Teachers’ perspectives towards learning autonomy: a survey on English teachers

This study investigates teachers’ perspective toward autonomous learning in the context of English language learning in the current era. As a mixed research method then analyzing the collected data, it exposed that teachers’ perceptions on learning autonomy is low due to many of whom believed that their learners are still reluctant to take control of their study. It further indicated that, during thisCovid-19 pandemic, a learning autonomy may not be applicable in all context particularly within which school’s facility such as computer library and book library are limited or even not provided. This study concluded that learning autonomy practice is situational.

The functions of pauses in penginyongan daily conversation

The role of language in daily communication is undoubtedly important because language as a means of communication convey message from speaker to hearer. In the process of transferring message, particularly in oral communication, speaker and hearer may undergo some hesitation and silence cannot be avoided. Silence becomes one specific feature in oral communication. Pause and other phenomenon of spontaneous speech are commonly connected to changes in speakers’ responsiveness in a stable interpersonal situation. Daily conversation is a social praxis that encompasses human life and it is usually conducted in local or indegenous language. Pauses are widely found in this type of exchange and thus the importance of pause in oral talk is worth-analyzing. This paper tries to find out the functions of pauses in Penginyongan daily conversation. Penginyongan is a variant of Javanese language spoken along Serayu River. This research was conducted by using empirical data which were collected by using recording and in-depth interview. Participants of the research were native speaker without considering their sexes. Pauses in Penginyongan daily conversation are used for keeping a secret, refusal, acceptance, end a conversation, and changing topic. A further research needs to develop to gain the insight of pause phenomenon in Penginyongan related to participants’ sexes.

Interlanguage in recount writing text on 8th grade secondary school student

This study attempts to analyze interlanguage production made by ten eight-grade students who were enrolled in one of the secondary schools in Jakarta. Interlanguage happens when a learner talk in the target language but their linguistic framework is still the source language (any prior language they knew beforehand). It is intended to explore kinds of interlanguage that occur in their recount writing and to explain the potentials of why the errors emerge in their recount writing. The data of the study requires one recount text writing produced by the participants of this present study. This study employed a qualitative research design and it was specifically presented using a descriptive case study. Furthermore, document analysis is employed as the procedure of collecting data when analyzing the writing. The result of the study showed that based on students' recount writing, the interlanguage is detected from the way they formed passive sentences, incorrect verb agreement, unparalleled sentences, and L1 to L2 translation. In that sense, it can be concluded that interlanguage happens due to L1 tendency which still dominated the students' minds when producing the target language. Thus, the students should be assisted to practice the correct rules of English in their writing, especially in recount text to prevent any possible fossilization.

Lexical density and variation in Indonesian folklores in English student textbooks: an SFL study

This study aims to study the lexical density and lexical variation in Indonesian folklore narrative texts in English textbooks for grade X which were published by the Ministry of Education and Culture of The Republic of Indonesia. This study uses qualitative method since this study focuses on lexical density and lexical variation in the texts from the textbooks. This study applies the theory of Systemic Functional Linguistics based on lexical density theory of Ure (1971) which was refined by Halliday (1985) and the theory of lexical variation of Castello (2008). In addition, Gunning Fog Index and Estimated Reading Grades by Heydari (2012) are also applied to help measure suggested reading grades of the texts. The data are three narrative texts about Indonesian folklore from Bahasa Inggris: third edition (2017) and Interlanguage (2008) textbooks. This study revealed that the texts vary in terms of their lexical density and lexical variation. Moreover, in some of the texts, their lexical variation does not go in line with their lexical density and affect the difficulty level of the texts to be comprehended. This study also revealed that the texts vary in terms of Gunning Fog Index and many of the texts are suggested for lower graders.

Saussure semiotic of animals in Zootopia (2016)

This study aims to find out the meaning of the animal characters in the Zootopia movie. Zootopia is an animated movie that uses animals as characters; thus, it is challenging to analyze those animals since they brought different signs from common ones. Therefore, this research focuses on three animal characters e.g., mouse, rabbit, and fox which are considered as important signs in Zootopia that thus need to be interpreted. In interpreting the signs, this study employs Saussure's semiotic theory which relates to a sign that contains a signifier and its use or interpretation as signified. This research used qualitative methods. It is found that the stereotypes of the three animal characters in the movie are different from the common acceptance. The movie tries to break stereotypes about mouse, rabbit and fox. Finally, it is hoped that this study may create more awareness to see anything not based on its prevailing labels.

The use of personal pronoun in Donald Trump’s speech

This study concerns with the use of personal pronouns in political speech. The aims of this study are to find out personal pronouns used in Donald Trump’s speech and their functions. The source of data of this research is the speech by Donald trump at 74th session of the united nation general assembly. This study used descriptive qualitative method. The result shows that Donald Trump used personal pronoun I to emphasize his authority and his good qualities such as confident, share experience, and opinion. Personal pronoun you is used to refer to a specific group when he wants to separate one group from other groups. He also used you to refer to general to avoid conflict. He used personal pronoun inclusive we to involve himself with the united nation member. He used exclusive we to show his good relation with other groups in sharing responsibility. He used personal pronouns they to make him and the united nation members less responsible for other groups activities.

Women economic participation in novel Tentang Kamu by Tere Liye

The issue of the women’s role in the public sphere has been widely carried out in literary research. However, research on women's participation specifically on economic issues by looking at its theoretical and empirical aspects is still something that is very rarely carried out in literary research. The purpose of this study is to explore in more detail about women's participation in the economy. By using the lens of women's thinking and their participation in the economic field in the concept of women economic participation from Jacqui True, this research focuses on this issue. The method used is analyzing the content of the story that has been done by collecting data by collecting words, sentences, paragraphs related to women's participation in the economy. Furthermore, the data that have been found are analyzed using descriptive analysis methods. The descriptive method of analysis was carried out in several stages. The first stage is data collection which is done by collecting the aspects of women's participation in the economy in general in the data table. From the data table, it is classified according to the economic participation patterns found. The next stage is data analysis by dialogue data from the novel with the theory of women's participation in the economy. The results of this study indicate that women are able to get out of the crisis with their own efforts and hard work. Women also have an important role in the economic sector because they are able to create their own business opportunities so that they can improve their life.

The students’ perspectives of platforms used in virtual learning environment: a survey study in COVID-19 pandemic

COVID-19 has been the pandemic in Indonesia since March 2020. Drastically, it impacts on educational segment; therefore, the platforms of digital tools are able to be the best alternative way to overwhelm this issue and to strengthen the material delivery conducted by educational institution including universities. They can be beneficial tools in COVID-19 pandemic condition as teachers’ assistance. Due to these issues, this study was conducted to determine students’ perspective on the implementation of platforms in virtual learning environment during Covid-19 pandemic. This study involved 105 participants of the sixth semester students of English department of Universitas Pamulang. To obtain the data, the writer distributed a survey consisting 3 major questions (the platform reference, the advantages and the challenges); the students handed the reflective notes in to all questions related to the implementation of virtual learning in COVID-19 pandemic situation. The findings revealed that the students prefer having screen recording in learning activity (38.10%), Google Meeting (28.57%), Kahoot (19.04%), and Ed Puzzle (14.29%). Furthermore, the advantages of the platforms are time flexibility, effective platforms, less quota, interaction, fun application, the mastery of grammar; however, the challenges are monotonous activity, the students’ boredom, difficult to create an account, poor responses, poor internet connection and inequivalent schedule.

Teacher’s strategies in survival speaking learning during COVID-19 pandemic

This paper focuses on the teacher’s strategies during an online learning in Survival Speaking subject. Drawing on narrative inquiry, the paper describes and analyzes how a teacher deals with online learning from August to September 2020. The paper concludes that the teacher experienced challenges in teaching during the pandemic and he was stimulated to provide engaging learning by combining both synchronous and asynchronous mode of learning for his Survival Speaking students. The teaching practice was affected by his teaching philosophy and the implementation was in accordance to Vigotskian’ Zone of Proximal Development in conducting the learning during COVID-19 pandemic by providing help and support for the students before making sure the students would be ready in the real practice.

An item analysis on multiple-choice questions: a case of a junior high school English try-out test in Indonesia

The present study aims to analyze multiple-choice questions obtained from a trial testing conducted in a state junior high school in Indonesia. The study seeks to reveal the level of difficulty, discriminating power and distractor efficiency of the selected test items by employing item analysis. The result of the study discovers that levels of difficulty on the question items are varied. Some question tended to be easy and moderately difficult while the others are difficult to answer. It also uncovers that, in regard to discriminating power, some questions are well constructed while the others are ambiguously worded that can potentially cause the questions to fail to evaluate the students’ ability. The analysis on distractor efficiency presents information how the chosen multiple-choice questions were frequently constructed with less effective distractors that caused more high achieving students to choose wrong answers.