Students’ Writing Quality: Its Coherence and Cohesion

Students’ writing quality has become the focus of education research nowadays. A good quality writing should fulfil the requirements of coherence and cohesion. Coherence shows how the sentences in the text are arranged which usually follow certain structure, and cohesion shows how they are connected to each other. This study aims to investigate the students’ writing quality in both aspects. Using systemic functional linguistics approach, 10 students’ writing on recount text is analysed. The result of the study reveals how good the students on the fourth semester can write the text and what devices they use to establish the quality. The students can follow the generic structure of recount texts well. However, only 50% has reorientation. In addition, they employ different thematic progressions,

The Challenges and Difficulties in Teaching Listening: An Exploratory Research in a Junior High School in Kudus

The objectives of this study are describing the process of teaching English (listening) and identifying the difficulties in teaching (English) listening in a Junior High School in Kudus. This research uses exploratory research design. I will explore qualitative data to analyze the process of the teaching and learning English in Kudus and to identify the need of the learning materials. The subjects of the research are five English teachers’ from a Junior High school in Kudus, they have been teaching English for more than ten years. They have been teaching from different classes, class 7, class 8, and class 9. This study has discovered the challenges and difficulties in learning and teaching in Junior High School in kudus. Most teachers feels that time management become their major challenge in organizing classroom. They have set lesson plan, but sometimes the lesson does not work exactly the same. They have to work with mixed-level students, with students with learning difficulties, and with learners who are coming from different backgrounds. Teachers should be aware that it is part of teachers’ primary duty to cope with every student. Most students can learn a foreign language to some level, but there are many reasons why their improvements are not achieved significantly.

Kelsea’s Objections against Men’s Stigma in Leading a Kingdom in Johansen’s The Queen of the Tearling

Kelsea is a female character in a novel written by Erika Johansen entitled The Queen of The Tearling. When she is nineteen years old, she becomes a queen. Although she has the highest status in her kingdom, sometimes underestimated by men because she is a girl. The purpose of this research is to reveal Kelsea’s objections against men’s stigma in leading a kingdom. This is a qualitative research. The result of this research shows that Kelsea breaks the men’s stigma saying women are weak. Kelsea argues with the general of her army because he thinks women are bad in military strategy. Moreover, Kelsea proves that she has power to dismiss her uncle from her castle because he corrupts and takes the freedom of the women who satisfy him. In addition, Kelsea sets herself equal with her Queen Guards to learn how to fight with sword and wear armor because she will do something while those men die for her. As a conclusion, Kelsea acts as a strong woman with dignity.

The Question of Choice in an Achievement

Achievement tests administered at national level play a significant role in the lives of test-takers as well as the whole society. This paper aims to investigate the effect of giving students a choice between two optional questions on their overall performance in a high-stake achievement test for university admission. It is hypothesized that questions targeting writing-based productive skills and language system necessitate display of abilities which are different from fact-based questions designed around story content. The two items are assumed to reflect different constructs that require different criteria of assessment. Consequently, the student’s overall score is affected by the item they choose to answer, which might not be reflective of their real language abilities. An open-ended interview was carried out with ten teachers working with grade 3 students in model secondary schools to investigate the nature of the two types of test items and their impact on the student’s performance. The data has proved that giving choice in an achievement test generates different performances that are assessed differently. It is recommended that in order to address the question of fairness, it is important to clearly define and balance the construct of the items that affect the student’s choice and performance.

Evaluating the Communicative Materials on ESP Book Entitled English for International Tourism

ESP is designed for a particular group of people in a specific context. The materials used are related to the learners' specialized field of study. One of the factors which is of utmost importance in language learning in general and ESP in particular is to see whether course books and other materials are useful for the purpose of the course or not. The aim of the paper is evaluating the ESP course book entitled English for International Tourism. Cunningsworth’s (1984) checklist is used to evaluate this book. Instead of the authors’ claim this book is communicative, the evaluation result shows that the exercises within the book mainly use drilling task which means it is more structural rather than communicative.

Improving Students’ Argumentative Writing Skill through Rubric and Group Feedback

This study intends to gain comprehensive understanding about the implementation of rubric and group feedback and to know students’ argumentative writing achievement. This study was conducted at the fourth semester students of English education study program of Teacher College Pattimura University in Ambon academic year 2015/2016. Action research method was used in this study. Data collection instruments used were students writing assessment rubrics, questionnaires, and record / field observation sheets of both observer and researcher. Descriptive statistics was used in analyzing data. The results shows that the synergy of rubric and group based feedback have improved students’ argumentative writing skills. In pre cycle the average score of the students was 66.26 while in cycle I the average score was 72.09. In cycle II the students’ average score rose to 78.00. Overall, more than 70% of the students have acquired good score for their argumentative writing. Rubric and group feedback strategy in fact has improved students’ argumentative writing skill.

Evaluating the Reading Section of English National Standardized School Exams (USBN): (A Field Study in SMK NU Ungaran)

With regard to the role of English in Indonesia that is mainly used for academic purpose, it is important to sharpen the two skills, reading and writing, more than the other two skills, listening and speaking. Based on that fact, this study focuses on reading skills, especially in reading comprehension skills. Reading comprehension skill is closely related to literacy levels that nowadays considered important by educational institution. The data was taken from reading comprehension questions in English USBN question sheet and the students’ answer sheets. The participants are students of XII grade of SMK NU Ungaran that are randomly chosen. The result of this study showed that Out of 50 students, 59% of them are best cope with editing task, followed by 56% in dealing with reading comprehension task, 50% of gap-filling task, 48% with short answer task and the least is 22% in vocabulary task. This meant that the proficiency level of reading comprehension of students in XII grade SMK NU Ungaran still needs to elevate. They were still lack in term of vocabulary and understanding the ideas implicitly delivered in the text.

Understanding the Three Types of the First Semester Learners in English Language Education Study Program

Every learner has their own learning styles, and there are three types of learner; such as visual learner, auditory learner, and kinesthetic learner. This paper will talk about the three types of learners based on their learning styles, the classification of English Language Education Study Program students based on the three types of learners, and what should the teachers do to help them to achieve the greater knowledge while learning new things. The research using the VAK Learning Styles Self-Assessment Questionnaire obtained from Swinburne University of Technology. The result shows that from the total of 153 students, there are 47% visual type learners, 36% auditory type learners and 17% kinesthetic type learners.

Solidifying the White Domination through Racism and Slavery in Toni Morrison’s Beloved

Beloved is a novel written by American author, Toni Morrison. Through Beloved, Toni Morrison successfully depicts a heartbreaking phenomenon of slavery that happened in the USA in 1873. Morrison describes the phenomenon of dominance-submission interrelation patterns in a master-slave relationship. By using the concept of racism and slavery, the paper aims at scrutinizing how the whites perform racism and slavery to solidify their domination over the blacks. Besides, it is aimed at investigating the impacts of slavery and racism done by the whites which are experienced by the slaves. Library research and close-reading methods are employed to analyze the novel. Besides, the qualitative and contextual method which focuses on intrinsic and extrinsic elements is utilized. The result of the analysis shows that racism and slavery are major elements that solidify whites’ domination over black slaves. In other respect, racism and slavery lead to great negative impacts for the black slaves. Excessive trauma and identity loss are the major impacts experienced by the slaves as the consequence of slavery and racism.

The Realization of the Bad Impact of Early Capitalism in Oscar Wilde’s “The Happy Prince”

Living under feudalism and capitalism seems very good for those who were born from rich people. It is because they do not have to struggle of their life and would get everything as desire. Meanwhile, it is very hard for poor people because their live is worse and if they do not struggle of the life they might die. “The Happy Prince” is the story that shows how the feudalism and early capitalism work in the society. People live contradictory under those systems. Fortunately, since the capitalism applies, the poor people find new hope. Their laborpower is paid so that they are to feed themselves and the family. Besides, they work for the capitalists’ happiness. This new term of live is not a big different from feudal system. The payment for the poor who work is a very little difference that makes the poor happy. This research aims to describe how the feudalism and the early capitalism work in the short story. Using the sociological approach as to the evidences of the feudalism and the early capitalism system in the story is chosen to describe the impacts of those systems toward society. The result of this research shows that poor people accept the system of capitalism than the feudalism. It is because their labor-power is paid. This condition is different from previous system (feudalism) that makes poor people are getting worse because they must work freely.