Summary of One of the Topics in IATEFL and TESOL International Association Joint Web Conference

Summary of One of the Topics in  IATEFL and TESOL

International Association Joint Web Conference

Topic: Teaching Dialect-Different Students: Pedagogical Implications

by Yvonne Pratt-Johnson

From this topic, I can learn that  as an educator we need to conduct collaboration to make sure that students who has different dialect or different first language with American or British can succeeded  in their social, academic, and professional development. In this condition, the stakeholder or the government need to provide the appropriate training and support the teacher. In addition, it is very important also for the candidate of the teacher to get training program concerning in learner characteristics, specialized strategies for teaching dialect different students, reflective pedagogy, contrastive grammar, sociolinguistics, and assessment methods that minimize the influence of linguistics and cultural difference

Regarding with the relation of this topic and today’s classroom, it is wrong that we consider the spoken and written from students with the different dialect or first language  with American or British as “Bad English”. In this case, students that have different first language is not inferior, mutant or a collection of slang. For example in this talk Yvonne gave example about Caribbean Creole English (CAE)  or native English speakers who grew up in Caribbean countries such as Trinidad, St. Kitts, Jamaica, and Guyana and Standard American English (SAE). They may have different phonological, lexical, and syntactic because they have dialect and different culture with American or British. So, curriculum and classroom activities should reflect the diversity of the student population and legitimize and highlight their experiences and backgrounds. It is the same with students in Indonesia that  have different dialect and culture too. Anyhow, by knowing this great talk, as a students , their native dialect should be seen as a bridge to their social, academic, and professional development, not an obstacle. They must  feel proud of their native dialect, its origin, and purpose . In addition, teachers  must teach the  Cultural awareness and  improve quality in Teaching English as a Foreign language.

At last, things that I have learnt from the presenter  is  that she is very confident in delivering the speech. In addition, Yvonne also had good material as well as she had god preparation in delivering her speech. She also knew that  audiences come from around the world that have different first language , so she did not talk too fast. Furthermore, I am so glad knowing that Yvonne Pratt-Johnson is Professor of Education at St. John’s University, USA  that have  many great achievements in such as recognized with multiple research and leadership, contributed to major publications, published in prestigious journals, and presented workshops and conference papers on five continents. I am very impressed and motivated. Hopefully, I can be like her, that gives incredible contributions to others. 

By: Ummy Khoirunisya' Masyhudianti On 10:10 AM

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Summary of One of the Topics in British Council Online Conference

Summary of One of the Topics in British Council Online Conference

Critical Thinking  (CT) and Technology as part of 21^st Century Skills

By Edouard Creemers, Renate Thummler Blum

Critical thinking (CT) with the aid of technology is one of the aspects of 21^st century skill. Its function is to prepare students to communicate across cultures, negotiate meaning, handle ambiguity and  discover different perspectives. This section of  British online conference explains about what exactly a cultivated critical thinker is, followed by how we can become critical thinkers  and how to incorporate CT in the teaching/learning process, and what  means by digital citizenship/literacy.

Critical thinking is an aspect that must be done by teachers and students in the classroom to solve the problem or improve the idea. It  is the art of analyzing and evaluating thinking with a view to improving it (Paul and Elder 1998). CT is more than constitute thinking power but  it processes a need  of something to think about to proceed. Therefore, in CT the thinking should be clear, precise, specific, accurate, relevant, and plausible. While a critical thinker should  know the reason effectively whether it is inductive or deductive, uses system thinking, makes judgment and decision through analysis, synthesizes and interprets, and solves problem that are called challenges. Furthermore, strategies to develop CT are affective strategies and cognitive strategies; macro ability and micro skill.

Another aspect in 21^st century is technology that is included in digital citizenship/literacy. It means the ability to develop social and professional connections within online networks, communicate effectively and handle turn-taking synchronous online communication environments, successfully search for relevant information over the internet, and gauge and validate the quality, authenticity and reliability of virtual information. It also encourages us to  manage our own online footprints and control the way we are viewed and portrayed online, protects ourselves from intrusion or harassment and protects our privacies, identities and personal information, cites online information source correctly and uses online resources appropriate with international copyright law and  knows when  to turn devices and disconnect from the internet as a way to keep balance  and healthy.

As a teacher we need to do critical thinking to improve our qualities in teaching and need to encourage the students to think critically also in the classroom. Hence, the learning process is student centered  not teacher centered approach. We also need to use technology  such as implementing on-line learning, blended learning and flipping the classroom and so forth. Although the consequence  is internet addiction, but it can be reduced if  we really understand about  the digital literacy. At last, it is imperative considering for  the  teacher to conduct critical thinking  and to apply digital literacy because we are the teacher of the language of global communication in the digital era of  21^st century.

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Journal Review 14

 Title                             : The Effectiveness of the Flipped Classroom

Mode on the English Pronunciation Course

Writer and Institution  : Hongwei Zhang, Xiaomei Du, Xinfa Yuan, Liming Zhang

Foreign Language Department, Baoding University, Baoding, China

Publisher                     : Scientific research publishing

Creative Education, 2016, 7, 1340-1346

Published Online June 2016 in SciRes. http://www.scirp.org/journal/ce

http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ce.2016.79139

Pronunciation is one of subjects must be mastered by the pupils for the English majors in the first year of college study. In contrary, dealing with the pronunciation the problem still remains due to the many cases. One of the center problems is ineffectiveness of teaching. Hence, flipped classroom has brought fresh air to this unsolved problem. A teacher’s interaction with students in a flipped classroom can be more personalized and less didactic, and students are actively involved in knowledge acquisition and construction as they participate in and evaluate their learning (Alvarez, 2011).

            The aims of this study was to examine the effectiveness of a comparatively new teaching mode—the flipped classroom—in the English pronunciation course. Mixed methods were used in this study in order to seek sufficient evidences for the effectiveness of the flipped classroom teaching mode. The students’ final exam scores were compared with those of the students taught with the traditional teaching mode. In addition, individual face-to-face interviews were carried out to dig up the students’ attitudes towards the teaching modes. Ultimately, the result has been drawn that flipped classroom mode was more effective than the traditional mode in pronunciation teaching.

            As s reflection, the teachers in Indonesia have to adjust the way of their teaching with the contemporary education system and need to take the huge profits of technology. Therefore, the traditional teaching method must be deserted  or greatly changed to the fashionable teaching method, that is flipped classroom. But then, it should be noted that they need a workshop or a seminar on flipped classroom to build their knowledge before fruitfully in applying this flipped classroom to the learners. In short, the successful flipped classroom is greatly depend on the teachers’ motivation  and effort as well as a  help from government to facilitate teacher’s  quality in order to enhance educational system in Indonesia.

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Journal Review 13

Title                            : Indonesian EFL Teachers’ Familiarity with and Opinion on the

                                    Internet-Based Teaching of Writing

Institution                   : Bambang Yudi Cahyono¹ & Ira Mutiaraningrum²

¹ English Department, State University of Malang, East Java, Indonesia, ² English Department, Tanjungpura University of Pontianak, West Kalimantan, Indonesia

Publisher                     : Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education

English Language Teaching; Vol. 9, No. 1; 2016

ISSN 1916-4742 E-ISSN 1916-4750

The utilizing of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) notably the Internet has been so popular in an educational world. Benefitting the internet in teaching writing will urge the students’ writing quality and quantity, foster active and independent learning, motivates students’ learning, supplies learning flexibility, and improves students’ confidence. Regardless with the advantages of internet, research study about the internet in the teaching of English as a foreign language (EFL) writing, especially in the Indonesian context has not been frequently investigated.

Therefore, the objective of this study was to find out whether or not Indonesian EFL teachers are familiar with the Internet-based techniques for the teaching of writing. Aside from their familiarity in internet, it deeply dug  up their opinions on the Internet-based techniques of teaching writing. 17 EFL teachers from various parts of the country were the participants who were asked about their experiences and opinions dealing with the Internet-based teaching of writing.  The result of the study revealed that almost half of the teachers acknowledged that they have wielded internet in teaching writing but the other teachers have already accessed the internet indirectly,  while the remains have never used the internet in teaching writing.

However, the fact reveals that in Indonesia, there are still many teachers who neglect the fact of huge advantages of the internet  in teaching English. Surprisingly, they have private account in social media including Facebook, e-mail, whatsapp and so forth. Anyhow, it should be no burdens for the teacher in teaching their students by employing  internet. I do believe if they have high effort and motivations, internet and education will increasingly go hand in hand in this digital era.

 

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Journal Review 12

 Title                             : E-course Based on the LMS Moodle for English Language

 Teaching: Development and Implementation of Results

Writer and Institution   :^a Irina Rymanovaa, ^b.Nikolai Baryshnikova, ^c. Anna Grishaevac

 ^aNational Research Tomsk Polytechnic University, ^b Pyatigorsk State Linguistic University, ^c National Research Tomsk State University,

Publisher                     : Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 206 ( 2015 ) 236 – 240

In this digital era, e- learning becomes popular technology that has been steadily implemented in education in worldwide. Blended learning can be called as learning form that merged traditional full-time form of teaching with modern forms of e-learning, increasing the advantages and minimizing  the disadvantages of each. According to Smith and Kurthen, it utilizes some significant on-line activities in otherwise face to face (F2F) learning, but less than 45 per cent (Tomlinson & Wittaker, 2013).

The blended learning with learning management system (LMS) moodle has applied since 2000 at Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU) with the fundamental goals is to provide an educational process via electronic courses up to 80 per cent of disciplines, with the active involvement of teachers in the e-course development. The teaching material consists of  the most popular tools of the LMS Moodle “Book” and  “Glossary”. In addition, the most of exercises and activities are presented by “Wiki”, “Seminar”, “Exercise”, "Quiz”. The result of this study indicated that the teacher highlighted blended learning as a perspective of education in English language teaching.

            If I reflected blended learning in education in Indonesia, certainly it is still far with the improvement of blended learning in Russia itself. But,  the teacher and student in my beloved country can take great advantages of the blended learning since many of them has smart phone or laptop as their main need in academic setting. Thereupon, such of  workshop  or seminar in blended learning must be held to increase teachers’ knowledge in benefitting blended learning. Undoubtedly, the implementation of blended learning in Indonesia is not impossible if the government and teacher really eager to enhance the quality of education in Indonesia. .

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Journal Review 11

 Title                             : Incorporation of Automated Writing Evaluation Software in Language Education: A Case of Evening University Students‟ Self-Regulated Learning in Taiwan

Writer and Institution           : Bin-Bin Yu

Publisher                              : International Journal of Information and Education Technology, Vol. 5,             No. 11, November 2015

The capability to write becomes imperative skill that must be mastered by the pupils today because of  the irresistible trend of globalization and internationalization worldwide. Therefore, educators’ responsibilities to enhance pupils’ writing skill must be increased also along with the improvement of technology. One of the technology can be wielded is Criterion that is a web-based Automated Writing Evaluation (AWE) program with the essay scoring engine E-rater developed by Educational Testing Service (ETS) in the mid-1990s. By using that software . It is actually expected that by using AWE program, pupils can fruitfully attain their lifelong learner  for self- regulated learning.

The design of this research is case study research in which the purpose are to compare participants’ common errors with those of native speakers, and to find out possible factors that give rise to non-native speakers’ common errors. The design of this research is case study research. Anymore, the finding diagnosed that after using AWE, there was a significant increase in the score and the length of student essays as well as the repetition of words to be the weakest aspect of writing for both native and non-native students.

AWE program is very agreeable, if it is implemented in education in Indonesia since it is helping out the educators’  workload and rising the students’ abilities in writing. But, the most important is the teacher must get of  best of  applying this AWE  program. Ultimately, by utilizing the AWE program,  It is hoped that the objectives of lifelong learning can be possibly reached through their successful experience for self-regulated learning.

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Journal Review 10

 Title                             : FACE TO FACE OR E-LEARNING IN TURKISH EFL CONTEXT”

Writer and Institution : Ekrem Solak and Recep Cakir,  Amasya University, TURKEY

Publisher                     : Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education-TOJDE July 2014

  ISSN 1302-6488 Volume: 15 Number: 3 Article 4

In the period where the technology is massively wielded, the educators have to think smartly to take profits  of that technology in the educational world. Afresh, today’s young generation can be called as digital or net generation since they throw away their time by playing multimedia, interactive and social online games in internet. Recognizing those facts, educator should develop their responsibility in teaching by benefiting e-learning. Apart from traditional learning, e-Learning has also other advantages such as: “time for digesting the information and responding, enhanced communication among the learners, knowledge being acquired and transferred among the learners themselves, the ability to conduct an open discussion, where each learner gets more of an equal standing than in a face-to-face discussion, access to information and to discussion ability, responses may be made around the clock with no restrictions, a higher motivation and involvement in the process on the part of the learners”(Bencheva,2010;64).

The objective of this study was to understand e-learners and face to face learners’ views towards learning English through e-learning in vocational higher school context and to determine the role of academic achievement and gender in e-learning and face to face learning. This study was performed at  a state-run university in 2012-2013 academic year and 221 students were chosen as participant from two different Vocational Higher Schools taking up English course through e-learning and traditional learning. The result of this study uncovered that there was no significant difference among  e-learners and face to face learners about the views towards learning English via e-learning. Subsequently, gender and academic achievement were not the powerful determiners in applying e-learning compared with face to face learning.

            As a reflection, the educators in Indonesia should increase their responsibility in teaching to bring into line with the condition today, that is using e-learning. By using e-learning combined with face to face learning students will get more interaction and activities to attain the goal of learning process. Notwithstanding, the drawback of implementing e-learning combined with face to face learning are new pedagogical skills, a high upfront cost also learners’ self-discipline and motivation or internet connection. As a conclusion, I really place reliance to the educators in Indonesia that they can apply this e-learning in their teaching that meet the demand of 21^st century learning.

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Journal Review 9

 Title                          : INDONESIAN EFL TEACHERS’ APPLICATION OF TPACK IN IN-                                                  SERVICE EDUCATION TEACHING PRACTICES Writer and

Institution                   : Bambang Yudi Cahyono, Oktafina Dewi Kurnianti and Ira Mutiaraningrum , Universitas Negeri Malang, Indonesia

Publisher                     : European Centre for Research Training and Development UK      (www.eajournals.org)  16 ISSN 2055-0820(Print),

ISSN 2055-0839(Online)

TPACK framework, technology integration is considered as a complex multidimensional process requiring understanding of the reciprocal dynamic relationships between three knowledge bases: pedagogy, content, and technology. According to Mishra and Koehler (2006), there are seven constructs in the TPACK framework. They are: Content knowledge (CK), which is known as knowledge of subject matter, Technology knowledge (TK), which is known as knowledge of various technologies, Pedagogical knowledge (PK), which is known as knowledge of the processes or methods of teaching, Technological content knowledge (TCK), which refers to knowledge of subject matter, presented by using technology, International Journal of English Language, Teaching Technological pedagogical knowledge (TPK), which refers to knowledge of the use of technology to implement different teaching methods, Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), which refers to knowledge of teaching methods for different types of subject matter, and Technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK), which is understood as as knowledge of the use of technology to implement teaching methods for different types of subject matter. Knowing those constructs, TPACK is one of the framework that meets 21^st century aspect applied in ELT.

This  study deeply investigates  how TPACK-oriented teaching practice course benefits Indonesian EFL teachers in improving the quality of their EFL instructional designs and teaching practices. 20 secondary school teachers from various areas in the province of East Java  that taking the Teaching Practice course as part of their education for a master’s degree in ELT at Universitas Negeri Malang, one of the leading universities in Indonesia are the participant involved . The teachers finished 16-session course in which they were introduced to TPACK framework and were ordered to create instructional designs based on TPACK framework.  Furthermore, they were asked to conduct peer teachers by using the TPACK-oriented instructional designs.  They were also given a questionnaire asking the benefits of the TPACK-oriented teaching practice course in enhancing the quality of their EFL instructional designs and their EFL teaching practices. The result of the study indicated  that TPACK-oriented teaching practice course contributed to give huge benefits to the teacher. Ultimately, the teachers have successfully equipped instructional designs and applied the teaching practices by applying TPACK framework.

If this study issue is implemented in Indonesian English pedagogy, the circle of English language teaching and learning in Indonesia will be extensive and full of advancement although TPACK framework has not been implemented massively in the practical scope. The government will firstly prepared the teachers to have knowledge and experience regarding with the implementation of TPACK model for teaching English by conducting seminar and workshop to the teachers. If both government and schools can cooperate seriously to overcome this phenomenon, Indonesian education can  be easily and quickly enhanced with integrating ICT within its every single aspect. 

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Journal Review 8

 Title                             : Writing Instruction through Podcasts or Traditional

 Classrooms: That is the Question!

Writer and Institution : Fatemeh Behjat, English Department, Islamic Azad University, Abadeh  Branch, Abadeh, Iran     

The history of language teaching has been shown in the delivery of instructional material, those was from traditional face-to-face instruction to Web Based Instruction (WBI). Podcasts is  a variety of  WBI  which can be in the form of natural English audios made by English native speakers. Podcast is now commonly used to refer to a series of audio recordings that can be distributed and accessed through the Internet (Guertin, Bodek, Zappe, & Kim, 2007). The audios are created to facilitate creative teaching material to students  for enhancing their enthusiasm and creativity in writing under the teacher’s instruction . Hence, they can get some helpful bridging for creating a qualified writing work.

This was an experimental research that was conducted to examine the effectiveness of writing instruction through podcasts. This research took 57 students from three universities as the samples. They were then split into two classes, experimental and control classes. The treatment in the experimental class was teaching students writing through podcasts, whereas the control group was taught by traditional instruction as commonly used by the teacher in teaching writing. Both pretest and posttest were provided to the two groups as to collect the data. The result of this research was analyzed through statistical calculation as the rule of an experimental research analysis. The analysis proved that writing instruction through podcasts was significantly more effective in improving students’ writing ability.

Then, the question is, How if I apply this “podcast” in Indonesia? I suggest that it will be best applied in University level or Senior high level. Because of the improvement of technology in Indonesia, the students have already gadget or laptop and most of them have advanced skill in using technology. But the obstacle is may be the internet connection. We can overcome it by using free wifi in school or in other areas that serve free connection, or even using our data connection.

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