Using the Guided Writing Technique to Teach Writing of Analytical Exposition Texts

The objective of this study was to find out whether there was a difference in results from students who were taught analytical exposition text writing through the Guided Writing Technique (GWT) and other students who were taught using a standard way of teaching writing. The English writing skills of the second grade students in a high school in Banda Aceh were unsatisfactory; therefore, it was suggested that a specific treatment or learning process was needed. The study focused on assessment of students being taught to write analytical exposition texts. To achieve the goal of the study, a true experimental design with an experimental group (EG) with 29 students, and a control group (CG) with 28 students was used. The instrument of this study was tests. The data was analyzed through statistics. From the findings of the study, the writing ability of both groups after the treatments was different according to the results from a t-test. These result showed that the t-test was 11.26, whilst the result from the t-table at a level of significance 5% (α=0.05) was 2.0211. So, t-test was higher than t-table (11.262.0211). In conclusion, the results from this study showed that there was a significant improvement in skills for writing analytical exposition texts from the EG students taught using the GWT whilst the CG taught by a standard teaching technique for writing did not show such improvement

The use of Problem Based Learning to improve students’ speaking ability

Speaking skill is one of the basic language skills that has important role for oral communication. This study attempts to find out whether the implementation of Problem Based Learning (PBL) could enhance the students’ speaking skill at Darul Ulum Islamic Boarding, Banda Aceh. The population of this study was the students from the second grade of students at Senior High School Darul Ulum Islamic Boarding, Banda Aceh. The sample of this study was the students in class II-IPA I as experimental group and class II-IPA II as control group. Through the quantitative method, the writer analysed the data by means of t-test.The result shows that there was a significant difference in the students’ speaking skill taught by implementing Problem Based Learning.The students’ mean of pre-test’s score was 51.64. Then in post-test, the mean score of the students was 63.64. In other words, Problem Based Learning has successfully enhanced speaking skill of the II-IPA I students. Therefore, Problem Based Learning may be one of the appropriate teaching methods to improve students’ English-speaking ability as it gives a chance for students to relate themselves with real-life issues that require real-life solutions

USING ENGLISH COMMEDY MOVIES WITH PEER SUPPORT IN TEACHING SPEAKING

The study aimed to investigate the effects of using comedy movies with peer support on students’ speaking skills and students’ responses toward the implementation of using comedy movies with peer support. In doing this, 60 students of class X at SMAN 2 Peusangan Bireuen were chosen as the samples. The data were collected by giving tests and questionnaires.  The data from the speaking test were analyzed by using IBM Statistic SPSS version 23. Meanwhile, the data from questionnaires were analyzed by using a percentage formula. The finding revealed that there was a significant difference in the post-test scores of the students who were taught speaking by using comedy movies with peer support strategies and those who were taught speaking without using comedy movies with peer support strategy. The mean score of the posttest on the experimental group was 75.93. Meanwhile, the mean score of posttest on the control group was 67.50. The result of the t-test score showed the score difference was significant (-1.96 9.50 1. 96).  Moreover, the students gave positive responses toward using comedy movies with peer support in teaching speaking. They also faced some difficulties in learning speaking by using comedy movies with peer support strategy. In fact, they admitted that they lacked of confidence, vocabulary, and comprehension because of having a very limited time to practice speaking

Analysis of Reading Comprehension Questions by Using Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy on Higher Order Thinking Skill (HOTS)

The objective of this research was to investigate the three up levels of cognitive domain of revised Bloom’s Taxonomy used in the textbook entitled Bahasa Inggris SMA/MA/SMK/MAK grade 11 th semester 1, namely analyzing level (C4), evaluating level (C5), and creating level (C6). Using the descriptive qualitative method and content analysis, this study examined the questions in the reading comprehension tasks only to determine to what extent the reading comprehension questions emphasize on Higher Order Thinking. This research focused on analyzing the Bahasa Inggris SMA/MA/SMK/MAK textbook grade 11 th semester 1 published by the Ministry of Education and Culture. The researcher collected and listed the questions in the reading comprehension tasks and then calculated the percentage and frequencies of each level of cognition in each separate book chapter and in all five combined book chapters. The results showed that the most dominant level in the textbook was higher order thinking skills HOTS). It was 66.8 % of 100 % while it was 33.4 % for lower order thinking skills LOTS). It indicated that this textbook concentrated more on higher –level thinking questions than lower lever thinking

Implementation of portfolio assessment in teaching English writing

The objectives of this study were to investigate whether the implementation of portfolio assessment improved students’ writing skills and responses. The method used in this research is pre-experimental with a one-group pre-test and post-test design and descriptive analysis of the students’ responses after the implementation of portfolio assessment for teaching English writing. The population for this research was all students from grade X at SMKN 1, in Banda Aceh and the sample was 30 students chosen by a purposive sampling technique. The data was collected through tests (a pre-test and a post-test) and a questionnaire. The questionnaire was distributed after the post-test to find out the responses of the students after the teaching-learning process using portfolio assessment for writing. The data collected from the tests was analyzed using a t paired sample test through SPSS 16. The results showed that implementation of portfolio assessment improved the’ writing skills and the responses of the students. Therefore, the hypotheses of this study were accepted. There was a significant improvement in the students’ writing skills and their responses after teaching by using portfolio assessment. It was concluded that the use of portfolio assessment can increase students’ writing skills and their responses

The X Factor in Understanding Listening Comprehension Skill

This research was aimed to find out factors affecting students’ challenges in listening comprehension as perceived by students at SMAN 1 Calang. This is a descriptive qualitative study. The samples of this research were selected by using purposive sampling. There were 75 eleventh-grade students who participated in this research. Questionnaire and interview were designed as research instruments. The questionnaire consisted of 30 items grouped into five categories, namely students’ listening comprehension challenges related to factors attributed to the content and linguistics features of the listening text, factors attributed to the speaker, factors attributed to the listener, and factors attributed to the physical setting. Moreover, the interview consisted of three questions asking students’ opinion about listening comprehension, challenges they faced in listening comprehension activity, and factors that caused those challenges. The result indicates listening texts, speaker, listener, and physical setting were the main sources of students’ listening comprehension challenges. The dominant factor affecting students’ challenges in listening comprehension was the physical setting such as the noise from environmental surroundings, with the percentage of 89.6%

The Implementation of Debate Technique to Enhance the Students’ Speaking Skill

The objective of this research was to improve the quality of teaching and learning speaking by using debate technique at the tenth grade students of SMAN Modal Bangsa, Aceh. The academic year was 2017/2018. The participants of this research were 27 students at class X/IPA-5. The research was classroom action research which was done in two cycles.Eachcycle consisted of two meetings. There were two types of data namely quantitative data and qualitative data. The result of the first cycle shows that the percentage score for the researcher’s performance was 70 % which is categorized as good; while in the second cycle the score was 90 % which is categorized as very good. Regarding to the students’ involvement, the percentage score in the first cycle was 75% or in the middle category, and it increased significantly in the second cycle with the percentage 95% or in the excellent category.Furthermore, the class passing percentage in the pretest was 55,55 %, but it increased 81,48 %in the first cycle and 100 % in the second cycle.  It indicates that the success indicator is reached. Finally, the data from the questionnaire shows that the students responded positively to the use of debate technique in the process of teaching and learning speaking. The outcome of this research showed that using debate technique were able to improve the teacher’s performance in teaching speaking, and the students’ involvement in learning speaking. It also improved the students’ speaking skill. Key words:  Speaking Skill, Debate Technique, Classroom Action Researc

The Effect of Using the Two Stay Two Stray Technique to Develop Young Learners’ Speaking Skills and Motivation

This was a quantitative experimental study with the aim of finding out the result of using the Two-stay–two-stray (TS-TS) technique to develop young learners’ speaking skills, and motivation. The method used was a one group pre-test and post-test design: The instruments were the pre-test, the post-test and a questionnaire. The population was all the middle school students at SMPN2 in Idi Timur, East Aceh and the sample was the second grade students at SMPN2 Idi Timur chosen by using purposive sampling. The students’ achievements were tested by using a test and their motivation was measured by using a questionnaire. A pre-test and a post-test were given before and after the treatment. The results showed that the mean score from the pre-test was 54 and from the post-test it was 66. The result from the t-score was 9.37, while the critical value from the t-table was 2.06 at the level of significance of 0.01 it was 2.78 with 25 degrees of freedom. Since the result from the t-test was higher than the t-table, the alternative hypothesis was accepted. This proved that using the Two-stay-two-stray technique improved the speaking skills of the sample young learners. Regarding motivation, the students’ opinion about motivation in speaking English and the results from their pre-test were contradictory. Based on the answers to some questions in the questionnaire, the students showed lack of interest in developing their English speaking skills: Yet more than 50% of the students said that they practiced continuously so that their English speaking ability would get better. This means that these, students may still not be aware whether they are motivated or not in speaking English

The Obstacles Faced by the English Teacher in Assisting Students to Win Storytelling Contest at Methodist Senior High School, Banda Aceh

The aims of this research were to find out the teacher’s obstacles in preparing their students to win storytelling contest. This study was designed using the descriptive qualitative method. The results of the study were collected through interviewing the teacher in Methodist Senior High School who was purposely selected by their achievement in preparing the students in some storytelling contests. The conclusion of the study that the teacher’s obstacles in preparing students for storytelling those obstacles are students’ lack of vocabulary and mis-pronunciation, lack of motivation, lack of time, lack of discipline and the challenge to the diversity of students’ personality. Moreover, the solutions to those problems are also presented