Improving Speaking Skills Through Information Gap Activity

Citation : Afrizal,M (2015). Improving Speaking Skills Through Information Gap Activity, English Education Journal,p.342-355.
Murray, Harold., and Bollinger, Deborah. (2011). Developing Cross Cultural Awareness: Learning Through The Experiences of Others, Tesl Canadian Journal,19:82-93.
In this paper, it is clearly stated that this research was conducted based on preliminary study on the causes of problems related to the students‟ inability to speak English. By using Information Gap Technique, the researcher desires to improve students speaking skill. This research is conducted in Classroom Action Research (CAR) to answer the research problem. The research was done at Almuslim University at Matang Glumpang Dua in Bireuen District, Aceh.There are three cycles following the procedures for action research, namely planning, implementing, observing and reflecting. In collecting data the researcher used instruments of observations, lists, tests and questionnaires. The researcher acted as the practitioner who taught the students with IGT to practice speaking English. To collect data, the researcher used instruments of observations, lists, tests and questionnaires. The data obtained was presented in two ways, qualitatively and quantitatively. In Finding and Discussion it is clearly showed that IGT activities were effective in improving the speaking abilities of the student in class. This can be seen from the improvements after each cycle. This can be seen by the improvement in the students‟ mean scores in the test results: 58.8 in the first cycle, 68 in the second cycle and 81.3 in the third cycle. Improvement was also seen based on the results from the observations that showed positivity, and good responses from the students. From the questionnaire results, it was found that the mean score for the students‟ perception was 3,616. This means that the students responded positively to the implementation of this technique.

Developing Cross Cultural Awareness: Learning Through The Experiences of Others

Citation: Murray, Harold., and Bollinger, Deborah. (2011). Developing Cross Cultural Awareness: Learning Through The Experiences of Others, Tesl Canadian Journal,19:82-93.
Cross-Cultural Understanding has been defined for teacher in a broad senses “the understanding and appreciation of different values and behaviors as they are experienced in different cultures and through different languages”. For the purposes of course development, this notion can be broken down into three components: an understanding of what culture is; how cultures differ in terms of their members' beliefs, values, and behavior; and how these differences influence communication. Somehow, it is difficult in addressing these issues in classroom, since students have never been going to another country which has another culture.  This article offers some communicative activity in order to enhance cross cultural awareness of Japanese university students whose language levels range from beginner to intermediate. The first activity is E-Mai Exchanges. This activity involves students to exchange e-mail with their foreign friends so students will know about other cultures, and motivate them to communicate in English. The second activity is “Guest Speaker Interviews” which provides an opportunity for students to hear firsthand about the experience of traveling overseas and serves to heighten their awareness of what it is like to live abroad. The third activity is “Video Project” which the students can share the general goals of improving their oral English proficiency, increasing their knowledge of other cultures, and learning to communicate more effectively with people from other cultures. These activities are successful in developing cross-cultural awareness. It can be seen from the students’ response towards these activities such as "I learned the differences between Japanese and foreign country about way of thinking, conversational-style, sense of values, and so on." Or "I feel this project was most interesting in this class because we can do interviews to use English and know many communication differences directly."

THE ROLE OF SOCIETY TRANSLATORSHIP IN CROSS-CULTURAL INTERACTION

Citation : Dogan,C (2016). The Role Of Society Translatorship in Cross-Cultural Interaction. European Journal of Foreign Language Teaching.

As we can see in this era, living of different culture together is caused by globalization and mass migration, since immigrants take their own culture when they arrive in certain country. It is expected that people with different culture in certain country can live in harmony and accept the differences between them. Because of the expectation, it is clear that society translators who know the culture of societies are needed, in order to build multicultural and tolerant society. Society translators need to be trained not only on target language but also on target culture. In addition, the need of society translator is important since the differences of cultures can occur the conflicts in the process of intercultural interaction. It is possible to emerge conflicts between the societies from different cultures who live together. The differences in perceptions and interpretations will affect negatively multicultural nature. At this point, “Community Interpreters” as social compromisers who know both cultures well should be employed. Community Interpreters who understand other cultures best. Community Interpreters are experts with equipment to support different cultural interactions. Community Interpreters should be supported for the reasons that it maintains nations in peace and maintaining permanency. The understanding of modern state has brought the life chance to different cultures. Community Interpreters should obey these principles for national and social responsibilities. These are important for the people or communities’ rights and freedoms. The most accurate way to serve the community and individuals in need of an interpreter or intercultural communication is necessary to satisfy the masses in terms of ensuring effective manner.

Guided Writing to Improve the Students’ Writing

Citation : Ningsih, Suma (2016) “Guided Writing to Improve the Students’ Writing Ability of Junior High School Students”, EFL Journal, p.129-140

In this article, it is clearly mentioned that this is a classroom action research which aimed at improving the students’ writing ability of madrasah students at MTs Alumuna Samarinda.The research was set for the second grade students of MTs Alumuna Samarinda who has a problem in English, especially in writing skill. To overcome the problems of writing, it should be implemented more appropriate teaching techniques to teach writing to the junior high school students. One of the techniques is guided writing. Juriah (2015) states that guided writing is an individual or group activity where learners use word maps to organize their ideas and write texts. A word map is a diagram used in guided writing to help writers organize their ideas. Hartanti (2011) explains that guided writing allows a teacher to work closely with a  The instruments of the research are observation in order to record the data and writing test which is applied in the end of cycle. There were two cycles in this study. Each cycle consisted of three meetings for the implementation of guided writing and one meeting for conducting test. The data, then, were analyzed descriptively and statistically. The data taken from observation was analyzed descriptively. Meanwhile, the data from writing test was counted statistically to determine the mean score. It was found that in preliminary study, there were 14 students (50%) who achieved minimum passing grade and there were 14 students (50%) of the students who did not pass the minimum passing grade, the highest score was 80 and the lowest score was 50. In Cycle 1, there were 18 students (64%) who achieved minimum passing grade and there were 10 students (36%) of the students who did not pass the minimum passing grade, the highest score was 80 and the lowest score was 55. This cycle was not successful because it did not reach the criteria of success, 70. In Cycle 2, there were 22 students (79%) who achieved minimum passing grade and there were 6 students (21%) of the students who did not pass the minimum passing grade, the highest score was 90 and the lowest score was 60. This cycle was successful because it reached the criteria of success.

table manner

Citation : Zhang, Xiaochi (2013): “Talking About Cultural Influence on Table Manner from Intercultural Adaption – A Case Study of My Canadian Friend’s Story”, International Journal of Arts and Commerce

In this article, it is explained that people need to eat in order to survive. But when people eat, it is clearly that they are adapting their culture. It means that what people eat, when they eat, and the manners in which they eat are all patterned by culture (Xu, 2012,43p). Therefore, when people enter a new country, they must adapt the new culture or the new country including a new living patterns and environment. In this way, the foreigner may have good intercultural communication with native people and finally merge into a new culture and a new social living environment. In short, a foreigner should know some basic knowledge about local cultural customs especially including table manner. Because table manners are not just an important social communicative form, but also an important symbol which represents the local culture and cultural customs. Table manner seems like simple customs on the surface but there are sure to be a big problem in intercultural adaptation. Table manners also can even affect his or her success both in intercultural adaptation and professional careers. Therefore, any person cannot ignore learning any table manners from a new culture before entering a new country. Any person should know that table manners are an integral part of the specific culture and learn some fundamental knowledge and skills about table manners. In this way, people will not only master table manners but also gradually understand the culture. It will be of benefit to improve any individual’s intercultural adaptation ability. As a result, culture does not present an abstract concept or a sign and also puts down roots in our daily life. And culture permeates any customs just like table manners. Hence, any foreigner who wants to learn and know a new culture should start learning cultural customs like table manners from the very beginning. Only can anyone adopt an active and respectful attitude towards a new culture and its table manners when he or she communicate with others from another culture.

improving speaking skills by using games

Citation : Dewi, Ratna Sari; Kultsum, Ummi; Armadi,Ari (2016) : “Using Communicative Games in Improving Students’ Speaking Skills”, Canadian Center of Science and Education,p.63-71

 

Speaking in English is very important since English is acceptable in almost every country. However, in several Asian countries, English is taught as foreign Language. Somehow Asian learners are afraid in making mistake and being laughed by their classmates when they try to speak in English. According to Harmer when the teachers want to encourage students to speak, they have to use communicative approach that avoids the concentration towards grammar and vocabulary but emphasizes on the significance of language function (Harmer, 2001). In other words, these activities will involve students in real communication, where the achievement of their communicative task is more important than the accuracy of language they are using. Therefore, the researcher will use Communicative Games in order to improve students’ speaking ability. It is expected to improve students’ motivation and enthusiasm. The researcher use classroom action research in doing this research. The research was taken place at Junior High School of 6 South Tangerang, Jakarta, Indonesia. There are 2 cycles in this research in which it is done by the researcher and the English Teacher who acted as not only an observer but also taking actions by making lesson plan and giving assessment. In collecting the data, the instruments were interview, observation, questionnaire and test. In the preliminary study, the mean score of students on speaking before the research was 60.42. The class percentages which pass the minimum criterion were 13.9%. It means there were only 5 students who could pass the minimum score of 75. The mean score of post test 1 at the first circle was 69.02. The class percentages were 41.7%. It means 15 students who could pass the minimum score. The mean score in the post test 2 at the second circle was 78.77. The class percentages were 83.33%. It means there were 30 who passed the minimum score. This means that the communicative game is success in improving students’ speaking skill. Clearly, It gives positive improvement on students’ active participation, confidence and their fluency in speaking skill. In short it can be described that the strategy of teaching and learning creates good, enjoyable circumstances and reduces the boredom and stress of learning process.

The University's role in promoting social awareness

Citation : Mufdi, Mallaouh (2014): “The University’s Role in Promoting its Students’ Social
Awareness from the Students’ Perspective at Balqa Applied University”, International Journal of Education,p.71-92

In this article, the researcher purposed to investigate the University’s role in promoting social awareness from students’ point of views. Furthermore this study is aimed to identify the impact of some demographic variables as gender, type of college, and the academic year on this role. In holding this research, the researcher presented a conceptual frame about the students social awareness and the university’s role in this awareness, and applied a field study on Al-Balqa Applied University’s students in three colleges that represented Jordan’s three provinces. The questionnaire consisted of 37 items was distributed into three fields, and applied after checking its acceptable degree of reliability and validity. The questionnaire consisted of two parts, the first one includes the tool, its goal, and information about the respondents. By using the appropriate statistical test, the data was analyzed.

Based on the result, it revealed that the university’s role in promoting the students’ social awareness was high in the field of the academic staff’s role, while it was moderate in the fields of the university and curriculum, and methods of teaching plus evaluation’s roles, and in the total degree of the instrument as well. There were also no statistically
significant differences attributed to the gender and faculty’s variables, whereas the academic
year variable was statistically significant, and the differences were in favor of the freshmen
students in the field of university administration, and the fourth year students in the field of
academic staff’s role. Based on this result, it is needed to reconsider the roles of university, curriculum, and methods of teaching and evaluation in promoting the social awareness by preparing programs which promote the social awareness, and to design university courses that enrich the students; humanistic knowledge in different fields that suits their social status. It is also needed to conduct further studies that addressed social awareness of other categories in the Jordanian society with other variables.