Making their Voices Heard: Introducing the Joy of Poetry Writing In Foreign Language Classroom

The use of poetry in the classroom is not an uncommon phenomenon in foreign language teaching. Many teachers believe that poetry writing can help students improve their language fluency and provide meaningful literacy. However, some language teachers are quite skeptical of the idea, by referring to the fact that students’ limited linguistic resources will prevent them from performing the challenging task. This paper tries to show how poetry writing can be applied in EFL classroom, not only as a means to develop students’ language competence, but also as a medium to create meaningful dialogue among students. Previously designed as an additional activity in a formal academic writing class, the poetry writing has become one of the favorite sections in the students’ activities. By adding small but interesting features to the technique, poetry writing can in fact turn into an activity many students look forward to. During the process, the students are engaged in a meaningful exchange with their fellow learners, with language learning also happens along the way, sometimes quite unconsciously. Such process may help students to appreciate various forms of literary work, to improve the language fluency, and most importantly, to provide a sense of audience to students who want to make their voices heard. Keywords: poetry writing, EFL, peer analysi

IMPLEMENTING SEMANTIC MAPPING STRATEGY TO ENHANCE ELEVENTH GRADERS’ ORGANIZATION ASPECT OF THE WRITING SKILL

Teaching English writing skill to Indonesian secondary students encounters many obstacles since English in Indonesia is a foreign language. Elaborating and organizing the ideas in pre-writing activity is one of the problems faced by students. The objective of this study was to examine how the implementation of semantic mapping strategy could enhance the eleventh graders’ writing skill, especially the organization aspect. Semantic mapping strategy was implemented in pre-writing activity since this strategy provides the visual concept of relations of the ideas. Classroom Action Research (CAR) was used as the research design in this study, and the implementation was carried out in three meetings for one cycle through the WhatsApp group. The research subjects were students of XI Science 4 class at SMA Negeri 4 Malang which consisted of 34 students. The results showed that this strategy succeeded in enhancing students’ writing scores in one cycle. The average score before the implementation was 69.9, and it became 86.8 after the implementation. Besides, the students’ organization aspect also increased significantly. In brief, this study offers a teaching strategy to overcome the problems in writing class by implementing semantic mapping strategy

Logical Fallacies in EFL Learners' Argumentative Writings

Logical fallacies are common errors in reasoning that will undermine the logic of an argument. In argumentative writing, the presence of logical fallacies such fallacies shows either illegitimate arguments or irrelevant points, and are often identified because they lack evidence that supports their claim. The purpose of the study is to identify and discuss logical fallacies in the argumentative writing of Indonesian EFL learners. 40 argumentative essays were collected from the students of the English Department of the State University of Malang who have passed all the writing courses, including the course on argumentative writing. The results of the study shows that students still produced a number of logical fallacies in their work, some of which were so basic they can actually be avoided through simple, explicit instruction. Some pedagogical implications of the findings are also discussed

DEMOTIVATION LEVEL AND DEMOTIVATORS AMONG EFL STUDENTS IN HOME ONLINE ENGLISH LEARNING DURING THE PANDEMIC

Abstract: Although recognizing students’ demotivating factors (or demotivators) is as important as acknowledging motivating factors in language learning, only few studies are focused in this area especially in the Indonesian context. More specifically, there are limited studies investigating demotivators in home online English learning as response of social distancing order amid the COVID-19 pandemic. This research employed two kinds of data, quantitative and qualitative. Questionnaire with 27 items was the main instrument used to obtain data about learners’ level of demotivation and demotivators as well as to identify the frequency of each demotivator. An open-ended question was attached at the end of the questionnaire to dig other additional demotivators. An interview was also conducted to gain supporting data for in-depth analysis. The results showed that the level of the 198 students’ demotivation was 2.9, categorized as lowly demotivated. The most-frequently rated demotivators in home online English learning were lack of interaction with 78.9% responses followed by 66.2% for increasing assignments and 62.1% for slow Internet connection. In terms of content and material, expectation to use grammatically correct English was the most demotivating factor with 59.6% responses. The study also revealed additional demotivators namely unsupportive parents, doing house chores, and Wi-fi absence.Keywords:     demotivator, home online English learning, level of demotivatio

Improving Primary Teacher Education Students’ Writing Performance Using Flipped Classroom

Abstract: This study aimed to improve students’ writing performance in ESP subject by implementing Flipped Classroom and Collaborative activities. Classroom action research was applied as the method in this study was. According to the data obtained, 88,89% of the students experienced improvement at least 10 points compared to their initial writing product. Students active participation also improved which was shown by the average score that was above 3,0 points obtained from peer assessment rubric. Therefore, the combination of these two strategies was proven successful in improving students’ writing performance in ESP subject. Abstrak: Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk meningkatkan kinerja menulis bahasa Inggris siswa sebagai mata pelajaran ESP dengan menerapkan kegiatan Flipped Classroom dan Collaborative. Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah penelitian tindakan kelas. Menurut data yang diperoleh, 88,89% dari siswa mengalami peningkatan setidaknya 10 poin dibandingkan dengan produk penulisan awal mereka. Partisipasi aktif siswa juga mengalami peningkatan yang ditunjukkan oleh skor rata-rata di atas 3,0 poin yang diperoleh dari rubrik penilaian sejawat. Dengan demikian, kombinasi dari dua strategi tersebut terbukti berhasil meningkatkan kinerja menulis bahasa Inggris siswa sebagai mata pelajaran ESP

WHEN NO SCHOOL IS OPEN FOR LEARNING: DOES VIRTUAL TEACHING PRACTICE MEET EFL PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS’ NEED?

Covid-19 pandemic has transformed teacher education programs to shift their academic activities for pre-service teachers. Accordingly, teaching practice are mostly carried out virtually in order to get access to the school learning. This study aims at exploring pre-service teachers’ experiences in fulfilling their needs in online classroom instruction during Covid-19 emergency remote teaching (ERT). Five pre-service teachers were involved in this study. To collect the data, interview transcripts and teaching artefacts were analyzed qualitatively. The result of this study show three important points. First, to find out raw model, students’ response, school environment and culture, and teaching performance, they were not completely obtained in virtual class. Second, learning process can be carried out effectively if the pre-service teachers and students were supported by sufficient stuffs for doing online. In relation to the platform, there is no single best technology was implemented. Third, pre-service teachers’ digital literacy were important to adapt the school policy and to accommodate the learners’ situation. In a nutshell, this study implies that the attention in assisting pre-service teachers to face emergency remote situation in their field experience is important to be evaluated

Students’ Perceptions of the Flipped Academic Writing Classroom Learning Activities

Abstract: Flipped-classroom strategy, as the name suggests, flips the conventional teaching and learning process. In a flipped classroom, students learn the materials at home in an online platform (out-class) and then they learn more through discussion with their peers in the classroom (in-class). This study focuses on students’ perceptions of the activities in a flipped academic writing classroom. The data were collected using questionnaires and observation. The result shows that the activities were able to help students to learn and improve their academic writing. In addition, students also gave positive responses to the use of teaching media and peer feedback sessions.Keywords: students’ perceptions, flipped-classroom strategy, Google Classroom, academic writingAbstrak: Strategi flipped-classroom (kelas terbalik), seperti namanya, membalik proses belajar mengajar konvensional. Di ruang kelas terbalik, siswa mempelajari materi di rumah dalam platform daring (di luar kelas) dan kemudian mereka belajar lebih banyak melalui diskusi dengan teman sebaya di kelas (di dalam kelas). Studi ini berfokus pada persepsi siswa tentang aktivitas di kelas menulis akademis yang dibalik. Pengumpulan data dilakukan dengan menggunakan kuesioner dan observasi. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa kegiatan yang dilakukan di kelas terbalik dapat membantu siswa dalam belajar dan meningkatkan kemampuan menulis akademiknya. Selain itu, siswa juga memberikan respon yang positif terhadap penggunaan media pembelajaran dan sesi peninjauan sejawat.Kata kunci: persepsi siswa, flipped classroom strategy, Google Classroom, penulisan akademi

Exploring Strategies of Teaching Speaking among Indonesian and Malaysian Secondary English Teachers

The current study aims at exploring strategies of teaching speaking among EFL/ESL teachers in Indonesian and Malaysian secondary schools. The data were obtained from 55 Indonesian teachers and 9 teachers from Malaysia, who were asked to voluntarily fill out an open-ended questionnaire consisting of 11 items. The questions ranged from teaching strategies to challenges in teaching speaking and the use of IT in the classroom setting. The findings of the descriptive analysis showed that teachers in both countries used relatively similar strategies, except for the aspect regarding the proportion of English use in the classroom. In this case, Malaysian teachers used English most of the time in their speaking class, compared to their Indonesia counterparts who admitted using L1 in various proportions and/or situations. It can be safely assumed that the status of English in Indonesia and Malaysia (EFL vs. ESL) is responsible for this difference, with Malaysian teachers and students being more comfortable with the use of English in their daily encounters

ENGLISH TEACHERS’ CONCEPTUALIZATION OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE LITERACY IN RELATION TO INDONESIA’S GERAKAN LITERASI SEKOLAH (SCHOOL LITERACY INITIATIVE)

This study aims to explore how, in relation to Indonesia’s Gerakan Literasi Sekolah (GLS – School Literacy Initiative), Indonesian English teachers of secondary schools conceptualize L2 literacy in terms of linguistic and other sign systems, cognitive, sociocultural, and developmental dimensions, a model of literacy beliefs profile by Kucer (2014). The data were collected through a survey questionnaire adapted from Kucer’s model, comprising 37 closed-ended items on conceptual understandings of foreign language literacy, presented in values of 1 to 5 Likert-scale indicating statements from strongly disagree (SD), disagree (D), neutral (N), agree (A), to strongly agree (SA). After being moderated for validity and clarity, the questionnaire was distributed to various groups and forums of English teachers through Google-form. With this convenience sampling procedure, 157 English teachers, mostly from East Java Province, Indonesia, responded to our questionnaire. The results of descriptive analyses in the forms of mean percentages portray how English teachers in our study successfully frame L2 language literacy as reflected in Kucer’s dimensions, which potentially equip them with knowledge about taking part in the success of GLS implementation. They seem to understand that the core of literacy lies in the cognitive dimension, suggesting the use of literacy to express meanings, and that the expressions of meaning require linguistic literacy dimension as the vehicle. These cognitive and linguistic literacy dimensions are affected by the sociocultural literacy dimension, and the employment of the three dimensions tends to continually exist as we are experiencing new and novel events from day to day. Future research might focus on exploring how these understandings about literacy are finally realized in the classroom