English Education Journal
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Improving Speaking Skills Using the Beyond Centers and Circle Time (BCCT) Technique
Get PDFThe objectives of this study were to find out: (1) If there would be a significant difference in speaking achievement between students who were taught-learnt speaking using the Beyond Centers and Circle Time (BCCT) technique and those who were taught-learnt speaking with the standard technique, and to find out (2) What would be the response of the students towards the use of the BCCT method. This experimental study was conducted with pre-school children at the TKIT Permata Sunnah in Banda Aceh in the 2017/2018 academic year. The sample for this research was two classes selected by random sampling: class B was the experimental class and class A was the control class. The data was collected with a speaking test plus interviews. An interview was used instead of a questionnaire, for answering the second research question, because the participants in this study were pre-school children. The data was analyzed using a t-test for the speaking test and collecting descriptions with an interview guide. The results showed that: (1) the BCCT technique was effective to increase the speaking skills of the pre-schoolers, which was proven by the result from the t-test, in which tcount (8.96) was higher than ttable (4.01); (2) the students generally had a positive response (80%) toward the use of the BCCT in their speaking classroom. Therefore, it can be concluded that the BCCT method was effective for improving the speaking skills of the pre-schoolers as well as providing many other advantages for them
Analysis of Motivations to Study English and Arabic
Get PDFThis research was done to find out the major types of motivation used by students majoring in either English or in Arabic at the National Islamic University (UIN) Ar-Raniry in Banda Aceh when learning their chosen L2 language. Furthermore, this study tried to find out if there were similarities or differences in the main type of motivation used by students of each of these majors. The results of study were based on a questionairre survey and used qualitative research procedures to obtain the data. In collecting the data, the questionnaire was given to 30 English major students and also to 30 Arabic major students of UIN Ar-Raniry selected by random sampling. The results from this study showed that the English students at UIN Ar-Raniry were more influenced by high integrative motivation in choosing English as their major than by instrumental motivation. In addition, based on the questionnaire result, the students predominantly used integrative motivation in learning English, rather than instrumental motivation: This result was based on the mean score for instrumental motivation being lower than that for integrative motivation, viz: 3.15 vs 4.19. Similarly, the Arabic students at UIN Ar-Raniry were also predominantly influenced by integrative motivation to learn Arabic: This result was based on the mean score for instrumental motivation being lower than that for integrative motivation, viz: 3.09 vs 4.29. Based on these results, it can be concluded that both the English major students and the Arabic major students at UIN Ar-Raniry have similarities in the types of motivation that drives them to learn their chosen L2, target language. Students of both majors were predominantly driven by integrative motivation rather than by instrumental motivation
Improving Students Speaking Skill and Motivation by Using Hand Puppets Show Media
Get PDFThis research was conducted to investigate whether the use of Hand Puppet Show Media enhances the students speaking skill and motivation in learning at the second year students of SMPN 1 Krueng Mane, North Aceh. The research employed quasi experimental design. The population of the research was all nine classes of the eighth grades of SMPN 1 Krueng Mane. The samples of the research were taken two customize classes from the population by using nonramdom sampling technique. Each class consists of 24 students. The experimental group was class VIII/2 and class VIII/3 as the control group. The method use in this research was descriptive quantitative in nature. The instruments used to collect the data were test and questionnaire. The data were analyzed by using SPSS 17 to find t-test score between the two groups. From the statistical result, it is found the significance value of both the experimental and control groups in the post-test is 0.01 which is lower than =0.05. It means that Ha is accepted and H0 is rejected. It means the use of Hand Puppet Media in teaching speaking skill is more effective to enhance the students speaking skill than teaching speaking without using Hand Puppet Show Media. Furthermore, to know the students motivation toward the use of Hand Puppet Media in teaching speaking skill, a set of questionnaire was given for 24 students at experimental group. The results of this research shows the use of Hand Puppet Show Media improve students speaking skill and motivation
Use of English in Teaching Mathematics
Get PDFThis is a descriptive qualitative study designed with the aim of investigating the teachers use of EFL English in teaching Mathematics at Fatih Bilingual School in Banda Aceh in terms of opening, main, and closing activities. This study also investigated the obstacles encountered by the teacher in teaching Mathematics using EFL English and her efforts to overcome those obstacles. The subject of this study was a female Mathematics teacher who has been teaching tenth grade Mathematics. The research subject was chosen by using a purposive sampling technique. The data were collected through three periods of classroom observations and an in-depth interview with the teacher. The data collected was analyzed qualitatively. This study revealed that the processes of teaching Mathematics in Fatih Bilingual School involved translation. The use of English and Bahasa Indonesia were not equivalent when English became dominant. For the concepts of Mathematics, the teacher explained them in both languages. The main obstacle the teacher faced was difficulty with terminology which she had to deal with first and then had to make her students understand it too. The results also indicated that the teacher had made efforts to make the hard topics simpler so that the students could get the concepts when the teacher explained them using English. The solution for those problems was that the teacher used tools of mathematics, pictures, graphs and/or video. Code switching was also an alternative used to help the bilingual activities. In conclusion, the use of EFL English in teaching Mathematics can be done with bilingual classes. The portions of English and of the mother tongue used in the teaching activities may not be the same
An Analysis of College Entrance Test
Get PDFThis research is aimed at analyzing the quality of entrance test conducted by STKIP Bina Bangsa Getsempena year 2016-2017 in terms of validity, reliability, difficulty index, discrimination index, and the effectiveness of distractors. Content analysis was employed as research method in this study. Document analysis is a technique carried out to collect the data. The objects of this study were 25 multiple-choice items used in entrance test, with five options for each item. The data were analyzed manually. The result showed that English entrance test of STKIP Bina Bangsa Getsempena year 2016-2017 has a low predictive validity with correlation coefficient 0.044. Secondly, the r-value was 0.664, which is higher than r-table = 0.396. It is considered that the test has good reliability. Thirdly, the difficulty index was obtained that 4% of the test was easy with index 0.71-1.00, 64% was moderate with index 0.31-0.71, and 32% was difficult with index 0.00-0.31. Fourthly, most of items considered has perfect discrimination index, with the percentage is 84%, while there were also 4% with zero discriminaton and 12% with negative discrimination. Finally, 97% of distractors of STKIP Bina Bangsa Getsempena English entrance test were effective since they were chosen by more than 5% of the whole participants. There were 3% distractors that were considered ineffective as they were chosen by less than 5% of the whole participants. It means that the items in STKIP Bina Bangsa Getsempena English entrance test particularly in their difficulty index, discrimination index, and effectiveness of distractors are needed to be revised if the items will be used in next years entrance test
Using The Participation Point System in Teaching Speaking Skills
Get PDFThis research was aimed to investigate if there would be a significant difference in achievement between students who were taught EFL speaking skills by using the Participation Point System (PPS) technique and those who were taught by using the discussion technique at UIN Ar-Raniry Banda Aceh. It was also aimed at finding out the response of the students towards the use of the PPS in learning speaking skills in a conversation class at UIN Ar-Raniry Banda Aceh. The participants for this research were 30 non-English first year students in an EFL conversation class at UIN Ar-Raniry Banda Aceh. Tests and a questionnaire were used to collect the data. The findings from the research showed that the PPS can help the students improve their speaking skills more than the discussion technique in pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, fluency, and expression. The PPS technique encourages the students to participate more in the classroom situation by asking and answering questions, expressing opinions and volunteering for classroom activities. It also creates a better teaching-learning atmosphere in the classroom
Improving EFL Speaking of Guides at The Aceh Tsunami Museum
Get PDFThis research was aimed at finding out the English language proficiency of the local guides at the Aceh Tsunami Museum and the difficulties faced by them in communicating with English speaking visitors. The research design used in this study was a qualitative descriptive method and in order to collect data, the writer used a test as an instrument. The test was an interview: asking for their opinion about the philosophy of the Aceh Tsunami Museum and asking for information about the collections in the museum, in which the writer served as the active interviewer in collecting the data. The respondents in this research were 13 local guides from the Aceh Tsunami Museum. The interview test was aimed at gathering more data and information needed from these guides on their English language proficiency and the difficulties faced by them in communicating with tourist visitors. In addition, the writer recorded and took pictures of all the activities done during the interviews. Based on the research results, only one guide from the 13 was in the excellent category for all speaking aspects (excellent in grammar, vocabulary, comprehension, fluency, and pronunciation). While the others were in the categories of very good, good, and fair enough. Mostly, the difficulties faced by the guides at the Aceh Tsunami Museum in speaking English were about expressing ideas verbally, lack of vocabulary, lack of knowledge about grammar and collocations, and poor pronunciation all of which made them not confident to speak English and this was mostly due to lack of motivation, lack of training and even lack of practice speaking with tourist visitors
The Use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Amongst EFL Teachers: Perceptions and Challenges
Get PDFThe purpose of this research was to investigate the perceptions and challenges of English teachers to the implementation of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in ELT classrooms. The objectives of this study were to find out their perception of ICT and the challenges they face when using it. This study used mixed methods, qualitative and quantitative in nature. Purposive sampling was used to select the subjects of this study who were 26 English teachers at senior state high schools in Banda Aceh. The instruments used to collect data were a questionnaire and interviews. The data was analyzed and interpreted through qualitative and quantitative procedures. The results showed that these English teachers agreed that ICT was very helpful in teaching. However, limited time and insufficient equipment coupled with poor internet connections as well as a lack of knowledge and experience and lack of ICT training became obstacles that the teachers face in using ICT. Through this study, the teachers are expected to further deepen their knowledge of ICT so as to improve their skills in teaching English using ICT
Teaching speaking by using picture strip stories
Get PDFThis study was aimed to find out whether picture strip stories used as CLT (Communicative Language Teaching) could significantly help students develop their speaking skills, and also to find out which speaking sub-skills could be better taught by using picture strip stories. This study used a true experimental research design with quantitative and qualitative methods. It had an experimental group (EG) which was taught by using picture strip stories and a control group (CG) which was taught by using a typical speaking drill technique. The subjects of the study were classes VIII.1 and VIII.2 in the second grade at middle school, MTsN Model Gandapura, with 30 students in each class. The instrument used was a speaking test sheet. The collected data was analyzed using SPSS. The findings showed that using picture strip stories in teaching speaking significantly improved the EG students speaking scores. The EG average pre-test score was 60 and for the CG it was 52 while the EG mean post-test score was 80 and for the CG it was 66. The students speaking ability in both groups was significantly different as indicated by the t-test (t-obtain (6.79 t-table 2.00). This showed that the students who were taught speaking by using the picture strip story technique improved significantly more in speaking than those who were taught by using the drill technique. Besides, the findings from the study showed that five speaking sub-skills, viz: pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehensibility, were all better taught by using picture strip stories