The Analysis of Indonesian EFL Argumentative Writing Using Toulmin’s Model: The Structure and Struggles from the Learners

<p>Argumentative writing plays an important role in academic writing at university level. However, learners mostly find that writing this essay a challenging and effortful task. This present study aims at exploring the structures of argumentative essay written by Indonesian EFL students from one university in Jakarta Indonesia. Moreover, it investigates their difficulty and constraints during composing the essay. Using a descriptive qualitative design, the authors selected writing assignment and questionnaire for collecting data. A layout of Toulmin model of arguments was used in analyzing the essays. The findings of the study show that the argumentative papers cover the main elements: claim (thesis statement), data, rebut, and rebuttal data using either in block pattern or point-by-point pattern. The elements show diverse in types. Logical analysis and explanation are the most frequently used on the papers. Though they present acceptable thesis with well-organized essay, some information is unrelated and data for supporting the claim are seemingly insufficient. In addition, the students think that this essay as difficult task. In general, lack of knowledge, vocabulary and practice cause the constraints. In specific level, the students report that giving argument, finding support and working on counterargument become source of difficulty and constraints.</p>

Teaching Simple Present in Writing Through Short Story on Youtube To Accounting Students at University of Bina Sarana Informatika

<p><span lang="EN-US">This research discusses the use of short story on YouTube in teaching simple present tense to Accounting students. The development of technology has influenced in English teaching learning ways. There are some skills that should be mastered by the learners in learning English, they are listening, speaking, reading and writing. Technology can be used in all English skills, such as the use of YouTube in teaching writing. There are many short stories on YouTube that can be used as one of the media in teaching writing. Simple present is used to show the activity which is done repeatedly. It is also used to show about general truth or fact. It is chosen as the students, especially Accounting students, still have difficulties in implementing simple present in the sentence. The method used in this research was descriptive qualitative method and the participants of this research were the students from Accounting Department, 1st semester of University Bina Sarana Informatika. The results of the research are: (1) most students have understood about the pattern of the verb used in simple present tense; (2) most of them have known about using verbs or auxiliary verbs; and (3) some of them made mistakes of the writing of the verb and auxiliary verb.</span></p>

Exploring the Use of Mobile Assisted Language Learning in University Students Context

<div class="WordSection1"><p><span lang="EN-US">One of the technological tools that has experienced significant developments in this era is the smartphone. The use of smartphones among millennials, especially students, is inevitable. Therefore, this study aims to see students' perceptions on using MALL (Mobile Assisted Language Learning) in the English learning process at IAIN Sultan Amai Gorontalo. The method used was a qualitative design by surveying 55 students majoring in English Education. Of the 55 students, only 50 responded to the questionnaire given. This questionnaire contained questions about students’ demographic information as well as students’ perceptions about the use of MALL by using five scales, namely Strongly Agree, Agree, Neutral, Disagree, and Strongly Disagree. The results showed that the respondents consisted of 40 women and ten men. The age of the respondents is between 20-24. All respondents have smartphones, 4 of them have tablets and 46 have laptops. From the results of the survey above, it can be said that students stated that smartphones are very helpful tools for their daily activities. The use of gadgets in the learning process, especially language learning, deserves to be elaborated with other learning methods or media. In the era of technological sophistication, the presence of smartphones requires teachers to be more creative in using various applications and content attached to this gadget. Current students cannot be separated from smartphones. The result of this study shows how smartphones are tools that enable better language competency in students, but of course, with proper and wise supervision and use.</span></p></div>

Making Sense of Collaborative Writing: A Student-Experience-Based Perspective

<p>The present study examines four pairs or eight students who wrote their creative writing assignments collaboratively. As opposed to the popular view, which stated that writing is one of the most difficult subjects to learn for EFL students, many studies have reported that collaborative writing (henceforth CW) is regarded as a technique that can improve students’ productive writing skills to a great extent. The researchers would like to see how effective CW was for the students who did their writing assignments with their pairs by employing a qualitative case study to examine the eight students’ experiences in writing their essays and fictional stories. The researchers wanted to know why some students could adapt to this learning model, and others faced some problems or failed to achieve the target of learning outcomes. Opened-ended questionnaire and in-depth interviews are used to elicit data from the students. The first pair was the most successful example of partnership in writing since they opened themselves for critiques and suggestions. In contrast, the second pair had some problems that disturbed their collaboration as they did not seem to open themselves for critiques and suggestions. The third pair failed to do an effective partnership because they could not solve problems that blocked their cooperation right from the beginning. The fourth pair found their way for an effective collaboration when they opened themselves for critiques and suggestions. The success or failure in the partnership heavily depends on each student collaborator's willingness to open themselves for criticism and suggestion.</p>

Translation Techniques as a Message for Target Readers in Children Story ‘Widget’

<p>In the case of translating children stories, translators need to be an extra careful since children stories are not just about fun, but children stories usually also contain moral messages. Different from translating texts for adults, the role of translators as a filter in translating children text is greater since unlike adult, children ability to do self-filter in absorbing any material they read is very weak. Therefore, translating this kind of text is certainly a challenge for translators: on one side they have to deliver the message, and on another they have to make sure that their translation should still deliver moral message to target readers. This research captures the effort of translators in trying to do both through their choice of translation techniques in translating children story Widget. The goal of the research is to investigate and to explain the translation techniques used by translators in translating Widget. The research employed qualitative analysis with the data in the form of sentences in the story with total sampling. The results of the research show that various translation techniques are chosen to deliver the message of the original text in the translation such as established equivalent, pure borrowing, explicitation, transposition, compensation, modulation, and reduction. In addition to that, some of them were chosen especially in order to deliver the target readers in terms of the culture of original text.</p>

Utilization of Seamless Learning as a Learning Model during Covid-19 Pandemic in Indonesia

<p>One of the effects of the 2019-20 Coronavirus pandemic is relied on education throughout the world. Education in Indonesia is also affected by the COVID-19 virus. All levels of education from elementary schools to tertiary institutions (universities) both under the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture and those under the Indonesian Ministry of Religion are "forced" to learn from home because of face-to-face learning removed to prevent COVID-19 transmission. Under these conditions, the education system can adopt Seamless Learning. Seamless Learning allows students to determine when and where they will learn. This research is a literature study reviewing studies which show that Seamless can now be done to replace traditional systems during pandemic. Seamless Learning can be an option for learning methods that can be applied during the COVID-19 quarantine period. Seamless Learning allows students to learn more independently and does not sacrifice students with certain hours and duration as long as the material is affordable and accessible to students. Students can easily access material and are not limited by certain devices making it easier for students who do not have a computer or laptop.</p>

Analysis of Myth Barthes in SGM Milk Formula Advertisement “Aku Anak SGM Explore” Version

<p>Advertisement is a medium of communication between producers and consumers. An advertisement can be done through various media such as newspapers, magazines, internet, radio and/or television. In advertisement, producers try to create a sign to make a hidden message (mitos) behind. Advertisement plays significant role in promoting such products because it spreads wider. Literacy of advertisements, through mass media is very essential in helping audiences to better see and understand how messages in the form of text, verbal and nonverbal are displayed through audio visual. The hidden message is created to convey consumers. So that, they can truly understand the message. Television is as one of the media to represent hidden message contained in an advertisement.</p><p>This study aims to analyze how the signs contained in the texts displayed in the SGM formula advertisement, version "Aku Anak SGM" on television. The methodology used was qualitative with a semiotic analysis approach. Semiotic approach from Barthes will be used by researchers to reveal the signs in these advertisements, by using signifier and signified to get hidden meaning inside. From this analysis can be revealed signs that are relevant to the message that the producer wants to assure the consumers. The existence of advertisements in audio-visual media with other media certainly has a different effect. Television is a complete media, because it can contain messages in the form of audio and visually. Commercial advertisements will have more selling power if they succeed in taking advantage of the advantages possessed by the media.</p>

Types of Code Switching Used in The Naked Traveler Novel

<p><span lang="EN-US">Human is a social creature who needs to link and to communicate with each other. The potential relationship of individuals who speak more than one language lead to a bilingual community. Speakers who have been exposed to two languages sometimes switch code within a domain or a social situation. Today it is very common for some authors to use two different languages in their master piece, in form of novels or other pop culture. Some authors recently throw their readers to the deep story by using two languages where they switch from one language to another. The purpose of this research aims to identify the types of code-switching found in The Naked Traveler Novel written by Trinity as well as to define the most dominant type of code-switching found in The Naked Traveler Novel written by Trinity. The researcher used the theory of Romaine in Susanto (2008) that is classified into three types of code-switching, there are inter-sentential code-switching, intra-sentential switching, and tag switching. The qualitative descriptive method used in collecting and analyzing the data. From the result, it is found that there are 3 inter-sentential code switching with 12%, 22 intra-sentential type of code switching with 88%, and zero found for tag switching.</span></p>

Students’ Perception of Teachers’ Creativity in Implementing Home Learning at SMK Duta Mas

<p>The Indonesian government formally enforces rules of study, worship, and work from home from March 16th, 2020. Minimizing and limiting meetings involving physical contact are efforts to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus. These conditions have implications for the effectiveness of the learning process in schools. The implementation of a home learning program replacing face to face-to-face schooling raised some problems from the lack of teachers’ skills to hazy educational policies. Because of that reason this study is conducted to find out students’ perception of teachers’ creativity in implementing home learning programs during the pandemic. There were 60 participants chosen by simple random sampling from grade 11th, the academic year 2019-2020, SMK Duta Mas. A questionnaire with a Likert scale was used to collect data. Then data analysis employed qualitative descriptive research to analyse indicators of teachers’ creativity proposed by Slameto. The findings of this study reveal that from 6 indicators of teachers’ creativity, 5 of them have a high percentage and the average total percentage is 79.26%. Therefore, it can be concluded that students’ perception of teachers’ creativity in SMK Duta Mas in implementing home learning during the pandemic is considered high. However, teachers need to improve their ability in creating media for learning because it is very important to improve students’ learning achievement and to motivate them to learn.</p>

Improving Student’s Speaking Skill Using Youtube Video as Media: An Action Research

<p><span lang="EN-US">This research is an action research that aims to improve students' speaking skills using Youtube media. Discussing how Youtube as a learning medium can improve students' speaking skills. During the Covid 19 pandemic, formal schools are still carrying out the learning process online and only courses are allowed to study face-to-face because there are fewer students in one class, therefore this research was conducted in the Easy English course. Students' speaking ability on the Easy English course is still low especially at the level of children. English course students have difficulty in speaking skills. The students are bored with the old method of improving their speaking skills. The data were collected through speaking assessment and interview</span><span lang="EN-US">in classroom action research. The writer used Youtube video and students watched and practiced it. Each class consisted of 7 to 10 students, the writer made three cycles and gave a score for each cycle according to the speaking size. The results of the research point out that the students could improve their speaking skills by using Youtube videos. In the first cycle, the students' average score is 65 points, the second cycle is 75 points, and the last cycle is 85 points.</span></p>