IJLECR (International Journal of Language Education and Cultural Review)

Looking into EFL Students’ Intercultural Awareness and Its Relation with Varying Social Media Exposure and Reading Ability

Fajar Erlangga — 2024-06-20

With explosive growth of technology and globalization, seeing vastly different culture has become part of our daily life as seen in social media. Students’ social media exposure is closely related to their reading activity. Thus, great reading ability leads to great intercultural awareness. This study aimed to investigate EFL students’ intercultural awareness and its relation with varying social media exposure and reading ability. The quantitative study employed ex-post-facto design, with participation of 183 EFL students purposively recruited from Informatics Study Program in a private univerisity in Jakarta, Indonesia. The data collected using online questionnaires and reading tests were analyzed using SPSS 27. With this software, descriptive statistics were made to compare means, percentages, and standard deviations of students’ intercultural awareness. Paired-samples t-tests were run to find out a significant difference in participants’ intercultural awareness by varying social media use and reading ability. The results revealed EFL students’ high intercultural awareness with no significant difference found in students’ varying social media use and with a significant difference found in students’s varying reading ability. In conclusion, EFL students’ intercultural awareness is influenced significantly by their reading abilities rather than their social media exposure.

Intermediate Students' Perceptions of the Transformation of Online Translation Engine

Zuhairo Zuhairo — 2024-06-20

Online language translation machine is a tool that is currently popular to be used as a benchmark when translating words and sentences from foreign languages that are widely used by people today, especially students and students who can change the way of learning foreign languages by facilitating the translation process. Currently, online translation machines are really increasing and varying from those available on the website to having their own platforms such as special applications for language translation machines, so this research appears to analyse online translation machines according to students who have used them, this research method is a qualitative method conducted through a platform using interviews that see from the perception or point of view of users, namely high school students. The results of the interviews found that out of 13 students have almost the same point of view but with a variety of different reasons, most of them say that the translation machine is growing rapidly and is increasingly sophisticated as evidenced by the existence of new and interesting features that make it easier for them to translate various languages. It can be concluded that their perception of the online translation machine is interesting and quite realistic that the current online translation machine is indeed growing quite rapidly starting from the features and translation accuracy that continues to increase, it will be sure for the future online translation machines will be more sophisticated and become the main tool in translating various languages.

Masculinity of Arthur Dismmesdale in the Novel the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthrone

Cita Hikmah Yanti — 2024-06-20

Finding masculinity in a character represented in a novel enables to investigate more to understand social behavior as social issue in personal or in a certain community. This study aims to find the masculinity in the character of Arthur Dismmesdale, a puritan priest in the novel of the scarlet letter that attract the writer to identify the uncommon manner of a male character. His character also viewed as one of influencing character who undergo social and psychological traits into the story which led the other main character took the blame on his behalf. This study was researched descriptively by reducing data and data grouping based on the problem studied. Data were taken from words and sentenced in the novel then describe and explain of character’s personality using Sigmund Freud Psychoanalysis that is id, ego and analyzing Masculinity. Arthur Dimmesdale, A concealed sinner, has a very complicit nature in masculinity, this is due to his inability to be a responsible towards his evil deeds. The character was indicated as dynamic character, He cursed himself for his silence and cowardice yet changed structurally during the story and complexed the whole story.

Analysis of the Experience of Losing a Female Character in the Short Story Maukah Kau Menghapus Bekas Bibirnya di Bibirku dengan Bibirmu? by Hamsad Rangkuti

Hendry Sugara — 2024-06-20

Literary works are a reflection of real life experienced by humans. Every human being must experience loss. Not only in real life, events of loss can also be found in literary works through the characters or stories contained in them. Humans will experience phases when experiencing loss. These phases will be analyzed in this research through literary works in the form of short stories. The aim of this research is to analyze the experience of loss in the characters in the short story "Maukah Kau Menghapus Bekas Bibirnya di Bibirku dengan Bibirmu?" by Hamsad Rangkuti's using Elisabeth Kübler-Ross's theory of loss. This research uses a literature study approach by collecting psychological theory references to dissect literary works. Research results from the analysis of the short story "Maukah Kau Menghapus Bekas Bibirnya di Bibirku dengan Bibirmu?" by Hamsad Rangkuti's found that the female character in the short story experienced five phases in the event of loss, namely 1) denial phase, 2) anger phase, 3) offering phase, 4) depression phase, and 5) acceptance phase. It turns out that Elisabeth Kübler-Ross's theory of loss does not only occur in everyday life, but in a literary work in the form of a short story, this theory of loss can also be experienced by the character. A short story written by Hamsad Rangkuti with the title "Maukah Kau Menghapus Bekas Bibirnya di Bibirku dengan Bibirmu?" proves that Elizabeth Kübler-Ross's theory corresponds to the phases of loss felt by humans.

Perceptions and Challenges of Undergraduate EFL Students’ towards Audiobooks and Textbooks on the Xreading Website

Jalu Wintang Widodo — 2024-06-20

Based on PISA literacy test in 2022, Indonesia gains rank 70 which 5 points higher than previous period in 2018. However, it still needs more efforts to maximize the level of students’ literacy in Indonesia. The use of X-reading as the web-based book technology becomes the alternative tools to improve EFL undergraduate students’ literacy level. This research aims to explore the undergraduate students’ perception and challenge in using audiobook and textbook, that are provided by Xreading website during extensive reading activity. This research is conducted to EFL undergraduate students through qualitative method and purposive sampling technique. Three undergraduate students in Surabaya are involved by using descriptive qualitative method. The use of audiobook and textbook in Xreading website have some positive and negative impacts for students in developing their literacy competence. Audiobook is able to improve the students’ listening skill and understand the unfamiliar vocabularies. However, it has some weaknesses such as it needs strong internet data and connection and cannot control the audio speed. The textbook gives the students experience as reading the physical book and the grammatical understanding. Nevertheless, textbook is more time consuming especially for students who have the lower reading skill. Hopefully, this research will be developed into the low level of education not only in undergraduate level, but also in the secondary school and this website expanded into the intensive reading.

A Fun Autodidactic Learning Model for Students to Improve Second Language Understanding

Heru Pratikno — 2024-06-20

Learning a second language, for example, English is often considered difficult by most students. In fact, this foreign language is very important for them in further studies and the world of work. Therefore, this research aims to determine a fun autodidactic learning model for students to improve second language understanding Apart from that, the writer also wants to know what methods students are interested in and effectively use in honing their English skills independently. Research data was obtained by filling out a questionnaire in the form of questions to determine the effectiveness of the interest learning model. The research respondents were Unisba Statistics students. After the data was collected, this research used quantitative descriptive methods to analyze it. This identification is carried out to reveal learning methods, problems encountered in learning, and efforts made in improving students' English skills. The results obtained based on this research are an effective independent method or model of learning English that is of interest to students, including through songs as a medium for teaching new languages and improving vocabulary and grammar. Apart from that, a fun autodidactic learning model, namely through communicative films and games, can also improve their English pronunciation skills. However, the popular method still has several obstacles, namely students do not know the pronunciation and structure of English according to grammatical rules.

Perceived Challenges and Ways to Improve Reading Proficiency for EFL Teachers: Narratives from EFL Teachers

Abid Hakiki — 2024-06-20

The need of using English in global context has led schools in Indonesia to prepare and make their students proficient in English. However, the majority of English teachers may not have attained a level of proficiency deemed necessary for effective teaching. This study aimed to reveal the level of teachers’ reading proficiency and to figure out how they perceived challenges and ways to improve their proficiency. Qualitative data was used as a method of inquiry. The study employed a narrative inquiry to dig deeper into teachers’ perspective. A proficiency test, self-reflection (logbook), and interview were used as the instrument to measure 15 EFL teachers’ proficiency and figure out their challenges and ways to improve their proficiency. The data was analyzed using inductive reflective thematic analysis and the findings showed that teachers proficiency varied, but most of them have a good reading proficiency equal to B2-CEFR level; It is referred to as upper intermediate and independent user by CEFR. In addition, five themes expressing the teachers’ perceived challenges were revealed: 1) They experienced self-errors; 2) The answer is implied; 3) The text is difficult; 4) The question type is unfamiliar; 5) They encountered unfamiliar vocabulary. Moreover, the ways the teachers used to improve their proficiency were: 1) understand the question and passage carefully; 2) find main idea and supporting details; 3) familiarize with the topic; 4) Enrich vocabulary; 5) scan and take notes; 6) predict the question and keep focus. In conclusion, the findings provide the important insights into EFL teachers. Their collective experiences can be used to overcome the challenges faced by EFL teachers.

The Distribution of Junior High School Students’ Language Awareness Across English Oral Proficiency and Oral Corrective Feedback Preference

Ananda Rival Prakoso — 2024-06-20

Language awareness is crucial in langage learning. It entails how language is perceived and used by the students. Language awareness cannot be separated from teaching learning process since there are many interactions between teacher and students in the class including performing oral competency, learning from mistake, giving and taking oral corrective feedback. Thus, it stil uncovered yet that language awareness is really matter in junior high school. This research tried to investigate the level of language awareness of junior high school students across their oral proficiency level. The study also aims to find out whether students' level of language awareness is significantly different or not in their English oral language proficiency. In addition, the study also arried out to find out students type preference in receiving oral corrective feedback based on their language awareness level. This research is quantitative in nature. The data was collected from teacher archive in the form of students score and questionnaire. Then, the data was analyzed with the help of SPSS 20. The result showed that from 92 junior high school participant 35% of participants are in low level of language awareness; 32% in moderate level and 31% in high level. Based on the result, it can be concluded that majority of junior high school student are in low level of language awareness followed by moderate, and high. The analysis also showed that it retains the hypothesis of students’ language awareness level is similar across different English oral proficiency. Student with low, moderate, and high proficiency shows relatively similar level of language awareness level. Thus, the majority of students prefer explicit correction for oral corrective feedback type.

Feasibility and Effectiveness of the Results of the Development of a Teaching Module for Writing Biographical Texts Based on Project Based Learning

Resti May Puspa — 2024-06-20

The teaching module for writing biographical texts made by teachers at SMK Negeri 3 Kota Bengkulu is still not student-centered, making it difficult for students to write biographical texts. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a teaching module for writing biographical texts based on project-based learning. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop a teaching module for writing biographical texts based on project-based learning that is feasible and effective for use by teachers and students. This type of research was Research and Development model ADDIE with the following stages: Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation. Data collection techniques in this study used documentation techniques, interviews, questionnaires, observations, and test techniques. The results of the study showed that the teaching module needed by teachers and students is a learning activity based on project-based learning. The design developed in this study consists of three important components, namely learning objectives, learning activities, and assessments. The characteristics of the development of this teaching module are at the project-based learning stage starting from determining basic questions, compiling project planning, compiling project schedules, implementing and monitoring projects, assessing project results, and evaluating experiences. The teaching module has been implemented and the results are effective to use with the results of the t-test value tcount>ttable, namely 20.66>1.68 with a Sig. value (2-tailed) of 0.001<0.05.

The Mental Health Issues EFL Undergraduate Students Face in Learning the English

Raihan Tsany Haidar — 2024-06-27

This study aimed to explore the mental health issues of EFL students in learning the English language and the strategies to cope with them by employing a qualitative descriptive approach in which, the research uses a questionnaire with yes or no responses to gather students' mental health experiences. Additionally, four volunteers were interviewed to dig deeper into their coping mechanisms. The results revealed that students are aware of the mental health issues they face with learning the English language were dominated by anxiety and stress. It was revealed that depression and sleeping problems were the least mental health issues students faced. While the questionnaire showed students are facing depression, volunteered participants disagreed the feeling depressed during language learning. Sleeping problems are also shown to only affect students when they are facing exams. Students revealed having four different strategies, such as talking to friends and family, enjoying entertainment such as watching movies, listening to music, engaging in social media, and outdoor activities, to maintain their mental health. This implies an understanding of mental health challenges in learning the English language leads to a better learning habit. Furthermore, by being able to maintain mental health problems, students can achieve good social and academic goals.