Digital Reading Engagement of Junior High School Students during the Online Learning

The pandemic of COVID-19 has forced the teachers and students to hold the teaching and learning remotely. All the process of learning was conducted online via various mobile applications. Students widely use smartphones as a medium to receive learning materials, join online classes, and study. However, it was questioned whether students are engaged with their reading materials when they have to read the texts on screen or digitally and learn from them. It is expected that the use of digital devices has influenced students' reading engagement, especially when the reading is to learn. This study aims to find out about the students' engagement in reading digital texts during online learning. The study collects the data from self-report questionnaires, interviews, and observation. The result shows that students do not experience behavioral and affective engagement as well as a negative response while they are reading the texts onscreen during online learning.

The Characteristics of Instructional Systematic Design English Online Teaching Environment

The English online learning instructional model became contingent upon organised and guided learning practices by competent English lecturers as instructors in the online situation. There are a few concepts applied to the English instructional online pedagogy for Higher Education and Universities. The purposes of the examinations are to classify the relevance of online instructional learning to conform to English learning and present current or unexpected instructional design into the English online environment. The study employed a convergent parallel design method. This method of choice had depth-analysing and performing parallel analyses, which are considered alternative evidence for discussing the components of the online instructional model. The examination consisted of 52 English lecturers from various Higher Education and Universities. The survey questionnaires were addressed to participants, and interview strategies were identified to collect a distinctive angle and dept-involvement on the English online instructional. Findings of the study have revealed that English lecturers considered learner-centered intended course as very important for their teaching concept while emphasising real-world performance as important for the online environment material. Collaborative approach and concentrate on reliably and validly assessed outcomes become the second phase importance in the online instructional model. Interview protocols thematic analysis exposed that English lecturers should support and organise their particular English online instructional online environment. The general characterised adapted to engage in English online instructional online-based. The condition is because of English lecturers empathising with the appropriate material, approach to the learners’ flexibility, and individual accomplishment in every topic.

Reciprocal Questioning Procedures in Reading Comprehension: Does It Increase Students’ Motivation?

Reading is essential and serves as a basic building block in English language learning process. As a result, a teacher must have an effective teaching technique in teaching reading comprehension. This study aims to find out the influence of reciprocal questioning towards students’ motivation in reading comprehension of the third-grade students at SMP Negeri 3 Praya. The research was conducted through experimental research, the pre-test and post-test were used as the design. The instrument was used a set of questionnaires (Likert scale) for motivation test. The data analysis that used was descriptive analysis and inferential analysis for measuring the motivation test in form of questionnaires. Then, according to the result of the test, it showed that t-test 4.865 was higher than the t-table 2.423 at the level of significance 0.50. It means that, there was a positive effect of Reciprocal Questioning procedure towards students’ motivation in reading comprehension.

Investigating the Implementation of Classroom Assessment by Novice English Teachers

Classroom assessment plays an important role in the success of English language teaching and learning in the classroom. Besides, implementing classroom assessment can be challenging for teachers since it needs a comprehensive process as well as adequate knowledge related to the subject matter. Some previous studies have proven that Indonesian novice teachers of English faced various challenges related to the real field of teaching that assessment is one of the challenges. Regarding the challenges of the assessment, this research is aimed at investigating the implementation of classroom assessment in assessing students’ English skills including its challenges and opportunities faced by novice English teachers. This research employed an open-ended questionnaire involving four female novice English teachers who have less than three years of teaching experience when this research is conducted. The results show that most of the novice English teachers implemented achievement tests that are often summative and used various tasks for assessing their students’ English skills. However, some of the novice English teachers could not answer the questions related to their practices of the assessment principles. Furthermore, the novice English teachers experienced challenges in implementing the classroom assessment such as when implementing peer-assessment, creating a valid grade in the assessment process, and not having enough time for the test preparation. Lastly, one of the novice English teachers involved in this research experienced the opportunities related to the implementation of classroom assessment as assessment not only can reflect the students’ learning progress, but also can know the weakness of the teaching.

The Implementation of Literacy Culture Programs in Elementary School

This study aims to describe the implementation of literacy culture programs of elementary school. This study used phenomenology of a qualitative approach. The subjects were the headmaster, teachers, students who were selected by using purposive sampling technique. The validity data test used triangulation techniques by comparing the results of observations, interviews, and documentation. The results showed that: 1) The policy for implementing a literacy culture at elementary school by using the School Literacy Movement program of the government. It is based on Permendikbud No. 23, 2015 focusing on character development. (2) The implementation of literacy culture of elementary school. It is based on the habituation stage that carried out 10 minutes of reading Al Qur’an and storybooks before lessons. The development stage of the activities carried out the respond to the contents of reading books by reading independently, giving appreciation for student literacy achievements, and having a school literacy team. The learning stage is by getting used to reading textbooks and using various strategies that support learning.

Communication Strategies Used By EFL Students in English Classroom Setting

The main objective of teaching English is to allow the learner to communicate orally and successfully. People all over the place study a foreign language to enable them to communicate effectively. This study investigates a phenomenon about communication strategy used by EFL students in English Classroom Setting. The focus of this study is to investigate the types of communication strategies and the most frequent types of communication strategies employed by EFL Students. It took place in Institut Pendidikan Nusantara Global that located in Central Lombok. The participant of this study was a total of 20 students from the second semester. A qualitative research design was used to collect the data need in this study embarrassing interviews and observation as main instruments; the observation used were field notes and videotape aimed to get the documentation of the study. The finding of the study shows that most of the students employed the types of communication strategy i.e.: Asking for clarification, requesting an explanation, asking for repetition, circumlocution, message abandonment, meaning negotiation, and interaction monitoring. Furthermore, the communication strategies frequently used by students i.e.: asking for clarification, message abandonment, and meaning negotiation. In conclusion, every student has their own communication strategy but the researcher categorized those strategies into several types.

The English Speaking Competency and Challenges for BIPA Teachers

This research aimed to determine: (1) How important English speaking ability is for BIPA teachers; (2) What English speaking macro skills should be prepared to be a BIPA teacher; (3) What obstacles BIPA teachers find in the teaching process and how they solve them. This research used the qualitative method. The participants of this research were two BIPA teachers from different offices, from West Nusa Tenggara Province Language Office and Mataram Lingua Franca Institute. This research mostly used interviews to support the data of this research, while observation and documentation were used as supporting sources. The results of this research indicate that: (1) English speaking ability on A1 grade or the first grade is important because English is a bridge to connect the students to Indonesian; (2) There are five macro skills of English speaking ability that should be mastered by BIPA teachers; (3) The obstacles that mostly appear on the teaching process are based on the purpose of the learners to study Indonesian and the characteristics of each student from different countries.

Square Talks®: A Mobile App to Support EFL Learners’ Vocabulary Development

In recent years, mobile-based game language learning has proliferated due to its promising prospects and positive impacts in improving teaching and learning outcomes in English vocabulary development. With this phenomenon, Square Talks® was developed specifically to aid EFL beginner learners with their English vocabulary. This study aims to examine the effectiveness of the game app in developing the learners’ English vocabulary development. This study employed a quantitative approach focusing on 34 EFL beginner learners. The focus has been on how effective the game app was statistically and overall experience of using the game app. Data were collected through vocabulary tests and a survey. The test results showed that Square Talks® has improved the subjects’ English vocabulary development with the t-value of the test results is -19.93 indicating a significant effect in increasing the subjects’ English vocabulary development. The survey result revealed positive acceptance toward playing Square Talks® in terms of effectiveness (4.49), usability (4.34), and satisfaction (4.52). Therefore, Square Talks® can be considered to be an alternative learning tool to facilitate EFL beginner learners’ vocabulary development.

Intercultural Communicative Competence: L2 Learners’ Participation on Debating Class

Taboos in conversations will take place between speaker and hearer as the cultural awareness of the target language culture is not taken into account in the teaching and learning processes of English triggered this research to be conducted. This research deals with an analysis of intercultural communicative competence of L2 learners by means of applying Constructivists Model in which the preliminary description of how competent they are on L2 culture can be described. This research is qualitative research where eight students were arranged in debating class involved as the subject. Two debaters from Executive English Debate Community were engaged in this research as the team to construct the activities for the students. By providing anobservation checklist and questionnaire, the finding shows that the students actively exchange their ideas, they feel part of learning, they are able to develop problem-solving through peer collaboration, and they are able to develop new skills and knowledge from the other members of groups. It can be noted that the motions provided during the research, in which the L2 culture is considered, have helped the L2 learners to enhance their intercultural communicative competence seen from their active participation.

Project-Based Learning for Mechanical Engineering Students in the Emergency Remote Teaching

Covid-19 has changed a lot of life sectors, including education. The government’s policy to carry out emergency remote teaching (ERT) immediately switches the teachers’ and lecturers’ plans on successful classroom activities. One of the classroom’s activities is project-based learning (PBL). With several limitations, challenges should be taken on so that designing simple but meaningful projects can facilitate project-based learning. Thus, some adaptations should be made since some students are economically impacted. Online learning modes, either synchronous or asynchronous were held to communicate the project. A descriptive qualitative research method was employed by involving two classes of mechanical engineering students. Data were collected from learning platforms observations, interviews with students’ representatives, and questionnaires administered to all students. The project was conducted in four stages; beginning the infographic project, developing the project, closing the project, and evaluating the project. The research indicated that the students completed and engaged in the project successfully through some problems that came up, mainly when the students had to have group work and communicate using internet media since most students were back home with various internet connection access. However, some assessable applications were employed so that the project was well accomplished. In conclusion, conducting a PBL in emergency remote teaching was successfully conducted with some simple available and accessable applications since the students’ conditions varied significantly.