Learning English Skills Research Articles

Telegram as Social Networking Service (SNS) For Enhancing Students’ English: A Systematic Review

<em>Social Networking Services (SNS) has become part of English learning, providing educators and students with free service and wide usage applicable to synchronous and asynchronous instruction. This study intended to critically review previous studies on the use of Telegram as one of the SNS platforms for enhancing students' reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills. Following George’s (2008) Literature Reviews model, 20 manuscripts were reviewed. The selection was taken from reputable International Journals indexed by Scopus quartile 1, 2, and 3, published between 2016-2020. It was revealed that Telegram is argued to have positively affect the students' four language skills in learning English. Telegram is claimed to benefit the students in terms of vocabulary, reading comprehension, content, and organization in writing, grammar, language style, pronunciation, and listening comprehension. Experts highlighted the relaxed and informal nature of Telegram as SNS to be one of the main factors that contributed positively to students' reduced anxiety and raised motivation in learning. Reflecting on those positive effects of Telegram on students' scholastics progress, the present study implies that Telegram may be an alternative for online learning and extensive learning of English.</em>

THE ROLE OF SELF-EFFICACY IN WRITING ACHIEVEMENT OF INDONESIAN SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

Writing is one of productive skills in English learning. This activity can be influenced by another psychological factor such as self-efficacy. It is a psychological factor that is related to someone belief in doing something successfully. This research aims at investigating the correlation between self-efficacy and writing achievement. This research uses correlation quantitative as the research design. The participants are 110 students of the tenth grade students of MAN 1 Kota Kediri. To get data, the instruments used are self-efficacy questionnaire and writing test. The result of this research revealed that there is no significant correlation between self-efficacy and writing achievement.

Peningkatan Keterampilan Berbicara dengan Metode Debat Plus pada Pembelajaran Bahasa Inggris

Speaking skill is a language skill that needs to be mastered well in learning English. However, high school students still have difficulty conveying ideas, thoughts, questions and so on in English by using a variety of spoken language properly and correctly. The purpose of this research is to improve speaking skills in learning English using the Debate Plus method. The research method used is a class action research method in two cycles. The subjects of this study were students of class XI IPA SMA Negeri 3 Kota Tangerang Selatan with a total of 19 students consisting of 13 male students and 6 female students. Acquisition of student scores in pre-cycle was 43%, in cycle I was 64%, and in cycle II was 78%. The increase in the value of this test covers all aspects that are used as criteria, including aspects of understanding the problem, fluency in pronunciation, fluency in speaking, accuracy of sentence structure, accuracy of intonation, and accuracy of expression in speaking.

IMRPOVING STUDENT’S LISTENING COMPREHENSION THROUGH KEYWORD STRATEGY

Listening as the primary skill in learning English plays very important role. This study investigates if Keyword strategy can improve students’ listening comprehension. The study involved 22 students of the second semester Islamic Law Department students at STAIN Sultan Abdurrahman taken by using cluster random sampling technique. The study was a pre-experimental research with one group pretest-posttest design. The research was carried out into three stages: pretest, treatments by using Keyword Strategy, and posttest. The score of pretest was 65.23 (Sufficient) and the posttest score was 77.27 (Good) which further analyzed with a paired simple T-test by using SPSS. The results show that the probability 0.00 < 0.05 indicating that there is a significant improvement on students’ listening comprehension after being taught by using Keyword Strategy.

Student' Perception and Problems in Learning English Using Google Classroom During the Covid-19 Pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic has occurred across the world. This causes all segments of human life to be disturbed including the education sector. The teaching and learning process tends to run ineffectively and should be done online. Online learning offers a learning process that can be done not only in the classroom but anywhere and anytime. One of the applications that can be used is Google classroom. This study aims to determine students' perceptions and problems in learning English using Google Classroom during the Covid-19 Pandemic at SMAN 6 Kota Bengkulu. This research was a mixed-method research involving 443 students in the academic year of 2020/2021. The data were collected using a questionnaire in the form of a Google form consisting of 50 questions with 4 answer choices, namely strongly agree, agree, disagree, and strongly disagree, and semi-structured interviews. The data obtained were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The results of this research indicate that the students have a positive perception in learning English using Google classrooms during the Covid-19 pandemic at SMAN 6 Kota Bengkulu with the average score obtained was 1160 and was in the positive category. Moreover, the data obtained from the interview showed that most of the students experienced problems in learning English skills using Google classroom caused by lack of vocabulary. In addition, the problems in using the Google classroom application were in the opening and uploading files or videos. These findings are expected that the teachers should change their teaching habits by offering students innovative opportunities to improve their self-confidence, to control their learning, and to practice their language skills. The students should be more creative to solve the problems during learning English by using Google classroom even in the online process or not.

INVESTIGATING UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF EXTENSIVE READING TOWARD THEIR VOCABULARY MASTERY IN ENGLISH DEPARTMENT OF PATTIMURA UNIVERSITY AMBON

Reading is one of the critical skills in learning English in which students can develop their cognition, build vocabulary, as well as bring enjoyment. Extensive reading is known as one of the useful approaches to build students’ vocabulary repertoires by engaging students to read as much as they can be based on their appropriate reading level. Therefore, this survey study aims to find out how the students perceive their reading experiences in the extensive reading, how this approach increases their English vocabulary, as well as their reading comprehension. For the data collection technique, we distributed questionnaires for 40 undergraduate students in their second and fourth semester in the English department. To gain more comprehensive data, we also interviewed 20 students. The results of this study revealed that the majority of students show their positive response to and perception of extensive reading. We also found that this approach impacts the progress of students’ reading comprehension as well as the development of their vocabulary building. The findings of this study shed light on students’ perceptions of extensive reading and how it impacts their vocabulary building and reading comprehension. This study prompts further studies to examine the effectiveness of extensive reading on vocabulary learning of English foreign language students in various reading levels.

FACILITATING A WEB-BASED EXTENSIVE READING COURSE WITH “EDMODO” TO PROMOTE STUDENTS’ PROFIENCY IN READING

Reading is a language skill that demands understanding. This understanding is determined by knowledge, experience, interest, and interest in a text. Based on the researcher's experience, most PGRI Wiranegara University students are less enthusiastic and have difficulty learning reading skills in English. The application of Edmodo as an E-Learning media is a personal microblogging-based learning medium that can be used to improve reading skills. The data source of this research is the fifth-semester students of the English Education study program at PGRI Wiranegara University. The research data were obtained from observations, tests, documentation, and student questionnaires. The results showed that the application of Edmodo as an E-Learning media could be applied to independent learning of reading skills. Besides that, it is also a medium that can connect lecturers and students to communicate outside the campus. Analysis of student test results shows that students have reached an average score of 87, which means they have met the minimum completeness standards. Based on the results of the questionnaire, learning through Edmodo can motivate students to practice reading skills. Based on the results of this study, it can be concluded that the application of Edmodo as an E-Learning media has been successfully applied to reading skills in learning English. In addition, Edmodo can also be applied to other language skills besides reading skills.

The Effectiveness of Students’ Listening Skill by Using Podcast at The Second Grade of SMK Negeri 6 Balikpapan

Listening is one of necessary skill in learning English and also the patent skill in English language beside speaking, writing, and reading. Listening is considered as the most basic skill because it is firstly used by learners when they begin to learn a language, especially spoken language. In addition, unconsciously, listening is much more used in classroom than other skills. Nowadays, listening is the most difficult skill for many students to understand. The aim of this research was to find out the empirical data which could determine whether there is a significant effect of using podcast on students‘ listening skill at the second grade of SMK Negeri 6 or not. The method used was quantitative method with quasi-experimental research as its design. The samples of this research were 25 students of TITL 1 class as the experimental class and 25 students of TITL 2 class as the controlled class. Those samples were elected by using purposive sampling. To collect the data from both classes, this research used a listening test provided in a pre-test and post-test as the research instrument. Based on the result of the research, data from both pretest and post-test were calculated and analysed by using IBM SPSS Statistic 21. And the result revealed that the post-test mean score of the experimental class was greater than that of the controlled class, namely (80.88 > 77.04). It meant that the experimental class and the controlled class were different significantly in their posttest mean score. Then, the result of hypotheses analysis showed that tobserve was higher than ttable (2.098 > 1.677) and the significance 2-tailed (P) was lower than the alpha (0.041 < 0.05). It meant that H0 was rejected and Ha was accepted. Thus, it can be considered that using podcast has given significant effect on students‘ listening skill. In addition, the result was also measured by using cohen‘s d effect size measurement to know the strenght of the effect. And the result showed that using podcast in teaching listening gave a moderate effect on students‘ listening skill with the effect size of 0.51.

An Empirical Study of Corpus Application in the Teaching of English Writing

The cultivation of writing ability has always been one of the teaching goals of English majors. It is listed as the five skills of English learning along with listening, speaking, reading and translation. Nowadays, people gradually realize that most Chinese college students’ English writing ability is not very satisfactory. One of the problems is that most students are affected by their mother tongue. The Chinese way of thinking hinders the development of their language skills, thus restricting further language learning. English corpus is of great help in terms of vocabulary, grammar usage, monitoring and verification of the correctness of language output. In this paper, the author combines the teaching practice of English writing with the application of English corpus, and conducts research on its effectiveness. Results show that students’ language errors in compositions are reduced, their vocabulary becomes richer and more diversified, and students’ feedback is very good. Besides, this method can also encourage students to learn independently to improve their writing skills.

Preferences and Attitude toward English Phonetics Learning: The perspectives of Indonesian EFL Learners

English learners should aware of English sounds, more specifically English phoneme, to comprehending the English language accurately. In order to completing the goal this research aimed to find out students’ preferences and attitude of English Education Program in Universitas Brawijaya. This was a descriptive quantitative research by using a survey design. The participants of this study were 103 (a hundred and three) students of batch 2015 to 2017 in English Language Education Program. The researcher used adopted questionnaire which consist of 8 items preferred themes and 19 statements of attitude in phonetic as the instrument by Lintunen and Makilahde (2013). This research was analyzed using SPSS program. The result of this study revealed student’s preference and attitudes toward phonetics learning. The most preferred topic chosen by the participants are the vowel systems (28.20%), speech rhythm and accent difference (27.20%), and intonation analysis (26.20%). The students performed a positive attitude toward English phonetic learning that can improve their skill in English especially in their pronunciation (98.1%). It is concluded that the students thought English Phonetics is important to increase their knowledge and their skill in learning English. The researcher suggested for future researcher, they can conduct the research by considering the correlation between pronunciation in English phonetics and speaking skill in English language.

Comparison of Online Learning Effectiveness in the Ele During Covid-19 in Malaysia and Indonesia

The Covid-19 pandemic has an impact on education. It has changed the learning system, from conventional interaction into digital interaction. The lecturers and students in Malaysia and Indonesia are required to master online learning to conduct the teaching and learning processes. However, not many lecturers apply it maximally. This study aims to find out the comparison of online learning effectiveness in English Language Education (ELE) in Malaysia and in Indonesia. This quantitative research used a questionnaire survey to collect data. The data were analyzed descriptively with tabulations and distributions of empirical data. The result reveals that 75% of Malaysian lecturers and 83% of Indonesian lecturers prefer to use synchronous learning; 25% of Malaysian lecturers and 17% of Indonesian lecturers prefer to use asynchronous learning; 65% of Malaysian students and 71% of Indonesian students prefer to use synchronous learning; 35% of Malaysian students and 29% of Indonesian students prefer to use asynchronous learning. For synchronous learning, 58% of the total respondents in Malaysia like virtual meeting as an online learning tool. In Indonesia, 59% of the total respondents like phone call as an online learning tool. For asynchronous learning, 54% of the total respondents in Malaysia and Indonesia like blog as an online learning tool. Online learning has good effects on the English learning skills, especially listening. Academics in both countries agree that online learning is beneficial in the ELE learning and teaching process. It can be generally concluded that the use of online learning and teaching is effective in ELE.

The basic skills in learning English: the basic skills of listening

The basic skills in learning English: the basic skills of listening

FOSTERING AUTONOMOUS LANGUAGE LEARNERS AT A JAPANESE UNIVERSITY

Autonomous learning is one of the most important factors in the field of language learning. Leaning a language demands a considerable amount of time and learners have to work inside and outside the classroom to develop their language skills. The present study explored ways of promoting autonomous learning skills in mixed-level of students of English at a Japanese university. The course syllabus, which employed various methods was developed in order to increase students’ autonomous learning skills and incorporate a self-study period during the semester. The students set their own goals, then planned, developed and followed strategies to achieve them. Learners also kept a weekly learning-log, culminating in a presentation and a written report about what they had done to achieve their goals, including self-evaluation. The results showed that the students recognized some improvements in their English learning skills, motivation and learning habits, including an increase in learning hours. In addition, the students gained confidence in their English learning. Further practical improvements are suggested for supporting students to become autonomous language learners. Keywords: autonomous learners, language learning, learner autonomy, learner independence, self-study

FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO STUDENTS DIFFICULTIES IN ACADEMIC WRITING CLASS: STUDENTS PERCEPTIONS

Writing is one of the most difficult skills in learning English as a Second Language (ESL) or English Foreign Language (EFL). Many language learners encountered difficulties from the writing process. At the tertiary level, students are required to produce academic essays, which are difficult and may frustrate students. The purpose of this study was to analyze factors contributing to students difficulties in an Academic Writing course based on the students perceptions. This study used a qualitative method. The instruments used were open-ended questionnaires and interview protocol. In this study, all the participants answers were coded and analyzed descriptively. The participants were 22 students who were taking Academic Writing class for repeaters in Semester I, 2018/2019 academic year, in an English Language Education Program, in a university in Central Java, Indonesia. Questionnaire data were coded and classified by the researcher. In conducting the interview, data were audio-recorded and transcribed. Those data were analyzed to answer the research questions in this study. Based on the findings, there were two factors that caused students difficulties in writing academically. The two factors were internal and external. Internal factors consisted of self-motivation, self-confidence, lack of knowledge and feeling of under pressure. External factors consisted of the teachers teaching style, classroom atmosphere, materials, and writing aspects. This research hopefully can help teachers and instructors in developing appropriate teaching techniques in Academic Writing and minimize students' difficulties in Academic Writing.

THE IMPORTANCE OF FOUR BASIC SKILLS IN LEARNING ENGLISH

English is established as the most appreciated and widely accepted language of the present world by reason of its accomplishments in every single realm such as education, economics, marketing, globalisation, science, media, modern information system and automation, etc. This prestigious language is extracting attention to itself as a language of virtue throwing up lavish possibilities it offers to a person for prosperity and advancement in life. English as a second language (ESL) turns out to be unavoidable as well as inescapable in the Indian education structure. To learn a second language, a psychological and emotional participation is required to communicate forcefully and to elucidate linguistic signification. The motive of this study is to be acquainted with the importance of making use of all skills in learning English. The four basic skills of learning a language are Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing. These are the four potentialities that authorise a person to assimilate, construct and make use of the language in a meaningful social conversation. The teacher is required to apply an array of techniques to integrate the necessities of the students. The teacher mixes these techniques throughout the procedure of learning and applies them towards the progressive advancement of proficiency as well as self-confidence of the student in improving the efficacy of this cognitive operation.

Storytelling: Peningkatan High Order Thinking Skills Siswa Sekolah Dasar Negeri 03 Ujung-Ujung Pabelan Semarang

Students at Public Elementary School 03 Ujung-Ujung Pabelan learned English only in extracurricular activities, where grade 4 and grade 5 were joined in one class. The learning was done by memorizing vocabulary and learning the structure of English grammar. During extracurricular activities, students were not introduced to HOTS-based storytelling, they only learned English vocabulary and structures. Based on this explanation, students needed HOTS skills in learning English so that they can stimulate critical thinking skills in responding to reading and other English language materials. But in reality, they tended to memorize vocabulary and grammar relatively. Based on this statement, our service team focuses community service on the implementation of storytelling to increase student’s HOTS at 03 Elementary School Ujung-Ujung Pabelan Semarang, which had 42 students. The service method used is the lecture method, brainstorming, storytelling practice, and evaluation of the satisfaction of community service participants. The results show that the student’s HOTS in learning to read English stories, retelling what they had read, and increasing the students' critical thinking patterns. The students become motivated to retell story in English and the students improve their critical thinking patterns.

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ROLE-PLAY TOWARDS VOCATIONAL SCHOOL STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILL

This study aimed at investigating the effectiveness of using role-play toward speaking skills in learning English at the Class X students of SMKS Muhammadiyah Pangkalan Bun. Quasi-experimental research was administered in this study, using two groups of experimental and control. Multimedia 1 class as the experimental group and Multimedia 2 class as the control group. There were six meetings for each group with four meetings for treatment, and the other two meetings for pre-test and post-test. The data were in form of speaking scores emphasizing fluency, structure, and bravery. From the t-test for independent samples, the result showed that the value of the t-test was 0.034 less than 0.05. It means that the result of posttest scores in experimental and control groups are significantly different. Then, from the comparison of the means between pretest and posttest of experimental and control groups, the experimental group’s mean outperformed the control group in 2.20. It means that role play is effective in speaking skills in learning English. Furthermore, this study also showed that role play could create a communicative atmosphere in the classroom.

Metacognitive Awareness of Listening Strategies among Science Pre-University Students

Listening is one of the fundamental skills to acquire knowledge in an academic setting. Employing appropriate listening strategies can improve focus and stimulate listening comprehension. Looking into the cognitive process from the perspective of metacognitive awareness during listening activity could enhance their performance in listening test. Despite that, listening skill in learning English as a second language (ESL) is often overlooked and the least practiced compared to other skills. There is a need to address the dearth of focus and research on approaching listening skills to improve the students' proficiency. The present study aims to investigate the relationship between Metacognitive Awareness of Listening Strategies (MALS) and listening achievement. To attain this, one hundred and sixty-nine science foundation students answered Metacognitive Awareness of Listening Questionnaire (MALQ) and took Malaysian University English Test (MUET). The result of the analysis shows that there was a significant relationship between students' MALS and listening performance. Subsequently, listening performance marks were found to be positively related to person knowledge strategies and inversely to mental translation strategies. Triangulation data was also done where 20 students were involved in further discussion of strategies that they have applied. The study also recommends looking into the practice of listening in Malaysia, particularly in pre-university level.

Linguistic Characteristics of Narrative Text Written by Male and Female Students

Language is a reflection of speakers. A person can guess the identity such as the origin, character, or behavior of the interlocutor of the language he uses. Gender affect the use of language, both oral and written language. As an essential skill in learning English, writing involves the application of grammar and sentence pattern, vocabulary, or diction and cross cultural understanding. It can be said that writing ability is someone capability to express their idea in the form of written representation. The objective of this study is to investigate the linguistic form of narrative text written by male and female students. The data of this study will be gathered by sentences in narrative text written by male and female students of Senior High School about their experience. The use of language features proposed empty adjectives, hedge, intensifier, hypercorrect grammar super polite form, tag question and emphatic stress, even though the characteristics of color words and question intonation have not been found in the characters’ utterances. Keywords: Linguistic Characteristics, Gender, Writing, Narrative Text

Phonemic Awareness: A Core Phonological Skill in Learning English

Well-developed phonological awareness skills are central to the ultimate achievement of fluent alphabet-scripted literacy. This workshop at JALT2019 was focused on the benefits that can flow from short bursts of phonemic awareness activities in daily English classes, revolving around a sequence of nonprint activities that have been designed to heighten learners’ auditory reception and oral production of the smallest units of sound in the English language. These sounds, or phonemes, may or may not be present in learners’ primary languages. A sharpened awareness of individual phonemes and the ability to isolate and manipulate them can have the potential to open up the sound elements of alphabetic written text to those biscriptal learners who may have previously relied on the visual memorisation of spelling patterns. Phonemic insights into the alphabetic written code are especially important for learners with established literacy in the Chinese or Japanese written script. 発達した音韻認識スキルは、アルファベット表記テキストを読み書きする優れた能力を最大限習得するのに重要である。JALT2019のこのワークショップでは、日々の英語のクラスで音素認識活動を大量に行うことから生じる効果に焦点を当て，学習者による英語の最小単位の音の聴覚受容と口頭表現を高めるために設計された一連の非印字活動を提示した。これらの音や音素は、学習者の第一言語に存在する場合とそうでない場合があります。個々の音素に対する鋭敏な認識、およびそれらを区別し操作する能力は、これまでスペルパターンの視覚的記憶に頼っていたバイスクリプト（非アルファベット文字使用地域の）学習者に、アルファベット表記テキストの音声要素の理解への”道を切り開く”可能性がある。アルファベットの記述コードに対する音韻的洞察は、中国語や日本語の記述形式に慣れている学習者にとって特に重要である