Bilingualism Practices Through Teacher's Verbal Input in Early Childhood Education

This research aims to explore the use of teacher’s verbal input in bilingualism practices to children in International Kindergarten. The research design was a qualitative method, specifically thematic analysis. Three preschool teachers from two kindergartens were chosen to be the participants of this research. The teachers were from junior pre-school (3-4 years of age) and senior pre-school (5-6 years of age) in International Islamic School and preparatory class in International Kindergarten Yogyakarta. A set of interview questions served as the instrument for this study. The questions were constructed based on De Houwer et al., (2012) and Hummel (2014) that were related to bilingualism practices through teacher’s verbal input to interview the teacher on how the verbal input works in bilingualism practices and what are the challenges the teacher gets. The result showed that both schools have already implemented adult’s verbal input to their students’ bilingualism practices using two languages at school. The difference is in the most types applied from each school. Most types applied in International Islamic The school was shorter utterances, meanwhile, the most typically applied in International Kindergarten was substantial repetition.

Enhancing the Students’ Learning Motivation by Using Instructional Media for Thailand’s Municipal School

In today’s era, the idea of conducting student exchanges and teaching practices overseas continues to grow. In this way, the cooperating countries can share their recent innovations in the field of education. The existence of a language barrier, however, may hinder learning and teaching in the classroom. Language barrier refers to the lack of a common language that prevents people from speaking to or understanding each other. It should be overcome as the information shared between teachers and students might be misinterpreted. This research was carried out as the researcher believed that the existing language barrier could be helped by increasing students’ motivation in the classroom. The aim of this study was to integrate the use of instructional media to enhance the students’ learning motivation of primary school in Thailand’s municipal school. This research used Classroom Action Research (CAR) design. The data was collected through the use of worksheets, still pictures, video recordings, interview guides, and field notes. The research results fulfilled the three criteria of success, namely classroom atmosphere, students’ learning motivation, and the strategy’s practicality. The researchers found that the use of instructional media could enhance students’ learning motivation and overcome the language barriers in the classroom.

Parents’ Perceptions of Their Young Children’s English Literacy Acquisition: A Narrative Inquiry

The purpose of this study is to explore the families’ perceptions of their contribution in promoting their young children’s early English literacy acquisition. The researchers used questionnaires and interview to collect the data. The researchers applied an in-depth open-ended interview to two families who have a role in promoting their children’s English literacy development. The researchers also applied questionnaires to support the data. The researchers used a survey to apply the questionnaire to the respondents. The result showed that most of the parents in Indonesia hadn’t given their awareness of their children’s early English literacy acquisition. Since English was categorized as the foreign language of Indonesian people, most of the families did their mother language (L1) at home with their children. Thus, there are two implications of this study. The first implication of this study is to increase the parents’ awareness of the benefit of implementing children’s early English literacy. The other implication for English Language Teaching is to help the teacher and school institution to have collaborated with the parents to increase the development of children’s early English literacy. Thus, the teacher can teach English easier and may achieve the learning goals which are very useful for all parties (parents, children, and teachers) in the future.

Speech Acts and Politeness: A Case Study on Indonesian EFL Learners in Teaching and Learning Practice

This research is intended to know the kinds and classification of speech acts and the politeness implication in teaching and learning activities. The subject of this research was the sixth-semester EFL learners of STKIP PGRI Bandar Lampung. The object of this research was speech acts used by EFL learners. The researcher used the observation technique combined with noting technique in collecting the data. In this research, the researcher used the qualitative multiple study. The result of the study showed that speech acts used by EFL learners were direct and indirect speech acts. The speech acts were classified into the assertive, commissive, directive, and expressive. The politeness strategy acted by EFL learning included positive and negative politeness. The use of positive politeness creates a closeness among the teacher and the students, creates a pleasant classroom atmosphere, and increases the students’ motivation. Meanwhile, the use of negative politeness reduces amount degree of friendliness among the students and the teacher and creates a formal learning situation. Theoretically, this research has implications for the development of scientific insights about pragmatics, especially speech acts, and practically it gives implication to EFL teachers and students in understanding, analyzing, and interpreting the use of speech acts in communication.

A Content Analysis of Cultural Representation in High School English Textbook in 2013 Education Curriculum

This study reports cultural content in the latest high school English textbook concerning the 2013 education curriculum. Besides, this paper also explores the intercultural communicative competence within the English textbooks. A qualitative research design is employed in this study. Moreover, the cultural contents and intercultural communicative competence were taken from the reading text on English textbooks for the last grade of senior high school entitled ‘Bahasa Inggris 2018 revised edition’. This study relied on the kind of cultural contents by Cortazzi & Jin (1999), types of cultural dimensions by Yuen (2011), and three levels of intercultural communicative competence by Byram (2002). It has been found that target culture with the cultural dimension of the product had a major proportion on the English textbook. Besides, the lowest level of intercultural communicative competence, namely basic cultural awareness was also discovered. In such a case, the complicity of intercultural values in the textbook should be given more attention so that students can easily grasp the values of various cultures. As a result, the aims of the 2013 education curriculum can be achieved well.

Developing Interactive Learning Multimedia Based on Simulation Model

The purpose of this research is to develop interactive multimedia namely Smile English that can be used as the media for learning reading especially for self-preparation on the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) material. This reading interactive media used a simulation model. This idea exploded after observing and collecting the data in the internal environment of Politeknik Negeri Batam Based on the placement test, it was found that about 540 (49,23%) of Polibatam students' test were categorized into the intermediate level and the rest were elementary and novice level. It means that the students need to improve their preparation before taking the test to an accomplished better score. Smile English was developed by using R and D research. In this case, the researcher followed the step of the Luther-Sutopo method which was started from concept, design, material collecting, assembly, testing, and distribution. It was designed using Adobe Flash software which in this software combined text, sound, and animation. The research result showed that the implementation of Smile English was successful to help the students in preparing themselves for the TOEIC test. Therefore, 60 students from Politeknik Negeri Batam had a good result in joining the TOEIC test, especially for the reading section.

Indonesian EFL Teachers’ Perceptions of Task-Based Language Teaching Approach

Task-based language teaching is an approach applying tasks as a key point of pedagogical instruments. This study explores teachers’ perceptions of task-based language teaching in the secondary school context in Indonesia. Descriptive qualitative research design is used with data collected by using questionnaires. This study used purposive sampling to choose the sample. The findings showed that most of the junior and senior high school EFL teachers appeared to embrace positive attitudes towards practicing task-based language teaching, even though their knowledge of task-based language teaching is still low. All teachers in the study said they have implemented task-based language teaching in the classroom. All of them will continue to use TBLT. The implication of the study is to inspire other researchers to investigate task-based language teaching with greater confidence. The researcher hopes that this research will motivate curriculum designers and other researchers to explore more fully the views of those who are key to successful classroom implementation.

Elsa Speak App: Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) for Supplementing English Pronunciation Skills

Nowadays, artificial intelligence (AI) became a special concern in language teaching for the reason that it can assist and enhance language learning for all levels of education. Again, it had beneficial roles for supplementing language teaching like ELSA Speak App one of Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) used for teaching pronunciation. It studied how students heard, voiced, uttered, vocalized, and asserted the English words in the oral language, but the students often pronounced incorrect words with the result that the uttered words had faulty meaning. This study aimed to carry out English Language Speech Assistant (ELSA) Speak App to improve English language pronunciation skills to higher education learners that were the English Department Students of Nahdlatul Ulama University of Yogyakarta (UNU). The data were collected using a test of pronunciation and interview. The researcher also taught in the classroom. The results showed that ELSA Speak can increase the students’ pronunciation skills. It can be seen from the average scores obtained from the teaching cycles from two to four in grade. Clearly, ELSA Speak helped the students pronounce diverse words more easily and comprehensively. Also, the available features offered by this app like instant feedback enabled the students to pronounce precisely. In conclusion, ELSA Speak can improve the students’ pronunciation skills well and effectively. Indeed, it can motivate the students to engage in learning to pronounce.

Portfolio System in Teaching Writing: EFL Students' Perceptions

The portfolio system appears as one alternative answer for such a challenge encountered by an English teacher. The research about the portfolio system that focused on students' perception is quite necessary since it helps the teachers and students of the English language find a proper way of learning writing skills. This study aimed to investigate the students' perception of using a portfolio system to improve writing ability in teaching writing skills in English as a foreign language to high school students. The participants of this research were four students of high school. In conducting this case study, the researcher collected data from the interview. This research found that the students favored implementing a portfolio system to improve their English writing skills. This research stands as a contribution to teaching English writing skills. This study suggests that a portfolio system is a useful tool for teaching English writing skills in secondary education. It can use the teacher to facilitate the students by giving feedback on their writing to encourage their writing performance.

E-Learning-mediated Instruction: Preparing Innovative and Work Ready English Materials for Nursing Assistant Students

This study aimed at developing e-learning-based English materials for Nursing Assistant students by employing Lee and Owen's R&D design model. The R&D model consists of need analysis, design, and development. The need analysis was conducted in a vocational school in North Bali, Indonesia, to gather suitable information from the stakeholders. The data were from observation, recording, interview, and expert judgment analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. Results showed that Nursing assistant students needed specific English materials related to their future jobs. The designed materials comprised five units: General Assessment, Handling Patients, Patient's Hygiene, Checking Vital Signs, and Dimensions of Symptom. Using the criteria of good ESP material and good e-learning material, the developed materials are found to be in the excellent category. The study shows that Nursing assistant students need innovative and work-relevant materials. It is highly recommended to be utilized in the teaching and learning process.