Sabtu, 10 Desember 2011 Motivating Students Through Challenge-Task Diposting oleh an.pane di 18.20

From the role-play in previous meeting, I got a description where a shy student is challenged by a teacher to be the main character in a role-play performance. At the beginning, she wanted to refuse it because she knew that she was not capable in doing that kind of assignment. However, the teacher kept motivating her and telling her that she could do that. From the practicing process, time to time, she became able to give her best in doing the role play. She could put her shyness aside .

The scene that I saw above showed how students can be motivated through a challenge-task. The teacher’s encouragement played an important role there. She was sure that the student could do it. The shy students became challenged by the task, tried to practice, then she could perform well. The task that she thought as the inappropriate one for her character could take her to diminish the shyness and give her best effort.
Teachers should make the students used to doing challenging tasks in order to build their self-efficacy too. The students who can accomplish a challenging task will have a high self-efficacy. They believe that they have a good capability in accomplishing that kind of task. The challenge-task could be in various forms, such as role-play, games, group discussion, and any other activities that trigger students’ thinking skill and creativity. Killen (2006) state that students should be engaged in trying and mastering challenging tasks to achieve their best ability.

Although teachers should keep giving a challenge task comprehension for students to guide them in improving their abilities, they are not suggested to take any challenging tasks randomly. The important point should be considered in selecting tasks is teachers’ measurement of a challenging task that was appropriate for particular students since students in one class can have various comprehension levels, abilities, or styles. In my experience when I was in high school, it was very helpful for me when I can apply my learning styles in accomplishing challenge-tasks, such as making speech and performing drama. They did not burden me and I could enjoy the learning process. Miller & Meece (as cited in Perry, Turner, & Meyer, 2006) through their research find that students are motivated by high-challenge task that are suitable for their learning styles.



References:
Killen, R. (2006). Effective teaching strategies: Lessons from Research and Practice. New Zealand: Cengage Learning Australia.
Perry.N.E, Turner, J.C., & Meyer, D.K. (2006). Classrooms as contexts for motivating learning. In P.A. Alexander & P.H. Winne (Eds.), Handbook of Educational Psychology. (pp.327-347). New Jersey: Routledge.

Building Self-Regulated Learning Skills Diposting oleh an.pane di 18.18

As usual, the activity like 2-stray-2-stay is interesting for me. It is because of the opportunities to share knowledge of various topics with my friends. In the previous meeting of MMSEL class, I came to the booth where self-regulated learner is discussed. I was attracted by this topic because I could see many points that also happened in my learning experience.

Self-regulated learning involves thoughts, feelings, and actions that are controlled to create a maximal outcome (Snowman, McCown, & Biehler, 2009). From the explanation I got in the booth, learners can be said as having self-regulated learning skills when they can plan, control, and monitor the time and their effort to do tasks. I totally agree with my friend’s explanation. I have experienced how it was disastrous when I could not control my schedule in doing tasks, especially in arranging the time. It made the result unsatisfying too. On the other hand, by applying self-regulated learning, I learn to be more responsible to my tasks. That responsibility leads me to motivate myself to give my best effort to get good results.


I also got the information from the presentation that learners’ self-regulated learning skills can get increase as the learners get older. Snowman, McCown, & Biehler (et al.) find that in spite of the fact that age can affect learners’ self- regulated learning skills, the consistency of using those skills may not always happen to every learner. They said that learners may face difficulties in measuring the appropriate strategies they can use in accomplishing different tasks. That is why as the teacher candidate, I think I should learn how to motivate my students in the future to be self-regulated learners. I should help them to arrange their schedule in studying and to find the best strategies in doing tasks. I can reflect from my experience too. Some of the examples are how to arrange the time in studying continuously and to make priority in doing tasks by looking at the submission deadline and the types of the task. For the strategies, I can teach them how to make mind-map, effective summary or notes, and any other tactics.

Another important thing is I should also consider about my students’ interest and their learning styles. Knowing those factors is very helpful to motivate them to be self-regulated learners. Besides always trying to help my students build those skills, I should also keep myself as a self-regulated learner. It is because teacher is a learner and self-regulated learning skills are needed in doing teacher’s duties too.



Reference:
Snowman, J., McCown, R., & Biehler, R. (2009). Psychology Applied to Teaching. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Source for picture:
Retreived November 26, 2011, from http://charmaineym.blogspot.com/2010/12/blog-post.html

How Interest, Motivation, and Social Goals Influence Motivation Diposting oleh an.pane di 18.17

‘I Not Stupid’ is the first Singaporean movie I have ever watched. I am amazed by the story which is very entertaining yet educative and motivating.  There were also many scenes that made me nod my head because I realized that they were similar to my experiences.  In this reflection, I want to discuss about Kok Pin’s experience.

Kok Pin, who has a personal interest and is very good at drawing, does not get a support from his parents to explore his talent. He is also burdened by the fact that he has to get good scores in math, the subject where he is not interested in. It makes him hard to learn the material. This story’s part reminds me how interest has a big influence on motivation to learn. It is an indicator of intrinsic motivation that affects someone’s sustained attention (Reninnger, in Mayer & Alexander, 2010). Reflecting to most people that I met, I can also see that the perception of intelligence from them is very narrow by relating only particular subjects to intelligence. My father says that most people even get it wrong by measuring your success from how much money you can get from your job.

The only thing that makes Kok Pin study hard is his mother. He wants to make her proud of him although it is hard for him to understand the subject. I remembered how one of my friends became very sad because of getting many bad scores for some subjects in our school. She is a friendly person with good ability in forming a relation with other people. She is also good at singing. However, it seemed like she did not care about it because she just want to make her parents proud of her by getting good scores. She also wanted to be appreciated by her friends who are always mock her. Kok Pin’s and my friend’s experience show how their motivation is affected by social goals. One of which is gaining people’s approval (Santrock, 2009).

To make his mother proud, Kok Pin studies hard every day for that subject. However, he always fails in doing the test. One time, he gets a bad score and becomes frustrated then tried to suicide.  Here, emotion has a relation with his motivation to learn where the failures make him discouraged (Sheppard & McNulty, in Santrock, et.al). The worse thing is his mother punishes him physically every time he faces difficulties in learning or gets bad scores in tests. It affects his emotion and motivation to learn. Through some studies, Saunders & Goddard (2010) finds that children see physical punishment as a block for them to develop and learn.
It makes me think about the importance of understanding the influential factors of someone’s motivation. I hope this knowledge is useful to make me able to understand my students’ motivation in the future.



References:
Mayer, R.E. & Alexander, P.A. (2011).  Handbook of research on learning and instruction. New York: Routledge.
Santrock, J.W. (2009). Educational psychology (4^th Ed). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Saunders, B.J. & Goddard, C. (2010). Physical punishment in childhood: The rights of the child. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

Sharing Knowledge as A Teacher Diposting oleh an.pane di 18.16

“Why don’t you just apply and work here as our teacher, ms.?
That was the expression from the students when I said that it was the last day I came to that class as their teacher. I just laughed because I did not know what to do and what to say. Fortunately, I could make the situation more relaxed by chatting and having discussion with them about anything. Setting a free-time class that day was very advantageous to end my teaching practice in the school.

sharing moment

During the discussion, some of them said that they wanted me to teach them about writing in English. They wanted to improve their skill in that area. Some of them showed the anxious expression. It seemed like they had a problem with it. I knew that I did not have more time to share the knowledge about it. So, I decided to ask each of them to write their email address. I said that I would try to help them by sending any articles, e-books, or any materials related to writing skill. Their expression changed then. They smiled and wrote the address quickly on the paper I had provided.

I felt that two weeks were too short for me to be with them. Nevertheless, I realized that being with them does not always mean accompanying or teaching them directly in class. I can still be their friend and teacher by helping them outside the class. I hope I can search for and send the effective materials to them. I can motivate them to keep learning and believing that they can learn English for all aspects and skills easily.

Just relax, it would be easy! :) Diposting oleh an.pane di 18.15

I was happy when I knew that I would have teaching experience in my senior high school.  At the first day, I arrived there to have an observation. I met my favourite English teacher, who gives me an image of a good teacher. I also felt more motivated when I knew that he was also chosen to be my master teacher. My friends and I thought that I was very lucky and everything was going to be easy for me. Surprisingly, I faced some situation that I did not expect before.

I was going to enter my class, XI science 1 to observe. Many teachers there said that it was one of the best classes with clever students. I predicted before that it was the same as the one in my batch: smart, serious, and cool students are ready to study. When I came there to do observation, I felt like there was a light stroke my head. Boom!!! I found such a noisy class with talkative students, even when the class already started. It made me force myself to think about the teaching methods and strategies that I had to use the next day.

It was the first time I had to teach my class. My master teacher told me to prepare them for the test that was going to be conducted on Friday. He gave me the reading material on the textbook. He said that he had to use it for the test because he was assigned to do so by the foundation there. I looked at it and found that it was a literature text with some high-level vocabularies. Then, I told the students to read and learn about the text. I was not surprised when one of them said that it was too difficult and she did not understand what the story talks about. Once one of them said so, the others followed. They became nervous and the class became noisy again.

Because I already knew what the questions would be like from my master teacher, I informed them that the test would not be hard. I gave them guidelines to focus on some points on the story. I also opened the discussion about the story. They asked some questions and learned about it. I said that they should relax because the test would not be hard. I mentioned the word ‘easy’ many times. I hoped it could motivate them to learn and try their best for the test.

I believe that words are very powerful. It made me repeat motivating statements for couple of times. I also gave them guidelines as the reading strategy. I made it as one of the motivation strategies too where they would feel ‘more safe’ because of finding the way that made it easy for them to read it. Then, it would decrease their anxiety. After the anxiety decreased, they would believe that they could accomplish the test easily.

I think the title above does not only work for my students, but also for me when I was nervous about this teaching practice. Just relax, it would be easy!

There are many ways to motivate our students. We just need to be sensitive to decide which way we want to take.

Beliefs as Powerful Elements for Students' Motivation Diposting oleh an.pane di 18.13

A belief is a powerful element that affects students’ motivation. It comes subconsciously but can help them learn many things and achieve their goals. There are some kinds of beliefs that could come from each individual. Beliefs about future outcomes, intelligence, capability, value, and causes of performance are the ones that influence students’ motivation. It makes them important to be learned by teachers too.

Although it is true that beliefs can build motivation, it cannot be placed as a guarantee to get a good result.  In some cases, students might have expectations which do not meet the goals. It could be caused by many other factors. One of the examples is students who have expectations in doing a test tomorrow will have a motivation to study the day before to get a good result. On the day they do the test, they misinterpret the question and give incorrect answers. Then, they get an unexpected result without knowing or realizing what their mistakes were. Usually, it becomes a bad effect for the students. It can make them feel down and do not believe themselves to accomplish this kind of test. It means they look at their past experience, which is a main factor influencing expectation (Santrock, 2009). I also experience it when I was in junior high school. When I had faced a failure in doing a test, I became nervous to accomplish the similar one and doubt myself to reach success.  This is actually a challenge for teachers to give students explanations, and motivate them to take it as an experience and learn it in order to avoid the same mistakes.

My experiences in SSE influence my belief about future outcomes. Although I have been dreaming to be a teacher for a long time, but my experiences in the campus strengthen it. I learn many new things that increase my knowledge and teaching ability, including how to motivate my students. Having experiences in applying creative, innovative, and effective teaching methodologies also makes me more confident to teach. I believe that all of those things can guide me to be a good teacher in the future.





Reference:
Santrock, J.W. (2009). Educational Psychology (4^th Ed). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Image Source:
http://dorkmuffin.com/2008/09/poem-the-road-not-taken/ via bing.com

Increasing Students' Perception of Their Competence Diposting oleh an.pane di 18.12

Could all students be treated in the same way?

            On the previous meeting, my group performed a role play about some ways or factors that influence students’ perception of competence. I read the article and I felt that I experienced them when I was in school, even until now. Some of the factors that attracted my attention were ‘attributional statements’ and ‘praise and criticism’.

Attributional functions deals with how teachers give comments to the students when they face a particular situation to do a performance, or in order to perform well. I agree with the article that says it is motivating when the teacher says, “Keep trying. I know you can solve this problem.” I experienced this thing when I was in school. Although I did a difficult assignment, this kind of statement could motivate me. It was because I felt that my teacher trusted me to do it, then why did not I?

The next factor is praise and criticism. The interesting point, like what is written on the article, is teachers need to be careful to give students a praise or criticism to avoid their motivation getting lower. I think different students may also have different perception. In one case, one student may be more motivated by getting praise, while the other may not. If I reflect to myself, there should be praise to increase my motivation level because criticism only will not work for me. I will still feel uncomfortable if a teacher only says, “You can do a better work than this.” Although it could be good for other students, it is not motivating enough for me. On the other hand, I will feel that I do the assignment in vain because it seems the teacher does not appreciate it.

So, what should a teacher do, especially to motivate students with various characters? In my opinion, there are three ways to help teachers motivate them. The first way is: teacher should believe that their students can give a good performance. It will help teacher to give positive comments like the one on the first paragraph. The second one is: the teacher should know the students’ culture, not only looking at their origins, but also observing each individual’s characters. It will help teachers to choose an appropriate way to motivate them. The third one is: the teacher could keep the praise and criticism in balance. While criticism or praise alone may not work for particular students, teacher can choose a save way, such as giving both elements for the students. The example of teacher’s statement is: “It is great to know you can do this. However, looking at your ability, I am sure that you can perform better.” It could be better than just saying: “You can do better work than this”.

How about you, guys? Do you have any other strategies to increase students’ perception of their competence?

Jumat, 07 Januari 2011 Is listening skill an ‘isolated skill’? Diposting oleh an.pane di 18.49

When we hear about ‘listening practice in school’, perhaps we will remember how teachers carry a radio and a cassette to a class. Now, there are many schools in big cities that provide computers to be used for learning process. Here, the teachers use audio CD, recording, or any software to teach listening skill for the students. Despite the modern facilities now, the way how listening practice adapted in schools is still the same: teachers distribute pieces of paper containing some questions then assign the students to answer them individually based on what they listen from the audio.  Can we use listening practice to teach other language skills beside listening skill itself?

Let’s look at this example:

Students in a classroom are listening to a recording about two people watching a movie on television. Those two people have different opinion about the characters in that movie.

From this recording, the teacher can ask the students to take notes about what they have listened to. Instead of providing some questions on the answer sheet, the teacher can ask the students to work in pairs and take the roles of those people in the recording. They can decide who become who. Then, they make their own scenario with their own words. After that, they can act while the teacher is walking around the class to see how accurate the scenario is compare to the recording and how fluent the students speak.

When they are done, the teacher can play the recording once again and ask the students to listen to it. The teachers can make a class discussion by asking about their opinion, the difficulties they find, and what they feel when they work in pairs using their own scenario.

We can see that listening practice become ‘a hook’ in this activity. Besides teaching listening skill to students, the teacher here is also able to train students’ writing skill (by making a scenario), speaking skill (through the dialogue and discussion), and also build interactivity between student and student, and also students and teacher.
Beside using audio or recording, teachers can also show a video as a listening source for the students. Then, the activity could be the same as the one above (e.g. making a scenario, dialogue, etc). Now, let's watch this video as an example!

So, what do you think about the activity like this?Can we use a video like that to conduct the activity? Do you think there are some barriers to conduct this activity in Indonesian schools?

Listening Skill in Language Learning Diposting oleh an.pane di 18.42

taken from google images

Looking at my experience in school observation, I saw how listening and speaking skill are important. It was clear when I had to interview some students and asked them some questions about their product. In this article, I want to focus on listening skill. However, listening is often followed by speaking. It is supported by Krashen’s (1982) ideas about comprehensible input, where a language learner gets the input from others (by listening) then produce what he/she learn from others (by speaking). That is why listening became a foundation for speaking.

Nunan (1989) says that listening has two views which exist in language pedagogy; they are bottom up view and top-down view. Bottom-up view assumes that listening is a process of decoding the sounds, from the smallest meaningful units (phonemes) to complete texts. Let’s take a look one example:

Goal: find the stressed syllables

Example: Listen to words of two or three syllables. Mark them for the word stress and predict the pronunciation of the unstressed syllable.

On the other hand, top-down emphasizes on how listeners actively construct the original meaning of the speaker. Here, the listeners use prior knowledge of the context to make them understand about what they hear, for example:

Goal: Listen to identify the topic

Example: Listen to a radio commercial. On the answer sheet, choose among four types of product and identify the picture that goes with it.

It is very important to combine those two views and use them in Indonesian schools. However, in my opinion, Bottom-up view is rarely used in Indonesian schools while the top-down is more often. Considering it as the basic view, I think it should be used in all levels even started from the beginner level.  It is important for our speaking skill too. In fact, when I was in school, I never studied materials which used Bottom-up view, such as learning about minimal pairs. It was easier for me to find the exercise using top-down view.  I think it is because many people or teachers see bottom-up view as a simple view which can be ‘ignored’ in language learning process. I do not agree with this assumption because those two views are related and should be combined together.

What do you think about these two views? :)

Minggu, 28 November 2010 Principles from Brown in SMA ** Jakarta Diposting oleh an.pane di 02.38

This is still about my school experience in SMA ** Jakarta with Mr. L.H. as my master teacher. During the school experience, I came to grade ten, eleven, and twelve. Now, I want to show five Brown’s principles about language learning approach that occurred in SMA ** Jakarta in Mr. L.H’s class. I took the principles and put some other references related to them.

The first principle is meaningful learning. The first class that I visited was XII Social 1. In that class, Mr. L.H. delivered a material about explanation text. He told the students there to pretend as a businessman with an innovative product. Each student had to draw the picture based on their imagination then showed it to me. I pretended as an investor who would decide whether I wanted to invest my money or not based on how they presented the product. So, they gave some explanations about the product such as the material, colors, function, etc. After that, I asked them some questions, gave comments and feedback, and then report it to Mr. L.H.  In this activity, I could see that Mr. L.H. gave a meaningful learning. He knew how to engage the material with an appropriate content for students. The students became interested in it. This activity supports the idea which is stated by Brown (1994). He says that meaningful learning happens in content-centered approach to language teaching. Nunan (1999) states that students will be motivated when they do some meaningful activities. According to him, students have to know what and why they learn a subject. Pretending as a businessman showed them that the material can be applied in their real life. They became know what explanation text is and how they use it in a real context.

            The second principle is automaticity. The next meeting, I came to class X.6 and pretended as an investor like I did in class XII Social 1. The difference is in this class, they talked about procedure text. They drew an innovative product using their imagination. Then, they mentioned the goal, its material, and the steps to use the product. Although Mr. L.H. already told them not to worry about grammar too much, they told me that they were still afraid of it when they had to speak in English. When they produced an incorrect structure of sentence, they would get stuck and think about how to do it correctly. Actually, I, as the listener and interviewer, still got their point and understood what they wanted to say. Brown states that overanalyzing language, thinking too much about its forms and rules will impede second language leaner’s automaticity. That was why the students had a low automaticity. Krashen (1981), through his hypotheses, states that second language learner usually utilize a ‘monitor’ in their mind when they produce the output using their second language. He says that a successful monitor user edit their second language output when it does not hinder the communication. According to Krashen’s hypotheses, the students whom I mentioned before were included in a ‘monitor overuser’, second language learners who use their ‘monitor’ too much.

            The third principle is self confidence. Considering that most classes had a similar activity and situation, I still use X.6 as an example for discussing this principle. Many students who got their turn for the interview said that they were nervous. They were not sure whether they could present their product well or not. Sometimes, they bargained to speak in Indonesian. I encouraged them to try to speak in English as well as they could. Brown says that a learners’ belief in their capability to accomplish a task becomes a factor that affects their success. Moreover, some of the students who have not been interviewed yet came to watch the interview. It was because of their curiosity. They wanted to know how it was going to be like. This thing made the students who were being interviewed felt more nervous. They told the others not to watch them because they would feel ashamed if they made many mistakes. Amy Tsui (as cited in Nunan, 1999) identifies some factors that cause reluctance of students to speak up in class. One of them is students’ fear of mistakes. She explains that students are also afraid of making fools of themselves in front of their peers. These things made the students’ self-confidence low.

            The fourth principle is native language effect. This point can be seen from all the students whom I met in this school. Even those ones who spoke fluently enough in English often met this principle. For example, when they had to use countable and plural nouns, sometimes they did not put ‘-s’ or ‘-es’ at the end of the word. It might be affected by their first language, Indonesia, which does not have any inflectional affixes like those ones. Brown states that the native language systems of learners can give influence to their comprehension of the second language. Krashen, through his research in Czech, finds that first language influence comes strongest in complex word order and in phrases’ translation. He also finds that first language influence is weaker in bound morphology. During my observation, sometimes I also met students who produce complex words order in English and got influence from Indonesian. It made them produce a word or statement with incorrect arrangement. However, different from Kranshen’s research, students in SMA** got first language influence stronger when they had to produce inflectional affixes, which are bound morphology. This difference may appear because of the different countries where the researches took place. The language system of each country may be different. 

            The last principle I want to show is communicative competence. I took the example from my master teacher and my experience in interviewing the students for their products. Mr. L.H spoke in English with good fluency and accuracy. He also explained the materials in class with good structures. He knew how to communicate well with the students and encourage the students to speak in English at the same time. Mr. L.H also wanted all the students to have a good communicative competence. That was why he asked me to join the activity in the class by interviewing the students about the products they made. He asked me to give a report about their fluency, accuracy, structure and sentence arrangements, intonation, etc. In the process of interview, Mr. L.H told the students how to introduce themselves as a businessman and how to end the presentation. This is like what Richards, Plat, and Weber (as cited in Nunan, 1999) say about the characteristics of communicative competence. One of them is knowing how to begin and end conversation. During the interview, the points that I had to see from the students are various. It relates to Brown’s statement that communicative competence is the goal of language classroom with some components inside. Dell Hymes (as cited in Nunan, 1999) proposes that communicative competence does not only include linguistic competence but also other sociolinguistic and conversational skills that make the speaker know what, how, and when to say something, and  to whom she or he says it.

  Which principles that you see as the biggest challenge to be improved in Indonesian schools?

          

Senin, 15 November 2010 Utilizing Technology for English Subject Diposting oleh an.pane di 21.10

            In this writing, I want to talk about technology used in the school that I observed. In spite of technology utilization, this relates to the method of teaching that my master teacher used in his class.

He invited me to join his classes which consists of grade ten, eleven, and twelve. There, I could see that each class had an LCD but without any computers and LCD’s screen. He also told me that the school provides Wi-Fi that can be accessed in every class. There is also a computer lab that can be used for language subjects.

For teaching preparation, he told my friends and me to make slide presentation in power point explaining about text types. Actually, I still wondered how to operate it with only an LCD in a class. On the next day, my master teacher told us to bring our own laptop to the class. The connector or the cables were brought from teachers’ room. In the class, the slides were shown on a white board because there was no screen on the wall. I just realized how to use this technology in the class.  In fact, it did not impede the teaching and learning process. Students could see the slide easily and understand the materials.

The students can also access Wi-Fi in their class. Mr. L.H. told me that he could not blame the students to access it during the class. It was hard to control it. He told me that they are already senior high students.  They cannot be prohibited by any rules. I think it was not wrong but he did not tell me whether he had used that Wi-Fi for teaching and learning process or not.

Two days later, I came to a class to do pre test and post test about text types. When I was trying to use the power point, the LCD did not work. So, my master teacher asked all the students to move to the computer lab. I followed them then saw that each computer was for two students. Sometimes, it made it difficult for them to read the texts that appeared on the computers’ screens. In spite of the amount of the computer units, the condition of the lab and the facilities there were good enough.

taken from google images

Talking about Wi-Fi that can be accessed freely in a class, I think it will be easier for students to use internet for learning process. If I were a teacher, I would ask the principal to enlarge the bandwidth and allow students to bring their laptop, netbook, or cellular phone to access it. For example, I asked them to open google map, which can be accessed from cellular phone. Then, they would do conversation and ask their friends about directions. They could also pretend to be a tourist and a tour guide. Here, I could train their speaking and listening skill. For writing skill, I would ask them to write in a blog. They would feel as if they were in an informal situation. So, they would not get nervous and afraid to write. They could also improve their grammar comprehension, vocabulary knowledge, and reading skill by visiting their classmates’ blog and giving comments to each other.

Sabtu, 13 November 2010 How to Engage Students in Learning Process Diposting oleh an.pane di 20.29

            That second week in teaching assistance program gave me more experience in teaching. The topic was still about text types. Mr. L.H., my master teacher, taught more than he had done in the previous week. So, I could see how he conducted classes.

            In the first class, Mr. L.H explained the differences between one text type and another clearly. For example, after he mentioned functions and generic structures of report and description text, he emphasized the differences by saying: ‘So, the differences between report and description text are….’ In my opinion, that is what students need. Students may understand each text type but when they are given two similar text types, they will be confused because they do not understand how to differentiate them. He said that some texts’ titles or topics in National Examination were taken from internet or the examination in the previous year. Their forms were changed to be another text types. Students usually chose the wrong answers because they felt that they had met those texts before. It became new information for me.

            Mr. L.H. did not only explain the material clearly but also motivated his students. One time, he asked his students to do a pre test. While he was walking around the class, he found a student who did not do it and looked sleepy. He came to him and said, ‘Come on, force yourself. I know you can do it! The statement was simple but I think it was really motivating. He did not say it loudly. In my opinion, if he had done the opposite one, the student would have felt ashamed because the others could hear it.

            Mr. L.H. always uses individual work. When my friends and I were asked to conduct the second class, we brought an activity where the students worked in groups. Some made the text while the others drew the illustration. Moreover, there was a group which prepared the mini drama. They showed their creativity. However, when I made a report, he asked me to list only the name of person who presented the group’s work. I thought it was not fair because the point was not only about speaking. Although some students only made the illustrations, they got the message of the subject and understand it. The information would stay longer in their mind because they got involved in the activity directly.

             If I had to teach a class with the same students, I would provide various activities that can make all students get involved. I would see the process to know their contribution and effort. I would control the situation so all students participated well. I know that I have to spend more time to make this preparation but I think it will be easier for me if the students can understand the material easily. So, I do not have to repeat all materials from the beginning when they close to examination days. I just have to review them briefly. 

well, what would you do to deliver the materials if you were a teacher?

Minggu, 07 November 2010 Teaching English in senior high school Diposting oleh an.pane di 07.29

             Actually, this is my experience in school observation program. I posted this story in this blog because  I think this is connected to what i learn in Language Teaching Methodology.

             That was my second time to observe SMA ** Jakarta. I had been there when I was in the first semester. Although I knew about the school’s situation, I felt nervous because in this semester, besides observing the class, I also had to teach. That was my first experience and I faced a situation that I never imagined before.

            One day, my master teacher asked me to teach a class whose teacher came late at that time. I had no preparation. He only told me about the topic and the activities that I had to do briefly. At the class, I was delivering the material about analytical exposition while most of them making a noise and eating some food. They ignored me but when I asked them to do writing assignment with any topic they liked, they looked excited and asked me some questions about the text type and how to make it. I was glad to know that they actually had an inquisitive mind.

Some minutes later, the teacher came to the class and continued the lesson.  Ms. D had a clear voice and did not deliver the lesson too fast. She was persistent in giving instructions. While she was teaching, I was standing at the back of the classroom and helping the students there to do the task but I was surprised when they shared their opinion about her. They showed me the textbook that she made which contained many texts that were hard enough to understand by eleven graders like them.

Ms. D asked a student to go to the front and read the text. Then, she said that there should have been some suggestions in the last paragraph. I frowned because as far as I know, analytical expositions only give reiteration in the last paragraph. If there is a suggestion or recommendation, it will be hortatory expositions. The worst thing was I had already told the students about that concept. I was afraid that they would be confused and might make the same mistake in the future. Ms. D also asked some students to change their topic to ‘traffic jam’, ‘global warming’, etc. It made them asked for my help again because they felt uninterested in the topic.

If I had to teach the same lesson with the same students, I would give a clear explanation about the lesson and provide texts with appropriate contexts or let them choose the topic by themselves. It is to show that we can talk about any topics to study. It is also important to provide a time for students to write reflections then submit it to me so I could make it as a reflection for myself too as a teacher. If it was possible, I would use a slide presentation with some features like pictures or sounds to show the example of the text type. So, they would not think that it is better to make a noise and learning process is boring.

Senin, 25 Oktober 2010 Musical Intelligence and The Way to Involve It in Teaching and Learning Process Diposting oleh an.pane di 09.47

Howard Gardner is famous for his multiple intelligences theory. His full-length statement about this theory was written in his book, titled Frames of Mind, in 1983. He stated that there were eight kinds of intelligences.  It started to give a big influence to the world, especially in education, where people had a concept that human had only one kind of intelligence.

taken from educ-reality.com

One of the intelligences from Gardner’s theory is musical intelligence. In many schools, including the ones in Indonesia, students with musical intelligence are assumed to develop their skill only in a specific subject by learning how to read musical notes, play musical instruments, and compose some songs. Although this assumption does not seem completely wrong, it gives a misconception about musical intelligence. The fact is students who likes singing, listening to music, and imitating songs’ beat by clapping hands, may include in this intelligence. Looking at these examples, musical intelligence can be used effectively for teaching and learning process in all subjects, including English. There are many techniques that teachers can apply to accommodate the students with this intelligence.

When I become an English teacher, I will pay attention to this intelligence by conducting some interesting activities in a classroom that can make them understand my subject. For example, the topic is about simple past tense. Firstly, I introduce the topic and explain it briefly. After that, each student is given a piece of paper that contains lyrics of a song with some blanks that they must fill with correct verbs according to the song that I will play. Next, I play a song with lyrics in past tense and they fill the blanks at the same time.  Then, I divide the class into some groups. After that, they have to discuss it together within their groups and make a list about all the things they find in the song, including the verbs’ forms and time indicators (adverbs of time).  After finishing discussion, they are asked to choose one people from each group to share the result. Then, other groups are allowed to give comments. Finally, I will ask their opinions about the song, the reason why it uses past tense, and whether it is possible to change the lyrics into other tenses. These activities have some goals, they are: improving students’ listening and speaking skill, developing their comprehension about the material (simple past tense) and their ability to work cooperatively with their peers. It also builds students’ critical thinking.

Musical intelligence can be involved in all levels since music is usually introduced from beginner level; even kindergarten students are usually introduced to songs. However, the activity like I mentioned before is appropriate for students in K-8 because of the material and the techniques. The point is musical intelligence can be applied in any levels as long as the teachers use suitable materials and activities based on the level or the class that they teach.

Minggu, 17 Oktober 2010 What Kinds of Intelligences that I am Strong in? Diposting oleh an.pane di 09.58

taken from new-oceans.co.uk

There are eight kinds of intelligences based on Gardner’s theory. Looking at my behaviors and the results of some tests, I can say that I am strong in verbal-linguistic, musical, interpersonal, and intrapersonal intelligence.

I like learning languages. I often learn new words from many sources then use them in my writing and conversation so that I can remember and enrich my knowledge. For me, it is interesting to write or speak with some metaphors, idioms, or adverbial phrases. That is why I can say that I am strong in verbal-linguistic intelligence. The other kind of intelligences that I have is musical intelligence. I like listening to many songs every day. I can also remember the lyrics easily. Moreover, I like singing and composing some songs. I also enjoy playing some musical instruments such as electone organ and violin.

Most of my friends say that they like chatting and sharing their stories with me. I am very proud when they do. I do not mind to help them solve their problems. It is also important for me to control all of the words that I say because I do not want to hurt anybody. Interpersonal intelligence that I have makes me able to do this. Beside the ability to interact with other people, I also know how to treat myself. I know that I always need time to be alone when I learn subjects. I can see clearly what my strengths and my weaknesses are. These facts show that I have intrapersonal intelligence.

Those intelligences support me to learn subjects, including English. I hope they can also help me to teach my students well in the future. Besides, I want to sharpen those intelligences to continue learning new things.

Senin, 11 Oktober 2010 One of the methods that i like for teaching Diposting oleh an.pane di 10.28

There are several teaching methods that can be used in a class. All of them have uniqueness that can make learning activity interesting but the method that I am probably good at is communicative language teaching. 
If you want to know more about CLT, watch this video...

Communicative language teaching is a teaching method where learners’ ability in communication becomes the goal of teaching.  In spite of it, it does not mean that grammatical structure is unimportant. It is applied in social contexts learning. Students are encouraged to be active learners while the teacher is a facilitator. Some activities that are commonly used are role play, games, or dramas that reflect real-life situations. Those activities may contain writing, reading, and listening since the learners’ skill must be built from the beginning. I think the activities can make students interested in learning process. So, they engage in it and participate more.

Although it sounds fun, it is not always easy to apply this method. Referring to multiple intelligences, there might be some students who cannot really engage in some activities. For example, students who are not kinesthetic learners will be confused to follow a game that needs body’s movements. On the other hand, some students may enjoy playing games or role play too much so they do not give attention to the content or the values of it. It will be a dilemma for teachers if they are not able to maintain it.

I am interested to this teaching method but if I cope with some difficulties, I will ask for my students’ opinions then make it as a reflection for me in teaching. It is also important for me to increase my creativity in searching for miscellaneous activities which are appropriate with this method that can cover my students’ learning styles.

What do you think about this method?

Sabtu, 02 Oktober 2010 Teaching Conceptions Diposting oleh an.pane di 22.09

This is the first article in this blog. As an introduction about language teaching methodologies, I will discuss four conceptions in teaching language that i have learned.

Science-Research Conceptions:

These conceptions emphasize research and experimentation for effective teaching. One example of these conceptions is doing what effective teachers do. Effective teachers are able to make the students accomplish the task well. A teacher can adapt other teacher's strategies or methods in teaching but i think it is not always appropriate for all situations or classes. Sometimes, a teacher finds some different needs in her/his class based on the students she/he teaches.

Theory-Philosophy Conceptions:

They are conceptions which emphasize understanding the theories and principles. In communicative language teaching, selecting materials and tasks based on the theories are used. Sometimes, it does not need evidence or verifications.Teachers who use these conceptions have to monitor whether the way they teach match with the theory or not. Another example of these conceptions is silent way. It does not really come from linguistic theory but it is based on a belief how learning takes place in adults. Overall, I think theory-philosophy conceptions can be used as a basic knowledge for teaching as long as teachers monitor whether it is appropriate for the class or not. Silent way is also good to attract students' attention and their willingness to engage in learning but I think it is hard enough if the class is a big one. Monitoring all students' comprehension is difficult if the teacher uses this method for whole section.

Values-Based Conceptions:

Values-based conceptions describe how important the values element in teaching is. Two examples of these conceptions are humanistic approach and reflective teaching approach. Humanistic approach shows the development of human values and build sensitivity to human emotions. It makes students learn subjects not only on the surface. They can know that many factors may give influence in language styles or development. How about reflective teaching? It is based on a belief that teachers can improve their skill in teaching by reflecting to their own teaching experience. This is one of my favourite approaches because it gives a chance for teachers to see what they have to improve in the way they teach. Considering that being a teacher is a commitment to learn in a lifetime, it is good to know that there are many things that must be improved, including teaching skills.

Art-Craft Conceptions:

Art-craft conceptions emphasize teacher’s individual skill and personality in teaching. These conceptions point up a challenge for teachers to look at the situations and students’ needs. Here, teachers are free to decide which effective methods should be used in classes. When they realize that their students have different style in learning, they will contribute some teaching methods based on each student’s needs. That is why sticking to one method only may hinder teachers’ potential that will cause a problem for students’ comprehension about the materials given. I think these conceptions are good considering that not all students have the same learning style. That is why teachers have to be creative.

Well, I think combining some conceptions or approaches above is better than sticking to one conception only. What do you think about this? Which conceptions do you think the best for language teaching? :)