Improving functional text writing achievement by using Four Square Strategy at SMK Negeri 2 sekayu

The fact that English writing skill in Indonesia is still low encouraged the writer to conduct this study concerning vocational high school students. Four Square strategies in prewriting activities help students to write, especially in writing functional text. The objective of this study was to see if there was a substantial difference in writing achievement between students who were taught with the Four Square strategy and those who were not. The quasi-experimental approach was applied in this research. The population of SMK Negeri 2 Sekayu’s eleventh graders in the academic year 2021/2022, with a total of 217 students. From this group, 60 students were chosen as the sample and divided evenly into two groups, the experimental and control groups. The Four Square strategy was used to teach the experimental group, whereas the control group received no treatment. However, all the students in the two groups were given writing tests before and after the application of the two strategies. A t-test was used to assess the data collected. The result showed that the experimental group outperformed the control group with a significant mean difference of 23.82 (p < 0.00). These results indicated that the Four Square strategy was effective in improving the students’ writing achievement.

PERILAKU ASERTIF DALAM MENOLAK AJAKAN PENYALAHGUNAAN NARKOBA DITINJAU DARI GENDER

This study aims to describe the assertive behavior of male and female students' assertive behavior to reject the invitation to drugs abuse. The population used was the tenth and eleventh graders of Vocational School Student of Bandar Pacitan in the academic year of 2020/2021 with a population of 212 students and samples were taken using saturated sampling techniques. The data collection method used an assertive behavior questionnaire. The validity of the instrument used the product moment formula and its reliability used the Alpha formula. Data analysis used percentage descriptive and quantitative analysis using statistical formula t-test or independent samples t-test. The validity, reliability, and data analysis were assisted by the SPSS 21 for Windows program. The results of the analysis showed that assertive behavior to refuse the invitation to drug abuse by female students was higher with an average of 80.17% compared to male students who obtained an average of 72.68%. The conclusion of this study was that there was a significant difference in the assertive behavior of male and female students to reject the invitation to drugs abuse. Keywords: Assertive behavior; Drugs and Youth.

STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS TOWARD TEACHER’S TALK IN EFL CLASSROOM OF INDONESIA SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL: A CASE STUDY

This study is a case study to investigate students’ perceptions toward teacher’s talk in EFL (English as a Foreign Language) classrooms. It is conducted for two months on a single entity as the research subject, ie on 35 Eleventh-graders with varying English language skills and an English teacher. Since it focuses only on a certain entity, the results of the study cannot be generalized to the broader context. This study uses a qualitative approach by showing data from the results of questionnaires, observations and interviews with research samples. The study focuses on a research question on how Eleventh graders' perception on a teacher’s talk in EFL classrooms. Regarding to the research question, it aims to determine the thoughts of students on teacher’s talk, so that the teacher can organize and modify the class based on the perceptions that can implicate the learning process by reducing students’ anxiety. It provides students opportunities to be able to process information or lessons learned more comfortably, thus it reduces obstacles in learning. The findings of the study show that the majority of students of Eleventh-grade want to fully use English although they still have difficulties in understanding and feel less confident in using English.

Theater as a safe environment to start productive skills development in an EFL classroom

This article describes a pedagogical proposal based on theater as a safe space to develop productive skills in an EFL classroom. Thirty-six eleventh graders from a public school in Tunja participated in the theater sessions. In each session, we collected data through recordings, interviews, and field notes to understand the impact of the pedagogical intervention. The findings suggested that theater could help créate a safe environment that decreased students’ anxiety levels while exploring the language. As a result, the students’ productive skills started to emerge. We argue the need to change classroom dynamics, organization, and time management in order to create transformative places that foster safe environments in the EFL classroom.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN STUDENT’S APPROACHES TOWARD LEARNING AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN THE CHINESE CONTEXT

This study examined the relationship between Chinese high school students’ approaches toward learning and their academic achievements. Participants consisted of 14,021 eleventh graders from an eastern province in China. They took the National Standardized Test in three subject areas: Chinese language, mathematics, and English language. The total score was used as an indicator of their academic achievement. Students’ approaches toward learning were measured in three aspects: self-confidence in learning, learning interests, and study habits. Questionnaires of self-confidence in learning and learning interests were adapted from PISA 2006 and PISA 2012. Study habits were measured with the questionnaire adapted from Academic Adjustment Inventory (AAT). The Pearson correlation and hierarchical linear regression results showed that the dimensions of students’ approaches toward learning weresignificantly related to academic achievements. Results of analysis of variance after the control of student gender and socioeconomic status suggested that the top 25% of students in dimensions of approaches toward learning scored significantly higher than the bottom 25% of students with small effect sizes in their performance on the final examinations. This study suggests that helping students build good approaches toward learning may improve their academic achievements. Educators are recommended to put more effort into helping students cultivate learning confidence and developing interests in learning. Classroom teachers are advised to guide students in fostering good study habits and make study plans.

A Survey on the Students� Perceptions in Learning Speaking through Picture Media

The general aims in this research are to find out the students perceptions in learning speaking through picture media at the eleventh grade students of MA Roudlotul Muta�alimin in academic year 2019/2020. Furthermore, the aims can particularly be formulated to know what students perceptions in learning speaking through picture media. This research was categorized as survey research with the descriptive quantitative approach. The subject of this research is the eleventh grade students of MA Roudlotul Muta�alimin in academic year 2019/2020 as the participants totally 18 students. The questionnare was used to collected the data about students perceptions in learning speaking through picture media. And documentation was used to collected a description of the school and respondent. And the result is the eleventh graders of MA Roudlotul Muta�alimin had high integrative motivation to develop English speaking. They also had a high expectation that picture media could help them develop their English speaking skill. They also �strongly agreed� and �agreed� that English speaking mastery will help them to be more confident and courageous in speaking English, express their idea and motivate themselves even reached more than 80%. The response more than 85% of them �strongly agreed� and �agreed� that their mastery of English speaking will able to motivate themself to improve their ability to speak in English and make it easier for them to talk about anything in English by using picture media. In addition, the teacher also has an interesting method in learning English and often to use picture media in learning English.

An Analysis of Errors on Mathematical Symbol as a Metaphor in Linear Programming

Symbol sense is crucial in the understanding of mathematical problems comprising various symbols. The misuses of symbols happen due to misinterpretation, which is considered the constraint to learn algebra more comprehensively, including in linear programming. The term ‘metaphor’ is defined as a means to carry over symbol sense, and is used to improve mathematical understanding. This present research was aimed at analyzing errors on mathematical symbol as a metaphor in linear programming. This research was conducted by means of descriptive qualitative design, with a test and interview as the instruments. The test was made essay, and its results were analyzed qualitatively. The test, further, was administered to five eleventh graders selected according to highest rates of errors committed. This research has shown that the students committed a number of errors in some cases, such as representing symbols as variables, representing numbers, and interpreting symbols as relational operators. In addition, errors which the students committed in constructing mathematical models covered defining the final value, representing numbers, applying inequality system, and interpreting symbols as operation counts. This present research has provided some ways for symbol sense, and thus the errors on mathematical symbol as a metaphor could be lessened. Next, this research can be further followed up by reviewing the effectiveness of remedial instruction according to the committed errors on mathematical symbols.

Psychoemotional Status of Schoolchildren before and during Distance Learning at the Time of 2020 Coronavirus Lockdown

Introduction: During lockdown, a student is influenced by a combination of external factors including family environment, increased social and emotional stress, higher educational and computer load, and higher responsibility for doing homework, which inevitably changes his psychoemotional sphere and coping behavior. In order to study characteristics of psychoemotional and behavioral reactions of schoolchildren before and during 2020 COVID-19 lockdown, we conducted a questionnaire-based survey of 1,160 fifth to eleventh graders aged 11–18 in the city of Chelyabinsk. Results: We established a high level of reactive anxiety in 7.9 % and 9.9 % and a low level in 63.4 % and 59.4 % of schoolchildren before and during lockdown, respectively. A high level of personal anxiety was observed in 33.6 % and 42.6 % of children and a low level – in 19.8 % and 16.8 % of schoolchildren before and during lockdown, respectively. Higher levels of reactive and personal anxiety were more prevalent in girls than in boys. We noted a high and increased levels of aggression in 78.6 % and 80.5 % and very high and high levels of neuroticism in 44.6 % and 44.4 % of the respondents before and during school closure, respectively. A high level of emotional excitability and neurotization was observed in one third of the surveyed schoolchildren. The number of respondents with a high level of neurotization and emotional excitability rose by 7.5 % and 4.0 % during lockdown, respectively. The proportion of successful distance learning schoolchildren increased by 16.8 %. Conclusions: Lockdown contributed to the increase in the levels of anxiety, aggressiveness, and neuroticism in school-age adolescents. The number of respondents complaining of sleep disturbance, visual impairment and headaches became 2.7, 1.1, and 1.1 times higher during lockdown. We revealed significant differences in sleep disorders, headaches, dizziness, complaints of vision impairment, fatigue, and irritability between successful and unsuccessful schoolchildren (p < 0.05).

The effectiveness of MALL and flipped classroom in teaching writing to the eleventh graders of SMA in Banyumas

MALL has become an invaluable means in teaching writing for learners in and out of the classroom. Although there were many researches on MALL to enhance writing competence, analytical exposition text writing was never carried out. This study was aimed to investigate whether: (1) MALL was more effective than Flipped classroom to teach writing for the eleventh graders of SMA (senior high school); (2) the high creative students possessed better writing skills than the low creative ones; and (3) an interaction effect occurred between the methods of teaching and creativity to teach writing for the eleventh graders of SMA in Banyumas. The employed method was an experimental research with factorial design. The population of the research was the eleventh graders of SMA in Banyumas. Four schools were purposively taken. There were two samples in this research; experimental class comprising 72 students from SMAN 01 Banyumas and SMAN 01 Baturraden and control class containing 72 students from SMAN 03 Purwokerto and SMAN 01 Sokaraja. The occupied instruments in this research were verbal creativity and writing test. The data analyses were in the matter of frequency distribution, normality, homogeneity, ANOVA and TUKEY. The results of the study revealed that: (1) MALL is more effective than Flipped classroom in teaching writing for the eleventh graders of SMA; (2) the high creative students possessed better writing competence than the low creative students; and (3) an interaction effect happened between the methods of teaching and creativity in regards to writing teaching.