The Six Characteristics of Andragogy and Future Research Directions in EFL: A Literature Review

The way in which adults learn is distinctive to how children learn, hence Andragogy differs from Pedagogy and so do the implications. Although several studies have attempted to discuss the andragogy and its principles, only few studies investigate its implementation and the practical guidance on how to employ each characteristic in the teaching and learning process. To fill this void, this paper reviews the concept of andragogy and highlights its six characteristics: self-concept, experiences, readiness to learn, motivation, need to know, and problem-centred learning. Employing a narrative review of 18 journal articles from reputable international journals, the study’s findings suggest that the six characteristics/principles of andragogy are applicable in designing teaching and learning materials, teaching activities, and assignments enacted by teachers. Future research is encouraged to delve into the practice of the six characteristics of andragogy in the teaching of English as a foreign language. The differences between adults and children learning and directions for further research in teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) is also discussed at the end of study.

Integrating Islamic Values in Teaching English: Lessons Learned from an Integrated Islamic School

Learning English is very closely related to learning western culture, which might contrast with Islamic values, the dominant religion in Indonesia. This study finds merit in finding out the implementation of Islamic values in teaching English at an Integrated Islamic school in Indonesia, where the school chosen curriculum mandated that the subject be integrated with Islamic values since all the students are Muslim. This case study took place at an Integrated Islamic School, and the data were collected through interviewing seven English teachers and conducting a thematic analysis on their lesson plans. All the teachers admitted that integrating Islamic values in the English lesson was essential. Still, the thematic analysis showed that their perceptions about the importance of integrating Islamic values in English learning were not firmly in line with the implementation in the teaching and learning process. The teachers' lesson plans (RPP) did not depict substantial integration of Islamic values. This study recommends the practical ways of integrating Islamic that could improve teachers' understanding of Islamic values in English learning, additionally pointing out a need to develop the curriculum and teaching materials that incorporate Islamic values.

Demystifying the Hegemony of the English Language: Scrutiny of ‘Gak Bisa Bahasa Inggris!’ Advertisement within a Semiotics Lens

Due to its overarching status and power, the English language has dominated and influenced nearly in various means of communication, and one of which is instantiated in advertisements. However, studies concerning the hegemony of the English language represented in an advertisement were found to be under-explored. Thereby, the present study aimed to scrutinise the domination and power of the English language, particularly in Indonesia, represented in one of the advertisements, which is a remake video of a viral video from 2017 to date, entitled ‘Gak Bisa Bahasa Inggris!’ from a Youtube Channel named Pahamy. Semiotic analysis was employed to analyse the advertisement. The findings revealed only five out of eight types of syntagma found comprising descriptive syntagma, bracket syntagma, episodic syntagma, autonomous shot, and scene. The present study concluded that it seemed not possible to have the eight syntagmatic types in a very short advertisement video, and some signs found in the advertisement could be used to shed light on the hegemony of the English language in Indonesia, which might result in either positive or negative effect; hence, any thoughtful consideration and action through multilingual education was advocated to solve or at least mitigate this issue.

Critical Discourse Analysis: The Negative Representation of the French President in France's English Online News

There is a scarcity of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) studies on the representation of social actors in news media, thus this study addressed this research gap by analysing the way news represented the French President Emmanuel Macron, regarding his controversial support of Samuel Paty, a history teacher in France who was murdered because he showed a cartoon of Prophet Muhammad in his class. This research aims to see the representation of Emmanuel Macron from the perspective of the French media, The Connexion France, which published their news in English language online to reach world-wide audience. Four articles of the news were purposively selected for this CDA study, which were published from October 18 until November 1, 2020. The French President’s representation was analysed with the nomination and predication strategies. Results showed that the Connexion France uses four nomination strategies to refer Emmanuel Macron. The professional anthroponyms refer to Emmanual Macron as “the President”, proper names as “Emmanuel Macron” to be the centre of the discourse, synecdoche as “Emmanuel Macron”, and deixis as “he” to avoid repetition the subject of the text. Two predication strategies were also used, the explicit predicate of how the President “has promised” action against Islamists and presupposition from the way the news linked pictures of boycotted French supermarket products with the President. This research provides a take on fresh news with CDA and can beneficial for the students who learn English language by showing how the media uses language for political figures.

Factors Influencing the Use of ICT for English Language Learning of Indonesian EFL University Students

This study examines the factors of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) that influence the acceptance of ICT use for English language learning of EFL University Students. This study also addresses the possible obstacles that affect and limit the use of ICT by adding motivation and ICT skills as extended TAM variables. This area of research topic is unexplored in the Indonesian context, especially in higher education institution. An analysis of these factors can assist instructors to understand how students learn using ICT and in providing useful advice to them during the learning process. The quantitative method was applied in this study, which included 303 students' teachers of English Education at a state university in Jambi, Indonesia. The instrument used in collecting the data was an online questionnaire. Data collected were analyzed by using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) with SmartPLS3 program to analyze the proposed hypotheses formed in order to meet the study objectives. The SEM result indicated that the factors of the technology acceptance model are the main factors affecting the ICT use. The study concluded that the influence of motivation and skills for ICT usage was mediated by three main TAM variables, namely perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and attitudes.

Politeness in Thesis Consultation by WhatsApp: Do Lecturers and Students Apply Different Strategies?

The study of politeness in education setting interaction has increased in last decades. However, the investigation of politeness strategies in lecturer-student interaction using WhatsApp is relatively unexplored. Therefore, this study aims to explore politeness strategies used by a lecturer and students in virtual communication using WhatsApp during thesis consultation. The researcher applied a mixed method: qualitative and quantitative research to discover the politeness phenomena in WhatsApp interaction. The participants of the study were 10 undergraduate students of English Department, University of HKBP Nommensen, and a lecturer as their thesis consultant. The data of the study consist of 50 screenshots of WhatsApp chats thesis consultation. The results show that all four types of politeness strategies were found in lecture-students interaction. The politeness strategies used by the lecturer and students differ greatly. The lecturer dominantly employed bald on-record (30. 93%) with the most imperative sentences realization; on the other hand, the students tend to use positive politeness strategy (23.20%) with the most greetings realization. This demonstrates that lecturers keep their distance when communicating, whereas students attempt to “get closer” during the interaction. The different politeness strategy choices are caused by the different power and social status (position) factors between lecturers and students. The findings of this study also show that the politeness strategies chosen by lecturers and students are not always consistent with previous similar studies.

Language Laboratory to Overcome the Barrier of Classroom English Learning: Does it Exist and Is it Used in Islamic Schools of Majene?

A staple issue in English language teaching is the fact that individual students in formal classrooms usually have minimal opportunity to speak due to large class sizes. Recent studies have vouched language laboratories to be capable of overcoming this barrier. As far as the researchers know, no study has launched a wide investigation whether a language laboratory exists and is used to optimise the English learning in the Islamic schools in Majene, Indonesia. This research applies descriptive quantitative design, involving 22 Islamic schools in the level of junior high school. 22 English teachers that represents all the schools filled a questionnaire to provide the data. It is found that the Islamic schools at Majene do not yet have a language laboratory even though the English teachers consider it important. Its absence is influenced by the lack of support from leaders. As a result, listening practice activities are rarely carried out. English teachers only carry out practical activities in the classroom with limited tools and materials. This research illuminates a concern for policy makers in the Ministry of Religious Affairs in the field of Islamic school education and the principals to hold a language laboratory at Islamic Schools. To improve English learning activities, the existence of a language laboratory in Islamic schools is matter, so that students at Islamic schools can show their quality in foreign language mastery and compete with others.

Comparison of Translation Techniques by Google Translate and U-Dictionary: How Differently Does Both Machine Translation Tools Perform in Translating?

Better translation produced by computation linguistics should be evaluated through linguistics theory. This research aims to describe translation techniques between Google Translate and U-Dictionary. The study used a qualitative research method with a descriptive design. This design was used to describe the occurrences of translation techniques in both translation machine, with the researchers serving as an instrument to compare translation techniques which is produced on machine. The data are from expository text entitled “Importance of Good Manners in Every Day Life”. The total data are 122 words/phrases which are pairs of translations, English as source language and Indonesia as target language. The result shows that Google Translate apply five of Molina & Albir’s (2002) eighteen translation techniques, while U-dictionary apply seven techniques. Google Translate dominantly apply literal translation techniques (86,8%) followed by reduction translation techniques (4,9%). U-dictionary also dominantly apply literal translation techniques (75,4%), but follows with the variation translation techniques (13,1%). This study showed that both machines produced different target texts for the same source language due to different applications of techniques, with U-dictionary proven to apply more variety of translation techniques than Google Translate. The researcher hopes this study can be used as an evaluation for improving the performance of machine translations.

Learning by Doing Intervention: Addressing Phonological Difficulties of Children through Audiolingual Method and Total Physical Response

Phonological awareness is a critical skill that children must master during the early foundations of literacy. It is considered a highly accurate predictor of a child’s success in learning to read. However, at the expected age, there are cases in which children have not developed phonological awareness that consequently result in poor reading skills. This case study sought to determine the alphabet knowledge of two seven-year-old children and address their difficulties in phonological awareness through the alphabetic code. The researchers conducted ten sessions of phonological interventions to children with identified language learning difficulties in reading. The data analysis and collection process included curriculum document reviews, diagnostic assessments, phonological interventions, and evaluation. Diagnostic results indicated that the children have difficulties in letter recognition of Consonant-Vowel-Consonant (CVC) patterns, blending, and segmentation of phonemes. However, anchoring on the principles of learning-by-doing delivered through oral-situational as a core language approach, the interventions in this case study were found effective for phonics instruction. The audio-lingual method and the total physical response in learning phonics, or letter sounds, activated children’s basic phonological skills. Repetition, drilling, memorisation and performing language or vocabulary concepts using physical movement to react to verbal input can lessen the phonological difficulties of children. In light of the current global situation, no previous studies have applied a case study utilizing both audiolingualism and total physical response to address the phonological issues of non-readers. Hence, this study offers scientific and pedagogical implications.

The Students’ Strategies in Online Learning Interaction: Exploring Politeness in Google Classroom during Covid-19 Pandemic

Teacher-student politeness has been well-explored over the years, but mostly in direct or face-to-face communication. This study aims to fill the gap of politeness between students and educators in online learning, specifically in the sessions of one of the staple and most used educational platforms during the Covid-19 pandemic, namely Google Classroom. This study applies qualitative research method by describing the phenomenon of the language. This study observed the interaction of 36 English Literature Department students during their Google Classroom sessions from April to July 2021. The researchers analysed the students’ interaction with their lecturer according to Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory. Five politeness strategies were identified, namely the positive politeness strategies (i.e., greeting, gratitude and address term), negative politeness (i.e., apology) and vernacular language. The gratitude and address term expression conveyed by “Thank you, Mam” is dominantly used by students to minimize threat when giving comments for every instruction created by lecturer. Results of this study showed that the students use politeness strategies to ensure the effectiveness of online learning, yet they also limit their text-based interaction with the short expressions of politeness such as “Hi, mam” or “Yes, mam”. This finding contributes to shedding light on the aspect of politeness in online interaction in Google Classroom and directs future studies to explore politeness in other contexts.