The Effectiveness of Online Coaching through Social Networking Site

In the more globalized world, social networking sites are used to connect people and popular as a learning platform. More people use webinars to talk about specific topics through a social network. The number of online courses raise and change the way people learn. People used to study in a classroom with a tutor in front of them, but now people only need to sit in front of a screen to learn new things. However, the effectiveness of this process is still questioned. Therefore, this study aims to analyse the effectiveness of online coaching through a social networking site and the critical challenge in online coaching and approach to tackle it. This study is qualitative research. The data is collected from online interviews with a semi-structured interview guide. The sample of the study is 12 mentees and 5 mentors who had been involved in 12 weeks of online scholarship coaching held by Coach Potato Indonesia. The data is analyzed using a thematic content method, and the effectiveness of online coaching is measured by using the Kirkpatrick Model. The result of the study is that online mentoring through social networking sites is effective and efficient, especially in particular related to geographical and financial issues. The authors found the critical challenges in online mentoring are internet connection and timing. Therefore, online mentoring should use multiple platforms to adjust with the technical issue that might occur.

Students’ Attitudes and Perceptions of ICT: Weblog Application in Improving Methods of SCL on Writing Class 2: Online Exploration of Global Issues

In this digitized era, English as a Foreign Languag (EFL) teachers in Indonesia, as in many other countries are anxious to exploit the potential of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to enhance the teaching and learning process. Given the increasing pressure exerted by technological developments on language education, it is important to understand the underlying factors behind teachers’ decisions regarding ICT. Regarding this matter, this study investigates the development as well as the effects of ICT applied in English Department in teaching and learning process. The use of weblog is being applied in the Academic Writing classes for a couple of years now. Students are equipped with the method of teaching through blog. So far, the use of ICT in the classroom often part of a teacher-centered class but it is easy to exploit these tools in learner-centered activities. For this particular case, students have freedom to control themselves in using the internet technology, even though it is still under teachers instructions. The method applied in this study is combination of the qualitative and quantitative. Evidence has been collected through a literature search, students questionnaires and semi interviews designed. The factors which was found to be most importans to these students were; having the lesson more interesting, easier, more fun for them, more diverse, more enjoyable and on top of that is more motivating.

Learner Autonomy and Internal Locus of Control: Influential Factors in EFL Context

Considering the significant role of learner autonomy and internal locus of control in language learning process, the present study attempted to investigate the correlation between EFL learners’ autonomy and internal locus of control. To achieve such aim, a sample of 95 Iranian EFL learners both male (n=33) and female (n=62) participated in this study. The instruments used in the present study were learner autonomy questionnaire (Learner Autonomy Perception Questionnaire) and internal locus of control questionnaire (Internal Locus of Control Index). The findings indicated a significant positive correlation among EFL learners’ autonomy and their internal locus of control. Moreover, this study highlights the importance of learner autonomy and internal locus of control in the foreign language learning and also aims to raise EFL teachers’ awareness of the importance of these two key factors in the EFL context. The suggestions related to the findings of the current study are discussed at the end of study.

Language Curriculum in America and Indonesia: A Comparative Analysis for Improvement of Indonesian Character Education Practice

This article explores the U.S. English Language Arts Curriculum and Indonesian Language and Literature Curriculum. A comparative analysis is drawn to investigate ideological, cultural, and political economy factors that influence the development of both curricula. In addition, the educational purposes and philosophies that support both curricula are also exposed. Specifically, the discussion of the unstated purposes of the curricula shows an interesting finding. Language and literature curriculum of both countries highlight the importance of citizenship and character education and are integrated in the teaching of the curricula. However, the US language curriculum places a premium on fostering American identity, with an emphasis on increasing learning for professional workforce and career-ready individuals, which will benefit the global economy in the future. Meanwhile, Indonesian language curriculum gives priority to moral and religious instruction. The language and literature teaching are integrated in nation’s character building. After analyzing, comparing, and contrasting both curricula, the author found that America successfully instills character education to shape the worldview and characters of its citizens extracted from their clear ideology, while Indonesia is somewhat inexplicable and vague. Therefore, this article shows room for improvement for educators and educational leaders in Indonesia to be clearer in defining which character is best exposed in the curriculum.

The Ethnolinguistic Vitality of Konjo in Bulukumba Regency of South Sulawesi, Indonesia

The maintenance of an ethnic language in a multilingual setting depends on many factors, and it is including language vitality. This study examines the vitality of the Konjo language in South Sulawesi. By demonstrating the ethnolinguistic vitality (EV) theory, this descriptive study examines Konjo language vitality in two contexts: ethnically homogeneous and ethnically heterogeneous areas in Bulukumba Regency. In the homogenous area, status, demographic, and institutional support are factors to contribute to the EV of Konjo. However, in the heterogeneous area, demographic factors contribute little while status and institutional support contribute to the maintenance of the language. The result of this study shows that the sheer number of Konjo community members distributed throughout the heterogeneous area is not sufficient for language maintenance. Nevertheless, Konjo EV remains high overall because of the community’s strong cultural and ethnic identification with their heritage language..

Nyerere in Eyes of his Critics

There are a number of positive ideals about Mwalimu Julius Nyerere in the literatures. His ideals includes among others his devotion for peace, security, unity and democracy. However, the ideals do not limit the visibility of his negative traits. This paper specially examines the criticisms against Nyerere. The paper looks at the portrayal of Nyerere in number literatures from his critics. It examines the literatures against Nyerere in number of issues including his role in the decolonization struggle, the situation of democracy and individual freedom during his reign and his position towards Islamic religion and Zanzibar revolution. The paper establishes that most of criticisms against Nyerere are not refuted because supporters and critics talk about different things. Whereas his supporters put forward his role in building the nation, critics focus his in his economic failure and deprivation of individual freedom in Tanzania.

Morphological Proses of Wolio Language in Kabanti Nuru Molabi

Morphology is the study of words and their structure. Morphological process is a mean of changing a stem to adjust its meaning to fit its syntactic and communicational context while morphological system of language reveals its properties trhough the morphemic structur of words. This research is aimed to elaborate the morphological system of Wolio language in Kabanti Nuru Molabi based on Anceaux theory. Kabanti is an oral tradition in literary works. Descriptive method is used to analyze this research. To do this research, the researchercollect the data from Kabanti Nuru Molabi text. Moreover, in this theory, Anceaux proposed and devided the morphological system based on the class of words. One same prefix is possible to make a different class of wordswhen it is attached to a verb or a noun. Anceaux classified the morphem based on the stem attached to verb or noun. Nevertheless, the data in Kabanti Nuru Molabi shows that suffix –na, to form a possessive, and suffix –mo to form demonstrative or affirmation are not covered in Anceaux.

ELT Graduate Students’ Challenges of Writing for Scholarly Publication: Discursive Perspectives

There has been an increasing demand for postgraduate students to publish their scholarly work as one of their graduation requirements. The present study attempted to explore the graduate students’ challenges in writing for scholarly publication seen from the perspectives of discursive challenges. This qualitative research employed case study to disclose the participants’ perceived constraints. The students participated in this study three final-year female students undertaking their master’s degree in English Language Teaching (ELT) in a university in Central Java. Data were garnered from semi-structured interviews. The findings discovered the discursive challenges that the participants faced in writing for scholarly publication including accuracy, genre understanding, interference of L1 to L2 production, and lexical items. It is expected that this study provides new insights for EAP design for higher education context so that the program addresses the needs of the graduate students.

Expressive Act by Elite Politicians in Responding Issue of “Coup d’etat” in Democratic Party”

Democratic party is one of the greater parties that exists in Indonesia. Its existence gives significance colors in national politics. The declaration of coup’ d etat effort in front of the pers invites the politicians giving their responds. This research tries to investigate expressive act by the elite politicians. The method used in this research was qualitative method. To collect the data, documentation technique was used. It meant that the data were downloaded from internet. There were six videos taken from internet with 12 politicians. Those videos discussed the issue of coup d’etat in democratic party. The collecting data were transcribed without blurring the meaning. In displaying the data, the researchers investigated expressive acts used by every politician and then put them into the table of expressive acts. The results of this research revealed that there were two groups of politicians with different expressive acts. The group of pro and contra toward the issue of coup d’etat. In pro group used expressive act of approving, convincing, confessing, criticizing, and fearing. While the contra used disapproving, resentment, shocking and lamenting. Whole the expressive acts, both in pro and contra, were categorized into psychological and attitude effects. The psychological effect included the emotional range such as fearing, shocking, lamenting, and resentment. While, the attitude effect included the range of cognition, affection, and connation such as approving, disapproving, convincing, confessing, and criticizing. The implying meaning showed both the existence of coupd’etat and conspiracy thinking of elite politicians.

Utilizing Local Wisdom-Based Reading Text to Improve Students’ Reading Comprehension of the Second Grade of MAN 1 Baubau

Local wisdom-based reading text as the authentic teaching material overcomes various obstacles of reading comprehension in EFL which activate the students’ schemata. This research is about utilization of the local wisdom-based reading text to improve students’ reading comprehension. The types of comprehension include identifying main idea, understanding unfamiliar words, identifying text details, and being able to find reference within the text, being able to make inference regarding the text. The research design was pre-experimental study using a sample of 27 students in the second grade of Madrasah Aliyah Negeri 1 Baubau. A pre-test was administrated before intervention and after the same test for the post-test was administered to find out the students’ improvement on reading comprehension. The result confirmed that local wisdom-based reading text is an effective tools to empower EFL learners’ comprehension. The most prevalent improvement regards familiarity of the lexical items ability in making inference as well as finding out main idea. The students’ positive responses that were based on the perception confirmed that local wisdom-based reading text could be encouraged to come up with pedagogical implication applicable for the EFL classroom notably at the second grade of MAN 1 Baubau.