ELTR Journal

LANGUAGE TEACHER AGENCY IN FACING FREEDOM-TO-LEARN CURRICULUM IN TWO TOWNS IN JAVA

Maria Nirmala Putri — 2024-07-22

Teacher agency in facing new national curriculum shifts has been a topic discussed widely around the world, as many nations implement curriculum shifts and transitions. Indonesia has also in its early years implemented the new national curriculum called Freedom-to-Learn Curriculum. This study is aimed at exploring the agency of language teachers of public junior high schools in two different towns in Java Island, Indonesia. Employing the ecological approach by Priestley, Biesta, and Robinson (2015) which supported the interplay and dynamics of iterative, practical-evaluative, and projective dimensions, this qualitative study brings into play the semi-structured and focus group discussion data-gathering techniques. Six teachers participated in this study. The finding showed that the level of agency was diverse ranging from high (demonstrated by three research participants), emerging (demonstrated by one participant), and low (participated by two participants). Future researchers might examine the teacher agency by involving more participants as well as capture the robust study of language teacher agencies from other parts of Indonesia.

EFL STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS ACADEMIC READING IN WRITING FOR INTERNATIONAL PUBLICATION

Heri Mudra — 2024-07-22

Although academic reading has gained positive attention in EFL classrooms, very little research has been undertaken regarding the descriptive relationship between such types of reading attitudes and article writing. This study focused on determining the academic reading attitudes of EFL students who were writing an article for an international journal. A total of 173 undergraduate and magister students enrolled in an EFL major voluntarily participated in the survey study. By using the AR attitude scale, the survey was undertaken via an online app (e.g., Google Form). The results reveal that there are three dimensions of students’ AR. Behavior factor seems to be negative for the students who read academic texts. They encountered difficulties in comprehending the texts during the article writing process. They believed in AR benefits for article writing, but most students were not confident in their reading competence. In short, AR has important values in developing article writing quality, but strategies are needed to fulfill the expectation.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE USAGE IN HIGHER EDUCATION: EFL STUDENTS’ VIEW

Sesilia Yuliani — 2024-07-22

This research aims to determine students' perceptions and challenges faced using AI due to the gaps faced by EFL students. This research uses a qualitative method which uses two data collection techniques, namely observation as supporting data and interviews with 6 students from different classes as main data. To analyze the data, researchers used thematic analysis and then used content validity to support the research. The results of this research show that the majority of students agree that the use of AI in EFL classes is very helpful in the independent learning process and improves speaking, reading, writing, and giving ideas. So the researchers concluded that based on students' perceptions, these perceptions had a positive impact on the use of AI in EFL classes. Researchers hope that students and lecturers can use AI according to the role of AI. Researchers also hope that this research can become a reference for readers.

USING YOUTUBE VIDEOS TO TEACH WRITING

Sulistiawati Nurhelfa — 2024-07-23

This article aims to describe how an English teacher taught writing procedure text using YouTube videos to the 11th-grade students of Vocational High School. The study applied a descriptive qualitative approach. This research was conducted at one Vocational school in Pacet. The participants of this research were an English teacher and 36 students from grade 11 of Tourism Travel Business (ULP) major. This study was guided by one research question “How does the teacher teach writing procedure text using YouTube video to grade 11 students of Vocational High School?” The instruments used in this study were observation, documentation, and interview. The findings of this study show that: 1) the English teacher engaged the students to watch a video from YouTube together in the opening activity, 2) the English teacher and the students discussed the contents of the YouTube videos that have been watched in the core activity, and 3) the English teacher played YouTube videos to prepare the students’ mental condition before they were doing presentation about their writing project of procedure text in core activity. The results indicated that the YouTube video on teaching writing aligns with the stages of the teaching activities proposed by Rusmawan.

STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION OF DIGITAL READING TEXTS: A CASE STUDY AT THE ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF STKIP PGRI BANGKALAN

Suhartini Suhartini — 2024-07-23

This study investigated what students' perceptions of reading digital texts and students' preferences for digital text reading. Data was gathered through observation, interviews, and documentation to accomplish this purpose. The interview aims to gather qualitative information about the participants' motivation and interests, the effectiveness of reading digital texts, any difficulties they may have had reading them, and whether they preferred reading print or digital texts. Four students enrolled in five semesters of the English Language Education Department at STKIP PGRI Bangkalan during the academic year 2023/2024 participated in this study. The results showed that the participants had a favorable opinion of reading digital materials because digital texts are more engaging and inspiring, and follow the standard reading format. The main obstacle for students in using digital texts is the less text displayed at once due to the limitations of smartphone screens.