EFL TEACHERS' ROLES IN TECHNOLOGY-INTEGRATED INSTRUCTION PRACTICES

Since 1990s the world citizens have been facing a rapid progress in technology and digital development. This development influences all life aspects including educational area. For teachers, one of ways to be able to effectively and efficiently cope with millennial students is through technology integration within classroom practices. While technology can assist and/or accomplish most duties teachers need to do, they need to explore more on how they can act in instructional context to sustain their existence and cope with existing challenges in technology-integrated instruction (TII). While much research focuses on practices, benefits, opportunities, and challenges, only a little pays attention to teachers’ role in TII. Moreover, much of the existing research has not addressed teachers’ roles in TII within English as a foreign language (EFL) context. This study describes teachers’ reasons of technology integration and selection, and explores their roles within TII framework especially in the context of junior secondary school English classroom in Indonesia. The participants were selected purposively to those who had adequately thorough experience on utilizing digital technologies to support EFL teaching. Lesson plan analysis, observation, and interview were conducted to collect relevant data. Findings show that teachers’ considerations in technology integration are driven by pedagogical purposes and rooted from current social phenomena especially those addressing technology advancement. Meanwhile, factors contributing to technology selection process are based on curricular, technological, and institutional factor respectively. Regarding teachers’ roles within TII, it can be concluded that most of teachers’ roles are getting extended as each of these roles attempts to accommodate technological matter which previously was not taken into account. Only in several sub categories of cognitive roles do they become narrower as technologies replace some of teachers’ duties. Teachers also voice out their concerns related to TII in English language teaching (ELT). First, technological skills should not outweigh or shift the learning focus on the subject knowledge; second, TII in its best employment can assist students to appreciate their learning process more; and third, teachers have to be ready with plan B as most TII contexts in Indonesia have not been able to provide stable and reliable facilities

Penelitian tindakan kelas guru Madrasah Ibtidaiyah: Studi komparatif implementasi Penelitian Tindakan Kelas MIN 2 dan MIN 3 Sumenep

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui 1) bagaimana perencanaan penelitian tindakan kelas yang dilakukan oleh guru MIN 2 dan MIN 3 Sumenep, 2) bagaimana pelaksanaan penelitian tindakan kelas yang dilakukan oleh guru MIN 2 dan MIN 3 Sumenep, 3) bagaimana laporan penelitian tindakan kelas yang dilakukan oleh guru MIN 2 dan MIN 3 Sumenep, 4) apa faktor penghambat dan pendukung bagi guru MIN 2 dan MIN 3 Sumenep dalam melakukan Penelitian Tindakan Kelas. Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian kualitatif deskriptif. Subjek penelitian ini adalah guru MIN 2 yang berjumlah 8 guru dan MIN 3 Sumenep yang berjumlah 8 orang, yang terdiri dari guru kelas dan guru mata pelajaran PJOK dan PAI. Teknik pengumpulan data menggunakan wawancara dan dokumentasi. Teknik analisis data menggunakan langkah reduksi data, penyajian data, dan penarikan kesimpulan.Setelah dilakukan analisis yang mendalam, maka hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa: (a) Perencanaan penelitian di MIN 2 dan MIN 3 Sumenep menunjukkan bahwa pelaksanaan program Penelitian Tindakan Kelas (PTK) didasari oleh Peraturan Menteri Negara Pemberdayaan Aparatur Negara dan Reformasi Birokrasi No. 16 Tahun 2009. (b) Pelaksanaan PTK guru di MIN 2 maupun MIN 3 ditujukan khusus kepada guru yang bergolongan IV/A keatas. Sedangkan guru yang tidak bersatatus golongan IV/A hanya disarankan untuk melaksanakan PTK. Dalam perencanaan PTK di MIN 2 Sumenep dikhususkan kepada semua guru, sedangkan di MIN 3 Sumenep hanya pada guru yang bergolongan IV/A ke atas. (c) Laporan penelitian tindakan kelas di MIN 2 dan MIN 3 sudah berjalan secara efektif dan efisien, walaupun pelaksanaan laporan dilakukan oleh guru yang memiliki golongan IV/A ke atas. Adapun perbedaanya, laporan pelaksanaan PTK guru di MIN 2 Sumenep sebagai bentuk peningkatan inovasi dan kreativitas dalam pengembangan keprofesionalan guru sekaligus sebagai bahan laporan, sedangkan di MIN 3 Sumenep sebagai bahan laporan saja kepada pemerintahan, ketika suatu waktu dimintai pertanggungan jawaban. (d) Faktor penghambat dan pendukung penelitian tindakan kelas, faktor penghambat yaitu malas menulis, minat membaca rendah, latar belakang pendidikan, dan kurangnya motivasi. Sedangkan faktor pendukung yaitu adanya motivasi ekstrisik dikhususkan kepada guru yang mencapai golongan IV/A sebagai akses untuk menaikkan jabatan. Adapun perbedaan diantara kedua madrasah tersebut, yaitu; guru di MIN 2 yang memiliki latar belakang pendidikan bukan dari pendidikan sarjana/diploma empat tidak mendapatkan materi tentang penelitian tindakan kelas. Sedangkan latar belakang pendidikan guru di MIN 3 Sumenep kurang mendukung pelaksanaan penelitian tindakan kelas terutama pada guru non-status. Sedangkan faktor pendukung MIN 2 memiliki tingkat kesadaran maksimal dalam penerapan PTK guru. Sedangkan di MIN 3 memiliki tingkat kesadaran minimal, sebab hanya dilakukan oleh guru bergolongan dalam hal kenaikan pangka

USING PICTURE SERIES TO IMPROVE THE ELEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS’ ABILITY TO WRITE RECOUNT TEXTS AT SMK ABDI NEGARA MUNTILAN

This study was aimed at improving students’ ability and the teaching learning process of writing recount texts by the use of picture series for students of Class XI Office Administration Program of SMK Abdi Negara Muntilan This research is an action research design. The subjects of the study were 29 students of Class XI Office Administration Program of SMK Abdi Negara Muntilan in the academic year 2012/2013. The data were collected by observing the teaching and learning process during the implementation of the action, giving questionnaires to the students and teachers, interviewing the students and the English teacher, giving worksheets to the students, taking pictures of the teaching and learning process, and conducting discussions with the English teacher, collaborators, and the students. The instruments used in this research were questionnaires, interview guide, observation sheet, and tests. The use of pictures series aimed to improve the students’ writing. However, the use of picture series was limited to improve some of the writing micro skills. They were the graphemes and orthographic patterns of English, acceptable core of words and use appropriate word order patterns, acceptable grammatical systems, patterns, and rules, and cohesive devices in written discourse. The result of the two cycles showed that the use of picture series was effective to improve the teaching learning process and the students’ ability in writing recount texts. Picture series were really useful in terms of directing students to write in the correct organisation, generate students’ ideas, use the correct grammar in writing recount texts, and enrich students’ vocabulary. At the end of cycle 2, students understood well the correct organisation in writng recount texts. Students’ ability to gain ideas through pictures improved. Students were also able to write in the correct grammar. Students’ vocabulary in writing recount texts improved as well. In short, the use of picture series could improve the students’ ability to write recount texts in terms of the four focuses above

Revisiting Translation as a Foreign Language Learning Tool: Contrasting Beliefs of Diversely Proficient Students

Translation as a learning tool or strategy, which is also known as pedagogical translation, has reemerged as a topic of discussion after being overshadowed by the popularity of the communicative approach. While a number of experts and scholars perceive translation or the use of L1 as interference, several others believe that translation does not really disappear from foreign language learning practices. As many research findings showed beneficial impacts of using translation activities to enhance foreign language learning, other research looked into learners' perception of the use of pedagogical translation. An interesting contradiction was found stating that diversely proficient students had different perceptions of the usefulness of translation activities as a learning tool (Calis & Dikilitas, 2012; Dagiliene, 2012). Therefore, this research attempted to investigate learners' beliefs on translation practices as a learning tool in their foreign language classroom respective to their proficiency levels. University students of non-English major were involved in this research. Questionnaire and interview were employed to gather relevant data. The findings reveal how translation as a learning strategy was perceived by learners with different ranges of proficiency levels