Students’ Perception towards the Use of Worksheet as Helping Tools in Semantics Class

The writer set the problem of this research such as how is the students’ perception toward the use of worksheet as helping tools in semantics class? and what are the advantages of using a worksheet? The aim of this study is to describe the students’ perception of the use of worksheets as helping tools in semantics class and to find the advantages of using it. The subject of this research is the fifth-semester students in the English Department at the University of Cokroaminoto Palopo. The method of this study is a descriptive study. The procedures of collecting data are giving questionnaires and interviews and then the writer analyzed the data by adopting Matthew B. Miles and A. Michael Huberman's pattern. There were three steps; data reduction, data display, and conclusion. After that, the writer tabulated the gained data in making the description of the data. The result of this study shows; (1) Students are giving positive and good perception on the use of worksheet as helping tools in semantics class and (2) The advantage of using the worksheet as helping tools in teaching semantics are; it helped the students in understanding the question and answering the question easily, it also helped them in remembering the past material by using the worksheet and it gave them some motivation to learn English Semantics. So, it can be concluded that the use of worksheets as helping tools in semantics class got a positive response from the students and it also gave them some advantages.

The Ability of Indonesian EFL University Students in Writing an Explanation Text

This research aims at finding out the students’ ability in writing an explanation at first semester students of English Study Program of Nusa Cendana University, Kupang NTT. The researcher focuses on evaluating the students’ writing ability in five aspects of writing namely content, organization, grammar, vocabulary, and mechanics. The researcher applied the quantitative method and descriptive analysis design. The research was conducted in August 2019. This research was conducted at First semester students of the English Study Program of Nusa Cendana University, Kupang. The population of this research was First semester students of the English Study Program of Nusa Cendana University, Kupang in the 2020/2021 academic year. The number population is 160 in four classes. The researcher took 5 students from each class as the sample of the research. Therefore, there were 20 students as a sample. The test was used to find out the students’ ability in writing explanation text. In collecting data, the researcher asked the students to write an argumentative essay by choosing one of the given topics. To analyze the data, the researcher focused on evaluating the students’ writing in five criteria. The result of the research shows that the mean score of the test is 6.86. It shows that the students have an average degree of capability in writing explanation text. The biggest problem for the students in developing an explanation text is the organization (43%), it followed by the language use (37%), vocabulary (33%), content (30%), and the smallest problem is mechanics (30%). Some factors that hamper the students in writing: 1) the students face difficulties in expressing ideas, choosing appropriate words, and arranging ideas in writing, 2) the students seldom practice their writing skill, 3) the students still find difficulty in using punctuation in writing from, 4) the students do not enrich themselves with knowledge.

Encouraging English Language Use through the “Desaku” Project

“Desaku”, is an encouragement project which is held in Dian Nuswantoro University. The research is aimed at describing the activity of the project dealing with the strategies of learning process and the motivation of the participants. The descriptive survey research was designed by preparing the questionnaires provided 15 closed questions. The population of the survey are the academic staff and administrative staff of Dian Nuswantoro University as participants of the program. Determination of the number of samples applied the convenience sampling technique. 60 respondents were selected based on the criteria that they had participated as participants in ”Desaku” project for at least one year and were actively involved. The analysis of the data collected is conducted through statistic descriptive using the percentages (%) then it is presented in the form of chart. Each chart had been structured according to its respective fields, and the frequency and percentage used to analyze and describe the results. The results of the research showed that 91% of the participants enjoyed the program and felt happy with the program. 85% of the participants agree that the various strategies have been applied to encourage the staffs to practice English orally.

Students' Collaborative Writing Method in Pre-Writing Phase

In a pre-writing phase, students need their creativity to put ideas into words. Students need to use what they listen to and what they read as information to start to write. This study reports the findings on the implementation of the collaborative writing method by an English teacher in teaching writing in the pre-writing phase and students' perceptions in the pre-writing phase using the collaborative writing method. This research uses descriptive qualitative research. Participants in this study were nine students and teachers at SMK in Karawang. Data collection was carried out through reflective journals, interviews, and documentation. The results of the study found that the collaborative writing method was an effective method for use in writing classes. The collaborative writing method can be implemented in teaching writing in the pre-writing phase. The results showed that the students were very enthusiastic, interested, and made the learning process fast. Students' perceptions of learning to write in the pre-writing phase using the collaborative writing method are that students find it easier to express their thoughts in the learning process and there is cooperation in groups that accelerate the time when doing their assignments helps them during the learning process.

The Use of Digital Comic in Developing Student's English Competence

This current study is aimed to know whether any improvement or not in using digital comics as the media on student’s English competence. The researchers used a quantitative approach with a pre-experimental design. This research was conducted at Universitas Muhammadiyah Lamongan and the sample was 42 pharmacist medical students. The instrument that was used to measure students’ English competence was the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). The result of the test was analyzed by using statistical analysis of paired sample t-test. The finding showed that there was significant improvement before and after the treatment, it can be proved by the significant value of the pre and post-test which was 0.000 (2 tailed). Since the significance value (2-tailed) was less than 0.05, it means that the hypotheses of this study were accepted. In other words, the students positively received the use of digital comics for English learning activities. Therefore, digital comics can be assumed as an effective media or tool for enhancing students’ English competence.

Verb Phrase and Its Translations Found in the Novel “Budha, a Story of Enlightenment”

This study aims at analyzing the syntactic structure of the verb phrase and its translation process occurred. This study also analyzes the kinds of shifts of verb phrase occurred in the translation process from English into Indonesia. This study is a descriptive qualitative study. The theory used in analyzing data is the theory proposed by Catford and Radford (1988). The theory used in analyzing the data source is the theory in translation especially in shifts of translation and the theory in syntax in order to analyze the verb phrases found in the data source. There are 12 verb phrases as data of this study. The verb in the data source can be categorized as an Indonesian verb. It can be seen from the text that is available in the data source, that the verb phrase in the source language can be transferred into an Indonesian verb in the target language Then, there are some steps applied in this study, the first step of this research is to collect the data source found in the novel The Budha, a Story of Enlightenment. The second step is to read and identify the text in the novel The Budha, a Story of Enlightenment containing the verb phrase. The next step is to take some texts, analyze and interpret the data, and finally draw a conclusion. The verb phrase found in the novel The Budha, a Story of Enlightenment was identified by the researcher. And this study continued in analyzing the translation process occurred. The result of translation analysis of the text shows that there is a shift occurred in all the 12 processes of translating English verb phrase into Indonesian. 8 are classified as changing into lower rank and 4 are classified as changing into a higher rank.

Modeling Online Classroom Interaction to Support Student Language Learning

For many years, teacher-student interaction has been indicated to considerably affect student learning. In recent years, research concentration has moved from attempting to evaluate the potent ways of classroom interaction for student learning and how it can be developed. Due to the intricacy of the classroom interaction procedure, the answer to this question is profoundly contingent upon some reasons, such as the learning condition. The aim of this project is to study the classroom interaction process in an online learning context in which English is learned as a foreign language. This is review research employing content analysis technique we intend to examine the published research articles to find out the teachers’ strategies/tools and the contribution of the strategies to students’ language learning in online classroom interaction. This can build up an understanding of the most effective techniques to develop the students’ involvement with the learning process. The result of the analysis is that most teachers use synchronous and asynchronous online classroom interaction and blended learning in which teacher-students, student-student, student-teacher, and student-learning sources are met through discussion. This strategy is mostly preferred by teachers to give students a chance to get involved in communication, collaboration, interaction, and participation. This strategy is believed to be able to engage students in developing language learning opportunities; therefore, this can be a good model for better classroom practices.

Cross Cultural Pragmatics: Compliment Response Strategy Used on the British and Indonesian Talk show

This research aims at comparing the pattern of compliment response strategy used by two different cultures between British’s and Indonesia’s talk show. The method used is descriptive qualitative research. The data is taken from “Loose Women” (British Talk Show) and “Tonight Show” (Indonesian Talk Show). The data collections are done as follows: first, download the video of “Tonight Show” and “Loose Women”. Second, observed both videos and then compared the video. The last transcribed the compliment response and then choose the pattern of compliment response strategy based on the theory of (R. Herbert, 1989) to be analyzed further. The result shows that strategy of no acknowledgment gets a higher percentage in “Tonight Show” that is (31.03%), this strategy as the first usage in the compliment response strategy, disagreement strategy gets (23.07%) and as the second usage in the compliment response strategy, the third usage is appreciation token strategy (17.24%) in responding the compliment. Meanwhile, the Talk Show entitled “Loose Women” (British Talkshow), the higher strategy is comment acceptance (28%), appreciation token, return, and no acknowledgement strategy(16%). It can be concluded that the most prominent used in both Talk show are no acknowledgement strategy and comment acceptance strategy. Those both strategies is included rejection pattern in responding the compliment. In this case, British tends to receive the praise and respond to what was discussed and even they provide additional information with the intention of keeping the communication going, it means that they are open in responding to what was discussed, but that contrasts with Indonesia culture, Indonesian people intended to humble themselves and minimize the things commented on praise as an expression of humility. It means that they do not want to be seen as an arrogant artist or public figure. They only want to keep their image as an artist.

Enhancing Students’ Vocabulary Mastery using Spot It! Card Game in Distance Learning

This study aimed at finding the effectiveness of Spot it! Card Game in enhancing students’ English vocabulary mastery in distance learning. The research used a quasi-experimental research design. The participants were the second year students of SMA Pesantren Modern Datuk Sulaeman Palopo Bagian Putri which were divided into experimental group and control group consisted of 20 students in each group. The result indicates that the students of the experimental group have significant improvement of the mean score which is5,42 on Pre-test classified as Poor to 8,89 on Post-test classified as Very Good after given treatment using Spot It! Card Game. Meanwhile, students of the control group show slight improvement which is 6,36 on pre-test classified as Fair to 7,91 on post-test classified as Good after given treatment using the conventional method. It means enhancing students’ vocabulary mastery using Spot It! Card Game is more effective than using the conventional methods in distance learning.

Creating Comfortable Classroom by VAK Learning Styles: Planning for Early Childhood to Interest in Learning English

The objectives of the research were to investigate whether or not creating a comfortable classroom by VAK learning styles as a technique has significant effects for early childhood in learning English and whether or not the students are interested in creating a comfortable Classroom by VAK Learning Styles as a technique in Learning English. This research employed a pre-experimental method by using one group pre-test and post-test design, where the writer did an experiment in a single group only. The population of this research was the students of TK Tri Putri in Makassar Suburb academic year 2019/2020. This research used purposive sampling. The sample consisted of 34 students. Those students should be 5-6 years old. The data was collected by using a writing test and observation checklist. The findings showed that there was an improvement in the students’ English ability after the treatment. The students’ result of the posttest was more significantly improved than the students’ result of the pretest by the mean score of 81.18 > 50.12. The difference of both scores was statistically significant based on the t-test value at significant level 0.05 in which the P-value is lower than the significant level (0.000 < 0.05). The mean score of the students’ interest in cycle 2 was 80 and it was categorized as interested classification.