J-SHMIC : Journal of English for Academic

Challenges and Strategies in Learning News Anchoring: Insights from EFL Tertiary Students in Speaking Class

Suminar Anne Ratna — 2024-08-30

This research aims to find out EFL tertiary students’ challenges and strategies in learning news anchoring in speaking class. Data were collected through two instruments including test and questionnaire with 24 participants taken as sample through purposive sampling technique. Test was used as instrument to categorize the sample into 8 high achievers, 8 middle achievers, and 8 low achievers. The research was a kind of descriptive research using Walizer’s (1990) formula to analyze the five-likert scaled questionnaire and the data were interpreted using descriptive quantitative method of analysis. The findings of the research revealed that the EFL tertiary students faced four challenges in learning news anchoring such as challenges in pronouncing some technical terms, challenges in speaking fast like a news anchor, challenges in memorizing the news script, and challenges in delivering news with news anchor-like intonation. Furthermore, the findings of the research also found six strategies mostly used by the students in learning news anchoring such as practising frequently alone at home, watching the news anchor video shared by the lecturer in the class, imitating the lecturer’s example of performing news anchor in the class, learning from lecturer’s explanation, watching news anchor on television and watching news anchor video on Youtube. Since high achievers were found to use more than one strategy in learning news anchoring, the present research recommended the students to use more than one strategy to succeed in learning to be news anchor in speaking class.

Students’ Difficulties with Vocabulary Mastery in English Language Education at the University Level

Harselina Harselina — 2024-08-30

Vocabulary mastery is crucial for facilitating the acquisition of language skills. This research aims to identify students' difficulties with vocabulary mastery in English Language Education at the university level. A quantitative research approach was used, focusing on first-semester students in Class A as the research sample and Class B for test trials. The sample consisted of 33 students (13 males and 20 females) from the English Language Education program at FKIP Universitas Islam Riau. The study employed a vocabulary test in multiple-choice format, and simple purposive sampling was used to distribute the test. The test link was shared via the class chairman, and SPSS version 25 was used for data analysis. The research identified students' difficulties in vocabulary mastery through their test results. The results indicated an average student score of 69, categorized as "Good." Specifically, 3 students scored between 86 and 100 ("Excellent"), 16 students scored between 66 and 85 ("Good"), 11 students scored between 46 and 65 ("Fair"), and 3 students scored between 26 and 45 ("Poor"). Thus, most students performed in the "Good" range on the vocabulary test. The analysis revealed that students faced significant difficulties with prepositions, verbs, and pronouns. In contrast, nouns and conjunctions were less challenging for students. Among the vocabulary areas, prepositions were particularly difficult for students, indicating that questions involving prepositions were the most challenging.

An Exploration on Critical Reading Skills of M.A. English Majors at Thu Dau Mot University

Thanh Thai Nguyen — 2024-08-31

Studying at postgraduate level always requires learners to do a large amount of reading for some certain academic purposes. This becomes more notable when reading must be done in a strictly limited amount of time. On this account, postgraduate students must come up with particular strategies for reading. Thus, from the critical thinking perspective, the current study was conducted to investigate the M.A. English majors’ use of reading strategies, especially critical reading skills. Through questionnaire and interview, data for analysis were collected from 30 M.A. students of English and five lecturers of English, who already completed their postgraduate program, at Thu Dau Mot University. The results showed that the participants could employ skimming and scanning. However, they seemed to be passive in evaluating sources and did not pay much attention to note-taking skills, which are considered really necessary in writing literature review for a research paper or a thesis. The findings suggest that critical reading skills should be taught at the beginning of the course in order to help M.A. students develop their critical reading skills and support them in doing their mini research projects.

The impact of borrowing English words into Iraqi Arabic Dialect

Ali Abdalkarem M.Sadeq Al Yashil — 2024-08-31

This paper deals with usage of English borrowing words in Iraqi Arabic dialect as one of the linguistic phenomena that we are currently experiencing due to globalization and the use of English language as a global Language. This study focused on limited borrowing words that are used while conversation used by indirect interview. The study aims to clarify the relationship between the use of words in English and Arabic Language and how there is an impact between these two Languages. The study also aims to use most common words in Iraqi accent Arabic borrowed from English Language. The study further concluded that borrowing allows the recipient language to expend its vocabulary. However, the borrowing from any donor language have to undergo certain processes to make them fit appropriately into the recipient language. This study also deals with the borrowing English words that has penetrated the Iraqi Arabic Language during the past few decades. The process of borrowing from English language took place indirectly due to trade, education, etc., and this brings new words to Arabic Language. The study is based on an analysis through conversation in English activity. The researcher found that there are words taken from English language, but not exactly like English in pronunciation or spelling because of alphabet between two languages and also the influence of mother tongue on language, and this led to a change in pronunciation.

Students’ Perception: Students’ Digital Literacy Skill in Senior High School

destina kasriyati — 2024-08-31

Technology is currently developing rapidly, all elements including the world of education are also experiencing this development. There is no doubt that digital-based technology has been enjoyed by educators and students in school learning as an information medium for exploring knowledge. This study is aimed to identify the students’ perception towards digital literacy. This research used quantitative with survey approach. The instrumen of this research is questionnaire. Questionnaire was distributed to the students by google form. In other words, the results of this research are students’ perception of digital literacy can be categorized moderate level with score 2,94. It can be concluded that the internet is a very important for students, especially for searching information and doing school assignments. The implication of this research that considering the importance of the internet for students, there needs to be education about online security, privacy and ethics of internet use so that students can be wiser in searching for information.

An EFL Students’ Perception Towards Game-Based Learning in Secondary School: A Descriptive Qualitative Study

Camelia Nur Jihan Camelia Nur Jihan — 2024-08-31

Game-based learning (GBL) is an innovative approach that involves students in identifying game elements that are relevant to the context set by the teacher. This method has proven to be effective and increasingly relevant in educational settings. This study aims to explore secondary EFL students' perceptions towards the use of Game-based learning (GBL) in secondary schools, using a descriptive qualitative research design. The main focus of this study was to investigate how Game-based learning (GBL) can effectively increase student engagement and motivation. The results showed that Game-based learning (GBL) not only serves as a learning support tool, but also promotes improved learning outcomes as well as develops students' adaptability. Based on these findings, some recommendations for the implementation of Game-based learning (GBL) in the context of secondary education are proposed, hoping to enrich future teaching strategies. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of the potential of Game-based learning (GBL) in education.

The Correlation Between Students’ Writing and Students’ Speaking Abilities of 9th Grades Students in Recount Text at SMP Muhammadiyah 2 Pekanbaru

Nur Asyasa — 2024-09-01

The correlation between the writing and speaking abilities of students at SMP Muhammadiyah 2 Pekanbaru in recount text was the primary focus of this research. The purpose of this study was to determine the significance of the relationship between students' writing and speaking abilities in English recount texts. This study used quantitative methods. The subjects in this study are the SMP Muhammadiyah 2 Pekanbaru class IX students for the academic year 2023. The whole class IX of SMP Muhammadiyah 2 Pekanbaru becomes the sample for this study, which adopts total sampling technique. used two tests: a speaking and writing test on recount text. The findings indicated that students' writing got low score of 50 and a high score of 95. In contrast, the maximum score for students' recount text speaking ability was 90, while the lowest score was 50. Moreover, correlation coefficient found that students' writing and students' speaking abilities in recount text have a positive correlation, and the correlation between those variables were high. The study recommended that students should do more practice in writing to make them more understandable and able to construct a good sentence. Besides that, the students should practice speaking every time to improve their speaking.