Indonesian JELT
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Effective use of children's literature for ESL/EFL young learners
Get PDFMainly intended for readers from birth to age twelve, according to Galda (2000), children’s literature is the major source to inform young learners about social norms, to teach them different subject matters and to help them develop an interest in pleasure reading. Drawn upon the socio-constructivist’s theoretical perspective, this article identifies several benefits of using children’s literature for young learners who study English as a second/foreign language, including 1) facilitating language and literacy development; 2) promoting intercultural understanding and 3) improving critical thinking skills. To maximize the strengths of children’s literature, language teachers must take into account students’ reading levels and carefully avoid books which reflect gender/ cultural biases. It is also strongly advised that teachers’ instruction encourages students’ personal connections, multiple interpretations as well as critical evaluations of a text
Multicultural literature for a peace-based prose class for EFL teacher education
Get PDFThe recent phenomena of religious based violence and terrorism in Indonesia shows that the target recruits of fundamentalist groups and institution members are students from higher education (Saragih, 2011). English language classrooms are in fact potential as peace agency as the teachers are in a strategic position to influence infrastructure, to invest in their social capital and to construct moral imagination (Anderson 1991, Birch 2009) as language is not a mere means of communication, but it is more a means to construct realities. In response to today’s need for a peaceful environment in Indonesia, English teachers must be aware and be proactive agents to promote a more dialogic atmosphere in their classrooms. This paper will discuss how Prose class with peace-based language learning perspective made use of Richard Oh’s Novel “The Pathfinders of Love.” The story is a meaningful material to encourage students’ self-awareness as a part of the diversed society and to promote dialogic relation among themselves. The paper will first provide a detailed description of the class participants and their different background, then outline a brief analysis of the issues of conflict and peace in the story, and present an elaborate discussion of how the in-class and out-class activities promote a deeper understanding of what peace means in a multicultural environment
The correlation between phonological awareness and word learning
Get PDFThis is a preliminary study to investigate the possible relationship between phonological awareness and word learning. The subjects of this study were 18 elementary students in the second grade. The subjects were first given three phonological awareness tests to measure their level of phonological awareness. Based on the results of the phonological awareness tests, the subjects were divided into the high and low phonological awareness groups. Afterwards, the subjects in both groups were taught 10 new words, followed by a vocabulary test to examine their ability in learning the new words. The results of the vocabulary test showed that the high phonological awareness group performed slightly better than the low phonological awareness group. This finding supports the assumption that L2 learners’ ability to learn L2 vocabularies is affected by their phonological awareness
Students' perception of the teachers' teaching conception: a case of English teacher training and education program
No full textThis study reported students’ perceptions of the teacher’s teaching conceptions in an English Teacher Training and Education Program in Indonesia. The teaching conceptions were based on Freeman and Richardson’s (1993) three types of teaching conceptions: scientifically based, theory-and-values based, and art or craft based conceptions. The study involved 218 participants from three different batches (2008, 2009, and 2010). Obtaining the data from the questionnaires and interviews, this study found that the three batches shared the same perceptions of several items in each teaching conception. In the science/research conception, they agreed on the teachers’ applying learning principles and using an effective classroom practice model. As for the theory/philosophy conception, they similarly perceived the teachers’ incorporating values into teaching, conveying communicative approach, referring to theories, giving moral values through teaching, presenting themselves as a role model in morality, and presenting their teaching rationally. Their perceptions were also confirmed by the interview revealing that the students tended to see their teachers’ teaching conceptions as theory/philosophy based. Regarding the art/craft conception, they similarly noted the teachers’ helping them to understand how to develop their ability and skills as future teachers. The analysis using a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) further confirmed that the three batches were not significantly different with P = .658. They expected the teachers to hold art/craft based teaching conception because they believed that understanding them as learners was the key for successful learning
A post process approach: E-mail dialogue journal writing and its impact on quality and quantity of high school students' writing
Get PDFE-mail Dialogue Journal Writing as a form of post-process approach provides students with the opportunity to communicate and collaborate with a native speaker, thus, receive authentic language input which develops their literacy skills. Despite its remarkable potentials, E-DJW practices have been rare in Asian contexts at school-level. In an attempt to bridge this gap, the present study was set out to address the impact of E-DJW on the quality and quantity of students' writing development. The findings of the study revealed that there was a lot of topic extension between the parties in the dialogue journal writing activity and the content of the writings was principally improved. A progress was also observed in the length of the entries, though not steadily. This study hopes to raise both students' and teachers' awareness of E-DJW as a writing activity which provides students with a non-threatening environment which fosters learning and makes them aware of the purpose of writing
Learners' responses on the employment of cultural EFL material in English classrooms in Papua
No full textThe article presents research findings on the use of culturally familiar materials compared with non-culturally relevant materials. It aims at obtaining responses from highland students on the materials which are designed based on Papuan culture compared with those which are not using Papuan culture. The study was conducted in Timika, Mimika District Papua, Indonesia, involving 80 junior high school students aged 13-15, who are from eight ethnic highlanders. The word “Papua” (used to be called Irian Jaya) in the above title is the name of the Eastern Province in Indonesia. The students involved in the classroom experimentation speak their vernacular fluently, they were considered weak in speaking Indonesian, and were low in academic performance. There were 40 students receiving culturally relevant materials, and 40 students receiving non-culturally relevant materials (conventional materials). The data was analyzed using the Descriptive Statistical Analysis with Contingency Table Analysis to compare groups and questions. Pearson’s chi-square statistics using SPSS was then applied to explore the significant differences in satisfaction. The results revealed that there was a significantly positive response from subjects receiving the culturally relevant materials when contrasted with those receiving the conventional materials
comparative effectiveness of contextual and structural method of teaching vocabulary
Get PDFThe study was conducted to find out the effectiveness of contextual and structural method of teaching vocabulary in English at secondary level. It was an experimental study in which the pretest posttest design was used. The population of the study was the students of secondary classes studying in Govt. Secondary schools of Rawalpindi District. Purposive and random sampling was applied to select the school and subjects. The significance of difference between the scores of groups at 0.05 level was tested applying t–test. The study revealed that the contextual method is more useful for high achievers (HA) whereas structural method is more useful for average and low achievers. The HA performed better with the contextual method due to the study of words in different contexts and taking help from contextual clues that has prompted spoken and written fluency. Better performance of the average and low achievers with the structural method was due to the morphological analyses of a word, the role of the students as the partner in the learning process, the generation and active processing of vocabulary, the provision of multiple exposure of different intensity for practice and personalization of word learning
Is light reading enough to fully acquire academic language? The bridge hypothesis
Get PDFThe Bridge Hypothesis states that pleasure reading acts as a bridge between conversational and academic language, providing the competence that makes demanding texts more comprehensible. In two studies, D. Gardner argues that pleasure reading does not play a role in helping children understand academic texts, but a close look at the data shows that Gardner's evidence actually supports the Bridge Hypothesis. 
Is "Twilight" a home run book?
No full textThirty-two young adults, students of English as a Foreign Language, were asked to read a portion of “Twilight”, a book that has become extremely popular among teenagers and young women world-wide. Even though the group as a whole were not involved pleasure readers in English, reading just a small part of Twilight stimulated the students enormously. They wanted to read more from the same series, and more in general, Multivariate analysis confirmed that interest in reading the book was the major predictor in students' desire to read more from the Twilight series
Issues of TEYL in Indonesia and what parents can do about it
Get PDFIn Indonesia preschools with English-only or bilingual approaches have increasingly established and gained popularity among parents and children. To parents who favors TEYL, teaching English since early age is believed to be more effective as children’s brains are believed to absorb language easily. The mastery of English is also perceived to be a valuable investment for the child’s future. However, some people view TEYL in Indonesia with a more critical eye. This is especially because TEYL starts as early as two years old when the young learners’ mother tongue, Indonesian, has not been acquired fully. As a result, many are worried if the acquisition of English would sacrifice the acquisition and quality of Indonesian, the nation lingua franca. The purpose of this paper is to raise parent’s awareness on the issues underlying the teaching of English to young learners. It aims to critically examine studies on early multilingualism in countries where English is the first language and compare them with Indonesia’s condition where English remains a foreign language. The paper starts with the narrative of Ben, my 22 month-old son, and his unique linguistic repertoire to illustrate the uniqueness and individuality of the linguistic landscape each young learner brings into classroom. After a brief introduction sharing the story of Ben, I look more closely at the issues of teachingEnglish to young learners. The paper concludes by suggesting reflective parenting approach to address the pervasive practice of TEYL in Indonesia and pose a number of issues to consider when immersing one’s child in English