English Education Journal
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Authentic materials for developing listening comprehension
Get PDFThis study was designed to investigate the effects of the use of authentic materials in teaching listening to the English Department students of UIN Ar-Raniry, Banda Aceh. The purpose was to find out whether students who got authentic materials in their listening class would get a better result compared to those who did not. The population of this study was all the second semester students who took Listening 2; then two classes were selected using random sampling as the samples; the experimental class (EG) with 25 students and control class (CG) with 27 students. Data was collected quantitatively from the results of the pre-tests and the post-tests of listening while qualitative data was obtained from the questionnaire distributed at the end of teaching to identify the EG students perceptions of the use of authentic materials in listening. The findings showed that the mean posttest score from the EG at 82 was higher than that from the CG at 71, which according to the results from the t-test was significantly higher. This meant that the students who were taught using authentic materials get a significantly better result in listening than those who were taught using the usual course book materials. The responses in the questionnaires showed that the students prefered the authentic listening materials for learning listening skills as these materials were more interesting and more related to their real life context so that it motivated them to pay more attention in the listening class and this also assisted them to improve their listening abilities
THE USE OF AUDIO VISUAL TO IMPROVE LISTENING
Get PDFThe increasing of globalization, pushes people to be fluent in some foreign language, one of which is English. This research is to: (a) describe a strategy of teaching English using an Audio Visual Method (AVM), and (b) to compare the results from an experimental group (EG) of students learning listening comprehension using the AVM and a control group (CG) using a standard method. This research, was done at SMP Negeri 15 Lamjame, Banda Aceh. The findings showed that the students in the EG got significantly higher average scores (69) for listening comprehension. than those from the CG (62). The ttest result showed that the listening ability of the students from the two groups was significantly different. Thus, it can be concluded that the students taught using the AVM got better results in listening comprehension than students who were taught using the standard listening comprehension technique
USE OF TWO STAY TWO STRAY STRATEGY IN TEACHING READING
Get PDFThis study focuses on teaching reading comprehension by using the Two Stay Two Stray (TSTS) strategy to the second year (eighth grade) students of the junior high school, SMPN Beutong Ateuh, Nagan Raya, Aceh. This study compares the results of the students achievements in reading before using the TSTS and after using the TSTS. The results showed that the implementation of the TSTS in the teaching-learning of reading comprehension with the students was more successful than the results using the traditional Grammar Translation Method (GTM). The students in the experimental class (EC) taught using the TSTS got significantly higher scores than those in the control class (CC) who were taught using the GTM. Therefore, the use of TSTS in teaching reading comprehension is an effective way to improve the students ability. Based on the results from the questionnaire, the students gave positive responses to the TSTS strategy; they got positive motivation after learning using TSTS. It further increased their self-confidence, social interaction, individual accountability and group skills as well as getting better reading comprehension because they could understand the materials better by learning together as a team. The students discussed and shared the materials with their friends in their groups. They also freely communicated with each other and were more enthusiastic when they were in the process of teaching-learning
An Analysis of Students Errors in Writing Descriptive Texts
Get PDFThe objective of the research was to reveal the types of grammatical errors made by 25 college students who were taking the course of Writing III on descriptive writings. Furthermore, it attempted to identify and describe the error types and then to find out the grammatical error type made the most by those students. To get the data from the field, the researcher asked the students to write about STAIN Malikussaleh Lhokseumawe. To analyze the data, the researcher used the model by Miles and Huberman (1994) of qualitative analysis. The data were analyzed through analyzing the grammatical incorrect form of the sentences by marking the errors, reconstructing the correct sentences, classifying the types of errors and counting the errors in order to know the most common type of grammatical error. As the result, the researcher found that the students made 288 errors in their descriptive writings. The errors occurred in all types of errors investigated. They are verb tense, verb form, subject-verb agreement, plural, possessive inflection, definite article, indefinite article, word order, run-on, and fragment. And, the students made the most errors (77 occurrences or 26%) in fragment. The source of errors was also mostly due to interlanguage transfer. Therefore, English teachers should be aware of these findings as an input in their teaching of writing. Teachers can teach students to avoid these common errors in their future writing
Application of the Process Genre Approach for improving writing
Get PDFThis study intended to find out if there was a significant difference in writing ability between students who were taught writing using the Process Genre Approach (PGA) and those who were taught writing using the teachers usual approach. Two classes were taken using random sampling, one for the experimental group (EG) and the other for the control group (CG), with 24 students in each group from eleventh graders in Nurul Ulum MA Peureulak. Data, from the results of pre-tests and post-tests, was collected for quantitative analysis of the students writing abilities. The results from the analysis showed that the mean of the post-test scores from the EG was 67 whilst that from the CG was 53. The results from the t-test showed that the students who were taught using the PGA performed significantly better in writing than those who were taught the standard way. Analysis of the students writing ability showed more than 20 % improvement in four aspects of writing: organization, structure/grammar, content/idea and mechanics. The EG achieved significant improvement in all aspects of their writing ability than the CG so we can conclude that using the PGA can improve EFL writing ability more than present standard teaching-learning for EFL writing
Group work activities for improving speaking skills
Get PDFThis study was conducted at SMAN 2 Sigli to improve speaking skills in English through group work activities with the third year students of XII-IPA1 through a Classroom Action Research project. Before this study was conducted, only 25% of the students met the speaking target test or Minimal Grade Criteria (Kriteria Ketuntasan Minimal or KKM) which was 75. The researcher and the collaborator worked together in designing a new lesson plan, implementing the actions and making conclusions and reflections. The study was done in three cycles by following action research procedures: planning an action, implementing the plan, observing the action, and reflecting. To collect the data, observation sheets, tests and a questionnaire were used as instruments. The findings showed that group work activities were effective for improving the students ability in speaking and the teachers performance in teaching speaking as well. From the pre-test the highest score was 80 and the lowest 60 while from the post-test after the third cycle the highest score was 95 and the lowest was 70. This means that most of the students improved a lot in speaking. Also the results from the observations of the teacher, started from 58% and increased to 75% and 86% and for the students from 56% increased to 68% and 84% from the first cycle to the second and then the third cycle. The result of this research also indicates that the students responded very well towards the implementation of the group work activities. Based on these findings, it is suggested that other English teachers should use group work activities for the teaching of speaking English at schools. since they are get better result
Teaching phonics and phonemic awareness in English Beginning reading
Get PDFThis is a library research study which investigates the roles of using phonics and phonemic awareness, the suggested stages in implementing them and finally the obstacles to using both phonics or phonemic awareness in a beginning reading classroom. There are some stages in implementing phonics, starting from vowel and consonant sounds in simple, familiar words and continuing on to digraphs, suffixes, diphthongs, letters with dual personalities, schwa sounds, silent letter digraphs and some letters with tricky sounds. Phonemic awareness should chronologically be taught with rhyming, manipulating, blending, segmenting and deleting. Both methods show considerable advantages for early reading learning such as instead of memorizing words, children can acquire decoding skills which can result in leading the children to improve their confidence in reading ESL, thus, they can then focus on the meaning of the reading and reading for enjoyment. Both methods are also able to help children understand that English has variations in spelling and pronunciation. Lastly, irregularity of English spellings, the lack of phonological knowledge of people working with children in early reading, the rising and falling moods of children whilst learning and the need for supportive parents hinder the implementation of either phonics or of phonemic awareness
GUIDED READING STRATEGY TO IMPROVE READING COMPREHENSION
Get PDFThe Guided Reading Strategy (GRS) was used in a Classroom Action Research (CAR) in order to find out whether it could improve the students reading comprehension or not. This CAR was aimed to study the implementation procedures of GRS trying to improve the reading comprehension of students. The average mean score (AMS) from the initial test of the students was 67. Then after cycle I, the AMS was 71, which was still qualified with score of C. Following the second cycle, the AMS went up to 81 which meant that there was an improvement of 10 points and brought the AMS up to level B which was qualified as good. This met the criteria set for successful improvement. The activity performance of the students in cycle I averaged 2.43 and went up to 3.01 in cycle II which met the criteria for good and for success in the indicator set. The activity performance of the researcher in cycle I averaged 2.39 and rose to 3.10 in cycle II which also met the criteria for good and for success. From the questionnaire to measure the response of the students toward the use of the GRS 90 % chose agree or strongly agree which was considered as a positive response. This met the criteria for success for improving the reading comprehension abilities of the sample students
Teaching Speaking by Applying Pair Work Technique
Get PDFThe purpose of this study to investigate the significant difference of speaking performances between students who were taught using pair work technique and students who were not. The method of this study was quantitative experimental. The second grade students of a high school in Banda Aceh were chosen as the sample of this research, which consisted of two classes as the experimental class (EC) and the control class (CG) with 30 students in each class. Tests were used as the instrument in this study. The data was analyzed by using t-score. The result showed that there was a significant difference between the EC and the CC in speaking performances. This was proven by the t-score (2.56) that was higher than the t-table (2.00). Therefore, the hypothesis which stated that there is a significant difference of speaking performance between students who are taught using pair work technique and students who are taught using the conventional technique was accepted. The use of pair work technique in teaching speaking was found to be an effective technique for the EC students in improving their speaking performances. It is suggested that English teachers make use of this technique in teaching speaking to their students, as a variety among the other techniques that can be used in class to teach the same skill