Improving Students’ Listening Ability by Emphasizing on Students' Acquiring Successful Strategies

  By 

Syamsul Ma'arif, M.Pd

 

Abstract: Listening, the most frequently used form of language skill, plays a significant role in daily communication and educational process. In spite of its importance, listening ability development has received only slight emphasis in language instruction.

Therefore, to make students function effectively as listeners, it is important for EFL teachers to prepare students for successful listening comprehension by emphasizing on implementing successful strategies.

Key words: facilitating, listening ability, emphasizing successful strategies

Introduction

Among four language skills-listening, speaking, reading and writing- listening has been called the neglected skills for some decades (Tompkins & Hoskisson, 1995:81). Listening skill has not been given proper attention of the teachers in teaching and learning English as a second or foreign language in secondary school in Indonesia (Suparmin, 1999:221). According to Saricoban (1999), listening is one of the fundamental language skills. It is a medium through which children, young people and adults gain a large portion of their education, their information, their understanding of the world and of human affairs, their ideals, sense of values, and their appreciation.

Read More

Relative Pronoun

Definition: We use the relative pronouns to refer to a noun mentioned before and of which we are adding more information. They are used to join two or more sentences and forming in that way what we call "relative sentences".

Relative pronouns

Who, Whom, That, Which

whoever, whomever, whichever

For example:

• People who speak two languages are called bilingual.
  * In this example, the relative "who" introduces the relative sentence "speak two languages" that describes or gives more information about the noun "people".

Relative pronouns: Subject or Object
As the relative pronouns relate to another noun preceding it in the sentence, they connect a dependent clause to an antecedent (a noun that precedes the pronoun.) Therefore, relative pronouns acts as the subject or object of the dependent clause.

For example:

• The chef who won the competition studied in Paris.
  * Here, "who" relates back to (or is relative to) the noun "Chef". "Who" also acts as the subject of the dependent clause and the verb "won".
  => The dependent clause: who won the competition. 
  => The independent clause: The chef studied in Paris.

Read More

DRAMA TECHNIQUES FOR TEACHING ENGLISH IN SECONDARY SCHOOL

A.            Introduction

The techniques being discussed in this paper are suggested by Vani Chauhan. The development of these techniques is based on the conviction that using drama to teach English in real communication involving ideas, emotions, feelings appropriateness and adaptability. In short, these techniques are believed to provide teachers with a wider option of learner-centered activities to choose and enhance their efficiency in teaching English.

B.            The Advantages of The Technique

Since the main goal of the language teaching is to develop the students’ skills in communication, drama technique is believed to be a good alternative in teaching for several reasons as follows:

1.             It gives a context for listening and meaningful language production.

2.             It forces the learners to use their language resources and enhances their linguistic abilities.

Read More

elllo #1039 Power and Corruption

Materi listening yang dilengkapi dengan script, difficult vocabularies and idioms. Selamat belajar! klik link dibawah ini

elllo #1039 Power and Corruption

Read More

Schoolboys Get Five-Finger Discount on Candy

Travis and Paul were best friends and in the ninth grade. They didn’t like anything about school except the girls and the baseball. They were both on the junior high baseball team. Both wanted to be major league baseball players when they grew up. 
Klik disini Untuk lanjutan cerita serta latihan soal listeningnya. 

Read More

Female Seeks Mature Male (short story to practice listening)

Julia was 12 years old. Her best friend Betsy was 13. Summer was almost over. School was about to start. Julia and Betsy were having lunch at BurgerBoy. Betsy had decided that Julia needed a boyfriend.

        “But why?” asked Julia. “I’m okay without one. What good is a 12-year-old boy anyway? All they’re interested in is playing baseball or riding their skateboards. Where does a girl fit into that picture?” klick disini untuk suara dan lanjutan cerita

Read More

Practical Writing – An Online Interactive Writing Experience

The Electronic Journal for English as a Second Language

December 2010 – Volume 14, Number 3

* On the Internet *

Practical Writing – An Online Interactive Writing Experience

Ronaldo Lima, Jr.
Casa Thomas Jefferson Binational Center, Brazil
<ronaldojthomas.org.br>

Process Writing

Practical Writing is the name of a six-week, completely online course taught at the binational center Casa Thomas Jefferson, Brasilia, Brazil.
Some of the elements from the classic face-to-face teaching of writing taught at Casa Thomas Jefferson also appear in the online Practical Writing course. After all, the basics of writing, such as organizing ideas as well as delivering the message clearly, are the same for paper or screen writing. The most important of those elements is the approach to teaching writing.

Read More

Teaching English to Young Learners Using Games

By Khoirotun Nisak

Abstract

It is the fact that children like games so much, elementary school teachers who teach young learners, ought to consider using game in teaching English. By using games, the young learners can practice their skills in using English as a means of communication (listening, reading speaking and writing) that is supported by mastering the language components (vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation). Furthermore, in order to get good results, the teachers should carefully plan teaching and learning activities based on the games that they want to use.

The teaching of English in elementary schools in Indonesia have developed  very rapidly in the last few years. Many elementary schools in Indonesia start teaching English to their students even from the first grade. Some teachers  have  decided to use course books available in the bookstores, or take some course books, or even make their own materials. So from the chosen materials, the teachers will plan some language activities to be applied in the classrooms.

Read More

COLLABORATIVE WRITING; STRATEGY PENGAJARAN MENULIS DENGAN MENGGUNAKAN PENDEKATAN PROSES

Abstrak:   Ketrampilan menulis merupakan salah satu skill yang harus diajarkan pada pembelajaran Bahasa Inggris. Tapi dalam implementasinya skill ini sering diabaikan oleh guru bahasa Inggris dengan berbagai alasan. Terlebih lagi dalam pembelajaran writing guru masih banyak yang menggunakan pendekatan produk (product-oriented) bukan pendekatan proses (process-oriented). Collaborative Writing merupakan strategy pembelajaran writing yang bertumpu pada orientasi proses. Strategy ini telah terbukti dapat meningkatkan kemampuan menulis siswa.

Kata Kunci: Collaborative Writing, Strategy, Menulis, Pendekatan Proses.  

Pendahuluan

Bahasa Inggris merupakan alat untuk berkomunikasi baik secara lisan atau tulis. Berkomunikasi adalah memahami dan mengungkapkan informasi, pikiran, perasaan, dan mengembangkan ilmu pengetahuan, teknologi, dan budaya. Kemampuan berkomunikasi dalam pengertian yang utuh adalah kemampuan berwacana, yakni kemampuan memahami dan/atau menghasilkan teks lisan dan/atau tulis yang direalisasikan dalam empat keterampilan berbahasa, yaitu mendengarkan, berbicara, membaca dan menulis. Keempat keterampilan inilah yang digunakan untuk menanggapi atau menciptakan wacana dalam kehidupan bermasyarakat. Oleh karena itu, mata pelajaran Bahasa Inggris diarahkan untuk mengembangkan keterampilan-keterampilan tersebut agar lulusan mampu berkomunikasi dan berwacana dalam bahasa Inggris pada tingkat literasi tertentu.

Diantara empat ketrampilan bahasa tersebut ketrampilan menulis termasuk dalam productive skill. Dalam ketrampilan ini produk tulisan siswa menjadi sebuah target akhir dari proses pembelajaran. Menurut Duin (1986) kemampuan menulis penting untuk diajarkan karena tulisan dapat menjadi alat untuk menyampaikan ide, gagasan, dan pesan ke pembaca dengan tujuan tertentu. Disamping itu dengan tulisan kita dapat menjelaskan dan mendiskripsikan sesuatu kepada seseorang yang jauh dari kita.

Read More

Contextual Teaching and Learning (CTL): Karakteristik dan Implementasinya pada Pembelajaran Bahasa Inggris

LATAR BELAKANG

Sejak pertama kali disebarluaskan, CTL dianggap sebagai pendekatan pembelajaran yang paling sesuai dengan kebutuhan untuk membelajarkan siswa sebagai subjek didik yang aktif membangun sendiri pengetahuannya. Ciri khas pembelajaran dengan pendekatan CTL adalah keharusan memberdayakan siswa untuk aktif berpikir dan membangun konsepnya sendiri tentang pengetahuan yang sedang dipelajarinya. Dengan demikian peran guru bukan sebagai “penceramah” atau pengabar suatu informasi agar didengarkan siswa dan dimengerti seperti yang terjadi pada proses pembelajaran tradisional, melainkan ia sebagai fasilitator dalam proses belajar siswa. Bahkan kadang-kadang guru dan siswa bersama-sama mempelajari hal baru dalam suatu interaksi yang kondusif untuk mencari jawaban atas suatu fenomena dan membangun konsep pemahaman atas fenomena tersebut.

Read More

Sertifikasi Guru Untuk Mewujudkan Pendidikan Yang Bermutu?

---

dr. Fasli Jalal, Phd.

 PENDAHULUAN

Pendidikan yang bermutu memiliki kaitan kedepan (Forward linkage) dan kaitan kebelakang (Backward linkage). Forward linkage berupa bahwa pendidikan yang bermutu merupakan syarat utama untuk mewujudkan kehidupan bangsa yang maju, modern dan sejahtera. Sejarah perkembangan dan pembangunan bangsa-bangsa mengajarkan pada kita bahwa bangsa yang maju, modern, makmur, dan sejahtera adalah bangsa-bangsa yang memiliki sistem dan praktik pendidikan yang bermutu. Backward linkage berupa bahwa pendidikan yang bermutu sangat tergantung pada keberadaan guru yang bermutu, yakni guru yang profesional, sejahtera dan bermartabat.
Karena keberadaan guru yang bermutu merupakan syarat mutlak hadirnya sistem dan praktik pendidikan yang berkualitas, hampir semua bangsa di dunia ini selalu mengembangkan kebijakan yang mendorong keberadaan guru yang berkualitas. Salah satu kebijakan yang dikembangkan oleh pemerintah di banyak negara adalah kebijakan intervensi langsung menuju peningkatan mutu dan memberikan jaminan dan kesejahteraan hidup guru yang memadai. Beberapa negara yang mengembangkan kebijakan ini bisa disebut antara lain Singapore, Korea Selatan, Jepang, dan Amerika Serikat. Negara-negara tersebut berupaya meningkatkan mutu guru dengan mengembangkan kebijakan yang langsung mempengaruhi mutu dengan melaksanakan sertifikasi guru. Guru yang sudah ada harus mengikuti uji kompetensi untuk mendapatkan sertifikat profesi guru.

Read More

Teaching Analytical Exposition Contextually

              Contextual means that material used for the topic is really familiar with the students and they know well the topic (life experience). When I teach writing in form of Analytical Exposition text, I usually use the current topic that they have known well. Using hand phone in the school, for example, I asked their opinion about it. Then I ask them to have a good title for their writing. They usually make a similar title with the model text. For instance, the title of the model text is “cars should be banned in the cities”. The students may have a title likes “Hand phone should be banned in the school” or “Hand phone should be forbidden in the school”.

Read More