Showing posts with label Second Language Teaching and Learning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Second Language Teaching and Learning. Show all posts

Thursday, November 8, 2018

Difficulties in Speaking

Education English | Difficulties in Speaking | However, it is not easy for some people to convey their idea in a foreign language, moreover in front of our lecturer and many students in the class. They will find many problems or difficulties when students are asked to do that.
According to Hengster (2006) difficulties are challenges that are new and something that students are not familiar with. The speaking difficulties of the students are not only in the form construct of speaking but may begin earlier during the gathering of information from given material. To be an active and consistent participant in speaking implies that students need to read before getting into the class. It is important to recognize that some of speaking difficulties are caused by a language. Ballard (1996) in Hua (2007) said the result of his research showed that language is one important reason behind poor academic performance.
If in a certain country English has role as a foreign language, so it is not so surprised if the students cannot mastery English well, moreover if they are asked to speak English.
Lynch and Anderson (1997: 98) in Hua (2007) argued that social factor is also one factor of difficulties in speaking. Different culture and setting when people are studying a foreign language also can be one of difficulty for them. The environment and people whom students interact with can be one factor that influences them to be good English speaker or not. The students from different cultural expectations and setting struggle with class participation. Ferris & Tagg’s (1996) in Hua (2007 )survey showed that U.S . Professors noted that student needs to speak in order to overcome cultural inhibitions and to learn how to participate using oral skills. Asians in particular have difficulty with active participation because of their cultural differences in learning styles. The difficulty that mostly appears when students are asked to speak English is fear. They feel fear because they do not feel confident. They are also less preparation. The difficulties of Speaking do not only come from the linguistic inability. The stress of adapting to a new culture and education system also plays an important role. Students may find English a challenge or difficulties because it is not their first language, they have a specific learning difficulty such as dyslexia, their previous education developed only basic English skills, they are more used to write than speak in English and may be they have a combination of these difficulties.
It is also necessary to consider the general situations of the class. In order to adapt the new situation in the class, students may need to change the habits of studying and ways of thinking. They can be depressed and feel stress if strong conflicts and problems with language inability occur. Brumfit (1993) and Barker in Hua (2007) argued that a serious difference between the competence, intelligence and status they have in their educational background may show a major cause of stress.
Based on the Diba Artsiyanti Putri’s article, there are some problems which are faced by students in speaking, students practice to speak rarely so it is difficult for students when they are asked to speak in front of the class because it is not their habit, students do not understand the English structure well so that they feel afraid in making mistake if they speak, less of vocabulary is also be a factor of difficulties in speaking because the vocabulary which are taught by the teacher mostly are rarely used in their daily conversation.
According to Hua (2007) which has investigated the difficulties in speaking for academic purposes in which she found that speaking difficulties for academic purposes are closed related with cross cultural problems, learning strategies and linguistic causes. Skeffington (2004) said that there were some reasons that make students difficult to speak in speaking class. They are peer pressure, lack of motivation and lack of support. First, the students do not speak English because of peer pressure.
The students do not attempt to speak English because they are afraid to make mistakes. The pressure of getting ashamed is one of main factor.
Second, the students do not speak English because they have less motivation. Motivation is one of crucial things that the students should have. When the teacher asked the students why they think they should speak English in class, they just stunned silence, it means that they lack of motivation to speak English
The last, the students do not speak English because of lack of support. There are two kinds of support: classroom atmosphere and linguistic support. Skeffington (2004) said that it might not be realistic to expect teenagers to provide the generous and patient atmosphere ideal for language practice. However, it is possible to encourage them to support each other, for example by working in teams. Linguistic support here means the knowledge of the formal aspects of speaking such as pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, and the appropriate use of spoken language. Most students have less knowledge about them.
education-english.com

Tuesday, October 23, 2018

Five Principal Factors for Accounting Reluctance Students in the Classroom

Education English | Five Principal Factors for Accounting Reluctance Students in the Classroom | Here are Five Principal Factors for Accounting Reluctance Students in the Classroom to speak up in the classroom :
1. Students' perceived low proficiency in English : videotaped data from secondary school classrooms showed that although students did have the competence to respond to teachers' question in English, their lack of confidence, unwillingness to take risks and a perception that their English was ppor resulted in a marked reluctance to respond.
2. students's fear of mistake and derision : students were also afraid of making fools of themselves in front of their peers. In addition, there is a cultural factors that the function in a number of  Asian cultures inhibiting students from speaking up in front of their peers.
3. Teachers' intolerance of silence : Many of the teachers taking part in the study gave the students little or no wait time
4. Uneven allocation of turn : From the data collected in the study became clear the teachers favored the better students when soliciting responses. As Tsui points out this probably related to the intolerance of silence. By  targeting the better students, teachers could be sure that there would not be periods of silence or confusion in their classrooms.
5. Incomprehensible input : The final factors identified by Tsui was the overly difficult teachers' language input. One teacher, for instance, having viewed herself teaching, reported that " After viewing myself asking questions, I realized that what I thought were simple and clear questions were  in fact quite difficult to understand . Not only this but the question were often confusing and not specific enough ( Tsui,1996.p.154 cited in Nunan, 1999.p.234.:

Thursday, October 11, 2018

Purposes of Asking Questions

Education English | Purposes of Asking Questions | Morgan and Saxton cited by Risnawati (2008: 4) explain that teachers ask questions in order to keep students actively involved in lesson, to provide the student with the opportunity to express their ideas and thoughts, to enable other students to hear different explanation of the material by their peers, to help teachers pace their lessons moderate students’ behavior, and to help teachers evaluate student learning and revise their lesson as necessary. Sheffield (cited by Risnawati, 2008:4) gives detail purposes of asking question as follows:
1. Diagnose students’ understanding and evaluate their performance.
2. Identify students’ interests and backgrounds.
3. Lead student to consider new ideas and make use of ideas already learned.
4. Assess students’ prior knowledge.
5. Help the student clarify their ideas and thought processes.
6. Motivate the students by encouraging them to participate in learning actively.
7. Encourage the students to ask their own questions.
8. Challenge beliefs and guide reconsideration of values students hold.
9. Assess the effectiveness of teacher’s teaching.
10. Develop rapport with students.
11. Find out any student having difficulties on tasks.
12. Revise information from a previous session.

Tuesday, October 9, 2018

Definition of Communication

Education English | Definition of Communication | In my opinion communication is the way that we used to sending or receiving information or our ideas to one another. We always do that in our daily life. Whenever and wherever we are. We always communicate and interact with people who are around us. According to Black and Whitney (1982:06) communication means the process of transmitting meaning between individuals.
Rice and Stemphenski (1998:99) Communication is also is the process of sending and receiving messages with other people, by communication is here meant the mechanism through which human relation exist and develop all the symbols of the mind, together with the means of conveying them through space and preserving them in time.
Kenneth D Mahrer (1999), states Communication is defined as a process by which we assign and convey meaning in an attempt to create shared understanding. This process requires a vast repertoire of skills in intrapersonal and interpersonal processing, listening, observing, speaking, questioning, analyzing, and evaluating.
Use of these processes is developmental and transfers to all areas of life: home, school, community, work, and beyond. It is through communication that collaboration and cooperation occur.
Communication maybe defined as giving, receiving or exchanging information, opinions or ideas by writing, speech or visual means. So that the material communicated is completely understood by everyone concerned.
All day, everyday we are communicating, whether it is talking to people on the telephone or in person, taking dictation and transcribing business correspondence, liaising with colleagues and staff, writing letters and other correspondence. The importance of developing good communication skills can not be over emphasized. You might ask “I communicate all the time so why do I need to study the subject?” The reason for this is because the process is not so easy as simply talking or writing. We need to make sure that we get it right that our ideas and information are completely understood.
Communication, whether oral or written, is all about understanding our aim should be to communicate a message successfully. So that, it is received as we intended, without any misunderstanding. Here, in communication we do not only used verbal communication but also nonverbal communication, which is useful in communication especially whenever we are involved in two languages. The process of sending and receiving messages to the ones, are restricted whenever the one who gets involved in communication not really understand what we mean, for making clear we have to used nonverbal communication. Here, we used gestures, eyes contact, facial expressions and body language on that communication.
Communication especially whenever we are involved in two languages. The process of sending and receiving messages to the ones, are restricted whenever the one who gets involved in communication not really understand what we mean, for making clear we have to used nonverbal communication. Here, we used gestures, eyes contact, facial expression and body language on that communication.

Wednesday, September 26, 2018

The difficulties in Speaking

Education English | The difficulties in Speaking  | Many problems that faced by students in learning speaking in the classroom, according to Brown (2001) , there are some characteristic of spoken language that can make oral performance easy as well as, in some cases difficult, they are :

1. Clustering
Fluent speech is phrasal, not word by word. Learners can organized their output both cognitively and physically (in breath groups) through such clustering.

2. Redudancy
The speaker has an oppurtinity to make meaning clearer through the redundancy of language. Learners can capitalize on this feature of spoken language.

3. Reduced form
Contractions, elision, reduced vowels, etc. , all form special problems in teaching spoken English. Students who don’t learn colloquial contractions can sometimes develop a stilted, bookish quality of speaking that in turn stigmatizes them.

4. Performance variable
One of the advantages of spoken language is that the process of thinking as you speak allows you to manifest a certain of performance hesitations , pauses, backtracking and corrections. Learners can actually be taught how to pause and hesitate. For example, in English our “thinking time” is not silent;we insert certain “filler” such as ub,um,well, you know, I mean, like, etc. One of the most salient differences between native and nonnative speakers of a language is in their hestitation phenomena.

5. Colloquial language
Make sure your students are reasonably well acquainted with the words,idioms, and phrases of colloquial language and thay they get practive in producing these forms.

6. Rate of delivery
Another salient characteristic of fluency is rate of delivery. One of your tasks in teaching spoken English is to help learners is achieve an acceptable speed along with other attributes of fluency.

7. Stress, rhythm and intonation
This is the most important characteristic of English pronounciation, as will be explained below. The stress rhythm of spoken English pronunciation , as will be explained below. The stress-timed rhythm of spoken English and its intonation patterns convey important messages.

8. Interaction
Learning to produced was of language waves of language in a vacuum-without interlocutors-would rob speaking skill of its richest component: the creativity of conversational negotiation.

Thursday, September 6, 2018

The Importance of Interaction in the classroom

Education English | The Importance of Interaction in the classroom |  Interaction is foundational to effective learning. (Elearning, 2002). Interactions, in this case, include the interaction between teacher to the students and the interaction between students to students. Interaction is an important thing in teaching English because by having a good interaction in teaching learning process, the teaching learning process will be more effective. Based on (Academic Technology Center, 2005), interaction is an important component of instruction which has the following benefits: Interaction builds a sense of community among the students, which leads to student satisfaction, retention, and increased learning. Interaction provides students with feedback they need to determine if they are mastering the content in your course. Interaction exposes students to a variety of learning resources, including content materials and the experiences and knowledge shares by other students. Interaction makes students become more actively engaged in the learning process, leading to higher levels of learning.
 The four major of interaction’s role
In such cases, interaction plays a role in the four major forms of reasoning: (Elearning, 2002). The four majors are: first is definition - acquiring, through conversation. It is about understanding of language and syntax. Second is description - acquiring, through conversation. It is about understanding of reference and representation. Third is argument - acquiring, through conversation. It is about understanding of what beliefs may be inferred from definition and description. And the fourth is explanation - acquiring, through conversation. It is about understanding of the theoretical constructs, world views, or models within which definition, description and argument operate. Additionally, interaction can play the following roles: (Elearning, 2002). There are six roles, those are: getting a learner's attention, keeping learner's interest, transferring information, aiding in retention, sparking reflection and the last is evaluation -both formative and summative. The first role of interaction is getting a learner’s attention. If the teacher has a good interaction, the students will pay more attention to the teacher and to the lesson, it really helps the students in getting new knowledge and information. The second role of interaction is keeping learner’s interest. By having a good interaction a class, it will influence the student’s interest, for example; if there are some students who do not have any interest in a lesson, but they have and feel ma good interaction from their teacher and their friends. By the time, the interest will arise in their mind because they feel comfort and enjoy when they are learning that lesson. The third role of interaction is transferring information. To make the students understand the information (lesson) that is transferred by the teacher, the teacher has to build a good interaction with the students. The fourth role of interaction is aiding in retention. The way of technique that is used by the teacher when the teacher interacts with the students to transfer information sometime help the student to memorize their lesson. The fifth role of interaction is sparkling reflection. The sixth role of interaction is evaluation – both formative and summative.
Interaction cycle
An interaction cycle was initially proposed as follows six terms (Elearning, 2002). The four of interaction cycles are: sender, message, receiver, and interference.
1. Sender
The Sender means the instructor or teacher who sends the message (content) to the learners.
2. Message
The message of interaction cycle means the general content expressed by the sender. Content has two components, the content itself, and the expression of content.
3. Receiver
Receiver means the learners who get or receive the message (content).
4. Interference
Interference or distracter concern can obstruct the intended learning. Some are controlled by the sender (e.g. through good design (content), instructor training. Others are controlled by the receiver (the stage of mind of the learner). And others are not controllable.
5. Process for Feedback
Process of feedback/validation/correction is to ensure that the intended message (learning) has been received and integrated/ validated/rejected by the receiver/learner.
6. Manifestation of Learning
Manifestation of learning through some types of change/ expression by the learner (this validates not only that reflection occurred via interaction, but that the reflection was significant enough to evoke a change in behavior in the learner). This is often neglected in many learning model because learning is evaluated via a test/ essay, rather than through a more authentic assessment approach – like performance, portfolio, and presentation.
Creating an Interactive Classroom
Interactive language instruction involves the teacher and learners engaging in activities that create condition that foster language use, which lead further language development. First, the teacher is the initiator of interaction. That does not mean that the teacher is always in control of the discourse, such in models where the teacher initiates, the students respond, and the teacher provides opportunities for interaction in which learners control the topics and discourse (Brown, 2001). This supports what teachers believe to be good ESOL practice; selecting content and classroom activities, based on learner’s need and interest, which are suitably challenging and promote language development (Florez & Burt, 2001). To create condition for affective interaction in the classroom, teachers ideally do the following: plan lesson that are logically sequenced and that provide proper scaffolding – the instructional support that enables learners to make a leap in knowledge or skill – so that learners can be successful in their interaction (Florez & Burt, 2001) release control and step out of the role of class leader. Teachers let learners take the initiative for interactions, experiment freely, and take risk with the language. Facilitate learner – to learner interaction by monitoring and providing assistance when students request it or when students are unable to repair communication breakdown on their own. Initiate and sustain interaction by using a variety of question ranging from knowledge questions (e.g., yes/no; choice; or who, what, when, and why question) to evaluation question (e.g., opinion question). Understand that interaction does not necessarily mean that student’s participation is always verbal. Sometime students learn by listening to other interact. Recognize that regular use of pair and small group work promotes interactions. Effectively implement group work. Teach learners strategies to negotiate meaning (e.g., ask for clarification, paraphrase, and use circumlocution).
To create effective interactions, teachers ideally also know when it is appropriate to talk about language and when it is appropriate to let learners use language, and how to balance fluency and accuracy work.

Monday, August 6, 2018

Feature of Articles

Education English | Feature of  Articles | Feature articles are nonfiction articles that intend to inform, teach or amuse the reader on a topic. The topic centers on human interests. Feature stories may include conventions found in fiction such as dialogue, plot and character. A feature article is an umbrella term that includes many literary structures: personality sketches, essays, how-to, interviews and many others. The following are examples of feature articles: (Jacobi, 1991: 50-77).
(1) Column: a short newspaper or magazine piece that deals specifically with a particular field of interest, or broadly with an issue or circumstance of farreaching scope. They appear with bylines on a regular basis (daily, weekly, etc.). They may be written exclusively for one newspaper or magazine, they may be marketed by a syndicate, or they may be self-syndicated by the author.
(2) Essay: a short, literary, nonfiction composition (usually prose), in which a writer develops a theme or expresses an idea.
(3) Evergreen: a timeless article that editors can hold for months and publish when needed. They need little or no updating.
(4) Exposé: these articles use in-depth reporting with heavy research and documentation. Used to expose corruption in business, politics or celebrities. Also called the investigative article.
(5) Filler: short non-fiction items, usually just fewer than 300 words, used to fill in small spaces on a page of a magazine or newspaper page.
(6) How-to: How-to articles help people to learn how to do something. They provide step-by-step information for the reader.
(7) Human interest story: an article that involves local people and events and can be sold to daily and some weekly newspapers. Human interest elements, such as anecdotes or accounts of personal experiences, can support ideas in magazine articles as firmly as facts or statistics. Also called "true-life" stories.
(8) Interview: this feature story type article includes the text of the conversation between two or more people, normally directed by the interviewer. Interviews are often edited for clarity. One common variation is the roundtable — the text of a less organized discussion, usually between three or more people.
(9) Op-Ed: articles that run opposite the editorial page. They are a response to current editorials and topical subjects. Political op-eds are the most common, but they don't have to be limited to politics. They should, however, reflect items that are current and newsworthy.
(10) Personal experience: an article in which the writer recounts an ordeal, process or event he has undergone.
(11) Personality Profile: a personal or professional portrait — sometimes both — of a particular individual.
(12) Seasonal: an article written about a holiday, a season of the year or a timely observance. This kind of article will be submitted months in advance of the anticipated publication date.
(13) Service Article: an article about a consumer product or service; it outlines the characteristics of several versions of the same type of commodity. The aim is
to help a potential purchaser to make the best selection possible.
(14) Sidebar: a short feature that accompanies a news story or magazine article. It elaborates on human interest aspects of the story, explains one important facet of the story in more depth or provides additional factual information — such as a list of names and addresses — that would read awkwardly in the body of the article. Can be found in a box, separated from the main article on the side or bottom of the page.
(15) Travel literature: Travel articles inform and enlighten the reader through facts about a region's landscape, scenery, people, customs and atmosphere.

Thursday, August 2, 2018

Factors that Influence Student's Perception

Education English | Factors that Influence Student's Perception | According to Steward and Sylvia (1996: 25) perception is influenced by experience as the internal factor and expectation as the external factor. Those factors will influence the students' perception about an object. In this case, the students' perception gather to know about the teaching speaking technique that is used by the lecturer.
1. Internal factor/experience
Experience as a general concept comprises knowledge of skill in observation of some event gained through involvement in exposure to event. It generally refers to know the way of procedure knowledge. Brown (1996: 33-34) said that experience is something that is happened during some moment of its existence, it includes the situation that occurred, the action done and also the results.
Therefore, experience is important to influence students' point of about an object because it is based on their experience it self.
2. Internal factor/expectation
People has their expectation as their wish because they have better changing to have better condition.
Zimbardo (1996: 432) explained that expectation is an opinion about the future of getting some people wished. It means that expectation is hope to have goal in the future that will be happened. Expectation also divided into 3 kinds: Perceptual expectation, motivational expectation and act expectation. Perceptual expectation is kind of expectation come from individual point of view and in is influenced by social condition in the environment. Then, motivational expectation is an expectation that is influenced by reward and punishment because it come from their personal motivation. Besides that, person try to have reward and avoid punishment from it. The last, act expectation is expression that his having relationship with the character of persons itself.

Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Teaching Media and Kinds of Teaching Media

Education English |  Teaching Media and Kinds of Teaching Media | A variety of technologies assume natural place language teaching, since language use is multi sensory experience. Some technologies permit us to see and hear language in cultural context as well as observe the impact on language meaning of things like real time, Word Street, and gestures.
Many developments in language teaching evolved from a growing awareness of the different media with which we can work. Individual teaching styles as well as methodological approach distinguish themselves in part by the media used for presentation of language, production of language, and monitoring of student output. (Price, cited in Rivers, 1987:155) Moreover, Price (cited in Rivers, 1987:155) states that we need the many technologies at our disposal to present language effectively in the context in which it occurs. We can present language and monitor our language in more than one medium. Changing the usual medium of presentation and feedback is an important key to interesting and creatively in teaching.

Kinds of Media
Chypher (in Cross and Chyper, 1961:125) divides media into four groups, they are:
1. Visual Aids
Visual aids are primarily those selected, controlled visual experience, which are presented to the learner for the purpose of providing him with a true and accurate visual picture such as a picture story book, a letter or a printed form as well as impression which in turn will be recalled at appropriate later times by the learner.
2. Audio Aids
Audio aids are devices that procedure sounds. The sounds contain of educational message. Audio education experience may be spoken words or they may be simply the characteristics of sounds or call, or noise, associated with a recallable previous experience, for example: radio, record, and cassettes.
3. Audio Visual Aids
This kind of media is as a combination of visual aids and audio aids. Both sounds and pictures must occur in audio-visual aids, for example: TV, film, Videotapes, VCD.
4. Three Dimensional Things
They are real things or limitation of the real things, for example: display, objects, and museums. Three dimensional things are the things which have already had a complex shape or structure representing or describing things like as it is real.

Wednesday, July 18, 2018

Elements of an Abstract

Education English | Elements of an Abstract | According to Kies (1995:1) abstracts are very common in academic writing, and they have a standard form. In essence, abstracts inform the reader of six bits of information about the piece of writing being summarized:
a. Purpose
- What is the author's reason for writing?
- What is the author's main idea?
b. Scope
- What is the author's focus in this piece?
- Where does the writer concentrate his/her attention?
c. Method
- What kinds of evidence does the author provide?
- How does the author try to convince the reader of the validity of his/her main idea?
d. Results
- What are the consequences of the problem or issue that the author is discussing?
e. Recommendations
- What solutions does the author present to the reader to resolve the problem of issue in the piece?
- Does the author recommend action or change in his/her piece?
f. Conclusions
- Does the author describe a cause and effect relationship or explain the origins of this issue or problem?
- What conclusions does the author draw from his/her study of the issue or problem?
In addition, Sitepu (2010:1) explains that an abstract should include some points such as the background (while Kies provides the purpose not the background), the problem, the method, the result, and the conclusion. The explanations of the points are:
a. The background stated about the situation or the condition which makes the problem need to discuss. The background should interest for the writer to discuss. The success of interest background will motivated the reader continuing read the abstract and want finished read all of the content of an article.
b. The problem stated the main point that is discussed or the problem that is wanted to answer in the next explanation. The problem should state in short, however, the content of article still in developed in some questions. Sometimes, the problem stated in one sentence.
c. The method that needs in the research methodology to answer the problem should stated the main point only, for example, it stated the population but it did not state about the sampling technique and the how many the sample. In stated the research methodology, it should state in short and descriptive.
d. The result contains the main of the answer of the question that got from the discussion. The result should not state in complete because it can motivate the reader to read and know more about the article.
e. The conclusion draws about what the writer got from the discussion. The conclusion should include a suggestion that has relation with the problem. 
The conclusion is also answer the problem that stated before.
Moreover, Weissberg and Buker (1990:1) explain that an abstract contains five elements. They are:
a. The background
Example: In order to reduce costs, Thompson Consulting needs to find an alternative material for a top-secret military jet engine.
b. The purpose
Example: Researchers tested aluminum alloy 6061, which is less expensive than the original zirconia alloy, to determine if it would be an acceptable replacement material.
c. Methodology
Example: Researchers conducted hardness and tensile strength tests on aluminum alloy 6061 samples that were heated and air-cooled, heated and water-cooled, and untreated.
d. The result
Example: The alloy met the requirements of minimum hardness (21,000 psi) and tensile strength (65 K) when subjected to temperature changes from 25ºC to 625ºC.
e. The conclusion
Example: These results suggest that aluminum alloy 6061 can replace the zirconia alloy in the jet engine. In line with statements above, Koopman (1997:1) says that an abstract should include some parts such as the motivation (the purposes to make a research), problem statement, the method, the result, and conclusion. Based on the statements above, the writer concluded that an abstract should include the background, the purpose, the problem, the scope, the method, the result, the conclusion, and the suggestion.

Friday, June 22, 2018

Teaching Speaking Technique

Education English | Teaching Speaking Technique | Nunan (2003: 77) stated that teaching speaking technique is the key to make effective using approach that used by the lecture or the teacher to produce the English speech sounds and sound pattern in meaningful and logical sequences. In the class, the student should create a classroom environment where the students have real life communication, authentic activities and meaningful task that promote oral language. The teaching speaking technique divided into three steps. The first is pre teaching activities, the lecturer should give activities in pair or group in the class because it is as warming up. Then in main teaching activities, try to have students centred in the class because students should be active. The last is post teaching speaking activities, the lecturer should give feedback for the students and correct the error of the students.
According to Kayi (2006: 4), there are four activities in teaching speaking technique, which can be employed to fulfil the teaching speaking
1. Games
Games are truly communicative in teaching speaking technique because it makes the student enjoy with the lesson and activities. Besides that the students will be more interesting to follow the lesson and make them speak naturally. Byrne (1995: 101-103) gave the definition to games as a form of play governed by rules. It means
that games are not the activities without planning before practising. Similarly, Hadfield (1990: 2) defined games as an activity with rules, a goal an element of fun. Therefore, the students should be enjoyed and fun in the classroom. Based on the definition above, it can conclude that games is a form of play concerning rules, competition, relaxation, and learning that make the students enjoy and give chance to have communication with the other.
According to Amato (1996: 192-199), games has many advantages; the ability to capture students’ attention, lower students’ stress, and give students the chance for real communication. That is way games are effective for English Foreign Language students to study English.
There are many factors to consider while discussing games, one of which is appropriate. Teachers should be very careful about choosing games if they want to make them profitable for the learning process. If games are to bring desired results, they must correspond to either the student's level, or age, or to the material that is to be introduced or practised.
In conclusion, Games are effective for learners but the teacher should consider the limitation of syllabus. It is important for the teacher to choose appropriate games based on the students language level, the purpose of the lesson.
2. Role-play
Role-play is very important because it can give the student an opportunity to practice speaking in different social context and in different social roles. According to Venugopal (1986: 41-48), role-play is an imaginary activity in a hypothetical situation and sometimes in a real one. Role-play involves a situation in which a setting, participants, and a goal problem are described. In role-play activities, the teacher gives information to the students as who they are and what they think or feel.
1. Simulation
Dougili (1987: 67) defined simulation as a structured set of circumstance that mirror real life and participants act as unstructured means that the reality of function is the key concept in simulation. Simulation are very important in teaching speaking as technique because it has many advantages, such as it entertaining and motivate the students.
Harmer (1984: 32) suggested that in simulation activities it has different role and do not speak for themselves, which means they do not have to take the same responsibility. In simulation, the student can bring items to the class to create a realistic environment.
2. Drama
Fernandez and Coil (1986: 18-21) said that drama is an activity that encourages exercising their sensitivity and imagination and thus making learning more realistic and meaningful. Drama can play an important role in the language classroom. Through imaginative role-playing, and voice and movement exercises, students can use drama as a basis for learning. They can express themselves, experiment with new ideas, respond to situations, develop understanding, concentrate, and gain confidence. Mordecai, (1985: 12-15) stated that drama activities provide opportunities to understand the thoughts and feeling of the students as they express themselves in drama activities because in drama the students can express themselves naturally.
As a pedagogical process, drama can provide the means for connecting students’ emotions and cognition. With drama as a teaching technique in the classroom, students’ own concerns, interests, and needs are recognized.
Using drama to teach English results in real communication involving ideas, emotions, feelings appropriateness and adaptability; in short an opportunity to use language in operation which is absent in a conventional language class. Finally. Drama can make the students more imaginative, creative and sensitive as becomes more self-confident in the process of learning English as foreign language.
3. Story telling
Storytelling is an act of sharing, often as important to the storyteller as to the listener. When people tell someone a good story they release their real language power. Storytelling can come from personal experience, from one's imagination, or from stories heard or read. It involves students by creating a link with peers, with the oral tradition, and with literature. It attunes students to their audience, to the power of language, and to narrative structure.
3. Small Group
There are a lot of different activities that could occur in small group, for example discussion, debate, and brainstorming.
1. Discussion
Discussions consist of a group of students exchanging information, opinions, or experiences and working toward a common goal or adding to common knowledge. Discussions are an effective means of helping students learn to express themselves in small groups or whole class settings. They are usually more structured than conversations.
Teachers need to be aware of the questions they ask during whole class discussion. The key to teacher-led discussion is the quality and kind of questions asked. In addition, teachers must listen carefully to students' responses.
2. Debate
According to Krieger (2005: 1), debate is a game in which two opposing teams make speeches to support their arguments and disagree with those of the other team. Debate is an excellent activity for language learning because it engages students in a variety of cognitive and linguistic ways.
So, Debating is a discussion of the arguments for and against something and can be either formal or informal; even two peoples can have debate
3. Brainstorming
Brainstorming is an activity used to generate ideas in small groups. The purpose is to generate as many ideas as possible within a specified time-period. The principle of brainstorming is that you need lots of ideas to get good ideas.
Brainstorming involves students gathering in groups to solve a problem or generate ideas. The good characteristic brainstorming is that the students are not characterized for their ideas. So, the students will be open to share new ideas
In conclusion, brainstorming is a very useful activity that can be easily introduced into language classes. In addition, it is a fun activity which students enjoy and well worth trying out in your own classes.
4. Drill
Drilling is a technique that has been used in foreign language classrooms for many years. It was a key feature of audio-lingual approaches to language teaching that placed emphasis on repeating structural patterns through oral practice. Tiger (2004: 3) said that drilling means listening to a model, provided by the teacher, or a tape or another student, and repeating what is heard.
Drill is often used to teach the dialogue. Students are asked to repeat the teachers’ model as accurately and as quick as possible.

Thursday, June 7, 2018

Factors That Influence The Acquisition of A Second or Foreign Language

Education English | Factors That Influence The Acquisition of A Second or Foreign Language  | According to Shoebottom (1996), some students learn a new language more quickly and easily than others. This simple fact is known by all who have themselves learned a second language or taught those who are using their second language in school. Clearly some language learners are succesfully by virtue of their sheer determination, hard work and persistence. However there are other crucial factors influecing success that are largerly beyond the control of the learner. Shoebottom (1996) categorized the factors as follows :
- Internal Factors
Internal factors are those that the individual language learner bring with him or her to the particular learning situation.
a) Age : Second language acquisition is influenced by the age of the learner.
b) Personality : Introverted or anxious learners usually make slower progress, particularly in the development of oral skills. They are less likely to take advantage of opportunities to speak, or to seek out such oppurtinities.
c) Motivation : Instrinsic motivation has been found to correlate strongly with educational achievement. Extrinsic motivation is also a significant factor.
d) Experiences : Learners who have acquired general knowledge and experience are in a stronger position to develop a new language than those who haven’t.
e) Cognition : In general it seems that students with greater cognitive abilities will make the faster progress. Some linguists believe that there is a specific, innate language learning ability that is stronger in some students than in others.f) Native language : Students who are learning a second language which is from the same language family as their first language have, in general a much easier task than those who aren’t.
- External Factors
External factors are those characterized the particular language learning situation.
a) Curriculum : For ESL students in particular it is important that the totality of their educational experience is approriate for their needs. Language learning is less likely to place if students are fully submersed into the mainstream program without any extra assistance or conversely not allowed to be part of the mainstream until they have reached level of language proficiency.
b) Instruction : Clearly, some language teachers are better than others at providing appropriate and effective learning experiences for the students in their classrooms. These students will make faster progress.
c) Culture and status : There is some evidence that the students where their own culture has a lower status than that of the culture in which they are learning the language make slower progress. Access to native speakers : the opportunity to interact with the native speakers both within and outside of the classroom is a significant advantage. Native speakers are linguistic models and can provide approriate feedback. Clearly, second language learners who have no extensive access to native speakers are likely to make slower progress, particularly in the oral/aural aspect of language acquisition
Source : http://esl.fis.edu

Wednesday, June 6, 2018

Nonverbal Communication

Education English | Nonverbal Communication | According to Brown D.H (1994) in nonverbal communication, British usually use hand, head, facial expression, eye contact and posture. Hand gestures, it can convey many things. For example, making a circle with the thumb and index finger means okay. When someone wants to show that he likes something, he will close his finger and hold up the thumbs of the right hand. Moving hand up and down means good bye or it also means hello. Head gestures, although not as much like hand gestures, it can convey the contents of the hearts, minds and emotions a person. For example, if someone wants to show his disagreement, he will shake his head ; shaking the head not only wants to show his disagreement but also to show “no.” Facial expressions, someone mood can be easily read through the visage or changes of facial expression. In general, people easily speak with their facial expression. For example, face become pale means afraid. When someone feels happy, she will smile. When someone angry, his face become red. Shifted face when talking means boring. When someone grumble, it means disagree. Eye contact, human eye easily moves swiftly with the contents of thoughts, feelings and emotions. Each eye movement must contain a certain meaning and has delivered something even if that person has not says anything. For example, when someone crying, it means he feels sad. Closed eyes means willingness or afraid. When someone contacts eyes directly to the speaker, it means he opened to you,. Raising eyes brows means surprise. Glancing means interest.
Posture, between words, tone and body language there is harmony. The brain as a central activity of reason must be related to the liver as the center of emotions and feelings. For example, raising a hand and closing to index fingers to the neck means that’s enough. When someone wants to ask something, she will raise her hand up. Pointing thumb in front means to stop the car. Raising the shoulders and opening two hands up means I do not know.
According to Tu'u (2007) in general, Indonesian people use body language using hand, head, facial expression, eye contact and posture. Hand gestures, it can convey many things. For example, when someone hit the table, it means he was angry. Someone puts his chin in his palm, it means he thinks hard. Moving hand up and down means good bye or disagreement.
Head gestures, although not as much like hand gestures, it can convey the contents of the hearts, minds and emotions a person. For example, someone hit on her head, it show her resentment. Shaking the head means no or to show a disagreement. When someone wants to express his agreement, we will blow the head slightly and quickly or it also means yes.
Facial expressions, someone mood can be easily read through the visage or changes of facial expression. In general, people easily speak with their facial expression. For example, when someone becomes angry, her face becomes a red. Smile means someone feels happy. When someone cry, it show that he feels sad. Open mouth means surprise.
Eye contact, human eye easily moves swiftly with the contents of thoughts, feelings and emotions. Each eye movement must contain a certain meaning and has delivered something even if that person has not says anything. For example, when someone feels wonder, her eyes will becomes a wide. Raising eye brows meanssurprise. When someone  interest to some topic, he will steady his eye contact. Closed eyes means afraid.
Posture, between words, tone and body language there is harmony. The brain as a central activity of reason must be related to the liver as the center of emotions and feelings. For example: someone who is angry tend to speak in high tones, it appears change facial features, and remarks that are also poorly controlled.
Nonverbal is very important in communication process, so it is carefully learnt. Because every country in the world has different culture and different gestures, and not all nonverbal communication are universal, so it will be a problem for someone to know the similarities in using nonverbal or gestures in communicatio process.
Today, many researches are concerned with the information sent by communication that is independent from verbal information; namely, the non-verbal communication. Verbal communication is organized by language; non-verbal communication is not used language but used body language.
Communication is the transfer of information from one person to another. Most of us spend about 75 percent of our waking hours communicating our knowledge, thoughts and ideas to others. However, most of us fail to realize that a great deal of our communication is of a non-verbal from as opposed to the oral and written forms.
Non-verbal communication includes facial expression, eye contact, tone of voice, body posture and motions, and positioning within groups. It may also include the way we wear our clothes or the silence we keep.
Good communication is the foundation of successful relationships, both personally and professionally. But we communicate with much more than words. In fact, research shows that the majority of our communication is nonverbal. Nonverbal communication, or body language, includes our facial expressions, gestures, eye contact, posture and even the tone of our voice. The ability to understand and use nonverbal communication is a powerful tool that will help you connect with others, express what you really mean, navigates challenging situations and build better relationship.
Nonverbal communication, or body language, is a vital from of communication. When we interact with others, we continuously give and receive countless wordless signals. All of our nonverbal All of our nonverbal behaviors—the gestures we make, the way we sit, how fast or how loud we talk, how close we stand, how much eye contact we make—send strong messages. The way you listen, look, move, and react tell the other person whether or not you care and how well you’re listening. The nonverbal signals you send either produce a sense of interest, trust, and desire for connection—or they generate disinterest, distrust, and confusion.
According to Samovar et al (1991), nonverbal communication involves those nonverbal stimuli in a communication setting that are generated by both the source (speaker) and his or her use of the environment and that have potential message value for the source or receiver (listener). Basically it is sending and receiving messages in a variety of ways without the use of verbal codes (words). It is both intentional and unintentional. Most speakers / listeners are not conscious of this. It includes — but is not limited to:
• Touch
• Glance
• Eye Contact (Gaze)
• Volume
• Vocal Nuance
• Proximity
• Gestures
• Facial Expression (Silence)
• Intonation
• Dress
• Posture
• Smell
• Word Choice and Syntax
• Sounds (Paralanguage)
In communication, verbal communication can not be separated with nonverbal communication. In speeches, for example, we have to used gestures, eyes contact, facial expressions and body language in other the listeners will be interested in our speaking and also to create the situation for not getting bored and communication will not be effective if we just speaking without using gestures, eyes contact, facial expressions and body language on the communication process and the most important things that communication will not happen, as there are disturbance of noise, lack ability, lack of ability in verbal communication and far distance. Nonverbal communication, which is nonlinguistic communication, has great influence in language communication and also helps people define the nature of each event of relationship with someone else. In the other words, it is as well as the spoken words.
education-english.com

Tuesday, May 8, 2018

Some Problems in Translation

Education English | Some Problems in Translation | English is a foreign language, so a translator will deal with some problems in translating of a short story, because it needs aesthetic of language. It is commonly believed that translation is really an art, because not everybody can do it well.
Moreover, the translator will deal some problems concerning with meaning such as : lexical meaning, grammatical meaning, contextual meaning and situational meaning, textual meaning and socio cultural meaning as well. He is aware that in doing translation, he will find that some material (text) can easily be translated into the target language (translatable).
The type of material also raise problems, it is not easy to translate. Maybe a translator will be successful in transferring the message, but how about the beauty of the language or the aesthetic. One language might be beautiful according to the native speaker, but if it is transferred into another language the beauty of language will not be the same. On the other hand, if the translator just focuses the beauty of the language, he ignores the message or the idea.
Therefore, before translating, first of all translator must be aware of intention of the text. The translator has to be faithful to the author and not to his own view. Secondly the translator must be aware of communicativeness of the text. Here, he must decide whether to keep the writer’s style the original or he makes a change slightly in order to be easily understood by a reader, finally, he must consider the degree of the formality of the language.
The difficulty arises also if we are trying to translate a short story. In this case, we have to stick at the very basic idea of translation that the most important thing in translation is the transfer of thought, idea, and the message. All of the language of course can express thought or message. This means that idea, thought or message in one language can be expressed in another language, although we will also get difficulty to translate in expression of the language. So the information got in the translated material is less complete than in its original text.

Monday, May 7, 2018

Definition of Translation

Education English | Definition of Translation | Some scholars have defined translation in various ways. However, the digest of each it just the same. The elements included are transferring, source language (SL), target language (TL), and equivalent. Nida and Taber (1982: 12) say that translating consists in reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalence of a source language message, firstly in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style. Will (1982: 112) says that translation is a procedure which leads from a written source language text to an optimally equivalent target language text and requires the syntactic, semantic, stylistic, and text pragmatic comprehension by the translator of the original text.
Larson (1984: 3) says that translation consists of translating the meaning of the source language into the receptor language. This is done by going from the form of the first language to the form of a second language by way of semantic structure. It is meaning which is being transferred and must be held constant. Only the forms change it. Malinowski (1965: 11-2) quoted by Tou (1999: 31) says that translation must always be the re-creation of the original into something profoundly different. On the other hand, it is never substitution of word but invariably the translation of whole contexts. Catford (1965: 20) states that translation may be defined as follows: the replacement of textual material in one language (SL) by equivalent textual material in another language (TL). Steiner (1994: 103) says that translation can be seen as (co) generation of texts under specific constraints that is relative stability of some situational factors and, therefore, register, and classically, change of language and (Context of) culture.

Thursday, April 26, 2018

Psychological Problems Faced By Students in Learning Speaking

Education English | Psychological Problems Faced By Students in Learning Speaking | According to Wade (2011) and Burns & Joyce in Nunan (1999) there are some factors that included in psychological factors that related with second language learning, among them are :

1) Lack of Motivation

Motivation is the power of someone who will achieve something. According to Nunan et al. (1996) motivation are inner psychological drives that impel people to action. Students who enter the classroom in order to learn English have various motivation. Some students have high motivation and other have lack of motivation. Babu (2010) argues that lack of motivation in learning causes students’ hesitation to speak in English in the classroom. He said the background of this situation is that the students are not motivated by the teachers towards the communication in English.

2) Anxiety
Anxiety, simply speaking is a kind of troubled feeling in the mind. It is a subjective feeling of tension apprehension, nerveousness and worry associated with an arousal of the automatic nerveous system ( Horwitz in Zhao na 2007). Anxiety has been regarded as one of the most important affective factors that influence second language acquisition (Zhao na, 2007 ). Sometimes extreme anxiety occurs when English foreign language learners become tongue-tied or lost for words in an unexpected situation, which often leads to discouragement and a general sense of failure (Shumin, 1997). Anxiety in speaking usually arises because of some reasons. Some students are afraid of making mistakes in one of the reason.

3) Self-confidence
Ebata (2008) stated that self-confidence is the most significant in language-learning. It provides learners with the motivation and energy to become positive about their own learning. It also creates the drive in them to acquire the targeted language, enjoy the learning process, and experience real communication. And Han (2010) argues that students lack of confidence in speaking English in their class will influence their speaking ability and aural comprehension. He and Chen (2003) state that main cause of students’ lack of confidence is their low ability in speaking English. In this case, they add many students think that their English is bad and feel that they can not speak English well.

4) Shyness
Shyness is one of the difficulites that every student faces while learning a new language and a factor that cause students reluctant to speak in English class (Yi Htwe, 2007). Most of students are merely silent in the classroom when a discussion is carried out. Some students prefer to keep silent when they attend to meeting for example.

5) Students’ fear of ridicule or laughter.
The condition class can cause the students do not to speak and even afraid of ridicule from the classmate. The students do not want to appear stupid in front of their peers ( Chastain, 1976) 

Sunday, April 8, 2018

The Nature of Fiction Translation

Education English | The Nature of Fiction Translation | Criticism divided literature into different categories : poetry, drama and prose fiction.(Yongfang Hu : 2000). Prose fiction presents a story that is invented and not literally true. Prose fiction is written to be read rather than acted or performed, and the events described are told us by a narrator, not enacted or dramatized (Watkins in Yongfang Hu : 2000).
Translation of fiction is more complicated than poetry and drama, because it is not only about bilingual but also bicultural and bi social transference. In translation fiction, the translator should change the social experience of individu in another culture. The difficulties also find by the translator of fiction to get the style of a novel/short story and the message of the author related to social life, human relationship, etc. The imitator (translator)must see to what he writes is similar, but not the very same (Hosein Vahid Dastjerdi, 2005). Here the translator should realize that even he tries to change the source text well, he can’t say that the result of translation will be same completely with the original.

Tuesday, March 27, 2018

Problems in Speaking |n the Classroom

Education English | Problems in Speaking | There are such problems activities in the classroom, according  Ur (1996) explained problems in speaking activities are :

1) Inhibition
Unlike reading, writing and listening activities, speaking requires some degree of real time exposure to an audience. Learners are often inhibited about trying to say things in a foreign language in the classroom :worried about making mistakes, fearful criticism or losing face, or simply shy of the attention that their speech attracts.

2) Nothing to say
Even if they are not inhibited, you often hear learners complain that they cannot think of anything to say: they have no motive to express themselves beyond the guilty feeling that they should be speaking.

3) Low or uneven participation
Only one participant can talk at a time if he or she is to be heard ; and in a large group this means that each one will have only very little talking time. This problems is compounded by the tendency of some learners to dominate, while other speakers very little or not at all.

4) Mother tongue use
In classes where all, or a number of, the learners share the same mother tongue, they may tend to use it : because it is easier, because it feels unnatural to speak to one another in a foreign language and because they feel less exposed if they are speaking their mother tongue. If they are talking in small groups it can be quite difficult to get some classes-particularly the less discplined or motivated ones-to keep to the target language.

Saturday, February 24, 2018

Principles in Silent Way

Education English | Principles in Silent Way | The main objective of a teacher using the Silent Way is to optimize the way students exchange their time for experience. This Gattegno considered being the basic principle behind all education: "Living a life is changing time into experience." (http://en.wikipedia.org)
According to Larsen, Diane (2002), Silent Way has many principles; It based on the answer of ten questions. First, “What are the goals of the teachers who use the Silent Way?” Students should be able to use for self expression (thought, perceptions, and feelings). In order do this; the teacher needs to develop the inner criteria for correctness.
Second, “What is the role of the teacher? What is the role of the students?” In this case, the teacher is a technician/an engineer, relying on what his students already know, able to give what help is necessary. On the other hand, the role of the students make use of they know. As Gattegno says; “No one can learn for us”, “To learn is our personal personality”, the teacher works with the students; the students works on the language.
Third, “What are some characteristics of the teaching and learning process?” The teacher set up situations that focus student attention on the structure of the language, use the students’ errors as evidence of where the language is unclear to the students and, hence, where to work.
Forth, “What is the nature of student-teacher interaction? What is the nature of student-student interaction?” In this point, the teacher is silent, but still very active setting up situation. Student-students verbal interaction can learn one another.
Fifth, “How are the feelings of the students dealt with?” It is hoped that a relaxed, enjoyable learning environment will be created.
Sixth, “How is language viewed? How is culture viewed?” Language of the world share a number of features, where as the culture as reflected in their own unique world view.
Seventh, “What areas of language are emphasized? What language skills are emphasized? The teacher starts with what the students know and builds from one structure to the next; it means the syllabus develops according to learning needs.
Eighth, “What is the role of the students’ native language?” Meaning is made clear by focusing the students’ perceptions not by translation.
Ninth, “How is evaluation accomplished?” Generally in this method, the teacher may never give a formal test but assess all the time, looks for steady progress, not perfection.
Tenth, “How does the teacher respond to students errors?” The teacher uses students’ errors as the basis for deciding where the further work is necessary. If the students are unable to self-correct and peers cannot help, the teacher would supply the correct language but only as the last (Larsen, Diane. 2002:64-68).

Sunday, February 4, 2018

Elements of an Article

Education English | Elements of an Article | The editor needs elements to make a good article in making of newspaper. Jacobi (1991: 90) classified the elements of an article that often used by many people such as:
a. Headline
A headline is text at the top of a newspaper article, indicating the nature of the article. The headline catches the attention of the reader and relates well to the topic. Modern headlines are typically written in an abbreviated style omitting many elements of a complete sentence but almost always including a non-copula verb.
b. Lead
The lead sentence captures the attention of the reader and sums up the focus of the story. The lead also establishes the subject, sets the tone and guides the reader into the article. In a news story, the introductory paragraph tells the most important facts and answers the questions: who, what, where, when, why, and how. In a feature story, the author may choose to open in any number of ways, including the following: an anecdote, a shocking or starting statement, a generalization, pure information, a description, a quote, a question and a comparison. A feature article will follow a format appropriate for its type. Structures for feature articles may include, but are not limited to:
(1) Chronological: the article may be a narrative of some sort.
(2) Cause and effect: the reasons and results of an event or process are examined.
(3) Classification: items in an article are grouped to help aid understanding
(4) Compare and contrast: two or more items are examined side-by-side to see their similarities and differences
(5) List: a simple item-by-item run-down of pieces of information.
(6) Question and answer: such as an interview with a celebrity or expert.
c. Body
The body for these articles includes:
(1) The news story, details and elaboration are evident in the body of the news story and flow smoothly from the lead.
(2) Quotes are used to add interest and support to the story.
(3) The inverted pyramid is used with most news stories.
d. Conclusion
One difference between a news story and a feature article is the conclusion. Endings for a hard news article occur when all of the information has been presented according to the inverted pyramid form. By contrast, the feature article needs more definite closure. The conclusions for these articles may include, but are not limited to: a final quote, a descriptive scene, a play on the title or lead and a summary statement.
education-english.com