Enhancing Students' English Language Skills through Active Learning at an Islamic University

English is the most widely used international language in the world. Mastering English skills in this modern era is, therefore, crucial. Consequently, English needs to be sufficiently taught to students of all educational levels. In response to the issue, this study aims to investigate the active learning strategy (intense involvement of students in learning processes) employed in the Faculty of Islamic Da'wah and Communication at an Islamic Institute in Lumajang, East Java. This study was designed as a case study with in-depth interviews and observations as the main data collection. The results of this study indicate that although the active learning method was successfully implemented in this faculty, the strategies and learning activities should be varied.

Animated Video in Teaching Reading Comprehension Viewed from the Students’ Reading Interest

The purposes of this study are to find out whether (1) animated video is effective in teaching reading comprehension, (2) students with high reading interest have better reading comprehension achievement than those with low reading interest, and (3) there is an interaction between the teaching media and the students’ reading interest in teaching reading comprehension. This study is experimental research. The population of this study is the students of MTs Negeri Prambanan. Two classes were taken as the sample, and the sampling technique used was cluster random sampling. This study applied tests and a questionnaire in collecting the data and Kolmogorov-Smirnov formula, One Way ANOVA, and multifactor analysis of variance in analyzing the data. Based on the result of data analysis, the research findings are: (1) animated video is effective in teaching reading comprehension of the students in MTs Negeri Prambanan (Fobtain = 7.60, Sig. Value 0,05); (2) the students in MTs Negeri Prambanan with high reading interest have better reading comprehension achievement than those with low reading interest (Fobtain = 9.19, Sig. Value 0,05); (3) there is an interaction between the teaching media and the students’ reading interest in teaching reading comprehension of the students in MTs Negeri Prambanan (Fobtain = 6.15, Sig. Value 0,05). Based on these research findings, it can be concluded that animated video is effective in teaching reading comprehension of the students of MTs Negeri Prambanan. It brings improvement to the students’ reading comprehension achievement.

Student Motivation in Online English Learning

This study aims to discover and describe the condition of the motivational object experienced by students in online English learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. This research was conducted in Yogyakarta in the even learning year 2020/2021. Sampling was done using a purposive sampling technique, and four classes were obtained, each of which there was 32 students, with the total number of samples being 128 students. Data collection techniques in this study are by distributing questionnaires, interviews, and documentation. The questionnaire was made using google forms. Data analysis calculated the percentage of each category indicator and learning motivation aspect, from which the data percentage score was interpreted, and each indicator was analyzed in depth. The results of this study indicate that the learning motivation of students in Yogyakarta in the even semester is in the odd category. This can be seen from the moderate category, as many as 72 students out of 128 students, while from the motivational presentation score with the highest ARSC aspect, the satisfaction aspect is 28%. This research is expected to evaluate various parties involved in organizing online learning in universities so that the implementation is more optimal.

Teachers’ Reflections on Teaching Mathematics in English: A Consideration for Developing ESP Course

This study aims at investigating the difficulties faced by mathematics teachers in delivering learning materials in English, the strategies carried out by the teachers to overcome their problems, and its implication for ESP design. Conducted in a private school in Surakarta, which uses the Cambridge curriculum, this study involved five mathematics teachers. The data were collected by interview to elicit detailed information. Then, the data were analyzed using the interactive analysis method. Based on the study, the teachers faced several difficulties, namely vocabulary mastery, pronunciation, grammar mastery, and speaking fluency. The teachers’ strategies to cope with the difficulties were improving English skills by learning from reference books and other sources, printed or online, and collaborating with peer teachers. They also used an online platform to assist their learning as well as prepare the learning media. It implied that ESP design for mathematics teachers needed to cover four aspects: vocabulary mastery, pronunciation, grammar mastery, and speaking fluency. Several platforms could be utilized to design the ESP course, including the platforms that supported the linguistic aspects and mathematical knowledge.

Learners’ Willingness to Communicate in a Foreign Language: The Role of Informal Digital Learning of English

The trend of online teaching and learning in the age of the COVID-19 pandemic has driven contemporary students to learn English in an informal context outside the classroom. Drawing on this issue, the present study is at the cutting edge of examining the role of Informal Digital Learning of English (IDLE) in affecting students’ willingness to communicate in a foreign language. A total of 156 (male=63; female=93) Indonesian EFL students participated in survey research upon invitation. The data are obtained by means of an online questionnaire consisting of three parts: (1) willingness to communicate, (2) IDLE, and (3) demographic data. The hierarchical regression analysis results reveal that Frequency of IDLE, Receptive IDLE activity, and Productive IDLE activity are the positive predictors of EFL learners’ willingness to communicate in English as a foreign language. The results indicate that the Indonesian EFL learners are motivated to communicate in English when engaging in a range of IDLE activities. In other words, it is implied that IDLE activities (both productive and receptive) potentially build the communication behavior of Indonesian EFL learners, who learn English as a foreign language and possess a culturally homogeneous society.

Students' Speaking Anxiety: Ready or Not

Language is the main common field for communication. For that reason, communication skills must take part in learning a language. Speaking is being a part of English lessons in schools today. However, making students speak English is not always easy, and there can be several different reasons it happens. One possible reason is speaking anxiety and its influence on second language acquisition. The study aims to analyze the students' speaking anxiety when they are in the speaking session. The study is based on literature and contains an interview with the teacher. It is stated that speaking anxiety inhibits students from speaking, which hurts their skills. The research shows that speaking is not the main issue at schools. A reason is that speaking anxiety is not seen as a problem concerning language teaching since it can be considered a social difficulty. In order to enrich speaking in a classroom, it is essential to strive for a joyful atmosphere where every student can feel relaxed and motivated to communicate orally.

Negotiation of Meaning of Indonesian EFL Learners in Casual Conversation: An SFL Study

Communicative interaction is demanded by all levels of EFL learners. To prepare them to comply with this purpose, engaging them to deal with the real-life conversation using the target language may have beneficial effects on their second language acquisition process. However, the way learners negotiating meaning in an understandable way and how they position themselves as the appropriate role of the speakers are still rarely studied, especially in the Indonesian teaching and learning context. This study aims to reveal what type of commodity is being exchanged by graduate learners (3 females and 1 male) when they are assigned to have an unplanned casual conversation. The study further analyzes the nature of the exchange structure of EFL learners' casual conversation seen from the Systemic Functional Linguistics perspective. The data were taken from audio recordings of casual conversations and then transcribed as the written data. The conversation was then divided into clauses as the unit of analysis. In employing a spoken discourse analysis framework, interactive analysis was implemented to discover exchange structure. The results show the exchanged commodity is information through statements. It indicates that as magister students, they always show their knowledge off, and intimacy sometimes matters as the reason for informative conversations. The speakers' role also has been successfully achieved by the speakers since their ability to position themselves as initiators or responders to keep the conversational flow.

The Influence of English Teacher's Nonverbal Interaction on EFL Students' Perception of Learning

English teachers have proximity control, which is described by walking closer to the noisy part of the class and continuing to be there until the commotion subsides. However, there are still some students who are indifferent during the learning process. Therefore, this research aims to determine the influence of English teacher's nonverbal interactions on EFL students' perception at State Islamic Senior High School 1 Bengkalis. This research is causal-comparative research. There are two instruments: observation and questionnaire. The population of this research is 208 students. Then, the researcher uses simple random sampling and chooses 40 students from all classes. Using simple linear regression analysis formula through SPSS 20.0 in analyzing the data, the researcher found that sig-t was 0.000, smaller than 0.05 (sig-t 0.05). The result showed a significant influence of the English teacher's nonverbal interactions on EFL students' perception at State Islamic Senior High School 1 Bengkalis. It means that Ha was accepted. The researcher also found that the value of R square was 0.546, namely squaring of the Standardized Coefficients ((0.739 x 0.739)2 x 100% = 0.546). R square can be called the coefficient of determination, which means that the English teacher's nonverbal interaction influences 54.6% of EFL students' perception. Then, the other 45.4% is influenced by other factors.

The Implementation of the Jigsaw Technique to Increase Students' Listening Achievement and Motivation Aspects

Teaching listening needs improvement because many students get low scores on the listening test. This condition should be improved by providing a new teaching technique. Students in Mutiara Senior High School have problems in mastering a listening skill. They are difficult to catch the meaning while the listening test is given. The purposes of this study are to find out whether there is a significant increase after being taught by jigsaw technique and which motivation aspects (effort, goal, persistence, and frequency) have the most influence on students' achievement in learning English. This experimental study was measured by pretest and posttest designs. The research subject was class XI of science class in even semester of Mutiara Senior High School in South Lampung. The instrument to measure students' listening achievement was a listening comprehension test which consisted of 30 multiple choices. Another instrument was a close-ended questionnaire with 20 questions to know which motivation aspect had the most influence on students' English achievements. The data were analyzed by using the t-test formula. The computation result showed that t-ratio in the experimental class had a significant increase from pretest (49.13) to posttest (71.45) after being taught by the jigsaw technique. The result of the computation showed that the value of the two-tailed significance was 0.000. Since the sign α (0.000 0.05), the value indicated that the numbers represented the significance. It means that the treatment given had a better effect on students' ability. In addition, it revealed that the most influential motivation aspect was an effort. Therefore, students' personal or group tasks should be supported by giving rewards and punishment to improve students' efforts in learning.

A Hermeneutical Study of Using Mobile Phone in 4.0 in Writing Skills

Mobile phones become an affordable device in our lives since it is ubiquitous and the function is now not only for communication but also beyond that. This study aims to give the readers more insight into the use of a mobile phone in writing skills by using a hermeneutical approach. Participants were undergraduate students at age 18-20 (N=16). The descriptive analysis results reveal that a significant number of students notice that writing is considered the most challenging skill since they have to organize all aspects to produce good writing. Thus, a hermeneutical approach is needed to examine their difficulties in writing skills.