Using Educational Social Network in Teaching English for EFL Students

The Current Issues towards the Use of ICT in English Language Teaching:

Using Educational Social Network in Teaching English for EFL Students

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INTRODUCTION

Nowadays, the use of Information and Computer Technology (ICT) is not a new thing anymore to people. People are already getting accustomed to use ICT in their daily life through their gadget and activities. The use of ICT could not be separated from people’s activities especially for students. Almost all students have their own gadgets. They use it for getting new information and knowing what happened outside their environment. They can access the information throughout the internet wherever they are, as long as their gadgets are connected to the internet signal.

Considering those facts above, the writer can say that there are some things appear in students’ daily life related to the use of ICT. The application of ICT in students’ daily activity can show their motivation and their attitude in sing it. Thus, this paper assignment will further talk and explain about the issues appear to students. Additionally, this paper assignment will also proposed some conclusion remarks based on the facts appeared in the field.

As we know that students differ in their motivation towards learning English and they display many different attitudes towards learning a language. A student that has negative attitudes towards learning English could be changed and turn those negative attitudes into positive ones and get a positive result. This will be further discussed below.

The fact that we can find at school is that the teacher sometimes cannot create a good media to overcome the situation above. As we know that computer-assisted language learning (CALL) allows the combination of different online resources through multiple hyperlinks, a feature common to most online searches and many offline utility. With the expansion of CALL, more questions have been raised. Issues of learning style, motivation, attitude, personality and some other factors have come to the fore with the use of computers. Students who see CALL as an important part of the course also have a high level of motivation and attitude in learning English.

In the learning process, students will show different attitudes and it will be different between one and each other. Computer-assisted language learning (CALL) can affect the students’ attitude in learning process. All the students agree that they are proficient in computers and they are integrated with them. This can be seen through the use of students’ gadget in their daily life. This statement is supported by the study conducted by Önsoy (2004) who also confirmed that there were differences between the learning process that using computer-assisted language learning (CALL) and the one that do not. In his thesis, he stated that students and teachers demonstrated positive attitudes towards the use of computers in daily tasks and in language instruction. However, the findings showed that there were statistically significant differences among the perceptions of students in terms of their levels. The findings also indicated that students and teachers believed that training was required and they believed that they needed training to learn and teach with computers.

ICT In Language Teaching (Some Questions and Answers)

 

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1. Explain the benefits of information and communication technology (ICT) in education? 

Answer: 

(1) developing technology provides a tremendous opportunity to develop education management and learning processes in schools, (2) specific student learning outcomes can be identified by the use of new technologies, and (3) ICT has tremendous potential to transform entire aspects of education in schools and use them to achieve learning goals.

2.  Describe the main obstacles faced in implementing ICT in schools? 

Answer: 

(1) The budget for early care of facilities are not available, (2) Training is usually too specific and not related to the needs in the field or a change of attitude, (3) unavailability of employees for routine maintenance and development, (4) the unavailability of qualified tecknisians and too expensive, (5) The material that is suitable for teaching is not available, and (6) poor working conditions of teachers in the field dictates that they can not devote time to develop teaching materials creatively.

3. Definition of ICT? 

Answer: 

Tinio defines ICT as a set of tools that are used to communicate and create, disseminate, store, and manage information.  including computers, Internet, broadcasting technologies (radio and television), and telephone. UNESCO (2004) defines that ICT is the technology used to communicate and create, manage and distribute information. General definition of ICT is a computer, internet, telephone, television, radio, and audiovisual equipment. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) includes two aspects, namely Information and Communications Technology. Information technology encompasses all matters relating to process, use as a tool, manipulation, and management information. Communication technology covers all matters relating to the use of tools to process and transfer data from one device to another.

4.  Explain the stages of ICT development program by the Plan of National Education Strategic fin the year 2005-2009?

 Answer: 

1) The first stage consists of (a) designing a network system that includes the Internet network, which connects schools with data centers and applications, besides that networks and the Internet as a means of communication and information media in schools, (b) to design and create the application of database, ( c) to design and create applications of education management in central, regional, and school (d) to design and create learning applications based Web, multimedia, and interactive.

2) The second phase includes (a) to implement the system at schools in Indonesia that covers the procurement of ICT facilities, infrastructure and training for technicians and teachers (b) to design and create learning applications.

3) The third and fourth stage is the stage of expanding the system implementation in schools.

5. Explain the role of ICT in School Management System?

Answer: 

application of ICT are very necessary in implementating of school management to be  more effective and efficient. Ruud (2005) pointed out that investment in ICT in schools which is then followed by the development of teacher and student competence in the field of ICT to improve the effectiveness of school management and improve performance of academic staff and students. This is understandable because the application of ICT in schools will directly contribute to improve management and administration processes, the opportunity to develop teaching materials and independent learning, a motivator for students to develop their capabilities, and as a tool to develop profession and innovation mechanisms in monitoring and evaluating the processes and learning outcomes.

6. Explain the benefits of ICT in School Management? 

Answer: 

Benefits of ICT in School Management include: 

- Benefits for Government: (a) help to prepare accurate databases and efficient information about the profiles and maps of education in Indonesia, (b) accelerate equitable distribution of national standards of educational attainment, (c) help to control educational process.

- Benefits for Schools: (a) help to improve school management and operational systems, (b) assist the school in terms of distributing information about the school profile and student learning outcomes to parents and other stakeholders, (c) assist the school to provide a source of currency and relevance information for teachers and students.

- Benefits for Teachers: (a) open the opportunity for teachers to develop ICT-based teaching materials, interesting, innovative and stimulating the curiosity of students, (b) help teachers to prepare lesson plans including the provision of a comprehensive multimedia learning resources and cutting-edge, (c) allow teachers to monitor students' progress, (d) facilitating teachers to prepare reports and communicate with parents, (e) help teachers to assess learning outcomes based on authentic assessment.

- Benefits for parents: (a) monitor the activities and their children in school, (b) view of school assignments given to children so parents can participate in children's learning activities, (c) look at various school programs which can be followed by students, (d) interactive media among schools, teachers and parents, and (e) help to control educational process directly. 

- The benefits for students: (a) help students to use ICT skillfully in their lives, (b) helping students to see and examine learning materials per meeting, (c) help students to work on assignments and exams given online by the teacher , (d) help students to develop collaborative work, (e) motivate students to develop knowledge and skills related to the developing of science and technology. 

- The benefits for theschool committee: (a) facilitate the committee to monitor and evaluate educational programs in schools, (b) facilitate the committee to communicate with educators about education in schools, (c), facilitate the committee to be involved in drafting and designing school management program and improve the quality of learning.

7. Explain Matters to be considered by teachers in using compiuter / laptop in teaching? 

Answer: 

a. If you had never used computers in teaching, talk with students about it. Try to find out who among them has ever used it and who has not, how their feelings and attitudes. You also have to try to share experiences with them.

b. To familiarize and give students experience with computers, have students to work at computers in pairs. Through this pair work, try to make the less experienced students work with a more experienced.

c. For each new activity at computer, ask them to work in pairs so that they can help each other. 

d. Consider how to obtain materials for your students.

e. Consider how you use these materials for computer activities. In accordance with the level of students' computer skills, you can assign a particular treat with different learning levels in different groups of students.

The Use of Digital Stories for Listening Comprehension (Article Review)

 

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The Use of Digital Stories for Listening Comprehension among Primary Chinese Medium School Pupils: Some Preliminary Findings

Authors:

Shanti C. Sandaran

Language Academy, University Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia

Lim Chia Kia

Faculty of Education, University Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia

Original paper can be accessed here: https://sainshumanika.utm.my/index.php/sainshumanika/article/view/107

Background and Objectives of Research

The emergence of digital storytelling has inspired many teachers and instructors in both schools and courses to develop the teaching materials. Digital storytelling has emerged over the last few years as a powerful teaching and learning tool that engages both teachers and their students. However, until recently, little attention has been paid to a theoretical framework that could be employed to increase the effectiveness of technology as a tool in a classroom environment. A discussion of the history of digital storytelling and how it is being used educationally is presented in this article. The theoretical framework, technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK), is described, along with a discussion of how this model might be used with digital storytelling.

Digital storytelling is a technology application that is well-positioned to take advantage of user-contributed content and to help teachers overcome some of the obstacles to productively using technology in their classrooms. At its core, digital storytelling allows computer users to become creative storytellers through the traditional processes of selecting a topic, conducting some research, writing a script, and developing an interesting story. This material is then combined with various types of multimedia, including computer-based graphics, recorded audio, computer-generated text, video clips, and music so that it can be played on a computer, uploaded on a web site, or burned on a DVD.

Procedure and Analysis of Research

This article reports on preliminary findings based on observations and comprehension exercises during an on-going study on the use of digital stories for listening comprehension among Primary Year 3 students in a Chinese medium school. The preliminary findings would inform the main study that looks at them effectiveness of digital stories for listening comprehension. 30 primary Year 3 students (aged 9) were involved in the listening/viewing of 8 animations of fairy tales over a period of 8 weeks. The findings based on the observations revealed that the students displayed high levels of interest, attention and motivation. The students also showed interest in fairy tales. The results from the comprehension exercises showed some level of improvement in their comprehension of the stories. Finally, it was also noted that pre-teaching vocabulary is essential to ensure the success of digital stories in improving students’ listening comprehension. The findings indicate the potential of digital stories in increasing the level of motivation, interest, and attention in ESL/EFL learning. 

Result and Findings

The findings in this section are based on initial observations by the researcher/teacher on the students’ attitude, behaviour and motivation towards the use of the digital stories, i.e. the animated fairy tales. The results from the listening comprehension exercise (MCQ’s) are also discussed. It was found that students displayed high levels of interest, attention and motivation. There were some differences in focus between female and male students. The students also showed interest in fairy tales and to the type of animations used as main characters in the stories. It was also noted that pre-teaching vocabulary is essential for the effective use of digital stories. Finally, the results from the MCQ’s (worksheet) showed a slight improvement in their comprehension of the stories.

Additionally, if teacher in the classroom can start to apply digital storytelling as their media in teaching English, it will be a good variety in teaching English and can be a good media to engage students with the teaching material that teacher give to them. Besides, students nowadays are used to use technology, in this case computer, as media to learn something. This will help them to apply digital storytelling media of English teaching and learning.

Foreign Language Teaching using ICT

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Introduction

There has been much debate over the use of computers and the Internet in Foreign Language Teaching over the past few years. The techniques offered, the activities and the degree of application in the language teaching syllabus have undergone a number of serious changes alongside the evolution of technology. The computer itself has evolved from the status of “tutor” to the one of “tool”.

The computer as a tool stage refers to the usage of computers as vehicles for delivering instructional materials to learners (through drill and practice). The development of computer based activities developed learner computer and learner interaction, engaging the learners in a wide range of communicative tasks. This was the moment computers assumed the role of stimuli in language learning. “The computer as a tool stage” refers to using computers as instruments for understanding and using language through spelling and grammar checkers, desktop editing programs. All these steps belong to CALL (Computer assisted language learning).

The methodology of language learning has developed a new way of using ICT in teaching, the Hypermedia. Hypermedia provides the language teacher and the language learner with multimedia resources, such as texts, graphics, sound, animation, video linked together. It also has a number of advantages omitted by CALL. It offers an authentic learning environment, it combines listening with seeing. Skills can easily be integrated in the teaching/learning process; reading, writing, speaking, listening can be combined in task- based learning.

ICT in Foreign Language Teaching 

The application of ICT gives more opportunities for communication between peer learners: they can exchange information in real time, they can participate in blog discussions, work in teams on different projects, exchange emails, search for information, etc. By using the authentic material provided by the Internet, we will have a better insight into the culture of the country and people whose language we study.

The Internet also offers a wide variety of reference materials like online dictionaries, encyclopedias and search mechanisms very helpful for developing students` individual work. They can find, alone, the missing information, the meaning of new words, synonyms, antonyms or can communicate with the rest of the group online, via e-mail or in any other ICT environment.

In a language classroom the computer may have the following roles:

•  Teacher – it teaches students new language;

•  Tester - it tests students on the already learned structures;

•  Tool – it assists students to do certain tasks;

•  Data source – it provides students with the information they need to solve different tasks;

•  Communication facilitator – it allows students to communicate with 

   others.

1) Computer as a Teacher

In the early years of CALL in schools some reluctant teachers made assumptions that in a few years teachers would no longer be needed in schools, their role being taken over by computers. It is not the case, as we can very well see. Computerized teaching (computer as a teacher) uses multimedia CD ROMS. In such programs, students can listen to recordings, watch videos, speak into the microphone, record their progress or learn words by clicking on pictures and hearing their pronunciation. An alternative to CD ROMS is the World Wide Web. Students can practice all their skills there and it is more useful for the teacher than the CD ROM because teachers can intervene with their own ideas or materials.

2) Computer as a Tester

Students can practice their knowledge of a specific language using different Internet websites. A problem these sites have is the fact that the practice programs are very limited in terms of practice materials. Basically, the practice material refers to multiple choice exercises, dual choice exercises, true or false. The only answer the computer can give is Right or Wrong.

Despite these limitations computer grammar or vocabulary practice is enjoyed by students because the latter feel like playing and get the feedback without fearing the teacher’s criticism. They can also work in groups, sitting at the same computer and discussing the answers.

MODUL TOEFL UNTUK PELATIHAN DAN TRY-OUT TOEFL BERBASIS TMS (TOEFL MODUL STRATEGY) BAGI DOSEN TMT 2019 POLITEKNIK NEGERI AMBON UNTUK MENEMBUS SERTIFIKASI DOSEN

Dewasa ini, penggunaan bahasa Inggris sebagai bahasa global sangat dibutuhkan sebagai sebuah kewajiban baik didunia pendidikan maupun didunia kerja. Di dalam jenjang pendidikan dasar dan menengah, bahasa Inggris dimasukan kedalam kurikulum pembelajaran, sedangkan pada jenjang perguruan tinggi, bahasa Inggris harus diambil pada semester tertentu sebagai matakuliah umum. Tidak sampai disitu setiap perguruan tinggi berlomba-lomba mendirikan Pusat Balai Bahasa sebagai wadah untuk memberikan pelatihan bahasa Inggris baik kepada mahasiswa, kepegawaian, dosen bahkan masyarakat luar yang ingin memperdalam kemampuan bahasa Inggrisnya.. Di dunia kerja, bahasa Inggris menjadi sebuah syarat yang harus dimiliki applicants ketika ingin melamar sebuah pekerjaan disebuah perusahaan. Hal ini harus dibuktikan dengan sertifikat TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) terbaru dari lembaga yang sudah divalidasi dan diakui. Di universitas tertentu, sertifikat kemampuan bahasa Inggris seperti TOIEC, TOEFL, IELTS yang dikeluarkan balai bahasa dijadikan syarat kepada mahasiswa yang akan melaksanakan wisuda.

TOEFL adalah singkatan dari Test of English as Foreign Language. Menurut Zuhrayana, D (2018) TOEFL adalah tes yang digunakan untuk mengukur kemempuan bahasa Inggris di negara yang bahasa Inggris berstatus bahasa asing. Ada tiga hal yang perlu diketahui tentang TOEFL yaitu apa itu pengertian dari TOEFL, untuk siapa TOEFL diadakan, apa tujuan dari tes TOEFL. Pertama, TOEFL (Test of English as Foreign language) adalah tes yang didisain untuk mengukur kemampuan bahasa Inggris bagi penutur non-bahasa Inggris. Berdasarkan Pyle (2001) TOEFL adalah sebuah tes yang didesain untuk mengukur apakah siswa non-bahasa Inggris memiliki kemampuan yang cukup bagus dalam berbahasa Inggris agar mampu mengikuti proses pembelajaran dinegara yang menggunakan bahasa Inggris sebagai media komunikasi. Didalam TOEFL tentunya test-takers atau lebih dikenal dengan orang yang mengikuti test TOEFL akan dihadapkan dengan ragam soal yang akan mengetes kemampuan mendengar (listening comprehension), memahami kalimat (written and structure expression) dan kemampuan memahami sebuah teks (reading comprehension), Mahmud, M. (2014) Deskripsi diatas menjadi dasar mengapa TOEFL dianggap sebagai sebuah test yang berlaku secara internasional, menurut (Educational Testing Service, 2009) lebih dari 180 negara dan 22 juta orang telah melewati tes TOEFL untuk mengukur kemampuan bahasa Inggris mereka.

Kedua, TOEFL dipasarkan atau diperuntukkan bagi mereka yang dimana bahasa Inggris bukanlah mother tongue mereka. Ini diartikan sebagai bahasa Inggris bukanlah bahasa asal atau asli penutur tersebut. Hal ini juga menjadi dasar mengapa TOEFL menjadi sebuah alat yang sudah valid dan tersertifikasi untuk mengukur kemampuan bahasa Inggris penutur tersebut. Di Indonesia sendiri test TOEFL secara resmi dikelola oleh English Language System (ELS). Disamping itu, banyak kampus atau perguruan tinggi yang mendirikan balai bahasa yang menjalin kerjasama dengan ELS agar mahasiswa lebih mudah untuk mengikuti tes TOEFL. Biasanya tes TOEFL menjadi sebuah agenda kerja utama yang harus dilakukan oleh balai bahasa bagi para mahasiswa. Saukah (2000) mengatakan banyak dari lulusan perguruan tinggi tidak bisa melanjutkan pendidikan kejenjang lebih tinggi dikarenakan memiliki skor TOEFL yang rendah. 

The Use of Speech Act in “ The Blind Side” Movie

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Making statements are the way we communicate to each others and many kinds of statements that we can make to build a comunication with some people. We can make apologize, offerings, asking, permission and so on. All of them is included as a speech act. We use the speech act to get one’s respond

According  to  Levinson  (1983)  pragmatics  is  study  of  just  those  aspects  of  the relationship between language and context that are relevant to the writing and the grammars. In study of pragmatics, speech act is the most interisting study and seems relevant in language learning and teaching. Speech act is the action or intent that a speaker accomplishes when using language in context. Yule (1996) states that Pragmatic concerned with the study of meaning communicated by  the  speaker  and  interpreted  by  the  listener.  It  has  consequently,  more  to  do  with  the analysis  what  people  mean  by  their  utterances  than  what  the  words  or  phrases  in  those utterance might mean by themselves.

Speech acts generally  are  acts of communication. To communicate is to express a certain attitude, and the type of speech act being performed corresponds to the type of attitude being  expressed.  For  example, a statement expresses belief,  a request  expresses a desire, and  an  apology  expresses  a  regret.  Some  speech  act, however,  are  not  primarily  acts  of communication  and  have  the  function  not  of  communication  but  of  affecting  institutional states of affairs. They can do so in either of two ways. Some officially judge something to be the case, and others actually make something the case.

Austin (1975) divides the linguistic act into three components. First, there is the locutionary act, "the act of 'saying' something." Second, there is the illocutionary act, "the performance of an act in saying something as opposed to the performance of an act of saying something." Third, there is the perlocutionary act, for "saying something will often, or even normally, produce certain consequential effects upon the feelings, thoughts, or actions of the audience, of the speaker, or of other persons." In other words, a locutionary act has meaning; it produces an understandable utterance. An illocutionary act has force; it is informed with a certain tone, attitude, feeling, motive, or intention. A perlocutionary act has consequence; it has an effect upon the addressee. By describing an imminently dangerous situation (locutionary component) in a tone that is designed to have the force of a warning (illocutionary component), the addresser may actually frighten the addressee into moving (perlocutionary component). These three components, then, are not altogether separable, for as Austin points out, "we must consider the total situation in which the utterance is issued -- the total speech act -- if we are to see the parallel between statements and performative utterances, and how each can go wrong. Perhaps indeed there is no great distinction between statements and performative utterances." In contradistinction to structuralism, then, speech act theory privileges parole over langue, arguing that external context -- the context of situation -- is more important in the order of explanation than internal context -- the interrelationships among terms within the system of signs.