LLT Journal: A Journal on Language and Language Teaching

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Authors: Yune Andryani Pinem

Imperative Mood (IM) for Javanese is strongly related to social status determining language choice. Triglossia of Ngoko, Madya and Krama are pictured in language use as well as prosodic features of pitch contour. To look at how English IM transfers to Javanese is the purpose of this research as well as how this process influences variant of pitch contours produced by Javanese speaker. This is a comparative study highlighting difference and similarity visualized by Javanese and English pitch contours with similar semantic meaning to be analyzed in pragmatics stylistic framework. Imperative to Command (IC) cannot take place in Bottom-Up situation in Javanese for social reason which puts Imperative to Request (IR) and Imperative to Invite (II) as substitutions. Using sound production of Javanese from Jogja and Solo on English and Javanese imperative, intonation pattern from both languages is analyzed using PRAAT and described in pitch range. Findings of this research display cultural background of Javanese in IM which may be useful for English pronunciation class.

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Authors: Iwan Syahril

In this paper I argue that ESL/EFL teacher education programs should be the leading agents of change in transforming a nation. With its emphasis on English mastery, an ESL/EFL teacher education program generally produce teachers with sufficient English to comprehend development/global issues such as climate change, poverty, or inequality. The emphasis on the mastery of English as the international language will make pre-service teachers relatively better able to understand and produce multimodal English texts around those development/global issues compared to pre-service teachers from other subjects. Building on the earlier work such as in Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) and content area literacy, ESL/EFL teacher education can realize this vision with an innovative idea: an interdisciplinary teacher education program. In this program, I envision that an ESL/EFL pre-service teacher education program collaborates with other subject area teacher education programs (e.g., social studies, science) working on an overreaching theme, such as sustainable development, or others. Pre-service teachers learn the learning outcomes of subject areas not in isolation but in an integrated manner. They learn inter-(disciplinary) content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge around global issues and universal values. Arguably, this kind of program will create teachers who can think critically, systemically and creatively, using a multi-perspective approach that recognizes the different dimensions, perspectives and angles of issues. At the same time, this kind of program can produce teachers with key non-cognitive skills such as empathy, communication skills and aptitudes for interacting and collaborating with people of different backgrounds, origins, cultures and perspectives. Indeed, this is a proposal for a new generation of (language) teachers, the ones who can teach 21st century skills (e.g., critical thinking, communication, collaboration, creativity) with innovative forms of teaching (e.g., project-based learning, problem-based learning, inquiry-based learning, theme-based learning) around authentic problems with a multi-perspective approach. Indeed, for a developing nation, such as Indonesia, having quality teachers who can think and teach in an interdisciplinary manner can be very strategic not only in improving and transforming its education but also for accelerating its social and economic development.

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Authors: Ema Wilianti Dewi, Joko Nurkamto, Nur Arifah Drajati

This study aims to explore the practice of peer-assessment in academic writing. The current researchers find it urgent to investigate academic writing because it has rigid rules that can sharpen writers' critical thinking. The products of academic writing need to be assessed. Peer-assessment is one of alternatives used to assess students’ learning outcomes and monitor students’ progress in the class. This research is a case study. Data were collected from the first semester students, who joined an academic writing class, of the graduate program of a university in Surakarta. The findings show that peer assessment practice can be effective as one of the assessment tools to measure students' writing in the academic writing class.

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Authors: Behnam Aghayani, Elmira Hajmohammadi

The present study sought to investigate the effect of project-based learning on EFL learners’ writing skill. To reach this goal, from the population of 70 EFL learners taking EFL courses at a language institute in Iran, two homogenous groups, consisting of 28 males, were selected based on the random sampling method. While the control group with 14 learners was taught through traditional method, the experimental group consisting of 14 learners received instruction using project-based learning designed by Maftoon, Birjandi, and Ahmadi (2013). A pre-test was administered to both groups prior to the treatment. Then, after the treatment, which was lasted for ten sessions and held during two months, the learners in both group were required to write on the new topic in which it was regarded as the writing post-test. The analysis of the obtained data revealed that project-based learning had significant effect on the learners’ writing ability. Moreover, the findings showed that project-based learning approach does aid learners to enhance and promote their writing ability in a collaborative environment.

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Authors: Averina Purnomo, Ignasia Yuyun

This study explored the learners’ perception on the use of direct transmission and scaffolding in the EFL classroom through a semi-structured interview. In this study, the constructivist view was narrowed to scaffolding. The method used by the higher education in Indonesia was still dominated by the situation where the lecturer acted as the knowledge provider. However, some lecturers have let go of the control in the classroom and give the opportunity for the learners to explore more. In this situation, the lecturers’ job is to assist the students and provide help (scaffold) if it is necessary. This study also employed a pre-test and post-test as a part of triangulation data to see the result from another perspective. The findings showed that the learners claimed in understanding and remembering the lesson more in scaffolding. However, the test showed that the learner’s score improved more in direct transmission.

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Authors: Ali Albashir Mohammed Alhaj, Mesfer Ahmed Mesfer Alwadai, Mohammed Hamed Albuhairi

The current study aims to evaluate Saudi EFL Secondary School students' performance on Paul Nation's Standardized vocabulary level tests. It also aims to examine the vocabulary size of EFL Saudi Secondary School students at Asir district. Two tools were used for collecting data. The first one was Paul Nation's Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT). The second tool was a questionnaire (TVLSQ) with 13 items. The purposive sample consisted of (80) students besides (20) English teachers. The study sample was selected from Abha secondary schools schools/Saudi Arabia. The study came out with the following results: Saudi EFL Secondary school students' vocabulary size word test falls within 1,000 frequency level, indicating that students are unable to gasp an average text. Saudi EFL Secondary School student who obtained higher marks in 1,000 word level also obtained higher marks in 2,000 –word level and vice versa. These results confirmed the high correlation between the two tests which hits 0.76. Moreover, in Paul Nation's Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT) the more words Saudi EFL Secondary school student knows, the better score his/her four skills. To most secondary school teachers as well as students, English grammar is the main focus on their teaching and learning, not the vocabulary.