A Post-Colonial Re-Reading of Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe

The imperial project started to influence English national identity as early as the mid-seventeenth century, and the English began to relate their national prominence to their colonial activities, whether in trade or in the acquisition of foreign territories, throughout the eighteenth century. However, England experienced its share of anxieties on the road to imperial "greatness" in its dealings with both other European powers and its native subjects. The British people's tendency to examine themselves and their international achievements with intense pride helped to neutralize those anxieties, much like Crusoe's imagined responses to possible dangers alleviate his fictional forebodings. The English ameliorated their concerns about their international position by becoming an ever more self-referential society, thinking more highly of themselves on account of their contact with colonized peoples, as is epitomized in the personality of Crusoe. To the fictional Crusoe, the experience of his relationship with Friday validates his self-worth and his native culture more than anything else. Robinson Crusoe's affirmation of colonial power through the assertion of his authority over a particular (othered) individual corresponds with, and epitomizes, England's trading and territorial empire during the eighteenth century and the consequent effects on British subjectivity, at a time when the British were struggling to set up a trading empire and challenging other European powers for territory and markets abroad. Robinson Crusoe successfully resolves the insecurities relating to Britain's colonial activities by asserting, through Crusoe's character, the superior nature of the English subject.

Assessing Students' Achievement through Problem-Based Learning to Reveal the Implicit Bias of Fake News

The widespread dissemination of fake news could have serious negative consequences for individuals and society. First, fake news could upset the balance of authenticity in the news ecosystem. For example, the most popular fake news was more prevalent on Facebook or Instagram media. Second, fake news intentionally persuaded consumers to accept biased or false beliefs. Third, fake news was changing the way people interpret and react to real news. For example, some fake news was created to mistrust and confuse people, so it was impossible, to tell the truth from what was not. To mitigate the negative impact of fake news, it was very important to develop methods to automatically detect fake news in social networks, namely problem-based learning, in order to differentiate between real and fake visual content. Qualitative and quantitative approaches were performed using experimental and control groups to determine whether problem learning could induce students to engage more actively with the topic and develop critical thinking skills to avoid the implicit bias of fake news. This study was conducted at Universitas Katolik Santo Thomas Medan, Indonesia. This research showed that problem-based learning could promote the development of learning communities where learners could freely exchange ideas and ask questions related to the material being studied. Therefore, problem-based learning was an effective way to improve the analytical ability to distinguish between real news and fake news based on the credibility of the news.

Diversity of Learners: A Study about how Individual Differences Affect the L2 Learning Process

Individual differences are considered one of the main factors in language learning. This article begins by presenting the definition of individual differences and identifying the possible individual differences that may affect the L2 learning process are. Based on the literature review, shows that there are eight (8) major individual differences to be found as salient features in the L2 learning process. A brief overview of these eight (8) individual differences is provided, supported by the literature review of 20 journal articles. This journal article used grounded theory design as a method in identifying the relationship of the following individual differences in the L2 learning process. According to the results, although there is a growth in the study of individual differences that affects the L2 learning process, there is still much work to be done and much more investigation is required.

Language Acquisition: The Role of Grammar Acquisition and Instruction in Second Language Teaching and Learning

This scoping review studies the role of grammar in second language teaching and learning. This scoping review mainly directs to synthesizing relevant studies and literature on acquiring grammar and looking for strategies for achieving it. Grammar acquisition requires the subconscious mind of accepting grammatical knowledge that is then confined and used in communication. Its implicit nature makes it hard to conduct studies about it, and there is a need for more information that can help contribute to the existing knowledge about it. Hence, this scoping review gathered and scrutinized recent and relevant papers from various databases. The collected papers consist of qualitative and quantitative studies. Many language teachers agree that pedagogic grammar is crucial in second language acquisition. Hence, this paper analyzes recent and relevant papers about grammar acquisition. This scoping review found out that the importance of studies about grammar acquisition should not be forsaken; thus, more investigations must be done to contribute to the already existing knowledge. A byproduct of these studies can lead to better strategies for promoting grammar acquisition to language learners. Hence, the amelioration of Second Language Learning and Second Language Teaching is inevitable.

Modified British Parliamentary Debate Technique in Teaching Speaking to Indonesian EFL Learners

For English language learners, speaking is an essential skill that should be achieved. By practicing continuously, they can become trained and skilled. To support their proficiencies and competencies, they also should master the language subskills: pronunciation, structure, and vocabulary. The teachers, therefore, should facilitate their students by applying appropriate techniques of language learning in the classroom so that their students can speak English quickly. Through this study, the researchers managed an effective teaching technique for speaking class by implementing a modified British Parliamentary Debate to train the students' speaking skills. This study, therefore, projected to find out whether or not the use of the Modified British Parliamentary Debate technique in teaching speaking can increase their speaking skill. This study also aims to determine whether or not the students are interested in learning to speak through the modified British parliamentary debate. The study applied the quasi-experimental method with a nonequivalent control group design. The subjects of the study were students of Madrasah Aliyah Negeri Enrekang, Indonesia. The population of the research was 64 students. The researchers grouped the students into two groups. There were 32 students in group one and 32 students in group two. The researchers assigned both groups to the same activities in pretest and posttests but different treatments of teaching techniques. The researchers gave a modified British parliamentary debate model for the experimental group and a small group discussion for the control one. The instruments of the research were an oral speaking test and a questionnaire. The results of data analysis exhibited a significant improvement in the students' speaking skills after the treatments. The result of hypothesis testing showed that the t-test value (2.087) was higher than the t-table value (2.000) at the level of significance 0.05 and the degree of freedom 62. Moreover, based on the questionnaire, this study found that the students were interested in learning the speaking skill through modified British Parliamentary debate. In short, implementing the modified British parliamentary debate in teaching speaking can develop the students' speaking skills and encourage the students to learn speaking ability.

Flashcard Design for Helping Students in Learning Chinese Vocabulary

The strong rise of the globalization trend makes most students want to learn other languages than English. Many students have chosen Chinese as their second foreign language because China is one of the world's largest economies today. Learning vocabulary is one of the important factors that require much investment from the learners so that they need to find a suitable and effective learning method for themselves. To help Chinese learners learn vocabulary in an easier and more effective way, we would like to propose an approach of Designing online flashcards to help students learn Chinese vocabulary. This proposal is supported by Anki software. We design a set of Chinese vocabulary flashcards on this platform based on pre-compiled content. With the assisting of flashcards in learning Chinese, we can help the learners learn Chinese vocabulary more conveniently and more effectively. To evaluate this approach, we asked the learners for using a set of flashcards that we designed on the Anki app. The joining learners in this study are the 46th generation students, freshers in Chinese learning, in the Chinese Faculty at HCMUE. The survey results show that the majority of users are satisfied with their experiences on online flashcards, and they see it much helpful for learning Chinese vocabulary.

Solo Parents’ Involvement in the Literacy Instruction of their Children in Modular Distance Learning: Challenges and Opportunities

The world has been struck by an invisible enemy—the COVID-19. In effect, this has changed our lives radically without ever revealing itself directly. Moreover, the COVID-19 is a deadly pandemic that has affected every aspect of life, including education. Hence, thousands of school closures are implemented over the world. To this effect, the pandemic has definitely disrupted all lives, especially the lives of the students and their parents, in various ways. This qualitative study utilized the phenomenological case study approach, and the gathered data were analyzed to discover the themes and make the essence of parental involvement within the complexities of the changed situations. The study discovered themes on challenges such as (1) time constraints, (2) insufficient and limited knowledge, and (3) tough tasks. On the part of opportunities, the following themes were discovered: (1) bonding activity, (2) learning experience, and (3) strategic learning. From the themes that emerged, the following recommendations are offered to the Department of Education and its Schools. They may launch programs to address most specifically the challenges and problems mentioned above to ensure that quality education is provided even in the pandemic. Moreover, the Department of Education and its Schools may provide supplementary materials such as video or audio recordings of each and every module to further help the students learn the lessons on the module.

Influence of Teacher Leadership and Professional Competency on the Academic Achievement of College Students in English Language in the Sultanate of Oman

This study investigated the relationship between teacher leadership and professional competency on student academic accomplishment in vocational colleges in Oman. A questionnaire was instructed and conducted from post foundation students across the seventh vocational colleges in the Sultanate of Oman to collect data. A quantitative research approach was adopted to analyze the data. Built on Kane’s comprehensive framework of teacher leadership (2009); Fenollar, Roman and Cuestas’ integrative model of the antecedents of academic performance (2007), the present study formulated a new framework to fit into the Omani context education. SPSS was used to analyze data. The study showed that all the main hypotheses of the study are accepted. The study concluded that there is a positive relationship between teacher leadership, professional competency and student academic performance in the English language. Such a positive relationship lies in that students are highly affected by their teachers’ leadership skills and professional competencies. Future research is needed to investigate the relationship between teacher gender, age, experience, and qualification as independent variables and student academic performance at vocational colleges in the Sultanate of Oman.

Synectics in Teaching Grade 9 Science

This study determined the effectiveness of synectics in teaching Grade 9 science in one private high school in Mandaue City, Cebu. A quasi-experimental design using the control and experimental groups was utilized. The experimental group was taught science concepts using synectics, while the lecture method was used in teaching the control group. Pretest and posttest evaluations were utilized to measure the academic performance of both groups of students. The results of the study showed that the pretest scores of the control and experimental groups on the three topics covered were fair and that the pretest mean values for the two groups were comparable or closer with each other. It also revealed that the posttest scores of both groups marked an increase in good performance level and the posttest mean value of the group with an intervention using synectics in teaching was greatly or highly improved compared to the group taught using the lecture method. The results also showed that there was a significant difference in the pretest and posttest scores between the control and experimental groups. Using synectics in teaching science concepts is an effective technique in improving students ‘performance since it provides them with a meaningful and authentic understanding of scientific concepts by associating these concepts to real-life situations.

Students’ Experiences of their Leadership Development through the Leadership Subject Taught in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

Leadership is the process of influencing followers to achieve a goal. This study aims to explore the Afghan postgraduate students’ experiences of their leadership development through the leadership course taught in Universiti Teknologi, Malaysia. A quantitative research design was employed in the study. An online survey questionnaire with 19 items was used to collect the data. The survey questionnaire was administered to all 46 postgraduate students in Social Sciences, Humanities and Science faculties, but only 42 of them responded to the online survey. Statistical Package for Social Sciences has been used to analyze the data. Descriptive statistics were used to determine the mean, frequency and percentage. Inferential statistics such as Independent Sample T-Test and One Way ANOVA were used to find out the differences in the responses of the participants by their demographic variables, i.e., gender, year of study, faculty, work experience and age. The finding showed that the students had a positive perception of the leadership course. The participants believed that the course helped them to improve their leadership skills. The study recommends that the leadership course be taught in Afghanistan universities since it plays a crucial part in developing leadership skills in students, which is crucial for their career after graduation.