Review journal article 14

A REVIEW JOURNAL ENTITLED THE USE OF EDMODO 

IN TEACHING WRITING IN A BLENDED LEARNING SETTING 

By Pupung Purnawarman

Susilawati

Wachyu Sundayana

Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia

Technology becomes very important in language learning especially writing skill. ). Technology is also trusted to provide language learners with a great number of possibilities to enhance language learning (Dudeney & Hockly, 2007). They specifically argue that technology, with its perpetual development, can give learners exposures, allow them to practice the knowledge, and bridge teachers to assess the learners’ language ability. Implementing technology in writing class is not paper-based only but it also uses larger more expand medie such as multimedia platform.

Regarding technology, blended learning also becomes very popular nowadays. Blended learning or also called hybridization (Jacob, 2011) combines face-to-face learning with online learning (Bonk & Graham, 2005; Friesen, 2012). Blended learning occurs when technology is utilized in the process of learning (Clark & Mayer, 2011; Bates, 2005) and intended to enhance knowledge and performance (Rosenberg, 2001).

One of the recent technologies implemented in language learning is Edmoddo, a blended learning platform designed by O’Hara and Borg in 2008. It designed almost similar to facebook but it is used specifically for educational purposes. Edmodo is used by many educational institutions all over the world for its attracting features (Delacruz, 2014). Therefore, edmoddo can be an alternative media for teachers to teach writing.

From the finding, we can conclude that the implementation of Edmodo in teaching writing shows that Edmodo facilitates the students’ engagement cognitively through Note menu. The Note menu which is used during the writing process apparently facilitates the students interactivity and meaningful writing tasks. To be more detail, Edmodo through Note menu facilitates the students’ cognitive engagement by: 1) allowing the students to work independently within groups; 2) allowing the students to be concerning on quality of their work; 3) enabling the students to take parts in learning situations; and 4) directing the students to see Edmodo as a part of learning.

Review Journal article 13

A REVIEW JOURNAL ENTITLED THE ENGLISH SCANNING SKILLS OF BILINGUAL AND

MONOLINGUAL INDONESIAN STUDENTS

by Anna Marietta da Silva

Nowadays, Indonesian young generations are having more ability in English language rather than their parents or grandparents. The primary schools in Indonesia especially in the big cities are now teach English at least once a week within around fifty to sixty minutes per session. Even in the playground, they are beginning to learn simple English vocabularies. In addition, most people belief that the younger a child learns a new language, the easier for her/him to understand and speak that language. Furthermore, it is now easier to found any written or spoken text in another language especially English. We can found it in the advertisements, billboards, television, newspapers, magazines, internets, smart phones, etc.

The rapid enhancement of technology makes a new language to develop faster. English is the prominent foreign language that learn in Indonesia. It happens because of the several reasons. For instance, economic and trade, ,‟ easy access to information mostly printed in English, or tourism (Baker 2001, pp.111-112), and Indonesian speakers‟ positive attitude towards English (Heaney 2005; Siregar 2010). Furthermore, English is more acceptable for advertisements, features of national TV programs, or titles of features in popular magazines. However, considering the job market in the future, many parents have their children joined an English course

The bilingual students may be classified into continually early bilingualism in which they gain the local language(s) which their parents speak. Yet, the monolinguals may be classified into consecutive childhood bilingualism as they were able to speak their first language dialect first before learning English.

Moreover, Indonesian young learners in general are more exposed to English through developing contact with foreigners from the English speaking countries that emerges some kinds of code mixing and switching, and the desire to learn English at school and courses now higher than in the past. Hence, the fact occur has not seemed to make English as a second language, it still becomes a third or maybe the fourth language learned, not acquired by most Indonesians. Up to now, English is still an optional subject, the teaching of which is dependent largely on the school’s funding. It  also stated that another crucial factor that should be taken into account in a learning process is the reading habit or culture, which is not highly appreciated in Indonesia. Moreover, English has produced important effect for the learning of English reading skills, particularly reading skills.

Review Journal article 12

A REVIEW JOURNAL ENTITLED STUDENTS’ ATTRIBUTIONS ON 

THEIR ENGLISH SPEAKING ENHANCEMENT

By Yustinus Calvin Gai Mali

Satya Wacana Christian University, Salatiga

The attribution on students’ learning process has been regarded as a crucial factor that affects students’ learning motivation and academic achievement. The attribution process becomes an essential determinant of learning and performance in a classroom (Weiner, 1972) and it could influence students’ motivation (Ellis, 2008). Similarly, Lei (2009) points out that attribution made toward the success or failure in studying will result in changes in expectations and emotions, which possibly affect motivation that individuals have for learning and subsequently for their academic achievement. Besides, students’ attribution on their success and failure can significantly have an impact on their future performance of academic tasks (Banks & Woolfson, 2008). 

There are several attributions on students’ English speaking enhancement. They are the students’ attribution for their ability in doing a monologue using English actively, ability in asking questions using English actively, and ability in answering questions using English actively.

As a conclusion, the main purpose of doing particular English speaking activities, the strategy, and the positive relationship between the students and the teachers as well as among the students were express as the primary students’ attributions on their English-speaking development.  Furthermore, there are some pedagogical suggestions in this study. First, the role of the teacher in the classroom should not merely focus on transferring knowledge to their students (Harmer, 2007) but should also maintain the positive relationships with their students and among the students themselves. Second, students have to be more active in enhancing the suitable learning strategy for their English speaking skill. In addition, the teachers also possible to share their knowledge and experience in doing English monologue, asking, and answering questions using English actively. Moreover, stimulating students to share their experience in learning English speaking also becomes another option to practice within the classroom. Third, students need to know and understand the aims and essences of practicing particular English speaking activities in their classroom. On a final note, teachers should be able to describe the reasons of why the students have to perform a particular speaking activity in their classroom.

Review Journal article 11

A REVIEW JOURNAL ENTITLED MAKING EXTENSIVE READING 

EVEN MORE STUDENT CENTERED

By George M. Jacobs and Willy A. Renandya

The use of Extensive Reading (ER) in education may play an important role in enhancing the language skills. Bamford & Day (2004) stated, Good things happen to students who read a great deal in the foreign language.  Research studies show they become better and more confident readers, they write better, their listening and speaking abilities improve, and their vocabularies get richer. Moreover, the students tend to have a good motivation to study a new language by the use of ER.

Talking about ER, we also have to consider about Intensive Reading (IR). In IR, students read the materials that may be quite difficult for them to understand. Hence, the IR materials seem to be short and an entire class may read the same material at the same time, with the teacher’s instruction to help the students to understand the material. There are some strategies which are implemented in IR, for instance, guessing word meaning from context, summarizing, and connecting what is being read on someone’s experience. These strategies can be compile with the ER. As a result, IR and ER can complement one another. 

ER can become more students centered. The first example is student control. The students can choose the books they like to read, or they can also select the other materials that make up the pool of materials from which students make their reading selections. Briefly, students can decide which books they are going to read in the library, classroom, home, or other places. Besides, students can also select, read, or discuss some books together with their friends. They tend to be more enjoying when gaining some friends with the same interest in reading materials

Teacher is the prominent aspects that can make ER become successful. Teachers are often seen as playing a central role in motivating the students to read a lot. Furthermore, teachers as model must have a good reading habits and behavior, make interesting and relevant ER materials, and organize appealing post-reading activities.

Review Journal article 10

A REVIEW JOURNAL ENTITILED READING ALOUD STRATEGIES

 IN READING ENGLISH TEXTS

 By Iyen Nurlaelawati and Shofa Dzulqodah

Literacy deals with reading and writing. Literacy skills are all the skills needed for reading and writing. They include such things as awareness of the sounds of language, awareness of print, and the relationship between letters and sounds.  Specifically, people must be able to decode (sound out) printed words and to comprehend what she/he reads to be able to comprehend the idea of the written text (Bainbridge, 2011).

Teaching and learning reading can be started from any level in every approach and starting point, yet transfer between languages is always there, it is stated by Cameron (2001). Orthographic knowledge is can be a crucial aspect in L2 word recognition and lexical processing, depending on the degree of similarities between L1 and L2. In terms of its depth, there are two kinds of orthography, deep and shallow. Pinter (2006) asserts that the first refers to the language whose letter-sound correspondence is not direct and consistent. Moreover, the language is now more consistent in the way it is

Regarding reading strategies, reading the texts silently tend to be more comfortable and preferable for the subject for the children because when she read the text aloud, the mispronunciations of certain words were highlighted. It could be inferred that there are several findings related to the strategies to read aloud English texts. Generally it Generally, it covered three things proposed by Littlewood (1984): overgeneralization, transfer, and simplification by omission. Besides showing the occurrences of those three strategies, it also showed that they were sometimes overlapping.

As a conclusion, To the curriculum developers, it is suggested to design the curriculums which pay more attention to oral cycle in early level of education. in addition, it is also suggest not to force them to read in L2 before they have their L1 literacy skills and sufficient L2 oral proficiency.

Review Journal article 9

A REVIEW JOURNAL ENTITLED TEACHING CHALLENGES IN INDONESIA: MOTIVATING

STUDENTS AND TEACHERS’ CLASSROOM LANGUAGE

 By Yuyun Yulia

RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia

English language teaching becomes very marketable to students at all levels of education. Hence, the government implements some ways to develop the English language curriculum in order to fulfill the students and teachers needs. For instance, teachers have been trained through pre-service and in-service programs to achieve good quality teaching as well as developing materials in the form of textbooks or online access. Furthermore, it has been many efforts devoted by the government in developing English language teachers’ capacity and students’ knowledge,

Regarding the development of the curriculum to enhance the output of language teaching, it cannot be separated from the socioeconomic milieu of the students. It prominently influenced the students’ motivation towards their learning in second or foreign language contexts. In terms of English language, the motivation issue has been discussed by scholars in second/foreign language contexts. In second language contexts, for example, Gardner (1985) defined motivation as the combination of (1) effort, (2) desire to achieve the goal of language learning, and (3) favorable attitude towards language learning. In addition, the students having low motivation were due to various factors. They are inadequate family support, the local environment and the school context.

The other critical issue in language learning is the teacher’s proficiency in spoken language as the model for students. Nations (2003) stated that learning English in a well balanced foreign and second language contexts is through the four strands of (1) meaning focused input (listening and reading), (2) meaning focused output (speaking and writing), (3) language focused learning (attention to language features) and (4) fluency development (working with known material). He further argued that when learners speak in the same language in class, the use of the first language can be natural easier and more communicatively effective.

On a final note, teacher as the crucial aspect in education must be able to motivate students to learn English in an interesting way. The English language that should be targeted as the teachers’ classroom instruction needed by students is difficult to implement. In fact, ‘language mixture’ seems to dominate the class and the students tend to keep silent. In addition, teachers need to participate actively to develop their teaching professionalism through pre-service and in-service training.

Review Journal article 8

A REVIEW JOURNAL ENTITLED READINESS AND COMPETENCE OF SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH TEACHERS TO IMPLEMENT CURRICULUM 2013

Wachyu Sundayana

Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia

The curriculum development is one of the prominent considerations of Indonesian government in education aspect. Hence, the curriculum change appears to overcome some problems face in educational aspect. Many factors due to the changes of curriculum as the expert state, there are four commonplaces of curriculum to be considered in designing and developing curriculum, namely teachers, learners, milieus, and subject matter. Teachers play important role in the implementation of changed curriculum. They have to obtain adequate knowledge and ability to implement those curriculum components. In addition, teachers’ readiness to implement the curriculum will be based on their knowledge and ability to choose, organize, and convey the curriculum contents. 

The 2013 curriculum is now implemented in Indonesia which has its own characteristics. Its goal is to cover the attitudes and learners’ need. It also suggests integrated and active learning processes in which the students are able to enhance their skills including thinking skills, knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. As an addition, authentic assessment is used in this curriculum to gain the learning objectives.

Based on the Journal’s finding, the teachers generally have sufficient competence to enhance syllabus components into lesson plans. It also stated that, during the direct and indirect observation, the teacher performance in pre-activity, main-activity, and post-activity is showed a good result. The teachers intend to have adequate ability to implement the curriculum. Nevertheless, the teachers’ readiness to implement Curriculum 2013 has low correlation to their competence to implement the curriculum at school.

It can be concluded that, it is necessary to consider some factors before implementing a new curriculum. There are curriculum planning and deliberation, validation, and dissemination. Longer periods of teacher training and well-trained instructor also have to be considered. Having much time in the training will gives the teacher more opportunity to know it deeply. Well-trained instructors also become very crucial in order to convey the right information.

Review Journal article 7

A REVIEW JOURNAL ENTITLED HOW ENGLISH STUDENT TEACHERS DEAL WITH TEACHINGDIFFICULTIES IN THEIR TEACHING PRACTICUM

Riesky

Indonesia University of Education

email: riesky81@yahoo.com

Student teachers will gain with the teaching practicum as one of the requirement for fulfilling all the learning process in undergraduate study. It is the essential stages which they have the opportunity to apply the teaching theory, methodologies, and strategies which they have learned in the previous semesters.  According to Richard & Crookes (1988, as cited in Gebhard, 2009), they will have a chance to experience many valuable things, such as getting practical classroom experience, putting theories into practices, gaining insight from observing experienced teachers, improving lesson planning ability, improving ability in designing and developing materials, sharpening their teaching ability, strengthening their understanding of teaching in terms of theory and practice, and improving decision-making ability in teaching by looking and exploring  into themselves and other’s teaching practices.

Being student teachers are not as simple as receiving materials in the classroom. Applying theories into practice is one of the complex areas which are faced by many educators especially in the context of second language teacher education. Some of the difficulties which are gained by the student teachers are student-related difficulties, self-related difficulties, and supervising-teacher-related difficulties. Dealing with those problems, student teachers find several efforts to overcome the difficulties. For the student-related difficulties; they apply specific strategies, make an interpersonal approach, consult to the supervising teacher and fellow student teachers, remind student about the final mark, and give rewards. In the other hand, they try to improve knowledge on methodology and make some modification in the practice of teaching, and also consult to the supervising teacher to overcome self-related difficulties. In order to deal with the supervising-teacher-related difficulties, they consult with the other available teacher at school and become more independent in making certain decision.

As its conclusion, student teachers have to establish a great preparation before practicum teaching. They have to apply various kinds of teaching strategies and methodologies. One of the innovative solutions in evaluating the teaching process is doing a reflection. It can be done by discussions, journal writing, and analyzing critical incidents. The supervising teachers also play an important role in developing the students teachers’ teaching skill. They have to be more active in discussing and sharing knowledge, methodologies, strategies, and also experiences with the student teachers, so that they can enrich their knowledge and teaching skills.   

Review Journal article 6

A REVIEW JOURNAL ENTITLED STUDENTS’ READING PRACTICES AND ENVIRONMENTS BY AIZA JOHARI, AMELIA ALFRED TOM, AFFIDAH MORNI, AND SITI HUZAIMAH SAHARI

The main purpose of reading is to gain knowledge and it describes as reading for utilitarian or specific purpose. Moreover, another reason of reading is to gain pleasure, where Hedge (2006) stated that once a reader finds pleasure in reading, the ‘love’ towards reading will also be increasing. As an output, the ‘love’ of reading has stimulated many learners to a successful acquisition of reading skills and strategies.

The literacy awareness begins at home before children go to school as stated in Cook (1980), Morrow (1985) and Gove and Cvelich (2010). The attitudes of parents’ reading habit and other family members will affect the students’ motivation to read. For additional, Reading is fundamental (2007) also indicated that children who see their parent reading daily; both for function and for pleasure will more likely become avid readers themselves and if they see parents visiting libraries and checking out books, giving and receiving books as gifts, and borrowing and loaning books to friends, they will know their parents place high value on reading. Notably, the development of literacy in children is qualitatively and quantitatively affected by adults, who live and interact regularly with children (Snow et al, 2005)

As the result of the finding, students especially in teen ages, tend to read the non academic materials, such as comics, storybooks, and magazines.  Those kind of enjoying reading materials become popular among teen ages students because they are aye-catching and easier to read. The reader can understand and interpret the information without any struggle. Another reason for students to have a good reading habit is reading environment at home. Nevertheless, most of the students indicated that they are not practicing ‘reading culture’ at home as their family members were not avid readers.

As the conclusion, home is the beginning of the students reading habit before they go to school. Parents have to be a model for their children. They have to nurture a good reading habit at home. Various reading sources have to be provided for the children to develop their interest in reading; hence they will take reading as a habit and lifestyle. They will do the activity with pleasure, without any pressure and become avid readers.

Review Journal article 5

A REVIEW JOURNAL ENTITLED READING HABITS AND PREFERENCES OF EFL POST GRADUATES: A CASE STUDY BY NOORIZAH MOHD. NOOR 

Reading is very important for all learners since it becomes an essential tool for lifelong learning.  For gaining any information, learners have to adapt into social and technological changes which are influenced many aspects of life include education. Reading also becomes a tool to obtain particular knowledge and experiences. Reading frequency can expand students’ vocabulary and world knowledge. Students who have good reading habit will enhance their reading skills and strategies.

Text books are the materials which are expected to be the primary reading material for students. Nevertheless, the evidences show that the first type of reading material is the internet material. It becomes the most popular reading material among students because students are able to access it more flexible, freely, and easily. Considering this phenomena, educators have to redirect their focus on media and online materials as the important aspects of literacy aspects. The second materials which are chosen by the students as reading materials are story books and novels. Students intend to have an enjoying reading material. They spend some of their time to read fiction type materials. This type of recreational reading or reading of fiction is an indicator of reading achievement (Ogle et al, 2003) and can be seen as a motivating factor toward building their love for books and reading in general (Dent & Yanotta, 2005). Reading these types of materials can benefit the readers in many ways: learn about other places or times, stimulate their imagination, and gain insights into human nature, able to follow their specific hobby or interests as well as acts as a form of escapism from ‘unpleasant’ realities (Tella & Akande, 2007). Furthermore, reading these kinds of enjoying material can enhance reading skills and strategies.

The most important thing for students nowadays is building a good reading habit. They can start by reading any enjoying reading materials such as online sources, story books, or novels. By reading these kinds of materials, they can read without any pressure and begin to enhance their reading skills and strategies. Starting from some enjoying reading materials, students will be able to read another kind of material especially an academic source. Thus, reading is about building a habit to take this kind of activity become an important need and lifestye.