THE APPLICATION OF FUNCTIONAL APPROACH IN STANDAR KOMPETENSI LULUSAN (SKL) UJIAN NASIONAL SMP/MTs OF ENGLISH IN ACADEMIC YEAR 2011 – 2012

Ujian Nasional (UN) or national examination for the ninth grader of Junior High School has been conducted. Each subject tested has its own competency standard for the graduation or standar kompetensi lulusan (SKL). SKL is used as the assessment standard to determine the graduation of the students. The SKL for Ujian Nasional (UN) SMP/MTs of English in academic year 2011 - 2012 covers competency in reading and writing skill. This writing shows that competencies and the indicators of the SKL Ujian Nasional (UN) SMP/MTs of English in academic year 2011 - 2012 reflect functional approach in English Language Teaching

Work ethics profile of vocational college students in Indonesia

This study aims at describing the work ethics profile of Vocational College Students in Indonesia. Work ethics is an important indicator of human resources quality, and also an element of employability skills, that must be owned by students of Vocational College as working-age population. There are four main dimensions in work ethics: commitment, integrity, professional attitudes, and hard work. It is descriptive research on self-evaluation survey. It uses a Likert scale with five response options, ranging from 1 (never) to 5 (always). The respondents were determined using cluster sampling and convenience sampling. They are from four vocational colleges based on the three regions in Indonesia: College A (representing Western Indonesia colleges), College B and C (from Middle Indonesia), and College D (in Eastern Indonesia). This geographical perspective is used to get a profile of Vocational College students’ work ethics regionally and nationally. The study concludes that there is no major difference among the self-evaluation results of work ethics in Western Indonesia, Middle Indonesia, and Eastern Indonesia (the mean scores of the four dimensions in four colleges range from 3.89 to 4.54). The study concludes that integrity is in the highest rank among other dimensions. The one that takes place in the second position is commitment, except the one in College C. It is consecutively followed by being professional (except College C since its being professional is in the second place). The last is hard work. This profile signals positive support towards the demographic dividend for the development of the country

The Effectiveness of Blended Learning in Improving Students’ Workplace Communication Skills: A Case Study on Olive Website Test Result

The research aimed to investigate the effectiveness of using blended-learning instruction in improving students’ communication skills at Sekolah Vokasi Universitas Gadjah Mada. They were required to take the Test of English for Vocational Students (TEVOCS) and it indicated that there was a gap between listening and speaking ability as presented in the test scores. To support the improvement of both skills, blended-learning instruction was designed and carried out in the forms of online listening activities via Online Listening for Individual Practice (OLIVE) website and offline meeting for speaking activities. The research used experimental research, which referred to the results of pre-test and post-test scores of the group. The participants of the research were 275 students from three departments of Sekolah Vokasi Universitas Gadjah Mada; Language, Arts, and Cultural Management department; Engineering department; as well as Economic and Business department academic year 2019/2020. The pre-test and post-test scores show improvement in students’ performance in both skills. The result of the t-test also shows that there is significant improvement after the application of blended-learning instruction

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TASK-BASED LANGUAGE TEACHING (TBLT) TOWARDS THE READING SKILL OF THE SEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS OF SMP PL DOMENICO SAVIO SEMARANG

Sari, Yohana Ika Harnita. 2014. The Effectiveness of Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) towards the Reading Skill of the Seventh Grade Students of SMP PL Domenico Savio Semarang. Semarang: Faculty of Humanities, Diponegoro University. Reading is one of the language skills to master in learning English. However, the students of SMP PL Domenico Savio Semarang (especially in the seventh grade) find difficulties in mastering that skill. It is believed that the tasks will motivate them to learn and help them to develop their reading skill. Thus, this study is intended to show the effectiveness of Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) for teaching reading the seventh grade students of SMP PL Domenico Savio Semarang in academic year 2012-2013 and to find the factor that supports the effectiveness of teaching reading using Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) for the seventh grade students of SMP PL Domenico Savio Semarang in academic year 2012-2013. To fulfill those objectives, the writer employed experimental research, especially quasi-experimental research. There were two groups used in this study: experimental group and control group. The samples were from class 7F as the experimental group and class 7E as the control group. Each of those classes consisted of 35 students. Then, the experimental group was treated using Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) while the control group was not treated using that method. Before the treatment, both groups get pre-test and they have post-test after the treatment. After that, the results were analyzed using t-test. The hypothesis (Ha) of this study is that there is significant difference in the results of the post-test between the experimental group and the control group. The experimental group who was taught using Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) experienced big improvement; i.e. 12.8 points; since the mean increased from 67.4 (for the pre-test) to 80.2 (for the post-test). In contrast the control group had insignificant improvement, i.e 4.3 points. The mean of the pre-test is 67.8 and the post-test is 72.1. The result of the t-test of the pre-test is that the to is -0.126 (the negative symbol means nothing) and the ttable for Df 68 is 1.664. It means that the to is smaller than the ttable, so the difference is insignificant. On the contrary, the to of the post-test is 2.999 and it is higher than the ttable. It can be concluded that the H0 is rejected; it means the difference is significant. To sum up, the method is effective since teaching reading using Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) brings significant difference for the seventh grade students of SMP PL Domenico Savio Semarang in academic year 2012-2013. The effectiveness is supported by some factors. They are readability, suitability of content, and exploitability of the text, students’ motivation, and achievement of learning objectives. Keywords: Effectiveness, Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT), Reading skill Sari, Yohana Ika Harnita. 2014. The Effectiveness of Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) towards the Reading Skill of the Seventh Grade Students of SMP PL Domenico Savio Semarang. Semarang: Fakultas Humaniora, Universitas Diponegoro. Membaca merupakan salah satu keterampilan bahasa yang harus dipelajari dalam pembelajaran Bahasa Inggris. Namun, siswa SMP PL Domenico Savio Semarang (khususnya siswa kelas tujuh) mengalami kesulitan dalam penguasaan keterampilan ini. Tugas-tugas dipercaya dapat memotivasi siswa untuk belajar dan mengembangkan keterampilan membaca mereka. Oleh karena itu, penelitian ini dimaksudkan untuk menunjukkan keefektivitasan dari TBLT terhadap keterampilan membaca dari siswa kelas tujuh SMP PL Domenico Savio Semarang pada tahun pembelajaran 2013-2014 dan untuk mencari faktor yang mendukung keefektivitasan TBLT tersebut. Untuk mencapai tujuan tersebut, penulis melakukan penelitian eksperimental, khususnya penelitian kuasi-eksperimental. Ada dua kelompok yang dilibatkan dalam penelitian ini, yaitu kelompok eksperimental (dari kelas 7F) dan kelompok kontrol (dari kelas 7E). Masing-masing kelompok terdiri dari 35 siswa. Kelompok eksperimental diperlakukan menggunakan TBLT, sementara kelompok kotrol tidak mendapat perlakuan tersebut. Kedua kelompok tersebut mendapatkan pre-test sebelum perlakuan dan mendapatkan post-test setelah perlakuan. Kemudian, hasil dari kedua tes itu dianalisis menggunakan t-test. Hipotesis dari penelitian ini adalah bahwa terdapat perbedaan yang signifikan pada hasil post-test antara kelompok eksperimental dan kelompok kontrol. Kelompok eksperimental yang diajar menggunakan TBLT mengalami peningkatan besar, yaitu 12.8 poin, karena rata-rata nilainya meningkat dari 76.4 (saat pre-test) menjadi 80.2 (saat post-test). Di sisi lain, kelompok kontrol memiliki peningkatan yang tidak signifikan, yaitu 4.3 poin. Rata-rata nilai pre-testnya 67.8 dan rata-rata nilai post-testnya 72.1. Hasil t-test dari pre-test adalah bahwa to senilai -0.126 (tanda negatif tidak berpengaruh) dan ttabel untuk Df 68 adalah 1.664. Hal ini berarti to kurang dari ttabel, jadi perbedaannya tidak signifikan. Di sisi lain, to dari post-test senilai 2.999 dan di atas ttabel. Hal ini dapat disimpulkan bahwa H0 ditolak; hal ini berarti ada perbedaan yang signifikan. Kesimpulannya, metode yang dipakai efektif karena pengajaran membaca menggunakan TBLT membawa perbedaan yang signifikan terhadap siswa kelas tujuh SMP PL Domenico Savio Semarang pada tahun pembelajaran 2012-2013. Keffektivitasan tersebut dipengaruhi oleh beberapa faktor, yaitu keterbacaan teks, kesesuaian isi teks, dan manfaat teks, serta motiasi siswa dan ketercapaian tujuan pembelajaran. Kata kunci: Keefektivitasan, Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT), Keterampilan membac