Placement Test as an Attempt to Better Help Students in Learning a Second/foreign Language: an Interview Report

Assessment is an essential part in teaching and learning process as it usually provides opportunities both for teachers and students to learn. In the context of second or foreign language teaching, assessment is usually conducted to elicit information regarding students\u27 second language ability. This paper reports and analyzes the results of an interview with a university lecturer in Central Sulawesi who was once involved in the construction of a test to place students in different classroom levels. Although it is apparent from the analysis that there are several weaknesses found in the placement test viewed from the six qualities proposed by Bachman and Palmer (1996), there are other essential aspects that need to be learned from the results of the interview by second or foreign language teachers in other teaching contexts

AN ANALYSIS OF LECTURER TALK DURING TEACHING AND LEARNING PROCESS OF ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Researching teacher talk during teaching and learning process of English is essential because it offers practical implications for the improvement of teaching and learning process.  However, there are still few studies which try to compare types of talk used by lecturers who teach content and skill subjects. This research investigates the types and the dominant types of lecturer talk during the teaching and learning process at an English Education Department. The participants were two English lecturers at a private University in Malang who taught Vocabulary (skill subject) and Poetry (content subject) classes. The researchers used an audio recorder to record the utterances by the lecturers. The data were analyzed qualitatively by using FIAC (Flanders Interaction Analysis Category). The types of lecturer talk produced by the lecturer who taught Vocabulary were Ask question, Give direction, Give lecture, Accept or use students’ idea, Praise or encourage, and Criticize or justify authority. The types of lecturer talk produced by the lecturer who taught Poetry were Give lecture, Ask question, Accept or use students’ idea, Give direction, Praise or encourage, and Criticize or justify authority. The most dominant types of talk produced by the lecturer who taught Vocabulary were Ask question and Give direction but Give lecture was the most dominant types of talk produced by the lecturer who taught Poetry. This finding indicates that types of course taught by lecturers affect the kinds of talk produced by the lecturers

Perancangan Sistem Informasi Untuk Perawatan Dan Perbaikan Modul Pratikum Berbasis Web

Microprocessor and microcontroller laboratories are type III laboratories that are in the electronics engineering study program majoring in electrical engineering, this laboratory serves the activities of student practices for microprocessor system courses, microcontroller systems and interfaces I and II and very large scale intergration (VLSI) programmable logic devices and programmable electronics. Laboran as manager and person in charge of the laboratory, every month submits reports on equipment support facilities and practice modules made manually to the head of the laboratory. Every day the laboratory staff must examine all equipment activities one by one such as computers and practice modules to find out the latest conditions. Seeing the problems above, we need a system solution that can provide fast, accurate, complete and integrated information as a whole. The purpose of this study is to produce an information system design for maintenance and repairs to microprocessor and microcontroller laboratories. The method used in this study analyzes the current system to create a conceptual model so as to produce a database diagram. Next, the design of the display includes the design of the application interface such as the reporter display, laboratory performance reports etc. To further maximize laboratory use and quality teaching and learning is expected that students, lecturers and staff will also participate by reporting damage to supporting facilities at the microprocessor and microcontroller laboratory

The Effectiveness of Problem-Based Learning in Improving Students’ Writing Descriptive Text in Vocational School

One of the problems in teaching English to students in vocational high schools is how to make the students more active, creative, and critical. An alternative teaching method that can be used by teachers is Problem-Based Learning (PBL). The objective of this study is to investigate whether the use of PBL provides a significant effect on the students’ writing descriptive text. This study used a quasi-experimental design which was conducted at a vocational school in Malang. The participants of this study were class X Office Administration 1 as the experimental group consisting of 23 students and class X Office Administration 3 as the control group consisting of 23 students. The researcher gave pre-test and post-test and compared the participants’ writing scores in the control and experimental groups by using an independent sample t-test. The result of the post-test indicates that the students in the experimental group achieved a higher mean score than those in the control group on writing descriptive text. The statistical analysis reports that there was a significant difference in scores between the two groups (t = 6.99, p < 0.05). This finding indicates that PBL can be an effective method for teachers in teaching writing descriptive text

The use of Think-Talk-Write (TTW) strategy and its effect on the tenth grade students’ ability in writing descriptive text

Common problems that EFL learners face in writing are lack of vocabulary, limited grammar understanding, and idea development. An alternative teaching strategy to help them alleviate these problems is a Think-Talk-Write (TTW) strategy. This study investigates whether the use of the TTW strategy along with audio-visual media gives a positive effect on the students’ descriptive writing ability. Forty-six tenth grade students at a private senior high school participated in this study, and they were divided into experimental and control classes, each consisted of 23 students. The experimental class was taught by using a TTW strategy, and the control class was taught by using a Mind Mapping (MM) strategy. Pre-test and post-test were administered before and after the students received the treatments. The data were analyzed quantitatively. The result of the pre-test shows that there was no statistically different writing score between the two groups of students (t = .58, p > .05). However, a significant difference in scores between the two groups emerged for the post-test (t = 4.42, p < .05). This result suggests that the TTW strategy combined with audio-visual media can be an effective strategy that can be used by English teachers in teaching descriptive writing

PELATIHAN BERBAHASA INGGRIS DENGAN DRILLING DAN REPETITION BAGI KARANG TARUNA DESA JEDONG

From the result of situation analysis and partner’s problem, pengabdi (society service) team gives a solution to enlarge the opportunity for karangtaruna (youth association) to be accepted to work upon the graduation of Vocational High School. The solution is formulated in the form of a workshop and coaching for karangtaruna members (youth association) to practice English verbal proficiency by drilling and repetition method. At the end of this society service, the results are (1) Positive response and enthusiasm from youth association in Jedong village Wagir district. (2) Improved awareness of the benefit of English verbal proficiency. (3) Willingness to take a risk in participating. (4) Improved glossary, grammar, pronunciation,and spelling of verbal English and not ambiguous. (5) Improved chance to listen to native speaker’s voice recording. (6) Improved chance to practice verbal English in the monologue (self-introduction), in pairs and mingle (talking in turns with all participants in a dynamic and fun/not boringatmosphere. (7) Learning media with mp3 native speaker voice recording becomes available. (8) Youth association members can be facilitated to listen to native speaker’s voice recording, imitating and independent self-practice in their spare time. (9) Online webs become accessible to browse and download learning media files for future learning after this society service comes to its end. Keywords:Drilling and Repetition, Improving Verbal English Proficiency

SYMBOLISM USED IN SIKKA KROWE’S WEDDING CEREMONY OF MAUMERE, EAST NUSA TENGGARA

A symbol is an object that represents an idea, image, visual, belief, action, or material. They are used to convey ideas and beliefs. This means symbol can give the direction for those in choosing certain tools that are used to get their mission. Here, symbol is the expression of a thing that cannot be signed with the right sign. Symbols are alive as long as they have the meanings. Every place in Indonesia has its own culture. One of them is Sikka Krowe’s culture of Maumere, East Nusa Tenggara. Sikka Krowe is the special call for one of the ethnic groups in Maumere. It is in Sikka regency area. Sikka itself is the name that refers to a small traditional village known as Sikka Natar (Kampung Sikka). Krowe refers to people in countryside from Nele (west of Sikka regency) to Tanah Ai (east of Sikka regency). Therefore, the researcher is interested in studying this culture in debt by formulating three research questions: (1) How is the procedure of Sikka Krowe’s weding ceremony of Maumere. (2) what kinds of symbols used in Sikka Krowe’s wedding ceremony of Maumere? (3) What are the meaning of those symbols?. The researcher found the kinds of symbols that are revealed in Sikka Krowe’s wedding ceremony like in daily life such as wua ta’a, tua/moke/arak, manu ama and manu muhun, wair hu’er, bala, mu’u, kalar gelang, jarang, tudi, wawi ireng,reng-reng, utan, kila, pagat uma, bolo plagar and lensu widin tilun. . This is the symbol of the simplicity of life. The process of wedding ceremony requires some conditions regulated and set by the norms and traditions

Implementasi Metoda Sum Squared Error untuk Identifikasi Kategori Pembakaran Mesin Sepeda Motor 4 Tak Bahan Bakar Bensin

Motorcycles with injection system uses engine scanner tool as a reference for a mechanic when performing a tune-up to find out and get the engine firing conditions were perfect. Unlike the motorcycle carburetor system, relying only on the experience of a mechanic. If using tools, usually using exhaust emission analyzer which only serves to measure the levels of elements and compounds and exhaust emissions and it can not be used to identify the condition of the combustion engine. Besides, not all the workshops have it, just a certain manufacturer authorized workshops, garages and a large scale or related government agencies that have it. There are two categories of combustion engine, the first engine combustion conditions are not perfect and complete combustion conditions. Perfect engine combustion conditions is needed so that maximum engine performance with an efficient use of fuel. This study aims to make a device that is capable of detecting the condition of combustion 4-stroke motorcycle carburetor system using the method of sum square error (SSE) through the value of the data patterns of exhaust emissions based gas sensors. The study, of the five categories of motorcycles with the manufacturer, type and year of manufacture of different shows that, the system made capable of identifying categories of combustion engine based on the SSE on the identification and reference set. The success rate of identification detection system performs the complete combustion of 89.33% and 97.99% of incomplete combustion