Indonesian JELT
Not a member yet
168 research outputs found
Sort by
The pedagogy of teaching English to young learners: Implications for teacher education
Get PDFEYL (English for Young Learners) is a global phenomenon, and yet research is laden with reports suggesting teachers’ difficulty in developing appropriate EYL pedagogy (e.g. Butler, 2015; Copland, Garton & Burns 2014; Emery, 2012; Garton, Copland & Burns, 2011; Le & Do, 2012; Zein, 2015, 2016a, 2016b). This chapter reports on a study that investigated the perspectives of twenty-six (26) teachers on the appropriate pedagogy needed to teach in the EYL classroom. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. The findings demonstrate that in the EYL classroom larger emphasis needs to be given to the young learners rather than the language. The findings show that developing a child-friendly pedagogy in the EYL classroom is of vital importance; it is at the core of EYL pedagogy. This brings implications for TESOL teacher education at pre-service and in-service levels in the sense that TESOL teacher educators need to design courses aimed to foster child-friendly pedagogy. The chapter specifically argues for TESOL teacher education to make stronger emphasis on child individual differences (IDs). This is necessary in order to equip teachers with appropriate working knowledge in second language acquisition (SLA) that is prerequisite to the development of EYL teaching expertise
A study of three Indonesian teachers’ participation in a US graduate program
Get PDFMany research have focused on the identity construction of Asian teachers (see, among others, Chang, 2004; Cui, 2006; Ha & Que, 2006; Tang, 1997; and Tsui, 2007). Among all these, studies focusing on Indonesian teacher identity construction are rare. Thus, the study aimed at filling the gap. The study examined the identity development of three Indonesian English teachers navigating in an in-service program in the US. The study found that their identities varied with one subject experienced identity shift while others illustrate the case of identity as relatively permanent. Whereas previous studies on L2 teachers have focused primarily on the construction of teacher identity per se, the findings of the study indicated that the construction of the three Indonesian teacher identities were grounded in other identity options such as nonnative speaker, gender as well as learner identity. 
Shifting identities through switching codes: A close look at the social languages of pre-service English teachers in an Indonesian context
Get PDFThe globalization of English has undoubtedly brought shifts into how the English language is taught in classroom settings and how English teachers are prepared. In English as a foreign language (EFL) settings, for example, teaching and learning English is generally influenced by local contexts. Taking into account the sociocultural contexts of the learners and the teachers, identity construction becomes one important aspect in the process of English teaching and learning. Focusing on the microanalysis of social language uses, the study was aimed to understand how pre-service teachers of English as a foreign language in a multilingual setting, Indonesia, enact their identities through their language use in classroom settings. The data for this study was obtained from a classroom observation where an English pre-service teacher was performing peer teaching. The discourse analysis of the first thirteen minutes of a pre-service teacher's teaching demonstration indicates that multiple identities were enacted when the student teacher switched from one language to another. The pervasive use of code-switching in four different languages (Indonesian, English, Arabic, and Malay) provides clues that Mamas, a student teacher's pseudonym in the study was enacting different identities as he taught his peers. While further research is absolutely necessary to obtain more vivid pictures of the reasons behind using multiple languages in teaching English within this context, the study provides insight about how pre-service teachers in an Indonesian context try to develop identities as they learn to teach English
How vocabulary is learned
Get PDFVocabulary learning requires two basic conditions – repetition (quantity of meetings with words) and good quality mental processing of the meetings. Other factors also affect vocabulary learning. For example, learners may differ greatly in their motivation to engage in learning, and words may differ greatly in their learning burden. However, without quantity and quality of processing, learning cannot occur. The greater the number of repetitions, the more likely learning is to occur. The deeper and more thoughtful the quality of processing, the more likely learning is to occur. This paper explains quantity and quality, and shows how teachers and learners can increase the quantity and quality of their processing of vocabulary, thus increasing their vocabulary size
Promoting Inter-Asian Understanding through English: Cross-border Exchanges through an Asian Youth Forum
Get PDFThis paper discusses the importance of going beyond the classroom to provide EFL learners with out-of-class opportunities to use their language skills in real-world situations with same-age peers. It introduces the Asian Youth Forum (AYF), a unique series of international youth conferences designed by English language educators in Asia that aims at promoting cross-cultural awareness, communication skills, leadership and international understanding through the medium of English-as-a-global-language. The Asian Youth Forum is an annual 1-week event that brings together college-aged EFL students from across the Asian region. Participants typically comprise 30 - 80 young people from 10 - 15 countries such as Japan, Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia and the Philippines. During this all-English event, students take part in a rich program of academic seminars, presentations and social events built around the themes of language, culture, global issues, and leadership. This paper outlines the aims and history of the Asian Youth Forum, describes its design and special features and reports on the program's outcomes in terms of student attitudes, language development, learner identity and international understanding. The author concludes by calling for further EFL youth exchanges of this type in other regions of the world
Gender differences in writing complex sentences: A case study of Indonesian EFL students
Get PDFThis study investigated the Indonesian EFL students’ proficiency in writing complex sentences and explored the gender differences in their writing products. Thirty-eight (38) high school students – 19 males and 19 females – were instructed to write a narrative account of the silent movie, The Pear Film, immediately after watching it. The result of the study revealed that the students’ production of sentence complexity exhibited a sequential degree of difficulty from simple sentence (1 T-unit) to more complex sentences (2 T-units or 3 T-units). Female students had higher frequencies in producing T-units, and they also exhibited a more powerful imagination and creativity in building complex sentences. However, the males outnumbered the females in the production of lexical variety. This indicated that longer sentences are not always directly related to the breadth of vocabulary knowledge
Promoting students’ critical thinking through reading strategy instruction in a reading class
Get PDFThis study examined the application of Reading Strategy Instruction (RSI) in a reading class to promote the critical thinking skills of the second language learners. It aims to find out (1) the critical thinking elements in the questions formulated by the participants before the application of RSI, and (2) the critical thinking elements found in the (a) three selected questions, (b) answers, and (c) reflections written by the participants after the application of RSI. This study included sixteen grade 11 participants of a bilingual school in Jakarta, aged between 16 to 18 years old. The participants underwent two stages (1) before the application of RSI, and (2) after the application of RSI. The RSI applied in this study was a modification of Rothstein & Santana’s (2014) “Question Formulation Technique” and Alder’s (2001) comprehension strategies in answering questions. The collected data were analysed by using the modified critical thinking indicators proposed by Mason (1991) and Henri (1992). The results of the study revealed that applying RSI in the reading class was beneficial in promoting the participants’ critical thinking skills. RSI helped the participants to (i) think differently, (ii) use prior background knowledge, (iii) question the facts given in the text, (iv) identify the issues given in the text, (v) give valid solutions to the problem, (vi) connect themselves with the text and the world, and (vii) justify their arguments using valid examples
“Why my students didn’t read according to their level?”: An instructor’s reflection in an extensive reading class
Get PDFThe present paper is a novice teacher reflection in an Extensive Reading (ER) course. It attempts to explore the extent to which reflecting on critical incident of a reading level contributes to new understanding of Day and Bamford’s ER principles utilized to design the course. This study found that reflection through critical incidents provides a systematic structure to develop practical pedaogigcal knowledge into teaching. By exercising a critical incident reflection on ER, I was able to critically contextualize Day and Bamford’s ER principles into my current teaching context. It concludes by pointing out how a narrative reflection on critical incidents is needed to understand a novice teacher’s experience when practicing a new approach in teaching
“Maybe English first and then Balinese and Bahasa Indonesia”: A case of language shift, attrition, and preference
Get PDFThis small-scale qualitative study aims to explore the participants’ view of languages acquired, learned, and used in their family in an Indonesian context. The two participants were Indonesians who came from multilingual and mixed-cultural family background. The study explores three research questions: 1) What are the languages acquired (by the participants’ family members), co-existed, and/or shift in the family of the two speakers? 2) What factors affect the dynamicity of these languages? 3) How do the participants perceive their self-identity? The qualitative data were collected using semi-structured and in-depth interviews. The interviews were audio-taped and transcribed to be analyzed using thematic analysis. The study detects local language shift to Indonesian from one generation to the next in the participants’ family. The data also shows several factors for valorizing particular languages than the others. These factors include socioeconomic factor, education, frequency of contact, areas of upbringing (rural or urban) and attitude towards the language. The study also reveals that both participants identify their self-identity based on the place where they were born and grew up instead of their linguistic identity
Swear words among young learners: A case study of the elementary students
Get PDFThis case study examines the usage of swear words among young learners. It aims to find out the most frequently used swear words, the intense emotions that triggered the participants to swear, the strategies used to tone down the swear words, and the contributors to learning how to swear. A combination of quantitative (Likert scale survey, open-ended survey, and data elicitation from drawings,) and qualitative (interview) studies was conducted among the 109 elementary students from school A. The findings revealed that the most frequently used swear words were related to intellectual based terms and religion; anger was the primary reason for the young learners to swear to someone; the use of acronyms was commonly explored to tone down the offensiveness of the swear words, and moms were the highest contributors for the young learners to learn how to swear. Despite the limitations of the data elicitation, the instrument offered a richer data in comparison with the two other quantitative instruments (Likert scale survey and open-ended survey). It did not only present the emotions, toning down strategies, contributors, categories and variations but it also revealed the locations and situational instances where the swear words were used. Interview, on the other hand, was valuable to support the qualitative findings related to emotions and reasons for toning down strategies whereas other findings can be quantified using the frequencies presented in the quantitative instruments. Moreover, the findings also discovered that some swear words under study such as OMG, Oh my God, or gosh were not considered as swear words since they were mainstream words in this particular study