Oppressions in Popular Culture’s SpongeBob SquarePants Episode of “Drive Thru”

This article is a development of the research done for an undergraduate study, which has the objectives to find the oppressions exercised by Mr. Krabs in USA’s “Drive Thru” episode of SpongeBob SquarePants cartoon TV series. Using Karl Marx’s theory in the study, it is revealed that the episode represents the oppressions by the Bourgeoisie capitalist towards the Proletariat. The data were discussed by using descriptive explanation and were analyzed and interpreted with the finding that the Bourgeoisie treated Proletariat rudely when it comes about money. As a development of the study, this article adds into the discussion on the explanation of Mr. Krabs actions based on the concept of Popular Culture’s strategies of making profit at the expense of the Proletariat.Key words: popular culture, cartoon, oppression, Marxism, profit makingAbstrak: Artikel ini merupakan pengembangan dari penelitian yang dilakukan sebagai bagian dari studi S1, yang bertujuan untuk untuk menemukan penindasan yang dilakukan oleh Tuan. Krabs pada episode “Drive Thru” dari serial kartun televisi SpongeBob SquarePants. Menggunakan teori Karl Marx terungkap bahwa episode tersebut merepresentasikan penindasan kaum kapitalis Borjuis terhadap kaum Proletar. Data yang ada dibahas dengan menggunakan penjelasan deskriptif dan dianalisa serta ditafsirkan dengan temuan bahwa kaum borjuis memperlakukan kaum proletar secara kasar dalam hal uang. Sebagai kelanjutan dari studi tersebut, artikel ini menambahkan penjelasan tentang perbuatan yang dilakukan tuan Krabs berdasarkan konsep strategi budaya popular yang mencari keuntungan dengan mengorbankan kaum proletar.Kata kunci: karya sastra popular, kartun, penindasan, Marxism

Students’ Perception towards the Use of Edmodo in Online-Based English Learning Class at Universitas Fajar

Online-based learning or lecture is deemed as a new learning methodology among academics in this present era. This method involves a learning process in which lecturers and students could undergo lectures or courses without being present in the classroom. One of the online applications that supports this method is Edmodo. This study aims to obtain data about the perception of students regarding the use of Edmodo in English language classes at Universitas Fajar. The method used in this study is descriptive study. The result showed that although it has drawbacks, Edmodo is considered as one of the most effective tools in supporting the learning process.

Developing Reading Materials Based on the Student’s Multiple Intelligence Types for Junior High School Students

Students are unique with their characteristics and differences. In line with the current learning paradigm, learner-centered paradigm, teaching and learning process places greater emphasis on individuality. One of the differences is multiple intelligence types possessed by all individuals resulting in various ways of learning. Learning materials, one of the learning resources, ideally have to accommodate the students’ multiple intelligence types. However, the current learning materials contain neither sufficient reading texts nor tasks fostering their multiple intelligence types that happen in every classroom. Thus, this research intends to develop reading materials based on multiple intelligence to accommodate students’ intelligence. This research belongs to research and development of which steps are conducting a needs analysis, developing the product, getting an expert judgement, trying-out the materials and revising the product (Gall, Gall & Borg, 2007). In order to develop the appropriate reading materials that meet the students’ needs, a needs analysis was initially conducted. The needs analysis was conducted in five junior high schools in Magelang district including state and private schools. The data of the needs analysis were obtained by distributing questionnaires which were used as the consideration in developing the materials. Then, the materials developed were validated by material and learning experts before being tried out at SMP N 1 Windusari, Magelang to complete and to perfect the materials. From the data analysis, the average score of the appropriateness of the content, the language, the presentation and the design of the materials was 3.54 which was classified as “very good” and “appropriate” to be implemented. Furthermore, the result indicated that the materials also fulfilled the criteria of good materials, for instance, considering that students are different. Thus, teachers and educational stakeholders should develop learning materials catering to the students’ multiple intelligence types to accommodate their differences.Key words: reading materials, differences, multiple intelligence

Developing A Digital Learning Game as a Medium for Cultural Enrichment on Descriptive Text

This study is aimed to develop a digital learning game as a medium to enrich students’ insight about their local culture embedded in descriptive text material. Adapting “system approach” model designed by Dick and Carey, this study employed need analysis, material development and formative evaluation as steps to develop the product. The need analysis was conducted by analyzing the documents, administering questionnaires to the students and interviewing the teachers. The material development was done by designing blueprint of the product’s content, pictures and sound in the computer applications. The formative evaluation consisted of the theoretical validation and empirical validation. The result of the theoretical validation was classified into four categorizes involving multimedia, language content, cultural and pedagogical aspect. The multimedia validator graded the most criteria of the game’s design and layout in a very good scale. The language content validator graded the most criteria of the learning game’s content in balance between “very good” and “good” scale. The cultural aspect had been validated by the natives of mentioned places, consisting of a native of Java, Bali and Flores. Lastly, the pedagogical aspect was validated by two teachers who taught seventh grade and eighth grade at SMPN 26 Surabaya. Both teachers graded the digital learning game in a “very good” scale. Those final scales obtained after some revisions from validators had been finished. The result of empirical validation was obtained from the tryout of the product to fifteen students of SMPN 26 Surabaya. The result of the empirical validation showed that the students have positive responds to the developed learning game. It was concluded from the most scales given by the students including “very good” and “good” scale for the mentioned criteria. In conclusion, the digital learning game has met its final product to be used by the students to learn culture for descriptive text material.

Revealing Translation Techniques Applied in the Translation of Batik Motif Names in See Instagram

This article discusses one of the forms of machine translation, the Instagram translation feature called “see translation”. The research is focused on the translation techniques applied by the machine in translating Banyumas batik motifs from Indonesian to English found in @batikantodjamil and @batk_rd. This topic is worth discussing since machine translation is now getting more developed and is projected to replace human translator. However, in some cases, for example in dealing with culturally-bound terms, machine translation cannot perform contextual knowledge as well as the human translator. this mini research was conducted by applying qualitative research with purposive sampling technique in which the researchers obtain the data by selecting two batik center Instagram accounts containing batik motif names in the captions. The result shows that there are three translation techniques applied by the Instagram translation features, namely literal, borrowing, and particularization. The most dominant technique to use is borrowing technique, and it shows a tendency that such cultural terms in the source language do not have one-to-one correspondence in the target language. In other words, the touch of human translator is very important in the post-editing process of translation by machine to make the translation more acceptable. However, if it is impossible to involve human translator, the Instagram administrator should enrich the machine with more contextual linguistic database to provide the users with better translation results.

Applying Skimming Strategy in Teaching Reading Descriptive Text

Reading is an important activity to enrich knowledge. However, it is considered as a difficult skill to learn. There are many students facing difficulties in comprehending the content of the reading text, including descriptive text. A strategy which can solve such problems is needed. Skimming strategy is the strategy which enable students to quickly find the main idea and relevant information of the text. Based on those reasons, the research questions are proposed as follows: (1) How can skimming strategy be implemented in teaching reading descriptive texts? and (2) How can the second year students’ reading comprehension ability be improved using skimming strategy? This study used two research methods. Those were qualitative and quantitative research design. They were collected to prove the implementation and the significant improvement by using skimming strategy. Both numeric information and the real observation were evaluated to gain clear and strong data. The researcher acted as the observer to see the process of teaching and learning descriptive texts in three stages. The results of the research showed that the teacher and students implemented four steps of skimming strategy, which are: (1) read the first several paragraph; (2) leave out material; (3) find the main ideas; (4) read fast. The t-test of this research was also calculated to see whether there was a significant difference between control and experimental class and the mean was also measured to see the students’ improvement score. The mean score of experimental class was better than the mean score of control class. However, the t-test result showed that there was no significant difference between experimental and control class.

Pre-Service Teachers’ Perception and Vision about TPACK and Its Implementation

The need for educators to integrate the use of technology in the classroom is growing for the past few years. However, previous studies indicated that the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is still at a low level of what the education program requires. Furthermore, it seems that in the field of language education, there is limited research focusing on pre service teachers (PTs). Therefore, to address this gap, this paper aims at investigating how the pre service teacher's understanding of the TPACK principle and how they will apply TPACK in their classroom. This mix-method study is using TPACK questionnaire and interview through a random sampling of 68 pre-service teachers of English Education Department of UNS. Furthermore, the results revealed that most of the participants understood the concept of TPACK well, and they also had various ways to apply it in their classroom. It is expected that knowing pre service teachers' (PTs) perceptions about TPACK in teaching and learning process that can be beneficial for both English Education Department programs and PTs, such as understanding the PTs' teaching abilities, development of the use of technology in teaching by pre service teachers in order to improve teacher department programs itself to develop the teaching practice with the support of technology. In addition, this study has implications for experts interested in the development and assessment of pre service teachers' understanding of teaching with technology.

The Implementation of Jigsaw Technique with Musical Background in Comprehending Reading Text

This research studies the impact of the implementation of the Jigsaw technique with a musical background to comprehend reading at Senior high school in Sidrap, Indonesia. This research uses a quasi-experimental method to answer the question, "is the use of Jigsaw with a musical background as a technique able to improve the reading comprehension of senior high students at senior high school? This research also uses a random sampling technique to select the sample in the experimental and control class. The data is analyzed by using descriptive statistics. The result of the calculation of students' scores from the post-test indicates that there is a significant improvement in students' comprehension achievement before and after learning reading by using the Jigsaw technique with background music. The result of this research finally shows that the use of the Jigsaw technique with background music improves the reading comprehension of the eleventh-grade students of senior high school in Sidrap, Indonesia. It is proved by the students' comprehension in the reading text that was 42.3 in their pre-test, but increasing in the post-test by mean score was 63.35. It means that the alternative hypothesis is accepted, which the t-test value is more significant than the t-table value. In the post-test, the t-test value is 11.92, while the t-table value is 2.042. Based on the result of data analysis, the writer concludes that using the Jigsaw technique with background music is useful to improve the reading comprehension of the student in reading text.

Direct and Indirect Compliment Responses: A Descriptive Qualitative Study among Indonesians and Americans

Indonesians and Americans have the strategies to respond the compliment which came from different culture. The aims of this research were addressing types of strategies and disclosing the direct and indirect response used by the Indonesians and Americans to respond the compliments. The research data consist of English and Indonesian. The data was analyzed by using qualitative method. The Discourse Completion Test (DCT) questionnaire was used to know the differences between compliment response given to Indonesians and Americans. The result of the research showed that the (1) responded category of Holmes (1986) classification of compliment responses strategies (CRs) are using three strategies (accept, reject and evade) among Indonesians and Americans. Indonesians tended to accept, reject and evade compliment by giving some reasons. While Americans tended using three categories by saying, "thank you" due to express of openness and receiving appreciation from the interlocutor. (2) The existence of culture plays an important role in responding compliment towards Indonesians and Americans. The Americans respond to compliments direct response and simple answers to compliments. Meanwhile, Indonesians prefer to respond compliment with indirect responses because they were leaning on the principle known as saving face politeness.

Students’ Perceptions on English Fun Fair as an Implementation of Project-Based Learning in Speaking for Social Purposes Classes

English Fun Fair is one of the implementation models in Project-Based Learning (PBL) which involves learning through various tasks and collaborative learning. Particularly, the project was implemented in Speaking for Social Purposes classes at an English Language Education Program, at a private university in Central Java, Indonesia. The study aimed to investigate students' perceptions of the influence of English Fun Fair which consisted of the benefits and challenges of the project. The participants of the study were fifty (50) students from 2016, 2017, and 2018 Academic Year who had taken Speaking for Social Purposes course and had done English Fun Fair. To gain data more deeply, the researchers used a qualitative method. The instruments used were open-ended questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. In the questionnaires, the participants answered some questions related to this study. After that, as a follow-up of the answers in the questionnaires, the researcher did interviews. Besides that, the data showed that improving speaking skills was the most dominant benefit mentioned by the participants. However, problems in speaking skills also became a challenge which they experienced a lot. Expectantly, the findings from this study can give views for EFL teachers about the benefits of this project and for EFL students can develop their speaking and other skills.