IJLECR (International Journal of Language Education and Cultural Review)

Integrating Cooperative Learning in EFL Classroom to Alleviate Students’ Speaking (Fluency) Anxiety

2023-11-19T11:04:41+07:00

In the EFL classroom, even though students learn all the skills and are good at some skills, they still feel anxious when they speak in front of the teacher and their friends. The feeling of anxiety can happen because of some factors. One of them is the learning atmosphere. Students feel uncomfortable with a learning atmosphere that is too strict and formal. Cooperative learning can be an alternative way to help alleviate students’ anxiety in speaking English. Since Cooperative learning is related to activities that focus on student learning through group work, it gives a supportive and safe learning vibe to those students who are afraid to speak their foreign language. This research investigates how to integrate cooperative learning in English Foreign Language classrooms to alleviate students speaking anxiety. This research employed a descriptive case study. The participants of this study were the teacher and 36 tenth-grade students in one of the senior high schools in Majalengka. The results showed that the teacher integrated cooperative learning in speaking activities through group investigation. Then, the students’ perceptions toward cooperative learning have advantages in alleviating speaking anxiety in the learning activities. It indicates that students positively perceive cooperative learning as alleviating speaking anxiety.The results showed that most students were anxious because they lacked confidence and practice. In overcoming this problem, the teacher integrated cooperative learning in speaking activities through group investigation. Moreover, the teacher allowed students to communicate with each other by using group work and gave the students practice with fluency while having the discussion and presentation. Then, the students’ perceptions toward cooperative learning have advantages in alleviating speaking anxiety in the learning activities. It indicates that students positively perceive cooperative learning as alleviating speaking anxiety.

Conflicting Opinions and Emotions in Students’ Responses to Feminist Resistance in the Film Photocopier

2023-12-06T08:50:24+07:00

The film Photocopier depicts how its main character, a victim of sexual harassment, exercised her feminist resistance toward hegemonic and patriarchal power in society. Studies have been conducted in the past to examine feminist resistance in this film and a few other films. Yet, none have looked closely into students' responses to feminist resistance in those films. Engaging students in responding to film contents is important because films have the potential to provoke students’ critical thinking and emotions toward various issues in society, such as issues related to the victimization of women. To address the gap in research, this study aimed to examine how students express their opinions and emotions toward the female main character’s resistance in the film Photocopier. It also aimed to analyze how those opinions and emotions may influence students’ potential actions when faced with sexual harassment issues in real life. Using an audience response method, data were collected through observations that included film viewing, a classroom discussion, and an open-ended questionnaire. The study involved eleven female and two male graduate students in a literature teaching and appreciation course. The results showed that each student experienced conflicting opinions and emotions with regard to the main character’s resistance. After watching the film, students felt motivated and inspired to advocate for victims of sexual harassment in real life. The researcher argues that conflicting opinions and emotions were inevitable consequences of students’ critical thinking and emotional processes while responding to the film. The negative opinions and emotions that even led to victim blaming did not hinder them from supporting the main character’s efforts to obtain justice. Furthermore, the researcher argues for the necessity of developing audience responses to films as a powerful strategy in critical literature pedagogy.

Factors Hindering the Students in Completing Their Undergraduate Thesis: A Study at an English Education Study Program in Indonesia

2023-12-09T01:21:03+07:00

One of the obligations of undergraduate students at the end of their study is writing a thesis. During the process, students find several problems that can hinder them completing their thesis. This study was aimed at finding and analyzing the factors that hinder the completion of the thesis and how the students try to cope with the factors. This study used a qualitative descriptive approach by using questionnaire and interview as the research instruments. The population in this study was the undergraduate students of the English Education Study Program who were working on or had finished working on their thesis. The results showed that there were ten factors that hindered students' thesis completion. Of the ten factors, the writers categorized them into two parts, namely internal factors and external factors. The internal factors are; health, psychological barriers, academic ability, and approach (attitude and study habits). While external factors are in the form of; family, environment/friends, thesis administration system, thesis advisor guidance process, references, and other activities. If sorted from the factor most experienced by students to the factor least experienced, the results are psychological barriers (92.9%), reference (78.6%), academic ability (74.3%), learning approach (74.3%), thesis advisor guidance (71.4%), thesis administration system (64.3%), health problems (54.3%), family (48.6%), environment/friends (45.7%), and other activities; participating in internal/external campus organization, working, and some unnecessary activities (30%). In facing the factors, students make various kinds of efforts so that they can still complete their thesis project.

Module on Writing Indonesian Procedure Text Betawi Cultural Heritage Based on Project-Based Learning

2023-12-30T11:45:54+07:00

This study discusses the development of Indonesian teaching modules, especially on procedural text material among Package B students. It is known that package B students are quite different from formal schools in general because in one class students have different age gaps and initial knowledge. PKBM Negeri 10 Jakarta in particular has a learning group for students aged 12-19 years. Indonesian lesson is one of the subjects that Package B learners learn requires mastering four skills, one of which is writing. But in reality, students still have difficulty in constructing words into writing and developing ideas in the mind into written language. This research aims to create a procedure text learning module to achieve students' reading interest and the development of writing teaching materials for class VII Package B students based on project-based learning. This research starts from 2021 to September 2023. The research method used is RnD with the ADDIE method. Data collection techniques are carried out using interviews, observations, and document analysis. Making modules with the concept of ADDIE and project-based learning is carried out according to the existing stages. The module validators are experts in the fields of practitioners, languages, and design. The result of the validator's assessment of the Betawi Cultural Heritage module is very feasible, it only needs to be updated in language that is still inaccurate in language rules. This was reinforced by the results of the distribution of questionnaires that students were very satisfied and preferred the Betawi Cultural Heritage module rather than the e-module given by the teacher.

The Effectiveness of Case Method to Students’ Paraphrasing Write Skills

2024-01-31T22:57:45+07:00

Paraphrasing writing skills are useful for students in writing scientific papers, especially in providing an explanation of a concept using different language from the reference we quote without changing the meaning so as to avoid plagiarism. Writing paraphrases requires critical thinking skills and creativity in processing sentences without changing the meaning. In fact, there are still many students who are not skilled in writing paraphrases. One way to improve students' paraphrasing writing skills is to apply the case method. For this reason, this study aims to determine how much influence the case method has on students' paraphrasing abilities. This research used experimental method with pre-experimental designs. The research design used the One Groups Pretest-Posttest Design. Data collection using paraphrase writing test technique. Analysis of research data by: assessing the results of each student's paraphrasing writing, calculating data normality tests, and conducting hypothesis testing with the Paired Sample T Test using SPSS 23. The results showed that there was a significant effect of the case method on the paraphrasing ability of students of the Management Study Program, Faculty of Economics, Universitas PGRI Palembang. The influence is indicated by the Sig value. (2-tailed) of 0.01 is smaller than 0.05. Students are able to paraphrase using their own language in several techniques, namely changing active sentences to passive ones, shortening sentences, changing sentences to become longer, and replacing words with words that have the same meaning. It's just that there are still some students who paraphrase by only changing some of the words in the quoted sentence by writing the equivalent of the word.