The Effect of GIR on Motivation, Vocabulary Mastery, and Reading Comprehension Ability

This research aims to: (1) describe the effect of GIR as a part of extensive reading; (2) compare the effectiveness between GIR and conventional learning; and (3) compare the effectiveness between GIR variation 1 and 2 on motivation, vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension ability. The data were analyzed using: (1) the one sample t-test to investigate the effect of GIR; (2) the Helmert Contrast to investigate the difference in the effectiveness of GIR as well as the conventional technique; (3) the post-hoc test involving the Tukey to analyze which was more effective between GIR and conventional technique in students’ motivation, vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension ability. The results of the study show that: (1) GIR has a significant effect on all dependent variables; (2) GIR is more effective than the control group in improving all dependent variables, except GIR variation 1 in reading comprehension ability has equal effect with conventional technique; (3) there is no difference in the effectiveness of GIR variation 1 and 2 in terms of improving students’ motivation, vocabulary knowledge, and reading comprehension skills. Key words: GIR, extensive reading, motivation, vocabulary knowledge, reading comprehension ability

Improving the speaking learning process to the students of grade VIII through games

This study was aimed at improving the speaking learning process to the students of grade VIII at SMPN 3 Cilacap through games in the academic year of 2013/2014. This classroom action research was carried out in two cycles. The cyclical design consisted of four main steps: (1) planning, (2) action, (3) observation, and (4) reflection. Various games with some supporting activities were implemented in this study. The data were gathered through observations, interview, rating, video/audio recording, and performance tests. The data were analyzed using the interactive qualitative data analysis and descriptive statistics. The findings show that games which are set up properly involved preliminary activities, game play and closure, together with some supporting activities are able to improve the speaking learning process. The implementation of games is effective to lessen the interference of the native language, lessen the students’ domination in the class, encourage the students’ initiation to speak English, give the students plenty of opportunities to speak as often as possible and encourage the students to focus on fluency rather than accuracy, encourage the students’ confidence, and increase the students’ involvement in the learning process. These improvements lead to the improvements of the students’ speaking skills. The students’ average score in performance test before implementing the actions is 63,39 while after implementing the actions is 81,64. It shows that it increases about 28,77%. It can be inferred that the students’ speaking skills improved after the implementation of the games.

Developing an Interactive HTML5-Based Game for Tenses Learning for Senior High School Students

This research study aims at developing an interactive HTML5-based game to facilitate senior high school students in learning tenses. This research is a research and development study. The development of the game is carried out through several steps, which are needs analysis, outline of materials design, product development, expert judgement, product revision, and final product development. The result of this study is a web-based game titled The Time Traveller. Based on the results of expert judgement, the game is appropriate for senior high school students based on the mean scores of 3.52, which is in the range of 3.25 ≤ x ≤ 4 and falls into the category of “Very Good.”

Improving students’ reading comprehension ability using task based language teaching

This study was conducted in response to the fact that the students’ reading comprehension ability was much lower than they should have achieved. It was caused by several reasons, one of themwas related to the poor teaching learning process. In this study, Task-based Language Teaching (TBLT) was used to improve the teaching learning process and the students’ reading comprehension ability. This research was a Classroom Action Research (CAR) study and it was done in two cycles. Observation and interviews were used to collect data which were then analyzed qualitatively. Students’ achievement of daily-test, the students’ self reflection in the form of rating format and the students’ achievement of post-tests were used in order to support the data collected. The results of this study indicate that TBLT can improve not only the teaching learning process but also the class 8D of MTsN Yogyakarta II students’ reading comprehension ability in recount text. It is shown that the students are interested to learn reading and they enjoy the reading teaching learning process using TBLT. The students’ average score before the action is 62.81. In the first cycle the mean score is 72.03, meanwhile the mean score in the second cycle is 79.06. It means that there is an improvement of students’ scores from cycle to cycle.

DEVELOPING GRADED READING MATERIALS TO ENHANCE EXTENSIVE READING FOR STUDENTS OF SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL

Improving literacy and a reading habit remains a major challenge to the Indonesian education system. To achieve maximum fluency in reading, the students should not only rely on classroom activities. They need a considerable amount of exposure. Therefore, there is a need to develop self-access learning materials to enhance independent learning through extensive reading. The objectives of this research were to identify the students’ target needs, identify the learning needs, and develop self-access graded reading materials to enhance extensive reading. The study employed the procedure of materials development by Jolly and Bolitho (2011) with some adaptations. There are originally 7 main stages, however, the steps were adapted and reduced into 5 stages. The adapted stages include needs analysis, syllabus planning, materials production, materials evaluation, and revision for the final draft. The data of this research were collected by using questionnaires and interviews. The developed materials employ three levels of difficulty based on the number of headwords and readability ease. The materials were evaluated in terms of content, language, presentation, and layout appropriateness. The results of the materials evaluation showed a good outcome according to the expert judgment results.

Incorporating Cultural Exposure into Teaching Practices: Native Speaker Teacher vs Indonesian EFL Teacher

As English language teacher, both Native English Speaker Teacher (NEST) and Indonesian EFL Teacher own professional competence as well their perception, assumption, beliefs and values that are shaped by their social and cultural interaction. They bring with them their personal and professional attributes into the classroom. As language and cultural aspects are interrelated, particularly since English is now a lingua franca, thus exploring how the different professional and personal background of English language teachers relates to their teaching becomes essential. The purpose of this study is to examine how teachers’ cultural exposure of the target language is incorporated and affects their teaching. This study is qualitative in nature, aiming to describe how the cultural exposures of three different types of teachers are reflected in their teaching practices. Data collection is done through semi-structured interview, class observation and document analysis. The finding shows that teacher’s cultural exposure affects their teaching philosophy and attitude considerably large, particularly in their perspective towards student-teacher rapport. The incorporation of the cultural exposure is done through content of teaching materials and instruction in the classroom. The three types of teacher demonstrate a similar approach and methods when teaching the language, despite the differences in their cultural exposure of the target language.

Design approach to blended learning in teaching EFL for Indonesian university students

With the rapidly increasing involvement of technology in the teaching and learning process in higher education, lecturers are constantly on the lookout for better ways to integrate technology into their classes. Blended learning emerged in 2000 and has been one of the most popular approaches to teaching EFL. Despite having been around for years, not many people fully understand the principle behind it and how to design an effective blended course. Such is the case in most higher education institutions in Indonesia. This article reports on the result of a survey-based research in which the aim was to investigate how EFL lecturers in Yogyakarta State University, Indonesia design their blended courses. As many as 9 lecturers were involved as respondents in an online survey, an interview, and documents inspection. The data from the survey were then analyzed using two major theories of blended learning design approach by Lai, M., Lam, K. M., & Lim, C. P. (2016) and Alammary, Sheard, and Carbone (2014). The findings revealed that EFL lecturers designed their blended learning based on the principle of extension by Lai, M., Lam, K. M., & Lim, C. P. (2016) and the low-impact model Alammary, Sheard, and Carbone (2014) was preferred to the other models.

Intensive reading and extensive reading in teaching reading comprehension

The research investigated the implementation of Intensive Reading (IR) and Extensive Reading (ER) that is suitable for English class in Polytechnic that focuses on the ability of English practice. This research is a Classroom Action Research (CAR), which consists of three stages, namely pretest, treatment, and posttest. Based on the results of the pretest, it can be concluded that reading skill of the second semester students from Computer and Networking Engineering study program before the implementation of IR and ER method were still relatively low, in the classification of poor (25%) represented by 11 students and in very poor classification (18.2%) achieved by 8 students. After three times treatment by using three different articles for English reading text, the reading skill of students increased significantly in the presence of 2 students (4.5%) in the classification of very good and there were only 6 students were in poor and very poor classification. Based on posttest result, reading skill of students enhance significantly with 5 students (11.4%) were in very good classification.

The Impacts of Integrative and Instrumental Motivation for Indonesian Learners

Motivation plays an important role in foreign language learning. This paper discusses the definition of motivation, types of motivation; the factors influencing motivation in learning English, and Gardner’s socioeducational model. The purpose of the study was to find out the the impact of integrative and instrumental motivation in learning English. This study applied descriptive quantitative method. Using a purposive sampling technique, obtained the 20 respondents who met the requirements. The subjects in this study were seventh grade students of SMPIT Putri Al-Hanif. The writer designed a questionnaire of motivation by using likert scale. To achieve the goal, Gardner and Lambert's model were taken into consideration. They were distributed among students by simply evaluating 20 statements. Results indicated that seventh grade students of SMPIT Putri Al-Hanif have stronger integrative motivation than instrumental motivation.

The Effects of Parents' Attention and Learning Discipline on the English Learning Achievement in Junior High Schools

This research aimed to desribe the effects of parents’ attention and learning discipline on the English learning achievement and the correlation between parents’ attention and learning discipline and the English learning achievement at grade 9th in Junior High School. This research was an expost facto research. The population was 2.716 students. A sample of 337 students was established using the proportional stratified random sampling technique. The techniques of data collection were the questionnaries and the document of students’ English learning achievement in the even of year 8 in 2012/2013. The instrument valididty was assessed in terms of the content validity using Factor Analysis. The reliabilty of the instrument was assessed using Cronbach Alpha. The data were analyzed using the Multiple Regression and partial correlation analysis. Multiple Regression test results show that parents’ attention and learning discipline simultaneously affect the English learning achivement with the value of F = 43.311 and p ≤ 0.05. Adjusted R² value = 0.197 means that the variant of the English learning achivement variable could be predicted by parents’ attention and learning discipline 19.7%. Meanwhile, according to the partial correlation analysis, parents’ attention correlates with English learning achievement (r = 0.385 and p ≤ 0.05). Learning discipline correlates with the English learning achievement (r = 0.182 and p ≤ 0.05). Keywords: parents’ attention, learning discipline, and English learning achievement.