How Did Students Perceive Classroom Learning under Strict COVID-19 Pandemic Closures and Restrictions?

The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 required strict infection prevention measures worldwide, including school closure. After school reopened, we implemented Japan’s strict COVID measures, under which close contact in pairs or groups, as well as vocalizing in unison, was proscribed, with students having to remain quiet and face the blackboard. This study’s aim is to answer the question of how students felt about learning under such extreme constraints. One of the most noticeable findings from the responses to the survey of the 2020 class was that they felt the lack of collaborative learning experiences; hence, in 2021, we implemented changes that would allow for more collaboration while still adhering to COVID prevention guidelines. Among the various collaborative learning activities in the classroom, students reported that they found value in debate activities that challenged their English language skills and critical thinking. Overall, however, students found comfort and value in a semblance of learning with their peers. It was concluded that even in a volatile and uncertain situation, such as a pandemic, it is crucial to improve environments for collaborative learning. In the future, quantitative study of the impact of collaborative learning on students’ English proficiency will be a useful follow-up study.

Reading - Based Writing Model: A blended learning alternative

ABSTRACT Writing is often regarded as a difficult skill to acquire by majority of EFL learners. Teaching writing is also unquestionably challenging. It is argued that an essential effort to assist learners is having them explore information to write through reading topic and genre- related sources extensively. This article seeks to explain the result of a study employing R&D method to develop a Reading-Based Model to teach academic writing. It will report the results of the needs analysis briefly and then explain the model itself. The data about the students' needs of writing according to the students and the writing lecturers were collected through questionnaire and interview. The results of needs analysis and relevant literature confirmed that reading prior and during writing is elemental. The syntax of the model was developed on the basis of literature dealing with the principles of reading-writing relations and the Genre-based Approach. It consists of 4 main stages. Some activities within each stage can be carried out online. The model has gone through a validation process by two experts (two experienced lecturers teaching writing skills). The model was considered valid by the experts; a few recommendations were concerned with additional activities.

Creating a Bilingual Website for Bimbingan Belajar Smart Club

Following the widespread use of the Internet, more businesses are available online to attract more customers and unleash the limits of offline businesses. Not only e-commerces, but websites can be owned by businesses which provide services as what they sell. The reason behind this is that many have found the importance of websites. An example of service businesses is tuition center. This website project is about creating a bilingual website for a tuition center in Bandung. Qualitative methodology was used in collecting the data, and the methods were observation, interview, and library study. This project is aimed to give detailed information, to promote, and to persuade visitors to join the tuition center.

Reflective Teaching as a Tool for Teacher Professional Development

Reflection has long been known as an important component for teacher professional development, and it has been widely researched. However, little is known about how teachers reflect on their teaching. Aiming at finding out how in-service English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers reflect on their teaching activities and how their self-reflection impacts their professionalism, the current study employs a qualitative case study as its research design. It involved six in-service EFL teachers at various levels of education, such as kindergarten, elementary, junior, and senior high schools, who were taking the postgraduate program in English Education at FKIP Universitas Tanjungpura as the research participants. The data for this study were obtained through questionnaires and interviews, as well as the written analysis of participants' teaching videos. After being analyzed qualitatively, the findings of this study indicate that most respondents reflect on their teaching activities at a very basic level. In relation to the impact of their reflective teaching on their professionalism, however, overall, respondents thought that their reflection activities helped them know their weaknesses and strengths in teaching, which encouraged them to become better teachers.

Effectiveness of an after-school English program at a community childcare center in Korea

Community childcare centers in Korea are established mainly for students from low-income family for the purpose of protecting and educating children in the community. English program is one of the most important program at the centers. This study investigated the effectiveness of an after-school English program at a community childcare center in a region of Seoul, Korea. Students registered in this English program were encouraged to participate in an online survey using a google form to fill out the questionnaire via a computer or mobile phone. Survey questions included effectiveness of the program, students’ satisfaction, and most helpful class activity for learning English. A semi-structured interview was conducted to gather students’ views on the program. Nine students among who completed online survey and volunteered for interview. Collected survey data were statistically analyzed using SAS Enterprise Guide 7.12. Final survey data set includes 11 respondents. The overall satisfaction with the after-school English program was high for both contents and effectiveness. High school students and student who participated in the program for more than six months chose the free conversation activity as the most helpful. The mean score for debates was the highest among all activities for English writing. The survey provided an opportunity for students to report their levels of satisfaction with the program. Results of this study indicate that students are satisfied with the English program at the community childcare centers overall and, that the performance of the lecturer can be categorized very well. This study provides insights into the need and direction of English education for students from low-income families. This study will serve as a basis to develop specialized and quality English programs for successful English learning of low-income students, and facilitate the continuous improvement process.

Designing "Materials of Writing Analytical Exposition Text (MOWAET)" for Teaching English in Senior High School

Analytical exposition text is one of the texts studied by eleventh-grade students, and they are asked to produce the analytical exposition text by themselves. However, they faced some difficulties that impede their teaching and learning of making the analytical exposition text. This research aimed to design Materials of Writing Analytical Exposition Text (MOWAET) as a supplementary teaching material to support teaching and learning analytical exposition text. This research was developmental research and applied ADDIE as the procedure to design the materials. Still, there were only three implemented phases in this research: analyzing, designing, and developing. MOWAET was the completed design product for teaching-learning analytical exposition text. The researcher interviewed an English teacher of SMA Negeri 4 Pontianak to do the analyzing phase. MOWAET was created by using PowerPoint and Animaker as the supporting software. The researcher used an internal evaluation to ensure that the product is usable in the development phase. The internal evaluation phase showed that MOWAET met all the criteria, including the objectives, the content, and the media option. Shortening, it was found that the materials of writing analytical exposition text (MOWAET) are usable to support teaching and learning analytical exposition text.

English Teaching Based-Strategy LMS Moodle and Google Classroom

Teaching English Foreign Language (TEFL) has shifted complex for developing countries, especially Indonesia. Pandemic conditions bound conventional face-to-face teaching. A virtual classroom is another way of implementing the learning and teaching process. The purpose study investigates and describes the selection of English teaching based-strategy LMS Moodle and Google Classroom, particularly the testing and feedback feature. The qualitative research approached grounded theory. The entire data was collected by the questioner using purposeful sampling. The testing teaching strategies LMS Moodle discovered multiple-choice, short answer, essay, true/false statement, and missing word. Even though testing teaching strategies, Google Classroom was found multiple-choice, short answer, and essay. The selection of assessments is one of the benchmarks for English lecturers' readiness to teach using Moodle and Google classroom media. The testing variety is capable of encouraging students to perform well in e-learning. Feedback selection classifications were discovered, formal feedback, formative feedback, and summative feedback. Formal feedback is designed and regularly scheduled for the process. Formal feedback is designed and regularly scheduled for the process. The formative feedback is to observe student learning to provide continuous feedback. The summative testing evaluates student learning at the end of an instructional unit by comparing it against some patterns

Students Participation and Attendance in Following Lectures During Normal and Pandemic

This study discusses how the participation and attendance of students following lectures during the normal period and during the Covid 19 pandemic era, even semester of the 2019-2020 academic year. Participants involved were as many as 129 regular class of 2017 students from the English language education study program, the language education faculty of IKIP Siliwangi Bandung. This study used a qualitative research approach, the method of preparing and presenting the research results was made descriptively. The data collection technique was done by observing, interviewing, studying documentation, and searching online. The main instrument is the researcher himself. The results showed that students’ participation and students’ attendance in attending lectures during normal times and during the Covid 19 pandemic era showed a contradiction in circumstances. Keywords: Student participation and attendance, lectures, normal and pandemic covid-19 era.

The Leadership of Jean Valjean in Les Miserable Movie Directed by Tom Hooper

The goal of the research is to analyze the leadership that Jean Valjean shown in Les Miserables Movie directed by Tom Hooper. This research focuses on two aspects, the type and the impact of the leadership. The type of leadership that are found in this movie are (1) Laissez-faire leadership and (2) Servant leadership. While There are three impact of leadership that indeed to Jean Valjean as the main character in Les Miserables, they are (1) Inspiring confidence for others (2) Creating a respectful environment and (3) Increasing loyalty and trust. The Les Miserables Movie is a perfect movie for analyzing leadership, as it tells about the life of Jean Valjean who tries keeping himself in fire even though there are so many inside and outside difficulties in his life as a prisoner and after he has been released on parole. According to (Almaki et al., 2016) leadership is not just about power and authority, but it is a set of characteristics that should be owned by the leader. This movie shows many things to be a good leader who can bring a big impact to people. As a leader we must have faith, forgive the enemies and belief, there will always be a brighter tomorrow. We are all leaders in our lives. So, this movie gives us so many things that we can learn to have better life.

The TED Talks Application as a Learning Tool in Teaching Spaking

The aim of this study is to improve the learning of English with a speech variable using the TED Talks Application. The quantitative approach is the technique used in this research. The design used in this quantitative study is a quasi-experimental design, which utilizes a pre-test and post-test design culture. The population in this study was 20 grade XII students of SMK Muhammadiyah Parung, Bogor in the academic year 2020/2021. Pre-test and post-test data were analyzed using SPSS 25 version. The results of the study showed that the students pre-test score was 64.70 and after treatment, the students post-test score was 87.60. The results of this study also clarified that the t-test in the paired sample test in which tobtained was 28.56 and the crucial tvalue at significance level (p)=0.05 was 2.093, which means that t-test in which the null hypothesis (Ho) was rejected and the alternative hypothesis (H1) accepted. The writer finding might summarize that the student’s post-test results are higher than the student’s pre-test results. In other words, the use of TED Talks is useful in the 12th grade of vocational high school for students who speak English.