-directed feedback as a worthy technique to be used again in the subsequent lessons. As a conclusion, self-directed feedback is proven applicable in the writing classrooms as it functions as a step in making students acquire strategies of learning autonomy. For further research, it is suggested that self-directed feedback is included in a set of a self-monitoring strategy rather than one exclusive technique